Creating Profit Through Alliances - business models for collaboration E-book | Page 16

Supplier
€ 5
Supplier
€ 15
Accounting software
System Storage / archiving Interface with bank
Weekly reports Performance overviews
Management
Supplier
Supplier
Purchasing € 3 Own costs € 10 Profit € 10
€ 2
€ 23
Company
Purchasing € 30 Own costs € 22 Profit € 8
€ 60
Client
Purchasing € 75 Own costs € 20 Profit € 5
€ 100
Consumer
Accountant audit
Reporting software
Audit Security
Overviews Analysis tools Alarms
Financial administration
Creditors positions Turnover per supplier
Turnover per customer Turnover per product
Purchasing
Marketing
Figure 5 . Analysis of where the profits in a value network can be found
Drawing the value network also helps you to visualise smaller contributions to an end product . Not every business provides a product that the consumer can recognise . Accounting software for instance is untraceable , but the role of accounting software in a generic process such as ' financial administration ' can be visualised , including contributions from other suppliers and the results for the different departments and stakeholders ( Figure 6 ).
Figure 6 . Qualitative contributions in a value network
The objective of drawing a value network is to gain insight . This insight should lead to recognising the opportunity to structure a chain differently . It is by taking advantage of those opportunities that you can add value as a business . The supplier of accounting software may , for instance , also develop integrated reports if it emerges that these are important for the buyers of the financial administration .
Eastcom Systems
Eastcom Systems is a Singaporean company established in 1992 , as a vendor providing productivity solutions to help customers manage their telecom expenditures . One of their main products was a call accounting solution to help companies to analyse their PABX telecom costs , e . g . by breaking down the call charges in terms of departments and employees and types of calls ( internal , long-distance , etcetera ). In 2007 the management decided that selling licenses only was not the way to stabilise revenue , which was declining due to competing services „ through the Internet cloud ‟. The company therefore chose to offer cost management services such as Telecom Expense
Management , targeting large companies like Fedex , Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank . Such companies generally have no overview of how much money is wasted or overspent on telecom costs . Eastcom ' s business model is to help these companies manage and reduce their telecom costs . For large global companies , telecom costs can reach as high as 1 or 2 % of their turnover . Eastcom Systems can supply its software products as licensed solutions or through a comprehensive service for companies wanting to outsource this part of their cost management . The core of the product is a business intelligence system with data mining
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