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SmarTech offers customized consulting that provides clients with analysis and forecasts that go beyond what is available in our published reports. The final deliverable – in the form of a report or final presentation –offers clients strategic guidance on many aspects of their 3DP businesses.

Our Areas of Expertise

Next Generation Opportunities

Leveraging our years as insider analysts in the 3D Printing space, we are ahead of the curve in understanding where our clients should make their 3D Printing investments. Through a focused study we assist them in formulating their 3D Printing strategies and selling propositions for maximum competitive advantage. Projects of this kind typically utilize SmarTech’s proprietary forecasting models that provide projections in both volume and revenue terms of specific types of printers and 3D Printing materials, as well as service revenues. In addition, through our constant dialog with the 3D printing community we are in a unique position to identify the key target markets for specific client as well as identify market gaps that novel products and technologies address. We also have in-house capability to appraise the level of competitive advantage that firms in the 3D Printing/additive manufacturing space acquire through superior patents and other IP.

Technology appraisal and scouting

Our team helps clients identify the latest 3D Printing technologies and materials through our ongoing studies of the work at leading universities and research institutes around the world. SmarTech’s extensive experience of the patterns of technology development enables us to provide detailed roadmaps for new 3D Printing technologies showing the timeframes for the evolution of the latest 3D Printing advancements. We also provide revenue scenarios for these technologies and insight into which startups we expect to be commercially successful in these new areas, as well as an assessment of the challenges that the latest 3D Printing technologies need to overcome.

Pricing Strategy

Through a study of current prices for materials and equipment, SmarTech helps clients set prices and establish pricing strategies. Depending on the products involved, we obtain the input for pricing strategies from an interview program and from analysis of third party pricing schedules.

Competitive analysis

Our company provides customized competitor analysis for clients to allow them to better assess the state of competition worldwide. To carry out our work in the competitive analysis of 3D Printing companies we make use of the most up-to-date published sources, financials, IP database analysis and customer interviews to enable clients understand how their competitors’ product/market strategies impinge on their own business and what opportunities and challenges these strategies present.

M&A, due diligence and support for investor presentations

The SmarTech team has extensive experience of helping clients make acquisitions or present to investors for maximum effect. In our due diligence work we evaluate technology, IP position, and likely growth rates of new businesses. We assist firms with their internal due diligence through an analysis of a targeted acquisition, helping a potential acquirer better understand the potential acquisition’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of technology and market position. And we develop cash flow projections from which valuations are built. For our clients seeking to impress investors, we assist through building convincing presentations and business plans that include third-party assessments and forecasts of markets, as well as messaging that is focused on the issues that concern venture capitalists and other investors.

Product differentiation and new product introduction

In an increasingly crowded 3D Printing market place, we believe that vendors of printers, scanners, software, materials and services must carefully consider how to design and message their products. SmarTech assists clients in these efforts through targeted end-user interviews to help better understand what features, performance, functions, bells and whistles impress end user communities. We have an extensive panel of insider technical and business contacts in the aerospace, automotive, medical, dentistry, consumer goods and materials industry that provide us with feedback on what their requirements are for 3D Printing products and services. And we also carry comparative studies of marketing and design strategies that are being used in the 3D Printing marketplace indicating their successes, failures, pros and cons. We also provide the necessary data and analysis to assist clients create new customer bases for new or established 3D Printing-related product lines, as well the supply chains that support these lines. Projects of this kind typically utilize SmarTech’s proprietary forecasting models that provide projections in both volume and revenue terms of specific types of printers and 3D Printing materials, as well as service revenues. In addition, through our constant dialog with the 3D printing community we are in a unique position to identify the key target markets for specific client as well as identify market gaps that novel products and technologies address. We also have in-house capability to appraise the level of competitive advantage that firms in the 3D Printing/additive manufacturing space acquire through superior patents and other IP.

Examples

Recent examples of projects in which the SmarTech team have been able to assist clients with their strategies in the 3D Printing and functional printing space include the following examples.
Current usage of composites and the possible use of 3D Printing
A major OEM in the additive manufacturing space asked us to consider how composites was currently being used by several major industries. The objective was to better understand how 3D printing could be sold into to these industries and how it could substitute for existing processes. Using a combination of end user interviews, competitive analysis and data compiled for SmarTech’s published reports, we were able to provide the client with a platform to better think through its customer evolution strategy.
Building a customized forecast model for 3D Printing in three major end user segments
A large multinational exploring the opportunities for it in the 3D Printing sector asked us to customize our proprietary forecasting model to match the requirements of the client’s marketing program. We were able to provide the client with an extension of our forecasting model that predicted the adoption of 3D Printing by end user location broken out by country, end user industry, type of application and size of location.
Assessment of new 3D Printing software offering
The client – a multinational electronics firm – contracted with us to analyze the market for a new product in the 3D Printing software space. Based on end user interviews combined with an investigation of customer requirements in similar market sectors, SmarTech was able to present the client with guidance on key factors for success in this area along with an analysis of gaps in the market that we believed the client could help fill. The final deliverables were a dedicated report and a tele-presentation to management in two continents.
Choosing between strategic alternatives
A client used our personnel to help decide whether to continuing producing an advanced functional printing material. We examined various scenarios including discontinuing production, enhancing the functionality of the material and continuing as before.
Market potential for monitoring and T&M equipment in the 3D Printing sector
A long-established monitoring/T&M company hired SmarTech to explore the potential for its equipment in the additive manufacturing of aerospace parts. We carried out a program of interviews with highly placed aerospace executives and reported back to our client in a final document that mapped aerospace conformance monitoring back to the T&M requirements for “additive aerospace.”

Methodology

SmarTech offers specialized consulting services serving the needs of the 3D Printing/additive manufacturing community.

Our coverage provides insight for those companies offering 3D printing services, materials and software sectors, as well as those that make the 3D printers and scanners themselves. And our consulting client roster includes some of the largest 3D printer firms, materials firms and investors in the world.

SmarTech’s consulting activities supports its clients better understand the size and growth potential of opportunities in the 3D printing/additive manufacturing space, the impact of new product ideas and the evolution of supply chains and value chains.

Davide Sher

Senior Analyst, Europe

John Hornick

Senior Analyst, USA

Joris Peels

VP of Consulting

Scott Dunham

EVP of Research

Analysts

Our analysts are experienced in understanding how high-technology industries – and the 3D Printing/additive manufacturing business in particular – operate with regard to marketing, business development, product design and finance. Also, they were well connected in the 3D Printing/additive community long before they came to work for SmarTech. 

In addition to authoring the most insightful market studies available, our analysts have spoken at many prestigious industry conferences such as RAPID, Additive Manufacturing Europe, Additive Aerospace and Additive Disruption.

We are the leading provider of market research and industry analysis in the 3D printing/additive manufacturing sector. And we have published reports on all the most important revenue opportunities in the 3D printing sector.

Forecasting

We bring to our consulting assignments a forecasting methodology that has been tried and tested in several high-technology industries over the past 35 years.

 We also are unique in having in-house models of the entire additive manufacturing sector with numerous breakouts and projections and are able to customize these models to the needs of our clients.

Interviewing

SmarTech is well embedded within the 3D Printing community and has numerous insider contacts on which it draws in order to better understand the dynamics of this rapidly evolving business.

Our contacts include business development executives, marketing and product managers, scientists and executives and include many “C” level executives in the additive manufacturing industry. We also have strong relationships with end users who help us better understand market opportunities and where they exist. Our full database of customers and contacts extends to tens of thousands of names.

In addition to conducting, executive interviews, SmarTech conducts on-line/e-mail surveys and use these as the basis for backing up an analytical study or drawing statistically valid conclusions.