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Please teach me about Thomsons Online Benefits's Dawrin as below items;strategy, target ,their solutions, and what is their competitive point compared with competitor,how they get money,their main customer, partner for sales
Hello! Thanks for your question about Thomsons Online Benefits' Darwin platform, including their product, strategy, target, solutions and other marketing strategies. The short version is that Darwin is a SaaS platform that is designed to provide employees with the ability to manage their own benefits. This, in turn, improves morale and helps employers evaluate the HR benefits that they provide to their workforce. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
I approached this issue by first going to the Thomsons' webpage and reviewing the company's description of Darwin. I then researched articles, data and analyses concerning Thomsons and Darwin in an effort to evaluate not only the product, but also the marketplace in which it is sold and the competitors with which Thomsons must deal.
FINDINGS
Thomsons Online Benefits is the company that produces Darwin. Darwin is a benefits management and engagement platform that gives employers the ability to provide their employees with the ability to manage their employer-provided benefits. At the same time it simplifies the administrative tasks facing employers who need to manage these benefits programs.
Thomsons, the company behind Darwin, is headquartered in London, although it has a global presence. Founded in 2000, it currently employs over 500 people, of which 60% are based in London. The company has revenues of $45.44 million.
STRATEGY AND TARGET
Thomsons found that the international marketplace was changing rapidly with an increase in multinational corporations. These corporations needed the ability to more effectively handle their human resource issues, including the ability to more easily analyze their HR performance. Thomsons saw this need and therefore entered the marketplace with the intention of providing a new HR experience for its clients.
The overall target of Thomsons is clearly to reach major employers in the global environment. But Darwin, the software product, is designed to provide individual employers with the benefit of increased transparency that results from giving employees greater control of their benefits account. In doing so it helps improve the overall employer-employee relationship. In addition, it gives employers better analytical tools to evaluate their HR programs.
STRATEGY AND SOLUTION
In order to provide employers with the above-mentioned tools, Thomson transitioned to a Software as a Service (SaaS) revenue model. As a result of this change the company grew and now operates in 80 countries. This approach resulted in increased revenues for the company.
Darwin, the product that resulted from the above strategy, provides multiple benefits for both employers and employees. First, it enables the employer to more effectively show the employee the full extent of their benefits package. Second, it provides employees with more flexibility and control in managing their benefits. Third, it centralizes HR data, making it easier for employers to evaluate the success or failure of their HR program.
Thomsons revenue comes from sales of their product directly to their target customers-the employers. Clients who wish to use Darwin for their business are not required to purchase software or to buy hardware. Instead, they can download a demo directly from the company's website. This, in turn, initiates communication with Thomsons for the purpose of purchasing the product.
COMPETITION
Thomsons' co-founder and managing director, Chris Bruce, maintains that Thomsons has no direct competitors on a global scale. Nevertheless, it does have a competitor in RewardGateway, another global company. RewardGateway has seven offices in five countries, including the United States and U.K.. The company produces SmartHub, which is advertised as employee engagement software.
The principle, competitive difference between the two companies is that Darwin focuses primarily on providing employees with the ability to manage their benefits accounts. Smarthub, on the other hand, provides employees with a more holistic approach that provides not only benefits management, but also education in wellness strategies designed to benefit not only the employee but also the employer.
PARTNERSHIPS
In order to more effectively market their product, Thomsons has partnered with multiple companies. For example, by partnering with Mercer, a global consulting leader, the company is able to more effectively provide their services to multinationals. This partnership was cemented in December 2016 when Mercer announced that it was acquiring Thomsons Online Benefits.
Another partner of Thomsons is Xerox. This partnership resulted in Thomsons integrating Darwin into Conduent's Life@Work HR Portal Solution, thereby streamlining the overall product in the workplace.
NGA Human Resources has also partnered with Thomsons. NGA is another employee benefits consulting firm that provides administrative services for employee benefits. The company is also an insurance intermediary.
Thomsons has two primary investment partners. Abry Partners is a private equity company that was founded in 1989 and is experienced in the business and information services industry. To date Abry, which is based in Boston, has completed over $27 billion of leveraged tansactions. Another investment partner of Thomsons is Veronis Suhler Stevenson, another private equity firm that invests in the information, business, healthcare and education industries. It was VSS that sold Thomsons to Mercer in December 2016.
CUSTOMERS
The approach taken by Thomsons has reaped rewards. The need for better managed benefits accounts has netted the company several major customers, many of them multinational. These customers include Netapp, Virgin Money, Samsung and Priority Group. In addition, seven of the top ten global tech companies use Darwin as do six of the top ten global brands.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, Darwin is a SaaS platform that enables both employees and employers to enjoy a better working relationship by thoroughly managing employee benefits. It is applied on a global scale and appears to be gaining in popularity with major multinational corporations.
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