The building industry is a very traditional and conservative trade. To develop new digital business models the Umdasch Group founded Umdasch Group Ventures, which is an independent company next to the formwork company Doka with the purpose to develop digital business models and industrialize the building process. The company was awarded with the USA Biz award 2018. The success of the new digital business models is especially shown with Concremote®. The new digital building process made it possible to increase the efficiency of the building process by 20%. The digital business models to achieve that were both developed and protected by Umdasch Group Ventures for Doka with the help of IP-design.

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Umdasch Group Ventures is the Innovation Hub of the Umdasch Group. While Doka is a world leading formwork company and the building process is still a very traditional and conservative business, Umdasch Group Ventures is industrializing the building process. The use of digital technology makes building more plannable and safer, so that time and material can be saved. This is done with the help of sensors in the Concremote® Infrastructure. The sensors provide real-time data about the status of the formwork and give information about the exact date, when the formwork is solid, and it is safe to build a new floor. This industrializes the building process, makes it more
efficient and already shows to be successful.

This was made possible using IP-design. IP-design means, not waiting for inventions and writing patents, but having a structured approach to develop new digital business models and to design the products and processes. With this approach Umdasch Group Ventures did not only develop, but also protect their digital business models for Concremote® and made them exclusive through intellectual property rights. IP design therefore helped the company to think in business models, to think customer focused, to overcome silo thinking and to think faster and more agile.

Digital business models also offer a full new cascade of options to create value. For the building industry sensors like Concremote® help in a first step to increase efficiency by industrializing the construction process and serve as a maintenance tool. In the next step synergies on a construction site or between multiple construction sites can be created by an efficiency platform. One step further an architect platform can be used to improve the planning of buildings based on historic data. This is just one possible evolution of the digital business model and multiple more ways to create value may be realized in the future by thinking more agile.

The case study of the Master in Intellectual Property Law and Management (MIPLM) of CEIPI at the University of Strasbourg describes the use of IP-design to design and protect digital business models in the building industry. The use of IP-design in the process landscape of Umdasch Group Ventures causes the enhancement of the technical creativity of the employees, so that it can be used systematically to create the necessary intellectual property rights.

Here is the case study:

Case Study Tasks and Questions – Group 1:

For the present case, provide an analysis of the development of digital business models in the concrete industry. Specifically analyze the role of the sensor technology Concremote® by Doka/Umdasch Group Ventures for the development of digital business models.

  • Task 1:
    Please explain the market based and the resource based view.
  • Task 2:
    Please explain how to improve the business model on the resource perspective. Please explain the advantages of Concremote® on the resource side.
  • Task 3:
    Please explain how to improve the business model on the market perspective. Please explain the advantages of Concremote® on the market side.
  • Task 4:
    Please explain how digital technologies can improve businesses. Please explain the main features of digital business models. Please explain why the business models used for Concremote® are digital business models.
  • Task 5:
    Please explain the dominant business model logics and how they were implemented in the development of Concremote®.
  • Task 6:
    Please explain the effectiveness and efficiency increases caused by Concremote® compared to traditional building.

 

Here is the solution of Group 1:

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Case Study Tasks and Questions – Group 2:

For the present case, provide an analysis of the development of digital business models in the concrete industry. Specifically analyze the role of the sensor technology Concremote® by Doka/Umdasch Group Ventures for the development of digital business models.

  • Task 1:
    Please explain the four types of digital business models and their position in the „Knowledge of Your End Customer“-“Business Design“ Matrix.
  • Task 2:
    Please explain how to improve the business model on the resource perspective. In the eco-system transformation manufacturing companies are developing from material suppliers to solution providers. Please explain how technologies like Concremote® help a company to become an eco-system driver.
  • Task 3:
    Please explain the phases of digitization and the development of new business models and business eco-systems for Concremote®.
  • Task 4:
    Please explain what the different layers of value creation in the business model are in the Concremote® case. What are the customer benefits in this B2B case?
  • Task 5:
    Please explain the role of digital patents and traditional patents and how they protect the customer benefits. Please explain who new digital competitors are and how the competition looks like.
  • Task 6:
    Please explain the business eco-system of the digital construction site. What is digitalized and how do people and technology work together?

 

Here is the solution of Group 2:

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Case Study Tasks and Questions – Group 3:

For the present case, provide an analysis of the IP related risks of digital business models in the concrete industry. Specifically analyze the role of the sensor technology Concremote® by Doka/Umdasch Group Ventures for the development of digital business models.

  • Task 1:
    Please explain the increase of IP related risks with the digital transformation. Please take into account the new digital business models and the role of digital patents.
  • Task 2:
    Please explain the increase of IP related risks due to new competitors. Please take into account the effect of digital business eco-systems and how the role of business sectors changes in the digitalization.
  • Task 3:
    Please explain the role of standard essential patents (SEP) and why the IP-risk is growing especially through these patents.
  • Task 4:
    Please explain the role of standard essential patents (SEP) in the Concremote® case, when using 5G to transmit data between the sensors and the software.
  • Task 5:
    To find licensing conditions for standard essential patents (SEPs) the FRAND concept was introduced and licenses should comply with the FRAND conditions. Please explain what FRAND stands for.
  • Task 6:
    To find licensing conditions for standard essential patents (SEPs) the FRAND concept was introduced and licenses should comply with the FRAND conditions. Please explain the approaches and problems to find a FRAND compliant license rate.

 

Here is the solution of Group 3:

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