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New business models thanks to the app economy

With the Commercial Virtual Twin, new business models can be explored or existing ones expanded. Significant opportunities arise when suppliers, service providers, or retailers can use and adapt the twin for their solutions. In this way, it can help provide targeted service offerings—according to target group requirements. This offers potential for increasing customer satisfaction within the entire ecosystem surrounding the product and simultaneously opens doors for revenue long after the product purchase.

Open ecosystems for software-defined vehicles

A current example from the automotive industry is software-defined vehicles, or SDVs for short. A central computer architecture is used to control the software, enabling, among other things, advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving functions. Through the digitization of the automobile, new revenues can be generated long after delivery to the end customer. Retrofitting, including new functionalities, takes place within minutes through a software update or a short installation—similar to apps on a smartphone. To provide customers with services of this kind and generate revenues, many manufacturers are working on joint ecosystems with distribution partners, service providers, and dealers.

The commercial twin prevails

The adoption of Commercial Virtual Twins currently differs in terms of company size and industry. Particularly in large, multinational corporations, the use of virtual twins in engineering is common. However, product development and marketing are often still quite separate, leaving synergies untapped. Start-ups, which can build their processes entirely new and agile, have an advantage in this regard. In medium-sized businesses, more fundamental digitalization projects are often underway to lay the foundation for forward-looking methods. However, the use of Commercial Twins will become indispensable in the future, especially in regard to global competition.

In industries where Engineering Twins have been used for some time, the Commercial Virtual Twin is often also in use and—sometimes more, sometimes less—integrated into the overall process. This is mainly the case in areas targeting end customers, such as the electronics or lifestyle sectors. However, the aerospace and healthcare industries are also increasingly using the Virtual Twin for marketing and sales purposes. In the automotive industry, the Commercial Virtual Twin is already standard.

Example automotive industry: bridge between design and marketing

In the automotive industry, Commercial Virtual Twins have already established themselves and proven to be a link between engineering and marketing. With the now widely used model-based systems engineering (MBSE)—a design method based on models—the vehicle can be made experiencable from the first model. For this purpose, CAD data, for example from CATIA by Dassault Systèmes, is sufficient to create a commercial twin in 3DExcite, the company's marketing and sales brand.

Based on this, various scenarios can be explored on screen or through augmented reality or virtual reality. An example is the greeting scenario from the end user's perspective—from unlocking the vehicle to entering and starting the engine, the digital solution accurately mirrors the real product. This is particularly relevant for today's critical "customer experience." Here, it is determined and simulated how the vehicle is to be opened. Traditionally with a key, via a chip card, or with a facial scan? Which lights should illuminate and for how long? What color temperature should they have? What impact do different seating positions have on the driver's ergonomics? Safety systems can also be visually represented. Insights gained can then be fed back directly to development and retested. Once the final product experience is defined, marketing and sales materials can be created from the Commercial Twin based on product depictions, ideally also available "on demand" to dealers and partners for customer acquisition and retention.

Opportunities and perspectives for the future

Commercial Virtual Twins are well on their way to becoming an indispensable tool. The automotive industry, in particular, is already successfully using commercial twins. With this industry as a role model, other sectors and companies will increasingly recognize the potentials and various applications. They span all product phases: from the early development phase, where customers already receive an authentic impression of the future product, through marketing and sales, to after-sales, where usage data allows for optimized service offerings and maintenance. Furthermore, new business areas can be explored, and existing models can be expanded by integrating partners, service providers, and dealers. The key to the success of such offerings is often the willingness to collaborate within the company and beyond its boundaries within an ecosystem centered around the end customer.