What it is, when it makes sense
Chemicals-as-a-Service (CaaS) – i.e. the shift of chemical companies from selling a product (paid in proportion of weight or volume) to selling a service (paid in proportion of a certain service level) – has been adopted in selected segments since at least 30 years. CaaS offers several advantages both to customers – such as lower initial investment, predictable costs, zero hassle with maintenance of the product purchased, and to suppliers – like higher margins through additional selling of value-added services in the service package (e.g. insurance or maintenance), scale effects, and customer lock-in. However, the asymmetry of knowledge and control in relation to the service level promised / delivered as well as an overall lack of transparency in relation to the conditions at the customer´s under which the service shall be delivered prevented a broad adoption of CaaS over the entire chemical industry. New, smart technologies such as conncectivity solutions, smart sensors & actuators, big data, predictive analytics, and AI have the potential to overcome these barriers and enable a quick adoption of CaaS.
What you get
Our typical „digitalizing CaaS“ approach delivers four items:
- Feasibility analysis, to answer the question: „does CaaS have chances of success at least on paper?“ Concretely this implies an evaluation of the opportunities for connetivity and standardization, as well as a robust financial scenario modeling
- Minimum viable product design, i.e. the definition of the minimal features of the service to be offered, including basic service offered, pricing (incl. business case for selected customers), operational aspects (incl. logistics in/out and material management at the customer´s), and technology aspects (incl. infrastructure to be installed at the customer´s and at the supplier´s).
- Pilot design, implementation, and monitoring, i.e. the identification of one/some customers to pilot the service with (incl. the conditions under which to propose the offer and the pitch materials) as well as a monitoring system to track implementation and success / failure / lessons learnt.
- Roll-out plan, i.e. a list of actions to be realized to extend the service to further customers and segments.
How we work
The engagement duration varies in relation to the scope, usually between 4 and 12 weeks. The staff is tailored to ensure the right competences are on-board, typically:
- One-two expert for the business processes in scope (e.g., sales & marketing, manufacturing, maintenance, procurement, supply chain management, etc.)
- One-two experts for the smart technologies that may be relevant (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, predictive analytics, etc.)
- A digital project manager
Further experts from our network are contacted e.g. for direct feedback on specific technologies, vendors, or use cases.