One of my first clients at MyST Technology Partners was a BI (business intelligence) customer but I didn’t even know it. The client was asking for information about its competitors, their news, announcements, and web presence. The client specifically wanted to know when new sales opportunities could be gleaned from search queries.

Net Intelligence is Business Intelligence Gleaned from the Real-Time Web

Almost ten years ago I referred to this [emerging] requirement as net intelligence, the systematic process of gathering data at the edge of the organization. Artifacts and knowledge that swarmed around, but not in, the enterprise. As important as social networking and social media (i.e., Web 2.0) have become, you’d think that this slice of business intelligence would have become more institutionalized with managers.

While there’s little evidence that businesses have embraced net intelligence, the demand for information circling at the edge is large and growing. The dividends for institutionalizing data about competitive influence and customer sentiment, are significant to any organization that bothers to listen and . Social monitoring services such as Trendistic, Radian6, and ScoutLabs are indications of emerging demand.

Many companies have yet to embrace Web 2.0 and become active participants in the conversational web. Jason Schubring (Six Revisions) writes,

“Even if you or your clients have decided not to actively participate in social media, it’s really not a choice. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does social media. Either you can fill the vacuum with your perspective, or your customers and competitors will fill it for you. The choice is clear.”

Jason accurately points out that your brand equity is being shaped with or without your input. Regardless of your social participation strategy, you should be intently listening to what’s being said about your industry, competitors, and your own products.

Mobile BI is Hot

iPad has proven to be a significant tool that is shaping a new resurgence in BI. Companies such as Microstrategy, QlikTech, and RoamBI are leading the way with iPad apps optimized for presentation of complex business information. But these products are largely dependent upon existing enterprise intelligence data sources and tend to focus on objective and quantifiable data from sales, manufacturing, and operations. Furthermore, traditional ERP solutions may struggle to provide the type of information necessary to assist employees in the new reality of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0.

According to a 2010 IDC survey of midsize and large businesses, 25-75 percent of enterprise licenses are paid for but unused. When a CMO needs to better understand how customers feel about a new product, the latest sales data flowing from their ERP system is just one element of a complex puzzle and is rarely available in a timely (read “instant”) manner.

Other evidence that traditional BI solutions are inadequate can be found in a recent study by Ventana Research, “Business Intelligence and Performance Management for the 21st Century”.

“Despite major investments in technology, many business users still rely on spreadsheets, presentations and e-mail as their tools for information and analysis, despite the fact that they are not designed to manage or improve organizational performance and can impede collaboration.”

The majority of social media information is not objective – it’s subjective and difficult to quantify. The nature of this information is one reason net intelligence has been difficult for businesses to institutionalize and bake into their BI processes. And while iPad can’t change the topology of social data, it can streamline access while also helping managers focus on key metrics such as trending stories and customer sentiment.

Imagine a simple database application containing your competitors, partners, and key media sources delivered to iPad through a continually updated and always-on access to real-time social content and data. This is possible today at a miniscule fraction of the cost of a traditional BI implementation. The screenshot below is from a simple database app I designed in Filemaker Pro and delivered to the client with FileMaker Go, an iPad app that magically transforms the database application into a very functional database app.

Gather Intelligence Through Better Listening

To be effective in social media, your company must make it a point to listen as much (if not more) to market conversations about your industry, your competitors, and your target audience. This is an often-missed aspect of social media marketing that is difficult to organize and implement. Developing a comprehensive approach is simple …

Publish > Subscribe > Engage

This is the flow of social marketing and it’s important to mention that you can enter this process at any point and gether valuable data.

Chances are your company is publishing plenty of information into social networks, the blogosphere, and other syndication channels. But when I perform in-depth interviews with clients, I discover very little effort is being applied in the subscribe and engage tasks. In concert with your outbound social media marketing strategy, businesses must expand their strategies to include a definitive listening and engagement strategy. Here are three tips to help your company get started:

1. Spend a little less time publishing new content; redirect these resources into a listening and engagement activity.
2. Define specific listening objectives such as having a few communicative staffers searching Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook for mentions of your competitors.
3. When opportunities are found, engage in conversations such as tweets and comments where your products and services can shine.
4. Institutionalize your social listening by establishing unified access to net intelligence through a database application.

A well-crafted net intelligence strategy can provide significant added social networking performance. Delivery of this information to iPad enhances the experience and meets the requirements of the new realities of the real-time Web and business intelligence.