Alan advantage - company profile

COMPANY PROFILE

Boston, USA / Rome, Italy • December 2013

A L A N T U R I N G I S W I D E L Y CONSIDERED TO BE THE FATHER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. HIS WORK PIONEERED RESEARCH ADVANCES IN SEVERAL FIELDS ( M A T H E M A T I C S , L O G I C S , CRYPTOGRAPHY, AND - OF COURSE - COMPUTER SCIENCE), CREATING BRIDGES BETWEEN ACADEMIA, INDUSTRY AND PUBLIC SPHERE.

ALAN ADVANTAGE IS INSPIRED BY HIS WORK.

DEDICATED TO ALAN

ALAN ADVANTAGE LEVERAGES THE MULTI DISCIPLINARY EXPERTISE OF ITS OPEN INNOVATION NETWORK HELPING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS INNOVATE AND GROW.

WE SCOUT, IDENTIFY, AND ASSESS CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORTING DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS (PROCESS/MODELS).

WE REFORM YOUR NEEDS. WE INVESTIGATE FOR HARD TO FIND ADVANCED SOLUTIONS AND WE DELIVER MEASURABLE EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS.

INNOVATION MADE SIMPLE

ALAN ADVANTAGE IS A NICHE-GLOBAL INNOVATION CONSULTING FIRM BASED IN EU AND USA LEVERAGING 25 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE OF THE FOUNDING PARTNERS IN IT MARKET INNOVATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL R&D MANAGEMENT.

ALAN ADVANTAGE HELPS COMPANIES CREATE AND BRING TO MARKET MEANINGFUL PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND EXPERIENCES THROUGH CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PROCESS DELIVERING LASTING AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS ACROSS MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES, PLATFORMS, AND INDUSTRIES.

ALAN ADVANTAGE FOCUSES ON INNOVATION AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES/MARKET DEMAND AND USER ACCEPTANCE.

EXPERIENCE ALPHA VERSION OF OUR OPEN INNOVATION PLATFORM, ENIGMA HUB AT WWW.ENIGMAHUB.COM/DRUPAL

MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGIES

WE START ALL OF OUR PROJECTS WITH A THOROUGH UNDERSTANDING OUR CLIENTS’ NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS SO WE CAN MAKE INFORMED RECOMMENDATIONS AND DECISIONS. WE ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, THEN CAREFULLY CRAFT STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS BASED ON LONG-TERM GOALS AND OBJECTIVES.

APPROACH /1

There was a time not very long ago when companies primarily used closed models for all their new product development. They focused on their own resources – research, development, marketing – to bring new products or services to market. This model gave them control and seemed to work well but in the last years a more effective way is coming: the Open Innovation way, is an ecosystem including a lot of contributors alla over the world, all coordinated by some leading platforms, like Innocentive, Nine Sigma, and so on.

Open Innovation is first and foremost a mindset and an approach to how you innovate.  It’s based on premise that there exists, outside of your company, a solution (or partial solution) to our challenges and strategic needs.Open Innovation is about making connections and collaborating to realize a win-win outcome.

We use our partnership with the leaders in Open Innovation to provide to our customers the best in Innovation wherever it comes.

OPEN INNOVATION

APPROACH /2

Our very peculiar way to work is adopting and sustaining a huge network of scientific and technological partners around the World, covering many Innovation fields: a multi disciplinar partner network.We’re working with partner from: robotics, mathematics, information technology, physics, energy management, telematics, human science, architecture, design.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY PARTNER NETWORK

Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers. The purpose of service design methodologies is to design according to the needs of customers or participants, so that the service is user-friendly, competitive and relevant to the customers. The backbone of this process is to understand the behavior of the customers, their needs and motivations.

SERVICE DESIGN

Expertise, competence and knowledge are three highly interconnected concepts, all relevant to what expert finders are meant to deliver. Out Open Innovation platform, Enigma Hub, includes an expert search and discovery engine, and aims to better serve you with innovative solutions. Enigma Hub relies on patent-pending technologies developed in partnership with leading institutions by our R&D Labs.

EXPERTISE MAPPING

Find emerging technologies by using a multitude of unique partners worldwide, thanks to our direct NeTWork and Open Innovation channels we manage. The prime reason our methodology is so effective is that most of our partners have access to their own extensive networks, which gives your company unprecedented access to a global pool of emerging technology leads.

CAPABILITIES /1

TECHNOLOGY SCOUTING AND BROKERAGE

Globalization of markets and new business practices are prompting high-tech companies to reconsider their competitive strategy. The increasing complexity of technologies in addition to shorter product life cycles are also forcing companies to rely on R&D as a source of strategy. More importantly, firms are inclined to evaluate their technologies from a portfolio’s perspective in which a set or a sub-set of R&D projects is evaluated together, in relation to each other. Portfolio techniques can help strategic managers in evaluating whether a portfolio of products is adequate from the perspective of long-term corporate growth and profitability. Obviously, when R&D projects are evaluated relative to one another, technical capability management of such projects must be carried out concurrently.

R&D PROGRAM AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in Innovation. It can be used to develop both product, service and organizational innovation. Innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate with a common understanding of goals and processes. The focus of innovation management is to allow the organization to respond to an external or internal opportunity, and use its creative efforts to introduce new ideas, processes or products. Importantly, innovation management is not relegated to R&D; it involves workers at every level in contributing creatively to a company’s development, manufacturing, and marketing.

CAPABILITIES /2

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

PROJECT GOVERNANCEProject governance is the management framework within which project decisions are made. Project governance is a critical element of any project since while the accountabilities and responsibilities associated with an organization’s business as usual activities are laid down in their organizational governance arrangements, seldom does an equivalent framework exist to govern the development of its capital investments (projects).

INVESTMENTS AND GRANTSIn a world where many people are becoming familiar with the concept of crowd funding, and where the sustain abilities of Innovations is often grounded on financial aspects, we work hard to propose to our customers any kind of access to: institutional investors, crowd funding initiatives, USA and EU funds, and so on.

Society, innovation and social capital: Alan Advantage carries out socio-economic research activities with the objective to promote innovation and sustainable growth of people, enterprises and territories. In its research activities, Alan Advantage adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines, and develops both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, following when possible the research-action principles. In fact, analysis and interpretation are combined with ad-hoc interventions that aim at changing the analysed context, thanks to the active participation of relevant actors. In a virtuous cycle: research creates knowledge which is transformed in concrete actions. These, thanks to the experience, increase knowledge, and so on.

EXPERIENCE /1

SOCIAL INNOVATION

SMART CITIESAlan Advantage understands how complex cities work and we work with people looking for solid research and analysis, compelling communications, new ideas, and provocative insights, whether we are creating communications plans, creative city plans, sustainability programs, public engagement processes, white papers, or city branding. Our broad understanding of how issues, trends, and questions interlock to produce game-changing ideas for our clients.

The speed of innovation outside the walls of utilities outstrips the speed of innovation within. As new and disruptive vendors, technologies, and business models enter the market, many utilities have seemed unsure about what their role is or should be. Technology advancements are broadening customer access to a wide range of new energy services. But technology alone is never enough: customers must feel comfortable incorporating these advancements into their daily lives. Utilities are well-suited to providing customers with answers on a wide range of energy services and moving them up the adoption curve. They have already achieved significant success in areas such as energy efficiency.

EXPERIENCE /2

ENERGY AND UTILITIES

INSURANCE TELEMATICSWe cover alla kinds of Innovations inside this area: fleet management, insurance telematics infrastructures, driving behavior, crash analysis, traffic information systems, carbon emissions reduction, car based video recording, and so on. We’re able to support Innovators who want to use Telematics to have mobile machine to machine new business models.

SUSTAINABILITY & CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITYAnchored in our Strategy Consulting offering, sustainability and corporate responsibility (CR) are central to Customers core business. For us, sustainability is about the “triple bottom line”—long-term social equity, economic prosperity, and environmental performance. Corporate responsibility is about maintaining the necessary controls to minimize risks, while creating positive impacts for our stakeholders and the brand. A sustainable and responsible approach results in value creation for the company, the employees, the customers, the shareholders and society as a whole.

Telecommunications service providers in Asia Pacific have enjoyed astounding growth rates of mobile devices and subscribers over the past few years, fuelled by economic growth and an expanding middle class population.However, despite this unprecedented period of expansion, the future market value of telecommunications operators is under threat. Two main factors are challenging the sustainability of current business models: crumbling consumer loyalty and the fragmentation of the value chain due to competition from new internet players. To thrive- indeed, to survive - telecommunications operators must choose a path of innovation. Further, they must put in place strategies to assist their innovative efforts to have a good chance of meeting their stated requirements.These strategies encompass the technical, organizational and cultural. This paper sets out ways in which companies can implement innovative measures to position themselves for growth, and to emerge among the winners in the rapidly evolving telecommunications arena.

EXPERIENCE /3

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYWe have three decades of experiences in Innovations involving Information Technology. We’re always aligned with the best worldwide innovation centers, so continuously intercepting new trends useful to our customers.

CNR – IRPPS Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ricerche sulla Popolazione e le Politiche Sociali Fachhochschule Salzburg GmbH (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences)Harokopio University of AthensIITK – Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales (IDDRI), FranciaInstitut Veolia Environnement, Francia International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Paesi BassiITA – Instituto Tecnologico de Aragon

Lancaster UniversityLa Sapienza University, RomeLSE – London School of EconomicsMiddlesex University Higher Education CorporationMIT, Boston  USANational Agricultural Research Foundation, GreciaParis-Lodron-Universität SalzburgPLUS Zentrum für Geoinformatik Z_GIS, AustriaPotsdam Insitut fuer KlimafolgenforschungStevens Institute of Technology, USAUniversità di Salerno (Dip. Informatica)Università del Sannio

COLLABORATION NETWORK (RESEARCH)

CONTACTS • alanadvantage alanadvantage.com@