Technology Watch is a crucial practice in today’s business world. It involves the systematic observation and analysis of emerging technologies to inform strategic decision-making. Technology watch has become an essential process for companies to monitor their environment and identify early signals of technological changes, risks, or new markets.
Information about technology, competition, the environment, or commercial information (clients, suppliers, markets, etc.) is absolutely essential for making strategic decisions (Carbonell, 2019). As a business owner, you must always be on the lookout for opportunities. Additionally, technology can influence the reduction of operating costs, quality control, increase in production scale, or provide a competitive advantage for the industry (Filho and de Macedo, 2021).
As Carbonell (2019) highlights, being competitive, surviving, leading, differentiating, or innovating requires knowing very well what is happening and anticipating events to set the right course for our company.
Technology Watch, linked to competitive intelligence, is a basic element of the R&D&I Management System, as it will allow focusing on developments critical to an organization and outsourcing those of lesser strategic importance. It will also help identify the best technological partners and minimize R&D&I efforts by leveraging the latest existing developments.
The purpose of this article is to provide you with basic knowledge of technology watch, its advantages, some implementation examples, and the existing tools and software.
What is Technology Watch?
Technology watch is the process of identifying, collecting, and analyzing information about emerging technologies. This practice enables companies to anticipate changes, adapt their strategies, and stay competitive in an ever-evolving environment. In my experience, implementing a technology watch system has been fundamental in anticipating trends and making informed decisions in my company.
It is important to note that technology watch is one of the pillars of strategic watch that includes scientific and technical information (San Juan and Romero, 2016); this information can be obtained from scientific journals, patents, technological fairs, etc.
The UNE 166006:2011 standard defines Technology Watch as an “organized, selective, and systematic process for capturing information from the external and internal environment on science and technology, selecting, analyzing, disseminating, and communicating it to turn it into knowledge to make decisions with less risk and anticipate changes.”
However, it is important to note that the UNE 166006:2011 standard has been replaced by the UNE 166006:2018 standard, which unifies the processes of technology watch and competitive intelligence.
Technology Watch and Competitive Intelligence
OVTT highlights that watch and intelligence are related, stating that “watch focuses on detecting and monitoring strategic information for the organization, while intelligence focuses on understanding, interpreting, and contextualizing that information to turn it into useful knowledge for the organization.”
In this regard, it is important to mention that “Competitive Intelligence is based on analyzing and obtaining information directly related to your competitors (current and potential), studying their products, conducting benchmarking, their market strategies, among others,” highlights the Fundación Empresa-Universidad Gallega (FEUGA).
Furthermore, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the UNE 166006:2018 standard for “R&D&I Management: Watch and Intelligence System” unifies the concepts of watch and intelligence.
The standard defines the concept of watch and intelligence as “the ethical and systematic process of collecting and analyzing information about the business environment, competitors, and the organization itself, and communicating its meaning and implications for decision-making.”
In this sense, technology watch is part of the Competitive Intelligence (CI) process. Thus, technology watch involves information gathering, while competitive intelligence focuses on qualitative and quantitative analysis to guide strategic planning and decision-making.
Types of Technology Watch
Generally, the term “Technology Watch” is used to include other types of watch, such as environmental, commercial, or competitive watch; in this sense, the more accurate term should be “Strategic Watch,” which includes the following types:
- Environmental Watch: Identification, evaluation, and use of information about legislation, environmental and sociocultural aspects.
- Commercial Watch: Identification, evaluation, and anticipation of consumption needs, lifestyle, and sociocultural demand trends. In other words, we analyze our clients, suppliers, and markets.
- Competitive Watch: Evaluation of competitors and identification and evaluation of products and services in development or available in leading markets. It includes an analysis of current and potential competitors.
- Technology Watch: Identification, evaluation, and use of weak signals to recognize and warn at an early stage, emerging technologies, technological discontinuities (disruptive innovations), opportunities, and threats.
An important aspect of the linkage between technology watch and competitive intelligence is who executes it. If a single company does it, both processes can be developed; however, if the watch process is carried out by a guild, association, or other business organization, competitive intelligence is performed individually by each company.
Objective of Technology Watch
Watch allows obtaining valuable strategic information in a focused and continuous manner to reduce decision-making risk (Carbonell, 2019).
Destex (2021) highlights that a good technology watch process should provide you with useful information about:
- Technologies being researched (published or patented) in a specific field
- Available technological solutions
- Emerging technologies
- Technology dynamics (most popular and obsolete technologies)
- Trends in research and technology lines in leading competitor companies
- Centers, teams, and research leaders generating new technologies capable of transferring those technologies.
Importance of Technology Watch Activities for Companies
Technology watch activities are essential for any company seeking to stay at the forefront. These activities include identifying new technologies, analyzing their potential impact, and evaluating their relevance to the company. Technology watch not only helps identify innovation opportunities but also mitigates risks associated with adopting new technologies.
Destex (2021) highlights that the benefits of implementing a technology watch and competitive intelligence process for companies can be summarized as an improvement in the company’s position, adding value to products and services, and reducing risk.
Some of the advantages of having a technology watch process in your company are:
- Anticipation: With scientific-technological information, the company can anticipate the emergence of new technologies, products, or competitors.
- Risk Reduction: Constant watch will allow identifying signals of change, thereby minimizing risks associated with innovation.
- Cooperation: You can identify cooperation opportunities with the most suitable partners, thus opening new market opportunities and/or facilitating the integration of new technological advancements into your own products and processes.
- Comparison: Watch will enable you to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competition.
- Innovation: Watch allows the identification of improvement opportunities and sources of innovative ideas in the market.
- R&D Program: Watch helps decide the R&D program and its strategy.
Impact of Technology Surveillance on Business Decision-Making
Technology surveillance, along with competitive intelligence, directly influences business decision-making by providing crucial information about the technological environment. This information allows business leaders to make informed decisions about investments, product development, and market strategies.
In my experience, decisions based on data obtained from technology surveillance have resulted in significant improvements in our operations and competitiveness, as it allows us to know what technologies, methodologies, and tools are available and can be included in our activities.
Difference Between Technology Surveillance and Technology Foresight
At this point, you might be wondering, what is the difference between technology surveillance and technology foresight?
Although they may seem synonymous, the fundamental difference between technology surveillance and technology foresight is their time horizon. Surveillance keeps us informed of short-term changes, while foresight addresses medium and long-term trends.
In other words, while technology surveillance is the continuous monitoring of the environment, technology foresight is an exercise that looks at medium and long-term trends. However, technology surveillance can contribute to foresight studies.
Examples of Technology Surveillance Activities
The implementation of technology surveillance processes has become a competitive variable for many companies or industries. Here are some examples:
Advanced Technologies for Industry
The “Advanced Technology Watch” report published by the European Commission (2021) focuses on Blockchain as one of the key technologies that will impact the European financial and banking sector, as well as other industries.
You can find technology surveillance reports on the automotive industry, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence, Agriculture 4.0, among others, published by the European Commission in “Technology Watch“.
Tourism Sector
Moya and Moscoso (2017) developed a proposal for the application of technology surveillance and competitive intelligence tools to seek better business performance in the Colombian hotel sector.
On the other hand, Ramírez et al., (2024) identified technological trends applied to marketing, sales, and commercialization in the tourism sector through the proposal and application of a technology surveillance model and the creation of bibliometric maps. They recommend the use of technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, geolocation, and big data in the link between marketing and artificial intelligence, IoT, big data, and virtual reality for the link between sales.
Advanced Textile Manufacturing – Destex Project
The European project Destex (INDUSTRIAL AND CREATIVE DESIGN IN ADVANCED TEXTILE MANUFACTURING) is a platform that provides the necessary tools to introduce innovation in the advanced textile manufacturing sector.
Perfumery-Cosmetics Sector
Ghoul et al., (2024) report the use of machine learning, a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to implement an information system (IS) for continuous semi-automatic strategic surveillance for the perfumery-cosmetics sector: from collective intelligence web scraping to the classification of articles using AI models.
Fish Farming
Zartha et al. (2017) describe the application of technology surveillance in the by-products of Colombian fish farming. The researchers describe the value chain and the methodology followed in the search for information in scientific article databases such as Scopus and patent databases such as WIPO.
Implementation of Technology Surveillance Processes
López et al. (2016) present a proposal for the development and implementation of a technology surveillance process based on systematic literature review protocols; with the aim of providing access, management, and contextualization of scientific and technical knowledge that are at the forefront of technologies supporting business strategy.
How to Conduct Technology Surveillance?
Yáñez et al., (2023) emphasize that it is important to understand that technology surveillance is not a unique strategic tool of a single department in a company but the result of the work of multiple departments simultaneously. Therefore, if you are going to implement a technology surveillance system in your company, you should consider a department to lead the process, but all others should contribute to the system.
Also, if you are interested in implementing a technology surveillance process, you should consider the following phases:
Identification of Critical Factors
To start your technology surveillance process, the first thing you need to do is define the critical surveillance factors. Based on these factors, information search, screening, and subsequent analysis will be conducted.
OVTT recommends the following strategies for tracking critical factors:
- On strategic decisions: Linked to strategic planning and its implementation, including: R&D&I policy, business plans, investment decisions, internationalization, etc.
- On early signals: Aiming to identify potential threats and opportunities for the organization. It should monitor trends, new technologies, legislative changes, market niches, etc.
- On key actors: Related to tracking key market players, including competitors, customers, suppliers, partners, regulators, public decision-makers, etc.
Information Search and Capture
Based on the identified critical factors, you should define the objectives of the information search and develop your strategy for collecting that information.
The strategy should include needs, locating information (sources), and capturing it in an organized manner (software).
In this sense, you should identify keywords, validate them with experts, select relevant information sources, formulate search equations, and prepare records.
Some sources of information include:
- Technological offers and demands
- Patents and research results
- Fairs and congresses
- Regulations and legislation
- Funding calls and aids
- Innovative projects and best practices
- Open learning resources, among others.
Filtering and Analysis of Information
An expert or group of experts should be responsible for filtering the information of interest. They should combine information validation criteria, analytical techniques, and specialized software tools.
Also, you should analyze the identified information and validate the potential impacts of the technologies. Regarding this, Vekinis (2023) indicates that the value of a new idea for a technology is a relative quantity and is often determined in comparison or juxtaposition with other competing technologies for the same application.
From the analysis, conclusions and recommendations are reached.
Communication of Findings
At this stage, you must disseminate the results to the people responsible for decision-making in the company. Therefore, you should design an internal communication strategy.
Technology Surveillance Tools
An important aspect of implementing your technology surveillance and competitive intelligence process is identifying your information sources. In this regard, two types can be identified:
- Informal sources: competitors, suppliers, customers, subcontractors, fairs, congresses, seminars, conferences, trade missions, committees, collaborators, employees, among others.
- Formal sources: press, patents, databases, publications from other companies, publications from governmental entities, books, scientific articles, among others.
Among the software tools that can help you implement your technology surveillance process are:
- Alerts: These are based on subscription or syndication (RSS), or you can use Google’s Alerts tool to receive all the information published daily or weekly on your topics of interest in your email.
Specialized search engines
- Specialized databases: scientific articles (Scielo, Science Direct, Scopus, Researchgate, etc.), patents (Espacenet, PatentScope, Google Patents, etc.), thesis databases (TESEO, OATD, Open Research, etc.).
Additionally, Ghoul et al., (2024) report the use of artificial intelligence to semi-automate the technology surveillance process.
Software for Technology Surveillance
Before hiring or purchasing software to perform technology surveillance and competitive intelligence, you should first analyze the scope and objectives of your process. Perhaps with just Google alerts, you can achieve your objectives.
Here is a list of software that offer technology surveillance services:
- HONTZA: Free Software Platform that supports the entire cycle of Competitive and Strategic Intelligence.
- SOFTVT: Technology surveillance tool.
- VICUBO: Software for technology surveillance and competitive intelligence.
- Vigiale: Technology Surveillance and Technological Innovation Management.
- Innguma: Competitive Intelligence and Technology Surveillance Software.
- InTool: Tool that allows you to automate and manage the internal and external information of your organization to generate knowledge.
- MUSSOL: Comprehensive solution for automating the competitive intelligence function in organizations within the framework of their innovation strategies.
- Tekniker: Software that allows easy management of an organization’s information flows.
- TIBCO : Intelligence platform that connects any application or data source.
Conclusion
Technology surveillance is an indispensable tool for companies looking to remain competitive in a constantly changing technological environment. Through the identification and analysis of emerging technologies, companies can anticipate trends, mitigate risks, and seize new opportunities. The integration of advanced tools and continuous training are key to overcoming the challenges associated with technology surveillance and ensuring its long-term success.
In this regard, the process of technology surveillance and competitive intelligence is a must if you want to stay competitive or innovate in your company. There are many tools available for technology surveillance, from simple alerts to database searches.
The advantages offered by technology surveillance tools are numerous and significant—don’t miss out on them; your competition may be using them.
References
Carbonell Martínez, A. (2019). Vigilancia tecnológica e inteligencia competitiva al servicio de la innovación. 3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme, 8(4), 61-69. doi: http://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2019.v8n4e32.61-69
Destex. 2021. Technological watch: how to do technological watch, tools and references on advanced textile materials. 24 p.
European Commission. 2021. Advanced technologies for industry – AT watch : technology focus on blockchain. Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and the European Innovation Council and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Executive Agency. 31 p.
Filho, D.S.M.P., de Macedo, D.D.J. A model for automated technological surveillance of web portals and social networks. J Intell Inf Syst 56, 561–579 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10844-021-00641-0
Ghoul, D., Patrix, J., Oulmakki, O., & Verny, J. (2024). Information system of strategic watch to rank innovation article by Machine Learning models. Procedia Computer Science, 234, 772-779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2024.03.063
López, Ana, Méndez, Diego, Paz, Andrés, & Arboleda, Hugo. (2016). Desarrollo e Instrumentación de un Proceso de Vigilancia Tecnológica basado en Protocolos de Revisión Sistemática de la Literatura. Información tecnológica, 27(4), 155-164. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07642016000400017
Moya-Espinosa, P. I., & Moscoso-Durán, F. F. (2017). Vigilancia tecnológica e inteligencia competitiva en el modelo empresarial del sector hotelero colombiano. Rev.investig.desarro.innov, 8(1), 11-22. doi: 10.19053/20278306.v8.n1.2017.7367
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Ramírez, M.C.F., Pelaez, L.M.A., Silva, M.I.L., Rojas, L.A.R. (2024). Technology Watch Applied to Tourism Marketing, Commercialization and Sales. In: Reis, J.L., Del Rio Araujo, M., Reis, L.P., dos Santos, J.P.M. (eds) Marketing and Smart Technologies. ICMarkTech 2022. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 344. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0333-7_39
San Juan, Yelena Islen, & Romero Rodríguez, Felix Ivan (2016). Modelos y herramientas para la vigilancia tecnológica. Ciencias de la Información, 47(2),11-18.[fecha de Consulta 4 de Octubre de 2021]. ISSN: 0864-4659. Disponible en: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=181452083002
UNE 166006:2018. Gestión de la I+D+i: Sistema de vigilancia e inteligencia.
Vekinis, G. (2023). How Do You Determine If a New Technology Has Value?. In: Mastering Technology Transfer: From Invention to Innovation. Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44369-5_8
Yáñez León, S. (2023). Estudio sobre la implementación de la vigilancia tecnológica en las empresas Españolas y su contribución a la consecución de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible. Tesis doctora.
Zartha, J. W. S., Hoyos, J. L. C., Montes, J. M. H., Vargas, E. E. M., Hernandez, R. Z., Rojas, G. L. F., Orozco, G. L. M., & Alvarez, V. T. R. (2017). Technological surveillance in byproducts from the fish agroindustry. Espacios. Volume 38, Issue 32, 2017, Article number 15
