Syncron^TM, a provider of cloud-based after-sales service solutions focused on empowering the world’s leading manufacturers to maximize product uptime and deliver exceptional customer experiences, today announced significant enhancements to the Syncron Service Cloud that will further empower manufacturers to optimize their current break-fix after-sales service operations as they simultaneously lay the foundation for the inevitable shift to servitization and delivering products-as-a-service.

According to IDC, 40 percent of manufacturers have some sort of IoT project underway[i]. However, most original equipment manufacturers’ (OEMs) deployed products are disconnected, or not IoT enabled.  These are products that were sold several years ago, are still and will be in service for the years – or even decades – remaining in their lifecycles. The repair and maintenance of these products will be delivered via OEMs’ traditional after-sales service operations, which must be continuously optimized to not only deliver increased value to customers, but also prepare for the inevitable shift from almost exclusively selling new products to instead selling products-as-a-service. Optimizing traditional service operations in parallel with deploying new business models will complicate OEMs journey to the future.

Henrik Lenerius, Chief Product Officer at Syncron, said “This journey will require OEMs to transform their service business operations to support new products-as-a-service business models. Leading manufacturers have already recognized that accelerating this transformation can only be accomplished if the core of their current service operations – service parts inventory and price management – are fully optimized. At Syncron, we understand the need to optimize today’s business operations while simultaneously enabling the transition to servitization more than any other technology provider. Flexible, scalable technology is a key accelerator and enabler to selling products-as-a-service and we are well on our way to expanding the Syncron Service Cloud to accomplish these important objectives.”

Enhancements to the new generation of the Syncron Service Cloud include:

Syncron Inventory^TM is now processing and planning hundreds of millions of SKUs – a 60 percent year-over-year increase. With more than 2.5 million recommended order lines processed each day, Syncron has further enhanced its service parts inventory management solution with the following key features that increase its value creation capabilities and make it the fastest, most scalable solution available:

• Industry-leading Forecasting Speeds and Accuracy. The processing time for service parts inventory forecast calculations and planning parameters has been cut in half. This enables manufacturers to make critical inventory decisions faster based on machine learning-driven forecasting methods.
  
  
• Multi-echelon Inventory Optimization takes supply chain dependencies into consideration and places parts inventory where it will increase the end-customer’s service the most at the lowest possible cost to the network. Syncron has added more advanced capabilities, including support for upstream demand from end customers and the ability to run advanced scenario simulations to compare outcomes and make approvals before putting new multi-echelon supply plans into action.
  
  
• Planned Event Management supports planned events in the future – like a machine overhaul or planned service, for example – and allows the first line of the supply network (e.g. field technicians or dealerships) to secure the availability of required parts without having to keep unnecessary safety stocks. This also provides upstream locations with early and more accurate demand signals to make planning more predictable, accurate and efficient.
  
  
• The Dealer Portal is a new way for dealer service managers – Syncron’s largest userbase – to interact with Syncron Inventory. The new dealer portal increases automation capabilities and guides users to make the best decisions that will drive business value. This ultimately results in better business performance for dealerships with less manual effort.

As OEMs optimize the foundations of their current service operations, the demand for Syncron Price^TM is increasing, with the number of unique parts priced around the world increasing more than 300 percent over the last two years. With the total number of service parts price points generated increasing 10X, Syncron has made the following enhancements to its service parts pricing solution:

• Fastest data processing in the industry. A typical price revision process includes calculation-intensive data processing. With increased data crunching speed of manual overrides and bulk updates now 5X faster, price revision calculations 2X faster and customer price revision simulations 2.5X faster, the timeline to complete a price revision process is significantly shortened, ultimately resulting in optimal market prices. The improved speeds also free up pricing teams to spend more time focused on strategic initiatives that result in increased revenue and margins.

• The multi-level approval process is now streamlined and more efficient. The Delegation of Authority (DOA) process is an important part of security compliance, and this process can easily become complex. With Syncron’s multi-level approvals, there is built in, automated support for approval thresholds and different approval levels. This ensures that the impact of compliance rules is as minimal as possible and results in increased part pricing process efficiency.
  
  
• Competitive Price Data Integration. In partnership with Eucon, Syncron Price customers within the automotive industry will now have real-time access to a database of competitive prices, automatically providing users with up-to-date competitive pricing information without extensive manual efforts. This will allow OEMs to quickly react to market trends and optimize prices to improve customer experiences and financial performance.

“It’s more important than ever for manufacturers to optimize the performance and strengthen the foundation of their after-sales service operations,” added Lenerius. “As the inevitability of servitization and selling products-as-a-service places increased demands on OEMs to transform and deliver increased value to customers, we’re excited and committed to our continued investment in the Syncron Service Cloud as the platform to enable this transformation.”