Saturday October 10th classwork. Last July, we took a closer look at InnoCentive. The current exercise points out one of the services InnoCentive now proposes.
What is InnoCentive@work? Why is InnoCentive@work innovative?
InnoCentive@Work is a platform that allows a company to use the InnoCentive brainstorming process concept within the firm, before proposing the remaining-unsolved challenges to the InnoCentive Solvers' community. InnoCentive@work includes tools and advices.
It makes any employee of the company able to help solve a challenge submitted by any department. It leads to better communication and coordination between the departments; it helps the company to know itself better. It changes the frame and the process many companies are using for R&D.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A closer look at Vente-privée
For Saturday October 10th class, we were required to analyse Vente-privée's business model, find an article about it, and apply the model to another industry.
The following powerpoint is my analyse of Vente-privée.
Vente-privée proposes the brands a full organization service of the sale. It includes shooting, the selection of pictures selection, the creation of an original announcement clip, the creation of a catalogue, the invitation of members, the sale, the online paiement, the delivery to the customers.
According to the article, the efficiency of Vente-privée model depends on the ability of the company to manage the reception of the reserved stocks, their sorting, their repacking, and the deliveries to the customers. The fitting of Vente-privée warehouse is very flexible, as it faces real-time adjustments in tune with the needs of its various areas (croos-docking one, hand picking one, preparation one).
I've chosen to apply Vente-privée business model to the wine industry.
The business selling wine through private sale (let us call it WPS) would basically functions the same way as Vente-privée:
1. WPS would reserve stocks by various producers.
2. WPS would then sell the stock to the customers, who would straight pay for their commands.
3. WPS would then pay the reserved stock to the producers, who would thus deliver it to WPS.
4. WPS would finally deliver their commands to the customers.
What problems would this business model solve?
- WPS owner would avoid stock problems and would face improvement on money availability.
- The suppliers, in this case producers, would be more visible, would benefit from WPS advertising, and would gain ease of selling away remaining stocks. This business model would also reduce the number of middle men. And small producers could gain in viability.
- Customers would no more face the problems of weight (carrying bottles back home). They would access a larger panel of wines.
As future development, the business could also include sales of articles related to the wine, like guide books, bottle bags, corkscrews, wine-tasting tours, grapevine renting...
Cave-privée.com and chateau-privé.com are already proposing wine online private sale reserved to their members.
The following powerpoint is my analyse of Vente-privée.
IEMI-EBM-VentePrivee-D
In its article of march 2007, Supply Chain Magazine points out two specificities of Vente-privée : the services offered to its suppliers and the sorting platform organization.View more presentations from creadel.
Vente-privée proposes the brands a full organization service of the sale. It includes shooting, the selection of pictures selection, the creation of an original announcement clip, the creation of a catalogue, the invitation of members, the sale, the online paiement, the delivery to the customers.
According to the article, the efficiency of Vente-privée model depends on the ability of the company to manage the reception of the reserved stocks, their sorting, their repacking, and the deliveries to the customers. The fitting of Vente-privée warehouse is very flexible, as it faces real-time adjustments in tune with the needs of its various areas (croos-docking one, hand picking one, preparation one).
I've chosen to apply Vente-privée business model to the wine industry.
The business selling wine through private sale (let us call it WPS) would basically functions the same way as Vente-privée:
1. WPS would reserve stocks by various producers.
2. WPS would then sell the stock to the customers, who would straight pay for their commands.
3. WPS would then pay the reserved stock to the producers, who would thus deliver it to WPS.
4. WPS would finally deliver their commands to the customers.
What problems would this business model solve?
- WPS owner would avoid stock problems and would face improvement on money availability.
- The suppliers, in this case producers, would be more visible, would benefit from WPS advertising, and would gain ease of selling away remaining stocks. This business model would also reduce the number of middle men. And small producers could gain in viability.
- Customers would no more face the problems of weight (carrying bottles back home). They would access a larger panel of wines.
As future development, the business could also include sales of articles related to the wine, like guide books, bottle bags, corkscrews, wine-tasting tours, grapevine renting...
Cave-privée.com and chateau-privé.com are already proposing wine online private sale reserved to their members.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Proposals to expand Tripwolf's revenue sources
Saturday September 26th classwork in collaboration with David Caine and Nicolas Schock.
We suggest among others to:
- develop partnerships with local events organizers: Tripwolf's website would show their ads,
- develop partnerships with cities or regions: many of them have created clips (visible on television) to present their cultural inheritage and attract tourists, Tripwolf's website would show their clips,
- sell itineraries created by the users to travel agencies.
We suggest among others to:
- develop partnerships with local events organizers: Tripwolf's website would show their ads,
- develop partnerships with cities or regions: many of them have created clips (visible on television) to present their cultural inheritage and attract tourists, Tripwolf's website would show their clips,
- sell itineraries created by the users to travel agencies.
A closer look at Tripwolf
In the article associated to the class preparation work, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten presents the 9 internet business models, after a work by Michael Rappa. We were requested to look through the website of Tripwolf and Boo, to choose one and analyse its business model. I have chosen Tripwolf.
Tripwolf was launched in July 2008, and now claims to have information about over 50,000 destinations, travel guides for 256 countries, and at least 35,673 registered travelers.
Tripwolf offers its users the ability to prepare their travels taking into account other's experiences and professional travel writer's advices. The future traveler can build his own itinerary, print it, and access linked accommodation or travel booking websites.
Tripwolf encourages its users to get involved in the developing process by freely generating content: locate places on a city map, rate a place or add comments about it, suggest an itinerary, share personal pictures or videos of a place, write a travel-journal...
Problems solved
- for users:
Tripwolf gathers various info (opinions, itinerary proposals, accommodation availability...) in one place, thus reducing users' time to access them. Tripwolf also lowers the cost of accessing guide information. And thanks to its information, Tripwolf allows its users to discover places not mentioned in usual guide books and reduces the risk to visit a place that would disappoint.
- for its subscribed travelers:
Tripwolf allows direct communication with other travelers. It provides a place to store pictures, to write a travel-journal. It helps keep updated about friends when separated by the physical distance. Another aspect travelers gains by using Tripwolf is the acknowledgement of their ability to evaluate a trip or share about it.
- for its partners:
Partners gain visibility thanks to Tripwolf and gain access to targeted prospective customers. As travelers let rates and comments, the businesses referenced in the database receive feedbacks about their quality, efficiency and other aspects.
- for the business owner:
Thanks to the open-content process, Tripwolf reduces for its owners the cost of increasing the content. It fastens the content growth and transfers the responsibility of the accuracy and quality of the content.
Customer groups served
Even if Tripwolf is a social travel guide, this does not mean that its users have to be travelers. I have thus divided the users into 5 groups:
- #1: travelers preparing for a travel, who visit the website to choose the destination/places to visit, to look for advices...
- #2: travelers sharing about their own experience, who wish to share pictures, journal, advices, rates...
- #3: locals of the city, who share their own experiences in it, or look for new-to-them places in it...
- #4: non-travelers following a traveler they personally know. They visit the website to read his journal, enjoy his pictures, etc.
- #5: non-travelers searching for the sensation of traveling. They discover there one's adventures, enjoy pictures, etc.
Revenue sources
Tripwolf has at least the following revenue sources:
- sale of collected users' data
- business partnership subscription
- advertisements (at least two per pages appear)
Competitors
- World66 too is a travel guide which content is generated by users. Several open-content travel guides have appeared on the web over the last 10 years. On the contrary to Tripwolf, it is possible on World66 to post reviews without being forced to register and log in, the author then remains anonymous. World66 too proposes links to accommodation or transport websites. And it also shows a separate link for travel insurance subscription.
- Tourspot is another competitor. Although it requires its users to pay for travel guide downloading - which are for the moment only covering cities of North-America - I perceive it as a Tripwolf's competitor because Tourspot sells guide books and has a community (on Facebook) where users can share their own travel experiences. Its travel guides are accessible anytime and anywhere for the targeted users, and their information are continuously updated.
Online only, or also offline?
The model is valuable online, not offline. The collect of information in an offline context is manageable, but it would be quite impossible to make the data available in its new version after each new contribution.
Sustainable?
This model is sustainable. There will always be travelers who wish to prepare their travel with few or no guide costs and access to others' advices. As long as the users trust the information they find on Tripwolf's website why would they stop use it? The real question to consider is: how to motivate users to generate more accurate content and update the ones that contains incomplete (or false) information?
Scalable?
From my point of view, Tripwolf is still in its beginning phase as its travel guide content needs to develop (and possibly fast).
Also, several orientations are possible: from simply improving the actual information content to providing several new services (sale of travel insurance, or traveling items, or local event tickets...).
If I owned the business...
While exploring the websites, my concern was:
- how to improve the accuracy of the published information?
- how to accelerate the content's growth?
To increase the number of users, I would first encourage locals to write about their own city. I believe that as they live in it, they are more able to correct the wrong information, updated formerly-posted ones, speak attractively about their city (if they love the place they live, of course). I would also create a contest of the best travel-journal or the best picture - it both encourages more users to join the community and generates more usable content.
I would expand the revenue sources by developing partnerships with local event actors to host ads on Tripwolf website.
To expand the revenue sources, I would consider developing partnerships with local event organizers to host their ads of local event and gain money each time a users buy a ticket for these events.
About the growth model of the business: My focus would be on fastening the development of accurate content, so that the website becomes a place where info is "guaranted accurate". So I would develop partnerships with local actors (either local users, or tourist offices, or city responsibles) so that they engage to create/develop the page about their city, check that information about it are accurate, correct the wrongs, expand its "Culture and sight" department, add pictures, anecdotes. This content-growth core team would also be a help on encouraging local inhabitants to voluntary take part into the content-growth process.
Iemi Ebm Tripwolf Dm
Tripwolf is registered in Vienna, Austria, but works all around the world as its activities happen online. It works in the Tourism industry as a "social travel guide for individual travelers".View more presentations from creadel.
Tripwolf was launched in July 2008, and now claims to have information about over 50,000 destinations, travel guides for 256 countries, and at least 35,673 registered travelers.
Tripwolf offers its users the ability to prepare their travels taking into account other's experiences and professional travel writer's advices. The future traveler can build his own itinerary, print it, and access linked accommodation or travel booking websites.
Tripwolf encourages its users to get involved in the developing process by freely generating content: locate places on a city map, rate a place or add comments about it, suggest an itinerary, share personal pictures or videos of a place, write a travel-journal...
Problems solved
- for users:
Tripwolf gathers various info (opinions, itinerary proposals, accommodation availability...) in one place, thus reducing users' time to access them. Tripwolf also lowers the cost of accessing guide information. And thanks to its information, Tripwolf allows its users to discover places not mentioned in usual guide books and reduces the risk to visit a place that would disappoint.
- for its subscribed travelers:
Tripwolf allows direct communication with other travelers. It provides a place to store pictures, to write a travel-journal. It helps keep updated about friends when separated by the physical distance. Another aspect travelers gains by using Tripwolf is the acknowledgement of their ability to evaluate a trip or share about it.
- for its partners:
Partners gain visibility thanks to Tripwolf and gain access to targeted prospective customers. As travelers let rates and comments, the businesses referenced in the database receive feedbacks about their quality, efficiency and other aspects.
- for the business owner:
Thanks to the open-content process, Tripwolf reduces for its owners the cost of increasing the content. It fastens the content growth and transfers the responsibility of the accuracy and quality of the content.
Customer groups served
Even if Tripwolf is a social travel guide, this does not mean that its users have to be travelers. I have thus divided the users into 5 groups:
- #1: travelers preparing for a travel, who visit the website to choose the destination/places to visit, to look for advices...
- #2: travelers sharing about their own experience, who wish to share pictures, journal, advices, rates...
- #3: locals of the city, who share their own experiences in it, or look for new-to-them places in it...
- #4: non-travelers following a traveler they personally know. They visit the website to read his journal, enjoy his pictures, etc.
- #5: non-travelers searching for the sensation of traveling. They discover there one's adventures, enjoy pictures, etc.
Revenue sources
Tripwolf has at least the following revenue sources:
- sale of collected users' data
- business partnership subscription
- advertisements (at least two per pages appear)
Competitors
- World66 too is a travel guide which content is generated by users. Several open-content travel guides have appeared on the web over the last 10 years. On the contrary to Tripwolf, it is possible on World66 to post reviews without being forced to register and log in, the author then remains anonymous. World66 too proposes links to accommodation or transport websites. And it also shows a separate link for travel insurance subscription.
- Tourspot is another competitor. Although it requires its users to pay for travel guide downloading - which are for the moment only covering cities of North-America - I perceive it as a Tripwolf's competitor because Tourspot sells guide books and has a community (on Facebook) where users can share their own travel experiences. Its travel guides are accessible anytime and anywhere for the targeted users, and their information are continuously updated.
Online only, or also offline?
The model is valuable online, not offline. The collect of information in an offline context is manageable, but it would be quite impossible to make the data available in its new version after each new contribution.
Sustainable?
This model is sustainable. There will always be travelers who wish to prepare their travel with few or no guide costs and access to others' advices. As long as the users trust the information they find on Tripwolf's website why would they stop use it? The real question to consider is: how to motivate users to generate more accurate content and update the ones that contains incomplete (or false) information?
Scalable?
From my point of view, Tripwolf is still in its beginning phase as its travel guide content needs to develop (and possibly fast).
Also, several orientations are possible: from simply improving the actual information content to providing several new services (sale of travel insurance, or traveling items, or local event tickets...).
If I owned the business...
While exploring the websites, my concern was:
- how to improve the accuracy of the published information?
- how to accelerate the content's growth?
To increase the number of users, I would first encourage locals to write about their own city. I believe that as they live in it, they are more able to correct the wrong information, updated formerly-posted ones, speak attractively about their city (if they love the place they live, of course). I would also create a contest of the best travel-journal or the best picture - it both encourages more users to join the community and generates more usable content.
I would expand the revenue sources by developing partnerships with local event actors to host ads on Tripwolf website.
To expand the revenue sources, I would consider developing partnerships with local event organizers to host their ads of local event and gain money each time a users buy a ticket for these events.
About the growth model of the business: My focus would be on fastening the development of accurate content, so that the website becomes a place where info is "guaranted accurate". So I would develop partnerships with local actors (either local users, or tourist offices, or city responsibles) so that they engage to create/develop the page about their city, check that information about it are accurate, correct the wrongs, expand its "Culture and sight" department, add pictures, anecdotes. This content-growth core team would also be a help on encouraging local inhabitants to voluntary take part into the content-growth process.
My first perception of open-content travel guides
In the article associated to the class preparation work, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten presents the 9 internet business models, after a work by Michael Rappa. We were requested to look through the websites www.tripwolf.com and www.boo.com in order to choose one and analyse its business model. This post is not the requested analyse, but few notes I wanted to share before posting my work.
What type of traveler am I?
So far, I have traveled in Europe, North-America, Asia and Oceania. My motivation to travel is to meet other cultures in their daily lives. I usually stay by local families, most of the time of mine.
Whenever I travel to a city for tourism, I pick up a book with comments about the places-to-go and select among them the ones that appeal to me. I also ask the families that host me what places they perceive as not-to-be-missed and what places mean the most to them, thus completing my list, whcih becomes my basic itinerary. While moving in the city to admire the chosen places, I enjoy encountering on my way other curiosities - which may have been mentionned neither in the book's places-to-go nor in the families' ideas.
I usually take pictures, which I then glue in a paper album with my own comments. Those words are usually the few ones I dropped on my travel note book while or after visiting the places.
Did I hear of such websites before?
Yes, I knew they exist, but never visited them. I am quite puzzled by the pertinence fo the comments. I am not saying that the comments and rates posted on such websites are not valuable. I simply say that I don't know how to interprete them, because I don't personnally know the writers and thus don't know how to transpose their perception of the place into my own criteria scale.
Which website do I choose, and why?
I have clicked on both links and took a look at both websites. I've chosen to work on Tripwolf, because its front page sounded to me the easier to use, i.e. the one which made me feel the most comfortable to use.
How a city know quite well is presented on Tripwolf
While looking at Brest presentation pages, I have noticed:
- the poor quality of the translation in English (by Google-translate) on teh "overview" page,
- the absence of tips and travel info for this city,
- the very little number of votes (only one, and only for one particular place)
- the "Culture and Sights" department, which missed out some known curiosities
- the quite important number of places to sleep that are listed (44) in contrast to the small number of places to eat (9),
- the lack of accuracy of the "Nightlife and Entertainment" department (it presents a place that has closed down many months back. One of the pictures is a montage which features the non-yet-existing tramway, but there is no mention of the non-real aspect of this picture),
- that cinemas are labeled "theaters/operas" and not "cinemas".
Has it generated the desire to take part in the process?
Yes & No. Yes, because I would like to be sure for myself and for other users to find there accurate and updated info. No, because I have to register in order to be able to bring info in.
What type of traveler am I?
So far, I have traveled in Europe, North-America, Asia and Oceania. My motivation to travel is to meet other cultures in their daily lives. I usually stay by local families, most of the time of mine.
Whenever I travel to a city for tourism, I pick up a book with comments about the places-to-go and select among them the ones that appeal to me. I also ask the families that host me what places they perceive as not-to-be-missed and what places mean the most to them, thus completing my list, whcih becomes my basic itinerary. While moving in the city to admire the chosen places, I enjoy encountering on my way other curiosities - which may have been mentionned neither in the book's places-to-go nor in the families' ideas.
I usually take pictures, which I then glue in a paper album with my own comments. Those words are usually the few ones I dropped on my travel note book while or after visiting the places.
Did I hear of such websites before?
Yes, I knew they exist, but never visited them. I am quite puzzled by the pertinence fo the comments. I am not saying that the comments and rates posted on such websites are not valuable. I simply say that I don't know how to interprete them, because I don't personnally know the writers and thus don't know how to transpose their perception of the place into my own criteria scale.
Which website do I choose, and why?
I have clicked on both links and took a look at both websites. I've chosen to work on Tripwolf, because its front page sounded to me the easier to use, i.e. the one which made me feel the most comfortable to use.
How a city know quite well is presented on Tripwolf
While looking at Brest presentation pages, I have noticed:
- the poor quality of the translation in English (by Google-translate) on teh "overview" page,
- the absence of tips and travel info for this city,
- the very little number of votes (only one, and only for one particular place)
- the "Culture and Sights" department, which missed out some known curiosities
- the quite important number of places to sleep that are listed (44) in contrast to the small number of places to eat (9),
- the lack of accuracy of the "Nightlife and Entertainment" department (it presents a place that has closed down many months back. One of the pictures is a montage which features the non-yet-existing tramway, but there is no mention of the non-real aspect of this picture),
- that cinemas are labeled "theaters/operas" and not "cinemas".
Has it generated the desire to take part in the process?
Yes & No. Yes, because I would like to be sure for myself and for other users to find there accurate and updated info. No, because I have to register in order to be able to bring info in.
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