Service-led innovation prompts new appointment

Dr Tim Murdoch has joined Cambridge Consultants to lead its Digital Services initiative.

Product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants has appointed Dr Tim Murdoch as director of Digital Services. The move is in response to the growing momentum surrounding the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) – which is leading to an increase in service-led innovation. IoT technology and services spending is predicted to generate global revenues of $8.9 trillion by 2020.

Cambridge Consultants’ new Digital Services initiative builds on the company’s work in the fields of connected devices, data analytics and integrated systems across a range of sectors and with clients around the world. The aim is to deliver new services in the medical, consumer and industrial sectors.

“Business models are changing across industry,” said Alan Richardson, CEO of Cambridge Consultants. “From pharmaceuticals to sports apparel, and from industrial plant to consumer gadgets, the way our clients do business is undergoing change. We have seen a move from device-only to device-with-services – and it’s fast becoming services-with-devices. In creating the Digital Services initiative, Cambridge Consultants is leading the way for its clients worldwide.”

Before joining Cambridge Consultants, Dr Murdoch was founder and CEO of Iceni Mobile – a turnkey solution provider and business incubator for mobile payments in emerging markets, creating marketplaces for a wide range of secure mobile data services.

Prior to that, he led the design, development, deployment and operation of the M-PESA mobile payment service – a digital service that now handles more than 40% of Kenya’s GDP and triggered a global revolution in mobile financial services. The aim of the project was to use mobile technology to tackle the high costs associated with micro-finance in Africa. The M-PESA app sits on the SIM card of a mobile phone and can be used to send and receive money using text messages.

“A crucial aspect of the M-PESA project was that it forced us to think about the service we were creating – not just the technology platform,” said Dr Murdoch. “We had to support nine different types of mobile user – many of whom had never seen a phone before – and turn the country’s shopkeepers into a national distribution network.

“Clients are increasingly seeking a ‘services-with-devices’ approach to product development for everything from consumer and industrial products to the next generation of medical devices. Cambridge Consultants’ new Digital Services initiative ensures that we can continue to deliver vital competitive advantage to our clients in the changing landscape of the connected world.”

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