How to find out what market can potentially be a good fit for your solution and business model? Should you launch in France or maybe in Greece? You could screen through thousands of reports and articles describing the market specifics in each country or consult with a market expert to hear her opinion. The first option might turn to be very time-consuming, while the second one – expensive.

Why this has been so hard

Despite some significant progress in the convergence of the European electricity market, differences in implementing regulatory guidelines across Member States remain. Beside regulatory aspects, other market barriers include differences in technology penetration levels, available infrastructure and resources, societal and cultural trends, level of competition and local value chain structure. Such diverse conditions make it hard to decide on where to internationalize.

The solution we are suggesting will not fully eliminate the need for consultations with experts and a thorough market research, but it can save time researching vast amounts of material, and help with preliminary screening to reveal your options.

What the Business Model Replication Tool can do for you

The Business Model Replication Tool can support you in finding out what EU markets are ready for your innovative solution and the described business model, taking into account the following aspects:

  • Regulatory and legal conditions
  • Economic conditions
  • User practices, and
  • Technology-related conditions

For example, imagine your solution is a software package that enables formation of an energy community and allows for flexibility service provision. You would like to expand your business internationally. Where in the EU the regulatory framework is already established? What support schemes are available in individual markets (i.e. Greece)? Is aggregation legalized in both countries? Are balancing markets open to DR and DER?

The Business Model Replication Tool will take the described business model, scan it and return a comprehensive analysis of market suitability for a selected country (see Figure below). The suitability of business model elements is assessed with traffic light scores, indicating how well the described business model suits the market conditions in the selected country. Green traffic light score suggests that there are no regulatory and/or market impediments for implementation of the described business model. Orange traffic light score suggests that there are certain regulatory and/or market impediments to watch out for when implementing a business model. Red traffic light score suggests that the regulatory and market conditions currently do not support the implementation. The tool supplies with detailed explanations and links to original sources.

The outcome the tool provides can also look like this (see Figure below). So, where could you internationalize with your software package?

Behind the scenes

An important prerequisite for the Business Model Replication Tool to work is that the core of the business model must be described using the Smart Business Model Canvas and the so-called business model patterns from the Energy Pack (see Figure below).

A business model pattern can be defined as a reusable solution to a reoccurring problem in a business context. Patterns allow opening up the solution space and help come up with different business model configurations and/or possible options for certain business model elements (i.e. revenue model, pricing logic). Thus, in addition, the tool uses the pattern logic to support you in screening your business model options and configuring the most promising one.

When analyzing the business model patterns included in the described business model, the tool searches for those that have been recognized as critical for replicability of the whole model. Once the screening is done, the tool reveals what elements in your business model are critical, and how their implementation is supported in the selected market.

Sign up and try the tool today

The Business Model Replication Tool is a part of the inteGRIDy Business Modelling Tool, which was designed in the framework of the H2020 project inteGRIDy with the vision to support the energy industry in its transformation toward more sustainable business models.

Deciding on where to go with your solution next? Sign up, describe your business model and use the Business Model Replication Tool to check what your options are, free of charge.