A decision on starting an innovation project whether it is individual or based on cooperation- has to be made in a constantly changing environment. The main condition for a positive decision is to keep or improve competitiveness of the project owner(s). 

Strategic information has a key role in supporting information and knowledge-based decisions. These include:

• understanding of present and future customer and market needs,
• knowledge of competition,
• understanding constraints,
• identifying opportunities and risks,
• identifying new outlets, partnerships,
• identifying new services, products or processes, technological and regulatory changes, development of standards,
• identifying financial resources.

The main areas related to strategic intelligence management in the IMS are

• the involvement of top management in order to direct and monitor strategic intelligence management;
• the definition of needs and uses, decision-making and innovation strategy by top management;
• the integration into the culture of the organization’s interaction;
• information/knowledge sharing between employees;
• the identification of necessary and available resources (human, information, and hardware);
• the implementation of appropriate means, such as performance indicators to ensure that the performance is adequate to ensure its timely monitoring, and effective corrective action initiation.