Martin Summerhayes offers a take on the five P's business acronym that could help service directors when they switch their infrastructure back on.

Before you jump to a different conclusion, the five P’s in the title is not the normal phrase that many of you know (poor planning, promotes poor performance!).

As we are all living, and possibly working, in the current restrictions, it seems strange to be thinking of what comes as we start to transition out of these times: locked down, social distancing, restricted movement and travel, etc. Discussing with colleagues and organisations, many are focused on the immediate business needs; furloughing staff; pairing back on the services that are delivered; are just a couple of activities they are focused on. So why think about when we start to exit?

Field Service Management operating in lockdown

Well, to think of exit, we need to consider how we entered the situation. The UK was put into lockdown on Monday 23rd March in an unprecedented step to attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus (Lockdowns and restrictions were also applied across Europe and the rest of the world. If your service business relies on global networks, then this is even more of a complex situation). During the lead up to that day, many companies, organisations, and services had carried on much as normal. Shops; retail outlets; restaurants; public houses; garden centres; sports facilities; the list could go on and on; but most were trading and operating as normal. Almost overnight, the restrictions meant that many places had to close with immediate effect.

Here comes some (but by no means all) of the potential issues. For ease, I have broken them down into three categories.

Product Issues

Having worked in IT Services for many years and been involved in the support of both new, as well as legacy solutions, two big issues with regard to the products spring to mind.

The first is, for many of the organisations that were shut down, how was their IT systems shut down? I would imagine that most, if not all, was shut down as the there were no timescales provided for the lockdown. Were these servers, storage, network devices, etc, shut down properly or were they just turned off? The implications for Windows and Unix environments when not shut down properly, can often mean that you can end up with problems when you try to reboot them (corrupt databases, applications and operating systems spring to mind). In addition, prior to being shut down, did they take a full backup, rather than an incremental one? I have seen situations where restoring incremental backups was a complete nightmare, as the backups were not all stored.

Secondly, as many of us know, when you have a legacy product – say a server – over time the component boards become brittle. The solder joints and the multi-layer component boards get impacted by the constant heat. I have often seen that when an IT product is turned off – either in a planned or unplanned manner – quite often, it fails to start back up. The component boards break down and the solder joints fail.

Repair & Logistic Issues

For many IT service organisations; and I would imagine it is similar in other technology service markets; there is a finite spare, and repair loop. One of the biggest costs of after-sales service, is the provision of spare parts available to service the needs of customers. Both in terms of “good” spares, those spares that are ready to be used to resolve issues, as well as “bad” spares, that have been swapped out of a product to resolve the issue.

"The level of service requests has dropped dramatically as the market sectors, organisations and clients that are served are closed..."

This repair & logistics loop is an almost infinitive loop. Optimising this loop means only having the minimum stock of spares to meet the repair and logistics loop UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES (I have used CAPITALS as this is important!). This normal logistics and repair loop can be between fifteen to twenty days on average. The lockdown has effectively frozen this loop. Where are your spares? In the repair loop at a depot waiting to be shipped back to a repairer? At a repairer awaiting repair? Or at a repairer, repaired, waiting to be shipped back as “good” stock into your stock loop? You might even have been in the process of servicing requests, in which case the spares were in forward stocking locations awaiting call off against new service requests?

Service Staff Issues

For many organisations, the level of service requests has dropped dramatically as the market sectors, organisations and clients that are served are closed. This means that many service technicians, technical couriers and service engineers have been furloughed; retaining the staff, but at the same time, reducing the staff cost overheads verses the services revenues received from clients.

This is where the first set of P’s comes in. “Precise Planning Pre-empts”.

We are going to come out of this at some point. However, it is not going to be a mass switch on of services; mass opening of markets and outlets. Think of a giant “Turn On” switch being pulled. Rather, it is going to be phased approach, something that the UK government is still defining. Every indication is that it will be a phased relaxation of restrictions across industries, sectors and services (I imagine that this is similar across different countries and governments as well).

If you take into account the issues above and the likelihood of the impact of IT failures, the level of service requests and the ability to be able to meet those requests when the services reopen is going to be a huge challenge. I can easily see an increase of service failures of more than 20% increase of normal failure volumes.

This is where elements of “scenario planning” and an element of “game theory” comes into their own. The “Precise Planning” element. You can take a set of scenarios to then precisely plan the impacts. This evolves around asking a series of open ended questions and describing in detail the responses and impacts.

For example: One of your customers that has a mixed legacy IT estate that is distributed across a number of outlets around the country.

• Do you know what is the makeup of the IT products across the customers estate? By outlet? By size of outlet? By type of outlet?
• As it is a mixed legacy estate, do you have failure rates by product for both new, as well as legacy products? Do you have data based on previous peeks of service (say Christmas, holiday peeks, etc)? Or have you had service outages in the past (say due to a power failure) and have details of the resultant failure rate of the products?

"Have you spoken to your customer and asked them what their expectations are?..."

• Have you engaged your most senior support and service engineers to review the estate, failure rates and the likely impact of “turn off v’s shut down” and provided their best judgement of the impacts? Their knowledge and insight are crucial.
• Did the customer instruct its outlet staff to correctly shut down the IT estate, or were they told to just “turn it off”? What is the impact of doing this? Do the support engineers believe that there will be a need to rebuild or restore servers? Replace hard disks that crashed and were destroyed? Do the field engineers have the ability to restore backups? Reinstall applications, databases and operating systems? Or can this be done remotely? If remotely, is there sufficient staff to do this?
• If the customer is allowed to open, will they want to open all of the outlets in one go? Will they phase this? Are there more significant outlets that they will want to open first? Which are the most important? The biggest? The most revenue generator?
• Have you spoken with your customer and asked them what their expectations are?
• Where is the current spares stock? At repairers? In transit? Lost? Based on collating details by product and part, from the questions above, can you proximate the level of stock that you are going to need? This is going to have to be a “rough order of magnitude” as this situation has never occurred before. Will you need to supplement spares stock? How? Do you have whole units in storage that you could break down? Do you have technical support stock that you could use? Does the customer have spare stock?
• From a field service engineer perspective, have you got the skills and technical knowledge to be able to deal with the surge in volume? How can you help the engineers be able to deal with the volume of service requests? Will you have to have extended service hours? Weekend working?
• From a health & safety perspective, it could be that social distancing is still going to be in force. How will the field engineers deal with this? What level of PPE will they need to have to be able to visit the outlet? Will they be mandated to wear masks and gloves? Will they be asked to sanitise their equipment and the outside of the spares boxes? How will you get the PPE to the engineers? Will they be expected to replace / renew PPE at each customer site or only at different customers? Who will purchase the ongoing PPE that the engineers will need? You? Will they be expected to purchase it themselves?
• Note: this list is not exhaustive.

The final part of the 5 P’s is, “Proactive Performance”? Have you captured all of the impacts, potential outcomes and put it into a plan? A resource profile? A spares planning spreadsheet? Have you shared this across your organisation teams? With the customer?

Then multiple scenario this by the many customers you serve and you can see why acting on these scenarios now will support, Proactive Performance. You will need to explore at least 5 different customers and scenarios to start to see a trend and start to see the common elements that you need to work on now.

How many service organisations are taking the time to theorise and plan along these lines during this time? Are you living the scenarios now? Are you planning along these lines? Please do share how you are planning for the future. The service community is living in completely unknown times and it is only through being open and sharing experiences, successes, as well as failures, that we can be successful.

The following quote made me smile:

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” ― Claire Cook, writer and motivational speaker

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Further Reading: 

• Read more from Martin Summerhayes @ www.fieldservicenews.com/martinsummerhayes
• Read more Covid-19 related content @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/covid19
• Follow Martin Summerhayes on LinkedIn here.

Service is now moving from 'reaction' to consolidation; where the global lockdown is loosening, and service is turning back on having been left dormant. How should we approach this new phase?

 

 

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Deputy Editor Mark Glover is joined by Martin Summerhayes who gives new insight into what the sector should be considering as we emerge, blinking slightly, into a new service world. In this excerpt from that podcast Summerhayes explains why precise planning pre-empt proactive performance... 

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Want to know more? Check out the this full episode of the Field Service Podcast as well as all of our previous episodes in the podcast section of our Premium Content Library by clicking here

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Planning for Fully Reopening the Field Service Sector

"We are going to come out of this at some point," Martin says. "However, it is not going to be a mass switch on of services; mass opening of markets and outlets - think of a giant “Turn On” switch being pulled - rather, it is going to be phased approach."

In this episode and off the back of a recent article exclusively for Field Service News, Martin takes the ubiquitous 'Five Ps' business acronym - Poor Planning Promotes Poor Performance - and swaps in new first, third and fourth words:  Precise Planning Pre-empts Pro-active Performance is a possible blueprint for service directors who might be daunted or overwhelmed when sizing up a re-start.

"Take a set of scenarios to then precisely plan the impacts," Martin says, unpacking the first part of the acronym. "This evolves around asking a series of open ended questions and describing in detail the responses and impacts. This is where elements of “scenario planning” and an element of “game theory” comes into their own. 

Martin backs the theory with an example: a mixed legacy IT estate distributed across a number of outlets. Here he applies open-ended questions on health and safety, customer expectations and spare parts to garner these responses and impacts.

Proactive performance is approached with questions also but the aim is to spot patterns: "Have you captured all of the impacts, potential outcomes and put it into a plan? A resource profile? A spares planning spreadsheet? Have you shared this across your organisation teams?" he says. "You will need to explore at least five different customers and scenarios to start to see a trend and start to see the common elements that you need to work."

At the moment our feeds and inboxes are being bombarded with webinars, articles and other podcasts taking a long view approach to service's current challenge. Here, Martin suggests stepping back and concentrating on the now might be the way forward. 

However, he acknowledges this approach might not be the best way and he is keen to hear your feedback and to be challenged on his theory. So please let us know your thoughts.

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Further Reading: 

• Read more from Martin Summerhayes @ www.fieldservicenews.com/martinsummerhayes
• Read more Covid-19 related content @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/covid19
• Follow Martin Summerhayes on LinkedIn here.

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Want to know more? Check out the this full episode of the Field Service Podcast as well as all of our previous episodes in the podcast section of our Premium Content Library by clicking here

Organisation create online interactive safety courses for remote workers.

The British Safety Council have developed and launched a series of interactive online courses for remote workers looking to continue their health, safety and environmental learning during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Same Tutors

'Live-Online' allows students to connect remotely to the courses using a PC, laptop or tablet and interact with the same tutors who deliver the British Safety Council's face-to-face teaching.

The enhanced modules were developed following student feedback to an original suite of learning delivered at the start of the pandemic. Mike Robinson, the British Safety Council's Chief Executive explained how the comments influenced their decision to make the modules interactive with real-time tutor assistance.

“At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis the British Safety Council launched a series of free online resources to help employers and employees adapt to new ways of working and the feedback we received has been very positive." he said. "Live Online now takes that one step further, for people that want structured support from a tutor without having to be in a classroom."

WorkWaves's Route Manager made free for six weeks in UK and Ireland.

A collaboration between Leadent Digital and WorkWave means suppliers of critical goods and services in the UK and Ireland can access the fleet-management's route-planning software free of charge.

Swift Implementation

For six weeks essential industries will be able to utilise WorkWave's Route Manager platform which can be implemented in hours, the two companies say.

Firms on the front line are having to expand swiftly to meet demand for home deliveries and other services and it is hoped use of the software can help companies optimise their resources and support new and inexperienced drivers.

Leadent Digital's CEO Alastair Clifford-Jones said seeing the growth of essential industries during the Covid-19 outbreak influenced the collaboration. "When we saw so many organisations working so hard in these unprecedented times, we needed to help and this seemed the best way of using our skills and resources to support the national effort. We have seen companies growing very rapidly to meet demand and this could really help them cope."

For more details about the offer click here.

Thai firm Eko offers TELCOs free use of its workplace platform during outbreak.

In an effort to support TELCOs during the Covid-19 pandemic, employee software provider Eko are offering free use of its virtual workplace platform.

Suite of Tools

Users who sign-up for the subscription-based platform will only be charged when the current situation stabilises and will have access to the virtual workstation's suite of tools including: Banner, a tool for creating visual banner announcements for staff; Broadcast, a way of communicating clear, company wide announcements; a library of documentation covering, health and safety, health insurance and travel polices for example; a real-time catalogue of checklists and attachments; and a real-time chat facility for accurate and instant communication.

As the impact of the virus takes a firmer hold globally, the need for remote technology in enabling business continuity is growing. Companies are requiring solutions that can at the very least offer a semblance of 'business as usual' and assist in continuity strategies.

Korawad Chearavanont, CEO at Eko, hopes the offer can help negate some of the anxiety that businesses are feeling. "The virus outbreak has been a big concern for businesses that are frantically preparing contingency plans," he said. "If our platform can give peace of mind to businesses and help to keep employees informed and feeling calmer during this unprecedented time, then it just seems like the right thing to do." 

An unexpected but amusing cameo in a recent live stream with Nick Frank and Harald Wasserman not only brought a welcome moment of levity but also shone a spotlight on an important, but often overlooked aspect of remote working. Kris Oldland, reflects back on the session... 

I'm sure everyone of us at the moment is under a greater level of strain than we have ever felt before.

For me personally, I can confess to having never been under so much pressure. As an independent publisher, we have a tendency to punch well above our weight as it is, with an output that matches and dare I say it, betters that of any of the mainstream publishers I have worked for during my entire career in publishing. This is something I take immense pride in. 

Similarly, as the field service sectors leading global voice, I felt it was simply our duty to react in a proactive and positive manner to the current Covid19 pandemic and so establishing the support channel that we have created to host a series of live sessions to help offer guidance to field service companies during this time was something that I knew in my heart we had to move mountains to do. 

It is at times of crisis that we need both leaders and we need to come together as a community. It is our job as the primary layer of news media in the global field service sector to facilitate that. And we may be winging it a little, as are we all at the moment, but so far, I think we've done a reasonable job of achieving quite a lot in very little time - thanks in the main to the wonderful support from our friends in the industry.

But I'll freely admit, it has been tough, I'm tired and I know there is a long way to go yet. We'll get there, but there is a long, long way to go.

 

An Excellent Moment of Learning from an Unexpected Source: 

So a week or so on from the first Emergency Symposium we hosted on Covid-19 and its impact on field service organisations and I have just a moment to take stock on everything that happened in a whirlwind of anxiety, anticipation, and action.

While there have been countless excellent learnings from our Covid19 sessions, which you can catch up on here, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the current situation was raised by an unexpected cameo on my recent stream with Nick Frank and Harald Wasserman of Si2 Partners. 

 

"It was the follow up cameo that brought a wonderful moment of levity into what have quite understandably been a series of tense sessions across the week..."

 

It was a moment of sheer unexpected levity, and it shone a light on a very important, yet potentially easily overlooked, aspect of the remote working environment we are all currently engaged in. 

Just as Nick was speaking about the importance of strong leadership we saw a blurred flash across the camera as his young daughter entered into the shot. However, it was the follow up cameo that brought a wonderful moment of levity into what have quite understandably been a series of tense sessions across the week. With the wonderful exuberance of youth on her side, Nick's daughter proceeded to torment her Dad, with a pair of bunny ears behind his head and a wry smile to our live audience before treating us to one more wave as her brief, but enjoyable cameo came to an end. 

It was an endearing moment, one that reminded us all of the humanity that lies behind the screen - something that was acknowledged by a number of the audience in the chat room of the live session. 

 

"Actually, you are letting people in to your lives and I think this is quite difficult for some people..."

 

Nick coped with things admirably, and there were shades of Professor Robert Kelly's famous BBC video interview, which went viral, for sure. However, what this intervention brought forward was an important discussion on the importance of levity in these challenging times. 

"The thing about remote working and 'virtual sessions' is that they are very intense," Frank commented during the stream. 

"The meetings are much shorter, they are to the point and rather than having one or two sessions which are much longer these are shorter, more frequent and more intense. The other thing is that you can see the environment. Actually, you are letting people in to your lives and I think this is quite difficult for some people. 

"But now, because of the situation we are in, people are getting used to the seeing the working environment and it actually becomes OK, we're all in the same boat and it is of no surprise. What it brings is an informality to the discussion which completely changes the means of communication.

"I think it is these moments of levity and socialisation that can allow us to understand our teams as people and who they are and that is an important part of leadership, and good leadership is vital at the moment." 

Well said Nick and thanks Katy for bringing a smile to many of our faces at an intense time. It was a lesson many of us needed - i.e. to remember that while we may be working a million miles an hour to get through this crisis, while the rolling news continues to update us on everything that is in front of us, ultimately we must remember that a moment of levity, a reminder of the human behind the screen, can be a wonderful tonic to keep us going. 

 

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Finally, to say a big thank you for everyone who has joined our new Patreon tiers of paid for support of our work. 

We will be arranging for all of our premium content library to be uploaded to a non-sponsored, members only access area in the coming week and will also be setting up the discussion groups and arranging for some additional member only interviews to be conducted so watch this space.  

If you are interested in accessing our additional membership tiers you can do so from as little as £15/month and throughout the duration of the pandemic that costs will give you access to the top tier VIP membership as well. Find out more @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/subscription-tiers

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Fleet solutions provider give free access to SmartFlow Driver and Subcontractor Management Apps during pandemic.

Microlise has announced it will be making its SmartFlow driver and workflow management app free of charge to existing customers.

The app will be provided free of charge for the duration of the Coronavirus crisis, both to customers not currently using SmartFlow, and to those customers who already use the application, with any increase beyond typical usage incurring no additional charges.

Easing Supply Chain Pressure

The announcement comes as increased levels of consumer buying, fuelled by Covid-19, adds pressure to a supply chain which is already at operating at a high-level. Furthermore, these heightened levels are expected to continue for longer than traditional peak periods.

SmartFlow, the firms says, is a simple mobile application that supports customers to track the location of temporary or third-party drivers, manage tasks, workflows and communications, and collect proof of delivery information. Users are able to provide the App to subcontractors or contract-based drivers, with set-up taking just minutes, with all the collected data feeding directly into the Microlise solution in place.

Commenting Nadeem Raza, Microlise CEO said: “Our customers are depending on our mission-critical systems as never before. We are doing all we can to support their efforts and have identified SmartFlow as a valuable support tool in the current climate. SmartFlow will allow our customers to add additional capacity, secure in the knowledge that they can manage the operational impact in an efficient, effective and transparent way. We are working closely with our customers during this time to proactively identify areas where Microlise can provide additional support - SmartFlow is just one offering that can be quickly deployed to support operators who need to bring additional drivers on-stream.”

Communication Platform offered free of charge to new customers for three months as CEO says real-time communications can play key role in current situation.
ServiceMax's Neil Barua believes real-time communication will be the key to firms tackling the effect of Corona Virus and has made Zinc, their real-time communication platform available free, for three months to new users.

Travel

Speaking to Field Service News, the firm's CEO said the current situation is affecting how their end-users get to jobs, a key strand of service delivery and challenging their traditional service delivery model. "Our customers are dependent on being able to travel and visit customer sites," he says, "They are having to be flexible on how to accommodate service requests with their teams, creating opportunities for virtual trouble shooting and training of end users."

For end-users trying to satisfy pressurised service requests while adhering to constantly changing guidance from authorities and government, means now more than ever, firms need to be flexible and dynamic. Neil believes if firms are to prosper then clear communication channels will play a significant role. "As it is a constantly evolving situation, it is imperative that field teams have direct lines of communication across the service delivery chain to best serve customers in real time." 

In an effort to enhance connectivity during this time ServiceMax have announced the use of their own real-time communication platform, Zinc, which will be made available free of charge for three months for new users. "We know that our customers have important information to share," Barua said of the decision. "Employees need answers, reassurance and connectedness. We all need to work together and support each other in getting through these unique times safely."

SeviceMax's Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer, Stacy Epstein, will be part of our panel at Field Service News' Covid-19 Emergency Symposium which takes place online this Friday (20 March GMT), which you can sign-up for here.

Jan van Veen says firms need to protect themselves first and then accept and adapt to the inevitable long-term affect of the virus.

We all need to take our responsibility to keep our colleagues, our clients’ staff and the public safe. The Coronavirus will be with us for a long time, probably years. We should anticipate a scenario that will have to continue carrying out measures to control the virus.  This could have a substantial impact on our society, economy businesses and our clients' businesses. If we stay close to our clients, we have the best chances to mitigate the impact and reinforce the loyalty of our clients.

Three Phases

In the next six months we should all walk through the next three phases:

Response: Right now we have to control the crisis and mitigate the direct impact on the short term.

Review: Assess what we can learn from the impact of the current outbreak on our business and clients business. What are the vulnerabilities and weaknesses? What are our strengths and what are our opportunities? Which other trends are being triggered? Often, an economic crises and new disruptive technologies can accelerate market disruptions. This could be a chance for significant and innovative change. 

Redesign: How can we make our business more agile and less vulnerable to these kind of outbreaks? Think about safety, capacity, supply chain, remote capabilities. How can we enhance our value propositions to better support our clients? How should we evolve our operating model and business model? Stay flexible and be prepared to adapt.

 

Jan van Veen was part of our panel at Field Service News' Covid-19 Emergency Symposium which you can listen to here.