Digitalization in Aftersales and Service: How to Make the Transformation Work
Industrial companies that want to stay competitive in these times of declining order intake and challenging markets need to reposition themselves. The key lies in digital technologies. Find out how digital solutions can help managers navigate the digital transformation in aftersales and service while countering the skills shortage, rising costs, and legacy IT.
Peter & Daniel
Head of Service and CIO
It’s 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and a customer has just reported a machine breakdown. By the time Peter’s technician has searched three different systems to find the right spare part, half an hour has passed. Two floors up, CIO Daniel checks again why the new service app still won’t connect properly to the existing IT environment. Both of them are experiencing the same problem from different perspectives.
But Peter and Daniel are far from alone in facing this issue. Nine out of ten manufacturers worldwide see digital transformation as a crucial competitive factor today. However, across the industry, an average of just 35% of aftersales processes are digitalized, while service champions are already at 60%. For transformation experts like these two, one thing is clear: That won’t be enough to handle the demands on their service in the future.
The external pressure is huge: 70% of customers expect digital self-service options and almost 81% of B2B buyers consider the digital experience to be more important today than it was two years ago. Despite this, many service processes are still analog, the data quality leaves much to be desired, and legacy systems put the brakes on any change—and all the while, the IT department is faced with overtime and security concerns.
The biggest barriers to digitalization in aftersales service
New processes are needed, but the quality of the data in aftersales and service leaves much to be desired, and Service 4.0 is still a distant dream. Senior management is calling for efficiency and growth. What managers like Peter and Daniel need is an intentionally designed digital strategy and a digital platform that connects the existing IT landscape and makes it scalable.
Digitalization in mechanical engineering: Adopt a strategy to increase efficiency
Implementing new software is not enough to safeguard the future of your company. Managers like Peter and Daniel must take a strategic approach and need an integrated digital solution that their team can use to push ahead with digitalization in spare parts management, digitalize their service processes, develop new aftersales strategies, and establish digital business models.
Below, we present four digital solutions for aftersales and service, which can help with the digital transformation and turn unwieldy legacy software into a modern IT ecosystem.
For Peter: Finding spare parts faster and automating processes with AI
Generative AI is an important revenue driver in mechanical and plant engineering. According to the VDMA (Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association) it could bring the industry additional profits of 28 billion euros. For 52% of managers, AI is therefore a game changer because it provides the opportunity to automate recurring tasks, utilize service knowledge, and take the pressure off teams.
Peter’s technicians need urgent support with tasks such as identifying spare parts, for example: On average, service technicians lose 30 minutes or more on this task, and in 20% of cases manual searching leads them to the wrong part.
❌ Identifying and ordering spare parts takes a lot of time
❌ Error-prone processes owing to manual searching
❌ Low first-time fix rate due to incomplete information
AI helps aftersales and service employees to search through complex spare parts data for information. Smart image recognition allows Peter’s technicians to find the right spare part immediately and order it with a single click. The key to implementing AI lies in a central data foundation, and applications that are tailored to the needs of machine manufacturers.
The AI advantage for aftersales and service:
✓ Identify spare parts in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes
✓ Up to 80% reduction in ordering errors
✓ Up to 25% higher first-time fix rate for service calls
✓ 17% faster response time for customer inquiries
✓ Improved data usage with less manual work
✓ Up to 69% more efficiency and productivity
Tip: AI is not an end in itself—the aim is to take the pressure off Peter’s team. With this in mind, we recommend starting with time-consuming processes—such as identifying spare parts—that can move the needle in terms of efficiency.
For Daniel: Cloud-based SaaS solutions for scalable processes
For Daniel, the biggest hurdle when implementing digital spare parts processes or AI tools is technical integration into existing system landscapes. According to the VDMA IT Cost Benchmark 2025, companies use an average of 590 different software applications. This complexity slows down communication between the systems as well as the integration of data and new business models. And it’s further compounded by internal resistance to digitalization.
❌ Lack of scalability coupled with growing service volumes
❌ Complex integration of new technologies
❌ Isolated data and use of different systems between departments
❌ High manual effort due to analog processes
❌ Increasing requirements plus limited resources
Nine out of ten manufacturers worldwide see the digital transformation as a crucial competitive factor today. They’re using cloud environments to drive adoption of technologies like AI and predictive maintenance, and to expand their system landscape with greater flexibility. A cloud-based service platform with specialized apps for digital spare parts catalogs or interactive service manuals enables Daniel to make better use of data and to digitalize processes, without jeopardizing data privacy or having to rebuild the entire infrastructure.
Benefits of cloud solutions for aftersales and service:
✓ Reduction in IT maintenance workload of 30 to 50% over three years
✓ 90% less data fragmentation and therefore better data availability
✓ Reduction of manual effort involved in data processing of up to 50%
✓ Up to 75% less integration work thanks to API-first approach
✓ New business models can be implemented five times faster
✓ Increase in ROI of the digital transformation of up to 25%
Tip: Move your service processes into the cloud step by step, starting with your biggest pain point, e.g., identifying spare parts.
For Peter and Daniel: Unlock hidden value from your data with a data hub, and develop new services
Seventy percent of industrial companies are aiming to generate additional revenue with new services, according to Salesforce. But 53% have no access to existing data resources. In many companies, machine data, notes from service calls, and spare parts information are spread across various systems, hard to access, and often outdated when they are needed.
❌ Information silos in ERP, PIM, and CRM systems
❌ No real-time access to current machine or spare parts data
❌ Providing data manually takes significant effort
❌ Lack of transparency around service processes and spare parts
❌ No foundation for data-driven business models
For Daniel, a digital service platform not only serves as the gateway to the cloud and the foundation for AI tools, but also as a data hub. All aftersales and service information can be made available digitally and distributed to the right people through a central software platform. Spare parts and maintenance data, parts lists, and operating instructions are assigned metadata and automatically distributed to channels like service apps, customer portals, or sales systems, which ultimately means faster and more reliable decisions during service calls for Peter.
Benefits of data hubs for aftersales and service:
✓ Single source of information for all service and spare parts processes
✓ Controlled data distribution in customer portals, apps, and internal systems
✓ Basis for automated processes
✓ Faster and more reliable decisions during service calls
✓ Digital champions achieve up to 6.2 percentage points higher revenue growth than latecomers to digitalization
Tip: It pays to improve aftersales data and make it easier to use, as this benefits the whole company.
For Peter: Ready for action even without internet thanks to offline apps
Fifty-seven percent of all workplaces now use mobile equipment according to the VDMA, and many technicians from Peter’s team use smartphones and tablets to search for information during service calls. But without a stable connection, technicians cannot access important data such as spare parts information, maintenance schedules, or step-by-step instructions. So mobile equipment alone isn’t enough. Digital service can only be truly efficient with an offline-capable app that regularly provides synchronized service data.
❌ Restricted access to spare parts information without internet connection
❌ Lack of transparency on completed work
❌ Documentation isn’t properly linked up on site
❌ Delays due to rework in the office
❌ Frustration among technicians and customers due to missing data
With an offline-capable service app, Peter’s technicians can access all the service information they need for jobs at customer sites at any time, even without an internet connection. Spare parts data and maintenance instructions are locally available on a tablet or smartphone and are automatically synchronized as soon as a connection is re-established. To make this happen, aftersales data needs to be clearly structured and linked up.
Benefits of offline apps for aftersales and service:
✓ End-to-end service even without internet access
✓ Increased satisfaction among technicians and customers
✓ Less follow-up work and less switching between systems
How machine manufacturers can use digitalization to gain the competitive edge
The goal is clear: more efficiency, full customer satisfaction, and lower costs thanks to digital solutions. However, one glance at the VDMA’s IT Cost Benchmark 2025 shows that 70% of IT budgets go toward day-to-day operations, leaving only 30% for innovation. Whether it’s for digitalizing manual spare parts documentation, automating service delivery, or developing new digital business models, Peter and Daniel need targeted strategies and partners that support machine manufacturers with solutions tailored to their needs.
Since Peter and Daniel have been using a shared service platform, Peter’s team can find spare parts in seconds instead of minutes and Daniel’s IT department has a significantly reduced maintenance workload while also benefiting from increased scalability.
The question isn’t whether you need to go digital in aftersales and service, but rather how long you can afford not to use the right digital tools.
Further resources:
eBook
Digital Spare Parts Catalog: Why Service Professionals Need It
Download now
eBook
Service Portals in Machine Construction
Download now
White paper
Digitally Transform Service & Technical Documentation with Cloud Software
Download now
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The key to success is to involve staff from the early stages of the process: Waiting until after the decision has been made to inform them often results in resistance. Involve service technicians and dispatchers from day one, and communicate the specific benefits for their day-to-day work—for example, reducing the time spent searching for spare parts information or eliminating the need for manual reports.
Start with a pilot project in a manageable area, document the initial successes, and let them speak for themselves. Quick wins early on can convince skeptics more effectively than a top-down argument. Modern SaaS solutions that work intuitively also make it easier to get things rolling.
The first-time fix rate is the most important indicator. It measures how often a service call is successfully completed on the first visit, and correlates directly with information quality and spare parts identification.
By recording service experience in a structured way in a centralized system. Wear patterns, solutions, and service frequencies are documented and automatically made available for the next service call. With skills in short supply, this is essential for survival.
Reactive service waits for malfunctions to happen. Proactive service uses structured data on machine states and wear patterns to prevent problems before they occur, thereby laying the foundation for new business models.