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Adriaan Bouten, CEOIn an interview with CIO Applications Magazine, Adriaan Bouten, CEO, sheds light on how dPrism helps companies compete more effectively and win in today’s nimble yet digitallydriven marketplace.
In your interaction with customers, what sense do you get of the challenges they face?
Oftentimes, our clients are facing new competition from digital-only companies. They operate in a way that is suitable for the new world order. Due to strong position in the market and the brand value they’ve fostered over the years, our clients go neck to neck with these companies. And that’s where problems start.
Most will try to address this issue by taking a technology-first approach, and when it fails, they blame the technology — which is never the case. The real issue lies in their understanding of the market—how it changes when digitalized and what products and services make sense in that digital market. They find it extremely challenging to capture market opportunities and differentiate value through digital product innovation and customer engagement strategies with lasting impact. They also struggle to maximize shareholder and stakeholder value by building a digital-ready culture empowered to achieve visionary yet practical results.
How do you address these problems? Could you please elaborate on your service offerings and on-boarding process?
dPrism helps clients with three major services — Technology Strategy, Product Management, and Business Transformation.
While many consultants offer technology strategy services, we differentiate ourselves by helping companies tie their technology strategy with their operation strategy. CEOs trust us to turn their ideas into a clear IT strategy and roadmap. Whether they’re striving to leverage technology to reduce costs, increase efficiency, seize market opportunities, or scale delivery models, our experienced technical experts can help them realize their vision. From technology modernization, portfolio and program management, corporate risk and security to technology assessment and due diligence, and cloud strategy, dPrism does it all.
We help teams build product and program management skills along with organizational capabilities to accelerate product development and delivery. We can help you introduce new data-based businesses, products, and services into your portfolio. We offer customer insights, product, and market opportunity assessments, data assessment, strategy and governance, product development and management, and end-to-end journey design and road mapping.
Our team can assess the strength of your systems, culture, and technology necessary to transform your model and activate innovation in your organization. We help companies with corporate strategy and operating models, digital transformation strategy, competitive intelligence, corporate culture, change management, optimizing business, process and technology, and mergers & acquisitions.
When we engage with a client, our team conducts full-blown research to fully comprehend the digital opportunities that are available.
CEOs trust us to turn their ideas into a clear IT strategy and roadmap
We don’t just recommend strategies; we ensure successful execution and results. We believe that the right organizational DNA and culture are critical to driving digital growth.
Could you please share a case study?
A global financial services firm was seeking the opportunity to revamp its traditional product offering. The product line in question was no longer profitable. However, it was a staple in the company’s brand recognition and authority in the marketplace. The company engaged dPrism for guidance on what to do with the product going forward – whether they should invest, divest, transform, or keep it as is.
The client had a traditional information product that was used by companies around the world to determine the financial parameters and calculations. The product was delivered as a book, printed, and updated on a regular basis as a hard copy only. While this line of business was small compared to the rest of the client’s product portfolio, the role it played in brand value was significantly larger. As a result, the company could not afford to discontinue the product despite its lower-than-expected performance. All their executives were seeking insights that would help them revolutionize and transform this product. They also needed the execution guidance and product management support they lacked internally, which as referenced above, had likely caused issues in the past with the success of new product development.
Because low profitability can stem from a variety of reasons, we started first by researching and examining the market opportunity. dPrism conducted a 6-week-long initiative consisting of both external and internal research. They interviewed a number of users and customers of the product to understand use cases, habits, behaviors, and pain points. All of these were critical to gain from an outside-in perspective and fully understand the customer’s frame of mind. In addition, dPrism’s consultants spoke with a number of vendors, partners, executives, and subject matter experts to gain an inside perspective on the product and market position.
The initial insights were straightforward yet powerful. It turns out that the product was highly regarded and loved by the customers. With this insight, the client and dPrism agreed there was a key opportunity to better align customer needs with product value, which would likely result in increased revenue and a better product experience.
dPrism recognized that this traditional product had far more revenue potential than was being realized. In order to capture the full portion of the value chain, dPrism recommended that the client should cease producing the product in its current form. Instead, they advised the financial services company to develop a digital subscription and software as a solution model. Not only would this better satisfy the user requirements as uncovered in the research, but it would create the opportunity to standardize the revenue projections each year and prohibit users from sharing the product with others without first purchasing a license.
The client agreed upon the discovery and recommendations for the next steps – so they turned to dPrism on how to design the product and execute the next steps. In the end, the financial services firm was pleased with the research, digital product build, rollout, and growth. The client also indicated that this was one of the first times that a technology project did not blow the budget or timeline - a testament to dPrism’s experience, guidance, and management of the project. As a result, the client’s team now has the ability to build digital product capabilities in-house.
What sets the company apart from the rest of the players in this space?
We distinguish ourselves in a variety of ways. First and foremost, we are former operators who have “been there and done that.” Unlike most consultants in this market, we have been in the trenches with the kind of businesses we help today. This experience has taught us valuable lessons. Our recommendations are backed by decades of experience in designing, constructing, and implementing digital strategies and operating complex businesses across multiple industries and geographies. Secondly, we charge a flat fee for all of our services, rather than the traditional consulting model of charging exorbitant fees based on the number of people we invest in the project. Lastly, we know how to look at innovation and creative opportunities that can ensure our client’s success.
What does the future hold for the company?
We began with three clients in 2014. Today, we cater to over 50 clients and have successfully completed over 150 projects. Also, our Net Promoter Score is 73—which is exceptional for a professional services firm. We’re expanding our professional services team to ensure that the quality of our work, as well as our experience and expertise, are maintained with each of our clients.
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