AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

IFS announced yesterday the launch of IFS IoT Business Connector, a new product that is designed to shorten the time from ideas to tangible benefits for customers’ IoT initiatives by providing an end-to-end architecture and the ability to turn IoT discoveries into actions.

The product which was first announced yesterday during CEO Alastair Sorbie's  keynote and demonstrated this morning by Dan Matthews, CTO IFS at the IFS World Conference 2016 currently running in Gothenburg, Sweden.

IFS IoT Business Connector has been designed to de-risk and accelerate IoT initiatives in areas such as predictive maintenance, service management, asset management, and manufacturing. It provides the ability to harness data gathered from products, assets and equipment to identify actionable observations that trigger user-defined, automated or semi-automated workflows in the IFS enterprise software. IFS IoT Business Connector provides plug-and-play connectivity with the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite for device communications and data analytics, alongside open APIs to connect other IoT platforms or specialized IoT discovery applications.

IFS IoT Business Connector bridges the gap between analysis of IoT data and using the output from such analyses to execute maintenance, service, and manufacturing more efficiently. It adds the ability to turn an investment in IoT connectivity and data analytics into savings through process efficiencies, and into new revenues through service innovation.

The key components of IFS IoT Business Connector are:

• IFS IoT Controller, determining what actions to take when IoT data analysis reveals observations relevant to the business. It also handles a range of practical issues that occur when mapping operational technology (OT) into IT and business applications.
•  IFS IoT Gateway, enabling secure communications between the cloud-based discovery and analytics of IoT data, to the on-premise or cloud-based IFS products.
• IFS IoT Discovery Manager, providing additional management and monitoring capabilities when using the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite as the discovery platform.

The IFS IoT Business Connector is currently being implemented at early adopter customers Songa Offshore, an international midwater drilling contractor, ATS, a leading provider of factory maintenance and IT services based in the U.S., Anticimex, an international pest control company, and Hecla Mining, the North American precious metals mining company.

“We decided to join the early adopter program because we understood the enormous impact that IoT technology can have on our business,” ATS Automation Director of IT Christopher Lebeau said. “By connecting our field service value chain we are able to automate our processes in a new way and use the insights to make smarter business decisions.”

Anticimex CEO Jarl Dahlfors said, “The IFS IoT Business Connector allows us to take control of the data generated by our range of digital pest control devices, improving both the service to our customers as well as providing them with the information they need.”

IFS CTO Dan Matthews added, “By working with our customers and partners we are able to connect the dots so that investments in IoT not only yield piles of data and pretty charts, but result in real actions that are co-planned and executed in an optimal way together with everything else that is going on in a business. For our customers it means an easier way to get started with IoT, lower risks, and faster time to realized value.”

The IFS IoT Business Connector will be released to market in early 2017. Find out more: www.ifsworld.com/iot.

 

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In 2015 Field Service News and leading FSM software provider ServiceMax teamed up on a research project to assess the appetite for IoT as a tool for improving field service delivery.

One year on we followed up with a fresh research project into the area to see what trends have emerged and now in a four part series we bring you the findings of this latest research. In part One of this series we explored the headline findings of this year's research against the context of the previous year's results. 

In part two we dug deeper into the study to explore what additional technologies are sitting amongst companies either planning to, or actively using IoT as a tool for field service delivery as well as what the cultural impacts of implementing IoT are and whether these are being considered by organisations.

Now in the third part of this exclusive series we look at the impact of servitization as a key driver for the adoption of IoT...  

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Servitization as a key driver for IoT adoption:

Having established that companies are generally aware of the cultural impact that an IoT implementation could have within their organisation, is this also a key indicator that they are beginning to look towards IoT as an enabler that can help them move towards offering advanced services?

Amongst those field service companies that we spoke to, this does indeed seem to be the case within many organisations. Over half (55%) of companies stated that one of the key drivers for implementing an IoT element into their field service delivery structure was that it would ‘enable them to change business strategy to a servitized/outcome based solutions model.’

Yet, whilst this is an important end goal it appears that those implementing IoT are not just thinking of the long term strategic vision - there are short term benefits being targeted simultaneously.

Indeed, the most commonly cited reasons why companies were seeking to embed IoT within their field service delivery were ‘increasing efficiency of the field service division’, ‘to improve customer loyalty by improving the service levels we deliver to our customers’ and ‘reducing costs by moving towards a more preventative service model’. Each of these were cited by 87%, 75% and 73% of respondents respectively.

 

One reason why we may be seeing both short term and mid-long term drivers for the implementation of IoT is that the concept of servitization is a lot harder to comprehend than the more tangible benefits of how IoT can improve a companies bottom line by simply reducing the number of emergency truck-rolls, meaning service is delivered on a far more manageable, preventative planned maintenance (PPM) basis.

Evidence of this can also be seen when we asked our respondents of whether they felt they had to ‘sell’ the benefits of servitization into other departments. Almost two thirds (62%) of field service professionals felt that this was indeed the case.

Interestingly (although perhaps unsurprisingly) it appears that the greatest resistance towards the shift towards advanced services and servitized business models comes primarily from sales closely followed by product development.

 

Amongst those field service respondents surveyed 23% and 22% identified Sales and Product Design respectively as the business units that they felt they did not have sufficient buy-in from with regards to a move towards a servitized business model.

In contrast over two thirds of respondents felt that they did have buy-in from both operations (69%) and IT (66%) and perhaps most importantly almost two thirds (58%) of respondents also feel they have buy-in from their senior management.

Barriers to adoption of IoT as a field service tool:

Of course, whilst a significant amount of companies appear to be viewing both IoT and Servitization as attractive routes forward for service businesses in the early twenty first century, there are still those that feel that the technology isn’t right for their organisation.

So what are the key barriers holding such companies back from adopting IoT as part of their field service delivery mechanisms?

 

Amongst the various answers put forward there were four that clearly stood out as concerns greater than most. These were costs, the sheer volume of assets that would need retro-fitting, security fears and connectivity issues.

All of these were fairly evenly placed in terms of the number of respondents identifying them as potential barriers to adoption with the sheer volume of assets and connectivity issues being the joint highest cited concerns (both being at 47%), closely followed by costs (45%) and then security fears (43%). The one other potential barrier that had just over a quarter (28%) of respondents selecting it was that the ‘technology still isn’t mature enough’.

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by:  IFS
Title: Software selection for enterprise service management

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Click Here to access the white paper

 

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By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Choosing to invest in a new service management solution is one thing, selecting the right system for your organisation is an entirely different challenge...

Service is becoming a central pillar of most organisations operations and investment in the tools to improve your service delivery are well documented to deliver clear R.O.I. However, the market for service management systems is highly competitive with numerous different vendors offering a multitude of solutions.

This white paper written by IFS's Tom Bowe, one of FSN's 20 most influential people in Field Service, offers some excellent, impartial and objective advice as to how you can identify the right solution for your organisation...

Overview:

This white paper, published by IFS, discusses the following key topics:

• Common business challenges including rising competition, greater margin pressures and burgeoning communications demands
• How the right software can address these business challenges including improving vision, knowledge sharing and flexibility
• A dozen key questions to ask when selecting the right service management solution for your organisation

Common business challenges:

Rising competition:

Competition in services is rising, from both big players and small players. Consider a manufacturer providing field services to customers that have purchased their equipment. Today there are huge service players that come in saying they can service everything, as well as small, nimble service organisations with a regional focus.

So for the manufacturer, sophisticated global competitors pressure service at the top end and agile competitors with a local or regional focus pressure service at the bottom end. They’re getting squeezed, and in this they are not alone among service organisations.

Greater margin pressures

In many business sectors, markets have matured for strong product growth, threatening revenue streams and driving down margins. The challenge and opportunity here is service growth: a part of the business heretofore an afterthought has moved to the front in executive suites. The immediate need is to turn service from a cost centre into a profit centre. The window of opportunity to do this effectively will not stay open forever.

Burgeoning communication demands

The proliferation of technology has had multiple effects, all of which act to increase the need for fast and pervasive communications. We see this embodied in the ubiquitous smartphone, conditioning a generation to expect access to information 24/7/365 and answers to questions immediately at the touch of a screen or click of a mouse. This has changed the game in service delivery, where performance issues (i.e., risk) have become more pronounced with lack of responsive speed or inability to deliver as promised.

The flip side of this risk is the opportunity that comes with new technology. Consider what McKinsey reported from a survey at the decade’s outset, as emerging Web-based technologies were beginning to create the networked enterprise: “The attainment of higher operating margins ... correlated with a different set of factors: the ability to make decisions lower in the corporate hierarchy and a willingness to allow the formation of working teams comprising both in-house employees and individuals outside the organisation. These findings suggest that Web technologies can underwrite a more agile organisation where frontline staff members make local decisions and companies are better at leveraging outside resources to raise productivity and to create more valuable products and services.”

 

How the right software can address these business challenges:

The right enterprise service management software supports an organisation’s ability to meet emerging challenges and respond to constant change by providing the foundation for enterprise agility. The concept of business agility involves the development of capabilities to achieve sustained competitive advantage in an unpredictable environment. Agility is the product of three foundational blocks—vision, knowledge, and flexibility—that effectively designed and developed software facilitate across the business.

A dozen questions to ask when selecting service management software

1. DOES THE SOFTWARE PROVIDE ESSENTIAL ACCESS TO DATA—THE RIGHT DATA FOR
   THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT TIME?
2. SOFTWARE SELECTION FOR ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT
3. DOES THE SOFTWARE ALLOW FOR FUTURE GROWTH?
4. IS THE SOFTWARE APPEALING TO TODAY’S GENERATION OF WORKERS?
   [/ordered_list]

To get the full list of questions (and why these questions are important) download the white paper by clicking the link below and completing the brief for and it will be sent straight to your inbox.

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Having conducted exclusive research into the use of Cloud based Field Service Management Systems in 2015, Field Service News and ClickSoftware have once again teamed up and returned to the topic one year on to see just how their predictions based on last year's findings have borne out. 

In part one of this series we looked at exactly what those predictions last year were as well as some of the headline findings of this year's research. Now in part two we will look to see what trends have emerged year on year plus Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware offers her expert view as to what these trends mean for field service organisations...

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Year-on-year trends:

The headline finding of this year’s research is that we have indeed seen a continued shift towards more companies using the Cloud for their FSM systems. When comparing data from 2014, 2015 and 2016, we have also seen increasing year on year growth.

Indeed, the number of companies now using Cloud based FSM systems is well over a third, with 36% of our respondents stating that they are now Cloud users. This is a year on year increase of 8% in terms of companies using the Cloud for FSM systems.

Not only does this show a continuing move to the Cloud, but it is also a relatively significant increase in the year-on-year growth we saw in the previous year’s research.

In fact, the increase in companies moving to the Cloud within the last twelve months is almost three times more than it was in the previous year (9% vs. 3%).

This would certainly add weight to our conclusions last year that Cloud was gaining traction as a platform for FSM tools, and that we would see this continue to increase as companies begun to upgrade their older legacy systems. Further evidence that the shift to Cloud is happening at a faster rate is revealed when we look at how long those companies who are now using a Cloud based FSM solution have been doing so.

 

Of those companies now using Cloud based FSM solutions a third (33%) have been doing so for less than six months.This is a slight uplift compared to similar responses in 2015, which in turn were higher than the results of 2014.

Indeed, across the three years that we have conducted research into this topic we have seen an increase of 10% amongst those companies that had recently (within the last 6 months) made a move to the Cloud at the time of the relevant research project.

This would again support our previous hypothesis that the somewhat relatively slower move to Cloud computing as a platform for FSM solutions (when compared to other business operations tools such as CRM) is largely tied to companies’ timetables for moving away from their existing, legacy systems.

Given that field service is a mission critical area of operations that is gaining ever more importance (as service revenue becomes more frequently a major proportion of many organisations’ total revenue), importance of preparing and planning for a FSM system - whether it be Cloud based or on-premise, is perhaps understandable.

 

Also, when we consider that companies have traditionally regarded the shelf life of FSM software to be somewhere between three and seven years (with some companies even ‘sweating’ their software solutions well beyond the ten year mark) the implementation of new FSM systems takes time.

However, it is clear that the trend towards Cloud adoption is accelerating and on the main when companies do upgrade their FSM systems, they are more likely to opt for the Cloud as the platform for their new system.

Expert View: Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware

As we said in last year’s report, the cloud is not a new concept, in fact it’s nearly twenty years since Salesforce, a company that has only ever offered cloud-based solutions, was established.

While the field service industry has taken some time to catch up, “move to the cloud or remain on-premise” is a key topic in the field service industry today.

While field service staff have typically been managed and dispatched to customers in a fairly traditional and hierarchical manner, that’s a difficult model to maintain nowadays as demanding consumers, used to instant “uberized” service and status updates expect everything to be delivered faster, more flexibly and more responsively.

The power of cloud computing and the ubiquity of mobile devices means companies can now redesign their entire FSM process to the benefit of both the engineer and the customer, giving everyone instant information about their jobs, projects and appointments whenever, however and wherever they want it.

The findings from this survey clearly show that the Cloud is the way forwards for field service, with every single organisation that has moved to the Cloud saying they would recommend it over an on-premise solution and over two-thirds (69%) of users of on-premise FSM systems, considering the Cloud for their next upgrade.

 

When considering perceptions of the Cloud, over half (56%) now see Cloud as the future of enterprise computing, an increase of 7% in just 12 months. Organisations of all sizes see the benefit. 58% of organisations with large field teams (more than 300 field service engineers) said that Cloud is the “future of enterprise computing”, (a change of 9% from 49% in 2014/15) and 57% with smaller field teams (less than 50 engineers) agreed, compared to 40% in the previous survey.

Working with customers all over the world, ClickSoftware has found the Cloud to be a great leveller, enabling every organisation, no matter what size, location or business model to rapidly adopt and improve upon the same applications and processes that drive enhanced customer service for everyone.

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Nearly two-third (60 per cent) of van drivers believe they are made a scapegoat for perceived poor driving standards on UK roads, new research has revealed.

According to a study¹ by TomTom Telematics, fewer than one in ten van drivers (nine per cent) have been involved in a road traffic collision in the last 12 months.

In addition, more than half (54 per cent) have their driving performance monitored by their employer and more than a third (34 per cent) receive driver training.

The findings challenge the views of British motorists revealed in a study earlier this year, in which van drivers finished bottom of the list when it came to which road users are considered the safest or most careful.

“The traditional ‘white van man’ stereotype may no longer be a fair one with a great deal having been achieved over recent years to help raise driving standards among LCV operators,” said Jeremy Gould, VP Sales Europe, TomTom Telematics.

“Developments in telematics technology, such as our advanced WEBFLEET fleet management solution, have enabled drivers and managers to work more closely, empowering them with actionable insights and performance feedback for continuous driving improvement.”

 

Gould’s view is supported by Freight Transport Association (FTA) Head of Vans, Mark Cartwright, who added: “Van drivers are often unfairly maligned and, in some quarters, continue to shoulder an undeserved reputation. Initiatives such as the FTA Van Excellence scheme have been embraced by the industry, demonstrating its commitment to improving standards and increasing best practice awareness.”

According to the research, truck drivers were considered the safest road users², with a third of van drivers (33 per cent) voting them top. Thirty-three per cent meanwhile considered cyclists to be the least safe³.

More than half (59 per cent) believed in-cab technology solutions that provide audible and visual alerts offer the best approach to improving driving standards, followed closely by 49 per cent that voted for driver training courses.

 

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¹ The research was conducted by TomTom Telematics among 100 LCV drivers. In order to qualify for the research, respondents had to be mobile workers operating as part of a company van fleet.

Driver tables

²Road users that van drivers consider the safest (selected from the following finite list):

1. Truck drivers 33%
2. Van drivers 26%
3. Motorcyclists 18%
4. Car drivers 13%
5. Bus and coach drivers 7%
6. Cyclists 3%

³Road users that van drivers consider the least safe (selected from the following finite list):

1. Cyclists 33%
2. Motorcyclists 21%
3. Car drivers 20%
4. Truck drivers 13%
5. Bus and coach drivers 12%
6. Van drivers 1%

 

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In 2015 Field Service News and leading FSM software provider ServiceMax teamed up on a research project to assess the appetite for IoT as a tool for improving field service delivery.

One year on we followed up with a fresh research project into the area to see what trends have emerged and now in a four part series we bring you the findings of this latest research. In part One of this series we explored the headline findings of this year's research against the context of the previous year's results. 

Now in part two we dig deeper into the study to explore what additional technologies are sitting amongst companies either planning to, or actively using IoT as a tool for field service delivery as well as what the cultural impacts of implementing IoT are and whether these are being considered by organisations... 

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Other technologies being employed:

However, deciding to implement an IoT strategy is one thing, but the process is of course far more complicated than just flipping a few switches.

In fact, in the last issue of Field Service News we ran an article which highlighted the fact that there is a clear need for an underlying technology set to be in place before field service organisations can realistically take advantage of IoT - regardless of their appetite.

So just how ready are field service companies, in terms of their technological maturity, to implement an IoT solution as part of their field service operations?

 

Well based on our respondent set it would seem that many organisations are indeed in prime position to take advantage of IoT.

We asked our respondents ‘does your company already utilise any of the following technologies in managing your field engineers?’ Providing them with a comprehensive list of the regular tools being used in field service operations.

Here we saw that on the main most companies had what we would consider a baseline of field service management technologies with 58% having an actual FSM system, 30% having a dedicated dynamic scheduling engine, and 29% using telematics systems.

It was also interesting to see a relatively large number of companies using more emerging tools such as knowledge bases and engineer to engineer communications tools, with 31% and 36% of field service companies using these respectively. On the other hand, Wearables and Augmented Reality appear to be technologies that sit very much in the realm of hype over substance at present, with just 6% and 1% of companies using such tools respectively.

Another point of note was that almost half of companies (49%) are using Cloud based systems. One could build a strong argument that one key reason for what seems like a rapid adoption of IoT is that the path has been paved by the Cloud - with initial fears around Cloud based security slowly diminishing, so are the perceptions around similar security based fears with IoT.

The one technology that has been most widely embraced by field service companies is of course mobile solutions, which over three quarters (77%) of field service companies are now using to manage their field workforce.

Indeed, the impact of mobile solutions in field service has been truly transformative, with those companies who have yet to make a switch to mobile widely acknowledged to be at a significant disadvantage commercially.

But will IoT have a similar impact on field service as the mobile revolution?

We asked our respondents ‘do you believe you have witnessed similar disruption to field service driven by technology as that which we are seeing currently by solutions such as IoT, Cloud and Big Data?’

 

Whilst 15% stated that the ‘changes we are seeing emerge are unparalleled’ at the moment 35% still feel that the impact of mobility i.e. ‘the shift from manual processes to a digital workflow had a greater impact’. However, for many it is simply too early to make the call with just shy of half (49%) of respondents stating that it is ‘too early to tell just how big the change will be.’

The cultural impact of IoT:

As mentioned previously, the adoption of IoT is currently heavily tied with/linked to the shift towards a more proactive approach to field service delivery. But this shift involves more than just the implementation of new technology, there are also significant cultural shifts that need to be taken into consideration.

To find out if field service organisations were taking the cultural impact of IoT into consideration we asked those who indicated that they have already implemented an IoT solution if they were prepared for it’s cultural impact, as well as those who were currently either in the planning or implementation stages if they were factoring in internal cultural changes within their change management planning.

Of those that had already implemented IoT into their field service operations in total over half of companies (58%) stated that they had planned for the impact on the culture within the organisation - although of this section almost two thirds (60%) felt that the change caused more disruption than they had anticipated.

Meanwhile, of those that are currently in the planning/implementation phase of an IoT project, over two thirds of companies haven’t made any allowance for the impact on organisational culture that such an implementation would have - with just under a fifth of these companies (19%) believing that there will be no impact at all.

At the other end of the scale, just over a tenth (12%) of companies planning/implementing an IoT project think that they have all the bases covered stating that they ‘will be fully prepared for the cultural impact IoT could have on their business’ whilst just under half of all respondents have considered the issue and pragmatically ‘expect the shift to be disruptive.’

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In this the latest edition of the Field Service podcast Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief of Field Service News talks to Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director with WBR - the conference producers that deliver some of the world's leading field service conferences including Field Service USA, Field Service Fall, Field Service Medical, Field Service Medical Europe and the forthcoming Field Service Europe.

In this podcast recorded live at Field Service Fall in Fort Lauderdale last month we discuss how field service companies are begining to embrace new technology such as IoT and Augmented Reality.

 

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Enjoyed the sample of this podcast? Download the full podcast here

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Want to know more about IoT and Servitization - join Field Service News and ServiceMax for a webinar revealing exclusive findings from our latest research into the topic - click here for more information and registration details

 

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Join Kris Oldland, Jonathan Massoud and over 150 senior field service practitioners at Field Service Europe in Amsterdam on the 28th November - Field Service News readers can access a 25% discount (up to €700 discount!) with the code FSE16FSN! Click here to register now 

 

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Strategies For Growth SM have been powering insight into the field service industry for decades, here Bill Pollock, Principal Consulting Analyst at Pollock on Service looks at the latest emerging trends he expects to see as they begin their latest benchmarking study...

 

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Help shape this important project... Take part in this research project by clicking this link 

 

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We’ve all heard the expressions, “Everything old is new again”, and “Back to the basics”. However, while these expressions may still be somewhat reflective of the global services community, we have finally begun to see an uptick in the degree of market consolidation, as well as the impact of the many mergers, acquisitions and partnerships that seem to be re-defining the competitive landscape on a virtual daily basis.

For example, just a couple or few years ago, there was no real (i.e., dedicated) presence in the global services community by companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, PTC and Salesforce (although many services organisations, mainly among the smaller-sized companies, had already started using Microsoft Dynamics and/or Salesforce to, at least, piggy-back their Field Service Management (FSM) operations onto their existing CRM, ERP or Business Management platforms).

Other vendors, such as IFS, Oracle and SAP had, years earlier, embedded some form of FSM into their general offerings, but not everyone was necessarily buying.

Of course, there was always ClickSoftware and ServiceMax generally breaking out of the pack to gain some robust market share, leaving most of the tried-and-true traditional vendors as proud purveyors of their respective Best-of-Breed FSM solutions (e.g., Astea, Metrix, ServicePower, ViryaNet, Wennsoft and many others).

However, fast forward to today: Where are all of these vendors now? PTC acquired Servigistics (including MCA Solutions), ThingWorx, Axeda Systems and other technology firms; Oracle acquired TOA Technologies; IFS acquired Metrix; and Microsoft acquired FieldOne, all major software players “buying” their way into the FSM market through a series of blockbuster deals.

 

Salesforce, which had historically either been used (and/or mis-used) in its ability to manage field service operations, decided earlier this year to build its own Field Service Lightning module – but, built primarily on ClickSoftware’s Field Service Expert platform. ClickSoftware went private (i.e., after years of speculation that it would, one day, be acquired by SAP) and has lost some of its historical luster in the marketplace (i.e., in terms of “Who are they now – really!).

Another long-time vendor, ViryaNet, was acquired by Verisae (i.e., taking its name), and Wennsoft is now known as Key2Act. In other words, the FSM competitive landscape has probably changed more in the past two years than in the dozen years before, in terms of structure, presence, influence and use. However, we would be burying our collective heads in the sand if we thought that this recent spate of market consolidation is now over – it’s not – and there are likely to be further surprises in the short term, rather than in the longer-term future.

So, … what does the future hold for the global FSM marketplace?

Much will depend on how the market itself (i.e., the current and prospective FSM solution users) believes it should evolve. That’s why Strategies For Growth℠ has launched its 2016 Field Service Management Benchmark Tracking Survey after an approximate two-year hiatus.

The times have changed; the competitive landscape has changed; and user needs and requirements, perceptions, expectations and preferences for FSM solutions have changed.

 

In fact, it may be because of the latter that many of these mergers/acquisitions were “forced” to take place. In many cases (i.e., too many cases) the existing FSM solution providers did not, or could not, evolve as quickly as the market’s needs and, as a result, either lost their traction, their “mojo”, their market preference, or any combination thereof. It is frustrating to not be able to present some of the key preliminary findings from our current (i.e., 2016) FSM Survey – but that could likely influence the responses of some of the individuals who have not yet taken the survey.

So, … here’s our suggestion: First, take the survey by clicking this link, and we guarantee that you will, at the very least, learn something more about the global services community merely by reviewing the questions and answer sets, and thinking about what your top-of-head responses should be.

Second, after taking the survey, be sure to continue to watch our Blogsite, www.PollockOnService.com, for frequent updates and posts on key survey findings; Third, watch for our various published articles in Field Service News and other Field Service-related trade publications), and any other client-sponsored White Papers and Webcasts; and, Fourth, we will be happy to e-mail you a special, not otherwise published, Executive Summary, following the close of the survey later in the late October/early November timeframe.

In any case, we’ve got you covered – with the market data and information that you can use to compare the challenges, drivers, technology adoption and strategic actions taken by your organisation compared against all others. All it takes is about 15 minutes of your time, for timeless information about your field – Field Services.

 

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One year on from our investigation into the appetite for Cloud Computing as a platform for field service management systems, ClickSoftware and Field Service News return to the topic to see how trends have evolved within the last twelve months and to find out if our prediction of a gradual shift towards Cloud ultimately becoming the norm in field service is starting to come true...

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In 2015 Field Service News partnered with leading Field Service Management (FSM) software provider ClickSoftware on a research project, which aimed to take a measure of the feelings toward Cloud computing as a platform for productivity tools amongst field service professionals.

Now one year on both parties have returned to the topic to see if the trends we identified and the developments we predicted have materialised and to build an up-to-date picture of both the adoption and appetite for Cloud computing as a platform for Field Service Management systems.

In this white paper, co-published by Field Service News and ClickSoftware, we shall review the data from our latest research, providing year-on-year comparative analysis to identify what new trends have emerged and how attitudes towards the Cloud have evolved amongst senior management within the field service industry.

Previously identified trends:

To begin let’s briefly recap the findings of last year’s research (which was the second time we had focused on the use of Cloud within a field service context as a subject for our research.)

Whilst the headline findings of that project identified that a large majority of field service companies (74%) were still using on-premise solutions, there was clear evidence that a shift to Cloud was on the horizon.

There were two key findings that supported this hypothesis.

Firstly, there was the overwhelming evidence that the Cloud was proving to be a success amongst those companies that had made the move away from traditional on-premise solutions. In fact, when we asked those respondents who had made such a move ‘would you recommend a Cloud based field service management solution over an on-premise solution?’ 100% of them replied that they would.

However, the findings were perhaps even more telling when we turned to those companies that were still using on-premise solutions.

Amongst this group of respondents, we found that over two-thirds of companies (69%) admitted they would consider moving to the Cloud when they next upgraded their FSM solution.

Such findings led us to arrive at the hypothesis that eventually we would see a widespread move to the Cloud. It was our prediction that we would potentially see a complete pendulum shift, with up to 75% of companies using Cloud based FSM solutions within the next five years.

 

Last year’s research also identified that concerns around the security of the Cloud were the biggest potential barrier to adoption. In fact, 38% of respondents that were not using a Cloud based FSM solution stated that they felt that security was the greatest issue with Cloud.

Yet that same research also highlighted that this is generally not the case - security issues were less prevalent than both connectivity and integration issues amongst companies actually using a Cloud based FSM tools.

It was our assertion last year that there was a need for greater education and understanding of the security of the Cloud, particularly at the enterprise level amongst executives within the field service sector - so that perception and reality could become more closely aligned. Once this was achieved we would likely see the shift to Cloud becoming the most widely used platform for FSM systems gaining greater momentum.

So how have the opinions of field service professionals changed across the last twelve months?

Has there been the continued trend in the number of companies making the move away from on-premise FSM software to Cloud based equivalents that we predicted we would see? Has the perception of Cloud security improved amongst Field Service Management professionals? And has the appetite for Cloud based FSM systems gained any greater momentum?

Executive Summary: Key findings:

• Over a third of companies are now using Cloud based Field Service Management (FSM) systems
• The rate of adoption of Cloud based FSM systems has increased dramatically year-on-year with almost three times as many companies moving to the Cloud in 2015/2016 than did in 2014/2015
• The move to the Cloud appears to be directly aligned to the move away from legacy systems with over two thirds of companies that are still using on-premise FSM solutions working with FSM systems that are at least three years old
• Similarly, of those using Cloud based FSM solutions, a third have made the move within the last six months - which would suggest that not only is the rate of adoption of Cloud based FSM solutions increasing, but it is doing so at a quicker pace than in previous years
• This is further supported by the fact that over two thirds of companies that are currently using Cloud based FSM solutions would consider the Cloud for the next iteration of their FSM system
• The most common key driver for companies adopting Cloud based FSM solutions is that the Cloud offers greater flexibility. However, once implemented, increased functionality is the number one benefit felt by companies using Cloud based FSM systems
• Amongst those who have implemented Cloud based FSM systems, the move has been overwhelmingly positive with 100% of these companies stating they would recommend a Cloud based FSM system over an on-premise equivalent
• Finally, fears around the security of the Cloud, which was seen to be the biggest barrier to adoption in previous research are abating. Just 6% stated that they felt they wouldn’t trust placing sensitive data in the Cloud whilst over half of respondents felt that the Cloud was the future of enterprise computing.

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Click here to download the full research report now

 

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Read the next part of this research report where we will look drill deeper into the findings of this year's research... 

 

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