Delivering market analysis and viability assessment to increase EA commercial income
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Introduction
How land is used in the UK directly impacts the health of ecosystems, the availability of resources, economic activities and the overall well-being of society. To support responsible land use, it is essential to have trusted tools and processes for evaluating the potential impact of future land use choices.
Digital technologies provide powerful tools for data collection, analysis, visualisation, and decision support, enabling more informed, transparent, and collaborative decision-making processes related to land use. With this in mind, the Environment Agency (EA) commissioned Calvium to undertake a market exploration of the EA’s innovative digital spatial planning product, the Land Use Choices Tool (LUCT); a ‘scenario generation’ tool that supports decisions about suitable locations for new habitat or woodland creation on agricultural land.
LUCT was developed by the EA, with partners including Natural England, Forestry Commission, Forest Research, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Calvium delivered an in-depth market exploration report and recommendations that provide critical evidence to support EA’s business case for the next phase of their digital product’s development.
About the dynamic 'scenario generation' tool for rural spatial planning
The pioneering digital tool aims to support spatial planning decision-making for the rural environment, at national to local level. It draws upon a vast range of spatial data to generate place-based scenarios that suggest suitable locations for habitat and woodland creation on existing agricultural land.
It uses spatial targeting to maximise benefits for water quality, flood reduction, biodiversity & woodland, greenhouse gas reduction, carbon storage, and water resources – aiming to deliver Environment Act targets and better value for money.
The tool is modular, so the user can choose from multiple environmental priorities to reflect their local needs, they can also input additional local data to supplement the existing data sets.
The ambition of this powerful scenario generation tool is significant, and has the potential to support the selection of real life choices for habitat and woodland creation on the ground, so as to maximise the delivery of direct environmental targets.
Calvium was the perfect partner to carry out market exploration for our innovative digital product due to their deep domain expertise, technical know-how and research prowess. They delivered an excellent report which provides much food for thought and helps to guide the business case.
About Calvium's market exploration consultancy
The Calvium team has extensive experience of working on all phases of a product’s lifecycle: research; idea generation and evaluation; concept development and testing; business analysis; prototype development; design and development; testing and quality assurance; regulatory compliance; market testing; launch; post-launch evaluation, and scaling and maintenance. We have also supported the retirement of products due to technological advancement or evolving market demands.
We were delighted to be commissioned by the Environment Agency to undertake the market exploration study, as it drew upon our expertise holistically and aligned with our desire to innovate for people, place and planet.
What did we do? In summary, the Calvium team: .
- Identified the potential customer groups, clients and/or users of the EA digital product;
- Assessed the market for similar software products and undertake a comparison in order to determine the unique selling point (USP) of the EA product against these other software products;
- Estimated the EA product’s value and impact to UK plc;
- Estimated the EA product’s commercial value and identify potential routes to market;
- Suggested next steps to ensure EA’s product can best meet market demand and deliver optimal impact.
The results of the work provide vital evidence to support EA’s business case for the next stages of the product’s development and impact.
Calvium's market exploration for our new scenario generation tool for agricultural land really helps the Environment Agency to understand the strategic and commercial value and feasibility of the product.
Next steps
Based upon the recommendations of this thorough market exploration, the Environment Agency team is now progressing the business case for its innovative Land Use Choices Tool. We look forward to supporting their future work.
Calvium is motivated by pursuing digital innovation for people, place and planet, and recognise the value that place-based digital technologies can realise for the environment and society.
