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In 2015, Espresso Service Ltd woke up and smelled ‘connected’ coffee. By implementing Tesseract’s cloud-based service management software, it entered the realm of the smart coffeemaker and the Internet of Things, bolstering its USPs and improving its service to customers.

Backed by over 25 years in the coffee industry, Espresso Service manages and maintains all types and brands of coffee machines. It does this via a nationwide network of engineers who really know their beans.

Before Tesseract, the company’s service management system was based around a less flexible, server-based, non-specialised bolt-on to an accountancy package. This was no longer up to task, so Espresso Service looked to the cloud.

Head in the cloud

Espresso Service opted for a software-as-a-service system, aka SaaS. In other words, a system that is hosted in the cloud and accessible via the internet. The company wanted to avoid the hefty capital costs involved with installing software on its servers, and instead pay an ongoing subscription fee. It also wanted access to software that was maintained by the provider and always kept up to date. This led it to Tesseract.

Daniel Sewell, Chief Operating Officer for Espresso Service, explains, “In the end, the choice was down to two companies. Tesseract came out on top for three main reasons. Firstly, the system is web-based, which means our engineers can access it anywhere. Secondly, we get free upgrades and any platform developments for one customer are shared to all. The third reason is Kevin McNally, one of Tesseract’s managers. As opposed to a typical salesman just interested in a deal, Kevin was thoroughly genuine and showed a real and keen interest in our business. He still does.”

 

The Internet of (Coffee) Things

The Tesseract system is able to communicate directly with some of the coffee machines Espresso Service is contracted to maintain. These machines contain a modem with a SIM card, feeding data to the Tesseract system by means of the internet. This could be asset history or maintenance alerts, i.e. the machine has run out of milk or coffee, or needs a repair.

This telemetry prompts Espresso Service to take action and, if necessary, schedule a maintenance visit — without its customers having to do anything. Daniel Sewell says, “On average 5,000 pieces of information a day are transmitted to the Tesseract system. This ability to monitor equipment remotely through Tesseract has not just revolutionised the way Espresso Service operates; it’s also improved the performance of our customers. Their need to keep coffee flowing and minimise equipment downtime is served by us providing them with a more responsive service.”

The perfect blend

Espresso Service utilises the full suite of services offered by Tesseract’s flagship product, Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1), including Call Control, Customer Assets, Parts Centre, Remote Engineer Access and Remote Customer Access.

While SC5.1 is an out-of-the-box platform, Tesseract does its best to tailor and adapt it. In this case, it has created an interface with Espresso Service’s accounting software, as well as between Parts Centre and the company’s stock partner. This enables Espresso Service to have full visibility and control of the movement of stock even though a separate company manages it.

Tesseract and Espresso Service also worked together to enhance SC5.1’s stock-take functionality, streamlining what used to be a manual process. In due course, Espresso Service will incorporate Tesseract’s Diary Assist, an automated scheduling service capable of saving companies 3-4 hours a day of manual manipulation by assigning calls to engineers.

 

What’s clear is that Tesseract and Espresso Service represent a strong, thriving partnership, one that has continued to flourish in the short time since implementation. Daniel Sewell explains, “Tesseract has given us a new USP. When we approach sales prospects, we proclaim the virtues of the Tesseract system, and how much it will make their lives easier and service better. We also recommend the platform to other companies in our industry. In particular, we partnered with an ROI firm to found a company called Espresso Service Ireland Technical Ltd, and got them set up on the Tesseract system. That’s how much we believe in it.”

 

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Thames Water staff using the V110 have praised the device for important features such as how lightweight it is, its highly sensitive touchscreen and digitised stylus, as well as its superior processing power - especially noticeable when using the GPS functionality to bring up large, detailed Map/GIS software, critical to productivity in the field. Here we look at the case study of why the water utilities giant selected the device...

Challenge

Thames Water is under constant pressure from regulators and customers to reduce bills while having to maintain some truly challenging infrastructure, especially in the City of London.

To keep the taps running for nearly 30% of the UK’s population, Thames Water makes heavy demands on its technology, requiring reliability in tough conditions, the best connection available, high processing speed, large memory for files stored offline and the capability to run the latest operating systems. The hardware needs to be easy to use, durable and perform seamlessly, allowing operatives uninterrupted service.

 

With a 2,000-strong field force as well as contractors, Thames Water employees find themselves in extremely challenging conditions; often working below the ground, in difficult weather conditions, frequently with dark, or even very bright lighting, and even at non-typical angles, in which they need to access and input data onto their devices.

Technology naturally needs replacing as devices reach the end of life, and when this time came for computing devices at Thames Water, the challenge was to find a new solution that would meet these stringent requirements and provide a robust, intuitive platform for a variety of staff.

Solutions

Thames Water prioritised its requirements for a water resistant, drop-proof rugged device that would be able to stand the test of time. It carried out exhaustive trials with three competitive devices involving 200 Thames Water engineers. The competitive devices were tested in the field against important criteria such as: battery life (over six hours), GPS signal, 3G+ and 4G capabilities, speed, durability and scored each from one to 10.

Other hardware features, such as 10 to 12 inch screen, physical keyboard and sensitive touch screen were also important assessment criteria. It was important that the device would be compatible and work well with ClickMobile, a solution Thames Water uses to better manage and optimise its workforce.

Getac performed exceptionally in the field, with around 90% of users rating it by far the standout device across the board.

Fire protection specialists Surefire have found a ‘surefire’ solution to their service management software needs: Tesseract...

Surefire Services is a UK company that sells, installs and maintains fire protection systems, including fire alarms, gas suppression and sprinkler systems, extinguishers and dry risers. Presently, its sales, installations and maintenance departments rely on three separate management systems involving basic software and spreadsheets. The company has decided it’s time to move away from paper, update its software and bring its three departments under one umbrella.

“Frustration is one of our main motivators for changing,” says Marcus Kemp, Service Director for Surefire. “Our current system is too basic and we struggle with reporting as the software keeps failing. We are implementing Tesseract so we can speed everything up, improve cash flow and provide a better service to our clients.”

 

Surefire has opted for the cloud-based SaaS version of Tesseract’s service management software for two reasons. First, the SaaS version is managed in-house by Tesseract, which means instantaneous fixes and upgrades. Second, it keeps space free on Surefire’s server, which is home to a great deal of data.

“The reason we chose Tesseract is because their software is easy to use and reasonably priced,” says Kemp. “They also offer a sales module—the other companies we looked at didn’t. This will allow us to bring our three departments under one system, ensuring faster processes and a better flow of data.”

The plan is to launch Tesseract within the maintenance department first, followed by installations and then sales. Tablet devices will be rolled out to Surefire’s engineering team, eliminating the need for paper timesheets, worksheets and invoices and allowing Surefire to receive real-time, instantaneous data about each job. Staff will also be able to create Key Performance Indicator Reports, something they cannot do currently.

 

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What happens when two IT giants using different versions of Tesseract’s service management software decide to merge? In 2015, IT solutions provider XMA found out by embarking on a major systems amalgamation with Alan Sugar’s company Viglen.

In late 2013, Alan Sugar, business veteran and star of hit BBC TV show The Apprentice, decided to sell major PC builder Viglen to XMA’s parent company, Westcoast Holdings. Westcoast took the decision to dissolve Viglen as a corporate entity but allow the Viglen brand to endure as part of XMA.

XMA uses Tesseract’s service management software to govern its print services division, namely the installation and maintenance of printers and photocopiers under tailored, all-inclusive printing and copying contracts. Viglen uses Tesseract’s software to manage the production of its PCs, as well as all warranty and maintenance contracts offered with them. At the time of the takeover, XMA and Viglen were using two different versions of Tesseract’s software, both of which were out of date.

A skill set overlap

As the two companies came together, XMA realised that it now had two customer service desks with a major skill set overlap. One was at the XMA head office in Nottingham. The other was at the former Viglen head office in St. Albans, which has remained the centre of operations for Viglen PC production and maintenance since the takeover. (Famously, it’s also where the BBC films the ‘walk of shame’ sequences on The Apprentice.)

“In terms of dealing with customer support requests, we found that our agents in Nottingham were using the same skills as our agents in St. Albans,” says Vaughan Tyas, IT Manager at XMA. “The problem was having two very different Tesseract systems to look at. We decided that we needed to rationalise this so that agents in both locations could take calls for printer maintenance and PC warranty and maintenance.”

 

This was the main reason why XMA saw fit to merge the two Tesseract systems and bring all the data for XMA and Viglen under one umbrella.

A step up from the old systems

As a result of the Tesseract merge, XMA still has two service desks across two sites, but they share a unified service management software system. Each site now uses a single toolset to record calls, diarise and dispatch engineers, dramatically improving efficiency.

Furthermore, XMA was able to upgrade to the latest version of Tesseract’s Service Centre, SC5.1. Previously it was using SC5, while Viglen was using the much older SC4.2. The upgrade to SC5.1 has brought a range of improvements, including enhanced task automation and a new user interface with simpler navigation. Unlike previous versions, SC5.1 is also completely browser-independent, allowing users to run the software on any browser on any device.

Still, the biggest benefit for XMA is the Advanced Program Interface (API) that comes with SC5.1. Previously, Viglen was relying on a variety of bespoke mechanisms to allow Tesseract to communicate with other Viglen systems and pieces of software. These mechanisms were created by Viglen using old, inflexible technology and could not be developed or evolved. This restricted the company’s ability to upgrade its service management software and was largely the reason why Viglen was still using SC4.2—originally released in 2001—at the time of the takeover.

 

These outmoded systems integrations have now been removed and replaced by the flexible, Tesseract-supported API that is built into SC5.1, which means all the integrations are maintained in-house by Tesseract.

“The new API is so much more versatile than the bespoke integrations we had before,” says Vaughan Tyas. “It means we’re no longer in a cul de sac if we need to upgrade again.”

What were the challenges?

The biggest challenge XMA faced when embarking on the Tesseract merge and upgrade was dealing with the data from the two systems. In particular, each system had different serialised product and service codes for the same actions. These codes needed to be the same in order for XMA to use SC5.1 as one unified system.

To accommodate, Tesseract was able to implement a data translation algorithm to synchronise the codes and bring the two systems in line with one another.

How have things improved? 

Now that the systems merge and upgrade is complete, XMA has seen a substantial rise in operational efficiency and productivity.

Staff are no longer working two systems, dramatically cutting back on time and manpower, and the company doesn’t need to over-resource to make sure it has agents who know how to use each system. In addition, SC5.1’s new and improved functionality has made a number of the company’s processes quicker and easier.

 

“The other good thing is that for our agents, it’s just business as usual,” says Vaughan Tyas. “The implementation was smooth and the training was easy, because they were all so familiar with the previous Tesseract systems—and SC5.1 is even more user-friendly than those were.”

 

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Company:

Intimus International Group is a leader in the Information Security industry.

They offer information security products that include everything from industrial paper shredders to high security and large capacity data destruction machines. Intimus operates in multiple countries across Europe and manages processes and workflows across multiple divisions.

They offer comprehensive solutions throughout the value chain in terms of innovation, development, manufacturing, sales and post-sales services.

Challenge:

“Intimus International wants to be the leading global supplier of security solutions for data management and cash management systems. We have over 11,000 customers in Benelux, and it is our mission to provide them with best-in-class service,” said Gunther Dehaes, General Manager, Intimus.

The company offers service contracts to repair and maintain its product line and the profitability of these service contracts depends on how efficiently the company can meet its obligations.

Working across multiple countries and following a merger and acquisition, Intimus found there were a number of bottlenecks with their existing workflows.

 

They needed to more efficiently coordinate communication between the back office and field engineers and wanted to be able to streamline the workflow as well as how they captured and processed data to and from the field.

“Our problem was the time it took to coordinate, communicate and process everything that happened in the field,” explained Erlyn Grevelt, Supply Chain Manager of Intimus. Dispatchers were having to have lengthy, often complex phone conversations with engineers for every service request. With each call taking up to ten minutes and more than 50 engineers in the field, the calls alone consumed more than 100 hours a week.

Then, as engineers completed service calls, they filled out the job details on paper, which were taken back to the office to be input manually. A team in accounting then reviewed all completed jobs before invoicing, so the entire process to bill a customer took a full day on average.

Operational improvements:

Having recently implemented Netsuite, a leading ERP system, to streamline and simplify their accounting practices and resource planning, Intimus wanted something compatible to improve their operational service, they turned their attention to field service management software.

“We knew from the start that we would need to extend our service needs and NetSuite has a strong partner programme and through that programme we found FieldAware,” explained Grevelt.

 

“FieldAware has a very simple mobile app for engineers and at the same time, it gives me a huge amount of complex information. When an IT solution can offer me that, I’m very pleased.”

Intimus selected FieldAware because of the deep integration with Netsuite, ease of implementation and ease of use for the schedulers and engineers.

The implementation of both Netsuite and FieldAware took just 40 days and with quick and high adoption from their field engineers, the positive impact was immediate.

Together, NetSuite OneWorld and FieldAware transformed the field service workflows in the company’s service operations and accounting, dramatically accelerating the job completion rates and invoicing processes.

Results:

The newly automated processes save considerable time for customers, dispatchers, engineers and back office staff alike. Engineers use FieldAware mobility software to schedule their own time based on customer location and availability.

FieldAware saves 80 hours each week for the dispatch team, and reduced the time required to generate invoices from one day to less than a minute.

“With FieldAware we are more efficient now,” said Peter Gils, Service Manager, Intimus “An engineer’s tablet has a complete list of the workflow he has to do, he can plan his own route without calling the office, we drive less miles which saves us money, and the customers are happy with the shorter response time.”

FieldAware optimised communications between dispatchers and field service engineers, so now dispatchers enter details of each service order into NetSuite, which instantly transfers them to technicians’ tablets. Engineers contact the customer and schedule jobs themselves. The press of a button tracks the service call and FieldAware automatically sends this data back to NetSuite for invoicing and management reporting.

 

“Results have been staggering and the outcome impressive”, said Grevelt. “Most importantly, FieldAware has taken the pressure off the coordination team.”

“In the past, we had to have multiple conversations to be able to service our customer,” added Grevelt.

“Now we have a direct line of communication to the customer through the engineer in the field. We only have one conversation, and that’s the only conversation that matters, and that’s the one with the customer.”

 

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Mobility is helping transform field service organisations. To download FieldAware’s new white paper – ‘Making the Move to Mobility: TheDigitalisation of Field Service’– please visit http://www.fieldaware.co.uk/movetomobility

 

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Rebecca Barnett, VP Marketing Cognito iQ guides us through how they worked with Konica Minolta to improve far more than just service standards...

At Cognito iQ, we love seeing what we do, come to life in the businesses we are lucky enough to call customers.

Konica Minolta UK produces business and industrial imaging products, such as MFP’S (multifunctional peripherals), copiers, laser printers and digital product print.

The company has over 275 service engineers providing planned, reactive maintenance and support to businesses throughout the UK.

Over relationship with Konica Minolta started 15 years ago and exemplifies much of the recent history of mobile workforce technology. From simple automation to today’s solution which provides unrivalled visibility of operational and employee performance.

Konica Minolta originally selected the Cognito iQ mobile application to automate and mobilise their field operation. In 2004, following the merger of Konica and Minolta, the UK business implemented a Europe-wide SAP ERP system which replaced the incumbent mobility solution.

After a few months, the UK team reverted to the Cognito iQ solution which we then integrated into their SAP application.

 

In 2014, Konica Minolta following a market review, we took the opportunity to showcase our new solution, Operational Performance Management (OPM). Cognito iQ OPM represents the very latest in field service analytics.

With easy to understand dashboards and the ability to drill down into granular detail, be it at an individual employee or indeed at a task level, the team at Konica Minolta quickly understood how powerful this would be for them.

18 months on and the Cognito iQ OPM solution is firmly embedded at the heart of the service operation. Here’s a snapshot of just some of the results.

Customer Service

Via their handheld devices engineers are able to request customer feedback on completion of their jobs. The number of customers giving NPS (Net Promoter Scores) scores has more than doubled over the past 18 months.

However, what’s really impressive is that, on average, the Konica Minolta field team are achieving an NPS score of 85.

As a sustained average, 85 is fairly unheard of in NPS terms and here’s the really clever bit - the scores are received by the back office in real-time. Managers have a KPI to call every customer who scores a 10 within an hour to say ‘thank you’ and enquire as to why they felt the service warranted such a high score.

 

In parallel, any customers scoring a 6 or below (NPS calls them Detractors) are called to enquire what the engineer could do better next time.

The insights from all calls are recorded and used to drive a programme of continuous improvement through training, feedback to the engineers and process change.

Productivity

The Cognito iQ OPM solution gives real-time visibility of what is happening in the field. With this comes a greater understanding of where improvements can be made.

By analysing the data through the Cognito iQ dashboards, significant savings have been made by reducing travel times between jobs. Over the course of year, small savings in time have added up to significant savings in pounds.

In addition, the team have measurably been able to service many more machines per man through improvements in training and process.

Employee Engagement

The Cognito iQ OPM solution produces what we call the Worker Scorecard. In simple terms, it measures each engineer against 6 Key Performance Areas and produces an overall, aggregated individual score at the end of each day.

This then feeds into the League Table which shows, at the click of button, who the highest performers are over whatever period of time you choose.

By understanding exactly where improvements in service needed to be made, Konica Minolta developed a whole new engineer career development programme.

To move up the levels an engineer has to consistently achieve certain KPI’s and undertake and pass certain training programmes. Pay and reward is linked to this development and guided by quality markers taken from the Cognito iQ OPM solution such as NPS scores, levels of productivity etc.

 

Sharing performance information transparently has enabled productive conversations and Konica Minolta have quickly developed a reputation for being an ‘Employer of Choice’ enjoying many benefits such as reduced recruitment costs, reduced attrition rates and a happy, motivated, loyal workforce.

Now, I’m not all that keen on tech buzzwords.

Frankly ‘transformation’ is about as overused as they come. However, having worked with team at Konica Minolta on this story, I really couldn’t justify using anything else.

 

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Want to know more? You can read the full transformation story on www.cognitoiq.com/case-studies

 

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Andrew Quail, Head of IT at SGN, explains how the energy supplier is transforming its mobile app delivery. Sharon Clancy reports...

Gas companies are one of the most heavily regulated in the UK – after all, gas leaks have the potential to be fatal.

The UK’s energy sector regulatory regime is acknowledged as world-class, but safety and innovation are rarely comfortable bedfellows, and innovation has not traditionally been a strong point for the UK’s utilities companies, who have focused on meeting the demands of the industry regulator Ofgem.

So we were intrigued to hear that one of the UK’s biggest gas distributors, SGN, is embarking on a business transformation process that includes greater use of mobile tools and data for its 2,000 strong field service engineers.

SGN distributes natural and green gas to 5.9 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England via a network of over 75,000 km of gas mains and services.

Critical business processes such as emergency gas response procedures have been automated for over a decade and have been mobilised to help ensure SGN meets it legal obligations to respond within an hour to any reports that might indicate a potentially lethal gas leak.

 

“The safety culture at SGN is core to our business and will never diminish. Data on performance has to be accurate and readily available to the regulator, and mobile data played a big role in providing that,” explains Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN.

Quail credits Ofgem with now encouraging an innovative climate that still puts safety first.

“We have relied on our mobile solutions for over a decade to deliver safety-critical services. Our legacy estate was great for some parts of the business: it’s solid, reliable and highly available.”

“However, with the legacy estate, if we change a piece of code or an element within an app, it has potential to affect other things.”

With such a large field workforce, SGN could appreciate the benefits of mobilising other activities in its business.

“Our existing estate was not agile enough to meet the changing needs of our customers and employees,” continued Quail.

“Customised apps take too long to develop and deploy and we wanted faster improvements to our efficiencies and customer services.”

"At the same time, we could not risk any mobility initiative affecting our ability to respond to core emergency repair work. We also wanted to control app distribution to ensure it met our IT security needs.”

The solution has been to retain the legacy SAP platform for emergency gas response services, while deploying Kony Inc’s MobileFabric cloud-based mobility platform to develop and maintain mobile apps for other parts of the business.

 

MobileFabric decouples corporate front- and back-end systems so changes can be made quickly.

Connectors and adaptors means back-end integration for mobile apps is configurable and flexible rather than being custom-built.

“We were looking for a platform that would allow us to quickly develop well-designed apps that are attractive to our workforce.”

“At the same time, we wanted to capture data in a standard format that could be distributed and presented to any part of the business.”

“Mobile Fabric is an enterprise-grade mobility platform which is tightly integrated into our legacy systems. One of the attractions was the fact that is cloud-based, says Quail.

“It is a scalable consumption-based model requiring minimum financial commitment. That reduces the risks to our business.”

A cloud-based solution also suits the fast-paced environment of mobility services, he thinks, and help delivers quick wins.

“Our first priority has been to develop customer focused apps to improve the whole customer experience.”

“So one of the first apps we have deployed is a is a customer satisfaction app that has digitalised feedback."

“It encourages engagement between our staff and the customer and also simplifies the back-office process of keeping the regulator informed about customer satisfaction scores.”

 

“We get real-time feedback into our ERP system, which means we get early notification of any potential issues for customers and we also get to hear about customers’ positive experiences – which was not always the case in the past.”

Another benefit, says Quail, is the app allows SGN to respond quickly to employee and customer suggestions about improving service.

The app was developed and deployed within weeks – much quicker than on a legacy platform and at much lower cost, points out Quail.

Security

IT directors have form when it comes to security concerns about Cloud computing, but Quail is one of the converts who believe Cloud platform services actually can enhance IT security. “

There is no denying that IT security is a sensitive topic and an area with potentially huge corporate risk for SGN.

However, cloud platform providers invest heavily in security, and we are confident the Kony platform is actually extremely secure.”

Moving to a mobility platform has also enabled SGN to define exactly what security standards it needs in various parts of the organisation, he explains.

Future plans

So what’s in the pipeline for the future, we asked?

There are lots of possibilities for efficiency improvements beyond the regulatory environment enthuses Quail.

“We are looking at productivity tools such as inspection apps that can make life easier for our engineers and simplify mobile data acquisition. We can digitalise site safety procedures and inspections, and move from paper to mobile apps for tasks such as time-sheets.”

 

Quail believes the introduction of mobile apps will help change the image of IT within the business from enforcer to enabler.

“We don’t want mobile app development to be a top-down process where IT comes up with all the new apps. We are encouraging our colleagues and employees to suggest what mobile apps might improve their work experience.”

Nor is it just field service engineers who are benefiting from the digitalisation of the business, says Quail.

“The Internet of Things” is beginning to transform our operations. When we deploy robots for pipe inspections, for example, we’ll be capture that data in real-time helping us to optimise maintenance with less disruption for our customers.”

 

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When we look at the introduction of any new element into the way our business operates there are a number of factors that define whether that project will be a success or not. Of course there is the the question of whether the tools being implemented are capable of delivering all of the improvements in efficiencies that were promised during the selection process.

However, perhaps more importantly to the potential success of any new technology introduced to a workflow is exactly how it is introduced to the workforce. Basically how well the change management process is approached.

Indeed Change Management is a vital element for most businesses as they continue to keep pace with the latest trends in technology to help them gain competitive edge.

In field service in particular, where we are seeing continual and developing adoption of technology, as companies seek to improve the efficiency and productivity of their field service operations, it is perhaps one of the most important functions of senior business leadership.

As such one of the key presentations given at last year’s ClickConnect UK conference was given by Simon Brown, Operations Development Manager, at vehicle repair and replacement giant Belron (who trade as Autoglass within the UK)

Brown joined Belron in 2000 to take a lead role in the division which was part of the Autoglass business analyst team, tasked.with driving change management.

Prior to this Brown had spent his entire post university career having worked in retail developing a wealth of experience in business process based projects as well as experience in implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools.

It was this experience that put him in a perfect place to help guide Autoglass and then on a wider scale, parent organisation Belron, through number of planned process changes including the management of an implementation of field service management tool ClickSoftware.

 

Therefore Brown’s session at this year’s ClickConnect UK conference was highly anticipated and it provided a great opportunity to gain some insight into the tools Brown used when approaching these tasks.

However, what was also particularly illuminating was some of the out of the box thinking and left-field role models that Brown looked to when building his own specific approach to change management that were revealed as he made his way through his presentation.

There were a number of excellent moments at the recent ClickConnect UK conference and one that stood out in particular was when Simon Brown of vehicle glass replacement giant Belron shared some of his secrets for achieving change management success...

Of course there are a number of well known and well established change management theories and processes with names such as ADKAR, Kotter, and APMG as well as tools such as the Change Curve familiar to those who have explored the area and Brown has embraced a number of these when adapting his own approach - which whilst being sophisticated and comprehensive enough to ensure success in the various projects he’s undertaken with Belron, also remains rooted in what is essentially a fairly simple concept.

In fact there is one fundamental tenant that Brown holds at the centre of his approach to change management. That is simply to ensure we engage the ‘Head, the Heart and the Hands’ throughout the change management process.

 

If we are going to achieve a successful transition from one approach to another then it is absolutely vital that each of our team absolutely understands what the benefits will be for making the change (Heart), exactly why we are making the change (Head) and exactly how we will be making that change (Hands).

Such a three-pronged approach will help overcome many of the conventional, to be expected barriers to adoption amongst a team.

It will also help speed up adoption, as if done correctly, messaging around the change will engender emotional buy-in, plus speedier adoption of the incoming new tools and processes.

However, before even trying to seek the approval and buy-in from the workforce, it is absolutely crucial and fundamentally important Brown believes that we have full buy-in from the board – something that he admits was a significant part in the successful change management projects he has undertaken whilst at Belron.

In fact that support went right to the very top with Brown able to utilise a video of the video of the Autoglass Managing Director himself outlining why the organisation were about to go through such a significant change in their core operating processes.

What is also important Brown emphasises, is to keep the messaging the same throughout.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be using varied formats to deliver that messaging – in fact the more ways we can find of delivering the message whether it be via email, video, poster letter, meetings or any other manner you can think of, means more chance of both connecting with different members of the team (different people respond better to different stimuli) and ensuring the message gets understood via consistent reinforcement.

Nor does it mean that those delivering the message (again whether it is in person, print or video) should be sticking doggedly to a highly regimented script full of legalese and marketing blurb.

Again whilst this may tick a number of boxes in the corporate handbook, it will ultimately fail to convey the key ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ message that will help you connect with the hearts and minds of your workers. What is important however is to keep the same core messaging throughout all the different communication channels.

Very simply there should be some fundamental facts that all those involved in the change management roll out are aware of. Facts that should form the bedrock and foundations of any messaging relating to the change.

 

In the case of Autoglass such continuity was ensured by delivering a program of two day events for every manager involved within the change management process that was not only supported by the involvement of top tier motivational speakers but also at least one senior director at each event to help clarify exactly what the reasons for undertaking the change were, and what benefits would be delivered both on the personal and the business level.

In Brown’s own words ‘Repetition is crucial, as is having all senior leaders standing shoulder to shoulder delivering the same core message. One of the well-established change management processes that Brown and the team at Belron incorporated into their own change management approach was ADKAR a system developed by one of the leading organisations within the niche consulting sector of Change Management Prosci.

Standing for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Re-enforcement, ADKAR provides a clear easily followed structure to help build a cohesive strategy in how to tackle a change management project and sits at the heart of Belron’s change management processes.

In fact when reflecting back on some of the learnings he had made from previous change

management projects at Autoglass it was straying slightly from the simple ADKAR structure that was their biggest single mistake Brown admits.

Whilst following the stages correctly throughout an initial phase of rolling out field service automation tool ClickSoftware, the one area that got overlooked was the final stage of the process ie: re-enforcement.

“We were so busy getting the next group live that we didn’t spend enough time focussing on the re-enforcement stage” explained Brown and this could potentially lead to undermining much of the good work that had been undertaken so far.

The danger being that unless the successes of the roll out are being re-enforced through continuous positive messaging there is a danger that some of the more negative pain points of the change process, and there inevitably will be some in any change management project, can become magnified.

 

"If people fill that empty space [where positive reenforcement discussions should be] with negatives then there is a risk of people re-enforcing those negatives” explained Brown.

The other well established tool that Brown embraced is the Change Curve. Essentially a visual tool that shows four key phases an individual will go through when undertaking a change - namely being denial, doubt, exploration and acceptance (although there are numerous variations on these four stages cited by different consultants etc.)

The benefit of using the change curve Brown explained was that first it creates an environment wherein anxiety, which is a natural emotion most people encounter when facing change, is easily and comfortably discussed in a constructive and functional manner.

Secondly and perhaps most importantly is that it provides a single language for discussing the change management process at all levels throughout the process.

For example a manager could discuss where his team are in terms of the change curve, when feeding back to the senior change management team with a clear description that is easily understood by everyone involved in the discussion.

Equally such a conversation could be had on a one-to-one basis with a team member as the manager tries to help them along the change management journey.

As mentioned earlier in this article there are many varying processes and tools that can be applied to change management.

Indeed what Brown and the team at Belron have done very successfully in their approach to establishing their own blueprint for successful change management is to identify those tools which worked well in the framework of their existing corporate persona, and adapted them to their needs - rather than rigidly following a set of business processes that may not quite fit with their existing corporate policies etc.

It is this flexibility and adaptability that is a key component in the success of Belron’s change management strategies to date alongside a constant evaluation of what is working and subsequent refinement of processes - coupled of course with Brown’s own clear passion for the subject, a passion which has also led him to drawing further inspiration from more leftfield sources.

 

One of these that Brown spoke about was New York City Police commissioner William Bratton who famously brought significant change to the NYPD successfully reducing crime rates at a time when all of his predecessors had failed.

Bratton is a fascinating character worthy of study for anyone interested in the traits of leadership, but his work with the NYPD truly struck a chord with Brown who comments ‘I saw in him and what he was doing a number of elements that could be part of the ADKAR model’ Brown explained. “He just intuitively led tremendous change”

And this perhaps brings us to the final ingredient of good change management.

It needs to be led by someone inherently in tune with the people they are trying to guide through the change management process. Something both Bratton and Brown have in common.

“I think you have to be a strong, people focussed leader rather than someone who is perhaps more driven by figures, someone who is highly competitive” Brown concludes and again he is fortunate to be working for an organisation which shares this ethos.

“Strong emotional intelligence, and people leadership are fundamental part of being a leader within our group.” he adds and it is this core trait that seems to be running through the spine of Belron from CEO down.

Whilst this is not easy to replicate, it is clearly at the heart of their continuing success in delivering successful implementations of new systems and tools that have pushed them to forefront of their sector and ahead of their competitors and peers.

 

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Incredible fuel savings and impressive reduction in CO2 emissions for Scottish local authority after implementing telematics solution from TomTom Telematics...

The Organisation:

Connecting the shores of Loch Lomond with Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire provides access to some of Scotland’s most beautiful scenery and a network of towns and villages.

There are three town centres; Clydebank, Dumbarton and Alexandria. The council has a fleet of 380 vehicles that are used in delivering services for the residents of West Dunbartonshire. This fleet is made up of cars, vans and minibuses as well as specialist vehicles such as refuse collection trucks and road sweepers. The fleet has a capital value of approximately £8 million and annual running and operating costs of over £2M.

The Challenge:

Running vehicle fleets does not only incur costs – as a signatory to Scotland’s Climate Change Declaration, the council has a carbon reduction commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by one third by 2015. The cost of fuel to the council has increased significantly over recent years and it is clear that the council needs controlling mechanisms to regulate and influence the sustainable use of fuel.

Added to this, there was concern over the usage of council vehicles and the need to know where and how council property was being used. With a highly recognisable fully branded fleet, West Dunbartonshire are aware that they are continuously visible and that tax payers note any inappropriate use. Coupled with this comes the incidence of public challenges and spurious insurance claims against the council.

 

Tracking of the vehicles was becoming necessary to cut rising costs, raise efficiency and save time on administration.

The Solution:

In March 2010 the council installed TomTom LINK 300 GPS tracking boxes into 260 of their fleet of vehicles. This was a significant investment for the council, particularly at a time when budgets were being trimmed in every area. Nevertheless the Fleet and Waste Services Division led by Rodney Thornton, was confident that its introduction would reduce fuel costs.

Following research and a competitive tendering exercise, the council selected TomTom Business Solutions to provide the solution.

Driving more economically, efficiently, and safely, will reduce the council’s carbon footprint and longer term costs for the council. It was clear that many drivers, however unwittingly, were wasting valuable resources because of the way they drive.

Reducing average speed and instances of harsh braking and cornering delivers direct, measurable reductions in fuel consumption, servicing and maintenance costs and is proven to reduce accidents.

As a result of improved control of the vehicle fleet, the council is projecting that fuel usage will be down by around 70,000 litres in the period April 2010 – March 2011 when compared to the previous year.

 

Ultimately, the council has not only saved huge costs, they have succeeded in reducing their annual climate impact.

“Improvements to the way council vehicle operators carry out their duties has reduced our annual fuel costs by over £100,000 per annum, reduced servicing and maintenance costs in the longer term, will extend the working life of a number of vehicles and decrease the production of CO2,” said Rodney Thornton.

West Dunbartonshire council are so impressed with the results of the TomTom solution, they are incorporating the TomTom ecoPLUS into a selection of the vehicles across the fleet.

The ecoPLUS provides businesses with live data such as fuel consumption and live carbon footprint so vehicles can be accurately benchmarked and best practice developed to help achieve wider objectives such as fuel saving and carbon footprint reduction. TomTom ecoPLUS will enable the council to further reduce fuel consumption, by gaining a real time view of the fuel efficiency of each vehicle, showing when and where fuel is wasted.

Idling time in particular has been highlighted as a major contributor to fuel wastage in this sector.

 

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