Originally published on Dinheiro Vivo
We do believe that, in a world that is becoming more and more digital, the most important element in technology is the people.
Psst! You there! Yes, you. Not the company which you work for. You. I’m talking to you. You, who use Google to help you in your daily decisions. You, who go to Facebook and find ads about what you have just searched. You, who have a smartphone in your pocket, you are used to good user interfaces and modern ways of consuming software, suited to the present day. You, who are able to test products before you buy them, making sure that they work for you. You, who can buy those products independently after the trial and then proceed to use them within the company, without the burdensome bureaucracy and the long decision processes. It’s you I’m talking to. It’s you we are talking to.
That is what we do every day at Prodsmart: we talk to people. We do believe that in a world that is becoming more and more digital the most important element in technology is the people. Our daily work is for them and to them. Web 2.0 is social. So is Prodsmart. Perhaps that’s because we assume ourselves as the factory’s heartbeat. These references to the heart make us corny.
This is reflected in the way we approach and engage with our current and future users. The B2B salesman is dead in the 21st century. If the user experience and the way we buy (or rent) software has changed in our personal lives, there is no reason for us to be clinging to 40-year old paradigms at the workplace. We speak directly to the people within the organization and we empower them. We provide them the ability to make quick decisions, short and autonomous software-implementation processes, with a quote and service level adjusted to their needs and level of usage. But Prodsmart’s relationship with people doesn’t stop here: we are a layer of virtual automation which transforms any production line into a smart digital factory, bringing the people, the processes and the machines together, converting the operators into knowledge workers and aiding the managers to take informed decisions.
We feel that the concept of Industry 4.0 is deeply broken by leaving the people behind. It is too focused on machines and data and less focused on information, processes and people.
However, the majority of the manufacturing landscape is comprised of very small businesses, which do not have access to the level of sophistication that’s being discussed. The role of the people is extremely important in manufacturing SMEs.
Last but not least, we take this deciding ability to the final buyer: the person who is going to wear those stylish shoes, who is going to gluttonously eat that ice-cream which causes brain freeze or that person who is going to take a nap in their Italian-designed chaise longue. All this is production. By connecting entire sypply chain ecosystems which reach the final buyer, Prodsmart gives the latter the ability to choose exactly the color and shape that they want for their shoes and to trigger whole production process, until the final product knocks at his door. If you end up with the wrong shoe size, you can always repeat the process and now order insoles, with these being also adjusted to your size. Web 2.0 is social. So is Prodsmart. Let’s socialize, shall we?
Photo by: Miguel Pereira / Global Imagens
