Innovation as an open process

Swisscom builds on the know-how of its customers, employees and partners with the aim of constantly developing new products, services and unique experiences as part of an open process. Customer requirements are at the heart of everything it does. For this reason Swisscom consistently adopts human-centred design methods when developing new products and services, i.e. the user-oriented design of simple and inspiring experiences that stand out on the market.

Swisscom is keen to take up new ideas from research that enable it to tap into new areas of business and optimise costs. It therefore reviews every promising idea in terms of profitability, feasibility and what it offers customers. If an idea fulfils the relevant requirements, it is quickly tested and brought to market. For example, Swisscom is currently pursuing new approaches related to the digital home, new television experiences and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.

Swisscom operates its own open innovation platform in the form of Swisscom Labs, which has several thousand registered users. The platform involves future users at as early a stage as possible in the development of new products and services. Users are able to contribute their own ideas, give their own opinions in so-called “challenges” and participate in trials and beta tests in open or closed focus groups.

Innovation requires time and space for ideas to develop into products and services that are ready for market. Swisscom therefore staged an innovation week for the first time in 2013, during which variously composed teams work hard on realising an idea that satisfies a client need, is of business relevance and has potential on the market. A number of these prototypes are to be anchored in the 2014 Roadmap and pursued further.

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