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

End to end field service was one of the biggest buzz phrases heard across the past year and there is good reason for the movement as at each step of the field service cycle there is an opportunity to streamline your workflow...

In the first part of this series we looked at the technology that can be put in place to aid taking the request for service including web-chat, call centres and web based self-help solutions. Now in the second part of the series we focus on how technology can help us ensure we get the right engineer, to the right job at the right time...

There is also an accompanying white paper to this series which is available to download here

Whether it be via call centre agent notes or customer provided information on a self-help portal, the one key focus of all of the should be to collect enough information to allow the effective dispatch of a field service engineer (or engineers depending on the task) with the correct qualifications to the job whilst simultaneously ordering any required parts so the engineer has everything at his disposal required to resolve the issue on the first call out.

Therefore it is absolutely critical that you can move this information from a to b as seamlessly and painlessly as possible.

Your organisation may well operate an ERP system that was designed to achieve this and this will sit at the heart of your businesses systems including the service elements.

However, just as we were in the early nineties when the term ERP was first coined and in 2000 when Gartner declared ERP is dead – Long Live ERP II  we are transitioning from one generation of technology to the next and one of the major balancing acts we must undertake is ensuring compatibility with legacy systems as we upgrade certain programmes or modules.

 

Employing dedicated system integrators to tailor software to fit within your existing framework can be an expensive process. Indeed research by Field Service News showed that well over a third (38%) of companies faced issues with integrating software with their legacy systems.

The good news however is that more and more software providers are focussing on integration solutions as they roll out their next gen solutions.

Take for example Solarvista NET  a key component in the software providers latest suite of solutions and is a technology that's designed to enable connection both to  Solarvista 8 but also other systems in a manner that's flexible, reliable, secure.

And as integration issues are minimised it will become that much easier to configure a system that is tailored to your individual organisational needs. However for most service organisations there are generally three fundamental functions that need to be considered.

These are the ability to schedule your workforce to get the right engineer to the right appointments, the ability to manage your assets and order parts as required and the ability to manage and view your contracts.

Scheduling:

The most important aspect of your field service operation is of course your field engineers. They are almost certainly one of your biggest costs as well so managing them effectively is vital if you are going to operate a service division as a profit centre rather than a cost drain on the wider business.

Sending an under qualified engineer or an engineer without the tools required to complete the repair not only causes a delay in resolving your customer’s issue but also represents a days labour cost simply thrown away.

Also for any business it is important to have as many staff as possible in customer facing roles where they can potentially contribute to revenue streams. Regardless of how skilled your dispatchers are their role remains a lower tiered operational one where they can never directly impact revenue.

 

Therefore it makes good economic sense to have fewer resources dedicated to the back office dispatch and more allocated to the field.

This is where the inclusion of a modern scheduling engine is absolutely critical. Research by Field Service News identified that almost half (49%) of companies still using manual processes to dispatch their field engineers were able to manage just 5 field engineers per dispatcher. The same research showed that an average ratio of engineers to dispatchers in companies using any form of scheduling was 16:1.

Basically the introduction of scheduling engines resulted in an improvement in dispatch productivity of at least 300%.

There are a number of different types of scheduling available and the type that is right for your organisation is dependent on a number of factors, for large organisations with many hundreds if not thousands of engineers then an optimised solution maybe preferred.

For those companies with smaller mobile workforces then perhaps a simpler assisted scheduling solution may fit the bill.

Certainly there can be considerable differences in terms of costs and smaller organisations simply may never reap the rewards of the more costly option. Many specialist service management software providers will offer both an optimised and an assisted solution and recommend you the option that is best for your company.

 

For example Solarvista offer both solutions however at 80% more expensive they will only recommend their fully optimised solution to those companies who they believe will truly benefit from the solution.

Whichever level of optimisation you select however, your scheduling system should be able to collate data from both your workforce’s skill sets and your customers requirements and either make recommendations or optimise a day’s schedule accordingly.

What is certain though is that whiteboards, post-it notes and Exel spread sheets simply won’t cut the mustard anymore.

Asset Management/Parts Ordering:

Of course getting the right engineer to the right job is all well and good but it becomes a moot exercise if he doesn’t have the parts required to complete his task.

The next vital element within a service management solution is being able to both track your existing assets and also to easily order parts not in your existing inventory.

As well as being a key factor in helping achieve the field service nirvana of first time fix rates there is also another highly important reason such functionality is a crucial part of a service management solution.

From a business perspective tying up funds in unnecessary inventory either in a depot or worse in the back of your engineers’ vans places an unnecessary burden on cash flow also.

Contract management:

The third element that is essential for almost every field service organisation within a service management solution is contract management.

This again has a two-fold importance.

On the one hand clear understanding of your service agreement with each customer is absolutely critical to ensure that you are not giving away valuable service offerings outside of your agreed SLAs. The flip side of this of course the same insight also provides clear upsell opportunities.

There is also an accompanying white paper to this series which is available to download here

This series is sponsored by:

 

Technology and field service are now almost inherently intertwined such is the rapid evolution of field service industry. As we enter the New Year Field Service News continues to take a look at some of the key technologies that we believe will have a significant impact on the way field service will continue to evolve.

In the first part of this series we looked at wearables, NFC and the Cloud. Now we turn our attention to the Internet of Things, Big Data and Cyber Security…

The Internet of Things will start becoming an integral part of field service…

Ahh Gartner’s Hype-Cycle. The “peak of inflated expectations”, the “trough of despair” and the brilliant “plateau of productivity” – every-time I look at it I conjure up images of a Jules Verne –esque mysterious lost island where herds of wild analysts and ferrel consultants roam wild, free and happy. I may well be alone in this, but I’m certainly not alone in keeping an eye on where emerging tech is on the cycle.

They may not always get it right, but to be fair to the good folk at Gartner, their usually pretty close.

 

So it was with interest last August that I looked at the latest hype cycle and saw that Internet of Things had just superseded Big Data at the top of the tree where the “hyperbole has hit hyperdrive” (If anyone at Gartner’s paying attention you can have that one for free!). I found this particularly interesting for two reasons.

Firstly whilst it may like some kind of earth shattering tragedy for all those data scientists who were being treated like geek-royalty what seems like ten minutes ago, the reality is that Big Data slipping into the trough of despair just means that we are starting to think about it in grown up terms (see below) rather than the Chuck Norris of technology.

The second and perhaps most important part is that whilst according to Gartner IoT may now have officially the most over inflated expectations, the reality is that in field service at least it is already being actively used far more openly than Big Data was when it was on the same point of the Hype Cycle. In fact I would go as far as to say that this time Gartner have got it wrong and the Internet of Things is perhaps just past the top of the peak and starting to stare down into the trough.

 

Maybe it’s a distorted view in the field service industry, but I genuinely feel that whilst it may be a minority, there is a decent amount of companies that have implemented some form of IoT control or monitoring into their Field Service operations. In some corners it’s not even that new, heck, medical device manufacturer Elekta have been building connection into their devices for twenty odd years – they even used to ship their devices with 56K modems of their own back in the day.

As we roll into 2015, connected devices are booming, from thermostats to thermonuclear power generators, and the ability to remotely monitor, diagnose and even repair device faults is such a no brainer for field service companies that they cannot afford to miss the IoT revolution.

BigData in field service will get past those awkward teen years and get to work…

So back to Big Data then.

One of my favourite phrases I’ve heard about Big Data was from Dave Hart at ServiceMax when he said Big Data is like teenage sex, everyone’s talking about it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it but no one actually knows how to actually do it.

This I think is why Gartner may have their timings a bit backwards when it comes to Big Data and IoT.

 

For whilst I can see Big Data languishing within the ‘Trough’ as we mere mortals spend time still trying to define exactly what Big Data is (how many V’s are we up to now?) and reluctantly turning to those mystic shaman we call Data Scientists to try and get some sense out it all, I see IoT racing by to it’s own little place in the ‘plateau’.

Why? because IoT is pretty much results in tangible outcomes and combines two factors we are already comfortable with, that is ‘Internet’ and ‘Things’. And I’m not trying to be flippant when I say that either, it’s just IoT is that much easier to get.

So back to Big Data then (again?) where does this leave us in field service?

Well hopefully with a much more mature, sensible mindset because there is no denying the sheer power of Big Data to revolutionise a business and there is also no denying that as field service companies have access to huge, vast swathes of data – they perhaps more than any other industry segment could benefit from the true application of Big Data.

However, what Big Data is not is adding a new module to a field service management software with a few convertible dashboards and hey presto the board can tick off that pesky little box empty box on their to do list.

 

Let’s think about this for a moment, when in our lives has anything that is billed to be powerful enough to reshape the way we do business been as easy as buying a new module. This is where Big Data got lost to the hyperbole. In some quarters it was the magic bullet that would cure all evils. As we all know magic bullets don’t really work. However, hard-work combined with a clear strategy and intelligent implementation does.

Big Data is reliant on investment.

Investment in technology, investment in personel with new skill sets unique to the task and investment in time to devise and implement a Big Data strategy. However, once it is succesfully implemented that investment could yield a phenomenal return on investment both financially and also in our understanding of both our business and our customers.

I believe 2015 could be the year that field service companies will start to see through the hyperbole that just scratches the surface of Big Data and see it’s true game changing potential. However, for that to happen we need to treat it with the respect it deserves.

We need to re-adjust our thinking around risk management and cyber security…

Given the two points above this third point of the article is a bit of a given. So we won’t dwell to long here.

There are two simple facts here; Firstly Data is essentially becoming a new form of currency, and I’m not referring to crypto-currencies here but to the fact that the information available to be mined from data is inherently valuable.

Secondly,as we turn more and more of our functions across to the cloud including data storage, the more it will become a place of interest for twenty first century criminals.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the Cloud is any less secure than on premise data centres. It just means that we must realign our thinking to ensure we are protected.

According to Cloud Security experts Trend Micro the three key best security practices for 2015 are to:

• Develop and implement an overall risk management strategy
• Secure and regularly maintain web infrastructure
• Enforce stricter mobile device and data management policies

Lets take a quick look at each of these in turn…

Firstly, whilst it is of course recommended to turn to a cyber security specialist in devising your security strategies, a [quote float="left"]When it comes to risk management, much like insurance it can be disastrous if you cut corners and opt for the cheapest package. And often we only realise this when it’s too late.

quick, easy off the shelf solution is simply not going to cut the mustard. A robust cyber defence should be custom built to meet the requirements of your company. When it comes to risk management, much like insurance it can be disastrous if you cut corners and opt for the cheapest package. And often we only realise this when it’s too late.

 

With regards to point two, last years exposure to Shellshock and Heartbleed identified significant vulnerabilities and this should serve as a warning to companies that they need to keep software regularly updated and patched. Heuristic scanning and sandbox technologies are two of the key technologies that Trend Micro recommend here.

And as we look at the final point we also enter the world of HR as well as technology.

In field service in particular, where our workforce is becoming ever more reliant on mobile devices, we really need to consider the introduction of mobile safety policies to safeguard your data – even more so if you are operating a BYOD policy, whilst of course IT administrators must address mobile device management concerns to protect work related apps and data.

As mentioned above, today’s world of the internet, cloud and mobile is not necessarily any less secure than days gone by. It is just with new methods come new security concerns, so we must remain vigilant and I think 2015 will see us to further improve in this area once more.

Look out for the final part of this series where we complete our look at technology trends we believe we will see in field service across 2015.

Be social and share this feature

As we head full steam into 2015 predictions of industry trends that will shape the field service industries come thick and fast. Here we look at what our regular columnist's John Cameron of Trimble Field Service Management's will be important in the following twelve months... 

With so many advanced tools now available to fine-tune operations, field service organisations have reached an unprecedented transformative stage. By leveraging technology trends such as the Internet of Things, advanced analytics and smartphone and tablet integration, leading field service businesses are reinventing themselves as predictive, rather than reactive, operations. This may mean better-equipping technicians with intelligent apps that deliver real-time data and deploy analytics capabilities to make strategic decisions, or enhancing security and IT infrastructure.

Here are eight trends that may impact how you make those changes:

 

1. Robust and Flexible Platforms

Companies are looking to solution providers to deliver platforms globally as the foundation for innovation. Providers have to be ready to add, extend and integrate technologies as needed, giving them the agility to adapt and innovate. These platforms need to be cloud-based and flexible, allowing them to configure and manipulate modules and functionality as they see fit. Customers want a single provider to deliver all the functionality and modularity they require. They want to focus on empowering field workers and driving service excellence. To achieve that, they need robust, flexible platforms backed by a reliable provider.

2. Increased Focus on Security

The increase in cybercrime, such as the recent breach against Sony Pictures, is a critical reminder of how important it is to secure company data. As more organisations add everything from switches to entire power grids to the Internet of Things, we’ll see a greater demand for

advanced security applications and a corresponding increase in financial commitment to protect against future attacks. Security involves not only protecting and safeguarding network entry but also ensuring that every mobile device is fortified. That means equipping every tablet, smartphone and laptop with the pertinent, updated tools and protocols, and educating users on the importance of adhering to security policies.

 

3. Embedded Analytics

The ability to analyse and act on the vast amount of data collected from the field continues to trend in the evolution of field services technology. Deploying workforce management solutions with sophisticated analytics tools will enable managers to improve operations with real-time visibility into their operations. Data gathered from smarter mobile apps and equipment sensors will provide insights on performance, tasks, service quality, and new products that will enable field service managers to not only keep up with the competition but to step ahead.

4. Greater Integration

As telematics and workforce management solutions become more integrated with mobile devices, the opportunities to increase efficiency and productivity are growing exponentially. Field service managers can make real-time decisions remotely by accessing vehicle tracking, scheduling and routing on their mobile devices, allowing them to mitigate reckless driving incidents, control vehicle wear and tear and

decrease maintenance costs, all from a handheld. Mobile apps will continue to provide critical information such as daily tasks, customer histories, billing, and the locations of nearby teammates on demand for field service technicians. This access to real-time information empowers the technician to make strategic decisions, recruit help from teammates, and complete jobs on-time the first time, resulting in lower operational costs and higher customer satisfaction.

 

5. The Internet of Everything

By 2020, Gartner, Inc. predicts 26-billion devices other than smartphones, tablets and computers to be connected via the Internet of Things. For field service organisations, connecting equipment with technicians’ mobile devices and the back office in real time is a necessity. Information captured in the field provides diagnostics and performance metrics that mitigate certain issues as well as tracks patterns and trends for long-range planning. The goal is to ensure an intelligent and preventive—not reactive—approach.

6. Enhanced Network Reliability

The daily accumulation of data from internal files, mobile solutions, cloud-based apps and email can strain networks and storage systems. As organisations invest in mobile and management solutions to optimise operations, they no longer can ignore the underlying infrastructure. Hybrid clouds, virtualised servers and scalable, high-capacity storage give e networks the agility they need to stay flexible, efficient and productive. Neglecting these areas can impact performance, impede productivity and escalate IT costs.

7. An Evolving Workforce

As the field service  industry evolves a major trend has been the emergence of young, tech-savvy and collaborative workers.  According to Aberdeen Group, approximately one-fifth of the current workforce is under 30. This new pool of workers has grown up fully connected and will enable service 

  to continue their evolution in mobility and help them transform service and the relationship with customers. 62 per cent of top performing field service organisations have incorporated a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy as a result of a more tech-savvy workforce and 43 per cent are more likely to give technicians access to social media and collaborative tools to facilitate knowledge transfer.

 

8) Mobility as a Game-changer

Mobility will continue as a key enabler in addressing the competitive issues faced by field service organisations today.  The right mobile architecture can solve many of the tactical challenges of these organisations:  latent customer needs, increased competition, unmitigated churn and worker productivity. However, simply investing in mobile technology does not ensure improvement in key performance. To be successful with any deployment, organisations must choose the best field service solution and adopt the implementation best suited for their operation.

 

Be social and share this feature

End to end field service was one of the biggest buzz phrases heard across the past year. At trade shows, in the industry press and not least from a considerable number of field service technology providers themselves we kept hearing that ‘end-to-end’ was a core consideration that field service organisations should be factoring on when exploring how they can modernise their current service management systems.

However, there was and still remains a number of inconsistencies around exactly what is end-to-end field service management. Is it a case of having all existing systems under one platform? Or perhaps just the need to have each of our various components within the field service chain talking to each other? Is it a software or hardware solution – or is it both?

As with any emerging concept it will take time to substantiate into clearly defined parameters (if ever). However, one thing is certain, taking in a comprehensive overview of each step in the lifecycle of a service call within your organisation is certainly an advisable route to take before even contemplating moving to a next generation solution be it hardware, software or both.

Whilst the service journey may differ from organisation to organisation, as in reality, no two companies are identical, yet there are key points within the service cycle that will likely exist within most organisations.

In this new series we will look across some of these points and explore some of the technology solutions that could help both you and your company in achieving higher first time fix rates and better field service productivity.

There is also an accompanying white paper to this series which is available to download here

Incoming – taking the service request

Of course in most instances the first part of the service call lifecycle starts with the initial call for a service request itself. However, in today’s age of apps and internet is that first communication necessarily over the telephone? Well according to research undertaken by Field Service News earlier this year the telephone certainly remains the dominant means of communication between service companies and their clients with over 80% of companies operating a call centre.

Whilst having a dedicated phone line for service calls is a tried and trusted method of allowing a service call and it certainly has it’s place within field service organisations (particularly if staffed by knowledgeable agents with a clear understanding of both your products and systems as well as a great customer centric nature) if your call centre performs under par for any given reason it can reflect incredibly poorly on your brand as a whole.

 

Be honest… how many times have you been sat at the end of the phone listening to muzak and being told your call is important for the umpteenth time and you’ve thought less than positive thoughts about the provider your trying to reach.

And if your trying to reach someone, just so you can the product you paid good money for back up and running as it is impacting on your ability to do business… well you can crank that frustration all the way up to 11.

Of course, in many cases especially in a business to business environment, Service Level Agreement’s can include quicker call response times etc, but the fact remains that phoning a call centre can potentially be both time consuming and frustrating. In today’s technologically rich environment a call centre should be one option you offer your customers not the only option.

So how else could we accept and log a service call?

Well a case could be made for email. Indeed the same research as above identified email as the second most common means of service companies accepting service request with 63% of companies also offering an email option. On the plus side, like the phone it is something that we all know and are familiar with. However, there are also a number of potential pitfalls that could cause problems with email.

Firstly it isn’t necessarily a system that conveys urgency particularly well. Unless you have someone who is monitoring an email account as their sole focus response times could vary from minutes to days.

 

Not particularly helpful if you want to offer consistency in your response times, yet ensuring a service request email account is monitored could be both complex to manage and poor use of available resources. Also with email communication it can be hard to get a clear grasp of the exact issue your customer is facing – they may not know the correct terminology for example.

Going through a series of preliminary questions during a phone conversation may take just a few minutes and can greatly help in identifying the issue, resulting in better diagnosis and higher likelihood of a first time fix.

Over email this could easily become a laborious, long winded process over a number of emails that could span days rather than minutes. Again not good if your product is business critical to your customer.

Why hasn’t web taken firmer foothold?

Given the potential limitations of both phone and email it is surprising that so few companies have explored alternatives such as self-help portals, web-chat and mobile apps, yet only 29% of companies had the functionality of booking appointments online, and only 5% had this functionality via an app.

One obvious issue around giving your customers the power to schedule appointments is of course once again the lack of opportunity to understand the issue which would likely result in a higher proportion of service visits being ‘diagnosis’ rather than fix. One solution around this is to build in some form of diagnosis ahead of the form submission.

This could take a number of formats. One that telecoms provider Sky use well for example is to guide the customer through a series of questions that either lead to the customer achieving a fix themselves or a diagnosis of the problem that is a lot more fine tuned. The process for example could be as follows. Your customer logs in to request call.

The web portal asks the customer a series of questions the answers to each prompt a suggested fix, if this is unsuccessful further questions, further refining the diagnosis and so on. Of course you don’t want the process to be too drawn out but the customer could quite easily try two or three common fixes before being granted access to a service request form. The information gleaned from the form could then be easily included within the pre-dispatch data.

For example we know the problem is not A, B or C so it is likely D or E.

 

Therefore your dispatch knows to send an engineer who is capable of dealing with and has the right tools to fix D or E. Another means of getting this insight is web-chat systems.

Web chat basically combines the benefits of phone in that it is possible to question the customer in real time to improve the diagnosis, yet is cheaper to operate and can offer a more convenient means of contact for the customer.

UK Blue Chip British Telecoms are one company that have heavily explored the potential of web-chat portals. Nicola Millard, Customer Experience Futurologist at BT Global Services commented:

“We found that web chat is considered to be an equivalent and often superior method of working compared to calls…. our research identifies a double bonus: both advisors and customers like using it and it leads to cost savings for contact centre operators. For these reasons, we expect web chat to continue to grow as a channel.”

With smart phones now pretty much ubiquitous across most developed nations it is also worth considering your customers journey in reaching you also.

 Studies have indicated that 50% of smart phone users prefer to use apps for contact than phone and many of the web tools mentioned (plus the option to move to a phone call if desired) can all be integrated into an app seamlessly.

 

Whilst each of the above may have their plusses and minuses what is important is to remember that logging a service request is the first step in an incredibly important process in terms of how your customers perceive your levels of service. Get it right and you can likely expect this customer to remain loyal, get it wrong and it is your competition that will benefit.

Therefore it is important to ensure you are providing your customer with the options that he prefers (some may prefer the phone, others online for example) but that also allows you to collect the right information to ensure you can correctly diagnose as many issues as possible to feed into the service request which will ultimately help keep your field service engineers productivity at a maximum.    

There is also an accompanying white paper to this series which is available to download here

This series is sponsored by:

Be social and share this feature

The field service industries are often leading the way in terms of technology being used within enterprise.

For example the wider world of Enterprise Mobility Management is still something of an infantile stage compared to the percentage of field service companies that have embraced mobile solutions. Yet in field service the message has become clear and it is now a case of how and when companies move to an automated mobile led solution, rather than if and why.

So with this in mind Field Service News has taken a look at some of the key technological trends that we believe will impact the field service industries in the next 12 months.

In this the first of three features in this series we look at The Cloud, Wearables and NFC

 1. The Cloud will finally come of age in field service management...

It has been debated for a long time and worries around security of the cloud have been continuously refreshed by the occasional high profile breaches of consumer cloud technology such as last years breach of Apple’s iCloud, which due to the celebrities involved, made headline news across the globe.

However, in the world of industry Cloud security is far more sophisticated, with companies such as Axeda and Amazon Web Services being names regularly thrown out in discussions around the Cloud as they have built a reputation for being leaders in developing robust cloud security within their product offerings.

Early last year Field Service News conducted research into how the Cloud had taken root amongst field service companies, and we revealed that although at that point only 23% of field service companies were using a Cloud based field service solution. Of those that were either using either an on premise solution or manual based processes, well over half were actively considering moving to a Cloud based solution in the next iteration of their field service software.

 

The benefits of the Cloud are well documented and well suited to field service organisations. Scalable, low IT costs, quick roll out, easy mobile access, and built in disaster recovery plus an affordable pricing structure for smaller and medium sized companies via the SaaS model. With almost all Field Service management software vendors now providing a cloud offering it seems just a matter of time before Cloud becomes the dominant distribution model of field service software and we think that 2015 will be the year that we really see the pendulum swing in favour of the Cloud.

2. We will start getting smart about wearables…

Given that last year was supposed to have been ‘The Year of The Wearables’ it has to be said that the appetite for wearable computing both amongst consumers and businesses alike has been rather stunted. In fact a recent report from Juniper Research predicted that sales of Smart Glasses, perhaps the most exciting of the current wearable options, are unlikely to reach more than 10 million per anum globally by 2018.

Yet are we victims of falling for the hyperbole a touch too much when it comes to our expectations of wearables, almost certainly. In too many corners wearables were being heralded as the next wave of technology that would be all conquering, much along the lines of tablets and smartphones before them.

This is where we are going wrong. Wearables such as Smart Glasses and Smart Watches are not replacements for tablets and smart phones, they are companion devices and when we change our thought process to view them as such they can be powerful tools – particularly in the area of field service.

 

We all can see for example how Smart watches offer a great means for a field engineer to receive alerts and messages without having to interrupt their workflow. However, a more specific use for the field service engineer could be if he were to use the camera on his smart watch in combination with the screen of his phone to view otherwise inaccessible area - such as the back of a machine.

With Smart Glasses the opportunities in field service are even more apparent. For example a less experienced field service engineer could put a video call into a more experienced colleague. Whilst this is of course possible with most modern smart phones, when such a call is made via smart glasses the more senior engineer can see exactly what the onsite engineer is looking at, whilst of course the onsite engineer has their hands free.

As the hyperbole dies down and real-life practical uses of wearables such as the above become better developed then we will see wearables take their place within the field service engineers tool-kit.

3. NFC will finally take it’s rightful place amongst field service must haves…

Near Field Communication (NFC) has been kicking around for some time now and the term is fairly well known amongst those with just a modicum of technological understanding, yet it hasn’t yet truly emerged to meet it’s potential as yet. And that potential could be massive in terms of further automating and streamlining multiple steps across a field service technicians working day.

However, as with smartphones themselves, it may just be that now computing giant Apple has stepped into the NFC fray (albeit somewhat tentatively it must be said) that we see NFC achieving true mass market penetration.

In very basic terms NFC acts in a wi-fi lite type where an NFC tag can be written to convey a set of rules which can be actioned by an NFC enabled device (many smart phones are now NFC enabled) when the device is brought in close proximity (typically within 10cm or more).

For the field service engineer for example there are a number of potential options for adding further layers of automation throughout his day. For example an NFC tag within the field service engineers vehicle dashboard could be programmed to open up a routing/mapping application and log the start of a journey in a field service app simply by pressing the field engineers smart phone against the tag.

 

If your field service operatives visit a company regularly then you could ship out NFC tags to your clients for them to put on reception so when a field service engineer comes in he can log his arrival at your clients premises – important when providing SLA reports for example.

As well as being able to provide actionable instructions, some NFC tags can also be written to contain data as well. So one other particularly useful application of a NFC in field service could be to leave an NFC tag on the device being repaired with notes on the maintenance carried out. That way the next time that device is repaired the field service engineer can read his colleagues notes to see if there are recurring problems etc. Similarly an NFC tag on the device could also open up a web-based knowledge base for that particular model etc.

Whilst all of the above options could of course simply be actioned by manually accessing apps what NFC offers is a means to further speed up and improve a field service engineer’s workflow. Indeed, the potential for NFC is vast and what makes it a particularly attractive proposition is that it is a relatively inexpensive addition (appx 30/40p per tag) that simply takes advantage of the functionality of the existing tools being used by the the field service engineer (i.e. smart phone or tablet)

With NFC now becoming an expected feature in most smartphones and tablets field service news believes that NFC will see much wider adoption in 2015.

Look out for the second part of this feature where we will be revealing three more of the big technology trends we believe will appear in 2015…

Be social and share this feature

Resource Type: White Paper

Published by: Field Service News (sponsored by Solarvista)

Title: End to end field service: a look at the technologies available in each step of the service lifecycle

About: Written by Field Service News Editor, Kris Oldland this white paper explores the technologies available and what considerations to make when selecting the tools for your own organisation at each point within the service lifecycle. Topics include; taking the service call, preventative vs. predictive maintenance, employee management and scheduling, stock management and parts offering, contract management, field based hardware, field based software and transparent communications.

Download: Download the white paper by clicking here

Overview:

End to end field service was one of the biggest buzz phrases heard across the past year. At trade shows, in the industry press and not least from a considerable number of field service technology providers themselves we kept hearing that ‘end-to-end’ was a core consideration that field service organisations should be factoring on when exploring how they can modernise their current service management systems.

However, there was and still remains a number of inconsistencies around exactly what is end-to-end field service management.

 

Is it a case of having all existing systems under one platform? Or perhaps just the need to have each of our various components within the field service chain talking to each other? Is it a software or hardware solution – or is it both? As with any emerging concept it will take time to substantiate into clearly defined parameters (if ever).

However, one thing is certain, taking in a comprehensive overview of each step in the lifecycle of a service call within your organisation is certainly an advisable route to take before even contemplating moving to a next generation solution be it hardware, software or both. Whilst the service journey may differ from organisation to organisation, as in reality, no two companies are identical, yet there are key points within the service cycle that will likely exist within most organisations.

In this white paper we will look across some of these points and explore some of the technology solutions that could help both you and your company in achieving higher first time fix rates and better field service productivity.

Topics include:

Incoming – Taking the service request - Of course in most instances the first part of the service call lifecycle starts with the initial call for a service request itself. However, in today’s age of apps and Internet is that first communication necessarily over the telephone?

Preventative and Predictive Maintenance - Another point to explore in the first steps of the service lifecycle is the benefit of predictive and preventative maintenance, both of which can dramatically reduce the need for customers to put in service requests in the first place.

Getting the right engineer to the right place with the right tools at the right time - Whether it be via machine to machine sensors and predictive maintenance, call centre agent notes or customer provided information via a self-help portal the one key focus of all of the options discussed above should be to collect enough information to allow the effective dispatch of a field service engineer (or engineers depending on the task) with the correct qualifications to the job whilst simultaneously ordering any required parts so the engineer has everything at his disposal required to resolve the issue on the first call out.

Scheduling - The most important aspect of your field service operation is of course your field engineers. They are almost certainly one of your biggest costs as well so managing them effectively is vital if you are going to operate a service division as a profit centre rather than a cost drain on the wider business.

Asset Management/Parts Ordering - Of course getting the right engineer to the right job is all well and good but it becomes a moot exercise if he doesn’t have the parts required to complete his task. The next vital element within a service management solution is being able to both track your existing assets and also to easily order parts not in your existing inventory.

Tools to do the job – hardware - Not only is there the very simple business case that moving to a digital first medium will almost certainly pay for itself when you factor in the saved man hours in needless administration (not to mention sheer paper costs!) but also the perception. Here we look at what you should consider when choosing hardware for your field engineers.

Is BYOD the answer? - Perhaps the biggest of these questions of field service technology of late has centred on BYOD. The BYOD trend has been much vaunted for many years but has yet to truly take off in the UK and Europe as it has done in the United States. Whilst the benefits are clear – less cost, quicker adoption and happier staff using the device of their choice, a counter argument surrounding security, insurance and the murky hidden costs of such a set up is easily made.

Tools to do the job - Software Having selected the device to empower your field engineers the next step is to select the right mobile software to make the most of that hardware. Whilst there has been great strides forward with cross platform HTML5 applications a strong argument lies within a ‘native’ app approach where the application is specifically designed to work alongside your device’s operating system (OS). We look at what you should expect from your field service apps.

Communicating back to HQ - Important data is everywhere and there are few better equipped to collect it than a field service engineer. Giving them the right tools to transmit that data to the place it has most value is a crucial part of the field service mobile app.   

Download your copy of this white paper now

Be social and share this feature

Sunrise Software survey reveals Gamification could need a makeover despite increases in productivity and customer satisfaction...

It's a business strategy that has created both a buzz and a backlash but the findings of a new survey indicate that gamification is a growing trend delivering the right results.

The findings of the Sunrise Software Gamification Survey, show that 13% of respondents, from a range of commercial and public sector organisations that use Service Desk management software, are using gamified applications and a further 71% plan to introduce them in the future. All the managers who responded to the Sunrise Software survey felt that the introduction of gamification had resulted in more engaged staff. 86% of managers said gamification had benefited their organisation with increased productivity and 43% cited an increase in customer satisfaction.

 

End Game for Gamification? 

However there has been something of a backlash against the term gamification with some staff complaining that the "fun" element of the software actually trivialises important tasks. The survey showed that only 25% of workers felt more engaged, motivated and productive since gamification was introduced. The results also highlight that most employees favour tangible rewards for their hard work although they did acknowledge that recognition of a job well done increased their motivation.

 

The findings also show some interesting differences in attitude towards gamification between the age groups. Of the three age groups questioned 18 to 32-year-olds in organisations not using gamification were the least keen on the technology. Even so 85% of that age group said they were motivated by competition at work and once the gamified application had been installed they were actually the most likely to be more engaged. Of the three age groups they were also more convinced that gamification was just a passing fad, with ages 33 to 45 being most positive that it is here to stay, followed closely by the 46 to 65 year olds.

 

Can gamification evolve?

The future of gamification has been questioned by many industry leaders with some suggesting that the technology is overhyped and the terminology needs to change. Neil Penny, Product Director at Sunrise Software which has deployed gamification within its own Service Desk operation, commented: “The survey highlighted that anything that increases motivation and reduces employee turnover will improve productivity, leading to the twin benefits of raising customer service and cutting the cost of recruitment.”

He added: "We have seen from our own experience that by introducing gamification successfully, companies can look forward to increased employee motivation that boosts productivity and impacts positively on customer service, and ultimately the organisation’s bottom line."

A copy of the Sunrise Software Gamification Survey Findings can be downloaded at

https://www.sunrisesoftware.com/2014/12/white-paper-gamification-survey-results-2014/

Be social and share this feature!

The Cloud. Can you really avoid it? The cloud market is expected to grow to $121 billion dollars in 2015, a 26% compound annual growth rate from 2010’s $37 billion[1].

Such growth is set to continue, with research showing that 81% of organisations forecast a move to the cloud for 50% of their future transactions.

Indeed field service news research at the beginning of this year identified that whilst the shift to cloud based computing for service management software solutions hasn’t been as prevalent as say CRM systems there is a growing ground swell as companies establish an appetite for the cloud when it comes to the next generation of their service management software.

So what are the drivers for the growth in the cloud market?

With 60% of CIOs stating that their number one priority is cloud computing[2], a major driver has been the adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) technology.

By 2017, SaaS is set to generate almost 60% of cloud revenues[3]. The move to SaaS is primarily driven by its ability to offer greater scalability, higher efficiencies with no loss of functionality, and reduced application costs, with a move to the cloud offering annual savings of over 20%.

However, there are of course additional benefits to the cloud as well as the SaaS model which whilst in the short term can make software more affordable in the long term can sometimes become the more costly option across a period of 3 years or more.

One significant benefit that the Cloud brings is that by it’s very nature it comes with disaster recovery essentially built in. Unlike an on premise system, should any significant problems hit your office such as fire, flooding or theft, if your core operating systems are Cloud based there will be no direct impact on your ability to continue work the next day.

Also we are now finally seeing fears around Cloud security being put to bed. Whilst amongst the general populace and in consumer computing the risk remains somewhat and the perception of this risk is amplified by security breaches of high profile consumer systems such as Apple’s iCloud, in the world of enterprise Cloud security is far more protected.

It is no coincidence that companies such as Axeda and Amazon Web Services have become dominant within the enterprise cloud sector and that both have an excellent reputation for understanding and delivering complex security solutions that meet the demands of their marketplace.

How are these trends reflected in the Service Management market?

IDC Research sponsored by Axios highlighted that every second company that now uses on-premise IT Service Management software plans to launch a cloud-based version within the next two years[4]. For many organizations, cloud has already become mainstream and their ITSM solution may be the 3rd or 4th major application that they have moved to the cloud.

The uptake of Microsoft’s Exchange365 in particular has increased businesses faith in cloud provision and allowed them to concentrate on their core business while cloud providers look after the infrastructure. Similarly, whilst some 15 years ago the likes of SAP and IBM were openly questioning and even mocking the likes of Salesforce.com and their cloud based infrastructure now there is something of a race amongst the slumbering IT giants to try and catch the tail of the wave and make out they were their all along.

Commenting on the research Scott Leckie, CTO at Axios Systems, said

“We’re seeing a shift in the market, with SaaS gaining substantial traction over the past year. Why is Service Management so suitable for cloud? For us, the move has been driven by a significant increase in user mobility and range of devices from which users require access to technology, anywhere and at any time. SaaS technologies fully support this, and provide compliance without sacrificing on functionality or standards for data security or speed.”

Tasos Symeonides, CEO at Axios Systems, went further adding

“Here at Axios, we’re seeing a 25% compound annual growth rate in the uptake of SaaS, which reflects the current trends in the cloud industry as a whole. IT leaders are seeing the benefits of moving to the cloud, allowing them to be more agile and responsive to business needs. Ultimately this drives greater efficiencies.

Our IT Service Management solution, assyst, provides the technology you need over the web, without any of the application management overheads. All you require is a browser-enabled desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. That means no new infrastructure, no server application, no desktop installs, no upgrade projects. No hassle.”

<em><strong>[1]</strong></em><em> Cloud Computing Market: Global Forecast (2010 – 2015), October 2010: </em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-computing-234.html"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;"><em>http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-computing-234.html</em></span></a></span></span>

<em><strong>[2]</strong></em><em> CloudTweaks ‘Demystifying the Cloud’ Infographic, January 2014: </em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://cloudtweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/demystifying-the-cloud.jpg"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><em>http://cloudtweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/demystifying-the-cloud.jpg</em></span></a></span></span>

<em><strong>[3]</strong></em><em> Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2013–2017 Forecast, August 2013: </em><span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=242464"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;"><em>http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=242464</em></span></a></span><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span> </em></span>

[4] IT Service Management in Deutschland 2014, ITSM im Spannungsfeld von Cloud Computing und Enterprise Mobility, Mark Alexander Schulte for IDC, February 2014:: http://idc.de/de/research/multi-client-projekte/it-service-management-in-deutschland-2014

Be social share this feature

mplsystems, the UK multi-channel contact technology specialist, believes that 2015 will be the year that truly configurable, mash-up powered Customer Engagement Centres start to set the customer contact technology agenda.

“For 2015 we’re expecting an increased focus on those solutions that allow service providers to model exactly the customer engagement approach they require, without having to force their business processes around needlessly complex, one-size-fits-all CRM models. Technologies that support this next generation model, particularly when it comes to taking advantage of digital channels, will play a key role in 2015’s best practice contact technology deployments,” commented Paul White, CEO, mplsystems.

mplsystems' five key Customer Engagement Centre Technology Indicators for 2015 are:

 

• Agent Desktops enable true Customer Engagement Centres – while 2014 saw greater integration between contact centre and CRM systems, organisations still need to go much further if they are to provide agents with truly intelligent Agent Desktops. 2015’s biggest challenge will involve organisations getting much closer to customers, leveraging more meaningful and context-sensitive information through smart Big Data mash-ups to provide agents with relevant insight into all of a customer’s interactions with a business –ensuring that agents no longer need to hand off interactions to other departments
• Embedding customer care into mobile apps – we’re already seeing dedicated mobile apps assume greater importance in service providers’ omnichannel strategies, however for 2015 customer service organisations will build on this by embedding direct contact capabilities such as webchat, callback and instant messaging – effectively offering a Virtual IVR capability for those digital customers frustrated with traditional contact channels
• Web chat on track to become the dominant channel – our recent webinar with BT’s Head of Customer Insight and Futures, Nicola Millard, referenced how webchat is set to become the dominant customer contact channel of the future. 2015 will see chat continue to grow in terms of channel representation, as it transitions from browser-based web chat as we know it, to live messaging via customer mobile apps
• Text Analytics ready to handle increased volume of incoming text messages – whether it’s messages from mobile apps, social media, web chat, email or Visual IVR channels, many contact centres are seriously concerned about how to manage dramatically escalating text-based messaging volumes as customers increasingly engage via digital channels. Some businesses are still seeing major backlogs – sometimes of up to 48 hours – particularly at busy times such as the countdown to Christmas. The latest multi-channel textual analytics solutions are poised to address this during 2015, enabling up to 60% of messages to be handled automatically and freeing significant amounts of agent time and allowing them to focus on more complex customer engagement issues
• Broadening out the Customer Engagement Centre – while refining the customer experience within the contact centre and digitally has undoubtedly helped to reduce customer effort, there are still significant gaps in the provision of integrated service. For 2015 we expect to see more organisations build out their joined-up customer service propositions to embrace other key touch-points including field service, logistics and delivery capabilities as well as in-store engagement in the retail sector particularly and showroom engagement

“2014 has again shown that traditional CRM and contact centre vendors struggle to deploy in months, or even years, what more flexible, cloud-enabled solutions providers such as mplsystems can deliver in days and weeks,” concluded mplsystems’ CEO Paul White.

“It’s this kind of disruptive technology – powered by the five innovations listed above – that will continue to shake up the traditional contact centre infrastructure market in 2015.”

be social and share this feature