Creating Intelligent Building Systems with IoT Innovation

OVERVIEW

Daikin, the world’s largest heating, ventilation and refrigeration company, wanted to maintain its leading position within the HVAC space in light of new tech-heavy competitors in the market. Daikin approached PARC to see what new opportunities could be garnered through IoT connectivity.

OBJECTIVE

Develop an IoT concept to engage consumer
With large tech firms developing new home solutions, losing out to major disruption in the market was a real threat. Adding to the situation was decreasing margins on hardware sales. Daikin knew it had to revitalize its offerings to combat these challenges. It wanted to create a product that showed it understood that Internet of Things (IoT) was not only about new hardware, but about the overall consumer experience.

WHY PARC?

Shared understanding of user experience
PARC brought to Daikin a unique mix of IoT capabilities including technology expertise, business strategy and UX design. This gave Daikin access to world-class research staff, the ability to validate value capture models, outline a go-to-market strategy, and achieve user-centric innovation. PARC also brought together experts from various Competencies (including machine learning, novel sensors and cyberphysical systems) to work with Daikin.

SOLUTION

Multi-phase insight process
The first phase of the project involved research, brainstorming and assessment around potential IoT applications. Daikin’s key stakeholders visited PARC in these early stages to ensure maximum value could be derived from these workshops. Next came refinement, concept development and customer interviews – all while keeping in mind the user-centric approach to IoT development that would be key to the project’s success. Values were also applied during the persona creation stage to add more depth to the process (compared to working off demographics alone). From all this, a prototype air sensor was created. This would link to an app that displayed environmental data visualizations on a tablet. Feedback on this was gathered and these learnings were put into the service design phase, which helped Daikin identify potential customer touchpoints and how to best use its innovation work with PARC.

RESULTS

Insights and prototypes to help further IoT exploration
Using PARC’s insights and prototypes, Daikin has managed to influence its upper management team on the wider benefits of innovation. Not only can embracing IoT technologies strengthen its position in the market, but it can also play a big part in motivating staff. There has now been a change of culture within Daikin with greater enthusiasm around new ideas, as evidenced in the formation of an innovation arm within their business.

Develop an IoT concept to engage consumer

With large tech firms developing new home solutions, losing out to major disruption in the market was a real threat. Adding to the situation was decreasing margins on hardware sales. Daikin knew it had to revitalize its offerings to combat these challenges. It wanted to create a product that showed it understood that Internet of Things (IoT) was not only about new hardware, but about the overall consumer experience.

Shared understanding of user experience

PARC brought to Daikin a unique mix of IoT capabilities including technology expertise, business strategy and UX design. This gave Daikin access to world-class research staff, the ability to validate value capture models, outline a go-to-market strategy, and achieve user-centric innovation. PARC also brought together experts from various Competencies (including machine learning, novel sensors and cyberphysical systems) to work with Daikin.

Multi-phase insight process

The first phase of the project involved research, brainstorming and assessment around potential IoT applications. Daikin’s key stakeholders visited PARC in these early stages to ensure maximum value could be derived from these workshops. Next came refinement, concept development and customer interviews – all while keeping in mind the user-centric approach to IoT development that would be key to the project’s success. Values were also applied during the persona creation stage to add more depth to the process (compared to working off demographics alone). From all this, a prototype air sensor was created. This would link to an app that displayed environmental data visualizations on a tablet. Feedback on this was gathered and these learnings were put into the service design phase, which helped Daikin identify potential customer touchpoints and how to best use its innovation work with PARC.

Insights and prototypes to help further IoT exploration

Using PARC’s insights and prototypes, Daikin has managed to influence its upper management team on the wider benefits of innovation. Not only can embracing IoT technologies strengthen its position in the market, but it can also play a big part in motivating staff. There has now been a change of culture within Daikin with greater enthusiasm around new ideas, as evidenced in the formation of an innovation arm within their business.