Customers rate Sbanken’s digital innovations as the best
The Norwegian Innovation Index 2020 voted Sbanken, Netflix and HBO as the best in digital innovation.
The Norwegian Innovation Index 2020 was presented last week at a webinar at Bekks' premises in Oslo. The index measures how innovative Norwegian companies are from the perspective of the customers. What's new this year is that three indexes are presented: Commercial Innovation Index, Social Innovation Index and Digital Innovation Index (new).
Sbanken, Netflix and HBO scored the most points in the Digital Innovation category. The Digital Innovation Index measures whether customers view companies as digital, to what extent they use the companies’ digital solutions and whether they find the companies to be innovative in their digital solutions.
Professor at NHH Tor W Andreassen explains the success of the digital innovations as follows:
‘These companies were digital when they launched and they changed the rules of the game in the sector they entered into. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they have managed to deliver valuable services to people's homes in a way that has responded to the customers’ fear of infection and wish to socially distance. With strong digital expertise and customer insight, they’ve used technology to innovate their services, which is something the customers have noticed,’ says Andreassen.
The NHH professor stresses that digitalisation of Norwegian enterprises has been a priority in 2020. He emphasises that the government introduced a digitalisation strategy for the public sector in 2019, and in January last year it presented a national strategy for artificial intelligence. It is therefore natural that we have focused on the digitalisation of companies, the NHH professor says.
‘This year has not been easy’
CEO of Sbanken Øyvind Thomassen says that they have worked methodically for many years to make smart choices easy for all their customers. In 2020, Sbanken has among other things launched a revolutionary fund pricing model with the best fund managers from Norway and abroad, and facilitated more ethical savings through low-carbon labelling of funds.
‘This is a great acknowledgement of all the work my capable colleagues put in every day to create a world-leading customer experience. It's also rewarding that we achieve our highest score ever in the Corona-year 2020, because this year has by no means been easy,’ says Thomassen.
‘Tough for the hotel industry’
The two companies Finn.no and Sbanken are among the top ten companies on all the indexes. IKEA is number one for the fifth year in a row on the Commercial Innovation Index, followed by Airbnb and Finn.no.
The Commercial Innovation Index measures the companies’ innovativeness in relation to customer experience. A high score on this index means that the customers view the company as a market driver and game changer.
Surprisingly, Norges Taxi, Bergen Taxi and Nordic Choice Hotels climbed the most on the Commercial Innovation Index. The chain has climbed 9.3, 4.8 and 7.9 points since 2019.
‘As we all know, last year was particularly tough for the hotel industry. The fact that we nevertheless view them as innovative is, I believe, due to their choice to be keep a high and proactive profile early on with innovative campaigns, promotions and collaborations. Our hotels have made tremendous efforts to highlight the possibilities where other have only seen the limitations,’ says Deputy CEO of Nordic Choice Hotels, Bjørn Arild Wisth.
Despite a demanding year, Nordic Choice Hotels has had a record number of downloads of their app:
‘When we chose to launch our own app a few years ago, we mainly did it to make it easier for the guest. With the pandemic, all of this suddenly turned into a tool to make everything safer. We have never had more downloads of our app than we had in July last year when everyone was holidaying in their own country,’ says Wisth.
The Norwegian Innovation Index
- First launched in 2016.
- Divided into three categories: The Commercial Innovation Index, the Social Innovation Index and the Digital Innovation Index.
- Through a professional bureau (Norstat), the Norwegian Innovation Index team annually collects more than 23000 responses from customers of about 90 companies in 20 industries.
- The index has been developed by NHH and is affiliated with the Digital Transformation Hub. It has been used in the USA, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, and other countries are taking an interest.
Fewer social innovations
For the third year running, there are fewer social innovations in customers' opinion. The Social Innovation Index measures whether the customers view the companies’ innovation activities as useful for society and promoting sustainability.
NHH professor Tor W Andreassen says that he had expected an increase as the green transition is high on the EU's agenda. In 2020, the EU taxonomy, a classification system for sustainable economic activity, was launched. It sets out several requirements that Norwegian business and industry must meet, and it is key to the EU’s broader plan for a green transition, the EU Green Deal.
‘The decrease might be due to the fact that companies in 2020 have had to prioritise direct income-generating innovations or that the customers' expectations are higher than what the companies have managed to deliver. For a long time, Stormberg has had this type of innovation high up on the agenda, and it’s therefore no surprise that they retain last year’s first place on the Social Innovation Index, closely followed by Nordic Choice Hotels and IKEA,’ says Andreassen.