Business appraisal of technology potential

'What is this technology worth?' is a perennial question faced by technology managers.

Trying to answer it involves grappling with some fundamental challenges:

• market and technology forecasts are inherently uncertain
• technologies and the route to exploitation are complex
• attributing future revenue to specific technologies is difficult
• decisions often have to be made with limited knowledge
• focusing on risk avoidance can discourage innovation

A research project was completed to 2006, exploring these issues.

Marketing technology

Building on interest generated in the BATP project in the area of evaluating early stage technology, this project focused on the process of building the business case for technology that has just left research and needs further funding, either internally or externally. The project team worked with mid-size and large companies to capture and analyse current practice. A five step process was developed with strong emphasis on working together with the internal or external customer to build a successful business case.

The steps are:

• Step 1: Identify: What problems can our technology solve?
• Step 2: Select: How do we select potential customers?
• Step 3: Understand: What do these customers really need?
• Step 4: Develop: How can we develop a joint business case (with the customer)?
• Step 5: Present: How do we present the case to close the deal?

The output is a guide that contains case examples of the process of building the business case and hints and tips on how to improve practice.

The guide, entitled Making the Business Case for Technologies: A five step process guide is available.

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