Research


	01.10.2013 Information Search Problems Alessandro Comai This study seeks to understand the behavior of practitioners and professionals while searching information. We are particularly interested in defining problems, challenges and other issues with respect to the profession of Competitive Intelligence, corporate and scientific librarians and researcher. Findings will be avialbale soon.
	01.04.2013 Software Tools for Competitive Intelligence - BRAND NEW! Miniera INTRODUCTION: Free and commercial software provide key tools for gathering information and analyzing data from open sources. Currently, there are a significant number of open source tools that make information available to a large variety of professionals. Additionally, new portable devices such as smartphones and tablets make information even more accessible. However, it is not clear how software tools can provide the best value to CI practitioners. MINIERA, launched a survey for better understanding how Software Tools are utilized by CI practitioners. Our key research question where: Do CI practitioners use free or commercial software? Which aspects are utilized the most by users? Are tablets and smartphones becoming increasingly important for CI practitioners in their job? This document reports and comments the answers gathered. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: - Survey data on software tool utilization by CI practitioners was collected from November 2012 to February 2013 . - The on-line questionnaire () generated 179 answers from a variety of companies world-wide. 149 were valid responses. - CI practitioners adopt slightly more free tools (67.2%) than commercial tools (53.7%). The data shows that commercial tools are used by more than half of the respondents. However, 26% of the respondents said that they were using both types. - CI practitioners use a variety of commercial software tools, well-known names in a number of categories: Databases, Content Management, Office Packages, CI focused and Cloud based software, etc. They use tools that gather, visualize and share information about Competitors, Markets, Products, Technology, etc. - “Searching” is used “constantly” by 48.2% of the respondents, and dominates the practice. - “Crawling the internet”, “Getting Alerts” and “Filtering” are being used “constantly” by more than 32% of the respondents. “Visualizing/Reading” is used at least frequently by more than 60% of the respondents. - Although there are several devices available such as “Phones” and “Tablets”, the PC is the most used tool by 78% of the respondents. - Mobile phones are preferred over tablets, but both lag well behind PC use. WHAT NEXT? Interested in receiving a copy of this study? Contact us at http://www.miniera.es/en/contact and we will send you a digital copy.
	10.06.2012 World-Class CI Function Information analyst and Intelligence practitioners are invited to come together in World-Class CI Summit™ to learn, and share ideas and experiences with each other and with subject experts and to enhance their Competitive Intelligence capabilities. The World-Class CI Summit™ series will be realized with the participation of managers and/or Competitive Intelligence directors who are interested in obtaining a superior understanding of how to plan, develop and achieve a world class competitive intelligence function.The summit is designed for whom are involved or are in the process of developing a CI function or provides strategic insights and innovations to senior management. The World-Class CI Summit™ will be structured around a research-generated model of World-Class Competitive Intelligence developed by the workshop leaders; the model incorporates a project management approach to the enhancement of Competitive Intelligence. Barcelona, España. Link to the World Class IC Function web
	26.05.2012 "Inteligencia Competitiva" - 1130 Tweets en 2 meses Inteligencia Competitiva Esta gráfica muestra en análisis de palabras claves utilizadas en 1130 tweets que hablan de "Inteligencia Competitiva" Los tweets han sido capturados con la herramienta de MiraIntelligence™ a lo largo de 2 meses aprox (desde 18/03/2012). A partir del texto de los tweets, se han eliminados las fechas y las palabras "Inteligencia" y "competitiva" escrita en español o portugués. La Analítica se encuentra disponible en: http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/5359893/%22Inteligencia_Competitiva%22_-1130_Twitters_en_2_meses
	06.04.2012 Megatrends - Analysis from Twitter Water Scarcity 10 days search of "Water Scarcity" in Twitter. Period: 28/03/2012 - 06/04/2012 Tweets: 171 Graphic: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5114630/Water_Scarcity
	01.07.2011 Google Tools for Competitive Intelligence (2011-2012) Ponente: Miniera Open source and free tools available trough the internet are becoming popular nowadays. More and more people are getting familiar about the benefit of these tools. There is a significant increase of open source tools that make information available to a large number of professionals. Google, like other leading internet companies, is offering a very large number of free tools? However, how do information users? act with Google tools? In other words… Are Information users aware of all theses tools and sources? How are these tools utilized by Information users? Which are the most useful with respect to Information Users? These 3 questions motivated us to develop a survey with the aim of understanding more about this topic. From April to June 2011 we launched a survey with the objective of understanding how 24 free Google tools were used by information users. The study involved 466 professionals worldwide. The updated version (March 2012) can be downloaded from the following link.