AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

For five years UK based field service software provider Oneserve have been quietly going about their way, winning significant clients yet flying under the radar. Now with a young, dynamic new CEO at the helm they are ready to stop being the industry’s best kept secret and step into the limelight...

The story of Oneserve is not that of your average field service software provider.

For a start the company actually began life as an in-house field service management tool developed for Connaught PLC - a company that focussed on repair work in the social housing sector. After an employee buy-out in 2010 Oneserve emerged as a fully fledged solution with the advantage of being unencumbered by the initial costs of R&D that many start-up software companies may have faced when entering what is both a complex and busy market.

However, perhaps more importantly they already had an intimate understanding of what good service, and the tools to enable that, looked like.

After a few quick wins on ‘home turf’ within the social housing sector, the team at Oneserve have quietly yet steadily expanded their footprint across a number of different verticals picking up some top tier customers such as Lovell, Islington Borough Council and Sky along the way.

Yet when compared to some of their competitors such as ClickSoftware, ServiceMax and IFS to name a few, it is fair to say that such success has largely remained under the radar for many in the field service industry.

However, with the appointment of a new, young and dynamic CEO Chris Proctor in February earlier this year, it seems that Oneserve are now ready to step out into the limelight alongside their more established peers and start shouting about just why it is that they feel they are ready to become a disruptive force within the sector.

Indeed, Proctor, who was promoted from Sales and Marketing Director to CEO after just eight months with the Exeter based company, has already made an significant impact in the market with a blistering attack on his peers, accusing field service software providers of ‘holding innovation hostage’ in a press release issued shortly before he took over as CEO.

 

And whilst his background as a marketeer would suggest that he is certainly savvy enough to understand the power of such an assertion in terms of getting people to sit up and pay attention to Oneserve and what they have to say, when speaking to him it is clear that this was not just a simple marketing ploy. Proctor, is a passionate guy who truly seems to get the importance of service in today’s modern world.

And in his eyes technology providers should be simply making it easier for companies to deliver the levels of service excellence that twenty first century customers both expect and demand.

“One of the key things for us was that we really felt we wanted the system to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible,” Proctor explains.

“One of our core tenets is that we are always focused on the end user – always focused on how do we make life for that client better?”

It is not only a noble sentiment but also an approach that is ultimately winning them business, although Proctor himself admits that it is now time for Oneserve to step out of the shadows and kick on, building upon their success to date.

“We’ve been working incredibly hard and diligently for the last five years but we’ve been pretty quiet about it,” he comments.

“I don’t have a quarter of a million pound marketing budget, I can’t attend all the shows we don’t get involved in a lot of that stuff and as a result we’ve kind of kept under the radar of a lot of people. I know it was a surprise not so long ago when we won the Islington contract with a lot of people saying who are these guys?”

“Today we are powering about three and a half million working hours, I’ve lost count of how many engineers, we are working across multiple sectors and now we are being pragmatic in that we are now starting to talk a lot more about what we do.”

 

In fact there are two key facets to the Oneserve approach that appear to resonate with the needs of field service companies today.

Firstly it is a model based on licences rather than professional services which will appeal to those more cost conscious Finance Directors (are there any other kind?). And it is also a fully deployable self service product which will be of interest to both Operations folks and IT alike as it means more control of things like reporting and configurations, without having to go back to the vendor every-time a change is necessary.

This is a big plus in Proctor’s eyes and he uses a neat metaphor to explain his thinking.

“If you buy a car and you drive off the forecourt you turn left – why should you have to call an engineer out to configure your car to be able to turn left, and then right and then left again?”

“Whilst that may make your journey really efficient, it makes it very efficient for a snapshot in time but if you need to diversify, if you need to take a detour or a change in direction you have to go through the same process again.”

“Our principal is exactly the opposite in that if we give you the car, really the emphasis should be on the strength of the car, the strength of the support, the strength of the training and really the overall proposition to allow you get in and drive.”

Given their background as an in-house field service solution which previously had a 360 degree role for enabling service delivery at Connaught, is it a fair assumption to say that the understanding of good service delivery remains closely entwined in the DNA of both the Oneserve product and indeed the team itself?

“Absolutely,” Proctor concurs. “For me it’s really simple. The vast majority of service calls start with a negative. For example ‘my boiler has just blown up’ or this has gone wrong or that has gone wrong. Yes there are other more planned things but by and large it always focuses on a negative,” he explains.

“And we’ve all been on the end of those experiences, those times we’ve waited for an engineer that doesn’t turn up or turns up late, but we’ve also all had those really good experiences.

 

Where they’ve told you they are going to be with you around this time and then an hour or so before they are due they call you and tell you actually I’m going to be with you at exactly this time.”

“Where the engineer has come in, they’ve be really nice, they’ve been really efficient and professional, they’ve had all the tools they’ve needed, they’ve fixed the problem and they’ve been on their way really quickly. And the difference between those two experiences is palpable.”

“It’s the same in the logistics world. We all groan into our hands when we see our parcel is being delivered by Yodel instead of DHL -it’s that differentiation in service,” He adds

“We want to turn the paradigm on its head, we want to turn every negative into a positive. We can’t control the negatives, things will always go wrong and things will always break. But if we can enhance the interactions we can control, if we can make those better, we can improve the end experience and it comes back up the chain and makes everything work much more effectively.”

“And that really is our prevailing thought, that is what we are striving for.”

And whilst empowering their clients through a self-service based product is core to the ethos at Oneserve, Proctor also outlines how closely they continue to work with their clients in order to make sure that those tools they are providing allow companies to ensure they can deliver a positive service experience.

“It remains something very important to us so we do spend time with our clients, we do spend time with them understanding how they are using the system,” he comments.

 

“In the same way we do that digitally in terms of heat mapping and workshops and understanding really what that UX means to the end user - that is very key to us. Understanding how we can make those interactions more effective, more streamlined and more engaging is very important,” he concludes.

It is this commitment to understanding exactly how their clients are using their system that will keep Oneserve close to their roots as part of a service orientated organisation themselves, which in turn allows them to develop their product in line with the needs of their customers.

Hopefully this outlook won’t change as the company continues to grow, but one change that seems inevitable is Oneserve will not be a best kept secret for too much longer.

 

---

 

Be social and share this interview

 

---

 

mplsystems, providers of contact centre and field service technologies, have recently announced their inclusion in Gartner’s 04 May 2016 “Magic Quadrant” - for the CRM Customer Engagement Centre.

This positioning follows their inclusion as a Visionary in Gartner’s 15 October 2015 Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) Western Europe, making them one of two vendors to appear in both Magic Quadrants.

This is the second consecutive year that mplsystems have been recognised in the Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center by Vice President and Gartner Analyst, Michael Maoz and Research Director Brian Manusama.

As stated in the report, “This Magic Quadrant examines the global market for customer service and support applications designed to engage customers through whichever channel they are using when they require assistance.”

"We are extremely honoured to be included in Gartner’s CRM Customer Engagement Center Magic Quadrant 2016; we believe it is a reflection of our pioneering technology, which allows agents to deliver an exceptional experience, regardless of whether the customer contacts the company via phone, social media, website or mobile device.” comments Paul White, CEO of mplsystems.

“We feel our inclusion in both of these reports provides validation of our unique capability to create true Omni Channel solutions - bringing together CRM and multimedia, alongside automation and complex business process management.”

 

Gartner evaluated a number of vendors for the 2016 report, performing more than 150 online surveys and 50 telephone interviews with vendor references, as well as conducting over 1000 inquiries with Gartner clients, further evaluating the products.

The report states that; “at the heart of a CEC is a case management and problem resolution system. It requires a strong ability to create, split, federate, join, assign and escalate cases, if it is not to be of merely marginal benefit to a CRM initiative.

The functionalities evaluated in this Magic Quadrant include those for knowledge-enabled service resolution, social media/community management and offer management. Also evaluated, are interaction assistance tools and service analytics dashboards.” Gartner also reflected that, “to support customers, some interactions will remain human-assisted, while far more will be automated and some will require customer self-service through search tools or social media channels.”

mplsystems’ vision is to transform consumer experience and agent efficiency in the service center, by bringing together all multimedia communications with contextual customer data in a single unified agent desktop.

The software guides agents through complex business processes whilst removing the need to hand actions off to the back office for processing.

Alongside this, their innovative self-service module filters out simple interactions for automation as it seamlessly routes the remaining transactions for agent assistance. What makes mplsystems really unique is their ability to offer not only these customer service solutions, but also cloud contact centre and field service technology as part of a truly end-to-end Omni-Channel solution.

About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

This video takes a look at who Exel Computer Systems are and who they can help you improve your field service operations...

 

---

 

Be social and share this video

One of the most exciting developments in technology currently emerging the field service sector is the potential of Augmented Reality and at the vanguard driving the technology forward is US based company Help Lightning, with their own take on the tech ‘Mobile Merged Reality’. Kris Oldland spoke to founder Bart Guthrie to find out more about the origins of the technology and just how big it could potentially become...

Help Lightning has been a technology that has been causing conversations for some time now amongst field service organisations in the USA, fuelled primarily by a number of appearances by their charismatic founder Dr. Bart Guthrie on the US conference circuit alongside some slick booth demonstrations.

But what exactly is a neurosurgeon doing disrupting the field service technology space? I caught up with Guthrie at Field Service Medical in San Diego to find out more about the background on how Help Lightning was born.

 

“Early on when I started practicing, even during my training I it became apparent to me that there were opportunities for both technology and certain relationships to improve processes that could sustain or improve health.” Guthrie begins

“The earliest thing I became involved in was image-guided surgery. That is where you take a CT or CAT scan and you use the device to register to the patient’s head in surgery and then as you do the surgery you can see what you are doing on the MRI cast.”

“So I think what that did for me was to open my eyes to the capability of technology to bring information to bear and then after that I became pretty heavily involved in medical image distribution. In my field medical imaging is our currency. It is information dense and we will use it to make most of our decisions to get outcomes in terms of certain things that we do so we developed a system to acquire and manage medical imaging and formed a company around that which did very well.”

“Then right about that time when visualisation in the operating room was becoming usable – endoscopes, microscopes, video cameras and then this notion of connectivity... It’s one thing to have an operating microscope that is high res. but if you can’t connect it to anything you’re only as good as you.”

“So that started coming around I began thinking would it be possible to use connectivity to export information, whether that be medical information or guidance and movement.”

 

“We approached the Department of Energy about a call for technology development they issued around surgical robots and we got funding for around $1M for a pilot scheme. Needless to say the funds were completely insufficient but surgical robots are remarkable.”

“They are in the field, they work and they do what they are supposed to do which is take your movements, then gear it down and they’ll effectively make the same movement. They are going to be tremendously valuable.”

“For us though there were some limitations to the robot. One you can’t teach it very well, there is a time delay, there were all these technical issues that separate you from what is going on. And the other thing in my job is that I am constantly getting requests about remote calls with patients that have a problem. And those patients end up in healthcare systems that have the skills but not the experience.”

We have been speaking for barely a few minutes yet it is clear that Guthrie has a clear passion for technology and its ability to enhance the world we live in. As you would expect, he has the gentle tones of a experienced medical consultant, enhanced further by his soft Alabama accent.

However, he also clearly has a mind built for problem solving and out of the box thinking and it is this skill that led him to the concept of what was to become Help Lightning, the development of which was a direct response to a major problem Guthrie saw in his day to day working life.

Namely getting expertise where it is needed in an emergency situation.

As Guthrie explains “Any of the surgeons in a small hospital where someone has been in an automobile accident for example will know how to make an incision, how to sow, how to support a patient. But any surgeon may not know how to do that in the brain, or in the heart etc."

“Yet the movements and the principals are very similar, you just need the experience. So we started thinking about the idea of somehow capturing the experience of someone who has that skill set and transmitting it real time to a local task-force.”

“We came up with this idea of bi-directional video and if we could capture the remote task field view, look at it, insert instruments, hands, whatever, interact with it and then combine the two and distribute it back that may solve the problem.”

 

“It would allow us to impart a little bit more expertise remotely. It wouldn’t solve everything but it would be advancement over what we could do for example over a telephone, which is the standard conveyor of medical information remotely right now.”

And so Help Lightning was born (albeit originally under a different moniker of VIPAR) and with the support of his mechanical engineering and computer science departments at UAB the concept soon became a reality with pilots in operating rooms in both UAB and the Veterans Hospital.

In its initial configuration VIPAR (an acronym of Virtual Interactive Presence and Augmented Reality) was a high-end manifestation that worked superbly but simply wasn’t scalable.

So after the patents were written Guthrie took the concept and founded Help Lightning and sought to develop a lighter-weight version of the concept.

Modestly he states: “I procured enough funding to get it going and I sort of stepped back out of the way and hired a bunch of just excellent people to get it going and they’ve reduced the concept to a similar functionality on just a mobile device.”

What is certain however, is that the team Guthrie has put in place, headed up by CEO Drew Deaton, have done a quite remarkable job of scaling the technology down to an app - which of course makes the business incredibly scalable itself.

“It achieves a couple of things,” Guthrie explains when discussing the move to an app based approach.

 

“It gets this team out of the hardware business and it makes it available ubiquitously.”

So with the team and technology in place the challenge now is identifying the markets that Help lightning is best suited for. Given the origins of the product clinical care is of course one of those, and Guthrie is directly involved with the pilot program.

“That presentation I gave here where I presented those pilots was the very first step in trying to understand will the patients accept it? Will the providers accept is it? Will we find things at the physical visit that we didn’t find at the virtual visit. Or vice versa – is it safe or is it unsafe?”

Of course these same questions will apply to the initial projects within the field service space as well.

However, the potential for cost savings of using a tool such a Help Lightning could be truly remarkable. Particularly for those companies whose engineers have to travel long distances.

Indeed Help Lightning or other similar tools could have a huge impact on the way companies structure their field services workforce.

With the ability to dial experience in from a remote location to provide the key knowledge and expertise required for a complicated maintenance or repair job, it could make sense for companies to have their most experienced engineers in one office centrally and utilise cheaper, local technicians when it comes to remote locations?

 

Or simply it could be a tool to improve engineers work life-balance, whilst reducing the costs of travel and accommodation.

Another alternative could be to implement a new tier of service offering based around remote assistance whereby the engineer guides the customer themselves through maintenance?

Certainly the applications in field service are wide reaching.

“The way I see it is its all about the relationship you have,” Guthrie explains.

“If you just take two people as a construct and their relationship is remote and some kind of expertise or procedural expertise has to be conveyed from one to the other it’s a natural fit.”

“So any market where there is an existing relationship that is benefited by the transmission of expertise to a remote site in a manner that facilitates the relationship, that engages both people, I think is a natural market.”

“I feel patient care is a natural fit, field service is a natural fit. I think maybe the space shuttle even, wherever there is that kind of dynamic in the relationship, I think this concept could fit.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Field service in the medical industry is complex and challenging. Having recently attended the two key events -  Field Service Medical and Field Service Medical Europe - we look at some of the key challenges service directors working in this vertical face...

It is an often quoted maxim that when it comes to field service highly disparate companies from completely separate verticals can face many of the same pain points. Within the niche of the medical industry these challenges remain but there are also additional hurdles that can make service delivery even harder.

Fortunately for those working within medical field service, global conference producers WBR sit right at the heart of the industry hosting two key events, one each side of the Atlantic to help foster knowledge sharing within the community.

The first of these Field Service Medical was held in San Diego in February and in the Californian sunshine the debate was lively with a highly senior audience coming together and putting commercial rivalries aside to address some of the key challenges within the sector.

Of course as with the wider field service sector, technology has a huge role to play in enhancing the levels of service companies can provide, yet a number of additional challenges such as tighter regulation, greater security fears and fragmented purchasing structures can make the implementation of technology just that little bit harder within the medical sector.

 

Thus a number of conversations centred around integration, with FieldOne’s Ted Steffner’s presentation on the topic ‘Integrate, Don’t isolate’ being a particular highlight for a number of delegates.

Another specific focus of the medical sector is that the sale of consumables within the industry is perhaps disproportionally higher here than in other verticals such as manufacturing. Largely driven by the clean room environment, this leads to an even greater pressure to ensure good inventory management and as well as a number of presentations around this topic, Stacey Blakely, Service Sales Director, Hill-Rom led an excellent interactive round table that provided plenty of food for thought and helped drive the conversation.

Indeed, the sale of consumables is viewed very much as a key part of service revenue still within the medical sector and in some respects the thought processes of many within the vertical is still focused on the traditional break-fix approach to field service.

This was apparent when Professor Tim Baines, Aston University, gave a presentation on the topic of Servitization at Field Service Medical Europe in Berlin a month later.

 

Whilst in many other verticals the topic of servitization and phrases such as through-life-cycle service, advanced services and outcome based solutions are becoming familiar concepts, for many within the medical industry it remains a new concept which faces the dual barriers of both a relenting and strong traditional approach to revenue through consumables, as well as the additional challenges of fully implementing IoT solutions due to the aforementioned fears around security fuelled by the need to protect patient data.

However, whilst in some areas the medical industry maybe a touch behind the broader field service sector, it is also home to some truly innovative thinkers and service leaders.

One such person is Alec Pinto, Associate Director of Qiagen who gave a fantastic presentation on maximising utilisation. Pinto and his colleagues have done some exceptional work on developing mathematical modelling to truly define their available resources in terms of man hours, and then redistributing their workforce accordingly to improve customer satisfaction levels, efficiency levels and engineer engagement.

In summary, the field service industry within the medical sector has a number of unique challenges that are perhaps not felt within other verticals yet the market still continues to see innovation and development on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

“There is an overall theme of companies being more proactive and less reactive across the sector at the moment,” commented Greg Ashton, Conference Producer for WBR at the end of Field Service Medical Europe.

“People have been thinking about it for a long time but now the technology is at a place now where there is a fusion of people and technology all arriving together at a critical point.”

“It’s really the solution providers that are driving it forward, the solutions themselves have improved a lot over the last year,” he added.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

FieldAware, a leader in mobile, cloud-based field service automation solutions, has announced the availability of its Spring product release, the latest software release for its mobile field service management solution.

This release includes integration to leading accounting software packages and moves the solution forward globally with its availability in French language localisation.

“We continue to focus our software releases on bringing additional value to our customers and adding market-driven features and functionality,” said Andy Murphy, director of product development at FieldAware.  “Today we are announcing our latest accounting integrations to further strengthen our integration portfolio.  This means businesses with established technologies already in place can seamlessly add FieldAware to their current infrastructure with minimal risk and accelerated benefit. In addition, we have quickly reacted to increased international demand by leveraging our agile software to release our first in a series of language localizations.

The integration of FieldAware’s mobile solution with the Sage, Xero and Quickbooks Online and Desktop platforms enables customers to streamline invoicing.

When a work order is complete, and a job is closed-out on a field worker’s mobile device, an invoice can be automatically generated in the back office.  The invoice includes all costs related to the work order, such as the cost of service and any parts/inventory consumed, and can be sent to the customer immediately.

 

The result should be an improvement in days sales outstanding (DSO) metrics by getting the job billed immediately; and less leakage because nothing falls through the cracks, every part is accounted for and every job is billed, by connecting the job in the field directly with accounting.  Integration of FieldAware with a customer’s accounting system also means that new companies, contacts and parts can be created in either system and automatically synced to both platforms.

“Integration with best-in-class technology platforms will continue to be a priority for us,” said Lynn Jones, VP, Marketing at FieldAware. “Integrations like these accounting packages, and our NetSuite and Salesforce.com integrations, help our customers drive their businesses strategically and extend the value of their incumbent systems.”

French is the first language to be released as part of FieldAware’s language localisation and international expansion strategy. Available on both the FieldAware web-based app and mobile app, it allows French-speaking businesses to immediately take advantage of the mobile-first field service offering provided by FieldAware. Additional languages will be added with each new quarterly feature release.

FieldAware’s made for mobile solutions provide field personnel with mobile tools that increase their productivity, generate more revenue and turn customers into brand advocates. Its Web-based back office functions are built on a flexible, cloud-based architecture with unlimited configurable fields that can accommodate virtually any business process.

FieldAware’s solution is integrated with the leading CRM, ERP and accounting systems and easily integrates with a business’s custom back office applications.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Masternaut, a leading provider of fleet telematics and vehicle tracking services, has launched a maintenance module for Masternaut Connect, giving fleet managers the ability to adopt a proactive approach to vehicle maintenance.

Masternaut Maintenance is based on Masternaut’s patented non-intrusive CANbus technology to collect vehicle data. This provides automatic and real-time information on servicing and vehicle faults on cars and commercial vehicles. It can save time and improve operations for fleet managers by helping to proactively plan fleet maintenance operations, and gives an instant overview of a fleet’s condition, improving vehicle availability.

 

We wanted to offer a maintenance tool kit that gives an immediate overview of fleet compliance, with quick access to information and something that can help them save time and money through efficiency gains"        -Steve Towe, Masternaut

 

The Masternaut Maintenance dashboard provides users with a top down look of their fleet, highlighting the percentage of vehicles that are fully operational, the number of vehicles that need servicing now or in future, and the number of vehicles with faults. This enables fleet managers to reduce vehicle turnover and improve vehicle lifetime, with improved maintenance also helping to reduce fuel consumption.

This information helps fleet managers to keep vehicles and employees safe and ensures a high level of fleet compliance. Masternaut Maintenance keeps a complete record of service and fault history for each vehicle which can reduce breakdowns and improve safety on the road.

Steve Towe, Chief Commercial Office and UK Managing Director, Masternaut, commented “Masternaut Maintenance has been launched with our customers and partners in mind, and provides a deeper level of diagnostic solutions than available on the market today, which only identify engine and transmission related failures. We wanted to offer a maintenance tool kit that gives an immediate overview of fleet compliance, with quick access to information and something that can help them save time and money through efficiency gains. This will help fleet managers become more proactive when it comes to fleet maintenance operations, offering improved planning and vehicle turnaround time.”

Alex Rothwell, Chief Technology Officer, Masternaut adds: “Our patented non-intrusive technology combined with Masternaut Connect is already providing our fleet customers and partners with the in latest telematics innovations, such as improved driver behaviour and fuel reduction. Masternaut Maintenance takes or our offering one step ahead to help strengthen and improve the services that we offer to European fleets, by  giving instant information on vehicle faults and servicing status."

 

---

Be social and share this story

The way products are serviced is reshaping their design at the R&D level, and providing new insights into product usage, according to field service management specialist, ServiceMax. Service mechanisms are increasingly seen as the common denominator of accurate product development and maintenance.

The Internet of Things and intelligent field service automation is creating a connected service loop built into products, enabling manufacturers to track, pre-empt service requirements, understand usage and ultimately improve the way customers are using products.

“Before IoT, R&D teams relied mainly on interpretation and anecdotal input from field service engineers to get a full understanding of how products were faring out in the field,” said Mark Homer is Vice President, Global Customer Transformation for field service management specialist, ServiceMax. “But faced with competition and diminishing returns, manufacturers are using IoT and connected field service to make products more specific to consumer requirements.”

 

With IoT enabled field service automation, companies can collect data automatically from machines and devices to determine their condition, performance, potential for error or malfunction, foresee problems, identify troublesome parts, and equip field service techs with the right tools and materials.

Companies can also gain new levels of insight into how their products are actually used post purchase and aggregate the data for better design, maintenance and user experience, redefining the relationship between businesses and customers. The result is minimum product downtime, maximum customer satisfaction and greater insight into how consumers are using products.

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

In our latest research project we’ve teamed up with rugged tablet manufacturer Xplore Technologies to find out what are the tools field service companies are investing in to ensure that they are giving their field service engineers every chance to ensure they are delivering service excellence.

In part one of this series we looked at the merging lines between rugged and consumer manufacturers and the rising trend for field service engineers to use more than one digital device when out in the field.

In part two we looked at the choices being made when selecting either rugged or consumer devices as well as the importance of Operating Systems in device selection. 

Now in this the concluding part of this series we explore the need and desire for connectivity options in the devices being allocated to field service engineers.

 

---

 

There is also an exclusive research report available for download that contains even further insight and analysis of these research findings. Download your copy of the findings here

 

---

 

Connectivity and Data Capture

A key factor in what was driving the decisions around which devices field service companies were selecting for their field engineers was the various options for both connectivity and data capture.

Perhaps it is no surprise given the growing importance of Cloud computing and the prevalence of connected devices that in terms of connectivity, the most desired technology within a device was Wi-Fi capabilities which was cited by 87% of companies as being a key technology that was ideally required in a device deemed to be suitable for field engineers.

Similarly the inclusion of 4G mobile internet was also stated as ideally needed in a field service device by over two thirds (69%) of our respondents.

Perhaps an indication of how much we have moved already to a wireless world is how these figures stack up against the desire to have a wired Ethernet connection which was cited as being ideal by just under a quarter (24%) of companies.

 

Additional evidence to support this desire to move towards wire-free technology is also indicated in the fact that Bluetooth was desired by almost three quarters (73%) of companies as well. This is significantly higher than older, wired methods of connectivity such as RS232 which just over a fifth (21%) of companies desired or even USB which just half (47%) of companies stated they felt was an ideal inclusion.

However, when we look at data input requirements it is the well established, tried and tested technologies that remained the most sought after.

The ability for a device to capture photographic or video data remains the most important means of data input for most field service companies with well over three quarters (79%) stating that they would ideally expect this in a device.

Second to video/photo capture was the inclusion of a barcode scanner, which was desired by almost two thirds (65%) of our respondents.

 

What is interesting is that amongst those companies who opted for consumer devices (which of course are unlikely to have such features embedded within them) the desire to have barcode reading capability actually increased slightly to 71% of respondents.

Again, this perhaps indicates that whilst a number of companies are lured in simply by the initial lower cost per unit of consumer devices perhaps there are wider considerations such as how fit for purpose a device is, that should be considered alongside the initial cost.

In terms of manual data input, it is interesting to note that although laptops remain the most popular device for field engineers overall, the assumption that this is based on the requirements of a physical keyboard is proven to be somewhat flawed by our findings.

Indeed, there were almost three times as many companies who stated that they felt an on-screen keyboard was desired rather than those who stated they felt a physical keyboard was ideal.

In fact over two fifths of companies (42%) backed an on-screen keyboard whilst just 15% identified physical keyboards as their preference.

 

Another indication of the changing nature of how we interact with our hardware is also highlighted that handwriting recognition software was also desired by two times as many companies (32%) than a physical keyboard.

Perhaps one of the most curious findings of the research is that yet again we see NFC/RFID overlooked by field service industries as the technology - which could have such an effective impact within a number of elements of a field service engineers workflow, from checking the service history of an asset in the field being repaired through to ensuring accurate parts inventory, was only cited by 13% as being required in an ideal field service device.

Similarly, voice recognition software, which in an industry where the ability to work hands free is a major factor, one would think would be a significant tool for data input in any given field service focused device, was also relatively shunned with just over a tenth (11%) of companies stating they saw this as being an ideal inclusion within a field service device.

The benefits of mobile computing

Finally, one area where it would seem there is certainly a growing consensus is in the way field service engineers appreciate working on a mobile device.

We asked our respondents: “Do you think your field workers have appreciated a move to using a mobile device?” And the response was overwhelmingly positive. In fact over two thirds (69%) stating their field service engineers had provided mostly positive responses and 35% going further and stating their engineers had ‘absolutely taken to going mobile’.

When we look at the reasons why we’ve seen such wide acceptance of mobile technology amongst field service engineers the single most commonly cited reason was that ‘it made their workflow easier’ which 45% of companies revealed their engineers benefited from.

 

A similar amount of companies (41%) also stated that their engineers felt that the adoption of mobile devices as part of their field service toolkit also allowed them to be more productive and to get their work done more swiftly.

So whilst their are many decisions to be made for field service companies in terms of device selection - rugged or consumer, tablet or laptop, even one or more devices, the one thing is abundantly clear for the 5% of respondents who are still using pen and paper.

A move to a digital device will inevitably be embraced by their engineers whilst delivering clear R.o.I

 

---

 

Want to know more? Download the exclusive research report for further analysis and insight from these research findings

 

---

 

Look out for the next part of this series where we look at the importance of connectivity in device selection...

 

---

 

By downloding the report you are consenting to the T&Cs listed here

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature