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Open Sources & Services Used By a Fortune 500 Sleuth. Mark L. Robinson Senior CI Analyst M o bil Corp. Outline. M o bil Business Intelligence at a Glance For-Fee Online Services Internet Chat Rooms Hard Copy Sources Human Intelligence Third Party Services Conclusions.
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Open Sources & ServicesUsed By a Fortune 500 Sleuth Mark L. Robinson Senior CI Analyst Mobil Corp.
Outline • Mobil Business Intelligence at a Glance • For-Fee Online Services • Internet • Chat Rooms • Hard Copy Sources • Human Intelligence • Third Party Services • Conclusions
Mobil’s CI Operation • CI budget $650,000 • Informal network of 35 employees linked via Intranet and Lotus Notes • Developed culture of sharing information • Use of in-country experts • Weekly briefing reports for senior management by geographical regions
The Internet:Is There a Snoop on Your Site? • What You Get From Working the Web • Use of chat rooms for mentions of a competitor or its products • Price lists • Customer listings • Market research • Executive biographical profiles • Locations of factories and capacities • Technical reports by company scientists
Hard Copy Sources • Trade publications • Oil Express • Oil Daily • Platt’s Oilgram News • Oil & Gas Journal • Tradeshows and conference proceedings • Financial filings with host country governments
Human Intelligence • Customers, suppliers, retailers • Shell test-marketing robotic gas pump • Former employees • Executive speeches • Other CI professionals • Use of Lotus Notes to store rumors, interviews, intelligence, and knowledge
Third Party Services • FIND/SVP • $5,000 yearly retainer • Washington Researchers • Oxford Analytica • conference calls • Burrelle’s news clips and broadcast TV monitoring
Other Services • Translations • prefer in-country employees versus translation companies • academics • Satellite imagery • prefer in-country personnel using digital cameras and email
Conclusions and Take-a-ways • Open source information • here to stay and will proliferate • becoming easier to gather since many firms use a Web interface; no longer need to learn a specific command language • more marketing to business customers and away from professional researchers • becoming cheaper as more firms charge for document printing rather than fees for locating data
THE END Mark_L_Robinson@email.mobil.com Mobil The Energy To Make A Difference