In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the final part of this series on AI our panellists, FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and ServiceMax's Amit Jain, discuss if...
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Feb 26, 2020 • Features • Artificial intelligence • future of field service • FieldAware • Service Value • servicemax • The Big Discussion
In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the final part of this series on AI our panellists, FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and ServiceMax's Amit Jain, discuss if the technology compliments a wider strategy or can it operate in a silo.
Feb 25, 2020 • News • 5G • Artificial intelligence • future of field service • Ericsson
Ericsson has launched two new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered offerings in its Network Services portfolio, enabling communications service providers to secure always-on networks and deliver optimal user experiences.
The two new portfolio additions — Network Intelligence and Omni Network Channel – are part of Ericsson’s Network Services offering. They employ AI, automation and predictive analytics to address the complex reality faced by communications service providers: exponential data growth and the continuous introduction of new technologies such as 5G, digital transformation, and scattered information sources and insights.
Network Intelligence is an AI-driven preemptive support service that allows issues to be identified and resolved before they impact network performance. The service prevents critical outages and delivers the network stability needed for service continuity and optimal end-to-end performance. Ericsson research shows that Network Intelligence reduces critical incidents by up to 35 percent by carrying out selective data collection, and automatically resolves issues within an average of five minutes from data collection.
Omni Network Channel is a unified digital workspace for interaction between the communications service provider and Ericsson, providing easy navigation, self-help and smooth collaboration. The workspace enhances network performance and consumer satisfaction through faster resolution of both the communications service provider and Ericsson operations’ issues. It also facilitates the adoption of new technologies such as 5G and supports communications service providers with the competence development of their personnel.
Roger O’ Hargan, Head of Service Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “Our core value is ‘Technology enhanced by people’ where people, framework and technology are our main assets. These new offerings are all about putting the service provider in the center by enabling self-help as well as smooth collaboration, co-creation, and easy access to data – all of which will help secure an always-on network experience.”
Justin van der Lande, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason, says: “There is a demand among service providers for a more transparent interaction with their vendors when dealing with network issues. Ericsson’s intelligent workplace technology, boosted by the expertise of their people, addresses this well. This approach leverages the scale of Ericsson’s operations, its well-established frameworks and its wealth of industry knowledge to bring significant benefits to the service provider. Ericsson’s AI-powered Network Services are now readily accessible with shared data insights that put the customer experience front and center.”
Network Intelligence is built for product-near use as a natural extension of the Network Services portfolio. It is complementary to the Ericsson Operations Engine, Ericsson’s offering for managed operations, design and optimization launched in January 2019.
Feb 24, 2020 • News • future of field service • drones
Companies create innovative solutions to complex problems for enterprise users.
Companies create innovative solutions to complex problems for enterprise users.
Parrot, the drone group, announced it is partnering with RIIS, a leading provider of mobile app, web development and IT consulting services, to develop custom applications of artificial intelligence for Parrot’s popular ANAFI drone platform. Parrot and RIIS are focused on exploring the use of artificial Intelligence and computer vision technology, combined with drone data capture, to solve countless industry challenges using an efficient and cost-effective approach.
To help demonstrate the promise of this technology and allow developers to start creating innovative apps, Parrot and RIIS have released a technical whitepaper, which provides step-by-step instruction to add AI and computer vision to the ANAFI Drone using Parrot’s open source Ground SDK.
"We are excited to explore the immense capabilities AI and drones will deliver to our clients through our ongoing partnership with RIIS,” said Jerome Bouvard, Parrot Director of Strategic Partnership. “At Parrot, we are always looking for innovative solutions to solve for our enterprise partner’s every-day pain points.”
Parrot and RIIS are actively exploring use cases which could include municipal use of drones for assessing parking lots, public parks, and streetlights; crowd monitoring; warehouse inventory counting; automated inspection of cell phone towers and solar panels; property surveillance for real estate professionals and developers, and much more. This technology is expected to significantly enhance the often-tedious processes required to complete professional projects across a variety of industries and sectors.
“Our recent collaboration with Parrot perfectly illustrates the immense potential of developing apps for Parrot’s ANAFI drone platform,” said RIIS CEO and Founder Godfrey Nolan. “Leveraging the power of AI and machine learning apps with Parrot drones promises to provide previously impossible solutions to costly and time-consuming challenges.
Through its SDK Partner program, Parrot is working to create a global ecosystem of drone apps to serve the unique and ever-evolving needs of its enterprise and professional users. Through this program, Parrot is working with partners, like RIIS, to create and bring to market new applications, software and hardware that seamlessly integrates with Parrot ANAFI and ANAFI Thermal drones.
Feb 24, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • future of field service • Virtual Reality • Servitization • Servitization and Advanced Services
We asked Bill Pollock to predict what he thinks 2020 will bring. Typically, he went beyond the next 12 months and horizon-scanned into the not so distant service future where failure to keep-up could mean the end of your offering.
We asked Bill Pollock to predict what he thinks 2020 will bring. Typically, he went beyond the next 12 months and horizon-scanned into the not so distant service future where failure to keep-up could mean the end of your offering.
There has been a growing shift away from manufacturing toward the Servitisation model for decades already. However, while the manufacturing model is a well-entrenched, deeply-rooted model that everybody understands; the Servitisation model is still not anywhere near being as widely understood – even within the services sector.
The transition from break/fix, to network services, to self-help, to remote diagnostics/support has been steady, and has followed a logical evolution over the years. However, the move toward Servitisation requires more of a “leap of faith” as well as a whole new mode of operating (and pricing) for which many services managers are still not familiar – or comfortable.
This trend has carried on for decades – and the services sector is just about ready to “rock and roll” with it moving forward; however, even some of the key (and more savvy) players are not yet 100% certain that they have it right with respect to re-engineering their overall service delivery structure; services support organisation; KPIs and metrics; services support policies, procedures and processes; pricing, accountability – and the list goes on. As such, this trend will positively carry on throughout 2020 – and well beyond – as each major group of services organisations (i.e., leaders, followers, “wait-and-see’ers”, skeptics, and all others) begin their respective transitions.
The evolutionary prospects for Servitisation are quite simple: the market, as a whole, will need to see some prime examples of success in their respective vertical and/or horizontal services segments before making the plunge. They’ll need to move beyond all of the “failure” and pratfall stories before feeling more confident. They’ll need to hear some success stories – and, in their own segment. Bank/financial organisations will need to see how others in their field have succeeded, and what the positive results have been. The same will go for the medical/healthcare segment, manufacturing/industrial segment, and so on.
Most organisations will also need help with how to price “power by the hour”, “airplanes in the air”, and other “new” ways for pricing their services. I suspect there will be an uptick in the number of case studies, Webcasts and conference sessions focusing on these and other related areas. Servitisation is – and will continue to be – a big deal for years to come.
"Customers no longer will be pleased simply with equipment that is working, sensors that are communicating, and devices that are operating..."
Organisations are also transitioning from providing corrective maintenance to predictive maintenance, and this trend continues to shape the industry moving forward. Corrective maintenance has worked for many years because, basically, that’s all the industry had to offer. From the break/fix, call the manufacturer’s hotline, days; through the current remote diagnostics and repair days, there has been a common thread running through our industry: Some piece of equipment fails, a call is made (i.e., either by phone, in the past; or, today, remotely from the equipment itself) and a corrective action is taken.
However, these are examples of the soon-to-be-bygone OTR (i.e., On-Time-Response), MTBF (i.e., Mean-Time-Between-Failure), MTTR (i.e., Mean-Time-To-Repair), FTFR (i.e., First-Time-Fix-Rate) and PM (i.e., Preventive Maintenance) days. Through Predictive Diagnostics and Predictive Maintenance the need for any On-Time Response will be highly diminished, as will the need for MTBF, MTTR and FTFR KPIs/metrics, etc. Over the coming years, there will be the need for “new” metrics, such as MTBPF (i.e., Mean-Time-Between-Prevented-Failures); MTTR will be measured in minutes or seconds, rather than in hours or days; FTFRs will be normalised as everything will get fixed in a single attempt, whether it requires a single “try”, or multiple “tries”; and PMs will virtually disappear (or at least be replaced by another PM = Predictive Maintenance).
There will be a whole “new” way of delivering service, as well as measuring the success of the organisation through an entirely “new” set of KPIs, or metrics. [By the way - I have already written many times about the need for “new” KPIs/metrics and, respectfully claim the rights to MTBPF!]
Customers no longer will be pleased simply with equipment that is working, sensors that are communicating, and devices that are operating – they are now beginning to look more closely at how their systems, equipment, sensors and devices are working together, in their behalf to get the job done. A services organisation that merely keeps individual systems or equipment up and running (i.e., maintaining high levels of uptime), but does not ensure that they are all working together to effectively and efficiently execute the company’s business, will ultimately find themselves being replaced by other services organisations that do. The clear winners will be those organisations that “get” Servitisation, and not those that do not.
"There will need to be an industry-wide educational 'push' as to what Servitization really is..."
Again, what will move the needle in 2020, is clearly communicating to the marketplace what failures to avoid (and how to avoid them), and what successes can be had (and how to achieve them). There will need to be an industry-wide educational 'push' as to what Servitisation really is, what it can do for the organisation (and what will happen if they don’t embrace it), what the ultimate value propositions are for transitioning to this “new” model, and what some of the best success stories have been.
Further, most services organisations are not currently using their respective Field Service Management (FSM) solutions to their full capabilities. The most successful organisations may come close, but there are few that eke out all of the capabilities that may otherwise be offered to them. Some may augment their FSM solution with a home-grown Excel spreadsheet “patch”; others may be using their Sales & Marketing Management (SMM) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for activities that their FSM could (or should) be able to support; and still others may not even be aware of the full spectrum of capabilities they may have right at their fingertips. Again, it becomes an educational process that should be driven by the FSM solution providers themselves through the offering of strengthened professional services, such as customer portals, training, train-the-trainers, etc.
As some FSM solution providers may be focusing more on developing Augmented Reality (AR), Merged Reality (MR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) based applications to bolster their offerings, they may be relatively deficient in focusing on the basic, or “core”, components of their solutions and, thereby, miss the opportunity to help their customers/users get the most out of their offerings.
Services organisations will also be relying much more heavily on apps and mobile devices in support of their service delivery performance in 2020. Society, as a whole, is relying more and more on apps and mobile devices for communications; and, in many cases, the services sector is leading the way.
Most FSM solution providers are providing their customers/users with more apps and customer portals to facilitate their use of the solution, as well as for communications with their remote support providers. Every year, a higher percent of business is being conducted remotely, and the need for more functional mobile communications is increasing commensurately. The IoT stands for the Internet of Things; and in this regard, humans may also be considered as one category of “things” that the IoT helps to connect. 2020 will see the proliferation of all types of “things” connected to one another through the IoT: systems, equipment, devices – and people. In fact, the numbers of connected things will likely to continue to grow at an accelerated rate in 2020 – and beyond. The more connectivity there is, the better the delivery of service can be.
"The move toward AR and VR is beginning to grow even faster as more installations have been deployed, and more success stories are making the rounds..."
Companies will also continue to expand their use of AI-powered field service technology and tools. Basically, companies that are already using AI technology in support of their services operations are much more likely to expand its use over time – and, probably, very quickly. However, companies that do not yet employ the use of AI in their services operations typically lie on either side of the fence: either, “we need to do it now”, or “let’s wait and see how this all works out.” The pressure to embed AI in their services operations will be so intense, however, that there is likely to be a surge in usage throughout 2020 and successive years.
Primary uses of AI include the powering of a chatbot capability; the ability to identify key target markets for selling/upselling/cross-selling products and services; and the ability to make their overall services operations work much more productively and efficiently.
Just as Virtual Reality (VR) has made watching American football games (and European football games, as well) easier for the layman to understand, it is also making it much easier for field technicians to repair equipment in the field. No more bulky documents or manuals are required, and training programs can be short-cut (to a certain degree) as AR and VR, merged together into MR, can lead the technician to a “perfect” fix, first time, and every time.
The move toward AR and VR is beginning to grow even faster as more installations have been deployed, and more success stories are making the rounds (at trade shows and Webinars, etc.). In fact, the merging of AR and VR has sent out a signal to the “Wait and see’ers” that they may be missing the boat on AR as it is already merging with VR – all while many of their competitors are beginning to implement AI and Machine Learning platforms in support of their services operations. The time to move is now – before it’s too late in terms of having your competitors ending up being better equipped to support (and market to) their targeted customer base.With the rise of IoT-connected devices and smart homes, many new challenges lie ahead for the field service industry. The rise of IoT-connected devices and smart homes provides a major value proposition to customers, as well as to the FSM solution providers. However, what also comes along with the benefits are a number of potentially serious consequences.
For example, once virtually everything is connected, smart systems will likely become more susceptible to power outages, hacking and various types of breaches in security. The analogy is: before watches, people used sundials to tell time. Then watches could help them tell time – until they either wound down, or the batteries went dead. Today, if the global satellite network goes down (e.g., as a result of space debris, solar flares, etc.), many things we all take for granted will stop working, including a partial/temporary halt to our ability to tell time, make change, or communicate to one another via our mobile devices.
As an example, as I have been writing this article for Field Service News, I have used a pink post-it note to cover the camera on my iMac. At the same time, Alexa is probably listening to anything I say without me even thinking about it. Further, somewhere across the globe, there is probably someone standing outside the front window of a home and yelling at Alexa, Googol or Siri to “remind me what my password is for the front door security code.” What the "expert” hackers can do to outsmart smart homes or businesses will only get more invasive – and potentially dangerous – over time (i.e., the invasions of privacy tend to happen first, with the “patch” or “fix” coming later). As such, the need to provide continual connectivity PLUS protect the privacy of the customer/user will be paramount as more and more smart implementations go into play.
Making projections for 2020 in the services industry is relatively easy. Basically, everything you have gotten used to is going to change. Here's my summary:
- The “good guys” will make everything better; and the “bad guys” will try to make everything worse
- Every time you make a mistake, the whole world will find out about it virtually instantly
- Service fixes will be completed faster – but you won’t always be aware that there was a fix
- Service pricing may or may not be more expensive – but it will certainly be different
- New start-ups will enter the market; but some old standbys will be forced to depart
- Most of the KPIs/metrics you’ve used for decades will be replaced
- The most successful services organisations will follow the lead of technology – not the competition
- You think that today’s Merged Reality applications are too futuristic or too soon? Wait ‘til tomorrow, when everything is merged (i.e., connected)
Read more from Bill at Pollockonservice.com
Feb 21, 2020 • Features • future of field service • management • Michael Blumberg • Digital Transformation • The Field Service Podcast • Mize
Regular Field Service News contributor Michael Blumberg makes his debut on the Field Service Podcast and explains why firms should be embarking on a digital transformation journey.
Regular Field Service News contributor Michael Blumberg makes his debut on the Field Service Podcast and explains why firms should be embarking on a digital transformation journey.
As a regular supplier of insight to the pages of Field Service News for many years now, the FSN editorial team though it wise to get Mize's Michael Blumberg on the podcast. Deputy Editor and host Mark Glover batted topic suggestions with Michael over email and the pair eventually decided on Digital Transformation, a journey that all service professionals should be contemplating if they haven't already.
Covering the challenges and advantages of DX, including tangible case studies of successful integration, Michael explains with clarity how you can begin your own transformation, one that can only be beneficial to your business.
It's essential listening for any service professional. Download it now!
You can connect with Michael on LinkedIn here or reach out to him on email. You can also read his most recent article on how to optimise your engineers here.
Feb 21, 2020 • News • future of field service • Cyber Security
Revenue expected to reach $25.1 bn in 2020, growing 4.8% year-on-year.
Revenue expected to reach $25.1 bn in 2020, growing 4.8% year-on-year.
The rising number of data breaches and cyberattacks globally, as well as the increasing awareness of the state-sponsored cyberattacks, have led to an increased demand for cybersecurity software solutions.
According to data gathered by PreciseSecurity.com, the overall cybersecurity software revenue is expected to reach $25.1 bn in revenue this year, growing 4.8% year-on-year. The rising trend is set to continue in the following years, with the entire market reaching $27 bn worth in the next three years.
Cybersecurity as Global Concern
Cybersecurity has become one of the biggest concerns for both citizens and businesses all around the world. The growing demand for eCommerce platforms, technology developments including AI and IoT, and the rising number of connected devices have led to the massive adoption of cybersecurity solutions.
The cybersecurity software market refers to all software solutions aiming to protect individual computing devices, networks, or any other computing-enabled device. It includes antivirus software, management of access, data protection and security against intrusions, and any other system-level security risks, both in local installation and cloud service.
In 2012, the global cybersecurity software market reached $17.5 bn worth. In the next seven years, the market revenue grew by nearly 40% and reached a $23.9 bn value in 2019. The statistics indicate that the entire market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% in the next three years.
The US is the Leading Cybersecurity Software Market
In global comparison, the United States is the leading cybersecurity software market in the world. The statistics indicate the entire US market is set to reach $10.1 bn value this year.
With $1.5 bn value or 6.5 times less than the US market, the United Kingdom ranked as the second-biggest market globally. The 2020 data show Germany is expected to reach $1.1 bn market value this year, followed by France and Canada as other leading markets.
Feb 18, 2020 • News • future of field service • drones
UK Drone Delivery Group makes urgent ‘call to action’ for property owners and influencers to provide testing areas for drones - to prevent ‘bottleneck to growth’...
UK Drone Delivery Group makes urgent ‘call to action’ for property owners and influencers to provide testing areas for drones - to prevent ‘bottleneck to growth’...
One of the UK’s leading drone experts today urged British property owners and business leaders to leverage the opportunity of their under-used land for drone testing, to help accelerate the rate of growth of the UK drone industry, in the face of what he described as ‘an emerging ‘bottleneck’ to growth’.
Robert Garbett founder of the UK Drone Delivery Group, which is the first industry initiative to provide guidance on the steps required to enable accelerated commercialisation of the UK Drone Industry, stated “There is a current unnecessary ‘bottleneck’ in the evolution of the drone industry and this primarily lies in the lack of controlled testing locations which can provide trial areas and safe environments to accelerate the development of drone technology, help to shape its standards, and ensure appropriate but non constricting regulations”.
He commented “The British Government has played a constructive role to date and the UK is a world leader in drone technology… but to stay ahead in this fast moving game, then business, local authorities, police, fire & rescue services and even members of the public, must work together in a partnership of participation and cooperation.
Examples of desirable drone technology testing locations include not only large airports and aerodromes that may already be approved by the Civil Aviation Authority, but also forests, remote coastal areas and ports, through to residential areas and other dense urban environments. Testing will need to include everything from simple potential drone tasks such as parcel delivery, to much more complex applications such as smart motorway monitoring, law enforcement rapid response and search and rescue.”
The economic benefits offered by drone technology are estimated to be massive, with significant growth expected to accelerate across surface, underwater, air and space, as well as emerging hybrid drone applications. In November 2019, analysts at Barclays predicted that the commercial drone market could grow tenfold from $4bn in 2018 to $40bn in five years, resulting in efficiency cost savings of some $100bn… and these predictions relate to solely air drones. If you add on the fast-growing possibilities for surface, underwater or space drones then the potential growth is substantially greater.
“However,” says Robert Garbett “these predictions of the astonishing potential for growth, are dependent upon the business community and wider public recognising the important part they can play regarding potential testing locations and trial areas.
“The opportunity for the commercial drone market is vast, but with such a fast-growing emerging technology we have to ensure we act quickly, lest our ambitious international competitors overtake our lead.
“My ‘call to action’ is to say that I’d like to hear from those who feel they can contribute to this aspect of this exciting fast growth industry, which is expected to be of vital future importance to UK plc.”
Robert Garbett’s ‘call to action’ and expansion of Drone testing in the UK comes a few days before the House of Lords debates a Government bill on Monday 10 February to update the licensing regime for airspace use, together with greater police enforcement power to ensure safe and responsible use for drones.
Those interested in participating in the UK Drone Delivery Group’s initiative to provide testing areas for drones should contact: https://www.dronemajorgroup.com/drone-delivery-group
Feb 18, 2020 • Features • future of field service • siemens • apprenticeships • digital factory
As apprentices learn the strands of Industry 4.0 will knowledge be a clean break from what’s gone before or will the past also influence the future? Mark Glover finds out more...
As apprentices learn the strands of Industry 4.0 will knowledge be a clean break from what’s gone before or will the past also influence the future? Mark Glover finds out more...
As we navigate our way through industry 4.0, discarding maps for GPS, we walk roads fizzing with IoT. Our watches, homes and cars are now ‘smart’, working together to streamline our experiences, where real-life merges with a virtual interface. The revolution is here and all areas of commerce are being affected by this shift, most notably manufacturing. But is industry 4.0 as much as a revolution as the three that preceded it?
Arguably, the period between 1760 and 1840 was the most fundamental in terms of changes to the sector, where hand or animal-based methods were cast away in favour of more productive mechanized factory systems. This shift, one could argue, mirrors today's digital landscape, where in its simplest form, digitization is making paper-based, heavy manual-led procedures obsolete.
Today images of grey chimneys pluming grey smoke from grey factories are still commonplace in some places, but for those working inside factories of yesteryear conditions were harsh. Long shifts and few breaks pushed workers to the extreme on a shop floor where health was obsolete and productivity the priority. In short, money-led mill and factory owners had no time for wellbeing.
That said, the period did bring a wave of advantages including a surge in work for regions where unemployment was high, however impatient owners provided little to no training on operating these new machines, which, to those fresh employees, must have seemed like something from another world and not a little daunting. Employees’ rights were all but nominal so failure to pick up the complex workings could see you back out on the cobbled-streets just as quickly as you came in.
An apprenticeship differed substantially to what we know today. Owners took advantage of the many poor, orphaned children of the time drafting in a swathe to work the machines. In return, the children received no remuneration but were afforded lodgings and food instead, which, to some, was just as valuable.
Three revolutions on much has obviously changed, including the modern apprenticeships. Today, young people learning this fourth manufacturing cycle learn data and digitalisation; algorithms and AI. The workings of a coal-powered furnace are skills less called for. Data is the new fossil fuel.
In the UK at least, apprenticeships took a hit in the 90s when the government removed the levy for employees taking on trainees. I’ve written much about the impact this is having on the manufacturing workforce, particularly as workers age and eventually retire leaving a vast chasm of knowledge in their wake. Running alongside this is a general attitude from young people, the next potential generation of engineers, who see the sector – particularly service - as a dirty, lonely and tough environment with little reward. Sound familiar?
"A nod to the past might just enhance the future..."
Now you’d expect large companies to be on top of this. To be fully aware of the importance of having young people fill their shop floors. Much like a successful sports team has a strong academy programme, companies like Siemens are recognising and instigating strong apprenticeship placements.
Last year the company announced a digital apprenticeship scheme to compliment the evolution of their own digital factories. The scheme pays selected students £3,000-a-year from the second year of university as well as up to 12-weeks paid summer placement throughout the duration of their studies within a Siemens business. At the end of their degree they will be given the chance to join one of the firm's many graduate schemes
When the press release went out showcasing the scheme a quote from Brian Holliday, MD of Siemens’ Digital Industries, outlined its intentions. "By strengthening links between business and our world-leading universities," Holliday said, "we can inspire and nurture talent to support the UK’s leading role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
So how do you inspire and nurture the next wave of the modern workforce? To find out more I spoke to the Head of R&D at Siemens’ digital factory in Congleton, Ian Donald to discuss the origins of the programme and how ties to the past will form the future.
“We wanted to create an academy that takes the traditional courses that people are on." he tells me over the phone, "and we want to add a digitilisation and a data analytics element to that.”
Siemens run a UK Engineering Directors’ and Manager’s Forum where senior employees discuss strategic action points potential initiatives. One of the forum’s sub-groups focuses on skills, which Ian leads on and its this group that identified traditional engineering courses in manufacturing, electrical and mechanical were failing to focus on digitilsation and future digitilisation skills.
A firm understanding of big data, data mining and AI are all necessary but Ian pinpoints the digital twin, a way of replicating from the virtual to
the real-world, as an important learning curve as it incorporates elements of modern and traditional engineering. “You need an understanding of simulation and data,” he explains, “but you also need the hands-on experience of a traditional engineering role such as problem solving. So it’s about bringing these worlds together.”
The word revolution in industry suggests drastic change, where the old ways become extinct, replaced by modern more efficient processes. However, can such a process be a clean break? Surely its more evolution than revolution? No change management project rips up what’s gone before and leaps blindly.
Perhaps more than previous industry revolutions, industry 4.0 is going to look back before it moves fully forward and to take the workforce with it. For apprentices, this is an exciting time as they grapple with exciting concepts like digital twins and data mining, however a nod to the past might just enhance the future.
Feb 18, 2020 • News • 5G • future of field service • BT
BT has announced it is making its 5G plans available for all customers.
BT has announced it is making its 5G plans available for all customers.
BT was one of the first UK mobile networks to launch 5G in November 2019, when it was exclusively available for those on its BT Halo converged plan. BT’s 5G service is available in 50 of the UK’s busiest places, and on a range of the latest 5G smartphones.
BT’s 5G service provides a more reliable experience and higher speeds in crowded areas at peak times – allowing customers to video call, stream and download without interruption at train stations, concerts and stadiums.
Those opting for BT’s 5G service can enjoy it in busy parts of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Hull, Sunderland, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Bristol and Wakefield and Wolverhampton. It provides a superfast connection in high footfall locations including London’s Waterloo and Euston stations, Cardiff Central station, Glasgow’s Bath Street and St Enoch Square, Belfast’s Kingspan Stadium, and Coventry’s Council House and Cathedral ruins.
Pete Oliver, Managing Director of Marketing, BT Consumer, said: “Our BT Halo customers have been some of the first to enjoy 5G in the UK, and we’re now giving all of our customers the chance to get superfast, reliable mobile connections even in the busiest places. Whether you’re watching HD TV or sport on the go, or FaceTiming your family on the way home, 5G makes a huge difference to everyday experiences and opens up even more exciting new experiences like seamless augmented reality and HD mobile gaming.”
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