Shaping the Transformation of Businesses to Smart Service Providers

Mastering complex tasks requires confidence, clear structures and effective leadership. This is where our experience and our well-proven approaches set in. Learn more about our powerful roadmaps to run the transformation of becoming a Smart Service Provider.

Structure your Smart Service Transformation based on IoT-ready products

The Industrie 4.0 and Smart Service Welt vision is clear, a combination of smart products and data-based services leads to product improvement. When this is brought together with value-driven, service-oriented value propositions, new market opportunities open up. The challenge now is to combine the building blocks of product, service and value proposition into sustainable and competitive smart services and to create successful business models. Even the big players will struggle to go it alone, but Germany as a centre for innovation also depends on its hidden champions, small and medium-sized companies. The Maturity Index Smart Services is intended to make this overall picture practically applicable with the explicit aim of enabling businesses to provide smart services.

  • Our collaboration with clients is characterized by mutual trust, dedication, and passion. We firmly believe that transformational endeavors succeed when they are guided and embraced from within the business. That's why we deeply integrate into your organization and provide you and your teams with knowledge, resources, and technology to make it your story.

    We ensure that a dedicated core team is with you from the very beginning. Our activities are as individual as your undertaking, ranging from defining future-proof digital strategies to delivering solid roll-outs. Always tailored to your current situation and your requirements. Together, we run Digital at Scale!

M.Sc.
Jonas Kaufmann

Senior Consultant
jonas.kaufmann@onward.partners
+49 151 4415 8105

Client Cases

Expand your service portfolio to include smart services that fit the unique needs of your business

The Maturity Index Smart Services was developed with the aim of providing manufacturing companies with support for shaping the transformation processes required for successfully expanding their service portfolio to include smart services. The guidance is structured as a six-stage maturity model in which each individual stage of development promises an increase in benefits.

At Onward, we rely on our proven Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index management framework to carry out precisely tailored digital roadmaps as the basis for introducing smart services and to make the transition to a learning, agile organisation. The complementary structure of the framework permits a modular and incremental design of the digital transformation and servitisation of manufacturing companies.

The framework adheres to two guiding principles: Firstly, a phased approach based on maturity levels that reflect digital readiness and help to shape the transformation in a sustainable way. Secondly, a comprehensive 360-degree view of the organization's operations that considers multiple perspectives including digital technologies, people, organizational structures, and corporate DNA.

  • Six key structural areas were identified, with each two pricipals:

    • Product & Connectivity

    • Service & User Experience

    • Business & Ecosystem

    • Technology & Data

    • Organisation & Management

    • People & Culture

    For each area, capabilities were defined for business units and its employees. To expand the companies service portfolio to include smart services and align their organization, structure and processes accordingly, the acatech Maturity Index Smart Services provides a perfect fit for a structured approach.

    There are two to six gradations per capability which express the respective maturity level. The capabilities and their (maturity) levels can also be used not only to define goals but also to derive concrete measures, i.e. to determine which activity will help the business move up to the next level.

  • Embracing resources
    At the core of our approach is the empowerment and development of people. We firmly believe in placing stakeholders at the center of our initiatives, granting them more responsibilities and opportunities to contribute. Equipping them with data-savviness and preparing them for the digital age are key aspects of our approach.

    Preparing Organizational Structures
    We recognize the importance of modern organizational structures that promote speed and innovation throughout the entire value chain.

    Living a data-driven culture
    We aim to foster a culture of collaboration and cooperation, emphasizing the strength of working together to drive success. Both lean and six sigma principles serve as a strong foundation of our believes and help creating a Digital DNA

The Maturity Index Smart Services presents a maturity model with six structural areas for transforming manufacturing-focused companies into smart service providers. In this approach, progress towards establishing a smart service business is measured along six maturity levels, so enabling a successful transformation both practically and on a firm evidence basis. Using a specially developed toolkit, companies can be guided through the adoption of a smart service business.

Learn more

Are you ready to run Digital at Scale?

    • Standardized status-quo determination of processes and benchmarking through the use of an online platform

    • Structured roadmap development for your IoT-(ready) product & services

    • Planning reliability through maturity-based approach, developed with acatech, leading research institutes, and innovative companies

    • Reduction of complexity with a plan individually tailored to the status quo

    • Structured schedule due to prioritization & coordination of technical and non-technical measures

    • Industry-specific know-how from our platform database with direct access to benchmarks

    • Cross-organizational communication culture through involvement of all stakeholders, processes, and technology

    • Approx. 2-3 days schedule with interviews & assessments on site followed by a wrap-up. Here, your active involvement is needed.

    • We prepare a tailored roadmap based on the status quo for you and your smart services.

    • Final presentation and Q&A to align the insights and results provided in a comprehensive report with your agenda.

    • Next steps: Preparation and implementation of the roadmap by setting up a program management office.

  • Target group: Transformation & digitalization managers / groups. Sales, product management, service management, business excellence

    Further participants: global stakeholders of the digitalization program (COO, engineering, IT, OpEx/Lean, HR…)

Request our two-day Smart Service Assessment NOW