To say 2020 has been a turbulent year would be an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt in the Spring but now we must push forward. Organisations around the world have had to adapt overnight, and digital transformation...
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Nov 06, 2020 •
To say 2020 has been a turbulent year would be an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt in the Spring but now we must push forward. Organisations around the world have had to adapt overnight, and digital transformation has been at the heart of this.
The field service industry has particularly been under an unprecedented amount of pressure during this time. Service appointments still need to go ahead, but due to required customer interaction and contact, new health and safety measures have had to be put in place. As the pandemic is predicted to worsen throughout the winter months, it is vital that the sector can still provide essential services safely and put the customer at the centre of their approach. Direct and transparent, two-way communication with customers has never been more important.
Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief explained in a recent panel discussion on the FIeld Service News Digital Symposium channel, "there has never been a more critical time to ensure that we are communicating effectively with our customers. Having interviewed a huge number of service leaders across the last six months from those companies who have most successfully adapted to these unprecedented times one aspect shone through in each instances - these were all companies who understood the importance of being close to the customer and in communicating effectively with them."
On 10 November 2020 at 5pm GMT/ 11 AM CST, Localz and FieldAware will be hosting a webinar moderated by Oldland in which we will see how field service organizations are evolving their technology maturity and bolstering a customer-centric approach as a primary driver for digital transformation in the field service sector.
To learn more about insights derived from the research and participate in the discussion, you can register for the webinar here.
They will be joined by field service experts who will participate in a live Q&A discussion featuring Kris Oldland (Editor in Chief, FSN), Steve Mason, COO at FieldAware, and Emma Lampert, Global Head of Customer Success at Localz.. The session is set to not only provide insight and but importantly also provide actionable steps on how to mature your field service management and enhance the customer journey.
The webinar will also cover:
- The state of servitization: looking at what’s changed - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- How the field service maturity model has evolved during these unprecedented times
- The role of CX and customer satisfaction in driving digital transformation
- How a field service hub approach can enhance the overall field service experience and build a cost-effective path of success
Ahead of the webinar Lampert commented, “During these challenging times, there have been many changes to how services organisations need to conduct business effectively. Service organisations are rapidly evolving, thanks in part to a necessary race towards digital transformation and a customer-focused approach to service delivery,” said Emma Lampert is the Global Head of Customer Success at Localz.
Mason added, “We see organizations of varying levels of field service maturity being pressured to adopt new customer experience workflows. What was considered CX 'best in class' at the beginning of the year is now the new normal and service organizations are looking for cost-effective answers to deliver on the rising expectations driven by changes from the pandemic. We think with Partners like Localz, our field service hub approach is the answer,”
To learn more about insights derived from the research and participate in the discussion, you can register for the webinar here.
Nov 06, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Remote Services
Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss what comes next after the pandemic has brought the technology required for remote service delivery to the mainstream out of necessity
Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss what comes next after the pandemic has brought the technology required for remote service delivery to the mainstream out of necessity
Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
An EXPLORATION OF WHAT COMES NEXT
Having recently authored a white paper in partnership with Salesforce that explored whether we need to reevaluate the value proposition of service delivery as we all become more accustomed to remote service delivery, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News invited Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer on to The Field Service Podcast to explore the topic further.
Do we move to remote services first as a default, was a big theme in the white paper and the two discussed the pros and cons of such an approach at length. Here in this highlight from the full podcast, and to get further insight into that topic, we hear Brandeleer’s thoughts around what comes next, having seen remote service become table stakes almost overnight.
“One thing that is interesting to see as well is that remote assistance is a quick reaction for an issue that we all have right now,” Brandeleer commented
“Yet it's become a keystone for different things as well. So I think in the short term, remote assistance became really table stakes but I think there are other things that are going to follow this.
“When you think about remote assistance, you can speak to the customer, but for many, many call centre agents or technicians that are on the call, they might not know about the machine, and they might not have the machine connected to IoT. So I think this kind of rapid change for remote assistance will lead us towards the rapid change, for example, remote diagnostics, IoT, and all these other steps in the movement of ‘can I actually serve my customers remotely as efficiently as I was doing it before when I had somebody on site?’
“I think we are going to see an exploration of other technologies that are going to add on the remote assistance side essentially,” Brandeleer adds.
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
Nov 05, 2020 • News • Virtual Reality • Digital Transformation • Technology • BT • EMEA
The slow rate of technology adoption amongst many UK businesses could impact their ability to compete on an international scale – that’s according to a new study by YouGov and BT. The survey of over 1,000 businesses - ranging from SMEs to large...
The slow rate of technology adoption amongst many UK businesses could impact their ability to compete on an international scale – that’s according to a new study by YouGov and BT. The survey of over 1,000 businesses - ranging from SMEs to large enterprises - reveals the digital immaturity of some UK businesses, driven by a lack of awareness of key emerging technologies amongst business leaders and a failure to link technology benefits with improved business performance.
BT’s” state-of-the-nation report, “The Future In 2020 Review” , shines a light on the current take-up of digital technologies amongst UK businesses and their future investment plans, with one third having no plans to invest in new emerging tech over the next five years. Of the 14 new technologies highlighted in the survey, more than 50 per cent of business leaders – including Chief Information Officers (CIOs) – were only familiar with half of them. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of those business leaders who have adopted new technologies worry that these have not been implemented successfully. This reveals a tech awareness problem amongst senior business and IT decision makers, which, when coupled with a digital skills gap, risks holding back the productivity and growth of UKplc.
UK'S DIGITAL IMMATURITY
The report’s findings indicate that a significant proportion of UK businesses are trailing behind in the technology innovation stakes. While more than 40 per cent of businesses have adopted VoIP, no other emerging technology has an uptake of more than 25 percent. Currently only 20 percent of businesses have embraced IoT, and roughly 30 percent of businesses believe that 5G will play a role in their future roadmap despite forecasts that 5G will add $8trn to global GDP by 2030. When asked about technology investment plans for the next five years, nearly a third said they have no plans to invest in data driven technologies such as AI and Machine Learning.
Businesses in the medical, health and education sectors are revealed as those where the biggest gaps lie, with these industries not currently using any of the technologies listed in the study, while over a third of these have no plans to adopt them in the next five years. Unsurprisingly, IT and Telecoms tops the list for the broadest investment in innovative technologies, although this is still relatively low at 26 percent.
AN AWARENESS GAP IN C-SUITE
The failure amongst some businesses to embrace emerging technologies can be linked to a lack of awareness, with more than 50 percent of business leaders stating that they were not aware of the technologies listed - despite the respondents sitting in a C-suite role or within a senior IT team. For instance, 31 percent said they are not aware of AI and 60 percent are not familiar with as-a-service solutions and managed security services. And, of those that have adopted new technology, 40 percent of respondents believe these are not being implemented successfully, so businesses are unable to reap the benefits of their technology investments.
BUSINESSES FAIL TO LINK TECHNOLOGY WITH COMMERCIAL GOALS
The research also reveals that the most common reason for businesses not adopting new technology is a lack of understanding of how technology can drive improved business performance. While industry experts point to 5G and complementary tech as a key catalyst for the fourth industrial revolution and business transformation, almost half of UK’s businesses are yet to recognise the relevancy and benefits it brings to their business, rising to 57 percent for Machine Learning and AI.
When asked about core objectives, all business leaders agreed; increasing revenue, reducing operational costs and boosting productivity are key priorities for the next three to five years. However, almost a quarter of businesses struggle to see how digital tools can power commercial performance and achieve key business objectives.
One of the biggest barriers to technology adoption according to those surveyed is the financial climate, with 40 percent of business leaders citing that the current climate is impacting their technology strategy. Furthermore, 1 in 3 businesses expect skills shortages to hamper technology investment; even in the most digitally savvy industries such as IT and financial services, one-quarter believe that digital skills shortages pose challenges to technology adoption. In an effort to accelerate UKplc’s digital maturity, BT has launched its Skills for Tomorrow initiative with an ambition to reach one million business owners and their employees with digital skills by 2025.
Chris Sims, Managing Director of Commercial and Marketing, BT Enterprise’s unit said: “The research reveals that a significant proportion of UK businesses view new technologies as a cost rather than an investment to help boost growth. It’s clear that businesses need more support; whether that’s understanding what technologies to adopt, how to maximise the potential of that technology and how that translates into commercial success.
“As the 5G network continues to roll out across the UK, it will support the delivery and uptake of other emerging technologies like IoT, AI and VR. 5G coupled with these technologies will play a critical role in fuelling the post-Covid recovery, by boosting productivity, delivering new customer experiences and creating new business models. Whilst the research suggests that uptake of emerging technology is slow, the understanding and adoption of these technologies will increase as 5G becomes more prevalent. Businesses that can harness this early on can reap significant benefits; saving time, boosting efficiencies, unlocking innovation and creating a sustainable future.”
To support businesses through their digital transformation journeys, BT is planning to launch a new Digital Health Checker for its corporate and SME customers. This will give businesses a free online assessment of their digital maturity and will help them identify the best technologies to future proof their business and position them for growth.
Details of BT’s Digital Health Checker will be announced in due course. For more information on BT’s Skills for Tomorrow programme, please visit the website here.
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Learn more about BT @ www.bt.com
- Find out more about BT Skills For Tomorrow programme @ www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow
- Read more about 5G on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/5G
- Follow BT on Twitter @ twitter.com/bt_uk
Nov 04, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Remote Services
Gary Brandeleer of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about how we are seeing unprecedented acceleration of digital transformation in the field service sector...
Gary Brandeleer of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about how we are seeing unprecedented acceleration of digital transformation in the field service sector...
Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
REMOTE SERVICE DELIVERY IS NOW TABLE STAKES
In a recent exclusive Field Service News white paper authored by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News we asked an important question “Do we need to redefine the value proposition of service, as we look towards moving towards a post pandemic world?”
It is an important discussion, one that many senior leaders in our industry are currently having, yet it is also a topic that is evolving and emerging in real-time as we piece together what the new normal looks like for our sector.
To build upon the white paper, which had a particular lens looking at remote services and do we move to remote first as a default in our industry, Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer joined Kris Oldland on the Field Service Podcast to further drive the discussion forwards.
Brandeleer and the team at Salesforce have, of course had huge experience dealing with digital transformation and in the above excerpt from that conversation, Brandeleer and Oldland touch on whether the acceleration we've seen in the last six months towards digital transformation projects is truly unprecedented.
This is perhaps the biggest factor that will shape the way we view field service delivery both in terms of the value proposition and operational delivery. It is not only the leap forward that has been made, but it is also the rapidity at which almost all of us in the industry moved forward simultaneously that has caused such seismic shifts in our thinking.
As we saw in the last highlight from this podcast, we saw conversations go from “this is on our roadmap in five years’ time,” to “we need this now, how quickly can we implement it?”
"We were sending people onsite, now we are doing remote assistance. Can we do other things as well? Can we now invest in outcome-based services and push towards servitization and other things like this?"
Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce
"I would say the field service world has been quite often protected from rapid disruption, like this,” Brandeleer commented.
“We've always had time to implement things [in field service], even the optimization engine that we provide to companies. The companies who are implementing such systems know and understand the benefits the solutions will bring, but they also know that it's important to take that time when you are dealing with technicians, when you're dealing with mission critical business.
“You need to take your time to change such important things and make them more efficient over a long period of time.”
“I don't think I've ever really seen such a disruption where, from one week to another, these technologies literally became table stakes. I think that what we see as well is, of course, COVID accelerated many, many other trends for field service. I think what's happening is that the one trend that we seek from that disruption, also is this agility that you see now in field service.
“We were sending people onsite, now we are doing remote assistance. Can we do other things as well? Can we now invest in outcome-based services and push towards servitization and other things like this?" Brandeleer asks.
"These trends have been there for a while and people have been talking about it, but not really acting very fast. Are we now going to see the mentality of ‘well, we did it for remote assistance, we implemented in two weeks, and we have return on investment here – can’t we just do that for other things that we wanted to do?’ The world is in such a chaotic state right now, we must take this opportunity to drive more acceleration of things that we wanted to do, things that were part of a roadmap, but now we want to accelerate them.
“I think this digital transformation that's out there which traditionally can take quite a while for many field service companies, I think people are going to take as a table stakes now as well. Now companies want these digital transformation projects to happen very, very fast. They went time to value and that's another trend that came out of this COVID-19 disruption."
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
Nov 03, 2020 • News • 5G • Nokia • Cyber Security • Digital Transformation • GLOBAL
Cyberattacks on internet-connected devices continue to rise at an alarming rate due to poor security protections and cybercriminals use of automated tools to exploit these vulnerabilities, according to the latest Nokia Threat Intelligence Report.
Cyberattacks on internet-connected devices continue to rise at an alarming rate due to poor security protections and cybercriminals use of automated tools to exploit these vulnerabilities, according to the latest Nokia Threat Intelligence Report.
The report found that Internet-connected, or IoT, devices now make up roughly 33% of infected devices, up from about 16% in 2019. The report’s findings are based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic on more than 150 million devices globally where Nokia's NetGuard Endpoint Security product is deployed.
Adoption of IoT devices, from smart home security monitoring systems to drones and medical devices, is expected to continue growing as consumers and enterprises move to take advantage of the high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and fundamentally new networking capabilities that 5G mobile networks enable, according to the report.
The rate of success in infecting IoT devices depends on the visibility of the devices to the internet, according to the report. In networks where devices are routinely assigned public facing internet IP addresses, a high infection rate is seen. In networks where carrier-grade Network Address Translation is used, the infection rate is considerably reduced because the vulnerable devices are not visible to network scanning.
THE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS COVID-19-THEMED CYBERCRIMINAL CAMPAIGNS AIMED AT EXPLOITING USER DATA
The Threat Intelligence Report also reveals there is no let up in cybercriminals using the COVID-19 pandemic to try to steal personal data through a variety of types of malware. One in particular is disguised as a “Coronavirus Map” application – mimicking the legitimate and authoritative Coronavirus Map issued by Johns Hopkins University – to take advantage of the public’s demand for accurate information about COVID-19 infections, deaths and transmissions.
But the bogus application is used to plant malware on victims’ computers to exploit personal data. “Cybercriminals are playing on people’s fears and are seeing this situation as an opportunity to promote their agendas,” the report says. The report urges the public to install applications only from trusted app stores, like Google and Apple.
Bhaskar Gorti, Nokia Software President and Chief Digital Officer, said: “The sweeping changes that are taking place in the 5G ecosystem, with even more 5G networks being deployed around the world as we move to 2021, open ample opportunities for malicious actors to take advantage of vulnerabilities in IoT devices. This report reinforces not only the critical need for consumers and enterprises to step up their own cyber protection practices, but for IoT device producers to do the same.”
Commenting on this, Boris Cipot, senior security engineer at Synopsys, said "The Nokia Threat Report is a welcome confirmation for security professionals that mobile platforms are not something that can be disregarded as a risk. If we think about it, today we have more processing power and memory in our smartphones than we did just a few years ago on our laptops and desktops. Most individuals now jump on their phones or tablet to browse the internet or read their emails. Use cases have shifted from traditional desktop/laptop to mobile device and as such, it is normal that cyberthreats have followed this trend. Nevertheless, that is not to say that individuals should disregard standard PC threats. While mobile threats are rising, this does not imply that PC threats are decreasing. On the contrary, these threats are growing in number too.
"In fact, we are now entering a new era of technology; that is the 5G era, which brings along with it another set of threats. New threats are to be expected with new technology. One has to be prepared for them and to take appropriate action to build resilience. The world of IoT is evidence that we are still a long way from achieving this. Breached baby monitors, video cameras, cryptocurrency mining… all of these are recent incidents we have faced and continue to face. Whether it is the Android platform or the RTOS of an IoT device that is under attack, the root of the matter typically comes down to vulnerabilities in the software. Therefore, secure development and the Security by Design principle needs to be at the foundation of every software development process. The use of tools such as SAST, SCA or IAST are mandatory to keep the whole ecosystem safe. The reason being that even the smallest security hole delivered by the smallest application in a mobile phone or PC could be responsible for a whole device becoming exploitable.“
Further Reading:
- Read the Nokia Threat Intelligence Report @ www.nokia.com/threat-intelligence-report
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Watch Nokia's video 'Vulnerability of IoT Devices' @ youtu.be/ume8OldqvUY
- Watch Nokia's video '5G Can Help Secure Devices' @ youtu.be/XghAvFgTv2k
- Follow Nokia on Twitter @ twitter.com/nokia
Nov 03, 2020 • Features • Cognito iQ • White Paper • Digital Transformation
This second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Cognito iQ provides an analysis of the challenges and difficulties service leaders face and why field service operations are complex......
This second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Cognito iQ provides an analysis of the challenges and difficulties service leaders face and why field service operations are complex......
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Cognito iQ who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
why FIELD SERVICE IS HARD
Field service is hard for a number of reasons, all of which are interconnected:
- Field-service operations are inherently complex, involving multiple elements in the service chain, such as people and processes, and they are affected by multiple factors outside of the control of the service organisation, such as traffic, access to customer premises or repair tasks that are hard to resolve. This complexity means plans are vulnerable to unpredictable, disruptive, short-notice changes.
- The complexity and uniqueness of the challenge in field service is also why generic business intelligence (BI) tools, designed to adapt to multiple management environments, are often less effective within service organisations. Because the underlying metrics don’t match the situation on the ground, changes can have unintended consequences, and end users can be resistant to the implementation of such tools.
- The Service Level Agreements (SLAs), business rules and processes that drive field service typically vary across the organisation, and by end customer. Even if these processes are standardised, the intricacy of operations means there are many potential sources of ineffectiveness.
- Compounding the problem is the challenge of managing the performance of the mobile workforce. Performance management is demanding enough when you are dealing with office-based staff; when your workforce is remote, visibility is limited and the difficulty is intensified.
- Field service has also been facing a skills shortage. The available workforce of qualified engineers and technicians is aging; fewer young people are choosing field service careers, so when engineers retire, they aren't all being replaced. There is also a need to train and upskill the existing workforce to take on new technologies, service models and working methods so they can cope with the changes, and be on board for digital transformation.
- Customer expectations are another factor. The bar for customer experience has been set high by online companies, so end customers, both consumer and business, expect to get service appointments on their terms, with real-time information about the progress of their service at all times, via any medium of their choice.
- For service managers, once something goes wrong in the field, it is hard to recover, and time that is lost can never be replaced. One task overrunning can put a field-based worker’s schedule out for the remainder of their shift, potentially jeopardising multiple SLAs and customer relationships. Service managers often lack the data to see what has happened in real time, and to move resources around to regain control.
- Many field service organisations have digitised some of their processes so that they no longer rely entirely on paper-based workflows, or store customer information in static spreadsheets. With automation and digitisation, has come an increase in the volume of data available to field-service managers - from the field as well as internal data - but without the right analytical tools, and the skills to use them, or the ability to align multiple data sources, more data is unlikely to lead to more insight.
- Even with the right analytics, it can be very difficult to implement changes to field-service processes, monitor the outcome of those changes, and understand whether the improvements have been successful, or have had unintended consequences elsewhere in the system, or even elsewhere in the organisation. Strategy for change has to link with wider organisational strategy, be communicated effectively and be effectively adopted by those who have to undertake new processes. With limited control of the ‘drivers and levers’ of performance, service operations find it very difficult to evolve and grow.
Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss what exceptional field service looks like.
However, www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Cognito iQ on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/cognito-iq
- Find out more about Cognito iQ @ www.cognitoiq.com
- Follow Cognito iQ on Twitter @ twitter.com/Cognito_iQ
Nov 02, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Remote Services
Gary Brandeleer of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about how the pandemic has ushered in a new era of remote service delivery...
Gary Brandeleer of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about how the pandemic has ushered in a new era of remote service delivery...
Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
REMOTE SERVICE DELIVERY IS NOW TABLE STAKES
Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland recently authored an exclusive white paper published in partnership with Salesforce, that looked at the sudden emergence of remote service delivery as a go to approach for service delivery. To dig further into this embryonic industry-wide discussion, Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer joined Oldland on the Field Service Podcast. Across the following weeks we will be publishing a series of excerpts from that episode beginning with this opening highlight that looks at how the pandemic has rapidly ushered in a new era of service delivery…
Across the last seven months as a direct result of the pandemic we have seen the adoption of an implementation of technology that was predominant best-in-class as we entered 2020.
In fact, for many years, many best-in-class service organisations have had the ability to deliver service remotely – certainly we've been talking about it here at Field Service News for an awfully long time. However, since the arrival of the COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent ongoing lockdowns, the tools that are required to deliver service remotely have suddenly become a necessity for almost all field service organisations, in all corners of the world, across all industries.
"Very rapidly, what was actually a good addition to a demonstration of what is possible with a FSM solution suddenly became table stakes..."
- Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce
“At first, it was only a few organisations that would be able to offer this kind of remote assistance,” commented Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer on a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast.
“However, we were already beginning to see more and more customers asking for it, even before the pandemic. However, it was not an essential requirement. It was not that if a FSM solution provider could not offer it they would be out of RFP. However, very rapidly, what was actually a good addition to a demonstration of what is possible with a FSM solution suddenly became table stakes,” Brandeleer added.
“Now, everybody wants to get a remote assistant solution. I think the story that we see as well, is that the pandemic pushed field service companies to be much more agile than before.
"Essentially companies were wanting to get remote assistance, and they had no choice in terms of implementing it very fast. There were customers coming to us, customers coming to many different companies, all asking not only for remote assistance, but also being able to implement this kind of remote assistance within the next two weeks.”
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
Nov 02, 2020 • Features • Artificial intelligence • White Paper • Digital Transformation • field service management • Aquant
This final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Aquant analyses why distributing knowledge across the team is the missing link to creating a high-performace workforce...
This final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Aquant analyses why distributing knowledge across the team is the missing link to creating a high-performace workforce...
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Aquant who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
bridging the gap between where you are now and where you want to be
Now that you know where to look and what to look for in your service data, what's next?
Distributing knowledge across the team is the missing link to creating a high-performing and engaged workforce.
Once you understand:
How your workforce is performing individually
The size of a skills gap across the organization
The next step is to figure out how to bridge the gap between where you are now, and where you want to be. Artificial intelligence can get you there quickly and enable this transformative shift in the workplace.
Here’s how:
○ AI that understands your organization’s unique service language and can quickly analyze hidden data is the first step in turning service records into actionable information.
○ Next, using that data to map out your workforce and identify heroes and challengers gives you the insights that can’t be found by simply monitoring key KPI.
○ Converting your organization’s tribal knowledge (from your service heroes) into usable information and then combining that with your own service data creates a dynamic platform is the final clue to unlock hero status for everyone.
○ That democratized knowledge, which is as easy to access as a Google search, puts the power of your best experts in the hands of the whole team.
Read the full Aquant white paper which provides an analysis of field service KPIs and the state of the workforce skills gap.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Aquant on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
- Find out more about Aquant @ www.aquant.io
- Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io
Oct 30, 2020 • Features • automotive • Video • APAC • Field Service News Digital Symposium
As part of our partnership with Field Service Asia and just ahead of their conference running on the 4th and 5th November Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief Field Service News spoke with one of the key speakers Jamie F. Morais, General Manager Aftersales...
As part of our partnership with Field Service Asia and just ahead of their conference running on the 4th and 5th November Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief Field Service News spoke with one of the key speakers Jamie F. Morais, General Manager Aftersales Dealer Operations Asia and Oceania.
This video was recorded for our brand new channel the Field Service News Digital Symposium which is only available to our Premium Subscribers. However, to shine a light on the calibre of speakers at the next Field Service Asia event, Field Service News has made this interview available on our free-to-access channels as well.
You can sign up to attend Field Service Asia's Digital event for free and hear both Morais and Oldland plus a huge range of other top notch speakers https://bit.ly/30zNugP
If you would like full access to the Field Service News Digital Symposium where we publish in-depth interviews with senior industry leaders in our industry every week plus a huge range of other benefits then head over to https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en/subscrition/premium-subscription
There are also a ton of other benefits which you can find out about on the link above.
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