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The Internet of Things has certainly gained momentum recently but what does it mean to the Field Service Industry? Kris Oldland, Editor of Field Service News looks at how it could impact the industry and at a first generation of IoT field service software from Core Systems

Internet of things 101

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for 2013, the Internet of Things was sat just below Big Data, nearing the peak of inflated expectations that emerging technologies inevitably go through. Indeed just as Big Data seemed to be the key item on the agenda in corporate offices around the world this time last year, so the Internet of Things is doing the rounds currently. So what exactly is it and what exactly does it mean to the Field Service industry at large.

Well the term Internet of Things (IoT) was first coined some 15 years ago having been proposed by British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton and largely does what it says on the tin. In a famous article for RFID Journal Ashcroft outlined the concept explaining:

“If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost.”

The idea itself is fairly simple. If we give the ordinary items that surround us the ability to essentially communicate with the world without the need for human input, the world would run just that much smoother.

With RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) essentially the ability has existed for a while for such data transfer although other tracking technologies such as NFC (near field communications) digital watermarking, low powered Bluetooth, QR codes and their humbler, older cousin the barcode can also provide the same solution.

In reality there have been two key developments that have propelled the IoT into existence.

Firstly with the latest Internet protocol IPv6 there is now room for the Internet of Things to exist. Whilst it sounds crazy, the previous protocol IPv4 just isn’t big enough and we are running out of Internet. Given that an estimated 26 to 30 Billion devise will be connecting wirelessly to the IoT within the next six years, we need somewhere these devices can call their digital home, the newer larger protocol of Ipv6 is just that and has evolved a  somewhat symbiotic relationship with the IoT.

Secondly there is the rise in smart devices such as mobile phones. These can take the role of translator between ‘dumb’ devices and the internet. Whilst the hyperbole surrounding the IoT may seem futuristic, with domestic appliances being given intelligent capabilities, the reality is that the days of ‘smart fridges’ that keep in touch with your supermarket of choice to make sure you never run out of milk being in every home are still a little way off.

However, a simple QR code placed on the front of your current ‘dumb’ fridge could give it a digital life of it’s own via your smart phone. Access to user manuals, serial numbers, replacement parts and communicating with local service engineers are suddenly possible and an early stage in the IoT amongst the general populous is very quickly becoming reality.

Internet of Things and Field Service

It is along just these lines that Swiss company Core Systems have evolved their product to date.

Whilst offering many of the features you would expect from most modern Field Service software solutions, including some neat dashboards, plenty of employee data, inventory management etc, they have also included IoT functionality.

By including a QR code or other tagging device on their products, ‘Core Systems ‘ clients are able to to offer their customers a first generation IoT interface via the cloud based CoreSuite, CoreSystems’ field service platform. End users are thus able to use their smart phone as a bridge between the ‘dumb device’ and the service company.

This allows customers of the service company to use their phone to schedule a service visit, providing an additional channel of communication alongside more similar methods such as phone, email and webchat. Also the same interface provides the opportunity for increased customer maintenance by putting machine specific information in the hands of the customer, resulting in fewer service calls for basic issue resolution.

Similarly it is not just the customer who benefits from this bank of machine specific knowledge. Should an engineer be required to attend a site, he to is able to gain access to information relating to the faulty machine including its maintenance history, in a quick, efficient and simple manner.

In the not so distant future…

Admittedly beyond the IoT element CoreSuite doesn’t break the mould of many of the other cloud based field service management software systems that are available, this first iteration of IoT based field service management system undeniably offers companies the ability to add the wow factor to their approach to service.

However, it is perhaps the next few generations of this technology that will be truly intriguing to the field service industry. As manufacturers turn to developing smart devices from jumbo jet engines through to white goods, machine to machine diagnosis and preventative maintenance will become the accepted norm and so IoT based field service management systems will in turn become more in demand.

If this proves to be the case then Core Systems are well positioned to become a major player in the field service software industry and have made an early start down an exciting and promising path.

Want to know more? Visit this years Service Management Expo where Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland will be interviewing Core Systems CEO Phillip Emmenegger on the rise of IoT and its applications in Field Service, as part of the programme for the Field Service Solutions Theatre, hosted by Field Service News.

 

 

The question of how to grow profitably is high on the strategic agenda of most companies, yet only few are able to realise it. In today’s world, many businesses are struggling to maintain their existing revenue and profit margins, let alone achieve ambitious growth rates. But there are also many exceptions!

Given that significant variations appear in the growth strategies companies choose and the role services play within this strategy, Noventum set out to answer the following two questions:

1. What are today and tomorrow’s key drivers for profitable growth?

2. What role do services play in respect to growth?

The research comprised of in-depth interviews and a survey conducted amongst board members, service managers and directors, primarily from B2B product-orientated companies across a wide distribution of industry sectors and company turnovers.

It was quite clear that companies exhibiting higher growth rates saw ‘services’ as one of their strategic solutions to achieving growth and not as a challenge in its own right.

We found that these companies tended to exhibit 4 key capabilities:

1. Deployed a wide portfolio of growth strategies

In order to outperform competitors on revenue growth and margins, companies should pursue a broad portfolio of growth strategies and not just the traditional few of  (1) Product growth in mature markets; (2) Product growth in emerging markets; (3) Product Related Services. When these 3 strategies are broadened by Advanced Services focused on solving company’s business problems, or improving a customer’s processes, revenue growth was generally above 11%. In addition these companies were more likely to achieve gross margins across the whole business of greater than 40%.

2. Innovate for customer value

Key to growth and profit margins is a focus on innovation in order to optimise customer value. Successful companies do this by employing multiple tools to glean customer insights and maintain a balanced portfolio between incremental and ‘game changing’ innovations.

3. Demonstrate Organisational Agility

We defined agility as the capability, dedication and culture to rapidly innovate on a continuous basis. The companies that achieve high growth are innovative in nature which leads to change. But all this change creates internal friction and conflict . Hence successful high growth companies develop a culture that can move and change rapidly giving the oganisation an agility to adapt to new ideas

4. Strategic alignment between service- and corporate strategies

Companies need to develop a clear long-term vision as to how to develop their service business, ensuring each step delivers a tangible and credible contribution to the overall performance of the company. Focusing on the overall value of service for the company will secure corporate commitment and thereby further enable (service) business success.

The bottom line: Advanced services are a key differentiator in driving companywide revenue growth.

If you are interested in understanding more about how advanced services differentiate the winners from the losers, you can down load  a summary of the research finding using this link.  Or if you would like to participate in our follow up research, you can join Noventum’s Service Innovation Programme on LinkedIn. When people subscribe they will receive our newsletter including the events updates such as the Servitisation conference in May at Aston Business School.

I will be presenting the research findings at this event, as well as at the Service Management Expo at the ExCeL in June.

 

 

Welcome to the fourth edition of our Field Service News podcast. This month we are joined by Noventum Service Management consultant Nick Frank. 

In this exclusive interview Nick talks extensively about a recent study he and his colleagues have made into what are the key drivers for growth for businesses and the role service plays in this.

This podcast is also accompanied by a great article written exclusively for Field Service News by Nick which you can find here

Nick will also be joining Field Service News in the Field Service Solutions Theatre at this year's Service Management Expo being held in London's ExCel on June 17th, 18th and 19th. So if you want to here more from Nick then make sure you get your complimentary 3 day pass by clicking this link

 

 

mplsystems has announced a new, integrated field service management solution that directly address what they perceive as the three main barriers to field service efficiency: combining disparate IT systems; enabling the scheduling of reactive jobs alongside planned tasks; and solving ongoing issues relating to lack of visibility of activities in the field.

The systems key functionality includes a unified service desk portal, automatic and dynamic planning and scheduling of service activities, as well as mobile communications for field personnel through dedicated apps for all leading smart phones and tablets.

The solution is particularly easy-to-use, supporting a unique combination of automated scheduling with dynamic drag-and-drop capabilities to enable planners to optimise schedules and manage their reactive tasks in real-time. When integrated with a comprehensive service desk portal and updates via mobile apps, organisations will be able to unlock significant productivity and efficiency savings with a true, real-time view of all current maintenance activities across the business.

 

 

 

Bridging the disconnect

“Until now field service management systems have always suffered from a disconnect between the service desk, planning and what’s actually going on in the field. The result is that it has proved virtually impossible for service management firms to react quickly to customer emergency jobs and change requests as the planning function is burdened by overly complex scheduling tools that make it difficult to schedule such reactive jobs in real-time. Our new service management solution directly address this challenge,” commented Paul White, CEO at mplsystems.

“And despite the great advances in smart phone technology, the reality for most service organisations is still that their field workforce is largely invisible. That’s a real concern given that the top complaint from service maintenance customers is that technicians, when on site, can’t resolve issues. By integrating our service desk portal with both automated scheduling and field updates via mobile apps, we can make sure that field service organisations have both the real-time information dynamic planning tools they need to solve this problem.”

The new solution differs with traditional service scheduling tools that are often over-complex with endless menus, options, parameters and screens.

Instead the mplsystems solution features a simplified interface with three core drag-and-drop presentation options that enable schedule optimisation: a dynamic map view that streamlines the scheduling and allocation of tasks, a field service engineer’s calendar view showing all jobs and locations, and a complete list of jobs that can be filtered using a range of parameters.

These three views can be toggled separately or displayed concurrently on a single screen. When the service desk receives a call, all service desk staff need to do is just drag and drop the task onto the appropriate field engineer’s schedule. This action updates diaries and transfers all relevant task information to the engineer’s mobile Android, iOS or Windows Mobile device.

mplsystems vs maximo?

Statutory Support Services, a specialist building services maintenance group, chose the new mplsystems solution to gain a single view of all its field activities.

“With mplsystems we’ve been able to automate around 50 percent of the manual scheduling tasks that we had to do with our previous system, and we’re already seeing improvements in terms of our KPIs and SLAs. Our schedulers are no longer overloaded with endless menus, options, parameters and screens. Instead they get to look at just three simple views – a dynamic map that streamlines the drag-and-drop scheduling and allocation of tasks, a field service engineer’s calendar view, and a complete list of jobs that can be filtered using a range of parameters,” explained Adam Clarke, Statutory Support Services UK Limited’s Managing Director.

“The sheer simplicity of the system means that our staff simply need to drag-and-drop a task onto the appropriate field engineer’s schedule. This action updates diaries and transfers all relevant task information to the engineer’s mobile device. With the time saved, we can focus our helpdesk staff on the kind of added value tasks that other service companies simply don’t have the time to do.

“Thanks to increased SLA adherence and the ability of our new mplsystems implementation to respond effectively to reactive jobs and dynamic schedule optimisation, we’re expecting the mplsystems field service management solution to pay for itself within just six months,” he added. “When you factor in costs such as licencing and hardware costs for field mobile systems, we’re estimating that our cloud-based mplsystems technology solution will work out at around five times less expensive than our legacy enterprise Maximo-based scheduling system.”

mplsystems’ new end-to-end solution can be delivered either on premise or in the cloud, and provides field service organisations with a true real-time view of all their current maintenance and support activities across their entire operation. A full suite of field service management software allows businesses to create and customise exactly the level of functionality they need around their existing IT investments.

 

 

 

Click Software's Gil Bouhnick, Vice President of Mobility looks at how how companies can use gamification in their organisations to improve efficiency....

Gaming has become a core part of our daily lives. Whether we’re sitting at home playing Candy Crush or trying to break that unbeatable Flappy Bird record on the way to work, people from all walks of life are beginning to play more games, ever more frequently. All you need to do is sit on a train and see men in suits, parents after the school run, teenagers, or people just enjoying a day of leisure – most of them will have a gaming app on their phone, and more often than not, will play it on a regular basis.

We work best when we are happy, and so smart companies are looking into how they can use the surge in popularity of both games and the smartphones they are played upon. Is there some way you can blend the two to make work that little bit easier? The answer is absolutely.

Gamification is a term that has been around for a while, but now we are really seeing it adopted by companies of all varieties for things such as helping them increase employee collaboration and motivation, to providing training and supporting change management. Essentially all the tasks that you know you have to do, but don’t always enjoy doing can have an amount of gamification woven into them. And in a way, this can be turned into a reward for employees who do these tasks on time and accurately. A small badge here, an unlockable picture there, small tokens that can make staff feel better for doing the administration.

Engaging employees of all levels and functions is a notoriously difficult thing to do, especially when it comes to adopting new processes. It often happens that employees are resistant to changes because they can’t understand the new processes nor do they see any personal benefit in adopting them. But having an engaged and motivated workforce is a crucial ingredient to a successful company, even more so when that company has a dispersed workforce.

In businesses where there is a core back office function and then a field team carrying out the tasks, it’s very easy to become split between these two fault lines. Unifying them and making sure they are all following the same procedures can be much more difficult than a business that is self-contained or less diversified in the roles and responsibilities of the staff.

Yet tapping into a common ground can be a great way of bringing a company together. This is where it’s hoped gamification will come into its own. Think about some of the tasks you need to do as part of your job – timesheets, expenses, logging tasks. It can be pretty boring stuff. But what if you livened it up a little bit and made it more compelling by adding a competitive element to what you are doing? And if you made your employee feel appreciated for doing such tasks?

We have begun to see businesses doing just that. Company-wide league tables charting who is best at one task, or which division is doing something better or faster than another. A little healthy competition goes a long way to bringing people together.

You can also apply this to customer service too. If the end customer has the option to directly feedback via a smart device, then suddenly it is even more critical for the technician, engineer, or salesman to make sure they do the best job possible. It provides a way to show how well they are doing by comparing the best in your company with each other and it also allows companies to reward their top employees for their outstanding results. It’s like the old sales charts companies used to have where at the end of the month, a salesman of the month would be announced. The concept is exactly the same, just digitising it and making it something that people from across the business can take part in.

At the foundation of any good gamification model is the goal to reward staff. This doesn’t necessarily mean holidays abroad, mountains of cash etc., it’s more about appreciation that they are doing a good job and are recognised across the business as such.  A good gamification model should be easy to embrace. The moment it becomes as complicated as the tasks it’s trying to replace, then you’ve lost sight of the reason of employing it.

Make it simple. Make it compelling. And make it as fun as possible. If you stick by these rules, then you should begin to reap the benefits pretty quickly. Benefits, such as a more engaged workforce, more accurate reporting and completion of administrative tasks, and ultimately a better customer experience. We are still in the early days of companies adopting true gamification policies, but with no end in sight for the adoption of smartphones, the technology is finding its way into more people’s hands, and that’s an opportunity businesses should be seriously considering in the years to come.

 

Robert Woodhead is an award winning Construction Company operating across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. Growing steadily since its inception in 1946, Robert Woodhead have developed an impressive customer portfolio and now deliver multi million pound contracts  to some of the largest public and commercial organisations in the UK.

To help meet their rigorous customer service targets, Robert Woodhead decided to develop its service management offering as ‘Woodhead One’ – a specialist operation that delivers responsive repairs and maintenance. As part of the business strategy and to support the expanding repairs and maintenance business, the company knew it would have to optimise its customer contact and scheduling activities if it was to successfully balance excellent customer service with high quality operational performance.

Previously using manual spreadsheets and paper based job allocation, the business wanted a solution that would manage the end-to-end field service operation. To successfully achieve these project goals, Robert Woodhead selected mplsystems to design and deliver a seamless end-to-end field service management solution that would include the helpdesk, scheduling and mobile field service. The solution would need to integrate with existing systems and enhance business processes.

In response to customer demand and to alleviate the volume of service requests going through the helpdesk, mplsystems designed a customised self-service portal that allowed clients to log and track jobs themselves. The portal gave customers full visibility of their service requests and meant they could access the portal at any time without having to call or email the help desk.

Once the request has been made, the helpdesk were able to view real time information on the location and status of mobile field workers and to fully optimise job allocation and instantly send a notification update to the field worker via mplsystems customised mobile app technology.

This solution simplifies the service management process whilst improving efficiencies for both Woodhead One staff and their valued customers. Since implementing the solution Woodhead One have experienced significant business growth and 100% increase in reactive job requests in just two years. The portal now manages more than 75% of these reactive service requests, allowing Woodhead One to reduce their outbound call costs, increase service response times and reduce the admin load on the service helpdesk.

Customers no longer have to call or email the service desk to request a job, they are able to access the portal 24/7 and have full visibility of their request from initiation to completion. Clients can also now effectively measure their job requests through instant reporting from the portal and have full visibility of billing to fully understand associated costs, meaning they too can optimise their business operations.

Stephen Gribby, Repairs and Maintenance Director, Woodhead One commented 

“The team at Woodhead One see our solution from mplsystems as a true differentiator and a feature that is now helping us win new business. We are continuously reviewing our service delivery efforts and the next stage of the project is to encompass our payments system into the portal to achieve a more unified approach across the business”

To find out more you can read the full case study here

 

 

Following on from the launch of a 7inch Android tablet last year, Getac have now launched a fully rugged 8 inch tablet that runs Windows 8.1. Field Service News spoke exclusively with Peter Molyneux about the new launch and Getac’s approach to creating the new device. 

“Up until now Windows fully rugged tablets have been larger in size 10 inches plus” comments Peter Molyneux, President of Getac UK.

However, his company have just set a new precedent with the launch of their new tablet. The Getac T800 is slim, lightweight and a nicely compact 8.1 inches, making it small enough to fit into a pocket.  However, it is also fully ruggedized to military standards meeting both MIL-STD 810G and IP65 standards.

With tablet devices now very much in the mainstream thanks in large to the rise in popularity of firstly Apple’s iPad and then more recently a raft of Android based devices from numerous manufacturers, the consumerisation of technology is now a major factor for the field service industry. This is not lost on Getac.

“There is a strong influence to our design on the consumerisation of the markets…” says Molyneux “…the demand from the market is that they want a tablet computer that has really got the performance and interface they have gotten used to in the consumer market place.” He adds.

In fact the speed at which we as consumers have embraced tablet computing is often forgotten, so quickly have tablets become a staple part of life. Similarly the speed at which devices are developed can also seem breathtakingly fast.

“If you start from the beginning and move to mass production taking a rugged tablet to market will take about 15 to 18 months – you can do it faster, but that is a sensible timeframe” Molyneux states.

Keeping pace with the latest technology trends

Of course, such rapid development of technology does mean that yesterday’s cutting edge is looking outdated today. Something that Molyneux and his colleagues at Getac fully understand.

“We could put our V100 magnesium alloy tablet on the table and the customers would say that’s old tech, the perception is ‘we want something new’”

In fact the switch away from magnesium alloy to a plastic compound is one of the big factors in the T800’s more consumeresque feel. This in itself presents a challenge to manufacturers of rugged devices.

“When we brought our new products to market we had to change the material, magnesium alloy is very good for thermal management and is a very rugged material but we have had to change to a plastic compound. This means all the manufacturing processes have to change, the machines have to change, the tooling is different etc” Molyneux explains

Getac's competitive advantage

However, this is in fact where Getac have a particular advantage over their competitors.

“We are very fortunate as a company that within the Getac Corporation we have companies that specialise in designing and manufacturing enclosures of all material types, magnesium alloys, plastics etc. So because we have companies within our group that are experts in each field, we are able to design and bring the latest technologies and trends to our computer design” he continues.

Yet it doesn’t matter how robust a device is, if its performance levels are not sufficient, then there is little point in having the device at all.  Again the mass consumerisation of technology leads to greater expectations, and again this is something Getac factor highly into their thinking when developing a new product.

Molyneux points to the fact that perhaps five years ago rugged technology was generally behind consumer in terms of processing power by a couple of years at least. However, today, lower powered processors (Molyneux cites Intel in particular) have meant that rugged tablets and netbooks have been able to move forward to equal most systems, whilst also allowing for more slimline designs for fully rugged devices such as the T800

Indeed such advances in chip-ware have allowed Getac to build rugged devices that operate at the very top of the technology scale. Align this to the fact that the company manufactures all components itself, from motherboard to chassis (a holistic approach which enables them to factor ruggedity at each stage of the design) and you have a company capable of producing something as sophisticated, sleek and durable as the T800.

In fact it is part of Getac’s ethos to constantly deliver their customers with devices that are cutting edge technology.

“We are staying very much with the latest tech.” Molyneux enthuses “For the longest life and the best performance.  We have the opportunity to take new technology to the customers and we are quite unique in what we do in that we offer the very latest spec without compromising on offering full military standard ruggedity”

If you want to know more about the Getac's latest fully rugged tablet you can read our overview of the device here 

Getac will also be appearing at this year’s Service Management Expo and will be giving a presentation in the Field Service Solutions Theatre at the event which is hosted by Field Service News.

To get your free of charge, three day pass to this years Service Management Expo held in Excel London, simply click this link and enter the promotion code 'Field Service News'

 

 

How an enterprise-class service management software vendor embraces the new world of cloud and devices whilst keeping existing customers happy.

It’s fair to say that we are living in times where the rate of change in information technology is faster than at any time in the past. Internet connectivity is becoming ubiquitous. People own multiple devices… phone, tablet, laptop, PC etc. They expect ‘apps’ now, not just applications (apps being instantly available software the installs in a click). And cloud computing promises to drive costs down and availability up.

Great. But… what about the investment made already in the existing systems? What about keeping data secure? What about all those customisations that we spent a lot of time perfecting?

The future is indeed exciting but how on earth do we get there without significant disruption (not least the costs)?

At Solarvista, we have been developing our software application suite for 25 years and through that time, it’s been through several sea-changes (DOS, Windows, mobile etc.). As a software developer, we knew that we were facing another sea-change and that this one could be bigger than all the previous ones. We also knew that the last sea-changes were not always easy for our customers.

So, the question was, how do we develop our products to embrace new technology without forcing our customers through ‘hoops and hurdles’ to get there?

We established a dedicated team to research the options. After nine months hard work, we had a design solution that would enable our customers to keep their existing investment in Solarvista intact, yet allow them to move forward progressively. In fact, our solution also had a great side effect… system integration to third party systems. This side effect is actually something that we have really embraced at Solarvista now and intend this to be one of our key unique selling points (USPs).

With all this change ahead, we also decided that we needed a new fresh brand identity. Our ‘old’ identity had been in place since 2000, so was 14 years old. And it was looking tired. It was, too multi-coloured. It didn’t suit the digital age. We couldn’t fit into a Twitter icon for example. We needed a new brand that was fresh, digital ready and an image that we could design into our applications so users knew instantly they were “in Solarvista”.

The resulting journey has been a big one.

Product-wise, we now have two new whole product categories, having spent the last 20 years with just one! That’s a 200% increase in product base in less than three years! A modern airliner has approximately 750K lines of code. We’ve added 1.5 million in one product category alone!

Brand-wise, we have a fresh, new identity that’s ready for the new age and capable of reflecting our technologies. An ‘S’ made up of dots reflects the move upwards into the sky. And always purple and orange. It’s applied throughout our products and in all our communications of course. This has been no small feat… its involved updating thousands of pages of information and hundreds of web pages.

The first of our new product categories is Solarvista NET. This technology solves the problem of connecting existing systems together without the need for coding and development. In particular, it’s based around Service Oriented Architecture (“SOA”), a proven design used by the very largest systems in the world, including famous social media sites. This significantly reduces cost, time and risk (something that’s always high in system integration).

The second of our new product categories is Solarvista LIVE. To deliver new applications that can operate securely out there in the cloud requires a security model that’s rock solid and proven. That security model is claims-based federated security. You can’t build secure apps without building this in from the start and it being there in every piece of code at the base level. Adding it in afterwards doesn’t cut it.

Solarvista LIVE will initially surface as a new style of mobile app that connects via Solarvista NET and enables full use of Solarvista 8. It also allows Solarvista LIVE apps to be used on other systems, even in scenarios where our flagship solution isn’t even in place. All of this delivered via a cloud-based account that managed for you by us, thus removing the overhead of managing remote servers.

Many systems out there are not true SaaS. They are often web servers hosted in a data centre. Whist this “appears” the same; it isn’t. It’s not scalable; can be vulnerable to attack, and not the most cost effective. Solarvista LIVE is true SaaS. It is delivered in small pieces. So much so that you can just buy what you need and no more/no less. A good example is our non-SaaS product for mobile, Mobile Worker. In the Solarvista LIVE, this one product is broken down into 20 smaller pieces, meaning you can just buy say, 2 or 3 pieces of it to start with. Then 2 or 3 more at a later date. You don’t need to buy the whole application.

We’re excited about the future and look forward to taking all our customers forward as well as attracting new customers in new markets.

Solarvista will be demonstrating their new software at this years Service Management Expo, where you will also find Paul Adams giving a presentation in the Field Service Solutions Theatre hosted by Field Service News. 

To get a free exhibition pass for all three days simply click this link and enter Field Service News in the promotional code box

 

 

As the general public continue to raise their expectations for service call and delivery times to fit within their own personal schedules the ability to make supply and service chains ever more effective and dynamic is likely to be the difference between those companies that thrive and those that are left behind. 

Technology is of course a major enabler in allowing companies to meet these demands and Telogis have just launched a further extension of their already comprehensive, cloud-based, location intelligence software platform. The new module is called Telogis Appointment and will be revealed at this years Commercial Vehicle show at the NEC next week (running from the 29th to 31st May) Appointment is the latest addition to theTelogis Route Planning Suite

Telogis Appointment improves customer service by allowing consumers to choose delivery windows that are most convenient for them while also being most cost effective for the deliverer. It helps shipping companies reduce turnaround times by matching delivery slots to customers’ open times to receive goods, and automates ETAs to the receiving parties via text or email – all in real time.

“Businesses that embrace a customer-centric service model and implement mobile and location intelligence technologies aimed at expediting, improving and personalising the customer experience will ultimately grow market share and remain competitive,” said Newth Morris, Telogis co-founder and president, Telogis Route and Navigation. “By providing a higher level of service to their own customers, Telogis’ customers benefit from increased fuel savings, mobile worker productivity and profits.”

 

Intelligent Appointment Scheduling that Maximises Profitability

When customers interact with online scheduling tools or speak with a customer service representative by phone, Telogis Appointment will provide a choice of available appointments based on pre-determined criteria such as delivery cost, available resources, proximity of existing vehicles and resource capabilities of technicians or delivery specialists.

Telogis’ integrated work order management, routing and scheduling programs provide customer service representatives with optimised appointment times/windows that allow the customer to choose a time that works best for them. This dynamic back-office coordination takes into account factors such as vehicle location, onboard tools, skill sets, routing and schedule, and only presents appointment options that will be profitable.

Telogis Appointment also delivers integration to/from existing Customer Resource Management (CRM) or other customer service portals and initiates a call to/from appropriate applications in order to present profitable appointment options.

 

An Integrated Platform Approach

Telogis’ platform approach for any mobile enterprise gives customers a seamless, integrated SaaS solution on which to build a more productive, efficient and compliant fleet and manage all aspects of their mobile operations. The Telogis platform combines strategic and dynamic planning, advanced mobile apps that log delivery drivers’ Hours of Service (HOS) and other compliance requirements plus easy-to-build mobile forms, commercial navigation and telematics.

Now in version 6.0, the Telogis Route Planning Suite supports static, fixed-route and territory planning as well as dynamic routing, routing support specifically for vehicles carrying hazardous materials and commercial trucks. This enables Telogis customers to be more responsive and provide a higher level of service for their own customers. The Telogis Route Planning Suite ensures that plans are built so that key customers are visited regularly and operations teams can more effectively manage last-minute jobs, resulting in increased efficiency, revenue and overall customer satisfaction.

As well as appearing at the CV Show next week Telogis will also be appearing at this years Service Management Expo which is in London's Excel on June 17th,18th & 19th and will be giving a presentation during the Field Service Solutions Theatre which Field Service News is proud to be hosting.