Title: Implementation of a gatekeeper structure for business and technology intelligence

Authors: Moritz Vischer, Roman Boutellier, Pablo Breitenmoser

Addresses: Center for Enterprise Science, Group for Technology and Innovation Management, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Scheuchzerstrasse 7, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland. ' Center for Enterprise Science, Group for Technology and Innovation Management, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Scheuchzerstrasse 7, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland. ' RUAG Electronics AG, Switzerland

Abstract: Small and medium sized companies can successfully increase their market awareness by using business and technology intelligence solutions that draw on existing company resources. One such approach is based on the gatekeeper concept. It has been progressively modified to fit into today|s understanding of technology intelligence by opening up gateways of information into a company. Up to now efforts to formalise such an informal network have been rare. This paper describes the motivation for using a formalised gatekeeper setup in a mid-size Swiss industrial company and introduces an implantation framework based on the systems engineering methodology.

Keywords: business intelligence; technology intelligence; gatekeeper model; knowledge management; Switzerland; systems engineering; small and medium-sized enterprises; Swiss SMEs; informal networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIP.2010.035152

International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 2010 Vol.6 No.2, pp.111 - 127

Published online: 09 Sep 2010 *

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