Our Client, a energy generation and retail utility, wanted to build an “opportunity investment group”. The roles of the new group were:

• Identifying new ideas - principally from a research or new technology base

• Investing in and successfully commercialising these ideas

• Commercialize new technology or business opportunities - specifically those from research, development and emerging market or technology based positions - potentially long-term and non-traditional.

• Manage stakeholders and business partners during the R&D and commercialisation phases

• Manage the entry, progression and exit of initiatives by means of a documented, repeatable and transparent process

Approach

CyberSoft was engaged by the Client to deliver frameworks and processes that would allow for a better understanding of future markets and the innovative technologies that would be needed to supply new products and services to these markets.

• Processes for evaluating and introducing potentially disruptive technologies

• A documented R&D project management framework

• Technological collaboration: identifying key success factors

• Building an entrepreneurial knowledge culture

• Focusing the fuzzy front-end in new product development.

We emphasized the need to communicate to multiple audiences and stakeholders. In particular:

• The stages of conceptual development and the evolution of knowledge as research moves from research to development to a commercial product or service

• The stages of business development and commercialization

• Targets that have been previously agreed and set and their clear subsequent accountabilities

To support the process and frameworks developed as part of our engagement we introduced Enterprise Wiki’s and R&D departmental weblogs as key communication tools. With their “immediacy” and simplicity they provided a sophisticated addition to the Client’s own intranet and CMS.

Outcomes

CyberSoft brought commercial skills, a sound understanding of technology, and broad relationships that allowed the matching of technology-based innovations to newly identified market needs.

Our approach, which targeted communication, process pragmatism and innovation towards future market needs, helped the Client to develop an appreciation of future trends and the technological competencies that were needed to research and develop products and services.

and here’s one we made earlier….