Paku Midin: Intelligence of Technology (IOT) is What ? And What Important of IOT ?

Intelligence of Technology (IOT) :

Is an activity that enables companies to identify the technological opportunities and threats that could affect the future growth and survival of their business. It aims to capture and disseminate the technological information needed for strategic planning and decision making. As technology life cycles shorten and business become more globalized having effective Intelligence of Technology (IOT) capabilities is becoming increasingly important.

In the United States, Project Socrates identified the exploitation of technology as the most effective foundation for decision making for the complete set of functions within the private and public sectors that determine competitiveness.

The Centre for Technology Management has defined "Intelligence of Technology" as " The Organisation Develops An Awareness Of Technological Threats and Opportunities."

The internet has contributed to the growth of data sources for Intelligence of Technology and this is very important for the advancement of Intelligence of Technology. Intelligence of Technology gives organizations the ability to be aware of technology threats and opportunities. It is important for companies and businesses to be able to identify emerging technologies in form of opportunities and threats and how this can affect their business. In the past two decades, there has been massive growth in the amount of products and services that technology has produced and this is because it is a lot easier and cheaper to acquire and store data from different sources that can be analyzed and used in different industries. The interest started in 1994 and the technology intelligence process has evolved since then. This process can be used to improve and further the growth of a business because the need to shorten the time lag between data acquisition and decision making is spurring innovations in business intelligence of technologies. There are several tools called text mining and tech-pioneer that make the intelligence of technology process actionable and effective. This process consists of 4 steps: Organizing the competitive intelligence effort, collecting the information, analyzing the information and disseminating the results. Although this process is very beneficial to organizations, there are some challenges such as communication and interpreting the results the process provides.

What Are The Intelligence of Technology (IOT) Cycle :

The intelligence cycle is the process through which intelligence is obtained, and made available to users. In depicting this cycle, the United States Intelligence Community uses a five-step process. Other nations may describe this cycle differently; however, the process is largely the same. The steps in the intelligence cycle are involving several steps including : Planning, Requirements & Direction; Collection; Analysis and Processing; Production and Dissemination.

Step of Intelligence of Technology (IOT) Cycle :

1st Step - Planning and Direction

The first step in the cycle, planning and direction, involves the management of the entire intelligence effort, from the identification of a need for data to the final delivery of the intelligence product to the consumer. The process consists of identifying, prioritizing, and validating intelligence requirements, translating requirements into observables, preparing collection plans, issuing requests for information collection, production, and dissemination, and continuously monitoring the availability of collected data. In this step specific collection capabilities are tasked, based on the type of information required, the susceptibility of the targeted activity to various types of collection activity, and the availability of collection assets.

2nd Step - Collection

The 2nd step includes all the different activities, mainly research, that involves the collection of data to satisfy the requirements that were defined. The collection can be done either via technical or human means and involves gathering data from a variety of sources. In the military and intelligence community the sources normally used are people, objects, emanations, records. These sources span the different collection disciplines named as HUMINT, IMINT, MASINT, SIGNT, OSINT and others. Once collected, information is correlated and forwarded for processing and production.

3rd Step - Processing and exploitation

The collected raw data starts to be interpreted, translated and converted into a form suitable for the consumers or the intelligence. The raw data becomes information.

4th Step - Analysis and production

The refinement of the information that was produced in the previous step. The fusion of the different information that was processed from the different intelligence disciplines. These are key tasks performed during this step. The analysis consists of facts, findings and forecasts that describe the element of study and allow the estimation and anticipation of events and outcomes. The analysis should be objective, timely, and most importantly accurate. To produce intelligence objectively, the analysts apply four (4) basic types of reasoning. Induction, deduction, abduction and the last is the scientific method. Furthermore, because bias and misperceptions can influence the analysis the analyst should be aware of the different analytical pitfalls. The outcome is value-added actionable information tailored to a specific need. For example, in the United States, creating finished intelligence for national and military purposes is the role of the CIA.

5th Step - Dissemination and Integration

Essentially, this step consists in delivering the finished product to the consumers who requested the information. This can be done using a wide range of formats and in a manual or automated manner.