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The case for implementing a modern field service solution is well documented, the benefits clear and tangible. However the road to a successful implementation is fraught with challenges. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring this topic across a number of features which are sponsored by ServiceMax

There is also a corresponding white paper on this subject which you can access by clicking this link and completing the brief registration form

There is no hiding from the reality that the implementation of a modern service management solution involves a major change within business, including shifts in both processes and culture, driven by the technology. Change is hard, and without proper understanding of your goals and the challenges you face, successfully managing it can be at best a complicated and drawn out process, at worst an abject failure.

In fact according to Change Management guru John Kotter, 70% of change management efforts fail and this is largely due to a lack of preparation, a lack of understanding of best practices or more often than not a combination of both.

However, at the heart of every successful change management exercise there is one maxim that holds absolutely true. Change Management is always about people.

Despite often being mistakenly pigeon holed amongst Project Management, which is more focussed on business protocol and processes, the key to good Change Management is understanding and confront the emotional and personal impact change can have on your workforce both on the individual as well as the company at large.

It is widely quoted that on average two thirds of employees are resistant to using a new system. So before we even begin to plan for change we must consider some of the fundamental reasons why our workforce would be so anti-change, if we are to succeed.

For a start we must remember our workforce is made up a human beings, whilst this may seem like an obvious even condescending point to make, it is all to easy, especially in larger organisations to dehumanise the workforce, replacing names and personalities with numbers and statistics.

 

When focussing on the human aspect we can begin to understand the resistance we will face. It is our natural tendency to maximise reward and to minimise threat.

Sociology teaches us that there are five domains of social experience; status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness and when these are threatened we naturally resist change.

Inevitably an extensive change management exercise is going to impact on all five of these domains amongst your workforce so our goal cannot be to completely eliminate resistance, this would be an unrealistic and impossible task. Instead the intention should be to reduce the gap between introducing the change and full adoption of the change, thereby minimising the level of resistance faced and the duration that resistance lasts.

 

Research from McKenzie suggests organisations that utilise good change management best practices are likely to achieve 100% better business results through high employee adoption rates.

When it comes to implementing a new system across the workforce the stakes are absolutely huge, success can see significant improvements in productivity, efficiency and of course in the bottom line.

Failure can see value leakage resulting in a far longer time to see R.o.I (if at all) whilst simultaneously causing severe disruptions to the business as a whole. Put very simply there is an incredibly strong business case for making sure you get Change Management right.

Fortunately there are a number of differing resources that can be turned to, to help guide those who are undertaking such an operation. Some of which include:

Prosci

Prosci, whose name comes from a combination of professional and science, is one of the leading Change Management organisations in the world and their methods are cited as being used by more than three quarters of the Fortune 100.

Founded in 1994 they offer both benchmarking research and change management products.

 

The tools implemented in Prosci’s methodology are based on research into best practice of over 3400 international organisations.

The Prosci methodology has become one of the most widely used approaches to managing the people side of change in business and government. At the heart of their methodology is the ADKAR model which first appeared in 1999 as an outcome-oriented approach to facilitate individual change.

The model has taken hold as a simple and effective Change Management method, which has become one of the most widely used models of its kind in the world.

Kotter International

Headed up by a New York Times best-selling author, business entrepreneur and Harvard Professor, Dr. John P. Kotter, Kotter International is another of the world’s leading Change Management firms.

Their 8-step change management process is based upon thirty years worth of work by Kotter and aims to offer a holistic approach to Change Management and incorporates eight overlapping steps.

The first three are all about creating a climate for change. The next on engaging and enabling the organisation and the last implementing and sustaining change.

It has been noted that successful change occurs when there is commitment, a sense of urgency or momentum, stakeholder engagement, openness, clear vision, good and clear communication, strong leadership, and a well executed plan and Kotter’s 8 Step plan utilises each of these.

Lewin’s Un-Freeze, Change, Refreeze model

Developed by physicist and social scientist Kurt Lewin in the 1950’s this model became a fundamental building block for organisational change management, The name of the model refers to the three stage process of change. The concept uses the analogy of a block of ice and transforming its shape from a block to a cone. First you must make the ice amenable to change (unfreezing it), then the ice must be moulded to the shape you desire (change). Finally you must solidify the the new shape (refreeze)

Therefore the first step in any successful change process must be to understand the reason for change. In Lewin’s own words "Motivation for change must be generated before change can occur. One must be helped to re-examine many cherished assumptions about oneself and one's relations to others."

Across the next few weeks we will be exploring the stages of change management in more detail looking at 5 specific stages as defined and implemented by Tycho’s Sharon Moura when they recently implemented ServiceMax’s field service management platform.

To download a copy of the white paper “5 principals of change management in field service click here and complete the brief registration form.

 
This series is sponsored by:

 

Last month myself and Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland were fortunate enough to interview Dave Gordon from Rolls Royce’s Defence business in Bristol, about their Services Journey and why it is so important to the future growth of the business.

Although Rolls Royce is a leading global manufacturing business, many people do not realise that over 50% of its revenues are now generated through Services. Initially Services became a strategic contributor to growth in their Civil business as they reacted to customer and market pressures.

In his own very engaging way, Dave Gordon describes about how the defence business has taken these processes and embedded them into its core offering. As VP of Service Strategy and currently LiftSystem Programme Director for the new vertical takeoff Lightening Fighter, he is uniquely positioned to talk about the transformation from time and materials support contracts to sophisticated advanced services.

Rolls Royce started their journey by understanding what being good at services really meant. They very much took an OUTSIDE-IN approach, not only looking at their own industry, but best practice companies in unrelated businesses. A major challenge was how to apply the undoubted technical and innovative capability of Rolls Royce, to the mountain of data collected on their products, and turn it into value for the customer.

 

Key to this journey has been changing people’s mind-set through the metric of ‘Customer Disruption Cost’. This measure calculated the direct and indirect costs to their customers if the engine was not available. The tangible benefit was that it enabled Rolls Royce to build a value based offer around the customers business needs. The hidden benefit was that it focused the people within the organisation on what was really important to the customer.

Dave explains the importance breaking down the innovation of services into bite size chunks.

Starting first with availability contracts on small modules, and gradually increasing the scope as their knowledge and infrastructure grew. Key was building a database of how the product was used, enabling engineers to model their equipment behaviour, so as to predict future performance. Then leveraging this knowledge and insight to develop new proposition and solutions.

As the service business has matured, the data capture and analysis has increasingly moved into customer located Service Delivery Centres, so making the value creation processes truly co-constructed.

But in this age of nervousness around cyber crime and intellectual property, he stresses that security and segregation of customer data is key to developing a trusting collaboration with the customer.

It is this collaboration that has been key to their success. So not only has it been a journey for Rolls Royce, but their customers as well. They have had to step back from describing ‘what they want’, to ‘where they want to be’.

Dave Gordon goes on to say ‘Creating the future’ is all about deepening relationships and harnessing innovation around customer value. Key is the willingness to listen but where necessary take risks and innovate ‘outside the box’ to make change happen.

This exclusive interview will be appearing on Field Service News across the next few weeks and you can find the first part of this series by clicking this link.

Part One of an exclusive Field Service News interview with Dave Gordon, Rolls Royce.

We speak to Dave about how Rolls Royce Aerospace have revolutionised the way service in the industry operates via their 'power by the hour' approach and how Dave and his team have taken this approach from Rolls Royce's civil business and applied it to their defence business.

Want to see more? Subscribe to Field Service News by clicking this link and get access to download the full video in full.

Managers have access to more performance data than ever before but simply don’t know how to use it to drive operational efficiency. Trimble Field Service Management's John Cameron explains...

A high-performance culture is the heartbeat of any successful organisation however managing business performance levels effectively can be challenging.

As the business adage goes, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” and this has never been truer – especially when it comes to the performance of field service organisations.

A field service operation is extremely dynamic and often unpredictable. Each day, managers are faced with complex issues which require fast action. However lack of real-time visibility into what is actually happening out in the field can result in managers making poor decisions; directly impacting the performance level of their mobile workforce.

In order to develop new strategies which will improve operational decision-making and drive future performance, field service managers must begin to utilise instant and accurate information about key trends occurring in the field. Real-time data about why a service window wasn’t met, how many planned jobs were left incomplete, duration of tasks and which technicians are performing well, can all be used to drive service performance levels. By using in-depth insight, managers are able to effectively transform the way work is planned, allocated, managed, reported and evaluated.

Field service managers have access to more data than ever before. But are they actually using it effectively to measure service levels so they can improve operational performance? The simple answer is no. Often field service managers view big data as simply too big or too fast to manage and analyse. They have large quantities of data but simply don’t know what it means or how to use it to help manage performance.

Fortunately, advancements in performance management analytics technology are taking the complexity out of big data analysis. By providing greater visibility and enhanced analytics capabilities, the technology helps field service managers monitor the productivity of their operations while at the same time analysing key trends in order to optimise the way they operate.

Based on actual location data, technology can generate and customise digestible reports that showcase the key measures including quality of service, statistics for individual workers, actual tasks completed against the total time of the working day, actual against estimated task duration, total tasks completed, total fuel usage and distance travelled.

By adopting performance management analytics technology, the field service manager is able to quickly identify what is preventing their workforce from completing more jobs. Managers can look at regions, teams and even individual workers by job type and performance to gain insight into how to improve the utilisation and productivity of their staff.

Aberdeen Group, a leading analyst firm, has found that best-in-class companies were more than 35 per cent more likely to use workforce management solutions such as performance management tools to optimise resources and workforce processes. Aberdeen Group says laggards need to act now and start to automate the management of their workforce in order to catch up with the efficiency and enhanced response times of best-in-class companies.

 

Driving productivity and performance has been on the top of boardroom agendas for years and this is still certainly the case in the field service industry. A recent survey by the Service Council, a research and advisory company, reaffirms this fact with the study finding performance management and visibility continue to top the list of key business concerns.

Reassuringly, developments in technology have meant that businesses now have a way of addressing these concerns directly. Managers can collect, analyse and report operational performance based on data they can trust and generate real value from the information to make educated decisions that positively impact their businesses bottom line.

This increased insight also means that not only are field service managers provided with the ability to constantly learn from day-to-day experiences, but all the relevant stakeholders across different business units have the salient information they need to manage the daily performance of the organisation. Such performance analysis can also help feed into strategic business planning on targets, budgets and resourcing.

Knowing what is happening in the field and having the ability to measure its effectiveness is crucial to delivering higher levels of service excellence. As a result, business leaders need to start exploring new and cost-effective ways to manage and optimise the performance of their workforce. Investment in technology is the first logical step. Technology has the power to place the right information in the right hands to ensure the right decisions are made which will ultimately foster a high-performance culture that guarantees short- and long-term business success.

In part one of this exclusive interview we looked at Martin Summerhayes extraordinary career to date. Now in the concluding part Fujitsu's Head of Business Development talks about what drives him forward...  

Focussing on his current role again the passion for consistently delivering and improving the service he and his team deliver to their clients is undeniable when questioned on what he takes pride in and what frustrates him on a day-to-day basis.

“The thing that makes me go home smiling at the end of the day is delivering great service to customers, and what makes me tear my hair out is the politics that you have in any organisation big or small” he comments before adding “what can make me really frustrated is speed, the inability of people and organisations to change when markets and situations change”

It is in these frustrations that another layer of what makes Summerhayes tick is perhaps revealed. Whilst he is certainly approachable, he is clearly exceptionally quick when it comes to assessing and understanding the markets he operates in and comes across as a man that perhaps has to sometimes wait for others to catch up to his way of thinking. This could require a great deal of patience, or result in a great deal of frustration. More than likely there is probably a healthy portion of both.

Indeed his standards are set exceptionally high. Looking at what defines exceptional service he explains “It is when you delight your customers. Not when you meet their expectations, not when you exceed their expectations, it’s when you delight them. When your customer becomes the best advocate there is for your business and services”

These are the standards that Summerhayes expects as a consumer and these are the standards that he demands his team at Fujitsu strive for also.

A key to such service excellence he explains is to make customer interaction as smooth and simple as possible.

 “One thing that absolutely drives me nuts” he begins “is when a company makes me as the customer deal with their own organisational complexity. One of the things we got wrong at HP was we had three divisions at one stage, a hardware division, a software division and a warranty division. We mirrored that in the way we spoke to the customer.”

 

“We copied that structure right into the IDR, if it is a hardware problem press one etc… and I still see it today in companies. Are they designing from the customer experience in or from the organisational structure out?” He asks with a hint of irritation at how so many major service organisations miss the simple premise of putting the customer at the heart of the business.

“Whether it’s retail, hospitality, the medical profession, whatever we do we put our own organisational complexity in the face of our customers. Now, if you are a great company, an exceptional company, if you are there to delight your customers, you don’t do that.” He continues.

So how do we go about building our business to delight our customers? Do we need to look at our processes, our corporate culture or the technology that we use to deliver? Is it a blend of all three to get things right?

Summerhayes explains “The premise starts with thinking of the customer at the heart of everything. It starts with that. You have then got to put in place the culture, then the supporting processes and then finally the technology”

“You can’t turn around and say the technology will solve the problem. The technology is a reflection of your key business processes, your business processes are a reflection of your organisational construct, and your organisational construct drives your culture.”

Of course the importance of getting culture right first is a conversation that has been held many times before, and something we have explored in many an article on fieldservicenews.com yet it remains something that many companies end up getting wrong, and when they do so they can end up in a viscous circle with software that is either out-dated or worse that was never fit for purpose in the first place.

“Lets go right the way back to the point here” Summerhayes states “your engineer, the way he talks, the way he acts, the way he delivers the service is all a reflection of the culture of the organisation, the business processes that he has to follow and then the IT that enables him to do his job.”

With the trusted advisor status that the field engineer has, and his position on the frontline being one of your most powerful points of customer contact it is of course essential that he is as well prepared to succeed as is possible. Especially given that his success will be a direct reflection on your brand both in the short and long term.

As Summerhayes concludes ”having the customer at the heart of what you are doing is key because at the end of the day it is a service industry, you are there to serve”

Given his track record I’d suggest that taking Martin Summerhayes’ advice on this and focussing your service business from a ‘customer in’ perspective is very much the right thing to do.

Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consulting Analyst with Strategies for GrowthSM takes an alternative look at ensuring your mobile workforce is well resourced throughout all seasons...

“The world of work has changed,” according to Jeffrey Leventhal, CEO and co-founder of Work Market, a leading platform and marketplace for finding and managing freelance labor. And this may be especially true for the services industry, where simply doing things the same way they’ve always been done just doesn’t cut it anymore.

However, Leventhal also warns that, “finding the right talent is one of the primary challenges in building an on-demand workforce. Especially for companies who use freelancers at scale, it’s imperative to find a reliable place where you can routinely tap into top-tier freelancers.” For the services industry, top tier typically means highly trained – and in many cases, certified – field technicians that may be confidently dispatched shortly after being recruited and vetted by the organisation. Oh, yeah – and they must also be conveniently located proximate to a wide distribution of customer sites.

How can this be done? And what are the potential pitfalls of not having a well thought out plan for action, or not employing the proper tools to support an expanding market demand? Well, … unfortunately, there are many potential stumbling blocks – unless the plan is built on a foundation structured upon an effective onsite freelancer platform.

According to Diego Lomanto, vice president of marketing for Work Market, “there are six tools, or processes, that a services organisation requires in order to effectively manage its field technician freelancers. They are find, verify, engage, manage, pay and rate.” Each of these tools may be described as follows:

Find

Identifying and finding the right freelancers for the job at hand represents the best place to start. For many businesses, it is relatively easy to screen lists of potential freelancers in easily defined industry segments, such as accountants, home healthcare aides, plumbers and electricians, etc., by relying on any one of a number of widely used list sources such as Craigslist, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), LinkedIn or Google, etc. However, in the services community, most of these list sources will often come up short.

However, an onsite freelancer platform, such as that offered by Work Market, can handle things much more efficiently by providing a tool that:

• Allows the user to build assignments quickly, based on previous work,
• Identifies candidates that best meet the required skill sets, and
• Provides a mechanism for generating and tracking community ratings for each selected candidate (i.e., to assure a consistent level of freelancer quality)

Verify

The verification of the required skill sets represents another major obstacle for most services organisations in terms of their ability to check out the candidate’s background and capabilities, as they relate specifically to field service. In other words, do they have the right stuff – stuff meaning skills, experience and certifications, among others?

The use of an effective onsite freelancer platform takes nearly all of the burden out of the verification process by allowing the user to:

• Verify the candidate’s credentials via an integrated verification process; and
• Identify limit functions which, in turn, will automatically off-board the independent contractor when compliance thresholds are reached, or if certain details change, (i.e., such as expiring insurance coverage or certifications, etc.).

Engage

The engagement process is typically where too many organisation begin the process, as it is typically far less painstaking for some to start with the recruitment of “warm bodies”, rather than mounting a concerted effort upfront to find the most qualified candidates – and be able to verify that they are, in fact, eminently qualified for the job.

This is where an onsite freelancer platform provides, perhaps, one of its greatest value propositions to its users, by allowing them to:

• Organise their field technician workforce into groups for easy assignment en masse; and
• Eliminate the need for having to deal with only one contractor at a time, or conversely, having to rely on group e-mails that make it impossible to manage responses quickly or effectively.

Manage

Managing the freelancer field force should require the greatest levels of attention and oversight by the organisation; however, many managers find themselves too overwhelmed and/or understaffed to effectively handle the situation. Nonetheless, this is often the single process that ultimately defines the direction – and the success – of the organisation in terms of its ability to send the best qualified people to each site, and track their performance and progress over time. Many services organisations utilise fully functioning mobile applications to communicate with their mobile field force in real time – but this may not be enough!

By utilising an onsite freelancer platform, users benefit from a variety of tools that allow for:

• All field communications and management tools to be resident in a single system
• The use of geo-location tools to identify the exact locations of their freelance contractors in real time, and
• The ability of workers to upload and complete all tasks directly through their mobile devices.

Pay

Paying the organisation’s mobile field force freelancers should be one of the easiest jobs to do – but any HR or accounts payable professional will likely tell you different. What should typically only involve the tracking of hours, and cutting checks to the appropriate individuals is generally anything but easy – and PayPal simply doesn’t cut it!

What can make this process as easy as it gets is the ability of the onsite freelancer platform to empower the organisation to:

• Allow for Application Programming Interface (API) integration into existing payment platforms so they can continue to manage their respective accounting processes all in one place, and on a business-as-usual basis; and
• Create a robust mechanism for reporting key financial and compliance data to HR, Accounting – and the CFO – as necessary.

Rate

However, the series of processes does not end once the freelancer is paid, and the transaction is reported. In fact, the process is never-ending – and cyclical – in that the performance of each and every freelancer is rated, tracked and ranked to identify top talent for future projects, and measure the performance of the onsite freelancer model as a whole, over time. It can also be well argued that the organisation will likely have greater confidence in the ratings provided directly by their customers (and/or, their territory managers) rather than by an outside third party, such as Angie’s List or the Better Business Bureau (BBB), etc.

Therefore, the principal benefits of an onsite freelancer platform are that it provides users with:

• An online capability for rating, and viewing ratings, on a much broader scale, and
• The ability to determine the “height of the bar” with regard to the desired, or expected, quality of the worker’s performance.

Coordinating all of these individual tools into a single set of processes may be daunting for many organisations – but not so much when they have the power of an effective onsite freelancer platform such as that offered by Work Market, at their disposal. It is difficult enough to run a services organisation (or any business, for that matter) in general – but it is far more difficult to attempt to do so without the support of the proper technology, tools and processes.

[To download a complimentary whitepaper on “Finding & Managing Onsite Freelancers” for businesses and field service organisations click here]

Well it’s certainly been an interesting few months…

I think the only place I can start this column is the Service Management Expo which ran in mid June. As a brand Service Management Expo (or Service Management Europe) has been around nearly as long as the Service Management Technology industry has existed. Indeed this was the exhibition’s 30th Anniversary so it is an event that has long served our community.

However, it has been far from a steady ride for what is still Europe’s largest event of it’s kind. The brand has changed ownership a number of times over the years, as well as venues and co-located partner shows. It’s been a standalone show of it’s own, sat with alongside a call centre event one year, facilities management another and this year was part of an all encompassing ‘protection and management’ series which current show organisers UBM put together at the London Excel.

Perhaps this is the problem with our little universe. Whilst field service and service management sit neatly across a whole range of other industries the challenges Service Managers and Directors face, and the solutions to those challenges are largely specific to field service. So whilst field service spans across a huge array of different verticals there responsibility for making that service division run smoothly requires a very distinct knowledge base and skill set. With this in mind it is probably understandable that there was a touch of apprehension as to how Service Management Expo would fare it is new home in London’s Excel as the smallest cog in what was in honesty a behemoth of an event?

Yet despite some misgivings, reflecting on the whole they pulled it off. Okay at times the show felt a little lost against the enormity of some of the other events (IFSEC the international fire and security show took up half of the Exel on its own!) and there are definitely more than the odd kink to be ironed out, but as one SME veteran put it ‘a little bit of the buzz was back’ a buzz that had perhaps been becoming conspicuous in its absence for the last few years.

 

Certainly the area surrounding the Field Service Solutions Theatre which was hosted by our good selves had a great feel about it.

Maybe it was the constant stream of excellent, short presentations that we were very proud to have had a hand in arranging that kept people returning to the small auditoria but there was a definite buzz of conversation in the air for large parts of every day.

For me personally the highlight of the Solutions Theatre was the panel debate I hosted featuring Conor O’Neil, Ian Mapp, and Philipp Emennegger  where we discussed the Future of Field Service. In fact I enjoyed it so much I invite them back to take part in the panel discussion in this issue which appears on page 18.  Also you can find our coverage of SME itself across starting on page 32

However, Service Management Expo wasn’t the only event to run in June.

After the sad loss of Steve Downton earlier this year, it was fantastic to see a group of industry professionals, headed up by Chris Farnarth come together to put on a very special Service Community event which was both dedicated to the memory of Steve (whose wife and daughter were in attendance) but also had a second goal of discussing with the community itself how we can continue to build on Steve’s legacy and keep the Service Community thriving.

The event itself was a truly remarkable day absolutely crammed with presentations from some very seasoned service professionals including Coca-Cola Enterprise’s Mark Rawding, Siemans’ Graham Coyne and Fujitsu’s Martin Summerhayes (who is also interviewed for this issue which appears on page 12) amongst others. Coverage of the whole event begins on page 42

Perhaps the most fitting testament to the day was when the session headed into a breakout session at the end for those who wanted to be part of the conversation of how the Service Community should continue almost two thirds of the 60 or so people that attend remained. Steve’s vision for a non-profit, knowledge sharing community that supported each other was never more evident and we are very proud to be part of helping the community to continue to grow from strength to strength.

So after much change it seems that when it comes to our industry events it remains very much business as usual and on that theme I turn my thoughts to the other event that has dominated the headlines throughout June – the World Cup.

England are on the plane home whilst Argentina, Germany, Brazil and Holland remain in the hunt for glory. Yep. Seems like it’s a case of business as usual everywhere then…

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In part one of this exclusive two part interview Field Service News Editor, Kris Oldland talks to Martin Summerhayes of Fujitsu, about his spending over two decades as a pioneer in the field service industry... 

There are a number of key people who have been there and done it in field service. Professionals who have dedicated there lives to service, who have an inherent understanding of what it means to put the customer at the heart of the business strategy, and what it takes to develop a successful service division on an enterprise scale.

And then there is Martin Summerhayes.

A day before our interview I was able to witness Martin give a presentation at the recent Service Community event. In the half hour during which he spoke he gave the impression not only of a man that had a very firm understanding of the whole picture is in terms of service delivery, but also a man who had gained that understanding by paying attention to the minutiae of every aspect of the process.

However, after speaking to him one on one at some length a day later, it was clear that we had only just scratched the surface of Summerhayes’ depth of understanding of the industry in which he operates, as well as his passion for getting it right.

In terms of his entry into the world of field service Summerhayes, like many of his peers took a fairly straightforward path into the system. Having graduated from university in London in the late 80’s he joined HP as a field engineer on a graduate scheme working in their volume repair business.  As he puts it himself “You started as a man with a van and progressed from there”

Summerhayes himself ending up doing so rapidly and was soon not just progressing at HP, but was changing the way the business operated.

 

“My boss asked me to come up with some ideas for generating service revenue” he began as I asked him to describe his path from service engineer to service manager

“I came up with what I called the ten million dollar opportunity, which was literally sold up front. We offered a multi year extended warranty on the HP printers and PCs that we were selling in the UK, this would provide HP with an incremental ten million dollars worth of revenue. It was called the HP support pack business and when I left HP was generating over a billion dollars of revenue per anum.”

And perhaps here is a glimpse at what makes Summerhayes such a fascinating subject for interview or indeed just someone to have a conversation with. Whilst announcing what was a really quite an extraordinary achievement, he makes it sound as if  it was essentially a logical development that anybody else could have made

This of course isn’t true, to create a billion dollar business in any industry takes vision by the bucket load and to do it in a fledgling IT service industry even more so, but the touch of humility he shows when outlining his achievements, and an almost a blasé outlook on such a success, hints at an impression of a man who is almost certainly quite an inspiration to both his peers and his team alike.

In total Summerhayes spent nearly 20 years working with HP, having risen up the ranks from the “Man with a Van” to being at differing points responsible for 450 engineers, developing new programmes within the company to change their processes, to being heavily involved in overseeing the merger with Compaq (which actually also included absorbing Digital Equipment Corporation and Cabletron into the HP structure as well). Eventually he was asked to move to Texas as part of a management restructure, which Summerhayes declined and the HP chapter of his career came to an end.

He then took a decidedly left-field step in his career and took up a role with the Metropolitan Police Force. Spending two years with the ‘Met’ which he describes as “a mix of secret military, local government bureaucracy gone mad and IT” where the culture was one of “meetings, about meetings about meetings” Summerhayes eventually returned to the more familiar corporate environment with Fujitsu where he has been for the past six years.

Here in his roles as Head of Strategy and Business Development he now works directly with the firms fourteen largest accounts in the UK, working with them to establish margin and service improvement opportunities. (Last year alone he was able to deliver over two million pounds of margin improvements.)

Look out for part two of this feature coming soon where we look at Summerhayes' biggest frustrations in field service today as well as what makes him go home smiling after a long day... 

The Service Community’s Special Event attracted nearly 60 service professionals who were clearly up to the challenge of debating key service challenges whilst paying tribute to the legacy of Steve Downton, founder of the Community who lost his battle with cancer in January this year.

The generous host for the event was Unisys, coordinated by Alistair Martin, who ensured guests were treated to first class refreshments and facilities at the Customer Services Centre in Milton Keynes

Clara Downton, Steve’s second eldest daughter opened the session with a touching message from the Downton family reflecting on the spirit of the occasion and how proud Steve would have been to see the passion that was on show. Steve’s widow Kate, was guest of honour and engaged with old friends and new community members throughout the event.

The agenda had been deliberately paced to pack in many presentations and practitioner case studies to showcase the Community at its best. We were not disappointed.

“Transforming for Tomorrow” kicked off the presentations in earnest. Pitney Bowes’ Field Service Management Andy Beer and Mark King shared a fascinating case study of how they deployed a service application to avoid meaningless data and to provide real-time information to ensure that their field service team were truly optimised.

To follow this punchy opening, would take something special, luckily Mark Rawding of Coca Cola Enterprises was ready for the challenge. Mark’s insight into deploying technology for customer satisfaction, dovetailed perfectly with the Pitney Bowes’ experience. The key messages of Mark’s success were appropriate for a mobile application; focus on device selection and engage more with the customer. Both these opening presentations generated great interest from the audience, with pertinent questions and full engagement a true indicator that the sessions had nit the mark.

The Service Community welcomed Martin Gilday to the stage. Martin, SVP at Elekta (manufacturers of medical equipment) recounted his memories of Steve as he blended the importance of effective knowledge management at Elekta with personal experiences from his long services career. The content and relaxed delivery kept the audience captivated and carried us effortlessly to the halfway mark. The networking opportunity of the Community is a key feature that Steve understood to be one of the value-added benefits of the organisation; this was underscored by the lively discussions and interactions that ensued throughout the break.

 

The penultimate presentation got underway, Martin Summerhayes picked up without missing a beat, deliberating about the reality of field service practices, describing what is known at Fujitsu as the ‘infinity loop’ of the service cycle. His interactive style ensured that Martin gained optimal feedback as he demonstrated why he has been invited to speak on several occasions at the Service Community events.

Incredibly after what was aptly described as a ‘marathon sprint’ the final presentation was underway. Graeme Coyne of Siemens hit a chord as he described the challenges of inspiring the next generation of Service Engineers and producing a powerful service operation. The audience responded energetically, asking hard hitting questions about how to relate to young people in a way to attract them into the service industry. It was a lively conclusion to the formal presentations and generated relevant content for a future meeting.

This packed Special Event easily delivered on its objectives, whilst the energy and involvement of the guests certainly demonstrated that active participation is the only type that matters. Chris Farnath of Allocate Software chaired the event and wrapped the formal session. As indicated ahead of the event, he then invited interested guests to debate the future direction of the Service Community. As a testimony to the success of the proceedings, nearly three quarters of the guests remained for the break-out session, where it became very clear, very quickly that the Service Community had relevance, longevity and a unique position to offer service professionals.

The content of the meetings is the life-blood of The Community, followed closely by the generosity of participants to offer facilities and key skills such as PR, marketing promotion or other services that will keep The Service Community alive. To this point, the next event is scheduled for September – date to be confirmed.