Running across the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th of June the Service Management Expo remains one of Europe’s key field service events…

The Service Management Expo has for thirty years been a central pillar within the field service calendar. Whilst there are a growing number of excellent conferences that showcase some of the leading trends within the field service industry both in the US and Europe, when it comes to an exhibition format, with the sheer number of vendors demonstrating their field service solutions within the vast exhibition hall held in London’s impressive Excel complex (Service Management Expo is just one of a number of exhibitions brought together by organiser UBM under the Protection and Management umbrella) the Service Management Expo for the time being at least remains unmatched.

Whether you’ve been given a brief to go and find the best solution for your field service operations or if your just there to see what is available so you can start putting together some plans, with over thirty different providers there will be plenty of opportunities for you to get a close up look at the various specialist software and hardware available that can make your field service operations that much more efficient.

Yet whilst Service Management Expo is very much about the exhibition stands with this many industry experts floating around in the same space it would be criminal not to get some of them together to share their insight into what is making the industry tick in 2015. This is where we come in!

Across the coming weeks we will be looking in a bit more detail at what these sessions will entail with each of the days being brought together under a broad theme for the day. Here we look at the sessions for the first day of the sessions Tuesday the 17^th of June.

After an opening presentation by the theatres co-sponsors IFS and Field Service Management the next session of the day comes from George de Boer, International Alliance Manager at TomTom Telematics which begins at 11.45am

DeBoer’s presentation entitled “Open innovation: The key to seamlessly connecting your back office with your mobile workforce” sets out to outline how your Field Service Application can be connected to your service vehicles and engineers? With a focus on those field service managers who are looking for more control, lower vehicle cost and a paperless process. De Boer’s presentation will set out to show attendees how TomTom Telematics’ open fleet management platform WEBFLEET connects your back office with your mobile workforce.

After two presentations from software vendors we move towards a more strategic topic as Nick Frank gives us his presentation “Service Thinking & Imagination: The secret ingredient in monetizing the iotS and all that connectivity stuff” at 12.30pm

Looking at The Internet of Things (IoT), M2M, Big Data and the premise of Frank’s presentation is that whilst they are an inherent part of the future of field service connected products have no value by themselves. It is the data they deliver that can enable us to start blurring the distinction between Products and Services and it is here that we will start to see significant value.

For Field Service to really leverage these exciting technology concepts, companies must re-orientate their focus from purely the product related experience argues Frank and his session focuses on how increasingly Field Service companies must gain insights into the value they create deep within their customer's business, and figure out how they use their technology and know how to make a difference.

Following directly on from Frank’s presentation is the first of the day’s on stage interviews with host Kris Oldland, Editor of Field Service News talking to Professor Tim Baines of Aston University in a session that begins at 1.15pm.

Following on neatly from Frank’s preceding presentation this session titled “Advanced Services 101 - Just what the hell does servitization mean anyway?” Takes advantage of the eminent Professor Baines position as one of the leading proponents of the growing servitization trend to try and identify exactly what is meant by Advanced Services and Servitization. With the Aston Spring Servitization Conference  running just a few weeks earlier Baines will also be able to give us all of the latest thinking on this increasingly important topic to the field service industries. 

One of the key questions we will be exploring is this concept suited to companies of a specific size or vertical as well as what are the benefits and how will it impact Field Service operations?

The interview sessions continue as we turn our attention to another of the emerging challenges of modern field service – i.e. data security at 2.00pm

This time Oldland welcomes Steve Foxley, Director Customer Services for manufacturing giant Siemens to the stage with the conversation being focussed around the challenges that field service organisations will face when it comes data security as through trends like big data and the IoT the issue becomes ever more pressing.

With the Field Service operations having gone through (and continuing to go through) a period of rapid evolution and as the day’s sessions will have discussed IoT, Servitization and Big Data amongst others are opening the doors to ever more efficient and profitable service operations, but are also introducing new challenges. So this session will look at not only how can we mitigate them but also how important it is to understand these challenges when before we take the first steps down such a path.

After what promises to be day full of plenty of interesting concepts that should provide plenty of food for debate we will provide an hour of networking to continue the conversations in a more relaxed environment with complimentary drinks.

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