My students use ideas from my (Jeff Funk) class on business models to develop a business model for robotic telepresence. Globalization and the need for global communication within and between firms drives the need for effective means of communicating without travel. While telepresence offers superior quality when compared to traditional video calls, it is expensive and lacks portability. Robotic telepresence offers a cheaper and more mobile form of telepresence. This presentation analyzes the business model for one supplier of robotic telepresence, Anybot

1. MT 5016
Business Model for
High-Tech Products
ASSOC PROF Funk, Jeffrey Lee
Ushashree Divakar
Li Yinbei
Zhou Kaijing
Chang Chiew Yuen
Wang QianQian
Oh Chin Lock

2. Robotic Telepresence
Anybots, Inc.

3. Video Introduction of Anybots
Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnxAXXHaAM8

4. Outline
• Telepresence & Robotic Telepresence
• Motivation of Telepresence & Markets
• Customer needs & segments
• Robotic Telepresence and Anybots QB
• Value proposition
• Value capture
• Scope of activities
• Strategic Control
• Summary

5. Telepresence today
Suppliers
• Polycom
• Cisco
• Huawei
• HP
Features
• High resolution
• High fidelity
• Immersive
• High investment
(Source: Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association)

6. Robotic Telepresence
Telepresence
Mobility
Robotic Telepresence
Source: www.avatarmovie.com

7. Motivation for Robotic Telepresence
Globalization + Internet boom
• Cross functional projects
• Increasing companies setting up their manufacturing
and R&D facilities overseas
• Increasing need for collaboration and communication
across geographical regions
• Increasing internet connectivity

8. Telepresence Market
Source: ABI Research
Results from the latest market study by For the full year 2011, total enterprise
International Data Corporation (IDC) showed a videoconferencing market revenue reached
strong fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11), with $2.7 billion – that's an increase of 20.5 percent
videoconferencing revenue growing 19.0 over the full year 2010.
percent quarter over quarter and 24.6 percent
year over year to reach $807.9 million.

9. Bloomberg Businessweek's Drake Bennet thinks there is a better, and cheaper,
alternative to business travel: Telepresence robots.
The worldwide market for telepresence robotics is expected to grow from $556.1
million in 2010 to $13.1 billion in 2016. Robots that can be controlled from any
location could be responsible for everything from office security and surveillance to
holding remote meetings and virtual collaboration.
Methods to achieve “Being there”
Robotic
Email, Telephone Web Video Tele- Being
SMS Conference Conference, Physically
Telepresence presence there!
Least Effective Most Effective

10. Customer Selection
is there a market ???
whom to serve and not
serve ???

11. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital /
conference Medical • Provide interface to doctors,
& museum centers
specialist to communicate with
patients remotely.
• Tele-operation.
Disaster Anybots
Education
recovery QB
Exploration Home care
Military,
Police,
Security

12. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital /
conference Medical
& museum centers
Disaster Anybots
Education
recovery QB
• Allow education institutes to
engage the best experts and
educators around the world to
Exploration Home care
provide teaching.
Military,
Police,
Security
• Mobility will enhance classroom
interaction to stimulate studies.

13. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital /
conference Medical • Companion for elderly living alone
& museum centers
at home
• Possibility with situation-specific
intelligent – reminding (e.g. taking
Disaster Anybots medication or drinking)
Education
recovery QB
• Alert message when emergency
detected
Exploration Home care
Military,
Police,
Security

14. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital /
conference Medical
& museum centers
• Area monitoring by military, police
Disaster Anybots and securities.
Education
recovery QB
• Fire detection applications
• Allowing user to patrol and
examine remote areas
Exploration Home care
Military, • Perform precision observation and
Police, data collection without
Security
experiencing the hazard

15. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital /
conference Medical
& museum centers
• Deployment in an underwater
Disaster Anybots environment in order to produce
Education
recovery QB interactive webcasts of scientific
material.
• Navigate to areas that are difficult
and impossible to reach by human
Exploration Home care e.g. natural resource exploration.
Military,
Police,
Security

16. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital /
conference Medical
& museum centers
Disaster Anybots
Education
recovery QB
• Deployment for use in disaster
recovery in earthquake, nuclear
disaster e.g. Fukushima
Exploration Home care
Military,
Police,
Security

17. Customer Segments
Global
organization
Event, Hospital / • Presenting papers, attending
conference Medical presentations, participating in
& museum centers
panel discussions, and co-chairing
a technical session.
• A “telepresence hall” for
Disaster Anybots presentations and/or professional
Education
recovery QB networking.
• Museums could arrange tele-
presence visiting to examine
exhibits from different angles in a
Exploration Home care
museum. (Australian National
Military, Museum, 2012)
Police,
Security

18. Customer Segments • Meeting, collaboration, sales
& marketing
Global
organization • Auditing, inspection &
Event, Hospital /
maintenance
conference Medical
& museum centers
Why do we only target at
global organization?
Disaster Anybots
Education High
recovery QB
market
demand
Low
tech-
nology
Exploration Home care barrier
Military, Low R&D
Police, Investment
Security

19. Empathy Map – Office Staff
THINK AND FEEL
Time wasting
Stuck in traffic
Hassle to travel and coordinate
No break – back to back meetings
Increasing backlog
HEAR SEE
Usage of video conference Team in different location
Ready to travel for meetings when require Webcam
New development of internet speed Video conference
Webinar
SAY AND DO?
Minimal travel (esp. people with family)
Silos team
Avoid responsibility
PAIN GAIN
Missing time with family, friends More time with family, friend
Long travel time Closer communication with colleagues located remotely
Segregated time – lack of communication Multi-tasking

20. Anybots QB – Remote Yourself!

21. Anybots QB’s specifications & features
Cost & Country of • USD 9,700
Origin • United States
Human-
• It looks vaguely like Wall-E, the
Resemblance robot imp from 2008 Pixar film
Quotient
Mobility • Runs on Segway-style wheels
• The QB has a video camera for
Interaction Ability eyes
• Since it is essentially roaming
Cognitive Ability videoconference center, it‟s your
brain in a robot‟s body
Creepy-Robot • A laser pointer in its right eye,
designed for pointing at things in
Factor the office
Source: Anybot.com

22. Value Proposition
what to offer and how to
differentiate ???

23. Business Meeting & Office communication
Low setup cost & High usage rate
Move beyond the meeting room
• Videoconference / Telepresence is
confined to structured environment like
conference room.
• People prefer to talk and interact in non-
structured environments, anywhere.

24. Strategy Canvas (against Technologies / Solutions)

25. Product inspection & Factory audit
Many factories need consistent inspection.
Limitation of CCTV
• Limited to the fixed viewpoint
• More CCTV camera requires if more area need to
be covered
Anybots enable companies to conduct
inspection remotely from HQ and make more
frequent inspections.

26. Competitive Products

27. Strategy Canvas (against Competitors)

28. Value Capture
$$$$$ / Margin ….

29. Value Capture

31. Revenue stream

32. Revenue stream

33. Revenue stream

34. Revenue stream

35. Revenue stream

36. Scope of Activities
What to do and Who I
want to „marry‟?

37. Value chain
Firm infrastructure activities
Support Research, development and design
activities
Human resource management
Primary Purchasing, Dealer
activities inventory Market- Outbound support
Manufac- and
holding, ing & logistics
materials turing Sales customer
handling service
(Source: Prof Funk‟s lecture)

38. Research & Development
Balance Computer
control vision
Path Video /
Planning /
Sensor Audio
Networking
/ Motion
Communic Control
ation

39. Design
• In-house designing
• human like design vs. minimal design
• Customize appearance design for customers
• Communication interface via ROS applications

40. Manufacturing
Partnership with U.S based OEM manufacturer (E System)
• Built to the professional quality needed for business communications
• Better protect intellectual property compared to oversea manufacturing
• Benefit greatly from time-to-market
• Reduce capital outlay compared to in-house manufacturing

41. Marketing and Sales
• Invite selected organizations to be beta testers (e.g. Carnegie Mellon
University, NASA)
• Grant distributor rights to RoboMatrix to introduce Anybots’ QB
telepresence robot rental service to the Japanese and Taiwanese markets.
RoboMatrix is a division of Innovation Matrix, Inc., a leading distributor of robotic, motion control,
and automated systems.

42. Vertical (Dis)integration Chain
Anybots Partners
R&D
Design
Manufacturing
Sales
Marketing
Maintenance

43. Strategic Control
I want to survive and
make the most profits!

44. Strategic Control
Protection against
( )
imitation
Create scale or
network effects
Have better
complementary
assets
Cross the chasm
Control industry
architecture

45. Patent Protection
3 utility patents (20y), 2 design patents (14y) granted!
Temporary Monopoly, Prevent Imitation
However, should prosecute patents in other key
markets other than USA

46. Maximizing Profits as the innovator
Components (e.g. cams, screens, mechanical parts, battery) are standard and easy to acquire
As early stage company, does not control many complementary assets.
However ….
Key design elements are protected by Patents
• Software for remotely controlling the robot,
• Software for balancing the robot,
• Design of the robot.
Control the platform and interface
• Suppliers supply „cheap‟ standard components
• IP control  need for integration ensures that the integral design
reaps more profits!
• Control the industry architecture

47. Control of Industry Architecture
Platform, Integral Design
IPR +
Control
Platform API Integration Interface
Application Developers Robotic Sensors Mechanical
Makers Modules Makers
OEM Manufacturers
Service Providers VAR Distributors Retail
Customers

48. Network Effects – Open API, 3P developers
Telepresence market
shows :- Usage
increases with more
units deployed
(Metcalfe’s Law)
(source: cisco)
• Core platform protected against imitation
• Open the interface (standard API) for 3P app developers
• Create network effects – open innovation to tap innovative
complementary apps on QB platform

49. Options available to Anybots
Go to the leaders (e.g. Cisco, iRobot, Toyota, Polycom)
• Leverage on the IP protection to negotiate licenses with good royalties
• Work with the leaders to access their complementary assets to scale, cross the chasm
Go by themselves
• Enforce patent infringement aggressively
• Build complementary assets (marketing, sales) and outsource manufacturing
• Once market is big enough, pursue licensing or strategic buy-out

50. Value Costumer Costumer
Key partners Key activities
proposition relationships segments
Key resources Channels
In Conclusion
Cost structure Revenue streams

51. Test drive
Test Drive

52. Thank you