No sector of the economy is immune to the expanding influence of digital technologies. While there may be similarities across sectors, each domain has its own needs and challenges that shape the way networked technologies add value.
Do you know where your organization should focus its resources?
Smart Systems are quickly becoming a massive, global digital nervous system connecting billions of people, tens of billions of devices, and trillions of data points through a network of unprecedented scale.
Identifying and defining distinct new Smart Systems growth opportunities is a challenging process. This is where traditional approaches to market definition and segmentation end, and real innovation begins. Understanding needs, usage, experience and buying behaviors in a networked context is key to creating and capturing value.
Smart systems design needs to transcend discrete product or service innovation. At Harbor, we help business developers and growth teams to creatively imagine fully developed systems and whole marketplaces.
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The worlds of sensors, controls, computing and communications are each changing rapidly, while at the same time converging into an entirely new smart systems competitive arena. The forces at work in these sectors make strategic decision-making extremely difficult. The velocity of change in the marketplace conspires with the number of variables in play to overtax many managers’ ability to make confident and informed decisions.
Which value elements in which segments will give us a sustainable advantage; which segments and opportunities should we focus on? Our methods and processes for helping clients identify new growth include:
- Market and Technology Assessments
- Innovation and Strategy Workshops
- User and Customer Field Research
- Competitor and Peer Analysis
Smart Systems and the Internet of Things are creating significant discontinuities in the marketplace. Knowing which segments, applications and use cases to focus on and which market relationships to create will be critical in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace.
TECHNOLOGY SECTORS & INDUSTRIES
For over 35 years, Harbor Research has worked with clients on growth strategy and new business creation. At the core of Harbor’s approach is a deep understanding of core technologies, markets and business characteristics. We strive to generate deep insight into how emergent technologies drive value creation and competitive advantage in our clients’ businesses.
The “center of gravity” in the Enterprise will increasingly be driven by new sensing devices, edge computing capabilities and distributed intelligence. Higher bandwidth and reliable connectivity are key to many new business models. Embedded systems and connectivity technologies are enabling new innovations. Read more…
A new generation of high-performance network technologies—5G, time sensitive and new sensor networks—are unleashing an age of pervasive connectivity that is fostering entirely new modes of customer interaction and services. Realizing this potential will require new ecosystems and business models. Read more…
Containerization is ubiquitous, languages are less important and microservices are available everywhere. All this changes how software is developed, but it also creates huge complexity. What new software opportunities are evolving in the market, what business models align with these growth opportunities, and how should software players organize their service and solution delivery? Read more…
Smart Systems are creating new solution delivery modes that are turning manufacturers, and in many cases others along the value chain, into a new kind of application services business. First movers in asset management, security as a service, customer support innovation and more are locking down lasting positions in their industries. New data driven application solutions are disrupting virtually all sectors of the economy. Read more…
New smart city technologies are showing promise in their ability to alleviate citizen and agency stakeholder pain-points, but the diversity of technologies and the number of applications and integration dimensions create numerous hurdles to adoption. While many cities are beginning to modernize, embracing technologies to improve their essential urban systems and enable more effective resource utilization is a complex challenge. Read more…
The acceleration of smart systems and digital innovations is causing a revolution in industrial systems, machinery and resource-driven segments. New business models, unexpected category dynamics, and disruptive technologies are challenging long-held beliefs and outdated strategy assumptions. Companies need to creatively evolve their business models and value delivery schemes to respond to the ever-changing customer and competitor landscape. Read more…
Traditional power equipment manufacturers are facing new software and renewables competitors. Energy sector players need to step back and re-imagine solutions and re-think delivery models. Energy technology companies need to evolve their strategies to creatively leverage new software and data technologies which are forever changing the way solutions will be delivered and value is created. Read more…
New mobility technologies are driving significant discontinuities in the vehicle, mobile equipment and transportation arena. Traditional vehicle manufacturers as well as construction, agriculture, mining, and material handing machine suppliers will need to define new mobility business models to leverage the diverse innovations invading these markets. Read more…
The term “smart” implies intelligent, but you wouldn’t know it from today’s residential and consumer technology arena – a fragmented landscape full of narrow point-solutions, time-sink gadgetry, entertainment obsessions, and software/platform incompatibility. The next wave of “Smart Home” innovation needs to address the adoption barriers for smart interoperable systems. Read more…
The retail and commercial services sector continues to be a highly competitive, low-margin environment where disruption has become the new normal. Battered by new online services, traditional bricks and mortar businesses search to balance their brands with new services, cross-channel interactions, and the impacts of digital technologies. Retailing needs to re-think how to design new modes of interaction with information-rich consumers. Understanding how Smart Services technologies can enable new customer experiences and achieve back office efficiencies will be critical. Read more…
Smarter healthcare equipment and systems are becoming integrated with virtual digital systems. This allows the data from patient sensors, diagnostic machines and more to become an integral part of all healthcare information systems. Developing new ecosystems to create new unimagined capabilities for patient care and delivery is the first step towards new growth. Read more…
All of the sub-systems in buildings—including power systems, HVAC, lighting, security, people movers, and more—produce data that has largely gone unharvested and under leveraged. Identifying and acting on new information-based services will create extraordinary business advantages for both established and emergent players. Understanding how new digital building technologies are creating new “social” and data relationships between equipment suppliers will be key. Read more…
HOW TO WORK WITH US
Harbor Research works with clients to provide custom research and analysis on emergent technologies, as well as a variety of consulting services to help you navigate new growth opportunities. Simply contact us to set up a meeting and we would be happy to discuss your needs.