FINAL STATE: PLAN FOR THE USE OF FOREGROUND

The plan for the use of foreground marks, as final state, the termination of the given process, i.e. it ends the methodology for the generation of an exploitation strategy. Within this state, an aggregated view on the information gathered from the second sequence is to be provided, as the EC does not define the art of presentation of the plan for the use of foreground in detail. Referring to the reporting guidelines mentioned in chapter 2.3 the EC demands, based on the identification of the foreground, a declaration of the use and purpose, necessary further research, IPR exploitable

Concept Specifications Concept Demands

Consortium Subset Consortium Subset

Competencies Analysis

Comparison Table Concept Assignment

Assessment

27 measures and potential and expected impacts. Summing up these requirements, the EC demands for a kind of business plan referring to the project outcomes.

The business model approach presented in chapter 3.4 offers an aggregated and structured framework for the presentation of such a plan. As the level of specificity regarding the information given through the model is flexible it complies with the requirements for its utilization: Since the exploitation strategy depends on the current project development, it is likely to elaborate and change during the project course. Thus, the flexible presentation eases updating and adjusting the information given in the model. In the following, the mentioned business model is adjusted to the given use case, as it has not been originally developed for the use in context of R&D projects. In particular this means, contents of the building blocks are specified appropriately and altered respectively expanded where necessary. Furthermore, it is determined, from which part of the proceeding sequence the information is resulting from.

The model for the exploitation approaches refers to the model presented in chapter 3.4. However, the term business model suggest that an exploitation is always affiliated to the conduction of a business which is certainly not true: The variety of possible types of exploitation activities have been described in chapter 2.1 showing that exploitation does not necessarily lead to concrete business approaches. Therefore, the business model illustrated in Figure 12 shall be named Exploitation Model from here.

The customer segments define certain groups that are expected to consume the proposed values.

The term “consume” leads again to the misunderstanding that in case of exploitation a business will be conducted. However, the term exploitation is just describing the fact that someone uses foreground to create benefits from it. As shown in chapter 2.1, this does not necessarily mean the distribution of products and services. Therefore, the alternated model will specify Value Beneficiaries in order to describe the segments benefiting from the value proposition. In particular this means, it defines for whom the organization is creating the proposed value.

Moreover, the customer segments presented within the business model in chapter 3.4 have to be expanded as the set of customers do not always comply with conventional concepts of product and service allocation: There are organizations engaged in R&D projects, such as educational and scientific institutes; they do not address conventional sets of customers. Nevertheless, these segments are crucial to consider. Additionally, the set of possible customers resulting from the industry analysis are described in chapter 4.3.4.2.

The Value Proposition sums up what an organization is offering to a potential customers, i.e. which customer needs and problems it is satisfying, respectively solving. The proposed value is a direct result from the combination of the identified industry trends that shall be responded, the competencies of the consortium and the project outcomes, i.e. it is resulting from the concept definition mentioned in chapter 4.3.4.3. Deviating from conventional view, potential customers can also be found within the organizations that are offering value propositions.

Through Channels potential beneficiaries are addresses and made aware of the proposed value and may evaluate and purchase it. This refers directly to one type of potential customer described in the value beneficiaries.

Value Beneficiaries Relationships describe the type of interaction between an organization and its beneficiaries that is intended to be established. The type of relationship results from the type of

28 exploitation that is conducted, i.e. the concept definition from chapter 4.3.4.3, and the addressed value beneficiaries.

Revenue Streams actually describe the paying-related behavior of customers. As already mentioned, value beneficiaries in the considered matters differ from conventional cases. So does the occurrence and range of revenues streams: Especially for non-profit and third party funded business models the revenue streams are not always as obviously as they are in cases of the commercial distribution of products and services.

The Key Resources describe required resources to realize the proposed value and to realize the mentioned distribution channels, customer relationships and revenue streams. Therefore, they depend directly on the mentioned aspects.

Key Activities define further actions that need to be conducted in order to realize the mentioned value propositions, distribution channels, customer relationships and revenue streams. Therefore, they depend directly on the mentioned aspects.

Key Partnerships are represented by other organizations that provide required resources or competencies. The majority of these dependencies are inside the project: In context of the development of products and services based on the outcomes of R&D projects this focuses on the relevant IPR-Holder within the project and is affected by the IPR arrangements. Furthermore, there might be more dependencies in the further project course, e.g. for testing and validating.

Additionally there may be partners outside the consortium that offer resources and competencies that are required or desired, especially for the market exploitation. In cases of IPR issues, relevant arrangements can be extracted from the relevant contracts accompanying the project, aggregated by the approach of chapter 4.3.2.1, and the competencies and expertizes of the partners, analyzed by the approach presented in chapter 4.3.2.2.

The Cost Structure gives a first overview concerning the relevant cost driver of an intended product or service and is therefore directly related to the kind of business that is intended. In particular, this refers to the processes that are necessary to generate the proposed value and is therefore dependent on the defined concept from chapter 4.3.4.3.

Furthermore, the presented business model shall be enhances by one additional component: Since the original business model is designed to aggregate the characteristics of the business conducted by one organization, it has no further relation to the business model driver. In contrary to this situation, the designed concepts for the exploitation of a R&D project refer to the whole consortium, although not the whole consortium will necessarily conduct the business. Therefore, it is necessary to indicate the Operator of the business model.

29 Operator

Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions Value Beneficiaries Relationships

Value Beneficiaries

Key Resources Channels

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

Figure 12: Visualization of the Structure of the modified Business Model

30