Managing the CI Workflow with Comintelli
Jinfo Blog

By Elizabeth Trudell

Abstract

Comintelli provides software for both CI and KM applications. Reviewer Libby Trudell highlights the types of users and workflows supported by the flagship CI product and some of the new features available since FreePint last reviewed Knowledge XChanger in 2011. She also spotlights their new cloud-based product offering, intelligence2day.

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In her introduction to the FreePint Topic Series: Next Generation Competitive Intelligence, Mary Ellen Bercik gave an overview of the key phases of the process: gathering content, analysing results, and communicating insights.

While there are many services available that partially support these phases, Comintelli's Knowledge XChanger is one of the few to offer a solution which encompasses the three workflow components:

Gathering Content

Comintelli's aggregation tools gather external and internal data from many sources in a range of formats into a single repository, under a customised taxonomy.

While the creation of a taxonomy reflecting the organisation's specific areas of focus is certainly not unique to Comintelli, one of the product's strength is the use of the SOLR search engine to support formulation of sophisticated queries which automatically classify all content into the taxonomy.

Combining classification with free-text searching enables users to dig into the content in different ways to tease out insights and connections.

Analysing Results

Comintelli offers a suite of publishing and analysis tools for use by Competitive Intelligence (CI) analysts.

Analysts or information professionals can tag articles to be included in SWOT analysis reports, and use templates to create company and product reports. Tools for creating and visuals such as trend line charts, heat maps and word clouds are provided, and these graphics can then be embedded in reports or alerts.

Communicating Insights

Multiple communications channels and formats are supported.

Current articles and trend line graphics can be displayed on the customisable main dashboard, with different views for differing users throughout the organisation. Reports and articles are available for search in the central depository, and also delivered via alerts and internal newsletters.

Both analysts and other users can add comments to reports and articles to share their own insights.

Committing to a Solution

Successfully implementing a unified solution to manage the whole competitive intelligence process requires buy-in throughout the organisation. It especially depends on the commitment by information professionals and business analysts to adapt their approach to all phases of the process and embrace the tools provided to take full advantage of the capabilities offered.

Getting started with a server-based installation, whether supported in-house or hosted externally, also requires a fairly large commitment of money, time and effort.

Comintelli's new cloud-based alternative, intelligence2day, eliminates the up-front investment in technology. This allows an organisation to implement a streamlined version of the service at minimal start-up cost and quickly assess the impact on efficiency and quality of reporting provided by their competitive intelligence team.    

Editor's Note

Knowledge XChanger has a host of interesting features. The full FreePint Report: Product Review of Comintelli Knowledge XChanger is now available in PDF format, in a convenient package for reference and sharing, for those with a FreePint Subscription.

This article is part of the FreePint Topic Series: Next-Generation Competitive Intelligence which ran from May-June 2014. Registration provides a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Competitive Intelligence upon publication.

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