To paraphrase Geoffrey Moore, smart “thing makers” are investing in IoT solutions for their customers today in order to generate more revenue for themselves tomorrow. Traditional hardware vendors are being commoditized and replaced whenever a cheaper “good enough” option comes along. To thrive in the long run, your value must be “sticky”, embedded in your customer’s business, providing benefit to their customers as well. The “things” you sell now simply enable your customers to run their basic operations. Whenever a part breaks, customers make a decision to order a new one either from you or a competitor. How differentiated is your equipment from the rest of the market? Your business is constantly at risk.
What we’re seeing as a result are “thing makers” creating smart systems that empower their customers to not just operate, but to *optimize* their operations. These devices still perform their physical functions as before, but also collect and share a stream of data about their status and conditions in the world around them. It’s the data they produce, and the insights your system derives from this data, that enable your organization to offer far more valuable products and services to your customers that are not so easily replaced.
If you know the state of your machines at all times, you can build predictive maintenance and service models enabling guaranteed uptime and automatic replenishment. If your equipment never breaks or runs empty, your customer is unlikely to replace it with a competitor’s version.
If your products provide not just lighting and temperature control but also insights correlating usage patterns with time, weather, and utility data that reduce your customer’s costs, you can sell them this information for a percentage of these savings.
It’s the future. Your connected product system is part of your customer’s operating procedures, continuously generating insights for maximizing productivity. Improved asset utilization, faster turnarounds, synchronized workflows, and more. Smoother operations and reliable performance deliver better experiences for their customers, further expanding your customer’s business, because of your IoT solution. You don’t just sell “things.” You sell outcomes, which is what your customers really wanted in the first place.
That’s pretty smart.
