Why now is a good time to invest in a spare parts portal
Costs are rising, uncertainty continues in the market, and customer expectations for service quality are growing. These signals have traditionally favoured investment in the service business, as investments have become more expensive but services still need to be secured.
In addition, digitalisation adds its own flavour to the mix, with more and more customers also expecting digital service channels.
Since you ended up reading this, we are probably not too far off the mark when we say that your maintenance staff's day typically revolves around spare parts, prices and documentation. Without a spare parts portal, everything is done manually and the information is scattered across various Excel and PDF documents. Tools are a functional way to keep information up to date for yourself, but updating changes for customers and colleagues is challenging because there are multiple versions of documents and it is difficult to find reliable information about whether a particular document is the latest version. Precisely because of these constant changes, it is worth investing in the development of digital tools, such as a spare parts portal, in the current market situation. This helps to streamline the change management process and reduce the business risk caused by outdated information.
In the traditional model, customers receive spare parts catalogues and maintenance instructions, often in paper form, and it is not efficient to provide updates to these, even when they are available. Providing information about new or replacement spare parts, updating prices and delivering additional documentation to customers is expensive and time-consuming. Product-specific catalogues do not help customers to verify the suitability of parts and increase the temptation to purchase parts from sources other than the original equipment manufacturer.
Benefits of the spare parts portal:
- Real-time updates. When a new part is added to the catalogue or a price is changed, it is immediately visible to all customers. Up-to-date and accurate information helps to increase spare parts sales.
- Accuracy and reliability. When customers can check the catalogue for the right parts for their specific equipment, this reduces the risk of incorrect deliveries and speeds up order processing. The portal reduces freight and handling costs caused by incorrect deliveries.
- Speed. Service technicians and the sales team can quickly pick the right parts and find the information and documents they need, which makes serving customers even smoother. This improves both the customer experience and employee productivity and satisfaction.
The spare parts portal is a natural first step in the digitalisation of the service business and the development of lifecycle services.