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Giacomo Squintani of parts management specialists Syncron looks at the challenge of ensuring your supply chain is not the weak link in your field service delivery...

As the overall experiences customers have with durable goods manufacturers become more critical to company success, the strides made in field service management to ensure these positive brand interactions have been remarkable.

Field service technicians not only are the ‘face’ of a company – the individuals interacting with customers on a regular basis – but also key stakeholders in improving performance for the business as a whole.

As a service manager, you must put yourself in both your customers’ and your technicians’ shoes. Your customers’ experiences have improved greatly in recent years. You’ve reduced response times and improved the accuracy of the timing of your technician’s visit while improving first time fix rates. You’ve empowered them with the guidance to fix many problems without visiting them in-person, saving everyone time and money.

For technicians, you’ve reduced their windshield time, turned them into trusted advisors and empowered them with access to all the required knowledge at a click. And, you’re already thinking about the new world that augmented reality could open up.

 

But, what’s the classic problem that frustrates your customers, your technicians and you as a manager?

That’s right. The technician is on time, highly knowledgeable and determined to help, but isn’t stocked with the correct part.

So your brand’s main ambassadors are all too often left sinking in unsatisfactory excuses as unhappy customers stare and shake their heads. And suddenly, that value you’d created through field service management technology investments is compromised by insufficient part availability.

The problem

Many OEMs have successfully grappled with the age-old parts:people challenge, and are reaping its many benefits.

In 2013, AberdeenGroup established that only 45 percent of the companies they interviewed had “increased their focus on service parts management as a result of the added demands from customers to improve service-issue resolution”[1]. Why are so many organisations failing to address a problem that impacts technicians’ effectiveness, brand reputation and customer loyalty, tying up cash in vans and warehouses in the shape of unnecessary, often obsolete stock – ultimately harming profits?

Furthermore, Aberdeen found that only 48 percent of those organisations leveraged “service parts management to increase collaboration across business functions and service,” in spite of the unassailable notion that “the value that other functions can glean from valuable service parts data is immeasurable.”[2]. Highlighting the efficiency losses of a disconnected service ecosystem, the report concluded that “the success of field service is very much dependent on the parts and vice versa”[3]. And yet…

 

In a separate report, WBR established that, when establishing the criticality of future investments, only 8 percent of executives were considering inventory management.

Yet, when they examined the sources of customer complaints, the biggest contributing problem was parts unavailability, cited by 55 percent of service executives. Failure to fix the issue on the first visit, the engineer’s arrival time and their lack of experience generated far fewer complaints, with rates of 35 percent, 29 percent and 12 percent respectively[4]. These negative experiences leave your customers baffled and frustrated with a negative perception of you brand.

The solution

Resolving these types of customer issues and experiences is perfectly feasible.

Technologies exist for this very purpose – service parts management and scheduling solutions interacting together to ensure that when your technician arrives to the right place at the right time, they have the right part to keep your customers happy and encourage repeat business.

Solutions specifically built for the service business, with all of its challenges around low-volume, ‘just-in-case,’ intermittent availability, rather than for high volume, predictable, ‘just-in-time’ throughput.

 

Service parts management can make your technicians’ lives easier, and in turn positively impact each customer’s experience with your brand.

As outlined previously, technicians’ responsibilities are broadening: their job no longer ends when the issue is resolved, it entails acting as trusted advisors, identifying opportunities for further business and potentially maintaining other vendors’ equipment. And, most importantly, are the ones interacting face-to-face with your customers.

Room for improvement

Service part inventory networks are complex – a part may go through central warehouses, distribution centres, regional stocking locations and secure local collection boxes along its journey to a technician’s vehicle. Oftentimes, technicians will end up being over-stocked, causing unnecessary restocking at the warehouse.

Hurt by online shopping, brick-and-mortar retailers are providing spare part stocking locations to bridge the physical gap between technicians and end customers.

These scenarios should be embraced by service teams: the greater the complexity, the greater the potential for efficiency improvements in the service part supply chain. Once routing and scheduling have been optimised, further benefits can only come from other processes within the service ecosystem, and service part inventory management, with its potential to reduce costs across multiple echelons within the supply chain, can deliver quick gains.

 

With switching barriers lower than ever, in a competitive landscape where you are not only fighting rival OEMs but also independent service providers, you owe it to your technicians to empower them with the right tools for the job.

You owe it to your customers, too. And, having established fantastic efficiencies in field service management, there is far greater scope to drive value and ROI by optimising your service part supply chain. Enable your techs to drive an awesome customer experience at every interaction by ensuring the right part for the job is at hand when and where they need it.

 

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[1] AberdeenGroup, “Service Parts Management 2013: Align Planning and Forecasting with Efficient Resolution”, p. 1

[2] AberdeenGroup, op. cit., p. 3

[3] AberdeenGroup, op. cit., p. 7

[4] WBR, “Where Service Meets Sales: Automating for the Future of Field Service”, p. 10

 

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In our latest research project we’ve teamed up with rugged tablet manufacturer Xplore Technologies to find out what are the tools field service companies are investing in to ensure that they are giving their field service engineers every chance to ensure they are delivering service excellence.

In part one of this series we looked at the merging lines between rugged and consumer manufacturers and the rising trend for field service engineers to use more than one digital device when out in the field.

In part two we looked at the choices being made when selecting either rugged or consumer devices as well as the importance of Operating Systems in device selection. 

Now in this the concluding part of this series we explore the need and desire for connectivity options in the devices being allocated to field service engineers.

 

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There is also an exclusive research report available for download that contains even further insight and analysis of these research findings. Download your copy of the findings here

 

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Connectivity and Data Capture

A key factor in what was driving the decisions around which devices field service companies were selecting for their field engineers was the various options for both connectivity and data capture.

Perhaps it is no surprise given the growing importance of Cloud computing and the prevalence of connected devices that in terms of connectivity, the most desired technology within a device was Wi-Fi capabilities which was cited by 87% of companies as being a key technology that was ideally required in a device deemed to be suitable for field engineers.

Similarly the inclusion of 4G mobile internet was also stated as ideally needed in a field service device by over two thirds (69%) of our respondents.

Perhaps an indication of how much we have moved already to a wireless world is how these figures stack up against the desire to have a wired Ethernet connection which was cited as being ideal by just under a quarter (24%) of companies.

 

Additional evidence to support this desire to move towards wire-free technology is also indicated in the fact that Bluetooth was desired by almost three quarters (73%) of companies as well. This is significantly higher than older, wired methods of connectivity such as RS232 which just over a fifth (21%) of companies desired or even USB which just half (47%) of companies stated they felt was an ideal inclusion.

However, when we look at data input requirements it is the well established, tried and tested technologies that remained the most sought after.

The ability for a device to capture photographic or video data remains the most important means of data input for most field service companies with well over three quarters (79%) stating that they would ideally expect this in a device.

Second to video/photo capture was the inclusion of a barcode scanner, which was desired by almost two thirds (65%) of our respondents.

 

What is interesting is that amongst those companies who opted for consumer devices (which of course are unlikely to have such features embedded within them) the desire to have barcode reading capability actually increased slightly to 71% of respondents.

Again, this perhaps indicates that whilst a number of companies are lured in simply by the initial lower cost per unit of consumer devices perhaps there are wider considerations such as how fit for purpose a device is, that should be considered alongside the initial cost.

In terms of manual data input, it is interesting to note that although laptops remain the most popular device for field engineers overall, the assumption that this is based on the requirements of a physical keyboard is proven to be somewhat flawed by our findings.

Indeed, there were almost three times as many companies who stated that they felt an on-screen keyboard was desired rather than those who stated they felt a physical keyboard was ideal.

In fact over two fifths of companies (42%) backed an on-screen keyboard whilst just 15% identified physical keyboards as their preference.

 

Another indication of the changing nature of how we interact with our hardware is also highlighted that handwriting recognition software was also desired by two times as many companies (32%) than a physical keyboard.

Perhaps one of the most curious findings of the research is that yet again we see NFC/RFID overlooked by field service industries as the technology - which could have such an effective impact within a number of elements of a field service engineers workflow, from checking the service history of an asset in the field being repaired through to ensuring accurate parts inventory, was only cited by 13% as being required in an ideal field service device.

Similarly, voice recognition software, which in an industry where the ability to work hands free is a major factor, one would think would be a significant tool for data input in any given field service focused device, was also relatively shunned with just over a tenth (11%) of companies stating they saw this as being an ideal inclusion within a field service device.

The benefits of mobile computing

Finally, one area where it would seem there is certainly a growing consensus is in the way field service engineers appreciate working on a mobile device.

We asked our respondents: “Do you think your field workers have appreciated a move to using a mobile device?” And the response was overwhelmingly positive. In fact over two thirds (69%) stating their field service engineers had provided mostly positive responses and 35% going further and stating their engineers had ‘absolutely taken to going mobile’.

When we look at the reasons why we’ve seen such wide acceptance of mobile technology amongst field service engineers the single most commonly cited reason was that ‘it made their workflow easier’ which 45% of companies revealed their engineers benefited from.

 

A similar amount of companies (41%) also stated that their engineers felt that the adoption of mobile devices as part of their field service toolkit also allowed them to be more productive and to get their work done more swiftly.

So whilst their are many decisions to be made for field service companies in terms of device selection - rugged or consumer, tablet or laptop, even one or more devices, the one thing is abundantly clear for the 5% of respondents who are still using pen and paper.

A move to a digital device will inevitably be embraced by their engineers whilst delivering clear R.o.I

 

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Want to know more? Download the exclusive research report for further analysis and insight from these research findings

 

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Look out for the next part of this series where we look at the importance of connectivity in device selection...

 

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By downloding the report you are consenting to the T&Cs listed here

 

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Tablets have proven to be a huge success amongst field service companies providing a good mix of portability and processing power. However, when it comes to significant data input or powering particularly CPU intensive applications the laptop still remains king. Therefore the rise in prominence of the convertible laptop makes perfect sense in the world of industry. 

Here we look at Getac’s latest convertible model the V110...

What the manufacturers say...

The breakthrough design of the Getac V110 rugged convertible enables the computer to be amazingly strong while also being unbelievably light. It truly is a revolution in rugged computing.

At 1.98kg and 34mm thin, it’s 27% lighter and 30% thinner than the previous generation.

The V110 is built to perform, featuring a powerful 5th generation Intel® Core™ processor, flash storage and responsive graphics. It’s the fastest rugged convertible we’ve ever built. The V110’s dual batteries are 66% smaller and 57% lighter than previous generations, and the unique, hot-swappable dual-battery design allows for potentially infinite, uninterrupted battery life.

This enables you to remove one of the two rechargeable batteries and replace it with a fresh battery without ever shutting down apps or your Windows OS.

The V110 rugged convertible has been built using the highest quality materials to make it unflinchingly resilient.

The V110’s main chassis structure is precision cast using magnesium alloy, an incredibly strong structural metal that also happens to be one of the lightest in the world for its strength.

We combined that with an advanced rugged polymer in areas of less impact and rubberised absorption polymer at the main points of contact.

First impressions...

A quick look at the V110 and there is absolutely no mistaking this device for what it is - i.e. a heavy duty rugged device that can handle itself in the field.

In fact the V110 would look right at home in a modern war film set in the deserts of the Middle East such is its rugged outward appearance that reveal its manufacturer’s roots as a leading provider of rugged devices to the military sector.

However, up close and in hand the device is a lot smaller than one might imagine and certainly comes in a more compact form factor than some of its fully rugged convertible counterparts.

Weighing in at just 1.98kg the V110 is over 15% lighter than Panasonic’s C19 and over 20% lighter than Durabook’s U12Ci semi rugged convertible making it certainly one of if not the lightest device of it’s kind in the market currently.

This is largely to do with the V110’s slim depth which at a particularly sleek 34mm which is considerably smaller than other similar rugged convertible devices.

With all of it’s I/O ports tucked away behind lockable, rubberised seals it is perhaps a touch surprising that the V110 isn’t a fully submersible -  however, we shall touch on that a little later.

In terms of actually using the device, the full size keyboard is comfortable in hand, and both the touch screen and tracker pad are pleasingly responsive.

Meanwhile the 800 nits LumiBond® display with Getac sunlight readable technology, was certainly a match for the brightest British sunshine available during the testing period and there were no problems with using the device in the outdoors at any point.

Using the device in laptop mode, whilst it was obviously a more robust device than your average laptop, there was never a feeling of trading usability for ruggedity. However, this did change substantially when switching to tablet mode.

In fairness this isn’t particularly the fault of the V110 itself more so the ‘convertible’ form factor as a whole. In tablet mode comparisons will naturally be made with other rugged tablets such as the Xplore XSlate B10 which being just a tablet rather than a convertible, is of course a lighter, more portable rugged computing tool.

 

Essentially, if the sole reason you are considering a convertible is for a keyboard then a rugged tablet with a bluetooth keyboard would be a more slimline and mobile solution for your field service engineers.

However, the point remains of course that the biggest selling point of any laptop over its tablet rivals would be what kind of processing power, storage and optimised inputs and outputs can be squeezed into the extra space under the bonnet.

So let's take a closer look.....

Processing power

The V110 comes in four different processing power flavours with the top end specifications boasting an Intel Core i7 vPro Technology chip set with an Option Intel Core i7-5600U vPro Processor 2.6GHz Max. 3.2GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology and a 4MB Intel Smart Cache.

When it comes to storage the V110 has 4GB DDR3L which is can be expandable to 16GB and has storage options of a 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid state drive.

This gives the V110 enough processing power  handle almost any application that could be required of it within a field service environment.

In fact at its optimum configuration the V110 is pretty much at the top of the pile. The only other fully rugged convertible that can keep pace with the V110 is Panasonic’s CF19.

Operating system

Given the power the V110 holds under its bonnet it makes complete sense for the convertible to be on the Windows platform in order to support the more comprehensive applications that may be used by field service engineers who would require such a powerful tool.

However, what is an impressive inclusion is that in terms of OS the V110 is available in three different versions of Windows - Windows 7, 8 and 10.

This flexibility could be particularly useful for those companies that are making the transition from one iteration of the operating system to another with Windows 7 proving to be the XP of its generation in that is a reliable and robust platform which many companies are reluctant to move away from.

However, many of those that have made the switch to Windows 8 are keen to move on quickly to 10 due to some of the well documented flaws in its predecessor. And it is Windows 10 that shows off the full capabilities of the V110's flexibility as a convertible laptop with the OS being a perfect match for the V110's impressive specifications.

The Ins & Outs:

Aside from the obvious benefits of having a keyboard for data input, perhaps one of the biggest reasons for selecting any form of laptop over a tablet equivalent is the available I/Os - and in this regard the V110 certainly doesn’t disappoint.

As mentioned above all ports are protected within closable rubber sealed enclosures.

In total the V110 boasts:

• Serial port (9-pin; D-sub) x 1
• Headphone out / mic-in Combo x 1
• DC in Jack x 1
• USB 3.0 (9-pin) x 2
• USB 2.0 (4-pin) x 1
• LAN (RJ45) x 1
• HDMI x 1
• Docking connector (24-pin) x 1

Connectivity:

In terms of connectivity options the V110 comes with dual band Intel Wireless-AC 7265; 802.11ac meaning it should be able to take the maximum speed from any availableWi-Fi signal whether it be on the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz frequency.

The V110 is also capable of supporting internet speeds of up-to 1000 mbits per second across an Ethernet connection which could be useful for the transfer of large files from the field back to HQ.

The convertible also comes with Bluetooth 4.0 which should provide reliable, stable and fast connectivity with mobile devices.

One area where the V110 is perhaps let down however, is when it comes to mobile internet.

Whilst the device does have the optional inclusion of Gobi mobile broadband, for field service engineers mobile broadband is absolutely essential for jobs where there may be no conveniently available wi-fi signal.

Similarly a dedicated GPS is only available as an optional extra also. Connectivity is an essential factor in selecting the right tool for our field service engineers and whilst the V110 is clearly capable of being able to deliver high end levels of mobile connectivity, given the importance of such tools for communications in the field one can’t help but feel these should perhaps be standard features rather than optional extras.

Ruggedity:

When it comes to the rugged specifications of the V110, Getac’s convertible is a pretty robust beast.

With an IP rating of 65 the V110 is fully protected from dust ingress making it an ideal device for more arid climates whilst it is also certified to survive protection against low pressure water jets from any direction so could be easily cleaned.

 

It is also well protected against water ingress and, as mentioned previously, all I/Os are protected by rubber seals. Also, the V110 also has an option Salt Fog feature that could make it an ideal device for wet locations such as oil rigs or offshore wind farms etc.

Whilst not fully water proofed, or capable of being fully submersed, the fact is that the device remains well protected from water means it is almost certainly able to cope in most wet environments just as long as you don’t drop it in the sea!

In terms of drop specs the device is certified to Mil-Std 810g (tested by an external third party), so it should be able to cope with almost all knocks and drops. It  also e-Mark certified for vehicle usage.

Battery Life:

In terms of battery life the V110 is again well provisioned with a dual battery system.

In fact the V110 is powered by 2 separate Li-Ion smart battery (11.1V, 2100mAh) which promise to deliver up to 13 hours of battery life and using the device during our test period we found that this was in fact achievable even with the device being used constantly throughout the day.

Getac also provide LifeSupport battery swappable technology which could theoretically extend the battery life forever although running on two fully charged batteries is likely to be sufficient for even the longest jobs.

Conclusion:

In conclusion the V110 is very clearly a well designed, highly specced piece of kit that sits right a the top of its tree when we look at the rugged convertible form factor.

In terms of processing power, rugged specifications, battery life, and I/Os the V110 is either as good as it gets or pretty darn close.

In the hand the device is light and comfortable and, as we saw earlier, compares favourably to similar competitor models in this respect also.

The one major criticism would be aimed not so much at the V110 but at the convertible form factor itself. Whilst they work well as laptops, as a tablet they feel that much more cumbersome and one can’t help but feel the convertible form factor is a stepping stone, towards fully detachable rugged devices that truly offer the best of both worlds.

That said, detachables are still a new concept and as such relatively untested whereas convertibles have been around that much longer and are perhaps the safer alternative currently in a mission critical environment such as field service.

And when it comes to convertibles the V110 is certainly a formidable tool for field service companies and an excellent option for those companies whose field engineers need more computing power than a tablet yet still want the reliability and robustness of a fully rugged device.

 

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Marne Martin CEO of ServicePower argues that to be a thoroughbred amongst your competitors you must seek out the best-in-breed technologies...

Spring is the start of the racing season in some parts of the United States, especially in Kentucky where the Kentucky Derby, the first race of the Triple Crown, is run the first Saturday of May.

The 2015 race was historic.

American Pharaoh, a horse owned by an Egyptian immigrant, with half a tail, took the Triple Crown on Saturday, June 7, 2015 by winning the last and longest of the Triple Crown races, the mile and a half Belmont Stakes.

He’s only the 12th horse in history to ever win all three races: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the longest, the Belmont Stakes. And, he won that last race decidedly, taking it in 2:26:65 minutes and 5 ½ lengths ahead of the 8 horse field, the fastest Belmont since 2001 and 6th fastest time since Affirmed ran it in 2:26 4/5.

Only Secretariat, the legendary race horse featured in the movie Secretariat in 2010, ran the Belmont faster at 2:24 by 31 lengths in 1973.

The Pharaoh stands happily at stud now at Ashford, a 2,200-acre farm in Versailles, Kentucky, where, even as unproven, first-year stallion, he commands a record $200,000 stud fee. Thoroughbreds are athletes in every sense of the word.

They train for years and face stiff competition. Some of them are born with an edge, like Secretariat, whom had a larger than average heart rumoured to have contributed to his racing success. But, most winners are the product of preparation and execution including the latest, best tools and technology. Field service organisation are exactly the same.

 

We must focus on preparing our people and executing seamlessly by enabling ourselves with the tools and technology that ensure success.

Out of the gate, we must seek out the best in breed field resources. New technologies like social, mobile, cloud and IoT are second nature to the emerging millennial workforce. Find field technicians comfortable with new technologies and provide them with complementary tools which improve their personal success. Collaboration tools like video chat, mobile applications and wearables help them help your customers. Satisfied field resources, trained to use their technology, with access to tools and information to get the job done will increase your first time fix rates and customer satisfaction.

To beat the competition down the stretch, we must execute flawlessly by enabling ourselves with the best tools and technology. Mobile workforce management software is not optional. I think most enterprise level organisations, with several hundred or thousands of field resources get this.

But the necessity of scheduling technology is still nebulous for some small or medium sized enterprises. Every business, no matter the size absolutely can benefit from real time route and schedule optimisation, mobile dispatch and field service management software. There are many options for route optimisation, but not all are the same.

While some vendors offer ‘scheduling’, that doesn’t necessarily mean they offer real time, intra-day route optimisation like ServicePower. ServicePower has invested significant effort into enhancing our scheduling software, filing 4 patents on Quantum Annealing, the first new optimisation algorithm in decades, which offers all businesses more efficient, faster route optimisation by harnessing the cloud and distributed computing.

 

For those small, medium and even large enterprises whom do not or cannot deploy a full on MWFM software, Optimization on DemandTM released this summer provides improve productivity and reduced costs without a full workforce management software deployment. Optimization On Demand™ enables field service organisations to book jobs for customers, then pass a set of appointments to ServicePower to optimize, on demand, into the best, least costly order.

Optimization On Demand™ provides a more intelligent tool set, without the expenditure of an entire workforce management or field service optimisation software solution. NEXUS FS™ provides field service organisations of any size an enterprise quality, wholly configurable, cloud-based field service management solution with a comprehensive mobile application.

It supports work order management, dispatch, scheduling, inventory management, time sheet reporting and geolocation, enabling focus on providing high quality service to customers, while benefiting from productivity improvements.

Technology is available/accessible at any level of business operations and is the key to winning the race, beating the competition. To cross the finish line, use of technology is key.

Optimised scheduling, mobility and field service management are all critical components of mobile workforce management software. But, to cross that line, field service organisations must deploy collaborative, operational intelligence and real time control consoles to monitor ongoing operations from across the enterprise.

Monitoring what’s happening today ensures high compliance levels and happy customers. Mining the data, using custom scorecards and predictive analytics enables teams to manage work, coach staff and fine tune processes to get over the finish line today, setting up a successful tomorrow. Do all this, and your organisation will have also won the Triple Crown.

 

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The global field service market is estimated to jump from $1.58 billion last year to more than $3.5 billion by 2019, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets. This three-part series will look at how cloud is an enabler for field service organisations, how technology is allowing central control and improving people management, rounding off with a look at how technology can improve customer service and the issue of privacy.

The series has emerged following a recent panel debate with experts and academics, hosted by ClickSoftware and chaired by Forrester’s senior analyst, Paul Miller. The panel included: 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.

The cloud as an enabler and the automation landscape

 Paul Miller opened the debate: “We're here to talk about cloud and field service. A lot of the visible manifestations are out in the field, for instance the device the engineer is holding when they walk into your house is probably accessing applications and data held in the cloud – but do we really need the cloud for all that? Why is the cloud important?”

“We all get excited about new technology,” Phil Wainewright responds. “What's changed now is the Internet and that's brought two things – digital connectedness and extremely powerful and not so powerful smart devices. There are more computers in the world today than there are people; cheap devices, with the ability to be connected to each other and to the computing power of the cloud, are falling right into the hands of individuals. The final ingredient is the hugely elastic scalable power of the cloud. You can pool it into a vast cauldron of big data and pop out analytics and use the information to develop more efficient processes.”

 

“For ClickSoftware it's a different model and it brings down barriers to adopting field service solutions that were there before,” said Tim Faulkner. “Any company with its own IT department probably had a traditional approach of evaluating a solution, looking at the integrations needed, buying the hardware, setting it up and making that capex investment – as an organisation, you bank on seeing returns as you ramp up and roll out.”

Faulkner continued, “That's not easy for a small organisation to do though. Cloud is a leveller and enables small organisations to adopt the same applications. For large corporations it helps them to deploy different methods. Maybe not the big waterfall approach, but a more agile incremental way in shorter timeframes. Cloud is definitely an enabler for that, opening new opportunities for business units within larger corporations. Last year, in Europe, the adoption of our cloud-based solutions surpassed my forecasts at the beginning of the year – we expected 25% of new customers and it ended up being closer to 50%!”

Miller interjects: “Allowing smaller companies to adopt the same solution as their biggest competitors?”

“Using cloud based field service technology allows flexibility and speed,” said Dr Carsten Sorensen.  “If you look at manufacturing, in the old days you'd have a siloed approach – by the time you got to the last person to sign for a new component, they'd realise it couldn't be made within the constraints and they'd have to go back and start again.

Dr Sorensen continued, “We need to understand all of the constraints straight away. One of the key things in business is to allow individuals to make rapid decisions while at the same time making sure they don’t make bad decisions for the company. In the past, these individuals had information in a handbook or on their computer back at the office or depot. In the 21^st century, individuals, wherever they are, need to make the right choices and the infrastructure needs to be in their hands to make those informed decisions. We haven’t really worked out how to utilise this yet.”

 

“Business infrastructure is an important angle,” said Wainewright. “The way businesses are organised needs to be changed to take advantage of the new technologies.”

Sorensen jumped in at this point: “They need to balance ERP systems that automate the process that tells people what to do at what stage. It makes it possible to have flexible communication. The challenge is for big companies to manage this to facilitate processes but also enable discussions and flexibility. The more lightweight infrastructure you have the better it is for flexibility. Cloud technology makes it more lightweight.”

Rounding off the first part of the debate Miller asked Katelyn Burrell how organisations are changing how they deal with their own customers, with cloud playing a big part of that. “When prospects come to ClickSoftware looking for a cloud solution from you, is that recognition part of the solution? Are they thinking about the broader strategic shift?”

“They are absolutely thinking about the broader strategic shift,” said Burrell. “We started nearly 20 years’ ago with on premise solutions only, we're experts at that. It has to be a transformative project where all stakeholders are involved up-front. What the cloud has done now is enabled more experimentation within the organisation, possibly without the involvement of IT. A business unit might come to us and say they want to make this transformation and need help selling to the executives. The cloud has enabled them to do a pilot project before going on a bigger scale.

What's really driving it for our customers is that their products and services are becoming more commoditised, and how they deliver their services is a key differentiator. They need to improve their customer experience, but also keep their operations and costs in check, servicing the needs of the business and the customer.”

Look out for Part Two of the debate, when the focus switches to central control and people management, and how development of the devices available allows greater oversight and communications with workers out in the field.

 

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Fleet management is about far more than keeping track of your where your engineers are and how they get from A to B writes Sharon Clancy...

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that not knowing where your service people are at any given point in the day is likely to impact on the future prosperity of your field service business.

In this connected world of ours, live location data is becoming a given, It’s a core element in being able to react to real-time events such as unexpected delay to the planned schedule.

So, having acknowledged that you need to know where your field service workers are in order to be able to respond to dynamically developing situations appropriately, where do you get this live, real-time, location information?

 

The arrival of the smart mobile device has made live position fixes much easier to obtain. You can locate a device on a cellular network mast, or you can get a location fix from a satellite. GPS has become a generic term for the latter: it stands for Global Positioning System, the US Government’s free-to-use network of 24 orbiting satellites.

Satellite transceivers (often called GPS chips) in telematics black boxes and smart mobile devices communicate with a minimum of three satellites to obtain a location fix, which is accurate to between 10 and 15 metres. By contrast, accuracy on the cellular network is only as accurate as the distance between the masts.

Why fleet management pays

Given that priority number one for most field service companies is on getting engineers to their next job and maximising the number of technician visits per day, why bother with vehicle tracking-cum-fleet management system if you can get all the information you need from, say, scheduling software with location-enabled smart devices?

Well, an important part of any engineer’s day is, actually, the driving of the vehicle from Job A to Job B and so on.

Having an integrated or stand-alone fleet management system provides a lot of potential performance improving data and more field service companies are beginning to recognise that they can deliver a lot of data about what your vehicles and engineers are doing, and they capture that information automatically.

For smaller SMEs, it can be an alternative to scheduling software.

Exception reporting underpins fleet management software, whether it is for tasks such as on-time arrivals at customer premises, working time compliance and speeding alerts. You set up the parameters as to what is “normal” for that vehicle and receive live updates.

 

Some service management processes now receiving attention are, in fact, long-standing elements of fleet management packages, especially those relating to driver management and reporting: on-board telemetry fuel consumption, trip data, idling time and harsh braking.

For example, fleet management systems provide historical analysis of trips, helping confirm the scheduled route is the most economical in terms of miles, fuel and timing. Analysis of the routes driven can identify any issues, whether it is regular hold-ups at customer premises, congestion hotspots and engineers going off-route.

For those companies who’ve not yet progressed to a dynamic scheduling software, you can get a lot of similar features with fleet management systems: engineer location, automated alerts on arrival and departure form customer premises, paperless data capture.

There’s less upfront cost, too - fleet management specialists were early adopters of the pay-as-you-go cost model, charging on a per-vehicle-per-month basis. If you’ve acquired your fleet on a lease basis, fleet management can often be included in the monthly costs.

For some benefits, you do not actually have to do much at all.

Geofencing, for example, is a virtual fence around a site such as customer premises, depot, or engineer’s driveway. Once set up, it alerts managers if a vehicle is moved unexpectedly out of hours, and when vehicles arrive and leave customer premises.

Going green

Fuel represents a significant cost for any field service business and it’s also a big a contributor to carbon emissions.

Any company with a business plan to reduce its carbon emissions needs to pay attention to the contribution from its vehicle fleet. If they haven’t already, larger companies with their own commitment to carbon reduction are starting to ask suppliers and contractors for more specific information about their carbon emissions reduction strategy is – it’s becoming included in contracts.

Several of fleet management companies now offer “Eco” or carbon footprint calculators. Masternaut, for example, has a carbon calculator that uses vehicle mileage and the known carbon output per km for each vehicle to calculate the footprint.

 

Fleet management companies use the on-board diagnostics port (OBD) now required on new vans to capture vehicle and driver performance data.

Congestion in towns and cities doesn’t just affect schedule times, it can have a big impact on fuel consumption – slow-moving traffic and idling.

Duty of Care

There is renewed focus on what processes are in place that demonstrate compliance with duty-of-care responsibilities. These combine an element of lone-worker protection and risk-analysis of employee behaviour.

For field service companies, the van is there to get your asset, the engineer, from job to job.

They might have all the on-site safety checks nailed but because vehicle operation is not the main focus of the business, field service companies won’t necessarily have a dedicated person to check driving behaviour – from whether the engineer has a valid a licence to whether he is guilty of always driving at 40mpg in a 30m0h zone.

The risk is therefore higher that these drivers will behave inappropriately and that no-one at the company will be responsible for picking it up.

 

Over the past year at Field Service News we’ve seen encouraging signs that more field service companies are recognising the need to monitor the driving part of their engineers’ daily lives, both in terms of fuel consumption and from a Duty of Care and safety viewpoint.

It’s in-built into fleet management systems – not an add-on. You can prove compliance with duty of care responsibilities.

There’s an app for that. 

At any field service company, one of the biggest administration challenges is following the paper trail. Whether it is worksheets, job manifests, invoices, timesheets, expenses or vehicle safety records, losing vital pieces of paper is all too easy.

Fleet management companies have been big adopters of mobile app technology to help mobile workers do a host of things, from timesheet entries to holiday request. Everyone’s familiar with an app, so no great training is required.

Time and tax management

Fleet management systems can also provide proof of when employees start and finish work – this is particularly important in the EU, for example, where the Working Time Directive imposes limits on weekly working hours.

Service companies have to manage the fact that for many employees, their work vehicles will be also be used for non-business driving and one key benefit that fleet management systems can bring for van operators is the ability to automatically differentiate between business and private mileage - in some countries, employees are taxed on private mileage.

Driver log-on systems ensure there is no confusion about who was driving at a particular time, or you can set up a geofence - any vehicle which leaves the premises or the engineer’s home address outside normal working hours is deemed to be being used privately.

Tracking logs provide detailed breakdown of business/private mileage for each day and the week as a whole can be exported to other applications such as payroll. It’s easy to set up on most fleet management websites.

Asking an engineer to complete a daily vehicle check might be prudent from a safety viewpoint but the engineer might see it as delaying him getting to that important first call.

 

He’s probably logging on to get his job manifest anyway, so give him an app to do the check and not only is it faster and easier, it closes the compliance loop because once it’s complete, the data is sent live to the office. Managers can see non-compliant vehicles and any defects needing urgent attention. In the event of an accident and a claim, you have proof the vehicle was compliant.

Driver check apps can also be useful if vehicles are shared, pinpointing when the damage was done and whether the driver was at fault.

Miscellaneous small repair bills for items such as minor scrapes and cracked deflectors can add up and identifying if one engineer is more prone than another to this type of incident can identify a training need.

Fleet management systems deliver some quick wins for field service companies, especially in terms of vehicle utilisation, route management and fuel economy.

Quick-fix apps continue to offer still more opportunity to remove time-consuming unprofitable tasks from fleet operations. And If there isn’t one yet, someone somewhere is probably writing it.

 

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With the launch of a dedicated field service application, enterprise mobility platform firm Kony has stepped firmly into the busy arena of FSM software providers. However, they bring with them a new set of thinking that could change the way the entire industry approaches app development in the future.

Kris Oldland spoke exclusively with Jonathan Best, VP EMEA at Kony to understand why they believe they are changing the game for the better...

As we sit down to discuss the new launch of Kony’s dedicated field service application I am genuinely intrigued.

The launch seems to fly in the face of the logic that has underpinned the success of Kony in many senses. Kony has established an enviable reputation for being a slick and intuitive platform that facilitates the ease of developing mobile apps.

Facilitating bespoke app design is what these guys do and they do it brilliantly. So surely an off-the-shelf, vanilla field service app goes against their very ethos?

However, my mistake here was thinking that the app stopped at being just plain old vanilla. Sure the base layer may be the same for everybody, but to continue the metaphor the ability to tailor this app is as open and as varied as the contents of a tin of hundreds and thousands.

“Principally what we have is a platform for the development of apps within enterprises. And that’s where most of our customers are investing,” explains Best

“But when we see the same app requested in multiple places rather than us doing custom built apps for every single client, it makes sense for us to provide at least a foundation that they can start from,” he adds.

 

And here in lies the rub.

Kony’s approach is very much centred on client empowerment and in the understanding that whilst there are core requirements across differing companies in differing verticals, ultimately no two businesses are identical, and therefore no two businesses will require an identical field service app.

“Probably the big difference between our apps and the more traditional field service app is that we are trying to provide a base level of functionality, that somebody can take out of the box and use if they don’t have a process or they just want to build something very quickly; but much more, what we are trying to provide is a base level functionality that people can build on top of and develop,” Best states.

“We are not trying to build a 100% solution but instead build a 60 to 80% solution that can then be tailored to meet your business process.”

 

This approach is something that Best and his colleagues don’t see in the FSM market currently and is an approach that could ultimately prove to be a genuinely disruptive influence within the sector.

“Our approach of course opposes what quite a lot of what the traditional apps have had, which is ‘this is a field service solution this is how it works.’ You can tweak around the edges a bit but really you must follow the processes as it is laid out in the core application.”

“And most of those field service applications that have been developed for mobile historically have come from some kind of core system provider be that a ClickSoftware or a SAP or an IBM, whoever, where it is a mobile part of wider solution.”

“What we are trying to say, as a mobile company, is lets look at the mobile process and then try and figure out all the ways that you connect that to whatever your back-end systems might be.”

“So what we are doing for customers is helping them to develop the mobile use case and connect that to their back-end systems. What we saw with field service is that lots of people wanted a field service capability - they either had one that they weren’t very happy with or they didn’t have one and they wanted to create one, and what they wanted was the capability to tie that into whatever their back-end systems were.”

“So they do not necessarily have to take SAP’s field service solution for example just because they use SAP’s systems on the back-end,”

 

Such flexibility to tailor a mobile application to truly fall in line with your own specific workflows is of course both an innovative and exciting approach. But it also sounds like an option that could require some heavy development and a bunch of spare programmers to undertake such work isn’t a resource every company has to hand.

So what exactly is the process of evolving the Kony app beyond the 60% out-of-the-box offering into a well tailored app designed for a specific company’s needs?

“It can be undertaken by the customer if the customer wants to do it,” replies Best.

“Or it can be Kony if the customer wants us to do it - we have a 600 person strong professional services organisation that we can bring to bear on these projects, but probably most commonly it is partners - the traditional model of us being the software provider, the customer being the driver of the demand and the expert in what the processes are; and a system integrator sits in between and takes the Kony technology and builds the app together with the client.”

Fundamentally what the Kony platform provides is an ability to plug into your existing systems and then provide a dedicated tool for mobile interaction with the data stored in those systems based around the needs of any given individual within the enterprise.

And as we enter more fully into an age where information and data is key, the free flow of data facilitated by deep level integrations is of course highly advantageous for the field engineer, enabling them to arrive on site fully prepped for the job they are about to do. However, such movement of data is of course a two way street and the amount of valuable data that is available to a field engineer could also be highly useful if fed into the right place, whether it be sales, R&D or even third party partners.

 

“There is a lot of good stuff in those back end systems that you want to be able to provide out to salespeople, that you want to be able to provide to service engineers and you probably want to be able to provide it to business partners as well,” Best begins.

“A lot of our customers have got a core field service organisation of their own but then they use a third party to fill in the gaps around peaks in demand etc. and they probably want to provide different amounts of information about assets and customers to a third party than you would do to your core sales force.”

“What Kony traditionally provides is the platform that allows you to say ‘we want this information to be available to this person on this device for this purpose.”

However, perhaps Kony’s greatest strength in coming to the field service sector is that they arrive less encumbered by the rules and formulae of any previous iterations of their product, meaning they can take a fresh pair of eyes, that are customer focussed, when it comes to what should or shouldn’t be included within a field service application.

“A lot of people say to us there are gaps in the field service solutions that are available on the market."

“Again, if you look at a lot of the typical field service solutions that are on the market, it’s difficult to extend them to have an additional capability or to add something new into the mix. For example if you look at IoT,” Best ventures.

 

“As people are putting more and more sensors in the capital equipment that is getting serviced, they want to be able to integrate it much more with the field service engineer and the system they are using but it’s very difficult in a lot of the traditional field service solutions that weren’t built with IoT in mind.”

“We are saying lets provide the core capability that allows you to do scheduling, that allows you to push jobs out to the field, allows you to do all the things that any field service person needs you to do. But lets do that on our platform which enables you to tie back into a much broader set of back-end systems than is probably the case in the offering that you are using today, and lets do that in a way that opens up the capability to integrate new things like IoT.”

Of course one of the most exciting factors of the field service industry right now is that it is in a state of almost constant beta, with new technologies being integrated and adopted every year.

With such a dynamic technology base at play future proofing any investment as much as possible is crucial. Which is another benefit of Kony’s approach to FSM app development.

“One of the reasons people are increasingly investing in Kony is because we provide that future proofing at both ends,” Best claims when the subject is brought up.

 

“Our capability to integrate into back-end systems is recognised as the best in the industry and our ability to support differing device types and OS that are getting produced is unparalleled.”

Another factor to be considered within the development of any enterprise app, whether it be for field service, or other areas, of the business is the User Interface. This is something Best is acutely aware of and believes the move to a platform based approach, will see user experience in business to enterprise apps improve vastly as costs of development become greatly reduced.

“One of the things that is happening in the current generation of apps is that people are paying much more attention to what can be done with the interface”

“A large driver for this is that now with Cordova and HTML5, and tools like Kony provide, we can produce native output at a much lower cost by using technology to create it and so there’s ‘this write once, run everywhere’ approach to building apps which has taken a lot of the cost out what previously used to be associated with glossy native development.”

Of course there is another benefit of the ‘write once, run everywhere’ approach as well. There is a growing demand amongst field service providers to be able to provide their own clients with applications that show information on their assets such as maintenance history, mean time to repair, current uptime availability and so on.

Such apps are powerful sales and marketing tools, and as such, a slick user experience here is an absolute must.

However, Best points out that whilst the idea is sound, outside of a platform such as Kony’s actually implementing such apps could be a significant resource strain. “Of course that sounds like a very logical business process to have,” he comments.

“But if you think of what it means logistically, you are going to push that out to the end customer where you can’t control what their devices are. Maybe they want to access it on an iPhone or an Android device; or, in the future who knows what else.”

“That means our customer, using our platform has to provide that app in whatever format their customer wants to consume it in, so they need that capability to provide apps for various OS or device agnostic apps and that’s one of the key capabilities that Kony provides.”

Whilst both the ability to provide customers access to service information as well as being able to tailor an app to meet your exact workflows both sound exciting, it is the potential of the Kony platform to enable field service companies to simply and intelligently expand the role of the service engineer that could be the potential game changer.

 

And as our conversation progressed Best was able to reveal a number of ways that this was already happening with their existing clients.

“The field service engineer is on the customer site and the customer says something about wanting assistance with a new project – that’s great sales data that you want that field service engineer to capture and pass to the right guy in the organisation to follow up with,” Best says outlining one such scenario.

“That functionality typically isn’t built into a field service engineer’s general workflow but of course its very easy to build that into an app. For example, if you have got a notes field and some sort of capability that says press a button here if you think the sales guy should give them a call and follow up.”

“Another example is a utility firm we are working with. They have a customer feedback form which they ask the customer to fill in to show how prompt were they, did they fix the issue, did they leave things neat and tidy after they left etc.”

“That’s a logical business process but when we dug in and looked at it we found that it was actually only about 1 in 12 customers who filled in the form. Then at the end of the month the engineer was supposed to have collected all this stuff up and mail it back to the head office.“

“So he had this massive pile of paper in the back of his van which he’s then got to pick up and put into an envelope and mail to HQ: and then there is somebody who’s job it is to go through each one.”

“It was a horrendous process and of course that guy is already there, with the customer, with a tablet doing his field service work – how much simpler to give that tablet to the customer at the end of the job with a brief survey?”

“In this case just 6 questions, each with a slider ranging from very happy to very dissatisfied at either end , and they don’t have to fill anything in because that is already captured from the job data. It takes them literally less than a minute.”

 

“The response rate went from 1 in 12 to 1 in 2. It gets immediately processed at HQ, there is no rekeying and then there is the cost saving - no paper, no postage, no wasted man hours...”

“So all of these business benefits came about but it’s not something anybody had ever thought of as a field service process. Yet it’s a completely logical add on for a field service capability.”

“It’s also something that no FSM system today provides but it’s the kind of thing that we can add on very simply because its just an extension to the app.”

I often comment that technology at its finest just makes things work better, and given the flexibility and ability to adapt and evolve applications on the fly, it seems the Kony platform could well go some way to helping companies achieve that.

Indeed the biggest change Kony’s arrival in the field service space may bring is in how we approach our service engineers’ workflows in an increasingly mature digital age.

 

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In our latest research project we’ve teamed up with rugged tablet manufacturer Xplore Technologies to find out what are the tools field service companies are investing in to ensure that they are giving their field service engineers every chance to ensure they are delivering service excellence.

In part one of this series we looked at the merging lines between rugged and consumer manufacturers and the rising trend for field service engineers to use more than one digital device when out in the field.

Now in this the second part of this series we look at the reasons companies select either consumer or rugged devices and the importance of Operating Systems upon device selection... 

 

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There is also an exclusive research report available for download that contains even further insight and analysis of these research findings. Download your copy of the findings here

 

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Consumer versus Rugged

This of course leads us on to perhaps the biggest question within the discussion around which tools are best suited for field service deployment - rugged or consumer.

In last years findings we saw that the market was largely dominated by consumer grade products with over two thirds (67%) of companies opting for consumer products over their ruggedized cousins.

Whilst this year’s survey does show a slightly greater leaning towards the rugged sector the shift is generally minimal with 59% of this years respondents still identifying that they are deploying consumer grade devices. This is in comparison to 16% who are deploying rugged devices and 20% who provide their field service engineers with a mix of both rugged and consumer devices.

So what are the drivers behind these decisions?

 

Well in terms of consumer devices being selected, the key over-riding factor as touched on a little earlier is simply the cost per unit.

In total well over two thirds (70%) of those companies who opted for consumer devices had done so because of the lower cost per unit.

The second most common reason cited was the faster potential user adoption via user familiarity, which was cited by just under a quarter (24%) of those respondents providing consumer devices.

Interestingly this figure rises to two thirds (33%) when we look at those companies that provide their field service engineers with mobile phones.

What is really interesting, however, is when we compare these findings with those who provide their engineers with rugged devices.

Essentially, we see the primary drivers for device selection completely reversed.

Whereas those that opted for consumer devices were driven primarily by the lower initial unit costs, those who opted for rugged devices were driven overwhelmingly by a need for reliability with over three quarters of companies (78%) providing rugged devices stating this was the driver behind their choice.

 

Also important to this group was the durability and longevity of the device which was identified by around a fifth of respondents (22%).

This set of results is particularly interesting when viewed in the context of the common TCO (total cost of ownership) argument put forward by rugged OEMs and their distributors.

The argument being that across the general accepted lifespan of an asset a rugged device will generally end up costing a lot less than its consumer counterpart (when factoring in breakages, downtime, lower reliability rates, etc etc).

Given the majority of companies still opt for consumer devices because the lower cost per unit there could be considerable savings made if companies began to adopt a more pragmatic and longer term approach to device selection perhaps?

This is of course great news for the rugged manufacturers but surely what makes for an even more compelling argument is the fact that of those companies that did opt for rugged, such long term cost reduction was only a side point with the benefits of reliability and durability being much more widely acknowledged as the driver for rugged adoption.

 

When we consider the mission-critical nature of field service, the need for reliability is of course likely to be anticipated.

However, given the TCO argument as well, it is perhaps surprising that in both this year’s and last year’s research, consumer products have remained so dominant.

Perhaps there is a need for further education amongst the industry on this topic?

The importance of OS

Of course one other factor that could play a part on the selection of devices is the operating system (OS) requirements of a field service management application that a company may have already in place.

Indeed: one respondent stated that his reason for selecting a consumer device was for ‘compliance with the field service management solution’.

Whilst many if not most dedicated field service management apps will be either device agnostic or available in a variety of native formats, this may not be the case if a company has developed their own system perhaps.

Certainly in the wider world of enterprise mobility, where the iPhone remains king having wrestled the crown from Research in Motion’s Blackberry some years ago, iOS is the de-facto choice for native designed apps.

However, whilst this is certainly a plausible theory the reality is that within the niche world of field service the Apple brand is far less powerful with in fact just 7% of our respondents stating their engineers use iOS.

Of course given the inclusion of laptops and tablets as key tools for field service engineers Windows operating systems fare well within our industry with 35% of companies stating this is their OS of choice, whilst Android’s dominance in the consumer markets is almost echoed amongst our respondents also with an impressive 42% of field service engineers using the Google owned OS.

But just how important is the availability of any given OS when it comes to device selection?

 

In fact, it is a fundamental part of the decision making process for almost all companies, it seems, with nearly nine out of ten (86%) of companies saying that the availability of an OS on a device is at least one consideration for them.

However, further to that, over half (52%) of field service companies in our survey group stated that it was very important and they ‘decided our choice of device based on the OS it supports.’

 

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Want to know more? Download the exclusive research report for further analysis and insight from these research findings

 

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Look out for the next part of this series where we look at the importance of connectivity in device selection...

 

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As the industry wide adoption of IoT comes ever closer, now is the time for companies to focus on service-led processes and reducing SLAs or be at risk of falling behind their peers warns Tom Bowe, Global Field Service Specialist with IFS...

The 15 minute SLA may seem like an impossible task but in his presentation at Field Service Medical recently Tom Bowe, IFS, highlighted two separate examples of companies doing just that.

Further more it is just a stepping stone on the way to companies offering 100% uptime he believes.

The two great examples of companies hitting 15 minute SLAs Bowe cited were firstly IFS customers Cubic Transportation Systems who in San Francisco are hitting 15 minute SLAs on the local transportation system and are doing so with a 100% record.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country the NYPD are hitting 7 minutes response times for life threatening calls and 9 minutes for non life threatening calls which is quite frankly incredible.

Of course not every company can hit these heights but how close should your average company be trying to get towards these kinds of numbers?

“If you’re looking at it from a company perspective then it’s very much a road you need to take – a journey from where you are today to where you want to be in the future with a number of key points along the way.” Bowe explains

 

“The goal should be to improve 20% a year. I don’t think it can be incremental, like 3% productivity per year. It’s more significant than that.”

“A total transformation is unnecessary, but I think you have to realise change is coming fast – the train has left the station. So where is it going to end up? Personally, I think it is going to be in realtime.”

So why does Bowe foresee such dramatic sea change?

Well like many in our industry he sees the impending arrival of the IoT as a seismic game changer within the way field service will operate.

“I believe equipment will be able to self-monitor themselves and leverage intelligence in the cloud to perform decision analysis and determine what actions to take, and to do that before any kind of serious failure.”

Bowe pauses just briefly to highlight the magnitude of the change.

“It’s going to take the SLAs and collapse them down to a fraction of what they are today. People are talking ‘predictive this’ and ‘proactive that’ and listening to the marketing wizards out there so expectations are already building."

“Whether or not a business changes in advance of this will determine how much pain their business will go through when it actually becomes mandatory for them to massively reduce their SLAs.”

 

Bowe speaks with a passion and it is clearly a topic he has given a lot of thought to.

But realistically how at risk are those companies who don’t adapt? How much is hyperbole?

“If you have a choice between two service providers where one is responsive in days and the other one is guaranteeing zero down-time and monitors it all the time…who wins? Imagine if a service provider could remove the customers’ concerns by saying, Hey, we’ve got you covered, we’re always watching, we’re always monitoring.  What if they didn’t have to worry about anything?” He replies wryly

“I think it is a complete game changer. People will make different choice for that level of service.”

One of the other big take aways from Bowe’s presentation was that whilst IoT is already beginning to happen, for those companies that begin to embrace the change it is bringing it is not just about getting sensors on all of your assets in the field.

“If we literally have to wait until everything is sensored up, we are talking about a decade from now.” Bowe explains.

“Companies can’t wait that long. They are going to be way behind competitors who have taken that first step.”

“That first step is changing your service business in evolutionary ways and incorporating the IoT elements, the theory of the case. So even though you don’t have a machine learning algorithm right now, that’s OK because you can still significantly improve by leveraging what you already know through past history and service maintenance.”

“How many service calls did you get (by product)? Don’t you already have condition reports on each piece of equipment and take the readings, record measurements, generate log files and create cases?”

“You probably have customer complaint records, and your field engineers enter notes like ‘there was a buzzing sound’ or ‘we had to reset a bunch of times,’ right? Well these are all key observations.”

"So you already have all this data, and as a software guy, it’s pretty easy to make some calculations and put together a score based upon your current existing knowledge.”

"And that score can help you respond faster. Sure, maybe it’s rudimentary today, maybe it’s not even worth getting that excited about – but with the score and some new service processes around it, you can start evolving your business to fit the eventuality of the IoT model, which is then going to take that score and significantly amplify the meaning and importance of it.”

 

“The benefit short-term is that you’ve started to build the infrastructure, you’ve started to incorporate IoT into your business model and you start thinking around new service offerings.”

“It is important to get a head start and be in front of the wave.”

Indeed the way Bowe describes his thinking is almost like a prep-school for IoT, essentially creating an additional route for service companies to be adopting as they wait for the unified standards that will facilitate the mass adoption of IoT to arrive.

“At the end of the day it’s better to start sooner rather than later.” Bowe comments.

However, he also warns of jumping into the technology too quickly before the standards are settled.

“If you go too far down a proprietary route when the standards do come into play you may be locked into that technology and have built processes in around that technology.”

“Then it becomes problematic – you are stuck with a Betamax.”

So how does Bowe see these standards emerging?

“I think right now it is moving towards a utility. The big guys are investing heavily in dozens of IoT services. They are coming out with data lakes, event hubs and machine learning and underneath that is a massive amount of technology.”

“It’s going to be a utility because you can’t expect every company to have a bunch of PHDs in the back room trying to work this stuff out. So we’ve got to standardise in order to be efficient.”

The normal model in the software industry is to build things in layers and you typically start with a few infrastructure providers that everyone can leverage which I think will be the large Cloud providers as soon as we have some standards.”

 

“IoT needs standards to help everyone with flexibility, re-use, enormous data volumes, analysis, cost efficiency and achieving the original objectives.”

“Without those standards we are kind of stuck in this proprietary high-cost model, which is not scalable. Without standards, IoT won’t become a life-changing type of technology.”

It’s an interesting point. All too often we talk about IoT as though it has already arrived but in reality how far are we away from universal standards being adopted because these are the true final barriers to mass adoption?

“I wish I could say that a solution is right around the corner, but there are still competing bodies and some very large organisations have gotten behind three or four different standards,” bemoans Bowe.

“But they’ve got to work it out, the opportunity is extraordinary and when they do IFS will be ready for it. I can’t wait.”

 

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