Making forest asset management easy

Project Information

WUUDIS

Grant agreement ID: 774465

DOI

10.3030/774465

Project closed

EC signature date 24 April 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 31 October 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

WUUDIS SOLUTIONS OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WUUDIS (Making forest asset management easy)

Reporting period: 2017-05-01 to 2017-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In Europe, 60% of the forest area is owned by private individuals, many of whom live far away from their forest property and have little forest management expertise. They lack the knowledge and the easy tools for managing their forest resources. Forestry contractors on the other hand are dependent on the conventional industrial chain and lack cost-efficient ways of contacting forest owners to offer their services directly.

MHG Systems created the Wuudis service in 2016 to solve these challenges. Wuudis is an electronic tool enabling remote management of forest assets and an e-commerce platform for forest management activities and wood sales. The product is already functional, and there are 4000 registered users in Finland.

The aim of this SME1 project was to develop a sustainable plan for scaling up the business. The feasibility study included creating a thorough understanding of the markets and customer needs, scouting for partners and business development based on the market analysis.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

- Comprehensive analysis of market potential, stakeholders, partners, and competition in the forest management and timber market in selected EU countries
- Feedback from relevant players in key new markets about user requirements and implementation of the service
- Screening, evaluating and contacting partners from key new markets
- Development of the offering and the business model
- Development of strategies for commercialization, risk management, and IP management
- Definition of the MVP product to be launched in different markets
- Development of a product localization process

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Market studies conducted show that the market is expanding and there is a constant need of new digital services to improve the operations and output of the forestry industry. The maturity level of the market in different countries varies and is taken into account in the commercialisation plan to make sure the timing of entering each market is optimal.

There are other players who offer partial solutions for the market, but Wuudis has a competitive advantage with its holistic understanding of both forestry management (including the bottlenecks different stakeholders in the field need to solve), and the state-of-the-art ICT tools that enable providing comprehensive and efficient services for the sector. With the new updated service offering, Wuudis can satisfy the key needs of a wide variety of stakeholders – forest owners, forestry service providers, timber buyers, and various other companies who will benefit from improved access to detailed and up-to-date forest data. In addition to creating financial value to forest owners and companies in the forest sector, the wider impact of the project will be better managed and therefore healthier European forests.

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