Systematic Evaluation of Hybrid Portfolios for Solution Providers in Machinery Engineering

The change from traditional manufacturers to solution providers represents a comprehensive business reorientation. As a solution provider, manufacturing companies emphasize on the customer's benefit. Through the combination of physical prod-ucts, software and services, individual solutions are provided for the customer in order to achieve the greatest possible added value. The transformation has a particular impact on the structure and composition of traditional portfolios in machinery engineering, since new software and service components are gradually added. Therefore, portfolio evaluation methods need to address hybrid portfolios in order to manage the transformation effectively. Ex-isting portfolio management approaches are limited to structuring physical product portfolios only. Thus, this paper develops a new methodology to evaluate hybrid portfolios. A comprehensive framework is employed integrating portfolio evaluation techniques and technology management principles to analyze and op-timize hybrid portfolios. The evaluation comprises two principal evaluation fields, which consider both external market and inter-nal perspectives to identify strategic directions for portfolio and technology management. By systematizing the portfolio evaluation, the results contribute to the transformation into solution pro-viders, encompassing increasing software and services.