A management consulting team has been hired to advise HuStream Technologies on a new business model and target market. HuStream operates a service-based business model, providing customers with fully produced interactive video content. In the founders’ efforts to transition to a product-based business, they have built a cloud-based platform to provide easy accessibility to their company’s products and services. Using that platform, clients can produce their own interactive content. HuStream faces the challenge of transitioning from an entirely service- based business model to an entirely product-based business model. The consultancy’s task is to identify HuStream’s top business and marketing opportunities using the service-based business model and keeping within the constraints of limited funding.
This case focuses on Infibeam, a small, new e-commerce company in India, as an illustration of innovative B2B contractual agreements that enabled it to acquire a significant customer base at a very low cost. However, it must now develop innovative strategies for marketing communication, customer value proposition and a new IT e-commerce rural platform in order to achieve its required growth estimates and raise capital for a new project in cooperation with a state government. Internet retailing is rapidly growing in India, but it does contain challenges: the cost of acquiring customers is high; per person spending amount is smaller; and customers are spread all over the country, often 2,000 kilometres away from supply centres.
The CEO and founder of ExerciseApp decided to take the plunge and spec out the features of his new iPhone mobile application and supporting website. He planned for ExerciseApp to stream exercise workouts from pro-athletes to followers who wanted to “Train. Play. Be. Like the Pros” and get an edge to their workouts. As he envisioned the application, he realized he would need a lot of help with the technology and the setup of this entrepreneurial venture in order to successfully bring it to market. With limited funding, he must decide on the next steps for the business, including the application’s features, business model and market strategy.
The head of research and development at MedicalTech, a new manufacturer of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coils and software, had just met with MedicalTech's founder and chief executive officer (CEO). They had been discussing the technology development requirements decided so far in their attempts to build MedicalTech's first technology offering for diagnosing cancer. The head of research and development needed to advise the CEO regarding the best technology development approach (services-oriented technology co-creation and product-oriented technology creation); selecting the appropriate hospital partner to co-create the first public prototype; and determining the value propositions of all end-users for the features and functions chosen. The head of research and development gave some thought to seeking the advice and partnership of more developed competitors in the industry, as she was confident that this start-up company could be a success, but wondered whether the company could succeed on its own.
In 2011, HCLT ERS, a division of HCL Technologies, a global IT services corporation headquartered in New Delhi, India, had to devise next year’s plan for the Engineering Out Of The Box (EOOTB) business concept that it had initiated in 2009. EOOTB had facilitated the division’s ability to create “16 productized solutions” and to engage customers in new revenue services. The productized solutions were heavily reliant upon IT platform-based solutions and services. The executive vice president of HCLT ERS and the EOOTB team must consider new markets to enter, new types of work in existing markets, and delivery ecosystems involving partners, collaborators, and third-party providers.
The commercial eProducts Manager at Shell Canada has to determine how to improve the adoption and utilization of their eCommerce channel. eStore had been developed for the fuel and lubricants market as a pilot test of how Shell might communicate with its customers electronically, thus reducing costs. While eStore had been in place for a year, and many customers had signed up, utilization was low. A consulting firm has made recommendations about the technical issues that might be driving low utilization; the commercial eProducts Manager has to consider whether the problems are purely technical, and make a recommendation on how to proceed.
In teams of four to six people, each team works to develop a structure using building blocks. Various alterations to the terms of the assignment are made as the exercise unfolds, simulating the unpredictability of information systems development. Difference in the technology available to teams (both in terms of amount and type) simulate the challenge of differences in technology resources and later the challenge of integration, even with standard and simple technology.
The Education Store reviewed and provided sales of educational software for children in kindergarten to grade 12. The store took its direction from the local board of education and functioned with the administrative system of the school board but operated independently and was relatively free to make day-to-day decisions. The manager of the Education Store felt the existing database no longer kept up with the store's needs. A database designer had two weeks to analyze the store's requirements and develop a prototype. From the information he had, he wondered whether this task was an upgrade or a complete redesign. He must also look at a number of design issues, and who would ultimately maintain the database.
First Fidelity Bancorporation had decided to use an outsourcing vendor to convert its existing information systems operations into a centralized facility and to operate the systems on a long-term basis. This decision was part of a rationalization process to consolidate eight independent banks into one operating structure so as to achieve cost savings and create a way of integrating new acquisitions and mergers. The holding company had to select an outsourcing vendor that could participate in this process and achieve the growth objectives set by the bank. The options were to select a partner or a supplier. A background case First Fidelity Bancorporation (A) is available.
First Fidelity Bancorporation had outsourced its information systems conversion and on-going data centre management to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) on a ten-year contract. The EDS-FFB relationship was one year into the arrangement (1991) when several challenges had surfaced, the most urgent of which was an $8 million cost overrun on the conversion project. The EDS account manager had the choice of absorbing the costs, seeking compensation from the bank or suggesting a compromise. Several other challenges would also have to be addressed in the relationship, such as an incompatible software platform, resistance, difficult communications and flexibility to accommodate future bank directions and acquisitions. Background cases First Fidelity Bancorporation (B): Selecting an Outsourcing Vendor and First Fidelity Bancorporation (A)) are available.
First Fidelity Bancorporation, a holding company for eight independent banks in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas, was going through a major restructuring and rationalization in response to serious financial problems, threats of regulatory control and changing market demands. In this reorganization, the head of corporate operations and systems was considering ways to facilitate the restructuring. He was seriously considering outsourcing as an alternative way to manage the internal information systems. The case explores the simple economics behind an outsourcing strategy and the complicated technical, political and cultural rationalization of a hierarchical, independent organization into a centrally-managed operation. Follow-up cases First Fidelity Bancorporation (B): Selecting an Outsourcing Vendor and First Fidelity Bancorporation (C): Managing an Outsourcing Relationship With EDS are available.