Good-bye products, hello services? The IoT and connected products means companies will need to monetise IoTs, says consultant Nick Frank.
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Jul 01, 2015 • Features • Connected products • Optimisation • Circular economy • IoT • service thinking • Technology
Good-bye products, hello services? The IoT and connected products means companies will need to monetise IoTs, says consultant Nick Frank.
‘Assets will no longer be bought, but provided as a service!,’ brainstormed a senior UK manufacturing executive at a recent workshop on UK manufacturing facilitated by Cranfield University. If true, the whole nature of manufacturing, engineering and service will change forever.
We already see that the data generated by digitalisation is beginning to blur the distinction between products and services, two mega-trends are driving us further in this direction:
- IoT and connected products are becoming part of our everyday thinking: As the Internet and smartphones have become integrated into our lives, so the idea of connected products has become the norm. Significant investments from industry heavyweights such GE, Siemens, PTC & Microsoft have created a hype that this is an opportunity not to be overlooked.
- Governments will legislate for the Circular Economy: Who is not aware of the environmental challenges that we face on our planet today. No longer can we dig up resources, turn them into products and then throw them away. Now we have to recycle our assets and ensure they stay at the highest value. Governments are starting to legislate for what is called this Circular Economy in the way they manage large infrastructure investments such as rail infrastructure and defence.
A key challenge for companies is how to react to these big ideas in a way which is relevant to today’s business and society. The current approach appears to be a fixation on technology: ‘Think what the IoT could do for you by monitoring your fridge or health through your Apple Watch’.[quote float="left"]A key challenge for companies is how to react to these big ideas in a way which is relevant to today’s business and society.
This is great for stimulating our imagination, but does not help monetise the technology. The key is to mix this imagination, with a deep understanding of the customers’ business model and processes. Then figure out how to apply your technical or business knowledge to improve whatever it is your customer is trying to achieve.Often this is called Service Thinking, yet most engineering and manufacturing companies actually struggle with it. Yes, these companies look at the customer needs, but they fail to deeply understand how their customers make money and the available profit pools in their industry’s supply chain.
However, increasingly we can see successful examples of how companies are using Service Thinking to expand their horizons.
I recently met with Gerard Shaw who is MD of a small Northern Irish company, LISTO, who style themselves as ‘Cloud Data Innovators’ . His goal is to find people with big imagination and insight, and help them develop solutions. He told me of a 3rd party service company who provided maintenance for air-conditioning systems covering multiple brands. In a very competitive market, their key customers were telling them not to just meet the agreed SLA’s, but to actively optimise their energy and maintenance costs. By monitoring two standard outputs found on all brands – first whether a unit is running and secondly pressure across the filter - they could understand the performance of that unit.
A very simple solution, based on knowing what was important to the customer, and the critical data that could make a difference.
At the other extreme is MAN Truck UK who used Service Thinking to grow their business from £50M to £550M over a period of 20 years. Faced with the challenge of a declining market, the management team worked with their key customers to understand that the truck is only 10% of the annual running cost. Their customers wanted them to tackle the real issue that made a difference to their profitability. This was fuel, which accounts for 45% of their costs and the driver another 29%. MAN knew a 10% saving in fuel consumption, could double the annual profit per truck for the haulier.
Initially they developed a full maintenance contract to optimise performance, a key element of which was the telematics data systems that were just starting to be designed into the truck’s controls. They then had the insight to invest in the telematics infrastructure, allowing them such a high level of control that they could offer the truck as a leasing service. Plus the data they created on how the driver was performing enabled them to further reduce fuel consumption and decrease insurance premiums.
In both examples technology was not the route to the solution. The answers lay in a deep understanding of the customers’ business model and figuring out how to make a real difference to their profitability. Sounds simple, but not always so easy. As more companies master Service Thinking, then maybe we are getting closer to the day when most assets are delivered as a service.
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Jul 01, 2015 • Features • Hardware • 3D printing • Future of FIeld Service • future of field service • Near Field Communications • NFC • hardware
As we continue our series of features looking at the emerging technologies that could appear in the not so distant future we turn our attention to NFC and, perhaps the most futuristic of all, 3D printing.
As we continue our series of features looking at the emerging technologies that could appear in the not so distant future we turn our attention to NFC and, perhaps the most futuristic of all, 3D printing.
If you missed the earlier features in this series you can read part one here where we looked at smart watches and part two here where we looked at smart glasses and drones.
Near Field Communications
If the falling price of drones makes for a compelling argument for their inclusion in the future field engineer's tool kit, then the next item on this list is pretty much a no-brainer for a large number of Field service organisations.
That is NFC or near field communication tags.
NFC tags can be bought for as little as 30p per tag and with most modern Android and Windows smartphones and tablets supporting NFC communication they can be a very cheap means of making the field engineers workflow that much smoother.
Basically an NFC tag can be written to trigger an action on a device by simply tapping it against the tag.[quote float="left"]In theory, pretty much any action your engineer needs to take on an app can be incorporated into the script for a NFC tag.
A couple of quick examples…
A tag in the engineer's van could be written so that when the engineer places his smartphone against it, it opens up a dedicated mobile workforce app and logs his journey start time, plus also opens up a routing app such as Google Maps or TomTom.
The tag can also be written to include a toggle feature so when the engineer completes his journey he can again tap the tag with his device and this could log his journey end time, close his routing software, and open up the job details in his dedicated mobile workforce app.
Finally an NFC tag could be placed on the device which contains the notes of any previous engineer visits. This quick overview could be very useful in giving the engineer quick and easy access to the devices history and again similarly when the engineer updates his notes on the maintenance work he has carried our it is possible for him to include this information on the tag ready for the next engineer all with a simple tap.
And these are just three very simple ideas: in theory, pretty much any action your engineer needs to take on an app can be incorporated into the script for a NFC tag. There are also a number of apps that make the process of writing actions into a tag very simple for the lay person to do.
As I mentioned earlier the hallmark of a good technology is the ability to simplify our workflow and again NFC certainly ticks these boxes and given its low cost is another technology I think is worth considering when we look at how we can further empower our engineers.
3D Printing
The next item on my brief list is for me the most exciting and certainly the one that has the most futuristic feel about it. That is 3D printing.
Whilst we haven’t quite yet got to the point where we can instantly conjure up an earl grey tea hot like Jean Luc Picard might, the printers are still able to create physical 3D products from seemingly out of nothing just like the replicator devices seen in Star Trek.
Instead of an engineer having to delay a repair until the right part is sent to the site he could simply head out to the back of the van and print the part on site. First time fix rates would be dramatically improved.
However, 3D printing isn’t a particularly new concept, it actually dates back to the early eighties. So the devices we are seeing today are the product of over 30 years' worth of refinement.
This has resulted in 3D printed parts becoming robust enough and reliable enough to be used by companies such as Ford, General Electric and Boeing. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, for example, has over 30 3D printed parts; there are Leap jets and RAF Tornadoes flying around with 3D printed parts; and recently Ford printed their 500,000th 3D printed part – an engine cover for a Ford Mustang.
The fact is, 3D printed parts are out there being used more than we might think.
At the same time consumer 3D printers, much smaller and more mobile devices are becoming more readily available and at much more accessible costs.
Companies such as MakerBot and Stratysys are straddling both sides of this growing market. Is it that big a leap to envisage a meeting of these two approaches - that is, a device with the smaller more mobile size of a consumer device capable of delivering industrial grade 3D printed parts?
When we consider the potential widespread use of the devices surely not.
Imagine it… instead of an engineer diagnosing the issue but having to delay a repair until the right part is sent to the site he could simply head out to the back of the van and print the part on site. First time fix rates would be dramatically improved.
Then there is also the benefit of not having to have stock parts kept in an engineer's van.
By removing this need a company would be able to instantly improve their cash position on their P&L as well as avoid the danger of potential loss of stock through theft.
Whilst 3D printing hasn’t quite reached this standard as yet, given the competitive nature of this growing industry and the potential gains it is hugely feasible that such developments may be made within the next five years. So I’d firmly put this into the technology-to-watch-closely category.
Look out for the final part in this series where we look at perhaps the biggest potential game changer field service companies must embrace…
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Jun 29, 2015 • Features • Hardware • motion computing • hardware • rugged tablets
The debate around which devices are best suited to a field service engineer is a long, complex and ever changing one...
The debate around which devices are best suited to a field service engineer is a long, complex and ever changing one...
Arguments can be made for rugged devices or for consumer devices. Equally arguments can be made the various different form factors that are on offer. Is a tablet, smart phone or a laptop best suited to your aiding your engineers workflow? Then there is the growing trends of convertibles (part laptop, part tablet) to consider or even the next evolution of this idea: the detachable.
Of course there is no hard and fast rule here: each case is different and different devices are suited to different companies and applications. However, in what is becoming an increasingly competitive market it is important to understand the strengths of both various form factors and also of individual manufacturers and devices.
To help you navigate your way to finding the device that is right for your field workers, Field Service News is launching a news series that will give you a closer look at some of the options available to you as we see just how the devices stand up to the manufacturers' claims.
In the first instalment of this we take a look at the Motion F5m rugged tablet.
What the manufacturer says:
Motion describe the F5m as being “built for demanding environments that require robust enterprise software compatibility” and claim the tablet offers “the durability and functionality you need to seamlessly go from the office, to the vehicle, to the field – all while staying connected and secure.”
Motion has also given the F5m series a significant upgrade on its predecessors that delivers high-end, lasting processing power.
The addition of the 5th Gen Intel Core processors, including the highest performing Intel i7 vPro processor, provides the power to quickly move through computation-intensive applications, while increasing overall power efficiency.The tablet also comes with options for ultra-fast 4G XLTE mobile broadband connectivity that should make light work of sharing large files and images easy. Also with the promise of over eight hours of battery life and a hot-swap battery feature, the F5m should be able to last throughout your field engineers shift with ease.
First impressions
The first thing that strikes you when viewing the F5m is that this is very much a tablet designed for industry. With it’s handle built-in and moulded into the actual design of the casing, Motion demonstrates it is not shying away from this device's intended market nor its heritage - it's evolved from its cousin the C5 which was aimed exclusively at the medical sector.[quote float="left"]The practicality of the handle soon becomes apparent and a much welcome additional feature.
With other rugged manufacturers such as Panasonic and Getac and and even other offerings from Motion such as the R12 moving towards a more consumerised appearance for rugged tablets, the handle does give the F5m a slightly dated look, but lets be honest: when it comes to selecting a device for field engineers a modern aesthetic look should be quite low down on the list of desirables.
And actually whilst it might seem a touch ungainly , even cumbersome at first, in reality within a very short time of carrying the tablet around the practicality of the handle soon becomes apparent and a much welcome additional feature. It's one which would certainly be appreciated by many an engineer using the device.
In particular, the placement of buttons just to the side of the handle that act as triggers for either the optional Barcode scanner or RFID reader means the inclusion of the handle adds to functionality by making the use of these features far more accessible than the more traditional tablet form factor.
Also the handle doesn’t actual add to much weight to the tablet. Weighing in at 3.3 lbs the Motion device comes in just a shade lighter than Getac’s 10.1 inch rugged tablet the E110 which is 3.5lbs although it is some way off the 2.2 lbs of either Panasonic’s Toughpad FZ-G1 or Xplore’s Ranger X both of which offer similar screen real estate despite their slimmer physique.
Processing power
Where the F5m is truly impressive though is the processing power it has under the bonnet.
The highly configurable device has three options when it comes to processors all of which involve the fifth generation of Intel Core processors with options for the I3, I5 or I7 available.
The review unit we tested had an I5 processor with 2.2 GHz 5200U plus a Turbo Boost to 2.7 GHz (3MB of L3 cache, 2 Cores/4 Threads) and alongside the base configuration of 4GB the tablet ran the Microsoft 8.1 operating system plus a number of commonly used programs without any significant issues at all.
However, if your engineers are using software which is particularly demanding then the top spec available of an Intel Core i7 vPro processor which boasts 2.6 GHz 5600U with Turbo Boost to 3.2 GHz (4MB of L3 cache, 2 Cores/4 Threads) alongside 16GB DDR3L 1600MHz SDRAM memory should be able to handle most things you throw at it with ease and compares favourably to other rugged devices such as those mentioned above.
For the operating system the tablet comes with an option of the 64 Bit Professional version of either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
Given Motion’s intent for the tablet to be moved seamlessly from office to vehicle to field, on the surface this seems to be a sensible choice and, given the meaty processing power the F5m has, it sits much more comfortably in the category of laptop replacement than many other tablets are capable of.[quote float="right"]If you take the time to learn some of its tips and tricks, Windows 8.1 can actually be a very effective and useable interface indeed.
However, whilst improvements between Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 have improved the interface there are still plenty of critics of the Microsoft OS. In their desire to meet the demands of both the PC and tablet market Microsoft many believe they have not quite mastered either
The regular need to move from the mobile- oriented tile interface to the more traditional desktop format is one issue often sited as being a particular frustration of the user experience, and the simplicity and fluidity of Android and IoS, the other leading tablet operating systems, appears to be somewhat lacking.
However, I use the phrase ‘appears to be’ carefully there because in fact if you take the time to learn some of its tips and tricks, Windows 8.1 can actually be a very effective and useable interface indeed.
That said perhaps the one of the most effective tricks of Windows 8.1, especially for business users, seems to be missing from the help files. That is a function called Snap which provides the option to split screens a la Windows 7 (perhaps why it’s not included in the help files?). Although with the touchscreen interface it’s not obvious unless you know it’s there.
For those Windows 8.1 users who aren’t aware of this feature you need to keep your finger on the screen when dragging an app in and then hold the app and hover either slightly to the left or right of the screen until a black line appears in the centre and the second app will then ‘snap’ into place.
The ability to have two separate apps accessible without having to swap between them could significantly improve productivity.
The fact this feature is hidden away perhaps sums up Windows 8.1 as a whole.
On first glance it may not be the most intuitive of operating systems, particularly in the tablet sector, however if you spend a little time learning learning it’s secrets, it has a lot of features that can massively enrich the user experience.
The pen is mightier than a digital keyboard
Of course one of the key benefits of having a Windows operating system is the ability to work with familiar applications. However, for those applications that require anything more than light data input, the lack of a dedicated companion keyboard for the F5m can make life that much harder.
Unlike sister devices the R12 or the CL920, Motion offer no companion keyboard for the F5m. This leaves the user with two options, either using the on-screen keyboard or the included digital pen.
As with almost all on screen keyboards text input can often be inaccurate and when entering a mix of words and texts it can be frustrating switching between the various input modes of the keyboard, so this isn’t really a great option for anything other than brief input and form completion.[quote float="right"]The user has two input options: the on-screen keyboard or s digital pen.
As for the pen, the handwriting-recognition algorithm was able to make sense even of my spindly handwriting and would certainly be a better option than the on-screen keyboard. However, the requirement to hit the insert button after every few words can soon become a tiresome task and, again, I would see writing a maintenance report of any length a frustrating experience.
That’s not to dismiss the benefits of the pen itself which is a comfortable in hand and feels very much like a real pen, especially when compared to something like Samsung’s S-Pen which accompanies their consumer-focused Note series of tablets and smart phones. One complaint would be that the pen’s sensitivity isn’t as good as others such as the aforementioned S-Pen or Wacom products - but that is not going to have much impact on the average field engineer's working day.
Where the pen could really be of use is when combined with the F5m’s camera powered by Motion’s own photography software Snapworks (which is designed to be optimised for annotation with the pen or touch) and has a very simple yet effective sharing mechanism. Such a tool can make a big difference when it comes to encouraging a collaborative nature amongst field engineers as well as improving an engineers efficiency when it comes to reporting.
A picture is worth a thousand words…
The primary camera on the tablet is a rear facing 8 megapixel camera which is at the higher end of the spectrum when compared to the specifications of other rugged tablets and is more than capable of taking images clear enough for reporting purposes.
There is also a second front facing camera which is 2 megapixels which provides a good quality image for making Internet calls – again aiding collaboration between workers. When we made a test Skype call both the picture quality and audio were of good quality.
However, the test call was in a quiet location and the lack of a headphone jack could cause potential problems for making such a call in a louder environment.
A minimalist approach to I/O options
This leads us to one of the potential drawbacks of the F5m: the lack of input and output ports.With one solitary USB port (albeit a USB3 port for faster data transfer) you can’t help but think there could have been additional I/O options included.
The lack of input and output ports is one of the potential drawbacks of the F5m.
An extra USB port could come in very handy, as could an external storage option such as a SD card reader or even a HDMI port should our engineer be required to give a presentation.In their defence, Motion do offer a number of accessories including an Ethernet connector with a USB 2.0 port, a long range RFID reader and a magnetic stripe reader which all connect via the device’s docking connector, so the functionality is available. However, you can’t help but feel that some of these solutions could have been worked into the actual device itself without adding further to the tablet's footprint.
The longest day
Of course one of the most important factors of a device to be used in the field is the reliability of the battery life and here we found the F5m to be excellent. The device was fully charged within just an hour and a half and comfortably lasted an eight hour day when we tested it with a reasonable amount of use (i.e. the same we would use a laptop for in a full working day away from the office).
On top of this the tablet also boasts hot swappable batteries, so should your field workers face extra long days they are able to extend the performance time without hassle.
School of hard knocks
The F5m certainly passes the criteria for a rugged tablet. It looks robust enough and has been independently certified as meeting MIL-STD 801G, it is capable of surviving a fair few bumps. In fact the drop test for meeting this standard requires the device survives no less than 26 separate drops at differering angles from a height of 4ft (1.2 metres).
This durability is largely due to three factors: the tablet is rubberised for shock dampening, features a magnesium-alloy internal frame and a durable Gorilla Glass screen which comes either with a standard screen or the option of upgrading to Motion’s proprietary ViewAnywhere display technology, which is designed for working in the sort of brightly-lit and outdoor environments that can play havoc with readability of standard screens.
The MIL-STD 801G certification also means the device is also capable of operating in temperatures ranging from -10°C to 55°C and storage temperatures from -51°C to 71°C which should cover most working scenarios!
The other certification that the F5m boasts is IP54. The IP rating is defined by two separate criteria each identified by the two numbers. The first number denotes solid particle protection and in this instance the rating five (the second highest rating) means that the F5m is protected to a level where whilst the ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, dust must not enter in satisfactory operation of the device, i.e. the tablet is dust proof.
The second number refers to the liquid ingress protection. In this instance the rating of four denotes that the device is resistant to water splashing against the enclosure from any direction so it will have no harmful effect. In effect this means that the device should be able to function in the rain, for example, but is not suitable for an environment where it could be fully immersed in water.
The conclusion?
In real life terms these certifications mean that the F5m is capable of dealing with all but the most extreme of environments.[quote float="right"]The F5m is a tablet that is designed for the field
However, the lack of a dedicated companion keyboard and only one USB port as standard does limit the device's capability to be used in an office enviroment for tasks such as writing more detailed reports or giving presentations etc. If we go back to Motion’s claim of the F5m offering the ability to go seamlessly go from the office, to the vehicle, to the field then this is a touch disappointing.
However whilst the F5m may not be the perfect device for the office, it does excel in other environments. The device is rugged, bring powerful computing into almost any environment and when it comes to vehicles Motion also offer a very comprehensive range of in-vehicle docking solutions including dedicated vehicle mounting kits for a range of vehicles.
Essentially the F5m is a tablet that is designed for the field and, when we consider the type of workflows it will generally be used in, it is most certainly a good bit of kit for your field workers.
The barcode and RFID options make it a perfect rugged device for cataloguing and inventory tasks in a warehouse environment for example. Also the high quality camera, the Snapworks software and digital pen could also make life easier for field engineers who are required to include photographic evidence.
All in all the F5m is a robust and powerful tablet device. Whilst it is not the most elegant looking rugged tablet on the market, the integrated handle does actually add a lot of practicality and the F5m is both an easy device to carry around and far less likely to suffer accidental drops because of it.
The F5m is light enough to highly portable, durable enough to be put to task in challenging environments, has the computing power to be able to handle most programs expected to be run on it and a battery life that should keep engineers working through even the longest of days.
If your engineers need a reliable device, with good processing power, out of the office enviroment the F5m is definitely worth a closer look.
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Jun 28, 2015 • Features • Management • John Cameron • management • research • Trimble • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Operating a successful field service operation today is a challenging experience. A study recently commissioned by Trimble revealed the main factors UK consumers look for when selecting a field service provider, their expectations and biggest...
Operating a successful field service operation today is a challenging experience. A study recently commissioned by Trimble revealed the main factors UK consumers look for when selecting a field service provider, their expectations and biggest frustrations. John Cameron, General Manager Trimble Field Service Management explains more...
The findings were extremely insightful, revealing that today’s consumers typically expect more and are not shy of complaining, leading field service companies to have to look at new ways to balance service excellence with cost.
Consumers say fix it the first time
Getting a problem fixed on a first visit is the biggest expectation for UK consumers. Indeed, in Trimble’s study, which surveyed 2000 British adults, over half (52 per cent) considered fixing the problem on the first visit to be the most important factor in determining their satisfaction.
40 per cent of UK consumers complain that their technician did not have the appropriate tools or parts to fix the problem on a first visit
Problems such as this often transpire for field service organisations that schedule daily tasks based on a technician’s allocated territory. However, it is more effective to select the most knowledgeable technician, or one who has the right tools and parts in their vehicle. Adopting intelligent scheduling engines is therefore crucial as they incorporate technician knowledge, parts availability and capacity into the scheduling process to ensure that the technician arriving on site is actually the person who can resolve the customer issue on the first visit.
Short appointment windows a key factor in customer choice
Today’s consumers increasingly expect field service businesses to provide more convenient appointment options to accommodate their busy schedules. However it is apparent that consumers are failing to receive this, as long appointment windows and wait times are considered to be one of the nation’s biggest frustrations with using a field service provider.
In Trimble’s survey, more than 50 per cent considered 1-3 hours to be an acceptable appointment window, yet 36 per cent report experiencing wait times of far longer, in some cases up to eight hours.
By coupling an intelligent scheduling engine with a self-learner tool, field service businesses can look to improve service delivery times through enhanced schedule accuracy, improved productivity and workforce utilisation. The software tool uses a unique algorithm to learn preferences for each technician and will allocate tasks accordingly. This includes which mobile workers normally service particular areas and what skills technicians have and to what degree they are qualified to do certain types of work. The first step to managing productivity requires field service managers to get the right people with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time, and a self-learner tool significantly helps in achieving this.
Price and customer service equally as important
When selecting a field service provider, customer service and price were revealed as being equally as important to UK consumers. Field service organisations must therefore look to balance these if they are to achieve customer satisfaction, retention and profitability.
Over half of UK consumers (55 per cent) said they would refuse to use a service provider again if they were delivered a poor customer experience
Consumers also find lack of communication with a company or service technician prior to arrival to be a major problem and consider being kept up to date on the day about arrival to be the most important factor when selecting a service provider. It is no longer acceptable to say anytime during the day. In fact almost half of consumers have to take annual, sick or unpaid leave to wait for delivery and service.
Field service businesses have a real opportunity to leapfrog the competition by providing excellent service to every customer and technology is available today that can help them to achieve this. The key is making and keeping commitments and then ensuring the customer is informed along the way.
To achieve this, more and more organisations are integrating their work management capabilities into mobile applications, which they can then offer to their technicians to allow them to share, store and view job data while out in the field, offering them a virtual link to the back office that helps to inform and empower them.
The range of information offered through a mobile application can include previous work history of jobs and upcoming work details. For example, if a technician is en-route to a customer, a quick look at service history on a mobile phone can inform them that the customer has complained multiple times to the helpdesk about a product/equipment failure.
This is vital information that can help the technician approach the customer with more care, helping to maintain a good customer service. Furthermore, when a technician reviews and accepts a job within a mobile application, the mobile device’s navigation tool can help them find the most efficient route. The technician can then pull up the customer’s details and call them to confirm when they will be arriving on-site.
The power of technology
To conclude, Trimble’s latest research looking into consumer’s biggest expectations and frustrations with field service providers ultimately suggests that success is achieved by managing productivity and ensuring field service managers get the right people, with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time, whilst keeping the customer informed along the way. Having the appropriate technology in place to achieve this is therefore essential and key to helping businesses meet customer expectations and maintain ongoing brand recognition.
Trimble’s independent study was conducted by OnePoll, a worldwide market research agency. For a summary of the report, visit: http://ow.ly/MdyUU
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Jun 28, 2015 • Features • interview • cloud • ERP • IFS • Interview • Software and Apps • software and apps
In the first part of this exclusive interview with Paul Massey, IFS, Managing Director we looked at where he felt the recent announcement of IFS Applications 9 sat against previous milestones within the Scandinavian company’s history.
In the first part of this exclusive interview with Paul Massey, IFS, Managing Director we looked at where he felt the recent announcement of IFS Applications 9 sat against previous milestones within the Scandinavian company’s history.
Now in the second part of this interview we look at Massey’s thoughts on the Cloud and IoT, plus whether he was ready for the reception to the most talked about new tool in Applications 9 – the lobby function…
Head in the Cloud
One of the big announcements at the recent IFS World Conference was the launch of a fully managed cloud. However, many of IFS’s existing clients have already invested significantly within the infrastructure to run previous iterations of the ERP solution so is this a platform that is geared towards winning new business I asked Massey.
“From a marketing perspective of course the managed cloud is going to be aimed at winning new business. It’s a good coherent and deliverable Cloud story.” He began
“But in terms of the uptake I think it’s going to be out to our customer base quicker. Obviously there is a big customer base to shoot at and we only bring in so many customers each quarter.”
“So whilst an increasing proportion of those will be on cloud the bigger potential market for us is obviously the existing customer base. As part of an upgrade proposal we can try to convince them to go to the managed cloud and I think actually some of the benefits and return on investments are actually more tangible for the existing customer base than they are for new customers because they understand whats involved in running IFS, deploying new releases, managing the application, managing the database. They already know the importance of resilience and uptime so potentially it’s a very easy sell for us.”
“So I think in terms of the uptake the momentum will be generated from the existing customer base. But that in itself will obviously provide us with more references for the business.”
The managed Cloud solution is a direct result of the IFS’s close partnership with Microsoft. Which of course leads to questions around yet another disruptive technology on the horizon namely The Internet of Things. Whilst there has been a lot of discussion around IoT and Field Service it’s not really been as embraced as fully as some may have thought by now. Perhaps partnerships such as IFS and Microsoft could be the next stone to that wider spread adoption?
“Having data moving around between machines and the cloud, those are real life concerns that classical ERP and companies using ERP in that classical way are very frightened of.”
“Having data moving around between machines and the cloud, those are real life concerns that classical ERP and companies using ERP in that classical way are very frightened of.” He adds
“It’s not just to do with the IoT but the whole security of Cloud computing is approached the same. But just the fact that it’s Microsoft if you engage with them they’ve got a really good story about security which does take a lot of the potential concerns off the table I think it’s another facilitator effectively in terms of IoT meaning something tangible to people.”
The killer app?
As we return our focus to the Announcement of Apps 9 I reflect that the biggest buzz in the break after the initial sessions was all around a new solution called Lobby which allows individual users to have all of the data they need for their own specific roll or project in one easy place. It’s easily configurable, and a first initial look suggests it could be a powerful tool.
So what were Massey’s thoughts when he first encountered the idea, was it always a case of knowing that this would be the ‘killer app’ that would resonate so well with his customers or was he taken back by the overwhelmingly positive response?
There is always a myriad of data in an ERP system it’s just a matter of getting at it in a useful way
“Yes I do think it will be the sort of headline feature that we are pitching it to be as one of the perennial challenges in selling ERP applications is presenting to the prospect the potential of all the information being at their fingertips. There is always a myriad of data in an ERP system it’s just a matter of getting at it in a useful way. So I think it’s a really graphical and hopefully relatively simple way of demonstrating that there is so much data that you can choose what data you want and how you present it .” he expands
“As a way of attracting attention to the depth of functionality beneath it in the ERP application I think it is really good and hopefully the technology in how to deploy it and customise it is straightforward enough for people to understand that it is easy to get it up and running.”
Look out for the third part of this exclusive interview as we turn our attention to the impact of consumerisation on enterprise applications…
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Jun 26, 2015 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Zafire • business intelligence • software and apps
With over 20 years’ experience in the industry Chris Beling looks at the connection between ‘best-in-class’ service organisations and the use of business intelligence.
With over 20 years’ experience in the industry Chris Beling looks at the connection between ‘best-in-class’ service organisations and the use of business intelligence.
True or false? The importance of turning data into meaningful business intelligence has never been so critical for the service management industry as success criteria and the ability to deliver ‘service excellence’ continues to move further away from the ‘wrench’ and more towards a customer centric focus.
Recent reports published earlier in 2015 suggest that ‘best-in-class’ service organisations are reaping the benefits of such an approach with figures showing higher customer satisfaction and customer retention rates as well as a year-on-year increase in service margins. So why isn’t everybody adopting this approach?
One of the main challenges faced by the wider market is progressive technology. So what do I mean by this? I’m referring to the pace at which technology and service management software advance and the ability, or lack of, for service organisations to adapt and adopt these advances successfully to help drive business growth.
The service environment varies greatly, whether you’re a service centre handling thousands of repairs every day, or a service provider with a large team of field engineers managing a hugely varied portfolio of assets all over the country (or all over the world for that matter)
Disparate systems, legacy data, complex assets and growing customer demand all add to the challenge of providing ‘service excellence’ in the complex world of service management. So even if you know that customer satisfaction, an increase in contract renewals, improved service margins, workforce efficiency drives, moving from reactive resolution to a PPM based approach are all essential for business growth and maintaining a competitive advantage, how do you provide service excellence without impacting current performance?
Here’s how? With a service management solution that provides a comprehensive end-to-end process engine and the flexibility to match your exact requirements, keeping you in complete control of operations, whilst at the same time providing management with a holistic view across the organisation and not just delivering data but revealing business intelligence.
Leading organisations are now looking at service as a ‘profit centre’ in its own right with management embracing the concept of a ‘customer centric focus’ in order to excel at service operations and drive revenue.
With a central system receiving data automatically and simultaneously from multiple parts of the business - at the point of job creation through the service desk; from engineers in the field via mobile technology; direct from assets with M2M capabilities to name but a few – business intelligence doesn’t just report on the number of calls completed ‘on-time’ but the provides insight into what it took to close those calls and how they could have been prevented the in the first place.
It’s reported that 41% of service jobs are now Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) visits within best-in-class service organisations which indicates greater control of resources, planning and cost allowing them to optimise their workforce, increase productivity and improve margins.
In any business, and this is nothing new, it’s more costly and resource intensive to generate new business rather than nurturing existing customers. Service management is no different. So, if we find ways to achieve ‘service excellence’ and in turn improve customer satisfaction, it would be fair to expect to see an increase in contract renewals, customer retention and customer referrals.
The expertise of service management software providers, their ability to provide comprehensive solutions and their ability to work in partnership with their customers to understand requirements, are all essential for the successful implementation of a ‘service excellence’ strategy within any business. After all, you only get out of a system what you put in – so if business intelligence is the required output you must be able to input, capture and monitor the data in the first place.
The ability to connect and optimise assets, contracts, customers and workforce using one central system that can provide real-time visibility to operational performance and turn a myriad of data into meaningful business intelligence seems like a game changer to me. Investing in, and building on, solutions that offer that business intelligence will be what separates those organisations at the top of their game from the rest of the field.
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Jun 24, 2015 • Features • Hardware • Future of FIeld Service • future of field service • drones • Smart Glasses
Welcome back to this exclusive Field Service News series in which Kris Oldland is exploring some of the technologies that could well become common place tools in the field engineer of 2020’s armoury.
Welcome back to this exclusive Field Service News series in which Kris Oldland is exploring some of the technologies that could well become common place tools in the field engineer of 2020’s armoury.
In part one the focus was on smart watches, now in this the second feature in the series we look at how their close cousin the smart glasses and drones could begin to see regular use in field service also.
Wearables- smart glasses
However, whilst smart watches have the ability to improve the way we work in field service, smart glasses have the power to completely change the way we approach our field service operations.
A big statement? Perhaps, especially given the recent press Google Glass has had.
However, it’s important to highlight that whilst the ending of the Public Glass Xplorer program may have been reported in some quarters as an admission of failure, the fact is that the very opposite is true.
Google’s move of taking Glass out of their research division and into their main headquarters, as well as placing Tony Fadell, the creator of the iPod and the NEST thermostat suggests anything but. Yet there has definitely been a change of emphasis for Glass and the new focus is very much on industry which makes a huge amount of sense given it’s potential applications.
Smart glasses don’t just offer hands free communications, they provide a true ‘see-what-I-see’ experience.
However, lets return to the topic at hand, a moment ago I mentioned that smart-glasses could change the very way field service operates… so what did I mean by that…Smart glasses don’t just offer hands free communications, they provide a true ‘see-what-I-see’ experience. The implications for this in field service are huge.
Not so long ago labour used to be cheap and things were expensive. Today the reverse is true and this is simply result of the continuing evolution of technology one of the big challenges for many field service organisations, particularly those working on complex devices such as medical equipment for example is managing the cost of getting their highly trained engineers on-site.
In fact this is often the biggest cost of a repair rather than any replacement parts etc.
Not only is there the cost of flying or even driving an engineer to a location which can be considerable, particularly if your operation is global, but also the time it takes for that engineer to be working on each specific repair, especially if your engineers are a highly skilled workforce.
Smart glasses can give a company the ability to use cheaper, less skilled local engineers, to undertake the repair guided by an experienced, engineer who is able to see the work carried being carried out remotely via video stream.
Through this type of application of smart glasses companies can open up huge potential cost savings by not only reducing the cost of each repair, but also by improving the efficiency massively of each of your engineers.
It could also lead to the potential expansion of a field service company into territories it may have been previously uneconomical to enter in. Not too mention the soft benefit of improving your engineers work/life balance which again could lead to better staff retention.
So the simple introduction of smart glasses could pave the way to completely restructure your entire field service operation into a much more efficient and productive unit.
Drones
Whilst Drones or UAD’s to use the official title have been around for sometime they’re potential commercial applications has recently starting soaring.
It was just over a year ago that Amazon launched, what I truly think will go down in history as one of the greatest PR stunts of the last twenty years by announcing Amazon Prime Air complete with a slick video of a drone picking up a parcel from the depot, making it’s way cross country before politely delivering it’s package at the front door.
The result was global press coverage and an 18 minute slot on America’s prime time show 60 minutes as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did his best to make the whole thing look like a genuine glimpse of the not so distant future.[quote float="right"]Like any great ‘blag’ it included a very healthy dose of truth to add as much credibility to the statement as possible.
The way the online retail giant painted the picture is of course absurd and riddled with flaws. The approach would require huge amendments to air space regulations for a start not to mention the vast amount of investment in AI to give the drones the ability to deal with any potential pitfalls and hazards along the way.
However, not only was the Amazon announcement was perfectly timed as it raised the their profile the day before cyber-Monday, but like any great ‘blag’ it included a very healthy dose of truth to add as much credibility to the statement as possible. The fact is that the commercial use of drones is very much on the rise.
In fact the Guardian reported towards the end of the year that licences for flying unmanned drones had risen by 80%.
Of course not all uses are dependent on requiring a license either, for example if the drone is staying within the eye-line of the pilot and the drone is only flying within the vicinity of buildings and personnel for which you have consent to record you may well be fine (although it is always best to check this properly). Having a drone on-site can give an engineer the opportunity to easily get to high positions and make a quicker analysis of a situation.
Not only is this a time saving measure, it also means that an engineer working on his own can make this evaluation – whereas without he would be reliant on a second engineer coming to assist in order to ensure health and safety requirements were met.
When we consider that a decent quality drone, with HD Camera footage and built in WiFi to allow for instant streaming can now be purchased for under £400 the argument for including one as part of your field engineers kit is a very compelling one for any company whose engineers will be required to work at height.
Look out for the third part of this series in where we turn our attention to Near Field Communications and 3D Printing…
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Jun 22, 2015 • Features • cloud • ERP • IFS • Interview • Software and Apps • software and apps
Continuing our series of interviews with industry leaders, Kris Oldland took the opportunity to sit down with IFS Managing Director, Paul Massey at the IFS World Conference in Boston last month. Against the backdrop of the launch of the swedish ERP...
Continuing our series of interviews with industry leaders, Kris Oldland took the opportunity to sit down with IFS Managing Director, Paul Massey at the IFS World Conference in Boston last month. Against the backdrop of the launch of the swedish ERP provider’s latest product suite Applications 9, the conversation looked at both Massey and IFS’s journey across the last twenty years or so…
It’s been a busy month for IFS with a raft of new developments announced at their 2015 world conference including the launch of IFS Applications 9, key partnerships with Accenture and Microsoft, the launch of a Managed Cloud Solution plus a number of improvements to their field service offerings.
Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland spoke to Paul Massey to discuss what these announcements mean for the Scandinavian based company.
With so many big announcements coming in the first morning of this years world conference it felt like a sensible idea to try and put this into context of the near twenty year journey Massey has been on with IFS.
“Back when we became IFS back in early 1997 that was when the product was becoming graphical” Massey begins.
“There was a long history with my company Avalon and IFS who at the time were our Scandinavian distributor. Basically Avalon didn’t make the transition from character to graphical so IFS acquired most of the assets of and at the outset it was all about that new graphical user interface along with the component architecture story that IFS already had. So for us that was the first major milestone and in a way that was the first wave of internationalisation for IFS.” He continues.
Indeed IFS had been a very Scandinavian centric company before that point with one operation in Poland but little else beyond there home market.
This all began to change in the the late nineties as following on from the UK acquisition France and Germany and then a US acquisition.
The first three or four years of our time with IFS was all about becoming an international company. There was a massive amount of investment in that area in sales and marketing functionality to cover other markets etc so that was a big investment period for IFS
In fact this aggressive expansion plan resulted in a marked a period for IFS between 2000 and 2004 when there was negative growth. However as the world faced an economic crisis in 2008 IFS had already taken their hit and as competitors started to suffer they emerged as a healthy, profit making organisation.
“We’d finished spending our money and were set to reap the benefits of our investments” Massey admits. “We managed to more than survive that phase because it definitely impacted on others much more than it did us. We continued to grow as we moved from a negative cash flow to a really positive cash flow and we came out the other ends of that in a very healthy state.”
But what about the product how did evolve also?
Having gone through the transition to graphical interface right at the beginning the next major milestone was enterprise explorer, the .net client in the Apps 7.5 release.
“That was the next technology milestone from IFS’s point of view from then all of the releases i.e. 7.5 then 8 and now 9 have been more heavily focussed on broadening out the level functionality in each of the industries we target and obviously keeping the technology up to date.”
Which brings us up to Apps 9 which has brought a number of new features that had the delegates of their world conference more than impressed (see page 48)
“From a technology point of view I think the Layered architecture and some of the stuff we are doing with in-memory optimisation (which will be in an update of Apps 9 a little later in the year) is really important.” Explains Massey “You’ve got to keep the functional and technical streams running together in parallel which I think we’ve done. I think there is enough of both of those things in this release to get the customers interested in it.”
Look out for the second part of this exclusive interview where the conversation turns to the Cloud…
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Jun 22, 2015 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • China • IoT • Servitization • Service Innovation and Design
Andy Neely, Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, hears about the challenges and enablers of servitization, the importance the country puts on technology, and the growth of e-platforms...
I recently spent a week in China, visiting...
Andy Neely, Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, hears about the challenges and enablers of servitization, the importance the country puts on technology, and the growth of e-platforms...
I recently spent a week in China, visiting the Southern China University of Technology (Guangzhou) and Ceibs, the international business school in Shanghai. While at Ceibs I participated in the first seminar on “Servitization and Service Innovation”.
Attended by around 100 people, industrial speakers at the seminar included eCoal (an online coal purchasing platform), HP, Sevalo (a construction and mining equipment services business) and SKF from the world of industry, whilst Professors Marjorie Lyles (Indiana University), Chris Voss (Warwick Business School), Xiande Zhao (Ceibs) and I delivered academic presentations.
It was a great trip, fascinating in so many ways, and here are my thoughts on some of the themes that came out for me at the seminar.
The importance of technology to China.
All the speakers talked about the way technology is changing China’s approach to business. They talked about all the traditional topics - cloud computing, big data, mobile, the need for better security. But they also talked about Internet Plus, China’s equivalent to Germany’s Industrie 4.0 and the rest of the world’s Internet of Things.They recognise that as more and more devices are connected to the net, ever greater volumes of data will be created and these data can potentially deliver new and valuable business insights if analysed and interpreted correctly.
Platforms were also a major theme.Many of the firms that spoke, including many of those in the audience, were looking to create platforms, often to combine buying power and/or to utilize spare capacity.
eCoal, for example, has created a coal buying platform which allows it to drive significant cost savings by pooling purchasing across multiple organisations. HP claimed to be the world’s biggest retailer of paper. With their print on demand services, where you pay per page rather than for the printer, HP is forced to buy large volumes of paper. But with large volumes comes the opportunity to negotiate discounts for bulk purchasing.
Many firms were looking to create platforms, often to combine buying power and/or to utilize spare capacity.
One reason so many firms were interested in platforms was the massive success of China’s three stars of eBusiness - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (the Chinese refer to them as BAT). These three firms dominate China’s discussion of eBusiness and have all successfully created platforms, which in turn create multi-sided markets. Tencent, for example, offers users access to free online games, sells the eyeballs to advertisers, but also sells the players of games equipment upgrades.
A dominant question underlying many of the comments at the forum, was how do we create platforms that will allows us to capture multiple, complementary sources of revenue for our businesses.We also talked about challenges of servitizing. The fact that having a strong product heritage or brand sometimes makes it more difficult to offer services. Interestingly a number of the speakers referred back to the roots of their organisations, obviously a product of their firm’s history, but I wondered whether history also constrained their thinking about the future.
Services and solutions often cross multiple products and categories.
SKF asked some fantastic questions about servitization. How do we persuade our customers to buy solutions from us before we have proved their value? Who buys services and solutions? Procurement is typically not structured that way. It thinks about products and categories, yet services and solutions often cross multiple products and categories.And finally we talked about enablers of servitization. What would make the transition to services easier?
Through the course of the seminar I heard five key themes:
- Get inside the mind of your customer’s customer. Understand what is value to them, so you can better help your customer create value for their customer; to understand you need deep relationships - ask yourself are we really close enough to our customers;
- Seek to balance control and collaboration in the ecosystem - not everyone needs to control or create a ecosystem. Sometimes you have to accept you are part of one and the best you can do is seek to influence
- Think about creating win-win-win across the ecosystem to drive change;
- Learn from your experience, codify it and share it; and
- Think about solutions - SKF has created solutions factories where they can work with customers to solve their problems. Using your own ideas and technology collaboratively with the customer is a great way of getting inside their minds and building a deep relationship with them.
One of the great privileges of life as an academic is the opportunity to travel, to experience different countries and cultures. I never fail to be inspired when I go somewhere different and meet someone new. My latest trip to China was no exception.
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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