Gary Brandeleer of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about how the pandemic has ushered in a new era of remote service delivery... 

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REMOTE SERVICE DELIVERY IS NOW TABLE STAKES

Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland recently authored an exclusive white paper published in partnership with Salesforce, that looked at the sudden emergence of remote service delivery as a go to approach for service delivery. To dig further into this embryonic industry-wide discussion, Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer joined Oldland on the Field Service Podcast. Across the following weeks we will be publishing a series of excerpts from that episode beginning with this opening highlight that looks at how the pandemic has rapidly ushered in a new era of service delivery…

Across the last seven months as a direct result of the pandemic we have seen the adoption of an implementation of technology that was predominant best-in-class as we entered 2020.

In fact, for many years, many best-in-class service organisations have had the ability to deliver service remotely – certainly we've been talking about it here at Field Service News for an awfully long time. However, since the arrival of the COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent ongoing lockdowns, the tools that are required to deliver service remotely have suddenly become a necessity for almost all field service organisations, in all corners of the world, across all industries.

 

"Very rapidly, what was actually a good addition to a demonstration of what is possible with a FSM solution suddenly became table stakes..."

- Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce

 

“At first, it was only a few organisations that would be able to offer this kind of remote assistance,” commented Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer on a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast.

“However, we were already beginning to see more and more customers asking for it, even before the pandemic. However, it was not an essential requirement. It was not that if a FSM solution provider could not offer it they would be out of RFP. However, very rapidly, what was actually a good addition to a demonstration of what is possible with a FSM solution suddenly became table stakes,” Brandeleer added.

“Now, everybody wants to get a remote assistant solution. I think the story that we see as well, is that the pandemic pushed field service companies to be much more agile than before.

"Essentially companies were wanting to get remote assistance, and they had no choice in terms of implementing it very fast. There were customers coming to us, customers coming to many different companies, all asking not only for remote assistance, but also being able to implement this kind of remote assistance within the next two weeks.”

 

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Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

 

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Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Post COVID-19 customers are looking for their equipment service providers to minimize their risks by deploying a touchless, or low touch, field service system.  Fortunately, a change like this can be quickly implemented and if you price and market them properly, you will likely enjoy higher revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction.  Sam Klaidman, Founder and Principal Adviser at Middlesex Consulting, makes his debut as a Field Service News associate columnist with an extensive look into the subject.  

I just finished participating in an IFS webinar titled “How COVID-19 Has Permanently Changed The Future Of Field Service” featuring Tom Paquin.  There was a great message on one of Tom’s early slides . 

It read: 

Yesterday: Your empowered customers demanded that you service them  

Today: Your empowered custoemrs are looking for the tools to serve themselves.  

I believe the message in Tom’s this slide is spot on and correctly describes the pre- and post- COVID challenges that Service Executives are and will be facing for years to come.

In this article we will look at the following:

• The high-level role of the service organization 
• The customer’s new challenge 
• Touchless support - how service delivery will change 
• How service marketing should respond to these changes 
• The impact of the new model on service revenue 

THE HIGH-LEVEL ROLE OF THE SERVICE ORGANIZATION

Think about why people buy a product or service. It's not because the product or service is cheap, looks cool, or they know someone who has one and loves it. No, they buy a product or service because they want the benefits they will get from using it. These are their desired business outcomes and what the customer value creation experts call “value from use.” 

Now, why do they buy from you instead of from someone else?  Easy.  They buy from you because you deliver the greatest value when compared to all other alternatives.  And value is defined in two ways: 

• The difference between what they get and what they pay, measured in money ($, €. £, or ¥). 
• Their internal quantification of intangible benefits like great service, peace of mind, and ego boosting. 

What is the role of customer or field service in this discussion?  Service’s role is to allow the buyer to continue to generate desired business outcomes plus the intangible benefits after they pay for the product and continue to use it during the complete product lifecycle. When service does this well, the customer will not change suppliers, will repurchase when they again have a need, and will buy add-ons that create additional incremental value. 

No matter how your service delivers on these outcomes, the end results must meet the customer’s expectation at the time of purchase. 

THE customer's new challenge

In March 2020, OEM’s services businesses starting hearing lots of new pushback:

• From the end user customers they heard “My XXX is down and I need to fix it but we cannot bring any outsiders into our facility”

• From customer Purchasing people they heard “WTF - Your travel costs are over the top plus you can’t get here for 3 days”

• From your company’s best salesperson they heard “Our key customer needs to find a way to service our products remotely and you have not come up with anything useful…”

• And from their service technicians they heard “I can’t go to that customer.  I hear they had 20 COVID-19 infections just this week and I have a sick grandparent that lives in my house.” 

Yes, customers are demanding a new way to service their equipment, and this will probably be the new normal when we come out of this current pandemic.

TOUCHLESS SUPPORT - HOW SERVICE DELIVERY WILL CHANGE

Almost all end users are looking for what the media calls “touchless support.”  This means no outsider must come into their facility to diagnose and repair any of their products.  And that is not such a strange concept considering the risk of bringing an outsider into what the customers believe is a controlled environment.  Also, these days everyone is risk adverse and is looking for ways to mitigate all future risks, no matter how unlikely they are.  However, please note that the end-users are fully aware that this kind of support has a price and they are prepared to pay a fair price if their value delivered exceeds their costs.

This means that customers want a form of enhanced self-service for break/fix service and possibly external help for scheduled events like preventative maintenance and upgrades.  Here is a quote from an August 2020 McKinsey and Company article From defense to offense: Digital B2B services in the next normal: 

Now let’s briefly look at each of the tools and technologies listed above. 

Simple knowledge base (FAQs)

Every product focused website should have at least these three types of separate FAQs for current customers:

• How do I work with the OEM? – This list covers subjects like reaching scheduling an installation, technical support, getting and RMA number, finding out the latest software and firmware versions, upgrading software and firmware, location of service centers, buying consumables and spare parts (with a link to your ecommerce site), and warranty terms. 
• For each product, answer the basic and medium complexity how do I…questions. In addition to answering questions, this section should contain links to manuals, training videos, checklists and other documents that can be downloaded, and parts lists and drawings. 
• For each product or application, answer questions about available service contracts with a chat feature or a link to service sales.

These simple knowledge bases have been around for many years and yet many businesses do not even have the most basic type of FAQ’s -the how do I work with the OEM? page.

Merged reality virtual assistance

Merged reality is the simplest digital application imaginable, which is why it so popular these days.  I know of one supplier that helped an OEM purchase and deploy a merged reality application for over 1000 field engineers in six days with no capital expenditure other than making sure these engineers have either a smartphone or a tablet.

In its simplest form, the field engineer and the tech support person each use their smartphone or tablet to stream a video image to the app.  The app them merges them together and send it back to both parties.  The field engineer’s video stream shows a view of the product being worked on and the support person shows either a finger, a tool, a meter, or something like that.  The support person places his finger to point at something he wants the field engineer to work on, which they both see.  And they also talk to each other while this is going on.  For example, the field engineer can transmit a picture of a control panel and the support can point to an adjustment knob and say, “turn this knob about ¼ turn clockwise.  There is no ambiguity about which knob to turn.

Another notable feature is that the whole session can be recorded and linked to the appropriate work order.  This is important since the videos can also be uploaded to either a YouTube channel or to a robust searchable knowledge base so other technicians or customer’s maintenance technicians can easily visualize the troubleshooting and repair process.

Of course, these applications have many other equally simple features. To learn more, I recommend that you look at either Help Lightning or Sightcall.  They have both made a major impact on field service delivery.

Remote computer support

Remote computer support has also been around for ages and once set up, it is as easy to use as merged reality virtual assistance.  Using something like LogMeIn Rescue, the support engineer can take over control of the client computer, run diagnostics, direct the computer operator to perform specific keystrokes and see what happens.  This makes troubleshooting desktop problem easy to handle remotely.

Other solutions come bundled into the computer itself.  For example, Google Chrome and Windows have remote control included while Apple technical support people can access Apple computers with the user only granting access during a support call.

Robust, and growing, multi-media knowledge base

For most products, it would be extremely difficult to store and list all troubleshooting and repair videos.  Just think about how difficult it would be to describe a problem the way a customer would.  That is why good knowledge bases are built with an artificial intelligence (AI) engine to instantly search a multimedia data base indexed with tabs and that works like Google search.  Yet that is what is needed when a qualified end user technician is trying to repair a system that has an intermittent fault she has never seen before.

This is why I said that the stored videos from a merged reality virtual assistance session can be so useful.  While these videos should be edited to eliminate standby time, repetitions, and side conversations, it is especially useful to go through all the trial and error troubleshooting since the same symptoms may have different causes and the more thorough the video, the more likely it will be that the system gets repair quickly. 

AnswerAnywhere is a database designed to be used by field technicians and appears to offer many of the capabilities I described above.  It is worth looking into as you start building out your robust service knowledge base.

Embedded diagnostics, Remote diagnostics, and Internet of things (IoT)

These are three variations of the basic data collection and transmission scenario.

Embedded diagnostics is used when the product has an onboard processor, sensors, and data transmission capabilities.  The embedded diagnostics look at information available inside the product and determine if it is working properly or has a fault.  We are all familiar with this from our cars.  When the air pressure inside our tire goes below a preset limit, the car displays an icon of a tire and a message.  When we travel more than a set limit without changing our engine oil (assuming we drive a car with an internal combustion engine), we get a “change oil” message.

In the mid-1980’s, I was the VP of Service for a data communications company.  Our product was nearly completely redundant, and our internal computer monitored the status of each module.  When any module sent an error message to the internal computer, it compared both like modules and if they differed by more than a set amount, it compared each module to the expected output.  When it determined which of the pair had faulted, it took that module off-line and notified the user.

Remote diagnostics is like embedded diagnostics only in reverse.  A remote computer interrogates sensors, on-board memory, and a devices control system to determine if the system is working properly. The advantage of remote diagnostics is that the computer is generally more powerful that the computer in the machine.  This means there is a good chance it can track accurately sensor outputs and detect any subtle changes.  The computer can also have AI software and perform machine learning (ML) so it can identify when a true failure is likely to occur.  It also may be able to determine the likely fix and so it can schedule a repair at an off-shift time when there is no substantial cost of downtime.

The diagnostics I just described are not easy to create and program and therefore are expensive.  But in the right circumstances, they can me unbelievably valuable.  Consider the case of the jet engines that power an Airbus A350 or a Boeing 787.  On a transatlantic flight, each engine can produce about 1Terabyte of data.  The data can be transmitted in real time to a central location when the software looks for anomalies and, when it finds one, can notify the repair people at the destination so the repair can be made (sometimes) in the turnaround period.  Not having a mid-flight engine failure can be priceless!

Internet of Things is like the remote diagnostics that I just described except that the IoT computer can easily import data from any other device or website to make a more robust calculation then just looking at one product.  In the jet engine example, an IoT system can also import weather data, flight parameters, airplane weight and balance data, and data from all the engines on the same route with all their related data and come up with a strong recommendation about what to fix and when.

Today’s technology for identifying equipment problems and solutions is getting both incredibly power and seriously expensive.  But, for the right product and use case, these software systems can save lives, lots of money, and jobs.

HOW SERVICE MARKETING SHOULD RESPONDE TO THESE CHANGES

Each of the technologies has a unique cost/benefits equation. That means that each implementation has a unique value proposition and should have a unique cost.  And when you combine multiple solutions the customer value can increase dramatically. This is where service marketing comes into play.  They should be charged with answering the following questions:

• How should our latest offers be structured? 
• What should we charge for each offer? 
• What happens went we replace a free offer (e.g., telephone support) with a higher value offer (telephone support + virtual assistant)?  Do we remove the free telephone support or charge for all non-warranty calls? 

• How do we sell the offers? 
• How do we get product sales on-board?  
• How do we train all out International channel partners? Do we charge them for supporting the customers? 
• What metrics do we want to use to evaluate our decisions?

This is when you will be glad you have a service marketing professional to help solve all these non-technical challenges.

THE IMPACT OF THE NEW MODEL ON SERVICE REVENUE

Of course, we all want to know how using these tools and technologies will impact our revenue and profit.  The simple answer is “It all depends.”  It depends on:

• What services you currently sell and which you do at no charge. 
• What services your customers are willing to pay for and you do not currently offer. 
• How much business you are losing or how much money you are earning because your field engineers must travel from a great and expensive distance. 
• How much growth the product side of your business will enjoy because you were able to best satisfy the needs of prospects. 

• How many contract truck rolls you can avoid while fixing a problem in a shorter time then when you dispatch a service technician.

Overall all, if you implement only the first three items on the list (simple knowledge base, merged reality virtual assistance, and remote computer support) and price and market them creatively, you will generate higher revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction.  Not a bad set of outcomes from investing in satisfying your customer’s desires for a touchless, or low touch, field service system.<

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Connect to Sam Klaidman @ www.linkedin.com/samklaidman
• Find out more about Middlesex Consulting @ www.middlesexconsulting.com
• Read more from Sam Klaidman @ middlesexconsulting.com/blog

 

As one of the most severely affected places by COVID-19, the Government of the Piedmont Region in Italy requested that the B-LiFE (Biological Light Field Laboratory for Emergencies) service was deployed in the area since June to carry out vital COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

Using its advanced mobile laboratory, the mission of the B-LiFE department was to carry out a large number of COVID-19 tests for first responders, civil protection, health personnel, police and volunteers.

The deployment of B-LiFE is led by the Centre for Applied Molecular Technologies of UCLouvain (Catholic University of Louvain) with the support of ESA (European Space Agency), the Luxembourg Government and its Ministry of Defence. B-LiFE's partners in this humanitarian mission are Belgian companies Eonix and Nazka Mapps, Luxembourg companies’ SES and GovSat, and French company ETELM.

 

ETELM AND B-LIFE PARTNERED UP TO PROVIDE CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT IN ONE OF THE REGIONS WORST AFFECTED BY THE PANDEMIC

B-LiFE was developed as part of the ESA Space Solutions programme (formerly known as IAP-ARTES 20), with the participation of Belgium and Luxembourg. The integration of satellite and terrestrial telecommunications, information management, earth observation, location management and real-time epidemiological mapping allows B-LiFE to be deployed very quickly, autonomously and as close as possible to a crisis zone.

Mobile laboratories have become extremely important during the COVID-19 pandemic. B-LiFE is one of the most advanced mobile laboratories in the world and has been operational since 2014 when it was successfully deployed in Guinea during the Ebola outbreak. It is integrated and certified in the European Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM)

ETELM, a partner of B-LiFE, has made a critical contribution to the initiative in supplying telecommunications services. It has enabled the integration of TETRA and LTE terrestrial telecommunications capabilities into the satellite terminal provided by SES, GovSat and the Luxembourg Ministry of Defence. This work was necessary to ensure full autonomy during a crisis situation and to enable interoperability with local emergency services.

ETELM's 4GLinked Unified Mobile Platform has been successfully deployed and tested to support B-LiFE laboratory operations, including PMR TETRA and LTE base stations. ETELM's participation in the B-LiFE mission in the Piedmont Region, and the successful use of its equipment and service, ensures the company’s ongoing partnership with B-LiFE.

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about ETELM  @ www.etelm.fr
• Find out more about B-LIFE @ www.blife.it
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Covid-19 on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Follow ETELM on Twitter @ twitter.com/ETELM2

 

One of the key areas that was discussed heavily in a recent Field Service News Think Tank Session was whether the move towards remote first as a default a key part of the new normal?

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The Pros and Cons of a Remote First Default Approach to Service Delivery 

As is always the case with the Think Tank Sessions there was robust discussion with the pros and cons of such an approach both put forward. For some around the table including Konica Minolta’s Ged Cranny the shift to a remote first approach was not only likely but also potentially a necessity.

For others in the group including Siemens' Tony Chapman, the conclusions were less certain.

As Chapman commented during the session, “the value for me in the engineer is the knowledge. By that I mean it is not just the knowledge of the product, it is knowledge of the product and the process that we delivered to a customer - then you have to devolve that to a remote service.

“The benefits of that type of knowledge for the customer are that you get the expertise on hand. The question is how much does value does the customer see in that expertise?”

What we saw begin to emerge from this Think Tank session was the start of a new conversation within the field service sector, or perhaps more accurately an increased urgency to assess a conversation we have been having for some time, but where the balance of importance has suddenly been shifted as a result of the global pandemic.

 

"It all revolves around what have you sold to your customer? Are you fixing downtime? Or are you selling uptime?”

- Coen Jeukens, ServiceMax

 

Do we need to guide our customers towards understanding that remote first is the way forward and start having firm conversations about the value of uptime and quick issue resolution over on-site presence? Yet, many customers will still see the value of having an engineer on site – something that is a fundamental part of where their value perception of field service delivery lies. Where do you sit on that?

Perhaps the answer lies in some form of halfway house as is often the way in both life and business. Perhaps, in a world of remote first as a default approach to service delivery, the physical presence of an onsite engineer becomes a premium service offering?

“There are two elements to it this conversation,” mused Coen Jeukens, Vice President of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax during the detailed debrief session held on simultaneously on the Field Service News Digital Sympoisum and ServiceMax’s executive circles webinar series.

“On the one hand, it all revolves around what have you sold to your customer? Are you fixing downtime? Or are you selling uptime?” Jeukens continues.

“If you are selling the fixing of downtime, then I think the customer is really going to continue seeing the value of the technician being on site. If the technician isn't on site anymore and you start fixing the issues remotely then it is a completely different value proposition.

“On the other hand, if you're selling uptime, for the customer, it doesn’t really matter whether you do it with the technician on site or remote. In fact, maybe fixing it with an remote type of service has a lesser impact on the downtime of the customer. Therefore, I think you first have to know what the customer is buying.”

 

"I always would always take into account service is not only a matter of let's say metrics, I also see that service has a human element to it..."

- Coen Jeukens, ServiceMax

 

However, there as most service leaders will note, there is often more to the longevity and success of a service contract than just the cold hard metrics. There are always countless examples of customers who truly value the rapport of the field service engineer, the human interaction that will be lost within a remote services fix.

As Jeukens comments, “I always would always take into account service is not only a matter of let's say metrics, I also see that service has a human element to it. I do see that there are a lot of customers out there who really value seeing of a technician on site - especially when the technician on site is not only fixing the product, but if the technician is also ‘fixing’ the customer by providing additional services such as how they could better utilize a piece of equipment. For that you really need human interaction.

“Depending on what you're tasking your technicians to do, fixing the downtime or selling the uptime, or even fixing the customer, I think we you will see a hybrid model emerge. However, I definitely see that a lot of companies who have been reluctant in allowing remote connectivity or remote service because they always saw a fear of connectivity, the firewall, etc. - I think a lot of those customers right now see that they have to reassess the fear of opening up a chat channel in the firewall versus their need for uptime,” Jeukens adds.

 

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Want to know more about this Think Tank Conversation?

The full Executive Briefing Report from this Think Tank Session is now available for Field Service News Subscribers. If you are already a subscriber click the button below to read the report now!

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

 

 

 

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Data usage note: By accessing either of the premium content resources listed above within 30 days of publication you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServiceMax who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of these resources.

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It's been said in many corners of the field service industry and beyond, that COVID-19 has been the greatest disrupter of all time - what does this mean for the field service sector?

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Missed the full debrief session? Field Service News Subscribers can access the full debrief session on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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The Short-Term & Long-Term Planning Field Service Companies Should Be Undertaking

Within the recent Field Service News Think Tank Session that was focused on the impact on the pandemic on the field service industry, it was also pointed out that it's also been the greatest accelerator for digital transformation amongst field service companies.

As Kevin Starr, ABB said one of our Digital Symposium live streams during the lockdowns commented, "our five year plan digital transformation plan got condensed to five weeks!"

Whilst Starr may have been being slightly hyperbolic; it remains a neat summary of how digital transformation projects in our industry have not just been accelerated but have been given a turbo boost.

However, while we have seen digital transformation become the single most pressing focus for the majority of field service companies in 2020, one thing that became apparent during the pandemic is that it is those companies that were already well down the path towards digitalization, and who had already begun to rethink their approach to service delivery as part of that process who were best positioned to adapt.

 

"While Cranny may have expressed the concept in his trademark pragmatic way ahead of the curve, he was not alone in sharing this vision of the future of field service..."

 

As Ged Cranny, Konica Minolta had explained during a Field Service Think Tank session, "one of the things that we realized four or five years ago was that machines are getting more reliable. Plus, we had an ageing workforce. I walked in the room and told everybody, I wanted to run the service department with no engineers. My management team looked at me as if I had gone mad."

It was a bold statement five years ago. Today, it is an uncannily prescient move that positions Konica Minolta well as they and all around them are forced to consider a world of zero-touch service delivery where possible. I said to them, if we achieve this everybody in the world, we'll look at what we're doing. Indeed, while Cranny may have expressed the concept in his trademark pragmatic way ahead of the curve, he was not alone in sharing this vision of the future of field service. Many other forward-thinking organizations were also considering the move to remote services. Yet, while the path was being laid it out, a remote-first approach remained for most a dot on the horizon.

"I think, if you look into the majority of service contracts were in existence, that they were already offering such services, Rajat Kakar, IBM had commented during the same Field Service News Think Tank Session. However, COVID-19 has pushed us much closer to that horizon in 2020 than anyone might have anticipated.

"I think the markets need to move a little bit faster in adapting to some of the tools we have," added Kakar. "If you launch an engineer is quite expensive. If you can reduce that cost by utilizing remote support. Then from the OEM standpoint, we should start thinking about self healing a lot more," Kakar had expanded.

 

"In the near term, you're looking at things around workforce, models for capacity needed when lockdowns are raised, identifying which workers can be brought back in and evaluating your cash situation..."

- Daniel Brabec, ServiceMax

 

It is such forward-thinking that sets apart the Think Tank discussions as some of the leading conversations happening today within our industry. A format that brings true industry leaders together with the freedom to bounce ideas off each other without constraint can lead to genuinely inspiring conversations.

As we worked through some of the salient points from the last quarter's Think Tank sessions, Daniel Brabec, VP Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax neatly summarized the current thinking that we are seeing emerge.

"You've got the short term where you're keeping the business going, looking at your current field procedures to determine which steps can be reworked or bypassed, locating your critical parts, Brabec explained.

"In the near term, you're looking at things around workforce, models for capacity needed when lockdowns are raised, identifying which workers can be brought back in and evaluating your cash situation looking at the impact of pent up demand or deferred demand for installations and preventative maintenance visits.

"Then in the long term, you really want to start assessing and reevaluating how you're going to approach your whole structure of service moving forward, structuring the way forward and getting more remote support, even looking forwards to new concepts such as self healing. Having more connected devices and products and enabling your customers more is going to be the way of the future and I think COVID is really helping to accelerate all of them."

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Want to know more about this Think Tank Conversation?

The full Executive Briefing Report from this Think Tank Session is now available for Field Service News Subscribers. If you are already a subscriber click the button below to read the report now!

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

 

 

 

 

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Follow the latest features from the Field Service Think Tank Sessions @ thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com

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Data usage note: By accessing either of the premium content resources listed above within 30 days of publication you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServiceMax who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of these resources.

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Daniel Brabec and Coen Jeukens of Servicemax reflect on the financial impact of the global lockdowns on th efield service sector. 

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Missed the full debrief session? Field Service News Subscribers can access the full debrief session on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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The Falling Dominos of the Field Service Supply Chain: 

There has been a lot of discussion about how the financial recovery may look since the pandemic hit. Initially, there was some optimism that as deep as the blow was to the global recovery we could see the economy bounce back in almost the same measure. Indeed, the economic analysts are largely predicting an upturn in US GDP of around 20% which would be the largest quarterly rise in history. Yet, this is positive momentum must of course be held up against a historic 33% contraction in the second quarter of 2020.

Perhaps the best description of how the economy may return to pre COVID levels is the ‘Nike Swoosh’ curve – a steep and steady drop followed by a more gradual and controlled return.

Ultimately, the impact of the global lockdowns has had a massive impact on economies across the world, and field service organisations have felt this challenge as much as any other industry, as the customer ecosystems that they operate within have been hugely effected. The domino effect of a crashing economy has hit service organisations hard.

Fundamentally, we all know that for the short to mid-term at least there is going to be a lot less there's going to be less cash in the market. However, the precedents of the past have shown that often in an economic downturn it is service delivery that will thrive as assets in the field are sweated that little bit longer – meaning the service and maintenance contracts required to keep those assets operating at full capacity become in greater demand.

 

"There's a whole knock on effect across all industries where companies are affected in being able to collect that revenue in line with the standard service the cash cycle..."

- Daniel Brabec, ServiceMax

 

“I think we have to look at a couple of pieces,” commented Daniel Brabec, Vice President, Globat Customer Transformation Services, ServiceMax during the last Field Service News Think Tank Quarterly Debrief.

“From the financial perspective, some companies such as those in med-tech sector are companies you would think are doing fantastic simply there's such a high need for their services at this time. However, you also have to consider whether or not their customers can pay them.

“There's a whole knock on effect across all industries where companies are affected in being able to collect that revenue in line with the standard service the cash cycle. So the question is what are these companies looking at in terms of bringing revenue back into the business to invest? I think Alec [Pinto, Leica Bio-Systems] really hit the nail on the head there in his in his comment about revenues being tied to fixed services.”

This is an important point and one that was discussed heavily during a Think Tank session that was centred around the initial impact of the pandemic. Will there be a requirement for rethinking the way we approach developing our service contracts and indeed our very service offerings as we try to adapt to the new normal?

“We need to see a shift and we will see a shift,” Brabec continues.

“I think for a lot of organizations if they want to thrive in the future the shift will be towards outcome based services. This is because you are working with a customer and end user and have a contract with them where you're guaranteeing certain levels, you still have that contract. It's not going to be impacted as much as a contract on a time and materials basis.

“Moving forward, I believe you're going to have a lot of organizations shift more toward that model out of pure necessity - they won't be able to survive if there were continued pandemics or any other issues that might arise in the future that could potentially limit their cash flow. So, companies will have to think of other ways to have that that recurring revenue that adds long term annuity streams that will help your business not only weather the storms but continue to thrive and grow into the future,” Brabec adds.

 

“I think this entire pandemic has showed us that we have a large vulnerability with the way we have set up our supply chains with a lot of manufacturing happening offshore..."

Coen Jeukens, ServiceMax

 

Of course, with the question of both customer supply chains and restricted funds within the market another big question we must address now is whether the service supply chain and spare parts logistics is robust enough to survive a second wave of lockdown should the pandemic rear its ugly head once again.

“I think this entire pandemic has showed us that we have a large vulnerability with the way we have set up our supply chains with a lot of manufacturing happening offshore,” reflected Coen Jeukens, Vice President, Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax during the debrief session.

“If we go back to our customer base, we see that customers have organized their supply chain in a certain way because that was the most efficient way under the legacy model, because we couldn't conceive something like this would happen. Now we know and Daniel already mentioned the business continuity plans, those continuity plans, couldn't even foresee this happening. I think that right now with these new insights, we will rethink our continuity plans, and we will start preparing for it,” Jeukens adds.

So, could this be the impetus for a more widespread adoption of 3D printing? Particularly within the spare parts arena?

“I do think that in certain cases, it is possible to use 3d printing to print spare parts - it is possible but for other parts I think we do have to rethink, maybe we have to go back to the CFO and say, ‘well, you had an inventory reduction program, but if we look at our recovery process, we might have to invest in additional stock.” Jeukens comments.

“Alternatively, it may be the other way around. Maybe you have sufficient stock but you have certain technicians are hoarding spare parts in case of another supply chain failure. For me it is essential that companies invest in the visibility in their own infrastructure to see what technician is ordering and who's consuming it.

“Then, even if you have a shortage of material, then you should rethink from a prioritization perspective. What particular break-fix type of situation really warrants you to use one of those very precious spare parts instead of just fixing a piece of equipment for a machine that doesn't really have a criticality in a customer context? I think that revisiting those business continuity plans, rethinking the supply chain, see in what areas 3D printing can alleviate the pain, is an important undertaking for service organisations at this moment,”

 

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In this excerpt from the inaugural Field Service News Think Tanks Debrief Session Kieran Notter and Daniel Brabec reflects on the groups comments around the initial operational challenges of Covid-19

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The many conversations required for servitization to work: 

As we moved onto the final Think Tank of the three that we were reflecting on during this inaugural debrief session we touched on the longest and perhaps most important Think Tank that Field Service News has ever run. The focus of this session was to assess the impact of Covid-19 and to establish some first steps in building towards the recovery. 

Having put an initial question to the group for them to outline their initial responses to the lockdowns of the pandemic, it made sense for Kieran Notter, VP Global Customer Transformation to be the one that opened up the discussion during the debrief. 

During the actual Think Tank there were some excellent and well considered comments including Alec Pinto, Regional Service Manager DACH & High Growth Markets, Leica Biosystems comment:

“From an operative perspective, we couldn’t go out anymore. So we had to start getting used to the new regulations quickly. What was allowed in hospitals? How could we get our people into hospitals? Suddenly, we were putting our people in areas of risk, so managing that part of the operation and ensuring safety while letting our employees feel secure, that was a big challenge to overcome.”

As well as Rajat Kakar, Executive, IBM, Services EMEA comment: 

“We saw a massive shift in ways of businesses. As an example, companies who provided services for people to migrate from office buildings to homes were busy; they didn’t have enough people to bring the office equipment, set it up at people’s homes and set up home offices. Whereas, companies which were primarily working on standard services, IT services within the corporate environments, they saw a decline in business.”

Reflecting back on both these quotes and the discussion at large Notter said, "for me, it was, it was quite interesting listening to everybody view. We gave them a rough two minutes to try and give a view of what the current situation was about. But it was it was that important or passionate to them that two minutes was nigh on impossible.

"On Alec's points, there was much that he sad that couldn't all fit into one slide but some of the other bits that Alec said that really sort of made a difference. We know med-tech device companies, at least some of them, are really, really it's going to thrive through this pandemic, because it's their business, it's what they do. 

Then we have the other businesses that have done really bad because no one's using their products. There is no service has to be done and it's a very different environment. For someone like Alec, who was sort of in the middle, they were doing that that hospital work, where they had to stay open. It was even the confusion that if a technician went into a hospital to do some work in a schedule, you were asking do they need their quarantine for 14 days because they've been into a hospital? What are the rules behind it? What's the game plan?

Then there is the HR element that came into the conversation. How do we look after the technicians? What happens if they've got dependents at home who are vulnerable?  So that's the level of detail really and understanding of what the challenges are.

"When Rajat, spoke, he spoke about some great points, but one of the most interesting things I thought he raised was one of the simplest. He said, People come to work, the telephones are on their desk. You leave them at home that telephonic system isn't with them anymore. How can they run a call center if they have no telephone? It's just really really simple things like that, that no-one had planned for."

"I think one of the key pieces that we've seen that's come came out of this is around business continuity plans and the way that that companies are starting to reassess the way they approach their customers," adds Daniel Brabec VP Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax.

"We need to use this time to find ways to make and build relationships and any CSO that's looking at things from that perspective, I think, is is poised to thrive moving forward. They're acknowledging that we have a huge issue, but what are the ways that we can address it and not only adjust to the new normal but also come out of the stronger. A lot of that is focused on customer relationships and how they're going to actually approach service in the future."

 

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Ahmed Gharbaoui is a Global Subject Matter Expert in Business Growing by Service approach. Here he puts forward a three step plan for field service organisations to build recovery from the colossal impact of Covid-19...

Organizations in your industry have reported that their business is heavily impacted by the COVID19 outbreak, predicting it will take two more years to reach their Q1 2019 P&L levels again.

Long-term loss of market share or even disappearing from the marketplace are real concerns. In that context, a swift influx of cash Is often needed to stay afloat, but external sources of cash may not even be enough to survive the fierce competition.

If you are wondering what step to take to bring swift influx of cash AND address the quick changes in the market place, you may want to tap into Aftersales services and digital resources which proven to be one of the fastest ways to uplift profitability besides strengthening the relationship with your supplied assets end-users through increased customer satisfaction.

Being capital equipment driven for years can make that shift challenging, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right strategy and support, remarkable results can be achieved faster then expected.

Here below highlights of 100 days survival and lasting growth via the 3 pillars approach:

 

Increase Business Resilience :

It is about evaluating and increasing ratio of reoccurring stable profitable revenue.

• Assess Aftermarket/Service share/ratio from total Business
• Assess reoccurring business contribution from Aftermarket Revenue.
• Example ratio of Service Agreements
• Recommend priority focus and define road map taking into account digital support solutions, planning and operational processing.

 

Bring Aftermarket Operations Transparency:

Service Operations usually is considered as space where errors and quality issues are hidden.

By understanding space and setting improving plan. This would be a fast way to improve cash and profit to the bottom line.

• • For example, Check existence and viability of returns/redos tracking
• • Assess your improvement processes
• • Set based on the findings and benchmark with best in class immediate quick-fixes and mid-long term sustainable improvement roadmap.

 

Boost Sales Efficiency by:

The level of understanding of an organisation’s aftersales people resources is an important step towards survival and sustainable growth. In following, quick highlight of priority actions.

• For example, assess current aftermarket organization and level of importance in the leadership team.
• Assess the profile and ratio of salesforce versus execution teams
• Then, immediate and targeted actions can be set in terms of sales capacity planning and transformational strategy.

Here are a few short, mid and long-term success stories you may relate to by thanks to the 3 pillars approah:

North American Global leader of Compressed Air Systems OEM:

In order to improve business resilience and boost overall P&L, after first unsuccessful attempt to merge Capital Equipment Sales team with Aftermarket Sales representatives one Account Managers team, + 40% experienced sales team members left for competition. By practicing sales assessment tools the entity could increase its Service Sales share by +30% from first quarter of its implementation. And importantly transforming equipment sales team to solutions Sales organization, dealing with and users challenges and ready to face new future!

US Global engine and powergen OEM: Declining Engines & Powergen:

Aftersales Business Unit of +100 M USD due to heavy dependency on parts, swiftly grew their service business by +60%. Additionally Executive team were convinced to aggressively expand dedicated sales team from 3 to 10 headcounts in very tight P&L context. Bringing additionally + $1 M USD by extra headcount profitably.

European Global Compressed Air System market leader:

Despite declining economy due, they achieved notable uplift in Compressors aftersales revenue from $17M USD to $26M USD with enhanced Operational Efficiency and EBITA across multiple Countries. Additionally launched new digital service offering after connecting +1200 units which boosted Service Agreements revenue and profit reoccurrence.

If you’re an industrial goods manufacturer looking for cash oxygen in a less than 100 days and you’d like to set the foundations for sustainable growth beyond mere survival, we should talk. My email ID is growbyservice@gmail.com

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Further Reading: 

• Read more about Covid 19 and Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Read more about Managing the mobile workforce @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Read more about Field Service Leadership and Strategy @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/leadership-and-strategy

Professor Tim Baines, Director of the Advanced Services Group, Aston University and Dr. Ali Zia Bigdeli, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Services Innovation at Aston University argue manufacturing should embrace services as part of its post-COVID-19 strategy.

 

Change, a 1985 paper argued, can be characterised as a “punctuated equilibrium”: long periods of relative calm and small incremental alterations that are interrupted by brief, but radical, seismic shifts. COVID-19 means that we are now living through one of those revolutionary moments.

Advanced Services and Positive Business

But that also means that there is an opportunity to look at things in a new way. For the past 20 years, we’ve been conducting research and advising manufacturers to compete through services – activities aimed at solving customers’ problems – rather than simply just pushing boxes out of the factory.

And our reasons are simple: services are good for business, good for the economy and environment, and good for society. Now accounting for 80% of the UK’s economic output, services have grown by 30% over the past 20 years. By comparison, gross domestic product (GDP) generated from selling products has contracted – a trend that is being replicated in every developed economy across the world.

But it has been a slow and sometimes painful journey – “What is this thing called servitization,” we are asked. “And how do you spell it?!” Up until now, change in this field, like in so many others, has been evolutionary, somewhat incremental and exploratory. But then arrives a global pandemic that shatters the equilibrium and stimulates radical innovation.

These are challenging times, and it’s important not to make light of the struggles facing the global economy. Business activity is currently polarised around sector and geography. On the one hand are manufacturers who support the food and health sectors and have never been busier. On the other are those businesses linked to the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries which are being forced to mothball facilities and lay off staff in their tens of thousands.

For some, the implications are so severe that they may not survive. Even those that are doing well are having to deal with a reduced workforce, social distancing in the workplace, and the economic fallout of customers being unable to pay their bills.

Disrupting the old norms

How appealing the old norms may now seem. Until just a few months ago, most executives within manufacturing organisations had a rather passive, established view of services. For us, it was frustrating, but comfortingly familiar.

We could work with these manufacturers to help them better understand the value of services, influence key decision-makers and then hopefully get a chance to support their innovation of new business models, technologies and organisational structures. But we often experienced an equilibrium – the harder we helped manufacturing executives to push for more services, the harder the system pushed back.

Now, however, that equilibrium is being disrupted.Take performance advisory services. These are services that allow manufacturers to use digital technologies to gain insight into how customers use their products, and then offer data and/or intelligence back to that customer on how to gain more value from those products.

"The end of this period of disruption will bring a new set of norms, and it’s beyond belief that we will return to the days of simply shifting boxes..."

An example of this type of service is Siemens’ monitoring of the condition of airport baggage carts. The company gathers acoustic and vibration data from rail-mounted luggage carts around the airport and uses this data to assess the likelihood of breakdowns before they happen.

Breakdowns cost time and money. So spotting potential breakdowns in advance saves airport operators the penalties that must be paid when luggage isn’t loaded onto flights on time, and improves the passenger experience through the punctual delivery of baggage.We have seen a wealth of technically excellent digital systems like this. Most, however, have so far failed to be commercially viable and manufacturers have been reluctant to invest in and push them to customers. But in the current climate, that may change.

As well as opening up a huge new market opportunity, these services could be far more profitable than simply selling the products themselves. Such services can also develop enviable intimacy with and loyalty from customers as the provider is able to address their customers’ demands and problems much more quickly and effectively.

And now times are changing, the economic potential of services is becoming more visible. Indeed, remote support and performance advisory services – helpdesks, remote support for breakdowns, digital installations – provide obvious solutions in an age of social distancing, remote working and lockdowns.

Customers either want remote advice on how to fix problems themselves, or they want the manufacturer to remotely fix and upgrade their equipment. It’s not all about technology, of course – customers still value speaking to a person, just not face to face. But manufacturers no longer need to gamble as much on selling these new systems; customers actively are seeking them. Both parties are starting to look at the bigger picture, and services are proving vitally important to both.

Accelerated change

For some time yet, change will be accelerated and hastened. The end of this period of disruption will bring a new set of norms, and it’s beyond belief that we will return to the days of simply shifting boxes. At the very least, business plans will need to include how to deal with disruption – whether it’s related to health, the economy or the environment.

The opportunities that this creates for services are potentially dramatic. Services are in the midst of radical change and, of course, we all look forward to returning to those long periods of relative calm. However, in so many ways, things will never be the same. Business models for manufacturers will have been disrupted, and there will be new and different conversations about the value of services. These business models have the potential to deliver huge value, and a level of resilience that we may never see again for production-based ways of competing.

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Further Reading:

• Read more articles by Tim Baines @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/tim+baines
• Read more articles by Ali Zia Bigdeli @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/AliZiaBigdeli
• Find out more about the World Servitization Conference @ https://www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/wsc2020
• Read more articles about servitization @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• This article first appeared The Conversation.com here
• Follow the work of the Advanced Services Group @ www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/
• Follow the Advanced Services Group @ twitter.com/theasgroup