Which Competitive Intelligence Productivity Tools do we Use?

by Octopus Intelligence Octopus Competitive Intelligence

Today we ask Octopus’s Graeme Dixon which Competitive Intelligence productivity tools do we use. All are not specifically Competitive Intelligence related, and everyone can use them.

Evernote

Maybe it’s how my mind works, but this tool has everything. Notes, pics, silly ideas, projects, articles, web clippings all go into it. I also add most documents into Evernote. So everything is in one place and their in document search capability is excellent. £4 a month if you want to upgrade is a steal. Having 22,500 plus notes on Evernote they need to be organised. So I file my notes into the following notebooks:

Evernote Notebooks

@inbox. – @ in front, so the notebook is at the top of the list. Here I put every incoming note—a note from an email, a web clipping or direct. When I have time, I then sort the messages into other notebooks.

1. Regular bits. – Numbered, so they follow in order. This is where I put the notes I use all the time. The information we are constantly copying and pasting, CRM codes and raw notes. Raw notes is a single note where I put my ramblings and draft stuff for the week. End of the week, I make a new one, and the old one is saved elsewhere.

2. Crazy ideas and thoughts. – Where I put my ideas that come out of my head or something interesting seen on the web. Daft and interesting pictures and info graphs etc.

4. Marketing tools and words. – A place to place notes associated with our marketing and copy.

5. Receipts and stuff. – Where to put all the outgoing receipts and invoices.

6. Intelligence project stack. – These are a group of notebooks dedicated to projects. Each project is given a codeword, so our client’s name is never revealed.

7. Personal. – Where all the personal notes, emails, and general stuff goes.

8. Business Admin. – A notebook where everything about the business goes.

9. Checklists. – A set of notes on which our project, quality control and other checklists go.

10. Proposal, terms, agreements and NDAs. – Where all business development and legal agreements sit.

11. OSINT. – A set of notebooks broken down into the different aspects of OSINT.

12. Competitor Analysis playbook. – Where the draft words go for our Competitor Analysis workbook. A book that’s being written as a tool that anyone can use on a day-to-day basis. SME and Mid Market focused.

I have got to the point where I don’t use Microsoft Word or the Mac Pages at all. I either write my documents in Evernote or use the white space provided by Grammarly.

Grammarly

Because you don’t need to worry about speling and grammer when the words are coming out of your head and you don’t have time for full stops and you have a habit of finishing a sentence with a preposition at the end of a sentence at. It’s good but not perfect.