Newsletter: Services for managing information overload.



	Sunday, November 8, 2009	VOLUME 1 ISSUE 14

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Services for managing information overload.

Ranjit Shastri. ranjit_shastri@psi-world.com

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Summary: Research professionals' services are in even more demand as companies seek to extract the most useful insights from the information readily available from online sources. Several companies (SmartAnalyst, NERAC, and FindSVP) are providing outsourced services to help manage the problem of information overload. They use human experts, armed with the latest technologies, to tackle research efficiently.

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To stay competitive, companies need well-researched information fast. The web has become a vital source of quickly accessible information, particularly for competitive intelligence (CI) professionals who can use the wide reach of the Internet to gather data on far-flung competitors without leaving their office. But they are often faced with an overload of unstructured information culled from the Internet and other online sources. Even with the existence of powerful search engines, it is still a challenge to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Sifting through search results to cull out relevant material takes time. Finding the information is also often very difficult because of the organizational complexity of the information. The cost of time wasted by staff members who attempt to search the net on their own is in the range of several billion dollars per year. A study by RealNames.com has concluded that 44 percent of web users get frustrated with web navigation and search engine use.

Search tools increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and can help users sift through mountains of information, but there are literally thousands of search engines, each strong in some areas, weak in others. Moreover, most researchers find it difficult to keep up with new techniques.

Research professionals have found that their services are even more in demand as companies seek to extract the most useful insights out of the vast amounts of information readily available from various online sources. Several companies have also moved into this space to provide outsourced services to manage the problem of information overload. They use human experts, armed with the latest technologies, to tackle research needs efficiently. These include such industry leaders as SmartAnalyst, NERAC, and FindSVP.

Each of these companies has taken a very different approach:

SmartAnalyst tends to work with information brokers and competitive intelligence professionals.
NERAC specializes in technology.
FindSVP provides a high level of customer service.

SmartAnalyst.com

SmartAnalyst.com has developed the concept of a KnowledgeMap, a carefully constructed, customized secondary research dossier pertaining to a specific query. Many information brokers and CI professionals have found the KnowledgeMap to be a good productivity tool, enabling them to leverage their own time more effectively by outsourcing the tedious research spadework and focusing on understanding their clients' needs.

The KnowledgeMap product is customized research, primarily derived from an exhaustive search of the public domain Internet and proprietary sources. The turnaround time depends on the scope and complexity of the query. SmartAnalyst uses standardized templates for sending queries, and they format the results into a PDF file with highlights, annotations, and live links (both internal to the document as well as external to the World Wide Web). SmartAnalyst sells its KnowledgeMap service in prepaid subscriptions, but offers free trials to competitive intelligence professionals and other qualified users.

NERAC

NERAC specializes in scientific research, including new technologies, and patents. They inform clients about who is obtaining patents in their area of interest, and who is referencing their clients' patents in their own patent applications. Their analysts also search their own databases for the information they need to establish patentability or validity.

NERAC uses the U.S. Trademark database to conduct searches based on a phrase or its variations. They also provide patent documents, including text, images, schematics, formulae, equations, and claims. Their retrospective search service looks back in time from the present for information on published literature (i.e., journals, conference papers, patents) to help find solutions to discrete technical problems or uncover the background of a particular topic.

FindSVP

FindSVP pioneered the delivery of quick question-answering services through telephone consultations with experienced specialists. They provide fully integrated research, business intelligence and management advisory services, and work directly with a number of major corporations with their phone-based customer service personnel. The company currently provides outsourced business intelligence, marketing advice and information consulting. The company also designs and conducts customer satisfaction surveys that measure consumer perceptions and loyalty indicators and compares consumers' views with those of their clients.

The role of research

Corporations will always need new information, so there will always be a role for research organizations that produce primary and secondary research. However, the need of the hour is for service organizations such as SmartAnalyst, NERAC and FindSVP that can help companies deal with the plethora of information that is now available online. CI professionals also benefit from the need to make sense of the confusing abundance of information, as they will be in great demand to compile existing research, identify the most relevant material, integrate the most authoritative reports, and summarize the final results.

Background:

Ranjit Shastri is a director of PSi Inc. a New York management consulting firm. He has served a broad range of clients in developing corporate strategies, forging cross-border alliances, and improving competitive intelligence. Ranjit has helped major international corporations determine the most appropriate strategy to take advantage of global opportunities in an era of reduced import duties, increased international competition, and domestic deregulation. He spent several years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York, and Bain & Co. in Boston. Ranjit holds an M.B.A. with honors from the Wharton School, and a B.Sc. with honors in applied mathematics from Yale University. He is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce and has published in numerous publications, including the Asian Insurance Review, Economist Intelligence Unit, and in-flight magazines of Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific (The Peak).

Copyright 2002 Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals

SCIP.online, volume 1 number 14, August 22, 2002.

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