Ericsson interviewed 25 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in different sectors to reveal six key drivers that will change the trajectory of their current business. Ericsson’s new report, “Connected Industries – A Guide to Enterprise Digital Transformation Success,” guides enterprises on how to successfully navigate their digital transition.

Based on interviews with 25 global OEMs, industry experts identify their digitalization challenges and the goals they want to achieve. They describe how cellular technology and 5G enables their digital transformation to serve their customers better. Sectors such as smart metering, automotive and industrial are represented.

The number of cellular IoT connections is expected to reach 5 billion by 2025 – with most of this growth coming from enterprises. Gartner* expects that by 2021, 50 percent of OEMs will use their IoT offerings to obtain data on usage to drive their product strategy. This is up from 25 percent today. By 2022, 75 percent of OEMs will use their IoT products to sell new services or consumable offerings to their customers, up from 28 percent today. These numbers point to a promising potential for enterprises that understand the need to transform their businesses and products digitally.

The report outlines six common drivers among the surveyed enterprises. From a business point of view, they need to transform products and services to remain competitive, optimize to increase efficiency and achieve sustainability goals. From a technology perspective, drivers include digitalization with automation and data insights, security to stay ahead of threats, and flexibility to scale.

Grundfos is a Denmark-based water pump manufacturer and one of the enterprises that was interviewed. Established in 1945 it is now a USD 3 billion multinational enterprise and is working with Ericsson to incorporate IoT into its pumps.  As commercial and industrial buildings become “smart,” building managers and owners are demanding that every element of their infrastructure be connected. Grundfos’ ultimate goal is to provide water-as-a-service — all made possible by digitalization. Using cellular technology in both pumps and pump production, Grundfos is a leading example of a global organization harnessing the power of enterprise IoT.

Fredrik Östbye, Group Vice President and Head of FutureLab at Grundfos, says, “Global cellular connectivity allows us to determine not only when a pump may need to be replaced, but also how to optimize the flow and delivery of water. These analytic capabilities put us in a position to successfully evolve our business model from selling pumps to eventually selling water as a service. We’re also exploring the potential of cellular technology in our manufacturing facilities. By introducing a 5G network in one of our plants, we set out to investigate new opportunities in industrial production.”

Kiva Allgood, Head of IoT at Ericsson, says, “Digital transformation is a team sport and we are thankful for the tremdous amount of insight our enterprise partners have shared on how they are transforming, how they make money, save money and launch new services. The insights they have shared about what is critical in their digitial transformation journey validates the  need for a secure, reliable and global dedicated cellular IoT network.