US vendor of business software

Challenge

With other competitors actively pursuing Cloud Computing strategies, our Client was under considerable time pressures to determine the level of interest, potential adoption and resistance to the rollout of a Cloud Computing services initiative. Central to this effort was developing a firm understanding of expectations around pricing, features and messaging amongst its two key market segments. Ensuring productive feedback on a complex technical concept that is still in the design phase always presents challenges for research and at the time of conducting this particular piece it was clear that market perceptions of Cloud Computing were still extremely confused. Participants would need to be aligned on definitions of the concept before any accurate feedback could be gained. Ultimately opinions and feedback from key segments needed to deliver a set of ideas and value propositions that could quickly inform and support the launch of a Cloud Computing initiative.

Our Contribution

Utilising classic qualitative methodologies an up-front survey of internal stakeholders was, followed by focus groups in four diverse US markets with a final stage of depth conversations with software experts. Recognising the significant confusion surrounding the concept of Cloud Computing each stage of the research was approached with an understanding of the need to bring clarity amongst respondents from a variety of experience levels, in order to ensure relevant, successful insights. Intrepid’s moderators worked alongside the Client's stakeholders to ensure that the presentation of the topic was not only aligned with their goals for the research but discussed the topic in the most direct and accessible way possible. Perceptions about Cloud Computing were established through a number of exercises which demonstrated the different potential applications for the Cloud in a relevant enterprise setting. Depth conversations with subject matter experts concentrated on understanding how Cloud Computing could change their ecosystem and what, if any, suggestions on improvement they offered. During the research it became clear that security concerns were likely to limit the kinds of corporate data that would be willingly placed into the Cloud. Additionally, the prevalence of so many terms in the market that all essentially mean “Computing in the Cloud” has prevented the swift adoption of the concept.

Results

Intrepid were able to provide the client with a blueprint for the roll out of a Cloud Computing initiative. Driving insights from the qualitative research phase, Intrepid recommended actions the client could follow that would effectively balance the benefits of Cloud with concerns that key audience segments had expressed about the security of the new paradigm. Outputs were delivered within a framework of ‘key questions’ that offered the Client detailed analysis and verbatim supporting the market’s perceptions and practices of the Cloud, along with a view on what adoption and expectations would be for any future offering. As our Client continues to develop its Cloud offering, it benefits from detailed feedback about the types of applications that people would agree to send to the Cloud, as well as ways of tackling the most significant barriers to adoption.