Samenvatting

The forthcoming research justification renders a lengthy explanation of how Somitra B.V. can bridge the gap between potential customers and their product solution within the German market. Somitra B.V. aims to determine the viability of their product "Smart Water Meters" directly with potential customers in the German market. In this approach, five information gaps were identified which served as a corner stone for the market research.

1. German end-consumers’ pains and frustrations with traditional metering systems.
2. German Water Utilities strategic infrastructure in solving metering problems for Residential, Commercial & Industrial use.
3. German Governmental Regulations in terms of product sensitivity and accessible user data by a third party.
4. Competitive Landscape in the German Smart Water Metering market.
5. Present Smart Metering Technologies utilized in Germany.

In order to fill in the missing information gaps stated above, it was necessary to investigate the German market from 3 distinct investigation areas, the market, the product, and the customer. To do so, 3 different research methods were utilized. Initially, desk research to collect, inspect, categorize, and analyze secondary market data gathered from published resources. This method enormously contributed to the formulation of a clear, comprehensive, and complete understanding for the market situation. Internal interviews were then held in the next stage of the research. Internal interviews were conducted in order to learn more about the company's products and services, including the mechanics underlying each device and the technologies employed. Internal interviews was critical to determine how Somitra can adapt its product and service solutions to eventually survive factors that heavily influence the German market. Moreover, external interviews were meant to identify potential customers’ perception of product choices and preferences through one-on-one interviews with prospective customers. Somitra's potential clients are predominantly German water utilities because it operates under a B2G business model.

After assessing Somitra’s current capabilities with the German market situation through a SWOT analysis that was derived from the fulfillment of the above-mentioned information gaps, it was observed, that Somitra cannot enter the German market with their current capabilities. Thereafter a confrontation matrix was conducted to dig further into the outputs of the SWOT analysis. The confrontation aided in the examination of each distinct combination of strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat. The objective was to determine the most vital operational problems that Somitra may face if they attempted to enter the German market at this juncture. The confrontation displayed 11 negative combinations when dimensions were integrated. In this approach, Recommendations were derived from the confrontation matrix results which aimed to convert negative combinations to positive combinations.

The following 4 recommendations were as follows:
1. Strengthening Suppliers’ Network
2. Enhancing Service Reliability
3. Selection of a Priority Sector
4. Temporary Shift to Private Water Supply Entities

The given recommendations were found to be the most superlative solutions for transitioning negative combinations in the confrontation matrix into positive combinations, which indicates a safe market entry. Recommendations are covered in depth within in Chapter 5 of the research justification.