Perspective on Enterprise Co-Creation: A New Value Lever for the Solar Market

1. After a harrowing recession, the business environment
has improved tremendously for solar companies. But they
are not out of the woods yet. As government incentives
disappear and competition grows, solar companies will
face ever-declining selling prices and margin pressures.
To avoid commoditization and price competition, they
must find new ways to create value, tear down barriers to
growth, and differentiate products and services. Enterprise
Co-Creation offers a framework for accomplishing these
objectives.
Enterprise Co-Creation: A New Value Lever for Solar Market Growth
P ER S P EC T I V E S

2. P ER S P EC T I V E S Enterprise Co-Creation: A New Value Lever for Solar Market Growth
Enterprise Co-Creation is a powerful new Expand Channel Relationships
approach to creating value. Traditionally, value PV module and inverter companies can
has been defined and driven by companies, with transform current partnership models with
customers being passive recipients of that value. distributors and system integrators to expand
Recent social media and connectivity develop- channel relationships. They can also engage with
ments, however, are significantly changing the customers in new ways to build brand recogni-
way individuals interact with one another and tion and loyalty.
with organizations. Across industries, consumers
are now involved in customer co-creation initia- Streamline Workflow
tives, where they actively participate in business- Project developers and independent power
idea generation and in the development and producers can work with utilities and regulators
delivery of new products and services. In the to streamline the permitting review and approval
energy industry, for instance, utility energy effi- process to get shovels in the ground sooner and
ciency and demand-side management programs bring utility-scale renewable generation online
have been created to allow customers to track faster at a lower total cost.
energy usage, calculate their carbon footprint,
and take immediate steps to reduce their bill. Identify New Sources of Growth
But customer co-creation is only one piece Solar companies can openly collaborate
of co-creation. Companies can reap tremendous with consumers and community organizations
value by redefining their interactions with other to develop new business models for distributed
stakeholders as well. Customers, especially in generation. Co-creative dialogues may present
consumer businesses, have led the way, but companies with opportunities to expand markets
employees, suppliers, and partners in B2B and and to identify new sources of growth, such as
B2C are demanding new forms of engagement integration into future home-energy manage-
from the organization. Extending co-creation ment solutions.
to create new value from interactions across the We believe Enterprise Co-Creation provides
organization is the essence of what we call Enter- a new way of looking at value creation that is as
prise Co-Creation. important and fundamental as the advent of stra-
In the solar market specifically, Enterprise tegic planning, quality system management, and
Co-Creation could prove instrumental in business process improvement. The challenge
reshaping business practices and in breaking for solar executives is to go beyond the traditional
down barriers to growth. Solar companies definitions of value and collaboration and open
can use this new approach to build value in a up their companies’ internal processes to interact
number of ways. and engage in novel ways. Solar companies that
do so will strengthen their competitive advantage
Improve Supply Chain Interactions
and better position themselves to take advantage
Materials and component manufacturers of the massive shifts occurring in today’s volatile
can enhance their engagement with suppliers business climate.
and customers to improve supply and demand To find out more about Enterprise Co-Creation,
planning, minimize material and capacity how it works, and how to get started, visit www.
constraints, and reduce total supply chain inven- powerofcocreation.com or www.prtm.com/cocreation.
tory. These interactions will greatly improve a
company’s ability to adjust output to align with
installation schedules.
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