COLLABORATION SERVICE PLATFORM Table of Content 1. International - PDF document

Technology and Collaborat ion S cale Y our Business Like Never Bef ore The VEnterface intelligent platform aiming at providing Australian innovative entrepreneurs with digital entry to the S ingaporean market through technology and collaboration COLLABORATION SERVICE PLATFORM

Table of Content 1. International Market Entry Problems and VEnterface’s S olutions 2. Entry Mode Choice: A Decision S upport Algorithm 3. The Three Interfaces: The VEnterface’s Framework 4. The Data Entry Interface to Facilitate the Input Data S ubmission 5. The Knowledge Base Interface for Intelligent S earch and Decision Making 6. The Interaction Interface to Enables Collaboration 7. The VEnterface Platform Workflow

1. International Market Entry Problems and VEnterface’s S olutions For new innovat ive businesses with good ideas or even pot entially disruptive product s and services, collaboration is an important way t o succeed. Newcomers are flexible in developing, testing, and launching novel product s and services, but t hey are lack of resources and market experience. Collaboration allows for consolidating financial and organizational WEF report resources. Collaboration has three phases: • An initial period or entry phase when partners get to know one another, set expectations, and determine goals. • The project phase in which partners run the project together. • The development phase, when partners continue to solve problems together. The entry phase is crucial because collaborations inevitably fail when encountering a lack of clearly defined expectations and responsibilities. The latter depends heavily upon knowledge: • Partners have the knowledge and skills that are necessary to run the project. • They have the abilities and resources to handle the responsibilities they have agreed on. • Partners are compatible. • There is a mutual benefit for them. • Each of the partners brings something essential to the project (skills, resources, etc.). • They understand risks and are able to weigh the pros and cons of different entry modes.

Problems Collaborators underestimate the need to define clear obj ectives around prospective partnerships. Establishing clear obj ectives requires carefully scoping entry problems, identifying desired outcomes. In practice, it is a lack of such clarit y that increases the risk of failure to find a suitable partner, create a misalignment between parties, and misunderstanding how costs and benefits are shared. Assessing prospects of partnership in t erms of time and resources invested as well as possible results is a complex procedure. Insufficient knowledge about the general benefits of collaboration and lack of specific knowledge about technical terms of collaboration are the main barriers to do it properly. For S MEs, finding local or especially overseas partners and make a first positive impression can be a big challenge. Proposed S olutions VEnterface focuses on data discovering, leveraging data to make better decisions, and facilitating collaboration among entrepreneurs. VEnterface offers: • Tools to estimate different innovative market entry variants. • Higher visibility of collaborators on the platform. • Data-driven procedures to make well-weighted decisions about prospective collaborations. • A platform-based community for cooperation and partnering.

2. Entry Mode Choice: A Decision S upport Algorithm To identify possible variants of international market entries and choose potentially attractive ones, five categories with numerous subcategories have to be taken into account by entrepreneurs, including:  Products by function.  S ervices by function.  Products and services by innovativeness.  International market entries.  Collaboration partnership entries. A Decision S upport Algorithm (DS A) was designed for the VEnterface platform to screen all possible combinations of categories and subcategories to identify potential opportunities and make the best decision. DS A works within each category through the filtering process. The first and second filters allow positioning products and services in the market according to its functionalities. The third filter helps to position products and services taking into account its innovativeness:  Advanced technology products.  Digital-infrastructure goods.  Digitized products.  Combinations of physical and digital components.  ICT enabled product innovations.  ICT enabled process innovation.  ICT enabled marketing innovation.  ICT enabled organizational innovation.

The filter four enables entrepreneurs to estimate each of 24 international market entries. The metrics are estimated (as low, moderate, or high), for each entry, include:  Pros and Cons.  Proposed entry costs and profitability.  Entry difficulties.  Risks.  Marketing efforts.  Necessary Investment (if any)  Obtained international experience.  Control over the business. In the filter five, the four collaboration modes are considered to clarify the possible opportunities for collaboration. These four modes include:  Fluid Alliance, a temporary alliance under a simple agreement.  Collaborative Proj ect as a method to form a team, then control all works.  Joint Venture when two or more companies create a j ointly owned legal entity.  Acquisition/ Investment when one company purchases another or there is the two companies’ merger. The metrics are estimated in the filter five (as low, moderate, or high), for each of four entries, include:  Financial contributions and division of profits and losses among partners.  Risks.  Intellectual property rights.  Management.  Control over the business.  Legal agreements.  Innovation S tage: Idea Generation, Advocacy & S creening, Experimentation, Commercialisation, Diffusion & Implementation). Due to the intelligent filtering process, DS A helps entrepreneurs to see all possible opportunities and handle them.

3. The Three Interfaces: The VEnterface’s Framework The VEnterface works as a network comprising three interrelated interfaces (see diagram below):  Data Entry Interface facilitates the input data submission.  Knowledge Base Interface for intelligent search and decision making.  Interaction Interface enables collaboration. The critical requirements of the VEnterface network are:  Data integrity: the information of the three interfaces is curated.  S calability: the network is able to grow.  Flexibility: new data can be added and removed easily.

Data Entry Interface facilitates the input data submission Gain Access To All Be Guided While S howcase your Facilities Of The Operating On The product/ service Platform Platform and business Knowledge Base Interaction Interface for Interface enables intelligent search collaboration and decision making Business Directory Employ Discover your intelligent potential filtering to look partners through different modes Knowledge Base Estimate pros Contact partners and cons, risks and discuss and benefits to terms of collaboration make a decision Commu- nity Platform Choose the best Develop variants of the prospective market entry goods/ services and collaboratively collaboration Scale Your Business Like Never Before

4. The Data Entry Interface to Facilitate the Input Data S ubmission Information flow on the VEnterface platform is going on the three levels of data transformations before providing useful knowledge for innovative entrepreneurs (users):  1st level – S tructured Data S et – A user brings raw data to the VEnterface platform, obtains membership, and creates own profile, transforming raw data into a structured data set with the use of simple VEnterface’s data input tools.  2nd level – Data S et Interpreted by Insight – A user applies intelligent search through the Knowledge Base to create own product/ service description and investigate market entry opportunities.  3rd level – Integrated Data S et – A user j oins the platform community and collaborates with its members to synthesize new data set, employing also information of the 1st and 2nd levels. Each user can access a personal account that allows them to manage, renew, edit, and delete their listings. VEnterface straightforwardly incorporates images and video. The user can create featured listings that are displayed at the top of all listings. All system works as self- serve customer service with the Virtual Assistant’s support.

5. The Knowledge Base Interface for Intelligent S earch and Decision Making The Knowledge Base of the VEnterface platform was developed beforehand predominantly by innovation commercialisation experts. The information of the platform is represented in three modes:  Brief descriptions of the international market entries for search through its categories and subcategories with the use of a Decision S upport Algorithm (DS A).  DS A with platform-wide search capabilities.  Full descriptions of the international market entries in articles. It is the central hub of information to make well-weighted decisions about market entry modes and opportunities. Pre-assembled and systematized Knowledge Base gives users access to both accurate and up-to-date information that they can interpret by insight for effective decision making via:  S imple and effective database structure.  The only necessary and sufficient information.  The easy to understand taxonomy.  The right built-in capabilities.  The focus on continuous development.