Five signals that outsourcing competitive intelligence makes sense, three that it does not, and what a hire, a platform or a managed brief costs.
Outsourcing competitive intelligence makes sense when a leadership team needs a steady, dated view of competitors, markets, tenders and regulation, nobody owns that work today, and the alternative is a new hire or a software licence someone must run. Keep it in-house when intelligence is your product, depends on confidential inside information, or already has a team.
It means someone outside the company collects and reads the public record on your competitors and markets, and hands your leadership team a finished result. In a mid-sized company that usually takes one of three forms, and they solve different problems.
A research project. A firm answers one question in depth: a market entry, a competitor profile before an acquisition, a pricing study. You get a report, then the work stops.
A platform you run. Software such as Contify, Valona, AlphaSense, Crayon or Klue collects news, filings and web changes into a workspace. The collection is outsourced. Deciding what matters, and writing it up for the leadership team, stays with you.
A managed brief. A provider follows the competitors, markets, tenders and regulation you name, and delivers a short, sourced brief on a fixed rhythm. Collection and the first reading are outsourced. Priorities and decisions stay with you.
Many companies combine them: a project when a big question comes up, a running brief the rest of the time. The decision you are really making is whether the weekly work of watching the market should sit on someone's desk inside the company, or arrive finished.
Outsource when the work matters but has no owner, and the alternative is a hire or a tool someone must run. Keep it inside when intelligence is the product, or when the questions need information that only exists inside your company or your customers.
If three or more of the first five signals apply and none of the last three, outsourcing the weekly work is usually the faster, cheaper route.
A hire costs the most, a platform costs less but still needs someone to run it, and a managed brief has a fixed monthly price. The figures below are public and dated; your own numbers will differ by country and seniority.
The comparison is not like for like. A good internal hire does more than read the market: they build relationships across the business and learn your customers. A platform gives you a searchable archive. A managed brief gives you a finished page. What matters is which of these your leadership team actually needs every week. For a fuller breakdown of price models, see our competitive intelligence pricing comparison, and for the trade-offs between tools and services, competitive intelligence software or a managed service.
Priorities, judgement and field knowledge. A provider brings the public record; your company brings what only it can know.
Ask for standards you can check every week, not promises. A short checklist:
Our standards page shows how we apply these, and what a weekly competitive intelligence brief should include walks through each section of a good edition.
Read a sample, then run it for a month against your own meeting. Ask the provider for a real specimen edition before you sign. Then set the priorities, read four weekly editions, and check three things: whether facts open to a real, dated source; whether something in the brief reached a decision; and whether the leadership meeting now starts with what changed in your markets. If the answer is no after a month, stop. Terms that let you do that are a sign the provider expects to earn the renewal.
Vias Digital is a Zurich provider of market and competitive intelligence for leadership teams of established B2B companies: a weekly, one-page brief on their competitors, markets, tenders and regulation, every fact linked to its source, starting at 2,500 CHF a month, with no platform to run and no one to hire. Your leadership team sets its priorities at a 45-minute kickoff, the first edition arrives within 48 hours, and from then on the Monday meeting can open with what changed and what it means. If most of the outsourcing signals above describe your company, the Market & Competitive Intelligence service is built for that situation.
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Starting at 2,500 CHF a month. A 6-month subscription. Cancel within the first 30 days for a full refund and nothing further owed.
It depends on the form. A managed weekly brief from Vias Digital starts at 2,500 CHF a month, or 25,500 CHF for a 12-month subscription with the 15% discount. Vendr reports a median of USD 30,000 a year for the platforms Klue and Crayon, before anyone is assigned to run them, and a market intelligence manager in Germany earns a median EUR 81,022 a year before employer costs.
Yes, when it works from public sources. The EU Trade Secrets Directive (EU) 2016/943, Article 3(1), names independent discovery and the observation or study of a product made available to the public as lawful ways to acquire even a trade secret. Article 4 treats unauthorised access to another company's documents or files, and any conduct contrary to honest commercial practices, as unlawful.
One named person on the leadership team, usually the executive who owns growth across markets, such as the CSO, CCO or Head of Sales and Marketing. In PE-owned companies the CFO often co-owns it. That person sets priorities, reads first and brings the brief into the leadership meeting.
A good one should. Ask which countries and languages are covered and in which language the edition is written. Vias Digital covers any public source in Europe and the US, and the languages of the sources and of the edition are set per client.
Within days, not months. Vias Digital delivers the first edition within 48 hours of the 45-minute kickoff, then one page a week. Read four editions before you judge it, and check whether your leadership meeting has changed.
A short walkthrough by video, in English (book your time now)
A sample edition for our sector within 48 hours
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You will speak with Raluca Baciu, founder of Vias Digital.
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By Raluca Baciu, Vias Digital. More in our insights and the specimen edition.
Raluca Baciu, Founder, Vias Digital
Raluca Baciu founded Vias Digital in Zurich after about 15 years in European healthtech and B2B communications. She previously ran her own digital agency for about seven years and advises Women in Tech Switzerland on communications and partnerships.
Market & Competitive Intelligence, Competitive intelligence services
You will speak with Raluca Baciu, founder of Vias Digital.