At this week's Housing 2019 event in Manchester, location and mobile technology experts, Localz, talked about the impact of the IConomy to the field service industry. In this article Localz explains how the field service industry can utilise mobile...
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Jun 25, 2019 • Features • Fleet Technology • fleet • Software and Apps • localz
At this week's Housing 2019 event in Manchester, location and mobile technology experts, Localz, talked about the impact of the IConomy to the field service industry. In this article Localz explains how the field service industry can utilise mobile technology to deliver “uber” style housing repairs and deliver frictionless customer services in the fourth industrial revolution.
The instant revolution
Consumers are sick and tired of impersonalised and inflexible services which do not fit into their routine. They want to be able to schedule an appointment that fits into their schedule and be able to track and adjust it in realtime. eBay, Deliveroo and Uber are all addressing the need for instant booking, tracking and assurance for its customers. These companies are putting the customer at the centre of its service, giving them control, reassurance and convenience and overall building trust. They are setting the benchmark for all industries and now customers are starting to demand the same experiences from every organisation they engage with.
However, it’s not only the customers that are feeling the strain. Ian Stewart, Commercial Sales Manager for Castleton: “With an industry average of 20% failed appointments and each failed appointment costing up to £100, it is business critical for Housing Authorities to reduce the time wasted and costs incurred associated with these failed appointments to improve services for social housing customers. Our partnership with Localz will help our customers achieve this objective”.
Applying the success from leading brands and incorporating customer and field service engineer pain points, Localz advises on the key steps to ensure frictionless customer experiences in today’s digital age.
- Be digitally available
Providing convenience means being digitally enabled on various platforms, this includes customers being able to book an appointment via a laptop, tablet or smartphone and smartwatch. Alongside device enablement they also want to be able to book an appointment via different means including, email, telephone, on a brands app and in the future via voice recognition. It is vital that you stay on top of the latest technology and ensure you know how your customers want to interact with you.
1. Confirm and reassure
Once an appointment is booked you need to continually remind and reassure your customers that you are coming. It is vital to provide customers with regular updates throughout the appointment life-cycle, from confirmation to receiving the appointment, to a reminder the day before and the morning of including real-time updates of an ETA.
2. “On my way”
On the day of the appointment provide the customer with a real-time location tracker of the service provider so they can check the platform and are deterred from calling the contact centre. If there are going to be any changes to the appointment then the platform can be triggered to automatically provide push updates on the service providers ETA.
British Gas has seen no-access, failed appointments fall by 20% by using “On my way” notifications. Customers are more informed and therefore aren’t forgetting appointments or rescheduling if needed to.
The ‘Find my Engineer’ solution provides the ultimate transparency by giving customers access to real-time location tracking when the operative is en route. Accurate ETAs are provided, which take live traffic conditions into account. Localz own research shows that 65% of consumers say that viewing their service provider’s ETA is the most important feature on a service provider’s mobile app. This is particularly important in the housing sector as the length of appointments can vary greatly. By providing real-time updates enables customers to track the engineer and get on with their day so they are not stuck within the confines of their own home for hours.
4. Empower engineers
It is time that organisations start cutting out the middleman. A real-time operational dashboard needs to be put in place so both the team on the ground and in the office can see live updates of appointments. Engineers will be able to click and see in one touch full details of the job so they can be prepared ahead of each visit.
By enabling for two-way communications between service engineers and the customer will help to streamline appointments. Two-way communications make it easy for customers to tell you and your operatives important information without having to join a call centre queue. Provide contact centre staff with the same transparency and real-time tracking, so they can give a consistent and reliable message if a customer still decides to call.
OVO Energy’s engineers have cited that using two-way communication has an increase in customer satisfaction. By enabling engineers and customers to directly speak to one another it removes the middle man, which can be a frustrating experience for both parties.
5. “Rate Your Service”
One of the key ingredients to successful communication and one that is often forgotten is the power of listening. Asking consumers to “rate” and feedback on the service will lead to consumers feeling important, cared for and if you respond accordingly listened to.
This is something that Uber has done very well. By allowing consumers to rate their driver it not only leads to customers feeling heard but it enables the organisation to increase the safety of the solution.Both outcomes of providing the score is both of importance to the consumer and the company alike. In environments where interactions are frequent and where 'promises' can be fulfilled reliably and repeatedly trust can be established.
To find out more about Localz’s solutions click here.
Jun 25, 2019 • Features • Software & Apps • Aftermarket • field service • software and apps • Trimble • Trimble Pulse
Jun 24, 2019 • Features • bybox • Parts Pricing and Logistics
ByBox, providers of smart locker technology and field service solutions, reveals that the management of spare parts in the facilities management (FM) sector is inefficient and costing the industry millions. That’s the message from research...
ByBox, providers of smart locker technology and field service solutions, reveals that the management of spare parts in the facilities management (FM) sector is inefficient and costing the industry millions.
That’s the message from research conducted last month with the UK’s top FM service providers and consultants. Its findings can be found in a new white paper from ByBox ‘Is the management of spare parts the last hidden cost in the FM supply chain?’
That’s the message from research conducted last month with the UK’s top FM service providers and consultants. Its findings can be found in a new white paper from ByBox ‘Is the management of spare parts the last hidden cost in the FM supply chain?’
There is no standardised way of getting spare parts to engineers and most FM firms use a variety of different distribution methods depending on the site, the spare, the location and the client. As a result, engineers spend more time looking for spare parts rather than fixing plant. More stock is usually ordered than needed and is often more costly due to purchasing models. The knock-on effect further reduces tight margins and customers’ SLAs are missed incurring penalties. But, many procurement departments within FM service providers often consider the problem too tough to tackle.
“We were surprised at how decentralised the FM industry is,” remarked Stuart Miller, co-founder and CEO, ByBox.“The commonality we found across the sector was the disruption caused by engineers purchasing their own stock. This behaviour - albeit born out of necessity – not only effects engineer efficiency but the entire supply chain, budgets and relationships with other departments such as procurement and finance. Better use of data and distribution methods, will improve SKU optimisation and engineer efficiency as well as streamline internal processes and reduce overheads.”
At a time when margins are under extreme pressure, how do FM service providers balance the need to reduce the cost of managing spare parts while improving performance and boosting productivity?
In its white paper, ByBox shares insights about the approach FM providers are taking to spare part management. The paper delves into some of the challenges involved and offers solutions to removing these hidden costs. These include:
In its white paper, ByBox shares insights about the approach FM providers are taking to spare part management. The paper delves into some of the challenges involved and offers solutions to removing these hidden costs. These include:
- Centralising procurement and distribution methods of M&E spares;
- Greater reliability and proactivity from the supply chain to be able to source parts from one location before the day starts;
- More standardisation of assets and parts within buildings including architects, specifiers andconstruction firms; stopping the installation of systems manufactured / maintained by one-man bands where any spares come from a single source supplier;
- The ability to store more critical spares in a fixed location close to or on site;
- Better use of CAFM systems to manage inventory at site level, improving the use of data to better forecast break fixes / predictive-based maintenance.
The white paper can be found by clicking here:
Jun 24, 2019 • Features • Software & Apps • Future Technology • contact centres • omni channel • field service • IFS • omnichannel • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Jun 21, 2019 • Features • Cognito iQ • Future of FIeld Service • Dave Webb
Dave Webb, COO, Cognito reflects on what he thinks are the key challenges that field service companies are facing in today's business landscape and outlines how and where he believes technology can play a role in overcoming them
Dave Webb, COO, Cognito reflects on what he thinks are the key challenges that field service companies are facing in today's business landscape and outlines how and where he believes technology can play a role in overcoming them
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Want to know more? There is a video with Konica Minolta's Head of Direct Service, Ged Cranny outlining how they have revolutionised their business through data analytics available exclusively to fieldservicenews.com subscribers on the link below...
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In my experience, most field service organisations are striving to deliver exceptional service, a complex, dynamic endeavour where few things remain constant for long, and decision making needs to adjust constantly to changing conditions.
Pressures acting on the operation from within and externally from customers in the broader market create a constant long term demand for more efficient and effective service delivery. Whilst even slight changes to operating conditions, the sudden impact of unseasonable weather conditions, the introduction of a new product line or a new customer can have an immediate and significant impact on the dynamics of the operation.
Too often, just as service delivery indicators point to success something changes and operational teams can find themselves facing a wholly new dynamic, often without absolute clarity as to precisely what combination of factors triggered the change and are left therefore unsure as to how best to respond.
With the long term drive for efficiency and effectiveness stripping most operations of excess capacity, their ability to flex to meet these challenges are significantly restrained.
Judging the right levers to pull and just how hard to pull them is something of an art form, a gift for which managers of field service operations are often noted. Get the action to an emerging threat wrong, too great or too little a response and the intricate balance of the ecosystem can be thrown out. Recovering that balance and restoring the operation to the conditions necessary for exceptional service often proves a costly and timely affair.
In my role, I get the opportunity to work with some exceptional management teams delivering field service across a diverse range of industry sectors and different geographies. When I start talking with new organisations about their field service operations, I am constantly reminded just how challenging their role can be as they describe having to make a complex array of day-to-day decisions often with an imperfect insight to the status of the operational dynamic on which their decisions are based.
Most organisations are capturing a broad range of data from across the various dimensions of their field service delivery. From workload planning, resource availability, schedule efficiency, service outcomes, customer satisfaction levels and asset profitability, most are embarking on initiatives to increase the range of data they are capturing. One such example would be with the large denormalised data sets offered by the Internet of Things.
"In spite of the effort that organisations place on data capture, few of the management teams that I deal with feel the data is delivered to them in a form which adequately supports the complex operational decision making they have to perform daily..."
In spite of the effort that organisations place on data capture, few of the management teams that I deal with feel the data is delivered to them in a form which adequately supports the complex operational decision making they have to perform daily.
Too often, these management teams talk about spending a large proportion of their available time gathering and aligning data from disparate sources. Moreover, then manipulating that data into a form in which it is capable of delivering reliable insight and then manipulating that data into a structure in which it is capable of providing reliable insight into the performance of the operation.
For all the hard work required to create that insight, management teams are left further frustrated as the insights available rarely isolate the root cause behind the dynamics of the challenges at hand and truly support the decisions they must make in response.
Time lost wrestling with the data leads many to refer to a sense of management in the rear view mirror. Decisions based on out of date, expired data sets leave them with the feeling they are chasing echoes in operation. All of that effort expended on getting to the insight also takes its toll on time available to spend at the front lines of the operation with their engineers and out with the customers adding value.
As Dave Bohenski described in an earlier video in this series, there are trends within current technology which if harnessed appropriately I believe can deliver the level of decision support field service teams as a whole require - and when I say as a whole I mean management, field workers and often integrating the customer too into that picture. It can do so in real time and in ways that can release them to better perform their roles with the benefit of that insight as opposed to spending their time on data preparation or reacting to performance nudges that echo from events no longer relevant.
To be considered truly useful decision applications for field service need to:
- Provide holistic, real-time insight into those dimensions of performance that influence the overall service delivery and
- Help to guide proportionate operational response in ways that collectively engage the entire operational team.
To be considered holistic, these applications need to draw on large, often disparate data sets from a variety of sources and from a range of things that make up the ecosystem of a typical field service operation.
Valuable insights into the performance of operation typically lie at the intersections in the relationships between those 'things' and data sets. Traditionally technology has found it challenging to normalise seemingly incompatible forms of data, deriving value, for example from the IoT revolution represents the latest and perhaps arguably one of the largest to date of these data challenges. Big Data technologies make this traditionally computing challenge increasingly possible. With Cloud providers such as Amazon offering unparalleled compute and data storage performance at scale, applications that are designed to harness this capability are breaking down some of the traditional barriers to visibility within the operation.
"Technologies such as machine learning and data analytics are proving capable of identifying underlying patterns of performance in the field service operation that was too complex for traditional applications to identify..."
Applications also need to consider performance trends across those data sets in both long and short time horizons, if their decision to support is to be considered sufficiently holistic. Technologies such as Machine learning and data analytics are proving capable of identifying underlying patterns of performance in the field service operation that was too complex for traditional applications to identify. This is increasingly true as much larger data sets such as IoT have come online in recent years.
Combining the deep understanding of long term performance with the compute power to highlight and match this with exceptions in real-time, these applications are capable of providing operational teams with clear direction as to the correct course of action to take to address the specific dynamics of each challenge as it arises.
Effective team collaboration is key to delivering exceptional service. Applications centred on a single real-time data set have the opportunity to align teams across the operation around a shared understanding of service delivery performance. Responsive artificial intelligence technologies offer the chance to take feeds from predictive analytics, for example, and combine them with the awareness of real-time exceptions to provide clear and concise decision support within the operation.
Beyond simple advice, technology is making it increasingly possible for applications to automate so-called learned responses to familiar patterns of exceptions that occur, freeing operational teams to tackle other more valuable activities.
To be an effective stimulus for collaboration within the operation decision support applications need to deliver performance insight in ways suited to the different roles within the operation, e.g. engineering, planning teams, scheduling teams, customer service, spares and logistics, account management. One size certainly does not fit all where insight into the performance of the operation is concerned.
For the engineering teams, for example, this should be increasing via mobile technologies which seamlessly link responses to exceptions that arise into the standard flow of their activities. Gone are the constant interruptions for updates or the need to sync with the centre, replaced by less intrusive delivery mechanisms that compliment, not disrupt engineering activities by providing key customer facing resources with greater situational context and awareness around the performance of the operation.
This is increasingly made possible as virtual and augmented reality technologies become more prevalent. The traditionally complex and challenging nature of field service operations when combined with the enhanced capabilities offered by the latest Cloud-based technologies certainly makes it an exciting time to be involved in this industry.
Want to know more? There is a video with Konica Minolta's Head of Direct Service, Ged Cranny outlining how they have revolutionised their business through data analytics available exclusively to fieldservicenews.com subscribers on the link below...
sponsored by:
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this content...
Jun 20, 2019 • Features • future of field service • Shaun West • data analysis
Data2Action is a program devised in partnership between academia and industry with Luzerne University, University of Firenze and Ricoh collaborating on developing a framework for how companies should move towards data driven services. Here Dr. Shawn...
Data2Action is a program devised in partnership between academia and industry with Luzerne University, University of Firenze and Ricoh collaborating on developing a framework for how companies should move towards data driven services. Here Dr. Shawn West and Oliver Stoll outline that framework...
How To Develop Databased Solutions
Today any machine can be digitized and connected; collecting the data is not an issue; what is becoming more important is how the field data can be exploited to identify the right action to be taken.
This creates a very complex problem, as the right data must be transformed so that only the right information, at the right time, in the right form can be delivered to the right decision-maker, independently of the problem domain - e.g. route cause analysis, demand forecasting, productivity optimisation, spare parts delivery. Helping people taking decisions can be seen as a smart service, that is designed on the base of a thoroughly understanding of the business complexity.
Ecosystems made of people and equipment, business objectives and strategies, as well as personal needs, attitudes and preferences (must-have’s, nice-to-have’s) of each operators. Once these needs are fully understood, information can be elaborated from data to create the right insights. The Data2Action framework provides guidance towards the development of data-driven services. The understanding of why and how customers interact with assets is achieved using Design Thinking approach.
Principles Of Service Design Thinking Underpin the Data2action Framework
A good design is not only a matter of aesthetics. When designing a product, many factors have to be considered. For example, how the product is going to be used, and by who. This determines the product functions, form, materials, colors, etc. This requires the ability to understand what the product user is trying to achieve (an outcome, an experience).
The same applies to service design, in which the object to be designed is a process which aims to reach a goal, through the use of products, software applications, information, etc. The challenge is that there are many more people involved in the consumption and delivery of the service, the service relies on collaboration, the service is mostly intangible. The Service Design approach is based on a hands-on, user-centric approach to problem definition and idea/solution generation can lead to innovation.
This is of utmost importance, as the application of these principles can lead to competitive advantages. Remember you only do things that are of value to you in one form or other. Service Design Thinking (SDT) is an approach that aims at designing services by applying different tools based on five principles.
Service design thinking should be:
• User centred;
• Co-creative;
• Sequencing;
• Evidencing;
• Holistic.
Understanding The Problem: Why Understand First?
How can a problem or challenge be successfully solved without understanding it properly? Well, it can not. Without a deep understanding, disruptive solutions will not work, or you will be applying sticky plasters. The challenge lying ahead of you is to understand, describe and visualize the situation. The understanding of a complex problem requires to know who the involved people and equipment are, and how the processes in which they are operating runs. The understanding phase of the Data-2-Action framework consists of mapping the (OVERALL) job-to-be-done of the customer, mapping the actors and using avatars to build the ecosystem to discover and appraise who and what is involved.
Principles for Digital Service Development: How To Generate The Best Ideas
The problem statements and the ecosystem visualization developed provides a solid foundation for the development of new ideas and solutions for services. Some new ideas may have already appeared and can be improved in this phase.
These cases, also called scenarios or user stories, can be visualized using the customer journey blueprint. In the customer journey blueprint, the processes, actions, and involved personas/avatars are visualized to display the desired situation, in which the problems are solved.
Outcomes for each actor here should be clearly defined along with any payoffs. Working in pen and paper works really well. For Smart Services with many actors and many machines expect there to be many scenarios to focus on and even more ideas to provide improvements. In the ideation stage, many ideas will be generated.
The ideas need to be rated in order to evaluate which are worth to be prototyped. For selecting the best ideas, an idea scoring system is best.
Building Valuable Solutions: Creating Information From The Raw Data
With the overview of the ecosystem of people, processes, and machines it becomes clear from the scenarios and user stories of where the data is produced and who needs to consume information derived from it. Prototyping it is a way to validate our ideas and possible solutions and it should be fast and keep concepts as simple as possible. This avoids spending too many resources on building solutions only to then finding out that it does not work.
The best way is to create hand-drawn dashboards or widgets which represent the solution and test them as quickly as possible before starting with the actual implementation (often coding!). The process of drawing dashboards may also reveal new ideas which can be useful or new insights into whether the solution is technically visible or not. Many dashboards should be created, to keep it organized we use the Case Actor Matrix (CAM).
This tool allows matching Actors with a Cases (we use a scenario before) and the dashboard enabling the understanding of their purposes - how would you use it to help make a decision. A logical cascade should be build and dashboard widgets should be reused as much as makes sense. These conceptual solutions need to be challenged from a technical perspective.
We use a Source Target Link Matrix (STL Matrix) to show the information needed from the conceptual point of view. We define the requirements and quality of the data needed to develop the dashboards. The matrix distinguishes between existing data and data that needs to be collected, as well as adjustments and improvements that have to be made to the databases
Test Ideas And Improve
The testing is essential within the data2action frameworks and Service Design. It should happen as quickly to avoid the development of solutions, which do not fulfill the identified case and or are not technical visible. The best method for testing the usability is to hand over the dashboard to the target actor and ask them to try to use it and listen to their feedback based on the feedback the usefulness can be improved. New ideas also come from the feedback discussions. The technical aspect needs to be evaluated as well. Meaning, that the information derived from the data is actually significant. This is determined by the data experts and the user.
How To Develop Databased Solutions
Today any machine can be digitized and connected; collecting the data is not an issue; what is becoming more important is how the field data can be exploited to identify the right action to be taken.
This creates a very complex problem, as the right data must be transformed so that only the right information, at the right time, in the right form can be delivered to the right decision-maker, independently of the problem domain - e.g. route cause analysis, demand forecasting, productivity optimisation, spare parts delivery. Helping people taking decisions can be seen as a smart service, that is designed on the base of a thoroughly understanding of the business complexity.
Ecosystems made of people and equipment, business objectives and strategies, as well as personal needs, attitudes and preferences (must-have’s, nice-to-have’s) of each operators. Once these needs are fully understood, information can be elaborated from data to create the right insights. The Data2Action framework provides guidance towards the development of data-driven services. The understanding of why and how customers interact with assets is achieved using Design Thinking approach.
Principles Of Service Design Thinking Underpin the Data2action Framework
A good design is not only a matter of aesthetics. When designing a product, many factors have to be considered. For example, how the product is going to be used, and by who. This determines the product functions, form, materials, colors, etc. This requires the ability to understand what the product user is trying to achieve (an outcome, an experience).
The same applies to service design, in which the object to be designed is a process which aims to reach a goal, through the use of products, software applications, information, etc. The challenge is that there are many more people involved in the consumption and delivery of the service, the service relies on collaboration, the service is mostly intangible. The Service Design approach is based on a hands-on, user-centric approach to problem definition and idea/solution generation can lead to innovation.
This is of utmost importance, as the application of these principles can lead to competitive advantages. Remember you only do things that are of value to you in one form or other. Service Design Thinking (SDT) is an approach that aims at designing services by applying different tools based on five principles.
Service design thinking should be:
• User centred;
• Co-creative;
• Sequencing;
• Evidencing;
• Holistic.
Understanding The Problem: Why Understand First?
How can a problem or challenge be successfully solved without understanding it properly? Well, it can not. Without a deep understanding, disruptive solutions will not work, or you will be applying sticky plasters. The challenge lying ahead of you is to understand, describe and visualize the situation. The understanding of a complex problem requires to know who the involved people and equipment are, and how the processes in which they are operating runs. The understanding phase of the Data-2-Action framework consists of mapping the (OVERALL) job-to-be-done of the customer, mapping the actors and using avatars to build the ecosystem to discover and appraise who and what is involved.
Principles for Digital Service Development: How To Generate The Best Ideas
The problem statements and the ecosystem visualization developed provides a solid foundation for the development of new ideas and solutions for services. Some new ideas may have already appeared and can be improved in this phase.
These cases, also called scenarios or user stories, can be visualized using the customer journey blueprint. In the customer journey blueprint, the processes, actions, and involved personas/avatars are visualized to display the desired situation, in which the problems are solved.
Outcomes for each actor here should be clearly defined along with any payoffs. Working in pen and paper works really well. For Smart Services with many actors and many machines expect there to be many scenarios to focus on and even more ideas to provide improvements. In the ideation stage, many ideas will be generated.
The ideas need to be rated in order to evaluate which are worth to be prototyped. For selecting the best ideas, an idea scoring system is best.
Building Valuable Solutions: Creating Information From The Raw Data
With the overview of the ecosystem of people, processes, and machines it becomes clear from the scenarios and user stories of where the data is produced and who needs to consume information derived from it. Prototyping it is a way to validate our ideas and possible solutions and it should be fast and keep concepts as simple as possible. This avoids spending too many resources on building solutions only to then finding out that it does not work.
The best way is to create hand-drawn dashboards or widgets which represent the solution and test them as quickly as possible before starting with the actual implementation (often coding!). The process of drawing dashboards may also reveal new ideas which can be useful or new insights into whether the solution is technically visible or not. Many dashboards should be created, to keep it organized we use the Case Actor Matrix (CAM).
This tool allows matching Actors with a Cases (we use a scenario before) and the dashboard enabling the understanding of their purposes - how would you use it to help make a decision. A logical cascade should be build and dashboard widgets should be reused as much as makes sense. These conceptual solutions need to be challenged from a technical perspective.
We use a Source Target Link Matrix (STL Matrix) to show the information needed from the conceptual point of view. We define the requirements and quality of the data needed to develop the dashboards. The matrix distinguishes between existing data and data that needs to be collected, as well as adjustments and improvements that have to be made to the databases
Test Ideas And Improve
The testing is essential within the data2action frameworks and Service Design. It should happen as quickly to avoid the development of solutions, which do not fulfill the identified case and or are not technical visible. The best method for testing the usability is to hand over the dashboard to the target actor and ask them to try to use it and listen to their feedback based on the feedback the usefulness can be improved. New ideas also come from the feedback discussions. The technical aspect needs to be evaluated as well. Meaning, that the information derived from the data is actually significant. This is determined by the data experts and the user.
Jun 19, 2019 • Features • Management • Software & Apps • managed print services • News Software and Apps
Managed print services (MPS) emerged to help deal with the commoditisation of the supplies business and injected new blood into a struggling industry. Years later, MPS itself has become a commodity and, once again, office print providers are looking...
Managed print services (MPS) emerged to help deal with the commoditisation of the supplies business and injected new blood into a struggling industry. Years later, MPS itself has become a commodity and, once again, office print providers are looking for new ways of doing things.
This article, from service management software firm Asolvi, looks at the rise of seat-based billing and how it could facilitate a new wave of innovation that will help providers transcend beyond print.
The Commoditisation Issue
In the early 2000s, traditional print resellers began competing on price alone and the need for differentiation became essential, leading to the birth of MPS. MPS was about bundling supplies and services into one recurring price and moving from a transactional, product-oriented arrangement to a contractual, services-oriented one. Instead of customers managing their print environment — placing supply orders after they’ve run out of toner and making service calls when printers go down — dealers started managing it for them.
These new MPS contracts were a win-win. They secured ongoing revenue for dealers while helping customers reduce their printing costs. MPS gave the office print industry a powerful boost.
These new MPS contracts were a win-win. They secured ongoing revenue for dealers while helping customers reduce their printing costs. MPS gave the office print industry a powerful boost.
Yet here we are again with a commoditised product. Only now it’s MPS itself, the one distinguishing feature between most MPS offerings being the price. Still, if there’s anything that office print providers are used to, it’s rapid change. So now they’re looking for a new way to sell. A new way to package their goods and services to create value for the customer and differentiate themselves from the competition.
In this industry, there’s always a new way. One of them is seat-based billing (SBB), an alternative to the traditional way of billing for managed print, which is cost per page (CPP). A number of our clients in this space have expressed an interest in moving from CPP to SBB. As a result, we are already looking at ways of developing our MPS field service management software to accommodate SBB contracts.
But what exactly is SBB? And how does it differ from CPP?
Cost Per Page (CPP) Versus Seat-Based Billing (SBB)
The most popular billing method for MPS has always been cost per page (CPP), also known as cost per click (CPC) or cost per image (CPI). This is where the cost of things like consumables, maintenance, parts, support and toner management are bundled into the cost per page.
The popularity and wide adoption of the CPP model is one of the reasons it can be difficult to set your solutions apart from the competition. An even bigger problem is that it puts you and your customer at odds. You want your customer to print more. Your customer wants to print less. Indeed the whole premise of an MPS solution is to reduce unnecessary printing. And since page volumes are shrinking, basing your organisation’s revenue on a linear association with those volumes is unsustainable.
The popularity and wide adoption of the CPP model is one of the reasons it can be difficult to set your solutions apart from the competition. An even bigger problem is that it puts you and your customer at odds. You want your customer to print more. Your customer wants to print less. Indeed the whole premise of an MPS solution is to reduce unnecessary printing. And since page volumes are shrinking, basing your organisation’s revenue on a linear association with those volumes is unsustainable.
However, seat-based billing (SBB) is now emerging as a more sustainable alternative. Also known as per-user billing or cost per seat, SBB is based on staff numbers rather than pages printed. It is a flat fee billed per end user per month that covers support for all print-enabled devices each person uses.
This could include locally connected printers, desktop printers, multifunction devices (MFDs), fax machines and scanners as well as all consumables, maintenance, parts and software. It plays into the all-you-can-eat mentality that so many customers want and is already popular in other industries, e.g. TV and music subscription services like Netflix and Spotify.
SBB involves a shift in perspective, focusing on users and their needs and behaviours rather than the number of pages printed. This offers an escape from the commoditised world of CPP pricing as well as access to new and more profitable revenue streams. It also ensures perfect alignment between you and your customer. Your customer will spend less but you will make more. This makes for a stronger partnership between you.
How Can You Make More Money With SBB?
Like CPP, SBB involves building a seat price that bundles various services into one fee. But unlike a traditional CPP quote, you have more scope to “layer” additional services onto the seat price. With CPP, there’s only so much you can charge for by the page. Imagine, for instance, trying to charge for VoIP or bottled water by the page. However, it’s perfectly feasible to add these kinds of services onto a user-based price.
For example, you could look to add the following to each seat:
For example, you could look to add the following to each seat:
- Hardware (printers, copiers, MFDs, desktop computers, servers etc.)
- Document management software
- Workflow software
- Print governance software
- Managed IT services
- Coffee and water services
- Digital signage and displays
- Telecommunications including IP telephony and VoIP
Currently you might be offering some of these things by way of one-off sales. However, by bundling them into the seat price, they become part of your recurring revenue stream. And the margins on software are higher, so even as your customers save money, you can mitigate the difference.
The Challenges Of Maintaining A Profitable Seat Price
It’s important to note that with SBB comes the risk that users will abuse the system and print too much or, for instance, print everything in colour. Even though SBB feels like all-you-can-print, it cannot literally be so. That’s because toner is still the most expensive part of any MPS contract. Moreover, the whole point of MPS is to control an organisation’s print output.
So, to make SBB profitable, you first need to build a seat price that is based on a deep understanding of an organisation’s historical print behaviour. You can do this by way of a thorough user- and device-based assessment that gets rid of any assumptions and unknowns. You then need to put as many controls in place as possible to ensure that users don’t overprint.
The first of these controls is having the right language in your contracts, stipulating volume, colour and coverage ratio limits. The second is including print governance software with each seat. This enables your customers to assign user permissions, set restrictions on printing, and keep track of volume and colour usage.
The third is having a strong field service management (FSM) system that gives you full and detailed visibility and monitoring of all service costs. That FSM system needs to integrate with your customer’s machines and let you easily track toner consumption and contract/machine profitability. Your FSM system should make it immediately obvious when your customer is printing more than they should. Easy access to this data enables you to bill correctly, adjust your contract price and/or terms where necessary, and advise your customer on modifying their print behaviour.
With the right controls and software in place, print management can improve with SBB because it puts a name to behaviour. And while managing print volumes is necessary for both CPP and SBB programs, it’s easier to pinpoint misuse with SBB.
For MPS providers that haven’t yet branched into new areas, SBB makes it easier to do so. Billing in CPP doesn’t really allow you to look much past the page. With SBB you can say to a customer, “For an extra £5 per seat per month, we can take care of your desktop computers as well.” There is no additional contract, just an addendum to the existing one. Nor are there any difficult ROI discussions or a large capital budget approval process as it happens immediately and everything is under subscription.
Going forwards, the ability to continually layer the seat with new offerings is likely to be the biggest advantage of the SBB model. It means that SBB could become a powerful way for office print providers to grow.
Jun 19, 2019 • Features • Management • future of field service • Nick Frank • Si2Partners • Trusted Advisor
Whilst we want our field service engineers and technicians to be viewed as go to problem solvers and trusted advisors, is that really fair if they haven’t been given sufficient training to meet such expectations, Nick Frank writes...
Whilst we want our field service engineers and technicians to be viewed as go to problem solvers and trusted advisors, is that really fair if they haven’t been given sufficient training to meet such expectations, Nick Frank writes...
Problem-solving is an essential skill set for all Trusted Advisors, yet many of us take it for granted. We assume our Technicians and Engineers must be great problem solvers because that is what they do. Most have developed ways to solve problems through on the job training and mentoring from experienced colleagues, but very few have been educated in this key professional competence – logical problem solving!
This lack of competence can cost companies considerable money and customer loyalty. You will have all experienced problems that don’t seem to go away, where teams of people seem to solve, resolve and resolve again the same issue. These are the type of problems that are complex, multifaceted and can costs companies thousands and sometimes millions of pounds.
They require a disciplined process and in truth most companies do not sufficiently support their staff in developing this critical skill set. As data analytics becomes increasingly influential in field service processes, so logical problem solving skills will become more important!
Increasingly the solutioning of known problem sets will be done through self-service, lower skilled technicians or even automated through remote services. Companies will want their skilled technicians to focus on the more complex technical issues as well as fixing the customer relationship.
How can you up the game of your technical teams, save your organisation costs and increase customer loyalty?
Best in class companies with a Trusted Advisor mindset where the goal is to continually create more value for their customers, embed in their culture a logical problem-solving wheel, which starts and finishes with the customer. This gives companies a common language and process to solve problems, which is critical to improving the skill levels of all their employees. When problems are complex, it develops a good discipline, especially around problem definition and data collection.
As the ability of service organisations to leverage advanced analytics to analyse unstructured data found in service reports becomes more widespread, so a common language becomes even more important in identifying and predicting fault patterns. There are also many tools for both analysis and solutioning that help break open the problemsolving process. Some examples from the problem analysis phase are the 5 W’s (Who, What, Why, Where, When) for situational fact finding, the 5 Why Method for root cause analysis and Fishbone diagrams, sometimes known as Ishikawa or FaultFinding Trees.
The importance of statistical skills in the future should not be underestimated, as data becomes an essential resource in the service resolution processes. Many of you will know these tools from your professional experiences and probably take them for granted as part of your work life. However, you will be surprised at how few of your colleagues really understand how to solve problems. Many will often jump to the first solution that fits the symptom’s they are seeing.
They will switch components in & out to see if the symptom goes away without really understanding the root cause. This leads to significantly higher costs in managing spare parts and many more “No fault Found” from returns reports from component suppliers.
Research by Cranfield University ‘A framework to estimate the cost of No-Fault-Found events’ published in 2016 showed examples from the Aerospace industry where NFF cost companies between one to 300 million dollars and in some cases account for up to 80% of failures. Indeed, not solving the root cause of problems has led to industries developing their own problem solving methods.
If you have worked in the automotive industry, no doubt you will have experienced the 8D problem solving process and will probably be familiar with 6 sigma methods. Those of you with the experience of large field organisations will know that service leaders such as Xerox or Vaillant make logical problem solving a core skill in which they train their whole organisations, not just their service technicians. For these organisations, just solving the technical problems is not enough.
They recognise that the art of creating customer loyalty comes from an ability for the organisation to fix the customer. Hence a critical element of any work in logical problem solving is to recognise the role of the problem solver in the process. For example, if a service technician perceives their role as ‘fixing equipment’, this is what they will focus on.
They will miss the fact that the root cause might be a lack of customer training or an external factor such as raw material quality or the operating environment. This wider view of the problem, and an understanding of the problem solvers role in the effectiveness of the process, can save companies huge amounts of cost, and deliver more value to customers.
We often refer to this mindset as being the Trusted Advisor, and it is the reason why excellence in Problem Solving is such a vital and often overlooked capability that needs to be developed. We are all aware that the ability of any organisation to effectively solve problems is critical to its success in terms of costs and customer loyalty. Leading global organisations recognise this and train their teams in logical problem solving, yet for many organisations it is a capability that is taken for granted. And in the context of forming deeper lasting relationships with customers, we also should recognise that problem solving is an essential skill set of being perceived as a Trusted Advisor.
If you would like to know more about developing Trusted Advisor programmes in your business, then you can contact Nick at nick.frank@si2partners.com.
Problem-solving is an essential skill set for all Trusted Advisors, yet many of us take it for granted. We assume our Technicians and Engineers must be great problem solvers because that is what they do. Most have developed ways to solve problems through on the job training and mentoring from experienced colleagues, but very few have been educated in this key professional competence – logical problem solving!
This lack of competence can cost companies considerable money and customer loyalty. You will have all experienced problems that don’t seem to go away, where teams of people seem to solve, resolve and resolve again the same issue. These are the type of problems that are complex, multifaceted and can costs companies thousands and sometimes millions of pounds.
They require a disciplined process and in truth most companies do not sufficiently support their staff in developing this critical skill set. As data analytics becomes increasingly influential in field service processes, so logical problem solving skills will become more important!
Increasingly the solutioning of known problem sets will be done through self-service, lower skilled technicians or even automated through remote services. Companies will want their skilled technicians to focus on the more complex technical issues as well as fixing the customer relationship.
How can you up the game of your technical teams, save your organisation costs and increase customer loyalty?
Best in class companies with a Trusted Advisor mindset where the goal is to continually create more value for their customers, embed in their culture a logical problem-solving wheel, which starts and finishes with the customer. This gives companies a common language and process to solve problems, which is critical to improving the skill levels of all their employees. When problems are complex, it develops a good discipline, especially around problem definition and data collection.
As the ability of service organisations to leverage advanced analytics to analyse unstructured data found in service reports becomes more widespread, so a common language becomes even more important in identifying and predicting fault patterns. There are also many tools for both analysis and solutioning that help break open the problemsolving process. Some examples from the problem analysis phase are the 5 W’s (Who, What, Why, Where, When) for situational fact finding, the 5 Why Method for root cause analysis and Fishbone diagrams, sometimes known as Ishikawa or FaultFinding Trees.
The importance of statistical skills in the future should not be underestimated, as data becomes an essential resource in the service resolution processes. Many of you will know these tools from your professional experiences and probably take them for granted as part of your work life. However, you will be surprised at how few of your colleagues really understand how to solve problems. Many will often jump to the first solution that fits the symptom’s they are seeing.
They will switch components in & out to see if the symptom goes away without really understanding the root cause. This leads to significantly higher costs in managing spare parts and many more “No fault Found” from returns reports from component suppliers.
Research by Cranfield University ‘A framework to estimate the cost of No-Fault-Found events’ published in 2016 showed examples from the Aerospace industry where NFF cost companies between one to 300 million dollars and in some cases account for up to 80% of failures. Indeed, not solving the root cause of problems has led to industries developing their own problem solving methods.
If you have worked in the automotive industry, no doubt you will have experienced the 8D problem solving process and will probably be familiar with 6 sigma methods. Those of you with the experience of large field organisations will know that service leaders such as Xerox or Vaillant make logical problem solving a core skill in which they train their whole organisations, not just their service technicians. For these organisations, just solving the technical problems is not enough.
They recognise that the art of creating customer loyalty comes from an ability for the organisation to fix the customer. Hence a critical element of any work in logical problem solving is to recognise the role of the problem solver in the process. For example, if a service technician perceives their role as ‘fixing equipment’, this is what they will focus on.
They will miss the fact that the root cause might be a lack of customer training or an external factor such as raw material quality or the operating environment. This wider view of the problem, and an understanding of the problem solvers role in the effectiveness of the process, can save companies huge amounts of cost, and deliver more value to customers.
We often refer to this mindset as being the Trusted Advisor, and it is the reason why excellence in Problem Solving is such a vital and often overlooked capability that needs to be developed. We are all aware that the ability of any organisation to effectively solve problems is critical to its success in terms of costs and customer loyalty. Leading global organisations recognise this and train their teams in logical problem solving, yet for many organisations it is a capability that is taken for granted. And in the context of forming deeper lasting relationships with customers, we also should recognise that problem solving is an essential skill set of being perceived as a Trusted Advisor.
If you would like to know more about developing Trusted Advisor programmes in your business, then you can contact Nick at nick.frank@si2partners.com.
Nick Frank is Managing Partner at Si2 Partners.
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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