How the Pandemic Has Changed the Approach to Digital Adoption for Companies and Customers

Oct 22, 2021 • Features • Martin Summerhayes • Digital Transformation • Covid-19 • Digital Symposium • GLOBAL

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Martin Summerhayes, Head of Digital Transformation Services at MDB Service Consulting.

Martin has over 30 years of experience in the service industry in the UK working for organisations such as HP, the Metropolitan Police and Fujitsu, and he focuses on leading key clients to a successful transition of services into new, agile, ways of working.

During the conversation, the two discuss a wide range of topics related to the acceleration of digital adoption during the pandemic and what this means for the future of service organisations.

In this excerpt from that conversation, Martin and Kris discuss how much the impact of COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption even for those companies and customers who were very reluctant to approach remote services before the pandemic.

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Affini Awarded Contract with Dockyard Port of Clyde

Oct 22, 2021 • News • Parts Pricing and Logistics • EMEA • Affini • wireless communications

Affini Technology Limited (Affini) has announced that it has been awarded the contract for the Provision, Maintenance, Repair and Post Design Services of the radio system for the Dockyard Port of Clyde which includes Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde.

Affini is a leading technology agnostic systems integrator that specialises in radio and wireless communications. Their deep-domain expertise returns significant value for their customers across a range of sectors that includes Transport, Utilities, Government Departments, Construction, and the Emergency Services.

THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AFFINI AND THE DOCKYARD PORT OF CLYDE INCLUDES HER MAJESTY'S NAVAL BASE CLYDE

For over 35 years, Affini has been at the forefront of their field, delivering critical communications, unifying multiple communication platforms, and delivering innovative solutions that utilise the internet of things.

Mr. Ian Carr, Affini’s Chief Executive, said “We are proud to be supporting Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde on this important requirement. We have amassed a great deal of radio and wireless communications experience as a company, and we look forward to demonstrating the value that our expertise can deliver for our prestigious armed services”.

About Affini Technology

Affini is a leading, technology agnostic systems integrator that specialises in radio and wireless communications. Our wide range of expert consultants, architects, designers, engineers and project managers, enable us to deliver innovative solutions and services that are aligned to our customer’s specific needs and packaged to their requirements, such as providing total solutions on a managed service basis. From strategy and design to maintenance and service delivery, Affini is trusted and relied upon to deliver and support your critical communications.

Latest Update To IFS Cloud Adds New Functionality And Simplifies Composable Application Deployment

Oct 21, 2021 • News • Artificial intelligence • Augmented Reality • Digital Transformation • IFS • Technology • GLOBAL

IFS, the global cloud enterprise applications company, today announced the latest update to IFS Cloud™, which is now generally available. IFS’s twice annual release cycle allows customers to constantly evolve their solution without the need for big...

The latest evolution of IFS Cloud delivers a long range of innovative, industry-specific new capabilities. For one, IFS is helping businesses collect the data needed to demonstrate their compliance and improve their performance against environmental sustainability standards - IFS Cloud Sustainability Hub is now available and integrated inside Microsoft Teams. Secondly, IFS Cloud for HCM and Talent Management solutions now provide the flexibility of using either basic or out of the box functionality for recruitment, onboarding, and development of your most key resource – your people.

New features include ESG capabilities, Advanced Analytics and innovative user experience

Available now are new APIs that connect factory machinery with IFS Cloud to deliver a connected shopfloor – this provides real-time intelligence that enables companies to better manage their supply-chain and production in line with order demands. New Intelligent Asset Monitoring and Maintenance functionality uses machine learning to improve predicative maintenance capabilities and efficiency.

The new Advanced Analytics feature that is accessible through the user-customizable Lobbies leverages modular tabular analysis models to clearly display business-critical information relevant to the user. End users can visualize their data in real, detailed graphical renderings suitable to the way they access and consume data, reducing the skills needed to make insights available to everyone.

As a market differentiator and ongoing driver for the evolution of IFS Cloud, the platform’s UX has also been updated. New branding capabilities allow the customer to integrate their own look & feel, helping to create a more engaging experience for users. Adding customization and analytical capabilities enables users to join up data, insights, actions and transactions in one place.

Additional capabilities added to IFS Cloud include:

The Update Studio puts customers in control of the update and cadence of functionality, allowing them to analyze the release update and understand what impact it might have on configuration or customization, before making any changes, which is especially critical to customers in regulated industries. The Update Studio is at the heart of enabling our customers to stay evergreen.
The Dispatch Console, which is part of IFS Cloud for Service Management, now features capabilities based on four personas of dispatchers, ranging from those that rely on a mostly automated process to those that will complete a whole process start to finish manually. IFS Cloud now gives each user profile the power to make sure they are delivering their Moment of Service™ for their customers.

IFS Chief Product Officer Christian Pedersen commented, “The updates we have built into the latest release of IFS Cloud are meaningful for our customers, both in how customers engage with the software through the UX improvements, as well as the additional functionality that has been added to help them manage and address the issues they face and the opportunities ahead of them. An example of this is the new IFS Cloud Sustainability Hub – there is no customer who does not want to improve the impact they are having on the environment and communities we all work in. Sustainability is a critical item for not only our planet, but IFS and our customers. We are continuing to see the world over that businesses want and need to transform if they are to prosper. Therefore, having regular, meaningful updates to our platform is key to enabling customers to remain evergreen and empowered to continually drive value from their software.”

IFS is committed to delivering an ever-evolving set of solutions for customers along their transformation life-cycles – future-proofing their operations, limiting risk to their businesses, and allowing them to create increasing value to their own customers.

“We’ve been expanding our digital transformation globally with IFS’s help, and since we initiated IFS Cloud six months ago, it’s proving to be key in how we deliver on our ambitions,” said pioneer IFS customer Cimcorp’s Director of Corporate IT, Pekka Nurmi. “IFS Cloud provides a big step forward in technology and capability for us and our customers and will continue to support our global growth strategy. The biggest value provided by IFS Cloud is the ease of use for the everyday end user – our users are excited and even our management has shown particular interest in the new user interface and functionalities."

To find out more about the latest IFS Cloud release, visit: https://www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud/cloud-21r2/

Bouncing Back:Demand Surged as UK Lockdown Eased

Oct 21, 2021 • Features • BigChange • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • EMEA

In this second feature of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by BigChange, we have a look at what happened in the field service sector after Covid measures began easing in the UK.

This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

GROWTH IN TURNOVER, WORKLOAD AND PROFIT ACROSS THE UK FIELD SERVICE SECTOR

Britain’s trades have bounced back from Covid-19 lockdowns and disruption. And they expect more growth in the 12 months to come.

Plumbers, electricians, maintenance companies and other firms with field service staff report that workload, turnover, and profit have increased significantly since Covid measures began easing in July 2020.

In the 12 months since then (August 2020-July 2021), these companies have reported:

Turnover up by 79% on average (compared with the previous 12 months)
Workload up by 70%
Total profits up by 66%

A third of companies increased profits by at least 50%. Three-quarters (74%) increased turnover; a pattern repeated when it comes to demand for work and total profits. One in five has doubled turnover since July 2020.

The sharp bounce back comes after a period (August 2019-July 2020) when Covid-19 significantly affected business activity.

Since then, growth has been particularly strong in the facilities management, fire and safety, hire, and plumbing and heating sectors.

But surging demand is not benefiting everyone. For every strong, profitable business in the sector, another is struggling to keep up – just breaking even or even losing money.

Demand for facilities management, building maintenance, electrical contracting, fire and security, and plant hire services bounced back particularly robustly – each sector recording workload increases of more than 70% year on year.

AVERAGE GROWTH RATES FOR FIELD SERVICE FIRMS

Looking forward, more than eight out of ten firms expect turnover to grow into 2022. One in five (19%) expects to at least double turnover by next summer.

Only 2% expect to be less profitable this time next year.

Overall, the picture is of surging workloads, turnover and profit – albeit from a suppressed start point. Like a coiled spring now released, the sector is growing very fast.

Many businesses will increase prices to help offset increasing costs. Prices charged across the field service sector rose by 47% in the last 12 months and are predicted to increase by a similar amount over the next year.

However, there are still concerns that growth in profit will continue to lag behind the rise in turnover, and that predicted profit increases will not be enjoyed uniformly across the sector.

13% of field service firms say they are already struggling, and fear that they could go out of business in the next 12 months as costs continue to rise and Covid-19 support measures are phased out.

This includes many that experienced booming demand last year, but couldn’t pass on their increasing costs to customers in the form of price rises.

STATE OF THE FIELD SERVICE SECTOR

Strong Growth and Profit Prospects

22% of field service leaders told researchers their businesses were performing incredibly well, with good profit and growth prospects. This equates to 276,000 firms nationwide
Half (50%) of these firms experienced increases in demand for their services of between 10% and 99% over the last 12 months, while another quarter (26%) saw workloads double

On average, these strong growth businesses have seen workloads rise by 97% while achieving similar increases in turnover (99%) and profit (100%)
These champion businesses increased employee numbers by 58%, prices by 62% and investment in technology by 76% in the last 12 months

Small Profits Firms

26% of leaders, the equivalent of 323,000 UK firms, reported their businesses were succeeding in making a small profit each year
Workloads increased by 57%, on average, ahead of both turnover (49%) and profit (43%)

These businesses plan to increase prices by 42% over the next year to offset rising costs
They expect to increase employee numbers by 37% and investment in technology by 42% in the year to July 2022

Small Profits Firms

A further 26% of field service businesses – 330,000 across the UK – broke even over the last year

On average, these Breakeven Businesses put up prices by 31% to stay on top of costs, and increased turnover by 57% from a 39% increase in workloads
Employment in these businesses rose 26% on the year and is predicted to grow at a similar rate (29%) over the next 12 months

The businesses plan to increase their investment in technology by 36%

BIGCHANGE'S GROWTH MATRIX

Loss Making Turnaround Firms

Around one in every eight leaders (13%) said their firms were currently losing money but expected to be able to turn their fortunes around over the next year. We estimate that 161,000 field service firms nationwide are in this situation
Increases in workload of 46% in the last 12 months were met by a 55% increase in employee numbers

83% of these businesses said higher labour costs had hurt their businesses last year.

Small Profits Firms

Another 13% of leaders told researchers their firms were struggling to the extent that they could go out of business within the next year. This equates to a further 161,000 businesses across the UK
Their struggles aren’t due to a lack of demand. Struggling businesses took on the highest average increases in workload (146%) and turnover (151%) of any segment

However, meeting this demand required a 92% increase in employees, a factor that 91% price increases couldn’t offset
97% of strugglers said they were severely impacted by Covid-19, while the rising cost of materials, fuel and people were negative factors for more than 80% of these firms.

This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

Security is Solely the IT Department’s Responsibility, Say 45 Percent of Workforce – KnowBe4 Research

Oct 20, 2021 • News • IT Management • Security • GLOBAL • knowbe4

The issue of building cybersecurity awareness is still a concern for many organisations as found in KnowBe4’s State of Privacy and Security Report, which found that a lack of IT security training is directly correlated with the risk of cyberattacks in the workplace.In fact, 45 percent of the workforce believe that they have no need to take additional safeguards regarding cybersecurity because they don’t work in an IT department.

THE RESEARCH SHOWS HOW A LACK OF IT SECURITY TRAINING FOR EMPLOYEES IS STRONGLY CORRELATED TO THE RISKS OF CYBERATTACKS IN THE WORKPLACE

The report evaluated the amount of training the workforce was being given about cybersecurity and privacy best practices and then determining how much was being understood by employees. Furthermore, the report investigated how employees were dealing with the realities and security challenges of working from home.

Key findings include:

24% of employees believe that clicking on a suspicious link or attachment in an email represents little or no risk
Only 31% of employees believe that allowing family members or friends to use work devices for personal activities outside of work hours is risky or a serious risk
31% believe that using the default password on their home router represents a significant level of risk
55% of employees had continuous cybersecurity and data privacy training throughout the lockdowns

Key sector findings include:

Only 14% and 22% of government and healthcare employees, respectively, are very confident that they can describe to their senior management the negative impacts posed by cybersecurity risks
Employees in government, healthcare and education have the least understanding about a variety of social engineering threats. When asked about the extent to which employees understand five types of social engineering threats (phishing, spear phishing, business email compromise, vishing, and smishing), only 15% of employees in the government space responded with an average of “very well,” while employees in the healthcare and education industries fared little better: 16% and 17%, respectively.

To download the 2021 State of Privacy and Security Report, visit www.knowbe4.com/hubfs/2021-State-of-Privacy-Security-Awareness-Report-Research_EN-US.pdf

Managing Service Profitability in the Age of Digital Transformation

Oct 19, 2021 • Features • Joe Kenny • Coen Jeukens • Digital Transformation • servicemax • GLOBAL • service profitability

We know that the service department is probably the single largest contributor to the margin of your organization. But when I would ask you: when do you know you are doing a great job? What is your reference, your yard stick? We know the call for great, greater and greatest. CFO’s want even more margin contribution. CEO’s want to have more revenue and market share.

In this article, Coen Jeukens, VP of Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax, and Joe Kenny, Vice President, Global Customer Transformation & Customer Success at ServiceMax, will show you some basic building blocks to manage your Service Profitability & Growth agenda.

It is an age-old dilemma for Operations Managers. Your CEO wants XX% revenue growth, your CFO wants XX% cost reduction, your CRO wants better references and higher NPS scores, and you are supposed to deliver all of this with zero additional investment, because – of course – you have been doing this for years with no additional cash, so why would you need it now?

To top all of this off, you had very little idea of where you stood, operationally or financially, at any given time. And this was due to the fast that access to real time data, a current view into work in process, and accurate financial information was all impossible to come by.

Historic Challenges

I often speak at conferences and participate in webinars, and I often relate this anecdote – in March I would lay out my operational plan, based on the most recent P&L statement I had received (January’s), intending to address performance weaknesses I had uncovered. My team would execute the plan and in May I would receive my March P&L to see if the response to January’s performance shortfalls were successful of not. It was madness.

Now, layer onto that, the fact that 30, 60, 90-day invoicing accruals were also Operation’s responsibility, even though we had an AP department. This process greatly impacted both revenue and cost, as the cost of service was consumed, but the associated revenue may not have arrived in 90 days.

Enter the Age of Digital Transformation

Fast forward to today, and service operations managers have been given a lifeline—digital transformation. Digital transformation can be like a light switch, illuminating what is happening in real time, allowing service operations leaders to adapt to circumstances immediately. They can reallocate precious resources instantly, validate payment status and credit status prior to service delivery, and see and understand the impact of operational plans in real time.

Digital asset and service management platforms can provide real time performance measurements, both foundational and top line. This includes data round first time fix rate, mean time to repair, mean time between failures, and equipment up time. With this data, operations managers can organize and drive for peak utilization of labor resources while ensuring that the training and quality of the work is optimal, thereby increasing the efficiency of their organization and lowering the cost to deliver excellent service.

With today’s platforms, functionality and tools, service operations are finally on par with our commercial partners and can see, and act, on upsell, cross sell, renewals, and service contract extensions instantaneously. In addition, we can support sales by identifying and helping them target competitors’ equipment for targeted replacement, becoming the eyes of the commercial team on the customer’s location.

Newfound Financial Control

Utilizing a digital solution allows for real time tracking of labor, parts consumed, travel, and any other costs associated with a service call, regardless of whether it is a T&M call or in support of a warranty/service contract entitlement. This is a key advantage that enables service operations leaders to not only manage labor and parts expenses far more granularly, but they can also evaluate the revenue associated with the service provided to validate if the pricing is correct based on their revenue and margin targets.

This ability to understand the Cost to Serve an asset or entitlement agreement in real time is a huge step forward for service operations. It gives them the data they need to truly align entitlement pricing, cost control, operational efficiency and productivity to accurately manage and forecast their performance and address fundamental issues that are obstacles to achieving their own performance objectives.

The evolution of equipment and asset service management platforms has greatly assisted service operations professionals in attaining the insight, visibility, and control that their commercial and financial counterparts have enjoyed for decades. As asset and equipment maintenance and service becomes a larger and larger part of most organizations’ revenue and margin contributions, it is important that they equip teams with the technology that enables them to better manage and control their operations.

ServiceMax will be exhibiting at the Field Service N Expo on October 27^th and 28^th and can be found on stand B6.

To sign up for the FSN Expo please click here.

Tavant Transforms Service Lifecycle Management with Enhanced Connected Service Experience

Oct 19, 2021 • News • Artificial intelligence • Service Lifecycle Management • Sustainability • Service Innovation and Design • GLOBAL • TAVANT

Tavant, the global leader in Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), announced the expansion of its solution suite to enhance service delivery experience, drive sustainability, and capture aftermarket lifetime value.

The expanded solution builds a single source of information designed to help OEMs and their suppliers improve how they develop, maintain, and service their products.

Powered by AI, the SLM suite will enable manufacturers to gain better insights into end-to-end aftermarket processes like warranty and claims, service parts, field management, predictive maintenance, operating conditions, wear and tear, parts failures, and support. This suite also helps in improving service processes like parts refurbishment, scrap management, parts management, waste management, and optimizing the carbon footprint in the manufacturing ecosystem.

THE NEW SOLUTION SUITE WILL EXTEND AFTERTMARKET LIFETIME VALUE AND OPTIMIZE CARBON FOOTPRINT

“AI and Analytics must be a strategic part of the overall service experience for the manufacturer,” said Aly Pinder, Program Director, Service Innovation at IDC. “In order to make sense of the rich data opportunity within the service lifecycle, organizations will need to rethink all aspects of service lifecycle management including the role of connected machines, devices and efficient processes and how they impact their service business."

“As systems and products become smart and connected, companies today need to emphasize data to drive business decisions. Tavant’s vision is to create a 360-degree view of the service life cycle processes for manufacturers, their channel partners, and customers. Our future-proof SLM suite gives businesses a competitive advantage by enabling exceptional service experiences for their customers while driving high service revenues,” said Roshan Pinto, Head of Manufacturing, Tavant.

“The manufacturing industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Built with a data-first approach, Tavant’s SLM suite is designed to provide a more comprehensive look to the service processes with actionable insights for a far-reaching approach to sustainability and carbon footprint analysis,” Roshan said.

Three Ways to Increase Profits for Your Field Service Business Post-COVID

Oct 18, 2021 • Features • BigChange • field service • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • EMEA

BigChange shares with Field Service News how field service organisations can increase their profits in the post-pandemic world.

During August 2021, BigChange engaged the research consultancy Opinium to survey field service businesses about how they fared since the UK government eased their strictest lockdown measures.

Although, for the most part, many companies are doing better now than they were in July 2020, the study revealed that fewer than half of companies reported making a profit. In fact, those in the worst affected category fear they will go out of business in the next year as costs continue to rise and COVID-19 support measures are phased out. Here are three ways to increase profits for your business and bounce back post-pandemic.

HOW TO BOOST YOUR PROFITS

1. Reduce Travel Expenses

One of the best ways to maintain a healthy profit margin is to reduce business expenses. With petrol prices rising by 18% and diesel leaping by 16% to a near-record level over the last year, it's worth looking at your current travel costs and devising ways to minimise them.

If you're currently relying on spreadsheets to schedule your technicians' working days, you could be missing out on the opportunity to optimise their routes. Thankfully, technological advancements in recent years have made it simple to assign relevant workers to jobs based on their location, skills and qualifications and vehicle type.

A job management platform optimises routes, which helps to reduce the amount of time each technician spends on the road. Lowered travel times increase the number of appointments technicians can attend each day, making it a worthwhile investment.

2. Improve First-Time Fix Rates

Did you know, companies that achieve a high first-time fix rate of over 70% enjoy a 4% increase in revenue? Subsequently, it's crucial to equip your technicians with everything they need to complete their assignments the first time.

Keeping a close eye on your stock, equipment, and assets will ensure that you always have the correct items for each job and allows you to attend more reactive appointments. Modern asset management systems give you complete, real-time visibility over your inventory and allow you to assign gear directly to jobs.

By allocating equipment before each job, your technicians can rest assured they have the right tools to finish the work there and then. Plus, an increase in first-time fixes will liberate more time for your workers to take on additional jobs — which will prove to be particularly lucrative, as the workload has increased by 70% across the field service industry.

3. Digitise Your Processes

On average, we found that users of job management software grew faster than businesses still relying on spreadsheets and paper processes last year. Better still, those that made the most of the latest technology are now in a better position to take on further work and deliver it profitably in 2022.

Using job management software like BigChange, you can digitise all your processes and manage them on one easy-to-use platform. As a result, your back-office team can handle bookings — from the moment the customer makes an appointment right up to invoicing and payment — at the click of a button.

Furthermore, the system records all customer interactions, meaning you'll have a comprehensive record of information to refer back to whenever you need it without having to sift through mountains of paperwork. Additionally, you'll reduce business costs by eliminating the need to store documents on-site or pay for storage.Consequently, your team will have more time to spend on activities that contribute directly to business growth, leading to significant profits further down the line.

JOB MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS ARE THE FUTURE

It's no secret that COVID-19 has taken its toll on field service organisations. Currently, fewer than half of field service firms are profitable. That's why business leaders will need to think outside the box and look for innovative solutions that will help their companies bounce back.

In order to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in a turbulent economic landscape, you must consider how technology will help you overcome the obstacles you're facing presently. Job management platforms arm you with all the tools you need to boost profitability and provide a great return on investment, which will benefit your business long after the effects of the pandemic have disappeared.

HELP YOUR BUSINESS BOUNCE BACK STRONGER THAN EVER ON BIGCHANGE

BigChange's job management platform is helping field service businesses across the UK win more work, take control of their operations and deliver winning customer experiences.

Bring your customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, workforce management, financial data and business intelligence onto one easy-to-use platform and begin enjoying the benefits of a smarter way of working today.

Want to find out more? Discover how your business can grow stronger on BigChange here and arrange a free demo today.

About BigChange

BigChange is the complete Job Management Platform that’s helping field service businesses across the UK to win more work, take control of their operations and deliver winning customer experiences. Bringing customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, field resource management, financial management, business intelligence into one simple to use and easy to integrate platform, BigChange liberates you from inefficient paper-based processes and the complexity of multiple different technology systems that hold your business back. Loved by office and field teams alike, our customers are achieving industry leading results and return on investment. The BigChange team is committed to customer success and no matter your sector or whether you have a mobile workforce of 10 or a 100, we’re here to make a big difference to the way you work and to help your business grow stronger.

BigChange will be exhibiting on stand D1 at the Field Service Expo.

Think Ahead About the Future of Remote Service

Oct 18, 2021 • Features • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Covid-19 • Remote Services • GLOBAL

In this final feature from a recent white paper published by IFS, we discuss the importance of thinking ahead about the role that technology can play in your business in the future.

This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

With the rapid pace of change that we all acknowledge at play, it is important to be thinking not only about how to make the best use of augmented reality and remote assistance tools today – but to be thinking ahead to create a vision for the role the technology can play for your business’ future state. COVID made the value of remote assistance crystal clear, which I think will only spawn further use of the technology in the months and years to come.

So, what do we expect to see? One major point is the expansion in use of the technology across businesses. While these tools are often deployed for a point-specific purpose, this enables the value of the technology to be recognized within an organization and for use to become more pervasive. “Various ideas have been brought up through our innovation counsel about the future use of remote service,” says Scott. “Two of the most notable solutions were having technical advisors on large scale emergency scenarios remotely connected to provide eyes in the field and providing immediate support to our technicians from peers or trainers who may not be in the local area. The future of technology is growing at such a rapid pace, it’s truly hard to predict what’s to come but I feel we are on the tipping point of even larger acceptance of these innovative technologies.”

For larger-scale acceptance and use to occur, its likely that the technology needs to become more cohesive and seamless. “Over the next few years, I would hope the technology is able to catch up to the vision of self- service and remote resolution,” says Marlene. “Chatbots today are unable to provide the level of understanding to truly make a difference in self-service. I would like to see technology integrate and mature, providing a more robust interactive experience for the customer for remote resolution.” When you look at how a variety of technologies including remote assistance, IoT, AI, ML, knowledge management, and service management intersect, you see the immense opportunity for these tools to become more unified.

Pandemic-initiated travel restrictions have resulted in a recognition of exactly how productive and effective remote interactions can be, and this will drive the use of remote assistance and other technologies to permanently eliminate unnecessary travel. Companies who have used remote assistance as a stand-in and have achieved impressive results are looking for areas where it can become the standard process. We’ve looked at factory acceptance testing with customers, for instance,” says Roel. “So, we involve the customer in the factory acceptance testing without traveling. And that seems to be quite successful.” Whether internal travel of knowledge workers or situations like Roel mentioned with its customer-facing factory acceptance testing, there are certain applications where travel was the standard before that it simply just doesn’t need to be any longer. This isn’t to say that companies will look to replace all, or even most, travel with remote assistance and other tools – but it will certainly have an impact.

The Impact of Remote Assistance on New Talent

I believe in the coming years we will also see remote assistance play a significant role in how companies deal with the talent gap. The talent gap presents a major challenge for businesses across almost every industry and geography, and the value proposition of remote assistance is simply too strong to not be leveraged as a part of the solution – both as a direct training resource and to play a part in knowledge capture and transfer. “When we onboard our newer or greener technicians, we’ve grouped them into three training workstreams. We use baseline testing to assess which workstream they fall into: beginner or associate, intermediate, and master level. For anybody who falls into that first group, part of their onboarding and training is introducing them to remote assistance,” explains Gyner. “So, we give them the opportunity to have this technical resource to help them with diagnosis. Use of the tool drives scalability in terms of building a bigger knowledge base of recorded sessions in the LMS. You’ll see this knowledge grow in the next five years and it’ll also be enabled by IoT because the IoT may tell a technical resource, ‘Here’s the problem to begin with,’ and that technical person can get on the phone then with the customer or technician and say, "Okay, I’m seeing what the piece of equipment is telling me is the problem. Let me help you walk through how to resolve that’.”

Finally, remote service will be a key aspect of any company’s journey to Servitization or delivering outcomes. We’ll see use of the technology expand and mature as organizations work through the role remote service plays in their broader service strategy and value proposition. “We feel that we’re only scratching the surface with what we will use this for now and in the future. But I think one thing is that we certainly won’t go back to doing things how we did before,” says Karl. “We’ve seen situations where we’ve had to do an intervention and we’ve been able to provide very quick response. We’ve looked at this from a training point of view as well. Things are moving much more to a Servitization model so service is hugely important for us. We’ve been primarily a manufacturer, but now we’re looking to provide a solution. Our use of IFS Remote Assistance has been thought provoking, it’s given us a lot of ideas about how we can evolve and change."

This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.

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How the Pandemic Has Changed the Approach to Digital Adoption for Companies and Customers

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Affini Awarded Contract with Dockyard Port of Clyde

THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AFFINI AND THE DOCKYARD PORT OF CLYDE INCLUDES HER MAJESTY'S NAVAL BASE CLYDE

About Affini Technology

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Latest Update To IFS Cloud Adds New Functionality And Simplifies Composable Application Deployment

New features include ESG capabilities, Advanced Analytics and innovative user experience

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Bouncing Back:Demand Surged as UK Lockdown Eased

This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

Security is Solely the IT Department’s Responsibility, Say 45 Percent of Workforce – KnowBe4 Research

THE RESEARCH SHOWS HOW A LACK OF IT SECURITY TRAINING FOR EMPLOYEES IS STRONGLY CORRELATED TO THE RISKS OF CYBERATTACKS IN THE WORKPLACE

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Managing Service Profitability in the Age of Digital Transformation

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Tavant Transforms Service Lifecycle Management with Enhanced Connected Service Experience

THE NEW SOLUTION SUITE WILL EXTEND AFTERTMARKET LIFETIME VALUE AND OPTIMIZE CARBON FOOTPRINT

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Three Ways to Increase Profits for Your Field Service Business Post-COVID

JOB MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS ARE THE FUTURE

HELP YOUR BUSINESS BOUNCE BACK STRONGER THAN EVER ON BIGCHANGE

About BigChange

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Think Ahead About the Future of Remote Service

This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.

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