Technology scouting activities proposed by CRIT represents a powerful aid for enterprises in the selection of both technologies and technology partners most suitable for develop innovation of products and processes and to define an enterprise strategy consistent with the leading trends of the sectors in which the enterprises operates.
A technology scouting is:
Different types of technology scouting address different needs of enterprises:
During years, CRIT developed a significant experience in this context, realizing more than 300 technology scouting activities for various clients, such as for example:
When facing an innovation process, enterprises may need detailed information on a new emerging technology or to verify the possibility to replace an existing technology with alternative solutions.
Technology Scouting – State of the Art provided by CRIT is based on a focused research and analysis process of scientific-technical documentation regarding a particular technology of interest of the client company.
Through this scouting research, the enterprise can:
Technology Scouting – State of the Art by CRIT provides a service researching and analyzing technical and scientific documentation regarding a particular technology of interest of the client company. The Scouting – State of the Art comprises a systematic study of the know-how and the technical documentation based on specialized data bases such as Thomson Innovation® or DIALOG®, proprietary information (data base CRIT Research™) and information available from internet resources. This kind of scouting activity can be complemented by integrating patent information, consultancy services by research centers and/or experts from the sector, market data, etc.
The results of Technology Scouting – State of the Art are provided in form of a personalized report and/or a multimedia CD. With respect to the client’s wishes the document can be written in Italian, English or Spanish. The Technology Scouting – State of the Art may be combined with other kinds of scouting such as Technology Scouting – Key Players, Suppliers and Competencies and Technology Scouting – Patent Analysis.
During the latest years, clients of CRIT received support in the realization of the following scouting researches:
Innovation processes applied to products always require search of new technologies, processes and always high performing materials. During its initial stage, technological problems apparently unbearable can be encountered. Nevertheless, in most of cases it is not necessary to invent a completely new idea: sometimes solutions are already available, they are only applied in different environments.
The activity Technology Scouting – Problem Solving has been designed to respond to the needs of companies encountering technological hurdles in the development of new innovative process and products. CRIT gained expertise and competence over the years in the research and identification of all the possible solutions either already existing or under development (in research centers, universities, enterprises, start-up, etc.) which potentially show capability to solve technical problems and formulating a preliminary feasibility study for their application in the elimination of gaps. The activity is supported by the utilization of other specific tools formulated for the solution of technical problems, such as TRIZ methodology.
This type of Scouting allows enterprise to:
During the latest years, CRIT assisted client enterprises in the solution of problems relevant to the following thematic areas:
The search of technology partners for the realization of innovation processes can be crucial for an enterprise in order to be able to have a clear and complete picture of the most important actors operating within a specific technology sector: for this reason it is important also to carry out a preliminary analysis of products and relevant characteristics.
The Technology Scouting – Key Players/Suppliers/Competencies is a service specifically dedicated to the identification and collection of all the information on the main players and technological competencies in the framework of a specific technology sector of interest for clients (competencies centers, enterprises, experts in the sector, etc.).This type of Scouting allows enterprise to:
During the latest years, CRIT assisted client enterprises in the solution of problems relevant to the following thematic areas:
During their process to innovation, enterprises can experience the necessity to monitor the research and development activities of their competitor or to better understand the dynamics of patenting processes and patent search for a specific technology thematic area.
The Technology Scouting – Patent Analysis developed by CRIT is a service based on the research and analysis of patents, aiming at the positioning of one or more competitors (competitive intelligence) and/or the examination of the competitive dynamics within a technological area of interest for the enterprise (technology intelligence).
On the basis of the specific requirements defined by clients, CRIT is able to design a focused search strategy, performing the relevant queries on professional tools able to guarantee an high quality standards of the information collected as well as a wide coverage of topics. The analysis phase is also supported by advanced text mining kits and tools which allow the examination of large amount of documents (i.e. thousands of records), eventually originated by the proprietary sources of the client company.
Based on the analysis of the patent literature it is possible to:
During the latest years, CRIT supported its clients in Patent Analysis carried out in the following sectors:
Technology progress is nowadays exponentially spreading; due to the always increasing demanding of technology innovative solutions, enterprises need to make a difference from competitors and place on the market novel successful products, adopting the new competitve dynamics, emerging trends and alternative scenarios generating from all these disruptive constraints.
The Technology Scouting – Technology Foresight offered by CRIT are based on activities of research and analysis of technical-scientific documentation, aiming to assist enterprises in their needs to be always updated and tuned on the latest technology progresses. The starting point of Technology Foresight Scoutings is a tight and focused monitoring of the most promising and emerging innovative technologies, either on periodical basis and on fixed term.
The outcome of Technology Foresight Scouting is a synthetic report, mainly focused on geographical visualization (conceptual maps, graphs, tables, matrices, etc.) which is intended to introduce the final user to an unknown technology, for which not necessarily should exist an immediate application: clients can evaluate the impact of the proposed study on their business with a short or long term plan of adaptation. At the same time, the Technology Foresight Scouting is useful to provide an overview on the possible alternative technological solutions relevant to a selected thematic area, rather than a vertical and deepen study like the format of other Scouting research activities carried out by CRIT, which explore in details technological solutions already known by clients and acting as a support to validate choices of enterprises with objective informations.
Research and analysis activities are carried out exclusively through special patent search engines or on specialized technical and scientific literature information available on professional platforms for documental research, of property of CRIT.
The report presented at the end of the research activity is characterized by the following simplified structure:
During the latest years, CRIT supported its clients with Technology Foresight activities focusing in the following sectors:
During the various phases characterizing an innovation process, Research & Development Departments of enterprises may need to have rapid access to a targeted collection of technological information to be used, for instance, for a first rapid survey on a specific thematic area.
The Scouting – Quick Search service of CRIT is based on a research and collection of technical and scientific information, with the aim to deliver in short times a very fundamental report, containing essentially high quality information gathered through the use of specialized databases.
The activity is carried out through an analysis or elaboration of a collection of information associated to the activation of contacts with selected subjects identified during the research work and operating in the field of interest.
The Quick Search Scouting presents the following features:
Quick Search can be also requested to support enterprises in the identification of documents which may be used for the demonstration of IP or patents infringements.
