It is my honour to serve as the next President of the SCIA, and I look forward to building upon the solid foundations that have been laid by
the founding members and previous Boards. In 2013, SCIA will be represented by Kurt Kobel, Richard Siegel and myself, hoping and expecting that additional members will volunteer to contribute to the objectives of our association. We will further enhance the content of education, training and problem solving in competitive intelligence, meeting the statutory purpose of the association to:

• Facilitate knowledge exchange and networking;
• Promote the achievement of high standards of quality and greater efficiency (best practice);
• Promote content in education, training and problem solving;
• Promote a positive awareness and perception of competitive intelligence among key users and opinion leaders;
• Collaborate internationally in the field of competitive intelligence.

In addition, it is my personal ambition for this year to expand SCIA’s presence into the French-speaking part of Switzerland (Suisse romande). My aim is to double our member base by offering theme events in the region, and to advance a Swiss-wide network of peers, whether practitioners, consultant vendors or students. I will pay special attention to the organisational structure and procedures of the association, improve communication and focus on informing our membership about new developments and on-going initiatives in the CI community. I want to encourage involvement of our members in making SCIA a more attractive platform which is advantageous to all our present and future members. I look forward to working with and for you, to building SCIA into a nationwide, member centric association, which genuinely adds value to the development of CI professionals and to the promotion of the competitive intelligence discipline in an international environment.

Marcel Brussee
SCIA President.

In Scalaris Economic Crime Intelligence conference this year we will approach Corporate Intelligence as business development  and security factor for large businesses.

In past editions we focused on more specific topics (like data leakage or human risk factors).

This time the topic is much wider, as we will dig into both offensive and defensive intelligence aspects.

Corporate Intelligence specialists (in businesses and among practitioners) rarely expose themselves to the public to present their skills and ethics: the conference is a unique opportunity to meet specialists like:

• Alain Julliet, former chief operations officer of the french secret service and responsible for Corporate Intelligence issues in the French Prime minister staff
• Prof. Solange Ghernaouti-Helie, president of the Swiss Cybersecurity Advisory & Research Group
• Christian Aghroum, former Head of Cyber-Security in the french national police and now Chief Security officer of a large Swiss industrial company
• Claudio Foglini, Scalaris Senior Consultant, Economic Crime Intelligence

Please register here to this free conference:   http://eci.scalaris.com/events

NB: The conference is in FRENCH

As a new feature, SCIA website is offering the CI Jobs- a place where you can post any job openings related to competitive intelligence. The format will include the date it has been uploaded, a short description of the job advertised and a direct contact for application.

If you are interested, please send the a.m. details directly to our websie administrator Sanja Kais (cc: Monika Giese).

Since 1989, SCIP’s annual awards program has honored individuals for their outstanding efforts and achievements in the field of competitive intelligence.

Robin Kirkby, speaker at our next event, has received these honours for his outstanding career in Competitive Intelligence and his tireless efforts to advance and promote the CI profession. Full article here

Congratualtions, Robin!!!

In late 2010 a collaborative, cross-industry survey has been launched to investigate the status of Competitive Intelligence (CI) in Swiss SMEs.

CI – for this survey has been clearly described - as a systematic and continuous process: from the collection of data, information and (human) intelligence to review, validation and analysis. The deliverables: insights regarding competitors, markets and the overall market environment. They allow decision makers to (a) anticipate relevant market changes, (b) consider implication for their tactics and strategies and (c) proactively stay ahead of the competition. 

Decision makers in these enterprises have taken the time to describe their own organisation. The Results have delivered insights in the following three areas:

1. How is CI organized? -> Insights into organisational structure, funding and roles and responsibilities

2. Who uses CI services, to what extend and for which type of decision?-> Insights into the utilization of CI products and deliverables, with particular emphasis on impact on decision making

3. How are enterprises organised regarding counterintelligence?-> Insights regarding security levels, training and recent attacks

Interested in the results?

The report is available for download here! 

This year, at the Orlando conference, SCIP acknowledged the work of our president, Kurt Kobel, for his exceptional promotion of CI at the local and national level and his significant contributions to the operations and advancement of CI both, here in Switzerland and in continuously supporting SCIP at international events.

Congratulations, KURT!!

1.     Annual report of the board

Annual Report briefly informed about

• last year's membership survey (slide can still be found under materials in the membership section)contained all information about last years events
• changes on SCIA Board
• summary of our 4 events
• Sponsorship

2.     Annual accounts/Auditors

• Year-end report has been approved unanimously
• Discharge of the Board unanimously

3.    Membership fees - no changes

4     Elections: the Board welcomes Sanja Kais as our newest recruit!

5.     Miscellaneous

• Dates for our 4 events in 2011 have been booked (please see details below)
• First event and speaker have alredy been determined, more information on content will follow shortly

About 10% of the SCIA community took the time to reply.

The majority of repondants is happy with format, timing and frequency of the event, but has expressed interest in more interactive formats as well as more case-study oriented discussions and reviews.

The front runner for topics seems to be 'CI Legal & Ethical Guidelines'.

For more information, please go the membership section under 'Resources' and review a full presentation slides for the results detailed by question.

Thanks again for your time and participation! Watch out for the programme announcements, as the board will make an effort to incorporate as many of your ideas as possible for the rest of the year!

At the SCIA General Assembly meeting February 16th, 2010, the SCIA board was orderly dismissed after audit approval and board reviews.

Due to new professional challenges, Jens Thieme has resigned from the Board. The Board thanked him again for his outstanding dedication and contributions. Replacements have been elected.

It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Christian Frey and Monika Giese have accepted the unanimous vote to fill the vacant position at the board for an indefinite term. Please join me in welcoming Christian and Monika as board members to SCIA.

Kurt Kobel
President SCIA - Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association