Firm's largest customer deal swells Q2 figures while management changes are announced.

The company have also announced changes to its executive leadership team structure with Mike Jerich joining as Chief Revenue Officer; Stacey Epstein stepping into a new role as Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer; Bettina Koblick joins as SVP of People and John Stetic has been promoted to the newly created position of SVP of Innovation and ISV Partnerships. 

Ashish Agrawal, SVP of Engineering, will continue to lead the product engineering, product security, and product support functions and Amit Jain, SVP of Product, will continue to lead to product management, product strategy. Simon Edwards, Chief Financial Officer, role will encompass IT and revenue operations and Bert Kaminski has joined the company as Chief Counsel. 

“I’m very pleased with our rapid growth this year and I’m incredibly excited by ServiceMax’s unique opportunity as the only pure play service execution vendor in the market,” said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. “I'm also thrilled to welcome new members to my leadership team as part of a strategic organizational structure that I’m confident will drive an increased focus on our customers and tighter alignment across our teams. Our number one priority is making every ServiceMax customer successful in their service transformation journey, enabling them to deliver unparalleled results.”

 

Guided Work Solution for Android devices improves voice order picking accuracy and productivity in small and medium warehouses.

Honeywell have announced two new resellers to help bring its Guided Work Solutions software offering to small and medium-sized distribution centres globally.

The company recently partnered with Consultare America LLC and Silver Touch Technologies to offer the fully-integrated voice-directed productivity solution to its customer base throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and India.

Based on Honeywell’s industry-leading Vocollect voice technology, Guided Work Solutions brings the benefits of voice-guided workflows to smaller DC operations. The solution integrates with leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software — such as SAP Business One and Microsoft Dynamics 365 — and leverages existing warehouse technology investments.

“Our new partnerships with Consultare and Silver Touch Technologies allows us to expand the reach of Guided Work Solutions to an ever-growing base of businesses around the world to help improve their day-to-day operations,” said Bill Birnie, general manager of voice solutions for Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions. “Our bundled, turnkey voice solution can allow distribution operations become more efficient by adding a voice component to their existing warehouse management system.”

Both resellers are proficient and have extensive knowledge of business processes and systems, having consulted with and installed ERP software in hundreds of companies across the world.

Consultare specialises in SAP Business One and is focused on implementing solutions for professional services, retail and wholesale distribution in the United States and Latin America. The company helps customers to manage their companies more efficiently, utilise their resources better and obtain better and faster information out of their systems.

“Consultare is honoured to be part of the Honeywell reseller family,” said Gustavo Zientek, CEO of Consultare America LLC.  “Honeywell’s Guided Work Solutions will enable us to provide our customers with the newest and best technology available to run their warehouses efficiently.”

Silver Touch Technologies is an accredited SAP business and Microsoft Gold Certified partner specialising in the implementation, support and development of ERP software in the United States, Europe and India. The company provides solutions encompassing technical needs including IT consulting, system integration services and software development.

“Silver Touch is delighted with this new partnership, which allows us to offer our customers state-of-the-art technology from Honeywell,” said Kunjan Jasani, director at Silver Touch Technologies. “This helps us extend the capabilities of our warehouse management system offering, making it a true best-of-breed solution.”

Easily configured and quickly deployed, the hands-free, eyes-up solution guides a worker through a variety of warehouse tasks, from picking to receiving, replenishment and put-away. Customers have seen 35% productivity gains, 50% error reductions and 20% fewer safety incidents — all while cutting training time in half.

The software runs on a wide range of compatible hardware, including Honeywell’s mobile computers and other Android mobile devices. The Android operating system provides support for multiple interfaces including voice, scanning and keypad.

Guided Work Solutions is the latest in an award-winning portfolio of voice solutions for large enterprises, Android and iOS based solutions and maintenance and inspection applications for fleet and asset management.

Nearly 1 million mobile workers use Honeywell Vocollect voice solutions in distribution centres around the world. More than 80% of the top supermarket chains in North America have deployed Honeywell’s voice technology. The technology has been shown to increase warehouse worker productivity up to 35%, while reducing errors by up to 25%.

Parsons Peebles have appointed Fleet Operations to manage its 195-strong van and car fleet.


The electromechanical specialist Parsons Peebles is looking to introduce greater consistency, efficiency and governance across all areas of its fleet, following a series of recent company acquisitions and has selected Fleet Operations to manage its van and car fleet.
Fleet Operations will oversee its leased van and car contracts, the introduction of new company car and green fleet policies, a ‘pay as you go’ maintenance contract, a new fuel card scheme and a standardised telematics system.





“The high levels of expertise and service delivered by Fleet Operations’ consultants made them an obvious partner of choice for both our business and our drivers as we strive to improve cost, process and environmental efficiencies,” said Ashleigh Greenan, Parsons Peebles’ Chief Financial Officer.
“We are confident that by streamlining and optimising our fleet operations this deal will serve to make us even more competitive while further boosting our customer service standards.”
Jayne Pett, Sales and Marketing Director, Fleet Operations, added: “We are delighted Parsons Peebles has entrusted us to take full responsibility for the day-to-day management of its fleet and to deliver real added value by implementing our tailored and far-reaching strategic recommendations.”

In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector.
In the first of a new four part series, we turn our attention to dynamic scheduling where our panel includes FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and Fast Lean Smart's Chris Welsh...

Given the increasing challenges of last-mile service delivery, how crucial is optimised scheduling for field service excellence?

Marc Tatarsky, SVP Marketing, FieldAware
As markets become hyper-competitive, service delivery has become a key differentiator in winning and retaining customers.
Delivering consistent, high-quality service in the last mile is essential. New sources of competition are entering from different verticals, and service organisations are required to support a broader range of products, service offerings, and customers across both metropolitan and rural regions.

These increasing competitive pressures have service organizations turning to optimized scheduling to improve the delivery of their service commitments. Optimized scheduling now encapsulates the workflows, decision-making processes, and the criteria service providers use to execute on the customer journey and create genuine differentiation consistently.  

Key to this approach is new generation optimisation engines. These modern optimisation tools provide the ability to configure “micro scheduling.” These new tools enable providers to uniquely configure optimisation capabilities to support different team sizes, multiple product lines, as well as regional and seasonality needs.

This approach of building business policies that reflect optimisation needs at an atomic level provides the basis for rapid time to value. Micro scheduling not only facilitates efficient execution of the initial implementation, but it also helps with the introduction of new service lines, products, and regions. It enables service providers to react to and create a competitive advantage based on changes in the market and seasonal demands.

Chris Welsh, Director, FLS – FAST LEAN SMART
Last mile service delivery has always relied on good scheduling for field service excellence. With increasing pressure to achieve more with less and time-window/SLA expectations shortening, it is harder than ever to achieve this well without a schedule optimiser.

The best scheduling technology will not only plan accurately but also have ability to dynamically react in real-time to the progress of travel and work changes on the day. Engineer job allocation will re-optimise automatically to ensure priorities, including emergency jobs, are best met within available resources, highlighting SLA’s or appointments that will be missed so a Planner can override by exception.

This dynamic operation does not suit all service businesses and the technology is flexible. For example, many appointment based companies want the schedule finalised and ‘fixed’ for engineers the night before.

In this case the system will display real-time progress and give accurate prediction of when appointment windows will not be met or the engineer late home. By exception, the company may then decide to reassign using system recommendations.

The further importance for optimised scheduling is the ability to provide auto notification of arrival times and Uber-style tracking the engineer’s arrival by the customer on their phone. FLS were ahead when we launched this with FLS Portal last year and the function is increasingly an expectation for field service. 

The second part of the big discussion will be published next week, when the panel are asked if optimised scheduling should be an accepted part of a wider FSM platform.

UK re-sellers can choose from a range of Vehicle Cradles, 1-Slot, 4-Slot and 12-Slot Desktop Cradles and Heavy Duty Suction Mounts, compatible with leading brand Mobile Computers including Honeywell, Janam, Opticon and Zebra.

Products are highly customisable as several variations are available on the 4-Slot and 12-Slot Desktop Cradles. The device-specific cradles are interchangeable and can easily be swapped, serviced or replaced. It is also possible to customise CarComm’s Vehicle Cradles by selecting the required cable length, connectors and mounting solutions to suit customer requirements.

Commenting on the partnership Bas Geurts Sales and Marketing Manager CarComm said: "Varlink is a well-established British company with a wealth of experience in this industry. We believe that Varlink will bring an unprecedented level of service and value by being locally placed to assist with any sales related, technical or project queries and requests."

Mike Pullon, Varlink's CEO said: “The demand for rugged devices continues to grow and we are pleased to add CarComm Enterprise Charging Solutions to our product portfolio. Our customers will be able to offer highly customisable charging solutions for a range of major Mobile Computing brands and users can trust their charging cradles will function in the most demanding environments” 

 

In today’s connected world everything from phones to fridges have become smart. In service logistics we are now seeing the smart locker coming to prominence. But how exactly do they work and what benefits do they bring to field service? Claudine Mosseri, General Manager, ByBox brings us up to speed...

We live in a time of smart everything, any one of us uses a number of smart devices daily. Chances are you own a smart phone or smart TV; maybe you have a smart watch, meter or even a smart home. Smart has become a ubiquitous word in the modern age, so it should come as no surprise that lockers have now received the ‘smart’ treatment. Having provided a field service distribution network based on locker tech for over 20 years, we consider ourselves experts on the matter. As technology has adapted, so have we and so have our lockers; now truly smart and app-based for a fully connected field service supply chain.

What makes something smart? Simply put, it’s the making of a device or object interactive with other connected devices or objects; enabling them to talk back to us and/or each other. Making otherwise inanimate things smart! For example, a house is just bricks and mortar but add an interactive camera, heating control from your phone, a home hub and so on, and then your house becomes ‘smart’. Now let’s consider what makes a big grey locker smart. Give it the right tech to interact with other systems via the cloud, enhanced Bluetooth rollingcode encryption, battery maintenance censors and mobile phone apps to obtain detailed transactions and it too becomes ‘smart’!

Here are a few areas that we believe give a Smart Locker its credentials…

Access control is key!

By their very nature all lockers need some sort of system to secure the goods inside. Often this will be a physical key or keypad. We too have used these methods to provide access to lockers. However, both key and keypads come with security and audit trail issues, as well as lacking closed-loop visibility of part movements. How many times have you or someone you know lost the keys to the house or car, even if it’s for a frantic half an hour while you search? Well, imagine managing a large volume of keys to an entire network or trusting your engineers – full-time or contracted – with their own set. And, what if they call in sick and access needs to be granted elsewhere?

Also, if an engineer is dismissed obtaining the key can prove difficult and slow down productivity. Furthermore, key entry lacks the true ability to run audit trails. In the same vain, pin codes for keypad entry systems carry very similar pain points. They are difficult to manage access control across your network, revoking access can be challenging and they lack audit trails as well as various security measures. Doing away with keys and pin codes, our cutting edge Smart Lockers favour secure Bluetooth access via an app; equipped with enhanced Bluetooth rolling-code encryption to ensure robust locker security.

"Smart Lockers offer the ability to scan items in and out using a mobile app that updates the operating platform in real-time..."

Our Thinventory^TM operating platform controls which engineers can access what doors; by using the app an engineer is given access to the right door. What’s more, when the part is delivered the engineer receives a message that it’s ready for collection, saving time and money. All this data is stored in the cloud, so customers know exactly what has been accessed and when.

Obtain end-to-end visibility

Never over order stock again due to a lack of visibility. Smart Lockers offer the ability to scan items in and out using a mobile app that updates the operating platform in real-time, giving you full access to what’s going on in your supply chain. In ByBox’s case the opening of the locker and the scanning of parts in and out is tied together, so it’s harder for mistakes to be made. With returns also made back into the locker, your engineer can select its condition – good, bad, repair, warranty – enabling you to speed up your returns process and better manage inventory. If stock isn’t returned, you can easily track where it is.

Smartly power up

A Smart Locker can’t be smart if it’s down and batteries play a fundamental part in keeping all this smart tech working! Using sensors to constantly monitor the performance of a battery and highlight any blips, means that the main ‘potential’ point of failure doesn’t become one as alerts are sent back to the operating system. So, while you may own a smart watch or smart TV, you can now own a smart field service locker network that gives you better functionality, process improvements and usable data.

Want to see our Smart Lockers in action? Email Marketing@ByBox.com and we’ll arrange a demo.

 

Mize have published a new whitepaper called, Service Knowledge Management - The Key to Improving First Time Fix.

Providing your customers with a great Service Experience is a function of your field service technician’s ability to quickly fix problems right the first time.  

 

Unfortunately, technical know-how is getting harder and harder to come by.  

While this information may exist in your company, the knowledge assets may be difficult for technicians to find or access it in a timely manner. 

 

Mize have developed an optimal solution that helps FSOs overcome this challenge which results in:

• Higher Technician Productivity, 
• Reduced Support Costs 
• Improved First Time Fix rate. 
• Enhanced Customer Experience 

 

To learn more, download the new whitepaper from Mize here.