Equipment manufacturer
How do you get the most value out of your connected products?
By getting them to communicate!
Basically, for an equipment vendor the bottom line usually is: “Every time we sell a piece of equipment, we lose a customer“.
The main value of physical equipment is most often attached to the equipment itself. The only ongoing relationship with the customer will be (in the best of cases) maintenance or repair: not very glamorous!
And yet, thanks to the contribution of IoT and the corresponding networks, it is becoming possible to define and deploy recurring and valuable functionalities linked to the use of this equipment: statistics, preventive maintenance, advice on use, etc.
Source of revenue for the manufacturer and of value for its customers, these new services present above all the interest of maintaining a continuous relationship throughout the life of the equipment.
Example: Keeping in touch with clients and partners
This manufacturer of security equipment for public infrastructures, transportation and businesses, wishes to develop recurring services based on its current and future installed base.
With several hundred thousand pieces of equipment installed worldwide, this manufacturer wishes to develop a range of services that will enable it to maintain technical and commercial relations with its customers and its network of partners.
To do this, it has decided to make its equipment communicative by equipping it with physical data sensors (usage, conditions of use, wear and tear, etc.) and a SIM-based network connection.
Agora provides interoperability between the equipment, the ERP and the central preventive and predictive maintenance application: data unification, feeding of a central database, business scenarios, etc. As well as the functions necessary for a simple and direct relationship with its customers and partners: notifications and multilingual communication (installations throughout the world) and omnichannel (the customer or partner chooses its means of communication).
The additional services, offered in the form of a subscription, make it possible to finance the additional costs and above all to considerably strengthen the commercial position of this manufacturer (for example during renewal markets).
Elements that must interact:
Connected equipment
IoT sensors connected on different networks
Business applications of the company
ERP, CMMS and Predictive Maintenance
Clients and partners
Messaging services (MS Teams, Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS…)
Internal departments (HR, support, management)
On the company’s collaborative application (digital workplace)
To go further...
Product sales are no longer the only source of revenue: data is now an important part of manufacturers’ business.
Nearly 60 years ago, Professor Theodore Levitt argued that companies fail when they focus so much on their products that they lose sight of the big picture: what their customers really want.
For a long time, manufacturers have stubbornly sought competitive advantage exclusively in products. They failed to notice that their customers’ needs are gradually shifting to new, increasingly valuable data-driven services.
Today, new technologies such as IoT, Worktech, digital work environments and their ecosystems (networks, collaborative applications and messaging, data analysis and visualization applications, etc.) allow manufacturers to leverage this data and implement new services and business models that are rapidly profitable and allow them to maintain contact with their partners and customers throughout the product life cycle.
Today, it is possible to leverage interactive data, which is transmitted (almost) continuously as users interact with products. Until now, at best, data has been used for maintenance and support; now products can also be used to support data.
These use cases might interest you
Which offer for your company?
Our flexible subscription plans are designed for both medium and large companies. They support you during the different phases of your projects: pilot, deployment and generalization.
Our experts are at your disposal to answer your questions and advise you on the best way to animate and automate your business processes. Do not hesitate to contact them!