
Benchmarking IT tools for Strategic Foresight
Strategic Foresight (SF) is about the very early stage of innovation. It deals with the early spotting of signals which need to be interpreted and integrated into a firm’s innovation pipeline. In most cases, building Strategic Foresight capabilities in an organization successfully will benefit from IT tools to support the process.
Tools may support the trend and technology identification, evaluation, filtering and rating. The tool should ensure a structured collection of data, increase process transparency, and support the R&D and project planning processes. Tools are especially useful with regard to knowledge-sharing across business units: crowdsourcing knowledge from experts worldwide and integrating this knowledge in the early stages of the innovation process.
Our successful approach to implementing Strategic Foresight tools in organizations deliver 5 key benefits:
- Drawing attention:
Suitable formats of information are crucial to reach internal clients and gain their acceptance - Ensuring sufficient triangulation:
It is important to integrate multiple sources, such as internal scouts, experts and automated databases - Enabling crowdsourcing:
To draw from tacit knowledge of experts and to enable real-time discussions and knowledge exchange, incentive schemes should not be neglected - Organizing for scalability:
Foresight platforms need to be integrated into the core processes of data gathering, interpretation and usage. - Efficient participation:
It is very important to integrate decision-makers in the foresight process. Therefore, a combination of online activities and offline top management workshops are needed
We constantly monitor and benchmark the Strategic Foresight tool landscape to be able to recommend the best possible solution to our clients.
We benchmark tools that have reached a stable state and which address at least two out of three phases of the corporate foresight process (data gathering, interpretation and action). Through interviews, tutorials, research and actual testing, we conduct a thorough assessment of each tool across two dimensions 1) functionalities and 2) content.
Functionalities include the following aspects:
- Data Gathering
Focus: market, technology, both or other
Scope and integrated external sources (databases, scraping, etc.)
Integratability with own data sources, data pull - Interpretation
Scope and strength of analytical methods
Data visualization options and ease-of-use
Integration with other BI Tools
Strength of crowdsourcing functionality (e.g. surveys) - Action
User collaboration features
Assessment functional
Availability of idea management / ideation functionality
Interfaces to legacy systems, APIs - Usability & Technology
Data and illustration export
Underlying technologies and platforms
Integration possibilities, e.g. corporate SSO support, Google+ or Facebook login, etc.
Type of tool, esp. requirements for installation on PC vs. SaaS
Technological requirements for installation
Multilanguage support
Training and customer support
On content level, we have examined the following criteria:
- Quality of datasets
Number of data sources (external, internal, provided by tool supplier) - Regional reach
Geographic scope of data sources - Regularity
Frequency of data updates - Quality of information
Level of detail and availability of background information (additional links, sources, citations)
Availability of key figures and indicators - Time Horizon of analyses
Mix of short-, mid- and long-term information and reports - Innovation community
Compatibility with open innovation processes
Access to proprietary selected experts (innovation community)
If you would like to have more information on tools and how we can help strengthen your organization’s Corporate Foresight capabilities, contact us at info@rohrbeckheger.com.