IIC Business Strategy and Solution Lifecycle
sales can use product usage data to optimize market segmentation and sales processes. Aftersales services can be significantly improved through remote condition monitoring and remote
management services. Similarly, new usage-centric business models are emerging. With the
capacity to monitor usage, comes the possibility to focus on usage value: Marketing the
combination (Product + Service) or “service-enhanced products,” becomes another way to create
value. For example, the service could include some analytics on usage patterns, predictive
maintenance data or anticipation about consumption.
As we can see, the IIoT potentially has an impact on the entire value chain of industrial
companies. The highly integrative and dynamic nature of the IIoT even has the potential to
transform value chains into value networks, breaking up traditional, more static value chains.
1.3
Challenges
While the potential benefits of the IIoT are huge, there are also significant challenges on the way.
One key challenge of the IIoT is that two worlds have to work seamlessly together, in order to
make it work. On the one hand, we have what is sometimes referred to as the “machine camp”
[EIoT15]: The traditional providers of industrial assets and equipment, who are used to working
with long planning and design phases – because once the physical products are deployed in the
field, applying changes is very challenging. On the other hand, we have the “Internet Camp”:
These companies are used to fast innovation cycles, working in perpetual beta (effectively using
the end customer as beta testers), and constantly improving their software or cloud-based
services.
Getting the “machine camp” and the “internet camp” to work efficiently together is a key
prerequisite for success in the IIoT – especially for companies who are looking at fully leveraging
the IIoT to transform their traditional products into intelligent, connected products with value
adding services. This means that companies really have to reconsider their entire product design,
to enable these new capabilities.
In the early days of Telematics and M2M (Machine to Machin R