It may sound presumptuous for a CI professional to ask an end user to answer the question "Do you need to know this or do you just want to know it?" But it is a critical distinction. If CI unit does not provide CI that supports decision-making, then experience shows that the unit will eventually will cease to exist because it is not providing any value to the firm. Moreover, a CI unit cannot be effective and bring value to the firm if much of its work is not directed to supporting or improving sound decision-making.

Once a CI unit has become a proven commodity by being effective, experience shows that the demand for its services by departments and managers other than the CI unit's originally intended end users will begin and increase, and may do so very rapidly. Operating CI units have quickly discovered that they must limit the number of assignments and even then they must establish priorities among them. The driving constraints are typically cost and time. The CI unit simply cannot afford to do everything it is asked to do.