Researcher gives finance firm new 360 degree view of market


A researcher from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has helped a financial software company completely review their approach to the market.

Leicester company 360 Dot Net Ltd – which runs a sophisticated client management system for financial advisers – approached DMU looking for a postgraduate to work up a full competitor analysis and market research customer profile.

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The university put the company in touch with Joshua Akena who was a student on the Global MBA course.

The company, based in Meridian Leisure Park, produces 360 Lifecycle which makes it easy for financial intermediaries to support financial advisers, handle back office processes and communicate with clients. 

Mark Dryden, Business Development Director at 360 Dot Net Ltd, said Joshua spent three months working on a competitor analysis for the company, using strategic models and frameworks learned on his Global MBA.

He created a full analysis of sector competitors for 360 Dot Net Ltd , examined its current positioning in the marketing, prepared an executive briefing and presented his findings to the senior management team where he fielded questions about his research.

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Mr Dryden said: “Joshua was able to frame our position and create coherent and accessible outputs that entailed a features matrix detailing the commonality between our software and competitors, providing information based on what we (360) were missing compared to other offerings. 

“Ultimately, his work provided a foundation for us to review our strategy and our approach to the market. 

“Through the programme, we utilised the knowledge and training for the Global MBA course to deliver coherent research that would have been cost prohibitive through an external consultancy.

“We would certainly recommend the DMU Executive Company Project scheme to other organisations and will be using it into the future for environment scanning, market research, and social media strategy / implementation.

“While there are PR and CSR reasons for helping students, a company can derive genuine business value from the scheme.  However we would recommend that organisations fully understand the depth of the skills taught within the DMU courses to match that to their current and future demands.”

Posted on Tuesday 18 October 2016

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