Technology scouting is a process wherein companies examine new or up-and-coming technologies, patents, studies, and/or markets for various business use cases. Technology scouting software assists businesses in finding this data and aligning it with business requirements, such as discovering potential markets or implementing innovative technologies in existing products. These tools aggregate data from a large variety of sources to help ensure a complete picture of what is being investigated, as well as providing information regarding competitor activity in the space and market trends.
Leadership across a variety of teams within a company might use these solutions to bring data-driven guidance to product or business ideas and goals, especially with context to a business’ competitors. Technology scouting software, then, works well as a component of a company’s competitive intelligence tool set.
To qualify for inclusion in the Technology Scouting category, a product must:
Identify current or emerging technologies, markets, studies, and/or patents based on business requirements
Consolidate identified data through dashboards, reports, etc. for easy digestion
Aid assessment of identified data toward business needs, innovation, and opportunities
Offer insights into how other businesses are acquiring or utilizing technologies, research, and/or patents