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Paul Whitelam, VP Product Marketing, ClickSoftware, puts across the case that in the race towards AI adoption we shouldn’t forget to see the value and importance of human input in the service cycle...

Like many industries, field service has seen an increase in the adoption of artificial intelligence-driven automation.

The benefits are many: improved efficiency, schedule accuracy, workforce productivity, responsiveness, cost savings and higher profit margins, and, importantly, happier customers.

Naturally, the onset of automation causes some anxiety in workers whose tasks are being handed over to AI. As with previous industrial revolutions, we’re not likely to find ourselves in a low employment high-leisure utopia. While the nature of work might change, plenty will remain to be done. Getting the full benefits of AI and machine learning still requires some human participation and a good understanding of who (or what) is best for each job.

People provide context

Service management solutions powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning can rapidly process high volumes of data to use as a basis for automated decisions. But when it comes to learning, machines can be a lot like humans— garbage in, garbage out.

When Microsoft launched its Tay chatbot on Twitter in 2016, few would have guessed that in just a day it would become a bigoted bully. The problem, of course, was that Tay was learning to converse by interacting with Twitter users, some of whom seized the opportunity to educate it on humanity’s worst impulses. Even with less shocking or inflammatory outcomes, AI learns from what it is shown and told. It’s likely to replicate bad behaviour if that’s all it’s shown.

AI-based tools can also provide simulations and modelling for multiple scenarios and highlight the interaction of various policy and process changes. For example, if the objective is the fastest response time available for every job, more technicians might have to be available for dispatching, increasing labour costs and decreasing utilization.

People must still define the process and priorities for automation to ensure your system optimizes for the right business goals. While intelligent computing power can grease the wheels of daily service operations, the real value comes from informing businesses to foster improved decision making.

Managing the unique and unusual

While humans can grow bored with the rote and routine, machines have yet to complain. Tasks that are repetitive and predictable are best handled with automation.

AI can manage most routine and ordinary tasks – chatbots, scheduling, appointment confirmation, routing, showing a mobile worker’s location and travel path to a job, it can even reassign and redistribute jobs around disruptions, addressing unplanned work with urgency. One UK gas utility can dispatch engineers to address a leak emergency in 13 seconds from the initial customer call—without human intervention.

AI can use a variety of inputs to increase schedule and travel time accuracy and optimize in real time, but what happens when you just don’t have the data?

One of the challenges faced by self-driving car producers is how to navigate remote areas, especially with routes that lack landmarks or distinguishing features.

Too few inputs can stump the machine. There is also additional context in some situations that will not be gleaned from data analysis, and impact from factors that perhaps are not being measured.

Hands off, humans

Applying new technology to solving problems in old ways yields minimal benefits, if any. Field service organizations see the greatest benefits from automation after reviewing their processes, KPIs, and business goals to leverage exactly the kind of data processing and analysis they didn’t have before.

They guide machine learning by providing good and plentiful data, filtering out the unimportant, and prioritizing the right goals. Specificity is key.

AI will do exactly what you tell it to—including replicating inefficient processes or making dubious decisions to optimize for a single outcome.

For example, prioritizing the shortest possible wait times for a technician to arrive could result in overstaffing and idle time—costing a lot of money.

Use projections and simulations to see how various goals interact to find the optimal balance, and remember that instructing your system includes telling it what not to do.

The vision of zero-touch service scheduling and dispatching enabled by AI and the Internet of Things is increasingly becoming a reality for service providers. Resist the temptation to interfere when unnecessary so you can give the machine a chance to learn, and reap the full benefits of increased productivity and efficiency.

What can your employees do with the extra time in their day? Focus on the people stuff, of course: training and coaching, brand ambassadorship, cross- and upselling, remote support—you name it.

There is still plenty for humans to do in the increasingly automated field service world, and it’s the work that relies on person-to-person connections and trust. While your people are improving service quality and strengthening relationships with colleagues and customers, trust that automation can handle the rest.

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Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems explains that although Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t necessarily a new innovation with the global enterprise value derived from AI set to total $1.2 Trillion this year you need to make sure it’s working for you...

You know that voice that answers the phone and tells you to input your account number after the beep? That’s one of the numerous applications of artificial intelligence (AI) we encounter daily. If you’re reading this you probably know what AI is, but as a refresher, the term refers to a machine’s ability to imitate human cognitive abilities like problem-solving, language, strategic thinking, and learning. But its innovations and opportunities go far beyond asking Siri for driving directions to your next appointment – specifically for enterprise organizations. According to Gartner, the global enterprise value derived from AI will total $1.2 trillion this year – a 70 percent increase from 2017 – with significant expectations in areas like customer experience.

With an almost infinite number of data points and constant generation of new data, it is now impossible for the human mind to sift, sort, analyze, and draw insights from that torrent of information – yet AI uses these data sets to empower companies with strategic, informed decisions. Considering this explosive growth of AI, the following are some examples of how the field service industry can implement the technology to innovate and improve the customer experience.

Increase Productivity

Artificial intelligence optimizes the scheduling, planning, and dispatching of service and maintenance calls in real-time. Whereas traditional dispatchers must fall back on manual searches, an AI-based system values data points to generate efficient results, leading to smoother operations and the best possible utilization of your resources - which also translates into a sizable return on your investments.

An AI-supported system can factor in a variety of data with an increased level of speed and accuracy – for example, technician availability or skill level. An AI-supported system can factor in a variety of data with an increased level of speed and accuracy – for example, technician availability or skill level. Other restrictions, such as work time hours, legally mandatory lunch breaks, and travel time and distance – among others – are also be taken into consideration. Moreover, such systems can automatically notify technicians (via text, email, or other channels) about the necessary tools and parts needed for the job, not only guaranteeing higher first-time-fix rates, but also reducing wait times for available technicians.

Elevate the Customer Experience

Artificial intelligence technology also streamlines and optimizes the customer experience. With an AI-enabled platform, customers can expect real-time solutions, competent technicians equipped with the right tools and parts, and early detection of potential breakdowns. By connecting via mobile, they can track arrival times and progress, easily schedule and change appointments, and count on a quick and reliable billing system.

Support Predictive Maintenance

Lastly, with predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence is solving problems before they arise. This not only eliminates unnecessary machine condition checks but also addresses the growing skill gap between service technicians, as AI solutions can identify and address trivial tasks, which then allows the technicians to focus on customers and solutions instead.

The strides made in AI are in the direction of chatbots, language processing, image recognition, and machine learning. Even though these are considerable cost-saving and productivity benefits, many workers are afraid of AI replacing their jobs, and the entertainment industry has capitalized on an image of AI (like Star Wars, Iron Man or Black Mirror) that is more in line with types that are still being developed like Artificial General intelligence, or types that are fiction like Artificial Superintelligence.

In reality, the strides made in AI are in the direction of chatbots, language processing, image recognition, and machine learning. Rather than new technologies replacing jobs, artificial intelligence supports employees by helping them become more efficient, in areas such as predictive maintenance and customer experience. The forecasts for this inventive and advanced technology are promising, and we look forward to working with our customers to make the implementations successful.

What are some other uses that you see through your work in the field service industry? We invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section.

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Mashed up by machine learning? Dumbfounded by data science? Agnostic about AI? Nick Frank, Managing Consultant, Si2 Partners doesn’t promise to the provide all the answers, but he can offer some crucial insight into the management process on turning your field service data into profits...

Recently I have been working with Data Scientist Eric Topham co-founder of The Data Analysis Bureau, to understand why many company leaders are struggling to turn data into profits. Eric solves data problems. He is the professional who will understand if it is a Data Science or a Data Analytics challenge and then deliver the appropriate math-based algorithms.

Data Science is about discovering new patterns in data in order to make predictions and take real-time action. The mathematical technologies used in this process are dynamic and self-learning, sometimes being grouped under the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ label. In Field Service, the types of data problems addressed by these technologies might include scheduling or predictive maintenance.

Data Analytics deals with historical and more ‘static’ data, where the desire is to test ideas or hypothesis, understand relationships and develop insights into historical patterns.Data Analytics deals with historical and more ‘static’ data, where the desire is to test ideas or hypothesis, understand relationships and develop insights into historical patterns. Here techniques such as statistical modelling, data mining and visualization are used to gain results. Common examples you might recognize are knowledge management or performance reporting.

Data problem solvers such as Eric will tell you that the hardest part of his job is not developing the data solution, it is defining the problem to be solved in terms of reducing costs or increasing revenues or hopefully both.

The companies who can to articulate their business problem in terms of money and performance, make it much easier for his team to create the mathematical models to answer the questions posed.

One of the ways of defining the business problem is to use value mapping tools, such as the Value Iceberg described in February’s issue of Field Service news “Don’t be caught in the Emperor’s new clothes. First focus on the customer”.

These help companies articulate not only the direct benefits to the customer, but more importantly the hidden value of their product or service, such as improved material through-put, lower energy costs or reduced risk.

A good example would be a manufacturer of air conditioning systems who targets facility managers for whom 30% of the building’s running costs is energy. This company targets their products and services to reduce their energy by 10%, enabling a very compelling sales argument.

However, the vast majority are far blander and generally fall into three broad categories:

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• Bland USPers: Ask people about their value and they will trot out a predictable unique selling point(USP) such as 24/7 spare parts delivery. The question is do they know what this means to the customer and price accordingly.
• The Easy and Obvious: Many can tell you what their customers tell them, but not much more! Do you hear phrases such as. ‘My customer needs fast and right-first-time resolution!’. What does this really mean to the customer in terms of money and performance?
• Know, but cannot say: Then there is also a significant proportion who intuitively know their customers, but struggle to move themselves beyond the immediate need. They need help to articulate how they make their customers more profitable.

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If the key to monetizing the data is to never separate the business problem from the data problem, how should companies approach this challenge. Many lack the confidence to take the journey due to the intimidating jargon and fast pace of change.

This high-level roadmap is our attempt to demystify the process by breaking it down into 5 key common-sense steps:

[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Define the business problem: Whether it’s internal service operations or new services, a value mapping exercise such as the Value Iceberg is the essential start point. But do not just look at the customer. Look at the end to end industry supply chain and in particular the data hand-offs between the different actors in the supply chain. We discussed this more in our 2016 Field Service news article ‘ 5 patterns to discovering new data-driven service revenues’.
2. Solution and data needs: Identify the solutions you might offer, the critical data you need and how you will collect it. In their rush to create data services solutions, many companies jump to this step first without a clear view of the business problem. The result can be developing IoT platforms with no revenue stream or data they cannot analyse.
3. Define data problem: Formulate and scope the problem. Then scope and design the solution. Here matching internal capabilities matched with external expert partners is often the key to success.
4. Implement & evaluate: Start with a manageable pilot, revisit the business problem and ensure the solution is able to add the value you desire.
5. Scale Up: When successful, you are ready to scale up across your organization

[/ordered_list]

If data is particularly relevant to growing your field service business, then you can reach me @ nick.frank@si2partners.com

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Barrett Coakley, Product Marketing Manager, ClickSoftware offers some crucial advice in the complex and crucial area of change management...

Organisational change is hard but, given constantly shifting market conditions and the rate new technologies are released, dealing with transformation is now a requirement at most firms.

However, McKinsey reports that 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. With that type of failure rate, you might be wondering why even bother. Nonetheless, when done correctly, change management can have an enormous impact on employee engagement, operational efficiency and financial success.

There are three areas that are causing change within field service teams that leaders must address Field service organizations are being asked to address multiple reforms but there are three areas that should be high on your change management list; talent management issues, technology advances and new customer attitudes.

Here are some recommendations to help your field service group succeed on this change management journey.

Talent Management

According to The Service Council, 70% of service organizations report they’ll be facing a pinch as they lose workers to retirement in the coming years. The retirement of baby boomers has the potential to leave a vast knowledge and experience gap on many field service teams.

There is hope, however, as the 75 million large millennial generation has entered the workforce and they have the skills to fill these open positions.

However, field service managers must understand the drivers that motivate millennials and how they differ from the retiring baby boomers, including:

• Tech savvy: The millennial generation grew up with all things digital. They embrace technology and expect the organizations that they work for to provide the most current technology for them to perform their job.
• Mission: Millennials are looking from a deeper meaning from work. They want to feel that they are having an impact both on the company as well as greater society.
• Retention: You might have some members on your field service team that have worked in the group for 10-20+ years. Millennials, however, tend to change jobs frequently. In fact, Gallup revealed that 21% of millennials report changing jobs within the last year, which is more than three times the number of non-millennials.

Here are some areas your field service team should focus on to facilitate the changes this generation will bring to your team.

Offer Incentives:

While you might think a raise would be sufficient for millennial retention, you should instead focus on benefits you could offer.

According to Gallup, millennials are more likely than any other generation to say they would change jobs for a particular benefit or perk. They especially appreciate perks that directly impact their lives and the lives of their family. It makes sense considering many millennials are starting families, have large student loans, and desire a work-life balance.

Popular benefits for Millennials include:

• Paid paternal and maternity leave
• Student loan reimbursement
• Childcare reimbursement
• Tuition reimbursement

So instead of just offering a pay raise next year, poll your workforce to determine what they truly value.

The responses might surprise you.

Development opportunities: The best way to attract millennials is by leveraging two of their biggest desires—development and purpose.

67% of millennials are engaged at work when they strongly agree that the mission or purpose of their company makes them feel their job is importantFor instance, Gallup reports that “rallying millennials around a mission and purpose dramatically increases their employee engagement: 67% of millennials are engaged at work when they strongly agree that the mission or purpose of their company makes them feel their job is important.”

Focus your attraction and retention strategies on delivering learning opportunities and career development. This way millennials are assured that their jobs provide plenty of opportunities for skill development and career advancement.

Keep in mind millennials may want to pursue independent project work, attend conferences, take classes, and join professional organizations.

Give them the flexibility and resources to do so, whether this means tuition reimbursement, or time off work to ensure they are fulfilled.

The Impact of New Technology

New technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data analytics are having a huge impact on field service operations.

These new technologies are providing real-time insights into field assets that can be used to predict when a piece of equipment might fail, allowing for proactive maintenance. However, with all of this technology, there comes the need for change across your field team in order make sense of all this new information. Here are a few steps you can take to make sure your team is prepared for the impact of technology on your field service group.

Make a Plan:

First off, you will need a plan to prepare for the impact these technologies will have across your field service organization. For example, you will need to train field engineers on how to potentially service IoT-based equipment, build a roadmap for incorporating new devices, and identify which technician or dispatch behaviours will change based on this new technology.

Will customer issues be identified at a server level when equipment fails? What does this do to the dispatch workflow? Are you incorporating wearables at an employee level to improve communication or field-based efficiency? What software will you need to ensure these devices operate smoothly within your current frameworks and infrastructure?

Create a roadmap that accounts for the short, and long-term implications of devices, services, and technician needs.

KISS Principal:

Albert Einstein once stated, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” This is where the KISS principle comes into play during change management exercises. Stepping up to the challenges associated with all of these different technologies is difficult and complicated.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simplerWith any digital transformation, the best possible course of action is to simplify by starting with small, simple changes. Select a small behaviour, or wearable device that your customers are using, and optimize around that. Then, scale what you have learned across more devices, customer behaviours, and internal processes. With a change this impactful it is best to keep it simple, sir.

Uberization of Service

As Amazon, Uber, Airbnb and other upstart organizations continue to heighten customer expectations, field service organizations have struggled to keep pace with these new demands.

Customers now expect transparency around service delivery such as the real-time location of the field technician responsible for the appointment as well as personalized communication preferences like text or email.

However, the delivery of exceptional service requires changes to the technician’s traditional role and skill set.

Here are few areas that should be looked at to change.

Product and Service Training:

Field service professionals understand the inner workings of the products they maintain but they might not be knowledgeable enough to upsell a new product or service to a customer.

To enable this ability, sales and marketing training should be provided to field service professionals so they understand the features and benefits of different services. Sales and marketing is a new type of training and skillset for most field service professionals but one that can really benefit the top line.

Increasing revenue is an important focus for many organizations but it is proving to be a difficult one as 76% of field service providers report they are struggling to achieve revenue growth, according to the TSIA. Sales and marketing training could be the support ticket that helps change this trend.

Soft Skill Training:

Field service professionals are now required to interact with clients in a way that elevates the customer experience, resulting in upsell opportunities and less customer churn.

64% of consumers have switched providers in at least one industry due to poor customer service.Preventing customer churn is especially important as Accenture reported that 64% of consumers have switched providers in at least one industry due to poor customer service.

To provide a higher level of personalized service requires better soft skills, something not every person has, but this ability is a key to this new service delivery model. In fact, study conducted by Development Dimensions International found that for every $1,100 invested in soft skills training, employers earned an average return of $4,000.

Training soft skills can help a technician provide more empathy towards the customer, improve communication and the ability to provide a more personalized experience.

Soft skill training is especially important for millennials as they often lack these abilities. An investment in soft skills training is worthwhile for any organization but can be particularly important in delivering a great customer experience.

Conclusion

The key to handling all of these changes is a commitment from all involved. In fact, McKinsey found that when people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick.

However, making the challenge even more daunting is that organizations no longer have the luxury of implementing changes over a 3-5 year period of time as in the past.

Change is no longer a periodic event, but one that is constant as the market and technology continue to evolve at faster and faster rates. Field service teams need to prepare now.

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Sara Mueller, Field Service Portfolio Director, WBR looks at how the rapid evolution of service excellence is a double-edged sword of opportunity and challenges...

I’ve been a conference producer for Worldwide Business Research (WBR) for over ten years, but most of my friends still don’t understand what that means or how I spend my days.

My mom finally gets it though.

I told her that I conduct market research by talking to service executives to learn what their biggest challenges and initiatives are. I also talk to their vendors and solution providers to understand what innovative technologies and services they provide to solve these challenges. Then I write a conference program and recruit thought leaders to speak about these subjects to bring the industry together and help advance service organizations.

Throw in fun parties, innovative formats that get people talking, and beautiful venues where people enjoy building business relationships, and you’ve got the essence of a WBR Field Service event!

Whether or not you grasp the function of my job, I’m sure you can relate to the four major trends I see impacting field service over the next few years.

They are:

1. Driving service innovation using technological advancements like augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis.
2. Doing more with less by determining the quickest, most efficient way to automate field service operations.
3. Transitioning to a customer success organization that sells customer business outcomes.
4. Aligning talent recruitment and training with the needs of an evolved service/support business model.

Driving Service Innovation Using Technological Advancements Like Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) And Big Data Analysis.

Augmented reality pilot programs are well underway and starting to reveal the best ways to use this technology for remote-assisted repair and troubleshooting.

Whether hands-free wearables or tablet devices are the hardware of choice, there are numerous software options to choose from to execute an AR strategy.Whether hands-free wearables or tablet devices are the hardware of choice, there are numerous software options to choose from to execute an AR strategy.

It’s clear that AR is not just a buzz word, but a concrete field service tool that’s here to stay and will be implemented by the majority of service organizations within the next three years.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotization are continually being explored in order to understand where technology can replace unnecessary human work, increase automation, and drive productivity. Bots are being used to get information to field service teams quickly and for memory nudging.

Virtual assistants or virtual customer agents are starting to be the norm. Innovative service organizations are looking to the further future to use machine learning to building autonomous services or self-healing, self-repairing products.

And, finally, data: Since devices became connected and IoT found its way into more and more products, we’ve never had more data on hand. Companies are spending their resources to ensure the data that is being gathered is clean, relevant, and easy to interpret.

It’s being used to measure product quality and gain performance insights from the field. Data visualization and analytics tools are helping to validate and adapt maintenance schedules, customer experience, and revenue generation.

Whether you classify this information as “big data” or not, it’s clear the data you now have available from connected products is essential for making “big” important business decisions and learning how you can better serve your customers.

Doing More With Less By Determining The Quickest, Most Efficient Way To Automate Field Service Operations.

Service executives are exploring the best tools for service automation in order to get more work done without increasing headcount. The speed of change and ease of implementation are key factors going into technology investment and process decisions.

Change management has never been more important. And lean, six sigma, and kaizen are being used to look beyond manufacturing to service operations to reduce complexity and streamline processes.

Artificial intelligence, as mentioned above, comes into play as a leading tool to increase automation.

Transitioning To A Customer Success Organization That Sells Business Outcomes

Service organizations are continuing their business model evolution away from selling products towards selling results, up-time or customer business outcomes.

Part of this entire company cultural shift has led to the development of “customer success” organizations.

Rather than calling the customer-facing side of the organization customer service, or support, or technical support, companies are using the name “success” to describe how they go above and beyond for the customers, owning responsibility for the success of their customer’s business.

Customer success takes into account being a trusted advisor to customers to ensure they are leveraging all the capabilities of your product offeringCustomer success takes into account being a trusted advisor to customers to ensure they are leveraging all the capabilities of your product offering. It, of course, brings together service and call centre support, as well as sales.

Customer success is sometimes its own department, or it can be a combination of sales and service. Of key importance is to understand how all parts of the organization that contribute to customer success can have aligned goals and incentives.

Service organizations are exploring customer engagement software and the best ways to measure the customer experience throughout all points of contact.

Aligning Talent Recruitment And Training With The Needs Of An Evolved Service And Support Business Model.

With a shift to more cloud and software-based services, the required skill set of technicians is changing.

Companies need to recruit for a new skill set while still trying to fill gaps in their team caused by baby boomer retirement, a lack of apprentices after apprenticeship programs were discontinued during the economic downturn, and with the positive challenge of business and customer growth.

Some companies are choosing to bring in computer science software folks, then train them on the hardware piece.

Some are using veteran career-placement programs to find qualified, screened, and trained talent.

Given field service and support is highly influenced by technology, its clear the industry, its solutions, and your customer needs will continue changing rapidly. On top of this, the current workforce needs to be trained to service products that are supported by more automation and digitization.

Even recruiting for women is taking a higher priority at many organizations, since women make up half of the workforce, but generally a much smaller percentage of the field service industry. Diversity and inclusion efforts are being carried out with the knowing that aligning goals, incentives, and measurement against these efforts is imperative to their success.

Given field service and support is highly influenced by technology, its clear the industry, its solutions, and your customer needs will continue changing rapidly.

This is a good thing as you’ve never had more ways to be able to move the needle of the service you provide your customers.

Plus it keeps things interesting for someone like me (a conference producer for your industry)!

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Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing Officer with ServicePower joins the exclusive ranks of Field Service News associate columnists and in his first article explains why in a world of increasing customer demands field service delivery needs to be the platform from which you wow your customers...

Customers expect more from today’s service providers. In a service environment where consumers are connected to the internet and each other 24 hours a day, they expect the same connectivity and instant response from companies they do business with. Consider the popular pizza tracker technology.

We’ve seen the technology cheekily called a baby monitor for pizza. Who among us hasn’t watched the tracker move in the right direction, just to stall right before the pizza is due to be delivered, leaving us disappointed, anxious and hungry?

Though pizza has little in common with complex field service operations, the tracker concept is very applicable.

Though pizza has little in common with complex field service operations, the tracker concept is very applicable.Consumers today expect to have full access to your services. Field service technology with supports the entire service lifecycle, from entitlement to completion is so important in today’s environment given those expectations. Consumers expect to be able to schedule a service or maintenance event whenever, and on whatever device is convenient to them, just like ordering a pizza. Enabling your customers to digitally engage with you operational teams, faster and in a smarter way, is a critical first step to building brand loyalty and increasing future revenues.

Providing visibility, just like that pizza tracker, is also now expected by consumers. Digitally booking a service event, to your employed or contracted workforce, is the first step in a faster, smarter service experience for your consumers.

Providing visibility to the appointment, the tech’s schedule and his or her location on the day or service not only improves customer satisfaction by delivering complete transparency related to the service event, it reduces costs for your organization by eliminating phone calls that historically would have occurred related to the appointment. The latest field service management technology can also enable customers to do more. It provides the ability to review new services and product offers based on asset ownership and service history, while also enabling techs and consumers to communicate directly.

Better than the traditional call ahead while en route, or a dial on a screen showing location only, consumers can upload pictures and other information related to their service event such that techs are better prepared to arrive and complete the service event while onsite.

Pizza tracker technology delivers updates based on preprogrammed timing and a series of predefined events, with very little engagement from the actual delivery drivers. That’s not good enough in field service. Field service is complex. Better visibility for the consumer is great. It’s the first step in providing faster, smarter service. However, it’s only the last mile of great service delivery.

Smart field service technology better supports complex field service delivery models.The miles in between matter just as much.  Smart field service technology better supports complex field service delivery models. It enables technicians to be scheduled with the skills and required parts to complete a consumer’s service order on time. It provides the tech with product information, repair information, and access to expert resources, even AI-based digital assistants which can define how to fix a certain product using available information, versus having the tech swipe through pages of documentation on a device to find a solution.

Field service technology delivers a great customer experience because it enables your field techs to connect to your customers throughout the entire service lifecycle, delivering service in a smarter way.

For the operational teams, the pizza tracker seems to do little else than automate the order, eliminating phones calls to the store. In field service, complex operations require robust, often AI-based technology, to deliver great service beginning with entitlement. Field service technology is the foundation on which service delivery technology is built, enabling each to manage complex processes and engage employed or contracted technicians and consumers in a smarter way, to deliver faster, more complete service using a single field service solution.

AI schedule optimization drives productivity, no doubt. Unlike the pizza tracker which can take a single input, an order, and deliver a single output, the delivery status, AI can be used in field service to harness a multitude of inputs related to consumer requirements, tech skills, and other hard and soft constraints, while also incorporating the latest in mapping and location technologies, to deliver a schedule which reduces operational costs, but which also improves service delivery, ensuring techs arrive on time, with the parts and knowledge needed to complete the service event.

Integrated contractor management solutions can ensure a similarly seamless service experience using contracted labour. Mobile technology can support full onsite processes, ensuring smarter, faster on-site service delivery.

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Field Service News' Big Discussion has a simple premise - we take one key topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and then put three core questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...

This issue our topic is the what to expect in 2018 and our experts are Michael Blumberg, Blumberg Advisory, Bill Pollock, Strategies for GrowthSM and Jan Van Veen, moreMomentum

The first question we tackled was What is the biggest challenge facing field service companies in the next 12 months?

Our second big question in the series was What is the biggest opportunity facing field service companies in the next 12 months?

And now onto the final question in this instalment of the Big Discussion...

What one technology do you think will have the biggest impact in the next 12 months?

Bill Pollock: Clearly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will have the biggest impact on field service in the next 12 months. In fact, while some field service companies are still debating whether or not to implement Augmented Reality (AR), the more progressive – and aggressive – services organisations are already embarking on their respective AI and ML implementation programs.

The application of AI for positively impacting key services-related areas such as customer experience and workforce productivity, while also allowing companies to move from a preventive maintenance to a predictive maintenance service model will be stunning! In addition, many organisations are already beginning to realise the benefits of using AI and ML for improving their overall service parts management activities, as well as for supporting data-driven decisions by allowing them to process, understand and share information that they didn’t even know they could cultivate as recently as just a year or two ago.

One caveat, though: services managers will need to closely align with their companies’ CTO and CIO before embarking on an AI/ML program, as their respective knowledge of the technical aspects of these “new” technologies will certainly help throughout both the decision-making and implementation processes.

AI and ML are not a fad – they are here to stay, and now is the time for field service companies to embark on that journey.

Jan Van Veen: I try to think of one technology that will impact on all companies. This depends on the industry and where the field service is on the continuum from reactive maintenance to advanced services. Also, the impact of new technologies will always be over a longer period of time.

I do observe that most field service organisations have little view on the impact of Augmented Intelligence and Deep Learning systems which can process and learn from unstructured information in writing and speech. These systems are now having practical applications in various sectors, including technical services.

We have already seen Doctor Watson of IBM massively beating the smartest people in the game ‘Jeopardy’ (search for it on YouTube). Dr Watson is already providing quite accessible web services to use the functionality and have their first field service solutions.

This technology will not only completely reshape our knowledge systems and the scarce skill sets we need for remote diagnostics, it will also be a crucial vehicle for developing advanced data-driven value propositions.

I hope to see more and more manufacturers engaging with a few trusted clients and the right data-driven partners to explore the opportunities from this technology.

Michael Blumberg: I think blockchain technology will have the biggest impact on the Field Service Industry in the next 12 months. A brief definition of the blockchain is that it is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger used to permanently record transactions across data, text, video, or audio files. It is extremely secure and scalable.

The blockchain includes within it the concept of a “smart contract”, a series of if-then statements related to a transaction.

This makes it the ideal technology for building an IoT platform. The blockchain can be used to record sensor data and then trigger service events (i.e., field service dispatch, parts shipment, corrective actions, etc.) based on smart contracts. These transactions can also be monetized in real-time; like a virtual cash register. Any disputes can be resolved by verifying the blockchain transaction itself.

This is just one of many use cases for block chain technology in the Field Service Industry. Other use cases include asset tracking, spare parts authentication, knowledge content sharing, and SLA management. 2018 will be the year where these use cases are implemented in field service and produce measurable results which eventually lead to large-scale adoption within the field service industry.

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News and Kieran Notter, Director, Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax from GE Digital explore the findings of an exclusive independent research conducted by Field Service News and sponsored by ServiceMax from GE Digital.

In this, the third and final excerpt from the full one-hour long webcast, Oldland and Notter discuss how field service organisations can and are turning to the latest technologies including Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things to ensure they keep attrition rates for their field service engineers low

Want to know more? The full webcast PLUS an exclusive report based on the findings of this research is available for Field Service News subscribers.

If you are a field service practitioner you may qualify for a complimentary 'industry practitioner' subscription. Click here to apply now!

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Wiraya, a Marketing Technology firm based in Sweden which develops a Managed Mobile Customer Activation software, has been awarded €2 million in innovation grants by the European Commission, for the development of Wiraya Activation Intelligence (“Wiraya AI”).

The contribution is intended to enable further development, validation and optimisation of Wiraya’s artificial intelligence software to help Europe’s mobile operators improve customer value for their subscribers, and thereby customer loyalty.

The new functionality, Wiraya AI, automatically creates interactive voice and text communications, which allows individual dialogue with large customer groups. With such deployments of AI being predicted to potentially revolutionise the customer experience across a range of use cases including support issues, this development could be an interesting development for field service organisations.

We are really proud to be one of the few companies selected by the European Commission. The grant gives us a great opportunity to be able to drive the development of artificial intelligence within customer communication in Europe - Oskar Klingberg, CEO, Wiraya SolutionsCurrently, European mobile telecom operators are facing continuing rising industry challenges to tackle low customer satisfaction and loyalty and despite advanced churn prediction models, operators still often communicate with their customers as if they were still prospects, using generic communication that erodes trust and commitment. This is a challenge that Wiraya are aiming to tackle.

Using machine learning, the software predicts and customises what, when and how to communicate with each individual, by matching the individual’s profile with specific communication journeys. With the implementation of Wiraya AI, 5% of the annual churning customers can be saved each year, corresponding to substantial savings for the operator, and increased customer satisfaction.

“We are really proud to be one of the few companies selected by the European Commission. The grant gives us a great opportunity to be able to drive the development of artificial intelligence within customer communication in Europe. We have always tried to challenge ourselves by identifying and solving important industry-specific business problems. For the telecom sector, AI functionality will solve resource-intensive and complex customer communication flows with highly effective, automated personal dialogues.” says v, CEO of Wiraya Solutions.

The development of AI functionality begins with pilot projects in 2018 and then full commercial launch in 2019. Initial tests suggest up to 5 times higher conversion rates compared with today’s way of communicating, while delivering substantial yearly savings.

Klingberg adds: “We are now developing the functionality specifically for mobile operators, but our plan is to implement the functionality across other industries, proving the same opportunity for a whole range of businesses.”

Should the pilots be successful it will be interesting to see if this could as act as a proof of concept to roll out across over service-centric sectors.

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