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Have you ever had a great business idea, and found yourself saying ‘Oh that’s just a bit beyond our capability’. Shame, as you have already talked yourself out of it before you have even started!

But if a project seems a little too big for your business, perhaps give it a second chance by exploring partners that can make up for your capabilities gap. Service Management expert Nick Frank, Principal at Frank Partners explains more... 

Many businesses utilise local partners or agents to sell and service their products in regions outside their organisations reach. This arms length type relationship is OK until you start wanting to develop more advanced service offerings, which may require a far deeper integration between the product side of your company and the customer facing service operations.

Value propositions such as uptime guarantees, vendor managed inventory or outcome based services require far more interaction between the manufacturer the agent and potentially multiple partners. But this ‘intra-dependency’ also makes the relationship between the partners more complex.

 

Take the fastener manufacturing company that was asked by a major Automotive OEM to supply every single nut, bolt, rivet, screw and clip for a particular car platform. Rather than supplying 10 part numbers, they now had to supply 450 most of which they now had to buy-in! How do you go from manufacturer to a ‘just-in-time’ delivery partner with a global supply base in just 3 months?

Their solution was to use a 3^rd party logistics provider to move parts from all over Europe to a point of fit in the factory, while they focussed on Application Engineering Services, Purchasing and Programme Management. They challenged their mind-set and built a supplier ecosystem that included many of their competitors.

As the business developed some competitors even became key customers and suddenly relationships were not quite as simple as before. It shows that with a bit of creativity, an advanced service offering can be delivered that goes beyond the initial core capabilities.

So how can an organisation provide solutions for complex customer business problems that at first sight appear to be beyond their capability?

Recently I worked with a small UK SME who embarked on creating an ecosystem to deliver an IoT technology platform that enables smaller equipment suppliers to deliver remote services such as diagnostics and upgrades. MAC Solutions is a £2M+ UK supplier of industrial router solutions.

Together with one of its 
key supplier eWON (www.ewon.biz), the company identified an opportunity to provide a remote service solution to SME equipment manufacturers. This went beyond the router and cloud technologies it currently supplied and involved the integration of Historians, Alarm Management Analytics and other new data technologies. MAC Solutions realised they did not have all the capabilities in house and that they would need to develop an ecosystem of up to eight expert partners to deliver their vision.

 

As they brought the partners together, it became clear that inter-relationships became more complex and could not be managed as a traditional customer/supplier discussion. They developed a framework that helped them think clearly through the process of developing their service solution.

It essentially linked together standard business tools that enabled clearer business thinking through 4 key steps:

1. Understand the Value Chain and the market: The basic business analysis that should be in gaining a deep insight into the markets, customer value and the current business context. This understanding becomes very important when it comes to agreeing pricing mechanisms with different partners
2.  Define the complex problem to be solved and the ecosystem solution: in other words the basic building blocks of the solution, so that a clear vision, mission and strategy can be articulated and actioned. This involves clearly defining the Business Opportunity, Value Proposition, Product Service Solution and the Roles & Responsibilities within the partner ecosystem.
3. A clear plan of how to execute and develop the solution: For example develop a detailed business plan to drive the allocation of resources and actions. How will you use pilot projects to develop your solution? Develop the Value Delivery Model that defines the commercial interactions within the ecosystem. This would cover the sales model, delivery model, people and competencies, customer experience, organisation, partnerships and contracts, pricing, revenue sharing schemes and procurement
4.  Test for Resilience: Develop mechanisms for ensuring that the business plan is resilient in terms of business risk and partner/customer fit

The framework they developed, undoubtedly helped them move through the complex process of developing a network of partners that can deliver results. The result has been that MAC-Solutions were able to pilot their proposition with a supplier of washing systems for rail networks.

Their story shows how it is possible for even small organisations to develop service propositions that appear to be beyond their capability by developing an ecosystem of partners.

MAC-Solutions will be telling the story in more detail at the Spring Servitisation Conference to be held at Aston Business School in May 2015.

 

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New infographic from ServiceMax shows how the benefits of going on the offence...

Over the past 50 years, manufacturers have focused on efficiently making good products in order to maximise their returns at the moment of sale. However, in a globally competitive market, many products are now commoditised and margins are getting squeezed, diminishing the leverage from such production-centric approaches.

That’s where a service-centric business model comes into its own. Servitization transforms companies from production to service provider, shifting them to delivering advanced services, such as selection, consumables, monitoring, repair, maintenance, disposal, as well as the opportunity to increase service revenues even further by supporting existing third party or competitive products. This creates an ongoing relationship with the customer that effectively locks out competitors.

As a business model, servitisation isn’t a new phenomenon – the origin of the term dates back to the 1960s. However, against the back drop of a global recession, product commoditisation, shrinking product margins, and major technology advances in end-to-end service delivery, servitization is providing companies with an effective hedge against market downturns, and higher barriers of entry for competitors.

As a result, service is shifting from the spotlight to the limelight, becoming a powerful offensive business strategy for top line growth and competitive advantage.

 

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Severn Trent Services has been using service management software supplied by Tesseract for nearly four years. In the latter months of 2014, they saw the wisdom of upgrading to the latest version of the software, Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1).

Already they are enjoying huge time savings and greater efficiency as a result of the new components available to them. UK-based Severn Trent Services is part of a major international conglomerate that in total serves 4.2 million households and businesses throughout the world. It is the leading national supplier of water and wastewater services to businesses in the UK, currently providing services to more than 1,500 sites nationwide.

Their work includes water hygiene services; controlling and maintaining assets such as sewage and water treatment works and sewage pump stations; and connecting water supplies to housing developments. Their national status means they have the capability to give businesses with multiple sites the ease, simplicity and efficiency of dealing with one supplier for all their locations.

Severn Trent use Tesseract to run their water hygiene service, which is a hugely important part of their work. Essentially they make sure businesses comply with water hygiene legislation by carrying out inspections, cleaning tanks and pumps, performing disinfections and conducting remedial works to bring water systems to the necessary standard.

Moving away from labour-intensive processes

Before the upgrade, Severn Trent only relied on Tesseract’s software to manage their customer contracts and invoicing. Their field service management depended on a variety of manual and labour-intensive processes. Several different software systems were used to manage the engineers – one for allocating the jobs, one for travel planning and one for collecting feedback, time capture and other data.

“Extensive manual intervention was required to make these systems work together properly,” says Jack Fleet, Water Compliance Scheduling Technician for Severn Trent Services. “This eventually became clunky and we saw that there was too much room for human error. It also took up a lot of office time.”

In July 2014, Severn Trent reviewed their business, looking at how timely and how efficient their processes were, and how they could serve their customers better. Having been using some components of Tesseract’s service management software for several years, they decided to extend that usage to field service management. They wanted one whole, cohesive software system managing their engineers instead of several. A field service management overhaul By upgrading to SC5.1, Severn

Trent are now benefiting from Tesseract’s Remote Engineer Access software (REA). This allows engineers to log in remotely from their i-Pads, view allocated calls for dispatch, look at the call history for a site, product or customer, raise parts requests, add service reports and close completed jobs - amongst many other functions. REA completely streamlines field service management and removes the bulk of manual interventions that were previously necessary to perform these functions.

 

Severn Trent also have the benefit of Tesseract’s flexible Email Service, which automates the sending and receiving of emails from Tesseract Service Centre. Severn Trent are using the Email Service to handle customer appointments and reports, but automated emails can be triggered by all kinds of activities, such as when calls are logged and closed, and parts have been shipped.

Finally Severn Trent are using Tesseract’s fully customisable Reporting Service, which enables customers to schedule and run reports at any time during the day or night.

A bespoke feature

Currently in development is a bespoke feature of the software, which Tesseract are producing especially for Severn Trent. This feature will help to assess whether certain site restrictions mean that specific engineers are required to attend them. For instance, the engineer might need to have a DBS check, a certain qualification or skill set, or a certain level of training to be able to work at the site.

Tesseract are looking at inserting some additional fields to the allocation software to help Severn Trent assign the right staff. “The good thing about Tesseract is their enthusiasm for customisation,” says Jack Fleet.

“They are developing this feature specifically for us because they are persistent in wanting to improve and expand what they offer. If this feature ends up working for us, it’s something Tesseract will make available to other customers.

In the same way, if Tesseract develop something for another customer and think it will work for Severn Trent, they will make it available to us.”

What does the future hold?

Tesseract’s SC5.1 went live at Severn Trent Services on December 1st 2014 and already Severn Trent have seen a massive saving in office time. Efficiency has improved enormously thanks to REA and the upgrade has made customer contracts and invoicing more effective and timely as well. Severn Trent have plans to install Tesseract’s Prospect Centre. This is a sales enquiry and action follow up module allowing for the registration of both existing customers and new sales leads so that sales activity can be monitored. It contains data such as the sales source, sales value, product required and next action date, and has a helpful ‘Salesman’s To Do List’ feature. Severn Trent also want to implement Tesseract’s Quote Centre, which enables sales teams to generate quotes and easily convert them into customer contracts once the quote is accepted.

 

However, Severn Trent’s more immediate priority is Tesseract’s Diary Assist, which they will incorporate in July 2015 in order to further streamline their field service management processes. Diary Assist is a centrally hosted web service for call optimisation which handles both planned and reactive maintenance calls. It allocates jobs to engineers based on skill sets, availability, travel time, customer site cover times and various other factors, and effectively automates the deployment process even further.

 

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Find out more about Tesseract in our directory section by clicking here

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: mplsystems
Title: Seven Key Steps to Achieving Customer Service Excellence in the Service Industry
Download: Click here to download this white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Over the last few years we have seen major change in nature of our customers; they are now expecting, and demanding, much more from customer service. In fact, nearly 70% of customers will leave a business if they don’t receive the customer service they expect.

Customers are now demanding quicker response times, more visibility, more control and much more knowledge when speaking to the customer service team.

This white paper analyses what factors influence customer perception of the quality of service delivered, how we measure it and ways service business can improve service delivery.

Overview:

Topics within the white paper include:

1. Successfully measuring service quality to continually improve customer service

Increasingly businesses are adopting analytics to gain deeper insight into operational performance and customer behaviour to improve the customer experience. However it is reported that only 20% of organisations believe they have the technology and skills to gather the necessary insights to effectively measure performance.

Big Data is a buzz word making its rounds across a variety of industries and the field service sector is no exception. Over the last 10 years, field service organisations have become overwhelmed by the relentless flow of information coming in from multiple sources, in various formats and through an array of tools.

The major challenge businesses are facing is not only how to make sense of the massive amounts of data they collect, but knowing what they need to be measuring in order to improve the customer experience, as well as operational efficiencies.

2. Providing a Consistent Level of Customer Experience Across all Channels

Traditionally the service industry has primarily used the telephone as the main channel for customers to find out the status of their service request. However today’s customers have 24:7 access to an array of channels through their mobile devices and expect to able to contact a business through their channel of choice.

A more consistent, cross-channel customer service can be created by having a solution that can manage multimedia in a single universal queue (including voice, email, click-to-chat, fax, SMS, web and social media), rather than service desk agents having to deal with piecemeal technology and legacy systems that are disparate and complex.

All these channels can be placed on the agent’s desktop allowing them to see all required customer details, despite the channel they chose to contact them via.

3. Equip all Customer facing personnel with full, consistent, up to date knowledge

Knowledge is the key to providing high levels of a personalised customer experience and it is important to share this knowledge across the business and not keep it siloed within departments. Although many companies are trying to establish ways of effectively achieving knowledge share, it is common to face difficulties in keeping this knowledge up-to-date and making available to the right person at the right time.

It is important for businesses to understand that knowledge sharing needs to go beyond the confinements of the office walls and extend out to the mobile workforce who depend on knowledge sharing just as much with those in the office.

As customer facing employees and those who go out to fix problems and meet customers, it is essential for them to be able to access the information they need, when they need it.

4. Client Self Service and visibility of service status

The customer’s ability to arrange service calls or get status updates with a company is an important element of how a service organisation is viewed by its customers.

Online portals are currently the most used self-service channel within the service industry, however the functionality of these portals is still quite limited and often do not provide the customer with the control they require. One of the main problems that is limiting self-service portals is the lack of integration with existing business technology such as scheduling systems and field service engineer’s mobile device technology.

Organisations need to ensure that when implementing self-service portals, they are integrating them to all necessary back office systems to allow customers to not only access basic information such as billing, service requests or appointment booking but also allow them to make payments, amend or cancel appointments or have real-time updates of their service delivery without human interaction.

5. Motivate and train your technicians to go beyond basic repair

The field based engineers of your organisation are not just the ones who fix, prevent or manage customer requirements, they become the face of the business and one of the only employees from your business that the customers sees.

With this in mind, it is important to ensure the business is getting the most out of their remote workforce by training them in not only providing the best repair and maintenance service, but also by improving their soft skills in order to successfully communicate, listen and train customers on the products and maintenance best practice.

6. Increase help desk productivity with technical training and automation

Whilst training your engineers to carry out additional tasks such as quoting and ordering, it is also important to ensure that those on the service desk are also doing as much as they can to help improve the customer experience.

The traditional role of the service desk is to log customer requests and schedule them for the next available or most skilled engineer to go out and visit the customer. However, what if the service desk could provide some level of expertise in trying to find out more about the service request to better inform and equip the engineers and on some occasions even help solve the customers problem remotely, over the phone?

7. Stay one step ahead of the customer with proactive maintenance

The amount of reactive service requests coming in to an organisation can cause complexity for scheduling as well as effecting engineer availability, parts ordering and the amount of time it takes for the problem to be fixed.

To avoid the amount of reactive jobs being received, businesses should implement a strategy to track performance of components and analyse common faults in order to predict when maintenance will be needed.

The internet of things will also have a huge impact on service delivery and although still somewhat in its infancy, will soon be able to transform the industry

 

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Click here to access this white paper now

 

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John Cameron, general manager of Trimble Field Service Management, discusses the importance of leveraging flexible fleet options to better serve the needs of an increasingly dynamic field service workforce

There are a plethora of technologies on the market today that enable fleet and field services businesses to measure, record and analyse every aspect of their field operation; from knowing where their drivers are to controlling fuel costs, ensuring drivers' safety and working to keep customers satisfied through intelligent scheduling.

Traditionally, in-vehicle telematics devices have proven successful in helping businesses that operate large vehicle fleets to manage and measure their field operations. However, with ever increasing customer expectations and rising competition in service, the dynamics of today’s field service workforce are changing to adapt to these demands. Contractor workforces are becoming much more of a necessity for organisations, to help keep pace with the speed and quality of service and achieve cost-effective resource management and as such leased or employee owned vehicles are becoming much more prevalent.

 

As a result, the need for more flexible fleet options is required to ensure all workers and vehicles are managed effectively in order to optimise the workflow and meet service commitments. Indeed, Aberdeen Group report that over half of organisations that have a hybrid workforce (both contractor and non-contractor) have prioritised further investment in technology tools which enable better field access information.

Managing a flexible workforce

Service organisations have become more open to diversifying their workforces with contractors because they know, if managed correctly, there will be no drop off in performance. Such a workforce offers field service organisations a myriad of benefits. These include, flexibility for service resources, increased coverage, a reduction in service costs and increased quality as a result of allowing the organisation to focus on core competencies while not being stretched too thin to meet customer needs.

Plug and play solutions are suitable for businesses that often lease vehicles or use contractor workforces. Such a solution can be easily installed and removed, can be moved between vehicles, is low-cost and offers the same benefits as traditional wired-in fleet management solutions. Real-time location information, driver behaviour data, vehicle fault codes and vehicle status can all be recorded offering the real-time visibility and insight organisations need to measure, manage and improve their operations.

 

Many plug and play solutions can also be integrated with work management solutions which can offer optimised scheduling and job dispatch so a business can have complete visibility of their jobs and mobile workers alongside their fleet, all in one solution.

This access to information empowers field workers with the customer and service insight at their fingertips necessary to resolve issues quickly no matter what type of worker they are.

Fostering fleet flexibility through mobility

Aberdeen Group recently found that 82 per cent of field service organisations identified mobility as a strategic initiative for the service operation in the next 12 months, as a tool to empower the field with real-time intelligence to make decisions and resolve issues to better serve the customer.

Indeed, an increasing number of field service businesses 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. Contractor workers or employees who use their own vehicles can also benefit from the use of mobile apps, if initially provisioned in to the back end system.

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. Helping to reduce fuel consumption and travel time. From a service perspective, the technician can then pull up the customer’s details and call them to confirm when they will be arriving on-site.

 

Ultimately, fleet and field service businesses are constantly changing the way that they operate to keep up with the needs of the market. Fostering complete visibility of a workforce will always be a main priority but more flexible fleet options need to be adopted today in order to achieve this across an increasingly dynamic field service workforce. Contractor workforces, leased workers and vehicles and employees that use their own vehicles for work are all becoming prevalent as each offers their own benefits for helping businesses to improve efficiency and boost their bottom line. Building flexibility into a work day and having access to ‘flexible’ technologies that provides the same level of visibility to measure and manage operations as traditional in-vehicle telematics devices are therefore vital to operational success.

 

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As the Internet of Things, Big Data, and Cloud computing all become commonly heard phrases within Field Service we must start to consider the very real question of cyber-security with ever greater attention. But what does Cyber security look like in 2015?

One of the significant themes that came through from the victims of high profile cyber attacks in the last year was that they all had heavy investment in IT security, regular testing programmes and almost certainly long lists of accreditations. However, event his was not enough to keep them safe from groups of attackers and the resultant losses and associated fines for such detected breaches.

This year the cyber security landscape will once again continue to develop swiftly as attacks likely become even more frequent and sophisticated and from more corners of the world than ever before. The one thing that will remain the same however is that investing in the wrong defences will again result in an openness to cyber attack and the potential of real damage.

Cyber threat actors are commonly split into three groups: nation states, cyber criminals and cyber activists or hacktivists. As 2015 evolves these threat factors look set to continue to advance their capabilities.

Often nation states – who see cyber attacks as being a cheap, effective and most importantly plausibly deniable espionage tool – can be the dark hand behind theft of proprietary or sensitive data for the benefit of one of their home-grown enterprises.

Cyber criminals, motivated by financial gain, have traditionally targeted a company’s customer base, stealing personal details or credit card information to use in fraud or to sell.

Cyber activists, motivated by a range of factors – including most simply personal amusement, but also factors such as, anti-capitalist sentiment, environmental concerns, religion and nationalism – base their activities on disrupting operations or generating embarrassment.

An ever-changing landscape

It is also predicted that many global political developments will also have their impact on shaping the cyber threat environment across 2015 and beyond.

Countries that not too long ago would have been clumsy and naive when it comes to their cyber capabilities have now established sophisticated capabilities by nurturing their local home-grown hacktivist groups.

Meanwhile new hubs of cyber criminal activity will emerge and will set their focus on new targets. Driven by the disparity between the rich nations and the poor on an international level, plus the growing access of IT and as such rapidly developing IT skills of members of the latter.

All of this is also becoming easier and being better facilitated by new ways of communicating, such as cyber criminals' and activists' use of the Dark Web to buy and sell hacking tools and techniques, using anonymous currency such as Bitcoin.

 

Another trend that we will likely see continue on from 2014 is the gradual blurring of the lines of the roles and loyalties of these threat actors. Last year we shad the emergence of criminals acting with a degree of impunity contingent on targeting politically expedient victims, or hacktivist groups becoming involved in attacks in support of government agenda.

As sophisticated tools and techniques become more widespread, and the distinctions between the threat actors become more blurred, the long-term outlook for cyber threats is concerning. The constraining factor previously was that the people with the intent to conduct widespread and high-impact cyber attacks – the activists and the criminals – did not have the capability. This may not remain the case for much longer.

How best to defend your organisation

Very simply throwing more money at the problem is no longer a viable solution.

With finite resources, it is just simply impossible to protect every asset against every possible threat.

The key is to understand which threat actors are likely to be targeting your organisation, what are your key assets and how do you protect those.

Modern Cyber defence needs to be intelligence-led, risk-based and prioritised – it is no longer just a compliance exercise.

There are five mistakes that organisations cannot afford to make during 2015:

1. Taking a broad sweep approach: You cannot fail to build your cyber defences around a granular understanding of threat. In 2015 all cyber-defence programs should be intelligence led. This includes collecting operational and strategic information that helps you understand the specific nature of the threat. It may also be necessary across your supply chain, as vulnerabilities in subcontractors or suppliers often affect a larger organisation (or vice-versa) – attackers will always focus on the weakest link.
2. Spending too much time, effort and money on prevention and not enough on detection. Companies need to just accept that breaches will be inevitable in todays world and spend time developing and testing response plans, moving form different types of attacks to highlight which plans are most important.
3. Treating cyber security as an IT issue rather than a business risk. Many organisations accept that cyber security is a business risk, rather than an IT-specific issue – but not many act on this by integrating cyber security risk management with wider business risk management processes.
4. Not identifying and protecting your most important assets. Companies need to focus their budgets on prioritising protection. Many tend to be excessively targeted on delivering company-wide compliance, yet don’t effectively protect their key assets.
5. Final many companies simply do not have the technical defences to deal with sophisticated and persistent threats. Across 2015, an increasingly broad group of highly capable actors will target critical assets across a wide range of organisations.

 

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People at the heart of latest issue of Field Service News  writes Editor Kris Oldland in his March/April Leader...

Whilst it is of course quite natural for those of us working in field service us to focus on technology, it is revolutionising the way we work seemingly more and more every year, every now and then we need to take stock and assess the most valuable element in field service - the people.

Because that’s what it’s all about ultimately surely?

We talk about empowering our field service engineers, we talk up the importance of our engineers as the frontline of customer service - increasingly the only human touch-point our customers may have with our brand.

For all the good that remote connectivity, the Internet of Things and machine to machine diagnostics brings to field service, for all the efficiency savings, all the increased productivity, we will still need that human interaction - if we want to engender any form of customer loyalty, we really need it if we want to capture and retain those ever more slippery recurring revenues that field service managers are under ever increasing pressure to secure.

And as I looked across this issue of Field Service News almost everywhere I looked I could see a strong ‘people’ angle to almost all of our stories and features.

In the News section for example there is what to my mind is one of the best stories to have hit our desk here at Field Service News Towers since we launched. That is the story of how field service software provider Keytree are working with food charity Planet Zheroes help fight Food Poverty in the UK. Not only is it a great example of how their system can be put to use, but it’s also a story of triumph on a human level. Through the use of field service technology Keytree and Planet Zheroes are able to stop wastage from some of the country’s leading food organisations and make sure that there are less hungry mouths out there on the British Streets.

My heartfelt thanks and respect goes out to both companies for helping so many who need it. 

Also in the News section is our new comic strip Field Service Funnies and whilst I’m dishing out thank Thank You’s I should also tip my hat to the good folks at ServiceMax for sharing the cartoons with us.

They were actually the result of a competition towards the end of last year where genuine field engineer stories were converted into cartoons. Once again all about the people , but I have a feeling that as in this first example the cartoons may be quite focussed on the sometimes quite astounding stupidity that occurs amongst the general public (trust me I’m probably one of the worst offenders) but I’m really looking forward to seeing more in this series.

 [quote float="left"]In the News section for example there is what to my mind is one of the best stories to have hit our desk here at Field Service News Towers since we launched.

And as the theme of people continues we have coverage of the first two big events of the year so far. Firstly there was the Enterprise Mobile Technology Conference hosted by Panasonic. You can read our write up on page 32 and the event was a really fantastic start to the event calendar but what truly impressed me the most was that despite being a very, very big company, the Panasonic team were both accessible and genuinely interested in their clients thoughts and needs. Special mention should go to John Harris, General Manager Engineering for a fantastic session that could have veered dangerously close to being a sales pitch in the wrong hands but instead was an extremely valuable, and highly open discussion.

 

The other event I refer to is of course Field Service Medical Europe which was held in sunny Dublin just a few weeks ago. As you would expect from the team that host Field Service Europe the three day event was highly enjoyable and packed with excellent content. However, perhaps because of the more niche focus of this event compared to it’s older cousin, there were a few less in attendance but that simply resulted in each session moving more towards an open forum as the barriers of inhibitions were removed due to the more intimate nature of the group.

Finally we’re really pleased to bring you the results of our latest research project which we have run in partnership with Advanced Field Service.

This time around the focus of our research has been on the types of mobility tools being used by Field Service Engineers in 2015.

The research project itself is perhaps one of the broadest topics we tackled as we look at the types of device (i.e. laptop/tablet/smartphone etc), the grade of device (rugged vs. consumer) the operating systems, what we as field service professionals expect from apps, how often we think we should refresh our FSM solutions vs. how often we actually do it, we even explore who is involved in selecting the solutions and look at whether it is a good idea to involve our field service engineers in the selection process.

For me though the most interesting statistics are around our engineer’s satisfaction with their devices. In brief digital is definitely here... So say the people

 

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Want to know more? Then click here to get you hands on a free digital copy of Field Service News issue five now! 

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“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in their own way,” reads the famous opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The same could be said of companies — so we’ve found as we’ve helped more field service firms shift from paper-based processes to automated ones asserts Phillipp Emmengger of Core Systems

Field service companies usually come to us seeking a more streamlined way of doing things. They typically are working under the burden of a heavily paper-based process with unique, time-consuming ways of doing things. One customer, for example, required technicians to re-enter their data back into their systems after their day was done, while another passed the paperwork to teams of data-entry clerks to enter the often illegible information. Neither was ideal.

Our potential clients typically focus on the efficiencies and the cost savings that can be achieved. How can we dispatch technicians faster? How can we ensure they have the necessary information they need, and to get data back to the office? How can we increase first-time fix rates? And, how can we invoice faster? But once the software is in place, and customers start enjoying the benefits of a more efficient process, they begin to notice something else: that not only are their customers happy, they’re happy. The work environment and the work culture has shifted to one that is positive and efficient.

 

As Lisa Erling, Chief Financial Officer at the California-based Vegetable Growers Supply, a packaging supply firm, said of the new work culture that emerged after their move to automated services, “It’s a whole new business.”

As with happy families, happy field service companies appear to have certain traits in common.

Here are the top 6 ways we’ve found on how automation can create a happier work culture:

Technicians Are in Control of Their Day:

Field service software on mobile devices allow technicians to see and manage everything in their day. They can easily record and track their working hours, see the day’s schedules and if any changes occur to their schedule. With a mobile solution, the lines of communication between technicians and the back office are constantly open, meaning technicians are better supported, and don’t have to return to the office when problems occur.

Free Technicians from the Burden of Paperwork:

Forgotten forms, lost paperwork, re-entering data back at the office and even interpreting their own illegible handwriting used to add to the administrative burden of a technician’s day. With an automated, mobile solution, where everything is in one place and is filled out and captured in the course of the day, the hours technicians literally spent on the admin of their jobs is reduced. “Our employees are very satisfied,” says Johann Schild Jr, Managing Director of Herstellung & Handels, the German supplier of hydraulic systems and accessories, “They are able to save time, which they use much more effectively. They benefit from having all the data they need in their hands and they have less paperwork to fill out, which for a technician is always an advantage.”

Empowered Technicians Have the Information They Need to Perform at Their Best:

Mobile solutions give technicians everything thing they need to do the job right: service manuals, customer and service histories and inventory levels and the ability to order spare parts are all at their fingertips. As first-time fix rates rise, technicians feel empowered by their ability to quickly do their job right. Daniel Reichert, a service technician at Cald’Oro, the Austrian makers of high end coffee machines, says: “I am much faster in creating service orders or in finding spare parts. I can see at a glance what my colleague did during his last visit, what work he carried out on the machine and what the problem was. Everything is just much faster. You can see right away what part was changed during the last service or which item got damaged when. It allows me to narrow down the errors in no time.”

Improved Relations Between Technicians and Customers:

Technicians armed with the knowledge of who their customers are and their service histories can put customers immediately at ease and demonstrate quickly to them their understanding of their equipment and issues. But they can also make the repair process more transparent. Simple photo capture of broken equipment, for instance, can show customers (especially with inaccessible parts) where the problem has occurred and how severe it is.

Better Communications and Team Work Between Technicians and Back Office:

No one likes to have to constantly check in with their office or have their office checking up on them. With mobile devices, automatic status updates can be easily sent when a job is marked done, when snags are occurring, or when drive times are taking longer than expected. Open communications between all team members can also let techs tap each other for knowledge, and let techs quickly locate a supervisor if they need one or call in extra help.

Work Faster; Save Time:

If there’s one thing that makes technicians happy, it’s the ability to work faster and save time. No one wants to be bogged down trying to diagnose a problem, when a simple service history might speed up the process. No one wants to have re-enter information when easy data capture could let them do this as they work.

With technicians on the front lines and in the position of representing and advocating for your brand and company, their happiness has a direct impact on customer happiness.

 

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We’ve all seen the statistics on how Millennials are set to dominate the workforce by 2020. Individual companies and entire industries are starting to cater to their requirements - from collaborative business centres and “social lobbies” for networking/relaxation, to rooms equipped with the latest technology.  Businesses are embracing this new generation, and harnessing the power of their sheer numbers.

It’s been said that this generation is needy, entitled, narcissistic, and often tough to manage, but they can also bring a new element to business, representing a driving force and competitive weapon that can be used to differentiate your organisation, strengthen the connection between you and your customer, and further the revenue and bottom line growth for your company.

Their attributes are actually a good fit for a career in the field service industry. Our entire civilisation now depends on field service technicians to maintain the very machines that keep our world running. Given the profitability potential that field service now has to drive meaningful revenue in a fledging economy where product shelf life is being extended rather than replaced, a career in field service gives Millennials the potential to both make money and make a difference.

The infographic below published by ServiceMax outlines how to the service industry can appeal to Millennials as a career path, and the changes in motivational drivers.

 

 

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