Field Service News | Features (13)

Turning the Spotlight on As-A-Service Trend

Jun 16, 2021 • Features • Advanced Services Group • Professor Tim Baines • Servitization • The View from Academia • Servitization and Advanced Services

Professor Tim Baines’ name is synonymous with all things servitization and advanced services. Today, he is talking to Field Service News about Servitization Live, the business event solely dedicated to Servitization and advanced services, taking...

Servitization: where, what, how? Internationally, the appetite for servitization is growing and the idea that services can be key to business growth is gaining ever more traction. Not only that, but a focus on delivering outcomes is increasingly seen as a valuable ambition for those business executives looking to make their company stand out from the crowd. And more and more are recognising that through such services, businesses can grow, become greener, more productive, make better use of digital and improve their resilience to economic disruption.

Yet with this growing enthusiasm come challenges and uncertainty.

Servitization Live is the event where we set the record straight! It is a business event exclusively exploring servitization and advanced services and this year, we will turn the spotlight on how servitization is turning the way we use and consume products and services on its head. Over three days, Servitization Live will showcase how the as-a-service trend affects us all on a daily basis, and how services business models present the solutions to some of the biggest challenges our planet has faced such as climate change, a growing and ageing population and health crises.

With themes that we can all relate to in our everyday lives, Servitization Live challenges you to imagine how the learning from our consumer lives can be taken into your own industries and how you can innovate the services-led business models of the future.

The keynote line up will feature experts in fields such as health, the built environment and food production, who will set the scene regarding the global challenges we face and how technology and services are beginning to address these issues in innovative ways. Speakers from manufacturers and technology businesses, will then showcase their services offerings, how they deliver additional value both to the customer and the manufacturer, and how they help to address some of the challenges facing the planet.

These speakers include Ben Wilson, Marketing and Offer Manager at Schneider Electric who will speak about how Schneider went from conceptualisation to launch and delivery of its Secure Power-as-a-Service offering in little over a year. Schneider’s offering supports the likes of hospitals and care homes to both minimise capital expenditure and energy costs, and focus on their core business of looking after people’s health and wellbeing- their strapline being ‘ Dedicate your time, expertise and capital to your core business – let us take care of the rest!’

Oliver Moffat, Segment Manager for Multi-Occupancy, Heat Networks & Heat-as-a-Service at the domestic boiler manufacturer Baxi Heating, will speak about how the company is exploring the technologies and services business models that will support a whole new way of heating our homes. They are working on ideas to enable a move away from buying gas-powered boilers and towards newer, cleaner technologies and, potentially, payment models for customers based around buying heat rather than a physical product.

Day three of the event will be dedicated to a celebration of regional SMEs and their innovation in services. We will showcase the very best of SMEs who have transformed their business models though servitization. You will hear how these business leaders changed their approach, capitalising on their expertise and getting closer to their customers, all through the adoption of services based strategies and ultimately resulting in increased revenue.

Following on from last year’s World Servitization Convention where over 360 attendees joined online to explore exhibits from the likes of Goodyear, Legrand and Omron and heard keynotes from Tetra Pak, Rolls-Royce and Thales, the event is hosted by the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School who are at the forefront of thought leadership in this field. Servitization Live is delivered as part of our mission to educate and inform those business leaders shaping industrial practice.

Servitization Live will take place 4-6 October 2021 online. Centred on an exhibition of business models from mainstream manufacturers that are leading in way in servitization, the event features a packed programme of industrial keynotes, workshops and panel discussions from leading industry experts. Visit https://www.servitizationlive.com/ for more information and to register.

The three-day event is sponsored by IFS, Xait CPQ, DLL, and Servitly and supported by Field Service News.

Who is the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School?

ASG is a centre of excellence in servitization research and practice at Aston Business School. We provide education, training, research and a community of likeminded practitioners around advanced services and servitization, helping global manufacturers and technology innovators to develop services-led strategies.
The Group is led by Professor Tim Baines, the world's leading scholar on servitization.
Tim is the author of over 200 publications on manufacturing strategy, including Made to Serve, the leading textbook on transforming a technology based business to compete through services.

How the Field Service Sector has changed in the last two decades

Jun 15, 2021 • Features • Leadership and Strategy

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director and Founder of Noventum to discuss the findings of Noventum's Remote Service Delivery Benchmarking study.

During the discussion, Rustema outlines the key data trends that emerged within their study as well as offering his deep-level insight into the meta-trends of field service and how these have shifted dramatically in recent times.

Here, Rustema takes a moment to reflect on how significantly the field service sector has evolved in the 20 plus years he has been working within it.

Find out more about this study and the work Noventum undertake @ www.noventum.eu

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium. If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more.

We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

Why Digitalisation Further Emphasises the Importance of Outside-In Thinking

Jun 14, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation • The View from Academia • Servitization and Advanced Services • EMEA • University of Liverpool • Chris Raddats

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Dr Chris Raddats of the University of Liverpool a seasoned expert with experience from both the industry and academic sides of the aisle...

Just How Big is Big Data for Field Service Operations

Jun 11, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation • The View from Academia • Servitization and Advanced Services • EMEA • University of Liverpool • Chris Raddats

The natural transition from tracking customer satisfaction to customer success

Jun 10, 2021 • Features • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations

Here the two discuss if the move towards customer success management is a direct evolutionary path from customer satisfaction management.

Find out more about this study and the work Noventum undertake @ www.noventum.eu

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium. If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more.

We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

How to Get the Pulse of the Customer Before the NPS Score

Jun 09, 2021 • Features • service excellence • technology • Aquant • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • GLOBAL

In an age of Uberization, customer service expectations are higher than ever in our post- pandemic world. The answer to meeting those expectations lies within the rich data sets we have on each customer. However, the flow of information often reaches us too late for intervention. Is Artificial Intelligence the solution that will help us spot service trends before the customer relationship goes sour? Kris Oldland talks to Aquant’s Sidney Lara to find out more about this critical area of modern service excellence...

At the end of 2020, Field Service News Research undertook a major research study that globally spoke to over 240 field service organisations.

The study’s findings reinforced what many of us already knew; our industry was going through radical change. The pandemic was the catalyst, but we had already begun a journey of transformation long ago. Yet, while the technology and even the delivery mechanisms for service may be rapidly evolving, the fundamentals of service delivery remain constant.

In that study, we saw how 70% of field service organizations stated that service excellence remained a key differentiator in winning and retaining business. However, the definition of what service excellence looks like in a post-pandemic world (a world that has embraced digital transformation with both hands in a bid to better meet customer demands) has undoubtedly changed.

In today’s Uberized world, the expectation of effortlessness in service interactions has reached entirely new peaks. Our customers expect us to have joined the dots before we speak to them. They have become accustomed to the companies they choose to work with, having a detailed and intimate knowledge of their interactions. Yet, for many field service organizations, they are driving while looking in the rear-view mirror. That is to say that today too many of us (because of lack of tools, not lack of will) fail to leverage the deep customer data we have until there is a problem.

The systems in place are often adequate, but is it adequate enough when the bar has been raised so high by bleeding-edge data-driven service providers? Is the information your service department receives often simply too little and too late? When that low NPS score comes back, the damage has been done, and it can take twice as much effort to rebuild a broken customer relationship than to maintain a healthy one.

The key question then for field service organizations operating in these dynamic and fast-developing times is how can they get ahead of customer issues before they happen? The answer is by understanding all of your service data.

It is a task easier said than done, but one that can be achieved by leveraging Artificial Intelligence tools that are designed to surface the critical data that brings such insight and knowledge to the fore.

To find out more about this critical area within our sector, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, caught up with Sidney Lara, Service Principal, Aquant.

Kris: Customer relationships have always been important, why the urgent need now to reevaluate how well you know your customers?

Sidney: We are in the age where data is readily available almost anywhere and anytime. Customers can make smarter decisions when it comes to choosing a manufacturer or service company. So, while they may be a customer today, what are you doing today to ensure you have their loyalty tomorrow?

Additionally, as technology evolves both for manufacturers and service providers, you need to think about clearly defining your differentiating product or services. Take a step back and ask yourself if you were the customer, why would you choose a particular product or service? Do your goals align with your customer goals and how do you ensure you are meeting those expectations? If you can’t measure your customer loyalty, you may find yourself at risk of losing them. What if one day, your largest customer decided to go with another product or service? How would this impact your business?

Kris: Service leaders have quite a few tools to measure KPIs and/or customer stats, what are they missing?

Sidney: I would agree. At the same time be very careful when talking about using tools and KPIs. I have seen and talked to people throughout my career that embrace technology and KPIs for their business or operations. What can be missing is the criticalness of the measure. Meaning, why are you measuring a particular KPI? Is it the flavor of the month or year? Is it because everyone in the industry measures it? Whatever the case may be, tools can shed light on weaknesses within your organization. However, will those measures improve customer value or benefit? If it doesn’t, maybe you need to rethink and prioritize accordingly. We need to be careful not to confuse data points with insights, just because we have the data, doesn’t always mean we know how to use it in a way that best advances our goals.

Kris: It sounds like you are discussing BI tools. Why does standard BI fail service organizations?

Sidney: Thank you for asking, as this is a critical point - we need to differentiate data points and BI tools from meaningful analysis of that data. Organizations can fall into the trap of adopting BI tools and create wonderful insights to see their business strengths and weaknesses to the level they have never seen or experienced before. While the detailed visibility can be great, this can also lead to a trap of creating too many KPI’s or lead to the potential of “analysis paralysis”.

Those that know me well have heard me say “let’s not boil the ocean.” If we try to solve all issues, (with this wonderful BI Data) we will never effectively solve any of them or at least not in a timely manner.

Next you need to ask, does what I’m highlighting with my BI dashboard actually align to the company’s strategic goals? If it does, then it’s much easier for you to gain organizational buy-in. The next question is, how can we use this data to ensure visibility and timely support to solve those issues? Strategic measures need to become front page news within an organization whether results are good or bad.

Total transparency on key initiatives drives accountability and ideally creates a winning environment when everyone can see improvements month over month. Finally, and most critical, is taking timely action on those measures if you don’t meet your goals.

Teams should strive to review results as often as needed to monitor and celebrate successes. But equally important, swift action to apply timely countermeasures on missed targets is the secret sauce. Done in a very cadenced manner, you will drive effective improvements to your organization. Likewise, if countermeasures are not executed in a cadenced manner consistently, I’d be willing to bet lack of improvement will follow.

But back to the question, “Why do standard BI tools fail service?” Ultimately, BI tools provide a vast amount of information, but little direction on what information is most critical to my business goals. Additionally, they don’t answer the question, “How do I take actionable steps to address service issues?

Kris: How can service leaders make informed decisions today (based on data not hunches)?

Sidney: Service leaders must discipline themselves to step away from the inevitable daily service fires to evaluate if their services are providing customers with value.

Ask the following questions:

What are the ways that you are measuring customer value? How often are you taking the customer’s pulse of satisfaction? Are you leveraging technology to gain immediate access to this critical data?

While we often hear that service is the most important department in an organization in terms of driving customer satisfaction, service leaders need to have the data readily available to effectively navigate and analyze their services.

Even by monitoring certain KPI that on the surface appear good can still lead to customer dissatisfaction. Service leaders must have the ability to look deeply into metrics for true root cause understanding. This is where today’s AI can aid in swift decision making. Service leaders must embrace change and leverage technology to gain the best insights as quickly as possible to effectively steer the organization in the right direction. Those that do will be able to maximize customer satisfaction while improving operations that lead to growth.

Kris: What do those different outcomes look like?

Sidney: Great question - It is essential to understand all the relative data to your initiative or goal. By reacting to a metric, simply because it dipped or missed the mark can often lead to all kinds of assumptions and ineffective countermeasures. You’ll only get a true understanding of the root cause if you look at all the data (the big picture) that led to a final outcome. This leads to effective countermeasures and decision making. This is where you should leverage technology to customize the view you need for your specific needs.

Kris: What tools will ultimately help them turn the corner in their customer relationships?

Sidney: Turning the corner with customers can be easily achieved when you are the driver and/or initiator in communicating asset performance and service performance. Don’t wait for the customer to express dissatisfaction.

When you have the ability and tools to illustrate your service performance, you should want to communicate the results of your services. If your services are doing great, then this provides the platform to remind your customer of why you are a choice provider. Can you leverage these opportunities for upselling more services?

If your services are not going well, you should still take the opportunity to tell your customer what actions you are taking to improve the misses. Effective communication and transparency of your services with your customer will help nurture a relationship where customers will see you as a partner in their business and see you as a vested partner making them successful.

Kris: What’s the best way to get started today?

Sidney: I recommend getting started with AI tools or AI vendors that can understand both your business and your data on day one. Look at technology that can quickly analyze your data AND provide actionable recommendations, instead of a tool that simply visualizes data.

There are many BI technologies that have the ability to compress and summarize data so it can be difficult to decide which one is best for you.

At Aquant not only do we have the ability to compress and summarize your data, but we also differentiate ourselves by applying Natural Language Generation (NLG) and Natural Learning Processing (NLP) to enable dynamic real time feedback. We uniquely aggregate your data into a simple yet meaningful format.

As a result, Service leaders can take swift calls to action like never before. Our technology can be implemented in a matter of a few weeks enabling service leaders a jump start on your abilities to drive change.

The Need For More Robust Definitions Around Servitization

Jun 09, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation • The View from Academia • Servitization and Advanced Services • EMEA • University of Liverpool • Chris Raddats

How Best-in-Class companies have adapted to a remote-service workflow

Jun 08, 2021 • Features • Leadership and Strategy

In this excerpt, Rustema reflects on how the best-in-class organisations are leveraging remote service capabilities to drive efficiency improvements in multiple aspects of their operations.

Find out more about this study and the work Noventum undertake @ www.noventum.eu

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium. If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more.

We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

The incredible truth of what is possible that we would never dared to have believed pre-pandemic

Jun 07, 2021 • Features • Augmented Reality • Digital Transformation • Help Lightning • Covid-19

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News welcomes Gary York, CEO and Evans Manolis, Senior Consultant Help Lightning as the group discuss the practical considerations of implementing Augmented Reality in Field Service.

The discussion looks at whether Augmented Reality (AR) is set to become a key part of the field service toolkit, how the shift to remote services will change the role of the field service engineer, the importance of effortless when it comes to new technology, how AR can improve multiple facets of field service operations and how it can be implemented effectively within just a matter of months.

In this excerpt from that conversation, the group discuss how the pandemic drove many field service companies to embrace the technology in a way they never would have thought possible in normal conditions.

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full length interview plus many, many more in the Field Service New Digital Symposium. If you have an FSN Premium account you can access the video on the button below. If you are currently on our FSN Standard subscription tier you can upgrade your subscription by clicking the link below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more.

For further information on this topic read the latest exclusive Field Service News white paper that features additional insights on Augmented Reality

Subscribers across all our subscription tiers can currently access this paper instantly by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can join our free-forever subscription tier FSN Standard by hitting the button to access a dedicated registration page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soon as you are registered.

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Help Lightning who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of our privacy policy available here which is in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘features’ CATEGORY

Turning the Spotlight on As-A-Service Trend

Who is the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School?

Further Reading:

How the Field Service Sector has changed in the last two decades

Want to know more?

We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

Further Reading:

Why Digitalisation Further Emphasises the Importance of Outside-In Thinking

Want to know more?

Further Reading:

Just How Big is Big Data for Field Service Operations

Want to know more?

Further Reading:

The natural transition from tracking customer satisfaction to customer success

Want to know more?

We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

Further Reading:

How to Get the Pulse of the Customer Before the NPS Score

Further Reading:

The Need For More Robust Definitions Around Servitization

Want to know more?

Further Reading:

How Best-in-Class companies have adapted to a remote-service workflow

Want to know more?

We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

Further Reading:

The incredible truth of what is possible that we would never dared to have believed pre-pandemic

Want to know more?

For further information on this topic read the latest exclusive Field Service News white paper that features additional insights on Augmented Reality

Subscribers across all our subscription tiers can currently access this paper instantly by hitting the button below.

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