AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

The field service sector could see huge benefits from self-driving cars so the recent announcement from Byton should be of interest to field service organisations everywhere...

BYTON, an innovator of smart, premium electric vehicles, announced a partnership with Aurora, a leading self-driving technology company.

The partnership will help BYTON incorporate Level 4 (L4) autonomous-driving vehicle capabilities into BYTON vehicles and enable BYTON to become among the very first group of carmakers to bring L4 and eventually Level 5 (L5) cars to market.

In the next two years, BYTON and Aurora will jointly conduct pilot deployment of Aurora’s L4 autonomous driving systems on BYTON vehiclesIn the next two years, BYTON and Aurora will jointly conduct pilot deployment of Aurora’s L4 autonomous driving systems on BYTON vehicles. Additionally, BYTON and Aurora will explore the use of Aurora’s self-driving system in BYTON's series production vehicles. According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, L4 autonomous vehicles can drive independently in most environments, with the expectations that humans may need or choose to drive in some conditions.

"BYTON is designed for the age of autonomous driving. We are pleased to partner with Aurora, as Aurora is supremely focused on a mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving vehicles safely, quickly, and globally," said Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and Co-Founder of BYTON.

Dr. Daniel Kirchert, President and Co-Founder at BYTON, added, "I'm confident that Aurora will be instrumental in helping BYTON achieve its objectives as an innovator of smart, premium electric cars with Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous driving."

Chris Urmson, CEO at Aurora, said “We are excited to partner with BYTON, an innovator in the electric vehicle industry, to further advance our goal of delivering self-driving vehicles quickly, broadly and safely. We look forward to piloting this technology in California.”

Earlier this month at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, BYTON premiered its BYTON Concept and announced plans to design and build smart premium electric cars for the Chinese, U.S. and European markets. Sales are set to begin in China in 2019, and sales in the United States and Europe to start in 2020.

Be social and share

GE Digital's acquisition of leading field service management solution provider Servicemax just over a year ago sent shockwaves across the industry for multiple reasons.

Firstly, in an industry that has been going through a spate of acquisitions over the last two years, the amount was quite simply eye-watering and just blew everything out of the water. Secondly, this was an acquisition that came right out of left field. Many analysts may have predicted that ServiceMax would eventually be acquired having been the industries biggest success story, but few would have suggested that an industrial force such as GE may have been the suitor that would become their new home. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke exclusively to the senior players at both ServiceMax and GE Digital to find out how things are bedding in...

When the ServiceMax from GE Digital train rolled into Berlin towards the end of last year for the European leg of their series of Maximize conferences, there was an exciting mix of vivacious confidence between the ServiceMax team and keen curiosity and anticipation between the delegates - who were in the main ServiceMax customers.

Of course, this was to be expected - as it is at such events that ServiceMax have traditionally announced their latest developments and outlined how they had refined their roadmap. In past iterations of the conference, we've seen ServiceMax announce a number of industry firsts including the announcement in 2016 of Field Service Connect - which essentially established a blueprint for the role field service management systems will play in our sector adopting IoT that is being mirrored by a number of their peers.

And that's not to mention the little matter of GE Digital's acquisition of ServiceMax for an incredible $900Bn which was announced just days after 2016's Maximize Europe event in Amsterdam.

With just over a year having passed it was a perfect time to see how well embedded ServiceMax had become within the GE Digital machine, and just how much such significant investment had changed their vision for the future of both their organisation and of field service delivery itself.Indeed, with just over a year having passed it was a perfect time to see how well embedded ServiceMax had become within the GE Digital machine, and just how much such significant investment had changed their vision for the future of both their organisation and of field service delivery itself.

Having spent a lot of time with Yarnold and his senior team over the last few years, one thing that has always come to the fore was that there was an inherent understanding of what excellent service looked like, and the ServiceMax vision was always about trying to develop the tools to make meeting standards of service excellence that much easier.

I recall speaking to Yarnold in 2016 about the ethos of the company, and he explained then how they felt that most of the technology in the Field Service Management sector was  geared towards taking cost out. What they realised very early on into their journey to becoming a leader within the industry was that there was a critical emerging trend - companies who were building products were experiencing much faster growth in the services side of the business than the product side.

We focussed on helping companies to grow their service business as opposed to squeezing their technicians for more productivity - which is still where most of the technology in our space is focussed"So we focussed on helping companies to grow their service business as opposed to squeezing their technicians for more productivity - which is still where most of the technology in our space is focussed" Yarnold had stated back then.

Of course, this approach has become widely embraced by most of ServiceMax's peers as solution providers realise that most companies now have at least one foot planted firmly in a service-centric world and as concepts such as servitization and outcome-based services go mainstream.

However, while there is no denying the prescience of Yarnold and his team's approach, until last year they were always just an observer of trends within the field service sector, only experiencing them indirectly via how they impacted their client base. But now as part of GE, an organisation that has something upward of 40,000 service engineers in various different divisions and across multiple sectors globally, they now have a direct line into a wealth of field service directors that are all on the same team.

I was curious as to what if any impact this would have on ServiceMax regarding how they position their worldview on what great field service looks like. In his opening address early that day Yarnold had touched upon shared learnings - so was it a case of their previous assertions being validated? Or was there an element of identifying essential details that could only be seen when one is embedded that little bit closer to the actual coalface?

"It is a bit of both" responds Yarnold. "We are part of GE Digital which has the Predix platform and then these application areas APM and ServiceMax, and we are separate from the rest of the GE business which are the industrial business units such as Oil and Gas, Power Generation and Healthcare and so on. Each of those business has their own field service operation, and each of those businesses is rolling out ServiceMax. So we're not part of the organisation, but we have the home team there to draw on."

To bring this message to life Yarnold recounts how before the acquisition Sharma, who at the time was the CIO of GE's Oil and Gas business had been a somewhat challenging customer, but once they were on the same side of the table the value that ServiceMax brought to the table was revealed to actually be hugely valued. "I do wish he'd maybe told me a bit sooner'' Yarnold said playfully which brought a warm laugh from Sharma - and in this brief exchange, the camaraderie and trust between the two were immediately brought to the fore, something usually found within relationships built on a mutual respect.

It's been a good balance so far, and we're just starting to tap into that knowledge of those industries and the vertical specific complexities of those industries. It keeps things fresh and challenging, but that's what we want. We want that challenge"So yes there was a lot of affirmation" Yarnold commented returning to the initial question. "Then where I think the learnings are coming in. As we start to work with these folks and we start to understand what their customers, the service, and maintenance organisations are all about - we need to ask how do we continue to evolve and build our product so that they fit those organisations. Utilities, Airlines, Railroads, Oil Companies - these have not necessarily been our direct customers to date and we're learning a lot about that. We're also learning a lot about metrics and measuring business. It's been a good balance so far, and we're just starting to tap into that knowledge of those industries and the vertical specific complexities of those industries. It keeps things fresh and challenging, but that's what we want. We want that challenge."

So would it be fair to assume that given this additional stream of insight there maybe a change to the roadmap that ServiceMax has outlined for themselves? Kasai picks up this point. "I think you outlined it well when you positioned it as an expansion" he replied when we tackle this topic.

"Both being part of the wider family of GE but also the massive investment is a much needed, as we really need to expand our portfolio into new markets and new capabilities. We'd always made a conscious effort not to go into many of these industries for a variety of reasons, but largely from a focus point of view. But now we have I believe, a solid competitive edge from a channel point of view with great customer relationships. We have an understanding of the domain within those industries, and it would have been tough just to walk in and grow that knowledge. Thirdly, we have the capital to go ahead and invest in the development of the products to actually develop those capabilities for these industries. It is a combination of these three things which essentially makes a brand new company - there is so much potential and that what we're all really excited about, where do we go next?"

It is interesting the Kasai mentions how the new environment in which they find themselves in is in many ways akin to being an entirely new company. It brings back recollections of another previous conversation with Yarnold the day the acquisition was announced. "It is not the start of a new chapter; it is the start of a whole new book" he had commented, which is a strong analogy, as this latest incarnation of ServiceMax is indeed a distinct creature than that which has come before. However, likely any great novel within a series, the fundamental aspects of what made it a best-seller in the first place must remain in place. To extend the metaphor to its very limits, there must be a familiarity and continuity in place if it is going to build on the successes of previous in the broader in the ongoing saga.

In other words, ServiceMax as part of GE Digital must build upon the strong foundations that are already in place. Yet, for such a substantial investment, they simply have to evolve as both Kasai and Yarnold suggested. However, it seems that this is something that is very much already starting to happen as the ServiceMax team becomes plugged into the broader world of GE.

Such cohesion and deep level insight will not only drive the functionality of ServiceMax forward hugely but by doing so will also raise the bar for the industry as a whole. As Sharma explains" Something we have done recently is to have seven business swarm ServiceMax from which we've then built a core centre of excellence capability - it is a very focused team, they have both deep domain expertise and have also been ServiceMax users for a very long time. From this, we have developed accelerators to help improve deliverability, but it has also become a great feedback loop to Rei and the product team."

It is this type of integration that many of the analysts within the industry (including myself), hoped to see emerge when the acquisition was announced. As such cohesion and deep level insight will not only drive the functionality of ServiceMax forward hugely but by doing so will also raise the bar for the industry as a whole.

It was undoubtedly one of the most interesting aspects of the acquisition that I discussed at the time in that there is vast potential for the further development of important solutions when a major player such as ServiceMax is embedded within an organisation that has such a fine-grained level of knowledge of delivering service, rather than being swallowed up by just another major software house that many would have expected.

Yet for the full value of this to be played out there has to be a true ebb and flow of dialogue between ServiceMax and the wider organisation - something which Sharma indicates clearly exists. "We attack things together, working with the platform team, ServiceMax and ourselves, on an integrated asset model of the future. We are talking about working within large-scale operations and exploring how do you augment and drive participation? It is a great way to valid test or experiment with a capability, and we give instant feedback."

We have the fortunate situation where we have a very large-scale service organisation as a captive audience, and we have an organisation that's capable of delivering these great capabilities to these organisations. "When you develop new products you have to be very iterative, you have to have a small set of customers to be constantly testing against so you that you eventually build a scalable product for the masses. If you look at these new capabilities, we are looking at it very much through that lens, and we have the fortunate situation where we have a very large-scale service organisation as a captive audience, and we have an organisation that's capable of delivering these great capabilities to these organisations."

Of course, the most visible return on GE's investment so far, certainly from a product perspective, would for most people in the industry be the close integration between ServiceMax's Connected Field Service suite and another of GE Digital's offerings, Asset Performance Management (APM). As we've covered previously in Field Service News, the combination of these two tools pushes us with far more certainty than ever before into the world of IoT based field service. So is this a clear indication of the direction that both GE and ServiceMax see as the future of field service delivery?

"I think what the move to predictive really does is that it puts everything on your terms," comments Yarnold. "You're planning ahead of time; you can predict who is going to go where with a high probability of success. This will, of course, increase efficiency but it is also a huge value add to the customer - you're in a position to now delight them, because the right people are showing up, they know the history, they know what is required and so on. I just think it changes the model entirely."

"Outages are needed, machinery gets worn out" adds Sharma, "the question is how can you replace these in a planned way because when it's unplanned, that's where really bad stuff happens. The notion that is important to me is about focusing on getting to almost zero-unplanned downtime. That is where I think the industry is going to head."

As Yarnold had expressed to me previously, it seems clear that there are kindred spirits and a shared DNA somewhere between the two organisations, and most certainly a shared vision for the future of field service. In terms of their influence on the wider market both ServiceMax and GE have played a role in getting us to where we are today. How far they can continue to push the field service sector forwards as one cohesive unit remains to be seen, but the early indications would suggest that they will remain at the vanguard of innovation within service delivery for the foreseeable future. As each of Kasai, Yarnold, and Sharma commented at various points across our discussion - it's all hugely exciting.

Be social and share 

Field service management software is transforming trade/ speciality contracting as more revenue comes from service contracts and maintenance...

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has released a primary research study revealing that legacy software solutions used by speciality and trade contractors could prevent them from profitably delivering aftermarket services to their customers.

These contractors are finding aftermarket service an important source of revenue growth as project owners wish to outsource asset maintenance to the companies that constructed, fabricated or installed the asset on their behalf.

The survey of 200 HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), plumbing, electrical, building automation, low voltage electrical, signage, overhead door and other speciality contractors paints a picture of an industry in the grips of a digital transformation.

85 percent of study respondents said they have maintenance contracts with customer-specific terms, service level agreements (SLAs) and pricing, but only 14 percent said their software facilitated these contracts “very well.”

85 percent of study respondents said they have maintenance contracts with customer-specific terms, service level agreements (SLAs) and pricing, but only 14 percent said their software facilitated these contracts “very well.”Many respondent companies did not enable field technicians to improve the customer experience or drive new revenue. Only 38 percent said technicians could access information on the terms of the contract including customer-specific requirements. Only 15 percent of respondents have the technology to empower field technicians to upsell or sell new service contracts, only 25 percent could issue new estimates and 23 percent could get customer approval for an estimate.

89 percent of respondents said they use subcontractors, but just over 10 percent have adopted the current technology by giving their subcontractors a mobile app to interact with their field service management software.

Respondents reporting greater readiness for digital transformation—Digital Transformation Leaders—are nine times as likely to say their software prepares them well for the essential process of service contract administration. Only 30 percent of Digital Transformation Laggards were even offering customer-specific contracts, while Digital Transformation Leaders were more than nine times as likely to say their software prepared them very well to support these contractual obligations with specific requirements for each customer.

Our data shows that residential contractors seem to be ahead of commercial contractors when it comes to Digital Transformation.IFS Industry Director for Field Service Management Mark Brewer said, “These trade and speciality contractors are at an inflexion point with field service management software. Many of them have invested in some level of field service technology to support aftermarket service work. Often, this same software helps them manage construction crews during the initial project. But now they are at that point where they need to become more attentive to customer-specific SLAs. They need to upsell and drive more sales from each customer and improve the customer experience.”

IFS Senior Product Evangelist for Field Service Management Tom DeVroy added, “The adage is that the future is here—it is just not evenly distributed. This is true for trade contracting, where our data shows that residential contractors seem to be ahead of commercial contractors when it comes to Digital Transformation.

This is mostly the result of customer demands that have pushed them towards software that optimizes the field service schedule, enabling them to give an accurate estimated time of arrival and issue proactive customer alerting. They are further ahead on automated subcontractor management, automated parts ordering and fulfilment, and field-based, point-of-service payment processing. Contractors engaged strictly in commercial work need to catch up as their own customer expectations evolve.”

Download the entire study, Are Trade/Specialty Contractors Leveraging Field Service Software for Aftermarket Service? @ fs-ne.ws/MNNo30inF0F

Be social and share

Kris Oldland Talks exclusively to Dan Sewell, COO, Espresso Service about the impact installing a dedicated, cloud-based Field Service Management System Tesseract part of the Asolvi group has had on his engineer and dispatchers...

Find out why Evatic have rebranded to Asolvi here

be social and share

Across the last five weeks, we've been presenting you with the findings from our most recent research project, which we ran in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital. 

Our focus was to see what the field service engineer of the near future will look like and across the first three features of our analysis, our focus was on the changing face of the field service engineer as we see an ageing Baby Boomer workforce reaching retirement age being replaced by a new wave 'millennial'  field service workers.

In the first feature, we looked at the threat of the ageing workforce and the changes in training methodologies that are emerging. In part two we explored if and if and how field service companies are utilising their experienced field service engineers to train the incoming generation and in part three we asked if field service companies were reacting quickly enough to these challenges.

In part four we changed tack slightly and looked at how technology is playing a role in attracting new field service talent and in the final part of this series we look at how field service companies are utilising technology within their training methodologies and bring together some conclusions from the research project as a whole

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

Technology as a training tool:

In the previous feature, we discovered that technology appears to play an increasingly important role in attracting new field service engineers to an organisation, and our research revealed that it also plays an important role in their development and training as well.

Indeed, just under three-quarters of companies in our response group stated that they use smartphone or tablet apps as part of their training, over two thirds (69%) utilise knowledge bases and over half utilise video conferencing.

The use of video conferencing is of particular interest as 57% of companies also stated that they have programs in place for older technicians to support newer recruits and video conferencing is a highly convenient means of facilitating this.

The use of video conferencing is of particular interest as 57% of companies also stated that they have programs in place for older technicians to support newer recruits and video conferencing is a highly convenient means of facilitating this.However, it is interesting to note that only 9% of companies are currently using Augmented Reality (AR) tools as part of their training programs.

This raises the question of why companies are yet to make what on the surface seems to be a natural transition from video to AR. Given that the processes for offering remote support via video conferencing are essentially the same as for AR it would seem that many field service companies are already well positioned to take advantage of these tools.

Competition amongst AR providers is increasing which will likely drive down prices, whilst case studies and use cases are becoming more apparent - meaning the increased efficiency that AR offers over video conferencing will become more widely acknowledged.

Therefore, it would seem a likely assertion that we may soon see wider adoption of AR amongst field service organisations.

What is abundantly clear, however, is that technology is playing a crucial role in the training and development of field service engineers. In fact, only 7% of field service companies stated that they didn’t use any of the various technologies we listed in the survey as training tools.

The reason for such widespread use of technology in field service organisations training programs was also made apparent within the research. 87% of companies stated that technology was at least partially responsible for reducing the length of time necessary it takes to train a new field service engineer.

Just 10% of companies commented that for them the delivery platform of their training wasn’t an important factor.Of that 87%, well over a third of companies (37%) went on to state that incorporating the latest technology into field service engineer training can reduce the amount of time taken to onboard new field service engineers significantly, whilst just 10% of companies commented that for them the delivery platform of their training wasn’t an important factor.

Of course, with technology being ever more integrated with field service delivery it perhaps makes sense to be embracing technology throughout the onboarding process and beyond.

The good news here for field service companies recruiting new millennial talent is that in general, our respondents experienced that they found that Millennials are able to familiarise themselves with mobility tools etc far quicker than the existing Baby Boomer workforce.

In fact, over half 53% of our respondents commented that they believed this to be the case whilst just 4% disagreed and stated that their older field service engineers see the benefits of technology and adapt just as well as the younger engineers now entering the workplace.

One final point on the insights gained from this section of the research is that whilst the use of new technologies such as AR may be an important element in attracting talent and also in reducing training times, it is also can play a role in keeping that talent and reducing attrition rates.

In fact, over three-quarters of the respondents (80%) stated that for them harnessing the latest technology is a factor in keeping attrition rates low.

The Key Stats:

• 67% of field service companies believe that the technology they employ can have a positive effect on attracting talent
• 69% of field service companies use digital knowledge bases as part of their Field Service Engineer development
• 57% of field service companies use their more experienced Field Service Engineers to support younger members of the team
• 87% of field service companies stated that their technology was at least partially responsible for reducing the time it takes to train a new Field Service Engineer
• 53% of respondents felt that the incoming generation of workers would be abe to adapt to mobile tools quicker than their existing Field Service Engineers
• 80% of field service companies believe that the use of emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality will help them reduce attrition rates

The Conclusions:

Firstly, it is absolutely clear that the threat of an ageing workforce is real – yes it may not be of a critical pressing nature just yet for many organisations but the research would certainly indicate that for those companies who fail to address it, it could become so in the not too distant future.

Secondly, the difference between the incoming generation of millennial workers and the exiting baby boomers should not be underestimated.

Fortunately, it seems that the industry at large is aware of the challenge which is a good starting point - although the fact that 84% of companies who have identified the issue have yet to take any action on it is a worrying one.

The answer to both challenges is actually a fairly obvious one.

By using more experienced engineers edging closer to retirement to support those new engineers working in the field it is possible to stop tribal knowledge walking out of the door, whilst also providing training via a platform that is both attractive and familiar to a millennial.

Again, whilst this seems to be a reasonably well-accepted wisdom, those who are practising what they preach remain in the minority with just 17% actually having such a solution in place.

This really needs to change.

Our research has also revealed just how high the expectations are for field service engineers. Technical skills are viewed as-as important as ever, yet modern field service engineers are also expected to have great people skills and be expert problem solvers.Our research has also revealed just how high the expectations are for field service engineers. Technical skills are viewed as-as important as ever, yet modern field service engineers are also expected to have great people skills and be expert problem solvers.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the rise of knowledge banks has meant that when an engineer is sent out on a call he is not only expected to achieve a first-time fix but often he is trying to establish a fix that wasn’t easily resolved through an initial triage at the contact centre stage. With this in mind surely we should be doing everything possible to empower those in the field – and giving them access to the knowledge and experience of our seasoned engineers should be a fundamental part of that.

Technology has already become an integral part of both field service management and field service delivery.

Our research also confirms that it plays a highly important role in both the recruitment, training and development of Field Service Engineers.

It also absolutely offers the solution to two of the biggest challenges our sector currently face and we should absolutely be embracing tools like AR to overcome these challenges. The transition from a Boomer to the Millennial workforce is bringing with it an evolution of the field service engineer.

Such a significant shift will, of course, have problems and the technology available can certainly smooth out some of the bumps in the road Such a significant shift will, of course, have problems and the technology available can certainly smooth out some of the bumps in the road - as to will establishing new or redesigned processes.

Ensuring your organisation comes out of this transition phase (which all companies will have to go through at some point in the next few years) without major impact to your business will require an investment of time, resources and money in your field service engineers.

With this in mind, it is perhaps even more important than ever before, that field service organisations are able to retain those engineers they have invested so heavily in. It is, therefore, no surprise that the majority of field service companies understand the importance of clearly defined career progression paths.

In summary, across the various key factors of this research, we have identified that in the main the challenges and solutions field service companies are facing are understood by the majority. However, it is those companies who act on these challenges today that will be best positioned to take advantage of the sector-wide disruption we are set to face, whilst those who too long may well find themselves in a precarious position sooner than they think.

The question is which of these will your company be?

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

 

Be social and share 

Evatic Group, the leading provider of service management software for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Europe, has been rebranded "Asolvi".

It's the latest development for a company that has been at the centre of some big changes over the past couple of years, most notably the acquisitions of Tesseract in the UK and WinServ in Sweden. Asolvi is now helping 800 customers across 30 countries to attain greater flexibility, scalability and profitability in their service operations.

Pål M. Rødseth, CEO of Asolvi, explains the reasoning behind the new name: "We wanted a name indicative of the fact that we don't just supply software. We solve problems. We find solutions to our clients' service management needs. We're a partner that helps you become more efficient." He adds, smiling, "And since we're a multilingual and multinational company, we also wanted something easy to pronounce in many languages!"

We wanted a name indicative of the fact that we don't just supply software. We solve problems. We find solutions to our clients' service management needs. We're a partner that helps you become more efficient.Asolvi will continue to offer service management solutions under the Evatic, Tesseract and WinServ brand names, but felt that the time was right to distinguish between the company and its products. "Our products have been in the marketplace for a long time and have established themselves as leading brands within their respective segments," says Rødseth. "Each product has its own distinct benefits and will continue to develop under the Asolvi umbrella."

Rødseth goes on to explain how he expects Asolvi's recent growth to bring some stability to the market. "Having acquired both Tesseract and WinServ in the last 18 months, we expect to continue the much-needed consolidation of service management software players in the SMB space in Europe. Being a larger entity gives us economy of scale to meet the future demands of modern service companies."

Asolvi is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway and has offices in the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Holland and Singapore. It is a private company owned by the employees and Viking Venture. For more information, please visit www.asolvi.com.

Be social and share

For our latest research project, which we ran in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital our focus was to see what the field service engineer of the near future will look like. In the first three features of our analysis, our focus was on the changing face of the field service engineer as we see an ageing Baby Boomer workforce reaching retirement age being replaced by a new wave 'millennial'  field service workers

In the first feature, we looked at the threat of the ageing workforce and the changes in training methodologies that are emerging. In part two we explored if and if and how field service companies are utilising their experienced field service engineers to train the incoming generation and in part three we asked if field service companies were reacting quickly enough to these challenges.

Now as we change tack, we explore the role technology has to play in attracting and developing new field service engineers

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

The field service sector is changing rapidly.

Not only are technologies constantly emerging that continue to enable field service organisations to push the boundaries of service excellence, but as we saw in our last article in this research series, the shift from an ageing workforce of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age and the Millennial generation coming in to replace them heralds an unprecedented change in culture within field service companies across each sector and in every corner of the globe.

However, one thing is certain this change is happening, it is happening on a large scale and the pace of the change is increasing day by day, week by week and year by year.

Almost half (48%) of the companies we surveyed admitted that the threat an ageing workforce poses to their business is either significant or severe. Those companies who are slow to react may find themselves with a potential crisis on their hands in the not too distant future - in fact almost half (48%) of the companies we surveyed admitted that the threat an ageing workforce poses to their business is either significant or severe.

In a previous part of this research analysis, we reported that not only did most companies acknowledge the potential threat to their service operations but also that they had identified that they would need to change their recruitment and training policies to make them a more attractive proposition to Millennials.

Yet at the same time, the majority of companies had so far failed to make any real changes in how they approached these dual challenges.

Now in this second half of our analysis, we explore the potential benefits of harnessing technology as a tool to attract, retain and develop talent from the Google Native generation.

Does technology attract talent?

One of the key findings of the research that we revealed in our first article in this series was that the role of the field service engineer is evolving into one which has multiple skill requirements.

Taking this into account, attracting the best talent to an organisation is of course highly important process for any field service company – but what role does technology play in making a service organisation an attractive option for the brightest and best recruits?

We asked our respondents if they felt that those companies who are harnessing technology such as mobility tools and Field Service Management systems to empower their field service engineers are likely to be more attractive to potential new recruits.

Here we saw a real even split of opinions. We gave our respondents three options to this question which were:

• Yes – we find that our adoption of FSM technology is a key factor in recruiting future FSEs
• Yes – but currently our adoption of FSM technology is limited and this could have a negative impact on our recruitment drives.
• No – we find that there are other more important factors such as salary levels and holidays etc.

In fact, the responses were almost perfectly split across the three options.

34% of respondents stated that they felt that adoption of technology was likely to make them more attractive but they felt they current solutions were limited, whilst 33% answered with both of the other options.

The consensus then is that technology does certainly have a role to play in attracting new talent to a field service organisation, even if a sizable section of companies feel their own levels of technology are not currently sufficient to fully take advantage of this fact.

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

 

Be social and share 

With a new US patent approved for their Quantum Computing algorithm, Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower explains her vision for what the future of customer experience excellence will look like and outlines the path her organisation can offer to consumer-focused organisations as they begin rolling out a raft of new CX tools...

The last time Field Service News sat down and spoke with Marne Martin, ServicePower’s bold and ebullient CEO, for a formal interview, it was to discuss their recent acquisition by private equity firm Diversis at the beginning of this year.

At that point, Martin was keen to express the fact that it was she who had courted investment with a vision to expand upon their product suite more rapidly than they could through organic means alone and that this acquisition was not just another PE shark circling the rich pickings of the Field Service Management sector. At the time Martin commented ‘I felt that we were 75% and we were really looking for someone to get us to 100% of where we saw the opportunity in the sector not just for the current but in the future.”

I felt that we were 75% and we were really looking for someone to get us to 100% of where we saw the opportunity in the sector not just for the current but in the future.”Of course, many a CEO has said similar things in the past having just been acquired, a message of confidence is par for the course to keep the client base assured that their future is still safe in a steady pair of hands. But just how far along the path Martin outlined have ServicePower come in the last six months?

“We are completely thrilled with the progress we have made already in 2017” Martin responds when this question is put to her. “We’ve been supplementing the talent that we already have by bringing in some really great people and we will continue doing that, as it’s allowing us to constantly move forward with the development efforts and plans that we already had in place.”

One thing that has certainly seemed to materialise since the acquisition is a greater outward projection of where their core market lies. For Field Service Solution providers this can be a challenge within itself as field service straddles so many vertical industries, which whilst sharing many shared pain points and challenges, also have their own specific vertical nuances to be considered as well.

Yet whether it’s the result of some business refinement that came out of the acquisition process, or whether it is simply something they are now verbalising that little bit more, ServicePower now seem to have a very clear understanding of their target market.

“All of this [development] is around really expanding our dominance in consumer industries” Martin explained. “We sell B2B but we are enabling the consumer experience for our customers so we are essentially B2B2C primarily, ServicePower is really unique in dominating that positioning. The other field service providers are either more focused on preventative maintenance or other such aspects of the sector. We really are the only field service company that has this domination and focus in the consumer sector and that empower our customers to cultivate consumer experience as they deliver it - whether that be through different service routes or through different types of technicians.”

But how does this translate into actual developments of the solution?

“The new customer experience will incorporate a lot more of web service front end User Interfaces that we are coding with the latest programming standards,” Martin tells us.

It is really designed to give customers a better digital experience whilst also making call centres more productive and for the technicians“It is really designed to give customers a better digital experience whilst also making call centres more productive and for the technicians, the mobile tech enablement is better. We’ve done a huge amount of R&D on how integrated ecosystems deliver a much-improved customer experience but actually it is better for every stakeholder in the service continuum.”

“I firmly believe, and so do many of our customers, that the customer and the tech want the same thing - a great experience,” she continued.

“That is either an experience where things don’t break - because of processes like tailored proactive maintenance or incorporating IoT diagnostics to leverage what you know about the assets, or if they do require repair then we’re facilitating a repair experience that doesn’t necessarily require a truck roll, ideally they’re able to do some remote maintenance and fix it without coming into the client’s home.”

“However, if there does have to be a truck roll, if they do need to come to the client’s home - then they should be making sure they are coming into the home at a time that’s convenient for the customer and with the best knowledge about the asset possible - that is how you facilitate the first-time-fix. So now you are seeing the first few steps to making this all happen and soon you’ll also see some of the additional predictive types of improvements that we’re also rolling out with Smarter Field Service and the new algorithm.”

“In fact, we were recently awarded a new US patent for our quantum annealing work and you’ll definitely be seeing the further evolution of this vision as we move into 2018.”

Now, it was felt in some corners that it was ServicePower’s research work into Quantum Annealing that made them such an attractive proposition for investment in the first place. However, up until now the conversation had centred mainly around theoretical research ServicePower had undertaken.

But if this research work is set to move into the practical realm, then this could truly be a game changer for field service optimisation.

What I think will be the service experience of the future for our customers, is tying in the power of this quantum computing algorithm not just to do the traditional pipe of ‘technician-route-schedule-optimisation’ but also to think about optimisation across the different types of service.“What’s interesting to me and what I think will be the service experience of the future for our customers, is tying in the power of this quantum computing algorithm not just to do the traditional pipe of ‘technician-route-schedule-optimisation’ but also to think about optimisation across the different types of service. For example, having more flexible work queues or how you triage and route the delivery of service for a customer - all through digital enablement,” Martin explains.

“Say for example, a customer hits our new intelligent customer portal - you can send them to a process, you can use IoT diagnostic information, or upload photos or whatever type of triage type of information that you have, then depending on how you assess that you might then send them through to a work queue that is optimised and we can have a dynamic work-flow between back-office activities, call centre activities, technician experiences and triage assessment activities.”

“We’re actively thinking about how to use our quantum annealing algorithm in a more flexible way to optimise the total service experience. What I have seen is that even amongst our customers and prospects that have an IoT diagnostic group, they are not working that information into an integrated service experience.”

“They might have some techs that are trained in that or the might have an elite network that is doing it, but they are not tying it into the overall workflow and optimising a more efficient service experience.”

“Ultimately you only want to send a technician on site when you really have to and as much as possible you want to make sure that when the technician gets on-site they’re able to do what the customer really needs - which is, of course, a first-time-fix.”

This scenario is, of course, the ideal field service win-win-win. The customer is happier because they are back up and running, the engineer is happier because they have a better work-life balance and less angry customers and the board is happier because they are seeing improvements to the bottom line. Indeed, if it is achievable, we are getting close to field service nirvana.

Martin concludes: “We are also looking at how we can use the quantum computing power looking at demand forecasting, capacity planning, and parts information, focusing on consumer industries and how we deliver a great service experience. It is about so much more than just the technology – it is a whole integrated approach that looks at the digital journey with the customer, the call centre and mobile technician enablement.”

It seems that Martin and her team at ServicePower are undeniably still on the right path to deliver the future of customer experience.

Be social and share

Verizon Communications Inc. has announced the acquisition of Movildata Internacional, a Murcia, Spain-based provider of commercial fleet management solutions. Terms of the transaction, which closed on Jan. 19, 2018, have not been disclosed.

Verizon Telematics is an established leader across Europe with a strong presence in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Poland. Movildata, an established industry leader in Spain, complements Verizon Telematics’ expanding operations in southern Europe, specifically Portugal and Italy. “We see Movildata as a natural fit and highly synergistic with our European business,” said Andrés Irlando, CEO of Verizon Telematics. “This strategic acquisition strengthens Verizon Telematics’ market position, accelerates growth and allows us to expand the footprint of our market-leading solutions and services.”

With more than five million commercial vehicles, Spain represents the second largest market for commercial vehicles in Western EuropeWith more than five million commercial vehicles, Spain represents the second largest market for commercial vehicles in Western Europe according to leading industry analyst firm Berg Insight.¹ Furthermore, the market for fleet management solutions is significantly underpenetrated compared to other major markets in Europe, creating opportunities for growth.

Movildata employees have joined the Verizon Telematics team and will continue to drive sales and support for its current fleet management products. In addition, Verizon Telematics plans to add Fleetmatics’ REVEAL™ to the portfolio of software solutions available to Spanish fleet operators. Verizon Telematics provides world-class vehicle tracking and business intelligence solutions designed to help generate cost savings, improve productivity and help monitor driver safety for virtually any mobile workforce.

“We are proud of what the company has accomplished in this market, and we know that with this transaction our success will continue,” said Luis Enrique Rodrigo, CEO of Movildata. “Verizon Telematics’ expansive global reach and robust portfolio of technologies and solutions will allow us to grow the business in Spain and expand our customer service to the next level.”

1Source: Berg Insight “Fleet Management in Europe, M2M Research Series” (2017)

Be social and share