Digital Twin is a replica of a physical object or process on the computer. The digital replica can be used by process owners and managers for  improving process quality, execution and results. While the advances in Big Data  Computing power and Advanced Analytics over the last 20 years Digital Twin concepts have been realized in several industrial products and processes such as for heavy machines, production lines, supply chains and even distribution. In particular, the concepts of sensors and Internet of Things (IOT)  provided the technical impetus to design and build Digital Twins. Every Digital Twin of process or product is created with hundreds of sensors which transmit signals of various operational parameters. These are the building blocks of the Digital Twin model design. The signals and their transformations are processed in the model exactly like they happen in the original product or process. The model is built to deliver output signals and metrics which can be evaluated to improve the execution of the original.

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So far there have not been any Digital Twins for commercial processes like Sales, Marketing, Pricing , Distribution for airlines or any other industries. There is no real reason why it cannot be done, but there are big challenges which need to be addressed. It is easier to get signals from sensors and physical objects than data about commercial processes. It is easier to understand transformed signals in the physical world than higher order data transformations in commercial processes. Finally, while it is easier to understand if a physical object output is right or wrong, there is no such observable benchmark of how good a commercial process execution is. The results have to be modeled and optimization is elusive. It is these challenges which have stopped commercial Digital Twins from being realized. But the benefits are enormous. Companies which can accurately model their commercial processes with a Digital Twin can have significant competitive advantage.  

 

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TensorQ is Quad Optima's innovation to spur the Digital Optimization wave we are excited about. There are many companies vying for innovation in the airline industry and we believe with this product we are shifting the curve significantly in a upward trend. We summarize some benefits of TensorQ below:

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TensorQ Digital Twin benefits summary:

 

1. TensorQ can forecast any commercial metric accurately. Example metrics you can get out of TensorQ include Price, Yield, RASK, Demand, Load Factor, Churn, Customer Lifetime Value, Look to Book ratio, On-time-Performance, CASK, profit margin, Market Share, Effectiveness and any other commercial metric of interest.
    

2. It can measure the impacts of any input that affects results in a company whether the inputs are internal or external. Typically RM based commercial decision systems rely primarily on price or promotions as levers that can impact results. With a digital twin you can actually now understand how actions across a company impact results. These actions can be in commercial function such as in distribution, ancillary revenue, loyalty,  marketing, sales, pricing, RM (inventory) or alliances or in non commercial functions such as Finance, Operations, Engineering or HR. Even earlier the actions across a company had impacts and its not a surprise. The key point to understand is that it was difficult to model and trace the impact of all these actions. With a digital twin that is now possible. So it gives a significant advantage to companies who have the digital twin. 
    

3. It can model and measure accurately both intermediate and final metrics in any process or function.  
    

4. It can define the analytical functional relationship of inputs to outputs for the entire commercial function landscape of your organization. This is one of the most important benefits and it is possible only due to the recent advances in Big Data and Data Science. What this enables companies to do is to quantify the impact of any input and devise strategies based on sound analytical ways. Its particularly useful for what-if analytics and scenario modeling, the type of tools needed for management to take the right actions,
    

5. A Digital Twin is the easiest and most direct way for Digital Transformation of any company. Every commercial process can be modeled on the computer and any action and result can be modeled. Management has a tool with which to analyze the impacts and take the right set of actions which also can be derived from the Digital Twin as an optimization output. So the whole game is there to be won with a Digital Twin. Its the net result of true Digital Transformation