Intelligent products and services: unlock the opportunity of a connected business

Progress in digital technologies and rapidly evolving customer demand have led to a new level of interconnectivity, driven by advanced software and unprecedented volume and quality of data.

Fueled by data, a product can be connected interactively with a broader ecosystem offering enhanced CX, optimized product performance and services, agile supply chain, and delivering new sources of value more sustainably, helping organizations to transition to “solution-provider” status. We call these smart, connected, software-enabled products intelligent products and services, and explore the topic in depth in our newest Capgemini Research Institute report, Intelligent Products and Services: Unlock the Opportunity of a Connected Business.
 
There are many concerns around how organizations can utilize and benefit from intelligent products and services. To address these questions, we surveyed 1,000 organizations globally in automotive, medical technology, consumer products, industrial and capital goods, hi-tech manufacturing, and energy and utilities.  These organizations all have either a well-defined or work-in-progress vision and strategy for intelligent products and services. To complement the quantitative insights, we also conducted in-depth interviews with representatives of traditional sectors as well as digital-native firms.
 
We found that despite the benefits that early adopters of intelligent products and services are seeing, the majority of organizations still lack the planning and capabilities to manage this trend, with many yet to move beyond pilots and proofs of concept. Just 7% of organizations have implemented use cases at scale across business units or geographies, and only 35% of those surveyed currently offer intelligent services. Through our research, we highlight several roadblocks that are impeding organizations’ growth in this area.
 
In order to harness the full potential of intelligent products and services, organizations must put customer experience and outcomes at the heart of intelligent design and operating models. Further, traditional legacy systems must give way to a more service-oriented architecture. Organizations should invest in comprehensive data-management systems and data-analytics capabilities to build profitable service-based business models and generate competitive advantage. And finally, organizations must take a “toe-in-the-water” approach: build only a few use cases at one time and test those out before scaling. In this report, we focus on four key questions for organizations that will help them best take advantage of the shift towards intelligent products and services, concluding with key recommendations for organizations in terms of closing the maturity gap and scaling intelligent products and services portfolios.
 
To read more about intelligent products and services and how they can allow an organization to unlock the opportunity of a connected business, download the report.