WorkWaves's Route Manager made free for six weeks in UK and Ireland.

A collaboration between Leadent Digital and WorkWave means suppliers of critical goods and services in the UK and Ireland can access the fleet-management's route-planning software free of charge.

Swift Implementation

For six weeks essential industries will be able to utilise WorkWave's Route Manager platform which can be implemented in hours, the two companies say.

Firms on the front line are having to expand swiftly to meet demand for home deliveries and other services and it is hoped use of the software can help companies optimise their resources and support new and inexperienced drivers.

Leadent Digital's CEO Alastair Clifford-Jones said seeing the growth of essential industries during the Covid-19 outbreak influenced the collaboration. "When we saw so many organisations working so hard in these unprecedented times, we needed to help and this seemed the best way of using our skills and resources to support the national effort. We have seen companies growing very rapidly to meet demand and this could really help them cope."

For more details about the offer click here.

Underpinned by regulation and historically reluctant to embrace new technology such as big-data, the utilities service sector finds itself at a crossroads. Will 2019 be the year of the customer with industry watchdogs taking a back seat? Field Service News' Deputy Editor Mark Glover finds out more....

I write this article in the second week of January. An odd time when faded Christmas trees lay abandoned in gardens, and flashes of tinsel peek through wheelie-bins. Festive memories seem a long time ago and the summer seems even further away as we return to work. We snooze the 6am alarm, reluctant to step into the cold morning.

Symbolising this grim time of year is the broken boiler. Plummeting temperatures mean faults are common and energy companies come under pressure to respond and to deliver first-time fixes. Customers, particularly on a cold January morning, want radiators hot and their showers hotter.

In Britain, central heating was introduced in the 70s. Then it was seen as something of a luxury. Today it is seen as a basic requirement, we miss it sorely when it’s not around so when the boiler flame goes out, we demand a quick response from our supplier. An expectation affirmed by the Uber and Amazon delivery service-times we operate in.

So has the utility sector adapted to the modern customer demand and if not,what does it need to do to keep up? Are they instead content to just keep their regulators at bay? And what about technology adoption? Do firms still feel uncomfortable dipping their toes in big-data lakes?

Historically, utilities have felt ring-fenced from competition. The majority of companies have a monopoly over the areas they supply. Investing in complicated and costly digital strategies has never been high on the agenda. Stephen J Callahan IBM’s VP of Global Strategy and Solutions for Energy and Utilities explained why outfits remain sceptical in an article for RDMag in 2015: “The analytics opportunity for utilities is clear,” he wrote, “but there continues to be a lack of real push and value delivery. Companies have been concerned about the high costs and complexity of data. “Technology shifts, regulatory changes and the emergence of empowered consumers all demand a new approach to customer engagement. With analytics, energy companies can make the shift to engage with customers in highly personalised ways that can increase customer satisfaction, lower the cost of service and promote new products and services,” he urged.

For UK energy companies, customers switching tariffs and regulation from the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) are the main drivers influencing its customer strategy. Transparent costs and price comparison sites have
made swapping easier for consumers and in 2016, 4.8 million frustrated households did just that. Their main reason? Poor customer service.

That said, despite the numbers, and a strong PR campaign around the ease of which it can be done, the rate of switching is perhaps not where OFGEM want it to be. “I think switching is happening but probably at a lower level than the regulators would be aiming for,” explains Laurence Cramp from Leadent, a managing consulting and technology business specialising in field service. “Mainly because people are using the supplier in their area and they’ll stay with that supplier.

“It also comes from the fact that tariffs are all in and around the same range so consumers tend to be paying about the same price for their energy. The customer service may be better or worse at some or others but that’s not necessarily linked with what billing platform they’ve just integrated. I think people probably look at the power sector and think it’s much of a muchness.”

In the UK, British Gas, SSE, EDF Energy, npower, E.ON UK and Scottish Power form the “Big Six”, the suppliers who provide the majority of energy to the UK. Smaller and more streamlined energy companies, with a strong focus on service exist, yet consumers seem content to stick with the top names.

Of those, British Gas is the UK’s largest energy supplier and can lay claim as the world’s first public utility company. Set-up in 1812 as The Gas Light and Coke Company, the firm provided customers with coal-based energy. The sector, and technology, has moved on considerably – not least with the advent of electricity – and British Gas has done its best to keep-up, adopting technology to enhance its customer service processes. It recently rolled-out its ‘On My Way’, real-time engineer tracking facility, enabling customers to see the precise location of the engineer, producing an accurate arrival time for time-starved customers.

"In 2016, 4.8 households switched energy supplier. Their main reason? Poor customer service..."

Tim Andrew is the CEO of Localz, the company behind British Gas’ location tracking technology. He says 2019 will see utility watchdogs push companies hard when it comes to customer service. “Regulators continue to increase their focus on customer experience, using both penalties and incentives to drive same-year measurable improvements,” he predicts.
“This year will show that the companies who outperform the industry, continuously focusing on providing transparency and control to consumers, rather than running a project to meet the minimum regulatory requirements.”

Consumers are hamstrung to the area they reside: Southern Water, Thames Water, Yorkshire Water for example, with customers unable to switch tariffs. With consumers locked-in to contracts, how are suppliers kept on their toes to ensure they deliver on customer service?

Here, the Water Services Regulation Authority (OFWAT) keeps economic tabs on companies. Set-up in 1989 following the privatisation of England’s 10 water authorities, it carries out a review every five years with this year (2019) being the next period of scrutiny.

This cycle will see companies adopting a Customer Measure of Experience (C-MeX) incentive approach, intended to focus firms on delivering a high-standard of customer service. C-MeX supersedes Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM), a customer satisfaction survey carried out four times a year by the regulator, and will link financial incentives to the performance level of the best performing companies.

Cramp believes the new approach will spur-on companies, through the use of technology, to be more comprehensive in their customer focus. “C-MeX is there to encourage firms to be more holistic and rounded in what they do for their customers,” he says. “This is a good time for water firms because they’re now all gearing up for the next five years and undoubtedly customer service is a really big part of that with a lot of focus on investment in technology to help
with that.”

However, he suggests the water companies are some way behind their energy counterparts who, driven by their own regulator OFGEM, have already integrated such initiatives “I see the water companies playing catch-up with where the power utilities were five years ago. I think the energy regulator has been on that case a little bit ahead of the water companies than OFWAT,” he says.

The utilities sector is a broad market, however like field service, which straddles numerous verticals, there exists an opportunity to share best practice across its own verticals: water, electricity and gas. Is it possible for the energy sector to extend its five years of technology-focused customer learning to its water counterparts?

“In our daily lives we take a great experience from one industry, and get frustrated when that isn’t available in another,” says Localz’ Tim Andrew, who is adamant it can. “As a business, trying to meet, let alone exceed customer expectations by
taking input from just an internal or single industry perspective is futile. Cross-industry collaboration and product development is critical.”

As well as working together, the sector needs to invest sensibly in technology, particularly around customer service. There are murmurings that this is starting to happen, particularly in the water industry but how long this will take is even less clear. Studies suggest that worldwide firms are setting aside funds to do just that. In 2015, GTM research anticipated utility company spend on data analytics growing from the $700 million spent in 2012 to $3.8 billion by 2020, a huge leap but it need not be a leap into the unknown and at all times, the customer should be at the heart of any decision.

“Becoming a customer-centric, information driven organisation is no longer simply an option for most utility companies. It’s a business imperative,” Callahan said in his 2015 rallying call to the utilities sector. Four years’ on, will his words have had an impact?

Watch this space.

Alastair Clifford-Jones, CEO of Leadent looks at how the focus of field service is shifting towards driving strategy rather than being a recipient of it...

The holy grail for field service managers has been to reduce costs whilst maintaining customer service levels; effectively meeting SLAs at the lowest possible cost. This is still important, but the focus is changing. Field service is moving into a space of key importance, driving strategy rather than being a recipient of it.

All markets are now impacted by this change. Looking at the consumer market there is so much information for consumers; independent websites that not only compare products but also services, and these naturally impact buying decisions.

Research has shown that many customers won’t switch until they have had a bad service experience.It’s now easy in the UK, with the deregulations of the Utilities market, for consumers to switch suppliers. Research has shown that many customers won’t switch until they have had a bad service experience. On the other hand, customers will switch if the price differential is greater than 20%.

The cost of bad service really impacts an organisation’s profits. In a recent Harvard Business Review report; a 5% increase in customer retention results in a 25%-95% increase in profits. This becomes more important to the service organisation as products become less differentiated on functionality.

In light of new technology, and the change in consumer behaviour we at Leadent have developed a maturity model which I introduced in an earlier article for Field Service News. This model (see diagram below) not only measures where organisations are positioned currently, but what they should aim for by demonstrating the key characteristics an organisation needs.

Whilst it’s an organisational model, technology and processes still need to be implemented, and cultural change cannot be underestimated. So let's explore each of the three stages...

Chaotic Survival

This is the embryonic phase, often referred to as JFDI.

Everything is reactionary, heroes in the business are the people that get things done. Someone that fixes a water leak at three in the morning gets the company award. All the processes are desperate, and much of the knowledge about how to do things are in people’s heads.

The level of ‘Chaotic Survival’ can often be measured by the noise in the dispatch office and the number of calls made to the field and customers.

Initially, the workforce is seen as a cost, and any case for change is usually based on a cost reduction program by streamlining processes and the introduction of scheduling, albeit a manual tool.

Whilst many companies have moved beyond this stage, it is surprising how many organisations have not. Moving out of this phase is probably the most challenging in terms of people. Field teams need to be managed and dispatchers need to allow technology to make decisions. The world is littered with organisations that have failed to develop, those who may have implemented a technology solution but not the new processes, organisation and skills required to make this step.

Supply Led

This phase starts building the groundwork for excellence.

The technology both in scheduling and mobility starts to connect the organisation together. Silos, which were in the previous phase are dismantled and the organisation becomes more collaborative. From a business perspective, this is when customer service and field operations often become part of the same entity.

Rather than responding to customer needs in a reactive fashion, the company can start to become more proactive. Planned maintenance, if applicable, gets built into the schedule. Customer service levels can be monitored and informed decisions made in terms of minimising costs but maximising the customer service levels.

The field force, hitherto considered as a cost now has more flexibility and starts to drive a competitive advantage. Whilst we see these organisations becoming more collaborative internally they are still not working with customers and suppliers in a truly collaborative manner, and this is a huge missed opportunity.

Demand Led

The holy grail. This is the phase where technology and the right organisation can really disrupt the industry and organisations can leapfrog their competitors. Field service starts to drive the agenda, drive the strategy. The organisation no longer is a recipient of customer demand and fulfils these in an optimum manner. Processes are no longer just contained within the confines of the enterprise but are built to include customers and suppliers.

This is the new ‘battleground’ for field service and technology has made it possible. By putting the customer first, they have control. They can book appointments through multiple channels and based on their preferred choice. They have full visibility of the processes, and in many cases, can actually solve the problem themselves.

The suppliers are able to understand how their products perform in the field and feed this back to the manufacturing processes.

This is the new ‘battleground’ for field service and technology has made it possible.

IoT is a reality and no longer a pipe dream of visionary consultants, and it enables organisations to truly predict failures, determine preventative maintenance schedules and offer a level of service which exceeds customer expectations at a substantially lower cost.

This does, however, require a very different way of thinking and a true cultural shift. To be in this phase you need to have an organisation which thinks differently, embraces technology and one that really understands the customer.

Summary

In summary, the new world is exciting.

It’s even making field service seem ‘sexy’, but most of all digital service (an often misused term) is truly disrupting the industry. It is technology driven, but the companies that will be able to exploit this will think differently. They will think about the end to end processes from manufacturing and the whole customer journey; from making the purchase decision to disposal.

This needs an organisation to not only break down internal barriers but also external ones.

Given that each phase of maturity requires changes in culture, it would be very hard from an organisation to move from being ‘adhoc’ to ‘predict and engage’ in an instant as each phase is a building block for the next. However new entrants to the market can start on the right-hand side, and this is where organisations which don’t develop will lose out.

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Leadent CEO, Alastair Clifford-Jones discusses the fundamental elements that should come together when building a strong request for proposal document...

The purpose of an RFP is to join two or more parties together. One has a need, and the other a product or service to fulfil this need; it’s imperative that companies must never lose sight this objective. To be successful this needs to be met with the right commercial structure.

With a technology requirement, there are many ways of approaching this.

On the one hand, companies can draw up detailed requirements and the vendor can determine how their solution can meet these on a point by point basis. On the other hand, companies can simply put forward a business problem, and the RFP allows maximum flexibility for the vendors to determine how the problem can be solved.

Both have their pros and cons, but with the right approach solution seeking companies can be successful.

Considerations for Success

To produce a successful RFP process there are several things to be considered:

1. The End Goal

Many organisations lose sight of the fact that the RFP is a process, not a document. Many companies, particularly when the RFP is procurement led, focus their efforts on the document and build a very rigid structure. This will work for simple point solutions where the only challenge is a functional fit. As the requirements become more complex organisations must never lose sight of what they are trying to achieve, and not be driven by the initial document. You can never do enough planning.

2. Include Credible Suppliers

It is vital that credible suppliers are included. The process is inevitably very time consuming, and you don’t want to waste time sitting through demos and presentations with suppliers that are not credible.

To determine credible suppliers, it is worth doing your desk research and running an RFI process. There are a number of companies that produce research about the industry’s best suppliers etc. Given that time is limited, it is better to spend this time researching a handful of suppliers than a vast array.

3. Remind Yourself; You’re Buying a Solution, Not a System

Systems need to be implemented to deliver a solution and this part is often forgotten by organisations, namely because it is much easier to evaluate on functional fit rather than implementation skills.

Often organisations will look to split the responsibilities of implementation and software between two vendors. This has its own pros and cons, but if split needs to happen at the same time. Selecting software and then an implementation partner is very disjointed, and whilst you might select the best technical solution it may be the hardest to implement.

4. You’re Building a Partnership

You are building a partnership, and not producing a test or a framework for procurement. Whilst these are important they are not the reason for talking to suppliers. When producing an RFP you’ll want vendors to want to work with you, and the RFP document is a critical window into your organisation. For this reason, it is important that neither procurement or IT write the document.

Their input is, of course, important, but it’s a business challenge you are trying to solve through technology so it’s the business requirements that are critical. A badly written ITT will stop vendors from responding and will be very hard to evaluate.

5. Consider the Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria should not be an afterthought, it must be considered in the planning stage.

Many organisations revisit their evaluation criteria during the processes and this impacts every aspect. This evaluation criteria need to be agreed by all the stakeholders who will be carrying out the evaluation.

Organisations must be very clear about any show stoppers early on and communicate these, with the full criteria to the vendors. There is nothing worse than taking a vendor through the process to realise that their cloud solution is hosted in a country that is not acceptable. The more transparent an organisation can be the more successful the process will be.

6. Make it an Easy Decision

Making a decision is hard but it needn’t be if you have done your planning right, agreed on what you want (evaluation criteria) and have the right level and expertise from the stakeholders. The problems occur when all the vendors meet your requirements, their references are good and you can’t differentiate. This is the point where relationships and cultural fit come into play. These can be determined by the bid team, but often this team is different to the client team and presentations have been led by the sales team and not the people doing the work. If needed, this is the time to do more work. Meet reference clients, insist on meeting the delivery team, understand the vendor strategy and how they will work with you in the future.

Trusting Relationships Will Win Out

Often the RFP process fails due to its transactional nature. This is the start of a partnership between two businesses and as mentioned at the start, you need vendors to think about how this will progress. It is true that in today’s world the start of a relationship is often transactional (meeting a partner via Tinder) but for it to be successful as the relationship progresses there needs to be transparency and honesty, and this no different in business.

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Leadent CEO, Alastair Clifford-Jones tackles the tricky issue of ageing technology...

Many organisations that have implemented field service management solutions now face a dilemma. Recent advances in technology platforms, software and hardware, have caused these organisations, that had previously enjoyed a competitive advantage, to risk being left behind. And it’s not just the advancement of technology that is driving this, the focus for many field service organisations has changed due to consumers’ ever-increasing expectations, and the deregulation of some industries.

Given the pressure on organisations to provide a better customer experience, many assume the solution is to replace or upgrade ageing technology; especially considering that the replacement could be a Cloud or SaaS-based solution that would shift the costs into an OPEX bucket. Whilst this might be seen as a silver bullet, the truth is more complicated.

When organisations first considered field service management systems they were trying move away from the Chaotic Survival state (as per the maturity model shown below.) Business cases were predicted on an improvement in operational efficiency by ensuring the right job was given to the right operative, with the right skills/tools/parts to meet customer service levels at an optimal cost.

 

To become a Supply Led business required a limited change in technology, and more of an organisational change as it is much more about breaking down silos within a business.

However, transforming into a Demand Led organisation requires significant investment, and a completely different way of thinking. This is where organisations need to be truly digitally enabled with multi-channel customer touch-points.

So, what’s the right direction for organisations?

It depends. There are several aspects to be considered.

The first is not just what technology you have, but how well it’s been implemented into the business; are processes understood and adhered to? Does the business model match both the objectives, and process model?

Often organisations believe technology is at the root of their problems – if they could just have faster software or more flexible configuration life would be so much simpler. In reality it’s often the way technology has been implemented and this isn’t just about customisation or configuration, it’s about embedding process and mindset change into the business. Even in today’s world, there are far too many technology-driven implementations that are not owned or controlled by the business.

The second is deciding where the business needs to be. In the diagram above, it is clear the ‘best’ position is on the right-hand side, but this is primarily driven by consumers. If your customers don’t need you to be this type of business, there is no point trying to position yourself there. But don’t kid yourself, this would make you the exception, not the norm.

Your business’s starting point, and where you need it to be will give you an indication of the gap that needs to be closed to deliver competitive advantage. This then begins to formulate a basis for the decision to upgrade or replace technology. But, as ever, there are a number of ways to close this gap, with many requiring some technology, but how do you make the right decision?

The options are:

• Drive more value from a current deployment
• Implement point solutions to add functionality
• Upgrade an existing solution
• Replace the current system

Getting more Value from a Current Deployment

Many implementations have failed to deliver the anticipated value. It’s not that businesses are over optimistic when the business case is developed, but more that they don’t take the opportunity to truly transform. The field service management solution is seen as an operational tool and implemented in a silo.

This silo thinking has resulted in the lack of an integrated view of the end-to-end customer journey. In reality, this is not because the business failed in the implementation, but more that efficiency was the focus at the time.

 

Getting more from a current deployment is all about the end-to-end customer journey. Often greater value can be achieved from just having an integrated view, which means looking at processes and how the organisation matches this view.

In my experience, there is always more value that can be generated from a current deployment. But the big question is, is it ever enough to meet current and future requirements?

Implementing Point Solutions

If the scheduling and dispatch solution is working well, and an organisation is just trying to improve the customer experience, there is no reason why the existing solution cannot be enhanced by implementing greater functionality via integration with other software such as online booking or customer communications.

This way a customer can get the ‘digital experience’ with minimal disruption to operations. Given integration capabilities and the proliferation of APIs, it is much easier in today’s world to integrate a point solution with current platforms. The main gripe for customers is the lack of information from the organisation. If you keep your customers informed via appropriate channels - a web or mobile app, or even a lowly text message, it can dramatically enhance customer experience.

In addition to improving the customer experience, it alsomakes operational sense. The business case for delivering better customer information can often be satisfied by the reduction in calls to call centres alone.

Upgrade an Existing System

Upgrades come in many forms. Vendors are working hard to shift customers from on-premise solutions to their new cloud variants. While the existing cloud vendors are innovating and adding functionality to stay out in front. Often the decision to upgrade is with the supplier in that support will usually be withdrawn for non-upgraded systems, for example, where the cloud option becomes the only option.

Where the organisation has an option to upgrade to get enhanced technological capabilities, it is very important to understand the impact it will have on the people and processes. In my experience, upgrades often fail because the processes have not be realigned, or the teams have not been properly informed or trained.

Organisations that have really benefited from enhanced functionality have conducted a full impact analysis on the processes and realigned their businesses appropriately to make best use of new capabilities.

Replacing a Current System

To many organisations, replacing a system fills them with dread as the initial implementation was a particularly expensive and painful experience but, in reality, much of the hard work has already been done. Much of that pain was in moving from a manual system to auto-scheduling and mobile dispatch. This was a change management exercise, and isn’t a reason not to replace. In fact, if it was done well, it’d be shame not to further capitalise on that investment.

Additionally, moving to a cloud or SaaS based system will not require the capital outlay which was required in the past and, should an organisation choose to move to the cloud, the new IT landscape and architecture needs to be considered, particularly in terms of integration and security.

 

Of course, there are benefits of replacing a current system beyond those of better functionality, for instance, some new systems offer much greater business flexibility. For example, the way different providers treat capacity can offer greater benefits; where many assign an engineer at the time of appointment, some now look at the overall capacity and perform the assignment on the day. For the majority of businesses and use cases, this increases efficiency.

If we are looking at moving organisations to the right on the maturity model it’s essential to have an integrated approach to the end-to-end customer experience, which may be constrained by that organisation’s field service management solution.

Don’t Get Left Behind!

As we’ve seen, moving towards a truly Demand Led model for field service can be achieved via a number of different paths. Where your organisation sits within the maturity model and how much focus is placed on the customer journey will dictate the path you need to take.

But in all cases, it is imperative to make those decisions with a critical eye on your own maturity and the end-to-end customer experience in mind. Failure to do so risks leaving the business trailing in the wake of those who do.

 

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After a decade of building a solid reputation as a management consultancy specialising in mobile workforce management, Leadent recently announced a new string to their bow - Leadent Service Cloud. It’s a bold step to move from consultant to solution vendor, so Kris Oldland caught up with Alastair Clifford-Jones, CEO of Leadent to find out more about both the new solution and why they felt it was right for them to bring their own offering to the table...

Having built a successful business as a specialist mobile workforce consultancy delivering successful Field Service Management (FSM) solutions based on technologies such as ClickSoftware, Leadent is a name reasonably well known within the field service sector - particularly within their home shores of the UK. Indeed, CEO Alastair Clifford Jones is a man that should be familiar to Field Service News readers as an occasional FSN columnist and member of our inaugural #FSN20 list of key industry influencers back in 2015.

However, as many readers may have noticed across the last few months a new Leadent brand, Leadent Service Cloud has appeared alongside the original Leadent offering - it appears that Clifford-Jones and his team have decided to take all they know when it comes to implementing other vendor’s solutions and launched a solution of their own.

Well, that’s half-right. Leadent Service Cloud is in fact essentially Oracle Field Service Cloud with additional other solutions tailored to specific vertical needs included which Leadent have identified dependent on their expertise specific vertical markets.

The key USP however, is that Leadent Service Cloud also draws on the experience Leadent have in implementation and so they are able to work to incredibly short implementation times of just a few weeks - not bad for a cutting edge solution that incorporates other vertical specific requirements you may have.

“The idea is that Leadent will be able to advise what other products would also benefit a field service organisation that can be plugged into the Oracle suite via the Cloud,” Clifford-Jones explains.

“The reason we will ‘bolt on’ other products into the solution is that we will then take what we see as best-in-class for different size of businesses, or different industries etc - and we can then start to adopt a portfolio approach to field service clouds.”

 

It’s quite a dramatic addition to their existing business so I was curious to understand if this was something that had been planned for some time - was it the classic case of an overnight success story that took ten years to put together, or was it more a case of everything just falling into place at the right time?

“Basically we already had many clients talking to us through the consultancy side of the business, where we are quite heavily involved in software evaluation and various other things,” Clifford-Jones begins.

“We’ve always done the large scale implementations - and with Oracle Field Service we had begun doing all their training - we do all the training for the Global Partners. From that we felt there was a really good opportunity for us to combine our understanding of the industry and our understanding of processes, plus we really understand product implementation - you put those together and you can start to do really rapid implementations.”

In addition to this evident skill-set that Clifford-Jones identified within his own team, there was also the market pull of the Cloud. As we saw in our own recent research into Cloud based FSM solutions, not only is adoption of the Cloud  increasing at a greater speed than ever before, but also amongst those companies still using an on-premise system the majority are considering a Cloud based solution when they next overhaul their existing solution. This is something Clifford-Jones has identified within the market also.

“I think there is a huge demand from the technology perspective with people wanting to put things in the Cloud,” he comments “But also from a cash-flow perspective, people are looking much more at a SaaS model. What we are offering is the ability to deliver enterprise grade field service management software at a relatively cheap price.”

 

“Because everything is implemented via templates we can get people set up and running within four to six weeks and the implementation costs are all rolled into the monthly fee so there is no upfront CAPEX fee,” he continues “it just seemed a logical progression with us bolting on the consulting part of the business with the technology part of our business - especially with the backdrop of changing customer requirements and changing customer demands.”

However, whilst some demands are changing as the power of Cloud computing starts to gain resonance amongst field service organisations, other demands remain the same, even across disparate verticals - and it is here where the experience embedded within Leadent Solutions comes to the fore.

“As we work with more and more companies from different industries what we’ve found is that in reality field service really is a straight horizontal process that is undertaken the same in almost all industries.” Clifford-Jones explains.

“The big challenge companies have had in the past is that so many implementations were about reimplementing existing processes with new technology and that’s kind of failed.”

“So if you can go in and say these are the best practices and processes you should be using - and redesign the organisation to fit those processes that allows for truly rapid implementations. In terms of industry specifics there are then certain tools that various industries will then want to use, such as GIS, and these can be simply bolted on, as required”

And perhaps here lies the rub - as an organisation known as a consultancy rather than a software vendor, Leadent are more used to putting such questions to their clients, and similarly their clients and prospects may be more open to such a conversation also - it would be a much tougher sell from a software house to convince a company to change their workflow. The more cynical amongst us thinking that they are perhaps just trying to get us to adapt to their software because either it is hard to customise or lacking in functionality.

Yet, when we hear the same advice from an impartial and authoritative consultancy then are we more likely to understand the logic of updating workflows and processes so they are in-line with the modern systems that are being used? Quite possibly - and the benefits of this approach are something Clifford Jones is fully aware of.

 

“When you’ve got processes that have been designed and they’ve worked and they’re proven already in your specific industry why reinvent them?” He asks

“You’ve already done that work and the thinking has already happened. It’s the heritage of consultancy, and dare I say it, our own rock solid understanding of how businesses work and their processes. This allows us to leverage the technology pretty easily as we approach projects always thinking about the business challenges and how we address these challenges - rather than going in to talk just about technology.”

“When you start to think about it much more as consulting led rather than technology led (even though technology is a huge part of it) you can have much more sensible conversations. You can start to challenge people a lot more about why they ought to use standard processes rather than reinvent processes, all because you really understand what it is they are ultimately trying to achieve.”

“I also think, given the number of clients in field service we’ve worked with over the course of the last ten years that we absolutely understand the challenges and the types of processes that are needed.”

Such a confident approach is of course understandable, Leadent have indeed worked with and delivered for some great high profile clients in the last decade. However, the flip-side of that coin is that having made the move from consultancy to software vendor their legitimacy as a consultancy could be diminished.

“It’s a very different dynamic, but that is why we’ve done it through a separate organisation.”

Clifford-Jones replies when I put this point to him.

“It’s run differently, the approach to clients is different to the consultancy approach and we will quite often rule ourselves out of the technology work if we are going into a consultancy appointment with a client. We don’t want to see consultancy as pre sales for technology.”

 

“Also, generally speaking the consultancy clients we are talking to have huge workforces and it’s not something that our version of Oracle Service Cloud would work for - we are looking at organisations that can have up to 250 field service engineers for Leadent Service Cloud.”

Of course, the Oracle Service Cloud can handle much bigger organisations (for example Virgin Media are one of their clients in the UK.) However, those kind of implementations are a lot more complex - you’re not going to get up and running with that in four weeks.” He adds.

Indeed, one of the many benefits of Cloud models is their scalability which in addition to the SaaS business model mentioned previously makes Cloud solutions perfect for small organisations.

With this in mind I was curious to see if there was a lower limit for Leadent Service Cloud also.

“I guess there is a lower limit because if you have a smaller number of engineers then you don’t need sophisticated technology to manage your workflow. So our view is that a lower limit would be around 25 to 30 engineers. The reality is that below that number, there are cheaper products that provide the functionality you need at that size,” admits Clifford-Jones honestly.

Indeed, this is the kind of answer that you would expect from a consultant, or even from a software vendor trying to adopt a consultative approach to their sales process - but this does lead us to an important question - how does Clifford Jones see his two separate businesses evolving? As a consultancy Leadent’s very strength, (i.e. being small and focussed enough to fully understand both their clients and the niche sector of field service in general), will also always be the biggest barrier for them in terms of rapid growth.

Yet various research sources including, Aberdeen, Service Council and Field Service News all identify that there is a sizeable chunk of the industry that are yet to adopt a FSM solution, whilst at the same time many other field service organisations are now in the situation where they need to upgrade creaking old legacy systems.

 

In short there is a lot more potential for quick wins that can fuel growth for Leadent’s technology business than there is for their consultancy business. Does this mean that Clifford Jones thinks ultimately Leadent will be more focussed on that area of the business, with the consultancy becoming a side show?

“In terms of revenues I think the Leadent Service Cloud will take off more but in terms of importance I think the consultancy business will always remain incredibly important to us as that is the part that gives us the knowledge that will allow us to accelerate the growth in Leadent Service Cloud,” he begins.

“In terms of the business, our vision is absolutely to maintain the consultancy business. We are doing more than ever in terms of market development on that side. The consultancy side of the business is set to grow by about 50% this year, so we are on a pretty good trajectory to grow that part of the business as well.”

Of course the other side to this story is that whilst this seems a great deal for Leadent - it is also sees Oracle gain wider access to the market as well. Given the recent release of Salesforce’s Field Service Lightning and Microsoft’s acquisition of FieldOne, both of which were of course preceded by IFS’s acquisition of Metrix and 360 Scheduling a few years back - there is a very distinct feeling that the market for FSM solutions is once again potentially going to be dominated by a smaller number of larger players rather than a wider pool of smaller, independent best-of-breed solutions.

I was keen to see if Clifford-Jones agreed with this sentiment and what it meant for the field service organisations that rely upon such technology.

“One of the things about the smaller players is that they tended to do well in areas where they could be price sensitive,” replies Clifford-Jones.

“I think one of the challenges that they will find is that implementation is becoming so much easier, you are able to implement products like Oracle Service Cloud in four weeks, and in the past that would have been one of the USPs of the smaller players perhaps.”

 

“It is also probably a similar case for Salesforce’s Field Service Lightning and, Microsoft Field Service as well - so I would see some of the smaller players currently coming under threat at the moment.”

“When you’re buying Software as a Service, your not having to invest in a whole lot of hardware, you’re not having to invest in a whole lot of things that you would have had to have done in the past if your were to implement ClickSoftware for example. And that is going to cause a challenge for some of the smaller players.”

Of course, one potential danger is that the FSM solution sector which has rapidly evolved in the last decade, could potentially be facing a period of stifled innovation as we get used to seeing just the same few faces around the table. However, Clifford-Jones believes that can be avoided if the big names pay attention to the partners within their ecosystem.

“I think that all depends on how they use their partner ecosystem,” he comments. “The big difference is that in the past a lot of these big guys have done technology for technology’s sake and they haven’t really understood what the business requirements were.”

“I do think this is one of the problems with larger organisations, especially when they are technology organisations - how do they get the real understanding of the business challenges?”

“I think what a lot of these big players need to do is think about their partner ecosystems and make sure that they take the input from that - because we understand where all the challenges are for field service businesses really easily -far more so than a software provider.”

 

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Today’s market does not lend itself to brand loyalty, and with the growing commoditisation of services, field service organisations are increasingly finding they need to focus on customer experience to differentiate themselves from the competition writes Rachael Pullen of Leadent Service Cloud.

This doesn’t have to mean anything exciting or flashy – but it does mean thinking holistically about the customer’s experience.

If we’re honest, we’re all aware that despite a company’s best endeavours, systems will have glitches and humans will make mistakes. It happens. How you deal with it when it does, is what can make or break your brand’s reputation.

Recently, when I decided to re-fit my kitchen, I went all out and bought some new white goods from a well-known brand. The customer service was great, until my order arrived – without my oven. After an infuriating 30 minutes on the phone to the customer service department, through 3 different advisors, I was advised that the oven was out of stock and they wouldn’t be able to re-deliver for another 3 weeks.

 

At this point the brand in question had the opportunity to put things right, to appease my anger in some way and leave me feeling slightly better about the experience and the company. But instead they passed me from pillar to post, and now I am still waiting for them to reply to my complaint email about the incident.

The result? I re-ordered through a competitor.

The competitor did all the same things as the first – email confirmation, text message confirmation, 1-hour delivery window etc. But, when something went wrong - in this case the delivery driver was delayed by traffic - they rang to inform me. Gave me the option to reschedule if it wasn’t convenient.

Simple, but effective. A completely different customer experience.

As for the first brand – they’ve lost me as a customer forever. The second brand not only gained a customer, but I have recommended them to people I know and via social media – creating that marketing gold ‘word of mouth’ that service brands crave.

Whether it’s a consumer example like mine, or a business-to-business situation, the expectation of a seamless experience remains paramount for customers. Very few people or organisations are willing to put up with average service regardless of the product/service features they bought in the first place. So this is where service businesses gain their competitive advantage. But it’s not as simple as just wanting to provide a good service to customers. The processes and tools need to be in place to enable excellent service, in a cost effective way that won’t lead to a net increase in operating costs.

 

For field- and customer service managers, achieving that balance between cost and service is the ultimate goal. But a true focus on customer experience means taking it one step further; it’s not just about putting yourself in their shoes, but about collaborating. It’s thinking not just about the purchasing experience, but about everything that comes after and around that. It’s about recognising the myriad of other factors which can impact on the overall experience. Aspects such as appointment windows, first time fix, communications, and follow-ups are all components, but they need to be viewed holistically, rather than as isolated contact points. Achieve that and the benefits will flow in terms of customer satisfaction and cost.

In the world of service things sometimes go wrong, that’s life – how organisations respond and revive the customer’s experience is what really matters.

 

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Alastair Clifford-Jones, CEO at Leadent Service Cloud, looks at the challenges IT managers working within service organisations face... 

If you are an IT Manager in a service business, you have a tough job. With an increasingly-squeezed budget, you are constantly expected to deliver more for less. When it comes to your organisation’s fieldforce the responsibility to provide an effective field service software tool for minimum cost and maximum return may well lie with you, together with managers of the operation itself.

But whilst budget is obviously important, we don’t believe it should be the top priority in the decision-making around IT investment. (And yes, we hear your response of “Well, you would say that”, but bear with us.) We think you need to think more broadly, think bigger.

Whilst the budget for field service software may sit with IT, primarily it’s the operations of the business who will be using it day in, day out. If implemented and used correctly, field service management solutions can offer a whole host of savings and benefits, including a good number that will directly impact the IT department and budget.

In trying to explain the return on investment from field service software, we’d usually talk about savings in diesel costs through the use of optimised driving routes, completing extra jobs per day through a more optimised scheduling system, or adding a new customer because you have been able to eliminate repeat visits. All of these savings have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line, and we do acknowledge that they come primarily from the operation. But there’s more to it than that - what about the IT savings that will result from using a best-in-class, cloud-based solution rather than a bespoke or customised system from a small, niche provider?

 

The benefits of a Software as a Service (SaaS) model have been much discussed and well documented. It allows IT Managers to hand responsibility for up-time, service levels, bug-fixing and support back to the software vendor. No more out-of-hours server upgrades (at least not for these systems), or working through complex contracts to understand what’s your responsibility; all you really need to do is make sure that hardware is available and the users’ browsers are the correct version.

When it comes to a system as central to the organisation as field service management, think how much effort and stress could be saved by not having to worry about the system going down. Or, not having to think about how it will integrate with other systems that you might purchase in the future. When you use a market-leading product (like that which Leadent Service Cloud is based on), these worries are a thing of the past.

Obviously, this will never be a decision that sits solely with either IT or Operations; we think it’s vital that the business and IT work together to come up with an aligned approach that focuses on benefits to the organisation as a whole, and which looks at costs/savings across all budgets, rather than putting this all on a single department.

IT Managers are used to having to support business needs – it’s the whole purpose of the function and it happens brilliantly in organisations every day without too many people noticing. So when it comes to field service management software, we’d encourage you to think big, get involved with the Operations teams and consider the organisation-wide benefits of a using a best-in-class solution, as well as thinking about the financial and workload flexibility you can derive from a SaaS solution.

 

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If you would like to know more about how Leadent Service Cloud can help you improve your field service then please visit www.leadentservicecloud.com

 

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We all know that customers are vital to any business, but they are increasingly so for a field service one writes Rachel Pullen of Leadent Service Cloud...

Customer satisfaction plays a key role in determining the success of your organisation, and connecting with your customers throughout their journey has never been more important, particularly now, when a positive customer experience is not just anticipated, but expected.

Luckily for us, technology is on our side and it’s made closing the loop of customer feedback that little bit easier. Field service management software allows us to talk to customers when they want and how they want, letting them choose the time, location and channel that is most convenient to them. It allows us to not only track feedback but action it.

If a field service organisation looks at the key issues affecting customer satisfaction they can often improve these factors with field service technology – transforming the mundane and often frustrating customer experience, into a social one with real time information and updates. Creating a ‘closed-loop’ feedback system gives businesses the ability to continue the conversation, whereas more traditional methods would end the conversation, or not start one at all.

By investing in a closed-loop style model, you not only differentiate yourself from your competitors, but maintain your customer’s loyalty, whilst in turn attracting new customers.

Follow our 5 key steps below to see how you can close the loop and improve your customers experience: 

Get to know your customers

In order to follow-up in a personal way, you need to know who the customer really is, as well as when and how to contact them. Having that information allows you to provide customers with the additional follow-up they want.

Be sociable

Don’t be afraid to use non-traditional methods such as social media. What once was a sales and marketing platform, is now a meeting place and can become a key part of your customer experience.

Automate for the win

In order to be truly effective, any customer satisfaction system should be automated to ensure you can make a swift follow-up. Instead of getting information and taking action days or even weeks later, an automated system collects customer’s feedback and alerts you in real-time when action is needed. This is the key to an optimised closed-loop system and can prove to be a critical feature when dealing with unhappy customers.

Transform your mindset

Closing the loop aims to give long-term improvements. By having a customer-centric mindset, closing the loop will ultimately solve the internal issues that are causing the customer problems in the first place. Don’t forget, this is not about simply tracking feedback, it’s about transforming your overall customer experience and building customer loyalty.

Take some action

Whilst traditional satisfaction surveys aim to collect measurements for things that you and your company care about; such as employee performance, or service speed, a closed-loop system will generally use open-ended questions that focus on the things that your customer cares about, and more importantly things that you can action.

By using the latest field service management tools, gathering customer feedback is easier than ever before. They help to create the loop, meaning you are able to learn from each interaction that you have with your customers. You can then use what you have learnt to improve your service, as well as what you offer, to keep you ahead of competitors.

The key message? If you start and end with the customer and keep them informed at every step of the way, then you’re onto a winner.

The future is clear – businesses who don’t embrace customer experience and close the loop will undoubtedly be left behind.

If you would like to find out more about how you can improve your customer experience using award winning field service software then visit www.leadentservicecloud.com

 

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