AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

In this exclusive interview with Motion Computing's UK Supremo Ian Davies about his time in the industry, the changes he has seen and what he thinks the future holds for mobile computing...

FSN: What was the first piece of technology that made a huge impression on you? 

ID: Probably the first piece of technology, aside from the ubiquitous mobile phone or laptop that made an impression on me, was a touch screen device made by one of my previous employers that combined the Palm Pilot with a barcode scanner, essentially the pre-cursor to the rugged PDA that we know today.  I used to have it synchronised with my email, diary and address book on my PC, but as part of my job as a pre-sales consultant I could run Field Service or Retail supply chain ‘Apps’, although I guess they weren’t known as ‘Apps’ in those days.  My wife-to-be and I were in the wedding list service department of a well-known department store. 

I’ll never forget the contrasting looks I got from my wife and the sales assistant as we were handed such a device and I was asked if I knew how to work it.  At which point, with a cheesy grin I got my device out of my pocket.  Mine happened to be ‘marketing’ issue version that was made from clear plastic rather than the industrial grey, so it looked a bit flash too.  My fiancé was sighing in despair at my geekyness and the sales assistant was astonished that I knew how to use it, let alone owned one!

FSN: Do you think that the consumerisation of mobile devices has led to a major shift in the design of field service hardware?

ID: Undoubtedly there is far greater awareness of options such as tablets due to the consumer units now available - especially in businesses where there was a reliance on handhelds or laptops in the field.  Likewise, from a design perspective there is an increased demand for usability and the goal is to deliver a consumer grade experience whilst out in the field - a serious point given the potential increase in productivity.

FSN: What are your thoughts on the BYOD trend in field service organisations – do you see this as a major threat to your business.?

ID: BYOD in field service will likely hit a serious issue - consumer devices are simply not able to take the knocks that happen every day out in the field.  This then causes lost productivity, employee dissatisfaction and of course, presents the IT department with a host of OS’s to support.  Field service is one of the key industries where it will make far more sense to issue standardized pieces of equipment with training on how they should be handled to maximise the ROI.

FSN: What is the most exciting/unusual application of ruggedised devices you have seen?

ID: In terms of demands on us as a supplier of the actual tablets, the use of tablets for field based drug testing by Cambridge Cognition sticks out.  Likewise the use of the tablets for live audio mixing at concerts or remote controlling drone aircraft for surveys are all far removed from the usual applications associated with ruggedised devices.

FSN: With the rise in computational power of tablet devices do you think we are seeing the final days of the laptop?

ID: Though the increases in computing power do play a role, I think the greater factor that is leading to drops in laptop sales is far more simple - tablets are easier to use and a lot more intuitive.  They correspond much more to the mobile phones that we all own and as such people are very in tune with how to work a tablet - even down to the software available for them.  We are definitely seeing a swing away from rugged laptops towards rugged tablets for field service applications.

FSN: What is the biggest trend in devices that you are seeing come to the market currently?

ID: Right now the top demands are usually around usability features - improvements in input, display and battery life are all helping the multi-use capability for organisations and users.  Rugged Tablet PCs combine the performance of a laptop with the mobility of a rugged PDA – reducing the number of devices a user needs to carry and the IT Department’s number of devices and operating systems they need to support.  Aside from this, the regular demands are actually about enhancing the workflow by mobilizing the software and apps as opposed to just the hardware.

FSN: What do you think the next big technological advancement in mobile computing will be?

ID: That is the exciting thing about technology!  It is constantly evolving, the next great thing always around the corner.  Trends we’ve seen include more intuitive, more intelligent interacting with the mobile device such as voice and touch input.  There is obviously a great deal of competition for improvements to operating systems and another area we are seeing big developments in is around increased security of data. 

The idea of technology is to simplify lives/work, not make them more complex so contactless technologies such as RFID, NFC and Zigbee are becoming more main stream as ways of collecting and interacting with data.  There are a lot of concurrent changes happening right now and any one of these could yield substantial opportunities. However I think the dominant force right now is customer feedback into mobile apps and the emergence of professional, enterprise mobility.

FSN: You also offer a range of in vehicle solutions… driver safety is a major concern for the field service industry currently, do you think dashboard mounted devices can potentially distract a driver and cause accidents? 

ID: This is actually solved pretty quickly and easily - screen blanking technology exists to ensure that a driver cannot be distracted by a docked unit while the vehicle is moving.  Likewise the technology is clever enough that should the same mounted device be needed to be operated by a front passenger and is swung away from the driver, full access to the device can be obtained maximising ‘appropriate’ productivity whilst mobile.  These are critical concerns as safety will always trump productivity.  At present we are seeing a lot of innovation in this area coming from the Field Service and EMS sectors specifically and we have learnt a great deal so far.

FSN: You personally have been involved in this industry for about a decade – what is the biggest difference between when you started in the industry and today?

ID: When I first started, enterprise customers would gladly spend several thousands of pounds per device for then, leading edge technology capable of and designed to do single and often simple, but important tasks.  Adoption by users though was challenging.  Limited computer skills amongst users meant the technology was reluctantly used in many cases, and required significant investment in training as part of the overall project. 

Today devices can do so many things and have so many technologies built in to them that you might think there would be greater reluctance to overcome, but probably the biggest difference now compared to 10 years ago is the rapid adoption of the technology by the users. Personal IT knowledge honed from using technology at home or in their smartphone on a daily basis not only helps them embrace the technology changes their employers are adopting but they are continually pushing their employers to adopt new technologies to improve efficiencies and productivity like never before.

FSN: You have worked with a number of leading hardware providers to the field service industries, including Motorala, Intermec, Honeywell. What was it that drew you to Motion Computing and what sets them apart from their competitors?

ID: Traditionally, the technology I had been involved with prior to joining Motion was very application specific.  With the adoption of Tablet technology in the consumer space and the desire for organisations to do more with a mobile device, the opportunity in this ‘new’ wave of point of activity computing was a huge attraction for me.  I say ‘new’, but for nearly 13 years Motion has been leading the development in computing for users who were standing or walking, so I was confident they had something good going on!  The piece that really made sense to me though was the range of peripherals that Motion brings to the table to specifically suit the Enterprise Field user’s workflow. 

To use one of my colleague’s phrases, “it’s not all about the tablet”, and that is where Motion excels.  From a hardware perspective, charging, mounting, carrying and storing mobile devices is key to user adoption, and corporate responsibility for the vehicle based mobile user is an ever increasing requirement that Motion has really stepped up to.  Providing complete hardware solutions that truly offer point of activity computing sets Motion apart.

The Getac Z710 Android 4.1 rugged tablet has been officially certified by AirWatch – a global leader and innovator in mobile security and the largest Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) provider – for compatibility with its Mobile Device Management (MDM) software.

The assessment of Getac’s Z710 fully rugged tablet completed by AirWatch's quality assurance department included ensuring the device was able to fully handle asset tracking, commands, profile configuration, application management, Secure Content Locker™, AirWatch Browser and push services. The accreditation confirms that Getac’s tablet solution can be managed successfully by a systems administrator using the AirWatch platform.

Peter Molyneux, President at Getac UK, welcomed the announcement saying “The rugged construction of the Z710 Android tablet makes it an ideal choice for businesses needing field-based computing power in critical working environments, allowing them to push out updates, change settings and manage security without having to recall units. The new AirWatch accreditation means that our customers can be reassured that the Z710 can be managed remotely using one of the world’s leading industry standard platforms.”

Mr Molyneux added “The AirWatch platform features industry-leading MDM and application management, and gives businesses the confidence to use Android mobile devices in the field knowing they will continue to perform, and be secure.”

Ian Evans, AirWatch Managing Director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region commented further saying: “The accreditation of Getac’s rugged tablet means businesses operating in demanding environments now have access to an industry-leading EMM solution that will optimise functionality while reducing costs and minimising downtime.  We are confident this new partnership with leading rugged computing manufacturer Getac will enhance our joint solutions offering to field users across the UK and Europe.”

Gamestec, the largest gaming and amusement machine operator in the UK, provides services for over 35,000 machines in 10,500 locations. With many decades’ of experience, the company prides itself on the level of service it offers its customers which include pubs, leisure venues, clubs, bars and service stations. They provide an end to end solution for the operation of the gaming system with 364 days per year customer care facility and over 1000 field based teams to ensure local experts are on hand.

Managing field workers and field service

As part of their commitment to customer care, Gamestec embarked on a project to replace their legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and improve customer service levels. Having evaluated many CRM options they chose to work with mplsystems to introduce a pioneering solution, utilising mplsystems’ iMobile technology that would not only provide a CRM solution but would also offer call and email handling, manage bookings and engineering visits and provide visibility of, and communications with, field workers.

The solution

Working with mplsystems, Gamestec devised a solution that was unique in that it collapses the service desk, planning and dispatch functions into a single ‘intelligent’ agent desktop, thereby enabling the contact centre to communicate directly with engineers’ smart phones. The desktop integrates Gamestec’s asset management; ordering and stock control systems and provides a mobile workforce management tool. iMobile smart phone app allows the company’s in-house contact centre to communicate directly with engineers’ PDAs, automatically allocating jobs according to the engineers’ skill, location and current workload. Should emergency appointments come up or clients change their bookings, schedules are dynamically optimised based on field engineers’ current locations and loading and real time updates sent to the appropriate engineer.

Agent Experience

The custom agent desktop is designed to provide a single view of everything that the agent needs to resolve Gamestec client requests. It provides the agent with a complete view of the client’s service history, specific assets, locations as well as managing service bookings and schedules. This integrated approach has allowed Gamestec to change the way customer service is managed; previously, all service requests were passed through a number of separate departments, opening up the opportunity for errors and delays. The new desktop solution brings these teams into a cross-functional role covering help desk, customer service and planning. Now, requests are dealt with by one person who dispatches the request immediately out to the field. This real time view, along with other process improvements, has enabled service response times to decrease by 28%, or 44 minutes over the 12 months.

Customer Experience

Providing real time customer updates: when a customer calls to check the progress of, or change to, a service request, the agent can provide an immediate update from a live map on their desktop showing in real time all engineers’ locations (via GPS), their skill sets and current loading.

End-to-end service request reporting improves customer satisfaction: management is provided with real time monitoring of service requests, escalations and SLA adherence. Using hour by hour and day by day reports, aged issues can be captured quickly, escalation effectively managed and communicated to both field staff and customers advising them of completion timescales.

Business benefits

Prior to the iMobile deployment, Gamestec had needed separate contact centre technology, CRM and handheld devices to maintain communications with engineers. These systems required multiple licenses and were expensive to maintain and support and were proving to be inflexible. By deploying the new solution to cover all 3 functional areas, Gamestec has experienced an 88% reduction in on-going IT costs and has enabled increased efficiency across the organisation in how service and field workers are deployed.

 

For any field service organisation there is often one simple key objective, to deliver excellent customer service whilst working as effectively as possible.

However, we are working in a market place where both economic pressures and customer demands have risen to greater levels than possibly ever before and sometimes it may seem like this ‘simple’ objective is becoming increasingly unachievable. Yet at the same time we are seeing technology at our disposal moving forward in quantum leaps, as we witness technologies emerge that can and will literally change the shape of the field service industry as we know it.

Multi-person video conferencing enabled by increasing mobile internet speeds is now a common place reality when not so long ago it was the domain of science fiction. The field engineer facing on site who doesn’t have the requisite knowledge to deliver a first time is now able to access a wealth of information and advice direct from his handset, he can see where the nearest parts he requires are and if their not readily available he can order them and schedule the appointment with Mr. Bloggs there and then. (First of course checking that Mr. Bloggs account has the correct privileges and if he doesn’t than the engineer can is perfectly placed to up-sell!!)

Then there is the Cloud… Many of the initial fears around cloud based computing, a large number of companies were hesitant to move business functions into the cloud with security worries at the top of the list of peoples reasons for hesitancy, are now being allayed and the reality is that cloud technologies offer an incredible opportunity for the service industry.

If having fast mobile devices is the key, then having knowledge bases, communications platforms and even central systems in the cloud, is the door that opens the way into a whole new world of service excellence.

Even better, unlike the majority of technologies, which are prohibitively expensive when they first emerge, the cloud is in fact the opposite. Suddenly expensive and complex service management systems that were once the exclusive domain of the enterprise organization are now available as Software as a Service, bringing the cost per person down in some cases to under $100 a head.

In a period of continuing economic uncertainty, where Service is a major battle field in all manner of industries, the combination of ever improving mobile data speeds and cloud computing is a clear example of how technology is changing the shape of the industry today.

Of course, not every company is able to or indeed should invest in every new piece of technology and software that comes along. Indeed what is cutting edge today could well be obsolete within a few short years, and no matter where we see similarities in service departments, and we see them in wide and diverse industries, the simple truth is no one service story can ever be the same. Companies, like individuals require a solution that is geared just for them.

However, having an understanding of the technologies available and the advantages they may bring to your service department is a core responsibility of every field service manager.

It’s vital that field service managers understand what the options available to them are, whilst taking the time to understand their own needs and weaknesses and then find the system or systems that are fit for purpose

There is plenty of good information out there (including of course this very website!) and another source of good and refreshingly impartial advice is Service Max’s new ebook “A Definitive Guide to Modern Field Service Management”. Which we are very pleased to be able to offer to you for free when you subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter.

Drawing on research from Gartner, Aberdeen, The Service Council and Forrester as well as a real life case study this ebook gives insightful and concise advice on how technologies such as cloud, SaaS, big data and analytics, smart phones and tablets and optimised scheduling engines can be brought together to empower organisations to adopt a fully 360° view of the service they deliver.

To download a copy of this excellent book please just click the link here and then complete the very brief (less than a minute) registration form.

Whilst building a service business entirely from scratch might seem like a dream for many Service Managers when facing the trials and tribulations that are often the result of many legacies, it is none the less a daunting task and certainly no mean feat. However, for Daryll Brown, Operations and Service Manager with Bürkert Fluid Control Systems this was exactly the task he was employed to do. In this exclusive interview he explains just how he has approached building a service division from a standing start... 

 

FSN: Building a service business from scratch must be both a daunting and exciting proposition, what was the approach you adopted in taking the first steps to achieving this goal?

DB: Our approach to building a service business from scratch is to first of all define what can be thought of as service in our industry. 

Fluid controls are a very complex business and there is not a clear description of what is traditionally known as service work.  We need to define what we class as service work and then develop products that would be attractive to our customers.

Some of our definitions of service include Installation of Bürkert products and systems, continuous service of Bürkert products and systems, planned maintenance and breakdown cover for Bürkert products, installation and commissioning, consultancy, design, calibration and training.  As things stand most of our products do not lend themselves easily to service maintenance.  This is because there is not always what you would call spare parts that need to be replaced.  Also a lot of our products are designed for one time use and they may last for years.  So we need to be very creative with our offering.

FSN: What approach have you taken to scheduling software, are you using a manual, automated or optimized system? Why did you take this approach? Which provider are you working with and what made you choose them?

DB: This is unique for us as we do not necessarily need scheduling to cope with high volume demand we need it more to manage our complexity.  Having had experience in implementing field service software in my previous company I knew that the generic service software packages out there were not going to be as flexible as we would like.

Most offer an out of the box solution which never seems to do exactly what you need.  You then seem to spend time (and money) on modifying the software to meet your needs.  I think a lot of software companies fall into the trap of thinking all service businesses are alike.

For us this isn’t the case so we have decided to develop our current quality and asset management software (Q-Pulse) to be able to manage our service work.  This has the added advantage as we are already very familiar with the software and we have a lot of scope to develop and modify to suit our needs.

FSN: What logistics solutions do you have in place to ensure that your field engineers can get the right parts as soon as possible?  

DB: As mentioned our service work is quite complex and some visits have to be planned months in advance.  This gives our logistics team time to plan when and where our parts can be delivered and stocked.  Bürkert’s UK core business is mainly distribution of product from our Plants in Germany and France so we are already well versed in managing the logistic supply chain.  When the business grows we will need to think of innovative ways of supporting our service teams with some of our faster moving items.  Again from past experience I have found that having a partnership with a flexible logistic partner is worth its weight in gold.

FSN: How are you monitoring driver behaviour? What tools are you using (GPS, telematics etc)?

DB: Roads in the UK are becoming busier and this presents a challenge for any service business.  We have put a lot of thought into using the outside of our service van to market our business and products so we do not want our drivers to give us a bad name.  So we have had all those who drive our van read our companies driver handbook and then sign a declaration that they will comply.

We have also made this an agenda point at our Management review as ideas have been raised regarding advanced driver courses.  This would have the added advantage of potentially lowering insurance costs.

We do not have this issue of needing to know up to the minute the location of our Engineers.  Nor do we currently have any trust issue which would warrant GPS tracking.

FSN: Who else within the organisation do you liaise with when making decisions that will impact upon how the service department operates?

The Bürkert UK business is ran by a small Management team of five members.  These represent areas such as General Manager, Logistics, Finance, Quality and Sales.  Due to our business structure and all of these areas need to be involved in the decision making process.  As we are only a small business here in the UK every action has a reaction and this means all departments have to work closely together.  As past experience has taught me this is no bad thing.  For me even in larger organisations if all departments are working closely together and not in silos key decisions revolving around the service business are made more quickly and effectively with less risk.

FSN: Have you been able to integrate the service division with other divisions within the organisation such as sales or client services? What challenges did you face?

DB: We are still in the early days of developing our service business.  For now our project engineers are also doubling as our service engineers.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as we are starting with our service already integrated into other areas of the business.

For me all areas of the business working closely together is critical.  All processes tend to cross over into different areas of the business and often this is where most processes come unstuck.  If ran as a process and not a interlink of different activities in different areas the service business will run a whole lot better. For instance in the past I have often been called to meetings with the logistics departments to complain about the amount of stock in the service business.

If managed as a process then the logistics teams who are setup to manage other needs of the business can account for the service business. This will help them to adjust themselves to meet the completely different demands of service.

FSN: You personally also have a wide skill set holding an advanced certificate in Sales and Marketing (Institute of Marketing Management ILMM 2007). What led you to a career as a service management professional? What are the key skills that you think are required to be a good service manager?

DB: I spent 24 years with my pervious company and I worked in several different departments including operations, quality, sales and customer service.  This gave me a good understanding of the overall business and a good grounding in organising teams and coping with different demands.  For this reason I think the senior management thought I may be a good choice as a service manager.  Service has been by far my biggest challenge as it seems to involve so many variables and crosses over more boundary lines then I had seen before.  In my old business service was managed as part of the sales business.  If I were still there today I would have definitely recommended managing service as a separate cost Centre. This is because the needs of a service customer are completely different to that of other customers.  This should be managed by a focused service team with no distractions and to key performance targets that are service related and not just sales related.

FSN: What are the biggest challenges you think the field service industry faces and how have you set up the service business at Burkert to overcome these challenges?

DB: Of course there a different types of service businesses which will face different challenges.  However, there are challenges that are generic and affect all service businesses.

For me one of the biggest challenges is the modern lean business trends.  This drives a cost cutting culture in all industries which makes customers demand more for less. When you are selling service there tends to be a lot less overhead to play with.  One extra day on site due to an unforeseen issue and your margin disappears. So at Bürkert our way of overcoming this issue is preparation (and lots of it).

Planning needs to accurate, costing needs to be accurate and the timing needs to be spot on!  This is of course easier said than done.  So to endeavor to make this happen as mentioned before we have developed our software package to effectively manage our service business.  Our logistics are integrated with our service offering so that we have the parts available when our customers need them.  All areas of our business are part of our decision making to facilitate us managing our service as a process and not as a group of individual activities.

However, we know we cannot afford to sit still we need to look for ways to continually improve our service offering.  For this reason our marketing team is working closely with our customers to keep up with the latest developments in our market.  We have put together key performance indicators that are based on areas that our customers value.  We hold regular improvement events to review the feedback that these items give us so that we can continue to develop our business to be customer focused and deliver value.

Bürkert  at a glance:

Industry = Fluid Controls

Number of Field Engineers UK only = 3 (these also double as Project Engineers).

Number of Dispatchers = None (not set up as yet)

Average number of jobs per Engineer = 1 (our work is quite technical)

 

Gloustershire based Agronomy company Agrii have implemented a real-time transport optimisation and vehicle tracking solution for its agrochemicals division.

The company that is seen as a leader within it's field in the UK has opted to utilise Paragon’s Fleet Controller system and integrate this with a live vehicle tracking feed, provided by 49 TomTom PRO 9150 navigation units, taking advantage of the systems's advanced vehicle routing and scheduling software.  The result is a real time plan versus actual performance information delivered to the Agrii transport and customer service teams, also enabling customers to receive updated ETAs using Fleet Controller’s text messaging facility.

“By integrating Paragon and TomTom technology we are able to plan and manage deliveries of more than 350 orders a day, which given the location and type of customers we serve would be a logistical challenge if we didn’t use this solution,” said Tony Frain, Agrii’s Logistics Manager.

“The software allows us to offer customers the opportunity to place orders up to 10.30 pm and we’ll guarantee delivery if stocks are available by the next working day in three slots: before 9am, before 12pm or next day.”

Paragon also provides timed web-based reporting to Agrii customer services, with scheduled route timings updated every few minutes based on the live tracking information.  This informs the customer service agents of real-time delivery activity and allows them to prepare customers to receive their deliveries. With the nature of their business meaning many deliveries require a forklift to unload the vehicle , this efficiency allows for streamlining the delivery process saving valuable time for both Agrii and their clients alike.

With the TomTom units providing  intelligent navigation and live traffic information to help drivers avoid congestion Agrii are able to make further savings in both time and money and the all-in-one business tool combines navigation and GPS tracking in one single, portable, device is an major benefit.

Other benefits of the system are it's flexibility - Agrii's operation is heavily seasonal so the versatility of the solution means that the company can increase and reduce the size of the hire fleet without the cost of installing and removing hardwired equipment, and also the well documented benefits of monitoring driver behaviour including duty of care obligations. Also drivers can accurately report their working time by entering their ID into the device, tapping the screen to record when they start and finish work which in turn is automatically fed back into Agrii’s payroll system.

Agrii’s Alconbury depot is supplying 6,000 customers who range from small farms to large commercial operations growing products for supermarkets. They are located as far north as the Humber Estuary and south to the Thames Estuary, along the coast of the North Sea in the east and west to the M40 corridor. The drivers deliver the orders direct to the farm’s chemical storage facilities, the locations for which have been located accurately using the GPS vehicle-tracking units.  This ensures that each store is mapped on the system.

“By plotting the X and Y coordinates for the chemical stores our drivers can navigate directly to the site,” added Tony Frain.

“This streamlines the delivery because using a postcode alone would only take them to within a kilometre of the location. If we can get the driver within 10 to 20 metres of the store, it improves our performance and the level of service we offer our customers.”

 

 

With a fully integrated product across the two companies customers are set to benefit from one integrated contact centre solution based on Intelecom Connect and Verint Impact 360 workforce management Software. The offering is available in one flexible cloud-based deployment model.

Intelecom Group AS, a provider of cloud contact centre technology, have announced the availability of  Verint Systems's Impact 360 workforce management and optimisation software as a cloud-based solution integrated into Intelecom Connect. This follows the organisations commencing their relationship earlier this year in May 2013 and is impressive in the speed at which they have ben able to collaborate as well as the depth of the proposition. Adding to Intelcom's contact solution, Verint are prominently placed in a field they define as "Actionable Intelligence" solutions and their product line already includes a suite of award-winning workforce optimisation software as well as an analytics tool Voice of Customer Analytics.

The closer alignment of service to other divisions within an organisation is one that is often cited as a critical steep in moving from cost centre to profit centre, or at the very least in increasing efficiency and reducing costs simultaneously. Of course one of the most obvious and simplest divisions for alignment to the service centre in in many cases is the contact centre as often they fulfil many similar if not overlapping functions.

An integrated, cloud-based solution will help multi-site, multichannel contact centres capture a full range of customer interactions for quality, compliance and customer intelligence that can be used to enhance operations, improve performance and heighten the customer experience. It also opens the doors wide to operational transparency which is key to the successful operation of an efficient service division.

When we then add in the more standard service management-esque elemeents to the solution which can help organisations automate workforce management, including staff forecasting and scheduling, and the ability to track agent adherence, while providing performance management we are starting to see yet another example of the more holistic platform approach to software that Sergio Barata referred to in his recent feature .

Torkel Engeness, CEO of Intelecom comments, “An increasing number of our customers using our cloud-based contact centre are placing more focus on enhancing the customer experience. There are clear benefits in using a robust and well-known workforce optimisation technology, deployed in the same flexible cloud model as our core product. Verint, with its proven portfolio of WFO and VoC Analytics solutions, makes it an ideal partner for Intelecom.”

Nick Nonini, Senior Vice President Sales, Verint Enterprise Intelligence Solutions^™adds, “Verint is committed to working with select partners to deliver our portfolio of solutions in the cloud. Our customers and the industry at-large continue to recognise Verint as the market leader and innovator in deploying WFO applications in a variety of environments, from on-premises to the cloud. With this partnership, Intelecom’s customers have access to a fully-integrated, cloud-based WFO solution.”

Intelecom Connect is at the time of writing as close as any other offering to being the complete contact centre solution available in the cloud.  Of course the fact that it follows the SaaS model also provides a number of other benefits including being affordable to those companies for whom such technology may previously been prohibitively expensive to obtain.

The flexibility of the Connect application programming interface and Web Services allows seamless integration into third-party software environments. This partnership not only provides Intelecom customers with advanced workforce management technology typically associated with on-premise licensing, but also makes it available on an integrated in-the-cloud, pay-as-you-use basis from a single supplier. Offering customers flexibility in deployment, it also can help them meet their business requirements as they evolve.

Verint’s Impact 360 Workforce Optimisation suite enables organisations to capture, analyse and act on customer, business and market intelligence, and gain a complete multichannel view of customer interactions and experiences. Again the type of technology at the top of a lot of field service managers wish lists currently.

Using tools like this companies can identify opportunities to refine and enhance products and services; maximise information and workflow across functions; learn about competitive and other changing market dynamics; fine-tune internal business processes; enhance staff sales/service delivery; reduce operating costs; and realise new revenue opportunities. All extremely commendable in its own right.

Brought together these options certainly make for a compelling package and it's good to see such strong collaboration yielding impressive initial results.

Juniper Systems has announced the availability of its new  Archer 2 rugged handheld. With radical improvements over the first generation Archer, the Archer 2 promises better overall performance with an astonishingly bright display, an extra-long battery life, enhanced GPS capabilities, and rugged IP68 construction.

The latest generation rugged handheld incorporates several new technological advancements. Sporting a custom 4.3 inch Illumiview high-visibility display, the Archer 2’s screen brightness has been well received by reviewers. Its battery features a unique technology inspired by the technology used in hybrid car batteries to prevent excessive battery drainage in low temperatures. Referred to as Overtime Technology, this super battery will last up to 20 hours on one charge.

The new device is the first Juniper Systems handheld to feature a capacitive touchscreen for improved response. The Archer 2 also includes a glove-friendly numeric keypad for rapid data entry, a feature which many Juniper Systems customers highly value. Like other Juniper Systems rugged handhelds, the Archer 2 is built to very strict standards at its ISO 9001:2008-certified facility, having been tested to MIL-STD-810G and given a top IP68 rating for dust and water.

“We have been looking forward to the release of the Archer 2 for some time,” said Rob Campbell, CEO at Juniper Systems. “We have taken special care in addressing the needs of customers in the design of the Archer 2. It is a product of utmost quality, and the excellent reviews we have received on our Archer 2 beta units have made us very optimistic that the Archer 2 is going to meet our customers’ needs exceptionally well.”

Archer 2: Video Overview

ALS Environmental has selected Paragon routing and scheduling software to plan collections and deliveries of water, earth and air samples for testing at its specialist laboratories. The analytical services company has installed Paragon's Multi Depot software at its Coventry headquarters for optimising the transport of hundreds of samples a week using its fleet of 3.5 tonne temperature controlled vehicles.

Paragon's routing and scheduling software enables ALS Environmental to plan the routes for all its vehicles and drivers centrally across all the company's depots as a single planning task. The software adjusts depot boundaries dynamically to ensure calls are routed from the most suitable depot according to fleet availability and the geographic spread of orders on the day.

"Paragon enables me to plan all our collections and deliveries across the UK quickly and efficiently so it is a critical part of our operation. Without the software it would take hours to plan the routes and we wouldn't be able to provide the high level of service we offer our customers. We import all the jobs directly into Paragon and then the routes and schedules are generated automatically. We print the routes for our drivers directly from the system, so there is no further data entry to do," says Shaun Millington, Transport Controller, ALS Environmental.

ALS Environmental is part of the ALS group - one of the world's largest and most diversified analytical testing service providers operating across 55 countries. The company is one of the UK's leading providers in its field that offers an extensive range of accredited analytical services for water, land and waste monitoring. The company provides its customers with accurate, legally defensible, analytical data.