ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘future-of-field-service-2’ CATEGORY

Rohit Agarwal, Editorial Director with Copperberg, shares his reflections on a series of discussion groups he recently co-chaired with Field Service News’ Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland at the Field Service Summit, where over 120 senior field service leaders came together to discuss what the Experience Economy means for field service organisations...

Would you walk into a pub that served you a warm beer the previous time? Or, go back to this fine dining restaurant with your partner if it was noisy and unclean? One word that can make or break it for the service business is ‘Experience’.

With customer satisfaction being the buzz word in the past years, now the new trending words are ‘Experience Economy’, ‘Customer Delight’, and ‘Good-feel Service’. The trend is very common in the B2C sector which has led to terms like ‘Uberized Service’, ‘Amazon like Delivery’ or ‘Disney like Experience’.

This wave of keeping customers happy and providing them with a great experience has to become a priority on the list of the majority of Field Service Directors today. With the quest to create the perfect value proposition and customer experience comes in the various challenges that these leaders in manufacturing face today.

Recently, I had a fantastic opportunity to moderate a round-table discussion along with Kris Oldland, Editor of Field Service News about the Challenges that Service Leaders Face today and the future technologies in Field Service and Spare Parts at the Spare Parts Summit Summit in Coventry, UK.

One important observation was the interlinking of issues with spare parts and field service. The service leaders faced challenges in obsolesce management, spare parts management, data collection, utilisation and analysis along with field workforce training and planning.

With the advent of digital tools, faster production and time to market, one big challenge for Service Leaders today is obsolescence management as it has become increasingly challenging to predict and prepare for the future. IoT and connected machines have made predictive maintenance easier and helped the service organisations to move into the proactive space than the reactive space. One challenge still remains with break-fix due to user mismanagement, negligence or insufficient training.

Although IoT allows companies to note some cases of misuse and offer training proactively preventing damage to the machines and need for servicing prematurely. The service leaders have accepted that there will always be break-fix with machines whether it is due to an unforeseen circumstance or a user issue. So the goal in these instances is to have enough data to be able to get a technician with the right spare parts to the location and get it fixed immediately.

"One important observation was the interlinking of issues with spare parts and field service..."

This is a shift from the older model of a technician visiting to collect information, making a fault report to get the spare parts and revisiting the customer to fix the issue which is a higher cost for the service company and loss in uptime for the customers. Tracking of spare parts and more specifically ‘Having the rights parts at the right place’ is also an issue being tackled currently by the service leaders.

Some leaders are concerned about the tracking of spare parts as they become ‘lost’ with technicians, in spare part boxes or in inventories. Technologies like RFID readers, GPS tags could play a big role in actively tracking the spare parts to make sure the parts can be delivered to the right place when required.

The manufacturing, service and aftermarket space today is in a fantastic rush for data and today is commonly referred to as the new gold or oil. Kris Oldland had an interesting take on how this gold can be dug out but will still be useless unless refined and put it in the right form. One challenge with data is also getting data from the right source.

Similar to ores to extract gold, if the content of the ore is bad, the gold will be very expensive to extract and the return on investment will be low or negative. Data has a similar proposition today. Companies have started asking, how much data is enough data and which data is good data. With better data processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning making progress, the data analysis and processing woes should be answered more effectively in the near future.

The challenges cannot be addressed with a magic wand or just ignored, but being able to address them is a progressive first step. Collaboration with the customers and getting them involved in the whole process of solving the challenges can also boost progress for the service organisations.

To sum it up according to a Forbes quote,’An experience is not an amorphous construct, it is as real an offering as any service, good or commodity.’ 

According to a new report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, 5G will make its first appearance in the IoT market in late 2020...

The first 5G cellular IoT modules will become available to developers this year, enabling early adopters to create the first IoT devices based on the standard. Based on the experience of previous introductions of new standards, 5G will however not be an instant hit. By 2023, Berg Insight forecasts that 5G will account for just under 3 percent of the total installed base of cellular IoT devices.
 
“5G still has some way to go before it can become a mainstream technology for cellular IoT”, says Tobias Ryberg, Principal Analyst and author of the report. “Just like 4G when it was first introduced, the initial version of 5G is mostly about improving network performance and data capacity. This is only relevant for a smaller subset of high-bandwidth cellular IoT applications like connected cars, security cameras and industrial routers. The real commercial breakthrough will not happen until the massive machine type communication (mMTC) use case has been implemented in the standard.”
 
mMTC is intended as an evolution of the LTE-M/NB-IoT enhancements to the 4G standard. Since NB-IoT has only just started to appear in commercial products, there is no immediate demand for a successor. Over time, fifth generation mobile networks will however become necessary to cope with the expected exponential growth of IoT connections and data traffic.
 
The report identifies homeland security as an area where 5G cellular IoT can have a major impact already in the early 2020s. “5G enables the deployment of high-density networks of AI-supported security cameras to monitor anything form security-classified facilities to national borders or entire cities”, says Mr. Ryberg. “How this technology is used and by whom is likely to become one of the most controversial issues in the next decade.”

Kris Oldland reflects on whether a two speed approach to staff development is the way to deal with the transitory nature of millennials...

In the endless talk about the shift from the retiring baby-boomer workforce and the incoming Millennials, I as a representative of that overlooked, unforgotten middle child, poor old Generation X, would like to just take a moment to point out that we often tend to get left out of the conversation. Now, don’t worry, this isn’t going to be an article of self-pity - that’s just not the way us Gen-X folk roll.

Nope, we are the generation that just rolls our sleeves up and gets on with it.

Unlike our Baby Boomer parents and elder siblings, who were able to indulge in free love whilst turning on, tuning in and dropping out, that greatest consumer generation of them all, who spent every dollar they earned as they lived solely in the now, those of us in Gen X, got up off our backsides and went and got a McJob to see us through college before generally fixing the ‘Boomers mess and creating the easy gig that the Millennials got to inherit.

You know sometimes history can be a cruel mother to the middle child.

The Millennials are the first generation to exist in a time of huge technological advancement (and it’s subsequent impact on society) since the industrial revolution. Therefore, quite rightly, we should factor in such significant change when considering how we attract, develop and retain them within the workforce. All I ask, is just occasionally, spare a thought for us poor oft overlooked Gen Xers who have been quietly making things tick over for a long time now.

I mean, OK they might be the first google native generation, and the internet as we know it today may have been invented by a ‘Boomer, but it was us who terraformed the world wide web from the frontier town of the early nineties to the sprawling global metropolis it is today. You’re very welcome.

All of the above is of course said firmly with my tongue in cheek. Crikey, technically, I’m actually dangerously close to being a Millennial myself having been born in ‘80 - technically I think that makes me a Xennial - meaning I’m more down with the kids than my elder Gen X brethren, but still remember the sheer agony of pre-app dating, and the terrifying wait on the phone to see if it was your intended date who picked up, or her rather more hostile father.

And whilst, it is of course fun to pick on both ‘Boomers and Millennials alike from my lofty Gen X pedestal, there is a actually a serious point to be considered here.

Sure, there are plenty of things that we should be considering when the difference from one outgoing generation to the incoming generation within a workforce is so pronounced. I know, I’ve certainly spent plenty of time writing and talking about the topic in the past.

For example, ‘Boomers wear the knowledge they have earned through study and experience like armour. The deeper the knowledge, the stronger the armour - as the more invaluable they become to an organisation.

Millennials on the other hand, see knowledge as an easily accessible resource, always readily available and on demand through a couple of taps and swipes on the phone in their pocket.

"They are the first generation to exist in a time of technological advancement since the industrial revolution..."

‘Boomers viewed career paths as fairly straightforward, linear progressions. A ladder to be climbed, with progress being in steady increments, one rung at a time. Millennials, are as inclined to move sideways, often into a different industry entirely, and research by Deloitte showed the average time a millennial intends to stay in a job is just two years.

Another huge difference is that whilst financial remuneration always played a key role in ‘Boomers career aspirations, Millennials value the societal impact of a company and will look at soft factors like company policies on diversity, inclusion and flexibility, equally if not more so, than just money itself.

So yes, there undoubted differences between the two. And yes to reiterate such changes should be considered when talking about talent recruitment, retention and development. However, it feels to me that if we reassess things to radically within our internal procedures, we may be at risk of losing what I believe is the utmost important thing for any business to maintain if they want to be successful. An Inside-Out perspective.

Remember, as much as Millennials are our new/future workforce, they are also our new/future customer base.

It is obviously thus, highly important to acknowledge what makes this generation on the whole, buy into a brand - green carbon neutral policies for example carry as much wait in this age, as a cheesy celebratory endorsement would have back in the 80s. In doing so, and by being a company whose values Millennials can buy into, you will enhance your recruitment success. But one caveat here is it needs to be led from the top and be genuine.

Millenials have an inate ability to smell BS from distance.

The other issue I see with sweeping generalisations of a generation, is that by treating Millennials as a monolith, we may be at risk of overlooking the individual - and in field service in particular, the individual is often the star of the show.

This creates something of a duality that we must overcome and I suggest doing so by adopting a two pronged approach to our workforce. On one hand we need to acknowledge and embrace that many of the Millennials that come through the workforce may be just ‘passing through’ and invest in the technologies such as AR and knowledge banks, technologies which can make them as productive as possible, as quickly as possible. Here, we want a workforce with a shallow but broad skill set that can then be supplemented via remote assistance by experts with deeper knowledge when neccessary.

Simultaneously, we need to identify a number of career paths that enable those individuals who buck the trend of being part of a transitory workforce (and beyond the hyperbole there are many out there believe me) to grow within your company. Tap into the gamification instincts that are almost embedded in the root directory of Millennials by attaching gravitas, kudos and continual learning to roles where deep experience is built upon.

Ideally, such a two-tiered structure will ultimately allow you to utilise the emerging gig economy or contingent labour sectors - giving you flexibility within your staffing that could potentially be a major benefit to your P&L. A win-win all round. Alternatively, you could just ride it all out until the Gen Z cavalry arrives to quietly save the day just like us Gen Xers did for the ‘Boomers.

Does the service industry have an image problem? The lack of young people actively choosing to pursue a career in the sector suggests it might. Mark Glover meets Cheryl-Anne Sanderson, a trail-blazer determined to change the narrative when it comes to hiring the next generation of service professionals... 

One of the challenges staring service full in the face is the growing disparity between those leaving the industry and those coming in. Many voices in the sector have expressed concern at this alarming future trend, yet there seems to be little action when it comes to addressing the issue. 

Cheryl-Anne Sanderson is the Operations Director at G4S and a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast where she shared some employee statistics attached to a contract she is currently working on, where employee demographics reveal 70 per cent of that workforce is over the age of 50 and, worryingly, only 10 per cent under 30. “I find this absolutely bonkers,” she says with typical candidness, “I like to think I’m still young myself, but I fell into my industry. It was pure luck that someone got hold of my CV, but I think we dumb it [field service] down quite a lot, we don’t make its sound attractive. If you look at field service and if you ask most people what it is,” Cheryl-Anne says, “they would say ‘it’s a man in a van’, which doesn’t sound sexy at all.” 

Cheryl-Anne with a fiery Welsh enthusiasm is passionate about her job and passionate about the PR needed to change perceptions attached to it. 

Perhaps young people do perceive the sector as the image of a ‘man in the van’, but as she tells me with enthusiasm, service and FM is so much more than that. “It’s a demanding role. No day is ever the same. If you’re a regimental type or person who likes routine, then this might not be for you. You need to be flexible, willing to work above and beyond at times but by doing that you actually get a lot out of it as well.”

Worryingly though, it seems that promotion of a new role in service, perhaps an entry level position, is simply advertised and left to pick up interest on its own, published on a bland FM job-site, rather than firms pro-actively visiting the pool of potential candidates through job fairs or colleges to extol the virtues of the opportunity. 

Cheryl though, having done just that – visiting schools and job fairs - and communicated the diverse nature of a role in service or FM is often met with enthusiasm after their initial concern. “It’s about people’s perception and fundamentally about spreading the word, making it sound interesting and exciting and setting the scene,” she says.

"You need to be flexible, willing to work above and beyond at times but by doing that you get a lot out of it..."

We discuss the impact of personal engagement in service, how the role of customer interaction and satisfaction is playing more of a key role than technology. “I think in some aspects, we’ve sort of lost the customer service touch through the technology and digitilisation, which is really important in bringing innovation to the table,” Cheryl-Anne offers, “but at the end of the day you’ve still got to sell that innovation. If you don’t get on the same level as the customer and deliver that engagement then from a customer’s perspective, they can think it’s rather robotic.”

I suggest this shift could be used in changing perception of the industry, that service is about human engagement rather than complicated algorithms and technical components, making it more attractive to young people, Cheryl agrees but brings it back to delivery of the message. “Let’s go out there and spread the word,” she says. “You can look at a job description on an advert, but until you really speak to the people and go through the interview process, do you really know, whether you as the individual will want the job.” 

It’s obvious there needs to be a change in perception of field service for young people to be attracted but it seems stagnant in making this happen. Influence needs to come from the top, with large companies willing to get out among colleges, universities and job fairs; perhaps even needs committing to some wide-spread pledge or campaign. 

In Cheryl’s experience however, the best intentions are frustratingly never followed up. “I really think it should be within people’s 
objectives, that we allow our staff and we allow our current leaders to go out there and inspire and to attract the new people into the environment. It’s about going back to basics and putting some governance around it. People say we should do a charter, make a commitment,” she pauses, sighing almost, “but we never follow it through.” 

Regaining her enthusiasm, she continues: “You look at field service; one day you could be processing something in logistics, the following day you could dealing with an event.” A pause again. “It’s everything.”

To Cheryl it is everything and to new entrants joining the sector they should feel this way too, but the message has to come from the sector as a whole. So, to the rest of the industry; it’s over to you. 

Let’s make this happen.

UK and South Korean businesses to pilot 5G technology on Seoul subways.

A new UK / South Korea 5G competition has been launched by UK Digital Minister Margot James to help prepare the UK for a future 5G rollout. Businesses are now being encouraged to apply for a unique opportunity to trial new content and services on South Korea’s transport networks.

The UK and South Korean Governments are funding a £2.4 million project to support businesses in the two countries and develop 5G technology. The project will live test content and services on the Seoul metropolitan subway system.

5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity, providing speeds up to 20 times faster than current 4G technology.

The trials will enable businesses and researchers to investigate and address a number of user and technical challenges that are crucial to the future roll out of 5G. These could include: Augmented Reality (AR) experiences in busy public spaces, giving tourists and commuters a dramatic new insight to the city and the way in which they experience it; optimisation of traffic management systems, to better manage commuter flows, reduce overcrowding, improve safety and better protect the environment; and providing uninterrupted infotainment services for commuters such as interactive content, video streaming and gaming, with more reliable and faster services across the subway network. 

Digital Minister Margot James said: "We want the UK to be a world leader in 5G services, and this collaboration with South Korea will create new opportunities for UK businesses abroad and encourage more inward investment. The UK has a huge pool of 5G scientific research and engineering talent, and I would encourage all businesses in this field to enter this innovative competition."

The funding competition is part of the UK’s 5G Testbed & Trials (5GTT) Programme, which aims to maximise the opportunities for UK businesses, especially SMEs, to develop new 5G applications and services for both domestic and global markets. It is a key part of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy - making sure that the UK has the right infrastructure in place to be a world leader in new 5G technology.

The deadline for applying is 1st June and the competition is being managed by UK5G on behalf of The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Jan Van Veen discusses why manufacturers unable to innovate their business model risk falling behind their competitors.

 

In this special episode, Deputy Editor Mark Glover, speaks to moreMomentum's Jan van Veen who urges firms to take advantage of servitization and digitilastion and avoid stagnant business as usual behaviours.

Click here for material complimenting Jan's podcast including diagrams and charts. You can also contact Jan about any of the content raised in this recording and to find out how to get involved in Jan's new book, mentioned in the podcast, then click here.

Copperberg’s Thomas Igou reflects on some of their most recent research that outlines how although most companies within the field service sector on a program of digitalisation to leverage emerging technologies to improve the efficiency of their service operations both in the office and out in the field, almost half of companies cite adapting current IT infrastructure for Future Digital Strategy as one of their biggest challenges...









Field Service Organisations today would like to move into predictive maintenance, connect the back office to the front and augment knowledge virtually to field technicians through digital devices to boost productivity, increase profitability and stay ahead of the competition.

However, according to the Copperberg Research’s Annual Field Service Report conducted with over 120 FIeld Service DIrectors in 2019, 42% of the respondents listed adapting current IT infrastructure for Future Digital Strategy as one of their biggest problems. There are so many technologies to implement yet having a unified IT infrastructure for these systems and platforms is no easy task, and can make or break a Digital Strategy if the data between systems cannot speak to each other.

With the advent of numerous sensors, faster data capturing and transmission, sorting, processing and making use of all the data can be a big challenge requiring a massive investment in upgrading IT departments. Most companies in the field service domain are just getting started on the digital journey where going fast could be useful, but the important question to ask is if it is worth going faster than your customers? Or, is the best approach to take is one of step by step collaboration with partners, suppliers and customers. According to the survey, the next big challenges according to 30% of the field service directors is deciding on the digital transformation tools along with workforce planning and scheduling (32%). However, the important observation from the survey is one about change management.

To be able to implement the digital tools and keep pace with the industry, change management is crucial, which has to trickle down from the company strategy through the top management to the field service engineers. Michael Porter famously said, ‘’Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different’’.

Industrial organisations are fighting their own internal struggles of moving away from the traditional transactional business model they have been running on since their p77 inception towards a different one more adapted to today’s Experience Economy based on partnerships, value creation, subscriptions, outcomes and productivity. 53% of respondents in the survey claimed that only top management makes the decisions which could be a double-edged sword in today’s dynamic industry.

Strategies have been imperatively flowing top-down in organisations but might offer a challenge to adoption at the bottom level as they will be the ones using the deployed technology. Most leaders today are discussion preventive maintenance and some about building machines that will not break down avoiding maintenance operations and associated costs. 31% of the industry is still stuck in reactive maintenance which is concerning given the plethora of tools, case studies and resources available to move into proactive maintenance are available and have been publicised over years now.

Having the field service workforce motivated to pitch into the companies strategies will lead to motivated technicians. Top management has to involve the technicians when deciding on new digital tools, continuously train them and have the technicians help each other to understand the new technology.

This will help the younger technicians learn from experienced ones and also make the older technicians easily ask the young workforce on adapting to the new technology, bridging the competence gap. In the Survey, 80% of leaders rate their field service workforces adaptation to new tech, helping each other and providing feedback as average with only a very small number rating it as high. Competence Development of Field Workforce tops the list of priorities for field service leaders in the next 5 years.
Jim Baston, of BBA Consulting Group Inc. has a different take: ‘‘It is interesting to note the growing place that technology plays in field service. With remote diagnostics, artificial intelligence and visual reality, as well as embedded intelligence in the serviced equipment, the technical competence of the service person, will become less important. As they rely more on their tools to troubleshoot and repair and less on their experience, it opens up the door for less qualified individuals who will be able to give comparable levels of technical service.’’
In conclusion, to connect all three aspects of digitalisation, strategy and competence management, Adam Neale of Arqiva group states, ’’We will see a significant reduction in the number of highly skilled Field Engineers. We will be more low-skilled with 3rd line support assisting with technology such as Augmented Reality. Without great employee engagement, you will not succeed. Your employees build your customer reputation which can be positive or negative. If they were engaged with what your company does each and every day, then they will deliver high standards.’’
The quantitative survey conducted by Copperberg Research had over 125 respondents reflecting the state of the current field service industry. Field Service Organisations are trying to balance the growing customer expectations and associated challenges that implementing new digital tools are bringing along. The survey brings to light the major challenges the industry faces, the tools that will be important to implement in the next 5 years along with addressing the needs for Field Service Engineers.
The survey is divided into three chapters: Digital, Workforce and Strategy to streamline the needs in these three spheres complimented by insights from industry experts. 
You can download the report here.

Report highlights that threat actors are advanced and persistent, but companies are using outdated systems and technology to save money. Poor security posture, prioritization, and awareness are also gifts to attackers. 

Malicious actors are targeting critical infrastructure (CNI) sites and energy distribution facilities exponentially. Interconnected systems in the energy industry increase vulnerabilities, and cyber attacks often go undetected for some time.

As energy companies save costs against the backdrop of lower oil prices, consolidating operations can weaken business resilience and redundancy levels. This gives rise to new, single critical points of failure, with any disruption across the supply chain potentially having increased consequences.

“Espionage and sabotage attacks against CNI organizations have increased over the years and I don’t think we have seen it all yet,” says Sami Ruohonen, Labs Threat Researcher at Finnish cyber security company F-Secure.

Connecting Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to the Internet is increasing, and a considerable number of CNI systems in use today were installed and built before 24/7/365 internet connections were the norm and the advent of Stuxnet. Many Operational Technology (OT) components have built-in remote operation capabilities, but are either partly or entirely lacking in security protocols such as authentication.

Moreover, cyber security was not a realistic threat when these systems were manufactured, and legacy protocols and systems never had the built-in security controls that we take for granted today. Transitioning these systems to the Internet has opened them up to attacks from a myriad of angles.

“Critical Infrastructure due to its nature is an interesting target for a foreign nation-state, even during peacetime,” Ruohonen explains.

F-Secure’s report shows that:

• A variety of different adversaries, each with their own motivations and tradecraft, constantly strive to compromise organizations that operate critical infrastructure
• Attackers have more time than their targets and will take months to plan their attack
• People are the weakest link in production, with company employees seemingly being criminals’ go-to target
• Attackers continue to succeed mainly due to organizations’ lack of mature cyber security practices
• Nation-state sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are relentless, and continue to seek network foothold positions on CNIs and espionage opportunities in the interests of exercising political leverage
• Nine different attackers/malwares/techniques targeting the energy industry stand out, with spear phishing being the most common initial supply chain attack technique
• Keeping a small attack surface in the energy industry – while often pitched as the best way to mitigate the risk of a cyber attack – is simply not possible

While breaches are a certainty, Ruohonen advises organizations review their cyber security posture to implement latest technologies such as an endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution.

“EDR is a quick way to tremendously increase capabilities to detect and respond to advanced threats and targeted attacks which might bypass traditional endpoint solutions,” he explains. “Managed EDR solutions can provide monitoring, alerting, and response to cover the needs 24/7. This means organizations’ IT teams can operate during business hours to review the detections while a specialized cybersecurity team takes care of the rest,” says Ruohonen.

The complete report is available here.

Global Revenue to Expand at 7.7% CAGR over 2018-2028.

The enterprise asset management systems market is expected to be valued at US$ 4,863.1 Mn in 2028, and is expected to register a CAGR of 7.7% from 2018 to 2028, a new report shows.
Improved ROI with the aid of EAM solutions, widespread penetration of IoT and gradual increase in investment on software by organisations are expected to remain the major factors driving growth of the global enterprise asset management systems market, a report shows.

Enterprise asset management software is primarily used by the enterprises across different industry verticals which are heavily dependent on the complex and expensive physical assets, such as plants, heavy equipment, and vehicles. End users of the EAM primarily include industries such as oil & gas, manufacturing, energy & utility, mining, and others. Enterprise asset management software is offered with the deployment options such as on-premise and cloud based.

Enterprise asset management systems market is categorized on the basis of component, deployment, vertical and region. On the basis of component, the market is segmented as solution and services. The services segment is further bifurcated into consulting services and professional services. The services segment is expected to register a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period.

On the basis of deployment, the enterprise asset management systems market is segmented into on-premise and cloud. The revenue contribution from the clouds segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.0% during the forecast period.

On the basis of vertical, enterprise asset management systems market is segmented as public sector, manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, energy and utility, transportation, wholesale and distribution, food and beverages, paper and packaging, chemical and process industry (including steel industry), mining and service industry. The revenue contribution from the manufacturing segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period.

Among the regions, North America is projected to exhibit relatively high growth in the global market, registering a CAGR of 9.3% over the forecast period. The revenue from the markets in North America and Western Europe are expected to represent a combined share of 45.3% of the total market revenue by the end of forecast period. Some of the top companies identified across the Enterprise Asset Management Systems value chain are IBM Corporation, SAP SE, Oracle Corporation, ABB Ltd, IFS Ltd, Infor Inc., Ultimate Software Solutions BV, Carl International SA, Mainsaver Inc., Mex Pty Ltd and others.