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For those on the outside, it may seem that OnPoint Warranty Solutions are a new entrant into our sector.

However, take a peek behind the curtain and you will find a senior exec team with an abundance of experience in the both service and technology. Heading up that team is CEO Chris Smith, a seasoned contract, service and Customer Experience (CX) executive, who has racked up over 32 years industry expertise with the likes of Samsung, AIG, GE and FSM solution provider ServicePower.

In fact, CVs that name check both ServicePower and GE are a common thread amongst 3 of the 4 members of the newly formed exec board driving OnPoint’s business strategy as both CTO Michael Baumer and CMO and COO Jenniffer Breitenstein are ServicePower and GE alumni as well.

What these shared backgrounds indicate is a collection of senior leaders within this young company that have a comprehensive and intimate understanding of what are foundational pillars within the field service sector – namely Customer Experience and how technology can be leveraged to improve service operations.

One final name to add into this impressive group is that of founder and president of OnPoint, Robert Christian.

 

"In fact, they provide solutions for Manufacturers, retailers, original device manufacturers, Service Providers and Consumers alike..."

 

However, Christian brings a different skill set to the team than that of his colleagues. With a background as a Property Casualty Underwriter and database marketing, he has been working in the warranty industry since 1994 and was also instrumental in the creation of Encompass Supply Chain Solutions.

Of course, as founder, it is Christian’s background that is the cornerstone and key influence on where OnPoint positions themselves in the market. However, the service-centric experience of Smith, Breitenstein and Baumer has allowed them to carve out a strong sense of unique identity and solution set.

In fact, they provide solutions for Manufacturers, retailers, original device manufacturers, Service Providers and Consumers alike with their suite of offerings that include customer service solutions ranging from underwriting to extended warranty and service contract programs, service fulfilment and technology, as well as logistics.

In their own words, OnPoint’s solutions have been architected to connect brands to their consumers, relying on “solid underwriting relationships, Omnichannel consumer technology, a robust, AI-driven service administration platform and an expertly managed network of service and part providers”, to deliver great customer service experiences.

“They are designed to mitigate risk and drive revenue for client brands and underwriters while delivering the best customer service experiences on new and existing products.”

Indeed, it is a broad array of solutions that appear to be leveraging the latest consumer-focused technologies and that are designed to take a fresh and dynamic approach to service delivery.

As Christian comments: “As we evaluated what was needed to help brands meet consumers expectations, we recognized that flipping the service paradigm is critical.”

“OnPoint is focused on the end-consumer first. Offering solidly backed warranties and service contracts, variable coverage options that maximize product lifetime values, real-time connectivity on any device, and great service delivered by vetted, technology-enabled service providers drive brand loyalty.”

“When OnPoint cares for the end-consumer, our customers can focus on creating, marketing and selling their brand, which consumers will come back to again and again,” he added.

Indeed, given the rapid emergence of smart home technologies with connected assets within consumer homes now becoming more and more prevalent, there is certainly a lot of potential for those companies who can ‘flip the paradigm’ to flourish as we enter a brave new world of IoT expectations.

 

"Within just a month of announcing their launch back in July 2018, OnPoint was able to announce their first major contract with a major white goods provider to provide field service for their latest line of refrigerator goods..."

 

As a matter of fact, OnPoint considers this a key growth opportunity for the business. Using technology to gather a complete inventory of connected and non-connected devices in consumer homes enables OnPoint to offer game-changing, subscription-based contract and service offers. Consumer not only gain the ability to intelligently cover products which they own with solid service coverage, but they can also change coverage on a month to month basis. In a world where mobile devices are upgraded every 12 months and appliance products no longer can be expected to last 10 years, consumers are empowered to cover what’s important to their household, today and tomorrow with OnPoint.

“The warranty and service business has experienced an evolution in just the last 3 years”, explains Smith.

“Emerging technologies like IoT and 24x7 connectivity through smart devices have transformed the way consumers buy, the way they communicate, and the way they evangelize or demonize a product, a service, or an experience.”

“OnPoint aspires to tap into the vast experience and talent of our team and our selected partners to seamlessly connect manufacturers, retailers and service providers to their consumers, providing great service, transparency and value to both our clients and their customers,” he asserts.

Indeed, within just a month of announcing their launch back in July 2018, OnPoint was able to announce their first major contract with a major white goods provider to provide field service for their latest line of refrigerator goods.

This announcement was then swiftly followed by further announcements of tech partnerships with Mize – another name in field service that has begun to gain impressive traction within the last couple of years in our sector and is a partnership, which can only bode well for the future development and growth of OnPoint.

Whilst it is of course early days for the start-up they have both the wealth of experience, understanding of the industry and an innovative approach that could see them offering services that will be in much demand amongst field service organisations, particularly in consumer industries, as our industry continues to adapt to the widespread impact of IoT in our daily lives.

Find out more @ www.onpointwarranty.com or help@onpointwarranty.com

 

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In the early part of this century we have seen huge technological developments impact field service management and increasingly technology and service delivery have become entwined - but investing in the wrong technology can be an expensive mistake, Paul Whitelam, VP Product Marketing, ClickSoftware outlines how we can ensure we avoid such pitfalls...

As we count down to 2020, companies are considering how to prepare for the next decade and get a jump start on the future.

There are many exciting technologies about, which offer much promise. In field service management,

where there is serious complexity that raises the stakes for any technology investment, it’s important these promising avenues realize their potential sooner rather than later.

But investing in new tech doesn’t guarantee its potential will be fully realized. It remains within the purview of the tech buyer to ensure the business extracts maximum value from new technology.

 

Identify Opportunities for Improvement 

Understanding your business strengths, weaknesses, and technological maturity is prerequisite to any exploration of new technology.

Have you outgrown an existing solution and need greater sophistication, or are you limited by processes rather than technology?

 

"Knowing your biggest obstacles and inefficiencies is the starting point for any tech conversation..."

 

Knowing your biggest obstacles and inefficiencies is the starting point for any tech conversation.

Are you able to measure everything and set benchmarks for desired performance? You will need to in order to have a productive conversation with a vendor.

For example, if you know you want to reduce windshield time rather than mileage this creates different requirements for a routing solution and what methodology it uses to map routes for service workers.

In organizations new to field service management solutions, there might be a lack of sophisticated measurement and benchmarks.

If you are moving from spreadsheets and manual paperwork for the first time, the leap can seem daunting. But this is the perfect opportunity to put prospective vendors to the test and use their expertise to source measurement frameworks, benchmarks, and best practices—then hold them accountable for delivering.

 

Invest in Outcomes, Not Products

Anyone trying to sell you a hammer will characterize your problems as nails, regardless of their nature. Once you’ve understood your challenges, you can articulate desired outcomes that can define the required capabilities for a solution.

The underlying technology is not irrelevant, but how it’s utilized is most important, and to what end.

Imagine you want to speed up response times without adding staff.

This will require the ability to schedule and dispatch workers automatically—with zero touch.

This could lead you to AI-driven automation and keeps the horse before the cart. The desired outcome first, tech and methodology second.

Whether your ultimate aim is to reduce costs, increase revenue, or improve customer experience, it should be clearly stated and technology agnostic.

Don’t let shiny new technology give you the old razzle-dazzle—you’re in the business of getting real work done—drive every conversation back to outcomes and proof.

 

Incorporate Change Management

New and innovative solutions can fall short of their promises if not wholly adopted by your workforce.

Even the best solutions can fall flat if your team is not on board.

Many field service organizations save money by using augmented reality wearables to remotely assist junior technicians on advanced jobs.

A senior technician can provide the expertise and guidance without having to travel. This sounds like a great idea to implement until you realize senior technicians are uncomfortable with the technology and prefer to use phones or to be dispatched to the job themselves—at a higher hourly cost.

 

"When talking to your technicians, extol the benefits of the change from their point of view, rather than the potential..."

 

Ensuring your new process and field adoption line up with your vision requires an early focus on change management and communicating with all levels of your service organization.

When talking to your technicians, extol the benefits of the change from their point of view, rather than the potential. They’re more likely to buy into an idea that impacts their work positively.

Have a plan for communicating with, training, and reassuring your workforce about what’s in it for them.

Looking ahead, make sure you recruit employees who are technology friendly and are eager to learn and use the latest and most advanced solutions available.

Automation, machine learning, real-time traffic based routing, and augmented reality all have practical applications in the field today.

Just as the technologies of yesteryear that they’re succeeding, these are simply tools to enable the job field service workers have always done.

To capitalize on their potential, whether you’re considering an upgrade, a process change, or purchasing a new solution, remember to lead with your biggest challenges, define your desired outcomes, and ensure your team is excited about the coming changes.

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The potential for Augmented Reality being utilised in field service delivery can be leveraged just as effectively by smaller and medium-sized businesses as it can by their larger enterprise sized peers. Kris Oldland reports...

The potential of Augmented Reality within field service has been discussed for some time now, but as often happens with emerging technologies we tend to see early adopters come from enterprise rather than SMB sized companies.

Indeed, with the need to invest in expensive additional equipment plus the applications to power these devices surely this is one area where larger organisations can gain a competitive advantage?

Ultimately, the answer here comes down to a matter of perspective.

The intrinsic value of AR is that it can allow an organisation to dial in the expertise within their organisation directly to the customers’ location.

In any service contract, the true inherent value is within this expertise. Let’s take an example of a faulty widget which is stopping an organisation from being able to operate at an optimal level of productivity.

 

"In any service contract, the true inherent value is within this expertise..."

 

Do you think that the customer – who is facing this loss of productivity, cares whether that experience, which will enable them to get back up and running, comes in the form of a well presented, corporately branded field service engineer on site or if that experience comes in the form of a remote expert able to guide either an in-house maintenance engineer or a locally sourced third-party service engineer, step by step on how to get the widget back up and running?

Of course, from the field service provider’s perspective, there are numerous benefits of getting their engineer on site. One of the significant benefits being the all-important face to face interaction with the customer, but if we are talking about reducing the time to get that customer back up and running from days to hours, or even hours to minutes – then what value could that add to the service contract in the future?

Another scenario could be that the fault may be a relatively easy fix.

One which for the experienced engineer with a relatively standard technical skill set could be easily performed – yet as the majority of service directors will attest to the cost of getting that engineer on site is the biggest red line on their P&L.

How much would your company save if you could hire a local contractor, on a day or maybe even hourly rate, with the same broad technical skill set to attend the service call and be able to reduce the time he is onsite to an absolute minimum by allowing an experienced engineer, who can see what the onsite engineer sees, guide him through the repair, using digital annotations, to make it explicitly clear what actions to perform in order to provide the fix?

The key question here is, of course, how many such occasions, in which you avoid that expensive truck roll, would it take to pay for the device and application licence? Remember, the key selling point for AR, as with mobile, is on delivering a tangible return on investment (ROI).

In fact, let’s stay focused on ROI and those dreaded red lines on the P&L.

 

"The transitory life of the field service engineer is one that is hugely appealing but as your engineers grow older, they may be less inclined to travel so frequently, with family commitments taking preference..."

 

Retention of experienced field service staff and the training and development of new entrants into the field workforce are of course two other major areas that field service directors need to pay significant attention to.

Again AR can play a major role in both of these critical areas.

The transitory life of the field service engineer is one that is hugely appealing but as your engineers grow older, they may be less inclined to travel so frequently, with family commitments taking preference.

Traditionally, the only real means for such engineers to find a work-life balance within an organisation that was better suited to their changing needs was often management – but not all engineers, make good managers.

AR can allow a company to provide their more experienced engineers with the opportunity to find that better work-life balance, negating the risk of all that valuable experience and knowledge walking out of their door.

Similarly, it can take many months and in some sectors years for a company to be comfortable sending out a new engineer to client sites.

Whilst such training programs are admirable and often essential in terms of maintaining brand reputation, they can be a huge drain on resources.

AR can allow companies to dramatically cut the time needed for development and send their new recruits out into the field sooner – but with the safety net of being able to dial in an experienced engineer into the site remotely to help them when the going gets tough.

AR can even open up exciting opportunities for SMBs to expand into territories that would absolutely have been cost prohibitive for them to do so in the past.

Again, if your true value is the knowledge, expertise and insight within your field service organisation AR is the perfect tool for transmitting that value in real-time to anywhere in the world.

Ultimately, every field service organisation, big and small, will today empower their service engineers with a mobile phone and many AR solutions will run on such devices so even the need for investment in actual hardware is nonessential, making AR an extremely realistic introduction for even the smallest field service operation.

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The potential to enhance field service efficiencies through technologies like IoT, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence are out of this world. But to fully realise the benefits they can bring field service companies need to have a foundational framework of technology already in place.

Here we look at five key systems every field service company should focus on before they look to take another giant leap forwards...

Field Service Management technology has become essential to service delivery excellence and in a world of connectivity and ever-increasing customer expectations, service excellence is no longer a USP but a baseline requirement.

Indeed, the rapid evolution of technology and its impact on field service in recent years has led to an increasing integration between process and technology when it comes to field service management.

However, whilst technologies such as IoT and Augmented Reality are grabbing the headlines and can undoubtedly enhance service delivery, their potential is greatly diminished unless you have a fundamental layer of technology in place already. In this article, we will explore five core, fundamental elements that should be at the base of your field service management solution.

 

Contract Management:

Contract management is often viewed as the starting point of almost everything within field service management operations.

Without a view of your service contracts, you cannot have to hand the answers for critical questions such as:

• What is the SLA on any given contract?
• Is a client under warranty or do they have an enhanced level of service contract?
• Does a contract include spare parts and/or consumables?
• Is the service contract due for renewal?

You could be at risk of potentially not meeting your clients' expectations and so putting the potential of renewing or upselling service to that client in danger in the future – or on the other side of the coin, you could be giving valuable service away for free.

Therefore, Contract Management is perhaps the most important of the fundamental building blocks that you should expect to find within a modern field service management solution and perhaps the first area that you should make sure your team is fully versed in utilising.

 

Scheduling:

Scheduling comes in a number of different guises and the various different names given to types of scheduling options can be a somewhat confusing but broadly scheduling will come in three flavours:

• Assisted Scheduling
• Optimised Scheduling
• Dynamic Scheduling

So which is right for your business?

It is often assumed that a dynamic solution is required for a larger mobile workforce, but whilst the size of your workforce is certainly one consideration in which type of scheduling engine would best suit your service operation - this is not the only factor.

The complexity of the service work, as well as the variety of service jobs you undertake, is another significant factor.

For example, an organisation that has a field workforce that services multiple different asset types – perhaps from multiple OEMs, and therefore has a number of different engineer requirements for differing jobs - would likely benefit far more from an optimised scheduling engine than an organisation that just fixes one or two types of assets for which all of their engineers are qualified to undertake repairs and maintenance.

This remains true whether you have 20 or 200 field service engineers.

Similarly, if a large proportion of your field service efforts are focused on planned maintenance calls which have a level of flexibility in terms of getting an engineer on site, then you may not have a need for a dynamic scheduling engine whilst an organisation that is far more reactive, that has a firefighting approach to their service delivery and strict SLAs would benefit hugely from a dynamic scheduling system.

 

Mobile tools and communications:

It is fair to say that the biggest revolution in field service has come from the rapid explosion in mobile computing power.

Today’s smartphones are capable of greater computing tasks than even the laptops of just a few years back.

For the field service organisation, this is fantastic as it puts information at the field service engineers finger tips, empowers them to spend more time on maintenance and repair and less on activities such as paperwork and enables them to deliver a far more effective and impressive service experience for the customer.

 

"Engineer to engineer communications are seamless in today’s world, whether it be using dedicated built-for-purpose business tools or even free to use consumer solutions such as WhatsApp or Skype.."

 

Also, with the advent of smart phones, and then latterly tablets, has come greater communications tools than we could have ever expected ten years ago.

For example, engineer to engineer communications are seamless in today’s world, whether it be using dedicated built-for-purpose business tools or even free to use consumer solutions such as WhatsApp or Skype.

From a FSM solution standpoint again whilst a mobile app was a USP, an add on or even a separate solution entirely just a few short years ago, now almost all FSM solutions will come with some mobile offering included. However, whilst the mobile element in FSM technology is constantly evolving, essentially the most fundamental and core aspect that you want a mobile aspect of a FSM solution to do is to mirror your back-end solution and to do so in real-time.

 

Parts & Inventory Management:

Parts and Inventory management is perhaps an area that in the past has not received the focus and attention that it requires.

It has often been the mantra of field service organisations that they are aiming to get the right engineer to the right job, at the right time.

But that all becomes moot if the right engineer doesn’t have the right parts to hand as well.

Consistently at industry conferences, parts management remains a hot button and a common pain point for a huge amount of organisations.

So whilst it is exciting to talk about emerging technologies such as IoT and Augmented Reality - a primary focus should be on ensuring our field service operation is as efficient as possible at a fundamental level, and that means getting a grip on parts management.

And whilst of course there are supply chain and logistics aspects to the conversation which can make things complicated – especially when you are using third-party contractors – one of the most crucial aspects of good parts and inventory management is utilising a system that can keep track of where your inventory, including van inventory, is at any given point.

One area where many companies get themselves caught out is by thinking that they can use a system such as a financial system that is designed at best for companies whose stock resides in static places such as warehouses and stores.

However, field service is far more dynamic than that, with parts moving back and forth and in and out of locations constantly each and every day.

 

Integration:

Finally, just a brief note on integration.

We are living in a world of data lakes, data rivers, data mountains and all other types of data topography it seems!

But all these vast swathes of data are meaningless unless you are able to draw insight from it, and quite often that means being able to let the data flow seamlessly from one set of business applications to another.

This is why integration is absolutely key in any modern business system – including FSM.

[quote float="right"]Integration is absolutely key in any modern business system – including FSM.[/quote]Of course, our vision of the future is that everything will be plug and play and all technologies will play well together nicely, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Integration varies from provider to provider but often it is led by the integrations they have been asked to undertake, so if your current provider or a provider you have identified as being a good fit for your business don’t advertise integration with a specific system you are using – it is worth discussing the possibilities with them - especially if it is a common platform as making their product integrate may be useful for other future clients also.

Whilst there are still some legacy systems that can prove very difficult to integrate with this is becoming less and less so in today’s day and age. Indeed, we are seeing more and more companies offering ‘off the shelf’ or ‘out of the box’ integration with the leading CRM, ERP and even Telematics solutions.

Finally, it is worth discussing with your providers how they are future proofing their products when it comes to integration – there is, for example, a large amount of proprietary technology centred around IoT at the moment and until accepted universal protocols are in place you want to make sure any investment you make is future-proof.

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Augmented, Mixed & Virtual Reality is certainly a technology trend that is set to massively impact businesses in their field service processes...

Andrea Bardini, Marketing Product Manager, OverIT explains more...

Companies everywhere are constantly seeking new ways to reduce costs, increase profits and improve customer satisfaction and these goals are exactly the ones that modern field services organizations are being asked to achieve.

Field Service is no longer a simple and basic data collection and reporting function to resolve issues and react to emergency issues with assets, it has now really become the front-end function in which the dialogue and interaction with the customers are happening.

Field Service technicians and engineers are more and more often seen as the trusted advisor who the customer looks to resolve their problems, and for this reason, they need to be equipped with the best technology available to perform their tasks at the best delivering value for the clients.

 

"Collaboration is actually the key for field service transformation..."

 

At OverIT, we continue to innovate and improve our solutions to respond to the market needs and we are firmly convinced that building applications on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality is key to streamlining field processes.

By leveraging the virtual collaboration, knowledge sharing and remote assistance capabilities provided by cutting-edge technologies, companies can arm their technicians with the latest tools to perform field tasks faster, better, and hands-free.

Moreover, companies can dramatically reduce travel costs, training, and increase the first-time fix rate and service delivery, having a big impact on their operational expenses.

Collaboration is actually the key for field service transformation.

The more technicians and engineers are able to collaborate and get real-time information to resolve issues, the more they will be able to complete their tasks in a more efficient, productive and effective way. AR, MR & VR is a watershed technology not only because it frees people from two-dimensional screens and pages to help improve the way they learn, share, understand and act, but it enables remote sharing and interaction in a completely different way.

People in the field are able to share the same asset, even though they are located in different places, they can interact, ask questions, drawn on it, they can take notes, but the most important thing they have at their disposal all the information they need in their “virtual room” with no need to bring any more paper and meanwhile they can visualise instructions or receive guidance from remote colleagues they can operate because they are hands-free.

Moreover, virtual collaboration is reshaping the way companies are running training increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

We want to guide our customers through the digital transformation of the Field Service and the only way to do that is investing in cutting-edge technologies to offer a complete and innovative solution that can respond promptly to customers’ needs and that can adapt easily to the business processes to bring Field Service activities to the next level.

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The customer experience is a crucial differentiator between organisations and that experience needs to be consistent across the whole customer journey, Samir Gulati explains why this is so vital...

Today’s field-service customers demand responsive support, especially digital natives who are used to getting what they want when they want it.

But even though these customers expect field service to be speedy, it pays to slow down and examine the customer journey to better understand their expectations. Field-service providers then know what elements are worth measuring and can, therefore, leverage software solutions to direct their technicians to respond appropriately in real-time.

So let’s take a look at the five stages of the field-service customer journey, as well as the key metrics worth tracking at each step.

 

#1 The Service Request

The customer journey starts with the creation of a service request. But even a simple request carries the opportunity for deep insight so long as field service providers measure the flexibility of their engagement with the customer and their access to the servicer.

Can users submit such inquiries through multiple channels? Fewer and fewer customers want to communicate through a call centre. Instead, they prefer self-service online portals and machine-to-machine service requests generated automatically by their smart appliances.

But just as customers need access to technicians, technicians need access to customers - namely their service agreements. Automated registrations and entitlement checks, using preconfigured warranty information, allow service providers to assess maintenance options and confirm services instantly.

 

#2 Scheduling Service

Once a service request is submitted and subjected to the automated entitlement check, it’s time for scheduling. At this stage of the customer journey, scheduling options and response times matter most.

Customers should be able to easily book truth-based appointments, which reflect your technicians’ skill level and actual bandwidth based on a combination of real-time and historical data.

This ensures that the right technician is sent out to the right job, which increases first-time-fix rates.

That same information should populate estimated arrival and completion times so customers can plan for their field-service slots and appointments accordingly. Users can then utilize self-service scheduling to reschedule their service calls, at which point they have access to updated information regarding technician availability.

 

#3 Tracking Technicians

Modern customers value visibility and expect field-service companies to offer real-time tracking, much like Uber, for two reasons.

First is compliance with scheduling - simply, will the right technicians be selected, and if so will they arrive and complete their work on time?

This is as important for customer satisfaction as it is for maintaining a tight schedule and limiting unnecessary expenses. Second is real-time updates. If a technician finishes a job early or gets stuck in traffic, will the next customer in the queue receive a notification?

Furthermore, if a customer has extra information they’d like to communicate to the technician, can they send it directly to him or her without routing the message through a call centre?

Even simple messages that tell technicians, for example, what the code to a locked gate is or that the dog in the backyard is friendly can make all the difference in the timeliness and quality of a service call, but only if field-service providers open a direct line of communication between the customer and the tech.

 

#4 On-Site Repair

Once technicians arrive on-site, there are several key metrics that they and their employers ought to track:

• Preparedness: Does the tech have all the right information (and parts) necessary to complete the job on time?
• First-time-fix rate: the percentage of service requests resolved with a single technician visit.
• Time-to-repair: the average period of time it takes for a technician to repair a malfunctioning product.
• Time-on-site versus estimated: the difference between the estimated time-to-repair measurement and the actual repair time.

Field-service providers can use these measurements to assess the productivity and efficiency of their technicians as well as the effectiveness of their appointment workflows.

They can then fine-tune their processes and improve their service.

 

#5 Post-Service Engagement

Post-service engagement is the crucial last step in the field-service customer journey, which includes payment, customer satisfaction surveys, the ability to re-open a ticket, if necessary, and backend reporting.

By tracking order to cash (OTC), field-service companies can reduce the complexity in payment channels complicated by contract work, warranties claim management and sourcing parts.

And in a world where nearly 7 out of 10 customers leave reviews after purchasing products or services, channels for tabulating repeat services and gathering immediate feedback on services rendered can further provide valuable insight that field-service companies can act on immediately.

 

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Samir Gulati, is Chief Marketing Officer, ServicePower 

 

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More features about ByBox including the investment by Fransisco partners discussed in the podcast can be found @ http://fieldservicenews.com/?s=ByBox

 

Mark Brewer looks at how and why the two big technologies that are set to alter our industry forever are likely to converge...

To most people, the idea of a Digital Twin is largely just that - an idea. The concept may make sense, but they can’t be sure they’ve actually seen it demonstrated in the real world. Or at least not in any useful everyday purpose... yet.

It’s different for those working in Field Service.

Digital Twin is on everyone’s lips, an exciting buzzword that’s changing the shape of the sector and opening the door to new possibilities.

Forward-thinking Field Service organisations are already factoring it into their planning and monitoring activities and may even be deploying it where they can.

Why is Digital Twin such a hot ticket in our world?

 

Raising the game

The focus of Field Service centres on improving the reliability of an organisation’s assets. By enabling them to operate efficiently for longer, with less maintenance, you enjoy a greater return on investment while also spending less on upkeep and parts.

Clearly, the ability to accurately predict potential problems in those assets before they happen is a big help in achieving the above. Even more so, if steps can then be taken to not only rectify these issues but also provide a better experience for customers.

 

"A study by The Service Council found that four in ten incomplete service visits to fix equipment would benefit from the use of live video or AR..."

 

AR combined with the Internet of Things (IoT) does all this... which explains why the Field Service sector is so excited about it. The result is known as the Digital Twin – creating a bridge between the physical and the digital.

A study by The Service Council found that four in ten incomplete service visits to fix equipment would benefit from the use of live video or AR

Better connectivity, together with more accessible relevant tools were considered to improve the speed and quality of issue resolution - meaning that less pressure is put on company resources on-site.

 

A remote revolution

Thinking about practical examples, it’s not too difficult to see what a difference a Digital Twin would make, almost immediately.

Imagine you’re maintaining an elevator that’s installed in one of your customer’s offices.

Thanks to AR, your engineers can view a digital representation of that elevator, on their screen in your offices or on the road on their iPad, nowhere near the physical location of the asset. They can monitor operations virtually, from the comfort of their desk and without having to visit the elevator.

The 3D model on their screen is generated using engineering data with the output of the various sensors installed on the physical equipment augmented onto this. Some show power consumption, to see how efficiently things are running. Others might show spikes in voltage or the level of vibration and wear generated by the hoist as it runs up and down the building floors, whilst also indicating the number of trips completed and speed.

 

"On-screen augmentations and animated sequences give those involved an accurate visual indicator of any parts required, and how they may be assembled or disassembled..."

 

In short, it gives your engineer a comprehensive insight into the status and performance of the equipment.

When an issue does arise or a part needs replacing or upgrading, instead of having to drop everything and go directly to the site, they may instead be able to talk to a trained individual who may be based on-site, and direct them through the repair/replace process. Using a connected device such as an iPad or laptop, the on-site employee can share live footage and follow the remote engineer’s lead to perform the required maintenance.

On-screen augmentations and animated sequences give those involved an accurate visual indicator of any parts required, and how they may be assembled or disassembled. What’s more, the engineer can tag other team members who may either have useful knowledge to contribute or might just want to learn how to perform the task for next time around.

 

Sharing knowledge

Given that service parts and equipment are becoming increasingly complex and expensive, this process offers a great alternative for Field Service providers to continue providing excellent service while improving uptime and consequently saving customers time and money.

Moreover, it promotes the idea of ‘democratised knowledge’ - the sharing and passing on of vital skills and expertise from experienced engineers to workers that are onboarding. This way, as the seasoned workforce ages, their insights are therefore not lost but live on in even more tech-savvy younger employees. Which is a huge benefit when it comes to training and upskilling.

As said, the benefits of the Digital Twin in Field Service could be game-changing which is why so many of us in the industry are talking about it. Looking beyond predictive maintenance, the Digital Twin also opens up the opportunity to provide value-add recommendations to your customer in the use and operation of your equipment, as well as giving valuable insights to your own R&D organisation for future engineering changes.

What could the Digital Twin mean to you, your organisation and the service levels you are able to deliver to your customers? 

 

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Mark Brewer, is Global Industry Director, Service Management, IFS 

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Kevin McNally, Sales Director for Asolvi gives us a sneak preview of a forthcoming white paper that outlines how to build a case for investment in Field Service Management systems by outlining how Return On Investment is such a fundamental part of the equation...

 

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Is building a case for investment in FSM a key topic for you?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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Whilst, of course, each and every business has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, there are now certainly enough case studies available on this topic for us to be able to predict fairly confidently, that the implementation of a field service solution if done correctly, will likely  deliver considerable Return on Investment (ROI) within a relatively short time-frame.

In fact, perhaps the biggest challenge is exactly how to calculate the ROI that you are achieving as the benefits come in many different guises and various different aspects of the business!

For example, when implementing a Field Service Management (FSM) solution you can expect to see ROI come from various areas of business expense, including:

• Increasing the utilisation of your existing resources, both in the office and the field allowing you to achieve more without adding additional resources by taking advantage of tools that deliver improved scheduling and workforce planning.
• Warranty control, how often is your service just given away for free because it is uncertain to your engineer if the customer is under warranty – it happens more than you would imagine even in the biggest of businesses, especially if you don’t have a warranty management embedded in your FSM system.
• Reducing the costs of unnecessary second visits. By having greater visibility into the service call as well as parts availability field service companies can ensure the right engineers are being sent with the right tools to do the job first time around. Given that the truck roll is generally the biggest cost line on a field service P&L improving First-Time-Fix will likely deliver significant ROI all by itself.
• Greater transparency and detail within your parts management etc, It is not just with improving first time fix that parts management within an FSM can deliver ROI. Field Service operations are unique in that stock is by necessity in constant transit. Companies can have millions of pounds tied unnecessarily up in van or garage stock which can disappear into a reporting black-hole unless a fit-for-purpose solution is in place.
• Significant costs that might have seemed a necessary evil such as paper and ink can be eliminated through digitising admin in the field with mobile technology.

 

The Impact of the Cloud

Perhaps the most important development of recent years in terms of gaining ROI from an FSM solution is the shift to Cloud becoming the most prevalent means of deployment for such systems.

Indeed, the benefits of Cloud computing are numerous but in terms of the ROI equation, there are perhaps three big aspects to consider.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the widespread adoption of Cloud has led to most FSM solutions now being offered on Software as a Service model, where the FSM solution provider charges a monthly fee on a per-user basis. One of the big impacts of this trend has been that smaller and medium-sized companies that previously would have found such systems cost prohibitive on a CAPEX basis, could now access the tools that enabled there larger competitors to deliver more efficient service.

However, as the cost of a FSM solution is spread out on a monthly basis, it also becomes far easier for the ROI of that investment to become visible on a P&L sheet that isn’t carrying the heavy initial burden of the outlay of a CAPEX investment.

 

"When a solution is deployed by Cloud there is far less drain on internal resources for the service provider as the FSM vendor now bears a much heavier share of the workload in terms of actual IT support etc..."

 

Secondly, when a solution is deployed by Cloud there is far less drain on internal resources for the service provider as the FSM vendor now bears a much heavier share of the workload in terms of actual IT support etc.

Additionally, unlike an on premise solution which could be vulnerable to unseen issues such as flood, fire or even malicious attack, a Cloud-based solution will allow a service organisation to continue operating even should the unthinkable happen – meaning no lost revenue that may be generated from field service related streams.

Finally, Cloud based FSM solutions are in general, significantly quicker to implement compared to more traditional on premise equivalents, meaning that the field service operation can feel the benefits sooner, and thus start seeing that ROI quicker as well.

It is important to remember however, that ROI is just one of many aspects that can be used to build a case for investment in a FSM solution and we shall be exploring this and others in a forthcoming white paper with fieldservicenews.com

 

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