Have summaries of our latest blogs delivered to your inbox, so you can stay up to date on the topics and current events that matter to your business.
Searching databases might seem simple, but if you’re not up-to-date on commands, you might be falling way behind. Nexis ® is already revolutionizing the way searches are conducted online, from...
If you scroll through a handful of job descriptions today, odds are that most—if not all—will list “proficient in research and analysis” as a requirement. But despite the need for...
For many PR pros, it can be difficult to pinpoint in real time whether your communications strategy is paying off. Total impressions, share of voice, and social engagement are great—but do they capture...
As a communications professional, you know intuitively that public perception can impact your campaigns, for better and for worse. These days, not much is more top of mind with the public than matters...
Market and competitive intelligence (CI) can feel like a corporate superpower when done correctly. That’s because, with proper research and analytics, companies can essentially predict the future...
Imagine this hypothetical scenario: Let’s say you’re not happy with your current competitive intelligence. Maybe you have too many blindspots in your datasets, resulting in competitor profiles that are incomplete at best or completely inaccurate at worst. Maybe your existing platform is too complex and cumbersome to use and navigate, with too many “features” and buttons that are more gimmicky than beneficial to your competitor research. Or maybe your competitive intelligence as a whole is far too tedious and labor intensive with little to show in return for your time and energy.
Eventually, you decide to look at alternative competitive intelligence tools and services. And if you’re reading this blog post, then it’s likely safe to assume we’re no longer describing a hypothetical scenario, but rather detailing your current situation.
Research executives, strategists, and others in charge of their company’s competitive intelligence analytics switch from one competitor research tool to another for a variety of reasons. Some tools and services offer specific features and capabilities that are well suited for unique needs that a company might not find elsewhere. But speaking holistically, the simple fact of the matter is not all competitive intelligence is created equal.
There are four key factors you should consider before purchasing any competitive intelligence solution. And whatever unique needs you may have, try evaluating any potential tool or service using each of these factors as your guide. If you do, you may just find yourself with improved competitor research that puts you ahead of the competition.
Accurate, insightful competitive intelligence demands a diverse range of data. Does the competitive intelligence solution you’re considering offer the content you require for an in-depth understanding of your competitors?
Tagging on another process, tool, or service to an already convoluted workflow probably isn’t going to make your research any easier or efficient. Instead of searching for something that simply adds to existing complexities—or, even worse, merely replaces one complicated workflow with another—ask yourself if the competitive intelligence solution you’re considering streamlines your intelligence to enhance what works while repairing what doesn’t.
Competitive intelligence is a team sport. As such, everyone in your lineup needs a workspace where they collaborate, an easy way to organize findings, and a simplified process for sharing key insights throughout the organization. Also, when considering a tool or service, evaluate the ways it enables data visualization. The ability to visualize data is not only key in helping you to find insights, but also for helping others to see and understand those same insights as well.
Think about whether or not a potential competitive intelligence tool or service makes data wrangling an efficient process. With it, how much time will you spend tracking down data versus actually strategizing? Sure, collecting information together and then cleaning it is part of competitive intelligence. But what if there was a solution out there that did the heavy lifting for you when it comes to data wrangling?
For a competitive intelligence solution that gives you access to a diverse range of datasets, streamlines research, improves collaboration, and enhances your data, consider Nexis for Competitive Intelligence. It combines world-leading content with an experience that simplifies and complements your competitor research workflow. Here’s how it measures up to the key factors we just outlined.
No other service or tool has our collection of company, news, legal, and patent data. With Nexis for Competitive Intelligence, you can search one content set and eliminate the need to bounce between tools or manually pull information from a vast array of sources. And since Nexis for Competitive Intelligence is tapped into our content universe, your competitive research benefits from:
It also gives you access to the full Nexis Dossier Suite, so you get company and financial coverage of 350 million public and private companies and 70 million executives.
Nexis for Competitive Intelligence streamlines and simplifies your existing workflow—so you can organize, analyze, and share your findings all within a single data workspace. Aside from searching one content set, you can also:
Your team can add, organize, and analyze its findings in a collaborative workspace. In one place, they can make comments and visualize data. They can also “snip” important quotes, data points, and articles, and then drop in callouts and write up key takeaways in a pinboard environment. Then, when your team is ready to share its analysis, it can easily generate and share a report complete with visuals.
Nexis for Competitive Intelligence benefits from our proprietary SmartIndexing Technology™, which analyzes and tags documents using natural language processing, algorithmic semantic analysis, and supervised machine learning to classify data based on subjects, industries, companies, organizations, people, and place. It’s the most comprehensive indexing on the market, and it helps to quickly surface critical content.
Go here to learn more about the key factors of efficient, streamlined competitive intelligence—and discover how Nexis for Competitive Intelligence empowers your research workflow.