Is Caterpillar Inc. becoming a platform or software services company? While some of its executives maintain that the mission is still to sell big iron, the company’s visible presence at the Zuora Subscribed event in June highlights a continued push to provide construction and mining customers with new digital tools.

“There’s a lot of software on those machines. We want to put analytics on it and help our customers go from being reactive to predictive,” said Tom Bucklar (pictured), director of innovation and digital at Caterpillar.

Bucklar stopped by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile live-streaming studio, and answered questions from host Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) during Zuora Subscribed 2017 in San Francisco, California. They discussed how Caterpillar’s customers are using connection services to generate data from equipment and increase utilization. (* Disclosure below.)

Sensors attached to 500,000 machines

Caterpillar launched its Cat Connect technology toolset three years ago. The company now plans to offer subscription data services, enabled by attaching sensors to 500,000 machines. Caterpillar also made news this month when it announced a new Digital Enabled Solutions Division, combining Cat Connect technologies with its data analytics group and enterprise data hub.

“Since the mid-1990s we’ve been on our autonomous journey. When we talk about IoT [Internet of Things] and digital, it’s really a very customer-centric strategy,” Bucklar said.

Caterpillar had one construction customer who needed to connect 16,000 pieces of equipment, including large earth-moving machines. The company provided them with one screen to monitor metrics such as machine utilization, location and idle time.

“Basic data with a fleet that size can help customers realize 10-to-20-percent utilization gains. And across a fleet that size, it’s big money. It’s powerful stuff,” Bucklar concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Zuora Subscribed 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Zuora Subscribed 2017. Neither Zuora Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE