Acceleration phase – In this phase the strategy for the digital initiative and the existing operations are not separated. This means that there is one vision and one strategy that will influence the entire operation, digital or not. The company runs a business which combines the digital venture and the preexisting operation. This way, the venture will have a stronger impact and all the focus will be on the future (instead of on the core of the organization, as in the Coordination Phase), which in turn means that changes as well as results will accelerate. The company will also be able to keep track of changes happening around the world and adjust accordingly. This will increase the possibilities of developing a long-term, successful company. Compare Mobilization Phase and Coordination Phase.
Advertising (revenue model) – The offer is usually free to receive and is funded by an advertiser. Examples: Display advertising (Banners, etc.), Search advertising (Google Adwords), Sponsorship (of a TV show or a certain type of content), and Affiliate advertising (the advertiser pays a third party when a sale is made).
Agile process – Nowadays, it is common to talk about an agile way of working, in other words being more flexible and fast moving. The main reason for this is that it is becoming more and more difficult to predict market movements and long-term plans need to be replaced, or at least changed in order to continuously adapt to new insights, while continuing to move forward. An agile perspective assumes that the surrounding world and the business are complex systems where all the different parts affect each other. Therefore, the processes should be adapted in order to make room for changes within and outside of company limits. The opposite of an agile working process is a waterfall model where the steps are linear and analysis takes place at the start of the process rather than continuously.
Alpha phase – Alpha phase is a phase in the innovation process in which ideas are turned into prototypes which can then be tested, and the main focus is on verifying problems and solutions. Compare beta phase.
Ambidexterity – A lot of research has been done regarding organizational ambidexterity. The word ambidexterity originally means the ability to use both the left and right hand equally well. In organizational research it refers to organizations that are equally good at managing their existing business, as well as taking advantage of new opportunities that come their way. Put differently, this means that it is an organization that is able to operate the business over both the short and long term. Developing ambidexterity is essential for traditional companies who want to complete a digital transformation in order to optimize the business of today and combine it with that of tomorrow. There are two kinds of ambidexterity:
Structural ambidexterity (not to be confused with structural innovation), in which certain structures that are responsible for a longer perspective are created (in this case, digitalization) and in this kind of structure the employees will be focused on innovation and the future. The benefit of structural ambidexterity is that it is much easier to focus on one thing at a time and it is also easier to build up a culture and competence directly intended for the purpose. The disadvantage could be that developments within the separate part of the organization are not implemented by the existing operation, possibly due to competition between different parts of the organization.
Contextual ambidexterity is when employees in their work roles consider both long and short term plans. Advantages and disadvantages are the opposite of structural ambidexterity. It is much easier to implement new ideas and opportunities in the existing operation since it consists of the same people, but demands on the employees are higher as they have to be able to handle both administration and a short term perspective, as well as innovation and a long term perspective.
Both types of ambidexterity can also be combined, and this has been done successfully and is currently taking place at companies such as Google (Alphabet), Schibsted and IBM.
API – API stands for Application Programming Interface and it specifies how different online services communicate with each other.
Application lifecycle management – Application lifecycle management (ALM) refers to coordination and handling of different phases in the delivery process of a software/application, from development phase to deployment. ALM contains a set of predefined processes and tools to handle the application's definition, design, development, testing, deployment and usage. Each of these steps are supervised during the entire process. The purpose is to gain control and efficiency.
Artificial intelligence – The term was coined in the 50's by John McCarthy and refers to intelligence demonstrated by machines. Known examples of this would be Deep Blue, which was a chess playing computer that defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997, IBM's super computer called Watson and personal assistants that can be found in smart phones such as Siri. Machine learning is part of artificial intelligence. Read the article The basics of artificial intelligence for companies.
Automation – Automation is the ultimate process. Automation fress up personal resources, which means that focus can be placed on more important tasks. Part of automation is about making decisions in real time through algorithms. An example of automation is a marketing department that introduces marketing automation with the purpose of simplifying and improving sales.
B
Best practice (Digital Maturity Matrix) – Best practice is a central part of the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology. One of the main aims of the methodology is that it helps companies find out when to do what and how it will happen. This means that the digital motors should be developed in a certain order so that the transformation can be done as smoothly and quickly as possible.
There is of course not only one way to develop the digital maturity of the nine digital motors that work regardless of situation. On the other hand, there is a basic scheme that is a good reference for most businesses. We call it the general best practice. This means, for example, that it is an advantage if the motor Values, Vision & Mission is a bit ahead driving the transformation, especially in the early stages (Mobilization phase). In the second phase (Coordination phase), Values, Vision & Mission should still be ahead at the same time as focus should also now increase on how the company works, and for example, motors like Organization and Data & Analysis should be given priority. In the third phase (Acceleration phase), the maturity between the different motors should be evened out.
A general best practice is adapted in different steps (see 123-127 in the book) to a custom best practice.
When doing the digital maturity test, the result is set in relation to the general best practice described above. This allows the company to understand whether different motors are located before, after or in phase.
Beta phase – The beta phase in an innovation process is where a beta product, Minimum Viable Product, is developed and tested on a smaller scale on the market. Changes are then made on an ongoing basis. Compare alpha phase.
Big bang sickness – An illness which means that all the resources are focused on the big launch of a service and when it has been carried out all the development and resources will be focused on the next project.
Big data – Big data is ”digitally stored information of such quantity that it is difficult to process using traditional methods" (both Wikipedia and Oxford English Dictionary have similar definitions). Nowadays, big data is primarily used by companies to increase customer understanding. It is done by measuring and analyzing actual behaviors and situations in order to make better decisions and come up with better offers.
Borrowed touchpoints – When the company is using its own touchpoints in another company's digital services, for example social media.
Brand – The sum of all its customers' perceptions, beliefs, and feelings that are facing a business, an organization or a product. This is a result of everything a company does that in any way can be perceived and experienced by customers. Brand is a adjacent to customer experience.
Bundling – Bundling comes from the word bundle, which means to merge together. By combining several offers as one package, the purpose is to increase the attractiveness of the offer. It could lead to a more affordable price or simply make it easier for the buyer. Common bundling might consist of buying two phone subscription plans and receiving a phone with the purchase. The subscription sometimes also contains other benefits such as one year of free Spotify Premium. Other examples are "Buy 3 games, only pay for 2" or "book two nights and we will include a spa treatment" and so on. When bundling, the marginal income is usually reduced for the different offers included in the bundle, which means this kind of strategy isn't always a given.
So when should a company choose to "bundle" an offer?
There is no definite answer to this question, but generally the probability for bundling will increase when there is high competition in a market. If you have a unique market position with your offer, it usually doesn't pay off to combine this offer with another one to maintain the margins. Sometimes it is all about bundling in different phases, for example starting off with an individual offer and when the demands of the market begin to fade, packaging the offer with a different one.
Business model – Many people tend to mix up revenue model and business model. A business model describes how a company creates, delivers and captures value. Osterwalder and Pigneur divide it into nine different areas: target group, offer, customer relations, channels, key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure and revenue streams. The business model represents large parts of a business plan, in which factors such as vision, budget and business intelligence are common additions. Those who pay attention might have noticed that the nine motors that make up the Digital Maturity Matrix for the most part correspond with the business model according to the description above, but there are a few differences. The similarities are natural and exist because a business model as well as digitalization cover many of the most important components in a business.
BYOD – Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an expression used to describe a company policy which allows employees to use their own work tools such as laptops, phones and software at work. Similar to BYOD is also Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) which refers to employees who use their own account on the cloud service Dropbox to store and share documents. The purpose of BYOD and BYOC is to make it possible for employees to work with whatever tools they are accustomed to in order to increase productivity and satisfaction among workers. It can also lead to a reduction in costs for the company because it no longer has to purchase all the necessary work tools. Disadvantages regarding BYOD are mainly potential security risks, as it is more difficult to control sensitive information and it also makes it difficult to provide good support for many different departments.
C
Capability maturity model – Capability Maturity Model(CMM) divides a company's work with processes into five steps:
Initial – ad hoc based work; the knowledge is in the minds of key individuals.
Repetitive – the processes have some sort of documentation and the work is usually done in a similar way.
Defined – the processes are well documented and used in all different parts of the organization.
Managed – the work is measured and monitored.
Optimized – the measurements are used for continuous improvements. (Carnegie Mellon University, 1993)
Change leadership – The procedure for creating impetus and capabilities of individuals so they and the organization move from the current state to a desired future state.
Chief digital officer – Chief digital officer or CDO is a relatively new title aimed at the person responsible for digitizing at a company. Also sometimes called Digital director. The mandate of the role often look very different from business to business.
Cloud services – Cloud services are infrastructure on tap. Cloud services exist at different levels ranging from operation and hosting (infrastructure as a service) to operating systems and software, where applications and services are built (platform as a service), and on to the applications and services themselves (software as a service) in the cloud. The fact that something is on the cloud means that it is not located locally, for example on a server or computer at the individual company. The benefits of cloud services are several. For you as a buyer, it is very easy to add and remove services and it often delivers well, and at a low cost.
The disadvantages may be the lack of control, the fact that business critical information is available at an external company, customization is not possible and personal support may be harder to find. Examples of well-used cloud services are the hosting service Amazon Web Services, the storage service Dropbox, Google Apps, which include email and office software, as well as the audio service called SoundCloud.
Co-creation – Co-creation focuses on creating things together. For example, with a partner, customers or even competitors. The term is related to Open Innovation.
Competence – Competence is when an individuals knowledge, skills as well as experiences are used in the environment in which the individual is located and it contributes to a value.
Competitiveness – A company's ability to create long-term profitability on open markets. (D. G. McFetridge, 1995)
Content marketing – Content marketing is an approach to changing the target group's behavior by providing access to value-creating content on the company's own platforms. The content is mostly distributed through the company's own channels, but it can also be marketed through purchased and contributing media. The content needs to be relevant and valuable according to the target group and should not focus on selling or describing products. The work on content marketing should be conducted continuously for a longer period of time, it should based on predefined goals and consist of frequent follow-ups. (Content marketing for everyone, J. Arhammar, P. Staunstrup, 2016)
Coordination phase – This phase creates deeper meaning of what the company does digitally and what works. Here the main focus is how the company should work with digitalization, and these questions are mostly directed within the company. A deeper strategy for the digital venture is often developed and more resources are allocated in this phase. A special department is usually created for this investment. This is the most difficult maturity phase and it places high demands on good leadership. The reason for this is that the digital initiative has grown and is becoming increasingly important while the existing business is decreasing. The result is that the operations need more coordination, and conflicts between the traditional and the digital operation become common. Much effort is therefore directed within the organization on coordinating the digital operation with the existing operations, and maximum power going forward is not being achieved. Compare Mobilization phase and Acceleration phase.
Cost leadership (strategy) – One of the four basic strategies. The goal is that the offer is delivered at the lowest possible cost. For markets where there is a very small difference between the different offers, this is a necessity for long-term competitiveness. The problem with this strategy is generally that it is likely to lead to very small margins. Compare Differentiation, Customer relationship and Network effect.
Crowdfunding – Crowdfunding is a way to raise capital for a company or a project. It usually happens through services such as Kickstarter or FundedByMe. There are primarily two types of Crowdfunding: 1. Rewards or 2. Equity based.
The latter means that a company can obtain equity or that loans can be given to a business. The former refers to receiving a reward for financing. For example, testing the product before others do, meeting entrepreneurs or the like.
Crowdsourcing – An English expression composed of two terms, crowd and outsourcing, which means having work done outside of the organization.
Culture – Culture, organizational culture or corporate culture consists of the employees' own assumptions guiding them in what is appropriate behavior in different situations. Vision, values and norms are all important terms in corporate culture. (Ravasi, D. Schultz, M., 2006). According to Schein, there are three levels of organizational culture:
Artifacts and behavior: Artifacts are the visual parts of a culture, which an individual outside of the organization can notice more easily. It could be how the office is decorated, what the logo looks like or how people dress. It also applies to behavior in terms of how the employees communicate at lunch or what type of jokes are told and accepted.
Validated values and norms: The values that a company or organization stands behind and expresses. These are often summed up in a number of core values and communicated in business plans and in both internal and external communication. They guide employees in what the company believes in.
Common basic assumptions: These assumptions are deeply rooted behaviors that are usually taken for granted or expressed subconsciously. They are so well integrated into the organization that they can be difficult to detect from within. It could be how conflicts are resolved, how cooperation is conducted and the company's view of its position in the surrounding world.
Customer acquisition cost – The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the cost of getting a customer. In order for a company to become profitable it has to be lower than the lifetime value.
Customer journey – The customer journey is the journey from when a need arises for a customer to when a purchase is made and further on to use. Customer journey mapping describes the customer experience as a number of different stages. It is common to describe the buying process as a customer journey and observe what happens before, during and after a purchase. Another example is to describe how the customer experiences assistance with a problem. The contact between the company and the target group is described in a number of touchpoints. This can include display ads, visits to a website, delivery of a package or a call to customer service. Customer journey mapping should also describe the steps in the buying process that do not involve direct contact between the target group and the company. Examples of this could be if a customer visits price comparison sites or talks to friends before making a purchase.
What is important about the work with the customer journey is describing what happens in each step and what the customer experiences as good and bad (pain points and gain points) and bring these points to light in the company's business. This will determine what would be most beneficial for the customer and the company in each step. For example, it's not a good idea to put a lot of energy into changing something that customers do not experience as important - this is where the customer journey will provide great support.
Customer relationship (strategy) – Customer relationship is one of four basic strategies. The goal is to build, entertain and develop customer relationships better than competitors do to achieve competitive advantages. This strategy is basically always directed to a specific target group. The strategy also explains how certain organizations are able to compete long-term on a depressed market despite similar products. Compare Cost leadership, Differentiation and Network effect.
D
Data – Data contains information about something, often but not always being a collection of facts. Data is not just related information, but information that is usually defined as data that has been interpreted. The data can be collected in many different ways such as through computers, but also through surveys, focus groups, etc.
Data (Revenue model) – Selling data created by a company or a service. Examples. User data (Schibsted, Yieldbot) and business intelligence (Forrester and Jupiter).
Data & Analysis (motor) – The data collected, how it is analyzed and used to make and implement decisions, and how it is used in the value proposition. One out of nine digital motors included in the methodology Digital Maturity Matrix.
Descriptive analysis – A descriptive analysis explains something that has happened or describes an area or phenomenon, for example in the form of a report. Focus on: What has happened? Compare predictive analysis and prescriptive analysis.
Design thinking – A creative method to innovate and solve complex issues. It is based on human needs and behaviors. Experiments and prototypes lead to new solutions. The method is especially suited for questioning traditional ways of thinking. The starting point is to come up with a goal instead of actually solving a specific problem. The main question usually starts with three words - How might we - in order to balance the conditions in the creative process.
Differentiation (strategy) – Differentiation is one of four basic strategies. The goal here is to achieve competitive advantages by offering something unique and different from competitors and to satisfy customer needs in a much better way. It is a strategy suitable for markets where the customers do not tend to be sensitive to price and where they have specific needs.
Compare Cost leadership, Customer relationship and Network effect.
Digital alibi – A digital alibi is a person who is in charge of digitalization, but does not have the budget, support or mandate to make a real difference. This individual is appointed in order for the CEO and management to avoid taking common responsibility for the digitalization.
Digital competitiveness – A company's ability to create long-term profitability on open markets through digital maturity.
Digital destination – Digital destination is a company's desired position at a given point in time in the future. This position describes two things: what the company's goal is when it comes to digital maturity within each digital motor, and when this should happen. Compare digital position.
Digital generalist – The digital generalist understands the effects of digitalization which affect the organization and how it should act. The generalist also understands the determining link between technology, humans and business. Compare digital specialist.
Digital maturity – Digital maturity describes how far an individual, a company, an industry or a society has come in their digital transformation in relation to their surroundings. Digital maturity is relative to its environment and that is because digital development is moving forward all the time. In other words, a company that is far ahead and stops taking the next steps will lose digital maturity, as new and better digital opportunities arise.
Digital maturity index (DMI) – Digital maturity index (DMI) is a measurement of a company's digital maturity and describes how digitalized the business is compared to its surroundings. DMI is measured between 0-100% and is relative to its surroundings because the digital development keeps going forward. This means that as the surrounding world matures digitally, the company needs to do so as well to keep its DMI and digital competitiveness. You can take the digital maturity test to get an idea of a company's DMI.
Digital Maturity Matrix – The Digital Maturity Matrix is a methodology that helps companies in digital transformation with how they should work, what they should do, and when this should happen. All to continuously maximize digital competitiveness. Read more about the Digital Maturity Matrix.
Digital mission – A mission which is used to clearly point out how a company should reach its digital vision. As technology becomes a natural part of the business - the digital maturity is high - a specific digital mission plays out its role and is replaced by an overall mission for the entire business.
Digital motor – A digital motor comes from the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology and it is a description of the nine areas a company needs to develop to increase its digital competitiveness. These are:
Digital nirvana – Digital nirvana is obtained when long-term competitiveness is maximized through digital maturity. The company doesn’t differentiate between online and offline operations, but operates with complete freedom from channel dependency, and this permeates all aspects of the company’s activities. The organization fully understands its market and business environment. It sees where it’s going and has the ability to continuously and with maximum efficiency adapt and create value for society, employees, clients, and shareholders through the right value proposition at the right place and at the right time.
Digital position – A company's digital position identifies how far the company has come in its transformation. For example, it can be described through a Digital Maturity Index (DMI). Compare digital destination.
Digital potential – The difference in digital maturity that an individual holds at home and at work is the employee's digital potential. If the company's environment provides good conditions for the employees to take advantage of their knowledge and become skilled in their work role, the difference is very small. Organizations that have come a long way in terms of digitalization can consist of employees who have higher digital maturity at work than at home.
Digital specialist – A digital specialist is for example good at coding, maximizing SEO efforts or building optimal IT architecture, etc. However, the specialist is not necessarily as good at seeing the overall picture. Compare digital generalist.
Digital strategy – A digital strategy refers to creating clarity and effort in the company's digital ventures and should only exist in the transition stage of the company's digital transformation. There is a difference between digital strategy and strategy for digital transformation. The latter focuses much more on how and what the company needs to do in each phase to succeed with their transformation. In other words, what our methodology and book covers and encompasses.
A digital strategy, however, is where customer needs and behaviors will be highlighted and how the company, given its circumstances, best meets these demands.
A digital strategy should be directly subordinate to the company's overall strategy. At least, the digital strategy should take the overall strategy into account on all essential points, to make it work in the best possible way. If not, there is a risk that a conflict may occur with the overall strategy, with sub optimization as a consequence.
Digital transformation – Digital transformation is the adaptations a company makes to be competitive in a digitalized world. Other terms that can be used to describe this are digital journey or digitalizing a company.
Digital transformation can also take place on an individual, industrial or societal level.
Digital transformation strategy – A digital transformation strategy is not the same as a digital strategy. The strategy for digital transformation focuses much more on how and what the company should do in each phase to maximize its competitiveness and bring about change within the organization. This strategy, in other words, is what our methodology and book are about. Compare to digital strategy.
Digital value added service – A service which supports the original product or service. The main thing is to understand the customer's true needs, whether it is an existing need today or a latent need which can be awakened to life. An example of digital value added services within the pharmaceutical industry is a phone app that reminds the patient about when to take their medicine.
Digital vision – A vision used to clearly point out the long-term goal of a company's digitalization. As technology is becoming a natural part of the business - the digital maturity is high - a specific digital vision plays has fulfilled its role and is replaced by an overall vision for the entire company.
Digitalization – Digitization is technically to make analog information digital (for example text, sound or image), making it is easier to store, process and transfer. An image can be stored on a hard drive, a document is searchable and a radio show can be transmitted online so more people can hear it. Digitalization refers to much more than just making analog information digital and also includes the effects (change waves) digitization leads to. These are on three different levels:
Technology. As described above, the basic idea is that information becomes digital. The quantity of data that can be created, what can be done with it, and how it’s made available depends on the various and multiple types of basic digital technology, such as processor speeds, storage capacity, and mobile communications standards.
Products and services. Various products and services evolve based on this digital technology, such as tablets or a social network.
Behavior. Services that are both good and available create usage. Regular usage changes behavior which can in turn contribute to changing values. An example of this is when consumers purchased tablets and began to consume tablet-based services (apps). As user understanding and appreciation of tablets grew, media behavior changed.
Direct touchpoints – Direct touchpoints are meeting places where companies have direct communication with the target group. They are divided as:
Discovery phase – The discovery phase of an innovation process is where ideas are generated, screened and verified. Decisions are also created in this phase.
Display advertising – Display ads, of which banners make up the largest portion, are a big part of internet advertising. The benefit of display marketing is, among other things, that it can show visual messages, images and animations, unlike search marketing. Display ads are used both for brand advertising and retail advertising. Display advertising has historically not been as easy as search marketing for advertisers to handle, and for the most part they have not been able to schedule and manage campaigns on their own. Creating a display ad also requires significantly more than creating an ad for search. For this reason, mostly companies with large advertising budgets have turned out to be display customers. Strong innovation by Facebook and Google, etc., is the reason why this is now about to change and smaller advertisers are starting to use more display ads.
Disruptive innovation – Disruptive innovation is a phenomenon and a term which was coined by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen in connection with his book "The Innovator’s dilemma".
Disruptive innovation is a new technology and new business models that break down existing markets and value networks, while creating new ones. The meaning of disruptive innovation has been changing since the book was published in 1997 and many people have a wider perspective on disruptive innovation than Christensen. We use it to refer to all innovation that drastically changes a market or creates a new one through new business models and technology. Christensen means that lower prices are also needed, combined with an offer of lower quality according to the customers of current competitors. We consider a company like Uber to be a disruptive innovator, but according to Chirstensen's definition this is not the case, as the current market considers services offered by Uber to be of higher quality compared to the competitors. An example of disruptive innovation (also according to Christensen) was the Ford Model T. It was the first car to be produced by assembly line, which drastically lowered the price to the consumer, making it possible for more people to purchase a car. This in turn meant a big change in transportation habits and alternative transportation forms such as horse and carriage are no longer popular. Compare incremental and structural innovation.
Distributed organizations – A distributed organization is an organization that is spread out geographically, sometimes worldwide.
The benefits of distributed organizations are (among other things): geography does not prevent teams from working together, companies can get access to skills they otherwise wouldn't have and last but not least, if used right it can be more efficient for both the business and employees.
What many people find to be a disadvantage is that it is more difficult to know if someone is motivated or maybe isn't feeling well, and technical problems also occur quite frequently during audio/video conferences, etc.
Distribution platforms – By distribution platforms, we mean the media channels where a company can choose to appear. The internet is a large distribution platform which consists of many smaller ones. Partly, in the form of different devices that customers use, of which computers, cell phones, gaming consoles, tablets and TV are the most common ones and in the form of different services available on these devices such as Apple's Appstore or Google Play for mobile devices or Flickr, Facebook and Youtube for both computers and cell phones. For you as a business it is about:
- Customizing your products, services and your content to different devices
- Choosing distribution through the different services offered on different devices.
Dual operating system – A dual operating system is what John P Kotter would refer to as a network of volunteers from the existing business. In addition to their existing roles, they have the task of being responsible for different parts of the company's digitalization. This network is led by a control group which, working closely with management, gives a mandate to the network in the existing hierarchical organization.
E
Earned organization – The earned organization is people or companies that aren't paid, but still work. Two examples of contributing organizations are:
Apple's Appstore and Android's Play both feature apps that are developed by a number of third party developers and where Apple as well as Google take a portion of the revenue from the apps.
Wordpress, Drupal and Umbraco are a few examples of publishing tools for the web based on open source, which means that anyone can develop codes, which are added in coding databases that anyone can access.
Earned touchpoints – Earned touchpoints are part of indirect touchpoints and contains for example, PR and distribution of content done by someone who neither works with nor is responsible for the company's marketing communication and the distribution is beyond the company's control. One example is that the company posts a message on their Facebook page, which is then shared by the people following that page.
Ecosystem – When traditional value chains change because certain steps are eliminated and replaced with digital solutions, a company needs to identify its role in the new digital ecosystems.
To ensure that offers and revenue models actually work, many things need to coincide and work together. Many revenue models require well developed ecosystems where production companies (the businesses with the offers), subcontractors, competitors and distributors have to work along side each other to deliver enough experienced value to customers. Value networks and value chain are both related to ecosystems.
Apple, which has created digital ecosystems for a number of different types of content; Itunes for music, Appstore for applications, iBooks for books and Newsstand for magazines.
Digitalization has made it possible for some major players to build up functioning ecosystems to a large extent on their own. An example of this is Amazon with its Kindle tablet, which managed to catch real speed in the ebook industry in the United States thanks to good hardware as well as software and a very attractive range of ebooks at good prices.
Event-based communication – Event-based communication refers to when communication is adapted to different situations in a user's behavior. An example: a user registers as a member and after 10 days, he/she receives an offer. Event-driven communication is often automated.
F
Fast follower – Fast follower, or second mover as it is also called, means not being the first one to enter a market, segment, or technology, etc. The benefit of this is that the one that comes after can learn from the earlier company's actions and mistakes. This way, they can quickly and with fewer resources create an offer which is better suited to a customer group's needs. Another benefit is that a 2nd mover can wait for the right time before they go in with greater force. Fast follower is a common strategy for many larger businesses while smaller start-ups are usually in a first mover position. See First mover.
First mover – First mover benefits can be achieved, for example, by rapidly adopting new technology that competitors do not have and constantly developing it to stay ahead. There are also disadvantages of being in the front and the most significant one is that it is often costly to be the one who builds a market that is not yet mature. See Fast follower.
Freemium (Revenue model) – Freemium is a combination of free and (pre)mium, which in this case means payment service and it is just like it sounds. Part of the offer, which is usually less advanced and/or contains advertising, is free and it is possible to pay for even more features or to avoid advertisements. The purpose of this model is to get potential customers to try a service and then convert these people into paying customers. The model is very common for online businesses and it is used by companies such as King, Skype, Spotify, Microsoft SQL server, SurveyMonkey and Mailchimp. Freemium is often combined with other types of revenue models such as advertisement, subscriptions or licensing.
G
General digital maturity – General digital maturity determines to what extent an individual or an organization understands the many contexts that digitalization operates in, what the effect of it is and what the quality the identification and usage of the new digital opportunities are.
Compare Specific digital maturity.
Gig economy – Gig economy refers to a development in which temporary work (gigs) is becoming more common. The trend towards a gig economy has already begun. A study done by Intuit predicts that 40 percent of American workers will be independent contractors in 2020, which means that they will not be employed by a company. Digitalization drives the gig economy, insofar as the workforce is becoming more mobile and work can be done from pretty much anywhere. The "Gigger" and the companies meet on a global market where supply and demand meet.
I
Incremental innovation – This refers to small incremental improvements within existing operations and offers. Kaizen or ISO 9001 are related concepts and incremental innovation is used primarily as a competitive strategy in the short-term or on markets with no major change. One example is when a car manufacturer comes out with a new model with smaller changes compared to the previous one, such as an engine requiring less fuel, five doors instead of the previous three or rear-screen TVs. Compare with structural and disruptive innovation.
Indirect touchpoints – Indirect touchpoints refer to where companies communicate through a different party with their target group. They are divided into:
Infrastructure (motor) – The information technology available to support the company's processes and how this is integrated into the offer. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Innovation – An innovation is a new solution that is used in practice and which improves revenue, cost or creates other values in a company, that is, increases competitiveness. There are three levels of innovation:
Internet of things – Internet of things (IoT) means that all kinds of things can be connected and are able to collect and exchange data. It could be clothes, vehicles, household items, shelves at the store, containers or even animals and humans. The communication between things is called machine-to-machine (M2M), between a thing and a human it is called machine-to-person (M2P) and between people it is referred to as person-to-person (P2P). The number of connected things is today estimated at 15 billion (2016) and predictions show that it will be as much as 50 billion in 2020.
IoT creates benefits at different levels. In everyday life for the individual, on the revenue as well as the cost side for a company and for society at large, new solutions for sustainable development are possible.
L
Launching phase – The launching phase in an innovation process is when the product is launched on a larger scale for the potential market. Continued focus on continuously listening, measuring and improving the product, but also reaching the target audience.
Lean production – Lean production, also called lean manufacturing, is an approach that eliminates everything that does not create value for a customer. It was developed by Toyota after the Second World War. In that corporation, it is called Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean is based on 14 basic principles:
1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.
2. Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.
3. Use ‘pull’ systems to avoid overproduction.
4. Level out the workload (work like the tortoise, not the hare).
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
6. Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
7. Use visual controls so no problems are hidden.
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and process.
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy.
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation.
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly.
14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement.
Working with continuous improvements, Kaizen in Japanese, is the basic view of Lean production, where no process is considered to be complete.
Lean startup – Lean startup is a method that combines lean and agile and is used to develop new businesses and products. It was launched by Eric Ries in 2011 with the purpose of developing desired products and services as quickly as possible and with minimal risk. The method emphasizes the importance of verifying customer needs and doing so by creating a so called Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which is the easiest way to design a product to test it among customers. The Build-Measure-Learn model is essential and aims to work step by step, testing and modifying hypotheses that do not appear to work (pivoting in the book). Lean startup advocates, just like lean, to cut out everything that does not create benefits for the customer, and as with agility, to continuously take small steps to develop the product.
Lean vs agile – It's interesting to compare lean and agile. Lean initially focused on industrial production, and was originally created over 60 years ago in an environment where things certainly moved forward but at a slow pace. Agile started by focusing on software development, 50 years later in a completely different and much more inconstant world.
There are many similarities between the different philosophies. Both focus on the customer and strive to continuously improve and simplify the work. The fact that management should work close to the business operations is also emphasized by both.
However, there are also differences. Lean, coming from mass production, has a starting point in streamlining and continuously developing a process by making slow decisions, while agile instead tries to constantly adapt to new requirements. Requirements that often come late. Delegating responsibility based on how the exact process appears to the team are all things that agile focuses on. Lean is sometimes seen as being in conflict with innovation; for example, because it is based on a stable environment, all the focus is on existing customers, and everything that does not create value for them is removed. Our view, however, is that it can be combined with agile processes, especially when working with the existing operation. When lean is used in innovative processes, it should not limit innovation to only look at existing customers and current needs. The next point takes up exactly this issue.
Licensing (revenue model) – Pay for use of an intangible asset such as technology or media content. Often happens in order for the buyer to use this to generate revenue. Examples: Content licensing (film and music companies) and software licensing (eZ publishing tools).
Lifetime value – Lifetime value (LTV) or Customer lifetime value (CLV), is a forecast of net income for the entire future business relationship with a customer. In order for an activity to be profitable, the lifetime value must be higher than the acquisition cost.
M
Machine learning – Machine learning is about creating algorithms that in turn can build models based on data. This is used to make predictions, for example, by looking for correlations. Machine learning is a part of the broader concept of Artificial intelligence.
Market boundaries – What market are you in? A simple question to ask but much more difficult to answer. However, it is becoming more important to consistently ask that question. The reason is that markets are changing frequently now and we need to understand who our customers are and if our company can succeed by changing the market and avoiding competition. The book Blue Ocean Strategy, by INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, highlights 6 areas (paths framework) where conventional market limitations should be questioned and where companies should try to find new ways to define the market. This should have the effect of creating a new and less competitive position. Examples of these areas are: alternative industries, complementary products and service offers or trends and developments over time.
A common mistake regarding market limitations is to have a narrow definition of competition and maybe think of how a market used to be. Having someone in charge of strategy is common, but it is very unusual to have someone in charge of market limitations, although this is becoming more important. The Danish media group "Aller" has introduced such responsibility. The reason is that the change in the media industry is so overwhelming that they need someone who takes on most of the responsibility to define where and where not to do business.
Marketing automation – An increasingly common way of automating communication is through marketing automation tools. The companies that use them have the ability to:
Identify and collect information about potential customers in their digital channels (Lead capturing)
Score a visitor's activities in order to find out where this person is at in the buying process. Examples of activities could be downloading a brochure, signing up for a newsletter or following a company on Twitter (Lead scoring)
Nurture and develop relationships, for example through content marketing tailored to where the customer is at in the buying process. (Lead nurturing)
Mash up – A website or web application that compiles content and services from different sources in a new joint interface called mash up. Examples of this is the integration of an Eniro Map, Youtube video, or Slideshare Presentation on a site. Mash ups are made possible through technical interfaces that make it easy to lift functionality from one service to another.
Minimum viable product – Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the minimum representation of a product that allows it to be tested against customers in order to get feedback to improve the product. The term was coined by Frank Robinson.
Mission – If the vision points toward where the company is going, the mission will answer the question of what the purpose of the company is, its reason for existing and what the company is doing to reach the vision. The vision is about the future and the mission describes the present as well as the future. As with the vision, a well-formulated mission gives clarity, facilitating the daily work by providing guidance on what a company should and should not do. The latter is often as important as the previous one as it creates boundaries that increase focus.
Mobilization phase – The first phase of the Digital Maturity Matrix is aimed at companies with low maturity compared to their surrounding world. In order to answer why it is important and to come up with a vision of where the company is going by using the investment are important elements in this phase. It is often necessary to get to the bottom with why the company exists. Answering why and where will lead to commitment and effort to move forward. In this phase, the venture is often limited to one or more people who will be in charge of it. Compare Coordination phase and Acceleration phase.
Modular infrastructure – Modular infrastructure means that individual components can be replaced with minimal impact on other infrastructure. This creates ongoing flexibility and costs can be kept down.
N
Net Promoter Score – Net Promoter Score is a way of measuring customer satisfaction by looking at the proportion of ambassadors and critics.
Network effect (strategy) – The network effect (also called winner takes it all) is one of four basic strategies. The net effect is a phenomenon that occurs when the value of the offer increases for each additional buyer or user. Examples of companies include Ebay and Blocket, both of which are dominant players in their niches, and Facebook, which nowadays is clearly the dominant social network. The companies that succeed in achieving network effect and getting more users than competitors often have a position which is difficult to affect. Compare Cost leadership, Differentiation and Customer relationship.
Notifications – Notifications are messages that the computer, phone or watch send out to show that something has happened or will happen. The calendar reminds you that an appointment is coming up, the message service lets you know that you received a reply to an email and the news service tells you that an important event has occurred.
The importance of notifications keeps increasing as users get access to more and more mobile devices such as smart watches. By linking customer data, geographic position and user situation, there are great opportunities to provide relevant tips in real time. However, as it is a matter of providing information in accordance with the old communication model, it is difficult to figure out a way that this can be done, and giving the user control over what he/she is being notified of is a necessity.
O
Objectives and key results – Objectives and key results (OKRs) is a management system invented by Intel and popularized by Google in the late 90's. In short, management is guided by visions and contexts, as well as through few, clear and ambitious goals that are linked to a number of key results.
The objectives and key results are broken down by each department and further down to the individual level. The purpose of the model is that everyone should work toward the same goal and that different departments and individuals can more easily coordinate their work. This is facilitated by the fact that all goals and key results are transparent, down to the individual level - for everyone to share them. This often happens through web-based control panels. Objectives and key results are regularly monitored, usually on a quarterly basis. Many start-ups in Silicon Valley use the system, and an increasing number of traditional companies also use this system.
Omni-channel – Omni-channel is a concept that involves following visitors or customers all the way. Multi-channel is based on reaching the target groups through several touchpoints and optimizing each one of these separately, while omni-channel takes an additional step by focusing on optimizing the customer's overall experience of all contact points as one. It means completely basing it on the customer's perspective and creating an experience that works seamlessly and intuitively through all touchpoints used by the customer. This experience is individual. When a potential customer visits the company's website, the content will be customized after this unique individual's behavior, the time of day and the geographic location. The customer journey becomes an important tool for us to understand how the customer moves around and what each contact area should contribute with.
Open API – API stands for Application Programming Interface and specifies how different web services communicate with each other; the result may be a mash up of different services. Increasingly, companies also open their web services through APIs and provide access to data and content for other external developers to build services on top of. Sometimes it's linked to a common revenue model, sometimes it's more of a service. In this way, the services can be developed with solutions that a single company would never have the resources to generate themselves and which are often equipped to fit very specific needs. Examples of open APIs that are widely used by third-party developers are the apps that can be built for the likes of Facebook, Spotify, the Appstore, and Google Play.
Open innovation – A term coined in 2003 by Henry Chesbrough, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Chesbrough pointed to the importance of companies using external as well as internal ideas. A related term is co-creation. A large number of people outside a particular operation contribute to solving a task.
Open source – A general trend when it comes to choice of technology is that more and more people choose to build on open source, as costs can be kept down and it's easy to get programmers who can work in basic open source environments. Open source aims to open the source code of the programs that are developed so that others can use it and further develop and customize solutions on top of existing code without paying licensing fees. The payment is often made by using what was developed and sharing it back into the open system and thus the open source environments become more developed. The opposite of open source is proprietary software owned by a company, where users' rights are limited, often through copyright and patents. Examples of open source projects are the Wordpress publishing tool, the MySQL database and the office software OpenOffice.
Organization (motor) – The corporate culture, skills, and organizational structure that exist in order to create and deliver the value proposition. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Own organization – A company's employees.
Own touchpoints – Touchpoints that the company controls and can directly reach out through without paying or relying on someone else to spread their message. Some examples of this could be your own developed websites, blogs, apps, sales people and customer service. It may also be that the touch points are integrated in the offer itself. For example, in a computer where the user finds out about new services that the manufacturer launches.
P
Pain point – A pain point could be disadvantages that customers experience with currently offered solutions or a need that is not being met satisfactorily today. Understanding these pain points and finding solutions to them is a common approach to product and service innovation.
Pay what you want (revenue model) – The "pay what you want" model is just what it sounds like. Wikipedia, the digital marketplace called Humblebundle.com and the Ubuntu operating system are all funded through voluntary payment. Radiohead, the rock band, also released their album ”In Rainbows” with optional payment. This revenue model can be combined with a different type of revenue model to back it up, such as licensing, subscription or transaction management.
Predictive analysis – A method of analysis that uses historical data to provide predictions about the future: for example, the likelihood is that X will occur if Y has occurred. Focus on: What is going to happen and why? Compare descriptive analysis and prescriptive analysis.
Prescriptive analysis – Prescriptive analysis is a further development of predictive analysis. This method provides far-reaching forecasts and also suggests what actions should be taken to optimize the outcome. The focus is: What is the best thing that can happen? Compare descriptive analysis and predictive analysis.
Primary data – Data that you collect yourself. Compare Secondary data.
Process – A process is a chain of activities that in a recurring flow creates value for a customer. (Olof Rentzhog, 1998)
Process mapping – The first step in process mapping is to identify which processes are business critical, that create value for the target groups. These are divided into main processes, management processes and support processes.
In the second step, the mapping will focus on the key ratios that will be used to measure how the development is determined.
Next, the process is planned in a comprehensive manner in order to be further fleshed out. The mapping should end up in a place where existing processes are described and a desired situation where the changes are apparent.
Processes (motor) – The recurring series of actions that exist to support the organization to create and deliver the value proposition. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Purchased organization – The purchased organization consists of the consultants a company uses.
Qualitative analysis – Qualitative analysis often means a relatively small amount of unstructured data and the purpose is usually to find out why something happens. A focus group is an example of a qualitative research method in which participants are asked to explain what they think, feel and how they act in different situations and why. Qualitative studies may be helpful in early stages of analysis, for example, to pinpoint the correct definition of a problem for a quantitative analysis.
Quantitative analysis – Quantitative analysis often means larger amounts of well structured data. Quantitative analysis is done for surveys, etc. Compare qualitative analysis.
Quick wins – Quick wins are actions that do not require much effort and have an immediate effect. In a digital transformation, fast profits are necessary to strengthen the conviction of those who are already positive and help make them reluctant to change their minds. Quick wins should yield the desired effect: be visible, have a clear advantage, be clearly linked to the transformation and start soon after launching.
R
Relationships (motor) – How the company interacts with its target groups, which relationships are developed, and how these integrate with the value proposition. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Revenue model – Many tend to confuse revenue model with business model. Revenue streams equal the revenue model and these are part of the business model and describe how the company creates revenue.
Companies use different types of revenue models and several can be used at the same time. These revenue models are not mutually exclusive, but are partly integrated and many can be used together. Examples of revenue models are: Advertising, trade and freemium.
S
Seamlessness – A seamless user experience is an experience where a user can start in one contact area and easily continue to another. A successful omni-channel platform describes this state.
Search advertising – Ever since the rise of Google, search has been the primary way we find what we are looking for online. Before searching through portals like Yahoo, Spray and Passage, people searched where we would find the most interesting things in the huge range of what the web has to offer. In recent years, search engines have received competition from social media and an increasing proportion of the sites we choose to visit come as tips from friends in our social networks.
One of the things that makes search marketing an attractive part of a company's market mix is that it is considered close to the purchase and thus far ahead in a customer's decision-making process. Search marketing, known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), is typically divided into two categories:
1. Organic search (search engine optimization, SEO) is the main search result list displayed when someone searches.
2. Paid Search, which are the ads located above or next to the search result, called Adwords with Google. This leads to two main ways to get more and better quality material in our searches:
One is to improve their ranking in organic search results, i.e. to get higher in search results on the keywords and search phrases that your customers search for when looking for services / products like yours. The work of doing so is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The way you achieve success with SEO is constantly changing, and depends on the search algorithm that Google is constantly updating. Basics in SEO, however, include that:
1. Your site is technically designed to help search engines find your content
2. Have an eye on which are the most important keywords and search phrases for your company
3. Create amazing content that people want to read and then link to.
Paid search (part of purchased channels as above) has the largest share of internet advertising in the world where Google Adwords is the absolutely dominant part of this market. Since campaigns can be easily purchased and booked by the advertiser itself (so-called self service) and the advertising can be done with a small budget, it is a widely used advertising form that is also common among smaller companies. Several of the bases for paid search are similar to those for organic. It is important to constantly work to find and adapt to the most important keywords and search phrases. Here too, the landing page content (the page to which the ad links) is important and that together with how many clicks your ad and relevance in the ad text represent what Google calls a Quality Score. But there is another component that determines how high your search results are and that's how much you pay. What ultimately is required of your Quality Score and your ability to pay is determined by the competition found on the specific search phrase a user enters. So the lower the competition, the easier it is to get high among search results and vice versa.
Secondary data – Data that already exists is called secondary data. Compare to primary data.
Sense of urgency – Sense of urgency is a feeling that what's happening is important, and that time is of the essence. In order for a change to take place, the company's employees must feel that it is necessary. Succeeding with this requires time and it is important to get as many people on board as possible from the start. It is particularly difficult to achieve a sense of urgency with organizations who are satisfied with where they already are. To have the greatest chance of success, leaders need to speak to people's feelings rather than their reasoning.
Service design – Service design is the work of developing a service with the help of design. It can be about people, communication, technology or anything that makes the service better based on what the user's perspective is.
Sharing economy – The sharing economy is based on the existence of a surplus of unused resources, and when the surplus is made visible, a market is created where the transaction with the help of a service often takes place directly between consumers, and where companies in possession of large fixed assets become vulnerable and slow. Fast and insightful companies see the opportunities that arise through the sharing economy. It is usually expressed as intelligent services that allow for optimization of resources. For example, someone sells a couch they no longer like on Craigslist, an apartment which is usually empty during the holidays is rented out through AirBnB or car pooling replaces the need for buying a car.
Smart failures – When one door closes, another one opens. As far as your digital efforts are concerned, this is very true. Whether it's about working with fewer iterative steps or taking bigger steps, smart failures are a hot and oh so important topic for fast-moving companies. For example, Google distinguishes between good and bad failures. Good failures mean understanding and failure to include future projects as well as speed, that is, failing quickly to reduce costs in terms of investment and branding.
Social by design – One way to both reach the target groups and strengthen the user experience is social by design, meaning that the design of the product itself facilitates interaction between people. Social by design encourages and simplifies communication between people, thereby improving user experience and increasing the spread of the product. An example is Spotify's integration with Facebook, where you can easily share a playlist or song or see what friends are listening to in their stream.
Social media – Social media are web-based services and sites that enable people to communicate, interact and create and share content. There are many different types of social media, such as social networking services, blogs and forums.
Social networking sites – Also called communities, these include the likes of Facebook, Linkedin, WeChat and Weibo, where different users communicate with each other and create and share content. In social networks, people connect, for example, by making friends or following someone.
Specific digital maturity – Specific digital maturity involves understanding and managing a particular digital area. A concrete example: If a person is good at Excel it does not mean that they are also good at paying e-bills, managing Pinterest, or understanding what new revenue models a company should introduce. Compare to general digital maturity.
Strategy – Strategy is all about the choices a company makes to reach its objectives and its vision. There are four basic strategies:
Strategy work (motor) – How the work with strategy is conducted and how the results of the work are documented, deployed, and monitored in the organization. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Structural innovation – Improvements, as an example, in technology or processes, which have a major impact on a partial or entire value network, are called structural innovations. This type of innovation is being developed in the longer term than incremental innovation. One example is ethanol cars, which were developed in order to have less environmental impact. This affected the market by the fact that many chose to buy these cars (thanks in part to the environmental car premium that existed) but no total change in the market occurred. Compare incremental and disruptive innovation.
Structured data – In short, structured data fits well into columns and rows, making it easy to quantify and then analyze. Compare unstructured data.
Subscription (revenue model) – The product/service is rented for a recurrent cost. Examples: content services (Spotify and Netflix), software (Salesforce and Dropbox Premium) and support as well as support and maintenance (Red hat).
T
Technical debt – Technical debt is a metaphorical term to describe the "debt" that occurs, as an example, in programming code if the programming has not been done correctly. This sometimes happens to facilitate launching faster. An example of this debt can be so-called hard coding, which creates non-flexible systems. Other examples are lack of documentation or tests. Debts that arise need to be "paid off" by subsequent actions. If the technical debt becomes too large, the programming will end up in a state where all time goes to fixing the problems created by the shortcuts. Which is to say: All resources go to paying interest on the technical debt rather than amortization. Similar to how most people's private finances look, it's likely unreasonable to be completely debt-free and neither is that a goal that needs to be achieved. Rather, it's about keeping the debt under control and getting the right balance of interest and amortization.
The agile manifesto – The agile approach was formed in 2001 by 17 programmers through The Agile Manifesto, which set out how software development should be done. In the manifesto they state that they value:
“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is while there is value in the items on
the right we value the items on the left more.
Their philosophy was also summarized as 12 principles:
1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
The principles in this manifesto are very much alive in today's agile working methods, of which Scrum, KanBan and Extreme programming are some of the most well-known methods.
Tipping point – Tipping point is the idea that at a certain level, a product, message or the like gets its own life and spreads without the help of marketing. Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote the book by the same name, defines it as "the moment when critical mass is reached, the threshold, the boiling point". Products such as Blocket, Ebay or Facebook are dependent on finding the critical mass to make them relevant. A Blocket or Ebay with too few sellers and products has a hard time reaching buyers and vice versa. A Facebook without your friends is also a pretty dull service. When something reaches critical mass, it can also lead to a de facto standard and competition is thus eliminated. (See network effect). At the heart of the idea too, there are very small changes that make the threshold reachable. If you only succeed in rolling the snowball enough turns, it will speed up your power to the end and it may be the last centimeter that makes the difference. The S curve that we have as a key element in our methodology can also demonstrate where the threshold exists. It is at the point when growth is growing sharply.
Touchpoints (Motor) – Where target groups come in contact with the company, and how the value proposition and touchpoints are integrated. One of nine digital motors in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology. Touchpoints are divided into direct and indirect touchpoints. In direct touchpoints, the company has direct communication with the target group and these consist of their own and borrowed touchpoints. The indirect touchpoints are meeting places where companies communicate with the target audience through another party. These are divided into touchpoints via collaboration as well as earned and purchased touchpoints.
Touchpoints via collaboration – Part of indirect touchpoints and refers to distribution of services through a partner's touchpoint. An example of this is Spotify, which collaborates with phone operators to distribute their music service to the operator's customers.
Trade (revenue model) – The product/service is sold and the rights are transferred to the buyer. Examples: E-commerce physical product (Amazon, Zappos etc.), e-commerce digital product (downloading Itunes, purchasing software at microsoft.com), auction (eBay) and marketplace (craigslist).
Transaction handling (revenue model) – Helps with transactions and charges for this service. Examples: Payment providers for e-commerce such as Paypal and Alipay, money transfer (Banks) and market platforms (Facebook, the AppStore, AirBnB).
Transformation team – The main purpose of transformation team is to ensure smooth and efficient digital transformation.
The work is carried out by:
1. Following up the transformation.
2. Supporting those who work with the transformation.
3. Following up communication internally to ensure it is good and reaches all persons involved.
4. Planning for quick wins.
The transformation team should be a group of volunteers, informal and formal leaders, and it should be broadly representative.
U
Unstructured data – Unstructured data, which could come from focus groups or texts posted on Internet forums and social networks, needs to be structured before it can be analyzed. Compare structured data.
User experience – The user experience (UX) refers to the overall experience a user has when using a product or service.
In the ISO 9421210 standard, it is defined as a person's perceptions and reactions when using and/or before using a product, system or service.
User fee (revenue model) – Charge for the amount of usage of a product/service. For example: IP telephony (Skype in/out and Viber).
V
Value proposition & Revenue model (motor) – The value proposition is the solutions that create values for the company's customers and other target groups. The revenue model is how the company earns money. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Values – "A value is a basic perception of the desirability of a particular state, approach or result." That's how Wikipedia defines value. A person's values come from within and have been built up during a long period of time and also have a long lifetime. They are are something that don't easily change. The same is true of a company's values (or core values as they are also called). They are not "determined" but can only be discovered and often come from the entrepreneurs who once founded the company. The company's basic values do not change and they are often strongly linked to the vision and set standards for how the company will work and what's worth exploring. Morality, ethics, ideals and principles are what define the values. These values lay the foundation of the business culture the company has and set the framework for the vision and mission, as well as guide the company and individual employees in the decisions that are made.
It's a good idea to start with values and then decide on the vision and lastly the mission. Attempts to make your employees adjust to the values if they do not share them from the start is rarely effective. Value-driven companies instead look to employing people who share the essential values from the outset. To an increasing extent, both staff and customers choose companies that have values that they share and strive for. It is therefore a good idea to clearly express these in words and in actions.
One of the world's most revered visionaries, Google, has a vision of "Changing the World", but their value document, "10 things we believe in," has spread more. The most famous of these is No. 6, "You can earn money without doing evil," or in other words, "Don't be evil".
Values, Vision & Mission (motor) – The vision is a company's long-term goal. How the company will reach its long-term goal and the answer to why it exists are its mission. The aspects that are held in high regard along the journey are the values. One of the nine digital motors found in the Digital Maturity Matrix methodology.
Viral marketing – Viral marketing is also called buzz marketing and is a relative to content marketing. The purpose is that it spreads like a virus across a large range of people. Social media has facilitated spreading and when someone shares on Facebook or retweets on Twitter, it helps to spread a message. To succeed, there has to be something that someone wants to tell someone else. Often it's a fun video or photo or an important news article or event.
A study was published by the New York Times in 2011 by two researchers from Wharton. They concluded, among other things, that what is going to go viral should preferably be something that touches feelings and, most preferably, emotions with positive signs. In addition to content, it may also be a really good product or service that someone wants to tell you about.
Vision – A vision is a long-term goal that often is 3-10 years, but sometimes even longer. Many of the world's most successful companies are very vision-driven and they succeed in engaging and attracting everything from collaborators and partners to customers, financiers and the media, which increases their competitiveness and value. A vision formulation is sometimes dreamy and in other cases more concrete.
Some known vision formulations: Ikea: To create a better everyday life for many people. Henry Ford: A car in every garage Amazon: To be earth's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Google: To change the world
W
Waves of change – Waves of change are changes caused by digitalization. Examples of these changes are big data, dynamic pricing and the internet of things.
Wearables – With wearables, such as fitness trackers, watches or smart clothes, individual data is collected, processed, analyzed and presented to make it easier for the user. One example is the Apple Watch, which tells you when it's time to move around, and health apps which tell you how you feel or whether it's time to go to the doctor.
