In a recent edition of the Field Service Podcast, Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland sat down with Patrick Jansen, Field Service Manager, VBR Turbines, about why they decided to undertake an in-depth build of their own bespoke IoT solution.

"It all started about 6 years ago. We are an MRO (maintenance and repair organisation)  so we do own anything, we don't produce anything, our business is service. We saw that our market was changing. There was knowledge drain, changes in the labour market and more." Jansen explained. 

"So we started to look at what our service deliver should be like ten years from now and alongside that how could we overcome the challenges that we face in the labour market and how could we address the knowledge drain with our customers. There were a couple of things that saw needed to be done.

"One of the main drivers for us was to create an additional tool to facilitate remote support for the customer but also do diagnostics on the assets. This is because in the energy market within Europe has changed significantly." he added.

One such change has been the shift within the energy sector is that the traditional way of working with a predictive maintenance schedule was to base the schedule on running hours, but this is no longer an appropriate methodology as the amount of running hours has reduced. 

However, there were other benefits that Jansen and the team at VBR Turbines were able to benefit from - including the reduction in training time for new engineers. 

"The remote solutions can help people to get trained faster, the time to training a field service engineer really dramatically reduced." Jansen added. 

 

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A Field Service News' favourite, Cheryl-Anne Sanderson, joins Mark Glover for our latest podcast bringing ideas around networking, perception and nurturing young talent. 

It's been nearly a year since Cher made her debut on the Field Service Podcast. Since then a career move, a successful presentation at last year's FSN Connect, not to mention a well-deserved place in FSN's top 20 service individuals - the FSN20, has made the last 12 months, by her own admission, rather crazy. Yet despite the madness she has still found time to contribute thought-pieces for us on reframing networking and to make a second appearance on the podcast on nurturing young talent.

Cher's belief in guiding the next generation of leaders in service and FM remains undiminished and has possibly got stronger. She shares with us process her firm is undertaking when guiding through young, new recruits; and ponders if anything has changed around the perception of our sectors, a key metric when attracting new talent. She also explores some of the ideas raised in her article about networking.

As ever, it's a fascinating listen from one of the strongest most forward thinking voices in the sector. Listen now!

You can listen to Cher's previous podcast for us here and you can reach out to her on LinkedIn here.

In this exclusive Field Service News video series published in partnership with HSO, we look at three key cases that can convince your board to invest in the systems that can drive your field service operations forward and to the standards expected of modern field service delivery.

 

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Development from novice to expert is something we need to go through multiple times in our working career. So, why do organisations still struggle with refining this process and what still needs to be done? Martin Summerhayes writes...

 

 

Novice?

Let me ask you a question, when were you a novice? 

Likely as not, you are currently an expert in your field of service, having worked across a number of companies and business sectors over a number of years. Your experience and maturity mean, that you may be considered an expert in your field. Whether it is supply chain, reverse logistics, inventory management, field planning, field service, engineering, remote support, or repair operations. You get the picture.

The spectrum of support areas that make up an end-2-end service model are extensive and require people to understand both the individual complexity, as well as how that whole service lifecycle fits together.

How often are people “pigeon holed” into a particular part of the service landscape, gaining experience in one area, but not understanding any other?

So, back to the question, when were you a novice?

For me, it was last Autumn, when I started a new role in a new company. Despite the many years of experience that I have in the services business; taking on a new role, in a new company, brings the feeling of being a novice and having to learn from scratch, numerous things. How the company operates; what in reality my role is verses the role that is advertised and interviewed for. The clients

and partners that I have to engage with and serve. All of these aspects take time to master and I challenge anyone to say that they are fully productive and adding value within a short period of time. Even someone with the length of experience that I have, it takes weeks and possibly months to fully embrace the diverse aspects of the role that you take on.

 

"I really do not like the word apprentice due to the meaning that it has..."

 

So, let’s turn to one of the biggest challenges in the services business today that is directly tied into being a novice and getting novices into the service world.

I have played slightly with words here, as most people would call a novice, an “Apprentice”. However, I really do not like the word apprentice due to the meaning that it has. If you check the google dictionary, the word apprentice means,  “a person who is learning a trade from a skilled employer, having agreed to work for a fixed period at low wages.” Now, I know that is what the definition means, but for those who take on these roles, it can feel negative in its meaning.

I recall starting out as a field engineer, many years ago. Yes, the salary was low compared to the other engineers in the team I was joining. However, they were all more experienced than me and had been trained on a broad range of technology. Me, I was straight out of college; had masses of theory; but no practical experience at all. I was paired up with a senior field engineer for my first month and together we travelled across greater London, resolving numerous service issues. He was kind, thoughtful and helpful in explaining both the problems and how to resolve them. He taught me the technical aspects of field service, but more importantly, he taught me how to engage with customers. How to ensure that they felt that they were important. That their issue was managed well and resolved.

More important that both of those aspects were the end-2-end views my supervisor gave me. He organised for me to sit with the field despatch team, seeing how field calls were organised. He made sure I spent time with the parts storeman, so I understood the importance of returning parts in a timely manner and finally, he let me sit with the bench repair team, so I could learn some of the techniques of component repair.

"It gave the novices the freedom to experience as many different roles and aspects of service as possible..."

That early set of experiences has always stayed with me. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to mentor and support a group of novices as they started their service careers after leaving education.

I organised their joining based on a double rotation basis. A week spent with each key aspect of the services lifecycle within the business (a lot more complex than what I had experienced when I started). This meant, starting with Service Introduction, with the technical take on of new services. Then to Remote Scheduling and Partner Support. Then into the field, across the multiple different field models – High End Systems, Break Fix, Volume Repair, and Deskside. Then into Warehousing, Logistics and Repair. This was to give them a small understanding of the services model we operated.

From there, the novices were then rotated through each department again on a four to six-week rotation. The idea being that they would deliver a specific project during that time to aid that part of the business. Finally, there was 360-degree feedback from the department heads and the novices themselves as to which department that would like to be based in for the next year. At the end of the two-year programme, they were allowed to take up permanent roles or apply for other roles in other parts of the business.

Was this approach affective? Yes, highly.

It gave the novices the freedom to experience as many different roles and aspects of service as possible. It enabled them to understand the board picture and how services fitted together. It also allowed us to understand their strengths and where they worked well and for them to understand whether service and a particular role was right for them. Some stayed and some left, but every one of the novices appreciated the effort we had put into the scheme.

So, what scheme do you have? Do you even have novices in your business?

It does not matter whether your business is massive or small, there is always an opportunity to bring on new people. Let me give you two current examples.

 

"I challenge everyone in the services world to embrace the idea of novices..."

 

The client I am working with at the moment has 40,000 employees. Yep, 40,000, across the whole of the UK. They have a novice programme and operate very similarly to what I ran previously. The cohorts are grouped together in groups, to give them peer support and so that they do not feel isolated. They do a four week rotation and work on projects designed and supported by the departments they are in. They get regular support, feedback and guidance. Each novice has a mentor that they can work with. Speaking to a number of them recently, they felt positively engaged, valued and part of the organisation.

For my own organisation, which is much smaller, we too are looking at bringing on a couple of novices this year. To support the expansion of the business and also to provide resilience by cross training them in a couple of technical areas.

So, I challenge everyone in the services world to embrace the idea of novices. Bring them into your organisations, but more importantly, have a plan and a roadmap of what they are going to do. Don’t just dump them into an area of your business and expect them to thrive, proposer and grow. Look after them and in the medium term, they will grow into roles that will add significant value to your business.

I leave with the following quote:

“In most every business, you learn by doing. The apprenticeship model is much more effective than the classroom for cultivating entrepreneurs.”

Andrew Yang (American entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, lawyer, and former candidate for President of the United States in the 2020 election

Jan van Veen says firms need to protect themselves first and then accept and adapt to the inevitable long-term affect of the virus.

We all need to take our responsibility to keep our colleagues, our clients’ staff and the public safe. The Coronavirus will be with us for a long time, probably years. We should anticipate a scenario that will have to continue carrying out measures to control the virus.  This could have a substantial impact on our society, economy businesses and our clients' businesses. If we stay close to our clients, we have the best chances to mitigate the impact and reinforce the loyalty of our clients.

Three Phases

In the next six months we should all walk through the next three phases:

Response: Right now we have to control the crisis and mitigate the direct impact on the short term.

Review: Assess what we can learn from the impact of the current outbreak on our business and clients business. What are the vulnerabilities and weaknesses? What are our strengths and what are our opportunities? Which other trends are being triggered? Often, an economic crises and new disruptive technologies can accelerate market disruptions. This could be a chance for significant and innovative change. 

Redesign: How can we make our business more agile and less vulnerable to these kind of outbreaks? Think about safety, capacity, supply chain, remote capabilities. How can we enhance our value propositions to better support our clients? How should we evolve our operating model and business model? Stay flexible and be prepared to adapt.

 

Jan van Veen was part of our panel at Field Service News' Covid-19 Emergency Symposium which you can listen to here.

As the impact of Corona Virus grows in the service sector, key voices from the industry offer comment and advice on the current situation.

The last 72 hours have seen significant changes across the globe as the effect of Corona Virus (Covid-19) begins to take hold. Restrictions at borders, regional lock downs and a decrease in product demand are affecting the service sector.

EXTRAORDINARY TIMES 

We are operating in extraordinary times and as well as acting in the now we should also look to the future, Bill Pollock explains. "Today, we are all experiencing a global medical 9/11," he says. "However, as in the past, life goes on, business goes on, and service must go on, as well. Yet, the brunt of this need will first be manifested in the immediacy, as businesses of all types struggle to follow the pandemic recommendations - either mandatory, or voluntarily but once the pandemic becomes contained and controlled, the post-pandemic aftermath will likely require an even greater response from services organizations of all types."

The current situation will inevitably be a challenging one for all service directors, most of whom will never have experienced a period like this and it does provide the opportunity to thrive in the most testing of environments. Yet, first and foremost the wellbeing of staff, remains the key focus. “The safety and health is your first priority," urges Nick Frank from Si2 Partners and Head of the UK Service Community. "Then be positive and use the situation to find new ways of solving customer problems.” It's a sentiment echoed by Pollock. "The thing to remember is that service will always be required; and service organizations will always need to be innovative, responsive and cooperative in all they do moving forward."

As the situation develops service professionals will have to draw on theses values to succeed in what will be one of the most challenging periods of their careers.

 

Regular Field Service News' contributor Jan van Veen says surrounding yourself with those on the same wavelength can foster high performance, innovation and change.

Silicon Valley thrives as its own ecosystem exists on disruption. Each start-up flourishes with individuals all moving in the same direction; keen to change what's gone before. Each person has the same values, habits, goals and mindsets. As a collective it's no surprise this part of California is one of the most creative hubs in the world.

In this edition of the Field Service Podcast, moreMomentum's Founder and MD (and long-time Field Service News' Collaborator) Jan van Veen urges service leaders to choose their network wisely if they want to change the status quo. Citing the aforementioned Silicon Valley and high-performance judo athletes van Veen lays the foundations of a successful social environment for your business.

Also, for the first time this series, the podcast incorporates input from a LinkedIn discussion on this topic before the podcast was recorded. One of those who contributed to that discussion, Rohit Agarwal shared this diagram with us. It's handy to reference this image at the appropriate point of the podcast.

You can reach out to Jan on LinkedIn here and find out more information about moreMomentum here. 

The Field Service News editorial team offer analysis on the stories circling in the service sector...

 

An investment injection from Salesforce is set to advance ServiceMax’s focus on assset-heavy industries such as manufacturing and utlities. Mark Glover spoke to CEO Neil Barua after the news broke...

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I initially wanted to use this space to focus on the much needed calls for drone advancement and how it has the potential to postively impact on last mile delivery.

However, news that ServiceMax had received a cool $80 million investment from their long-time platform partner Salesforce came to my attention and with that an opportunity to speak to CEO Neil Barua about the announcement.

“The money was probably the least important part of the news,” he told me. “It’s great to be able to fund our growth and development but it’s the strategeic partnership element and the acknowledgement by Salesforce [that] in asset-centric industries ServiceMax is the chosen leader and they’re supporting our innovation for our customers in those industries. It’s a very monumental time in the industry for that decision to have been made,” he said.

Rumours around ServiceMax’s relationship with Salesforce have been circulating for some time now, with some speculating the software firm were ready to show its platform supplier the door, however this news concretes their partnership.The funding injection, the firm says, will enable them to focus on asset-heavy sectors such as manufacturing, oil and gas and utilities.

But it’s the firm collaboration with Salesforce that Barua was keen to extoll and in particular its place at ServiceMax’s varied board room table. “So we have a very dynamic board structure here at ServiceMax including Silverlake participants, incuding GE partcicpants and we’re now going to add Salesforce to that,” he explained. “So the adults in the room can look at things from a board perspective and make sure the two companies are thinking about what’s best independently but most importantly what’s best for customers.”

We shall see ultimately if this windfall affect ServiceMax’s end-user. Next month however my news focus will be drone-based and how that industry could do with $80 million to propel its offering.

 

... and Field Service News’ Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, also reflects on what the big stories in the news are for him...

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Having reviewed the big stories I think I am acrtually going to do the slightly crass thing and highlight our own involvement at the inaugral World Servitization Conference.

However, in my very best humble brag style, I’d really like to bring your attention to just how impressive the journey has been for my good friends at Aston University and the Advanced Services Group and just what an achievement launching the first World Conference is for Professor Baines and his excellent collection of colleagues.

I have had the honour of attending the Spring Servitization Conference for a number of years as both a guest of Aston University and latterly as a Media Partner for the Advanced Services Group and as such have been a first hand witness to just how the conference has grown over the years. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the conference in various pockets of Europe including Manchester, Copenhagen, Luzerne and its great to see it return home to Birmingham in its latest all grown up iteration.

The world of academia and industry really can flourish when they come together to search out solutions and drive each other forward and the Spring Servitization Conference has been an absolutley pioneering and pivotal point within the calendar where that meeting of minds has been able to take place.

And whilst it may sound like an increase in capacity going from the humble Spring Servitization Conference to the more grandly titled World Servitization Conference, the truth is that the name change should have happened a few years back as this annual meet up of the great and the good of the academic servitization community, increasingly being joined by larger and larger numbers of their industry colleagues, really does attract a global audience.

I for one am extremely proud that we are still strongly associated with the conference and am very much looking forward to working with TIm and the Aston team on this event and for many years to come.