A DPS (Digital Product-Service) system is the central information system that enables and supports a Connected Services offering.
The system acts as the backbone of the connected PSS (Product-Service System). It processes and analyzes the data received from connected products to detect events, such as failures or executed jobs, and recognize patterns, such as good or bad product usage. It generates valuable insights, such as KPIs, trends, and benchmarks, and highlights situations requiring attention, such as anomalies or potential predicted failures. Additionally, the system provides recommendations, such as running a cleaning cycle, and triggers actions and workflows, such as placing an order for consumables or spare parts.
At the same time the system establishes two-way communication with connected products, enabling and facilitating the remote delivery of commands, parameters, recipes and updates.
The system is also the central hub responsible for distributing information, recommendations, and actions to all stakeholders along the value chain of the product-service system, according to their roles, jobs, needs, and goals. It serves 2 main categories of users: end customers and the after-sales service workforce.
The DPS system for end customers: the Connected Customer Portal
We can call the part of the DPS system addressing end customers a Connected Customer Portal or IoT Portal. Here end customers find detailed data, actionable information, recommendations and digital capabilities, enabled by the data from connected products, that helps them achieve the outcome they expect.
The portal is the vehicle of your Digital Services and the customer touch point for your Connected Field Service, Smart Spare Parts or Connected Advanced Services initiatives.
The DPS system for the after-sales service workforce: the “Connected” Digital Control Room
We can call the part of the DPS system addressing the service workforce a Connected Digital Control Room. Here the service workforce find detailed data, insights, meaningful information and digital capabilities, enabled by the data from connected products, that supports their service activities.
The digital control room is the tool that enables and supports the workforce behind your Connected Field Service, Smart Spare Parts or Connected Advanced Services initiatives.
Main capabilities of a DPS system
A DPS system typically has the following main capabilities:
Receiving, organizing and centrally processing data from connected products. The data flows in a continuous, uninterrupted stream.
Establishing two-way communication with products, to allow remote delivery of commands, parameters, recipes, and software / firmware updates.
Detecting events, such as failures or executed operations.
Generating valuable insights, such as KPIs, trends, and benchmarks.
Highlighting situations requiring attention, such as anomalies or potential predicted failures.
Providing recommendations, such as running a cleaning cycle or performing an activity to solve a problem.
Triggering actions and workflows, such as placing an order for consumables or spare parts, or generating a work order for dispatching a technician.
Distributing information and providing digital capabilities to all stakeholders in the product-service system according to their roles, jobs, needs, and goals, specifically addressing end customers and the after-sales service workforce.
Managing the after-sales lifecycle of products and services.
Integrations
Internal integrations
A DPS system typically is not alone. It stands above the layer of IoT technologies responsible for establishing the connection with products (eg an Industrial IoT Platform) and beside the manufacturer's information systems such as the ERP, CRM, and especially the FSM.
External integrations
A DPS system is also designed to be easily integrated with your customers’ information systems. In this way your customers can easily import data and information also in the application they are used to use.
A new software category to solve a new problem: the Data-to-Service Gap
DPS systems form a new software category, solving a new problem, the “Data-to-Service Gap”.
The data-to-service gap is the combination of challenges, problems and limitations that companies encounter when attempting to transform data received from connected products into data-driven services (or ‘connected services’) that are valuable to end customers.
None of the existing software categories, such as IIoT Platforms, FSM software, BI platforms, CRM or ERP software, are designed to address and solve this problem.
This is the reason why all equipment manufacturers who have undertaken Connected Services initiatives so far have developed bespoke applications, often at considerable expense.
All these bespoke applications share very similar features, patterns and visualizations.