AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

Hosted by Aston Business School and the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice this conference which is being held across the 18th and 19th May 2015 at Aston Business School promises to be a showcase for current, relevant and innovative research in the study of Servitization...

Servitization can protect and enhance business performance, leading to long term growth and sustainability. Over the next 3 years, 65% of manufacturing businesses worldwide will turn towards offering services*. Set against this backdrop the annual Spring Servitization Conference as Aston Business School will showcase current. relevant and innovative research in the study of servitization.

Presentation themes for the conference include:

• Business model innovation for servitization
• Customer interaction and co creation through real time data and social media
• Techniques for the identification of service opportunities and design of services
• Organisational capabilities and environmental conditions required for successful servitization
• Digital technologies as service providers; connected products and the IoT
• Business ecosystems and co opetition for delivery of advanced services
• Implementation of servitization; the challenges, barriers and enablers
• The circular economy and environmental

About the conference: 

The Spring Servitization Conference 2015 returns for a third year, attracting a strong international gathering of academics working in the field of servitization research. The organising committee is pleased to announce a record number of research papers have been submitted this year, covering themes such as: business model innovation, the circular economy and environmental sustainability and digital technologies as service enablers.

Who should attend: 

This event is targeted at researchers working in the field of servitization, managers and directors from manufacturing companies both large and small, software producers and other technology innovators of all sizes.

Keynote speakers

• Professor Tim Baines, Director, Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice. Tim is an international authority on servitization and works extensively with manufacturers to transform their operations to compete through advanced services. He has published over 200 papers on management and engineering, and is amongst the most frequently-cited authors on servitization. His career started with a technician apprenticeship, and has progressed through a variety of industrial and academic positions. Read Tim Baines latest exclusive feature for Field Service News here 

• John Cullen, VP Services Marketing, Metso Corporation. John Cullen is VP Services Marketing at Metso Corporation. In this role John is responsible for productizing the service portfolio, transforming the business to value based solution selling as well as communications for this 1 Billion Euro plus mining services business. Previous to working for Metso, John had a long history in business development and sales working for global brands, such as Nokia and O2, as well as having his own successful business development and sales company. John has an Engineering Science degree from St Catherine's College, Oxford University.

• Harman Lanser, Product Development & Logistics Group Component Products for AIRFRANCEKLM Engineering & Maintenance Within his scope is development of new products within the Component Availability area, OEM strategy and Supply Chain Development. Before that Harmen was Director Component Management at KLM Engineering & Maintenance for five years after a period of 6 years in Purchasing at KLM E&M as Director and Vice President Strategic Purchasing. Harmen has an experience of 28 years within Engineering & Maintenance. Since the Air France/KLM merger in 2004 he is one of the key players in the alignment of the procurement and supply chain activities of Air France Industries and KLM E&M. Harmen has his BSc. in Aeronautics and an MBA in E-commerce

• Christian Kowalkowski Associate Professor of Industrial Marketing at Linköping University, Sweden & Assistant Professor of Marketing at Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. Christian Kowalkowski is His current research interests include servitization, solutions marketing, service innovation, relationship dynamics, and value-creation strategies. Christian has published extensively and serves as an Associate Editor of Journal of Services Marketing and is on the Editorial Board of Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. Over the years, he has collaborated with companies such as ABB, Electrolux, Linde, Saab Group, Tetra Pak, Toyota Industries, Volvo Group, and Xylem and been invited speaker at research seminars, associations and practitioner-oriented conferences across Europe.

• Michael J. Provost MA (Cantab) PhD CEng FIMechE FIET MIAM Engineering Fellow, Asset Management and Business Intelligence Services at Intelligent Energy Ltd. Before t joining Loughborough, Michael spent twenty-seven years at Rolls-Royce, two years at a Rolls-Royce spin-off company, Data Systems & Solutions (working on applications of aerospace asset management techniques in other industries) and five years at Bombardier Transportation. He is currently advising on the development and roll-out of a range of asset management techniques across Intelligent Energy Ltd.'s automotive, consumer electronics and distributed power product lines. 

The Venue: 

Conference Aston, Aston Business School, Birmingham, UK, B4 7ET

Contacts:

Further details can be found at www.aston.ac.uk/ssc2015 

Telephone: Jill Forrest +44 (0) 121 204 3249 

Twitter @_servitization 

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TomTom Telematics has launched its next generation of WEBFLEET OptiDrive, incorporating predictive real-time driving advice to empower drivers to drive in a greener, safer style.

TomTom Telematics was the first to introduce direct feedback to professional drivers, using its TomTom Driver Terminals. The feedback on drive style, including harsh braking, speeding and cornering, has now been extended with predictive driving advice. OptiDrive 360 uses vehicle and map data to advise business drivers when to take their foot off the accelerator or shift gear and what their optimum speed should be.

These innovations form part of OptiDrive 360’s complete approach for continuous driving improvement. It provides professional drivers and business management with the information to create a full improvement programme for learning, coaching while driving, post-trip evaluation and in-company comparison.

“OptiDrive 360 marks a ground-breaking development that allows businesses to work more closely with their drivers in a bid to create lasting change to driving standards.” said Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director TomTom Telematics. “The innovation has been developed following years of detailed research conducted in cooperation with the EU ecoDriver Project”.

Pre-trip, OptiDrive 360 provides motorists with best practice advice on how to drive safely and fuel-efficiently. Direct feedback and driving advice is offered during the trip to actively coach the driver. After the trip a snapshot analysis is available to review the trip statistics. All information is displayed via the driver terminal.

 

WEBFLEET provides managers with dashboards that allow them to easily highlight trends in driving behaviour. A series of in-depth reports then enables them to drill deeper for greater analysis and to compare the whole fleet.

OptiDrive 360 scores drivers based on a total of eight performance indicators – speeding, driving events, idling, fuel consumption, green speed, coasting (release gas while in gear), gear shifting and constant speed - which can be used as the basis for performance reviews, training and driver benchmarking.

Young drivers especially concerned, with 55% believing they’ll be replaced by autonomous vehicles

One in four business drivers are concerned that they’ll be replaced by autonomous vehicles in their working lifetime, according to new research from Masternaut, a pan-European provider of fleet telematics solutions.

Over half (55%) of business drivers aged 25-34 said they were concerned that they will be replaced by driverless cars in their working lifetime. Drivers aged 35 and over are less concerned, with only 34% of 35-44 year olds and 12% of 45-54 year olds worried that autonomous vehicles will replace them.

Driverless cars are currently being trialled on UK roads in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Coventry, as ministers consider changes to the Highway Code to allow driverless cars to be used by the general public; although there is still uncertainty over regulatory and legislative implications.

Business drivers believe that the biggest barrier for entry for driverless cars rolling out onto UK roads is integration with regular vehicles (41%), followed by updating road infrastructure (37%) and insurance and liability issues (34%). Meanwhile 33% are apprehensive about viruses and computer glitches affecting the car’s performance and 30% said changes to driving regulations would present a stumbling block to autonomous vehicles.

If they had to work with autonomous vehicles in the future, 15% of professional drivers said that they wouldn’t like it and change jobs, whilst almost a quarter (23%) said that wouldn’t like it but stay in their job. Almost one in ten (9%) business drivers said that they would prefer working with autonomous vehicles.

 

Masternaut surveyed 2,000 UK employees who drive as part of their job, to find out their attitudes towards driverless cars and the effect this will have on their job in the future.

 

Business drivers in London and York are most worried about the technology, with 40% of drivers concerned they’ll be replaced in their working lifetime. Those least concerned are drivers in Bristol, Liverpool and Sheffield, with just 9% worried that autonomous vehicles will replace them.

Steve Towe, Chief Commercial Officer and UK Managing Director, commented: “Driverless car technology is a very exciting development for the automotive industry and represents a major step change for UK roads, one of the biggest changes in history. Previously a science fiction dream, driverless cars are now very real and are being tested on our roads, and we’re intrigued to see what the future holds for the technology.”

He continues, “It’s very important that in order to get the true picture on the future of driverless cars, that we consider the potential impact on a very important group of stakeholders; the business driver, the people who use the roads every day as part of their job. We haven’t heard a great deal from professional drivers on how driverless car technology could affect them in the future, which is something that needs to be taken into consideration, especially considering that to date in 2015, 56% of new vehicle registrations have been fleet vehicles.”

 

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Our exclusive research project sponsored by Advanced Field Service looks at the types of solutions being used by Field Service companies in 2015 and how those companies select the right solutions to meet their needs. Across the next four weeks we will present you the findings of this research...

 There is also a white paper accompanying this series, with even further insights, which you can download here

Field Service News has recently completed a research project, sponsored by Advanced Field Service, into 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 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 offers 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 it’s 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 smart-phones as a genuine mobile productivity tool being utilised in the workplace. It is of course not a surprising result given the widespread adoption of smart-phones 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 smart phones 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.

 

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Want to know more? Download the exclusive research report for free now!

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Click here to read the second part of this research report coming next week which will look at Wearables, Rugged vs. Consumer and BYOD...

 

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Find out more about Advanced Field Service in the Field Service News Directory

 

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ServicePower a market leader in field service management technology, is pleased to announce that it has signed a five year contract for its ServiceScheduling solution with a leading global manufacturer of hot water products.

The client manufactures and distributes smart, sustainable, integrated climate and sanitary hot water products, such as biomass, solar thermal, heat pumps and micro-CHP heating solutions. The manufacturer operates in 70 countries worldwide, including Germany, France and the UK, as well as Eastern Europe, North America and China.

 

 ServicePower’s patented ServiceScheduling technology will provide the client with on-premise industry leading scheduling technology for both employed and dedicated contracted labour in Europe, beginning with Germany and expanding to France and the UK.  ServiceScheduling will enhance the flexibility, responsiveness and productivity of its field service team, while also providing it with the localisation and product features to support rollouts in countries across the globe.

 

Additionally ServiceScheduling will facilitate simpler installation and maintenance of the client’s hallmark brands by optimising the deployment of a variety of labour resources.

Commenting on the agreement Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower said "This latest customer win demonstrates further progress of the expansion of ServicePower into continental Europe and underlines the capability of our solutions to support global businesses.

Our continued investment in technology innovation was fundamental in this client’s decision to contract with ServicePower. We look forward to supporting our newest client as its deployments expand globally and its products evolve to include more IoT and M2M connectivity to offer increasingly proactive services which lower energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.”

 

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Find out more about ServicePower in the Field Service News Directory here 

 

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In a recent email promoting our latest research paper there was a slight error in the terms and conditions section.

Whilst the T&C's outlined in the email were correct in referring to Advanced Business Solutions unfortunately another company was name checked in the text preceding the link due to human error.

Field Service News would just like to confirm that the only commercial partner we have on the research project "Mobility tools in Field Service 2015" is Advanced Business Solutions.

Our apologies for any confusion caused.

New infographic from ServiceMax shows how the benefits of going on the offence...

Over the past 50 years, manufacturers have focused on efficiently making good products in order to maximise their returns at the moment of sale. However, in a globally competitive market, many products are now commoditised and margins are getting squeezed, diminishing the leverage from such production-centric approaches.

That’s where a service-centric business model comes into its own. Servitization transforms companies from production to service provider, shifting them to delivering advanced services, such as selection, consumables, monitoring, repair, maintenance, disposal, as well as the opportunity to increase service revenues even further by supporting existing third party or competitive products. This creates an ongoing relationship with the customer that effectively locks out competitors.

As a business model, servitisation isn’t a new phenomenon – the origin of the term dates back to the 1960s. However, against the back drop of a global recession, product commoditisation, shrinking product margins, and major technology advances in end-to-end service delivery, servitization is providing companies with an effective hedge against market downturns, and higher barriers of entry for competitors.

As a result, service is shifting from the spotlight to the limelight, becoming a powerful offensive business strategy for top line growth and competitive advantage.

 

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Moody Haulage, a Northumberland-based logistics, storage and warehouse business, has improved productivity across its fleet, after deploying a telematics solution from Masternaut.

Fleet managers at Moody Haulage are using Masternaut’s telematics system for vehicle tracking, and monitoring idling and fuel usage. Operating across its fleet of vehicles, ranging in capacity  from 3.5T, 7.5T 18T rigids to 44T artic curtain siders, Moody Haulage has reported a huge uplift in productivity since Masternaut’s telematics solution was installed.

Masternaut provides Moody Haulage with reports on idling and fuel usage to illustrate how fuel is being used, and wasted, across the fleet. This provides Moody Haulage with the tools to educate drivers on how to save fuel and be more efficient in future. Since implementation the firm has achieved double-digit fuel savings, as well as better vehicle utilisation.

 

The technology provides a real-time view of Moody Haulage’s fleet at any time, giving fleet managers full visibility of all vehicles. Fleet managers and customer service advisors are able to provide clients with precise updates on time of arrival, advise on delays, and find the closest driver to a job. The system is also used to prove a driver did attend a job should there be a dispute.

 

Providing powerful routing capabilities, the system is also helping drivers and fleet managers to find the fastest route to customer locations across the UK.

“In the logistics industry, it’s vitally important to ensure we are on time and give our customers the most accurate information possible, and Masternaut has provided a system that does all of the above and more. It’s been totally accepted and embraced by the drivers and is well used throughout the business,” commented Caroline Moody, Business Development Director, Moody Haulage.

“We’ve saved money by reducing the amount of fuel used and improving our scheduling and journey routing capabilities, a return which means the system pays for itself. The accuracy Masternaut provides is unparalleled and as a result, we’ve seen a huge uplift in productivity and efficiency among our fleet drivers.”

Steve Towe, Chief Operating Officer and UK Managing Director, added, “Offering products configured for HGV and Vans from the same platform and shared service has allowed Moody Haulage to make huge gains in productivity and efficiency. We are delighted to support them deliver significant service improvements to their customers.”

 

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Severn Trent Services has been using service management software supplied by Tesseract for nearly four years. In the latter months of 2014, they saw the wisdom of upgrading to the latest version of the software, Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1).

Already they are enjoying huge time savings and greater efficiency as a result of the new components available to them. UK-based Severn Trent Services is part of a major international conglomerate that in total serves 4.2 million households and businesses throughout the world. It is the leading national supplier of water and wastewater services to businesses in the UK, currently providing services to more than 1,500 sites nationwide.

Their work includes water hygiene services; controlling and maintaining assets such as sewage and water treatment works and sewage pump stations; and connecting water supplies to housing developments. Their national status means they have the capability to give businesses with multiple sites the ease, simplicity and efficiency of dealing with one supplier for all their locations.

Severn Trent use Tesseract to run their water hygiene service, which is a hugely important part of their work. Essentially they make sure businesses comply with water hygiene legislation by carrying out inspections, cleaning tanks and pumps, performing disinfections and conducting remedial works to bring water systems to the necessary standard.

Moving away from labour-intensive processes

Before the upgrade, Severn Trent only relied on Tesseract’s software to manage their customer contracts and invoicing. Their field service management depended on a variety of manual and labour-intensive processes. Several different software systems were used to manage the engineers – one for allocating the jobs, one for travel planning and one for collecting feedback, time capture and other data.

“Extensive manual intervention was required to make these systems work together properly,” says Jack Fleet, Water Compliance Scheduling Technician for Severn Trent Services. “This eventually became clunky and we saw that there was too much room for human error. It also took up a lot of office time.”

In July 2014, Severn Trent reviewed their business, looking at how timely and how efficient their processes were, and how they could serve their customers better. Having been using some components of Tesseract’s service management software for several years, they decided to extend that usage to field service management. They wanted one whole, cohesive software system managing their engineers instead of several. A field service management overhaul By upgrading to SC5.1, Severn

Trent are now benefiting from Tesseract’s Remote Engineer Access software (REA). This allows engineers to log in remotely from their i-Pads, view allocated calls for dispatch, look at the call history for a site, product or customer, raise parts requests, add service reports and close completed jobs - amongst many other functions. REA completely streamlines field service management and removes the bulk of manual interventions that were previously necessary to perform these functions.

 

Severn Trent also have the benefit of Tesseract’s flexible Email Service, which automates the sending and receiving of emails from Tesseract Service Centre. Severn Trent are using the Email Service to handle customer appointments and reports, but automated emails can be triggered by all kinds of activities, such as when calls are logged and closed, and parts have been shipped.

Finally Severn Trent are using Tesseract’s fully customisable Reporting Service, which enables customers to schedule and run reports at any time during the day or night.

A bespoke feature

Currently in development is a bespoke feature of the software, which Tesseract are producing especially for Severn Trent. This feature will help to assess whether certain site restrictions mean that specific engineers are required to attend them. For instance, the engineer might need to have a DBS check, a certain qualification or skill set, or a certain level of training to be able to work at the site.

Tesseract are looking at inserting some additional fields to the allocation software to help Severn Trent assign the right staff. “The good thing about Tesseract is their enthusiasm for customisation,” says Jack Fleet.

“They are developing this feature specifically for us because they are persistent in wanting to improve and expand what they offer. If this feature ends up working for us, it’s something Tesseract will make available to other customers.

In the same way, if Tesseract develop something for another customer and think it will work for Severn Trent, they will make it available to us.”

What does the future hold?

Tesseract’s SC5.1 went live at Severn Trent Services on December 1st 2014 and already Severn Trent have seen a massive saving in office time. Efficiency has improved enormously thanks to REA and the upgrade has made customer contracts and invoicing more effective and timely as well. Severn Trent have plans to install Tesseract’s Prospect Centre. This is a sales enquiry and action follow up module allowing for the registration of both existing customers and new sales leads so that sales activity can be monitored. It contains data such as the sales source, sales value, product required and next action date, and has a helpful ‘Salesman’s To Do List’ feature. Severn Trent also want to implement Tesseract’s Quote Centre, which enables sales teams to generate quotes and easily convert them into customer contracts once the quote is accepted.

 

However, Severn Trent’s more immediate priority is Tesseract’s Diary Assist, which they will incorporate in July 2015 in order to further streamline their field service management processes. Diary Assist is a centrally hosted web service for call optimisation which handles both planned and reactive maintenance calls. It allocates jobs to engineers based on skill sets, availability, travel time, customer site cover times and various other factors, and effectively automates the deployment process even further.

 

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Find out more about Tesseract in our directory section by clicking here

 

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