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

Looking to the future is not just about which technology you should be applying to your mobile workforce to ensure that you are beating productivity level KPIs, it is also about looking at how you can ensure sustained growth within the business.

A key part of this is of course staffing.

However, for many companies an ageing workforce could prove to be a significant hurdle to not only growing their business but also to simply maintaining their existing size and standards. One such company that is attempting to tackle the issue before it becomes irreversible is Siemens.

“We have a habit of looking a few years ahead and we are looking at where will we be in 2020” states Graeme Coyne, Business Development Manager, Siemens Customer Services

“Our particular department is about 200 people in the UK. Based on the growth of our department over the last few years, we believe that by 2020 we will need around 250 people.” on to Coyne explains before going highlight the gravity of the situation that the manufacturing giant faced.

“We had a problem. We have 200 employees now and we needed 250 in six years time but we estimated we were going to lose about 100 people through retirement by then also”

“We’ve got an ageing population. I’ve personally been in Siemens for 30 years; the oldest person in our service organisation is 75 years old. There is a big bulge of people who are aged between 45 and 55 and we are expecting many of them to go fairly soon.”

Siemens are certainly not alone in facing this issue. Indeed it is a problem mirrored in many other companies in many other verticals. So what can be done to resolve the problem and build a sustainable workforce for the future?

 

The idea of these technology centres is that on the one side you’ve got academia producing skilled engineers of many different types and on the other side you’ve got some very good manufacturers. Sometimes in between we lose things and the idea is that these catapult centres are sat there to help avoid this”

Well of course the first thing to do is to look to engage with the next generation, something that Siemens have done through both traditional and non-traditional routes.

“We’ve gone out to the universities to sponsor students, we’ve got about 1,500 sponsors throughout the UK – it something we have to do.” Begins Coyne. However, Siemens are not just targeting graduates, they have an apprenticeship scheme that means they won’t miss out on those bright young minds that for whatever reason don’t see academia as the right path to choose.

“The other thing that we have done is that we have got 400 apprentices in the UK.” Coyne continues,  “I am told this is not enough. We were talking about taking people from the age of 13, 14 15 – it is essential. So we are trying to do our bit, we’re investing a lot of time and effort into it and it is starting to show results.”

However, the Siemens recruitment machine is far more sophisticated than just supporting and developing training programs.

“We think we are doing an OK job recruiting people” Coyne admits, “What we have been doing is we have been investing in manufacturing technology centres. These are important, as they are specialist areas which are invested in by academia, by manufacturers and by government.”

These technology centres are key to solving both the Siemens problem and that of the wider industry. By sitting in between the gap between business and academia they allow smart young minds to connect with industry without the pressure that may come from a more formal environment.

As Coyne explains “The idea of these technology centres is that on the one side you’ve got academia producing skilled engineers of many different types and on the other side you’ve got some very good manufacturers. Sometimes in between we lose things and the idea is that these catapult centres are sat there to help avoid this”

However, these centres play a deeper role in the recruitment and retention of the next generation of field engineers. They are also important to ensure that that next generation of field engineers are ready for the next generation of technology as well.

“All of our new technology is moving on, we are moving to industry 4.0.” Coyne begins “basically all the things we are trying to do is so we can get engineers to fit where this next wave of manufacturing technology is going to be”

This approach is commendably, but necessarily long sighted.

“We are talking about something that is not yet ready. It’s going to be ready in maybe 20 years but parts of it are already there.” However, the manufacturing technology centres, being co-funded by industry, education and state provide opportunities for the next generation of field engineers to start understanding and utilising tomorrows tools today.

This has two-fold importance. It ensures you are not only attracting the best minds but also that they are being readily prepared for the future.

“We need engineers that are fresh faced, fresh minds that know all about the current technology,” states Coyne. “But I’ve been out and talked to some of our graduates and asked what do you want “they said they want experience, they want to do as much as possible, learn as many skills as possible and get trained so that they can do many different things”

Getting this balance between what you and your future employees want is not an easy road but it is companies like Siemens who are investing in the future heavily today that will almost certainly be set to reap the rewards tomorrow.

 

 

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

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

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

Insight at the Ready: Benefits of Wearables in the Field

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

Watch Out: Potential Challenges of Wearables in the Field

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Contact centres will be multinational

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

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

Staff attrition will be yesterday’s problem

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

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

Generation Y has arrived

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

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

 

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

Corporate culture will be the key to success

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Lets be honest its no longer a question of if our companies’ go mobile it is now a case of when… and if you want to stay in touch with your competition the when really must be now.

There has been an incredible quantum leap forward within the last few years in Enterprise Mobility and it is changing the way we work, how we drive our customer experience, our business processes and even our core strategies.

In response to this massive sea change McDonald Butler Associates have brought together some of the leading figures within Enterprise Mobility Management for an exceptional one day event to be held in London on the 18^th of September.

The event titled “The Mobility of Things” is intended to bring clear insight to those business leaders facing the challenge of how to make the transformational step into business in the twenty first century and to lay down the key groundwork for establishing a heightened competitive advantage. The event is designed to provide you with the tools you need to harness the unprecedented and continuous change that mobility is bringing to the business environment.

 

In the next three years the role of IT leaders within business will become absolutely critical, and it all begins here.

McDonald Butler have brought together some of the biggest companies in Enterprise Mobility and the event will feature key presentations and panel discussions from senior mobility experts from a range of varying organisations including:

• John Delaney, Associate Vice President, European Mobility at IDC
• Greg Nugent. Director of Brand, Marketing and Culture for the London Olympics and Paralympics
• Simon Meredith, CIO IBM Global Technology Services, IBM
• John Spencer, Director of Systems Engineering, Citrix Systems
• Kris Oldland, Editor, Field Service News.

Hosted in The Brewery, a stunning Grade II listed building that once formed the heart of Whitbread’s 19^th Century beer making empire in the City area of London, there is a packed full day agenda which runs from registration and refreshments at 8.00am through to a networking drinks reception closing at 7pm.

Agenda highlights include:

The Critical Path to Enterprise Mobility Maturity – How Ready is Your Organisation?

John Delaney, Associate Vice President, European Mobility at IDC

Mobility is no longer a “nice to have” but a critical business requirement for most enterprises. However, the complexity of mobility, the rapid pace of technology advances, and particularly additional budget and dedicated resources required are all contributing to a mixed approach in the adoption and development of mobility strategies across Europe.

John Delaney, European Mobility at IDC will present the latest findings from the extensive 2014 IDC Mobility Maturity Model survey which provides a peer-to-peer framework of the stages, critical measures, outcomes and actions required for organisations to effectively leverage mobility to drive competitive advantage, and transform engagement with customers, employees and business partners. He will reveal how industry leaders from across Europe are using the model to benchmark their own progress, uncover maturity gaps and build a more tailored roadmap to fast-track success. John will also be discussing today’s employee imperative, and explaining why he feels 4G will be a big the “game-changer” for enterprise mobility in 2015 and beyond.

Insight and Lessons from London 2012 Olympics: The Power of a Mobile Enabled Customer Experience

Greg Nugent, former Director of Brand, Marketing and Culture for the London Olympics and Paralympics

Greg Nugent draws on his experience as Director of Brand, Marketing and Culture for the London Olympics and Paralympics to show why a holistic mobile-centric approach to the customer journey is essential for success. With remarkable stories from behind the scenes of the most ambitious and connected Games ever, Greg will reveal why mobile strategies that are part of an integrated customer experience strategy deliver superior results.

He’ll also look at the dramatic changes in mobile customer experiences in the two years since the Games, the businesses that inspire him today, and why the most satisfying (and profitable) customer journeys have mobile built in, not bolted on

Business In Motion – Transform your Organisation into A Profitable Mobile Enterprise 

Piero A. Chiodo, Director, Mobility Services Center of Competency IBM Global Technology Services

Creating a mobile strategy is the easy part. More challenging is developing one that is enables your organisation to drive new revenue streams and a return on engagement and investment. Piero will explain how mobility technology is evolving from simple productivity tools to an integrated portfolio of key drivers for business transformation and profitability. He will explore how enterprises that define and implement their own mobility services strategy will gain a significant competitive advantage.

The agenda also includes case studies on companies who have already enabled their mobile workforce, a number of interactive panel debates and breakout session with 3 dedicated streams focussing on working in a connected world, Strategy, Risk and Governance and Building the Business Case.

 

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Remaining spaces for this event are still available although they are limited. If you wish to attend then you can register for this event for free by clicking this link.

 

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You can also find out more about this event in our dedicated page in the Field Service News Directory where you will find further information as well as case studies, white papers and video from some of the companies speaking.

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

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

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

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

[unordered_list style ="bullet"]

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resource Type: White Paper
Title: Resource: 21st Century Field Service: The impact of the Internet of Things on Field Service
About: In our latest white paper 21^st Century field service: The impact of the Internet of Things, we look at how once again technology will reshape the way field service operates. The following is compiled from extracts of that white paper
Download: Download the white paper by clicking here    

We are living in the most exciting of times:

In the first decade of the twenty first century we saw technology change the way that field service operates.

When GPS arrived in the mid nineties devices such as TomTom’s GO & Garmin’s Street Pilot Range soon became commonplace and today just 5% of companies see routing software as an urgent purchase simply because the market has reached saturation.

The options for mapping software come in a number of options from one of which being on yet another device that has had a huge impact on field service technology – the smart phone.

The purpose of this brief jog along memory lane?

Just try and think of how your field engineers could function without either of these technologies today? Sure they got by, but these tools, along with a number of other breakthroughs made field service that much more efficient.

Thinking of how we worked in the early nineties seems like stepping back into the dark ages. Yet, the technological advances of the twenty first century and are set to be completely eclipsed as the evolution of field service moves ever onward.

In many experts eyes the biggest of these advances is the Internet of Things (IoT)

The benefits of IoT are clearly defined and tangible to field service, and whilst the concepts may seem futuristic in reality in many of the elements of IoT can be harnessed already using existing technologies.

Internet of Things 101

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

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

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

 

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

The Internet of Things in the consumer realm

In the past it was often enterprise level technology that led to a consumer counterpart, in the twenty first century we are beginning to see something of a reversal of that trend and in the world of IoT we are once again seeing this to perhaps be the case.

Major consumer grade electronics developers have entered the race to conquer the emerging ‘smart-home’ market this year with Samsung, Apple and Google all being connected with the increasing M&A activities in the ‘smart-home technology’ sector across recent times.

So with a competitive market place opening up it seems the futuristic smart home, one of the most tangible elements of IoT, could be with us much sooner than we think.

Now this is all well and good but what does it mean for field service?

Internet of Things and Field Service

There are obvious benefits for field service in a world where all of our household devices and business appliances are smart and able to communicate when their own parts are beginning to deteriorate or faults are beginning to appear.

This leads to proactive preventative maintenance, which will in turn see first time fix rates soar. Such solutions could also see the lines between product sales and service sales potentially blurring, as service becomes an intrinsic, built in function of all devices in the future.

Rolls Royce’s Power by the Hour:

However, this isn’t a necessarily new concept. A great example of such an approach is the way in which Rolls Royce pioneered their ‘Power by the Hour’ service solution. The British firm actually first coined the phrase way back in the 1960’s and the concept is essentially a simple one.

Their customers pay for the engines that power their aircraft measured by the time that the planes are actually in flight.

In practice this is a complex and sophisticated blend of contract that incorporates service and product seamlessly and today uses the latest technology available including Big Data and Machine to Machine (M2M) diagnostics to allow Rolls Royce to proactively monitor the status of each and every engine they have in operation and to be able to undertake proactive maintenance when and where required.

Essentially achieving everything that IoT based field service solutions promise to deliver.

Costa Coffee: Saving twenty first century offices from mediocre coffee

Another British company that are using the tools of the twenty first century is Whitbread’s Costa Coffee Chain, the second largest in the world and who recently announced the launch of their digital baristas.

Vending machines with IoT capabilities that can collate and interpret data that can be utilised both in service and sales.

Such an intelligent machine again offers many field service benefits like being able to predict when it needs maintenance, what the likely faults are, even what type of priority level it should be attributed given its predicted sales revenue.

The revolution is upon us...

Preparing for the IoT revolution is not a question of why, but more a question of when and as our white paper reveals the early stages of IoT adoption in field service are already underway, so surely the when needs to be now.

Download the white paper to find out more by clicking this link and completing the brief registration form.

2014 has been deemed the "year of the wearables" and field service is one industry that could profit greatly if the potential advancements being discussed in such devices could come become a reality, in this exclusive feature, Conor O'Neill, Director of Product Management at Irish mobile application platform provider, FeedHenry takes a closer look...

While Google Glass may have been dismissed as a fad a couple of years ago, it offers obvious benefits for field service efficiency and lone worker safety. A report into mobile workers' device preferences, undertaken by Aruba Networks, surveyed 5,000 people worldwide and found that a fifth want to be provided with wearable technology within the next five years.

Augmented reality on wearable glasses allows workers to make better and quicker use of business information. This offers organisations an opportunity to reduce costs, by allowing employees in the field to report back to base and get relevant information while they are still on site, thereby reducing, or eliminating the need for a repeat call out. Field service engineers can also be more productive by gathering visual information and feeding this back to head office, while leaving their hands free to complete the tasks they are engaged in.

Adoption of wearable tech is still niche. IDC anticipates only 111.8 million wearable tech units worldwide by 2018. However, BYOD adoption of wearable devices and major players offering supporting apps could rapidly accelerate market adoption. For example, Salesforce.com Wear is a developer pack to aid the creation of apps for wearable devices including the Pebble Smartwatch; Samsung Gear; the Myo gesture controlled armband and Google Glass

Organisations that are adopting a Mobile-First strategy tend to be led by their users on device selection and app design. Innovation is often driven by field service engineers, the people on the ground who undertake tasks on a daily basis. These organisations tend to take an open an agile approach to their mobile app development.

Mobile-first organisations are willing to transform processes and involve frontline workers in order to completely re-invent the user experience and help them to be more productive. For example, Severn Trent Water recently announced its intention to trial Google Glass so that lone workers can protect their eyes, receive information and provide live feedback on their health and safety status, while leaving their hands free to complete the work. However, initiatives like this require support from the top. Executive sponsorship will improve the traction of wearable tech.

Adoption of any mobile technology involves risk because, by necessity, it allows employees to carry company data beyond the traditional enterprise perimeter. Robust user authentication and authorisation are essential, but keep your focus on enabling users. Your security measures should be invisible and respect the user experience. The key is to secure corporate information rather than restrict the use of apps.

CIOs need to be prepared for wearable devices to come into their organisations and to put the relevant security policies and controls in place.

From our point of view, the devices that employees select are less important than the information that they process and that involves managing the lifecycle of the apps end to end.

When organisations use an end-to-end mobile application platform (MAP) to support their mobile app strategy, field service employees gain the freedom to select the right devices to suit their roles, whether they are handheld or wearable, without sacrificing any app functionality. This is because MAPs securely link enterprise back end systems with mobile apps that can support multiple OS and various device form factors. Meanwhile, enterprises gain the ability to plan their mobile app strategies to support current and future devices, without having to redevelop code for every new batch of devices.

 

 

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

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

IoT: An Evolution, not A Revolution

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

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

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

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

The Pre-Cursor of the Internet of Things to Come

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

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

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

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

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

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

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