Throughout the last decades, technology has significantly changed life on Earth. And we can expect to continue doing it in the time to come.
Therefore, our relationship with technology is an important indicator of who we are. And the same is the case for businesses. This means that important insights can be made about any particular business, drawing from technographics, which is the data that defines companies based on their relationship with technology.
Understanding company’s technological stack
To understand the market and our clients we use all kinds of data. Gathering information for better decision-making is the defining feature of doing business today. To know what our existing or potential customers want, where the market is headed and who are our competition, we must utilize all data sources that we can get our hands on. This includes various alternative data sources and types from social media to firmographics.
Technographics is another of such relatively novel types of data, which gained prominence in the recent years especially. Naturally, this is due to the growing impact technology and automation is making in contemporary business.
Technographic data is the data that helps us understand the client drawing from their technological stack. This type of data includes any information relating to how the account in question is using technology for their operations, for example:
- The information on the hardware and software they are using.
- How automated are their daily procedures?
- What do their systems and platforms do for them, how are they developed, and updates implemented?
- Which tools are they using now or have used before?
In short, anything about the company that in one or another way relates to technology is technographic information. Having and analyzing this information helps us better understand the company, its potential, and what could be offered to it.
4 ways to utilize technographics in business
It is not hard to see that technographic information can be of assistance for anyone building business strategies or making paramount decisions. Here are 4 important use cases for this type of data in various areas of business.
1) Better marketing strategies. Making people aware of your brand, for example, drawing them to your website works better when you know what they are likely to be looking for. Technographic information gives a great insight into that. Knowing the tools and applications that many are using now or that are gaining in popularity will enable you to create better marketing campaigns, referring to how your product or service relates or supplements it. Customer acquisition will become easier when companies with a particular technology stack are strategically targeted.
2) Improved sales efficiency. Knowing who you are selling to quite obviously allows you to make a better sales pitch and increase chances of making the deal. That is why salespeople tend to spend a lot of time researching the account and preparing for the pitch. Thus, acquiring technographic information in advance would save their time, as the understanding needed for a high-quality sales pitch could be extracted from this data. Naturally, this would improve sales efficiency, as more time could be spent on actual and well-informed selling.
3) Essential part of business intelligence. With the ever-growing importance of big data for decision-making in business, well-rounded business intelligence is a crucial resource to ensure the future of the business. But business intelligence cannot be considered complete without the relevant technographic data. Technographics allow for important insights into the strategies and operating models of other companies. On the one hand, it helps to single out and target potential customers. On the other – it allows us to understand the competition better. Both of these aspects allow for better decisions and action plans.
4) Better-informed investing. Data and analytics are important not only for managerial but for investment decisions as well. With the current and foreseeable impact of technology on absolutely everything humans do, naturally, technographics is a key if not the key part of investment intelligence. Understanding how the companies are utilizing the technology and how the markets are acting in relation to particular technological advancements is vital to seeing the best investment opportunities in time.
The link between us
All businesses have some sort of relationship with technology. When we know how other businesses relate to it, we also know what links us to these businesses. That is, we understand better what we can offer to them or expect from them. Thus technographic data allows us to understand our existing or potential relationship with others and our own place in the market.
Ultimately, technology and innovation is also the link to the future. Collecting or acquiring technographic data is probably the surest way to have an insight into where we are all headed. Only when we have this insight, we are able to make sure that the future has a place for us.