AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

With the growing reliance on digital business processes in most companies today, the IT department has more responsibility than ever. But, according to new research, businesses are disrupted within the first few minutes of an IT outage and poor communications management means finding the right person to investigate the issue can take as long as, or longer than resolving it.

Forty-five percent of IT professionals reported their business is impacted if IT is down just 15 minutes or less, and 17 percent said disruption occurs the instant an IT outage develops, according to new research from Dimensional Research. The “Business Impact of IT Incident Communications: A Global Survey of IT Professionals” report was commissioned by xMatters, inc., a leader in communication-enabled business processes.

However, 60 percent of respondents said it takes that same 15 minutes or more just to identify the right individual to respond to an issue. Nearly half of the IT professionals surveyed said it takes as long as or longer to identify the person as it does to resolve the problem.

Showing strong agreement that improved IT alerting systems benefit the business, 91 percent of those surveyed said poor incident communication increases downtime. Eighty-seven percent indicated that guaranteed alert delivery would accelerate issue resolution, and 85 percent said issue resolution would be accelerated by a response system that initiates steps with a single click on a mobile device.

[quote float="left"]Eighty percent of respondents said loss of digital data would have a more significant effect on the business than loss of buildings, vehicles or goods.

Eighty percent of respondents said loss of digital data would have a more significant effect on the business than loss of buildings, vehicles or goods. That illustrates the extreme importance of IT responsiveness to issues, yet a surprising 41 percent of the IT pros said they have ignored IT alerts and communications.

 

According to the report, part of the challenge with IT alerts and notifications is that often those notified had personal events that may compromise their responsiveness. A dynamic and automated system that could be updated based on team availability could generate better response by IT professionals, leading to better accountability and faster resolutions and minimised business impact.

In recent years, IT’s role has expanded from basic system support to enabling the business to facilitating online business, while supporting employees’ numerous devices.

The IT professionals indicated they are willing to do more. Ninety percent said IT can offer more strategic services to the business; 74 percent indicated IT expertise should be leveraged for other automated systems; and 77 percent acknowledged that the business thinks IT is too slow in resolving key issues.

The report concluded, “Businesses trust IT to keep critical systems running smoothly while securing highly valued data. But, when issues arise business stakeholders overwhelmingly feel that IT isn’t resolving them fast enough. Fast issue remediation will require that the right people be contacted efficiently based on availability and expertise.  This may indicate that the communications management alerting systems that have served IT in the past may simply not be able to support IT’s growing role and that a new solution is required.”

The survey polled over 300 IT professionals from the United States, Europe and Mexico. Participant companies came from a mix of sizes – from large enterprises with over 10,000 employees to medium-sized businesses with 1,000 employees – and from a variety of industries, including technology, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and more.

 

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Red Hat  a leading provider of open source solutions, today announced its vision to help organisations succeed in the mobile-first economy. Customers can take advantage of Red Hat’s experience and leadership in enterprise IT, and its portfolio of enterprise-grade open source technologies – including mobile capabilities from the recent acquisition of FeedHenry – to overcome their mobility challenges.

Mobility is increasingly becoming a top priority for business as a means to drive innovation and streamline operational efficiency; however, it is also creating demand for faster and continuous development cycles that challenge traditional IT infrastructure and development methodologies. To become mobile-centric, enterprises must evolve in a way that supports both the agility of new mobile initiatives and stability of core IT.

In response, Red Hat is focusing its enterprise mobility vision on four areas: platform architecture, developer experience, technology integration, and collaboration in two-track IT environments.

• Platform architecture: The public cloud or private Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)-based architecture of the Red Hat mobile platform facilitates agile development and DevOps processes, leverages RESTful APIs and microservices, and accelerates time-to-deployment to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Developer experience: A developer-centric approach that embraces modern toolchains, collaboration, and continuous development and integration allows organisations to use existing IT skill-sets for new mobile initiatives.
• Technology integration: Simplified integration of the platform with other enterprise middleware components, based upon a common REST API architecture, captures and stores new data generated by connected devices to help unlock the value in existing systems of record.
• Collaboration in two-track IT environments: Adopting a two-track IT approach, using mobile as the catalyst for building a “fast IT” organisation, helps balance agility with stability and fosters greater collaboration and cooperation between the two tracks.[/unordered_list]

Since accelerating into the enterprise mobile market with the October 2014 acquisition of FeedHenry, a leading mobile enterprise application platform provider, Red Hat has achieved several notable milestones in its mobile journey, including:

•  Release of platform enhancements for mobile Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and collaboration.
•  Integration of the platform into Red Hat’s award-winning integrated development environment (IDE), JBoss Developer Studio.
• Deployment of FeedHenry technology as a mobile service in OpenShift as part of Red Hat’s xPaaS strategy for cloud-based application development.
• Customers in industries ranging from manufacturing and transportation to workforce management are using Red Hat mobile technologies to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and extend critical enterprise systems to mobile devices.
• Recognition of the FeedHenry platform as the top Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS) in a sector analysis by GigaOM Research./unordered_list]

Red Hat plans to expand deployment options for the FeedHenry platform and roll out new integrations with the existing Red Hat middleware product portfolio, giving enterprises greater freedom of choice by extending its industry-leading capabilities across hybrid environments.

Commenting on the announcement Craig Muzilla, senior vice president, Application Platforms Business, Red Hat said “The mobile phenomenon has had a profound impact on the way we think and act and consume information in our daily lives.

 

That impact is now rippling throughout enterprise IT as organisations come face-to-face with the reality of doing business in a new ‘mobile first’ world, where speed and agility must be prioritised without forsaking the stability of core IT. Our vision is to help enterprises evolve in a digital world and provide them with an open and flexible architecture and the technologies that accelerate this transition.”

Chris Marsh, principal analyst, Enterprise Mobile App Strategies, 451 Research also commented stating “51% of organisations recently surveyed are further increasing their mobile budgets this year.

The enabling technologies are falling into place for companies to break out of the way they think about mobile from the silos in which it has traditionally resided, but the process needs to evolve to support this.

Over the past year, it has become clearer that traditional waterfall development across the software lifecycle is ill-suited to mobile, and that agile methods are more applicable."

 

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Field Service News is currently undertaking a research project into what types of mobility tool are being used by field service companies. What types of hardware and software are being used? How are companies selecting the right solution for their engineers? What feedback are their engineers giving them and what benefits are being delivered through digital mobility solutions? 

The survey is coming to a close at the end of this week so if you want to make your voice heard and enter the survey now by clicking this link. All respondents will get a full copy of an exclusive white paper based on the findings of this research and also thanks to our sponsors Advanced Field Service we are also offering three x £50 Amazon vouchers for those who opt to enter our prize draw.

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 50% 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 so far certainly raised a few surprises. Perhaps the biggest of this is that despite the high profile increase in tablet computing, of those companies responding to our survey so far only 4% are using tablets exclusively.

This is only fractionally greater than those companies using PDAs exclusively which was just 3%. However, if we think that PDAs were the dominant mobile device in the not so distant past it is interesting to see such a dramatic decline as these devices essentially become faded out to obselition.

Of course the natural successor to PDAs is the smart phone and the number of companies relying on smart phones only as their field service engineers' working tool was a relatively sizeable 14%.

 

However, despite the rise in prominence of the smart phone as a valid tool for field engineers, the most frequently provided tool in isolation remains the laptop with 32% of companies providing only these to their field engineers. Of course an argument could easily be made that laptops have been around for a much longer timeframe than both tablets and smart phones and many of those companies that currently provide laptops to their engineers may well move towards either smartphones or tablets eventually. However, for those engineers whose reporting is reliant on much manual data input there are still clear benefits of having a physical keyboard and the research certainly indicates the laptop is a long way from retirement.

 

Of course as alluded to above, many companies are using multiple devices, and it is highly likely that these companies are using more modern devices (i.e. smartphones and laptops) so this should also be taken into account in assesing the most common devices being used, however the trends of declining PDA use and increasing smartphone use certainly align with other industry reports.

The last few days of pen and paper

There are of course in any industry sector laggards that remain behind the industry trends. 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 3%.

Not only the is the group now just a very small minority but our research also indicated it is set to completley dissapear within the next tweleve months.

 

Of those companies still using pen and paper 100% stated they are considering moving to digital mobile platform within the next twelve months. The reasons for this are of course clear, as are the benefits of moving to a digital medium, including increasing productivity and streamlining a field engineers workflow. 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.

What about you?

How does this tally with your own situation? Let us know by taking five minutes to help us with this research by completing our online survey here.

And if you would like to know more about the findings of this research, which also looks at the types of software being used in the field, whether BYOD is taking hold, rugged vs. consumer technology and what types of decisions are being made in selecting the right digital mobile solution - then remember every respondent will receive copy of an exclusive white paper reporting these findings. PLUS you could also win of three fifty pound prizes!

The survey closes on 2/4/15 at 23:59 GMT so complete the survey now to make sure you get your copy of the white paper and a chance to win.

 

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this research is sponsored by:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Trimble has recently announced that it has added new features to its Field Service Management (FSM) solutions to significantly improve workflow visibility and streamline operations for businesses and their mobile workers in the field.

New features have been added to Trimble's Work Management solution, an intelligent scheduling engine and FieldMaster Technician, a downloadable mobile app that enables workers to access and update information in real-time. These solutions work together to enable real-time information sharing between mobile workers and the back office and are part of Trimble Horizon, a new dynamic platform for Trimble's FSM solutions and service. Cloud-based and modular, Trimble Horizon enables organisations to drive an agile, dynamic field service operation.

"Empowering workers in the field with the collaborative tools and immediate information they need to manage their day effectively is a necessity when delivering service out in the field," said John Cameron, general manager of Trimble Field Service Management.

 

"These workers are constantly looking to solutions that provide them with the instant visibility to get to the right place at the right time with the information they need to do their job correctly the first time. The enhancements we are announcing today are integral to creating a more streamlined workflow and enabling a more dynamic workforce."

Work Management - Intelligent Scheduling

The new Work Management 3.1 solution will now support multiple crew assignments and equipment bookings. Several technicians can be assigned to a task for improved efficiency. In addition, a scarce or specific piece of equipment can be booked against a task to help organisations better manage their assets and resources and increase first-time case resolution.

FieldMaster Technician - Mobile App

New features in FieldMaster Technician include the ability for a technician to copy or create a task on site so they can carry out and account for work immediately. Site history can also be accessed and viewed in the app, allowing the technician to arrive with the necessary knowledge of work previously carried out. Details of each crew member assigned to a task and the tools that have been booked can be viewed, enabling the improved visibility of resources. In addition, technicians are now able to upload forms and photos to attach to a task or job.

FieldMaster Technician 1.2 will also send the mobile workers' location from their GPS-enabled smartphone or tablet in real-time. This allows businesses to better understand the progress of their field operations and dispatch work based on a technician's accurate location.

 

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Xplore Technologies’ Sandy McCaskie asks whether the rising “consumer made rugged” approach can work for field service companies?

In an industry so exposed to mobile technology it was inevitable that consumerisation would have a huge impact on field service. Mobile phones, tablet PCs and intuitive, point solution apps have all been part of the FSM landscape for years.

And it is now clear that the consumer manufacturers have their sights set on the industry.

It is easy to understand why there has been such profound interest in this market. Gartner research puts the revenue for packaged field service dispatch and workforce management software applications, not including service revenue, at approximately $1.2 billion in 2012, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.7%.

Other analysts forecast the Global Field Service Management market to grow at a CAGR of 4 percent over the period 2012-2016.

 

Much of this growth has been driven and will continue to come from small and medium-sized enterprises and though high implementation costs could pose a challenge to the growth of this market, the clear commercial drivers are presently winning.

Top of this list of drivers is that an ever-more competitive landscape means service businesses are struggling to differentiate themselves to a customer base with expectations at an all-time high.

As the number of customer touch-points increases for every brand, services in the field are rapidly becoming the new frontline in the battle for competitive market share, playing a major role in customer satisfaction, brand reputation and customer retention and profitability.

Adding to this, logistical challenges, unpredictable fuel prices, incoming legislative requirements and environmental concerns make today a challenging time to run a service operation.

 

These service organisations will need to invest in a number of initiatives to tackle these elements. At the risk of sounding predictable, it is the technology at the heart of those customer interactions in the field that will be vital and needs most intense scrutiny.

In recent research, 88% of field service directors say say that increasing workforce productivity and utilisation is an important strategic objective but less than 20% had implemented fully automated scheduling, dispatch and mobility systems to deliver real-time visibility and control of field service

The research suggests that the need to integrate a diverse mix of often incompatible legacy systems is preventing many organisations from realising the full potential of technology to increase workforce efficiency, a crucial factor in achieving service excellence.

 

This is one half of the story - the other comes from the development of the rugged tablet market.

The rugged tablet market, has shown consistent quarterly growth upwards of 20% for the past two years, is showing signs of slowing. VDC anticipates that the rugged tablet market will top $500 million in 2014 and that the increased adoption of Android will present a growing opportunity as more enterprises move to adopt the OS for line-ofbusiness applications.

This is in comparison to the rugged handheld market, which represents the single-largest mobile computing category at nearly $600 million.

This battle between form factor is keenly fought in field service: recent VDC research showed that 89% of “field mobility” businesses deploy smartphones, 67% deploy tablets, 24% use a rugged handheld and 28% use a rugged tablet.

This dominance of consumer tablets over rugged tablets pervades all vertical markets, but so does the closeness of the figures of those deploying rugged handheld and tablets.

 

At the present time, in many cases the decision to deploy a rugged tablet is at the immediate expense of rugged handhelds, rather than a consumer tablet.

This can be best understood because rugged tablets offer a better “point of convergence” for all of the demands on the technology in the field, especially when compared to handhelds or even ruggedised smartphones.

However, there are some strong conflicting factors at play for the rugged tablet market at the present time - top of which is the need to develop more consumer-inspired designs versus maintaining legacy capabilities when dealing with verticals that are typically averse to change.

And of course, one of the problems with making a tablet that is built to last, is that refresh cycles are going to be further apart.

However, the fact remains that the enterprise tablet market, especially a rugged market that comes with added incentives of billable service, peripherals for workflow and strong customer loyalty is going to spark the interest of the major manufacturers.

Samsung has recently made strong attempts to secure rugged business.

Field service, alongside construction, is going to be a great proving ground to see if this “consumer made rugged” approach can work.

This is not just a simple case of ruggedised casing on existing consumer models.

Peripherals, be they data collection units, docks, carry bags etc are important considerations.

Small design nuances like a handle, stylus input and screen viewability will cause a lot of early changes for these consumer-based units. But much will come from the simple question of if these consumer-focused manufacturers understand the vertical markets in which they will operate.

Consumer taste changes fast. IT investment cycles do not. There is a reason for imposing standards such as software security or methods of data collection. The worry is that using consumer based units is – frankly - begging to have holes ripped into the fragile fabric of mobile data security.

 

A lot of the expertise (and therefore control) is in the hands of the channel and some manufacturers may not like that. And let us not forget that the rugged market is already dominated by a consumer name.

For those of us already engaged in developing ruggedised tablets for professional markets such as field service, we must view the the entrance of the large consumer manufacturers as a call to arms.

The response will be one of innovation, keen alignment to the demands of the industry, And perhaps one or two moments of disruption too.

 

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The next event put together by non-profit knowledge sharing organisation The  Service Community is to be held on the 16th April at the Fujitsu's Stevenage office located at:

• 14 Cavendish Road,
• Stevenage,
• Hertfordshire,
• SG1 2DY

Continuing on from the excellent sessions that have been held at previous events the agenda is once again packed with key figures from industry and academia sharing their insights into what makes great service.

The days agenda is as follows:

• 12:00 Arrival, Coffees
• 12.30 Welcome and Introduction: Martin Summerhayes, Fujitsu
• 13:00 Presentation 1:  Dr. Veronica Martinez, Cambridge Service Alliance. "Outcome  Based Service"
• 13:45 Presentation 2: Alex Bill, "Advanced Services in the Power Generation Industry: competing through advanced services" 
• 14:30 Networking break
• 15:15 Presentation 3: Des Evans, Honorary Professor Aston Business School and Former CEO MAN Trucks. "Acheiving 'disruptive' growth in the UK Commercial Vehicle market with outcome based services"
• Presentation 4: Chris Farnarth, Allocate Software. "Customer success and outcome based software services" 

Attendance is free of charge and these events have proved to be highly engaging and thought provoking sessions in the past so attendance is highly recommended. To arrange your attendance email The Service Community on this link.

 

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Security integration specialist Scottish Communications Group (SCG) has cut thousands of pounds from its annual fuel bill following the introduction of Fleetmatics’ fleet and vehicle tracking technology. The firm, a leading supplier of integrated security systems including CCTV, access control and digital radio communications, installed the Fleetmatics system and has reaped the rewards of reduced overheads and improved customer service over the past three years.

Scottish Communications Group was seeking real-time insight into the movements of its 10 field-based engineers, who serve commercial customers throughout Scotland and as far afield as the South East of England.

Liam Mowat, technical director of Scottish Communications Group, said: “We primarily decided to use a tracking solution so we could identify and assign support call-outs to the nearest available engineer, due to the fact that we cover such a large geographic customer base. Response times are very important in upholding the level of service that our customers expect, and the system has enabled our service desk to respond even more quickly and efficiently.”

An additional benefit of the system has been a significant reduction in fuel costs, which adds up to thousands of pounds over the course of a full year. “By utilising the nearest available engineer and ensuring they follow the optimal route to a customer site, we have reduced travel costs, which has been very significant at a time when we are growing as a company,” said Mr Mowat.

Further efficiencies have been secured by using the timesheet feature and fuel card integration module to save on administrative time and accurately correlate costs. “The system has enabled us to determine exactly how much fuel has been used on a particular job, how much time was spent and how efficiently we are operating, all of which had to be figured out manually before,” added Mr Mowat. “There’s absolutely no question that the system has more than paid for itself and I would highly recommend it.”

From a health and safety perspective, Scottish Communications Group is also using the Fleetmatics system to confirm that legal speed limits are always adhered to. The company also has the ability to provide evidence in any case where a complaint is made about driver performance, although this is not an issue that the company has encountered to date.

Scottish Communications Group, founded in 1979, has built such a reputation for outstanding customer service that it was awarded the coveted Royal Warrant for the supply of communications equipment to Her Majesty the Queen. In addition. The company has achieved the highest industry standard, NACOSS Gold, as well as holding many other industry accreditations.

 

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John Cameron, general manager of Trimble Field Service Management looks at how technology can play in a part in the whole field service cycle...

Mobile technology is redefining the workday as field technicians increasingly leverage mobile devices for tasks that previously required time-intensive phone calls and paperwork.

Today this technology is helping to streamline workflow by mitigating daily challenges that used to derail even the best laid plans. In a recent Aberdeen study, 82 per cent of organisations identified mobility as a strategic initiative to gather real-time intelligence for issue resolution. Clearly, this technology offers significant benefits in enhancing end-to-end processes. The following are five ways we see mobility transforming the workday:

1.     Operational Efficiency

Mobile devices and apps connect field workers to back-office personnel, customers and equipment, facilitating a real-time end-to-end flow of information that allows field service personnel to make critical decisions so they can move on to the next task expeditiously. At any one time, an in-day schedule change might require calling a dispatcher or having to drive back to the office to pick up paperwork, but with mobile technology, information is delivered to technicians’ devices, making them more efficient and better able to perform their tasks no matter where they are.

2.     Work-driven Collaboration

By connecting field techs with each other and back-office personnel, mobile technology keeps everyone within the organisation aligned. A truly mobile workforce transcends the limitations of geography. Workers can access information anywhere, anytime, regardless of their location, and in many cases, are more connected than if they were confined to a desk. From the field, they can use mobile devices to request information or assistance from other co-workers already in the field, preventing costly disruptions in their workday caused by trips to the office. The mobile worker can contact teammates in the event of a problem such as needing a part to complete a job. If a nearby co-worker has the part, the technician doesn’t have to waste precious time and fuel driving to a warehouse to retrieve it. It is this enhanced collaboration that leads to increased productivity and, ultimately, a more efficient workday.

3. Streamlined Service

Real-time access to route and schedule information and unplanned schedule updates help field technicians to not only get to their assignments faster but also helps them resolve issues more quickly. Mobile technology provides the technician with easy access to information such as customer and equipment repair histories, invoicing and billing issues, and locations of nearby technicians to request assistance in case of problems or to notify them of jobs at risk. This access solves the immediate issue and reverberates through the workday in the form of enhanced efficiencies, time management and increased service excellence – three of the key challenges facing field service organisations today. 

4. Enhanced Integration

While mobility is extremely valuable to field service organisations, the value increases exponentially when properly integrated with other platforms, including workforce management. Integration facilitates the real-time flow of essential information, automates tasks such as the capture of location and performance data and job-related notifications and allows immediate access to information such as invoices and customer histories. Greater integration leads to greater efficiency, which leads to streamlined operations and that leads to an enhanced bottom line.

5. Tactical Planning

Field mobile devices, in-cab equipment and M2M sensors attached to field machines constantly capture and transmit data to back-office systems, where it can be stored and analysed for optimal decision-making. Whether it’s proactive maintenance to mitigate equipment failure or enhanced routing and scheduling to increase productivity, quantifiable insights delivered by the data can make the difference between running a good operation and an excellent one. Data from the field helps refine operations and identify trends and areas for improvement, which leads to enhanced performance and happier customers.

For more information about the new FSM features, view Trimble’s interactive infographic for empowering the end-to-end field service workflow at: www.trimble.com/FSM/solutions

 

 

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At the recent AfterMarket conference in Amsterdam Field Service News Editor, Kris Oldland hosted a panel debate with three speakers key to servitization; Professor Tim Baines, Aston University a leading proponent of the movement, Brendan Viggers, Product and Sales Support for IFS Aerospace & Defence division who has worked closely with a number of companies such as Emirates on moving towards a servitization model and Koen D’Haeyer, Global Manager Service Development & Technical Services Lely who had been through the journey himself with Dutch Farm Technology company.

In the first part of this feature we looked at whether servitization was limited to just large size companies and how to manage the change involved in moving to such a radical new approach. Here in the final part of this feature the debate continues....

Kris Oldland: There is a point there that you touch on briefly about not just getting the buy in from the internal teams but also from the customer. Data can play a significant part in servitization and that presents a challenge in it’s own right, as data is very precious currently. How can we overcome that and encourage our customers to let us access their data?

Koen Dyaeyer: To start I’ll mention one thing, there is an aspect on this benchmarking data with your customers which is of course, that you are obliged to do this anonymously that is clear. You can tell the a customer ‘look this is your data this is the rest of the market and this is the variation’  but you cannot be open to all extents.

But the value is not in knowing exactly who is doing what, the value is in comparing yourself with others and knowing what to learn, and how to then improve.

On the other hand it is also true that you have to select your targets when your developing these value propositions. This approach may not fit every type of customer immediately. I would say twenty to thirty percent may adopt really quickly, really embrace it and are immeditely fond of the concept, another twenty to thirty percent will be lagging – it is not in their mindset and then the part in the middle is where you have to push. And when you have pushed and achieved the 80% mark then you can approach the laggards.  That is more or less how we approached it so we didn’t lose to much time and energy in developing it.

 

Brendan Viggers:  Certainly in the defence market the classic contracting model is performance based logistics where the OEM is providing a platform and then the through life support of the platform as well, so all the servicing that goes with it and they will then offer a SLA or guarantee the fleet availability for 80% of that time.

What we are finding is there is a need for partnership between the OEM and the customer. Because the OEM needs to know how the customer is driving that vehicle. If he is taking that tank and forcing it across a plain over the bounds of normal operational use then it’s going to cost that OEM more to service it. So can be a win-win but if you want that platform you need to be prepared to operate within acceptable bounds.

Koen Dyaeyer: To add to Brendan’s point there I would add that in our case we are looking for the win-win-win because we are in between but if we focusses on the win-win-wins we can really drive forward.

Tim Baines: This debate about ownership of data has been going on for over 10 years. To my mind its the use of the data that is important. I’ve seen it in Xerox’s case where they will turn around and say OK the contract price is this for an advanced services contract on print management but if you let us share that data and use that data it’ll come down to this.

Audience Question: What would you say are your most important KPIs to actually monitor and drive your service business today?

Koen Dyaeyer: The most important group of KPIs are the service profitability KPI’s we have data on overall revenues and data on cost indicators. We cannot always be exact with th eservice cost indicators to the penny but we know what it is likely to be. So the service profitability is a major KPI.

Then there is customer satisfaction. The first question we ask in every technical assessment is what type of customer do you think this is and also is he satisfied? So we link that data to understand the relationship of data to customer satisfaction.

 

Then for the operations we also have the performance KPIs of the product so mean time between failure, mean time between breakdown, some performance indicators specific to our industry so number of failed milkings for example that help us see if the farm management is running smoothly. So performance, customer satisfaction  and service profitability – these are the three main KPI group we use.

Kris Oldland: Have these KPIs evolved as you have moved through this process of servitization? Have they evolved as you gather more data and therefore Insight into your customers?

Koen Dyaeyer: Actually we started with maybe 8 or 10 basic KPIs and what we started to get excited about was the analysis we could do with them. We were able to look at the years of technical experience and see how that aligned to customer experience and service profitability. We learned a lot out of that initial process and then some new KPIs grew out of it .

Tim Baines: I may have seen something slightly different in some of the companies that I have looked at. A quote that comes to mind is by Henry Ford who said profit is a result of service. Therefore when I look at people like Alstom the number one KPI is around customer experience.

That means the customer experience, which in their instance would be the amount of time a customer is waiting because a train has failed to show up, that customer experience is the number one KPI.

For Alstom that’s key because it relates directly to the customers key core business process, which is about moving people. Then there are KPIs around the customer experience when somebody is onboard the train and so on. It’s the manufacturer that then translates those to mean time to failure etc.

What is very interesting to me coming from a world of production, where the main KPIs were cost, quality and  delivery and everything was around that then moving to the service world where KPIs are centred around the business processes of the customer, and because those customers differ so must those KPIs differ.

 

Audience Question: I am understanding this correctly that the fourth industrial revolution is about re using our IP and industrial assets to serve customers better?

Tim Baines: I think that we are looking at a very special form of organisation. What is particular about the technology innovators you see here is that if they have the internal procedures in place to capture how the product is performing in the field and then feedback to the design process so the product becomes better suited for application, then that innovation loop is what is distinctive about the manufacturing companies and is different to technology innovators.

Ultimately it means language like through life support  are actually a characteristic of the old product mentality, we’re talking about a capability being delivered. Indeed even the notion of After-sales service is a product based concept because we are thinking of the notion of  producing something selling it transactionally and then after sales.

Another point to make is that we talk about servitization from the point of view of a manufacturing company, a company that’s got technology innovation capabilities delivering advanced services. But we also have the phenomena of companies which are service companies, technology integrators, developing their ability to technology innovate.

So there are two ways that servitization can arise. Predominantly we talk about a move from manufacturers to manufacturers that deliver service but we can also talk about service providers developing their abilities to redesign products.

 

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