On 24 September 2020, Keolis, in partnership with Urban ICT Arena, Telia, Ericsson Intel and T-engineering, launched a new autonomous self-driving, electric minibus trial in Stockholm, Sweden, using 5G technology to remotely control and supervise the vehicle.

This trial aims to explore the safe introduction of self-driving autonomous electric vehicles in complex urban areas with a view to optimising route planning and traffic.

The trial will be conducted in Royal Djurgården, one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, from 24 September to 8 October 2020. The autonomous minibus, which will drive along a 1.6 km route, will serve the National Museum of Science and Technology, the Maritime Museum, the Nordic Museum and Vasa Museum.

To mark the launch, an inauguration ceremony took place in Djurgården, attended by Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, Anders Ygeman, the Swedish Minister for Energy and Digital Development, Kristoffer Tamsons, Regional Minister for Transport of the Stockholm Region and Chairman of Stockholm Public Transport, Daniel Helldén, Deputy Mayor of the Traffic Division in Stockholm, and Bernard Tabary, CEO International at Keolis Group.

"Since the launch of the world’s first driverless metro in Lille (France) in 1983, Keolis has been drawing on its expertise as a pioneer in autonomous mobility to make shared mobility smarter, more connected and more sustainable. This ground-breaking trial in collaboration with our key partners constitutes another important step forward," says Bernard Tabary, CEO International at Keolis. "We’re pleased to be conducting this trial in Sweden, where we already have a strong presence through our subsidiary Keolis Sverige and carry 730,000 passengers per day."

An important step in preparing for full autonomy in collaboration with key partners

This trial illustrates Keolis’ leadership in the operation of autonomous vehicles. In 2016, the Keolis Group launched a trial of the first autonomous vehicles in Lyon, France. Since then, it has operated autonomous vehicles in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the USA and the UK, carrying 200,000 passengers and covering over 100,000 km.

The pilot project at Djurgården explores how a system with 5G-connected vehicles, which are monitored by a control tower remotely, can facilitate the safe introduction of self-driving electric buses in more complex and demanding urban areas. Benefits of such a system include improved route planning and traffic flows, reduced operational costs and pollution and a more reliable, accessible form of public transport for passengers.

The unique technical features of the 5G network, including extremely high data speeds combined with low latency, mean that the connected buses can respond in real time to commands from the centralised control tower. This is a prerequisite for the safe remote control of vehicles and an important step in moving the driver from the bus into the control tower.

Keolis and Ericsson, which provides the technology for the connected control tower, initiated the project following demonstrations of remote control 5G vehicles in 2019 at the UITP exhibition in Stockholm and at the RNTP exhibition in Nantes.

Telia is providing 5G connectivity in collaboration with Ericsson. Intel is delivering processing power to both the IT system in the vehicles and the control tower, as well as the mobile network. The vehicle, which is equipped with self-driving technology, is provided by the Swedish technology firm T-engineering. It features seven seats and will drive at a maximum speed of 18km/h.

Commercial services run from Monday to Friday, between 8 am and 10 am and 2 pm and 4 pm, and feature a safety driver present in the vehicle at all times. The trial ends on 8 October and will be continued in Kista Science City. The aim of this trail will be to pilot the vehicle from a control tower without an operator on board. In parallel with the Swedish trial, Keolis is testing fully autonomous vehicles at a site closed to traffic in Châteauroux in France.

 

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about Keolis  @ www.keolis.com
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about 5G Technology on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/5G
• Follow Keolis on Twitter @ twitter.com/groupekeolis

 

EIT Digital-supported innovation activity Last Mile Autonomous Delivery (LMAD) has developed a software platform to operate multiple types of autonomous delivery robots (ADRs).After operating the solution at Nokia's Paris-Saclay campus in France, the LMAD startup, which has been incorporated to commercialise the solution, has recently successfully operated it in Finland.

In August, a pilot was run at Aalto University Campus, a parkland-style area at the core of Espoo’s Otaniemi district home to several high-tech companies, the school’s buildings and a student village with more than 4,000 residents.

The local K-Market Otaniemi grocery store offered its customers the option of ordering their groceries online and having them delivered by means of LMAD’s autonomous vehicle. In times of a pandemic, this option perfectly met the safety needs of the customers.

“I believe that the more options the customers have, the better. With the robot, we have been giving customers one additional option to receive the goods for themselves, without as much human interaction as there might be when doing the traditional delivery,” the owner of K-Market Otaniemi, Aleksi Tapani, says.

 

HOME DELIVERIES WITHOUT HUMAN INTERACTIONS TO MEET THE SAFETY NEEDS OF CUSTOMERS

Home deliveries are set to grow, as more and more people become aware of how time-consuming going to a physical store can be, and how much easier it is to order some goods online and wait for them at home.

Meeting customers’ expectations, however, does not play out in terms of margins, as part of the cost of the delivery is absorbed by merchants.

“The question is how to make last-mile delivery profitable. Automatization and robotics can be part of the solution, that's why I was keen on getting in this pilot and seeing what it would bring,” Tapani says.

The experiment was successful, so much that K-Market Otaniemi decided to take part in the next LMAD operation, which will take place in October.

In addition to that, LMAD will be deploying a full delivery service at Nokia’s campus in the outskirts of Paris by the end of the year, another test drive of the platform in Finland in November with additional new pilots being planned elsewhere, to test the platform with robots made by various manufacturers.

“So far, we have been using robots made by our partner GIM Robotics, but we will soon operate an ADR produced by the French manufacturer TwinswHeel, which is also part of our partner team, and possibly another manufacturer next year. LMAD is an open, flexible platform, that can work with several providers. This is something which differentiates us from potential competitors,” LMAD’s CEO, Jean-Philippe Bellaiche, says.

 

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Further Reading:

• Watch a video of the robot delivering at Aalto Campus @ www.youtube.com/6iN5vqUW52A
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Find out more about LMAD @ https://www.lmad.eu/
• Read more about EIT Digital @ www.eitdigital.eu

 

Tweddle Group today launched its new Integrated Diagnostic Explorer software—or IDEx—to enable faster, more accurate diagnostics for a wide range of industries.

Tweddle Group's Chief Executive Officer Pat Aubrynsaid IDEx will serve a dual purpose. "We designed IDEx with two goals in mind," Aubry said. "We wanted to make diagnostics easier and more accurate for technicians. And we wanted to make it easier for manufacturers to create and publish good diagnostic information."

Traditional diagnosis relies on rigid diagnostic trees and procedures, but real-world diagnosis is far more nuanced. IDEx uses sophisticated AI algorithms to help technicians quickly get to the root cause of even the most complex cases.

IDEX helps technicians isolate the root case quickly and accurately

"We spent a lot of time with technicians in the field. Then we asked ourselves, 'What would the diagnostic process look like if we could change the status quo and design it from scratch?' That line of questioning led to IDEx," said Tweddle Group Director of Product Development Justin Dickow. "IDEx thrives on complex issues. Our diagnostics engine adapts the troubleshooting steps in real-time, to help get you to the root cause as fast as possible."

Manufacturers will no longer need to write detailed, step-by-step diagnostic procedures. "Today, these procedures are costly and time-consuming to author, and the results are often inaccurate," Justin said. "IDEx will reduce the cost and effort of developing and distributing diagnostic information. It will also reduce the time spent on diagnostics and minimize errors in repair."

 

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Further Reading:

• Register for a free limited release of IDEx @ www.idex.ai
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Tweddle Group @ www.tweddle.com
• Follow Tweddle Group on Twitter @ twitter.com/TweddleGroup

 

In a new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Aquant we uncover how field service organisations and their workforce (really) measure up, and provide an analysis of how to use hidden KPI data to cut service costs and improve delivery...

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Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

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AQUANT BENCHMARK REPORT

Why Service Leaders Need To Think About Standards KPIs In New Ways:

Key Findings:

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we explore three more key technologies required for remote service delivery.

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!

 

 

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Aquant on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
• Find out more about Aquant @ www.aquant.io
• Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io

RuggON Corporation, a leading-edge mobile computing solution provider, announces the VULCAN X rugged vehicle-mount computer.

Based around a high-visibility 10.4-inch display, this versatile device upgrades any vehicle, and its crew, into a productive asset in the corporate IoT (Internet of Things) – reporting and responding to real-time events, reliably and rapidly. VULCAN X is ideal for cold chain, logistics, warehousing, and heavy-duty vehicles in agriculture, recycling, waste management, and mining. It is perfect for port and cargo cranes.

At the heart of the VULCAN X is a powerful computing platform designed on industry standards. Based on the 8th gen Intel® Core™ i5-8365UE 1.6GHz, this device is compatible with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

VULCAN X, AN APPLICATION-ORIENTED RUGGED COMPUTER FOR ANY RUSHED ENVIRONMENT

The fully rugged design makes the most of the IP66, MIL-STD 810H, and IEC-60721-3-5 5M3 certifications, ensuring the VULCAN X keeps working in the harshest environments, in a vast temperature range going from -30⁰ C to +55⁰ C. The VULCAN X is built to operate 24/7 and withstand salt spray and fog/frost. The vehicle mount has robust metal connectors to protect the I/O interfaces and ensure reliable and secure operation even under the most severe conditions. Smart power management with a broad power input range from 9 to 60 VDC helps the VULCAN X to fulfill diversified applications in almost any vehicle type.

 

As digitization and automation are an integral part of the industrial evolution, 5G ready is no longer a buzzword for the RuggON VULCAN X. The modular design allows changing the I/O ports' location for easy installation and preventing damage to cables from bending and wear. The rich I/O options ensure maximum utilization under various usage scenarios.

The device features CAN bus 2.0B or SAE J1939 for seamless vehicle systems integration. It supports Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 ac) with fast Wi-Fi roaming to prevent lengthy network dropouts in the field. Precise location positioning without any downtime is possible on cranes and forklifts. Materials handling can be managed easily with the VULCAN X through auxiliary RFID or barcode scanners that can be easily plugged into RS-232 ports for usage and recharging.

The trend towards automation and always-connected vehicles is making the human factor more critical – not less – and VULCAN X helps your valuable employees work smarter, safer, and more efficiently. The VULCAN X's high brightness auto-dimming touchscreen automatically optimizes visibility for day or night, indoors and out. The PCT touchscreen display keeps your staff in control in the most challenging conditions with its rugged design. The included RuggON DashON utility software and RuggonOTA service will keep your device in the best condition out in the field.

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about RuggON Vulcan X @ www.ruggon.com//VULCANX
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about RuggON on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/RuggON
• Learn more about RuggON @ www.ruggon.com
• Follow RuggON on Twitter @ twitter.com/RuggON_RuggedPC

 

In Cognito iQ’s annual customer satisfaction survey for 2019, 100% of their customers that responded to our survey rated Cognito iQ from Good to Excellent in every category.

Cognito iQ’s customers depend on their software to keep their field service and last mile delivery networks operational and efficient on a daily basis, meaning their satisfaction is a critical benchmark.

Customers were asked to rate Cognito IQ's performance from Poor to Excellent in several categories; Reliability of solution, how the solution supports your business needs, customer service professionalism and knowledge, business understanding and the quality of the professional services team.

100% rating good and above is an excellent indicator of cognito iq's business performace

‘Scoring 100% rating good and above is an excellent indicator of our business performance’ commented Laurent Othacehe, CEO. ‘Our customer support teams enable our customers to quickly react to new working practices and remain flexible in order to meet their growing customer satisfaction demands’.

“Not only have we achieved these great results, in addition 100% of our customers said they would recommend us. Moving forward our aim is to not just maintain but improve these scores, in exactly the same way we enable our customers to achieve continuous improvement.’

 

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about Cognito iQ  @ www.cognitoiq.com
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Cognito iQ on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/cognito-iq
• Follow Cognito iQ on Twitter @ twitter.com/Cognito_iQ

 

As digital transformation spend is increasing around the world, businesses look for technology vendors whose ethics (29 percent) and culture (23 percent) align with their own. Interestingly, these considerations trump innovation in the ranking of desirable traits, demonstrating that having a similar cultural view of the world is playing a larger role in the selection process.

The top two vendor traits selected were specialist industry expertise (32 percent) and long-term solutions (30 percent). This is unsurprising, considering poor advice from vendors tops the list of why digital transformation projects fail at 37 percent, according to a research study from global enterprise applications company IFS.

Combined with poor vendor advice, technology selection teams, especially among businesses with revenues around the one-billion-dollar mark, are also being pressured by senior management to select well-known vendors even when they are a poor fit for the company’s actual needs.

Despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of companies are planning to increase their digital transformation spend, according to study findings earlier this year. With more businesses investing, with the aim of driving revenue post pandemic, the cost of failure is high and it’s becoming even more important to get investment right.

37 percent say poor vendor advice is the main reason why digital transformation projects fail

A resounding 48 percent of respondents at companies with revenues between 850–950 million US$ stated that they had been forced by senior management or the board of directors to use a well-known vendor that was a poor technological fit.

 “The fact that a non-tangible such as ethics is ranked among the top three vendor traits is inextricably linked to the fact that poor advice from vendors was rated as the top reason for failure,” IFS Chief Customer Officer Michael Ouissi said. “Companies investing in technology should expect their vendors to adhere to sound sales and marketing practices based squarely in actual customer value.”

With a focus on previous experiences from past digital transformation projects, the study finds that budgets and timelines are two major pain points. Respondents indicate that failure in past projects makes management more reluctant to engage in future digital transformation efforts, with budget overruns topping the list of reasons management may put the brakes on critical projects at 28 percent and 26 percent saying blown timelines on past projects have made management more risk averse.

Further analysis of the findings shows that success of these digital transformation projects primarily hinges on finding the right technological fit (44 percent) and establishing clear objectives (50 percent). In fact, the top-three vendor trust factors highlighted by respondents are on-time delivery (44 percent), support before, during and after project completion (41 percent), and delivering projects faster to value (35 percent).

 

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Further Reading:

• Download a complimentary copy of Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond:
  The Technology Equation @ www.ifs.com/digital-transformation-investment-in-2020
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk

 

In a world of digitilization in which it is fully possible to engage with customers without human interaction at all, the field service call has become increasingly rare – it is an opportunity to deal with your customers face to face and in person.

The importance of ‘face-time’ has long been acknowledge within business and so this opportunity to build deeper levels of customer engagement should not be ignored. However, in 2020 the rules have all changed – we now exist in a world of zoom calls and remote service delivery. As we begin to build a new normal there has been much discussion about whether we should be moving to a remote first by default approach. The arguments for doing so are powerful, reduced costs for service delivery against a backdrop of an increasing requirement for zero touch service calls. But could we be throwing out the baby with the bath water in doing so?

As we look towards building the recovery from COVID-19 we spoke to a number of leading field service management experts to ask if field service engineers can and should be still be harnessed to cut through the digital noise and re-introduce the human touch. Now we reflect on those views to reiterate the importance of the human-to-human interaction that the field service visit offers, that perhaps cannot be replaced by a digital alternative.

 

Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director for Service Management at IFS

“Digitalization can streamline and improve the customer experience in many ways, but it will never replace the need for human connection. As digital experiences become more ubiquitous, field service becomes a critical tool in communicating your customer commitment, company culture, and brand identity.

“While customers expect digitalization as a means to simplify their desires to self-schedule, stay informed, and communicate; the more digital our world becomes, the more the face-to-face experience a field technician provides becomes a strategic differentiator.

“COVID-19 has put an even greater emphasis on the importance of human connection, and as recovery ramps the ability to deliver a memorable service interaction will serve as a competitive advantage.”

 

Sumair Dutta, Director of Digital Transformation at ServiceMax

“Human operators become even more vital in an automated environment, not less important. While automation helps shoulder the burden of lower level jobs that don’t generate any added value to the service function – such as locating, moving and loading of stock – it’s the people that often do the best work, innovating, problem solving and understanding customer requirements.

“The human element is essential, as it always has been. And for service teams, this means not losing sight of customers despite increased remote maintenance capabilities. Easier said than done? Not really. 

“Predictive service is one element of a proactive customer management strategy. As Roland Berger identified in its paper Predictive Maintenance: From Data Collection to Value Creation, predictive and not reactive service is essential for any organisation that wants to move forward and embrace digital transformation. By accessing sensor data through IoT networks, machine learning algorithms can analyse and predict in real time, alerting service teams to potential issues before they become serious problems.

 

"It’s so important for service teams to get in front of customers, highlighting potential issues and resolving them..."

- Sumair Dutta, ServiceMax

 

“It shouldn’t stop there. It’s so important for service teams to get in front of customers, highlighting potential issues and resolving them. Cutting through the digital noise requires communication, even if current working practices will limit face-to-face meetings. Using the data and understanding customer equipment status will be increasingly important given cost constraints and everyone wanting to get more bang for their buck. For example, are customers retiring equipment too early? According to a Forrester report commissioned by ServiceMax, From Grease to code: What drives digital transformation, forty one percent of firms don’t know if they’re retiring equipment prematurely due to lack of service data insight, an area where service teams can be proactive in helping customers optimise their equipment use.

“Customer success delivered with the combination of both a human and digital touch should be a strategic priority for service teams. Through analysing service data, teams can provide visible, proactive suggestions to customers (with recommendations delivered by human technicians), on how they can improve. This can lead, where appropriate, to upgrades, new machines or increased maintenance deals but ultimately this is about demonstrating value and building a stronger bond, something which an account rep calling up three months before a renewal can rarely achieve. 

“So, while automation is both the present and future of field service provision, with predictive maintenance the bedrock of modern servitization, organisations cannot afford to sit back and rely on automation alone to illustrate value to customers. As the economy tries to find its feet, demonstrating customer value and keeping the ‘human touch’ front and centre is more important than ever. Service maintenance data is the ammunition for proactive customer engagement, but it will be different skillsets that take this forward, such as softer skills by technicians. Communication is key and human interaction is essential to ensure organisations are not out of sight and mind of their customers.

 

Mark Tatarsky – VP Marketing, FieldAware

"Throughout the service lifecycle, customers continually assess a service company’s value and brand. As the world works to limit human interaction while keeping assets installed, maintained, and repaired, technology creates a duality to decrease “unnecessary” interactions and improve the quality of “necessary” interactions. Field Service Automation enables organizations to schedule and execute on-site jobs while managing social distancing effectively.

"Workforce management and rules-based scheduling systems decrease the number of unnecessary visits by dispatching the right technician with the correct skillset and tools/equipment to complete the job. Points of contact are further reduced via technician location tracking and arrival notifications so customers can meet technicians at the point-of-service at a specific time.

 

"Once the service engineer leaves the site, technology simplifies a digital survey process to close the loop enabling customers to provide feedback and service organizations to react quickly..."

- Marc Tatarsky, FieldAware

 

"Field techs are the face of the brand during the critical moment of service delivery. Investing in technology with innovative customer-centric communications and management capabilities ensures necessary site visits meet the customer’s requirements, SLA commitments, and provide ample time for essential on-site relationship management.

"Digitizing the process to include workforce management, mobile tech enablement, knowledge tools, work instructions, diagnostics, or remote expert advice increases the vital first-time fix rate and customer satisfaction. Ensuring estimated job durations automatically include time for engineers to spend with customers on necessary site visits to discuss their business requirements and identify areas to extend value improves the customer relationship experience. Once the service engineer leaves the site, technology simplifies a digital survey process to close the loop enabling customers to provide feedback and service organizations to react quickly to problems or take steps to solidify a robust user experience."

 

Ashok Kartham, CEO and Founder, Mize

“Digitization of Field Service has brought new meaning to the concept of providing the “Warm and Fuzzies”.   In the past, we may have taken it for granted that courteous and friendly service is the foundation of a good customer experience. Now, when a field service visit is required, technicians can arrive onsite with the knowledge, skills, and resources to fix both the problem and the customer. After all, end-customers expect their technician to be experts. The better the technician can communicate his knowledge about the customer, the customer’s install base, the customer’s experiences, preferences, history, etc. they more valuable they become and the better the experience they provide. Ultimately, this is the human touch they desire, and digitization makes his possible.”  

 

"Customers trust field service technicians because of their product knowledge and solution approach. Customers are more willing to accept advice from a person they trust..."

- Ashok Kartham, Mize

 

“Customers trust field service technicians because of their product knowledge and solution approach. Customers are more willing to accept advice from a person they trust. The Field service technician is in the best position to establish that trusted relation with the customers. “

“By being the main or only direct contact with the customers, field service technicians can help increase the attach rates of service contracts, consumables, and related products and services. Technicians need to be enabled to access customer history, provide quotes, and complete transactions while with the customer.”   

 

Michael Maoz, Senior Vice President, Innovation Strategy, Salesforce

“Advances in embedded intelligence in all devices and structures means that in the near future any on-site presence of a field technician is either for initial installation, or a complex repair. To play Devil’s Advocate, in some ways this will lessen the importance of the technician visit, as an ever-greater percentage of the customer relationship, and therefore customer satisfaction, will be cultivated and maintained remotely, through self service, in-store, or within customer communities.

"Shifts in customer priorities in some countries, brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, increasingly will mean that face-to-face engagement will happen on a screen. Remote video diagnostic sessions done in collaboration with the customer will become the preferred approach. The quality of remote video sessions will explode with the introduction of 5G over the coming three years. It will allow a feeling of genuine presence, due to high fidelity augmented reality in the form of the virtual presence of the technicians, overlaid video instructions, and voice-driven instructions from AI sources.

 

"To prevent the process change and the culture change from overwhelming their field service organizations, tight planning is necessary, and an integrated set of processes across marketing, sales and service..."

- Michael Maoz, Salesforce

 

"This sense of a shared business and customer effort at service resolution will leave the customer feeling a deeper connection with the enterprise. Connections foster trust, and trust fosters loyalty. Loyal customers buy more often and recommend to their friends that they do the same.

“There will be more thorough remote preparation for the arrival of the technician in the cases where this is necessary or a best practice (Such as relationship building, demonstrating new products and services, and marketing new offers). Digitization will simplify the job of the technician onsite. This will give the technician the time and the tools to better engage the customer from a position of empathy, and with a focus on developing business opportunities

“Organizations are already discovering that embracing the enhanced role of the field service engineer requires a new set of criteria and practices to attract talent, train and motivate and compensate talent, and to measure the business outcomes (for example: costs, upselling, retention, churn).

“To prevent the process change and the culture change from overwhelming their field service organizations, tight planning is necessary, and an integrated set of processes across marketing, sales and service. An ability to capture and analyse a constant stream of customer feedback will be vital in helping the enterprise keep such a program on track. The challenges will be great, and the rewards will be even greater.”

Combined with Salesforce Customer 360 Platform and Salesforce Field Service, Asset 360 will create the world's most complete field service solution on the world's #1 CRM platform

ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, today announced ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce, a new product built on Salesforce Field Service, bringing ServiceMax's asset-centric approach and decade-plus of experience to more customers across a broader set of industries to help them keep critical assets running.

In today's environment, companies across all industries are having to reimagine how they operate. Requirements for equipment performance have intensified, while customer expectations continue to rise. In order to thrive, organizations must advance beyond the standard break-fix model to ensure uptime for important assets in a safe and compliant manner. Service teams must prioritize efficient asset performance, as well as the customer experience they provide.

ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will deliver a 360-degree view into install base, service contracts and asset performance to maximize equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs. This advanced insight, natively developed within Salesforce Field Service, will empower customers to shift from selling products to adopting outcome-based strategies that propel businesses forward. This will enable customers to drive operational results, including:

• Accelerating time-to-value to support asset-centric business processes with pre-configured templates and industry best practices
• Gaining greater visibility into warranty coverages and improving service margin by preventing uncovered work with warranty and entitlement management
• Maximizing contract attach rates and renewals by monitoring the install base to ensure warranty-to-contract conversion while delivering on entitlements
• Automating RMA/depot repair processes to efficiently manage returns, meet compliance and lower inventory costs with purpose-built interfaces

The new offering will enable reduced implementation time and deliver new innovation with each release, bringing enhanced workflows directly to customers "out of the box" and access to emerging technologies such as Einstein. ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will be available in November 2020. ServiceMax will also continue to offer, support and invest in bringing new technologies to its existing Core platform.

"For 13 years, ServiceMax has helped customers keep the world running with world-class field service solutions," said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. "We are proud to offer this new solution, built on the Salesforce platform, which will enable even more customers across a broader set of industries to benefit from an asset-centric approach in order to run more profitable, efficient service operations and ensure uptime on the world's most important assets."

"The enhanced partnership between ServiceMax and Salesforce continues the market trend of ecosystem relationships to support end-to-end service lifecycle management with an eye to an industry focus," said Aly Pinder, Program Director, Service Innovation and Connected Products at IDC, and author of IDC's recent Market Scape on Field Service Management. "The partnership moves the conversation past 'let's turn more wrenches in a given day' to 'let's enable service to deliver a better, more proactive customer experience that ensures asset performance.' I am intrigued to follow this from a business relationship perspective and see how this partnership supports the future of field service."

"We're thrilled to be bringing a next-generation field service product to market for our customers," said Mark Cattini, SVP of Field Service Management at Salesforce. "And, with the combination of ServiceMax Asset 360 and Salesforce Field Service, companies across industries will have access to enhanced asset management and dynamic resource scheduling capabilities on a single platform. This is the future of field service and it's connected, proactive and intelligent."      

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Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with ServiceMax CEO Neil Barua and CMO Stacey Epstein about the new release to find out more. Look out for that exclusive interview coming soon!