Ge Industrial Network

1. The most challenging change needed within GE business functions seems to be in marketing and sales. GE and their customers would have to make transition from making agreements that are break-fix to those guarantee outcomes [1]. GE’s traditional sales process would have to adapt to accommodate a range of new offerings, customizations, customer relations and services [1]. One of the biggest challenge was monetizing productivity. GE did have enormous data points located on numerous individual machines and each data point offered information about performance and opportunities to improve efficiencies [1]. However, how to measure these efficiencies was not yet clear. Another challenge was that each business had varying degrees of software already embedded in its products [1]. Moreover, pricing the outcomes-based services presented a challenge, along with the question of how and to whom GE would sell the new offerings [1].Furthermore, the Industrial Internet let GE switch from transactional selling to product-as-a service models and therefore GE should move towards a solution-based sales methodology focusing on the customer’s pain point [1]. Finally, connecting machines and sharing data raised questions of security and compliances [1]. Because of all above challenges associated with marketing and sales, sales and marketing teams will need broader knowledge to position their offerings as components of the Industrial Internet system [2].  

GE had to enlist support from all the key stakeholders to implement the changes associated with the Industrial Internet. Firstly, GE needs to simplify the culture within the company. GE was huge and global and had many smaller acquisitions and had a history of autonomy. To make this implementation successful, the market and all players had to be ready, however, the readiness varied widely across GE’s sectors [1]. When it comes to culture simplification, it is not only the culture across sectors, but also culture across functions within each sectors. Old function model had to be broke down and intense, ongoing coordination became more necessary than ever across multiple functions [2]. In addition, new but critical functions should emerge. However in a huge business, only the internal supports were not sufficient. GE also had to enlist support from all the external stakeholders (including customers and partners outside the GE) to help further the maximum customer value, the ecosystem. Partnering outside allowed GE to identify and commercialize opportunities within its business and more importantly to support the growth of the ecosystem [1].  

2. Predix is the underlying architecture and platform that could allow different offerings or applications to run on it. It is critical to Industrial Internet’s success for two reasons. Firstly, it enables GE Software to develop a common language and common practices across business, which is extremely radical for GE considering its widely separate and varied industries and customers they serve. The platform could enable different sectors and customers to build on it coherently and intelligently. This platform would allow each business unit to continue to keep and maintain its existing platforms and services while utilizing this underlying platform to providing a uniform user interface, which would make it easier for sectors to accept and implement the initiative. The second reason is that Predix provided a standard way to run industrial-scale analytics which enabled asset and operation optimization. GE’s biggest strength is the myriad of machines across each industry and the types and amount of information collected and it’s hard to replicate. Predix would eventually connect all GE’s machines to the cloud, anywhere, anytime, and enable them to talk to each other, learn from historical data, and make machines more intelligent to deliver better outcomes [1]. Actually, GE is transitioning from a company who sells products and services (break-fit) to a company who provide services that guarantee outcomes. And this is going to be the future of GE and GE has to establish critical mass and create an ecosystem around it [1] because the ecosystem is indeed the maximum customer value that GE wants to deliver eventually.