Digital transformation is no small feat. At Kongsberg Digital, we understand the invaluable role that ecosystem partners - including management consultants, SIs, engineering services, and ISVs – play in helping customers adopt digital solutions and successfully transform the way they work for a better future. In this blog, I dive into the rich opportunities for partners to join us and help shape the future of industrial work.
Over the past two decades, Kongsberg Digital has developed a diverse product portfolio across Maritime, Wells, and Energy product lines. As we refine our vision for the Industrial Work Surface, we are dismantling the barriers between these product lines to create a seamlessly integrated portfolio that covers the full value chain.
The Industrial Work Surface offers cloud-based solutions to the maritime and energy industries, using data to create a realistic and accurate digital twin of an asset, facility, or vessel. That means users can access a single digital environment with a user-friendly interface to find information, run entire workflows, collaborate with users from anywhere in the world and even run simulations for what-if scenarios. Learn more here
Our core objective remains steadfast: to continually innovate on our platform, enabling our customers to operate their assets safer, smarter, and greener. Our partners will play an indispensable role in executing this vision, and the potential for growth is nothing short of significant. According to a study by S&P Global, digital twin usage in the upstream sector alone is projected to surge by up to 350% over the next 10 years. Together with partners, we can seize this expanding market and accelerate customer value.
What we have found from our customer engagements is that about one in five are ready to adopt a solution as sophisticated as the Industrial Work Surface. These are the pioneers who have invested six years into overhauling their tech stacks, upskilling their workforce, and reorganizing their internal processes to deliver digital solutions. However, there remains a large pool of customers who have yet to embark on this transformative journey, and they are the ones who need our guidance – and this is where you, as an ecosystem partner, come in.
We have seen scenarios where customers initially attempt to tackle everything in-house, only to turn to us for assistance a year later. The reason is simple: deploying something as complex and transformative as the Industrial Work Surface requires the right technology and proficient service providers with domain knowledge to smoothen the path.
To capture this market effectively, we had to contemplate how we can bridge the gaps with our customers:
The Industrial Work Surface has a broad scope, and to stay focused, we are partnering with experts who can augment both our team and our customers, offering domain-specific assistance to bridge these gaps.
By partnering with us, you tap into our experience and knowledge regarding customer needs and preferences. We understand the value proposition of this technology, the potential impact it has on their business, and the mechanisms for expediting deployments – and we have the means to provide seamless integration opportunities. Importantly, our involvement does not end once the technology is deployed.
Let me delve into our strategy and how it could help you as a partner provide customers with the network they need to facilitate a product delivery model that perpetually evolves for the better.
For management consultants, the partner program will equip them with best-in-class tools to educate and guide customers through business transformation. The digital journey with the Industrial Work Surface spans multiple years for most companies. Companies tend to operate in silos and often need support in modernizing their tech stacks and managing change. At Kongsberg Digital, we have developed a fully functional demo environment and training program, enabling management consulting partners to participate in client engagements.
Through the partner program, System Integration (SI) partners can grant customers access to a Kognitwin-trained and upskilled SI resource pool, accelerating enterprise deployments. Customers seek skilled scrum masters and expertise in data engineering and API engineering to navigate the digital twin deployment process. We are actively assisting by extending our Kognitwin DataOps capabilities to connect, ingest, and transform data. In 2024 we will establish an SI academy to train SI partner resources.
Partners specializing in engineering services can aid customers in building high-quality digital twins. Transitioning to a fully featured digital twin can appear daunting, especially for brownfield assets with a history of underinvestment that impacts surveillance capabilities and data quality. Data alignment and quality issues are particularly worrisome for large organizations that have grown through acquisitions. Here, Kongsberg Digital and its partners can ensure that customers have the right data available in the right place.
Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partners play a pivotal role in scaling and providing access to new markets, enhancing our ecosystem. This entails connecting platforms and data models to reach new users and expand existing value propositions. Customers often face resource constraints when deploying projects across their organization. By integrating with Kognitwin, partners can help mitigate risks for customers and scale their assets.
Partners can collaborate with Kongsberg Digital to venture into new business segments and industries. Our focus is squarely on building a platform that spans the entire value stream, facilitating the energy transition. Together with our partners, we can unearth and capitalize on fresh opportunities.
We are assembling the resources necessary to support our new energy-focused partner strategy. Our products currently operate with an open API stack and a unified data model. By year-end, we will establish a complete demo environment and offer training opportunities for our partners.
Looking ahead to the next year, we will continue to roll out API and data model standardization, along with a partner portal, advanced DataOps capabilities, and tools for SI partners.
Regardless of your company's size, there is an opportunity to partner with Kongsberg Digital. Partners play a pivotal role in the industry's collective digital transformation journey. It is not a solitary project or concern; it is a collaborative effort that requires the involvement of technology partners.
Sign up for the Partner Program here.
