In the future of companies, less and less purchases and more rentals
As has already happened in the consumer world, the business model through which a company moves from the logic of selling a good to that of a service – in technical jargon, servitisation – is revolutionizing the industry. With this model, in practice, the customer pays a fixed rate per unit of service consumed, while ownership of the system remains with the technology provider, who remains responsible for all operating costs. This operating scheme strongly incentivizes the equipment owner, i.e. the service provider, to think long-term when designing and selecting technology. By offering state-of-the-art maintenance, the supplier can minimize operating costs, especially energy consumption, which is the largest cost component during the life cycle of the equipment. Servitisation, sustainable and strategic in terms of marketing, can make Italian companies even more competitive. Truth and Business he talks about it with Claudio Mombelli, CEO of Domorental, a Milanese fintech company active in the operating rental sector.
CWhat is Servitization?
“It is the translation of the English term servitization and indicates a business model that focuses on transforming companies from the sale of a good/product to a service. It has been talked about since the 1970s and was adopted between the 1980s and 2000s by some large companies in the IT sector. IBM was among the first companies to switch from the sale of hardware products to the provision of IT services. Xerox, together with printer rental, included the cost of printed pages and consumables used”.
What is the logic of this model?
“It is a Copernican revolution. We move from the sale of a product to that of a pay-per-use or pay-per-performance fee based on the rental of the asset and its use. This is also the case in the consumer sector. Also due to economic uncertainty, instead of buying a durable good like a car, people prefer to pay for its use only when necessary by renting it. Car sharing, pay-as-you-go TV streaming, telephone subscriptions, paid-for software are all examples of this change”.
The role of technology is fundamental.
“If technology has played a key role in the consumer servitization sector, it is having it and will have even more in the industry. Today we talk about intelligent factory thanks to the use of digital technologies such as IoT, Big Data and AI necessary to monitor data and optimize the management of machinery and products as well as to analyze those for remote maintenance and assistance. The factory of tomorrow will be increasingly based on IIot (Industrial Internet of Things), Cloud Manufacturing or Manufacturing as a service logics. Our productive excellences have the tools and the technologies to use theSERVization, which can only make them grow further”.
Is all this also strategic at a marketing level?
“Of course, because it creates customer loyalty thanks to the stable and long-lasting relationship that derives from the rental, assistance and maintenance contract. Servitisation is also a driver of change for companies that need to rethink their logic and processes and characterize themselves as smart factories”.
Can we say that the model of usitation is sustainable?
“It is sustainable because it gives value to companies and increases their reputation. The European Union considers the usitation model more in line with the objectives of sustainability and able to better support Next Generation EU, the plan with which Europe wants to become zero-emissions by 2050. Again on indications from Brussels, many companies are inserting the servitization managerthat is to say the expert of the logics of servitorisation and innovation within the company”,
Still on the subject of sustainability, your company issues the Carbon Canceling® certification.
“80% of the companies we work with have Carbon Canceling® certification, free of charge and of unlimited duration, which we issue jointly with our operational rental service and which represents the compensation of CO2 in a given period of time for the entire supply chain of a product or an entire production process, through the issuance of an official document registered in the dedicated Blockchain or in the official public registers. The certification is granted by Domorental in competition with Upgreene, a benefit company, also based in the Lombard capital, specialized in innovative products and services in the field of corporate sustainability”.