Investment in warranty management technology solutions in the manufacturing sector is set to grow as manufacturers globally seek out additional cost and revenue opportunities. This is according to a new report, “The Waking World of Warranty Management”. The most common benefit associated with warranty management solutions is their ability to increase the visibility of warranty claims and the impact they have on current and future business imperatives. While almost all manufacturing companies will have some degree of warranty management established within their businesses, the report has identified a renewed focus on streamlining processes and technology functionality in the discipline.

Warranty management is nothing new for a large number of manufacturing companies. However for many, associated processes are often disjointed, inefficient, and to a degree ineffective. As the cost of production and competition increase, these companies are having to identify business processes that can yield financial benefit through re-engineering or enhancement. In this sense, warranty processes represent an area of untapped opportunity.

The sophistication of in-house systems varies greatly in terms of technology support and process support. Some manufacturers may rely solely upon the use of Excel spreadsheets to track financials, customer interactions and fulfilment. For others, a hybrid approach may have been taken, whereby Excel supports some warranty sub-processes, while others rely upon specifically coded applications. While these systems can effectively be developed to support business processes specific to individual manufacturing companies, they are often difficult to re-engineer or adapt to support new functionality. As such, the logic associated with claims can often be trapped. This can drastically hinder a manufacturer’s ‘warranty agility’ and inhibit efforts to extract benefit.

According to the report, the global warranty management technology market will represent more than $1.1bn in 2012, compared to $715m in 2007. A large services component will enable vendors such as HP and IBM to drive success as manufacturers look to match technology procurement with business process reengineering efforts.

The automotive industry will lead the way in terms of revenue opportunity with both the high-tech and electronics, and aerospace and defence industries representing significant sweet-spots as well.

Related Research: The Waking World of Warranty Management