In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...
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Sep 22, 2017 • Features • Management • Michael Blumberg • Nick Frank • Big Discussion • Jim Baston • Service and Sales
In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...
This issue our topic is the relationship between Service and Sales and our experts are Nick Frank of Si2 Partners, Michael Blumberg of Blumberg Advisory Group and Jim Baston of BBA Consulting
In the first instalment of this topic our experts answered the question "It is often said service technicians are the greatest salesmen – what are your views on this?" and the second time out the question was Is there a difference between selling service and selling products?
and now onto the third question of the topic...
Is incentivising service technicians to “sell” opening up new revenue streams or putting their “trusted advisor” status at risk?
Technicians represent a ready and available channel for generating incremental service revenues.
After all, they are at the customer site almost every day.
However, service technicians may become over-zealous or pushy about selling, and jeopardise their “trusted advice” status, if they lack proper sales training or if their performance measurement system and company culture are too focused on sales.
A sales professional is a very different person from the service expert in terms of how they think and what motivates them. The service person is more motivated by relationship and recognition of their skills and it is this that allows them to develop the trust-based relationships that make them so special from a commercial perspective.
Companies should use this relationship to increase value, but be aware that as soon as the balance swings from supporting customer success to earning a sales commission, this trust immediately evaporates. To be successful, the question of incentives is critical yet very contextual to the business environment and company culture. Rarely is sales commission the answer as service peoples are not typically sales animals.
Usually having incentives through management objectives or even reward and recognition will encourage the desired behaviours without risking the Trusted Advisor relationship
I am very wary about incentivising service professionals for making recommendations. When we provide commissions or other forms of compensation for selling services to the customer, it sends a message that promoting a service to the customer is an act outside of their normal job.
We are asking them to provide “something extra”. It’s the “while you are there” approach. If making recommendations that will benefit the customer are perceived as an “add on” activity, then this suggests that service professionals can opt out. As I indicated above, I see promoting services as a service itself and therefore as much a part of the job as everything else that they do. Incentives can also encourage the field service professional to make recommendations for the wrong reasons (to get the commission as opposed to acting in the best interests of the customer).
Evidence also suggests that incentivising can actually discourage the type of behaviour it was intended to boost. Daniel Pink’s book Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Books, 2009), provides a wonderful and often counter intuitive account of the impact of extrinsic rewards on employee performance.
Finally, what if the customer asks? What does the field service professional tell their customer if asked if they are getting compensated for make the recommendation? The customer may feel uncomfortable if the technician answers yes. How would you feel if you found out that your auto mechanic was commissioned on all parts sold?
Look out for the final part of this series when we ask our panel "What impact does the rising uptake in outcome based services have on the relationship between service and sales?"
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Sep 20, 2017 • Features • MArne MArtin • servicepower • Software and Apps • software and apps • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower describes what field service management professionals should expect from their solution providers and offers some excellent intel on how to pick a partner that is right for your business...
Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower describes what field service management professionals should expect from their solution providers and offers some excellent intel on how to pick a partner that is right for your business...
Customer service, customer satisfaction, customer experience. Those are more than buzz word, more than trends in field service.
Field service organisations have recognised that to achieve the highest levels of retention and overall growth in consumers, they must focus on providing the highest levels of service. High service levels may mean faster service, less break-downs, higher first time fix in the field depending on the given industry and customer expectations, but regardless, the focus needs to be on what the customer wants.
We frequently find that the account management or sales organisations which hold the customer relationship budget, aren’t engaging as effectively as they could be with the service side of the organisation to put existing or new technology to use. Customer experience is about more than the CRM!
Using the latest in technology and mobile workforce management software, field service organisations are able to create a sales to service experience that is game changing and seamless.
Using the latest in technology and mobile workforce management software, field service organisations are able to create a sales to service experience that is game changing and seamless.
They can also facilitate scheduling your most important or more profitable customers first. Mobile software can enable field techs with the data, access and processes to delight each and every customer on every service call that mobile techs are truly enabled to be experts for every customer and asset by technology, not just their memory.
The question is, why should a field service organisation expect less than the best ‘customer experience’ itself from its FSM vendor?
Solution deployment
Field service management solutions are used by a wide range of organisations across many different verticals. The best FSM software should be configurable enough to support standard service processes, while also supporting processes unique to particular business requirement- without unexpected development.
And though business in general has become more accepting of cloud deployments, due to improved security, increased power of distributed computing and reduced costs related to hosted infrastructure, there remain industries, particularly in insurance, healthcare and finance, which cannot and will not migrate to a cloud-based deployment. The most versatile FSM vendors will not force migration to a newly built cloud platform simply to comply with its own roadmap, nor sunset functionality without providing similar, better options.
Look for vendors which can support your business today and in the future, based your requirements, not theirs.
Support
I find it ironic that with so much focus on improving the end-customer experience that so many FSM vendors in fact provide poor customer service to the field service organisation which they support.
Customer satisfaction isn’t solely focused on the end user. It starts with the sales process and moves through deployment, validation and recurring process improvement. The best FSM vendors define a solid picture of the desired end state for a deployment and then build a robust SOW around the deployment such that the intended outcome is achieved and improved upon without unanticipated cost or time overruns.
Evolving business requirements and changing consumer expectations dictate a continuously improved mobile workforce solution. To expect less than the incorporation of emerging technologies, new features and improved deployment options is ridiculous. Expect more. Rely on your FSM partner to proactively provide a better solution to support you and your customers, for the long term.
Value add
Deploying a software solution and walking away shouldn’t be the business norm. Nor is simply providing annual software upgrades the only ‘value added service’ you should expect. After all, you’re probably paying for support and maintenance. That’s what the fees are for!
Value added services are what increases your ability to provide the best customer experience to your customer, and in our mind, are really what define the best customer experience for your organisation.
Value added services are what increases your ability to provide the best customer experience to your customer
ServicePower’s team of experts excels at post sale value add.
Our teams, with an annual tenure of 15+ years working in software and field service management, work with your field service and IT teams to fine tune your deployment, prove your business case, improve performance, and plan for the evolution of your business and upgrades.
ServicePower also uniquely provides workforce strategy planning and outsourced managed services both in North America and EMEA.
Our client success teams have been on the ground, managing employed technicians and contractors for some of the biggest field service organisations in the world. We can lend that expertise to your teams in terms of evaluating your workforce, optimising your resources and executing a plan to integrate a contracted workforce element to maintain and improve your service levels.
We also offer a fully managed network of 3rd party service providers to enable rapid and high-quality on-demand “spill-over” servicing at peak times and in hard-to-reach locations across North America and the Europe.
ServicePower considers its clients partners, not ‘contracts’. We enter into relationships with the expectation that we’ll be our client partners trusted advisors, trusted providers of the best possible customer experience for themselves and their end customers.
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Sep 18, 2017 • Features • Answers Anywhere • Parts Arena Pro • Paul Allen • infomill • solarvista • Parts Pricing and Logistics
Whilst The Automobile Association (The AA) might be a trusted brand that is better known for Roadside Assistance, the renewed growth of the Home Services business is now benefiting from end-to-end field service management software supplied by ...
Whilst The Automobile Association (The AA) might be a trusted brand that is better known for Roadside Assistance, the renewed growth of the Home Services business is now benefiting from end-to-end field service management software supplied by Solarvista, which includes a full integration with PartsArena Pro.
This gives The AA engineers mobile knowledge management technology like never before. Reviewing performance since its initial launch in September 2016, the statistics confirm just how positive this move has been.
PartsArena Pro was uniquely developed to drive efficiencies in the UK heating service industry, using Infomill’s AnswersAnywhere platform. This innovative platform can create a knowledge management tool for any industry worldwide that suffers from an unproductive “knowledge gap” between manufacturer and parts information, and the field service engineer out on site.
As an integral part of the Solarvista field service system, PartsArena Pro is now supplying this critical knowledge to The AA’s Home Service heating engineers, via offline Windows mobile devices. They can access the latest data and information such as exploded diagrams, parts codes and manufacturer technical manuals whilst out in the field.
This facilitates a speedy and accurate parts search coupled with the ability to add parts lists directly into the job for automated ordering, reducing engineer and back office effort and markedly improving ‘Second Time Fix’ rate.
The AA Home Services business currently has directly employed heating and plumbing engineers out in the field and their performance since the installation of the new Solarvista system with PartsArena Pro included has been significant:
- Overall productivity improvement of 15% (this is continually rising)
- 17% improvement in ‘First Time Fix’ rates
- PartsArena Pro specifically improving ‘Second Time Fix’ rates
- 8% reduction in time on site
- Tasks per shift improvement of 15%
- Reduction in calls made to the contact centre by 20%[/unordered_list]
“In the age of self-service and automation, delivering fully integrated systems to the benefit of our members, employees and business alike was a critical requirement within our transformation project.
The integration between Solarvista and PartsArena Pro that we have developed supports our engineers in resolving our members’ home emergencies as effectively and quickly as possible; and more of them per day, whilst also delivering a world class experience to our members.
The project has delivered significant improvements to both ‘First and Second Time Fix’ rates, significant improvement to our engineers’ productivity, whilst also enabling our engineers to very quickly and accurately order parts and book their own return visits face-to-face with members via their mobile devices. Additionally, their own core van stock of parts auto-replenishes without anyone having to place orders,” says Ash Cripps, Home Services Business Systems Manager, The AA plc.
Paul Allen is a heating and plumbing engineer for The AA. Shortlisted for the business’s upcoming Engineer of the Year award, he has this to say about PartsArena Pro: “Using PartsArena Pro has become part of my routine when servicing or repairing appliances to either get part numbers, fault finding charts or specific servicing routines that certain manufacturers ask for.
The installation manuals and detailed diagrams make doing the job so much easier, which reduces the time spent on each job, helping you to get more visits completed in your working day.
And you also have the confidence that the part you have ordered will be the correct one as you can see it clearly in the diagrams. Most parts also have a photo in the information to help you identify them accurately. It is great to not have to pick up the phone to order parts or arrange any return visits.”
PartsArena Pro is a very successful example of how knowledge management technology can make a significant contribution to the productivity and efficiency of a business, reducing operating costs, increasing profitability and enhancing customer service. The trend for field service software companies to integrate this type of innovative software into their systems is enriching the service available to many organisations operating in the heating service industry, whilst giving field service software operators a distinctive competitive advantage.
Meanwhile, Infomill is talking to businesses in other industries about how the AnswersAnywhere platform can present a ‘game-changer’ to productivity, as Jonathan Ralphs, Infomill CEO explains: “We’re delighted that PartsArena Pro is part of the performance success of The AA’s Home Services business, delivering enhanced customer service to homes across the UK. The project very clearly demonstrates the potential of PartsArena Pro and indeed our AnswersAnywhere platform, from which it is built. Infomill can create an innovative knowledge management tool for any industry worldwide that suffers from an unproductive “knowledge gap” between manufacturer and parts information, and the field service engineer out on site.
Service technicians need the right knowledge at their fingertips to make informed, accurate and quick decisions; increasing their level of productivity significantly. To achieve this is a distinct competitive advantage and that is exactly what AnswersAnywhere can do.”
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Sep 15, 2017 • Features • Management • Michael Blumberg • Nick Frank • Big Discussion • Jim Baston • Sales and Service • selling service
In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...
In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...
This issue our topic is the relationship between Service and Sales and our experts are Nick Frank of Si2 Partners, Michael Blumberg of Blumberg Advisory Group and Jim Baston of BBA Consulting
In the first instalment of this topic our experts answered the question "It is often said service technicians are the greatest salesmen – what are your views on this?"
and now onto the second question of the topic...
Is there a difference between selling service and selling products?
Yes, there is an enormous difference.
Selling products requires the salesperson to focus on the form, fit, and function of the product and how it meets the customer’s needs. Selling products is about selling the tangible.
Selling services requires the salesperson to focus on how the service can help the customer solve a problem, improve their situation, or achieve a better outcome.
More importantly, it is about selling the intangible.
In general yes, but not always.
If a service is very tightly defined in terms of the value proposition and delivery, then it can follow a very similar feature/benefit selling process of a product. In other words selling against a tightly defined customer specification. An example of a service sold in this way might be an extended warranty.
The difference comes when the customer need is less well defined. Here the selling process moves towards addressing a business problem and involves an element of co-creation between the customer and supplier.
The more co-creation that is required, the more business orientated the discussion becomes. Not only is the sales process very different in terms of the discussion and detail, but also the management level at which the decision maker sits tends to be more senior. So yes, the more co-creation is required, the greater the difference.
In technical terms, there is a difference between selling service and selling products. You can touch and feel a product. You can see and hear it operate. You can see the craftsmanship in its features.
Selling a product often involves helping the customer see the benefits in the product’s attributes and purchase decisions rely on both the trust built by the seller and the product’s features and track record.
A service, on the other hand, may not necessarily be seen, felt or heard. Good service may even result in the absence of something (fewer unexpected outages, less downtime or fewer complaints for example). Selling a service is more about helping the customer see the benefits of the experience the service will create for them. Success in selling tangibles depends on the salesperson’s ability to help the customer envision the experience the service will provide. Purchase decisions for services tend to rely more heavily – if not exclusively – on the customer’s trust of the seller.
In practical terms I don’t think that this difference is very important when a field service professional makes a recommendation as a trusted advisor. In most cases the field service professional has high levels of trust from both a personal and a professional perspective. The approaches that he or she uses to justify the recommendation will be the same whether product or service.
Look out for the next part of this series when we ask our panel "Is incentivising service technicians to 'sell' opening up new revenue streams or putting their “trusted advisor” status at risk?
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Sep 14, 2017 • Features • APM • Outcome based services • GE Digital • Scott berg • servicemax • Servitization • Software and Apps
It has now been ten months since GE Digital acquired field service management solution provider for a cool $915 Million. Even against a backdrop of constant M&A activity within our industry, it was a deal that made the wider world sit up and pay...
It has now been ten months since GE Digital acquired field service management solution provider for a cool $915 Million. Even against a backdrop of constant M&A activity within our industry, it was a deal that made the wider world sit up and pay attention to the field service sector. But how have ServiceMax slotted in two the GE Digital fold and how big a part will they play in GE’s vision of how best to serve the industrial markets of the future?
Kris Oldland, spoke exclusively to Scott Berg, COO, ServiceMax just before he participated in their first major outing as a GE Digital company at the Minds and Machines conference...
With the Minds and Machines 2017 event just days away it was an opportune time to reconnect with Scott Berg, COO of ServiceMax.
The last time I spoke with a member of the senior executive team at the Californian based Field Service Management Solution provider was when I spoke with their CEO Dave Yarnold, literally a few hours ahead of the announcement that ServiceMax was being acquired for a figure just shy of a Billion dollars by General Electric (GE) and would become part of their expanding GE Digital portfolio.
And whilst field service management is undoubtedly a hot ticket for investment at the moment, with the list of acquisitions within the market being a veritable who’s who of FSM vendors including ClickSoftware, ServicePower and IFS amongst others, nothing has come even close to matching the size of deal between GE and ServiceMax.
But has that ability to rise to the challenge been hampered or enhanced whilst being taken under the wing at GE?
He talked excitedly about the reasons why he had decided GE could be a suitable home for ServiceMax, outlining hugely ambitious plans to work with GE to build out a working IT platform for entirety of the industrial sector, something that connected people, assets and workflows together to drive business forwards in the twenty first century.
Indeed, it is often hard to not get caught up in Yarnold’s enthusiasm, and sometimes the trick is to separate the passion from the plans, the hyperbole from the reality - although in fairness he and the ServiceMax team do tend to have a habit of meeting the ambitious plans he puts forward.
But has that ability to rise to the challenge been hampered or enhanced whilst being taken under the wing at GE?
Just ahead of the Minds and Machines conference is a great time to sit back and assess that question, whilst Scott Berg, is perhaps the perfect barometer.
The big news for us is the integration between the ServiceMax Field Service Management (FSM) Solution and Asset Performance Management (APM) within the GE portfolio
As such he is a perfect foil for Yarnold, the two compliment each other well, (in fact that is trait that seems to be apparent throughout the whole ServiceMax family, there is a shared ‘something’ in the DNA and it seem that at all levels the team members feed well off each other) so who better to discuss how the integration with GE has progressed and whether the roadmap for Servicemax as part of GE remains on a similar course, to that which Yarnold described?
“This is really the first opportunity for us to be a GE Digital company and showcase some announcements of what we are planning,” explains Berg when we catch up to discuss what we can expect to come out of the event.
“I think this is the first time that we’ve made a public announcement where people can start to see some of the synergies across the GE Digital portfolio and the big news for us is the integration between the ServiceMax Field Service Management (FSM) Solution and Asset Performance Management (APM) within the GE portfolio. It’s big news and I think it’s a first proof point around GE’s thinking around the Industrial Internet and what role services and assets will play within that world.”
Indeed, when ServiceMax launched their Connected Field Service offering in the beginning of last year the vision was very much to bring the install base to the forefront of an FSM system, rather than just being focussed on the mobile workforce - which had traditionally been the primary focus of industry tools to date. Connected Field Service of course leveraged IoT, and from my limited understanding of AMP this was a solution that could build on that?
If you think about our field service strategy it was about getting data from the machine and the asset. Basically, letting the machine become the sensor rather than the customer being the sensor when something goes wrong
“If you think about our field service strategy it was about getting data from the machine and the asset. Basically, letting the machine become the sensor rather than the customer being the sensor when something goes wrong.”
“That is still very much part of the on-going strategy, what APM adds to the process is a significant amount of additional intelligence around preventative maintenance.”
“The concept has always been about avoiding unplanned downtime and in terms of providing preventative maintenance there is a rapid evolution going on where we are moving quickly from interval based maintenance i.e. perform this maintenance every 6 months or a year, to condition based maintenance - which is perform maintenance every 1,000 cycles of a machine. But now with APM combined with IoT we basically have data from the machine itself, embedded into a sophisticated analytics engine in APM, combined with the finance and the strategy to optimally operate an asset and to do so in the most profitable manner.”
“So what APM adds, fed by this IoT data, is basically recommendations and intelligence of when maintenance should most optimally be performed. For example right now, or next week or next month. It can even do things like suggest the maintenance shouldn’t even happen at all. It may be that the best strategy and profit outcome on a particular asset would be to let it burn out its useful life - it might be more profitable to replace it than it is to make the repair. And if so that is what APM will suggest.”:
“It is an evolution in the concepts around maintenance. From interval, to conditioned and now to predictive analytic schedules. And when combined with the power we already had in ServiceMax, which was taking this IoT feed from the machine and suggesting when service can happen, it becomes a very powerful tool indeed.”
One thing that is of particular interest with APM is how the solution can work from fleet level through to sub-component level.
“We are definitely down at the component level now if we look at the areas such as the Power industry or Oil and Gas - vibration sensing, the speed things are rotating at, the temperature of bearings and how do those factors impact performance behaviours or how do they impact output or throughput of a machine. It could be the volume of fluid passing through something, It could be on a grander scale, the level of power production from a thermo-nuclear plant that is converting fossil fuels to electrical output,“ Berg explains as we discuss the importance of being able to see the health of various levels of both components and assets.
I think one of the big struggles people always have with IoT is that they basically drown in the data. You’re being sent all these readings but how do you make sense of it?
Essentially this is perhaps where APM can deliver the most value, in helping make the vast streams of data from assets connected to the IoT, truly useful.
As Berg alludes to when he comments: “I think one of the big struggles people always have with IoT is that they basically drown in the data. You’re being sent all these readings but how do you make sense of it?”
“What APM does is make sense of that data in light of maximising the uptime and the output of an asset and its components. It’s that added layer of intelligence that IoT on it’s own doesn’t have. It’s making that data useful essentially,” he adds.
Of course, one of the big benefits of FSM tools such as ServiceMax is allowing the service organisation to empower their field service technicians by putting such rich layers of customer information, ultimately being able to put the core intelligence of the organisation itself, into the hands of the field service technician.
Given that the integration between ServiceMax and APM is geared towards increasing the efficiency of preventative maintenance strategies, I was intrigued to see how much of this intelligence would be filtered down to the engineer. For example if he was on site fixing asset A would he be able to see that in fact Asset B was due to for maintenance in the next few weeks and therefore potentially undertake the second maintenance job whilst on site to save an unnecessary future truck role?
“I think that layer of insight is there on two different levels,” Berg responds when I put this point across to him.
“From a back office standpoint certainly, APM will suggest maintenance should occur on machine number one based on a threshold that’s been reached, but more importantly than that, it will also look at the fleet of the assets and see anything else that is approaching that same level of wear and tear (or that same maintenance condition) and alongside what we’ve already created within Connected Field Service - where we are pushing that machine data down to the technician, we can use our install base management capabilities to identify the fleet of assets that are at his location and highlight those near the warning condition or those that would approach it soon.”
One interesting if indirect result of giving the technician this level of insight is that by being able to relay such information to the customer, he can also reestablishes the importance of the maintenance visit in the first place
One interesting if indirect result of giving the technician this level of insight is that by being able to relay such information to the customer, he can also reestablishes the importance of the maintenance visit in the first place.
In today’s markets as we see companies moving to outcome-based services and preventative maintenance strategies in ever greater numbers, there is the new challenge of the workload of the technician perhaps going unseen by the client. In the old traditional break-fix model there was the theatre of the service engineer being the superhero, coming in to rescue the poor Ops Manager who has had to put an exasperated call in to say - “Hey! I can’t produce anything!’ Then the engineer comes in, meets his SLA and makes everything work again. Going above and beyond and generally being a hero.
In today’s world of outcome-based contracts there is a challenge to make sure you are effectively communicating the work your technicians have done for the client, to demonstrate the value your service provides them.
With the tools Berg is discussing, it seems there is the potential to almost move the engineer into something more of a consultative role. Someone who can say I’ve come to undertake the maintenance on ‘a,b,c’ but I can also advise you that ‘x,y,z’ could be also be done today and this will improve your output by ‘n’.
“I think there is a great opportunity here to improve the lifestyle of the technician themselves,” Berg comments as we bring the conversation onto this point. “Sure, there is the heroic experience of saving the day but that is also a high anxiety moment as well. When we consider the psychology of the technician, the challenging bit is to go out there by yourself, with no one to help you, then when encounter a really bad situation hopefully you’re the one that can resolve it. It can be a life with a lot of tension, which is sometimes overlooked.”
“Alongside that I also think that customer expectations are shifting as well,” he continues.
There is the classic metaphor that people don’t want to go out and buy a drill they want to buy a hole and the concept is largely about outcomes
“So now you put a technician in the position to not only be the hero by just fixing something retrospectively, but to be the hero that proactively maximises the customers output and production from an asset they acquired? I think that is not only going above and beyond but it is catering to more of the outcome-based mentality that companies now want to consume output rather than buy a set amount of machines.”
So it seems at least on the technology side of things there is already progress being made between the two organisations coming together, although it could be argued that this is the result of the two separate existing technologies just being plugged into each other.
The real fruits of the union are likely some way off, although how far could largely depend on how quickly and easily the ServiceMax team are integrating into the wider GE group. I mentioned Yarnold’s views at the time of the acquisition about the two organisations having a shared understanding and a similar DNA in terms of the view they both held of what ‘good service looks like’ - as well as the importance of service within industry as we move further into the twenty first century.
And of course, I was keen to see if that was holding out now the ServiceMax is fully embedded within GE.
“I think it is and I think it was very prescient of Dave to be highlighting that right at the start of us coming together,” Berg replies.
“There are several things here. Firstly, we’ve always served markets that I would largely classify as OEM manufacturers or industrial companies and certainly these are the companies and sectors that GE is already working amongst. As a direct result of that we are already seeing great energy and sales momentum by our alignment with GE business units around Oil and Gas, Energy, Power - as these were the industries we would have sold to anyway.”
[quote]I think with GE being largely a company and culture built around engineers, we have both shared an asset centric perspective on service.
“Secondly, I think with GE being largely a company and culture built around engineers, we have both shared an asset centric perspective on service. For us, it was always about a system of assets in the field that customers wanted outputs and outcomes from - we were never about being your typical field service, scheduling only solution. For us it was an awareness of the people, the schedule and the asset. And certainly GE‘s culture is grounded in engineering, machinery and assets - so we are on the same page.”
“The third thing that I think is interesting is that GE was one of our largest customers and if you look at GE as a company, I like to call it the largest field service company in the world. There are tens of thousands of technicians, and the vast majority of revenue at GE is derived from service contracts - so there is definitely a kindred spirit and a kind of alignment with GE because of these vertical focussed, asset centric mentalities. Plus then there is a shared passion for service which is such a big contributor to the GE business.”
Of course one would think that as one of their biggest clients, having the GE team on hand to add weight to their cause could also add some heavy kudos and gravitas at times that they need to call in the big guns.
In particular GE have been early adopters in the move towards outcome based models in a number of verticals. Is that helping the ServiceMax team when they go into conversations with prospective customers?
Of course, the move to outcome-based services is heavily tied to the use of the cutting-edge technology that ServiceMax provide, so it is in their vested interest to be avid promoters of such shifts in thinking.
But the reality is a move to outcome-based contracts can be a hard sell for service businesses to their own clients, whilst many still may need some convincing that a shift away from recurring spare parts revenue within the break-fix model is indeed the future of the Aftermarket sector.
However, having the back story of now being part of GE, who have already taken that path and who are able to say we believe this is the future because we’ve already gone out and done it in our own business, that must surely be a powerful tool when it comes to talking to those companies who are more reticent to make such a switch?
“This is actually one of the core themes at Minds and Machines,” Berg replies.
“The concept our chairman will be talking about is how our digital transformation at GE from an industrial company to a digital industrial company is really focussed on three different markets.”
“Firstly there is GE for GE, which is how we help ourselves go through this digital transformation towards outcome-centric models. Secondly, we have GE for Customers and this is looking at the business units which GE serves and the companies they sell to, and we want to help and advise them - sharing what we’ve learnt from our own experiences with them.”
“The final one is called GE for the World. What has been interesting with this and what has truly surprised me is the amount of times we’ve been speaking to companies who are traditionally staunch GE competitors, but they are curious about what we are doing.”
The whole idea behind this is to share the experience GE has had broadly around digital transformation of industrial businesses.
Given this experience and the broad touch-points Berg has access to I was curious to find out what his take on the shift to servitization was. Is it becoming as prevalent as it seems from behind my admittedly sometimes magnified field service lens? Indeed, are there many companies still in need of persuading that outcome-centric models are the best way forward, or has acceptance of the need to move towards servitized business models become widespread?
“It is interesting because I’ve yet to see much real push back on the concept,” Berg comments. “It is a as if everyone has come to accept that an outcome based model, i.e. a Service as a Product model - is the essential thing to do.
I think that value GE plays in those conversations is more geared towards telling these companies what is the first step to take on a journey like that. Sharing what our experiences have been, how we’ve done it and what our accomplishments have been.”
“It’s really interesting that in practical selling situations to potential customers one of the most impactful people we can bring into a scenario like that is someone like a CIO form one of the GE business who has made these investments, made it happen and can show you the results. I think the door is open but I think people are perhaps a bit confused as to how and where to start and that’s what GE can help them. We can outline how to start their journey and how best to stay on the right path.”
As we come to the end of our time together, a few things have become apparent throughout our conversation.
The first is that the technology seems to be a natural fit and combining ServiceMax with APM is a natural evolution, that is set to yield impressive results for those that are in place to put the two together.
The second is that Yarnold’s earlier prediction about their being a shared vision across the two organisations seems to be bang on target. As Berg explains their future plans to me there is a real sense not just of unity between the two organisations but also of continuity in terms of the original ServiceMax core beliefs that were so fundamental to their success.
However, one other thing that was apparent was the number of times Berg used the word industrial. This of course makes sense when we factor GE into the conversational mix - but one of the things that ServiceMax developed a strong reputation for pre GE, was for that every Sony, GE or Scheider they worked with - there were also the companies like Service2 - i.e. small local companies with less than twenty engineers.
Will SMEs still be of relevance to ServiceMax or will they be forgotten as ServiceMax under GE goes hunting for a place amongst the industries enterprise elite?
“I think the conversation has changed a little bit for smaller companies but in a positive way,” Berg responds. “The GE brand credibility is really helping us send a positive message to smaller companies. We continue to serve all those markets and in fact one thing you will see from us is an expansion in the market at this level.”
“We see three separate groups of customers, one is the OEM manufacturers which has been a sweet spot for our business, people that make complex machines, such as medical devices or heavy machinery.”
“One expansion will be in what we call asset operators so you could think of in that realm are the power producers. Electric and Oil and Renewables who basically don’t make anything, they buy a whole bunch of assets and then produce something. Then the third group would be one that we’ve always focussed on, namely the service providers and that’s where you get a lot of these smaller companies.”
“The really interesting thing is if you take any one of the seven or eight business units in GE and think of it as an ecosystem of something like Oil and Gas then certainly you could be talking to someone like Shell or BP doing oil exploration and production but as soon as you take a step back from the centre of that industry, that’s where those relatively smaller providers are really important. What’s really interesting is that they are also really important to the GE verticals as well because there is an ecosystem of those service providers working with a GE - or maybe competing with a GE but supplementing the value in that market. So we will continue to focus on those types of companies and actually a lot of the companies we’ve historically sold to in those spaces are aligned to the GE ecosystems anyway.”
“We really think that effective field service execution is a combination of people, assets and outcomes,” Berg offers in closing.
“I think that our integration into the digital portfolio combined with the GE business experience puts us in an incredibly unique position to not only help our clients manage their people but also to help manage their install base of assets and make this shift to this outcome-based mentality around preventative maintenance a less painful and more fruitful path to follow.”
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Sep 13, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Mark Brewer • Hololens • IFS
Today’s technology is becoming more and more like science fiction - but how can we harness it in the field service sector? Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director, IFS gives us the inside scoop on how they are leveraging HoloLens...
Today’s technology is becoming more and more like science fiction - but how can we harness it in the field service sector? Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director, IFS gives us the inside scoop on how they are leveraging HoloLens...
It’s stuff straight out of the movies; Back to the Future, Ender’s Game, or Ex Machina. Imagine a young field service technician in front of an MRI machine at an NHS hospital.
He has arrived to perform preventative maintenance on the machine based on sensor feedback that had signalled a pending fault.
He is wearing Microsoft’s HoloLens, which in addition to giving him the appearance of Geordi La Forge straight of Star Trek, is allowing him to be immersed in the customer experience.
He can access customer history, warranty agreements, sensor data and even schematics, all hands free, in real-time, while he repairs the machine, maximising uptime and all the while avoiding the hassle and stress that inevitably comes with breakdown.
Only that isn’t a movie scene.
In fact, I stood in a room wearing a HoloLens as it fed me information straight from IFS Applications, our ERP backed service management software.
I was able to access and view service history, performance analysis, and temperature levels. In fact, the integration between IFS Applications and the HoloLens will also make it possible to action the data in real time by clicking a ‘work guidelines’ button to access service instructions stored in IFS Applications.
By leveraging the integrated HoloLens camera, the solution also makes it easy to document the asset and the service performed and store the information in IFS Applications for future reference.
Proof of concept today, in the field tomorrow.
IFS’s innovation think tank, IFS Labs, has developed an integration between the enterprise applications suite IFS Applications and Microsoft HoloLens to reinvent field service management.
By leveraging the Microsoft HoloLens, we can help service personnel navigate complex environments and access critical asset information to realise major benefits such as increased productivity and first-time fix rates.
Field service management is a highly prioritised area for IFS where we have been categorised as leaders by analysts. We will keep pioneering this field with innovative solutions that provide tangible business benefits.”
What does it mean?
It means improved service levels, increased first-time fix rates, and increased uptime. It means truly transformative field service delivery.
A servitization model transforms the concept, expectation and value of service, and technology enhances execution of that product service system.
Technology like the HoloLens allows technicians to do their jobs better, faster. It also helps to bridge gaps caused by an ageing workforce, providing appeal to a younger generation of employees while offering an easy to adopt user experience for your current labour force.
According to Tuong Huy Nguyen of Gartner, “AR is most useful as a tool in industries where workers are either in the field, do not have immediate access to information, or jobs that require one or both hands and the operator’s attention.”
Changing your offering…
It also breeds new opportunity for your service delivery model.
70 percent of consumers expect a self-service option for handling commercial questions and complaints.
Imagine providing your customer with a HoloLens linked to your service management solution when they purchase a product or service package from you.
You are then empowering your customers to act as the first line of defence in the case of failure, regular maintenance, and more, by providing them with the right guidance and virtual support to fix an issue themselves.
Innovative software helps you deliver inspired service
The power of technology ultimately lies in how it is leveraged. Combining the mixed reality capabilities of Microsoft HoloLens with the enterprise end-to-end software solution IFS Applications ultimately empowers field service technicians with innovative tools that boost productivity while creating the potential for organisations to generate new offerings and add value to their customers.
The world we grew up dreaming about in the movies is a world that we are now able to embrace. As end consumers taste the potential of new technology and expect more, field service organisations that embody innovation and leverage new technologies will become the clear leaders.
To learn more about IFS Lab’s latest innovations, email bas.de.vos@ifsworld.com or visit www.ifsworld.com
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Sep 11, 2017 • Features • AGeing Workforce • research • Research • servicemax
Our world is changing.
Our world is changing.
Field service technology is evolving at breakneck speed. The role of field service within the wider business has grown from cost centre, to profit centre and is now rapidly shifting towards being the primary revenue source as companies leave behind them traditional break-fix models and adopt outcome based service solutions. SLAs are becoming replaced with guarantees of uptime. An asset in the field can request it's own maintenance call in advance of failure. Expertise no longer needs to be flown in it can now simply be dialled in.
So what does all of this rapid change within the field service sector mean for the field service engineer of the future? What exactly will the field service engineer of 2022 look like and how will he differ from the field service engineer we are accustomed to today?
With an ageing workforce crisis looming large as the existing last of the baby boomer workforce reaches retirement, it is perhaps one of the most important question field service organisations must address
With this in mind Field Service News is working in partnership with field service management provider ServiceMax from GE Digital on a research project that is seeking to establish what field service professionals believe the requirements will be for field service engineers and technicians in the not too distant future.
Now as we reach a half way point through the research we reflect on the interim findings and at the same time to turn to any field service professionals who have yet to take part within our survey and ask you to help us build an even more complete picture of what the field service technician of 2022 will look like?
Findings so far:
1. The predicted ageing workforce crisis amongst field service organisations is very much real
When we hear talk of an 'impending crisis' it may be only natural to think that there is a healthy dose of hyperbole within the headlines. However, in this instance an ageing workforce is certainly a looming problem and unless companies address this issue now it could indeed be a crisis for some.
Indeed, 81% of field service professionals that have participated in our research so far have indicated that the for their organisation an ageing workforce will pose some threat to their service delivery across the next 5 years.
Within that 81% of respondents 13% feel that the threat their company faces is severe stating that it is a 'major issue we are facing that could put our field service operations at risk.' Meanwhile, 45% of those who stated an ageing workforce was a concern stated that the risk was significant and stating that 'unless we address the issue quickly we are likely to face major disruption to our field service delivery.'
The same amount of respondents also stated that they see it [an ageing workforce] as 'a possible issue that we need to be aware of', whilst just 17% of field service professionals that have responded to the survey so far believe that the risk to their business is limited.
2. People skills are becoming increasingly more important in field service technician recruitment
The old cliche of a field service engineer being a reclusive creature often found in dark corners more happy in the company of his tool kit than with those dreaded customers who always just seemed to get in the way of him doing his job are now very much a thing of the past.
54% of respondents to our survey stated that they 'absolutely place people skills at the top of their list when recruiting new FSEs'.
So it is perhaps little surprise that we see that 54% of respondents to our survey stated that they 'absolutely place people skills at the top of their list when recruiting new FSEs'.
In fact, alongside those that put people skills at the top of their list of skills for new techs a further 43% stated that they 'certainly pay more attention to people skills today than they would have done a few years ago,' whilst just a nominal 3% of respondents replied that 'whilst people skills are nice to have, technical skills are the major facet they are looking for in new field service engineers."
3. There can be little better for training new field service engineers that the experience of older engineers
Indeed, it seems that this is the accepted wisdom amongst many field service organisations with 59% of our respondents confirming they have programs in place for older technicians to support younger technicians.
Further to this an additional 16% of our respondents stated that they are currently devising such a strategy whilst just under a quarter of companies stated that they didn't have anything in place to harvest the knowledge of their older technicians before they walk out of the door.
How does this compare with your own experience? If you haven't done so already please do take just a few minutes to complete our research survey.
PLUS! not only will you help us build an even clearer picture of what the key thinking is around what the field service engineer of 2022 will look like, but thanks to our partner on this project ServiceMax by GE Digital, we have a number of prizes to give away including three £50 Amazon vouchers plus a number of free tickets to Maximize Europe conference (worth $215 each!) - but you can only find the entry for the prize draw at the end of the survey so if you want to win - you better complete the survey ASAP!*
Click here to go to the survey now
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*Prize draw available only to field service practitioners and dependent entry is dependent on consenting to T&Cs
Sep 11, 2017 • Features • Augmented Reality • Coresystems • Future of FIeld Service • manuel grenacher
Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems, takes a look at two separate ways in which Augmented Reality is set to radically change the way we approach field service delivery...
Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems, takes a look at two separate ways in which Augmented Reality is set to radically change the way we approach field service delivery...
In my last article I examined the technologies that will likely play a major role in driving exponential growth of the field service market over the next few years, with one of those technologies being augmented reality (AR).
In this piece, I’ll go more in-depth into the most impactful ways in which AR can revolutionise the field service industry over the next few years and beyond.
I mentioned this in my last article, but it bears repeating: enterprise use cases for augmented reality are on such a fast track to implementation that ABI Research predicts that 21 million AR units will be shipped by 2020, with sales reaching $100 billion.
Clearly there is a huge market opportunity for organisations looking to enhance their field service businesses with AR technologies.
There is a wide range of ways in which AR can support field service organisations, but I’d like to focus on the two that I predict will have the most immediate impact. The first one is probably in your pocket, or somewhere within arm’s reach, as we speak: the camera in your smartphone.
Here’s how it would work: when an issue occurs with a customer’s machine or device, a field service technician would connect remotely to that end user’s/customer’s smartphone via an app.
Once the technician and the end user are connected, that user can point the phone directly to the problem at hand, so the technician can gain a clear view of the issue and walk the user through fixing the problem, step-by-step.
This remote troubleshooting capability has the potential to greatly reduce the number of onsite visits between field service technicians and their customers, which would save a huge amount of time and resources on both parties’ ends.
But what if a technician is indeed needed onsite?
The AR app would be able to notify the end user of the status of their request in real-time.
This status update would include the exact location of the technician (via GPS), as well as notifications that can be pushed to the end-user’s device, so the customer can know that technician’s estimated time of arrival, down to the minute.
Again, time and resources saved.
AR glasses have the potential to be a tremendous asset for the field service organisation in another way: by streamlining training.
Through the glasses, the technician – who undoubtedly is more skilled than the user at fixing technical issues – can walk a user (or a less skilled technician) through the fix.
While the AR glasses and the AR app for the smartphone both deliver significant benefits to the customer and technician, the AR glasses have the potential to be a tremendous asset for the field service organisation in another way: by streamlining training.
In a scenario in which a customer needs onsite support, it behooves the field service organisation to send its less skilled – and therefore less costly – technicians to actually carry out the fix.
And this could be possible through the use of the AR glasses, as the more skilled technician could remain at HQ and remotely direct the less skilled technician through the fix by using the glasses.
This way, the customer still receives the top-notch service thanks to the senior technician (literally) overseeing the process, while the field service organisation is able to execute the service call while training its less skilled technician in a real-world scenario.
This is, as the saying goes, killing two birds with one stone.
So there’s an overview of the two ways that AR can most immediately have a positive impact on the field service industry.
However, the potential is perhaps even greater than we can imagine.
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Sep 08, 2017 • Features • Management • Michael Blumberg • Nick Frank • Big Discussion • Jim Baston • Service and Sales
In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...
In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...
This issue our topic is the relationship between Service and Sales and our experts are Nick Frank of Si2 Partners, Michael Blumberg of Blumberg Advisory Group and Jim Baston of BBA Consulting
So with three fantastic experts lined up lets dive straight into the first question of the series...
It is often said service technicians are the greatest salesmen – what are your views on this?
Service technicians bring a perspective and outlook that makes them great at sales in certain situations. For example, where the sale solves a critical problem for the customer.
Basically, customers appreciate the fact that service technicians are problem solvers and place the customer’s need first. As a result, the service technician has trust and credibility with the customer.
In turn, the customer is highly likely to act on the service technician’s recommendations. Sometimes, the only way a technician can solve the customer’s problem is by having them buy something new like a spare part, new piece of equipment, or value-added service offering.
In these situations, the sale is not viewed as a sale at all by the customer but merely as an attempt by the technician to solve the customer’s problem.
To believe service technicians are the greatest salesmen is to misunderstand the true skills of sales professionals. These are people who have the skills, mind-set and drive required to identify and close new customer opportunities.
It is very different from the more nurturing and customer focused individuals usually found in field service. That said, selling is a team effort and many people are involved in to the GoTo market process. In some respect everyone sells the company and the service technician has an important a role as anyone else. Through being the person who sees the customer more than pretty much anyone else in the organisation, they are ideally positioned to advise the customer on services that can improve value, or identify new opportunities.
But playing an active role in the sales process should not be confused with the sales professional who is accountable for closing deals.
I guess it depends on your definition of “salesperson”. If you mean the ability to recognise opportunities and be successful in helping the customer make a decision to purchase, then this statement is true.
Field service professionals are in a unique position. They understand the technology and where it is going. They know the equipment the customer has and what they are trying to achieve. They have proximity to the customer and generally high levels of trust.
However, I have concerns over the term “salespeople” when it comes to field service professionals.
I take the perspective that when a field service professional brings a product or service that will benefit the customer in some way to that customer’s attention, then that is a service rather than a sale. It’s part of the value that the field service professional brings. It is every bit as important as that field service professional’s ability to troubleshoot and repair.
Those field service professionals that recognise this are usually very successful because they see their role as helping the customer and the customer has confidence in the validity of their recommendations and trust in their motives.
Look out for the next part of this series when we ask our panel "Is there a difference between selling service and selling products?"
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.
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