Internationally with LILA Labs. Use case: “Testfabrik AG”

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Events, Events, Events, Living Labs, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups | Leave a comment

Testfabrik AG is a German start-up company, established in 2013. The team was striving to enter the German market and to provide Internet Technologies based services, as webmate. “Webmate” is a groundbreaking tool for the automatic testing of web applications, with a focus on cross-browser compatibility. Until their entrance in the LILA Labs program, they had no clients.

Testfabrik AG is one of the best cases for LILA Lab session because they have a prototype of their future product, tested among other their colleagues, with very high appreciation but without any client’s interest. Their main questions were “Why?” and “What?” – why they don’t clients and what they have to improve.

Their first LILA Lab was in November 2014 in Darmstadt. INI-Novation invited the main target group that can turn into potential customers – web designers from the region. During the session, Testfabrik AG was interested to get information about the following questions:

Where do the users see webmate fitting in their work?
What does the user see as the major issue for the acceptance of webmate?
What do the users think about the pricing model – does it encourage or discourage the usage of webmate?
Do the users need more features to be implemented in webmate?

The LILA Lab session was organized as a free discussion between the users and the creators of webmate. A lot of recommendations and useful tips were put on the table, and after the session all were satisfied with the results of the meeting.

After the local lab, Testfabrik AG decided to continue their experience in the LILA Lab process but this time on international level. A road show in Netherlands and Belgium was organized by one of the contracted mentors in the LILA project,Mr. Filip Coenen. This road show actually was set up as a “multiplied LILA Lab”. Instead of getting together users in a meeting room, the company went to the users in their offices. The company received valuable feedback to adapt product’s features to the specific needs of those markets. As a result, Testfabrik AG found beta testers from Belgium and Netherlands, and committed proof of concept cooperation. This was a real success and added value for the company.

At the end, Testfabrik AG realized that they have to accompany their final product activities with more marketing support. INI-Novation’s marketing and PR specialists were also participants in the LILA Lab sessions. Knowing the users’ preferences, they developed the marketing and communication strategy for Testfabrik.

The goal of Testfabrik AG is in 5 years’ time to become a European leader in software quality tools for web applications with near view to the global market leadership. LILA Labs were one of the first steps toward the goal.

The market uptake of UNCAP was kicked off in Darmstadt

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On July 28th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to kick off the commercial exploitation of UNCAP.

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UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

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The German business acceleration company INI-Novation GmbH welcomed its international guests as leader of the work package and highlighted the goal to develop relevant business and service delivery models addressing the private and the public eCare sector. The UNCAP products and services will be underlined by business concepts to achieve market attention, market and investor’s readiness, market entries as well as market expansion and scalability.

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The international team to accomplish the UNCAP access-to-market

In addition, it is intended to stimulate the relevant protection activities (patenting, trademarking etc.) and to establish a library of reference agreements, such as licensing agreements, reseller agreements, service level agreements, business development agreements, or investment terms. Standardisation activities shall accompany the measures.

This will lead to the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale Thus, return-on-investment potential will be generated and sustainability of UNCAP will be achieved.

UNCAP Innovation management team was constituted in Darmstadt

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in eCare, eCare, eCare | Leave a comment

On July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to establish and constitute the INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM (IMT). The IMT will serve as a forum to discuss topics, priorities and issues of concern of the project’s stakeholders. It will encourage the information exchange and discussion among the stakeholders, inform about the project’s activities, provide ideas and recommendations to the members of the project consortium, and promote and lobby the project’s interests. The INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM (IMT) shall supervise the installation and market uptake of the targeted UNCAP Box and UNCAP Cloud services towards sustainable operations and its further expansion into other European regions.

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Members of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team and members of the UNCAP consortium after the official constitution of the IMT.

The INNOVATION MANANGEMENT TEAM is recruited by representatives from scientific organisations, innovative SMEs, and a diverse group of eCare stakeholders, such as potential investors or health insurance organisations. In its constitutional meeting the IMT accepted unanimously its “Rules of Procedure” and appointed Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital) as its Chairman and Prof. Panagiotis D. Bamidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) as its Vice Chairman.

Furthermore, the members of the INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM acted as international jury in an eCare technology pitching and matchmaking event. Requirements of care homes and hospitals were analysed and discussed as well as the needs of care takers and care givers. The four best technology pitches were awarded with vouchers to participate in the UNCAP eCare conference in September 2015 in Nottingham(UK).

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Angela Ivanova with entrepreneurs, innovators and experts discussing eCare paradigm and trends

THE UNCAP project
UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maxim ises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

PST Start-up CHINO.IO wins the UNCAP Award in Darmstadt

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to grant the four best start-up companies of an international eCare innovations pitching event the UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARDS.

UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

UNCAP targets the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale. In this context, the first UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD event was organised to provide eCare innovators and entrepreneurs the floor to introduce their technologies underlining future eCare solutions. An international jury recruited of market and technology experts evaluated the presentations, ranked them and selected the four best pitches for the UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD. The first price was awarded to “CHINO.IO” (Italy), providing secure API and storage for health data according to EU laws and regulations. The winner, Jovan Stevovic, received the award from the UNCAP co-ordinator, Dr. Giuseppe Conti (Trilogis) and from Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital Business development Acclerator), Chairman of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team.

The UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 grants a free participation in the UNCAP Conference in Nottingham (UK) in September 2015 (including travel and all related costs) as well as a free booth at the conference exhibition and promotions support. Impressed by the vast knowledge that CHINO’s Managing Director proved during his presentation, the UNCAP management team decided spontaneously to accept CHINO as an associated partner and to grant a subcontract for consulting services in the area of regulations and requirements in commercialisation of eHealth and eCare applications. “I am proud and happy that the winner of our UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 will play a significant role in the project activities”, the leader of the business modelling work package, Ms. Angela Ivanova, stated during the award ceremony.