In this new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum, now available at Field Service News, we analyze how to productise services and set the climate for the service transformation...

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In this final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Appify, now available at Field Service News, we break down the budgeting and division of labor...

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In the third excerpt from a recent white paper published by Appify we discuss the resources and technology investments for field service....

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In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Appify, now available at Field Service News, we provide an analysis on how to measure field service readiness...

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How Would You Rate The Quality of the PPE You Are Using to Service Your Customers?

How Ready Are Your Service Teams to Service Customers Post COVID-19?

Many respondents don’t feel that the pandemic will impact their field readiness. We asked respondents to rate how ready service teams will be to go on-site to service customers post COVID-19. Field technicians responded, on average, with a rating of about 8.3.

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss resources and technology investments for Field Service.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about Field Service Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/field-service-management
• Find out more about Appify @ appify.com
• Follow Appify on Twitter @ twitter.com/AppifyInc

In a new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Appify we analyze the impact of change within the modern field service organization...

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Post COVID-19 customers are looking for their equipment service providers to minimize their risks by deploying a touchless, or low touch, field service system.  Fortunately, a change like this can be quickly implemented and if you price and market them properly, you will likely enjoy higher revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction.  Sam Klaidman, Founder and Principal Adviser at Middlesex Consulting, makes his debut as a Field Service News associate columnist with an extensive look into the subject.  

I just finished participating in an IFS webinar titled “How COVID-19 Has Permanently Changed The Future Of Field Service” featuring Tom Paquin.  There was a great message on one of Tom’s early slides . 

It read: 

Yesterday: Your empowered customers demanded that you service them  

Today: Your empowered custoemrs are looking for the tools to serve themselves.  

I believe the message in Tom’s this slide is spot on and correctly describes the pre- and post- COVID challenges that Service Executives are and will be facing for years to come.

In this article we will look at the following:

• The high-level role of the service organization 
• The customer’s new challenge 
• Touchless support - how service delivery will change 
• How service marketing should respond to these changes 
• The impact of the new model on service revenue 

THE HIGH-LEVEL ROLE OF THE SERVICE ORGANIZATION

Think about why people buy a product or service. It's not because the product or service is cheap, looks cool, or they know someone who has one and loves it. No, they buy a product or service because they want the benefits they will get from using it. These are their desired business outcomes and what the customer value creation experts call “value from use.” 

Now, why do they buy from you instead of from someone else?  Easy.  They buy from you because you deliver the greatest value when compared to all other alternatives.  And value is defined in two ways: 

• The difference between what they get and what they pay, measured in money ($, €. £, or ¥). 
• Their internal quantification of intangible benefits like great service, peace of mind, and ego boosting. 

What is the role of customer or field service in this discussion?  Service’s role is to allow the buyer to continue to generate desired business outcomes plus the intangible benefits after they pay for the product and continue to use it during the complete product lifecycle. When service does this well, the customer will not change suppliers, will repurchase when they again have a need, and will buy add-ons that create additional incremental value. 

No matter how your service delivers on these outcomes, the end results must meet the customer’s expectation at the time of purchase. 

THE customer's new challenge

In March 2020, OEM’s services businesses starting hearing lots of new pushback:

• From the end user customers they heard “My XXX is down and I need to fix it but we cannot bring any outsiders into our facility”

• From customer Purchasing people they heard “WTF - Your travel costs are over the top plus you can’t get here for 3 days”

• From your company’s best salesperson they heard “Our key customer needs to find a way to service our products remotely and you have not come up with anything useful…”

• And from their service technicians they heard “I can’t go to that customer.  I hear they had 20 COVID-19 infections just this week and I have a sick grandparent that lives in my house.” 

Yes, customers are demanding a new way to service their equipment, and this will probably be the new normal when we come out of this current pandemic.

TOUCHLESS SUPPORT - HOW SERVICE DELIVERY WILL CHANGE

Almost all end users are looking for what the media calls “touchless support.”  This means no outsider must come into their facility to diagnose and repair any of their products.  And that is not such a strange concept considering the risk of bringing an outsider into what the customers believe is a controlled environment.  Also, these days everyone is risk adverse and is looking for ways to mitigate all future risks, no matter how unlikely they are.  However, please note that the end-users are fully aware that this kind of support has a price and they are prepared to pay a fair price if their value delivered exceeds their costs.

This means that customers want a form of enhanced self-service for break/fix service and possibly external help for scheduled events like preventative maintenance and upgrades.  Here is a quote from an August 2020 McKinsey and Company article From defense to offense: Digital B2B services in the next normal: 

Now let’s briefly look at each of the tools and technologies listed above. 

Simple knowledge base (FAQs)

Every product focused website should have at least these three types of separate FAQs for current customers:

• How do I work with the OEM? – This list covers subjects like reaching scheduling an installation, technical support, getting and RMA number, finding out the latest software and firmware versions, upgrading software and firmware, location of service centers, buying consumables and spare parts (with a link to your ecommerce site), and warranty terms. 
• For each product, answer the basic and medium complexity how do I…questions. In addition to answering questions, this section should contain links to manuals, training videos, checklists and other documents that can be downloaded, and parts lists and drawings. 
• For each product or application, answer questions about available service contracts with a chat feature or a link to service sales.

These simple knowledge bases have been around for many years and yet many businesses do not even have the most basic type of FAQ’s -the how do I work with the OEM? page.

Merged reality virtual assistance

Merged reality is the simplest digital application imaginable, which is why it so popular these days.  I know of one supplier that helped an OEM purchase and deploy a merged reality application for over 1000 field engineers in six days with no capital expenditure other than making sure these engineers have either a smartphone or a tablet.

In its simplest form, the field engineer and the tech support person each use their smartphone or tablet to stream a video image to the app.  The app them merges them together and send it back to both parties.  The field engineer’s video stream shows a view of the product being worked on and the support person shows either a finger, a tool, a meter, or something like that.  The support person places his finger to point at something he wants the field engineer to work on, which they both see.  And they also talk to each other while this is going on.  For example, the field engineer can transmit a picture of a control panel and the support can point to an adjustment knob and say, “turn this knob about ¼ turn clockwise.  There is no ambiguity about which knob to turn.

Another notable feature is that the whole session can be recorded and linked to the appropriate work order.  This is important since the videos can also be uploaded to either a YouTube channel or to a robust searchable knowledge base so other technicians or customer’s maintenance technicians can easily visualize the troubleshooting and repair process.

Of course, these applications have many other equally simple features. To learn more, I recommend that you look at either Help Lightning or Sightcall.  They have both made a major impact on field service delivery.

Remote computer support

Remote computer support has also been around for ages and once set up, it is as easy to use as merged reality virtual assistance.  Using something like LogMeIn Rescue, the support engineer can take over control of the client computer, run diagnostics, direct the computer operator to perform specific keystrokes and see what happens.  This makes troubleshooting desktop problem easy to handle remotely.

Other solutions come bundled into the computer itself.  For example, Google Chrome and Windows have remote control included while Apple technical support people can access Apple computers with the user only granting access during a support call.

Robust, and growing, multi-media knowledge base

For most products, it would be extremely difficult to store and list all troubleshooting and repair videos.  Just think about how difficult it would be to describe a problem the way a customer would.  That is why good knowledge bases are built with an artificial intelligence (AI) engine to instantly search a multimedia data base indexed with tabs and that works like Google search.  Yet that is what is needed when a qualified end user technician is trying to repair a system that has an intermittent fault she has never seen before.

This is why I said that the stored videos from a merged reality virtual assistance session can be so useful.  While these videos should be edited to eliminate standby time, repetitions, and side conversations, it is especially useful to go through all the trial and error troubleshooting since the same symptoms may have different causes and the more thorough the video, the more likely it will be that the system gets repair quickly. 

AnswerAnywhere is a database designed to be used by field technicians and appears to offer many of the capabilities I described above.  It is worth looking into as you start building out your robust service knowledge base.

Embedded diagnostics, Remote diagnostics, and Internet of things (IoT)

These are three variations of the basic data collection and transmission scenario.

Embedded diagnostics is used when the product has an onboard processor, sensors, and data transmission capabilities.  The embedded diagnostics look at information available inside the product and determine if it is working properly or has a fault.  We are all familiar with this from our cars.  When the air pressure inside our tire goes below a preset limit, the car displays an icon of a tire and a message.  When we travel more than a set limit without changing our engine oil (assuming we drive a car with an internal combustion engine), we get a “change oil” message.

In the mid-1980’s, I was the VP of Service for a data communications company.  Our product was nearly completely redundant, and our internal computer monitored the status of each module.  When any module sent an error message to the internal computer, it compared both like modules and if they differed by more than a set amount, it compared each module to the expected output.  When it determined which of the pair had faulted, it took that module off-line and notified the user.

Remote diagnostics is like embedded diagnostics only in reverse.  A remote computer interrogates sensors, on-board memory, and a devices control system to determine if the system is working properly. The advantage of remote diagnostics is that the computer is generally more powerful that the computer in the machine.  This means there is a good chance it can track accurately sensor outputs and detect any subtle changes.  The computer can also have AI software and perform machine learning (ML) so it can identify when a true failure is likely to occur.  It also may be able to determine the likely fix and so it can schedule a repair at an off-shift time when there is no substantial cost of downtime.

The diagnostics I just described are not easy to create and program and therefore are expensive.  But in the right circumstances, they can me unbelievably valuable.  Consider the case of the jet engines that power an Airbus A350 or a Boeing 787.  On a transatlantic flight, each engine can produce about 1Terabyte of data.  The data can be transmitted in real time to a central location when the software looks for anomalies and, when it finds one, can notify the repair people at the destination so the repair can be made (sometimes) in the turnaround period.  Not having a mid-flight engine failure can be priceless!

Internet of Things is like the remote diagnostics that I just described except that the IoT computer can easily import data from any other device or website to make a more robust calculation then just looking at one product.  In the jet engine example, an IoT system can also import weather data, flight parameters, airplane weight and balance data, and data from all the engines on the same route with all their related data and come up with a strong recommendation about what to fix and when.

Today’s technology for identifying equipment problems and solutions is getting both incredibly power and seriously expensive.  But, for the right product and use case, these software systems can save lives, lots of money, and jobs.

HOW SERVICE MARKETING SHOULD RESPONDE TO THESE CHANGES

Each of the technologies has a unique cost/benefits equation. That means that each implementation has a unique value proposition and should have a unique cost.  And when you combine multiple solutions the customer value can increase dramatically. This is where service marketing comes into play.  They should be charged with answering the following questions:

• How should our latest offers be structured? 
• What should we charge for each offer? 
• What happens went we replace a free offer (e.g., telephone support) with a higher value offer (telephone support + virtual assistant)?  Do we remove the free telephone support or charge for all non-warranty calls? 

• How do we sell the offers? 
• How do we get product sales on-board?  
• How do we train all out International channel partners? Do we charge them for supporting the customers? 
• What metrics do we want to use to evaluate our decisions?

This is when you will be glad you have a service marketing professional to help solve all these non-technical challenges.

THE IMPACT OF THE NEW MODEL ON SERVICE REVENUE

Of course, we all want to know how using these tools and technologies will impact our revenue and profit.  The simple answer is “It all depends.”  It depends on:

• What services you currently sell and which you do at no charge. 
• What services your customers are willing to pay for and you do not currently offer. 
• How much business you are losing or how much money you are earning because your field engineers must travel from a great and expensive distance. 
• How much growth the product side of your business will enjoy because you were able to best satisfy the needs of prospects. 

• How many contract truck rolls you can avoid while fixing a problem in a shorter time then when you dispatch a service technician.

Overall all, if you implement only the first three items on the list (simple knowledge base, merged reality virtual assistance, and remote computer support) and price and market them creatively, you will generate higher revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction.  Not a bad set of outcomes from investing in satisfying your customer’s desires for a touchless, or low touch, field service system.<

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Connect to Sam Klaidman @ www.linkedin.com/samklaidman
• Find out more about Middlesex Consulting @ www.middlesexconsulting.com
• Read more from Sam Klaidman @ middlesexconsulting.com/blog

 

Dave Hart is a hugely respected and incredibly well-known figure in the global field service community, in his debut article for Field Service News he offers an excellent moment of reflection field service managers would be wise to consider... 

Not being an avid blogger, I did what my two kids say to me with every question I pose to them these days. ‘Hey kids my internet is down any ideas?’ ‘Google it’ comes the reply. ‘Hey kids how do you change the background colour on a PowerPoint slide?’ ‘Err have you Googled it’ comes the now all too often response.

Ahh the joys of the internet and thinking for oneself, anyway back to my blogging prowess (or lack of it). I googled ‘how to make a blog interesting’ and one suggestion was put a picture of a supercar on your blog as that will draw the attention of men, but also women. Really, who could have guessed that?

Siri is not much better, ask Siri ‘what’s the height of the Eiffel tower’ and it will respond 324 metres to the top. Ask it a more open question such as ‘why is there social unrest in Belarus’ and you get the stock answer ‘OK, here are some websites you may find useful’. Really, I might find useful??

Thus my point here, information is literally everywhere, yet its nowhere. Searching for information can take you hours and get you nowhere.

Knowing what information is trustworthy is an art form and in life it could be argued that the more experience you have the more valuable that experience would become to any potential employer. A recent HBR article suggested that by 2025 a quarter of all employees in the US and UK would be over 55 years old and this demographic is the fastest growing in almost every country. 25% of all your employees over 55 with a wealth of experience that are contributing in ways we have little understanding of, as more often than not as they get older, we honour tradition by buying them a gold clock and wish them on their way to a long and happy retirement.

 

INFORMATION IS LITERALLY EVERYWHERE, YET IT'S NOWHERE

After I finished college, I worked in a TV repair shop (yes in the days where TV’s were repaired and not thrown away) and a customer brought in a TV he had for 12 years. It was a Sony portable that was quite expensive when he bought it, when he returned it to the shop, he had bought it from for repair, they had kept the TV for 2 weeks and told him it was irreparable. As a last resort he had brought it into our little TV repair shop. Jim (who ran the shop) had 40 years electronics experience asked him to wait, walked into the back of the shop and started to troubleshoot the issue; it was magical watching him. He instinctively knew where to look and within 10 minutes he had soldered a new transistor into the circuit board and the TV sprung into life. He turned to me and said, “now do I charge for the 10 minutes it took me to repair this TV or should I charge for the 40 that allowed me to fix it in 10 minutes.” That day has stuck in my memory as if it were yesterday - It was nearly 40 years ago.

In the field service industry these trends are increasingly worrying as we watch valuable resources with 30,40 years of experience with skills in abundance leave companies and with it their abundance of knowledge just walking out of the door with them.

I suggest four approaches:

1. Ask them to consider a part time role working from home and ask them to work the triage desk or indeed on technical support. This flexible approach means they can still keep their grey matter working, they can help customers and other engineers (which all engineers love to do)
2. Offer part time mentoring roles where older employees can take new engineers and show them the ropes thus increasing the rate of their learning curve exponentially
3. Consider a learning enablement platform where you can capture their experience in blogs, videos, articles and sketches so you capture all that goodness in one place. Searchable content that’s enriched with real life ‘how ’ can be a much richer experience than just knowledge articles.
4. Try and convince them that the next President of the United States will either be 74 or 77 years old and they are still working, why don’t they consider staying (not sure this will be a compelling argument but hey you have to try right?)

A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg stated that ‘younger people are smarter’ but the science shows that this is just not the case. For most people, raw mental horsepower declines after the age of 30, but knowledge and expertise — the main predictors of job performance — keep increasing even beyond the age of 80.

Employers will do well to remember that fact and act now to save all of that experience goodness whilst they still can…

(PS if you read this far, the picture of the supercar worked!)

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Connect to Dave Hart @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hart-049009b
• Read more exclusive Field Service News articles from Dave Hart @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/dave-hart
• Find out more about Field Service Associates @ https://fieldserviceassociates.com/
• Follow Dave Hart on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/DaveHartProfit

 

The differences betweeen Yesterday, Today and Tommorrow as they relate to the services industry are just as disparate now as they were back in 1965, however they’ve been amplified due to the literal ‘life and death’ nature of the COVID19 pandemic, as explored in this article written by Bill Pollock...

Even Paul McCartney wrote about the differences between “Yesterday”, “Today” and “Tomorrow”:

• Yesterday (1965) – “All my troubles seemed so far away!”
• Another Day (1971) – “At the office where the papers grow”
• Tomorrow (1971) – “When we both abandon sorrow.”

Of course, John Lennon also echoed these sentiments in “Tomorrow Never Knows”. But, what did the Beatles know about the COVID-19 pandemic that we still don’t know?

The differences between “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” as they relate to the services industry are just as disparate now as they were back in 1965 - 1971; however, they’ve been significantly amplified due to the literal “life and death” nature of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

HOW DO WE DO IT THIS TIME?

One thing to be sure of, however, is the fact that the services industry has already been hit many times before, resulting in a succession of “yesterdays, todays and tomorrows”, but has always risen to the task, performed over and above the call of duty, and aspired to the next levels of “hero-style” performance. World War ll, the Korean Conflict, Viet Nam, 911 and – oh, yeah – a number of recessions, terror attacks, natural disasters and economic downturns – have all tested our strength and leadership; and yet, here we are, once again, called to the frontlines because that’s what we do – and what we do best!  

The question on the table now, however, is “How do we do it this time?

The answer may not yet be readily apparent, so we may have to “wing it” for a while until things start to settle down. What this means, though, is that we all will quickly need to have a plan in place (that is, if we don’t already) to guide us through the foreseeable uncharted territory, until we can once again gather our bearings on the other side in a new and different world. 

The plan will need to be flexible (i.e., as all plans need to be); however, it will also need to be more fluid, agile and able to turn-on-a-dime in order to successfully address everything that is thrown our way in the interim. From this perspective, planning has never been more important – nor more complicated!

Are we all up to the task? The proper answer is “You bet!” So …, where do we get started? The following highlights from Strategies For Growth℠’s (SFG℠’s) 2020 FSM Benchmark Survey Tracking Update will hopefully provide some guidance in terms of where we should be focusing as we deal with these current existential disruptions.

Nonetheless, field services managers are increasingly being faced with multiple future challenges, with the top challenge essentially reflected in satisfaction with respect to the anticipated ROI of the selected FSM solution (i.e., cited by a plurality of survey respondents at 43%).

However, the second most cited challenge is not cost-related, focusing more on identifying the required functionality of the software solution (33%). Integrating new technologies into the existing FSM solution platform (33%), the cost of the technology acquisition (29%); and identifying the most appropriate devices to support field techs (25%) also appear among the top five factors. Selecting the most effective FSM solution falls just a bit lower at (24%).

Accordingly, some field service managers may also find themselves deluged with additional challenges, many of which relate directly to selecting the right solution/vendor, and the rest to functionality- and implementation-related issues, among others.

However, the benefits of successfully addressing each of these challenges are also multi-fold. For example, when thinking about the overall customer service experience, the single-most commonly cited reason for moving forward on the Journey is centered around the ability to meet (or exceed) customers’ services expectations, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction (i.e., cited by 41% of respondents as the top benefit)

 

"It will be the adoption and implementation of new technologies that will allow yesterday’s leading services organisations to maintain their respective positions among tomorrow’s leaders...."

 

Several of the other top-cited benefits are clustered in the 25% to 33% range, including ability to run a more efficient field service operation (33%), establish a competitive advantage (31%), improve field technician utilisation and productivity (27%) and provide an end-to-end customer experience relationship (25%).

Marc Tatarsky, SVP Marketing at FieldAware, a cutting-edge, cloud-based, mobile field service management platform that empowers companies to transform their field service organisation through automated processes and streamlined operations, agrees that, “It will be the adoption and implementation of new technologies that will allow yesterday’s leading services organisations to maintain their respective positions among tomorrow’s leaders.

Further, it will be the same process for those services organisations just beginning their aspirations toward Best Practices performance by enabling them to utilise the same technologies and tools used by the market leaders. All services organisations now have the same opportunity to compete head-to-head against all others”. Tim Andrew, CEO and Co-Founder of Localz, a global provider of real-time customer communications and service tracking solutions for field, collection and delivery teams, concurs that, “Rapid changes in customer expectations should be seen as an opportunity for service providers.

By taking advantage of readily available technology, companies can increase satisfaction while also driving down costs. We have designed our offering to help organisations deliver a competitive experience – all without the need to rip-and-replace existing systems.”

New technologies are also playing a big role in helping services organisations to move more quickly from a “yesterday” scenario to one that is more focused on “tomorrow”. To bear this out, the 2020 survey results cite that currently, just over one-quarter (27%) of services organisations are using Augmented Reality/Merged Reality (AR/MR) in support of their field service operations, and that within five years, the percent of FSOs incorporating AR/ MR into their services operations is expected to increase to more than 50%, or more than twice the existing reported level.

 

"As Servitisation continues to transform the field services industry, so, too, will the way in which services will likely be offered to the global services community..."

 

Similarly, just over one-quarter (28%) of services organisations are currently using Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) in support of their field service operations, and this percent is also expected to grow significantly over the next five years to more than 50% or, again, more than twice the existing reported level.

Finally, a majority of services organisations (51%) are currently incorporating Predictive Diagnostics / Predictive Maintenance into their field service operations and the percent usage is expected to increase to an estimated ±85% range, if not higher.

But, the adoption of new technologies is not the only factor that is moving the services segment along the time continuum. As Servitisation continues to transform the field services industry, so, too, will the way in which services will likely be offered to the global services community. For example, today, 91% of service contracts are built on the basis of traditional Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that focus on such parameters as on-site response time, number of scheduled preventive maintenance service calls, guaranteed uptime (i.e., with vendor sanctions for non-compliance), and the like.

However, within the next three to five years, this percent is expected to drop by nearly 20% to less than three-quarters (72%) of all service contracts. Conversely, the percent of FSOs offering SLAs/contracts based on Uptime, is projected to more than double, from 16% today, to 40% by 2022 - 2024. Further, the use of Outcomes-based SLAs is projected to rise from a virtually non-existent 0% today, to at least 16%, or one-in-six, by 2022 - 2024. As such, this represents a rapidly-moving reversal of the way SLAs/contracts will be offered in the not-too-distant future.

The bottom line for FSOs in the current era of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the data derived from the SFG℠’s 2020 FSM survey make it clear that if your services organisation already finds itself behind the curve with respect to

1. Its ability to meet (if not exceed) its customers’ demands or requirements;
2. The automation of its existing field service management processes (or lack thereof);
3. Its ability to support its field technicians and customers with real-time data and information;
4. Its ability to deal with escalating costs associated with running its services operations; or
5. Its ability to gain management “buy-in” for new technology acquisition, this gap will likely only get larger over time – unless it considers implementing a new, more state-of-the-art, Field Service Management (FSM) solution (that is, one that incorporates “new” technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR)/Merged Reality (MR), Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), predictive diagnostics/maintenance and/or Remote Expertise).

For some FSOs, the pandemic has dampened their ability (or inclination) to acquire these new technologies; however, for others, it has had the opposite effect, fostering a belief that now is the best time to upgrade its technology base to one that is both state-of-the-art, and can be used to manage the wellbeing of the services organisation as it transitions from “survival” through “sustainability. It will be among the latter organisations that are likely to be the most successful as they re-emerge in a post-COVID-19 scenario.

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For more information, or to download a complimentary copy of the companion SFGSM Analysts Take paper that contains an Executive summary of the firm’s 2020 Field Service Management (FSM) Benchmark Tracking Survey, please visit either the FieldAware or localz websites.

 

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Further Reading:

• Read BIll Pollock's thoughts on Building a Strategic Services Plan for Meeting Customer Expectations  @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/building-a-strategic-services-plan-for-meeting-customer-expectations
• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more from Bill Pollock on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/bill-pollock

 

In this excerpt from the inaugral Think Tank Debrief Session, Kieran Notter, VP Global Customer Service, ServiceMax reflects on the conversations around whether knowledge is the key differentiator for OEMs when it comes to service delivery... 

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Is knowledge the key weapon in the OEM's arsenal?

During this conversation everyone around the table was an OEM, which allowed us to dig deeper into what the group thought were the key differentiators between OEMs and third party service providers when it comes to differentiating service.

While brand reputation does of course play its on part in the discussion, it was clear amongst the group that it was knowledge and experience that really allows an OEM to shine through.

Jason Smith, Director of Field Service, EMEA, 3D Systems Corporation commented: 

“In previous companies I’ve worked at, when we have tried to push advanced services out to the market, one of the major challenges we faced was that there was little value in trying to convince customers, who didn’t see the value in connected services as a solution. In fact, this is reflected in the approach we’ve adopted at 3D Systems. If a customer is on a maintenance contract and under warranty, then we will connect the machines for free.

As far as we are concerned, in terms of the connectivity, the hardware aspect of the equation, which is where people typically perceive as the value, actually has very little value.

What I discovered, certainly in my previous role, is that the value is in the data which is provided and the insight that provides - particularly when your offering is part of a system. Companies really have to separate the hardware from the knowledge because the value proposition is at opposite ends of the scale.

Hardware is worth a couple of thousand dollars, but the knowledge is where the real improvements are. One project we did in my last company based around such a premise yielded savings to the customer of €2.5M a year. It is in the data and the insight within that data - that is where the true value sits. However, it is only by having case studies and actual data that you can quantify and describe this value.”

Peter Deeming, Service Tools Manager, Varian commented: 

“Reflecting on the three models Jan outlined of ‘do it with us’, ‘do it for us’ or ‘we’ll do it ourselves’, I would add a fourth model into this in that a third-party service contractor could also do the service work as well.

“In terms of service we see third party service companies as competitors and one of the edges the data gives us is that we as an OEM can get data from our entire install base and a contractor cannot do that. This gives us a far greater depth of knowledge and insight that we can bring to the customer - something that gives us a distinct competitive advantage.

“This demonstrates that the value isn’t in the hardware, or even getting the data from one machine. But when you can get the data from all of your machines and exploring the trending and apply some AI and get all of the analysis, then you get some phenomenal insights, and that is where the true value lies.”

It was interesting to note as the conversation evolved during the Think Tank, how we started to see the groups thinking crystallise as agreement emerged that the true value an OEM service organisation can bring to the table is based on deep product knowledge and operational best practice.

This was a theme that occurred across a number of conversations during the Think Tank's held in this period but this definitely came to the fore in this session.

Reflecting on this point during the Debrief session Kieran Notter, VP Global Customer Transformation, commented:

"With knowledge, you can start to offer more things.Then with knowledge, you can also manage those things and set the expectations for your customers and yourself."

"We can talk about entitlements and SLA (service level agreements) but if you don't have the knowledge on how to manage them, then that's an empty promise, and therefore you're going to upset your customer," Notter adds.

 

"How many people beyond service realize that, that service data is really useful to them?"

- Kieran Notter, ServiceMax

 

"So to get to that movement of how you do your contract entitlements and SLAs, or even moving further into the outcome based world, you have to have the knowledge to understand fundamentally how you price it, how you make it into a business, but also how you can make your customer successful - because you need to create that partnership to be successful," Notter reflects. 

"Then there's also the secondary element as well, which is understanding of how to use that knowledge outside of service. Most people taking part in this Debrief session will have an idea of how they would like to use their data if they can harvest it and mining. Yet, how many people beyond service realize that that service data is really useful to them?"

"If you think about the supply chain and how service data can be used there to actually work hand in hand, to create a supply chain, rather than a demand chain. Also, if marketing have the data that's coming from these products, they can do targeted marketing - marketing, that is very specific to the customer and the products and the services that you're providing currently, which gives you the knowledge and ability to make up-sells and cross sells."

"Another aspect here is that there always seems to be a little bit of a push and pull between sales and service," Notter continues.

"Service was once called aftersales but we all understand nowadays that it's moving more into the forefront because you may sell the machine once, but then you maintain it for the next 10 to 20 years. When that maintenance is getting to a point that you need to upsell, then you have the data already. For example, you may know when the machine is being overused creating an opportunity to maybe sell another unit, or indeed it needs to be serviced.

All of this data works in so many different areas to drive different areas of growth and you can see that in Jason's statement of €2.5M savings a year. You can see where that value is actually coming from."

 

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