Technology Management

• Technology can add economic value to organizations.

• Organizations can gain competitive advantage.

• Technology can improve the production of the existing goods and services.

• Technology can also improve new products, services and innovations.

• Technology can improve the relations among customers and organizations.

While the term “Technique” refers to the set of scientific knowledge and experience to use to accomplish tasks, technology is the ability of using the scientific knowledge and experience with the help of tools, machines and materials.

Technology Management is defined as a process for planning and controlling the necessary technologies to shape and realize the strategic and functional goals of the organizations.

• Human Resources Management

• Strategies and Politics

• Product or Service Development

• Marketing, organizations and program management

• Transferring of technology

• Corporations among universities and industries

• Organizational structures and procedures

• Planning and controlling, mathematical and statistical modelling

• Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship, International Entrepreneurship

• Supply chain management

Technology Management is defined as a process for planning and controlling the necessary technologies to shape and realize the strategic and functional goals of the organizations.

All efforts made for the process of “idea generation to innovation” including prototyping and R&D (research and development) activities and commercialization of innovations are the main areas of Innovation Management. The need for planning and managing R&D activities for the products and services to be commercialized are among the main subjects of R&D management. The diffusion of information and knowledge in organizations, using and managing them properly with technology to add value to organizations to survive in existing industries is important for Knowledge Management. The contributions of these management areas must be taken into consideration to explain the subprocesses and activities of technology management.

Identification

Selection

Acquisition

Exploitation

Protection

The general aim of this sub-process is to determine the possible benefits of existing technologies that might be important for organizations. Another aim of the technology identification is to reduce the environmental uncertainty.

1. Base Technologies

The common technologies used by the organizations and its competitors

• Long-linked technologies

• Mediating technologies

• Intensive technologies

2. Critical Technologies

refer to the technologies that can be seen as the most important technologies for an organization

3. Pacing Technologies

These are the required technologies that can cause several changes during the current production technologies of products and services and similar activities.

4. Emerging Technologies

These technologies have the ability of changing the current processes of organizations

Two main selection decisions can be made in organizations. One of them is the “make or buy decision” (also called the outsourcing decision). The decision type is given by management to manufacture a product or service in-house or purchase it from external suppliers from different industries. Many quantitative and qualitative techniques can be used in this decision type. Fixes, variable and total costs are the main factors for giving this decision. The other decision is the “keep or sell” decision, which is about the technology production of the organizations if they are going to use it in their own organization or sell this technology to other organizations to maximize the profit.

Critical Technologies refer to the technologies that can be seen as the most important technologies for an organization. They can also be defined as the technologies that meet the needs for long term strategies and goals for competitive advantage in industries. These technologies also cover the areas like assessing instruments for highly critical technologies, high capacity storage devices, artificial intelligence systems, production technologies, information technologies, cloud technologies, etc. 

These are the required technologies that can cause several changes during the current production technologies of products and services and similar activities. The aim of this type of technology is to make improvements and adjustments to the current technologies. Pacing Technologies can also be most critical to research and development planning decisions. 

1. Establish market-place requirements

2. Identify technology solutions

3. Classify technology solutions

4. Assess sources of technology acquisition

5. Make the technology decision.

Technology transfer has another key role for technology acquisition. Transferring of technology has many elements. It can be listed as follows:

1. Which organization will transfer the technology?

2. Which technology will be transferred?

3. To which organization technology will be transferred?

4. Under what circumstances the technology will be transferred?

5. How will the advantages and the disadvantages of technology transfer be determined?

Organizations acquire technology for several reasons. They can be listed as developing the technological capabilities, increasing strategic options, gaining efficiency improvements for reducing costs and increasing customers’ interests and responding to the competitive environment.

Organizations may acquire technology in two ways. The first one is the external acquisition where technologies are acquired from other organizations or industries. The second one is the internal acquisition, which is mostly about the R&D activities inside the organization.

• Planning

• Intelligence

• Negotiation

• Realization

• Control

Technology can be protected by the instruments listed below:

• Patents (legal right to exclude other organizations given by the government)

• Trademarks (Word, name, symbol, etc.)

• Copyrights (Protection of lierary work, musical work, dramatic work, sound recordings)

• Trade Secrets (Protecting the internal secret information)

• Know-How (Contractual transfer of knowledge from experts)

Technology exploitation refers to the utilization of technologies to improve organizational performances of products, services and processes.

• Technology Management Framework

• Information Systems and Technology Management

• Information and Communication Systems

• Artificial Intelligence/ Expert Systems

• Database technology

• Modelling

• Multivariate Statistical Techniques