In the third article in a series of excerpts from a brand new white paper authored by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News published in partnership with PTC, we discuss the importance of service as a differentiator and outline why this...
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Apr 05, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation
In the third article in a series of excerpts from a brand new white paper authored by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News published in partnership with PTC, we discuss the importance of service as a differentiator and outline why this thinking must apply also to remote service solutions...
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News White Paper published in partnership with PTC
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content PTC who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
It has long been established that service is a core differentiator amongst competing organisations. A wide-reaching IDC study from 2018 revealed that over two-thirds of consumers stated that customer satisfaction was more important than price when doing business with a company. A study from the same year from Gartner also outlined that by 2020 81% of companies expected to be competing mostly or solely on the basis of Customer Experience.
These findings would appear to be staying on course and have continued throughout the pandemic also. In a 2020 study by Field Service News Research, it was revealed that 70% of field service companies stated that they believe service excellence will remain a key differentiator post-pandemic.
Yet, while differentiating on service standards is a widely accepted best-practice, to do so often requires innovation which has been a challenge for many organisations to overcome. Indeed, an excellent study out of the University of Linkoping, Sweden identified this trend over a decade ago, where after speaking to over 300 manufacturers, the paper outlined how ‘a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm’s strategies for customer centricity becoming less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs.’
Some ten years on, as we face massive shifts not just in how we, as service providers, approach service delivery but with the rising complexity of our customers’ needs increasing dramatically in the last twelve months, this challenge appears to be magnified even further. Yet, at the same time, the tools at our disposal, to overcome these challenges have never been more widely available, and solutions that genuinely empower service organisations to innovate around their service offering are not only technologically advanced but in the case of solution providers like PTC, are reliable, mature and easily deployed.
"While over three quarters (76%) of field service companies have the capabilities to read data from the field, only a fifth of these companies (21%) state that they have the ability to utilise the data effectively..."
However, as we outlined in the opening pages of this paper, the most recent data would seem to suggest that while the concept of remote service delivery has firmly taken root within our sector, there is currently a widening gulf between those using sophisticated tools to deliver service remotely, and those using a more fundamental approach.
Further to the findings around the relatively limited use of Augmented Reality within remote service delivery, we also see a similar trend when it comes to connectivity within field service, another critical aspect of an organisations ability to deliver remote service effectively. A study by Field Service News Research, for example, outlined that while over three quarters (76%) of field service companies have the capabilities to read data from the field, only a fifth of these companies (21%) state that they have the ability to utilise the data effectively.
So we find ourselves at an interesting set of conclusions that can help us further define how remote service should be woven into our service design strategy:
- Remote service has become a common mechanism of service delivery since the pandemic.
- There is a wide gap between best-in-class remote service delivery and the standard approaches currently used.
- Service standards have consistently proven to be a key differentiator for competing organisations
- The tools for effective remote service delivery that can be leveraged to help a service organisation provide a service level that can differentiate them from their competitors are available and well developed yet currently under-used within the sector.
It would seem that now is a crucial time for field service companies to not just embrace the concept of remote service delivery, but to take the opportunity to clearly define the value proposition of their service offerings and redesign our processes to incorporate remote-service within our processes, in areas where doing so can clearly enhance our service delivery standards.
We are currently in the midst of a perfect storm of innovation, and while technology remains the enabler, not the end goal, what is possible today if we embrace technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), IoT and AR simply wasn’t possible before.
As we have explored in the previous segment of this paper, remote service is set to become an integral element of service delivery in the near future.
Therefore, it is essential we apply the same efforts on achieving service excellence regarding remote service as we would on-site service delivery and see these as two approaches as different but equally valid routes of service.
If the aim is service excellence, then that should be evident in all aspects of a service portfolio, be it remote or on-site service delivery.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News White Paper published in partnership with PTC
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content PTC who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Read more from Field Service News Research @ https://research.fieldservicenews.com/
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Service Design and Innovation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/service-innovation-and-design
- Read more about Customer Satisfaction and Expectations @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/customer-satisfaction-and-expectations
- Read more about Remote Service Delivery @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=REmote+Service
- Read more about the services PTC offer field service companies @ https://www.ptc.com/en/solutions/improving-efficiency/field-service-productivity
- Follow PTC on twitter @ https://twitter.com/PTC
- Read more articles by Kris Oldland @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/kris-oldland
- Connect with Kris Oldland on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kris-oldland-49a0171b
Apr 05, 2021 • Features • HVAC • Blended Workforce • Managing the Mobile Workforce • Chris Jessop • Ideal Boilers
As part of a series of interviews for an exclusive Field Service News Documentary on the Blended Workforce in the Field Service sector, developed in partnership with ServicePower, Kris Oldland, Editor in Chief spoke with Chris Jessop, Customer...
As part of a series of interviews for an exclusive Field Service News Documentary on the Blended Workforce in the Field Service sector, developed in partnership with ServicePower, Kris Oldland, Editor in Chief spoke with Chris Jessop, Customer Service Director, Ideal Boilers
In this first excerpt from the interview, Jessop explains what the key drivers are for Ideal Boilers who have been able gain major benefits from their strategic use of the blended workforce model to supplement their field service operation.
Want to know more?
Field Service News subscribers can access the documentary "The Blended Workforce and the New Normal" by clicking the button below:
If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free and get instant access to the documentary and other selected resources available on our free forever, FSN Standard subscription tier.
If you hold either a FSN Premium or FSN Elite subscription you can find the full interview with Jessop in our Digital Symposium section of the website which is available at www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-symposium
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServicePower who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.
Apr 02, 2021 • Features • servicepower • Blended Workforce • Managing the Mobile Workforce
As we continue our series of excerpts from a new and exclusive Field Service News Essential Guide published in partnership with ServicePower we look at what are the common over-riding drivers for the adoption of the blended workforce model shared...
As we continue our series of excerpts from a new and exclusive Field Service News Essential Guide published in partnership with ServicePower we look at what are the common over-riding drivers for the adoption of the blended workforce model shared by companies that have successfully adopted such an approach
For those companies such as Ericsson, Ideal Boilers, and Electrolux who have been utilizing a blended workforce model successfully, for many years, there are many significant benefits. Another company with a vast amount of experience in this area is our partner on this guide is ServicePower. In this excerpt from this Essential Guide, we will look at the benefits these companies see in the blended workforce model.
Having now defined the blended workforce model let us take some time to explore in greater detail some of the core drivers for adopting it. In the opening chapter we discussed some of the headline benefits of the model but which of these are the most critical drivers in the eyes of industry leaders who have direct first-hand experience working with such models?
“The blended workforce provides benefits that include increasing geographic coverage, allowing for seasonal surges, unplanned events, such as storms and catastrophes, and the augmentation of skill-sets,” explains Frank Gelbart, Chief Executive Officer, ServicePower.
“Additionally, it’s all about agility. The blended workforce model offers increased agility that really enables service organizations to take on both more service jobs and also different types of service jobs. Therefore, it allows them to increase their top line service revenue.”
For Steve Zannos, Senior Director Service Delivery, Electrolux, this agility is particularly useful in managing the seasonal variations in demand that occur within their customers requirements.
“One of the key benefits of the blended network is it allows us to not have to hire and manage through all the peaks and valleys of seasonal demand,” he explains.
“We work with our partners and build that flexibility with them together. If we only had a manufacturer workforce, we would have to figure out how we manage through those peaks. There are a couple of ways we could do that.
“Firstly we could bring on a temporary workforce. The summer is the big season for us as many types of appliances we build such as refrigeration or air conditioning can require maintenance in the summer as they are being used at their peak. However, if we were to use temps, it would mean an investment to bring them in, then there would be a lot of training that to work on and this all has to be completed in a short period before then at the end of that peak season having to let them go. There would be no real consistency and next season we’d be starting all over again.
“Plan B would be to stick with a flat network that’s designed for the valleys and then when the peaks come, we would just run the teams ragged with overtime and have everyone working 60 to 80 hours a week. The problem here is that you burn people out. They just don’t want to do it anymore, and then you lose some great talent.
“The third plan is to plan for peak season and to carry that workforce across the whole year. The problem is of course, this is not very effective from a cost perspective. During the downtimes, we would now have the opposite problem where we couldn’t allow people to work a full 40-hour week. We may even have to cut back on time so the field techs are only working 20 or 25 hours - a week. This will mean that they are not going to see income that they’re expecting.”
“Of course, none of these options is optimal, so we leverage the blended network instead and it is by far the best solution for our business.”
"Let’s take an example of the Outer Hebrides islands. It makes no sense for us to have an engineer on each one of the main islands, so we create partnerships with suppliers who do have people permanently stationed there for first level interventions."
- Adam Gordon, Head of Network Planning and Operations, Ericsson
Such seasonal pressures are of course, a challenge that many field service directors in at least to some degree, and adding that flexibility to manage the peaks and troughs of variable demand is one of the critical strengths of the blended workforce model.
Another key benefit of the blended workforce model is to provide wider geographical coverage.
As Adam Gordon, Head of Network Planning and Operations, Ericsson explains, “Ericsson cannot have a footprint in every single area of the UK. Let’s take an example of the Outer Hebrides islands. It makes no sense for us to have an engineer on each one of the main islands, so we create partnerships with suppliers who do have people permanently stationed there for first level interventions. Then if a second-level requirement arises, we’ll send an Ericsson employee, to take over the job.
However, once again, seasonality is another benefit of the blended workforce model for Ericsson.
“We see big swings between winter and summer. In the summer, it’s the south where it’s warm so we have a lot of heat issues. In the winter, we have the cold and the snow in Scotland and the north of England, so that’s definitely a factor,” Gordon explains.
A third benefit that Gordon outlines is the introduction of skill-sets that don’t exist within their internal workforce.
“The introduction of additional skill sets is one area of the blended workforce, which has been utilized by Ericsson quite a lot in the past. For example, we are not generator experts so we’ve always found suppliers who are generator experts to fill in that knowledge gap in our workforce. These types of companies would be core partners that we would look for within the blended workforce.
“However, over the past two years, we’ve also looked at our field workforce and how we try and utilize that workforce. I’d rather use the term utilization than optimizing costs because if you optimize your workforce correctly, you then optimize your cost to be specific as well.
“That’s where it then comes down to identifying what are the key skills that we want to investment in at Ericsson? Our focus is on the higher-skilled, higher proficiency types of activities specific to Ericsson equipment. Yet, every site needs to have maintenance, including checking the site and cleaning fans. So the question we asked ourselves is do we really want a highly qualified field engineer with twenty years worth of experience, to be doing something that is ultimately a routine task? Those are the types of activities you have to ask yourself ‘should I look for a blended workforce to utilize the right skill level?’
This then comes to into the optimization of the costs, making sure the right skill-set is attributed to the right level of activity.
“It’s common sense, you need to ask ‘have I got the right person doing that job?’ and ‘is there a better way to deliver that service?’ You cannot have every skill internally, so utilize what’s in the marketplace.”
For Jessop, and Ideal Boilers, again, seasonality comes to the fore when we discuss the key benefits of the blended workforce model.
“Within the heating industry, seasonality is very significant. For us, it is a year of two halves, the autumn and winter period are very heavily focused on repair demand . During the spring and summer when we tend to focus more on the servicing demands, which are a more centred around a planned workforce.
“Customer expectation and customer requirements are very different across the two. There is a ramp up and ramp down between the two, and a hybrid workforce model can assist with that approach.“
However, for Chris Jessop, Customer Service Director, Ideal Boilers, the most significant benefit of using a blended workforce
model ultimately lies in extending their capacity to meet the most crucial of all aspects of field service, ensuring customer satisfaction.
“The biggest benefit and the biggest driver is the customer experience, ensuring that we can offer tailored approaches that may not be as easily achievable with just your own workforce,” he explains.
"It’s becoming more and more difficult to attract youngsters into field service roles. Companies are finding it more challenging to staff some of these roles, which is why they’re leaning on a contingent workforce."
- Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, ServicePower
One additional factor that needs to be considered is an issue we in the field service sector have faced for some time, the threat of an ageing workforce and the lack of enough recruits to replace them.
As Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, ServicePower, comments, “It’s becoming more and more difficult to attract youngsters into field service roles. Companies are finding it more challenging to staff some of these roles, which is why they’re leaning on a contingent workforce. That contingent workforce could be less experienced on the brands of that particular customer, so what some companies have begun to introduce is to pair those third-party workers with a more experienced technician who may not be on the call with them, but is available, for a chat or a video session, to make sure that they can indeed deliver on that first time fix,” he adds.
Gulati and his colleagues at ServicePower are, of course, seeing the bleeding edge of both technology and thinking around the blended workforce model, having worked with and empowered many companies that have utilized this approach for many years. However, for those companies at the beginning of the journey, he outlines the fundamental benefits of the blended workforce with the kind of clarity that only comes from deep-level, hands-on experience of a subject.
“The fundamental model of a blended workforce is really based on coverage and the volume of business that a service provider can expect in a particular geography,” he explains.
“What we’ve found is that most companies prefer to manage the service business via an employed workforce so they can grow their service revenues.
"This works typically where the business volume justifies the cost of hiring your technicians in any given geography. For example, in the US, tier one and tier two cities, our customers will have their own techs. However, the moment you start to get into tier-three cities and towns, when you get into vast areas of land, like in Kansas, North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado, this is when the OEMs have to find third party contractors because the volume of work is just not there.
“Your closest tech could be 100 miles away and you’re not going to have your technician travel 200 miles every day to service one customer because it’s just not cost effective. That’s where the third party or the contingent network comes in. It’s a very similar situation in Europe, where in the larger urban centres you find a lot of companies have their own techs.
“However, the moment you start to get out of those urban centres, it’s all third-party service providers because the OEM simply cannot justify the cost of hiring direct employees who may be only running two or three jobs. On average, our OEM’s techs run eight to ten jobs back-to-back on a daily basis. If you don’t have that level of volume, you’re probably going to rely on an a third party service provider to manage that regional geography.”
What is clear having spoken to a number of experts in utilising the blended workforce model for this guide and the accompanying documentary is that a variable demand on the field workforce is a compelling factor in the need to adopt a blended workforce. Whether that variable aspect comes from geographical, skill-based or seasonal elements the solution is the same - the effective adoption and use of a blended workforce model.
Want to know more?
Field Service News subscribers can access the Essential Guide to the Blended Workforce instantly by clicking the button below:
If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free and get instant access to the documentary and other selected resources available on our free forever, FSN Standard subscription tier.
If you hold either a FSN Premium or FSN Elite subscription you can find the full interviews of those service leaders featured in this guide in our Digital Symposium section of the website which is available @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-symposium
Data usage note: By accessing this Essential Guide you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServicePower who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.
Further Reading:
- Read more about managing the mobile workforce @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
- Read more about the blended workforce @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=blended+workforce
- Read more about the impact of the pandemic on the field service sector @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Discover this months selection of available resources on our FSN Standard subscription tier @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/fsn-standard-resources
- Find out more about the solutions ServicePower offer @ www.servicepower.com/
Apr 01, 2021 • Features • News • Digital Transformation
In an announcement that sent shockwaves across the world late last night, a consortium of high profile technology and business leaders have delivered a signed petition simultaneously to multiple national and extra-national governmental agencies...
In an announcement that sent shockwaves across the world late last night, a consortium of high profile technology and business leaders have delivered a signed petition simultaneously to multiple national and extra-national governmental agencies including the US Senate, EU Council and CCP's National People's Congress to urge them to turn off the Internet of Things for an entire week once a month in a bid to combat climate change...
The official petition, which is being dubbed the 'slight reset' has over a hundred signatures of influential and powerful CEOs and is reported to have been largely driven by Bill Gates, whose company Microsoft could lose a significant amount of revenue if the plan goes ahead.
However, Gates, a well know philanthropist, is apparently prepared to risk denting his earning potential in a bid to save the world. A source close to Gates said 'Bill really just wants to make a difference and he already has his team working on bio-internet applications that could bridge the gap during each month's 'slight reset.'.
"The idea is that we can harness some of mother Earth's natural resources as organic data warehouses, during the planned downtime, and utilise these to re-upload the missing data after each reset," the source added.
It is not clear exactly what organic data warehouses may look like although a clue may be in a small Scottish company Gates recent acquired EcoLokate who have a number of patents registered in the area of bio-sonar data transmission. Notably, in 2012 Dr. Ewan Nether-Beleefis, founder and CEO of EcoLokate published a report in leading journal Science on an exciting experiment in which he and his team completed the first successful transmission of data from one species to another via bio-sonar telemetry utilising a bat and a dolphin.
"Simply by turning off the IoT for a few days once a month, we could extend the life expectancy of our planet by 42% long term
The data transfer, which was a txt file containing the phrase 'So long and thanks for all the fish' was heralded at the time as a potential mechanism for wide-scale bio-internet potential, although many questioned the veracity of the work.
Spokesperson for the Slight Reset collective, Prof. Ima Fulovitz gave the following statement from their home in Springfield, Oregon, USA.
"The aim of this group is simple. We are not looking to take away your internet, not at all. In fact, during the slight reset primary internet will remain in place. It is just the internet of things (IoT) that we are pushing to be shut down. And remember, this is only a temporary pause each month to allow the planet to simply catch its breath.
"Many people don't realise that every single nano-transaction on the IoT creates a fractional outlet of Carbon Dioxide. While it is only a trace amount each time, given that there are 22 Billion devices all over the world, the impact of this soon stacks up.
"Our recommendation, based on hard, factual, real science numbers is that simply by turning off the IoT for a few days once a month, we could extend the life expectancy of our planet by 42% in the long term. If we don't do it the Earth could potentially become uninhabitable by 15:32 CST on October 19 this year.
"We need to act now. Yes it will be a pain having to turn the lights on with our hands and of course we'll all miss our morning chat with our AI enabled toaster, but its' worth it just once a month to stop the oceans boiling."
Of course, for the field service industry which has recently only just reached a point of mass adoption and adjusted to a new connected world this news could be hugely damaging.
"I really think that all sides of this conversation need to be considered before we make any rash judgments," urged Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief of Field Service News.
"Important people need to look at every piece of information here, starting with a close look at the date."
Further reading:
Apr 01, 2021 • Features • Panasonic • Digital Transformation • HVAC • IFS
Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by Karl Lowe, Head of European Service, Panasonic Heating and Cooling Solutions Europe and Sarah Nicastro, Field Service Evangelist, Future of Field Service and IFS as the group discuss...
Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by Karl Lowe, Head of European Service, Panasonic Heating and Cooling Solutions Europe and Sarah Nicastro, Field Service Evangelist, Future of Field Service and IFS as the group discuss how Panasonic implemented a remote service solution during the pandemic.
The discussion looks at the drivers for implementation, the approach Panasonic took to rolling the solution out, a demonstration of the solution, and a broader discussion around the benefits of remote service within the field service sector.
In this excerpt from the three discuss the various possible use cases for remote service within the field service sector.
Want to know more? FSN Premium Subscribers and FSN Elite Members can watch this full interview and hours more of in-depth long-form interviews with a series of field service leaders in the Field Service News Digital Symposium. Watch the interview with Lowe and Nicastro on the button below.
If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.
Further Reading:
- Read more about the Digital Transformation in the field service sector @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Service Innovation and Design @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/service-innovation-and-design
- Read more about IFS Remote Assist @ https://www.ifs.com/us/solutions/service-management/remote-assistance/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/IFS
- Follow Panasonic Heating and Cooling @ https://www.aircon.panasonic.eu/GB_en/?utm_source=Field%20Service%20News&utm_medium=Symposium
- Read more about Pansonic's use of IFS Remote Assist @ https://www.ifs.com/uk/news-and-events/newsroom/2020/07/20/panasonic-ensures-customer-experience-consistency-with-ifs-remote-assistance/
- Connect with Karl Lowe on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-lowe-67267548
- Connect with Sarah Nicastro on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhowland/
Apr 01, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation
In the second of this series of excerpts from a brand new white paper authored by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News published in partnership with PTC, we look at the rise of remote services as a mainstream mechanism for delivering...
In the second of this series of excerpts from a brand new white paper authored by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News published in partnership with PTC, we look at the rise of remote services as a mainstream mechanism for delivering service and maintenance...
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News White Paper published in partnership with PTC
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content PTC who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
While the concept of remote service delivery within the field service sector has broken into the mainstream conversation over the last-twelve months, it is far from a new concept. Indeed, it has been a frequently discussed topic amongst many field service organizations for several years.
The arguments for adopting the tools and processes for delivering service remotely are well defined and have been in place far in advance of the most pressing reasons that emerged during 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
As outlined in a Field Service News article from 2019 “The idea behind remote technicians stems from the technician’s ability to diagnose a problem, determine possible solutions, and lay out a plan for issue resolution - all before they take one step onto the worksite. In a perfect world, remote technicians essentially only have to leave their workstations once to perform tasks that require a high level of skill, or perhaps not at all for routine maintenance and repair.
Naturally, this drastically cuts down the amount of travel cost, time and total project duration needed to solve an issue with a customer’s device, streamlining the entire service request from issue detection to resolution.”
Indeed, as we move more and more towards a world of servitization and outcome-based services, where the onus is on the service provider not just to meet an SLA but to consistently minimize any potential asset downtime, remote service is not only an approach to achieve effective service delivery, it is, by necessity, the default approach.
Why? The answer to this lies in the reduction of an important metric tracked by service organizations, mean-time-to-repair (MTTR).
For the field service organization that has adopted a practical remote-first approach to service delivery, the conversation around MTTR is no longer measured in days or even weeks, resolution can now, in essence, be delivered instantly. A recent study by Field Service News Research, that spoke to 145 field service organizations, identified that 89% of these companies stated that much faster response times was a key benefit of adopting a remote-first approach to service delivery.
Even still, the benefits of incorporating remote service capabilities into a field service portfolio are not limited to efficiency gains and cost reductions. There are many other well established and clearly identified benefits of remote service delivery including extended geographical reach, reduced time to get new engineers active in the field, knowledge capture and much more.
In short, the shift to remote service delivery had for many companies already begun, and the reasons for taking this path were becoming increasingly apparent.
Yet, that path was being walked by a relatively small group of companies who were at the leading edge not only in terms of technology, but also in service thinking. However, while the number of companies that were beginning to take that path was steadily increasing, many in the field service sector were yet to follow.
“The shift to remote service delivery had for many companies already begun, and the reasons for taking this path were becoming increasingly apparent...”
This all changed in 2020. As we collectively faced the unprecedented challenges of international lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, field service companies were suddenly faced with an entirely new set of challenges. How could we continue to deliver service and maintenance to our customers, many of whom fell within the ‘essential provider’ bracket, while overcoming the new challenge of not violating our clients’ hastily adopted biosecurity measures?
Almost overnight, the need for zero-touch service delivery became omnipresent.
The solution, of course, was the mass adoption of remote service delivery.
Data from Field Service News Research outlined that by September 2020 three quarters (76%) of field service companies now had some form of remote service capabilities. To further drive home how significant the impact of the pandemic was in this shift, over two-thirds of these companies (67%) stated that they implemented these tools as a direct result of the pandemic.
Yet, in a second study by Field Service News Research that dug deeper into what the widespread adoption of remote service delivery means for the field service sector, we found an industry picture that is far from cohesive in defining remote service delivery.
That study showed that of those companies that are delivering service remotely, only 21% are using Augmented Reality while the most commonplace tool used for remote service delivery was the phone (used by 86%). However, it is not just a gulf in tools being used that has emerged within this new frontier of service delivery.
There is much uncertainty around pricing strategies, as well.
In fact, within that same study, we saw that while only 4% of field service companies are charging more for remote service delivery, 35% are not charging for remote service at all, while 31% are charging less.
Of course, due to the sudden introduction of remote-service as a mechanism for service delivery, many companies will have swallowed the cost of remote service within existing contracts, yet, the fact remains, that our industry appears to be somewhat split in how we should accommodate the pricing of remote-service delivery within our service portfolios.
These inconsistencies around the pricing of remote-services is another indicator of the uncertainty within the industry regarding how remote service should be integrated within a service portfolio.
However, if we look at remote-service not in isolation but as a holistic part of a broader service portfolio, we can seize the opportunity to further drive service excellence, which as we shall discuss in the next segment, has proven to be a compelling strategy for revenue growth and competitive advantage.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News White Paper published in partnership with PTC
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
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Further Reading:
- Read more from Field Service News Research @ https://research.fieldservicenews.com/
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Service Design and Innovation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/service-innovation-and-design
- Read more about Customer Satisfaction and Expectations @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/customer-satisfaction-and-expectations
- Read more about Remote Service Delivery @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=REmote+Service
- Read more about the services PTC offer field service companies @ https://www.ptc.com/en/solutions/improving-efficiency/field-service-productivity
- Follow PTC on twitter @ https://twitter.com/PTC
- Read more articles by Kris Oldland @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/kris-oldland
- Connect with Kris Oldland on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kris-oldland-49a0171b
Apr 01, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation
As part of our ongoing series of interviews in the Field Service News Digital Symposium Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke with Dr. Chris Parkinson,, CTO and Founder, RealWear, about the important considerations field service...
As part of our ongoing series of interviews in the Field Service News Digital Symposium Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke with Dr. Chris Parkinson,, CTO and Founder, RealWear, about the important considerations field service companies must make when selecting head-worn devices that can give their engineers essential information about the assets they are working on while allowing them to work hands free.
In this excerpt, the two discuss why the familiar conversations around rugged hardware are equally relevant to the emerging conversations about wearables that are suited for field service operations.
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Further Reading:
This interview was undertaken as part of our development of our recently published Essential Guide to Remote Service. This guide offers insight into the important considerations field service companies need to be aware of when selecting remote service solutions suitable for their needs.
The guide looks at both the hardware and software considerations as well as containing a case study from Rail Cargo Group that looks at how they implemented such a solution which has revolutionised their industry.
This essential guide is currently available on our free-forever FSN Standard subscription tier for a limited time as well as being available to our FSN Premium subscribers and our FSN Elite members. If you are on any of these subscription/membership tiers you can access this guide by clicking the button below.
If you are not yet a subscriber, the button will take you to a dedicated registration page for FSN Standard that will give you instant access to this guide as well as access to the other Premium Resources currently available on this tier.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, OverIT and Realwear who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.
Mar 31, 2021 • Features • Cognito iQ • facilities management • Service Innovation and Design • Mickey Rooney • JLL • Integral • Built Environment
Recently in the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, was joined by Mickey Rooney, Program Director JLL in a wide-ranging discussion that touches on a number of key points as the built environment...
Recently in the Field Service News Digital Symposium, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, was joined by Mickey Rooney, Program Director JLL in a wide-ranging discussion that touches on a number of key points as the built environment sector faces a major pivot point in its evolution and reflect on the changes this will bring to field service operations on a massive scale.
In this final excerpt from the interview, Rooney outlines the various different considerations that must be made by field service organisations when it comes to outlining an effective roadmap for digital transformation.
Want to know more? FSN Premium Subscribers and FSN Elite Members can watch this full interview and hours more of in-depth long-form interviews with a series of field service leaders in the Field Service News Digital Symposium. Watch the interview with Mickey Rooney on the button below.
If you are currently on our free forever FSN Standard subscription tier or have yet to join 30,000 of our field service peers as a FSN subscriber you can find out more again on the button below.
Further Reading:
- Read more about the Digital Transformation in the field service sector @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about Service Innovation and Design @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/service-innovation-and-design
- Read more about Leadership and Strategy in field service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/leadership-and-strategy
- Read more about JLL/Integral @ https://integral.co.uk/
- Follow JLL/Integral on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/IntegralUKLtd
- Read more about Cognito iQ who are working closely with JLL/Integral @ https://www.cognitoiq.com/
- Connect with Mickey Rooney on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickey-rooney-0106a161
Mar 31, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation
Field Service News in partnership with RealWear, and OverIT have worked together to produce a detailed 22 page Essential Guide to Remote Service. In this features in a series of excerpts from that guide we continue to explore some of the key considerations that should be made when selecting hardware for a remote service solution...
In the last feature in this series we looked at three key considerations around selecting hardware; form vs. function, binocular vs. monocular and hands-free vs. gesture or touch control. Now we shall look at three more...
Will the headset work with your existing PPE?
There are many different field service environments. Equally, there are many different types of PPE that a field service technician or engineer may need to wear, even within just one organisation. There could be multiple different types of hard hats used in different departments or different regions.
While it may not be the first question that comes to mind, when identifying a solution for your engineers, it should be raised when looking at any potential solution you may be aiming to implement.
Many solutions within the category are easily adapted to fit within a variety of hard hats and helmets. RealWear’s HMT-1 device, for example, is currently configurable with 30 different types of protective head-wear and often manufacturers will be able to produce a solution if one is not already available.
However, having identified the right headset to meet your needs and being on the verge of implementation only to find that it is not compatible with your existing PPE could be a frustrating set back in any roll-out.
Also, since the pandemic, another factor around PPE is whether wearing a mask will impact the functionality of a device that relies on voice commands.
Again, this is something that RealWear have run extensive tests on their devices to ensure that performance isn’t impacted when users are wearing a face mask. However, as we continue to face a world where the pandemic’s lasting effects remain in place, it should be an essential question to put to any manufacturer when looking at devices for remote-service solutions.
Ruggedness:
Once again, we return to the opening question of whether a device is fit-for-purpose.
As with industrial-grade tablets, the total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) is an important factor to consider, and the ruggedness of a device will have a significant impact on this.
Just as we should look at the specification of a rugged tablet or laptop when selecting a device for use in the field, we should do so with a head-mounted device.
The first thing to be aware of is what the IP rating of a device is. IP ratings are an indicator of how well a device can withstand dust and water getting into it. There are two numbers to look for in an IP rating; the first indicates how resilient it is to dust. It should be expected that a device suitable for use in the field would have an IP rating of 6 against dust ingress (how much dust can penetrate a device). This indicates a device is totally dust tight so it is fully protected.
When we look at the second number, this is an indicator of how resilient a device is to water ingress. While these numbers go up to 9, the final two categories are generally overkill for most field service applications – and if you’re working in an environment that requires one of those higher ratings you probably know all about IP ratings anyway! An IP rating of 7 indicates a device is capable of being fully submerged in water for a period of up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1 metre.
Again, unless you have a particularly clumsy and forgetful engineer who would not only drop the headset into a pool of water but also then forget about it for half an hour, this is probably not a deal-breaker.
"While use cases are different for every field service environment, if a device has an IP rating of IP66, you know it will be pretty much dust and waterproof in all but the most demanding environments..."
However, when we get down to the next rating, we are now entering the realm of what the minimum standard for a rugged device should be. At this rating (6) a device is protected from direct high-pressure jets of water, at any angle, so sufficient enough protection for most field service environments. Below this, however, we begin to see water ingress begin to occur.
While use cases are different for every field service environment, if a device has an IP rating of IP66, you know it will be pretty much dust and waterproof in all but the most demanding environments.
Of course, no matter how careful an engineer is, any device suitable in the field should also be able to survive the bumps, knocks and occasional drops that any other tool within their kitbag should take.
Therefore, another area of enquiry when looking at the rugged specifications of a device is whether it has passed a drop test. Generally, drop tests will tell you two things, the height at which the device was dropped and the material at which it was dropped onto. The height is generally around 2 meters or 6 foot depending on where the test was conducted.
With a head-mounted device, any drop test below 6 foot may not be a sufficient indicator of the device’s rugged capabilities as the chances are that the device could be knocked off an engineer’s head by accident, and many engineers in your workforce could be over 6 foot.
However, the latter part of the drop test information is particularly important.
It is industry standard to drop test onto concrete; however, occasionally, you will see drop tests undertaken on softer materials such as plywood or even cardboard.
While this doesn’t mean in and of itself that a device isn’t capable of surviving a drop in a real-life scenario it is a valid question to ask the manufacturer why the test wasn’t undertaken onto concrete.
Tether or no tether
There are two approaches in head-mounted devices regarding where both the CPU and the battery are stored, which is one of the final decisions that companies need to consider. The first is for the device to have everything cased within the frame worn on the head. The second is for the device to be tethered to a secondary component that stores both the battery and the processor.
This second option’s key advantage is that it removes almost all of the weight from the headset. If an engineer is using a headset all day, then this could certainly be advantageous.
However, this approach’s disadvantage is that the tethered system adds in the further complication of an additional wire that ‘tethers’ the two.
When we consider that the environments field service workers operate in and the key focus on health and safety, being one the primary considerations we must make when selecting tools for our engineers, then additional cabling is problematic.
"The interesting thing to note here is that the cabling will invariably become lighter and potentially a more practical solution in the future for field service applications..."
If a cable is too loose, it could snag on something while the engineer is working, if the cable is too tight, it will restrict the engineer’s free movement.
In either instance, it is easily conceivable how the tether could become detached, which would result in the engineer having to stop what they are doing, take off their gloves, reconnect the device and start where they left off – not optimal.
The option of a tethered device has potential certainly, and it does resolve the issue of additional weight within a device. Still, currently, most tethered devices rely on quite thick cabling, which is a major factor in the problems we’ve outlined.
The interesting thing to note here is that the cabling will invariably become lighter and potentially a more practical solution in the future for field service applications.
However, when looking at devices that are currently available such as RealWear’s HMT-1 which currently weighs in at 380 grams, the weight of the device is probably less of a factor than the addition of more cumbersome cabling currently from both a productivity and health and safety perspective.
In the next article in this series we will look at three more benefits of remote service; empowering the blended workforce, embracing the tools for outcome-based services and differentiating your service against that of your competition...
Further Reading:
This interview was undertaken as part of our development of our recently published Essential Guide to Remote Service. This guide offers insight into the important considerations field service companies need to be aware of when selecting remote service solutions suitable for their needs.
The guide looks at both the hardware and software considerations as well as containing a case study from Rail Cargo Group that looks at how they implemented such a solution which has revolutionised their industry.
This essential guide is currently available on our free-forever FSN Standard subscription tier for a limited time as well as being available to our FSN Premium subscribers and our FSN Elite members. If you are on any of these subscription/membership tiers you can access this guide by clicking the button below.
If you are not yet a subscriber, the button will take you to a dedicated registration page for FSN Standard that will give you instant access to this guide as well as access to the other Premium Resources currently available on this tier.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, OverIT and Realwear who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this report.
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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