The Yellow Brick Road to Innovation: Technology Scouting

By Lucas Tang, Technology Scout

Reading time: 3 minutes ⏱

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For many companies, solving R&D challenges can reach a dead end as industry tunnel vision proves to be the decisive hurdle. Tried-and-tested technologies no longer meet innovation requirements, and new technologies are needed in order to remain competitive. Technology Scouting will help look beyond traditional means to gain an innovative and competitive advantage.

What is Technology Scouting?
Technology Scouting is an umbrella term for identifying technologies by gathering information from various resources (scientific papers, patents, websites, etc.). It is part of an innovation roadmap, performed by professionals to bring a broader insight to a technical challenge, and to remain at the forefront of innovation with existing and new technologies.

​Typically, Technology Scouting manifests itself in the early stages of an innovation roadmap, from scoping the challenge at hand, to developing and acquiring the solutions therefor. Typical examples of an innovation roadmap may comprise new product development or identifying emerging technologies and technical developments in the state-of-the-art.

Why use Technology Scouting?
Technology Scouting helps zoom out of the typical solution space and view the technical challenge from a wider perspective. In particular, sources within and outside the respective industry are explored, whereby existing solutions, that may be non-obvious and unheard at first, can be investigated to see if they can lead to an innovation.

(...) the global Technology Scouting Software market size is forecasted to boom upwards, and see huge growth by 2026

​​Furthermore, Technology Scouting supports efficient and effective innovation management. This includes risk planning, decision making, and identifying the long-term technological trends in the industry. It can also bring information in competitive intelligence to keep tabs on competitors’ innovation projects, which might prove to be a threat to future growth.
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What’s the market for Technology Scouting?
Given the seek to innovate more quickly and effectively, it is no surprise to see a huge investment into Technology Scouting. Many multinational companies, such as BMW and BAE systems, already have dedicated departments to foster emerging technologies and evaluate which ones have the potential to bring innovation.

At present, web-based software is the most popular tool for Technology Scouting, taking a share of 70% of the market, according to a market research report [1]. Furthermore, given its potential, growth isn’t expected to stagger any time soon either; the global Technology Scouting Software market size is forecasted to boom upwards, and see huge growth by 2026.

Conclusion
Technology Scouting proves to be a key part of an innovation roadmap. It helps identify existing and emerging technologies for innovation projects and supports strategic planning and competitive intelligence. With the market for Technology Scouting software predicted to boom over the next few years, so it seems the appetite to hunt innovation has just started.
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Sources
[1] http://www.precisionreports.co/global-technology-scouting-software-market-18819976

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