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Case Study: Product Features and Roadmap
Linx has undertaken multiple Competitive Intelligence (CI) projects in the area of BTS (Base Transceiver Station) antennas. Particularly, we have looked at key vendors in this space who market antenna solutions, including complex and intelligent antenna solutions for their Communications Service Provider (CSP) customers.
In this study, our client was skeptical about other analyst firms with their incorrect forecasts in areas such as active antenna systems. Our client wanted evidence that our research is based on actual interviews with executives they prioritized. And we delivered.
While our Client has been globally regarded for the quality of its offering, it has been challenged by low-cost competitors that have unique advantages such as local presence and support in specific regions and aggressively competitive pricing in specific markets. As a part of the process to counter this, our Client commissioned us to conduct an in-depth competitive scan of its four key competitors. The primary goal of this research was to conduct a detailed Competitive Intelligence (CI) study related to the specific strategies, tactics, and pricing models that these competitors were deploying in the BTS Antenna space.
Our client was a consumer of research from leading analyst firms and relied on their reports and forecasts for strategic planning purposes. However, based on analyst forecasts, our client went through a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment cycle in the active BTS antenna domain. Unfortunately, for the client, the active antenna market never materialized the way many of these analyst firms predicted, with the actual market being over 90% below their forecasts.
Our client was understandably skeptical about what they called "rabbit-from-the-hat" analyst firms. They require all of their research to be conducted in a more robust manner where the basis of every assumption and forecast is challenged by our client's management team.
Our client wanted research conducted on the strategies, tactics, pricing models, and product specifications and roadmaps of its key competitor, but wanted a one-on-one correlation between insights and evidence.
We established that the target focus of this project would be ex-executives at the VP/Director level of the four competitors under scope, current executives at the customers of these four competitors, and current executives at channel partners of these competitors.
We developed customized interview protocols for each channel/competitor combination (12 protocols). We also established a priority list of over 300 interviewee candidates. This list was prioritized by our client as "Low", "Medium", and "High".
In almost all interviews we conducted, we found executives describing seven factors that impact the competitive dynamics of the BTS Antenna market either globally or in their local markets. These factors provide a useful “framework” to both describe our Client's current competitive positioning and how our client can change the competitive dynamics of its industry.
4 Competitors targeted
300 Executive profiles generated
24 Double-blinded interviews (8% response rate)
12 Customized protocols
12 Weeks to project completion
With an in-depth scan of these factors and the competitive positioning around them, we were able to deliver high-value, verifiable, and actionable insights to our Client including in crucial areas such as competitor pricing, competitor antenna specifications, perceptions of customers of competitors in various local markets, and competitor roadmaps. Every recommendation provided to the client was based on evidence gathered during the course of our interviews and formed the basis of robust strategy planning by our client.
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