#05 Better decisions with market intelligence

#05 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 the necessary data and information for your relevant markets and competitors. StrategyFrame® partner Cedura helps corporate decision-makers to know their relevant markets and their competitors as well as possible, thus optimizing internal decision management. This accelerates the situation analysis within the strategy process and enables you to 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, in these details is great potential. Not only the current market is important, but also forecasts of future development.

It’s essential for companies to get all relevant information about the market. 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 important 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 for generating 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 subject. Gaps that have made decisions difficult can be closed. Market Intelligence is therefore directly applied in the form of CedDecider software and makes a big difference in decision management.

What exactly is Market Intelligence?

Information about markets and competitors must be gathered continuously for a company to stay ahead. Market Intelligence is a method of how markets are monitored.

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, data can be collected, and it is ruled out that only relevant information gets collected. 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 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. This gives Cedura a first impression of the company and tells us what information is already available, in which industry a company operates and which competitors are known.

Cedura then builds a demo system by using Market Intelligence. This can take one to two weeks. Finally, the customer can take a look at this demo system. Often, the first "aha" effect occurs at this stage. 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.

Once a data basis exists, less information is added over time. It becomes increasingly clear which information is essential and which is not needed. So, it's a continuous learning process, based on market intelligence.

How exactly is data collection implemented?

In the first step, data collection, a lot 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 provided the opportunity to check the data to decide which figures and data should be trusted and used and which should not.

Can suppliers be analyzed, as well as competitors?

Lately, the importance of suppliers has become clear. During the corona pandemic, many companies had to deal with situations where 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. So, not only competitors will be closely examined, also offers from suppliers will be analyzed to find the best supplier.

Outlook: What does the product roadmap look like?

The focus is on automation. Automated processes in market intelligence mean huge time savings for companies. The 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 in this regard – The Internet-of-Things and Blockchain are only two examples Cedura has in mind. The goal is complete automation and digitization to support companies on their journey with Market Intelligence.

Advice from 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. The most important question, however, is: Do I have enough information to make a good decision?

With this question, you check which data you already have and which are still missing. That's how market intelligence works.