Shell Services International, Inc' Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management Convergence

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Shell Services International, Inc. Competitive
Intelligence and Knowledge Management Convergence

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Outline

• Introduction
• Theory
• Practices
• Summary

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CI in Oil Industry in 1950s

• ...Some wells were called tight holes, because
  there was no information available. We would have
  someone who would watch the rival's drilling
  floor from a half-mile away with field glasses.
  Our competitor didn't like it, but there wasn't
  anything they could do about it.
• Our spotters would watch the joints and drill
  pipe. They would count them, each drill joint
  was 30 feet long. By adding up all the joints,
  you would be able to tally the depth of the well.
  At the time, every competitor tried every angle
  to develop information on tight holes.

--T. Boone Pickens, Texas oilman and entrepreneur
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CI History at Shell Services International

• The Shell Services International Group of
  Companies (SSI) was organized on 1 January 1998
  to combine the information technology (IT) and
  business services practices of several Royal
  Dutch/Shell Group companies.
• Today, SSI has in the region of 5,000 staff. Its
  geographical scope is world-wide.
• CI at Shell Services International (SSI) had its
  origin in 1997.
• Main goals of CI.

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• A little about CI Theory

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Underlying Questions

• Why Develop Intelligence Capabilities ?
• Who Needs Them?
• What are the Cultural Issues ?
• What characterizes an effective Intelligence
  Culture?
• What are the sources of CI information?
• What does the Intelligence Analyst Do?

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Why Develop Intelligence Capabilities ?
Companies are finding difficulty in responding to
an accelerating pace of change in globally
competitive markets.

• Strategic Errors and Missed opportunities

• Costly but Ineffective Deployment of Development
  Resources

• Generally late to the market

• Inability of account teams to articulate the
  companys Core Capabilities

• Loss of New Business Deals

• Inability of delivery teams to implement what the
  customer wants

• Loss of existing customers

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The Framework
External
Internal
ASSESSMENT OF OPPORTUNITIES, TRENDS
COMPETITION
ARTICULATION OF CAPABILITIES DIFFERENTIATION
Awareness
GLOBAL PRACTICE POSITIONING
STRATEGY FORMATION
DELIVERY TEAM RESOURCING
ACCOUNT TEAM READINESS ALIGNMENT
Responsiveness
RAPID DECISION MAKING
GAINING MARKET SHARE
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The Value of Business Intelligence
Responsiveness
Rate of Environmental Change
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Who Needs Them ?
In the extended enterprise, knowledge sharing,
creation, and use include people, communities and
content across extended business processes

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What are the Cultural Issues ?

• Dilberts Theory of Money

1) Knowledge is Power (Axiom)
2) Power Work/Time (Law of Physics)
3) Time is Money (Axiom)
TRANSPOSING SUBSTITUTING INTO 2
MONEY WORK KNOWLEDGE
The less you know, the more you make!!
Is Knowledge Power ??
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Intelligence Issues

• User's Issues with Intelligence
• Information is too shallow
• Credibility
• Timeliness
• Focus (Users should not be brought in at the
  last moment)
• Who to send intelligence to - nobody knows how
  to participate
• Make it easy for people to help

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Intelligence Issues

• Producer's Issues with Intelligence
• No clear objectives
• Not enough time to satisfy all the users
• Different needs from multiple users
• Too much information to get through
• No sharing of information
• Organization barriers (who to call, no follow
  up)
• Poor identification of who the customer is
• Lack of feedback
• Low Budgets
• Tough to get on Executive Schedules

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What characterizes an effective Intelligence
Culture?
PROMOTIONAL PLAN FOR CI
DEMAND FOR CI ASSISTANCE
TRAINING
VALUE ADDED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
BUILDING OF TRUST AND CREDIBILITY WITH USERS
NETWORK DEPLOYMENT
Refine Upgrade
MORE, DIFFERENT SOPHISTICATED PRODUCTS
SERVICES
Over time

• DIRECT INTELLIGENCE ROLE IN KEY STRATEGIC
  TACTICAL TEAMS/INTERACTIONS
• HIGH LEVEL OF INFLUENCE IN DECISIONS

Source PRESCOTT, APQC Developing a Successful
Competitive Intelligence Program
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Three Rounds of Refinement
Source PRESCOTT, APQC Developing a Successful
Competitive Intelligence Program
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What are the sources of CI information?

• Financial Reports and Stock Exchange
  Announcements
• Press and News Agencies
• Stockholders News Groups on the Internet
• Official Websites of Companies
• Market Research Companies
• Hiring Ads
• Exhibitions

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What does the Intelligence Analyst Do?

Note The higher value-added activities cannot be
performed credibly without first performing the
lower value-added services.
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• CI Practices at SSI
• How is Business Intelligence Systematized by SSI?

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How is Business Intelligence Systematized ?

• Business Intelligence is the overall umbrella
  that contains several different types of
  intelligence such as
• Market Intelligence
• Partner Intelligence
• Competitor Intelligence
• Technical Intelligence
• Customer/Prospect Intelligence

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1. Competitor Intelligence KnowledgeHouse
Level Set Components in which users can obtain
a working knowledge regarding CI. Users are
highly encouraged to have this basic knowledge
before using other components of the system.
Research Components every piece of
information contained in modules in this row is
originate from secondary research or published
information. Knowledge Management Components -
those sections in which the Core Audience - in
some form - shares its knowledge with other
members of the core Audience.
Competitor Intelligence concerns itself with the
current and proposed activities of competitors.
Contains summaries on the Tier 1, Emerging,
Regional and Niche competitors in the IT Services
marketplace.
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A. CI KnowledgeHouse - Level Set Components

• Knowledge Broker
• Acts as sort of a toolkit for using the CI
  KnowledgeHouse. Features include
• CI Network (Who in SSI has worked for the
  competition)
• CI Yellow Pages (Who in SSI performs
  Competitive Intelligence Activities)
• Best Practices Process in CI
• Electronic Newsstand
• The Competitor Portal
• Links to SEC Edgar and Corporateinformation.com
• Code of Ethics

• The Gloss
• The Glossary contains the everyday-speak of the
  CI Analysts around the company. Definitions
  profiled in this section include
• Competitor Intelligence versus Business
  Intelligence
• Criteria for determining Competitor Tiers (Tier
  One, Emerging, Regional, Niche/Solutions)
• Yellow File

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B. CI KnowledgeHouse - Research Components

• Executive Themes
• This section was created for requests from
  executive leadership teams for general,
  broad-based information encapsulating the market
  and SSI's competitive positioning, which in the
  course of a CI Analyst's normal day-to-day
  activities sometimes come in. Examples of this
  kind of high-level information include
• Competitor General Statistics Matrix (HQ,
  Sales, Employees, CAGR, Major Customers)
• Trending Charts
• Top Competitor Lists
• Mega-Deals Signed in the Industry
• BPO Deals signed in the Industry
• Market Sizing Statistics on a Aggregate Basis

• CI News-to-Go
• Contains all information mailed out to the Core
  Audience via the market alerts newsletter or CI
  News-to-Go. This part of the site represents an
  area where this information is archived each
  week. Competitor News via
• News by Tier One Competitors
• All other Competitors are grouped according to
  SSI Solutions Sets.

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CI KnowledgeHouse - Research Components (Cont.)

• Competitor Profiles
• Details, classifies, and profiles competitors
  into one of three different categories Tier One
  Competitors Emerging Competitors Niche
  Competitors. Each of these competitors are
  examined by the following
• Competitor Overview
• Profiles of Competitor's Oil Gas, Chemical
  and Utilities Practice (with info on their
  Partnerships, Major Customers, and Service
  Offerings by industry practice)
• Description of all Partnerships (not related to
  an industry practice) plotted along the IT Value
  Chain.

• HR Manager
• The HR Manager Section can be an invaluable
  source of information for the HR organization in
  that it sets benchmarks detailing the best HR
  practices and worst HR practices of our
  competition as well as how they attract and
  retain their people. Method of examining the
  competition include
• Organization Chart with executive Biographies
• Corporate Reorganizations
• Layoffs (where and how many times have layoffs
  occurred)
• Recruiting (where are they recruiting and how
  do they attract and retain talent)
• Training (what methods are in place to train
  and develop the workforce)

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CI KnowledgeHouse - Research Components (Cont.)

Yellow File The Yellow File Module features
stories on Shell Groups competition detailing
their inability to deliver solutions to their
customers. Judicious use of Yellow File is
encouraged at all times. Before the Core Audience
begins to use Yellow File on a competitor, it is
encouraged they contact the appropriate CI
Analyst in their region to discuss the most
appropriate way to present this information.

• marcom_at_competitor.com
• contains information on the way our competitors
  communicate to the external marketplace. In this
  module we detail such things as
• WWW Links for the various competitor entities
  (JV's, subsidiaries, geographic branches)
• Press Releases
• Advertising Efforts (Actual advertisement from
  journals as well as relationships with ad
  agencies)
• Annual Reports
• Community Affairs Participated in
• Sales Collateral (such as Brochures and
  Success Stories/Glossies)
• Event and exhibits (where do competitors have
  representation as far as speakers, sponsorships,
  booths, etc.)

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C. CI KnowledgeHouse - Knowledge Management
Components
Pursuit/Deal Tactics This module represents an
approach regarding the strategies and tactics
that SSI's competitors employ in competitive
scenarios. The Tier One competitors are examined
centered in a hypothesis/evidence matrix based on
tactics to gain advantage on a given deal and
tactics to change buying criteria.

• Partner Street
• contains detailed profiles of SSI proposed
  alliance partners and covers such as areas as the
  following
• Scope of the Proposed Alliance
• The Discussion Progress between SSI and the
  Proposed Partner
• Organization Chart of key people that is SSI
  is dealing with at the Proposed Partner
• Shell-based business of the Proposed Partner
• Energy-based business of the Proposed Partner
• Competing Partnerships
• Major Contracts/Pursuits that involve the
  proposed partner with other companies

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CI KnowledgeHouse - Knowledge Management
Components (Cont.)

Private Discussions Most successful KM
enterprises emphasize and encourage collaboration
above competition, innovation and reuse above
productivity and financial savings. This
module, in its discussion web format, features
information from the core audience in the field.
For most companies, valuable competitive
information is spread across various departments
and branches. The Private Discussions represents
a place in the CI KnowledgeHouse for users to
send Information pertaining to competitor issues
they are hearing about from the front lines.
The IT Landscape seeks to profile all of the
competitors that have business at Shell locations
around the world. It takes a holistic view at the
Royal Dutch Group of Companies by Operating
Company (OpCo) and discusses the projects that
the competition is performing at the specific
OpCo. Also, as SSI takes a more external focus in
the marketplace, the system profiles companies
external to Shell and the competition at those
prospects. To make it truly valuable, it needs to
have input from the account teams detailing the
competition existent at prospective customers.
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CI KnowledgeHouse - Knowledge Management
Components (Cont.)

• Benchmarking
• examines benchmarking from several different
  perspectives. It features Benchmarking of
  competitor and industry information around four
  key areas
• Pricing Points (mapped to G2R's IT Value Chain)
• Customer Satisfaction (Quality measures,
  Service Level Agreements)
• Human Resource Capabilities by specific
  technology area
• Macro Level Industry Measures (i.e. what the
  typical Oil/Gas IT department looks like based on
  expenditures)

• 3rd Party Research
• details the vendors that provide specialty
  information on the IT Marketplace. Often, these
  analysts have access to the inside workings of
  SSI competitors or, in the case of companies such
  as TPI, may actually influence prospects in the
  decision-making process. Analysts featured in
  this section include
• IDC
• Gartner Group (includes Dataquest and G2R)
• Meta Group
• Forrester Group

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CI KnowledgeHouse - Knowledge Management
Components (Cont.)

• Conferences Events
• details many of the conferences that are being
  sponsored in the marketplace that might possibly
  interest users in the Core Audience. These
  conferences represent a great place for making
  contacts and learning new ideas. When assembling
  this list of information, we went to many of the
  IT Analysts and looked at the conferences they
  were sponsoring. Other items in this section
  include
• Conference review by employees who attended a
  conference
• What to look for at a specific conference
  (I.e. How many people attended? Would it be
  beneficial for SSI to have a booth? Would it be
  beneficial for SSI to have speakers at the
  conference? Is this something SSI would like to
  help sponsor?)

RequestNet An archived library of all projects
worked on by the CI group, this module features
all ad hoc projects that were requested from
personnel in SSI. Not only is it an excellent
tool for tracking which projects the Competitive
Analysis function performs for SSI, but sometimes
it also provides a source for re-usable
information for new projects undertaken at SSI.
Besides the actual research compiled, the person
who requested the project and the date they
requested
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2. Customer/Prospect Intelligence KnowledgeHouse

• Customer/Prospect Intelligence covers areas such
  as relationship issues with current and
  prospective customers. Typical modules include
• Industry Benchmarking\Listing
• Customer Listings
• Targeted Accounts
• Trends and Statistics
• Business Plans
• Events Calendar
• SSI Offerings
• Industry News
• Success Stories and Prospect Analysis
• WWW Links
• Partner Street.

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3. Market Intelligence KnowledgeHouse
Market Intelligence focuses on broader market
issues from a macro perspective. Typically, one
would examine vertical industry groupings or
examine the countries/trade organizations and the
social, political, economic and environmental
issues that affect them. Also, contains trends
that third-party research organizations (e.g.
Gartner, Yankee, Meta, etc.) see occurring in the
industry.

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4. Technical Intelligence KnowledgeHouse

Technical Intelligence focuses on internal
competencies ability to rapidly identify and
assemble knowledge and expertise, to collaborate,
innovate and add insight, and to apply knowledge
to problems and opportunities.
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5. Partner Intelligence KnowledgeHouse

• Partner Intelligence contains detailed profiles
  of SSI proposed alliance partners and covers such
  as areas as the following
• Scope of the Proposed Alliance
• The Discussion Progress between SSI and the
  Proposed Partner
• Organization Chart of key people that is SSI
  is dealing with at the Proposed Partner
• Shell-based business of the Proposed Partner
• Energy-based business of the Proposed Partner
• Competing Partnerships
• Major Contracts/Pursuits that involve the
  proposed partner with other companies

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• Summary

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Advices to go

• Dont look for an elegant plan.
• Loads of work
• Is it useful?
• Critical success factors
• Who are your top ten customers.
• Do the smart thing, not the right thing.
• Knowledge Management is an approach.
• Gaining Trust.

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Bibliography

• 1. SSI Marketing Communication. Competitive
  Intelligence and KM Convergence at Shell Services
  International, Inc. http//www.apqc.org/PresFiles/
  Tait-ShellPresentation/
• 2. Factiva-CI Center. CEO Interview with T. Boone
  Pickens. http//www.factiva.com/cicenter/interview
  s/pickensinterview.asp?nodesub1