Taking advantage of Internet sources to build a Competitive Intelligence system

The Internet is becoming increasingly important in collecting competitive intelligence (CI) data. Effective use of the Internet, however, requires business to establish a plan for capturing CI information and a systematic process for developing a CI database for the collected data. Part of this process involves verifying the data's accuracy and currency. Source credibility must be evaluated with an eye for inaccurate, if not intentionally false, data inputs. Users must choose between free and for-fee database and news-retrieval services, and between services that charge monthly fees and those that provide data on a per-inquiry basis. The authors provide numerous Web site addresses with brief explanations of the types of CI information available at these sites. The value of chat rooms and discussion groups is also addressed, with a warning that you could be talking with competitors. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.