How Data-Driven Technology Scouting Speeds Up Corporate Innovation

What do General Motors, Nokia, Kodak, and Blockbuster have in common? All of these companies enjoyed the lion’s share of the market at their peak but lost out to competitors because they didn’t react fast enough to emerging technology trends. While hindsight is always 20/20, companies can strengthen their foresight by investing in data-driven technology scouting.

In this article, we’ll go through what data-driven technology scouting actually is as well as how it identifies disruptive trends quickly & exhaustively. As a bonus, you’ll also get to see example deliverables you can expect. Let’s dig into it!

What is Data-Driven Technology Scouting?

At StartUs Insights, we define Data-Driven Technology Scouting as the process of identifying emerging technologies that are relevant to an organization’s innovation goals and incorporating them through acquisitions or partnerships.

Many leading companies are already using technology scouting to overcome current challenges including increased volatility of markets, rapidly changing customer needs, and rising competition due to the exponential pace of technology development.

The rapid speed of technology development leaves even large companies at risk of being left behind by their competitors, startups, or scaleups. This is because, for them, the pace is often at a premium while startups are faster and leaner, allowing them to react faster to emerging technology trends. Therefore, acquiring or partnering with innovative startups & scaleups is a viable and often faster alternative to internal innovation when it comes to incorporating new technologies

How Technology Scouting Quickly Identifies Disruptive Innovation

But with thousands of startups working in every possible niche, where do you look for emerging technologies and trends? Traditionally, companies used to discover promising technologies and startups in industry-specific conferences, trade shows, or through personal and professional networks. With over 2,5 million disruptive startups & scaleups around the world now, it is impossible to monitor all startups and make informed decisions. What’s more, manually vetting thousands or even hundreds of startups is time-consuming and expensive.

This is why leading companies turn to dedicated innovation intelligence platforms that support and accelerate their innovation goals. A data-driven tech scouting process identifies both – particular trends (technology monitoring) that meet a company’s requirements as well as technological opportunities in the wider industry (technology scouting). Because data-driven processes are powered by Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), technology scouting platforms ensure that you are able to screen the entire global innovation ecosystem in a matter of seconds. This enables you to act on new business opportunities immediately and be on the cutting edge of innovation. These benefits are why data-driven technology scouting platforms are replacing traditional scouting and desk-based research.

The Technology Map is an example of a Data-Driven Technology Scouting Deliverable. It gives you an overview of emerging technologies and their applications, accessible at one glance.

What are the Primary Goals of Data-Driven Technology Scouting?

Now, it’s clear that identifying tech trends early has an impact on corporate innovation and market leadership. But what exactly does the process achieve, you ask? Explore the four primary goals of the technology scouting process:

• Improve Company Preparedness: Identify technology trends as well as technology shocks early on to improve your company’s standing.
• Discover Business Opportunities: Discover business opportunities arising from technological development.
• Make Informed Strategic Decisions: Scan the entire innovation ecosystem to assess potential acquisitions and partnerships.
• Seize New Business Models: Source technologies from the right external partners allows to quickly establish new business competencies.

After identifying the startups & scaleups that are driving promising tech trends and fit the required criteria, companies have a range of choices on how to proceed. These include creating joint ventures, licensing the startup’s technology, buying their solution, investing in them, or outright acquiring them – bringing onboard both the technology and the expertise in a particular field.

4 Key Benefits of Technology Scouting

Because of the unprecedented pace of technology development, it is difficult for companies to monitor every trend. Especially because they are often nascent and interrelated. Data-driven technology scouting cuts through the noise to select the technology that best suits your company’s short-term and long-term innovation goals. This is why the demand for systematic technology scouting is on the rise.

Regardless of the scale or the industry of your company, these are the benefits technology scouting offers:

• Rapidly incorporate emerging technology: Monitoring technology development at both the global and local level allows you to incorporate these advances, enabling you to better serve your customers.
• Cut internal costs & free resources: Reduce time spent on identifying relevant technology to cut costs for internal research teams. This frees their time and opens resources for moonshot projects.
• Gain a competitive advantage: Technology acquisition shortens product life cycles, thus giving you a competitive advantage.
• Make informed strategic decisions: Continuously monitor technological trends and developments to enable long-term strategic planning via technology landscaping.

Take Your Technology Scouting Process to the Next Level

It is challenging to identify technology trends that best align with your innovation ambitions without a systemic, data-driven approach. The good news is that once you start using this approach, you will have access and gain actionable insights from billions of data points. Big Data & AI analyze these data points for you so you get granular data on startups and scaleups developing emerging technologies. This way, you get to find the right partners to work with to further your innovation goals.

Depending on your innovation goals and requirements, external innovation scouting partners like us offer a range of deliverables for your technology scouting process. Some of these include:

• Technology Map: Visualizes emerging technologies and their applications in your industry of interest.
• Technology Report: Gives you firmographic data and insights on highly relevant startups, scaleups, and the technologies they develop.
• Startup Database: Covers hundreds of relevant startups and detailed information that match your innovation goals.

To discover how we at StartUs Insights identify emerging technologies that match your innovation agenda, we offer a free consultation. If you want to quickly find and track technology trends that will shape your industry, get in touch today to identify what’s next!