Increase in demand for digital aftermarket information.
As technology in products and systems of the future becomes more complex, service and aftermarket information becomes even more important – the key to satisfied users and efficient service. Semcon is a world leading service provider of digital aftermarket information, and the company has seen good growth in the area thanks to the increase in demand in 2019.
Nowadays, people expect to have access to the right information at the right time, and in a form and medium that suit them.
One way for companies to meet end users’ requirements – while also creating new revenue sources – is to digitalise their service and aftermarket information. This provides opportunities for both increased and recurring revenue.
Increased quality and efficiency thanks to outsourcing
Developing and producing service and aftermarket information does not form part of the core business of most companies. There are major quality and efficiency gains to be realised by outsourcing this element of the value chain, additionally it gives companies the opportunity to focus on their own core business.
Semcon has extensive experience of taking the overall responsibility for the development and production of service and aftermarket information for advanced and complex products and systems. More than 70 per cent of today’s revenue within the Product Information business area originates from close partnership and end-to-end responsibility of this kind. Our objective is to increase this share in the future.
Our customers often have opportunities for significant cost reductions over time by fully digitising and standardising their aftermarket information. We have a number of specific examples where total savings have exceeded 30 per cent – not to mention the value of greater customer satisfaction.
Digitalisation creates new opportunities
As one of the world’s largest service providers of digital service and aftermarket information, Semcon currently has more than 700 employees working in the field; everything from ontology experts, technical writers and illustrators to experts working with digital distribution and Virtual & Augmented Reality. Most of our employees develop and produce digital product information, as digitalisation is the single most powerful trend within the aftermarket area.
As the service and aftermarket business is not always as cyclical as the product sales business, there are major opportunities to create more stable revenue streams by means of outsourcing, even during poorer economic cycles.
As end users change their needs and behaviour, companies are being forced to review their offerings. This may, for example, involve adding completely new services as a supplement to the traditional product, or a need to increase or expand the service content. At Semcon, we can help our customers with this transformation by combining our cutting-edge skills in the field of digital product information with state-of-the-art AI solutions: we call this offering ‘Prescriptive Maintenance’.
