Two common areas of accounting that respectively provide information to internal and external users are:

The correct answer is step.

Competitive intelligence activities occur so that a company can use information about a competitor's new products to  develop superior marketing strategies for its own products.  when talking about  competitive intelligence, an easy way to  remember  these terms are to know your  enemy. when having  competitive intelligence it's allowing information you find out about other companies and how they run their company, the risks they have come in contact with and  opportunities they  haven't taken and figure out how to use them to your advantage. always be  smarter than your  competition. 

12 months (apex answer)