Business intelligence

Do you want to find out about your competitors or customers? About to embark on a research project? Read on...

Google has fundamentally changed the world of research, making the quest for data and information as easy as tapping a few keys. When collecting business intelligence to make decisions, most enterprises look for public sources of information, and the first place they try is the Internet. Most likely, you'll find something interesting on the first page of hits. But what if you don't?

If it's not on Google, it doesn't exist

Some time ago we were involved in a research project for a large management consultancy. We walked past one of the consultants who was obviously frustrated with something.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh man, I've just wasted 2 hours trying to find some data for this energy project, and no matter what I put into Google, I just can't find it. It obviously doesn't exists, so I'm gonna have to re-write my plan. It'll take weeks to put together the primary research."

Lucky for him we were working on the same team. The data he needed was in fact available, it just wasn't on the Internet. With our years of experience and our network of industry contacts, it took us just 5 minutes to source the hidden data. So he didn't have to spend hours wading through pages of hits, or setting up lengthy projects.

We're selling things, so people must like us

All successful businesses listen to their customers and know exactly what they like and dislike. For this type of research it's essential to create the data yourself because it can't be found on the Internet and isn't available elsewhere. Perhaps you need to understand your suppliers and distributors, as well as your customers? We arrange interviews, surveys or other types of research so you can collect information from the people and organisations that interact with your company.

If it's on the Internet, it must be true

Whether you use secondary or primary data, you need to be certain that it's reliable, accurate, timely and complete. This is the information on which you're going to base your business decisions, and those decisions will impact the success of your enterprise.

Some time ago, we were working with a small company that had an idea for starting a new e-commerce business. They'd already commissioned some research before we met them, and on the basis of that research, they were about to spend several thousand euros setting up the company. We looked through the research methodology and found some serious mistakes in how the survey participants were chosen. Consequently the results of the analysis were wrong and the business would have failed.

Do you know the provenance of your information? Making business decisions based on incorrect data, or data collected using inappropriate methods might seem unimportant in the short-run, but may ultimately lead to business failure. We'll help you ensure you're using business intelligence that's relevant to your needs and of a high standard. Read our advice on researching industries and companies, or to discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact us .