Link Analysis

y as an
analytical tool for CI

Avner Barnea
CI Strategic Consultant, Israel
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 1
I. Makov, President & CEO of Teva
Pharmaceutical, on CI and analysis:
“We are not involved in economic espionage.
We never use dirty y tricks. This is a brain
war. There is a lot of Open Source
Intelligence and you have to know how
analysis
l and use it for your benefits.
We are receiving information all the
time
i f
from various
i resources. WeW spend d
a lot of time in assessments of the
competitors
tit and
d their
th i future
f t steps”.
t ”
[September 2005]
Israeli pharma company leading
in generic drugs. Sales: $ 5.5 b.
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea Net income: $1.1 b. [2005] 2
 Special challenges in managing
Link Analysis for CI
1. Huge amounts of information from multiply sources.
2. Direct access to analysts through teamwork system.
3. Build a comprehensive picture of complicated issues.
4. Identifying and building linkage between various
pieces of information.
information
5. Advanced retrieval with links.
6
6. Visual modeling of the contents.
contents
7. Use of intelligence inference mechanisms to enhance
the q
quality
y of analysis.
y
8. Additional Access to internal sources.
9. Quick preparation of quality intelligence report.
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 3
 Quantities of information vs.
vs
the need for quality of analysis
Level of
Quality
Confidence

Quality

Conclusion
The confidence of the analyst is higher
than the actual quality of the analysis

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea

Quantity 4
 Link Analysis – definition and
more….
z Link Analysis is the process of building up networks of
interconnected objects of information through various
relationships,
p in order to discover patterns
p and trends.
z The main task of Link Analysis is to find out, and link
together information from various sources, and to
adequately represent relationships and estimate the
relevance of this information.
z Link Analysis is a major solution in analysis and extract
relevant relationships of information gathered and
convert it into intelligence.
z It us based
b d on our conclusions
l that
h learning
l occurs
through assessment rather than description.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 5

Link Analysis – definition and
more….
Link Analysis has been developed over the past
15-20 years in various fields, including
M th
Mathematics,
ti s SSocial
i lS
Sciences,
i s anddCComputer-
t
Science. Recently this area has attracted a wider
attention for its applicability in law enforcement
and intelligence investigations [e.g., international
terrorism, illegal money flows], fraud detection
[e.g., b
banking,
k insurance], WWW analysisl [e.g.,
search engines, marketing], telecommunications
[e g routers,
[e.g., routers traffic,
traffic connectivity],
connectivity] and
Competitive Intelligence [CI].

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 6

 Intelligence
ll navigator
z Intelligence main issues that the CI team
identified and decided to address.
z Within each hffolder,
ld CI tteam
mmmember
mb can n open
p n
binders, for example – for competitors, for
KIT’s [ Keyy Intelligence
g Topics]
p ] – KIQ’s
Q [ Key y
Intelligence Questions-specific information
requests] - and needs that will assist in the
intelligence creation process and other issues of
interest[ products, technology, alliances,
business strategy, marketing etc.]
z The data collected will be placed later manually
or automatically in the relevant context, using
context maps.
maps
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 7
 Context Maps
z Context maps lie in the heart of Link Analysis and
are directly related to theories of how we think and
learn Using context maps is an important part of the
learn.
cognitive process of the intelligence creation.
z Associative theories see the cognitive
g structure as
groups and concepts and overlapping associations
among them. Context maps enable the analyst to link
new information to existing knowledge.
knowledge
z Displaying intelligence structures in visual active
mapping
m pp g completes
mp the capabilities
p to communicate
mm
knowledge and enhance the ability to infer additional
insights.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 8

 Context Map cont
cont.

z Basic assumptions:
1. CI team members
b view
i b
broad
d picture
i through
h h multi-
l i
dimensional context maps.
2. These Maps consist unlimited amounts of information
resources and d li
links,
k enablebl view
i iinformation,
f ti searching,
hi
editing, etc.
3. Maps are related by using Link Analysis to view context links.
It is dynamic and enable more maps in accordance to the
needs.
4. Possibility of identifying information gaps.
5. B viewing
By i i contextt t map th the CI analyst
l t visually
i ll presented
t d with
ith
information that allows him differentiate and forming mental
model of information.
6. Th visual
The is l output
t t of f Link
Li k A
Analysis
l i facilitates
f ilit t s better
b tt
understanding of the hidden structure of investigating data,
and helps quickly to isolate interesting patterns for additional
investigation
investigation.
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 9
 The Intelligence Cycle
• Browse
• Crawl & search Collection • Index
• Harvest
& Search • Link analysis
Processing • Alert

• Tasking
• KIT
KIT’S
S
Planning
Pl i &
Direction Repository Summarize- final
product

Analysis
& Production
• Report
• Alert
• Share
dissemination
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 10
 Planning & Direction – Defining
Intelligence Needs
z The identification of intelligence needs is
p y of the CI team together
the responsibility g
with other levels in the firm. There is a
great need to be able to input KIT’s and
KIQ’s into the
h system to understand theirh
context in an easy manageable way and to
f ll
follow the
h CI work k for
f theh planning
l i and d
guidance process of the CI activities.
z On later stage, response to KIT’s and
KIQ’s will be tested.
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 11
 Gathering Information and
Storage
z Receiving unprocessed information from wide variety of
sources – internal and external [ all kinds of digital materials],
secondary y and primary,
p y including
g high
g level integration
g with
desktop tools – Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Acrobat
etc.
z The information is managed
g in two forms:
1. Indexed automatically and immediately in the built-in
repository. This enable the text to be available for free text
search engine and also to search trough key
key- words and other
categories.
2. Information kept in context maps that are linked, helping to
identify immediately relevant issues and if and how they are
related. Most of it done through internal automatic
recognition system.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 12

 Processing - Initial Analysis
z All materials reached are classified through a
process of initial analysis.
z What is done?
1.. Completely irrelevant
rrelevant and not worthy of storage
for future use - ignored
2. Kept in databases which are integrated into the
system automatically.
3
3. The process by which the CI team decides how
to classify the information to best utilize in the
CI creation pprocess.
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 13
Processing - Initial Analysis cont
cont.

4
4. Pieces of information kept in visual context maps within
particular contexts while the entities and the maps are
linked. The links are established by CI team manually or
automatically and be used later for the analysis mechanisms.
mechanisms
5. The analyst would like to receive more than one activity
connected to a particular KIT and easily to communicate the
content to any address.
dd M
Members
b off the
h CI team are ini
need to produce a report that will show the KIT's and their
relation to the movement towards completion and the data
that
h have
h acquiredd so far.
f
6. Much academic research has shown the knowledge creation
is most effectivelyy accomplished
p as a social process
p –
interaction between people.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 14

 Analysis and production
z The effectiveness of the CI team is measured by
its ability to create meaningful intelligence from
the information gathered/received.
z The need is that the information will be
integrated and create inference in an analytical
process similar to human cognitive capabilities
which
h h willll upgrade
d it into applicable
l bl intelligence.
ll
Link Analysis designed as a tool to promote and
f ilit t th
facilitate the process
ss of
fbbuilding
ildi analytical
l ti l
models.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 15

 Analysis and production cont.

z Improving Analysis process by:

1. Building the overall context of each item by
combining all the resources linked to the chosen
item from all contexts.
2. Different CI members use the same information
for analysis while doing their analysis
independently in the initial stage.
3. Link Analysis
An l i provides
p id s an n automatic
t m ti mmechanism
h nism
which determine if two resources are linked.
And if so- builds a new context map p which
contains the resources relevant to this query
and explains the path of connectivity.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 16

 Analysis and production cont
cont.

4. Multi-Contextual Analysis
y - The
analyst
y can define which entities are
relevant for the analysis and which is the focus of his interest,
and automatically build one overall context map picture
containing the relevant information and reveals direct and
indirect
d h
hidden
dd relationships
l h b
between entities in the
h
competitive arena.
5. Connectivity y test - Finding
g connections between entities based
on similarities in characteristics. The result is a context map
with linked resources on basis of similarities even if the
relationship is indirect. These links did not previously exist and
were traced d only
l as a result
l of
f running the
h system for
f theh
analysis process.
6. Search capabilities,
p either through
g free text and / or key y wards
lead the user to the relevant map to view an overall picture for
further analysis.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 17

Analysis and production cont

7. Text Analysis - Information kept in context maps gives

the CI personnel the ability to highlight passages for
analyzing texts
texts. The advantage is the ability to link
particular subject and the text relevant and present
them for further analysis.
8. To sum-up - a capability that will enable to build up
the context of one item in combine with other relevant
resources
s u s and
nd contexts
nt xts has
h s prominent
p min nt contribution
nt ibuti n tto
comprehend the “big picture”. This is required when
there are many y contexts in various places
p and the link is
unlikable to be discovered unless the CI team member
activates the special automatic retrieval tool.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 18

 Reporting and Dissemination
z The CI team selects the relevant information that has been
already organized in multi-dimensional context maps.
z It is preferred that the information will be organized sequentially
by the CI.
z After the sequence was defined and the content was finally
edited the intelligence report is ready for dissemination in a
edited,
coherent and convincing manner to corporate decision-makers-
the intelligence customer- through the usual formats [Word
Doc.,Html, the internal portal, EE-mail]
mail] .
z There is another possibility – to export the relevant contexts
maps to internal customers [ mainly to decision-makers]. Usually it
is done as a result of special request.
request

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 19

 Evaluation and feedback
z A critical part of any intelligence process
is the ability to learn from experience by
reflecting on successes and failures.
z This can be done through building context
maps and later defined queries - planed
completion
l ti d date
t versus actual
t l complete
l t
date, evaluation of effectiveness of
strategies,
i planning
l i andd execution,
i etc,.

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 20

 Using
g Advanced tools – where are
you positioned?

High

Quality
Use advanced
Of
tools
Intelligence

Use simple tools

Low Use no tools

L
Low L
Level
l of
f Use
U off Advanced
Ad d ttools
l Hi h
High
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 21
 Summary
z Effective CI analysis focuses on overall
competitive landscape together with strong
analytical capabilities and not just on individual
entities, to provide greater value.
z Link analysis
y plays
p y a critical role in turning
g “dead”
d
data into
i valuable
l bl insights.
i i h Al Although
h h the
h strong
support by Link Analysis for a quality insight,
Competitive Intelligence remains a distinctly
human endeavor. Expert CI systems that mimic
the way the human brain processes information
are already making significant contribution are
also changing the attitude of decision-makers as
to the contribution of CI.
Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 22
Accenture study on Dedicated CI
systems

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 23

Thank you
Avner Barnea

avnerpro@netvision net il
avnerpro@netvision.net.il

Link-Analysis as a tool for CI by Barnea 24