Customer Reviews

Online Competitive Intelligence: Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence

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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.

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.

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!

Helen Burwell does have credibility, given her credentials, but I have to admit that I was REALLY disappointed -- in reviewing recommended sites, I found myself often wondering why a site was included in a particular section, or why it was included at all, and why some wonderful sites weren't mentioned period. Perhaps this would be a useful starting point for a beginner, but if you consider yourself an experienced researcher, you'll do better to rely on your own set of bookmarks.

Author Helen Burwell has put her life work as a researcher and competitive intelligence gatherer into this book. What was wanted was a book that any and all businesses could use to keep up with the advances in competitive intelligence gathering, which now has become a business necessity. Indeed, the Internet and online services (either free or for fee) allow us to collect information like never before, and, with her experience, Helen is an ideal person to put together a book that would do a lot more than just get business people up to speed in cyberspace. Just the resource lists alone make this a hot item. This book was also intended to save time and money for those who do research and analysis of commerce and commercial ventures. It definitely should.

This is the first of three basic guides by Facts on Demand press that I am very happy to have in my collection and to recommend to others. Helen Burwell is the "grand dame" among information brokers, along with several other great ladies, and I continue to use and treasure her The Burwell Directory of Information Brokers

While some may be disappointed if this is their area of expertise, I've seen a lot of these guides and this one is just fine as starting point If you can afford to buy two books for the "mechanics", buy this one and "Finding It Online." At the strategic level, and for the professional researcher, see my really short list of the top five business intelligence books in the world, IMHO.

The third book in this basic reading set is Sankey & Weber's Public Records Online, 6th Edition: The Master Guide to Private & Goverment Online Sources of Public Records (Public Records Online) (buy only if you have do work in this area or want to protect yourself by monitoring your divorced spouse's assets, etc.)

I would like to see the publisher make the leap toward online distance learning. All of these books (and those published by Information Today) should be part of a consolidated online library that integrates online tutorials with reference readings, case study practice searches, and a dynamic living constantly updated library of live links with expert forums and calendars of relevant conferences. That's what I thought the Association of Independent Information Professionals and/or the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals were going to do for their members, but I have been disappointed. Absent such an online service of common concern, this book and Find It Online, Fourth Edition: The Complete Guide to Online Research (Find It Online: The Complete Guide to Online Research) are essential and useful references for both the beginning and the journeyman level professional.

See also:
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time

the book about the online competitive intelligence is book is good but not what I expected, is very general in all aspects in any further item. Can be used as a reference book for an overview of the topic

Helen Burwell has, in this book - Online Competitive Intelligence, no doubt, demonstrated her authority in cyber intelligence. Her deep insight into competitive intelligence is explicit in every page. She addresses one prevalent misconception about CI, i.e., that CI is market research. No! Helen clearly shows that the old fashioned market research is not CI, and that CI Operations is a must-have for any modern firm that not only wants to prosper, but to survive. The reader must understand that there are many other sources of competitive information for businesses; and that this book, as the title implies, has a particular focus on cyber intelligence (I will say very good cyber intelligence). Also worth mentioning is that the author inadvertently makes, perhaps, a more convincing case than any similar author, for businesses to redesign their organizational structures, in recognition of the need of, and with respect to, data-reliant strategic management. Such process re-organization, the book shows, is indispensable, if the business wants to endure the challenges of, and take the advantages offered by, this information-driven 21st century. This book addresses not just the need, but the "how-to", for organizational re-engineering with a strong CI department. It also addresses the legal and ethical dimensions of CI operations and the required coordination of efforts among various business departments like marketing, R&D, HR, etc. Very importantly also, the book is well organized even as it is quite rich in content. However, with the supersonic speed of change on the Internet, I am of the opinion (and this is just my opinion) that this book is prone to becoming stale very quickly, unless Helen will be speedily providing the necessary updates. By and large, it is an excellent material for every business and not only for CI practitioners (Nwankama Nwankama).

In Online Competitive Intelligence, Helen Burwell shows how to analyze and monitor a competitor's decision-making and strategies through the resources of the Internet. How to utilize the Internet to target new and emerging markets, anticipate industry changes and trends, price new products and bring them to market, even how to save money and time thereby improving corporate productivity. This compendium of hundreds of free (and often relatively unknown) Internet sites will enhance any corporate manager's ability to perform timely and reliable online research and ought to be required reading for those corporate managers, planners, and marketers relatively unfamiliar with the informational wealth and powerful research tool that lies within their computer's access to the Internet.

I was amazed at the competitive intelligence that can be found by using the information in this book.