By aligning the many sources of marketing information from internal records, competitive intelligence databases and systems, in addition to integration of the Marketing Information System to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, marketers and senior managers will be able to quickly get the information they need to complete the planning and execution of strategies. Real-time integration between the Marketing Information System and the Market Research Systems(s) in place throughout DirecTV is also critical. By far the largest percentage of DirecTV's budget is in the purchase of syndicated research services and spending on primary research programs. It is common for companies the size of DirecTV to spend well over $5M per year on market research subscriptions and primary research studies. Ironically much of the research never gets used to its fullest extent. That's why it is critical for DirecTV to work very quickly to create real-time integration links between its broader Marketing Information System and the Market Research Systems and processes in place throughout the company. What needs to become a critical objective in this integration is to develop the ability...

This needs to be seen as a service provided by the market research and market intelligence teams within DirecTV.
Competitive Updates and Analysis - the need for integrating this functionality within the Marketing Information System cannot be underscored strongly enough. First, there is the need for managing the entire process of collecting competitive information, and second, the segmenting of the types of competitive information by the audiences' requirements also must be considered. The fact that salespeople require pricing and immediate tactical information needs to be balanced with the longer-term needs of strategists in