Totalmobile, the UK leader in Field Service Management software solutions, has announced it has helped Fortem, the property solutions provider, to digitise its repairs and maintenance service delivery with their Mobilise solution, improving compliance and providing a more comprehensive customer experience.

For nearly two decades, Fortem has delivered repairs and maintenance for over 40 social housing clients across the UK. The company annually completes 400,000 repairs in occupied homes as well as preparing 10,000 vacant properties for future occupancy. It also carries out repairs nationwide for a wide range of clients and to public sector buildings.

Totalmobile’s cloud-based mobile workforce management solution, Mobilise, helps Fortem to deliver a more efficient service for these customers. It enables offline working for all trades and ensures key information is available at the frontline worker’s fingertips, including questions to ask each customer based on the job at hand and forms to fill in that can be easily created and customised by Fortem.

TOTALMOBILE'S CLOUD-BASED MOBILISE APPLICATION CAPTURES JOB INFORMATION AND IMPROVES COMPLIANCE TO HELP TRANSFORM FORTEM'S NATIONWIDE SERVICE

Vehicle checks are quicker and simpler with a digital checklist that needs to be filled in prior to vehicle use, which is driving compliance as well as efficiency. Specifically, Fortem has seen a significant improvement in meeting its compliance obligations regarding waste notes – the logs staff need to take of every piece of waste produced at a job – as real time note-taking on the Mobilise app can be made mandatory.

Totalmobile’s solution was rolled out across the company over the last year, and as of April 2021 the application is now used by all 450 trade staff across seven contracts including Stonewater, Birmingham, PA Housing and Onward. It will also be the default mobile application for all future contracts. During the global pandemic, with Mobilise, Fortem has been able to update risk assessment forms as the government guidance has changed regularly, ensuring that all staff are kept up to date and are able to meet the current guidelines to keep themselves and their customers safe.

Chris Hone, the Systems Director at Fortem said “The ability for our trades to work reliably offline is key to service delivery. Combining that with the flexibility for our in-house IT team to evolve the forms and processes to meet our clients’ needs means that can are truly able to offer a differentiated service to our clients”.

Mick Williamson, Managing Director at Fortem, said “The introduction of Mobilise is a huge step forward for our trades. Since the solution was rolled out, they are better equipped to carry out repairs resulting in a more efficient service for our customers. As a responsible business, the opportunities offered by the solution in terms of health, safety and compliance are extremely important to us.

Rolling out our Mobilise solution has already helped support Fortem throughout this challenging year. Having a digital solution that provides all of the information mobile workers need and allows them to remain compliant throughout their work benefits the company as well as the customers, who receive a more efficient and comprehensive service every time.”

Looking to the future, Fortem will look at the subcontract supply chain and roll out Mobilise to its subcontractors, to use on their own mobile devices. The company will also move onto applying the solution to permits and void surveying to continue to drive the gains in efficiency and reductions in costs.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Totalmobile on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/totalmobile
• Learn more about Totalmobile @ www.totalmobile.co.uk
• Follow Totalmobile on Twitter @ twitter.com/totalmobile
• Follow Totalmobile on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/totalmobile

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Dr Chris Raddats of the University of Liverpool a seasoned expert with experience from both the industry and academic sides of the aisle centred around servitization, digitalisation and service marketing.

During the discussion, the two discuss a wide range of topics related to Raddat's sphere of insight including reflecting on the current learnings that are coming from a recent raft of academic literature.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the two discuss how there are echoes of some of the early learnings of servitization that should be considered as we embrace digitalization.

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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 @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Academic Studies @ www.fieldservicenews.com/the-view-from-academia
• Find out more about participating in Chris's latest academic study @ research.fieldservicenews.com/current-studies
• Follow Chris Raddats on Twitter @ twitter.com/chrisraddats
• Connect with Chris Raddats on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/chrisraddats

Aquant, the leading service intelligence platform announced Service Insights. The tool, capable of analyzing your data out of the box, provides a detailed window into factors that impact customer experiences. This empowers service leaders with the knowledge to prevent customer disasters ahead of a negative Net Promoter Score (NPS) or service escalation.

“Historically, service decisions have been made using only a fraction of available service data. That causes blind spots into customer satisfaction and creates an environment of reactive problem-solving. If you wait until you receive a negative NPS, it’s too late,” says Shahar Chen, CEO and co-founder, Aquant. “The new normal in service requires providers to approach customers with solutions before a customer comes to a provider with a complaint.”That kind of data-driven decision-making fosters better customer experiences and improves service outcomes. But before you can make informed decisions, you need a clear picture of what story the data is telling — and that’s been a roadblock for many organizations.

Service Insights Curates and Analyzes Disparate Data and Provides Actionable Recommendations

“We’ve worked with leading service organizations to build a powerful analytics tool that is designed for business users,” adds Assaf Melochna, president and co-founder, Aquant. “Service Insights provides targeted information in the language that service leaders understand, and it does so in days, without the need for a multi-department deployment.”

Service Insights is Not a BI Tool. It’s an Entire Data Science Team at Your Fingertips

Aquant delivers a 360-degree view of the service lifecycle. Unlike traditional BI tools, Service Insights is able to access more of your data, and then analyze and interpret it — without the need for a team of data scientists. Users will see immediate value following a simple deployment process. Isolated data points become descriptive and predictive intelligence presented through auto-generated reports and easy-to-access graphical dashboards. Here’s what’s possible with Service Insights:

• Mine insights out of your (un)structured service data - Gain a deeper dimension of insight into your unstructured data with Aquant’s Service Intelligence Engine by identifying key symptom and solution data directly from customer comments, call center agent notes, field technician debriefs, and machine log files. Formerly hidden data becomes a powerful decision-making tool.
• Generate service performance and risk models - Service Insights automatically generates trends, recommendations, industry benchmarks, and predictions based on more than 5 million service tickets from manufacturers and service providers. Leverage Aquant’s predictive modeling to create customer risk scorecards, and manage workforce performance, and training strategies.
• Get the right insight at the right time - Need a quick summary of your business, a snapshot of customers, or an overview of the workforce before your next meeting? Aquant auto-generates easy-to-read overviews for each customer or service provider, identifying key statistics and important trends. Focus on the most critical service issues without having to dig into dashboards.

To learn more or schedule a demo, visit www.aquant.io

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
• Read more about Aquant on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
• Find out more about Aquant's AI Tool Service Insights @ www.aquant.io/platform/service-insights/
• Learn more about Aquant @ www.aquant.io
• Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io

 

IFS, the global cloud enterprise applications company, announces that the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team will use its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to track costs, guide investment decisions and development choices, and evidence spend during competition accounting periods.

The IFS solution will play an important role in ensuring spend compliance with the stringent new Formula One cost cap audit requirements introduced this season by the Federation Internationale d’Automobilie’s (FIA).

The 2021 season sees a radical change in the way Formula One racing teams can spend funds to compete. New cost cap rules by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, limit how much a Formula One team can spend on enhancing the race car’s performance during a calendar year.

This year sees F1 teams starting with a cap of $145 million, gradually reducing to $135 million by 2023. The implications are far-reaching, especially for the finance operation of each team.

IFS SOFTWARE ENABLES ASTON MARTIN COGNIZANT FORMULA ONE TEAM TO OPTIMIZE OPERATIONS AND REPORT FINANCIAL COSTS TO FIA

Robert Yeowart, Aston Martin F1 Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for ensuring the business operates as efficiently and effectively as possible, and, with the cost cap, getting even more value from every pound spent. “The FIA can come and audit us at any time. They can scrutinize our accounts—examining everything we’ve spent, when and where. The new reporting requirements are demanding. Alongside the technical and competition compliance we’re used to, the body is looking for anomalies and trends to expose any team operating beyond the defined cost cap parameters. We have to be ready to supply the evidence and audit trails to support any inspection.”

Aston Martin F1 has implemented IFS to support its operations, financial reporting and production areas.

“IFS has given us the perfect platform to build on,” says Yeowart. “It enables us to really understand where we're spending our money by detailed cost analysis, which we couldn't do before. We can track our inventory and answer questions like ‘what parts do we have available to us?’ What state are they in? How many parts are in the building and how much does each cost?”

The IFS solution enables Aston Martin F1 to run “pound-for-lap-time” ratio analysis in its development projects. This means the organization can get, for the first time, an objective view of how much one upgrade might cost versus another, and the resulting performance improvement in lap time for each.

The FIA also requires teams to track inventory to ensure the cost of parts is not allocated to the wrong accounting year, including evidencing when parts are first used with a bar code tracking system. All the data needed will be fed through IFS. “We know exactly where our inventory is, when we first used a part, how many kilometers it's done, how much life it has left and when we need to be considering a spare or replacement,” says Yeowart. “Towards the end of the season all this is absolutely critical as we may have had accident damage and be up against the cap.”

As F1 racing evolves, Yeowart is clear about the importance of the system. “IFS can help my team meet the cost cap regulations through improving our planning, our data and our analytics. It helps us understand where we've spent our money so far, what we've left to spend against the cap and how we plan to spend it. It lets us analyze where we're adding performance on the car, and if that’s the best use of our capped resources. And it ensures that, when we report to the FIA, we are 100 percent sure that the information we provide is accurate and exactly what is required.”

At the end of 2022, Aston Martin F1 will also become the first team in 20 years to occupy a new, purpose-built factory. “Against a cost-cap environment, we have the perfect opportunity alongside our IFS system to really focus on efficiency, optimization and, ultimately our purpose: helping over 1,000 people to create, within regulated constraints and spends, the highest possible performance for our F1 competition cars,” concludes Yeowart.

As a strategic technology partner, IFS will empower Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team with its state-of-the-art tools to ensure operational excellence. The platform gives the team flexibility in this exciting new era with fresh investment from the shareholders and the construction of a new factory.

Oliver Pilgerstorfer, Chief Marketing Officer, IFS, added, “Effectively capturing and handling data is crucial for high-performing businesses like Aston Martin F1. The sport of Formula One is all about precision, which is relevant across the whole value chain, where hundreds if not thousands of separate processes need to be perfectly orchestrated to ensure success on race day—that’s the moment of service, when everything comes together. IFS is proud to empower many of the world’s most respected brands to operate at peak performance, often in highly regulated industries where compliance, traceability and quality assurance truly matter.”

Learn more about how IFS supports the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team at www.ifs.com/f1.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com/
• Learn more about Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One @ www.astonmartin.com/en/our-world/amf1
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

 

Field Service News is proud to announce a brand new educational portal for field service management professionals - The FSN Knowledge hub which went live today. 

Housed within the FSN Elite platform, the FSN Knowledge Hub will be a curated collection of educational content that is relevant for field service management leaders that will be provided by a range of industry-leading educators with a deep range of knowledge, insight and experience including Mark Homer, Steve Cummins, Dave Hart, Jim Baston, Jan van Veen, Nick Frank, Michael Blumberg, Kris Oldland all producing content for the hub initially with many other highly respected industry names also set to join this all-star roster of leading thinkers within the global field service sector.

Members of the newly launched FSN Elite platform, which acts as a hub for a number of communities within the industry (such as the Service Leaders Network, HQ4, Service Community and MoreMomentum) have had access to over 100 resources included on the platform at launch plus early bird access to the courses within the Field Service News Masterclass program which includes one new course for field service leaders being rolled out each month for the next six months. 

However, with the launch of the FSN Knowledge Hub, this content is now available for the first time to non-FSN Elite members who can purchase items individually if they wish rather than take a full annual membership. 

 

Industry-wide access to information either on a subscription or one-off basis:

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Field Service News commented "the way we have structured FSN Elite, to include access to all FSN Premium resources, the Field Service News Masterclass, tickets to our physical event in Edgbaston later this year plus the weekly Zoom discussion sessions all for one annual fee of less than most companies charge for a one day ticket to an event, makes a lot of sense for those field service management professionals committed to improving their own performance and that of their field service operation in general.

"However, we also understand that a lot of the content and courses included within this exceptional resource library are often of interest from people from outside of the industry who may have an interest in just one particular course or piece of research - so we're pleased to be able to offer a route to access the content for these people as well without them having to commit to an annual fee.

"The major benefit of creating the FSN Knowledge Hub, however, is it allows us to give a platform to some of the smartest people in the industry to build their own educational courses while simultaneously giving the industry a dedicated central hub for education in our industry - something we are badly lacking at the moment - which most other sectors have in place. The FSN Knowledge Hub is a step towards establishing something that can benefit every field service company in the world." 

FSN Knowledge Hub content is available for anyone to access, with non-FSN Elite members being able to purchase content directly on the platform, while FSN Elite members can access all Field Service News content free of charge and will receive discounted rates on third party courses. 

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Financial Essentials for Service Leaders

The first third party course to be included on the platform, Finance Essentials for Service Leaders is produced by Field Service Associates and can either be purchased as separate standalone courses or as one program. 

For a seasoned service leader, fully mastering the nuances of finance within a successful service operation can be a challenge. For a new service leader, it can be a complex and confusing area full of complicated language and unfamiliar concepts. To help service management leadership professionals help navigate their way through this new area of understanding.

This program is produced by Field Service Associates whose co-founders have over 70 years of industry experience and is authored by Steve Cummins and offers excellent guidance into the often overwhelming area of service finance with clear explanations, detailed guidance and practical exercises to work through that re-enforce your learning.

The program includes four modules:

• Financial 'Basics' for a Service Leader
• Finance Essentials for New Service Leaders 
• Financial Control for Service Leaders 
• Financial Planning for Service Leaders 

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The entire program is available for just $559.99 | €464.99 | £399.99 for the general public or for $489.99 | €409.99 | £349.99 for FSN Elite members

Alternatively, each individual course can be purchased for $179.99 | €149.99 | £129.99 for the general public or $139.99 | €114.99 | £99.99 for FSN Elite members

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PLUS!!! To celebrate the launch of the FSN Knowledge Hub the team over at Field Service Associates have agreed to offer a further 33% discount off all prices on this course for the next 30 days.

To claim the discount visit the program page by clicking here and use the code FSAL33 at checkout!

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ANOTHER PLUS!!! While FSN Elite is in its 4 month beta launch, you can sign up for FSN Premium for just £299 | €349 | $399 a year) and get an upgrade for free to FSN Elite for the entirety of your first twelve-month subscription giving you over half off the full price!

 

1927 Media Ltd, the publishers of Field Service News the world most widely read resource for field service professionals has announced Field Service News Live! a collection of events to be held in Birmingham, UK on October 27-28th this year...

With the tagline 3 events, 2 days, 1 community Field Service News Live! is set to welcome the field service community back to the face to face meetings for the first time in over a year and promises to be a unique format that reflects the multi-factored approach to helping the field service industry that has come to be expected from the global leader in education and information for global field service leaders. 

The event comprises of three distinct elements: 

 

The Field Service Expo: 

The field service expo is free to attend for all management professionals working for organisations that have a field service operation. With a focus on giving field service organisations a one-stop-shop to find solutions to the challenges, they face as we collectively begin to plot a path forward into the new normal of field service in a post-pandemic world. 

Key features include:

• Find all of the leading solutions that can drive your field service operations forward in one place.  Rugged Mobile Computing Solutions, FSM Software, Dynamic Scheduling, Augmented Reality, Fleet Management, Logistics and Last Mile Solutions and more... 
• Dedicated solutions theatre for attendees to hear real-life case studies on how the solutions on show have been implemented by field service organisations
• Recruitment clinic - hosted in partnership with some of the leading engineering-based universities in the UK, this drop-in clinic is designed to help field service companies overcome the pervasive ageing workforce crisis by giving direct insight into what the next generation of workers are seeking from future employment
• and more... 

Find out more and register for free @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en/field-service-expo-2020

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The Field Service News Symposium Live

Available for all FSN Elite members The Symposium is a new type of conference for the new normal where the focus is on guided peer-to-peer learning and discussion amongst senior field service executives and leadership. The Symposium brings the concepts of FSN Elite back into the physical world. Our focus is not to put on a schedule of speakers talking at the industry but on facilitating groups of industry leaders to discuss the challenges we all face together. We've replaced death by PowerPoint with genuinely productive conversation that will drive the industry forward.

Key features include:

• Field Service News Research Live Debrief and Discussion
• Industry Ask Me Anything Sessions
• Field Service News Masterclass Workshops
• CrowdThink - a unique approach to solving the key industry challenges as a community
• and more... 

 

The Field Service Awards:

Available for all those who attend the Field Service News Symposium Live, the Field Service Awards will be an evening of celebration of excellence and innovation in our industry. Relax and trade tales with your fellow service leaders over drinks as we raise a glass to our award winners.

 

Find out more about the Symposium and Awards and how to join FSN Elite @ https://fsnews.lpages.co/fsn-live-conference/

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Commenting on the announcement of Field Service News Live! Field Service News Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Kris Oldland said "I am so excited about this announcement!

"Field Service News has grown from a humble start-up brand to becoming a true global leader in the eight years since we launched. I was so proud of our team and how they led the industry during what has been an incredibly challenging 18 months for the whole world. We've continued to innovate and keep the industry talking. The creation of FSN Elite has taken that approach one step further and now the time is right to bring those conversations back into the real-world as well." 

"The concept of being a platform to facilitate discussion in the industry, to have a genuine dialogue rather than just broadcasting in one direction is very close to my heart. It is, I believe the way all events and business media need to evolve if we are to truly serve our markets - and I, and all the team here at 1927 Media Ltd are incredibly proud to be leading the way in this concept for the global field service community." 

 

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Dr Chris Raddats of the University of Liverpool a seasoned expert with experience from both the industry and academic sides of the aisle centred around servitization, digitalisation and service marketing.

During the discussion, the two discuss a wide range of topics related to Raddat's sphere of insight including reflecting on the current learnings that are coming from a recent raft of academic literature.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the discussion turns to the conflict that we are seeing around data ownership within the advanced services concept and how this may be overcome.

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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 @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Academic Studies @ www.fieldservicenews.com/the-view-from-academia
• Find out more about participating in Chris's latest academic study @ research.fieldservicenews.com/current-studies
• Follow Chris Raddats on Twitter @ twitter.com/chrisraddats
• Connect with Chris Raddats on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/chrisraddats

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Dr Chris Raddats of the University of Liverpool a seasoned expert with experience from both the industry and academic sides of the aisle centred around servitization, digitalisation and service marketing.

During the discussion, the two discuss a wide range of topics related to Raddat's sphere of insight including reflecting on the current learnings that are coming from a recent raft of academic literature.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the two discuss if we need to be clearer in our definitions around concepts such as servitization, advanced services, and outcome-based service delivery.

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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 @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Academic Studies @ www.fieldservicenews.com/the-view-from-academia
• Find out more about participating in Chris's latest academic study @ research.fieldservicenews.com/current-studies
• Follow Chris Raddats on Twitter @ twitter.com/chrisraddats
• Connect with Chris Raddats on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/chrisraddats

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Dr Chris Raddats of the University of Liverpool a seasoned expert with experience from both the industry and academic sides of the aisle centred around servitization, digitalisation and service marketing.

During the discussion, the two discuss a wide range of topics related to Raddat's sphere of insight including reflecting on the current learnings that are coming from a recent raft of academic literature.

In this excerpt from that full interview, the two discuss why in a world of increasing digitalization, core concepts around outside-in thinking and customer-centricity are more important than ever before.

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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 @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Academic Studies @ www.fieldservicenews.com/the-view-from-academia
• Find out more about participating in Chris's latest academic study @ research.fieldservicenews.com/current-studies
• Follow Chris Raddats on Twitter @ twitter.com/chrisraddats
• Connect with Chris Raddats on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/chrisraddats