Corporate Positioning and Brand Analysis for Strategic Unification of Leading Financial Information Supplier
A market leader in financial information wanted to raise market awareness of its unified strengths as a corporation. Traditionally, this vendor’s individual business units, each a leader in its own right, had targeted different market segments and promoted their value-add independently under their respective business unit and services identities. But times have changed. The industry values a well organized, global firm with size and scale. This vendor recognized that to remain competitive would require communicating its cross-business unit power.
A-Team Group was called in to ensure that the selected corporate emphasis and value propositions provided a good fit with industry priorities, focal points of attention and investment, and end-user pain. Connecting the vendor’s strengths to external requirements, attaining senior management insight and buy-in, identifying competitive positioning, and validating concepts with industry participants were essential components of this successful assignment.
A prominent provider of trading connectivity services had a vision of how to leverage its own capabilities and its affiliation with global exchanges to provide the trading community with easy, cost effective access to global liquidity. This vendor recognized the value that market validation could bring to its initiative. It wanted to bring customer input into its product definition and garner industry feedback on the overall attractiveness of its vision. The vendor wanted an independent third party to ensure objectivity in its validation study and to avoid bias in reporting back to its senior management team.
A-Team worked closely with the vendor first to understand the product concept, its positioning, and the unique value-add presented by its sponsor. It then translated assumptions into a discussion guide and detailed hypotheses for testing. A-Team solicited in-depth feedback from its network of experienced industry contacts. Once assimilated, A-Team presented this intelligence to senior management at the firm. The research not only refined requirements, but also identified both additional market segments and capabilities, as well as potential early adopters.
Industry Research for Demonstrating Thought Leadership & Supporting Marketing Campaign
A major data vendor had a new concept on how to break though technology gaps in managing financial data across the enterprise. This vendor wanted to ensure its target market saw how its service could help advance enterprise data management and communicate product benefits in a way that resonated with its audience. How could the vendor differentiate its breakthrough service and demonstrate thought leadership?
It brought in A-Team Group to canvass industry leaders and highlight the strategic direction they were taking in their approach to managing data across the enterprise. We drilled down on the primary industry issues and specific ‘pain points’. How were firms connecting distributed data repositories? Were firms planning to combine or connect real-time streaming data and reference data?
Participants contributed perspective because they got to learn what their peers thought and how their firms stacked up against the competition. The vendor used A-Team’s research paper in its product launch and ongoing marketing campaign as an independent, objective validation of its concept, positioning and value proposition.
RFP Process and Response Analysis for Major European Bank
The ongoing drive towards operational efficiency has met increased regulatory pressure in a way that is forcing senior management at institutions to take action in improving data consistency – efficiently. Re-evaluating current data management practices and determining where partnering with external data management solution providers can facilitate achieving goals are taking center stage.
A major European bank with global operations was faced with this strategic decision. Its plan was to take a tactical, cross-departmental approach to requirements and, along the way, attain enterprise-wide participation. To do this, it needed an objective third-party resource with expertise in reference data and knowledge of potential external partners. The third party needed the ability to relate to the way the bank used data and the complex data issues it was currently trying to address.
A-Team Group stepped in to define and executed a three-phase project:
- Interview bank business areas and consolidate requirements;
- Join with the bank to develop a comprehensive RFP for external proposals;
- Add objectivity to cross-vendor evaluations and implementation planning
The six-month project spanned A-Team’s consulting talents and culminated in presentations to the bank’s senior-level, cross-business steering committee.
Briefing Senior Management & Board on Industry Trends, Opportunities & Challenges
The financial services industry is going through transitions in how it uses and manages data services. To be effective, today’s senior management teams and boards of directors at financial technology firms need to understand how these changes could impact and present opportunity for their firms. What must the firm do to remain competitive or grow market share? What should it do to take advantage of opportunity and alleviate industry pain? What is the window of opportunity? What are its competitors doing? What new competition is emerging? Where is industry spend projected to increase/decrease and why?
A-Team stays on top of transitions and change in the financial services industry. And management at financial technology firms depend on A-Team’s capacity for providing ongoing, up-to-date business intelligence to help them stay informed. One of A-Team’s long-term clients, an industry leader in global financial data, relies on A-Team to brief its senior management team and board of directors before their meetings. Together, they tackle some of the tough questions that assist management in guiding the company’s strategic direction. This mutual sharing of information benefits the vendor and ensures A-Team provides a practical perspective.
