AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Field Service News

A gradual return to the office has had little to no impact on business investment in virtual collaboration technology according to new data from Tradeshift, which found telecoms spending is almost twice as high as it was prior to the pandemic.

According to Tradeshift’s latest Index of Global Trade Health, which analyzes transaction data between buyers and suppliers, the number of telecoms-related transactions crossing the company’s platform was up by 90% in Q2 compared to pre-pandemic levels. 

The significant uptick in telecoms spending is in stark contrast to the dramatic decrease in travel and hospitality spending since the pandemic. Business travel was 30% below pre-pandemic levels but the volume of transactions processed by Tradeshift has been increasing consistently since the first lockdown eased.

TRADESHIFT FINDS TELECOMS SPENDING GREW FOR THE FOURTH QUARTER IN A ROW, INDICATING NO IMMEDIATE END TO REMOTE WORKING REVOLUTION

Corporate hospitality spending dropped 81% in Q2 2020. A year on and it’s tracking at the same level suggesting client entertaining and networking events will remain virtual, at least for the time being.

Christian Lanng, CEO, Tradeshift, said: “For a lot of businesses remote working began as a defensive act, a way to keep the lights on during a very challenging period. But the upside of collaborating virtually quickly became apparent.

“As economies open up, I think we all have a renewed appreciation of what it means to come together in person. But we’ve come too far to go back to ways of working which suddenly feel like they belong to a different era. Getting together is still going to be part of working life, but those opportunities will come at a premium. Zoom is going to do the same thing to professional services as the container did to physical trade.”

“For our own part, we decided pretty early on that this change is not temporary, and whatever we come back to will not look like what we were used to before. Like many companies we decided that the future of work was not a binary choice between a fully remote workforce and one that is fully office-based.

“A lot of our teams are spread internationally, so remote working makes a lot more sense than going into an office to sit on Zoom calls. For other teams, particularly sales, it’s useful to be able to sit together and bounce ideas around. Flexibility has been absolutely central to our thinking.”

Further Reading:

• Read more about Service Innovation and Design @ www.fieldservicenews.com/service-innovation-and-design
• Read more about Telecommunications on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/telecom
• Read more about Remote Work on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-work
• Find out more more about Tradeshift @ tradeshift.com
• Follow Tradeshift on Twitter @ twitter.com/Tradeshift

New research released today has revealed that construction managers are in the dark about how and when their company vehicles are being used, leading to vehicle theft and vehicle misuse.

The research, which was undertaken by the fleet management software company for SMEs, Vimcar, found that a staggering 1 in 3 construction managers have had fleet vehicles stolen, whilst 87% restrict employee vehicle usage without a full picture of how the fleet is operating.

61% OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS ARE CONSIDERING IMPLEMENTING FLEET TRACKERS FOR GREATER CONFIDENCE IN HOW AND WHEN VEHICLES ARE BEING USED

At a time where van sales are on the rise and many businesses are increasing their fleet sizes, the data points to a worrying trend that construction managers have insufficient visibility over how and when their vehicles are being used. The research found that almost half (43%) of construction managers could not say how long employees spent with customers, and a further 37% did not know whether their employees turned up to a job on time or even at all.

As the construction sector emerges from a challenging 17 months, construction managers have indicated that they need a clearer understanding of their fleets, with 88% wanting to receive regular notifications of how vehicles are being used by employees. What’s more, nearly two thirds of respondents said they would consider implementing trackers to closely monitor vehicle usage – a move which would reassure construction managers that vehicles are being used efficiently and appropriately.

Ronald Clancy, UK Country Manager, Vimcar said: “Vehicle misuse costs the construction services industry thousands in terms of extra fuel, HMRC fines, and unnecessary maintenance expenses. As van sales continue to rise, fleet managers and business owners must consider the real cost of their growing fleet to their business and uncover ways to maximise efficiency. A GPS fleet management system that includes features such as live tracking, geofencing and data exportation would not only enable trust and transparency between managers and their employees, but also prevent the disasters of vehicle theft.”

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Fleet Management on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/fleet-management
• Read more about Vimcar on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/vimcar
• Find out more more about Vimcar @ vimcar.co.uk
• Follow Vimcar on Twitter @ twitter.com/goVimcar

CSG^® (NASDAQ: CSGS) empowers today’s leading businesses with game-changing communications capabilities that drive extraordinary customer experiences. With enhanced automation and an integrated, future-ready technology stack in mind, Shentel (NASDAQ: SHEN), a leading provider of telecommunications services across the mid-Atlantic United States, today uses CSG’s cloud-based Field Service Management solution to accelerate the company’s business transformation and deliver critical, high-speed broadband services to rural and underserved markets in the greater mid-Atlantic region.

With CSG as the backbone of Shentel’s operating support systems, the company has unified its operations to become a nimbler organization that can delight its customers by meeting them at the right time, on the right channels, via the right device.

CSG FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT ENHANCES SERVICE DELIVERY FOR SHENTEL, DELIVERING AUTOMATION AND FUTURE-READY GROWTH TO SERVE THE NEEDS OF THE RURAL MID-ATLANTIC REGION

“Investing in innovative technologies that power exceptional customer experiences is critical to Shentel’s mission to deliver compelling internet, voice and television services,” said Jeff Manning, vice president, operations, Shentel. “We specialize in providing advanced services to rural and underserved markets, because we believe that all consumers should have equal access to the essential products and services they need to live their lives. In the end, we chose CSG because their commitment to customer success matched our own, and their 25+ year expertise and leadership in field service management represented the best of breed solution we needed to deliver impactful results for our customers. With CSG’s cloud-based solution, we have the future-ready technology and automation we need to not only optimize the productivity of our technicians, but also exceed our customers’ expectations every step of the way.”

CSG Field Service Management  is a global, award-winning, multi-industry, AWS cloud-based platform that provides a holistic view of field operations. With this solution, field technicians and dispatchers can make informed decisions based on real-time, predictive data and staffing models that offer greater transparency to customers and lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction. These capabilities combined with automated reporting and relevant customer communications help companies create an unparalleled customer experience, while fostering seamless operations for both dispatch and field service employees.

“The future of field service management will require both digital transformation and business model changes that forward looking companies, like Shentel, will use as an opportunity to evolve their business,” said Alfred Binford, global head of customer engagement for CSG. “By moving their field service management operations to the cloud, Shentel is harnessing the agility and innovation of CSG to gain greater efficiencies that translate into higher revenue growth, but more importantly lead to higher quality customer interactions. With continuous enhancements deployed through CSG’s cloud architecture, Shentel can be confident in their ability to continue to help underserved markets into the future and bring more equity to the digital world.”

With CSG Field Service Management, Shentel can now:

• Achieve operational excellence: Leverage automation and real-time data to optimize everything from one hour appointment windows for customers to job scheduling. Easily manage complex resource profiles, such as skill and license dependencies, to match the right technician with the right job and efficiently manage field workload in real-time. Real-time reporting puts data in the hands of field supervisors to better equip them for boots-on-the-ground decision-making and enhances employee engagement while completing extra jobs per day.
• Deliver relevant, proactive customer communications: Keep customers engaged and informed with streamlined appointment selection, dynamic technician ETA notifications and automated communications via the customer’s preferred channel of choice. Easily communicate between customers and technicians to create satisfying, collaborative experiences for both parties that reduce missed appointments, lower operating costs and meet the customer at the right time on the right channel via the right device.

CSG Field Service Management is part of the company’s end-to-end customer engagement portfolio that provides flexible, personalized customer engagement solutions and a fully integrated approach that differentiates customer experiences in today’s digital world. The platform supports hundreds of thousands of field service users every day and is the engine that processes more than 100 million work orders every year for some of the world’s largest communications service providers.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Managing The Mobile Workforce @ www.fieldservicenews.com/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Read more about Automation on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/sustainability
• Learn more about CSG Field Service Management, @ www.csgi.com/field-service-management/.
• Find out more more about CSG @ www.csgi.com
• Follow CSG on Twitter @ twitter.com/csg_i

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by Mark Belenky, CEO of Software Outsourcing Solutions and a specialist in workforce management solutions, to work through some of the key findings of an exclusive Field Service News Research project that spoke to over 100 service leaders from the field service sector and beyond to understand the key trends in workforce management.

During the discussion, the two discuss a number of key insights revealed from the data including the key metrics that define workforce management success, how companies are optimising the costs of managing the workforce and what tools and processes are being used for best-in-class workforce management.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the two discuss the conclusions from the findings of a research study into workforce management practices amongst service-centric companies.

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium.  If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Workforce Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/workforce-management
• Learn more about Software Outsourcing Solutions @ www.s-o-services.com
• Connect with Mark Belenky on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/markbelenky

On 2 July, RTE, the French public electricity transmission system operator, together with its partner Nidec Industrial Solutions (NIS), part of the Energy & Infrastructure Division of the Nidec Group, inaugurated "Ringo". Located in Vingeanne - Jalancourt, in the Côte-d'Or department, Ringo is RTE's first experimental site for the automated management of large-scale electricity storage.

Just over a year after its announcement, the experiment, a world's first, will test the automatic management of surplus renewable electricity. This represents an important step in the process of transforming the electricity system, assisting in the energy transition from polluting to sustainable and renewable sources.

Nidec Industrial Solutions was chosen by RTE to install the first electrical energy storage system on mainland France, used to optimize management of energy flows on the transmission grid. The system makes it possible to better manage the electricity grid, avoiding congestion at times of peak demand. A project that sees battery storage systems become an integral part of modern electricity grids and key elements for realizing the vision of an electric and sustainable future.

Depending on weather conditions (sun, strong winds), local solar or wind energy production can greatly increase and exceed the transport capacity of the national electricity grid, resulting in the dispersion of the energy produced. The Ringo system makes it possible to store surplus renewable energy during peaks in production and return the stored energy to the grid as and when needed. This prevents having to build new electric lines and the loss of electricity produced from renewable sources thus contributing to reductions in CO2 emissions, without having to use polluting energy sources.

WITH THIS MAJOR PROJECT, THE TWO GROUPS ARE PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICITY STORAGE WHICH IS ESSENTIAL IN DRIVING THE EVOLUTION OF THE ENERGY MARKET TOWARDS GREATER SUSTAINABILITY

It is also a smart system. In fact, for the first time in the world, a storage battery site will be remote controlled using robots that collect data in real time, representing the first automatic control on a national energy grid. Thanks to sensors installed on the grid that constantly measure electron flows, algorithms are able to optimize storage in real time.

The Vingeanne - Jalancourt site, located in a region of high wind energy production, was chosen as the location for one of the experimental batteries with a storage capacity of 12 MW/24MWh, equal to the amount of energy produced by 5 wind turbines or the consumption of 10,000 families. Work commenced in January 2020, and now the system has been put into service, meeting the expected delivery times, despite the difficulties encountered due to the pandemic. The experiment will last 3 years, the time needed to learn how to manage renewable energy.

More specifically, for the Vingeanne - Jalancourt site, Nidec Industrial Solutions is supplying its power electronics converters and the PMS (Power Management System) control system that make it possible to convert stored energy into electricity and use it to feed into the grid supplying consumers. The batteries connected to the grid that make the storage of surplus renewable energy possible are of the NMC (Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt) high energy density lithium-ion type.

With this experiment, RTE and its partners, among which Nidec Industrial Solutions stands out, are participating in the spread of systems of large-scale electricity storage. A great industrial challenge to meet the fundamental energy transition needed to reduce GHG emissions and mitigate global warming, an increasingly topical and urgent issue for the energy sector.

The Ringo project meets the renewable energy development goals set by the French government and aims to make the electricity transmission grid more flexible by 2030 and to integrate, in particular, large-scale electricity storage solutions. This is to ensure that all French people have access at all times to a safe, clean and affordable power supply. This storage experiment has been approved by the French CRE (Commission de Régulation de l'Energie - Energy Regulatory Commission) for a total investment of € 80 million.

"The experiment we have launched today with RTE is a fundamental step towards achieving a zero-emissions society by 2050, a goal Europe is committed to reaching.  To achieve this, more electricity will have to be produced which is why it will be necessary to improve energy management by modulating production and consumption. Ringo will allow us to acquire the knowledge and experience needed to overcome this challenge. We are proud that RTE has chosen us as a partner in this highly innovative project. A collaboration that confirms our world leadership in renewable energy battery storage systems, which incorporate advanced technologies and solutions, offered at the best price and able to guarantee reduced execution times. Thanks to this, we can contribute to realizing the vision of an electric and green future” said Dominique Llonch, CEO of Nidec ASI and Chairman of Nidec Industrial Solutions.

Nidec Industrial Solutions, which has reached approximately 1 GWh of BESS plants installed worldwide, making it one of the top 3 world leaders in this sector, can boast significant experience in France, having developed in 2013 the country's first BESS plant of over one megawatt (7000 kW) installed on the island of Corsica. The Group continues to consolidate its leadership in Europe, where it is the number one supplier of BESS plants for the utility sector, and is currently developing electricity storage systems in Germany, England and Finland. The agreement with RTE is fully in keeping with the strategy and vision of Nidec Industrial Solutions which, thanks to its know-how, the result of over 150 years of technological innovation, and the expertise in the field of batteries and power electronics, wants to actively contribute to the transition towards renewable energy in order to combat climate change and the air pollution generated by the continuous increase in CO2 emissions, favoring the transition from a development model with high carbon emissions to a sustainable and green one.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Sustainability on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/sustainability
• Read more about Renewable Energy on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/renewableenergy
• Find out more more about RTE @ www.rte-france.com
• Learn more about Nidec Industrial @ www.nidec-industrial.com

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by Mark Belenky, CEO of Software Outsourcing Solutions and a specialist in workforce management solutions, to work through some of the key findings of an exclusive Field Service News Research project that spoke to over 100 service leaders from the field service sector and beyond to understand the key trends in workforce management.

During the discussion, the two discuss a number of key insights revealed from the data including the key metrics that define workforce management success, how companies are optimising the costs of managing the workforce and what tools and processes are being used for best-in-class workforce management.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the two discuss whether there is enough transparency in the disciplinary processes of service-centric companies and what role does technology play in this.

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium.  If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Workforce Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/workforce-management
• Learn more about Software Outsourcing Solutions @ www.s-o-services.com
• Connect with Mark Belenky on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/markbelenky

As pharma companies continue to scale up digital transformation processes, a survey by GlobalData has highlighted that teaming up with experienced external vendors is driving innovative technology implementation.

The leading data and analytics company notes that technologies such as 5G, IoT, sensors, blockchain, cloud and virtual/augmented reality were the top technologies for which pharma companies used external vendors, whereas they were more likely to develop artificial intelligence (AI), big data/analytics or robotics in house comparing to the rest of smart technologies.

IMPLEMENTING SMART TECHNOLOGIES INTO PHARMACEUTICAL PROCESSES REQUIRES FINANCIAL RESOURCES, TIME AND KNOWLEDGE.

The survey, which was published in GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Smart Pharma’, revealed that the majority of healthcare professionals would turn to external vendors to implement 5G to their processes, at 65% of respondents. This was followed by Blockchain at 55% and IoT and sensors at 50%. On the other hand, 28% of respondents would implement AI in house, followed by big data/analytics and robotics at 26% each.

Urte Jakimaviciute, Senior Director of Market Research at GlobalData, comments: “Implementing smart technologies into pharmaceutical processes requires substantial financial resources, time, and knowledge, especially since the speed of innovation is accelerating rapidly. As pharmaceutical companies continue to revamp their portfolios and digital transformation speeds up, partnering with technology providers becomes a natural step for the industry to take.

“Businesses are more likely to use external vendors to deploy technologies that are less widespread, have fewer use cases, or need to be implemented in short timeframes. While there is no way to slow down the digital transformation, a collaboration with external technology vendors may be a key to success.”

Jakimaviciute continues: “Partnering can enable not only faster adoption of the new technologies, but also bring substantial cost savings. External vendors tend to have specific domain knowledge, and are also fast to respond to any regulatory or compliance requirements that the pharmaceutical sector needs to adhere to.

“Pharma companies are already accustomed to working with external vendors to enhance processes in research and development (R&D), manufacturing and supply chain management. As the need to control the rising costs of pharmaceutical processes is becoming more pressing, leveraging smart technologies is expected to create more sustainable operational models and improve business agility. The companies that can optimize the processes faster are primed to succeed - this forces healthcare industry to pursue more open and collaborative approaches.”

In 2021, Boehringer Ingelheim signed a collaborative agreement with Google Quantum AI to implement quantum computing in pharma R&D; UCB and Microsoft announced a strategic collaboration to combine Microsoft's computational services, cloud, and artificial intelligence (AI) with UCB's drug discovery and development capabilities; Bristol Myers Squibb created a collaboration with Exscientia to use AI to accelerate the discovery.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Technology in the Healthcare sector @ www.fieldservicenews.com/healthcare+technology
• Learn more about the latest GlobalData report "Smart Pharma" @ store.globaldata.com/smart-pharma-thematic-research
• Find out more more about GlobalData @ www.globaldata.com
• Read more about GlobalData on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/globaldata

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Aly Pinder Jr, Program Director of Service Innovation and Connected Products at IDC. Aly is a seasoned expert in the field service industry, technology and innovation and he always thinks forward and spots the upcoming trends in the industry.

During the conversation, the two discuss a wide range of topics related to the evolution of service, the rapid changes and challenges that occurred during the last year and what organisations should do to adapt and prepare for the future.

In this final excerpt from that full interview, the discussion turns to whether the pandemic has slowed down the move to servitization for field service organizations.

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium.  If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below. 

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

Further Reading:

• Read more about Servitization & Advanced Services @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 in the Field Service industry @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
•  
• Read exclusive articles by Aly Pinder on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aly+pinder
• Follow Aly Pinder on Twitter @ twitter.com/Pinderjr
• Connect with Aly Pinder on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/aly-pinder-jr

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by Mark Belenky, CEO of Software Outsourcing Solutions and a specialist in workforce management solutions, to work through some of the key findings of an exclusive Field Service News Research project that spoke to over 100 service leaders from the field service sector and beyond to understand the key trends in workforce management.

During the discussion, the two discuss a number of key insights revealed from the data including the key metrics that define workforce management success, how companies are optimising the costs of managing the workforce and what tools and processes are being used for best-in-class workforce management.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the conversation focuses on the findings of the study revealing equal issues with downtime and overtime in workforce management.

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium.  If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Workforce Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/workforce-management
• Learn more about Software Outsourcing Solutions @ www.s-o-services.com
• Connect with Mark Belenky on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/markbelenky