Service Innovation and Design by Laurea University of Applied Sciences (SID)

Service Innovation and DesignResults from co-creation

PublisherLaurea University of Applied SciencesVanha maantie 9FI-02650 Espoo

EditorsKatri OjasaloVirpi KaarttiOuti Kinnunen

Graphic design and illustrationPetra Boije

photosJoni NurmiSami KauppinenNiko SuomalainenSusanna BaStudio Lumikuu

ISBN 978-951-799-261-9

January 2012

Preface .............................................................................................................. 4Katri Ojasalo and Virpi Kaartti

CoCo - Value co-creation: why & how? ............................................................ 6Krista Keränen

DiYSE - Designing service experiences for intellectually disabled people ....... 8Rob Moonen and Sami Kauppinen

ServBis and SISSI – Revised mind: revised ways to operate and to think ....... 10Päivi J. Tossavainen

Massidea.org – A colorful way to learn and innovate ...................................... 12Teemu Santonen

Renderfarm.fi - Making movies with a screensaver ......................................... 14Julius Tuomisto

Finlab - Accelerating Finnish innovativeness and competiveness by Living Labs concepts ........................................................... 16Seppo Leminen

Koulii - Cracking the coconut in the Suurpelto region ..................................... 18Pekka Matvejeff

CONNECT - Helping Finnish SMEs to increase the use of renewable energy solutions in Africa ........................................................... 20Birgit Aurela

eReading Services - Developing business models for publishing industry........................................................................................... 22Seppo Leminen and Anu Nousiainen

Guarantee - A safer home environment ........................................................... 24Rob Moonen and Heikki Seppälä

MOBI – Mobile object bus interaction ............................................................. 26Hanna-Miina Sihvonen and Jyri Rajamäki

SATERISK – Risks of satellite-based tracking .................................................. 28Robert Guinness, Jyri Rajamäki and Seija Tiainen

MMP - Measuring multiple senses in service experiences ............................... 30Leena Alakoski and Satu Luojus

Local Food – Sustainable business for Uusimaa Region .................................. 32Janne Huuhtanen, Aira Sevón and Ritva Jäättelä

Laurea Service Innovation and Design ............................................................. 34

Service Innovation and Design Results from co-creation

Theory

methods

business

safety & security management

hospitality management

4 | Service Innovation and Design – Results from co-creation Service Innovation and Design – Results from co-creation | 5

due to its closeness to the practical business world. At Laurea all the RDI activities are closely integrated with the teaching and the staff with various backgrounds across disciplines are working closely together in the projects.

This publication presents altogether 14 projects of LaureaSID. They are all funded by an outside source and carried out in interesting networks. These RDI projects focus on four competence strongholds of LaureaSID in the following way:

1. Developing Service Science theories: CoCo project, 2. Creative co-design and user-centered methodolo-

gies: DiYSE, ServBis & SISSI, Massidea, Renderfarm/ORE and FinLab projects,

3. Business and ICT competences in service develop-ment: Koulii, CONNECT and eReading projects, and

4. Industry specific competences in the Safety & Secu-rity Management: Guarantee, MOBI and SATERISK projects, and Hospitality & Facility Management: MMP and Local Food projects.

It should be noted that in addition to the projects described in this publication, plenty of other interesting and important SID activities and RDI projects are being carried out at LaureaSID. We hope you will have an inspiring learning experience when reading this publication. We thank all the contribu-tors and everyone who helped us to put this publication together. We also thank Laurea’s SID Advisory Board, which has impressive knowledge not only by academic standards but also by measure of business competence and experience.

Katri Ojasalo and Virpi KaarttiEditors of this publication

Katri Ojasalo

Virpi Kaartti

Today, service innovation and design are globally at the forefront of research and practice priorities.

I t is our great pleasure to introduce this new Service Innovation and Design publication. After years of

intensive development work in the field of Service Inno-vation and Design (SID) at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, it is rewarding to see how much has actually been achieved. After launching the first SID publica-tion in Laurea’s first Service Innovation & Design semi-nar in 2007, a great body of knowledge and RDI networks has been created. During this period four successful SID seminars and dozens of projects have been carried out at Laurea’s SID unit in Espoo (known as LaureaSID). Cur-rently, the volume of RDI work at LaureaSID is over 7 mil-lion euros.

LaureaSID has also been a prime mover in the field of Service Innovation and Design education: it was the first institution in the world to provide the Master of Business Administration degree programme in SID starting in 2009. The third SID Master’s group will start their studies in September 2012. In total, Laurea University of Applied Sciences has app. 8000 students.

In February 2012 LaureaSID is proud to organize the third ServDes Conference, the premier research conference within service design and innovation. This event belongs to the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 programme.

Today, service innovation and design are globally at the forefront of research and practice priorities. The term service is currently being approached broadly mean-ing holistic solutions provided for and created with the customers/users. According to this view, every business is service business. The core competences of SID lie in understanding the growing complexity of service systems and the crucial role of customer value and experiences. These competences have created an emerging need to

develop interdisciplinary approaches and methods in the field of SID.

The RDI work of LaureaSID is leaning on four competence strongholds: 1. Service Science theories, 2. Creative methodology in designing services, 3. Business and ICT competences in service innovation

and design, and 4. Industry specific competences when designing serv-

ice systems, concepts and processes in the fields of Safety & Security Management and Hospitality & Facility Management.

Service Science aims at an interdisciplinary approach to research, development, and innovation in service. It pro-vides the systems thinking to understand, model and design holistic service systems, concepts and processes. Creative methodology in service design provides a co-design and user-centered perspective to open up the boundaries for service innovation. Innovation is powered from a tho-rough understanding of customers/users, their contexts, values and needs. Deep business and ICT competences are needed to translate this understanding into effective and efficient service systems, concepts and processes and competitive new business models. LaureaSID aims to synthesise the service science approach, co-design and user-centered methods and practical business and ICT competences to foster service innovation and renewal especially in the growing industries of safety & security management and hospitality & facility management.

In a university of applied sciences the challenge how to combine research knowledge across disciplines when researching, developing and innovating is much smaller than in any other type of a research organisation. This is

Preface

Customers’ role has changed dramatically. Today, cus-tomers are taking a more active role in value crea-

tion, and the focus of the value creation processes is rapidly shifting from a supplier company centric view to a more customer centric approach that aims to support customer experiences and joint value co-creation. Still, relatively little is known about how customers engage in value co-creation. Especially in B2B businesses, it is crucial to thoroughly know one’s customers, their busi-ness models and processes, and on this basis to develop new ways to create value with customers and other sta-keholders.

The CoCo (From co-production to co-creation) research project aims at identifying and developing co-production/co-creation activities and roles in B-to-B service relation-ships. The CoCo project (2010–2012) is funded by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Tech-nology and Innovation, and the case com-panies. It is a parallel project to VTT’s (Technical Research Centre of Finland) ServChange project. The CoCo project is carried out in conjunction with five companies.

Why? - Companies are moving from busi-ness models in which value came mainly from physical goods to models where value comes more or less from intangible things such as serv-ices, knowledge and relationships. In this shift customers should be seen as co-creators of value rather that as pas-sive recipients of goods and services. The CoCo research project focuses on creating new knowledge in the service science by studying the development of competitive value co-creation approaches in services.

How? - In addition to creating new scientific knowledge, an important aim of the project

is to develop service design methods and a virtual platform for co-creation to be applied in companies offering B-to-B services. The CoCo research uses an action research approach. In the first

phase of the empirical research, the cur-rent state of business approach has been

analysed by interviewing the personnel and customers of the case companies. The second

phase of the research is based on the needs identified in the current state analysis and it includes several devel-opment rounds in the case companies. Then, more crea-tive service design methods will be applied.

As the first concrete result of this study, a tool for analys-ing the current state of the co-creation approach has been


Keränen, K. & Ojasalo, K. (2011), “Value co-creation in b-to-b-services”, Paper presented at Campus Encounters – Bridging Learners Conference Developing Competences for Next Generation Service Sectors, Porvoo, April 13–14, 2011.

Ojasalo, K. & Keränen, K. (2011), “Designing a tool for analysing the current state of a company’s co-creation approach”, Paper presented at Cambridge Academic Design Management Conference, September 7-8, 2011.

Some publications

developed. The tool consists of 15 criteria and analyses a company’s value co-creation from three angles: 1. Strategic thinking and the business model, 2. Customer interactions and relationships, and 3. Service design processes.

The tool has been developed and tested in the case com-panies and presented in three different conferences in its different development stages.

The CoCo research project is playing a major role in the PhD research of project manager Krista Keränen at the University of Cambridge, UK. Krista Keränen will work as a full time CoCo researcher two months per year in the Cambridge scientific community as part of the Design Management research group. Project related expertise will be imported from Cambridge, for example, as aspiring speakers for seminars and workshops.

New ways to create value

with customers

Value comes from intangible things such as

services, knowledge and relationships

Laurea’s aim through the Learning by Developing (LbD) model is to offer a real development environment to the students. So far, altogether over 200 Laurea’s students have been working in the CoCo project. For example, a few SID Master’s students have been analysing the cur-rent state of the case companies’ business approach as part of their Master’s thesis.

CoCo – Value co-creation: why & how?

Krista Keränen Doctoral student, Project Manager

A tool for analysing the

co-creation approach in B-to-B

companies

Rob MoonenBBA, SID Master’s student, Project Manager

Sami KauppinenMA, Service Designer


The findings were utilised during several workshops where we co-created service concepts and scenarios together with the project partners. The scenarios visualised how intellectually disabled people could experience a variety of services that would empower them to communicate and express themselves. Several of these scenar-ios were implemented in Finland as well as in Belgium. One of the pilots created in Finland is the symbol-based chat application called ‘SymbolChat’. This application allows intel-lectually disabled users and their support personnel to send short symbol-based mes-sages in real time. The application can be eas-ily configured for persons with specific needs and abilities, making it possible to personalize the interaction style with the application. Laurea evaluated the appli-cation in cooperation with University of Tampere and Rinnekoti-Säätiö.

Another scenario in Finland, the easy music creation experience, makes it possible for intellectually disabled people to create music in an easy and intuitive way. A sensor based application allows users to make music

by moving different body parts. While it’s important to create service experiences that meet the specific

needs of the end-users, it’s crucial to look at the exploitation perspective of the solution as well. Laurea conducted a business feasibility analysis by utilizing the business model can-vas. During a workshop with VTT (Technical

Research Centre of Finland), Music Makers, and Delicode we developed and crystallized a

common integrated business model.

The DiYSE project allowed us to utilise various RDI meth-odologies while looking at different aspects of the service design process.

Utilising various RDI

methodologies in the service design

process

Designing service

experiences

Some publications

Moonen R., Kauppinen S., Iyer A. & Ojasalo K., (2010), “Methods and challenges of doing research with intellectually disabled people: an ongoing empirical study”, UMADR 2010.

Kauppinen S., Kotimäki T., Heimonen T., Turunen M. & Laivo T., (2011), ”Chataamista ilman kirjoitustaitoa” in english: ”Chatting without writing abilities”, Ketju Magazine, 1, 2011.

Iyer A. & de Roeck D. (2010), “Empowering people to connect & create with smart technology”, Sixth Swiss Design Network Conference, 28.10.2010.

W eb-based services and applications are a nor-mal part of everyday life. The virtual and physical

world is increasingly interconnected by smart objects and environments also known as the Internet-of-Things phenomena. The DiYSE Do-it-Yourself Smart Experience project (2009–2011) has been focusing on enabling non-technical end-users to easily create, setup and control meaningful services in their smart living environments and in the public Internet-of-Things (IoT) space. The project is a part of the European ITEA2 program and inclu-des 40 companies and research partners (for example Philips, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and VTT) from seven different countries.

In Finland the project focus has been on empower-ing intellectually disabled people to communicate and express themselves in an optimized way. Intellectually disabled (ID) people have a limited capability to physi-cally and mentally experience services, since most of the services are meant for the mass market. The following shows how latent needs of intellectually disabled people are identified and service concepts are co-created with the various stakeholders.

Laurea’s role within the project focuses on user cen-tered research, conceptual design of the service experi-ence, evaluation, and business modeling. We started our project within the Finnish consortium with qualitative research with Rinnekoti-Säätiö, a foundation for disabled people that produces healthcare and social services to municipalities. Ten users with a mild or moderate intel-lectual disability, varying in age from 21 to 50 years, par-ticipated in the study. Interview sessions were conducted

in which end-users and support people took part. Video observations and probes were also used to gather more information about the intellectually disabled people’s

motives, attitudes, habits, experiences, knowledge and expectations of future technologies.

Interviews were considered useful for get-ting an understanding of the end users’ basic needs. This particular method can be sometimes challenging since some end

users like autistic persons have difficulties answering questions. The probe method-

ology, where end users could explain their needs and wishes by taking photos and writing

diaries, gave better insights about the latent needs. Video observation on the contrary allowed users to show and tell what they are doing in their natural surroundings. Combining above mentioned methods resulted in good insights about the kinds of service experiences that would be beneficial for the end-users.

DiYSE – Designing service experiences for intellectually disabled people

Empowering intellectually

disabled people to communicate and

express

Kaski, T., Ojasalo, K. & Toivola, T. (2011) ”Service Business Development in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): A Case study on methods and tools enhancing SMEs’ transformation to service dominant business logic”. Paper presented in the Naples Forum on Service in June 2011, Anacapri, Italy.

Tossavainen, P. (2011) ”ServBis – palveluosaamista pk-yrityksiin. Palvelumenetelmistä uutta potkua liiketoimintaan” in Tekes (2011) Tutkimustuloksista arvoa liiketoimintaan. Serve – Palveluliiketoiminnan edelläkävijöille -ohjelma 2006–2013. Tutkimusprojektijulkaisu 2011, pp. 107-108.


the second work package, based on the current state analysis of the service approach each firm received a project plan and selection of service design tools to be tested. Further development of the toolset continued. The third work package focused on improvement activities and dissemination of new knowledge. Altogether eight service design tools and two methods were tested and developed further. Students were also involved in the project; for example, Master’s students as part of their study course revised the toolset and improved its visuali-zation and usability. The third work package ended with the collection and analysis of the research project results. Several articles are being written or in progress. The Serv-Bis project also participates in organizing the final semi-nar with the other projects funded by the same program of Tekes in March 2012.

The results of the ServBis project indicate that most firms have room for improvement in understanding the service dominant logic and service mindset. To reform firms towards service driven business approach and customer centricity faces challenges. The main obstacle seems to be the attitude of learning and building new competences. Lack of time and motivated resources pose further challenges. It was also evi-dent that firms need practical guidance and easy-to-use tools in order to take the first steps towards service dominant logic. The ServBis project has enjoyed the multi-party collaboration and networked co-creation of service mindset and service design toolbox.

SISSI - Service Innovation through Strategic Stake holder Integration (SISSI) project continues the service innova-tion and design RDI tradition of LaureaSID. This project is also funded by Tekes and it is carried out in cooperation with LaureaSID and Hanken Swedish School of Econom-ics. The objective of the SISSI project is to research and develop methods to integrate strategic stakeholders in firms’ service innovation processes. The project’s dura-tion is 2,5 years (autumn 2011 – spring 2014). Four Laurea’s Master’s students have started their Master’s theses in the project, one of them as a full-time research assistant. From both LaureaSID and Hanken, three faculty mem-bers participate in the project. Through research and the engagement with firms such as Lassila & Tikanoja and Skanska, SISSI enhances the service business field with effective participatory stakeholder integration.

Some publications

Using collaborative

methods when designing services

Companies need easy-to-use tools to take the first steps

towards service dominant logic

Integrating strategic

stakeholders in service innovation

processes

The transformation of business towards service domi-nant logic and the increasing awareness of service

business opportunities change the competence needs of firms. It is crucial to understand service driven busi-ness approach and to learn to use collaborative methods when designing services. LaureaSID is focusing on this issue through two separate projects: ServBis and SISSI.

ServBis – transferring service knowledge and compe-tences to SMEs – aims to develop, test, and disseminate practical tools that ease small and medium sized firms

(SMEs) to adopt a service business approach and mind-set. ServBis is a 1-year (2011) service business project partly funded by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. It’s a cooperative project of three universities of applied sciences: Laurea, Haaga-Helia and Metropolia. Further, this project engages eight case companies from different industry sectors: ATEA Fin-land Oy, Atlas Copco, Aussie Bar Oy, Care IT Oy, Experiri Oy, Finnair Flight Academy Oy, RapidBlue Solutions and Tietomitta Oy.

The ServBis project has three overlapping phases. The first work package focused on the recent research on the developed tools and theoretical background. First, a com-mon framework for evaluation purposes was developed. Each case company was evaluated and their current state in service business was analysed with the framework. In

ServBis and SISSI – Revised mind: revised ways to operate and to think

Päivi J. TossavainenD.Sc. (Econ.), Principal Lecturer

Santonen, T. & Schallmo, D. (2011), “Evaluating Industry Business Model Innovation Stage-Gate Process: Case Massidea.org”, The XXII ISPIM Conference – Sustainability in Innovation: Innovation Management Challenges, Hamburg, Germany, 12-15 June, 2011.

Santonen, T., Kaivo-Oja, J. & Antikainen, M., (2011), “National Open, Innovation System (NOIS): Defining a Solid Reward Model for NOIS”, International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development (IJIRD), Vol 3., No. 1.

Santonen, T. & Karhu, K., (2010), “Massidea.org: Defining a digital business ecosystem (DBE) for massinnovation”, The 3rd ISPIM Innovation Symposium - Managing the Art of Innovation: Turning Concepts into Reality, Quebec City, Canada, 12–15 December, 2010.


creativity, integration to the Triple Helix model, definition of the digital business ecosystem (DBE) for Massidea.org and generic success measures for the mass collaboration rewarding model. Implementation success publications evaluated Massidea.org from a historical timeline point of view, using a Profiting From Innovation (PFI) approach, defining Massidea.org as a business model innovation from the Stage-Gate Process point, evaluating students’ motivation to participate in online mass innovation and describing how intercultural virtual student teams open innovate via online social networks. Green Technologies in Food Production and Processing, a book published by Springer (2012) will include Massidea.org – greener way to innovate, a chapter which summarises the theoretical concept development of Massidea.org.

In the year 2008 Massidea.org concept was rewarded as the best school related innovation by the Finnish Inven-tor Support Association.

Some publications

Massidea.org concept was

rewarded as the best school related

innovation

Innovations are and have always been an important building stone for achieving a business success in a

highly competitive global business environment. How-ever, according to open innovation thinkers, in the future business success will depend more and more on the ability to utilize external resources via open innovation processes. Due to Inter-net and especially the rapid growth of the recent online social network phenome-non, these technological and behavio-ral changes have created the most pro-mising platform for global collaboration. With the help of today’s online technology, we can relatively easily and cost effectively combine people even from geographically dis-persed and distant cultures as one virtual intercultu-ral team. Therefore, in the future it is vital to understand and learn how to innovate in a virtually supported inter-cultural open innovation environment.

When a wide range of people and their different but com-plimentary insights are brought together, novel ideas generated by thinking outside the box are possible. Some authors call this mass collaboration or crowdsourcing, yet we prefer the term mass innovation. Massidea.org is a free of charge open innovation community where peo-ple can share their ideas, discuss today’s challenges as well as visions of the future; key factors when creating new innovations. By intelligently connecting people and their insights with the help of content recommendation, a creative space that can boost individual and communal creativity is constructed. In Massidea.org, public, private and educational sector organizations and individual users and citizens can collaborate with the wide and global range of masses of people. Technologically Massidea.org is grounded on open source solution.

Massidea.org – A colorful way to learn and innovate

From 2008 to 2011, the European Social Fund (ESF) funded project (1.1 MEUR) was founded and coordinated by Lau-reaSID in order to develop and implement Massidea.org as a part of the Finnish national open innovation system. Officially the Massidea.org project consortium included a dozen partner universities from Finland covering geo-graphically most of Finland. During the project, the part-ner network was expanded via collaboration with Fore-Massi 2025 – a project forecasting educational needs for the wellbeing and security sector and EU-VIP – a project

exploring the possibilities that virtual mobility can offer in the area of international work place-

ments. International collaboration was conducted with National Institute of Tech-nology, Hamirpur from India, Lillebaelt Academy of Professional Higher Educa-tion from Denmark and Pôle Universitaire

Léonard de Vinci from France.

A majority of all development and imple-mentation activities including content produc-

tion to the Massidea.org website were performed by university of applied sciences students via course col-laboration, project studies, internships or final thesis. Most importantly, development activities followed a virtually supported distributed development process in which development was carried out in multiple Finnish and foreign locations, while working collaboratively towards the com-mon outcome. As a result one of the most important outcomes of the Massidea.org project besides the website and idea, challenge and vision of the future descriptions, is the vir-tually supported distributed development process.

Besides a of series of bachelor theses, project results also include 10 peer-reviewed scientific publications, which introduced the preliminary concept, content recommendation support to individual

Teemu SantonenPh.D., Principal Lecturer

Business success will depend more on the ability to utilise external resources

via open innovation processes

A free of charge open innovation

community where people can share

their ideas

resolutions when rendering. Equally importantly, it ena-bles its users to participate in the rendering of stills and animations, regardless of whether or not they themselves are able to or even interested in learning about 3D mod-eling and animation. The stills and animations created can then later become parts of a movie that the users have helped to create.

Renderfarm.fi encourages everybody to take part in both the online community and the collaborative rendering. We also advocate open licensing (Creative Commons), open values and sharing of resources over geographic borders.

The adoption of open values has garnered the team a lot of approval. In Autumn 2010 Renderfarm.fi won the national competition to represent Finland in the UN and UNESCO sponsored and highly regarded e-content com-petition World Summit Award. Following its success in the national competition, picked from a line of 460 other registrants from 106 UN member countries, the service went on to win the International World Summit Award in the category of “E-Science and Technology” in June 2011.

The ORE project also led to the creation of Studio Lumikuu, the world’s first completely Blender based open movie and 3D production studio. Founded as a co-operative (instead of the usual limited company) by five Finnish micro companies, Studio Lumikuu is also the world’s first studio to adopt the completely open, volunteer computing based rendering pipeline advo-cated by Renderfarm.fi.

Starting from October 2011, Renderfarm.fi and the team behind it started working within the European Union Funding Programme 7 funded SCI-BUS (SCIentific gate-way Based User Support) project. Laurea UAS’s partners


in the SCI-BUS consortium include entities such as ETH Zurich, University of Tubingen, University of Catania and University of Westminster. The SCI-BUS project aims at the creation and maintaining of so-called e-science portals that help their user groups, whether they be sci-entists, artists or just other interested people, to easily make use of distributed computing for their needs.

renderfarm.FI

■ Renderfarm.fi has over 6 000 registered users from all over the world and at any one time there are over 500 computers attached for rendering – for anyone, for free

■ The “What is Renderfarm.fi?” feat. Big Buck Bunny has received 25 000 views on Youtube, the video was produced by ORE spin-off Studio Lumikuu

■ The single largest rendering that was done on the service would have taken 3,5 years to render on an average participating computer and cost at least 20 000€ on a commercial service, we did it in 14 days for free

In 2005 a young Finnish film producer Samuli Torssonen released his first full-length feature film “Star Wreck:

In the Pirkinning”. The movie, created with a budget of just 10 000€, featured near-Hollywood level Visual Effects which were rendered in some 1.5 years in Samuli’s mother’s kitchen using five old computers computing in parallel.

Inspired by the proven need for an affordable solution to the computation of complex 3D graphics by students, independent movie-makers, small 3D studios and other actors, the ORE project (Open Rendering Environment) was created to research volunteer computing based dis-

tributed rendering. Done in collaboration with Tekes, Otaverkko and Star Wreck Studios, the project was run at the LaureaSID Networks laboratory between 2007–2009.

The project resulted in the creation of Renderfarm.fi, a completely volunteer computing based rendering plat-form. Within the project, the service was directly inte-grated with Blender, the world’s most popular open source 3D suite. This coupled with the fact that Render-farm.fi is – and always will be – a completely free service that enables its users to render their animations and stills by using the computing power of volunteers from around the world, has made the service the most popular of its kind in the whole world. All in all, students and thesis workers had a significant part in early concept develop-ment.

By using Renderfarm.fi, 3D artists and animators benefit from being able to use higher image quality and higher

Renderfarm.fi

Julius TuomistoMaster’s student in Degree Programme in IT, Project Manager

– Making movies with a screensaver

Leminen, S. & Westerlund, M. (2011), “Innovation co-creation with customer and user networks”, Proceedings from the 26th IMP Conference, September 1–3, 2011, Glasgow, Scotland

Leminen, S. (Ed.) (2011), “Co-creation with Users and Customers in Living Labs – Integrating users and customers in companies’ business processes”, Laurea Publications A76 61 p., Vantaa.

Nyström A-G & Leminen, S. (2011), “Living Lab – A New Form of Business Network”, Proceedings from the 17th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising (ICE2011), 20 - 22 June 2011, ISBN: 978-1-4577-0772-8. 10 p. Aachen, Germany. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

Westerlund M. & Leminen S. (2011), “Managing the Challenges of Becoming an Open Innovation Company: Experiences from Living Labs”, Technology Innovation Management Review. October 2011.

Some publications


user and customer involvement and integration to devel-opment phases enables a company to understand cus-tomers’ actual behavior, needs and future trends better.

By integrating users into RDI processes, a company gains the competitive advantage, which its competitors not necessarily have. By integrating a customer or user in the development, the pitfalls in the launch of a new product or service to the market can be identified and can be avoided. Moreover, the knowledge of the end-users´ or customers’ needs may lead to brainstorm, develop-ment and creation of new, parallel, and complementary products and services. An integration of the end-user or the customer in the product and service development of companies is not yet everyday practice in industry and service companies. A Living Lab approach gives not only information about the end user’s experiences of the product or service but enables to co-develop and even co-create with users.

Developing a national Living Lab developer

network

The Finlab project was a national initiative (2008 – 2011) whose mission was to create an active collabo-

ration network between companies and research organi-sations and make Finland a well-known and recognized testing and validation site world-wide. One of the aims of the national Finlab project was to describe and define the Finlab Living Lab business and service concept and define IPR guidelines of Finlab concept.

Living Labs can be defined as “functional regions where stakeholders have formed a partnership of firms, public agencies, universities, institutes and users, which conse-quently collaborate in the creation, prototyping, validat-ing and testing of new services, products and systems in real-life contexts. Such contexts include cities, villages, rural areas, industrial plants as well as public places such as airports. The main idea is that a Living Lab consists of a real-life environment with access to users and methods, through which the functionality of the product or technol-ogy is verified and assessed.” (Nyström and Leminen 2011)

Another aim of the project was also to develop a national Living Lab developer network, which develops and executes open innovation development services, and a customer net-work, which exploits developed services. The Finlab project had several research partners: Laurea University of Applied Sciences, University of Turku, two research institutes of Aalto University (Media lab and CKIR Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research), VTT Technical Research Centre of Fin-land, as well as business partners Nokia, Digita, Dimes and Octopus Network. Laurea was responsible for Living Labs activities in the Finlab project and focused on the

Finlab – Accelerating Finnish innovativeness and competitiveness by Living Labs concepts

development of Living Lab business and service concepts together with the research and business partners. The project was partly funded by TEKES the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and partly by the participating companies.

Why it is important to integrate users and cus-tomers in companies´ business processes?

In spite of market research and customer analysis, the majority of the new products and services fail when launching them into markets. This is often due to the fact that

products and services do not correspond to the user needs related to the price, proper-

ties, functionality or usability, or often the prod-uct or service is launched too early or too late in the

market. Therefore, the need for integrating end-users and customers in a new product and service development process as actual co-developers is important. A deeper

Seppo LeminenDr.(Econ.), Principal Lecturer, Adjunct Professor

Integrating end-users and customers in a

service development process as actual

co-developers

Living Lab is a real-life

environment with access to

users


user preferences. The main objective of the Kookos pilot is to collect information, produce feasibility studies and surveys, take part in stakeholders’ planning processes and support them in designing their services targeted at Suurpelto end-users, entrepreneurs and other actors.

The first assignment of the Kookos pilot was to help the client to plan the new Shopping Mall by collecting innova-tive ideas for the development process. This aim was real-ized through the analysis of customer and end-user needs and end user-analysis. One hundred and thirty-two (132) interviews were executed during the Spring 2011. Several meetings with the client took place and the presentation of the final results to the client was made by students.

One conclusion of the analysis was that there is a huge number of potential groups whose input can/should be utilised in the planning processes (Living Labs). The analysis showed how economic aspects and business interests overtake others and the end user perspective often gets blurred. Organisations also seem to put more weight to solutions or decisions for the advantage of their immediate social group. The new approach of the pilot

and thinking of the client also provoked the students to come out with their

opinions on this societal development in Finland, which actually is – at the same time

– their visible future.

It is encouraging to see that the results of the Koulii project and the work of its sub-groups have already now moti-vated the traditional developers and stakeholders to con-sider end-user approach as an essential part of the service design process when planning urban areas for housing and business. It is as encouraging to see how educational institutions have a strong will to develop their learning processes in such a way that the that educational learning objectives, end-user and working life preferences as well as various stakeholders’ needs can be met simultaneously.

It is important to support opportunities to develop our urban (or rural) environment through truly listening to various stakeholders’ views in that development proc-ess. This results in the design of services which consider end-users’ preferences without jeopardizing other actors’ interests. Koulii project has already proved that it is pos-sible to find the tools for cracking the coconut shell.

Planning the new shopping mall by collecting

innovative ideas for the development

process

Integrating end-users to the service

design process is essential when planning urban

areas for housing and business

The title of the article refers to a song written by a famous Finnish singer and composer. It tells about

the difficulties encountered, when trying to break the coconut shell. When attacking the traditional bounda-ries in change processes we face situations simi-lar to cracking nuts. This is also very often the case in service design processes. The development process of the Suurpelto region in the heart of the City of Espoo in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is an example of new ways of influencing the tight and compact networks of stake-holders clustered around the urban deve-lopment processes in Finland.

Suurpelto is at the moment one of the biggest hous-ing and business center construction projects in the Hel-sinki Metropolitan Area. Within 10–15 years a new inno-

Koulii – Cracking the coconut in the Suurpelto region

vative urban environment focusing on life-long learning, intercultural and family orientation, sustainable develop-ment and new service concepts is established.

With the help of the City of Espoo the main stakeholders in the Suurpelto region were invited to develop and experi-ment the services and products suitable for the needs and life situations of users interacting with them in Suurpelto. In order to find new ways to produce learning and to inte-grate their learning processes in real-life urban develop-

ment, Laurea University of Applied Sciences and the Vocational College Omnia established a

development project called Koulii (2010–2012), which is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). So far, it has been a fascinating new experience for those almost 100 students and 40 educators from Laurea and Omnia participating in

the project.

As one of the seven sub-projects of Koulii, the Kookos (Coconut) pilot aims to help the Suurpelto

stakeholders to search for potential service providers and to design their products and services to meet the end-

Pekka MatvejeffM.Soc.Sc (Management), MBA (Henley), Senior Lecturer

Truly listening to various

stakeholder´s views in the development

processes


D eveloping countries need sustainable solutions of renewable energy that Finnish small and medium

sized companies (SMEs) can offer. However, both the economic and the psychic distance between Finland and developing countries is large. Typical challenges are legal framework, bureaucracy and the lack of coordination among authorities. Physical presence, knowledge of the local business culture and contacts are vital. Unfortuna-tely technology oriented SMEs often lack the competen-ces needed. Thus, risk to mutual misinterpretation is high.

To operate on these markets, partnering with local intermediaries is essential. But how to find suitable partners and how to succeed in building sustainable long-term partner-ship with them? What competences are needed and how can they be developed, both by Finnish SMEs and the intermedi-aries? How to learn to understand – and to successfully work with – different company and business cultures? Is it possible to create a generic approach for developing successful and sustainable busi-ness networks that would enable Finnish SMEs to enter and gain presence in developing countries’ renewable energy markets?

The CONNECT project aims to answer these questions. It is a new 2.5 year (2012–2014) project funded by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innova-tion, and carried out in cooperation with the two other FUAS Universities of Applied Sciences: Häme and Lahti. The FUAS alliance (FUAS = Federation of Universities of Applied Sciences) was established by Laurea, Häme and Lahti universities of applied sciences to serve students, business life and the public sector in an improved capacity as well as to seize hold of the opportunities of a strongly internationalising operating environment.

The CONNECT project starts with the identification of market potential for Finnish SME’s (market and company analyses). Based on that, the need and requirements for local intermediaries can be identified, and the potential intermediaries assessed. Challenges in cross-cultural communication, product and market understanding are in the focus for network development. It is also expected that the continuation of fruitful collaboration requires some form of continuing support to facilitate successful communication and interaction of all stakeholders.

There are several actions and organisations to support Finnish companies’ internationalisation. One, up till now relatively little utilized resource are the international students and expatriates coming from developing coun-tries. They master their own culture and have learned to understand and operate in the Finnish society. Their

value as cultural translators and bridge builders is currently neglected and thus the opportuni-

ties are wasted. This is addressed in the CON-NECT project.

The second opportunity lies with the partner network that universities of applied sciences

(UAS) have built with universities and other educational institutions in developing countries.

Can this network be more efficiently utilized in gaining market and customer knowledge, looking for potential partners, building and supporting partnerships between SMEs and intermediaries?

Cultural differences between technological experts from SMEs and international students might cause difficulties in communication. A co-creation approach can be used to enable and support communication and interaction between SMEs, students and other stakeholders. The aim is to combine research and experiential knowledge and together with SMEs, students and other stakeholders to develop new ways to build up value networks to enable market entry. In this project the main working method will be workshops in which a new co-creation approach will be used. The co-creation approach is new for most SMEs; as a bonus, participating SMEs will learn to utilize it.

There is a wish that international students would stay in Finland after their graduation, although employment opportunities are rare. Our hypothesis is that the utilisa-tion of international students has a key role in the new model of building networks. Thus, their employment opportunities in Finland and/or in value networks, which benefit Finland, will increase.

Birgit AurelaPh.D., Project Manager

The co-creation approach is

new for most SMEs

CONNECT – Helping Finnish SMEs to increase the use of renewable energy solutions in Africa

Creating a generic approach

for developing successful and

sustainable business networks

Supporting Finnish

companies’ internationa-

lisation

Huhtala, J., Sihvonen, A. & Leminen, S. (forthcoming 2011), “Emerging Business Models in the e-Reading Context”, Journal of Digital Marketing (JDM).

Huhtala, J., Leminen, S. Rajahonka, M., Siuruainen, R. & Tölö, M. (2011), “Modular Business Models for eReading Services”, the Fourth EUROMA Service Operations Management Forum Workshop (19 - 20 September 2011, Florence, Italy, http://www.som2011.org), pp. 256-258.

Leminen, S. & Salo Jari (Eds.) (2011), “eReading Services Business Models and Concepts in Media Industry”, Laurea Publications A73 165 p., Vantaa.

Rajahonka, M., Huhtala, J, Leminen S. & Tölö, M. (2011),”Digital service offering modularity: An empirical analysis of traditional publishing industry”, Proceedings from the 1st Cambridge Academic Design Management Conference, Cambridge, UK September 7 – 8, 2011.

Some publications

Anu NousiainenBBA, SID Master’s student

Seppo LeminenDr.(Econ.), Principal Lecturer, Adjunct Professor


institutions in Finland, such as Sanoma, Alma Media, Otavamedia, Talentum, Aalto University, and VTT Tech-nical Research Centre of Finland as well as Metropolia and Laurea. Laurea brings its know-how to this project which paves way for future eReading business models to study viable approaches to developing eReading business models. The research project also enables challenging, and current opportunities for students to com-plete a thesis.

An example of Laurea’s Master’s thesis project within the Next Media e-Read-ing program is “Digital Space”. The Master’s thesis project contributes to the future vision of book industry by identifying new business opportunities for the digital era. Hence, it discusses what happens after e-Reading and Social reading concepts have been established in Fin-land. The goal is to create a strategic target state for the “digital space ecosystem” by describing its ecology and new services through its users and contents. The stake-holders and contributors for the project are mainly Finn-ish authors, book publishers and book stores.

The role of innovation is especially important when the business is in transition. A call for ideation and creativity has taken place in the Finnish book industry where efforts are already being made to improve the reading experience in mobile devices as well as to produce more diverse con-tent for the digitally literate readers in terms of increasing the selection of eBooks and utilizing social media features and recommendation techniques.

The Master’s thesis utilises service design principles. The process of understanding the business context did not only include desk research but also involved experts from various fields to discuss the future of the book and the future generation of readers. Interaction and dialog related practices and needs both in writing and reading were investigated through discussions with different types of writers (fiction, non-fiction, professional, begin-ners and ambitious bloggers) and through a reading diary study, which invited a specific group of people to analyse their own internal and external dialog.

The processes of thinking and ideating resulted in three different storyteller profiles, three paths to deliver stories and three different audiences experiencing the stories. Storyteller profiles, for instance, revealed motivations, challenges, interactions and targets relating to writing.

More service ideas were generated in a multidisciplinary team work-shop and by iterative discussions including participants from estab-lished businesses, start-ups and creative economy. Stakeholders in the existing value chain were again engaged

in the process of filtering the ideas towards potential service stories.

The Master’s thesis project presented both an innovative future vision for the book industry in terms of building a “digital space ecosystem” and planted seeds for new services through design

methods. It encourages both optimising and nurturing the local culture and prac-

tices of storytelling. It also invites a new value network with new skills to co-produce compelling

digital and social experiences. Indeed, in the successful digital era of storytelling business, the value creation starts when a specific story (and its originator) meets its most beneficial form of delivery. Some of the stories are produced as traditional books but more and more stories are told in the form of multimedia and hypermedia where we as readers are able to participate, investigate, play, learn, and ultimately choose our own path to experience the story (or become storytellers ourselves).

Creating a consumer-oriented

method for distributing content on electronic

reading devices

A new value network with new

skills to co-produce compelling

digital and social experiences

The Next Media program is part of Tivit´s SHOK pro-gram (The Strategic Centres for Sciences, Techno-

logy and Innovation). The main goal of the program is to thoroughly renew industry clusters and to create radi-cal innovations. The Next Media program brings toget-her research organisations and media sector companies to accelerate media industry research and development activities in Finland. Sanoma plc – the biggest media group in Finland – coordinates the program. The dura-tion of the Next Media research program is four years and it started in 2010. The Next Media research program consists of several research projects, originated from the

eReading Services – Developing business models for publishing industry

need of media companies. As part of the Next Media rese-arch program, the eReading Services project of Finnish publishers and researchers was launched at the begin-ning of 2010. It aims to create a content- and consumer-oriented method for distributing charged newspaper, magazine and book content on electronic reading devi-ces.

The eReading project team consists of an internation-ally remarkable range of businesses from the publishing companies, as well as research institutes. The project members include the publishing companies and research

An innovative future vision for the book

industry

Ojasalo J., Moonen R., Seppälä H. & Suomalainen N. (2010), “Designing Services and Systems for Safety of Elderly People at Home; An Ongoing Empirical Study”, SEDE 2010.

Moonen R., Ojasalo J., Seppälä H. & Suomalainen N. (2010), “Designing Services and Systems for Intellectually Disabled People at Home: Preliminary Findings from an Ongo-ing Empirical Study”, UMADR 2010.

Ojasalo J., Seppälä H., Moonen R. & Suomalainen N. (2010), “Better Technologies and Services for Smart Homes of Disabled People: Empirical Findings from an Explorative Study”, ICSTE 2010.

Some publications

Rob MoonenBBA, SID Master’s student, Project Manager

Heikki SeppäläBBA, User Interface Designer


■ Need for technologies and services to assist in traffic ■ Need for technologies and services protecting intel-

lectually disabled against abuse ■ Need for technologies and services preventing im-

moderation of pleasure giving activities ■ Need for wristband-based technologies and services

The findings of this study were translated into require-ments for the Guarantee safety solution. While it’s impor-tant for a safety service concept to meet the functional needs of all stakeholders, it’s crucial to make sure the solution is ethically acceptable. Throughout the project Laurea created a set of ethical guidelines and questions that each of the international use case and demonstrator leaders were required to address. People’s privacy, benef-icence, accuracy of the solution, and security of the data are some of the issues that were taken into consideration.

LaureaSID facilitated several workshops with companies and end-user representatives to co-create different use cases that form the core for the safety solutions. The use cases were based on personas that characterized the intellectually disabled and elderly persons. On interna-tional level our use cases were used to create an overall safety scenario.

We continued with a design of the overall service experi-ence by utilising blueprinting to illustrate and pinpoint

the service process steps involving the end-users, tech-nology providers and service providers. A safety solution is currently undergoing a test phase were the idea is to increase the residents’ quality of life and the feeling of safety. The present support tool, a web based portal and an interactive TV, are targeted at families living with a person who has intellectual disability. The pilot utilizes a distance support service to connect the residents with their caregivers or other residents and ease the possible anxiety that they might experience in their day to day activities.

Making sure the solution is ethically acceptable

Preventive and reactive

solutions

An increasing number of elderly and intellectually disabled people prefers or is forced to live indepen-

dently without external support. This tends to result in more incidents in the home environment.

The Guarantee project (2009–2012) aims to research and develop technologies and services for elderly, children and intellectu-ally disabled people to create a safer home environment. The project includes preven-tive solutions (like behavior monitoring) as well as reactive solutions (like fall detection). The results of the project are expected to enable direct support and advice to people in unsafe situations as well as enhancing their capability to live independently.

Guarantee is part of the ITEA2 framework, a strategic pan-European programme to promote Software-inten-sive Systems and Services. The consortium consists of strong and complementary partners like small compa-nies, research organisations, universities, service provid-ers, and industrial partners.

Laurea’s role in the project is strongly focused on user centered research, design of the overall service, and

Guarantee – A safer home environment

international collaboration with partners like Philips Research. Our stakeholders’ analysis assures that the design and development of the various Guarantee solu-

tions are based on real identified needs. Our social and ethical analysis, on the other hand, makes

sure that the services are morally sound.

We started our research in Finland with a detailed literature study which gave us a

good understanding of the kinds of acci-dents that are happening in the home envi-

ronment. After this we conducted a stakehold-ers’ analysis with intellectually disabled people

and support personnel from Rinnekoti-Säätiö, the foun-dation for intellectually disabled people. This particular study gave some valuable insights about the needs and concerns for safety of intellectually disabled people. We conducted interviews and analyzed the results by using an affinity diagram. Six main factors emerged from the study:

■ The positive attitudes of intellectually disabled to-wards using safety technologies and services

■ The juxtaposition of safety vs. privacy can be allevi-ated with right technologies and services

Designing the overall

service experience

Rajamäki, J. and Villemson, T (2010), “Creating a service oriented architectural model for emergency vehicles”, International Journal of Communications, Issue 1, Volume 3, pp. 44-53.

Sihvonen H-M & Kurki T.A (2010), ”Role Management Diversity in Emergency Situations”, 2010 IEEE International Conference Technologies for Homeland Security, November 8-10, 2010 Westin Boston-Waltham Hotel, Boston, MA.

Rajamaki, J., Hult, T. & Ofem, P. (2011), “ICT Integration of Public Protection and Disaster Relief: Services for Fire and Rescue Personnel”, International Journal of Computers and Communications, Issue 3, Volume 5.

Holmstrom, J., Rajamaki, J. & Hult, T. (2011), “The Future Solutions and Technologies of Public Safety Communications - DSiP Traffic Engineering Solution for Secure Multichannel Communication”, International Journal of Communications, Issue 3, Volume 5, 2011.

Tuohimaa, T., Tikanmaki, I. & Rajamaki, J. (2011), “Cooperation Challenges to Public Safety Organizations on the Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)”, International Journal of Systems Applications, Engineering & Development, Issue 5, Volume 5.

Some publications

Jyri RajamäkiD.Sc. (Tech.), Principal Lecturer, Head of Laurea’s Data Networks Laboratory

Hanna-Miina SihvonenM.Sc., Project Manager


LaureaSID initiated the MOBI project originally in 2008 in cooperation with the Finnish police. Currently, LaureaSID coordinates the MOBI project in tight collaboration with Finnish industrial partners and authority organisa-tions. The project is funded by Tekes, the Finnish Fund-ing Agency for Technology and Innovation. The project

started in autumn 2010 and will end in autumn 2013. The MOBI project aims at ICT inte-

gration in emergency vehicles and to creating a foundation for an emergency vehicle concept for export.

Laurea’s students have participated in projects related to MOBI user require-

ments, communications, integration and business models work packages. The progress

of the MOBI project has been reported in various pub-lications, conferences and seminars. Eleven articles and reports have already been produced. A few publications are included in the reference list below. LaureaSID will be co-organising the Public Safety Communications Europe forum meeting in Espoo May 2012, which among other topics deals with MOBI project related authority com-munication and collaboration issues.

ICT integration

in emergency vehicles

Creating a foundation for an emergency

vehicle concept for export

One of the most important tasks of police, fire and rescue services, customs and border control agen-

cies is to deal with emergency situations on land, sea and air. The vehicles they use and devices installed to these vehicles must be suitable for very demanding and variable conditions. Changing of seasons increases the amount of requirements.

During a few decades the number of technical devices and different applications has been increas-ing in authorities’ vehicles. This has also increased the

MOBI – Mobile object bus interaction

number of different user interfaces. All this has gener-ated some new problems, for example vehicles airbags

have less room to fill. Also technical problems, especially in power supply and cables, have

been reported. Documentation of applied solutions has been variable and there has been no standardization needed in this field, partially because of the diversity of the equip-

ment suppliers. Yearly delivery volumes and the culture of purchasing have not been helping

the development of standardization. That is the reason for the need of new business models.

Need for new

business models

Happonen, M., Kokkonen, P., Viitanen, J., Ojala, J. and Rajamäki, J. (2009), ”Jamming Detection in the Future Navigation and Tracking Systems”, in Proceedings of the 16th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems, 25 - 27 May, 2009 Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Kämppi, P., Rajamäki, J. and Guinness, R. (2009), “Information security risks for satellite tracking”, International Journal of Computers and Communications, Issue 1, Volume 3.

Ohisalo, M., Tiuri, O., Urpila, T., Kämppi, P. and Rajamäki, J. (2011),”Risks and vulnerabilities of future satellite-based tracking systems”, International Journal of Geology, Issue 4, Volume 5.

Some publications

Jyri RajamäkiD.Sc. (Tech.), Principal Lecturer, Head of Laurea’s Data Networks Laboratory

Seija TiainenM.Sc., Project Manager

Robert GuinnessM.Sc. in Space Studies


services. Because of the SATERISK project and its results, the company’s customers have become more aware of the risks that come with using these services. This has increased the demand for their proprietary surveillance products and concepts, designed to mitigate these risks.

As a spin-off of the SATERISK project, two new RDI projects will start in 2012. The first aims to facilitate Law Enforcement Agencies’ (LEAs) activities in remote observation of criminals by improving substantially the LEAs’ access to audiovisual and location information. The methods developed must satisfy stringent legal, integ-rity and chain-of-custody requirements, and the results of the SATERISK project pave the way for analyzing how these requirements will be met. The other spin-off project will concentrate on privacy issues with regard to track-ing information acquired by LEAs, and the results of the SATERISK project will be very relevant in this project as well. From these developments, it is clear that risk analy-sis of satellite-based tracking will only increase in impor-tance, as tracking and localization services become more widespread and more critical to operations of safety and security professionals.

Satellite-based tracking will increase

in importance as localization services

become more widespread and more critical to operations

S atellite-based navigation and tracking have become routine features of the modern society. Their use is

rapidly growing – a recent market research report pre-dicts that the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) market will likely double by the year 2016. The European Commission has laun-ched its first two operational satellites for the Galileo positioning system in October 2011.

The idea to study risks of satellite-based tracking came from Laurea’s Master’s students and lecturers of Security Management in 2008. They found partners for the project and got funding from Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innova-tion. The SATERISK (2009-2011) project aims to answer the following questions: Does satellite-based navigation and tracking involve risks? Do we know what the risks are now, and what they will be in the future? Often new tech-nologies will present opportunities for increased safety and security – and this is certainly true with satellite-based navigation and track-ing – but they can also create new risks. It is important for the technology develop-ers, end-users and authorities to clearly understand these risks and take steps to mitigate them.

The SATERISK project also aims to bring new know-how to the European field of secu-rity. The project is creating new methods and devel-opment paths for positioning and tracking systems that address the risks and limitations that have already been discovered. These include methods related to informa-tion security, signal interference, and legal restrictions on tracking. A special emphasis has been placed on the use of satellite-based tracking amongst security professionals – both in the public and private sectors – where the risks

SATERISK – Risks of satellite-based tracking

can be high if they are not properly addressed.

The SATERISK project has partners and other participants from the whole value-chain of satellite-based

tracking, starting from the network operators like Cassidian (EADS DS) to companies that

offer information gathering devices and tracking software, and finally to the users of these tracking systems. Legal aspects of

satellite-based tracking are studied at Uni-versity of Lapland in its own SATERISK co-

project.

Students have participated in many interesting projects related to the SATERISK project. One interesting area of student work has been the evaluation of risks from sat-ellite-based tracking in different corporate sectors and for different use cases. Studies of current risks were fol-lowed by producing risk scenarios for the future. Another

interesting area has been developing service innovations that use satellite-based tracking.

Finally, students have been organising and participating in seminars related to the SATERISK, giving students an opportu-nity to interact directly with experts and practitioners working in this field. The

results of the SATERISK project have mainly been featured in various publica-

tions, conferences and seminars. More than thirty articles and reports have been produced,

addressing various aspects of the project.

According to one SME partner, the main impact of the SATERISK project so far has been that the topic ‘risks of satellite-based tracking’ has received more widespread attention. This intelligence-gathering and surveillance provider was filled with a foreboding of problems to come with today’s commercial satellite-based tracking

New technologies

can create new risks

Developing service

innovations that use satellite-

based tracking

Isacsson, A., Alakoski, L. & Bäck, A. (2010), ”Using multiple senses in tourism marketing”. Tourismos, An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism. Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 167-184.

publication

Satu LuojusPh.D., Principal Lecturer

Leena AlakoskiLic.Sc., Project Manager


touch points, by identifying critical inci-dents, to ensure that the service lives up to anticipated customer experiences. The MMP project produces a service design tool box for companies to support them in measur-ing and designing services with multisensory elements. Many of the methods have already been tested with the customers, for example assignment notebooks, observa-tion tables, videos, storytelling and photos, empathy tool and multisensory walking.

The Light Carnival is one example of a service concept that has been developed in Linnanmäki amusement park. The amusement park has its equipment and rides, but also other services like cafes, restaurants and shops as well as performances and visual elements. Adding mul-tisensory elements to the services and taking the differ-ent senses into account have given the service provider a possible area for improving the service experience of their customers.

Another example is Cosy Finnish Evening (CCFE) that is a standardized service of Cosy Finland, targeted at groups

and individuals. The duration of the CCFE visit is three hours in the evening. The

service content involves a visit to a Finnish home integrated with the Cosy Home Dinner.

The MMP project developed, tested and evaluated a Cosy Finnish Evening video representing CCFE applying two different sound scapes. The idea of using two differ-ent soundscapes and multiple testing-environments is to gain rich data in order to analyze responses from different angles including the impact of multisensory effects and testing environments.

Service experience is more effective when customers

feel effects of many senses at the

same timeA service design

tool box for designing services with multisensory

elements

S ensorial strategies comprise the five common sen-ses smell, sound, sight, taste and touch. Many rese-

archers stress that our entire understanding of the world is experienced through our senses.

Our senses are the link to our memory and can tap right into emotion. People want experiences and to accumulate them during their leisure time and tourism trips. Their experience is more effective when they feel effects of many senses at the same time. For a service company, the management of the service experience is of vital impor-tance. It does not only affect the success of the company, but determines customers’ level of experience. Customer touchpoints should be planned with all communication aspects in mind, taking into consideration all senses and emotions.

The MMP (Multisensory service expe-rience and service design in tourism companies) research project aims at studying how customers experience multisensory service touchpoints. Key themes of the project are measur-ing and analyzing customers’ service experience from the multisensory point of view, and applying service design meth-ods in planning and designing services with multisensory elements.

The project is funded by TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tourism and Lei-sure Services Programme). Companies participating in the MMP research project are Linnanmäki amusement

MMP – Measuring multiple senses in service experiences

park, Hostel Onnela, Cosy Finland, Magic of Nuuksio, Go Experience, City of Kerava/Circus markets, Eckerö line, and Culminatum Oy (one of the main actors in the tourism and experience management cluster in Finland).

LaureaSID and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland are the organisations responsi-

ble for research activities in the project. Students are the core of RDI activities

in the MMP project; they not only par-ticipate in the project but also take the responsibility as equal members of the research team.

Companies participating in MMP aim at new innovative service concepts and new

ways of producing leisure services. Thus one of the objectives of the research project

is to develop innovative, customer-centered service concepts by focusing on designing multisensory service experience. A set of service design methods and tools are applied in the case companies. The service design meth-ods enable to understand the customer perspective as a process and illustrate it as a customer journey through

New multisensory service touchpoints,

innovative service concepts and

creative ways of producing leisure

services

Janne HuuhtanenStudent, Degree Programme in Business Management

Ritva JäätteläM.Sc .(Int. Econ.), Project Manager

Aira SevónCo-owner of Gobbas Gård, Legal & Business Consultant, LL.M, MBA


The project supports the development of business and networking competencies of local food farmers and pro-ducers by:

■ Improving producers’ knowledge of the precondi-tions, business models and marketing of local food production

■ Activating and supporting networking, collaboration and competence building among local food value networks

■ Activating and supporting collaboration between development and support organisations

■ Increasing the visibility and recognisability of local food in Uusimaa region

To improve customer and market understanding and to support collaboration and networking within the indus-try, the initiation and development of local value net-works (producer–processor–distributor–customer) is supported. Additionally, networking events will be organised and small-scale research done. The created knowledge is shared with the stakeholders though newsletters, web-sites and social media.

Partnering and division of labor with various supporting organisations is the key to effi-ciency and impact. We work with local food devel-opers in Uusimaa region and on national level. Regional network includes actors, such as ProAgria, Novia UAS, City of Loviisa and several regional business development organisations. Our national network includes Food Fin-land theme group, Aitoja makuja-project, The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)

and regional local food development organisations.

Laurea’s students have been integrated in the project in several ways. To get cus-tomer insight, student groups planned and implemented an observation and interview-based comparative consumer study on local food choices in four cities. Integrated in courses, students are working with the producers, for example to improve marketing and customer communication of small-scale farms. Cur-rently several theses are being completed, including sub-ject areas like ‘Customer experiences in a restaurant with local food profile’ or ‘Improving customer understanding in a local food online shop’.

Furthermore students have a central role in planning and implementing promotional events, such as the Uusimaa department at the Delicacies of Finland event, which took place 26-27.8.2011 in the Centre of Helsinki. The depart-ment (tent) was organized by our project and co-designed with the participating local food producers. At the Uusi-maa department visitors had the possibility to taste and purchase the delicious products of 16 different local food producers. The successful event attracted over 58 000 visitors from all over the country and it will be reorgan-ized in the year 2012.

From the point of view of the participating producer (Gob-bas Gård) it was a pleasure to realize that Laurea was indeed encouraging all the exhibitors of the region to be active participants in the planning process. Produc-ers’ needs and comments were listened to carefully and interpreted skillfully. The designers were able to take the

practice into consideration while keeping the over-all design fresh and professional, a result rarely

seen in our industry. Moreover the young and fresh approach of the Uusimaa department was conveyed through innovative solutions while facing great restraints. The Laurea team could provide the exhibitors such

added value, service and end-result with creativity, professional approach, teamwork

capabilities and problem-solving skills. Thus the design, practical approach and the overall result exceeded the producers’ expectations. The design and realization of the Uusimaa department gained attention and favour-able feedback not only from participating producers, but also from the media, visitors and event organisers and is as such a good example of successful co-creation process.

Improving marketing of small-scale

farms

Increased demand for local food

A rapidly growing awareness of food, its effects on the body and the environment has led to an increased

demand for local food. But how to transform small scale farming into growing supply of local food and sustai-nable business? In Uusimaa region the previous suppor-ting measures have been unsystematic and fragmental.

Local Food – Sustainable business for Uusimaa region

The three-year project, Local Food – sustainable business, was launched in summer 2011.

It is funded from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, by the Uusimaa Centre of Economic Devel-opment, Transport and the Environment. The purpose of the project is to develop local food as sustainable business in the region. Main beneficiaries are farm producers and local food refiners, who operate in the country side. Other stakeholders include supply chains/sale channels, profes-sional kitchens, consumers and local food developers.

Supporting collaboration

and networking within the industry

Laurea Service Innovation and Design

34 | Service Innovation and Design – Results from co-creation

Service Innovation and Design – Profile of LaureaSID

L aurea University of Applied Sciences produces new competences in the field of service innovations and carries out professionally orientated edu-

cation, regional development and RDI activities by following the Learning by Developing (LbD) operational model.

Laurea’s largest unit LaureaSID in Espoo focuses on service innovation and design. The unit is a hub of research, development and innovation, where vari-ous RDI environments provide a dynamic and inspiring learning environment.

W

Hy?

WHAT?

how?

wher

e?

METHODOLOGY

research based development creative methods in service design

Theoretical framework

service science

COMPETENCE FIELD

Business Competencein designing customer-centered service

systems, concepts and processes

ICT Competencein designing customer-centered service

systems, concepts and processes

CONTEXT

customer-centered service systems, concepts and processes in

security and safety management

customer-centered service systems, concepts and processes in

hospitality and facility management

Service Innovation and Design

Competence

Customer-centered service systems, concepts and

processes

-Europe-

Helsinki

Finla

nd

espoo

vantaa

helsinki

[email protected]

LaureaSID LeppävaaraVanha maantie 9, FIN-02650 EspooFinland

www.laurea.fi/Leppavaara

Contact

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Service Innovation and Design by Laurea University of Applied Sciences (SID)

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