The suppressed quintessence of Industry 4.0

The leitmotif is the "intelligent factory" (Smart Factory), which is characterized by adaptability, resource efficiency, ergonomic design, but above all by perfect networking of all machines, means of transport, processes and people involved.

There is nothing wrong with this vision either. It follows the laws of a rapidly changing borderless market and the massive penetration of our entrepreneurial realities with technology.

Industry 4.0 secures our future.

Growth only through manufacturing efficiency?

The problem lies elsewhere: Many companies reduce Industry 4.0 to increasing production and resource efficiency in development, procurement and manufacturing alone.

No question - an essential building block for entrepreneurial success. But nevertheless only half the truth in terms of valid value creation. The other half of the truth lies in the effective and consistent marketing of their products and services.

The performance of marketing, sales and service are elementary links in a stringent and resilient value chain. If companies neglect individual elements, economic performance falls by the wayside. The chain breaks.

Digitization radically changes

The central challenge and opportunity lies in the precise and consistent - primarily digital - marketing of products and services. This is the quintessence of Industry 4.0. Today's customer is a mature "connected customer" who is pre-informed and has correspondingly clear expectations.

Its purpose-driven imperative: I always want everything, everywhere and in real time. And that in a personalized, contextualized, and appreciative way. This expectation is not only changing sustainably in B2C, but also and especially in the B2B segment.

Here, companies are not only confronted with individual consumers, but must also be able to react to - sometimes diverging - interests within complex buying centers in a way that meets their needs.

Purchasing wants the most cost-effective solution, the specialist department wants the most efficient product, and management wants the "egg-laying pillow". On the one hand, product life cycles are rapidly shortening; on the other hand, sales cycles are often longer and more complex.

Marketing and sales meet digitally pre-informed, mature customers. And they demand personalized, individualized and relevant answers - not advertising and sales platitudes.

Networked retrofit

The Internet has made knowledge a ubiquitous commodity in the business context as well. Research, comparison, recommendations and shitstorms. Just one click away from the customer. On the corporate side, the reality often looks bleaker. There is no sign of intelligent networking.

Marketing sends out existing customer mailings to companies that are no longer customers. Sales has no information about service escalation and runs into the open knife. The inside sales department has no transparency about conversations with customers. The online store runs as a solitaire.

No smart factory in the back end of production can help. SAP is now responding consistently with an intelligently networkable phalanx of solution modules for the specialist departments that process the market.

Customer Engagement and Commerce

Behind the term "Customer Engagement and Commerce" are the CRM solution Cloud for Customer, the Hybris Marketing Suite, and the Hybris omnichannel commerce platform.

By networking intelligent marketing automation, sales and service CRM, and e-commerce, companies succeed in seamlessly integrating all customer-focused processes and collecting, aggregating, evaluating, and using valuable information throughout the company to address customers in a precisely tailored manner.

The truth of Industry 4.0 is in the eye of the customer. And he wants what you want when you act in the role of the customer: everything, immediately and tailored exactly to your needs.