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Thames Water staff using the V110 have praised the device for important features such as how lightweight it is, its highly sensitive touchscreen and digitised stylus, as well as its superior processing power - especially noticeable when using the GPS functionality to bring up large, detailed Map/GIS software, critical to productivity in the field. Here we look at the case study of why the water utilities giant selected the device...

Challenge

Thames Water is under constant pressure from regulators and customers to reduce bills while having to maintain some truly challenging infrastructure, especially in the City of London.

To keep the taps running for nearly 30% of the UK’s population, Thames Water makes heavy demands on its technology, requiring reliability in tough conditions, the best connection available, high processing speed, large memory for files stored offline and the capability to run the latest operating systems. The hardware needs to be easy to use, durable and perform seamlessly, allowing operatives uninterrupted service.

 

With a 2,000-strong field force as well as contractors, Thames Water employees find themselves in extremely challenging conditions; often working below the ground, in difficult weather conditions, frequently with dark, or even very bright lighting, and even at non-typical angles, in which they need to access and input data onto their devices.

Technology naturally needs replacing as devices reach the end of life, and when this time came for computing devices at Thames Water, the challenge was to find a new solution that would meet these stringent requirements and provide a robust, intuitive platform for a variety of staff.

Solutions

Thames Water prioritised its requirements for a water resistant, drop-proof rugged device that would be able to stand the test of time. It carried out exhaustive trials with three competitive devices involving 200 Thames Water engineers. The competitive devices were tested in the field against important criteria such as: battery life (over six hours), GPS signal, 3G+ and 4G capabilities, speed, durability and scored each from one to 10.

Other hardware features, such as 10 to 12 inch screen, physical keyboard and sensitive touch screen were also important assessment criteria. It was important that the device would be compatible and work well with ClickMobile, a solution Thames Water uses to better manage and optimise its workforce.

Getac performed exceptionally in the field, with around 90% of users rating it by far the standout device across the board.

Service focussed consultant Jan Van Veen begins a new series focussing on the importance of managing momentum amongst service organisations...

 

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Tip! For a free report detailing insights in how your organisation compares to others in managing momentum take part in Jan's survey - further information and links to participate are included at the end of this feature! 

 

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The common predict-command-control type of management practices create resistance to change. Most new management and leadership techniques try to overcome this resistance.

Summary

Most companies struggle to adapt to new requirements and opportunities. They see:

• Ongoing performance issues, without adequate and sustainable interventions
• Failing execution of strategies and change programmes
• Too little innovation beyond incremental improvements
• No preparations for (potentially) disruptive change

They fall behind their competition and risk dropping out as we have seen with Tandem, Wang, Nokia, Motorola, Kodak, Polaroid and many others.

The main reason is that these organisations do not adequately adapt to new requirements and opportunities. At the same time, companies which do manage to adapt continuously thrive from the changes and will be the winners of the next decade.

The problem

People by nature are quite strong in adapting and driving change, if there are good reasons to do so and not too many obstacles. That is why human kind is one of the most successful species on our planet, fostering rapid changes in our world.

However, the willingness and ability to drive change is quite easily blocked. Let’s have a look into a little psychology. Roughly we can distinguish three different parts of our brains:

• The reptilian brain, which drives an automated survival mode when triggered by threat. The result is to fight or flight.
• The limbic brain, which subconsciously adjusts behaviour based on experience, values and emotions.
• The neocortex where we consciously think about many things, including problems, creative solutions, strategies and actions to take. We need this part of the brain to identify challenges and issues, find adequate and sustainable solutions, implement them even if the outcome is not sure yet and collaborate with others.

The issue is that the reptilian brain is twofold:

• When triggered, it is extremely dominant and blocks the rest of the brain. In survival mode, there is no reasoning or creativity.
• It is extremely easy to trigger the reptilian brain. Not only by life-threatening issues, but also by anticipating social or emotional discomfort. This is why our mothers taught us to count to ten and inhale before reacting in a way we might regret later.

Common management practices too often trigger the reptilian brain to become dominant. A few examples:

• Performance management systems focus on forcing performance of people instead of on learning and developing (organisational) capabilities to perform:
  • Not meeting objectives is considered as a (personal) failure.
  • Peers and managers tend to react with disapproval after setbacks
  • There is no dialogue on how to achieve stretched targets
• Many change initiatives emphasize problems and failures, rather than the great things we can achieve and feel proud about. Threat becomes dominant instead of the rewards of making changes.
• Often, there is too much emphasis on the big gap, without a clear picture of the doable next steps to close the gap.
• The lack of planned contingency and margin in plans to achieve stretched objectives can causing panic when setbacks occur.
• Inconsistent decisions and messages, increasing uncertainty and unpredictability.

It is quite easy to recognize the reptilian brains at work. Typical signs are for example:

• Externalising issues in performance or progress
• Blaming others
• Window dressing, lack of transparency of challenges and issues
• Sceptism and negativism

Momentum for Sustainable Success – In brief

Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply prevent resistance against change? Everyone would be passionate and eager to jointly perform, to make things happen, to adapt to changing requirements and new opportunities, to learn and to develop. Continuous and timely adaptation and change would be part of our DNA. This is Momentum for Sustainable Success.

This is exactly what the successful organisations have in place. They apply new perspectives and practices which drive momentum to continuously adapt and drive change – that is to drive sustainable success. This momentum is their foundation for an adaptable, learning and growing organisation which has the capabilities to continuously perform, execute and prepare for future success.

Our ongoing research “Momentum for Sustainable Success” defines these perspectives and practices and provides practical tools which help organisations and leaders to build and maintain momentum.

Momentum Perspectives

Everyone in the organisation truly believes that:

• People by nature will perform and drive change
• Building capabilities to work smarter will drive performance
• Future success is beyond current business as usual

 

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These perspectives serve as guiding principles every day for all decisions, actions, attitudes and messages. Other articles elaborate on the different elements and provide examples.  Below, I describe these briefly:

Momentum Practices

Modern "sense & respond" type of management practices are applied at all levels and entities of the organisation. This includes:

• Having a clear and compelling picture of the aspirations, the required changes needed and the steps to get there.
• Having a continuous dialogue in which results and progress are reviewed and priorities, strategies and actions are adjusted.
• Outside-In learning and preparing for the future, especially beyond business as usual.

Practical take-aways

Every business leader can start increasing momentum for sustainable success today.

• Make sure you have a clear and shared vision of the future state which is compelling for all stakeholders.
• Establish a practical road-map consisting of doable next-steps.
• Change the dialogue and dynamics around targets and objectives. Move it from “monitoring and reviewing” to “strategizing and learning together”.

On top of this, I would recommend you to:

• Assess the momentum in your organisation through our web-based survey. Until the end of 2016 this is free of charge, as the survey is also part of our research programme.
• Check out upcoming articles, which will be elaborating on the Momentum-Framework and practical approaches and tools.

 

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Our research: Momentum for Sustainable Success

Our research further defines a pragmatic and complete Momentum-Framework consisting of management practices, perspectives and practical tools. These will help you step increase and maintain momentum for sustainable success, strengthen your competitive position and leave others wondering how you did it.

You are invited to join by conducting a web-based survey. It takes approximately 15 minutes. Your input will remain confidential and will be reported in an aggregated form only.

In return you will receive in early 2017:

• Insights in how other companies manage their momentum for sustainable success.
• Insights in how your organisation compares to others in managing momentum.
• Insights into the new Momentum Framework for sustainable success.

Please start the survey here.
Read about the research here.

 

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The public sector needs to take a long overdue look at the benefits of field service technology is delivering in the private sector writes Laraine Geddes, Marketing Manager, Kirona...

Kirona When thinking about field service, typically private sector examples spring to mind, such as electricians, plumbers, or other types of contractors performing work in our home or place of business.

We typically don’t think of field workers being associated with government, yet this is a vital component of public service.

Organisations, whether public or private, are leveraging field service technology to improve their customer experience by making the journey less about how they interact with customers and more about the relevancy and context of why customers need to communicate with them.

The objectives of field service work in the private sector are the same as the objectives of public sector field service. Ever present is the need to reduce wastage while at the same time improve real-time visibility and communication between the field based employees and their headquarters, and field based employees and their customers.

It’s imperative for field service technology to allow real-time communication; otherwise important decisions could be made based on older, non-relevant information. At the same time, customers need to be kept informed throughout the lifecycle of a field service interaction.

Kirona have enabled public sector organisations such as North Lanarkshire Council save in excess of £1.5m since implementing Kirona’s field service automation solutions across its Housing Property Services and Home Support Services. Together with the impressive cost savings the council has improved the service for patients receiving care at home vie the Home Support Team, as well as their social housing tenants.

Another example of field service technology enabling impressive savings is South Gloucestershire Council. The council serves a community with a population of approximately 270,000 in the South West of England.

As with many public sector organisations in recent years, the local authority has faced the significant challenge of maintaining service levels whilst undergoing spending cuts.

Seeking to make cost efficiencies the council implemented Kirona’s Job Manager mobile worker solution to 90 of its Street Care team. Job Manager enables the council to reduce paperwork, reduce drive time and phone calls, and automate job allocation and increase real-time job visibility.

The council has reduced Street Care costs by £500k per year and response time now averages 3 days compared to 7 day prior to implementing Kirona’s software.

 

Now, compare these outcomes to those of Carpetright, the leading flooring retailer.

Carpetright introduced dynamic scheduling and field service automation to its team of 320 Home Estimators.

Service improved with customers being able to book convenient appointment slots, estimators travel time reduced to reach customer appointments and estimated sales increased by 34%.

These examples show how field service software solutions in both the private and the public sector are being used to increase productivity, reduce costs, and significantly improve customer satisfaction.

However according to techUK adoption of field service technology for public services is being held back due to lack of skills despite civil servants agreeing technology is critical.

“Technology has a key role in helping the government deliver more for less and it’s great to see such widespread acknowledgement of the benefits technology has to offer,” said Julian David, CEO of techUK.

With the creation of the Crown Commercial Service G-Cloud Digital Marketplace, adoption of field service technology is set to increase.

The G Cloud framework simplifies procurement for public sector organisations, with organisations such as Kirona being selected as approved suppliers, thus speeding up the procurement process for many organisations within the public sector.

Field service technology can enable public sector organisations meet the challenge of delivering services with reduced budgets, and keep apace with today’s customer-centric approach to business, which sectors such as retail have traditionally championed. All hail the customer is king!

For more information on G-Cloud or the technology employed by North Lanarkshire Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Carpetright, take a look at Kirona.com

 

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The Field Service Management software industry is fiercely competitive and one that in the last few years has been in almost constant flux as new technologies continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Yet, across the last decade there has been one company that has risen from a humble start-up to globally recognised industry leader. That company is ServiceMax, and the man that has led that incredible rise to prominence is CEO Dave Yarnold. Kris Oldland, FSN Editor-in-Chief, spoke exclusively with him as he stopped by the ServiceMax London HQ on whistle-stop tour of Europe...

The ServiceMax story really is an incredibly compelling one - while stories of start-ups that become market leaders are not completely unique, they are few and far between and in the competitive world of field service management systems, their rapid rise to prominence within the last decade is out their on it’s own in terms of success.

Indeed, there are some really great service management providers out there that have a built solid businesses serving their small corner of what is in reality a huge market. Companies that are happy to feed off the crumbs (and make a very profitable living in doing so) that fall down from the big table where the traditionally established players such as ClickSoftware or Astea fight for elbow room with software heavyweights such as Microsoft and Oracle.

But this was never going to be the path that Dave Yarnold, CEO and co-founder of ServiceMax was going to choose.

Even back in the inception days in what Yarnold affectionately refers back to as the ‘beige palace’, a nondescript office tucked away in Silicon Valley, there was a distinct vision - and perhaps a key reason for their success was that, that vision wasn’t just to be another software provider trying to serve the field service sector but instead to form a company that intrinsically understood what good service was and then build tools to help engender that within their clients.

“We looked at what everybody was doing around service and we thought everyone was missing the point in two respects,” Yarnold begins “One was that everybody was focussed on consumer call centres and basically reducing the amount of touch that companies were going to have with their customers, so all the technology was geared towards efficiency and reducing interaction.”

 

“We also felt that all the technology was geared to taking cost out and what we stumbled on early on was an interesting trend that anybody who was building products were experiencing much faster growth in the services side of the business than the product side.”

“The global economy has slowed down - especially since the last great recession, so that means you’re not selling as much product but there is certainly enough opportunities to get value out of the infrastructure, customer base and install base that you have. So we focussed on helping companies to grow their service business as opposed to squeeze their technicians for more productivity - which is still where most of the technology in our space is focussed.” He adds.

It is a valid point that Yarnold makes, as the economy crashed on a global scale, suddenly service became fore and centre as very simply there were no more margins left to cut. Competing on price in many industries was just no longer an option.

However, with the economy on (slightly) more stable footing these days, the shift to service centric businesses is less about a necessary differentiator and more about building more profitable and sustainable, longer term relationships. A case in point being Sony’s Professional Service’s division, who have developed a servitized business model, using ServiceMax as their FSM system. But was this shift to services something that Yarnold had always envisaged?

“A great analogue to answer that question is to look at the software industry.” He replies. “I remember back in the year 2000 when Salesforce emerged and the idea of Cloud computing and Software as a Service as a business model was nowhere to be seen. The reason why it became the primary mode of delivering software was because it was what customers wanted. They wanted a balanced relationship , a long relationship, a relationship where they felt like they weren’t entering into an agreement knowing the supplier was getting all of the profit up front on day one.

Think about the imbalance in that type of relationship and of course outcome based services makes a ton of sense to customers. It’s far more balanced, it’s what customers want. The fact that the software industry has gone through this complete disruption, and all the leaders in the sector have now embraced this model - that’s not lost on manufacturing companies. Most heads of manufacturing businesses today will be looking at what software businesses have become, they look at the multiples that recurring revenue streams produce and they want that to.”

 

“You look at the long-term, recession proof benefits of that business model and the lock in that that brings, it’s a really attractive proposition.”

Of course mention of Salesforce, brings us to the elephant in the room.

While Yarnold and his co-founders vision was certainly a driving force for the success of ServiceMax, it is undeniable that they also rode the slipstream of Salesforce’s own phenomenal growth. Now with Salesforce entering the market themselves with Field Service Lightning, does this represent a significant threat to ServiceMax’s continued growth?

“It’s not like it was a surprise to us, it took them a while but they realised that this [field service] is a pretty big market,” Yarnold begins bullishly.

“For us, it’s interesting being the only guys in the market that believe in the business model of servitization and where this is all going. I see even in the direction of their [Salesforce’s] product that it’s the old cost reduction approach. It’s a scheduling centric app that is leveraging technology that ClickSoftware built on their platform - which is all around schedule optimisation.”

“Yes, it’s part of our suite also, but our product is built around assets and contracts and relationships and the business processes that drive a service business. It’s not just geared towards squeezing an extra few percentage out of the engineers. That’s part of the overall RoI of running a service business, but it’s only part of it. Basically, I think it’s interesting what they [Salesforce] are doing, but it is also old school in my opinion, it’s still cost based, which is kind of boring to people who run service businesses.”

 

One for is for certain though, if an original vision and harnessing the growing momentum of Salesforce were the initial keys to success, the ‘special sauce’ that has allowed ServiceMax to truly flourish has been there intelligent acquisition of talent in key roles that truly understand the industry. Yet, it’s clear that the passion for service stems from the very top.

“At the core of it, if you go back to the three of us when we started, we just care about this. We think it’s vital. From a standpoint of what we as consumers expect from a service relationship. When we really start to dig into it, it’s not just software, it’s an important part of business, an important part of the relationship that we all expect and take for granted, and there’s this army of people making it all happen.”

“So the follow on from that is if we are going to try and enable all this, then we’ve got to try and find people who’ve experienced it - people like Dave Hart (a former Service Director and customer now working in a global customer transformation role with ServiceMax) who live eat and breath this stuff and have built there career around it.”

Having spent an hour in Yarnold’s company the one thing that is clear is that ServiceMax isn’t just a software company. They are a company which already deeply understands field service, yet is continuously learning more about the sector each day and that I would venture is the true key to their success.

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by:  Astea
Title: What is the next phase of service innovation

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By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Innovation causes company evolution and every year service is becoming more important to companies not only as a source of revenue but also as a key driver of customer loyalty...

It is no longer enough to merely deliver quality service in a timely manner. Customer demands and competitive pressures are driving service companies toward service innovation – developing new service offerings and service delivery mechanisms that their customers will find valuable.

To remain competitive, service organisations need to make investments in developing and designing new service products, tapping into new markets, and finding new ways to deliver service – making innovation part of the culture, from the executive suite to the field technicians.

This White Paper published by Astea takes a look at best practices for companies looking to innovate their service and it covers:

• Where the best opportunities for service innovation exist
• How to institutionalise innovation with 'service innovation teams'
• What metrics to use to measure the ROI of innovation activities

Overview:

As service has grown in importance as a source of revenue and a key driver of customer loyalty, customer expectations of service delivery have increased. It is no longer enough to merely deliver quality service in a timely manner. Service organisations have to do more than simply keep costs low and maintain market share.

Customer demands and competitive pressures are driving service companies toward service innovation – developing new service offerings and service delivery mechanisms that their customers will find valuable.

This type of service innovation has become an increasingly vital component in a company’s competitive strategy. Executives recognise that focusing on cost control is not in line with long-term value creation. To grow, organisations need to reinvent customer relationships and embrace new technologies and business models.

Where is Service Innovation Needed?

In March 2016, The Service Council (TSC) conducted a survey on service innovation to gauge respondents’ perceptions of their own organisations.

When asked how innovative their entire organization was, the majority of respondents said their company was somewhat innovative (58%), while roughly one-third (31%) said their company was innovative. Asked specifically about their service organization, the responses were very close, with 23% responding “innovative,” 56% “somewhat innovative.” A slightly larger group said the service organization was not innovative (11% for service compared to 3% for the entire company).

Service companies can innovate on a number of levels: the service delivery process, customer management and communication, service design, new product/ service development, the client interface, and in their technological choices.

Institutionalise Innovation

According to The Service Council survey, just 31% of respondents have a service innovation team in place. For service organisations to thrive in a marketplace that puts greater value on innovation, that has to change.

Service organizations have to look at innovation on a strategic level, and at all the ways that the service team can innovate – from developing new services and process-oriented changes to focusing on external service delivery processes and finding more opportunities to provide service.

These companies need to develop a service innovation team focused on fostering such projects. The team should include input from supervisors and managers, frontline employees/technicians, VP-level service leaders, regional leaders, and C-level executives.

Measure Your Success

Those innovation investments can’t be made blindly, however. Establishing whether a given innovation provides a return on investment (ROI) requires metrics around those innovation activities and their results. In The Service Council survey, just 20% of respondents said they already had innovation metrics in place.

Measuring innovation is a combination of art and science, which makes those metrics difficult to develop. You have to find the right things to measure; every company has its own organizational culture, so every company must fine-tune what it measures to reinforce the goals, values, and norms that it finds critical for inspiring innovation and best practices.

Technology Enables Innovation

One key enabler of both new service products and new service delivery mechanisms has been technology. Digital technologies have driven radical change and disruption in the service sector.

These include customer self-service portals and mobile apps, mobile field service automation and work order management solutions, GPS-enabled fleet tracking/management systems, and automated dispatch and scheduling solutions.

Getting Started

Service organisations that want to improve these efforts should institutionalise innovation by establishing dedicated innovation teams and resources and develop metrics to measure the effect of innovation. Frontline employees should be involved, and customer needs and insights should be analysed to develop an innovation road map.

• Begin with customer insights
• Understand the funding mechanism
• Determine who will develop and deliver new innovative service products and models
• Track innovation activity
• Institutionalize innovation

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As a leading figure spearheading the servitization movement Professor Tim Baines of the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice has seen manufacturers begin to focus far more heavily on service as a revenue stream in recent years...

Over the past few years servitization has become a topic of hot debate.

Several years ago, when I talked to businesses about my work on servitization, managers would look at me blankly and ask what it was all about.

Often they would get hung up on the spelling, or simply say ‘what’s new here? We offer services anyway’.

The concepts of advanced services, IOT and Industry 4.0 were largely unheard of, and the term servitization was often dismissed as ‘a bit too academic’.

Now the world has changed, and servitization has become more mainstream. I’ve always taken the view that servitization is simply ‘manufacturers growing their revenues and profits through services’ and that ultimately we are looking at a paradigm shift in our ideas about manufacturing.

Relax this definition a little and you will see that servitization is all around us; it might be Goodyear implementing proactive services in commercial trucking, GE following through on their digital industrialisation strategy in power generation, BMW offering a new MINI on a Personal Finance Plan with a package of services, or Brompton Bikes being offered to hire by the hour in the high street.

Servitization is happening in many guises, and technological innovations are helping to bring about rapid change.

Industry 4.0 is popular today, while just yesterday it was IOT and before that Big Data. Innovative use of technology is attractive, and understandably so for people within manufacturing who come from a technology background.

 

However I think there is also an element of fear; we’ve all witnessed the rise of IT giants, whether it’s UBER, Apple, Facebook or EBay- many businesses are anxious about the next innovation from Silicon Valley and what it might mean for them and I have heard IT vendors countless times pushing businesses to invest in IT and develop ‘the killer app’.

A word of warning here: remember that service is not an app or a new technology. Take a step back before you invest and think: How can you really make money through technology? What outcomes will it help you deliver to customers?

So my conversations about servitization have moved from ‘what is it?’ to ‘how do you do it?’ My team at Aston Business School and I have now worked with over 100 manufacturers helping them to discover and implement servitization.

There are four fundamental stages through which every company must go; Exploration, Traction, Acceleration and Exploitation.

Today, most want help with the first stage, and to those business leaders who want to get started with servitization we suggest three steps:

Step 1: Think clinically, and understand servitization as an innovation: 

The recent popularity of servitization has inspired some business leaders, consultants and vendors, to re-brand their older offerings and muddy the water in the process.

This can significantly undermine your chances of success.

Go to established sources such as the Aston Business School Servitization website (short url - fs-ne.ws/FOwP304KRAq) to tap into the wealth of critical and rigorous knowledge that exists in this field.

Understand that servitization embraces business model innovation, organisational change, and new technology adoption. That services exist in various forms, and represent differing values to both the customer and provider.

Also understand the limits of our knowledge, for instance large scale surveys will help to give you a sense for how the world is changing, but don’t expect any to tell you exactly how the revenue and profits will change for your own business.

Step 2: Allow yourself to imagine an advanced service proposition but only a little:

Imagine what types of services you might offer, but don’t get too drawn into the people, processes and technologies you might need to deliver these, in the same way that a design engineer will conceptualise the form and function of a car, rather than be constrained by design of the production line.

Keep it simple, don’t yet begin to think that these ideas will ultimately transpire into ‘the’ customer value proposition, just try to give your ideas a sense of realism.

Step 3: Explore, benchmark and validate your ideas:

Identify a business in your wider value chain that has moved forward with services- this might be a distributor, competitor, or one of your own suppliers that is asking to do more for your business.

Alternatively you may need to look to an analogous market sector which has some similarities to your own. In each case visit both the service providers and customers, and try to get a sense of how each collaborated to form a proposition, and how they have behaved to make services a success.

 

Compare your own thoughts on services against these, and use this insights to inform your own ideas, and so test whether your own thoughts are indeed realistic.

The outcome of these three steps is simply a better understanding of servitization and what it could mean for your business. They are elementary but they will improve realism and confidence.

After this, the hard work really begins, as you will need to develop new relationships with customers, innovate you customer value propositions, form new value chain relationships, adapt your business model and much more- and even these are still only part of the exploration phase.

 

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Kris Oldland talks exclusively to Steve Mason, Chief Revenue Officer with FieldAware about the changing landscape of FSM software...

FieldAware is a brand that has been slowly building a presence as a rising star amongst field service management (FSM) software providers for the last few years now. However, across the last twelve months or so they seem to be distinctly focussing on pulling together a team with an enviable background and history within the sector - perhaps readying for a major assault on the market?

The addition of Tabitha Taylor-Higginson and Caroline Pennington (both from Trimble Field Service Management) has added a depth of industry knowledge and understanding of best-practice, go-to-market strategies on the communications side of the business, whilst new Chief Revenue Officer Steve Mason, has an eight year record with industry stalwarts ClickSoftware to his name - holding a variety of titles ranging from Vice President of Sales for the EMEA region to Vice President of Russia, CIS and Mobility - in short he is not only a man who has experience in successfully working with top-tier enterprise account sales, but also a strong knowledge of product development within FSM systems.

In short, it seems that within the last twelve months things have stepped up a gear for FieldAware in terms of how they intend to approach the market going forward.

“There has been a lot of momentum that has been building over time, but now it is beginning to become more visible as things are all coming together around the product, around the marketing and around our go-to-market strategy,” begins Mason as we touch on the subject.

“We are becoming more visible in the market, but in a controlled way. From the board’s perspective it has been building up the momentum and now they are bringing in key personnel that will drive the company into the next market environment.”

Controlled seems to be the key word here. There seems to have been a very clear plan from the senior team at FieldAware to get the product right, before then building the team that can firmly establish the company as a key player within the FSM software community.

Indeed, as Mason explains there was a lot of behind the scenes work in developing the product in order to be able to integrate easily with others that had to be completed before FieldAware could really begin to move forward into the enterprise.

“Whilst the company were operating primarily in the small to medium sector, we invested heavily in developing a mobile led, innovative solution that was built on an enterprise approach architecture. We wanted the ability to have a field force management solution, where we could have custom objects associated at multiple levels, so the application could through configuration be quickly tuned to the needs of different customers in different verticals.”

“To then expose that flexibility to all of the communications channels - so out through the API, into the integration layer out to the mobile and then out to the web, as you can appreciate it takes time to build that kind of product, but it was where we saw future.”

However, listening to Mason speak it is not just care and attention that FieldAware have put into the development of their product - he is keen to outline how they have taken a very different approach than some of the more traditional vendors in the market have done in the past.

“Our focus has been to develop a mobile application that is very intuitive and easy to use - everything we do is about intuitiveness and being thumb friendly. Successful solutions are always easily adopted because they’re so easy to use.”

“Our approach has been to really focus on empowering the people in the field, the field service technicians that are working directly with their customers and can therefore have the biggest impact on a brand when service is being delivered. By making sure that they have an application that is simple to use but also offers access to rich data that is embedded within the service call (so they don’t have to be reliant on syncing up, it’s all there for them, they can just go ahead and use it) the aim is that it all leads to them being able to deliver better service.”

 

“So we’ve really been focussing in from that perspective. We’ve been taking into consideration how millennials think when they are in the field and how do the older members of the workforce think whilst they are in the field too.

It’s a different approach from the traditional world of big optimisations that are focussed on macro management of a workforce and then driving that work out. In fact, it’s a very different approach.”

Indeed, this shift in thinking is perhaps mirrored in a number of different corners of the industry.

Whereas before the focus has been, both from a technology and a management point of view, about ensuring field service teams are working as efficiently as possible - i.e. on task such as processing the workload and optimising the work schedule, now with customer service rising to the forefront of most conversations about company wide KPIs, the focus is very much on empowering the field service engineer with the tools at his disposal to be able to delight customers on each and every visit.

“The workforce has changed,” comments Mason “even the way that people work and the relationships that there is between the field and those in the office, there is now an inherent trust. If someone has a smartphone then they are visible wherever they are.”

“So companies no longer need all the old tools that were there to micro manage, now it’s about empowerment and working in a trusted sense within the organisation. It is now effectively one department, rather than being field and back office - today everybody is mobile.”

“The whole culture has changed and you need a different approach. That is where we’ve been coming from, we’ve seen this change and been building forward towards it. Now we are becoming more visible in the market because more and more organisations are looking to take that approach and work with organisations who will empower their field force. Also through an open architecture we are also able to extend their previous investments in legacy systems whether those be on-premise or in the Cloud,” Mason continues.

 

“It is a changing market. It is rapidly changing mainly because customer service remains the critical differentiator for many organisations.” He concludes.

Indeed the landscape is ever changing (see Bill Pollock’s feature on page 22) and FieldAware find themselves in the interesting place of being able to compete with other FSM software vendors such as ClickSoftware or ServiceMax but also at the same time offering a solution that can also fully compliment such competitor systems due to their focus on integration.

But perhaps the greatest shift field service companies are having to deal with currently isn’t the ever evolving vendor landscape but more the shift within their own workforces - as Baby Boomers move on and Millennials take their place. But what role can technology play in alleviating the pain points of what is such a distinct changing of the guard?

“I would say that how a solution sits with Millennials in terms of functionality and usability should be one of the top priorities for field service directors because if you look at the Gartner view in terms of digitising the enterprise, they see adoption as the biggest barrier to success,” Mason comments.

“Applications like ours enable companies to effectively digitise the last mile - i.e. get all the work instructions, all the processes out to the workforce. They can use it online or offline depending on their connectivity, but is has to be intuitive.’

“It has to be intuitive for the traditional workers because they need to adopt it quickly, and it has to be an engaging tool for Millennials who want to work differently with modern, refreshing looking apps.”

“Adoption rates are critical for any digitisation strategies - so usability, whether it be for Millennials or Baby Boomers should be very high in the selection process.”

Of course one trusted route to speeding up adoption which we have discussed a number of times in various Field Service News articles is getting the involvement of some of the field service technicians in the selection process of any given new tool they will be using.

This is a trend that Mason admits he has seen growing in recent years with more and more field service organisations involving a selection of service technicians to give their insight into any potential new solution.

“We’re seeing a growing trend where the selection process will include some members of the field team,” Mason agrees. “What this does do is enable both us and the customer to accelerate the time to value because it allows the customer to see how the tool will work within their wider system, but also allows us to better understand the challenges we’ll have to work through in the project.” He concludes.

It is a sensible route and one that is quite indicative of the customer-centric approach that Mason and the team at FieldAware are taking. The question now remains can they build their own acceleration when it comes to gaining a significant role within the FSM landscape? The product is certainly up to par, and with the recent senior talent acquisitions, such as Mason, the team is shaping up very nicely too now.

So could 2017 potentially be FieldAware’s year? They are certainly getting them selves in the right place at the right time...

 

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Resource Type: Research report
Published by:  Field Service News and ServiceMax
Title: IoT, Servitization and Field Service (2016)

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Synopsis: 

In 2015 Field Service News and ServiceMax teamed up on a research report to look at the appetite for IoT as a mechanism for field service delivery, now one year on we return to the topic to see if the clear desire for IoT has translated into real-world application and ask just how key is IoT to the growing trend of servitization....

With responses from over 120 field service professionals, this exclusive independent research project undertaken byField Service News, in partnership with ServiceMax aimed to cut through the hyperbole and establish if IoT is truly set to become a standard tool within field service delivery.

In addition to this we focussed our research on the apparent symbiotic rise of IoT and Servitization to try to understand further just how closely these two important trends within the field service sector are linked and how emerging technology and strategy are intertwined...

Download this report to find out:

• Is the clear appetite for IoT in last year's research is translating into real-world implementations?
• What are the key reasons field service companies are adopting IoT?
• How important is IoT in the move to a servitized business?
• What are the key perceived barriers to adoption for IoT and can they be overcome?
• What is the recommended approach to IoT from those who have already adopted the technology?What cultural impact will IoT have amongst field service companies?

Overview: 

In 2015 Field Service News and leading FSM software provider ServiceMax teamed up on a research project to assess the appetite for IoT as a tool for improving field service delivery.

Now one year on we return to the topic to see if the clear desire for IoT based field service delivery has turned to reality and if so what impact is it having on the growing trend towards servitization as a business model...

When we looked at the potential of IoT in field service last year we were confronted by what can only be called a genuine phenomenon beginning to emerge. One that could potentially change the way companies approach field service delivery entirely.

Indeed, whilst field service technology has been evolving at great pace across the last decade, much of the developments that have arrived - such as enhancements in artificial intelligence driving ever more sophisticated scheduling engines or mobility tools enhancing field service technicians workflows and eliminating unnecessary paper based administration, have been focussed on improving efficiencies and boosting productivity.

 

IoT on the other hand has the potential to completely revolutionise the processes and methodologies of field service delivery, and in doing so shift the service model into a new paradigm where contracts involving tightly adhered to SLAs are replaced by guarantees of uptime.

In this brave new world of servitization, service is no longer the supporting player there just to add value to a product. Instead, the product is now the facilitator for companies to deliver advanced services.

And this is largely made possible by the IoT giving us the ability to monitor assets in the field and react to fluctuations outside of accepted working parameters, delivering proactive maintenance to ensure that the asset continues to deliver its set outcome.

The benefits of such an approach are a more consistent and reliable solution for the customer and a more profitable business which is closer engrained to customers for the service provider - a win-win if ever there was one.

But whilst the theory may sound great, how is this translating into reality?

This is what this year’s survey set out to understand. Building upon last year’s research project which was predominantly focussed solely on IoT this time we have widened our focus somewhat to understand not just if companies are now actively adopting IoT, but what is their motivation for doing so and just how closely is that

Further reading within the research report: 

• Overview of previous studies
• Year on year trends that have emerged
• Other technologies being employed by field service companies
• The cultural impact of IoT
• Servitization as a key driver for IoT adoption
• Best practice for IoT implementation
• Expert insight from Athani Krishna and Davw Hart, ServiceMax

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As the role of the Chief Service Officer begins to gain more prominence the focus for driving service excellence at the executive level must be data driven writes Manuel Grenacher, CEO of coresystems...

Delivering service that meets the satisfaction of ever-demanding customers is helping usher in a new C-Level role at service and manufacturing companies.

Meet the Chief Service Officer (CSO).

It’s a role that isn’t widespread yet, but one that has begun to make inroads into leading service companies as more organizations eye revenue opportunities beyond equipment sales.

As product margins slip, CSOs are tasked with orchestrating and executing the type of service that retains and creates loyal customers. Selling a piece of equipment -- even one with a multimillion- dollar price tag -- is a one-time win. Service, however, can create revenue streams that deliver profits each year until the equipment is replaced.

It’s a model that more companies are adopting.

According to McKinsey, by 2016, nearly half of manufacturing companies expect that service will account for a third of their total revenue. But as companies move from being a commodity supplier to offering an on-going service relationship, a clear strategy is necessary.

Target Areas for CSOs 

Successful service relationships require a number of teams working together within an organization.

Aberdeen Research has found that 8 out of ten Best-in-Class organizations (leading field service companies) have a VP-level or higher executive leading service.

CSOs must prioritize getting accurate insights to the right service people at the right time, so that they can solve problems for customers.

Aberdeen found that Best-in-Class organizations have four main target areas (in order of priority):

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Improve customer retention and loyalty
• Improve service-related profitability
• Improve quality / relevance of service data
• Improve service information capabilities (i.e. mobility, knowledge sharing)

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But what can companies do to help CSOs reach these goals? Data and its analysis are key. Specifically, here are the three data-driven actions that Best-in-Class companies do to empower their CSOs:

Real-Time Insight Drives Real-Time Performance

CSOs must come to grips with managing and orchestrating the efficient operations of a number of different departments and technicians. Best-in-Class companies empower their CSOs with the right data to help drive real-time performance, the ultimate goal of any service organization.

What data, in particular, do CSOs need to move toward real-time service delivery?

Collecting data isn’t the problem it once was. In fact, some CSOs are experiencing the opposite; they are drowning in a deluge of data. The tool used to solve this is a business intelligence and analysis tool that enables consistent benchmarking of service performance.

 

Other tools are needed that let integrated data flow seamlessly from the field to the back office.

CSOs need real-time monitoring of asset operating conditions, performance, and usage. Finally, the tools CSOs use should enable real-time service visibility for senior management.

Give Your Field Team Tools That Deliver Valuable Service Experiences

The ultimate goal of service is to deliver value to the end customer. Service technicians need to ensure that a work order is completed, preferably during their first visit to the customer. But field visits represent an important opportunity for capturing data from equipment performance to visit details.

Our customer GE Power in Switzerland is using our Field Service Mobile APP to record granular data like temperature, upload or comment on pictures. This customer data can help inform the next visit or additional service needs.

Use Data to Continuously Improve Service

Customer expectations will only continue to grow. Since they are under pressure to perform too, customers are demanding real-time solutions to their service issues.

Customers won’t only compare your organization to competing firms, but also to their own customer experiences elsewhere. CSOs must study best practices across the entire service ecosystem and ensure that they are implementing these offerings.

Data and the analytics gathered on machines, equipment, and customers will help create the baseline. From there, CSOs should be able to evaluate and continue to improve service operations.

Some industries have been transformed already by incorporating data analytics into their standard processes.

To give an example, telecom companies can forecast traffic patterns, peak period bottlenecks, commercial versus domestic split, and thus perform real-time optimization of their voice and data networks. They can route around congestion to improve performance and the whole customer experience.

They take constant readings from their network data switches and build a big database of all their devices and customers to get a holistic view of the complete environment.

 

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