What Is Message Testing?

A complete guide to message testing: why it’s important, when organizations most need it, how to conduct it, real-world case studies, and more.
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What is a Messaging Framework?

A complete guide to messaging frameworks; whether it’s marketing, customer support, internal communication, or public relations, a well-defined messaging framework ensures that all communications are cohesive and reflect a unified voice.
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Our Story

Cascade Insights helps organizations seize opportunities in the B2B tech sector via a variety of market research & marketing services. We take a lot of pride in our specialization. We don’t work outside the B2B tech sector, and we don’t do B2C. Our clients range from enterprise tech giants to startups. Some are traditional technology companies and some are from fields such as finance, healthcare, education, etc. and have a B2B tech sector initiative. As B2B specialists, we’ll never try to tell you that B2B can be approached in the same way as B2C. We spend all day every day in the B2B tech sector. You won’t have to waste time catching us up on the structure and context of your business and its goals. Got a B2B tech sector market research question? We know who to talk to and how to uncover the insight you need. Need an effective marketing strategy for B2B tech sector audiences? We know how to craft messages that stick, content that gets shared, and lead forms that get filled. Our clients range from enterprise tech giants to startups. Some are traditional technology companies and some are from fields such as finance, healthcare, education, etc. and have a B2B tech sector initiative. A Few of our Clients Our Leadership
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What are B2B Buyer Personas?

A complete guide to all things related to buyer personas: when organizations need them, what competitive advantage organizations can gain with them, how different teams can benefit from them, how buyer persona research is conducted, and more.
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brand research

What Is Brand Research

A complete guide to learning all about brand research: why it’s important, how it’s conducted, how it can work for you, and more.
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What Is B2B Thought Leadership?

A complete guide to learning all about thought leadership: the different types of content, how B2B thought leadership differs from B2C, what its benefits are, how to produce it effectively, and who the stakeholders are.
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What is B2B Market Research?

A complete guide to learning about all things B2B market research: how it differs from B2C, how it’s conducted, how it can work for you, and more.
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B2B Studies & Resources

B2B Studies & Resources

B2B Educational Guides Learn the ins and outs of some common types of B2B market research, including buyer personas, brand research, thought leadership, and more. Videos Check out our YouTube channel to explore a wide range of topics within the B2B market research and B2B marketing realm within the tech space.
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Rethinking B2B Sales Podcast Series

Rethinking B2B Sales Series

[av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’huge’ shadow=’no-shadow’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border_diagonal_color=’#333333′ bottom_border_diagonal_direction=” bottom_border_style=” id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=” src=’https://www.cascadeinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Podcast-Series-Header-2.jpg’ attachment=’8063′ attachment_size=’full’ attach=’scroll’ position=’center right’ repeat=’no-repeat’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=” av_element_hidden_in_editor=’0′ custom_class=’color-gradient’] [av_one_half first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=” mobile_display=”] [av_textblock size=’18’ font_color=’custom’ color=’#ffffff’ custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”] Rethinking B2B Sales Sales reps that don’t understand industry context lose deals. Learn what your sales team needs to know to win. [/av_textblock] [/av_one_half][/av_section][av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’default’ shadow=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border_diagonal_color=’#333333′ bottom_border_diagonal_direction=” bottom_border_style=” id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=’#fafafa’ src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” attach=’scroll’ position=’top left’ repeat=’no-repeat’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=” av_element_hidden_in_editor=’0′ custom_class=’soundcloud-row’] [av_codeblock wrapper_element=” wrapper_element_attributes=” custom_class=”] [social_warfare] [/av_codeblock] [av_one_third first min_height=’av-equal-height-column’ vertical_alignment=’av-align-top’ space=” margin=’0px’ margin_sync=’true’ padding=’0px’ padding_sync=’true’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ radius_sync=’true’ background_color=” src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=” mobile_display=” custom_class=”] [av_image src=’https://www.cascadeinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/B2B-Revealed-Podcast-With-Sean-Campbell.png’ attachment=’8050′ attachment_size=’full’ align=’center’ styling=” hover=” link=” target=” caption=” font_size=” appearance=” overlay_opacity=’0.4′ overlay_color=’#000000′ overlay_text_color=’#ffffff’ animation=’no-animation’ custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”][/av_image] [/av_one_third][av_two_third min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=” mobile_display=”] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_two_third] [/av_section] [av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’default’ shadow=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border_diagonal_color=’#333333′ bottom_border_diagonal_direction=” bottom_border_style=” id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=” src=’https://www.cascadeinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Blue-Triangles.png’ attachment=’7551′ attachment_size=’full’ attach=’scroll’ position=’bottom center’ repeat=’repeat-x’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=” av_element_hidden_in_editor=’0′ custom_class=’masonry-custom-dl’] [av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=” mobile_display=”] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”] Podcast Episodes [/av_textblock] [/av_one_full][av_hr class=’invisible’ height=’20’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”] [av_masonry_entries link=’category,301′ sort=’yes’ items=’8′ columns=’4′ paginate=’load_more’ query_orderby=’date’ query_order=’DESC’ size=’fixed’ gap=’large’ overlay_fx=’active’ id=’custom-all-podcasts’ caption_elements=’title excerpt’ caption_styling=’overlay’ caption_display=’always’ color=’custom’ custom_bg=” custom_class=”] [/av_section]
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Voice of the Competitor eBook Download

What makes VOTC (Voice of the Competitor) research different than a typical Win-Loss study? Why is your typical Win-Loss study missing as much as 50% of the insights that you need to grow and find new opportunities? Simply put, the target of the research effort.  By moving the focus from you to the competitive landscape, VOTC helps you understand: If your Dead No Decisions are really a loss to a competitor. Why you weren’t “invited to a deal” that you should have been. Whether you are winning or losing in the first 57% of the modern sales cycle. Whether your partners are the key to your success or your failure. Where competitors have found new opportunity with a product like yours. If you would like to learn a bit more about how we tackle VOTC projects, or even see an example, drop us an email at info@cascadeinsights.com. In the meantime download your own copy of Voice of the Competitor (VOTC) to gain a better understanding of how VOTC research is different.
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Ethics Policy

Every research study focused on the competition or the market generates questions about the identities of respondents, the research firm and clients, and about the study’s purpose. Our perspective on these issues appears below. Identity and Representation Respondent Identity Participants in our research studies are promised a degree of confidentiality. This means our clients cannot contact these participants directly unless the participants have expressly asked for such contact. We never share detailed, personally identifiable information about these interviewees with our clients. Firm Identity Cascade Insights always accurately discloses our firm’s identity during research interviews, business interactions (e.g., conversations at trade shows or networking events), and social media or other online interactions. Client Identity Cascade Insights protects our clients’ desire and right to remain anonymous. Study’s Purpose Cascade Insights conducts both blind and nonblind research studies. Blind research studies may prevent us from fully or even partially disclosing the intent or sponsor of the research study. Because this is a standard research practice with a long history, we see no problem with this approach. However, at times nonblind studies are warranted. Conflict of Interest Cascade Insights proactively communicates when we are not at liberty to discuss certain industry topics or when we cannot meaningfully offer advice in certain areas based confidential client information that is already in our possession. If Cascade Insights refuses to help your organization in certain endeavors or declines to discuss certain topics, please understand that these actions arise from our ethical and professional concern for steadfastly maintaining all our clients’ confidential information. SCIP Code of Ethics In addition to the ethical practices listed here, Cascade Insights adheres to the SCIP Code of Ethics for Competitive Intelligence Professionals. For More Information If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact CEO Sean Campbell at sean@cascadeinsights.com.  
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Read Like An Analyst: Data Dilemmas, Startups & Standouts

Cascade Insights analysts’ version of procrastinating at work is to scour the web for the most important tech industry inquiries, think pieces, trends and predictions. Here is what got them talking around the company Keurig over the last few weeks.
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7 Trade Show Competitive Intelligence Tips: B2B Market Research podcast

Episode #98 of the B2B Market Research Podcast – 7 Trade Show Competitive Intelligence Tips We cover: A few important ratios to keep in mind. What you should check out as soon as you hit the expo hall floor. Well-known trade show CI strategies that aren’t effective and that should be simply be left in the dust bin. Thank you for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed it, please feel free to share it using the social media buttons on this page. We would also be VERY grateful if you could rate, review, or subscribe to the B2B Market Research podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn. Speaker: Sean Campbell – CEO of Cascade Insights [Modified Transcript] In this episode, we’ll be sharing a number of tips that you can use to gather competitive intelligence more effectively when you’re at a conference or trade show. This podcast is brought to you by Cascade Insights. Cascade Insights specializes in competitive intelligence services for B2B technology companies. Our laser-sharp focus means we deliver detailed competitive intelligence insights that generalist firms simply can’t match. You can check out our free resources and sign up for our free monthly newsletter. Today, I want to talk about some tips you can use at your next trade show to conduct more effective competitive intelligence efforts. The first thing that you need to do is some prep work. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you shouldn’t go to a show that you haven’t prepared for, but I would almost say that. You should already have a game plan before you show up. You should know what booths you’re going to visit and what booths you’re not — or at least those booths that are less important. You should also have a good understanding of if you should invest your time in the sessions versus the expo ...
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We will be Hacked: Adjusting to the New Normal for Enterprise Security…

Have we reached the day when CEO’s need to send a company-wide memo with the title “We will be hacked”? In a word, yes. Let us be clear: The implementors and researchers we chat with – those in the enterprise Security Operation Centers (SOCs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) – aren’t advocating giving up. They’re not advocating abandoning a strong security posture that involves lots of expenditure and lots of expertise. What they are advocating is admitting the limits of all the security that money can buy. To date, enterprises have adopted a posture that breaches are flat out unacceptable and heads must roll. Case in point, Target certainly didn’t fire their CEO because the board assumed all along that “it could happen to us.” But let’s face it: If the goal is zero significant breaches, the enterprise has lost. (Source) Defense Array And these hacks are happening despite a bristling arsenal of available defenses. Start with the lowly firewall and less-than-lowly next generation firewalls (NGFW), like Palo Alto Networks or Check Point. After that comes the Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) – somewhat a cousin of NGFWs – like McAfee, (Cisco) Sourcefire, or HP. Then you have the antivirus solutions like Symantec, McAfee, or Kaspersky. The effectiveness of these is hotly debated, but they certainly catch “some” malware. More recently, you have solutions like FireEye that are more behavior based and “detonate” malware in a virtual machine sandbox while watching for suspicious activity (like trying to phone home to North Korea). And then there’s a raft of endpoint detection and response solutions (and response is critical), like Mandiant, CarbonBlack, Guidance Software, RSA, or CrowdStrike. All these often feed data into a SIEM, like QRadar, ArcSight, Splunk (which is more than just a SIEM), LogRhythm, or McAfee, where data can be correlated ...
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10 Truths about the Internet of Things (IoT) for B2B Market Researchers

What are the 10 Essential Truths about Internet of Things (IoT) B2B focused Market Research? How will you market research efforts need to change – when you start to tackle IoT research? In short, this presentation covers 10 key tips that can keep you on track when doing IoT research on B2B companies and ecosystems.
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Quantifying the Internet of Things

Should you believe the hype on the Internet of Things? Can it really be the (NBTE) Next Biggest Thing Ever? Gartner thinks there will be 26 billion “Internet of Things” units by 2020. Not to be outdone, IDC predicts 212 billion “things”. This seems like a big difference between crystal balls, but what’s an order of magnitude discrepancy between competing analyst firms, right? The gold rush has gotten so bad that the esteemed HBR (and I really do like HBR) is slinging puff pieces to make sure they’re “saying something” on the topic. Scoffing aside, only the delusional would put IoT down as a fad. Another interesting dynamic about the Internet of Things is who the players will be. Going back to Gartner, they predict, “50 percent of internet of things solutions will originate in startups that are less than three years old.”, and hiring does seem to be taking off like a rocket: But is Gartner right? When we look at the data we see pretty much the same thing. Looking at the LinkedIn universe (220 million profiles, and counting), we also see a strong skew towards smaller companies: Even with that skew towards small companies, all of whom are clamoring to be the next “Multi Billion Dollar Company That Didn’t Exist Five Years Ago”, the major enterprise IT vendors are making massive investments too. When you take a look at how many people they already have on staff related to IoT, and the job postings to grow the teams even more, the numbers are pretty shocking: Admittedly, this data’s a bit fuzzy. Not everyone who’s working on something related to Internet of Things declares so online. In addition, some companies are putting “Internet of Things” in jobs postings that have nothing to do with the trend. But the ...
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Ahead of the Herd – IoT articles you need to read – December 2015 Edition

What follows is a curated list of Internet of Things (IoT) focused articles. To create this list we first looked for articles with the most LinkedIn shares (thanks BuzzSumo). Then we took that list and threw out all the articles there were merely advertorial, published by vendors, or those, which simply lacked insight. In short, what follows are the articles, published in the last 30 days, that you truly need to read about the Internet of Things. Enjoy! IDC – IoT Predictions for 2015 A solid set of predictions, something we wouldn’t always say about an IDC report, with these few standouts… “Within the next five years, more than 90% of all IoT data will be hosted on service provider platforms” and “Within three years, 50% of IT networks will transition from having excess capacity to handle the additional IoT devices to being network constrained with nearly 10% of sites being overwhelmed.” Link to Article Setting up Standards for the Internet of Things Good discussion of how it took 15 years to develop a data standard for RFID devices. And how things will need to move much faster – when it comes to the development of IoT oriented standards. Link to Article The End of the Hadoop Bubble Given the strong relationship between Hadoop, Big Data, and IoT. This article is a worthwhile read. Key Point: 64% of Hadoop deployments are in proof of concept environments. The key reasons these deployments are “stuck” here – 53% lack of enterprise grade backup and recovery for Hadoop environments, 48% lack of enterprise grade high availability, 45% – concerns about maintaining performance at scale. Link to Article 10 Enterprise Internet of Things Deployments with actual results Companies Involved: BC Hydro, Coca-Cola, Rio – Smart City Implementation, Banco De Cordoba, Lukoil, Dom Perigion, Kenya Pipeline, SK Solutions, Yellow River Conser Link to ...
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When Public Data = Big Data – 3 Tips for Competitive Intelligence Teams: B2B Market Research podcast

Episode 80: – When Does Public Data Equal Big Data – 3 Tips for Competitive Intelligence Professionals We cover: Why “public” data isn’t the same as “Internet data.” How the Internet is like big data with a nice UI How you can get quant from the Internet and aggregate it in an almost “big data,” powerful way. For more free B2B market research and competitive intelligence resources go to our Resources page. Sign up for podcast updates – here Modified transcript: [Sean] Welcome to another episode of The B2B Market Research podcast. In this podcast episode, we’re going to talk about the term ‘public data’. We’re going to talk about why some folks say public data almost with a sneer and other folks seem to say public data with a smile and how you can know when to treat public data one way or the other. Before we get into that, a few brief programming notes. First, Cascade Insights, the firm I co-own, focuses exclusively on the needs of the B2B technology sector when it comes to competitive intelligence efforts. We work with technology marketers, product management teams, strategy teams, and with centralized CI and research teams. With that, let’s go ahead and get into the podcast. What do I mean when I say that some people say public data with a sneer, almost like they’re deriding it, the second the words get out of their mouth and other people seem to say it with a smile on their face? The reason for this is temporal, meaning people who think of public data as it existed in the ’70’s and ’80’s, and even the early ’90’s, I think, tend to think of public data as something that exists in a library, in a dusty stack of magazines, and periodicals, and books. Today, public data is very, very different. ...
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4 Ways to Know if Your Competitive Intelligence Firm Understands B2B Technology

Does the competitive intelligence firm think that sales cycles are measured in minutes and days, or months and years? “Consumer tech” and “impulse buy” are nearly synonymous phrases.  This leads to sales cycles that are merely days, or even minutes long. The B2B technology sector isn’t even remotely similar. Even for areas in which the market is highly commoditized (e.g., CRM/marketing automation), the time line for a purchase decision can take weeks or months as multiple competitors are evaluated. Compare this with the amount of deliberation that goes into the average Super Bowl-week purchase of a flat-screen TV and you’ll see the difference. That’s the definition of “impulse buy” in America. In sum, B2C purchases are measured in days, hours, and minutes. B2B purchases, not so much. Think more about weeks, months, or years. Work with a firm that understands that. Can the competitive intelligence firm talk as much about the “ity’s” —reliability, security, interoperability, and manageability as much as usability? In consumer tech, usability rules, but in B2B tech, the reliability (measured in hundredths or thousandths of a second of downtime), security, manageability, and interoperability of a solution matter just as much. Firms that can truly understand what these things mean in an enterprise or SMB context are the ones that can fully unpack what’s happening in a B2B tech sales, marketing, or product development cycle. What are their thoughts on Best Buy? Software, services, and hardware companies that focus on the B2B technology sector usually attempt to create extensive partner ecosystems. These ecosystems are then set alongside a complex multilayered field sales force and associated marketing effort. In short, B2B technology-focused firms don’t sell much through Best Buy or typical consumer-oriented channels, and hence you won’t hear much discussion of these channels during a B2B-focused research study. In ...
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Ahead of the Herd – Docker articles you need to read this month…

What follows is a curated list of articles focused on Docker. To create this list we threw out all the articles there were merely advertorial, published by vendors, or those which simply lacked insight. What’s left are the articles, published in the last 30 days, about Docker that you need to read. Enjoy! How An Awful, Misspelled Presentation Launched The Most Important Startup You’ve Never Heard Of “In the past few months Dell, HP, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat, VMware and others have all asked to join forces with this 70-employee company.” Docker at Shopify: How we built containers that power over 100,000 online shops “Containers have the potential to do for the datacenter what consoles did for gaming…Docker containers provide the building blocks to make our data centers easier to run and more adaptable by placing applications into self-contained, ready-to-run units much like cartridges did for console games.” Eight Docker Development Patterns Shared Base Container Shared Volume Dev Container Dev Tools Container Test in a Different Environment Container The Build Container The Installation Container The Default Service In-A-Box Container The Infastructure / Glue Container Say Yes to Docker! “If you haven’t heard of Docker I’m going to assume you’ve been living under a rock for the last six months, because it’s pretty much everywhere. My team started exploring Docker to help us with a variety of problems a few months ago and now we’re not looking back. In fact, we’re rapidly adopting Docker as our main deployment architecture for all production deploys. I want to share with you some of the main reasons we like Docker and the problems it’s solving for us.” What is Docker and why use it? “…in Docker, there’s no overhead introduced by the need to emulate an entire OS for the virtual machine…Another important difference is that, with Docker, the ...
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Ahead of the Herd – The Internet of Things (IoT) articles that you need to read this month

What follows is a curated list of articles focused on the Internet of Things (IoT). To create this list we threw out all the articles there were merely advertorial, published by vendors, or those which simply lacked insight. What’s left are the articles, published in the last 30 days (October 20th – November 20th – 2014), about the Internet of Things (IoT) that you need to read. Enjoy!  The Internet of Things will Change your Company, Not Just Your Products One Example: Engineering – It is rare for a single company to have all the required engineering capabilities under one roof. Consider the breadth and scope that may involve communications and connectivity technologies (telemetry, WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee), electrical hardware engineering (sensor technologies, chips, firmware, etc.), and design and user experience. Developing these engineering skills is one big challenge; integrating them into a functional, integrated engineering effort is another. 12 Hurdles Hampering the Internet of Things Basic Infrastructure Immaturity Few Standards Security Immaturity Physical Security Tampering Privacy Pitfalls Data Islands Information but no Insights, Power Consumption and Batteries New Platforms with New Languages and Tools Enterprise Network Incompatibility Device Overload New Communication and Data Architectures A Strategist’s Guide to the Internet of Things  “To deliver these products and services requires a combination of five major types of technological offerings. As you progress up the technology “stack,” the devices become more complex and their connectivity increases.” One lawyer may have just killed part of the Internet of Things “Indeed, as the ‘Internet of Things’ matures, household appliances and physical objects will become more networked. Your ceiling lights, thermostat, and washing machine — even your socks — may be wired to interact online. The FBI will not have to bug your living room; you will do it yourself.” IT Departments ill-equipped for Internet of Things, research finds “Standards are ...
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Ahead of the Herd – Interesting Big Data articles with the most LinkedIn shares

What follows is a curated list of Big Data focused articles. To create this list we first looked for articles with the most LinkedIn shares (thanks BuzzSumo). Then we took that list and threw out all the articles there were merely advertorial, published by vendors, or those which simply lacked insight.  Enjoy! How Formula One Teams are using Big Data to Get the Inside Edge – 469 LinkedIn Shares “Hundreds of sensors provide thousands of data points, from tire pressure to fuel burn efficiency, in real-time that are then analyzed by race engineers onsite. Live race data is also transferred in under a quarter of a second through thousands of miles of fiber optic cables on AT&T’s backbone to another fully staffed operations room at team headquarters in the United Kingdom.” “We’re looking two hours into the future and trying to predict where we’ll finish the race before it starts,” said Al Peasland, head of technical partnerships at Infiniti Red Bull Racing. But things rarely ever stick to plan. Hortonworks Big Data IPO – Where are the Margins? – 348 LinkedIn Shares “Selling support and services is perhaps the most common open source business model, but it’s a difficult way to make money, as margins depend upon how much they can mark up what they pay for their employees’ time – and many users of their platform may not pay them anything. For a vendor who is going public having never turned a profit, therefore, people are predictably concerned that Hortonworks will never be able to achieve the growth necessary to warrant investment.” Data is not an Insight – 156 LinkedIn Shares “Data casts light on a given topic, it informs and educates us, and it can guide our thinking. But data doesn’t do our thinking.” 7 Big Data funding stories you might have missed this year ...
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Interview with Kris Wheaton of Mercyhurst University: B2B Market Research podcast

Episode 79: – Interview with Kris Wheaton, Associate Professor of Intelligence, Mercyhurst University We cover: The skills that exceptional competitive intelligence professionals need to have. His thoughts on crowdsourcing and social network analysis. For more free B2B market research and competitive intelligence resources go to: www.cascadeinsights.com/resources Sign up for podcast updates – here Modified transcript: Sean: Welcome to another episode of the B2B Market Research podcast. In this episode I have with me Kristan Wheaton from Mercyhurst. Kristan: My name’s Kris Wheaton. I’m an associate professor of intelligence studies at Mercyhurst University, and I’ve been here for about 11 years. Before that I was in the army for 20 years in a bunch of intelligence and intelligence-related positions. I’m very happy to be here today. Sean: Thanks for joining us. One thing, just to give you guys some props right out of the gate, as we were having our little pre-chat before this, is that Mercyhurst in a lot of ways is “the” competitive intelligence program. Fundamentally, whether you look at the certification stuff or you look at other programs, you guys are seen as the one that does a really comprehensive job of taking an analyst from step zero and walking them up to the point that they could really be productive when they leave the program. That’s whether we’re talking about the bachelor’s or master’s degree thing. I guess that leads me to, really, my first question, which is, why do you think it’s so hard to create/find these people? Because, to finish off this area, my experience has been when we talk to corporate clients, they really struggle to find good CI people. What’s your thoughts on why it’s so difficult? What are the characteristics that you’re really looking for, and why is it so hard to get it all ...
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The Top 3 Temptations Competitive Intelligence Professionals Face

Every profession has its temptations, and Competitive Intelligence is no exception. What follows are the Top 3 Temptations of CI Pros, along with their potential cures. Providing Caveats, Not Answers Competitive Intelligence Professionals typically live in an ocean of data. As such, it can be relatively trivial to find a single piece of data that might contradict some point you are trying to make. But that doesn’t absolve you of the need to develop answers over caveats. It just makes it harder. The Cure: Limit yourself to no more than two or three caveats per piece of analysis. If you need more than a few caveats, then you’re clearly communicating that you don’t have any confidence in your “findings.” Consequently, decision makers in your company will have even less confidence in your work. Go back and figure out what you “know” with high confidence. Stick to that. Label the rest as educated speculation and see if the decision maker wants to dedicate more resources to researching it to a higher confidence level. Avoiding the Phone As mentioned in the first temptation, Competitive Intelligence professionals have access to a wide range of data sources, including industry databases, social media, industry bloggers, journalists, etc. However, the very breadth and depth of this type of information can keep Competitive Intelligence professionals from using what can be their most important asset – the phone. The Cure: If you’re a corporate practitioner, spend at least one hour each day, and preferably one full day each week, building your network of contacts who can help you answer questions about a competitor’s sales, marketing, and product development efforts. In short, listen to the Voice of the Competitor (VOTC). Thinking Research Is a Goal unto Itself As someone once famously said, “People buy quarter-inch holes, not quarter-inch drill ...
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4 Ways to Crack the Code on Competitor Pricing: B2B Market Research podcast

Episode 76: – 4 Ways to Crack the Code on Competitor Pricing During this podcast we cover a variety of ways Competitive Intelligence, Pricing, and Strategy teams can gain insight on competitor pricing models. This includes: Why you need to go beyond looking for “magic documents” that may describe the competitor’s pricing model. The pro’s and cons of talking to competitor customers and partners. The pro’s and cons of talking to ex-sellers of the competitor. The importance of SCIP’s Code of Ethics in regards to this type of research. For more free competitive intelligence resources go to: www.cascadeinsights.com/resources Sign up for podcast updates – here
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Why CI Teams Should Unite With Market Research: B2B Market Research podcast

Episode 75: – Why CI Teams Should Unite With Market Research During this podcast we cover a variety of reasons why competitive intelligence professionals need to build a bridge between themselves and their company’s market research team. This includes: How you can marry the customer centric view of market research with the outward view of competitive intelligence. Who wins when you build the bridge between market research and competitive intelligence. For more free B2B technology market research and competitive intelligence resources go to: www.cascadeinsights.com/resources Sign up for podcast updates – here
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