The activities performed during Phase I mainly focused on ensuring the practical, technical and economic feasibility of our solution to achieve our business objectives, specifically:
1.-Refine and enhance business plan;
We have challenged the underlying assumptions of our initial business plan with the aim of delivering a more accurate and convincing value proposition to potential customers, partners and investors. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats have been refined. The features of our innovation have been benchmarked against competing solutions. Key milestones for the next 5 years have been reviewed and refined and strategies implemented to reach them. We purchases professional market reports and hired an independent agency to carry out focus groups in order to gain reliable insights into the markets where our target utility partners are located – Poland, Denmark and Croatia. Relevant market aspects have been refined including: target customer household segments, customer expectations, desired services and features and their willingness to pay for our solution. Moreover, we carried out thorough research regarding competing solutions currently available or expected to be launched, market share of each player, estimated rate of adoption for energy management solutions, service costs, support costs, distribution costs, marketing costs, among other variables. We have adjusted our revenue and expense forecast along with our strategies for pricing, funding and geographical expansion. These activities have been reinforced and validated through our coaching sessions provided by the European commission during Phase 1 of the SME Instrument.
2.-Develop plan for multi-channel marketing strategy;
In order to reach a large number of potential clients and investors, a consistent, multi-channel brand and marketing strategy is fundamental. In order to build these relationships in a time and cost-effective manner, we have implemented a professional Customer Resource Management (CRM) tool that we are now using to speed up our international expansion efforts. As an SME with limited resources, activities in this area have been scarce with relatively low impact. We realized that even with an attractive solution, we would not be able to reach our sales goals without investing more in marketing and brand awareness. At the beginning of 2015, we hired an experienced Brand Manager, Érika Piña, who has done an excellent job of boosting our corporate image and visibility through various campaigns leveraging different platforms, many of which have already generated notable results including:
a) An intensive social media strategy.
b) International trade fairs: We presented the Intuo prototype at our stands at Cebit and Mobile World Congress.
c) Articles and press releases.
d) European Business Awards participation.
e) Website refresh.
f) Customer Resource Management (CRM).
3.-Protect intellectual property and minimize commercial risk
A third party agency (attorney) has been subcontracted to elaborate a complete intellectual property protection strategy, to ensure that our innovation and business model delivers a sustainable competitive advantage, thereby lowering risk for investors and increasing confidence among commercial partners. Various protection instruments have been evaluated and/or implemented including: patenting, freedom to operate, trademark registration, documentation of trade secrets and reserving product domain names. In addition we have started a patent application to be submitted to the European Patent Office. Additionally, our non-disclosure agreements and existing partnership contracts have been reviewed and amended to fully protect the company’s trade secrets. Finally, a preliminary analysis of service contracts, licensing agreements and regulatory issues, have been conducted to minimize our exposure to risk during the commercialization phase. Relevant standards and protocols for data security, data privacy, communication and safety have been investigated and a plan for compliance prepared for each target country.
The main technical objectives were devoted to continuously improve the design of our solution:
1.-Create graphical user interfaces for the integration of the Intuo Smart Virtual Thermostat in enControl™;
2.-Conduct customer focus groups to obtain feedback on the user interfaces and the overall user experience. Results: there is a robust demand for smart home energy management solutions in all three of our target countries and; potential users demonstrate a high willingness to pay for our solution, thereby validating that our business model is profitable and sustainable.
3.-Develop a detailed pilot plan for Phase 2.
