BUILDING A NEW BUSINESS BASED ON APPLICATION SERVICES FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Funding for Local Authorities has become tighter and tighter, whilst Government and societal pressures increase the demand for improved services. Efficiency improvements become the goal, and typically these require processes to be redesigned and effective new IT systems to be introduced to support them.

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A business I was in at the time had developed a set of “good practice” processes, embedded within SAP, and provided on a service basis (known as software as a service these days) and on a revenue fee basis.

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However the company had an outsourcing culture and mindset, and was not used to selling product based solutions. To help overcome this I introduced a new identity for the service, created a price (and costing) model, and conducted an integrated marketing plan to build confidence in the increased value this approach was clearly delivering. Changing people’s mindsets from custom-built services to product-led thinking was challenging, but in due course the results proved remarkable. Our win-rate soared, margins grew, we dominated the sector, were awarded SAP Partner of the Year, and grew fivefold in the following 3 years.