AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

Welcome to the third part of this series in which Field Service News Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland takes a look at some of the key trends set to have an impact in 2016.

In part one he looked at way the business trend of servitization is set to become more commonplace this year and in part two he looked at the impact IoT and AR might have.

Now in part three Smart Glasses and Rugged Computing take centre stage…

Smart Glasses will be reinvented from novelty consumer gadget to essential industrial tools

Lets be honest, when we think of Smart Glasses, nine times out of ten we think of Google’s ultimately ill-fated Glass product, which after emerging in a blaze of PR activity eventually limped out of a public beta trial amidst growing negative publicity, and the unfortunate nickname of Glasshole being afforded to those who had paid £1,500 for the privilege of beta testing the devices.

However, whilst the consumer world clearly wasn’t quite ready for advent of smart glasses, the world of enterprise and in particular field service has been waiting in the wings, ready to adopt the technology.

Indeed the rumours being discretely leaked from Google HQ is that the next iteration of Glass will be firmly focused on the more lucrative (and sensible) market of industry and enterprise.

 

However, the Californian computing giant shouldn’t bide their time too much in releasing Glass 2.0 (although it is heavily rumoured for a 2016 launch) as they are far removed from having a monopoly on the smart glasses market.

Dedicated Smart Glass manufacturers such as Pivothead and Vuzix have already stolen a march on them within the enterprise whilst there are interesting products from the likes of Sony in the market also.

So why does field service make for such an obvious target market for Smart Glasses?

Well the argument is essentially two-fold, firstly there is the same argument that we have just explored for AR.

Namely that by delivering a ‘see-what-i-see’ communication channel, field service companies are able to utilise Smart Glasses to replace the need for sending their expert engineers half way around the world.

As with AR Smart Glasses provide an effective means of delivering expertise to a less experienced on-site engineer digitally potentially reducing costs quite significantly.

Secondly there is the fact that Smart Glasses can enable an engineer to receive updates and access information via a truly hands free platform. This is of course beneficial for any field engineer, but for those engineers working in hazardous environments such as scaffolding for example, a potentially crucial breakthrough in health and safety terms.

And whilst as mentioned a number of companies have taken advantage of Google’s closure of the initial Glass beta program in gaining both market share and brand awareness, the fact remains that when Glass2.0 finally arrives it will shift the spotlight firmly back onto the potential of Smart Glasses once more.

Rugged computing will once again become the ‘go-to’ option for field service companies...

The impact of consumerisation on enterprise technology was probably not felt more keenly than by those companies specialising in the manufacture of ruggedised computers.

In field service in particular the arrival of firstly the iPhone followed quickly by the wider adoption of the Android had huge ramifications for the sales of rugged PDAs and handhelds computers.

Seemingly overnight the devices our engineers had relied on became aesthetically at least, that much more antiquated.

 

The arrival of the iPad and other consumer grade tablets had a similar effect on the industrial laptop sector as well.

With intuitive interfaces, powerful processing power (relatively speaking) and perhaps most importantly of all a high gloss ‘sexiness’ factor consumer devices were permeating many corners of field service in recent years.

However, the tide it seems is turning back in favour of devices fit for the more demanding rigours of industry.

Firstly, there are the horror stories beginning to emerge of significant challenges evolving from the deployment of consumer devices within the workplace.

One such example being of a major UK high street retailer who had deployed Apple devices to 3,000 of their front of house staff in an attempt to mobilise the sales workforce.

Whilst an effective deployment initially, all of the good work was soon undone when Apple rolled out an update to IoS, which resulted in a core app the retailer relied upon becoming non-functional.

In the end a patch was introduced to rectify the issue, however each of the 3,000 devices needed to be flashed - not the simplest of projects to organise in a hurry logistically and an issue that would have been unlikely to occur on the more business centred Windows platform perhaps.

 

Then there is the fact that the rugged manufacturers themselves have cottoned onto the growing importance of consumerisation to their market (and indeed upon their clients buying decisions).

As a result of doing so have most major players in the space have firstly embraced the Android platform to enable those companies that wish to harness the familiarity of the OS to speed up adoption rates to do so and also secondly taken a more aesthetically pleasing approach to form factor for rugged devices.

Tablets such as the T800 by Getac or the R12 by Xplore for example are both elegant devices that could pass for a consumer unit despite maintaining high rugged specifications.

Add to this the fact that whilst Total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) remains one of the rugged manufacturers key arguments in favour of selecting a rugged device over it’s consumer counterpart, our own research revealed that of those companies that do opt for rugged devices do so for reliability reasons rather than cost, then there is a pretty compelling argument to be had with TCO becoming just a very nice bonus in the equation.

Very simply, across the whole life span of a unit deployed in the fiel, a rugged device will often cost a company less, and deliver far greater reliability in the field.

When we consider just how mission critical field service is both in terms of minimising the costs of adhering to SLAs as well as perhaps more importantly

retaining customers (studies show that it is six times more costly to win business than it is to retain it also) then for many field service companies, the option to invest in consumer technology over fit-for-purpose rugged equivalents just isn’t valid anymore.

 

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Look out for the fourth part of this feature when we turn our attention to why optimised scheduling is more important than ever, why UI is becoming increasingly important and how the connected vehicle is changing telematics…

 

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The trend of servitization, i.e. businesses moving away from transactional approach to business to an outcome based model is gain traction. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief of Field Service News talks to John Cullen whose organisation Metso has recently made the shift about why they had done so and the challenges they had faced in changing the whole ethos of the company from top to bottom.

To find out more about servitization register to attend this years Aston Spring Servitization Conference here

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An executive summary of Noventum’s new publication, co-created with the participants of Noventum’s Service Innovation Programme and the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice...

Looking at the industry trends, it appears that IoT, Industry 4.0 and product digitalisation will substantially affect competition, profitability, and the structure in many industries - as did the previous wave of Internet-enabled IT.

To be prepared and to define their strategy, companies must understand how smart, connected products impact industry and their service organisations, as well as the way companies do business. Service business is an essential part of most new business models that companies are implementing. Within the service business, it appears that Customer Business Related Services are driving the growth, while Product Related Services will shrink, if not managed very differently than today.

The major trends that appear to drive the development of advanced services are the;

1. Growing demand for Customer Business Related Services
2. Customers wanting to ‘’consume’’ technology, instead of ‘’owning’’ it
3. Increasing importance of Brands
4. Growing need for Customer Experience Design
5. Increasing globalisation
6. Implications of the Internet of Things (IoT)
7. Companies recognizing the need to capitalize on Industry 4.0; and
8. Companies requiring to develop Big Data Analytics capabilities

These industry trends are affecting the way manufacturers have to compete, it will impact their profitability, and it will change the structure in many industries.

In order to increase revenue from advanced services, companies face (amongst many) four top challenges:

1. How to manage the consistency of service delivery across regions and geographies in order to deliver a consistent customer experience, increase productivity and optimise the service delivery.
2. How to adapt sales skills, methodologies, systems, measurements and incentives to move from a product selling to a consultative sales approach and so support the sales of advanced services.
3. How to manage the development of a new services offering so that the value proposition to customers is improved and new services are brought to market faster than the competition can do it.
4. A model was developed that shows how most companies follow a similar path of evolutionary steps to reach a state in which the most valuable, fast growing and most profitable services are being sold and delivered. It is very difficult for companies to skip a step, as the capabilities of any of the previous steps are needed to be successful in the next. 

Noventum’s new book elaborates in detail on the required changes and the capabilities that a service business must develop in order to go from a reactive to a pro-active service business. As the maturity of your service organisation develops, the type of services you offer evolves.

And by differentiating yourself based on your brand, you can provide more value to your customers, while allowing for bigger margins.

The main areas to address for running a successful business are:

• Customer Journey
• Customer Value Perception
• Business model
• Company Value Management
• Service Propositions
• Marketing & Sales Model
• Delivery Model
• Knowledge Management
• Technology Management
• People Management
• Customer experience management

Generally, the participating companies felt they had a reasonable understanding about the mega-trend of manufacturing digitalisation and the service opportunities it represents, but had not yet transformed this into a sound strategy, roadmap and execution. If they had, they had actually just started.

At the end of one of Noventum’s Service Innovation Projects, titled “From a Reactive to a Proactive Service Business”, a workshop was facilitated, titled ‘Challenges and barriers of implementing advanced services’.

All participants were asked to indicate their main challenges in moving forward to a more service centric (or even customer centric) company value proposition.

Then challenges were categorised by themes. The three biggest themes were:

• Skills, in particular sales skills
• Company culture and
• Organisational buy in, in particular winning the support of the corporate executive board

Participants felt that the market and customers are (or seem to be) able to accept the service transformation. Most of the challenges to overcome are internal. Many companies have begun to make real progress, accelerating their pace of change, while slow-moving competitors fall further behind.

 

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Field service is going through a period of incredible change currently with service taking centre stage in industry, driven on by innovations in technology and strategy. However, at it’s heart field service remains and always will remain fundamentally a people industry. In keeping with this ethos Field Service News is pleased to present the second edition of the FSN20 celebrating those who are leading our industry forwards.

Put together by a committee of industry experts, the #FSN20 is based on those we believe will have a significant impact on the industry in the coming year. Some are analysts, some are vendors and some are service directors but all are pushing the industry forward.

So in no particular order, ladies and gentleman,  Field Service News proudly presents...

Bill Pollock, President and Principal, Consulting Analyst, Strategies for GrowthSM

Pollock not only has a long and distinguished career as an analyst specialising within field service, but continues to be one of the most prolific authors in the industry today.

With a resume that takes in Aberdeen, The Service Council and his current organisation Strategies for GrowthSM Pollock has provided consulting services to over 250 clients across a career spanning over 30 years which as taken him all across the globe.

These engagements have involved strategic services planning, market research/surveys, customer satisfaction measurement and tracking, competitive market analyses and business intelligence gathering, vertical market assessments, operations assessments, business process evaluation/re-engineering, and the development of strategic recommendations for improving service performance and customer satisfaction.

 

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Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director & Market Analyst Field Service, WBR

As producers of Field Service USA, Field Service Medical and Field Service Europe and their sister events, WBR are a key provider of information within the field service industry on both sides of the Atlantic. In his role as Divisional Director Massoud is directly involved with each of the events and responsible for delivering industry leading content to keep field service professionals up to date with the key trends with in the industry.

Massoud is also responsible for overseeing WBR’s research and a respected analyst within the sector.

 

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Martin Summerhayes, Head of Delivery Strategy and Service Improvement, Fujitsu.

When it comes to field service, there are very few with a record and career to match Summerhayes. Having worked his way up from service engineer to overseeing service delivery for technology giant Fujitsu, Summerhayes’ background also includes developing the service offering for Hewlett Packard which would go on to be a billion dollar revenue stream.

Summerhayes is also a well respected industry speaker as well as an integral member of the Service Community, a UK group which acts a knowledge sharing hub for field service professionals within the UK.

 

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Sumair Dutta, Customer Satisfaction Officer, The Service Council™

Sumair Dutta is the Chief Customer Officer for  The Service Council™ (TSC). In his role at TSC, Sumair is responsible for new member acquisition, member engagement, community expansion, as well as the development and expansion of TSC’s Smarter Services oriented research agenda and portfolio.

These research tools provide service executives the ability to benchmark their operations and also provide guided insight to improve service organisation performance.

Dutta also plays a key role in building out TSC’s community platform focused on becoming the single source of information and networking for service executives globally and is a prolific author on the matter of field service.

 

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Tom Bowe, Director for Enterprise Service Management, IFS

With the launch of IFS Applications 9 last year, the Swedish ERP provider became a major alternative option for enterprise level organisations and with key partnerships with the likes of Accenture and Microsoft announced they are primed to increase their market share beyond their core strength of mid-sized organisations and challenge the dominance of the likes of Oracle and SAP at the top table.

With a suite of well respected service management tools further enhanced with the roll out of Apps 9, field service remains a prime sector for IFS and in his role of Director for Enterprise Service Management, Bowe has a crucial role within both IFS and the wider industry as a whole.

 

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Professor Tim Baines, Director at The Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice 

The trend of Servitization is gaining more and more momentum each passing year and its potential impact on how companies approach field service could be absolutely massive. The increase in awareness is in no small part down to Baines and his team at the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice, part of Aston University.

A regular speaker in the global field service calender, as well as hosting the annual Aston Spring Servitization Conference which brings industry and academia together, Baines is widely regarded to being one of the most forthright authorities on the subject of Servitization.

 

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Laurent Othacéhé, CEO, CognitoiQ

Othacéhé has been dubbed the Godfather of scheduling for his work with pioneering scheduling company 360 Scheduling, who developed what was widely perceived to be the leading scheduling engine of its time.

After spending time with Swedish ERP and Service Management software provider IFS following their acquisition of 360 Othacéhé joined CognitoiQ as Sales and Marketing director, before being promoted to CEO.

Given his track record and standing in the industry Othacéhé is certainly more than just a figurehead and is a an incredibly hands on CEO with an in-depth knowledge of both products and strategies making CognitoiQ a company set to thrive under his highly focused leadership.

 

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Thomas Igou, Content Director, Copperburg

With a strong heritage in producing conferences within the manufacturing industry, Copperburg were able to build upon this base and have firmly established themselves and their events as key highlights within the European event calender for the field service industries.

Igou has played a key role in this success having headed up Copperberg’s portfolio of manufacturing events for the past 5 years, developing it from a Nordic Aftermarket event to a series of conferences across Europe within the world of Services. Events like the Aftermarket Business Platform or the Field Service Forum have become a true gathering of the most brilliant minds in the field service industry and continuously pushing the boundaries of the traditional events.

Thomas also has a keen interest in technologies and how they can positively disrupt and impact rigid business models in the industrial sector.

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Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director, Noventum Service Management

 

From small beginnings in a two-man office in Holland to a service management consultancy spanning three continents. With over 200 successful projects and a proven track record of improving growth and profitability Noventum have become a leading consultancy within the field service industry and Rustema has been a driving force in that development.

He is also co-author of key service book “Service Economics” and the 2016 publication “The Service Revolution of the Manufacturing Industry – Moving from reactive to proactive service business enabled by IoT”. Often seen giving presentations at industry events around the world and having been at the heart of evolving service thinking across the continent for many years, Rustema remains at the forefront of the sector today.

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John Harris, General Manager, Engineering, Panasonic

Panasonic remain the dominant force within rugged computing with a sizeable market-share. However, the company refuses to rest on it’s laurels and with the launch of the Toughbook 20 the technology giant has created the worlds first fully rugged detachable laptop. Combining the benefits of both tablet and laptop yet designed to meet the needs of even the most testing field environment the Toughbook 20 is a perfect fit for many field service companies.

Not only is Harris heavily involved in the development of products such as the Toughbook 20 but he is also a key link between Panasonic’s R&D team and their customer base. Approachable, and prepared to both listen to and act upon feedback Harris, is a crucial figure in Panasonic’s ongoing success.

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Nick Frank, Managing Partner, Frank Partners

With a background as a service manager before moving into consultancy including working with service management specialists Noventum before launching Frank Partners, Frank has a track strong record of developing service businesses within high value technology companies through various General Manager and Director level roles for industry-leading multinationals, such as Xerox, Textron and Husky Injection Moulding Systems.

He is a well respected industry author and frequent speaker at field service conferences across Europe. His mission is to support companies who want to leverage services to win in industrial markets through his expertise in strategy, new business models, ecosystems, innovation, service operations, service sales and transformation management.

Nick’s continues his passion for innovation through his new venture Si2 partners, which aims to provide new ways for managers to transform their service business through On-Demand Advisory and Support.

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John Cooper, Head of IT and Workflow Solutions, Sony Professional Solutions

With a pan European team of around 110 field engineers working alongside other members of the wider Sony workforce and various third parties, Cooper’s responsibilities are essentially across the entirety of the non-consumer portfolio of the tech giant, which is becoming an important part of the company's wider business strategies and plans.

However, despite the challenge of managing a pan European team across four divisions each with their own differing needs, Cooper has shown himself to be a forward thinking service executive, implementing and harnessing the latest technologies, to enable Sony to move towards a servitized or outcome based solutions model, entrenching them within the core business of many of their key clients.

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Bart Guthrie, Neurosurgeon and Co-Founder, Help Lightning

If 2015 was the year that the Internet of Things (IoT) moved from exciting concept to becoming a technology that is beginning to genuinely reshape the field service industry, then 2016 is set to be the year we see Augmented Reality (AR) similarly emerge. And like IoT, AR is not just a technology that can improve efficiency and productivity in Field Service, but one that can change the entire way companies will address delivering service in the field. Already we are seeing a number of companies beginning to offer AR tools for field service companies and at the vanguard of these is US based Help Lightning, the brain child of neurosurgeon Bart Guthrie.

Guthrie himself is a charismatic and confident figurehead for the company and the technology itself is certainly one of the slickest AR tools to hit the market to date. More are sure to follow, however, Help Lightning have a significant head start over most of the competition, and Guthrie is sure to be a sought out figure in the conference calendar this year as AR continues to gain attention across the industry.

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Professor Howard Lightfoot, Senior Research Fellow - Service Operations, Cranfield University

As well as being a co-author (WIth Baines) of seminal servitization book ‘Made to Serve’, Lightfoot is also heavily involved in the study of and advancement of Augmented Reality within through-life-services via his current role with Cranfield University.

Lightfoot is also a highly respected speaker in the international field service calendar as well as being at the forefront of training the next generation of field workers and developing the tools to engage with millennials.

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Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower

ServicePower had been quietly going about their business in terms of product development for some time prior to the launch of their brand new service management solution Nexus FS towards the end of last year.

With a strategy that involves strong investment in research and development alongside the acquisition of well selected companies ServicePower were in a strong position to launch their new solution, which has also had plenty of attention placed on its User Interface.

Having got their ducks neatly lined up in a row, ServicePower are set for an aggressive growth strategy for this year and Martin, who is both vibrant and easy going yet with clear focus and determination, has a strong vision of the path she wants the company to take.

An engaging speaker, Martin is often asked to give presentations at key field service events and we can expect to see even more of here this year as the sales and marketing plans begin to catch up with the impressive product development and ServicePower will be a name all service directors should be aware of by the end of 2016

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Andy Neely, Professor Andy Neely, Director, Cambridge Service Alliance

Another of the key figures within the growing movement of servitization which could have a massive impact on the operation of field service. Having held appointments at Cranfield University, London Business School, Cambridge University, Neely is widely recognised for his work on the servitization of manufacturing, as well as his work on performance measurement and management and his organisation The Cambridge Service Alliance continues to work with leading companies such as IBM and BAE on research into ways to provide, implement and employ complex new service systems.

He’s also recently been appointed as the new head of Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM).

Neely is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities on organisational performance measurement and management. He has authored over 100 books and articles, including “Measuring Business Performance”, published by the Economist and “The Performance Prism”, published by the Financial Times.

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Tony Chapman, Customer Services Director, Siemens

Siemens are another company who could potentially have had a number of inclusions on the list this year as they continue to lead the way in a number of aspects in terms of service delivery.

Their approach to engaging with the next generation of field service engineers was celebrated by our inclusion of Martin Hotass in last year's #FSN20, whilst their approach to developing an open Cloud infrastructure alongside an aim to have all their assets in the field connected by 2020 is an admirable example of a company moving towards a more proactive approach to service.

Given the wide range of forward thinking from Siemens though we felt that their representative should have a broad knowledge to reflect the wider organisation and in Chapman they have an excellent operations director, with a clear understanding of what good service looks like, whilst have a detailed knowledge of the challenges of IT within a field service environment.

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Phillip Sassower, CEO, Xplore Technologies.

Xplore Technologies acquisition of fellow Texan rugged tablet manufacturers last year was probably one of the biggest surprises in the rugged sector for quite some time. For a start Motion were very much the larger of the two companies, yet a supply problem from a specialist OEM saw Motion slip into financial difficulties and Xplore were there to step in and take advantage of the situation and by doing so establishing themselves as the second largest manufacturer of rugged tablets behind only Panasonic.

And whilst it was a move that took everyone by surprise it was also one that made absolute sense. With Xplore’s area of expertise being in the ultra rugged space and Motion’s being more focused on healthcare and general field operations, bringing the two product lines together has given Xplore Technologies an impressive array of tablets that can satisfy almost all field service requirements.

We are anticipating a big year for Xplore as they seek to capitalise on this acquisition, and credit should go to Sassower for acting quickly to secure the greater prize. With tablets becoming the leading form factor amongst field service companies, anticipate hearing more from Sassower and Xplore as the year progresses.

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Aly Pinder, Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group

Aberdeen Group’s Aly Pinder has to be one of the most respected and busiest people in the field service industry. A prolific author, Pinder’s work can be found across the industry (including regularly on fieldservicenews.com) and his analysis is always insightful, detailed yet also easily digested.

His work often draws on the detailed research that his organisation Aberdeen Group deliver which adds further weight to his well constructed points and observations on how field service is evolving.

In last year’s list we also stated Pinder was one of the nicest guys in the industry. However, a year on we have learnt that,that mild mannered demeanour is just a bluff for what is a cold, calculating and very good poker player!

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Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax 

The ServiceMax story is one of the biggest success stories within field service. Having gone from start-up to leading field service management software provider within less than a decade picking up blue chip clients such as Sony, Schneider Electric and Phillips along the way.

Having aligned themselves closely to the Salesforce platform, ServiceMax blazed a trail delivering a SaaS platform that was as accessible for family run SMEs  as it was corporate giants and with the recent release of Connected Field Service, a result of their close partnership with IoT specialists PTC, they are set once more to lead the way by delivering the industry's first IoT-enabled field service platform.

Aside from the technology the other factor key to their success has been in their talent acquisition, with a depth of knowledge and experience combined with an inherent desire to understand their customer base (every member of the ServiceMax team including Yarnold has to spend three days ‘ride-along’ with customers each year) throughout the team.

Indeed there were a number of members of the ServiceMax family that were considered for this years #FSN20 including VPs of Global Transformation Dave Hart and Patrice Eberline. However, with a rule of one entrant per company we decided it had to be the man at the top.

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So who do you think we've left out and why? Tell us in the comments section below! 

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In part one of this series, looking at the big trends we will see in Field Service this year we looked at way the business trend of servitization is set to become more commonplace this year.

 Now in the second part of this series Kris Oldland looks at the impact the Internet of Things and Augmented Reality might have in field service...

The Internet of Things has arrived and has two feet firmly in the field service industry

OK so this is a bit of a cheat given that in my intro I pointed out that this was the one I got right in 2015.

However, last year I mentioned it would start to become commonplace.

This time around I’m going to go all in and state that across 2016 we will see IoT implementation become a commonplace strategy for field service companies in all corners of the globe.

Perhaps one of the big myths that was firmly debunked on our pages last year was that IoT was sole domain of the largest companies only.

 

Yes we will have read the case studies and white papers by the likes of GE, Schneider and Phillips and yes the stuff these big guys are doing with IoT is really, pretty damn impressive.

However, there are also now a growing number of examples of smaller to medium sized companies who have harnessed IoT in order to improve the service they are delivering to their customers (and even to have moved towards a servitized business model in some instances.)

This was highlighted perfectly by leading service consultant Nick Frank in a presentation he gave during a Field Service News webinar last year.

Frank gave a number of examples of SME’s utilising IoT, often with fairly simple, and dare I say it relatively lo-tech solutions, that were as much about thinking about the service these companies were delivering and how ‘outside-the-box’ thinking could improve that service.

In fact it was a core facet in all of the companies Frank referred to in the webinar, and indeed also those companies he often refers to in his regular column for Field Service News, that they intrinsically understood what good service looked like for their customers, and they viewed the emergence of IoT as an enabler and facilitator in delivering and enhancing that service.

Of course, for some companies innovation sits within their DNA so adopting new technologies and approaches is nothing to be feared.

However, this isn’t necessarily the case for all companies, so it is perhaps the recent launch of ‘Connected Field Service’ by ServiceMax, that finally connects the IoT dots for the rest of the pack.

It was perhaps inevitable ever since ServiceMax and PTC got into bed together in May last year that we would see a fully IoT enabled, Field Service solution merge as the fruits of this union.

But when ServiceMax capitalised on the growing emergence of Salesforce as a business platform, they were a young, wet-behind-the-ears business,that slipped under their competitors radar before it was too late and suddenly everyone was trying to play catch-up.

 

You can be sure that they won’t be given as much grace a second time around and almost certainly other significant field service management software providers like ClickSoftware, IFS et al will soon be in the IoT game as well.

Indeed ServicePower are also rumoured to have an agreement in place with PTC so watch this space.

For field service companies though, whether they are blue chips, the smaller innovators that Frank has highlighted so well, or anything in between the ability to enhance service offerings through IoT are becoming both more accessible and more easily understood.

Indeed in our own exclusive research from October last year over half (55%) of our respondents stated they thought “IoT will become a fundamental part of field service operations in the future” whilst a further 21% went further stating that “IoT is critical to any field service organisation’s strategy”.

Augmented Reality will replace IoT as the new kid on the block everyone is talking about...

OK so if IoT is moving from the exciting cool tech everyone is talking about to the big ticket everyone is investing in, then Augmented Reality (AR) is the tech whose impact upon field service is still being outlined and explained somewhat.

However, once people grasp the concept, and the relativeease of implementation of the technology, and the quite frankly huge potential for AR to wipe significant cost lines from a field service P&L then they are almost instantly converted.

The thing is with AR that like IoT it has the potential to not just optimise the levels of productivity companies get from their service operations like mobile computing and the Cloud have done. It has the potential to completely change the way field service companies approach their service operations, and to do so for the better.

 

However, unlike IoT there isn’t the potential barrier of retrofitting hundreds, thousands or potentially millions of assets in the field.

In fact one AR provider that impressed me and everyone else that saw there demonstration at Field Service East last September (Help Lightning) offer their app as a download from the App store.

So what exactly is AR and why do I think it will have such an incredible impact?

Very simply AR is the overlaying of digital information onto the reality we see before us.

In field service, this has huge potential.

Often the largest single cost for any field service company is the cost of getting a highly skilled engineer, to fix that critical issue, for a key client ASAP. There is the cost of travel, accommodation not to mention the dead time lost whilst he is in between jobs.

AR allows us to get the experience of that engineer on-site without him being there. In fact we can utilize a less experienced engineer who is closer to the job, locally out sourced staff or even the customer themselves to undertake the physical maintenance whilst under the direct guidance of our experienced engineer who can be based in a centralized location, or even at home.

 

Through the use of AR our remote engineer can not only see exactly what the on site engineer is seeing and talk them through the repair, he can at any point freeze the image being captured by the on site engineers device and show his less experience colleague exactly what to do with hand gestures or even on screen annotations shown in real-time.

So instead of explaining over the phone ‘the dial near the mid-centre of the asset, turn it clockwise by about 20 degrees’ he can physically point to the correct dial and show how much it should be turned and this will be seen by the on site engineer on his device.

Studies have shown that the human brain is almost 20 times more receptive to being shown something via hand gestures than spoken word and this is at it’s core the power that AR provides.

And by replacing the need to ‘fly experience in’ with the ability to ‘dial it in’ field service companies could make potentially huge savings very quickly leading to a whole rethink about how we deploy our most experienced engineers.

This also leads us onto the other big area where AR could be deployed within field service, namely training.

As millennials become more and more a part of the field service landscape, the need for digitizing our knowledge banks becomes more pressing, and whilst AR can be used as a standalone training tool, for those companies utilising it actively in the field it is a simple case to record each interaction - thus building a digital knowledge library as a by-product of every AR based service call.

Given the benefits, low-cost implementation and potentially instant R.o.I surely AR will rapidly move from exciting new concept to industry staple and I think we will begin to see that traction this year.

 

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Look out for the part three of this series when smart glasses and rugged computing take centre stage…

 

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Despite the hype that has surrounded wearable computing we’ve yet to see widespread adoption in either the consumer or business world. Yet there is plenty of potential for wearable technology in field service. However, we need to change the way we see think about them argues Kris Oldland...

As far as recent technology trends go few have failed to live up to the hyperbole quite as much as wearable technology has done so far.

In 2013 Forbes magazine brashly claimed 2014 would be the year of the wearables. Then when 2014 came and went specialist mobile computing analysts CSS stated actually 2015 would be the year of the wearables.

Yet while the technology has evolved the fact remains that I’m still pretty much one of the only people I know to actually own a wearable device.

Even the ultimate technology-as-a-fashion statement brand Apple haven’t had anything close to the impact they were expected to have had.

Yet this is the consumer world, what about in the realm of industry? It’s no secret that Glass 2.0 is being geared towards the enterprise and in field service the application of such a device, which offers a completely hands free means of communication with the added bonus of the on-site engineer being able to provide a ‘see-what-i-see’ experience to a remote colleague, could potentially be truly ground-breaking.

Indeed Google shouldn’t wait too long to release a second iteration of Glass as there are plenty of other smart glasses manufacturers working with specialist developers such as Pristine IO who are already heavily engaged with the field service industry.

The fact is that smart glasses offer the opportunity for highly efficient remote assistance and often one of the biggest costs for a field service company is getting an experienced engineer half way across a continent to make that critically urgent fix for that key customer.

 

The cost of travelling, accommodation not to mention dead-time whilst the engineer is in transit could be wiped off the P&L if companies are able to get that engineer to ‘dial-in’ rather than fly-in. R.o.I could be hit within a matter of weeks and at the same time service levels are being improved as the customer is getting his assets up and running a gain far quicker.

 

The use case for smart glasses in our industry is clear. The same cannot be said for smart watches however.

Whilst some FSM solution providers have created smart watch apps, for me the benefits are minimal. An engineer still needs to turn his hands to read an incoming notification, so the solution isn’t really hands free.

Also whilst some smart watches like the Samsung Gear2 are capable of voice calls many aren’t so again hands free communication is a bit of a stretch for most smart watches.

 

And trying to manage inputting any amount of data or notes on a smart watch is a cumbersome task simply due to the limited screen real estate. Add to this the fact that these are companion devices (so the engineers need a phone anyway) and the cost/benefit equation doesn’t really stack up.

 

And this is why we to change our thinking around wearables and stop lumping smart watches and smart glasses together under the one blanket umbrella. The use cases for both are very different. One clearly has potential in field service, the other not so much.

And of course wearables aren’t just limited to glasses and watches either. Certain smart clothing could certainly play a big role in lone worker protection. Heart monitoring vests or wearable cameras certainly would have potential in this area for example.

Indeed personally I’m a big believer in the use of wearable technology within our industry. However, we absolutely need to stop thinking about wearables as a broad technology and focus on the use cases for specific devices and how they could be a useful addition to our technicians tool-kit. Once companies start doing that, then I am sure we will see more use of wearable computing within the field service industry.

 

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Research sits at the heart of Field Service News and every quarter we publish an exclusive research report identifying the latest trends to be emerging within our industry. Here we look at some of the key findings of our research reports from across the last year...

Mobility tools in field service

Working in partnership with Advanced Field Service we explored what types of mobility tools are being used by field service companies.

What types of hardware are most commonly being selected for our field engineers? What software is being used out in the field?

How are companies selecting the right solution for their engineers?

What type of feedback are those engineers giving? And what actual benefits are being delivered through digital mobility solutions?

In total 122 field service professionals responded to our survey which ran across February and March with respondents from companies with mobile workforces ranging from less than ten field engineers through to over 801 engineers and with an even number of representatives across the spectrum with no obvious spikes, the research offered insight into trends across field service as a whole.

Types of devices being used in the field

It is perhaps no surprise by now that most companies are using some form of digital device.

We have been going through a digital revolution across the last decade and no industry has felt the impact of this change as keenly as field service.

Indeed out in the wider world of industry the emergence of Enterprise Mobility as a definable, and eminently sizeable industry that will ultimately dwarf the size of the field technology sector considerably, has now firmly taken root.

However, the field service industry, which has more complex needs than its younger cousin of Enterprise Mobility, is also a far more mature market in general.

 

In fact our research indicates that the majority of companies are using a mix of differing digital devices, with 46% stating this is the case.

This would make sense as many field service organisations are now in their second, third or even fourth generation of digital device being rolled out to their field engineers.

However, when it comes to those companies that have rolled out just one device to their mobile workforce the results revealed some further insight into the trends now appearing amongst field service companies.

One of the biggest trends that is backed up by the evidence of this research, is the dramatic rise to prominence of smartphones as a genuine mobile productivity tool being utilised in the workplace.

It is of course not a surprising result given the widespread adoption of smartphones in both the consumer and business worlds but our research does confirm that smart-phones are the most popular device being used by field service companies when only they opt to provide one device to their engineers.

Of course every action has a reaction, and the rapid growth of smartphones as a tool for field service engineers has resulted in an equally rapid decline in the use of PDAs. In fact now just 5% of companies are using these devices – the smallest percentage of any device being used within the field.

One myth however that the research helps debunk is that Tablet computing his having a similar impact on the laptop sector as smartphones are having on PDAs.

Whilst it seemed at one point that the trend for tablet computing would see the laptop being edged out of both the consumer and rugged markets it appears the rumours of the death of the laptop have been greatly exaggerated.

In fact our research outlines that in terms of the devices being used on there own, both tablets and laptops have an equal share of the market at 14%.

However, we should also consider the fact that of those companies who provide more than one device to their engineers, a large proportion of companies are likely to offer a laptop as one of those devices, largely due to the fact that having a built in keyboard makes any significant manual input much easier.

So whilst it is likely that ultimately the traditional laptop will become replaced by the convertible or even the detachable laptop, the keyboard remains an important part of the field engineers mobile technology kit.

The last few days of pen and paper

What the research presents clearly is that the masses in field service have moved towards the new digital dawn. There are of course in any industry sector, laggards that remain behind the trend.

However, when it comes to the application of mobile technology amongst field engineers this group (i.e. those using no digital medium) now stands at just a nominal 3%.

Not only the is the group now just a very small minority, but our research also indicates that this group is potentially set to disappear completely within the next twelve months.

 

Of those companies still using pen and paper 100% stated they are considering moving to a digital mobile platform within the next twelve months.

The reasons for this are of course clear, as are the benefits of moving to any digital medium, including increasing productivity and streamlining a field engineers work-flow.

The fact is that those companies still relying on pen and paper are in danger of falling significantly behind their competition.

In fact of those companies still using pen and paper 100% of the respondents admitted that they felt they were at a disadvantage, with 50% stating that they felt that disadvantage was significantly impacting their ability to remain competitive.

Cloud as a FSM platform

Our next project, which was undertaken in collaboration with ClickSoftware explored trends amongst field service companies involving use of the Cloud for Field Service Management Systems .

The research was conducted online across July and August this year. The respondents were a mix of Operations, IT and Business Leaders working within organisations that had a field service operation.

Again company sizes ranged from SMBs with under 10 field workers to the enterprise level companies with over 800 field workers. In total 150 respondents answered the survey with respondents coming from a number of different verticals including Manufacturing, Engineering, IT solutions, construction, fire and security, healthcare and more.

As with our 2014 survey on this topic after the question ‘Is your current field service solution on premise or in the Cloud?’ The survey split into two in order to give us insight from those currently using the Cloud and those that are still on premise.

This enabled us to better ascertain the benefits being seen by those using the Cloud alongside the reservations of those who are not.

Mid-sized movement

The headline statistic to come out of the research was that indeed there has been a slight shift towards more companies using the Cloud than before.

In fact there has been a swing of 3% in favour of those using the cloud with 26% of companies now having their field service management solution in the Cloud versus 74% who are using on-premise.

Whilst a small movement, given the timeframe this increase could indeed help support the argument that the Cloud is slowly becoming more prevalent and that the move to Cloud is very much tied to companies moving from their legacy systems to more modern next-gen equivalents.

 

However, a logical continuation of that thinking is that we would find those companies with larger field worker numbers more likely to remain on premise than those smaller companies for the simple reason that they are more likely to have invested in the expensive infrastructure to run an on premise solution and would therefore potentially be more tied to their existing system – making a switch to a new solution harder work.

Yet when we drill down into the data and separate the companies out into three groups – those with less than 50 engineers, those with between 50 and 500 engineers and those with more than 500 engineers we find that in fact this doesn’t hold true.

Actually whilst the trends amongst the largest companies very closely mirror the respondents as a whole (25% Cloud vs. 75% On premise) it is amongst the smaller and mid sized companies that we see the biggest variance.

Interestingly smaller companies, who are generally viewed as being the most likely to be attracted to the Cloud due to the more affordable Software as a Service subscription model that most Cloud vendors offer, were the group that were most reluctant to have their field service operations on the Cloud – with just 17% doing so.

Meanwhile the mid tier companies (i.e. those with between 50 and 500 engineers) were the group that had the most Cloud based systems with 37% of these companies using the Cloud.

When we look at the same demographic in our previous research this is an increase of 21% of companies, so whilst on premise still remains the way the majority of run their field service management systems, a shift to the Cloud, amongst this demographic at least, is clear.

Still the question remains why are we seeing more acceptance towards the Cloud within these mid sized companies than amongst their smaller counterparts? (If we accept the earlier premise that those larger companies may take longer to adapt due to greater change management challenges.)

One possible answer could be found in the make up of the decision-making units of those smaller companies. Of those companies with less than 50 engineers that are not using the Cloud, only 15% of companies had input from their IT director or equivalent whilst of those mid sized companies that have adopted the Cloud 71% involved their IT Director or equivalent in the selection of a field service solution.

Could it be that amongst smaller companies it is a case that without the input of a technology specialist, some of the headline fears around the usage of Cloud persist.

Whereas amongst those larger companies, who have a more developed IT department adding their insight, perhaps there is more understanding of both the true benefits and dangers of the Cloud?

 

One question within the survey that could certainly give us further insight into this assertion was ‘Which of the following sums up your perception of the Cloud in business’ which had the following four options:

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• I believe it is the future of enterprise computing
• I see its benefits but still have some concerns
• I wouldn’t trust placing sensitive data in the Cloud but would use for general applications
•  I think we should keep everything on premise, there is too much risk in the Cloud.[/unordered_list]

Given the fact that there was a fairly even balance between the two groups of company sizes, the varying responses certainly indicated a more cautious outlook towards the Cloud from the smaller companies than their mid sized counterparts.

Within the group of companies with between 50 and 500 field service engineers 58% felt that Cloud was” the future of enterprise computing”, with a further 32% stating that they “saw benefits of the Cloud whilst having some concerns.”

Interestingly not a single respondent from this group stated “we should be keeping everything on premise, there is too much risk in the Cloud.”

When we compare this to the responses of those companies with less than 50 engineers we see the confidence in the Cloud significantly reduce with only 38% stating they “believe the Cloud is the future of enterprise computing” whilst 20% “wouldn’t trust placing sensitive data in the Cloud but would use it for general applications” and “5% stating they think “we should be keeping everything on premise, there is too much risk in the Cloud.”

IoT and Field Service

Another key technology within our industry is of course IoT and this was at the heart of a research project undertaken with ServiceMax and PTC.

The research was conducted across a period of 6 weeks during August and September this year.

Again well over 100 field service professionals contributed to the research with respondents from both the operational side of business (field service directors/managers etc) as well as senior IT representatives (CIO/CTO etc.) participating alongside business leaders (MD,CEO etc.)

Once more we also had a variety of company sizes ranging from those with less than 10 field workers through to those with over 800 field workers, with a fairly even split across these groups so there was fair representation of opinions from companies of differing sizes.

Also whilst there was a slight UK bias in respondents, there were also respondents from India, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany and the USA so there was a mix of nationalities amongst the respondents as well.

Before we began looking at the appetite for IoT amongst our respondents we first wanted to see if companies were actually well placed to benefit from adopting an IoT strategy.

 

To do this we needed to assess where the companies in our group were in terms of their approach to technology in general as well as how they approached their own service delivery.

Of course with the introduction of any new technology there will always be laggards and there will always be bleeding edge adopters and if there was a bias amongst our respondent group either way this should be taken into account when exploring other responses and trends identified within the research.

Therefore the first question we asked our respondents was “How regularly does your company invest in new technology initiatives to improve field service operations and performance” and we gave our respondents the choices of every year, every two years, every three years, every five years or other. It would seem our group was on average representing a slightly forward looking set of companies with 35% stating they would invest in new technology an annual basis.

Meanwhile 13% stated they did so every two years, 17% every three years and 16% five years.

A number of respondents also commented that their company’s investment in technology was slightly less strategic and on more of an ad-hoc basis although members of this group also stated ‘recently the investment in new technology is being increased’

Predictive or reactive?

The next question we asked in this initial section was whether our respondents were working for a company that is either adopting a pro-active or reactive model in terms of their field service planning.

Almost a third of companies (31%) state that their “service is half proactive and half reactive” whilst only a small fraction of companies (4%) were operating on a wholly reactive strategy.

Again this will be a good indicator of how ready field service companies are to adopt IoT as one of the significant factors in why IoT is predicted to be such have such a major impact, particularly in field service, is that it can be the key for companies moving away from the traditional break-fix delivery of service to a more efficient preventative maintenance approach to delivering field service.

Indeed it seems that the majority of field service companies do see the benefits of moving towards delivering service in a proactive rather than reactive manner, in theory at least.

Whilst the same amount of companies (6%) stated they were either “Fully pro-active with a mix of predictive and preventive maintenance, enabled by remote monitoring and M2M diagnostics” or “We are mostly pro-active using both predictive and preventive maintenance strategies but still have a small percentage of reactive calls.”

The largest group of respondents by a long way (44%) stated they “operate a proactive strategy where possible but are still mostly reactive.”

Meanwhile almost a third of companies (31%) state that their “service is half proactive and half reactive” whilst only a small fraction of companies (4%) were operating on a wholly reactive “Almost a third of companies (31%) state that their “service is half proactive and half reactive” whilst only a small fraction of companies (4%) were operating on a wholly reactive strategy. This would suggest that the perceived wisdom that field service companies should be moving away from the traditional break-fix reactive approach to a more proactive approach, which is better for service providers and their customers alike, is being adopted by the industry at large.

It also indicates that whilst this attitude is widespread, achieving a move away from break-fix models is harder to achieve than simply updating policies.

In fact responses to this question would certainly strengthen the case for Internet of Things being rapidly accepted and adopted amongst field service companies who can see the benefits of proactive maintenance but are unable to deliver it.

 

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As the last remaining vestiges of tinsel are tidied away from the corners here at Field Service News Towers, our Editor-in- Chief Kris Oldland dusts off his crystal ball and begins a new series looking at what is going to be the key trends for field service companies this coming year...

As the Editor of a trade magazine, you know you're always going to be asked to put some kind of list together come the start of the year predicting the big trends in the market, and you know invariably some of them you’ll get right and some of them you’ll get wrong.

Last year was no exception, I suggested that the Internet of Things would start to become an integral part of field service operations, which in some ways it did (there are certainly more case studies of field service IoT implementations now than there were a year ago), the Cloud would finally come of age as a platform for field service management systems (which our own research showed to be partially true, there is a growing move to the Cloud but it remains a gradual shift) and that 2015 would be the year that 3D printing would make a true breakthrough (woefully optimistic as despite huge potential I’ve yet to see a genuine application for 3D printing in a field service environment.)

Yet as I look through this year’s list I find that the trends I’ve highlighted are, in the main not so much about brand new emerging technologies or concepts, but more their evolution from fledgling ideas to real-life applications now soaring in full flight.

 

Therefore for once I’m feeling more confident that most of this list will come good by the end of the year.

Indeed, I would go as far as to say that if the last few years have been all about exciting innovation, as twenty first century technologies drive us into a Gene Roddenbury inspired brave new world, then 2016 may well be the start of a period of maturation, and fulfilment.

Is 2016 the year we finally stop talking about how things are going to be in the not so distant future and start realising that this is how we are going to be doing things in the here and now?

Only time will tell, but for what it’s worth, here’s how I see the year panning out...

Servitization will become a common way of doing business

On the outset a radical shift in business thinking, driven largely from the UK with an American English spelling, servitization has a number of different monikers including ‘outcome based solutions’, ‘through life-cycle services’ and ‘advanced services’.

The concept itself, which in reality can be dated back easily to the 1960’s and less tangibly so even earlier, involves the shift in thinking away from the traditional transactional nature of manufacturing a product to sell, and then providing services to ensure the upkeep of that product, towards an approach whereby a product is manufactured with the view of delivering a long-term service.

The (perhaps overly used and certainly overly simplistic) often cited example is ‘Don’t sell drills, sell holes’ something that many switched on sales people will be fully aware of as solutions based selling has been a staple of the consultative sell in the twilight of the last century and the early dawn of this one.

 

And at it’s heart that’s what Servitization is really all about.

However, it is doing so on a company wide scale, taking a neat, piffy one liner and reinventing the whole company structure around the premise.

The all time most cited example of servitization has to be Rolls Royce who in the sixties working with American Airlines adopted a servitized approach, coining it ‘power-by-the-hour’ and in doing so re-wrote the rules for the aviation industry.

Other big name examples of servitization also come from companies as diverse as Pearson, Caterpillar and MAN Trucks (UK) but for some time the examples of truly servitized businesses beyond these headline hogging few were in short supply.

However, in part due to the ongoing work from academia by the likes of Tim Baines (Aston), Andy Neely (Cambridge) and Howard Lightfoot (Cranfield) but also driven heavily by the emergence of the Internet of Things, Enterprise Mobility and Machine to Machine communications, we are finallystarting to see servitization beginning to really come to the fore.

At last year’s Spring Servitization Conference hosted by Baines and his colleagues at Aston University we saw academia and industry on the same page and companies ranging from global PLCs such as Air France KLM and recycling and mining giant Metso through to family owned transit packaging firm Nicklin all taking the steps towards building a servitized business operation.

 

With servitization bringing the promise of both greater long term profits as well as a better service for the clients (leading to longer-term contracts – which of course provides stability for a business,) it is little wonder that companies such as Sony are beginning to adopt the model and there is a definite feel that the concept is now gaining momentum.

For us in field service this is perhaps a double edged sword.

On the one hand it means that service now sits proudly at the top table as an absolutely critical part of a business strategy.

On the other however, it means that we need to be 100% on top of our game, as a fundamental factor in a servitized business model is that unless the client has uptime, the service provider isn’t getting paid.

However, the simple fact is that servitization is coming to an industry near you and it will perhaps be those companies that neglect to pay attention to the phenomenon that may come under threat.

 

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Look out for the second part of this feature where we look at the impact the Internet of Things and Augmented Reality may have on field service in 2016

 

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Cognito iQ, a leading provider of cloud-based management solutions for the mobile workforce, has been selected by Argos to power the delivery intelligence for its Fast Track service, the first same day UK wide delivery service from a high street retailer. The Cognito iQ platform gives Argos the agility, flexibility and traceability to fulfil the same day service, which offers nationwide same-day home delivery, seven days a week, 364 days a year for a flat rate of £3.95.

Upon collection of delivery manifests, the Cognito iQ Mobile platform guides the drivers via their handsets enabling both customer home deliveries and delivery to other stores. With GPS integration, Argos drivers are guided through their delivery route, obtain electronic proof of delivery and receive real-time updates via messaging to inform them of any last minute changes.

From a customer perspective the service is fast, with four delivery windows throughout the day, and seamless with SMS updates informing them of accurate delivery times and any delays.

 

The information flow is real-time via the cloud and visible to Argos Call Centre via the Cognito iQ portal. With up to the minute information on deliveries, agents can provide customers with accurate information on where their parcels are, if they’ve been delivered, where the parcels have been left and who signed for them.

Andy Brown, Central Operations Director at Argos, said: “We are the only retailer able to offer same-day delivery nationwide and we’ve been delighted with the fantastic reception customers have given our new Fast Track services. Our selection of Cognito iQ to make Fast Track happen is a validation of the power of its platform and the faith we have in it to enable such a complex, mission critical service for our business.”

Cognito iQs cloud-based platform works across any mobile device and offers the flexibility Argos requires to  evolve and rapidly scale the service when required. It is currently used by 650 delivery drivers and offers the potential to increase this number significantly to support busier periods.

 

“Fulfilment is the next big retail battleground, but it’s incredibly difficult to bring to life new delivery services for multi-channel businesses with such a broad product range as Argos,” comments Laurent Othacéhé, CEO of Cognito iQ. “We’re delighted that Argos is taking full advantage of our unrivalled technology expertise, understanding of the market and consumer needs, and ability to deliver. We look forward to continue helping Argos unleash

 

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