Zinier’s Intelligent Service Automation and Control (ISAC) Uses Machine Learning to Help Field Service Organizations Optimize their Operations and Scale More Efficiently.
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Jun 11, 2019 • News • Artificial intelligence • future of field service • Software and Apps
Zinier’s Intelligent Service Automation and Control (ISAC) Uses Machine Learning to Help Field Service Organizations Optimize their Operations and Scale More Efficiently.
Zinier has announced Intelligent Service Automation and Control (ISAC), an AI-driven platform enabling field service organizations to operate more efficiently. Through its machine learning and analytics capabilities, ISAC helps organizations optimize every aspect of their field service operations, resulting in the highest levels of automation-driven outcomes.
As the volume and complexity of field service requests continue to rise, field service organizations are looking for ways to drive efficiency and lay the groundwork for continued growth. At the same time, technology trends such as 5G in telecom and a sharp increase in the number of IoT-connected devices are creating a flood of new data streams, forcing organizations to move away from manual methods of collecting, analyzing, and acting on data.
Zinier’s ISAC platform uses machine learning to analyze data and provide real-time insights, driving productivity and enabling customers to inject automation into every step of the service delivery chain. By comparing a constant flow of field data against historical trends, ISAC is able to recommend the best course of action at any given time. And with a flexible, open architecture, customers can easily apply AI to specific use cases, whether it’s scanning a closeout package for anomalies or recommending a stock transfer by predicting parts required for a work order and an individual technician’s parts on-hand.
“After reviewing a number of solutions, we determined that Zinier was the only one that met all our requirements for flexibility and end-to-end automation,” said Luis Miguel Diaz Ortiz, Head of Telecom & Technology, Mexico at NCR Corporation. “ISAC's AI and automation capabilities will help us manage infrastructure and work more proactively. We consider it a terrific investment in providing better service.”
With ISAC as the foundation, field service organizations can easily build AI solutions for the use cases most important to them. All they need to do is determine the scope, criteria, and threshold for AI recommendations, and ISAC will take it from there.
“Most companies are looking for ways to drive automation and turn data into actionable insights, but execution remains a challenge,” said Arka Dhar, co-founder and CEO of Zinier. “With ISAC, we’re helping our customers fully embrace automation by giving them a highly configurable tool that can be applied to their specific needs, driving efficiency and providing recommendations based on real-time data and user feedback.”
Key features/benefits of ISAC include:
• Flexible, Configurable Platform: Unlike legacy solutions that can take months to update, ISAC was designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. Instead of being limited to a few use cases, customers can easily configure the features to apply AI to their operations by defining criteria and letting ISAC evaluate data accordingly.
• Real-Time AI Recommendations: ISAC is constantly running in the background, observing user actions and providing recommendations. In some cases, ISAC will immediately implement a recommendation once it has been accepted by the user. In other cases, it will suggest a course of action for a back-office coordinator or field technician.
• Seamless Integrations: Organizations can easily connect all of their critical systems using Zinier’s set of APIs and integrations, ensuring that all relevant information is factored into each recommendation and insight.
Jun 10, 2019 • Features • Ageing Workforce Crisis • future of field service • health and safety
Knowledge retained by those retiring from the service industry is set to be one of the sector’s biggest concerns over the next five years. Mark Glover speaks to Sarah Pettigrew from Thales UK, who through investment in technology and apprenticeships...
Knowledge retained by those retiring from the service industry is set to be one of the sector’s biggest concerns over the next five years. Mark Glover speaks to Sarah Pettigrew from Thales UK, who through investment in technology and apprenticeships – as well as a more positive approach to mental health – is hoping to plug the gap...
According to research from Service Council, put together by Sumair Dutta, over 70 per cent of service outfits expressed fears around a retiring workforce. The study, called A Sustainable Field Service Workforce – Successfully Navigating the Retirement Crisis was published in April 2017, and some two years on it seems the crisis is in full flow.
Sarah Pettigrew is Head of Delivery Service at Thales UK and in a case-study, presented at Field Service Connect in May she suggested ways in which a service team can be built and retained while operating in the challenges an ageing workforce brings.
Part of that process, she says, is to accept and understand the situation that service finds itself in. “One of the first things to do is to acknowledge that it is actually an issue and it is a challenge for our business,” she tells me as a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast.
The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employees, who were perhaps reluctant to adapt to digitization and content in paper-led processes. Citing one of her own projects, Sarah explains the sector’s failure to act on the issue despite being aware of the consequences is a reason why the industry is now chasing itself to make sure this knowledge is passed on. “One of the contracts I look after has been running for twenty years,” she says. “We’ve had staff on this for a very long time and they have key amounts of knowledge. One of the things we’ve lacked in field service is actual knowledge transfer which people have retained. They’ve gone out and done same job for a long, long time and we’ve encouraged them to do that.”
To negate the leak, Thales and other firms are making sure that internal workforce knowledge is archived digitally, transferred to worker’s smart devices. By using technology Sarah hopes that processes will become less paper-reliant. “This isn’t about writing really long documents that are going to sit on a shelf, this is about making it accessible,” she says. “We’re using wikis so the information is getting into the palm of their [the workers’] hands. That’s one of the things we’ve really taken on board and looking to grow this year.”
As well as investing in technology the company are focusing on apprenticeships in order to shake up the current demographic of employees, however with the industry also struggling to encourage new blood, I ask why should a school or college leaver view the sector as a valid vocation? “It’s about seeing field service as a career and where it can take you. We’ve seen people from apprenticeship programmes go all the way up to CEO level,” she offers.
Of course, in any company, employees differ in their attitudes to work with some wanting to grow and advance in their career with others content to come in every day and do a good job, something Sarah has identified. “You can’t forget about the individual,” she says. “All of this is about getting to you know your people and getting to understand their needs, getting them engaged in these development conversations. “It’s really important that we actually engage folks into that element of the excitement of what they do and also thinking about the customer. For me, it’s all about the customer and that interaction with the customer and how we can actually nurture that relationship.
We discuss employers’ attitudes towards their workers’ wellbeing and how attitudes around mental health, for example, have changed positively and had a positive affect on the person and also the business. “When you think about field service staff, you don’t necessarily see them sitting down and having a conversation around mental health. The big thing for me is working with people, particularly in service. My people are the heart of what we do and sitting down and having a cup of tea with them a break on their shift is really important and engaging with them and understanding what their challenges are, because if I can do something to make their lives easier, it will also benefit the business throughout.”
She continues: “It’s a cliché - happy staff means happy customers – but it’s true. They [field staff] probably touch more of our customer base than we ever will. It’s about that interaction they have and how they take it forward.”
I ask Sarah what she enjoys about her role; what potential employees could expect on a day-to-day working at somewhere like Thales. “There’s great variety in the work we do; both in London for our London-centric clients and also across the UK,” she says. “I came from a project management background and have been with Thales for seven years. I came here because of the diversity in the challenge.”
And what about the knowledge gap challenge in service, the premise of this piece. What should firms keep sight of? “It’s all about our people and the ability for our people to go and deliver that service,” she says, “They’re all key to the way we take ourselves forward.”
According to research from Service Council, put together by Sumair Dutta, over 70 per cent of service outfits expressed fears around a retiring workforce. The study, called A Sustainable Field Service Workforce – Successfully Navigating the Retirement Crisis was published in April 2017, and some two years on it seems the crisis is in full flow.
Sarah Pettigrew is Head of Delivery Service at Thales UK and in a case-study, presented at Field Service Connect in May she suggested ways in which a service team can be built and retained while operating in the challenges an ageing workforce brings.
Part of that process, she says, is to accept and understand the situation that service finds itself in. “One of the first things to do is to acknowledge that it is actually an issue and it is a challenge for our business,” she tells me as a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast.
The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employees, who were perhaps reluctant to adapt to digitization and content in paper-led processes. Citing one of her own projects, Sarah explains the sector’s failure to act on the issue despite being aware of the consequences is a reason why the industry is now chasing itself to make sure this knowledge is passed on. “One of the contracts I look after has been running for twenty years,” she says. “We’ve had staff on this for a very long time and they have key amounts of knowledge. One of the things we’ve lacked in field service is actual knowledge transfer which people have retained. They’ve gone out and done same job for a long, long time and we’ve encouraged them to do that.”
To negate the leak, Thales and other firms are making sure that internal workforce knowledge is archived digitally, transferred to worker’s smart devices. By using technology Sarah hopes that processes will become less paper-reliant. “This isn’t about writing really long documents that are going to sit on a shelf, this is about making it accessible,” she says. “We’re using wikis so the information is getting into the palm of their [the workers’] hands. That’s one of the things we’ve really taken on board and looking to grow this year.”
As well as investing in technology the company are focusing on apprenticeships in order to shake up the current demographic of employees, however with the industry also struggling to encourage new blood, I ask why should a school or college leaver view the sector as a valid vocation? “It’s about seeing field service as a career and where it can take you. We’ve seen people from apprenticeship programmes go all the way up to CEO level,” she offers.
"The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employee..."
Of course, in any company, employees differ in their attitudes to work with some wanting to grow and advance in their career with others content to come in every day and do a good job, something Sarah has identified. “You can’t forget about the individual,” she says. “All of this is about getting to you know your people and getting to understand their needs, getting them engaged in these development conversations. “It’s really important that we actually engage folks into that element of the excitement of what they do and also thinking about the customer. For me, it’s all about the customer and that interaction with the customer and how we can actually nurture that relationship.
We discuss employers’ attitudes towards their workers’ wellbeing and how attitudes around mental health, for example, have changed positively and had a positive affect on the person and also the business. “When you think about field service staff, you don’t necessarily see them sitting down and having a conversation around mental health. The big thing for me is working with people, particularly in service. My people are the heart of what we do and sitting down and having a cup of tea with them a break on their shift is really important and engaging with them and understanding what their challenges are, because if I can do something to make their lives easier, it will also benefit the business throughout.”
She continues: “It’s a cliché - happy staff means happy customers – but it’s true. They [field staff] probably touch more of our customer base than we ever will. It’s about that interaction they have and how they take it forward.”
I ask Sarah what she enjoys about her role; what potential employees could expect on a day-to-day working at somewhere like Thales. “There’s great variety in the work we do; both in London for our London-centric clients and also across the UK,” she says. “I came from a project management background and have been with Thales for seven years. I came here because of the diversity in the challenge.”
And what about the knowledge gap challenge in service, the premise of this piece. What should firms keep sight of? “It’s all about our people and the ability for our people to go and deliver that service,” she says, “They’re all key to the way we take ourselves forward.”
Jun 06, 2019 • Features • 3D printing • future of field service • Parts Pricing and Logistics
Spare parts, once the lifeblood of company’s service-centred ethos, is being challenged by the sector’s move to servitization. Will the next 12 months see firms cannibalise their spare parts programme or will the supply chain management see a new...
Spare parts, once the lifeblood of company’s service-centred ethos, is being challenged by the sector’s move to servitization. Will the next 12 months see firms cannibalise their spare parts programme or will the supply chain management see a new framework that combines a selection of cost-models? Mark Glover finds out more...
How do you deliver the right part, at the right time and at the right price? If you work in supply chain management, then you’ve probably seen and wrestled with these questions. Historically, the spare part transaction was a simple one: a customer needed a component that had failed, they phoned up the company, ordered and paid for the part. Transaction complete.
However, the sector’s shift to a servitization model rather than the traditional transactional-based framework has seen many companies cut their losses and cannibilise their components to align with SLAs.
In the era of servitization, the cost associated with asset failure is having a substantial impact on balance sheets. Income from replacement part sales is now considerably less than the loss accrued from downtime. The priority now is to get an asset back running as quickly as possible and if parts are struck out in the process, then so be it; the numbers will eventually balance out.
It means that a cost-plus approach to spare-parts is losing validity.
The price of producing a part and adding the profit on top is being usurped by a more value-based approach - that is, a cost based on the ultimate value to the customer. Or as a firm enters another vertical – as is common in service – will they align with a different approach such as a market-based strategy?
In short, making money from selling parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was. As well as modifying itself to the shifting nature of the sector it serves, spare parts must contend with other factors that are disrupting the transactional sphere it has felt so comfortable operating in such as E-commerce and 3D Printing.
E-commerce, for example, works best in a market-based strategy. Here it can snuggle up to China, where parts are getting cheaper and the quality is getting better and provide credible components. Add to this the threat of online retailers such as Amazon entering the market and the future does look rather bleak. Meanwhile, looking hungrily into the arena, biding its time and waiting for the right moment, 3D printing could be the most disruptive threat to traditional supply chain management.
Also referred to as additive manufacturing, the ability to print components could quash the issue of time-affected delivery. Atanu Chaudhuri is Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Aalborg University and an expert in additive manufacturing and 3D Printing.
As a recent guest on The Field Service Podcast he told me that some industries have been quick to embrace the technology while others less so. “The forerunners of the adoption of these technologies have been the aerospace and automotive sectors,” he said. “However, there are a lot of other industrial manufacturers who are exploring this but are at different stages of adoption.”
Extolling its financial virtues, Chaudhuri affirmed why 3D printing is aligned with servitization and suggests those taking the long-view of the technology will see a positive return on investment. “If you take a more life cycle perspective,” he said, “and look beyond the cost on a part-to-part comparison or look at the usage of the part over a lifetime of the product, say 15 or twenty years, suddenly you will see a huge difference. You will not be having a lot of inventory, you reduce the inventory carrying costs and maybe the environment will benefit, you will use fewer materials and suddenly the business case looks much better.”
Another challenge the sector continues to face is counterfeit parts. Non-genuine components can compromise safety, the integrity of finished goods and bring reputational damage. It’s an issue that Chris Mitchell, Business Transformation Director at Software and Services company PTC, is all too aware of. He references outcome-based models as a contributing factor to the problem as firms try to gain an advantage in the market. “With industries becoming more service-orientated and more competitive, this issue of counterfeit parts from China, Turkey and other parts of the world creeps up more and more,” he says.
"Making money from selling parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was..."
OEMs spend heavily on research ensuring the quality of their parts, utilising specialist software to engineered products in the best possible way, making the components safe and durable. It’s the finances associated with asset upkeep that forces some firms to opt for a damaging short-cut. “When looking at the cost of individual repair or maintenance event, cost pressures and short-sightedness often lead to the wrong buying decision whereby the cheap counterfeit part is used,” Mitchell explains.
Storage and warehouse logistics remain a puzzle for firms. It’s commonplace to have one centralised hub where all stock is housed making it simpler for inventory management; while a collection of smaller, local warehouses allow for greater flexibility in regards to geographical logistics but requires careful management. Taking advantage of the malaise, initiatives around smart-IoT connected storage boxes, such as those offered by BT and ByBox are proving solutions to the logistics issue.
Strategically placed parts can be collected by engineers who through cloud-based software, can check where the nearest part to them might be. The very nature of field service is also having an affect on how firms place themselves in the sector. By this, I refer to the many verticals that service operates in. It means requirements round spare parts can differ from the medical sector, for example, which will have different behaviours and expectations than, say, the oil and gas market.
This has led to companies segmenting logistics depending on their customer silos. To elaborate, one industry may require a very rapid solution, so expectations will centre on availability and quick delivery meaning the provider’s logistic channel needs to be flexible enough to meet these expectations. Conversely, another industry could be more demanding of uptime and be more price sensitive when purchasing components. Unfortunately, there remains another factor that now firms can do very little about.
At the time of writing uncertainty with Brexit continues and urgent questions round its effect on the global supply chain remain unanswered. While the knock-on effect of political decisions remains out of our hands for now, perhaps it’s time to ask a question that we may have more control over. Will the transactional model disappear completely?
Going forward, I think there will be a place for all approaches and here the diversity of markets could be an advantage. There will always be customers who want to deal on a transactional basis. SKF and GE Healthcare for example, still have long-term contracts with clients who prefer to deal in this way. These are large multi-national corporations and their continued loyalty to traditional frameworks should offer encouragement to other firms.
Spare parts and supply chain management is broad enough to accommodate and embrace change, be it new technology, political uncertainty and a shift in customer buying habits. One far-reaching question however will always remain: How do you deliver the right part, at the right time and at the right price? Amidst the changing sands of supply chain management, it’s something we should continue to ask and also take comfort from.
How do you deliver the right part, at the right time and at the right price? If you work in supply chain management, then you’ve probably seen and wrestled with these questions. Historically, the spare part transaction was a simple one: a customer needed a component that had failed, they phoned up the company, ordered and paid for the part. Transaction complete.
However, the sector’s shift to a servitization model rather than the traditional transactional-based framework has seen many companies cut their losses and cannibilise their components to align with SLAs.
In the era of servitization, the cost associated with asset failure is having a substantial impact on balance sheets. Income from replacement part sales is now considerably less than the loss accrued from downtime. The priority now is to get an asset back running as quickly as possible and if parts are struck out in the process, then so be it; the numbers will eventually balance out.
It means that a cost-plus approach to spare-parts is losing validity.
The price of producing a part and adding the profit on top is being usurped by a more value-based approach - that is, a cost based on the ultimate value to the customer. Or as a firm enters another vertical – as is common in service – will they align with a different approach such as a market-based strategy?
In short, making money from selling parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was. As well as modifying itself to the shifting nature of the sector it serves, spare parts must contend with other factors that are disrupting the transactional sphere it has felt so comfortable operating in such as E-commerce and 3D Printing.
E-commerce, for example, works best in a market-based strategy. Here it can snuggle up to China, where parts are getting cheaper and the quality is getting better and provide credible components. Add to this the threat of online retailers such as Amazon entering the market and the future does look rather bleak. Meanwhile, looking hungrily into the arena, biding its time and waiting for the right moment, 3D printing could be the most disruptive threat to traditional supply chain management.
Also referred to as additive manufacturing, the ability to print components could quash the issue of time-affected delivery. Atanu Chaudhuri is Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Aalborg University and an expert in additive manufacturing and 3D Printing.
As a recent guest on The Field Service Podcast he told me that some industries have been quick to embrace the technology while others less so. “The forerunners of the adoption of these technologies have been the aerospace and automotive sectors,” he said. “However, there are a lot of other industrial manufacturers who are exploring this but are at different stages of adoption.”
Extolling its financial virtues, Chaudhuri affirmed why 3D printing is aligned with servitization and suggests those taking the long-view of the technology will see a positive return on investment. “If you take a more life cycle perspective,” he said, “and look beyond the cost on a part-to-part comparison or look at the usage of the part over a lifetime of the product, say 15 or twenty years, suddenly you will see a huge difference. You will not be having a lot of inventory, you reduce the inventory carrying costs and maybe the environment will benefit, you will use fewer materials and suddenly the business case looks much better.”
Another challenge the sector continues to face is counterfeit parts. Non-genuine components can compromise safety, the integrity of finished goods and bring reputational damage. It’s an issue that Chris Mitchell, Business Transformation Director at Software and Services company PTC, is all too aware of. He references outcome-based models as a contributing factor to the problem as firms try to gain an advantage in the market. “With industries becoming more service-orientated and more competitive, this issue of counterfeit parts from China, Turkey and other parts of the world creeps up more and more,” he says.
"Making money from selling parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was..."
OEMs spend heavily on research ensuring the quality of their parts, utilising specialist software to engineered products in the best possible way, making the components safe and durable. It’s the finances associated with asset upkeep that forces some firms to opt for a damaging short-cut. “When looking at the cost of individual repair or maintenance event, cost pressures and short-sightedness often lead to the wrong buying decision whereby the cheap counterfeit part is used,” Mitchell explains.
Storage and warehouse logistics remain a puzzle for firms. It’s commonplace to have one centralised hub where all stock is housed making it simpler for inventory management; while a collection of smaller, local warehouses allow for greater flexibility in regards to geographical logistics but requires careful management. Taking advantage of the malaise, initiatives around smart-IoT connected storage boxes, such as those offered by BT and ByBox are proving solutions to the logistics issue.
Strategically placed parts can be collected by engineers who through cloud-based software, can check where the nearest part to them might be. The very nature of field service is also having an affect on how firms place themselves in the sector. By this, I refer to the many verticals that service operates in. It means requirements round spare parts can differ from the medical sector, for example, which will have different behaviours and expectations than, say, the oil and gas market.
This has led to companies segmenting logistics depending on their customer silos. To elaborate, one industry may require a very rapid solution, so expectations will centre on availability and quick delivery meaning the provider’s logistic channel needs to be flexible enough to meet these expectations. Conversely, another industry could be more demanding of uptime and be more price sensitive when purchasing components. Unfortunately, there remains another factor that now firms can do very little about.
At the time of writing uncertainty with Brexit continues and urgent questions round its effect on the global supply chain remain unanswered. While the knock-on effect of political decisions remains out of our hands for now, perhaps it’s time to ask a question that we may have more control over. Will the transactional model disappear completely?
Going forward, I think there will be a place for all approaches and here the diversity of markets could be an advantage. There will always be customers who want to deal on a transactional basis. SKF and GE Healthcare for example, still have long-term contracts with clients who prefer to deal in this way. These are large multi-national corporations and their continued loyalty to traditional frameworks should offer encouragement to other firms.
Spare parts and supply chain management is broad enough to accommodate and embrace change, be it new technology, political uncertainty and a shift in customer buying habits. One far-reaching question however will always remain: How do you deliver the right part, at the right time and at the right price? Amidst the changing sands of supply chain management, it’s something we should continue to ask and also take comfort from.
Jun 05, 2019 • News • Artificial intelligence • future of field service • Software and Apps
Edge is the highest-performing edge computing server on the market worldwide to manage data at the edge.
Edge is the highest-performing edge computing server on the market worldwide to manage data at the edge.
The BullSequana Edge has been designed to be used securely for the Internet of Things (IoT), in environments in which fast response times are critical - such as manufacturing 4.0, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and retail/airport security – where data needs to be processed and analyzed at the edge in real-time.
The embedded BullSequana Edge server securely manages and processes IoT data, close to the source where it is generated, so that it is treated immediately. It analyzes and runs Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in real-time for instant insight, so that actions and decisions can be made swiftly to optimize operations.
The BullSequana Edge enables businesses to overcome challenges such as limited bandwidth, intermittent network connectivity, securing data at the edge, and network costs. Key benefits are:
• Optimum security and privacy: both the data and the physical server are protected by an advanced chain of security measures • Immediate responsiveness: data analysis in real-time;
• Autonomy: reduced dependence on cloud and datacenter availability and connectivity, ensures that apps are not disrupted in case of limited or intermittent network connectivity. The BullSequana Edge can communicate via radio, GSM or Wi-Fi;
• Interactivity: both multi-source and multi-format data can be analyzed in real-time;
• Cost-effective: reduced datacenter infrastructure and networking costs.
“The exponential growth of IoT devices and how to best manage the consequent explosion of data is a challenge faced by many businesses today. To manage and harness this mass of data to our advantage, in a post-cloud era, we need to embrace edge computing. Atos brings together its expertise and experience as a leader in cloud orchestration, high-performance computing, cybersecurity and AI, to develop a unique edge computing product – the BullSequana Edge - which empowers businesses to take full advantage of the data deluge.” said Pierre Barnabé, Senior Executive Vice-President, Head of Big Data & CyberSecurity Division at Atos.
The BullSequana Edge already supports three main categories of use cases:
• AI: Atos Edge Computer Vision – this provides advanced extraction and analysis of ‘features’ (people, faces, emotions, behaviors) so that automatic actions are able to be carried out, based on this analysis. It enables a large set of intelligent cameras, for example in video surveillance, to collaborate holistically in real-time, enabling operations to be tracked without interruption;
• Big Data: Atos Edge Data Analytics – this enables organizations to improve their business models with predictive and prescriptive solutions. It hinges upon edge data lake capabilities to make data trustworthy and useable;
• Container: Atos Edge Data Container (EDC) – this all-in-one container solution is ready to run at the edge and serves as a decentralized IT system (from one individual rack up to a complete containerized data center). It can run autonomously in non-data center environments with no need for local on-site operation;
The BullSequana Edge is available today and can be purchased as a standalone infrastructure or together with a software platform, such as Atos Edge Computer Vision, Edge Data Analytics, or in a container system such as Atos Edge Data Container. The BullSequana Edge is Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT.
Jun 03, 2019 • News • future of field service • Software and Apps • Microsoft HoloLens • mixed realities • HSO
Gimmick or game-changer? Danny Wieder, Field Service Consultant at HSO ponders if mixed reality can ultimately benefit the sector.
Gimmick or game-changer? Danny Wieder, Field Service Consultant at HSO ponders if mixed reality can ultimately benefit the sector.
Wearing a Mixed Reality headset, an engineer can share what they see and communicate with another engineer miles away. They might also be able to simultaneously call up manuals or other information through a heads-up display and view details provided by their assisting engineer.
Last month saw the launch of Hololens 2, the much-improved successor to Microsoft’s mixed reality headset Hololens. Microsoft is not a lone voice in the dark, with a plethora of other companies working on technologies with similar applications. Nreal and Zappar are just two of the start-ups trying to cash in on this emerging market. Are their investors just taking a gamble or are there good reasons for their investments?
This makes one wonder – is Mixed Reality just another gimmick or could it bring major benefits to Field Service operations? I suspect the latter, and here is why:
The adoption of new technologies tends to follow the S-Curve. As a product or technology gains traction in the market, its market begins to grow. At first, the growth is slow, almost imperceptible. It then develops more rapidly as consumers begin to adopt the technology. As the market expands, that growth continues. Finally, a host of factors cause the growth rate to decline and then gradually growth tapers off as it becomes a replacement market.
So where is Mixed Reality on the S-Curve? In his much quoted “Diffusion of Innovation”, Everett Rogers terms the first group to adopt a new technology as “Innovators”. Innovators are characterised by a willingness to take risks, have the highest social status, have financial liquidity and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Their risk tolerance allows them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail. Financial resources help absorb these failures. I would suggest that the US military, who have just placed a large Hololens order, fits squarely into this category.
The next stage of adoption belongs to the early adopters. Early adopters have a high degree of opinion leadership as well as high status and financial liquidity. Whilst facts and figures are still sparse, anecdotal evidence suggest that we may already have started to move into this phase. The companies I hear about who are investigating Mixed Reality are in niche markets, very profitable and their engineers are highly skilled. They are happy to take some risks and try innovative solutions. This suggests that we may be about to accelerate fast up the S- Curve, but what benefits can we expect?
Well, wouldn’t it be nice if we could bottle skills and experience. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case and wherever we look we encounter skills shortages. Be it HVAC, Gas Central Heating or High-Speed Printing; in Cornwall, London or Scotland – companies struggle to recruit experienced engineers. In niche sectors it is the worst. When baby boomer engineers are retiring they the take their skills with them and it’s hard to replace them. Would it not be great if a senior engineer could guide the engineer on site through fault-finding and repair from the comfort of the office (or even from home), in real time? How many senior engineers could you retain this way?
But then, do we need to stay with the traditional model of service visits. In many sectors it is common that the first visit is about identifying the fault and the parts required to fix it. We may try to do this over the phone but often without success. How often could this be done by customer staff with guidance from a skilled engineer delivered remotely via Mixed Reality? I imagine it would be a lot, if it was easy enough. How much would that improve engineer productivity and first-time-fix rates and fix-times? And what about inaccessible locations or when the fault occurs off-shore or on a ship? The benefits of Mixed Reality for fault finding and assisted repairs are massive. Of course sometimes it’s as simple as getting a second opinion about a tricky issue.
Then there is training. Ever simulated a fault and waited forever whilst six trainees take turns resolving it with their heads in a confined space? Wearing Mixed Reality headsets, they could be right there with the trainer inside the machine.
These are just a few examples. As technologies expand and become cheaper, their applications multiply. Just think what you could do with a mobile phone 10 years ago and what we use it for now. No wonder some industry analysts expect shipments of Mixed Reality devices to exceed five million in the next three years.
So, yes – I see Mixed Reality changing the way we do service, and soon!
Danny Wieder is a Field Service Consultant at HSO.
Wearing a Mixed Reality headset, an engineer can share what they see and communicate with another engineer miles away. They might also be able to simultaneously call up manuals or other information through a heads-up display and view details provided by their assisting engineer.
Last month saw the launch of Hololens 2, the much-improved successor to Microsoft’s mixed reality headset Hololens. Microsoft is not a lone voice in the dark, with a plethora of other companies working on technologies with similar applications. Nreal and Zappar are just two of the start-ups trying to cash in on this emerging market. Are their investors just taking a gamble or are there good reasons for their investments?
This makes one wonder – is Mixed Reality just another gimmick or could it bring major benefits to Field Service operations? I suspect the latter, and here is why:
The adoption of new technologies tends to follow the S-Curve. As a product or technology gains traction in the market, its market begins to grow. At first, the growth is slow, almost imperceptible. It then develops more rapidly as consumers begin to adopt the technology. As the market expands, that growth continues. Finally, a host of factors cause the growth rate to decline and then gradually growth tapers off as it becomes a replacement market.
"The adoption of new technologies tends to follow the S-Curve..."
So where is Mixed Reality on the S-Curve? In his much quoted “Diffusion of Innovation”, Everett Rogers terms the first group to adopt a new technology as “Innovators”. Innovators are characterised by a willingness to take risks, have the highest social status, have financial liquidity and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Their risk tolerance allows them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail. Financial resources help absorb these failures. I would suggest that the US military, who have just placed a large Hololens order, fits squarely into this category.
The next stage of adoption belongs to the early adopters. Early adopters have a high degree of opinion leadership as well as high status and financial liquidity. Whilst facts and figures are still sparse, anecdotal evidence suggest that we may already have started to move into this phase. The companies I hear about who are investigating Mixed Reality are in niche markets, very profitable and their engineers are highly skilled. They are happy to take some risks and try innovative solutions. This suggests that we may be about to accelerate fast up the S- Curve, but what benefits can we expect?
Well, wouldn’t it be nice if we could bottle skills and experience. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case and wherever we look we encounter skills shortages. Be it HVAC, Gas Central Heating or High-Speed Printing; in Cornwall, London or Scotland – companies struggle to recruit experienced engineers. In niche sectors it is the worst. When baby boomer engineers are retiring they the take their skills with them and it’s hard to replace them. Would it not be great if a senior engineer could guide the engineer on site through fault-finding and repair from the comfort of the office (or even from home), in real time? How many senior engineers could you retain this way?
But then, do we need to stay with the traditional model of service visits. In many sectors it is common that the first visit is about identifying the fault and the parts required to fix it. We may try to do this over the phone but often without success. How often could this be done by customer staff with guidance from a skilled engineer delivered remotely via Mixed Reality? I imagine it would be a lot, if it was easy enough. How much would that improve engineer productivity and first-time-fix rates and fix-times? And what about inaccessible locations or when the fault occurs off-shore or on a ship? The benefits of Mixed Reality for fault finding and assisted repairs are massive. Of course sometimes it’s as simple as getting a second opinion about a tricky issue.
Then there is training. Ever simulated a fault and waited forever whilst six trainees take turns resolving it with their heads in a confined space? Wearing Mixed Reality headsets, they could be right there with the trainer inside the machine.
These are just a few examples. As technologies expand and become cheaper, their applications multiply. Just think what you could do with a mobile phone 10 years ago and what we use it for now. No wonder some industry analysts expect shipments of Mixed Reality devices to exceed five million in the next three years.
So, yes – I see Mixed Reality changing the way we do service, and soon!
Danny Wieder is a Field Service Consultant at HSO.
Jun 03, 2019 • News • future of field service • IIOT • Blockchain • Cyber Security • Software and Apps • IoT Security
SigmaDots blockchain-based solution enables protection for IoT and IIoT systems.
SigmaDots blockchain-based solution enables protection for IoT and IIoT systems.
SigmaDots, a cyber-security startup and subsidiary of Essence Group, has partnered with Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), to expand IoT security and strengthen business continuity leveraging SigmaDots technology. Essence Group is a market leader in developing LTE-based connected devices and IoT platforms.
SigmaDots has developed the first embedded, blockchain-based cybersecurity solution for IoT and IIoT systems. Telit, recognizing the need for enhanced solutions, is working closely with SigmaDots to improve resilience to cyberattacks. The companies are collaborating on the use of blockchain technology for routers, control panels, IoT gateways, and a host of IoT devices, drastically reducing device vulnerability to cyberthreats.
“The ubiquity of IoT devices makes them attractive targets for cyber mischief,” said Alon Segal, SVP of Software & Services, Telit. “Our collaboration with SigmaDots adds another layer of security and communications resiliency using distributed technologies to offer advanced, secure infrastructure solutions for our customers.”
SigmaDots software-based solutions harness the power of serverless architecture, bringing blockchain-based cybersecurity to the IoT ecosystem. With a scalable, interoperable, and secure platform uniquely adapted to the limited resources of IoT, SigmaDots empowers connected ecosystems to accelerate the machine-to-machine economy.
“IoT is finally delivering on its promises of complete connectivity – wearables, mobile apps, home safety, smart meters and in industry – generally anywhere” said Itsik Harpaz, General Manager of SigmaDots. “However, this connectivity brings significant threats – an attack on a single device can spread throughout the entire network.”
IoT devices without strong cyber protection can easily become part of a botnet to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or fall prey to IoT-focused attacks like man-in-the-middle, data and identity theft, and device hijacking.
“SigmaDots technology was developed out of the need to strengthen the security of our IoT devices,” said Dr. Haim Amir, CEO and founder of Essence Group. “We’ve been creating innovative connected device solutions for more than 25 years, so we fully understand the challenges and the necessity of creating airtight cyber protection.”
May 30, 2019 • Features • future of field service • WBR • field service asia
WBR Asia’s Wendy Zheng, explains why the Asia Pacific region has become a hot bed of field service innovation...
WBR Asia’s Wendy Zheng, explains why the Asia Pacific region has become a hot bed of field service innovation...
Field service is on an upward trajectory all over the world, and one region is leading the charge to challenge the US dominance of the industry. The worldwide market size of the field service management industry is expected to grow to $5.08 billion by 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.7%.
This growth is being driven, in part, by the onslaught of innovative new technology which is making the whole industry more efficient and cost effective. Mobile applications, wearable devices, cloud hosting, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are all helping field service engineers and the administrative staff who support them to deliver superior customer experience.
However, while North America still holds, and is expected to continue holding, the largest market share, the Asia Pacific region is predicted to exhibit the most rapid rate of growth during the period. With the increase in the number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the emerging countries, such as China and India, competition in APAC is expected to grow at a because of automation in various business processes, including job scheduling, billing and invoicing, and service delivery.
Asia Pacific
One reason for this rapid rate of growth is attributed to the fact of the emerging markets of the region (such as India and China) being home to a large number of small and medium sized enterprises.
The continued increase in the number of these enterprises leads to a sympathetic increase in competition. This, in turn, drives the introduction of innovative technology, such as automation for various business processes such as job scheduling, billing and invoicing, and service delivery.
“Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest CAGR in the global field service management market during the forecast period,” writes Globe Newswire. “This is primarily due to large-scale industrialization in Asian countries such as China, India, and Japan. With enhanced geographic zones and a high client base, the Asia Pacific region is expected to exhibit a strong growth in the field service management market. Increasing number of technology users in Asia Pacific region further propels the growth of field service management market in this region.”
Competition has always driven innovation as individual companies try and outdo one another in the eyes of their clients. It’s the same reason why the greatest leaps forward in technology occur during times of war, with the business world being just as susceptible to an arms race as the military can be.
Cloud Field Service Management
One of the new technologies which is particularly helping the Asia Pacific region grow at a rapid rate is the adoption of cloud-based field service management systems.
Cloud-based field service management solutions continually harvest and archive data, allowing businesses to use the resultant historical archives to identify trends and patterns and improve the necessary processes, leading to a better customer experience.
For example, it could be identified via automated cloud-based field service management tools that a certain part or component seems to have a recurring fault. Once this has been identified the manufacturer of the component can be contacted so they can make the necessary design changes, or the field service company can change to a different provider.
Likewise, data can help identify factors which are leading to field service engineers making wasted journeys or becoming delayed. Changes can then be made to scheduling or work shifts to make sure the right people are always in the right place, at the right time. Similarly, when it comes to spare part stock control, if a particular item is shown to regularly run low, purchasing can be adjusted as necessary.
Final Thoughts
The Asia Pacific region is leading the way in adopting this kind of cloud-based technology. It is technology such as this, combined with the competition being driven by the increase in small and medium sized enterprises, which is helping these emerging countries take the fight to North America as the new hot contender in the global field service marketplace.
“There is increasing demand to increase productivity and reduce operating costs,” writes IT Tech Herald. “Players are adopting field service management solutions to enhance customer experience, with customer demands and the logistics of managing field teams continuing to increase in complexity. Emergence of new technologies such as IoT and mixed labor models are promoting the market growth. Thus, increasing demand to enhance productivity and advent of various technologies are anticipated to drive the market growth during the forecast period.”
Asia’s position as the up and coming new stage for field service is sure to be a hot topic at Field Service Asia 2019, Asia’s Leading Conference for Service, Support and Customer Care on 12-14 November, at the Amara Sanctuary Resort, Sentosa, Singapore.
May 30, 2019 • News • Artificial intelligence • future of field service • Machine Learning • Software and Apps • utilities • inawisdom
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning firm will work with B2B renewable electricity supplier.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning firm will work with B2B renewable electricity supplier.
By utilising the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools from AI innovators, Inawisdom and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Drax Group has transformed its data insight and customer intelligence to personalise the services it provides to its customers, through its B2B energy supply businesses Opus Energy and Haven Power.
As a leading light in the renewable energy market, Drax Group is passionate about providing innovative and sustainable solutions for customers and has a mission to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. As part of this initiative, Drax wants to identify any anomalies in energy usage, to help demonstrate to customers that it really understands how they’re using their electricity. Drax Group partnered with Inawisdom to deploy state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence across its data and has since been able to provide a much higher standard of customer service.
“Our relationship with Drax Group has been a success story from the start,” said Neil Miles,CEO and co-founder of Inawisdom. “The utility sector is one of our core industries where AI and ML is proving a powerful instrument. Together with AWS, we were able to use our rapid deployment model to quickly find the real value in the data Drax held and help it to achieve goals effectively and efficiently”.
“Our partnership with Inawisdom and AWS has enabled us to draw insight and intelligence from our data, which was previously too complex to see,” reported Bjoern Reinke, Smart Director from Drax Group. “We can now immediately identify unusual usage and respond accordingly, providing many benefits for our customers and in turn Drax Group’s B2B supply businesses. The speed this capability has been provided is a revelation”.
By utilising the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools from AI innovators, Inawisdom and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Drax Group has transformed its data insight and customer intelligence to personalise the services it provides to its customers, through its B2B energy supply businesses Opus Energy and Haven Power.
As a leading light in the renewable energy market, Drax Group is passionate about providing innovative and sustainable solutions for customers and has a mission to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. As part of this initiative, Drax wants to identify any anomalies in energy usage, to help demonstrate to customers that it really understands how they’re using their electricity. Drax Group partnered with Inawisdom to deploy state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence across its data and has since been able to provide a much higher standard of customer service.
“Our relationship with Drax Group has been a success story from the start,” said Neil Miles,CEO and co-founder of Inawisdom. “The utility sector is one of our core industries where AI and ML is proving a powerful instrument. Together with AWS, we were able to use our rapid deployment model to quickly find the real value in the data Drax held and help it to achieve goals effectively and efficiently”.
“Our partnership with Inawisdom and AWS has enabled us to draw insight and intelligence from our data, which was previously too complex to see,” reported Bjoern Reinke, Smart Director from Drax Group. “We can now immediately identify unusual usage and respond accordingly, providing many benefits for our customers and in turn Drax Group’s B2B supply businesses. The speed this capability has been provided is a revelation”.
May 29, 2019 • News • Augmented Reality • future of field service • Scope AR • Software and Apps • Enterprise Working
Company adds session recording to its industry leading AR knowledge platform and announces continued enterprise customer growth with Becton Dickinson and Lockheed Martin.
Company adds session recording to its industry leading AR knowledge platform and announces continued enterprise customer growth with Becton Dickinson and Lockheed Martin.
Scope AR, the pioneer of enterprise-class augmented reality (AR) solutions, today launched at Augmented World Expo 2019 (AWE) an upgraded version of its highly-touted WorkLink platform. With the addition of session recording, WorkLink becomes the industry’s only AR knowledge platform to offer real-time remote support, access to AR work instructions and the ability to record sessions simultaneously in one application. With this, workers can now easily capture, retain and share knowledge like never before. Scope AR also announced new enterprise customer, medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson, as well as expanded use of its integrated AR platform with Lockheed Martin.
“This is an exciting time for the AR industry. Adoption is growing and expectations among users are shifting towards more comprehensive, enterprise-ready solutions,” explained Scott Montgomerie, CEO of Scope AR. “With the latest WorkLink platform, we’ve added even more ways for workers to collaborate and quickly get the knowledge they need to successfully do their jobs. With the addition of session recording, businesses can now better capture and retain knowledge for future use and training purposes, while taking compliance, quality assurance and accuracy to the next level.”
The updated WorkLink platform can be customized with varying sets of functionality depending on customers’ needs. It can also be deployed across all major platforms and select industry wearables so organizations can use their device of choice. The platform is built to help make anyone an instant expert with seamless access to a variety of features including:
Session Recording to capture important knowledge delivered during live support video calls for retention, future sharing and new insight into additional training needs and how processes can be improved. Either the technician or remote expert can record a live session so real-time knowledge becomes a reusable asset that can be accessed by others in the future.
Beyond its latest product innovations, Scope AR has also experienced continued customer acquisition and growth on the heels of its $9.7 million Series A funding round in March 2019. Becton Dickinson, an American medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagants, is the newest addition to the company’s already impressive client roster. Becton Dickinson will use WorkLink at the company’s Automation Center for Enablement to deliver AR instructions across the organization.
Additionally, Lockheed Martin is now expanding its use of Scope AR’s technology after its highly successful implementation of WorkLink to improve workforce training and spacecraft manufacturing procedures. They are now deploying Scope AR into all four of their business units across a broad variety of use cases.
Lockheed Martin’s Emerging Technologies Lead Shelley Peterson added, “Creating AR work instructions with WorkLink has enabled our Space team to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency and accuracy, as well as reduced manufacturing training and activity ramp-up time by 85%. Scope AR's platform has proven to be so valuable that we have expanded our AR adoption into even more manufacturing applications within the Space division, as well as leveraging the technology in other areas of the business."
Scope AR, the pioneer of enterprise-class augmented reality (AR) solutions, today launched at Augmented World Expo 2019 (AWE) an upgraded version of its highly-touted WorkLink platform. With the addition of session recording, WorkLink becomes the industry’s only AR knowledge platform to offer real-time remote support, access to AR work instructions and the ability to record sessions simultaneously in one application. With this, workers can now easily capture, retain and share knowledge like never before. Scope AR also announced new enterprise customer, medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson, as well as expanded use of its integrated AR platform with Lockheed Martin.
“This is an exciting time for the AR industry. Adoption is growing and expectations among users are shifting towards more comprehensive, enterprise-ready solutions,” explained Scott Montgomerie, CEO of Scope AR. “With the latest WorkLink platform, we’ve added even more ways for workers to collaborate and quickly get the knowledge they need to successfully do their jobs. With the addition of session recording, businesses can now better capture and retain knowledge for future use and training purposes, while taking compliance, quality assurance and accuracy to the next level.”
The updated WorkLink platform can be customized with varying sets of functionality depending on customers’ needs. It can also be deployed across all major platforms and select industry wearables so organizations can use their device of choice. The platform is built to help make anyone an instant expert with seamless access to a variety of features including:
Session Recording to capture important knowledge delivered during live support video calls for retention, future sharing and new insight into additional training needs and how processes can be improved. Either the technician or remote expert can record a live session so real-time knowledge becomes a reusable asset that can be accessed by others in the future.
Beyond its latest product innovations, Scope AR has also experienced continued customer acquisition and growth on the heels of its $9.7 million Series A funding round in March 2019. Becton Dickinson, an American medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagants, is the newest addition to the company’s already impressive client roster. Becton Dickinson will use WorkLink at the company’s Automation Center for Enablement to deliver AR instructions across the organization.
Additionally, Lockheed Martin is now expanding its use of Scope AR’s technology after its highly successful implementation of WorkLink to improve workforce training and spacecraft manufacturing procedures. They are now deploying Scope AR into all four of their business units across a broad variety of use cases.
Lockheed Martin’s Emerging Technologies Lead Shelley Peterson added, “Creating AR work instructions with WorkLink has enabled our Space team to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency and accuracy, as well as reduced manufacturing training and activity ramp-up time by 85%. Scope AR's platform has proven to be so valuable that we have expanded our AR adoption into even more manufacturing applications within the Space division, as well as leveraging the technology in other areas of the business."
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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