Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware asks if IoT sensors, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning will help the UK water industry avoid a looming crisis...
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Oct 17, 2017 • Features • Artifical Intellignce • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Paul Whitelam • Water industry • ClickSoftware • Internet of Things • IoT • utilities
Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware asks if IoT sensors, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning will help the UK water industry avoid a looming crisis...
One would be forgiven for assuming a nation surrounded by water, with a storied history of naval exploration and an advanced privatised water management sector, would be exempt from facing a water or wastewater crisis.
But many experts agree that the current population boom and climate scenario are forcing the industrial, national, and regional water and wastewater situations towards crisis in the United Kingdom.
What do these mounting challenges mean for the field service management organisations? How can they innovate to meet and overcome each challenge while satisfying end consumers? In the following paragraphs, we discuss how water and wastewater service organisations can get ahead of the looming crisis.
Population boom, climate change, water scarcity combine to create the perfect storm
Ofwat, a government water management program overseeing England and Wales, recently published a report outlining many key challenges in these region. They city population growth and climate changes were identified as the key drivers of change, while growing pressure to address water scarcity, environmental quality, and resilience of systems in the face of rising consumer expectations as the major hurdles. Key among these, you will find:
- The UK population is forecasted to grow 20% over the next 20 years
- Rising environmental standards may drive up costs
- Technology to manage new customer expectations is lacking
- Major climate change has left specific regions at risk
- Water scarcity poses immediate threat to supply
- Customer expectations for service sector and water continue to rise
In reality, many of these challenges intersect.
This report cites that a full 60% of Thames Water’s customers are concerned about the environment. In addition, 85% of Wessex Water’s customers feel protecting rivers, lakes, and estuaries was critical.
The reality is more dire than consumers may realise. Given the uneven population distribution across the country, freshwater resources are often pulled from areas that are already under pressure, while new regions have been identified that previously threatened just years ago.
As the report cites, “Water catchments across Wales, south-west and northern England are predicted to experience significant unmet demand under many of the scenario combinations that the Environment Agency has considered.”
Can water management and field service teams get ahead of this looming crisis, or will consumers simply have to cut back on consumption altogether as the population booms?
3 ways UK service organisations can innovate to overcome crisis
Luckily, the field service industry is experiencing a renaissance in service technology that could solve current and future water problems. The Internet-of-Things, artificial intelligence, and predictive maintenance technology could each provide innovative solutions for both meeting growing demand, and minimising environmental impact.
1. Invest in and inform customers of water reduction faucets, shower heads, high efficiency washing machines and emerging technology
To be fair, this first recommendation is more about customer satisfaction, not just technology, but the fastest way to avert a water and wastewater crisis is the simplest; reduce the amount of water usage in businesses, factories, and homes.
With even a 10% increase in the number of homes, businesses, and facilities equipped with smarter end using devices, we could improve our water usage future in short order.
With the number of consumers who have expressed care for environmental issues, couldn’t a bit of a nudge from service providers push many over the edge to adopting more efficient technology?
With even a 10% increase in the number of homes, businesses, and facilities equipped with smarter end using devices, we could improve our water usage future in short order.
2. Enable IoT sensors on industrial water facilities and natural resource hubs
The Internet-of-Things promises to bring advanced real-time diagnostic capabilities to equipment, that for decades has required a human to perform a diagnostic task. By embedding internet-enabled sensors on all the equipment that cleans, processes, transports and delivers water, we could improve the efficiency of the entire water lifecycle by significant margins.
Would this require an up-front investment? Most certainly, but privatised water and wastewater organisations and service companies would certainly be keen on efficiency gains, especially if margins could move up incrementally.
Using IoT sensors for advanced real-time diagnostics could allow organisations to get predictive about water usage, resource allocation, and more. With the right application of IoT technology, equipment and processing, diagnostics could stand to become more efficient than ever.
3. Use AI and machine learning for ultimate efficiency gains
While seemingly intimidating at the outset, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology are in fact well within reach for organisations willing to embrace a healthy technical challenge. How about the payoff? Datasets that take a team of data scientists several weeks to interpret can now be crunched by AI algorithms in seconds.
Upon gaining results, future-oriented field service organisations will soon apply machine learning models that are ready-built for various service scenarios.
Think of machine learning algorithms as software with a brain. First, you develop an algorithmic model. Let’s use flooding—a common water crisis scenario—as an example. By first coding your software to understand all the steps a human would take in a flood scenario, and second enabling artificial intelligence algorithms to process information in real-time, you can effectively combine real-time flood data and your algorithm to unlock an immediate decision tree.
The software acts upon data in an instant, making airtight decisions and optimising your entire field service chain the same way your dispatch, or service executives would—given the parameters of your programmed scenario. But the main difference between AI software managing a service chain, and a human being? Software will make fewer mistakes.
As the UK continues to seek a resolution to current and future water scenarios, a healthy balance of policy, innovation, and customer support will be required.
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Oct 03, 2017 • Features • Artificial intelligence • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • WBR • Sara Mueller • Parts Pricing and Logistics
Sara Mueller, Field Service Portfolio Director, WBR, discusses why despite the growing importance of technology within our industry, the critical balance between using automation to meet tightening SLAs and losing the important human touch points...
Sara Mueller, Field Service Portfolio Director, WBR, discusses why despite the growing importance of technology within our industry, the critical balance between using automation to meet tightening SLAs and losing the important human touch points field service visits offer the benefits they bring...
They say the only thing constant is change.
In just over a decade we’ve seen service organisations move from cost to profit centers. Now business models are evolving beyond product-centricity towards selling solutions or customer business outcomes. This shift in business model evolution and higher levels of customer service comes largely from the innovative technologies that are being widely adopted across global service organisations.
So much so that companies are quickly falling behind their competition and losing money to inefficiencies if they are too slow to adopt the cutting-edge technologies that have filled the service space in the last few years.
As the market analyst and director of program development for the Field Service USA and Europe events, I spend my time looking for trends that seem like they will stick, and uncovering the buzz behind buzz words.
I’d like to share with you three technology changes that have been popping across my radar lately, that seem to be here to stay.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one such buzz word.
Field service leaders are actively debating how it will impact the industry.
Do service executives believe robots will take the place of field technicians or customer service operators in the short-to-medium term future? No (though more service organisations are adopting the use of drones to carry out service inspections in a safer, more timely manner). There is a critical balance that must be maintained between the technology service organisations use to keep machines up and running, and the personal human touch points that often contributes to higher levels of customer satisfaction.
Where I do see AI already being used within service organisations today, however, is with machine learning.
Augmented Reality
Secondly, our Field Service events have been talking about the opportunity for augmented reality (AR) in service for a few years now. I am starting to see companies that have finally piloted or are using AR as a standard tool of their service organisation.
Early conversations around AR debated whether the technology should be given to customers, so they could be the eyes for the experienced service technician (rather than the service organisation having to pay to dispatch an engineer to the site).
But generally most service organisations have decided that from a liability and legal perspective, its best to send a more junior-level technician to the site with the AR glasses or hands-free device, rather than put the tools in the hands of the customer.
A reason that the adoption of AR by service organisations has finally picked up is that the technology has gotten better, cheaper, and with more choices available. Devices are lightweight and more intuitive as the technology has evolved.
One limitation of AR is connectivity bandwidth. While only a small bandwidth is necessary for AR to work, if your customer’s facility has limited Wi-Fi or an unstable signal, it could disrupt performance and communication. So service organisations are starting to build the use of AR into their service agreements, including ownership of Wi-Fi so they can control the Wi-Fi sources themselves to produce a more stable environment to support AR.
Parts Management
Finally, if you are in service you need to have the right parts in the right place at the right time in order to get the job done. This hasn’t changed. But the way service organisations are carrying out service parts planning has.
Several years ago organisations were managing parts on Excel spreadsheets and realised they needed a more robust tool to carry out planning effectively. Nowadays, since most service organisations have adopted field service management (FSM) systems, they are no longer integrating a parts planning tool into their ERP, they are integrating it into the FSM system.
It’s an exciting time for field service technology, especially if you embrace change.
Instead, it may now be more efficient for a technician to service a wider variety of products at different customer sites; therefore the inventory he needs to carry around is more complex. Even a technician’s training becomes part of the selection criteria in the FSM to determine which customer site he will be dispatched to; so this type of training data is being integrated into service inventory planning tools as well.
It’s an exciting time for field service technology, especially if you embrace change. But as I alluded to earlier, there is still a critical piece of service that comes from the human connection between technician and customer. No matter how technology evolves, the service industry will have to figure out the right balance of technology and human intimacy in order to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
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Sep 11, 2017 • Features • Augmented Reality • Coresystems • Future of FIeld Service • manuel grenacher
Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems, takes a look at two separate ways in which Augmented Reality is set to radically change the way we approach field service delivery...
Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems, takes a look at two separate ways in which Augmented Reality is set to radically change the way we approach field service delivery...
In my last article I examined the technologies that will likely play a major role in driving exponential growth of the field service market over the next few years, with one of those technologies being augmented reality (AR).
In this piece, I’ll go more in-depth into the most impactful ways in which AR can revolutionise the field service industry over the next few years and beyond.
I mentioned this in my last article, but it bears repeating: enterprise use cases for augmented reality are on such a fast track to implementation that ABI Research predicts that 21 million AR units will be shipped by 2020, with sales reaching $100 billion.
Clearly there is a huge market opportunity for organisations looking to enhance their field service businesses with AR technologies.
There is a wide range of ways in which AR can support field service organisations, but I’d like to focus on the two that I predict will have the most immediate impact. The first one is probably in your pocket, or somewhere within arm’s reach, as we speak: the camera in your smartphone.
Here’s how it would work: when an issue occurs with a customer’s machine or device, a field service technician would connect remotely to that end user’s/customer’s smartphone via an app.
Once the technician and the end user are connected, that user can point the phone directly to the problem at hand, so the technician can gain a clear view of the issue and walk the user through fixing the problem, step-by-step.
This remote troubleshooting capability has the potential to greatly reduce the number of onsite visits between field service technicians and their customers, which would save a huge amount of time and resources on both parties’ ends.
But what if a technician is indeed needed onsite?
The AR app would be able to notify the end user of the status of their request in real-time.
This status update would include the exact location of the technician (via GPS), as well as notifications that can be pushed to the end-user’s device, so the customer can know that technician’s estimated time of arrival, down to the minute.
Again, time and resources saved.
AR glasses have the potential to be a tremendous asset for the field service organisation in another way: by streamlining training.
Through the glasses, the technician – who undoubtedly is more skilled than the user at fixing technical issues – can walk a user (or a less skilled technician) through the fix.
While the AR glasses and the AR app for the smartphone both deliver significant benefits to the customer and technician, the AR glasses have the potential to be a tremendous asset for the field service organisation in another way: by streamlining training.
In a scenario in which a customer needs onsite support, it behooves the field service organisation to send its less skilled – and therefore less costly – technicians to actually carry out the fix.
And this could be possible through the use of the AR glasses, as the more skilled technician could remain at HQ and remotely direct the less skilled technician through the fix by using the glasses.
This way, the customer still receives the top-notch service thanks to the senior technician (literally) overseeing the process, while the field service organisation is able to execute the service call while training its less skilled technician in a real-world scenario.
This is, as the saying goes, killing two birds with one stone.
So there’s an overview of the two ways that AR can most immediately have a positive impact on the field service industry.
However, the potential is perhaps even greater than we can imagine.
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Aug 31, 2017 • Features • Augmented Reality • Coresystems • manuel grenacher • IoT • Software and Apps
Having introduced the concept of crowd-sourcing in previous articles for Field Service News, Manuel Grenacher, Coresystems, now takes a look at how and why the two new technologies dominating conversation in field service circles are perfect bed...
Having introduced the concept of crowd-sourcing in previous articles for Field Service News, Manuel Grenacher, Coresystems, now takes a look at how and why the two new technologies dominating conversation in field service circles are perfect bed fellows for the gig economy...
As I discussed in my last article on why crowdsourcing could be transformational for the field service industry, the outlook for the growth of the field service market is hugely positive – MarketsandMarkets predicts that it will nearly triple in size to $5.11 billion between now and 2020. In this article, I’ll examine the technologies that will likely play a major role in driving that exponential growth of the field service market over the next few years.
The IoT Effect
The technology that has played a huge role so far in precipitating the growth of the field service industry is the Internet of Things (IoT).
This isn’t surprising, as the IoT is having a profound impact on not just every technology driven industry, but also the daily lives of people across the globe. And the IoT and the real-time connectivity it enables has led to a massive spike in consumer expectations for instantaneous customer service.
New elevated customer demands created by the IoT are impacting the field service industry greatly
The bottom line is the IoT is very much here and is impacting your industry whether you realise it or not; so to put it simply, either you respond to the new realities of an IoT-driven world or you risk obsolescence.
The Era of Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) isn’t just a social media fad anymore, as enterprise use cases for augmented reality are on the rise and on a fast track to implementation. Indeed, ABI Research predicts that 21 million AR units will be shipped by 2020 with sales reaching $100 billion.
The field service industry, in particular, stands to benefit greatly from AR.
Imagine service technicians with specialised AR headsets, who will then have all the information they need for an installation and/or repair on a heads-up display
AR would also connect on-site technicians with more experienced engineers back at an organisation’s headquarters who can visually supervise and troubleshoot more difficult technical issues.
With that, the use of AR boosts the key field service metrics of first-time fix rates and average repair time. It also benefits staff training and skills shortages, especially as devices trend toward IoT and more advanced technology.
Clearly, AR will benefit service engineers and technicians worldwide, many of whom are in the field service industry.
Enter the Gig Economy
Obviously, the gig economy isn’t a technology, but it’s a movement that could reshape field service management as we know it.
The digital technology underpinning the gig economy (such as the IoT) can help workers become entrepreneurs who have the freedom to dictate their work on their own terms, which has long been the allure of the independent contractor.
Skilled workers who have expertise in certain industry sectors – such as field service management – can either make extra money in their free time while pursuing their passions, or they can use the gig economy as their sole source of income.
Pioneering companies in the gig economy, such as Uber for the transportation sector and Airbnb for hospitality, have laid a blueprint for other industries to follow.
At Coresystems, we know first-hand the challenges that organisations face when the field service requests greatly outnumber that company’s field service technicians. By leveraging independent workers in the gig economy, organisations can help deliver the real-time service that customers now demand.
So there you go – the three factors that we envision having the biggest impact on the evolution of the field service industry over the next few years.
What are some other factors that you’re seeing through your own work in the field service industry?
We invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section.
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Aug 29, 2017 • Features • Management • Augmented Reality • Michael Blumberg • Field Service USA • IoT • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Whilst some were heading out to the desert to watch the likes of Radiohead and Lady Gaga at Coachella 2017 early this year, others were in Palm Springs for perhaps the lesser known but equally fantastic Field Service USA.
Whilst some were heading out to the desert to watch the likes of Radiohead and Lady Gaga at Coachella 2017 early this year, others were in Palm Springs for perhaps the lesser known but equally fantastic Field Service USA.
Field Service News sent Michael Blumberg along to talk to the USAs largest collection of Field Service professionals in one place, find to out what were the biggest challenges being faced by the industry at large and how we can overcome them...
In April this year I attended WBR’s Field Service 2017 in Palm Springs, California. While I was at the conference, I spoke to several Field Service leaders about their biggest challenges and the strategies they will pursing to overcome them.
Business executives often think their problems and challenges are unique to their specific situation. However, I was surprised to learn of the common thread that ran through my conversations with field service leaders.
Basically, four different themes emerged from my conversations. Rather than keep you in further suspense, let me share what I learned from my discussions:
Key challenge #1 - Keeping up with advances in technology:
Field Service leaders understand that their customers expect the same experience they do with using consumer electronic products. In other words, they expect an always on, always connected, always available service experience.
Strategy to overcome challenge - Develop & Implement an IoT Strategy:
Field Service leaders recognise that that IoT improves the customer experience in very much the same way it does with consumer electronics.
While field service leaders I spoke to agree that conceptually IoT is the right technology to achieve this outcome, they also admit that the real challenges lie in competing for capital resources to implement service led, IoT solutions and prioritizing where these investments should be made.
Key Challenge #2 - Determining which technologies enable an improved service experience:
Field Service leaders are faced with a myriad of choices when it comes to selecting and implementing technology to improve the customer experience.
For example, there’s various categories (e.g., AR, IoT, mobility, etc.) of technology to choose from as well several different vendors in each category segment.
It can be an overwhelming and taunting task to learn about every technology on the market.
Strategy to overcome challenge - Due Diligence and Planning:
Field Service leaders understand that they must adopt an objective approach to identifying, evaluating, and prioritising investments in technologies as well as vetting and selecting vendors. This means they must find the intellectual bandwidth and manpower to complete this strategic work of their organisation.
Key Challenge #3 - Keeping up with the skills gaps
Let’s face it, millennials are not lining up in droves to accept field service positions. In addition, the baby boomer generation in retiring from the workforce as a rapid rate.
As a result, Field Service leaders are under pressure to implement creative strategies to overcome the current and growing shortage of skilled technicians.
Strategy to overcome challenge - Implement Augment Reality (AR)
Many Field Service leaders perceive that AR solutions provide an effective solution for dealing with the shortage of skilled labor. By utilising this technology, field service organisations can do more with less. Basically, they can leverage the expertise of a limited number of skilled Field Engineers and distribute this knowledge remotely to a broad number of people.
Key Challenge #4 - Becoming a customer centric organisation:
Field Service leaders understand that if service business is going to thrive and grow then their organisations must become more customer centric. Unfortunately, some companies still have a product focused orientation.
Field Service leaders understand that if service business is going to thrive and grow then their organisations must become more customer centric
As a result, they are not making the necessary investments or resource allocations for the field service organisation to remain profitable and competitive.
Strategy to overcome challenge - Influence senior management on the value of service
Basically, Field Service leaders realise they must exert greater effort in influencing senior management on the benefits of becoming a customer centric organisation.
This means they need to build a strong business case as to why their companies should invest in technologies that make their companies more customer centric such as IoT, AR, FSM software, mobility, etc.
The business case must consider the impact of technology investments and process improvements on customer satisfaction, product sales, and the overall financial performance of the company.
Interestingly, the comments that I received were very consistent with the overall themes of the conference. Obviously, WBR has a good pulse on the industry.
Nevertheless, it is always great to speak to people one on one at industry conferences. I find these conversations provide so much more insight and context then sitting through a “canned” presentation.
The common thread between all these issues is that they involve the use of technology to optimise and improve field service delivery. This makes perfect sense as field service is a technology intensive business.
However, it is important that field service leaders do not fall into the trap of viewing technology as panacea for all aliments facing their organisation. The best technology is of little value without solid management, effective planning, and strong leadership behind it.
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Aug 17, 2017 • video • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Video • XM reality • Field Service USA
Kris Oldland talks to the team at XMReality whilst at Field Service USA and they give him a demonstration of how their Augmented Reality solution can help field service companies
Kris Oldland talks to the team at XMReality whilst at Field Service USA and they give him a demonstration of how their Augmented Reality solution can help field service companies
Want to know more about Augmented Reality and Field Service - check out our Big Discussion on the AR and Field Service here
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Jul 28, 2017 • video • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Field Service USA • Scope AR • Scott Montgomerie
Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News reports from Field Service USA and talks to Scott Montgomerie of Scope AR about the role of Augmented Reality in Field Service
Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News reports from Field Service USA and talks to Scott Montgomerie of Scope AR about the role of Augmented Reality in Field Service
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Jul 28, 2017 • News • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Microsoft • Brandon Bray • Hololens • Scope AR • Scott Montgomerie
Earlier this year at Microsoft Build 2017, Scope AR, announced that its MR content authoring platform, WorkLink, now supports Microsoft HoloLens, and it's possible use by field service companies could potentially have a seismic disruptive effect...
Earlier this year at Microsoft Build 2017, Scope AR, announced that its MR content authoring platform, WorkLink, now supports Microsoft HoloLens, and it's possible use by field service companies could potentially have a seismic disruptive effect on how field service is delivered.
Using the smart instruction creation platform available on HoloLens, users can now quickly and easily produce highly interactive MR instruction and training content for deployment on HoloLens, the world's first, fully self-contained holographic computer. The integration provides WorkLink users with a completely hands-free MR experience, an essential step for remote workers trying to repair a piece of equipment or factory floor workers assembling complex machinery.
Through its built-in depth camera and sophisticated tracking technology, HoloLens is one of the best wearable devices for hands-free use of the MR applications so many organisations are seeking
With WorkLink, even non-technical HoloLens users will now be able to create their own MR-based step-by-step instructional content with nearly the same ease as creating a PowerPoint presentation. This enables organisations to quickly leverage and adapt MR across several facets of their business including training, repair, manufacturing and IT without having to create an application from scratch, which ultimately leads to improved employee efficiency, reduced downtime, increased safety records, decreased travel costs and better maintenance.
WorkLink supports untethered, markerless MR content and digital animations within a complete platform for data generation, feedback and analytics for complete compliance assurance. The platform is also the first fully agnostic authoring solution on the market to feature cross-platform publishing on Android, iOS and Windows simultaneously, allowing organisations to use their device of choice.
With this announcement, all current WorkLink subscribers now have access to the new HoloLens support, and all existing WorkLink instructions projects can be easily updated to take advantage of the device.
"Enterprise-class instructional content is one of the most impactful use cases across MR today. By providing a platform for anyone to customise their content easily for MR integration, Scope AR is making it easy for users to take advantage of the benefits of mixed reality using Microsoft HoloLens," said Brandon Bray from Microsoft.
Want to know more? Check out our exclusive interview with Scott Montgomerie filmed at Field Service USA here
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Jun 13, 2017 • Features • AGeing Workforce • Augmented Reality • crowd service • Magazine (digital editions) • ClickSoftware • Digital Issue • IFS • IoT • servicemax • servicepower • Servitization • solarvista • telogis • Asolvi
Kris Oldland deliver's his editorial leader in issue 17 of Field Service News where our theme was the ever changing nature of field service...
Kris Oldland deliver's his editorial leader in issue 17 of Field Service News where our theme was the ever changing nature of field service...
Field Service News subscribers are entitled to our bi-monthly magazine in both print and digital versions. Subscription is free for field service professionals click here to apply for a complimentary industry professional subscription now and get a digital copy of issue 17 sent straight to your inbox instantly
Now any regular readers of this column will know that I’m a big fan of change.
Not that I think change needs to be wholesale and sweeping. No I subscribe much more to the journey of continuous improvement method of change. I like the concept of constant refinement, of being in constant Beta.
As a result of such an outlook I do tend to focus on innovation quite closely, which is a happy coincidence that there seems to be constant innovation within the field service sector too.
So I often talk about changes in our industry. Changes in business processes such as the shift towards servitization or the concept of crowd service
Changes in technology such as the emergence of Augmented Reality and IOT as two highly credible emerging technologies that the field service industry must embrace.
Even, the changing skill-profile of the field engineer as an incoming generation replaces an ageing outgoing one.
But the change referred to in this edition of Field Service News is actually a completely different type of change and for once I found myself wondering if such seismic change within our industry is good for us.
“The message from almost all camps is that it is business as usual just with bigger expectations, and quicker developments. On the surface it all sounds great...”
In the last 18 months we have seen most of the big names in field service management solutions being acquired. Tesseract, IFS, ServiceMax, ClickSoftware, Telogis, and most recently ServicePower have all been bought up and that’s just a few from the top of my head.
There are many, many more.
The thing is that all of these companies had a common thread that allowed them to thrive in our industry. They were all independent companies who truly understood and cared about field service.
If I recall correctly the redesign of Solarvista a few years back took 3 MILLION lines of code, more than it takes to send a shuttle up to the space station, there are far easier sectors to enter, far easier places to make money as a software provider.
But it was the passion to help drive service forwards that was at the heart of many of these companies’ success.
Colin Brown former MD and founder at Tesseract for example came from an engineer background himself, so he got the challenges that companies were facing and was able to tailor that into a series of industry first solutions (i.e. first windows based solution, first browser based solution, first SaaS solution).
Similarly, Dave Yarnold, CEO at ServiceMax has spoken at great length about the importance of service - even going as far as to described ServiceMax once as a Field Service Enablement company who happen to use technology to do so.
And while Yarnold, remains on board in ServiceMax’s new guise as part of the GE Brand one just hopes that is infectious enthusiasm for great service delivery isn’t diluted by being in a bigger pond.
Indeed, the message from almost all camps is that it is business as usual just with bigger expectations, and quicker developments. On the surface it all sounds great and I must admit that it is fantastic to see the field service sector become such hot property globally - it’s just when so many great independent companies are bought within quick succession of each other it does make me a little nervous.
All Change maybe fine, just not at once, is all I’m asking.
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