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In the first of a four-part series, we bring together three industry experts and put four key questions for them to answer to give us a balanced view of the major trends impacting the field service sector. With responses from Bill Pollock, Strategies for Growth, Marc Tatarsky at FieldAware, and Richard Pratley from SimPRO, we look forward to what we can expect across the next twelve months.

2018 was a year in which we saw a number of significant changes move from the fringes of discussion within our industry to becoming an established part of mainstream discussion and in some cases fundamental parts of common place strategy within the field service sector.

The Internet of Things (IoT) for example, has become a staple part of field service delivery with many organisation having already adopted some layer of IoT technology which they are utilising within service delivery and the majority of those who have yet to take their first steps into connected field service are actively planning to do so in the not too distant future.

And as is often the case with technology in field service, the emergence of IoT in our sector, much as mobile did before it, has resulted in seismic changes into the processes and work-flows that underpin how we define service excellence. For example, we have seen servitization become an increasingly popular over-arching strategy for many manufacturers as they shift towards more customer-centric, service-focussed revenue strategies.

Even amongst those organisations who have yet to commit to a fully servitized business model, there are many who are shifting towards adopting a pro-active approach to service delivery, with increasing operational efficiencies and greater customer satisfaction two of the major benefits being heralded by such developments - which are again enabled and empowered by IoT.

Yet, at the same time other technologies that should be having positive impacts on field service delivery, in particular Augmented Reality (AR), have yet to evolve as rapidly, seemingly stagnating in the early adopter phase. Perhaps, 2019 may be the year we see AR finally emerge from its embryonic potential to also becoming a fully established part of the field service sector?

Or maybe, there will be other key breakthroughs, whether they be technologies, or strategies, that will shape the future of field serviceTo get a flavour of what we may expect across the next twelve months we’ve brought together a panel of experts to get their opinions on what to expect in 2019. We begin this series, however, by taking stock from last year.

Across the last twelve months what do you think has been the biggest shift in how we approach field service delivery?

BILL POLLOCK, PRESIDENT, STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
The last 12 months have been quite a bit more active among global Field Services Organisations (FSOs) with respect to their acquisition and implementation of new technologies. For example, after having spent a number of years more as a perennial line item on an organisation’s “wish list”, Augmented Reality (AR) has gained a much wider acceptance, and is presently in use by more than twice as many FSOs as just a year earlier. In fact, the trend lines for AR adoption are have begun to increase at an accelerating rate.

We are now also seeing the further incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning into existing FSM systems.
As a result, many FSOs have already begun the transformation from the traditional break/fix model to the use of predictive diagnostics and AI-powered chatbots to facilitate and expedite.

MARC TATARSKY, SVP MARKETING, FIELD AWARE
We are seeing a convergence of technology capabilities changing how field service operations are being enabled. One of the key drivers of this convergence is analytics and a data platform that is empowering organisations to take insights from various new technologies (IoT, AR eg) and existing data within other Systems of Record to provide context and the ability to make “new” business decisions.

Field service organisations, due to the complexity of the operations, have always embraced technology and were early adopters of analytics. We are seeing an evolution of analytics in field service, moving from a need to turn data into information, to meaningful business insight and then to decision-making capabilities.
Over the past twelve months we are now experiencing a shift to a more strategic approach to business intelligence. Field service leaders are applying analytics to drive value-adding initiatives into the wider business, with customising service and product innovation, for example.

RICHARD PRATLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, SIMPRO
There are a number of external pressures that are aggregating together forcing business to make a shift and change about how they are approaching field service delivery.

All businesses are looking to do more for less thanks to a skilled labour shortage, pricing pressures on services, travel and resource and compliance cost increases and customer demand for value.

During the last twelve months, we’ve seen more field service businesses looking to streamline and automate their operations to enable them to scale up their workforce without adding in more resources.

The second part of the big discussion will be published next week, when the panel answer questions on IoT.

As part of an excellent ‘analyst’s take’ paper commissioned by ServicePower, Bill Pollock has provided an in-depth look at the service requirements for the security sector, here Samir Gulati offers us a key excerpt from that paper...

There are now more security systems players than ever, bringing refined ways of doing business and new efficiencies to the marketplace. 

In addition, there has been a complete transformation of the security installer/service technician into an “everything as a service”

professional, supported by service delivery models that embrace Cloud technology, interactive services, predictive diagnostics and customer self-service.

The most successful companies will ultimately differentiate themselves with unique and seemingly indispensable services and solutions that make it easier for a consumer (or business) to be smarter, safer, and more cost-effective.

For those organisations that install, monitor, and maintain commercial or residential security systems, ServicePower enables faster, smarter service, so they can deliver on today’s consumer service preferences and expectations, while also reducing operational costs and driving new and more predictable revenue streams.

 

"The most successful companies will ultimately differentiate themselves with unique and seemingly indispensable services and solutions..."

 

The five primary factors to focus on when evaluating alternative Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WM) solutions for the security services segment are critical to the success of the vendor/solution evaluation and selection processes.

They include:

• Customer Engagement – by offering a customised, self-service portal to enable customers to log in with their account number and report issues or order add-on security services, schedule the appointment, watch their installer/ service technician en route, and communicate with him or her, if needed; also to suggest relevant new cross sell and/or upsell services during this key interaction opportunity.
• Smart Scheduling – the ability to pair parameters such as skills, certifications, and geography with the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for real-time scheduling to ensure that the best installer/service technician is assigned, at the least cost; and provide the opportunity to re-optimise schedules and routes in real-time to accommodate intra-day changes, increase on-time arrival and completed jobs per day, and decrease travel costs.
• Mobile Tech Enablement – to ensure that the installer/service technicians arrive with everything they need to get the job done the first time, driving consistent quality service delivery, improved productivity, and increased completion rates; also to provide a value-based experience by personalising the customer’s experience via fully configurable mobile functionality which also improves schedule compliance and first-time installation/ fix rates, and proactively offer additional value-added security solutions while onsite to increase revenue.
• Contractor Management – to facilitate better management of outsourced or supplementary third-party contractor staff to quickly expand geographic reach or support changing demand; the ability to dynamically choose a contractor based on rank scores, credentials, crowd-sourced Better Business Bureau (BBB) info, and dynamic rules configuration; and confidently being able to book an appointment based on available time-slots, coupled with the ability to view the current job status and track overall progress.
• Reporting & Analytics – the ability to use real-time Business Intelligence (BI) to measure performance metrics, fine tune future operations, and enhance the customer experience; along with the ability to access Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), scorecards and reports in real-time, from either mobile devices or the desktop, and share them both inside and outside the organisation, as warranted.

The best FSM and WM solutions will also be those that include additional functionalities, such as:

• Claims Management
• Work Order Management
• Inventory, Asset and Contract Management
• Outsourced Managed Services

The main benefits that can be realised through the implementation and use of a Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WM) solution designed specifically for the security services segment are many, and quite compelling, as follows:

• Improve management control over service provisioning
• Reduce manual processes to create and manage field schedule routes, thereby reducing travel times
• Increase appointments, per day
• Less time spent on-site
• Enable improvements in overtime, travel, skills, and spares
• Grow revenue
• Increase customer engagement
• Serve customers more efficiently with convenient scheduling, increased first-time installation/ fix rates, and improved service levels
• Use Business Intelligence (BI) to better measure and improve service operations KPIs
• Research has shown that for a typical Fortune 1000 company, just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than US$65 million additional net income, according to Forbes.com.

These benefits, albeit on a smaller scale, can also be realised by small-to-medium-sized security services organisations as well.

 

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 Samir Gulati is Chief Marketing Office with ServicePower

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Customer demands and expectations are greater than ever before at at time when training and retaining service engineers is a major challenge due in no large part to an exodus of retiring baby boomers exiting the workforce. Outsourcing is a tempting solution to the problem but can you ensure your customer’s needs will be fully met and satisfied? Bill Pollock discusses...

As customers become more sophisticated, the market more complicated, the economy more volatile, and the services community more demanding, it is also becoming more difficult to manage all customer service-related activities in-house.

As a result, many businesses have turned to outsourcing in order to ensure that they have the required staffing and resources to get the total job done.

While some businesses may outsource only in non-core competency areas such as accounting and payroll, secretarial and clerical, or even telesales, others may outsource entire blocks of their core business activities to firms specialising in distinct areas such as field service, technical support, customer service, sales management, manufacturing and production, human resources, quality control, etc.

However, whether the organisation’s customer service functions are staffed by full-time company employees, part-time support personnel, outsourced agencies or personnel, or any combination thereof, one thing remains certain; the company’s customers and prospects must receive consistently high levels of customer service and support, regardless of whose personnel they happen to be dealing with at any given moment.

 

"It is important to remember that customers will not care what type of employee representing your company was rude to them on the telephone, or did not provide them with the desired level of customer service – all they will remember is that your business failed to get the job done..."

 

Most managers agree that the key ingredient for success in running a services business, whether it is run exclusively by an organisation’s own full-time employees, or supplemented in part by outside personnel, outsource agencies or other third parties, is to have all of the workers that represent the business in the marketplace put on a cohesive and consistent front when they deal with customers and prospects.

It is important to remember that customers will not care what type of employee representing your company was rude to them on the telephone, or did not provide them with the desired level of customer service – all they will remember is that your business failed to get the job done.

There are many good reasons for why a services organisation might consider outsourcing; but before entering into any specific outsourcing agreement, you should first prepare yourself, and your employees, for the most effective way to manage this complementary workforce.

 

We suggest six basic recommended guidelines: 

1. Train your outsourced personnel as if they were your own employees. Make sure they understand the products and services you sell, the markets you sell to, and the way you normally conduct business.

If your business involves dealing with highly demanding customers such as hospitals, banks or aerospace, etc., make sure they share the same “sense of urgency” that your own employees have when they deal with these types of customers.

2. Take any outsourced customer contact workers on a short “field trip” to show them how your customer support center works and, if direct customer contacts will eventually be made in the field, take them along on a few customer calls first to show them the way you normally treat your customers.

3. Provide the manager of the outsourced operation with a fail-safe “back door” to a full-time manager at your company, even at the C-level, if necessary. Let the manager know that he/she is not in it alone when help is needed.

4. Get daily reports in a standard reporting format (e.g., problem or exception reports) every morning to ensure that everything is in order, and that no special problems are developing.

5. Give your outsourced employees samples of your company’s products or other items, product pictures or services marketing brochures.

You may also want to give them some small gifts with your company’s logo or name on them, such as T-shirts, mugs, pens, desk calendars, a picture frame, etc. This might be especially helpful in dealing with an outsourced night crew or other off-shift workers who would otherwise have no real contact with your full-time company personnel. Some businesses arrange for an Open House lunch or reception for their outsourced personnel for the purpose of having them meet the full-time staff.

6. Problems should be confronted immediately, head on, with the outsource manager. 

When your own managers are faced with a problem, they typically know exactly what to do – they have been there before. However, the same problems may be new to your outsource managers, and they may need some immediate help from your own management.

 

Outsourcing is basically a “partnership” designed to deliver quality equal to or greater than that which you yourself would provide.

 

"Too often these agreements are handled more as a “‘vendor” relationship, rather than as a partnership..."

 

We have found that too often these agreements are handled more as a “‘vendor” relationship, rather than as a partnership, even to the point where the in-house person responsible is often referred to as the “Vendor Manager.”

Sometimes, simple things like this set the wrong tone right from the start – and things can easily go downhill from there. It is crucially important to create an atmosphere whereby your partners feel they are part of your company’s service delivery infrastructure, and not just an add-on.

Treating outsource vendors and their employees in the manner described through these six suggestions is the first step to creating a win/win alliance.

However, it is typically the attitude of the key people that often makes the difference between success and failure in any relationship.

By following these six suggestions, a services organisation can maximise its chances for cultivating an environment that would allow for the attainment of desired levels of customer service and satisfaction.

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Bill Pollock is President of Strategies for GrowthSM. Follow his blog @ www.pollockonservice.com

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As part of an excellent analysts paper commissioned by ServicePower, Bill Pollock has provided an in-depth look at the service requirements for the security sector, here we take a look at an excerpt from that paper...

There are now more security systems players than ever, bringing refined ways of doing business and new efficiencies to the marketplace. In addition, there has been a complete transformation of the security installer/service technician into an “everything as a service” professional, supported by service delivery models that embrace Cloud technology, interactive services, predictive diagnostics and customer self-service.

The most successful companies will ultimately differentiate themselves with unique and seemingly indispensable services and solutions that make it easier for a consumer (or business) to be smarter, safer, and more cost-effective.

For those organizations that install, monitor, and maintain commercial or residential security systems, ServicePower enables faster, smarter service, so they can deliver on today’s consumer service preferences and expectations, while also reducing operational costs and driving new and more predictable revenue streams.

The five primary factors to focus on when evaluating alternative Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WM) solutions for the security services segment are critical to the success of the vendor/solution evaluation and selection processes.

They include:

• Customer Engagement – by offering a customized, self-service portal to enable customers to log in with their account number and report issues or order add-on security services, schedule the appointment, watch their installer/ service technician en route, and communicate with him or her, if needed; also to suggest relevant new cross-sell and/or upsell services during this key interaction opportunity.
• Smart Scheduling – the ability to pair parameters such as skills, certifications, and geography with the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for real-time scheduling to ensure that the best installer/service technician is assigned, at the least cost; and provide the opportunity to re-optimize schedules and routes in real-time to accommodate intra-day changes, increase on-time arrival and completed jobs per day, and decrease travel costs.
• Mobile Tech Enablement – to ensure that the installer/service technicians arrive with everything they need to get the job done the first time, driving consistent quality service delivery, improved productivity, and increased completion rates; also to provide a value-based experience by personalizing the customer’s experience via fully configurable mobile functionality which also improves schedule compliance and first-time installation/ fix rates, and proactively offer additional value-added security solutions while onsite to increase revenue.
• Contractor Management – to facilitate better management of outsourced or supplementary third-party contractor staff to quickly expand geographic reach or support changing demand; the ability to dynamically choose a contractor based on rank scores, credentials, crowd-sourced Better Business Bureau (BBB) info, and dynamic rules configuration; and confidently being able to book an appointment based on available time-slots, coupled with the ability to view the current job status and track overall progress.
• Reporting & Analytics – the ability to use real-time Business Intelligence (BI) to measure performance metrics, fine-tune future operations, and enhance the customer experience; along with the ability to access Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), scorecards and reports in real-time, from either mobile devices or the desktop, and share them both inside and outside the organization, as warranted.

The best FSM and WM solutions will also be those that include additional functionalities, such as:

• Claims Management
• Work Order Management
• Inventory, Asset and Contract Management
• Outsourced Managed Services

The main benefits that can be realized through the implementation and use of a Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WM) solution designed specifically for the security services segment are many, and quite compelling, as follows:

• Improve management control over service provisioning
• Reduce manual processes to create and manage field schedule routes, thereby reducing travel times
• Increase appointments, per day
• Less time spent on-site
• Enable improvements in overtime, travel, skills, and spares
• Grow revenue
• Increase customer engagement
• Serve customers more efficiently with convenient scheduling, increased first-time installation/ fix rates, and improved service levels
• Use Business Intelligence (BI) to better measure and improve service operations KPIs
• Research has shown that for a typical Fortune 1000 company, just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than US$65 million additional net income, according to Forbes.com.

These benefits, albeit on a smaller scale, can also be realized by small-to-medium-sized security services organizations as well.

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Bill Pollock, President of Strategies for GrowthSM gives us five questions that we need to be able to answer if we are to meet our customers’ service expectations...

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Help build the next Strategies for GrowthSM analysis report by participating in their current benchmarking research project by clicking this link and taking their current Warranty Chain Management survey... 

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The margins on hardware, software and services revenues continue to compress due to increasing competitive pressures, and as customers are becoming more knowledgeable about the growing number of support options available to them.

As a result, customer service is now an even more important factor in establishing and maintaining a strong position in the overall services community.

Every day, more services organisations are relying on customer service to differentiate their otherwise commodity-like offerings in order to bring customers in, keep them happy, and make them loyal. However, while it is not “rocket science”, any services manager can look like an “Einstein” if he or she embraces the rudimentary aspects of customer service throughout all phases of services marketing and promotion, sales prospecting, writing the contract, and managing the customer account over time.

 

"Every day, more services organisations are relying on customer service to differentiate their otherwise commodity-like offerings in order to bring customers in, keep them happy, and make them loyal..."

 

While there are many ways to go with respect to defining and establishing a strong customer service mentality within the organisation, the most direct path to determining whether your organisation is on the right track is to test yourself on a number of questions that will indicate how well positioned your organisation is from a customer service perspective.

The basic questions that any sales, marketing or customer service professional should be asking, and a corresponding set of guidelines for addressing each of them, may include:

 

Does your organisation have a formal customer service or customer care department? Does it have a well-defined customer service mission or charter? Is it adequately staffed and empowered?

Surprising as it may seem, some services organisations have no formal customer service or customer care infrastructure. Even in cases where other departments may be “managing” portions of the company’s customer service activities (e.g., handling complaints, responding to inquiries, etc.), there may still be no formal company-wide procedures or processes for managing customer service. As a result, any customer service activities provided are probably not being performed in a consistent manner. Further, in cases where customer service is performed essentially as a “secondary” activity to the department’s otherwise self-defined “primary” activities, lack of adequate staffing, empowerment and accountability may become major inhibiting factors.

 

Is there a formal process for handling customer service activities? Are specific responsibilities defined and assigned? Is there accountable ownership?

All functions within the organisation require formal processes to ensure effectiveness. Documented processes are even more important when they involve customers and other external parties (e.g., vendors, dealers, etc.). But processes, in and of themselves, do not get the job done. They must be followed by specific personnel, with specifically defined roles and responsibilities, in order to be effective.

The capability to track who actually has “ownership” of each customer service activity as it is being performed will be critical in measuring overall company performance, as well as providing an ongoing record of success (or failure) in meeting the company’s customer service goals and objectives.

 

Does your company management promote and encourage customer service? Are there incentives for doing it right, or sanctions for doing it wrong?

Regardless of where your customer service personnel get their primary inspiration, they must still be fully supported by management at all levels. However, this is clearly a case where actions speak louder than words. Management must do everything possible to articulate and communicate its philosophy of customer service throughout the organisation in order to empower its customer service personnel to get the job done – and reward them for being successful at it.

 

How interactive is your organisation with the customer base? Does it communicate with them enough? Does it provide them with a means for giving their customer service input and feedback?

A one-way street for customer service is never adequate. A services organisation’s customers must also be able to articulate and communicate their concerns to the organisation, and they will need to know how to do so. Accordingly, the organisation should have a formal process in place for soliciting and receiving customer service input and feedback from customers. The process should be well-documented and promoted, easy to access, user-friendly and sincere. Most importantly, all communications coming from the customer base must be quickly and satisfactorily answered. It is generally also a good idea to summarize some of the customer feedback and related company responses in a communicated format such as a company newsletter or Blog, or on the company Website (e.g., FAQs, Customer Service Update, etc.).

 

Are your customer service personnel properly trained? Do they have all of the necessary tools to get the job done?

Just because certain individuals are “good with people” does not necessarily mean that they are fully equipped to handle all types of customer service situations. It may mean that they have the “right stuff” – but they will still need to receive the “right training.” Even with the proper training, a customer service representative is often only as good as his/her ability to get the job done. This requires access to all of the necessary customer service and support tools, such as guidebooks and procedure manuals; software systems that allow them to log in calls, and track how and when corrective actions are taken; and state-of-the-art mobile communications capabilities.

As you can imagine, there are dozens of additional questions that will still need to be answered before you can be certain that your organisation is addressing all of its key customer service issues. However, these five questions should be at the head of your list in order to make an initial assessment of exactly where your company stands with respect to its customer service philosophy.

 

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Visit Strategies For Growth SM website @ https://pollockonservice.com/

 

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Research analyst and consulting firm, Strategies For Growth^SM (SFG℠) has launched its fifth annual Warranty Chain Management (WCM) Benchmark Survey Update, and invites all Warranty Management professionals to participate. The 2019 WCM Survey will remain “live” on the Web through the end of the year.

According to SFG℠ president and principal consulting analyst, Bill Pollock, “The results of the 2018 survey revealed that nearly three-quarters (71%) of respondents believe effective warranty chain management to be at least 'very important' to the overall financial performance of the business, with just under a quarter (22%) believing it to be 'extremely important.'

[quote float="left"]All respondents that provide their e-mail address will receive a link for downloading a complimentary copy of the Executive Summary Analysts Take white paper immediately following the conference.[/quote] The results further revealed that this sense of importance continues to increase substantially, year-over-year, as one-quarter (25%) believed effective warranty chain management to be 'more important than one year ago,' compared to only 3% believing it to be 'less important' – a ratio of roughly 8:1 citing 'more important' over 'less important’. As such, we know the segment is based on a sound foundation that is getting stronger moving forward."

The final results of the current survey will be presented by Pollock at the 2019 Warranty Chain Management Conference, March 12 - 14, 2019, in Orlando, Florida. In addition, all respondents that provide their e-mail address will receive a link for downloading a complimentary copy of the Executive Summary Analysts Take white paper immediately following the conference.

The survey consists of a targeted, multiple choice questionnaire that should take less than 15 minutes to complete. All responses will remain strictly confidential, and will only be tabulated and reported in the aggregate.

Simply click on the following link to begin the survey, or, if you prefer, you may forward it to someone else in your organization to complete:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WCM_19

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BTW - Be sure to watch in Q1, 2019 for Bill Pollock’s article in Field Service News that will provide the key executive-level results of the current survey.

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SFG℠ thanks you in advance for your participation!

We've all know it for a long time, field service management is a rocking sector. Now Bill Pollock provides us with the evidence - rock on...

 

Whenever one of your service customers hollers “Help”, you not only need to respond quickly, you also need to Get It Right the First Time – because you certainly won’t want to waste the time and expense of having one of your field technicians Truckin’ to the customer site unnecessarily – and you also won’t want to have to Do It Again later! If you’re not careful, it will all be Wasted Time!

By the way, this is why many of the leading services organisations are incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) into their Field Service Management (FSM) solutions – because Every Picture Tells a Story, don’t it? With all of this “new” technology being integrated into FSM solutions supporting the global field services community, The Times They Are a Changin’, for sure!

For a majority of users, the decision as to which type and brand of equipment to acquire is based more on the quality of service that will be provided after the purchase, rather than on the acquisition of the piece of equipment itself. Plus, it’s not only based on Money, Money, Money – it’s more often than not based on things including Promises, Honesty and A Matter of Trust!

However, once selected, after the services provider asks the user to “Take a Chance on Me”, it will need to, first, make sure that its new customer has a Peaceful Easy Feeling, and that it hasn’t spent a whole lot of Money for Nothing (or you could end up in Dire Straights)!

 

"After the services provider asks the user to “Take a Chance on Me”, it will need to, first, make sure that its new customer has a Peaceful Easy Feeling, and that it hasn’t spent a whole lot of Money for Nothing (or you could end up in Dire Straights)!"

 

Further, whether the customer’s equipment is located in Allentown or Katmandu, the services provider must be sure that there Ain’t No Mountain High Enough to keep it away from delivering the services that have been promised. If you cannot cover all of the geographic areas where your customers’ (and prospects’) equipment is located, you may end up with an unhappy customer in Massachusetts, requiring your field techs to work weekends on Tulsa Time, finding a suitable contractor in Sweet Home Alabama, being stuck in Lodi (again), authorizing a costly flight to Kokomo, Going to California yourself – or even worse – having to deal with a Panic in Detroit! One way or the other, you’ll never want to hear one of your Colorado customers tell you to “Get Out of Denver”!

Communications is also a critical component of any services relationship – and the last thing you will ever need to experience with your customers is a Communications Breakdown! Customers will want you to be their “Nights in White Satin”, consistently being able to provide them with what they want, “Any Way You Want It”, so they will always feel Glad All Over.

Customers hate it when they call their services provider and get No Reply! There’s a Fine Line between being only casually responsive and treating your customers with a full measure of Respect – and you don’t want to cross that line the wrong way, otherwise, your customer will feel like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and end up in Misery!

If you get your communications right with your customers, you’ll find that The Winner Takes It All (i.e., your services organization); but if you Try Too Hard, you might end up just Livin’ on a Prayer, waiting for another opportunity to make it up to them – and they may simply tell you, “Not a Second Time”! It’s also important to remember that even if your customers have already asked you 65 or 66 questions, you will still need to be prepared to answer Questions 67 and 68!

So, … if you consistently deliver the expected – and desired – levels of service to your customers, and your field technicians remain Cool, Calm and Collected with respect to managing their customer relationships, then you may be in it for The Long Run! If so, then Long May You Run (that is, in circles around your competitors)!

However, for every services organization that actually “gets it”, there are probably a dozen or so more that don’t! That’s why it is so important to make sure you properly train – and arm – your field techs (i.e., with mobile tools and accompanying technology, etc.) with everything they need All Down the Line, so they can satisfy their customers consistently, and go home every day after their last call feeling Free as a Bird and ready to Rock and Roll All Nite!

 

Bill Pollock, is President of Strategies for GrowthSM

 

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Bill Pollock, President & Principal Consulting Analyst at Strategies For GrowthSM, takes a look at the biggest two tools being used for field service management and explore the merits of each...

In today’s business environment, too much attention is often focused on new technologies on the horizon, and whatever else might be “hot” in the blogs or other social media, rather than on the core attributes of substance and sustainability.

However, when it comes down to selecting the right Field Service Management (FSM) solution for your organisation, one thing remains very clear – it must “fit” your organisation with respect to functionality, application, accessibility, scalability and – of course – cost.

While some organisations may prefer an all-encompassing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that addresses all areas within the company (e.g., manufacturing, engineering, distribution, sales, marketing, etc.) in addition to services, others may prefer to use a Best-of-Breed FSM solution that serves as a custom “fit” to its services operations.

Differentiators that Distinguish Best-of-Breed vs. ERP solutions:

There are many definitions of Best-of-Breed currently being used in the global services community, ranging from “best in segment”, to “best anywhere”, to “best currently available”, and so on.

However, much too often, “best in segment” may not necessarily reflect “Best Practices”; “best anywhere” may be too elusive, and “best currently available” may not be quite good enough. With so many alternative definitions, some organisations may eventually end up not quite knowing which “best” they should be aspiring to.

Further, what may be “best-of-breed” in the manufacturing sector may not even be relevant in the medical device sector, and vice versa.

The complexity of the concept of “best” as it pertains specifically to a field services organisation can cloud the ability of management to choose either the precise goals to target, or the appropriate technology solutions that will be required to attain them.

Research has shown that the ability to pick and choose the specific components to support an organisation’s FSM activities offers a much more tailored solution that is able to address all facets of this service-centric process.Research has shown that the ability to pick and choose the specific components to support an organisation’s FSM activities offers a much more tailored solution that is able to address all facets of this service-centric process.

That is not necessarily to say that an ERP solution will not, or cannot, support FSM – rather, that a robust, application-specific, Best-of-Breed solution may be able to do it better.

Further, many ERP solution providers go-to-market with messages that proclaim “everything your organisation needs to support its services activities”. However, the “everything” that is offered by some of these vendors may only follow the 80/20 rule; that is, providing only “80% of the FSM functionality required”, but delivered by a “brand name” company typically as an add-on to a more extensive – and expensive – ERP solution.

On the other hand, a Best-of-Breed FSM solution typically offers 100% – or close to it – of the specific functionality required by the field services organisation from a services-oriented solution provider that truly understands the user’s needs from the requisite functional specs; to the terminology and buzzwords to the requirements for installation and training; and ongoing technical and customer support.

In addition, Best-of-Breed solution providers in the services segment have typically supported clients in their field for decades, gaining a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the market space including who the key and niche players are (i.e., vendors and users), how customers’ service organisations operate, what specific functionalities are required (and available), how usage has been and will be evolving over time, and what the key pain points are for all parties involved.

Most of today’s Best-of-Breed vendors represent the ones that have been successful in differentiating themselves beyond the enterprise-wide capabilities of the ERP generalists and the 80/20 CRM vendors.

Evaluating and Comparing Best-of-Breed vs. ERP Alternatives

Just as “you cannot tell a book by its cover”, it is uncertain – and unwise – to try to assess a solution provider simply by its marketing collateral.

Just because they say they can do it all, does not necessarily mean they can – and just because they say they support the field services segment does not mean they are specialists in doing so.

Many organisations have found that the difference between a generalist and a specialist can make all the difference in the world.

That is why it is so important to make sure that when selecting an FSM solution provider, the organisation evaluates all vendors with the same high level of due diligence – that is, assessing and comparing all vendors using the same criteria, and holding them to the same standards whether they are ERP generalists, FSM Best-of-Breed specialists, or anything else in-between.

Whether Best-of-Breed or ERP is better for your organisation will ultimately be your call – however, the results of a thorough needs assessment and long list/short list evaluation of potential solutions (and vendors) will take you to the point where you can make the right decision.

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Data collation has become perhaps one of the most important factors in delivering the levels of standards that today’s empowered customers demand. However, many companies are now finding themselves struggling to turn the vast amounts of data being generated today into meaningful insight. Bill Pollock, President for Strategies for GrowthSM explores how field service companies can find a balance between flood and thirst...

Many reports have been written about services organisations (and businesses of all types) “drowning in data lakes”. However, the key to success is to establish early on what data is needed to effectively run services operations, and focus specifically on those types of data when collecting and processing the reams and reams of data points generated from your IoT-based systems.

Too much data is … well, too much data, if you don’t have a plan to harvest it effectively.Too much data is … well, too much data, if you don’t have a plan to harvest it effectively.

The most important asset a services organisation owns is the cumulative knowledge and expertise it has acquired, developed and utilised over time to support its customers’ systems and equipment – and, in many cases, the entire customer enterprise.

Some of this knowledge may be in the form of bits of information stored in a database, while other knowledge is often manifested in the form of new systems, tools and technologies that have been placed into use.

However, knowledge can only be built on a strong foundation of data and information – and these key components of knowledge must be inherently accurate, clean, well-defined, and easily accessible.

Today, everybody talks about data analytics, but many often confuse data with information and knowledge. Basically, data is a core corporate asset that must be synthesised into information before it can serve as the basis for knowledge within the organisation. As such, data may be defined primarily as:

• Facts about things, organised for analysis, or used to support or make decisions; or
• Raw material from which information is derived to serve as the basis for making intelligent decisions.

Information, on the other hand, is defined as:

• Collections, or aggregations, of usable facts or data;
• Processed, stored, or transmitted data; or
• Data in context, accompanied by precise definition and clear presentation.

Finally, knowledge may be defined as:

• Specific information about something; that is, the sum or range of what has been discovered or learned;
• Information known, and presented in the proper context; or
• The value added to information by people who have the experience and/or acumen to understand its business potential.

The quality of the data that an organisation collects, measures and distributes is also a key factor in database building. To attain an acceptable level of data quality, the organisation must be able to mine its data whilst focusing on key areas, such as:

• Clear definition or meaning
• Correct values
• Understandable presentation format
• Usefulness in supporting targeted business processes

However, regardless of the state of the organisation’s data assets, there must still be a balance of data, process and systems in order to meet the company’s stated business objectives, which generally focus on things like:

• Increasing revenues and margins
• Increasing market share
• Increasing customer satisfaction

However, if there is not a match between data quality and the application of that data, then the entire process will ultimately become a fool’s errand (i.e., garbage-in; garbage-out).

Regardless, data is ubiquitous – it is used to support every aspect of the business, and is an integral component of every key business process. But, the usefulness of the data is only as good as the data itself – and this is where many organisations run into trouble.

You don’t go to work wearing 12 watches; you don’t buy 48 oz. of steaks, per person, to put on the grill for a summer barbecue; so, why would you pay for more data than you will ever needAs such, services organisations need to be able to identify which data is “need to know” vs. which data is only “nice-to-know”. Nice-to-know data is ultimately way too expensive to collect, process, analyse, monitor and distribute; however, need-to-know data is not only invaluable – but critical to ensuring the operational and financial well-being of the organisation.

For example, you don’t go to work wearing 12 watches; you don’t buy 48 oz. of steaks, per person, to put on the grill for a summer barbecue; so, why would you pay for more data than you will ever need when you can harvest just what you need for now (plus whatever else looks like you may need in the future)?

The quest for knowledge is the key that can unlock the potential applications and uses of the organisation’s existing – or planned – databases.

In fact, most businesses are already sitting on a goldmine of data that can – and should – be transformed into actionable information and knowledge with the potential to:

• Enhance and expand their existing product, service, supply chain, CRM and operational databases;
• Create knowledge-oriented delivery systems for new, or enhanced, value-added products, services and support; and
• Differentiate itself from other competitive market players.

Knowledge that was previously unknown – or unavailable – such as profiles of potential buyers, or specific patterns of product/service usage may be uncovered and put into practical use for the first time. The end result can lead to anything ranging from improvements in operational efficiency to improved service delivery performance, more accurate parts forecasting, and higher levels of customer service and support – all based on a strong foundation of data collection, measurement and distribution.

Consider your data repository as a storage space for all of the data you will need today, tomorrow and in the future. If large enough, put it in a data lake – but make sure you don’t use Loch Ness for what a smaller data lake can do for you more efficiently.

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