Business Modelling for ICT based services targeted to Intellectually Disabled People
Peethambaran, Anoja (2011)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012112015719
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012112015719
Tiivistelmä
Services are becoming a key focus in the current era. Organizations globally are facing rapid changes in providing services. Despite this alarming growth, the advancement in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has created so many opportunities but considerable challenges for the service industry.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become part of everyday life in recent years. ICT can provide dignity and well-being to people through self-facilitation. ICT like the Internet, really helps the intellectually disabled people to enrich their life. Intellectually Disabled People can take advantage of ICT as a force for social inclusion.
The case company is a small and medium sized organization. This thesis is part of an international project called DiY-SE (Do-It-Yourself Smart Experience). The study is done for the service symbol-based chatting client. Two stakeholders, University of Tampere and Laurea University of Applied Sciences, participated in this study. Presently, the case company needs a business model for its operations and this study solves this business problem.
The main objective of this study is to design a business model for the case company so that other similar sized organization that offers ICT based services can also follow the steps undertaken. This objective is fulfilled by completing certain actions which are given in subsequent sentences. Firstly, understand the business model concept by reviewing the existing literature and formulate a few maps of questions. Secondly, apply it to the case company by means of workshop and open-ended interviews. Thirdly, find some improvement areas by collecting feedback from potential customers by means of open-ended interview. Henceforth, this dissertation aims to shed light on how to develop a business model for the case company.
The theoretical framework of this study collects service definitions and picks one that is more apt to ICT-based services. Then it gives a picture of pure service businesses and lists out the four main characteristics of services. Followed to this, services that take place through electronic means are explained which follows a definition of the term intellectual disability and the importance of ICT in the life of intellectually disabled people. Finally the concept of business models is detailed emphasizing business model canvas.
The empirical study is made based on questionnaires, workshops, open-ended interviews and online discussions. The guideline questionnaires were sent to the participants before the workshop and the workshop is conducted with one of the stakeholder, Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Two representatives from Laurea participated in the workshops. In order to get data to fill the business model canvas open-ended interview was conducted with stakeholders. The responses are then analyzed based on the business model canvas by means of content analysis method and then sketched the canvas. After the canvas was filled up it was then shared with stakeholders for validation and refined further, based on some online discussions, until stakeholders were satisfied with the model.
Once the business model was created it was then used to collect feedback from customers. Potential customers are intellectually disabled people in Finland and people who are linguistically impaired in India. As the case company had already collected feedback from Finnish people this study concentrates mainly to collect feedback from Indians.
This feedback collection was undertaken by means of open-ended interviews with a few people randomly selected from three different Indian states. The collected responses were then undergone content analysis to figure out some improvement areas. These suggestions for improvement are identified so that the application's market in India rises which increases the case company's profit. The suggestions identified are (1) visually simple and culturally accepted symbol design, (2) educate the masses to tackle technology illiteracy issue, (3) provide assistance through local training organizations, (4) to overcome the problem of less signal sensitivity come up with an application that works offline also, (5) minimize the subscription or usage costs and (6) include government procurement channels also to distribution channel. Finally, the improved business model canvas is presented to the case company.
The study has shown that the business model canvas is a useful management tool to formulate the business model in a uniform manner. The result of the thesis is a comprehensive business model that can be implemented in real life use. As said earlier, the business model generation can be used by other similar sized (small & medium) companies as well and hence the generalization possibility of the study is high. Additionally, the business model is composed based on a broad literature review and the final model is checked by the stakeholders. This makes sure that the validity and reliability constraints of the study are adhered well.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become part of everyday life in recent years. ICT can provide dignity and well-being to people through self-facilitation. ICT like the Internet, really helps the intellectually disabled people to enrich their life. Intellectually Disabled People can take advantage of ICT as a force for social inclusion.
The case company is a small and medium sized organization. This thesis is part of an international project called DiY-SE (Do-It-Yourself Smart Experience). The study is done for the service symbol-based chatting client. Two stakeholders, University of Tampere and Laurea University of Applied Sciences, participated in this study. Presently, the case company needs a business model for its operations and this study solves this business problem.
The main objective of this study is to design a business model for the case company so that other similar sized organization that offers ICT based services can also follow the steps undertaken. This objective is fulfilled by completing certain actions which are given in subsequent sentences. Firstly, understand the business model concept by reviewing the existing literature and formulate a few maps of questions. Secondly, apply it to the case company by means of workshop and open-ended interviews. Thirdly, find some improvement areas by collecting feedback from potential customers by means of open-ended interview. Henceforth, this dissertation aims to shed light on how to develop a business model for the case company.
The theoretical framework of this study collects service definitions and picks one that is more apt to ICT-based services. Then it gives a picture of pure service businesses and lists out the four main characteristics of services. Followed to this, services that take place through electronic means are explained which follows a definition of the term intellectual disability and the importance of ICT in the life of intellectually disabled people. Finally the concept of business models is detailed emphasizing business model canvas.
The empirical study is made based on questionnaires, workshops, open-ended interviews and online discussions. The guideline questionnaires were sent to the participants before the workshop and the workshop is conducted with one of the stakeholder, Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Two representatives from Laurea participated in the workshops. In order to get data to fill the business model canvas open-ended interview was conducted with stakeholders. The responses are then analyzed based on the business model canvas by means of content analysis method and then sketched the canvas. After the canvas was filled up it was then shared with stakeholders for validation and refined further, based on some online discussions, until stakeholders were satisfied with the model.
Once the business model was created it was then used to collect feedback from customers. Potential customers are intellectually disabled people in Finland and people who are linguistically impaired in India. As the case company had already collected feedback from Finnish people this study concentrates mainly to collect feedback from Indians.
This feedback collection was undertaken by means of open-ended interviews with a few people randomly selected from three different Indian states. The collected responses were then undergone content analysis to figure out some improvement areas. These suggestions for improvement are identified so that the application's market in India rises which increases the case company's profit. The suggestions identified are (1) visually simple and culturally accepted symbol design, (2) educate the masses to tackle technology illiteracy issue, (3) provide assistance through local training organizations, (4) to overcome the problem of less signal sensitivity come up with an application that works offline also, (5) minimize the subscription or usage costs and (6) include government procurement channels also to distribution channel. Finally, the improved business model canvas is presented to the case company.
The study has shown that the business model canvas is a useful management tool to formulate the business model in a uniform manner. The result of the thesis is a comprehensive business model that can be implemented in real life use. As said earlier, the business model generation can be used by other similar sized (small & medium) companies as well and hence the generalization possibility of the study is high. Additionally, the business model is composed based on a broad literature review and the final model is checked by the stakeholders. This makes sure that the validity and reliability constraints of the study are adhered well.