Having performed the Phase 1 technical and economic feasibility assessment under the SME Instrument, a number of key assumptions and discoveries were corroborated.
The response derived high potential for the Noke Cylinder Smart Lock (NCL), where the exceptional operational ability, convenience, non-compromise of security, while coming in at less than a tenth of the cost were duly highlighted as cause for successful market uptake.
We defined our key members of the project’s value chain, which highlights third-party in-kind contributor Nordic Semiconductor playing a key role in the venture. We also defined our key target market, importantly defining our beachhead audience of self-storage, being a prime initial target in order to expand into the more resistant but larger segments of warehousing, shipping, and related logistics.
The feedback from stakeholders include those from the beachhead market and follow-on markets, as well as opinion leaders, and technical experts, to derive a comprehensive look on commercialisation strategy. The superiority of the NCL solution will be demonstrated in a pilot trial with third-party Space Storage, collecting the pivotal quantitative data required for communications and meeting of EU regulations.
The results of the trial will be compiled in a technical report which will be used in NCL’s declaration of conformity, in order to affix the CE mark for production. The confirmation of our value chain for the innovative project is further complimented by expression of interest from our 8 existing EU distributors, who will supply NCL locks to self-storage facilities in the go-to EU states of the U.K/Ireland France, Spain, and the Netherlands.
In essence, The Feasibility Study showed that NCL is viable technical and commercially, and the determination of the business plan shown that it is also a profitable investment. They can be summarised as:
-The quantification of production costs and the selection of NCL components suppliers with a target price for each component, and the definition of the value chain with involvement of main actors such as in-kind contributor Nordic Semiconductors, for the supply of core Bluetooth chipset nRF52840 required to implement our proprietary communication and encryption technology, as well as expertise in integrating chipsets with our proprietary technology
-Confirmation on commercialising NCL first in Europe considering the EMEA region continuing to have the largest in/outflows of global goods and related logistical handling.
-The EU commercialisation plan starting from the largest market base for self-storage (U.K/Ireland) before moving onto the subsequent French, Spanish, and Dutch markets being the largest growing segments after the U.K/Ireland
-The first paying customers identified coming from the beachhead geographic markets; includes companies such as Pilot Trial organisation Space Storage and other organisations found from National Self-storage Associations
-The definition of the work plan for the development of the finalised prototype, and the commercially produced version of NCL, to be demonstrated with Space Storage (customer) and people using the self-storage facilities (end-users).
Hence, it was decided to pursue the NCL project considering its mass potential in both the initial and follow-on market segments, and positive reinforcements of internal external factors supporting a highly gratifying, and lucrative business opportunity leveraged through cutting-edge innovation.
