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Who are Watling Hope? 

Watling Hope are market leaders in the field of wastewater engineering services and are seen as such not only because they are national specialists but also because they demonstrate a keen desire to innovate when it comes to service delivery. They pride themselves on operating with flexibility and having a truly 'customer-first' attitude. How have they achieved this?

“We've made the service department the business, moving it from an after-sales function to the front end of the customer relationship,” says Edward Palin, managing director of Watling Hope.

In fact, Watling Hope’s development into service leaders in their field has not been a straight line. They have grown into a service business from originally being a ground works company. That is, they were a company which made its revenue from installing pumping stations and mechanical drainage devices but made the transition as they realised the commercial sense in also maintaining those devices, before taking the leap to maintaining devices that other people had installed as well.

Such a change in company emphasis has seen Watling Hope expand from 50  contracts 20 years ago to around 2,500 contracts today. “We provided a unique professional approach in what wasn’t a customer service orientated industry,” says Palin.

“Before us it was guys in overalls handing over dirty bits of paper. “Watling Hope’s unique attraction was a service company which put together usable reports and relationships which effectively looked after the customers’ interests from a commercial perspective, as opposed to on a job by job basis."

 

Ongoing Service Innovation

Like any good service business, Watling Hope are restless innovators, always looking to evolve better ways of delivering.

The latest stage of this evolution involved 18 months sizing up service solutions options, saying goodbye to the previous ERP platform in the process. When the step was made they went with Tesseract Service Centre, and got their mobile engineering team online with Motorola’s ES400 PDAs, although not simultaneously.

“I remember at the time saying to Tesseract that when we get the new system we want to recognise the benefits straight away,” says Palin.

“They wisely advised us we need our office to understand the system first, because you don’t want 25 engineers phoning up and asking how it works when the people in the office don’t understand it yet. That phased implementation has worked really well for us.”

A phased approach was also applied to the eventual hardware rollout, with two engineers in the team given the ES400s to play with. This approach seems to have negated the expected resistance.

“The other engineers started saying ‘when am I getting my PDA?’” says Palin.

Having an engineering team clamouring for new gear is not a common story; Watling Hope might be on to something with the drip feed of hardware solutions. It has revitalised the mobile team’s approach to work; it represents a feeling of being invested in.

Regardless of industry, service organisations all have a similar set of needs. This played a large part in the process to ditch the ERP solution and side with Tesseract.

“They had 20 years working in service, as opposed to an ERP solution which just adapted to fit service,” says Palin.

“We wanted a service solution for a service organisation.”

“If a pumping station goes down it is business critical, people don’t think about that. If you take a restaurant or a hotel, you can turn the water off and the customers would probably stay there. If they can’t use the drainage, the toilets, you’d have to close the business. So being able to respond quickly and being able to keep the customer informed is a crucial feature of what we do.”

 

Assessing the Service Process

Implementing a new system also gave Watling Hope the chance to reassess other areas of the way they worked.

The previous ERP system contained a legacy of site specific comments, meaning the information needed could only be found by trawling through pages of comments. Instead of dumping this data into the Service Centre, engineers were encouraged to re-inform head office of specific details, which would be entered in useful, context specific spaces.

The new system also encouraged a shift in the way regional teams are organised.

“We have quarterly meetings where we all get together,” says Palin. “For a national business it’s a huge environmental consideration for everyone to drive here. As we reorganised into areas with the roll out of the new system, we are now having area meetings; so management and operations will drive to meet the teams instead.”

Communication has always been a key factor to the mobile engineering teams, with free calls between business mobiles encouraging knowledge sharing. In addition the area meetings impart company updates, but also might feature a supplier who will give a presentation on changes to a product. It also forms itself into something of a training road show, imparting customer service and technical training. Each session finishes on a forum to give engineers a voice, encouraging a friendly peer to peer atmosphere.

Watling Hope have fought hard to develop a professional service offering, and don’t seem to have any plans to stop their progression.

 

What does the future hold?

“Continued growth and consolidation of customers,” concludes Palin. “We’re hoping to provide a more diverse range of services.”

Download a PDF copy of this Case Study containing additional commentary from both Tesseract and Watling Hope here

Specialist building services maintenance group Statutory Support Services (UK) (SSS) has selected mplsystems’ cloud based end-to-end service management solution as part of an overhaul of their current system. Their existing solution, the previous generation of the Maximo system was replaced after the group found it to be overly complex for their needs.

The system that replaces it, mplsystems’ iMobile offers both dynamic drag-and-drop and automated scheduling of SSS’s field engineers, while a comprehensive service desk portal and integrated mobile apps for their field personnel should see significant improvements in both productivity and efficiency. As the system provides a true, real-time view of all current maintenance activities across the group, the results should also be tangible from day one.

Within their sector, SSS work with a number of leading organisations including Hill Woodhouse, Lambert and Smith Hampton.

Adam Clarke, Managing Director at SSS commented

“We previously worked with a legacy Maximo scheduling system that proved both over-complex and inflexible, so we were keen to move towards a more comprehensive, end-to-end service management solution that would allow us to deliver more dynamic and efficient scheduling, especially for reactive job requests”

“We looked at a number of alternatives, but only mplsystems - with its cloud-based iMobile solution - could give us the end-to-end solution and the visibility we needed across our entire maintenance services operation.”

Clarke further expanded on this by adding:

“Now with our new mplsystems solution in place we’re able to manage our entire field service operation using a dedicated service desk portal, giving us real-time visibility of all our activities and providing much greater integration of our employees in the field,”

“We have also been able to incorporate additional functionality that, for example, allows our field engineers to quote immediately for any further work that customers might need – improving our responsiveness and unlocking potential new business opportunities.” He concluded.

A clear advantage of establishing a single view of all field activities is that it will enable SSS to make healthy savings by optimising schedules for both planned preventive maintenance and also reactive service requests. Thanks to increased SLA adherence, the ability to respond effectively to reactive jobs and dynamic schedule optimisation, SSS expects its new mplsystems field service management solution to pay for itself within just six months.

Where mplsystems’ new end-to-end solution contrasts with traditional service scheduling tools is that some solutions are often deemed to be perhaps to complex with multiple menus, options, parameters and screens, for the needs of the dispatchers of field service managers implementing and using them on a daily basis.

The mplsystems solution therefore has a more simplified, and modern look and feel. It features 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, helpdesk staff simply 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.

Paul White, Field Service News columnist and CEO of mplsystems’ commented

“We’re delighted that Statutory Support Services has chosen our cloud-based iMobile solution as a platform for their truly integrated service management solution,”

“Combining our portal, cloud IT platform, automated and dynamic drag-and-drop scheduling and comprehensive mobile field service integration, our end-to-end solution is set to unlock the significant efficiency and productivity savings that come from a truly joined-up approach to field service management.”

With iMobile, mplsystems has brought a powerful suite of cloud-based end-to-end field service management solutions to the market with a wide and impressive range of functionality companies like SSS need to support their range of operations. Key functionality includes a unified service desk portal; the automatic and dynamic planning and scheduling of service activities within defined SLA adherence guidelines; supporting mobile personnel through dedicated apps for in-field data collection and route optimisation; as well as comprehensive analytics and SLA reporting.

Find out more about mplsystems and there end-to-end solution including optimised scheduling. Find case studies, videos and other resources in our online directory by clicking here

 

 

No matter which industry you are involved in, it is almost certain that at the very forefront of your business strategy is the goal to guarantee the very best levels of customer satisfaction.

It absolutely needs to be as in todays climate, where access to a huge array of information about you and your competitors is readily available, customer satisfaction plays an enormous role in the way consumers choose which companies get their business. 

For customers requiring after sales service, more often than not the first port of call is of course a contact centre.  Here, the initial call is logged and whenever possible, resolved.

But do service calls really provide customer satisfaction?  What happens when the problem is not rectified within the agreed time or if the service supply chain is too disjointed to efficiently resolve the problem? What impact can this have on your customers overall satisfaction with your company's ability to deliver the product or service they expect?

Successful customer interaction is vital

Carolyn Wilson, services director of technology support specialist Centrex Services, believes the contact centre process is becoming both outdated and ineffective for today’s technology support.

“It is clear that the role of the contact centre within the service supply chain has evolved rapidly; moving from simply offering support to becoming the driving force behind customer satisfaction. There must be control over the entire journey of the repair, not just an automated process to raise a service ticket. Service companies are now at the forefront of customer service, this unrequited lip-service is no longer just an afterthought.” she comments

She is certainly not alone in this view either. In fact a recent study by the Aberdeen Group showed that an incredible 96% of businesses viewed improving customer service results as their primary goal[1].

Carolyn explains further, “There are two major factors which directly affect the success of customer interactions, namely triage (problem identification) and the ability of the control team to resolve any issues as efficiently as possible.

“Equipping the staff to intelligently diagnose hardware problems over the phone and enabling them to take responsibility for the entire service process results in a huge increase in satisfaction levels, as invariably customers are contacting businesses to gain resolution as quickly as possible.”

This begins with the control representative understanding not only the nature of the call, but being able to identify where the part is located and accurately outline when a correctly skilled engineer can be sent to remedy the problem. In short, they need complete visibility of the service supply chain.

An inefficient control centre, can have a knock on effect across the whole of the service supply chain and will always result ultimately in dissatisfied customers.

An alarming statistic uncovered recently by The Service Council was that less than ten percent of field engineers dispatched had the part required to fix the hardware[2]. Clear evidence of a disjointed, fragmented and simply inefficient service supply chain. Instead, businesses favoured a system where engineers operate in territories and will therefore immediately be called out if the customer’s address falls within their patch; regardless of the parts they have to hand, or the personal skill-sets at their disposal.

Addressing this issue Carolyn added, “If a customer’s problem revolves around a part being sourced and fitted by an engineer, for the traditional contact centre to dispatch an engineer closer to the customer because it is more convenient, is unacceptable. This just shows it’s vital that changes are made to the way businesses view their own contact centres and move to adopt better control throughout the process.”

Why accept failure in your service supply chain?

Technology is evolving every year, indeed at an often bewildering rate. So it comes as a huge surprise and disappointment to learn that the vast majority of organisation are failing to apply the available and required layers of intelligence and responsibility to their contact centres. Layers which can provide the level of insight into the service supply chain that is so badly needed. Instead, we see that outsourcing this process remains a highly popular solution, even though as Carolyn points out, this is an ineffective method that is all too often cited as being the major factor in why poor service is being delivered.

“When contact centres are outsourced, businesses always run the risk of providing a service where staff processing customer calls have little knowledge related to the logistics of the service supply chain. Unsurprisingly, triage is inefficient and service level agreements (SLA) are often missed.

“I remain astonished that businesses continue to offer contracts which allow for a certain level of failure when it comes to meeting SLA’s, which is often the bar used to measure customer satisfaction.

“The current systems in place across the after sales service supply chain are not fit for purpose and the time for change is upon us. There will of course be resistance from those who believe the traditionalist approach works, but accepting failure is intolerable and should not be accepted by business leaders or their customers.” she concludes. 

Centrex, who have redesigned their service processes, began with increasing responsibility within its ‘control’ centre to create a service which is both valuable to the company while offering best practice to the consumer. It put's the 'control' centre at the heart of the service supply chain not a distant cousin looking on from afar. It is a sensible yet breathtakingly simple concept that hopefully others may follow.

Look out for the second part of this feature where we look at why bringing all elements of the service supply chain , including customer support centres, all under one roof is an essential aspect of the Centrex philosophy. 

In the first part of the this two part series we explore why tablets are becoming the mobile computing option of choice as sales of rugged laptops decline in the consumer markets and if this trend is mirrored in field service industries as well... 

At first glance you would be mistaken for thinking that Apple invented the whole tablet industry when they brought the first generation iPad to the market just four years ago. However, whilst as with the iphone Steve Jobs’ and Co. weren’t so much the originators of this exciting new technology, they sure as hell were the ones that perfected it and brought the tablet computer into the mainstream.
In fact at the time of the release of the first iPad the Wall Street Journal went as far as to describe the device as being a “laptop killer”. So four years on, with the tablet revolution at full charge are we seeing the final days of the laptop?

And what about in the more demanding domain of field service where rugged laptops have been the solution for so long?

Processing power: Rugged Tablets now matching rugged laptops

One of the biggest barriers to tablet computing in both the consumer and commercial environments has always been processing power. However, within the last five years we have seen a rise in computational power within tablets. Whereas not so long go we may have faced a decision to opt for the portability and mobility of a tablet or the greater capabilities of a laptop. This isn’t the case today.

Motion Computing’s UK Head, Ian Davies concurs with this assertion. Davies states:

“The processing power of tablet PCs is no longer an issue in most discussions. Previously, some tablet users did have to decide between the ease of use, ruggedisation and mobility offered by tablets, versus the processing power and speed of rugged laptops, but no more.”

Davies is certainly well placed to comment as Motion are one of the leading providers of rugged tablets including the distinctive looking F5te.

The tablet, having been designed with field service in mind, is easily identified by its integrated carry handle, but it is what is inside that counts. Packing an impressive 8gb of RAM and with the option of a powerful i7 processor there is plenty of processing power available to match all but the very highest spec rugged laptops.

Consumerisation: The public embrace tablet computing

Another major factor in the rise of tablets within the workplace is the consumerisation of technology. With smartphones and tablets becoming commonplace within homes across the globe it is natural for organisations to harness this familiarity with the devices to ensure the investment in technology leads to improved productivity in the workforce.

Specialist hardware manufacturer Handheld UK’s Managing Director, Dave Cawsey confirms this saying

“Users are looking for the same/close to or similar feel of retail devices (IPad, Android and WIN 8 Tablets) they have at home in the work place, most IT departments are savvy of this connection and look to make the transition as ‘user’ friendly as possible to maximise workforce acceptance of a new system/device”

Within the consumer sector the trend is clear, tablets are on the rise.

Leading technology research house Gartner identified that large numbers of consumers are switching across to tablets as their main computer, and this is a trend that is set to continue rather than being a passing fad according to their research.

Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner commented

“While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device”

Indeed Gartner state that 116 million tablets were sold in 2012, with circa 197 million tablets being sold in 2013.

They predict sales for 2014 will rise to 266 million and by 2017 they predict that this will rise to nearly half a billion.

The same report predicts a different future for laptops however, with laptop sales showing a year on year decline from 350 million in 2012 to 339 million in 2013. A similar trend is highly likely within the more specialised niche of rugged laptops.

Whilst some experts have tried to attempt to align this declining trend with the failure of Windows 8 to emulate the accessibility and functionality of both Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems, the added mobility of tablet devices versus that of both regular and rugged laptops can not be overlooked.

Also an added benefit is that as tablet devices comprise of a solid unit, rather than rugged laptops, which no matter how well built still have a slight weakness at the joint between the screen and keyboard, are naturally more robust.

Of course the combination of being both more robust and more portable than laptops makes tablets and smart phones a perfect choice for field service, so a shift towards away from rugged laptops and towards rugged tablets is certainly on the cards.

Look out for the second part of this feature where we examine the impact of the BYOD trend on companies purchasing rugged laptops, why tablets are perfect for ruggedistation and the solution for those field service technicians that require high data input levels.

Want to know more about field service hardware? Have a look at our online directory for articles, videos and other resources from specialist providers

As we come to the end of January, Nick Frank, consultant with Noventum Service Management looks a little further ahead at what the rest of the year may yield. 

At the backend of 2013, did you notice that the field services community was increasingly talking about the critical role of knowledge in creating a thriving and profitable services business. Solution providers were all telling us about analytics, transparency and the benefits of working in the connected world. Buzzwords such as ‘Big Data’ and ‘The Internet of Things’ were being bandied around as if we all should be experts.

Companies started talking openly about their development of remote solutions to improve their customers OEE and create new revenue streams. This ‘enlightenment’ I am sure will continue into 2014, but with it I believe will come the realisation that it’s NOT AS EASY as purchasing the latest IT system or implementing some workshop/training programmes.

No, I think that although companies will increasingly see the possibilities that future corporate growth will be in a large part enabled by new services, they will realise that to participate, they must do something different! More and more we will hear companies talking about the need for a step change or transformation.

This is because to gain the full value from these technologies, companies need a fundamental shift in their People, Culture and Processes!

Knowledge savvy People and Culture:

The bulk of the value to be won lies in the customer’s process and operations. Developing services that help the customer’s business be more effective requires a shift to an OUTSIDE-In culture. The customer’s processes and how they experience our Brand must be at the heart of our own product and service strategy. Easy words, but not so easy when you consider that most of us whose careers have grown through products, do rather have an INSIDE-Out view on technology, manufacturing and making things work.

But in developing this understanding we have to change our whole view of knowledge and how we manage it. The first step is to appreciate its importance to our own organisation and customers. What is important to protect, and what can be shared. I say this because to achieve change in an increasingly complex technological world, the concept of co-creation and partnering is becoming stronger. We are seeing companies and customers coming together to form eco-systems to solve complex problems. But this requires the management of knowledge and knowing what and how it can be shared; a capability that many businesses struggle to deal with.

Processes for a new paradigm:

Mind-set may start transformation, but it’s the execution of processes that will bring value. To really benefit from these emerging technologies, it’s logical that processes will be re-engineered for the new technology paradigm. And we are not just talking about the flow of activities. This must include the management rules that underpin the processes, the KPIs to manage performance, the competencies of the people, as well as defining the businesses functional requirements for it’s IT and support systems. Get this last factor wrong, and all the latest technologies and concepts will not help your business move forward.

Sounds complex and expensive. This is where some recent research findings from Noventum bring some interesting insight as to what is needed to move forward. Between April & December last year, we talked with over 150 business leaders and service professionals about which strategies were driving business growth and the role of services.

Two findings stood out in relation to this discussion:

1. Service is becoming recognised as a strategic solution to facilitating a company’s growth strategy.
2. Companies have an increasing desire to develop more advanced services that address their customer’s processes, but show a reluctance to move forward until Product related services are mastered.

We believe the insight these findings provide for 2014 is that, as companies recognise the role that Knowledge and Technology can play in their future profitability, they will get excited….

….and then there will be a sharp intake of breath as they start to evaluate the implications.

However, if they begin to see service as a strategic lever to support the company growth goals, then the investment implications actually becomes more manageable, and are probably smaller than for many product R&D projects.

Secondly by breaking down the transformation into smaller steps, and re-engineering their delivery process and functional requirements, they can harness the technology to achieve results today, but which are scalable to their future growth vision.

At the end of the day, time will tell if this view of the world will be true, but if you would like to get a head start and develop your own thoughts, Noventum will be running a series of events on this topic which can be found at http://www.noventum.eu/calendar

We’ve talked much about software as a service on field service news over the last few months.

We’ve explored whether the platform will become the great leveller in the field service industry as for the first time smaller, more agile companies are able to afford access to the sophisticated and powerful service management software systems that boast numerous benefits such as increasing efficiency, improving first time fix rates, and of course improving the level of service you can deliver to your customers. Not so long ago these systems were the domain of enterprise size companies solely.

The SaaS revolution changed that.

Then we delved further into the cloud and took with us some of the big questions that for many remained unanswered. The man we sought to give us the answers to these was both a service management software stalwart with over twenty five years experience designing service management software, but also somewhat of a visionary having been the first to develop a browser based service management solution way back in 2004.  Incidentally, he was also the first to develop a system for Windows as well.

In case you missed it you can find this interview here in our first ever podcast, where we spoke to Colin Brown, Managing Director of Tesseract and we tackle the major concerns around SaaS such as connectivity issues, integration problems, security fears, why major companies such as SAP and Oracle were so slow to adopt the model, plus also looking in more detail at the benefits of the cloud and some really fascinating insight into how the industry has changed in the twenty five years Colin has been building service management software.

However, we have realised that to fully get a grip on how the field service industry is reacting to both the cloud in general and software as a service as a delivery model then there is one remaining person we need to hear from. You.

We want to understand how you the field service managers are working, or not working with SaaS. We want to know if it appeals to you or if it doesn’t. We want to know the reasons why and why not.

So we are undertaking a dedicated research project into SaaS and Field Service. The survey itself is intelligently designed to ask only the questions relevant to you specifically and will therefore take you no less than two minutes to complete.

We will be using this data to compile an exclusive white paper based on the results which will be sent to all respondents before it is published to the general public. Also as a means of thanking you for taking the time to give us you insight we are offering three £50(or local equivalent) Amazon vouchers which are provided by our partner in this project Tesseract Software. The winners of these vouchers will be picked at random when the survey closes.

So why not take two minutes out of your day, help us understand the industry better and give yourself a chance to win! Take the survey here

 

 

The field service industry made it’s final farewells to a trusted friend, guide and mentor yesterday as one of it’s leading lights Steve Downton was laid to rest after a long fight with Cancer.

Personally I only had the pleasure of speaking with Steve on a couple of occasions. Firstly when I took over the editorial reigns of the now closed Service Management Online and still wet behind the ears in terms of field service, I made sure Steve was one of the first people in the industry I turned to for advice from as his reputation for being both a brilliant thinker and genuine good guy was well renowned right across the sector.

In that first conversation, Steve displayed both of these qualities plus an abundance of industry knowledge that set me in good stead and his willingness to help and his sheer passion for the industry shone through throughout the hour or so that we spoke.

And then secondly Steve was one of the first people I looked to for guidance when we decided to launch Field Service News and I’d like to think that the course we are steering with FSN is very much inline (and will continue to remain so) of Steve’s own objectives with his own Service Community, i.e  delivering high quality insight and analysis for all field service professionals, so we can all continue to learn and grow together as this ever fascinating industry evolves.

The following comments are from others in the industry who knew and worked alongside Steve for far longer than I and I think are a fitting testament to how well respected and well loved Steve was within the Field Service community.

 

If you would like to add your own thoughts and memories of Steve please feel free to do so in the comments section below:

 

"Everyone is special, but there are some who have that little bit ‘more light’ about them. Steve Downton was one of those people. For the past 30 years he has truly been on the cutting edge of service innovation thinking in the real world of UK business. With a razor sharp mind and an openness to the world around him, Steve kept that half step ahead of the rest of us. His passion for the role of services in industry drove his career in leading consulting businesses such as Coopers & Lybrand,  Accenture and Noventum. For many years he ran his own consulting firm, supporting hundreds of clients to increase their value from services.

His Outside-In, Positive, People centric approach with a touch of humility epitomised some of the key attributes to be successful in services.   Although his life on this world was tragically to short,  I myself along with many others will count ourselves fortunate to have been touched by this extra-ordinary man."

Nick Frank. Noventum Service Management

 

“Steve worked with us for several years. His experience in the industry was unmatched and he could see things in a different way to others. But what struck me most was that he was simply one of those chaps that you liked to meet-up with and work with. A warm hearted, super-friendly person, yet with a razor sharp mind that facilitated new views about old subjects. He will be sorely missed by all.”

Paul Adams. Solarvista

 

“Steve was just nice man who had seen it, done it, wanted to make a difference and did. His service management knowledge and its application is making many end users around EMEA satisfied and the delivery companies profit. The greatest contribution any man can give is willingness to help, and Steve did that in abundance and the industry is in better place thanks to Steve`s contributions"

Glyn Dodd, Centrex Services

 

"We worked closely with Steve over a number of years and he was a major contributor to our educational and seminar content at Service Management Expo, where his sessions were always popular and engaging. His depth of knowledge and standing in the community was second to none, but more significantly he was a gentleman to work with and much liked by all that knew him."

Fergus Bird. Event Manager, Service Management Expo

 

“There are few people that positively inspire you from the moment you meet them, Steve Downton was one of them. Having met Steve in the late 90’s when working at HP, we kept in touch over the years and collaborated on numerous projects.

Steve was THE customer services expert that you could always count on. He would bring a customer centric, “out side in”, up to date, content rich, but most of all pragmatic approach to how to deliver excellent profitable customer services. Most of all he was a gentle, warm and genuine person to know and I and many others miss him greatly.”

Martin Summerhayes. Fujitsu

 

“I had known and worked with Steve for over 14 years, and whilst his knowledge of the industry was second to none, his key strengths are how he engaged with everyone, engineer or CEO, making them immediately at ease.  Even if you were in a roomful of people, you felt he was talking to you and engaging everyone.  

Wherever he is now, I know he will be making people smile. A true special soul and what I hope is that his enthusiasm and spirit will live on and rub off on all of us”

Simon Spriggs. Exel

 

“Steve helped me greatly, both personally and professionally. He carried an empathy and insight in his field of specialty which was matched in his one to one, personal relationships.

There was never a hidden side to Steve. In a world full of questionable motives where words often exchanged without meaning, he was one of the few genuine characters. He said what he meant and he always thought of others.”

Saul Sherry. Former Editor, Service Management. 

 

 

 

Strategies for Growth's President, and member of the Field Service News advisory panel, Bill Pollock takes a look at how he believes the industry will fare in the coming year...

All things point to 2014 as being the year when “Back to the Basics” and “Back to the Future” are finally due to collide. The collision will not be spontaneous – nor will it be particularly disruptive. In fact, it is likely to be extremely synergistic! Moreover, our research strongly suggests that these two otherwise divergent paths will begin to work together in a more harmonious manner to propel the global services community to even greater heights with respect to both revenue growth and profitability.

Granted, similar statements are made around this time each year (some, even, by myself); however, 2014 will be a markedly different year in that there has already been a steady uptick in new technology investment evidenced over the past 12 - 18 months (i.e., supporting the “future”), coupled with a renewed appreciation that customer needs and expectations must once again be placed at the top of the list of market strategies and actions that can empower services organisations to attain higher levels of service performance, customer satisfaction and profitability (i.e., the “basics”).

Let me explain how these two paths are most likely to collide …

“Back to the Basics”

Immediately following the “great” global economic meltdown of several years ago, most services organisations almost immediately went into cost-cutting mode in an attempt to reign in expenses (both capital and operating). While some employed an orchestrated approach to cost-cutting, others may have gone somewhat overboard or, even worse, may have ended up not having cut enough waste or inefficiencies in a timely enough manner. Nonetheless, over several years, most of the leading (i.e., “best practices”) services organisations were finally able to rollback costs to a point where they were able to not only survive, but thrive in a downturned global economy.

However, as it became increasingly evident that costs could not be cut any lower (i.e., nothing more to cut!), many organisations found themselves struggling to maintain – let alone bolster – their respective bottom lines. Once again, the leading organizations recognised that the bottom line was actually an equation, influenced directly by both costs and revenues (among numerous other factors). Therefore, if they could not decrease the cost side of the equation any longer, the best way to improve the bottom line would be to drive higher levels of service revenues. Thus began a brief era (i.e., two to three years or so) that transitioned the focus from cost-cutting to revenue generation.

Fast forward to 2014, and we are now seeing a global services community that has much of its costs under control, has taken proactive and interactive steps to drive increased levels of service revenues, and has allowed itself (gratefully) to re-focus its resources on the needs and expectations of the customer – a return to a more classic approach to services strategies and actions.

“Back to the Future”

However, it seems that each year, new technologies, applications, tools and “toys” are forecasted to “change the way in which we live” – or, for the services community, “the way in which we will be able to manage our operations.” Some prime examples have included such diverse technologies and tools as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and tablets, RFIDs and scanners, M2M and remote monitoring, the Segway – and the list goes on and on. Then we all take a collective deep breath, wait a few years, and – sometimes, before we even are fully aware, they quietly become integral components of both our lives and our businesses. (Well, maybe not so much with respect to the Segway!)

Fortunately (albeit mainly for those organizations that have already prepared themselves for dealing with the “basics”), the “future” is about to collide with them – but in a good way. For example, earlier this year, it was reported that a fighter jet used by the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF) flew with 3-D printed metal components for the first time. The air intake support struts, protective guards for take-off shafts and cockpit radio covers inside the Tornado jet were all made by 3-D metal printing, said defense manufacturer BAE Systems.

In October 2013, U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin said it was experimenting with 3-D printing of titanium parts for use in space flight; and NASA has plans to put a 3-D printer on the International Space Station later this year. Although 3-D printers can cost several hundred dollars or more, the question remains, how much can your organization save by 3-D printing some of its more common, fairly basic, parts?

M2M technology; big data; real-time telematics; and new mobile devices, applications and tools are being introduced to the global services landscape on a seemingly weekly basis, and – oh, yes, before you know it, many of 2013’s, 2012’s or (plug in the year) “new” technologies that may have mysteriously fallen off of our radar screens, may actually find their ways into our services organisations’ regular operating routines, thereby supporting the transition of this year’ “future” to next year’s “basics.

Enjoy the transition – and don’t forget to “mind the collision!”

 

 

This is the 3^rd article in a series of case studies which examines how companies can improve their understanding of there own Value, create more effective GO-TO Market strategies and drive profitability through efficient Service Delivery models.

‘If you want customer insight to develop new services, go ask the sales force’….uh oh …probably not completely the right idea.  Sorry guys but customer’s talk to sales people in a different kind of way. So while sales input is essential, there are many factors that influence the accuracy of the feedback.

If you really want to understand what your customers value, probably its best to go direct to the customers themselves. That’s why many senior managers insist on visiting customer. But how many times have you heard the CEO call for a change of direction based on a recent visit to an unhappy customer.  A more balanced approach is needed to make informed decisions, if you do not want to fall into the trap of this frequently used quote, ’8% of companies think they deliver superior experience…….only 8% of their customers agree!’

The solution to a balanced & informed analysis is often to involve impartial 3^rd parties.

Take Yokogoawa,  an industrial leader in automation solutions for process industries. Back in 2010 they wanted to know what services their customers thought they should offer. They had talked to the sales force who came back with a pure price, price, price argument. To the Benelux service manager Ton van den Ham, this did not add up, and he felt that perhaps they were asking the wrong questions in the wrong way. So he engaged a 3^rd party to help structure a set of visits and interviews aimed at getting under underneath the skin of their customers. Why a 3^rd party. Well he wanted an impartial perspective that did not carry Yokogawa baggage.

The interviews were done jointly with the 3^rd party acting as a coach and sometime lead. To Yokogawa’s amazement they found that their customer’s really appreciated the technical competence of the application engineers. That the customer’s challenge, was not in fact lower prices, but to have more stable and predictable processes for their chemical plants. The customer’s wanted Yogokawa’s technical experts to be even more engaged at a much deeper level in their business to help keep their processes at the optimum performance.

Armed with this feedback Yokogawa, started to develop their services programme which has developed into what they refer to as ‘Vigiplant Services’

At a recent conference Ton described his his experience of this programme as:   ‘You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s worthwhile talking to your customers to get a different perspective’

So the moral of the story is that when you are developing your services business, forensically clean customer insight is key to truly understanding the value you offer. Don’t be afraid of getting outside people that you trust involved in this process as the results may be surprising. If you would like to learn more about this case study, you can see a video of Ton’s presentation at: http://smc.noventum.nl/smc2011/service-track-video-presentations-2011

Nick Frank is a service specialist with Noventum Service Management and can be contacted at nick.frank@noventum.eu

Read part one of this series, Creating value through services: Where to Start? here  

Read Part two of this series, Ouch! getting the profit/cost centre call wrong in your service business here