An OEM’s Installed base is its most valuable asset. It has been built over a long time (20+ years), and typically has tens of thousands of machines owned by thousands of customers at thousands of unique locations around the world. These machines get used in harsh environments and require ongoing maintenance, repair, service – and […]
Author Archives: Vivek Joshi
TL;DR World has changed a lot in the last 21 months, and winners and losers have emerged from this crisis While some of these changes were in response to the pandemic, many of them will stick, e.g. hybrid work, less business travel, rapid adoption of e-commerce, etc But the workplace challenges caused by changing customer […]
Ok, hopefully, that headline got your attention! But hear me out, and when I’m done, I think you will agree with my characterization of this important business process. First, let’s get our definitions aligned: Installed Base = customers who have bought machines from you and buy parts, consumables, service, replacement units, upgrades, and modifications, etc […]
After a long 18 months of COVID “work from home”, I finally started “getting on the road” to meet with customers, prospects, and others in the broader Industrial OEM ecosystem to re-establish connections, relationships and cultivate new business. During these meetings with 20 odd companies and 40-50 business leaders, I was struck by the seeming […]
TL;DR Best practice sharing and lessons learned has always been a mechanism used by OEM leaders As we built Entytle, our customers and prospects kept asking us about forums/events/groups where they could trade notes, ideas and learn from one another As we looked around we could not find anything that fit their needs So we […]
TL;DR Every customer matters, not just your top ones Today’s customer expects to be served in a personalized way The dichotomy of being able to personalize experience WHILE being able to do so at scale is difficult Other industries have shown it is possible with data & analytics The OEMs that achieve this goal will […]
A few weeks ago, I suggested that industrial OEMs should create a new role, that of a Chief Installed Base Officer (CIBO). Based on the comments and reactions, I clearly hit a nerve, and the reactions were interesting in their affirmation of the need for this role. This leads to the following obvious questions: 1.What […]
A couple of weeks ago I posted what I thought was a provocative article suggesting that the Aftermarket a.k.a Installed Base is too important to leave in the hands of the Aftermarket team. It turns out that it wasn’t such a controversial point of view, with most of the respondents agreeing with me! My point […]
It is accepted wisdom that only a small portion of an OEM’s installed base accounts for a large percentage of aftermarket sales or profit or growth or whatever else your favorite metric may be. It’s the famed Pareto principle or 80/20 rule at work !! Companies large and small use this as a rubric to […]
Blogs
What Does Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs have to do with Industrial OEMs, Digitization of Customer Experience & Installed Base?
TL;DR Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a good framework for understanding how companies think Providing “food shelter water” is critical before satisfying higher levels of needs The high visibility projects of digitization (IoT, Servitization, sophisticated eCommerce, etc) are definitely in the upper tier of needs I have a feeling that this analogy is going to […]
