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Marina Stedman, Director Global Field Marketing, ClickSoftware, takes a look at the technology shaping the next phase of field service evolution...

The term Internet of Things (IoT), describes the inter-networking of physical and smart devices, items such as vehicles and buildings and even technology services. Connected interoperability across many devices, applications and infrastructure presents an opportunity for the field service industry to raise the bar on two key areas of field service: operational costs and customer satisfaction.

Operational Costs:

Increased connectivity within a field service operation fosters a predictive model for addressing possible equipment, infrastructure, machine or device failures. The ability to diagnose and address issues and undertake preventive maintenance is essential to saving time (and money) on service calls, cutting the number of service requests made and improving the first-time-fix rate.

Take a building’s HVAC system for example. With today’s increasingly unpredictable weather, warm one day and freezing the next, IoT sensors can monitor temperatures and simultaneously use historical service and on-line data to predict maintenance requirements, failure rates and climate trends. This data can be used to manage service and operational tasks, for example making sure a system is serviced before parts fail and before the first freeze occurs, cutting the risk of breakdown and reducing the need for field service intervention.

Customer Satisfaction

Cost, asset management and effective communication are key components to achieving the ultimate goal: ensuring customer satisfaction.

Customers are unhappy when they have to wait a long time for a service visit, wait in all day for an engineer to arrive or make multiple calls to find out the status of their job. If multiple service visits are needed before a problem can be fixed because the information required for a first time fix is not available, both customer satisfaction and business profitability are impacted.

IoT sensors in devices or infrastructure, linked to real-time scheduling and dispatch solutions can detect potential service outages and make sure that issues are fixed before they become critical. For instance, IoT sensors in a food vendor’s freezers could identify a potential fault and notify the manufacturer that it’s due for a service before the freezer breaks and the food spoils. The manufacturer can quickly schedule an engineer to visit and rectify the issue before the freezer breaks down, saving time and money for everyone.

The IoT technology that we envisaged only five years ago bears no resemblance to what can be done today and it won’t be long before machines will automate decisions and launch actions without human intervention.

3D Printing

3D printers use Computer Aided Design plans to mould thin layers of melted plastic, aluminium, and powders together to form shapes. They started off making simple things like models and toys, but today’s devices have the sophistication and capability to form replacement parts. Why is it then, that few, if any field service organisations currently fulfil field-based replacement part requirements with 3D printed spares?

Maybe they don’t feel that the technology is safe and reliable enough at the moment? This won’t always be the case - here are two things to think about for the future:

Speeding Spare Parts Fulfilment

Apart from people costs, spare parts management is one of the biggest areas of cost for a field service organisation. Anticipating parts demand is challenging, even with the most sophisticated field service software solutions and the rarer the part, the less likely a field service engineer will have it available on-site when needed. 3D printing will make it as cheap to produce single items as it is to produce thousands and introduces the possibility of directly manufacturing finished components on site - reducing inventory costs and speeding up job completion.

Improving First-time Fix Rate

Not having their problem resolved in one visit is a constant source of irritation to field service customers and research has found a direct correlation between first-time fix rates and customer satisfaction. (*Aberdeen Group Fixing First Time Fix) .

As lack of parts to fix the problem is the main reason field technicians visit a customer site twice, field-based 3D printing facilities could enable parts to be printed on-demand, improving first-time fix rate and positively impacting customer satisfaction ratings.

Imagine the Future

IoT sensors in devices send messages to fulfilment and dispatch when a part is at risk of failing.

A 3D printer creates the part and the job is automatically scheduled. The service engineer fixes the problem before the customer is aware of the issue and without any disruption to business or personal life. Sounds like science fiction, it won’t be a few years from now.

Looking for more tips, trends, and future field service technology advice? Check out the Technology section of Field Service Matters.

 

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Marina Stedman, Director of Global Field Marketing for ClickSoftware takes a look at the recent new EU legislation and what it means for field service organisations operating within the region...

After an employee court case in September 2015, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled[i] that time spent travelling to and from first and last appointments by workers without a fixed office should be regarded as working time.

This is because the workers are at the employer’s disposal for the time of the journeys, are acting under their employer’s instructions and cannot use that time freely to pursue their own interests. This obviously has huge implications from a field service perspective, especially related to the number of hours that can be worked and on rest time which are both part of the Working Time Directive (WTD). While some vagueness remains around the changes, they are expected to be implemented by 2019.

To help our customers navigate the new legislation, we knew needed to get under the skin of the incoming changes, so we decided to survey over 300 senior business leaders across Europe to see what they thought.

WTD and what it means for business 

Our ‘EU Travel to Work’ Research conducted with Bilendi (one of the top digital service providers for the market research industry in Europe) found that over a third (36%) of UK businesses will not be ready when the latest WTD regulation comes into force. France followed closely, with 48% of respondents claiming they will not be completely ready.

Additionally, more than one in 10 companies are not actually aware of the ruling. Just Germany (69%) and Italy (72%) are confident they will be completely ready.

Unsurprisingly, the report found that businesses expect the new ruling to have a significant impact; 60% plan to change the way they operate. So what does this mean from a field service perspective?

We found that nearly seven in ten (68%) businesses will or may have to change the way they schedule resources in the field.

In real terms this means:

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• Thirty percent will need to cut the number of jobs that any field service engineer can complete in one day and expect to pay staff more for overtime
• Nearly one in five companies (19%) will need to hire more employees to complete field based work – this is highest in Italy (39%) and Germany (41%)
• Nearly half of respondents (47%) will need to implement new systems and tools to manage the new rules[/unordered_list]

Understandably, cost is highlighted as the biggest concern around the new law, according to 29% of respondents. Awareness and understanding will also impact compliance with one in five businesses (19%) concerned about unknowingly breaking the rules.

Transforming lives in the field

What will these changes mean for field service workers?

The new WTD ruling is expected to positively impact the lives of workers in the field. Three in 10 businesses (30%) anticipate having to reduce the number of jobs a field service employee can do in a day. At the same time, the same level of employers are bracing themselves to have to pay more overtime to these employees to factor in the cost of travel. How will businesses cope with this change? Just under one in five (19%) businesses expect to take on more staff to be able to cope with the demand for field based work at its current level.

The challenge for organisations who have field workers will be introducing systems and processes that balance their commitment to employee well-being in terms of mandatory breaks and rest periods during a now extended working day and week, with cost and productivity within the rules that have been set.

 

Containing the cost of service delivery without sacrificing quality will be critical for service-centric businesses. By their very nature, most field service workers are mobile, with many starting and finishing their working day from home, rather than a fixed office, with travel time taking up a large part of their working day.

At ClickSoftware we’ll be working with customers to help them adapt existing practices to ensure they continue to operate in multiple countries across Europe, competitively and sustainably.

An opportunity for innovation?

The majority of European business leaders (75%) think that the new law is set to benefit field service staff.

Already, we’ve seen how digital connectedness and smart mobile devices have transformed the industry. WTD could in fact accelerate adoption of these new enabling technologies as field service companies across Europe look at new ways of improving employee productivity and efficiency out in the field, while remaining compliant. Indeed, our report shows nearly half of our respondents (47%) will need to implement new systems and tools when the latest WTD regulation comes into effect.

 

In terms of top concerns from an industry perspective, 25% of companies in the manufacturing industry, 20% in utilities and 15% in telecommunications said that their current systems and processes would not be able to manage. In addition, half of manufacturers, 31% of utility suppliers and 33% of telecommunications providers put this in their top two concerns.

It is clear from the research that the majority of European companies that employ field service staff who work from home are going to have to make changes to their business processes and their systems regardless of which country of industry sector they are in.

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Resource Type: Research report
Published by:  Field Service News and ClickSoftware
Title: Is field service finally moving to the Cloud (2016)

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Synopsis: 

In 2015 Field Service News and ClickSoftware teamed up on a research report to look at the appetite for Cloud based Field Service Management (FSM) systems. Now 12 months on we've come together again on a fresh project to see what trends are emerging...

Having connected with over 150 field service professionals in this exclusive independent research project Field Service News, in partnership with ClickSoftware are pleased to present this detailed research report which digs deep into the findings to uncover the trends within our industry when it comes to the adoption of Cloud based field service management systems.

Download this report now to establish how your own companies approach to the Cloud sits in context with the wider trends that are evidenced by your peers, colleagues and competitors...

Download this report to find out:

• Are field service companies now finally turning to the Cloud as the platform for FSM systems?
• What are the driving reasons for Cloud adoption?
• What are the benefits being felt by those who have made the move to Cloud based FSM systems?
• What are the barriers to adoption for Cloud based FSM systems?
• Is security still the number one concern around Cloud based FSM systems?
• What percentage of those now using the Cloud would recommend it over an on-premise solution?

Overview: 

In this white paper, co-published by Field Service News and ClickSoftware, we shall review the data from our latest research, providing year-on-year comparative analysis to identify what new trends have emerged and how attitudes towards the Cloud have evolved amongst senior management within the field service industry.

Previously identified trends:

To begin let’s briefly recap the findings of last year’s research (which was the second time we had focused on the use of Cloud within a field service context as a subject for our research.)

Whilst the headline findings of that project identified that a large majority of field service companies (74%) were still using on-premise solutions, there was clear evidence that a shift to Cloud was on the horizon.

There were two key findings that supported this hypothesis.

Firstly, there was the overwhelming evidence that the Cloud was proving to be a success amongst those companies that had made the move away from traditional on-premise solutions. In fact, when we asked those respondents who had made such a move ‘would you recommend a Cloud based field service management solution over an on-premise solution?’ 100% of them replied that they would.

However, the findings were perhaps even more telling when we turned to those companies that were still using on-premise solutions.

Amongst this group of respondents, we found that over two-thirds of companies (69%) admitted they would consider moving to the Cloud when they next upgraded their FSM solution.

 

Such findings led us to arrive at the hypothesis that eventually we would see a widespread move to the Cloud. It was our prediction that we would potentially see a complete pendulum shift, with up to 75% of companies using Cloud based FSM solutions within the next five years. Last year’s research also identified that concerns around the security of the Cloud were the biggest potential barrier to adoption.

In fact, 38% of respondents that were not using a Cloud based FSM solution stated that they felt that security was the greatest issue with Cloud. Yet that same research also highlighted that this is generally not the case -     security issues were less prevalent than both connectivity and integration issues amongst companies actually using a Cloud based FSM tools.

It was our assertion last year that there was a need for greater education and understanding of the security of the Cloud, particularly at the enterprise level amongst executives within the field service sector - so that perception and reality could become more closely aligned. Once this was achieved we would likely see the shift to Cloud becoming the most widely used platform for FSM systems gaining greater momentum.

So how have the opinions of field service professionals changed across the last twelve months?

Year-on-year trends:

The headline finding of this year’s research is that we have indeed seen a continued shift towards more companies using the Cloud for their FSM systems. When comparing data from 2014, 2015 and 2016, we have also seen increasing year on year growth.

Indeed, the number of companies now using Cloud based FSM systems is well over a third, with 36% of our respondents stating that they are now Cloud users. This is a year on year increase of 8% in terms of companies using the Cloud for FSM systems.

Not only does this show a continuing move to the Cloud, but it is also a relatively significant increase in the year-on-year growth we saw in the previous year’s research. In fact, the increase in companies moving to the Cloud within the last twelve months is almost three times more than it was in the previous year (9% vs. 3%)

This would certainly add weight to our conclusions last year that Cloud was gaining traction as a platform for FSM tools, and that we would see this continue to increase as companies begun.

Further reading within the research report: 

• The question of security
• The benefits of moving to the cloud
• Remaining barriers to adoption
• Cloud in other areas of business
• Expert insight from ClickSoftware's Marina Stedman & Paul Whitelam

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Field Service Management (FSM) Software stalwarts ClickSoftware held their annual users conference in the leafy town of Richmond, Greater London earlier this month. Field Service News’, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland was there to find out what the latest updates were and what the Roadmap for innovation looks like for the FSM software providers...

The location for this year’s ClickConnect users conference, the Richmond Hill Hotel, sitting at the top of the picturesque and historic town of Richmond, nestled on the Greater London border with Surrey, was in some ways a perfect metaphor for our hosts ClickSoftware, and their own position in the Field Service Management (FSM) software provider sector.

Richmond itself is in striking distance away (just 30 minutes by train) from the bright lights of the City of London, itself at the heart of European technology investment and innovation. Yet at the same time, it retains a slightly more refined, more distinguished reputation than other boroughs in Greater London. It’s certainly not cheap either (the average semi detached house price in Richmond is over £1 million) but then cheaper doesn’t always equate to better value. You know what you are getting in Richmond, you know the type of company you will keep. You’re hedging a bet by backing a market leader - and for many years the same could be said of ClickSoftware.

Indeed, ClickSoftware’s position as the leading player within the FSM market for many years was almost unquestionable, especially amongst the enterprise and those clients who had large, complicated scheduling challenges within their field workforce.

However, within recent years the FSM market has gone through rapid evolution and whilst ClickSoftware is still a premier brand within the sector, the competition has certainly begun to move up a gear and mount a serious challenge to their dominance. As a company, now is the time for ClickSoftware to demonstrate the kind of innovation and understanding of the market that propelled them to being the market leader in the first place.

 

Add to this that there had been a recent change of ownership, with Tom Heiser taking the reins as CEO, following on from a private equity takeover, and there is an extra level of attention and a need to impress their core user base that would perhaps be less evident in some of their previous user conferences.

How ClickSoftware approached their own development plans and how it was portrayed at this event, was potentially a huge fork in the road.

Get it right, and they could continue to build on their rock solid reputation as an industry leader, get it wrong however, and it could leave them exposed just when the competition is hotting up.

After an engaging opening keynote by Heiser (which set the tone for an upbeat performance by the ClickSoftware team across the two days) it was straight into the nitty gritty - what developments had been added to the newly launched Field Service Edge, ClickSoftware’s Cloud only offering, as well as what was available for the older generations of ClickSoftware.

And it was in this session that they needed to genuinely impress. They did.

Across the next hour and a half Sassi Idan, SVP Products and Solutions gave us the overview of the latest developments that were either already available or would be available within the next two months.

Of course there were some obligatory discussions around integration but then we would expect any new release to feature easy integration and dedicated APIs.

However, the first really eye catching innovation that Idan announced, with the help of Alegra Dann (via some slightly clumsy/quaint staged theatrics), was a new tool for managing contractors - something that is a key challenge for many larger organisations.

 

The new solution ClickSoftware have brought to the table does appear to be pretty damn slick - offering clear visibility into work orders across the whole of the service supply chain - something that can be a real frustration in particular for OEMs and their customers when service calls fall down between the cracks.

The set up of new contractors was also not only very fluid and simple, but the pricing on this solution is job based rather than licence based which could very well avoid tension between OEM and third party contractors as to who should have to pay for the licence. Smart thinking.

Another strong introduction was the announcement of an improved crew management solution, which allows for optimisation of work groups bringing together the right skills and location mix. This optimisation tool of course sits right at the heart of ClickSoftware’s traditional strength as a scheduling tool, but still the clean interface and intuitive UI that allows for manual control whilst still benefiting from AI provided suggestions for either fixed or dynamic crews was impressive.

However, it was when attention turned to the mobile app that a gentle shift in ClickSoftware’s approach to development was most visibly brought to the fore.

The new ClickMobile solution appears to have been clearly designed with the engineer’s workflow always in mind. Simple, yet intelligent additions such as camera integration and signature capture combined into a slick solution that includes the ability to send a PDF of the job details with full documentation of the work completed, directly to the customer straight from the app. It is little details like this that can really help the engineer to shine whilst on site.

Staying with mobility, ClickSoftware have also formed an interesting partnership with fleet management provider GreenRoad. The upshot is an integrated driver behaviour tool much in the vein of Telogis’ Coach or Microlise’s Clear, which provides in car guidance on how the vehicle is being driven via a mobile app. Whilst the app itself doesn’t break any particularly new ground, it offers good functionality and it’s inclusion in the wider ClickSoftware suite is a welcome addition that brings the focus of driver behaviour firmly into the FSM category.

But for my money the most impressive introduction of the day was still to come in the shape of a new Augmented Reality (AR) solution. As regular readers of Field Service News will know, we’ve long been proponents of the potential of AR in field service.

 

The solution, which is provided by FieldBit, again isn’t perhaps the slickest field service AR app we’ve seen - certainly similar tools from the likes of Scope AR, Help Lightning, and XM Reality all have greater depth of functionality than what was displayed during the live demonstration, but the fact that ClickSoftware’s AR tool is directly accessible from the job page in the ClickMobile app, which of course integrates seamlessly with the other elements of ClickSoftware’s suite of tools is a huge, huge benefit.

In fact, on reflection I think this is what left me walking out of that first session so impressed.

ClickSoftware have clearly been paying attention to the emerging industry trends, and whilst the various new elements introduced may not be best-of-breed, they’ve been brought together in an intelligently thought out system that can improve service delivery in a number of different areas. The product really is a lot, lot more than the sum of it’s parts.

Of course, all of this information was delivered within the first few hours, and across the next two days there were a number of interesting sessions including a series of round-tables and some interesting and diverse case studies including an excellent presentation from Garry Nash, of Costain CH2M which demonstrated some quite frankly incredible project management.

Other highlights included a great overview of Cloud infrastructure from Ian Massingham, Chief Evangelist, AWS and also Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware gave an excellent if all too brief round up of a variety of research projects they had partnered on (including our own recent research into the use of Cloud as a FSM platform), which was both well delivered and genuinely insightful.

However, at a user conference such as this, whilst presentations, round-tables and even gala dinners and cocktail making classes, are an enjoyable side-show, really it’s all about the main event - which will always be what is new in the product.

And here they’ve done well. There will be competitors hot on their heels - it’s an incredibly competitive market right now, but here in Richmond, ClickSoftware showed they aren’t going to just step aside and let someone else take over the leaders baton anytime soon.

 

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Having conducted exclusive research into the use of Cloud based Field Service Management Systems in 2015, Field Service News and ClickSoftware have once again teamed up and returned to the topic one year on to see just how their predictions based on last year's findings have borne out. 

In part one of this series we looked at exactly what those predictions last year were as well as some of the headline findings of this year's research. In part two of the series we explored the trends have emerged year on year plus Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware offered her expert view as to what these trends mean for field service organisations. 

In the third part of the series we looked at whether security remains the biggest barrier to adoption for those reluctant to move to a Cloud based FSM solution and Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware, offers his expert view on the survey as a whole also... 

Now in the concluding part of this feature we look at the benefits being felt by those who have moved to the Cloud, the remaining barriers to adoption and draw some overall conclusions

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Click here to download the full research report now

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The benefits of moving to the Cloud:

The benefits of Cloud based solutions, whether it be a FSM solution or another business tool, are by now very well documented.

Key benefits of the Cloud include: less reliance and strain on internal IT departments, more manageable costs, built in disaster recovery, scalability, and easier implementation both of the system initially and also of upgrades and updates.

But what are the key benefits that companies that have actually moved to a Cloud based FSM solution are experiencing, having made the switch away from on-premise software?

We asked our respondents to identify both the key drivers for them moving to the Cloud and the biggest benefit they have experienced since having made the switch.

Interestingly, our results showed there is some variance between the two, indicating that after making the move, companies are discovering different benefits to those that they originally expected.

Firstly, let’s look at the drivers for selecting a Cloud based FSM system.

The most commonly cited driver for moving to the Cloud was that Cloud solutions offer greater flexibility and scalability, which 86% of companies using Cloud based FSM systems cited as a reason for them opting for Cloud.

 

Other commonly cited factors in driving companies to the Cloud were ‘easy remote access’ and ‘less reliance on IT’ both of which were cited by 63% of companies.

Meanwhile, improved functionality was also widely acknowledged to be another important consideration with exactly half of respondents citing this as a benefit that drove their decision to move to the Cloud.

However, when we turn our attention to the actual benefits that companies have experienced after moving to a Cloud based FSM system - we see that improved functionality is in fact the most commonly cited benefit with over

two thirds of companies (71%) identifying this as the biggest single benefit realised.

Alongside this, improved productivity is equally common at 68% and more manageable costs were also widely cited, with over half (57%) of our respondents stating they saw this as a major benefit.

Given our assertion that the move to the Cloud is heavily tied to the replacement-cycle of FSM systems, and because improved functionality and productivity are the most commonly cited benefits, we think it reasonable to assume that many companies who have yet to update their systems are now facing a competitive disadvantage by not doing so.

This argument could also be further supported when we look at how long those using on- premise FSM systems have had their current systems. In fact, over two thirds (70%) of companies using on-premise FSM systems have had their systems for more than 3 years.

 

The results undeniably prove that older systems are more likely to be on-premise, whilst more recently implemented systems will be Cloud based.

One of the widely cited benefits of Cloud based systems is the ease of installing system updates and the introduction of new features and functionality - and this is corroborated by the research findings as directly stated by those companies that have adopted Cloud based FSM systems.

In fact, this is highlighted perfectly by the fact that of those companies  have made the move to a Cloud based FSM system 100% stated they would recommend the Cloud over an on-premise equivalent - the second time running that Cloud based systems were given such an overwhelming endorsement.

Remaining barriers to adoption:

As we touched on above, our two previous studies into the use and appetite for Cloud computing as a platform for FSM systems found security to be the ever present elephant in the room.

However, this year, for the first time ever, concerns amongst those yet to move away from on-premise software to Cloud based equivalents have been as much about connectivity issues as they have around security.

Of course, the ability to access the internet is a fundamental tenant of Cloud computing, so it is of little wonder that as concerns around security lessen to then connectivity will become the most pressing concern for those debating a move to the Cloud.

Whilst it may not be a particular issue for back end systems, one of the key benefits of Cloud computing is the ability to provide remote access to elements of such systems such as asset management, parts inventory and of course job schedules to our engineers working in the field.

 

Whilst within the UK at least, 3G data signals have now reached a projected 97% coverage, not every country has such a widespread service. This may be why connectivity issues were the most commonly cited reason why companies do not feel confident in making a move to the Cloud with over a third (35%) of companies stating this is the single biggest concern around moving their FSM system to a Cloud based platform.

Security fears then came in as the second biggest concern cited by a fifth (20%) of companies - whilst issues with legacy systems were cited by 15% of organisations.

However, despite these concerns once again we have seen a year on year increase in the number of companies still using an on-premise solution considering a move to the Cloud for their next upgrade or iteration of a FSM system.

In fact the number of companies using on-premise FSM software stating that they will consider moving to the Cloud is now approaching almost three quarters (71%).

Cloud in other parts of the business:

As we move more firmly into a world of Big Data and real-time analytics the easy-flow of both customer and asset data between differing systems is absolutely vital, as is the ability for such systems to be able to communicate with each other.

Alongside the ongoing willingness for organisations to develop APIs, the advent of Cloud computing has been the major factor in enabling such a seamless flow of data.

But what other areas within a business are predominantly becoming Cloud based and how they complement any given FSM system?

We asked both those who were using on premise and Cloud based FSM solutions if they were using the Cloud based systems in any other areas of their business.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those companies that were using Cloud based FSM systems showed a greater tendency to use Cloud in other areas of their business than those using on-premise FSM solutions.

However, amongst both sets of respondents, the business tool most commonly running in the Cloud was CRM with 75% of companies with a Cloud based FSM solution also using Cloud based CRM and only 20% of those companies using on-premise FSM software having their CRM system based in the Cloud.

While we don’t know the background, we can speculate that this may be largely due to the dominance of Cloud based CRM solutions driven in part by Cloud only provider Salesforce. Their success has seen other key players within the CRM sector (such as Microsoft) focus heavily on delivering a Cloud solution as well as driving a number of smaller providers to offer similar Cloud only CRM models.

Another factor for consideration is the importance of moving data between service and sales focused systems.

It has long been a major focus for a number of field service organisations to better leverage the insight of their service teams to greater effect in terms of revenue generation and the Cloud can be a key enabler to help organisations achieve this more effectively.

Conclusions: 

The results of this trends-based research certainly support the assertions made twelve months ago.

Not only have we seen a continued increase in the number of companies using Cloud based FSM systems and replacing on-premise systems with Cloud-based solutions, we have also seen the rate at which this number is growing increase significantly at the same time In addition to this, we have seen an increase in the number of companies still using on premise FSM software who are actively looking to make a move to the Cloud when they next upgrade their FSM solution.

Meanwhile, fears around the security of the Cloud are beginning to reduce, particularly as understanding of the higher levels of security embedded within enterprise focused Cloud platforms improve.

However, there remains a proportion of field service professionals who see security as the biggest barrier to adoption and platform and solutions vendors need to continue to provide information and education on this topic.

 

Of those who have made the move to the Cloud, real life benefits of improved system functionality and enhanced productivity are widely felt, as is the positive impact of the more manageable cost base of Cloud based FSM systems, usually offered on a Software as a Service basis.

While at the current time, there may still be more companies using on-premise FSM software than using Cloud based FSM systems, the shift towards the adoption of the Cloud that we identified within our previous research is indeed gaining further momentum and at a faster pace than ever before.

The research has also proven our previous assertion that the move to Cloud based FSM solutions is tied directly to the replacement cycle of FSM at large and the evidence would certainly suggest that as more companies continue to move onto next-generation FSM, the adoption of Cloud as the primary platform will become ever more prevalent.

It seems our prediction of a Cloud based future for most FSM system implementations looks set

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Having conducted exclusive research into the use of Cloud based Field Service Management Systems in 2015, Field Service News and ClickSoftware have once again teamed up and returned to the topic one year on to see just how their predictions based on last year's findings have borne out. 

In part one of this series we looked at exactly what those predictions last year were as well as some of the headline findings of this year's research. In part two of the series we explored the trends have emerged year on year plus Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware offered her expert view as to what these trends mean for field service organisations. 

Now in the third part of the series we look at whether security remains the biggest barrier to adoption for those reluctant to move to a Cloud based FSM solution and Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware, offers his expert view on the survey as a whole also... 

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Click here to download the full research report now

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The question of security:

So it seems that we are indeed seeing a continuation of the trends uncovered within last year’s research - in that the shift towards Cloud becoming the prevalent platform for FSM systems is continuing to gain momentum.

But how does this correlate with general perception around Cloud computing and in particular around security concerns - which were the key barrier to adoption for those who were reluctant to move to a Cloud based FSM in our previous research?

To answer this question let’s start by exploring how general perceptions about Cloud computing have changed, if at all, across the last twelve months.

In 2015 and 2016 we asked our respondents ‘Which of the following best sums up your perception of the Cloud in business?’

We gave our respondents a choice of four options:

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• I believe it is the future of enterprise computing
• I see its benefits but still have some concerns
• I wouldn’t trust placing sensitive data in the Cloud but would use for general applications
• I think we should be keeping everything on premise, there is too much risk in the Cloud

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This year we saw the number of respondents who stated they saw “the Cloud as the future of enterprise computing” rise to over half (56%) of all respondents, an increase of 7% compared to the 2015 results.

[quote float="left"]The number of respondents who stated they saw “the Cloud as the future of enterprise computing” rise to over half (56%) of all respondents, an increase of 7% compared to the 2015 results.[/quote]We also saw a five point increase (i.e. from 35% to 40%) amongst those who stated that they could see the benefit of the Cloud but still had some concerns.

However, it is at the other end of the spectrum, where the responses offered had more negative connotations, that perhaps the greatest shift is apparent.

The number of those who stated they “wouldn’t trust putting sensitive data in the Cloud” has reduced from 13% in 2015 to just 6% in 2016 whilst the admittedly small (3%) section of respondents in 2015 who stated they felt we should be keeping “everything on-premise as there is too much risk in the Cloud” has completely disappeared within this year’s results.

It is also interesting to note that when we drill down further into the findings and look at the responses from companies based on the size of their mobile workforce that there is further evidence of a growing confidence in Cloud computing across the board.

To begin let’s take a look at those companies within the largest bracket of mobile workforce, i.e. those with 801 or more field service engineers/ technicians.

Indeed, in this bracket of companies 100% replied positively when we asked for their overall perception of the Cloud.

Over half (53%) of the field service professionals within this company size bracket stated that they saw the Cloud as the ‘future of enterprise computing’ whilst just under half (47%) stated they whilst they may have some concerns they ‘could see the benefits’ of the Cloud.

Similarly when we look at the responses to this question from those representing companies within the smallest bracket of mobile workforce (i.e. 50 field engineers or less) once again there certainly appears to be a perception of Cloud is not only improving but that this is happening across companies of all sizes.

But how does this correlate to the separation between Cloud apps that are used mainly be consumers (e.g. Google Drive or iCloud) and those designed specifically for business users?

[quote float="right"]Almost half (48%) of the service professionals that participated in our research now stated that high profile breaches in security in the consumer sector have no impact on their perception of enterprise level Cloud security[/quote]In response to the question ‘Have high profile breaches in consumer privacy influenced your opinion of the Cloud in enterprise?’ We saw a move of 7% from the previous year’s results towards responses that accepted that ‘there are far more security protocols in the business world’ and that such security breaches in the consumer world didn’t impact their thinking around enterprise level Cloud security.

In fact, almost half (48%) of the service professionals that participated in our research now stated that high profile breaches in security in the consumer sector have no impact on their perception of enterprise level Cloud security - an increase of 8% more than in 2015.

Expert View - Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware

Something that comes through clearly in this research is the increasing benefit that respondents are seeing from moving Field Service Management to the cloud. When comparing respondents’ view on the main benefit of moving to the cloud in the 2014/15 survey with this year’s research, “greater flexibility and scalability” was still the number one cited benefit, growing by 6% from 79% last year to 86% today. In addition, nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents ranked both “easy remote access” and “less reliance on the IT department” in equal second in terms of benefits gained, similar values to last year.

Our experience as a software vendor in the field suggests that the priority given to “flexibility and scalability” not only reflects the ability to control operational costs but also that field service companies are prioritising customer satisfaction – and want to flexibly tune their cloud-based software solution to meet user requirements in this area. As products become more commoditised, service delivery becomes the differentiator. Companies need to improve their customer experience while keeping operational costs in check, servicing the needs of the business and the customer.

[quote float="left"]“The ability to rapid introduce new applications and services across an entire field service operation, without having to rely on the availability of the right IT infrastructure, plays a critical role in empowering field service engineers and delivering fast service differentiation...”[/quote]In many cases today, a customer’s only engagement with the supplier of their goods or services is when they need something fixing. In the retail space for example, it might be a field service visit to repair a washing machine, in the utilities industry it might be when a central heating boiler breaks down. That field service engagement may be the only opportunity to impress the customer during the lifetime of a product that might last five, 10 or 20 years.

The ability to rapid introduce new applications and services across an entire field service operation, without having to rely on the availability of the right IT infrastructure, plays a critical role in empowering field service engineers and delivering fast service differentiation. Real-time communication via smart devices between field service professionals, dispatch teams and customers increases efficiency and enhances customer service. Examples of these include using traffic monitoring systems to direct engineers to each job as quickly as possible and on-line tracking to keep the customer updated on when they will arrive.

Embracing the latest cloud and mobility technology helps companies to develop a far more collaborative, immediate and customer-focused infrastructure and to enable a culture where customer service is the priority. One where a mobile network of technicians and engineers are both enabled and encouraged to put the customer first and, as brand ambassadors, are driving customer loyalty and potentially identifying opportunities to sell more products and services to the customer while on-site.

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Having conducted exclusive research into the use of Cloud based Field Service Management Systems in 2015, Field Service News and ClickSoftware have once again teamed up and returned to the topic one year on to see just how their predictions based on last year's findings have borne out. 

In part one of this series we looked at exactly what those predictions last year were as well as some of the headline findings of this year's research. Now in part two we will look to see what trends have emerged year on year plus Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware offers her expert view as to what these trends mean for field service organisations...

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Year-on-year trends:

The headline finding of this year’s research is that we have indeed seen a continued shift towards more companies using the Cloud for their FSM systems. When comparing data from 2014, 2015 and 2016, we have also seen increasing year on year growth.

Indeed, the number of companies now using Cloud based FSM systems is well over a third, with 36% of our respondents stating that they are now Cloud users. This is a year on year increase of 8% in terms of companies using the Cloud for FSM systems.

Not only does this show a continuing move to the Cloud, but it is also a relatively significant increase in the year-on-year growth we saw in the previous year’s research.

In fact, the increase in companies moving to the Cloud within the last twelve months is almost three times more than it was in the previous year (9% vs. 3%).

This would certainly add weight to our conclusions last year that Cloud was gaining traction as a platform for FSM tools, and that we would see this continue to increase as companies begun to upgrade their older legacy systems. Further evidence that the shift to Cloud is happening at a faster rate is revealed when we look at how long those companies who are now using a Cloud based FSM solution have been doing so.

 

Of those companies now using Cloud based FSM solutions a third (33%) have been doing so for less than six months.This is a slight uplift compared to similar responses in 2015, which in turn were higher than the results of 2014.

Indeed, across the three years that we have conducted research into this topic we have seen an increase of 10% amongst those companies that had recently (within the last 6 months) made a move to the Cloud at the time of the relevant research project.

This would again support our previous hypothesis that the somewhat relatively slower move to Cloud computing as a platform for FSM solutions (when compared to other business operations tools such as CRM) is largely tied to companies’ timetables for moving away from their existing, legacy systems.

Given that field service is a mission critical area of operations that is gaining ever more importance (as service revenue becomes more frequently a major proportion of many organisations’ total revenue), importance of preparing and planning for a FSM system - whether it be Cloud based or on-premise, is perhaps understandable.

 

Also, when we consider that companies have traditionally regarded the shelf life of FSM software to be somewhere between three and seven years (with some companies even ‘sweating’ their software solutions well beyond the ten year mark) the implementation of new FSM systems takes time.

However, it is clear that the trend towards Cloud adoption is accelerating and on the main when companies do upgrade their FSM systems, they are more likely to opt for the Cloud as the platform for their new system.

Expert View: Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware

As we said in last year’s report, the cloud is not a new concept, in fact it’s nearly twenty years since Salesforce, a company that has only ever offered cloud-based solutions, was established.

While the field service industry has taken some time to catch up, “move to the cloud or remain on-premise” is a key topic in the field service industry today.

While field service staff have typically been managed and dispatched to customers in a fairly traditional and hierarchical manner, that’s a difficult model to maintain nowadays as demanding consumers, used to instant “uberized” service and status updates expect everything to be delivered faster, more flexibly and more responsively.

The power of cloud computing and the ubiquity of mobile devices means companies can now redesign their entire FSM process to the benefit of both the engineer and the customer, giving everyone instant information about their jobs, projects and appointments whenever, however and wherever they want it.

The findings from this survey clearly show that the Cloud is the way forwards for field service, with every single organisation that has moved to the Cloud saying they would recommend it over an on-premise solution and over two-thirds (69%) of users of on-premise FSM systems, considering the Cloud for their next upgrade.

 

When considering perceptions of the Cloud, over half (56%) now see Cloud as the future of enterprise computing, an increase of 7% in just 12 months. Organisations of all sizes see the benefit. 58% of organisations with large field teams (more than 300 field service engineers) said that Cloud is the “future of enterprise computing”, (a change of 9% from 49% in 2014/15) and 57% with smaller field teams (less than 50 engineers) agreed, compared to 40% in the previous survey.

Working with customers all over the world, ClickSoftware has found the Cloud to be a great leveller, enabling every organisation, no matter what size, location or business model to rapidly adopt and improve upon the same applications and processes that drive enhanced customer service for everyone.

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One year on from our investigation into the appetite for Cloud Computing as a platform for field service management systems, ClickSoftware and Field Service News return to the topic to see how trends have evolved within the last twelve months and to find out if our prediction of a gradual shift towards Cloud ultimately becoming the norm in field service is starting to come true...

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In 2015 Field Service News partnered with leading Field Service Management (FSM) software provider ClickSoftware on a research project, which aimed to take a measure of the feelings toward Cloud computing as a platform for productivity tools amongst field service professionals.

Now one year on both parties have returned to the topic to see if the trends we identified and the developments we predicted have materialised and to build an up-to-date picture of both the adoption and appetite for Cloud computing as a platform for Field Service Management systems.

In this white paper, co-published by Field Service News and ClickSoftware, we shall review the data from our latest research, providing year-on-year comparative analysis to identify what new trends have emerged and how attitudes towards the Cloud have evolved amongst senior management within the field service industry.

Previously identified trends:

To begin let’s briefly recap the findings of last year’s research (which was the second time we had focused on the use of Cloud within a field service context as a subject for our research.)

Whilst the headline findings of that project identified that a large majority of field service companies (74%) were still using on-premise solutions, there was clear evidence that a shift to Cloud was on the horizon.

There were two key findings that supported this hypothesis.

Firstly, there was the overwhelming evidence that the Cloud was proving to be a success amongst those companies that had made the move away from traditional on-premise solutions. In fact, when we asked those respondents who had made such a move ‘would you recommend a Cloud based field service management solution over an on-premise solution?’ 100% of them replied that they would.

However, the findings were perhaps even more telling when we turned to those companies that were still using on-premise solutions.

Amongst this group of respondents, we found that over two-thirds of companies (69%) admitted they would consider moving to the Cloud when they next upgraded their FSM solution.

Such findings led us to arrive at the hypothesis that eventually we would see a widespread move to the Cloud. It was our prediction that we would potentially see a complete pendulum shift, with up to 75% of companies using Cloud based FSM solutions within the next five years.

 

Last year’s research also identified that concerns around the security of the Cloud were the biggest potential barrier to adoption. In fact, 38% of respondents that were not using a Cloud based FSM solution stated that they felt that security was the greatest issue with Cloud.

Yet that same research also highlighted that this is generally not the case - security issues were less prevalent than both connectivity and integration issues amongst companies actually using a Cloud based FSM tools.

It was our assertion last year that there was a need for greater education and understanding of the security of the Cloud, particularly at the enterprise level amongst executives within the field service sector - so that perception and reality could become more closely aligned. Once this was achieved we would likely see the shift to Cloud becoming the most widely used platform for FSM systems gaining greater momentum.

So how have the opinions of field service professionals changed across the last twelve months?

Has there been the continued trend in the number of companies making the move away from on-premise FSM software to Cloud based equivalents that we predicted we would see? Has the perception of Cloud security improved amongst Field Service Management professionals? And has the appetite for Cloud based FSM systems gained any greater momentum?

Executive Summary: Key findings:

• Over a third of companies are now using Cloud based Field Service Management (FSM) systems
• The rate of adoption of Cloud based FSM systems has increased dramatically year-on-year with almost three times as many companies moving to the Cloud in 2015/2016 than did in 2014/2015
• The move to the Cloud appears to be directly aligned to the move away from legacy systems with over two thirds of companies that are still using on-premise FSM solutions working with FSM systems that are at least three years old
• Similarly, of those using Cloud based FSM solutions, a third have made the move within the last six months - which would suggest that not only is the rate of adoption of Cloud based FSM solutions increasing, but it is doing so at a quicker pace than in previous years
• This is further supported by the fact that over two thirds of companies that are currently using Cloud based FSM solutions would consider the Cloud for the next iteration of their FSM system
• The most common key driver for companies adopting Cloud based FSM solutions is that the Cloud offers greater flexibility. However, once implemented, increased functionality is the number one benefit felt by companies using Cloud based FSM systems
• Amongst those who have implemented Cloud based FSM systems, the move has been overwhelmingly positive with 100% of these companies stating they would recommend a Cloud based FSM system over an on-premise equivalent
• Finally, fears around the security of the Cloud, which was seen to be the biggest barrier to adoption in previous research are abating. Just 6% stated that they felt they wouldn’t trust placing sensitive data in the Cloud whilst over half of respondents felt that the Cloud was the future of enterprise computing.

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Read the next part of this research report where we will look drill deeper into the findings of this year's research... 

 

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Marina Stedman, Director of Global Field Marketing for ClickSoftware offers an overview of one of the key highlights of the recent Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam earlier this summer...

Introduction:

The “Delivering Global Growth with Local Operations” theme of the 3rd annual Copperberg Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam on 8th and 9th June was topical, based on the sometimes conflicting demands of meeting customers’ rising expectations of service delivery while maintaining long-term operational viability.

The event brought field service professionals, operational managers and industry experts together to network, discuss and benchmark experiences and ideas.

Round Table Discussion - How can automation and mobility optimise scheduling, dispatch and communications with mobile field workers while also enhancing the customer experience?

The ClickSoftware hosted round table session discussing the challenges and best practices for optimised scheduling and mobility provided one such opportunity.

Delegates joining this round table debate included a global FMGC manufacturer, a global engineering components manufacturer, a European agricultural dealership, a supplier of integrated food processing solutions and a regional telecommunications provider.

A number of topics were discussed with a summary of the top points below:

The five top challenges faced by field service suppliers today:

1. Managing the field teams – Knowing where technicians are, what skills they have and how to optimise resources
2. Best practices - Keeping up with and adopting them
3. Customisation and Integration - Finding a system that can be customised to meet specific requirements
4. Optimisation - How to optimise the scheduling of resources
5. Customer service – How to keep customers up-to-date on the engineer’s arrival time and the status of their job plus managing overall customer satisfaction

How to best manage Field Teams:

1. Can they be brand ambassadors and sales people? Field engineers are the face of the supplier to the customer so how do you encourage and train engineers to upsell more services when they are on site? One view was that people skills are more important in organisations that deal with consumers.
2. Can location-based tracking be introduced in Europe? There are many regulations on how and what employee data can be tracked and used.  How can the new technologies that track engineers’ whereabouts and enable better customer communication be introduced?
3. Effective job completion: In industries with “Long Cycle” work that can take a week or more, scheduling the right engineers with the right skills and the right parts is more important than knowing where an engineer is.

Best Practices:

Round table attendees were interested in the Field Service Engagement Journey which shows how mapping an organisations’ “degree of optimisation”, “field service sophistication” and “customer lifetime value” illustrates where that organisation is on its journey to field service maturity.

Attendees were initially very optimistic about where they were on this journey but then realised during the conversation that they were mostly at the first “Getting Visibility” or second “Containing Costs” stages and had a long way to go to reach the ultimate stage of “Disruption, Differentiation and Delight”.

Optimisation - Managing costs and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Many services businesses are expensive to run because they can only meet SLAs by including redundancy or overlap within their field teams.

It was, however felt that costs could be contained/reduced in many ways (e.g.by optimising routes taken and making the best choices for allocation and scheduling of resources against SLAs).

One attendee said that failed visits (where the engineer calls and the customer is not in) were the main cause of high costs in his business, accounting for 62% of visits. Another delegate said that each no-show cost £60 due to wasted time and the cost of repeat visits.

 

Another attendee pointed out that mobility holds the key to optimised scheduling –the field team can be notified of any changes in real-time e.g. traffic situations, no-shows, cancellations and problem visits.

For many B2B businesses, up-time is their customers’ number one priority.  They need their equipment, vehicles, machines etc. to be fixed as soon as possible or they start to incur costs.  It is vital that field engineers with the right skills and the right parts get there fast.

Everyone wanted to give customers a more exact time slot of when an engineer would arrive but they could only do this if they could use technology such as predictive analytics based on historical data to analyse how long each type of job typically takes and to plan accordingly.

Everyone agreed that one of their biggest challenges was how to get an asset and an engineer with the right skills on site at the same time to fix a breakdown.

Customer service:

Attendees definitely felt that providing more information and more timely information to the customer made a difference to the relationship with them.  Keeping the customer informed meant many fewer no-shows and higher rates of first time service delivery.  While products are becoming a commodity in many industries, service is still an area of differentiation.

Key message from the round table discussion - people see field service as a way to differentiate themselves against their competitors but many are only at the beginning of the journey.

 

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