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Sr Corp

Case Analysis – SR Corp : Decisions for an Emerging Technology

Ashish Dalvi (E-mail ashish.dalvi@gmail.com)

Introduction

SR Corp was formed in 1986 to develop and commercialize speaker-independent speech recognition (SISR) technology. SR Corp’s mission was to deploy a new generation of speech transaction technologies, products and systems that could be easily integrated into telephone and computer networks.

SR Corp had been financed through a private investor. By 1994, the firm had 20 employees. They had developed a pattern recognition approach based on a neural network model as opposed to the Hidden Markov method used by their competitors, AT&T and TI.

Existing Discrete SISR systems had reached an accuracy level of only 90 percent. SR Corp had achieved accuracy levels of 99 percent. This was a direct step toward developing highly accurate continuous SISR systems.

The market for such systems was primarily the Telephony market with three major niches:
1. Fortune 500 companies.
2. Telephone companies.
3. Telephone switch manufacturers.

Darr Hastings, vice president of Marketing for SR Corp, was assigned the responsibility of deciding a marketing strategy for SR Corp’s new product.

Problem Definition

In the words of the lead investor “It all boils down to making sure the technology is bullet-proof and getting the right customer”.

These are precisely the challenges in front of SR Corp. Firstly, they need to prove that the technology works in the industrial environment. Their accuracy claims of 98 to 99 percent were proven only during internal tests. They needed to be proven at a customer site.

Secondly, they need to find the right customer in the right market niche which will guarantee them business since they would be devoting most of their efforts toward integration and deployment of their software for that customer.

Alternatives

1. Target market – Fortune 500...