WHY DO TECHNOLOGY MONITORING?

Technology monitoring is generally central to the strategic decisions of innovative organizations. It allows a company to:

• To monitor the activity of its competitors , or to detect new ones (from different technical fields)
• upcoming innovations
• Having a very precise understanding of their patent filings and countering them in a timely manner if necessary
• Mastering your technological environment.
• Identifying weak signals that herald new technologies
• Detecting threats and opportunities in a timely manner
• Finding the right partners , or even clients in some cases

HOW TO IMPLEMENT AN EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY MONITORING PROCESS?

Setting up a monitoring system isn't something you can do on a whim. Here are the 6 steps we recommend you follow to act methodically and dedicate just the right amount of time to it:

• Define the monitoring areas and deliverables . First, you need to determine the objectives of the monitoring (why?) and the key information you want to gain from your monitoring work. Depending on whether you are looking to obtain data on available technologies, inform your patent filing strategy, or anticipate your competitors' actions, your approach will differ.
• Organizing your monitoring . Is this a one-off monitoring activity (a state-of-the-art review, for example, or a patent landscape) or an ongoing monitoring system? Do you have the resources to carry out this monitoring work internally, or is it preferable to use external consultants? What internal scientific expertise do you need to mobilize? What tools do you have available? And what tools would you need (databases, analysis, dissemination, etc.)?

• Identify the sources . Where is the information that might interest you located? In patent databases, scientific publications? On the web, in the business press? The difficulty is that it is sometimes hard to know where the information is located before you have looked for it… Without a dedicated tool, you may be forced to restrict your search scope to avoid being overwhelmed by a mass of irrelevant information.
• Gathering information . In relation to the strategic question you wish to answer, you will build a search strategy using relevant keywords linked by Boolean operators (And, Or, Not, Proximity, etc.). Unfortunately, even with a carefully selected set of keywords, you may quickly find yourself faced with a large number of relevant documents.

• Analyze and synthesize information . Once the information has been sorted, stored, and made usable, it must now be given meaning. What trends have been observed and how can they be interpreted? In which areas are competitors innovating? Are there new players? What are the notable opportunities and threats?
• Leveraging the results of your monitoring . Finally, it's time to share and disseminate the collected information. Say goodbye to those unwieldy Excel spreadsheets: opt for data visualization to present your results in a clear and engaging way. Effective formatting will make it easier for your colleagues and management to draw interesting connections and generate ideas worth exploring. Conversely, the dry task of reading 80 Chinese patents can quickly discourage even the most dedicated…

TECHNOLOGY MONITORING: 3 CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS

Finding the right information in the age of information overload

Every year, across all fields, millions of data points are produced globally, via a multitude of different sites or databases, structured or unstructured. The risk today is missing crucial information, a weak but significant signal.

The arrival of the internet may have led us to believe, because information is now very easily accessible, that monitoring would be easier to do, and that everyone would be able to do their own surveillance.

However, with the sheer volume of information now available, accessing the right information—the information with a strategic impact— . The challenge, therefore, lies in equipping ourselves to select relevant information, regardless of the noise and sheer volume of data to be processed.

It is also essential for the company to be able to capitalize on the results of this monitoring. Otherwise, each time an employee leaves, a whole area of ​​knowledge disappears, and with it a substantial part of the intangible assets of an R&D or intellectual property team.

To restore to monitoring its full strategic dimension

Despite its strategic importance, technology monitoring is still too often neglected in companies. In large corporations, it's not uncommon for engineers to be responsible for monitoring, in addition to their R&D duties. As a result, they simply don't have the time to dedicate to it properly . And even when the company has dedicated analysts, these analysts are often overwhelmed with diverse requests and face a multitude of issues to address . Beyond traditional monitoring topics, they increasingly have to respond to ad hoc requests and struggle to keep up. Without methods and tools adapted to this new context, technology monitoring cannot be effective .

Equip yourself with the right technology monitoring tools

Web monitoring, access to databases with alert systems, patent databases, crawlers, scrapers… To carry out their monitoring work, analysts most often rely on single-source monitoring tools. These tools, taken individually, do not allow for a 360° view of the technological environment . This necessitates multiple subscriptions and analyses. Not to mention that database access is expensive, and each new subscription must be justified. Fortunately, technological alternatives exist today to simplify and optimize monitoring work, such as those offered by our software suite.

A multi-source monitoring tool, IPMetrix is ​​a SaaS software for monitoring and analysis perfectly suited to the new challenges of technology intelligence. Analyzing patents, scientific articles, theses, collaborative projects, company databases, web articles, and more, IPMetrix can process and analyze data and documents from across the entire scientific and technological literature: patents, scientific articles, collaborative projects, theses, web content, and more. Designed to foster collaboration and place monitoring at the heart of business decision-making, this software allows users to classify, detect, comment on, and share each piece of information with a single click. Its analysis and data visualization tools enable users to develop a solid understanding of the issues in a given field in just a few hours.

You can also use our other software solutions to support you in different aspects of your monitoring:

So, are you ready to give yourself the means to update your technological monitoring and put it back at the heart of your organization while saving money?