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Connected Business Transformation

How to unlock value from the Industrial Internet of Things

Overview

Many organizations already recognize that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) can take them “beyond product” and toward new, digital customer services that drive unconventional growth: Ninety-five percent of business leaders expect their company to use the IIoT within the next three years.

Few, however, are extracting real value from their efforts: Seventy-three percent of businesses acknowledge that they have yet to make concrete progress.

An IIoT-driven Connected Business transformation strategy would help them. Accenture experience suggests that such a full-cycle transformation, from ideation to operations, could help deliver a three-fold reduction in time to market and boost incremental revenues exponentially. 

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From connected business to digital services

Implementing the IIoT helps to unlock a rich, escalating spectrum of business outcomes in three tiers:

  1. Unconventional revenue

  2. Incremental revenue

  3. Operational efficiency

Many companies are already preparing for this revolution. By 2018, 78 percent of US organizations say they will have implemented (or are planning to implement) such operational improvement initiatives as automated workflow management, while 66 percent will have implemented (or are planning to implement) smart connected products that transmit customer data to the enterprise. Meanwhile, 57 percent will also be using (or are planning to use) such connected asset management systems as predictive equipment maintenance.

Yet research also reveals that organizations will be challenged to achieve their goals. Hampered by insufficient expertise, security concerns, and the absence of end-to-end sponsorship, half of respondents in a recent survey acknowledged that they were failing to build a strong business case for IIoT implementation.

The transformation strategy

Organizations urgently need a transformation strategy to industrialize their digital services, at speed, from ideation to operations. That will involve building an ecosystem of interconnected, end-to-end processes enabled by powerful partnerships that include leading IIoT platform vendors as well as the leading vendors of both IT and OT solutions.

Success depends on both origination capabilities with a strong emphasis on open-innovation partnerships, and delivery capabilities that leverage design thinking and a fast-prototyping approach that is end-to-end—in addition to technological capabilities.

The IIoT is critical to this digital transformation and it requires a shift in mindset—from connected products to connected services. To capture value, organizations will need to address emerging customer needs predictively, and leverage the information convergence that enables the personalized, contextual, innovative services that drive recurring revenues.

A digital “factory” model, customized to the specific needs of each organization so that the right component is leveraged at the right time, might offer a way forward.

Factory Concept (To be customized/client)

The roadmap

An IIoT-driven Connected Business transformation strategy focuses on a full-cycle transformation, from ideation to operations.

Time to market (TTM) Accelaration



The roadmap for such an approach comprises three phases, customized to the needs of each individual organization:

Phase 1: Launch 1st PILOT and build the FOUNDATIONS

Phase 1: Launch 1st PILOT and build the FOUNDATIONS

  • Test the Ideation/Incubation/Fast prototyping process and ability to create value/work together but with a limited scope
  • In parallel, shape the IIoT vision and partnership approach:

-          Identify opportunities (customer experience, digital manufacturing, new services & business models)

-          Business capabilities to be set-up/implemented

-          Enablers to be developed (analytics, IIoT platform)

-          Global business case and business roadmap for digital services capabilities

-          Partnership model



Phase 2: INDUSTRIALIZE – GROW

Phase 2: INDUSTRIALIZE – GROW

  • Set up the key required partnership capabilities (e.g. IIoT: Digital factory)
  • Start to implement and execute business and technology capabilities and services

-          Ideation

-          Incubation and Fast Prototyping

-          Industrialization

-          Analytics

  • Track and monitor outcomes and delivered value (with the appropriate KPIs)
Phase 3: SCALE: Jointly managed across the full digital services initiatives portfolio


Phase 3: SCALE: Jointly managed across the full digital services initiatives portfolio

  • Accelerate and optimize the delivery model in a cost-to-serve-efficient way (offshore capabilities, synergies)

The Schneider Electric digital services factory

In a five-year collaboration, Accenture is helping Schneider Electric build and accelerate these digital services. A first step in this collaboration is the development of the “Schneider Electric Digital Services Factory,“ which will enable the company to leverage millions of connected assets across its infrastructure and customer sites, in order to build and scale new offerings rapidly in areas such as predictive maintenance, asset monitoring, and energy optimization.

The Schneider Electric Digital Services Factory will provide a complete range of services to speed development from ideation to industrialization—including generating and incubating new ideas, designing and testing potential offerings, deploying and scaling offerings, and providing the analytics and IoT capabilities to accelerate application development. Within its first seven months, the Factory had created a clear vision and strategic intent to drive digital offerings across seven domains, and had launched three ideation and incubation cycles across multiple business units to unlock value from new opportunities, and cut the time from product ideation to market testing from three years to less than eight months.

The magic combination through a strong Ecosystem

The magic combination through a strong Ecosystem

Author

Christophe Brasselet

Christophe Brasselet
Accenture Consulting l Connected Product & Lifecycle Practice

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