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The sales process and the project execution in industrial product-service systems are often complicated, particularly for capital equipment with a long-operational life where there are different actors responsible for the different transactions over the whole lifecycle. This is often further complicated as the supplier is not directly selling to the 'end customer'. The introduction of digital solutions around the product-service system brings an additional channel for interactions. This paper describes how customer journey mapping can support building relationships in a B2B environment for both sales and execution over the operational life of equipment and examine both the products and the services offered throughout the entire journey. Three industrial B2B cases from different segments were investigated. Each journey was mapped, and personas or empathy maps created for each of the key actors. From the cross-case analysis and customer journey mapping a process is derived that provides improved support for industrial firms with customer journey mapping.

The motivation of using ecosystems to innovate services derives from our professional experience in the industry with both traditional product-service systems and with Industry 4.0 enabled product-service systems. In our approach, we integrate elements of service design thinking, visualisation, and some aspects of supply chain management to create the six-step framework. The model helps to find the gaps in the value creation, pointing towards potential disruptive dynamics within the ecosystem and supports the development of new services within complex ecosystems.