Joint Offering Evaluation Framework for Assessing the Feasibility and Business Value of a Digital Twin Use Case

Abstract

The complexity of industrial challenges is emerging together with the exponentially developing information and communication technologies (ICT) that provide several implementation approaches for systems engineering. It is difficult for a single company to follow technological development and remain a pioneer in every topic. Still, the industrial challenges require experts in each technology. Therefore, collaboration among technology providers is an opportunity to gather all resources and competences needed for full delivery. A joint offering (JO) is a solution, that is, co‐created in collaboration between two or more actors that usually have complementary technological skills or value‐creation logics. A JO has several doubts relating to the use case (UC) in hand, the feasibility of the joint solution to be co‐created, the resources and skills needed to deliver the joint solution, the partners, the business value creation, the elements of the contract and the ownership of the outcome, just to mention a few. The Joint Offering Evaluation Framework (JOEF) uncovers these issues and supports decision‐making before the development of a JO starts. The JOEF comprises the Joint Offering Playbook and the Business Value Toolset (BVT). The Playbook offers seven viewpoints with checklists and tools for IT solution providers considering collaboration and co‐creation for a solution that they cannot deliver or sell alone. The BVT evaluates and illustrates the business value of a JO from the viewpoints of both creation and delivery, together with value capture and assessment. The JOEF was piloted with a digital twin (DT) UC from the pulp and paper industry.