In the first post of this blog we talk about the key question that originated our business venture: why do you need a software for servitization?
Before answering this question let’s make premise: what do we mean by servitization? It is important to clarify this term because it can be interpreted in many ways, each of which can generate different projections and expectations.
By servitization we mean the transformation of a business to compete through a combination of services and products, rather than products alone (see the definition given by Prof Tim Baines, from Advanced Services Group, in this article). Services can have different levels:
When a manufacturing company wants to undertake this transformation it certainly needs software too. The role of digital technologies in the servitization journey is indeed fundamental. Precisely the increasing accessibility of new digital technologies (such as IoT) has favored the large-scale dissemination of servitization initiatives.
So what should a software do for you, if you want to offer basic, intermediate or advanced services to your customers?
Let’s try to list the main points:
This list could get longer, but we stop here.
The question at this point is: what software is currently available to do all this?
Some of the above needs can be effectively covered by FSM (Field Service Management) softwares, well represented by a Gartner Magic Quadrant, such as ServiceMax, ClickSoftware, IFS, Coresystems, OverIT, etc.
Then there are IoT platforms, which allow the collection and management of data coming from connected products. There are now hundreds of them, and given the extreme dynamism of the market, even analysis companies like Gartner struggle to categorize them in a crystallized way. IoT platforms alone, however, can not satisfy any of the points listed above. They are a starting point, but then companies must face a substantial work of analysis and development of custom applications and integrations between systems.
And here we come.
We finally answer the initial question: why do you need an iot software for servitization? To start immediately with a ready-made, stable, scalable and tested software, as an alternative to the development of custom applications, which responds to your servitization needs and which easily integrates with your information systems: CRM, FSM, ERP, etc. and the most popular IoT platforms.
Is this possible? You can ask it directly to our customers or you can request a demo to see by yourself. Our answer is: yes, for sure!
And how could we call this kind of software?
We will discuss this topic in a future post, for now let’s stop here and let the analysts do the job 😉
Stay tuned!