Build an Industry Intelligence Engine

Company Context

NovaFleet is a B2B SaaS company that sells fleet management software to mid-sized logistics operators in North America. The company has $48M ARR, is growing 18% year over year, and holds an estimated 6% share of its core segment. NovaFleet's leadership team believes growth is slowing because the company reacts too late to industry changes such as new regulations, competitor pricing moves, and shifts in customer buying criteria. The CEO has asked the Strategy team to design a more systematic approach to staying updated on industry trends and turning that information into better commercial decisions.

Strategic Situation

Today, trend monitoring is ad hoc. Product managers follow a few competitors, sales reps share anecdotal customer feedback, and executives read analyst reports quarterly. As a result, NovaFleet has missed several signals: a competitor launched a lower-priced AI dispatch module 4 months before NovaFleet responded, a new emissions reporting rule created demand for compliance workflows that NovaFleet did not prioritize, and two large prospects cited "better integration ecosystems" from rivals. The company must decide whether to invest in a formal market intelligence capability now, what that capability should include, and how to ensure it improves go-to-market and product decisions within 12 months.

Data Points

• Estimated North American fleet software market: $3.2B, growing 12% CAGR
• Top competitor launched AI dispatch add-on priced 20% below NovaFleet's equivalent bundle
• Recent customer survey: 43% ranked compliance automation as a top-3 buying criterion, up from 18% last year
• Sales team spends approximately 6 hours per rep per week gathering competitive information manually
• Management is considering a budget of up to $1.2M annually for a formal intelligence program

Deliverables

You are the incoming Head of Strategy at NovaFleet. Prepare a recommendation for the CEO.

1. Assess whether NovaFleet should build a formal industry trend and competitive intelligence capability now.
2. Define what sources, processes, and teams should be included in a scalable trend-monitoring system.
3. Quantify the potential business impact on growth, win rate, retention, or product prioritization.
4. Recommend a go-to-market and operating model for how insights should be distributed and acted upon.
5. Propose a 12-month implementation roadmap with clear success metrics.

Constraints

• Budget cannot exceed $1.2M per year in the first 12 months
• No more than 5 net new hires can be added this year
• Leadership expects visible business impact within 2 quarters
• Existing CRM, product analytics, and customer success tools must be used where possible rather than replaced