This audio was created using Microsoft Azure Speech Services
Vele Galovski, VP Support and Field Services, TSIA – Technology & Services Industry Association invited me for a coffee at TSIA Interact earlier this year to discuss Digital Transformation. The premise? With both data and technology growing exponentially, the digital transformation has incredible potential to open new revenue streams and upend traditional business models.
We spent a good hour discussing how to ride this wave and here is what I learned.
“My customer won’t let me connect” is a thing of the past
If some years back and even before the pandemic, you could still make this argument – or better said, excuse – to not transform your business, I don’t hear anyone trying to make the case these days.
Digital and natively connected equipment is already the present – and for us at Schneider it comes from a long-standing tradition to monitor our assets with the initial intent to drive sustainability by reducing energy consumption.
“You can’t reduce what you don’t measure” was our mantra. These basic digital capabilities brought us very far in how to achieve customer delight: for example in our electrical switchgear business, we are now able to operate a cubicle remotely.
Make them part of your process
Long gone are the days of the lonely scientist locked in their lab, coming up with a discovery to astonish the world…once in a blue moon. In today’s digital world, our innovation cycles are shorter and agile.
Customers are an inherent part of that development process and they need to be much closer to the people who develop solutions and not only the sales people as in traditional companies.
E.ON, the largest electricity distributor in Sweden, was one of the first to pilot our breakthrough green and digital switchgear technology – with impressive results.
Salute the early adopters and put them up on the recognition board
Customers are key and so are employees and leaders who drive the change and take ownership of digital transformation inside your company. Recognize those who get things done, but also those who take risks, who innovate, who transform the way to do business and inspire others on their way.
It’s a journey and a long one, make sure you have future heroes by your side!
It’s always a mix
Taking an integrated approach is the way to go! It works for our customers and it works for us as well, at Schneider. We bring the power of digital to field services engineers and we delight customers with essential support up to the most advanced expertise.
Not only are Field Services Representatives more equipped with information, but they can also access instant support from an expert wherever they are in the world. And it’s thanks to digital.
Make digital transformation… tangible
One of the things I liked the most on how to achieve customer delight is the challenge Vele gave me to make digital transformation practical and relatable by filling in the blanks in this statement: With this data I can…and I no longer need to…
Here are my top-of-mind examples:
- Digital Logbook: With this data I can quickly access all product documentation, drawings and maintenance records and I no longer need to spend time to search for the paper copies
- Remote Expertise: With this data I can access monitoring or operation of equipment remotely and I no longer need to dispatch a service engineer, of have him operate a live electrical equipment while standing in front of it.
- Digital Factory Acceptance Tests: With this data I perform remote Factory Acceptance Tests, no need to block out my agenda and make the trip to the factory, I can see and interact remotely with multiple views.
- There’s many more where these came from!
Overall, it was a great session and I look forward to continuing the discussions with the strong community built around TSIA. See you at the next Interact! In the meantime, I invite you to watch my conversation with Vele below:
Read some of my other articles here:
- Sustainability in Action: How ArcelorMittal Saves 170 Metric Tons of CO2
- Strength through Partnership: Spotlight on Panel Builders’ Future
- The Demand Side Needs a Boost – and Other Key Learnings from Reuters Energy Transition Europe
- Fighting Power Outages with FLISR: How it Works
- How Can Regulations Reduce F-gas in Power Networks?
