The Industrial Subscription Economy is based on outcomes, not products

Based on a report in the Economist, 80% of companies are seeing a change in how their customers want to access and pay for goods and services, and 50% of these same companies are changing their pricing models as a result.

So, what's driving this shift in customer behavior? Customers expect outcomes!

The 'subscription economy' is a term, coined by Zuora, describing the shift away from the traditional pay-per-product model to a subscription model. The shift to selling products and services based on measurable outcomes requires more than implementing cool technologies. It requires viewing the customers as people first and to bring about the most positive customer experiences.

Traditionally, businesses thought that the key to winning customers was in the quality of the product or service they deliver. In the subscription economy, it’s not about the products or number of sales transactions. Success is no longer defined by your product; it’s about how individual users get value out of subscribing to your product.

The Subscriptions Economy prioritizes customer experience

This outcome driven model is contingent on performances of people (the subscribers). As such, it has to be based on empowering people with smarter ways of doing work by leveraging digital technologies, smart IIoT devices & sensors, cloud-based analytics and ubiquitous data access.  

A strategy that is people-focused instead of product-focused involves a shift in how companies view their customer's journey:

• It’s about access, not ownership
• It’s about constant improvement and maintenance, not planned obsolescence
• It’s about long-term partnership, not transactions

The subscription-based sales process relies less on the closing of a sale, and more on nurturing the relationship to create long-term customer value.

Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product. Instead, they stay loyal with companies they trust and due to the experience they receive. A good customer experience means your customers are more likely to increase their spend with you. On the other hand, if you cannot keep up with their increasing demands, your customers may leave you.

The Future is Here: Industrial Subscriptions

Subscription is nothing new in many industries, including media, telecom, retail, and software. Industrial applications will represent the next wave. But reimagining your value proposition must encompass more than just a mere change in financing.

Successful industrial subscriptions should be data-driven, deploying a rich internet of things sensory environment for remote monitoring, control, and maintenance of the product. The data collected from real-world operation of the solution, combined with machine learning, will create a powerful feedback loop for continuous improvement. These efforts will manifest in digital twins across both the operational and asset lifecycles.

From the initial release of the AVEVA Flex subscription program in 2019, our customers have been able to access our broad and deep industrial software portfolio in a centralized program to drive improved outcomes and scale as their business requirements change. The new AVEVA^TM Operations Control subscription packages represent the next step in making our robust portfolio available through subscription in a simplified way, and provide customers with the software they need to drive improved decision making.  

This enhanced frictionless, holistic user experience enables customers to access information and functionality from across AVEVA’s broad range of proven applications: from real-time HMI and SCADA process data, to manufacturing execution management, to predictive maintenance. Customers benefit from unparalleled insights and work process & knowledge digitalization, for example:

• empower the frontline operator with mobility through proven unlimited HMI visualization and utilize the cloud to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing to drive continuous improvements
• leverage cloud capabilities for development, visualization and storage to drive engineering efficiency & standardization across the enterprise
• augment real-time and historical process data with cloud-based machine learning A.I. capabilities to predict possible faults or failures and take pre-emptive action

AVEVA Operations Control seamlessly delivers the data and insight needed to empower the modern workforce.