Primary Intelligence Collection Techniques

Primary sources of intelligence represent a means of filling the intelligence gaps left when secondary sources have been exhausted. They can provide the most relevant intelligence but are also the most difficult to access. As with secondary sources, there are internal primary sources and external primary sources, both of which should be covered. Most of those who have studied the availability of competitive intelligence have concluded that internal sources can be extremely productive but are rarely exploited fully. Obviously all of the intelligence that is required can in theory be obtained from external sources. The difficulty lies in the fact that they are rarely easy to identify and there are invariably limits to the depth of information they will disclose, particularly those sources that work within the companies being studied.