Improving competitive intelligence gathering for knowledge management systems

Noting that Knowledge Management overlays the entire Intelligence Cycle from planning to reporting, the authors propose anew concept to fine tune the process of electronically gathering information. Since most tools are nondiscriminatory in information gathering, a new concept is needed to assist managers at all levels of the organization. The proposed multi-class interest profile (M-CLIP) provides the capability of expanding the representation of interests to reflect the assorted areas that make up a manager's information needs. The M-CLIP covers Project, Organizational, and Industry class interest areas. Each area is customizable to make the search pertinent to the user while considering the need for both recall and precision. The paper concludes with a discussion of practical applications. Illustrations of the type of information that interest various users are also included.