ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘field-service-management’ CATEGORY

Security and communications company Total Integrated Solutions has deployed Tesseract's service management software as part of a major restructuring programme designed to deliver more towards more proactive service and maintenance solutions for customers.

Total Integrated Solutions (TIS) has grown from the company that brought television to Mansfield in the 1950s to a highly recognised and valued brand within the UK’s communications and security systems industry.

With clients ranging from the University of Leeds to the MOD, TIS specialises in telephony, data integration, television and satellite distribution, marine communications, CCTV and fire and intruder detection systems.

Now TIS is restructuring in order to better serve its customers. It recently implemented a new ERP system but found that, while the system is strong on finance and contact management, its service element wasn’t ticking all the boxes. So TIS sought out Tesseract.

 

“Tesseract is one of the most highly rated platforms out there,” says John O’Hanrahan, Head of Service Operations at TIS. “We were aware of them because some of our competitors use them, and we’d heard good things about them from the industry. Following a demonstration from Tesseract, we saw that they offered exactly the level of detail and functionality we were looking for."

Tesseract’s service management software will be integrated with TIS’s ERP system.

It will replace its current, much more manual incident management operation, which requires staff to allocate engineers to deal with issues based on their own knowledge of the engineers’ skill sets, locations and availability.

With Tesseract, everything is automated, improving workflow and visibility and saving TIS a huge amount of time, time which the company can reinvest into working more closely with its customers.

Tesseract’s asset management tools will also help improve the solutions TIS offers to customers. John O’Hanrahan explains,

“Each time a customer logs a fault with a CCTV camera, Tesseract builds a history into that asset. If the camera keeps breaking, it means we can get to the core of the issue and look at more proactive solutions than just repeat repairs. This helps our customers save money, an objective that’s at the forefront of what we do.”

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Trimble has launched an end-to-end field service management suite called PULSE, designed to improve productivity across mobile workforces

The PULSET suite  is a comprehensive portfolio of end-to-end field service management solutions that enable businesses to deliver field service excellence across a range of industries, including construction, agriculture, telecommunications and utilities.

It is cloud-based and modular, enabling businesses to performing critical field service operations to transform the effectiveness of their work, workers and assets to improve productivity, customer satisfaction and their bottom line. Whether businesses need to streamline efficiencies in the back office, with technicians out in the field or both,PULSE provides an extensible portfolio of capabilities to meet a wide variety of operational requirements.

"The Trimble PULSE suite enables businesses to manage all of their field service operations in one place, with one provider," said John Cameron, general manager of Trimble's Field Service Management division.

"Our combination of telematics, back-office, scheduling and mobile workforce solutions allow us to offer the most complete set of end-to-end capabilities on the market today."

Built upon Trimble's robust infrastructure framework, the PULSE suite offers a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities to manage, schedule, mobilise and monitor the complete operation in real-time.

Managing back office operations - Provides back office support that allows for streamlined business processes that are repeatable and predictable.

 

Organisations can easily manage customers, calls, service contracts, estimates and work orders along with asset history, inventory and billing.

Scheduling and dispatching - Offers an extensive range of scheduling,  dispatch and optimisation tools to manage tasks, appointments, parts, shifts, routing and crew support.

Mobilising the workforce - Provides end-to-end data access and information collaboration through configurable and customisable mobile applications.

Monitoring the work, workers and assets - Offers organisations the ability to monitor work status, view the location of their workers, as well as all their mobile assets and vehicles. Businesses can quickly analyse work in process, utilisation, monitor performance, improve driver safety as well as ensure compliance is met.

"We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all field service management solution and more businesses are continually seeking tailored solutions to address their individual pain points and priorities," said Cameron.

"The modular set of capabilities that characterise the Trimble PULSE suite allows businesses to tailor a solution based on their needs to >streamline operations and achieve field service excellence."

 

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What do you think is the biggest challenge facing today's  field service organisations?  Submit your view to ClickSoftware's Service is Hard contest and receive a free Amazon voucher. 

Delivering service is hard, acknowledges ClickSoftware.  It is compiling a new book on the challenges facing the industry and would like input from Field Service News readers to help it identify and address the industry's biggest challenges and help make delivering service easier in future.

The company wants to combine its 20-years experience in field service with input from customers to create a book which will outline the most critical challenges in the sector market and present recommendations from experts, thought leaders and analysts on how to address these challenges.

All you have to do is to submit your challenges using the short form here by Tuesday 15^th March 2016. (The form is in English but you can enter the details of your challenge in your own language.)

No challenge is too small, too simple or too complex.

Everyone who submits a challenge will receive: 

• A free copy of the completed book (available in April 2016)
•  An Amazon Gift Card worth £15.

If your challenge is selected to appear in the book, we will also:

• Acknowledge your contribution by mentioning you by name as a contributor.
•  Send you a signed copy of the book (signed by Alec Berry, VP Consulting and Technical Services, ClickSoftware) thanking you for your support.
•  Send you an additional £35 Amazon Gift Card.

Some examples of the challenges already identified include:

• Business Challenge:  Service is hard….because we can’t meet our customers’ expectations while keeping operational costs down.
•  Functional Challenge: Service is hard….because we lack accurate planning and reliable appointment booking.
• Technical Challenge: Service is hard…because it is difficult and complex to integrate the most advanced field service solutions with our legacy systems.

 

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To submit your challenge, use this form. All challenges will be reviewed but may not all be included in the book.

 

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Wider access to custom-fit mobility tools is driving new efficiencies for field service workers, says  Alison Clark,  Product Manager  for RhoMobile Suite, the app development platform from Zebra Technologies.

The proliferation of more affordable and richly-featured mobile technologies is finally at the point of transforming field service practices for companies of all sizes. The degree of tool customisation essential for maximising the efficiency with which field service tasks are carried out has finally democratised, moving away from being something isolated to big businesses with the budget to match.

Enterprise-calibre field mobility applications customised to meet the highly specific needs of an individual business can now utilise specialised tools that include barcode scanners, GPS, sensor data capture, and more. This wider access to custom fit mobility tools is producing exciting new trends in field operations, which any business looking to improve their own practices in the field would do well to study for possible adoption. Here are three of the most significant ways that custom mobility app technologies are driving new efficiencies for workers in the field.

1.  Optimisation of field workers’ driving routes is slashing transit times.
   App-based GPS, traffic mapping, and routing technology in every service vehicle and carried in the pocket of every worker in the field is giving company dispatchers a more sophisticated, holistic overview of the field resources at their disposal. Field workers now have their routes for the day continuously optimised by intelligent software. The days of the repair truck coming within a “window” of 9am to 9pm are ending. Rather, precise computer-assisted planning allows field workers to tell customers how many minutes they are away.

   More streamlined and customised interfaces are benefitting today’s field workers by removing pain points and making data capture fast and error-proof.

   More specifically, we’ve seen a move toward apps where dispatchers can simply assign work orders to field technicians using a drag-and-drop calendar interface – where appointments and geographic routes are then easily recalculated and optimised for the fastest possible travel. Field workers are now experiencing the ease of simply following GPS directions from site to site. Dispatchers work from a dashboard that includes not just field workers’ locations but analytical insights as their work progresses. This allows dispatchers to modify assignments on the fly to further optimise work efficiency. The result of this efficiency is more site visits and jobs completed in a day, happier and better-served customers, and sizable savings in fuel costs.
2. Digitised and streamlined interfaces are revolutionising data capture.
   
   The pens and clipboards still used by some field workers are now (or soon to be) antiquated relics. And while technology solutions that are not custom fit to a company’s needs may assist somewhat by digitising information, workers using one-size-fits-all systems will still need to capture data in different apps and send multiple files to dispatchers. Thankfully, more streamlined and customised interfaces are benefitting today’s field workers by removing pain points and making data capture fast and error-proof. To complete a work order, field service workers may need to capture arrival and departure times, labor hours, work notes, part and material numbers, digital images, customer consultation time, customer signatures, etc. In the worst-case scenario of using less efficient and downright unwieldy solutions, field workers might even have to return to sites to recapture improperly recorded data.

   more streamlined and customised interfaces are benefitting today’s field workers by removing pain points and making data capture fast and error-proof.

   We’re seeing a decisive trend toward app solutions with thoughtfully designed user interfaces and smart use of data capture equipment. These apps also tend to include business rules and task segmentation customised for precise company needs. They can use Bluetooth scanners for errorless capture of complex parts numbers and integrate data within work orders themselves at the time of capture for seamless processing. Dispatchers can then receive and make use of those filled out work orders in real time, as their software is custom made for this purpose.
3. Field mobility apps work just as seamlessly offline.
   
   Even when work order data cannot be transmitted to dispatchers in real time, the trend in these apps is to make sure that locally capturing and later syncing recorded data is automatic and painless. Many field workers frequently travel to locations where their mobility devices will read “No Service.” Apps capable of offline data syncing enable workers to capture information without Internet connectivity and have that data sync up with the software used by dispatchers at the home office once they return to an area with a better wireless signal. This means that data is safe and available for use as soon as possible. Businesses using field mobility technologies have found that the more customised the application they use is to their needs, the more efficiently it will serve them. As highly tailored app customisation is now within the reach of businesses of all sizes, companies deploying employees in the field should look for those trends that support their productivity and help the business’ bottom line.

 

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Are UK field service companies keeping pace with the rest of the world?  In  Parts  One, Two and Three, of this exclusive four-part benchmarking report for Field Service News, Bill Pollock, President & Principal Consulting Analyst, Strategies for Growth SM, revealed the comparative performances of US and UK/European field service organisations, the key drivers influencing strategy for UK/Europe companies and KPI focus.  

Here, in Part Four, he reports on attitudes and trends regarding Cloud and On-Premise solutions. The publication of this research was sponsored by Kirona.

 

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Download the full report! Click here to download it now!

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By providing customers with the right mix of Web-enabled self-help capabilities, the leading UK/Europe organisations have essentially been able to run their respective services operations more effectively, while also increasing existing levels of satisfaction by allowing customers to become part of their own “support team”.

Self-help support capabilities, such as the ability to order parts, or view current work order status, saves customers – and FSOs – significant time in that an entire series of potential two-way vendor-customer status update calls can be avoided.

In addition, customers can create their own service tickets online, gain direct access to self-service resolution scenarios, receive real-time status update alerts, and track the shipping status of outstanding service parts orders themselves. Basically, the more power the customer has to perform any of these activities itself, the quicker service orders can be created, the quicker potential time-related problems can be identified and resolved, and the happier the customers will be with the services they are receiving from the provider.

By making the customer an integral part of the service delivery team, UK/Europe service organisations can continue to benefit from reduced time- and cost-related factors – while increasing existing levels of customer satisfaction. Customer access to online service order data and information is clearly a “win-win” scenario for all parties.

 

Growth in Cloud solutions

However, the greatest impact on the future of Field Service Management is most likely to come as a result of the growing acceptance of Cloud-based technology, as reflected in one particular series of questions included in SFG℠’s 2015 FSM survey questionnaire. Respondents were first divided into three (3) categories: those with existing FSM solutions already in place, those planning to implement in the next 12 months, and those considering an FSM implementation or upgrade in more than one year.

The results strongly suggest that we are currently in the midst of a fast-paced global sea change in the way FSM solutions are being marketed, sold and deployed.

Among those UK/Europe organisations currently planning an FSM implementation in the next 12 months (or considering doing so in the next 24 months), a Cloud-based solution is preferred by 29% of respondents, compared to only 14% citing a preference for Premise-based – a roughly 2:1 ratio in favour of Cloud.

However, more than half (57%) still remain undecided at this time (compared to only 26% for the general survey population). Still, Cloud-based FSM solutions appear to be the dominant preference. In less than three years since SFG℠’s previous FSM Benchmark Survey was conducted, this represents a sea-change from a market that has historically gone Premise-based for a majority of its FSM software solution needs.

However, the availability of Cloud-based FSM and SLM solutions now allows smaller UK/Europe FSOs to acquire the same types of functionality previously only available to larger organisations, thereby allowing them – in many cases for the first time – to compete directly against the historical market leaders.

 

Key Survey Takeaways

Based on the UK/Europe results of SFG℠’s 2015 Field Service Management Benchmark Survey, the key takeaways are: [ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. UK/Europe Field Services Organisations (FSOs) are driven to meet customer demands for quicker response; improve workforce utilisation, productivity and efficiencies; meet customer demand for improved asset availability, and increase service revenues
2.  A majority of UK/Europe FSOs are adding, expanding and/or refining the metrics, or KPIs, they use to measure service performance.
3. Over the next 12 months, more than three-quarters (79%) of UK/Europe FSOs will have invested in mobile tools to support their field technicians, and more than 53% will have integrated new technologies into existing field service operations.
4. UK/Europe Field Technicians are increasingly being provided with enhanced access to real-time data and information to support them in the field.
5. UK/Europe FSOs are providing customers with expanded Web-enabled self-help capabilities (i.e., to order parts, track the status of open calls, and create service tickets, etc.).
6. More than half of UK/Europe FSOs are not currently attaining their customer satisfaction or SLA compliance goals; and one-in-four are not achieving at least 20% services profitability (although services profitability, as a whole, appears to be improving).
7. Existing UK/Europe FSM platforms are reported as reflecting a more than 2:1 Premise-based over Cloud-based ratio; however, planned FSM implementations in the next 12 to 24 months are reported as more than 2:1 Cloud-based, or SaaS.

Historically, the primary factors cited as driving the UK/Europe – and global - services community to improve its operational efficiencies and service delivery performance have essentially been customer-driven; that is, with a focus primarily on meeting – and, even, exceeding – customer expectations for response time, first-time fix rate, mean-time-to-repair and the like.

However, the economic downturn of the past decade changed the way services organisations think by shifting their focus to ongoing rounds of cost cutting and downsizing (i.e., the denominator of the bottom line). However, this was quickly followed by a shift to the numerator, best represented by an all-out effort to increase service revenues, or turnover.

In 2016 and beyond, the focus will likely be even stronger on the customer in terms of striving to meet (and exceed) their demands, preferences and expectations – or “back to the basics”. UK/Europe FSOs will continue to plan to accomplish this mainly by developing and/or improving the KPIs they use to monitor their improved performance over time, investing in new tools to support both field technicians and customers, and integrating new technologies into their existing FSM or Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) systems.

 

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In Part One of this Industry Leader interview, Dave Yarnold, CEO of ServiceMax, spoke about the company's rapid growth and the technology underpinning that rise to prominence. In Part Two, he talks to Marc Ambasna-Jones about the the changing world of field service and  the 4Ps he considers essential to success.

Service is not just considered a cost centre any longer, Yarnold points out. "Service people are getting involved in growth discussions. So you will have to know what is going with your customers and all these products will have to be calibrated and serviced and this means a field service tech is needed to go do it.

More of service will be on manufacturers now and they will want it because it’s an opportunity to evolve selling product into a service business model. Instead of just selling licenses and products up front, you now have powerful long term relationships because you offer upgrades and so on. There is more tie-in. It also gives manufacturers longer, recession-proof, financial models and you will see more field techs as a result.

The reality of course is that no one knows for sure how service will develop. All you can do is support the service teams with a set of tools that make them more central to the ongoing success of a business."

People, Products, Processes and Promise

FSN: While this sounds great, surely there are gaps in the ServiceMax arsenal?

DY: “All this stuff is deep. When you dive into the four Ps - People, Products, Processes and Promise - (ServiceMax’s key message), there’s just an incredible amount of depth that you can add into the platform. We built it with the 4 Ps in mind, so we can expand. I don’t see any huge gaps but the more we get into it, the more we peel back the onion and discover more about our customers’ needs, the more we can develop new features and pump out capabilities.”

FSN: Is Product IQ is an example of that?

DY: Yes, Product IQ enables companies to uncover, track and interact with their installed base and make it come alive.

How many companies have a handle on their installed base and their system of record for all their customer assets? Very few. It’s a big gap – all these companies growing through acquisitions with all these different sets of data in different systems. It’s not one of the first things that gets harmonised so we are hoping we can help.[quote float="left"]How many companies have a handle on their installed base and their system of record for all their customer assets? Very few.

 

Selling on Salesforce

FSN: Looking back, how important has Salesforce been to ServiceMax and what is the relationship now? They must look at you and think, ‘I wish we’d done that?’

“Well, yes, they have the platform on which to build but we have spent a lot of money and time to build ServiceMax. It’s taken years to understand the needs of a market, which is one of the reasons why it’s not been disrupted previously. From a system perspective it has all the complexities of an ERP system, multiple functions having to work together, multiple data sources, a lot of integration points.

Plus it has all the complexities of a CRM system in that you have to deliver a customer-facing app to enable customer-facing folks to do their jobs. So, it’s got to be simple, easy to use, easy to interact with and on top of that it has to be disconnected and mobile.

That of course means solving the problem of data synchronisation – you are talking about one of the most complex enterprise application domains ever – so it’s not trivial to go and build one of these.

“In terms of Salesforce, it has been an awesome enabling technology because we go into service organisations that are tasked with taking care of massive customer bases and they are not going to put that at risk. It’s reputation and a significant revenue stream, so organisations must be super conservative.

We are riding in on one of the best, well established cloud platforms and in many cases already tried and tested and used for sales and marketing, so building on the Salesforce platform has given us a tremendous head start. It’s allowed us to get over a lot of hurdles that we would have otherwise had to face in a very conservative target market.”[quote float="right"]Service people are in front of customers every day. They are generating revenue and performing this incredibly vital function. Why does nobody think about those guys?

 

FSN: ServiceMax growth has been impressive. Does it reflect the growing importance of the service industry?

“When we were a 40-50 person company I was having meetings with CIOs of $25bn Fortune 500 companies.
There were times when I was looking around thinking this is unbelievable. When we started the company we looked at the competitive landscape and realised nothing has really happened since the late 90s. No one had really cared about this market and that surprised me. Considering how much revenue comes out of service operations, it’s shocking.

I won’t share the logo but, when I spoke to the CIO and head of service one of the biggest companies in the world, I asked ‘why is it the case that when a new mobile device comes out everyone says, your sales people need these?’
Service people are in front of customers every day. They are generating revenue and performing this incredibly vital function. Why does nobody think about those guys? He shook his head and said, “I’m not sure.”

FSN: Do you see yourself as championing their cause? Is that what drives you and the business?

“It’s one of the drivers. Certainly for a long time service has been an afterthought. It goes back to the business model. If you generate a sale and from that sale, everything after cuts into that profit, so businesses want to minimise costs. Service has traditionally been viewed as a cost but times are changing fast and we believe we are a big part of that change.”

Yarnold talks a great game. He has enthusiasm and determination in abundance and that can only be applauded.
He has come a long way since his days with Clarify and there is a sense that he really does want to fly the flag for field service but it is the company’s land grab that is intriguing and also telling.

Offices in Europe and the Far East have been added to the roster. Although Salesforce may not be jockeying for position, the giants of Oracle and SAP are players yet to fully wake to the potential of the market. By the time they do ServiceMax could be an attractive acquisition target anyway. Certainly ServiceMax is not short on investors.

“There are a lot of service companies out there, millions of field technicians around the world who are trying to do their job but still don’t have great tools. They have clipboards, old Lotus Notes, applications that are simple and do not do a great job in terms of helping them do their job. There is a huge opportunity for us here. And as a place to invest technology dollars, that sentiment is starting to build.”

 

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Miss Part One of this interview? Find it here

 

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What are the trends that will have the most impact on field service in 2016? John Cameron, general manager, Trimble Field Service Management,  reveals his top six.

Field service organisations have reached an unprecedented transformative stage, as an array of advanced tools continue to storm the market helping businesses to transform the way that their field service organisation operates.

Last year saw the expansion of the Internet of Things and the widespread introduction of advanced analytics tools to tackle Big Data. These trends will continue into 2016 along with the need for greater integration. Furthermore, with technology development moving so quickly and companies continually having to modernise their solutions to keep up with the competition, 2016 will see an increase in businesses entrusting one provider to deliver all the functionality and modularity they require to manage their work, workers and assets out in the field.

1. The Internet of Everything - The IoT has been on service businesses’ radar for a while, so the trend isn’t exactly new heading into 2016, but as more businesses invest in connected technology, we’ll see it become an established industry best practice. Gartner predicts that by 2020, 26-billion devices other than smartphones, tablets and computers to be connected via the Internet of Things. For field service organisations, connecting equipment with technicians’ mobile devices and the back office in real time is a necessity. Information captured in the field provides diagnostics and performance metrics that mitigate certain issues as well as tracks patterns and trends for long-range planning. The goal is to ensure an intelligent and preventive—not reactive—approach.
2. Predictive Maintenance Will Fuel Field Service Automation - With the predictive power of connected devices, the field service industry will not only take a more predictive/ proactive approach to service, they’ll begin to automate the field service process. For example, sensors in a piece of equipment could automatically trigger a service call when it needs something repaired or it’s due for regular maintenance. Connected devices take the idea of proactive service work — the service business has enough insight to let the customer know when a machine needs a repair before it fails — and automates the process.
3. Making sense of data for improved intelligence - With the majority of field service organisations deploying a vast range of different technologies out in the field, from GPS and vehicle tracking systems to fleet and work management solutions, many are challenged by the vast amount of data they’re collecting back. The ability to analyse and act on this data will continue to trend in the evolution of field services technology. [quote float="left"]Advanced analytics capabilities will allow organisations to execute on information generated from the field to become more efficient and productive.

    

   Advanced analytics capabilities will allow organisations to execute on information generated from the field to become more efficient and productive. Deploying workforce management solutions with sophisticated analytics tools will enable managers to improve operations with real-time visibility into their operations. Data gathered from smarter mobile apps and equipment sensors will provide insights on performance, tasks, service quality, and new products that will enable field service managers to not only keep up with the competition but to step ahead. Analytics will be embedded and pervasive. After all, the value of analytics is in the answers, not the data.
4. Greater Integration - As back office, telematics and workforce management solutions become more integrated with mobile devices, the opportunities to increase efficiency and productivity are growing exponentially. Field service managers can make real-time decisions remotely by accessing vehicle tracking, scheduling and routing on their mobile devices. This allows organisations to mitigate reckless driving incidents, control wear and tear on their fleet and decrease maintenance costs, all from a handheld. Mobile apps will continue to provide critical information such as daily tasks, customer histories, billing, and the locations of nearby teammates on demand for field service technicians. This access to real-time information empowers the technician to make strategic decisions, recruit help from teammates, and complete jobs on-time the first time, resulting in lower operational costs and higher customer satisfaction.
5. The Power of Mobility - The right mobile architecture can solve many of the tactical challenges field service organisations face today: latent customer needs, increased competition, unmitigated churn and worker productivity. To be successful with any mobility deployment, organisations must choose the best field service solution and adopt the implementation best suited for their operation. Gartner has made the following predictions for the state of mobile in field service by 2016:
   • 2/3rds  of the mobile workforce will own a smartphone
   • 40 per cent of the workforce will be mobile
   • Field service organisations will purchase 53 million tablets in 2016
   • Approximately 56 per cent of smartphones purchased by businesses in North America and Europe will be Android devices
   • As more and more organisations use mobile to automate the service process and eliminate duplicate data entry, those who stick with paper methods will get further and further behind
6. One solution, one provider - With technology development moving so quickly and companies continually having to modernise their solutions to keep up with the competition, 2016 will see an increase in businesses entrusting one provider to deliver all the functionality and modularity they require to manage their work, workers and assets. To achieve that, they need robust and flexible end-to-end platforms backed by a reliable provider.

 

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At 49%, the cited  current investments in mobile tools to support field technicians by UK/Europe services organisations is much higher than the overall survey base (44%),  yet current plans for integrating new technologies are still reported as significantly lower (i.e., only 20% in the UK/ Europe, compared with 34% for the global survey base).

However, plans for new technology integration over the next 12 months are significantly high at 33%, suggesting that the adoption of new services technologies in the UK/Europe may be roughly only one year behind that reflected by the general survey population (which is comprised of roughly 75% of respondents from the Americas).

Planned strategic actions by UK/Europe services organisations over the next 12-month period reflect a more dynamic, rather than static, approach to the field services marketplace.

For example, 51% of respondents plan to develop and/or improve their use of field service KPIs, or metrics, in the next 12 months; and nearly as many plan to improve planning and forecasting activities with respect to field operations (46%).

 

Automating existing manual field service processes and activities (40%) is also cited as a top planned strategic action.

Additional top planned strategic actions, cited by at least one-quarter (25%) of UK/ Europe respondents, include integrating new technologies into existing field service operations (33%), investing in mobile tools to support field technicians (30%) and providing enterprise-wide access to important field-collected data (26%).

Other key planned actions will be taken in areas relating to increasing customer involvement in Web-based service processes (23%); providing additional training to field technicians and dispatchers (19%); outsourcing some, or all, field service activities to partners and vendors (14%); and hiring additional field service technicians and/or dispatchers (11%).

What these data primarily show is that the UK/ Europe field services community recognises the need to take specific strategic actions to enhance and improve existing service operations, and that these actions begin first and foremost with the need to develop and/or improve the use of service metrics and KPIs in measuring and monitoring their service delivery performance.

In addition, it shows that UK/Europe FSOs also recognize the need to invest in the right mobile tools and technologies to empower their resources both in the field, and in the back office, to improve existing processes, meet the growing needs of customers, and make greater contributions to the bottom line.

Use of KPIs

The survey findings reveal that there are basically seven service performance metrics, or KPIs, presently being used by a majority of UK/Europe FSOs. They include:

• 78%  Customer Satisfaction
• 75%  Total Service Revenue
• 68%  Total Service Cost
• 53%  Field Technician Utilisation
• 53%  Percent of Total Revenue under SLA/ Contract
• 51%  Service Revenue, as a Percent of Total Company Revenues
• 51%  Service Revenue, per Field Technician

However, there are also an additional seven KPIs that are used by just under one-half of UK/ Europe FSOs to help them measure performance, including On-Site Response Time (49%), First Time Fix Rate (49%), Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance (49%), Field Technician Productivity (47%), Mean-Time-to-Repair (MTTR) (47%), Service Contract Attach Rate (47%) and Service Contract Renewal Rate (47%).

The fact that ±50% of all UK/Europe services organisations presently use up to 14 KPIs to measure service performance reflects a significantly high level of importance placed on the use of KPIs in the overall UK/Europe services community.

 

The survey findings also show that UK/Europe services organisations aspiring to attain Best Practices do not merely look at specific outcomes, such as improving the bottom line, or increasing customer satisfaction; they also look at ways in which to identify the root causes of major problems and leverage process improvement opportunities through the implementation of effective tools and technologies to support their resources both in the field and in the front and back offices that support them.

For example, a majority of UK/Europe FSOs currently support their field technicians with a variety of online capabilities, including the ability to initiate service orders (83%), ability to track and update the current status of work orders (77%), access to product schematics/ documentation (57%) and ability to provide customers with an Estimated Time for Arrival (ETA) (55%).

Other capabilities planned in the next 12 months by at least one-third (33%) of UK/Europe services organisations in support of their field technicians include: [unordered_list style="bullet"]

• 38% Access to problem resolution scenarios
• 35%  Access to customer/asset service history

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Whether it is access to data and information that represents the past (i.e., customer/ asset history), the present (i.e., current status of work orders), or the future (i.e., providing customers with an ETA), the leading UK/Europe FSOs clearly appear to recognize the importance of real-time data and information access.

However, the key to success for many services organisations is that they are also providing their customers with a comparable set of online tools to make both their – and their field technician’s – lives much easier.

 

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Do UK/Europe FSOs prefer Cloud or On-Premise solutions? Find out in Part 4 coming soon...

 

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Are UK field service companies keeping pace with the rest of the world? In Part One of this exclusive four-part benchmarking report for Field Service News, Bill Pollock, President & Principal Consulting Analyst, Strategies for Growth SM, revealed comparative performances and some of the differences between US and UK/European field service organisations.  Here, in Part Two,  he reports what  UK and European service companies say are the key drivers influencing strategy. The publication of this research is sponsored by Kirona.

 

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The key drivers that most influence UK/Europe organisations to improve the overall performance of their field service operations are similar to those cited by the overall respondent base, although, with a higher degree of intensity, and in a slightly different order – i.e., one that places somewhat more emphasis on customer demand and workforce utilisation, productivity and efficiency.

Nonetheless, the UK/Europe respondents have clearly identified the specific drivers that are pushing them to aspire to the attainment of higher levels of performance. For example, customer demand for quicker response time is cited by more than half of the respondent base (i.e., 56%) as the top driver their organisation currently focuses on with respect to optimising field service performance.

The need to improve workforce utilisation and productivity, and need to improve service process efficiencies are the next most highly cited at 47% of respondents, respectively.

From such data, it is clear that the main focus of UK/Europe services organisations remains squarely on the customer.

 

They have already recognised that a focus on the customer must be first and foremost with respect to driving their service operations, and that they could neither attain – nor maintain – a strong competitive status in the services community without having focused first on their customer’s needs and requirements; and, next, on improving the internal services operations necessary to meet their expectations.

As such, the common threads that tie all of these drivers together among UK/Europe services organisations may be best categorised into three groupings essentially comprising:

1. Customer demand for quicker response and improved asset availability;
2. Field technician utilisation, productivity and efficiency improvement; and
3. An internal mandate to drive service revenues – and profits.

We also believe that it is a mistake to dwell only on the “top” factors that are driving the market – and the organisation.

In fact, there are several other factors that respondents also cite as just “bubbling under the surface” with respect to their potential impact on the overall well-being of the organisation. These include:

 

• 22% Competitive pressures / need for market differentiation
• 14% Customer demand for more accurate service call scheduling
• 12% Escalating field service operations costs
• 8% Need to reduce dispatch-related errors

It is noted that UK/Europe organisations are far less likely to be driven by competitive pressures/ need for differentiation than the overall survey universe (i.e., only 22% for the UK/Europe, compared to 33% for the overall respondent base).

Also, while only 8% (i.e., or roughly 1-in-12) UK/ Europe respondents cite the need to reduce dispatch-related problems as a key factor, this driver is apparently still an important consideration to a significant number of organisations.

Another key influencing factor revealed through the analysis is that only 62% of the UK/Europe services organisations surveyed have experienced some improvement in year-over-year field technician productivity (i.e., measured in terms of average calls completed per day), compared to 67% among the overall respondents). Nearly as many (i.e., 61%) have experienced improvements in service revenue, per field technician during the same period.

A similar percentage (i.e., 60%) have also experienced improvements in their year-over-year service profitability.

In fact, these year-over-year increases have helped UK/Europe services organisations to attain a mean average of 35% service profitability in the most recent reporting period, only slightly lower than the 38% attained among the overall respondent base.

Customer satisfaction

At a mean average of 82%, UK services organisations are also currently falling somewhat below the global survey population with respect to attaining desired levels of customer satisfaction (i.e., 85%).

However, each of these respective levels of performance assure that most UK/Europe services organisations will likely retain their high standings in the global services community: first, through sheer momentum; and finally, by the fact that they also reflect among the survey universe’s highest levels of strategic actions – both current and planned – targeted to improve these key areas of performance over the next 12 months and beyond.

 

Based both on the survey findings and SFGSM’s ongoing follow-up research, it is not surprising that the UK/Europe field services community recognises that it will need to increase its investments in mobile tools and new technologies to compete effectively in an expanding global marketplace.

In addition, it also recognises the importance of building an effective Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), or metrics, program to measure the impact that its strategic actions, technology investments and resource acquisitions will actually have on the organisation’s performance moving forward.

Perhaps one of the most encouraging signs for the future success of UK/Europe services organisations is that nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents cite the development/improvement of the KPIs and metrics they use to measure, monitor and track their field service performance over time as their top strategic priority.

This figure is substantially higher than the 52% cited by the overall survey population – and even higher than the 52% cited by Best Practices organisations.

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Download the full report! Click here to download it now!

 

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Watch out for Part 3 , where Bill Pollock reports on KPI performance and what technologies companies plan to invest in from 2016 onwards.

 

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