Si2Partners were at the recent Service Community event in the UK held at Renishaw PLC.

Held in the impressive Renishaw Innovation Centre in the glorious Cotswolds, this event proved to be another great success with a huge amount of energy being generated in the various discussions and presentations. Over 35 Service professional were welcomed to the Renishaw Innovation Centre by our hosts Martin Carr, Group Service Manager and Diane Nichols, Service Development Manager.

We first spent time in the Renishaw Innovation Centre, understanding the different types of business and technologies they operate The tour and explanation set up the rest of the morning in which we split into two smaller groups to hear how Renishaw has tackled two classic service business challenges.

  1. Busting Organisational Silos
  2. Bridging the IT Solutions Gap through change

Diane and Martin gave us their personal  perspectives, which then set  up a  lively discussions as participants shared their own experiences.

After lunch, Chris Raddat’s from Liverpool University gave us an overview of the key drivers for Service led growth. We then split into smaller groups of 3-6 people to discuss 3 questions he posed us:

a) What are the key processes, organisational structures and practices utilised by manufacturers engaging in services-led growth?

b) How the emergence of new service offerings impacts the provision of existing product offerings?

c) The role of relationships in the innovation and diffusion of services?

We wrapped up the discussion with a larger plenary session to allow the sharing of thoughts and experiences.

The final presentation was from Max Schnippering, Customer Segment Manager at Heidelberg. Max explained to us how this global leader in the digital printing industry, with an already a very successful service business, is starting the journey to delivering outcome based subscription services.  Not many equipment manufacturers have been brave or capable enough to move this far, so it was a unique chance to hear from a highly expert company on the real impact of digital technology on achieving ambitious service business growth. Max very clearly defined the business challenge that Heidelberg faces and how services will increase growth in a flat to declining equipment market. He also gave us an insight into the infrastructure and mindset transformations that go hand in hand with this discussion. In particular how digital technologies have been used to turn data into a strategic asset by enabling deeper insight into equipment utilisation, as well as a central hub for offering new services to their customers. He brought to life what it means to be able to offer a subscription service to both customer and OEM as well as well as the terminology we hear all the time such as outcome based services, cloud and ecosystems.  

The event feedback has been excellent with ratings of 90-100%. Attendees are really enjoying the discussions.

If you would like to download the presentations, you can do so at the Service Community Website at www.service-community.uk

If you would like to know more about the Service Community, then you can contact them through info@service-community.uk or listen to this recent podcast with Nick Frank at Field Service News where he talks about the trends seen in Service by Service Professionals at the sharp end of business.