It takes a great deal of drive, enthusiasm and skill to navigate through all the stages of technology commercialisation and create value from innovative new technology. Companies most likely to succeed are often those that surround themselves in a “cluster” and take advice and help from experienced mentors and partners at all stages along the way.

Actualise Consulting is a keen supporter of innovation and the commercialisation of innovative technology. We understand the difficulties of bringing early-stage technology to market. We often find ourselves bringing new and disruptive products and technology into new markets. We offer a wide range of technology commercialisation services to support companies in bringing their technologies to market. Our services include everything from market analysis and planning through to partnership development, business development, and lead-generation.

We can engage in your projects simply as advisers, giving you the appropriate guidance as necessary. Alternatively, we can effectively become part of your team in order to give you the real hands-on support that you need during periods of intensive activity. We like to roll our sleeves up and get our hands dirty from time to time!

Strategy Development

Most companies that we engage with for the purposes of technology commercialisation have great technology, products or capabilities. However, they’re often not quite sure how to productise them or, more importantly, how to monetise them effectively. In some cases, their strategies that will create risk and not be highly effective in creating value from what they have. It’s important to ensure that you get your strategy right from the start because, in many cases, you’ll only get one shot at it. Actualise Consulting can help you identify a winning strategy for success that aligns with your capabilities and your business objectives. We can help to minimise risk and maximise market impact and revenue potential. We offer:

• Full “drains-up” review of existing services and products
• Developing International market strategy and identifying international sales channels or partners
• Developing Funding strategy – investment/grants/loans etc

Technology Marketing

It is not enough to have killer products and services. To generate successful sales and profits, the benefits of the products or services must be communicated effectively to potential customers. Actualise Consulting can help you understand your market and competition and then plan the best approach to that market. We can develop strong and coordinated branding and build a winning portfolio of marketing collateral. This might include websites, product datasheets, capability statements, brochures, and flyers. We can help to communicate your message to key audiences, including potential customers, the media and, if necessary, investors.

Business Development

Actualise Consulting doesn’t do “lead generation” like many other agencies do with a call center full of agents on headsets creating “appointments” for you to sell your products. When it comes to technology commercialisation, we typically work with companies that have a very high-tech (and often disruptive) proposition or complicated business model – not often suited to the traditional lead generation agency approach. We often find ourselves breaking into new markets with new or disruptive technology where the landscape is uncertain and the market potential requires a little more testing.

We recognise that business development is not always just about selling finished products. It can also be about developing a market, evangelising a technology, finding partners and funders for feasibility studies, trials, and early stage deployments. We understand that innovative and disruptive technology may go through several stages of development and adoption before maturity and that the innovators and early adopters might require different approaches from the early and late majority adopters who might buy it in the longer term

We engage on a deep technical level in order to really get under the skin of your technology, products or services and understand all the USPs (even the ones that you haven’t identified yourselves!). We then use our understanding of your offerings to identify potential channels, target customers and key individuals for early-stage commercialisation. We engage those individuals in consultative discussions in order to build a rapport and ultimately to build strong trust-based relationships on your behalf.

We provide the following services:

• Developing market segmentation plans
• Identifying key target segments and early adopters
• Developing “go-to-market” strategies and plans
• Physical presence at trade shows, exhibitions and other events
• Qualified lead generation and management
• Developing trust-based relationships
• Identifying customers’ present and future needs

Grant Proposal Writing

One important aspect of Technology Commercialisation is often how the research and development of technology will be funded. Many companies in the early stages of technology development choose to apply for research and development grants to fund their early-stage, high-risk, and innovative developments. However, the process of applying for grant funding for market studies, feasibility studies or collaborative R&D projects is a daunting prospect for all but the most experienced academics (some of whom write several such applications each year). Clearly defining the intended project, identifying partners and defining their roles, gathering all the information required, preparing budgets and timelines and then translating all of that information into a compelling proposal that demonstrates real impact and ROI is very time-consuming and takes a range of communication skills.

Actualise Consulting’s Managing Director Daniel Dearing has had years of experience in writing and reviewing R&D grant application forms and proposals in a wide range of funding programmes, including; EU FP6, FP7 and Horizon2020, ARTEMIS, Technology Strategy Board/Innovate UK, Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Structural and Investment Fund, Research Councils UK (RCUK), Urban Living Partnership, Local Growth Fund (LGF), etc.

Having also acted as a technical assessor in several of these programmes Daniel has gained valuable insight into how the assessment process works and what the general funding objectives are.

Services include:

• FREE Consultation – Actualise Consulting offers a FREE, no-obligation, consultation service – either as a face-to-face meeting or as a phone/skype/webex call
• Project definition and co-creation
• Partner identification and recruitment
• General proposal and partner management
• Budget and timeline preparation
• Administrative form completion and submission