The company that made UK showers smart is about to do the same to its scheduling operation, by overhauling it with powerful new software from Fast Lean Smart (FLS).

Aqualisa was the brainchild of founder Derek Goldsmith, an engineer who bound together two dissimilar metals to create the Bi-Metallic Coil in 1976, making cold showers a thing of the past. In the 00s, Aqualisa introduced the digital shower, which provides consistent, no-fluctuation water temperature at the touch of a button. Over the years, Aqualisa’s smart showers have become ever more sophisticated, particularly with the recent introduction of the QTM, which has personalised functions promising the perfect shower.

Aqualisa employs a network of field engineers to service and maintain its showers, which are supplied under warranties of up to five years. To book maintenance appointments, Aqualisa used scheduling software that did the job but was limited in scope and had received very few updates since it was implemented. Kieran McNally, field service manager for Aqualisa, explains, “We knew there were better products on the market. So as our contract with the previous provider came up for renewal, we shopped around, attended exhibitions, and invited potential vendors to present their product. FLS was one of them.”

The way the data is presented makes it easy to read, understand and manipulate, so we can see what’s happening across the whole service chain.FLS demoed its real-time scheduler and route optimiser, FLS VISITOUR, and offered an initial test: taking jobs already scheduled by the old system and seeing if FLS VISITOUR could do it better. Without changing appointments, FLS VISITOUR brought back a 9% fuel saving and showed the potential for much more if it had been used to schedule the appointments in the first place.

“The fuel saving was significant, and was one of the reasons why we chose the system” says Kieran. “There were other factors too. FLS VISITOUR has a number of cost- and time-saving functions the old system didn’t. For example, if an engineer phones in sick, the system will automatically reassign their jobs or propose the most economical engineer if overtime is required. The on-screen graphics are well laid out too. The way the data is presented makes it easy to read, understand and manipulate, so we can see what’s happening across the whole service chain.”

Aqualisa proceeded with a ‘try before you buy’ trial, which FLS offers all new customers. This involved a light integration with Aqualisa’s service management system, Tesseract, and live operation for eight engineers. “The results of the trial were really positive,” says Kieran. “Mileage costs were reduced and we saw an increase in the average number of jobs per day. We quickly learnt how to use the system and received a very good, very accommodating service from FLS.”

With the business case for using the software proven, FLS VISITOUR will be deployed company-wide this month. For Kieran the outlook is positive. “It’s a huge improvement on the system we had before and makes us far more efficient than we were. What’s more, FLS is constantly refining it, making it better for customers, so that we can provide a better service to ours.”

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Leading Author and founder of Alexander Consulting, James ‘Alex’ Alexander puts forward a series of strong arguments for the reasons why product-focused companies can and must sell services. This is essential reading for the service director struggling to get their voice heard in a product-centric organisation...

Leading field services in a product company is not for the weak of heart. You must deal with executives who feel that products are the only ingredient in the recipe to organization success and that services are a bothersome, necessary seasoning like garlic in a casserole.

Like trying to convince a toddler that vegetables are good for them, you must constantly demonstrate your value internally, while confronting a product-thinking, product-is-everything culture.

Where to begin? I suggest that the best defence is a good offence. Research and review, prepare and practice, and then request individual or group sit-downs with your executive peers to address the question, why sell services anyway? Your future may depend upon your persuasion.

Why sell services anyway? Following are the benefits to articulate and motivate.

1. Sell More Initial Deals

Here is a bit of blasphemy to a product executive: Most customers view products as commodities! Regardless of how truly unique or elegant or innovative, your products are from your perspective, in most all buying situations, customers see no meaningful difference in the top two or three products in any category, across all industries, across all geographies.

Yes, I understand this may not be 100% factual, but from the perception of the customer, it is true. Hence, the old adage comes into play: Perception is reality. Kind of a sobering thought. 

Once customers have determined their shortlist of the two or three potential products or bundles of products that they will seriously consider buying, they almost always cast their product ballot based on what they believe are the best services that surround the productOnce customers have determined their shortlist of the two or three potential products or bundles of products that they will seriously consider buying, they almost always cast their product ballot based on what they believe are the best services that surround the product—services that will best ensure the product works as promised, keeps working, and does so with a minimum of hassle and added expense.

It is important to note that, in many cases, they will pay a premium for your offering if they understand the higher value your services bring to them. In essence, they vote with their pocketbook.

Furthermore, if your salespeople were strategic and sold an assessment early in the buying process—before needs were clear and products were specified—the probability of you getting the product business, later on, is greatly improved, giving you the chance to shape the final recommendations early while building relationships with people key to the final purchase.

GIST: Selling services effectively from the get-go will land you more initial deals.

2. Handle Fewer Train Wrecks

Sadly, sometimes products are positioned to the customer with these words coming out of the salesperson’s mouth: “Our products don’t break.

You don’t need any additional services,” or “It is so easy to implement our software. Just read the manual and you can do it, no worries.” This is all a bunch of baloney, especially if you are dealing with a fairly complex situation, an important customer process, and/or the customer has little if any familiarity with the implementation.

Rare is the product that will not need some type of service in its life cycle, whether a tailored implementation, ongoing maintenance, software updates, refurbishing, and on and on. Not positioning this reality of life with the customer upfront is negligent selling.

Services appropriately sold up front greatly improves the probability that:

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• The product will work the way it is supposed to work the first time.
• Greater functionality of the product will be utilized.
• Irritated customers ringing the bell of the fire engine, escalating their concerns up your organization ladder, will be greatly minimized.

[/unordered_list]  

GIST: Selling services upfront saves your organization time, hassle, and money over the long term.

3. Sell More Products and Services Later

Experience also shows that when deals are sold with services up front, more products and services are sold later on.¹ Services greatly improve the chance that installation and implementation will be done correctly the first time, and services and support improve uptime and productivity.

Delivering services means dealing personally with customer personnel and, done properly, starts to build trust-based relationships. These customers are very likely to buy more of your products (and more services, of course) and are well on the way to being loyal, highly profitable customers for life. 

Figure 1 shows a real-world example of this revenue opportunity beyond the initial product sale. By selling services correctly early on along with the product, this company had a very realistic opportunity to add 2.7 times the original product revenue through incremental services. In this example, the product sold for approximately $100,000, so the potential for more services revenue was approximately $270,000. Plus, the customer was much more likely to buy this company’s product at the end of the equipment’s life.

GIST: Want to be a true total solutions provider? Services are the key.

4. Enjoy Predictable Revenue Streams

Want to see a CFO’s eyes light up?

Watch their face the first time they grasp an understanding of the predictable, repeatable sales that come from a services business built upon service and support contracts coupled with a finely tuned professional services capability.

This is pure joy to a bean counter. The services annuity stream makes life a whole lot easier for all of management, as it helps take the guesswork out of business financials and becomes an early warning, leading indicator of organization success or failure.

GIST: Strong services help you manage your business more effectively

5. Differentiate Yourself

Depending on the maturity of your industry, your competitor’s strategy, and your competitor’s dealings with distribution, services can differentiate you in a really big way. The more complex your products, the more they cost the customer; and the more mission critical they are to your customer’s business, the more the value-packing promise of services. Leading services researchers note from their studies that more and more companies in tough competitive markets are looking at services to yield competitive advantage.²

If your competitors don’t have full portfolios of strong service offerings, or if they don’t know how to sell them, this is a huge opportunity for you if you embrace the challenge. Give your customers what they need, want, and will pay for while locking out everyone else.

GIST: Services are the drivers of market dominance.

6. Create New Markets

Business consultants like to talk about adjacency strategy,³ the strategy of building upon an organization’s core competencies in one market to transport those capabilities to an adjacent, but different market space.

For example, a company with specialized battery technology designed for the automotive industry could potentially attempt to build upon that battery expertise to develop and sell to the marine market. The same possibilities hold true with services. For example, an energy utilization assessment developed for the automotive industry could be adapted for the marine market.

Taking advantage of your past experience and expertise can crack new markets and expand profitable revenue.

GIST: Services adjacency strategy can be a powerful component of any growth blueprint.

To summarize, services have proven themselves to be able to contribute significant value to many, many product companies through profitable growth of both products and services. Properly executed, strong services capabilities can increase customer satisfaction and generate customer loyalty. In addition, for some companies, having the right portfolio of services helps smooth the entry into new markets. Finally, in some cases, having an arsenal of new or better services can create competitive differentiation.

Question: But aren’t services less profitable?

Answer: Normally not.

Here are the core elements of a conversation I had with the CEO of a software company that I was interviewing as part of a services assessment for his company.

• Alexander: Tell me what role you’d like services to play in helping your company be successful.
• CEO: Frankly, I wish services was a much smaller part of the business. They negatively impact our overall profitability. Every time I talk to financial analysts, they beat me up on this issue. If you can tell me how to eliminate services altogether, I’d be extremely happy.

This perception is fairly common among executives at companies with high product profit margins. However, in most cases it is not entirely correct. 

On average, my research shows that there is no difference between the profit margins of products and those of services.⁴ In general, product profit margins have decreased as industries have matured, and services profit margins have increased as services management has learned how to optimize their organizations. For example, professional services organizations within product companies have improved their profitability by seven points over the last decade. In fact, top-performing services organizations have profit margins double that of their products. 

Adding a portfolio of services, even at lower margins than products, will increase the overall value to the customer.There are exceptions, of course. New products in new industries could have higher profit margins initially. However, experience shows that product margins will consistently drop. A few products, due to their innovation or patents or special circumstances, may be able to maintain very high product margins over time.

Yet, recalling the high value that customers place on services, adding a portfolio of services, even at lower margins than products, will increase the overall value to the customer. Hence, looking at blended margins is probably a much more realistic way to view and understand overall profitability. 

Finally, examining the financials of many services businesses inside product companies raises a few eyebrows, if not a few questions, about how profitability is calculated and the fairness of the calculations. Here are some issues to consider:

• Place your list items here

• If services consultants are spending 30% of their time in a pre-sales role, why isn’t that expense charged to sales?
• If you are a VAR (value-adding reseller) and your partner agreements require you to have a number of certified experts on staff, shouldn’t some of the costs of having these low-billable people on board be charged elsewhere?
• If a big customer has a blow-up, and company execs require a busload of top technical talent from the services business to do whatever it takes to fix the problem at no charge to the customer, should that cost be eaten by the services business?

My own biased experience says that if you sell the right services to the right customers in the right way, they will be very profitable and make the rest of your products look much better as well.

GIST: Re-look and re-think cost allocation, pricing strategies, and margin expectations versus customer value. There is a good chance that you don’t readily have this information, and it will take time to get the quality data you need.

So, there you have it—proactively communicate the value that your services deliver, help build a more profitable organization, and gain the respect you and your people deserve.

Endnotes

This article was adapted from Seriously Selling Services: How to Build a Profitable Services Business in Any Industry, by James “Alex” Alexander, and can be purchased from Amazon.com or the Alexander Consulting website.

References

1. Hahn, Al. 2007. The True Strategic Value of Services. Sandy, OR: Hahn Consulting.
2. Brown, Stephen W., Anders Gustafsson and Lars Witell. 2009. “Beyond Products.” New York, NY.: The Wall Street Journal.
3. Zook, Christopher. 2004. Beyond the Core: Expand Your Market without Abandoning Your Roots. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
4. Note that services margins are declining on average in some industries as more and more services appear alike to customers, are hence seen as commodities, and thus seem to have less value.

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Deputy CEO and COO of Polygon a company with over 3,500 field service engineers, about how his organisation has evolved over the last decade, the shift towards advanced services that has come from that evolution and how a close working relationship with Enterprise Service Management solution provider IFS has empowered their ability to develop and advanced services approach to field service delivery.

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Michael Blumberg, President of Blumberg Advisory Group and founder of fieldserviceinsights.com discusses some of the most crucial mistakes field service companies can make when utilising contingent or seasonal labour...

Field Service Organizations (FSOs) in North America, UK, and Europe are increasingly turning toward crowdsourcing platforms and subcontractors to augment their field workforce.

This type of outsourcing strategy enables FSOs to become more agile in meeting customer demands for service. As a result, they [FSOs] are able to reduce costs and improve service productivity. In addition, crowdsourcing and contingent labour helps solve the problem of finding skilled labour on a rapid basis.

Turning to subcontractors and crowdsourcing platforms does involve relinquishing some level of control over the labour force.However, turning to subcontractors and crowdsourcing platforms does involve relinquishing some level of control over the labour force. Naturally, questions emerge about the reliability, expertise, and quality of technicians that are sourced through these options.

Over the last two years, we have spoken with dozens of companies who have or currently utilize contingent labour to either augment their existing workforce or gain greater agility and efficiency over the entire field service delivery process. The majority are satisfied with their external providers and report positive results on key performance metrics such as First Time Fix and SLA Compliance/Onsite Arrive Time.   On the other hand, a few anomalies exist where the performance of contingent labour did not meet the FSOs expectations.

Quite often, FSOs who experience subpar performance make critical mistakes when retaining and managing contingent labour.

Here is our perspective on the biggest mistakes they need to avoid:

1. Failure to fully vet individual technicians doing the work

Don’t assume that every contract technician (e.g., subcontractor, freelance, crowdsource) you dispatch has the skills, training, and experience necessary to complete the work properly and in a timely manner. Insist on viewing background checks, certifications, and credentials of every contract technician assigned to your company.

2. Failure to train and onboard technicians

Quite often companies issue work orders without to contract technicians without training or guiding them on how they'd like the work to be performed.

For example, they do not explain how they'd like the tech to greet the customer and/or notify the customer when the work is complete.  Fortunately, Internet-based learning systems make it possible for companies to train and onboard contractors in a cost-effective and rapid manner.

3. Failure to communicate with contractors

This is the biggest mistake that a company can make is hand off work orders as if they were tossing a hot potato over a fence.

This will result in problem with respect to key service performance metrics such as SLA compliance, First Time Fix, and No Fault Found.  It is important that companies provide contractors with detailed and specific instructions about the activities they need to perform on each assignment.

At the same time, contractors also need to communicate with the companies that hire them on the status of calls, issues or problems they are experiencing, and results of their actions.

4. Failure to integrate contract or crowdsourced technicians into their service delivery process

Problems can occur when there is too much of an arm’s less relationship between the company and the contractor.  In other words, there is little accountability, visibility, and control between the company and contractors/technicians, and vice versa.

The key to success lies in treating contractors as an extension of your company.  Companies can achieve this outcome by leveraging communication technology, collaboration tools, and workforce automation software.  Relying on these systems will ensure the company achieves best in class service performance through its contractor network.

In summary, FSOs experience challenges to crowdsourcing when they underestimate the level of due diligence, systems, and processes they need to put in place when utilizing this type of labour. This does not necessarily mean that they must make huge capital investments.

FSOs experience challenges to crowdsourcing when they underestimate the level of due diligence, systems, and processes they need to put in place when utilizing this type of labourRather, they are urged to design and implement processes and procedures by leveraging existing infrastructure when they can.

Devoting the time and effort to this initiative will pay off. Our research suggests that FSOs who have an unpleasant experience with contingent labour do so because they rush into the decision without much thought, planning, and preparation.

Basically, they are looking to solve an immediate problem with no consideration to future. In other words, they are taking a tactical approach to labour shortages where a strategic solution is required.

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With a new CEO taking the helm Swedish FSM and ERP providers, IFS enter a new era of their ongoing development. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief was on hand at the IFS World Conference in Atlanta to see the developments first hand and caught up with FSN associate columnist Mark Brewer, Global Director of Field Service, to get the inside scoop...

The IFS World Conference is an event that never really fails to deliver at least one key highlight of interest. Memories of CTO, Dan Matthews bouncing around madly to Bruce Springsteen on the stage last time out in Gothenburg- he was demonstrating how IoT sensors work just in case you were wondering, is one such example of the unique way the Swedish company approach things.

Similarly, Ulf Stern, one of the companies original founders keeping customers, prospects and the press alike entertained playing some (pretty darned good) rock and roll with his band in a ‘Fish Cathedral’ later that evening is just another example of how the same core ethos remains in the company today as it did when they first started out some 35 years ago. Despite significant growth and development across the years, there all often overlooked secret-sauce that can allow a company to flourish, the uniqueness within their DNA - has always remained the same.

Who IFS are today is very much a different company to who they were then, just 18 months ago.Yet, who IFS are today is very much a different company to who they were then, just 18 months ago.

Firstly, there is the acquisition by - investment firm EQT. Which was in fact announced just days before the Gothenburg World Conference.

At the time the discussion had been highly positive - especially from a field service point of view as the message from EQT was clear - we are giving you the funds to go and do what you do better and faster - with field service being one of the top three areas IFS would be targeting for significant growth.

Given their stature in the market at the time as an already established major player within the field service industry, this was certainly an exciting announcement for those close to our sector.

Indeed, there have already been some significant acquisitions that Field Service News readers, especially those from the UK will be aware of which have followed after the acquisition.

The first of these was to bring IFS UK and Eire reseller Field Service Management in-house, which was a sensible and largely expected move.

The second, which saw mplsystems become part of the IFS family, however, was far more strategic.

mplsystems core strength lies is there omnichannel contact centre technology, essentially plugging a major gap in the IFS solutionAlthough, an FSM solution provider themselves, mplsystems core strength lies is there omnichannel contact centre technology, essentially plugging a major gap in the IFS solution and giving them a genuinely robust end to end service solution.

This is not to mention the US acquisition of WorkWave, an FSM solution that is dedicated to the SMB market - which instantly gave IFS access to a huge market, which many of the larger FSM solution providers struggle to penetrate.

So in fairness the record of EQT in terms of delivering on their promise has been mightily impressive and IFS have continued to grow in stature within the FSM sector as one of the true key players - an achievement all the more impressive given the attention our sector has had within the last few years with the lieks of GE, SAP, Microsoft and Salesforce all investing significantly in building a global presence.

My anticipation was therefore high when I spotted that the launch of FSM6 was to be given a major spotlight, being presented on the main stage as a key announcement on day 1.

Mark Brewer, Gloabl Director, Field Service, alongside Steve Jeff-Watts, Senior Advisor, IFS were the men tasked with giving that presentation.

“If you go back to the origins of IFS, we are an ERP company, but that can be something of an ambiguous term,” opened Brewer when I caught up with him.

We built a product that managed service, maintenance and projects. This means the intrinsic DNA of the business is actually service not manufacturing“ERP for most people is a product built for managing a manufacturing business. IFS did not ever take that approach. We built a product that managed service, maintennance and projects. This means the intrinsic DNA of the business is actually service not manufacturing.”

“Fast forward to today with the IFS FSM platform you’ve got a best in class service offering, there is an almost equivalent best-in-class service functionality in an ERP in Apps 10.”

“This means you can already have an existing ERP such as SAP or somethign similar which you are unable to swap out, we can layer that with best-in-class field service. However, if you also need solutions for your manufacturing, supply chain, financials etc then we can also give you all of this whilst encapsulating a best-in-class service solution within it.”

Customer experience is a huge part of the equation in service organisations now and we are moving into the experience economy “It is a unique position, where we can not only offer the stand alone FSM solution but the wider ESM (Enterprise Service Management) solution as well.”

“I also thought it was very telling that the announcement of our acquisition and mplsystems and our integration of their technology into IFS FSM was front and centre on the main stage during the opening key note sessions.”

“We call our solution IFS FSM but the truth is now that it is a full end-to-end lifecycle management solution. It is far more than just field service, it includes depot repair operations, reverse logistics, customer specific billing, deep contract and warranty capability.”

“Given that it goes all the way to the end, we were missing a piece at the front,  and mplsystems omni channel solution completes the picture. Customer experience is a huge part of the equation in service organisations now and we are moving into the experience economy so that customer journey needs to be consistent across the whole lifecycle.”

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Inner city congestion has long been a major cause for consternation for field service organisations, but with environmental factors such as air pollution becoming increasingly high on the political agenda of many countries across Europe and beyond, additional regulatory challenges are fast adding to the issue as Claudine Mosseri, General Manager, Field Services, ByBox explains...

The issue of air pollution in the UK is high on the political and environmental agenda, following a High Court ruling in February that the levels in many UK cities are ‘unlawful’. Given increasing pressure to do more to tackle this issue, along with rising inner-city congestion, councils are looking at new initiatives to cut traffic. These include calls for congestion charges, zero emissions zones and even a rumoured cable car for Oxford.

The estimated cost of congestion in the UK is predicted to rise 63% by 2030, to a cost of £21bn. British roads are some of the most populated in Europe, with double the number of traffic hotspots than Germany and France.  The estimated cost of congestion in the UK is predicted to rise 63% by 2030, to a cost of £21bn. London, of course, is top of the congested heap. Its weight of traffic is set to also increase by 60% by 2031, according to Transport for London (TfL).

A major contributing factor is the number of delivery vehicles on the roads during peak times. TfL states a quarter of London’s traffic during the peak hours of 7-11am is freight. It’s easy to see why the numbers of delivery vans on the roads are increasing. The number of workplace deliveries being ordered by people who cannot accommodate home delivery is rising. Expectations when it comes to next day and even same day delivery of items are high. And according to TfL, van space itself is often underutilised, with many shipping fresh air and making multiple stops around the capital. In response, the London transport organisation advocates greater delivery consolidation – ensuring more space, in fewer vehicles, is used more effectively.

While TfL has focused on delivery consolidation, there are also options around changing delivery times themselves. This would spread out the weight of traffic and avoid peak congestion hours. After all, when roads are busy, it becomes a vicious cycle of more delivery vehicles being stuck in traffic, further reducing their efficiency in getting from drop-off to drop-off. It seems unlikely that consumer demands about quick and convenient delivery will decline – and of course as businesses and cities themselves become ever more dependent on technology due to the integration of smart ‘Internet of Things’ devices and other automation, there will also be a rising need in urban areas for quick provision of replacement parts and engineers to provide fast and efficient fixes. Without exploring different solutions for getting these parts from point A to point B, this could easily lead to more vehicles on the road, simply trying to minimise the impact of device downtime.

Until recently, delivering during off-peak times was not possible – where would be open at two in the morning to take delivery?Until recently, delivering during off-peak times was not possible – where would be open at two in the morning to take delivery?

Yet now, there are networks of consumer click and collect locations in newsagents, stores and locker banks all over urban areas, many of them accessible 24/7. Similar solutions for part delivery have been used across the country for years to increase efficiencies in the field service supply chain. These 24/7 accessible, fixed point delivery locations not only reduce the number of stops delivery vehicles make but also reduce the numbers of vehicles on the road in city centres. Using this kind of point-to-point delivery planning with lockers, located in convenient, edge of city locations, essential parts are easy to access with minimal environmental impact and maximum speed.

Delivery to these locations overnight reduces failed deliveries, allows for the more efficient use of vehicle capacity, and doesn’t add to the existing congestion problem. For businesses with a high frequency for these deliveries, or where the delivered parts are especially time-sensitive or high value, hosting their own secure drop-off location could well prove a significant boon in timely delivery of essential items.

Some believe that clogged and congested cities are a problem that will only get worse. At ByBox we believe no problem is insurmountable.With predictive analytics on stock levels and given increasingly ‘smart’ devices communicating their status back to businesses, it is even possible for these holding stock and collection points to house particularly critical parts in advance of breakdowns, so they are to hand well before they are needed as well as being able to collect multiple items from one location at the same time.

Some believe that clogged and congested cities are a problem that will only get worse. At ByBox we believe no problem is insurmountable.

New thinking facilitated by technological innovations which can reduce transportation costs and optimise delivery routes can also help to tackle some of the issues around inner-city congestion and air pollution. By approaching the issues differently when it comes to vehicle use, drop-off and delivery schedules can answer on environmental necessities, the effective flow of traffic around urban areas, and the needs of demanding and always-on customers.

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Andrew Bolivar, Senior Consultant at Ultra Consultants explores how a firm understanding of Best-Practices can help field service companies increase efficiencies...

Effectively managing service technicians in the field has always presented a challenge for companies offering on-site customer service. The complexity of efficiently delivering those services has been a recurring problem, but technology and an enlightened approach to business process improvement provide the enterprise with a solution.

Modern technologies that streamline the management of field operations transform processes for employees as well as customers and key stakeholders.

However, it’s not merely embracing new technology that will enable the enterprise to optimize its field service operations; it also requires a comprehensive analysis of existing business processes and a strategic plan to create the desired future state of operations.

The Traditional Perspective

Field service was traditionally considered an extra, post-sales service, often operated as a low priority cost center with limited potential for expanding business. In today’s competitive marketplace, many companies differentiate themselves by providing additional services that wrap-around traditional product offerings.

Legacy field service management (FSM) solutions frequently lack a comprehensive suite of services. Many companies have cobbled together different solutions to secure all the functionality needed to operate efficiently.

Field service management has evolved into an essential tool which provides tremendous value in generating additional revenue from new and repeat business from existing customers.

Today’s Approach Leverages Technology and Improved Business Processes:

The introduction of field service mobile apps, GPS navigation and email alerts has ushered in a new era for field service. It has become a high priority standard and is a key differentiator when it comes to effective business operations and ongoing customer relationships.

An end-to-end FSM solution may include scheduling and routing optimization, vehicle location, driver logs and hours-of-service tracking, inventory management, field worker management and other benefits like reporting and analytics.  All combine to provide a comprehensive view of the asset’s service history throughout its lifecycle.

Current FSM solutions make it possible to maintain a 360-degree view of customer sites, equipment and service coverage. Time between call receipts and job assignments can be shortened. You can be assured that the right technician, with the right tools, and the right skills and certifications, will arrive at the right time and complete the required service without delay.

Automated Business Processes Provide Improvements in Four Key Areas:

Here are ways that an automated FSM solution can improve business results

1. Improved performance:

• Tracking the root causes of field service requests can drive better quality analysis and identify product design and/or business process improvements.
• An integrated field service management system can provide visibility of new installations or sales and ensure continuous contact with customers at critical phases of their engagement with the company.
• A full view of an asset's lifecycle helps ensure proactive service and warranty management calls

2. Increased productivity:

• Mobile field service applications optimize travel and scheduling for field technicians.
• Integrated warranty management and cost tracking eliminates wasted time and reduces receivables collection time.
• Visibility into your customer’s equipment and service history allow you to plan your inventory and tool requirements sooner – avoiding costly delays and downtime

3. Reduced costs:

• Real-time resource scheduling ensures quick response to customer calls and reduces the cost of idle time between on-site customer visits.
• Integrated, real-time service information reduces the waste in non-productive activities, improves service planning and reduces the need and cost for excess inventory allocated to repair.

4. Improved customer satisfaction

• Faster response time to customer calls and requests not only improves relationships with customers, but also enables opportunities to develop add-on and repeat business.
• Mobile applications and GPS enablement allow companies to alert customers of expected arrival times and access to data via mobile devices ensures field service personnel can be better prepared for each engagement.

Growth is Strong, with North American Market Leading the Way

The field service management market has been estimated to exceed $3.5 billion by 2019 with North America predicted to be the largest market size. Stratistics MRC expects FSM to reach nearly $4.5 billion by 2022 with a CAGR of 16.5 percent. Enhanced customer satisfaction and reducing operational costs are driving market growth while the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) provides ample additional opportunities.

Optimized Field Service Management Offers Huge Opportunity

Customers are increasingly expecting efficiency in field service – and are willing to pay a premium for it.

Leveraging the potential of field service automation with a proper analysis and deployment of appropriate business process improvements can increase the efficiency and productivity of field personnel, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

Companies sticking with legacy systems that don’t optimize field service operations may find their customers increasingly seeking companies that leverage technology to better deliver customer service.

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Asolvi is establishing itself as the supplier of choice for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the service management space across Europe. One of the ways it is doing this is by helping companies like Punt NL Groep in the Netherlands keep pace in a crowded market.

Punt NL Groep is an IT services, office equipment and document management solutions provider based in Drachten. It is modestly-sized and charged with managing and maintaining between 1,000 and 1,200 machines in the field (MIF).

There is intense pressure on companies of this scale to stay relevant in the document management space, which grows increasingly competitive and is dominated by constant technological change.There is intense pressure on companies of this scale to stay relevant in the document management space, which grows increasingly competitive and is dominated by constant technological change. That is why for the past three years Punt NL Groep has been using Asolvi's leading-edge software product, Evatic, an IoT-powered platform specially designed for the office print and document management industries.

Evatic combines automated data collection and processing with scheduling and task planning functionality, business intelligence tools and mobile technology to make the service operations of SMEs more profitable. Marco Visser, founder and CEO of Punt NL Groep, explains how Evatic is saving his company inordinate amounts of time so that it can focus on more important things.

"It saves us 20 hours a month of calculating and creating invoices and manually sending them out to customers after checking and re-checking," he says. "Now every step — from collecting the data from the machines to creating the invoices according to contract conditions to sending them out to customers — is all handled by Evatic automatically. Instead of 20 hours it takes us 30 minutes. It means our staff are able to be a lot more productive."

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Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief Editor, Kris Oldland's latest white paper, sponsored by eBECS, explores why field service organisations should be ensuring their field service technicians are collecting data from assets whilst on service calls even if they aren't ready to implement an IoT based approach to service delivery yet as by doing so they can reap some of the benefits and more importantly build the processes for a future world in which connectivity and data will be at the heart of customer service operations...

Want to know more? The bad news is the full white paper is only available exclusively for fieldservicenews.com subscribers.

The good news is that if you are a field service practitioner then you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner.

The even better news is we will send you a copy of this white paper when you apply as a welcome!

Click here to apply for your complimentary industry subscription to fieldservicenews.com and access the white paper now!

Note: Please do take the time to our T&Cs (available in plain English at fieldservicenews.com/subscribe) and note that this content is sponsored by eBECS

In today’s field service sector companies are facing an increasingly complex set of challenges and the collation and analysis of data paradoxically seem to often be found at both ends of the spectrum.

Data can be at the heart of many problems for a field service organisation as they struggle to find useful insight amongst ever-increasing banks of data locked away in differing business silos. Yet the rewards for breaking down those silos and also being able to identify where the insight is within your data can lead to better service levels than have ever been possible previously.

The vast amount of data that we have access to today can potentially give us a much more intimate understanding of our customer base than ever before, giving us the ability to understand and even predict their needs, far more accurately than we have ever been able to manage previously.

The vast amount of data that we have access to today can potentially give us a much more intimate understanding of our customer base than ever beforeHowever, the flip side of this benefit is that companies are now finding themselves drowning in data - which becomes meaningless without insight, a challenge which can be magnified further if data is locked away behind walls within an organisation.

It can be a daunting challenge to not only establish processes that allow the collection of data but also to ensure that when collected, data can move seamlessly across an organisation to fulfil its maximum potential. Yet in today’s business climate where service has become a core differentiator, there has perhaps never been a more urgent need to ensure you are harnessing every tool available to you in the most efficient manner in order to stay just one step ahead of the competition - and data certainly holds many of the keys to service excellence when it’s collected, processed and analysed correctly.

An interesting symptom of operating in a world of technological advancements, is that when we talk about data collection within a field service context the topic immediately turns to IoT - but in doing so are we overlooking one of the most important resource in a service organisation already at our disposal - the field service engineers themselves?

The importance of data collection in an increasingly connected world

The question of whether the Internet of Things will play a part in field service has been and gone. The answer was a resounding ‘yes it will.’

Research from Field Service News showed that 86% of companies were actively either developing plans to implement IoT or had already done so. Indeed, in terms of IoT and field service, the question for the overwhelming majority of companies has moved from why to how.

However, the impact of IoT in field service is set to be so revolutionary that it cannot just be viewed as a new technology to be rolled out, it is a decision which must be grounded with a firm understanding of your business strategies, your future goals and a rock solid foundation of both processes and technologies that can allow an organisation to fully reap the benefits of an IoT based service strategy.

But the revolution isn’t really an IoT revolution, it is a data revolution.

The number of connected devices globally is set to reach over 30BN by 2020 (data source: Berg Insight)

Asset performance data and even component performance data can open the doors towards moving towards both a more preventative maintenance focused approach as well as empowering your service engineers to be able to find a first-time-fix on a more regular basis.

Asset performance data and even component performance data can open the doors towards moving towards both a more preventative maintenance focused approach as well as empowering your service engineersYet, for many service organisations, the sheer volume of data that a fleet of connected assets will produce will cause a series of problems and pain points in and of itself.

With companies facing unprecedented levels of data coming into their service operation not only from IoT connected assets but also various digital customer touch points whether that be via contact agents, self-service portals or even sentiment analysis of relevant social media, finding meaning and value within such a deep data lakes can be a daunting task.

In addition to this, there is the further question of retrofitting assets that a discussion on IoT necessarily brings with it.

For organisations with a large install base there are a number of considerations that must be given thought including:

• Which assets are worth retrofitting with IoT connected sensors?
• Is it worth waiting for some assets in the field to reach their natural obsolescence and then replace them with newer connected models?
• Should you prioritise retrofitting assets for those clients that are the most profitable or will having multiple levels of service contract be a hindrance to service delivery?
• What data is it important to track from retro-fitted assets? What is essential and what is merely nice to have?
• What processes will you need to develop or adjust in order to facilitate this data within the workflow of your service delivery teams?

Want to know more? The bad news is the full white paper is only available exclusively for fieldservicenews.com subscribers.

The good news is that if you are a field service practitioner then you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner.

The even better news is we will send you a copy of this white paper when you apply as a welcome!

Click here to apply for your complimentary industry subscription to fieldservicenews.com and access the white paper now!

Note: Please do take the time to our T&Cs (available in plain English at fieldservicenews.com/subscribe) and note that this content is sponsored by eBECS

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