Orange Service Call + Reward

Orange Service Call + Reward (OSCR) is a Discover programme that brings together Corporate Connect, Orange, live/work and Wireless Innovation. It is a collaborative fusion which seeks innovative services and business models that will grow audience share, increase customer loyalty and create significant revenues (in excess of €20 millon over three years). Proposals for co-investment were sought  within the areas of travel, personal finance, style, celebrity, cars and sport.

Because intellectual property in service innovations is notoriously difficult to protect, the programme aimed to create long-term business relationships between small firms and Orange. These encompassed the business models of licensing, joint ventures or other forms of partnership.

OSCR launched in October 2009, when over 50 companies interested in submitting ideas met with representatives from Orange. Within two weeks, 30 responses to the brief were submitted to the 'Trusted Agents' (Corporate Connect, live/work and Wireless Innovation). The most promising six opportunities were passed immediately on to Orange for fast-track development.

Seven further proposals were selected to enter an 'airlock', where they received support and advice from the Trusted Agents about how to develop, protect and present their ideas. This refining process was completed in February 2010, when the ideas were pitched to Orange, who then had 90 days to decide which ideas to pursue further. Out of the seven ideas, Orange is now in negotiation with four. Those ideas that Orange does not take up remain the intellectual property of the originator.

In addition to four viable ideas, OSCR delivered Orange some other highly valuable benefits. It fostered internal collaboration to an unusually high degree and led to Orange Labs UK being recognised as a global leader in open innovation.

OSCR builds on NESTA's experience of working with British Design Innovation on the Procter & Gamble Open Innovation Challenge, a project that explored open innovation dynamics where hard intellectual property in the form of patents was at issue.