Client stories
B2B service productization and go-to-market - Case ANDRITZ and OTORIO
B2B service productization and go-to-market - Case ANDRITZ and OTORIO
ANDRITZ is a globally operating technology market leader that provides plants, systems, equipment, and services for the hydropower, pulp and paper, metalworking and steel, and solid/liquid separation industries.
Three years ago, as part of the ANDRITZ innovation program, a cyber security joint venture company OTORIO was founded. OTORIO is a cybersecurity start-up founded by a group of leading former Israel Defense Forces personnel who were responsible for building and operating its cyber defense command.
OTORIO aims to empower industrial companies to securely utilize the new digital opportunities by providing cyber risk-based management solutions to companies relying on OT (Operational Technology) and IT.
Some years ago, both ANDRITZ & OTORIO recognized the growing importance of cybersecurity in operational technology environments. They investigated the market and saw that there was no solution available that had been built based on the cybersecurity needs of factories.
Instead, existing market players provided IT cybersecurity solutions that had been modified to meet the needs of factories (e.g. these solutions might recommend system patching to fix a vulnerability when this could not be immediately done in a factory that operates 24/7.).
To address this unmet need, a joint venture between the two was started.
For ANDRITZ's customers to benefit from OTORIO's cybersecurity services, ANDRITZ's sales team had to find an easier way to sell OTORIO's services to their customers. ANDRITZ’s sales team was accustomed to selling to factory management (with limited cybersecurity understanding), while OTORIO sold to cybersecurity professionals.
To help ANDRITZ and OTORIO, we started a project to productize OTORIO's offering and to create sales materials that ANDRITZ's sales team could utilize in their work.
We started the work by getting to know OTORIO, its products, and services and made sure we understood the business. We also wanted to see what kind of sales materials the company was currently using. To get a more complete picture, we interviewed key stakeholders to determine what was and what wasn't working in the existing materials.
Once we had created our view on the current state, we started an iterative process of creating new sales materials. We did this in cooperation with OTORIO's personnel and ANDRITZ's sales & management, as we wanted to ensure that those who would eventually use the materials were involved in the development process and felt committed to using the materials in the future.
In addition to productization support, we also helped OTORIO find channel partners from Finland to support their go-to-market. We wanted to find companies with a similar mindset, vision, and the ability to sell and deliver OTORIO’s services in Finland.
To identify potential partners for OTORIO, we researched the market and reached out to our expert network. Once we found potential companies, we helped arrange meetings between the companies to better understand, if the partnership was a good fit. To finish off, we made a recommendation on what partners had the highest potential.
Industrial cyber security has different and much more complex tendencies than the IT cyber security domain. Due to the cyber physical aspect of manufacturing, the solution must be tailored to the vertical and its uniqueness, and the service should be provided by local partners already familiar with the customer’s IT infrastructure or the local industry. This was the challenge this project needed to solve. – Daniel Bren the CEO of OTORIO.
At the end of the project, ANDRITZ and OTORIO had an updated OTORIO sales presentation suitable for presenting by ANDRITZ sales to their customers, both being non-cyber security experts.
We also created a plan of next actions for ANDRITZ to proceed with empowering their sales team to sell OTORIO’s products & services. Additionally, OTORIO’s management had the prioritized list of potential partners in Finland and Nordic countries to support OTORIO’s go-to-market.
We are very pleased with our collaboration with Coventures. They were flexible and worked with us iteratively to reach the best outcome in this project. Coventures was able to provide a team with both cybersecurity and industrial experience combined with the understanding of typical challenges in the cooperation of a startup and a corporation. The project’s stakeholders were happy with the project’s results and we are looking forward to the next steps together with Coventures. – Klaus Glatz, CDO of ANDRITZ AG.