For Competitive Intelligence newcomers and seasoned professionals SCIA would like to recommend the Competitive Intelligence Foundation's new CI book "Starting a Competitive Intelligence Function".

This new title in a series of other important CI works from a wide range of Competitive Intelligence practitioners, consultants and academics deals with all areas of setting up, maintaining, promoting and succeeding in a CI function.

The following main questions are answered within the 406 page thick collection of CI expertise:

• What do I need to know before I start developing a CI function?
• What basic resources are needed and what alternatives do I have to obtain them?
• What skills are needed for CI and how can I obtain them?
• Where should the CI function be placed in the organization?
• Who should my CI clients be and how do I identify them?
• Does my specific industry require a different approach to building a CI function?
• What are my options in developing a CI budget?
• If I have to hire staff, how do I work with Human Resources to develop job descriptions?
• How do I develop an effective CI analytical team, either dedicated or ad hoc?
• What processes need to be in place for a CI function to work and what best practices can I leverage to create them?
• How do involve management in CI development and how do I develop a CI champion?
• How do I develop needs assessments and determine if they are accurate?
• What is the best way to distribute and communicate CI products in my organization?
• What is the role of consultants in designing and developing the function?
• How can I organize or structure the CI function to support decision-making?
• What infrastructure linkages do I have to have with other departments?
• What internal resources already exist that I can use to support the CI function and how do I find them?
• How do I build effective internal networks to exchange information and analysis?
• What is the functional relationship between CI and other corporate functions?
• How do I identify appropriate CI output/deliverables and what are my options for communicating them?
• How do I develop and distribute a set of legal and ethical guidelines?
• What are my outsourcing options and when should I use them?
• How can I use technology to support my CI practices?
• How should the success of my CI effort be measured?

Jens Thieme, member of our board, has contributed one chapter to the book which you can order via the SCIP web store (http://scip.org/) or directly by following this link.