Tuesday, November 24, 2009 ISSUE 31   HOME Breaking down the barriers of information scale and complexity. Greg Coyle, vice president anacubis gregc@anacubis.com Building an understanding of relationships in large amounts of competitive intelligence data using new visual research and analysis tools. Management information systems, customer databases, corporate intranets, the Internet; the wealth of online competitive information these systems provide access to has changed the way we do business. Never before have corporations been able to access such a diverse range of information sources with such ease and speed. Vast amounts of new data are being added daily, There is no end in sight to this information extravaganza, but as available data grows, information overload is becoming an increasing problem. The sheer volume and complexity of the data now being produced presents both those responsible for generating the information and the CI professionals who utilize it with an increasingly difficult task: locating the precise data needed and then extracting maximum value from the results presented, in an efficient and effective manner, to support an informed corporate decision-making process. A visual approach to complexity There is a developing change in the way structured online information is delivered and consumed. Online information providers are subscribing to tools that break down the barriers of scale and complexity by delivering CI information in a visual format that is easy to view and navigate. This enables faster access to relevant data for easier understanding and further analysis. With an estimated 80% of CI professional’s time spent looking for information and just 20% spent analyzing it, getting to the relevant information faster brings massive benefits in productivity. Several online information providers, including LexisNexis, Questel Orbit, Bureau van Dijk and D&B are adding a highly intuitive visual interface to their databases, allowing complex relationships within the data to be highlighted and explored within a single screen at the click of a mouse. The technology behind this method of delivery automatically creates a visual representation of complex data in real-time, which can be easily manipulated and acted upon. It does this by automatically representing entities, such as people and organizations, pictorially as icons and shows the relationships between the entities as link types. As the user explores the online source, data is continually added to the visualization, providing a big picture overview of a particular organization, market or area of interest. Identifying information relationships In the past, complex relationships within large amounts of data were often difficult to uncover and key interdependencies were often overlooked, simply because they were so well concealed within the data. By dynamically visualizing those relationships, they become easier to understand, explore and communicate to others. A huge advantage is gained over the typical user experience, which involves navigating through hyperlinks and wading through potentially hundreds – or even thousands – of pages of, often textual, data. The true power of the technology may also be easily noted by virtue of the ‘live’ nature of the visualization – as opposed to being a static picture. Each of the entity icons can be moved, re-ordered, expanded or removed from the visualization to allow for a more complete and thorough analysis. All the underlying data is retained in the visualization, so a user can easily click on any icon or link to view the source document. In addition, the user can continue to pull additional data into the visualization, without opening new windows as would be necessary in a typical hyperlink-oriented search. Intelligently consolidating information Whilst visualizing the data helps promote clearer understanding, the true benefits of this technology for CI professionals lie in its ability to intelligently consolidate information from different sources and deliver it in a format suitable for further analysis and communication within the wider organization. The ability to go to best-of-breed information sources and consolidate them together into a single visualization is extremely powerful. Imagine being able to browse to D&B and get background on a particular company, then go to Questel Orbit and get information about their patents, drag the visualizations of the information onto the desktop and watch the application instantly consolidate the data from both sources. The opportunities this brings in working more efficiently impact a wide range of CI activities, such as visually exploring and analyzing patents (citations, assignees, inventors and IPCs), quickly identifying licensing opportunities, tracking competitor patent portfolios, uncovering and tracking patent ownership, monitoring patent activity, identifying and qualifying new R&D opportunities and monitoring for patent infringement. Of course the applications for the visual research and analysis tools go far beyond the field of intellectual property. Financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, conflict of interest, legal compliance and due diligence are all key areas where this technology brings important benefits. Tracking changes to uncover trends In today’s fast-moving world, CI information sources are constantly evolving – daily, hourly or even by the minute. Keeping track of changes can often prove difficult, particularly when the information originates from a range of different sources. Saving the visual results of online research off-line, dynamically updating them, and comparing results to previously saved analysis saves time and effort. It also helps to uncover developments and trends. This type of visualization technology allows organizations to approach their CI activities in a far more proactive manner by streamlining the gathering, analysis and management of information. This helps the corporate decision makers to anticipate changes in a market, rather than having to react to them. By making the research process more efficient and effective, CI professionals can spend less time looking for the information they require and more time analyzing and disseminating the results of their research – and turning information into actionable intelligence that provides a competitive edge. About the author Greg Coyle is a Vice President of anacubis™ (www.anacubis.com) , a leading developer of visual research and analysis tools for commercial information professionals. The technology behind the anacubis™ systems has been developed over the past 12 years by parent company i2 Limited, one of the world’s largest providers of data visualization and link analysis software to investigative analysts and law enforcement agencies around the world. i2’s systems are used by many of the federal agencies in the USA. Greg can be contacted at gregc@anacubis.com copyright 2003 Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals scip.online, issue 31, May 9, 2003 [PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION] There are no letters available. [POST]

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