Comments on: Tracking The Competition, Socially http://oracleappslab.com/2008/04/15/tracking-the-competition-socially/ Driving Oracle Innovation Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:36:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Andrew Holt http://oracleappslab.com/2008/04/15/tracking-the-competition-socially/#comment-3697 Andrew Holt Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:26:10 +0000 http://oracleappslab.com/?p=797#comment-3697 Thanks for the mention and the kind wishes, Paul. It's interesting that you bring up the applicability of RivalMap at various types of companies. We built RivalMap because the competitive knowledge function at most companies seemed like a very under-served area, which was surprising given how important this data can be. The data isn't relevant to everyone at a company, but sales, marketing, product managers, and executives can derive a lot of value from having a single clearinghouse for any new information on their competition. RivalMap is intended as an information hub for competitive data. It's not healthy for a company to focus intensely on the competition, but it's definitely helpful when making strategic decisions to know everything you can about competitors, from sales' discoveries in the field to a product manager's analysis of a competing product's feature. We've found from current customers, which range all over in terms of size and industry, that RivalMap works well in both companies with a defined market intelligence team, and companies that have nothing defined at all. Essentially, we're replacing email and ad-hoc documents for a particular function, which adds a lot of value and breaks out from other information areas very well. There is always an adoption challenge with any new system, but we're working to go beyond the email integration and bookmarklet we have now to make it even simpler for users to contribute. We'll also be adding an often-requested news feature shortly to the service, which will collate news items about a company's competitors and industry, cutting down on information overload and making it easier to have peace-of-mind that you're on top of the competition. We're focusing on competitive information now, but have plans to expand into broader information sets in the future. If you'd like a full account to play with, let me know! Andrew Holt Co-founder RivalSoft Inc. Thanks for the mention and the kind wishes, Paul. It’s interesting that you bring up the applicability of RivalMap at various types of companies. We built RivalMap because the competitive knowledge function at most companies seemed like a very under-served area, which was surprising given how important this data can be. The data isn’t relevant to everyone at a company, but sales, marketing, product managers, and executives can derive a lot of value from having a single clearinghouse for any new information on their competition.

RivalMap is intended as an information hub for competitive data. It’s not healthy for a company to focus intensely on the competition, but it’s definitely helpful when making strategic decisions to know everything you can about competitors, from sales’ discoveries in the field to a product manager’s analysis of a competing product’s feature. We’ve found from current customers, which range all over in terms of size and industry, that RivalMap works well in both companies with a defined market intelligence team, and companies that have nothing defined at all. Essentially, we’re replacing email and ad-hoc documents for a particular function, which adds a lot of value and breaks out from other information areas very well. There is always an adoption challenge with any new system, but we’re working to go beyond the email integration and bookmarklet we have now to make it even simpler for users to contribute.

We’ll also be adding an often-requested news feature shortly to the service, which will collate news items about a company’s competitors and industry, cutting down on information overload and making it easier to have peace-of-mind that you’re on top of the competition. We’re focusing on competitive information now, but have plans to expand into broader information sets in the future.

If you’d like a full account to play with, let me know!

Andrew Holt
Co-founder
RivalSoft Inc.

]]> By: mrontemp: Technology Stove Top, 17 April 2008 http://oracleappslab.com/2008/04/15/tracking-the-competition-socially/#comment-3695 mrontemp: Technology Stove Top, 17 April 2008 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:23:59 +0000 http://oracleappslab.com/?p=797#comment-3695 <!--%kramer-ref-pre%-->[...] I do these "stove tops" in the future, I should try to keep to just one major topic. Or not.Anyway, Paul Pedrazzi of Oracle AppsLab blogged about RivalMap a couple of days ago. Granted, companies with a "not invented here" syndrome may not want to trust their data to [...]<!--%kramer-ref-post%--> [...] I do these “stove tops” in the future, I should try to keep to just one major topic. Or not.Anyway, Paul Pedrazzi of Oracle AppsLab blogged about RivalMap a couple of days ago. Granted, companies with a “not invented here” syndrome may not want to trust their data to [...]

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