As digital transformation spend is increasing around the world, businesses look for technology vendors whose ethics (29 percent) and culture (23 percent) align with their own. Interestingly, these considerations trump innovation in the ranking of...
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Sep 10, 2020 • News • Artificial intelligence • Digital Transformation • IFS • Technology
As digital transformation spend is increasing around the world, businesses look for technology vendors whose ethics (29 percent) and culture (23 percent) align with their own. Interestingly, these considerations trump innovation in the ranking of desirable traits, demonstrating that having a similar cultural view of the world is playing a larger role in the selection process.
The top two vendor traits selected were specialist industry expertise (32 percent) and long-term solutions (30 percent). This is unsurprising, considering poor advice from vendors tops the list of why digital transformation projects fail at 37 percent, according to a research study from global enterprise applications company IFS.
Combined with poor vendor advice, technology selection teams, especially among businesses with revenues around the one-billion-dollar mark, are also being pressured by senior management to select well-known vendors even when they are a poor fit for the company’s actual needs.
Despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of companies are planning to increase their digital transformation spend, according to study findings earlier this year. With more businesses investing, with the aim of driving revenue post pandemic, the cost of failure is high and it’s becoming even more important to get investment right.
37 percent say poor vendor advice is the main reason why digital transformation projects fail
A resounding 48 percent of respondents at companies with revenues between 850–950 million US$ stated that they had been forced by senior management or the board of directors to use a well-known vendor that was a poor technological fit.
“The fact that a non-tangible such as ethics is ranked among the top three vendor traits is inextricably linked to the fact that poor advice from vendors was rated as the top reason for failure,” IFS Chief Customer Officer Michael Ouissi said. “Companies investing in technology should expect their vendors to adhere to sound sales and marketing practices based squarely in actual customer value.”
With a focus on previous experiences from past digital transformation projects, the study finds that budgets and timelines are two major pain points. Respondents indicate that failure in past projects makes management more reluctant to engage in future digital transformation efforts, with budget overruns topping the list of reasons management may put the brakes on critical projects at 28 percent and 26 percent saying blown timelines on past projects have made management more risk averse.
Further analysis of the findings shows that success of these digital transformation projects primarily hinges on finding the right technological fit (44 percent) and establishing clear objectives (50 percent). In fact, the top-three vendor trust factors highlighted by respondents are on-time delivery (44 percent), support before, during and after project completion (41 percent), and delivering projects faster to value (35 percent).
Further Reading:
- Download a complimentary copy of Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond:
The Technology Equation @ www.ifs.com/digital-transformation-investment-in-2020 - Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk
Sep 03, 2020 • News • Artificial intelligence • Digital Transformation • IFS • Technology
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces the availability of new and enhanced capabilities in its customer engagement software enabling companies to respond to the challenges facing the traditional call center and transform their...
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces the availability of new and enhanced capabilities in its customer engagement software enabling companies to respond to the challenges facing the traditional call center and transform their customer engagement. IFS is leading the way for service organizations to become knowledge and outcome centric throughout the entirety of the service experience.
Forward-thinking companies have become customer obsessed knowing that new business and customer retention rely on it. IFS’s customer experience applications are engineered to provide visibility and context for the customer, the contact center, and the service organization throughout the service cycle, through technology that is easy to deploy, configure, and use. This includes enriching work processes with automation and AI capabilities to ready companies for a future where self-service will be at the start of 85 percent of customer interactions by 2022, up from 48 percent in 2019.
The importance of engaging customers through a single, unified experience across every channel—voice, e-mail, chat and social—has never been greater. IFS believes companies overlook this area at their peril. Gartner notes:* “By 2022, 50 percent of large organizations will have still failed to unify engagement channels. This will result in the continuation of a disjointed and siloed customer experience that lacks context.
highly configurable and integrated omnichannel hub to IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEs
In this latest release, businesses can enjoy:
- A smooth transition from a telephony-based support center to a full omni-channel contact hub in a matter of days—complete with a customer service agent desktop
- A new customer engagement studio that allows companies to configure their own customer service desktop while eliminating the need for costly one-off customizations
- Simple integration to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and field service management (FSM) applications, agents are empowered to handle issues rapidly, driving front-office productivity by an average of over 40 percent
“As businesses use service offerings to power their way to growth in the new normal, the imperative has never been greater to focus on the customer experience,” said Marne Martin, President of IFS Service Management. “Businesses need a single view of a customer, yes, but they also need a complete service management solution that delivers on the service outcome that a customer expects in order to drive net promotor score, sustainability, and growth. This is where IFS is leading the way to deliver sustainable outcomes and knowledge-based service, which is the future for more and more service businesses.”
IFS’s latest investments in customer experience also include remote assistance and “On My Way” to provide a complete customer management solution for businesses looking to grow their service capability and transform their customer experience.
Over the past two years, IFS has seen strong growth in its service management business with more than 50 percent of revenues coming from its field service customer base in the first half of 2020. New license sales across its service management applications, including its recognized FSM offering, grew by more than 150 percent in first half 2020 compared to first half 2019.
Further Reading:
- Learn more about IFS Customer Engagement @ www.ifs.com/customer-engagement/
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk
Aug 27, 2020 • Features • 3D printing • Artificial intelligence • Video • Aquant • Parts Pricing and Logistics • north america • Field Service News Digital Symposium • 3D Systems Corporation
Having given an excellent presentation in the Field Service News Digital Symposium on the application of Artificial Intelligence in service triage, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Service, 3D Systems Corporation spoke with Kris...
Having given an excellent presentation in the Field Service News Digital Symposium on the application of Artificial Intelligence in service triage, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Service, 3D Systems Corporation spoke with Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News at length about the Aquant solution that they had implemented.
The session was designed to shine a light on the many benefits that 3D Systems Corporation realised from implementing the Aquant AI tool. However, it was also a golden opportunity to explore the potential of 3D printing in the service supply chain - which the two discussed briefly towards the latter part of the conversation.
During his presentation, Hessinger outlined that companies are beginning to move away from seeing 3D printing as a tool for prototyping and moving towards using the technology more in production as well.
Given the recent pandemic where supply chains were put under massive pressure as borders came crashing down, could it be that we'll see a further shift towards 3D printing and use of spare parts within the manufacturing sector and beyond?
"The thing about 3D printing is that it is not just making the same things differently. It enables you to do things a lot differently..."
"Yes, with what has happened throughout 2020, and supply chains being interrupted, we do see businesses especially manufacturing sites rethinking their supply chain, how they can do things and using 3D printing is going to really be something that these companies are looking at.
"We are starting to see that feedback already. There was one of the large UK companies just came out with 30% of their new products have to be produced through additive manufacturing.
"Also, the thing about 3D printing is that it is not just making the same things differently. It enables you to do things a lot differently. That bracket I showed [during the presentation] combined 13 parts. Fuel nozzles can be created much more efficiently because you can create geometries that you could never do in traditional manufacturing. I think we're going to have the impact from both sides. Supply chains need to rethink how they build things, and engineering needs to continue to get creative on how they make things to have better quality."
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Artificial+intelligence
- Read more exclusive FSN news and features from the Aquant team @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Aquant
- Connect with Mark Hessinger on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhessinger/
- Find out more about Aquant's AI-powered service triage @ www.aquant.io/
- Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io
Aug 24, 2020 • Features • Artificial intelligence • Digital Transformation
At the beginning of 2020, the one technology predicted to finally be on the cusp of an industry-wide breakthrough this year was Augmented Reality (AR). Fast forward to the second half of the year, and that prediction has come true although for...
At the beginning of 2020, the one technology predicted to finally be on the cusp of an industry-wide breakthrough this year was Augmented Reality (AR). Fast forward to the second half of the year, and that prediction has come true although for different reasons than those predicted.
With Covid-19 driving an urgent need for remote service delivery, suddenly AR almost overnight became a necessity rather than a mere nice-to-have technology. However, while the drive towards remote service delivery has been given turbo-boosters by the pandemic, the critical developments within the technology that we at Field Service News thought would be the catalyst for wider spread adoption of AR in field service.
That development was the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the field service focused AR. Here we look at how AI may well be the missing key to unlock AR’s potential
“The challenges posed by the current global situation and the related change in proximity logics are rapidly transforming many companies’ business processes and their approach to daily activities,” writes Francesco Benvenuto, Product Marketing Manager, OverIT
Having just combined the two technologies (AI and AR) in their 3.0 release of SPACE1 (OverIT’s dedicated AR solution to field service) demonstrated on the Field Service News Digital Symposium. The AI-enhanced version of SPACE1 was undoubtedly impressive with multiple potential time savings aspects that could help get trainee technicians out into the field, bringing value to the organization much, much faster.
However, the emergence of an AR solution underpinned by AI isn’t unique to SPACE1. It is the central premise of Augmentir’s solution. As Russ Fadel, CEO and Co-Founder, Augmentir outlined in an exclusive Field Service News feature where he explained why the next wave of AR implementations in our sector must harness Artificial Intelligence.
"What has been ignored is a real opportunity to create sustainable value throughout the organization – not only giving workers the ability to consume information and apply knowledge, but also augmenting the intelligence of the organization..."
- Russ Fadel, Augmentir
Writing in August 2019 Fadel had commented, “Despite some early momentum, Enterprise AR alone isn’t enough to deliver sustainable value in the field service sector.
“What has been ignored is a real opportunity to create sustainable value throughout the organization – not only giving workers the ability to consume information and apply knowledge, but also augmenting the intelligence of the organization relative to how it engages empowers, and continually improves its human workforce. At Augmentir, we are calling this Augmented Operations, and we believe that this will transform the service workforce of the future.”
Ultimately, at the heart of successful innovation in the industry is the harnessing of multiple technologies alongside each other.
As Bas De Vos, Vice President of IFS Labs, explains “Combining different technologies is the key to unlocking the full potential of any digital transformation/innovation projects.”
However, for DeVos, there is more that is needed for successful deployment of AR in field service than the introduction of AI.
“AI will certainly support the development of AR, but it’s not the only missing piece in its success,” De Vos suggests
“AI is a key ‘supportive’ technology, the use of AI in computer image processing and its unique learning abilities allows AR processes to develop to the next stage, to achieve the desired end goal and in doing so AI guides AR to new heights.
“However, to unlock the true value of AR’s potential, the world of head-mounted devices needs to accelerate. Today’s adoption speed is still lagging behind expectation which is mostly related to costs and the maturity of the hardware.
“The true value of AR shines best when combined with AI on a head mounted device, rather than a handheld device.”
The argument that De Vos makes undoubtedly holds some weight. Many would agree that the endpoint of AR in a field service environment would involve lightweight head-mounted computes. This allows the field service engineer to work hands-free, while still receiving vital information from either the asset itself via IoT connections, a remote expert or a knowledge management solution embedded into the AR/FSM solution.
However, it should equally be noted that the lack of affordable, field-ready solutions shouldn’t be seen as a barrier to adoption today.
Indeed, the majority of AR solutions today are available as cross-platform, solutions that can function well utilizing the existing technology in your field service technicians toolkit – namely either a smartphone or tablet.
In the Field Service News Digital Symposium presentation on SPACE1, there were multiple benefits of adopting such a tool, even if the implementation is based upon handheld devices.
For example, some of the benefits Benvenuto outlined during the presentation included:
- Maintenance: By providing support to field technicians during maintenance, inspection, and test activities, to enhance productivity, quality and safety, even in those situations with the low network coverage.
- Training: By introducing a new perspective in training activities, allowing users to collaborate everywhere and providing them with remote interaction and knowledge sharing tools.
- Presentation: By driving the way to cooperate to new heights, allowing to involve clients and suppliers from remote to propose products and share advanced contents in real-time, ensuring an unprecedented user experience.
However, what is catching the eye in many of the most impressive AR solutions is the further integration with Knowledge Management features, and this is increasingly reliant on harnessing the most advanced Artificial Intelligence technologies which allows for reshaping and sharing of collected data.
The future of AR in field service has finally begun, and AI will be a fundamental part of that future moving forward.
Further Reading:
- Read more about digital transformation in field service @ /www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the use of Artificial Intelligence in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=artificial+intelligence
- Read more about the use of Augmented Reality in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=augmented+reality+
- Find out more about the solutions OverIT offer field service companies @ www.overit.it/en/
- Find out more about the solutions IFS offer field service companies @ www.ifs.com/uk/
- Find out more about the solutions Augmentir offer field service companies @ www.augmentir.com/
Aug 20, 2020 • Features • Artificial intelligence • Remote Assistance • Video • Zero-touch • Digital Transformation • Aquant • north america • Field Service News Digital Symposium
In a recent presentation for the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Services, 3D Systems, Corporation, outlined the benefits his organisation had witnessed having implemented an Artificial...
In a recent presentation for the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Services, 3D Systems, Corporation, outlined the benefits his organisation had witnessed having implemented an Artificial Intelligence solution provided by Aquant.
One of the areas that Hessinger referenced during the presentation was the reduction in repeat visits and the increase in first-time fix rates. This, of course, will have a significant impact on the bottom line of the service P&L with the truck roll almost always being the most expensive line on the spreadsheet. As the adage goes, if you have to send an engineer on-site once then you are breaking even, even if you have to send an engineer twice, you're losing money. So this improvement, in and of itself, was a massive plus in the presentation.
However, given the backdrop of 2020 where the world has radically changed as a result of the reaction to Covid-19, the question was raised during the Q&A that followed Hessinger's presentation whether Aquant's AI-powered triage tool could be suitable to help facilitate zero-touch or remote assistance services as well?
Could the Aquant solution help provide a mechanism for service delivery for those customers who require a guided self-help approach to issue resolution?
"I'd say the tool is a building block to enable us to get there," Hessinger answered when the idea was put to him.
"We need it integrated with the other systems and information because it connects them to the knowledge management, to the information. We're currently doing a proof of concept to pull in some AR (augmented reality) technology as well. We believe integrating the AR technology can help guide someone first using the AI tool to go in the right direction and then guide them remotely on how to execute a repair. If you put both of these pieces together, I think the quantity of remote resolutions will go up dramatically," Hessinger added.
"Typically, your field service engineer builds a good relationship with the customer and becomes part of the face of the company right. We still want to have those touch-points, but we need to make sure we're doing them differently..."
This leads us to an interesting question - in a post-pandemic world just how much has the perception of value shifted in terms of remote service vs on-site service delivery?
Often it has felt that there's been a more perceived value to a site visit than remote services. As we mentioned earlier, it is an expensive line on the P&L compared to a remote service. This was one of the reasons that many felt that remote assistance technologies such as Augmented Reality have never quite taken off in the way that we might have imagined. However, that has changed massively in the last five months in the eyes of many customers.
Yet, for the savvy service organisation, the on-site service call is far more than a mere maintenance operation. It is an opportunity to engage with the customer, to showcase the expertise within the organisation, and ultimately to secure ongoing business and even open up new revenue streams.
So the question is, how do field service organisations use remote service within their service portfolio as an active engagement channel as many have mastered with the service call?
As Hessinger explains "Typically, your field service engineer builds a good relationship with the customer and becomes part of the face of the company right. We still want to have those touch-points, but we need to make sure we're doing them differently. If I can see you on video, I've made a better connection than if I sent you a text message.
"We need to leverage how do we continue to build those relationships. If we were with a customer three times a year, and now we can do things better, only one time a year, we need to make sure we still have a high touch with the customer to build that kind of rapport and relationship."
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Artificial+intelligence
- Read more exclusive FSN news and features from the Aquant team @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Aquant
- Connect with Mark Hessinger on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhessinger/
- Find out more about Aquant's AI-powered service triage @ www.aquant.io/
- Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io
Aug 19, 2020 • News • Artificial intelligence • Digital Transformation • technology • Aquant
Warranty claims is a $50 billion industry that organizations have overlooked during the digital transformation process. With little insight into how much money is wasted, two to four percent of a company’s revenues vanish into a black hole of fraud...
Warranty claims is a $50 billion industry that organizations have overlooked during the digital transformation process. With little insight into how much money is wasted, two to four percent of a company’s revenues vanish into a black hole of fraud or discrepancies. Today, these expenditures are considered the cost of doing business for product manufacturers, but they don’t have to be.
To reign in unnecessary costs while also bringing data-driven processes to warranty claims (and beyond), Aquant created Intelligent Warranty Audit. The AI-driven product enables organizations to leverage large amounts of warranty data, reducing service costs through faster, more accurate claims processing.
Aquant’s AI-driven platform categorizes and prioritizes disparate data, helping warranty managers quickly process or reject high-risk claims. In addition, Aquant’s technology bridges the data gap that exists between the warranty management process and other departments across the organization. With this new digital thread, organizations can fill in a missing part of the transformation puzzle to bolster positive service outcomes and drive innovation in product engineering, sales, and marketing.
AI-POWERED TECHNOLOGY ANALYZES HIDDEN WARRANTY DATA TO LOWER CLAIM COSTS AND IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
With Intelligent Warranty Audit, organizations will:
- Reduce warranty waste and processing times
- Encourage service best practices among their network of providers to deliver exceptional customer experiences
- Drive a closed loop of innovation to feed intelligence back into the rest of the organization
“It’s time to liberate warranty departments from the inefficiencies of manual processes and bring them into the 21st century as a key component of digital transformations,” said Assaf Melochna, President and co-founder of Aquant. “Today, leaders accept a wide range of inconsistencies because it hasn’t been cost-effective for claims managers to scale the process. Intelligent Warranty Audit adds ROI by guiding claims managers through the cases that have the biggest impact on the bottom line while providing a clear framework on why a claim falls outside normal parameters.”
Intelligent Warranty Audit infuses teams with accuracy and speed thanks to AI and natural language processing. The technology analyzes data from multiple sources to quickly identify and alert warranty managers to high-risk claims for review by analyzing:
- Asset service history
- Service provider performance
- Customer behavioral trends
- Anomalies in cost, service, or other criteria
“Enhanced digital tools such as AI are critical beyond simply improving day-to-day operations for warranty departments. Manufacturers and service organizations should view the warranty management process as another opportunity to deliver value to customers,” notes Aly Pinder, program director Service Innovation and Connected Products IDC. “When warranty management departments are included in larger transformation projects, that data becomes another key change agent in the move to deliver exceptional service in the new experience economy.”
Further Reading:
- Learn more about Warranty + AI @ www.aquant.io/events/idc-webinar/
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Aquant on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
- Read more about Intelligent Warranty Audit @ www.aquant.io/platform/intelligent-warranty-audit/
- Learn more about Aquant @ www.aquant.io
Aug 13, 2020 • Features • Ageing Workforce Crisis • Artificial intelligence • Video • Digital Transformation • Aquant • north america • Field Service News Digital Symposium
During a recent Field Service News Digital Symposium presentation on the use of Aquant's Artificial Intelligence tool within their service triage process, Mark Hessinger, Vice President of Global Customer Service, 3D Systems Corporation, touched on...
During a recent Field Service News Digital Symposium presentation on the use of Aquant's Artificial Intelligence tool within their service triage process, Mark Hessinger, Vice President of Global Customer Service, 3D Systems Corporation, touched on perhaps probably the most pervasive issues that our industry faces.
That issue is how do we stop the tribal knowledge contained in our ageing field service workforce walking out the door. It is a challenge we are seeing emerge across all regions and all industries.
It is a well-documented issue. Many field service companies are currently staring down the barrel of an ageing workforce crisis while struggling to engage with a future generation of workers. Some industries may have a slight advantage, companies at the cutting edge of technology such as 3D Systems for example, who will likely attract bright young minds eager to embrace a technology set to be a fundamental part of the future. Yet, even these companies generally still face higher rates of attrition than acquisition when it comes to talent.
This is perhaps why this presentation by Hessinger resonated so strongly with its audience. As Hessinger went through the multiple benefits of implementing Aquant's AI-powered triage tool, this was one aspect that really struck a chord.
3D Systems had, via Aquant's AI, found the keys to unlock much of the core knowledge locked away in the vast pools of data that all service organisations will hold. They found a way to keep the decades of tribal knowledge within their walls.
"Like other companies, we do have [staff] turnover," Hessinger explains.
"We were able to use all that information we had, to continue to support the product so that that was a nice real-life outcome of using the the Aquant tool..."
"And on certain product lines, we don't have a lot of printers installed, so we don't have a lot of people trained. For example, on one Multijet printer, our subject matter expert chose to retire a couple of years earlier than we expected. So everybody started to get a little nervous as we only had one other person who did not have the same depth of experience on that product."
"Yet, that person told me, 'you'll be fine, it's all captured in the Aquant tool. I validated that it works,'" Hessinger commented as he outlined a perfect example of a challenge many service leaders may recognise. As Hessinger explained, it was a situation that soon became even more challenging.
"Shortly after that, our second person that knew that technology also left," he continued, "so there I am without our two tech support people for this product line. However, we were still able to continue to run and support customers and actually, we haven't had any escalations on that product in the last nine months since those guys left.
"That is because we were able to use all that information we had, to continue to support the product which is a nice real-life outcome of using the the Aquant tool," he adds.
Essentially, what Hessinger and the team at 3D Systems implemented was an additional AI 'trainer'. They found a technological solution to a human problem. Ultimately, the AI allowed 3D Systems to make that transition from losing two central members of staff on a specific product line. They managed to stop that tribal knowledge leaving the organisation.
This also appeared to be something that could be almost universally applied to any field service scenario - indeed for any organisation that held sizeable layers of data that is currently a massively underutilised information resource. What came across in Hessinger's presentation was that the was already buried within their systems - Aquant surfaced it, neatly and effectively.
As Hessinger explained "Typically we require our field service or tech support personnel to document in the case what happened and that's written down. When you go back and look at it at those notes, [it is usually] because there was a similar case at some point and you start searching for cases to find the information, those are the times you go digging for it.
"Yet, now you're not digging for it. It's accessible and there, everything you've captured," Hessinger explains.
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Artificial+intelligence
- Read more exclusive FSN news and features from the Aquant team @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Aquant
- Connect with Mark Hessinger on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhessinger/
- Find out more about Aquant's AI-powered service triage @ www.aquant.io/
- Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io
Aug 06, 2020 • Features • Artificial intelligence • Video • Digital Transformation • Aquant • north america • Field Service News Digital Symposium • 3D Systems Corporation
In a recent presentation in the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Services, 3D Systems Corporation outlined how his organisation had harnessed Artificial Intelligence within their service triage...
In a recent presentation in the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Services, 3D Systems Corporation outlined how his organisation had harnessed Artificial Intelligence within their service triage and delivery having implemented Aquant’s AI-powered tools.
It was an impressive presentation that outlined several different benefits that 3D Systems Corporation realised in just a matter of months since the implementation.
Perhaps the one critical takeaway from Hessinger’s presentation was just how many aspects of their service delivery had been touched and optimised by the Aquant AI solution.
During the presentation, Hessinger referred to benefits that included vital areas that are high on the agenda for improvement, by many if not all field service organisations. Hessinger explained how they had seen direct performance improvements in the optimisation of the service logistics chain, a significant reduction in truck rolls and an increase in perhaps the most crucial metric within service delivery – first time-fix rates.
"All those things come together, the better information you have, the better accuracy you have on resolving things..."
However, during the Q&A segment of the presentation, Hessinger was quizzed by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News about what was the critical factor that drove 3D Systems Corporation to seek out an AI solution and engage with Aquant?
“We met with Aquant at a field service conference, and found somebody who was trying to solve the problem that we were trying to address” Hessinger had commented during the presentation – so what exactly was that problem?
Mostly, it was the result of the evolution of the 3D printing sector itself as the industry evolves from supporting prototype development to full production.
As Hessinger explains, “The key driver was after I joined 3D Systems, we had to make that shift from supporting a prototype house to a production environment. If the printers are not working in a prototyping environment, they [the client] may call today, with an expectation of us being with them in a few days. In production environment you have to be so much faster because a 3D printer not producing final parts directly impacts revenue."
“I was looking for a tool that could help us with just improving the speed and the rate of resolution. All those things come together, the better information you have, the better accuracy you have on resolving things. It just allows you to get to solve the problem faster,” Hessinger adds.
“Resolving problems quicker and more accurately was one of them was the key driver initially.”
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Artificial+intelligence
- Read more exclusive FSN news and features from the Aquant team @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Aquant
- Connect with Mark Hessinger on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhessinger/
- Find out more about Aquant's AI-powered service triage @ www.aquant.io/
- Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io
Jun 09, 2020 • Features • Artificial intelligence • Research • Digital Transformation • Covid-19 • RevTwo
Things seem to be slowly loosening up. How is your service and support team gearing for how to best support your customers moving forward? Would you like to know what your peers are thinking? Dave Bennet, VP RevTwo and his colleagues are hosting a...
Things seem to be slowly loosening up. How is your service and support team gearing for how to best support your customers moving forward? Would you like to know what your peers are thinking? Dave Bennet, VP RevTwo and his colleagues are hosting a survey to assess how we are approaching building the new normal. Here he outlines their thinking...
Take part in the survey now by clicking the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fieldserviceprioritiespostCOVID19
Building the New Normal of Field Service
As we talk to service organizations, different technologies are getting a closer look now more than ever. We can group their post-COVID technology thinking into these areas:
- Do more Remotely. There are a bunch of tools out there that enable an expert to talk to and see what someone in front of a machine is doing. They can use their own expertise to tell the user what to do. Some are just using the equivalent of Apple’s FaceTime.
- Artificial Intelligence. Using AI to help call center agents, field service engineers and even end users to help solve problems, with the goal of reducing site visits and improving repair efficiency. Some AI solutions focus on call center, some focus on the end user. Some are web based, some aren’t. Some can be used offline. Some use bot technology.
- Augmented Reality/Merged Reality. There are tools that enable an expert far away to actually draw or input on a screen with a person in front of a machine so they can not only tell the user what to do but show them how to do it.
- Building up Organizational knowledge. Companies that don’t didn’t have troubleshooting guides for their equipment are now building them. Some are beefing up their knowledge bases so that they have articles that provide more reach and cover more problems. Some companies are actually building their own “learning tools”.
- There is even more of an emphasis on implementing more training and apprenticeship programs. The Silver Tsunami was seen as a challenge before COVID. Now the pandemic has brought this problem to the forefront. How to leverage expertise, from supporting customers to training customers and technicians, will be an important component of any strategy moving forward.
As a technology partner for service organizations, we have also noticed that buyer behavior is a little more uneven than before. Some organizations have decided to “pull in their horns” and wait for things to settle down. These organizations are generally waiting to see what the others do. The “Early Adaptors” are rapidly investing in these technologies because they have always been the first to buy.
The founders of RevTwo have more than 80 years’ collective experience working with service and support organizations such as yours. We certainly have our own opinions on what you should be doing to adapt to the post-COVID world.
But we (and everyone else) want to know what you think. So we put together a simple 10 question survey to try and find out. It timed out at about 2.5 minutes to complete. Please take the time to do so, and we will publish the results in our next post. Your organization as well as your customers can benefit by understanding how the rest of us are planning to deal with this new reality.
Take part in the survey now by clicking the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fieldserviceprioritiespostCOVID19
Further Reading:
- Read the exclusive fieldservicenews.com eBook Ten Thoughts for Service Leaders Planning Recovery @ www.fieldservicenews.com/White-Papers/10-thoughts-for-recovery.pdf
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Read more about remote assistance in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote+assistance
- Visit the RevTwo website @ revtwo.com
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial+intelligence
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