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The step prior to R&D success

For many companies, innovation is not always profitable. Researching compounds which already exist, producing something which the market no longer wants or developing prototypes with are in the hands of other companies is often too expensive.

Technology intelligence allows companies to monitor the technological developments of competing company, to know the markets in which they move, who works for them and where they work.

It also allows them to determine the development of interest in the technology, to detect emerging technologies or those which are becoming obsolete, technologies which trigger the appearance of others, which makes it possible to identify market niches, new agents, and suppliers who may become competitors.

Intelligence starts by identifying an information need and collecting the relevant information, and finishes with filtering and analysis for decision making.

Technology intelligence is often considered an expensive process, based on major software solutions, which takes place over a long period of time and which is only for large companies.

However, intelligence is one of the few horizontal disciplines, applicable to every type of organisation, irrespective of its size, every sector and every geographical area.

The pillar for any intelligence system is the human specialist, capable of collecting information and carrying out an initial filtering process.

It is not necessary to have major software programs nor to allocate extensive economic resources. Identifying sources and filtering, which seems easy to understand, is not so easy to execute.

There are many types of information source, which are always disperse and often in different formats and languages. However, nobody measures the importance of an activity only by how complicated the process is, but also by the results it brings.

We can anticipate and prepare our organisation for future changes in legislation, in the rules which affect our products, in consumer interest or in our customers’ import policy.

Detecting and analysing signals is one of the advantages of technology intelligence. Correct interpretation of the data is essential for good decision-making or for predicting future scenarios.

And if everybody implements an intelligence process? Faced with common use of information, the difference lies in the use which is made of the knowledge, the quality of what is done and constant innovation: intelligent use of intelligence.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles