RADAR - cloud-based software solution

Making decisions for your own company is becoming increasingly complex - especially when unknown trends and technologies come into play. It is therefore essential to recognize and understand them - the two buzzwords are: scouting and scanning. With scouting and scanning, companies are able to perceive changes in time and thus act proactively to ensure business success.
To make it easier for companies and to develop an applicable solution, the joint project "RADAR - data-driven environment scanning for tomorrow's decisions" was launched. From August 2017 to December 2020, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, TU Braunschweig, Bayern Innovativ, ITONICS and LEONI developed the prototype of a software-based scouting application with support from the project sponsor Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Learn here everything about the goals, results and application potential.

Motivation: What if we had all the information about trends and technologies on our radar?

The basis for the project "RADAR - Data-driven Environment Scanning for Tomorrow's Decisions" funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) was the consideration of how information from the globally increasing volume of data can be efficiently processed. Because it is not only the advantage to come to more and more digital information, but also the great disadvantage to filter and interpret the data masses correctly for their own purposes. An enormous amount of time and money is required to obtain the relevant information from the available data. These factors make it particularly difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to establish efficient scouting and thus keep everything that is important to them in terms of trends and technologies on the radar.

Target: Analyze environment without much effort

In the research project, the prototype of a scouting software was developed that automatically processes and analyzes immense amounts of data, for future trends, technologies and relevant signals. And it does so without the use of large human resources. The software is designed to identify and display correlations and emerging trends in the business environment in real time. This creates the perfect basis for making decisions for innovation projects and thus gaining competitive advantages - whether in the technology sector (e.g. quantum cryptography) or in trend topics (e.g. green hydrogen).

Only together is strong: the project participants

The project of the joint project "RADAR - Data-driven environment scanning for tomorrow's decisions" was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and supported by the Project Management Agency Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe . The partners and their roles in this project were:

• TU Braunschweig : The Chair of Information Management led the adaptation and design of the environment scanning system.
• Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) : The Chair of Statistics and Econometrics in the Department of Economics worked on the development of the systematics and algorithms for the identification of weak signals, trends as well as technologies.
• ITONICS GmbH : The service and software solution providing company developed a Big Data tool for automated environment scanning.
• Bayern Innovativ GmbH : The Bavarian think tank investigated the challenges - especially of SMEs - in the context of scouting and tested prototypes so that the software works according to demand.
• LEONI AG : The automotive supplier tested the newly created tool. The knowledge gained was used for further development.

Approach: Science and business hand in hand

The development of a digital solution is always a challenge, for which different aspects and an iterative approach are necessary. Therefore, existing techniques from different methods were combined - first in a theoretical model:

• machine learning
• applied statistics
• semantic analysis of large amounts of data

On the basis of this created foundation, all project participants designed the digital platform for environment scanning. The software uses self-learning mechanisms to automatically improve search results and uses algorithms to help create the search queries.
To eliminate stumbling blocks from the outset, the TU Braunschweig, for example, developed an analysis tool to incorporate user-oriented aspects in addition to the technical aspects to design the environment scanning system.
The participating collaborators tested the prototypes created in the project for their practical suitability and the feedback flowed directly into the adjustments of the theoretical model and the software.

Parallel to this, the individual needs and challenges of the companies were analyzed by means of a user-centered approach in workshops in order to also incorporate this knowledge into the software development. The prototype realized by this approach was tested with focus groups to ensure good usability as well as easy access to the software.

Application: Keeping everything on the radar through scouting and scanning

First parts of the prototype developed in the project are already implemented in the cloud-based innovation management software of Itonics, are successively extended and are thus also accessible for interested companies. For this purpose, Bayern Innovativ uses and tests the already implemented features in their Digital Innovation Platform (DIP) and continues to be in a regular exchange with all project participants for improvements and adaptations of the scouting solution. All with the aim of making it possible for small to medium-sized companies in particular to examine their business environment for technological novelties and innovations without major effort - in other words, to keep everything on the radar.

You have further questions or are interested in detailed trend and technology scouting? Get in touch directly with your contacts in the consulting field Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) !