Best Practices in Harnessing Technology to Increase Customer Demand
A key driver for executives looking to identify and leverage technologies and trends includes business case development. In other words, ”What specifically do I need to do to get started in my business?” Those executives who had accomplished this step, along with Christian Pedersen, GM, Microsoft Dynamics, answered the question: Find a significant pain point. Get a small pilot together with a passionate leader and group. Try it, and use iterative steps until you replicate success.
Increasingly important to Manufacturing CEOs is engaging customers throughout the entire life cycle from LEAD to SALES/SERVICE. Coupled with this, leveraging IoT and CRM data to anticipate equipment service needs, promote proactive service campaigns, and provide additional feedback to customer/suppliers on equipment performance is key.
When adopting CRM, make sure you have seamless database and transaction capability affiliated with your ERP (which are available through various technology enablers) so you have a “single truth”
Collecting sensor and usage-data to anticipate and promote customers’ equipment service, parts and upgrade needs is offering dramatic cost/performance improvements and making these applications accessible for most discrete manufacturers. Many of the companies at the summit already installed the sensors.
Leveraging machine feedback and machine learning to improve the performance of processes and equipment to increase customer experience. These same technologies enable internal monitoring, measuring and data-driven improvements.
Leverage data to develop further intelligence on product performance and improvement opportunities, identify trends, and provide feedback for innovation and product development.
In reference to charging customers based upon risk sharing and improved output, the best advice is that you should not hesitate pursuing it, but beware of the amount of data you will need to manipulate and make sure you have that capacity.
In addition to the above, make sure you have a complete business case developed so you can monitor your results.
Also, make sure you watch the market closely, as changes can affect the success of this type of charging philosophy.
In reference to using technology, streamline the data you provide to customers that use your website by using software that pulls data from other sites and agglomerates it, rather than having your customers doing that.
This 2015 Smart Manufacturing Summit Solutions Exchange was sponsored by eLogic and Vertical Solutions, Inc. To find out more about these companies:
Session facilitator: Dale Arnold, Management Consultant, Arnold & Associates, arnolddalew@aol.com.
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