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Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower explains why the connected customer is far more than just a marketing buzz phrase and focuses on the benefits of a truly unified platform...

In today’s consumer-centric economy, companies must do more than manufacture solid products for the home or business. Consumers consider the entire product lifetime value, from point of sale to the service experience, when deciding to buy.

They rely on sources other than brick and mortar showrooms to research and select products, often going to the web and most importantly other consumers’ reviews of products online. The connected consumer is no longer just marketing speak, and customers expect a differentiated service experience also from their connected devices or equipment.

What defines good service?

Whether providing service to a connected home or business, or simply on a faulty appliance or television, inspecting a wrecked automobile or damaged roof, installing a security system or a delivering healthcare supplies, ‘good service’ encompasses more than simply referring a consumer to a call center and then a service employee or contractor who may or may not call to schedule an appointment.

That model started changing in the early 1990’s with the growth in adoption of field service management software. Today, consumers expect more of service providers than scheduling an appointment and waiting for a technician to arrive.

What defines a great service experience?

A great service experience relies on improving the entire service lifecycle by providing Faster, Smarter Service on a Unified platform. The best field service management software supports the entire lifecycle, empowering consumers to digitally engage with you, enabling field technicians to deliver personalised service and providing a unified platform with modular functionality on which service operations can continuously optimise ongoing service delivery.

Let’s discuss how each below offers a digital, connected process that is differentiated from that of old.

Digital Engagement

Consumer engagement is critical to faster service. Providing an intelligent digital experience which enables customers to book appointments at their convenience with your trained and credentialed workforce, check status, communicate with technicians and track their locations is expected in today’s digital economy.

You also need one place that diagnostic data and added triage information available from the customer or the connected device or piece of equipment, service history, asset information that is easily available for both the customer and the technician. The days are gone where you want to send a technician out for something that can be handled remotely. Likewise, customers want to do more online, such as registering product purchases, buying additional products and services, and posting reviews of the service experience.

 

Consumers can research purchases and buy online, right now. Their expectations for service post-sale is exactly the same, and they also want their service experience to be ideally such that they want to buy more from the product or service brand.

The best field service management solutions easily engage consumers where, when and how they desire with the service contract provider.

Technician Enablement

Field service technicians, insurance adjusters, installers, delivery personnel- they are the heart and the face of the post-sale experience. As service industry employees, it is in their very nature to want to do well by your customers, to be faster and smarter at their jobs, so that they can delight every customer and walk away feeling accomplished. Enable them with the tools to do so as generally speaking, customers and technicians want the same thing – more up-time and better first time resolution rates.

Field service management and mobile software enables your teams to deliver faster, smarter service. Customer engagement software provides an end-to-end digital experience.

Artificial Intelligence-based scheduling software automatically positions techs for success, selecting the best resource for every job, and scheduling shorter, realistic service windows that techs can achieve, making service delivery faster for consumers. IoT integration revolutionises the service model, allowing field techs to proactively service and maintain products before they fail, and predicting future service requirements such that service contracts can be used to extend product life-cycles beyond the traditional break-fix model.

 

Mobile software with access to assets, inventory, service history, information and expert resources makes techs smarter at every appointment, armed to resolve issues through personalized service delivery, and adding value for consumers through additional services which improve the long term value of every product.

Unified Platform

Field service and mobile workforce management software set the stage for faster, smarter service delivery with a Unified - and integrated - platform.

Functional groups ranging from manufacturing and quality, to IT, marketing and sales, customer service and field service delivery require a unified platform which supports the full customer service lifecycle.

A unified platform improves your organisations ability to deliver faster, smarter services with employees, contractors or both, increasing service capacity and decreasing time to service. It can also standardises onsite process with configurable mobility, while decreasing the cost of service with schedule optimisation and dynamic, logic based contractor dispatching. No longer do you want to be making myopic decisions that don’t enhance your brand and the service experience for your customers.

 

A unified platform improves the process of performing service on your behalf for contractors, creating a faster, smarter model through integrated warranty claims management, which also reduces claim costs and fraud, ultimately better protecting warranty reserves.

A unified platform is the basis on which a great consumer experience is executed.

Transformational Service

The customers’ service experience with your organisation can be transformational.

Delivering faster, smarter service using a unified platform enables your field technicians to drive a better experience for your customers.

Customers experiencing great service become your most effective marketing and sales tools, loudly evangelizing about their experience through positive reviews, increasing sales, brand loyalty and long term service revenue.

ServicePower’s field service management solution empowers any organisation with a mobile workforce to deliver Faster, Smarter Service, while providing a Unified experience for customers, field technicians and your organisation.

We also offers a fully managed network of 3rd party service providers to enable rapid and high-quality on-demand “spill-over” servicing at peak times and in hard-to-reach locations across North America and the Europe.

 

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Who are the most influential people in the global field service sector that you need to pay attention to in 2017?

The Field Service News #FSN20 is our list of the individuals we believe will be key influencers in our industry across the next twelve months. Those included in the list have been selected by our own panel of industry insiders, who were given the simple criteria of identifying people who will have a significant impact on field service thinking.

However, more than just an annual list of 20 individuals the #FSN20 has grown since it’s launch to become a true celebration of excellence and innovation within our industry.

There are some familiar names and some new faces on this years list and as always we don’t expect everyone to agree with our selection - at it’s heart the #FSN20 was conceived as a tool to get everyone in our industry thinking about who it is that they have come across in the global field service sector that has made them think, who has made them question the accepted paradigms, who has inspired them to do just one little thing more in their own day to day role.

The #FSN20 is not just about the list our panel has put together. It is about fostering discussion that celebrates the unsung heroes of the field service sector. So look out for the online version of this list as well to take part in the debate.

But for now, ladies and gentleman and without further a do, in no particular order, we are pleased to introduce the #FSN20 of 2017...

Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director - Service Management

Brewer is a new entry to the #FSN20 having recently moved to IFS from PTC.

The message from the IFS hierarchy was loud and clear when they held their last World Conference in Gothenburg towards the end of last year. Field Service was a key priority moving forward and their new owners EQT had every intention of pushing the Swedish company to keep doing what has made them a well respected brand within manufacturing and field service management circles - but do it bigger, better and to get to there faster.

Having taken the reigns of the service management division globally Brewer is set to figure prominently in the industry across the next twelve months.

 

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Professor Tim Baines, Group Director of the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice

Baines retains his place on this years list and is perhaps he one person that has appeared multiple times on the list whose entry becomes even more deserved each year.

Baines has been at the centre of the servitization movement for as long as anyone and although many of his peers such as Neely and Lightfoot should share equal status for being the Godfathers of Servitization, it is fair to say that Baines’ work as a leading proponent of the servitization movement is as unparalleled as it is inexhaustible. The Aston Spring Servitization Conference which is the show-piece of the Aston Centre for Research and Practice continues to grow in terms of both audience and importance each year and it’s location in Lucerne, Switzerland this year is a testament to it’s growing status on the international industrial map. Whilst Baines’ would humbly point to the great team he has working with him at Aston, his role in the global shift towards servitization simply cannot be overlooked.

 

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Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consultant, Strategies for GrowthSM

Another that has been ever present on the #FSN20 since it’s inception and someone who is likely to remain on the list until the day comes where he retires, which given Pollock’s passion for the industry and seemingly eternal youth may won’t be any time soon!

Pollock is not only still a key commentator and analyst within our sector whose papers and features are not only widely read but also hugely respected, but he has been a mentor for a number of key figures within the global field service industry, including a number of other #FSN20 members, and also Field Service News’ own highly respected Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland.

However, Pollock’s inclusion on the #FSN20 isn’t just based on his past merits, his organisation Strategies for GrowthSM continues to provide some of the most detailed research and insightful analysis for the field service sector that is essential reading for any field service executives that wish to stay in touch with what is driving our industry forward.

 

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Thomas Igou, Editorial Director, Copperberg

Igou has been integral to Copperberg’s continued success and growth in the European field service conference circuit, In fact with five industry focussed events now running across the continent that should be of interest to senior field service and aftermarket executives, Copperberg are firmly established central pillar within the European field service community, and Igou sits proudly at the heart of that. In his role as Editorial Director, Igou is responsible for making sure the key topics in the industry are raised and the leading thinkers within our space are given a voice.

A key influencer within our industry.

 

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Mark Holleran, COO, Xplore Technologies

Under Holleran’s leadership Xplore Technologies acquired Motion Computing and became the 2nd largest manufacturer of rugged tablets in the world.

Holleran is a man who not only truly understands the different sectors his clients operate in but also who truly appreciates the importance of understanding his customers’ work-flows and therefore their technological needs.

A perfect case in point being the inclusion of a HDMI in on their XSLATE D10 rugged tablet, which makes it a perfect device for Telco and Pay TV engineers needing to test signals - which is exactly why it is there.

We don’t expect anything other than rugged tablets to be coming out of Xplore, but we do expect them to keep delivering best-in-class products in this form factor. As Holleran says “that’s what we do and we are the worlds best at it.

 

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Dr John Erkoyuncu, Through-life Engineering Services Institute, Cranfield University

Erkoyuncu takes over from Professor Howard Lightfoot as a representative of Cranfield University in the #FSN20 this year, however it isn’t just a straight like for like swap. Whilst the two worked together at the Through Life Services Institute, Erkoyuncu’s place on this year list is based primarily around the work he is doing in both industrial maintenance simulation and also augmented reality, and as such we believe he will be a key commentator and influencer on our sector in the years to come.

 

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Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director & Market Analyst Field Service, WBR

Massoud’s role as Divisional Director at WBR puts him in control of a number of the industry’s key events including Field Service USA which is the jewel in the crown as the key point in the USA field service calender.

In addition to Field Service USA, WBR also run a number of important industry focussed events including Field Service Medical and Field Service Europe and in his role as Divisional Director Massoud is directly involved with each of the events and responsible for delivering industry leading content to keep field service professionals up to date with the key trends with in the industry. Massoud is also responsible for overseeing WBR’s research and a respected analyst within the sector

 

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Sumair Dutta, Customer Satisfaction Officer, The Service Council

Chief Customer Officer for The Service Council™ Dutta is responsible for new member acquisition, member engagement, community expansion, as well as the development and expansion of TSC’s Smarter Services oriented research agenda and portfolio.

He is also heavily involved in The Service Council’s ability to provide service executives the ability to benchmark their operations and also provide guided insight to improve service organisation performance through dedicated research programs. Dutta also plays a key role in building out TSC’s community platform focused on becoming the single source of information and networking for service executives globally and is a prolific author on the matter of field service.

 

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Click here to see page two of the 2017 #FSN20

 

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The challenge of No Fault Found (NFF) diagnosis is possibly the most frustrating situation for both your field service engineers and customers alike. However, left unchecked NFF has the potential to have an even greater negative impact on a field service organisation. To find out more we spoke to Dr John Erkoyuncu from Cranfield University having earlier seen him give a fascinating presentation on the topic at last year’s Maximize Europe event...

No Fault Found (NFF) can be perhaps the most frustrating end result in any field service visit. The customer’s issue remains resolved, your engineer’s become frustrated at their inability to do their job and perhaps more importantly the someone has to absorb the cost of the truck-roll and the engineers time on site, despite the fact the situation is exactly the same - i.e. no one is any the wiser as to what the problem is in the first place.

 

At last year’s Maximize event hosted by ServiceMax in Amsterdam towards the end of the year, Dr John Erkoyuncu of Cranfield University gave a fantastic speech on this topic which had the majority of the audience nodding-along in both empathy as they heard him discuss the issue and in agreement as he looked at the potential size of impact NFF can have on our industry.

Field Service News were able to catch up with Erkoyuncu during the conference to find out more about his thoughts on the topic.

What is No Fault Found?

For those unfamiliar to the terminology NFF or sometimes referred to as No Trouble Found (NTF) is the phenomenon whereby an engineer is unable to diagnose why a fault that has been reported is occurring.

As Erkoyuncu explains “No Fault Found is the case where you have a fault that is reported, you go and try to do some diagnosis and you just can’t find a root cause for what the fault is.”

“As a result of this you end up in a situation where it is unclear what you should do next. You could go back and do some more diagnostic testing and try to drill down to what the cause is - but at this point you don’t know if you should be replacing the item of repairing it.”

Often this decision will be locked between the pressures of being time critical and keeping your customers happy on one side, against possibly unnecessary costs - which when stacked up could serously eat into overall profits, on the other.

In fact, NFF is one of the biggest challenges field service companies face in terms of being able to find suitable resolutions whilst being assured these decisions are made based on a standpoint of best practice and well-educated assumptions.

This issue can of course lead to understandable tensions between manufacturer, service providers and their shared customers.

“You are in a situation where you as the manufacturer or service provider can’t in fact explain to the customer what is driving their issue. This is in some ways embarrassing and of course the customer doesn’t want to be paying for a service that has not resolved his problem.” Erkoyuncu explains.

 

“So you have problems in terms of who is paying for the service and whose responsibility it is to fix it. It really is a grey area as it is uncertain as to what’s happened or not and whether that falls within the scope of a warranty.”

“It becomes a matter of trust. From the maintainers, to the solution provider to the customer everyone is facing a challenge.”

The changing ownership of NFF This of course can lead to issues in relationships, with faith being eroded amongst the various parties. This in itself has numerous costs but is it possible to identify a tangible cost of NFF?

“We did a survey with the UK No Fault Found working group and what we were trying to understand was what is the cost of no fault found and who bears this cost,” Erkoyuncu explains.

“What we found was that a large chunk of the overall cost, something like 50 to 60% is taken on by the customer. Whilst this is an average figure it just shows that typically the customer has to take on the ownership of No Fault Found.”

“The amount that the OEM and the supply chain takes on varies between 10 and 30% depending on contracts, which is then shared between the supply chain and the OEM.”

“It just shows that typically it is the customer taking on the costs and as we begin to look at outcome based contracts this simply cannot continue. More and more the OEM and the supply chain will have to start taking on the cost of No Fault Found and this is why awareness of this issue is surely going to grow.”

The actual cost of No Fault Found

Whilst there are of course some easily identifiable calculable costs that Erkoyuncu and his colleagues were able to utilise in their study, there are also numerous softer, intangible effects that service providers and OEMs must be aware of also - which can have significant negative impact on a business.

“The intangible aspects are things like reputation” explains Erkoyuncu “Companies could well lose contracts as a result of not dealing with NFF in an acceptable manner, you may lose the trust that you have built over so many years - how can you quantify that? I’m not sure and I’m not sure if anyone could even begin to quantify that.”

“But when you are estimating things like cost or even R.O.I for being proactive with no fault found we need to find some numbers against the intangible impact as well.”

 

“For example some people in the audience at today’s session [at Maximize Europe] commented that they felt the customer was really important so they just went ahead and replaced the item.”

“That is the kind of thing you are going to experience just because of that intangible factor.

You don’t know what the fault is, but you do know you don’t want to damage the relationship with the customer.”

How to avoid No Fault Found

It is evident then that NFF could have a significant growing impact for many companies, particularly as outcome based contracts become more in vogue. But is there anything that companies can be doing to help them overcome a problem that is by it’s very essence shrouded in mystery and enigma?

“I think there are multiple things related to this,”Erkoyuncu opens.

“One is about the design in particular. Are we designing systems that are fault tolerant to begin with? Is there redundancy built in? We’ve got those kind of challenges. For example, you may have a system that has NFF regularly but if that system can self-diagnose and self improve this then that NFF wouldn’t necessarily be a problem.”

 

“So one area to address is can we design systems that don’t create problems related to NFF?”

“Another area is around behaviour and people,” Erkoyuncu continues.

“Are they being trained properly? Have they got the right incentive structure? For example let’s look at a case where by a field service engineer is paid on the basis of how many times he fixes an item. If they can’t fix it and they can’t define what the problem is - they don’t get paid. So are they then likely to report on NFF properly.”

“There is a big data issue as well and there is also a major issue around whether the data that is available is comprehensive and robust enough - so, there is an additional challenge here too.”

“Therefore, understanding the trends and identifying what the root problems are is quite hard, as the information is not stored properly.”

“Reporting is absolutely a major challenge, as is diagnostic testing. Is it being undertaken properly?

Is the right tool kit being used. Those things are very important as well as you want to be able to very quickly diagnose the conditions,” he adds.

Key steps to overcoming the challenges of No Fault Found

This is obviously a highly prevalent challenge across the industry and one that as mentioned previously is only set to become magnified as business models of OEMs shift towards servitization.

However, here are some key steps that Erkoyuncu recommends that can help field service providers minimise the potential impact of NFF on their own businesses.

“I think the solution to this is a mixture of technology as well as behavioural and process oriented aspects as well,” Erkoyuncu begins.

“I don’t think there is a single solution. We need to look at things like diagnostic testing for intermittent faults. Companies like Rolls Royce and BAE have started using things like environmental chambers. What this does is allow you to simulate the various environmental conditions to allow you to see quickly what the problem is for specific components”

“So on one hand, I do think that this is one area [diagnostic testing] that can improve, but I do also think companies need to consider how their actual technicians providing the maintenance are behaving and then alongside this assess whether their that organisational culture is actually fostering the types of behaviour that they are looking to avoid.”

 

One other very practical piece of advice is to clearly identify your organisations position on NFF within SLA and Warranty contracts.

“This is absolutely and important step,” says Erkoyuncu.

“When you consider the example of FlyBe - they presented some results about the number of NFF they experienced over a set period and they highlighted that about 20% of their service calls were related to NFF.”

“Just looking at this one example you could wipe out all your profits if you ignore the NFF challenge so it should be clearly defined within contracts.”

 

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The next event by UK non-profit organisation the Service Community has been announced...

Field Service professionals can reserve their place for free at this next Service Community event to be hosted by the Centre for Through-Life-Engineering Services (TES) at Cranfield University by emailing TheServiceCommunity@gmail.com.

The event will be the afternoon of the 12th May from 13.00 – 17.00. Before the session begins, there is also a great opportunity to visit the Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality lab at the OpEx institute, where you can dip into what these technologies might bring to the future of service delivery. Space is limited for this tour, so please state in your email if you want to attend the VR/AR visit.

Cranfield University  is one of the worlds leading global research establishments into TES and is working closely with industry leaders such as Rolls Royce, Bombardier, Babcock, Siemens and BAE, to establish within UK government a National Policy for Services in Manufacturing & Technology.

This event is the first of our Insights Series, where we aim to provide service leaders with practical hands on insights into one of 5 themes that will stretch across many industries including software, technology as well as manufacturing:

• Moving to the Cloud
• New Service Revenues
• Art of Transformation and change
• Workflow management : soft skills, processes and scheduling
• From Reactive to Proactive business: Customer Success, Consumption Gap

The agenda for the 12th May is no exception:

• 12.00: Virtual reality / Augmented Reality lab visit
• 12.30: Pre-Meeting coffee, biscuits,  networking
• 13.00: Welcome and introduction from Mathew Caffrey (Mngr Op Ex institute Cranfield)
• 13.15: Impact of VR/AR on Services & the Servitization Business model – Professor Howard Lightfoot (Cranfield)
• 14.00: The Challenge of scaling and expanding a service operation to support a rapidly expanding technology business – Ian Cockett (Services Director Cygnet Texkimp)
• 14.40: Networking Break
• 15.20: Creating a Customer Success Culture – Chris Farnath (Director Customer Success at Allocate Software)
• 16.00: Moving from a Opex to Capex, cloud based business model – Colin Brown (Managing Director Tesseract)
• 16.40: General Discussion & Wrap up
• 17.00: Meeting Closed

To sign up for the event and the tour, please email TheServiceCommunity@gmail.com. Event logistics will be sent out nearer the date.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS & TOPICS

Howard Lightfoot: A leading expert on Servitization having co-written the book ‘Made to Serve’ with Professor Tim Baines

Ian Cockett: Service Director at Cygnet-Texkimp Ltd, a specialist manufacturer of equipment for the global fibre and fabric, plastic, foil and film processing markets. Previously Ian was Director of Service Operations at Bosch UK’s heating division running a service team of over 300 engineers.

Chris Farnath: An experienced Services Director working mainly in the Software and Technology arena, Chris’s current challenge is creating a Customer Success culture and will be sharing & discussing the challenges he faces in his current role. Chris is also a member of the Service Community leadership team.

Colin Brown: Colin is MD/Founder of Tesseract, a leading Service Management solution provider. In this presentation he is going to concentrate on the business challenge of moving from a transactional business model to a pay as you go model through a Cloud based technology platform. In particular how this has changed the business model of his company.

 

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 UK manufacturing is re-inventing itself with services as a core element of companies' growth strategies.  In an industry-led initiative, business leaders are seeking input from a wide variety of of companies to help develop a National Strategy for Manufacturing Services.  UK businesses can add their voice to the discussions via a series of free workshops.  Nick Frank, Frank and Partners, explains the strategy and how to get involved.

It is now widely accepted that technology and manufacturing impacts our economy far more than the 10% GDP often quoted. There is another 10% to be found in manufacturing services and probably a lot more, when you look at the full supply chain of support required to keep industry working. With digitalisation starting to enable dramatic changes in business models, products sales are slowly being replaced by services; ‘Power by the Hour’ being the well-known example with jet engines.

But manufacturing and product related services are also facing a chronic skills shortage, which will stifle future growth. If the UK is to prosper, then it must re-think its definition of manufacturing, the skills required and the value it brings. Critical is inspiring a new generation of our best young people to choose a career in industry because they see it as ‘sexy’, fulfilling and lucrative.

These are some of the reasons why leading UK companies such as Rolls-Royce, Bombardier Transportation, Siemens, BAE Systems and Babcock International are pushing for a National Strategy for Manufacturing Services. They are not alone, having teamed up with Ministry for Business Innovation and Skills, industry trade bodies as well as well as thought leaders from Cranfield, Aston and Cambridge universities. The fact that this initiative is led by industry is critical. Industry sees that with the mainstreaming of IoT technologies and the coming of a new millennial generation, which is more technology savvy and attuned to collaboration and networking, a new way to compete needs to be found.

As Dave Benbow, Head of Engineering for Services at Rolls-Royce and co-chair of the initiative passionately puts it;
“Collaborative development of capability in through-life engineering services will be key to future success in a world where technical innovation is demanded in both products and services.”

The truth is that we have to re-invent manufacturing in order to compete in the global market. Recently an excellent article in the Economist, ’How does Deutschland do digital?’ highlighted how Trumpf, a leading global supplier of machine tools, is building a new business vision based on ‘software and data’. The global market for what some call ‘through-life engineering services’ and others would describe as ‘making things work better for longer, delivering lifetime value from products, assets and infrastructure’, is worth over £1 trillion and the UK is estimated to only have maybe 5% of this share. It is clear that this sector will be key to manufacturing productivity and high value jobs in the circular economy of the future.

 

A recent study by Cranfield University revealed that in this market segment, the salaries are generally 55% higher than the UK industrial average! It is clear that with a bit of imagination, Manufacturing has the potential to be very attractive to young people with an incredibly diverse range of evolving well paid careers.

However it is also clear that if the UK wants to do more than just compete, it must be far more ambitious at a National level. As a nation we need to:

• Develop skills and behaviors that encourage the multi-functional and collaborative needs of the future work force
• Innovate better tools and techniques for data integration and analysis
• Create formal standards that enables knowledge transfer across industries and through the supply chain
• Revolutionize the supply chain to adapt to the circular economy

In short we need a National Strategy for the UK, where thinking and language on the specific actions the UK needs to succeed are aligned across the nation. Solutions to this challenge have become possible as the key stakeholders combine behind one initiative to develop manufacturing services as a driver for growth.

Now in a series of workshops led by the EPRSC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing at Cranfield, a series of free workshops are being held across the country to gain your input. We want businesses from the wide variety of industries that make up the UK’s industrial fabric, to talk and describe their needs. You will have a chance to mix with leaders in Services and learn about the business models developed by some of the leaders of UK’s industry. We need your feedback to develop a strategy that is truly representative of UK industry.

If you would like more information on this initiative you can contact Nick Frank,  a member of the steering group, at nick.frank@frank-partners.com or you can sign-up directly on the Through-life Engineering Services website.

 

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Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a phone call or two directly into the news-desk.

Armed with a list of candidates, a Field Service News panel selected the final list of twenty based on the number of nominations, their impact on the industry (past, present and future) and their sphere of influence in both the physical and digital world.

After much long deliberation, heartful debate (read arguing) and enormous amounts of coffee we managed to whittle our list down to a final twenty which we pleased to present to you here the inaugural edition of the #FSN20. You may not agree with our selection and if you don’t tell us, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, hell tell the world – because at the heart of it that’s what this list is all about, getting people talking about excellence in field service and raising the profile of those leading us to a better future.

We are now announcing who made the list in alphabetical order in four sections across four days. So without further ado we are pleased to bring you the second five of the #FSN20

Professor Elgar Fleisch, University of St. Gallen

With an extensive academic background that covers mechanical engineering, business economics and artificial intelligence, Fleisch has both an extensive understanding of how technology can influence business and an international reputation to match that understanding.

He has focused his research on the joining of the physical and digital worlds since the very birth of the Internet of Things and is, thus, highly regarded in the sphere. It is likely no coincidence that his presence on the executive board of CoreSystems coincides with the rapid rise of the Swiss field service management software provider, whose field service offering was the first product of its type to start taking advantage of IoT.

Follow Edgar @coresystems

 

 

Dave Hart, VP of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax

Another of those on our list who has worked their way upwards from field service engineer; in fact, Hart has taken most of the steps on the ladder.

From Service Engineer to VP of Service, from managing small regional teams through to managing thousands of engineers across Europe, he’s been there and done it. With this background there is an unbridled wealth of experience that Hart is able to share.

Therefore it was a great move by ServiceMax in employing him to help share that experience and deep understanding of field service with their expanding customer base.

Follow Dave @davehartprofit 

 

Martin Hotass, General Manager, Siemens Professional Education

One of the biggest risks field service faces is an ageing workforce and Siemens is one company at the forefront of tackling this problem head on.

Hotass is not only leading the charge, engaging with students and colleagues alike, but in speaking to him, he is truly passionate about bringing the best young talent not only to Siemens but also to the industry in general.

If field service is going to overcome the significant issue of replacing the current workforce successfully we need more with Hotass’ dedication to the task.

Follow Martin @SiemensUKNews

 

Professor Howard Lightfoot, Cranfield University

Co-author on ”Made to Serve” and another significant figure in the servitization movement. However, Lightfoot’s inclusion within the list is more based on his current work at Cranfield University where he is playing an instrumental role in educating the next generation of engineers via the use of some truly groundbreaking technology.

With the field service industries facing a very real crisis of an ageing workforce, the work Lightfoot is currently performing could have a profound impact on the ability of field service companies to survive this crisis with minimal impact.

Follow Howard @howardPSS

 

Mynul Khan, Founder, Field Nation

The shift away from traditional work contracts to outsourcing to local contractors has an obvious appeal for field service organisations and Field Nation, a product of Khan’s own vision, is a perfect tool for facilitating this in the twenty-first century. Dubbed an ‘ebay for field workers’ Field Nation connects workers with contractors across the U.S.

Whether such a solution could work in the multi-language, cross-border regulation framework of Europe is yet to be seen, but the rapid adoption of Field Nation suggests that there is certainly a market in the home shores at least.

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See the rest of the list here: Part One, Part Three, Part Four

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