The first time I was involved in an initiative of this kind was 30 years ago, with Dynapac – a company known for its compaction and paving equipment. As I remember it, they had been building the best machines on the market for a long time, but were beginning to feel increasing competition. The trend was clear, and it was worrying.
Luckily, an entrepreneurial person at Dynapac got an idea. He and his team realised they were sitting on years of research about how to compact different soil and asphalt materials in the most effective way. Since compaction is a critical part of, in particular, road building, they decided that this knowledge shouldn’t just stay inside the company – it should be placed directly in the hands of their sales engineers and customers in a helpful way. I was brought in to help out with the development.
The application we created became very popular, globally. Suddenly, customers cared a lot less about the purchase price. Dynapac’s tool helped them select the correct equipment for their – often huge – projects in an optimised way: which machines to combine, how to operate them, number of passes, ideal amplitude and speed, and so on and so forth. This helped them save a lot of time and money while ensuring the right quality. And it also deepened long-term customer loyalty.
At the time, I was surprised by the scale of the impact. Now, after having been involved in several similar initiatives, I know that this is what happens when you focus on helping your customers reach their global optimum instead of just selling them a product.
For Dynapac, it wasn't only about providing the best machines, it was about truly helping their customers achieve the best outcomes.
This old story is very much in line with the concept of a Self-service Solution Designer, that we at factor10 have tried to describe here.
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