Forum DLM: smart services business models
On Friday, September 9, 2022, 80 representatives of international companies from various industries and academia met for the Forum Service Management (DLM) at the University of Basel. The forum focused on the topic of smart services, which poses major challenges for companies because existing value creation systems are changing, in some cases fundamentally.
A wide range of practical presentations and a panel discussion offered participants innovative impulses and concrete starting points on how to deal with new requirements, e.g. with regard to the integration of service and technology development and work design in an increasingly digitalized context.
In their introductory lecture, Professors Manfred Bruhn (University of Basel) and Karsten Hadwich (University of Hohenheim) provided an overview of the trends and success factors of smart services from a scientific perspective, thus offering many points of departure for the following presentations.
Philippe Heim from Belimed AG reported on how the company has transformed from a hardware to a service provider in recent years. Key success factors in the market launch of the SmartHub service were the involvement of customers in the development process, user centricity in implementation, and embedding the digital and data strategy in the corporate strategy.
The presentation by Daniel Senn (Belimo Automation AG) showed the relevance of intelligent solutions for higher energy efficiency in buildings. A particular challenge here is to meet the different regulatory requirements in different countries and to equip the sales partners with the appropriate expertise and support during commissioning. Belimo solves this with a training platform including an integrated success control test and an app in combination with NFC technology.
Katharina Büeler used the example of SVA Aargau to show how social insurance companies can improve the customer experience with smart services. In her presentation, she also shared how employees are actively shaping this change and thus also benefiting from the introduction of these services.
Jens Eckstein presented, among other things, how the Universitätsspital Basel is setting up a monitoring system with the help of wearables and an app to simplify the exchange with patients and referring physicians.
In the last practical presentation, Burkhardt Ditsche demonstrated convincingly the role and the added value that connectivity in the form of the IntelliOPS platform plays in the business model of the Aebi Schmidt Group for providing digital solutions to its customers
In the concluding panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Mareike Ahlers, Managing Director of Prof. Bruhn & Partner AG, participants discussed how to motivate teams in the development of smart services.