AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

Field Service News in Partnership with ServicePower. have produced an exclusive documentary that explores the role of the blended workforce model in field service operations, the challenges in making it work, the significant benefits it can produce and whether the pandemic and the capacity crisis we face as we turn towards recovery will be a further driver for its wider adoption.

In this excerpt from that documentary, we explore what impact the pandemic may have had on the adoption of the blended workforce model within the field service sector.

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Want to know more?

Field Service News subscribers can access the documentary "The Blended Workforce and the New Normal"  by clicking the button below:

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free and get instant access to the documentary and other selected resources available on our free forever, FSN Standard subscription tier.

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If you hold either a FSN Premium or FSN Elite subscription you can find the full interviews recorded for the documentary in our Digital Symposium section of the website which is available at www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-symposium

 

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Data usage note: By accessing the documentary you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServicePower who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.  

Field Service News in partnership with RealWear, and OverIT have worked together to produce a detailed 22 page Essential Guide to Remote Service.

As part of the research into this Essential Guide, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke with Alessandro Borzacchi, Senior Project Manager, Rail Cargo Group about their recent implementation of head-mounted computers and augmented reality-based remote service solution as part of our ongoing series of interview in the Field Service News Digital Symposium.

In this excerpt from that interview, Borzacchi explains how the innovation of RailCargo Italia could ultimately shape an entire industry.

 

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Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium.  If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below. 

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

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Further Reading:

This interview was undertaken as part of our development of our recently published Essential Guide to Remote Service. This guide offers insight into the important considerations field service companies need to be aware of when selecting remote service solutions suitable for their needs.

The guide looks at both the hardware and software considerations as well as containing a case study from Rail Cargo Group that looks at how they implemented such a solution which has revolutionised their industry.

This essential guide is currently available on our free-forever FSN Standard subscription tier for a limited time as well as being available to our FSN Premium subscribers and our FSN Elite members. If you are on any of these subscription/membership tiers you can access this guide by clicking the button below.

If you are not yet a subscriber, the button will take you to a dedicated registration page for FSN Standard that will give you instant access to this guide as well as access to the other Premium Resources currently available on this tier. 

 

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, OverIT and Realwear who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.  

In the next feature in our series of excerpts from a new and exclusive Field Service News Essential Guide published in partnership with ServicePower we discuss the complex language of the blended workforce model across different industry sectors and geographical regions... 

One of the biggest challenges in establishing meaningful conversation around the blended workforce model is that there are so many synonyms across differing industry verticals and differing regions. So before we begin looking at how the blended workforce can bring value to a service operation and the challenges that must be overcome to fully harness the benefits of the model, let us first clarify some of the language used.

There’s a whole bunch of different names!” Explains Steve Zannos, Senior Director Service Delivery, Electrolux, when we first sit down to discuss Electrolux’s use of the blended workforce.

“Even just here in the US, let alone globally, there are so many names, that are used. We’ve heard terms from factory service to branded service to field engineers and I’m sure there’s plenty more,” he adds.

“There are a number of different terms,” agrees Chris Jessop, Customer Service Director, Ideal Boilers.

“The top level ones tend to be either the blended workforce or the hybrid workforce model. I tend to prefer the latter, because I think that truly demonstrates what we are dealing with. We then have as much confusion internally with terms like direct labour, subcontracted labour agents and then a big chunk of our blended, or hybrid workforce is under what we call a nominated contractor agreement.”

 

"The critical element is not the terminologies but recognizing the key goals you are trying to drive from this, which is to ensure you have consistency within the customer delivery. The customers’ experience through using a hybrid model should not be detrimental in any way to your customer base..."

- Chris Jessop, Customer Service Director, Ideal Boilers. 

 

“The term blended workforce is getting increasing traction,” clarifies Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, ServicePower, an organization that provides the specialist technology for many companies to use a blended workforce model effectively.

“Another term that you come across in this discussion is the hybrid workforce, but we’re seeing Gartner and other analysts gravitate towards a blended workforce, I think that’s become the industry norm.”

Of course, in a horizontal industry, like the field service sector, language can often vary from one vertical to another. The conversation around the blended workforce does seem to suffer a lot from complicated terminology. However, the reality is that the concept at least is reasonably straightforward. The blended workforce is one where a company blends its internal workers, and external third-party workers to serve their customers better.

“A Blended Workforce model depends on upon a number of things” explains Adam Gordon, Head of Network Planning and Operations, Ericsson.

“From the Ericsson point of view, we look at the blended workforce and ask what is the best strategic approach for us to leverage benefits that we can pass on to the customer?"

So, what are the types of workforces that a blended workforce model encapsulates?

“There are two types of worker in the blended workforce,” explains Gulati.

“Firstly, there is the employed workforce. This consists field workers that are full time employees of the customer. This is then blended with an external third-party workforce that adds to that workforce to bring a number of benefits.”

“When people mention a blended network, they’re mainly talking about two groups,” adds Zannos.

“The first of these is referencing your ‘badged’ employee that are out there running those service calls for you. 

“There’s then a second external workforce that has various names such as a third party workforce, an independent service network or maybe an authorized service network. This is a group not directly employed or connected with the manufacturer, but they serve and work with the manufacturer and help take care of the consumers.”

Adding further insight, Gordon adds, “For Ericsson, a blended workforce is how we utilize our internal resources. We then utilize suppliers or third parties to supplement and reinforce skills that we don’t have. Usually these are areas where the required skills would be a high cost for us to have in an internal workforce, but it’s good niche for a local supplier.”

For Jessop, while the language of the blended workforce is at best cumbersome and at worst overly complicated, the key point is not the words we use to define the blended workforce model, but more understanding what is trying to be achieved by doing so.

“The critical element is not the terminologies but recognizing the key goals you are trying to drive from this, which is to ensure you have consistency within the customer delivery. The customers’ experience through using a hybrid model should not be detrimental in any way to your customer base.

“Introducing an external element to your workforce should always be done as a positive and never as a cost-cutting exercise. Therefore, we try and ensure that no matter what terminologies used, there is a common goal of managing customers’ expectations,” Jessop adds.

Having a clearly defined language of the various aspects of the blended workforce may seem like a simple step to take, but it is critical as it allows for much more effective communication around what is, as we will see as we work thorough this guide, a complex but highly rewarding process.

 

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Want to know more?

Field Service News subscribers can access the Essential Guide to the Blended Workforce instantly by clicking the button below:

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free and get instant access to the documentary and other selected resources available on our free forever, FSN Standard subscription tier.

 

 

 

 

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If you hold either a FSN Premium or FSN Elite subscription you can find the full interviews of those service leaders featured in this guide in our Digital Symposium section of the website which is available @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-symposium

 

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this Essential Guide you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServicePower who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.  

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Further Reading:

• Read more about managing the mobile workforce @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Read more about the blended workforce @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=blended+workforce
• Read more about the impact of the pandemic on the field service sector @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Discover this months selection of available resources on our FSN Standard subscription tier @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/fsn-standard-resources
• Find out more about the solutions ServicePower offer @ www.servicepower.com/

As part of our ongoing series of interviews in the Field Service News Digital Symposium Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke with Dr. Chris Parkinson,, CTO and Founder, Realwear, about the important considerations field service companies must make when selecting head-worn devices that can give their engineers essential information about the assets they are working on while allowing them to work hands free.

Here the two discuss why it is important to distinguish between consumer-targeted devices that are now generally termed as 'smart glasses' and head-worn computers that are aimed specifically at industrial or enterprise use.

 

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Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium.  If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below. 

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

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Further Reading:

This interview was undertaken as part of our development of our recently published Essential Guide to Remote Service. This guide offers insight into the important considerations field service companies need to be aware of when selecting remote service solutions suitable for their needs.

The guide looks at both the hardware and software considerations as well as containing a case study from Rail Cargo that looks at how they implemented such a solution which has revolutionised their industry.

This essential guide is currently available on our free-forever FSN Standard subscription tier for a limited time as well as being available to our FSN Premium subscribers and our FSN Elite members. If you are on any of these subscription/membership tiers you can access this guide by clicking the button below.

If you are not yet a subscriber, the button will take you to a dedicated registration page for FSN Standard that will give you instant access to this guide as well as access to the other Premium Resources currently available on this tier. 

 

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, OverIT and Realwear who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.  

Field Service News in Partnership with ServicePower. have produced an exclusive documentary that explores the role of the blended workforce model in field service operations, the challenges in making it work, the significant benefits it can produce and whether the pandemic and the capacity crisis we face as we turn towards recovery will be a further driver for its wider adoption.

In this excerpt from that documentary, we discuss the often confusing language of the blended workforce model to help clarify the concept.

---

Want to know more?

Field Service News subscribers can access the documentary "The Blended Workforce and the New Normal"  by clicking the button below:

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free and get instant access to the documentary and other selected resources available on our free forever, FSN Standard subscription tier.

---

If you hold either a FSN Premium or FSN Elite subscription you can find the full interviews recorded for the documentary in our Digital Symposium section of the website which is available at www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-symposium

 

---

Data usage note: By accessing the documentary you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServicePower who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.  

Field Service News in partnership with RealWear, and OverIT have worked together to produce a detailed 22 page Essential Guide to Remote Service. In this second in a series of excerpts from that guide we continue to look at the benefits of an effective remote service solution...

In the last feature in this series we discussed improving health and safety, increasing geographical expansion opportunities and reducing the time it takes to get new engineers out into the field as three key benefits. Now we look at three more... 

 

Empowering the blended workforce

By moving your most experienced resources away from the field and onto a remote service platform there is also an opportunity for field service companies to begin to completely re-imagine the way they develop their field workforce.

One of the outcomes of the millennial generation replacing the baby boomer generation in the workplace is a fundamental difference in how they perceive careers. The baby-boomer workforce was, in many respects, simpler to handle.

The concept of a job for life was common, and the career ladder was just that, a vertical route upwards.

However, the millennial generation is a very different beast entirely.

Millennials statistically are far more transient within the workforce than their baby-boomer colleagues. For millennials, career progression spans not just many companies but also many industries. This consideration must be factored into the equation when we begin to look at the makeup of the modern field service workforce.

Many field service organisations are beginning to move towards having a ‘deskilled’ field workforce where the majority of field workers have a broad yet shallow skill set that allows them to handle most routine tasks across a wide spectrum of devices/assets in the fleet. These technicians are supported by subject matter experts who have a narrower, yet far deeper and more granular level of knowledge and expertise in specific areas. These subject matter experts are then available to offer guidance via remote service delivery tools.

Indeed, let’s take this one step further.

Such an approach also sits well within the blended workforce model (which is where the workforce comprises a mix of internal and third-party workers), potentially unleashing the largely untapped potential of the gig economy within the field service sector - again an approach that is better aligned to the societal changes we are seeing which impact workforce planning and structuring.

Additionally, we must now also consider that many field service companies are facing new challenges to overcome the vast amount of lost capacity throughout 2020 as a result of the pandemic. With the spectre of COVID still looming across 2021 resulting in ongoing potential fluctuations in capacity at any given time, the need is more significant than ever for third-party workers. It is therefore likely we will see even further adoption of external workers within the sector.

Those organisations with the capabilities already in place to ‘dial-in’ knowledge and expertise instantly and on-demand via remote service tools are far better placed to make such a transition to leveraging the blended workforce more effectively.

 

Embracing the tools for outcome-based services

Another important emerging trend within the field service sector is the shift towards outcome-based services and servitization.

Servitization is a complex topic; however, the most straightforward definition would be when product and service are sold holistically across an asset’s lifecycle.

Crucially in a servitized approach, the customer’s key metric is no longer SLA adherence, but instead meeting guarantees of uptime.

With this shift in focus, the weighting on mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR) becomes an essential aspect of the service delivery program.

This is another area where remote service adoption at a sophisticated level, such as we have discussed in this paper, can have a considerable impact. In a world of remote service delivery, the service provider can turn to the closest available engineer, regardless of their level of expertise and still, in most instances, achieve a first-time-fix by having a remote expert with the knowledge and experience available instantly to guide them through the repair.

Indeed, alongside the connectivity of assets, remote service delivery is a fundamental layer of technology that can make the transition to a servitized approach possible. Field Service News Research recently outlined that currently, almost two-thirds of service organisations are introducing some advanced services into their portfolio.

Therefore, the importance of sophisticated technologies such as AR and head-mounted computers are likely to become increasingly commonplace within a field service setting as the move towards servitization continues.

 

Differentiating your service against that of your competition

As we commented on during the introduction, remote service as a service delivery method went from being utilised by a relatively small section of the industry, to being commonplace in 2020 as service companies scrambled to find a means of delivering service while under the restrictions of lockdowns.

With so many companies having simultaneously introduced some means of delivering service remotely, it is almost certain that both the service provider and their customers alike will be keen to harness the benefits of such an approach beyond the pandemic’s duration.

Research by Field Service News outlined that while nearly three-quarters of the field service companies had introduced remote service capabilities due to the pandemic, only a fifth of these were using sophisticated tools such as AR and head-mounted computers to do so.

This leads us to an interesting scenario and one where there could be a clear window of opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.

It is reasonable to assume that remote service delivery will be a significant part of the future. Yet currently the standards of delivery of remote service remain relatively low.

With so many companies suddenly arriving at the same place, it could well be that remote service may become a key battleground for competing service organisations.

Those who choose to adopt a more sophisticated approach to remote service delivery and who choose to leverage the latest technology within this space, are likely to be well-positioned when it comes to being able to differentiate on their ability to deliver service remotely.

 

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In the next article in this series we will look at three more benefits of remote service; empowering the blended workforce, embracing the tools for outcome-based services and differentiating your service against that of your competition...

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Further Reading:

This interview was undertaken as part of our development of our recently published Essential Guide to Remote Service. This guide offers insight into the important considerations field service companies need to be aware of when selecting remote service solutions suitable for their needs.

The guide looks at both the hardware and software considerations as well as containing a case study from Rail Cargo Group that looks at how they implemented such a solution which has revolutionised their industry.

This essential guide is currently available on our free-forever FSN Standard subscription tier for a limited time as well as being available to our FSN Premium subscribers and our FSN Elite members. If you are on any of these subscription/membership tiers you can access this guide by clicking the button below.

If you are not yet a subscriber, the button will take you to a dedicated registration page for FSN Standard that will give you instant access to this guide as well as access to the other Premium Resources currently available on this tier. 

 

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, OverIT and Realwear who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.  

As part of a series of interviews for an exclusive Field Service News Documentary on the Blended Workforce in the Field Service sector, Kris Oldland, Editor in Chief spoke with Samir Gulati Chief Marketing and Product Officer and Frank Gelbart, CEO of ServicePower.

In this excerpt, we hear from both experts as they define the often confusing language of the blended workforce to give us a framework for a key conversation for the field service sector.

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Want to know more?

Field Service News subscribers can access the documentary "The Blended Workforce and the New Normal"  by clicking the button below:

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free and get instant access to the documentary and other selected resources available on our free forever, FSN Standard subscription tier.

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If you hold either a FSN Premium or FSN Elite subscription you can find the full interview with Gulati and Gelbart in our Digital Symposium section of the website which is available at www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-symposium

 

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Data usage note: By accessing the documentary you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServicePower who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.