In Cognito iQ’s annual customer satisfaction survey for 2019, 100% of their customers that responded to our survey rated Cognito iQ from Good to Excellent in every category.

Cognito iQ’s customers depend on their software to keep their field service and last mile delivery networks operational and efficient on a daily basis, meaning their satisfaction is a critical benchmark.

Customers were asked to rate Cognito IQ's performance from Poor to Excellent in several categories; Reliability of solution, how the solution supports your business needs, customer service professionalism and knowledge, business understanding and the quality of the professional services team.

100% rating good and above is an excellent indicator of cognito iq's business performace

‘Scoring 100% rating good and above is an excellent indicator of our business performance’ commented Laurent Othacehe, CEO. ‘Our customer support teams enable our customers to quickly react to new working practices and remain flexible in order to meet their growing customer satisfaction demands’.

“Not only have we achieved these great results, in addition 100% of our customers said they would recommend us. Moving forward our aim is to not just maintain but improve these scores, in exactly the same way we enable our customers to achieve continuous improvement.’

 

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about Cognito iQ  @ www.cognitoiq.com
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Cognito iQ on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/cognito-iq
• Follow Cognito iQ on Twitter @ twitter.com/Cognito_iQ

 

In a new series of excerpts from a a recent exclusive Field Service News white paper sponsored by Salesforce we explore how the very definition of  field service is being redefined as we move towards a world of remote service delivery. In part one we will be assessing today's environment and the challenges we face and start to look at some of the tools required for remote service delivery...

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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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Welcome to the New World...

As the global pandemic swept across the world, many, many things changed. The way we interacted with each other in some ways became more distant; in others, we felt closer to each other than we had ever been before. Those of us based in offices invited the world into our homes through tools such as Zoom, Skype and Got To Meeting. Switchboard recordings notified us that we might hear unusual noises like dogs or children during the call as contacts centres were moved in a surprisingly seamless manner onto kitchen tables across the land. Yet, field service delivery is not such an easy role to transition to a world of lockdowns and isolation.

Field service is by its very definition delivered off-site, in the field. However, with many field engineers being classed as essential workers, and with service and maintenance operations under intense pressure to keeping the world ticking over, while we all endured lockdown, innovative thinking was required to keep service operations moving as much as possible. The result we saw was a massive swing in demand for the delivery of remote services. Before the pandemic, remote services were an option that remained primarily viewed as an offering of less value than the traditional on-site service call. Almost overnight, this switched. Suddenly, the requirements for remote service solutions were of paramount as companies desperately avoided breaking their own carefully erected bio-security measures.

Now, as we look towards building the recovery and establishing a new normal, many field service organisations are discussing a remote-first approach to service delivery. However, there are valid concerns that too much of a swing in the other direction could be akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In this exclusive White Paper, authored by Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, we set out to weigh up the pros and cons of adopting a remote-first as default approach and ask is this the way we should approach service delivery in the new normal of our post-pandemic world?

 

The Tools Needed for Remote First Service Operations:

To begin the discussion, we should first look at the specific requirements in terms of technology for delivering remote services at all. In today’s modern technology ecosystem, it is common to view the different layers of technology required as a stack with one building upon another rather than a self-enclosed platform.

In today’s age of APIs, mostly when it comes to software at least, everything works well in tandem. The advantage of this approach is the flexibility to build a solution that can take the best tools available to you that meet the needs of your organisation. Ultimately though, a robust platform that underpins your service technology ecosystem is crucial. Salesforce, for example, is an immensely powerful application, whether it be as a CRM or an FSM solution. Yet, it is within the flexibility of the app ecosystem, that Salesforce pioneered within business solutions, that the true power of the technology stack lies.

 

"While there are strong arguments for such devices allowing an engineer to work hands-free, the reality is that almost all AR solutions available to field service organisations currently also support tablet and smartphone configurations..."

 

With a rich layer of solutions available, the ability to build a robust and powerful solution to meet all of your field service requirements becomes far easier for companies of all sizes and levels of complexity. When it comes to remote service, there are a couple of fundamental aspects of the technology stack that need to be in place to achieve a seamless and fully optimised approach.

#1 Augmented Reality:

Augmented Reality (AR) is a crucial aspect of effective remote services. Effectively, what AR enables the field service organisation to accomplish is to place experience exactly where it is needed. This could come in the form of engineer-to-engineer (or even engineer-to-customer) assistance that is delivered in a you-see-what-I-see environment.

Alternatively, it could come in a more automated form, leveraging artificial intelligence and pre-programmed guides that can walk the engineer on-site through the various stages of the maintenance at hand. The advantage of AR over alternatives (such as video calling) is the ability to annotate clearly on the screen which area of an asset should be focused upon.

This can even be as granular as annotating which direction to turn a dial or by how much. While on the surface, this could be seen as a nice, but non-essential benefit, the reality is that as humans we take in visual instructions 8 x faster than aural instructions1. In field service, this is vitally important as we are continually looking to seek out every efficiency possible, as this soon scales up to significant resource savings when viewed across the entire mobile workforce. Indeed, one of the critical areas of focus for all field service organisations is being able to maximise resource utilisation, and alongside tools such as Salesforce’s enhanced optimisation engine, shift management and intelligent parts recommendations, the introduction of AR is an essential element for field service organisations to be able to achieve this.

One final point for consideration is that while often we think of AR solutions being based upon smart-glasses (or head-based computers as they are increasingly being termed) this is not necessarily the case. While there are strong arguments for such devices allowing an engineer to work hands-free, the reality is that almost all AR solutions available to field service organisations currently also support tablet and smartphone configurations. This can allow service organisations the ability to begin utilising AR almost instantly without the requirement of any additional hardware other than what the engineer is already using every day.

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we explore three more key technologies required for remote service delivery.

However, www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

 

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Further Reading:

• Read the initial news report about the announcement of the latest iteration of Salesforce Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/salesforce-announce-the-next-generation-of-field-service-ai-powered-tools-for-trusted-mission-critical-field-service
• Read more about digital transformation in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/servitization-and-advanced-services
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 on the field service sector @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Read previous articles by Paul Whitelam @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/paul-whitelam
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Connect with Paul on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/paulwhitelam/
• Follow Salesforce on Twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

As digital transformation spend is increasing around the world, businesses look for technology vendors whose ethics (29 percent) and culture (23 percent) align with their own. Interestingly, these considerations trump innovation in the ranking of desirable traits, demonstrating that having a similar cultural view of the world is playing a larger role in the selection process.

The top two vendor traits selected were specialist industry expertise (32 percent) and long-term solutions (30 percent). This is unsurprising, considering poor advice from vendors tops the list of why digital transformation projects fail at 37 percent, according to a research study from global enterprise applications company IFS.

Combined with poor vendor advice, technology selection teams, especially among businesses with revenues around the one-billion-dollar mark, are also being pressured by senior management to select well-known vendors even when they are a poor fit for the company’s actual needs.

Despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of companies are planning to increase their digital transformation spend, according to study findings earlier this year. With more businesses investing, with the aim of driving revenue post pandemic, the cost of failure is high and it’s becoming even more important to get investment right.

37 percent say poor vendor advice is the main reason why digital transformation projects fail

A resounding 48 percent of respondents at companies with revenues between 850–950 million US$ stated that they had been forced by senior management or the board of directors to use a well-known vendor that was a poor technological fit.

 “The fact that a non-tangible such as ethics is ranked among the top three vendor traits is inextricably linked to the fact that poor advice from vendors was rated as the top reason for failure,” IFS Chief Customer Officer Michael Ouissi said. “Companies investing in technology should expect their vendors to adhere to sound sales and marketing practices based squarely in actual customer value.”

With a focus on previous experiences from past digital transformation projects, the study finds that budgets and timelines are two major pain points. Respondents indicate that failure in past projects makes management more reluctant to engage in future digital transformation efforts, with budget overruns topping the list of reasons management may put the brakes on critical projects at 28 percent and 26 percent saying blown timelines on past projects have made management more risk averse.

Further analysis of the findings shows that success of these digital transformation projects primarily hinges on finding the right technological fit (44 percent) and establishing clear objectives (50 percent). In fact, the top-three vendor trust factors highlighted by respondents are on-time delivery (44 percent), support before, during and after project completion (41 percent), and delivering projects faster to value (35 percent).

 

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Further Reading:

• Download a complimentary copy of Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond:
  The Technology Equation @ www.ifs.com/digital-transformation-investment-in-2020
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk

 

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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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!

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A few weeks ago, Scope AR and ServiceMax announced that they had established a partnership that would allow ScopeAR to be embedded into the workflow of ServiceMax users...

On the surface, it promises to be a powerful alliance and one that could provide the ease of deployment that has been a barrier for many field service organisations adopting Augmented Reality (AR) solutions as part of their field service deployment.

As we build towards the recovery, many are envisioning a world where on-site touchpoints are to be minimised and so the focus on first-time fix is greater than ever before. Therefore, how we approach service delivery and ensure we are empowering our engineers and technicians fully by giving them access to the information, they need when they need it. The most efficient manner of communicating such information is very much centred around AR, which is now sitting at the very heart of how best-in-class field service organisations are focusing their efforts.

As part of our Beyond the Headlines series of features we Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief Field Service News invited Gabriele Bodda, Vice President of Product Management, ServiceMax and Scott Montgomerie, CEO and Founder of Scope AR to join in him for a discussion on the Field Service News Digital Symposium.

 

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward..."

- Gabrielle Bodda, ServiceMax

 

In the first of two excerpts from that session, we look at the practical side of the discussion and ask how seamless the experience of is using Scope AR within the ServiceMax platform?

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward,” commented Bodda during the session.

“This is something that we put a lot of attention to when we worked through the partnership, as we do with every partnership,” he continued.

“It is not just about a go-to-market, it is not just about the mutual endorsement, it is about bringing to our customers an end-to-end experience, it is about bringing to the customers something that is ready to use.”

However, the fact that there is an ‘oven-ready’ version of the tool doesn’t mean that it cannot be customised to suit any given companies more specific requirements. As Bodda confirms, “customers can of course change it and adapt it but they also have something to start with that can be deployed very quickly.”

One point that is raised often in conversations around AR in field service is whether there is a need for additional hardware, such as smart glasses or head-mounted computers. However, having led the way with apps for technicians on Apple’s iOS platform, ServiceMax is almost synonymous with harnessing the power of the engineer’s existing device. Will Scope AR fit in with that approach or will the additional investment be required for companies that are to make the most of this partnership“There is no additional hardware necessarily required,” confirmed Montgomery when this question was put to him during the session. “For more complicated use cases, we do support a number of headsets, but for standard integration, iOS and Android are more than capable.”

 

"We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do..."

- Scott Montgomerie, Scope AR

 

So how seamless is the integration itself? According to both Bodda and Montgomerie in effect, the integration should function intuitively and holistically. This is crucial to the success of the collaboration.

“We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do,” explains Montgomerie.

“The integration we’ve built with ServiceMax is geared towards that ideal scenario where they [the field technician] is already within the work order where they can click on the procedure through a deep linking mechanism – it’s very seamless,” he concludes.

Look out for the second excerpt from this session where we look at the broader use cases of Augmented Reality in general. In that upcoming article, we get Bodda’s and Montgomerie’s insight into how the companies they are working with are leveraging the tools to navigate their way through the current crisis we are all facing.

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about how WorkLink seamlessly integrates with the ServiceMax FSM platform @  www.scopear.com/partners/servicemax/. 
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about Augmented Reality in Field Service  @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Augmented+reality+
• Follow ScopeAR on twitter @ https://twitter.com/scopear
• Follow ServiceMax on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/ServiceMax
• Find out more about the services ServiceMax offer to field service companies @ www.servicemax.com/
• Find out more about the services ScopeAR offer to field service companies @www.scopear.com/

 

In a world of digitilization in which it is fully possible to engage with customers without human interaction at all, the field service call has become increasingly rare – it is an opportunity to deal with your customers face to face and in person.

The importance of ‘face-time’ has long been acknowledge within business and so this opportunity to build deeper levels of customer engagement should not be ignored. However, in 2020 the rules have all changed – we now exist in a world of zoom calls and remote service delivery. As we begin to build a new normal there has been much discussion about whether we should be moving to a remote first by default approach. The arguments for doing so are powerful, reduced costs for service delivery against a backdrop of an increasing requirement for zero touch service calls. But could we be throwing out the baby with the bath water in doing so?

As we look towards building the recovery from COVID-19 we spoke to a number of leading field service management experts to ask if field service engineers can and should be still be harnessed to cut through the digital noise and re-introduce the human touch. Now we reflect on those views to reiterate the importance of the human-to-human interaction that the field service visit offers, that perhaps cannot be replaced by a digital alternative.

 

Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director for Service Management at IFS

“Digitalization can streamline and improve the customer experience in many ways, but it will never replace the need for human connection. As digital experiences become more ubiquitous, field service becomes a critical tool in communicating your customer commitment, company culture, and brand identity.

“While customers expect digitalization as a means to simplify their desires to self-schedule, stay informed, and communicate; the more digital our world becomes, the more the face-to-face experience a field technician provides becomes a strategic differentiator.

“COVID-19 has put an even greater emphasis on the importance of human connection, and as recovery ramps the ability to deliver a memorable service interaction will serve as a competitive advantage.”

 

Sumair Dutta, Director of Digital Transformation at ServiceMax

“Human operators become even more vital in an automated environment, not less important. While automation helps shoulder the burden of lower level jobs that don’t generate any added value to the service function – such as locating, moving and loading of stock – it’s the people that often do the best work, innovating, problem solving and understanding customer requirements.

“The human element is essential, as it always has been. And for service teams, this means not losing sight of customers despite increased remote maintenance capabilities. Easier said than done? Not really. 

“Predictive service is one element of a proactive customer management strategy. As Roland Berger identified in its paper Predictive Maintenance: From Data Collection to Value Creation, predictive and not reactive service is essential for any organisation that wants to move forward and embrace digital transformation. By accessing sensor data through IoT networks, machine learning algorithms can analyse and predict in real time, alerting service teams to potential issues before they become serious problems.

 

"It’s so important for service teams to get in front of customers, highlighting potential issues and resolving them..."

- Sumair Dutta, ServiceMax

 

“It shouldn’t stop there. It’s so important for service teams to get in front of customers, highlighting potential issues and resolving them. Cutting through the digital noise requires communication, even if current working practices will limit face-to-face meetings. Using the data and understanding customer equipment status will be increasingly important given cost constraints and everyone wanting to get more bang for their buck. For example, are customers retiring equipment too early? According to a Forrester report commissioned by ServiceMax, From Grease to code: What drives digital transformation, forty one percent of firms don’t know if they’re retiring equipment prematurely due to lack of service data insight, an area where service teams can be proactive in helping customers optimise their equipment use.

“Customer success delivered with the combination of both a human and digital touch should be a strategic priority for service teams. Through analysing service data, teams can provide visible, proactive suggestions to customers (with recommendations delivered by human technicians), on how they can improve. This can lead, where appropriate, to upgrades, new machines or increased maintenance deals but ultimately this is about demonstrating value and building a stronger bond, something which an account rep calling up three months before a renewal can rarely achieve. 

“So, while automation is both the present and future of field service provision, with predictive maintenance the bedrock of modern servitization, organisations cannot afford to sit back and rely on automation alone to illustrate value to customers. As the economy tries to find its feet, demonstrating customer value and keeping the ‘human touch’ front and centre is more important than ever. Service maintenance data is the ammunition for proactive customer engagement, but it will be different skillsets that take this forward, such as softer skills by technicians. Communication is key and human interaction is essential to ensure organisations are not out of sight and mind of their customers.

 

Mark Tatarsky – VP Marketing, FieldAware

"Throughout the service lifecycle, customers continually assess a service company’s value and brand. As the world works to limit human interaction while keeping assets installed, maintained, and repaired, technology creates a duality to decrease “unnecessary” interactions and improve the quality of “necessary” interactions. Field Service Automation enables organizations to schedule and execute on-site jobs while managing social distancing effectively.

"Workforce management and rules-based scheduling systems decrease the number of unnecessary visits by dispatching the right technician with the correct skillset and tools/equipment to complete the job. Points of contact are further reduced via technician location tracking and arrival notifications so customers can meet technicians at the point-of-service at a specific time.

 

"Once the service engineer leaves the site, technology simplifies a digital survey process to close the loop enabling customers to provide feedback and service organizations to react quickly..."

- Marc Tatarsky, FieldAware

 

"Field techs are the face of the brand during the critical moment of service delivery. Investing in technology with innovative customer-centric communications and management capabilities ensures necessary site visits meet the customer’s requirements, SLA commitments, and provide ample time for essential on-site relationship management.

"Digitizing the process to include workforce management, mobile tech enablement, knowledge tools, work instructions, diagnostics, or remote expert advice increases the vital first-time fix rate and customer satisfaction. Ensuring estimated job durations automatically include time for engineers to spend with customers on necessary site visits to discuss their business requirements and identify areas to extend value improves the customer relationship experience. Once the service engineer leaves the site, technology simplifies a digital survey process to close the loop enabling customers to provide feedback and service organizations to react quickly to problems or take steps to solidify a robust user experience."

 

Ashok Kartham, CEO and Founder, Mize

“Digitization of Field Service has brought new meaning to the concept of providing the “Warm and Fuzzies”.   In the past, we may have taken it for granted that courteous and friendly service is the foundation of a good customer experience. Now, when a field service visit is required, technicians can arrive onsite with the knowledge, skills, and resources to fix both the problem and the customer. After all, end-customers expect their technician to be experts. The better the technician can communicate his knowledge about the customer, the customer’s install base, the customer’s experiences, preferences, history, etc. they more valuable they become and the better the experience they provide. Ultimately, this is the human touch they desire, and digitization makes his possible.”  

 

"Customers trust field service technicians because of their product knowledge and solution approach. Customers are more willing to accept advice from a person they trust..."

- Ashok Kartham, Mize

 

“Customers trust field service technicians because of their product knowledge and solution approach. Customers are more willing to accept advice from a person they trust. The Field service technician is in the best position to establish that trusted relation with the customers. “

“By being the main or only direct contact with the customers, field service technicians can help increase the attach rates of service contracts, consumables, and related products and services. Technicians need to be enabled to access customer history, provide quotes, and complete transactions while with the customer.”   

 

Michael Maoz, Senior Vice President, Innovation Strategy, Salesforce

“Advances in embedded intelligence in all devices and structures means that in the near future any on-site presence of a field technician is either for initial installation, or a complex repair. To play Devil’s Advocate, in some ways this will lessen the importance of the technician visit, as an ever-greater percentage of the customer relationship, and therefore customer satisfaction, will be cultivated and maintained remotely, through self service, in-store, or within customer communities.

"Shifts in customer priorities in some countries, brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, increasingly will mean that face-to-face engagement will happen on a screen. Remote video diagnostic sessions done in collaboration with the customer will become the preferred approach. The quality of remote video sessions will explode with the introduction of 5G over the coming three years. It will allow a feeling of genuine presence, due to high fidelity augmented reality in the form of the virtual presence of the technicians, overlaid video instructions, and voice-driven instructions from AI sources.

 

"To prevent the process change and the culture change from overwhelming their field service organizations, tight planning is necessary, and an integrated set of processes across marketing, sales and service..."

- Michael Maoz, Salesforce

 

"This sense of a shared business and customer effort at service resolution will leave the customer feeling a deeper connection with the enterprise. Connections foster trust, and trust fosters loyalty. Loyal customers buy more often and recommend to their friends that they do the same.

“There will be more thorough remote preparation for the arrival of the technician in the cases where this is necessary or a best practice (Such as relationship building, demonstrating new products and services, and marketing new offers). Digitization will simplify the job of the technician onsite. This will give the technician the time and the tools to better engage the customer from a position of empathy, and with a focus on developing business opportunities

“Organizations are already discovering that embracing the enhanced role of the field service engineer requires a new set of criteria and practices to attract talent, train and motivate and compensate talent, and to measure the business outcomes (for example: costs, upselling, retention, churn).

“To prevent the process change and the culture change from overwhelming their field service organizations, tight planning is necessary, and an integrated set of processes across marketing, sales and service. An ability to capture and analyse a constant stream of customer feedback will be vital in helping the enterprise keep such a program on track. The challenges will be great, and the rewards will be even greater.”

Combined with Salesforce Customer 360 Platform and Salesforce Field Service, Asset 360 will create the world's most complete field service solution on the world's #1 CRM platform

ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, today announced ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce, a new product built on Salesforce Field Service, bringing ServiceMax's asset-centric approach and decade-plus of experience to more customers across a broader set of industries to help them keep critical assets running.

In today's environment, companies across all industries are having to reimagine how they operate. Requirements for equipment performance have intensified, while customer expectations continue to rise. In order to thrive, organizations must advance beyond the standard break-fix model to ensure uptime for important assets in a safe and compliant manner. Service teams must prioritize efficient asset performance, as well as the customer experience they provide.

ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will deliver a 360-degree view into install base, service contracts and asset performance to maximize equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs. This advanced insight, natively developed within Salesforce Field Service, will empower customers to shift from selling products to adopting outcome-based strategies that propel businesses forward. This will enable customers to drive operational results, including:

• Accelerating time-to-value to support asset-centric business processes with pre-configured templates and industry best practices
• Gaining greater visibility into warranty coverages and improving service margin by preventing uncovered work with warranty and entitlement management
• Maximizing contract attach rates and renewals by monitoring the install base to ensure warranty-to-contract conversion while delivering on entitlements
• Automating RMA/depot repair processes to efficiently manage returns, meet compliance and lower inventory costs with purpose-built interfaces

The new offering will enable reduced implementation time and deliver new innovation with each release, bringing enhanced workflows directly to customers "out of the box" and access to emerging technologies such as Einstein. ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will be available in November 2020. ServiceMax will also continue to offer, support and invest in bringing new technologies to its existing Core platform.

"For 13 years, ServiceMax has helped customers keep the world running with world-class field service solutions," said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. "We are proud to offer this new solution, built on the Salesforce platform, which will enable even more customers across a broader set of industries to benefit from an asset-centric approach in order to run more profitable, efficient service operations and ensure uptime on the world's most important assets."

"The enhanced partnership between ServiceMax and Salesforce continues the market trend of ecosystem relationships to support end-to-end service lifecycle management with an eye to an industry focus," said Aly Pinder, Program Director, Service Innovation and Connected Products at IDC, and author of IDC's recent Market Scape on Field Service Management. "The partnership moves the conversation past 'let's turn more wrenches in a given day' to 'let's enable service to deliver a better, more proactive customer experience that ensures asset performance.' I am intrigued to follow this from a business relationship perspective and see how this partnership supports the future of field service."

"We're thrilled to be bringing a next-generation field service product to market for our customers," said Mark Cattini, SVP of Field Service Management at Salesforce. "And, with the combination of ServiceMax Asset 360 and Salesforce Field Service, companies across industries will have access to enhanced asset management and dynamic resource scheduling capabilities on a single platform. This is the future of field service and it's connected, proactive and intelligent."      

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Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with ServiceMax CEO Neil Barua and CMO Stacey Epstein about the new release to find out more. Look out for that exclusive interview coming soon!

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces the availability of new and enhanced capabilities in its customer engagement software enabling companies to respond to the challenges facing the traditional call center and transform their customer engagement. IFS is leading the way for service organizations to become knowledge and outcome centric throughout the entirety of the service experience.

Forward-thinking companies have become customer obsessed knowing that new business and customer retention rely on it. IFS’s customer experience applications are engineered to provide visibility and context for the customer, the contact center, and the service organization throughout the service cycle, through technology that is easy to deploy, configure, and use. This includes enriching work processes with automation and AI capabilities to ready companies for a future where self-service will be at the start of 85 percent of customer interactions by 2022, up from 48 percent in 2019.

The importance of engaging customers through a single, unified experience across every channel—voice, e-mail, chat and social—has never been greater. IFS believes companies overlook this area at their peril. Gartner notes:* “By 2022, 50 percent of large organizations will have still failed to unify engagement channels. This will result in the continuation of a disjointed and siloed customer experience that lacks context. 

highly configurable and integrated omnichannel hub to IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEs

In this latest release, businesses can enjoy:

• A smooth transition from a telephony-based support center to a full omni-channel contact hub in a matter of days—complete with a customer service agent desktop
• A new customer engagement studio that allows companies to configure their own customer service desktop while eliminating the need for costly one-off customizations
• Simple integration to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and field service management (FSM) applications, agents are empowered to handle issues rapidly, driving front-office productivity by an average of over 40 percent

“As businesses use service offerings to power their way to growth in the new normal, the imperative has never been greater to focus on the customer experience,” said Marne Martin, President of IFS Service Management. “Businesses need a single view of a customer, yes, but they also need a complete service management solution that delivers on the service outcome that a customer expects in order to drive net promotor score, sustainability, and growth. This is where IFS is leading the way to deliver sustainable outcomes and knowledge-based service, which is the future for more and more service businesses.”

IFS’s latest investments in customer experience also include remote assistance and “On My Way” to provide a complete customer management solution for businesses looking to grow their service capability and transform their customer experience.

Over the past two years, IFS has seen strong growth in its service management business with more than 50 percent of revenues coming from its field service customer base in the first half of 2020. New license sales across its service management applications, including its recognized FSM offering, grew by more than 150 percent in first half 2020 compared to first half 2019.

 

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Further Reading:

• Learn more about IFS Customer Engagement @ www.ifs.com/customer-engagement/
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk

 

Salesforce has announced today the next generation of their FSM solution Salesforce Field Service. Which has been designed to equip field service organisations with the power of AI-powered tools to deliver trusted, mission-critical field service.

Built on the world’s #1 CRM, Salesforce Field Service includes new appointment scheduling and optimization capabilities as we see the fruits of last year’s acquisition of ClickSoftware bear fruit. The new release also introduces AI-driven guidance for dispatchers, asset performance insights and automated customer communications. In essence the launch comprises of an impressive suite of tools that each can play a significant role in helping field service organisations achieve the most fundamental and important aspect of service delivery – ensuring field service jobs are completed the first time, on time, every time.

When the pandemic first hit, many industries that send employees out to complete jobs in the field had to shut down entirely. But critical machinery still needs to be repaired—medical devices require servicing, air conditioning units need to be fixed and assembly line machines still malfunction. After getting over the initial shock of COVID-19, frontline workers got back to work and have been at it ever since.

 

"It is more crucial now than ever for field technicians to have the right information and tools to maximize equipment uptime and first-time fix rates..."

 

After an initial dip in March, Salesforce Field Service saw usage jump more than 50% between April and July 2020, and is actually now being used 20% more than at pre-COVID levels as companies and frontline workers scramble to clear the backlog of service requests created earlier this year.

It is more crucial now than ever for field technicians to have the right information and tools to maximize equipment uptime and first-time fix rates. This was the feedback that Salesforce heard loudly and clearly from their customers and they have reacted strongly to these industry requirements.

Leveraging the decades of industry expertise and innovation within their ranks, Salesforce have approached building their next-generation field service management product to help field service organisations overcome the challenges they face as we move towards recovery.

Some of these customers include:

GreenThumb (UK)

Greenthumb, conducts approximately 2.5 million lawn treatment visits to customers’ homes every year across the U.K. Just months after implementing Salesforce Field Service, Greenthumb started saving money—and the environment.

Smarter scheduling enabled their field crew to complete at least one extra job per worker per day, which generated more revenue. “By routing crews efficiently, we estimate it will save over £400,000 in annual fuel costs,” said Paul Edwards, Managing Director. “With no more need for paper work orders, we will cut paper requirement by three million sheets per year, which will rise as we gradually replace traditional mail with digital communications. In addition, working on a lightning-fast system has enabled our dispatchers to resolve customer inquiries an average of 45 seconds faster than before—going from seven clicks per case to just three.”

Best Buy (Canada)

Best Buy Canada is transforming how its 500-member support team helps clients with installations, repairs, and technical support. With the Geek Squad agents having access to the Salesforce Field service application on mobile, this helps provide greater visibility as clients receive real time updates of any schedule changes.

“With Salesforce Field Service, we will be able to optimize the efficiency of the team and improve the accuracy of when an agent is due to visit a client,” said Chris Sallans, Vice President, Retail Operations & Geek Squad. “There are now fewer manual processes for our Geek Squad agents, enabling them to spend more time helping clients resolve their technical issues.”

WBP Group (Australia)

WBP Group, one of Australia's largest, independent property valuation and advisory firms, needed to reshape how it operated to minimize contact between employees and customers in response to COVID-19. Service Cloud enabled the rapid launch of virtual valuations, creating a safe no-touch experience for customers and employees.

Salesforce Field Service has increased the efficiency of scheduling appointments for WBP and will be used in the future to manage valuations from end to end.

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Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with Salesforce’s Paul Whitelam about the new release to find out more. Read that exclusive interview here!