AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Sharon Clancy

Switching from paper to digital mobile forms can  transform field service maintenance operations, says Mark Scott, Vice President Marketing, ProntoForms.

Mobile technologies have taken over our personal lives, enabling us to be more productive and efficient as we shop, consume and communicate daily. When it comes to operations and maintenance in field services, however, mobile technology has been slow to permeate our workforce. Operations and maintenance are critical to ensuring safety, compliance and productivity in field services. Yet, many  maintenance practices today are still relying on paper-based processes that are error-prone, vulnerable to audits, and overall, highly inefficient.

Manual maintenance procedures hinder productivity and add unnecessary steps to operation practices hurting your company’s bottom line. For many businesses, ineffective internal practices also don’t guarantee that safety compliances are being enforced.

Mobile forms technology offers an end-to-end solution for a company’s maintenance programme, by enabling users to accurately collect and store field data, then easily share it in real time with key stakeholders.

Mobile forms bring many benefits to any field services operation. Here are five examples of how a mobile solution can make your business operate more efficiently and ensure your customers take notice:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Embed rich media in your reports
   Sometimes words alone cannot accurately capture a problem or issue in field work, but a picture can tell a thousand words. Mobile forms allow maintenance inspectors to sketch and annotate directly on photos from the job site to highlight specific concerns. In addition to taking pictures on site, images like equipment diagrams can also be pre-loaded onto a form for field workers to reference. Mobile form providers are also offering barcode scanning and audio functions within forms as well so users can include richer field data.
2. Informed decision-making and a logical workflow
   Data gathered in the field is meant to ensure that operational standards are reached and exceeded, but it’s important that the data is communicated in a timely manner and shared with the right people. Mobile forms can be configured to automatically send completed maintenance forms to specific supervisors and decision-makers within a company, based on the data entered. If an inspection pinpoints a safety concern, that form can be configured to automatically send a report to a safety compliance manager. What’s more, maintenance forms can also be scored by the severity of the issue, and if a major maintenance breach is revealed, key stakeholders can be alerted through SMS messages and social media.
3. Business intelligence with analytics
   Analytics can provide a wealth of information, as maintenance trends can be compared over time. This means that a company can leverage its previous response to a maintenance issue and also determine whether this issue had arisen in the past. With mobile forms, in-depth analytics reports can also be scheduled for regular delivery to key supervisors and decision makers. Since field service data can be logged as it happens through mobile devices, these decision makers can analyse performance and spot hidden business trends in real time to predict potential issues or mitigate risks.
4. Dispatching inspections
   Field service workers need to provide accurate and in-depth maintenance inspections, however, they are also pressed for time and need to move on to the next job. Across all departments, improving productivity and automating mundane and repetitive tasks is essential, but this is especially critical for your maintenance programme. By using mobile forms technology, maintenance jobs can be dispatched to specific field workers, which saves valuable time. This means that field workers can avoid unnecessary trips to the head office to receive their next assignment, which gives them more time to spend in the field and conduct detailed inspections.
5. Calendar invites for follow-ups
   Irrespective of the size or efficiency of your field workers, it’s imperative to prioritise tasks and optimize workflows. High-risk maintenance concerns need to be addressed immediately, while less critical issues can wait. However, these low-risk concerns still require a response. As soon as non-critical issues are discovered, field workers can use mobile forms technology to schedule a maintenance technician and send calendar invites while they’re on the go at other appointments

 Now more than ever, it’s critical to take maintenance procedures to the next level by adopting the right type of technology. Businesses utilising mobile technology will see increased productivity and reduced costs, while quality of service is improved and risks are mitigated. When it comes to operations and maintenance don’t let your company fall behind the rest of the industry.

 

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With a strong Wi-Fi signal and your trusty smartphone, it’s easy to stay connected on land,  but how do communications  change when you’re in the middle of the ocean or orbiting in space?

They’re both extreme field service scenarios, but which is better for communication? Global Navigation Solutions has been investigating who can connect better — crew or astronauts?

Life at sea

The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 advises that ship operators should give crews “reasonable access to ship-to-shore telephone communications, and email and Internet facilities, where available, with any charges for the use of these services being reasonable in amount”. But just how closely are operators following these guidelines?

Between April and August 2015, the 2015 Crew Connectivity Survey was carried out to establish what crew communications at sea are really like.

On average, respondents spent over 7 months per year at sea. A mission to the International Space Station (ISS) lasts around six months. Despite being in the earth’s atmosphere, it seems crews are often less connected than astronauts in orbit .

While 58% of respondents said they had access to crew communications always or most of the time — this is up 2% on 2014’s results. However, 35% of respondents only have access sometimes. 7% have never had access while on-board. While this may seem a small percentage, it equates to 103,000 global seafarers who have no way of contacting loved ones — up 25,000 since 2014.

 

Across all sectors, of those surveyed:[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• 79% had access to satellite telephone,  the  most widely available communication method.
• Only 43% had internet access.
• 42% had access to text-only emails.
• 28% had access to onboard GSM.
• 24% had access to SMS messaging.

On land, we can stay connected almost anywhere, with the exception of mountain peaks and remote locations. At sea, it’s a very different story.

• [unordered_list style="bullet"]
  • 47% can access crew communications on the ship’s bridge
  • Just 36% of respondents can access crew communications privately in their cabin
  • 35% can access crew communications in a communal area
  • 29% can access crew communications in an on-board office
  • 13% can access crew communications in the engine control room

When these services are available, only 18 % there were no limiting factors; 59% said the services are too expensive, 27% 27% said too many people were trying to use them and 26% said they don’t get regular use.

Clearly, cost is a major drawback for many crew members.  Just over half (53%) has free access to text-only email, 49% has free Internet access and email with attachments, 41% could have video chats, 24% could access free SMS messaging, while on-board GSM for voice calls was available to only 12% and satellite phones to 7%.

In port

Where crew communications are limited on-board, there is potential to stay in touch with family and friends when the ship is in port. However, 72% never or rarely go ashore during port calls and just 6% are able to go ashore on every port call

Of those who do go ashore, 28% use crew welfare facilities while in port and 34% used internet/Wi-Fi services, 6% used the telephone and 4% purchased local SIM cards.

Is rank a factor?

Of the 3,057 total respondents from over 30 countries, 59% of were officers and 41% were ratings. 32% of officers always have access to crew communications. Just 27% of ratings always have access.

So, how effective has the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 been? On the whole, the majority believe crew communications has improved. However, 39% said it had not improved since it was introduced and 3% said it had even got worse.

Life in Space

“But even with all the technology that we have today -- satellites, buoys, underwater vehicles and ship tracks -- we have better maps of the surface of Mars and the moon than we do the bottom of the ocean. “ — Gene Feldman

Over the years, our knowledge and exploration of space has grown. As technology has advanced, it’s being used to make the lives of astronauts more comfortable during explorations.

 

The Intergalactic Internet

In 2010, NASA enhanced the quality of life of astronauts with the release of a special software update that allowed them personal access to the internet.

Expedition 22’s Flight Engineer, T.J. Creamer was the first to use the intergalactic internet, posting the following tweet: "Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station - the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s"

Speed

While the internet may ease the isolation of space, it doesn’t offer the quickest connection, as a result of the distance signals have to travel. In 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted while in space: “We have a slow internet connection. Worse than what dial-up was like. Using it to answer your question right now.”

When an astronaut in space clicks an Internetlink, the request travels 22,000 miles to a network of geosynchronous satellites. This is passed to a receiver on the Earth before being passed back to the astronaut’s laptop or tablet.

Accessing the Internet

According to NASA spokesman, David Steitz, astronauts have laptops on board, including one in their personal sleeping quarters. They are also given tablet computers so they can video chat with family and friends at home.

Phone

Astronauts can make phone calls from space too, although the technology is a lot more complicated than a standard landline.

Astronauts can call friends and family using the Softphone, specialist software found on laptops. By using Internet Protocol (IP), signals are routed from space to Earth. Astronauts can dial numbers through the computer’s keypad and speak through a headset.

It means astronauts can dial any number and speak to anyone they wish and it’s more private than previous communication methods, which included Mission Control. However, the space station can block or go out of range of the phone call signals and because of the distance, there is often a lag in conversations.[quote float="left"]While the internet may ease the isolation of space, it doesn’t offer the quickest connection, as a result of the distance signals have to travel

 

Life at sea vs life in space: the verdict

So, who has the better deal in terms of communication: crew or astronauts?

Availability: astronauts have access to emails, social media, video calling and phone calls, while communications services for crews differ by ship operator.

Cost: Astronauts have free communication, while costs for crews differ between ship operators.

Privacy: Astronauts have personal laptops in their sleeping quarters while only a small proportion of crew members can access communication services privately in their cabin.

The results seem definitive - despite being 400km away from Earth, ISS astronauts are better connected than sailors who travel the 361 million square km of our planet’s oceans.

 

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A contractor job management platform for field service and facilities companies has been developed by UK software company Okappy.

As many field service organisations have discovered, it's no fun trying to manage lots of subcontractors when they don’t have access to your internal job management software and take an age to return job sheets or reply to emails. The Okappy job management platform resolves these issues by allowing customers, employees and subcontractors to share information.

Field service organisations can connect to their customers and subcontractors, and receive jobs and then monitor the status of those jobs as they are updated by employees or subcontractors wherever they are. Job sheets can be tailored to suit specific requirements and images and signatures can be added.  Technicians can view customer history electronically and complete invoices.

“In the past jobs sent to subcontractors entered a black hole leading to the same problems that companies thought they’d got away from when they introduced job management software for their own employees,” points out Richard Harris, CEO of Okappy.

The Okappy platform was initially launched last year to plumbing and electrical contractors and already has thousands of users. Benefits reported include reduced paperwork and better management of their employees and subcontractors.

“Often these companies will have already invited their own customers on to the platform so it’s not a great leap for larger companies to get started and see the benefit as well”, says Harris

 

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Independent power producer and energy services provider ENGIE is introducing a Digital Factory to accelerate the delivery of mobile applications for its customers, partners and employees, in France and globally, as part of the company’s new three-year transformation plan. It will be built on Kony Inc.'s industry-leading Enterprise Mobility Platform.

ENGIE employs around 155,000 people worldwide and operates in 70 countries. Impressed by Kony’s ability to quickly design, build and deploy secure, enterprise-grade mobile apps across multiple devices and operating systems, the company chose Kony’s Mobility Platform and solutions for its enterprise-wide digital transformation initiative. As part of the Digital Factory, Kony will help the group build several consumer-facing and employee productivity mobile apps.

“The global partnership between ENGIE and Kony was born from a desire to support our digital transformation initiative through new value-added services,” said Isabelle Kocher, CEO, ENGIE. “It also aims to enhance the digital skills of our teams and enable us to meet the needs of our business units to accelerate the time to market of mobile application projects for customers, partners and employees.”

By fully adopting enterprise mobility across their organisation, the utility company aims to drive significant improvements in customer satisfaction, increase market share and lower costs through faster mobile application development cycles through the Digital Factory.

“Digital will transform virtually all industries, companies, and geographies,” said Thomas E. Hogan, chairman and CEO, Kony, Inc.”  “It will transcend and shape value, service levels, quality, and the customer experience.  Companies will either lead, become a fast-follower, or perish.  Fortunately for ENGIE and its customers, Isabelle Kocher has elected to assert ENGIE as a digital innovator and leader in the new energy world.  Kony is thrilled to partner with this visionary leader and an iconic brand, and to leverage our market leading mobility solutions in their digital journey.”

The Kony Enterprise Mobility Platform is an open and standards-based, integrated mobility platform for mobile app development and beyond. It supports the entire application software development lifecycle and operations lifecycle, empowering enterprises to quickly design, build, deploy and manage multi-edge app experiences. The solution encompasses unique app UI design and development tools, powered by Kony’s mobile backend-as-a-service and backend application development offering, as well as testing and analytics. Kony Apps allows customers to deliver secure, enterprise-grade mobile apps faster to market.

 

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PTC has introduced two new smart, IoT-based connected service solutions: Remote Service and Connected Service Parts Management. Both solutions leverage the company's ThingWorx  IoT platform to help organisations transform the way they execute service for connected products,  optimising decisions for better service delivery.

They are integral components of PTC’s  roadmap for organisations adopting a strategy for smart, connected service.

It helps them redefine their service models to generate unprecedented value for their customers and organisation. The service journey entails three steps:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Understand – Make smarter decisions by analysing service and product data in real-time
2. Advance – Differentiate your service offering by improving and expediting the way products are serviced
3. Outperform – Completely redefine value for customers and the service organization with new offerings and business models.

[/ordered_list]"Many organisations struggle to transform their service environment and desire to take advantage of IoT and the value that can be gained from the data streaming from connected equipment and devices,” says Steve Morandi, senior vice president, Service Lifecycle Management, PTC. “PTC’s connected service solutions help organisations successfully navigate this transformation by optimising their existing service models and creating new value-added offerings. With Remote Service and Connected Service Parts Management solutions, organisations can analyse service and product data in real-time, differentiate service offerings, and improve the way products are serviced.”

Remote Service enables service and support technicians to remotely identify, diagnose, and resolve issues, while continuously monitoring key performance parameters in connected equipment. Remote Service helps service organisations avoid equipment downtime and unscheduled service events enabling organizations to reduce service costs and improve customer service.

Connected Service Parts Management enables service organizations to utilise data directly from connected assets to more accurately forecast and plan service parts demand. Leveraging the power of the ThingWorx IoT platform,  Connected Service Parts Management captures asset location and performance information and feeds that data to the Service Parts Management solution. By collecting, transforming, and organizing data reported directly by equipment in the field, organisations are able to improve service levels and increase equipment availability. 

These smart connected service solutions help companies improve their service revenue and profitability, competitive advantage, and product reliability.

"In delivering better solutions and outcomes to customers, connectivity is a must for service organisations," said Sumair Dutta, chief customer officer, The Service Council. "A connected infrastructure can make a service business more predictive in its service relationships, more efficient in its reactive service delivery, and more responsive in the development of new services that are needed by customers."

 

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Verizon Communications is acquiring mobility software platform specialist Telogis to enhance its  connected vehicle business.

Seeking to add best-in-class Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology and services, specifically in the connected vehicle and mobile enterprise management sectors—as well as expanded distribution relationships—to its Verizon Telematics subsidiary, Verizon Communications Inc. has announced it  is to buy privately-owned Telogis, Inc.,  the Californian-based mobility software platform specialist.

“With a comprehensive enterprise product portfolio and partnerships with some of the world’s leading vehicle and equipment manufacturers, Telogis brings a world-class software platform and new distribution relationships to Verizon Telematics’ already expansive suite of connected vehicle solutions for consumers and enterprise customers,” said Andrés Irlando, CEO of Verizon Telematics. “The combined strengths of our two companies’ unique assets better enable us to deliver best-in-class mobile enterprise management services to customers globally, while building scale and accelerating market share. I’m confident that the passion and talent of our collective employees will continue to drive revenue growth and product innovations to shape and lead the industry for years to come.”

“Verizon provides the brand equity, strength in the market, broad infrastructure and expansive global reach to take Telogis to the next level,” said David Cozzens, CEO, Telogis. “This strategic acquisition positions our collective technologies and services uniquely in the market while also enabling Verizon Telematics’ industry-leading business to benefit from Telogis’ unmatched strength in the enterprise market, innovative Mobile Enterprise Management software platform and our strong OEM and ecosystem partnerships.”

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second half of 2016.

 

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TomTom Telematics has announced the launch of  WEBFLEET for Sales Cloud, an app that integrates TomTom’s WEBFLEET telematics platform with Salesforce, making it easier for sales staff to use the CRM system on the road. It will also enable companies to manage their sales forces more efficiently and empower them to connect with customers, partners and employees in a whole new way.  The app is available on the Salesforce AppExchange marketplace.

The integration between WEBFLEET and Salesforce helps to reduce cost and administration time through automatic trip reporting and simplified appointment management. Businesses and drivers are also provided with greater insight into driving performance.

“Companies are looking to transform the way they connect with customers, partners and employees to thrive in the age of the customer,” said Ryan Ellis, VP, Product Management, AppExchange, Salesforce.

“By leveraging the power of the Salesforce App Cloud and integrating real-time telematics data with Sales Cloud, TomTom Telematics provides customers with exciting new opportunities to improve business performance through connected car technologies.”

Taco van der Leij, VP Marketing at TomTom Telematics added: “Integrating WEBFLEET with Salesforce is a natural extension of our Logbook application, which automates mileage registration for expense claims. Both help to make business administration easier for staff on the road, providing them with tools to improve their sales performance. Furthermore, by combining telematics and CRM, sales managers can gain visibility and insight into performance in the field.”

WEBFLEET for Sales Cloud allows office staff to assign client appointments in the Salesforce calendar to the employee’s TomTom Pro Driver terminal. Dashboards allow trip data to be compared with opportunities, leads and closed deals to analyse the effectiveness of each sales representative.

 

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New UK research shows that UK SMEs have a bullish attitude towards investment over the next 12 months. SMEs are most likely to invest in IT equipment, cars, vans and plant & machinery.

Research carried out for London-based SME asset finance and leasing specialist Norton Folgate revealed that of 400 surveyed  four in 10 (39%) of SMBs planned to invest in new IT equipment over the next 12 months, spending an average of £5,290 each.

Cars are the second most popular working asset among SMEs, 18% of business owners planning to acquire at least one over the next year, spending on average £14,496.

Plant & machinery (12%) and commercial vehicles (11%) are in third and fourth places with SMEs spending an average of £7,426 and £11,163 on these respectively

According to the findings, 10% of SMEs intend to use asset finance and alternative finance to acquire their working assets, underlining the growing popularity of this sector.  Indeed, more than half (53%) expect demand for alternative finance – including asset finance - to increase over the next two years.

Norton Folgate, part of the Amicus Group since 2015, reports seeing a significant increase in the number of enquiries among SMEs. Robert Keep, Founder and Principal, said: “Most SMEs understand the critical importance of up to date IT systems and this is reflected in their willingness to invest in new equipment over the next 12 months.

“We’re finding that many small business owners increasingly see the value of using asset finance to acquire these rather than tying up working capital or turning to bank overdrafts and expensive credit cards. Being part of Amicus has put us in a very strong position to further enhance our asset leasing and finance capabilities.”

John Jenkins, CEO of Amicus commented: “It’s encouraging to see such significant numbers of SMEs are committed to investing in their working assets and the growing importance of asset finance.  Norton Folgate has built a very strong reputation in this field and is playing an integral role in our strategy of offering a diversified range of specialist lending services.”

 

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Geotab, the Canadian telematics platform provider, has won the North American Product Leadership award in Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Best Practices Awards.

Frost & Sullivan presents the Product Leadership award to the company it considers has developed a product with innovative features and functionality to gain rapid acceptance in the market. Geotab was recognised both for innovative fleet management telematics solutions and for the partnership-based model that has helped its fast growth.  The company now has 500,000 vehicles in 70 countries using its platform, and over 900m data points are collected daily.

“Geotab’s hardware engineering and software development success has made it a one-stop fleet management solution provider, while most competitors specialise in one or the other,” said Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst Krishna Chaithanya. “Due to its ability to offer customers technologically superior services compared to other telematics companies in North America, Geotab has witnessed remarkable earnings growth. Company revenue stood at $76 million in 2015, up from $59 million in 2014. The company estimated that its 2016 revenue would exceed $105 million.”

The Geotab GO7 is a small form-factor GPS plug-and-play vehicle tracking device able to integrate with a vehicle’s on-board diagnostics port.  The scalable MyGeotab platform and powerful tracking algorithms allow fleet managers to track vehicles in real time and provide actionable alerts to drivers. Customers gain an in-depth understanding of fleet movement, equipment health, stoppages and routing problems to ensure optimal time management and consumer satisfaction.

The real-time integrated fleet management capabilities in the Geotab platform may not seem cutting-edge in Europe, where operators have benefited from this level of functionality for several years now,  but it does appear to be a relatively recent development in the North American market, and the feedback capabilities of Geotab’s GO TALK impressed Frost & Sullivan.

It acknowledged that one of the key benefits of the Geotab solution is the company's input-output expander (IOX) technology, which allows businesses to easily expand their fleet management capabilities for specific needs such as satellite tracking, driver ID, hours of service, camera systems, and temperature monitoring.

Geotab has made its data open for easy integration with customers’ IT systems and third-party apps. “Importantly, Geotab’s competence in data engineering and solution development results in competitively priced products that offer in-depth information about productivity, safety, efficiency, and compliance” noted Chaithanya. “It supports advanced safety management for drivers and fleets, more constructive fuel management, constant monitoring of vehicle engine health, and strict reinforcement of safety guidelines.”

 

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