Field service is a sector led by people who inherently understand operations, as such we often hear of companies ‘fine tuning’ their processes as they seek further efficiency gains. However, in today’s world service is also a significant revenue...
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Aug 01, 2019 • Features • Management • Business Improvement • Jim Baston • Business Development
Field service is a sector led by people who inherently understand operations, as such we often hear of companies ‘fine tuning’ their processes as they seek further efficiency gains. However, in today’s world service is also a significant revenue generator, so it is high time we turn to tuning up our business development skills as well writes Jim Baston...
As service providers, we are very much aware of the advantages of preventative maintenance programs and equipment tune-ups. Part of our job is to convince our customers of their merit so that we can help them reduce or eliminate unexpected failures, extend asset life and improve operational efficiencies.
If preventative maintenance and tune-ups provide such benefits for our customers, would it not make sense to apply the same logic for ourselves? When was the last time you conducted a tune-up on your initiative to engage your field service professionals in business development activities?
Engaging our field team in making proactive recommendations to our customers provides a valuable service. By identifying ways our customers can improve their business, our field team contributes to their ability to achieve their business goals. Our field service professionals, because of their knowledge of the technology and of the customer, are in a unique position to see opportunities that no one else can see. Therefore it makes sense that we maintain this initiative in a finely tuned condition so that our field team can perform this valuable service at the highest levels.
Here are four areas to focus our tune-up efforts to ensure that our field service team’s business development efforts are performing at their best:
1. Check the processes and systems that oversee opportunity capture and management to ensure they are working efficiently and without error.
Opportunity capture and management systems and processes are the backbone of the business development initiative. If the systems are not working smoothly, then opportunities get lost, field professionals get frustrated and customers become disappointed. Failure to maintain the processes and systems will be a sure way to bring the entire initiative to a grinding halt.
To keep systems and processes operating in tiptop condition, check to ensure that there is a clear and simple process to capture opportunities and that the process is clearly understood. Take proactive steps to simplify the process further. Check to ensure that there are no opportunities falling through the cracks. Ensure that management responds quickly to address any anomalies when problems in the process do occur.
2. Assess how familiar your team is with ALL of your services and capabilities.
Conducting maintenance in this area will contribute to the efficiency and consistence of the initiative. Teams that have a high awareness of your overall capabilities, will be in a better position to recognize opportunities where that capability will help the customer and be more comfortable in engaging the customer in a conversation about it. Evaluate how well your team understands the complete range of services that you provide.
Assess your strategy of bringing new members up to speed and ensuring that everyone is familiar with any new services you add. Evaluate whether your team recognizes the value of learning about your services and how it contributes to the overall benefit of your customers.
3. Evaluate your opportunity follow up strategy.
Not following up on recommendations will result in lost opportunities and contribute to the overall inefficiency and effectiveness of the initiative. Not following up will also have a negative impact on the customer. Many years ago I was asked to do some research for a service organization to gain insight into some specific actions that could be taken to improve their service delivery.
I met with several customers and one related a story to me that highlights the negative impact on the customer of not following up on recommendations. In this case, the field service professional made a recommendation to avoid an anticipated equipment failure.
The recommendation was not acted upon by the customer and several months later the failure did occur. The cost of responding to the resulting emergency situation was many times more that the cost of taking the recommended preventative action. The customer was angry with the service provider. It turns out that the customer had forgotten about the recommendation and the service provider did not follow up to remind him.
Evaluate your process for following up on opportunities. Is it clear who is to follow up? Are they provided with the information needed to do this in a timely manner? Are they following the process? What failsafe measures are in place to ensure that no follow-ups are missed? How well are these measures working?
4. Assess how well you and your management team are supporting the field team.
Management support is both the fuel and the lubricant of the initiative. Consistent and engaged management support will contribute to the efficiency and longevity of the efforts of your field service team. Initiatives that are poorly supported by management will never achieve the planned performance levels and will lose whatever momentum they have quickly.
As you assess management support, consider the following:
• How often do you speak of the initiative? Is it part of most conversations?
• Do you speak of it as part of the overall strategy to serve the customer? Are the proactive efforts of the field team referred to as a service to the customer?
• When was the last time you provided training to enable your team to perform capably and comfortably?
• Do you offer reminders and refreshers to keep the initiative fresh. Do you provide an opportunity like role-playing to let your field service professionals practice their customer conversations in a safe environment?
• Do you make time to regularly coach the team on the desired behaviours?
We provide a valuable service when we engage our technicians in business development by making proactive recommendations to our customers. In order to ensure that we are providing this service at the highest level, it is important that we maintain the effectiveness of the initiative through regular tune-ups.
If it works for our customers, then it will certainly work for us.
Jim Baston is President at BB Consulting Group.
As service providers, we are very much aware of the advantages of preventative maintenance programs and equipment tune-ups. Part of our job is to convince our customers of their merit so that we can help them reduce or eliminate unexpected failures, extend asset life and improve operational efficiencies.
If preventative maintenance and tune-ups provide such benefits for our customers, would it not make sense to apply the same logic for ourselves? When was the last time you conducted a tune-up on your initiative to engage your field service professionals in business development activities?
Engaging our field team in making proactive recommendations to our customers provides a valuable service. By identifying ways our customers can improve their business, our field team contributes to their ability to achieve their business goals. Our field service professionals, because of their knowledge of the technology and of the customer, are in a unique position to see opportunities that no one else can see. Therefore it makes sense that we maintain this initiative in a finely tuned condition so that our field team can perform this valuable service at the highest levels.
Here are four areas to focus our tune-up efforts to ensure that our field service team’s business development efforts are performing at their best:
1. Check the processes and systems that oversee opportunity capture and management to ensure they are working efficiently and without error.
Opportunity capture and management systems and processes are the backbone of the business development initiative. If the systems are not working smoothly, then opportunities get lost, field professionals get frustrated and customers become disappointed. Failure to maintain the processes and systems will be a sure way to bring the entire initiative to a grinding halt.
To keep systems and processes operating in tiptop condition, check to ensure that there is a clear and simple process to capture opportunities and that the process is clearly understood. Take proactive steps to simplify the process further. Check to ensure that there are no opportunities falling through the cracks. Ensure that management responds quickly to address any anomalies when problems in the process do occur.
2. Assess how familiar your team is with ALL of your services and capabilities.
Conducting maintenance in this area will contribute to the efficiency and consistence of the initiative. Teams that have a high awareness of your overall capabilities, will be in a better position to recognize opportunities where that capability will help the customer and be more comfortable in engaging the customer in a conversation about it. Evaluate how well your team understands the complete range of services that you provide.
Assess your strategy of bringing new members up to speed and ensuring that everyone is familiar with any new services you add. Evaluate whether your team recognizes the value of learning about your services and how it contributes to the overall benefit of your customers.
3. Evaluate your opportunity follow up strategy.
Not following up on recommendations will result in lost opportunities and contribute to the overall inefficiency and effectiveness of the initiative. Not following up will also have a negative impact on the customer. Many years ago I was asked to do some research for a service organization to gain insight into some specific actions that could be taken to improve their service delivery.
I met with several customers and one related a story to me that highlights the negative impact on the customer of not following up on recommendations. In this case, the field service professional made a recommendation to avoid an anticipated equipment failure.
The recommendation was not acted upon by the customer and several months later the failure did occur. The cost of responding to the resulting emergency situation was many times more that the cost of taking the recommended preventative action. The customer was angry with the service provider. It turns out that the customer had forgotten about the recommendation and the service provider did not follow up to remind him.
Evaluate your process for following up on opportunities. Is it clear who is to follow up? Are they provided with the information needed to do this in a timely manner? Are they following the process? What failsafe measures are in place to ensure that no follow-ups are missed? How well are these measures working?
4. Assess how well you and your management team are supporting the field team.
Management support is both the fuel and the lubricant of the initiative. Consistent and engaged management support will contribute to the efficiency and longevity of the efforts of your field service team. Initiatives that are poorly supported by management will never achieve the planned performance levels and will lose whatever momentum they have quickly.
As you assess management support, consider the following:
• How often do you speak of the initiative? Is it part of most conversations?
• Do you speak of it as part of the overall strategy to serve the customer? Are the proactive efforts of the field team referred to as a service to the customer?
• When was the last time you provided training to enable your team to perform capably and comfortably?
• Do you offer reminders and refreshers to keep the initiative fresh. Do you provide an opportunity like role-playing to let your field service professionals practice their customer conversations in a safe environment?
• Do you make time to regularly coach the team on the desired behaviours?
We provide a valuable service when we engage our technicians in business development by making proactive recommendations to our customers. In order to ensure that we are providing this service at the highest level, it is important that we maintain the effectiveness of the initiative through regular tune-ups.
If it works for our customers, then it will certainly work for us.
Jim Baston is President at BB Consulting Group.
Jul 31, 2019 • Features • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Workforce • IFS • skills • The Big Discussion • OverIT • Librestream
In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the third of a four part series on Augmented Reality, our panel including Stephen Jeffs-Watts, Senior Advisor...
In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector.
In the third of a four part series on Augmented Reality, our panel including Stephen Jeffs-Watts, Senior Advisor Service Management, IFS, Francesco Benvenuto Product Marketing Manager, SPACE1 by OverIT and John Bishop, President, Librestream ponder AR's future role in service. Will it be ubiquitous as a rugged device?
Do you think AR will become a mainstream/commonplace part of field service operations within the near future?
JOHN BISHOP, PRESIDENT, LIBRESTREAM
This question is an interesting one. AR is a large bucket. If you look at proven capabilities such as remote expert guidance and digital work instructions, AR is already a mainstream capability for market leaders.
Other AR capabilities such as 3D modeling and cognitive services, while important parts of the digital transformation journey, are further out in maturity. For these proven AR tools, we’ve experienced a shift from Operations to IT led sourcing to deploy at scale across an enterprise.
At scale, these enterprises report strong operational results such as:
• 30% Productivity gain from ‘just in time’ mentoring of field techs;
• 5-10% Increase in asset up-time;
• 50% Reduction in support call duration;
FRANCESCO BENVENUTO, PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, SPACE1 BY OVERIT
Most consulting firms agree that by 2022 over 50% of field service providers will offer a specialized digital customer experience enabling both two-way interaction and workflow initiation through multiple human and non-human channels.
The prediction is confirmed by the fact that OverIT, as an AR product supplier, is no longer reaching out to potential customers to make them aware of the power of such technology, but instead is proactively contacted by prospects who have already developed a well-defined AR strategy for their business. OverIT with more than 85K active users on field have the expertise to guide them in this process.
We are facing the ROI era and Augmented Reality is no longer a proof-of concept.
STEPHEN JEFFS-WATTS, PRODUCT MANAGER, SERVICE MANAGEMENT, IFS
The current technology inflection point, where technologies like AR, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will become pervasive, makes it one of the most exciting times to be working with service companies.
Many use-cases that, only a couple of years ago, seemed aspirational at best, are becoming more real and accessible every day.
We are certainly seeing more interest in this area from the industry as cost and complexity reduce – making the technology more accessible to a wider range of organisations.
The Feasibility of AR in Service report produced by the Service Council in 2017 found that 33% of respondents were already using AR, with 43% evaluating it. From what we see in the market, this upwards trajectory has continued and momentum is continuing to build.
The final part of the big discussion will be published next week. You can read the first instalment here and the second here.
In the third of a four part series on Augmented Reality, our panel including Stephen Jeffs-Watts, Senior Advisor Service Management, IFS, Francesco Benvenuto Product Marketing Manager, SPACE1 by OverIT and John Bishop, President, Librestream ponder AR's future role in service. Will it be ubiquitous as a rugged device?
Do you think AR will become a mainstream/commonplace part of field service operations within the near future?
JOHN BISHOP, PRESIDENT, LIBRESTREAM
This question is an interesting one. AR is a large bucket. If you look at proven capabilities such as remote expert guidance and digital work instructions, AR is already a mainstream capability for market leaders.
Other AR capabilities such as 3D modeling and cognitive services, while important parts of the digital transformation journey, are further out in maturity. For these proven AR tools, we’ve experienced a shift from Operations to IT led sourcing to deploy at scale across an enterprise.
At scale, these enterprises report strong operational results such as:
• 30% Productivity gain from ‘just in time’ mentoring of field techs;
• 5-10% Increase in asset up-time;
• 50% Reduction in support call duration;
• 20% Acceleration in time to resolution.
In addition to these tangible results, our customers describe how AR also provides them with competitive differentiation, worker safety, premium service offers, and worker retention opportunities.
In addition to these tangible results, our customers describe how AR also provides them with competitive differentiation, worker safety, premium service offers, and worker retention opportunities.
FRANCESCO BENVENUTO, PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, SPACE1 BY OVERIT
Most consulting firms agree that by 2022 over 50% of field service providers will offer a specialized digital customer experience enabling both two-way interaction and workflow initiation through multiple human and non-human channels.
The prediction is confirmed by the fact that OverIT, as an AR product supplier, is no longer reaching out to potential customers to make them aware of the power of such technology, but instead is proactively contacted by prospects who have already developed a well-defined AR strategy for their business. OverIT with more than 85K active users on field have the expertise to guide them in this process.
We are facing the ROI era and Augmented Reality is no longer a proof-of concept.
STEPHEN JEFFS-WATTS, PRODUCT MANAGER, SERVICE MANAGEMENT, IFS
The current technology inflection point, where technologies like AR, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will become pervasive, makes it one of the most exciting times to be working with service companies.
Many use-cases that, only a couple of years ago, seemed aspirational at best, are becoming more real and accessible every day.
We are certainly seeing more interest in this area from the industry as cost and complexity reduce – making the technology more accessible to a wider range of organisations.
The Feasibility of AR in Service report produced by the Service Council in 2017 found that 33% of respondents were already using AR, with 43% evaluating it. From what we see in the market, this upwards trajectory has continued and momentum is continuing to build.
The final part of the big discussion will be published next week. You can read the first instalment here and the second here.
Jul 30, 2019 • Features • Management • Ageing Workforce Crisis • workforce management • FIeld nation • field service • Blended Workforce • FieldNation
There are three key considerations that field service organizations must take into account when building a modern workforce, including the changing demographics from Baby Boomer to Millennial, the impact of technology on field service operations,...
There are three key considerations that field service organizations must take into account when building a modern workforce, including the changing demographics from Baby Boomer to Millennial, the impact of technology on field service operations, and the growth of the ‘gig’ economy. In a new series run in partnership with FieldNation, we explore all three...
Jul 30, 2019 • Features • Management • Mark Brewer • Digital Transformation • Experience Economy • field service • field service management • IFS • Service Management • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations • Managing the Mobile Workforce
In his previous article for Field Service News, Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director, Service Management, IFS introduced the concept of the experience economy, now he outlines why digital transformation is the key to driving it forwards...
In his previous article for Field Service News, Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director, Service Management, IFS introduced the concept of the experience economy, now he outlines why digital transformation is the key to driving it forwards...
Here's a scary statistic. The average person clicks, taps or swipes a mobile device 2,617 times a day. It shows just how much time we now spend interacting with the online world. Banking, booking holidays, shopping, socialising and so on, we increasingly live our lives through a screen. And with every interaction, we expect a particular level of service in return.
With digital technologies continuing to advance rapidly, along with consumers' understanding of the possibilities they enable, people demand an immediate and seamless experience whenever and however they make contact. These expectations, which are already prevalent in the home, have now evolved in the workplace. This has major implications for the planning and delivery of service, and specifically how companies look to drive customer loyalty (and ultimately retention) via a superior experience.
Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have a significant role to play here. AI isn't strictly new of course. But what is new is the way it influences today's experience economy by affecting outcomes, driving engagement and in many cases scaling the human.
Superior engagement
A comprehensive customer contact strategy is essential for any service organisation. Traditionally, this has focused on voice or email; now it includes an entire omnichannel capability with multiple media touchpoints. As you'd expect, this evolution is being driven by younger age groups. 26 per cent of millennials use social media and 29 per cent use texts and messaging apps to reach out for service, while three-quarters of all people over 44 years of age prefer using more traditional means such as emails or phone calls.
For example, if you want to book an appointment for someone to come and service your boiler, you can organise it without having to speak to anyone, online. A chatbot replaces the 'real' person. This is more convenient for you, more cost-effective and efficient for the organisation you're talking to - but it also raises your expectations.
This means responses must be faster, and there's no room for error. There's no time for long calls with operators or the patience to be passed from department to department. And gratification must be swift and successful, however you interact - whether via a web portal, email, virtual assistant, or even an instant messaging service like WhatsApp.
74 per cent of companies offer some form of self-service for customers - and the majority have implemented it specifically to improve customer experienceThis has implications for businesses looking to maintain positive customer relationships. An operation which has traditionally focused on contact centres, predominantly powered by phones (i.e. voice), must now deploy a comprehensive, omnichannel communications suite capable of serving a wide range of contact media, anytime and anywhere.
This can be problematic. Many companies can't afford to extend their contact centre facilities to multiple locations, or cater specifically to every market they're working in.
However, help is at hand with virtual contact centres which can make efficient use of distributed and varied workforces, automatically matching agents with requests and customers. This also drives a more responsive, agile, and scalable workforce where agents can engage in multiple simultaneous conversations using multiple chat sessions and providing consistently high service levels.
The B2C world already does this pretty well. 74 per cent of companies offer some form of self-service for customers - and the majority have implemented it specifically to improve customer experience. B2B organisations need to follow suit. The rewards are big for those who do it well. Companies with effective omnichannel communications enjoy 28 positive customer experiences for every one negative experience, while companies without this experience just two positive experiences for every one negative*.
It's a no-brainer. Doing omnichannel well can create up to 14 times more positive customer experiences. Crucially, this also influences customer loyalty. To look at it another way, your business will potentially only lose one in 29 customers, as opposed to one in three!
Powering the experience
The driver here is digital transformation, enabling new levels of service provision. Customer interactions differ based on age, demographics and preferences. Digital supports them all. It's no longer just your customer services department talking to these customers, it's your equipment, IoT sensors, AI, chatbots and more: predicting behaviour, recommending actions, solving issues, intuitively. The more it does this, the smarter it gets.
This technology is transformational and can bring huge benefits to your business. However, you need the right infrastructure in place to manage it.
So, what next?
To see examples of how IFS has helped customers drive digital transformation in their operations, and understand how omnichannel customer engagement can improve your customer’s experience, visit ifsworld.com.
*Forrester: The role of emotion in customer experience
Jul 30, 2019 • Features • Coresystems • Future of FIeld Service • manuel grenacher • remote service • field service • field service technicians • Internet of Things • IoT • SAP • Service Engineer • Service Management • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
In today’s society whereas consumer’s we are becoming increasingly used to and expectant of instant results is an obvious challenge for field service organisations but can remote services help bridge the gap? Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems ...
In today’s society whereas consumer’s we are becoming increasingly used to and expectant of instant results is an obvious challenge for field service organisations but can remote services help bridge the gap? Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems discusses...
With the pervasiveness of the Internet of Things (IoT), everything from device performance to customer interactions has become faster and more connected. Devices that require maintenance and repair now operate on an accelerated timeline of immediately notifying the user when service is needed. Because of this, customers expect real-time responses, leaving little to no time for a field service technician to travel to the site, troubleshoot the issue and fix the device. Therefore, to maintain and improve customer satisfaction, technicians are exploring ways to provide the same level of onsite, but while remote.
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 and 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.
Field service technicians no longer need to blindly infer what is happening on the broken device based on descriptions from less experienced users, nor do they need to fumble through repair instructions over the phoneField service technicians no longer need to blindly infer what is happening on the broken device based on descriptions from less experienced users, nor do they need to fumble through repair instructions over the phone. Indeed, the remote technician takes full advantage of tools such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and even the IoT itself to deliver the same experience as a technician standing in front of the customer would.
So how does it work? It starts with putting the proper infrastructure in place to allow technicians to troubleshoot issues on devices and machines from afar. Taking issue detection as an example, remote technicians can use augmented reality to share a mobile phone screen with a customer for a visual walkthrough of the issue. From there, the remote technician can schedule an onsite appointment if needed and manage the parts orders needed for specific projects, ensuring all the necessary assets are in place well in advance.
To be fair, managing a workforce of remote technicians is no easy task. In order to optimize your field service operations, it is extremely beneficial to be able to automatically assign the most qualified and available technician for respective service requests, taking into account expertise, location, and availability. As a fail-safe, the onsite technicians should have easy access to online product specifications and other assets needed to complete service requests. Additionally, similar to how remote technicians use augmented reality to connect to the customer for issue detection, on-site technicians can connect to more experienced journeyman technicians back at headquarters to troubleshoot unforeseen issues. This creates a network of knowledge that will keep project duration to a minimum, improving efficiency for the technician while onsite.
The way in which field service technicians work has evolved and is continuing to do so. The next generation of technicians are prioritizing independence, autonomy, and flexibility, on top of foundational knowledge and customer service experience. As the IoT continues to grow, so will the need for remote technicians, and the field service industry assuredly has the infrastructure to maintain the high level of customer satisfaction that we strive for today.
What are your experiences experimenting with a more remote field service workforce? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Jul 30, 2019 • Features • Management • Retail • bybox • Cashless Society • Claudine Mosseri • field service • field service management • Service Management • UK
Retail in the UK is changing rapidly and it is placing ever greater importance on same-day-fix requirements of solution providers writes Claudine Mosseri, General Manager, Field Services, ByBox explains...
Retail in the UK is changing rapidly and it is placing ever greater importance on same-day-fix requirements of solution providers writes Claudine Mosseri, General Manager, Field Services, ByBox explains...
As card payments and online banking continue to rise, Britain’s high street banks are facing closure. Research suggests that two local branches have shut shop every day for the past three years. And, with RBS recently announcing the closure of 162 physical branches, it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. For local towns and high streets, this poses a problem, as it becomes increasingly difficult for consumers and merchants to access and manage cash.
Traditionally, many small businesses would only deal exclusively in cash, a whopping three million* in the UK alone. Owing to rental prices on payment terminals, facilitating card payments can often be too expensive to maintain when operating on small margins. Yet not having access to a local bank, means these retailers are not only missing out on possible revenues streams but they now need to also travel to a different town during business hours to pay in takings. Leading to additional expenses, missed interest and other threats such as theft if cash is left on the premises.
As large retailers lead the charge, offering more payment options and increased technology within stores, it’s not just bank closures putting pressures on local, high street stores. Today’s consumer is used to a seamless, integrated shopping experience, whether in-store or online.
Working with a provider that offers same-day fixes and ensures device uptime can help stores adapt to an increasingly cashless societyIn July this year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported that with cash no-longer being the most popular payment method, card payments accounted for 54% of retail transactions and almost 75% of total sales in the UK. In addition, demonstrating our desire for fast convenience, contactless payments were up 121.9% in April 2018, compared to the same period the previous year.
Now a more connected and contactless nation, reliance on payment terminal uptime is paramount. It’s not enough to simply accept card payments onsite anymore, with research suggesting that non-functioning payment devices leave one-in-three customers unable to complete a purchase. Even with more payment options in place, retailers must ensure they are working in order to enhance the customer experience.
Bank closures and changing customer expectations will undoubtedly result in a shake-up of the payment industry and retail environments, but how can independent merchants be supported during the transition?
For starters, as facilitating card payments becomes the only convenient option, technology providers will need to ensure that devices, and the supporting software, is affordable, dependable and user-friendly. Two-thirds of consumers report experiencing failing card machines on at least one occasion. For small organisations, this could easily result in lost customers and business. And if card is the only option, it’s even more important that devices are functioning.
With any new installation, device maintenance must be considered to minimise faulty technology, negative shopper experiences and lost sales. For small businesses, the support of the payment industry in increasing uptime isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. ByBox’s Switch service aims to mitigate the knock-on effects of retail device downtime, on the consumer, merchants and the payments industry. The service, which uses a network of App and Bluetooth controlled lockers in strategic locations, ensures same-day fixes via pre-positioned parts.
Britain’s high streets are changing. Stores, whether large or small, are under increased pressure to modernise in-store offerings. Customer demand and closing banks are resulting in independent retailers needing to keep pace with large, big-name chains.
In order for any store to succeed in this competitive, connected environment, they must adopt new technology with confidence in the reliability of such devices. Working with a provider that offers same-day fixes and ensures device uptime can help stores adapt to an increasingly cashless society while offering an enhanced customer experience.
Resources Used
- https://brc.org.uk/news/2017/debit-cards-overtake-cash-to-become-number-one-payment-method-in-the-uk
- https://www.theukdomain.uk/smaller-businesses-offer-cashless-payments/
- https://squareup.com/gb/news/one-in-six-brits-is-now-a-card-only-shopper
- http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/contactless_contactless_statistics/
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Jul 30, 2019 • Features • Augmented Reality • future of field service • Software and Apps • Augmentir
The number of Augmented Reality companies focusing on the field service sector has dramatically increased over the last couple of years. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News sat down with Chris Kuntz, VP of Marketing for one of the...
The number of Augmented Reality companies focusing on the field service sector has dramatically increased over the last couple of years. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News sat down with Chris Kuntz, VP of Marketing for one of the newer organisations in the space Augmentir in California recently and came away impressed...
Augmentir is a relatively new startup in the growing Augmented Reality (AR) space that is focussing on the field service sector. Indeed this is a market that is becoming quite quickly crowded with AR vendors dominating industry conferences both in the US and Europe this summer in terms of the new entrants into the market.
However, three things, in particular, made Augmentir stand out from the crowd when I met with their VP of Marketing, Chris Kuntz, at the Field Service USA conference in Palm Springs recently. Firstly, there is much pedigree in this seemingly wet behind the ears startup.
The team that has put together Augmentir have been together for a long time on different projects which have included bringing the pioneering industrial IoT platform ThingWorx to market, as well as Wonderware, which was the first HMI interface in the manufacturing sector and is now in place in an estimated 60% of manufacturing plants worldwide.
So before we even start to look at the technology driving Augmentir, it’s fair to say that there is more than a good chance we shall potentially see another success story here.
However, the fact is that even without the well established pedigree, the vision behind Augmentir have taken a different yet thoroughly logical approach that sets them apart from many of their peers in the market.
As Kuntz, explained when I met with him in California, “We’re taking a different spin on what’s out there today. We’re the first software platform built on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the world of the augmented or connected worker. Historically, what’s happened in field service is roughly as follows: A new job is created when a customer reports a problem with a piece of equipment. This results in a worker getting dispatched, who then attends the job and either fixes the product or has to reschedule a second visit. Then at some point later, he updates a system with the notes outlining the actions he took,” Kuntz says recalling a scenario many of us in the sector recognise.
“However, the activities that happened from the time the engineer was dispatched to the time that that job is complete, remain a relative unknown, it’s a black box today. People don’t know what’s happening on the job site. Is that worker struggling with some of the steps? Does that worker speed through the repair procedure? Did the worker follow the right steps to meet health and safety requirements?”
There are all sorts of things happening. The problem then gets compounded for some companies who offer self-service or routines their dealer network or to their end customers. Now, you don’t know if they’re following the correct maintenance procedures or not. This, in turn, could affect the warranty status, and so on and so forth.”
"Augmentir have taken a different yet thoroughly logical approach..."
Of course, the result of the scenario Kuntz outlines is one many of us are familiar with. Companies have thus started to push technology down to the worker to make them better connected, to make them ‘augmented’.
This is at the heart of the current play for many AR providers, which in essence builds upon the case put forward for mobile a decade ago. Ultimately field service organisations are still attempting to solve the perennial question of “How can we give our engineers more information, give them more instructions on how to guide them through their process”.
“That’s all fine,” Kuntz states referring to the approach most of his peers are taking in resolving these issues, “But most companies aren’t collecting how their engineer’s work is performed. They’re just saying to the engineers, ‘Here are your instructions.’
“What we’re doing is taking that one step further. Firstly, we provide what we call ‘augmented work instruction’. By that, we mean work instructions that have information related to the case the engineer is doing, the piece of equipment they are working on and its work history that make the instructions interactive and personalised work instructions.
“If you’re an expert, that’s gone through this procedure a million times, you might get a more summarised view of the instructions, whereas if you’re a novice and this is the first time on a specific repair, our AI engine might provide you with a required training video along with a more detailed step-by-step guide. All to meet the goal of fix it right the first time …in the least amount of time.
“The next thing we do is we’re collecting all the granular data on how the workers performing their job and interacting with the instructions. We’re then using this data with our Artificial Intelligence engine in a way to help them become better at what they’re doing.
“Maybe an engineer is performing tasks slower than the average worker, is that an opportunity for training? Maybe they’re faster than the average worker? Is it an opportunity to tap into that person to say, how are you doing it? Have they found a more effective way of completing a task? Alternatively, maybe most of the workers are having trouble with a specific procedure/step – is there an opportunity to improve the instructions or associated training materials?”
Compliance is, of course, a crucial part of a field engineers role - both for legislative and internal efficiency purposes. However, often, it is the case that compliance steps happen after the fact.
One of the crucial aspects of digital transformation is making sure actions like these can now be electronically verified in real-time, in an interactive manner - and not just be an afterthought added to the notes a service engineer completes at the end of the job.
It is a small shift in a workflow that can have multiple big benefits, and the fact that Augmentir has baked such factors as this into their solution from the get-go does suggest they have a firm understanding of the field service engineers day to day workflow and the broader processes of the field service operation.
“This information can be used for compliance purposes, can be used for warranty purposes, it can be sent back to the customer to say, ‘this is a service procedure, this is exactly what happened,’ offer them a full inventory, step by step of what happened,” Kuntz explains: “We’re taking augmented reality, infusing it with artificial intelligence to collect the data, analyse it, and push it back to the organisation. Moreover, we’re doing it in a way that offers our enterprise software platform in a more modern approach.”
It is here we come across the third facet of Augmentir’s approach that also separates them from much of the pack - their route to market is equally accessible for the SMB sector as it is the large enterprise.
Kuntz continues: “If you think about how companies in this space adopt technology, Salesforce, Clicksoftware, ServiceMax; it’s a very lengthy process to implement any of these systems. Certainly, when it gets down to other AR solutions, it is no different and implementation can become even more time consuming. A pilot may take nine months; it could cost up to $150,000 to test out an AR solution.
“What we’re doing is trying to take a model that Slack, Atlassian and Dropbox have taken - make it easy to try, easy to buy, easy to own. The way people adopt Dropbox, the way people adopt Slack today is typical of how the modern world works, and we think we can apply that to the field service sector.
“What that allows us to do is not only work with the large enterprise companies, but also the small to mid-sized companies that don’t have the time and money to spend a large amount of money on implementing a large complex system."
This strategy really could be a game changer in the Field Service/Augmented Reality sector, which for a long time I have identified as one that has a vast potential to improve field service delivery, yet has ultimately struggled to truly take a prevalent hold in any meaningful way as yet.
SMBs are in prime position to benefit from many of the potential benefits, both in terms of reducing costs and increasing revenues that AR could yield. A solution that allows them to step into this world, virtually risk-free could become a massive gateway for widespread adoption on a mass scale.
The pedigree of Augmentir’s senior team, the intelligent well thought out use cases presented and a strategy that makes the solution easy to trial are three significant areas that can make them stand out from this increasingly busy pack.
However, the biggest reason I see Augmentir becoming an established provider within our sector is that I don’t actually think they are an AR provider at all. Instead, having spent some time with Kuntz looking at and discussing the solution, I believe they are best described as ‘an AI company that specialises in knowledge transfer and interpretation, who happen to have chosen AR as the primary interface for their solution'.
It might not roll off the tongue quite as easily, but it sure ticks a lot of boxes that many, many field service companies are looking at - and this may make Augmentir a key solution in the sector.
Augmentir is a relatively new startup in the growing Augmented Reality (AR) space that is focussing on the field service sector. Indeed this is a market that is becoming quite quickly crowded with AR vendors dominating industry conferences both in the US and Europe this summer in terms of the new entrants into the market.
However, three things, in particular, made Augmentir stand out from the crowd when I met with their VP of Marketing, Chris Kuntz, at the Field Service USA conference in Palm Springs recently. Firstly, there is much pedigree in this seemingly wet behind the ears startup.
The team that has put together Augmentir have been together for a long time on different projects which have included bringing the pioneering industrial IoT platform ThingWorx to market, as well as Wonderware, which was the first HMI interface in the manufacturing sector and is now in place in an estimated 60% of manufacturing plants worldwide.
So before we even start to look at the technology driving Augmentir, it’s fair to say that there is more than a good chance we shall potentially see another success story here.
However, the fact is that even without the well established pedigree, the vision behind Augmentir have taken a different yet thoroughly logical approach that sets them apart from many of their peers in the market.
As Kuntz, explained when I met with him in California, “We’re taking a different spin on what’s out there today. We’re the first software platform built on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the world of the augmented or connected worker. Historically, what’s happened in field service is roughly as follows: A new job is created when a customer reports a problem with a piece of equipment. This results in a worker getting dispatched, who then attends the job and either fixes the product or has to reschedule a second visit. Then at some point later, he updates a system with the notes outlining the actions he took,” Kuntz says recalling a scenario many of us in the sector recognise.
“However, the activities that happened from the time the engineer was dispatched to the time that that job is complete, remain a relative unknown, it’s a black box today. People don’t know what’s happening on the job site. Is that worker struggling with some of the steps? Does that worker speed through the repair procedure? Did the worker follow the right steps to meet health and safety requirements?”
There are all sorts of things happening. The problem then gets compounded for some companies who offer self-service or routines their dealer network or to their end customers. Now, you don’t know if they’re following the correct maintenance procedures or not. This, in turn, could affect the warranty status, and so on and so forth.”
"Augmentir have taken a different yet thoroughly logical approach..."
Of course, the result of the scenario Kuntz outlines is one many of us are familiar with. Companies have thus started to push technology down to the worker to make them better connected, to make them ‘augmented’.
This is at the heart of the current play for many AR providers, which in essence builds upon the case put forward for mobile a decade ago. Ultimately field service organisations are still attempting to solve the perennial question of “How can we give our engineers more information, give them more instructions on how to guide them through their process”.
“That’s all fine,” Kuntz states referring to the approach most of his peers are taking in resolving these issues, “But most companies aren’t collecting how their engineer’s work is performed. They’re just saying to the engineers, ‘Here are your instructions.’
“What we’re doing is taking that one step further. Firstly, we provide what we call ‘augmented work instruction’. By that, we mean work instructions that have information related to the case the engineer is doing, the piece of equipment they are working on and its work history that make the instructions interactive and personalised work instructions.
“If you’re an expert, that’s gone through this procedure a million times, you might get a more summarised view of the instructions, whereas if you’re a novice and this is the first time on a specific repair, our AI engine might provide you with a required training video along with a more detailed step-by-step guide. All to meet the goal of fix it right the first time …in the least amount of time.
“The next thing we do is we’re collecting all the granular data on how the workers performing their job and interacting with the instructions. We’re then using this data with our Artificial Intelligence engine in a way to help them become better at what they’re doing.
“Maybe an engineer is performing tasks slower than the average worker, is that an opportunity for training? Maybe they’re faster than the average worker? Is it an opportunity to tap into that person to say, how are you doing it? Have they found a more effective way of completing a task? Alternatively, maybe most of the workers are having trouble with a specific procedure/step – is there an opportunity to improve the instructions or associated training materials?”
Compliance is, of course, a crucial part of a field engineers role - both for legislative and internal efficiency purposes. However, often, it is the case that compliance steps happen after the fact.
One of the crucial aspects of digital transformation is making sure actions like these can now be electronically verified in real-time, in an interactive manner - and not just be an afterthought added to the notes a service engineer completes at the end of the job.
It is a small shift in a workflow that can have multiple big benefits, and the fact that Augmentir has baked such factors as this into their solution from the get-go does suggest they have a firm understanding of the field service engineers day to day workflow and the broader processes of the field service operation.
“This information can be used for compliance purposes, can be used for warranty purposes, it can be sent back to the customer to say, ‘this is a service procedure, this is exactly what happened,’ offer them a full inventory, step by step of what happened,” Kuntz explains: “We’re taking augmented reality, infusing it with artificial intelligence to collect the data, analyse it, and push it back to the organisation. Moreover, we’re doing it in a way that offers our enterprise software platform in a more modern approach.”
It is here we come across the third facet of Augmentir’s approach that also separates them from much of the pack - their route to market is equally accessible for the SMB sector as it is the large enterprise.
Kuntz continues: “If you think about how companies in this space adopt technology, Salesforce, Clicksoftware, ServiceMax; it’s a very lengthy process to implement any of these systems. Certainly, when it gets down to other AR solutions, it is no different and implementation can become even more time consuming. A pilot may take nine months; it could cost up to $150,000 to test out an AR solution.
“What we’re doing is trying to take a model that Slack, Atlassian and Dropbox have taken - make it easy to try, easy to buy, easy to own. The way people adopt Dropbox, the way people adopt Slack today is typical of how the modern world works, and we think we can apply that to the field service sector.
“What that allows us to do is not only work with the large enterprise companies, but also the small to mid-sized companies that don’t have the time and money to spend a large amount of money on implementing a large complex system."
This strategy really could be a game changer in the Field Service/Augmented Reality sector, which for a long time I have identified as one that has a vast potential to improve field service delivery, yet has ultimately struggled to truly take a prevalent hold in any meaningful way as yet.
SMBs are in prime position to benefit from many of the potential benefits, both in terms of reducing costs and increasing revenues that AR could yield. A solution that allows them to step into this world, virtually risk-free could become a massive gateway for widespread adoption on a mass scale.
The pedigree of Augmentir’s senior team, the intelligent well thought out use cases presented and a strategy that makes the solution easy to trial are three significant areas that can make them stand out from this increasingly busy pack.
However, the biggest reason I see Augmentir becoming an established provider within our sector is that I don’t actually think they are an AR provider at all. Instead, having spent some time with Kuntz looking at and discussing the solution, I believe they are best described as ‘an AI company that specialises in knowledge transfer and interpretation, who happen to have chosen AR as the primary interface for their solution'.
It might not roll off the tongue quite as easily, but it sure ticks a lot of boxes that many, many field service companies are looking at - and this may make Augmentir a key solution in the sector.
Jul 29, 2019 • Features • future of field service • Mergers and Acquisitions • servicemax • zinc
If it seems like only a few short years ago that GE Digital’s acquisition of ServiceMax, at an eye-watering price that exploded the market, was dominating headlines across and beyond the field service sector, that is because it was. Kris Oldland met...
If it seems like only a few short years ago that GE Digital’s acquisition of ServiceMax, at an eye-watering price that exploded the market, was dominating headlines across and beyond the field service sector, that is because it was. Kris Oldland met with their new CEO Neil Barua and President of newly acquired Zinc, Stacey Epstein to see if this time around the recently announced Silver Lake acquisition may prove to be more of a success.
I know many people at ServiceMax. Many good people. Heck, I even helped one or two of them get the job there. “It’s a good company, with a great ethos, that just really gets service,” I would say when people asked me for my honest appraisal of the company.
That was before they became acquired for close to a Billion dollars back in late 2016. Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that their ethos changed at that point or that they lost track of being a field service management software company that ‘really had their head around field service’. In fact, I’d say the transition from the independent company it was under former CEO and founder Dave Yarnold, to becoming part of the family at corporate giant GE, a transition led by then-new CEO Scott Berg – who had been Yarnold’s number two for many years, was just about as smooth as these things can be.
Indeed, the last time I spoke with Scott, whom I’ve known as long as I have Dave, there were still echoes of his former boss’ approach in his words and his vision. However, it was clear that that vision was now slowly becoming integrated with the bigger whole and wider picture that belonged to GE.
And then things did seem to go quiet for a while. ServiceMax in their first incarnation were constant innovators and boundary pushers. Sometimes they got it wrong like they did when they developed several apps for smartwatches and Google Glass. Sometimes they got it right, very right – like they did when the launched Connected Field Service and got the jump on all their peers in bringing IoT to the world of service.
They also had a knack for working with brands that matched their ambition. Companies like Elekta who were shipping their med-tech devices with 56K modems some thirty years before IoT was even the first concept of an idea that would become a ‘thing.’ Companies like Schneider Electric who somehow managed to fully roll out a new FSM and Mobility solution worldwide within just six months. Companies like Sony who were taking pioneering steps forward into servitization within the broadcast sector supplying one Spanish broadcaster with an entire news studio on a cost per use basis in Madrid in a complete industry first.
All pioneers, proudly empowered by ServiceMax.
“It will take time for them to become fully embedded before we see the real fruits of the union between ServiceMax and GE,” was the consensus as to why the noise that we were used to coming out of those offices in Pleasanton, California and London in the UK had quietened down significantly over the last year or so.
The problem was that by the time that integration was even close to happening, by the time the last person at ServiceMax had finally gotten their new business cards and at last become used to giving out their new GE email address, their acquisition by Private Equity (PE) firm Silver Lake had suddenly been announced.
In my experience this can be a great thing to happen to a company sometimes, PE firm EQT is doing a great job at the helm of IFS for example and driving that business forward. In other cases, which I shall not name and shame, but plenty do exist, PE acquisition can be a hellish scenario of asset stripping and cost-cutting to nightmarish proportions.
So which type of PE owner will Silver Lake be? Well, their track record is certainly impressive in the technology space, so that goes some ways to alleviating initial fears. However, understanding the new vision of the company, in this third iteration, was still at the top of my agenda when I sat down with Neil Barua, the new CEO of ServiceMax and Stacey Epstein, President of recent ServiceMax acquisition Zinc.
You see for me, a healthy ServiceMax is good for the market in general. Most industries, but field service especially, tend to go through ebbs and flows of consolidation, with periods of stagnation and innovation correlating closely to the number of strong players within the sector.
“In terms of how we think about companies, you can test out that with any of the companies that we own and have owned,” replies Barua when I question Silver Lake’s motives for acquiring ServiceMax in a manner vaguely akin to a father assessing suitors for his daughter. “It’s all around how you take a business and grow it. There are several flavours of PE, I’m sure you’ve covered PE owners in the past that come in and like to cut costs and maximise the P&L and cash flow. Others, like ourselves, prefer to grow a business and that’s where we’ve made our money and why we tend to buy assets of similar flavours.”
In many ways, it all does seem a little bit surreal, given the high publicity of the GE acquisition to be sitting here discussing yet another new chapter in the ServiceMax story just a few years on. However, as Barua explains, it was an unusual opportunity that Silver Lake was quick to spot and agile enough to take advantage of. “We shouldn’t have been able to buy it, GE should have retained it,” he comments. “They were going through their financial issues, and we picked up an asset that, as a standalone business we think, given our capabilities and the momentum the team already has, we can take to a whole different level.
“You’ve talked before about the technology and also the importance of understanding the customer as being something of a secret source here at ServiceMax. I think I also saw that, which is why I aggressively put my hand up to be part of this and to take on the role that I’m now currently in,” he adds.
"A healthy ServiceMax is good for the market in general..."
So does Barua think that the last few years with GE will have tainted the once glowing ServiceMax brand? The sheer high-profile nature of the original acquisition and the figures involved mean that selling so shortly after would indicate something of a failure in the deal, in perception terms at the very least.
“I actually think we’re way in the lead right now,” he replies when I put this to him, “I really don’t think things have gone negative in terms of going through the GE experience and in fact it made us stronger as a company. Now, as a standalone business, we’ve got the agility and the shareholder base to move quickly on behalf of our customers.”
Of course, we wouldn’t expect a newly appointed CEO of any company to say anything other than such. It is the standard, forward-looking, front foot standing statement that I would have expected from any new CEO. However, I must admit that Barua puts his message across with the type of swagger that was fairly prevalent at ServiceMax pre-GE. He’s certainly not your cookie cutter PE CEO, and I’ve come across a few in my time. There is an undercurrent of enthusiasm in his voice and mannerisms, which is both unexpected and infectious.
“Failure is not an option for this company. There’s an element of the legacy of this business and the history of this business and that’s part of the reason why I feel so great about the company, and why Silver Lake equally does,” he states.
Falling back on the legacy as our discussion rolls on, we trade some stories around the history of the business, which is one I have been close to for some time and have watched progress in its journey from the small rented office Dave Yarnold lovingly referred to as the ‘Beige Palace’ back in San Francisco right through to today.
“Dave and Scott were awesome guys,” Barua nods showing a great deal of respect for his predecessors. “The teams that they led, they made a difference to people. I just think that there is still so much more that we could do for that customer base and that’s the excitement that Silver Lake and I have now, and the strategy and the optimism around what this company can do is fascinating.”
Of course, solidifying that link to the past is Stacey Epstein, who in her role as President of newly acquired Zinc is the newest member of the ServiceMax executive board, yet as former CMO of ServiceMax has roots right back to the beginning. “I remember the first iPad app, and we were the only people that even thought about putting something on the iPad,” she recalls.
“There has been this tradition of ServiceMax leading the market. I think you look at some of our earliest peers, the likes of TOA or ClickSoftware; they were good software but were only focused in one area of field service, really hyper-focused on scheduling. ServiceMax was always innovative across the whole full-service lifecycle.
“Click was what Click was. They solved a problem, and they did it pretty well. TOA then came and did it in the cloud, but it was still kind of the same problem.Then ServiceMax came along and said, ‘let’s look at parts, let’s look at logistics, let’s look at warranties and time elements.’ We saw there was a bigger service life cycle, and that was what field service management grew into. I think now we have an opportunity with some of the really cool and exciting technologies that are coming on the scene to do what we call service execution management, which involves tools like Zinc, that deliver real-time communication.”
As the evening progressed, it dawned on me just how important the acquisition of Zinc and Epstein’s return to the fold was for ServiceMax. Yes, the technology within Zinc is fantastic, but more importantly, it is one of a handful of solutions that can fill a hole not just in the ServiceMax solution but in the industry at large as well. It is absolutely on point with the current trends towards ever increasing customer engagement and improving customer experience and in that sense, it is precisely the type of well thought out solution that traditionally ServiceMax would have developed and then championed.
It is an innovation that can lead an area of growth within the wider industry and is a hugely valuable acquisition from that point alone. However, equally, it is symbolic of something else, as it is perhaps the spark that could well reignite the fire in the bellies of the sleeping beast of marketleading innovation that made ServiceMax such an essential and dominant player in the FSM market in the first place.
Even Epstein herself is the perfect personification of the old and the new coming together in this latest iteration of ServiceMax. After the official interview period ends the three of us share some further stories across a glass or two of wine, and at this point, it becomes apparent to me just how strong a potential team Epstein and Barua could be.
There is a natural the rapport between the two and while it is little wonder that someone with such experience in our sector as Epstein should have an impressive depth of knowledge of field service operations, I must confess I was pleasantly surprised by just how genuine Barua’s passion for empowering great service actually was.
There is a good balance between the two with complimentary skill sets and approaches and I can genuinely see them forming a formidable leadership duo if things remain on the current path.
So while there is still a long way to go before I’m prepared to shout this from the rooftops - as experience tells me there may still be be some further twists and turns in this tale, I’ll say it once, just as a whisper to try it out…“I think ServiceMax are back.”
Jul 25, 2019 • Features • Management • Michael Blumberg • first time fix
First time fix rates have always been and likely always will be the number one KPI that Field Service Companies focus on, but it is an elusive number to hit, Michael Blumberg gives his expert advice... Achieving a high first-time fix rate and...
First time fix rates have always been and likely always will be the number one KPI that Field Service Companies focus on, but it is an elusive number to hit, Michael Blumberg gives his expert advice...
Achieving a high first-time fix rate and completing service visits in a timely manner represents the Holy Grail for many Field Service Organizations (FSOs). Unfortunately, many FSOs face stumbling blocks to achieving this outcome. At issue, their technicians may lack the knowledge required to effectively resolve service issues in a timely manner.
In many cases, the information exists within the organization but it is difficult for technicians to find or access it in a timely manner. As a result, the customer may experience longer downtime while the FSO experiences higher operating costs associated with lost productivity, longer time spent on site, and increased calls to the Technical Support by the Field Service team.
This status quo may exist for several reasons. First, knowledge is maintained in disparate and disconnected databases. For example, service knowledge may exist in manuals, knowledge, articles, service bulletins, schematics, support tickets, or Knowledge Management Systems. Second, the information sources may differ in complexity, format, maturity or even language. Some of these sources may be analog (i.e., paper-based) while others might be digital/ online. Regardless, it becomes a time consuming and cumbersome task for technicians to find this information.
Another challenge to knowledge management that some FSOs face is that there is often no system of record or audit trail to capture the steps technicians followed or the knowledge sources they relied on to solve the problem. Documenting this information could save a lot of time next time a different technician encounters the same problem. FSOs have attempted to solve these problems through one or more the following technologies:
CRM/ERP
Many CRM/ERP applications include feature functionality for storing and retrieving repair documentation based on keyword search. Others include the ability to search for a possible solution to a problem based on the description of the symptoms. Unfortunately, CRM/ERP knowledge solutions are typically designed for a Telephone Technical Support environment. As a result, they are not necessarily mobile friendly.
Knowledge Management Solutions (KMS)
For example, CaseBased Reasoning (CBR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, or Neural Networks. These solutions provide a more precise diagnosis and accurate solution to the problem at hand then CRM/ERP solutions. However, they can be very costly and time consuming to implement particularly if the FSOs is supporting an extremely large install base of equipment with a long service tail.
• Augmented Reality (AR)
This technology is gaining widespread appeal as a preferred technology for facilitating an improved remote support experience between experts and field service engineers (FSEs)/ customers. It is of course much more economical to deploy than KMS solutions listed above. The consensus among industry participants is that AR is best suited for situations where the field engineer is working on something for the first time and/or has exhausted other attempts at solving the problem.
While they are many great Knowledge tools available to FSOs, each application has its limitations. Unfortunately, no single technology is a panacea for all issues. A more effective alternative is to implement a unified knowledge platform that leverages investments in legacy Knowledge assets (e.g., service bulletins, knowledge articles, etc.) while permitting the addition of advanced functionality such as AR, IoT data, AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics.
Characteristics of the optimal solution include:
• A unified platform that connects disparate systems and knowledge bases through a single sign-on;
• Ability to deliver all service content including service manuals, service bulletins, knowledge articles, parts catalogues, and training videos on any mobile device;
• Allow Google-like search against fully indexed content from all sources for faster and more accurate results;
• Filter relevant answers based on the product failed component, symptom, or failure description;
• Easily author and publish content in real-time to deliver the most up-todate and accurate information;
• Capture technician feedback to continuously improve the content and search results;
• Multilanguage support capabilities including real-time text transaction;
• Integration into enterprise systems (e..g, CRM/ERP) and other knowledge tools;
• Reporting and analytics.
Electrolux, a leading global appliance manufacturer, provides a great example of a company that was able to overcome knowledge challenges by implementing a unified knowledge management platform. The company’s legacy system was outdated, not searchable, or mobile friendly.
Service information was located inside Electrolux’s firewall and there was no offline functionality. Service Technicians spent an inordinate amount of time retrieving information. They would often contact the Electrolux Technical Support Line for help, placing an increased burden on the Support Line personnel.
By implementing a solution similar to the one described above from Mize, Inc., Electrolux is now able to provide its 3,000+ service providers with real-time mobile access to knowledge documents and videos. To date, over 2,000+ documents have been published by Electrolux, reducing the number of interface points for service providers and dealers to access information.
This enhanced capability has reduced both the number of calls to the Technical Support Line and the length of hold times that Technicians experience.
Not only that, Electrolux is able to reduce their support costs. In addition, technicians are more productive as measured by shorter repair times and higher first-time fix rates all of which have a dramatic improvement on Customer Experience.
MIchael Blumberg is Founder of Field Service Insights and CMO of Mize.
Achieving a high first-time fix rate and completing service visits in a timely manner represents the Holy Grail for many Field Service Organizations (FSOs). Unfortunately, many FSOs face stumbling blocks to achieving this outcome. At issue, their technicians may lack the knowledge required to effectively resolve service issues in a timely manner.
In many cases, the information exists within the organization but it is difficult for technicians to find or access it in a timely manner. As a result, the customer may experience longer downtime while the FSO experiences higher operating costs associated with lost productivity, longer time spent on site, and increased calls to the Technical Support by the Field Service team.
This status quo may exist for several reasons. First, knowledge is maintained in disparate and disconnected databases. For example, service knowledge may exist in manuals, knowledge, articles, service bulletins, schematics, support tickets, or Knowledge Management Systems. Second, the information sources may differ in complexity, format, maturity or even language. Some of these sources may be analog (i.e., paper-based) while others might be digital/ online. Regardless, it becomes a time consuming and cumbersome task for technicians to find this information.
Another challenge to knowledge management that some FSOs face is that there is often no system of record or audit trail to capture the steps technicians followed or the knowledge sources they relied on to solve the problem. Documenting this information could save a lot of time next time a different technician encounters the same problem. FSOs have attempted to solve these problems through one or more the following technologies:
CRM/ERP
Many CRM/ERP applications include feature functionality for storing and retrieving repair documentation based on keyword search. Others include the ability to search for a possible solution to a problem based on the description of the symptoms. Unfortunately, CRM/ERP knowledge solutions are typically designed for a Telephone Technical Support environment. As a result, they are not necessarily mobile friendly.
Knowledge Management Solutions (KMS)
For example, CaseBased Reasoning (CBR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, or Neural Networks. These solutions provide a more precise diagnosis and accurate solution to the problem at hand then CRM/ERP solutions. However, they can be very costly and time consuming to implement particularly if the FSOs is supporting an extremely large install base of equipment with a long service tail.
• Augmented Reality (AR)
This technology is gaining widespread appeal as a preferred technology for facilitating an improved remote support experience between experts and field service engineers (FSEs)/ customers. It is of course much more economical to deploy than KMS solutions listed above. The consensus among industry participants is that AR is best suited for situations where the field engineer is working on something for the first time and/or has exhausted other attempts at solving the problem.
While they are many great Knowledge tools available to FSOs, each application has its limitations. Unfortunately, no single technology is a panacea for all issues. A more effective alternative is to implement a unified knowledge platform that leverages investments in legacy Knowledge assets (e.g., service bulletins, knowledge articles, etc.) while permitting the addition of advanced functionality such as AR, IoT data, AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics.
Characteristics of the optimal solution include:
• A unified platform that connects disparate systems and knowledge bases through a single sign-on;
• Ability to deliver all service content including service manuals, service bulletins, knowledge articles, parts catalogues, and training videos on any mobile device;
• Allow Google-like search against fully indexed content from all sources for faster and more accurate results;
• Filter relevant answers based on the product failed component, symptom, or failure description;
• Easily author and publish content in real-time to deliver the most up-todate and accurate information;
• Capture technician feedback to continuously improve the content and search results;
• Multilanguage support capabilities including real-time text transaction;
• Integration into enterprise systems (e..g, CRM/ERP) and other knowledge tools;
• Reporting and analytics.
Electrolux, a leading global appliance manufacturer, provides a great example of a company that was able to overcome knowledge challenges by implementing a unified knowledge management platform. The company’s legacy system was outdated, not searchable, or mobile friendly.
Service information was located inside Electrolux’s firewall and there was no offline functionality. Service Technicians spent an inordinate amount of time retrieving information. They would often contact the Electrolux Technical Support Line for help, placing an increased burden on the Support Line personnel.
By implementing a solution similar to the one described above from Mize, Inc., Electrolux is now able to provide its 3,000+ service providers with real-time mobile access to knowledge documents and videos. To date, over 2,000+ documents have been published by Electrolux, reducing the number of interface points for service providers and dealers to access information.
This enhanced capability has reduced both the number of calls to the Technical Support Line and the length of hold times that Technicians experience.
Not only that, Electrolux is able to reduce their support costs. In addition, technicians are more productive as measured by shorter repair times and higher first-time fix rates all of which have a dramatic improvement on Customer Experience.
MIchael Blumberg is Founder of Field Service Insights and CMO of Mize.
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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