The role of digital technologies for the service transformation of industrial companies

The role of digital technologies in service business transformation is under-investigated. This paper contributes to filling \nthis gap by addressing how the Internet of things (IoT), cloud computing (CC) and predictive analytics (PA) facilitate \nservice transformation in industrial companies. Through the Data–Information–Knowledge–Wisdom (DIKW) model, we \ndiscuss how the abovementioned technologies transform low-level entities such as data into information and knowledge \nto support the service transformation of manufacturers. We propose a set of digital capabilities, based on the extant \nliterature and the findings from four case studies. Then, we discuss how these capabilities support the service transformation \ntrajectories of manufacturers. We find that IoT is foundational to any service transformation, although it is mostly \nneeded to become an availability provider. PA is essential for moving to the performance provider profile. Besides \nproviding scalability in all profiles, CC is specifically used to implement an industrialiser strategy, therefore leading to \nstandardised, repeatable and productised offerings