MANAMA: Companies can expect a revenue boost of more than 14 per cent by automatically collecting and analysing service data related to industrial assets, according to a new global research report.

Additionally, for every $1 spent on successful service data collection and usage, companies expect a return of $4.44 – approaching five times the initial investment.

The research, “The Rise of Asset and Service Data Gravity,” was commissioned by ServiceMax from GE Digital and conducted by Vanson Bourne.

It surveyed 600 IT decision makers and field service management leaders across Manufacturing, Energy and Power, Oil and Gas, Transportation, Distribution and Logistics, Telecoms and Medical/Healthcare regionally in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, as well as globally in the USA, UK, France, and Germany.

The study found that out of the estimated 187,470 field service work orders conducted on average each year, 15,635 (8.34pc) of them remain unaccounted for within organisations, representing millions in lost revenue.

The study also found that Generation Z, those born between the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, will be the last generation to remember a product-based economy.

As the trend to bundle services with products and the appetite for outcome-based contracts and business models continues, 77pc of those surveyed believe Gen Z will be the last generation to experience an economy dominated by products alone without any embedded services or outcomes.

“Businesses are moving to outcome-based models where monetising service – and harnessing field service data – is critical to success,” said GE Digital Middle East, Africa & Turkey chief commercial officer Ali Saleh.

“In a world focussed on service, the asset is the most important thing, and everything revolves around it. This includes uptime, availability, mitigating downtime, asset estate insight, performance metrics, and supply chain.”

Almost all 600 of the organisations surveyed (99pc) believe that other parts of the business outside of service can benefit from both the automation and better usage of service data.

And 85pc think service data should be central to decision making, while 87pc believe it will have a positive impact on their ability to remain competitive.

“Businesses are expected to have value conversations with customers, rather than product discussions,” added Mr Saleh.

“As the growing value of service data is increasingly recognised outside of the service department, it is best exploited through a digital platform approach, rather than piece by piece to enable every line of business to positively benefit from its insights.”