AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

Workforce optimisation specialists Leadent Solutions have recently launched a new health-check service for companies operating a mobile workforce to ensure they are getting the most out of their existing systems and processes.

To find out more about what this service entails Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland spoke exclusively with Emma Newman, Managing Consultant at Leadent Solutions and we will be bringing you this interview across the next four weeks.

In this first part of this new series the discussion focussed on perhaps the most important part of any organisation, the people.

Now here we look at why processes are such a key ingredient in the successful mix of a field service organisation and how we can get these right.

There is also an accompanying series of articles to this interview which add further insight into the health-check. The first of these of which is available here.  

To find out more about the importance of processes in workforce optimisation then the second feature written by Mark Thompson, Managing Consultant with Leadent Solutions is available here

If you think your company could benefit from the Healthcheck you can contact Emma and the team directly by clicking this link

Xplore Technologies a manufacturer of powerful, longest-lasting, ultra and fully-rugged tablets, recently announced it has secured a $2 million (US) order for its XC6 DMSR ultra-rugged Windows tablets from a company providing infrastructure services to utility and telecommunication companies. This newest order expands on a relationship with the company that began in 2008, when Xplore technology was initially deployed.

“Our customer has a mobile workforce of more than 1,300 employees and having a ruggedized tablet solution to meet their needs in rugged field conditions is critical to their responsiveness and productivity,” said Philip S. Sassower, chairman and CEO of Xplore.

“Their team has been using Xplore tablets for many years and upgrading their mobile initiatives with the latest Xplore model, the XC6 DMSR ultra-rugged tablet, was based on the decision to continue to outfit their field technicians with cost-effective sunlight readable and weatherproof technology.”

 

The XC6 DMSR is the most rugged Windows® tablet on the market and is ideal for industrial and outdoor environments.

Powered by a 4th generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor, the high-performance rugged tablet features a direct sunlight readable display, as well as an innovative resistive, multi-touch interface to make running your toughest applications easier than ever--no matter how extreme the environment.

“We have a very positive and long standing relationship with this customer, and we are very excited they have decided to expand and upgrade their mobile technology infrastructure utilizing Xplore rugged tablets,” said Mark Holleran, president and COO.

“We are confident our XC6 DMSR will meet all their mobility needs with the industry’s leading processing power, ruggedization and security features they require for their expanding field workforce.”

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DA Systems, a market leader in the provision of mission critical sameday courier software, has announced a unique offer to support sameday couriers affected by the collapse of City Link.

It is giving any courier with evidence of previous employment by City Link the opportunity to use Express completely free of charge and start trading as an independent courier business. Express is a new, cloud based software solution designed to run every aspect of a sameday courier operation, from job pricing and scheduling, to delivery route planning, with real-time parcel tracking and proof of delivery notifications to customers.

DA Systems’ offer of free access to Express for ex-City Link workers is worth over £400 and available to any courier presenting evidence of former employment or self-employment with City Link and wishing to establish a micro courier business. In return, they will have the opportunity to use Express completely free, for the first two months.

 

Using ACI Express will allow a courier to have access to a single, centralised and integrated system that has been specially designed to meet the changing needs of the time sensitive courier industry.  As a cloud based solution, no upfront investment is required, the system is web-based and can be accessed by any connected device.

“The advent of courier networks and steady demand for e-commerce fulfillment means there has never been a better time to set up in businesses and take control of their future. Rather than working for a single delivery provider, it might be more prudent to spread the risk and become self-employed. With free access to Express, they have the opportunity to give it a try for two months.” says David Upton, CEO of DA Systems.

Latest estimates suggest the courier market is now worth £7bn annually, which can be well served by entrepreneurial independent couriers.

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Within the last decade technology has altered the way field service companies operate irrevocably, yet the technology now emerging on the horizon could change the game even further.

Across the last few weeks Field Service News has been looking at some of the technologies that we think will be impacting on field service across the next year.

In part one of this series we looked at Wearables, Cloud and NFC and in the second instalment we focussed on IoT, Big Data and Cyber Security.

Now in this the final section of the series we take a look at where Drones , 3D Printing, 4G and Integrated Platforms will fit into the field service landscape.

A bit of a buzz around Drones…

As we entered 2014 there was still an incessant buzz around Drones that had been sparked by Amazon’s fantastic claims that they were investing heavily in research and development of Drone technology. Accompanied by an incredibly slick video showing an Amazon branded Unmanned Aerial Drone (UAD) picking up a parcel from the depot and happily buzzing away as it delivered it right to the recipients front door.

At the time Field Service News looked at the proposition including questioning whether it was all just a fantastic PR exercise or whether there was indeed potential for a drone based delivery service.

 

A year on and Amazon’s delivery drones have still yet to materialise however, with the cost of drones plummeting (a small drone with a camera capable of recording decent quality footage can now be picked up for between £50 to £75) there is certainly potential for drones to be used in field service.

Indeed in the UK there are now over 300 companies licensed to use drones for commercial reasons and whilst delivery drones may seem far-fetched and are subject to an awful lot of as yet undefined regulation, there are plenty of applications for drones that could benefit field service.

For example, a visual inspection on an inaccessible roof of a building could be required. A UAD could provide this visual check without the need to erect scaffolding potentially saving at least a days labour. Or what about large manufacturing plants that can in some cases span many miles. Again manual visual inspection could be a long drawn out process, but with the aid of drones the time to complete the task could be slashed.

3D Printing is on the verge of a true breakthrough…

Perhaps my favourite of all emerging technology for the sheer Star-Trek-ness of it all is 3D printing.  The idea of something appearing out of nothing just seems so, well for want for a better word… cool.

 However, it is not just the ‘cool’ factor that makes 3D printing so exciting. More than any other technology identified in this series 3D printing has the potential to completely change business, as we know it.

 

Economies of scale no longer come into play, the cost of producing one unit is the same as the cost of producing thousands of units. Meaning that companies will be able to operate on lean methodologies far easier.

Then we consider the benefits for field service. Imagine the impact it could have if a field service engineer is able to print 3D parts on site. No more parts ordering and delays, the engineer having identified a part is worn could simply print a part there and then.

Whilst it might seem like something from science fiction the truth is this technology could just be around the corner. We know that it is possible to create parts strong enough for commercial applications via 3D printing. A recent example being manufacturer of helicopter parts Turbomeca who are now producing fuel injector nozzles for its Arrano helicopter engines.

We have also seen smaller and more affordable consumer 3D printers come to the fore in the last year.

So is it that big a leap of faith to foresee a field based 3D printing solution being rolled out in the not too distant future?

4G – a key enabler across field service

If 3D printing is the most exciting of technologies to make this list then it could be argued that 4G is perhaps the most understated.

The reason I say this is that when it’s older brother 3G entered the scene it was a complete game changer. The leap from WAP to 3G (okay technically WAP to EDGE to 3G) was an unprecedented stride forward in mobile computing. It coincided with early smart phones and it changed the way we work forever.

By the time 4G rolled along we had already got used to smart phones and fast wi-fi speeds too. So whilst being able to access broadband speed internet on the move is of course pretty incredible – the ‘wow factor’ that arrived with 3G just hasn’t quite been there.

 

3G changed the world. 4G just does everything 3G does only better and faster.

However, if we take a step back then the impact 4G will have is truly incredible, especially for the field service industries.

The increase in mobile data speed means access to knowledge bases is an easy and quick option for field engineers. Similarly the ability to hold high quality video conferencing from one onsite engineer to another is again made possible through 4G.

And with both Vodafone and O2 promising 98% coverage across the UK by the end of 2015, 4G in the UK at least, will very soon be one of those technologies, like smart phones themselves, that we just don’t remember how things worked before it came along.

Integrated field service platforms will continue to be at the fore…

The final inclusion on the list is one which has been making a slow rise to prominence out of necessity as much as anything else.

Across the last year we heard a lot about integrated service management platforms. A number of providers have developed full service lifecycle solutions and with integration issues being at the fore for field service companies looking to move to a next generation solution there is a solid case for exploring such a solution.

 

However, whilst the platform approach has merits, integration with other systems has also become a significant focus for many providers also and this appears to be becoming a growing trend, which could make selecting various best in class options more readily available.

What is key however, is that whether you opt for a full platform approach or a number of individual ‘best-in-class’ with full integration, your service management solution should no longer have any restrictions when it comes to the flow of data.

The ability to breakdown siloes is key to the successful operation of a field service organisation and the technology is now readily available to make sure this is possible – easy integration will be a major selling point for service management providers and those who fail here will struggle to compete.

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End to end field service was one of the biggest buzz phrases heard across the past year and there is good reason for the movement as at each step of the field service cycle there is an opportunity to streamline your workflow...

In the first part of this series we looked at the technology that can be put in place to aid taking the request for service including web-chat, call centres and web based self-help solutions. Now in the second part of the series we focus on how technology can help us ensure we get the right engineer, to the right job at the right time...

There is also an accompanying white paper to this series which is available to download here

Whether it be via call centre agent notes or customer provided information on a self-help portal, the one key focus of all of the should be to collect enough information to allow the effective dispatch of a field service engineer (or engineers depending on the task) with the correct qualifications to the job whilst simultaneously ordering any required parts so the engineer has everything at his disposal required to resolve the issue on the first call out.

Therefore it is absolutely critical that you can move this information from a to b as seamlessly and painlessly as possible.

Your organisation may well operate an ERP system that was designed to achieve this and this will sit at the heart of your businesses systems including the service elements.

However, just as we were in the early nineties when the term ERP was first coined and in 2000 when Gartner declared ERP is dead – Long Live ERP II  we are transitioning from one generation of technology to the next and one of the major balancing acts we must undertake is ensuring compatibility with legacy systems as we upgrade certain programmes or modules.

 

Employing dedicated system integrators to tailor software to fit within your existing framework can be an expensive process. Indeed research by Field Service News showed that well over a third (38%) of companies faced issues with integrating software with their legacy systems.

The good news however is that more and more software providers are focussing on integration solutions as they roll out their next gen solutions.

Take for example Solarvista NET  a key component in the software providers latest suite of solutions and is a technology that's designed to enable connection both to  Solarvista 8 but also other systems in a manner that's flexible, reliable, secure.

And as integration issues are minimised it will become that much easier to configure a system that is tailored to your individual organisational needs. However for most service organisations there are generally three fundamental functions that need to be considered.

These are the ability to schedule your workforce to get the right engineer to the right appointments, the ability to manage your assets and order parts as required and the ability to manage and view your contracts.

Scheduling:

The most important aspect of your field service operation is of course your field engineers. They are almost certainly one of your biggest costs as well so managing them effectively is vital if you are going to operate a service division as a profit centre rather than a cost drain on the wider business.

Sending an under qualified engineer or an engineer without the tools required to complete the repair not only causes a delay in resolving your customer’s issue but also represents a days labour cost simply thrown away.

Also for any business it is important to have as many staff as possible in customer facing roles where they can potentially contribute to revenue streams. Regardless of how skilled your dispatchers are their role remains a lower tiered operational one where they can never directly impact revenue.

 

Therefore it makes good economic sense to have fewer resources dedicated to the back office dispatch and more allocated to the field.

This is where the inclusion of a modern scheduling engine is absolutely critical. Research by Field Service News identified that almost half (49%) of companies still using manual processes to dispatch their field engineers were able to manage just 5 field engineers per dispatcher. The same research showed that an average ratio of engineers to dispatchers in companies using any form of scheduling was 16:1.

Basically the introduction of scheduling engines resulted in an improvement in dispatch productivity of at least 300%.

There are a number of different types of scheduling available and the type that is right for your organisation is dependent on a number of factors, for large organisations with many hundreds if not thousands of engineers then an optimised solution maybe preferred.

For those companies with smaller mobile workforces then perhaps a simpler assisted scheduling solution may fit the bill.

Certainly there can be considerable differences in terms of costs and smaller organisations simply may never reap the rewards of the more costly option. Many specialist service management software providers will offer both an optimised and an assisted solution and recommend you the option that is best for your company.

 

For example Solarvista offer both solutions however at 80% more expensive they will only recommend their fully optimised solution to those companies who they believe will truly benefit from the solution.

Whichever level of optimisation you select however, your scheduling system should be able to collate data from both your workforce’s skill sets and your customers requirements and either make recommendations or optimise a day’s schedule accordingly.

What is certain though is that whiteboards, post-it notes and Exel spread sheets simply won’t cut the mustard anymore.

Asset Management/Parts Ordering:

Of course getting the right engineer to the right job is all well and good but it becomes a moot exercise if he doesn’t have the parts required to complete his task.

The next vital element within a service management solution is being able to both track your existing assets and also to easily order parts not in your existing inventory.

As well as being a key factor in helping achieve the field service nirvana of first time fix rates there is also another highly important reason such functionality is a crucial part of a service management solution.

From a business perspective tying up funds in unnecessary inventory either in a depot or worse in the back of your engineers’ vans places an unnecessary burden on cash flow also.

Contract management:

The third element that is essential for almost every field service organisation within a service management solution is contract management.

This again has a two-fold importance.

On the one hand clear understanding of your service agreement with each customer is absolutely critical to ensure that you are not giving away valuable service offerings outside of your agreed SLAs. The flip side of this of course the same insight also provides clear upsell opportunities.

There is also an accompanying white paper to this series which is available to download here

This series is sponsored by:

 

Workforce optimisation specialists Leadent Solutions have recently launched a new health-check service for companies operating a mobile workforce to ensure they are getting the most out of their existing systems and processes.

To find out more about what this service entails Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland spoke exclusively with Emma Newman, Managing Consultant at Leadent Solutions and we will be bringing you this interview across the next four weeks.

In this first part of this new series the discussion focusses on perhaps the most important part of any organisation, the people.

There is also an accompanying series of articles to this interview which add further insight into the healthcheck. The first of these of which is available here. 

If you think your company could benefit from the Healthcheck you can contact Emma and the team directly by clicking this link

Resource Type: White Paper

Published by: Exel Computer Systems

Title: How do large Field Service companies gain competitive advantage?

About: Published by UK service management software and ERP provider Exel Computer Systems this white paper looks at some of the challenges that companies can face as their mobile workforce grows to significant size. Concisely written this white paper raises some interesting questions and provides some good advice both for companies with a large mobile workforce as well as those who foresee their organisation and thus their mobile workforce expanding in due course.

Download: Download the white paper by clicking here

Overview:

 Whilst many of the challenges for field service companies are shared regardless of company size or industry vertical, there are some challenges that appear specifically amongst those field service companies that operate with a larger mobile workforce.

 

Understanding these challenges and how to minimise their impact on your business operations is of course important for those field service managers and directors working for larger enterprises, however, it is also important for those managing smaller and medium businesses (particularly those with aspirations of growth) as the adoption of best practices now may mean your company can both potentially avoid such issues as you grow and also enable you to grow your organisation faster.

This white paper from Exel Computer Systems addresses some of these issues and offers some great insight into how to overcome them.

Topics include:

The need for clarity of data within larger field service organisation…

The larger the service team, the more data there is to be potentially collected and analysed by more people across the business. It is here that the often-overlooked area of reporting offers real competitive advantage.

The company which can quickly access its information in appropriate real-time, flexible formats, from multiple points across the business (from the board room to dispatch room) and, most importantly, which can also trust that information, has a real advantage over the company reliant on inflexible reports only accessible and understandable by a limited number of people within the organisation.

Not only is the former company able to be more responsive and agile at an individual job/asset level, it has the potential to be so at a strategic level by being able to analyse and spot any emerging trends and react accordingly. 

Maximising customer facing time

Another challenge facing large service teams centres around maximising customer facing time by intelligently scheduling the best use of each engineer.  [quote float="right"]As the size of the team increases, there is the potential to treat each engineer according to more generic rules which may work better some times and less well at others.

In smaller service teams, there are less engineers to manage and it is inherently easier to optimise their use. As the size of the team increases, there is the potential to treat each engineer according to more generic rules which may work better some times and less well at others.

 

When a company has an FSM system that provides the visibility and accuracy of data described above, each engineer can be treated on an individual basis by the user utilising the knowledge and data held within the system. Not only does this potentially increase the quantity of jobs achieved over a given time period, it also potentially increases the quality of customer service as the customer will invariably get a quicker response.

Greatly increased risk of stock obsolescence

There is also the not inconsiderable challenge of minimising mobile stock levels. A company of five mobile engineers requiring fully stocked vehicles compared to a fleet of 500 vehicles represents not just a vast difference in terms of tied up stock, it also represents a greatly increased risk of stock obsolescence. It is for this reason that companies with large field service teams are beginning to gain competitive advantage by building relationships with suppliers at a local level.

 

If successfully done, local suppliers can either work on an agile basis and replenish individual vehicles as and when required, or even arrange to deliver to a customer site to coincide with an engineer visit.

Improving diagnostics, remote repair and self repair

Companies with large service teams are beginning to gain competitive advantage by proactively encouraging customers to share what can often be mission critical data. One such example is in a service/repair context where customers can aid preliminary diagnostics by sending a picture or video of the asset/problem in question. In some cases, this is enough to enable a skilled service engineer to work remotely with the customer to resolve an issue much quicker than sending an engineer on-site. This can also be advantageous where different engineers have areas of specialist knowledge; an engineer on-site can instantly communicate with another engineer that may have more experience for advice and direction, again removing any unnecessary waiting.

 

For some companies where downtime of an asset can be measured in thousands or tens of thousands of pounds per minute, this is an advantage offering huge potential savings.
 

Download your copy of this white paper now!

 

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Technology and field service are now almost inherently intertwined such is the rapid evolution of field service industry. As we enter the New Year Field Service News continues to take a look at some of the key technologies that we believe will have a significant impact on the way field service will continue to evolve.

In the first part of this series we looked at wearables, NFC and the Cloud. Now we turn our attention to the Internet of Things, Big Data and Cyber Security…

The Internet of Things will start becoming an integral part of field service…

Ahh Gartner’s Hype-Cycle. The “peak of inflated expectations”, the “trough of despair” and the brilliant “plateau of productivity” – every-time I look at it I conjure up images of a Jules Verne –esque mysterious lost island where herds of wild analysts and ferrel consultants roam wild, free and happy. I may well be alone in this, but I’m certainly not alone in keeping an eye on where emerging tech is on the cycle.

They may not always get it right, but to be fair to the good folk at Gartner, their usually pretty close.

 

So it was with interest last August that I looked at the latest hype cycle and saw that Internet of Things had just superseded Big Data at the top of the tree where the “hyperbole has hit hyperdrive” (If anyone at Gartner’s paying attention you can have that one for free!). I found this particularly interesting for two reasons.

Firstly whilst it may like some kind of earth shattering tragedy for all those data scientists who were being treated like geek-royalty what seems like ten minutes ago, the reality is that Big Data slipping into the trough of despair just means that we are starting to think about it in grown up terms (see below) rather than the Chuck Norris of technology.

The second and perhaps most important part is that whilst according to Gartner IoT may now have officially the most over inflated expectations, the reality is that in field service at least it is already being actively used far more openly than Big Data was when it was on the same point of the Hype Cycle. In fact I would go as far as to say that this time Gartner have got it wrong and the Internet of Things is perhaps just past the top of the peak and starting to stare down into the trough.

 

Maybe it’s a distorted view in the field service industry, but I genuinely feel that whilst it may be a minority, there is a decent amount of companies that have implemented some form of IoT control or monitoring into their Field Service operations. In some corners it’s not even that new, heck, medical device manufacturer Elekta have been building connection into their devices for twenty odd years – they even used to ship their devices with 56K modems of their own back in the day.

As we roll into 2015, connected devices are booming, from thermostats to thermonuclear power generators, and the ability to remotely monitor, diagnose and even repair device faults is such a no brainer for field service companies that they cannot afford to miss the IoT revolution.

BigData in field service will get past those awkward teen years and get to work…

So back to Big Data then.

One of my favourite phrases I’ve heard about Big Data was from Dave Hart at ServiceMax when he said Big Data is like teenage sex, everyone’s talking about it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it but no one actually knows how to actually do it.

This I think is why Gartner may have their timings a bit backwards when it comes to Big Data and IoT.

 

For whilst I can see Big Data languishing within the ‘Trough’ as we mere mortals spend time still trying to define exactly what Big Data is (how many V’s are we up to now?) and reluctantly turning to those mystic shaman we call Data Scientists to try and get some sense out it all, I see IoT racing by to it’s own little place in the ‘plateau’.

Why? because IoT is pretty much results in tangible outcomes and combines two factors we are already comfortable with, that is ‘Internet’ and ‘Things’. And I’m not trying to be flippant when I say that either, it’s just IoT is that much easier to get.

So back to Big Data then (again?) where does this leave us in field service?

Well hopefully with a much more mature, sensible mindset because there is no denying the sheer power of Big Data to revolutionise a business and there is also no denying that as field service companies have access to huge, vast swathes of data – they perhaps more than any other industry segment could benefit from the true application of Big Data.

However, what Big Data is not is adding a new module to a field service management software with a few convertible dashboards and hey presto the board can tick off that pesky little box empty box on their to do list.

 

Let’s think about this for a moment, when in our lives has anything that is billed to be powerful enough to reshape the way we do business been as easy as buying a new module. This is where Big Data got lost to the hyperbole. In some quarters it was the magic bullet that would cure all evils. As we all know magic bullets don’t really work. However, hard-work combined with a clear strategy and intelligent implementation does.

Big Data is reliant on investment.

Investment in technology, investment in personel with new skill sets unique to the task and investment in time to devise and implement a Big Data strategy. However, once it is succesfully implemented that investment could yield a phenomenal return on investment both financially and also in our understanding of both our business and our customers.

I believe 2015 could be the year that field service companies will start to see through the hyperbole that just scratches the surface of Big Data and see it’s true game changing potential. However, for that to happen we need to treat it with the respect it deserves.

We need to re-adjust our thinking around risk management and cyber security…

Given the two points above this third point of the article is a bit of a given. So we won’t dwell to long here.

There are two simple facts here; Firstly Data is essentially becoming a new form of currency, and I’m not referring to crypto-currencies here but to the fact that the information available to be mined from data is inherently valuable.

Secondly,as we turn more and more of our functions across to the cloud including data storage, the more it will become a place of interest for twenty first century criminals.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the Cloud is any less secure than on premise data centres. It just means that we must realign our thinking to ensure we are protected.

According to Cloud Security experts Trend Micro the three key best security practices for 2015 are to:

• Develop and implement an overall risk management strategy
• Secure and regularly maintain web infrastructure
• Enforce stricter mobile device and data management policies

Lets take a quick look at each of these in turn…

Firstly, whilst it is of course recommended to turn to a cyber security specialist in devising your security strategies, a [quote float="left"]When it comes to risk management, much like insurance it can be disastrous if you cut corners and opt for the cheapest package. And often we only realise this when it’s too late.

quick, easy off the shelf solution is simply not going to cut the mustard. A robust cyber defence should be custom built to meet the requirements of your company. When it comes to risk management, much like insurance it can be disastrous if you cut corners and opt for the cheapest package. And often we only realise this when it’s too late.

 

With regards to point two, last years exposure to Shellshock and Heartbleed identified significant vulnerabilities and this should serve as a warning to companies that they need to keep software regularly updated and patched. Heuristic scanning and sandbox technologies are two of the key technologies that Trend Micro recommend here.

And as we look at the final point we also enter the world of HR as well as technology.

In field service in particular, where our workforce is becoming ever more reliant on mobile devices, we really need to consider the introduction of mobile safety policies to safeguard your data – even more so if you are operating a BYOD policy, whilst of course IT administrators must address mobile device management concerns to protect work related apps and data.

As mentioned above, today’s world of the internet, cloud and mobile is not necessarily any less secure than days gone by. It is just with new methods come new security concerns, so we must remain vigilant and I think 2015 will see us to further improve in this area once more.

Look out for the final part of this series where we complete our look at technology trends we believe we will see in field service across 2015.

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Kony, Inc., a leading enterprise mobility company, yesterday announced the appointment of Jonathan Best as vice president of Europe and Africa.  As part of the company’s growth strategy, Best will focus on building Kony’s operations, channels, and sales presence across Europe and Africa.

The appointment of Best is part of the company’s aggressive growth strategy to deliver the highest level of value and service to its growing base of enterprise customers in EMEA who are focused on using mobility to drive customer loyalty, employee empowerment and business process improvement.  Many companies are using mobility as a catalyst for innovation for their businesses, especially with the explosive growth of mobile devices globally.

Best brings with him twenty years of sales leadership experience within the technology industry.  Most recently, Best was the head of innovation sales, and board director at SAP UKI, which included the mobility portfolio.  Prior to SAP, Best was vice president, Sales, Health Sciences, at Oracle, as well as managing director at Cordys UK, now OpenText.

In his earlier career, Best had a senior sales role at IBM, and then joined SAP, where having established a successful sales record, he was appointed chief operating officer in China, before being appointed vice president, strategy and operations in Japan.

[quote float ="left"]Best’s track record of building sales teams, his international pedigree and technology industry experience are second to none and we are thrilled to have him on board.

Blake Sallé, president, field operations, Kony, Inc, said: “Best’s track record of building sales teams, his international pedigree and technology industry experience are second to none and we are thrilled to have him on board.

 

Attracting someone of his calibre is a great endorsement of our strategy and ambition. Best’s knowledge and insight will be vital as we continue our ambitious plans to grow and market our innovative mobile solutions to our clients in the European region. Best has a keen understanding of the market and how we can better serve the unique enterprise mobility needs of our customers.”

Jonathan Best, vice president of Europe and Africa, Kony Inc, said:

“Kony has the enviable and well-deserved reputation as the leading enterprise mobility player.  Organisations understand the importance of mobility, but many are not equipped to take full advantage and to embrace its potential.

We have a tremendous opportunity to grow further and continue to diversify into new sectors, bringing our strong business values and service delivery to match the needs and demands of our clients across Europe.  Kony is in an excellent position to capitalise on the growth opportunities presented by the technology, and I am excited to be on board and part of the great team that will take the business to the next level.”

For two years in a row, Gartner has named Kony a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms. Kony provides industry-leading enterprise mobility solutions to help businesses compete in mobile time, by rapidly delivering multi-edge mobile apps across the broadest array of devices and systems today and in the future.

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