Creating Value from Fleet Life-Cycle Data in Business Ecosystem

To manage successfully a fleet of assets requires data collection from a fleet that can be distributed globally and to several companies. Thus, data collection is often conducted by multiple actors in business ecosystem, which makes it difficult to get access to all the data concerning a fleet. There is a huge potential to benefit from fleet data due to increasingly gathered data, Internet of Things technologies, and data analysis tools. It is important to demonstrate the value that can be achieved by systematically utilizing fleet data as a support of fleet-level decision making. In this paper, a conceptual model is proposed to illustrate the costs and benefits of fleet life-cycle data utilization in business ecosystem. The model has been developed based on the prior literature and research conducted in collaboration with industry. An example ecosystem is proposed, formed by an equipment manufacturer, its customer company, and an information service provider. The model demonstrates the costs and benefits for each actor in the ecosystem and works as a managerial tool to develop the collaboration, fleet data utilization, service development, and data-based value creation in the ecosystem. The results deepen the scientific discussion about value of information and emphasize the importance of measuring the benefits that need to exceed the costs of data refining in order to create value from data. Further research focuses on the actual modelling based on the structure presented in this paper.