Online Competitive Intelligence : Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence [Paperback]

Book Description

Series: Online Ease | Publication Date: June 8, 1999

Strengthen Your Business Using Cyberspace! This unique, readable guide reveals inside information on where to find and how to use the best commercial and Internet sources to achieve success in today's business environment. This work emphasizes the use of this data to assess and develop corporate strategies that will beat the competition to the marketplace, build and retain market share, and maximize profits.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Online Competitive Intelligence author, Helen Burwell, is also the publisher of the Burwell World Directory of Information Brokers. Helen is the principal of the Information Professionals Institute (IPI), which offers U.S. seminars on information research including competitive intelligence. She is a past President’s Award winner from the AIIP. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Facts On Demand Press; Revised Edition edition (June 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889150088
• ISBN-13: 978-1889150086
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,431,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opening gates for a range of research professionals, August 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Online Competitive Intelligence : Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence (Paperback)

Sometimes journalists and others with difficult research assignments find it is practically necessary to learn the "answers'' before asking the "questions.'' This is not to develop pre-conceived (and likely misleading) notions about a topic that could narrow an inquiry; rather it is to become informed enough to ferret out what's really going on behind the scenes. By chance, on a referral from my wife who is involved in information brokering, I discovered Helen Burwell's "Online Competitive Intelligence'' and found it to be a worthwhile and wide-ranging resource for my work in journalism. Of course, the first thing many of us will turn to is the array of sites and references to see if there are any nuggets we've missed in our on-line research. Burwell's book likely will provide some of these -- (one reference I'd never thought to seek is overseas Yahoo). But the most valuable resource is the organization of the book's topics, which provides a terrific, systematic checklist for research, in particular for unfamiliar areas. Overall, a most worthy reference guide.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dated and oddly organized, November 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Online Competitive Intelligence : Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence (Paperback)

This book comes with several strong promotional promises, most of which are over-promised and under-delievered. The book is written in a way that becomes stale quickly - particularly in its use of web-sites and pointing out sites and content that are not dynamic and now several years old. I have no doubt that Ms. Burwell knows her stuff -- it is just that she hasn't provided a well-organized means for communicating it to the reader. This book might be better if it were updated regularly, but I do not see annual editions of it available, which would have helped.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many Short-Cuts and Tips for Better On-Line Intelligence, October 10, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Online Competitive Intelligence : Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence (Paperback)

This helpful guide was revised in May 2000, and should be a regular resource for those with questions about competitors. The book is intended to help those who don't keep up with the topic regularly learn about the information tools available, to add new sources of information for those who are active in this area, and to improve the use of familiar tools by employing them differently and better. The book contains over 1500 bookmark references. You can also access these on-line at the author's Web site.

To me, the best aspect of this book was the suggested structuring of many standard competitive intelligence searches and reports. Ms. Burwell starts with the question, shows you what a report should contain, and details how to get the information. A typical question would be: What is company X doing in the following area?

With the outlines in this book, virtually anyone can use this book to create helpful information. If you are a small company or don't have a competitive intelligence unit, people in your company can use this book to get you the information you need in a timely and cost-effective way.

Another strength of this book can be found in the warnings throughout about when to be cautious in accessing or using information. These come from Ms. Burwell's many years of experience and will save you mistakes. For example, free information often isn't as good or as fast as information you pay for. Also, CD ROMs often provide more data at a lower price than on-line paid services do.

Another strength was help in evaluating the information you find. As we all know, the Internet is full of incorrect and misleading information. This adds a lot of value for the neophyte.

I was pleased to see that there were sections to help you probe anonymously, and how to use foreign resources in other than English.

Since much of what goes on here can come close to the line legally, lawyers will be glad to know that there are many warnings of when to consult counsel before acting.

You will also find helpful suggestions for keeping the information up-to-date where you have tracking needs. The suggestions for managing bookmarks was particularly helpful to me.

Having followed the competitive intelligence profession since 1974, I was pleasantly surprised to see the many resources now available. There are far more listed here than the professionals we hire typically use, or our internal staff can locate. As a result, I plan to reorganize how we acquire this information for our management consutling clients.

Before deciding how much competitive intelligence you need, check this book out. It may increase the amount of activity that you want to do, as you develop a better sense of what is possible.

After you have finished reading and applying this book, I suggest you also do some counterintelligence and learn what can be gleaned about your company using the same techniques. Chances are that you need to tighten up in some areas.

Keep ahead of the competition offensively and defensively!