What We Will Use Our Expertise For
- Fits industrial and Maschinenbau companies where leadership wants a software or digital services layer, but the company has never sold anything that isn’t equipment.
- Runs as a fixed-scope, 6 to 7 week evaluation, ending in a go, no, or pilot decision, not a completed product.
- Treats the sales team’s ability to sell recurring or subscription revenue as a real risk to assess, not an assumption that any engineer-built feature will sell itself.
- Produces a pricing and packaging model grounded in what the target customers will actually pay for, not an engineering wish list.
- Ends with a phased pilot plan and explicit go/no-go criteria, so the company tests the offering with a defined customer subset before scaling investment.
- Moves the KPIs leadership tracks for a new revenue line: attach rate of the new offering to existing equipment sales, recurring revenue as a share of total revenue, and average deal size uplift from bundling.
Who This Is For
This fits industrial, Maschinenbau, and other traditionally non-software companies where leadership sees a software or digital services layer as a genuine new revenue line. Common motivations include defending against commoditization by software-native competitors, capturing recurring revenue instead of one-time equipment sales, or responding to customers who already ask for connectivity and data features that competitors offer and this company does not.
The most common trigger is a mandate from the board or ownership to “add a digital layer,” combined with an engineering-led team that is technically capable but has never had to define pricing, packaging, or a B2B product positioning for something that is not physical equipment. It also fits companies with early, informal signals, a few customers already paying for something software-like without a real commercial structure around it.
How IT Offering Development Works
The engagement runs over roughly 6 to 7 weeks, structured to end in a decision and a roadmap, not a finished product.
The Seven-Step Evaluation
- Kickoff and current-state review (Week 1). Existing product and engineering capability, any informal software or data offerings already in the field, and how comfortable the current sales team is with recurring or subscription selling.
- Stakeholder interviews (Week 1-2). Engineering and product leadership on what is technically buildable, sales leadership on what customers are actually asking for, and two to three existing customers, where accessible, on real willingness to pay for a software layer.
- Market and competitive scan (Week 2-3). What software-native or hybrid competitors already offer in this space, and where the genuine gap or opportunity sits, rather than assuming first-mover advantage.
- Offering definition and packaging (Week 3-4). What to build first, defined at an MVP level, how to price and package it against the license, subscription, or bundled models, and what “sellable” actually means for this customer base.
- Commercial capability gap assessment (Week 4-5). What the existing sales team needs to sell a software or subscription offering successfully, since pricing conversations, renewal motion, and technical pre-sales support are usually the real gap, not the product itself. Where the gap points to the broader lack of a shared commercial operating model, the roadmap flags that too rather than treating it as a training problem.
- Roadmap and pilot plan (Week 5-6). A phased plan to pilot with a defined subset of customers, with explicit success criteria set before the company considers wider rollout.
- Presentation and decision (Week 6-7). Findings presented to leadership as a working session, ending in a go, no, or pilot decision.
The Measurable Outcome
By the end of the engagement, leadership has a defined and validated software or IT offering concept, checked against real market and customer signal rather than an internal engineering idea, together with a pricing and packaging model. We document the commercial capability gap specifically, rather than describe it generically as “the team needs training,” and a phased pilot roadmap exists with clear go/no-go criteria. The deliverable is a decision and a roadmap, comparable in shape to a European market entry evaluation, not a completed software product. This is built to move the KPIs leadership tracks for a new revenue line: attach rate of the new offering to existing equipment sales, recurring revenue as a share of total revenue, and average deal size uplift from bundling software with hardware.
What IT Offering Development Costs
We price this as a fixed-scope diagnostic and roadmap engagement, comparable in format and duration to the European market entry evaluation. Exact scope depends on how many stakeholder groups and customer conversations it involves. Get in touch with where the current offering idea stands, and a fixed quote follows from there.
Validate Before You Build
Industrial companies that add a software layer without checking whether customers will pay for it, and whether the sales team can sell it, often end up with a well-engineered product nobody bought. IT offering development answers both questions before committing engineering resource to the build.