3 Key Technology Scouting Software Differentiators to Consider
Technology scouting software differentiators that really matter.
Do you know what technology scouting software differentiators would truly make all the difference for your scouting and innovation needs? There are many entities within the innovation industry that claim their fame of being the best of the best in technology scouting software. These systems help businesses scout for technology better, easier, and faster in a more concise fashion, but do they really provide the functionality and features one would like to have in a system like this?
After years of experience developing and analyzing innovation software systems, we are here to tell you about the technology scouting software differentiators that will make your investment greater than you may even imagine yourself.
Software selection for your technology scouting needs can seem daunting as you seek to improve research and development, time-to-innovate, startup identification, subject matter expert discovery and so much more. If you’re struggling with what features and functionalities will be the best fit for your organization, it’s important to be forward-thinking in how you want to employ your strategies to facilitate as much of your technology scouting needs as possible, to make the right choice for your business.
Scraping, mining and gathering data for the technology you are scouting is perceived as the easy part. It’s what you can do with all of that data once discovered that is key to the technology scouting software differentiators perspective outlined here.
Technology Scouting Differentiator #1
Filter Out the Noise
Now that you have all of universal data for the technology you are scouting what can you do now? Most technology scouting software platforms have the keyword cluster that identifies what is trending in that technology across all of the data scraped and mined. So, for example, if we were to look at artificial intelligence emerging technology, you’ll be able to see, quickly, what the top technology focus areas are such as: logistics, automotive, manufacturing, robotics and so on.
While you want your system to include specific focus areas, you also want your system to be able to exclude specific content. If you want to identify emerging technology or identify startups that have some cutting edge technology but you do not want to focus on the saturated automotive market or logistics, you will want your system to be able to allow you to exclude specific terms and key phrases. This can really help you drill-down deep into a category and find success faster. Include functionality would work the same way and is pretty standard across all systems.
Technology Scouting Differentiator #2
Select Key Components for Your Project
Software providers are effective in pulling in the data and many organize it well within the high-level categories like: patents, scientific journal publications, startup products, corporation products, trademarks, web content and several others. What many do not do, is allow you to select those of interest and drop them into a project of some sort.
Once you pull in the thousands of results and drill down to potentially hundreds or narrow down even further to a select dozen or so you will want to be able to select those scouting targets of interest. For example, you may want to select the startups that catch their interest; or the patents to further research and collaborate on; or choose subject matter experts they may want to engage with.
Your technology scouting software platform should allow you to select the individual result from within the main category and create a project with your technology scouting findings.
Each one provides a glimpse on the trends, technology shifts, and startups that have the potential to impact a particular industry. Those lucky enough to attend will walk the show floor, sit in on keynotes, take meetings in suites, experience demos — and no doubt, hoist a few complimentary cocktails at networking receptions.
Let’s go with a startup acquisition technology scouting project. Once you’ve narrowed down your scouting search within the technology scouting software platform, and your search has identified 10 startups that you want to further investigate your platform should allow you to select those and start a project. At a minimum, your system should allow you to create a project within the platform.
This then leads me to our last, but not least, differentiator of the day…
Each one provides a glimpse on the trends, technology shifts, and startups that have the potential to impact a particular industry. Those lucky enough to attend will walk the show floor, sit in on keynotes, take meetings in suites, experience demos — and no doubt, hoist a few complimentary cocktails at networking receptions.
Differentiator #3
Integration with Project and/or Collaboration Systems You Already Utilize
Even more desirable with will be to export your project outside of the platform to a system that your business currently utilizes like Zoho, Microsoft Team, Microsoft Sharepoint, BaseCamp, or Slack, just to name a few. Within the technology scouting software platform, you will want to select your 10 startups of interest and share or export to your project platform of choice to then collaborate as your teams perform today, seamlessly.
Why reinvent the wheel and train your team to use another project management tool or collaboration tool? You shouldn’t have to.
A crucial technology scouting software differentiator is to ensure your system of choice integrates with these types of platforms:
- Zoho Project Management
- Zoho Workplace
- BaseCamp
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Microsoft Yammer
- Microsoft Flow
- Microsoft Power Automate
- DocuSign