Field service is going through a period of incredible change currently with service taking centre stage in industry, driven on by innovations in technology and strategy. However, at it’s heart field service remains and always will remain fundamentally a people industry. In keeping with this ethos Field Service News is pleased to present the second edition of the FSN20 celebrating those who are leading our industry forwards.

Put together by a committee of industry experts, the #FSN20 is based on those we believe will have a significant impact on the industry in the coming year. Some are analysts, some are vendors and some are service directors but all are pushing the industry forward.

So in no particular order, ladies and gentleman,  Field Service News proudly presents...

Bill Pollock, President and Principal, Consulting Analyst, Strategies for GrowthSM

Pollock not only has a long and distinguished career as an analyst specialising within field service, but continues to be one of the most prolific authors in the industry today.

With a resume that takes in Aberdeen, The Service Council and his current organisation Strategies for GrowthSM Pollock has provided consulting services to over 250 clients across a career spanning over 30 years which as taken him all across the globe.

These engagements have involved strategic services planning, market research/surveys, customer satisfaction measurement and tracking, competitive market analyses and business intelligence gathering, vertical market assessments, operations assessments, business process evaluation/re-engineering, and the development of strategic recommendations for improving service performance and customer satisfaction.

Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director & Market Analyst Field Service, WBR

As producers of Field Service USA, Field Service Medical and Field Service Europe and their sister events, WBR are a key provider of information within the field service industry on both sides of the Atlantic. In his role as Divisional Director Massoud is directly involved with each of the events and responsible for delivering industry leading content to keep field service professionals up to date with the key trends with in the industry.

Massoud is also responsible for overseeing WBR’s research and a respected analyst within the sector.

Martin Summerhayes, Head of Delivery Strategy and Service Improvement, Fujitsu.

When it comes to field service, there are very few with a record and career to match Summerhayes. Having worked his way up from service engineer to overseeing service delivery for technology giant Fujitsu, Summerhayes’ background also includes developing the service offering for Hewlett Packard which would go on to be a billion dollar revenue stream.

Summerhayes is also a well respected industry speaker as well as an integral member of the Service Community, a UK group which acts a knowledge sharing hub for field service professionals within the UK.

Sumair Dutta, Customer Satisfaction Officer, The Service Council™

Sumair Dutta is the Chief Customer Officer for  The Service Council™ (TSC). In his role at TSC, Sumair is responsible for new member acquisition, member engagement, community expansion, as well as the development and expansion of TSC’s Smarter Services oriented research agenda and portfolio.

These research tools provide service executives the ability to benchmark their operations and also provide guided insight to improve service organisation performance.

Dutta also plays a key role in building out TSC’s community platform focused on becoming the single source of information and networking for service executives globally and is a prolific author on the matter of field service.

Tom Bowe, Director for Enterprise Service Management, IFS

With the launch of IFS Applications 9 last year, the Swedish ERP provider became a major alternative option for enterprise level organisations and with key partnerships with the likes of Accenture and Microsoft announced they are primed to increase their market share beyond their core strength of mid-sized organisations and challenge the dominance of the likes of Oracle and SAP at the top table.

With a suite of well respected service management tools further enhanced with the roll out of Apps 9, field service remains a prime sector for IFS and in his role of Director for Enterprise Service Management, Bowe has a crucial role within both IFS and the wider industry as a whole.

Professor Tim Baines, Director at The Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice 

The trend of Servitization is gaining more and more momentum each passing year and its potential impact on how companies approach field service could be absolutely massive. The increase in awareness is in no small part down to Baines and his team at the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice, part of Aston University.

A regular speaker in the global field service calender, as well as hosting the annual Aston Spring Servitization Conference which brings industry and academia together, Baines is widely regarded to being one of the most forthright authorities on the subject of Servitization.

Laurent Othacéhé, CEO, CognitoiQ

Othacéhé has been dubbed the Godfather of scheduling for his work with pioneering scheduling company 360 Scheduling, who developed what was widely perceived to be the leading scheduling engine of its time.

After spending time with Swedish ERP and Service Management software provider IFS following their acquisition of 360 Othacéhé joined CognitoiQ as Sales and Marketing director, before being promoted to CEO.

Given his track record and standing in the industry Othacéhé is certainly more than just a figurehead and is a an incredibly hands on CEO with an in-depth knowledge of both products and strategies making CognitoiQ a company set to thrive under his highly focused leadership.

Thomas Igou, Content Director, Copperburg

With a strong heritage in producing conferences within the manufacturing industry, Copperburg were able to build upon this base and have firmly established themselves and their events as key highlights within the European event calender for the field service industries.

Igou has played a key role in this success having headed up Copperberg’s portfolio of manufacturing events for the past 5 years, developing it from a Nordic Aftermarket event to a series of conferences across Europe within the world of Services. Events like the Aftermarket Business Platform or the Field Service Forum have become a true gathering of the most brilliant minds in the field service industry and continuously pushing the boundaries of the traditional events.

Thomas also has a keen interest in technologies and how they can positively disrupt and impact rigid business models in the industrial sector.

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Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director, Noventum Service Management

From small beginnings in a two-man office in Holland to a service management consultancy spanning three continents. With over 200 successful projects and a proven track record of improving growth and profitability Noventum have become a leading consultancy within the field service industry and Rustema has been a driving force in that development.

He is also co-author of key service book “Service Economics” and the 2016 publication “The Service Revolution of the Manufacturing Industry – Moving from reactive to proactive service business enabled by IoT”. Often seen giving presentations at industry events around the world and having been at the heart of evolving service thinking across the continent for many years, Rustema remains at the forefront of the sector today.

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John Harris, General Manager, Engineering, Panasonic

Panasonic remain the dominant force within rugged computing with a sizeable market-share. However, the company refuses to rest on it’s laurels and with the launch of the Toughbook 20 the technology giant has created the worlds first fully rugged detachable laptop. Combining the benefits of both tablet and laptop yet designed to meet the needs of even the most testing field environment the Toughbook 20 is a perfect fit for many field service companies.

Not only is Harris heavily involved in the development of products such as the Toughbook 20 but he is also a key link between Panasonic’s R&D team and their customer base. Approachable, and prepared to both listen to and act upon feedback Harris, is a crucial figure in Panasonic’s ongoing success.

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Nick Frank, Managing Partner, Frank Partners

With a background as a service manager before moving into consultancy including working with service management specialists Noventum before launching Frank Partners, Frank has a track strong record of developing service businesses within high value technology companies through various General Manager and Director level roles for industry-leading multinationals, such as Xerox, Textron and Husky Injection Moulding Systems.

He is a well respected industry author and frequent speaker at field service conferences across Europe. His mission is to support companies who want to leverage services to win in industrial markets through his expertise in strategy, new business models, ecosystems, innovation, service operations, service sales and transformation management.

Nick’s continues his passion for innovation through his new venture Si2 partners, which aims to provide new ways for managers to transform their service business through On-Demand Advisory and Support.

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John Cooper, Head of IT and Workflow Solutions, Sony Professional Solutions

With a pan European team of around 110 field engineers working alongside other members of the wider Sony workforce and various third parties, Cooper’s responsibilities are essentially across the entirety of the non-consumer portfolio of the tech giant, which is becoming an important part of the company's wider business strategies and plans.

However, despite the challenge of managing a pan European team across four divisions each with their own differing needs, Cooper has shown himself to be a forward thinking service executive, implementing and harnessing the latest technologies, to enable Sony to move towards a servitized or outcome based solutions model, entrenching them within the core business of many of their key clients.

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Bart Guthrie, Neurosurgeon and Co-Founder, Help Lightning

If 2015 was the year that the Internet of Things (IoT) moved from exciting concept to becoming a technology that is beginning to genuinely reshape the field service industry, then 2016 is set to be the year we see Augmented Reality (AR) similarly emerge. And like IoT, AR is not just a technology that can improve efficiency and productivity in Field Service, but one that can change the entire way companies will address delivering service in the field. Already we are seeing a number of companies beginning to offer AR tools for field service companies and at the vanguard of these is US based Help Lightning, the brain child of neurosurgeon Bart Guthrie.

Guthrie himself is a charismatic and confident figurehead for the company and the technology itself is certainly one of the slickest AR tools to hit the market to date. More are sure to follow, however, Help Lightning have a significant head start over most of the competition, and Guthrie is sure to be a sought out figure in the conference calendar this year as AR continues to gain attention across the industry.

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Professor Howard Lightfoot, Senior Research Fellow - Service Operations, Cranfield University

As well as being a co-author (WIth Baines) of seminal servitization book ‘Made to Serve’, Lightfoot is also heavily involved in the study of and advancement of Augmented Reality within through-life-services via his current role with Cranfield University.

Lightfoot is also a highly respected speaker in the international field service calendar as well as being at the forefront of training the next generation of field workers and developing the tools to engage with millennials.

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Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower

ServicePower had been quietly going about their business in terms of product development for some time prior to the launch of their brand new service management solution Nexus FS towards the end of last year.

With a strategy that involves strong investment in research and development alongside the acquisition of well selected companies ServicePower were in a strong position to launch their new solution, which has also had plenty of attention placed on its User Interface.

Having got their ducks neatly lined up in a row, ServicePower are set for an aggressive growth strategy for this year and Martin, who is both vibrant and easy going yet with clear focus and determination, has a strong vision of the path she wants the company to take.

An engaging speaker, Martin is often asked to give presentations at key field service events and we can expect to see even more of here this year as the sales and marketing plans begin to catch up with the impressive product development and ServicePower will be a name all service directors should be aware of by the end of 2016

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Andy Neely, Professor Andy Neely, Director, Cambridge Service Alliance

Another of the key figures within the growing movement of servitization which could have a massive impact on the operation of field service. Having held appointments at Cranfield University, London Business School, Cambridge University, Neely is widely recognised for his work on the servitization of manufacturing, as well as his work on performance measurement and management and his organisation The Cambridge Service Alliance continues to work with leading companies such as IBM and BAE on research into ways to provide, implement and employ complex new service systems.

He’s also recently been appointed as the new head of Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM).

Neely is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities on organisational performance measurement and management. He has authored over 100 books and articles, including “Measuring Business Performance”, published by the Economist and “The Performance Prism”, published by the Financial Times.

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Tony Chapman, Customer Services Director, Siemens

Siemens are another company who could potentially have had a number of inclusions on the list this year as they continue to lead the way in a number of aspects in terms of service delivery.

Their approach to engaging with the next generation of field service engineers was celebrated by our inclusion of Martin Hotass in last year's #FSN20, whilst their approach to developing an open Cloud infrastructure alongside an aim to have all their assets in the field connected by 2020 is an admirable example of a company moving towards a more proactive approach to service.

Given the wide range of forward thinking from Siemens though we felt that their representative should have a broad knowledge to reflect the wider organisation and in Chapman they have an excellent operations director, with a clear understanding of what good service looks like, whilst have a detailed knowledge of the challenges of IT within a field service environment.

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Phillip Sassower, CEO, Xplore Technologies.

Xplore Technologies acquisition of fellow Texan rugged tablet manufacturers last year was probably one of the biggest surprises in the rugged sector for quite some time. For a start Motion were very much the larger of the two companies, yet a supply problem from a specialist OEM saw Motion slip into financial difficulties and Xplore were there to step in and take advantage of the situation and by doing so establishing themselves as the second largest manufacturer of rugged tablets behind only Panasonic.

And whilst it was a move that took everyone by surprise it was also one that made absolute sense. With Xplore’s area of expertise being in the ultra rugged space and Motion’s being more focused on healthcare and general field operations, bringing the two product lines together has given Xplore Technologies an impressive array of tablets that can satisfy almost all field service requirements.

We are anticipating a big year for Xplore as they seek to capitalise on this acquisition, and credit should go to Sassower for acting quickly to secure the greater prize. With tablets becoming the leading form factor amongst field service companies, anticipate hearing more from Sassower and Xplore as the year progresses.

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Aly Pinder, Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group

Aberdeen Group’s Aly Pinder has to be one of the most respected and busiest people in the field service industry. A prolific author, Pinder’s work can be found across the industry (including regularly on fieldservicenews.com) and his analysis is always insightful, detailed yet also easily digested.

His work often draws on the detailed research that his organisation Aberdeen Group deliver which adds further weight to his well constructed points and observations on how field service is evolving.

In last year’s list we also stated Pinder was one of the nicest guys in the industry. However, a year on we have learnt that,that mild mannered demeanour is just a bluff for what is a cold, calculating and very good poker player!

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Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax 

The ServiceMax story is one of the biggest success stories within field service. Having gone from start-up to leading field service management software provider within less than a decade picking up blue chip clients such as Sony, Schneider Electric and Phillips along the way.

Having aligned themselves closely to the Salesforce platform, ServiceMax blazed a trail delivering a SaaS platform that was as accessible for family run SMEs  as it was corporate giants and with the recent release of Connected Field Service, a result of their close partnership with IoT specialists PTC, they are set once more to lead the way by delivering the industry's first IoT-enabled field service platform.

Aside from the technology the other factor key to their success has been in their talent acquisition, with a depth of knowledge and experience combined with an inherent desire to understand their customer base (every member of the ServiceMax team including Yarnold has to spend three days ‘ride-along’ with customers each year) throughout the team.

Indeed there were a number of members of the ServiceMax family that were considered for this years #FSN20 including VPs of Global Transformation Dave Hart and Patrice Eberline. However, with a rule of one entrant per company we decided it had to be the man at the top.

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So who do you think we've left out and why? Tell us in the comments section below! 

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