Paul White, Director, Customer Engagement Solutions, IFS explains that even with all the data in the world - the most important step to improving the customer experience is understanding what the customer wants...
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Dec 07, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Paul White • IFS • Servitization • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Paul White, Director, Customer Engagement Solutions, IFS explains that even with all the data in the world - the most important step to improving the customer experience is understanding what the customer wants...
Look around you.
Today’s marketplace is entirely driven by the customer. Uber, Amazon, Deliveroo and others have all found enormous success developing businesses based on delivering beyond customer expectation.
This paramount shift in business practice, once a simple supply and demand problem, has made the concept of customer service increasingly complex. The customer landscape has steadily evolved over the past sixty years since the rise of modern call centers but it has only been recently, since the rapid surge of consumer technology, that customer expectation has been so hard to measure, and meet.
A 2016 research report done by Forrester states that 72% of businesses say that improving the customer experience is their top priority. It is an obvious imperative for businesses that want to stay relevant, competitive and not end up a laggard.
But the first step to improving the customer experience is understanding what the customer wants. Even with all the data in the world out there today (cookies, surveys, inbound marketing), it isn’t that easy. Providing the customer with an unrivaled experience should infiltrate every part of your business. So what does your customer in 2017 what?
Want to know more? IFS have published an excellent white paper based on their Digital Change Survey which is available to Field Service News subscribers...
If you are a field service professional you can apply for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription and we will send you a copy of this white paper along instantly.
Real-time interaction
A Salesforce report on the connected customer states that 65% of consumers expect companies to interact with them in real-time. Instant gratification is widely available and with companies competing primarily on customer service alone, response time is an increasingly important differentiator.
An unrivalled experience
According to a Walker study, by the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Additionally, 86% of customers state they will spend more to get a better customer experience. This means a shifted focus from meeting customer demand to focusing on customer SUCCESS.
Fundamentally the ideals of servitization come into play here where you no longer sell a product or service, but rather the outcome of that product or service.
Mind reading
Ok, maybe not to that extreme. But consumers today want the businesses they interact with to know what they need. This can mean anything from proactive service (which removes the hassle of the customer having to escalate a problem) to intelligent upselling.
So you need a business that caters to the customer and provides them with an unparalleled experience. The connected customer drives the escalator of customer satisfaction and now demands input and acknowledgement throughout your sales and service lifecycle. This means you need processes and systems that support the customer as the bottom line.
The connected customer drives the escalator of customer satisfaction and now demands input and acknowledgement throughout your sales and service lifecycle
For IFS it meant recognising the customer imperative service businesses cannot ignore. It meant understanding that empowering the service business to deliver a unique customer experience means delighting the connected customer. It meant recognising that the customer is the focal point of any service transaction.
So IFS made an acquisition that would enable them to provide the only complete connected field service management solution focused directly on customer interaction, from beginning to end.
mplsystems provides the omni-channel contact center and customer engagement support service businesses need to provide the optimum customer experience In fact, Aberdeen Group claims that companies with the strongest omni-channel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers.
What does the future of field service management look like?
Servitization is delivering on customers’ new expectation that their success be taken into consideration, by providing outcome based service offerings.
Servitization is delivering on customers’ new expectation that their success be taken into consideration, by providing outcome based service offerings.
The most forward thinking businesses will be able to leverage new technologies and existing systems to create a customer experience and offering that is rich, insightful, and innovative.
It starts with the customer and its ends with them, and field service management processes and service businesses alike must embrace this.
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Nov 22, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • White Paper • White Papers & eBooks • Digital Transformation • IFS • Internet of Things • IoT
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: IFS Title: The IFS Digital Change Survey
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: IFS
Title: The IFS Digital Change Survey
Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
If you are a field service professional you can apply for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription and we will send you a copy of this white paper along 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)
Synopsis:
When a car leaves a factory, this no longer signifies the end of the relationship between manufacturer and vehicle. The car goes into the next stage of its lifecycle, where it must be maintained and serviced. Businesses are realising that this servicing offers a significant revenue stream. For example, automotive manufacturer margins on new vehicle sales range from eight to 14 per cent, whereas servicing a brake disc carries around a 65 per cent margin.
As businesses become service-oriented, digital transformation gives them the tools to change.
By enabling visibility of an asset using the Internet of Things (IoT), the provider can better understand its use in the real world and feed that back into its research and development (R&D) process. Any issues from the manufacturing process that affect usage and failure rates of equipment can be managed via the IoT feedback loop. Data analysis using business intelligence or big data and analytical tools can derive value from that data.
Historically, companies have seen service as a cost centre and a necessary evil. Now, Digital Transformation is enabling more organisations to realise the potential that service has as a profit centre. Yet there is considerable variation in maturity across the sector globally. This exclusive white paper by IFS offers key insights into their research of Digital Transformation and how it is being implemented.
Overview:
Service: Leading the Way
Across many industries, manufacturing and products have become commoditised; service is now the differentiator. The winners in the service sector are those able to stand apart through their ability to support a product across its lifecycle, or support a client whose services they manage.
When set against other sectors, service organisations are leading the field in innovation and transformation
The top five factors behind digital transformation reflect this potential, with four of the five being sales, innovation and customer relationship-driven. Chief among these is ‘growth opportunities in new markets’. In reality, these growth opportunities are not new but have been expanding for some 20+ years. What is changing is recognition of these opportunities. Many organisations have been slow to recognise service as being a key driver to their overall business success.
A New Hope:
The service industry is reaching a critical point with its ageing workforce. An enormous level of knowledge, possessed by the veterans and gurus of the industry, is walking out of the door as these workers reach retirement, or are no longer effectively supported by the business. This can have more of an impact in service than anywhere else, as the level and quality of service on offer can be directly impacted by the individual that performs the service.
In developing and recruiting talent, DT has a significant role to play. Intelligent knowledge management systems can enable a six-month recruit to perform those maintenance or repair services that would have previously been the [quote float="right"]Where firms operate a service within a service, such as an elevator in a hotel, it is in the interest of both the hotel operator and the elevator service organisation to create the optimum customer experience, because they share the same end consumer
domain of a 10+ year veteran. Technologies such as augmented reality (in the form of Google Glass or Microsoft HoloLens), can be usedto virtually project onto the physical equipment an animated disassembly procedure for swapping out a part onto the physical equipment.
The greatest talent gaps reported by service providers are in the areas of business intelligence (BI) and cybersecurity, with the former particularly keenly felt in North America.
Big data/analytics and BI are crucial in supporting a quantifiable business, and unlike many other industries, service is very easy to measure. Metrics such as first-time fix rate, mean time to repair, mean time between services, and service level agreements are commonplace. It is crucial when marketing a service that the provider is able to cite a percentage level of service and agree that level with customers in their SLA.
Joining Forces:
The need for collaboration is higher in the services sector than in any other, based on the IFS cross-industry research. At a sector-wide level, the delta between desired levels of collaboration and actual levels of collaboration is 2.7 points on a ten-point scale, meaning there is a desire to increase levels of collaboration by 49 per cent.
Where firms operate a service within a service, such as an elevator in a hotel, it is in the interest of both the hotel operator and the elevator service organisation to create the optimum customer experience, because they share the same end consumer
The demand for close collaboration is not surprising – firms such as Dell have a fully outsourced service provision for their field technicians, which means a considerable source of potential revenue is in the hands of trusted third parties.
Where firms operate a service within a service, such as an elevator in a hotel, it is in the interest of both the hotel operator and the elevator service organisation to create the optimum customer experience, because they share the same end consumer, who is jointly judging the product and judging the service.
Given the delta, many firms are clearly still not optimised in their digital transformation and will need to achieve a stronger bond between their partners and their internal teams to realise the full value of servitization.
Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
If you are a field service professional you can apply for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription and we will send you a copy of this white paper along 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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Nov 10, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Mark Homer • Digital Twin • servicemax
Digital Twins have a big role to play in field service management and will be essential for creating business intelligence writes Mark Homer at ServiceMax, a GE Digital Company
Digital Twins have a big role to play in field service management and will be essential for creating business intelligence writes Mark Homer at ServiceMax, a GE Digital Company
We often hear the phrase, ‘you cannot account for human error’ but that seems illogical in today’s connected world. We have the technology to not just account for human error but to eradicate it.
The Internet of Things with the proliferation of affordable and reliable sensors is changing the way in which we can view, manage, service and support technology, processes and any physical object. By mirroring a process, product or service into a virtual world, we can create environments in which machines can automatically analyse performance, warn of impending issues, identify existing or potential errors and even suggest part upgrades or changes to procedures to make them more efficient.
Digital twin eliminates guesswork from determining the best course of action to service critical physical assets, from engines to power turbines.
Easy access to this combination of deep knowledge and intelligence about your assets paves the road to wider optimisation and business transformation.
Digital twin technology spans across all industries where the value is in assets and more generally complex systems. Its ability to deliver early warnings, predictions, and optimisation is fairly universal. In time, I think we’ll see the concept of a digital twin to be applied to human beings as well, playing a significant role in healthcare.
However just mirroring is not enough. If the aim is to achieve zero downtime or at the very least, overall insight into on-going product and process performance, the digital twin has to be analysed and that analysis has to feed other functions.
What the digital twin produces, when bundling data with intelligence, is a view of each asset’s history and its potential future performance.
This continuum of information leads to early warnings, predictions, ideas for optimisation, and most importantly a plan of action to keep assets in service longer will, sending commands to machines in response to those forecasts.
If you close the loop, with data and predictions, you can act directly on the asset itself.
By combining APM with FSM tools, the digital twin idea is transformed into an intelligent agent. Businesses have, for the first time, a complete suite of intelligence at their fingertips, to understand potential equipment issues, and pre-empt them or act upon them quickly and efficiently with the correct tools and parts, should machinery need fixing.
This means field service is managed more efficiently, reducing costs and ensuring minimum downtime as engineers attend jobs with a full understanding of the problem, the right parts to hand and a complete knowledge of how to fix it.
This is the shift from an often blind and reactive approach to fixing broken products and services to a predictive model that should eliminate waste, reduce costs, downtime and importantly human error.
This sort of knowledge is gold dust for product designers and manufacturers as it can feed back accurately, which parts work well and where machines would need improving or upgrading.
This sort of knowledge is gold dust for product designers and manufacturers as it can feed back accurately, which parts work well and where machines would need improving or upgrading.
Combined with the knowledge of field service professionals this makes for a powerful tool for upselling products and services to customers. Any new ideas or enhancements can be fully supported with data analysis and perhaps even simulations to illustrate how new parts and functions would improve performance.
It offers justification and also accountability and should cut through irrelevant or unsuitable product or service ideas.
It’s transforming service at the edge by bringing together all the facets that make businesses and machines tick - and goes a long way to creating a world of zero unplanned downtime.
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Nov 09, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • future of field service • Paul Whitelam • ClickSoftware • Internet of Things
Paul Whitelam at ClickSoftware, explains why the future if field service will be heavily based on the Internet of Things.
Paul Whitelam at ClickSoftware, explains why the future if field service will be heavily based on the Internet of Things.
Want to know more? A white paper from ClickSoftware on this topic is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
For most field service professionals, staying connected is essential to managing customer requests. Fortunately, there are several devices available in today’s connected world to manage these operations. And we’re not just talking about that smartphone in your pocket. We also mean the building where you work, the vehicle you drive, and the house you call home. Almost every aspect of modern life can be connected and managed from the Internet. And field service is no exception.
The Internet of Things (IoT) drives this evolution of modern communication. The Internet of Things is a catch-all phrase that describes the way devices connect with each other to collect and exchange data. The field service industry has evolved alongside IoT. And it has established interoperability across devices, applications, and platforms.
What does the future of field service look like, thanks to the Internet of Things? Let’s see how it addresses three key aspects of field service: costs, best-of-breed solutions, and customer satisfaction.
Reduced Costs
Increased connectivity within a field service operation fosters a predictive model for addressing customer concerns. The ability to diagnose and address issues before they happen is essential to saving time (and money) on service calls. The fewer second (and third) service requests made, the more your business saves money.
Take your HVAC system for example. The weather can be unpredictable at times. We could experience high temperatures one day and freezing temperatures the next. IoT sensors in your HVAC system can monitor internal temperatures, while considering climate trends. Before you call a tech to turn down the heat, the system can adjust temperature automatically.
One of the best ways to save your organisation and the customer money is to fix the issue the first time.
For instance, IoT allows your HVAC system to track each time it’s been serviced. And based on the service trends it can predict when the system is due for a check up. No one’s wasting their work day rushing to get the HVAC system fixed when it breaks. Instead they can schedule a fix before disaster strikes.
Best-of-Breed Solutions
Say farewell to the “one-vendor-fits-all” model for enterprise asset management (EAM). Or at least, bid it adieu over the course of the next few years. IoT encourages businesses to adopt a “best-of-breed” model. In this model, software applications and hardware devices are specific to their needs.
As more devices are built and connected to the Internet, a flexible EAM platform can manage the differing assets within a centralized, consolidated system. Using cloud-based technology, best-of-breed providers can push updates to technicians in real-time.
Customer Satisfaction
Cost and asset management are key components to achieving the ultimate goal: ensuring customer satisfaction. It strains both the customer relationship and your bottom line when you need multiple service calls because of under-connected devices and lack of information.
We’re not living in a pen-and-paper world anymore. Even the technology we used five years ago pales in comparison to what IoT can enable today.
For instance, IoT sensors can track power consumption in a customer’s refrigerator. Before the fridge breaks and food spoils, you’re already aware that it’s due for service. You can get ahead of the situation and tell the customer it’s time for a fix. Customers can schedule a fix when it’s convenient for them, and avoid ever dealing with a broken fridge. And customers will be pleased because they won’t have to worry about their devices breaking.
We’re not living in a pen-and-paper world anymore. Even the technology we used five years ago pales in comparison to what IoT can enable today. In due time, this technology will automate decisions and launch actions without human intervention. The future is here. Are you on board yet?
Want to know more? A white paper from ClickSoftware on this topic is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
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Oct 27, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Microsoft • Digital Twins • GE Digital • IoT • servicemax
This week GE unveiled expansions to its suite of edge-to-cloud technologies and industrial applications, designed to help its customers build a complete asset strategy.
This week GE unveiled expansions to its suite of edge-to-cloud technologies and industrial applications, designed to help its customers build a complete asset strategy.
These additions to the GE Digital portfolio complement the key software applications that drive industrial productivity and extend these benefits through Predix, the application development platform for the Industrial Internet.
To help industrial companies get the most out of their industrial assets and drive better business outcomes, GE Digital today introduced: Predix Edge technologies to accelerate computing at the edge; the Predix platform combined with Microsoft Azure, the cloud for enterprises; new Operations Performance Management software to bridge productivity from assets to operations; enhanced Field Service Management solutions to improve the customer experience; and new platform tools to simplify industrial app development.
Industrials that unlock data to master asset productivity will be positioned to lead
Edge-to-Cloud Intelligence on Any Industrial Asset, Anywhere
By 2022, Gartner predicts that 75 percent of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data center or cloud. The ability to compute and manage this information both at the edge and in the cloud are essential for industrial companies to truly optimise their operations.
To help customers accelerate their edge strategies and make any asset an intelligent asset, GE Digital is expanding its Predix Edge capabilities to help run analytics as close to the source of data as possible. Predix Edge gives customers with limited connectivity, latency limitations, regulatory or other constraints a way to deploy applications closer to the originating data – or at the edge.
Enhancements include:
[unordered_list style="bullet"]
- Predix Edge Manager allows customers to support large fleets of edge devices – up to 200,000 connected devices from a single console.
- Predix Machine enables microservice-based applications to run at the edge on customers’ virtualized data center infrastructure or on server-class hardware from GE or its partners. This also supports Predix Edge Manager, which was previously available only as a cloud service.
- Predix complex event processing (CEP) allows for faster and more efficient analytics and other event processing at extreme low latency, available at the edge in Q1 2018.[/unordered_list]
These edge solutions can help companies move from intelligent asset management to automation to insights-led machine learning across a distributed system. One example is EdgeLINC, a comprehensive edge-to-cloud solution from GE Transportation integrated with Predix Edge Manager, Predix Machine and Asset Performance Management applications. EdgeLINC enables efficient device management, configuration and streaming analytics even when machines, such as rail assets, are constantly moving in and out of communication.
Predix Platform on Microsoft Azure
GE Digital and Microsoft are bringing together the advanced industrial platform services of Predix with the flexible, enterprise-proven services of Microsoft Azure. Available in North America starting Q4 2017 and expanding globally in 2018, this partnership extends the accessibility of Predix to Microsoft’s global cloud footprint, including data sovereignty, hybrid capabilities and advanced developer and data services, enabling customers around the world to capture intelligence from their industrial assets.
While IT and OT have traditionally existed in silos, Microsoft and GE are bridging this gap
Advanced Applications to Make the Industrial Internet More Actionable
Understanding how an asset operates and its maintenance needs is critical to mitigating risk and improving productivity. Alongside its Asset Performance Management (APM) software, the core application deriving value from industrial assets, GE Digital introduced a complementary application that improves the operational performance of assets – like pumps, valves and heat exchangers – and drives a comprehensive asset management strategy.
This new Operations Performance Management (OPM) solution helps industrials increase revenue and margins, optimise the throughput of industrial processes and make their sites more profitable. OPM uses real-time and historical data – along with advanced analytics – to help customers make better operational decisions. The solution provides an early warning if industrial processes deviate from plan, arms operators with the information and time to troubleshoot operational issues and helps them take preventative actions to meet business goals.
GE Digital’s OPM software initially targets the mining industry and will expand to additional industries early next year.
The OPM solution has already helped customers achieve significant improvements to revenue and profit including:
[unordered_list style="bullet"]
- A platinum operator increased overall throughput by 10 percent, consistently reaching maximum design capacity and increasing recovery by 1.5 percent.
- A large mining company achieved a 5.5 percent increase in throughput while consuming 2 percent less power
- A gold producer realised a 1.5 percent increase in recovery while reducing equipment-related costs through improved process efficiency.
[/unordered_list]
Enhanced Field Service Management Solutions
With service technicians looking to embrace technology to improve their productivity and deliver a better experience for customers, ServiceMax from GE Digital, the leading field service management (FSM) solution, announced several enhancements to its FSM suite – enabling even greater efficiencies and bringing advanced analytics to service operations.
Artificial intelligence-enabled predictive service times now integrate the Apache Spark AI engine to improve service time estimates. Additionally, a new application integration solution enables service providers to launch and share FSM data with third-party mobile applications installed on the same device. New capabilities in schedule optimisation allow for dependent job scheduling between work orders for multiple visits aimed at improving first-time fix rates. As part of GE Digital’s FSM portfolio, these new features allow operators to minimise downtime, optimise costs, reduce risk and improve productivity for your services team.
Advanced App and Digital Twin Solutions
GE Digital also introduced Predix Studio to help companies build and scale their own industrial applications and extend its Asset Performance Management (APM) suite, Available in Q1 2018, Predix Studio simplifies the development process by giving customers the ability to extend applications and empower industrial subject matters experts – or citizen developers – to build apps in a low-code, high-productivity environment. A vital demographic, citizen developers comprise controls and reliability engineers, OT operators and line of business users with domain expertise but little or no coding experience. Using a mix of AI and machine learning, Predix Studio automates the heavy lifting of creating Industrial IoT apps – opening app development to an entirely new kind of developer.
GE’s experience in managing industrial assets has generated hundreds of millions of hours of machine data
The Analytics Workbench, currently a technology preview from GE Power, can be used to augment existing digital twins with new data streams. For example, power producers using drones to inspect wind turbine blades, pipelines or fuel reserves can integrate visual inspection data into the digital twins they already use to manage generation assets and grid infrastructure. The Analytics Workbench also helps users implement machine learning capabilities that allow those models to improve themselves over time.
Unveiled as part of GE’s Minds + Machines conference, these solutions from GE Digital are designed to help customers successfully advance their digital industrial transformation journeys while realizing real and immediate benefits to their bottom lines.
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Oct 27, 2017 • Features • Automation • Future of FIeld Service • Paul Whitelam • predictive analytics • ClickSoftware • IoT
Paul Whitelam of ClickSoftware tackles some of the frequent questions he and has colleagues are often asked by field service managers about the key technologies currently driving field service delivery forward...
Paul Whitelam of ClickSoftware tackles some of the frequent questions he and has colleagues are often asked by field service managers about the key technologies currently driving field service delivery forward...
Want to know more? A white paper from ClickSoftware on this topic is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
The Internet of Things, service automation and predictive analytics all promise to reshape the field service management landscape. But each of these terms and technologies likewise cause confusion, and even frustration among many management-minded service professionals. At conferences, on software demos, and during customer calls, we’re constantly getting asked about emerging technology.
We believe when new technology becomes more readily available, it’s essential to map it back to specific business outcomes. Technology for its own sake won’t help anyone in field service.
In the hopes of demystifying some frustrating technology topics, below are dirt-simple definitions of IoT, automation, and predictive analytics. In addition, we lay out why each matter in field service, and ideas for how each can be applied.
Instead of customers discovering major issues and equipment issues, these sensors can deliver real-time updates that keep you ahead of failures.
Human error is unavoidable when it comes to pricing, invoicing, and closing out costly jobs. Consider streamlining work order management through automation software. Various tools can provide work estimates to customers, forecast based on previous numbers, and send automated payment or invoicing reminders to all parties involved.
In the hopes of demystifying some frustrating technology topics, below are dirt-simple definitions of IoT, automation, and predictive analytics. In addition, we lay out why each matter in field service, and ideas for how each can be applied.
1. The Internet of Things
What is it?
Simply put, the Internet of Things (IoT) includes any device, product, vehicle, or electronic product capable of connecting to the internet and sending signals to each other. This could include everything from washing machines, headphones, coffee makers, and smartphones to clothing, space stations, jewelry, and jet engines.
If it can transmit data over a wireless network, it can be part of the IoT.
Why does it matter in field service?
The Internet of Things opens up hundreds of cross-device possibilities and efficiencies in service. By bringing machines, devices, vehicles, and equipment online, service providers can effectively close huge communication gaps that currently exist, and resolve customer issues faster.
Imagine a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit that alerts the field service team the instant an outage happens. Or imagine capital equipment parts that can communicate their efficiency in real-time. The possibilities for streamlining service are simply endless.
Ideas for implementing IoT in field service:
Embed sensors on equipment
The first and most obvious application is to bring equipment that needs regular maintenance online. Consider embedding temperature, pressure, or other sensors on key pieces of equipment that can communicate this information back to a database, field tech, or to dispatch.
Instead of customers discovering major issues and equipment issues, these sensors can deliver real-time updates that keep you ahead of failures.
Bring vehicles online
Efficiency in service requires techs to remain efficient both on the road, and at the job site. By equipping your service vehicles with sensors, you can quickly learn whether tech drive time remains efficient. Over time, you can optimize specific routes, as well as coach the broader organization on how to improve travel efficiency.
Enable wearables
Empower your techs with wearables such as smartwatches that allow them to transmit service data via voice recognition back to headquarters. In essence, bringing your techs online while at job sites empowers real-time data transfer, and greater service efficiency.
2. Field Service Automation
What is it?
Field service management, and field service automation are often used interchangeably. They are in fact, quite different.
Service automation technology takes human, or manual service tasks and automates them through software applications. It’s highly common for service organizations to start by automating the most cumbersome, or undesirable tasks. The purpose of field service automation is streamlining service processes to increase productivity and efficiency.
Why does automation matter in service?
Customer expectations are higher than ever. For decades, service organizations have struggled to keep up with both changing technology, and ever-increasing customer expectations. Service automation is essential in today’s landscape in freeing up techs to focus on the human side of service. Customer relationships have also suffered due to technology. Applying automation to tasks that are better suited to robots frees up field techs and dispatch to focus on satisfying customers, answering tough questions, and servicing equipment.
Ideas for implementing automation in field service:
Automate scheduling
Various aspects of service scheduling and staffing can be completely automated. When service and dispatch professionals put in requests for desired work hours, software can bump these recommendations up against customer needs, finding opportunities for greater efficiency.
In addition, alerts and real-time updates can keep leadership abreast of scheduling improvements.
Streamline work order management
[quote float="right"]Human error is unavoidable when it comes to pricing, invoicing, and closing out costly jobs.
Simplify dispatch
Field service personnel managers know how challenging dispatch can be. Keeping track of techs, and job completions are key to a dispatch manager’s daily grind. Dispatch automation and route optimization software can simplify dispatch by delivering real-time route information, tech activity while on-site, and notices when jobs are completed.
3. Predictive Analytics
What is it?
Inventory, service scheduling, and even customer satisfaction can all be predicted. That is of course, if you have access to the right data.
Predictive analytics leverages statistical algorithms, or machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes. In short, it’s all about predicting customer behavior, equipment failures, and field tech performance.
It requires the tracking of historical data, in order to model and project what will happen in the future.
Why does being predictive matter in field service?
Customer’s desires are changing faster than ever. New consumer services like Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon have completely redefined customer expectations. Instant answers, mobile-first frameworks, and complete transparency are now the norm.
Unfortunately, field service has been slow to catch up. Predictive analytics offer field service management professionals an opportunity to get ahead of customer, and service needs through smarter use of data. This promises a path to satisfying more customers, and faster.
Ideas for implementing predictive analytics in field service:
Embrace big data
Every mobile device, customer touchpoint, and piece of equipment can now deliver data. Embrace all of these newfound touch points, and find a means of tracking them in a single software.
Every mobile device, customer touchpoint, and piece of equipment can now deliver data
Track select metrics
Having newfound data at your fingertips can be overwhelming. Hone in on the metrics that matter most, and seek to uncover patterns within the data.
Project future performance with machine learning models
Machine learning leverages pattern recognition and artificial intelligence algorithms to predict future trends based on historical data. Preconfigured machine learning models can help you get from data to insights faster.
As an alternative, consider mapping your own data over a set period of time, creating a basic statistical analysis. Then, forecast across customer satisfaction, tech performance, and more
Want to know more? A white paper from ClickSoftware on this topic is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
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Oct 26, 2017 • News • Avaya • Future of FIeld Service • Klaus Hüftle • Bosch • Digital Transformation
Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of technology and services, have announced the expansion of its partnership with Avaya to help support Bosch’s digital transformation strategy across its global operations.
Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of technology and services, have announced the expansion of its partnership with Avaya to help support Bosch’s digital transformation strategy across its global operations.
Avaya Private Cloud Services (APCS) has signed a $60 million agreement with Bosch to provide a range of business communications solutions to 160,000 Bosch associates worldwide.
The five-year deal builds on Avaya’s existing relationship with Bosch and is part of the group’s wider “Next Generation Workplace” project, designed to further support a globally connected and agile workforce. The "Next Generation Workplace" is a long-term project for Bosch that aims to make efficient mobile working even easier for associates. Through the Avaya APCS solution provided, Bosch can reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for the provision of voice services by as much as 20%.
Avaya will provide a range of private cloud-based voice, contact centre and collaboration services, helping Bosch’s central IT department to roll out standardised solutions to all Bosch group companies worldwide. Avaya’s infrastructure integration solution will also provide enterprise-class assured voice services to Bosch users where they are interfacing through the Skype for Business desktop client.
As a leading Internet of Things (IoT) company, Bosch offers solutions for smart homes, smart cities, connected mobility, and connected manufacturing, delivering innovations for a connected life.
“We have made a major commitment to drive agility by investing in our IT infrastructure. Accordingly, we need trusted partners that can help us deliver on our vision of the “Next Generation Workplace” and deliver the required levels of quality and service to our associates. Avaya’s proven ability to deliver to demanding deadlines, deep knowledge of our business needs and the technical expertise to execute flawlessly makes them a natural choice to be one of those trusted partners. They are helping us to create a global standard solution that will be made available to Bosch’s 440+ subsidiaries and regional companies.” Klaus Hüftle, Senior VP, Bosch GmbH
“This new agreement reflects the confidence and trust that Bosch has built up in Avaya, our capability to deliver on this scale of project, and our ability to create innovative solutions that go beyond our own product space. We are strengthening our relationship with a world-leading technology company, and playing our part in helping Bosch to achieve its digital transformation objectives and empower its workforce. Avaya is proud of the endorsement in us that this agreement reflects and we look forward to working more closely with them over the coming years.” Nidal Abou-Ltaif, President, Avaya International.
The contract with Avaya will also enable Bosch to deliver future innovation, through the introduction of Avaya Breeze applications and Avaya Oceana customer experience solutions.
Avaya Private Cloud Services (APCS) enable companies to create simple, dynamic environments that allow them to roll out new applications and services faster, support new devices, improve application uptime, and gain significantly reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and better return on investment (ROI).
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Oct 24, 2017 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • Preventative Maintenance • resources • White Paper • White Papers & eBooks • ClickSoftware • Industrial Internet • IoT
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: ClickSoftware Title: How the Internet of Things is Transforming Field Service
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: ClickSoftware
Title: How the Internet of Things is Transforming Field Service
Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
Synopsis:
Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected “things” will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 20201. This interconnected world will provide a wealth of new opportunities for service organisations. It allows them to connect equipment with technicians’ mobile devices and the office in real time, enabling a rapid response to service requests and efficient remote diagnostics. Service is set to become increasingly proactive and cost-effective.
Field service lies at the heart of the Internet of Things (IoT) evolution. Advanced field service management (FSM) software can automatically receive messages from devices, and schedule and dispatch professionals, without any human interaction. But the opportunities for IoT go beyond inbound device signals over the internet.
The increase in intelligent service resources, such as drones and autonomous vehicles, offers benefits of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication that promise to transform the service industry.
Overview:
The Internet of Things
As the internet turns 25 years old, its impact continues to transform communications, industries, and lives. The original framework of point-to-point communication via a network of distributed hubs has evolved from email and dovetailed with advances in electrical and industrial engineering in a transformative way. The era of personal computers has evolved, through mobility and the smart phone revolution, to a point where connected devices take all manner of forms from biological implants to wearable fitness trackers.
Signals sent to and from connected devices are spiralling in volume. Big data management techniques, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud storage have come together to deliver insight from this abundance of data. This increases the opportunities for automating decisions and initiating actions without the need for human intervention. The benefits to organisations are numerous.
Remote monitoring applications already save billions in transport and human capital management costs. Add the potential positive impact on customer engagement and its associated business value, and the call to action becomes clear. A complete IoT strategy leads to better and faster decisions throughout the service delivery lifecycle.
Market Definitions
The Internet of Things is having major impact across both industrial and consumer sectors, and many bodies of research focus on these separately. We look at the two areas in this way:
- Industrial IoT (IIoT): IIoT refers to the application of the Internet of Things to the broad manufacturing industry. It’s often used interchangeably with the term “Industry 4.0,” which refers to the major transformational stages of the industrial economy. Examples of IIoT range from monitoring building management systems and power grids, to tracking manufactured goods as they are shipped
- Consumer IoT (CIoT): The Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) consists of technologies that target the home market and consumer electronics. IDC reports3 that over 8 million US households already use some kind of home automation and control. Typified by remote monitoring capabilities for security, climate control, and remote control of household functions, CIoT also offers promise in areas such as networked home appliances with use cases such as refrigerators that automatically order more milk as needed.
IoT and Field Service
As the definitions around IIoT and CIoT show, there are ramifications for field service in both areas. Products that are being serviced are equally likely to be consumer goods or elements of a manufacturing eco-system in the context of business-to-business field service. The consumer and business areas are also intertwined as IoT adds a strong feedback loop that connects product usage and the associated service requirements to the manufacturing process itself. For example, wear and tear levels in real-world conditions can feed into product development through a network of sensors and influence the manufacturing process accordingly.
CIoT and IIoT are worthwhile segmentations to assess the market at a more granular level. But there are opportunities for innovation in IoT across the field service landscape. Furthermore, areas such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and ghost IT also create fuzzy lines between consumers individually and as part of an enterprise. The opportunity for field service is broad and not constrained to any sub-segment of the market.
Reactive vs Predictive
The increasing intelligence of devices and the hardware layer also impact the approach to service associated with the device. While unsophisticated devices can signal a need for service in the event of a system failure, the richer data from intelligent sensors enable a shift from reactive to proactive service. For example, indicators of failure enable long range service maintenance planning so devices can be kept running continuously and efficiently with an optimised cost profile.
From a resource optimisation perspective, this is of course preferable to responding, at high cost, to a sudden failure.
There are opportunities for innovation in IoT across the field service landscape.
To unlock the potential of speed and automation, decision criteria must be determined and incorporated into a system flexible enough to handle the variety of data inputs and scenarios. Top field service software providers can offer a scheduling solution that incorporates countless data elements into the scheduling algorithm.
The full intelligence provided by the IoT network determines the appropriate service schedule for a device, including inspection, preventive maintenance, and repair. If required, it’s possible to incorporate a review of these IoT-generated telematics by a field service professional for additional human oversight.
Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!
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Oct 23, 2017 • News • 5G • Future of FIeld Service • MTS • Ericsson • IoT • Telco
Ericsson and MTS, the largest telecommunications operator in Russia, have agreed to upgrade the network of MTS. Ericsson will deliver the newest software features that will be continuously developed during the next three years.
Ericsson and MTS, the largest telecommunications operator in Russia, have agreed to upgrade the network of MTS. Ericsson will deliver the newest software features that will be continuously developed during the next three years.
The scope of the agreement also includes 5G-ready radio hardware, Ericsson Radio Systems and core network with the latest Ericsson Mobile Softswitch Solution (MSS), as well as User Data Consolidation (UDC), providing consolidation of user data for all network functions.
These solutions will upgrade the mobile networks for 2G, 3G and 4G. In addition, MTS will prepare the network for 5G with Ericsson software for Massive IoT solutions, including NB-IoT and Cat-M1 technologies. This enables a wide range of IoT use-cases including metering and sensor applications.
The agreement fully supports MTS’s strategy of preparing the network with 5G and IoT-ready hardware to enable a fast commercialization of these technologies. The deployment starts Q4 2017 and total value of the contract is expected to exceed EUR 400 million.
According to latest edition of Ericsson Mobility Report, many operators will deploy 5G commercially from 2020, in line with the time plan for 5G standardisation
According to latest edition of Ericsson Mobility Report, many operators will deploy 5G commercially from 2020, in line with the time plan for 5G standardization. In 2022, the number of 5G subscriptions is forecast to reach more than 500 million. The adoption rate of 5G mobile broadband is expected to be similar to that of LTE, and rollout will commence in major metropolitan areas, reaching around 15 percent population coverage by 2022. 5G will enable a wide range of use cases for massive IoT and critical IoT.
Arun Bansal, Head of Ericsson in Europe and Latin America, says: “Early deployment of IoT and 5G technologies positions Russia as an early adopter of the most advanced ICT solutions. Ericsson supports MTS in the company’s goals to meet growing capacity needs and be ready for huge opportunities that will come with 5G and IoT. 5G will be a major technology in booming industrial digitalization, creating and enhancing industry digitalization use cases such as immersive gaming, autonomous driving, remote robotic surgery, and augmented-reality support in maintenance and repair situations.”
This announcement represents a milestone in the large-scale commercialization of IoT and 5G technologies in Russia. It follows the agreement of an extensive 5G Memorandum of Understanding signed by MTS and Ericsson in December 2015.
To further demonstrate the capabilities of 5G and IoT technologies, the two companies will roll out 5G demo zones during FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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