The Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), formerly the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, is a global nonprofit membership community of "business experts across industry, academia, and government who come together to build and share strategic intelligence, research decision-support tools, processes and analytics capabilities." SCIP is one of the only global membership organizations in the field of competitive intelligence (CI) and business strategy and organizes an annual international meeting and exposition.
Nanette (Nan) Bulger is currently the Executive Director of SCIP. The organization is governed by a member-elected board of directors who serve three-year terms. It also has a staff of approximately ten association professionals, led by the executive director, who provide membership services, educational and networking administration, communication management, meetings services, among other services. The organization hosts a CI career board on its web site, supports volunteer projects and Council groups, as well as releases Competitive Intelligence Magazine (quarterly, online publication), SCIP.insight (a monthly free newsletter), and monthly decision support deliverables. Also, SCIP produces various whitepapers and industry reports and grants industry certifications and CEUs. SCIP provides access to expert presentations and webinars on its website as well.
In 2009, due to financial difficulties, SCIP merged with the Frost & Sullivan Institute.
SCIP has chapters in the United States as well as in 16 other countries. The U.S chapters include: Atlanta, Georgia, Austin,Texas, Chicago Metro Area, Illinois, Columbus/SW Ohio, Ohio, Dallas,Texas, Des Moines, Iowa, Hartford/Southern New England, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mercyhurst University/Erie, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Mid South: Kentucky, Tennessee & Indiana, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Minnesota, New York City Metro Area, New York, Northern New Jersey, New Jersey, Pennsylvania/Delaware (Philadelphia Metro), Phoenix, Arizona, Portland, Oregon, Rocky Mountain/Denver, Colorado, San Diego, California, San Francisco, California, Seattle, Washington, Silicon Valley, California South Florida, St. Louis, Missouri, Upstate/Western NY, New York, Washington DC Metro Area, North Virginia and Maryland.
SCIP has held annual conferences for almost thirty years, as well as European summit meetings for almost twenty. Each year Aurora WDC offers the Jim Mathews Award and Fellowship to a college or university student.
Historical development
Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals, SCIP, was founded in 1986 in the Washington, DC area through the efforts of a number of local and national intelligence practitioners. The earliest members of the association derived from the corporate community, academe, and public sector. It is currently headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. In December 2005, through the efforts of Dr. Craig Fleisher and the Society's then Executive Director Alexander Graham, SCIP founded the Competitive Intelligence Foundation (CIF). The CI Foundation conducts and supports research on emerging issues and key trends that affect the practice of competitive intelligence and its ability to support key decision-makers and their organizations. The CI Foundation also makes existing and developing competitive intelligence knowledge visible, available, and relevant to the competitive intelligence practitioner through targeted publications including handbooks, studies, and survey reports.
The financial crisis of 2008 took a big toll on SCIP, which found itself without sufficient financial reserves. According to board member Jens Thieme, "SCIP's thin balance sheet was threatened to the extend to shut down within months." As a consequence, in 2009 the SCIP merged with the Frost & Sullivan Institute. That same year, the Annual SCIP event was merged with Frost & Sullivan's annual Competitive Intelligence event.
On July 8, 2010 the SCIP board of directors voted to officially change the organization's name from "Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals" to "Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals". According to SCIP, this modification reflects the developing evolution of the competitive intelligence (CI) profession to support executive decision-making and firmly acknowledges the relationship between competitive intelligence and strategy.