Field Service News | Cognito iQ

A Question of Balance? Multiple sides to a digital transformation equation

Mar 31, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • facilities management • Service Innovation and Design • Mickey Rooney • JLL • Integral • Built Environment

Recently in the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, was joined by Mickey Rooney, Program Director JLL in a wide-ranging discussion that touches on a number of key points as the built environment...

Totalmobile Acquires Cognito iQ To Add Leading Analytics Capability To Existing Suite Of Field Service Management Solutions

Mar 25, 2021 • News • Cognito iQ • Digital Transformation • field service management • Covid-19 • EMEA • totalmobile

Largest acquisition to date will increase Annual Recurring Revenues and provide entry into the UK logistics market with customers including Hermes, Transport for London and Argos.

UK-based Field Service Management (FSM) software company, Totalmobile, has announced it has completed the acquisition of Cognito iQ, a Newbury-based provider of workforce management and analytics technology, to add to its comprehensive suite of software solutions.

The market leading real time analytics solution provided by Cognito iQ collects data from multiple sources to provide a clear overview of operational performance. This enables even the largest and most complex of organisations to manage data in a more effective manner, empowering their customers - that include Hermes, Transport for London and Argos - to achieve continuous improvements in productivity and efficiency.

THE ADDITION OF COGNITO IQ PROVIDES TOTALMOBILE WITH A STRONG PRESENCE IN THE FAST-GROWING LOGISTICS MARKET

The acquisition of Cognito iQ enables Totalmobile to add a best-of-breed real time performance analytics capability to an already comprehensive suite of end-to-end Field Service Management technologies, enabling customers to manage data better and closely analyse ongoing operations via a control room that ensures services are being delivered efficiently and KPIs are being met.

This highly capable technology will be rebranded and launched as Totalmobile’s new ‘Analyse’ product, presenting a significant opportunity to offer the product to Totalmobile’s existing customer base of over 1,000 organisations, covering a range of sectors, including Government, Health and Social Care, Facilities Management, Infrastructure and Housing.

The addition of Cognito iQ also provides Totalmobile with a strong presence in the fast-growing logistics market, which has an increasing need for transformative and scalable technology due to a change in consumer behaviours accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today’s announcement marks Totalmobile’s largest addition to date and its sixth acquisition in the last two years, delivering on a dual strategy of combining the most comprehensive suite of FSM products with deep sector expertise. It sets Totalmobile firmly on track to achieve its goal to become the world’s largest regional FSM company by the end of 2021.

Jim Darragh, CEO of Totalmobile, said, “In today’s world the ability to manage, analyse and then action operational data is critical for any organisation that is striving to provide an exceptional service. With today’s acquisition of Cognito iQ, I am delighted to announce that we have added a market leading real time analytics software solution that enables any customer to drive continuous improvement across their operations

In addition, this technology strongly complements our existing solutions which are providing our customers with mobile working, dynamic scheduling, job management, staff rostering and lone worker protection capabilities

The acquisition of Cognito iQ is the largest in the history of the company and comes shortly after the addition of utilities sector specialist GeoPal. This highlights the giant strides that we are making as we continue to accelerate our growth. I’m very excited about what the future holds and look forward to welcoming our new colleagues and customers to Totalmobile.”

Laurent Othacéhé, CEO, Cognito iQ said, “Totalmobile, with its uniquely strong position in the field service and mobile workforce management market, is the ideal springboard to take the revolutionary Cognito iQ products to market on a very large scale from day one. We very much look forward to joining the Totalmobile Group to accelerate growth and deliver transformational solutions to our customers.”

Dealing with data as we discuss digital transformation

Mar 24, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • facilities management • Service Innovation and Design • Mickey Rooney • JLL • Integral • Built Environment

Digital Transformation has hit a tipping point for massive step change

Mar 17, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • facilities management • Service Innovation and Design • Mickey Rooney • JLL • Integral • Built Environment

How the Built Environment and Facilities Management sectors have evolved at pace since the pandemic

Mar 12, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • facilities management • Service Innovation and Design • Mickey Rooney • JLL • Integral • Built Environment

Industry Spotlight: Integral/JLL and the Built Environment

Mar 10, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • facilities management • Service Innovation and Design • Mickey Rooney • JLL • Integral • Built Environment

As we continue our series of videos looking at field service operations and technology within different industry sectors we talk to Mickey Rooney, of JLL about how the evolution of the built environment, how this will impact what service looks like...

How Konica Minolta Put Shift-Left at the Front and Centre of Field Service Strategy

Mar 08, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • Konica MInolta • Digital Transformation • Strategy • EMEA

The Konica Minolta field service operation has more than 2000 field service technicians across Europe in 30 National Operating Countries (NOCs), servicing over a million customer assets, such as office printers and commercial printing devices, as well as IT Hardware and Software. Cognito iQ provides mobile and analytics solutions that enable field service operations to drive efficiency and improve customer satisfaction.

Cognito iQ’s COO, Dave Webb, had an opportunity to interview Patrick Stucke Senior Manager, Service Strategy for Konica Minolta, Europe. Patrick talked about how the organisation has been working to systematically harmonize and improve field service for a number of years; their shift-left strategy focuses on the technologies and processes which enable them to reduce costs and enhance customer service.

SHIFT-LEFT IS THE FOCUS OF KONICA MINOLTA FIELD SERVICE STRATEGY

Shift left is one of those terms that means something different in different industries, or even in diverse organisations within the same industry, so Dave asked Patrick what the term means to Konica Minolta.

Patrick Stucke: Shift left is a strategy that we've been following for seven to eight years. Our approach was to look at how we serve our customers, and rank all the functions that work towards incident resolution according to the ‘cost to operate’ , and the time it takes to resolve. Then, we took the most costly and valuable resources that take the longest to fix an issue and put them all the way to the right. And we took the resources that offer the fastest fix at little-to-no cost and put it them all the way on the left. It will come as no surprise that field service technicians were very far on the right. They are precious resources: they’ve received lots of training, they are equipped with tools, they carry spare parts, and they spend a lot of time driving around in leased vehicles. By contrast, on the left, there were the systems that self-diagnose and use automatic troubleshooting and reset functions. And then between those two different poles - the service technician on the right and the automated systems on the left - there were a lot of different shades of support, such as dedicated remote support specialists and expert teams, customer care teams or end-users using self-service support.So we asked ourselves: how can we shift as much work effort from the right to the left? Doing so would enable us to reduce downtime for customers, and also operate at a more competitive price point.

Dave Webb: What sort of challenges did you face in implementing the shift-left strategy?

When we started on the process of improvement, we discovered that we had various different mobile solutions in place. In some countries, local offices would self-dispatch the technicians but in others there was a central dispatch and scheduling function. Some technicians had mobile devices, and we were getting live feedback, but at the other end of the scale, some were doing all their call processing offline, on laptops, which was quite tedious. So it was very hard to compare one operation to another, and it was also very hard for the service managers to keep up to date with what was happening in their fields.

DW: So what steps did you take to harmonize field service?

PS: When we started looking into it, we weren’t really aware what was possible, and how much having live information would improve our capabilities to serve our customers. One target we had was to give our service managers more transparency of what's happening in their field operations, and enabling them to better analyse performance. So we went looking for best practices across different countries, exploring how operations work there and what partners they were working with. The real eye opener was our UK operation, which was using Cognito iQ’s Operational Performance Analytics solution (OPA). I had not seen anything like it before. Having real-time reporting and seeing how calls move through different statuses on an easy-to-understand dashboard reinforced our conviction that we have to move to fully mobile working - mobile devices and live data. The other element that I had not seen in such intensity before was the culture of performance and thought leadership on service optimization that has been established: Cognito IQ and the Konica Minolta UK team are working in a very close relationship and mutually improving each other.

_DSC6118

Patrick Stucke, Konica Minolta

DW: What was it about the platform and the solution that particularly appealed to you?

PS: The platform itself is unique, I have not seen anything like it. Being able to start at the top of the organisation and get a quick overview of what's happening in the field, and then being able to drill down to the individual details - that was something I've not seen in any other tool. So we can see, for example, utilization of technicians - how much time is spent in front of the customer, how much time is spent in the car, how much time is spent idle because technicians are not utilized to the best of their capacity. And that enables us to maybe shift resources from one team to another during the day to get a better resource utilization and help the more busy areas out. That’s really actionable.The second part of the answer is the very close and good collaboration with everyone at Cognito iQ. We don't just get an off-the-shelf solution; you challenge our way of thinking, you listen to the requirements that we have and implement those into your development roadmap. And I think that's really valuable when forming a partnership between two organisations.

DW: And how do you see Cognito IQ supporting you in your shift-left initiative?

PS: A lot of the metrics within OPA show us whether we have been successful in our attempt to try and shift left. So having, for example, live visibility of our first-time-fix rate. We have different teams collaborating with each other to try and achieve that: we would first try to help our customers remotely, but if we can’t achieve a remote fix, then we would send a technician out but we would pass along all the information that we have gained through the remote fix attempts. And we would at least make sure that we send the right technician, with the right training, and who has the right spare part to the customer. Just having that visibility and transparency in the field operations goes a long way in employing the shift-left strategy.

DW: And what has been the day-to-day impact on the team? The service desk, the field operation, the field engineers themselves? What has been the response to the shift-left strategy that you've introduced?

PS: This strategy has transformed our service organisations. As we were embarking on the shift-left journey, a lot of our organisations started putting remote support specialists in place. However, these were just field technicians who were on a rotating remote support duty. They would just scan through the call queues and pick prospects for a remote fix, and call customers proactively. And through that, we saw that they maybe decrease the burden on their field service colleagues a bit. But now, more and more countries are actually changing to dedicated remote support specialists who use all the great technology that we have in place to try and resolve incidents remotely as much as possible. And if they cannot fix an issue, they pass along all the information. So we see the service desk function and the field service function move a lot closer together and support each other. That's definitely a trend we're seeing throughout our business and in our growing IT service business. The clear cut between what's happening in the field and what's happening in the back office that we've had in the past - it's not really there anymore. So it’s become really important that they all look at the same set of data and intelligence. We need to all be working to the same service level agreements, from the first contact in the Customer Care Centre, through the field service operations in the countries, up to the European support organisations. We’re all working towards resolving our incidents according to our promises to the customers.

DW: How successful has your shift-left initiative been?

PS: Well, the way we have implemented that strategy has been a guiding principle for a lot of the initiatives that we have embarked on over the years. It’s also earned us some external recognition; we’ve won a BLI Pacesetter Award for Outstanding Serviceability in Western Europe twice. And it's of course, something we're proud of, because it shows the right strategy and the right guiding principle: to reduce our cost to operate and at the same time serve our customers better.

DW: Looking ahead, what other technologies are you expecting to adopt? And what do you expect those technologies to bring to your shift left strategy?

PS: One area that we have invested in already and want to grow is predictive analytics. We have systems in place already that notify us about possible downtimes, in advance. In some cases, we're able to resolve possible sources of a downtime for customers before anything happens. And we want to fine tune those algorithms even more and employ them for new use cases. We have also developed a lot of own technologies as part of the shift-left strategy implementation. One example is our AIRe Link platform, which is a remote video support system that enables us to connect to our end-users phone cameras, without them needing to install an app on their phone. That gives us a visual impression of what our end-users see when they try to operate the system, instead of just listening to the issues that they describe. And it's very easy to use due to the fact that we don't have to install applications on customer mobile phones.So that helps us a lot in our remote support attempts, especially at the moment where we are trying to avoid having to visit end customers at all, so we don’t put people in harm's way. This platform has been so successful that we're not only using it ourselves, but we're also offering it commercially. Together with Cognito iQ, we’re looking forward to the next generation platform of OPA, which will give us even better insights into operations. And because we can see trends developing throughout the day, in the dashboards that you provide to us, I think that soon you will be able to give us a glimpse into the future.

DW: As you say, the predictive aspect is very much a journey we're on together. At the moment OPA enables you to replay the operational day, but we're looking at playing it forward into predicting based on the data that we can see for tomorrow and beyond.

PS: That will certainly help us to serve our customers even better. And that's really an exciting prospect.

To find out more about any of the topics discussed in this interview please get in touch www.cognitoiq.com

Cognito iQ Platform Helps Konica Minolta Win Award for Serviceability & Support

Nov 19, 2020 • News • Cognito iQ • Konica MInolta • Digital Transformation • EMEA

Konica Minolta has won the BLI PaceSetter Award for Serviceability and Support 2020-2021 in Western Europe awarded by Keypoint Intelligence for the second time.

With Cognito iQ flagged as a platform that supported the win, the recognition honours the OEM that offers the best-designed tools, programs and trainings to enhance the serviceability of its products and services. With its “shift left” approach, Konica Minolta provides systems to empower its clients to help themselves, such as using online trainings or providing support through remote tools.

COGNITO iQ's PLATFORM ALLOWS KONICA MINOLTA TO AUTOMATE THEIR FIELD OPERATION, IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND REDUCING ERRORS

Leveraging their Cognito iQ-developed platform, Konica Minolta is able to analyse operational performance of its field service in real time. With this “shift left” approach, the issues are solved closer to their origin and field presence of service experts can be reduced significantly. This helps to limit physical contact points which increases safety for customers and technicians, as travel from client to client can be minimised in the time of Covid-19.

Konica Minolta use Cognito iQ to automate and mobilise their field operation, automating previously manual processes, improving efficiency and reducing errors, and giving Konica Minolta real-time information to control the service support operation. In addition to this they have implemented the Cognito iQ analytics platform, OPA, which gives the field service operation live data enabling them to make fact-based decisions on trends in real-time.

“Pursuing a customer-centric approach, Konica Minolta always focuses on the needs of its users for its products and services’, commented Nick Ranson, UK Director of Value Added Services, Konica Minolta Business Solutions UK, “We have a close relationship with Cognito iQ, their expertise and understanding of our operation has helped to redefine service for the UK business. It’s great to see our efforts recognised with this award”.

How Baxi Took Their Field Service Operation from Excellent to Exceptional with Cognito iQ

Nov 17, 2020 • News • Cognito iQ • Digital Transformation • EMEA • BAXI

Improving customer service, maximising worker efficiency and meeting SLAs are just a handful of the challenges that field service operators face.

Even field service operations that are working well can find 5% improvements when they set out to become exceptional, and improvements of more than 20% are not uncommon.

Baxi, together with Cognito iQ, recognise the true significance of data and the value it can bring to a business, from cost savings, improving repeat busines through improved customer satisfaction to identifying areas of process improvement that can bring transformational change to a business.

BAXI HAVE MADE THEIR GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE EVEN BETTER BY SUCCESSFULLY LEVERAGING DATA AND ANALYTICS WITH COGNITO iQ

Quality data that can provide insight is key to transformational change and improvements. Cognito IQ’s next generation analytics solution, Insight Hub does just that. Providing real-time analytics, it provides at a glance metrics in its bespoke dashboard that allows you to make instant changes to keep your team on track as well as a longer term view for informed strategic planning and strategy.

Baxi, and Cognito iQ have successfully leveraged data and analytics that enabled them to:

Increase productivity 25%
Reduce secondary visit times by 42%

In this webinar, Steve Randall, Baxi’s Head of Service will share:

The challenges Baxi faced and how they addressed them.
How technology such as Insight Hub, makes it easier to manage a large mobile workforce.
The impact of having real-time analytics on their customer service and more.

The webinar will be hosted on 26th November at 11am (GMT) and will also feature a Q&A to ask you burning questions. You will also receive access to Cognito iQ’s ‘Excellent to Exceptional 7-Step Plan’ content including a detailed white paper and case study.

To register for the webinar 'Transforming Your Field Service Operation from Excellent to Exceptional, visit info.cognitoiq.com/getting-to-exceptional-webinar2.

ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘cognito-iq’ CATEGORY

A Question of Balance? Multiple sides to a digital transformation equation

Want to know more? FSN Premium Subscribers and FSN Elite Members can watch this full interview and hours more of in-depth long-form interviews with a series of field service leaders in the Field Service News Digital Symposium. Watch the interview with Mickey Rooney on the button below.

If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.

Further Reading:

Totalmobile Acquires Cognito iQ To Add Leading Analytics Capability To Existing Suite Of Field Service Management Solutions

THE ADDITION OF COGNITO IQ PROVIDES TOTALMOBILE WITH A STRONG PRESENCE IN THE FAST-GROWING LOGISTICS MARKET

Further Reading:

Dealing with data as we discuss digital transformation

Want to know more? FSN Premium Subscribers and FSN Elite Members can watch this full interview and hours more of in-depth long-form interviews with a series of field service leaders in the Field Service News Digital Symposium. Watch the interview with Mickey Rooney on the button below.

If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.

Further Reading:

Digital Transformation has hit a tipping point for massive step change

Want to know more? FSN Premium Subscribers and FSN Elite Members can watch this full interview and hours more of in-depth long-form interviews with a series of field service leaders in the Field Service News Digital Symposium. Watch the interview with Mickey Rooney on the button below.

If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.

Further Reading:

How the Built Environment and Facilities Management sectors have evolved at pace since the pandemic

Want to know more? FSN Premium Subscribers and FSN Elite Members can watch this full interview and hours more of in-depth long-form interviews with a series of field service leaders in the Field Service News Digital Symposium. Watch the interview with Mickey Rooney on the button below.

If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.

Further Reading:

Industry Spotlight: Integral/JLL and the Built Environment

If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.

Further Reading:

How Konica Minolta Put Shift-Left at the Front and Centre of Field Service Strategy

SHIFT-LEFT IS THE FOCUS OF KONICA MINOLTA FIELD SERVICE STRATEGY

Further Reading:

Cognito iQ Platform Helps Konica Minolta Win Award for Serviceability & Support

COGNITO iQ's PLATFORM ALLOWS KONICA MINOLTA TO AUTOMATE THEIR FIELD OPERATION, IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND REDUCING ERRORS

Further Reading:

How Baxi Took Their Field Service Operation from Excellent to Exceptional with Cognito iQ

BAXI HAVE MADE THEIR GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE EVEN BETTER BY SUCCESSFULLY LEVERAGING DATA AND ANALYTICS WITH COGNITO iQ

Further Reading:

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