The trend of Everything as a Service, otherwise known as XaaS or Servitization, is the shift away from buying and selling products towards the vending of services to achieve an outcome. In this economic model, instead of committing to a one-off purchase of a product, the customer would consistently pay on a per-unit basis, like the amount of time utilized, the number of products produced, capacity provided, or the number of tasks fulfilled, for results that meet their needs.
XaaS business models bring a new way of doing business to both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) relationships. For instance in the medical field, we here at DHL see change in how hospitals acquire medical capabilities. While in the past computed tomography (CT) scanning equipment had to be purchased, now many hospitals buy the service of that equipment and only pay per CT scan. Additionally, altering the patterns of consumer behavior and the way customers engage with products, individuals and companies alike can opt to pay for equipment usage for a specified period of time or output, and not pay when equipment sits idle or broken. For example, rather than buying air-conditioning (AC) units, XaaS allows the user to pay for the number of cooled hours. This shift in business model incentivizes a company to maximize the time its products are available to be used and minimize the cost of upkeep. Consequently, XaaS is often also seen as a tool when working towards sustainability goals, as equipment parts are made more durable and more easily replaceable with emphasis on products to be more repairable and reusable than disposable.
Increasingly, technology providers are offering as-a-service usage to logistics organizations for robotics, drones, warehouse management systems (WMSs), and more. This enables logistics professionals to redirect their focus from acquiring hardware and software to meeting demand, dealing with volatility, and reaching strategic customer engagement goals.
While the foreseen impact is not very strong on logistics and the supply chain, this adds an alternative to pure investment decisions for logistics professionals and greatly impacts end users of products, both consumers and businesses. Companies can keep customer experience at the core of their business by choosing everything as a service, reducing investments, enabling scalability, and building resilience to external disruption.
