ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘field-service-forum’ CATEGORY

Despite words like innovators and pioneers being regularly used to describe high profile companies, there is an argument that in business you never really want to be the first. Wang Computers released the Wang 3300 five years before the Apple 1. Friendster arrived two years ahead FaceBook. The difference between bleeding edge and earlier adopter can be critical to success as Rohit Argawal, Editorial Director at Copperberg writes...

The ‘creation of a technology’ and the ‘adoption of the technology’, what’s more important? One way to look at it is that technology prowess for an organisation helps it advance and differentiate but its scope is limited unless the technology is adopted widely and simplifies tasks or generates revenue.

Narrowing down to the Field Service Industry, keywords such as ‘Democratised Service’, ‘Augmented Workforce’, ‘Humanoid Field Workers’, are abundant and very easy to encounter today in most articles, podcasts and webinars. The hype around IoT, AI, AR and VR is causing Field Service Directors to sweat and are inducing fear of being left behind in the digitalisation race.

The major question of the hour is: has the industry crossed ‘The Chasm’ yet for digitalisation? For those not familiar with the technology adoption lifecycle curve, the curve breaks down technology adoption into five phases with respect to time. When a new technology is introduced, the innovators (read tech geeks, influencers and technology over-enthusiasts) are the first to try it. In the field service area, these innovators would be large field service companies that have an abundant budget, manpower and cushion to fail for new innovations.

Once these innovators find a use case for the technology and deem it fit is when the early adopters start using the technology. This is the make or break zone for most technology. The number of users increases non-linearly and more rapidly compared to the initial phase.

To move from the innovators to the early majority is the toughest phase for the technology and is known as ‘crossing the chasm.’ After the ‘chasm,’ the use of technology increases rapidly till peak usage when the market starts to saturate and the late majority comes in. The laggards are technophobics who are last to adopt the technology. Most field service companies that consider keeping machines up and running as important play it safe and would be in the ‘early to late’ majority category.

Coming back to digitalisation in the field service industry, the majority of field service organisations have started addressing the need for IoT and data collection to ramp up their field service offerings and have more satisfied customers. At the recent Field Service Forum 2019 in Amsterdam, Europe’s leading event for field service, more than 115 Field Service Directors came together to discuss the present trends in field service, the upcoming challenges and the future of customer satisfaction.


         "To move from the innovators to the early majority is the toughest phase..."


Most of them agreed that IoT and data will have a major impact on service businesses and that they need to start small, arrive at results and then move forward. They acknowledged the speed of technology development today and also benchmarked their own services to the standards set by the keynote speakers. Acknowledgement of the impact of the technology by the wider audience and relating to case studies show that IoT has crossed the chasm and reached the early innovators. All those not on board the IoT bandwagon are now scurrying to do so.

According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2018 report, IoT platforms will reach their plateau of productivity in the next 5-10 years. The Field Service Directors who have adopted IoT and data collection reflected that tech trends can be misleading and that they should rather focus on business problems. Translating the data to meaningful insights that can lead to better business decisions. There was also contemplation and debate on whether machines could take over humans in the workplace, though the consensus was that it wouldn’t be likely.

One technology that can help in this data processing and generating insights is AI. However, only the early innovators and technology leaders have tested it so far. Has AI jumped the chasm in the field service industry? Not yet.

Most innovators are still creating use cases and the projects are on test-beds. The majority of field service leaders are starting to see the potential and value in using AI in their data processing, but then the implementation, adaptation and ROI are a long way down the path.

Another technology that is premature but is deemed to have high value is augmented and virtual reality. The potential to have an experienced technician assisting a new line of the on-field workforce is very appealing but will the customer be satisfied and confident with the blunt show of inexperience? Will the chances to have faulty repairs increase once the technology is out of test trials or on the field?

There is always a debate about technology, its potential forecasted and the actual benefits derived. Over the next few years, we will realise if these technologies will jump the chasm and go on to become basic necessities in the field service business.

To be involved in the Field Service Directors Community, pre-register here for the Field Service Forum 2020. 

Will self-service for customers be the answer to the dwindling number of available field service technicians? Prudence Kolong, Editorial Director, Copperberg, joins the ranks of Field Service News associate columnists and in her first feature tackles this important topic.

Join Copperberg and Field Service News in Warwick, UK for the Field Service Summit in April and in Amsterdam, Netherlands in May for the Field Service Forum.

A recent survey by the Service Council showed that 70% of global manufacturing companies with small to large service operations are increasingly concerned with the lack of prospects to replace their retiring workforce.

However, less than half have implemented human capital management strategies capable of addressing talent shortage and competence development. It does not help either that scores of new STEM graduates and millennials, who in a perfect world should be lining up to join the ranks of highly skilled service teams within seemingly economically stable firms, see manufacturing jobs as old fashioned and dated and therefore not appealing.

On the technology front, deep shifts in customer demands drive innovation at a riveting speed. Many service organisations now look into technology as a potential avenue to circumvent the lack of prospects to renew their existing human resources.

On the technology front, deep shifts in customer demands drive innovation at a riveting speed. Since Industrial IoT and digitalisation have stopped being buzzwords meant for technologists, they have quietly slipped into the day-to-day dealings of service directors. The future landscape of field service operations for traditional or advanced manufacturing products will integrate a wide range of technological advancements.

The use of robots, artificial intelligence or automated supports on the production line is not new. However, their utilisation to enhance service lifecycle performance constitutes a new set of challenges for which very few are equipped.

Market leaders are now prototyping innovative solutions, with pilot projects, to engage clients and benefit from value-added technologies ranging from Industrial artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning, robotics processes and big data.

An abundance of opportunities opens with IoT, including hyper-personalised data mining solutions that enable targeted customer response with mission-critical predictive maintenance, optimised time management and strategic deployment of multi-skilled fleets.

The question that remains open is how can an industry slated to generate up to 4,45 billion dollars by 2020, thrive without sufficient manpower? Can it rely solely on progress in technology?To ensure that the right people maintain the effectiveness of their enhanced service ecosystems, smart service directors engage in constant skillset assessment, retraining, reallocation and reassignment. However, the question that remains open is how can an industry slated to generate up to 4,45 billion dollars by 2020, thrive without sufficient manpower? Can it rely solely on progress in technology?

The race for market share has service directors drastically redefining their KPIs, readjusting their resource strategies and the means to achieve them.

Furthermore, a new trend is sweeping the industry: crowdsourced field service. In this instance, the very concept of field service management is revolutionised. Fleet ownership, task scheduling, work order management and SLA’s compliance are no longer the sole prerogative of the product manufacturer and its service department.

In layman terms, the “Uber” business model has come and conquered the field service arena; now anyone can order and/or deliver turnkey maintenance operations and end-to-end field service.  At the onset, uberized field service seems like a palliative solution to workforce shortage, a momentary placebo that may serve its short-term purpose. So how about a realistic solution that identifies the root cause, and just like preventative maintenance addresses issues before they occur.

Gartner predicts that within the coming 5 years, 10% of emergency field service work will be managed by artificial intelligence, implying less use or need of manpower on the horizons.  Nonetheless, service organisations need to invest in out of the box approaches to talent acquisition with hybrid skillsets and become more proactive in handling their single most important asset: people.

Be social and share

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Coen Jeukens, Chief Service Officer, D-Essence who was the Chair at this year's Field Service Forum hosted by Copperberg about the key themes of Agility and Disruption in Field Service

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Who are the most influential people in the global field service sector that you need to pay attention to in 2017?

The Field Service News #FSN20 is our list of the individuals we believe will be key influencers in our industry across the next twelve months. Those included in the list have been selected by our own panel of industry insiders, who were given the simple criteria of identifying people who will have a significant impact on field service thinking.

However, more than just an annual list of 20 individuals the #FSN20 has grown since it’s launch to become a true celebration of excellence and innovation within our industry.

There are some familiar names and some new faces on this years list and as always we don’t expect everyone to agree with our selection - at it’s heart the #FSN20 was conceived as a tool to get everyone in our industry thinking about who it is that they have come across in the global field service sector that has made them think, who has made them question the accepted paradigms, who has inspired them to do just one little thing more in their own day to day role.

The #FSN20 is not just about the list our panel has put together. It is about fostering discussion that celebrates the unsung heroes of the field service sector. So look out for the online version of this list as well to take part in the debate.

But for now, ladies and gentleman and without further a do, in no particular order, we are pleased to introduce the #FSN20 of 2017...

Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director - Service Management

Brewer is a new entry to the #FSN20 having recently moved to IFS from PTC.

The message from the IFS hierarchy was loud and clear when they held their last World Conference in Gothenburg towards the end of last year. Field Service was a key priority moving forward and their new owners EQT had every intention of pushing the Swedish company to keep doing what has made them a well respected brand within manufacturing and field service management circles - but do it bigger, better and to get to there faster.

Having taken the reigns of the service management division globally Brewer is set to figure prominently in the industry across the next twelve months.

 

---

 

Professor Tim Baines, Group Director of the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice

Baines retains his place on this years list and is perhaps he one person that has appeared multiple times on the list whose entry becomes even more deserved each year.

Baines has been at the centre of the servitization movement for as long as anyone and although many of his peers such as Neely and Lightfoot should share equal status for being the Godfathers of Servitization, it is fair to say that Baines’ work as a leading proponent of the servitization movement is as unparalleled as it is inexhaustible. The Aston Spring Servitization Conference which is the show-piece of the Aston Centre for Research and Practice continues to grow in terms of both audience and importance each year and it’s location in Lucerne, Switzerland this year is a testament to it’s growing status on the international industrial map. Whilst Baines’ would humbly point to the great team he has working with him at Aston, his role in the global shift towards servitization simply cannot be overlooked.

 

---

 

Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consultant, Strategies for GrowthSM

Another that has been ever present on the #FSN20 since it’s inception and someone who is likely to remain on the list until the day comes where he retires, which given Pollock’s passion for the industry and seemingly eternal youth may won’t be any time soon!

Pollock is not only still a key commentator and analyst within our sector whose papers and features are not only widely read but also hugely respected, but he has been a mentor for a number of key figures within the global field service industry, including a number of other #FSN20 members, and also Field Service News’ own highly respected Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland.

However, Pollock’s inclusion on the #FSN20 isn’t just based on his past merits, his organisation Strategies for GrowthSM continues to provide some of the most detailed research and insightful analysis for the field service sector that is essential reading for any field service executives that wish to stay in touch with what is driving our industry forward.

 

---

 

Thomas Igou, Editorial Director, Copperberg

Igou has been integral to Copperberg’s continued success and growth in the European field service conference circuit, In fact with five industry focussed events now running across the continent that should be of interest to senior field service and aftermarket executives, Copperberg are firmly established central pillar within the European field service community, and Igou sits proudly at the heart of that. In his role as Editorial Director, Igou is responsible for making sure the key topics in the industry are raised and the leading thinkers within our space are given a voice.

A key influencer within our industry.

 

---

 

Mark Holleran, COO, Xplore Technologies

Under Holleran’s leadership Xplore Technologies acquired Motion Computing and became the 2nd largest manufacturer of rugged tablets in the world.

Holleran is a man who not only truly understands the different sectors his clients operate in but also who truly appreciates the importance of understanding his customers’ work-flows and therefore their technological needs.

A perfect case in point being the inclusion of a HDMI in on their XSLATE D10 rugged tablet, which makes it a perfect device for Telco and Pay TV engineers needing to test signals - which is exactly why it is there.

We don’t expect anything other than rugged tablets to be coming out of Xplore, but we do expect them to keep delivering best-in-class products in this form factor. As Holleran says “that’s what we do and we are the worlds best at it.

 

---

 

Dr John Erkoyuncu, Through-life Engineering Services Institute, Cranfield University

Erkoyuncu takes over from Professor Howard Lightfoot as a representative of Cranfield University in the #FSN20 this year, however it isn’t just a straight like for like swap. Whilst the two worked together at the Through Life Services Institute, Erkoyuncu’s place on this year list is based primarily around the work he is doing in both industrial maintenance simulation and also augmented reality, and as such we believe he will be a key commentator and influencer on our sector in the years to come.

 

---

 

Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director & Market Analyst Field Service, WBR

Massoud’s role as Divisional Director at WBR puts him in control of a number of the industry’s key events including Field Service USA which is the jewel in the crown as the key point in the USA field service calender.

In addition to Field Service USA, WBR also run a number of important industry focussed events including Field Service Medical and Field Service Europe and in his role as Divisional Director Massoud is directly involved with each of the events and responsible for delivering industry leading content to keep field service professionals up to date with the key trends with in the industry. Massoud is also responsible for overseeing WBR’s research and a respected analyst within the sector

 

---

 

Sumair Dutta, Customer Satisfaction Officer, The Service Council

Chief Customer Officer for The Service Council™ Dutta is responsible for new member acquisition, member engagement, community expansion, as well as the development and expansion of TSC’s Smarter Services oriented research agenda and portfolio.

He is also heavily involved in The Service Council’s ability to provide service executives the ability to benchmark their operations and also provide guided insight to improve service organisation performance through dedicated research programs. Dutta also plays a key role in building out TSC’s community platform focused on becoming the single source of information and networking for service executives globally and is a prolific author on the matter of field service.

 

---

 

Click here to see page two of the 2017 #FSN20

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Marina Stedman, Director of Global Field Marketing for ClickSoftware offers an overview of one of the key highlights of the recent Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam earlier this summer...

Introduction:

The “Delivering Global Growth with Local Operations” theme of the 3rd annual Copperberg Field Service Forum held in Amsterdam on 8th and 9th June was topical, based on the sometimes conflicting demands of meeting customers’ rising expectations of service delivery while maintaining long-term operational viability.

The event brought field service professionals, operational managers and industry experts together to network, discuss and benchmark experiences and ideas.

Round Table Discussion - How can automation and mobility optimise scheduling, dispatch and communications with mobile field workers while also enhancing the customer experience?

The ClickSoftware hosted round table session discussing the challenges and best practices for optimised scheduling and mobility provided one such opportunity.

Delegates joining this round table debate included a global FMGC manufacturer, a global engineering components manufacturer, a European agricultural dealership, a supplier of integrated food processing solutions and a regional telecommunications provider.

A number of topics were discussed with a summary of the top points below:

The five top challenges faced by field service suppliers today:

1. Managing the field teams – Knowing where technicians are, what skills they have and how to optimise resources
2. Best practices - Keeping up with and adopting them
3. Customisation and Integration - Finding a system that can be customised to meet specific requirements
4. Optimisation - How to optimise the scheduling of resources
5. Customer service – How to keep customers up-to-date on the engineer’s arrival time and the status of their job plus managing overall customer satisfaction

How to best manage Field Teams:

1. Can they be brand ambassadors and sales people? Field engineers are the face of the supplier to the customer so how do you encourage and train engineers to upsell more services when they are on site? One view was that people skills are more important in organisations that deal with consumers.
2. Can location-based tracking be introduced in Europe? There are many regulations on how and what employee data can be tracked and used.  How can the new technologies that track engineers’ whereabouts and enable better customer communication be introduced?
3. Effective job completion: In industries with “Long Cycle” work that can take a week or more, scheduling the right engineers with the right skills and the right parts is more important than knowing where an engineer is.

Best Practices:

Round table attendees were interested in the Field Service Engagement Journey which shows how mapping an organisations’ “degree of optimisation”, “field service sophistication” and “customer lifetime value” illustrates where that organisation is on its journey to field service maturity.

Attendees were initially very optimistic about where they were on this journey but then realised during the conversation that they were mostly at the first “Getting Visibility” or second “Containing Costs” stages and had a long way to go to reach the ultimate stage of “Disruption, Differentiation and Delight”.

Optimisation - Managing costs and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Many services businesses are expensive to run because they can only meet SLAs by including redundancy or overlap within their field teams.

It was, however felt that costs could be contained/reduced in many ways (e.g.by optimising routes taken and making the best choices for allocation and scheduling of resources against SLAs).

One attendee said that failed visits (where the engineer calls and the customer is not in) were the main cause of high costs in his business, accounting for 62% of visits. Another delegate said that each no-show cost £60 due to wasted time and the cost of repeat visits.

 

Another attendee pointed out that mobility holds the key to optimised scheduling –the field team can be notified of any changes in real-time e.g. traffic situations, no-shows, cancellations and problem visits.

For many B2B businesses, up-time is their customers’ number one priority.  They need their equipment, vehicles, machines etc. to be fixed as soon as possible or they start to incur costs.  It is vital that field engineers with the right skills and the right parts get there fast.

Everyone wanted to give customers a more exact time slot of when an engineer would arrive but they could only do this if they could use technology such as predictive analytics based on historical data to analyse how long each type of job typically takes and to plan accordingly.

Everyone agreed that one of their biggest challenges was how to get an asset and an engineer with the right skills on site at the same time to fix a breakdown.

Customer service:

Attendees definitely felt that providing more information and more timely information to the customer made a difference to the relationship with them.  Keeping the customer informed meant many fewer no-shows and higher rates of first time service delivery.  While products are becoming a commodity in many industries, service is still an area of differentiation.

Key message from the round table discussion - people see field service as a way to differentiate themselves against their competitors but many are only at the beginning of the journey.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

At the inaugural Field Service Summit held in Oxford last month Field Service News and Greenroad co-hosted a series of five 30 minute roundtables on Fleet Management. With Chatham house rules in place to allow the participants to speak freely about both positive and negative experiences of fleet management, these sessions provided fascinating insight for all of those who took part.

Here we share with you three of the key points of discussion from across the day.

Who is responsible for fleet management?

One of the most crucial factors for understanding how field service companies manage their fleet operations is to understand where fleet management fits within the organisational structure of a company.

During the day there were a number of different alternatives brought up as to who is responsible for fleet management.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it was amongst larger organisations that we saw the role of a dedicated fleet manager, however, even when a fleet manager is in place, their role doesn’t necessarily involve the implementation of telematics or routing and tracking solutions. Often these more strategic elements ,that are designed to yield business improvement, sat within the field service division. Whilst the fleet manager role is more logistical, responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the fleet.

Interestingly, for a number of companies fleet management as a discipline sat alongside the health and safety department, which seemed to be a general starting point for many companies when it comes to rolling out an initial telematics solution.

As one participant commented: “For us it’s more about managing the health and safety side, health and safety in the UK is now getting to a point where it is actually tying us up to a certain degree.

We are dedicating a significant amount of time to dealing with health and safety legislation in work.”

Another option that was utilised by some companies was to completely outsource their fleet management requirements as part of the lease arrangement for their vehicles. In fact as telematics becomes more and more embedded by vehicle manufacturers in the not too distant future it may be that such arrangements become more common.

Meanwhile, for those smaller companies with more manageable fleets, the responsibility for fleet management sat firmly with the field service management team.

What was clear however, was if companies are to get the most out of their telematics solution, which currently many companies admit they are not doing, then the field service management team must have some input and control over the decisions made around fleet management and telematics.

It is also clear that the use of telematics is now becoming far more encompassing than simple vehicle tracking.

As another participant commented “We introduced telematics about two/three years ago now and for the same reason – health and safety and that really was the driver, but there are so many other benefits that can be driven from it."

Other comments around the ownership of fleet management and the drivers behind implementing a telematics solution included:

“The ownership of managing the vehicles is all down to our fleet department in terms of health and safety. Telematics and fuel consumption is in our [field service] space.”

“Through risk assessment we make sure our service engineers are doing everything correctly, and we send them on advanced driving training courses, to ensure we comply with health and safety regulations and procedures.”

This last point is something that Ryan Davison, Enterprise Sales Manager, Greenroad, believes is becoming more and more prevalent. He explained:

“We are starting to get approached a lot more now about the health and safety and environmental factors of fleet management.”

“Whereas traditionally telematics has always been logistical and operational, we are starting to see a lot more around a duty of care compliance side of things.”

“Companies are coming to us now and saying effectively we’ve got our telematics system running on the operational side but we are looking for something independent of that, that will take care of our R.O.I. that will look into duty of care that will make sure our drivers are behaving responsibly on the roads.”

“What we are looking at now is finding the synergy between fleet management and performance and health and safety and where you can transfer that data. Data is abundant at the moment and any telematics system can produce an enormous amount of data, but it’s how you interpret and manage that internally that is the key. Handing somebody 20/30 spread sheets in their inbox is not going to create any value for your organisation.”

Data, Data Everywhere:

Indeed, one of the common themes of the day was how to harness the amount of data that a telematics system could produce and how to effectively utilise that data.

The consensus was that it was important to be able to access that data in an easy to manage visual manner, with configurable dashboards being high on the wish list for most companies.

In general most companies now see the value of data available to them.However, there is also a clear fear of drowning in data if it is not possible to access it in a meaningful fashion.

Also as more and more providers are developing APIs for open integration the flow of data is becoming increasingly seamless.

What was also interesting was that there seemed to be a dual use for data, highlighted throughout the day’s conversations.

Firstly, it became apparent telematics data is used as a day-to-day management tool, but it is also used secondly as a strategic tool to help push a business forward.

This concept was neatly summed up by one particular participant who said:

“There are two main elements. There is the data that provides the behavioural stuff and we are a fortunate position where there are sixteen area managers and they are directly responsible for the field engineers and their behaviour and being able to send data around whether their engineers are driving too fast, or braking too hard etc. is something that they can use as a tool to deal with these issues as line management.”

“But from an organisational perspective the big win is the data that outlines the utilisation of our equipment.”

“We have a big fleet and before, whilst this information was there it was in paper format so wasn’t easy to access. But now it is easier to access and it can inform our decisions on whether to buy or rent new assets, whether we can move things around the country and so on.”

Driver behaviour and fleet management

It is however, the first of these uses, feeding data back to the field engineers that was discussed the most across the day’s sessions. And gamification played a significant role in how a number of companies utilised their telematics data to improve their engineers driving standards.

As one participant commented” Nobody wants to be the worst driver in the fleet, whether it is a fleet of 5 or a fleet or 500.”

And gamification tools can actively encourage improvements . Indeed, there was almost universal acceptance that gamification could be used as a tool to improve driver behaviour across  an entire mobile workforce.

However, the first battle, which is quite a common one it seems, is getting the field engineers to accept a telematics solution in the first place.

All too often we heard similar stories from the delegates – namely that of push-back from unions and engineers. “Definitely there is a kind of resentment.” Commented one participant.

“It comes down to trust, they believe that you just don’t trust them and then it becomes an issue. The mind-set is ‘if your putting something in it’s because you don’t trust how I do something.’ And then you get the push-back against it.” another delegate commented.

“It can then become a vicious circle where the company says if your not doing anything wrong there is nothing to be concerned about, whilst the engineers say if I’m not doing anything wrong why do you need to track me.”

However, it does seem to be a problem that often heals itself over time following implementation.

“Eventually they saw it wasn’t being used as they expected it to be and now it is accepted” another delegate replied before adding “some of the guys are even asking for print outs from the system so they can see their own performance.”

Yet getting that initial acceptance can still be a tricky balancing act as Davison explained further.

“The two sides of the scale are encouragement and enforcement.”

“To begin with you can take the approach of explaining this is for your own benefit and what those benefits are, but with those who are persistently driving badly then it is a case of falling back on policy and saying to that engineer ‘we need to take you off the road and explore training before we can get you back on.’”

In terms of driver behaviour, data can also play a crucial role in streamlining training strategies as Davison added “Whereas traditionally people might have used programs such as AA drive tech, Institute of Advanced Motoring or VOSPA for generic training what we are seeing now is people are using the data more cleverly.”

“Applied driving techniques is a good example, what they will do is work with us in partnership and use our data to avoid taking a scatter gun approach, but rather focus the training on areas  that it is needed.”

“So each individual driver will have their own risk profile and therefore we can assess how effective is that training been in improving them and reducing the risk they pose on the road."

 

---

Be social and share this feature

Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland reflects on a busy summer in the European field service industry in his leader for issue seven of Field Service News...

Click here and complete the brief form to download a digital copy of Field Service News issue seven now

I’ll be honest, when the doors closed on the third day of this year’s Service Management Expo I gave an almighty sigh of relief...

Not only was it the end of a very busy three days but it also marked the end of what was an incredibly busy conference season in the European field service industry and to be quite frank I think everyone needed to take five just to catch their breath.

Since we published the last edition of Field Service News we’ve attended the Aston Spring Servitization Conference, The Field Service Forum, The TomTom Telematics Developers Conference and of course the Service Management Expo and each of these events brought into focus some of the key conversations that are happing in our industry today.

There has been an abundance of excellent content produced by some of the leading figures in Telematics, Servitization, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and much more with each outlining how these varying tools and technologies will impact on field service.

And whilst long may it continue, it is also good to have a little bit of time in these long, hot summer months to let all these ideas, concepts and strategies tumble around in our heads for a while. Then, as we move into the final quarter of the year, our thoughts and plans around how we can harness some of these concepts, can solidify and evolve into strategies with substance.

And as I start to bring some of my own thoughts into focus my first initial observation is that so many of these new trends are interconnected.

In the past I’ve explained my belief in this column that we are entering a golden age of service, driven by a perfect storm of technologies emerging together and if anything the last few months have reaffirmed that belief.

Service is no longer an after thought but a primary business driver and if there was ever any doubt about this it was completely eradicated at the Aston Servitization Conference.

It was fantastic to see academics and industry leaders coming together to learn from each other and at the end of an intensive two days there was no doubt in my mind that this growing trend of Servitization was moving very quickly from academic theory with a handful of industry examples (albeit high profile ones) to a considerable shift in business thinking which is continuing to gather momentum.

Indeed the topic of servitization raised it’s head again when I interviewed Sony’s John Cooper with Cooper providing a perfect example of Servitization in a new contract with Spanish media outlet Telemadrid. As Cooper himself explains “when it’s pay-per-usage - it becomes all about the service.”

Which of course brings us back to the technology, for working in the parameters of an outcome based solutions contract means that your field service operations have to be highly efficient to ensure you are delivering the uptime levels such contracts are built upon.

IoT is of course one such technology that is truly driving these changes in business thinking and culture. Sony for example employ a number of remote monitoring and diagnostics tools across their B2B technology range, and such connected devices are huge enablers for companies moving from a traditional reactive type of service operation, to a more proactive type of operation that an advanced services approach requires.

 

And it is not just the devices our engineers are repairing and maintaining that are becoming connected, it is their tools and even their vehicles themselves that are becoming connected also.

It is of course no surprise that the connected vehicle dominated conversation at the TomTom Developers Conference, but in fact it wasn’t the only game changer for fleet management discussed that day in Amsterdam.

We also saw TomTom Telematics redefine themselves as a Platform as a Service for the telematics industry with the launch of their Apps Store, and this new model for telematics, built on open integration, is something of a game changer.

It is a smart move by the Dutch Telematics giant and one which couldn’t have been better timed as another major player in the Telematics space, Microlise who have a phenomenal reputation within the haulage sector, have also turned their attention to field service with the launch of a very slick new solution Clear. 

And then of course there are the two technologies that are underpinning most change in field service, Mobile and the Cloud. 18 months ago we researched the Cloud and I made some bold predictions around it’s adoption in field service. In our latest research project we revisit some of those claims and see if, how and why the adoption of Cloud based solutions in our industry has moved on at all within the last 18 months.

Time to let those little grey cells get to work...

Following on from the success of last years launch event Field Service News is very pleased to be the official media partner to Field Service Forum hosted at the Sheraton Amsterdam on June 2nd - 3^rd.

 

---

 

You can register for field service forum by clicking this link

 

---

 

With up to 200 service leaders from across Europe predicted to attend to meet for debate and discussion across two days of interactive education with a structured networking program included which is designed to allow delegates to benchmark their service operations.

Ahead of the event Thomas Igou, Content Director at Copperbrug commented “The launch event showed that most organisations are on the right (and similar) path, but the road to success is still full of opportunities. There is a common need to build a stronger structure behind the service business to truly change the function from a cost to a profit centre. Many organisations are seeing the big picture, but are unable to execute the critical steps towards full service transformation.”

“One of the most agreed steps is the approach towards the field engineer.” Continued Igou “No other employee in a manufacturing organisation has the face time nor the trust from the customer; field engineers are truly the face of their organisations towards the customers. As such, they can become a powerful weapon whose soft skills need to be explored to develop the commercial competence to push new sales and generate leads.”

 

“There is also a lot to be done to make field operations more efficient, and not only through IT solutions. Looking at standardising the service business will go a great way to improve roll outs of strategic initiatives and of having a better visibility of resources, which will ensure they meet service level agreements.”

“There are additional areas such as managing a global workforce, implementing mobility and other technologies like wearables, creating a process to capture knowledge, or further exploring remote diagnostics to develop proactive maintenance that are also critical to the success of a field service business.”

Indeed Igou and the team at event organisers Copperburg, have been working hard to develop the conference further and have introduced a number of new features which Field Service News is excited to be part of.

New Features

In addition to the traditional formats of Copperberg conferences, Field Service Forum will provide new and developed features to ensure your conference experience is maximised and as interactive as possible so you can come away with the most relevant information.

THE FIELD SERVICE STUDIO

Hosted by Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland this session, based on an American-style talk show, the Field Service Studio will see a host invite four service thought-leaders as special guests and conduct individual seven minutes interviews before moving on to a more traditional panel debate discussion, where hot topics will be analysed from every angle. The studio will end by taking questions directly from the audience.

LIVE CASE STUDY

This session will take you straight into a manufacturer’s field service operations. The case study will start with an overview of a challenge encountered by the manufacturer; then, the session will take a look at IT solutions the manufacturer sourced to overcome the challenge and its implementation.

After this the manufacturer will give an insight into the results and ROI. Finally, the session will finish with a testimonial from the manufacturer’s customer about the new service improvements.

Field Service Forum Agenda 2015

Tuesday - June 2nd 2015

• 09.30 Pre-Registration
• 10.00 PRECONFERENCE WORKSHOPS - The pre-conference workshops are a new and exclusive feature which gives you, as a participant, the ability to kick start the conference with a focused and content-heavy session where you will be able to both learn and share experiences around best practices.
• Workshop A - Mobility: In this interactive workshop, you will learn about to best integrate mobility solutions to create a mobile workforce that will enhance the value of your service offerings to your customers.
• Workshop B - Knowledge Management: In this interactive workshop, you will learn about how to track knowledge of your team, how to rollout/share knowledge, and how to share known issues so you can capture the knowledge.
• 13.00 Service Mastery Day - Limited Seats Available - The Service Mastery Day is a sensational, “cannot miss” 3 hour seminar on how you and your organisation can master the skill of service excellence. Each event is customised to the needs of the participants and brings a leading and recognised expert in the field of service excellence to moderate and teach you how to bring your service division to the next level.
• 16.00 Networking Break & General Registration
• 16.30 How to improve your margin on Full Service & Repair Contracts: Listen to this story telling of how Volvo Construction Equipment in Denmark is growing their service margin through full service & repair contracts.
• 17.10 Live Case Study: Field Service of the Future, Today - This new feature will present a case study through the viewpoints of all actors within a field service operations ecosystem: The Vendor, The Manufacturer, and the End User Customer.
• 18.00 Evening Networking Program - The evening networking program is your opportunity to meet and network with your peers in a cozy and relaxed atmosphere, to push the discussions deeper and make contacts that last a lifetime.

Wednesday - June 3rd 2015

• 08.10 Morning Masterclasses:
• Masterclass A Using Tools and Technology to direct, monitor, and measure performance
• Masterclass B Transforming Field Service into a Profit Powerhouse
• Masterclass C Global Training of field engineers
• 09.10 How After-sales Service increases customer loyalty: With increasing competition on products only one thing can really differentiate you from the others. Service is therefore increasing in importance and the execution has to be flawless and a good after sales service actually helps increase you customer loyalty and possible future sales.
• 09.40 Case Study: Automating Service Scheduling & Dispatching: This session will look into how to provide a fast, best-in-class service experience to your customers by overcoming fragmented processes and lack of visibility into field resources.
• 10.45 Executive Circles: Roundtable discussions are often one of the most appreciated features at our events, because they allow participants to share experiences, success and failures alike, in a more intimate setting. In stimulating work atmosphere, the participants discuss new perspectives and ideas around a specific topic and the under the guidance of an assigned moderator. After 40 minutes, the discussions end and participants move on to the next table. You will experience intensive discussions, share innovative ideas and identify practical solutions.
• Track1: Global Workforce
• 13.15 Resource Optimisation: developing the competence of current and coming talent
• 13.45 Developing the soft skills of field engineers: Field engineers see your customers more often than any of the sales staff, and as such have a strong relation and are trusted by your customers. This session will inform you how to leverage on this to sell more and generate leads within your installed base.
• 14.15 Gamification: How can service organisations introduce gamification to sparkle cultural changes in their field operations? From adoption of new field technologies to conclusion of admin work, gamification can help motive and reward your employees for their outstanding performance.
• Track2: Smart Services:
• 13.15 How to use the latest technology trends to improve your business: Internet of things, Big data, remote Service are all trendy topics, but how do they help us increase Customer Satisfaction, revenues and productivity. How to go from technology to a clear business strategy. Is our organisation ready for this change?
• 13.45 Wearables Technology: New technological advancements in supportive gears for field engineers is bringing a whole new level of service support. This session will explore wearables technology such as smart glasses and watches and how to utilise them to bring real time added value for both your field engineers and your customers.
• 14.15 The Industrial Internet: IoT is a recurring buzz word, of which analysts predict billions of devices will be connected to the internet in the near future. However, what is it really, and how can it benefit the manufacturing industry?
• Track 3: Operational Efficiency
• 13.15 Standardisation of practices in a Service Business: A case study on key strategic initiatives to increase service levels at Pentair and how to roll out global service strategy across regions.
• 13.45 Interested in doubling your service sales and shorten the time to close the deals? How often can a salesperson really quote to customer needs without any support from back office? When it comes to selling, time is essential. Every hour it takes from the customer meeting to your delivered quote, the customer interest diminishes, and their focus changes to other projects.
• 14.15 Managing global service: The session will look into how to manage a service organisation: the structure from scratch to service/repair. How to use resource pooling between units and partners with different business models based on service differentiation and global set-up in order to serve customers across the globe.
• 15.20 The Field Service Studio: Based on an American-style talk show, the Field Service Studio will see a host invite 4 service thought-leaders as special guests and conduct individual 7 minutes interviews before moving on to a more traditional panel debate discussion, where hot topics will be analysed from every angle. The studio will end by taking questions directly from the audience. Hosted by Kris Oldland, Editor of Field Service News.

 

---

 

Register for Field Service Forum by clicking this link

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

With field service going through a period of continual evolution there are a growing number of events dedicated to the industry that give you the opportunity to here from vendors, industry leaders and your peers to help you stay abreast of the latest trends. Here we look at some of the key events across 2015…
 

26 February, 2015

Enterprise Mobile Technology 2015, Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton on Trent

This is a unique one-day event bringing together leading executives and key decision makers, partners and suppliers from the mobile services industries. The event is designed to provide a platform to discuss smarter technologies for a connected mobile workforce. You’ll hear from industry experts, explore new and emerging technologies and also have the opportunity to network with peers and colleagues. From discussions about the tablet productivity evolution to connectivity in the field and transforming mobile operations, this is a must-attend event. Click here for more information 
 

23 – 25 March 2015

Field Service Medical Europe, Conrad Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Across Europe, medical device manufacturers want to develop proactive customer service & a surefire way to keep pace with remote technology advancement. Until now, they had no way to share their ideas for the future in an open, collaborative environment. So the team behind Field Service Europe have created Europe’s most interactive forum for service & support executives – a 3 day meeting with the real leaders of the industry helping to transform their business in the digital age.

This event features practitioner only workshops, one-on-one speaker meetings, and is focused around networking to build career-long relationships. Also, as small and medium sized organisations face a unique set of challenges, there are separate sets of workshops for similar companies to collaborate and share their insights. Click here for more information

 

16 April

The Service Community. Venue TBA

“The Service Community is made up of people interested in finding out more about the service industry from its participants. The Service Community aims to provide opportunities to find out what practices have worked for others, and what hasn’t worked, and why; to move away from the theory of what could be done by examining what others do and evaluate successful practices. Meetings (no fee is charged) will aim to provide content which doesn’t appear to be readily available, and to stimulate and inform in a format that is easy to access and use, and relevant to the user.” – Steve Downton

Founded by the late Steve Downton, The Service Community is a non-profit organisation that seeks to drive service improvements and innovation through collaboration.

Run by service professionals for service professionals The Service Community runs a series of events across the year with expert presentations from some of the UKs leading service professionals  from a wide array of industries. Recent speakers include:

Mark Rawding, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Andy Beer, Pitney Bowes, Martin Gilday, Elekta, Martin Summerhayes, Fujitsu, Graham Coyne, Siemans

Attendance is free for all Service Professionals and each event is not only a fantastic opportunity to hear of best-practices from leading industry professionals but also to network with other service professionals across the day. Click here for more information
 

2 - 3 June 

Field Service Forum, Sheraton Hotel, Amsterdam

The 2nd Annual Edition will take place June 2nd-3rd, at the Sheraton Airport Amsterdam. The two-days interactive event will gather 150+ service professionals from cross-industry sectors and from all corners of Europe, and will feature case studies from organisations such as ABB, Siemens Wind Power, Nestle Nespresso, Pentair, Volvo Construction Equipment, and many more. Click here for more information

 

16-18 June

Service Management Expo Exel Centre, London

Service Management Expo returns to London’s ExCeL this summer, taking place from 16-18 June 2015, Europe’s only dedicated exhibition for the field service market will be co-located with Facilities Show as part of the Protection & Management Series.

Now in its 31st year, Service Management Expo is the annual industry event that brings together the latest information and the most up-to-date products and services for those working within service management, logistics, fleet management, operations and IT.

Service Management Expo will host the dedicated Field Service Solutions Theatre in partnership with Field Service News.  A full educational programme will run across the three days, mixing interviews with influential industry figures, best practice case studies and thought provoking panel debates.   The theatre will also host daily networking sessions allowing you to mingle with peers, discuss topical issues and catch up with old friends. Click here for more information
 

19 – 21 October

Field Service Europe, Movenpick Hotel Amsterdam

Field Service Europe is a forum for senior-level service executives from leading global organisations to share best practices on today’s most pressing issues including adopting a proactive and preventive approach to customer management, streamlining aftersales business to radically improve productivity, and utilising advanced remote diagnostics technology to increase efficiency and customer loyalty.

The peer-driven conference is packed with in-depth workshops and interactive roundtable discussions as well as unparalleled networking opportunities like the Women-in-Service Luncheon and VIP Think Tank. Click here for more information
 

21 to 23 October

Aftermarket Europe,  Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk

The 9th edition will take place October 21st - 23rd in the Netherlands. It is the leading European event for senior aftermarket executives, attracting 200+ participants from global organisations. Over the course of three interactive days of content and networking, participants will be confronted with best practices and solutions to current challenges. Click here for more information

 
 

be social and share this feature