Shift Thought as a crucial catalyst

Shift Thought has a unique combination of skills, experience, toolsets and connections to assist you and your partners in achieving your goals.

Shift Thought Ltd is a UK-based management consultancy. We have no branches anywhere else in the world. We do not offer ANY financial services whatsoever.

We have worked on payments projects for the last 10 years in different parts of the ecosystem, and around the world. We now use our practitioner experience to curate a unique knowledge base that continually creates a 360 degree picture of each market. We offer consulting services, subcriptions to our knowledge portal and reports - bespoke and off-the-shelf. Our customers use us to help formulate strategy, find partners, select markets, create propositions and build the right products and services.

Shift Thought consolidates over 50 years global expertise across multiple sectors (financial, retail, manufacturing and aerospace), functions (business strategy, market development, architecture and processes) and roles (entrepreneurs, directors and executives).

  • We have a vision of the future based on a decade of working in Digital Money around the world
  • We have carried out a unique study of regulatory environment as it applies to different digital money products in over 200 markets worldwide.
  • We can provide an integrated marketing, process and technical perspective as we combine Business and Technical knowledge, skills and experience with a practitioner understanding of each stakeholder perspective
  • We have unique technologies that structure knowledge and integrate across perspectives, to provide relevant, current and contextual insight into opportunities, risks and trends.
  • We are able to collaborate across large teams using proprietary tools
  • We draw on Mathematics and Economics expertise and sophisticated mathematical modelling techniques to produce projections that accurately reflect market dynamics based on various potential interventions.
  • Our consultants are cross-functional experts, with extensive direct experience in global roles covering strategy, marketing, process engineering, architecture and operations.
  • We have a unique understanding of the Remittances market in terms of opportunities, regulations, markets and agent networks.
  • We regularly analyse markets in terms of new entrants to the Digital Money space and help players in different parts of the ecosystem to understand and deal with disruptions.
  • We have innovative ideas that we could offer in the building of new products and services.
  • We are independent consultants and can assure impartiality and confidentiality.

Our mission is to enable experts in any field to create knowledge products that help them to conduct a global business effectively, as they would with a large organisation behind them.

We create tools to manage knowledge relating to complex ecosystems. Our flagship product, the Digital Money S.A.G.E models the global digital money ecosystem - with over 1,500 digital money initiatives, involving over 4000 players across 207+ Countries and Territories. We model regulatory environment and key regulations affecting Digital Money. We track cash networks, customer and merchant adoption, business models, partnerships and more.
Shift Thought believes that Integration is what makes all this possible - not more or different technology or services. Digital Money may be used as an integration mechanism to provide many services from multiple stakeholders to multiple users. This can truly put the customer in the middle and in control, and allow merchant brands to anticipate needs and service them through a vast array of new products and services. We believe this involves, amongst other things:
  • Integration of perspectives
  • Integration of services
  • Integration of enabling technologies
  • Focus on customer life cycle
Shift Thought offers consulting services to you in creating Digital Money Services. Are you a mobile operator entering new markets with a mobile money product, or grappling with Regulations, Consumer Adoption or Dormany issues?

Building your Product

  • Is what you plan the best way to spend your budget?
  • Have you thought of all that the consumer expects?
  • How are you using technology to differentiate and stay ahead?

Targeting Segments with Services

  • Who should you target?
  • Why do you expect them to take up your service?
  • What will stop them going dormant on you?

Market Entry Strategy

  • Which is the best next market for you?
  • What partners do you need?
  • What�s the competition there?

Navigating the Regulatory minefield

  • What are the permissions you need to get started?
  • What is the on-going compliance load?
  • What is the level of certainty you will be allowed to do what you plan?

Investing and creating partnerships

  • Who has the best footprint and capabilities, and also needs something you have?
  • Where can you get the capital, or where should you invest?
  • Who should you speak to and when, to make a deal the market will respect?
Shift Thought has developed revolutionary new ways to manage knowledge. This allows us to assist you to rapidly create or re-evaluate market entry strategy and selection of markets for trials and pilots. Your business may be exposed to risks from new entrants in different parts of the world. This may require re-evaluation of the features, roadmap and pricing of your products and services. Whether you are looking at getting new customers, retaining customers you have or encouraging new use of your services, we can assist by providing concrete case studies to let you see what others are doing in your market, or markets with similar characteristics to your own. Why make mistakes others have already learnt from?

We have worked with some of the leading companies around the world and enjoy an extensive business network. This empowers us to suggest partners for you and help connect you to business opportunities.

It is very important for companies to be able to take their products and services into new markets. Yet it is so easy to make expensive errors in this process. Regulatory environments dictate the class of trade in each jurisdiction. Their are other rules regarding exclusivity. Often you have to partner with a company with whom you compete in another market.

As we continually research player profiles and interactions between players, we can quickly suggest alternatives for you. Whether you are looking at getting new partners, extending relationships into new markets or starting a new line of business, we can assist by providing concrete case studies and track records of potential partners to let you choose the right next steps for you. We can also rapidly brief you on what others are doing in your market, or markets with similar characteristics to your own. Why make mistakes others have already learnt from?

Shift Thought offers research services to you in creating Digital Money Services. We have created unique formats and techniques to offer you the knowledge you require in capsules that reflect how you need to use the knowledge.

Custom reports

  • Our unique approach empowers us to fulfil your requests in record time, with the most recent knowledge based on breaking news from around the world.
  • We back up our analysis with extensive literature reviews from a huge number of sources, so as to offer a rounded perspective.
  • Actionable insights based on the latest market opportunities, regulations, competitive analysis and more.
  • Ecosystem tours that accompany our custom reports let us help you interpret our advice by rapidly showing you collateral that backs up what we state in our publications.
  • Being totally independant allows us to recommend in an unbiased manner, based on what we feel is best, based on your unique circumstances.

Viewports

  • The navigability of a portal with the portability of a report.
  • Analysis that provides you a wide and deep understanding of payment systems in a market.
  • Actionable insights based on the latest market opportunities, regulations, competitive analysis and more.
  • Links to every important player and initiative in the market.

Snapshots

  • This captures the essence of what you need to understand to create or move on strategy.
  • Analysis that provides you a wide and deep understanding of payment systems in a market.
  • Actionable insights based on the latest market opportunities, regulations, competitive analysis and more.
  • Summaries on every important player and initiative in the market.

Whitepapers

  • This is a free resource that allows us to share with you some of the insights that we uncover during our ongoing analysis.
  • We generally offer whitepapers on each country, region, service and opportunity.
  • These are short briefing notes meant to stimulate thought and action, to help you grow your business and your career.
Image of Charmaine Oak

Charmaine brings a unique perspective, having contributed to the global development of digital money through the leading money transfer company Western Union, a leading bank (Royal Bank of Scotland), a global mobile operator (Orange France Telecom), LogicaCMG (the pioneer in SMS), SmartStream Reconciliations and Wipro a leading IT provider .

Charmaine has over 25 years of experience of creating and delivering solutions to market. Her skills and experience are at the intersection of mobile, banking and payments and across functions including market and business development, marketing, sales, product development, technical architecture and modelling.

Charmaine's area of expertise is in mapping opportunities in digital money and providing consulting services based on the Shift Thought Digital Money S.A.G.E technology. Charmaine leads the Digital Money practice of Shift Thought, which specialises in knowledge integration for successfully launching products within complex global ecosystems.

Charmaine is an entrepreneur at heart, having founded and run Visionix in 1986.


Image of Raju Oak

Raju is an international consultant with broad experience in realising business strategy through large business transformation programmes, process management and operational excellence, business development, enterprise architecture and IT. He works at the intersection of business and technology, across several industries and geographies and has consistently led innovative and pioneering engagements to success. He is recognised for providing thought leadership, strategy, organising and leading teams and mentoring clients and colleagues.

With a PhD in managing Business Process Complexity, Raju has particular interests in Business and Process Strategy and Management, Complex Programmes, Project and Portfolio Management, Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy and Transformation and Service Transition.

Raju is the Managing Director of Shift Thought. He is also responsible for developing the vision, architecture and strategy of the S.A.G.E knowledge management platform underpinning all the business lines in Shift Thought.


Image of Neeraj Oak

Neeraj's area of expertise is in the application of non-linear modelling techniques to complex ecosystems. Neeraj develops the mathematical foundations and algorithms for the network and complexity management tools that are part of the S.A.G.E knowledge management platform. Neeraj leads the Energy practice of Shift Thought.

10 thoughts on “SAGE

  1. Lovely site with lots of infomation. I have not managed to look at everything.

    Waiting for you to come to Kenya. We have “Mpesa via mobile” and now Standard Chartered are only just beginning to register clients for mobile banking. Denise
    Link to page

  2. New Payments Products and Services (Digital Money) is the focus of the 21 century. I think we should all pay closed attention, especially our banks and other financial services . I have just completed a Specialist Certificate.
    Link to page

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