Modern industrial equipment generates, with growing frequency, usage data that can be captured and analysed by the manufacturer. That data is first-order operational information about when the customer will need maintenance, when they will enter the replacement zone, what usage patterns indicate upgrade opportunities and what operating signals anticipate breakdowns. Most mid-sized industrial manufacturers do not convert that information into commercial pipeline.
Deloitte, in its 2023 study on servitisation in manufacturing, documents the figure. Only 19 per cent of B2B manufacturers use usage data or telemetry from installed machines to detect upsell opportunities, preventive maintenance or scheduled replacement. The remaining 81 per cent have the data, in many cases, but do not integrate it into their commercial system.
A complementary figure from McKinsey in its 2023 Industrial Pricing Excellence study amplifies the problem. Only 12 per cent of B2B manufacturers have dynamic pricing linked to installed base or to actual equipment use. The consequence is that aftermarket is charged at fixed price, without reflecting the differential value that knowledge of actual use would allow capturing.
The asymmetry between available data and actionable data is explained by a combination of organisational factors, not by technical limitations. The data is collected by the technical-service area or the telemetry system. The commercial system lives in another environment. Communication between the two has not been systematised. And decisions about what to do with the data lack an explicit owner.
The reverse of the pattern, observable in industrial companies that do exploit this data, requires three conditions. Technical integration between operational and commercial systems, with an information flow that turns the usage reading into an actionable commercial alert. Explicit rules on which usage pattern triggers which commercial action, defined clearly and maintained by commercial leadership. A sales team prepared to act on technical alerts, with sufficient knowledge of the product and the customer to contextualise the opportunity.
For general management, the organisational implication is direct. Commercial exploitation of usage data is not an IT project, nor an operations project, nor a commercial project on its own. It is a transversal project requiring specific executive authority to coordinate the three areas. Without that authority, each area optimises its own domain and the consolidated opportunity remains uncaptured.
Three levers move the metric quickly in companies that address the problem. Audit which data the installed base currently generates and what proportion of that data reaches the commercial system. Define a catalogue of trigger events with their corresponding prepared commercial action. Pilot the system in a limited account segment before scaling, to refine rules and measure return with precision.
The standard objection is that many industrial customers are reluctant to allow telemetry access to their equipment for operational confidentiality reasons. The objection is valid and resolvable. Access is negotiated with clear consideration: guaranteed availability, predictive maintenance, optimisation of total cost of ownership. The negotiation is a natural part of the modern recurring-service contract, and customers who reject access usually accept intermediate formats that protect their sensitive information while allowing the manufacturer to capture basic operational signals.
Turning usage data into commercial pipeline is one of the levers with the greatest competitive differential available in mid-sized industry, and one of those that meets the most organisational fragmentation in deployment.