Surf's up: competitive intelligence guides

Evaluating the technological position and economic health of your competition poses many challenges. Fortunately, the Internet can accelerate all parts of the process. Within moments one can pull up timely news articles from around the world, review contents of company Websites, and have rapid access to all types of supportive information. These include patents, annual reports, financial data, statistical data, trade articles, reports about mergers & acquisitions, consumer blog postings, marketing trackers, price monitors, and advertisements about brand initiatives. The following resources should prove helpful in guiding you through investigation, identification, data collection, analyses, and informed decision-making phases. It should be noted that this column complements and updates in part what appeared in IEEE EMR, 30(4):126-127, 2002.