AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Sharon Clancy

Leading UK gas distributor SGN has selected enterprise mobility company Kony, Inc.’s MobileFabric to develop and manage its mobile enterprise applications and streamline integration with its enterprise backend systems.

The move comes as SGN seeks to strengthen customer service and increase employee productivity. The company manages a UK network that distributes natural and green gas to 5.8 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England. It operates over 74,000 km of gas mains and services.

SGN’s Accelerated Delivery Team will use the Kony cloud-based mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS) solution MobileFabric to rapidly develop mobile apps, secure interaction with backend services and simplify the app maintenance process.

“SGN is committed to delivering gas safely, reliably, and efficiently to every one of our customers. Our collaboration with Kony will allow us to deliver innovative mobile solutions that empower our employees and connect us to our customers,” explains Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN. “Customers are at the centre of everything we do and working with Kony helps us to fulfil our promise.”

MobileFabric is part of Kony’s mobile application development platform portfolio that allows developers to use any open mobile developer framework and tool without sacrificing security or quality. SGN anticipates greater efficiencies as MobileFabric will enable seamless integration with its existing enterprise systems.

“As enterprises realise how mobility can transform the way business is conducted, we are seeing organisations find more business processes that can be transformed and new capabilities that can be created," said Jonathan Best, vice president of Europe and Africa, Kony, Inc. “We are excited to partner with SGN as it uses the power of mobility to provide innovative services to their energy customers and increase business efficiency.”

 

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TomTom Telematics has been announced as the 2016 European Fleet Telematics Company of the Year in the latest Frost & Sullivan Awards.

The Frost & Sullivan panel commended the company for its successful implementation of industry best practices to innovate and meet changing customer needs. Its open telematics service platform, Webfleet, is enabling partners in different verticals to create applications suited to their individual sectors, which are available to TomTom Telematics customers through the .connect portal.

This allows fleet owners to incorporate a range of software applications that are specific to their industry, enabling them to make smarter decisions to achieve their business goals. Moreover, OptiDrive 360 fulfils the green requirements of customers, helping them reduce idling times, speeding and vehicle maintenance. The technology provides a complete approach to assist drivers in adopting a responsible driving style.

Sathya Kabirdas, Research Manager at Frost & Sullivan, said: “TomTom Telematics has strongly positioned itself in the European fleet telematics market on the strength of its expertise in developing diversified solutions that can help ensure optimum driver efficiency and contribute to operational cost savings for clients.”

Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director at TomTom Telematics, added: “It’s an honour to receive the Company of the Year Award as it is the most prestigious award that Frost & Sullivan bestows on any company. It has been an amazing year for TomTom Telematics and we look forward to driving ahead with our business in 2016, and helping our customers achieve even more.”

 

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Software company Kirona and its client Carpetright have been selected as finalists in  Retail Week's Customer Experience Initiative of the Year award.  

Kirona is committed to providing retailers with the technology to enable optimised customer service through software applications that span the complete field-service lifecycle from planning & scheduling through to mobilising the field worker and monitoring the service performance in real-time.

The company's software has enabled Carpetright to optimise their Home Consultant service for their employees and to provide a better service to their customers.

Steve Johnson, Head of Central Operations at Carpetright commented, “Being selected as a finalist for the Retail Week Customer Experience Initiative of the Year award is a testament to the hard work of both the Carpetright and Kirona teams to get this project implemented, meeting both deadlines and with minimal disruption to our workforce. Just as importantly it also highlights that by picking the right partner both technology and retail can merge to create systems and functionality which supports the in store sales process and most of all benefit our customer.”

Neil Harvey, CTO, Kirona said “We are delighted Carpetright and Kirona have been selected as finalists for the Retail Week award and being selected acknowledges Carpetright’s innovative approach to delivering improved customer service whilst also increasing profitability.”

The Retail Week Awards, are celebrating their 21st Anniversary have experience the highest number of entries on record, making it an even greater achievement to be shortlisted this year. The winners will be determined by an independent judging panel and announced at the Retail Week Awards Dinner on 17th March 2016 at the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

 

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The Apprentice winner 2015, Joseph Valente, adopts BigChange field service technology to springboard growth at his Impra-Gas plumbing business.

The winner of the BBC’s The Apprentice 2015 competition, Joseph Valente,  has selected BigChange's JobWatch platform to accelerate the growth of Impra-Gas, the plumbing business he owns 50:50 with Lord Sugar.

Impra-Gas is on a mission to revolutionise the plumbing industry, using the latest technology to offer people a faster, higher quality service.  The company looked at a number of software companies and after a rigorous tender process chose BigChange’s all-in-one Mobile Workforce Management system.

The team at Impra-Gas are totally focused on scaling the business, whilst delivering industry leading levels of service and convenience for customers. The paperless app-based JobWatch system allows Joseph’s management team to manage the entire operation from quotation all the way through to invoice, with integrated planning, management, job scheduling and real-time vehicle and resource tracking. The system also ensures consistent service quality and compliance with an app that guides plumbers through critical checks and procedures.

JobWatch is also enabling Impra-Gas to offer a seamless and convenient service experience for customers, with real-time booking on the company’s website as well as on a mobile app. Customers receive live updates that confirm the estimated time of arrival and on completion of work can make mobile payments. Automated electronic job cards and gas safety certificates ensure essential safety documents are safety stored and recorded.

BigChange founder and CEO Martin Port added, “BigChange exists to help ambitious businesses like Impra-Gas scale quickly, giving them everything they need to run a dynamic, profitable and customer focused operation. We’re really excited to have Joseph on board as a customer. His team will be receiving the same 5-star service and support that is there for every one of our customers.”

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Have reduced road accidents by 14% following its initial deployment of CTrack vehicle tracking to 750 vans, Anglian Water is now rolling it out to a further 500 vehicles.

Since 750 vans were fitted with Ctrack vehicle tracking solution a year ago, UK water company Anglian Water has seen the number of road accidents across its commercial fleet operation fall by 14 per cent, fuel efficiency improve by 10 per cent and carbon emissions drop by 4 per cent.

The latest agreement, takes the total number of Anglian Water vehicles tracked by the CTrack Online system to 1,750. Ctrack was originally appointed in 2014 to implement a web-based tracking solution across Anglian Water’s treatments, waterworks and waste water operations. This included the adoption of the Driver Behaviour Indicator (DBI), an in-vehicle device that alerts drivers to any infringements when on the road by displaying a series of traffic-light coloured warning lights.

Anglian Water uses Ctrack Online’s reporting tool to capture management information regarding driver performance and driving exceptions. This has enabled the company to identify areas of improvement and maximise its driver training initiative, resulting in an almost fifty per cent reduction in the number driver exceptions – such as speeding and harsh acceleration, braking and cornering – from 25 miles per event to 49 miles per event.

As part of the driver behaviour programme, Anglian Water also operates a zero tolerance to speeding, so a bespoke speed band reporting tool has been created to enable the company to monitor where any issues are occurring.

 Ctrack will continue providing a consultative service to support the ongoing success of the vehicle tracking solution. A dedicated professional services team analyses all available data to provide guidance on how best to drive operational improvements and help realise maximum value. This has included monitoring vehicle usage to identify any areas of underutilisation, so Anglian Water can take steps to right size its operation or implement fleet rotation, which will he reduce costs and improve residual value.

 Stewart Lightbody, Head of Fleet Services at Anglian Water commented: “We have worked closely with Ctrack to develop an effective tracking solution that supports our commitment to Duty of Care. The safety of our staff, other road users and pedestrians in the areas we operate is our biggest priority, so we are delighted to see such positive changes to driver behaviour. Moving forward we are targeting a 25 per cent reduction in accidents as well further improvements in fuel efficiency.”

 John Wisdom, Managing Director of Ctrack said: “We are using our expertise within the utilities marketplace to develop a highly effective partnership with Anglian Water. By understanding their business and operational priorities, we have been able to use our industry-leading tracking solution to help achieve significant improvements in terms of fleet safety, efficiency and utilisation.”

 

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Kirona enable Riverside Housing Association to improve customer service.

One of the UK's leading registered social housing providers, Riverside Housing Association, has implemented Kirona's  Job Manager and Xmbrace DRS software to manage the work of responsive repairs teams across the north of England enabling the Customer Service Centre to deliver improved customer service.

Riverside provides affordable housing and support to people of all ages and circumstances. Michael McGowan, Projects Manager at Riverside explains: “Customer service excellence is key for Riverside, and as an organisation we continually measure how we are performing and address what improvements we can make. Customer feedback from our Star Surveys highlighted to us that improvements were needed regarding how repairs were reported, scheduled and managed. Riverside prides itself in transforming lives by providing well maintained, good quality affordable housing, so ensuring the repairs and maintenance of our properties is optimised is another key area for us.”

McGowan continues, “We have successfully rolled out Kirona’s dynamic scheduling software Xmbrace DRS and the mobile worker application Job Manager to approximately 70% of our housing stock. The software is used by our Customer Service Centres and to our contracting repairs partners across Merseyside, Manchester, Yorkshire, Humberside and Cumbria. We have seen an immediate positive effect since using it, with reductions in the time it takes to process a repairs request from a customer, with the customer no longer having to contact us multiple times to get their request scheduled, and the Customer Service team are delighted too as they are able to book and change appointments with clear real-time visibility of availability and jobs can be booked in the same area on the same day, reducing travel time.”

Ryan King, Mersey North Planning Team Leader commented “I find that DRS is very effective when it comes to the daily planning as it’s a clear system which offers benefits such as being able to batch the areas by post code per operative, it is also a helpful tool as we can use it as a database for repair information i.e. special instructions which reach the operative’s PDA device such as avoiding school run times.”

Neil Harvey, Kirona CTO, added “Riverside approached Kirona with a vision of how they wanted their services to improve, and we worked with their teams in an open and transparent way to deliver their workforce management solution to enable them to improve their customer service.”

 

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Enterprise software company Pegasystems Inc. has unveiled Pega Field Service, a new CRM application that allows organisations to extend customer service capabilities to their field technicians and agents, improving customer service while reducing operational costs.

The out-of-the-box functionally enables field service organisations to unify data and processes across the front and back office for a 360-degree view of the customer. With predictive analytics and guided interactions, customer service reps will always know the next best action to take in real time based on a complete assessment of each situation.

A centralised management control panel monitors activity from customer service reps on the phone through scheduling and dispatching technicians in the field. The fully integrated mobile app allows field workers to efficiently complete their job with features such as digital signature capture to confirm completed work in real time and barcode scanning to ensure the right equipment is matched to the right part every time.

Pega Field Service is built on the Pega 7 platform, which incorporates improved mobile functionality including more responsive touch interactions. There is also support for larger data sets in offline mode which allows users to access data such as entire parts catalogues or full customer lists on the go.

The software can be customized to meet the requirements of specific verticals such as home inspections and appraisals, broadband installations for telecoms engineers and emergency services and equipment repair and maintenance.

“With the introduction of Pega Field Service, Pegasystems is building on a decade of experience creating field service apps for many of the world’s leading service providers,” said Kerim Akgonul, Senior Vice President of Products. “Now with Pega Field Service, we can provide a turnkey way for organisations to transform their field service operations and improve the customer experience while at the same time reducing operating costs.”

 

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UPDATE: LEADING UK SERVICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE PROVIDER TESSERACT JOIN LIST OF PROVIDERS TAKING PART IN THIS YEAR'S SUMMIT...

UK based software company Tesseract have become the latest specialist provider to join the select panel of session sponsors adding a further layer of insight into what promises to be an interesting two day session bringing together a mix of practitioners, solution providers and academia to discuss the key challenges in delivering service within an aftermarket environment.

Tesseract, pioneers respected within their field for delivering both the worlds first windows based field service management software as well as the worlds first browser based field service management software are joined by a well rounded group of solution providers including Kuehne & Nagel who will be providing insight on service logistics, Syncron who offer parts and inventory management solutions, and TrackUnit who offer telematics solutions.

 

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The 2nd World Chief Service Officer Summit takes place in London, UK, on March 14th and 15th, with a focus on Manufacturing Aftermarket. Field Service News is pleased to be a media partner for the event.

The manufacturing sector is changing rapidly.  As sales reach saturation point and competition increases pressure on prices, manufacturers are seeking other revenue streams.  Revenue from aftermarket sales will become increasingly important and customer service will have a higher profile. That presents both great challenges and great opportunities.

If you are in manufacturing, repair and operations, this is the summit for you. Come and hear about the latest developments in spare parts supply, 3D printing, CRM, leasing and service support  for products such as autos, heavy equipment, medical device, yachting, aircraft and consumer electronics.

Over two days, in four themed sessions, delegates at the summit will hear from over 20 speakers, learn what the key trends are in service development, hear what competitors are doing and how to deliver service in a customer-driven environment.

Sessions include:[unordered_list style="bullet"]

•   The Global Market Outlook and Internet+ Market
•   Supply Chain Management & Innovative Service Design
•   Technology Innovation and Profitability
•   Field Service & Mobile Workforce Management

Among the confirmed speakers are: Peter Rudzio, CLAAS Service and Parts; Wim Vercauteren, Manitou Group Alvaro Lizarraga, SANY Europe; Waldir Gomes Goncalves, Embraer Executive Jets; Robbert Kerber, LuiGong Machinery Europe; Per Stjernqvist, Volvo Construction Equipment Denmark; Alexandre Marrot , Xerox;  and Professor Tim Baines, Director of the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice.

For more details and to register to attend click here:

 

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Telematics looks set to take centre stage over the next couple of years. In one arena, it will play a critical role in the connected car revolution; in another, there are predictions that the way companies buy fleet and workforce management solutions will be transformed. Sharon Clancy reports...

Fleet managers already appreciate the benefits real-time information telematics systems can deliver is deliver such as real-time vehicle location and driver performance data.

Increasingly they come with a range of other features that help field service companies manage both the vehicle fleet and driver behaviour.

This can include compliance with tax and working hours regulations, time-sheet management, vehicle maintenance scheduling and encouragement of more economical and safe driving by service technicians. It’s part of a trend where platform-based modular services for mobile workforce management have been growing in popularity.

 

Modular platform solutions encourage users to choose those apps and services which best suit their operations, providing customisation within an out-of-the-box offering. They are also user-friendly – you can start with the apps and processes that will deliver a quick ROI and add more functionality when business needs demands and when everyone in the organisation is familiar with new work processes. What’s all this got to do with telematics?

 

Well, the shift to web-based software-as-a-service means there’s no shortage of platform providers offering tracking and other telematics functions.

Not everyone calls themselves a telematics company, however.

Some telematics services have been added to other platforms as software-as-a-service companies seek to other one-stop solutions to their customers. Vehicle tracking companies, for example, now offer driver and vehicle performance monitoring tools.

Some telematics companies are using their telematics and fleet management expertise to offer a wide range of mobile workforce management: Fleetmatics is leveraging its web based fleet management platform to offer job management and other services. Microlise has developed its Clear solution specifically to answer the needs of field service organisations, while Telogis’s platform has been designed form the start for what the company calls “connected intelligence”.

 

Arriving from a different starting point is Trimble, which has added fleet management and telematics to its cloud-based field service management solutions.

 

So there are plenty of cloud-based solutions out there that will help you manage your fleet and activities in real-time.

Whatever the platform is called and whatever its original purpose, what they have in common is that all the modules are developed by the platform provider.

There might be partnerships with some third party providers, but it’s all controlled by the platform provider, not the application developer.

Unless you are TomTom, that is.

The Dutch company has moved the goalposts when it comes cloud-based services for mobile workforce management.

Whereas other companies in the telematics space are building their own eco systems with their own apps that customers can choose to customise their solution, TomTom has taken the innovative step of opening up its platform to third-party app developers.

“We want to make sure we have that end-to-end process and we also want to make it very easy,” explains Geroge de Boer, International Alliance, Manager, TomTom.

“All the apps in our app centre have out-of-the-box off-the-shelf compatibility with our Webfleet platform. All you have to do is plug them in,” he explains.

 

“Just as consumers are finding it to install an app on their smartphones, we want to make telematics as easy for our customers.”

 

Meanwhile, in the US, Telogis has become a partner with Apple, developing connected vehicle apps for the iOS platform.

The connected vehicle 

There’s a lot of current discussion about connected vehicles and the impact this will have on how we drive and used our vehicles.

Any field service company with a fleet management or telematics solution in place might wonder what all the fuss is about - telematics means they already have connected vehicles.

After all, telematics is all about real-time connectivity and data capture.

Data is collected from the vehicle, sent to a cloud-based platform where it is used for a variety of purposes depending on the app. It might be a location update, a video clip of a driving incident, or fuel consumption data.

However, with vehicle manufacturers’ focus now firmly on the connected vehicle, and with legislative pressure both in Europe and the US, the role of telematics is changing.

 

Connected vehicles are going to underpin safety initiatives such as Europe’s eCall, designed to ensure emergency services reach the scene of an accident in the shortest time possible by automatically sending an alarm.

 

After all, once that real-time connectivity is on the vehicle, why waste the opportunity to build-in more functionality?

Taco Van der Leij, Vice President Marketing with TomTom thinks the concept of connected vehicles will catch on fast.

“Usually when new developments such as connected vehicles are starting to evolve you need a killer app that proves there are benefits to customers. But fleet management and vehicle tracking is already happening – as an industry we already have millions of vehicles connected globally.”

With more connected vehicles out there, the number of apps using that connectivity will multiply, predicts Van der Leij.

“Field service companies will have much bigger scope and different possibilities to enhance their business. Imagine what it will be like if all vehicles are connected. You are looking at a different kind of application.”

“There is still a long way to go but that makes it interesting and challenging.”

Some manufacturers are developing their own  telematics solutions, others are not reinventing the wheel but turning to experienced partners to provide the platform.

Ford, for example, has turned to Telogis to provide the platform for its telematics solutions in the US and Europe. Other manufacturers are teaming up with local partners.

Business intelligence 

The more intelligence you have about your operations, the better equipped you are to be both proactive and reactive in making any changes to the business and the happier your customers will be.

 

Business intelligence can help you identify trends and patterns across all elements of the operation and discover where the bottlenecks and inefficiencies are, delivering insights into productivity, business process efficiencies, costs and customer service levels.

 

Telematics platforms play a key role: they receive the real-time data from vehicles and mobile device, cut-and-slice it the available data.

However, perhaps the biggest break through of all in the telematics space of recent years is that the technology is no longer restricted to the enterprise.

A raft of pay-per-user software-as-a-service models make the tools available to SMEs, enhancing their competitiveness, levelling the field and bringing thee benefits of up to date telematics systems to the wider market.

With the benefits of implementing a telematics solution both well documented and wide reaching, including improving driver behaviour, fuel efficiency and even reducing insurance premiums it makes sense for any field service company to adopt a telematics program of some sort.

 

Add to this the impending arrival of the connected fleet and the lower cost of implementation in the space and the barriers to adoption are also becoming fewer, which should also increase the widespread use of telematics in our sector.

 

However, as mentioned above the telematics providers market is a crowded one, with a number of differing approaches to be considered and assessing the pros and cons is an article in itself.

The biggest consideration however, must surely be to take a look at your service management suite as a whole and think how telematics can enhance your existing systems as well as how it can integrate with them.

For while the data produced from a telematics solution can be invaluable, as with any form of data it can also become quickly redundant if the data is not both easily accessible and effectively utilised.

 

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