See our download section for free access to Harbor's article in the October issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Most industrial manufacturers realize that the real money isn't in products but in services. Companies such as General Electric and IBM have famously made the transition: A large proportion of their revenues and margins come from providing value-added services to customers. But other companies attempting to do the same might miss the boat. It is not enough, the authors say, just to provide services. Businesses must now provide "smart services"--building intelligence (awareness and connectivity) into the products themselves.

Citing examples such as Heidelberger Druckmaschinen's Internet-connected printing presses and Eaton Electrical's home-monitoring service, the authors demonstrate how a product that can report its status back to its maker represents an opportunity for the manufacturer to cultivate richer, longer term relationships with customers. Four business models will emerge in this new, networked world. If you go it alone, it may be as an embedded innovator--that is, your networked product sends back information that can help you optimize service delivery, eliminate waste and inefficiency, and raise service margins.