Resumen
The article focuses on competitive intelligence (Cl), also known as business intelligence, which is both a process and a product. As a process, CI is the set of legal and ethical methods, a company uses to harness information that helps it achieve success in a global environment. As a product, CI is information about competitors' activities from public and private sources, and its scope is the present and future behavior of competitors, suppliers, customers, technologies, acquisitions, markets, products and services, and the general business environment. There is much more to competitive intelligence than just market research. The word assessment suggests an ongoing process using a variety of information streams and data gathering techniques including psychological profiling and new technology evaluation. The growth of CI has important implications for both the management and operation of IT units. CI supports the information needs of organizations in a variety of ways. Historically, companies have usually applied CI to the information and business planning needs of non-IT business units. Companies have also used CI in their strategic planning process. INSET: Research Methodology.