Companies with traditional business models have been challenged with the exceptional growth of data intensive platform-based companies, powered by online technologies. Many companies with a more traditional business model have been told that if your business isn’t a platform, you had better worry that one is coming your way. 

But there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Research shows that the success of network orchestrators and unicorns might be more about how they interpret data and use data to create value, than about their new business model. Which is good news for companies with a more traditional business model, and a legacy that cannot be replaced with a cloud-based service.

It may be easier said than done, but what companies with a traditional business model need to do, is to figure out how data can create differentiating and relevant value to customers and partners. Is usage data interesting to our customers? How can payment data reduce churn rate? The objective is to revitalize the business by becoming more proactive and more useful to the customers and partners. Which drives profitability and sustainable growth.

I´d like to share one model that can be used to find out where to focus. It is called the “Power of Flows”. It was created a few years ago. The researchers, two senior consultants with Deloitte, had noticed that some companies had values that was hidden from the corporate balance sheet. The stock market evaluated them higher than you would expect. The researcher’s conclusion was that the value these companies had was an ability to shape their business around data.

Examples of what it means to leverage data and data flows

Nine examples that illustrate what it means to “leverage data and data flows” and how data increases customer value far beyond monetary value:

1. Findus has a goal of freezing their harvested peas in just a few hours after the harvest. For Findus, Prevas designed and implemented a software platform that connects routines for sowing, harvesting, planning, supervision, and so forth,  into one system. The solution also allows for real-time pricing based on supply factors and demand dynamics.

2. Implementation of new ERP system (Dynamics AX) in the whole industry group as part of implementing the new digitalization strategy for Vapo. Will enable Vapo to improve flexibility in production as well as higher efficiency in key processes. Real-time pricing will be enabled, as well as a more robust interface to integrate new suppliers of raw material.

3. ASSA has implemented a solution where they can invite customers to walk around “inside” the 3D drawings of a new production facility. This allows ASSA to invite the customer earlier in the process, understand how they can improve the factory layout and make the pricing model more flexible. Solution based on Oculus Rift software and Semcon IT consultant.

4. Maersk does predictive maintenance which saves entire shipments from e.g. rotting or being damaged. Ericsson together with AT&T have equipped hundreds of Maersk shipping containers with connected devices. These devices send status updates of container appliances such as fans, coolers as well as the position of the container to a central data hub. This hub can be accessed from Maersk headquarters and onboard the ship.

“Just wait for your industry´s equivalent to Uber and Airbnb”

5. A diabetes tool by Karolinska analyses patient’s glucose data through a sensor in the upper arm and calculates individualized insulin dose recommendations. The solution is based on shared data between caregiver and patient.

6. The Triggerfish is a unique sensor-embedded contact lens system that Sensimed developed with the aim to improve the management of glaucoma. Combining a fully integrated sensor and telemetry, it provides a wireless automated recording of continuous ocular dimensional changes over the course of 24 hours. FDA Approved.

7. The DeLaval DelPro software connects farming equipment, cows, and the farmer into one ecosystem. The farmer gets real time information about the cattle, status of all machinery as well as quality of the product. All these aspects can be controlled from a smartphone or computer. Usage data is transformed to individual advice to all its users of the software.

8. Internet connected test cars reporting information back to engineers. Allows for expanding scope of testers, expanded scope of geography, usage data generation, and building brand awareness among existing and potential new customers.

9. Service for sending photos of suspicious looking moles, freckles etc. to medical professionals. The company provides the app Hüd. Allows full participation, prescriptive use of data, and real-time AI generated pricing depending on scope of intervention.

Radar Ecosystem Specialists has helped us find these examples from around the world. The Power of Flows is a concept by John Hagel and Paul Sallomi, Deloitte.