Tech Intelligence & Does Your Business Need It?

Robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, nanotechnologies, synthetic biology, 3D printing: manufacturers are trying to keep up with a multitude of potentially disruptive technologies. And with the rate of technological change accelerating faster than ever, there are plenty more just over the horizon. But how do you know which of the emerging technologies will present an opportunity or threat to you and your company?

Among the many management and planning tools that are available to help companies identify, develop, and implement technology, one is often overlooked or underutilized: technology intelligence. 

Technology intelligence – a special form of competitive intelligence – can significantly reduce risk and open new opportunities.

What Intelligence Means

It is worth noting that information is not intelligence, and gathering information is not carrying out competitive intelligence. Many companies have mechanisms to accumulate large amounts of information; significantly fewer companies have mechanisms for conducting competitive intelligence.

Intelligence uses information as raw material, screening, sifting, sorting, verifying, analyzing, interpreting, and compiling it to create a useful output. And just as information is raw material for intelligence, intelligence is raw material for a higher-level process: decision-making. Thus, at the heart of the whole competitive intelligence activity are management decisions.

The value of technology intelligence as a management tool is that it improves the quality of strategic and operational decisions by adding the perspective of external conditions and events. However, technology intelligence can provide value and exert influence on the fortunes of the organization only if it is inextricably linked to the decision-making process. Similarly, the decision-making process can derive benefit from technology intelligence only if it is structured to demand that technology intelligence be provided as an essential part of its basis for informed action. Thus, the two must be designed to be inseparable partners.

Why Traditional Market Reports Are Not Enough?

For years, companies have used traditional reports from analyst firms to estimate the size of their markets and inform their decisions on which markets to pursue. Typically, these reports are based on company surveys conducted and interpreted by analysts and provide quick, high-level numbers of the potential size and growth of a market. These reports can also give you the market size for your particular product category per country. 

While this type of data may provide a starting point for your planning efforts, it doesn’t really give you the in-depth information you need to understand why you should enter a particular market. The degree of subjectivity in these reports also makes it difficult to base your revenue projections on the numbers. In addition, none of the data in these reports is actionable for your sales and marketing teams.

The Benefits Of Technology Intelligence

# Reduced Risk

Many technology-related decisions involve placing bets on the viability of products, projects, and technologies. While these decisions are inherently risky, the degree of risk can be reduced by better understanding the external environment. For example, technology R&D programs may fail for any number of technical or economic reasons, but in fact often fail because management neglects to anticipate competitive forces. 

It is useful to view technology intelligence as a way to answer the key questions that should be asked about every new technology or product development program. Clearly, these questions are difficult to answer. Nevertheless, the process of continually striving to answer them can generate critical information. This information, in turn, can help management make the right decisions on a variety of issues, ranging from funding levels to timing and product specifications.

# Enhanced Opportunities

Technology intelligence is much more than a risk-reduction technique. It is also an extremely rich source of opportunities that would not otherwise be recognized. Careful examination of external technology, products, and business conditions can reveal windows of opportunity in many areas. 

The benefits that technology intelligence can bring to controlling risk and identifying opportunities in technology are opposite sides of the same coin. Both applications can substantially improve the odds of technology success. Both are important in structuring a technology intelligence program that brings lasting value to the organization.

In Addition To These Examples:

• Sales leaders use granular tech intelligence to map out and divide their sales territories into regions that contain accounts that match their ideal customer profile. Critical components of their customer profiles include knowing what technology products accounts in a region have installed and what they spend on those technologies;
• Sales and marketing teams use tech intelligence to develop and deliver highly relevant campaigns with messaging customized to a prospect’s strategic initiatives, existing solutions and pain points; and
• Product teams use tech trending information to make decisions on which products they need to enhance or end, and what new solutions they need to develop to better compete in the future.

Detailed technology intelligence will be a game-changer for tech companies in 2020 and beyond. It will ensure they target the right markets, find the best opportunities for expansion and increase their chances of meeting or exceeding their numbers when the year-end moment of truth comes around again.