Realizing innovation potential in the provision of integrated customer solutions

Many product oriented companies in mature industries lack the potential to grow through technical innovations. Instead, their growth potential lies in their ability to provide integrated solutions. Unique offers are created by combining existing products and services and building on knowledge of the customers’ needs. These offers are generated in a process characterized by a consultative logic, which differs substantially from the traditional product logic which tends to dominate these companies at the outset.

The transformation to solutions provider thus involves large-scale organizational change, which many Swedish organizations now have started to undertake. The overall purpose of the project is to study such transformation processes. What characterizes them and what are the challenges involved? In particular, the project focuses on how customer facing units are organized and managed, and how this affects knowledge integration in the interface between customers, unique solutions and standardized product and service platforms.
 
Financier
Vinnova