Strategic Planning Software:
Business Insight - Strategic Plan Evaluator

1. Overview

Business Insight is an expert system for assessing and developing marketing and product/service strategies for larger businesses. By combining responses to questions with its built-in rules, it generates numerous conclusions about your business's strategies etc. These give unique insights into the complex relationships between hundreds of business concepts and enable strategies to be reviewed, modified and enhanced before implementation.

Business Insight includes separate knowledge bases for product- and service-based enterprises. Its assessments can be exported to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint as well as to the PDF format and the Internet. Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win7 is required.

Other relevant software solutions include:

• Quick Insight is a scaled-back version of Business Insight for assessing marketing ideas and strategies for new and smaller businesses.
• Plan Write Expert Business Planner incorporates a expert system based on Quick Insight for assessing marketing ideas and strategies in addition to tools for compiling a comprehensive business plan.
• Plan Write for Sales contains facilities for writing a marketing plan as well as an expert system (based on Quick Insight) to help assess and formulate marketing strategies and sales tactics.

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2. Benefit from Expert Help

Business Insight has been taught the principles of business strategy based upon the published works of dozens of experts and it applies this expertise to your market. Your dialog with Business Insight is equivalent to an in-depth engagement with an expert in strategic planning. You describe your business and the expert system applies its specialized knowledge to the unique circumstances of your market. Every recommendation from the expert can be justified by tracing the supporting rationale.

Business Insight questions your assumptions and validates or challenges your thinking in considerable detail by:

• offering observations on inconsistencies in your strategy or assumptions
• rating key functions that are critical to your enterprise
• suggesting the strongest and weakest aspects of your strategy
• presenting a no holds barred constructive criticism of your strategy
• assessing and chart your market position
• suggesting ways to improve your potential for success
• warning about factors that could cause problems
• comparing alternative strategies for strengths and weaknesses
• discovering opportunities in your market and anticipate competitive threats
• scoring of your potential for success
• providing written analysis of your strategy.

By using Business Insight, you make better decisions which reduce costs or improve revenues, or do both.

Here is a selection of major organizations that have benefited from the Plan Write and Insight expert planning software.

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3. Features of Business Insight

Key features and elements of Business Insight include:

• Business Insight starts work by asking questions on issues related to growth and operations of your business covering:

• Your answers are matched against a knowledge base of proven business strategies to evaluate hundreds of marketing and business concepts as they relate to your unique circumstances. Business Insight then uses information about your company to create a unique model of your industry based on:
  
  
  • Michael Porter's Competitive Five Forces
  • GE Business Strategy Matrix
  • Boston Consulting Group Matrix
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Product Life Cycle Analysis
  • Pricing Strategy
    ... and dozens of other models.

This modeling results in a set of analyses. These provide a written critique of your strategy, observations on strategic inconsistencies, graphs that analyze key market concepts, lists of strategic strengths and weaknesses, a success potential rating in eleven areas and a written draft marketing plan.

• Business Insight helps anticipate and manage change as it takes account of the fact that market success is a moving target affected by:

It suggests new opportunities and exploits market volatility to identify ways of increasing market share, revenue and profits.

• By asking the right questions and then knowing how to apply the answers to your strategy, Business Insight provides a structured environment for your strategic planning process - from assessment through analysis to conclusion. It helps break down your strategic efforts into measurable goals. By doing this, you can measure what needs to be addressed and how to achieve your goals. It’s very easy for bias, politics, and emotion to influence strategic decisions. Business Insight removes those by measuring independent factors.
  
  
• Business Insight identifies strategies that could work best for you. As you delve deeper into its analysis report, you could see new opportunities for your business that, in the past, were hidden and you'll be able to determine what should be done to strengthen your company or to make your product or service more attractive to the buyers. In addition, you can assess the impact of alternative approaches.
  
  
• Business Insight considers the capabilities of your organization and your competitors, your business objectives, government influence and market climate. You immediately see all of the positive and negative impacts on your business success. It offers 100's of analyses of your strategy which provide multiple insights into ways of strengthening your market position. By basing your strategy on proven business principles reviewed by experts, you increase your success potential.

Business Insight generates a comprehensive report to help you plan and justify your strategic decisions - see the sample report and demo below.

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4. More About Business Insight

Michael Porter's Five Forces Model

The concepts that most influenced the development of Business Insight were published in Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage by Michael Porter. In these works, Michael Porter described a concept that has become known as the "five forces model". This involves a relationship between competitors within an industry, potential competitors, suppliers, buyers and alternative solutions to the problem being addressed. We used the five-forces model as a basic structure and built on it with concepts from the works of many other authors. The result was a model with over 5,000 relational links.

While each industry involves all of these factors, the relational strengths vary. Business Insight uses input from the user to create a unique model of their industry. Then thousands of "rules" are applied to evaluate hundreds of marketing and business concepts as they relate to the user's unique circumstances. This results in a set of analyses, including:

• a success potential rating in eleven key areas
• a list of strategic strengths and weaknesses
• observations on strategic inconsistencies
• a written critique of your strategy
• a graphic analysis of key marketing concepts
• a written draft of a marketing plan.

Getting Insights into SWOTs

A lot of lip service has been given to a concept called SWOTs which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. However, few enterprises have a formal method for evaluating these factors. There are many specific circumstances to consider, some of which are unique to your enterprise or industry. A few of these are:

• Special/unique abilities
• New/proprietary technology that may benefit or threaten you
• Changes in the economy (positive or negative)
• Requirement for or loss of key personnel
• Access or lack of access to critical materials
• Changes in government policies or regulations
• Availability or lack of availability of capital
• Transportation or communication changes (cost or availability)
• Market entry of new competitors
• Social or environmental changes.

These are only a few of hundreds of factors considered when you use Business Insight. The results of your analysis will be a better understanding of how to leverage your strengths to take advantage of perceived opportunities or to respond to threats and how to compensate for known weaknesses.

Factors Affecting Strategy

Business Insight evaluates all the factors that could influence the potential for generating and maintaining profits over an extended period. The analysis evaluates your strengths and weaknesses and considers the consequences of your following each strategy. Examples of factors considered:

Each factor is assessed in detail. As an example, Business Insight asks numerous questions regarding the Characteristics of Your Product or Service covering:

The analysis combines all the factors that could influence the potential for generating and maintaining profits over an extended period. These include:

• Potential for competitive retaliation is based on the competitors resources, commitment to the industry, cash position and predictability as well as the status of the market.
  
  
• The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
  
  
• The intensity of competitive rivalry as measured by the size and number of competitors, limitations on exiting the market, differentiation between offerings and the rapidity of market growth.
  
  
• The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
  
  
• The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
  
  
• The availability of substitute solutions to the prospect's need.
  
  
• The prospect's bargaining power as measured by the ease of switching to an alternative, the cost to look at alternatives, the cost of the offering, the differentiation between your offering and the competition and the degree of the prospect's need.
  
  
• Market potential for new products considering market growth, prospect's need for your offering, the benefits of the offering, the number of barriers to immediate use, the credibility of the offering and the impact on the customer's daily operations.
  
  
• The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, investors and other outside influences.

For further details about the inner workings of Business Insight, view the sample report and online demo below.

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5. Online Demo & Sample Report

This Online Demo of Business Insight shows, in a few minutes, how it constructs a model of a business and applies its expert system's rules to build up a series of proposals for changing, dropping or extending strategies.

This comprehensive sample report was generated by Business Insight. It identifies numerous critical issues to be addressed so as to ensure that strategic decisions result in a successful strategy. It includes:

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6. Frequently Asked Questions

What other expert systems are available?

Quick Insight is ideal for assessing product and market proposals for new and smaller businesses. It is considerably less detailed than Business Insight but retains the essential elements and facilities.

For expert guidance on developing a business plan, try the Plan Write Expert Edition.

For expert help on preparing a marketing plan, see:

• Plan Write for Sales which contains facilities for writing a marketing plan as well as an expert systems to help assess and formulate marketing strategies and sales tactics.
• Plan Write for Hi-Tech Marketing is similar to Plan Write for Sales but its expert system has been tailored for technology-based businesses.
• Plan Write for Pricing contains an expert system to help determine the optimal price for a product or service.
• Insight for Sales Strategy includes an expert system that helps businesses improve their sales conversion rates and revenues.

Is this software designed for a product or a service industry?

Business Insight is supplied with separate knowledge bases for manufacturing and service businesses.

Does this software come with a guarantee?

Yes. This software comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. If you purchase a product and are not satisfied, you may return it within 30 days from the date of purchase and we will refund the full purchase price.

Does your software come with technical support?

Yes. Our software comes with free, knowledgeable technical support for the lifetime of the product.

Is this software available in a MAC version?

Sorry, no. This software is designed for use only with PCs running Windows.

Need more help to select the most appropriate planning package?

Use this Contact Form to explain your needs or utilize our Online Business Plan Advice Service.

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7. User & Media Reviews

Philip Kotler, Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Northwestern University:

For years I've advocated that companies need to perform marketing audits to check their strategic fit to the changing market environment. Business Insight goes further. It not only gives insight into the marketing side of the business, but into the company's total business. One can hardly fail to spot problems and opportunities in submitting a business situation to the disciplined appraisal provided by Business Insight.

Mark McNeilly, Steve Gessner, System Strategy Department, IBM:

One question we skeptically asked ourselves was, will this software really give us any insights we hadn't thought of? (After all, the program is called Business Insight.) The answer is, it did!

John Sviokla, Assistant Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Business:

In my capacity here at Harvard I am exposed to many of the new tools for business and strategic planning. Business Insight is the best I have seen.

President, US Lotteries:

The interview questions alone are worth the purchase price. We saved $2M by correcting our strategy before we invested.

Richard Wiser, VP Financial Planning, Mary Kay Cosmetics:

Using Business Insight is like having Michael Porter on call. It is like a refresher course for my MBA education.

Jim Glantz, BYOB, Inc.:

Your software is wonderful! It's like having the Wharton School of Business in my computer. It has already saved me much time in developing a business strategy for a product launch. I do not have the business savvy that some with extensive business education and background may possess, yet, with your software giving proper guidance, I have gained a great sense of self-confidence about where I am taking my company and when I expect to hit certain milestones. Your product doesn't cost... it keeps paying! Your software is helping me achieve my dream. Thank you.

New York Times: Peter H. Lewis - Software to Help Introduce Products:

Business Insight is an expert system that purports to help businesses find the best strategies for introducing a product, for clarifying a company's goals and for building better understanding among members of a project team. Expert-system programs are also known as knowledge bases, and they operate on the principle that business knowledge and experience can be collected, codified and made accessible through a computer program. An executive asks the computer how to solve a problem, and the computer either comes up with a suggestion or, in the process of sifting through variables, helps executives focus and come up with their own solutions.

Many strategic planning programs are on the market, but Business Insight appears to be the most comprehensive and ambitious. The program's developers assert that they have captured the theories and insights of 30 recognized management experts, including Michael Porter, author of 'Competitive Strategy'. Business Insight sorts the user's answers, applies its rules and generates a variety of reports that can address specific product plans or the overall health of a business.

"I've used it in a couple of situations, and we're using it now to evaluate a new product," said Gary H. Knippelmier, business development manager for the Dynatel Systems Division of the 3M Corporation in Austin, Texas, who tested early versions of the software. "The key thing is the broad perspective you get, more so than anything I've dealt with. It's a way of trying to ferret out your inconsistencies."

The program begins by interviewing the user in question-and-answer form, asking literally hundreds of questions that range from basic financial data to a description of the user's business and its market. A simple spreadsheet is incorporated into the program for gathering and refining financial data.

The fascinating thing about the process is that the questions go beyond mere facts and figures. The user is asked subjective questions as well as objective ones -- how likely is it that a competitor will retaliate, for example.

Should the product be introduced now, or should you wait for the market to develop? Should the product be priced low for market penetration, or high for maximum cash generation? What channels of distribution will be most effective? Should promotion be "push" or "pull"? How will new technologies and changing cultural trends affect the business?

It takes several hours to answer the questions, if the user gives them the attention they deserve. Even if the program did nothing else, the Q. and A. part is valuable in helping an executive identify a business's overall strengths and weaknesses. The questions often include helpful descriptions and summaries of business principles.

The point of the program, however, is to help a company pick the optimum conditions for offering a new product. After it analyzes the situation, it generates a scorecard that rates the chances of success and suggests areas that can be modified. It identifies a company's strengths and weaknesses, and points out inconsistencies in a product plan.

As a guide for planning products and devising a competitive strategy, Business Insight is an exhaustive checklist. It imposes a logical pattern on what is all too often a haphazard process.

Wall Street Journal: William M. Bulkeley - With new Planning Software, Entrepreneurs act like MBAs:

Can a computer program make up for two years at Stanford Business School? Probably not. But some business people say they have found wisdom in software. Software developers have produced a number of programs designed to guide the uninitiated through business planning, negotiation, employee management and purchase valuation. Some programs are little more than electronic form letters in which entrepreneurs fill in the blanks to bamboozle venture capitalists. Others are "expert systems" that give advice based on the precepts of management gurus.

Nevertheless, some users say the programs have opened up new worlds. "I'm trying not to sound too effusive, but this software is really different. Any small-business person could gain insights from it," says Randy Ziegenhorn, a New Boston, Ill., wholesale seed dealer who uses a program called Business Insight. He credits the program for leading him to better marketing strategies. As a result, he says he sold more oat seeds in March than he had in the previous two years.

Mr. Ziegenhorn says that neither his college degree in English literature nor his career as a farmer "lends itself to strategic business thinking." But when he answered the program's questions about his business, the program asked whether he could tailor his marketing efforts to particular customers rather than treating them all the same. "I said, 'Yes, there's a lot of difference'" among retailers, the store chains and the co-ops that buy oat seeds. Then he crafted the techniques that led to the sales gains.

All these programs attempt to give users insights by asking questions in a structured way and forcing them to confront all the issues rather than ignoring difficulties. "Information-gathering and stimulating your brain is how we envision our job," says Daniel Bernstein, president of Beacon Expert Systems Inc., Brookline... The programs almost always leave users with more knowledge than they started with...

The cost of such systems is small compared with the cost of a lawyer or consultant, users say. Lewis C. Hoff, president of Bartizan Inc., a Yonkers, N.Y., maker of bank card imprinters, uses Business Insight. He says a consultant would cost much more and "tie up a tremendous amount of time of you and your people." It's also quicker than getting an MBA degree. David Fein, vice president of Value Express, says, "It's like the difference between building a house from the ground up and redecorating it. You don't have to understand the theory to use it."

Planning Review: Mark McNeilly and Steve Gessner, IBM Corporation - An Expert System for Strategic Analysis:

Business Insight is an expert system for strategic analysis that won the respect of the managers who tested it for us. By combining both qualitative and quantitative strategic analysis, it offers managers - especially those who lack a strategic planning background - a useful tool for considering and managing future outcomes.

Armed with Business Insight, a new expert system for strategic analysis, we analyzed the Applications Business System division of IBM, a multi-billion dollar unit. It took us ten hours to enter the data requested by the program and another hour to review our answers to make certain we had addressed the questions appropriately. The program then prepared a forty page analysis...

What We Learned. We think Business Insight is a good first step toward using decision support tools to integrate both the qualitative and quantitative data that managers must take into account when planning strategy. After collecting our answers to some 375 questions on a wide variety of topics - including organizational factors, human resources, product benefits, packaging, market definition, sales processes and financing - the software was able to synthesize an accurate and coherent strategic plan. Based on our experience with other strategic planning tools, we believe that Business Insight is breaking new ground in a wide-open market.

Business Insight presents you with a strategic analysis, observations about your business, key factors influencing the success of your business, your strengths and weaknesses, and predictions for the success of different strategic options. The analysis it did for us covered such topics as the business environment, the buyer, the product, the competition, the enterprise, development, manufacturing, marketing, service, suppliers, substitutes and management. As an example of its responses, Business Insight suggested that we consider the implications of our unit's targeted customer base. In addition to confirming several valuable perceptions we had gleaned during our previous analyses, it also provided new insights in the areas of competitive rivalry, upside potential for earnings and advertising.

Another feature that took us a bit aback is that the answers it gives are quite frank. For example, if it thinks you should consider replacing one of your managers, it tells you so explicitly. Thus, one side benefit of this expert system software is that it makes recommendations without concern for office politics, its job security, or its next promotion....

One concern we had when we started was that, since Business Insight is an artificial intelligence tool, would it be a "black box" that wouldn't explain how it was coming up with answers? We were pleasantly surprised to find that, for every comment or recommendation it makes, it shows you a trail of its logic. For example, Business Insight warned us to expect strong competitive rivalry. It showed us that the two primary contributing factors to this potential rivalry were competitive commitment to the market and competitive liquidity. The program then traced this conclusion back to the detailed competitor information we had supplied. This type of documentation is critical to the credibility of the output.

Business Insight also tutors you on strategic thinking as it goes along. At the beginning of each set of questions, it briefly describes the strategic issues to consider when answering. For example, when collecting information about the characteristics of your buyers, it suggests that you weigh buyer sensitivity to price, geographic location and dispersion, profitability, growth rate, and attitudes toward alternative solutions....

Business Insight is designed for product marketing managers, planning consultants, manager/owners of small to medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs. As professionals responsible for product strategy, we fit best into the first category... So how can people like us use this tool to optimize the strategic planning process? ... to a certain extent, the learning experience of working with the system is more important than its suggested solutions. After all, as General Eisenhower once said, "It's not the plan but the planning that counts." In small companies, where the planning process consists of the owner's setting down and creating a strategy, the best use of Business Insight is as an expert teacher rather than an answering machine. The tutoring the program provides may be a bargain for managers who aren't familiar with the concepts of strategic planning.

Success Magazine: Jenny McCune - Consultant-in-a-Box, A Program That Probes Your Business for Strengths and Weaknesses:

If you're a successful entrepreneur, chances are you learned about business through trial and error and applying your gut instincts. You know how painful - and costly - that approach can be. Have you ever wondered how things would have turned out if you'd hired a big-time consultant or had your business evaluated by the Harvard Business School? Business Insight is more than a collection of financial models and formulas; It's more like a sage mentor. The program judges numeric and non numeric factors, everything from the strength of your management team to the stage of growth your market is in. Its analysis is rock solid, built from 40 business books that include the teachings of Michael Porter and other management experts. Whether you're starting a business, launching a new product, or revamping your marketing, Business Insight will give you valuable input and help you improve your strategy.

PC World: Bronwyn Fryer - Real Problems, Real Solutions:

Starting a new business - or expanding an old one - requires a lot of thought and research. Your options: Roll up your sleeves and do some of the research yourself, hire a marketing consultant for a mere $150 an hour, or experiment with an emerging breed of software designed to help you make informed business decisions. Lew Hoff, president of Bartizan Corporation, a multimillion- dollar manufacturing firm with 85 employees based in Yonkers, New York, describes how "MBA-ware" helps steer his evolving business:

"While I was considering this new business, I read about a software package called Business Insight. It's a database of 30 management experts' collected knowledge. It asks hundreds of questions about finances, products, distribution, and so forth. ... the program generates a report based on your scores. It then rates your new venture's chance for success and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of your business, suggests ways to modify your plan. For $805, I got the same kind of information I would have received from a marketing consultant, without being charged about $1100 a day for four day's work. And a consultant would have tied up a tremendous amount of my time and my staff's time."

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8. Buy & Use Now

Buy and download Business Insight now via BRS's website as follows:

1. Click the appropriate yellow Order button below. At the BRS product page, click the orange Add to Cart button and click Proceed to Checkout.
   
2. Once payment has been authorized, you will be instructed on the download procedure and sent a product registration number by email. Note that typical file sizes are about 20 Meg.

Product	Description	Price (US$)*	Buy Now
Business Insight	For evaluating and enhancing strategies in larger businesses.	795.00
See also:
Quick Insight	For assessing new product and service ideas for new/smaller businesses.	229.95
Special Packages with Big Savings
Entrepreneur Package (3 items)	Includes: Plan Write Expert Business Planner, Plan Write for Pricing, and Plan Write for Marketing. Save US$ 100.85	489.00
Manager Package (4 items)	Entrepreneur Package plus Business Insight. Save US$ 207.85	1,177.00
Consultant Package (7 items)	Manager Package plus Quick Insight, Plan Write for Sales, and Insight for Sales Strategy. Save US$ 419.70	1,655.00
* To download & use now. Includes a comprehensive electronic version of manual

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