What do you do if you find yourself in a maturing market, struggling to deliver the kind of growth expected by investors and other stakeholders? If you’re James Bolch, president of Ingersoll Rand’s $2.9 billion Industrial Technologies Sector, you look to the after-sales service side of your business.
In 2006, under Bolch and CIO Tim Fleming, IR’s Industrial Technologies Sector, a maker of compressed air systems and other advanced thermal technologies, launched a major initiative to stimulate growth in and improve the efficiency of post-sales service activities, such as product installation, maintenance, repairs, replacement parts, and extended warranties. The project, dubbed Customer Center Order Management (CCOM), involved the automation of manual service processes as well as the introduction of best practices across multiple service distribution channels.
The project produced a breakthrough for IR, enabling the company to grow its service-related revenue and, at the same time, improve service delivery productivity and reduce costs. It also provided a lesson for other manufacturers struggling to grow in challenging economic times: Don’t limit yourself to traditional, product-based sources of revenue. Post-sales services can represent a huge, untapped opportunity.
The project also earned IR’s Industrial Technologies Sector the Progressive Manufacturer of the Year award for Large Enterprises.