New Book is Road Map for Service Company Owners, Managers, and Executives Who Want to Use Information to Compete Effectively

January 31, 2002, Medford, NJ — Information Today, Inc. has announced the publication of Smart Services: Competitive Information Strategies, Solutions and Success Stories for Service Businesses, by Deborah C. Sawyer. This is the first book to focus specifically on the competitive information needs of service-oriented firms.

While much has been written about competition in product manufacturing and marketing, managers of service firms face different and more complex issues—not the least of which is the pivotal role of human expertise in the business. Smart Services is unique in that it fully explores the specific challenges and opportunities of services competition.

In the new book, Sawyer, an author, entrepreneur, and business consultant, describes the many forms of competition in service businesses, identifies the most effective information resources for competitive intelligence (CI), and provides a practical framework for identifying and studying competitors in order to gain competitive advantage.

In an engaging, readable style, the book explains:

· The unique challenges of services competition · Tackling traditional competitors
· Uncovering hidden and left-field competition · Discovering and tracking competitor strategies
· Where to look for financial intelligence · Where to look for intelligence about people
· Developing a CI mindset · Cost-effective CI for small service businesses

Andrew Garvin, CEO of FIND/SVP, a leading global business advisory and research service, said the book “nails down what every service business needs to know about competition and competitive intelligence.” According to Garvin, “Smart Services offers competitive information strategies that firms can put to immediate use.”

Deborah C. Sawyer is president of the Information Plus companies, a group of firms providing research and consulting services to Fortune 500 corporations. She is the author of three previous books and numerous articles about competitive intelligence and business information.

Smart Services: Competitive Information Strategies, Solutions and Success Stories for Service Businesses, is published by Information Today, Inc. under the CyberAge Books imprint and distributed to the book trade by Independent Publishers Group (IPG). It is available at better bookstores everywhere or by calling Information Today, Inc. at 800-300-9868 (outside the U.S. call 609-654-6266), fax: 609-654-4309, e-mail: custserv@infotoday.com, or simply click on the "Order Now" button (left). 

2002/256 pp/softbound 
ISBN: 0-910965-56-0
$29.95