In SRM, Slow and Steady Wins the Race

IIoT is About Evolution, Not Revolution

You might have noticed that people in the tech industry seem to have a favorite buzzword: disruption.

That word is everywhere. But what does it actually mean? When people talk about disruption, what they’re really talking about is revolution.

It’s easy to understand why revolution is such a hot topic. Revolution sounds exciting. It’s all about faster, bigger, better. It gets people’s attention.

 But what about its opposite: evolution?

That’s a word you don’t hear much from developers and entrepreneurs -- because on the surface, evolution isn’t exciting. Evolution is gradual and, usually, slow. Evolution requires patience, determination, and taking the long view.

Even though “evolution” doesn’t sound as sexy or important as “revolution,” as far as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is concerned, I believe it’s the hands-down best approach to making significant change in the long run.

The IIoT Is a Different Kind of Revolution

The tech media has called the IIoT “the new Industrial Revolution.” However, Industrial Revolution 4.0 isn’t so much about the invention of an entirely new technology (such as Eli Whitney’s cotton gin). It’s more about the connection of existing technologies.

In other words, what’s revolutionary in the 4.0 environment is the thinking, not the change itself.

Revolutionary thinkers are willing to challenge the status quo. They don’t just accept how things have always been done. They envision a better future.

In the current IIoT revolution, revolutionary ideas are helping industries improve productivity, lower costs, automate processes, and enhance transparency across systems.

Here’s an example I know well: Decisiv and our service relationship management (SRM) platform.

It’s based on revolutionary thinking, and a pragmatic approach to executing.

It’s being used to manage service and maintenance for more than 4 million trucking-industry assets. It’s fair to say that SRM has fundamentally changed service and maintenance for truck OEMs, owners and service centers. But the change has been evolutionary, not disruptive.

We had an idea that we think was revolutionary – an idea to use existing technology in new ways. But the creation of the Decisiv platform was evolutionary.

We spent more than 10 years developing an SRM platform that leverages existing telematics solutions and cloud technologies. It connects information that was previously siloed and makes it available to everyone who is part of the service and maintenance process – OEMS, fleet owners and operators, service centers and component manufacturers. For our customers, that access to information has reduced the time a vehicle asset is out of service by as much as 57 percent.

This kind of dramatic improvement is hard to argue with, and it's the kind of value customers want to see.

Maybe Your Customers Don’t Want a Revolution

If your customers are like ours, they don’t care about philosophical discussions – they care about results.

They don’t care about promises for the distant future, they care about the now.

In fact, I’d argue that many companies and organizations have grown tired of the hype about IIoT revolutions.

They’ve had it with spending tons of money on solutions that didn’t deliver the ROI they were promised.

Because what they really want is a realistic plan with a clear path and achievable returns. And they want it now.

Decisiv is here for the decision-makers who don’t want a revolution. We’re always listening to what they have to say. We built our platform to continuously evolve as our customers’ and partners’ needs change.

We’ve chosen the road that’s long-term, deliberate, scalable, and sustainable. We’ve embraced evolution and, more importantly, our vast ecosystem of partners has, too.

Yes, this is a long road. But at Decisiv, we believe it’s the right road. And if it’s the road you want your company to be on, please reach out.

Dick Hyatt is the president and CEO of Decisiv, the industry-leader in cloud-based Service Relationship Management (SRM) technology. Decisiv is driving unrivaled improvement in asset performance and utilization for manufacturers, service providers and asset owners in the commercial vehicle, heavy equipment, and industrial markets. For more information, go to decisiv.com.