Key Questions: Can Augmented Reality Operate on Low Bandwidth?

Aug 03, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • OverIT • Space1 • Field Service News Digital Symposium • low bandwidth

One of the things that is often questioned about the suitability of augmented reality as part of the field service delivery tool kit is whether it is able to operate on lower bandwidths. This is because by default field service doesn't only occur in...

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Low bandwidth is a major issue particularly for organisations in sectors such as oil and gas, transportation or utilities who often work in remote locations. Ironically, it is also the harder to get to locations, where bandwidth could be restricted that augmented reality is needed the most.

Therefore, when OverIT's Francesco Benvenuto presented the latest updates to their augmented reality tool SPACE1 the importance of an inclusion of a low-bandwidth mode was a crucial element that caught the eye of host Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News.

"Basically, there are so many solutions in the market and this is where we can differentiate ourselves from others," commented Benvenuto.

"Since we [OverIT] are coming from the field service management industry, we know how important it is for technicians to be able to operate in a location where there's a bad connection. For this reason, we have implemented the low bandwidth mode where we are able to bring the resolution to 640 by 480 pixels so we can guarantee a good quality of the streaming. We also reducing the frames per second to two values that are ranging between 0.5 and three. There are lots of different ways to provide the technicians good audio/media streaming but for sure low bandwidth is among the ones that is really, really important."

"We are working in different industries, energy, utility, oil and gas, where every industry has its own slightly different use cases, we wanted to provide a solution, where we can customize the way that we leverage artificial intelligence..."

While the low-bandwidth mode is a critical component for any AR solution that is targeting the field service sector another of the impressive features of Space1 that was on show during the demonstration was the embedded Artificial Intelligence in the tool.

In a similar way to how a dynamic or optimised scheduling engine learns and improves over time so too does Space1's ability to improve the way it surfaces information in an iterative manner essentially allows it to become an increasingly more powerful tool over time. Essentially, the more it is used the more powerful it becomes.

"In Space1 we provide the ability to train the machine learning techniques," Benvenuto explains.

"This way we can provide even more precise data to the technicians that are that are working out in the field. Since we are working in different industries, energy, utility, oil and gas, where every industry has its own slightly different use cases, we wanted to provide a solution, where we can customize the way that we leverage artificial intelligence.

"From the back-end side of SPACE1, we can set up different values in order to be more precise when it comes to extracting data."

The Beginning of a Servitization Journey

Jul 31, 2020 • Features • IDC • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Servitization and Advanced Services

We continue our series of extracts from an excellent white paper published by IDC and sponsored by IFS, we will explore the IDC Servitization Barometer which is designed to allow field service organisations to chart their path to new revenue...

In part one we looked at the rapid and wide reaching change that is being faced by manufacturers in all sectors, in all regions. In part two we looked further at IDC's Servitization Maturity Framework. Now in part three see how the broad maturity of the sector against this model.

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full white paper on the link below.

Screenshot 2020-07-15 at 23.00.22

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First Results From the Servitization Barometer

Now that we have established the requirements and benefits associated with servitization, it’s time to provide an overview of the current maturity status in this area. How far along in adoption and understanding are enterprises out there? Based on the Barometer results (Figure 5 below), IDC can confidently say that we are at the beginning of the journey.

Based on IDC’s benchmark, 50% of organizations find themselves at Stage 2 (Side-Car), and another 14% are stuck in the nightmare of Splintered operations (Stage 1). A third of companies interviewed have started joining up their value chains (Stage 3), and less than 5% have reached “Nirvana” (Stage 4) and already opened up their service platforms to the ecosystem.

These results are broadly in line with how those organizations talk about their current status:

The wave is coming. The clear majority (91%) of organizations are either planning or already rolling out servitization initiatives. However, only 9% are blending most or all their product portfolio with advanced services.
Services will trigger the wave. Services generated on average 8% of the total revenue among physical value chain companies interviewed. This was slightly higher at 11% for companies with >$1B annual revenue. As with servitization plans, expectations are tilting to growth. On average, organizations expected services to account for 16% of total revenue in three years. This was a global trend consistent across all geographies. Organizations at more advanced stages of the servitization journey expect faster growth in that direction (see Figure 6 below).

Revenue growth will depend on services. 38% of the organizations surveyed reported zero or negative revenue growth for the twelve months ending in July 2019. Another 53% were growing below 4% yearly and less than one company out of ten more than 5% yearly. This means even small improvements in services contribution can do wonders for growth trajectory. In fact, according to this Barometer, organizations that are more advanced in their servitization journey are already perceiving significantly higher revenue growth than their peers (see Figure 7 below).

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Best performers leverage data and strategic partnerships. The barometer reveals that organizations in Stages 3 and 4 are going beyond the traditional repair and maintenance services, as they are striving to grasp the new revenue streams linked to data-driven digital services that they deliver either by themselves or in collaboration with partners in adjacent industries (see Figure 8 below).

Screenshot 2020-07-16 at 20.57.57

A Deeper Look at Servitization Maturity

Servitization maturity is not equally spread across all types of companies. Nor is maturity equal across dimensions. The key findings on how IDC-assessed readiness changed in the organizations we talked to are:

Large companies are moving faster. Among organizations with less than $500 million in revenue, only 10% reached Stage 3 or 4. This contrasts with more than 50% in companies with $500–$1 billion annual revenue and more than 80% in companies with >$1 billion revenue.
Servitization is a cross-vertical topic. Sector of operation did not appear to influence the overall servitization speed, a sign that the topic is relevant in all physical value chains.
Some differences exist at the geographical level. Controlling for company size, organizations based in the UK, the US, and France appear slightly more advanced than counterparts in the Nordics and Germany. The first three countries reported between 40% and 50% of companies at Stage 3 or 4, versus approximately 25% in the latter two.

Digital and Customer Engagement are Areas of Concern

Key learnings gained by looking at readiness levels by dimension (Figure 5) include the following:

Intelligent IoT and service operations maturity track very closely to overall readiness. Service operation maturity is quintessential to servitization, so no big surprise here (see section below). However, IDC detected slightly higher than expected developments in the IoT space. Survey results showed that significant or complete portions of portfolio are already IoT-connected in 60% of organizations. However, data showed that the rarer ability to connect supply chain and production facilities was a much more important indicator of servitization maturity

Screenshot 2020-07-16 at 21.02.32

Backoffice is ahead of other areas, but integration with the front-end is missing. The base is decent: more than 85% of the sample have already standardized their processes. Half of them did so in a siloed fashion, half integrating multiple departments. Acceptance of change is the keyword for more than 70% organizations — a sign that enthusiasm is lacking. The real gap, however, is integration of the back-office and field service systems. Just 10% reported full work order integration and as many as 45% confessed to having only manual data integration, which really means no integration at all.
Customer engagement mindset is still far away. There is a lot of work to do around customercentricity, as only 50% of organizations are set up properly with either Net Promoter Score (NPS) alone or combined with advanced techniques. 40% collect anecdotal customer feedback and 10% measure only operational metrics. This reverberates in lacking technology investments on customer experience. 55% of companies reported phone, email, or basic Web portals as the only channels. IDC maintains that this is directly linked to the hit-and-miss DX attitude of the past few years, especially in midmarket companies.

Introducing the IDC Servitization Barometer

Jul 24, 2020 • Features • IDC • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Servitization and Advanced Services

In a new series of extracts from an excellent white paper published by IDC and sponsored by IFS, we will explore the IDC Servitization Barometer which is designed to allow field service organisations to chart their path to new revenue streams. In part one we looked at the rapid and wide reaching change that is being faced by manufacturers in all sectors, in all regions. Now in part two we look further at IDC's Servitization Maturity Framework

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full white paper on the link below.

Screenshot 2020-07-15 at 23.00.22

Sponsored by:

IDC strongly believes servitization will make or break digital transformation initiatives in physical value chains. As the concept is still relatively new to many organizations, it needs to be articulated and clarified.

To help organizations understand where they currently are on this journey and, more importantly, how to proceed to the next level, IDC has built the IDC Servitization Maturity Framework, identifying key dimensions and stages defining an organization’s readiness. In connection to this effort, IDC and IFS have cooperated for this first edition of the IDC Servitization Barometer, a data-based assessment of where companies around the globe find themselves in the servitization journey.

The barometer is fed by an IFS-sponsored survey carried out in July 2019, touching 420 companies active in the physical supply chain world. In this section, we will provide an overview of the tenets of the Maturity Framework, before deep diving into the results of the Barometer. For more detailed information on the survey, including demographics and background, please refer to the Methodology appendix. IDC believes an organization’s status as regards to servitization is defined by the five equally important dimensions described in Figure 3 below.

Screenshot 2020-07-16 at 20.02.09

IDC believes the servitization journey can be summarized in four key stages, as shown in Figure 4.

Screenshot 2020-07-16 at 20.03.21

The four stages can be described as follows:

Splintered. The organization struggles under a myriad of silos that lead to disjointed, manual processes. Legacy, fragmented ERP environments provide little or no visibility on operational performance. The business model is on pure product, with challenges to profitability.
Side-car. The organization has standardized the two chunks of the value chain (back-office and front-desk) but keeps them separated. The keyword in the company is efficiency and few add-on services are delivered. Field service is based on basic mobile capabilities and IoT stacks are at proof-of-concept stage. Growing the business is hard.
Joined-Up. Front-office and back-office flows have been integrated in both directions and leverage the power of advanced technologies such as IoT to feed the core systems with real-time data. In some cases, Edge capabilities bring coordinated autonomy to local sites. A suite of digital services is fully available, and business model enhancements such as pay-as-you-use and outcome-based contracts are being explored.
Borderless. Processes start and end outside the organization and operations and technology enable different elements of the value chain to connect. Co-creation, data-sharing and collaboration with customers, suppliers, partners from other sectors and in some cases even competitors are part and parcel of the business model.

Servitization - A Real Example

A few years ago, a global healthcare manufacturer was struggling with data silos and a balkanized departmental setup (Stage 1). It integrated all the systems and processes in the purchase-to-stock part of the chain and achieved a much leaner back end, allowing better forecasts. Early discussions on modernizing the support and customer front end were held as it reached Stage 2. This is where the company is now. Margins are improving, but the ability to grow is not.

The company decided to explore a new business model towards delivering its medical instruments to operating theater managers on a pay-per-use basis, enabling healthcare professionals to access new innovations without massive upfront investment. The objective of this manufacturer is to generate a competitive differentiation against low cost competitors.

New technologies and service ideas are needed to get to Stage 3. To achieve that, IoT connectivity at customer, field service management software allowing rich data capture and machine learning algorithms that shape both supply flow and product design based on customer data are needed. This will drive new revenue streams from after-sales service and parts, on top of pay-as-you-go capabilities.

Alongside this, the advantages of the business model change become visible to customers. Since losing patients on the operating table due to a lack of materials is a not acceptable, hospitals lean towards very large safety stocks, which generates high inventory costs that are absorbed by patients. By creating an intelligent data flow on instrument utilization, the manufacturer can ultimately make healthcare more accessible to patients.

The long-term horizon begins to appear. In Stage 4, the company will strive to create an adaptative digital workflow in which real-time data generated interlinked with suppliers of raw materials, sterilization companies, hospitals, and patients will drive higher levels of success in the operations room.

Autotalks and Applied Information Partner to Help Emergency Vehicles Arrive Faster

Jul 22, 2020 • News • Digital Transformation • Emergency Services • softrware and apps • USA • AUTOTALKS • APPLIED INFORMATION

Autotalks and Applied Information have teamed up to carry out the world’s first Dual-Mode /Dual-Active V2X deployment, in which Autotalks’ chipsets are installed in roadside units such as traffic lights in Georgia, Texas and Hawaii.

Autotalks, which specializes in V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communication solutions, has teamed up with Applied Information, Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of intelligent transportation infrastructure solutions, to save lives on the roads of Georgia, Texas, and Hawaii. The two companies are carrying out the world’s first Dual-Mode /Dual- Active V2X deployment, in which Autotalks’ dual mode chipsets are installed in emergency vehicles and on roadside units such as traffic lights.

Applied Information has developed a Dual-Mode/Dual-Active Roadside Unit to communicate with vehicles equipped with V2X On Board Units (OBUs). The main use-cases are for emergency vehicles' traffic signal preemption, transit buses for traffic signal priority and vehicles involved in roadside work zones.

the world's first dual-mode v2x deployment for emergency vehicles

The traffic signal preemption function in Alpharetta, Georgia, the first site of the RSU deployment, transfers the normal operation of the traffic control signal to a mode of operation which gives the right of way to emergency vehicles such as ambulances and firefighting vehicles, while all other traffic is brought safely to a halt. As a result, these vehicles can arrive to their destination earlier and have better chances to save lives.

The deployment is expected to expand to include other use cases beyond emergency vehicles, such as transit bus priority, red light running alerts and “get ready for green” message to make traffic move more safely and efficiently through signalized intersections.

In Alpharetta, over 150 traffic control devices are connected and provide a unique opportunity to make real improvements in safety and mobility on streets and highways. The Georgia site is the first real life testing site of this type of deployment. Applied Information has signed similar agreements in Texas and Hawaii, where the two companies are cooperating in similar deployments.

The deployment takes place throughout a 78.5 square mile area surrounding the Infrastructure Automotive Technology Laboratory (iATL) in Alpharetta. The iATL is the world’s first private-sector facility for developing connected vehicle applications for both vehicles and traffic control devices such as traffic signals.

"Enabling the US automotive industry to immediately start large-scale V2X deployment during the period of uncertainty until a uniform technology is chosen."

“Our work with Applied Information, which results in the world’s first Dual-Mode /Dual- Active V2X deployment, is another proof that the auto industry is determined not to wait until the US regulator will decide which V2X technology to deploy. Whether C-V2X or DSRC is selected, there is a move to deploy agnostic technologies such as the one we are offering with AI, and to begin saving lives today,” said Yuval Lachman, vice president of business development at Autotalks. He added that the collaboration will expedite Autotalks’ entry into the U.S. market.

“The AI/Autotalks solution enables roadway operators to confidently deploy V2X technology today so the infrastructure is ready for the auto industry deployment, while providing ‘Day One’ benefits such as safer, faster emergency vehicle response times now,” said Bryan Mulligan, President of Applied Information.

Autotalks believes that it has an important advantage as its dual mode V2X chipset can enable the US automotive industry to immediately start large-scale V2X deployment during the period of uncertainty until a uniform technology is chosen. With the company’s dual mode chipset, carmakers can focus on bringing enhanced safety to US roads with V2X without taking into consideration which V2X technology will prevail.

Autotalks’ deployment-ready, 2nd generation V2X chipset is the world’s first available solution which supports both DSRC based on 802.11p/ITS-G5 standards and C-V2X based on 3GPP release 14 and 15 specifications with embedded V2X cyber-security functionality. The chipset allows customers to easily toggle between DSRC and C-V2X communications.

Panasonic Ensures Customer Experience Consistency With IFS Remote Assistance

Jul 20, 2020 • News • Panasonic • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • IFS • Software

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Europe, a leading provider of heating and cooling solutions, has chosen IFS Remote Assistance™, to enable installers, field technicians, engineers and customers to share real-life situational context with remote product experts so that hands-on service and repair instructions can be visually demonstrated and acted upon.

With a company-wide, strategic shift toward a servitized, subscription-based business model, the Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Europe business, comprised of sales, support and technical service staff across Europe, needed a central software solution to ensure a consistently excellent service experience for its clients.

A MERGED-REALITY SOLUTION FROM IFS TO PROVIDE REMOTE PRODUCT SUPPORT

With IFS Remote Assistance, Panasonic Heating & Cooling Solutions is able to remotely diagnose issues, ensure real-time knowledge sharing, and significantly speed up repair rates, which was typically seven days. By reducing or even eliminating the need to make site visits, the company is also able to lower travel costs and environmental impact.

“Our investment in the IFS solution is part of a larger strategy to transform our business mindset from product-centric to service-centric and to develop the maturity of our service organization,” Head of European Service at Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Europe Karl Lowe said. “With IFS Remote Assistance, we are leveraging state-of-the-art technology to unleash the full potential of our highly skilled workforce, regardless of where they are based. Not only are we able to navigate constraints, we are actually able to improve repair rates and access real-time performance data to help us gauge and improve our service.”

Alain Laing, Managing Director, IFS UK and Ireland, added, “Across the globe, we are seeing visionary manufacturers invest in technology to enable a servitized business model. We are thrilled to be part of Panasonic’s transformation journey and look forward to doing our part to provide the tools they need so they can ensure the safety of its workforce and a great customer experience.”

Key Questions: Differences Between Augmented, Mixed & Merged Reality

Jul 20, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • OverIT • Space1 • Field Service News Digital Symposium

As part of an exclusive Field Service News presentation with the team at Space1 Kris Oldland talks to Francesco Benvenuto of OverIT the creators of Space1 and augmented reality tool designed for field service organisations to find out the difference between Augmented, Merged and Mixed Reality technologies as well as discussing the importance of Artificial Intelligence when it comes to the application of such technologies...

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Different Technologies, With Different Applications Within Field Service

When it comes to dialling in the experience required directly to your field service engineers or technicians, we are becoming more familiar with the processes and the technology. However, what can be confusing in identifying the solution your business needs is the various terms which, to the layperson at least, appear to largely to be synonyms. But is this necessarily the case?

"There is a technical difference," explains Francesco Benvenuto, OverIT when this question was put to him during a recent presentation of the Space1 Augmented Reality solution designed by the team behind Field Service Management solution OverIT.

"Augmented reality is a little different from mixed reality and very different from virtual reality. With Space1, we can leverage the three technologies in different application areas.

"Many of our clients are leveraging virtual reality so they can create a reproduction of a real environment giving them the ability to train an employee in safe conditions..."

- Francesco Benvenuto, OverIT

"I would say that today, augmented reality is a technology that is ready to be used in the field for maintenance activities for training also for presenting service related reports. Mixed reality I would say that slightly behind augmented reality in terms of its readiness to be used in the field which is mainly with due to restrictions on the hardware side of the equation.

"When it comes to virtual reality, mostly our clients using VR within Space1 for training, many of our clients are leveraging virtual reality so they can create a reproduction of a real environment giving them the ability to train an employee in safe conditions.

Of course, during the last four months, where we've seen digital transformation accelerate as a result of the pandemic and remote assistance tools have been at the forefront of that. However, before this period, there has always been something of a slight reluctance to fully embrace augmented reality solutions within field service than might have been perhaps anticipated.

There have always been some nagging doubts. It felt there were just a couple of dots that needed to be connected before AR could indeed live up to its potential as a cornerstone of field service delivery technology. For me, one of those critical dots was the knowledge management piece.

This was something that leapt out of the presentation given by Benvenuto and his colleagues. Artificial Intelligence impressively powered the knowledge management aspects of the Space1 solution. As soon as I saw the solution being demonstrated, I could see that indeed, AI was potentially the one tool that could join an awful lot of those dots together.

As Benvenuto said during the Q&A, "we see that artificial intelligence today is making our solution stand out from other products that are available in the market. We are using artificial intelligence because we believe that it's very important. Companies are facing challenges to be able to store such information, and with so many employees are leaving the company, it's often hard to find new workers.

"Also, it's getting harder and harder also due to the complexity of the assets that are being maintained on field to be able to store such data. So knowledge management, artificial intelligence, augmented reality are really key in helping organizations to solve this issue."

Strategic Priorities in Production-Oriented Industries

Jul 17, 2020 • Features • IDC • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Servitization and Advanced Services

In a new series of extracts from an excellent white paper published by IDC and sponsored by IFS, we will explore the IDC Servitization Barometer which is designed to allow field service organisations to chart their path to new revenue streams. In part one we look at the rapid and wide reaching change that is being faced by manufacturers in all sectors, in all regions...

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full white paper on the link below.

Screenshot 2020-07-15 at 23.00.22

Sponsored by:

Production-oriented industries anchored in physical value chains are undergoing a process of deep transformation. Business leaders must find new ways to adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations and volatile market conditions. Rethinking the approach to ideation, innovation, and new product and service development is critical to maintaining top- and bottom-line growth.

Digital transformation initiatives are being rolled out with the end goal of making enterprises “Borderless.” This means the powering of a digital network that integrates internal and external silos to deliver more value to the ecosystem, including employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.

IDC research (see figure 1 below) indicates that digital organizations in production-oriented industries are benefitting from strong growth in terms of revenue and profit. Non-digital organizations struggle.

Screenshot 2020-07-15 at 22.46.49

As digital transformation evolves from a cluster of one-off projects to the generation of new business models, business leaders are required to deliver the associated business outcomes from digital investments. In fact, in a recent IDC survey 65% of CEOs stated that they were under considerable pressure to craft and execute a successful digital transformation strategy that enables financial growth in their organizations.

In production-oriented industries, success is dependent on the ability to bring a much stronger service value proposition to play. Servitization is therefore turning into a top agenda item in this sector, with 82% of firms actively exploring or moving to servitize their businesses. The transition towards servitization in these industries is potentially motivated by the fact that the respondents expect the average proportion of annual revenue generated from services versus products to double from 8% in 2019 to 16% in 2022.

IDC describes servitization as the process whereby organizations with physical value chains enhance their products with — and ultimately package them within — advanced services such as digital applications and payment models based on consumption or outcome. According to IDC’s research, there is a strong correlation between servitization maturity and revenue growth. All organizations in the most advanced stage of servitization have reported growth in the top line in the past year, often over 5%. On the other hand, the revenues from 88% of organizations in the earliest stage of servitization maturity have either decreased or stayed the same in the past 12 months.

"Servitization is a journey and its end stage is the creation of an end-to-end value chain..."

In most organizations, servitization is a critical element of the overall digital transformation. It involves a transformation of the core systems, leveraging emerging technologies such as IoT and machine learning, which in turn enable organizations to access real-time data from the ecosystem and transform it into actionable insights.

Servitization is a journey and its end stage is the creation of an end-to-end value chain. This can only be enabled by driving interoperability at the application level, where the ERP systems underpinning the supply chain are seamlessly connected to the applications enabling field service and contact center agents, as well as the sensors collecting data from deployed products. The outcome is a continuous flow of relevant information across front-office and back-office to increase operational performance and new revenue streams based on data-driven services. Figure 2 (below) illustrates some of the benefits that servitization could deliver to production-oriented organizations and their end customers.

Screenshot 2020-07-15 at 22.48.23

Examples of companies heading towards servitization include:

An Israeli-based industrial valves manufacturer embedded IoT modules in its products, allowing it to charge customers based on volumes of liquid processed. The customer can program the valves for remote manual operation or set a machine-learning algorithm to do that. This increases efficiency in the industrial operations.
A forklift maker connected one of its products to a cloud backend with GPS tracking, offering its logistic customers remote maintenance services and a fleet management service to locate its forklifts.
A global defense and security provider offered aircraft fleet maintenance and repair services. In order to ensure high availability of the equipment for its customers, this organization has linked the systems that underpin the maintenance and repair cycle to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. The outcome is the delivery of an effective fleet readiness management to customers and the generation of new revenue streams coming from more after-sales services and improved customer satisfaction.

Based on discussions with companies in the sectors impacted, IDC believes changes in business models are part and parcel of servitization. These can be played out in three ways:

Augmentation of product-based revenue with additional service revenue going beyond traditional services (maintenance, break-fix etc.) to include data-driven digital services (e.g., Fleet management service above)
Partial or complete switch from upfront sales towards consumption or outcome-based models (e.g., “pay-per-liquid volume processed”)
Monetization of proprietary data through licensing to third party (e.g., a car manufacturer selling access to driving behavior data to an insurer)

While complexity and impact on overall organization changes between the three approaches, IDC believes that all these new approaches to business models signal that a servitization journey is on the way and positive effects for the top and bottom line are a consequence of those.

ServiceMax Named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management

Jul 16, 2020 • News • Digital Transformation • field service management • servicemax • Leadership and Strategy

ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, today announced that Gartner has positioned the company as a Leader in the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management among 14 other field service software providers....

“We are pleased to be recognized by Gartner as a Leader in the field service management market,” said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. “ServiceMax continues to expand its field service management capabilities for asset-centric industries with its market-leading product innovation, customer success and retention, and unmatched market expertise. As a provider solely focused on field service, we’re proud to be seen as an industry thought leader as we continue to deliver product innovations that help our customers run more profitable, efficient service operations in complex, asset-intensive industries.

innovation in FIELD SERVICE management is key for organiSations

Gartner Inc. analysts, Jim Robinson and Naved Rashid write, “Equipment operators and owners have come to expect that their service providers will use the latest technologies to provide the most efficient and highest quality service. It is increasingly difficult for analog FSPs to compete with those that use multiple digital technologies in their field service operations.”

To remain an industry leader, ServiceMax continues to build on its history of innovation and thought leadership, most recently rolling out new product features and content designed to further empower field service organizations. Enhancements include improved scheduling solutions with Service Board, additional mobile capabilities such as satellite layers on maps and improved route views, and increased collaboration with interactive hotline bots and photo annotation. The company has also delivered transformative thought leadership for the field service industry including the 2020 CSO Report, featuring insights gathered from ServiceMax’s global service leader community and the newly launched Field Service Finder, a job board designed to help customers reach qualified workers for open roles.

BRITA Redesigns Drinking Water Service With Comprehensive Solution from IFS

Jul 10, 2020 • News • Workforce Scheduling • Digital Transformation • field service management • IFS • Software • BRITA

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that BRITA, one of the world’s leading companies in drinking water optimization, has selected IFS’s comprehensive service management solution covering field service management, workforce...

BRITA is fully committed to customer service as the main point of competitive differentiation. To power its pursuit of becoming global market leader, the company needed a comprehensive service management solution that could ensure a consistent and positive customer experience globally while delivering workforce efficiency and data accuracy.

THE importance OF FIELD SERVICE management for global enterprises

Following a competitive bid process involving several enterprise software vendors, BRITA selected IFS based on the solution’s wide-ranging field service management functionality and native integration with workforce scheduling and planning capabilities.

The central IFS solution will unify a number of manual processes with a holistic end-to-end platform that spans the entire service value chain, from service request management to automated technician dispatch and maintenance and repair completion. The solution will also help BRITA in the future to return and recycle spent water filter products.

The IFS solution, which will be used by BRITA’s field and customer service staff in Germany, France, Switzerland, Benelux, and the UK, will be fully integrated with the company’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

“Customer service is a vital part of our value proposition and a key differentiator in our highly competitive market segment,” said Tanja Manegold, Senior Group Director Service Prof. Dispenser at BRITA. “Investing in a best-in-class service management suite will help us advance our leading position. IFS was able to present us with a fully integrated platform that can deliver one version of the truth, which will help us deliver on our service-level agreements and enhance our first-time fix rates.”

Marcus Pannier, IFS Managing Director, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, added, “We are honored to work alongside such a globally renowned brand such as BRITA. All around the world, leading-edge manufacturers like BRITA are looking to service and servitization strategies to boost revenues and earn more customer hearts and minds. At IFS, we have anticipated this shift and are ready to equip these early movers with robust enterprise software that is designed to enhance workforce efficiency while safeguarding a great customer experience.”

ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘digital-transformation’ CATEGORY

Key Questions: Can Augmented Reality Operate on Low Bandwidth?

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full presentation by clicking the button below. If you are yet to subscribe the button below will take you to our subscription page, where you can see the range of subscription options available.

Further Reading:

The Beginning of a Servitization Journey

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full white paper on the link below.

First Results From the Servitization Barometer

A Deeper Look at Servitization Maturity

Digital and Customer Engagement are Areas of Concern

Further Reading:

Introducing the IDC Servitization Barometer

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full white paper on the link below.

Servitization - A Real Example

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Autotalks and Applied Information Partner to Help Emergency Vehicles Arrive Faster

the world's first dual-mode v2x deployment for emergency vehicles

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Panasonic Ensures Customer Experience Consistency With IFS Remote Assistance

A MERGED-REALITY SOLUTION FROM IFS TO PROVIDE REMOTE PRODUCT SUPPORT

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Key Questions: Differences Between Augmented, Mixed & Merged Reality

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Different Technologies, With Different Applications Within Field Service

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Strategic Priorities in Production-Oriented Industries

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ServiceMax Named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management

innovation in FIELD SERVICE management is key for organiSations

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BRITA Redesigns Drinking Water Service With Comprehensive Solution from IFS

THE importance OF FIELD SERVICE management for global enterprises

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