Press Releases
Study Finds Business Intelligence Software More Virtual than Real:
World's Tallest Technology Midget?
Cambridge, MA - February 13, 2001- When it comes to keeping tabs
on competitors, major corporations may be getting too much of a good thing.
They are growing increasingly dependent on the Internet and so-called competitive
intelligence software, which tends to emphasize the "competitive" at
the expense of the "intelligence," according to Leonard Fuld,
an international expert on competitive intelligence (CI).
While making executives feel good, relying on Internet data creates a
false sense of security, often leaving them isolated from the marketplace
and bogged down with data containing little "intelligence," said
Fuld, President of Fuld & Co., whose clients include more than half
the Fortune 500.
Fuld & Co. has just completed a groundbreaking study on 40 CI software
packages, concluding that even the best 12 packages cannot do 74% of the
job. Fuld contends that corporations are not getting what they paid for
in the $148 billion market* for intelligence/data storage software and
related devices.
When compared against the five major components necessary to successfully
incorporate CI into corporate business practices, no CI software package
in the Fuld study rated "above average" for any more than two
of the five major steps in the intelligence process.
Most striking is that the average for the 12 packages profiled in-depth
was only 13 points out of a possible 50. The scores indicate that these
software tools are, at best, "information assistants" and do
not offer a substitute for a people-based information collection and analysis
process - at least not at this time.
"Although we are living in Arthur C. Clarke's mythical year of 2001,
the thinking machine, HAL, envisioned in Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space
Odyssey, has not yet arrived," Fuld said. "There are no one-stop
software solutions for the business intelligence market, in direct contradiction
to pronouncements made by numerous software vendors. While we have found
that software suppliers are repackaging their data mining and data warehousing
products as 'business intelligence' offerings, in reality they often deliver
only one or two of the five required business intelligence process steps.
No package that we have reviewed or seen delivers the entire business intelligence
solution, period!"
If a package had actually scored close to the 50-point mark, it would
have been able to deliver enough added value to the raw information in
the system to speed management decisions.
The Study
Fuld & Company reviewed 40 packages, choosing the twelve that
had sufficient explicit or inherent CI functionality to warrant an immediate
assessment. Fuld assessed and rated the functionality of each of these
packages against the five key components of the Intelligence Cycle. (The
Intelligence Cycle is an analysis tool Fuld & Company has developed
and refined during the course of 20-plus years consulting to more than
half of the Fortune 500 companies). These components include:
1. Planning and Direction
2. Published Information
3. Primary Source Collection
4. Analysis and Production
5. Report and Inform
This first-of-its-kind comprehensive report, located at www.fuld.com,
is designed as a strategic executive tool to improve the decision-making
process when gathering, organizing, analyzing and evaluating competitive
intelligence data.
The complex ideas encompassed by the Software Guide are designed in an
easy-to-use format, requiring only a few mouse clicks to navigate. The
Guide is constantly being updated and revised as new software products
reach the marketplace and product revisions are launched.
Fuld & Company will also present its findings and lessons in using
and applying intelligence software at a May 1 seminar, "Intelligence
Software: How to Make Information Technology Work," to be held in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Findings
- No Total Solution: No software vendor offers a total CI technology
solution. Most vendors offer products that assist in conducting only
one or two of the five key steps.
- Analysis Claims Fall Flat: Analysis is the most critical step
in creating intelligence out of raw data. A number of vendors attempt
to produce a software "engine" to analyze the information collected,
but nearly all fail - and most fail completely.
- Vendor Hype vs. Reality - Many packages claim to offer an out-of-the-box
CI solution, when in fact they do not.
- High Degree of Development Needed: There are virtually no turnkey
systems.
Fuld & Company
Based in Cambridge, Mass., with offices in London, England and Geneva,
Switzerland, Fuld & Company specializes in providing business intelligence
consulting services, and has designed intelligence processes for numerous
corporations worldwide. Leonard Fuld is a recognized worldwide as an expert
and author in the field of competitive intelligence.
Other free intelligence tools found at www.fuld.com include
an Internet Intelligence Index, with links to 600 intelligence-related
internet sites; an Intelligence Dictionary, with hyperlinks to related
terms and websites; an interactive Intelligence Forum, where questions
are fielded by Fuld & Company experts, excerpts from Leonard Fuld's
acclaimed book, The New Competitor Intelligence, and an Intelligence Organizer.
* Results of study by Survey.com, 11/30/99, estimating the size of the
business intelligence/data warehouse market, expected to eclipse $148 billion
within three years
Contact:
Sarah Gerrol, (617)
523-4141
sarah@morrisseyco.com
Morrisey & Co.
121 Mount Vernon Street
Boston, MA 02108
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