Leaving the lab to meet the customer
(May 2007) In telecommunications today, innovation mostly doesn't happen in laboratories. It happens and evolves in a highly dynamic interplay between user demands and technological advances.
At Telenor, we seek to understand these dynamics on a multitude of levels and turn them into new solutions that respond to true customer needs. Like in Bangladesh, where people without a bank account now can pay their electricity bills safely and conveniently through a new solution based on mobile communication. And like in Drammen, Norway, where homecare nurses can do their office work on a mobile PDA, allowing half an hour of extra time for their patients every day.
Focus on service innovation
These examples reflect how we extend our main focus to embrace not only technological research, but increasingly our interface with customers and suppliers. And they reflect that as a service provider, our natural focus is service innovation. Established in 2006, Telenor's new Research and Innovation unit is designed to work across organisational and geographical boundaries. It currently employs 230 persons at three locations in Norway and one in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The unit brings together competencies in technology, user behaviour, business and commercialisation and maintains an active network internally in Telenor as well as with a high number of external constituencies.
Local understanding - universal goal
Innovation takes different forms in different parts of the world. The wide geographic reach of Telenor's operations means that our innovation has to be decentralised. Our new R&I satellite in Malaysia is a key part of this strategy, leveraging its Asian presence to support local innovation in this vital region. But no matter where our innovation originates, it is guided by the same goal: To help our customers get the full benefit of communication services in their daily lives.
For more information, please contact:
Eunike Ditlefsen, Head of Communication, e-mail: eunike.ditlefsen@telenor.com
