In my AttaainCI orientation meeting with Daryl Scott, founder of Attaain, Inc., he probably wished I had asked him how I and other companies can apply his competitive intelligence software, AttaainCI, to better position themselves in their targeted markets.

I can't remember my exact words, but they were probably something like, "This is exciting!  Now what?"

Scott offered me a very simple way to use AttaainCI.

He said companies should ask themselves four key questions:

• What do I want my company to be?
• Who is already there?
• How did they get there?
• What important market/competitor changes are occurring?

He created AttaainCI to answer those questions.

As I watch myself using AttaainCI, and I talk with other subscribers of Web-based AttaainCI, I find myself and fellow users engaged with--and finding answers to--those questions in business-defining, business model-enhancing, strategy-developing, creativity-provoking ways.

When I subscribed to AttaainCI, I thought I was just getting software, you know, like Norton Anti-Virus.  Just a tool.

I didn’t expect to be inspired to think about my business in new ways.

I feel like I have a new equity business partner:  Mr. ACI, The AttaainCI Advisor.

Daryl Scott, creator of competitive intelligence software AttaainCI,
President and CEO of Attaain, Inc.
at VT KnowledgeWorks - Photograph by Dan Smith

Attaain, Inc. is a member company of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks, located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a technology, research, and science park on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia.  The research park provides high-technology companies access to university faculty, facilities, and equipment and business-related support services.  The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center fosters commercialization and technology transfer of university research for both high-tech start-up companies and established technology businesses.