Untapped Opportunities Galore
As I have mentioned in many of my previous posts, Industrial equipment has been coming loaded with sensors for years now. The problem was that most of this data was just sitting idle on the installed bases of Industrial equipment manufacturers. Untapped potential was getting accumulated.
With IoT technologies now getting embedded in sensors, the data now resides within IoT ecosystem, and hence opena a whole new path where Industrial manufacturing companies can open new revenue streams, increase field force efficiency and significantly increase customer satisfaction….all of that by applying optimal analytical approaches on the data generated and collected from the sensors on their equipments.
A high level overview of the process
Let me walk you through an illustrative architecture to highlight how leveraging an infrastructure, much of which already exists, you can enhance your customer experience many folds. This architecture is simple, very flexible and scalable.
Collect the Data
The first leg is where Sensors on equipment stream the data to an IoT Platform as shown in the diagram below. Data can be collected from a plethora of sources via these sensors, like shop floor equipment, field equipment etc.
Process and Analyze the data
The collated and processed data from the IoT platform can then be ingested by an IoT Data hub like Azure. This ingested data is transformed and normalized to build 360 degree views of each customer/geography and the respective equipments. This data is then firther funneled through various Marketing analytics algorithms, leading to insights and/or proposed operational or tactical actions.
Though defined as just a step here, setting up this Analytical platform is the most strategic aspect of the entire infrastructure.
A deep knowledge of Data Science algorithms need to be combined with domain depth fundamentals in areas like Cross/Up sell, Customer journey/Touchpoints, Segmentation, Sales Strategy, Contract renewal etc. in order to: (1) Choose the right type of Algorithms (2) Develop these algorithms so that they capture unique nuiances of the operating model
CRM Integration and Strategic Analysis
The insights and reports from the Analytics cloud can then be funneled in two different ways, as shown in the illustration below.
CRM tools can this way be connected to the products on the floor and fields. The specific analytics, new insights can be created on the customer behavior and preferences, that when fed into the CRM tool can provide the sales folks some really potent information.
Can Open a plethora of opportunities
As you may have figured out by now, availability of tons of exisitng data and the simple architecture required means that the business case is strong. A leading consulting company estimates that the revenue uplift expected is in the range of 10-15 % just by increasing the quality and number of leads and improvement of conversion ratios. So don’t wait anymore…gp, grab this fruit…it really is low hanging !
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