Specialist Strategic Advisory
Specialist advice for complex markets
Some strategic challenges require more than a conventional consulting approach. They require a detailed understanding of how a specialist market operates, how government policy and regulation affect it, how technology is changing established business models and how customers actually experience the services being delivered.
Souter Point provides specialist strategic advice across visas and immigration, international travel, biometrics and identity, government service delivery, business process outsourcing, social value and growth opportunities in the creative industries. We combine sector expertise with structured research and strategic analysis to help clients understand complex problems and make informed decisions.
Our approach begins by defining the strategic question and identifying the external and internal factors that influence it. We then combine market evidence, regulatory and policy analysis, competitor intelligence, technology trends and practical operating experience to develop a clear assessment of the available options.
How we can help
Our specialist advisory assignments includes:
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Visa and immigration services – analysing visa outsourcing, application centres, electronic visas, digital applications and changing government requirements;
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International travel – understanding traveller behaviour, cross-border mobility, market demand and the interaction between travel and government border processes;
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Biometrics and identity – assessing biometric enrolment, identity verification, remote technologies and their implications for customer journeys and service delivery;
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Government service delivery – evaluating how public-facing services can be outsourced, digitised, redesigned or improved;
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Business process outsourcing – assessing operating models, supplier markets, commercial structures and opportunities for service transformation;
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Technology and digitisation – understanding how emerging technologies could change markets, operating models and competitive dynamics;
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Social Value - developing solutions that maximise social value, evaluating the impact of proposed social value initiatives and developing high-quality supply chains that deliver on social value requirements;
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Creative Industries - supporting musicians, artists, performers and cultural organisations to structure and grow their organisations, including identifying target operating models, supporting funding applications and advising on new market entry options; and
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Strategic options and scenarios – evaluating alternative responses to regulatory, technological or commercial change.
Our value comes from combining specialist knowledge with independent analysis. This enables Souter Point to move beyond explaining what is happening and help clients understand why it matters, how it could affect their organisation and what strategic options they should consider next.
Case Study: Remote Biometric Enrolment for Visa Applications
Remote biometric enrolment is the 'Holy Grail' for improving the customer experience when applying for a visa. However, practical limitations have prevented governments from deploying such a process, as even though the technology exists to obtain facial images and fingerprints from the comfort of a visa applicant's home, the issue relates to 'trust' and how a government knows the fingerprints, especially, have not been tampered with.
To provide organisations with a clearer view of the situation, Souter Point analysed the development of remote biometric enrolment technology and its potential to transform how people apply for visas. The research examines the United Kingdom Government's trials of remote fingerprint enrolment and considers how identity verification, electronic visas and biometric technologies could enable applicants to complete the entire visa process remotely.
Remote biometric enrolment will fundamentally change a global visa outsourcing industry currently built around physical Visa Application Centre networks. Souter Point assessed the technological, security, and customer challenges involved, potential solutions, and the implications for operating models, revenues, and competition.
The analysis is particularly relevant to governments designing future visa services, outsourcing companies developing their strategies, biometric and identity technology providers identifying new opportunities, and investors assessing long-term industry risk.
Most importantly, this research helps organisations turn technological change into strategic action: identifying capabilities that may require investment, testing whether existing operating models remain sustainable, evaluating new products and partnerships, assessing emerging market opportunities and determining how to respond before disruption becomes established. This enables those in the visa application outsourcing industry to move from understanding what might change to deciding what to do about it, where to invest, and how to position themselves for the future.
Case Study: Monetising Iceland's Largest Movie Production Studio
Souter Point was part of a specialist team invited by Iceland's largest movie production studio to analyse how to monetise the acquisition of a former fish processing plant. The studio already planned to develop the $3m plant into a movie production studio for its own use, as Iceland lacked such an asset. The movie production studio sensed that the new indoor studio would also be sought after by international production companies - who came to Iceland primarily to use the country's breathtaking scenery for outdoor sets - to shoot inside while inevitably 'waiting on weather', but had little idea of the monetisation potential.
Within one week, Souter Point developed three monetisation options. The first option explored our client's idea of renting the new movie production studio to international production companies. This analysis combined the anticipated studio availability with a utilisation rate and costs from comparable movie production studios. The second option was to rent part of the generous office space in the new movie production studio design, using a mix of temporary and permanent leases. The final option included more 'blue sky thinking', identifying market opportunities to develop a museum, hotel and specialist deepwater tank for underwater filming.
The new indoor movie production studio was completed and subsequently expanded into two additional units, taking advantage of the high demand for indoor film locations in Iceland from domestic and international movie production companies.
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