Next gen software will increase productivity, lower inputs and achieve environmental sustainability in face of rising global consumption
Software innovations have been coming in waves, going all the way back to the 1940s. Each generation of software has promised to be a game changer, and for the most part has delivered on that promise. This latest generation is no exception. We’re talking about the emergence of Industrial Software–the digital technology that helps big industries transform how they operate and address critical challenges for their workforce, assets, process and business functions.
How’s it different from software of generations past? Big Data. The immense growth in the volume of data and the connectivity and automation of assets on digital platforms is driving massive adoption of Industrial Software in a myriad of industrial sectors. And then there’s the cloud component. Cloud computing has become increasingly prevalent across verticals; the Industrial Software of today has evolved from on-premises, clunky and centralized offerings to smart, distributed service models. No surprise then that Industrial Software is rapidly adopting the SaaS model and becoming its own category: Industrial SaaS.
What’s especially cool about Industrial SaaS is the accelerated pace of its adoption, in large part because innovators are drawing from the experience of Enterprise SaaS. Like what? Take for example the early adoption of AI-powered analytics in some industrial verticals. While some large Enterprise SaaS companies, such as Salesforce, didn’t start to embrace Big Data until Hadoop was created in 2005, C3.ai–an early leader in Industrial SaaS–had already shifted to analytics before it went public.
There are plenty more lessons to be learned from a critical review of software evolution. You can read all about it in the full version of this blog here.
If you don’t have time for that, just know this: McRock believes that big industries are at a tipping point, facing profound economic and technological challenges and opportunities, and their big advancements are being powered by Industrial Software.
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see the alignment of technological advancement, market demand and transformational culture shifts in the next ten years creating the best opportunities for companies and investors in this sector to invest, grow and achieve massive success. But our years of experience in navigating and succeeding in this space are certainly helping to make this vision clear.