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The lines between consumer mobile technology and business innovation have begun to blur. No longer is it unimaginable that a field service technician completes a work order on a smartphone. Just a few years ago if techs were mobile, they were carrying a rugged phone or laptop. But where will this convergence of the consumer and business worlds end? Aberdeen's Aly Pinder asks...

Tablets? BYOD (bring your own device)? Wearables?

It is difficult sometimes to differentiate between hype and true value when addressing technology advancements. The topic of wearables has garnered some interest over the past year as devices like Fitbits, Fuel Bands, and Google Glass gain steam in the consumer marketplace. Organizations, however, are often slower to adopt new technology as they must build the business case in order to minimize risk and avoid passing fads. Aberdeen’s recent Service Mobility: The Right Technology for the Tech research (August 2014) revealed that 6% of the field service workforce for those surveyed was equipped with wearable devices. Despite this relatively low adoption rate, 20% of organizations listed interest in this technology over the next 12 months. There are both opportunities with the technology, but organizations must also be mindful of some challenges.

Insight at the Ready: Benefits of Wearables in the Field

1. Every technician can be an expert. Mobile devices like smart watches, cameras, or glasses have the ability to provide technicians with data at the point of need. The equipment technicians have to service is becoming more and more complex, requiring more variability of skills to reach resolution. Wearables can enable faster, more dynamic intelligence that isn’t available from reviewing static manuals which are outdated the moment they are published.
2. Personal performance trackers empower the tech. In your personal life, it is fun to track the number of steps you take every day or monitor sleep patterns. But organizations must be mindful of technicians who may feel like the service organization is tracking too much. The key is to gain buy-in from the field that these tools are meant to improve productivity and performance, and not a way to penalize. Wearable technology can provide technicians with a benchmark of what good performance looks like, and build an example for future improvement.
3. Link the tech to the back office. Field service technicians are the face of the organization with the customer. Their interaction must mean more to the organization that simply a turned wrench. As more technicians get connected to mobile devices, the ability to capture real-time insight into the customer relationship can be made available to other business functions (i.e., sales).

Watch Out: Potential Challenges of Wearables in the Field

1. Is it just a smaller, less practical smartphone? Part of the value in mobile tools is the ability to provide real-time information for a field technician. But these mobile devices need to empower technicians, and should not be treated as just another device. Historically, mobility has evolved to help lessen the number of devices needed to complete field service. However, if wearables are still dependent on a smart phone or laptop, are they really delivering the value service needs?
2. Can you hear me now? Disconnection while on the road is a real threat to service employees. Not all field service work is conducted in areas that are connected to wireless networks. Technicians need to be able to do work both on and offline. If wearables can’t provide insight while offline, their usefulness will be limited.
3. Tough enough for you? Consumer-grade technology often elicits the fear of damage when put under the pressure of a rugged work environment. As organizations begin to explore the applicability of wearables for field service, devices must get more rugged to handle the demands of many field service environments.

Eight of ten organizations (82%) sampled in Aberdeen’s 2014 mobility research still view mobility as a strategic initiative over the next 12 months. Historically, this evolution was a move from paper to a handheld device for the technician.

As technology advances, field service organizations are beginning to explore the feasibility of wearables. In order to avoid this technology going the way of a fad, it must improve a worker’s productivity while also directly enhancing the overall customer experience.

A recent report into the telematics sector undertaken by Juniper Research has identified that in-vehicle apps is anticipated to reach almost 270 million within the next four five years. This represents an increase of more than five fold on last year’s figures.

The findings are revealed in the report Connected Cars: Consumer & Commercial Telematics and Infotainment 2014-2018, which also indicates that the dramatic growth in the market will be driven solutions such as Apple’s CarPlay, which will raise awareness of and introduce the concept of in-vehicle apps to the general populace.

The report also suggests that app integration will become simpler as more standardised approaches such as MirrorLink become adopted by Original Equipment Manufacturers.

Report Author Anthony Cox commented “By 2018 most new vehicles will come with integrated apps as standard, after-market app integration will also be commonplace, as head-unit manufacturers launch increasingly sophisticated devices”.

However, Cox also noted that as with smartphone apps, only a small proportion of in-vehicle apps will create revenues for their creators, despite the fact that many will enhance the driving experience.

Given that a number of high profile companies already have such as NavMan, Garmin and TomTom already have a strong presence in driving related smart phone apps, the market may be harder for smaller developers to break through as well.

Meanwhile Google have also ramped up their efforts in the in-vehicle app space with the announcement of their new voice based system Android Auto which will connect Android smartphones to the existing display of compatible cars

In a similar move to Apple’s CarPlay, Google has opted for a USB plug & play option rather than hardwiring their OS to every available car. With both OEM and After Market Manufactures seeming to be moving toward dual integration across iOS and Android it seems that it will be easier to avoid being tied into any particular ecosystem when it comes to this growing market of in-vehicle apps.

 

Google put much of their focus on safety with Android Auto trying to move the driver away from any physical use of their smartphone whilst on the road, claiming to make full use of the latest voice recognition algorithms.

However, there are still doubts around Google’s voice recognition, which lags far behind Apple’s powerful Siri system. Google Voice must improve vastly if it is to sit at the heart of a hands free system positioned as a big safety feature.

With in-vehicle apps now coming into the main stream the connected vehicle is becoming very much no longer a thing of the future but something that is practically in the hear and now and vehicle manufacturers are gearing their models to house the systems now.

Audi have committed to implementing Android Auto in some of their 2015 models and both Volvo and Mercedes have also confirmed that they will be supporting both Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto.

Whilst in-vehicle technology is often a little behind other standard electronics devices due to a more rigorous testing process than other standalone devices. To be fair you’d expect your car to last a lot longer than your mobile phone so the standards for in-vehicle technology are a lot higher.

However, it does seem that finally the motor industry has become smart about technology and whilst we have seen many benefits come from telematics in professional fleet management, the further adoption of in-vehicle apps will only serve to both reduce costs and drive development forward.

 

The contact centre remains an important asset to many field service organisations, but like field service itself the contact centre is rapidly evolving. Here Gregoire Vigroux, European Marketing Director, TELUS International looks at what the call centre of tomorrow may look like... 

2014 is already almost unrecognisable from the call centre of 1984, 1994, even 2004. It is hard to think of a sector which has been through more change. Yet within the next few years we will witness another revolution in the contact centre world.

This matters to anyone in business. As more and more business processes are outsourced to specialist contact centres so increasingly the ability to find the best contact centre provider and then manage that resource is becoming a key business attribute. Your parents may have been evaluated on their ability to provide customer service, but you are more likely to be appraised on your ability to manage a customer service provider.

It pays then to be aware of how the sector is changing, and to be certain that you are working with a contact centre provider that is at the cutting edge of 2015 or 2016, not stuck in what is rapidly seen as the prehistoric days of 2012. Here then are five key changes to the contact sector that we will see taking place in the next few years.

Contact centres will be multinational

In the contact centre industry, only global players will be able to serve the multinationals. Globalisation is in full swing: in the contact centre field, as in many others, market integration and increasing international competition are realities. Successful contact centres are choosing to internationalise and become stronger financially in order to adapt to the new demands brought about by their clients’ international development.

Only global contact centres with platforms capable of serving dozens of languages, preferably from a single site, will be able to provide the global multilingual solution major contractors desire. In addition to this, the management of call centres has become more professionalised. Nowadays, this sector attracts more and more graduate managers and career consultants, compared to a few years ago when the field was occupied by small entrepreneurs.

Staff attrition will be yesterday’s problem

Staff retention has been a perennial problem for the contact centre industry. According to a study this year by the Everest Group Research, entitled The Business Impact of Contact Centre Attrition, it is possible to quantify the operational costs and loss of revenue directly caused by staff departure.

According to the study findings, "a typical U.S.-based 500-person contact centre with a 30 to 50% annual attrition rate could suffer a net loss of US$1-2 million in business value across cost and revenue over one year.” The issue of contact centre attrition rates is obviously not new to our industry. What changes, however, is industry leaders’ awareness of this topic, and ability to address it.

Generation Y has arrived

Generation Y (Gen Y) – those born between 1980 and 2000 – is the new labour force for the sector. These individuals already account for 80% of the total number of employees in some contact centres. This generation is also on the "other side of the phone", because its members are keen consumers, accounting for almost US$200 billion in spending per year worldwide.

Excellent multi-taskers. Generation Y grew up surrounded by computers, mobile devices and video games consoles. This generation is confident with technology but it also has a shorter attention span. The Internet puts everything at Gen Y’s fingertips. As a result, Gen Y has grown accustomed to rapid shifts in attention, with focus tending to wane after about 15 minutes.

 

Gen Y makes decisions based on consensus – usually by checking social media. Gen Y members are team players and love helping to solve complex problems collectively. Finally, for Gen Y the pay is not the only thing that counts. Understanding and being recognised for their individual value is what matters to most of them. Hence the importance of building a corporate culture that reflects the characteristics of this generation.

Corporate culture will be the key to success

Building a corporate culture that reflects the qualities of Generation Y is a major challenge for most companies. In contact centres we find many examples of highly motivated employees who have managed to positively affect the curves of certain brands’ customer satisfaction. Implementing a strong and consistent corporate culture is now taken more seriously by managers, since studies have shown its impact on profitability. Experience also teaches us that culture, to be effectively implemented, must be disconnected from service levels and purely financial incentive methods.

 

No longer a "sub-contractor", but a "value-adding partner"

To survive, contact centres can no longer limit themselves to being mere "suppliers" or "sub-contractors". Today, they must fully understand the processes of their clients and be able to evaluate and improve them. The goal is to deliver real economic levers to their clients, acting positively on costs, as well as on the quality and productivity of their work.

In addition, contact centres need to know their clients’ business and what their strengths, competitive advantages, weaknesses and challenges are so they can effectively serve and help them. Contact centres of the future will no longer be simple platforms mechanically applying procedures. A handful of companies in Europe have already anticipated this development, shaping their entire supervisory staff using Six Sigma methodology.

Welcome to the contact centre of the future, a multilingual and global player in which Generation Y will be the main driving force. Contractors’ search for a low-cost service and immediate gain will gradually fade, giving way to a more strategic model of outsourcing.

Based on the developments that we are gradually seeing taking place, the contact centre of the future will no longer be a "sub-contractor", much less a "mere executant": it will be a true strategic partner and an authentic brand ambassador.

Colin Brown, Managing Director, Tesseract takes a look at the difference between functionality and technology and why technologies must learn to adapt and evolve if they are to continue to thrive...

In all product development, especially where technology is involved, there is always a compromise between functionality and technology. And once a product has been developed, this compromise is even more apparent; the technology moves on but the product becomes frozen in time.

This can be seen with consumer household appliances, like televisions and radios, reducing their power usage, becoming smaller, lighter and even internet enabled. Cars, which are now more fuel efficient and have built-in wifi, are another good example.

Companies are forced to upgrade their products to use the latest technology at great expense or they will be left behind and commercially restricted. Here are some prime examples:

[unordered_list style ="bullet"]

• Kodak refused to move to a new technology, digital, which enabled pictures to be moved and edited electronically. They had made all their money from traditional film and could not come up with a digital plan.
• Word Perfect, the green screen word processor who did not move to windows until it was too late, allowing Microsoft Word to become the new standard for word processing software. With Word for Windows, true character sets could be displayed, black font on white background, on a PC using the new graphical user interface (gui), something Word Perfect using Dos found impossible. The new Windows GUI was pixel based and not character based so the display possibilities were infinite.
• Microsoft has stuck to Windows and Office being client based software (which makes most of Microsoft's profit) as opposed to web/browser based (almost a Kodak moment). Although, at last, they have released an iPad version of the Office suite.[/unordered_list]

These are just a few examples of technology that is in market demand overtaking product functionality. All of these examples are from companies who invented their products, were ground breaking at their inception but became frozen in time.

It is understandably hard for companies to keep pace with technology. Key personnel, including decision makers, feel comfortable with their existing product. They may have been involved in its creation, and have no understanding or intention of moving out of their comfort zone. I think Nokia and Blackberry are notable candidates;

Nokia at one time had over 70% of the world market of mobile phones, mainly due to their "easy to use" character based operating system and Blackberry was the business choice with its secure push email technology but both were overtaken by the Apple iPhone. Why? Because of its "easy to use GUI" (ring any bells?) and push email technology became widely available.

Companies/people seem to think that their importance is the functionality. At Tesseract, when we moved from green screen dos to windows, and used a different programming language, all of my developers left over a 6 month period.

Despite the fact they went on training courses for the new language. They must have felt their value was in their knowledge of the programming language or the existing technology rather than their knowledge of service management.

 

Life at the top is short lived. Sony, after setting the world alight with the walkman, have now become a dinosaur and are downsizing, even closing down their TV business. IBM, once the giant of the IT world and the size of their 6 nearest competitors combined, are no longer so significant...and it looks like Microsoft will follow.

Aside from companies not being willing to leave their comfort zone, another reason for not embracing technology is financial. They have honed their production, manufacturing and licensing and know the market very well.

Their business is a well oiled machine that produces results that can be forecasted to their shareholders (those bad guys). Moving to new technology is an expense risk so why bother? Just glue on some new bits onto the old product to make it look good. The problem is that when technology moves on, by the time it impacts on your business then it is already too late. The only answer is to buy one of the new guys.

The last pertinent reason for not moving with technology is a fear of failure. When a company first developed their product, they were brave in a brave new world and had nothing to lose. They fought their way to the top, beat the opposition and became very successful. Doing that a second time is very scary, they have a lot to lose. They are used to being number one and by moving to a new technology, they will have to fight with new guys on the block to regain that top position. It seems unnecessary when the business appears to be doing ok for the moment.

Apple has been rather smart in re-inventing themselves, effectively moving sideways. Although their products are technology-led, their breadth is quite amazing, each product built upon the previous. They are a modern day Sony, coming up with a new portable music device, the iPod, an accompanying online shop, a user friendly phone and a modern tablet. Although now with the loss of Steve Jobs, things have slowed down.

It does appear that in most cases, new technology is customer driven but not customer demanded, customers really don’t know what they want! They can advise on product evolution(focus groups, surveys etc.) but not revolution, digital cameras & iPhones are prime examples. New technology means a leap forward, an act of faith.

So this implies that product and service companies need to have young bright people who will either try to develop products or services to compete with their company’s current portfolio or look out there for badly executed products or services that can be improved on. Both of these processes must be continued infinitem.

If the Internet of Things (IoT) lives up to its billing it has the potential to change the way the field service industry operates entirely. In this exclusive articele for Field Service News, Philipp Emmenegger, CEO of coresystems AG looks at what companies can do today to prep for the Internet of Things to come...

When it comes to “hot” buzzwords in tech, the “Internet of Things,” (and its acronym – IoT) may just be the hottest. A steady stream of headlines tout the latest in “smart” gadgets, internet-connected devices that keep us informed on the devices’ workings, our interaction with them, or our behaviour as we use them. We now have smart fire alarms, smart thermostats, smart fitness monitors and even smart bicycle locks. Appliance companies have been especially interested in the possibilities of Internet of Things, and for years now, we’ve been tantalised with the idea that our refrigerators will one day not only know when we are running low of groceries, but know which ones, and even place an order for more. When search giant Google bought smart home devices company Nest in January this year, it only cemented the notion that IoT is the future.

IoT: An Evolution, not A Revolution

But as fun as it is to imagine what might happen when IoT is in full force, it’s becoming abundantly clear that many challenges must be surmounted to get to this point. Tech research and consulting firm Gartner has identified no less than seven potential challenges that the big data generated from IoT devices and systems.

Security and consumer privacy are the two that tend to dominate headlines. As Gartner so rightly points out in their recent report on IoT, the challenge of security is in sheer “multitudes” of devices expected to eventually run in an automated fashion across a vast number of IT systems. Moreover, the amount of data that IoT systems will collect on consumers – and more importantly, on consumer behaviour – is another major area of concern. While the sort of information that IoT devices and gadgets will generate is key to helping companies develop better services, one security slip-up can be very damaging to market confidence.

IoT security issues will have a knock-on effect throughout a company’s IT systems. As the number of Internet-connected devices rises, and security complexity increases, availability requirements will also be impacted, putting real-time processes at risk. How do companies store the vast amounts of consumer data and enterprise data that IoT is expected to generate? How will it impact storage infrastructure and what will inevitably be an increased demand for more storage capacity? How will this impact server technologies and how will this effect data centre networks?

With these complex challenges ahead, it’s no wonder coresystems board member Elgar Fleisch, well-known IoT expert and Zurich ETH tech professor, says, “IoT is an evolution, not a revolution.”

The Pre-Cursor of the Internet of Things to Come

But what Fleisch also likes to say is, “It’s only a revolution when you miss it.”

So how can companies prepare for IoT before it’s truly operable? Smart devices are the precursor to completely automated gadgets. These still require human intervention to set them in motion and often to maintain them, but they are the first steps toward IoT.

We know, for instance, that IoT has the ability to transform customer service and field service. Imagine the day when IoT is fully operational. Your washing machine breaks down, or a sensor detects that a part is close to its breaking point, or isn’t functioning. Your washing machine sends the information to the manufacturer, who then sends an alert to the consumer and on the consumer’s approval immediately dispatches an engineer to fix the problem. What’s currently missing is the automated ability for machines to talk to customer service systems without any intervention on the owner’s part.

What can be done today? Using the humble QR code affixed to the product – for example, on your washing machine – a customer can request service and manage the repair process. At coresystems, our product coresuite companion lets consumers scan a product’s QR code, which then opens up (or downloads if this is the first attempt) the company’s branded mobile app to request service.

Of course, it means the consumer must manually scan the code and tap in their request. It does, however, give them a level of control and transparency that improves their customer service experience. For companies, it’s not only a way to let customers start self-managing the service process, buts it’s also a good warm up for how they will manage these requests within their IT systems. After all if they can’t manage them when consumers are manually requesting service, how will they manage the much faster process of multiple machines sending automated requests?

m-way, the Swiss e-mobility specialists, best known for their electric bicycles, have been trialling coresuite companion for its bicycles. As m-way marketing head Mario Klaus tells us, the combination of QR code and branded app will help them improve long-term customer retention and is a way they can start to examine a more automated process of service.

We believe that IoT will one day be a reality, but we recognize the complex challenges that lie ahead. Smart devices or smart connections to products can help companies prepare for the inevitable revolution.

 

 

The Internet of Things has certainly gained momentum recently but what does it mean to the Field Service Industry? Kris Oldland, Editor of Field Service News looks at how it could impact the industry and at a first generation of IoT field service software from Core Systems

Internet of things 101

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for 2013, the Internet of Things was sat just below Big Data, nearing the peak of inflated expectations that emerging technologies inevitably go through. Indeed just as Big Data seemed to be the key item on the agenda in corporate offices around the world this time last year, so the Internet of Things is doing the rounds currently. So what exactly is it and what exactly does it mean to the Field Service industry at large.

Well the term Internet of Things (IoT) was first coined some 15 years ago having been proposed by British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton and largely does what it says on the tin. In a famous article for RFID Journal Ashcroft outlined the concept explaining:

“If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost.”

The idea itself is fairly simple. If we give the ordinary items that surround us the ability to essentially communicate with the world without the need for human input, the world would run just that much smoother.

With RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) essentially the ability has existed for a while for such data transfer although other tracking technologies such as NFC (near field communications) digital watermarking, low powered Bluetooth, QR codes and their humbler, older cousin the barcode can also provide the same solution.

In reality there have been two key developments that have propelled the IoT into existence.

Firstly with the latest Internet protocol IPv6 there is now room for the Internet of Things to exist. Whilst it sounds crazy, the previous protocol IPv4 just isn’t big enough and we are running out of Internet. Given that an estimated 26 to 30 Billion devise will be connecting wirelessly to the IoT within the next six years, we need somewhere these devices can call their digital home, the newer larger protocol of Ipv6 is just that and has evolved a  somewhat symbiotic relationship with the IoT.

Secondly there is the rise in smart devices such as mobile phones. These can take the role of translator between ‘dumb’ devices and the internet. Whilst the hyperbole surrounding the IoT may seem futuristic, with domestic appliances being given intelligent capabilities, the reality is that the days of ‘smart fridges’ that keep in touch with your supermarket of choice to make sure you never run out of milk being in every home are still a little way off.

However, a simple QR code placed on the front of your current ‘dumb’ fridge could give it a digital life of it’s own via your smart phone. Access to user manuals, serial numbers, replacement parts and communicating with local service engineers are suddenly possible and an early stage in the IoT amongst the general populous is very quickly becoming reality.

Internet of Things and Field Service

It is along just these lines that Swiss company Core Systems have evolved their product to date.

Whilst offering many of the features you would expect from most modern Field Service software solutions, including some neat dashboards, plenty of employee data, inventory management etc, they have also included IoT functionality.

By including a QR code or other tagging device on their products, ‘Core Systems ‘ clients are able to to offer their customers a first generation IoT interface via the cloud based CoreSuite, CoreSystems’ field service platform. End users are thus able to use their smart phone as a bridge between the ‘dumb device’ and the service company.

This allows customers of the service company to use their phone to schedule a service visit, providing an additional channel of communication alongside more similar methods such as phone, email and webchat. Also the same interface provides the opportunity for increased customer maintenance by putting machine specific information in the hands of the customer, resulting in fewer service calls for basic issue resolution.

Similarly it is not just the customer who benefits from this bank of machine specific knowledge. Should an engineer be required to attend a site, he to is able to gain access to information relating to the faulty machine including its maintenance history, in a quick, efficient and simple manner.

In the not so distant future…

Admittedly beyond the IoT element CoreSuite doesn’t break the mould of many of the other cloud based field service management software systems that are available, this first iteration of IoT based field service management system undeniably offers companies the ability to add the wow factor to their approach to service.

However, it is perhaps the next few generations of this technology that will be truly intriguing to the field service industry. As manufacturers turn to developing smart devices from jumbo jet engines through to white goods, machine to machine diagnosis and preventative maintenance will become the accepted norm and so IoT based field service management systems will in turn become more in demand.

If this proves to be the case then Core Systems are well positioned to become a major player in the field service software industry and have made an early start down an exciting and promising path.

Want to know more? Visit this years Service Management Expo where Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland will be interviewing Core Systems CEO Phillip Emmenegger on the rise of IoT and its applications in Field Service, as part of the programme for the Field Service Solutions Theatre, hosted by Field Service News.

 

 

The field service industry continues to evolve at pace. New technologies are constantly emerging which have the potential to change the industry as we know it.

At the same time we are seeing a huge cultural shift with many seeking to realign their service division from cost centre to profit centre. To help us keep up with these changes Field Service News has put together a panel of five field service industry experts and asked them each to share their insight on the industry today. The third member of our panel is Mark Forrest, of Trimble Field Service Solutions

 

What is the biggest driver for change in field service today?

Many companies managing a large field service workforce operate in industries which require highly skilled individuals, whose work is variable and complex in terms of location and task. Add in a high degree of compliance-focused work and that means that field service work has become increasingly mission-critical in terms of timing, skills and consequence. With increased customer expectation it is important that companies ensure that their field service is not derailed by unpredictable dynamics of the working day.

An increasing number of organisations are beginning to realise that it isn’t where the vehicle is that’s important, it’s where the engineer or field service worker is and what they are doing that is of paramount concern, as ultimately they are the ones providing the service to the customer. The support of solutions to help manage work efficiently and effectively has therefore become integral in helping to meet customer demands and achieve service delivery excellence.

 

Which technology has had the biggest impact on the field service industry in the last 5 years?

Organisations with field service technicians have previously struggled to effectively schedule their work and track their progress to continually meet service commitments. Indeed, one in ten organisations still collect data from the field via paperwork. However, work management technologies have emerged to transform the productivity of mobile workforces through intelligent scheduling tools and performance management analytics.

Organisations can measure, manage and improve their operations through optimising resources, offering real-time visibility and monitoring and giving warning of tasks at risk or showing the impact of work allocation decisions.

Data obtained from such technologies can be analysed through performance management analytics to allow interrogation of the information to provide an understanding of the performance, trends and the barriers in line with business targets. The analysis drills down to different variables around individuals, teams, regions, job type etc. and can be provided to different stakeholders within the organisation depending on their business need for day-to-day management or longer term business planning.

 

What is the most important consideration when moving from cost centre to profit centre? 

Field service has evolved from what was once an operational necessity to a strategic significance, as the technician may now be the only contact a customer has with the company and therefore exposure to the company’s service delivery and brand. With a proven link between customer satisfaction, retention and profitability, how the technician interacts with the customer can be significant in the customer experience.

The most common customer complaint is when a technician does not resolve the issue first time. Making sure you get the right people with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time is therefore essential. Work management technologies can help by incorporating technician knowledge, parts availability, and capacity into scheduling processes to ensure that the technician arriving on site is the person who can resolve the issue first time.

In addition, employing mobile workers who have the ability to upsell or cross-sell products and solutions whilst with customers can also make a difference to service delivery as a cost or profit centre.

 

Who is Mark Forrest? 

Mark Forrest is general manager of Trimble Field Service Management, a position he has held since January 2012. In this role, Mark is responsible for providing worldwide mobility-based productivity solutions to the communications, field services and trades markets.

Prior to joining the Field Service Management division, Mark served as general manager and Chief Operating Officer for Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies (CTCT), a joint venture between Trimble Navigation and Caterpillar. Mark also has served as the general manager and worldwide sales director for the Heavy and Highway Division. A native of Australia, Forrest holds an undergraduate diploma in Engineering Surveying and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Colorado.

To read this full panel debate and much more download a free digital copy of our quarterly magazine. Click here to register.

 

The field service industry continues to evolve at pace. New technologies are constantly emerging which have the potential to change the industry as we know it.

At the same time we are seeing a huge cultural shift with many seeking to realign their service division from cost centre to profit centre. To help us keep up with these changes Field Service News has put together a panel of five field service industry experts and asked them each to share their insight on the industry today. Second in the firing line is Paul White, CEO mplsystems

 

What is the biggest driver for change in field service today?

It’s all about customer expectations, today’s smart phone empowered customers expect immediate service when they want it - or they’ll switch. Delivering field service is no longer just about dispatching resources. Instead the focus is on delivering end-to-end customer service targets and reacting to changes in real time. However the reality for most organisations is still a proliferation of disconnected systems and processes that make it impossible to monitor and deliver true end-to-end service. Systems integration simply won’t fix this for most organisations, it will just result in inevitable manual data fill and mistakes – and an inability to deliver the reactivity and service that customers demand.

 

Which technology has had the biggest impact on the field service industry in the last 5 years?

The ability to deploy affordable field service apps on standard mobile consumer smart phones and tablets rather than expensive dedicated devices has had the biggest impact, enabling an entirely new generation of connected field service solutions. You can now equip field staff to support customer engagement activities, track on-site attendance and feed back into HR, monitor time in the field for improved financial management, as well as provide specialist telematics services - all via flexible smart phone apps. However, these will still require integration to avoid the kind of piecemeal approach that inevitably leads to efficiencies, with vital customer data getting stuck in individual departments.

 

What is the most important consideration when moving from cost centres to profit centres?

Turning field service from a cost centre into a profit centre demands an end-to-end approach that’s reactive to customer requests and strengthens loyalty by driving out errors. This then empowers those people who spend most time with your customers – your field service staff – to identify and action the right cross sell and upsell opportunities with your loyal customers. An engineer fixing the lighting, for example, may notice that an air conditioning system also needs work – so it’s important that they have the sales mechanisms in place to immediately recommend and action repairs.

 

Who is Paul White? 

Paul White joined mplsystems as Chief Executive Officer in May 2005. Paul has spent the last 20 years working in and around the Field Service and Contact Centre industry and is one of the industry pioneers in the creation of affordable service management and CRM and Customer Service contact centre solutions. Prior to joining mplsystems Paul was the founding CEO of BT Contact Central, which, over 4 years, grew into a global business across UK, Europe and Asia Pacific. Whilst at BT, Paul was responsible for designing some of the largest CRM and Customer Service solutions in Europe and had major roles in systems architecture, product management and sales.

 

To read this full panel debate and much more download a free digital copy of our quarterly magazine. Click here to register.

 

 

 

 

Trimble Field Service Management are bringing together a panel of field service leaders and industry exerts from around the globe to participate in a virtual summit which will be focusing on the shape of the industry today.

The summit, Transform Service Delivery: A Global Perspective will be held on Thursday 3^rd April and follows on from the launch of a new research paper from Trimble FSM entitled Transforming Service Delivery: An Insight Report, and addresses issues and challenges that are faced by field service organisations today.

There are five speakers scheduled to participate in the event whose presentations will cover topics including change management, emerging technologies, mobile resources, issue resolution, performance excellence and future trends.

The Aberdeen Group’s Aly Pinder, will lead the presentations discussing “Breaking through the roadblocks to deliver exceptional customer service.”

He will then be followed by:

• Anil Tiwari, solutions architect at Trimble Field Service Management, discussing Leveraging Data to Optimise Field Operations
• Barry White, CEO of G7 Consulting, discussing Effective Change Management: Strategies for Success
• Nate Vineyard, director of operations & performance for Multiband, discussing Managing the Mobile Workforce
• Sharon Clancy, editor of m.logistics, speaking on What the Future Holds for Field Service

• Sarah Nicastro, publisher and editor in chief of Field Technologies magazine, will moderate.

To register for the summit, or to obtain a recording of the event click here