AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Field Service News

Verizon Connect, one of the leading suppliers of fleet management solutions, has been awarded official supplier accreditation by the Fleet Operator Recognition (FORS) scheme, demonstrating its commitment to improving the safety and productivity of fleets across the UK.FORS is a voluntary scheme for UK fleets which aims to raise safety standards and improve the quality of operations across fleet-based businesses. Through its array of resources, including classroom and eLearning courses and bespoke guides, it helps equip both drivers and fleet managers with the tools they need to meet its standard requirements and enhance the performance of commercial vehicles on Britain’s roads.

The scheme has three levels of recognition for organisations meeting its safety, efficiency and environmental criteria. Verizon Connect has been awarded supplier accreditation for its ability to help fleets operators in FORS’ Bronze, Silver and Gold categories improve road safety, increase efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and promote compliance.

Commenting on securing accreditation, Derek Bryan, VP EMEA at Verizon Connect, said: “Verizon Connect prides itself on helping to improve the safety, productivity and efficiency of fleets, while lowering operational costs so we’re proud to have been awarded supplier accreditation by the FORS. Many companies rely on our platform to promote best practice across their business. Lots of businesses are considering ways to not only manage their vehicles and employees, but also track the performance of other valuable equipment across the supply chain, and we look forward to working closely with FORS to help them drive efficiencies and promote safe operations.”

You can find out more information about the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) via its website, which you can see here. Further information about Verizon Connect can also be found here.

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Traditionally at this time of year, leading industry experts and analysts like to give their views and opinions on what they see as the leading technology trends for the forthcoming year.

For the first time ever, global business intelligence and research firm AMPLYFI has applied its leading AI-based technology, DataVoyant, to identify and statistically quantify mega technology trends out to 2050 across a range of industries and sectors. In finding, harvesting, and reading over 1,000,000 open-source documents, such as academic papers, patents, journals, news items and government white papers, located on both the Surface and the Deep Web, the machine-driven analysis projects likely future trends and timescales to next expected peaks in technologies’ maturities. 

Of the 2,639 broad themes identified, the top mega tech trends and where they are likely to really start impacting our everyday lives are readily identified. Top technologies to watch out for in 2019 are, unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and distributed ledger technologies. Looking beyond this, the realms of energy, mobility, medicine, and our domestic lives appear strong candidates for technology-led disruption on multiple fronts.

Projected Mega Tech Trends 

The process of generating the projections required DataVoyant’s proprietary AI algorithms to first identify key technologies and quantify their relevance based on a number of factors, including frequency, inter-connectivity to related topics, and importance within each document that they feature in. Extracting date stamps from websites and from within documents, the machine then automatically generated historic trends for each technology. From here, deep learning algorithms enabled the machine to learn the “historic context” i.e. the changing interconnectedness and dependencies across hundreds of thousands of variables to create a basis to project forward into the future.

Chris Ganje, CEO and co-founder of AMPLYFI, said: “The power of AI to capture, analyse, and make sense of huge datasets is enabling levels of insight that were previously impossible under traditional business intelligence and research techniques. Our analysis of mega tech trends is just one example of where AI can either affirm or challenge the opinions and perceived wisdom of a minority of often highly influential commentators. The richness and detail lying behind the results allow us to spot early-stage convergence between innovative technologies and business models, as well as track the development of enabling technologies that will ultimately underpin future phenomena such as Smart Cities. Crucially, the machine is able to simultaneously monitor all of this globally, continuously tracking whether context changes sufficiently to materially alter its projections.” 

“Where the deployment or commercial application of technologies is likely to be hampered by regulatory hurdles or public opinion, such as home deliveries by drones or selective human gene editing, AMPLYFI’s DataVoyant technology enables us to monitor developments in these fields globally too. Conversely, it enables us to monitor where regulation is evolving to select and incentivise specific technologies.”

 “In a world where there are more questions than answers, we believe it is better to base business decisions from a position of informed knowledge than from mere opinion. AMPLYFI’s business intelligence platforms, driven by AI and machine learning technology, enable our clients to unlock the entire internet for themselves, both the Surface and Deep Web, in order to generate insights that their competitors are not seeing and to provide quantifiable windows into the future.”

AMPLYFI’s unique DataVoyant platform uses cutting-edge technology to locate, harvest, and analyse data from the Surface and Deep Web held across academic papers, patents, government reports, databases, journals, or news items, to find early warning signals and quantify trends that can help businesses make smarter, faster decisions.

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Passive RFIDs has a competitive edge over active RFID but technological advancements are helping to close the gap, finds Frost & Sullivan

The growth of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and cloud have given a huge boost to the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in Manufacturing 4.0. The interconnectedness of devices has resulted in massive volumes of RFID data that needs to be managed and analyzed, prompting RFID manufacturers to develop high-memory tags that can hold more information, software platforms with a business intelligence layer, as well as cloud-based solutions.

"Due to the rising need for resource and cost efficiency, manufacturers are demanding complete visibility and adopting RFID solutions that aid the real-time location tracking and monitoring of their assets, business processes, and personnel,” said Nandini Bhattacharya Industry Manager for Measurement & Instrumentation at Frost & Sullivan. "Passive RFID has experienced high-volume deployments in the past and will continue to grow, especially in the ultra-high frequency segment, while active RFID, although a smaller market, has potential in real-time location system (RTLS) applications."

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, RFID in Global Manufacturing 4.0 Market, Forecast to 2025, focuses on the trends, challenges, and factors driving the market sectors of tags, readers, and software and services. It provides product revenue and units forecasts, country-wise breakdown of each region, competitive analyses, and a list of key market participants, along with their respective market shares. The study also offers participants deep business intelligence to accelerate growth in a fast-paced market.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: frost.ly/32p 

"As the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an active RFID system is prohibitive, small and medium enterprises opt for the more affordable passive RFID solutions," noted Bhattacharya. "Active RFID manufacturers need to focus on the standardization of active 433 MHz RFID to drive its growth. The rising ubiquity of ultra wide band (UWB) and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) RTLS solutions will give the solution an added boost."

Overall, the growing demands for automation and digitization are creating considerable growth opportunities for RFID vendors that:

• Offer solutions that can be easily integrated into the existing manufacturing infrastructure and can enable IoT connectivity.
• Provide precise and accurate RTLS solutions at competitive prices.
• Develop devices with faster read rate, ability to read more number of tags in a single read as well as highly sensitive antenna, compatible form factors, and increased mobility.
• Gauge customers’ requirements and re-structure their business models accordingly.

RFID in Global Manufacturing 4.0 Market, Forecast to 2025 is part of Frost & Sullivan’s global Mechanical Power Transmission Growth Partnership Service program.

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TrueCommerce, a global provider of trading partner connectivity, integration and unified commerce solutions, announced recently that Gartner Inc. has named TrueCommerce a Challenger in their 2018 Magic Quadrant for Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Business Networks. The company was recognised for its completeness of vision and ability to execute.

“We are excited to be a part of Gartner’s new Magic Quadrant.  We believe it validates our basic premise that the connective tissue (network) between members of a multi-enterprise ecosystem is the key to succeeding in complex, digitally enabled supply chains,” said TrueCommerce president Ross Elliott.  “Our continued investment in innovation and customer success in this area allows our global customer community to thrive in a highly competitive world.”

Describing the reviewed market segment, the Gartner research states that rising interest in digitising the supply chain and recent solution enhancements that improve the trading for all network participants — both in breadth (adding additional supply chain functions) and in depth (improving existing ones) — are fuelling investment in multi-enterprise solutions.

Download you free report copy here: https://www.truecommerce.com/uk-en/contact/gartner

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Available now, the most complete, connected cloud field service includes a new user experience (UX), additional, powerful planning and scheduling capabilities, enhanced service-revenue-generating functionality, omni-channel customer engagement and next-generation cloud configurability

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces the general availability of IFS Field Service Management™ 6 (FSM 6). With major enhancements and new capabilities, it has been field tested and is already delivering value for early adopter customer Eickhoff, a market leader in technology and services for mining and gearbox applications.

IFS’s extended offering for service management, including the WorkWave suite of solutions, offers a breadth of capabilities that is unmatched in the market. This makes IFS uniquely capable of addressing the entire market, from small and medium-sized companies to global enterprises.

IFS FSM 6 brings to market major extensions of its class-leading functionality with more buying and deployment choice in the cloud, even greater mobile field service and back office capabilities, and an intuitive new user experience on any browser or device

The new version empowers users with new and extended features such as enhanced capabilities for reverse logistics, spare parts management and depot repair, and increased flexibility for workforce scheduling optimization. Enhanced functionality for warranty, contracts and pricing management enables entirely new business models for companies that deliver services primarily through distributors.

Designed for deployment as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, in the IFS Managed Cloud or on-premise, IFS FSM 6 redefines configurability for cloud-based field service, giving customers the freedom to tailor data fields, workflows and interfaces to their unique field service environment. Virtually eliminating the need for costly customizations, the new version makes it easy to optimize user behavior while remaining on a standard upgrade track that enables seamless access to the latest feature enhancements.

IFS FSM 6 also delivers:

• Major enhancements to the IFS Planning & Scheduling Optimization™ (PSO) engine: customers can now benefit from a 50% more powerful planning and scheduling engine (on Microsoft Azure) that automates and optimizes technician scheduling, ensuring optimal decision-making based on business goals, customer contracts and service-level agreements
• Omni-channel customer engagement and self-service: IFS FSM 6 can be extended with IFS Customer Engagement™capabilities for AI-powered customer service that offers the self-service options customers demand while identifying and relieving agents of the burden of many repetitive, time-consuming tasks
• A reimagined, browser-based user interface: performing beautifully on any device, a new front end features user-centric and intuitive designs that adapt to any browser, on any device, empowering users to remain in control of their service operations 24/7 without being tied to the office or contact center

“Our solutions are designed to help the world’s highest-performing service organizations serve their customers in the best, most cost-effective way possible,” IFS service management business unit president Marne Martin said. “With the innovations and enhancements brought to market in IFS FSM 6, coupled with freedom in terms of on-premise or cloud deployment options, we are proud to announce a benchmark solution that can tackle the next generation of field service management challenges in a way no other solution on the market can. For those businesses serious about service being a differentiator for their brand and a source of revenue, IFS is the right choice.”

Eickhoff, a market leader in technology and services for mining and gearbox applications, signed on as an early adopter to field test and optimize IFS FSM 6. Following the successful deployment of IFS FSM 6, Eickhoff head of product development service Dietmar Schmitz said, “It has been a great experience to be involved in the development of IFS FSM 6, which was the motivation for joining IFS’s early adopter program. We use IFS FSM to support all our service operations, across multiple departments, from planning and scheduling of jobs through to asset management. The new version will help us respond more quickly to requests from our users and to changes in the market in general. We look forward to leveraging the new platform as a key enabler of continued digitalization and IoT innovation.”

Read more at www.ifsworld.com/FSM.

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Mark Glover, Deputy Editor, Field Service News continues the latest series of The Field Service Podcast as he sits down with simPRO's Richard Pratley. 

Field Service News Deputy Editor, Mark Glover, sits down with Richard Pratley, Managing Director, UK simPRO and discuss how the challenge of an ageing workforce is being echoed around the world for field service companies and how technology, in particular, IoT, is able to help resolve the problem by increasing service management efficiency. 

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Frost & Sullivan will host an interactive Growth Innovation and Leadership (GIL) briefing highlighting creative destruction and expansion of traditional business models.

Frost & Sullivan's Industrial team will host a live, complimentary GIL briefing, “The Paradigm of Digital Industries and Growth Opportunities - Creative Destruction and Expansion of Traditional Business Models” on Wednesday, January 30, 2019, at 8:00 AM EST (1 PM GMT). The interactive briefing will be hosted by Ram Ramasamy, Industry Director, Automation and IIoT at Frost & Sullivan. The briefing will help to identify the best path forward through digital chaos and avoid common pitfalls that many in the industry have experienced.

For more information and to register for the webinar, please visit: http://frost.ly/2zt

“Ageing workforce and rising complexity in technologies is driving a widening consumption gap between data extraction and value-creation. This is driving customers to adopt smart digital offerings that will augment the available workforce and drive more from less,” said Ramasamy. “Further, as customers focus on core activities – we predict the emergence of industrial subscription economy.  A case in point: Customers will shed ownership of assets and shift to asset subscribership.”

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SECOM PLC, the global provider of tailored Security solutions, has achieved a 25 per cent productivity improvement, in just six months, by using Aeromark’s real-time, automated Service Management Platform as part of its strategic investment to optimise its entire service operation.Aeromark’s market leading software now handles every aspect of SECOM’s service business from taking the initial service call, dynamic scheduling of the best Engineer, stock management and sourcing the parts, all the way through to invoicing.  Productivity in the field has increased and by eliminating unnecessary manual tasks, more than one million pieces of paper have been removed from the business along with 15 million associated manual touch points.

Paul Weaver, Operations Director at SECOM said “Aeromark’s service management software has dramatically increased the efficiency of our business, improving productivity in the field by 25 per cent. Our processes have been optimised all the way from the initial customer call to final certification and invoice. This has improved the management of our customer’s assets, their maintenance and the efficiency of our 400 field-based Service Engineers and Sub-contractors”

Aeromark’s SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) based service management software combines Asset and Contract management, Dynamic Scheduling, Mobile Application, GPS tracking, Supply Chain Management; Stock Control; Financial reports, Document Management and statutory compliance in a single, seamlessly integrated system.

“We are already seeing the benefits for ourselves and our customers. Aeromark and our internal team have worked extremely well together and delivered the project efficiently and on time which has enabled us to progress quicker than expected. Our partnership has worked exceptionally well, and I look forward to the next phase” said Paul Weaver.

“We are delighted that Secom have achieved results over and above the outcomes they were predicting. They have embraced our technology and excelled in working with us to form a true technology partnership.” Roger Marks, MD Aeromark

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FLS, FAST LEAN SMART, a leader in field force appointment, schedule and route optimisation solutions, is pleased to announce the results of its 2018 UK customer satisfaction survey undertaken in December 2018.

Jeremy Squire, FLS UK Managing Director comments “FLS is proud of our reputation for customers achieving excellent benefits from our scheduling solutions, however I believe it equally important for ongoing success that customers are also delighted with the support received and feeling of partnership we enjoy together.”

In this survey, every live user that is supported by FLS UK, ranging from Aqualisa with 50 engineers through to Royal Mail PFS with 500, answered the following questions:

• Question 1: On a scale of zero to ten, how likely are you to recommend FLS VISITOUR to a friend who has a similar scheduling requirement? Average Score 9.2, NPS=90
• Question 2: How do you rate the service you receive from FLS support? Average Score 9.4
• Question 3: How would you rate FLS for the partnership we have established together? Average Score 9.4

 Best in class

Jeremy Squire reflects “This is another year with very high rating for FLS performance and I believe at the pinnacle of our field. The best innovation combined with the best service means FLS scheduling software users are fully equipped to achieve the best results!”

Service as a differentiator 

“Good ratings lead to business success in many industries and I am sure it is no coincidence our UK recurring revenue has increased by more than 50% for the third year running. This was helped significantly by recommendation from these customers and the providers of CRM and service management software that we plug into, for example Dynamics 365. FLS is experiencing exciting growth but the results and satisfaction of existing customers will always remain at the heart of our business strategy.” reassures Jeremy.

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