Getting down to the wire

An international developer of IP and wireless alarm monitoring and mobile data-services was struggling to move forward a new range of products within their current market. The company has historically had a very strong, almost monopolistic, position within the marketplace with their traditional portfolio of products and services, due to the technology and unique selling proposition of the service.

To understand why the products were not achieving the take-up originally envisaged, ClockSpeed was commissioned to undertake a competitive market and partner assessment to identify potentially issues and improved ways of working. TThe information was to provide key input into a wider project plan, which would then provide the foundation for a long term strategic plan.

Problem

The company had occupied an almost monopolistic position and had never had to truly compete within an open competitive market environment.  

The company needed to understand how the competitor solutions compared to their own offerings and also what issues resellers and customers had with the existing portfolio and new products. 

There was an established structure with very long-term employees who had fixed views on the marketplace.

The market dynamics for the new products and services were not the same as those for the existing portfolio. 

Operating within an unknown cultural environment and working within those differences.

Very rapid turnaround required to feed into overall project plan

Solution

The customer insight element of the project formed input into a wider project. Therefore, the project had to be defined, structured and managed within a very tight timeframe to deliver results at the required time. ClockSpeed pulled together the project plan, managing external suppliers and internal stakeholders from the start of the project, through to completion.

The programme was split into two areas: customers and partners. Three approaches were taken to obtain the optimum results: quantitative surveys with customers and partners; qualitative discussions with customers and cross-segmentation and matching analysis of the customer database.

Upon completion of the survey, in-depth analysis was undertaken. The aim of the surveys was to take the analysis beyond the simple level and to focus on identifying customer traits, potential segment classifications and partner requirements. The survey also aimed to identify potential influencers within the marketplace and opportunities of working further with other suppliers and manufacturers. Finally the survey aimed to identify trends and patterns within buying behaviour.