In absence of a definition of its information needs, the organization may not be able to deploy its resources effectively. To avoid such a scenario an organization may conduct a CI audit which is effectively a review of its current operations to determine what is actually known about the competitors and their operations. The CI audit helps in pinpointing the organization's CI needs. When the organization has some knowledge about its competitors and its own CI needs, it proceeds to the stage of gathering CI data. Based upon the CI needs, relevant data can be gathered from the organization's own sales force, customers, industry periodicals, competitor's promotional materials, own marketing research staff, analysis of competitor's products, competitor's annual reports, trade shows and distributors.
Raw data is evaluated and analyzed for accuracy and reliability.
Every attempt is made to eliminate false confirmations and disinformation, and to check for omissions and anomalies. Omission, which is the seeming lack of cause for a business decision, raises a question to be answered by a plausible response. While the conclusions one draws from the data must be based on that data, one should never be reluctant to test, modify, and even reject one's basic working hypotheses. Data that lacks accuracy and reliability may be marginally correct data, concoction of very good data, bad data, or even disinformation. All data is produced or released for some certain purpose.