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In the above video you’ll find the Q&A session from our recent webinar run in partnership with service management scheduling specialists Kirona and Strategies for GrowthSM where Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland spoke with Bill Pollock and Nick Shipton.

 

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If you'd like to download the full webinar you can do so by clicking here

 

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By downloading the webinar you consent to the T&C's outlined here 

 

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CEM has been identified as a  key driver of customer loyalty and profitable growth, is a trending topic in the manufacturing industry. But for many manufacturers this is still a greenfield operation. So where do you stand and how do you get started?

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With the recent launch of the world’s first fully connected IoT solution for field service, ServiceMax has really opened the doors to IoT adoption within our industry. Mark Homer, VP of Global Customer Transformation for ServiceMax reflects on just how big an impact IoT can have for field service companies...

We are seeing a growing interest in IoT adoption in the market today - from both customers and service providers - along with a move from reactive to proactive service. It’s certainly reflected in many of the companies I am working with that have a keen interest in this area.

But why is this?

Reactive service, as we all know, can be very expensive. In my view, it doesn’t really deliver what it should do in terms of the quality and value.

If you consider downtime and lost output, from a customer’s point of view, reactive service costs really are quite significant.

Also from a supplier’s perspective, it’s always been expensive to send engineers out with an average figure of around £180 for a B2B environment. Even in a consumer context, engineer call out costs can be expensive.

In fact, in some of the organisations that we work with - such as those maintaining gas plants or very expensive equipment such as security scanners - it can cost anything up to £1500 for an engineer to be sent on a job.

IoT offers us some potential solutions to address this issue. The recent research we undertook with Field Service News and PTC really helped solidify some of the thinking around how these benefits can play out in the real world.

In parallel, we are also seeing the shift to connected services begin to accelerate with a growing trend towards servitization.

I’ve sat on quite a few round-tables recently in this area.

Servitization has been around for a while, having come out of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma.

 

But with the on-going drive towards globalisation and digitalisation, alongside the emergence of IoT, we’re now seeing added market momentum.

We are seeing a large number of companies of all sizes, that view IoT as an enabling technology to allow them to move towards preventative planned maintenance within their service organisations, as well as a shift in focus for their businesses that puts the emphasis on outcome based solutions.

My personal view is that we will soon see outcome based service models becoming more and more common. The industry as a whole needs to sit back and rethink its service models.

I know that there are already a few high profile case studies, such as Cannon, providing document services rather than selling printers, for example, or one of the most famous examples of Rolls Royce providing flight hours not jet engines (coined ‘power-by-the –hour’).

But these examples are no longer examples of companies operating outside of the norm.

We often see customers looking for a guarantee that their provider is going to provide a particular service, deliver a particular outcome, and a certain pre-agreed level of performance.

And this shift in thinking is leading to a change within industry that is very much ‘we are in it together’.

Providers are becoming accountable for their customers’ success, and as a result will reap the rewards of being an integral part of their customers’ businesses - including longer-term contracts, which of course adds stability and a platform for further development and growth.

Our recent partnership with PTC has been well documented, and the reason for coming together is very much a result of this emerging need for a platform to fulfil this demand. A platform to enable field service companies to evolve in keeping with these trends and to support this new service economy.

At the core of the partnership is a desire to allow manufacturers and service partners to connect products - a key building block in maximising IoT within an outcome based solutions strategy.

 

And whilst I know I’m biased, I must say that I’m really excited by our recent launch of Connected Field Service, which is the complete Internet of Things solution for the field service industry.

By leveraging PTC’s ThingWorx platform, ServiceMax’s Connected Field Service can let you know immediately when something is about to fail, and automatically dispatch the necessary technician with the right knowledge and the  right parts to repair the machine and eliminate unplanned downtime.

Given the potential we discussed above for IoT to change the way field service companies focus their businesses, and its role as an enabler for companies moving towards a servitized model, I genuinely believe that Connected Field Service is a first glimpse of the future of things to come in our industry.

Exciting times indeed.

 

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Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consulting Analyst with Strategies for GrowthSM explains the importance of understanding your customers. How they differ from each other, how they are the same and most importantly how they use your products, in order to understand how best to serve them...

Every day you deal with a multitude of customers that may vary by type, size, installed base, usage, personality and everything else that ultimately differentiates one customer from another.

However, one thing always remains constant – their business systems and equipment are extremely important to their day-to-day operations.

Even if the equipment you support is not necessarily the most important piece of equipment in their facility, it will generally always be of significant importance to your primary customer contact, as it will typically be their direct responsibility to “manage” the internal availability and operation of the equipment to all of the users at their facility.

 

In many cases, your customer contact is the primary individual through whom all other users at the facility must obtain permission to use the equipment (i.e., via employee passwords, or ID/key cards, or the like).

They may also be integrally involved in the monitoring of machine usage on a daily, weekly, and other periodic basis – either from manual observation, or through the availability of remotely-generated reports.

They are typically the “gatekeepers” for access to the equipment, and it is generally their responsibility to manage, monitor and control its usage over time.

Accordingly, they are very important within their own organisations – and you are very important to them.

However, despite this common thread that runs through virtually all of the customers whose equipment you support, it is also important to remember that each customer account may also be different in terms of:

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• The various types, brands, models, and numbers of equipment they have installed at their respective facilities;
• The ages of the individual devices that are covered under warranty, service contracts, extended warranties, or on a time-and materials basis;
• The usage patterns of the equipment at each of their individual locations (i.e., continuous vs. intermittent use; single vs. multiple shifts; simple vs. complex applications; etc.);
• The volume or throughput they regularly execute; and
• Any other unique and/or specific differentiators that may distinguish one customer from another.

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However, at the end of the day, the one common denominator among all of the customers you support is the fact that they all depend on the continuous availability, operation, and usage of the business systems and equipment they have installed at their facility – and your primary customer contact is generally the one that shoulders most – if not all – of the internal responsibility to ensure that it is always running, and that there are no significant occurrences (or even worse, recurrences) of equipment downtime.

The single most effective means for gaining a full appreciation of your customers’ reliance on their business systems and equipment is to first understand how they use it.

For some, the equipment is an integral component of what they do on a day-to-day basis. Customers in the manufacturing, financial, medical, aerospace, legal, government (and many other) segments will tell you that their business systems and equipment are “essential” to their business operations – that when the system is down, their production is severely impacted, leading to serious financial, safety and personnel consequences.

Although some of the customers in these segments may have multiple and/or redundant machines in operation, when even one goes down, they feel it – and they want it back up and running as soon as possible.

For example, a retail establishment’s Point-of-Sale (POS) system may be the only means they have for providing their respective customers with a receipt, order confirmation, coupons or other important transaction-generated documents.

 

When their system is down, they may be unable to serve their own customers and, as a result, may find themselves temporarily “out of business” (i.e., think when the POS system goes down in a boutique clothing shop, or a McDonalds, etc.)

For these, the reliance on the equipment you support may be perceived as being even more critical (at least on a relative basis).

However, regardless of the specific industry segment or type of customer you support, there will always be a basic – and corresponding – level of reliance on the business systems and equipment they have installed at their facility.

As such, it will always be in your – and their – best interests to fully understand the extent to which they rely on the equipment you support so you will always be prepared to work from a stronger base of understanding with respect to exactly what your customers are dealing with, when they’re dealing with an equipment failure.

 

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Manuel Grenacher, CEO of Coresystems, reflects on the benefits for mobile in field service...

Selfies. Games. Social media. We’re all familiar with the image; a co-worker’s face buried in a smartphone completely engrossed by what they’re seeing on the screen.

They’re far off in another digital world.

Previously, mobile devices were seen as an on-the-job distraction. Today, mobile devices enhance how field service technicians do their jobs, leaving satisfied customers in their wake.

Although consumers are using apps, smartphones, and tablets on a daily basis, many field service companies see barriers to implementing a mobile solution, such as the cost of technology or low ROI. According to the Aberdeen Group, 48% of field service organisations are resistant to change. (Source: The Mobile Technician: The Evolution of the Connection in 2015, Aberdeen Group, July 2015.)

Here are the reasons why you should overcome those barriers and make your technicians mobile:

Real-Time, Flexible Problem Solving

Today, everything is expected to be immediate.

When a customer’s machine breaks, they don’t want to wait days to schedule a service appointment. Service has to come on-demand and in real-time.

 

The so-called “On-Demand Economy” allows us to order pizza, a taxi, or someone to help us with our groceries with a tap on our smartphones.

Why should it be different for field service organisations?

Mobile devices equipped with field service software allow service techs to ask colleagues questions or seek out information and machine manuals so they can properly diagnose and service a product on the first try.

This becomes especially important when you have new technicians joining your organisation. It allows them to quickly get working and still be able to consult with more experienced employees.

And while many companies have begun to wisely focus on both preventive and predictive maintenance, it is “important that organisations remain vigilant and flexible enough to be able to adjust to unexpected events which could not be forecast,” says Aly Pinder, Jr., Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen Group.

To put it more plainly, sometimes accidents happen and things break suddenly that were not--or could not be--predicted.

With that in mind, field service companies need to have the option to utilise mobile technology to handle these types of situations immediately.

When equipped with mobile devices, technicians are connected to the answers they need to solve problems wherever they may be. According to Aberdeen Research, 69% of Best-in-Class organisations “equip the field team with access to peers and remote experts through mobile devices.”

Better Customer Service

Great customer service is critical in today’s business climate. The tools you invest in for your business must improve service for your customers.

This is another reason why having mobile technicians is valuable. Well-performing companies have used mobile to encourage their techs to perform better, and to differentiate the field service they offer from the competition.

 

Hotelier Sepp Greil, who uses Cald’oro coffee machines in his hotels, was impressed by the company’s implementation of Coresystems' Field Service software.

“For me, seeing all the efforts listed on an iPad was new, but I could understand exactly what had been done,” Greil said. “The service was rendered much faster and more efficiently and I can only congratulate the company on implementing this solution.”

Today, technicians are expected to deliver great customer service on top of completing fixes and service calls.

Technicians are now salespeople and customer service agents, in addition to being engineers.

Now if, for example, a customer cannot be on-site while the field service tech is there fixing a broken machine, a mobile device can be used to confirm with the customer that the SLA has been met.

A Connected Team

Going mobile isn’t just for your technicians, and it doesn’t benefit only them either. Great field service companies work with their IT departments to create a mobility strategy that is inclusive and beneficial across the board, not just for technicians who use mobile in the field.

When implemented correctly, mobility will assist techs in being more productive, give customers better and faster service, and help executives and leaders of the company have a real-time perspective of how the field service company is operating.

 

Still, companies should invest in mobile wisely, not like a teenager looking to get the newest device because it’ll make him the most popular kid in school until every other kid gets one too.

Investing in mobility is an on-going, strategic business element. Aly Pinder Jr. of Aberdeen Research says: “The Best-in-Class leverage mobile to provide the field team with real-time information, the entire team with integrated data, and management with the insight into field performance and location of service resources.”

Happier Technicians

Utilising mobile field service software not only makes your customers happy, but it can also make your technicians happier at work. Now is the time to make the switch from paper-based systems to mobile to give your techs the ability to deliver better service.

 

And the Best-in-Class have a 76% employee satisfaction rate, which is higher than industry standards and laggards. Mobility also takes training out of the office and gets new technicians out in the field sooner. Thanks to mobile devices, new technicians will have all the training tools they need along with direct access to their peers and colleagues who can help them through more difficult fixes.

 

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James Smith, Research Director for Field Service conference producer for The Field Service Summit, organised by Copperburg explains how the IoT is set to change everything...

 

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Field Service Summit 2016 takes place at St Hugh's College, Oxford, UK on 12 April. Not registered yet? Click here  and quote FSN25 for your 25% discount.

 

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I’ve been using the internet for 20 years, and in that time it’s changed how people connect with one another.

When I started there were 77 million online users.

Now there’s 3.2 billion.

But the Internet of Things (IoT), also known as the industrial internet, has much further to go - and is set to change how everything connects with everything.

From connecting 3.2 billion people, the IoT will connect 41 billion devices, and that’s just in the next 5 years.

An order of magnitude bigger than today’s consumer internet, the industrial internet will transform industries. It’s only a matter of time before it transforms yours: cheap bandwidth, cheap sensors, clever analytics and pervasive smartphones and wearables – in truth the IoT era is already here.

During research for this April’s Field Service Summit in Oxford, I caught up with some of our speakers to take a closer look at how IoT will change field service operations.

The ‘Service Web’

“Field Service is undergoing a revolution. New sensors and sources of data mean that firms are able to offer ever greater and more sophisticated services and solutions to their customers,” explains Professor Andy Neely, Head of Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing & Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance.

“Original equipment manufacturers in all sectors seem to be waking up to the challenges and opportunities of field service not just for their products, but also for their competitors. This, coupled with developments in big data analytics, make field service a fascinating place to work today.”

When everything is connected, it will be those service companies that best understand their customers who capture the most value.

“IoT is not just a technology transformation, it’s an industry transformation that requires competing industry players to work collaboratively to realise the true benefits on offer,” says Stephen

Jeffs-Watts, Senior Advisor – Enterprise Service Management, Service, Projects & Asset, with enterprise service management company IFS.

 

Competitive advantage will not come from responsiveness or cost; it will come from becoming a strategic partner to your customers - and the field service team will be the elastic cord that binds together vendors and customers.

“It is also important is to rethink both the back office and customer interaction – the large call centre will disappear, to be replaced by control centres, staffed by more highly skilled people able to interact with equipment remotely,” he adds.

“Sending a service technician will become a last resort; only happening when physical intervention with equipment is necessary, but how does the service organisation ensure that they don’t become commoditised as well and move up the value chain to become trusted advisors with strong customer relationships?”

“The biggest challenge facing most service organisations is how to increase their service profitability and increase revenue,” observes Mikko Keto, Senior Vice President, Performance Services, Metso Corporation.

“Focusing just on spare parts maximises profitability but tends to limit service growth. Too much field service work and profitability can become too low. Finding the optimum mix is the holy grail of services.”

 

“The real power of IoT lies in the data that is produced,” says Marc Tonen, EMEA Product Management, Astea International.

“Field service management solutions take the data collected from machine-to-machine monitoring and turn it into actions – actions that mean faster repair times, less time wasted on travel and reduced asset downtime.”

“Leading service organisations have moved from a purely reactive service delivery model to a proactive or preventative model and are already reaping the rewards.”

If it’s clear to see where the initial value will be created - the real prize will be won by field service organisations able to retool their teams to move into the role of strategic advocacy.

“There is a need to enhance the customer experience through field service interactions,” says Aly Pinder, Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group.

“Technicians not only find themselves responsible for fixing downed equipment, they also have to have the tools, skills, knowledge, and expertise to deliver value to customers as the brand advocates for the business.”

 

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St Hugh's College Oxford, UK, is the venue for Field Service Summit 2016 on 12 April.  Not registered yet?  Click here and quote FSN25 to receive a 25% discount

 

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Having undertaken a research project to assess the current appetite for the Cloud as a platform for field service management systems, Field Service News in partnership with ClickSoftware brought together a panel of senior field service executives to discuss the findings at the iconic Gherkin building in the heart of London’s business district...

 

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There is also a more detailed briefing report available for download if you want to know more - Access the full Briefing report by clicking here

 

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It was a typical British winters day: cold wet and grey. However when a selection of the field service industry’s senior executives came together to discuss the findings of a recent research report published by Field Service News in partnership with ClickSoftware the debate and discussion was lively, engaging and illuminating.

Held in the iconic 30 St Mary’s Axe, affectionately known by locals as the Gherkin, the backdrop to our conversations was the ever impressive London skyline, inspiring even with the cold, persistent rain beating down outside.

And perhaps what better place to discuss the Cloud than amongst the clouds?

The obvious starting point for the conversation was to identify who within the group was currently utilising a Cloud-based field service management solution and what had driven them to opt for the Cloud.

Keith Mackie, Director of UCC Coffee UK & Ireland was the first to offer us his thoughts.

“I’ve been with UCC Coffee for three years and when I arrived they had a solution that was partly Cloud-based but I changed it mainly because of the utility of the system itself.”

 

 

“The decision for me was based around the ability to get data out of the system. For me that is one of the keys to any system.”

 

“The Internet of Things is a big driver. What our customers want more and more is live data. How do we feed that data back to them?”

It was clear that this challenge around accessing and delivering data wasn’t unique to Mackie and UCC Coffee. The conversation quickly turned to the importance of being able to get data from the field and feed it directly into both a field service management system as well as the wider ecosystem of ERPs and CRMs etc.

Mark Jones, Head of Technical Services, Roland DG, commented: “I think in terms of having the engineer turn up equipped with the right tools and parts and in terms of being able to maintain a high first time fix rate, then it’s extremely important. That would certainly be one of the benefits we would be seeking”

 

 

“We’re not quite there yet, but in the next generation or generation after that of our product there will be that intelligence to take that information. That will also enable us to examine life-cycles of machinery.”

 

“Typically you see the bath tub curve: when your products launch you tend to get teething problems and you ramp up on calls and then as things mature and settle down you get a really good period where machines are reliable and ticking along smoothly. Then as you come to the end of the product life-cycle you start to see things ramp up again.”

“To be able to have that intelligent data, to measure that, would also provide a great tool for sales and marketing.”

The data highway

Jones’ point again reiterated the importance of data within the modern field service operation so the question was put to the group “Is it fair to make the assertion that the adoption of the Cloud, whether it be in FSM solutions or any others such as CRM and so on is hugely driven by the ease of access to data that it provides?”

John Cullen, VP Global Marketing Brand & Services, for mining and aggregates giant Metso, led the group in agreement that this is indeed the case.

 

 

“As everyone has been saying: if you can get information on the state of your equipment, then you can optimise your operations, you can know what services to deliver to your customers.”

 

“One challenge I see as a concern is that, yes there is lots of data, but I think you can actually drown under the data. You can have access to anything but in the end what is it you want it for? What is the business process that you actually want to be applying this to? If you don’t have that view, I think you can take the wrong path. In the marketing side of my work. I see a similar thing: through analytics we can have lots of information but we can get blinded by,  even paralysed by, the information.”

“The same thing can be true here; you have to have a view of what you want to use data for, then you select the right pieces of data. You start doing it in a structured way otherwise you end up with a system that doesn’t fulfil your needs.”

[quote float="right"]The question of how configurable is your system is for that very reason. I don’t want to be told what data I’m going to get, I want to choose what data I’m going to get.

Mackie then went on to add further to this point commenting: “There is the question of how configurable is your system is for that very reason. I don’t want to be told what data I’m going to get, I want to choose what data I’m going to get.”

 

“I might want to analyse it differently today than I do tomorrow depending on what I’m looking for. Am I looking for first time fix, parts usage, mean time between failure? All of those stats are important and you have to be able to configure them very easily.”

Again the consensus of the group was that this was very much a key desire for most companies. As Cullen stated: “Businesses evolve, they’re not static.”

Flexibility

This brought us again to another often celebrated benefit of Cloud computing:  the fact that the Cloud is scalable and Cloud based solutions can grow or shrink with a business accordingly.

Paul Hingley, CMR Business Manager, Siemens, took the mantle stating that by 2020 all their products will have the functionality to send diagnostic data. “Where we are going as an organisation is making our service department more proactive and the Cloud we are developing is completely open” he explained.

 

“The more that you open up the technology, and the diagnostics for the technology, then the more the data becomes relevant and has value. The other problem we have is that some of the large Big Data companies are selling data but there is nothing behind it and that is the worry, because it gives Cloud a bad name.”

 

Security in the Cloud

Of course no conversation around the Cloud can be held without mentioning the ever present elephant in the room, security. With Hingley raising the topic of a giving Cloud a bad name the conversation was steered to perhaps the one question that has dogged the Cloud since its inception - is it secure?

One of the interesting findings of the research was the amount of people who admitted that breaches in consumer Cloud products such as Apple’s iCloud impacted their perception of the security of enterprise level Cloud solutions.

But what was the feeling of those in the room when it came to the security of the Cloud?

“If you were to ask us what would be at the top of our list of our priorities I would certainly say security.” stated Caroline Winwood, Customer Services Director at Dyson. "We take it very seriously at Dyson across everything from our intellectual property through to our customer information.”

“In my role, I inherited a system which is server based. One of the reasons was that our back office ran this way so integration was deemed easier but security was also very high on the list.”

 

“The success of any software implementation lies in alignment between Operations and IT.  Both teams need to take on the shared responsibility for delivering a scalable platform that meets operational and reporting needs while ensuring that the fundamentals of security and on-going support are also taken care of,” Winwood added.

 

Indeed, Winwood’s point seems to be hugely pertinent in today’s landscape as the challenge for many companies is marrying this balance of the need for security often led by the IT department, especially for a company such as Dyson whose products sit at the top of their field in terms of the technology they deliver and the needs of the business in being able to deliver the levels of service also expected of a market leader.

However, Cullen’s Metso are one organisation that have embraced the Cloud across the business putting their trust within their Cloud provider to ensure their business data remains as secure as it would if they had remained with an on-premise solution. As a company we are actually embracing Cloud technology. Our complete storage and office environment has gone online with Microsoft, so we are trusting of Cloud security."

" Where we actually see an issue is with our customers and their machinery and the concerns that they have and those come on two levels. First is the commercial level: if you have a lot of data about their operations then you know exactly how they are doing in the market. You know if they are struggling or if they are doing well and a lot of companies feel uncomfortable about that.”

“Then the second area is when you are talking about the ability to get into the machinery and change settings. It has the ability to not only ruin a company commercially - for example, you could make their energy consumption go up - but also you could actually kill people as well by mis-settings. So the integrity and safety of their sites is an issue.”

Given the concerns being raised around security the question was put to Tim Faulkner, VP EMEA of ClickSoftware, of how he define the difference between the enterprise Cloud security against the Cloud in the consumer realm when speaking to his clients and prospective clients.

“Well there have been a number of interesting different points raised,” began Faulkner. “From a security perspective, if a company like Amazon Web Services has a breach it’s going to get into the news for sure because it’s a big company, it’s a clear target, so it’s newsworthy.”

 

“But companies like Amazon or Azure, that’s their livelihood. They are investing a lot into the policies, the protocols and the procedures for maintaining security into the sites and the resilience of the systems. They can afford to invest so much more than a normal enterprise can in security measures and most of the breaches actually tend to be within a company's own data centre.”

 

“I think media has an impact on our perception but in this case the security of the Cloud versus the security of a normal company, versus the measures of a normal company and what they can afford to put in place, I don’t think the perception is really aligned with the reality that we have.”

“For most companies it’s unaffordable to put in the same level of security that they should expect from a Cloud service vendor.”

One company that perhaps do fall into the bracket of being large enough to be able to build their own levels of security that could match that of a Cloud vendor however is Belgian telecoms giant Proximus. “I think it is also about losing control, or at least the perception of losing control,” commented Marc Cornelis, WFM Lead, Proximus.

“In our company, hosting ClickSoftware and other applications in the Cloud, it’s like giving up all the data, all your core business data, into the Cloud, where you don’t have the perception of control."

"We have more than one data centre, and we are managing our own data centres and also for other customers. Our point is: why should we host our own data in a Cloud solution without having control of where the data is in the world?”

“We just don’t see why we should run an application like ClickSoftware, which is one of the core applications for Proximus, in a Cloud solution.”

Enabling process change

Of course one of the often cited reasons for slow adoption for the Cloud in certain areas including field service is the existence of legacy systems and the mindsets that often come embedded in such long-standing processes.

As Cornelis explained “It’s about change, it’s changing the environment; we have always been used to having everything hosted in the Proximus environment. We need to change, see how it works and then build up the confidence and build up the controls.”

Indeed, the Cloud has sometimes been referred to as a great leveller within enterprise as those companies unencumbered by such legacy infrastructure are able to embrace the technology and its benefits perhaps more easily than their larger more established competitors.

 

“It’s something of a timing issue and also a generational issue as well, if I’m being honest,” commented Mackie.

 

“I could not imagine the cost of hosting all of our data on-site for a hundred thousand service calls. I think it is almost generational, people are so used to their information being hosted somewhere else.”

“If I was starting the business I work in now I wouldn’t even consider having an in-house solution, whereas for a multi-national that sense of control is more important but I think as things move on it’s a timing issue. I think as people become more comfortable with remote data access and using data that they don’t actually control then I almost think this problem will dissipate. I think we may be pushing at an open door.

In fact, there is evidence of such a swing in attitudes changing within the market already as Alistair Martin, Director of Product and Services, Unisys explained. “In fact we are seeing the opposite of what a lot of the conversation here is. We typically supply to some of the largest banks in the world through to the police force so very, very secure systems. But we are actually seeing that customers, because of demographics, because of a lack of skills, are becoming more open to look at Cloud solutions.”

“Applications as a Service is an area we are doing a lot of work in now, with customers coming to us now to actually run their applications somewhere out there. It’s a big change.”

 

As the rain continued to drench the London skyline, the consensus amongst our panel of leading field service experts was indeed very much in-line with the headline findings of our research.

 

The Cloud is gaining momentum as a valid platform for field service management solutions and wider enterprise applications. However, for those largest companies, legacy systems remain one challenge, whilst a need to overcome old ways of thinking around security and control are another.

What was interesting was that amongst our panel, every member understood the potential benefits of the Cloud, and that easy access to data was perhaps the biggest driver of all. But the lingering fears around security continue to cast a shadow for the Cloud for many and as such the journey to Cloud based computing still does seem to require an internal leap of faith, which is something each company can only achieve in their own time.

 

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Want to know more? There is also a more detailed briefing report available for download if you want to know more - Access the full Briefing report by clicking here

 

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Marne Martin CEO of ServicePower urges us to grasp the opportunity that technology affords us, but only to do so with a firm understanding of why we are doing so and how that technology can improve our service offerings...

I often hear from executives “We need big data”, “We need 3D printers”, “We need M2M”, don’t think like that.

In this article I want to inject a sense of urgency into the field service community to act now but also take the right approach towards digital technology, you’re not implementing it for the sake of it; you must implement it to do something truly noteworthy, something great.

The current state of play

We are at a pivotal time in not just field service, but the world’s future, I believe we entering the ‘Age of Digital Enlightenment’.

We have a raft of emerging digital technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), mobile, cloud and social collaboration that are resetting what we think of as possible.

 

You may have seen this shared on social media but it’s worth reiterating: Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.

What does this mean for your business?

It is not a question of if service management will be disrupted, but when, it is inevitable. The mistake that taxi firms made with Uber is that they tried to fight it using traditional business and legal methods. Even now this continues to result in wasted energy and money, all the while Uber’s market share grows exponentially.

Without question your field service business is currently under threat from competitors that have grasped the enormity of what is happening and are plotting success based on enabling technologies.

What practical steps can you take? 

A threat is also an opportunity; to outpace the competition you need to adopt a positive and proactive mindset for your business. You also have to be pragmatic, to achieve transformational changes your business needs to step out of its comfort zone and embrace new ways of thinking.

Like the first ‘Age of Enlightenment’ we need to use our powers of reason, analysis and individualism.

We need to challenge what business means and bring together disparate technologies so that we can enable new, better ways of working.

Easier said than done.

However businesses that start early in this process will garner knowledge and experience that can help. Forward-thinking mining machinery leasing companies are using IoT to pro-actively monitor reliability issues so that engineers can be on-site fixing issues before they halt extraction.

 

Their customers are willing to pay a premium for this service and see it as a valuable differentiator.

This transformation is not realised using just IoT, there are several digital technologies (cloud, mobile, analytics) working together, the key is not to look at one technology but consider the optimal digital mix to create a symphony.

A good starting point would be to assemble a project team to analyse your business, the field sector you operate in and even other similar sectors to take a pulse of what is working ‘digitalwise’.

Your team should posses a mix of skills:

[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Creative – to push the envelope
2. Technical – to understand what is possible
3. Business– to decide what would deliver the greatest sustainable competitive advantage

[/ordered_list]

Above all else work with a field service vendor that understands digital, one that can give you a head start because it has existing experience and the three skills above.

Here at ServicePower we lead the way when it comes to innovation, we have long since created a service management platform that connects IOT, M2M, cloud mobile and all the other enabling technologies. Beyond that we are challenging what is possible with scheduling – which is still the hub of field service.

 

Scheduling technology hasn’t really changed much in the last decade, until now.

The KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) initiative with Dr. Alan Crispin and Alex Syrichas from the Manchester Metropolitan University has developed a new algorithm with ServicePower for optimising the deployment of people and vehicles for field service companies that exploits “Quantum Annealing”.

It sounds hi-tech and it is. Previously Quantum Annealing was the preserve of the massive computing power of NASA and Google, now however ServicePower, via the cloud is enabling businesses of any size to channel its enormous power to optimise resources in the field.

It is the future, allowing real time modification to more easily and more quickly modify the parameters used in schedule optimisation to deliver unheard-of productivity and route efficiency.

It is not hyperbole to say that ServicePower is not just using technologies of the future, it is creating them.

So contact us so that together we can take stock of what you are doing, and what it is you hope to do.

We have dedicated many man-years to making the most of digital in field service, let’s talk about how this experience can help you decide what’s possible and the next move to make sure your company is destined for greatness.

 

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Lucy Davies, a field service recruitment specialist with Concept Resourcing explores the challenges of attracting talent in the field service industry...

If you’ve ever been tasked to recruit experienced engineers, you’ll know how difficult it can be to find the perfect candidate.

Experience, remuneration and loyalty are all barriers that businesses encounter time and time again in the hiring process.

Companies are constantly struggling to strike the right balance between sourcing an experienced candidate with specific qualifications, versus hiring a younger engineer with less experience; but with huge potential to learn their trade and mould to the business needs.

With demand for field engineers at a constant high, what should businesses be doing to attract an effective team?

Working together

There’s obviously pros and cons to hiring from each candidate pool, a lot of companies want employees who’re fully skilled and can hit the ground running.

Unfortunately, for some industries this does rule out a lot of the younger workforce.

 

Take commercial catering, a lot of roles now require individuals to hold valid COMCAT tickets; unfortunately, the majority of candidates in the industry progress to catering after serving anything between 10-20 years servicing white goods.

Therefore, by the time a candidate has sufficient knowledge and experience in the catering sector, they’re often approaching the latter end of their career.

So what’s the answer?

There’s no reason why businesses can’t look at creating a balanced workforce with a mix of experienced and younger employees.

On-the-job training is where a lot of engineers hone their skills, therefore creating an environment for candidates from both ends of the spectrum to work together and learn from one another is a great way to get a diverse and effective team.

Brand and benefits

In recent years the trend to ‘job-hop’ has emerged amongst younger generations and millennials.

While 30 years ago a lot of employees would find themselves in a role with a company that they stayed with for the majority of their careers; these days once training is complete it’s not unheard of for people to move businesses every 2-3 years.

Whether it’s due to working environment, pay or career progression, it’s a trend that’s increasingly frustrating for businesses who’re investing time and money into training their team.

To combat this trend, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to create an enjoyable and sustainable working environment with great employee benefits to not only attract talent but retain it too.

 

Courting a candidate

The drop in apprenticeships in recent years has meant that there’s a real shortage of skilled field, therefore attracting quality candidates is paramount to any business.

Without a steady flow of trained engineers, recruiters have two candidate pools to target, those experienced candidates who’ve been in work for many years and those relatively new to the industry.

 

Attracting both pools of talent requires two completely different strategies.

With the advent of social media and 24/7 online access, a lot of younger engineers are looking to internet to search for work and will actively seek new opportunities through LinkedIn and Twitter as well as uploading their CVs to a wide range of job boards.

For the more experienced candidates, recruiters can’t rely on internet applications alone and need to run head-hunt campaigns while building relationships with candidates to attract the best talent to their businesses.

Strategic support

There’s no doubt that the challenges facing recruiters in the market will continue for many years.

As a result, businesses need to consider the commitment and training they provide to their employees to ensure they remain within their business and help keep the industry alive with experienced, quality engineers.

If more companies can continue to invest in cross-training engineers from similar sectors and buddy less experienced individuals with knowledgeable mentors then it’ll not only mean that there’s more quality engineers in the market, but it’ll allow businesses to shape their teams, ensuring they breed the right skills, attitude and work ethic into its workforce, ultimately delivering a better service to its clients.

 

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