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...
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Oct 12, 2016 • Features • Research • IoT • Servitization
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.
Click here to download the full, exclusive research report now...
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.
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 linked to the shift to servitization or outcome based business models?
What we already know:
To begin with let’s just have a quick recap on the findings of last year’s research project.
The most obvious place to start when reviewing whether business is ready for an IoT revolution is of course to ascertain whether companies feel they have an asset base that is suited to sensor based monitoring. Here we found that just under half of companies (42%) felt that they already had an asset base that was suitable.
Given the relative infancy of IoT in field service at this point, with the general understanding of what is and isn’t possible amongst service professionals understandably relatively low, this was indeed an impressive starting point to build upon.
However, it was in the next round of questioning that we really began to see the huge appetite for IoT to appear.
Belief in IoT was further evidenced when over half (55%) of our respondents stated they thought “IoT will become a fundamental part of field service operations in the future”
IoT was the clear winner here - with more than twice as many people stating they felt IoT would be the big technology in the short to mid term for field service, than those who cited the second most popular technology, Big Data.
This belief in IoT was further evidenced when over half (55%) of our respondents stated they thought “IoT will become a fundamental part of field service operations in the future” whilst a further 21% went further stating that “IoT is critical to any field service organisation’s strategy".
Further findings in last year’s research, which also pointed to a rapid rise to prominence of the role of IoT in Field Service, included the fact that almost three quarters of respondents (74%) felt that IoT based field service strategies were applicable to companies of all sizes and that well over two thirds of respondents (71%) felt that IoT would be common place amongst field service companies within the next three years.
Such a wealth of positive data seemed absolutely conclusive - IoT was going to be playing a big role in field service. Indeed, in our research report of last year’s findings we concluded:
“The Internet of Things is set for widespread adoption amongst field service companies and we can expect to see that adoption occur at a fairly rapid rate”
Look out for part two of this weekly series where we will find out if our previous hypotheses have been bourne out...
Click here to download the full, exclusive research report now...
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Oct 12, 2016 • Features • Leadent • Software and Apps • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
We all know that customers are vital to any business, but they are increasingly so for a field service one writes Rachel Pullen of Leadent Service Cloud...
We all know that customers are vital to any business, but they are increasingly so for a field service one writes Rachel Pullen of Leadent Service Cloud...
Customer satisfaction plays a key role in determining the success of your organisation, and connecting with your customers throughout their journey has never been more important, particularly now, when a positive customer experience is not just anticipated, but expected.
Luckily for us, technology is on our side and it’s made closing the loop of customer feedback that little bit easier. Field service management software allows us to talk to customers when they want and how they want, letting them choose the time, location and channel that is most convenient to them. It allows us to not only track feedback but action it.
Creating a ‘closed-loop’ feedback system gives businesses the ability to continue the conversation, whereas more traditional methods would end the conversation, or not start one at all.
By investing in a closed-loop style model, you not only differentiate yourself from your competitors, but maintain your customer’s loyalty, whilst in turn attracting new customers.
Follow our 5 key steps below to see how you can close the loop and improve your customers experience:
Get to know your customers
In order to follow-up in a personal way, you need to know who the customer really is, as well as when and how to contact them. Having that information allows you to provide customers with the additional follow-up they want.
Be sociable
Don’t be afraid to use non-traditional methods such as social media. What once was a sales and marketing platform, is now a meeting place and can become a key part of your customer experience.
Automate for the win
In order to be truly effective, any customer satisfaction system should be automated to ensure you can make a swift follow-up. Instead of getting information and taking action days or even weeks later, an automated system collects customer’s feedback and alerts you in real-time when action is needed. This is the key to an optimised closed-loop system and can prove to be a critical feature when dealing with unhappy customers.
Transform your mindset
Closing the loop aims to give long-term improvements. By having a customer-centric mindset, closing the loop will ultimately solve the internal issues that are causing the customer problems in the first place. Don’t forget, this is not about simply tracking feedback, it’s about transforming your overall customer experience and building customer loyalty.
Take some action
Whilst traditional satisfaction surveys aim to collect measurements for things that you and your company care about; such as employee performance, or service speed, a closed-loop system will generally use open-ended questions that focus on the things that your customer cares about, and more importantly things that you can action.
By using the latest field service management tools, gathering customer feedback is easier than ever before. They help to create the loop, meaning you are able to learn from each interaction that you have with your customers. You can then use what you have learnt to improve your service, as well as what you offer, to keep you ahead of competitors.
The key message? If you start and end with the customer and keep them informed at every step of the way, then you’re onto a winner.
The future is clear – businesses who don’t embrace customer experience and close the loop will undoubtedly be left behind.
If you would like to find out more about how you can improve your customer experience using award winning field service software then visit www.leadentservicecloud.com
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Oct 10, 2016 • Features • Management • management • Demand Generation
The profit contribution of services compared to product profits has been the subject of many workshops over the past decade. Still, achieving a true shift in sales focus is a “Groundhog day” experience writes Coen Jeukens, Service Contract Manager, ...
The profit contribution of services compared to product profits has been the subject of many workshops over the past decade. Still, achieving a true shift in sales focus is a “Groundhog day” experience writes Coen Jeukens, Service Contract Manager, Bosch Security Systems...
At the Copperberg April 2016 UK Field Service Summit service industry experts had their own groundhog day experience when discussing the “Demand generation” topic: what can the service manager do to go beyond the daily break-fix mode towards cross and upselling.
In five consecutive rounds the same discussion was reiterated varying the contributing industry experts. The individual rounds revolved around common convictions like:
Should we dilute customer trust created by service engineers with potential alienation when stepping into a commercial role;
- Service is about helping customers, not selling to customers;
- Service and sales have different counter parts and decision making units;
- What is a meaningful incentive for service people to spot sales revenue and vice versa;
- Service and sales people have different DNA.
When looking at the discussions at an aggregate level, demand generation is possible when taking the following recommendations to heart:
Use service engineer more as a brand ambassador than sales-lite;
- Empower service engineer to become a hero on site;
- Incentivise customer feedback instead of monetizing prospects/ leads;
- Feed customer feedback into marketing function;
- Creation of a “product” development function for services;
- As service manager, do not boast yourself as being a profit centre, but emphasise your contributing role in co-creation with sales.
The service engineer as brand ambassador
Comparing the amount of customer touch points and level of client trust, service engineers do have an edge over sales representatives.
Though it sounds tempting to dual use service engineers as sales-lite, don’t do it.
Engineers gain their stature through technical competence and stamina to prolong the operational performance of a piece of equipment. As such the engineer is the perfect ambassador for brand loyalty.
In analogy with politics, the ambassador is an important player in a multi-faceted sales game: the ambassador provides intelligence, sales translates intel into leads and deals, while fencing the ambassador’s neutrality.
When contemplating to add a sales role to service engineers, do balance the risk and reward. Bear in mind that from a decision-making unit (DMU) perspective the service engineers’ counterpart is the end user and not the asset owner/ buyer. At best the end user will decide on OPEX matters.
When it comes to CAPEX the end users’ role diminishes to that of influencer.
Hero on site
Other reasons not to mingle sales and service objectives are the differences in DNA and aspirations. A sales representative strives to become trusted business advisor in order to generate long-term revenues.
A service engineer by default has a long-term relationship, a high level of trust and an advisory role. The service engineer wants to be the hero on site, he wants to be able to help.
- As a hero on site and brand ambassador, the service engineer can use his stature to open doors and generate leads on two levels:
- OPEX leads: consumables and wear & tear components
- CAPEX leads: generate demand for new offerings
Empowerment is the key on both levels:
- OPEX leads: It is easy for a service engineer to convince an end- user to buy small maintenance related components. It makes him a hero if he can supply and install them right away. Any “delay” in conversion of lead into sales not only deteriorates the sales momentum, it also affects the hero status of the engineer.
- CAPEX leads: In his default mode, the service engineer will try to fix the existing equipment compared to suggesting a replacement or new buy. When hinting towards the latter, the service engineer puts his hero status at risk because the conversion of the lead into a sale falls outside his control. Nothing is more deadly for a hero than raising an expectation he can’t deliver.
Incentivise customer feedback
Frequent customer touch points and a high level of trust put your service engineer in a unique position to be the eyes and ears of your organisation. Capitalising on that position requires a multi-tired approach.
In analogy with the concepts of “big data”, capturing the sensory output of the service engineer is step one. The interpretation of that data into a lead is step two. The conversion into a sale is step three.
When the collection of data is driven by an intended use for sales, you may not only miss out on many subtleties of customer feedback, but also bias the observation with short-term gains.
Apart from asking your service engineer to collect specific data that is not in his DNA, you may also risk the neutrality of your ambassador/ hero.Ideally you may incentivise your service engineers to collect customer intelligence and feedback regardless of its conversion into sales.
Feed marketing
Information collected by service engineers is a valuable addition to the data input of your marketing function. Once in your marketing process it augments existing data and will result in better quality leads.
Better leads are more prone to be picked up by sales. Follow up by sales will make the service engineer feel taken seriously.
Knowing service engineers have access to high quality and individual customer intelligence, using that information may also inspire you to rethink the workings of marketing.
Markets are less homogeneous than a decade ago. New technologies and the growing importance of customer experience will even further individualise customer behaviour.
Services development function
Acknowledging declining profit margins and fierce competition on products, transitioning to a more customer/ services centric earnings model is the logical way to go. The customer intelligence and feedback from your ambassadors and heroes will become vital in understanding his needs.
Where your products development department can tell you everything about your products and their roadmap, any service engineer can tell you how your customers use those products and how customers experience their use.
The combination of product and its use open up new sales opportunities. As use is the dominant factor, the appearance of the offering is customer specific.
Setting up and embedding a services development function in your organisation will enable you to add service revenue streams in an efficient manner.
Your service engineers will be the prime suppliers of input to your service development function. Similarly to proving input to your marketing function, the engineer and customer will feel appreciated when they receive feedback that their information is taken seriously.
Service as contributing centre
In achieving demand generation, adding sales roles and goals to the service department may sound as a logical thing to do.
The profit contribution promise may even tempt you further.
Success lies in positioning your service department as a contributing centre. Let sales be in the lead. Use the traction of the sales department to get organisational and CEO buy in.
Success lies in positioning your service department as a contributing centre. Let sales be in the lead. Use the traction of the sales department to get organisational and CEO buy in.
Make sales the internal hero by feeding them with high quality service engineer data.
Empower your service engineer and make him the external hero.
As finishing touch, invest in a service marketing and services development function. Sales and service seek the commonality and acknowledge each other’s strength.
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Oct 07, 2016 • Features • Management • Leadent • management • CEO
Alistair Clifford Jones, CEO Leadent Solutions looks at why failing your own field service operations is also failing your customers...
Alistair Clifford Jones, CEO Leadent Solutions looks at why failing your own field service operations is also failing your customers...
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, customers are becoming more demanding and products less differentiated. The boundary between efficient customer service and the best products is blurred. If you talk to people about what car to buy the topic is often more focused on aftercare service than the actual car.
In the case of domestic appliances this is certainly the case; although many manufacturers have outsourced their service business, it is still perceived as the service arm of the manufacturers. I know my wife will never purchase a well-known brand again as the service company was in her view ‘a nightmare’ (her post on Facebook attracted many similar ‘likes’ effectively trashing the product), when the problem was a different organisation.
Service management is now the shopfront for products, not an afterthought, but it never seems to have the investment it deserves, certainly not compared to areas of the business like product development or marketing.
Service management is now the shopfront for products, not an afterthought, but it never seems to have the investment it deserves, certainly not compared to areas of the business like product development or marketing.
Why is this? I guess it’s not seen as dynamic or sexy, and operations rarely have a position on the board. Unfortunately, many organisations still view operations as a cost and a target for reduction, rather than investment.
This is where CEOs and CFOs have failed. Not only to understand how influential service management is on their overall business, but also how investment in technology, supporting efficient processes, will really drive down costs and more importantly enhance the customer experience.
There have been many business cases, requiring substantial capital expenditure, which have been rejected, often as the argument has been based purely on operational costs and not the impact of poor service on future sales.
I hate the phrase ‘no brainer’ but in today’s world, we are missing a trick in excluding the company’s reputational damage through poor service from a business case. Also in failing to recognise how cheaply cloud-based products can be implemented as the cost becomes a monthly charge rather than a huge operational expenditure. If our industry leaders truly understood this, implementing a solution would surely become a ‘no brainer’ and the costs of running a service business balanced with the repeat sales.
Our team has spent the last 10 years determining what makes the very best field service organisations succeed. We know how to get organisations like yours working smarter, delivering better customer experience whilst reducing costs, that’s why today we have launched Leadent Service Cloud to help CEO’s stop failing their customers.
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Oct 06, 2016 • Features • Coresystems • resources • White Papers & eBooks • ebooks • software and apps
Resource Type: eBook Published by: coresystems Title: An Introduction To Field Service Management
Resource Type: eBook
Published by: coresystems
Title: An Introduction To Field Service Management
Click here to download eBook now
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here
Synopsis:
To download this eBook click the links at the top or bottom of this featureOver the course of the past several years, field service management (FSM) software has evolved to keep pace with the changing technologies that have emerged in recent years, such as the cloud and mobility.
In the modern environment, it’s now necessary for field service software to integrate CRM and ERP functionality in order to ensure that all aspects of service can be managed more effectively.
This eBook takes a detailed look at the core fundamental areas of field service management and how you can improve your own processes to ensure your field service delivery is best in class.
Overview:
This eBook looks at the following topics across six chapters
Technology and Field Service
We look at the role cloud and mobility have played in transforming field service and also assess what new security concerns these two technologies may bring. We also look at emerging technologies including IoT and 3D printing and explore what role they could have in field service delivery.
High Value Field Service
For high value industries, which suffer substantial losses when downtime occurs, FSM solutions can help to mitigate the risk of downtime, as well as design, plan, implement and report on high value services which are typically complex industrial installations.
It’s thought that on average, businesses lose between $84,000 and $108,000 in revenue for every hour that they suffer network downtime. This section focusses on the cost to the customer of poor field service delivery and what ultimately that cost could be to your business also.
What to look for in a FSM solution
When it comes to choosing the right FSM solution for your organisation, there’s a lot to consider. It’s necessary to properly understand how it will be used within the business and how it aligns with business goals. It’s also important that the solution is future-proof in order to allow for existing technologies to work for the organisation, as well as consider how these might change in the future.
In this section we explore what some of the key considerations are in terms of identifying the right type of business to meet your organisations field service delivery demands.
Managing the Field Service Workforce
One of the most important aspects of your FSM solution will be team management. In order to make full use of integrated FSM, it’s necessary that your solution have the functionality to allow you to effectively collaborate and mobilise the workforce. In this section we look at how best-in-class organisations effectively utilise their FSM solution to better manage their mobile workforce.
Click here to download eBook now
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Oct 05, 2016 • Features • Astea • resources • white papers • White Papers & eBooks • first time fix • software and apps
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: Astea International Ltd Title: Standing alone or part of a bigger picture?
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Astea International Ltd
Title: Standing alone or part of a bigger picture?
Click here to download the white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here
Synopsis:
Click the links at the top or bottom of the article to download this white paperFirst-call resolution or first-time fix rates have become a critical key performance indicator (KPI) for field service organisations interested in gaining a competitive advantage.
While historically automation efforts in field service have focused on improving efficiency and productivity in an effort to reduce costs or complete more work orders each day, they have not necessarily had a direct impact on customer satisfaction.
This white paper looks at the importance of first-time fix rates when it comes to customer satisfaction and explores means in which you can improve your own first time fix rates.
Overview:
Customers don’t necessarily measure field service effectiveness in terms of efficiency. Yes, they want a technician to arrive as quickly as possible, but they also want their problem solved quickly and, preferably, in a single visit.
If a repair can’t be made because of a missing part or lack of expertise on the part of the technician, customers experience costly downtime as well as frustration.
That’s why first-time fix rates should be a top priority for companies interested in improved customer retention.
There is significant room for improvement in many organizations. According to data from The Service Council, the average first-time fix rate for service companies is just 74%, while failure to resolve an issue on the first visit was a top customer complaint according to 34% of respondents.
In an Aberdeen Group survey, first-time fix rate was cited as a critical service metric by 38% of respondents, just below service profitability (41%) and customer satisfaction (68%). (Source: “Evolution of the Field Service Business: Optimizing the Field Service Chain,” Aberdeen Group).
First-call resolution plays a critical role in improving customer service and profitability. However, improving first-call resolution rates is not a simple proposition. There are a number of different factors that play a role, including parts availability and logistics issues, technician training, vehicle management, optimised scheduling, diagnostic tools, and dynamic dispatching capabilities. Without the right systems in place and without proper process design, it can be difficult or even impossible to improve performance.
Tackling any one of these elements individually won’t solve the problem. Service organisations have to take a systemic and holistic approach that will enable them to get the right technician to the customer site, equipped with all of the necessary parts and technical know-how in a timely fashion. This is crucial to ensure successful customer interactions.
This white paper looks at:
- The high cost of return visits
- A fix for first time fix rates
- Integrated Service Management
- Preventative measures
- Continuous improvement
Click here to download the white paper
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Oct 04, 2016 • Features • Management • ClickSoftware • Field Service Forum
Marina Stedman, Director of Global Field Marketing for ClickSoftware offers an overview of one of the key highlights of the recent Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam earlier this summer...
Marina Stedman, Director of Global Field Marketing for ClickSoftware offers an overview of one of the key highlights of the recent Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam earlier this summer...
Introduction:
The “Delivering Global Growth with Local Operations” theme of the 3rd annual Copperberg Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam on 8th and 9th June was topical, based on the sometimes conflicting demands of meeting customers’ rising expectations of service delivery while maintaining long-term operational viability.
The event brought field service professionals, operational managers and industry experts together to network, discuss and benchmark experiences and ideas.
Round Table Discussion - How can automation and mobility optimise scheduling, dispatch and communications with mobile field workers while also enhancing the customer experience?
The ClickSoftware hosted round table session discussing the challenges and best practices for optimised scheduling and mobility provided one such opportunity.
Delegates joining this round table debate included a global FMGC manufacturer, a global engineering components manufacturer, a European agricultural dealership, a supplier of integrated food processing solutions and a regional telecommunications provider.
A number of topics were discussed with a summary of the top points below:
The five top challenges faced by field service suppliers today:
- Managing the field teams – Knowing where technicians are, what skills they have and how to optimise resources
- Best practices - Keeping up with and adopting them
- Customisation and Integration - Finding a system that can be customised to meet specific requirements
- Optimisation - How to optimise the scheduling of resources
- Customer service – How to keep customers up-to-date on the engineer’s arrival time and the status of their job plus managing overall customer satisfaction
How to best manage Field Teams:
- Can they be brand ambassadors and sales people? Field engineers are the face of the supplier to the customer so how do you encourage and train engineers to upsell more services when they are on site? One view was that people skills are more important in organisations that deal with consumers.
- Can location-based tracking be introduced in Europe? There are many regulations on how and what employee data can be tracked and used. How can the new technologies that track engineers’ whereabouts and enable better customer communication be introduced?
- Effective job completion: In industries with “Long Cycle” work that can take a week or more, scheduling the right engineers with the right skills and the right parts is more important than knowing where an engineer is.
Best Practices:
Round table attendees were interested in the Field Service Engagement Journey which shows how mapping an organisations’ “degree of optimisation”, “field service sophistication” and “customer lifetime value” illustrates where that organisation is on its journey to field service maturity.
Attendees were initially very optimistic about where they were on this journey but then realised during the conversation that they were mostly at the first “Getting Visibility” or second “Containing Costs” stages and had a long way to go to reach the ultimate stage of “Disruption, Differentiation and Delight”.
Optimisation - Managing costs and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Many services businesses are expensive to run because they can only meet SLAs by including redundancy or overlap within their field teams.
It was, however felt that costs could be contained/reduced in many ways (e.g.by optimising routes taken and making the best choices for allocation and scheduling of resources against SLAs).
One attendee said that failed visits (where the engineer calls and the customer is not in) were the main cause of high costs in his business, accounting for 62% of visits. Another delegate said that each no-show cost £60 due to wasted time and the cost of repeat visits.
Another attendee pointed out that mobility holds the key to optimised scheduling –the field team can be notified of any changes in real-time e.g. traffic situations, no-shows, cancellations and problem visits.
For many B2B businesses, up-time is their customers’ number one priority. They need their equipment, vehicles, machines etc. to be fixed as soon as possible or they start to incur costs. It is vital that field engineers with the right skills and the right parts get there fast.
Everyone wanted to give customers a more exact time slot of when an engineer would arrive but they could only do this if they could use technology such as predictive analytics based on historical data to analyse how long each type of job typically takes and to plan accordingly.
Everyone agreed that one of their biggest challenges was how to get an asset and an engineer with the right skills on site at the same time to fix a breakdown.
Customer service:
Attendees definitely felt that providing more information and more timely information to the customer made a difference to the relationship with them. Keeping the customer informed meant many fewer no-shows and higher rates of first time service delivery. While products are becoming a commodity in many industries, service is still an area of differentiation.
Key message from the round table discussion - people see field service as a way to differentiate themselves against their competitors but many are only at the beginning of the journey.
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Sep 30, 2016 • Features • Augmented Reality • Magazine (digital editions) • resources • cloud • Digital Magazine • IoT
In his leader for this issue, Kris Oldland looks at whether we are entering a storm of new technologies that could have a truly disruptive influence on Field Service as well as welcoming a number of new columnists to our fold...
In his leader for this issue, Kris Oldland looks at whether we are entering a storm of new technologies that could have a truly disruptive influence on Field Service as well as welcoming a number of new columnists to our fold...
Click here to download a digital version of Field Service News issue 13 now
It’s a phrase I’ve used a few times in this editorial leader, but I think in this issue of Field Service News we are seeing ever greater evidence of a perfect storm of technologies coming together to push forward field service evolution faster and further than ever before...
Download issuer 13 now by clicking one of the links within this feature and registering...The obvious starting point of this storm is the Cloud and it is the Cloud where we turn our attention for this quarter’s research. This is the third year running that we have explored the question of whether field service companies are adopting the Cloud as a platform for FSM solutions so we have the opportunity to really define some emerging trends.
Indeed there were some interesting statistics turned up in the research this time around with the key headline findings being that adoption of the Cloud is definitely picking up speed, whilst one of the big barriers to Cloud adoption, namely concerns around security, seems to be gradually abating.
You can read the full report based on the findings starting from page 29.
Another technology that I believe will certainly push the frontiers of how we approach field service operations is Augmented Reality, an assertion that leading industry analyst and regular Field Service News contributor Bill Pollock agrees with in his latest expert view column on page 22.
Of course it is almost impossible to talk about Augmented Reality without at least touching briefly on the topic of Pokemon Go! The mobile phone craze that has turned people of all ages, in all corners of the world, into hunters of small digital creatures that seem to live in Augmented Reality.
However, I am pleased to report that this was just a minor side note in our exclusive interview with Scott Montgomerie, CEO of Scope AR, a specialist Augmented Reality provider that have their eyes firmly set on field service as an industry ready to embrace AR. You can find this interview on page 36.
Then we have the Internet of Things - perhaps the poster boy of technology that is driving change in modern field service.
One company working heavily in this area, with a plethora of high street brands, is Verisae and in our exclusive interview with Jerry Dolinsky their CEO, he explains not only how IoT can improve field service operations, or why it is apparently on the wish list of OEMs and third party service providers alike, but also why it is important to have certain baseline technologies in place before you can approach an IoT implementation. This interview is on page 18.
All of this technology gives us the opportunity to push the way we approach service thinking,
It is testament to the ever-growing stature of Field Service News within the global field service community, that we are able to welcome four new contributors, form four different countries, bringing four different perspectives to join our collection of highly talented and highly informative guest columnists.
And the growth of our stature is truly as much to do with the fantastic support we have received from our readers and sponsors from day one as it is to do with the great team I’m fortunate enough to head up here, so thanks to you all!
It is our role to be a central touch point for the field service community and right now that is an incredibly exciting place to be!
Click here to download a digital version of Field Service News issue 13 now
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Sep 29, 2016 • Features • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Scope AR
Augmented Reality has the potential to transform the way we approach field service but is the technology ready to go mainstream? Kris Oldland talks exclusively to Scott Montgomerie, CEO of Scope AR...
Augmented Reality has the potential to transform the way we approach field service but is the technology ready to go mainstream? Kris Oldland talks exclusively to Scott Montgomerie, CEO of Scope AR...
Any regular readers of Field Service News will know that we’ve been fans of the potential use of Augmented Reality (AR) for some time here at Field Service News towers.
However, in the past it has sometimes felt that we were something of a lone voice in championing the potential of AR to possibly change the way that a number of companies operate their field service operations, with AR seemingly get far less attention than other emerging technologies like Cloud Computing, Internet of Things or even Wearables.
Yet there is a definite sense that things are beginning to change.
In the past it has sometimes felt that we were something of a lone voice in championing the potential of AR to possibly change the way that a number of companies operate their field service operations, with AR seemingly get far less attention than other emerging technologies like Cloud Computing, Internet of Things or even Wearables.
Indeed, the busiest booth in the exhibitor zone at the conference was that of Swedish AR provider XM Reality who had a constant group of Service Directors around them as they demonstrated their approach to the tech.
Similarly at both Field Service Medical and Field Service USA earlier this year Help Lightning, whose own AR solution evolved from an emergency healthcare solution, were the darlings of both events.
And another AR provider that has seen the potential of AR in field service is Scope AR, a Californian based company that have been putting together an impressive list of clients and partners across the last five years which includes the likes of Phillips, Toyota and Boeing.
They’ve certainly built up a decent pedigree within the fledgling sector - much of which can be attributed to the bold view they hold that AR not just about enhancing existing communications channels but in fact a completely new form of user interface that can transform the way we utilise the ever growing computing power available to us on the move.
As CEO Scott Montgomerie explains “We’ve been doing augmented reality for quite a while, we started in the space about five years ago and when we started looking at use cases we realised that AR wasn’t just a new fun technology but a user interface that could allow people to interact with the real world in a way that had never been done before.”
When we started looking at use cases we realised that AR wasn’t just a new fun technology but a user interface that could allow people to interact with the real world in a way that had never been done before
Scott and his team were able to take this thinking and hone in very quickly on the areas of industry that could benefit from AR, including of course field service.
“We realised there is a whole segment of industry that hasn’t really had the ability to take advantage of the amazing power of the computers they use,” he continues.
“And that’s really where we see Augmented Reality providing huge benefits - by bringing massive computing power in a brand new user interface and allowing guys that use their eyes and their hands out in the field to take advantage of this new technology..”
In fact, the Scope AR story essentially begins with a piece of work they did for a client working within the mining and aggregates sector.
Having been approached to put together a step-by-step training solution that harnessed the power of AR, the project evolved quickly to a proof of concept that their client liked so much they decided to showcase it at MineExpo in Las Vegas.
What was supposed to be relatively low key three demonstrations a day across three days snowballed into being one of the event’s main highlights, with Montgomerie and his colleagues eventually giving 110 presentations with crowds of up to a 100 people at each.
What was supposed to be relatively low key three demonstrations a day across three days snowballed into being one of the event’s main highlights, with Montgomerie and his colleagues eventually giving 110 presentations with crowds of up to a 100 people at each.
“From there on we were like wow - I think we’ve found something!” He admits
Soon Scope AR were working with the likes of Boeing and Toyota building out more step-by -step training and maintenance procedures. A period which Montgomerie explains as “just being a service company trying to work out how best to use Augmented Reality.”
The work that was undertaken at this point was what ultimately led to the development of the WorkLink platform that Scope AR have recently launched.
And whilst the primary purpose for WorkLink is as a training tool, having watched the demonstration I immediately could also see an application for health and safety compliance also.
Many field service management solutions currently offer a check-list functionality in order to ensure workers are not only meeting compliance standards but working in a safe manner. Things like switch off the mains, then remove the cover plate, then remove screw ‘a’ for example - with each step only being revealed once the current one is completed.
Augmented Reality - how big an impact can it have in Field Service?Through the WorkLink platform, each of these steps can be both visually demonstrated and also confirmed as completed via built-in analytics that capture checklist verifications and metadata such as how long it took to perform each step.
In short the content creation platform allows the rapid development of AR work instructions, allowing you to use converted 3D models, add animations, text, images, videos, check-lists, etc. in a branched workflow, to give intuitive, visual instructions.
Another useful benefit is that once ‘smart’ instructions are deployed into the field, the digital instructions automatically start collecting valuable data such as time per step, user and usage information, geo location, etc which can lead to greater insight to how your engineers are performing.
Part of the problem, which is faced by many AR providers not just Scope AR, is that computer vision right now is still fairly rudimentary and in the field you ideally want a system to recognise parts automatically.
Part of the problem, which is faced by many AR providers not just Scope AR, is that computer vision right now is still fairly rudimentary and in the field you ideally want a system to recognise parts automatically.
Scope AR like many similar tools relies primarily on fiducial markers and in the field these can get ripped or damage fairly easily.
So whilst Scope AR do offer their customers durable ‘beer coaster’ sized markers to help over come this issue, their alternative offering ‘Remote AR’ is a simpler use of AR technology that whilst still making use of markers, is more focussed on the use of annotations and drawings that can be added by the both users and which once added will stay fixed to relevant device section regardless of whether or not the video angle changes.
The solution also has a low band-width option which reduces the video feed to every 5 frames which again is a simple but highly effective and practical way of dealing with one of the other biggest challenges of AR - connectivity.
And as with WorkLink, Remote AR was also a solution that was born out of a real life working scenario.
“We were working with a client in Brazil who were facing a major problem where they were manufacturing equipment in Brazil and distributing it in Africa and they were having a lot of communications problems - the local Africans didn’t understand Portuguese and the Brazilians didn’t understand the African dialect, so they had to send people from Brazil over to Africa to fix the equipment at enormous cost,” explains Montgomerie.
“They told us was ‘what we really want to be able to do is get on a video call with these guys and be able to draw and annotate and show what they are doing an create instructions in real time.’ So that was the idea behind Remote AR - that the technician in the field could transmit by video what he is seeing to an expert and that expert can draw annotations in Augmented Reality and as the technician moves around those annotations can stick to what he is looking at”
“It is really a fairly basic use of Augmented Reality but it’s very useful, it’s very practical and it’s usable now.” He adds.
In fact to add further weight to this assertion Montgomerie is able to cite another of their clients, with a field force of 10,000 engineers who have been able to use Remote AR to reduce the amount of time spent on support calls within a contact centre by over half.
Despite case studies such as these coming to the fore, there still remains in many corners the perception that whilst AR is undoubtedly a technology with huge potential within field service, is still has some way to go in terms of maturity before it becomes pervasive.
Yet, Montgomerie believes that this is now starting to change.
“We were definitely around in the early days when AR was just starting to get accepted as a tool for the enterprise, but I think this year we have started to see an inflection point. We have now reached the point where people are aware of Augmented Reality and they want to use it, they now know it’s viable,” he comments.
Indeed, the technology has developed at a rapid pace across the last half a decade - although as further developments in hardware appear on the horizon there is a lot of potential for further refinement.
“As far as where the technology is, just within the last couple of years we’ve started to see cameras that are good enough to pick up those markers in challenging conditions and 3D cameras and Google’s Tango is really exciting for us . We are really looking forward to that getting into wider circulation”
“We really like the partnership that they did with Lenovo we expect to buy a whole load of those Lenovo phones (the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro which features depth sensing camera technology) for our customers. I actually expect that depth sensing technology to be in our all of our phones in the next few years - there is just too many cool things you can do with it to pass it up.”
“Apple acquired a company a while ago called PrimeSense, and then they acquired a software company last year called Metaio and with the two of those they are in an extremely good position to bring out a depth camera as well.”
“So I think that the hardware manufacturers are really going to solve that problem for us a. With depth tracking cameras a) we will be able to do marker tracking so much better and b) the level of interaction you can have between the two users is much, much better.”
Arguably the introduction of depth sensitive cameras as a commonplace inclusion in smartphones and tablets could just be the final breakthrough that AR needs to cement itself as a regular tool amongst field service organisations.
And Montgomerie thinks this will happen sooner rather than later.
“I think that we will see this in about two years,” he states.
“I believe the Lenovo phone is set to launch in September and there are a couple of other OEMs lining up there announcements as well. Then what we typically see with phone manufacturers is when a very advanced technology comes out within the next year many other manufacturers pick it up and then within the following year it becomes lower cost and quite pervasive. So within the next couple of years I think we will see this technology being on all phones.”
So does Montgomerie see his client base as early adopters?
“Its a little bit of both,” he explains. “We’ve definitely got a lot of companies that are forward thinking - they are actively looking for the latest and greatest technologies and they want to be on the leading edge, but we’ve also got some of our companies, and actually they are some of our best customers, that are not exactly forward thinking.”
“Some of them weren’t even sure what Augmented Reality was, they just contacted us after seeing our videos, and seeing the utility of Remote AR and they saw that they could communicate much better than they were capable of doing currently.”
“In that sense they weren’t looking for the technology but they actually saw that it solved a real problem for them and they were ready to adopt it. I’m not really sure that they even fully understood what Augmented Reality is - they just know this is a product that works.”
This is perhaps the greatest selling point for both Scope AR and Augmented Reality in general. As with any technology that eventually takes root and becomes part of our day-to-day operations it is the actual benefit, and the methodology of improving business processes that companies want to buy - rather than the technology itself.
Of course it is impossible to have any conversation about Augmented Reality today without inevitably touching on Pokemon Go.
For those that have just returned from Mars, Pokemon Go is a mobile gaming phenomenon that uses Augmented Reality to bring one of Nintendo’s best loved franchises into the Twenty First century. In fact it’s hard not to bump into someone that hasn’t at least heard of Pokemon Go such is the phenomenon - and it is putting AR directly into the hands of the man on the street.
But is that a good thing for AR in the enterprise? It certainly does give a clear, if somewhat simplistic understanding of what AR is to the average person.
But is there a danger that the power of AR as a genuine productivity tool within field service and wider enterprise could be dismissed as a gimmick if it is too heavily associated with a mobile game?
Given Montgomerie’s position as a leader within the sector I felt he was the perfect man to address this question.
“I think it’s good for AR in general in that it’s bringing awareness of the technology to people - at the very least I won’t have to explain what augmented reality is anymore!” He quips.
“I think its proving that AR is viable as a technology. Even though it is very simplistic use of it - I was playing with that type of use of AR five years ago - maybe longer. We do much more sophisticated applications of AR in the sense that aligning content precisely on top of equipment is much harder than putting a fuzzy animal at some unspecified location in front of you. But still I think it’s great for the industry and that can only be good for us.”
So whether it be depth sensitive camera’s, Google Tango or the ability to catch a Charmander while out doing your shopping, it seems it is just a matter of time before Augmented Reality seeps into the mainstream consciousness.
And given it’s potential to have a profoundly transformational effect on how we undertake field service operations, the likelihood is it will become a pervasive part of our industry soon enough as well.
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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