Start with WHY: The salmon farming industry should adopt new technology when it can create meaningful value in its operations.
“A key part of introducing new technology is helping customers understand how it can create measurable value in their operations. Øystein has done a strong job of helping Norwegian salmon farmers understand how the benefits of ReelData’s AI-camera solutions can translate into operational and economic impact. This has supported a more informed discussion around return on investment and commercial adoption.”
– Matthew Zimola, CEO of ReelData
How new technology creates value is not always obvious at first. Customers first need to understand the technology, how it fits into their production system, and where it can influence operational and financial performance before they can assess its true value.
“During my work representing ReelData in Norway, a major part of the customer dialogue focused on how the customer sees the value of ReelData’s AI-camera solutions,” says Øystein Falch.
The starting point has been to identify the jobs customers are trying to get done, the pains they encounter along the way, and the gains they are seeking. The next step is to identify which benefits the new technology can offer as pain relievers and gain creators.
Depending on the technology and the specific job it is intended to improve, the pain relievers and gain creators could include better matching of feeding volumes to fish appetite, improving water quality, gaining better control of biomass and fish-size distribution, improving fish welfare, or reducing operational risk, etc.
Once the potential benefits are understood, the next step is to quantify them.
Interactive working sessions with customers, using their own production data and assumptions to build economic models, have proved useful in exploring how the impact of new technology can translate into measurable financial value.
“The objective is to move the discussion from ‘What can this technology do?’ to ‘What is this technology worth to our operation?’” says Øystein Falch.
That is where the value proposition becomes a business case.