Applying an Open Innovation Method for identifying Challenges in the Cloud Business Environment

The success of connected life services is strongly related to the success of cloud computing. These enormous data volumes can only be handled economically with cloud-based services. Therefore, cloud computing can be seen as a basic technology for successful connected life services. However, the actual use of cloud-based solutions within the B2B sector is due to existing uncertainties by the customers still limited. Therefore, the research question of the study is: Which
challenges do cloud users have and how can these challenges be overcome? To answer this question a workshop was designed applying the lead user method as part of the open Innovation approach to identify challenges of the daily work life and to develop user centered and innovative cloud-based product/ service concepts. A total of 10 lead users have participated in the workshop. All participants are customers of a German small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME), which offers a number of cloud-based services for the business sector. In a first step the participants identified 42 challenges of their daily work life. In a second step the participants, who were separated into three groups, developed solution concepts to overcome selected challenges. To structure the development of the solution concepts the Business Model Canvas has been used. The workshop results show that the lead user method is appropriate to identify the challenges of the daily work life and to elaborate cloud-based solution concepts therefore. The customer Integration in the product/ service development process is suitable to develop user centered and innovative concepts.