http://www.aqute.com/competitive-intelligence/ Using exhaustive secondary and primary research, Aqute delivers factual, detailed competitive intelligence. We are rigorous and methodical, and we deliver the best competitive intelligence possible.

1. Competitive intelligence case study - software

2. Fighting the rise of an unfamiliar competitor
• When a leading software provider noticed an unfamiliar competitor from
Mexico pitching against it with growing frequency, they asked Aqute to analyze
what they were up against.
• A global software vendor had recently lost a sales pitch on its US home turf to a
Mexican competitor, previously only known to their own Latin American division. They
also noticed increasing activity from that competitor, and a new office in Spain.
Something was going on, but it was not clear what. How big a threat was this
competitor going to be in the US? And was Europe their springboard to expanding out
of Latin America?

3. Collecting raw information
• Aqute set to work in the US, Mexico and Spain. Our local analysts hit the ground
running to find contacts, inspect physical locations and search official document
filings that were not online.
• During a first phase of secondary research, we created a basic profile of the
competitor: financial information, key clients, sector focus and evidence of
geographical expansion.
• We also swept the internet for any evidence of interactions between the competitor
and its ecosystem: most obviously social media trails, but also case studies,
presentations and contract templates. Aqute trawled through the LinkedIn profiles of
500+ employees for clues, including data about the size of client contracts and sales
teams.
• Finally, Aqute implemented a wave of primary research to track down some of the
competitor’s customers and interview them about why they had made that choice.

4. Quantifying the threat
• Based on meticulous analysis of specific data, Aqute delivered a comprehensive
review of the threat from this competitor:
– How serious a competitor was this? A leader in their home market, but with weaknesses that
made them unlikely contenders on the global stage.
– Were they planning formally to enter the US market? No, but they did plan further speculative
forays.
– Were they planning formally to enter the European market? Yes, as a first step from regional
to global vendor.
• We told our client who would lead the global expansion, when it would happen and
how much investment was behind it.

5. Neutralizing a competitor
• Competitive intelligence allowed our client to neutralize their competitor. We
produced a battlecard explaining why the competitor would be a bad choice for US
buyers. Our client launched a counter-strategy in Mexico to distract the competitor
from US expansion. And in Europe, they opened their own Spain office to counter
any marketing benefit that the competitor might have when they launched shortly
afterwards.
• In short, we helped our client defeat this competitor.

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