The market & competitive intelligence process integrates procedures and developments of a whole construct of important elements. Business intelligence requirements lead the intelligence value chain all the way to refining procedures after all elements have been deployed.

Market intelligence functions, or intelligence activities as you might call them, need to support the market intelligence cycle and its continuous intelligence activities and intelligence tasks. Establishing intelligence functions one important concern is to allow an operational and functional flow across these intelligence tasks and research activities as these functions will later, more or less, form the backbone of the market intelligence sequence.

Intelligence can be described as the summary of internal and external data and information, paired with expertise and experience in any given environment and brought into context with the own doing and goals.

Like any other well established business process the market intelligence process needs to flow in a continuous cycle. Starting with intelligence requirements of sales staff, marketers and management that need to be identified, clear business goals would reflect the delivery towards those intelligence needs.

Business Intelligence operations and initiatives suffer severe challenges these days around as much as many other non-core business disciplines. Except your business purpose has anything to do with business intelligence as a product or service to others, chances are that nobody has market & competitive intelligence on top of their daily agenda.