Beyond the Headlines: Scope AR Partner with ServiceMax (Part One)

Sep 08, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • Scope AR • servicemax

A few weeks ago, Scope AR and ServiceMax announced that they had established a partnership that would allow ScopeAR to be embedded into the workflow of ServiceMax users...

On the surface, it promises to be a powerful alliance and one that could provide the ease of deployment that has been a barrier for many field service organisations adopting Augmented Reality (AR) solutions as part of their field service deployment.

As we build towards the recovery, many are envisioning a world where on-site touchpoints are to be minimised and so the focus on first-time fix is greater than ever before. Therefore, how we approach service delivery and ensure we are empowering our engineers and technicians fully by giving them access to the information, they need when they need it. The most efficient manner of communicating such information is very much centred around AR, which is now sitting at the very heart of how best-in-class field service organisations are focusing their efforts.

As part of our Beyond the Headlines series of features we Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief Field Service News invited Gabriele Bodda, Vice President of Product Management, ServiceMax and Scott Montgomerie, CEO and Founder of Scope AR to join in him for a discussion on the Field Service News Digital Symposium.

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward..."

- Gabrielle Bodda, ServiceMax

In the first of two excerpts from that session, we look at the practical side of the discussion and ask how seamless the experience of is using Scope AR within the ServiceMax platform?

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward,” commented Bodda during the session.

“This is something that we put a lot of attention to when we worked through the partnership, as we do with every partnership,” he continued.

“It is not just about a go-to-market, it is not just about the mutual endorsement, it is about bringing to our customers an end-to-end experience, it is about bringing to the customers something that is ready to use.”

However, the fact that there is an ‘oven-ready’ version of the tool doesn’t mean that it cannot be customised to suit any given companies more specific requirements. As Bodda confirms, “customers can of course change it and adapt it but they also have something to start with that can be deployed very quickly.”

One point that is raised often in conversations around AR in field service is whether there is a need for additional hardware, such as smart glasses or head-mounted computers. However, having led the way with apps for technicians on Apple’s iOS platform, ServiceMax is almost synonymous with harnessing the power of the engineer’s existing device. Will Scope AR fit in with that approach or will the additional investment be required for companies that are to make the most of this partnership“There is no additional hardware necessarily required,” confirmed Montgomery when this question was put to him during the session. “For more complicated use cases, we do support a number of headsets, but for standard integration, iOS and Android are more than capable.”

"We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do..."

- Scott Montgomerie, Scope AR

So how seamless is the integration itself? According to both Bodda and Montgomerie in effect, the integration should function intuitively and holistically. This is crucial to the success of the collaboration.

“We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do,” explains Montgomerie.

“The integration we’ve built with ServiceMax is geared towards that ideal scenario where they [the field technician] is already within the work order where they can click on the procedure through a deep linking mechanism – it’s very seamless,” he concludes.

Look out for the second excerpt from this session where we look at the broader use cases of Augmented Reality in general. In that upcoming article, we get Bodda’s and Montgomerie’s insight into how the companies they are working with are leveraging the tools to navigate their way through the current crisis we are all facing.