Data are seen as raw, while the processed data with value-added are transferred to information. Information
together with the experience of company employees creates the knowledge. An enterprise can achieve success by
sharing of knowledge within its structure by competitive intelligence. Information becomes intelligence only after it
has been filtered, checked, analyzed and processed (Wright, 2013).
Bouthillier and Shearer (2003) summarize the issue of very large number of not very differing competitive
intelligence (CI) definitions. They evaluate the definitions such as rarely comprehensive, generally vaguely speaking
about competitiveness, ethics and legality of activities. Neither theorists nor practitioners do agree on a general
definition
Let us to define the CI relationship to other disciplines. Bartes (2010) states that the competitive intelligence is
usually understood like similarity with business intelligence or like a part of it. Business intelligence is also
understood by several meanings. Much terminology fragmentation exists in this field. This definition seems to be
the best of the available definitions of business intelligence. Business intelligence is a field of activity which is
superior to all intelligence processes in the business segment. Here are monitored, collected, processed and analyzed
data on the business environment as a whole, not only about customers, markets and competitors. The same term is
used in relation to the administration, analysis, and evaluation of large amounts of data, usually in connection with
the storage of raw data, the administration and data mining (Bartes, 2010). From this definition it implies the
subordinate relationships of CI to the business intelligence that seems to be logical. Thus, we can say that CI is the
part of business intelligence, which deals with competition.
Various authors distinguish between even three different views: