CompanyNet

CASE STUDY: SETTING A STRATEGIC ROUTE - SOLUTIONS TO PRODUCTS

Company Net Ltd is a well-established Edinburgh-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specialist in developing Microsoft-based solutions for an impressive range of blue chip clients. They include BP, Coca Cola and the Bank of Bermuda. In particular the company was seen as being expert in Microsoft technologies like Sharepoint One of the company’s more recent successes was converting the AA’s Plumtree Portal to Microsoft Sharepoint, in a very short space of time, in that company’s de-merger from Centrica.

The company had grown its solutions service business to £1.6m and was now in a position to explore strategic options.  In particular the company wanted to understand the implications of moving to a product-based approach as opposed to the current service-based approach to solutions.  The company already had a product in the form of a Knowledge Management System and had the opportunity to acquire another product for the ‘smart’ presentation of corporate and brand information.   The latter was a good fit because over the years Company Net had built up a reputation with big brand organisations like BP and Coca Cola, and this product fitted their expertise well.

The management team recognised it needed a product-based strategy, and needed to acquire the skills and processes required to make a product business successful and scalable. The company applied for assistance to Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians and in turn SEEL recommended Company Net for the 2in10 Product & Channel Innovative Actions Pilot Programme.

Solution:

2in10 identified some critical issues that needed to be resolved, these were:

• An understanding of the risk-reward equation involved in developing a product- based business.
• The relative attractions of following a specialist v generalist strategy
• To what extent could the company’s current solutions be productised?
• Was it practical to sell via indirect routes as well as its own established direct approach?

Implementation:

Work began on delivering the Product and Channel training early in 2006 to two teams: the Product team was headed by CTO Rick Campbell, and the Channel team by CEO Neil Francis.

The product team were then taken through the basic principles of Product Management and Product Marketing, and then, utilising the Plumtree to Sharepoint success, the company reviewed how such a product might be created.

The second group looked at the principles of partnering and routes to market planning to understand how, having built the product, the business could be scaled through a combination of direct and indirect approaches.

Both groups were introduced very early on to completely new concepts and these were enthusiastically embraced by all members of the team.  Individuals were encouraged to utilise this new-found knowledge immediately in the business; for the senior management team, these new skills, processes and tools were put to use in formulating a new direction and strategy for the company.

Having understood what it takes to build a product around a market need and then how to exploit the market opportunity through channels then the next aspect of the programme was to show Company Net how this works in practice within a leading international software company.

Company Net’s immersion placement was organised through Raymond O’Hare, General Manager, Microsoft Scotland and through Bob McDowell SVP Microsoft in Redmond.  The company chosen to host the placement was the top MS Gold Partner in the US, Minneapolis-based Magenic Systems. Neil Francis and marketing manager Clare Miller made the trip and it became quickly clear that the path to growth for Microsoft Gold Partners was through a specialist approach to the market, focusing specifically on key competencies, knowledge and customer reference-ability.  This was translated further into Company Net’s ongoing strategy through a clear growth strategy and re-focus on Microsoft.

Benefits:

The primary output of the exercise was that the Company Net board took the strategic decision to focus on developing expertise in specific niche markets.   Following the 2in10 programme work was put into developing a more efficient, productized ‘wraparound’ service to enable delivery of more focused solutions to client needs. I particular the company decided to put significant effort into Microsoft’s CRM solution into niche sectors.

This project was hugely influential in formulating our strategic direction

Neil Francis, CEO Company Net.