In the first part of this feature, Tesseract’s Kevin McNally explored the importance of contract management and workforce scheduling within a field service management system. Now in the concluding part of this feature he looks at three other key...
ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘features’ CATEGORY
Nov 02, 2017 • Features • Integration • Inventory Management • KevinMcNally • KPI • Software and Apps • Asolvi • Parts Pricing and Logistics
In the first part of this feature, Tesseract’s Kevin McNally explored the importance of contract management and workforce scheduling within a field service management system. Now in the concluding part of this feature he looks at three other key elements of a modern FSM system...
[hr]
Want to know more? A white paper on this topic is available for Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you the white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!
[hr]
Mobile tools and communications:
It is fair to say that the biggest revolution in field service has come from the rapid explosion in mobile computing power. Today’s smartphones are capable of greater computing tasks than even the laptops of just a few years back.
For the field service organisation this is fantastic as it puts information at the field service engineers finger tips, empowers them to spend far more time on maintenance and repair and far less on activities such as paper work and enables them to deliver a far more effective and impressive service experience for the customer.
[quote float="left"]The real key to a FSM solution is the ability to keep a number of differing business units all on the same page at once, [/quote]The real key to a FSM solution is the ability to keep a number of differing business units all on the same page at once, and the mobile aspect is the key to ensuring the field service engineers – perhaps the most vital cog in the service operation wheel, are kept up to date (and are keeping their colleagues updated about their own progress) whilst working remotely.
For the field service engineer, his FSM app is perhaps now the most important tool in his belt, but if it is cumbersome to use its benefits may well be underused and much of its true value lost. Therefore, for those seeking a new FSM solution the mobile app is a key area for scrutiny. If you are already working with an FSM system it is worth considering getting some feedback on this aspect of the mobile app from your engineers and taking this back to your FSM provider – a good systems partner will always value such feedback and often if there are areas where you feel the solution can be improved, these will likely be felt by other companies using the same solution, so such changes may well surface in the not too distant future in a new update.
Parts & Inventory Management:
[quote]Part’s Management is a real fundamental piece of the puzzle that is overlooked by many companies – Kevin McNally, Tesseract[/quote]
Parts and Inventory management is perhaps an area that in the past has not received the focus and attention that it requires. It has often been the mantra of field service organisations that they are aiming to the get the right engineer to the right job, at the right time. But that all becomes moot if the right engineer doesn’t have the right parts to hand as well. Consistently at industry conferences parts management remains a hot button and a common pain point.
One area where many companies get themselves caught out is by thinking that they can use a system such as a financial system that is designed at best for companies whose stock resides in static places such as warehouses and stores.
However, field service is far more dynamic than that, with parts moving back and forth and in and out of locations constantly each and every day.
In no time at all a company that isn’t using a system designed with field service in mind will soon find themselves having to find workarounds to make their system work, which ultimately will mean a far less accurate understanding of stock levels, which can only ever lead to unnecessary spending and a negative impact on the bottom line.
But there are other less obvious impacts poor stock management can have as well.
[quote float="right"]Field service is far more dynamic than that, with parts moving back and forth and in and out of locations constantly each and every day.[/quote]For instance, in such a set up stock realistically can usually only be written off once it has been invoiced. However, in the dynamic world of field service that is of course too late. It could be quite conceivable that an engineer visit could be scheduled with a customer based on a specific part being in stock but in fact whilst there is one of those parts remaining in the inventory, the reality could be that it has already been fitted but just not written off yet as the job hasn’t been invoiced.
For example, lets say an engineer who is onsite is unable to complete a first time fix, but is able to identify a faulty component and then order it whilst still with the customer - giving them a confirmed date for a second appointment when the needed maintenance can be undertaken.
This is a far more powerful and commanding response compared to the negative situation we often find ourselves in where an engineer cannot find the right part – and he just heads off to his next job, leaving the first customer to wait for an unconfirmed rescheduled appointment whilst they try to track down the right part.
In one example we see an engineer empowered by his technology, the other he is hampered by the lack of it.
Integration:
We are living in a world of data lakes, data rivers, data mountains and all other types of data topography it seems! But all these vast swathes of data are meaningless unless you are able to draw insight from it, and quite often that means being able to let the data flow seamlessly from one set of business applications to another
[quote float="left"]We are seeing more and more companies offering ‘off the shelf’ or ‘out of the box’ integration with the leading CRM, ERP and even Telematics solutions.[/quote] Integration varies from provider to provider but often it is led by the integrations they have been asked to undertake, so if your current provider or a provider you have identified as being a good fit for your business don’t advertise integration with a specific system you are using – it is worth discussing the possibilities with them especially if it is a common platform so making their product work with it may be useful for other future clients also.
We are seeing more and more companies offering ‘off the shelf’ or ‘out of the box’ integration with the leading CRM, ERP and even Telematics solutions.
It is worth discussing with your providers how they are future proofing their products when it comes to integration – there is for example a large amount of proprietary technology centred around IoT at the moment and until accepted universal protocols are in place you want to make sure any technology you have invested in today is going to be of use tomorrow.
Tesseract is the leading service management software provider in Europe and have been in the Field Service Business for over 30 years. For further information contact Tesseract on 01494 465066 or www.tesseract.co.uk
[hr]
Want to know more? A white paper on this topic is available for Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you the white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!
[hr]
Be social and share
Nov 01, 2017 • Features • Hardware • Xplore • Bob Ashenbrenner • rugged • Sandy McCasky • SOTI
Ahead of an upcoming webinar with Field Service News, Xplore’s John Graff takes a look at why ultimately so many mobility projects fail to deliver the return on investment they promise...
Ahead of an upcoming webinar with Field Service News, Xplore’s John Graff takes a look at why ultimately so many mobility projects fail to deliver the return on investment they promise...
A couple months ago, former mobile solutions architect and current Xplore consultant Bob Ashenbrenner noted that “many companies are struggling to figure out how and when to invest in not just mobile technologies, but the right mobility solutions.”
A similar sentiment is being shared by SOTI CEO and founder Carl Rodrigues after reviewing the results of a recent study conducted by Arlington Research on his company’s behalf:
“Many organisations are using mobility for the basics, but do not know how to implement the next level of mobile integration to transform their workforce…” he noted before adding that this hurdle ‘…is leaving businesses with a “piecemeal approach” to their mobile operations – a disconnected set of point solutions required to perform business critical operations.’
Though there is a consensus among organisations worldwide that more mobility tools are needed in the workplace (for many reasons), there is also a consensus that shopping for effective mobility solutions can be complex.
That is precisely why we’ve brought Bob together with our EMEA Sales Director Sandy McCasky on November 8 for a upcoming “coffee break” webinar with Field Service News.
They will have a very open and honest conversation about why so many executives are hesitant to buy into more advanced mobile technology implementations given the business process improvements that have been repeatedly credited to increased utilisation of mobile devices.
There’s a tendency by many managers to gravitate towards mobile device brands that they are familiar with from their personal lives; consumer brands that aren’t suited for professional environments.
In my opinion, both of these issues boil down to one underlying challenge: Too many companies don’t have a well-planned buying process for mobility solutions.
Often, they have many good ideas for possible uses of mobility, yet they may skip steps in the buying and evaluation process to meet an accelerated timeline, or they may fail to take certain actions early enough in the process to ensure success.
For example, they know they need X, Y and Z capabilities, but spend months scouring the web, chugging through sales meetings and churning through testing cycles without ever securing executive sponsorship or proving the business case.
There’s a tendency by many managers to gravitate towards mobile device brands that they are familiar with from their personal lives; consumer brands that aren’t suited for professional environments.
And, while your mobile device decision alone can’t make or break the success of your organisation’s mobility project, device failures are a leading cause of worker downtime.
Picking incompatible device-software-accessory combinations because it was hard to make an apples-to-apples “solution” comparison online or forgetting to consider the true durability requirements beyond a “ruggedized case”, often leads to project failure in the eyes of workers and executives.
Thus the reason why Xplore is working with partners such as Intel to create a templatised action plan that every company can reference when buying mobile technologies.
A single shift in your mobile buying strategy and process can put your organisation in a position to more expeditiously advance its business goals and take advantage of new revenue-generating opportunities.
I’m confident that if we – collectively with our customers and partners – help simplify the “shopping” process from day one, organsations will be able to make more informed technology purchasing decisions and secure executive support for full-scale implementations.
They will also realise the benefits of improved worker productivity and more cost-effective workflow execution.
In short, a single shift in your mobile buying strategy and process can put your organisation in a position to more expeditiously advance its business goals and take advantage of new revenue-generating opportunities.
If you want to move your mobility project forward quickly – and move your company closer to productivity and growth goals via mobility – then join us for this webinar.
You’ll walk away with the know-how and resources to choose a mobile solution that’s capable of improving business process efficiency and, therefore, your operational performance and profitability levels.
Register for the webinar @ http://fs-ne.ws/TWDr30fM4Sc
Be social and share
Oct 27, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Microsoft • Digital Twins • GE Digital • IoT • servicemax
This week GE unveiled expansions to its suite of edge-to-cloud technologies and industrial applications, designed to help its customers build a complete asset strategy.
This week GE unveiled expansions to its suite of edge-to-cloud technologies and industrial applications, designed to help its customers build a complete asset strategy.
These additions to the GE Digital portfolio complement the key software applications that drive industrial productivity and extend these benefits through Predix, the application development platform for the Industrial Internet.
To help industrial companies get the most out of their industrial assets and drive better business outcomes, GE Digital today introduced: Predix Edge technologies to accelerate computing at the edge; the Predix platform combined with Microsoft Azure, the cloud for enterprises; new Operations Performance Management software to bridge productivity from assets to operations; enhanced Field Service Management solutions to improve the customer experience; and new platform tools to simplify industrial app development.
Industrials that unlock data to master asset productivity will be positioned to lead
Edge-to-Cloud Intelligence on Any Industrial Asset, Anywhere
By 2022, Gartner predicts that 75 percent of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data center or cloud. The ability to compute and manage this information both at the edge and in the cloud are essential for industrial companies to truly optimise their operations.
To help customers accelerate their edge strategies and make any asset an intelligent asset, GE Digital is expanding its Predix Edge capabilities to help run analytics as close to the source of data as possible. Predix Edge gives customers with limited connectivity, latency limitations, regulatory or other constraints a way to deploy applications closer to the originating data – or at the edge.
Enhancements include:
[unordered_list style="bullet"]
- Predix Edge Manager allows customers to support large fleets of edge devices – up to 200,000 connected devices from a single console.
- Predix Machine enables microservice-based applications to run at the edge on customers’ virtualized data center infrastructure or on server-class hardware from GE or its partners. This also supports Predix Edge Manager, which was previously available only as a cloud service.
- Predix complex event processing (CEP) allows for faster and more efficient analytics and other event processing at extreme low latency, available at the edge in Q1 2018.[/unordered_list]
These edge solutions can help companies move from intelligent asset management to automation to insights-led machine learning across a distributed system. One example is EdgeLINC, a comprehensive edge-to-cloud solution from GE Transportation integrated with Predix Edge Manager, Predix Machine and Asset Performance Management applications. EdgeLINC enables efficient device management, configuration and streaming analytics even when machines, such as rail assets, are constantly moving in and out of communication.
Predix Platform on Microsoft Azure
GE Digital and Microsoft are bringing together the advanced industrial platform services of Predix with the flexible, enterprise-proven services of Microsoft Azure. Available in North America starting Q4 2017 and expanding globally in 2018, this partnership extends the accessibility of Predix to Microsoft’s global cloud footprint, including data sovereignty, hybrid capabilities and advanced developer and data services, enabling customers around the world to capture intelligence from their industrial assets.
While IT and OT have traditionally existed in silos, Microsoft and GE are bridging this gap
Advanced Applications to Make the Industrial Internet More Actionable
Understanding how an asset operates and its maintenance needs is critical to mitigating risk and improving productivity. Alongside its Asset Performance Management (APM) software, the core application deriving value from industrial assets, GE Digital introduced a complementary application that improves the operational performance of assets – like pumps, valves and heat exchangers – and drives a comprehensive asset management strategy.
This new Operations Performance Management (OPM) solution helps industrials increase revenue and margins, optimise the throughput of industrial processes and make their sites more profitable. OPM uses real-time and historical data – along with advanced analytics – to help customers make better operational decisions. The solution provides an early warning if industrial processes deviate from plan, arms operators with the information and time to troubleshoot operational issues and helps them take preventative actions to meet business goals.
GE Digital’s OPM software initially targets the mining industry and will expand to additional industries early next year.
The OPM solution has already helped customers achieve significant improvements to revenue and profit including:
[unordered_list style="bullet"]
- A platinum operator increased overall throughput by 10 percent, consistently reaching maximum design capacity and increasing recovery by 1.5 percent.
- A large mining company achieved a 5.5 percent increase in throughput while consuming 2 percent less power
- A gold producer realised a 1.5 percent increase in recovery while reducing equipment-related costs through improved process efficiency.
[/unordered_list]
Enhanced Field Service Management Solutions
With service technicians looking to embrace technology to improve their productivity and deliver a better experience for customers, ServiceMax from GE Digital, the leading field service management (FSM) solution, announced several enhancements to its FSM suite – enabling even greater efficiencies and bringing advanced analytics to service operations.
Artificial intelligence-enabled predictive service times now integrate the Apache Spark AI engine to improve service time estimates. Additionally, a new application integration solution enables service providers to launch and share FSM data with third-party mobile applications installed on the same device. New capabilities in schedule optimisation allow for dependent job scheduling between work orders for multiple visits aimed at improving first-time fix rates. As part of GE Digital’s FSM portfolio, these new features allow operators to minimise downtime, optimise costs, reduce risk and improve productivity for your services team.
Advanced App and Digital Twin Solutions
GE Digital also introduced Predix Studio to help companies build and scale their own industrial applications and extend its Asset Performance Management (APM) suite, Available in Q1 2018, Predix Studio simplifies the development process by giving customers the ability to extend applications and empower industrial subject matters experts – or citizen developers – to build apps in a low-code, high-productivity environment. A vital demographic, citizen developers comprise controls and reliability engineers, OT operators and line of business users with domain expertise but little or no coding experience. Using a mix of AI and machine learning, Predix Studio automates the heavy lifting of creating Industrial IoT apps – opening app development to an entirely new kind of developer.
GE’s experience in managing industrial assets has generated hundreds of millions of hours of machine data
The Analytics Workbench, currently a technology preview from GE Power, can be used to augment existing digital twins with new data streams. For example, power producers using drones to inspect wind turbine blades, pipelines or fuel reserves can integrate visual inspection data into the digital twins they already use to manage generation assets and grid infrastructure. The Analytics Workbench also helps users implement machine learning capabilities that allow those models to improve themselves over time.
Unveiled as part of GE’s Minds + Machines conference, these solutions from GE Digital are designed to help customers successfully advance their digital industrial transformation journeys while realizing real and immediate benefits to their bottom lines.
Be social and share
Oct 27, 2017 • Features • Automation • Future of FIeld Service • Paul Whitelam • predictive analytics • ClickSoftware • IoT
Paul Whitelam of ClickSoftware tackles some of the frequent questions he and has colleagues are often asked by field service managers about the key technologies currently driving field service delivery forward...
Paul Whitelam of ClickSoftware tackles some of the frequent questions he and has colleagues are often asked by field service managers about the key technologies currently driving field service delivery forward...
Want to know more? A white paper from ClickSoftware on this topic is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
The Internet of Things, service automation and predictive analytics all promise to reshape the field service management landscape. But each of these terms and technologies likewise cause confusion, and even frustration among many management-minded service professionals. At conferences, on software demos, and during customer calls, we’re constantly getting asked about emerging technology.
We believe when new technology becomes more readily available, it’s essential to map it back to specific business outcomes. Technology for its own sake won’t help anyone in field service.
In the hopes of demystifying some frustrating technology topics, below are dirt-simple definitions of IoT, automation, and predictive analytics. In addition, we lay out why each matter in field service, and ideas for how each can be applied.
Instead of customers discovering major issues and equipment issues, these sensors can deliver real-time updates that keep you ahead of failures.
Human error is unavoidable when it comes to pricing, invoicing, and closing out costly jobs. Consider streamlining work order management through automation software. Various tools can provide work estimates to customers, forecast based on previous numbers, and send automated payment or invoicing reminders to all parties involved.
In the hopes of demystifying some frustrating technology topics, below are dirt-simple definitions of IoT, automation, and predictive analytics. In addition, we lay out why each matter in field service, and ideas for how each can be applied.
1. The Internet of Things
What is it?
Simply put, the Internet of Things (IoT) includes any device, product, vehicle, or electronic product capable of connecting to the internet and sending signals to each other. This could include everything from washing machines, headphones, coffee makers, and smartphones to clothing, space stations, jewelry, and jet engines.
If it can transmit data over a wireless network, it can be part of the IoT.
Why does it matter in field service?
The Internet of Things opens up hundreds of cross-device possibilities and efficiencies in service. By bringing machines, devices, vehicles, and equipment online, service providers can effectively close huge communication gaps that currently exist, and resolve customer issues faster.
Imagine a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit that alerts the field service team the instant an outage happens. Or imagine capital equipment parts that can communicate their efficiency in real-time. The possibilities for streamlining service are simply endless.
Ideas for implementing IoT in field service:
Embed sensors on equipment
The first and most obvious application is to bring equipment that needs regular maintenance online. Consider embedding temperature, pressure, or other sensors on key pieces of equipment that can communicate this information back to a database, field tech, or to dispatch.
Instead of customers discovering major issues and equipment issues, these sensors can deliver real-time updates that keep you ahead of failures.
Bring vehicles online
Efficiency in service requires techs to remain efficient both on the road, and at the job site. By equipping your service vehicles with sensors, you can quickly learn whether tech drive time remains efficient. Over time, you can optimize specific routes, as well as coach the broader organization on how to improve travel efficiency.
Enable wearables
Empower your techs with wearables such as smartwatches that allow them to transmit service data via voice recognition back to headquarters. In essence, bringing your techs online while at job sites empowers real-time data transfer, and greater service efficiency.
2. Field Service Automation
What is it?
Field service management, and field service automation are often used interchangeably. They are in fact, quite different.
Service automation technology takes human, or manual service tasks and automates them through software applications. It’s highly common for service organizations to start by automating the most cumbersome, or undesirable tasks. The purpose of field service automation is streamlining service processes to increase productivity and efficiency.
Why does automation matter in service?
Customer expectations are higher than ever. For decades, service organizations have struggled to keep up with both changing technology, and ever-increasing customer expectations. Service automation is essential in today’s landscape in freeing up techs to focus on the human side of service. Customer relationships have also suffered due to technology. Applying automation to tasks that are better suited to robots frees up field techs and dispatch to focus on satisfying customers, answering tough questions, and servicing equipment.
Ideas for implementing automation in field service:
Automate scheduling
Various aspects of service scheduling and staffing can be completely automated. When service and dispatch professionals put in requests for desired work hours, software can bump these recommendations up against customer needs, finding opportunities for greater efficiency.
In addition, alerts and real-time updates can keep leadership abreast of scheduling improvements.
Streamline work order management
[quote float="right"]Human error is unavoidable when it comes to pricing, invoicing, and closing out costly jobs.
Simplify dispatch
Field service personnel managers know how challenging dispatch can be. Keeping track of techs, and job completions are key to a dispatch manager’s daily grind. Dispatch automation and route optimization software can simplify dispatch by delivering real-time route information, tech activity while on-site, and notices when jobs are completed.
3. Predictive Analytics
What is it?
Inventory, service scheduling, and even customer satisfaction can all be predicted. That is of course, if you have access to the right data.
Predictive analytics leverages statistical algorithms, or machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes. In short, it’s all about predicting customer behavior, equipment failures, and field tech performance.
It requires the tracking of historical data, in order to model and project what will happen in the future.
Why does being predictive matter in field service?
Customer’s desires are changing faster than ever. New consumer services like Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon have completely redefined customer expectations. Instant answers, mobile-first frameworks, and complete transparency are now the norm.
Unfortunately, field service has been slow to catch up. Predictive analytics offer field service management professionals an opportunity to get ahead of customer, and service needs through smarter use of data. This promises a path to satisfying more customers, and faster.
Ideas for implementing predictive analytics in field service:
Embrace big data
Every mobile device, customer touchpoint, and piece of equipment can now deliver data. Embrace all of these newfound touch points, and find a means of tracking them in a single software.
Every mobile device, customer touchpoint, and piece of equipment can now deliver data
Track select metrics
Having newfound data at your fingertips can be overwhelming. Hone in on the metrics that matter most, and seek to uncover patterns within the data.
Project future performance with machine learning models
Machine learning leverages pattern recognition and artificial intelligence algorithms to predict future trends based on historical data. Preconfigured machine learning models can help you get from data to insights faster.
As an alternative, consider mapping your own data over a set period of time, creating a basic statistical analysis. Then, forecast across customer satisfaction, tech performance, and more
Want to know more? A white paper from ClickSoftware on this topic is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Be social and share
Oct 25, 2017 • Features • assisted scheduling • Contract Management • Kevin McNally • optimised scheduling • dynamic scheduling • scheduling • Software and Apps • software and apps • Asolvi
Tesseract’s Sales Director Kevin McNally, with over 15 year’s experience in the industry, explores the key elements with Kris Oldland Editor of Field Service News...
Tesseract’s Sales Director Kevin McNally, with over 15 year’s experience in the industry, explores the key elements with Kris Oldland Editor of Field Service News...
Want to know more? A white paper on this topic is available for Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you the white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ield Service Management technology has become essential to service delivery excellence. Service excellence is no longer a USP but a baseline requirement. However, whilst technologies such as IoT and Augmented Reality are grabbing the headlines their potential is greatly diminished unless you have a fundamental layer of technology in place already.
This two part article explores what to expect from a FSM system and offers best-practice tips to help you get the most from your investment...
Contract Management:
[quote]“The starting piece for everything is the contract and the control of the contract. Without that in place it is very difficult to bring everything else on top of that.” Kevin McNally, Tesseract.
Contract management is often viewed as the starting point of almost everything within field service management operations. Without a view of your service contracts you cannot have to hand the answers for critical questions such as:
- What is the SLA on any given contract?
- Is a client under warranty or do they have an enhanced level of service contract
- Does a contract include spare parts and/or consumables?
- Is the service contract due for renewal?[/unordered_list]
You could be at risk of potentially not meeting your client’s expectations and so putting the potential of renewing or upselling service to that client in danger in the future – or on the other side of the coin, you could be giving valuable service away for free.
From the point of view of understanding the assets and also the entitlement that the customer is due as we go through a process of raising a service call or indeed, raising a sales order, we need to fundamentally understand what we should be doing with the entitlement for each specific client.
Scheduling:
[quote]Optimised Scheduling in our world tends to be more geared to the planned maintenance aspects of service calls – i.e. for those companies who are looking to do things in advance and are looking for the best possible route to achieve this – Kevin McNally, Tesseract
Scheduling comes in a number of different guises and the various different names given to types of scheduling options can be a somewhat confusing but broadly scheduling will come in three flavours:
- Assisted Scheduling: Assisted Schedulers are essentially a manual tool, that as the name denotes offer a layer of assistance to the dispatcher making their job that little bit easier and thus increasing efficiency.
- Optimised Scheduling: With an optimised scheduling tool most of the work is done by the system. It will search through the scheduled service jobs and the available engineers and pull together an optimised work schedule for the day taking into account things like travel times and distances, priority jobs and field engineer skillsets etc. However, when things fall outside of established parameters, it is down to the dispatcher to make necessary adjustments to the schedule to make sure SLAs are met etc.
- Dynamic Scheduling: Dynamic scheduling is a further evolution of optimised scheduling that draws in data from mobile applications and telematics data etc to continuously revise the schedule throughout the day, reacting to situations such as a delayed engineer and reallocating jobs to ensure that the days schedule is continuously optimised.[/unordered_list]
Ultimately, when it comes to scheduling, it really is a case of horses for courses and establishing what is the best fit for your organisation.
Whilst not all companies will see a need for a dynamic scheduler, all but the smallest of organisations can benefit from at least some form of optimisation within their scheduling solution and the efficiencies that can be delivered are significant so it is an area of your FSM solution that you should get to understand and know fully.
Want to know more? A white paper on this topic is available for Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you the white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!
Be social and share
Oct 24, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Preventative Maintenance • resources • White Paper • White Papers & eBooks • ClickSoftware • Industrial Internet • IoT
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: ClickSoftware Title: How the Internet of Things is Transforming Field Service
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: ClickSoftware
Title: How the Internet of Things is Transforming Field Service
Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Synopsis:
Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected “things” will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 20201. This interconnected world will provide a wealth of new opportunities for service organisations. It allows them to connect equipment with technicians’ mobile devices and the office in real time, enabling a rapid response to service requests and efficient remote diagnostics. Service is set to become increasingly proactive and cost-effective.
Field service lies at the heart of the Internet of Things (IoT) evolution. Advanced field service management (FSM) software can automatically receive messages from devices, and schedule and dispatch professionals, without any human interaction. But the opportunities for IoT go beyond inbound device signals over the internet.
The increase in intelligent service resources, such as drones and autonomous vehicles, offers benefits of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication that promise to transform the service industry.
Overview:
The Internet of Things
As the internet turns 25 years old, its impact continues to transform communications, industries, and lives. The original framework of point-to-point communication via a network of distributed hubs has evolved from email and dovetailed with advances in electrical and industrial engineering in a transformative way. The era of personal computers has evolved, through mobility and the smart phone revolution, to a point where connected devices take all manner of forms from biological implants to wearable fitness trackers.
Signals sent to and from connected devices are spiralling in volume. Big data management techniques, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud storage have come together to deliver insight from this abundance of data. This increases the opportunities for automating decisions and initiating actions without the need for human intervention. The benefits to organisations are numerous.
Remote monitoring applications already save billions in transport and human capital management costs. Add the potential positive impact on customer engagement and its associated business value, and the call to action becomes clear. A complete IoT strategy leads to better and faster decisions throughout the service delivery lifecycle.
Market Definitions
The Internet of Things is having major impact across both industrial and consumer sectors, and many bodies of research focus on these separately. We look at the two areas in this way:
- Industrial IoT (IIoT): IIoT refers to the application of the Internet of Things to the broad manufacturing industry. It’s often used interchangeably with the term “Industry 4.0,” which refers to the major transformational stages of the industrial economy. Examples of IIoT range from monitoring building management systems and power grids, to tracking manufactured goods as they are shipped
- Consumer IoT (CIoT): The Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) consists of technologies that target the home market and consumer electronics. IDC reports3 that over 8 million US households already use some kind of home automation and control. Typified by remote monitoring capabilities for security, climate control, and remote control of household functions, CIoT also offers promise in areas such as networked home appliances with use cases such as refrigerators that automatically order more milk as needed.
IoT and Field Service
As the definitions around IIoT and CIoT show, there are ramifications for field service in both areas. Products that are being serviced are equally likely to be consumer goods or elements of a manufacturing eco-system in the context of business-to-business field service. The consumer and business areas are also intertwined as IoT adds a strong feedback loop that connects product usage and the associated service requirements to the manufacturing process itself. For example, wear and tear levels in real-world conditions can feed into product development through a network of sensors and influence the manufacturing process accordingly.
CIoT and IIoT are worthwhile segmentations to assess the market at a more granular level. But there are opportunities for innovation in IoT across the field service landscape. Furthermore, areas such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and ghost IT also create fuzzy lines between consumers individually and as part of an enterprise. The opportunity for field service is broad and not constrained to any sub-segment of the market.
Reactive vs Predictive
The increasing intelligence of devices and the hardware layer also impact the approach to service associated with the device. While unsophisticated devices can signal a need for service in the event of a system failure, the richer data from intelligent sensors enable a shift from reactive to proactive service. For example, indicators of failure enable long range service maintenance planning so devices can be kept running continuously and efficiently with an optimised cost profile.
From a resource optimisation perspective, this is of course preferable to responding, at high cost, to a sudden failure.
There are opportunities for innovation in IoT across the field service landscape.
To unlock the potential of speed and automation, decision criteria must be determined and incorporated into a system flexible enough to handle the variety of data inputs and scenarios. Top field service software providers can offer a scheduling solution that incorporates countless data elements into the scheduling algorithm.
The full intelligence provided by the IoT network determines the appropriate service schedule for a device, including inspection, preventive maintenance, and repair. If required, it’s possible to incorporate a review of these IoT-generated telematics by a field service professional for additional human oversight.
Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Be social and share
Oct 23, 2017 • Features • Mergers and Acquisitions • WinServ • Evatic • Software and Apps • software and apps • Asolvi
Field Service News speak exclusively to Evatic, CEO Pål Rødseth, about their ambitious plans to conquer the European SME market...
Field Service News speak exclusively to Evatic, CEO Pål Rødseth, about their ambitious plans to conquer the European SME market...
The field service industry has of course seen a lot of merger and acquisitions activity in the last couple of years, much of which has seen major global enterprises such as GE and Microsoft entering the market, through acquisitions of ServiceMax and FieldOne respectively, plus there has also much been private equity investment in established leading brands within the industry such as ClickSoftware, ServicePower and IFS.
However, there is another organisation on the acquisition trail which has gone beneath the radar of many of the more mainstream IT and Business focussed trade journals, yet they are perhaps set to have an equally big impact on the field service management landscape - that is Norwegian company Evatic who currently have offices in Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Holland, UK, America and Singapore.
UK readers may well recognise the name as they acquired the highly respected British FSM pioneers Tesseract towards the end of last year - however that was just the first piece of the puzzle as the Nordic firm aim to build up a pan European organisation. Indeed, they’ve spent little time resting on their laurels and have recently added a second FSM provider to their growing family having recently acquired Swedish company WinServ.
UK readers may well recognise the name as they acquired the highly respected British FSM pioneers Tesseract towards the end of last year - however that was just the first piece of the puzzle as the Nordic firm aim to build up a pan European organisation
“WinServ has been the toughest competitor to Evatic over many years in the Nordics,” explains Pål Rødseth, CEO, Evatic.
In fact, around 50% of the 330+ clients that currently use WinServ are in the copy/print sector - which is also Evatic’s main area of focus. Additionally WinServ’s clients are also predominantly spread across the Nordics with a large market share in Sweden. So for Evatic this move is more about building a dominant base in their primary sector to build upon rather than spreading their wings into different sectors or geographies.
Taken the two acquisitions separately, one may be mistaken in thinking that they were both merely opportunistic acquisitions for an ambitious company hungry for growth. Indeed, both Tesseract and WinServ were headed up by their original founders who were reaching retirement age - so there certainly is a certain grain of truth in that assertion. However, as Rødseth explains there is a much more focussed strategic approach to Evatic’s approach to acquisition pattern than merely picking up companies who happen to be in the right place at the right time.
“There are too many of these small companies that have all been around for twenty odd years that are not able to take the next leap forward in product development,” he explains.
“We see customers demanding more and more functionality. They are demanding new solutions be Cloud based, they are expecting business intelligence capabilities, they are demanding easy integrations. All of these things are only possible if you have a large enough customer base to spread the development cost across.”
“We believe that here is a need to consolidate these ten to twenty employee companies across Europe to be able to keep on developing solutions because if you don’t do that you will eventually lose your customers over time."
"You need to face up to what the bigger companies are doing in the service management space and be able to deliver the majority of that functionality down to the SMEs - which is our core customer base.”
It is an admirable approach and one that makes sense. The SME market remains largely under served and with so much money flowing into FSM providers at the moment the main battleground has become the enterprise sector - leaving plenty of space for someone like Evatic to come in and dominate amongst smaller organisations.
But of course, this can also be a very tricky path to negotiate. Will there come a point when by unifying the many smaller companies together essentially Evatic risk transforming into a big business themselves and lose the flexibility and adaptability that often makes smaller providers the right fit for their client base in the first place?
We don’t want to become a Microsoft. We want to be able to retain flexibility and be able to take decisions quickly and work efficiently but we also want to scale the business more than we’ve done so far
So how quickly can we expect Evatic to build their empire? With two quick-fire acquisitions back-to-back Rødseth perhaps wisely is planning a fallow year.
“We need to be realistic in what we are doing,” he explains.
“There are challenges in integrating businesses and there are challenges in getting people to work together when there are cultural differences and so forth - so I don’t think we will be making another acquisition in the next 6 to 12 months. We are more focussed currently on getting operational excellence in place. Doing M&A is challenging and the majority of such projects fail - we want to make sure ours doesn’t.”
“But we do have a list of 8 to 12 companies that we follow and we are in dialogue with them and we have investors that back our strategy and we do have the ability to move quickly if we need to.”
Be social and share
Oct 17, 2017 • Features • Artifical Intellignce • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Paul Whitelam • Water industry • ClickSoftware • Internet of Things • IoT • utilities
Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware asks if IoT sensors, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning will help the UK water industry avoid a looming crisis...
Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware asks if IoT sensors, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning will help the UK water industry avoid a looming crisis...
One would be forgiven for assuming a nation surrounded by water, with a storied history of naval exploration and an advanced privatised water management sector, would be exempt from facing a water or wastewater crisis.
But many experts agree that the current population boom and climate scenario are forcing the industrial, national, and regional water and wastewater situations towards crisis in the United Kingdom.
What do these mounting challenges mean for the field service management organisations? How can they innovate to meet and overcome each challenge while satisfying end consumers? In the following paragraphs, we discuss how water and wastewater service organisations can get ahead of the looming crisis.
Population boom, climate change, water scarcity combine to create the perfect storm
Ofwat, a government water management program overseeing England and Wales, recently published a report outlining many key challenges in these region. They city population growth and climate changes were identified as the key drivers of change, while growing pressure to address water scarcity, environmental quality, and resilience of systems in the face of rising consumer expectations as the major hurdles. Key among these, you will find:
- The UK population is forecasted to grow 20% over the next 20 years
- Rising environmental standards may drive up costs
- Technology to manage new customer expectations is lacking
- Major climate change has left specific regions at risk
- Water scarcity poses immediate threat to supply
- Customer expectations for service sector and water continue to rise
In reality, many of these challenges intersect.
This report cites that a full 60% of Thames Water’s customers are concerned about the environment. In addition, 85% of Wessex Water’s customers feel protecting rivers, lakes, and estuaries was critical.
The reality is more dire than consumers may realise. Given the uneven population distribution across the country, freshwater resources are often pulled from areas that are already under pressure, while new regions have been identified that previously threatened just years ago.
As the report cites, “Water catchments across Wales, south-west and northern England are predicted to experience significant unmet demand under many of the scenario combinations that the Environment Agency has considered.”
Can water management and field service teams get ahead of this looming crisis, or will consumers simply have to cut back on consumption altogether as the population booms?
3 ways UK service organisations can innovate to overcome crisis
Luckily, the field service industry is experiencing a renaissance in service technology that could solve current and future water problems. The Internet-of-Things, artificial intelligence, and predictive maintenance technology could each provide innovative solutions for both meeting growing demand, and minimising environmental impact.
1. Invest in and inform customers of water reduction faucets, shower heads, high efficiency washing machines and emerging technology
To be fair, this first recommendation is more about customer satisfaction, not just technology, but the fastest way to avert a water and wastewater crisis is the simplest; reduce the amount of water usage in businesses, factories, and homes.
With even a 10% increase in the number of homes, businesses, and facilities equipped with smarter end using devices, we could improve our water usage future in short order.
With the number of consumers who have expressed care for environmental issues, couldn’t a bit of a nudge from service providers push many over the edge to adopting more efficient technology?
With even a 10% increase in the number of homes, businesses, and facilities equipped with smarter end using devices, we could improve our water usage future in short order.
2. Enable IoT sensors on industrial water facilities and natural resource hubs
The Internet-of-Things promises to bring advanced real-time diagnostic capabilities to equipment, that for decades has required a human to perform a diagnostic task. By embedding internet-enabled sensors on all the equipment that cleans, processes, transports and delivers water, we could improve the efficiency of the entire water lifecycle by significant margins.
Would this require an up-front investment? Most certainly, but privatised water and wastewater organisations and service companies would certainly be keen on efficiency gains, especially if margins could move up incrementally.
Using IoT sensors for advanced real-time diagnostics could allow organisations to get predictive about water usage, resource allocation, and more. With the right application of IoT technology, equipment and processing, diagnostics could stand to become more efficient than ever.
3. Use AI and machine learning for ultimate efficiency gains
While seemingly intimidating at the outset, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology are in fact well within reach for organisations willing to embrace a healthy technical challenge. How about the payoff? Datasets that take a team of data scientists several weeks to interpret can now be crunched by AI algorithms in seconds.
Upon gaining results, future-oriented field service organisations will soon apply machine learning models that are ready-built for various service scenarios.
Think of machine learning algorithms as software with a brain. First, you develop an algorithmic model. Let’s use flooding—a common water crisis scenario—as an example. By first coding your software to understand all the steps a human would take in a flood scenario, and second enabling artificial intelligence algorithms to process information in real-time, you can effectively combine real-time flood data and your algorithm to unlock an immediate decision tree.
The software acts upon data in an instant, making airtight decisions and optimising your entire field service chain the same way your dispatch, or service executives would—given the parameters of your programmed scenario. But the main difference between AI software managing a service chain, and a human being? Software will make fewer mistakes.
As the UK continues to seek a resolution to current and future water scenarios, a healthy balance of policy, innovation, and customer support will be required.
Be social and share
Oct 17, 2017 • Features • Leader • Magazine (digital editions) • MArne MArtin • Nick Frank • Outcome Based Solutions • resources • Bill Pollock • Felix Keiderling • Jim Baston • Servitization
Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland discusses the fact that the choices field service companies are facing today wider ranging and more critical to success than ever before and gives us an overview of what to expect in Field Service...
Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland discusses the fact that the choices field service companies are facing today wider ranging and more critical to success than ever before and gives us an overview of what to expect in Field Service News issue 19
There are of course always big choices to be made in business, but it seems field service companies are facing more big choices than ever in today’s market...
Which of course is not necessarily a bad thing at all. Choices mean options and options are a good thing. They allow us to follow a path that feels right for us.
Of course, options also let us change direction when we’ve headed in the wrong way for a while - although they do tend to come along less often if we spend too long heading up a blind ally.
Perhaps the most important option we can take (and one that is always available to us) is to listen to those around us. I’m a firm believer in the fact that we can learn something from everyone we interact with, but of course if you are facing time pressures (who isn’t these days) then I’d suggest starting with those who are experts in their fields.
Fortunately, we’ve an issue that’s jam packed with expert advice so all you need to do is keep on reading.
We’ve got what for my mind is our best yet panel in this issue’s Big Discussion, which is focussed on the relationship between Service and Sales. As always we’ve brought together three industry experts on the topic and put four questions to each of them.
Our panel consists of Nick Frank, Michael Blumberg and Jim Baston so there is a wealth of deep knowledge and experience waiting for you in that feature which begins on page 16.
Elsewhere we’ve two features that look specifically at how to choose the right field service management (FSM) solution for your business. When we consider just how big an impact the selection of a FSM solution can have on your business - how it can drive efficiency, reduce costs, create revenue...
“Perhaps the most pressing choice for many field service companies is whether to move away from the traditional break-fix SLA driven model that has served them well for so long...”
Frankly, it really is absolutely vital that this is a choice you get right first time around.
So for anyone considering an upgrade from a creaking old legacy system or looking to implement a system from scratch for the first time then I suggest checking out Bill Pollock’s article “Choosing the most effective FSM provider” and also Marne Martin’s article “Customer Experience is essential to every member in the field service ecosystem” which both offer insight into what makes a good FSM partner for a service organisation, whilst coming at the topic from slightly different perspectives.
Yet as important as selecting a FSM solution is, perhaps the most pressing choice for many field service companies is whether to move away from the traditional break-fix SLA driven model that has served them well for so long and to embrace the more modern and increasingly popular outcome-based service models.
We’ve discussed outcome-based services many times in these pages before and cards on the table, personally I’m a big proponent of the servitization movement. I think it absolutely makes sense. But that’s just my opinion and ultimately, it’s not a choice I need to make - unlike many of you.
So for those of you readers, of whom there are many I’m sure, whose organisations are considering this very question - then I absolutely recommend listening to those who have been there and done it. As whilst the benefits can be many , so too are the risks - it is not an easy path to tread.
One company that has been on that journey is ABB and you can read my interview with Felix Keiderling on the topic on page 44 and also check out my interview with GE’s Scott Berg on page 29 where we also discuss outcome based services in depth.
Be social and share
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
Leave a Reply