Social engineering: Case study – how Psion rebuilt its brand around a user community

CASE STUDY –
HOW PSION USES SOCIAL TO DRIVE THE BUSINESS
Jonathan Brayshaw
Leader, Social Business
Psion PLC

I REALLY
DON’T CARE
WHAT YOU
HAVE TO SAY

psion.com | ingenuityworking.com © Psion Confidential

“If you do what you’ve
always done, you’ll get
what you always got.”

Mark Twain


THE LAST 30 YEARS…

»  CREATOR OF PDA - ANCESTOR OF SMARTPHONE
»  ONLY COMPANY MICROSOFT FEARED
»  2000: ACQUIRED TEKLOGIX
»  2001: WITHDREW FROM CONSUMER BUSINESS


... THE NEXT 30 YEARS?

2010

2011

RUGGED HANDHELD/VEHICLE MOUNT TERMINALS FOR
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL USERS


CHALLENGING TIMES

»  REPUTATION
»  QUALITY
»  ME TOO PRODUCTS
»  HARD TO DO BUSINESS WITH
»  STAGNATION AND LOW GROWTH
»  PROFITABILITY

»  NEW CEO EACH YEAR (ALMOST!)


Psion has changed the game
once again.


AN OPEN COMPANY WORKS IN A
DIFFERENT WAY

Internalised development Externalised development
>  Cathedral; closed approach to innovation >  Bazaar; open approach to innovation
>  Traditional approach to design >  Puts partners and customers at the centre
>  Primarily benefits vendor/manufacturer >  Customer, partners and vendor share the
benefits


WHY WE HAVE AN “OPEN” MODEL

»  “OPEN” IS A BETTER MEANS TO AN END
»  SIMPLER AND MORE COST EFFECTIVE
»  WE DON’T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS... THAT’S OK
»  DIFFERENTIATION FROM “MO-TERMEC-OROLA”


OUR UNIQUE MODULAR PLATFORM

»  UNIQUE AND HIGHLY
ADAPTABLE CHASSIS WITH
SHARED COMPONENTS
»  UNBEATABLE
CUSTOMISATION AND
POTENTIAL FOR VALUE
ADDED SERVICES
»  ENCOURAGES
DEVELOPERS AND
PARTNERS TO INNOVATE
FREELY


GREAT COMPANIES EMPLOY
MODULARITY

»  HALF DEVELOPMENT COST
»  HALF TIME TO MARKET, QUICK REVENUE
»  FASTER TO BUILD, LOWER INVENTORY
»  FASTER TO REPAIR, LOWER REPAIR COST
»  FEWER STOCK PARTS, FASTER TURNS
»  LOWER COMPANY COSTS
»  BETTER MARGINS…
»  INVEST FOR GROWTH!


PLACEHOLDER FOR BRAND VIDEO


Forget campaigns, think
conversations.
Bypass channels, foster
community.

Build the audience that’s right
for your business.

WHY PEOPLE USE COMMUNITIES

Typical Community Uses Nice to Extremely Rating
Not Needed Have Important Important Average

Finding answers quickly 0.0% 0.0% 24.4% 75.6% 3.76

Identifying relevant information 0.0% 4.9% 39.0% 56.1% 3.51

Identifying experts or influential people 2.5% 7.5% 35.0% 55.0% 3.43

Forming relationships with other
Community members
0.0% 12.5% 55.0% 32.5% 3.20

Contributing content like FAQs,
recommendations, reviews and opinions
2.4% 14.6% 58.5% 24.4% 3.05

Influencing other community members 4.9% 22.0% 48.8% 24.4% 2.93

Receiving recognition for participation 2.5% 27.5% 47.5% 22.5% 2.90

Sharing content across social media
channels
7.3% 41.5% 31.7% 19.5% 2.63


Wikis
Participating
Listening, establishing
reputation
(I’m one of you)

Managing
Listening, supporting, building
reputation, marketing
External
Communities

Owning Closed Network
Listening, supporting,
building relationships, IngenuityWorking.com
collaborating
Example: customer communities Internal
Communities
Example: channels, members

Example: Intranets, communities of practice


Collaborative
Emerging business models Community of communities

Contextual Orchestrating
Preferential linking Six degrees

Community Blogs

System Inclusive
Environment Capability building

Dynamic
Creation nets
Trust
Sharing Shared control and
contribution
Continuous
Structural gaps
Business networks Meritocracy

Source: Marco ten Vaanholt

Strategic partnerships,
More channels new resellers,
developer alliances

Niche products,
More products
specialised devices

Open innovation

Risk mitigation, limited
Modularity Managed R&D
R&D investment
Customisation

Community
New market Unique capability to
opportunities address opportunities


INTRODUCING INGENUITYWORKING


WHAT DOES IT DO?

»  PUBLIC AREA OPEN TO ALL
»  SECURE PARTNER ZONE
»  GROUPS WITHIN GROUPS
»  BLOGS
»  DISCUSSIONS
»  KNOWLEDGEBASE
»  DOWNLOADS
»  CUSTOMER SUPPORT
»  SEARCH
»  TWITTER, FACEBOOK
AND MARKETING PORTAL
»  “THE PUB” AND OFF TOPIC CHAT

INGENUITYWORKING PLUS

»  PARTNER DIRECTORY ~1,050 RESELLERS LISTED
§  14,500 page views in August

»  INGENUITYLIVE! – PSION’S “APP STORE”
§  Allows resellers and developers to list and promote their
unique hardware and software solutions
§  65 current solutions including Blackroc’s new Procyon
GNSS positioning module for the Workabout Pro 3
§  Over 12,500 solution views
§  Update to track requests
coming soon

»  Integrated context sensitive
IW discussions on
Psion.com


THE BIGGEST ONLINE COMMUNITY
AND STILL GROWING

60,000 »  Unique and highly
50,000
successful
40,000 Visitors »  Increased
Unique
community
30,000 Visitors
Google
membership to
20,000 Referrals ~16,000 members
10,000 §  Excludes Psion
employees
»  Bigger than
0
Mar May July Sept Nov Jan Mar May July
20000
Psion.com
15000
§  More visits and
10000
Total page views on
Members
5000
New IngenuityWorking
Members
0 in 2011 than
Mar
Apr
May
June

Aug
Sept

Jan
Feb
Mar

May
June
April
July

Nov
Dec

July
Oct

August

Psion.com


“IngenuityWorking is the only
B2B social community that isn’t anaemic”
Forrester Research, Authors of ‘Groundswell’


Workabout Pro 3 Next Generation B2B Community -
rugged handheld GPS technology IngenuityWorking

»  PREMIUM DEVICE
»  NEW MARKET
OPPORTUNITY
WORTH 3 BILLION
EUROS

SALES SUCCESS: WINNING DEALS

1.  Partner assisting customer in Support area. 2
2.  Partner responding to customer request for
devices.

3.  Partners assisting each other to facilitate a
potential sale.
1 Customer requires discontinued product. Partner able to respond to prospect.

3


PR SUCCESS: HIJACKING NEWS

»  REAL-TIME
»  HUMAN
»  BRAND JOURNALISM


WHAT’S NEXT FOR
INGENUITYWORKING.COM?

»  INTEGRATION WITH SALES
»  GROWTH
»  PUBLISHER MINDSET
»  INTERNAL COLLABORATION


OBSTACLES... WE’VE HAD A FEW...

»  ROI... ROI... ROI... ROI... ROI...
»  LATEST PLAYTHING
»  MINDSET SHIFT
»  NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL
»  MARKETING MUST CHAMPION
»  OWNERSHIP
»  ORIGINAL CONTENT
»  “BADVOCATES”
»  EXTERNAL AGENCIES


WHAT WE LEARNED

»  MARKETERS MUST RETHINK ‘THE RULES’
»  COMMUNITY OFFERS UNIVERSAL VALUE
»  LESS SPRAY AND PRAY
»  BUSINESS PEOPLE ARE
PEOPLE TOO
»  WE’VE SO MUCH MORE
TO DO...


NEW PSION

»  BUSINESS IS FIXED... PATH TO GROWTH
»  RECOGNISED BY INDUSTRY
§  European AutoID Awards
•  Winner: Most Innovative Company
§  BtoB Magazine 2011 Social Media Marketing Awards
•  Runner-up: Best Community
§  Business Courier’s Innovation Awards
•  Winner: IT Innovation, Large Company
§  UK B2B Marketing Awards
•  Finalist: Best B2B Brand Campaign – Rebrand Campaign
§  Forrest Groundswell nomination
§  Constellation Supernova Semi Finalist


RECENT COVERAGE

“Psion goesPsion”
“Rebooting social
“Psion looks to
October 2011
to promote for
social media
company
strategy”
turnaround”
August 2011
September 2011


Our strategy gives us more products, more
quickly, through more channels, with
valuable differentiation.


Business has changed.
Your competitors are winning deals in places where
you may not even have a presence.

Social media ‘playtime’ is over.

Welcome to the
social business.

THANK YOU

Follow me at:
@Jon_at_Psion

#psion
Be part of it at: ingenuityworking.com


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