Скачать или смотреть Monitoring Systems: Used in Competitive Intelligence. What are they and how are they used?

There are a number of things that Competitive Intelligence
does exceptionally well. And one of those is monitoring your
competitive environment. This chapter explores the various
types of monitoring tactics, including:
• First-to-know tactics
• Notification systems
• Automated calls to action
• Price intelligence
• Procurement tools
• Situational awareness.
As you will learn, monitoring is more than merely watching.
First-to-know tactics
One of the main reasons to monitor a situation is to be the
first to know when something of importance happens. In my
experience, these campaigns are usually procurement systems
announcing the availability of inventory.
And good example of this type of tactic was a campaign I
worked on after the last real estate collapse. The client wanted
to develop an active database of foreclosed homes. In
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addition to collecting a database of these homes, where
statistical analysis could be performed, he also wanted to be
the first to know when new foreclosed properties were added
so he could be the first to act on opportunities.
Notification systems
If the website you’re monitoring finds information of
immediate importance, you’ll need some form of notification
system.
Notifications can take many forms. When portability and
immediacy are important, notifications sent as text messages
are hard to beat.
One can get creative when developing alert systems. For
example, your campaign could send alerts to a special
account on Twitter, (now X). As odd as it sounds, this could be
a great notification platform in some cases because it restricts
those who get the notifications, plus you can use the
platform’s OTT, or Over the Top protocols to produce
notifications on cellphones, tablets, etc. Additionally, all the
notifications become archived for later study.
When I know that the client will be within earshot of their
computer, I prefer to create a website that is left open in a
browser that monitors the campaign, writes status messages,
and makes audible alerts.
Notifications systems are fun because it’s one of the few ways
the Competitive Intelligence consultant gets to interface
directly with clients. In one case, I developed a campaign that
used the bark of a small dog to notify a client when
something of interest appeared at auction. If your campaign
uses an audible alert, you’ll want the sound to stand out from
office background clutter. The friendly bark of a dog was a
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Chapter 7: Monitoring systems
good choice because the sound was out of character for his
office and got immediate attention.
The dog would only bark when an auctioned item met a set of
prequalified conditions for: price, description, and condition.
The qualifications ensured that the dog didn’t bark too often.
That is important because notifications that are sent too often
quickly become annoyances.
Monitoring campaigns are capable of monitoring more than
one thing at a time. Your tactic may require that you look for
a combination of events that exist simultaneously. If your
campaign is monitoring multiple events it’s best to choose
alerts with unique sounds to indicate when various conditions
are met. Audible alerts also allow the campaign to run while
you’re doing something else. You only need to look up when
you hear a sound you’re anticipating.