Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques : Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation [Hardcover]

Charles Halliman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2001

Business intelligence, text mining, environmental scanning, scenario planning, competitor analysis, and actionable information are terms often heard today in the business world. Pulling these terms together in a way that enables the terms to take on lucid strategic meaning can be extremely important to today's business planner. Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques is a book about using text mining to perform environmental scanning, and using scenarios and simulation to perform competitor analysis. This book focuses on methods that identify and extract important company-external business information. This book addresses the conversion of the business information into business intelligence. And this book addresses the use of business intelligence to improve a company's competitive position by showing how potentially profitable actions can be taken based on the intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Charles Halliman explores environmental scanning and business analysis with related ideas that can potentially improve a company’s strategic position. -- The American Marketing Association [AMA], Spring 2001

Halliman’s book convinces one of the necessity to pay attention and indeed to focus on the external environment . . . -- Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) Spring 2001 Newsletter

This book . . . [s]hows how to use . . . techniques to convert real information into business intelligence. Well written and practical. Highly recommended. -- Stern’s Management Review, February 20, 2001

[B]ook is a perfect example of the best of what this market niche can provide . . . a good piece of work . . . -- The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals [SCIP], Spring 2001

[Halliman] demonstrates the art and science of gathering and analyzing the world of data available. -- Bookviews.com, February 2001

[P]owerful and user-friendly forms that make . . . life of . . . potential users exceedingly easy . . . alone might . . . make the book a great tool. -- The Association of Independent Information Professionals [AIIP], Spring 2001

From the Inside Flap

Business intelligence is becoming more important to more and more companies. And text mining methods can be quite useful to any company engaged in obtaining business intelligence. Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques presents text mining as a way to perform environmental scanning. This book illustrates the use of text mining for obtaining information about environmental forces.

These forces are regulatory forces, litigation forces, political forces, governmental forces, technology forces, collaborative forces, marketing forces, foreign forces, management forces, and competitor forces. Knowledge of events associated with environmental forces usually comes from company-external sources. By analyzing text from these sources, this book shows you how to gain environmental force-related knowledge.

Many books on business intelligence don’t really talk a lot about the specifics of company-external business information analysis techniques. But this book does. It uses scenario and simulation techniques as one of its analysis methods. And the book introduces a manual simulation method that is quick and useful.

This book puts the reader inside a fictional company as a strategic planner, and it takes the reader through the process of mining and analyzing text from company-external sources. Halliman discusses the identification and extraction of business concepts. He analyzes the concepts for threats and opportunities. And he outlines strategies for dealing with the isolated threats and opportunities.

This book highlights two categories of business “concepts.” The first category deals with environmental forces that can affect a company. Halliman analyzes a ten-year period, using visualization charts and “extracted concepts” analysis.

The second category of business “concepts” deals with competitor activities. Halliman identifies and analyzes twenty competitors and their activities. The analysis of the environmental forces, the competitors, and their activities is done using analysis forms. These forms expedite the analysis process.

The user does not have to figure out what questions to ask and then try to answer them. The forms indicate the kind of information the reader should have or try to get. The forms then take the reader through the analysis process.

Environmental scanning and competitor analysis should be at the heart of any company’s business analysis tools. This book explores environmental scanning and business analysis related ideas.

If the ideas set forth in this book are applied, a company can improve its strategic position.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Information Uncover (April 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967490626
• ISBN-13: 978-0967490625
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,110,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound marketing strategies and production policies, March 12, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques : Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation (Hardcover)

In Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques, business intelligence consultant Charles Halliman emphasizes the analysis of business information already gathered by corporate researchers, managers, and policy makers. Halliman presents an informative introduction to the performance of environmental scanning using "text mining" techniques, and utilizing scenarios and manual simulations to perform competitor analyses. Readers will learn to convert business information into business intelligence for sound marketing strategies and production policies, showing how potentially profitable actions can be taken based on gathered information drawn from today's highly competitive local, regional, national, and global marketplace. Highly recommended reading for business students, entrepreneurs, policy strategists, and corporate marketing executives.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Guide to Build Business Intelligence, November 18, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques : Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation (Hardcover)

Any business owner or corporate executive looking for competitive opportunities or an effective way to avoid being blindsided by competitors' activities or trapped by unfavorable trends should think about applying the business intelligence system clearly laid out in Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques.

Charles Halliman's pragmatic approach is perfect for our times. While so many are desperately trying to keep afloat, thinking their only choices are to sink or swim madly, Halliman suggests a manageable process to uncover possibilities for breaking out of the doldrums. It's a challenge to divert resources to efforts like developing business intelligence, perceived to take extraordinary amounts of time and offer payoffs only in the long-term. But Halliman shows this does not have to be the case.

Halliman not only presents very straightforward tools for analyzing and using business intelligence to develop actionable ideas, he shows how text mining techniques can reduce the time and resources needed to turn large amounts of information about competitors and business environment trends into manageable business intelligence.

While the neatly packaged system Halliman describes can be used to more accurately assess a company's current situation and identify immediate tactics, its bigger return will be realized when used as part of an ongoing program of identifying success strategies for the ever-unfolding future. Even the near-term future holds opportunities, in the economy's turnaround. Now is the time for a company to ready itself.

Better yet, why not put the company on the leading edge of that recovery now, by being better informed about the business environment and competitors' activities? If they're in a holding pattern...imagine the possibilities!

The book provides an easy-to-follow, structured method of presenting information. Halliman employs review and preview techniques, so the reader can understand the context of new information, each step following logically from the last, with summaries that describe a progressively growing, but comprehendible and manageable system. Real examples give the reader hands-on experience as the system is built and then comes together to yield realistic actions.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Halliman is On Target, May 22, 2001

By 

"pgaskin" (Houston, TX (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques : Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation (Hardcover)

The data mining techniques and methodologies presented by Charles Halliman work. Whether your focus is research, marketing or consulting you would be wise to invest in "Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques".