AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Sharon Clancy

Rugged computer designer and manufacturer Getac has unveiled the third generation of its F110 tablet and V110 convertible rugged computers. They feature the latest Intel Core processors which as well as optimised power performance, image processing, networking speed and efficient power management also deliver higher levels of data security.

Robby Swinnen, Vice President,  Sales and Marketing Group,  at Intel Corporation explains; “Data breaches start with misused or stolen user credentials. To address this concern, 6th generation Intel Core vPro  processors  feature Intel Authenticate Technology, a hardware-enhanced, multi factor authentication solution that strengthens identity protection by capturing, encrypting, pairing, and storing PINs, biometrics, keys, access rights, as well as other identification data in the hardware, thereby hiding the target from hackers to effectively strengthen the protection of corporate identities,”

Chris Bye, President, Getac UK, comments; “Rightly our customers demand the highest levels of performance available from Getac devices. With the latest upgrades to the V110 and F110 we’ve clearly achieved that as well as incorporating new technology from Intel to protect customers against modern data security threats.”

There's a choice of two Intel Core processors available: an i5-6200U 2.3GHz (2.8GHz) or an i&-6500U 2.5GHz (3.1GHz).  Improved RAM (up to DDR4 (expandable to 16GB) is matched to SSD  hard drives of 128GB , 256GB or 512 GB

There is built-in Intel dual band Wireless AC-8260 supporting WLAN 802.11ac, plus Bluetooth 4.2. The Intel HD Graphics 520 graphics card paired with a dual-lens design enhances on-site evidence collection and image processing capabilities.

Screen enhancements include 11.6in TFT LCD capacitive multi-touch screens, which are equipped with Getac 800-nit LumiBond 2.0 technology for clear visibility under bright lights. As well a touch, there is a new stylus pen and digitizer pen for more accurate interacting with applications while on the go.

A higher resolution FHD webcam will support video calls as well as facilitating streaming situations back to base, for example in healthcare or defence. Both tablet and convertible incorporate Getac’s LifeSupport hot-swappable battery design for uninterrupted productivity.

The V110 and F110 devices are certified to for water/dust resistance, protection against falling damage (up to 4 ft.), operating temperature range from -21°c to 60°c, as well as MIL-STD 810G and MIL-STD 461F for military standards, and the e-Mark vehicle safety certification.

 

---

 

Be social and share this news

Andrew Quail, Head of IT at SGN, explains how the energy supplier is transforming its mobile app delivery. Sharon Clancy reports...

Gas companies are one of the most heavily regulated in the UK – after all, gas leaks have the potential to be fatal.

The UK’s energy sector regulatory regime is acknowledged as world-class, but safety and innovation are rarely comfortable bedfellows, and innovation has not traditionally been a strong point for the UK’s utilities companies, who have focused on meeting the demands of the industry regulator Ofgem.

So we were intrigued to hear that one of the UK’s biggest gas distributors, SGN, is embarking on a business transformation process that includes greater use of mobile tools and data for its 2,000 strong field service engineers.

SGN distributes natural and green gas to 5.9 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England via a network of over 75,000 km of gas mains and services.

Critical business processes such as emergency gas response procedures have been automated for over a decade and have been mobilised to help ensure SGN meets it legal obligations to respond within an hour to any reports that might indicate a potentially lethal gas leak.

 

“The safety culture at SGN is core to our business and will never diminish. Data on performance has to be accurate and readily available to the regulator, and mobile data played a big role in providing that,” explains Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN.

Quail credits Ofgem with now encouraging an innovative climate that still puts safety first.

“We have relied on our mobile solutions for over a decade to deliver safety-critical services. Our legacy estate was great for some parts of the business: it’s solid, reliable and highly available.”

“However, with the legacy estate, if we change a piece of code or an element within an app, it has potential to affect other things.”

With such a large field workforce, SGN could appreciate the benefits of mobilising other activities in its business.

“Our existing estate was not agile enough to meet the changing needs of our customers and employees,” continued Quail.

“Customised apps take too long to develop and deploy and we wanted faster improvements to our efficiencies and customer services.”

"At the same time, we could not risk any mobility initiative affecting our ability to respond to core emergency repair work. We also wanted to control app distribution to ensure it met our IT security needs.”

The solution has been to retain the legacy SAP platform for emergency gas response services, while deploying Kony Inc’s MobileFabric cloud-based mobility platform to develop and maintain mobile apps for other parts of the business.

 

MobileFabric decouples corporate front- and back-end systems so changes can be made quickly.

Connectors and adaptors means back-end integration for mobile apps is configurable and flexible rather than being custom-built.

“We were looking for a platform that would allow us to quickly develop well-designed apps that are attractive to our workforce.”

“At the same time, we wanted to capture data in a standard format that could be distributed and presented to any part of the business.”

“Mobile Fabric is an enterprise-grade mobility platform which is tightly integrated into our legacy systems. One of the attractions was the fact that is cloud-based, says Quail.

“It is a scalable consumption-based model requiring minimum financial commitment. That reduces the risks to our business.”

A cloud-based solution also suits the fast-paced environment of mobility services, he thinks, and help delivers quick wins.

“Our first priority has been to develop customer focused apps to improve the whole customer experience.”

“So one of the first apps we have deployed is a is a customer satisfaction app that has digitalised feedback."

“It encourages engagement between our staff and the customer and also simplifies the back-office process of keeping the regulator informed about customer satisfaction scores.”

 

“We get real-time feedback into our ERP system, which means we get early notification of any potential issues for customers and we also get to hear about customers’ positive experiences – which was not always the case in the past.”

Another benefit, says Quail, is the app allows SGN to respond quickly to employee and customer suggestions about improving service.

The app was developed and deployed within weeks – much quicker than on a legacy platform and at much lower cost, points out Quail.

Security

IT directors have form when it comes to security concerns about Cloud computing, but Quail is one of the converts who believe Cloud platform services actually can enhance IT security. “

There is no denying that IT security is a sensitive topic and an area with potentially huge corporate risk for SGN.

However, cloud platform providers invest heavily in security, and we are confident the Kony platform is actually extremely secure.”

Moving to a mobility platform has also enabled SGN to define exactly what security standards it needs in various parts of the organisation, he explains.

Future plans

So what’s in the pipeline for the future, we asked?

There are lots of possibilities for efficiency improvements beyond the regulatory environment enthuses Quail.

“We are looking at productivity tools such as inspection apps that can make life easier for our engineers and simplify mobile data acquisition. We can digitalise site safety procedures and inspections, and move from paper to mobile apps for tasks such as time-sheets.”

 

Quail believes the introduction of mobile apps will help change the image of IT within the business from enforcer to enabler.

“We don’t want mobile app development to be a top-down process where IT comes up with all the new apps. We are encouraging our colleagues and employees to suggest what mobile apps might improve their work experience.”

Nor is it just field service engineers who are benefiting from the digitalisation of the business, says Quail.

“The Internet of Things” is beginning to transform our operations. When we deploy robots for pipe inspections, for example, we’ll be capture that data in real-time helping us to optimise maintenance with less disruption for our customers.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Could the UK consumer’s passion for Internet shopping be heralding in a new era in parts deliveries for field service engineers? Sharon Clancy reports...

UK consumers are renowned as some of - possibly even the - world’s most enthusiastic on-line shoppers. In the process, they have driven up delivery and service standards, raising expectations of what they consider acceptable service from the companies they deal with to new levels.

They expect to order up to 10 p.m. in the evening and receive delivery the next day – some don’t even object to paying for an early delivery.

What they will object to (and quite possibly take their business elsewhere) is if you can’t offer them a one-hour delivery window or a choice of delivery options.

Faced with the complications and costs of providing doorstep-deliveries that come even close to meeting the ever-rising expectations of hundreds of thousands of consumers, on-line retailers have developed a raft of alternative delivery solutions, including locker banks and click-and- collect points at local stores.

Locker banks for through-the-night deliveries to service engineers are not new, of course. What is new is that, thanks to this huge demand for flexible deliveries of Internet purchases, there has been a veritable explosion in the numbers of locker banks throughout the UK.

They’ve become a common site all over the UK – supermarkets, railway stations, fuel stations. Accompanying that, has been more click-and-collect parcels networks at local convenience stores.

 

On the face of it, this might seem a less secure destination for those vital parts, but in fact the delivery companies have invested huge amounts in ensuring those on-line goods end up with the right customers, so this is a less a concern than it might have been in the past.

Of course, getting this sort of collection right requires integration of order-intake and scheduling, but field service companies have plenty of expertise at that.

It also suits, too, those smaller service companies who rather than have a huge parts inventory, will source required parts from on-line parts suppliers and an on as-required basis.

So how do all these delivery solutions work?

Locker banks

ByBox and InPost are the best known of the European locker bank providers. ByBox actually built its business in providing an overnight pre-8 a.m. secure locker service to the field service sector using its own delivery network.

Located at easily -accessible sites such as fuel retailers, railway stations and supermarkets, locker banks are increasingly popular as a click-and-collect choice.

Consumers like them because it puts them back in charge of the delivery.

Engineers will like them for the same reason – they can collect at a convenient time to them and drop off returns (either pre- or -post the last call of the day, for example).

Behind the apparent low-tech façade of locker banks, there’s some clever real-time technology enabling a seamless collection process.

Security is a top priority - suppliers need to have proof that the correct part was delivered to the correct box, for the correct engineer.

 

There are numerous methods of authorising access to an individual – pin coded access, digital signature, QR code.

Some box banks incorporate video camera images as a further security measure – for themselves and their customers.

When the locker transaction is complete, immediate notification is sent to the sender. In the event of any dispute, there’s a record of box activity.

Once goods are delivered to a locker, of course, it’s no longer available until the engineer collects the parts.

It’s a fine line between allowing the engineer maximum flexibility on when to collect the parts and freeing up the locker for future deliveries – of parts or goods to a consumer.

Goods sitting in a locker uncollected benefit no-one and create locker congestion – a particular issued over busy periods such as Christmas and one that is not going to go away as consumer demand for click-and-collect grows.

ByBox’s expertise has been developed providing secure collection points for parts deliveries to field service technicians. The company has manufactured over 57,000 lockers, installed in 20 countries.

It also licences its technology providing turnkey Click-and-Collect solutions as software-as-a-service to global partners – including UK supermarkets.

Its Thinventory solution incorporates an integrated SupplierDirect service, in which stock can be ordered from suppliers and sent directly to their engineer’s Smart Box before 8am the very next day.

Locker customisation options include self-closing doors, integration of engineer signature and image capture, and the option to provide customer support at the locker via a video link to a customer support centre.

Each locker is connected to ByBox Cloud for real-time management of activity, including door openings and configurations.

The Locker server manager connects to each locker via ByBox Cloud to provide real-time communication with each locker, managing openings and configuration.

InPost operates in 16 European countries and has a 1,000 strong UK network of electronic locker banks. The lockers have integrated closed-circuit TV cameras and barcode scanning capability.

Consumers with smartphones can be sent a QR code as collection authorisation, and the box bank’s central console will be able to scan this from the phone’s screen and open the relevant locker door purely on this basis – potentially making the pickup extremely fast.

 

An API (application programming interface) integrates the click-and-collect service into retailer web sites, offering consumers a choice of the five locations nearest to their target address.

Convenient convenience stores

On-line parts distributors are also able to offer an alternative to locker-collection via local convenience stores.

Convenience store chains have enthusiastically signed up for click-and-collect, attracted by the promise of extra footfall into their shops. From the engineer point of view, they are very local and they tend to be open until late evening.

CollectPlus is one of the biggest with a network of over 5,800 local stores in the UK, including Londis, Co-operative McColls, Spar, Nisa and Costcutter.

Customers simply visit the store and sign for their parcel.

Standard parcel size is limited to 60x050050cm and maximum weight is 10kg – mainly due to potential lack of storage space at the store the customer chooses.

Pay extra, and you’re allowed bigger parcels and more weight.

To allay consumer fears about parcels going astray, CollectPlus provides online tracking and, for £1, a signature as proof-of-collection. Insurance of £50 as standard with up to £300 available.

For sellers with high volumes, CollectPlus offers the option of sending customers an email and/or text including a unique collection code.

The customers present this code and proof of ID to collect their parcel - the CollectPlus store and IT systems do the rest.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

In the second of our series examining what makes a rugged device, well, rugged, Sharon Clancy explores IP ratings...

IP environmental ratings along with MIL standards (MIL-STD) are perhaps the most widely recognised yet also perhaps the least fully understood of the standard definitions of what makes a mobile computer or tablet rugged.

Ingress protection is an important element in fit-for-purpose and Total Cost of Ownership considerations because it underpins reliability in the field.

Over-specify and you’ll certainly get a rugged device that won’t let you down, but you’ll push up the price because the more rugged it is, the more expensive the components.

 

You’ll also add weight, so potentially making it less appealing to your field workers.

In contrast, under-specify and you’ll be plagued by in-service unreliability and higher costs - not just of repairs but also those incurred by having technicians unable to carry out critical tasks.

As with all field service buying decisions, it’s a question of ensuring the mobile devices you select for your team are fit-for-purpose: reliable, user-friendly and able to cope with the demands made of them. And when it comes to environmental protection, it’s obvious that the device used by a technician fixing office equipment is less exposed to nature than a utility engineer working outdoors for much of the day.

There’s been lots written about the risks of under-specifying mobile devices for field service, but over-specification, particularly with IP ratings, is also widespread. It adds both unnecessary cost and can have a detrimental effect on productivity – taking us full circle back to the fit-for-purpose question.

“Specmanship” has led to the over-design of many rugged mobile computers, which has quickly led to the (completely unnecessary) over budget predicament many field service organisations are struggling with. A spokesman for Xplore technologies commented:

 

“In the case of IP ratings, less can be more (peace of mind and money in your pocket) and excess protection is counter to the mission of mobile workers, as surely as too little protection will be. It’s a Goldilocks-type situation that can be resolved by having just enough.”

On the other hand, rugged device manufacturers warn against “rugged” versions of consumer smartphones and tablets – often delivered with the addition of a case rather than designing in protection from the start with components such as sealed keyboards and ports and enclosed internal components.

What the IP figures mean 

IP ratings are defined by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards and tell you how well devices are sealed against dirt and moisture ingress and the level of protection components have against whatever is thrown at them.

IP ratings have two numbers: the first indicates the degree of protection against dust, dirt and foreign bodies entering the device while the second is about how resistant the device is to the ingress of fluid from drops, sprays and submersion.

Ingress protection ratings can be affected by the number of ports on a device and whether they are sealed or open, by keyboard design and a number of other factors.

 

We’ve included a link to access a full IP ratings table at the bottom of the page, but for field service the numbers to look out for on a rugged mobile device are “5” and “6” for dust protection and 4,5,6, or 7 for water or fluid ingress. (In comparison, consumer devices typically have a rating of IP42 or lower.)

Both are important when assessing devices: if, like me, you’ve ever spilled tea or coffee on a computer keyboard, you’ll know that water ingress can be the kiss of death to electronic components.

Less dramatic but in the long term just as damaging are ingress of dust and dirt particles. They can cause keys to stick and generally penetrate causing damage to components.

While “6” is dust-proof, a “5” rating doesn’t mean the device will prove unreliable, just that it isn’t completely sealed against dust ingress.

It’s worth noting, too, that complete sealing against water and dust ingress may increase internal temperatures which in turn might impact on processor performance.

There are more numbers for fluid or water ingress: a “4” rating signals protection from splashes, “5” against water from a nozzle, “6” will cope with more powerful water jets or sprays, while “7” means you can submerge the device in water and it will still survive.

Again, which is best for your operations depends on the working environment - for many field-service environments, a “5” rating and even possibly a ”4 “will be perfectly adequate.

MIL-STD 810G

We’ll be taking a closer look at MIL-STDs later in this series, but we think it’s worth mentioning here that while most people associate MIL-STD 810G with drop and vibration checks, it also includes water-resistance and particle tests which tablet and notebook manufacturers also use to demonstrate the ruggedness of their products, especially in the ultra-rugged sector.

Panasonic, for example carries out water resistance tests in accordance with MIL-STD-810G, Method 506.5 Procedure I (Blowing Rain) and Procedure III (Spray). The test items are subjected to this test with the LCD open and the unit operating, but with ports closed.

 

Unlike some computer manufacturers, says Panasonic, it does not shorten the duration of liquid resistance tests. For instance, for the Blowing Rain test, Toughbook fully-rugged computers are tested for a full 30 minutes per surface with a 70 mph wind at rainfall of 5.8in per hour.

Toughbook fully-rugged computers are tested for a full 40 minutes on liquid resistance. Although different Toughbook and Toughpad models have different levels of water resistance, all can survive 6oz of water poured on a keyboard.

Panasonic’s dust resistance test uses MIL-STD-810G, Method 510.5, Procedure I (Dust) and Procedure II (Sand), at up to 140°F, using both fine-grain silica flour and abrasive sand. To pass the test, a device must continue to operate with no binding or blockage of moving parts and no malfunctioning contacts or relays.

A testing question

While IP ratings do provide a standard for comparing devices from different manufacturers, some buyer caution is advisable.

Testing costs money, so some low-cost units may “conform” to IP65, for example, but may not have “passed” the required test or even been tested at all.

It’s also sensible to check how the testing was done – in-house by the manufacturer, or by an independent lab.

Getac, for example, uses a 3rd party to test its tablets and notebooks to ensure they are done to the full requirements.

 

---

 

Want to know more? Visit http://fs-ne.ws/10hVys to see full IP table

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Fleet management is about far more than keeping track of your where your engineers are and how they get from A to B writes Sharon Clancy...

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that not knowing where your service people are at any given point in the day is likely to impact on the future prosperity of your field service business.

In this connected world of ours, live location data is becoming a given, It’s a core element in being able to react to real-time events such as unexpected delay to the planned schedule.

So, having acknowledged that you need to know where your field service workers are in order to be able to respond to dynamically developing situations appropriately, where do you get this live, real-time, location information?

 

The arrival of the smart mobile device has made live position fixes much easier to obtain. You can locate a device on a cellular network mast, or you can get a location fix from a satellite. GPS has become a generic term for the latter: it stands for Global Positioning System, the US Government’s free-to-use network of 24 orbiting satellites.

Satellite transceivers (often called GPS chips) in telematics black boxes and smart mobile devices communicate with a minimum of three satellites to obtain a location fix, which is accurate to between 10 and 15 metres. By contrast, accuracy on the cellular network is only as accurate as the distance between the masts.

Why fleet management pays

Given that priority number one for most field service companies is on getting engineers to their next job and maximising the number of technician visits per day, why bother with vehicle tracking-cum-fleet management system if you can get all the information you need from, say, scheduling software with location-enabled smart devices?

Well, an important part of any engineer’s day is, actually, the driving of the vehicle from Job A to Job B and so on.

Having an integrated or stand-alone fleet management system provides a lot of potential performance improving data and more field service companies are beginning to recognise that they can deliver a lot of data about what your vehicles and engineers are doing, and they capture that information automatically.

For smaller SMEs, it can be an alternative to scheduling software.

Exception reporting underpins fleet management software, whether it is for tasks such as on-time arrivals at customer premises, working time compliance and speeding alerts. You set up the parameters as to what is “normal” for that vehicle and receive live updates.

 

Some service management processes now receiving attention are, in fact, long-standing elements of fleet management packages, especially those relating to driver management and reporting: on-board telemetry fuel consumption, trip data, idling time and harsh braking.

For example, fleet management systems provide historical analysis of trips, helping confirm the scheduled route is the most economical in terms of miles, fuel and timing. Analysis of the routes driven can identify any issues, whether it is regular hold-ups at customer premises, congestion hotspots and engineers going off-route.

For those companies who’ve not yet progressed to a dynamic scheduling software, you can get a lot of similar features with fleet management systems: engineer location, automated alerts on arrival and departure form customer premises, paperless data capture.

There’s less upfront cost, too - fleet management specialists were early adopters of the pay-as-you-go cost model, charging on a per-vehicle-per-month basis. If you’ve acquired your fleet on a lease basis, fleet management can often be included in the monthly costs.

For some benefits, you do not actually have to do much at all.

Geofencing, for example, is a virtual fence around a site such as customer premises, depot, or engineer’s driveway. Once set up, it alerts managers if a vehicle is moved unexpectedly out of hours, and when vehicles arrive and leave customer premises.

Going green

Fuel represents a significant cost for any field service business and it’s also a big a contributor to carbon emissions.

Any company with a business plan to reduce its carbon emissions needs to pay attention to the contribution from its vehicle fleet. If they haven’t already, larger companies with their own commitment to carbon reduction are starting to ask suppliers and contractors for more specific information about their carbon emissions reduction strategy is – it’s becoming included in contracts.

Several of fleet management companies now offer “Eco” or carbon footprint calculators. Masternaut, for example, has a carbon calculator that uses vehicle mileage and the known carbon output per km for each vehicle to calculate the footprint.

 

Fleet management companies use the on-board diagnostics port (OBD) now required on new vans to capture vehicle and driver performance data.

Congestion in towns and cities doesn’t just affect schedule times, it can have a big impact on fuel consumption – slow-moving traffic and idling.

Duty of Care

There is renewed focus on what processes are in place that demonstrate compliance with duty-of-care responsibilities. These combine an element of lone-worker protection and risk-analysis of employee behaviour.

For field service companies, the van is there to get your asset, the engineer, from job to job.

They might have all the on-site safety checks nailed but because vehicle operation is not the main focus of the business, field service companies won’t necessarily have a dedicated person to check driving behaviour – from whether the engineer has a valid a licence to whether he is guilty of always driving at 40mpg in a 30m0h zone.

The risk is therefore higher that these drivers will behave inappropriately and that no-one at the company will be responsible for picking it up.

 

Over the past year at Field Service News we’ve seen encouraging signs that more field service companies are recognising the need to monitor the driving part of their engineers’ daily lives, both in terms of fuel consumption and from a Duty of Care and safety viewpoint.

It’s in-built into fleet management systems – not an add-on. You can prove compliance with duty of care responsibilities.

There’s an app for that. 

At any field service company, one of the biggest administration challenges is following the paper trail. Whether it is worksheets, job manifests, invoices, timesheets, expenses or vehicle safety records, losing vital pieces of paper is all too easy.

Fleet management companies have been big adopters of mobile app technology to help mobile workers do a host of things, from timesheet entries to holiday request. Everyone’s familiar with an app, so no great training is required.

Time and tax management

Fleet management systems can also provide proof of when employees start and finish work – this is particularly important in the EU, for example, where the Working Time Directive imposes limits on weekly working hours.

Service companies have to manage the fact that for many employees, their work vehicles will be also be used for non-business driving and one key benefit that fleet management systems can bring for van operators is the ability to automatically differentiate between business and private mileage - in some countries, employees are taxed on private mileage.

Driver log-on systems ensure there is no confusion about who was driving at a particular time, or you can set up a geofence - any vehicle which leaves the premises or the engineer’s home address outside normal working hours is deemed to be being used privately.

Tracking logs provide detailed breakdown of business/private mileage for each day and the week as a whole can be exported to other applications such as payroll. It’s easy to set up on most fleet management websites.

Asking an engineer to complete a daily vehicle check might be prudent from a safety viewpoint but the engineer might see it as delaying him getting to that important first call.

 

He’s probably logging on to get his job manifest anyway, so give him an app to do the check and not only is it faster and easier, it closes the compliance loop because once it’s complete, the data is sent live to the office. Managers can see non-compliant vehicles and any defects needing urgent attention. In the event of an accident and a claim, you have proof the vehicle was compliant.

Driver check apps can also be useful if vehicles are shared, pinpointing when the damage was done and whether the driver was at fault.

Miscellaneous small repair bills for items such as minor scrapes and cracked deflectors can add up and identifying if one engineer is more prone than another to this type of incident can identify a training need.

Fleet management systems deliver some quick wins for field service companies, especially in terms of vehicle utilisation, route management and fuel economy.

Quick-fix apps continue to offer still more opportunity to remove time-consuming unprofitable tasks from fleet operations. And If there isn’t one yet, someone somewhere is probably writing it.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

GMS Espresso has woken up and smelled the coffee. In order to bolster its efficiency and lay strong foundations for the future, it is teaming up with Tesseract.

GMS Espresso has been supplying, installing and maintaining coffee machines and equipment for nearly fifteen years, but have been relying on a server-based piece of software that just isn’t moving with the times.

“The problem is, our current software isn’t adaptable or future-proof,” says Seamus Doyle, Operations Manager of GMS Espresso. “This is partly because it’s server-based. If we want to change something or introduce a new kind of report, we have to give notice and wait for them to come and install it. That’s one of the reasons we sought out Tesseract, because they offer SaaS.”

SaaS - Software as a Service - means GMS Espresso will pay a monthly subscription to use the service management components of Tesseract’s Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1), which are centrally hosted by Tesseract. The benefit of this is that GMS Espresso will receive new features, improvements and updates regularly and instantly. It also means, if there’s an issue, fault or inefficiency anywhere in the system, Tesseract will fix it immediately in-house.

The coffee enthusiasts were also encouraged by SC5.1’s user-friendliness, which is a huge cut above their current system. Doyle explains that they would often have to go round the houses to get even basic things done, whereas the new software  is a lot more efficient and easy to use. It was actually one of GMS Espresso’s own customers who recommended Tesseract, because of their own experiences with the software — testament to  the company's influence in the service management industry.

“We’ve had a really good experience with Tesseract,” Doyle adds. “They’re always on hand to answer our questions and make sure we’re understanding everything. They’re also providing regular training to help our people get to grips with the new system, and are always willing to work around our schedule.”

 

---

 

Click here to find out more about Tesseract software solutions

 

---

 

Be social and share this news

Security and communications company Total Integrated Solutions has deployed Tesseract's service management software as part of a major restructuring programme designed to deliver more towards more proactive service and maintenance solutions for customers.

Total Integrated Solutions (TIS) has grown from the company that brought television to Mansfield in the 1950s to a highly recognised and valued brand within the UK’s communications and security systems industry.

With clients ranging from the University of Leeds to the MOD, TIS specialises in telephony, data integration, television and satellite distribution, marine communications, CCTV and fire and intruder detection systems.

Now TIS is restructuring in order to better serve its customers. It recently implemented a new ERP system but found that, while the system is strong on finance and contact management, its service element wasn’t ticking all the boxes. So TIS sought out Tesseract.

 

“Tesseract is one of the most highly rated platforms out there,” says John O’Hanrahan, Head of Service Operations at TIS. “We were aware of them because some of our competitors use them, and we’d heard good things about them from the industry. Following a demonstration from Tesseract, we saw that they offered exactly the level of detail and functionality we were looking for."

Tesseract’s service management software will be integrated with TIS’s ERP system.

It will replace its current, much more manual incident management operation, which requires staff to allocate engineers to deal with issues based on their own knowledge of the engineers’ skill sets, locations and availability.

With Tesseract, everything is automated, improving workflow and visibility and saving TIS a huge amount of time, time which the company can reinvest into working more closely with its customers.

Tesseract’s asset management tools will also help improve the solutions TIS offers to customers. John O’Hanrahan explains,

“Each time a customer logs a fault with a CCTV camera, Tesseract builds a history into that asset. If the camera keeps breaking, it means we can get to the core of the issue and look at more proactive solutions than just repeat repairs. This helps our customers save money, an objective that’s at the forefront of what we do.”

---

 

Be social and share this news

Leading mobility specialists Kony and Cognizant are joining forces to deliver a new class of mobile enterprise solutions. The two companies have announced they will jointly develop and deliver solutions spanning enterprise mobile applications, mobile app design, and mobile back-end services to enhance business process efficiencies and security.

The suite of cross-platform mobile applications  will be suitable for industries such as banking, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and government, as well as horizontal mobile applications that can be used by sales and field services, workflow, and human resources organisations. Clients will have access to Cognizant's Digital Fabric robust mobile middleware back-end service, based on Kony’s MobileFabric for enterprise-grade mobile services.

In addition, Kony's advanced mobile app design capabilities will be integrated into the offerings of the Cognizant Digital Collaboratory in New York, further enabling clients to envision the "art of the possible" as they architect their digital future using Cognizant’s Digital Works methodology.

The news of the collaboration has been welcomed by clients.

 

“We are looking forward to working with Cognizant and Kony to architect and implement our digital transformation,” said Dan McCormick, regional IT director, Rentokil Initial plc.

“Cognizant’s digital expertise, deep domain knowledge and global scale, combined with Kony’s market-leading platform for enterprise mobility, gives Rentokil access to best-of-breed capabilities. We’re confident that Kony and Cognizant working together will drive the highest value and best possible outcomes for Rentokil as we take our digital journey.”

“We are excited to join forces with Cognizant to provide unparalleled mobile and digital solutions to help our global clients,” said Thomas E. Hogan, chairman and chief executive officer, Kony, Inc.

“What makes this partnership so powerful is the unique and complementary fit of our respective assets and capabilities – Kony’s deep knowledge and intellectual property in enterprise mobility and Cognizant’s tremendous domain expertise, business process and design innovation, industry vertical depth, and impressive market reach and scale. Most importantly, our combined strengths will bring industry-leading innovation and value to our clients, which is the ultimate barometer of success.”

“The world is mobile. Serving today’s customers means connecting with them anytime they want and anywhere they are. As a result, we’ve seen an explosion of emerging end points and apps to engage, capture information, and support decision-making. This trend lies at the heart of digital transformation,” said Sean Middleton, chief operating officer, Emerging Business Accelerator, at Cognizant.

“Successfully harnessing these forces to capture value, though, requires a thoughtful approach supported by an efficient, secure and agile platform. We’re pleased to partner with Kony and to harness their world-class expertise and platform. Together with Cognizant’s Digital Works methodology, this alliance will help our clients across industries.”

---

 

Be social and share this story

Trimble has launched an end-to-end field service management suite called PULSE, designed to improve productivity across mobile workforces

The PULSET suite  is a comprehensive portfolio of end-to-end field service management solutions that enable businesses to deliver field service excellence across a range of industries, including construction, agriculture, telecommunications and utilities.

It is cloud-based and modular, enabling businesses to performing critical field service operations to transform the effectiveness of their work, workers and assets to improve productivity, customer satisfaction and their bottom line. Whether businesses need to streamline efficiencies in the back office, with technicians out in the field or both,PULSE provides an extensible portfolio of capabilities to meet a wide variety of operational requirements.

"The Trimble PULSE suite enables businesses to manage all of their field service operations in one place, with one provider," said John Cameron, general manager of Trimble's Field Service Management division.

"Our combination of telematics, back-office, scheduling and mobile workforce solutions allow us to offer the most complete set of end-to-end capabilities on the market today."

Built upon Trimble's robust infrastructure framework, the PULSE suite offers a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities to manage, schedule, mobilise and monitor the complete operation in real-time.

Managing back office operations - Provides back office support that allows for streamlined business processes that are repeatable and predictable.

 

Organisations can easily manage customers, calls, service contracts, estimates and work orders along with asset history, inventory and billing.

Scheduling and dispatching - Offers an extensive range of scheduling,  dispatch and optimisation tools to manage tasks, appointments, parts, shifts, routing and crew support.

Mobilising the workforce - Provides end-to-end data access and information collaboration through configurable and customisable mobile applications.

Monitoring the work, workers and assets - Offers organisations the ability to monitor work status, view the location of their workers, as well as all their mobile assets and vehicles. Businesses can quickly analyse work in process, utilisation, monitor performance, improve driver safety as well as ensure compliance is met.

"We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all field service management solution and more businesses are continually seeking tailored solutions to address their individual pain points and priorities," said Cameron.

"The modular set of capabilities that characterise the Trimble PULSE suite allows businesses to tailor a solution based on their needs to >streamline operations and achieve field service excellence."

 

---

 

Be social and share this story