A new study commissioned by ServiceNow reveals what aftermarket leaders have known for years – the enterprise software stack is failing manufacturers where it matters most: post-sale.
Key Takeaways
- A December 2025 ServiceNow-commissioned study found manufacturers use roughly six software products to manage the customer lifecycle, and nearly five just for aftermarket alone.
- No aftermarket category – SLAs, spare parts, annual maintenance, or warranty – scored above 75% satisfaction with current software. Voice-of-customer benchmarks flag anything below 85% as a concern.
- Manufacturers want an orchestration layer over existing systems, not another rip-and-replace, organized around the installed base rather than the sales funnel.
A December 2025 study by Endeavor Business Intelligence, commissioned by ServiceNow and published via IndustryWeek, surveyed over 200 manufacturing executives at mid-market and large companies. The findings paint a striking picture: manufacturers are betting their future on services revenue, but the software they rely on can’t keep up.
What makes this report particularly notable isn’t just the data – it’s who commissioned it. ServiceNow is a major enterprise platform player. And even their own research acknowledges that the current state of manufacturing CRM and enterprise software is, at best, marginal when it comes to managing aftermarket services.
The Numbers That Matter
| 75% of manufacturers plan significant services revenue growth | ~6 software products used on average to manage the customer lifecycle | 57% rate their software favorably for AI-driven services | 15% cost increase from tariffs reported by most manufacturers |
Services Revenue Is No Longer Optional
The report confirms what many in the industrial space already feel: product margins are under serious pressure. With tariffs reportedly driving costs up by as much as 15% for a large majority of manufacturers, executives are turning to services as the growth engine.
Three-quarters of the respondents in the study said they plan significant growth in services revenue. And the services categories they’re betting on – performance-based contracts, predictive analytics, spare parts, annual maintenance, and lifecycle extensions – are exactly the aftermarket revenue streams that define the installed base opportunity.
This isn’t a new trend, but the urgency is new. When product margins shrink, the aftermarket stops being a “nice to have” and becomes the margin story.
Why the Manufacturing Software Stack Is Broken
The report confirms what many in the industrial space already feel: product margins are under serious pressure. With tariffs reportedly driving costs up by as much as 15% for a large majority of manufacturers, executives are turning to services as the growth engine.
Three-quarters of respondents in the study said they plan significant growth in services revenue. The services categories they’re betting on — performance-based contracts, predictive analytics, spare parts, annual maintenance, and lifecycle extensions — are exactly the aftermarket revenue streams that define the installed base opportunity.
This shift isn’t new, but the urgency is. When product margins shrink, the aftermarket stops being a “nice to have” and becomes the margin story.
Why CRM Was Never Built for the Aftermarket
Traditional CRM evolved from contact management software in the 1980s. It was designed to help salespeople manage leads and close deals. Over the decades, it expanded into marketing automation and basic customer service – but its DNA remains transactional and sales-centric.
The study bears this out. Even for core CRM functions like sales, only about a quarter of respondents said their CRM performed “extremely well.” When it comes to managing the full customer lifecycle – especially the post-sale relationship where aftermarket revenue lives – the gaps become even more pronounced. CRM scored lowest on its ability to manage overall customer communications, a finding that underscores how disconnected these systems are from the reality of industrial customer relationships.
What Manufacturers Actually Want
The study asked respondents what benefits they’d most value from better-integrated, more service-capable software. The top answer, chosen by over a third of respondents, was improving the customer experience. The runners-up – eliminating duplicate work, increasing revenue without adding headcount, and reducing errors – are all operational efficiency gains that come from having a unified view of the customer and their installed assets.
More than half of respondents said they’d like ERP functionality surfaced within a broader CRM platform. Nearly a third wanted project management and quality management integrated as well. The appetite for consolidation is clear.
There’s an important nuance here: respondents aren’t asking to rip and replace their entire software stack. They want an orchestration layer – something that connects the dots across their existing systems and gives them a coherent view of the customer lifecycle, especially the aftermarket.
The Installed Base Is the Missing Layer
Definition: The installed base is the universe of products a manufacturer has sold and currently has operating in the field. Spare parts, maintenance contracts, refits, and predictive services all trace back to knowing what is installed, where, and for whom.
The report articulates a clear need: manufacturers want to grow services revenue, retain customers, and manage aftermarket obligations more effectively. Their current tools — CRM, ERP, field service, warranty management — each hold a piece of the puzzle, but none provide the unified, customer-centric view needed to drive aftermarket growth.
What’s often missing from these discussions is the concept of the installed base as the organizing principle. The installed base is the foundation on which all aftermarket revenue sits.
| Companies that build their aftermarket strategy around installed base intelligence, rather than retrofitting a sales-oriented CRM or bolting together five different applications, are the ones finding a way through the complexity this report describes. |
The Bottom Line
When a major enterprise platform vendor commissions research and the findings essentially say “current solutions, including ours, aren’t getting the job done for industrial aftermarket” – that’s a signal worth paying attention to.
The manufacturers in this study are telling us three things:
- Services revenue is the future, and it’s no longer optional as product margins erode.
- The current software stack is fragmented and inadequate for managing the post-sale customer lifecycle.
- They want a unified, customer-centric approach – not more point solutions.
For industrial manufacturers navigating this shift, the path forward isn’t about finding a better CRM or a bigger ERP. It’s about putting the installed base at the center of the aftermarket strategy and building outward from there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Traditional CRM was built in the 1980s as contact management software for sales teams. CRM is structured around leads, opportunities, and deals – not around the long tail of post-sale obligations like service contracts, spare parts, refits, and predictive maintenance. Industrial aftermarket revenue depends on knowing what is installed, where, and how it is performing. CRM does not natively model that.
Installed base intelligence is the practice of unifying data about every product a manufacturer has sold, including configuration, location, contract status, service history, and contacts, into a single source of truth. That unified view becomes the organizing principle for aftermarket sales, service, and renewals.
According to the December 2025 ServiceNow-commissioned study, manufacturers use an average of nearly six different software products to manage the customer lifecycle, and close to five just for the post-sale aftermarket portion.
Product margins are under pressure from tariffs and input cost inflation – reportedly up to 15% higher for most manufacturers. Services categories like performance-based contracts, predictive analytics, spare parts, and lifecycle extensions carry higher margins and are tied directly to the installed base, making services the most accessible growth lever.
No. The study found manufacturers want an orchestration layer that connects existing systems – CRM, ERP, field service, warranty management – rather than another rip-and-replace project. They want a unified customer-centric view, not more point solutions.
Source: “State of the Market: Manufacturing CRM Revolution on the Horizon,” Endeavor Business Intelligence for ServiceNow, December 2025. Published via IndustryWeek.
