Siemens's and GE's transformed from being makers of machines to fully digitalised businesses makes for fascinating reading.
It raises the important question;
- will a single platform come to dominate wide market sectors
- OR
- will tailored platforms dominate specific sectors?
In the insurance world a claims management platform is digitally transforming insurers. How easy will it be for other industries to adopt and deploy that for similar benefits?
- Delivering better service/products
- Improving productivity
- Stripping out costs
- Beating digital disrupters at their own game
The answer lies in the similarity of process and workflow rather than industrial sector. Insurers have to manage repair,replacement, contractors, service providers in the same way as leaders in:-
- Facilities Management
- Field Service Management
- Social Housing Management
- Highways maintenance and repair
- Rail maintenance & repair
- Care & Nursing Homes monitoring of residents
The key to success will be the combination of partners that deliver the optimal mix of cultural change, platform, data and self-service tools for participants across complete supply chains.
There will be plenty of room for Predix, MindSphere, 360Globalnet and other digital platforms in the transition to fully digitised organisations
In other markets, one firm has quickly come to dominate, whether in online search (Google), computer operating systems (Microsoft) or corporate databases (Oracle). That seems to argue in favour of a gung-ho approach. GE is already on its way to creating an “ecosystem” for Predix, says Nicholas Heymann of William Blair, an investment bank. It has agreed partnerships with big telecoms operators, consultancies and IT-services companies, not least to gain access to outside data sources. Yet the consumer world and that of business differ. Online search and social-networking services are easy to scale, because human beings’ needs are similar across the world. Particular industries and companies, on the other hand, often have specific requirements that call for customised products—not for a platform that is trying to be all things to all machines. That may help Siemens’s more tailored, customer-centric approach.