How Competitive Intelligence and QA Are Shaping the Future of Business

In a rapidly evolving market, companies need more than a great idea—they need a tactical advantage. This is where competitive intelligence comes in, a strategic discipline that goes far beyond simple market research. In a recent interview, Ieva, a Competitive Analysis and Benchmarking Services Manager at TestDevLab, shared her expertise on how this field is helping businesses make smarter decisions and gain a critical edge.

The art of knowing your competition

Ieva begins by clarifying the core terminology. Competitive intelligence is a broad discipline that combines information on competitors, market trends, and technological advancements. Within this larger field are two key activities:

• Competitive analysis: A focused look at a company's direct competitors to understand their product features and overall position.
• Benchmarking: The process of quantitatively measuring and comparing a product's performance against that of its rivals.

This combination of activities provides the critical data companies need to make strategic decisions, such as where to allocate resources or how to build a product roadmap. It’s a practice used across all industries, from tech and healthcare to finance.

Why quality assurance is the key to unbiased data

Initially, competitive intelligence was often handled in-house by sales and marketing teams. However, for a truly objective and detailed analysis, an independent third party is essential. This is where Ieva's team at Tesda Lab provides immense value by integrating quality assurance (QA) and testing into the process.

This approach moves beyond surface-level analysis to provide concrete, unbiased, and objective data. Her team uses standardized, industry-accepted metrics like VMAF for video quality and Word Error Rate for textual accuracy. By doing so, they can provide a clear and objective picture of how a product's performance stacks up against its rivals.

As Ieva explains, a company's own marketing claims about its product's superiority are far more credible when they are backed by an independent, expert assessment. This objective data helps companies find and capitalize on market gaps, allowing a smaller startup, for example, to outperform a larger competitor by focusing on a specific area, like "mobility" in communication apps.

The human element in a data-driven world

While technology and AI are becoming increasingly vital for gathering and analyzing vast amounts of data, Ieva stresses that the human element is irreplaceable. Her team's expertise is crucial for several reasons:

• Root-cause analysis: When data shows a discrepancy or anomaly, her team performs a root-cause analysis to determine if the issue is a bug in the application or an environmental factor, such as a network issue.
• Data validation: They have dedicated expert teams who manually validate and scrutinize the data to ensure its accuracy and trustworthiness, a task that requires critical thinking beyond what a machine can do.
• Tailored reporting: The final report is always tailored to the audience. High-level executives receive aggregated, easy-to-understand data, while engineering teams get detailed, in-depth analysis to guide their development efforts.

The future is ethical and automated

Looking ahead, Ieva believes competitive intelligence will only become more sophisticated. AI and big data will continue to streamline the process, allowing for more in-depth and complex analysis. This doesn't mean data analysts will lose their jobs; instead, their roles will evolve to focus on data science and a deeper understanding of the technology.

However, with this advancement comes a greater need for ethical conduct. Ieva emphasizes the importance of respecting user policies and copyrights. Her team ensures confidentiality through Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and provides anonymized data for public use, ensuring that the quest for competitive advantage does not compromise integrity.

Speakers in the episode

Guest: Ieva Rebeka Fabriciusa

Manager of Competitive Analysis & Benchmarking Services

As the Manager of Competitive Analysis & Benchmarking Services at TestDevLab, Ieva is leading and supporting large-scale benchmarking projects that boost competitive intelligence and support our clients in strategic decision making. Coming from an engineering background with expertise in Audio/Video testing solutions, she now contributes to business development and innovations to enhance TestDevLab's benchmarking services.

Host: Adrians Miņins

A/V Technical Project Manager

Adrians Miņins is a certified Project Manager who has worked at TestDevLab for several years now. With experience in the industry and a strong passion for software quality, Adrians is the perfect person to lead discussions with industry experts and delve deeper into exciting and thought-provoking topics.