Establishing a knowledge base is a strategy that can yield numerous benefits for a field service organisation and once the initial pain of setting it up is accomplished it can become self-perpetuating. One company that have adopted this approach is...
AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland
About the Author:
Kris Oldland has been working in Business to Business Publishing for almost a decade. As a journalist he has covered a diverse range of industries from Fire Juggling through to Terrorism Insurance. Prior to this he was a Quality Services Manager with a globally recognised hospitality brand. An intimate understanding of what is important when it comes to Service and a passion for emerging technology means that in Field Service he has found an industry that excites him everyday.
Feb 24, 2015 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Knowledge Sharing • Medical Devices • Elekta • Service Community
Establishing a knowledge base is a strategy that can yield numerous benefits for a field service organisation and once the initial pain of setting it up is accomplished it can become self-perpetuating. One company that have adopted this approach is medical device manufacturers Elekta...
The devices Elekta manufacture deliver radio therapy treatment for cancer care and are one of the leaders in the niche field of image guided radiotherapy. Devices such as a linear accelerator that delivers extremely accurate radiation used in sterotactic treatment for tumours are a core part of their product line. These devices capable of delivering are very high precision, sub millimetre accuracy radiation.
As you can imagine these are highly complicated devices with many modalities and while they have many computer systems and software applications controlling the treatment planning systems and oncology information system, there are obviously a lot of electronics mechanics and pneumatics within the device as well as a vacuum system and of course a way of generating radioactivity in a very controlled way.
An important challenge for Elekta has been around the tackling the questions ‘how do we share knowledge around the whole service organisation?
This of course means that training engineers can be a long and challenging process. This is becoming a particular challenge in the developing markets of Asia Pacific and Latin America, where unfortunately due to the prevalence of Cancer there is an on-going struggle to keep up with developing enough engineers in order to be able to support the growth of product sales.
Especially in rapidly growing markets like China and Brazil.
Of course for a company in such a situation the efficient training support of the engineers, becomes extremely important.
“An important challenge for Elekta has been around the tackling the questions ‘how do we share knowledge around the whole service organisation?’” revealed Elekta Senior Vice President of Service, Martin Gilday during a recent presentation at a meeting hosted by UK non-profit group the Service Community.
It was clear that this issue had to be addressed and having recently implemented a new service management application, Gilday and the team at Elekta took the opportunity to establish an automated knowledge management solution.
“Prior to deploying that system we did have a number of ways of sharing knowledge which the engineers basically developed themselves but it wasn’t truly shared. It may have been shared amongst smaller groups of engineers but it certainly wasn’t a solution that worked on a global basis.” Gilday admitted.
With the complex nature of some of the problems Elekta’s engineers face there is of course a huge amount of value in being able to share some of that analytical and corrective maintenance activity across the organisation. Fortunately for them, this was acknowledge amongst their engineers also and they were a big part in Elekta’s drive to share knowledge across the group on a more efficient and systematic level.
“There was a real clear message from the field that the engineers wanted the opportunity to share information with their peers and to learn from other parts of the organisation, helping each other develop.”
This pull from the field engineers was a real plus for putting an effective means of sharing knowledge across what was not only a global workforce but also one with differing knowledge requirements.
Elekta’s service organisation’s maturity growth is closely aligned to that of the healthcare sector as a whole. The most mature area of the world being the United States, where devices tend to be top end machines, with maturity essentially declining somewhat as you go east.
In countries such as China, Malaysia, and India while they have a big need, the devices most commonly installed tend to at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of sophistication. This is partly because healthcare clients in these areas are often developing the skills for their own clinical teams.
So the aim for Elekta was to share the knowledge they could extract from those who were really experienced in seeing the more sophisticated problems and then be able to share that with other parts of the world.
“When we started looking at it there were many, many sources, which were all manual sources of knowledge across a different systems and not really achieving what we wanted.” Gilday explained
“So the objective was really to enable all of the Elekta service engineers to be able to access service knowledge for any particular product, at any time.”
No mean task, and one that was further compounded by the nature of the market they operate in.
Bearing in mind we are dealing with engineers from all over the globe, we were really trying to take the knowledge available and put it into a standard format, a relatively simple format that could be used in all countries
Healthcare solutions are usually country based and a direct result of this was that Elekta had three independent business units. So there first action needed to pull these together to form a global perspective.
“The first thing was to establish an overall project leader who was going to pull together a common way of doing things.” Gilday outlined
This involved establishing standard knowledge processes and also importantly the format of the knowledge articles themselves, essentially a one-page document that could be viewed electronically which really described what the problem was, and any advice that the knowledge provided. With this structure in place things could begin to move forward.
However, getting this right from the outset was a key ingredient in mitigating future issues according to Gilday.
“The format itself was pretty simple” he said “ What is the problem the knowledge articles are addressing, what is the solution or advise that is being given and what product is the article about. Pretty simple stuff you might think, but it is so important to get that right in order to share it with as many people as possible. “
“Bearing in mind we are dealing with engineers from all over the globe, we were really trying to take the knowledge available and put it into a standard format, a relatively simple format that could be used in all countries. Knowledge is only any good if people really see the benefit and want to pull that out and can use it easily. “ He added.
Look out for the second part of this feature where we look in detail at the logistics of how Elekta approached this task...
be social and share this feature...
Feb 23, 2015 • Features • Software & Apps • Interview • Inteviews • servicemax • Software and Apps
ServiceMax have been one of the undoubted success stories in field service software of recent years. Kris Oldland, Field Service News Editor spoke to Their COO Scott Berg to find out about the journey they have been on and what happens next....
ServiceMax have been one of the undoubted success stories in field service software of recent years. Kris Oldland, Field Service News Editor spoke to Their COO Scott Berg to find out about the journey they have been on and what happens next....
It was a cold early morning in Paris towards the tail end of last year when I met with Scott Berg. For me having flown in late the night before the famous Parisian coffee brought the welcome caffeine boost required to focus my sleep deprived brain.
However, when Berg entered the room, looking fresh in a crisp suit and bounding with a relaxed and jovial energy, it was clear that for him no such shot of espresso was required. Despite what had been a pretty hectic schedule he was clearly the type of guy that gets up raring to go every morning. And why shouldn’t he be, as COO of ServiceMax he was clearly in a good place.
Despite what had been a pretty hectic schedule he was clearly the type of guy that gets up raring to go every morning. And why shouldn’t he be, as COO of ServiceMax he was clearly in a good place.
They have just finished their sixth year with a 100% year on year growth so and added 125 customers to their roster within the last twelve months. They operate in a highly competitive market and as far a I am aware at least, nobody is making that kind of progress and taking that kind of volume.
As Berg himself acknowledges “We’ve won more business in the last year than some of our competitors have done in the last 15.”
And these customers come in all shapes and sizes, from all verticals across every corner of the globe.
“The really fun thing for us is to see the variety of companies that we are working with.” Berg begins in an enthusiastic manner “We recently ran a Chief Service Officers summit, the first event that we had ever tried like that and there were 6 Global Heads of Service with the likes of Coca-Cola and Becton Dickinson and so on there. So on one hand we were working with these massive companies and then on the other hand there are companies like Service2 which is a husband and wife owned company that have gone from having five technicians to 10 since they employed ServiceMax - so it’s a kinda cool thrill a minute kind of energy in the market right now” he adds.
All day it was the same story and it didn’t matter whether you were curing cancer or showing the latest movie at the cinema, it was basically the same sets of conversations we were having with people.”
“That was completely the case yesterday, there was the Head of Professional Services for the Sony group, the man in charge of service for everything except their consumer brands. So movie theatre camera systems and BBC News and all of the big news network type of things “ he explains “and he had the same talent acquisition issues as everybody else, he had the same political challenges internally of getting a seat at the boardroom table to enable him to pursue some initiatives, even though he was the only growing part of the business.
“All day it was the same story and it didn’t matter whether you were curing cancer or showing the latest movie at the cinema, it was basically the same sets of conversations we were having with people.”
And it is easy to imagine Berg being able to hold such conversations with these Global Heads of Service or equally with an owner of a small SME such as Service2 who are just taking the first steps in growing their business. He comes across as an approachable and enthusiastic but there is also an earnestness about him as well.
However, it’s easy enough to talk about all the good things ServiceMax have achieved but what about the things that they haven’t. Is there anywhere that Berg felt remained a work in progress for what is lets not forget still a relatively young organisation in it’s market segment.
One of the things that still perplexes me though is how slow the uptake on Internet of Things, and machine to machine communication."
“One of the things that still perplexes me though is how slow the uptake on Internet of Things, and machine to machine communication." he continues.
“It’s funny, I use solar panels on my house and from my phone I can tell you if they’re working and then through my Nest thermostat I can turn the heating up and down from my phone also. Yet here are these massive, powerful, hi-tech intellectual property companies and they can’t figure out how to get an Ethernet connector jack plug into their devices?” he adds with a laugh.
Widespread adoption of IoT in field service is behind where it should be based on the technology available
“We are very eager to jump on this [IoT]” he comments “We do have some customers like Elekta who have a full offering which we call IntelMax for machine to machine connectivity and Johnson Controls made huge investments in the area but it still strikes me how hard its been for industry. I have a little hundred dollar consumer device on the wall of my home that can do it and yet industry can’t?”
So is the ServiceMax product all set to go for Internet of Things?” I ask “Is it just a case of waiting for the market to catch up?”
“I think it is” Berg replies ‘”There are certainly relationships we are trying to build. We’re in discussions with people like Cisco and others to try and bridge that last mile of connectivity and we’ve explored some of the Apple iBeacon technology sensing people, locations and the physicality with the device.”
be social and share this feature
Feb 22, 2015 • News • property management • facilities management • Hardware software and apps • Service Power • Software and Apps • software and apps
Service management software provider ServicePower recently announced that a professional services company that provides global commercial and residential property services has successfully gone live with ServiceScheduling.
Service management software provider ServicePower recently announced that a professional services company that provides global commercial and residential property services has successfully gone live with ServiceScheduling.
The technology platform, which was delivered on time and on budget, will enable the client to more easily fulfil highly competitive facilities management/service management Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for some of the world’s largest organisations, while at the same time improving both the productivity and control of operations in the field.
ServicePower’s patented scheduling and connected mobile platform enables the client, which has tens of thousands of employees, to optimally schedule field based resources, fully mobilise field based processes and monitor activities in real time, so that services are optimised and SLAs met. The first phase of the service management project went live for UK based field based resources, with subsequent phases planned for France, Brazil, and Mexico.
Business processes are highly automated and visible across the service chain so that they can move faster and offer more favourable service level terms to clients than the competition.
"With our service management platform, field-based companies know they can build a ‘connected field organisation’. This means business processes are highly automated and visible across the service chain so that they can move faster and offer more favourable service level terms to clients than the competition. Additionally, with ServicePower’s focus on investment in latest cloud, mobile, analytics and M2M technologies, they know that they can expect flexible, cutting edge technology.”
Recently named by Gartner as a Visionary in its 2014 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management, December 22, 2014 by William McNeill, Michael Maoz and Jason Wong, this latest deal demonstrates how ServicePower’s focus on technological innovation translates into real business benefits for companies operating in the service management sectors. For example, as M2M connected devices continue to penetrate the property sector, ServicePower’s M2M Connected Services and Smart Scheduling Broker service management technologies will allow the client to act proactively with a predictive response to pre-empt equipment failure at properties before they becomes a problem.
As it operates in a highly changeable sector, the configurable nature of ServicePower’s service management technology was deemed important to the client because it will be able to rapidly adjust the platform to internal and external change at minimal cost.
"The selection of SevicePower for another global organisation further underlines our increasing momentum,” continued Martin. “Companies increasingly understand the importance of technology to take their businesses to the next level; they also recognise that with our unique, connected and highly flexible technology, ServicePower is best positioned to support them today and in the future in this objective.”
be social and share this feature!
Feb 22, 2015 • Features • Case Studies • Catering and Hospitality • ServEquip • Software and Apps • software and apps • Asolvi
For nearly 40 years, Servequip have been in the business of supplying and maintaining foodservice equipment, with customers ranging from Prezzo and Frankie & Benny’s to celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay. Two years ago, they decided to improve their...
For nearly 40 years, Servequip have been in the business of supplying and maintaining foodservice equipment, with customers ranging from Prezzo and Frankie & Benny’s to celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay. Two years ago, they decided to improve their systems by incorporating Tesseract’s service management software.
Servequip have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the foodservice equipment industry. While they don’t actually manufacture the equipment, their parent company Jestic exclusively imports selected brands from Europe and the US and sells it to catering establishments within the UK. For example, Jestic exclusively sells Henny Penny cooking equipment to KFC. Servequip are then responsible for maintaining the equipment during the warranty period, although high customer satisfaction means they are often called upon to continue maintaining it post-expiry of the warranty.
Servequip’s impressive first-time fix rate, currently at 88%, demonstrates how it important it is for them to be backed by an efficient service management system.
Servequip’s impressive first-time fix rate, currently at 88%, demonstrates how it important it is for them to be backed by an efficient service management system.
The old program
Pre-Tesseract, Servequip relied on an older, less user-friendly service management program. Stock management and service calls were controlled by separate systems, and stock management involved a degree of manual intervention. It was also difficult to see internally what all of the engineers were doing.
They had to look at each engineer individually, which took time and effort. As Servequip are determined to provide a first-rate service, fast response times and first-time fixes, they decided they wanted some consolidation and a greater degree of visibility and efficiency.
“The other problem was that the old program had started to creak and groan and occasionally fall over completely,” says Neill Pearson, Service Director of Servequip. “We wanted to future-proof ourselves by investing in a fresh, new and more adaptable system.”
Tesseract comes aboard
Servequip were aware that other similar companies were already using Tesseract, such as Manitowoc Foodservice, which also supplies and maintains kitchen equipment. In addition, Tesseract’s software was in operation at Jestic, a foodservice equipment company which bought Servequip in 2011.
Jestic is responsible for the distribution side of the business, while Servequip concentrate on the repair and maintenance of the equipment.
Servequip cast their eyes over 10 to 15 service management systems, although they only gave serious consideration to three, including Tesseract. Of those three, Tesseract came out on top.
“We looked at Tesseract in operation at other companies,” says Pearson. “It just seemed to do everything, from servicing and scheduling to parts ordering, stock control and invoicing, and it seemed to handle parts and stock a lot better than other systems we looked at. It was also much more user-friendly than our old system, and the fact that it really worked for a number of similar companies to ours led us to make the decision to go with them."
Servequip’s old program was internally installed on their own servers, and while Tesseract does offer centrally hosted, cloud-based software, known as SaaS, Servequip elected to implement the internal version of Tesseract’s service management system.
“We already had a good IT infrastructure, so we wanted Tesseract to integrate with that,” says Pearson. “The other advantage of an internal system is that you don’t have to rely on an internet connection, so if the internet goes down for any reason, we can carry on working.”
One of the numerous benefits of SaaS service software is that it is updated by the host or provider rather than the customer, and on a much more frequent basis than internal service management programs. “This isn’t a problem for us,” Pearson explains.
“Even though we don’t get automatic updates through the cloud, Tesseract is very good at regularly accessing and updating our system. So from our perspective there’s not much difference.”
How have things changed for Servequip?
Tesseract has been in place at Servequip for nearly two years now. Servequip make use of Tesseract’s Core Control Centre, Parts Centre, invoicing and customer asset tools, as well as its reporting service.
Furthermore, Servequip had a working financial system already in place when Tesseract came aboard. Thanks to Tesseract’s inherent malleability, this was successfully integrated with the rest of the system. The majority of Servequip’s processes are now managed by one integrated system rather than several.
It has sharpened our business. While no business can claim to be perfect, Tesseract helps us to see our mistakes as soon as they are made.
Tesseract has also helped improve efficiency and save time. Pearson explains, “Stock is much easier to order now, because the system guides us as to what to order and when. Parts go out a lot quicker to our engineers and the whole process is more reliable because we have cut out human intervention and therefore the risk of mistakes.”
What this means is that Tesseract is helping to have a direct impact on Servequip’s first-time fix rate, which continues to steadily increase and be something that Servequip take great pride in.
What does the future hold for Servequip?
Being a service business, Servequip are always looking for new ways to improve their efficiency and productivity. Currently they are using Tesseract Service Centre Version 5 and they are looking to upgrade to Version 5.1 at some point in the near future.
They are particularly interested in getting more usage out of Tesseract’s reporting tools, as they would like to be able to report directly to their customers.
“Our first priorities are to review the reporting side of things, incorporate some new features and upgrade to the latest version,” says Pearson. “After that, we intend to look at what else Tesseract has to offer.”
be social and share this feature
Feb 20, 2015 • video • Features • Future of FIeld Service • M.A.C Solutions • IoT
The internet of things has massive potential to change the way companies operate and remote diagnostics can change the way field service organisations operate - benefits of cost reduction and improved customer service are the key promises of the...
The internet of things has massive potential to change the way companies operate and remote diagnostics can change the way field service organisations operate - benefits of cost reduction and improved customer service are the key promises of the technology but what about the security issues.
To find out more Kris Oldland, Editor of Field Service News caught up with John Pritchard, Managing Director at M.A.C Solutions a company specialising in the area, at a recent Service Community event.
Feb 19, 2015 • Features • aberdeen • Aly Pinder • FSN20 • Fujitsu • Future of FIeld Service • Hilbrand Rustema • Martin Summerhayes • Noventum • Bill Pollock • IBM • Steve Downton • Steve Street • Strategies for Growth
Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a...
Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a phone call or two directly into the news-desk.
Armed with a list of candidates, a Field Service News panel selected the final list of twenty based on the number of nominations, their impact on the industry (past, present and future) and their sphere of influence in both the physical and digital world.
After much long deliberation, heartful debate (read arguing) and enormous amounts of coffee we managed to whittle our list down to a final twenty which we pleased to present to you here the inaugural edition of the #FSN20. You may not agree with our selection and if you don’t tell us, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, hell tell the world – because at the heart of it that’s what this list is all about, getting people talking about excellence in field service and raising the profile of those leading us to a better future.
We are now announcing who made the list in alphabetical order in four sections across four days. So without further ado we are pleased to bring you the final five of the #FSN20
Aly Pinder, Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen
One of the most prolific authors in the industry and also one of the nicest guys in Field Service to boot. Pinder had more nominations for this list than any other candidate, which speaks volumes.
Having written or co-authored over 50 research reports, and benchmarked more than 4,000 service executives across 5 years with Aberdeen, he writes and speaks with authority and understanding and is widely respected across the market.
Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consulting Analyst, Strategies For Growth
Pollock is one of the industry’s most respected authors and commentators with a long and distinguished career focused on field service.
Having worked for Gartner, Aberdeen and been a founding partner of The Service Council, his analysis is highly sought after and he has authored some of the most detailed research available in the industry. His white papers, blogs and posts are widely read across the globe.
Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director, Noventum Service Management
Co-author of seminal service book, “Service Economics” and managing director of one of Europe’s most prominent Service Management consultancies, Noventum Service Management, Rustema has been at the heart of evolving service thinking across the continent for many years and remains at the forefront of the sector today.
Steve Street, IT Security & Infrastructure Architect, IBM
Steve Street, IT Security/Infrastructure Architect, IBM – In a long industrious career with computing giants IBM Steve has been an excellent servant to service science. He has worked with many of the key leaders and thinkers in this area including Professors Irene Ng, Scott Sampson and fellow Cambridge University Alumni Andy Neely on a wide range of initiatives to unite academia, government and industry in the development and promotion of service science as a discipline.
He remains a key figure in the evolution of the area and his work is shaping the way leading organisations are seeking to deliver services.
Martin Summerhayes, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Fujitsu
One of a few on the list that started their a career as a service engineer, Summerhayes’ career has been quite remarkable.
He was the man who devised HP’s service strategy which became a billion dollar proposition, he has advised London’s Metropolitan police force working with local and national government, paramilitary and commercial companies, before taking on his current role as Head of Strategy for Fujitsu. And he still finds time to take a proactive role in promoting service excellence in the UK nonprofit group, The Service Community.
Follow Martin @martinsummerhay
Special Mention - Steve Downton, Downton Consulting
Whilst Downton sadly passed away in 2013 his long-standing legacy remains both in the approach he developed to service as outlined in the book, ”Service Economics”, which he co-authored with Hilbrand Rustema and Jan Van Veen, as well as in the non-profit organisation he created, ”The Service Community”, which continues to operate as a significant organisation dedicated to sharing best practices amongst service companies operating the UK.
Steve’s impact on the field service industries will be long felt.
See the rest of the list here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three
be social and share this feature
Feb 19, 2015 • Features • Cognito • FSN20 • Future of FIeld Service • Getac. Gartner • Cambridge Alliance • Field Technologies Online • IFS
Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a...
Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a phone call or two directly into the news-desk.
Armed with a list of candidates, a Field Service News panel selected the final list of twenty based on the number of nominations, their impact on the industry (past, present and future) and their sphere of influence in both the physical and digital world.
After much long deliberation, heartful debate (read arguing) and enormous amounts of coffee we managed to whittle our list down to a final twenty which we pleased to present to you here the inaugural edition of the #FSN20. You may not agree with our selection and if you don’t tell us, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, hell tell the world – because at the heart of it that’s what this list is all about, getting people talking about excellence in field service and raising the profile of those leading us to a better future.
We are now announcing who made the list in alphabetical order in four sections across four days. So without further ado we are pleased to bring you the third five of the #FSN20
William McNeil, Principal Analyst, Gartner
Gartner, alongside Aberdeen, remains one of the most influential organisations in the field service industry. Their Field Service Magic Quadrant report, which outlines which organisations are leading the way in terms of innovation in field service technology, is hotly anticipated and widely quoted each year.
McNeill, who co-authored the most recent report alongside Gartner colleagues Michael Moaz and Jason Wong, has extensive experience analyzing the latest developments across predictive support, remote service monitoring, service parts planning and optimization, and warranty management and is a regular commentator on the field service industries whose work is widely respected.
Peter Molyneux, UK President, Getac
Rugged manufacturer ,Getac, has not only managed to develop one of the rugged spaces most consumer feeling tablets last year grasping the consumerisation nettle with both hands, but unlike some of their competitors, they have continued to invest in rugged laptops acknowledging the niche they serve – i.e., in some corners of field service where heavy data input is required, a tablet screen just doesn’t cut it.
In Molyneux, they have a man who not only fully understands his product set, but also his customer base, and is about as well versed in all things rugged as anyone on the planet.
Follow Peter @GetacUK
Professor Andy Neely, Director, Cambridge Alliance
Another of the key figures within the growing movement of ‘servitization’ which could have a massive impact on the operation of field service.
Having held appointments at Cranfield University, London Business School and Cambridge University, Neely is widely recognized for his work on the servitization of manufacturing, as well as his work on performance measurement and management.
His organisation continues to work with leading companies such as IBM and BAE on research into ways to provide, implement and employ complex new service systems.
Sarah Nicastro, Editor-in-chief, Field Technologies Online
Whilst here at FSN Towers we think we’ve done a pretty good job of reporting on the tends and technologies of the Field Service industries over the last year. We’re humble enough to admit that we’re the young upstarts and we are very much walking a path led by our U.S. cousins at Field Technologies Online.
Having been at the helm for half a decade, a large slice of the credit goes to Nicastro for the respected position the magazine holds today both in their native America and beyond.
Follow Sarah @FTOnline
Laurent Othacehe, Director, Cognito
Othacehe is internationally regarded as a guru when it comes to scheduling and optimization, a reputation fully deserved after founding 360 Scheduling. The company, whose scheduling engine was built upon research with Nottingham University to establish effective scheduling for the emergency services, was later acquired by Service Management heavyweight IFS.
Unlike many who would have perhaps taken the easy life after building such a success with 360, Othacehe’s passion for the industry was evident when he returned to the market with Cognito – and his acceptance of therole there was seen by many in the industry as a significant endorsement as well as a statement of ambition for the UK-based company.
See the rest of the list here: Part One, Part Two, Part Four
be social and share this feature
Feb 19, 2015 • Features • Management • Anglian Water • leadent solutions • Case Studies • click software • utilities
Anglian Water is the largest water and waste water company in England and Wales by geographic area, operating 1,257 water and waste water treatment works, with over 112,000km of pipework across 27,500km. Anglian Water services more than 6 million...
Anglian Water is the largest water and waste water company in England and Wales by geographic area, operating 1,257 water and waste water treatment works, with over 112,000km of pipework across 27,500km. Anglian Water services more than 6 million domestic and business customers in the East of England and Hartlepool.
Anglian Water had an established ClickSoftware Scheduling system in place. With more than 15,000 jobs per day being deployed to 1,300 Field Engineers, it was essential that the schedules were as optimised as possible. To ensure they were getting the most out of the system they turned to Leadent Solutions a management consulting company specialising in mobile workforce management.
Perceived poor performance led the scheduling staff to mistrust the automated scheduling functionality. Analytics showed that this had led to 70% of jobs being manually scheduled, which accounted for approximately 300 hours per week.
With the benefit of hindsight it was clear that necessary change management rigour had not always been applied. Perceived poor performance led the scheduling staff to mistrust the automated scheduling functionality. Analytics showed that this had led to 70% of jobs being manually scheduled, which accounted for approximately 300 hours per week.
Previous investigations had highlighted issues with data, processes, and Scheduler behaviours. The Operations Management Team took this feedback on board but also wanted to understand the level of integrity of the system set-up and configuration. As a long-standing partner of Anglian Water we were asked to draw on our niche expertise, and asked to undertake an independent review of the system.
Leadent undertook a 6 week programme of work to review the scheduling system. Before focusing on technical issues they:
- Worked with the Operations Management Team to understand business needs and goals
- Spent time with the Scheduling Team to better understand their viewpoint and working practices
Their Technical Consultants then completed a detailed review of the system set-up and configuration. Issues were shared with Scheduling Team to validate initial findings.
The full technical review showed that over time the system set up and configuration had become:
- misaligned to business goals and processes
- overly complex, often with conflicting elements
It was clear why the system was not performing optimally, explaining in part why confidence levels in the Scheduling Tool had reached rock bottom.
Emma Newman, Managing Consultant at Leadent Solutions who led the review said “taking time to understand the current position at Anglian Water opened up a series of questions that prompted the team to really start to re-focus and re-address what good looked like ‘today’. Not what was, or what has been, but what is needed now in order to ensure their system continued to support the organisation as effectively as possible, and was properly aligned to future business initiatives and objectives.
“Conducting an overall assessment of configuration and technical set up will always unearth the opportunity to make an improvement of some kind. Taking a proper look under the bonnet and making sure workforce management configuration is working to drive the correct business objectives is vital in making sure you are getting the most out of the tool you have invested so heavily in.
We were able to clearly identify the current position, and have understood where the Anglian team want and need to be. Recommendations on how to get there meant that we could help to re-focus their minds on best practice and make sure that the system configuration became relevant to their day to day workforce planning operations.”
Richard Cartwright, Technical Consultant at Leadent Solutions said “Conducting an overall assessment of configuration and technical set up will always unearth the opportunity to make an improvement of some kind. Taking a proper look under the bonnet and making sure workforce management configuration is working to drive the correct business objectives is vital in making sure you are getting the most out of the tool you have invested so heavily in.
If your business changes, the technology has to be re-assessed to make sure it is still working for you and not against you, and in some cases with Anglian, configuration had ended up in a position where it was definitely going against the grain in some areas of the business.”
During our time on site at Anglian Water, we were able to take time to ensure that employees involved in scheduling activities were trained in best practice techniques, as well as up-skilling the third party IT service provider to ensure on-going support was in place.
At the end of the six weeks, a comprehensive report was compiled and presented back to Anglian Water. The report enabled the business to understand the systems and business processes that were in place, how this compared against others in their sector and industry best practice. The report also gave clear and specific advice on the remedial action required to maximise their investment and support their on-going strategic goals.
The recommendations made in the report were completely endorsed by the Operations Management Team. Working with the Scheduling Team and broader business, we were asked to make all necessary changes to the system set-up and configuration.
Ian Rule, Head of Anglian Water’s Operational Management Centre said of the review: “Leadent Solutions have demonstrated their extensive expertise in both scheduling systems and workforce management. The in-depth review and improvement plan has shown us that they not only understand the complex technical aspects, but also the business – its needs and goals. Their no-nonsense approach has ensured that we have been given the right information to make essential decisions. They have delivered where others have failed.”
be social and share this case study
Feb 18, 2015 • Features • Coresystems • Cranfield University • FSN20 • Future of FIeld Service • FIeld nation • servicemax • siemens • University of St Gallen
Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a...
Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a phone call or two directly into the news-desk.
Armed with a list of candidates, a Field Service News panel selected the final list of twenty based on the number of nominations, their impact on the industry (past, present and future) and their sphere of influence in both the physical and digital world.
After much long deliberation, heartful debate (read arguing) and enormous amounts of coffee we managed to whittle our list down to a final twenty which we pleased to present to you here the inaugural edition of the #FSN20. You may not agree with our selection and if you don’t tell us, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, hell tell the world – because at the heart of it that’s what this list is all about, getting people talking about excellence in field service and raising the profile of those leading us to a better future.
We are now announcing who made the list in alphabetical order in four sections across four days. So without further ado we are pleased to bring you the second five of the #FSN20
Professor Elgar Fleisch, University of St. Gallen
With an extensive academic background that covers mechanical engineering, business economics and artificial intelligence, Fleisch has both an extensive understanding of how technology can influence business and an international reputation to match that understanding.
He has focused his research on the joining of the physical and digital worlds since the very birth of the Internet of Things and is, thus, highly regarded in the sphere. It is likely no coincidence that his presence on the executive board of CoreSystems coincides with the rapid rise of the Swiss field service management software provider, whose field service offering was the first product of its type to start taking advantage of IoT.
Dave Hart, VP of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax
Another of those on our list who has worked their way upwards from field service engineer; in fact, Hart has taken most of the steps on the ladder.
From Service Engineer to VP of Service, from managing small regional teams through to managing thousands of engineers across Europe, he’s been there and done it. With this background there is an unbridled wealth of experience that Hart is able to share.
Therefore it was a great move by ServiceMax in employing him to help share that experience and deep understanding of field service with their expanding customer base.
Follow Dave @davehartprofit
Martin Hotass, General Manager, Siemens Professional Education
One of the biggest risks field service faces is an ageing workforce and Siemens is one company at the forefront of tackling this problem head on.
Hotass is not only leading the charge, engaging with students and colleagues alike, but in speaking to him, he is truly passionate about bringing the best young talent not only to Siemens but also to the industry in general.
If field service is going to overcome the significant issue of replacing the current workforce successfully we need more with Hotass’ dedication to the task.
Follow Martin @SiemensUKNews
Professor Howard Lightfoot, Cranfield University
Co-author on ”Made to Serve” and another significant figure in the servitization movement. However, Lightfoot’s inclusion within the list is more based on his current work at Cranfield University where he is playing an instrumental role in educating the next generation of engineers via the use of some truly groundbreaking technology.
With the field service industries facing a very real crisis of an ageing workforce, the work Lightfoot is currently performing could have a profound impact on the ability of field service companies to survive this crisis with minimal impact.
Follow Howard @howardPSS
Mynul Khan, Founder, Field Nation
The shift away from traditional work contracts to outsourcing to local contractors has an obvious appeal for field service organisations and Field Nation, a product of Khan’s own vision, is a perfect tool for facilitating this in the twenty-first century. Dubbed an ‘ebay for field workers’ Field Nation connects workers with contractors across the U.S.
Whether such a solution could work in the multi-language, cross-border regulation framework of Europe is yet to be seen, but the rapid adoption of Field Nation suggests that there is certainly a market in the home shores at least.
See the rest of the list here: Part One, Part Three, Part Four
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
Leave a Reply