Technology is shaping our lives in more ways than we can imagine. New tech start-ups keep rising in huge numbers, all working to find technological solutions for all kinds of problems that we encounter. For any such technology company, technographic data is the type of information that is of special interest. However, technographics are of use not only for tech firms but also for pretty much any data-driven business. So, what exactly is this kind of data about? Read on to find out technographic data definition, where it comes from, and how it can benefit your business.
Technographic data definition
Let us start by going over what exactly is technographics and what they are supposed to inform us about. Technographic data definition must include two key concepts.
The first one, quite naturally, is technology. Technographics are all sorts of data that describe a company’s technological stack. They include information about the technological solutions the firms use, both software and hardware tools, and how they implement technological innovations. Technographic data can also cover the level to which the firm automates its daily procedure and how up-to-date its technological solutions are.
The second crucial concept for the technographic data definition is firmographics. Technographics can be considered part of firmographic data that helps to categorize companies by their various features. Firmographics define such fundamental features as company size, age, industry, and profit rates. Adding technographic data to these fundamentals deepens the knowledge about the firms in question.
Top use cases for technographic data
All sorts of data about firms help businesses to better understand the market conditions in which they have to operate. Technographic data is no exception. And as with other kinds of alternative data, technographics can help companies in multiple ways.
The list of use cases for technographic data could be very long and varied. Thus, let us focus on just a few examples in detail, to see how this type of data works to advance business goals.
1) Competitive intelligence. Technographic data is a great way to learn about one’s competitors. Since business success depends highly on the company’s ability to adopt innovations, knowing how good other firms in the industry are at it is crucial to keep up with them. Technographics help to recognize key competitors and understand how they are able to reach high performance and great results. This allows for staying in the same league with them or even going higher.
2) Boosting firmographic segmentation. As mentioned, firmographics plays a role in the technographic data definition. In fact, technographics could be considered a special kind of firmographic data. Technographic segmentation which would categorize companies based on their technology stack is in itself a great method for marketing. But technographics can also be used in firmographic segmentation to get even more varied and detailed categories of the companies that could become clients.
3) Investment intelligence. Investors are always on the lookout for firms on the rise that can provide a promising investment opportunity. Naturally, these days the way companies innovate and utilize technology tells a lot about their potential and capabilities. Technographic data can help identify the most tech-savvy start-ups in the market or notice the technological advantage of some small businesses over others in their industry. This makes technographics a very powerful part of investment intelligence.
4) Market research. Technographic data also provides an opportunity to better understand the current market conditions in various industries. The role of technology in these markets can tell a lot about today’s trends as well as what to expect in the future. Thus, both academic researchers and research firms utilize technographics to draw important conclusions about specific industries and markets.
5) Improving in-house technological stack. Learning from others is a great way to make improvements in yourself. Businesses can do it best with the help of data. If you are looking for ideas on how technology could boost business, technographic data is exactly what you need. By looking at this data, executives will find new and overlooked tools, best practices in the implementation of automatic solutions, and insights into making the most out of technology. These insights are sure to help when it is time to update the technical side of your business.
Evaluating technological stack
Having covered technographic data definition and use cases, we have one more thing to briefly
consider. Technographic data is meant to help evaluate the company’s features that are in one way, or another related to technology. One might wonder how exactly the evaluation part goes.
The answer is that it can go in many different ways, depending on the evaluator’s needs and creativity. One can create their own methodology by assigning numerical values to particular tools or platforms. Additionally, various levels of technological advancement could be defined in order to score and categorize companies.
For B2B firms, scoring businesses in such a way helps to immediately see the potential value of doing business with them. Naturally, investors also benefit from the clarity provided by categorization based on technographic data. Technological capabilities scores can enrich computer modeling for investment decision-making, thus helping to forecast the best financial moves.
Therefore, evaluating firms based on their relationship with technology is a versatile method to boost success in business and investment. And here once again technology can help us. Software tools make scoring and categorizing companies easy once the methodology is settled. Thus, now is the time to use technology for everything, including understanding technology itself.
