Every company has installed base data, but that doesn’t mean it’s working for the company. Besides recording data for posterity during manufacturing and test, what employees in other departments, such as in service or marketing, have access to the installed base data? Is the data driving additional revenue, either in product or service contract sales? Is it teaching you what features customers like most?
Any executive in a manufacturing company should ask whether the company is really deriving value from the installed base. Just like the internet tracks our every movement, is your company keeping tabs on what your products are doing in the field?
There are three aspects to installed based data: static data about the products, dynamic data about the products, and telemetry data from the products:
Static data: This information is a record of your company product. The model, the color, the size, the date of manufacture. Things that don’t change. This information usually comes from manufacturing.
Dynamic data: This is information that might change, for instance, the software version, installed options, software licenses. Things that might change, but probably not every day. This information will initially comes from manufacturing, but after the product ships the information generally is updated by service.
Telemetry data: This is real-time information about the product, such as how many parts it produced in an hour, or how many patient exams occurred today. The source of the data is the product itself, which sends the information back to the factory on a regular basis.
The static and dynamic data are key types of information that lead to operational excellence. You need that data to make sure that the service team is making great decisions about how best to help each customer, and how to resolve product issues quickly.
The telemetry data is different. Because it comes from the product itself, telemetry becomes a source of data you can use to predict issues before they happen. At the very least you can know that a problem has occurred, potentially before the customer knows it. Telemetry helps your company look like it is really on the ball from a service responsiveness perspective, with documented higher first-time fix rates.
Increased sales: Companies that implement SRM and telemetry in earnest will drive higher sales in a number of ways. First, better service responsiveness and first-time fix rates mean you are more competitive and can therefore demand higher prices for both your product and your service offerings. Second, telemetry will make you aware of utilization, which will lead you to new sales when customers are running near capacity. Third, telemetry can also inform you of supply levels and help you keep customers well-stocked.
Increased margins: Besides driving sales and better pricing, SRM will improve service margins. Because telemetry will alert your team to potential issues early, remote access can be useful to stave off problems that might have caused additional field service visits. As an aside, SRM can also reduce customer losses due to down time, which every customer will like.
maiLink SRM software is a service relationship management platform that helps you build a rich database about your installed devices. It also seamlessly integrates telemetry from your products and has no per-user fee (so any employee you authorize can have access to the data). To learn more about maiLink SRM, visit www.maiData.io and sign up for a free trial.