Henni Ahvenlampi is a CMO at CoReorient Oy and has participated in and developed 10 pilot experiences over 6 years working with small businesses in various sectors including IT, cleantech, smart transport, and more. While agile piloting can provide positive exposure for developers and start public-private development work in new areas, it also presents risks for small businesses who must invest time and share innovations without guarantees of compensation or continuation after pilots. The document argues piloting needs to connect more to long term strategies and development work to be truly meaningful and useful.

1. Henni Ahvenlampi
CMO
CoReorient Oy
Small business view
on Agile Piloting

2. ● Pioneer: 10 Pilot experiences in 6 years
● Public/Private/NGO/Fourth sector Co-op
● IT Cleantech & Smart Transport
● Sharing and Circular Economy
● Community Building & Social Responsibility
A Pioneer participant & developer
of Agile Piloting

3. ● Agile Piloting gives dev-minded positive image of
the pilot/competition organizer
● Public/Private dev work gets started on sectors
where cities do not yet run procurement processes
● Some compensation of expenses for participants
● Cities may start procurement processes later on
Positive aspects
of current Agile Piloting

4. ● On new felds public-private dev work is done mainly through Piloting
● Participation to public-private dev work means participation to
multiple pilot competitions at the same time
● Connecting Pilot schedules to other business projects/processes and
handling the small business human resources is challenging
● In Pilot competitions the businesses invest time and share about the
innovations before guarantees of compensation of work
● Openness creates a risk of innovation harvesting
Risks Small Businesses take
to participate in Agile Piloting

5. Connect Piloting/Competitions to strategy & long-term dev work
-> Connection to future prospects makes the Pilots meaningful
-> Goal-oriented focus brings more useful results
-> Citizens are already tired of short-term surprises and buzz
-> Instead citizens want modern resource-wise permanent services
● For successful pilots small businesses need adequate pilot
arrangements/permissions to prepare and run the pilots effciently
● To reach long term strategic goals with small businesses they need a
possibility of continuation/partnership after a successful pilot
From Stand-alone Piloting
to Strategic Piloting

6. Need rapid application prototyping
and systematic & cost effcient
innovation testing?
Get in touch!
Contact: henni.ahvenlampi@coreorient.com