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In the first of a four-part series, we bring together three industry experts and put four key questions for them to answer to give us a balanced view of the major trends impacting the field service sector. With responses from Bill Pollock, Strategies for Growth, Marc Tatarsky at FieldAware, and Richard Pratley from SimPRO, we look forward to what we can expect across the next twelve months.

2018 was a year in which we saw a number of significant changes move from the fringes of discussion within our industry to becoming an established part of mainstream discussion and in some cases fundamental parts of common place strategy within the field service sector.

The Internet of Things (IoT) for example, has become a staple part of field service delivery with many organisation having already adopted some layer of IoT technology which they are utilising within service delivery and the majority of those who have yet to take their first steps into connected field service are actively planning to do so in the not too distant future.

And as is often the case with technology in field service, the emergence of IoT in our sector, much as mobile did before it, has resulted in seismic changes into the processes and work-flows that underpin how we define service excellence. For example, we have seen servitization become an increasingly popular over-arching strategy for many manufacturers as they shift towards more customer-centric, service-focussed revenue strategies.

Even amongst those organisations who have yet to commit to a fully servitized business model, there are many who are shifting towards adopting a pro-active approach to service delivery, with increasing operational efficiencies and greater customer satisfaction two of the major benefits being heralded by such developments - which are again enabled and empowered by IoT.

Yet, at the same time other technologies that should be having positive impacts on field service delivery, in particular Augmented Reality (AR), have yet to evolve as rapidly, seemingly stagnating in the early adopter phase. Perhaps, 2019 may be the year we see AR finally emerge from its embryonic potential to also becoming a fully established part of the field service sector?

Or maybe, there will be other key breakthroughs, whether they be technologies, or strategies, that will shape the future of field serviceTo get a flavour of what we may expect across the next twelve months we’ve brought together a panel of experts to get their opinions on what to expect in 2019. We begin this series, however, by taking stock from last year.

Across the last twelve months what do you think has been the biggest shift in how we approach field service delivery?

BILL POLLOCK, PRESIDENT, STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
The last 12 months have been quite a bit more active among global Field Services Organisations (FSOs) with respect to their acquisition and implementation of new technologies. For example, after having spent a number of years more as a perennial line item on an organisation’s “wish list”, Augmented Reality (AR) has gained a much wider acceptance, and is presently in use by more than twice as many FSOs as just a year earlier. In fact, the trend lines for AR adoption are have begun to increase at an accelerating rate.

We are now also seeing the further incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning into existing FSM systems.
As a result, many FSOs have already begun the transformation from the traditional break/fix model to the use of predictive diagnostics and AI-powered chatbots to facilitate and expedite.

MARC TATARSKY, SVP MARKETING, FIELD AWARE
We are seeing a convergence of technology capabilities changing how field service operations are being enabled. One of the key drivers of this convergence is analytics and a data platform that is empowering organisations to take insights from various new technologies (IoT, AR eg) and existing data within other Systems of Record to provide context and the ability to make “new” business decisions.

Field service organisations, due to the complexity of the operations, have always embraced technology and were early adopters of analytics. We are seeing an evolution of analytics in field service, moving from a need to turn data into information, to meaningful business insight and then to decision-making capabilities.
Over the past twelve months we are now experiencing a shift to a more strategic approach to business intelligence. Field service leaders are applying analytics to drive value-adding initiatives into the wider business, with customising service and product innovation, for example.

RICHARD PRATLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, SIMPRO
There are a number of external pressures that are aggregating together forcing business to make a shift and change about how they are approaching field service delivery.

All businesses are looking to do more for less thanks to a skilled labour shortage, pricing pressures on services, travel and resource and compliance cost increases and customer demand for value.

During the last twelve months, we’ve seen more field service businesses looking to streamline and automate their operations to enable them to scale up their workforce without adding in more resources.

The second part of the big discussion will be published next week, when the panel answer questions on IoT.

Marc Tatarsky, SVP Marketing, FieldAware offers us an excellent case study of how Meadows Service Group are overcoming the challenges their field service operation were facing...

Those working in facilities and property management today must tackle some seemingly overwhelming challenges that are facing the industry. From managing multiple sites and varied programmes while maintaining service levels and meeting customer expectations. There is compliance with strict regulatory standards to manage while juggling responsibilities around maintaining often ageing assets and infrastructure and facing pressure to cut costs and complete more work with fewer resources.

FieldAware has recently released a new customer case study for Facilities and Property Management, which looks at some of these challenges, how they are being effectively managed and the benefits that are being achieved.

The case study highlights how FieldAware helped Meadows Service Group – a subsidiary of Meadows Office Interiors – to drive revenue growth and deliver their service promise.

 

About the Meadows Service Group...

Founded five decades ago, Meadows Office Interiors – a market-leading contract furniture dealer – creates innovative workspaces that are strategically designed to help customers improve business performance, increase collaboration, realise cost efficiencies and build brand recognition. Recognising a customer need that extends beyond furniture delivery and installation, Meadows Office Interiors created Meadows Service Group to offer ongoing support to their customer base, ultimately maximising the lifetime and integrity of customers’ valuable furniture assets through furniture maintenance programmes, inventory control, asset management and more.

 

Keeping pace with business growth

Meadows Office Interiors has always had a strong focus on their customer-centric service and delivering exceptional value to their clients. Over the years, Meadows had operated well using manual processes to manage its operations, but the business was expanding rapidly and it soon becomes clear that more streamlined ways of working had to be introduced to keep pace with their growth.

“When we launched Meadows Service Group we started out with what now looks like fairly basic processes in the office,” explains Ethan Bajrak, Director of Enterprise Solutions with Meadows Service Group.

“But with the speed of growth we experienced, we quickly realised we had to be more strategic in the way we worked to effectively manage the operational side of the business, which was becoming more and more challenging. We needed to gain the maximum benefit for our clients and our teams, but the processes we used were not visible to everyone and were manually updated outside of our CRM and ERP systems. There was lots of room for error. With the business expanding, we were in real danger of our service levels slipping and missing opportunities. We knew we couldn’t carry on operating that way.”

 

Driving efficiency

The company needed better efficiency and control of the workflow, the crews, and their tools. But their existing CRM /ERP system, NetSuite, was very important to them so they wanted to leverage its use and not change their processes too drastically.

“Our first step was to see what could be done within NetSuite,” explains Ethan. “The next was to look for products that were tightly integrated with the platform. We also worked with our NetSuite integration partner to get their recommendations for products their other customers had proven success with. FieldAware checked all those boxes.”

 

Reaping the benefits

Meadows has been delighted with the improved day-to-day operational management they have seen and through driving the revenue growth of the Meadows Service Group. The company has increased visibility and control as they have been able to standardise their processes and capture all jobs accurately.

They have been able to minimise downtime, while also improving productivity. Everyone has a FieldAware portlet in NetSuite so they can see everything in real-time. Everyone can now see what’s on tap for all the resources, including employees, vehicles and special tools.

On-time arrivals at job sites have increased and a big part of this is that technicians can plan their day in advance and save time by not calling back and forth to the dispatcher to determine where they should report next. The company has much better tracking of technician’s time spent on each job which, in turn, allows them to bill faster and more accurately to clients.

“Meadows Service Group is a newer revenue stream for the company,” commented Ethan “and FieldAware is helping us manage the growth of this division while effectively delivering our service promise to Meadows’ clients.”

 

Translating into true ROI

So as the business continues to expand, the challenges can continue to be addressed and managed.

“Teams have an increased level of confidence in our service team and customers are pleased with the level of communication and timely response. Because of the real-time sign-offs in the field, and the additional documentation provided for each job, the customer invoice payment cycle is faster, which helps our accounting team.”

“Our technicians are more productive because they are equipped with all the information they need. We can handle more jobs and are seeing less errors and repeat trips, which translates into true ROI,” concludes Ethan.

For more information on FieldAware visit www.fieldaware.com

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Steve Wellen, CEO of FieldAware outlines the evolution of analytics and how field service organisations are reaping the benefits...

Research into field service management consistently shows that when respondents are asked what they are planning to invest in or are looking to implement, analytic tools, more and more, are being highlighted above other functionality.

No great surprise given that today’s field service operations can rely on many different systems and solutions, all of which generate huge amounts of data. However, being able to organise and analyse data in an effective, simple and reliable way is a major challenge and without the means of turning it into something actionable, many businesses just don’t benefit. So, where are we in the evolution of field service analytics and how are field service organisations making their data work smarter, not harder?

Data, data everywhere

Over the past decade, field service organisations have become overwhelmed by the increasing information coming in from multiple sources and in various formats. As field service has become more and more integrated with other business solutions, (including accounting, ERP and CRM), organising this data becomes such a complex task that it may simply end up being unused. Managers and team members may then revert to relying on what they used to do, or make decisions based on hunches to run the business, rather than use the business intelligence they need.

Business leaders understand the data they have cannot be ignored. The major challenge they face, however, is how to sift through the data and link it together in a meaningful way. Data is often from disparate systems, but needs to be collated and reported in an easily understood way, to reveal the valuable insights that are needed for day-to-day performance and longer-term business strategy.

A brief history of field service analytics

The early adopters of field service analytics have seen a transformation of the solutions available, and we have witnessed this evolution first-hand.

We have seen our customers move from their initial requirements of basic business reporting, through to needing a comprehensive business intelligence solution.

Early on, it was often a snapshot of what had happened that was required, for example, how many jobs had been completed. It soon became apparent that organisations had different performance indicators to manage, and individuals needed metrics specific to roles. A layer of sophistication was needed, with custom reports where customers could then dive deeper to retrieve further information.

They could explore the types of jobs that were being completed, monitor individual performance or compare geographies.

Using data to make business decisions then drove the need for further information and queries could be set up to examine any problems or if any differences were apparent, for example, time taken on jobs, cost variations or first-time fix rates.

In addition, alerts could be set to enable better management of SLAs by flagging potential issues such as at-risk jobs.

A continual journey

All useful perspective, but for those using analytics for the first time, there is now no reason to stop at what could simply be seen to be mimicking what paper-based processes capture on the ‘what’ and the ‘where’.

Leap forward and it is the ‘why’ within analytics capabilities that truly enhances the value. After generating basic reports, managers did not always have time, the knowledge or experience to translate the results into meaningful action.

Advances in analytics provide businesses with the ability to view data after it has been configured and cross-referenced using statistical modelling.

Better decisions can be made more easily as they are based on accurate, analysed information, and better decision-making means a more effective, efficient operation.

The future’s bright, the future is optimised 

Today, field service leaders realise they need analytics that enables them to make more informed decisions to continue to grow their business. Just having data is not enough – they need the ability to use the data to align service teams to work together towards meeting company goals and managing customer expectations. Organisations now demand analytics solutions that migrate from reactive to predictive operations.

They need to move from insight to action faster than ever before with business insights from finance, CRM, ERP, FSM solutions that they depend upon for everyday operations.

They need better teamwork and collaboration so that they can quickly arrive at consensus, act and capitalise on opportunities.

These include discovering hidden opportunities and finding the next big opportunity in the business intelligence.

The business is optimised not only through these day-to-day enhancements, but the operational insights are consistently fed back to business and management, enabling a real-time feedback loop ensuring that key metrics improve continuously - creating a cycle of continual improvement for the field service organisation and improved operations.

For more information on using analytics for your field service optimisation and how you can reap the benefits, visit www.fieldaware.com 

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FieldAware, a leader in made-for-mobile, cloud-based field service automation solutions, have recently launched FieldAware Forms to add enhanced data collection and workflow capabilities to its field service software. The improved solution increases data accuracy, speeds up data collection, automates data routing, and creates a seamless customer experience.

Field service professionals understand that accurate data collection is essential for a successful business, but this is often a lengthy and cumbersome task for those involved due to manual processes and duplicate data entry.

Paper-based processes are fraught with issues from delays in receiving vital information, to missing, incomplete information, or inconsistency in the data captured. With the enhanced capabilities of FieldAware Forms, organisations have reported a 300% improvement in customer response times and a 77% reduction in time taken to invoice by removing paper-based processes from their operations.

 

FieldAware Forms improves productivity further by eliminating redundant data entry tasks, and features like dropdown menus minimize errors and ensure high data quality across systems.

The additional embedded capabilities of FieldAware Forms allow FieldAware customers to generate an unlimited number of customisable forms that can be completed and synced to the back office at the touch of a button. Captured data can easily be searched, extracted, and sent to an analytics engine— transforming collected data into actionable business intelligence.

“The enhancements FieldAware Forms has made to automated mobile workflows will transform the all-important data collection for our customers,” says Steve Wellen, CEO FieldAware. “FieldAware Forms simplifies field data collection, improves data quality, and enables real-time data sharing. The use of dynamic, customisable forms to capture data not only saves time and eliminates paperwork, but ensures accurate records are being kept that can be used to create insightful reporting.”

“FieldAware Forms, as part of the FieldAware solution, will benefit all field service organizations looking to improve their productivity, service quality and significantly adds even greater value to those carrying out inspections and audits with compliance or regulatory obligations as part of their operations.”

FieldAware Forms is available to all new and existing FieldAware customers, extending the feature set with the enhanced mobile forms capabilities.

For more information on FieldAware visit www.fieldaware.com

 

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Kris Oldland talks exclusively to Steve Mason, Chief Revenue Officer with FieldAware about the changing landscape of FSM software...

FieldAware is a brand that has been slowly building a presence as a rising star amongst field service management (FSM) software providers for the last few years now. However, across the last twelve months or so they seem to be distinctly focussing on pulling together a team with an enviable background and history within the sector - perhaps readying for a major assault on the market?

The addition of Tabitha Taylor-Higginson and Caroline Pennington (both from Trimble Field Service Management) has added a depth of industry knowledge and understanding of best-practice, go-to-market strategies on the communications side of the business, whilst new Chief Revenue Officer Steve Mason, has an eight year record with industry stalwarts ClickSoftware to his name - holding a variety of titles ranging from Vice President of Sales for the EMEA region to Vice President of Russia, CIS and Mobility - in short he is not only a man who has experience in successfully working with top-tier enterprise account sales, but also a strong knowledge of product development within FSM systems.

In short, it seems that within the last twelve months things have stepped up a gear for FieldAware in terms of how they intend to approach the market going forward.

“There has been a lot of momentum that has been building over time, but now it is beginning to become more visible as things are all coming together around the product, around the marketing and around our go-to-market strategy,” begins Mason as we touch on the subject.

“We are becoming more visible in the market, but in a controlled way. From the board’s perspective it has been building up the momentum and now they are bringing in key personnel that will drive the company into the next market environment.”

Controlled seems to be the key word here. There seems to have been a very clear plan from the senior team at FieldAware to get the product right, before then building the team that can firmly establish the company as a key player within the FSM software community.

Indeed, as Mason explains there was a lot of behind the scenes work in developing the product in order to be able to integrate easily with others that had to be completed before FieldAware could really begin to move forward into the enterprise.

“Whilst the company were operating primarily in the small to medium sector, we invested heavily in developing a mobile led, innovative solution that was built on an enterprise approach architecture. We wanted the ability to have a field force management solution, where we could have custom objects associated at multiple levels, so the application could through configuration be quickly tuned to the needs of different customers in different verticals.”

“To then expose that flexibility to all of the communications channels - so out through the API, into the integration layer out to the mobile and then out to the web, as you can appreciate it takes time to build that kind of product, but it was where we saw future.”

However, listening to Mason speak it is not just care and attention that FieldAware have put into the development of their product - he is keen to outline how they have taken a very different approach than some of the more traditional vendors in the market have done in the past.

“Our focus has been to develop a mobile application that is very intuitive and easy to use - everything we do is about intuitiveness and being thumb friendly. Successful solutions are always easily adopted because they’re so easy to use.”

“Our approach has been to really focus on empowering the people in the field, the field service technicians that are working directly with their customers and can therefore have the biggest impact on a brand when service is being delivered. By making sure that they have an application that is simple to use but also offers access to rich data that is embedded within the service call (so they don’t have to be reliant on syncing up, it’s all there for them, they can just go ahead and use it) the aim is that it all leads to them being able to deliver better service.”

 

“So we’ve really been focussing in from that perspective. We’ve been taking into consideration how millennials think when they are in the field and how do the older members of the workforce think whilst they are in the field too.

It’s a different approach from the traditional world of big optimisations that are focussed on macro management of a workforce and then driving that work out. In fact, it’s a very different approach.”

Indeed, this shift in thinking is perhaps mirrored in a number of different corners of the industry.

Whereas before the focus has been, both from a technology and a management point of view, about ensuring field service teams are working as efficiently as possible - i.e. on task such as processing the workload and optimising the work schedule, now with customer service rising to the forefront of most conversations about company wide KPIs, the focus is very much on empowering the field service engineer with the tools at his disposal to be able to delight customers on each and every visit.

“The workforce has changed,” comments Mason “even the way that people work and the relationships that there is between the field and those in the office, there is now an inherent trust. If someone has a smartphone then they are visible wherever they are.”

“So companies no longer need all the old tools that were there to micro manage, now it’s about empowerment and working in a trusted sense within the organisation. It is now effectively one department, rather than being field and back office - today everybody is mobile.”

“The whole culture has changed and you need a different approach. That is where we’ve been coming from, we’ve seen this change and been building forward towards it. Now we are becoming more visible in the market because more and more organisations are looking to take that approach and work with organisations who will empower their field force. Also through an open architecture we are also able to extend their previous investments in legacy systems whether those be on-premise or in the Cloud,” Mason continues.

 

“It is a changing market. It is rapidly changing mainly because customer service remains the critical differentiator for many organisations.” He concludes.

Indeed the landscape is ever changing (see Bill Pollock’s feature on page 22) and FieldAware find themselves in the interesting place of being able to compete with other FSM software vendors such as ClickSoftware or ServiceMax but also at the same time offering a solution that can also fully compliment such competitor systems due to their focus on integration.

But perhaps the greatest shift field service companies are having to deal with currently isn’t the ever evolving vendor landscape but more the shift within their own workforces - as Baby Boomers move on and Millennials take their place. But what role can technology play in alleviating the pain points of what is such a distinct changing of the guard?

“I would say that how a solution sits with Millennials in terms of functionality and usability should be one of the top priorities for field service directors because if you look at the Gartner view in terms of digitising the enterprise, they see adoption as the biggest barrier to success,” Mason comments.

“Applications like ours enable companies to effectively digitise the last mile - i.e. get all the work instructions, all the processes out to the workforce. They can use it online or offline depending on their connectivity, but is has to be intuitive.’

“It has to be intuitive for the traditional workers because they need to adopt it quickly, and it has to be an engaging tool for Millennials who want to work differently with modern, refreshing looking apps.”

“Adoption rates are critical for any digitisation strategies - so usability, whether it be for Millennials or Baby Boomers should be very high in the selection process.”

Of course one trusted route to speeding up adoption which we have discussed a number of times in various Field Service News articles is getting the involvement of some of the field service technicians in the selection process of any given new tool they will be using.

This is a trend that Mason admits he has seen growing in recent years with more and more field service organisations involving a selection of service technicians to give their insight into any potential new solution.

“We’re seeing a growing trend where the selection process will include some members of the field team,” Mason agrees. “What this does do is enable both us and the customer to accelerate the time to value because it allows the customer to see how the tool will work within their wider system, but also allows us to better understand the challenges we’ll have to work through in the project.” He concludes.

It is a sensible route and one that is quite indicative of the customer-centric approach that Mason and the team at FieldAware are taking. The question now remains can they build their own acceleration when it comes to gaining a significant role within the FSM landscape? The product is certainly up to par, and with the recent senior talent acquisitions, such as Mason, the team is shaping up very nicely too now.

So could 2017 potentially be FieldAware’s year? They are certainly getting them selves in the right place at the right time...

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by:  FieldAware
Title: Making the move to mobility: the digitilaisation of field service

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Click here to download the white paper

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Synopsis

Field service organisations have always embraced technology, and the rate at which technology has developed in recent years has led to true revolution within our industry...

Providing both a comprehensive overview and practical advice on how you and your organisation can improve efficiency and productivity amongst your mobile workforce this white paper explore a number of key areas including:

• Extending your back office into the field
• Empowering your field workers
• Focussing on the right mobility tools for your business

Published by FieldAware this white paper covers the key considerations service leaders should focus on to ensure they able to harness the power of this new wave of mobility in field service management...

To access your copy of this great resource simply click the link above and complete the brief form to register.

Overview

Field service organisations have always embraced technology, being early adopters of field service management software since it was introduced in the late 1970s.

Originally designed as on-premise, server-based scheduling solutions, the software was very much focused on enabling the back office to improve the efficiency of work order scheduling and dispatch. Technicians however, had only limited access to job and customer information due to the cost and performance limitations of existing devices (proprietary handheld devices or laptops) and networks.

The mobile evolution has shifted this balance. With the widespread adoption of smartphones, for example, over the last decade, digital mobile devices now form an integral part of both work and personal lives. Add to this the proliferation of tablets in the last mobility wave five years ago with the introduction of the iPad and most companies now use some form of mobile device. This use may be a mix of smartphones, tablets and laptops, but as such the focus of the service work has now moved significantly on to the field technician.

Extending the back office into the field

Although the technician is the “new” priority for field service organisations, back office processes remain essential components of any service operation. The right mobility solution gives the whole organisation the ability to manage the workflow seamlessly and keeps all operational elements connected.

For the back office, a mobile solution which easily integrates into existing systems is critical, as often within a field service organisation a mix of best of breed solutions are employed due to the niche nature of the work carried out. This can often mean that systems are used in isolation and data from one system doesn’t always assimilate with others. An integrated mobile solution means that the two-way flow of data and information is captured just once and in a consistent and efficient way.

Empowering the field worker

Managers and technicians, alike, report that the key to any technology implementation is ease of use. Taking time to learn new, complicated ways of working puts up barriers to adoption which workers may well look to by-pass and either go back to the way things used to be done or patch together their own and disparate ways of using the various solutions.

Equally both older technicians and newer more technology-savvy workers may resist the change, but with a solution that is easy to use the implementation is easier and quicker adoption inevitably means a better ROI.

Implementing mobility and the next evolution

While it is recognised that most companies now use some form of mobility, it is also acknowledged that the majority still do so in a basic way; to enable a checklist approach to their work. Those that still work with paper-based systems report they will look to move to digital mobile platforms in the near future, understanding this disadvantage affects their ability to be competitive.

Focus on the right mobility solution

Whether you are looking at developing a current mobility strategy or introducing a mobility solution for the first time, how do you choose the right software for your business with the many solutions on offer today?

From working with a range of companies in different industries, FieldAware have found that whatever type of field service organisation you manage there are some principals that cut across the different requirements and these are revealed in this section.

Focus on performance

The face of field service has changed. Technicians are the priority, and they need the tools and access to the information that will transform them from corporate overhead to revenue and profit generating brand proponents.

Technology has changed. The world has “gone mobile”. Smartphones and tablets are powerful and relatively inexpensive, and the networks that support them are fast and reliable.

Mobile apps must have capabilities which take the technicians’ role into account, without forgetting the back office. Cloud-based web applications deliver advanced capabilities (scheduling and dispatch; asset, parts, customer and roles and rights [security] management; employee time tracking and comprehensive reporting) and must be easy to use and easy to integrate with existing ERP, CRM and accounting systems

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For more detailed information on each of these topics and a how you can better harness mobility in your field service operations click here and download the white paper in full now!

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By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

 

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As part of FieldAware’s current mobility campaign Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, caught up with Steve Mason, Chief Revenue Officer with FieldAware, to get his insight into what to expect from mobility as tool in modern field service... 

KO: So why focus on mobility?

SM: With advancements in field service management software going hand-in-hand with the mobile evolution, the focus in service operations is quite firmly now on the field worker themselves.

This is quite right too. The technician or engineer has long been the face of the organisation and often the only direct contact a customer will have, so the customer experience they are able to deliver counts for a great deal.

The technician needs a mobile solution which helps them to do their job in the best possible way. The workflow to and from the back office has to be seamless as this quick and easy access to information enables better decision-making and ultimately improved resolution.

Through integration with other back office systems the field worker has access to the job history and customer records allowing for a more detailed understanding of not only the task at hand but also what has happened before and why.

Knowledge of the different elements of the task are often fundamental in the delivery of service excellence and turning up to site with this information at hand or having access to it, as we know from business or personal experience, delivers an improved customer experience.

KO: We hear too much about companies investing in fsm solutions and not maximising the value – what do you recommend?

SM: From working with a range of companies, who are either looking at developing their mobile strategy or starting out from scratch, we’ve found that there are some common principals.

Ease of integration is key. You don’t need to have to think about changing your whole field service solution. Extending the life of current systems is all important so look at mobile solutions which will leverage and expand their use.

Implementation needs to be as quick and straightforward as possible. A lengthy implementation process will defeat its objective. So being up and running in days, not months, should be the realistic goal - delivering a much faster ROI.

Any mobility solution should be easy to use. Overly-complicated systems will be bypassed and worked around or ignored all together. The easier to use, the quicker the adoption and the better the ROI.

All mobility software needs to be agile and able to move with the next generation of mobility. Developments are moving fast, so providers keeping their solutions up to speed is important.

It is crucial for any mobility solution to work across mixed digital devices.  The apps will need to work across different operating systems too.

Vitally, mobility is about the anytime, anywhere access to information and it is essential that your solution makes it as easy as possible to achieve this.

KO: What next for mobility?

SM: We’re excited about embedded communications in mobility, as with customer expectations higher than ever, the ability to streamline the service process and deliver faster, better service creates a richer customer experience.

Real-time communication technology, combined with field service automation solutions will bring service businesses an entirely new way to communicate across the organisation and with customers.

As an example, innovative collaboration tools improve task completion through real-time contact with remote experts through a smartphone or tablet, for improved first-time resolution rates. These capabilities are akin to augmented reality without the prohibitive costs of the hardware. Remote experts can assist multiple technicians, so speeding up the completion and accuracy of the work, while balancing the cost of an organisation’s service delivery.

At FieldAware we see this as a game changer for any company focused on enhancing the customer experience.

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Want to know more? Click this link to download FieldAware's latest white paper 'Making the move to mobility' now

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Company:

Intimus International Group is a leader in the Information Security industry.

They offer information security products that include everything from industrial paper shredders to high security and large capacity data destruction machines. Intimus operates in multiple countries across Europe and manages processes and workflows across multiple divisions.

They offer comprehensive solutions throughout the value chain in terms of innovation, development, manufacturing, sales and post-sales services.

Challenge:

“Intimus International wants to be the leading global supplier of security solutions for data management and cash management systems. We have over 11,000 customers in Benelux, and it is our mission to provide them with best-in-class service,” said Gunther Dehaes, General Manager, Intimus.

The company offers service contracts to repair and maintain its product line and the profitability of these service contracts depends on how efficiently the company can meet its obligations.

Working across multiple countries and following a merger and acquisition, Intimus found there were a number of bottlenecks with their existing workflows.

 

They needed to more efficiently coordinate communication between the back office and field engineers and wanted to be able to streamline the workflow as well as how they captured and processed data to and from the field.

“Our problem was the time it took to coordinate, communicate and process everything that happened in the field,” explained Erlyn Grevelt, Supply Chain Manager of Intimus. Dispatchers were having to have lengthy, often complex phone conversations with engineers for every service request. With each call taking up to ten minutes and more than 50 engineers in the field, the calls alone consumed more than 100 hours a week.

Then, as engineers completed service calls, they filled out the job details on paper, which were taken back to the office to be input manually. A team in accounting then reviewed all completed jobs before invoicing, so the entire process to bill a customer took a full day on average.

Operational improvements:

Having recently implemented Netsuite, a leading ERP system, to streamline and simplify their accounting practices and resource planning, Intimus wanted something compatible to improve their operational service, they turned their attention to field service management software.

“We knew from the start that we would need to extend our service needs and NetSuite has a strong partner programme and through that programme we found FieldAware,” explained Grevelt.

 

“FieldAware has a very simple mobile app for engineers and at the same time, it gives me a huge amount of complex information. When an IT solution can offer me that, I’m very pleased.”

Intimus selected FieldAware because of the deep integration with Netsuite, ease of implementation and ease of use for the schedulers and engineers.

The implementation of both Netsuite and FieldAware took just 40 days and with quick and high adoption from their field engineers, the positive impact was immediate.

Together, NetSuite OneWorld and FieldAware transformed the field service workflows in the company’s service operations and accounting, dramatically accelerating the job completion rates and invoicing processes.

Results:

The newly automated processes save considerable time for customers, dispatchers, engineers and back office staff alike. Engineers use FieldAware mobility software to schedule their own time based on customer location and availability.

FieldAware saves 80 hours each week for the dispatch team, and reduced the time required to generate invoices from one day to less than a minute.

“With FieldAware we are more efficient now,” said Peter Gils, Service Manager, Intimus “An engineer’s tablet has a complete list of the workflow he has to do, he can plan his own route without calling the office, we drive less miles which saves us money, and the customers are happy with the shorter response time.”

FieldAware optimised communications between dispatchers and field service engineers, so now dispatchers enter details of each service order into NetSuite, which instantly transfers them to technicians’ tablets. Engineers contact the customer and schedule jobs themselves. The press of a button tracks the service call and FieldAware automatically sends this data back to NetSuite for invoicing and management reporting.

 

“Results have been staggering and the outcome impressive”, said Grevelt. “Most importantly, FieldAware has taken the pressure off the coordination team.”

“In the past, we had to have multiple conversations to be able to service our customer,” added Grevelt.

“Now we have a direct line of communication to the customer through the engineer in the field. We only have one conversation, and that’s the only conversation that matters, and that’s the one with the customer.”

 

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Mobility is helping transform field service organisations. To download FieldAware’s new white paper – ‘Making the Move to Mobility: TheDigitalisation of Field Service’– please visit http://www.fieldaware.co.uk/movetomobility

 

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The new wave of field service management technology is here writes Charlie Jackson, CEO, FieldAware...

We’re all customers and have increasing expectations around the service we expect, both in our personal and work lives. For service organisations these expectations bring increased pressure to get it right.

Field service management software is part of the answer and has been around since the late 1970s.

Highly complex, it was originally designed as on premise, server-based scheduling solutions and was very much focused on enabling the work of the back office. Work orders were dispatched, but technicians had only limited access to job and customer information due to the cost and performance limitations of the devices and networks.

With the advancements in field service management software going hand-in-hand with the mobile evolution, the focus in service operations is now firmly on the field worker themselves.

 

And this is quite right - the technician has long been the company face and often the only direct contact a customer will have. The customer experience they are able to deliver counts for a great deal. Complete knowledge of the job is often fundamental in the delivery of this service excellence and turning up to site with this information at hand or having access to it, delivers an improved customer experience.

The technician needs a mobile solution which helps them to do their job in the best possible way.

The workflow to and from the back office has to be seamless as this quick and easy access to information enables better decision-making and ultimately improved resolution.

So how can an organisation manage this shift to focus on the field without losing sight of the importance of back office operations?

Taking the back office into the field 

While back office processes remain essential components of any service operation, we’re seeing far more return from putting the focus on the field where greater value can be derived. The right mobility solution gives the whole organisation the ability to manage the workflow seamlessly and keeps all operational elements connected.

There is visibility of the work and the day’s performance and the mobile piece allows decisions to be based on real-time activity and updates.

 

For the back office, a mobile solution which easily integrates into existing systems is critical, as often a mix of best of breed solutions are used due to the niche nature of the work.

This can mean that systems are used in isolation and data from one system doesn’t always assimilate with another. Integrated mobility means that the two-way flow of data is captured, just once, and in a consistent and efficient way. It means that no data is left unused or delayed while waiting on paperwork or downloads and an audit trail is in place reducing the chance of any missing information.

The result of the right mobility solution is extending the work of the back office out into the field in a robust and reliable way, connecting the operational workflow and ultimately ensuring service objectives are met.

Focus on the right mobility solution 

So, whether you are looking at developing your mobility strategy or introducing mobility for the first time, how do you choose the right software for your business with the many solutions on offer today?

From working with a range of companies, we’ve found that there are some common principals.

Ease of integration is key. You don’t need to have to think about changing your whole field service solution. Extending the life of your current systems is important, so look at mobile solutions which will leverage and expand their use.

Implementation needs to be as quick and straightforward as possible. A lengthy implementation process will defeat its objective. So being up and running in days, not months, should be the realistic goal - delivering a much faster ROI.

 

Any mobility solution should be easy to use. Overly-complicated systems will be bypassed and worked around or ignored all together.The easier to use, the quicker the adoption and the better the ROI.

All mobility software needs to be agile and able to move with the next generation of mobility.

Developments are moving fast so it is important that your provider is keeping up to speed.

It is crucial for any mobility solution to work across mixed digital devices, especially with the growth of BYOD and the rise in the use of contractor workforces. The apps will need to work across different operating systems too.

Essentially, mobility is about the anytime, anywhere access to and sharing of information that makes it the vital, valuable next step a service organisation can take.

To download our white paper – ‘Making the Move to Mobility: The Digitalisation of Field Service’ – please visit http://www.fieldaware.co.uk/movetomobility

 

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