Industrial testbed users need real customers:

Who are your users selling to?

Michael Boniface
(mjb@it-innovation.soton.ac.uk)

FIRE Board
11 June 2014
2014 IT Innovation Centre University of Southampton
Three important socio-
economic sectors
tourism and
entertainment
culture and education
high performance
sports
Five Future Media
Internet (FMI)
technology areas
social media
user generated
content
professional content
augmented reality
3D Internet
EXPERIMEDIA
(www.experimedia.eu)
Ski Races
Mountain Holidays
Olympic Sports Training
Culture and Education Productions
2014 IT Innovation Centre University of Southampton
Attracting Testbed users:
Whats your irresistible offer?

Marketing
Uniqueness
Efficiency
Funding
Customers
researchers want
knowledge
companies want
money
How does a
testbed
contribute to the
success of its
users?

Serving both interests
Whats unique or
efficient for
researchers may not
be the same for
companies
Financial incentives
are universal
Should FIRE support
the full R&I pathway?


2014 IT Innovation Centre University of Southampton
Experiences across the R&I pathway
EXPERIMEDIA offers access to end users, markets,
sector/methodology expertise, advanced technology
a compelling offer
value in the combination of venue plus technology
open access announcement in September to test this
Pure research users were problematic, interesting but.
too immature and specific for larger end user trials
limited of benefit for venues.disaster
Pure innovation users were problematic too
limited advance from state-of-the-art
product testing rather than scientific approach
On balance innovation-oriented experiments were better
directly exploitable results
greater user and venue engagement

2014 IT Innovation Centre University of Southampton
Venue
<customer>
visitors
<experimenter>
Service or
Technology
Provider
Technology
Showroom
<customer>
target
market
EXPERIMEDIA
Platform
Selling to Venues

Experimenters deliver technology to venues
to enhance venue services to visitors
Venues operate the services
Venues offer technology showroom for new
products and services

Direct sales
channel
Marketing
(indirect sales)
Awareness
advertises

License
Service

License

Capability Capability
CAR Smart Venue
2014 IT Innovation Centre University of Southampton
Selling to Visitors

Experimenters deliver services or
products directly to visitors
Venues offer sector and local knowledge
Venues act as technology showroom for
new products and services

Venue
<customer>
visitors
<experimenter>
Service or
Technology
Provider
Technology
Showroom
<customer>
target
market
EXPERIMEDIA
Platform
Direct sales
channel
Marketing
(indirect sales)
advertises
Sector
Knowledge
Awareness Hospitality/Live Events
Subscription/
License/

Capability Capability
Schladming Smart Venue
2014 IT Innovation Centre University of Southampton