What is Technographic Data? Examples, Providers & Datasets to Buy

What Are the Sources of Technographic Data?

The main sources of this category of B2B data are typically resources provided by the company itself, though they are not always easy to access. Examples include the company’s website source code, social media posts, and information shared through reports or gathered via phone calls. These insights are then compiled into a B2B database.

Different collection methods are employed depending on the source, and the quality of technographic data is often linked to how it was collected. Generally, it’s important to ensure you are working with technographics companies and B2B database providers that use a variety of sources and collection methods to ensure data reliability and accuracy.

How is Technographic Data Collected?

Technographic data is collected in two main ways:

• Web scraping
• Manual verification
  The collected method used will mostly depend on if the technographic data source is accessed online (e.g. website source code) or offline (e.g. phone call). The collection method can also impact the data quality, as can the source being used.

Each collection method has its pros and cons, but the overarching issue faced by companies is that technographic information is often not readily available, making it difficult to collect in the first place. Thus, collecting the data can be very time-consuming and resource-demanding for a company. For this reason, company managers are turning instead to data providers for their technographic software

Besides the saved time and effort, there are further benefits to buying technographic data from a data provider.

Firstly, you can rely on a technographics company to have a high level of experience and knowledge of the market. This way, you know that you’ll be using high-quality data that’s been carefully collected from a wide range of sources.

The second extra benefit is that third-party vendors often provide access to analytical software that you can integrate directly with your current business technologies. This enables you to feed real-time data into your decision making processes and perhaps enrich other existing data sets you might have for optimum technographics analysis.

How Can I Assess the Quality of Technographic Data?

When it comes to purchasing technographics, the quality aspects you need to ensure are accuracy, recency, and scale. Accurate data means that the listed technologies and uses are correct. Recency helps with context. Information on when the technology was acquired ensures that you know the company’s most up-to-date technological stack. Scale is important to make sure that the list of available companies offered by the data provider is suitable for your target market and to keep your leads pipeline full.

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Assessing the quality of technographic data can be tricky, but it’s a data provider’s job to assure you of the quality of their information.

To help you through the process of finding the right technographics provider for you, here are some questions you should ask data vendors you’re interested in:

• What are your technical data collection methods?
• What are your sources of raw data?
• How frequently do you update your data sets?
• Can you verify whether the company still uses the software?
• Can your dataset integrate seamlessly with my existing business technologies?
• Can I have a technographic data sample set to test the data?

When you’re confident that you can recognize high quality technographic data and that your provider offers exactly this, it’s time to make sure you know what you’ll be using it for and how this will benefit your business.