One of the central ideas in the previous blog post of mine was how important it is to think about commercialization at early stages of the innovation process. We must take into consideration the commercialization from the beginning, because if there is no success in the commercialization, there is no innovation. Therefore, we must think of the generation of the idea, the development of the product or service and the commercialization strategy as three iterative processes that mature during the innovation process.
A moment to reflect....
Value proposition depends on the idea and how we have developed the product or service. On the other hand, the successful potential of marketing depends on the value proposition. But, once the product or service is developed, is there any way to add value to the product or service to promote its commercialization?
Think about it…..
My experiences in the visit to Taiwan
In August I had the opportunity to spend a week in Taipei (Taiwan), and one of the reasons for the visit was to know how you could generate value through the interaction with stakeholders when the product is developed. This is an example of how to generate value in an app through the help of external stakeholders.
The research design in the PhD is based on a qualitative research strategy. The empirical context will be analyzed through a longitudinal case study of the IT firm SALUMEDIA (a partner in CATCH). Therefore, the level of analysis will be the firm, while the units of observation will be internal and external stakeholders, which take part in a selected project in Salumedia in the field of cancer. Those projects at the moment are smoke cessation (SmokeFreeBrain), breast and prostate cancer.
In Taipei, SmokeFreeBrain is being trialed, and I had the chance to be there to understand the context in early stages of commercialization, to understand the relation with stakeholders, to attend to a Symposium on Innovation in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Health Care, and to talk with professionals in Taipei about rehabilitation in cancer.
The application, called SmokeFreeBrain (http://smokefreebrain.eu/) belongs to the field of smoking cessation that is related to cancer from the point of view of prevention. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the prevalence of COPD and asthma among high-income countries (HMIC), as well as the general population Low Middle Income Countries (LMIC). The project addresses existing approaches to prevent lung diseases caused by tobacco while at the same time it develops new treatments and analyzes their contextual adaptability to the local and global health care system. Two prototypes have been developed. The first one is being tested in University Hospital in Seville, and the second one has been translated into Chinese and it is being tested in University Hospital in Taiwan. The app was launched in Taiwan at the end of August. Recruitment of patients in Taiwan will be carried out for 6 months. After that, a sample study will be carried out during the next 6 months.
The collaborative interaction with external stakeholders before the commercialization process has allowed the use of their resources in exchange of research material. But, if the app is being used for free, where is the business? You will get insights to improve the app, which provides something as important as the product itself: data and metrics.
Can data be the key point in business model?
There are many business models to monetize the development of mobile applications depending on who will pay for its use. When the user pays for the application, you can pay in the download either once you have started using it either to extend the license period or to unblock some features. In other business models, revenues are perceived through advertising. Other types of applications monetize the investment through the value of the data they generate; in this case, the applications are usually free to download to encourage a greater volume of data.
Data generates evidence and credibility through metrics. But data itself is also important in Health care, since it is a new door to research diseases and improves diagnosis and treatments for patients.
Recently, IBM bought Merge for $1 billion (http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-buys-merge-for-1-billion-gives-watson-medical-imaging-heft/). The firm handle and process medical images at more than 7,500 healthcare sites. On the other hand, IBM Watson is using Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, that is why IBM needs the amount of data from Merge.
Data can be the key in many business models, it can give a huge value and even some companies are bought for acquiring its data … IF YOU ARE THINKING OF SELLING, VALUE IS THE KEY!