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eSIM technology is expected to make SIM cards obsolete and is likely to disrupt the value chain in the telco business. Powered by Aalto University this project was done for Elisa Oyj with the task to analyze what business opportunities & threats eSIM-technology & Connectivity Brokering offer. Additionally, students were to recommend offensive and defensive actions in connection to the local and international business opportunities for Elisa.

The student team of Dima Syrotkin, Nikolaos Magalios, Long Le and Matilda Saarinen worked directly with Elisa's VP for Consumer Subscription Business Antti Ihanainen.

According to Ihanainen, project led to many interesting findings and will work as a starting point for continuing strategy work.

‘The matter itself is a complicated one and the team got hold of the matter and was able to provide wanted results. The most important achievements were the insights on different kind of markets and interest of customers concerning connectivity brokering possibilities, bold and new ideas of markets Elisa should be interested in, and good ideas based on customer insights concerning defensive ratio of the core business of Elisa,’ Antti Ihanainen tells.

‘We will continue investigating new connectivity brokering possibilities and markets in future discovery projects. Additionally, we will take defensive ratio insights into use in our strategic planning,’ he continues.

‘The project was an unforgettable journey’

According to the academic supervisor for the project Dr. Max Dike, the initial challenge was to get together the required four students that would best fit into the project team.

‘The list of applicants from a wide variety of academic and cultural backgrounds was long and we had to ensure that each worked as a team member, rather than as an individual player, as would be expected of any project team. The team performed very well, in terms of blending and focusing on achieving the common objective of attaining the best results. The take-off was smooth, and the project was completed quite ahead of schedule,’ tells the academic supervisor for the project Dr. Max Dike.

One of the students, Long Le, tells that the project provided a unique opportunity for team members to explore new knowledge and build new skills beyond the university environment.

‘The project was undoubtedly an unforgettable journey. It was a great chance to broaden my knowledge and sharpen my skills through a real-life project. Also, the intricate research topic challenged us to become very proactive and entrepreneurial in solving problems,’ Long Le says. 

The Customized Student Business Projects concept offers students the opportunity to work on solving current challenges faced by corporate business, giving the assigning company the possibility to develop and spar new ideas together with the students.