Analog product, enhanced by a digital tool

Include the value creation network in the provision of digital tools

The initial situation

The basic idea behind the company is simple: more attention for wild bees. Under the motto “What the farmer doesn't know, he doesn't eat - and what man doesn't know, he doesn't protect”, the start-up supplies the region with nesting boxes and shelves that it manufactures itself in order to secure the population of wild bees by providing suitable breeding grounds. They mainly use natural and renewable materials. For every nesting aid sold, the startup donates one square meter of flowering meadow, which is scattered by agricultural partners. In order to promote more interaction with the entire value creation network, a digital approach is to be created for the otherwise analog nesting aids.

The Challenge

In order to achieve these goals, it is important to pay attention to technical issues:

• What options are there for networking and monitoring wild bee nesting aids?
• How can the new digital services be designed to be as user-friendly as possible?
• And how can you innovatively expand an existing business model without losing the company's basic idea of sustainability?

The possible approaches for more interactivity with the products are diverse: a chatbot on your own website can provide specialist knowledge about wild bees and their role in nature conservation, a regional map could visualize the locations of several nesting aids in the area and, with the help of suitable hardware, customers could observe their own nesting aid up close and understand its influence on their environment in real time.

The Approach

In order to find out which digitalization strategy really makes sense for the young company and the partners involved, the project started with a roadmap development. This was based on an analysis of potential, in which the start-up's needs were first identified. As with most young companies, acquiring new customers was at the top of the list. Our team of experts asked themselves: How can the existing business model, i.e. the sale of wild bee nesting aids, be expanded and made more digital in order to appeal to new customers? And how can modern technologies support this?

The potential analysis in the course of the roadmapping revealed various approaches: From an interactive flowering meadow map to locate the donated square meters to a registration option for nesting aids and the use of sensor technology on the products.

A stakeholder analysis of the value creation network was part of the roadmap development, too. In order to make the digitalization project as meaningful as possible for the startup and its direct contacts, the experts from the center and EDIH, together with the founder and support from marketing, first identified all stakeholders with a general interest in the company's activities. They then divided these into the core team, the involved groups and the informed groups. With the help of the stakeholder analysis, all parties were taken into account during the course of the project and direct partners were included from the outset.

The Solution

The next step was to determine the focus for the next steps. Based on the potential analysis and taking into account the stakeholder map, the company and our experts decided to design the interactive flowering meadow map together. The requirements for the map were then identified and collected in several workshops and feedback rounds with the project team. The requirements of all previously defined stakeholders were included in order to create a holistic result.

The requirements developed in the concept development phase were implemented as a prototype in the piloting phase and repeatedly evaluated and adapted in an iterative process. The prototype was tested several times by the company and revised accordingly by our experts. Once the prototype had been successfully implemented, programming of the web application began: Our EDIH developers focused on ensuring that the start-up was able to further develop the tool and integrate it into its web environment. Here, too, feedback rounds and coordination took place with the clear aim of aligning the process as closely as possible with the requirements of the value creation network. Once the tool had been successfully completed, possible next steps were identified using a customer journey map.

Results and benefits

The project with the Troisdorf-based start-up shows that digitalization can help to reach customers and partners in a completely new way. It is particularly important for start-ups to first find out what their own value creation network looks like and how the stakeholders interact with each other. The Blühwiesenkarte combines the interests of different partners and ultimately offers a tool for customers to gain even more knowledge about the product they have purchased. This approach is conceivable across all industries - whenever an analog product is to be supplemented by a digital service!

This project was carried out in collaboration with the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum WertNetzWerke and our project partner FIT durchgeführt.