A collage of Product-as-a-Service reports

What we offer

As-a-Service – Unlocking business value

Circular consulting

Our proven methodology is enabling companies to accelerate their transition to the circular economy

Product-as-a-Service is a critical business model to enable the circular economy transition. It offers a tangible opportunity for companies to reduce their dependence on new resources and achieve their sustainability goals.

By enabling and incentivising resource-efficient operations and the use of durable products, Product-as-a-Service business models help to keep materials and products in use for longer. The company retains ownership of the product, this enables control of product maintenance, repair, and end-of-life management. Rather than paying for product ownership, customers pay for access to the product’s function or for a specific outcome.

OVERCOMING THE BARRIERS TO PAAS

Despite its potential to provide a strong competitive advantage and improve sustainability, PaaS has not been implemented at the pace many predicted. In partnership with Cradlenet (a leading circular economy network), we identified nine key challenges that companies face when transitioning to PaaS and what they can do to address them.

View our PaaS report to understand the challenges and how your business can overcome them.

Accelerating the transition

With a strong understanding of the challenges, we explored the support and tools needed to accelerate the transition to Product-as-a-Service business models. Working with pioneering companies, we developed a robust methodology and toolbox to enable businesses to identify their PaaS advantage and support their transition.

USING THE TOOLBOX

Depending on the readiness of your organisation, the toolbox can be used to get a sense of what a Product-as-Service offering would mean for your business or to start developing and implementing a Product-as-a-Service business model.

For the latter, we recommend forming a diverse working group, which should include product management, sustainability, finance, and the customer perspective, and using an impartial facilitator to work through each of the 4 steps in turn.

Steps 1 – 3 consist of:

Editable Miro workshop template
PDF version of the workshop template and
Workshop facilitation guide

Step 4 consists of:

Two editable Excel sheets

The Product-as-a-Service Toolbox

Our tried and tested Product-as-a-Service Toolbox enables companies to understand their growth opportunities and the competitive advantage provided by service-based business models. It also provides practical steps and guidance to identify and overcome key challenges in the transition.

The open-source toolbox is broken into 4 key steps.

1. Identify your Product-as-a-Service advantage

Select the appropriate product for your future Product-as-a-Service offering
Determine your customer target group
Identify obstacles related to your product and customer, and devise a plan to overcome them

Editable Workshop Template (Miro)

Identify your product-as-a-service advantage (PDF)

Workshop Template (PDF)

Facilitator's Guide (PDF)

2. Design for added customer value

Detail your customer's pain points, needs, and requirements
Understand how Product-as-a-Service can help you to deliver added value to your customer
Develop a compelling Product-as-a-Service offering

Editable Workshop Template (Miro)

Workshop Template (PDF)

Facilitator's guide (PDF)

3. Identify your core assets

Map the delivery of your Product-as-a-Service offering
Understand how to secure access to the capabilities needed and develop an asset strategy

Editable Workshop Template (Miro)

Workshop Template (PDF)

Facilitator's guide (PDF)

4. Build your Product-as-a-Service business case & calculate your customers' total cost of ownership

Model the likely financial implication of a PaaS business model to build your business case
Understand your customer’s total cost of ownership and assess the financial attractiveness of your offering

Download Excel

Calculate your customers Total Cost of Ownership

Download Excel

Share your progress

We hope you find the toolbox useful, it would be great to hear how you get on.
E-mail us to share your progress. You are also welcome to send any questions or suggestions you may have.

Get in touch

Supported by the ERDF

The report and methodology has been developed as a part of the project "Service-based business models - transition to PaaS in practice" funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).