Industrial group · Machinery & Manufacturing · After-sales

An after-sales platform for a group of 50 companies

An industrial group operating in more than 60 countries through 50 companies wanted to unify after-sales under a single customer portal, overcoming fragmentation and inconsistency.

Challenge: Fifty companies in an industrial group, each with its own after-sales tools.
What we did: Mapping of 50 tools, 840 insights from interviews, 68 user stories and a structured RFI for vendors.
Result: A platform choice free from vendor bias and shared requirements for a global customer portal.

tools mapped and analysed

840

operational insights collected

user stories defined

The context

The client is a world leader in machines for processing building materials: 1,600 employees, more than 60 countries, 50 companies and IoT solutions for automation and remote control.

Each company in the group used its own after-sales applications, developed over time for specific needs.

The problem

A fragmented ecosystem, with neither consistency nor scalability: an uneven customer experience, services that were hard to integrate and a digital identity not matching the solutions on offer.

The goal was to consolidate after-sales into a single customer portal able to follow the entire product life cycle, from commissioning to advanced service.

The NiEW method

Decisions anchored in real needs

01. Process mapping

Flows between headquarters and foreign hubs reconstructed and visualised by company and country, with 50 tools mapped.

02. Competitor benchmarking

Market standards as an external perspective to anchor technology choices.

03. Customer journey and requirements

From field interviews with internal professionals and five international customers: 840 notes, 68 user stories and 47 priority features.

The solution

An objective comparison between two families of software: legacy solutions, complete and customisable, and advanced service platforms, built for omnichannel and field and remote service.

A structured RFI with functional, security and scalability requirements.
A comparative framework and instructions for vendors.
Requirements shared by the 50 companies, ready for the global customer portal.

The results

A choice free from vendor bias

A strategic decision based on an objective, comparative market analysis.

Unified requirements

Diverse companies, with different processes and markets, aligned on a single foundation.

Foundations to scale

The basis for a global customer portal that improves the end-customer experience.

A wealth of insight

Concrete knowledge of needs that raises the quality of the whole after-sales service.

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