#35 Better decisions with market intelligence

#35 Better decisions with market intelligence

Better decisions with market intelligence

Strategy interview with Sascha Dongowski, Managing Partner and Prof. Dr. Arno Lammerts, Senior Vice President Corporate Development at Cedura.

If you want to make good decisions, you need to know the necessary data and information for your relevant markets and competitors. StrategyFrame® partner Cedura helps corporate decision makers to know their relevant markets and competitors as well as possible and thus optimize internal decision management. This way, you accelerate the situation analysis within the strategy process and can adjust the strategy as quickly as possible through automation and regular updates in the CedDecider software. For this purpose, CedDecider is directly integrated into the digital StrategyFrame®. This makes StrategyFrame® and the leading market intelligence provider Cedura an unbeatable team for your digital strategy process.

Shownotes:

According to Prof. Dr. Arno Lammerts, most companies know their markets well. But unlike ten years ago, there are big and fast changes that are not easy to follow in detail. Therefore, companies are often aware of their most important competitors, but there are often gaps when it comes to details. However, it is precisely in these details that great potential lies. Not only the current market is important, but also forecasts of future development.

One of the greatest advantages for companies is to obtain all relevant information about the market and thus a great gain in transparency. Instead of collecting all available information, the aim is to collect the data relevant to the individual company and make it available. Customers, potential customers, suppliers, partner companies, distributors, products and services of other companies and the arguments used to sell them are essential information for a company to be able to assert itself on the market. From all this data, a company can exploit existing potential and refine its marketing strategy.

Marketing intelligence is particularly important in this context. It serves as a method to generate an overview of the market and thus leads to better decision management.

What does the CedDecider software do?

CedDecider helps companies to bundle information. The software ensures that data flows together centrally, is selected according to relevance and finally presented according to defined standards. In this way, all those responsible in a company are on the same level of information and thus have a common understanding of the matter. Gaps that previously made decisions difficult can be closed. Market intelligence is thus directly applied in the form of the CedDecider software and makes a big difference in decision management.

What exactly is market intelligence again?

Information about markets and competitors must be gathered continuously in order for a company to stay on top. Market intelligence is a method for how markets are observed.

At the beginning of the process, a company must ask itself:

  • What do we really need to know?
  • What information and data is relevant to our industry and market?
  • What information do we already have?

If these questions are answered conscientiously, data can be collected and it is excluded that unnecessarily much information is included in the collection, which has no relevance for the company. The market is therefore viewed and analyzed particularly efficiently, from certain points of view. On this basis, well thought-out decisions can be made for the company.

How to start the data collection in the best possible way?

At Cedura, each company is considered individually. Therefore, an initial interview takes place first. Alternatively, a template with about six questions can be filled out. In this way, Cedura gets a first impression of the company and learns something about what information is already available, in which industry a company is active and which competitors are known.

Cedura then builds a demo system using Market Intelligence. This can take one to two weeks. Finally, the customer can take a look at this demo system. Often there is a first "aha" effect in this step. It can happen that the demo system contains information about competitors that the company was not previously aware of. Up to this point, the offer is completely free of charge.

Once a data basis exists, less information is added over time. It becomes increasingly clear which information is really important and which is not needed. This is therefore a continuous learning process based on market intelligence.

How is data collection implemented in concrete terms?

In the first step, data collection, much is done manually. Research is conducted on various platforms to obtain an overview of the market. The information collected is then checked. The customer is also given the opportunity to check the data in order to decide which figures and data should be trusted and which should not.

Can suppliers be analyzed in addition to competitors?

In recent years, the importance of suppliers has become very clear. During the corona pandemic, many companies had to deal with situations in which suppliers were unable to deliver materials and thus production was interrupted. Therefore, part of market intelligence is to look for suppliers who can meet the company's requirements for a product or material. This means that not only competitors are closely examined, but also offers from suppliers can be analyzed in order to find the best supplier.

Outlook: What does the product roadmap look like?

Automation is the focus. Automated processes in market intelligence mean huge time savings for companies. Development, on the other hand, is a very time-consuming process. Cedura is aiming for automated software and tools in the future that will enable companies to make the best possible decisions.

Furthermore, Cedura strives to make knowledge sharing possible. This includes sharing and discussing data and information, making it all the more valuable. Technological developments must be anticipated here - The Internet-of-Things and Blockchain are just two examples Cedura has in mind. The goal is complete automation and digitization to best support companies on their journey with Market Intelligence.

An advice by Sascha Dongowski and Prof. Dr. Arno Lammerts

Business leaders have to ask themselves many questions if they want to understand their competitors and their markets. But the most important question is: Do I have enough information to make a good decision?

With this question, you check which data it already has and which is still missing. This is how market intelligence works.