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Having recently started a new role working with his Vice President, Whitney Reynolds, focusing on Customer Experience Matt Boretti, Director, Strategic Programs, Teleflex, was a prime candidate to take part in the day-long stream on the topic at the forthcoming Field Service Medical conference held this year in La Holla, California.

We spoke exclusively with Boretti ahead of the event to find out more about what he would be covering off in his presentation and why CX has become such an important area both in his organisation Teleflex and also within the broader medical sector.

"The customer experience group is a relatively new initiative in our organisation" begins Boretti.

"We've done extremely well financially across the last number of years, which has been primarily fuelled by a growth strategy that has been based on acquisition. As I'm reading and learning more around customer experience, I've come to understand that it is not unusual for companies that are in a heavy acquisition mode tend to not have the ASCI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) scores, so we were probably not unusual in that regard."

"Our President of the Americas, Jay White,  recognised this and I believe he was hearing from a number of our customer's if I didn't have to buy from Teleflex I wouldn't - I think that was a pivotal moment for him where he realised we need to do something different. In other words, what got us to this point where we are at now, is not going to get us towards where we want to go next."

With White identifying the importance of service to his organisation's aspirations, he pushed the topic and gained buy-in from his fellow senior execs with the result being Boretti and Reynolds heading up the newly formed Customer Experience group back in August last year.

As one would expect just six months in it has been a phenomenally busy period for the two, but perhaps crucially they have gone into the task with a solid understanding of what needs to be achieved and a well thought out roadmap of how they are going to get there.

"When we initially took this on we realised that we're not experts in this!" Boretti admits humbly. "So the first thing we did was we started to read a lot, and we also identified some organisations that had helped companies like us with similar projects such as this - which is change management at the core."

"We whittled a list of ten initial companies down to three who came to us to present their ideas. Then we finally chose a company called Strativity, who had worked with companies like Delta and Mercedes Benz, and they've established a straightforward process that was easy to understand so we could visualise how we should fit into that."

Alignment:

"The first step of the process for us was alignment, and in many ways, Jay [White] had already started that process via some of the socialisations he had done with the leadership group. However, there was still a lot of details to be established, so I think they were onboard, but they didn't exactly what they were signing up for. Therefore our first objective was to get everyone up to speed on what we would be undertaking here."

With this objective set, the first move was to hold a management alignment meeting to make sure all essential personnel were on the same page. However, it soon became apparent to Boretti that the path they were heading on wasn't going to be one of simple linear progression.

"What really struck me in that first meeting was that alignment is not just a phase that we will move out of. We will probably move from alignment into discovery, then back to alignment then into design and then back to alignment and so on. It really does need to be a journey of continuous improvement and refinement."

Communication

Of course, while as Boretti asserts alignment needs to be a continuously reviewed aspect that is returned to and evaluated through any process that will fundamentally shift a corporate culture, such as bringing customer experience to the fore, another vitally constant aspect that needs a concerted focus is on communication.

"We started doing a lot of communication from very early on," explains Boretti. "People would ask me what I was doing exactly, and I would say there are three things that we are doing. Great things are happening in the organisation that Whitney [Reynolds] and I had nothing to do with that were improving the customer experience, so the first thing we are doing is highlighting those great things and making sure people are aware of the good things that are already happening in the organisation."

"The second aspect was that we started to understand in the different functional areas of the business units where we wanted to make improvements for the customer experience but that were not easy and had obstacles in place - whether they be processes, people or systems. We wanted to gain an understanding of those which would be important to our group and help remove some of those obstacles so we could accelerate some of those."

"Then the last piece was the transformation itself. We knew that we had to change the mindset and to some extent our culture regarding how we view our customers and how we view ourselves servicing those customers - ultimately that is what we see as the long-term aim for the CX group."

Fortune favours the brave

For even the most seasoned service and change management professionals identifying the core areas of focus, building out a strategy and then beginning to implement that plan would be viewed as a reasonable return for an initial six months of hard work. However, Reynolds realised that they had the wind in their sails and in October tasked Boretti with holding a Customer Experience Week in December.

It was a bold move, for while it presented an opportunity to really drive home the awareness the for how the company was evolving concerning its customer focus, it would mean a lot of hard work to bring it together within less than two months. If the delivery of such an event is executed well, it can potentially have an adverse effect amongst the workforce. It was a definite sign of trust in Boretti and the CX group as well as the viability of what they were trying to achieve.

Fortunately, that faith was repaid, and they not only pulled it off but in doing so have been really able to accelerate their program so far. So what exactly did they include in their inaugural Customer Experience Week?

"There were three parts to customer experience week," explains Boretti. "Firstly we introduced an off the shelf training package from Miller-Heimann called Building Customer Loyalty where so we brought some of our trainers together who run leadership training internally and then trained the trainers, based on that course."

"We also brought in our customers into give presentations as well. It was interesting because when I first suggested this, a few people asked 'can we do that?' But this was a customer experience week so for me; it was essential that the customers were involved."

"With the customer presentations, we basically asked them to tell us three things when they came in. We wanted them to tell us what they expect from a medical device company, how they viewed our partnership and to tell us what we were doing well and then to tell us where we were falling short, what do we need to do differently, what do we need to do better."

"The final thing that we did was what we called departmental sharing. The thinking is that we everyone in the organisation either directly impacts the customer experience or enable the customer experience. We gave everyone a passport, and they were asked to go around the office, and they would get a sticker on the passport, and they would put the passport in Dropbox when they were done to enter a draw."

"Out of around 550 people within the office we had about 250 that participated in that event and another 200 involved in the training and about 150 that attended the customer presentation - so we really did manage to touch all of the office, and the reception was really positive."

Next step on the journey

So with a whirlwind six months plus and a highly successful Customer Experience week behind them already what is the next step on the change management journey for Boretti and his CX group within Teleflex?

"The real benefit for us from undertaking the CX Week is that we're now going to be producing a Customer Experience guide which we will be looking at in the June/July timeframe. What the event allowed us to do was identify what worked well, what didn't work well and what would we do differently."

"So we really have a strong baseline now for when we launch at full throttle in mid this year. Also, to come back to the point about alignment being a content area of focus for us, it helped us in terms of making sure the whole team could have some visibility into exactly what we are doing and why."

In many senses what the team at Teleflex are trying to achieve is not necessarily something new, customer-centricity and adopting an outside-in perspective of the business is a fundamental concept amongst companies with high CSAT scores. However, as Boretti raised above it is also an area that many companies, especially those that have grown through acquisition and therefore have multiple cultures embedded within them, struggle to master.

From speaking with Boretti though it certainly seems that Teleflex is adopting a sensible approach to establishing a central culture that has Customer Experience at its heart - something that will stand them in good stead for many years to come.

Want to know more? Why not join Matt and as well as the Field Service News team in La Jolla for field service medical in Feb 26th to 28th. Field Service News subscribers have an exclusive 25% discount for this event and if you are a field service practitioner then you may qualify for a complimentary industry subscription
Click here to apply for your subscription now and if you are successful a discount code will be sent to you via email within the hour!

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, takes a look at a new line in wearable technology aimed at the medical sector launched by Nanowear and explains why he thinks it could be an essential aspect for field service worker safety...

Despite all the hyperbole (much of which I myself admit to being responsible for) wearables in field service has just never really taken off.

For example, the impact of the ultimate widespread failure of Google Glass did a lot to suppress the appetite for smart glasses. At the time of launch, Field Service Management (FSM) solution providers were queuing up to announce that they were working on a Glass app and the promise of hands-free working had everybody in the field service sector excited.

However, a mix of poor battery life and spotty voice recognition meant it never really met expectations. Add to this the fact that Google misjudged the product as something the consumer world was waiting for when the reality was it was always a product that should have been geared to towards industry and in particular areas such as field service, where remote workers could have benefited from such a technology.

Google misjudged the product as something the consumer world was waiting for when the reality was it was always a product that should have been geared to towards industryAnd while a raft of companies has since brought respectable, smart glasses to the market, with the pick of the bunch for my mind so far being Vuzix, the general feeling of disappointment with Glass is a hard obstacle to overcome. That said, with the rise in prominence of AR the smartglass market is getting a second wind, and I do feel that smartglasses will ultimately play an important role in the field service industry. But that time is likely to still be a few years away - when a couple of years ago it seemed imminent.

The same can't be said for smartwatches though. Again a number of FSM solution providers including IFS, ClickSoftware and ServiceMax all developed smartwatch applications.

However, looking back with hindsight these seemed to be more about developing an app for a technology for the sake of it, and then trying to work a use case back from that position - which invariably is a lot less likely to yield results. Ultimately the benefit of having a stripped down version of a mobile app on a field service engineer's wrist offered little benefit - especially when most smartwatches need to be paired with a phone in the first place.

While for smartglasses there is a distinct home for them in the world of field service, smartwatches seem to be very much a technology that belongs in the consumer realm.Ultimately, while for smartglasses there is a distinct home for them in the world of field service, smartwatches seem to be very much a technology that belongs in the consumer realm.

However, while smartwatches and smartglasses dominate the conversation, they are not the form factor that wearables come in. In fact, it is a new form of wearable produced by Nanowear, a New York-based start-up launched Venk Varadan and his father Dr. Vijay Varadan, that has caught my eye as having some serious potential within our sector.

The official blurb states that Nanowear is a "connected-self technology platform for diagnostics and chronic disease management and is the first-and-only company in the world to have received FDA 510(k) clearance for cloth-based cardiac remote monitoring."

So what exactly does that mean and why do I think it could play a role in field service?

Well first let's explore the technology.

Essentially, it is a cloth based sensor that contains millions of nano-sensors per square inch. In practice, this means that the cloth could be used in any manner of clothing and it simultaneously captures and relays real-time data from the wearer for remote monitoring at any time.

Sensibly the team at Nanowear have aimed there first product released using the technology, SimpleSense, at the medical industry. This makes sense for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it takes into account that important first rule of launching a tech business - have a clear understanding of the problem your technology will solve. There is a lot of medical and bio-engineering expertise amongst the team at Nanowear and SimpleSense is designed to tackle a very specific problem - namely Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).

By tackling CHF SimpleSense can position itself very much as a cost-saving development for the core market of hospitals, making it that much easier for them to penetrate a market with traditionally complicated and drawn out procurement chains.

Even under a Trump administration that is dramatically reducing the level of red tape regulation, gaining FDA approval is no mean feat and that accreditation will carry a lot of weight and recognition far beyond the medical sector.Secondly, it is a fantastic area for proof of concept. Even under a Trump administration that is dramatically reducing the level of red tape regulation, gaining FDA approval is no mean feat and that accreditation will carry a lot of weight and recognition far beyond the medical sector.

Indeed, when I spoke with Venk Varadan to find out more about the technology he was at a break from a meeting with Google AI team exploring some of the other possible applications for their technology. Other rollouts into different sectors are absolutely on the long-term roadmap, but I think in identifying one core application for the technology, to begin with, Nanowear will not only be able to establish a solid working proof of concept to expand upon, but are also able to avoid the 'boil-the-ocean' mentality so so many start-ups for foul to.

All too often we see excellent ideas and emerging technologies get lost as their founders try to push each and every possible use case all at once. In taking such a structured and measured approach, Nonowear is doing well to avoid that temptation and ultimately are more likely to be better positioned to penetrate other markets when the right time comes.

With that in mind, let us consider the role this technology could play in the field service sector.

Field service is by its very definition a role in which we put some of our most important assets, i.e. the engineers themselves, in an isolated and often dangerous position. Field service is by its very definition a role in which we put some of our most important assets, i.e. the engineers themselves, in an isolated and often dangerous position. Whether it be working at height, working in remote areas with live electrical equipment or even just behind the wheel going from one job to another, field service engineers are at risk simply by the very nature of the fact they are very often alone.

A wearable vest utilising the Nanowear technology that tracks vital body data regularly such as cardiological or even neurological data could quite conceivably be integrated into a remote worker application.

The question is then how can the data be applied to reduce the risk of the lone worker? The first thought in my mind would be that should an engineer be in an accident when working in a remote location - whether it be a fall, a blow to the head or heaven forbid even possibly a heart attack, then assistance could be sent immediately. This could vastly increase the chances of recovery and in severe cases maybe even survival.

How about the possibility of linking the vest to a kill switch when in the vehicle. So again should the engineer suffer a heart-attack behind the wheel the vehicle just comes to a stop? With the sensors available in modern vehicles it is even possible that the vehicle would be able to reduce speed and pull over safely under its own steam in such a situation. Indeed, such a device would have saved countless lives just a few years ago when such a tragic situation happened in Scotland for example.

Taking things one step further could the right interpretation of the data if applied correctly potentially even predict something critical such as imminent heart failure and avoid an engineer putting themselves in a dangerous position in the first place perhaps?

In fact, it is as we turn to the interpretation of the data that the fullest value of Nanowear becomes apparent. Not only have they developed the actual hardware, but they have also established proprietary systems for interpreting the data as well.

"I think for us the real USP is that we offer the full stack. You can't call yourself a data analytics company if you don't have clean pipes. If your just pulling data from everywhere all of your focus is going to be looking for data that you want to see, as opposed to analysing raw data. We have unique data sets because of how we capture them with our cloth. That makes us a better analytics company down the road," states Vardan.

It is the duty of every field service company to do everything within their power to mitigate the risk that their field service engineers face when working on their own."It is a more complicated story because it's materials, hardware, analogue to digital transfer, user experience and analytics that is a big stack for people to get comfortable with and that's why the IoT has been broken up into those five areas. But we feel we are best placed to provide the services as well as the hardware as we have the best understanding of the data."

In terms of the potential for Nanowear being rolled out into the field service sector personally, I think the business case is very straightforward. It is the duty of every field service company to do everything within their power to mitigate the risk that their field service engineers face when working on their own.

So while the initial rollout for Nanowear has a very specific focus within the medical sector, as mentioned above, they have already identified a number of further potential applications for it and are actively exploring other.

From where I'm sitting, wearable clothing to protect lone workers simply has to be one of them.

Want to know more? Why not join Venk and the Nanowear team and as well as the Field Service News team in La Jolla for field service medical in Feb 26th to 28th. Field Service News subscribers have an exclusive 25% discount for this event and if you are a field service practitioner then you may qualify for a complimentary industry subscription
Click here to apply for your subscription now and if you are successful a discount code will be sent to you via email within the hour!

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Ahead of his presentation at the forthcoming Field Service Medical conference being held in La Jolla, California next month, Matthew Boretti from Teleflex Americas shares his thoughts on technology innovation, healthcare consolidation, and how these are changing customer expectations in the medical device industry...

Which major field service and customer centricity trends have you observed in the medical device industry this year?

Our customers are continually being asked to do more with less. This is particularly difficult as they are already operating on razor thin margins, so they really need help beyond product solutions to help them find new ways to reduce costs while improving care to their patients in the same process. No easy feat. In short, they expect more from their suppliers. And, they are hiring bright people to drive these results, so suppliers must come to the table well prepared to have these discussions. They want to understand the value-added performance programs and education we can offer their staff.

Have your customers’ expectations drastically evolved in view of the latest technological innovations? How are you keeping up with all the changes?

They really have. And, I believe the reason their expectations have increased is they are consumers like everyone else, so they are getting used to one-click shopping through services like Amazon which also offers hassle free returns and same day delivery! It’s crazy how simple things are becoming and how the world of instant gratification and self service has become so prevalent. For this reason, Teleflex is investing heavily into customer experience design, which certainly involves evolving our systems and technology capabilities. Measuring results is critical. Fortunately, the technology makes it easier to track information.

Has healthcare consolidation impacted your operations in any way?

It has, both on the customer side and in respect to competition. As hospitals and hospital systems consolidate, we often see their desire to standardise purchasing decisions, which provides both opportunities and risks. We also see consolidation on the supplier side, which can change how we view our competition. We may have suppliers that were partners yesterday, who we now see as competitors.

What should field service leaders do to meet rising expectations of connected and empowered customers?

They need to find ways to respond more quickly to their customer needs and offer opportunities for low-impact self-service.

Which direction do you see your company heading in the next five years?

We need to design systems and processes that will deliver a radically simple interface with customers. We need to transform our culture into one where all employees view every interaction as an opportunity to exceed customers expectations. Ultimately, we need to create an environment where we are obsessed with making every interaction with our customers a positive experience.

We look forward to your presentation at the upcoming Field Service Medical 2018 forum. What do you think about this year’s program – which topics and sessions will be most helpful in helping you achieve the goal of being 100% customer centric in your field service operations?

I’m really excited about the program and the sessions being offered. It very much aligns to the trends and areas we see as important in our business. It will be tough choosing the sessions to attend given the many options.

Customer centricity is set to be a hot topic at Field Service Medical 2018, taking place in La Jolla, California, this coming February. Download the Field Service Medical 2018 Agenda to learn more.

Interested in attending? Field Service News subscribers can get an exclusive 20% discount to this event. If you are a field service practitioner then you can apply for a complimentary subscription by clicking here and we'll send you your discount code across on email straight away

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Ron Bucher, Director Worldwide Customer Support, AccuVein has been managing customer support for over 30 years in a wide variety of hi-tech companies in organisations both with and without field service and as such has an extensive and broad experience – so his forthcoming presentation at Field Service USA speaking on the challenge of separating product sales and post sales service is a session set to be full of deep insight.

Looking ahead of the conference Kris Oldland spoke with him about the challenges he will be addressing…

“What I have observed over the years is that for a lot of companies in any high-tech sector there is a certain amount of post sales account management required as all products have problems.” Bucher begins as we discuss why he has chosen to focus on the importance of ensuring product sales representatives don’t get absorbed into the post sales support process.

“In many companies the product sales representatives can get very consumed in managing post sales product issues and I believe almost all companies hire sales people to sell product and not to act as customer support managers.”

“So there is a hidden cost to every sales organisation if the service organisation is not managing all of those post-sales product support issues,” he explains.

Of course this issue, which is indeed a prevalent one, not only impacts the sales division’s efficiency but also can somewhat counter-intuitively negatively impact on the service department as well.

“Sales people tend not to be that experienced or effective in managing post-sales product support issues in a way that is optimal for the company – if they don’t understand the service process or the product, they can actually make the situation worse when they are involved in this process,” Bucher continues.

“The theme here really is if you can improve your customer support organisation  so that sales people don’t have to get involved in post-sales product support issues it is a win-win for the sales organisation, the service organisation and the company.”

One school of thought is that extended warranties and service contracts should be sold at that point of sale with the product as a solution, so once that is all in place it is easier for the post-sales customer service teams and the account management teams to make sure that everything does run smoothly for the customer. This is an approach that Bucher firmly supports.

“The best contribution any product sales rep can make to ensuring their customers are happy and ensuring their customers get the best post-sales support is to sell them a service agreement up front with the product,” he explains.

 

“Customers who have service support agreements are happier customers,” he adds.

“The reason is that when they do have problems it’s much less hassle for them. If a product is out of warranty, virtually all product companies will charge very high prices to fix an out of warranty product and the service level will be akin to ‘we will get to it when we can.’”

“It’s a world of difference to a customer, if they have that service agreement or   if they don’t. Customers don’t expect any product to be perfect, they expect every  product to fail at some time. What they really get disappointed at is how the problem is handled once the product has failed.”

“It is very easy for a customer up front to say ‘oh I don’t need a service agreement we’ll take our chances’ but that is the customer shooting themselves in the foot. A really good sales rep will explain to their customer what their experience will look like after the warranty expires if they don’t buy a service agreement and what their experience will be if they do buy a service agreement.”

“Customers buy a service agreement to eliminate and prevent pain.  It is not just an insurance policy – it is a higher level of service that you will get,” he concludes.

However, perhaps one significant barrier to adopting an approach that marries product and service sales is ingrained in the mind sets of many product sales reps.

Whilst, as Bucher explains customers do expect a device to fail, could it be that in building up the value of their product many product sales people just don’t want to admit that this is the case?

In focussing on talking up the reliability of a device as a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or differentiator against the competition, do some product sales reps lead themselves up a blind alley from which they can’t back down at the last minute and say … but when it does actually break we have a service package…  is a reluctance by product sales reps to acknowledge that the device they are selling can fail part of the problem?

“They don’t want the customer thinking anything negative about the product while they are waiting for the customer to send them a PO for a purchase,” Bucher agrees.

“One way around that is to sell them the product and then come back to them again within 90 days to sell them a service agreement. A lot of high-tech companies will consider that to be a service agreement sold at the time of product sales if it‘s within 90 days of the product sale. So the sales rep still gets the commission as long as it’s within that period.”

 

However, an alternative approach is for product and service should be sold by separate teams, which Bucher sees as the optimum approach.

“Selling service is very different to selling product, as one of my colleagues used to say selling service is like selling the invisible,” he begins.

“The most successful model that I’ve personally had experience with is where the product sales and service sales are owned by separate teams. We hired an experienced commission sales rep, who was dedicated to telesales for service sales only and he worked with the individual territory reps who sold the product and that was by far the most successful model I’ve ever seen.”

“You do need someone selling service that a) enjoys commission sales and b) really does understand the service proposition and 80 to 90% of product sales people don’t really have the time to understand the value proposition of a service agreement and if you don’t understand it you can’t sell it.”

Although, whilst organisations can take steps to separate the sales and support functions, it is another challenge to get customers to follow suit.

One of the challenges which leads to sales reps being dragged into the support process, is that a good sales rep will take pride in building his relationships and won’t want post-sales product issues to put those relationships at risk. This can often result with the sales rep being positioned as the go to guy for the customer.

But if the service support structure isn’t strong enough that can lead to the sales rep having their focus directed in an unproductive place.

“You can’t blame the sales rep for getting involved if the service organisation is not strong enough to solve these problems on their own,” Bucher comments.

“I walked into a situation like at that at one point in my career where the top sales guy was spending 80% of his time managing post-sales product issues when I came in.”

“I started in a company where the company really understood the value in post-sales product support and really invested heavily in it. The sales reps never had to be involved after the product sale, and that was the school that I learned in and I took that learning to practically every company afterwards.”

 

“Sales people really don’t want to manage post-sales issues but if they feel like that are forced to they’ll do it because they have relationships with these customers, sometimes long lasting personal relationships and they’re going to do what they’ve got to do to make sure the customer is happy, so this is a two way street between service and sales.”

“My message to service managers is ‘if you think sales people aren’t very good at managing post sales product issues and sometimes make things worse, it is incumbent on you to make your service organisation strong enough so they don’t have to get involved.”

“The key take-away here is that your company could sell a lot more product if the sales reps are not involved in post sales service issues. And that’s a take-away not just for service managers but also for CEOs. Sadly, a lot of CEOs are spending sales resources on post-sales product support when they don’t even know it,” Bucher asserts.

However, whilst the issue is a considerable challenge, it can be overcome insists Bucher.

“It really is possible to run your customer support organisation in a manner where the customer would rather come to your group rather than the product sales guy - it takes a lot of work, first of all you’ve got to recognise the value of doing it,” he explains.

“You can’t just hire technicians. You’ve got to hire people who are not only good at fixing the product but are even better at fixing the customers. You’ve got to have people who have exceptional communication skills, they have to have exceptional personal relationship skills and they’ve got to be able to talk with vice presidents as well as they can technicians.”

“If you can hire those kind of people then you will be hiring people that will be doing the post-sales account management that consumes so many sales people.”

And while it sounds like a tough ask, Bucher clearly stresses that it is still possible.

“I run into customer support leaders who say you can’t find people who have all that. I’ve done it, in fact I’ve done that my whole career, I even lived that as a field service technician myself.”

“Tell me it’s difficult, I’ll agree with you, tell me it’s really difficult, I’ll agree with you, but tell me it’s impossible? I’ll show you it's not.”

 

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Field Service News Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland takes the opportunity to catch up with Tomasz Sinkiewicz, Comarch at the recent Field Service Medical conference shortly after he'd given a great presentation about why connectivity and not mobility was the dominant buzz word currently in the medical sector.

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Thinking of attending Field Service USA this year? Field Service News subscribers are entitled to a 25% discount! 

Field service professionals can subscribe now for free here and then simply email the subscriber benefits team on subscriber.benefits@fieldservicenews.com to get your discount code!

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief talks exclusively to Tom De Vroy, Senior Product Evangelist, Field Service Management with IFS at the Field Service Medical conference to find out why they were involved within the Field Service Medical sector, what unique challenges he saw for field service management in the healthcare and medical sector and what key points he took away from the three day conference held in San Diego a few weeks ago.

at Field Service Medical held at Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego.

We also take a sneak peak at what to expect at this year's Field Service USA event being held in Palm Springs this April

 

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Thinking of attending Field Service USA this year? Field Service News subscribers are entitled to a 25% discount! 

Field service professionals can subscribe now for free here and then simply email the subscriber benefits team on subscriber.benefits@fieldservicenews.com to get your discount code!

 

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief talks exclusively to Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director, Field Service, WBR about the key topics and discussions that took place at Field Service Medical held at Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego.

We also take a sneak peak at what to expect at this year's Field Service USA event being held in Palm Springs this April

 

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Thinking of attending Field Service USA this year? Field Service News subscribers are entitled to a 25% discount! 

Field service professionals can subscribe now for free here and then simply email the subscriber benefits team on subscriber.benefits@fieldservicenews.com to get your discount code!

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director - Service Management

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consultant, Strategies for GrowthSM

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

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

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

 

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Thomas Igou, Editorial Director, Copperberg

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

A key influencer within our industry.

 

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Mark Holleran, COO, Xplore Technologies

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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Sumair Dutta, Customer Satisfaction Officer, The Service Council

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

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

 

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Click here to see page two of the 2017 #FSN20

 

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Starting out as a specific day to the Field Service USA program in 2011, the medical device attendees were so hungry for a more focused agenda that Field Service Medical ran as a separate event come 2012 and is now the premiere event for service executives in the med-tec space. Jonathan Massoud, Divisional Director WBR talks us through the latest industry trends and gives us a look at what to expect at this year's event...

 

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Thinking of going but still not got your tickets? Field Service News readers are entitled to a 25% discount to this event. Visit: fs-ne.ws/6Gfp308FA2N and use the code FSM17FSNEWS

 

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Every OEM that we surveyed in the lead up to the creation of 2017’s agenda mentioned regulatory guidelines and compliance as a concern. Right now, compliance becomes more critical as the FDA’s current focus is on third party providers and their relationship with OEMs.

Strict guidelines are a necessity. In a life or death setting, there is no time for faulty equipment.

There is a reason why OEMs are concerned, however.

These very regulations can impede innovation.

For example, apps built within a CRM that are not “quality certified” get shut down. Due to the sheer number of spare parts, regulatory bodies are forced to cherry pick what, when, and where they’re going to enforce.

Unless you are a big hospital or facility, JCAHO cannot enforce everything 100% of the time, creating an inconsistency in who is being carefully watched over.

Still, medical device equipment, spare parts, and how the technician fixes the machine have to comply with a multitude of rules. And as long as there is consistency and a quick turnaround process for approval, the OEM can appreciate this.

[quote]Despite how much compliance crackdowns may hinder ingenuity, money is continually poured into R&D for new products since the industry is fueled by the moralistic end-goal of improving quality of life.

Despite how much compliance crackdowns may hinder ingenuity, money is continually poured into R&D for new products since the industry is fueled by the moralistic end-goal of improving quality of life.

 

According to MDDI in a telling article entitled American Medtech Market to Grow 6.4% Annually Through 2017, “By 2016 the medical device market is projected to reach $134 billion.”

As this industry grows in revenue, there is a bigger focus on after-market service quality to create a brand differentiator, as they are selling to an increasingly shrinking customer.

Service needs a PR makeover. Customers are demanding more than just having a tech come over to fix a machine when it breaks. In fact, they want to see diagnostics tools being used so that the machine doesn’t break in the first place – or at the very least have a tech fix the problem remotely.

While it was once considered just a cost, service has a new role in revenue production, with some companies already having their service and sales departments integrated.

Due to this focus on cross-functional integration, OEM executives have finally come to realise that after-market service is a critical component to the customer’s experience.

This leads us to Field Service Medical 2017:

Day 1: Be Proactive Rather than Reactive:

• Create a business case for IoT to implement the right technologies for your organisation
• Be prepared for the shift and strategise how each department will be responsible for the technology before it is implemented
• Understand how end-users evaluate your product to drive operational decisions for delivery

Key sessions:

• ‘Can You Hear Me Now?’ Get Customer Metrics Through Your Call Centers – Tom Buckley, Director, Global Technical Service, Boston Scientific
• Workshop: Take a (Strategic) Leap Towards Connected Devices – Dan Barnett, Director, Customer Service, Abbott Laboratories

Day 2: Reinvigorate Your Culture

• Utilise service as a brand differentiator rather than a cost-reduction and implement this into your training and philosophy
• Navigate a complex regulatory environment by knowing what is in the pipeline and gaining clarity on gray areas surrounding third parties
• Identify the relevant metrics for measuring service success to actually tell a customer experience story with your data

Key sessions:

• Panel: What’s Unique about Your Service Solutions? – Amos Schneller, VP, Global Service and Technical Support, Medivators; Steve Nava, Director, Field Service Americas, Luminex; Ed Klosterman, Director, U.S. Field Service Operations, bioMérieux
• We’re Engaged: Training a Field Service Team Despite Long Distance – Steve Nava,Director, Field Service Americas, Luminex[/unordered_list]

Day 3: Achieve Cross-Functional Integration

• Overcome the bias about siloed roles and implement service into your R&D, marketing, and sales team right from the start
• Integrate service and sales to create a dual-sided profit center, selling service as a product
• Collaborate better with your marketing and IT team to get the service message across more effectively

Key sessions:

• Service is a Product – How to Sell it That Way! – Jeff Yates, National Service and Repair Manager, U.S., Richard Wolf Medical Instrument
• Panel: Shift from Customer Service to Customer – Karl Geffken, Senior Director, Marketing - Global Services, Medtronic; Catherine Read, Director, Customer Engagement, Carl Zeiss

 

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Thinking of going but still not got your tickets? Field Service News readers are entitled to a 25% discount to this event. Visit: fs-ne.ws/6Gfp308FA2N and use the code FSM17FSNEWS

 

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