Make your customer more successful by making service data available!

THOMAS NAGEL: Hi there. My name is Thomas Nagel. I am the an Outcome Executive at Autodesk, as well as an Agile Coach for NEXT Agile Coaching. And today, I would like to present you the class, Make Your Customer More Successful By Making Service Data Available.

So our agenda for today is just to introduce myself. I will talk a little bit about my experience and my passions. And the reason why I have the class today, because I think it's very important to talk about it and maybe show some use cases, something like this. But also what is important if you do some transformations if you would like to get things done in your company.

So be aware that there are a lot of changes and challenges. And I would like to talk about this, develop your way with a Value Proposition. So why you always should start with a Value Proposition. And then I would get into some details and some thoughts about what you can make available for your service, what data you have.

It does not matter if it's always perfect, something like this. Also, best practices from my experience. And maybe, how you can realize it if you want to afterwards. And for sure afterwards, after the presentation part, there will be the Q&A.

So my name is Thomas Nagel, as I mentioned already. I work since 30 years in the digital transformation. I am an engineer for process engineering. At my first day at a company called Claudius Peters was that I had to move the company from manual processes into digital processes. This was 1992.

And we had to move all the workflows and the data structure and the IT structure and the bill of materials and make bomb configurators and make standardization and stuff like this from my first day on. And we moved it into a digital way. And this is what I liked.

It's like changing and changes. I like it not from the day one on. But I was learning how to change. I was exercising changes. And then I became a change agent at Claudius Peter's, my previous company and employer where I worked for 28 years. And now at Autodesk, I try to hand over my experience and the knowledge which I have also to projects with customers and offer them my passion and my comments and my thoughts on it.

So what I just did is from the beginning, I was really looking into business processes in the company and maybe also to the customer. How can we maybe improve customer experience? How can we step forward step by step?

And again, all the change projects and the digital projects went over my table after I had to move everybody into the ERP processes and the digital processes. If we developed a project management console or platform in 2006, if we move to a paper free office in 2010, if we developed a service portal for our customers where they had online access to all their jobs and orders and spare and where parts from 1992 on, everything went over my table. And I loved to look at it and introduce it to the company and also to the customers. And connect maybe a corporate data and make them available.

Having said this, this was one of the projects I was involved. This is also how and why I do talk about making data available for the service is because in my previous company at Claudius Peters, we had an innovation project ongoing. And this was by connecting data.

So we started because we wanted to sell more spare parts and make it easy to identify spare parts and select them and send us a quote for request-- a request for quote. But then it became much more, because we learned that there are so many different data available in the good and existing, and maybe also, old infrastructure that we were able to understand the meaning of connecting the data and how to make use out of it.

And you see also some quotes from my time as I was the operations director. I was 10 years responsible for the operations as a director. The last five years, I was also technical director. And also the last five years, I was responsible for the digital transformation of Claudius Peters to move, maybe to evolve, a traditional company into a future where the digitization is more important.

And this was my journey. And I always said this is really important how easy and quick you can connect data. And if you use a product like Catalog Creator, it doesn't matter. It's not only about saying, hey, you need this product. I want to talk about the possibilities.

What you find in the whole documentation in this presentation, which is also attached to the class, you will find additional information and links on the pages. And I just want to say always, if you see somewhere, let's say the LinkedIn article in blue, it is a link to an analytical I wrote. For example, a modular approach, which was published in 2017 where I am I'm talking about how to digitize existing and new process plans.

And this is just an example to give you a better background and to give you more insights about the topic of today just by explaining what I did there, how we connect the data, how we made it possible something like this. Important is to understand, no matter what you transform, if you make change projects, you have to be aware that more than 70% fail to meet the expectations.

This is not a number from me, this is not a number from Autodesk. This is a quote from McKinsey. And even if you believe you are acting with best interest and you may be communicated well in your organization, you always have to consider there is a lot of resistance. Many people will not understand why they have to change.

And this is an important topic. It's not about technology, it is not about maybe new workflows or something like this. The main thing you have to consider is understand that the major topic is the people-side of a project. And you have to take care of it.

Again, just two quotes. It's not that the board has a great vision and the executive knows exactly where to go, It must be also supported from all employees. That they do understand and they stand behind the mission. And that they move forward and participate on the change by understanding why you do things.

And on the right hand side, is a quote from myself. Modern designers and engineers must adapt to modern ways. They have to understand themselves more and more as a data manager and programmer. Only if they do so, they will be able to use the potential and the capabilities of modern tools like Revit, like Inventor, like everything else.

So it's not just working like 10 years ago or 20 years ago, it's like understanding the meaning of modern software. When I said, OK, what is important? Before you even start thinking about a project, from my perspective, it is always important to develop a strong why and strong business case with a Value Proposition.

So only if you really do understand it and if you have it maybe-- have a metrics where you really can measure the success later on, it will be maybe understandable. And this is why we developed also an discovery workshop, which is based on different LUMA methods. And the LUMA methods, they are coming from design thinking and methods like this.

And here, for example, rose, thorn, bud. We moved the rose, thorn, bud method into the value proposition, which is also known from strategizer. And you always talk about the jobs to be done, maybe for a company or maybe for a service department. If you would like to learn more about it, just go, again, on the link on this PDF, jump into the mural board. And then you can also click on the additional links.

And you will figure out, let's say, the pains and gains of your team. And you move it into clusters like, what are the classes for to increase the efficiency? What are the clusters to increase turnover or cost reduction? Or whatever the clusters are.

And if you develop the clusters and the ideas and topics you will vote on them. And then the most pressing items may be 10 or 12 items, you will move into a matrix where you show from left to right, the business impact. And from bottom to top, the complexity.

And if you then vote again, you will find maybe 1, 2, 3, 4, maybe six items you would like to work on. And you define the why, you define the how, you define the value metrics. What is in for you as a company?

And if you would like to learn more about maybe possibilities, what others did, what I posted as a YouTube video or how other companies are offering, let's say, service portals based on forged, based on their technology, just go on this mural board and have a look. And if you have some questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

And again, you need to talk about the pains and gains, your jobs to be done and how you will cluster it, how you identify the most pressing and important items. How you bring it into the matrix. Because only then you can say, see, maybe there is a quick win or there is a very complex topic, which is complex, complicated, difficult, costly. And then you develop maybe the overview.

What is in for you? And what will be the value per year or per month or whatever? So that you can come up with a maybe vision, just like this guy here. He wants to get into the sky and wants to make more business by over 20%. If he is able to use his existing data and make them available for is service teams, for himself, for his aftermarket, spare part department, site services and customer outposts. And so on and so forth.

Solving challenges is realizing added value. So if you do understand your processes and, let's say, your challenges in your company, that you do understand maybe you have breaks in your workflows or in your medias which leads to inefficient processes. If you do have knowledge in the heads of your employees and not maybe available in databases or maybe even connected data, if there is no easy access to knowledge and to know how.

If you have decentral processes and culture and hidden maybe in all processes and you get problems again and again, have little in transparency and modern solutions are not yet maybe used or integrated, then you need to look at how to solve it. But again, at the beginning, you have to create awareness for this that everybody in your organization-- everybody who is involved in the change needs to understand what is the nature of the change you will you plan.

Why is the change needed? What would happen if you do not change? And only if you develop awareness, you will be able to develop desire in all your people. So which means, what's in for me as a participant of this change. Maybe of an employee of your company.

Everybody has a personal choice to say, yes, I'm standing behind it. I did understand it. It's my decision and I did understand what's in for me. And only then the people will move to the knowledge phase and they will take on with training.

They are interested. They are motivated. They learn what the change is all about and what maybe the workflow or solution has to be used later on. And then they create an ability because they use it in their daily work. And your management has to reinforce the change.

And this is what is necessary and what needs to be done in your company before you even think about implementing a new solution, no matter if it is from Autodesk if it is with Forged, if it's with maybe a different company. Make your data available, means the customer experience, very important.

You are a company, you have customers. And as I am as a Customer Outcome Executive, your success is also making the customer more successful. Give easy access to good data, which leads to higher quality in preparation maybe of maintenance and service activities. Reduce down times, because there will be no incorrect selected spare parts anymore.

Have an efficient execution of work which is done by your customers, or maybe by your service, which can be insured then. Have resulting out of this higher security and availability and available leads, which will lead also to good results, increases the confidence in the own data strategy. And make you even a better partner for your customer.

And this is a picture from the company Quanos, deliver the solution, which I implemented in my former company Claudius Peters, the so-called catalog creator, which is now called Cis1. And this is what I meant. So you do have so many great data in your existing tools.

So you have an ERP system with great data with maybe articles, maybe with bill of materials, with maybe how many paths are on stock. What is the price? Is it available, yes or no? Do I have other concerns like maybe a custom tariff numbers or something like this.

Then you have a PDM. Maybe you have Vault and you work with Inventor or maybe AutoCAD or even Revit. So you have 3D models, you have photos, you have 2D drawings attached to the articles, as well. And you probably have also an CAE system working with maybe engineering based or e-card or something or whatsoever.

And all these data are maybe on different places, but they are part of your machine or maybe of your process plan. Or maybe if you run as an operator, your plan. And for sure, you have in document management system, maybe a content management system. You have supplier documentation.

And this means you have great data. You use maybe Inventor and you can also use your 3D models and the data around it combined with the ERP data, not just for the manufacturing but maybe for the service. And the power of Vault is tremendous, because you can bring the right content of 3D, 2D, maybe bill of materials, maybe already marked spare and ware parts and bring it together with all the other sources I just mentioned and combine the power of Vault, with the power of ERP, with the power of document and content management systems And you have your supplier documentation.

And bring everything together so that your services-- or different stakeholders like your service, like the customer, like maybe your dealer or maybe an outpost will be able to use the data and they can consume easily the data, which comes from different databases from different data silos. But you can easily connect them with the possibility of maybe a product from Quanos or maybe with Forged to be able just to connect all your datas.

Forge is an API platform, just for the people who do not know this. It's the technology where the cloud solutions from Autodesk are based on. So you can also use the Forge technology to create the experience for your customers.

And because I have still a strong connection to Quanos, I have access to a test catalog. And here, you see, you have 3D available only also as an online web viewer. So I do not have any installation. I can go through my 3D model.

I can click into it. I can have either the 2D drawing, which is an explosion drawing made out of the 3D model. I can click on the 3D model to identify easier maybe the part I'm looking at. I'm also able to jump always from 3D to 2D.

And you see, it is much easier to select maybe a part and spare parts or ware part on a 3D model. Or go into the parts list just by using your powerful 3D data, which can come out of Inventor, for example. And all this is then also maybe connected to some e-card or CAE data.

So if you have connected data for this machine-- for this part in your machine maybe within engineering base or e-card, you can just jump there and you see the connected data from the wiring diagrams. Or you have connected data to, let's say, a maintenance instruction or maybe to some service instructions.

Or maybe you have added some links to this and you get data from your ERP system like price or pictures. Or you would like to look at, let's say, with thumbnails to your bill of materials. So you see now, the main part is based on the rotary field or the fan or other things. And you can even go further in this bill of material just by using the thumbnails which can be created also out of Inventor and can be easily made available in your solution. Either it is Forge or it is something else.

If you search something like I just did, I entered the 213, and you will find all the information available, which comes maybe out of Vault, in Inventor, out of your ERP, out of your system, everything will be available just by clicking like you did it or you know it maybe from Google or others. It is just a click away.

And you can also have maybe additional functionalities like it is clear like a shopping cart or order history or a search functionality. Or maybe you would like to make documentation available for your service and/or for your customer. So this was just to explain a bit how you can make your great existing data available and make it consumable.

And maybe your company is like every other company. You have great data in the ERP, in the Vault and PDM system and/or maybe in Inventor and in e-card or engineering based or wherever. But normally, people do not have access to all these expert systems. And normally, the expert systems are difficult to use-- to operate.

So to get information out of maybe ERP systems is a tough one. So you need to work all day long on it to get this somehow happen. And this is what I just also want to make sure. No matter what solution you choose, you will be able to consume the connected intelligent data no matter if you are sitting in the office on your desk or you are working on site or you are a customer from you.

Or maybe an outpost or a dealer. Or your service people who are on site. So you will be able to have access to all this great data everywhere, everyone. Maybe with your tablets, maybe with your smartphones. And this is what you need to make things happen and easy available.

What I just said is you must be able to search for just one search word. Or you combine the search words. That you say, I do understand. There wasn't 213 in the part number. And maybe I want to add an information like in what level of the bill of material I'm looking at. Or I just want to look into the CAE documentation or whatever.

Searching is not important. Finding is important. Find the right parts, find the operation related information. Maybe just like in Google. You can develop or there are some standard functions in an existing solution. Or you can develop great solutions so that you can have an outstanding visualization of your service information no matter where they come from.

And also, what I really want to point out-- my story about Claudius Peters. We made it possible that old information from 1992 in 2D linked with the bill of material from the ERP system were available for the customers. If a customer was calling-- so like maybe a big producer of cement, I am interested in using your service portal. Can you please move my 2,000 orders from plan orders, component orders, spare part orders to the Claudius Peters portal?

Then he got it in two days after what he got the access to 2,000 orders with all orders. And he could search according to his job PO number, he could search with this part number. He could see the current documentation for such a part, and so on and so forth.

This will reduce search time. This will reduce, let's say, hundreds and thousands of times the typical way of work or the work you do on a daily basis or maybe with your customer or your service team. Or the people will be more independent. They will be able to find things and not just give you a call or make a snapshot or give you maybe an serial number from site and then you start digging and searching.

Maybe they can even start it themselves. And this can easily end to an end-to-end workflow without any discontinuity, even if the customer is starting the process. So he can put it maybe into your web shop or maybe into your shop cart. And is sending you right away the request maybe for quote or maybe even he's ordering it right away.

And because the data are coming from your good data, you can automatically automate your processes to move it to your ERP system to generate maybe an offer, to generate even maybe the order and give right away an order acknowledgment, and so on and so forth. So this means by searching and finding the right parts, you will be able also to connect the customer workflows or the service workflows which are on site.

Or maybe your dealers or your outposts make this able and available for everybody who is more or less streamlined in this process. Yeah, how to make it happen. It is important to understand what you really want to do, how to go forward to develop an idea what is in for you. To make, as I mentioned, a value proposition.

So does it make sense? Is there potential for us as a company? Is it maybe also a strong argument for our customers to stick with us as a supplier, vendor or better even as a partner? Can I make it easy for everybody to find the right information, the right spare ware parts so that it gets easy for the customer to buy from me?

Maybe I can even reduce some high price parts to a cheaper prices. as everybody is doing personally or in his private time, he buys maybe online because it is cheaper and the service is bigger, like at Amazon, for example-- Prime. Maybe you can develop also strategies because the end-to-end processes are connected.

And this is what you need to develop. Develop a Value Proposition. Why it makes sense. What's in for you as a customer. And then maybe develop and start with the first important steps. Look later also on to your data strategy, onto your data quality.

And it is really important, you do not have to have perfect data. You will find the problems in your data right away if you do it and if you make it. And how you go forward is maybe just also a question how your digital strategy is. The customer also from Autodesk, the company under it, they developed years ago a digital strategy.

And on the upper link, you can also see that they already developed an spare part catalog, which is fitting to their digital strategy based on Autodesk Forge. And on the upper link, there is an open link to an AU class where ANDRiTZ is explaining what they did, why they did it. And they developed an spare part catalog, for example, based on Forge according to their digital strategy.

There are coming more and more platforms on the market. CADShare is also a platform where maybe vendors can use their platform based on Forge. And they can integrate their goods and 3D documents, and maybe also data from their ERP systems and make it possible and happen.

And as I mentioned before, what you can do is use maybe a specific solution like from Quanos Service Solutions, this service information system, which I introduced you at the beginning. When I was working at Claudius Peters, we used this product. And we were able just to connect all data easily from all the different sources, no matter if you have different ERP system, if you have an old ERP system.

If you would like to add an translation system to it or you want to add some new information, it is a way forward where I had great insights in my passion of smart data. And therefore, I want to show you the possibility of maybe the three solutions.

OK, I'm coming now to the end of my presentation and my slide deck. And I would like to-- I hope that we will have a Q&A in the next minutes after the presentation ends now. Thank you very much for listening to the presentation.

Have a great time. Enjoy the AU 2021. And get in contact with me if you have any questions. Thank you.