Benefits of a Technology Watch Mechanism
The task of the Technology Watch is to observe, track, filter out and assess potential technologies from a very wide field extending beyond the normal confines of the sector. A Technology Watch process can be broken down into four main phases: a needs audit, data collection, processing of the data collected and integration and dissemination of the results.
The Technology Watch process must be capable of identifying any scientific or technical innovation with potential to create opportunities or avoid threats.
Stakeholder requirements for Technology Watch
On April 23th, 2009 a workshop was organised in order to better define the stakeholder requirements for Technology Watch.
Participants were those with responsibilities within their organisation for maintaining awareness of their technology area and the broader impact of external developments, thus including Technology Managers, Technology Watch Practitioners and Horizon Scanners.
22 people from Industry and Academia participated in the workshop.
During the workshop a number of presentations were given:
- Introduction to CREATE by Trevor Truman (Expert consultant)
- Purpose and Value of Technology Watch by Alison Desimone (Qinetiq)
- Technology Watch Break Out Sessions by Gernot Stenz
Technology Watch Tool
illumin8 is a Technology Watch web based tool that extracts solutions in the form of products, organizations, approaches, and experts.
illumin8 was specifically designed to help corporate R&D knowledge workers with their Technology Intelligence questions.
It quickly transforms vast amounts of information into solutions to research problems while providing insights, and supporting decision making.
On the illumin8 website you can find an illumin8 overview and an instructive demo.