Acquiring external technology

As no one company can create all of the technology needed to support today' s complex products and sophisticated customers, technology leaders have bee n seeking ways to incorporate external technology into their organizations' internal technology and commercialization streams . Consequently, a study was undertaken to identify the processes and techniques that 22 companies w ere using to establish their internal technology needs, identify the extern al technology to fill those needs, evaluate the technology for its quality and robustness, access the technology through agreement, and integrate it i nto their internal portfolios Overall, the most successful programs were fo und to be those in which technology is valued by the business and where dec isions to invest in technology are made by a senior-level cross-functional team.