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Return on Investment and workforce management should go hand in hand but it can take careful application explains Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower...

Return on Investment “ROI” is such a buzz word, especially in field service.

Most organisations, which offer some sort of field based services eventually realise that to achieve their productivity, customer satisfaction and cost metrics, some level of automated workforce management (WFM) technology is required. Even small productivity gains bring guaranteed benefits to any organisation.

Making the Case

The business cases for WFM vary, but generally, the most common goals are improved efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, decreased costs and streamlined processes, such as collaboration, inventory management and billing.

 

 

While WFM technology does require an investment of course, it can generate huge returns, in as little as nine months according to Gartner, throughout the field service process.

 

The most successful WFM deployments begin with a commitment to improving existing processes and a focus on productivity enhancements.

An example of the sorts of key performance indicators that are possible with the implementation of a WFM technology that includes configurable parameter-based optimisation include:

 

• Total capacity increased from 6,427 jobs to 8,579 jobs (33% uplift)
• % jobs completed late decreased from 78% to 33%
• Average jobs/day/tech increased from 4.72 to 7.18 (52% uplift)

 

To achieve these sort of improvement in your organisation through the implementation of a WFM including algorithm-based technology to maximise your productivity, it starts with well laid plans.

Evaluate WFM vendors:  Select a vendor based on supported deployment models, especially in 2016 when SaaS deployments are increasingly important due to speed of implementation, cost savings in terms of IT resources, hardware, licensing and security. Integration capabilities, and features such as schedule optimisation, mobile dispatch/support of on site processes and business intelligence are also important.

And, look to the future. Business models, customer expectations and technologies change.

The best WFM vendors offer technology which supports your current business model, but also provides a roadmap to support growth and evolution in the future.

Build a solid team: Cross functional project teams, which include executive sponsorship and a strong project leader with the relationships and negotiation skills to navigate across the teams are key to driving consensus and success. Don’t forget the tribe.

 

 

Much information about current operations and the ability to enforce the changes necessary from the bottom up depend on the techs, dispatch, call centre, finance and HR teams that general aren’t initially included in the project because they fall outside to the core field service and IT teams.

 

Every functional group will have its own goals (or not) for the project and varying commitment to it.

Document plans and goals: Drive commitment by attributing specific ROI metrics to each functional group and use a formal ROI model to measure the results.

Collect data: Ensure data is collected prior to launch so that recalculation of the metrics after can be calculated the same way to provide a solid, unquestionable analysis.

Calculating the results

Documenting a ROI on a WFM investment is an exercise which requires data from across the enterprise to accurately measure and understand where you started and the productivity gains that were the result.

Again, the most common data used to measure success and ROI on a WFM deployment are improved efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, decreased costs and streamlined processes.

Specifically, measure technician and dispatcher efficiency. Has the WFM solution increased the number of jobs scheduled per day, per technician?

Has the solution decreased the number of dispatchers required to manage field technicians?

Has technician utilisation improved based on the solution’s ability to handle intra-day schedule changes, decreasing non-working time and overtime?

 

Have field techs been able to improve their efficiency, completing more jobs per day or decreasing the time on the job site? Have first time fix rates improved?

 

Have fuel costs decreased due to more efficient routing? Has headcount been optimised such that resources can be reallocated to other tasks or eliminated? Has schedule compliance improved, decreasing missed or late appointments?

Have customer satisfaction scores increased due to shorter appointment windows, improved schedule compliance or proactive maintenance work supported by the WFM tool?

Collect baseline data and use a robust, integrated, in-memory business intelligence tool to measure the baseline and post deployment data against one another.

ServicePower recently helped a client evaluate the ROI on its deployment of ServiceScheduling.

The client documented increased productivity of 29% and a 32% return on its investment in ServicePower’s mobile workforce management software platform, including fewer miles driven,across the entire fleet, resulting in a $1,611,055 savings per year, and improved schedule compliance resulting in $165,600 in late penalty savings per year.

Continued Success

Mobile workforce management software solutions are critical to maximising the productivity and efficiency of employed resources. Measurable, sustainable ROI is absolutely possible. Positive ROI depends on solid planning, cross functional, deeply experienced teams, agreement on the metrics, data collection and robust, integrated BI. To learn what your ROI on a WFM investment could be, run the numbers with our ROI calculator.

 

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Powerful, flexible and scalable cloud computing technology is opening up multiple new opportunities for businesses to improve customer service, develop better ways for customers to -serve themselves and introduce new technologies more quickly and easily.  However, the ready availability of business applications via the cloud has also raised the issue of data security and how to keep information about people and the businesses they work in, secure and private at every level.

In Part One  we looked at how cloud is an enabler for field service organisations and in Part Two how technology is facilitating enhanced centralised control and better people management and communications.

In this third and final instalment of our coverage of the recent debate on “Cloud and Mobility: The next frontier for Field Service Management”  which was organised by ClickSoftware, we’ll consider in more detail the most important ways in which technology can improve overall customer service and how organisations should deal with the issues of security and privacy.

The debate was chaired by Forrester’s senior analyst, Paul Miller, with a panel including: Tim Faulkner, Senior Vice President at ClickSoftware; Dr Carsten Sorensen, Associate Professor in Digital Innovation at the London School of Economics; Katelyn Burrill, Product Marketing Manager at ClickSoftware; and Phil Wainewright, Chair at Euro Cloud UK.

Self-serving customers

One popular trend for improving overall levels of customer service, is to offer new technologies to customers that allow them to “self-serve”, the idea being that customers have a faster and more tailored experience which costs the business less to deliver.  But where is the competitive advantage and business vale of providing customer service in this way, if everything is being done by the customer themselves and the suppliers have no opportunities to engage directly with their customers?

One particularly interesting example to consider here is the case of energy smart meters.  Smart meters monitor energy consumption in real-time and automatically send electronic meter readings to providers. While the devices improve operations for utilities companies, providing real-time usage data that helps them to forecast demand and also help their customers to minimise energy usage and save money, once smart meters are installed, the suppliers never need to visit houses and offices to take meter readings.

“In the smart meter world, the biggest challenge that utilities suppliers worry about is how to roll out the smart meters,” says Tim Faulkner. “But finding new ways to maintain customer loyalty and revenue should also be looked at as a high priority activity because technicians are going to be in the customers’ homes far less frequently. The energy vendors will install the smart meter and not be back for maybe five years. Their opportunity to impress the brand upon the customer and sell more services or products is much less reduced.”

 

“You have to find things people want and talk to them about it when you’re there,” explains the LSE's Dr Carsten Sorensen. “We go to fix or install stuff. If you look at utilities companies, they’re not silly. Once they do arrive, it’s all about upselling.”

However, Phil Wainwright, of Euro Cloud UK, argues that physical presence is only a very small aspect of the opportunities available to business to interact with customers.

“A huge part of a good brand experience and competitive advantage in the modern world is minimising the amount of frustrating interaction the customer has with individuals not equipped to deal with their problems. It’s all about delivering competitive advantage by delivering good quality customer service through any medium.”

Human interaction

So what happens when we reach that stage where, in many or most cases, the customer is in charge of managing the services themselves, through mobile apps, smart meters and similar associated technologies?  In a situation where devices pass information directly back to a central location, there is less interaction. If most of the information that vendors have comes from customers, where does the competitive advantage come from and where do suppliers offer value if everything is done by the users or their devices?

“Why do you need people?” asks Sorensen. “You need them to build the services and interact. We are social animals. We need to find clever ways to interact with each other. Plus, once we have smart things embedded in our walls, in our shower heads and everywhere, we’ll need more help to understand and maintain them!”

 

The other clear opportunity for field services organisations rolling out smart devices and mobile apps is from utilisation of the considerable amounts of highly valuable data being generated. So how might they start do to clever things with this data? One obviously practical and impactful use of data is in getting a better understanding of each individual customer’s behaviour – what they are using, how they use it, when they use it for example.

“The other is being able to predict what kind of approach you’ll need to take to address any issue based on job type and history of that job with that customer,” Faulkner explains. “Building in this kind of predictive analysis for parts is a direction that ClickSoftware is taking now in our R&D team. There’s a mix there. You can automate it and/or provide decision-making capability. And you also need to use human beings who have personal experience and can understand the context and add value. Because an automated decision can sometimes be a wrong one.”

Data privacy

Finally, when dealing with apps or smart devices in homes that are collecting a lot of data, there is the issue of privacy and data security to be addressed. What happens, for example, with the data being collected by companies that can effectively tell where you are and where you’ve been, when you are in or out, what you are doing and what you might like to do?

As Paul Miller, Senior Analyst at Forrester, points out, even while the likelihood of that data being abused is very low, “the customer has a nagging doubt that bad people or Big Brother will do something with the data. How will a field service organisation respond to that?”

Gauging the best response is largely down to having a good understanding of the trade-off customers are willing to make between privacy and convenience. “Companies need to work out their push-pull line,” says Sorensen, “as it becomes increasingly complex and risky to manage all that data.”

The bottom line is that data privacy is a huge focus, for governments, legislators and brands alike. Plus, in addition to looking at privacy from a consumer perspective, it’s also insightful to consider the ways in which field service software providers deal with issues of data privacy from the point of view of their business customers.

“Until the advent of the cloud, vendors always provided systems in a company’s premises and the data is therefore only accessible within that company” says Faulkner. When the project is in live operation, we’ll get insight into how it’s being used. The cloud gives us the opportunity to see and share best practice across many customers, and look at what value there is in providing an additional service or function as well as to advise customers on what they should do to become best in class.”

 

Many of ClickSoftware’s customers are household brand names and they take issues of data security and customer privacy very seriously and work through it diligently as Faulkner explains. “They have specialist teams that work on security topics, and they have big legal teams. It’s about education, about trust that the brand has transparency.”

It really matters to consumers and to businesses what data people have on them and what they use it for.  Companies need to work out their push-pull approach.  No-one wants to be called at four in the morning with an upsell proposition when they are on holiday on the other side of the world!

What's often discussed in the media is that everyone should have a social contract with their suppliers.  It's not just 'we give you X and you pay us Y', it's a back and forth negotiation which should be based on situation and context.  As individuals we can be hypocritical in terms of data privacy, when it works for us and we get a reward, we're all for it but when something goes wrong, we claim that we didn’t agree to the terms.

The field service professionals can be a key part of the evolution.  They are there, speaking to the customer and can provide real feedback on what the customer does and doesn’t need, what went well and what topics of discussion, goods and services the customer liked and engaged with.  Empowering the people on the ground to decide how they interact and feedback will go a long way towards assuaging any concerns about how personal and business data is being used.

Training engineers to use personal interactions as an opportunity to be brand ambassadors, looking for upsell and feedback opportunities is what all field service companies should be aiming for.

Through discussions with both academic and industry experts, this debate looked at how cloud and mobility will impact the field service industry and help businesses achieve their goals both now and in the future. The three-part series covered why cloud is an enabler for field service businesses, how technology is allowing central control and improving employee management and, with this final part of the series, looking at how technology can improve customer service and the issue of privacy.

 

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In his leader for issue 12 of Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland discusses the number of field service solution providers companies flourishing in an industry that is going through seismic change and evolution... 

 

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Click here to download a digital version of Field Service News issue 12 now

 

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As the field service conference season enters full swing there have been plenty of solution providers banging the drum of late...

Indeed, the list of field service solution providers at Field Service USA held in Palm Springs a month ago was a certifiable who’s who of the industry, and alongside what was a truly fantastic three days of education, there were a number of big announcements from some of the industry’s key players.

ClickSoftware announced a new solution that takes advantage of some pretty slick artificial intelligence algorithms, Trimble Field Service Management introduced an entire new end-to-end FSM suite called Pulse whilst ServiceMax announced a very interesting tool called Service Performance Metrics that brings together analytics and best-practices in a highly innovative solution.

Then there were the new kids on the block such as Help Lightning, whose ‘mobile merged reality’ solution we’ve championed in Field Service News previously as a great use of an emerging technology that could have a truly disruptive impact on the industry.

Another honourable mention should also go to Co-Tap whose collaboration tool is perfectly set to help empower knowledge sharing and intra-engineer collaboration, a perfect tool for the emerging millennial workforce.

Not to be out done by their software counterparts, there has been plenty of innovation coming from the hardware side of the industry of late as well.

Getac have announced the launch of the next-gen S400, a fully rugged laptop that has the footprint of a regular business notebook, whilst the Toughbook 20 (which Field Service News first reported as being in development back in March last year) is the world’s first fully rugged detachable and has been picking up some very positive comments since it became available at the beginning of the year.

Another impressive looking piece of kit is Gen2Wave’s RP1600 which I got my hands on this month. The RP1600 sits in the relative embryonic niche between rugged smartphone and handheld computer - a form factor that I can certainly see evolving rapidly. You can find my review of the RP1600 on page 36.

 

And if new technology launches are the drums being banged, then it is also important to note that there have been a number of new band leaders coming to the fore lately too.

Perhaps the highest profile of these is the new CEO at industry stalwarts ClickSoftware. Following the sale of the company to Californian private equity firm Francisco Partners, Tom Heiser has been appointed and in his own words one of his first tasks is to start ‘banging the drum’ a bit more about the innovations his R&D team are developing.

Another new CEO on the block is Chris Proctor of OneServe who has had a meteoric rise through the Exeter based company within the last year. Proctor also sees the need to raise the bar in terms of shouting about the Exeter based companies successes, and is not afraid to call out his competitors (as he did back in Field Service News back in November last year).

In this issue we’ve exclusive interviews with both Proctor (page 18) and Heiser (page 40) as well as another new face to field service Rei Kasai who recently joined ServiceMax from SAP and spoke to us about what exactly Service Performance Metrics means (page 32).

Of course, we can’t talk about new developments from solution providers with out mentioning Microsoft who with their purchase of FieldOne and it’s subsequent recent re-brand to Field Service have arrived firmly back within the field service sector with all the swagger of the Rolling Stones announcing a new world tour.

Like the Rolling Stones, Microsoft having been around seemingly forever, yet they still have it in them to mix it with the very best. By incorporating FieldOne into their wider Dynamics platform, the software giant have put together a very attractive solution and I spoke to Carsten Groth about Microsoft’s plans for Field Service which you can read on page 50.

With so much development and innovation in the sector it is truly an exciting time, and such fierce competition amongst field service solution providers is not only indicative of the growing importance of service within industry, but also can only be a good thing for practitioners when it comes to finding the right solution for them.

Bang on.

 

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Click here to download a digital version of Field Service News issue 12 now

 

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Mark Homer, Vice President, Global Customer Transformation for ServiceMax explains why increased connectivity is an opportunity for service departments everywhere .

While the steel industry comes to terms with Tata Steel’s decision to quit the UK, it’s a stark reminder of the fragility of jobs particularly in traditional industries.

Add steelmaker to coal miner, milkman, and switchboard operator.

Change has always been rooted in technology and shifting global economies, and we are now on the verge of a new revolution.

 

Like most other revolutions before it, the proliferation of connected sensors on everything from televisions to turbines will create further change to jobs, increasing redundancies but also creating new roles and skills.

This internet of things (IoT) is not short on publicity and with good reason.

The numbers are somewhat mind blowing.

Research analyst Gartner has claimed that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use this year, an increase of 30 per cent from 2015.

The consumer market will account for the biggest growth although general and vertical industry use is also increasing.

A recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit on the rise and impact of the smart product economy found that 40 per cent of businesses plan to use smart products to automate customer service operations, while 46 per cent report that smart products are already bringing them information about their customers that was previously not possible or not cost effective to acquire.

From Cisco’s digital ceiling to Future Shape’s smart carpet, everything everywhere is a target for connectivity.

Companies have good reason to want everything connected.

Diagnostics through data analytics is big business, whether it’s pre-determining the life span of products and proactively triggering upgrade cycles or understanding how products are used better to improve new products in the hope they will continue to sell, data will become the backbone of the modern economy.

Think about it for a minute.

If companies know for certain the condition of a particular product, how would that impact the sales and service cycles?

Imagine knowing which part is about to fail and organising that part for the customer to avoid any downtime?

 

This would also improve the accuracy of the upgrade sales cycle, and also for that matter, what would the data be worth to insurance companies, especially in the areas of security and health?

By having a direct, always-on connection to customers’ products it is possible to see how this will change a few things for field service.

As keepers of that diagnostic data it puts service departments in a strong position, as long as they can retain control of that data through expert analysis combined with product knowledge.

This is where field service needs to re-invent itself or at least evolve.

The growth in connected devices will certainly change the working pattern. While the IoT will not remove the need for field service personnel it will demand different skills.

With more insight into customer products and the potential for remote analysis through virtual mapping and even drones, it’s possible to see how this change will materialise - more onscreen work, more data analytics, more up-selling and more recommendations for future product design.

Throw in the potential for localised robots to carry out low level maintenance tasks and suddenly field service in the future looks very different.

It’s not something to be feared, but rather embraced.

This is an opportunity for field service to be at the centre of the relationship between company and customer, the driving force for product innovation and the keepers of the keys to the new industrial revolution.

And that may mean a name change too.

Smart product analytical service, sales and innovation support agent anyone?

 

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Rebecca Barnett, VP Marketing Cognito iQ guides us through how they worked with Konica Minolta to improve far more than just service standards...

At Cognito iQ, we love seeing what we do, come to life in the businesses we are lucky enough to call customers.

Konica Minolta UK produces business and industrial imaging products, such as MFP’S (multifunctional peripherals), copiers, laser printers and digital product print.

The company has over 275 service engineers providing planned, reactive maintenance and support to businesses throughout the UK.

Over relationship with Konica Minolta started 15 years ago and exemplifies much of the recent history of mobile workforce technology. From simple automation to today’s solution which provides unrivalled visibility of operational and employee performance.

Konica Minolta originally selected the Cognito iQ mobile application to automate and mobilise their field operation. In 2004, following the merger of Konica and Minolta, the UK business implemented a Europe-wide SAP ERP system which replaced the incumbent mobility solution.

After a few months, the UK team reverted to the Cognito iQ solution which we then integrated into their SAP application.

 

In 2014, Konica Minolta following a market review, we took the opportunity to showcase our new solution, Operational Performance Management (OPM). Cognito iQ OPM represents the very latest in field service analytics.

With easy to understand dashboards and the ability to drill down into granular detail, be it at an individual employee or indeed at a task level, the team at Konica Minolta quickly understood how powerful this would be for them.

18 months on and the Cognito iQ OPM solution is firmly embedded at the heart of the service operation. Here’s a snapshot of just some of the results.

Customer Service

Via their handheld devices engineers are able to request customer feedback on completion of their jobs. The number of customers giving NPS (Net Promoter Scores) scores has more than doubled over the past 18 months.

However, what’s really impressive is that, on average, the Konica Minolta field team are achieving an NPS score of 85.

As a sustained average, 85 is fairly unheard of in NPS terms and here’s the really clever bit - the scores are received by the back office in real-time. Managers have a KPI to call every customer who scores a 10 within an hour to say ‘thank you’ and enquire as to why they felt the service warranted such a high score.

 

In parallel, any customers scoring a 6 or below (NPS calls them Detractors) are called to enquire what the engineer could do better next time.

The insights from all calls are recorded and used to drive a programme of continuous improvement through training, feedback to the engineers and process change.

Productivity

The Cognito iQ OPM solution gives real-time visibility of what is happening in the field. With this comes a greater understanding of where improvements can be made.

By analysing the data through the Cognito iQ dashboards, significant savings have been made by reducing travel times between jobs. Over the course of year, small savings in time have added up to significant savings in pounds.

In addition, the team have measurably been able to service many more machines per man through improvements in training and process.

Employee Engagement

The Cognito iQ OPM solution produces what we call the Worker Scorecard. In simple terms, it measures each engineer against 6 Key Performance Areas and produces an overall, aggregated individual score at the end of each day.

This then feeds into the League Table which shows, at the click of button, who the highest performers are over whatever period of time you choose.

By understanding exactly where improvements in service needed to be made, Konica Minolta developed a whole new engineer career development programme.

To move up the levels an engineer has to consistently achieve certain KPI’s and undertake and pass certain training programmes. Pay and reward is linked to this development and guided by quality markers taken from the Cognito iQ OPM solution such as NPS scores, levels of productivity etc.

 

Sharing performance information transparently has enabled productive conversations and Konica Minolta have quickly developed a reputation for being an ‘Employer of Choice’ enjoying many benefits such as reduced recruitment costs, reduced attrition rates and a happy, motivated, loyal workforce.

Now, I’m not all that keen on tech buzzwords.

Frankly ‘transformation’ is about as overused as they come. However, having worked with team at Konica Minolta on this story, I really couldn’t justify using anything else.

 

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Want to know more? You can read the full transformation story on www.cognitoiq.com/case-studies

 

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If you were building a new house you’d use a blueprint, right? Well, your service department needs the same level of planning and visualiaation to transition from paper-based, manual processes to automated service operations, says Joanna Rotter, of service management software provider MSI Data.

Service technicians work out in the field repairing and maintaining equipment at various job sites. Each task requires documentation, scheduling, and data entry, which when automated can save time and mistakes while making the business more profitable. But in order to make a transformation to service automation successful, you need a step-by-step plan.

 The eight-step blueprint.

 The biggest benefits of automating service processes include greater productivity, visibility, and efficiency, which will infiltrate every area of your organisation.[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Get everyone on board, especially leadership.
   When you have a great idea, sometimes selling it to your team is half the battle. To get your team on board for a big organisational shift like automating service, start by creating a vision statement.  It should include a clarity-of-purpose statement and concrete goals for what you want the organisation to look like when the project is finished.
2. Understanding change management—assign an internal team to take charge.
   Understanding and implementing an effective change management program will require more than just a one-time meeting. Make sure the project is a priority by assigning an internal team to motivate the rest of the workers to take the project seriously. The group should include a project leader as well as several user representatives from each operational area (e.g. field, scheduling, inventory, IT, etc.).
3. Begin with the end in mind.
   Know where you want the project to end up before you take the first step. Technology isn’t magic and it won’t solve your problems without some planning and tailoring.[quote float="left"]Know where you want the project to end up before you take the first step...

    

   Nail down the concrete KPIs you want the technology to help you meet. For example, doing service on mobile shouldn’t be the goal; the goal is to increase communication with field techs or reduce time from service ticket to billing by using mobile. The technology is just the tool you use to achieve your goals.
4. Work with your vendor to produce a timeline and roadmap.
   Establish a clear Statement of Work with your software vendor and map out a concrete project plan and calendar. The plan you come up with should be visible to everyone involved and outline individual responsibilities, assign project leaders, set deadlines, etc. This will serve as a constant remind about what’s coming up next and specific accomplishments you’re aiming for.
5. Model it out.
   You can think of this as the ultimate planning phase. Modeling current and future processes is a vital step because it forces you to evaluate where you are now, why you do what you do, and who needs to do what to move forward.
6. Understand your data.
   Before you make plans to collect new data, you need to understand your current data. From there, you can determine what information you want to be collecting in the new system, who you want to have access to what, and how you’ll use the information to guide future decisions. Set goals for what you hope to get out of the data, map out how you’ll achieve those goals, and monitor your progress.
7. Train, train, train.
   Training is an incredibly important step with any new system. It’s important to remember, even the best software in the world isn’t going to do your team any good if users don’t understand how to use it. Make ongoing training a priority with reminder courses, ongoing new employee orientation, and training to roll out new features as they’re released.
8. Invest in mobile devices.
   If the field service app you choose runs cross-platform on any device, you’re free to select the device that best meets your organization’s needs. Each platform and device has its pros and cons, so make sure your app is cross-platform and native so you have device and platform flexibility.

Conclusion
The key to success with any new system is understanding the challenges while sticking to the plan. Keep your eye on the goals you set early on and treat the vision statement as a mantra, reminding yourself why you underwent this journey in the first place.

Follow these steps to automation and you’ll be well on your way to a huge return on investment, happier workers and customers, and a more efficient field service business.

 

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For five years UK based field service software provider Oneserve have been quietly going about their way, winning significant clients yet flying under the radar. Now with a young, dynamic new CEO at the helm they are ready to stop being the industry’s best kept secret and step into the limelight...

The story of Oneserve is not that of your average field service software provider.

For a start the company actually began life as an in-house field service management tool developed for Connaught PLC - a company that focussed on repair work in the social housing sector. After an employee buy-out in 2010 Oneserve emerged as a fully fledged solution with the advantage of being unencumbered by the initial costs of R&D that many start-up software companies may have faced when entering what is both a complex and busy market.

However, perhaps more importantly they already had an intimate understanding of what good service, and the tools to enable that, looked like.

After a few quick wins on ‘home turf’ within the social housing sector, the team at Oneserve have quietly yet steadily expanded their footprint across a number of different verticals picking up some top tier customers such as Lovell, Islington Borough Council and Sky along the way.

Yet when compared to some of their competitors such as ClickSoftware, ServiceMax and IFS to name a few, it is fair to say that such success has largely remained under the radar for many in the field service industry.

However, with the appointment of a new, young and dynamic CEO Chris Proctor in February earlier this year, it seems that Oneserve are now ready to step out into the limelight alongside their more established peers and start shouting about just why it is that they feel they are ready to become a disruptive force within the sector.

Indeed, Proctor, who was promoted from Sales and Marketing Director to CEO after just eight months with the Exeter based company, has already made an significant impact in the market with a blistering attack on his peers, accusing field service software providers of ‘holding innovation hostage’ in a press release issued shortly before he took over as CEO.

 

And whilst his background as a marketeer would suggest that he is certainly savvy enough to understand the power of such an assertion in terms of getting people to sit up and pay attention to Oneserve and what they have to say, when speaking to him it is clear that this was not just a simple marketing ploy. Proctor, is a passionate guy who truly seems to get the importance of service in today’s modern world.

And in his eyes technology providers should be simply making it easier for companies to deliver the levels of service excellence that twenty first century customers both expect and demand.

“One of the key things for us was that we really felt we wanted the system to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible,” Proctor explains.

“One of our core tenets is that we are always focused on the end user – always focused on how do we make life for that client better?”

It is not only a noble sentiment but also an approach that is ultimately winning them business, although Proctor himself admits that it is now time for Oneserve to step out of the shadows and kick on, building upon their success to date.

“We’ve been working incredibly hard and diligently for the last five years but we’ve been pretty quiet about it,” he comments.

“I don’t have a quarter of a million pound marketing budget, I can’t attend all the shows we don’t get involved in a lot of that stuff and as a result we’ve kind of kept under the radar of a lot of people. I know it was a surprise not so long ago when we won the Islington contract with a lot of people saying who are these guys?”

“Today we are powering about three and a half million working hours, I’ve lost count of how many engineers, we are working across multiple sectors and now we are being pragmatic in that we are now starting to talk a lot more about what we do.”

 

In fact there are two key facets to the Oneserve approach that appear to resonate with the needs of field service companies today.

Firstly it is a model based on licences rather than professional services which will appeal to those more cost conscious Finance Directors (are there any other kind?). And it is also a fully deployable self service product which will be of interest to both Operations folks and IT alike as it means more control of things like reporting and configurations, without having to go back to the vendor every-time a change is necessary.

This is a big plus in Proctor’s eyes and he uses a neat metaphor to explain his thinking.

“If you buy a car and you drive off the forecourt you turn left – why should you have to call an engineer out to configure your car to be able to turn left, and then right and then left again?”

“Whilst that may make your journey really efficient, it makes it very efficient for a snapshot in time but if you need to diversify, if you need to take a detour or a change in direction you have to go through the same process again.”

“Our principal is exactly the opposite in that if we give you the car, really the emphasis should be on the strength of the car, the strength of the support, the strength of the training and really the overall proposition to allow you get in and drive.”

Given their background as an in-house field service solution which previously had a 360 degree role for enabling service delivery at Connaught, is it a fair assumption to say that the understanding of good service delivery remains closely entwined in the DNA of both the Oneserve product and indeed the team itself?

“Absolutely,” Proctor concurs. “For me it’s really simple. The vast majority of service calls start with a negative. For example ‘my boiler has just blown up’ or this has gone wrong or that has gone wrong. Yes there are other more planned things but by and large it always focuses on a negative,” he explains.

“And we’ve all been on the end of those experiences, those times we’ve waited for an engineer that doesn’t turn up or turns up late, but we’ve also all had those really good experiences.

 

Where they’ve told you they are going to be with you around this time and then an hour or so before they are due they call you and tell you actually I’m going to be with you at exactly this time.”

“Where the engineer has come in, they’ve be really nice, they’ve been really efficient and professional, they’ve had all the tools they’ve needed, they’ve fixed the problem and they’ve been on their way really quickly. And the difference between those two experiences is palpable.”

“It’s the same in the logistics world. We all groan into our hands when we see our parcel is being delivered by Yodel instead of DHL -it’s that differentiation in service,” He adds

“We want to turn the paradigm on its head, we want to turn every negative into a positive. We can’t control the negatives, things will always go wrong and things will always break. But if we can enhance the interactions we can control, if we can make those better, we can improve the end experience and it comes back up the chain and makes everything work much more effectively.”

“And that really is our prevailing thought, that is what we are striving for.”

And whilst empowering their clients through a self-service based product is core to the ethos at Oneserve, Proctor also outlines how closely they continue to work with their clients in order to make sure that those tools they are providing allow companies to ensure they can deliver a positive service experience.

“It remains something very important to us so we do spend time with our clients, we do spend time with them understanding how they are using the system,” he comments.

 

“In the same way we do that digitally in terms of heat mapping and workshops and understanding really what that UX means to the end user - that is very key to us. Understanding how we can make those interactions more effective, more streamlined and more engaging is very important,” he concludes.

It is this commitment to understanding exactly how their clients are using their system that will keep Oneserve close to their roots as part of a service orientated organisation themselves, which in turn allows them to develop their product in line with the needs of their customers.

Hopefully this outlook won’t change as the company continues to grow, but one change that seems inevitable is Oneserve will not be a best kept secret for too much longer.

 

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Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems provides key points that small and mediums size businesses should consider to help them move towards real-time field service...

Exceeding customer expectations is not just for enterprise-level companies. Customers are demanding the same level of service performance whether their service provider is a large multinational corporation, or a small, local field service company.

But how can SMB service teams compete with their enterprise counterparts in this era of increased competition and empowered customers demanding perfect service?

Recent research from the Aberdeen Group found that trends were emerging among SMBs that have put a roadmap in place to ensure better service.

These are their top strategies for driving service:

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• Increase the availability of service knowledge in order to diagnose and resolve service issues faster (51%).

• Develop real-time visibility into field assets (i.e. people, parts, vehicles) (48%).
• Improve forecasting of and planning for future service demand (41%).
• Invest in mobile tools to provide technicians with better access to information in the field (38%).
• Develop standardised scheduling processes. (35%).
• Increase frequency of training for field technicians (32%).

Diagnose and deliver

One of the most important metrics for customers is how long a repair will take - or “mean time-to-repair.” This metric shows just how effective the service team is at resolving customer issues.

But to fix an issue quickly, engineers must be able to diagnose what’s wrong; determine what they need to fix the problem, including knowledge, the right tools and parts; and figure out the correct procedure to follow. As equipment grows more complex, not every engineer will have the ability to do this “on the fly.” It’s important then to give engineers the tools to quickly identify a problem and understand how to fix it.

Provide real-time visibility of service activities If there is one top driver for sustained revenue growth in service, it’s executive visibility.

Aberdeen’s research has found that having a view into the field helps management, the back office, and the service team react quickly and deliver service at the speed necessary to excel.

Predict demand

No matter how top-notch your engineers, without real-time insights, the field team will still have to scramble to meet fluctuating demands. However, the increase of IoT technology is aiding service teams, by helping them identify problems quickly.

But IoT is not yet a widespread reality. Aberdeen found that even in top organisations, only 53% of machinery is IoT-enabled for asset management, tracking, service, and maintenance.

 

Invest in the right tools and team

As machines and equipment become increasingly complex, service teams need the correct technology to help them solve more difficult issues.

The last piece of the field service puzzle comes down to the engineers themselves. As Aberdeen points out, an SMB can make the leap from paper to mobile, and put the right tech tools in their engineers’ hands, but service teams themselves must be engaged, skilled, and most importantly, incentivised to perform.

What are some concrete steps SMBs can take to ensure a better performing service team?

Put a CSO in charge of your SMB field team

Haven’t heard of the term Chief Service Officer? Most SMBs are not yet familiar with this C-Level title that’s only recently started to infiltrate enterprise-level organisations.

To ensure service excellence spreads throughout the entire firm, large enterprises are hiring CSOs to ensure that a strategic service vision is carried out, with accountability and incentives put in place across the entire organisation.

 

Train your entire company to value service

Typically, most companies focus on equipment sales. But service should not be an afterthought.

At best, customers expect equipment to work flawlessly; at worst, they expect service to know when the machinery or part will fail and solve the issue effortlessly.

Service can be an opportunity to drive new revenue opportunities, but only if every team from marketing to sales to service can communicate the value they deliver to customers.

Make real-time visibility your goal

Small field service organisations are investing in technology because they see the benefit of increasing their efficiency and want to understand where they can add further value.

However, the goal of investing in technology should be to give your entire firm real-time visibility into field service performance and the customer experience.

As customer expectations increase, only companies - both big and small - that provide preemptive service can expect to survive.

 

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Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consulting Analyst with Strategies for GrowthSM explains why the key to successful service sales lies within understanding your customers and their needs...

Most people would seem to agree that a physical product, like a copier, printer, or scanner, is the easiest thing to sell. Companies can include photographs and hardware specs for these types of products in their brochures and catalogs; photographs can be included in the company’s web site descriptions; and demos can be conducted right at the customer’s site, etc.

But, in many cases, selling a product can actually be one of the most difficult things to do, especially if you have never sold anything to a particular prospect in the past, or if they are not familiar with your company’s lines of copiers, printers, or scanners, etc. This is why we are suggesting that a maintenance agreement, or professional services, for an existing business imaging system (or any other type of equipment) may actually be easier to sell than the original product itself.

Let me explain.

Chances are, some of the accounts for whom you provide copier service and support purchase dozens, if not hundreds, of individual pieces of equipment every year. For most of your smaller accounts, any single equipment purchase is, in a relative sense, a major consideration for them, both from an absolute and a financial perspective.

However, once they have made the decision to purchase a particular piece of equipment, they have already “bitten the bullet” with respect to its importance to their business operations, and they have accepted all of the financial considerations that will be tied to its acquisition and use.

 

You may have already heard the expression “total cost of ownership”, or TCO; what this means is that, in real life, there is usually more to the “total cost” of an individual piece of equipment than just the price that was paid for its acquisition.

In addition to the specific purchase price, there is also the cost of ongoing hardware and software maintenance support, replacement parts, help desk support, consumables (like paper, toner, etc.)and many, many others.

For some, the acquisition of new equipment also requires moves or changes to their physical facility to create space for a new business imaging system or copier machine, as well as additional training for the individuals who may be tasked with various internal maintenance and/or administrative responsibilities. The general rule of thumb with respect to TCO is that, over the course of several years, the “actual” cost of ownership for any particular piece of equipment may be up to twice the initial purchase price (or more).

As such, it is easy to imagine that any one of your accounts that has already planned to purchase a major piece of capital equipment such as a copier, scanner, or printer would have already examined the anticipated TCO for that unit, and would have budgeted accordingly. However, even the most sophisticated business planners may sometimes misjudge what the ultimate TCO will be for an individual piece of equipment (or not forecast it at all).

For example, they may have only anticipated requiring warranty service for one year or so following acquisition, without planning for any further post-warranty support that, if provided on a time and materials basis, would end up being quite expensive. Some may not have anticipated losing the staff that was originally trained on a particular piece of equipment, and may ultimately find themselves in a situation where new hires may need “fresh” training for an existing business imaging system. These are both classic cases where your existing accounts may already be clamouring for enhanced maintenance, or warranty agreements, or for various other types of professional services that your company may already offer (i.e., user training, train-the-trainers assistance, custom documentation, etc.).

 

Whether any of your existing accounts have either mis-planned - or didn’t plan at all - when they made their initial purchase decision, they have one thing in common: at some point, they will recognise that they need additional support over and above what they initially received when they purchased the equipment, and that this support will typically manifest itself in either the need for an enhanced maintenance agreement, specific professional services, or both.

If you have been observing and monitoring your accounts all along the way, you probably can already pick out which ones are “ripe” for selling maintenance agreements or professional services.

If you have also been keeping up-to-date with your company’s product and service support offerings, you are also ready to speak to those accounts with respect to what you believe will make their ultimate “total cost of ownership” less in the long run. Armed with this information, you will find yourself in the perfect position to make the sale of maintenance agreements and professional services as easy as possible - certainly easier than making a “cold” sales call to a new prospect.

All you really need is the understanding of what your customers require, matched against the products and services your company offers, and many of these prospective “sales” will simply be waiting there for you to “close” them.

 

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