AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Mark Glover

Are we on the cusp of a revolution or are we experiencing evolution? We spoke to Paul Joesbury, Operations Manager at HomeServe and Chris Proctor, CEO at FSM Software provider Oneserve and got their thoughts on IoT, automation and the general attitude towards new technology adoption...


The impact of technology has been felt far beyond service. Homeserve’s Paul Joesbury worked in finance before joining the utility company “I look back and reflect on my time in finance,” he recalls, “many of the tasks were done manually, like ledger reconciliations, which are all automated now. Previously it would take a bank of humans that would take the best part of a week to reconcile something and now it’s pretty much done with the touch of a button.”

The Operation Manager continues, adamant that his current sector should benefit from the same progress “So why should service operations be different? The technology, I think, is pretty much already there. It’s how it can be applied in a cost-effective way which is going to be the challenge for organisations.”

Chris Proctor is another great believer in technology but he suggests firms should adopt technology for the right reasons. “A lot of companies are trialing new technology at the moment, but it comes down to when it is absolutely necessary, and at what point does the use-case become really tried and really tested.” However, the Oneserve CEO is concerned about the pace of adoption generally in the sector. “I might be lambasted for saying this but I don’t think there has been much innovation,” he says, aware of the statement’s brevity. “It’s disappointing that the last real innovation in field service management was moving to the cloud and even then, I don’t think everyone is fully there yet.”

It’s a bold claim, yet one that has substance. The industry has been accused before of lagging when it comes to embracing disruptive, digital technology. “I think one of the biggest problems the industry has is properly understanding the trajectory of new technology,” he explains. “There’s this concept of necessity being the mother of all inventions and I think there’s a really good point in that. A lot of industries and a lot of sectors are having to go through a lot of change. In the UK there’s so much uncertainty in so many pockets at the moment, trying to make big decisions on how you engage with new technologies is very difficult.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Joesbury who feels the role of technology will slowly phase out that of the engineer...but not quite yet. “I definitely think in five years’ time that there will still be humans around,” he ponders, “but I think we’ll be doing different roles, and I think the important aspect over the next five years is to learn to trust the technology and equally for the technology to work and we’ve got to embrace that. After that you’re on a journey searching for the next big leap of faith but where does it come from? I’m not sure if service operations is going to be the market leader in this space, but I definitely can see lots of value potential, I think we just have to open our hearts a little bit and embrace it.”

"The impact of technology has been felt far beyond service..."

The society that technology operates in can also influence how it is executed. We are on the cusp of a younger generation who expect everything to work first time. The way in which people communicate is also changing, to a point where digital messaging is superseding vocal interaction.

If the trend is to continue then service will have to adapt to this way of communicating and reflect that in its technology usage. Where does Proctor see the service sector heading? Will there be a fundamental shift in approach as more young people enter the arena? Servitization and the gig economy, he predicts, will have an impact on the way services are delivered. Most likely through a subscription-based model, complimented by disruptive innovations and delivered by freelancers who, in order to maintain their personal brand, deliver consistent service excellence. “I can see a world where most of your services are consumed on a subscription-type basis. You contact your service provider who then uses technology similar to programmatic advertising whereby contracts are tended and bid for and secured within seconds, all underpinned by blockchain.” he says.

The role of blockchain in IoT and its evolution will surely be an important one. As more devices connect with one another than security becomes more of an issue, however Blockchain could provide the ring fence Iot needs. However, Proctor, a passionate advocate for blockchain, wants quicker adoption. “I think there are lots and lots of limitations of how we are going to bring [blockchain] in,” he says. “In exactly the same way that iOT and AI is a technology set that people don’t fully understand. There is a lot of hype around how it can help service but when you scratch under the surface, it’s just a hypothesis,” he pauses, “it has the ability to be truly, truly game changing.”

Blockchain, IoT and AI are all huge potential disruptors in the service sector. IoT could, over the next few years, become something that pushes the boundaries of what we now see as traditional service. As Paul Joesbury said, it’s about “trusting and embracing what is available”. Perhaps then will we witness a number of game changing moments.

Game on! 

Zinier’s Intelligent Service Automation and Control (ISAC) Uses Machine Learning to Help Field Service Organizations Optimize their Operations and Scale More Efficiently. 

Zinier has announced Intelligent Service Automation and Control (ISAC), an AI-driven platform enabling field service organizations to operate more efficiently. Through its machine learning and analytics capabilities, ISAC helps organizations optimize every aspect of their field service operations, resulting in the highest levels of automation-driven outcomes.

As the volume and complexity of field service requests continue to rise, field service organizations are looking for ways to drive efficiency and lay the groundwork for continued growth. At the same time, technology trends such as 5G in telecom and a sharp increase in the number of IoT-connected devices are creating a flood of new data streams, forcing organizations to move away from manual methods of collecting, analyzing, and acting on data.

Zinier’s ISAC platform uses machine learning to analyze data and provide real-time insights, driving productivity and enabling customers to inject automation into every step of the service delivery chain. By comparing a constant flow of field data against historical trends, ISAC is able to recommend the best course of action at any given time. And with a flexible, open architecture, customers can easily apply AI to specific use cases, whether it’s scanning a closeout package for anomalies or recommending a stock transfer by predicting parts required for a work order and an individual technician’s parts on-hand.

“After reviewing a number of solutions, we determined that Zinier was the only one that met all our requirements for flexibility and end-to-end automation,” said Luis Miguel Diaz Ortiz, Head of Telecom & Technology, Mexico at NCR Corporation. “ISAC's AI and automation capabilities will help us manage infrastructure and work more proactively. We consider it a terrific investment in providing better service.”

With ISAC as the foundation, field service organizations can easily build AI solutions for the use cases most important to them. All they need to do is determine the scope, criteria, and threshold for AI recommendations, and ISAC will take it from there.

“Most companies are looking for ways to drive automation and turn data into actionable insights, but execution remains a challenge,” said Arka Dhar, co-founder and CEO of Zinier. “With ISAC, we’re helping our customers fully embrace automation by giving them a highly configurable tool that can be applied to their specific needs, driving efficiency and providing recommendations based on real-time data and user feedback.”

Key features/benefits of ISAC include:

• Flexible, Configurable Platform: Unlike legacy solutions that can take months to update, ISAC was designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. Instead of being limited to a few use cases, customers can easily configure the features to apply AI to their operations by defining criteria and letting ISAC evaluate data accordingly.
• Real-Time AI Recommendations: ISAC is constantly running in the background, observing user actions and providing recommendations. In some cases, ISAC will immediately implement a recommendation once it has been accepted by the user. In other cases, it will suggest a course of action for a back-office coordinator or field technician.
• Seamless Integrations: Organizations can easily connect all of their critical systems using Zinier’s set of APIs and integrations, ensuring that all relevant information is factored into each recommendation and insight.

Knowledge retained by those retiring from the service industry is set to be one of the sector’s biggest concerns over the next five years. Mark Glover speaks to Sarah Pettigrew from Thales UK, who through investment in technology and apprenticeships – as well as a more positive approach to mental health – is hoping to plug the gap... 


According to research from Service Council, put together by Sumair Dutta, over 70 per cent of service outfits expressed fears around a retiring workforce. The study, called A Sustainable Field Service Workforce – Successfully Navigating the Retirement Crisis was published in April 2017, and some two years on it seems the crisis is in full flow.

Sarah Pettigrew is Head of Delivery Service at Thales UK and in a case-study, presented at Field Service Connect in May she suggested ways in which a service team can be built and retained while operating in the challenges an ageing workforce brings.

Part of that process, she says, is to accept and understand the situation that service finds itself in. “One of the first things to do is to acknowledge that it is actually an issue and it is a challenge for our business,” she tells me as a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast.

The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employees, who were perhaps reluctant to adapt to digitization and content in paper-led processes. Citing one of her own projects, Sarah explains the sector’s failure to act on the issue despite being aware of the consequences is a reason why the industry is now chasing itself to make sure this knowledge is passed on. “One of the contracts I look after has been running for twenty years,” she says. “We’ve had staff on this for a very long time and they have key amounts of knowledge. One of the things we’ve lacked in field service is actual knowledge transfer which people have retained. They’ve gone out and done same job for a long, long time and we’ve encouraged them to do that.”

To negate the leak, Thales and other firms are making sure that internal workforce knowledge is archived digitally, transferred to worker’s smart devices. By using technology Sarah hopes that processes will become less paper-reliant. “This isn’t about writing really long documents that are going to sit on a shelf, this is about making it accessible,” she says. “We’re using wikis so the information is getting into the palm of their [the workers’] hands. That’s one of the things we’ve really taken on board and looking to grow this year.”

As well as investing in technology the company are focusing on apprenticeships in order to shake up the current demographic of employees, however with the industry also struggling to encourage new blood, I ask why should a school or college leaver view the sector as a valid vocation? “It’s about seeing field service as a career and where it can take you. We’ve seen people from apprenticeship programmes go all the way up to CEO level,” she offers.

"The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employee..."

Of course, in any company, employees differ in their attitudes to work with some wanting to grow and advance in their career with others content to come in every day and do a good job, something Sarah has identified. “You can’t forget about the individual,” she says. “All of this is about getting to you know your people and getting to understand their needs, getting them engaged in these development conversations. “It’s really important that we actually engage folks into that element of the excitement of what they do and also thinking about the customer. For me, it’s all about the customer and that interaction with the customer and how we can actually nurture that relationship.

We discuss employers’ attitudes towards their workers’ wellbeing and how attitudes around mental health, for example, have changed positively and had a positive affect on the person and also the business. “When you think about field service staff, you don’t necessarily see them sitting down and having a conversation around mental health. The big thing for me is working with people, particularly in service. My people are the heart of what we do and sitting down and having a cup of tea with them a break on their shift is really important and engaging with them and understanding what their challenges are, because if I can do something to make their lives easier, it will also benefit the business throughout.”

She continues: “It’s a cliché - happy staff means happy customers – but it’s true. They [field staff] probably touch more of our customer base than we ever will. It’s about that interaction they have and how they take it forward.”

I ask Sarah what she enjoys about her role; what potential employees could expect on a day-to-day working at somewhere like Thales. “There’s great variety in the work we do; both in London for our London-centric clients and also across the UK,” she says. “I came from a project management background and have been with Thales for seven years. I came here because of the diversity in the challenge.”

And what about the knowledge gap challenge in service, the premise of this piece. What should firms keep sight of? “It’s all about our people and the ability for our people to go and deliver that service,” she says, “They’re all key to the way we take ourselves forward.” 

Location and mobile technology company, Localz, have been announced as the latest software partner for Castleton Technology Plc. benefiting housing associations within the tech firm's portfolio.

Housing Associations within the Castleton portfolio will gain insight to their operations and new service transparency to their customers through Localz location technology ‘Find My Engineer’, which tracks an engineer's journey to a job, viewed by the customer.

Ian Stewart, Commercial Sales Manager for Castleton commented: “With an industry average of 20% failed appointments and each failed appointment costing up to £100, it is business critical for Housing Authorities to reduce the time wasted and costs incurred associated with these failed appointments to improve services for social housing customers. Our partnership with Localz will help our customers achieve this objective”.

The ‘Find my Engineer’ solution provides the ultimate transparency by giving customers access to real-time location tracking when the operative is en route. Accurate ETAs are provided, which take live traffic conditions into account. Localz own research shows that 65% of consumers say that viewing their service provider’s ETA is the most important feature on a service provider’s mobile app.

Localz client portfolio includes the largest UK energy provider, British Gas, who achieved a 17% increase in the first-time access rate of their engineers through Localz platform.  

“Localz’s exciting new partnership with Castleton demonstrates their continued drive to innovate in the social housing sector. The integration of our “On my way” technology into their leading housing management solutions, provides not only increased productivity savings for their customers but a great customer experience for the tenants also," said Charles Bullock, Partnership Director, Localz.

British Safety Council’s report makes the case for urgent action on the impact of air pollution on outdoor workers.

The British Safety Council has launched a report Impact of air pollution on the health of outdoor workers which provides compelling evidence to recognize ambient air pollution as an occupational health hazard in Britain. In the report, the charity presents the demands that spearhead its campaign to limit the dangers of air pollution to the health of outdoor workers.

Air pollution, linked with up to 36,000 early deaths a year in the UK, is considered the biggest environmental risk to public health. Research from King’s College London suggests that more than 9,400 people die prematurely due to poor air quality in London alone. Ambient air pollution is linked to cancer, lung and heart disease, type-2 diabetes, infertility and early dementia.

Several pilot schemes are beginning to monitor and measure the levels of air pollution experienced by people working and living in London. Their findings will be instrumental in developing recommendations for reducing people’s exposure to air pollution in the capital.  

However, at the same time, the government and regulatory bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), continue to demonstrate a lack of interest in relation to regulation and guidance on air pollution.  

In March 2019, the British Safety Council launched its Time to Breathe campaign, which is focused on the protection of outdoor workers from air pollution. The cornerstone of the campaign is Canairy, the first mobile app that gives outdoor workers and their employers insights into pollution and how to reduce staff exposure to it. It has been created in co-operation with King’s College London. Canairy draws on the London Air Quality Network (LAQN) pollution map at King’s and the worker’s GPS to calculate an individual’s exposure to pollution on an hourly basis.  

The British Safety Council’s report Impact of air pollution on the health of outdoor workers is the next step in the campaign. It gathers available evidence about the causes and consequences of air pollution in Britain. It also reviews international examples of initiatives set up to measure air pollution in different locations and their recommendations for risk reduction.

In the report the British Safety Council is calling for:

1. The UK to adopt the World Health Organisation’s exposure limits for the main pollutants;
2. Government action to ensure ambient air pollution is treated as an occupational health issue and adopt a Workplace Exposure Limit for Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions (DEEE);
3. Improvements to pollution monitoring across the UK, so that all regions can have the same accuracy in emissions data as London;
4. Recognition that protection from the dangers of air pollution should be enshrined in law as a human right.

Lawrence Waterman, Chairman of the British Safety Council, said: “The impact of air pollution on people working in large cities is starting to be recognised as a major public health risk. However, we are yet to see any true commitment to addressing this issue by the government and the regulators.

“The Time to Breathe campaign, together with our recent report, is a call to action for policymakers, regulators and industry leaders. The social and economic implications of ambient air pollution are clear. It must be recognised as an occupational health hazard, much like some toxic substances such as asbestos. Breathing clean air is not a privilege but a basic human right for the thousands of people who are undertaking vital work outdoors.”

Pegasystems study shows huge disconnect between business decision makers and customers when it comes to customer service perceptions.

Businesses are out of touch with their customers and overestimate the quality of the customer service they provide, according to new research from Pegasystems Inc. the software company empowering digital transformation at the world’s leading enterprises.

Research firm Savanta surveyed 12,500 global customers, businesses executives, and customer-facing employees for a one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional perspective on the state of customer service today. The research identified key customer service frustrations and revealed that many businesses don’t know their customers well enough to provide the level of service their customers want.

It also found that many organizations aren’t fully committed to providing the level of service they aspire to and run the risk of losing customers to competitors as a result. The good news? Customers, employees, and business leaders all agree on what matters most, so a clear roadmap exists.

Key findings of the study include:
• Business decision makers are out of touch:
Four times the percentage business leaders (40 percent) as customers (10 percent) rate the current standard of customer service as ‘excellent,’ while only 23 percent of customer-facing staff rate their organization’s service the same way. Similarly, an overwhelming 89 percent of decision makers and 73 percent of employees feel their organization provides an overall positive level of customer service, but only 54 percent of customers feel the same way. In addition, 71 percent of business leaders think they provide better customer service than their competitors – a number that is mathematically impossible to achieve.

• Are businesses really committed to providing good customer service?
While 81 percent of business decision makers consider customer service as either their main or key competitive differentiator, 33 percent of customer-facing employees say they face no consequences for providing bad customer service. Meanwhile, 48 percent of customer-facing employees say they face barriers to providing good service.

• Poor service is driving customers mad:
88 percent of customer-facing employees say that customer service is a priority within their business, but the customers tell a different story. Only 11 percent of consumers say contacting customer service is an enjoyable experience. Of those who are dissatisfied, 63 percent would rather clean the toilet than contact a customer service team. Only 10 percent say their typical customer service experience is ‘excellent.’

• Customers feel like organizations don’t know them well enough:
Despite 87 percent of business decision makers believing they know their customers well, the vast majority of consumers feel differently. Just 23 percent of consumers say businesses understand them as a person and their customer service preferences ‘extremely well,’ while 63 percent think organizations should make getting to know them better their top priority.

• Poor customer service can cost businesses customers:
Seventy-seven percent of customers agree the standard of customer service they receive is a major determining factor in their brand loyalty. In addition, 89 percent say receiving poor customer service from a business damages their impression of the brand. Significantly, 75 percent also say they have previously stopped doing business with an organization because of poor customer service. Forty-four percent report that if they receive a negative customer service experience, they immediately stop the purchase and move to another vendor. Despite this, only 35 percent of business decision makers say they lose customers ‘all the time’ or ‘fairly regularly’ as a result of providing poor customer service.

• Customers know what they want:
Consumers highlighted specific areas of frustration within customer service -- providing businesses with a clear roadmap for improvement. Their top three frustrations include taking too long to receive service (82 percent), having to repeat themselves when switching between channels or agents (76 percent), and not knowing the status of the query (64 percent). When asked what made for a positive customer service experience, 59 percent agree that a quick resolution of their issue or question mattered most, followed by a need for knowledgeable service agents (48 percent) and a fast response (47 percent).

“Good customer service can be the difference between success and failure. This study tells us that organizations still have a long way to go before they are able to fully meet the expectations of their customers,” said Tom Libretto, chief marketing officer, Pegasystems. “The good news is that there is overall agreement on what matters most. Solutions are available to help businesses understand and proactively address customer issues, while also arming customer-facing staff with the tools they need to provide more contextual, relevant, and knowledgeable service. Customers win, employees win, and positive business outcomes are delivered as a result.

Spare parts, once the lifeblood of company’s service-centred ethos, is being challenged by the sector’s move to servitization. Will the next 12 months see firms cannibalise their spare parts programme or will the supply chain management see a new framework that combines a selection of cost-models? Mark Glover finds out more... 

How do you deliver the right part, at the right time and at the right price? If you work in supply chain management, then you’ve probably seen and wrestled with these questions. Historically, the spare part transaction was a simple one: a customer needed a component that had failed, they phoned up the company, ordered and paid for the part. Transaction complete.

However, the sector’s shift to a servitization model rather than the traditional transactional-based framework has seen many companies cut their losses and cannibilise their components to align with SLAs.

In the era of servitization, the cost associated with asset failure is having a substantial impact on balance sheets. Income from replacement part sales is now considerably less than the loss accrued from downtime. The priority now is to get an asset back running as quickly as possible and if parts are struck out in the process, then so be it; the numbers will eventually balance out.
It means that a cost-plus approach to spare-parts is losing validity.

The price of producing a part and adding the profit on top is being usurped by a more value-based approach - that is, a cost based on the ultimate value to the customer. Or as a firm enters another vertical – as is common in service – will they align with a different approach such as a market-based strategy?

In short, making money from selling parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was. As well as modifying itself to the shifting nature of the sector it serves, spare parts must contend with other factors that are disrupting the transactional sphere it has felt so comfortable operating in such as E-commerce and 3D Printing.

E-commerce, for example, works best in a market-based strategy. Here it can snuggle up to China, where parts are getting cheaper and the quality is getting better and provide credible components. Add to this the threat of online retailers such as Amazon entering the market and the future does look rather bleak. Meanwhile, looking hungrily into the arena, biding its time and waiting for the right moment, 3D printing could be the most disruptive threat to traditional supply chain management.

Also referred to as additive manufacturing, the ability to print components could quash the issue of time-affected delivery. Atanu Chaudhuri is Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Aalborg University and an expert in additive manufacturing and 3D Printing.

As a recent guest on The Field Service Podcast he told me that some industries have been quick to embrace the technology while others less so. “The forerunners of the adoption of these technologies have been the aerospace and automotive sectors,” he said. “However, there are a lot of other industrial manufacturers who are exploring this but are at different stages of adoption.”

Extolling its financial virtues, Chaudhuri affirmed why 3D printing is aligned with servitization and suggests those taking the long-view of the technology will see a positive return on investment. “If you take a more life cycle perspective,” he said, “and look beyond the cost on a part-to-part comparison or look at the usage of the part over a lifetime of the product, say 15 or twenty years, suddenly you will see a huge difference. You will not be having a lot of inventory, you reduce the inventory carrying costs and maybe the environment will benefit, you will use fewer materials and suddenly the business case looks much better.”

Another challenge the sector continues to face is counterfeit parts. Non-genuine components can compromise safety, the integrity of finished goods and bring reputational damage. It’s an issue that Chris Mitchell, Business Transformation Director at Software and Services company PTC, is all too aware of. He references outcome-based models as a contributing factor to the problem as firms try to gain an advantage in the market. “With industries becoming more service-orientated and more competitive, this issue of counterfeit parts from China, Turkey and other parts of the world creeps up more and more,” he says.

"Making money from selling parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was..."

OEMs spend heavily on research ensuring the quality of their parts, utilising specialist software to engineered products in the best possible way, making the components safe and durable. It’s the finances associated with asset upkeep that forces some firms to opt for a damaging short-cut. “When looking at the cost of individual repair or maintenance event, cost pressures and short-sightedness often lead to the wrong buying decision whereby the cheap counterfeit part is used,” Mitchell explains.

Storage and warehouse logistics remain a puzzle for firms. It’s commonplace to have one centralised hub where all stock is housed making it simpler for inventory management; while a collection of smaller, local warehouses allow for greater flexibility in regards to geographical logistics but requires careful management. Taking advantage of the malaise, initiatives around smart-IoT connected storage boxes, such as those offered by BT and ByBox are proving solutions to the logistics issue.

Strategically placed parts can be collected by engineers who through cloud-based software, can check where the nearest part to them might be. The very nature of field service is also having an affect on how firms place themselves in the sector. By this, I refer to the many verticals that service operates in. It means requirements round spare parts can differ from the medical sector, for example, which will have different behaviours and expectations than, say, the oil and gas market.

This has led to companies segmenting logistics depending on their customer silos. To elaborate, one industry may require a very rapid solution, so expectations will centre on availability and quick delivery meaning the provider’s logistic channel needs to be flexible enough to meet these expectations. Conversely, another industry could be more demanding of uptime and be more price sensitive when purchasing components. Unfortunately, there remains another factor that now firms can do very little about.

At the time of writing uncertainty with Brexit continues and urgent questions round its effect on the global supply chain remain unanswered. While the knock-on effect of political decisions remains out of our hands for now, perhaps it’s time to ask a question that we may have more control over. Will the transactional model disappear completely?

Going forward, I think there will be a place for all approaches and here the diversity of markets could be an advantage. There will always be customers who want to deal on a transactional basis. SKF and GE Healthcare for example, still have long-term contracts with clients who prefer to deal in this way. These are large multi-national corporations and their continued loyalty to traditional frameworks should offer encouragement to other firms.

Spare parts and supply chain management is broad enough to accommodate and embrace change, be it new technology, political uncertainty and a shift in customer buying habits. One far-reaching question however will always remain: How do you deliver the right part, at the right time and at the right price? Amidst the changing sands of supply chain management, it’s something we should continue to ask and also take comfort from. 

Edge is the highest-performing edge computing server on the market worldwide to manage data at the edge.


The BullSequana Edge has been designed to be used securely for the Internet of Things (IoT), in environments in which fast response times are critical - such as manufacturing 4.0, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and retail/airport security – where data needs to be processed and analyzed at the edge in real-time.

The embedded BullSequana Edge server securely manages and processes IoT data, close to the source where it is generated, so that it is treated immediately. It analyzes and runs Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in real-time for instant insight, so that actions and decisions can be made swiftly to optimize operations.

The BullSequana Edge enables businesses to overcome challenges such as limited bandwidth, intermittent network connectivity, securing data at the edge, and network costs. Key benefits are: 
• Optimum security and privacy: both the data and the physical server are protected by an advanced chain of security measures • Immediate responsiveness: data analysis in real-time;
• Autonomy: reduced dependence on cloud and datacenter availability and connectivity, ensures that apps are not disrupted in case of limited or intermittent network connectivity. The BullSequana Edge can communicate via radio, GSM or Wi-Fi;
• Interactivity: both multi-source and multi-format data can be analyzed in real-time;
• Cost-effective: reduced datacenter infrastructure and networking costs.

“The exponential growth of IoT devices and how to best manage the consequent explosion of data is a challenge faced by many businesses today. To manage and harness this mass of data to our advantage, in a post-cloud era, we need to embrace edge computing. Atos brings together its expertise and experience as a leader in cloud orchestration, high-performance computing, cybersecurity and AI, to develop a unique edge computing product – the BullSequana Edge - which empowers businesses to take full advantage of the data deluge.” said Pierre Barnabé, Senior Executive Vice-President, Head of Big Data & CyberSecurity Division at Atos.
The BullSequana Edge already supports three main categories of use cases:
• AI: Atos Edge Computer Vision – this provides advanced extraction and analysis of ‘features’ (people, faces, emotions, behaviors) so that automatic actions are able to be carried out, based on this analysis. It enables a large set of intelligent cameras, for example in video surveillance, to collaborate holistically in real-time, enabling operations to be tracked without interruption;
• Big Data: Atos Edge Data Analytics – this enables organizations to improve their business models with predictive and prescriptive solutions. It hinges upon edge data lake capabilities to make data trustworthy and useable;
• Container: Atos Edge Data Container (EDC) – this all-in-one container solution is ready to run at the edge and serves as a decentralized IT system (from one individual rack up to a complete containerized data center). It can run autonomously in non-data center environments with no need for local on-site operation;
The BullSequana Edge is available today and can be purchased as a standalone infrastructure or together with a software platform, such as Atos Edge Computer Vision, Edge Data Analytics, or in a container system such as Atos Edge Data Container. The BullSequana Edge is Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT. 

In a world of increasingly tough consumer devices it is easy to think that rugged tech could be surpassed by their less expensive consumer cousins – but short term savings do not always translate into long term value. Field Service News’ Editor Mark Glover finds out more... 

In the vast field service spectrum stacked full of diverse vertical industries, rugged hardware is a constant support holding up the many sectors with tough rubber membranes and indestructible screens. Within service, large and small field service firms all use hardware that is rugged, durable and able to withstand the wind and the rain and the drops and the knocks.

If we were to define what field service is – and it has many definitions – then we could agree that it is something that does not (necessarily) take place in a nice, warm and safe office where smooth I-pads and sleek smartphones flourish. Let’s also reflect on the impact field service has.

I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that business relies on quality service. It keeps processes flowing and simply put that keeps revenue  flowing in too. Today, delivering efficient field service is paramount and it’s an efficiency driven and empowered by technology – tough and robust technology.

In a servitization era, where the asset is no longer top dog, business models are created round long-term client-centred contracts attached to an evolving product. An effective service offering creates the framework for that product. Key here are the tools that enable engineers to carry out their work, tools that won’t let them down. Enter then, rugged devices: smartphones, tablets and laptops. Robust, tough and sturdy hardware that empowers an employee. But in the sea of rugged options that exists, how do we pick the right device for our needs and ultimately establish it’s fit-for purpose?

The sector is blessed with a range of cloud-based software solutions. Job scheduling, customer details and equipment data can all be accessed on a tablet or phone, but can your chosen rugged handset handle these software requirements and other industry specific applications? Can the processor and memory cope with running several required applications at once? Ease of use is also another factor to take into consideration.

We might be used to the Android or IoS platform from our own personal devices - and the majority of devices sit these (albeit a few versions behind) on top of their own operating systems – but the technicalities will differ slightly in terms of field-service use and it’s important to feel settled in this slightly different platform. Furthermore, like any cloud-based software, FSM applications can also be vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data-breaches. Seeking out protection is advised, and don’t forget to consider battery life.

Service engineers can also go days without charging their device. Fortunately, many rugged devices – unlike consumer devices – have removable batteries so spares can be carried around ensuring power is always on-hand. Engineers are often exposed to the elements so devices need to work in all weathers and their extremes. Rain is a given in most countries and getting an intricate piece of technology wet can lead to malfunctions very quickly. However, an engineer wants to focus on the job in hand rather than being concerned with keeping an ipad dry. Conversely, screen glare can also be a frustrating issue for engineers working out in the sun. And what about dropping the device?

Let’s be honest, engineers carry out repairs and maintenance in the most uncomfortable, inhospitable and awkward of environments. It’s inevitable that a drop of the hardware will take place at some point. Thankfully rugged manufacturers are savvy to these demands. Screens now come with tough, water-proof protection, putting engineers’ mind at ease that their tablet won’t show terminal error codes as the heavens open or the sun beats down. Tough, rubber membranes offer protection from drops at height, with rugged manufacturers systematically testing products for drop robustness.

"Engineers are often exposed to the elements so devices need to work in all weathers and their extremes..."

Forgive this article’s trend for comparison and scene-setting but when mentioning rugged, then the word consumer usually follows and our personal relationship with consumer mobile devices has never been closer. The tech in our smart-phone that never leaves our side and keeps us connected with the world as we set out for the day. The personal tablet that resides on the living room sofa picked-up by the whole family to play games, look up recipes, or book a flight is now ubiquitous as the TV remote. Smart devices now play a pivotal role in our daily lives.

However, when it comes to investing in rugged devices, our requirements will differ from that when we visit high-street phone shops. Primarily, decisions are made with a business case in mind. Portable, strong, weather-proof and intuitive units are the key tangible factors worth considering but what about its ROI? Drilling down, it’s useful to compare the rugged and consumer markets.

Where the lines between the two were once obvious, both markets are now beginning to converge. A major differentiator has always been the aesthetics. The phone in your pocket and your home-tablet show off their sleek lined and curved edges, casting disparaging looks at rugged’s Frankenstein laptops and rubber encased tablets. However, products from Getac, Xplore and Panasonic are now producing tablets, laptops and phones that are more pleasing on the eye, furthermore consumer phones such as Samsung’s Note9 and the iPhoneX incorporate rugged IP65 specifications such as being dustproof and waterproof.

The lines become further blurred as rugged commonly integrates the Android framework as an operating platform. As consumers, we tend to refresh our handsets every 12 to 18 months. Rugged tech, however can last for 36. It’s a time frame (and a market) that consumer manufacturers such as Samsung and Apple keep looking over to, poised perhaps to make a move. Given the high-cost of rugged devices, there is the very real possibility that service companies will opt for service-adapted consumer devices.

While the argument for consumer over rugged in field service is becoming a very valid one, the latter has a distinct financial advantage when comparing the savings gained through Total Cost of Ownerships (TCO). TCO is an estimate of all the direct and indirect costs involved in acquiring and operating a product or system over its lifetime and it’s a formula that rugged manufacturers have often waved in front of their consumer counterparts.

Generally, a rugged unit will last longer than a consumer-based device and in-looping back to the opening thoughts of this article, any downtime in service is a huge cost, damaging firms reputationally and of course financially. At the moment, consumer software will always be more vulnerable to faults in its average twoyear life-cycle. Rugged tech will always last longer which is fundamental to a sector that relies heavily on reliability, which is why enterprise IT deliberately has slower product cycles.

Like all adoptions of new technology, choosing the right solution for your team’s requirements is paramount. Rugged solution providers should be able to understand what you need and why you need it, tailoring a product to suit. And here lies the key – your engineer, Empowering him or her to carry out their tasks to the best of their ability is vital. Come rain or indeed sunshine.