Everything you need to know about technology development monitoring and its implementation in your business strategy
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In an era where digitalisation is spreading in every business sector, technological innovations are more and more frequent. It is therefore necessary for companies to stay up to date regarding those innovations in order to stay competitive.
Technology development monitoring is the best way to do so. If it is done correctly, it will allow you to anticipate changes to come in your industry and adapt your business strategy.
Down below you’ll find more information about it, as well as the steps required to implement it.
Technology development monitoring: a definition
Technology development monitoring is a process that goes with the concept of economic intelligence. It allows companies to be aware of their surroundings in order to elaborate an appropriate business strategy. There is however a difference between technology development monitoring and industrial espionage.
Technology development monitoring is really about the collection, analyse, organisation, and diffusion of information about technological advancements in order for a company to improve their strategy. This information helps to anticipate innovations that could change the market.
The importance of technology development monitoring in your business strategy
Technology development monitoring is incredibly important in activities that relate to economic intelligence. It can work on a variety of markets and has many benefits.
Anticipate the changes in the market
In order to stay competitive in a market where more and more competitors are present, it is essential to stay up to date with technological innovations, especially the ones that may impact the market and change the trends.
This can be done by studying and analysing the latest patents that have been registered. You’ll then be able to evaluate the impact of those innovations and make appropriate decisions.
Optimise your Research and Development department
Technology development monitoring allows companies to identify in advance the new discoveries in their industry. The information gathered thanks to it will allow your Research and Development department to better implement those innovations in your business strategy. This will in turn allow your team to detect and test the revolutions in the industry.
Improve your technological kit
Low added value technologies can’t do much in an industry where there is a lot of competition, which is why it is crucial to expand your technological portfolio with tools that have a real strategical value.
With technology development monitoring, it’s easier to find those tools. You’ll likely find a lot of them, so you can then sort through them to keep only those that will best improve your company and its strategy.
Find new opportunities
Technology development monitoring allows you to find unexploited resources and unexplored paths through the numerous changes in the market. This will allow you to pursue and secure new opportunities, as well as have a better understanding of the market.
The steps to implement technology development monitoring in your business strategy
There are six important steps to successfully implement technology development monitoring.
Define your objectives
This is the first step. Before you begin the actual process of technology development monitoring, you need to clearly define your objectives: the reason you want to do monitoring, and what you plan to get out of it. This will allow you to create your monitoring plan following your company’s main objectives.
Divide the tasks
Once you’ve defined your objectives, you need distribute the tasks, by giving the relevant teams (researchers, archivists, analysts, etc.) everything they need as well as making access to information easier for them.
Use reliable sources
You need to identify the sources you’ll use and make sure they’re reliable. For this, you can create a collect plan that will allow you to define your research field and find the most relevant data for your company. You can look through articles, patents, specialised journals, etc.
Use the right tools
There is a number of tools that can help you with technology development monitoring. If you use them well, they’ll make your monitoring way more efficient. For example:
- Advanced research tools
- Google’s alert systems
- Subscribing to newsletters
- Checking RSS feed readers
- Being on social media
If you use those tools, data collection will be much easier, and you’ll get more relevant results.
Analyse information
Once you’ve collected the information, you need to sort through them, and stock and organise them. Only after you’ve done this can the data be used to improve your strategy.
Share the results within the company
The last step is, of course, to share the results with the people within your company. You need to make sure that all the people who add a strategic value to your company get those results.
