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Field service management is a key part of the customer experience. Meeting the engineers or technicians despatched to their house is often the end-user’s first and only human engagement with the company. Cloud and mobility technology is helping to improve the flexibility and collaboration between central control systems and individual fieldworkers, ensuring customers experience the best possible service and field service professionals become brand ambassadors, as well as technical problem solvers.

In Part One of this three part series on  the next Frontier for Field Service Management, our panel considered the fundamental importance of the power and scalability of cloud computing and the ways in which it is revolutionising field service management. In Part Two they  discuss the importance of striking a balance between central control and individual initiative.

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

Central control and individual collaboration

In order to provide the quality and consistent levels of service that today’s customers demand, businesses still need to retain a degree of control centrally.

“You need to deliver on promises and provide a consistent level of service and quality that the customer wants,” explained Tim Faulkner.  “You also need to allow for improvisation and tools that allow the technician to make decisions on whether or not to replace a part there and then or call a buddy to help.”

The cloud is both an enabler and a leveller, according to Faulkner. “It’s bringing down barriers to adopting field service solutions that were there before, enabling large corporations to deploy different methods and enabling smaller companies to adopt the same applications.”

 

Faulkner explains how ingenious adoptions of new cloud and mobile technologies allows FSM companies to better utilise their existing workforce, putting both technology and a greater decision-making autonomy in the hands of individuals.

It is exactly this enabling ability of cloud technology that helps networks or companies co-ordinate more widely distributed, flexible and fast-response supply chains, according to the LSE's Dr. Carsten Sorensen.

“The 21^st century is about helping individuals and companies alike to adapt to emerging needs, to react immediately when something goes wrong or identify where there is room for improvement,” says Sorensen. He thinks that the cloud is fundamentally transforming the way organisations do business.

The reality for FSM businesses is that workers out in the field are becoming increasingly digitally enabled with mobile devices of their own (and supplied by their employers) of various kinds. And those organisations that are able to capitalise on this new way of communicating, swiftly and wisely, are set to benefit.

The UK police -  how the operate like Uber

Perhaps one of the best examples of advanced users of field service technology in the UK to date is the police service.[quote float="right"]One of the best examples of advanced users of field service technology in the UK to date is the police service.

 

“The police don’t talk about mobile technology,” Sorensen explains. “For decades they’ve talked about mobile data. The whole point is instead of having a very localised arrangement – where somebody calls a police station and they dispatch on a two-way radio system that somebody should go somewhere -  now they operate, in principle, like Uber. They did ten years ago and they still do now.

“Ordinary police officers have a queue of incidents and they choose one like a customer in a taxi rank. Whenever you try to solve one problem, you may have other problems and you need to balance what everyone is aware of. Fundamentally, you can transfer the way work is done.”

So are there lessons to be drawn from this police model for businesses to learn from?

“With most large companies, you have to spend hours on the phone to get in touch with a human being,” adds Sorensen. “For a lot of companies, their competitive advantage will come from having a civilised human being to talk to you.”

The police case study is particularly interesting to ClickSoftware's Katelyn Burrill, because issues around automating, picking and choosing jobs are things that she deals with a lot with her customers.

“Automating that process is one of the huge benefits that companies achieve,” says Burrill. “It’s managing the change that these field workers go through when a new technology is implemented. If they don’t understand the benefits and just see it as Big Brother managing their day all of a sudden, they won’t manage the technology to the best of its ability.”

The lesson here is that field workers often have their own ways of operating that have worked well enough for them for many years, so it's vital that they don’t think that their own discretion and autonomy is somehow being removed from them.

“That’s how projects fail,” says Burrill. “When organisations don’t sell it into them in a strategic manner. They [the field workers] need to be part of the process to organise how you’ll go about changing and what’s acceptable to change.”

After all, the people out there in the field are often a lot smarter about what’s really happening and what needs to happen than the people in head office, who might not understand the bigger picture and certainly can’t see it in real-time.

“Let’s not forget that the field service workforce is already using smart technologies, already sending photos and videos on their smartphones to ask: how do we get this done?” notes Phil Wainewright, Chair of Euro Cloud UK.

“You need to build a more collaborative infrastructure that takes advantage of how things really work on the ground.”

In part three of the debate we move on to consider ways in which technology can improve customer service and we address issues like privacy and security.

 

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Nick Frank, Founding Partner at Si2, discusses the importance of understanding the metrics you are measuring to asses both internal performance and external perceptions of your service delivery in the eyes of your customers, and how the two are closely aligned...

Despite the bigger plan, do you find that the barrage of every day problems and deliverables makes it difficult to achieve your vision?

Most of us are driven by the everyday objectives of our boss, organisation and stakeholders.

The best performing leaders are not only able to deliver tactical results, they seem to be able to rise above the daily noise of business, see the bigger picture and figure out how those small wins can be turned from haphazard steps into a coordinated journey.

A key challenge is that ‘service’ is a business in its own right.

To be successful, all elements of a business have to be coordinated and managed from sales, to operations, finance to people as well as resources.

Put this in the context of a working business, where different levels of capability and maturity will exist in the organisation, and it can be pretty hard to figure out where your priorities lie. One way is for leaders to constantly see their challenges in relation to the whole business, so that they keep a perspective on how these elements fit together.

For example one could view a service business as requiring four essential elements to be successful:

[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Value: Do you deeply understand the experience and value outcomes you deliver to the customer within the industry value chain? Have you clearly defined your business model and how you will organise your business to deliver success?
2. Go To Market: Are you effective at creating and selling products, services and solutions that can access this value?
3. Service Delivery: Can your operations consistently and profitably deliver services to the expectations of the customer?
4. Plan / Leadership: Is there an explicit plan that is financially backed and supported by the organisations leadership?

[/ordered_list]

Although a pretty straightforward way of thinking, most managers can get caught up in the everyday activities and lose sight of the bigger picture. To illustrate this, lets look at one of today’s hot topics, ‘How to maximise the potential of the Internet of Things(IoT)?’

Many companies are still confused as to what the IoT means for them, especially as most commentators are also struggling to see how companies can move themselves forward in a practical pragmatic manner.

We see lots of ideas and case studies focused on what the potential could be, but few suggestions on how to achieve the goal.

Perhaps companies should first focus on the ‘Value’ that the IoT capability can bring to their customer’s value chain as well as their own bottom line.

This goes deeper than customer needs. It is important to understand what makes customers successful in terms of growth and profit within the industry value chain. Then it is possible to identify the expertise or data that can be generated to make a difference to the customer’s profitability.

As companies explore value, they will start to want to try ideas out, perhaps a few very low key pilot projects with customers, to open their minds up to new opportunities and potentially business models.

For a product company, this could really start to challenge their ‘Go-To’ market thinking. The fact that piloting propositions for services is an important part of their design process runs contrary to many product development processes.

The pilot process will also impact the ‘Service Delivery’ operations that must consistently and profitably deliver the value proposition.

In particular with digital technologies, having the software and analytical expertise in house to develop robust solutions is often a challenge to be overcome.

Increasingly it is necessary to work with partners or even as part of an inter-dependent ecosystem.

 

Lastly and most importantly, it is critical to have a ‘Plan’ that is backed by the leadership with a commitment to resources.

Probably the biggest frustration from managers driving change is that great ideas do not receive the resources they need due to short-term budgetary reasons.

What we see is that even in this relatively high level simplistic example, there are a complex interacting set of factors that leaders, as drivers of change, have to manage in parallel.

This complexity is a fact of life and will not go away.

This is why a factor that makes top performing managers successful, is having a perspective of how the daily grind fits into the big picture.

An even simpler way of cutting through the confusion of developing a services business can be summed up by a Steve Jobs quote:

‘You’ve got to start with Customer Experience and work back towards the technology, not the other way around'

 

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Want to know more? Nick can be contacted on nick.frank@Si2partners.com. Si2 On-Demand is a unique advisory and support service that enables top performing leaders to solve problems and get things done, as and when required

See our website at www.si2partners.com or gain insights on our blog ServiceInIndustry.com

 

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Andrew Quail, Head of IT at SGN, explains how the energy supplier is transforming its mobile app delivery. Sharon Clancy reports...

Gas companies are one of the most heavily regulated in the UK – after all, gas leaks have the potential to be fatal.

The UK’s energy sector regulatory regime is acknowledged as world-class, but safety and innovation are rarely comfortable bedfellows, and innovation has not traditionally been a strong point for the UK’s utilities companies, who have focused on meeting the demands of the industry regulator Ofgem.

So we were intrigued to hear that one of the UK’s biggest gas distributors, SGN, is embarking on a business transformation process that includes greater use of mobile tools and data for its 2,000 strong field service engineers.

SGN distributes natural and green gas to 5.9 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England via a network of over 75,000 km of gas mains and services.

Critical business processes such as emergency gas response procedures have been automated for over a decade and have been mobilised to help ensure SGN meets it legal obligations to respond within an hour to any reports that might indicate a potentially lethal gas leak.

 

“The safety culture at SGN is core to our business and will never diminish. Data on performance has to be accurate and readily available to the regulator, and mobile data played a big role in providing that,” explains Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN.

Quail credits Ofgem with now encouraging an innovative climate that still puts safety first.

“We have relied on our mobile solutions for over a decade to deliver safety-critical services. Our legacy estate was great for some parts of the business: it’s solid, reliable and highly available.”

“However, with the legacy estate, if we change a piece of code or an element within an app, it has potential to affect other things.”

With such a large field workforce, SGN could appreciate the benefits of mobilising other activities in its business.

“Our existing estate was not agile enough to meet the changing needs of our customers and employees,” continued Quail.

“Customised apps take too long to develop and deploy and we wanted faster improvements to our efficiencies and customer services.”

"At the same time, we could not risk any mobility initiative affecting our ability to respond to core emergency repair work. We also wanted to control app distribution to ensure it met our IT security needs.”

The solution has been to retain the legacy SAP platform for emergency gas response services, while deploying Kony Inc’s MobileFabric cloud-based mobility platform to develop and maintain mobile apps for other parts of the business.

 

MobileFabric decouples corporate front- and back-end systems so changes can be made quickly.

Connectors and adaptors means back-end integration for mobile apps is configurable and flexible rather than being custom-built.

“We were looking for a platform that would allow us to quickly develop well-designed apps that are attractive to our workforce.”

“At the same time, we wanted to capture data in a standard format that could be distributed and presented to any part of the business.”

“Mobile Fabric is an enterprise-grade mobility platform which is tightly integrated into our legacy systems. One of the attractions was the fact that is cloud-based, says Quail.

“It is a scalable consumption-based model requiring minimum financial commitment. That reduces the risks to our business.”

A cloud-based solution also suits the fast-paced environment of mobility services, he thinks, and help delivers quick wins.

“Our first priority has been to develop customer focused apps to improve the whole customer experience.”

“So one of the first apps we have deployed is a is a customer satisfaction app that has digitalised feedback."

“It encourages engagement between our staff and the customer and also simplifies the back-office process of keeping the regulator informed about customer satisfaction scores.”

 

“We get real-time feedback into our ERP system, which means we get early notification of any potential issues for customers and we also get to hear about customers’ positive experiences – which was not always the case in the past.”

Another benefit, says Quail, is the app allows SGN to respond quickly to employee and customer suggestions about improving service.

The app was developed and deployed within weeks – much quicker than on a legacy platform and at much lower cost, points out Quail.

Security

IT directors have form when it comes to security concerns about Cloud computing, but Quail is one of the converts who believe Cloud platform services actually can enhance IT security. “

There is no denying that IT security is a sensitive topic and an area with potentially huge corporate risk for SGN.

However, cloud platform providers invest heavily in security, and we are confident the Kony platform is actually extremely secure.”

Moving to a mobility platform has also enabled SGN to define exactly what security standards it needs in various parts of the organisation, he explains.

Future plans

So what’s in the pipeline for the future, we asked?

There are lots of possibilities for efficiency improvements beyond the regulatory environment enthuses Quail.

“We are looking at productivity tools such as inspection apps that can make life easier for our engineers and simplify mobile data acquisition. We can digitalise site safety procedures and inspections, and move from paper to mobile apps for tasks such as time-sheets.”

 

Quail believes the introduction of mobile apps will help change the image of IT within the business from enforcer to enabler.

“We don’t want mobile app development to be a top-down process where IT comes up with all the new apps. We are encouraging our colleagues and employees to suggest what mobile apps might improve their work experience.”

Nor is it just field service engineers who are benefiting from the digitalisation of the business, says Quail.

“The Internet of Things” is beginning to transform our operations. When we deploy robots for pipe inspections, for example, we’ll be capture that data in real-time helping us to optimise maintenance with less disruption for our customers.”

 

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Both virtual reality and augmented reality could have an important place to play in the future of field service writes Manuel Grenacher, CEO of Coresystems...

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile device conference and show, virtual reality and augmented reality were everywhere.

Aside from a photo of Mark Zuckerberg walking amidst a sea of oblivious audience members strapped into VR headsets, companies like Samsung, LG, and HTC were all keen to show off their latest VR gear.

Virtual reality isn’t just for video games. There’s been growing interest in the field service industry on how companies might take advantage of it.

Virtual vs. Augmented Reality

First, however, it’s important to step back and clarify the distinction between virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

As their names suggest, virtual reality immerses the user in a completely virtual environment, while augmented reality keeps users in their existing world and simply enhances it.

Deloitte Consulting expects to see VR technologies rapidly adopted by enterprises in the next 18-22 months. And the company specifically cited field service as an industry that stands to benefit from them.

ABI Research makes the case for AR, noting that while virtual reality tends to grab the headlines, AR has one foot that remains in the “real world” and will allow more practical enterprise applications.

The research firm sees 2016 as a turning point for AR smart glasses, predicting that 21 million units of AR smart glasses will be shipped in 2020, with sales expected to reach $100 billion.

Both technologies could have serious benefits for the industry by improving the two key metrics that are important to all field service managers: first time fix rates and average repair time.

They can also benefit staff training and skills shortages.

The Case for VR and AR in Field Service

Field service engineers, wearing a special headset, for example, could be dispatched to a job where they could see the instructions or information about the product directly overlaid on it.

There would be no fumbling for a laptop or tablet; the information they need would be accessible with a flick of their head.

With such detailed information available, this could even mean that field service companies could dispatch less skilled technicians into the field, while the more experienced engineers could stay at the main headquarters supervising and troubleshooting more difficult issues.

 

In a pilot project with KSP Steel, a steel mill that produces steel pipelines in Kazakhstan, workers used a smart hardhat to safely access information when they needed it, without having to leave the production line and go back to the control room.

The control room data was projected onto the helmet’s visor, leading to a 40% increase in worker productivity and 50% reduction in factory downtime.

Managing Brain Drain

In an interview first published in Field Service News, Professor Howard Lightfoot of Cranfield University School of Management outlined what he saw as the biggest benefits to augmented and virtual reality tools in field service:

Said Lightfoot, “It could de-skill field service activity. There [are] parts of the world where you can’t get the right people. With augmented reality you can link them to a skilled technician back at the base who can take them through the process. Not with a manual and not on the phone, but he can actually see what they are doing."

"He can overlay information for them and digitally point at things, like: That’s the nut, this is the one you turn. Don’t torque that one anymore than this."

"Torque that one to this level. Undo that cabinet first, and make sure you disconnect this before you do that.”

Moreover, that skilled technician could be “back at base” thousands of kilometers away, reducing the cost of flying specialists out to every complex job.

NTT DATA, the Japan-headquartered telecommunications and IT services company, now uses the Vusix M100 smart glasses to allow continuous, remote monitoring of technicians in the field.

Senior engineers can share the point of view of a technician wearing the M100 Smart Glasses working on-site and can provide immediate instruction in real-time using an overlaid augmented reality marker.

Before using the smart glasses, NTT DATA needed at least two engineers at the work site to ensure quality control, resulting in higher operating costs, a heavier burden for senior engineer staff, and reduced productivity.

Training Techs

The other benefit of augmented or virtual reality is its potential as a highly detailed, highly visual training tool. Just as children’s educators get excited at the idea of breathing life into history or science lessons that put students right into the environment they are learning about, field service managers are seeing how AR or VR could be used to train technicians or engineers on complex tasks or fixes.

 

Automobile maker, Ford, has recently added the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to its virtual reality platforms. It’s used with a shell of a car, where the parts such as the steering wheel and seats can be repositioned to match those of a prototype car. Other field service uses are for training technicians.

By giving engineers the tools to fix problems thoroughly and quickly, you can increase first-time fix rates and lower the average time it takes to fix a product.

 

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One of the most exciting developments in technology currently emerging the field service sector is the potential of Augmented Reality and at the vanguard driving the technology forward is US based company Help Lightning, with their own take on the tech ‘Mobile Merged Reality’. Kris Oldland spoke to founder Bart Guthrie to find out more about the origins of the technology and just how big it could potentially become...

Help Lightning has been a technology that has been causing conversations for some time now amongst field service organisations in the USA, fuelled primarily by a number of appearances by their charismatic founder Dr. Bart Guthrie on the US conference circuit alongside some slick booth demonstrations.

But what exactly is a neurosurgeon doing disrupting the field service technology space? I caught up with Guthrie at Field Service Medical in San Diego to find out more about the background on how Help Lightning was born.

 

“Early on when I started practicing, even during my training I it became apparent to me that there were opportunities for both technology and certain relationships to improve processes that could sustain or improve health.” Guthrie begins

“The earliest thing I became involved in was image-guided surgery. That is where you take a CT or CAT scan and you use the device to register to the patient’s head in surgery and then as you do the surgery you can see what you are doing on the MRI cast.”

“So I think what that did for me was to open my eyes to the capability of technology to bring information to bear and then after that I became pretty heavily involved in medical image distribution. In my field medical imaging is our currency. It is information dense and we will use it to make most of our decisions to get outcomes in terms of certain things that we do so we developed a system to acquire and manage medical imaging and formed a company around that which did very well.”

“Then right about that time when visualisation in the operating room was becoming usable – endoscopes, microscopes, video cameras and then this notion of connectivity... It’s one thing to have an operating microscope that is high res. but if you can’t connect it to anything you’re only as good as you.”

“So that started coming around I began thinking would it be possible to use connectivity to export information, whether that be medical information or guidance and movement.”

 

“We approached the Department of Energy about a call for technology development they issued around surgical robots and we got funding for around $1M for a pilot scheme. Needless to say the funds were completely insufficient but surgical robots are remarkable.”

“They are in the field, they work and they do what they are supposed to do which is take your movements, then gear it down and they’ll effectively make the same movement. They are going to be tremendously valuable.”

“For us though there were some limitations to the robot. One you can’t teach it very well, there is a time delay, there were all these technical issues that separate you from what is going on. And the other thing in my job is that I am constantly getting requests about remote calls with patients that have a problem. And those patients end up in healthcare systems that have the skills but not the experience.”

We have been speaking for barely a few minutes yet it is clear that Guthrie has a clear passion for technology and its ability to enhance the world we live in. As you would expect, he has the gentle tones of a experienced medical consultant, enhanced further by his soft Alabama accent.

However, he also clearly has a mind built for problem solving and out of the box thinking and it is this skill that led him to the concept of what was to become Help Lightning, the development of which was a direct response to a major problem Guthrie saw in his day to day working life.

Namely getting expertise where it is needed in an emergency situation.

As Guthrie explains “Any of the surgeons in a small hospital where someone has been in an automobile accident for example will know how to make an incision, how to sow, how to support a patient. But any surgeon may not know how to do that in the brain, or in the heart etc."

“Yet the movements and the principals are very similar, you just need the experience. So we started thinking about the idea of somehow capturing the experience of someone who has that skill set and transmitting it real time to a local task-force.”

“We came up with this idea of bi-directional video and if we could capture the remote task field view, look at it, insert instruments, hands, whatever, interact with it and then combine the two and distribute it back that may solve the problem.”

 

“It would allow us to impart a little bit more expertise remotely. It wouldn’t solve everything but it would be advancement over what we could do for example over a telephone, which is the standard conveyor of medical information remotely right now.”

And so Help Lightning was born (albeit originally under a different moniker of VIPAR) and with the support of his mechanical engineering and computer science departments at UAB the concept soon became a reality with pilots in operating rooms in both UAB and the Veterans Hospital.

In its initial configuration VIPAR (an acronym of Virtual Interactive Presence and Augmented Reality) was a high-end manifestation that worked superbly but simply wasn’t scalable.

So after the patents were written Guthrie took the concept and founded Help Lightning and sought to develop a lighter-weight version of the concept.

Modestly he states: “I procured enough funding to get it going and I sort of stepped back out of the way and hired a bunch of just excellent people to get it going and they’ve reduced the concept to a similar functionality on just a mobile device.”

What is certain however, is that the team Guthrie has put in place, headed up by CEO Drew Deaton, have done a quite remarkable job of scaling the technology down to an app - which of course makes the business incredibly scalable itself.

“It achieves a couple of things,” Guthrie explains when discussing the move to an app based approach.

 

“It gets this team out of the hardware business and it makes it available ubiquitously.”

So with the team and technology in place the challenge now is identifying the markets that Help lightning is best suited for. Given the origins of the product clinical care is of course one of those, and Guthrie is directly involved with the pilot program.

“That presentation I gave here where I presented those pilots was the very first step in trying to understand will the patients accept it? Will the providers accept is it? Will we find things at the physical visit that we didn’t find at the virtual visit. Or vice versa – is it safe or is it unsafe?”

Of course these same questions will apply to the initial projects within the field service space as well.

However, the potential for cost savings of using a tool such a Help Lightning could be truly remarkable. Particularly for those companies whose engineers have to travel long distances.

Indeed Help Lightning or other similar tools could have a huge impact on the way companies structure their field services workforce.

With the ability to dial experience in from a remote location to provide the key knowledge and expertise required for a complicated maintenance or repair job, it could make sense for companies to have their most experienced engineers in one office centrally and utilise cheaper, local technicians when it comes to remote locations?

 

Or simply it could be a tool to improve engineers work life-balance, whilst reducing the costs of travel and accommodation.

Another alternative could be to implement a new tier of service offering based around remote assistance whereby the engineer guides the customer themselves through maintenance?

Certainly the applications in field service are wide reaching.

“The way I see it is its all about the relationship you have,” Guthrie explains.

“If you just take two people as a construct and their relationship is remote and some kind of expertise or procedural expertise has to be conveyed from one to the other it’s a natural fit.”

“So any market where there is an existing relationship that is benefited by the transmission of expertise to a remote site in a manner that facilitates the relationship, that engages both people, I think is a natural market.”

“I feel patient care is a natural fit, field service is a natural fit. I think maybe the space shuttle even, wherever there is that kind of dynamic in the relationship, I think this concept could fit.”

 

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Could the UK consumer’s passion for Internet shopping be heralding in a new era in parts deliveries for field service engineers? Sharon Clancy reports...

UK consumers are renowned as some of - possibly even the - world’s most enthusiastic on-line shoppers. In the process, they have driven up delivery and service standards, raising expectations of what they consider acceptable service from the companies they deal with to new levels.

They expect to order up to 10 p.m. in the evening and receive delivery the next day – some don’t even object to paying for an early delivery.

What they will object to (and quite possibly take their business elsewhere) is if you can’t offer them a one-hour delivery window or a choice of delivery options.

Faced with the complications and costs of providing doorstep-deliveries that come even close to meeting the ever-rising expectations of hundreds of thousands of consumers, on-line retailers have developed a raft of alternative delivery solutions, including locker banks and click-and- collect points at local stores.

Locker banks for through-the-night deliveries to service engineers are not new, of course. What is new is that, thanks to this huge demand for flexible deliveries of Internet purchases, there has been a veritable explosion in the numbers of locker banks throughout the UK.

They’ve become a common site all over the UK – supermarkets, railway stations, fuel stations. Accompanying that, has been more click-and-collect parcels networks at local convenience stores.

 

On the face of it, this might seem a less secure destination for those vital parts, but in fact the delivery companies have invested huge amounts in ensuring those on-line goods end up with the right customers, so this is a less a concern than it might have been in the past.

Of course, getting this sort of collection right requires integration of order-intake and scheduling, but field service companies have plenty of expertise at that.

It also suits, too, those smaller service companies who rather than have a huge parts inventory, will source required parts from on-line parts suppliers and an on as-required basis.

So how do all these delivery solutions work?

Locker banks

ByBox and InPost are the best known of the European locker bank providers. ByBox actually built its business in providing an overnight pre-8 a.m. secure locker service to the field service sector using its own delivery network.

Located at easily -accessible sites such as fuel retailers, railway stations and supermarkets, locker banks are increasingly popular as a click-and-collect choice.

Consumers like them because it puts them back in charge of the delivery.

Engineers will like them for the same reason – they can collect at a convenient time to them and drop off returns (either pre- or -post the last call of the day, for example).

Behind the apparent low-tech façade of locker banks, there’s some clever real-time technology enabling a seamless collection process.

Security is a top priority - suppliers need to have proof that the correct part was delivered to the correct box, for the correct engineer.

 

There are numerous methods of authorising access to an individual – pin coded access, digital signature, QR code.

Some box banks incorporate video camera images as a further security measure – for themselves and their customers.

When the locker transaction is complete, immediate notification is sent to the sender. In the event of any dispute, there’s a record of box activity.

Once goods are delivered to a locker, of course, it’s no longer available until the engineer collects the parts.

It’s a fine line between allowing the engineer maximum flexibility on when to collect the parts and freeing up the locker for future deliveries – of parts or goods to a consumer.

Goods sitting in a locker uncollected benefit no-one and create locker congestion – a particular issued over busy periods such as Christmas and one that is not going to go away as consumer demand for click-and-collect grows.

ByBox’s expertise has been developed providing secure collection points for parts deliveries to field service technicians. The company has manufactured over 57,000 lockers, installed in 20 countries.

It also licences its technology providing turnkey Click-and-Collect solutions as software-as-a-service to global partners – including UK supermarkets.

Its Thinventory solution incorporates an integrated SupplierDirect service, in which stock can be ordered from suppliers and sent directly to their engineer’s Smart Box before 8am the very next day.

Locker customisation options include self-closing doors, integration of engineer signature and image capture, and the option to provide customer support at the locker via a video link to a customer support centre.

Each locker is connected to ByBox Cloud for real-time management of activity, including door openings and configurations.

The Locker server manager connects to each locker via ByBox Cloud to provide real-time communication with each locker, managing openings and configuration.

InPost operates in 16 European countries and has a 1,000 strong UK network of electronic locker banks. The lockers have integrated closed-circuit TV cameras and barcode scanning capability.

Consumers with smartphones can be sent a QR code as collection authorisation, and the box bank’s central console will be able to scan this from the phone’s screen and open the relevant locker door purely on this basis – potentially making the pickup extremely fast.

 

An API (application programming interface) integrates the click-and-collect service into retailer web sites, offering consumers a choice of the five locations nearest to their target address.

Convenient convenience stores

On-line parts distributors are also able to offer an alternative to locker-collection via local convenience stores.

Convenience store chains have enthusiastically signed up for click-and-collect, attracted by the promise of extra footfall into their shops. From the engineer point of view, they are very local and they tend to be open until late evening.

CollectPlus is one of the biggest with a network of over 5,800 local stores in the UK, including Londis, Co-operative McColls, Spar, Nisa and Costcutter.

Customers simply visit the store and sign for their parcel.

Standard parcel size is limited to 60x050050cm and maximum weight is 10kg – mainly due to potential lack of storage space at the store the customer chooses.

Pay extra, and you’re allowed bigger parcels and more weight.

To allay consumer fears about parcels going astray, CollectPlus provides online tracking and, for £1, a signature as proof-of-collection. Insurance of £50 as standard with up to £300 available.

For sellers with high volumes, CollectPlus offers the option of sending customers an email and/or text including a unique collection code.

The customers present this code and proof of ID to collect their parcel - the CollectPlus store and IT systems do the rest.

 

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Field service in the medical industry is complex and challenging. Having recently attended the two key events -  Field Service Medical and Field Service Medical Europe - we look at some of the key challenges service directors working in this vertical face...

It is an often quoted maxim that when it comes to field service highly disparate companies from completely separate verticals can face many of the same pain points. Within the niche of the medical industry these challenges remain but there are also additional hurdles that can make service delivery even harder.

Fortunately for those working within medical field service, global conference producers WBR sit right at the heart of the industry hosting two key events, one each side of the Atlantic to help foster knowledge sharing within the community.

The first of these Field Service Medical was held in San Diego in February and in the Californian sunshine the debate was lively with a highly senior audience coming together and putting commercial rivalries aside to address some of the key challenges within the sector.

Of course as with the wider field service sector, technology has a huge role to play in enhancing the levels of service companies can provide, yet a number of additional challenges such as tighter regulation, greater security fears and fragmented purchasing structures can make the implementation of technology just that little bit harder within the medical sector.

 

Thus a number of conversations centred around integration, with FieldOne’s Ted Steffner’s presentation on the topic ‘Integrate, Don’t isolate’ being a particular highlight for a number of delegates.

Another specific focus of the medical sector is that the sale of consumables within the industry is perhaps disproportionally higher here than in other verticals such as manufacturing. Largely driven by the clean room environment, this leads to an even greater pressure to ensure good inventory management and as well as a number of presentations around this topic, Stacey Blakely, Service Sales Director, Hill-Rom led an excellent interactive round table that provided plenty of food for thought and helped drive the conversation.

Indeed, the sale of consumables is viewed very much as a key part of service revenue still within the medical sector and in some respects the thought processes of many within the vertical is still focused on the traditional break-fix approach to field service.

This was apparent when Professor Tim Baines, Aston University, gave a presentation on the topic of Servitization at Field Service Medical Europe in Berlin a month later.

 

Whilst in many other verticals the topic of servitization and phrases such as through-life-cycle service, advanced services and outcome based solutions are becoming familiar concepts, for many within the medical industry it remains a new concept which faces the dual barriers of both a relenting and strong traditional approach to revenue through consumables, as well as the additional challenges of fully implementing IoT solutions due to the aforementioned fears around security fuelled by the need to protect patient data.

However, whilst in some areas the medical industry maybe a touch behind the broader field service sector, it is also home to some truly innovative thinkers and service leaders.

One such person is Alec Pinto, Associate Director of Qiagen who gave a fantastic presentation on maximising utilisation. Pinto and his colleagues have done some exceptional work on developing mathematical modelling to truly define their available resources in terms of man hours, and then redistributing their workforce accordingly to improve customer satisfaction levels, efficiency levels and engineer engagement.

In summary, the field service industry within the medical sector has a number of unique challenges that are perhaps not felt within other verticals yet the market still continues to see innovation and development on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

“There is an overall theme of companies being more proactive and less reactive across the sector at the moment,” commented Greg Ashton, Conference Producer for WBR at the end of Field Service Medical Europe.

“People have been thinking about it for a long time but now the technology is at a place now where there is a fusion of people and technology all arriving together at a critical point.”

“It’s really the solution providers that are driving it forward, the solutions themselves have improved a lot over the last year,” he added.

 

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In the second of our series examining what makes a rugged device, well, rugged, Sharon Clancy explores IP ratings...

IP environmental ratings along with MIL standards (MIL-STD) are perhaps the most widely recognised yet also perhaps the least fully understood of the standard definitions of what makes a mobile computer or tablet rugged.

Ingress protection is an important element in fit-for-purpose and Total Cost of Ownership considerations because it underpins reliability in the field.

Over-specify and you’ll certainly get a rugged device that won’t let you down, but you’ll push up the price because the more rugged it is, the more expensive the components.

 

You’ll also add weight, so potentially making it less appealing to your field workers.

In contrast, under-specify and you’ll be plagued by in-service unreliability and higher costs - not just of repairs but also those incurred by having technicians unable to carry out critical tasks.

As with all field service buying decisions, it’s a question of ensuring the mobile devices you select for your team are fit-for-purpose: reliable, user-friendly and able to cope with the demands made of them. And when it comes to environmental protection, it’s obvious that the device used by a technician fixing office equipment is less exposed to nature than a utility engineer working outdoors for much of the day.

There’s been lots written about the risks of under-specifying mobile devices for field service, but over-specification, particularly with IP ratings, is also widespread. It adds both unnecessary cost and can have a detrimental effect on productivity – taking us full circle back to the fit-for-purpose question.

“Specmanship” has led to the over-design of many rugged mobile computers, which has quickly led to the (completely unnecessary) over budget predicament many field service organisations are struggling with. A spokesman for Xplore technologies commented:

 

“In the case of IP ratings, less can be more (peace of mind and money in your pocket) and excess protection is counter to the mission of mobile workers, as surely as too little protection will be. It’s a Goldilocks-type situation that can be resolved by having just enough.”

On the other hand, rugged device manufacturers warn against “rugged” versions of consumer smartphones and tablets – often delivered with the addition of a case rather than designing in protection from the start with components such as sealed keyboards and ports and enclosed internal components.

What the IP figures mean 

IP ratings are defined by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards and tell you how well devices are sealed against dirt and moisture ingress and the level of protection components have against whatever is thrown at them.

IP ratings have two numbers: the first indicates the degree of protection against dust, dirt and foreign bodies entering the device while the second is about how resistant the device is to the ingress of fluid from drops, sprays and submersion.

Ingress protection ratings can be affected by the number of ports on a device and whether they are sealed or open, by keyboard design and a number of other factors.

 

We’ve included a link to access a full IP ratings table at the bottom of the page, but for field service the numbers to look out for on a rugged mobile device are “5” and “6” for dust protection and 4,5,6, or 7 for water or fluid ingress. (In comparison, consumer devices typically have a rating of IP42 or lower.)

Both are important when assessing devices: if, like me, you’ve ever spilled tea or coffee on a computer keyboard, you’ll know that water ingress can be the kiss of death to electronic components.

Less dramatic but in the long term just as damaging are ingress of dust and dirt particles. They can cause keys to stick and generally penetrate causing damage to components.

While “6” is dust-proof, a “5” rating doesn’t mean the device will prove unreliable, just that it isn’t completely sealed against dust ingress.

It’s worth noting, too, that complete sealing against water and dust ingress may increase internal temperatures which in turn might impact on processor performance.

There are more numbers for fluid or water ingress: a “4” rating signals protection from splashes, “5” against water from a nozzle, “6” will cope with more powerful water jets or sprays, while “7” means you can submerge the device in water and it will still survive.

Again, which is best for your operations depends on the working environment - for many field-service environments, a “5” rating and even possibly a ”4 “will be perfectly adequate.

MIL-STD 810G

We’ll be taking a closer look at MIL-STDs later in this series, but we think it’s worth mentioning here that while most people associate MIL-STD 810G with drop and vibration checks, it also includes water-resistance and particle tests which tablet and notebook manufacturers also use to demonstrate the ruggedness of their products, especially in the ultra-rugged sector.

Panasonic, for example carries out water resistance tests in accordance with MIL-STD-810G, Method 506.5 Procedure I (Blowing Rain) and Procedure III (Spray). The test items are subjected to this test with the LCD open and the unit operating, but with ports closed.

 

Unlike some computer manufacturers, says Panasonic, it does not shorten the duration of liquid resistance tests. For instance, for the Blowing Rain test, Toughbook fully-rugged computers are tested for a full 30 minutes per surface with a 70 mph wind at rainfall of 5.8in per hour.

Toughbook fully-rugged computers are tested for a full 40 minutes on liquid resistance. Although different Toughbook and Toughpad models have different levels of water resistance, all can survive 6oz of water poured on a keyboard.

Panasonic’s dust resistance test uses MIL-STD-810G, Method 510.5, Procedure I (Dust) and Procedure II (Sand), at up to 140°F, using both fine-grain silica flour and abrasive sand. To pass the test, a device must continue to operate with no binding or blockage of moving parts and no malfunctioning contacts or relays.

A testing question

While IP ratings do provide a standard for comparing devices from different manufacturers, some buyer caution is advisable.

Testing costs money, so some low-cost units may “conform” to IP65, for example, but may not have “passed” the required test or even been tested at all.

It’s also sensible to check how the testing was done – in-house by the manufacturer, or by an independent lab.

Getac, for example, uses a 3rd party to test its tablets and notebooks to ensure they are done to the full requirements.

 

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Want to know more? Visit http://fs-ne.ws/10hVys to see full IP table

 

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Nick Shipton of scheduling specialists Kirona takes a look at the importance of measuring performance and constantly shifting KPI focus in a journey of ongoing improvement...

Kirona recently collaborated with Field Service News and Bill Pollock from Strategies for Change, hosting an interesting webinar covering the key points raised in Bill’s field service benchmarking report.

During the webinar we discussed key trends across field service in terms of what organisation are looking to implement and improve in the future.

The most popular item on the agenda for UK and European organisations was to develop and improve metrics or KPI’s to measure performance.

The thought here was that organisations need to be measuring things better in order to improve and help with the following:

Customer demand for quicker response time

• Workforce utilisation & productivity
• Service process efficiencies
• Customer demand for improved asset availability

 

This if course is all very commendable and is absolutely the correct things to be striving for however, is developing new and improved ways for measuring what we are doing actually going to help us achieve these goals, or does it simply stop short and tell us simply how are we are doing today, last month, last year?

Back office systems, scheduling solutions and mobile solutions give us a whole wealth of potential data to look at and report upon (although those organisations who are yet to jump into the world of scheduling and mobile will only have the very basics), but are we using this data to the best of its ability.

Traditional KPI’s are great for telling us how we are doing now, allowing us to answer the question is the business performing to set metrics? But they stop short of actually giving any insight into how we can improve?

 

The setting of targets doesn’t answer the questions that allow us to improve, it merely creates a benchmark.

Having access to information that addresses; I am meeting the set number of field service jobs I need to complete today that’s great but could I do better if the organisation was configured differently.

The key point is that KPI’s are just a set of controls we like to put into a business to give us some comfort that we are running on track, which is as I say great but do they actually give us any view on how we could improve and deliver a better service to our customers, even if we are doing well.

For us at Kirona it’s about taking that wealth of data we have and giving tools to our customers  that not only allow them to look at the standard KPI’s to ensure they are on track but also to allow them to start analysing where they could get better and implement those improvements.

If you only currently have only a fairly static back office system your ability to get access to meaningful data is going to be very limited, however with scheduling and mobile solutions such as Kirona’s DRS and Kirona’s Job Manager solution you suddenly have an extra dimension to the quantity, quality and type of data available.

Analysing this in the correct way then allows an organisation to start pinpointing exactly where efficiencies in the business could be made.

This extra dimension of data enables the organisation to understanding questions such as;

 

• We may be completing our set number of jobs per day, but actually how much is it costing us to do that?
• Are some geographical areas better performing than others?
• Can we improve this by looking at the distribution of our workforce across those areas?
• Am I giving my customers the most efficient times for appointments for my organisation, and can I improve this without impacting my service?
• Am I deficient in certain skills and abilities in different regions?

 

Are we selling or completing certain services in specific areas of our region and therefore do we need to move the workforce around to support that, or could we be offering a higher level of service in those service areas?

In conclusion I believe what organisations should be looking at in addition to developing new and improved ways of measuring performance, is actually looking at ways at tools that enable your organisation to analyse your business to help improve your performance, without impacting on efficiency, keeping customers happy and attracting new customers.

 

Also if you want to keep ahead of your competitors, hitting your targets isn’t going to do this, the only way to do this is to continually challenge those targets, continual improve your business and analyse what the data is telling you.

Look beyond your KPI’s!

 

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