Business Innovation & Technology is a Knexus Community initiative designed to help you maximise the business value and benefits to your company from new technologies.

On July 9th, we have a face-to-face session, with real case study presentations from member companies Prudential and Marsh. The case studies address the business impact of Digital TV and collaborative solutions.

A short description for each case study is set out below, and more details see each.

Implementing Collaborative Solutions – Marsh
Marsh Inc. is the world’s leading risk and insurance services firm. Established in 1871, the Company has 36,000 employees, clients in more than 100 countries, and $5.2 billion annual revenues.

In mid-2001, Marsh identified the need to improve collaboration internally and externally, to reduce internal management meetings, improve collaboration on global projects, enhance communications with clients and strengthen training capabilities.

The company invested in a suite of products in early 2002. After a gradual beginning, these collaborative solutions have become increasingly embedded in the working culture at Marsh, demonstrated their value by substantially reducing travel costs internally, and enhancing Marsh’s image and quality of service externally. However, inevitably the process has not been without its challenges and problems.

Utilising short case studies, the European eBusiness group at Marsh will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how they have implemented collaborative solutions for their organisation, addressing their approach, key challenges faced, lessons learnt, successes & failures. The case studies cover the following specific issues: The Approach (selection of technology/commitment to training etc); Securing People Buy-in; Measurement (payback – financial, time & image); the Future.

For further details on this case study, click here.

Exploring the benefits & limitations of Digital TV – Prudential
Prudential plc, through its businesses in Europe, the US and Asia, provides retail financial products and services and fund management to millions of customers worldwide.

Prudential will be exploring the benefits and limitations of digital TV, having taken a lead in testing and assessing the potential of Digital TV over the past few years. The Company’s investments have included video on demand services for financial advice, the launch of a Pensions channel and interactive advertising on Sky.

Prudential will share their experience of Digital TV, in terms of what does and doesn’t work for the customer, how to effectively manage the mix of multiple customers & multiple channels, and getting marketing, business development and IT people working effectively together.

For further details on this case study, click here.

Roundtable discussion – Identifying, tackling & benefiting from new technology related business opportunities
The recent proliferation of channels for communicating with customers has made business a much more complex affair.

What’s the best way to approach new, technology related business opportunities? Does your company take a lead in testing the potential of new technology or wait for others to prove market acceptance? How do you balance your investment between assessing major new opportunities, versus running your existing business? Do you mitigate risk by partnering and when you assess new opportunities, is this led by IT, marketing or strategy?

We plan to address these questions by sharing the approach and experiences of a cross-section of Knexus Members.