ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘europe’ CATEGORY

Bill Pollock reveals some of the key findings of this year's Strategies for Growth^SM  benchmark survey with a specific lens on the Uk and European market...

 

---

 

Want to know more? Bill will be presenting the results in a webinar hosted by CSDP on Wednesday, 6 December, 2017; to register visit or to download a copy of SFG℠’s companion Analysts Take report, please visit the registration Webpage at: http://bit.ly/2zt4eu0.

 

---

 

Each year, Strategies For Growth^SM (SFG^SM) conducts a series of Benchmark Surveys administered among its global outreach community.

The results of SFG^SM’s 2017 Field Service Management (FSM) Benchmark Survey, as they pertain specifically to the UK/Europe FSM market base, identify the following as the top factors, or challenges, currently driving Field Service Organisations (FSOs) to optimise field service performance (compared to the overall global results) – basically, they have been mandated by their respective managements to “meet customer demands” and “drive increased service revenues”, as summarised below:

• 50% Customer demand for quicker response time (less than 55% Global)
• 46% Internal mandate to drive increased service revenues (more than f30% Global)
• 38% Need to improve workforce utilisation & productivity (less than f50% Global)
• 38% Need to improve service process efficiencies (less than 39% Global)
• 23% Customer demand for improved asset availability (less than f29% Global)
• 23% Customer demand for more accurate service call scheduling (same as 23% Global)[/unordered_list]

However, while some of the key UK/Europe market drivers, such as customer demand for quicker response time and focusing on customer demand and workforce utilisation may be lower than their global respondent counterparts, the recognition that there is a need to improve service process efficiencies is pretty much at par with the rest of the world.

As such, it should come as no surprise that, similar to the 2017 global survey results, UK/Europe FSOs are still planning to invest more in new technologies in support of their respective field forces than other global geographies represented in the overall survey universe.

However, in order to effectively address these key challenges – and strive to attain Best Practices status – UK/Europe respondents then cite the following as the top strategic actions they are currently taking:

• 65% Develop / improve metrics, or KPIs, used to measure field service performance (more than 48% Global)
• 38% Automate existing manual field service processes and activities (more than 36% Global)
• 35% Integrate new technologies into existing field service operations (i.e., iPads, Tablets or other devices, etc.) (more than 31% Global)

These data strongly suggest that there is a pattern of synergy among the top three cited strategic actions that builds a foundation for all of the other actions that will ultimately be taken by the organisation; that is, that nearly two-thirds of the FSOs comprising the UK/Europe services community already recognise the need to build and/or improve their KPI measurement program.

In fact, the percentage of UK/Europe FSOs currently developing/improving their respective KPIs, at 65%, remains higher than even the 62% cited by the survey’s historical Best Practices respondents (i.e., those attaining at least 90% Customer Satisfaction and 30% Services Profitability).

Based on the current SFG℠ survey data, Jerry Edinger, President, CEO and Chairman of CSDP Corporation, a leading Service Relationship Management software developer, explains, “This is why we start every one of our client engagements with consulting.

We ensure that your business processes are designed correctly before automating them. Software alone cannot improve KPIs. We design the exact Field Service Management solution based on the needs and requirements of the organisation.

We detail how a solution automates the entire service delivery and customer service processes into a fully integrated field service management system and maps it into the overall enterprise workflow. Once the consultative effort is completed, we then have a detailed roadmap of how to build the most effective solution to meet the organisation’s field service goals and objectives.”

The 2017 SFG℠ survey results identify the following as the main factors that characterise the UK/Europe FSM market:

• The top future challenges for UK/Europe FSOs with respect to the acquisition and implementation of new technologies are essentially cost-related (i.e., ROI and TCO)
• The top future opportunity/benefit anticipated by UK/Europe FSOs through the acquisition/implementation of new technologies is improved customer satisfaction, primarily through the ability to eliminate internal silos, and provide customers with an end-to-end engagement relationship
• UK/Europe Field Services Organisations (FSOs) are largely driven to meet customer demands for quicker response time, and internal mandates for driving increased service revenues
• A nearly two-thirds majority of UK/Europe FSOs are adding, expanding and/or refining the metrics, or KPIs, they use to measure service performance
• Over the next 12 months, more than two-thirds (70%) of UK/Europe FSOs will have integrated new technologies into existing field service operations, and automated existing manual fields service processes or activities (70%)UK/Europe Field Technicians are increasingly being provided with enhanced access to real-time data and information to support them in the field
• UK/Europe FSOs are providing customers with expanded Web-enabled self-help capabilities (i.e., to order parts, track the status of open calls, and create service tickets, etc.)[/unordered_list]

 

---

 

Want to know more? Bill will be presenting the results in a webinar hosted by CSDP on Wednesday, 6 December, 2017; to register visit or to download a copy of SFG℠’s companion Analysts Take report, please visit the registration Webpage at: http://bit.ly/2zt4eu0.

 

---

 

Be social and share

Upgrading a service management system can be a challenge, but unifying and upgrading multiple systems across a continent? Here’s how Pitney Bowes approached the task…

Service management software has evolved and the benefits of moving to a modern next generation system are well documented. But what are the considerations that need to be factored in when changing systems? And what about companies that have evolved multiple systems across various regions?

One company who recently went through this process was Global Franking Machine giant Pitney Bowes as they sought to both standardise and upgrade their systems across the whole of Europe.

"We started with different service systems across Europe that had become built up across the years which that didn’t talk to each other” Andy Beer, Director of Service & Postal Market Development explained at a recent Service Community event.

Of course this is an issue for any organisation that operates across multiple divisions, with differing centres of operations. And whilst it may not be impossible, it certainly makes it harder to identify company wide trends, swiftly enough to act on them with any great effect.

“We had six or seven different systems that we had built up across Europe and in fact in the Nordics we were still using a paper based model similar to when I started with Pitney Bowes in the 80’s” continued Beer before describing the Nordic system “whereby our engineers would come into the office in the morning, go to a big rolodex and pull out their cards for the day, come back and write it all up.”

With such disparity it was clear for Pitney Bowes the direction they needed to take.

“Our number one goal was to give us one platform across Europe so we could then report on our key performance metrics, whatever that may be and do it on an international level.” Beer explained

“We looked at our existing systems and to upgrade us from the platform we were on and to add in other companies we needed, would have required and investment in a little over a million dollars, so it wasn’t a decision that we were going to take lightly.  We weren’t going to just say give us the upgrade, give us version 2. We wanted something more for that.”

Quite rightly so as at level of cost whilst the right solution could lead to significant added insight into the operation of the company and ultimately large potential savings, get it wrong and it would be a costly mistake. As it turned out even this level of investment would have failed to deliver the requirements that Pitney Bowes had identified as key to their needs.

As Beer explained further “even with that investment we still wouldn’t have a web front end, which we were looking for, and we would still be beholden on either the suppliers of that system or our own internal IT department to help us write reports.”

“We felt we were looking in our rear view mirror an awful lot and it wasn’t just what was immediately behind us that we were looking for, it was sometimes looking months behind us before we could actually start to get reasonable reporting, so we definitely needed to change”

With field service experts from all quarters exalting the importance of data this was another area that Pitney Bowes were acutely aware that their current system wasn’t empowering them as much as it should be.

“Data is important but when you have tons of it and you can’t sift through it, when you can’t find an easy way to get meaning from the data, then you’re just hamstrung by it.” Beer outlined before adding further

“When I say about looking in the rear view mirror, visibility of particular production or productivity metrics were very low and it was then very difficult to manage either individual engineers, based on their metrics, or build that up into a team of engineers, or into a country, let alone build that up across a European view.”

“The pain we went through to change reports, even just to tweak things slightly” Beer recalls before pausing a moment with a wry smile.  “ When your running the operation, you want to be able to see everything at a whim, you don’t want to have to be beholden to an IT group or a vendor to be able to give you something you think you might need. “

This is perhaps the fundamental difference between, the last generation of service management software and current systems. In this data driven age non-technical people are used to accessing highly customised reports with ease, and often depend on this ability to do their job.

As Beer points out “The thing is, as operational people we think we need to see an awful lot of stuff but then may stop and look at it and think ‘Do I really need that after all?’ but we need to see it first to make that call.”

Other considerations that were key for Pitney Bowes were that their new solution had to be able to integrate with Salesforce, as this was their chosen CRM and also that it to be Cloud based.

Outlining their thought process Beer added “Our existing systems wasn’t cloud based and we absolutely knew that our prime need was to move to the cloud, we didn’t want to have the hassle of owning the system, we wanted instant upgrades where available and instant fixes where available. “

“Essentially we wanted to future proof our investment.”

With the plethora of service management solutions on the market selecting finding a solution to meet their needs was always going to be possible, although dependent on a robust evaluation process. However, selecting a solution to meet these needs was one thing, implementing a solution across such a complex mix of territories another.

The approach required needed to involve all of the key stakeholders.

“We knew we were beholden to IT in our previous systems, we didn’t want to be in that position now but we also knew that they couldn’t not be involved.” Beer explains

“So we had two phases of the project, the first one was business and operations led. We picked a team of people from across Europe that came together and then spent five or six months getting really deep into what we had and what we thought we needed moving forward, and putting together a plan to get to from one to the other. Once we had that we engaged with IT”

“We wanted to the establish how we could integrate what we had into other systems, interfacing with the vendor and outlining what we saw as our business and operational requirements and then asked how readily available those were.

“We took this approach knowing that the more you fiddle around the edges of what your vendor can offer you the harder it comes to manage going forward”

Beer further expands on the practical and pragmatic approach by adding

“Nirvana is to take something off the shelf in PC World, type your code in and bang the following morning you’ve got a system, real life is not quite as beautiful as that, we know that, but the more you can avoid trying to tweak the edges of a vendors system and what it does to try and make it fit with your processes the better.”

It is through taking such a measured approach of understanding not only needs and goals but also limitations, and building the flexibility to overcome any limitations through adapting processes, that Pitney Bowes have been achieve the massive challenge of unifying disparate systems across a continent, and it is an approach worth considering for any company considering upgrading their existing system.

be social and share this feature

ServicePower have shown a further investment in their product platform, as a result of continued growth in the European market, by implementing extensions to its German and the Czech solutions as well as the US Territory of Puerto Rico, supporting recent customer wins in these regions and expansion with existing customers.

ServiceScheduling, which uses a proprietary artificial intelligence-based algorithm to route and optimise employed or dedicated field resources, previously supported travel calculation in North America, including the US and Canada, and in Europe, including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.  Now it has been further upgraded to support travel logic in Germany, including the new pre calculated, in memory travel data to support real time field service environments.

Also the system has been improved and now includes support for complete application translation to the German language, ensuring a fully localised user experience. This latest release will also support multiple languages within the same deployment, including on premise or hosted instances, a key requirement for the Company’s multinational client base.

ServiceMobility has been enhanced to support complete localisation, including language, and other critical data such as dates, times and user location information, for the Czech Republic. This extension, as well as several additional planned geographical deployment expansions, enhances ServicePower’s ability to support its international clients, as well as improve its penetration outside the North American and UK markets.  Mobility will also be extended to field based teams in Puerto Rico.

Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower, commented, "ServicePower continues to invest in our platform, driving innovation and improved market penetration for our shareholders.

“ServiceScheduling, our flagship optimised routing product, continues to outperform competitive products, with proven superiority in real time optimisation, part scheduling, in memory travel calculation and M2M data utilisation, as well as growing multinational support. ServiceMobility is enjoying similar success, providing new features and support of diverse device deployments within employed or third party field service networks. Our investment decisions continue to position ServicePower well for future market growth.”