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ServiceMax, Inc., a leader in asset-centric field service management, announces the launch of Spark 360, a fixed-scope, low-risk professional services implementation package that drives a prescriptive approach and condensed timeline for ServiceMax Asset 360 deployments.

Utilizing Asset 360's best practices and core business functions, Spark 360 is designed for fast implementation and rapid time to value so customers can quickly achieve increased service profitability, asset visibility, and agility as they transform their field service operations. Spark 360 also leverages the MaxApproach, an implementation methodology developed through hundreds of successful customer implementations, that delivers maximum efficiency throughout the rollout. 

“With global conditions rapidly changing on an almost daily basis due to COVID-19, supply chain disruptions, ‘the great resignation,’ and other factors, keeping infrastructure running and doing so efficiently and cost-effectively is now more paramount than ever,” said Dave Kahley, Senior Vice President, Customer Solutions, ServiceMax. “Spark 360 enables new clients to quickly implement our Asset 360 product and start seeing the benefits of their transformation right away.”

As 2021 draws to a close, ServiceMax’s Asset 360 continues to attract new customers, including Lowry Solutions who completed a significant new implementation in Q3. The company has also seen existing customers like Boston Scientific, Rite-Hite and Technogym expand the scope of their field service offerings, as well as customers like Smiths Detection complete successful multi-region and multi-functional rollouts. 

Looking forward, the addition of Spark 360 and its fixed scope furthers the company’s ability to help customers to go live faster with Asset 360. Spark 360’s exclusive business capabilities include:

• Asset Hierarchy Management (move, swap, clone, update)
• Location Management
• Asset Uptime & Downtime Capabilities & Reporting
• Automated Maintenance Work from Asset or Contract
• Work Order Assignment Management
  

Other capabilities of the package enable customers to:

• Manage, track, and enforce warranty and service contract entitlements against your installed base
• Effectively create and apply new maintenance plans and service contracts with a templatized approach
• Utilize end-to-end business process flows using Asset 360’s best-practice approach

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about ServiceMax on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servicemax
• Find out more about ServiceMax @ www.servicemax.com
• Learn more about Spark 360 @ www.servicemax.com/spark360
• Connect with ServiceMax on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/company/servicemax/
• Follow ServiceMax on Twitter @ twitter.com/ServiceMax

ServiceMax, Inc., a leader in asset-centric, Field Service Management software provides the following preliminary results for its fiscal Q3 2022 that ended on October 31, 2021.

Preliminary Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Highlights

• Total Revenue: Total revenue was $33.2 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2022, representing an increase of 20% year-over-year. Excluding the impact of purchase accounting for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, total revenue increased 19% year-over-year.
• Subscription Revenue: Subscription revenue was $28.7 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2022, representing an increase of 23% year-over-year. Excluding the impact of purchase accounting for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, subscription revenue increased 21% year-over-year.
• Operating Results: Loss from operations was ($14.0) million during the third quarter of fiscal 2022, compared to ($15.8) million during the third quarter of fiscal 2021. Non-GAAP loss from operations was ($3.0) million during the third quarter of fiscal 2022, compared to ($5.6) million during the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

Business Highlights

• Closed acquisition of LiquidFrameworks on November 1, 2021, which advances ServiceMax's Field Service Management capabilities in the energy sector ("LiquidFrameworks Acquisition"). The acquisition was financed with cash on hand and a new $100 million term loan.
• Announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") has declared effective Pathfinder Acquisition Corporation's ("Pathfinder") registration statement on Form S-4 (File No. 333-258769) relating to the previously announced proposed business combination of Pathfinder and ServiceMax (the "Business Combination"). The Extraordinary General Meeting of Pathfinder shareholders to approve the pending Business Combination between Pathfinder and ServiceMax, among other items, is scheduled for December 7, 2021, at 10:00 am ET.

The foregoing financial information for the quarter ended October 31, 2021 is unaudited and subject to quarter-end adjustments in connection with the completion of our customary financial closing procedures. Such changes could be material. ServiceMax will release full financial results for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2021, on December 9, 2021.

Financial Outlook

ServiceMax is providing financial guidance for its fourth quarter ending January 31, 2022, inclusive of the LiquidFrameworks Acquisition, as follows:

• Total revenue between $38.5 million and $39.5 million, representing an increase of 37% year-over-year at midpoint of the range.
• Subscription revenue between $34.0 million and $35.0 million, representing an increase of 42% year-over-year at midpoint of the range.
• Non-GAAP operating loss between $(7) million and $(6) million.

ServiceMax is providing financial guidance for its fiscal year 2022 ending January 31, 2022, inclusive of the LiquidFrameworks Acquisition, as follows:

• Total revenue between $134 million and $135 million, representing an increase of 23% year-over-year at midpoint of the range.
• Subscription revenue between $116 and $117 million, representing an increase of 28% year-over-year at midpoint of the range.
• Non-GAAP operating loss between ($18) million and ($17) million.

Financial Outlook

On July 15, 2021, ServiceMax entered into a business combination agreement with Pathfinder, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company co-sponsored by affiliates of HGGC and Industry Ventures, which was amended and restated on August 12, 2021. The Business Combination is expected to close in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2021. The transaction is expected to deliver as much as $335 million of gross proceeds to the combined company, assuming no redemptions by Pathfinder shareholders, and including proceeds from a strategic common equity investment immediately prior to closing by leading software companies (PTC Inc. and Salesforce Ventures) at the same per share valuation as the Business Combination transaction. The closing of the Business Combination is expected to result in ServiceMax becoming a Nasdaq listed company under the ticker symbol "SMAX".

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about ServiceMax on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servicemax
• Find out more about ServiceMax @ www.servicemax.com
• Connect with ServiceMax on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/company/servicemax/
• Follow ServiceMax on Twitter @ twitter.com/ServiceMax

Today, Salesforce introduced four new capabilities for Field Service to help businesses equip their mobile workforce for the future.

These features will enable businesses to scale resources to handle more complex jobs, customize mobile apps to tailor employee experiences, provide customers with flexible scheduling, and use video for both improved customer and employee interactions.

Customers today expect businesses to deliver world-class service whether they're working with an agent in a call center, engaging with a bot, or interacting with an agent in the field. But field technicians and organizations often don't have the tools, skills, and information to meet these expectations. In fact, 80% of field service professionals say the skills required for their job have evolved from just two years ago, and 81% see a direct link between their work and business performance. But learning those skills and delivering these experiences in the field isn’t easy -- especially at scale.

“With customers and employees looking for fast and easy digital service, the field service industry is ripe for change,” said Paul Whitelam, GM of Field Service Management at Salesforce. “Salesforce is a leader in field service management thanks to our powerful platform that delivers a complete customer view, and today’s innovations bring more trust, speed, and convenience to every field service interaction.”

FIELD SERVICE IS BUILT FOR CHANGE

Salesforce Field Service is a complete solution to manage your mobile workforce. Providing scheduling, mobile capabilities, AI to manage jobs and solve problems on the first visit, and swarming capabilities with Slack. It’s built on the world’s #1 CRM and part of a complete service offering that connects customer data and your service experts on one platform.
Today’s additions to Salesforce Field Service include:

• Running on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s next-generation platform architecture, the Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization Engine will enable businesses to handle complex field service jobs in more locations around the world. For example, an IT services company can now expand to serve global customers on the same platform, and instantly get up and running in a new region. Optimization comes into play when a job requires several steps and technicians: for example, a Utility digging a hole for a new electric pole, installing the pole and wires, and adding wiring to nearby structures. Salesforce Field Service will enable companies to chain these steps together so dispatchers can see complex jobs in their entirety and better manage worker capacity.
• Lightning Web Components for Field Service will enable businesses and partners to easily customize the Salesforce Field Service mobile app with advanced features and workflows to provide a better employee experience. For example, a water delivery company can create a custom app that pre-populates order information — like the delivery cadence and quantity — from Service Cloud into one page, saving the delivery person time on approvals and the headache of having to fill out the same information over and over. Lightning Web Components also provides new opportunities for partners and SIs to create industry-specific applications, such as a streamlined workflow for home security companies or industrial machinery manufacturers.
• Appointment Assistant Self-Service Scheduling enables customers to schedule their own appointments and cancel, confirm, or reschedule, all without waiting on hold. And as customers make these changes, technician schedules and service resources will automatically adjust.
• Visual Remote Assistant Two-Way Video now lets both agents and customers share their cameras in real time to troubleshoot issues. For example, an agent can show a customer step by step how to reset their cable box. On-site technicians can get real-time training or pull in additional support from contact center agents when needed.

Organizations are using Salesforce Field Service to respond faster and build trust

Organizations in dozens of industries around the world are using Salesforce Field Service to respond to the changing needs of their customers:

• Hologic: "With Salesforce Field Service, Hologic is able to reduce time spent on site by equipping field service engineers with AI-powered recommendations and ensure we can get the right person to the right job at the right time, with the right part,” Pierre Malboeuf, Senior Director, National Field Service, Breast & Skeletal Health. “Field Service is a game changer and enables us to build a deep sense of trust with our customers." 

• AAA: "Today's consumer has zero tolerance for having to repeat themselves. Omnichannel servicing allows a customer to begin a request or service from one chosen channel and complete the request in a whole other service channel without losing a beat,” Shohreh Abedi, EVP, Chief Operations Technology Officer, Member Experience, The Auto Club Group. “Field Service has reduced over 25% of the volume that is being handled completely digitally without human interaction, through AI, chat or other digital self-service capabilities. The result of having a customer-centric approach is a happier, more delighted member, and Salesforce is a big part of our journey."

• SafeStreets: “We needed a smart tool that would allow us to schedule security installs quickly in a matter of minutes and bring our reschedule rate down, because rescheduling often results in the customer cancelling the job,” said Eddie Prignano, VP of Systems Architecture. “Salesforce helped us create a great customer experience in a short amount of time that gives us confidence in our scheduling and gives the customer all the information they could want — from the name and photo of the technician, to where they are and their ETA, so the customer never feels like they’re in the dark. And as customers’ expectations require updates to these experiences, we have the flexibility to simply and easily make changes as necessary.” 

• MTI: "MTI provides security and tablet solutions to businesses like retailers, restaurants, hotels and hospitals, and the pandemic drove tremendous change in all of those businesses. By leveraging Salesforce Field Service, we’ve been able to reduce manual scheduling needs by 50% and run 70-80% of service trips through our optimization model,” Mary Jesse, CEO. “Not only that, but we’re able to drill down and see to the minute when somebody is on site, what they’re doing and how it relates back up to a complete customer project. The average time to resolve a case has decreased as we’ve leveraged multiple applications within the Salesforce ecosystem — increasing the speed and efficiency of our business."

DocuSign automates contract obligations in the field

Announced yesterday, DocuSign CRM for Field Service will allow customers to automate how they track, enforce, and update contract terms across departments and while in the field. Bringing in data on warranties and service level agreements (SLAs) from DocuSign CRM contracts directly into Service Cloud contract objects will enable smarter and more automated service experiences, and efficient service contract execution.

Additional Information

To learn more about how Salesforce Field Service is empowering mobile workforces to build trust and scale, watch the latest episode of At Your Service and visit the product page for more details.

Availability

• Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization is currently available in beta.
• Lightning Web Components for Field Service is currently available in pilot.
• Appointment Assistant Self-Service Scheduling is generally available.
• Visual Remote Assistant Two-Way Video is generally available.
• DocuSign CLM for Salesforce Field Service will be available in 2022.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Mobile Workforce Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Find our more about Salesforce @ www.salesforce.com
• Read more about Salesforce on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/salesforce
• Follow Salesforce on Twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Ericsson CI/CD pipeline for cloud-native 5G Core standalone software deployment successfully tested.

Ericsson and Japanese communications service provider KDDI have successfully demonstrated cloud-native CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) pipeline delivery for KDDI’s standalone 5G Core network – a breakthrough in delivering software features speedily and efficiently.

The container-based technology enables automatic deployment of new software and functionalities, while maintaining the high quality and availability of the 5G Core network.

Communications service providers need faster and more efficient software delivery models to reduce time-to-market for new features. Given the complexity of telecommunications networks - where solutions are often comprised of multivendor products with real time applications - legacy delivery mechanisms will be insufficient to cope with the demands of 5G networks. Ericsson’s cloud-native CI/CD delivery model addresses this challenge.  

Ericsson and KDDI partnered to create a cross-organizational end-to-end 5G CI/CD pipeline – moving from native to virtualized and cloud-native network functions.  The pipeline seamlessly deploys software from Ericsson’s product development units into the KDDI’s environment without human intervention.

The CI/CD pipeline speeds up the software acceptance process through the advanced automation of software distribution, deployment, validation and feedback, while reducing human-error risks.

It shortens time to market of new software from months to weeks. Ericsson’s CI/CD pipeline enabled KDDI to deploy complicated sliced and distributed network functions more easily through simplified workflows.

Jan Karlsson, Head of Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson, says: “Our market-leading 5G core and unique CI/CD capabilities mean faster time-to-market, higher performance and cost efficiency. Agile delivery of services while maintaining high quality and availability is a must in 5G Core networks. Our CI/CD end-to-end software pipeline achieves this. We are happy to continue to work with KDDI to automate their network operation.”

Earlier this summer we introduced you to three companies that we felt were set up to bring some significant value to the field service sector. Now as we look forward to 2020 here are three more companies that could potentially help drive your field service business forwards..

Having previously worked together on a white paper entitled the Radical Age of Uberization, Field Service News and Localz were reunited on the topic when the software firm hosted a morning briefing and invited Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News to chair the day’s discussions...

LivePerson's tool, LiveIntent, measures customer intents, enabling brands to optimise operations and automations for improved customer experiences, firm says.

In an exclusive interview with Field Service News, Bill Pollock reflects on the key findings around Customer Satisfaction from the latest Strategies for GrowthSM benchmarking study and reveals that there is plenty of room for improvement...

A question was raised recently at the Field Service Summit held in Warwick where the theme for the conference was moving into an experience economy. It is a question that is often at the top of mind for Field Service Executives, particularly when they are surrounded by so many of their peers, who are all seemingly ploughing ahead with customer engagement programs.

The question went along the lines of “Whilst I can see the benefits of improving customer satisfaction for my customers, how can I translate that into something tangible that my board might actually buy into?’

One man, who has fielded this question many times both when speaking at such events as well as in his long and illustrious career as an analyst to the field service sector, including in his role as a columnist for Field Service News, is Bill Pollock, President of Strategies for GrowthSM.

“It sounds like an easy question, but the reality is that it’s not an easy question to answer at all,” he explains.

The reason for this Pollock outlines is because when in fact Customer Satisfaction (CX) is actually an end product and the net result of a number of other strategic actions or exercises that the services organisation takes. To put it bluntly, CX is not what you do first, there are a whole bunch of other, more tangible tasks that sit in the strategic line ahead of it.

“You don’t achieve customer satisfaction first and then take strategic actions to improve processes and procedures and policies, etcetera, and so forth. It works the other way around,” Pollock explains.

“Now that doesn’t mean to say that once you attain the desired levels of customer satisfaction that doesn’t lead to other things - it absolutely does. But think about how you’re doing business, it’s a journey, it’s a continuum. And if you look at customer satisfaction on that continuum it might be two thirds or three quarters or the way towards the end but it’s not the end onto itself, there’s more that follows.

“When you look at customer satisfaction, that’s mainly a dependent variable rather than an independent variable by which I mean if you update and streamline your service delivery processes, if you acquire a new and upgraded or more powerful and robust field service management solution.

“If you can take steps to eliminate silos and other bureaucratic obstacles within your own organisation that tend to slow down the time it takes for you to deliver services to your customers, and ultimately tick them off.

“If you can train your field technicians and provide them with the latest technologies and mobile tools. If you can provide your customers with portals whereby they can initiate work orders and track the status and order parts and escalate problem scenarios solutions... then you will likely end up attaining higher levels of customer satisfaction.” “So you take those strategic actions first. And then what happens is it leads to more customer satisfaction.”

One of the things that makes Pollock such a well respected voice in the industry is that he is able to draw extensively not only on his own experience but also on solid data that his organisation collects every year within their annual Benchmarking studies. Reflecting on such trends across the last few years he is able to forensically piece together a detailed picture of how field service organisations are behaving both in the US and in Europe.

“What we saw [in 2018] was a dip in customer satisfaction across the European continent, down to 78%,” he explains.

“This was down from about 82% or so the year before. In our latest survey, 2019, the customer satisfaction rating for the total respondents, UK, Europe and North America and the Far East, it’s gone back up from 81% last year to 84% this year.”

“Customer satisfaction is mainly a dependent variable rather than an independent variable..."

This would at first perhaps indicate a course correction of European companies who had started to let the increasingly crucial CX metrics slide. However, Pollock believes there maybe an alternative explanation.

“Last year appears to be a year of transformation, a year of recalibration, a year for stepping back, seeing what needs to be done and then starting to do it. And this year is the year that the fruits of that labour have begun to take place,” Pollock says.

“Now you look at something like that and you say, “Hey, well, that’s really good, it’s improved.” But you don’t want your auto mechanic or your brain surgeon to only have 80% customer satisfaction,” he says with a wry smile.

He is of course correct, as the old adage goes the enemy of excellence is good enough. So what steps does Pollock suggest for companies seeking to go from merely good to great.

“Once you take the steps that I talked about just earlier and you have attained higher levels of customer satisfaction, then the road forward from there gets even trickier, even muddier,” he explains.

“When we ask organisations, ‘Do you measure customer satisfaction?’ 67%, two thirds in our current survey, say, ‘That’s what we measure first.’ That’s two points higher than total service revenue and five points higher than total service cost. 

“They look at customer satisfaction before they look at anything else. And that has been the number one KPI that respondents to the surveys look at in every survey we have ever done. Field service, warranty management, reverse logistics, you name it, that’s number one.

“Now customer retention was only measured by 30% of service organisations last year. So 67% versus 30%. Why is there that discrepancy? Well, because it’s pretty easy to measure customer satisfaction. You get a good qualified third party objective to conduct the survey. They ask the right questions of the right audience, they tabulate it the right way, no errors, you’ve got customer satisfaction measurements.

“How do you measure customer retention? The easiest way is when your company goes out of business because it hasn’t had high enough customer satisfaction and you lose all your customers. You can say, ‘We had a high level of customer retention yesterday and it’s zero today.’ So there are many surrogates to measure retention, but it’s very, very difficult.”

There are of course, ways and means of doing so, particularly in this age of social media and customer sentiment analysis, but that is a topic for another time. After all, as Pollock suggests there is still plenty of scope for improvement in CX metrics first.