Visual Configuration: Sales Is The Starting Point for the Digital Thread

We hear that data is the new oil and if that is true, the digital thread is the pipeline.  The company owning the digital thread of data in their platform will generate significant value and create market moat.  We believe the IoT digital thread starts in Visual Sales and sales solutions need to be considered the front end of creating value. 

The concept of the digital thread for industrial manufacturing refers to the ecosystem that is aimed at connecting data and an integrated view of product data throughout its life-cycle across traditionally siloed functional perspectives. The digital thread concept raises the bar for optimizing throughout  a product’s life-cycle of design, development, manufacture and delivery.  

Today, most view the digital thread starting at the product design step and the data housed in PLM or CAD solutions.  However at that point, the digital thread is largely contained to data prevalent in engineering (both design and manufacturing) and supply chain focused systems.  

What about Sales?  

The current view on the digital thread life-cycle is missing a very valuable source of data.  To accurately consider the full product life cycle, companies need to begin tracking unique product data at the point of sale. For configured products, this data provides valuable insight on customer required product configurations, product demand, and product lead time data. 

 The Digital Twin For “Sales”

The majority of thinking around the ‘digital twin’ centers around the manufactured product side of a business and using a highly detailed digital twin to simulate production characteristics to test, design, make performance predictions, and assess value. Few have introduced the significant value possible by pushing the concept of the ‘digital twin’ into the sales process.  We are experiencing customer demand for the same visual digital twin technologies, to be part of the sales tool suite. Imagine the potential to show a customer a complex product in full detail during the sales process. Vendors with this capability are able to provide an immersive experience to potential customers that visually highlights the unique features in the product, ensures the proper fit and function, and creates the optimal sales experience. Boston Consulting Group is one of the few analysts that have examined the impact of the digital twin in sales. “The digital twin can optimize sales and operations planning by simulating the execution of a specific plan,  highlighting risks and opportunities, and feeding the insights back into the planning process.”

Visual Collaboration

The most tech forward manufacturers seek to capitalize on Visual, 3D and AR applications to empower sales toward faster and more accurate selling.  Manufacturing sales enablement technology puts engineering knowledge in the pocket of the sales reps and allows for collaboration towards greater efficiency within the sales and quoting process. What’s more, virtual collaboration with the customer, in the form of visual, shoulder-to-shoulder selling, leads to higher consumer confidence in the product or system being quoted. As the role of sales evolves with the Industry 4.0 factory stack, success within manufacturing sales channels will be directly aligned with digital, engineering based technology.

Visual Digital Tread:  Capture Valuable Data

Smart sales tools like Visual Configuration, Visual + CPQ and Augmented Reality configuration collect ‘sales interaction data’ during the quoting/configuration process to provide insight into manufacturing sales channels. This data is leveraged to provide better support for dealers/distributors, and is also used to improve processes on the shop floor while facilitating a buying experience that maximizes profits and drives buying behavior towards products with lower production and cost impact.  This entire experience expands the digital thread to the beginning of the sales process and first contacts with the customer, capturing and offering valuable data into the thread.  

Leverage Visual Software to Extend Digital Thread From “Sales to the Shop Floor”

Connecting the customer to the shop floor means more than simple backend visibility after production. Real-time visibility from quote to product delivery is critical for optimal flexibility and demand prediction within industry 4.0. An easy way to think about this is visual products from ‘sales to shop floor’ functioning as a data collection ecosystem for manufacturers. Using software to collect and analyze data in each and every step of the manufacturing process gives tech forward manufacturers a serious and measurable edge over their competitors. Sales automation software can move the customer input to the front of the value chain, by immersing the customer in the configuration and design of each product.  Sales applications capture data on the buying process in real time. Sales channel platforms allow this data to flow up the value chain back to the manufacturer. This results in the most efficient way to identify and adapt to changes on demand, ultimately increasing speed to market.