Collective SME approach to technology watch and competitive intelligence: The role of intermediate centers

It has been demonstrated that Technology Watch (TW) and Competitive Intelligence (CI) are important tools for the development of R&D activities and the enhancement of competitiveness in enterprises. TW activities are able to detect opportunities and threats at an early stage and facilitate the information in to decide and carry out the appropriate strategies. The base of TW is the process of search, recovery, storage and treatment of information. The development of Text Mining solutions open a new scenario for the development of TW activities. Up to now the enterprises and organizations using Text Mining techniques in their TW and information management activities are a small minority. Only a few large industrial groups have integrated Text Mining solutions in their structure in order to build up their information management systems and develop TW and CI activities. The situation concerning smaller companies (specially SMEs) is obviously worse in which respect to the application of Text Mining techniques. This paper focus in the possible ways to introduce Text Mining solutions into SMEs, describing methodological and operative solutions that could bring them ways of profiting Text Mining advantages in their TW and CI activities without charging them the high costs of individual Text Mining solutions. The model presented will be centered in the collective use of advanced Data Mining and Text Mining techniques in SMEs through industrial and R&D Intermediate Centers.