Data gained from smart services in SMEs – Pilot study

Abstract

Nowadays, manufacturing companies increasingly invest in servitization by adopting ‘smart services’ enabled by connected product-service systems enabling data exchange between the customer and the service provider. Managing the transition toward smart services is not easy, especially among SMEs as many businesses struggle with lack of money, insufficient digital technologies, unskilled employees or gathering and using the proper data. The research presented in this paper is divided into two parts. The quantitative part focuses on researching possible correlations between business performance and the use of company IT systems among sixty Czech electrotechnical SMEs. The other part consists of a qualitative multi-case study and was conducted among seven Czech electrotechnical SMEs which have already started with smart service development. The findings indicate that companies gather and use the data in very different ways. They provide information to their customers, but also use information for themselves. The study is unique in highlighting the problems of smart services in small and medium manufacturers. Moreover, it investigates the gathering and the data usage gained from smart services in SMEs.