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Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems, explores the major trends that he expects to impact field service companies across 2018...

While 2017 introduced innovative new technology-based trends with the likes of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), 2018 will bring real-world applications that put those buzzwords into practice. Here are the top trends we see this coming year.

The IoT will drive more proactive device maintenance, service and repair

In 2016, Gartner, Inc. forecasted that 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017, with 5.5 million new devices being connected every day. The vast majority of today’s devices and machines come equipped with sensors, which transmit signals, status updates and warnings.

Field service innovators are finding ways to use the IoT and increased connectivity to their advantageThese alerts not only allow people to address problems proactively but also accelerate expectations around service time. The alerts notify users the moment their device needs maintenance or repair, which immediately puts the technician on the clock to resolve the issue. Challenges such as long response wait time and excessive appointment windows already plague the field service industry, so the IoT threatens to exacerbate these existing issues.

However, field service innovators are finding ways to use the IoT and increased connectivity to their advantage. In 2018, further innovation in the field technology space will enable technicians to take advantage of the IoT’s increased connectivity and automation in today’s devices, enabling them to provide service in real time to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Artificial intelligence will simplify and automate service appointments

2018 will focus on not the adoption of AI, but the implementation of it in real use cases. One industry that stands to greatly benefit from AI is customer service, particularly field service. Gartner forecasts that 85 percent of customer relationships will be through AI-powered services by the year 2020.

AI technology will make strides in streamlining the customer experienceIn 2018, AI technology will make strides in streamlining the customer experience. Chatbots will troubleshoot issues with customers, determining all necessary information before dispatching a technician. Powered by machine learning, chatbots will understand if a customer needs assistance in resolving an issue or wants more information about a certain piece of equipment. Logistic regression capabilities will enable chatbots to walk customers through equipment problems step by step.

AI will also automate the technician’s workflow. One of the biggest pain points in customer service – particularly field service – is dispatch time. To combat this, heuristic search functions in AI technology will determine which technicians are not only available but also knowledgeable enough to properly service the request. AI will also consolidate relevant customer details – from device history and prior appointments to technicians who are qualified and available to resolve an issue – to ensure customers receive the most efficient and painless experience possible.

Augmented reality will provide unprecedented visibility into worksites

Augmented reality enhances the way we see, hear and feel by bringing elements of the virtual world into the real world. Many people associate augmented and virtual reality with the gaming industry, but the technology offers far more than entertainment for a niche group. Industry forecasters predict that by 2020 the market for AR will reach $100 billion in value.

The increased connectivity that the IoT brings will continue to propel the application of AR in the field service sector. The increased connectivity that the IoT brings will continue to propel the application of AR in the field service sector. Using standard mobile devices and AR glasses, service technicians are finding unique ways to approach service. AR applications that allow technicians to look into machines without disassembling them have proven enormously helpful for pinpointing malfunctioning parts. Also, the ability to share data from onsite with offsite experts allows for a more collaborative approach to finding solutions. And this capacity to share knowledge and access an endless stream of information is increasing the first-time-fix rate and thereby improving the customer experience.

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Paul Whitelam, Group Vice President of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware takes a look forward to see what the key customer expectations challenges are set to be across the coming year...

Field service organisations are always thinking about evolving customer expectations. Major drivers of this evolution have included mobility, new service standards set by companies like Uber and Amazon, and businesses increasingly measuring their service operations by customer satisfaction scores. Through improved processes, smarter software, and cloud computing, many field service organizations have transformed how they view and deliver service. But their work is never quite done. In 2018, customer expectations will continue to rise. Fortunately, so will the capacity to meet them.

These trends are likely to shape the next stage in customer experience and service delivery. Let’s explore how technology can enable a business to embrace the future and delight their customers.

Everything on Demand

Fast delivery isn’t just for pizza anymore. Video streaming services give consumers instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows and on multiple devices. Too busy to run to the grocery store? Use Instacart or Postmates to have dish detergent and avocados brought to your door. Amazon now offers same-day delivery for select items.

It’s not your direct competitors setting customer expectations, it’s the best experiences these customers have had anywhereAs has been the case for some time, it’s not your direct competitors setting customer expectations, it’s the best experiences these customers have had anywhere. And today, they can what they want, and they can get it fast. A first-time fix will become table stakes for most service businesses. A truly agile field service organization will use mobility and automated schedule optimization to shorten the time to job fulfilment.

Having complete visibility into resource location and availability can enable reshuffling schedules on the fly, providing narrow and accurate appointment windows, and giving customers the ability to self-book appointments from their mobile phones will provide the on-demand experience they expect.

User Experience

There are times when hailing a taxi is both faster and less expensive than choosing Lyft or Uber, and yet customers continue using ride-sharing apps. This shows how much they value transparency and visibility into the service process. The ease of payment can’t be beaten—the price for a ride is shown up front and the customer is charged automatically. This level of transparency can also be provided to the service customer. The ubiquity of mobile devices means giving real-time information to customers about the location, and the likely arrival time, of the service professional—increasing service satisfaction, and acting as a differentiator in competitive markets.

Customers will be able to use a variety of channels to communicate with the service provider about the service visit. This is true on the day of service (providing apartment access details for example) as well as before the day of service (sending photographs about the issue that needs to be addressed to better prepare the service provider) and after (questionnaires about the quality of service when the visit is fresh in the mind).

The customer can stay involved in the service delivery process, and feels more informed and empowered as a result, all accomplished with speed and ease.

Machine Learning

As more field service organizations have moved to cloud-based solutions for managing their operations, they have the ability to leverage massive elastic computing power to rapidly process mind-boggling amounts of data into automated scheduling decisions. No longer constrained by infrastructure limitations, they can take full advantage of machine learning, mobility and data management that combine to enable improved operational efficiency and better customer service.

In 2018 and beyond, your customers will expect speed, transparency, precision, and frictionless interactions.Just as Netflix can provide uncannily specific movie recommendations based on the habits of similar users, using historical data about service delivery and the outcomes of previous engagements enables organizations to build models that are increasingly precise about the time a certain type of job will take a specific technician, and which tools or parts will be required. As organizations improve their understanding of the prerequisites of a successful task, they will get better at forecasting task and travel times, and develop better schedules.

By combining this with machine learning models that incorporate traffic patterns, service providers are becoming increasingly precise in predicting the field service team’s daily schedules and can accordingly make more precise promises to their customers—and keep them. Accurate information about the time and duration of a service visit—and that ability to deliver—will increase not just customer satisfaction, but also trust and loyalty.

Predicting the Future of Field Service

In 2018 and beyond, your customers will expect speed, transparency, precision, and frictionless interactions. No one can guess what disruptive app or service model will reset their expectations next, but honing the ability to deliver on the above is a safe bet. Understanding the factors that make for great customer experience will make it easier to assess which existing and emerging technologies will help you meet, anticipate, and outpace service expectations.

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Avaya has recently announced advancements in delivering and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into contact centres to improve the customer experience...

Avaya Ava™, a new AI architecture including natural language processing, machine learning and innovative analytics, enables effortless customer engagement through social media and messaging platforms.

Avaya Ava is a cloud, messaging-agnostic solution that offers new AI capabilities for social messaging integration and automation of digital interactions. Avaya Ava was originally introduced as part of Avaya’s online support community, helping customers and partners get their questions answered about Avaya solutions without human intervention. Ava has now evolved to include AI capabilities, complementing Avaya’s Customer Experience portfolio and is the ideal solution for any contact centre to modernise their infrastructure with AI.

When handing off to agents, Ava transfers the full context of the upfront automated experience, eliminating the need for customers to repeat information and steps already taken.Avaya Ava can engage with customers using social media, chat and messaging channels, and provide immediate self-service support as well as deliver the customer to agent-based customer care.  When handing off to agents, Ava transfers the full context of the upfront automated experience, eliminating the need for customers to repeat information and steps already taken.

Capable of AI mining via multi-lingual, natural language identification, contextual and sentiment analysis, Avaya Ava extends scale and efficiency to customer care operations. Ava can support 34 languages and Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and LINE, with more to be added as the solution evolves. The open API approach enables integration with third-party AI solutions from the Avaya A.I.Connect initiative.

The announcement of Avaya Ava comes on the heels of Avaya’s announcement of a definitive agreement to acquire Spoken, a leading innovator in Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions for enterprise customers and a provider of transformative real-time customer experience management applications built on conversational artificial intelligence. Spoken’s specialised agent quality software applications and services, as well as IntelligentWire solutions, use artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies on live voice conversations to reduce after-call work, drive more intelligent responses and gain deeper insight into customer sentiment and experience.

Avaya also announced today an expansion of the A.I.Connect initiative with three new members, and new solutions and services focused on the user experience, including Avaya Equinox Experience and the Avaya Desktop Experience.

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Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower explains why Artificial Intelligence is going to be a fundamental part of the future of field service and why not all AI is on an equal footing...

In business, we are all now fully aware of the importance of collecting data. However, we are also painfully aware of just how easy it is to get overloaded by the sheer volumes of data we can collect.

An often quoted example that puts the sheer amount of data being generated around us into some sort of context is that a Boeing 787 will generate around 40TB per flight. If you were to play 40TBs of mp3s back to back it would take you 78 years to listen to every file. Yep, those data lakes are deep and quite frankly it’s no wonder some companies are beginning to drown in them.

And this is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into the question - and why it is set to play such an important role within the field service sector.

Ours is a sector in which excellence is being built on data.Ours is a sector in which excellence is being built on data. We are embracing IoT with both arms because it has the power to bring costs down for the service provider whilst increasing service standards for the customer. However, for us to fully see the promise IoT offers we need to turn to AI to help us make sense of all that data.

However, not all AI is equal.

It is often overlooked in conversations but there are very distinct different types of AI. You can have Algorithms that only do one thing. For example, in a law firm, they may have an AI algorithm that sorts through documentation for testimony in trails. Things like this are what are generally viewed as purpose-built AI algorithms, that are all about establishing simple efficiencies. Basically, an AI which is implemented by people and organisations who are searching across large data sets for tightly determined results.

Whilst it is by no means a simple task to develop and deploy such an algorithm when it comes to looking at AI in field service we are talking about a much more complex beast entirely.

For a start let’s just consider the various different types of service and touch points within the service cycle that AI can touch.

To begin with there are three obvious different areas of a field service business:

• Call centre activities
• Back office activities
• Field service activities

Then there are the various different types of information that needs to be factored in as well. For example, on any given service call we would be looking at a minimum for information on:

• The asset
• The customer
• Any service history
• Component level information
• Any complexities to service
• Warranty details

All of these elements only serve to create more complexities in the data - so AI designed to work its way through such levels of complexity is by default going to be a more sophisticated piece of programming.

However, the reason why AI is so important in field service is that we want a product that is flexible and configurable to how our field service businesses evolve and how we want to deliver service. The issue is if you are trying to cross-section a lot of data without AI algorithms that are configurable you are going to be wasting way too much time trying to build software that is one dimensional.

For example, you might build something that says if I get this preventative maintenance alert I am always going to do this. That might be OK for today but it might not fit with your business in a couple of years time.

For the requirements of field service organisations the power of a truly good AI algorithm is all about how robust is its ability to configure different processes.Then you’d have to sit back down with your IT group and your developers and kick off another two-year project on coding some other stuff. By then you’re way behind your competitors - who were able to just adjust some of the parameters on their AI algorithm.

This is why I firmly believe that for the requirements of field service organisations the power of a truly good AI algorithm is all about how robust is its ability to configure different processes.

The volume of the data that is coming out now and the direction that most businesses want to move in mean that we are now well and truly living in a Big Data world and we need to get used to it.

So we need AI to process the sheer amount of data but also we specifically need configurable AI services that will enable us to have the type of service experience that works for our brands and for our customers.

This is why we have been so focused on the development of AI at ServicePower and we were so pleased to be awarded a US patent for the AI algorithms that we’ve incorporated into our latest Customer Experience service solution - which you can see a demonstration of in our recent webinar available @ http://fs-ne.ws/XYbX30gQDeB

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Michael Blumberg, President Blumberg Advisory Group explains why Augmented Reality will be at the core of field service in the not too distant future giving examples of three companies that have already embraced this game-changing tech...

Want to know more? You’ll find a white paper on this topic @ fs-ne.ws/7Q9230fLKu7

If your Field Service Organization (FSO) is not using some form of remote telepresence or video collaboration tool today like Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), chances are you will be in the future.

There are many compelling data points and trends that support this prognosis. First, a recent study by Salesforce.com reports that 92% of service executives indicated they need to transform their service models to keep up with consumer needs.

Second, according to Aberdeen Group, Best in Class field service organizations are 72% more likely than their peers to utilize visual collaboration tools (e.g., AR/VR). It is only a matter of time before other companies follow suit. Third, end-customers have begun to expect this type of service experience. Indeed, 84% of millennial customers have used a self-service portal for customer service. The immersive nature of AR/VR apps makes it the ultimate self-service experience.

Customer demand is obviously a critical factor driving the proliferation of AR/VR applications in the field service industry.

Fueling the demand for AR/VR technology is the fact that it is both relevant and effective within a broad array of industry segments and use casesAs a result, the use of collaboration tools like AR will become the standard by which customers evaluate and measure field service performance. Fueling the demand for AR/VR technology is the fact that it is both relevant and effective within a broad array of industry segments and use cases.

Indeed, it is difficult to find any technology segments where AR/VR does not have practical value. In fact, any technology that is comprised of electronic, electro-mechanical (e.g., pneumatic, hydraulic, etc.) or electrical components can benefit from AR/VR enabled service and support.

Another factor driving demand is the fact that early adopters are achieving measurable results from the deployment of AR/VR pilot projects. For example:

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery is exploring AR and VR solutions to increase both field service utilisation and productivity while reducing travel expenditures. AR would enable the company to send technicians who communicate with remote experts, thus reducing the total number of man-hours on site as well as travel costs.

Bombardier, a provider of propulsion and control equipment for trains, was able to make significant savings, per service event every time they utilized AR to resolve technical issues remotely.

Bosch Rexroth, a manufacturer of hydraulic drive systems, spent every year in Sweden alone a lot of travelling time to go to customer’s sites to inspect what problem or question the customer had prior to deploying AR. The company now offers its customers the option of purchasing support hours to their value-added service offering that utilizes AR to deliver remote support. The collaborative and visual aspects of this technology are far more effective than telephone support. As a result, Bosch Rexroth is now able to provide quicker uptime to customers while generating a profitable income stream.

The technology industry, of which field service is a subset, is already considered to be the biggest economic driver of ARIn the coming years, we are likely to see an exponential growth of AR in the field service industry. In fact, the technology industry, of which field service is a subset, is already considered to be the biggest economic driver of AR. Furthermore, industry forecasters anticipate that expenditures on AR technology will exceed $100 million by 2020.

While we are likely to see new developments in AR/VR feature functionality, this technology will be deployed in one of two environments:

1. In support of an existing installed base of equipment
2. Embedded in the design of new products

We are also likely to find different versions of AR deployed in the field. For example, certain service environments, like Oil & Gas or Utilities, may require that AR applications be integrated with rugged wearable devices to deliver a hands-free environment, whereas non-rugged wearable devices or smartphones/tablets may be more than sufficient in enabling a collaborative experience in markets like IT or Telecom.

As technology improves it is very likely that consumers will purchase AR for business use in much the same way they purchase their own laptops and smartphones for similar business use. It is also quite possible that “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) will apply to AR as well.

This will completely change the paradigm of service support and break down barriers to finding and hiring talent, which in turn will continue to facilitate the use of freelance technicians. Regardless of future possibilities, these potential developments should not stop FSOs from investing in AR and reaping the benefits today.

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By 2020, there will be more than seven connected devices for every person alive. Service providers must anticipate this new reality, the speed at which it’s emerging, and its impact on business models explains Joe Kenny, Vice President Global Customer Transformation & Success for ServiceMax, a GE Digital company.

The global economy is in the middle of the most disruptive period in all of human history. Companies that have been fuel for the global economic engine that powered the late 20th century are quickly disappearing from the global stage.

According to the Olin School of Business, 40% of today’s Fortune 500 companies will be gone in the next 10 years. Much of this business transformation is due to the accelerated advancement of technology. We are, in effect, making better and cheaper things that enable us to make better and cheaper things. Organisations that do not recognise this reality, and adapt to it, are going to face incredible challenges, much faster than ever before.

While many people are amazed at the success of Uber, few consider the consequences to Uber’s competitors.

While many people are amazed at the success of Uber, few consider the consequences to Uber’s competitorsIn New York City, a taxi medallion cost $1.3m in 2014 and two years later they were selling for $250k (Business Insider – 12 October 2016). That same article noted that the total share of all taxi rides for medallion owners in New York fell from 84% in April 2014, to 65% in 2015; A 20% market share decline in 12 months. Those that invested, over generations and decades, in N.Y.C. taxi medallions, will eventually see those medallions lose all of their value.

Ray Kurzwiel, futurist and author of the book, “The Singularity is Coming”, states that based on our current rate of change that, “from a historic perspective, the 21st Century will experience 20,000 years of technology advancement in 100 years”. What is driving this “Age of Acceleration”? The information and communications revolutions of the late 20th century. So, what does all of this have to do with how we service our corporate equipment and assets? Better, cheaper, and faster technology allows for a fundamental paradigm shift in how service providers approach customers and their markets.

Leveraging the technical revolution allows for machine to machine communication, remote asset monitoring, preventive maintenance planning, and predictive analytics. This is not something that is coming, it is something that is already here.Leveraging the technical revolution allows for machine to machine communication, remote asset monitoring, preventive maintenance planning, and predictive analytics. This is not something that is coming, it is something that is already here.

Major markets that have embraced these technology advancements include aviation, transportation, and power generation. Aviation Week reports that an average twin-engine plane can produce over 850 terabytes of data over 12 hours of flight. That data informs on everything from temperature, vibration, oil pressure, basically every aspect of that asset’s performance. It informs service providers of the exact status of that asset over time, when it will need maintenance, and exactly what maintenance it will need.

That level of information will shortly be available on almost every asset in service. Currently, there are approximately 28 billion connected devices on the planet. In the next three years, that number is expected to almost double to more than 50 billion.

That is more than seven connected devices for every person alive in 2020. Service providers need to anticipate this new reality, and more importantly, the speed at which this new reality is emerging. Positioning a service organisation to leverage these capabilities, access these technologies, and drive efficiency, effectiveness, and technologically advanced service will be critical to their survival in the market. It’s one of the main factors driving the exponential rise of field service.

Utilising technology to drive predictive maintenance, guaranteed uptime, defined service windows, and the move to defined service outcomes will be the price of admission to providing service and maintenance.Utilising technology to drive predictive maintenance, guaranteed uptime, defined service windows, and the move to defined service outcomes will be the price of admission to providing service and maintenance.

By way of example, GE already has 800,000 Digital Twins in operation that provide a digital mirror on the status and performance of equipment - covering assets from jet engines to wind turbines - allowing engineers to predict when they need servicing - helping field service engineers make sure that they perform the right service, right first time. Soon there will be more than a million Digital Twins in operation. If you are not positioning and preparing for this reality now, you may already be too late.

While there is always talk of the high cost of doing nothing, in the past there was a period of time for reflection, evaluation, and a window of opportunity to changes one’s mind. That will not be the case in the future. A missed opportunity will be gone before you know it.

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Across the last five weeks, we've been presenting you with the findings from our most recent research project, which we ran in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital. 

Our focus was to see what the field service engineer of the near future will look like and across the first three features of our analysis, our focus was on the changing face of the field service engineer as we see an ageing Baby Boomer workforce reaching retirement age being replaced by a new wave 'millennial'  field service workers.

In the first feature, we looked at the threat of the ageing workforce and the changes in training methodologies that are emerging. In part two we explored if and if and how field service companies are utilising their experienced field service engineers to train the incoming generation and in part three we asked if field service companies were reacting quickly enough to these challenges.

In part four we changed tack slightly and looked at how technology is playing a role in attracting new field service talent and in the final part of this series we look at how field service companies are utilising technology within their training methodologies and bring together some conclusions from the research project as a whole

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

Technology as a training tool:

In the previous feature, we discovered that technology appears to play an increasingly important role in attracting new field service engineers to an organisation, and our research revealed that it also plays an important role in their development and training as well.

Indeed, just under three-quarters of companies in our response group stated that they use smartphone or tablet apps as part of their training, over two thirds (69%) utilise knowledge bases and over half utilise video conferencing.

The use of video conferencing is of particular interest as 57% of companies also stated that they have programs in place for older technicians to support newer recruits and video conferencing is a highly convenient means of facilitating this.

The use of video conferencing is of particular interest as 57% of companies also stated that they have programs in place for older technicians to support newer recruits and video conferencing is a highly convenient means of facilitating this.However, it is interesting to note that only 9% of companies are currently using Augmented Reality (AR) tools as part of their training programs.

This raises the question of why companies are yet to make what on the surface seems to be a natural transition from video to AR. Given that the processes for offering remote support via video conferencing are essentially the same as for AR it would seem that many field service companies are already well positioned to take advantage of these tools.

Competition amongst AR providers is increasing which will likely drive down prices, whilst case studies and use cases are becoming more apparent - meaning the increased efficiency that AR offers over video conferencing will become more widely acknowledged.

Therefore, it would seem a likely assertion that we may soon see wider adoption of AR amongst field service organisations.

What is abundantly clear, however, is that technology is playing a crucial role in the training and development of field service engineers. In fact, only 7% of field service companies stated that they didn’t use any of the various technologies we listed in the survey as training tools.

The reason for such widespread use of technology in field service organisations training programs was also made apparent within the research. 87% of companies stated that technology was at least partially responsible for reducing the length of time necessary it takes to train a new field service engineer.

Just 10% of companies commented that for them the delivery platform of their training wasn’t an important factor.Of that 87%, well over a third of companies (37%) went on to state that incorporating the latest technology into field service engineer training can reduce the amount of time taken to onboard new field service engineers significantly, whilst just 10% of companies commented that for them the delivery platform of their training wasn’t an important factor.

Of course, with technology being ever more integrated with field service delivery it perhaps makes sense to be embracing technology throughout the onboarding process and beyond.

The good news here for field service companies recruiting new millennial talent is that in general, our respondents experienced that they found that Millennials are able to familiarise themselves with mobility tools etc far quicker than the existing Baby Boomer workforce.

In fact, over half 53% of our respondents commented that they believed this to be the case whilst just 4% disagreed and stated that their older field service engineers see the benefits of technology and adapt just as well as the younger engineers now entering the workplace.

One final point on the insights gained from this section of the research is that whilst the use of new technologies such as AR may be an important element in attracting talent and also in reducing training times, it is also can play a role in keeping that talent and reducing attrition rates.

In fact, over three-quarters of the respondents (80%) stated that for them harnessing the latest technology is a factor in keeping attrition rates low.

The Key Stats:

• 67% of field service companies believe that the technology they employ can have a positive effect on attracting talent
• 69% of field service companies use digital knowledge bases as part of their Field Service Engineer development
• 57% of field service companies use their more experienced Field Service Engineers to support younger members of the team
• 87% of field service companies stated that their technology was at least partially responsible for reducing the time it takes to train a new Field Service Engineer
• 53% of respondents felt that the incoming generation of workers would be abe to adapt to mobile tools quicker than their existing Field Service Engineers
• 80% of field service companies believe that the use of emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality will help them reduce attrition rates

The Conclusions:

Firstly, it is absolutely clear that the threat of an ageing workforce is real – yes it may not be of a critical pressing nature just yet for many organisations but the research would certainly indicate that for those companies who fail to address it, it could become so in the not too distant future.

Secondly, the difference between the incoming generation of millennial workers and the exiting baby boomers should not be underestimated.

Fortunately, it seems that the industry at large is aware of the challenge which is a good starting point - although the fact that 84% of companies who have identified the issue have yet to take any action on it is a worrying one.

The answer to both challenges is actually a fairly obvious one.

By using more experienced engineers edging closer to retirement to support those new engineers working in the field it is possible to stop tribal knowledge walking out of the door, whilst also providing training via a platform that is both attractive and familiar to a millennial.

Again, whilst this seems to be a reasonably well-accepted wisdom, those who are practising what they preach remain in the minority with just 17% actually having such a solution in place.

This really needs to change.

Our research has also revealed just how high the expectations are for field service engineers. Technical skills are viewed as-as important as ever, yet modern field service engineers are also expected to have great people skills and be expert problem solvers.Our research has also revealed just how high the expectations are for field service engineers. Technical skills are viewed as-as important as ever, yet modern field service engineers are also expected to have great people skills and be expert problem solvers.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the rise of knowledge banks has meant that when an engineer is sent out on a call he is not only expected to achieve a first-time fix but often he is trying to establish a fix that wasn’t easily resolved through an initial triage at the contact centre stage. With this in mind surely we should be doing everything possible to empower those in the field – and giving them access to the knowledge and experience of our seasoned engineers should be a fundamental part of that.

Technology has already become an integral part of both field service management and field service delivery.

Our research also confirms that it plays a highly important role in both the recruitment, training and development of Field Service Engineers.

It also absolutely offers the solution to two of the biggest challenges our sector currently face and we should absolutely be embracing tools like AR to overcome these challenges. The transition from a Boomer to the Millennial workforce is bringing with it an evolution of the field service engineer.

Such a significant shift will, of course, have problems and the technology available can certainly smooth out some of the bumps in the road Such a significant shift will, of course, have problems and the technology available can certainly smooth out some of the bumps in the road - as to will establishing new or redesigned processes.

Ensuring your organisation comes out of this transition phase (which all companies will have to go through at some point in the next few years) without major impact to your business will require an investment of time, resources and money in your field service engineers.

With this in mind, it is perhaps even more important than ever before, that field service organisations are able to retain those engineers they have invested so heavily in. It is, therefore, no surprise that the majority of field service companies understand the importance of clearly defined career progression paths.

In summary, across the various key factors of this research, we have identified that in the main the challenges and solutions field service companies are facing are understood by the majority. However, it is those companies who act on these challenges today that will be best positioned to take advantage of the sector-wide disruption we are set to face, whilst those who too long may well find themselves in a precarious position sooner than they think.

The question is which of these will your company be?

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

 

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Salesforce’s VP of Product Management Chet Chauhan, explains why for those companies seeking to embrace a vision of outcome-based services at the heart of their business future, the platform approach is vital...

Servitization is very much top of mind right now, particularly in manufacturing circles - but also in the wider business landscape as well.

A lot of companies are seeing that their products are getting commoditised and have rightly identified that the path to much-needed differentiation is through enhancing the service experience. Whether they are business to business, business to consumer or even something more complex like business to business to consumer, we are seeing companies of all different types focussing on services as a way to get closer to their customers.

It is an approach that yields multiple benefits - companies adopting such an approach get to see how their customer base is using the products, meaning more tailored and better-targeted marketing and sales efforts - but also they can gain insight into how they can better improve those products and feed that insight back into their R&D teams.

However, the fact still remains that for most companies the initial steps on a path towards a servitized business model often tend to stem from companies feeling the pressure to get closer to their customers - a pressure that is in itself driven by the fact that customer service has widely become one of the key differentiators between businesses today.

Senior business leaders across the globe are asking “as our products become more and more commoditised how do we differentiate on additional services that we can introduce to our offering?”

Field service has played an intrinsic role in the quest for improved CSAT standards in recent years, and with so many customer touch points becoming digitised, that is only likely to increase in the future.So let’s try to unpack some of this and explore what the future of field service looks like on an intelligent platform.

So the first thing to consider really has to be ‘How do you get closer to your customers?’

It is only at this point that we can really start to consider the next important consideration, which is ‘How do you deliver a better customer experience?’

Of course, field service has played an intrinsic role in the quest for improved CSAT standards in recent years, and with so many customer touch points becoming digitised, that is only likely to increase in the future.

However, the smart companies embracing servitization see that for the approach to be truly effective, i.e. for it to be more than just a shift in revenue from product to services, but to actually become a genuine paradigm shift that simultaneously makes your customer relationships more profitable and longer lasting, they need much better capabilities to connect to with customers across the whole journey within the organisation.

This concept needs to not only sit on the service side of the business but also be understood from the sales and marketing perspective as well. When an organisation understands this and wants to fully manage the whole customer journey seamlessly - this is when the importance and value of a common technology platform really come to the fore.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen some very important technologies emerge which are having and will continue to have a significant impact on field service delivery.

Firstly, Cloud Computing really drove down costs whilst offering the ability to offer infinite opportunities in terms of scaling businesses. IoT is perhaps the technology that has grabbed the most headlines in 2017 with a some excellent IoT platforms appearing including our own, that allow you to constantly connect to your assets. Mobile has of course been around for many years now but again the technology is keeping pace with other advancements, meaning our engineers and technicians are increasingly more empowered even when working in highly remote areas.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen some very important technologies emerge which are having and will continue to have a significant impact on field service delivery.However, it is another big technological trend that we are now seeing really bring everything together and that is Artificial Intelligence (AI). In a sensorised world of IoT & Big Data AI really is critical. When you have a hundred million sensor events being recorded every hour, a human simply cannot comprehend meaning from that level of information - they will simply drown in the data. Yet, AI can deal with such quantities of data very well and then turn that data into insight, the insight into actions and then it is in actions that we will find value.

We need to think of all of these technologies as being integral elements of an ecosystem rather than being individual technologies - and this is why we are seeing the common technology platform become vital. If you are to adopt a truly servitized business model then you absolutely need to be able to orchestrate the full life-cycle of service and customer interaction in one place.

Indeed, we are already beginning to see examples of these types of forward-looking developments appear in a number of different sectors.

We are seeing many companies connecting their assets - though really this is only the first step in the process. It is when Artificial Intelligence is introduced to take this data and turn it into insight and action that things really begin to get exciting.

In fact, some of our clients are now using multiple layers of AI across their entire service cycle. Often there will be one core AI to draw insight from the vast sets of data across a whole fleet of assets. Something like IBM’s Watson can transmit that data into our own Field Service Lightning platform the second AI, Salesforce’s Einstein takes over as it is designed to handle the more specialist needs of a service call.

The basic premise is that an AI like Watson will assess the data, figure out where it needs to take action and will then communicate directly with Salesforce.The basic premise is that an AI like Watson will assess the data, figure out where it needs to take action and will then communicate directly with Salesforce.

If there is a break-fix scenario or if there is a maintenance scenario where an additional job needs to be added to the next preventative maintenance work order, that is all done in an automated fashion within Field Service Lightning.

The engineer can be automatically scheduled using our own AI (Einstein) to make sure the person scheduled has the necessary credentials. If it is a preventative maintenance scenario then it will look at when the next preventative maintenance job is scheduled, make sure that it’s within the time frame required, put the work order in and make sure the parts are ordered and will be on the truck on the day of the job.

So let’s just recap briefly to think about how this process comes together across all of the various technologies.

Firstly, you need to have the IoT element which in turn is dependent on Cloud Computing and Big Data. Then the various AI capabilities to initially read those events in order to begin automatically creating field service job and finally there is a need for the second AI to actually handle the setup and scheduling of both preventative maintenance and break-fix jobs.

Of course, reaching back to the customer and keeping them informed of the stellar service you are delivering is also key so we need to be connected to the contact centre solution as well. And let's not forget that the customer themselves will want to be on whichever channel they prefer - whether it be a mobile app, online portal or SMS and you need to facilitate that for them in whichever fashion they choose.

Many of our clients are already embracing the growing trend of outcome-based revenue models and field service is one integral element of thisSo all of this really needs to be running on a single dedicated platform for it to work seamlessly - yes, you can definitely bring together a number of different solutions and tools by having various integrations across the network, but the reality is that the cost of doing so would be prohibitive - that’s before you even consider the ongoing challenge of keeping everything updated and working harmoniously.

Indeed, the evident need for a common platform approach that can facilitate the seamless transfer of data and actions across different business divisions is the exact reason why we launched Field Service Lightning in the first place.

Our customers were coming to us and telling us ‘this is what we need to do.’ ‘This is the experience we want to deliver and we need you to add field service to your platform so we can orchestrate all of this.’ Many of our clients are already embracing the growing trend of outcome-based revenue models and field service is one integral element of this, as is sales and marketing and as are all other business units.

The key is being able to let the data and insights flow across the business as a whole and to achieve this you really need a platform that can bring together all of these various functions and technologies we’ve discussed in this article including AI, IoT, Mobile and of course FSM – you need all of that in a single place to make it work effectively, but the benefits of doing so will be felt across each and every department within your organisation.

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Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director for Service Management, IFS explores how service organisations can leverage digital transformation to improve customer service and exceed expectations...

Servitization. Uberization. Driverless cars. Drones. Digital transformation appears to be both a blessing and curse to the field service industry. The downside to digital revolution? Customer expectation rises as new technology makes a consumer’s life easier. But fundamentally, a service organisation strives to deliver the right products and services at the right time. The upside? Digital transformation can enable this endeavour.

CIO defines digital transformation as “the application of digital capabilities to processes, products, and assets to improve efficiency, enhance customer value, manage risk, and uncover new monetisation opportunities.” New technologies help field service organisations achieve their goals by enabling them to acquire and process the right data, deliver services and products more accurately and efficiently and provide an unrivalled customer experience.

According to a research study by The Raconteur, even in digitally rich 2017, 28% of field service operations (FSOs) are failing to attain at least 80% service level agreement (SLA) compliance, with 66% of these organisations also citing concern or serious concern over their current cost model. The challenge becomes this: how do organisations leverage digital transformation to exceed customer expectation and achieve long-term sustainability?

Customer-Driven Digital Transformation

The customer is the focal point of any field service operation. Traditional statistics state that by the year 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator (Walker) and by 2018, more than 50% of organisations will redirect their investments to customer experience innovations (Gartner). Making the customer the centre of your organisation’s digital transformation ensures that all changes will directly support your central goal of putting the customer first.

Technology can transform the customer experience in a multitude of ways including:

More accurate demand forecasting

Predicted demand, provided by the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data technology, allows an organisation to collect real-time data and utilise advanced forecasting algorithms to predict the optimal window for predictive maintenance or service visits, rather than relying on historical information or regression modelling.

Faster service times

IoT technology that is seamlessly integrated with intelligent field service management (FSM) software dispatches field service engineers automatically and predictively when an asset requires service, improving the customer experience and saving costs on time spent on wasted visits.

Seamless workflows

Real-time operational intelligence gives managers insight into all aspects of their service operations while end-to-end FSM automates the entire service supply chain. This eliminates paper processes and reduces the time from initiation to invoice, transforming service delivery from reactive to proactive. These technologies allow organisations to reduce operating costs and focus more on the overall customer experience.

At The Collision Point

So, your customer is one of the future; digitally savvy and increasingly demanding because of it. Digital transformation exasperates and solves this challenge at the same time. How can you use this to your advantage? Focus on growth and innovation.

According to new research, 47% of FSOs reported that growth opportunities in new markets were a driving factor for digital transformation, while 33% of organisations cited evolving customer needs and preferences as a top driving factor (Raconteur).

Facilitate Growth

Your organisation needs to grow internally and externally. Digital transformation can facilitate this by allowing you to offer new service models, appeal to new customer bases and enter new markets. But in order for this to be effective, you need to ensure that you have the right organisational and governance model to facilitate growth and embrace change. Internal buy-in and change management are imperative to leveraging digital transformation to ensure growth.

Leverage Innovation

Innovation gives your organisation an incredible competitive edge by providing services or products that are entirely different from the competition. Digital transformation doesn’t just fix current problems with logistics, customer service, delivery and more, it also presents alternative ways of doing business to better serve the customer.

Service organisations surveyed in Raconteur’s research were overwhelmingly convinced in the importance of investing in big data, analytics and IoT. These technologies are already working to help leverage innovations in service delivery, closing the loop between the customer and operations.

Now What?

Embracing digital technology requires a deep understanding of your organisational needs and your customers’ expectations.

Clear direction, internal buy-in and change management processes will help ensure your technological investments reap the most ROI and provide the best improvements for your organisation. Moreover, working with third-party vendors that understand your business and imperatives is key to success.

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