ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘management’ CATEGORY

Nick Frank, a specialist service management consultant with Noventum Service Management continues his series of case studies outlining best practices in field service...

Previous case studies showed some of the steps companies can take to understand the value of service to their business. Companies have deep dived into their customer’s journey, gained insight into what the customer’s perceive as value, as well as determined what their own corporate strategy is to make money. Secure in this understanding they are ready to implement their GO To market strategy. And the first step is to develop and deploy service propositions that speak to the customer.

What is he talking about you may be asking yourself?  Go look at your website or those of your competitors and see how the services propositions are described. I looked at a company I used to work for and found what is typical for many. Descriptions of what they do!

If you are an engineer or product guy, it kind of makes sense, because its what we do! But think from the customer’s perspective. Managers are interested in outcomes. In most commercial organisations this is how they are paid and what they do.

So if you are really a customer led organisation should you not also focus on the outcomes? This is what Yokogawa did. In our previous blog we talked about how they developed a clear view of the value their customer’s perceived they could offer. Well they took this view and designed their propositions around it.

They literally tried to design service propositions that would speak to their customers.

So if you look at their vigiplant (http://www.yokogawa.com/vps/vps-index-en.htm) service offering, you will notice that the language they use to describe their portfolio has a very marked customer orientation. They group their services in terms of outcomes:

• Opportunity Identification Services
• Solution Implementation Services
• Lifecycle Effectiveness Services[/unordered_list]

They try to use a language that describes the value. In other words they talk of ‘Production Excellence’, rather than how it is might be delivered through ’Software Products’.

Now this is quite a different approach and one that took me a long time to really appreciate. That the words we use are a reflection of our own values. So if we look at how companies describe their services, what we see is their true culture and attitudes towards their customers and clients.

At Noventum we call this ‘Service Thinking’. To learn more about this and how to successfully deliver service propositions that really speak to your customers, why not look at this case study on Service Thinking (http://www.noventum.eu/cases/believe-in-service-thinking)

Nick Frank is a service specialist with Noventum Service Management

Read part one of Nick's series here

Read part two of Nick's series here

Read part three of Nick's series here

As we come to the end of January, Nick Frank, consultant with Noventum Service Management looks a little further ahead at what the rest of the year may yield. 

At the backend of 2013, did you notice that the field services community was increasingly talking about the critical role of knowledge in creating a thriving and profitable services business. Solution providers were all telling us about analytics, transparency and the benefits of working in the connected world. Buzzwords such as ‘Big Data’ and ‘The Internet of Things’ were being bandied around as if we all should be experts.

Companies started talking openly about their development of remote solutions to improve their customers OEE and create new revenue streams. This ‘enlightenment’ I am sure will continue into 2014, but with it I believe will come the realisation that it’s NOT AS EASY as purchasing the latest IT system or implementing some workshop/training programmes.

No, I think that although companies will increasingly see the possibilities that future corporate growth will be in a large part enabled by new services, they will realise that to participate, they must do something different! More and more we will hear companies talking about the need for a step change or transformation.

This is because to gain the full value from these technologies, companies need a fundamental shift in their People, Culture and Processes!

Knowledge savvy People and Culture:

The bulk of the value to be won lies in the customer’s process and operations. Developing services that help the customer’s business be more effective requires a shift to an OUTSIDE-In culture. The customer’s processes and how they experience our Brand must be at the heart of our own product and service strategy. Easy words, but not so easy when you consider that most of us whose careers have grown through products, do rather have an INSIDE-Out view on technology, manufacturing and making things work.

But in developing this understanding we have to change our whole view of knowledge and how we manage it. The first step is to appreciate its importance to our own organisation and customers. What is important to protect, and what can be shared. I say this because to achieve change in an increasingly complex technological world, the concept of co-creation and partnering is becoming stronger. We are seeing companies and customers coming together to form eco-systems to solve complex problems. But this requires the management of knowledge and knowing what and how it can be shared; a capability that many businesses struggle to deal with.

Processes for a new paradigm:

Mind-set may start transformation, but it’s the execution of processes that will bring value. To really benefit from these emerging technologies, it’s logical that processes will be re-engineered for the new technology paradigm. And we are not just talking about the flow of activities. This must include the management rules that underpin the processes, the KPIs to manage performance, the competencies of the people, as well as defining the businesses functional requirements for it’s IT and support systems. Get this last factor wrong, and all the latest technologies and concepts will not help your business move forward.

Sounds complex and expensive. This is where some recent research findings from Noventum bring some interesting insight as to what is needed to move forward. Between April & December last year, we talked with over 150 business leaders and service professionals about which strategies were driving business growth and the role of services.

Two findings stood out in relation to this discussion:

1. Service is becoming recognised as a strategic solution to facilitating a company’s growth strategy.
2. Companies have an increasing desire to develop more advanced services that address their customer’s processes, but show a reluctance to move forward until Product related services are mastered.

We believe the insight these findings provide for 2014 is that, as companies recognise the role that Knowledge and Technology can play in their future profitability, they will get excited….

….and then there will be a sharp intake of breath as they start to evaluate the implications.

However, if they begin to see service as a strategic lever to support the company growth goals, then the investment implications actually becomes more manageable, and are probably smaller than for many product R&D projects.

Secondly by breaking down the transformation into smaller steps, and re-engineering their delivery process and functional requirements, they can harness the technology to achieve results today, but which are scalable to their future growth vision.

At the end of the day, time will tell if this view of the world will be true, but if you would like to get a head start and develop your own thoughts, Noventum will be running a series of events on this topic which can be found at http://www.noventum.eu/calendar

The field service industry made it’s final farewells to a trusted friend, guide and mentor yesterday as one of it’s leading lights Steve Downton was laid to rest after a long fight with Cancer.

Personally I only had the pleasure of speaking with Steve on a couple of occasions. Firstly when I took over the editorial reigns of the now closed Service Management Online and still wet behind the ears in terms of field service, I made sure Steve was one of the first people in the industry I turned to for advice from as his reputation for being both a brilliant thinker and genuine good guy was well renowned right across the sector.

In that first conversation, Steve displayed both of these qualities plus an abundance of industry knowledge that set me in good stead and his willingness to help and his sheer passion for the industry shone through throughout the hour or so that we spoke.

And then secondly Steve was one of the first people I looked to for guidance when we decided to launch Field Service News and I’d like to think that the course we are steering with FSN is very much inline (and will continue to remain so) of Steve’s own objectives with his own Service Community, i.e  delivering high quality insight and analysis for all field service professionals, so we can all continue to learn and grow together as this ever fascinating industry evolves.

The following comments are from others in the industry who knew and worked alongside Steve for far longer than I and I think are a fitting testament to how well respected and well loved Steve was within the Field Service community.

 

If you would like to add your own thoughts and memories of Steve please feel free to do so in the comments section below:

 

"Everyone is special, but there are some who have that little bit ‘more light’ about them. Steve Downton was one of those people. For the past 30 years he has truly been on the cutting edge of service innovation thinking in the real world of UK business. With a razor sharp mind and an openness to the world around him, Steve kept that half step ahead of the rest of us. His passion for the role of services in industry drove his career in leading consulting businesses such as Coopers & Lybrand,  Accenture and Noventum. For many years he ran his own consulting firm, supporting hundreds of clients to increase their value from services.

His Outside-In, Positive, People centric approach with a touch of humility epitomised some of the key attributes to be successful in services.   Although his life on this world was tragically to short,  I myself along with many others will count ourselves fortunate to have been touched by this extra-ordinary man."

Nick Frank. Noventum Service Management

 

“Steve worked with us for several years. His experience in the industry was unmatched and he could see things in a different way to others. But what struck me most was that he was simply one of those chaps that you liked to meet-up with and work with. A warm hearted, super-friendly person, yet with a razor sharp mind that facilitated new views about old subjects. He will be sorely missed by all.”

Paul Adams. Solarvista

 

“Steve was just nice man who had seen it, done it, wanted to make a difference and did. His service management knowledge and its application is making many end users around EMEA satisfied and the delivery companies profit. The greatest contribution any man can give is willingness to help, and Steve did that in abundance and the industry is in better place thanks to Steve`s contributions"

Glyn Dodd, Centrex Services

 

"We worked closely with Steve over a number of years and he was a major contributor to our educational and seminar content at Service Management Expo, where his sessions were always popular and engaging. His depth of knowledge and standing in the community was second to none, but more significantly he was a gentleman to work with and much liked by all that knew him."

Fergus Bird. Event Manager, Service Management Expo

 

“There are few people that positively inspire you from the moment you meet them, Steve Downton was one of them. Having met Steve in the late 90’s when working at HP, we kept in touch over the years and collaborated on numerous projects.

Steve was THE customer services expert that you could always count on. He would bring a customer centric, “out side in”, up to date, content rich, but most of all pragmatic approach to how to deliver excellent profitable customer services. Most of all he was a gentle, warm and genuine person to know and I and many others miss him greatly.”

Martin Summerhayes. Fujitsu

 

“I had known and worked with Steve for over 14 years, and whilst his knowledge of the industry was second to none, his key strengths are how he engaged with everyone, engineer or CEO, making them immediately at ease.  Even if you were in a roomful of people, you felt he was talking to you and engaging everyone.  

Wherever he is now, I know he will be making people smile. A true special soul and what I hope is that his enthusiasm and spirit will live on and rub off on all of us”

Simon Spriggs. Exel

 

“Steve helped me greatly, both personally and professionally. He carried an empathy and insight in his field of specialty which was matched in his one to one, personal relationships.

There was never a hidden side to Steve. In a world full of questionable motives where words often exchanged without meaning, he was one of the few genuine characters. He said what he meant and he always thought of others.”

Saul Sherry. Former Editor, Service Management. 

 

 

 

Strategies for Growth's President, and member of the Field Service News advisory panel, Bill Pollock takes a look at how he believes the industry will fare in the coming year...

All things point to 2014 as being the year when “Back to the Basics” and “Back to the Future” are finally due to collide. The collision will not be spontaneous – nor will it be particularly disruptive. In fact, it is likely to be extremely synergistic! Moreover, our research strongly suggests that these two otherwise divergent paths will begin to work together in a more harmonious manner to propel the global services community to even greater heights with respect to both revenue growth and profitability.

Granted, similar statements are made around this time each year (some, even, by myself); however, 2014 will be a markedly different year in that there has already been a steady uptick in new technology investment evidenced over the past 12 - 18 months (i.e., supporting the “future”), coupled with a renewed appreciation that customer needs and expectations must once again be placed at the top of the list of market strategies and actions that can empower services organisations to attain higher levels of service performance, customer satisfaction and profitability (i.e., the “basics”).

Let me explain how these two paths are most likely to collide …

“Back to the Basics”

Immediately following the “great” global economic meltdown of several years ago, most services organisations almost immediately went into cost-cutting mode in an attempt to reign in expenses (both capital and operating). While some employed an orchestrated approach to cost-cutting, others may have gone somewhat overboard or, even worse, may have ended up not having cut enough waste or inefficiencies in a timely enough manner. Nonetheless, over several years, most of the leading (i.e., “best practices”) services organisations were finally able to rollback costs to a point where they were able to not only survive, but thrive in a downturned global economy.

However, as it became increasingly evident that costs could not be cut any lower (i.e., nothing more to cut!), many organisations found themselves struggling to maintain – let alone bolster – their respective bottom lines. Once again, the leading organizations recognised that the bottom line was actually an equation, influenced directly by both costs and revenues (among numerous other factors). Therefore, if they could not decrease the cost side of the equation any longer, the best way to improve the bottom line would be to drive higher levels of service revenues. Thus began a brief era (i.e., two to three years or so) that transitioned the focus from cost-cutting to revenue generation.

Fast forward to 2014, and we are now seeing a global services community that has much of its costs under control, has taken proactive and interactive steps to drive increased levels of service revenues, and has allowed itself (gratefully) to re-focus its resources on the needs and expectations of the customer – a return to a more classic approach to services strategies and actions.

“Back to the Future”

However, it seems that each year, new technologies, applications, tools and “toys” are forecasted to “change the way in which we live” – or, for the services community, “the way in which we will be able to manage our operations.” Some prime examples have included such diverse technologies and tools as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and tablets, RFIDs and scanners, M2M and remote monitoring, the Segway – and the list goes on and on. Then we all take a collective deep breath, wait a few years, and – sometimes, before we even are fully aware, they quietly become integral components of both our lives and our businesses. (Well, maybe not so much with respect to the Segway!)

Fortunately (albeit mainly for those organizations that have already prepared themselves for dealing with the “basics”), the “future” is about to collide with them – but in a good way. For example, earlier this year, it was reported that a fighter jet used by the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF) flew with 3-D printed metal components for the first time. The air intake support struts, protective guards for take-off shafts and cockpit radio covers inside the Tornado jet were all made by 3-D metal printing, said defense manufacturer BAE Systems.

In October 2013, U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin said it was experimenting with 3-D printing of titanium parts for use in space flight; and NASA has plans to put a 3-D printer on the International Space Station later this year. Although 3-D printers can cost several hundred dollars or more, the question remains, how much can your organization save by 3-D printing some of its more common, fairly basic, parts?

M2M technology; big data; real-time telematics; and new mobile devices, applications and tools are being introduced to the global services landscape on a seemingly weekly basis, and – oh, yes, before you know it, many of 2013’s, 2012’s or (plug in the year) “new” technologies that may have mysteriously fallen off of our radar screens, may actually find their ways into our services organisations’ regular operating routines, thereby supporting the transition of this year’ “future” to next year’s “basics.

Enjoy the transition – and don’t forget to “mind the collision!”

 

 

This is the 3^rd article in a series of case studies which examines how companies can improve their understanding of there own Value, create more effective GO-TO Market strategies and drive profitability through efficient Service Delivery models.

‘If you want customer insight to develop new services, go ask the sales force’….uh oh …probably not completely the right idea.  Sorry guys but customer’s talk to sales people in a different kind of way. So while sales input is essential, there are many factors that influence the accuracy of the feedback.

If you really want to understand what your customers value, probably its best to go direct to the customers themselves. That’s why many senior managers insist on visiting customer. But how many times have you heard the CEO call for a change of direction based on a recent visit to an unhappy customer.  A more balanced approach is needed to make informed decisions, if you do not want to fall into the trap of this frequently used quote, ’8% of companies think they deliver superior experience…….only 8% of their customers agree!’

The solution to a balanced & informed analysis is often to involve impartial 3^rd parties.

Take Yokogoawa,  an industrial leader in automation solutions for process industries. Back in 2010 they wanted to know what services their customers thought they should offer. They had talked to the sales force who came back with a pure price, price, price argument. To the Benelux service manager Ton van den Ham, this did not add up, and he felt that perhaps they were asking the wrong questions in the wrong way. So he engaged a 3^rd party to help structure a set of visits and interviews aimed at getting under underneath the skin of their customers. Why a 3^rd party. Well he wanted an impartial perspective that did not carry Yokogawa baggage.

The interviews were done jointly with the 3^rd party acting as a coach and sometime lead. To Yokogawa’s amazement they found that their customer’s really appreciated the technical competence of the application engineers. That the customer’s challenge, was not in fact lower prices, but to have more stable and predictable processes for their chemical plants. The customer’s wanted Yogokawa’s technical experts to be even more engaged at a much deeper level in their business to help keep their processes at the optimum performance.

Armed with this feedback Yokogawa, started to develop their services programme which has developed into what they refer to as ‘Vigiplant Services’

At a recent conference Ton described his his experience of this programme as:   ‘You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s worthwhile talking to your customers to get a different perspective’

So the moral of the story is that when you are developing your services business, forensically clean customer insight is key to truly understanding the value you offer. Don’t be afraid of getting outside people that you trust involved in this process as the results may be surprising. If you would like to learn more about this case study, you can see a video of Ton’s presentation at: http://smc.noventum.nl/smc2011/service-track-video-presentations-2011

Nick Frank is a service specialist with Noventum Service Management and can be contacted at nick.frank@noventum.eu

Read part one of this series, Creating value through services: Where to Start? here  

Read Part two of this series, Ouch! getting the profit/cost centre call wrong in your service business here

 

 

In the first part of this two part feature Glyn Dodd, Managing director of Centrex Services discussed how with the current economic business pressure, reducing costs in the service management supply chain without compromising customer satisfaction is a challenge which must be faced head on...

Now in the concluding part of this feature Glyn outlines why Big Data isn’t the answer to solve all the service management industries issues, why failure is a good thing, and why true Business Intelligence is perhaps the key to unlocking a successful future for service management…

Big data is not the answer

The final element of deriving complete business intelligence is the data. The arrival of complex data analytics may seem to be the answer to such issues, but I believe that the data alone is not enough to improve the current state of the service supply chain.

There is a widely held belief that generating ever increasing amounts of data is the answer to all our service supply chain needs, but alone it is irrelevant if not turned into useful information. It’s the business intelligence transforming this into relevant information which is vital for the creation of an efficient, integrated service supply chain, abolishing the silos that plague the current model.

Companies such as Centrex Services source business intelligence from reason code data and apply a layer of diagnostics. The codes detail the circumstances that have caused the code to be raised and the associated completion code. Rather than just documenting each code and applying the same reasoning to each circumstance, the business identifies repetitive causes and designs a solution to resolve the issue, without it reoccurring.

This intelligence was applied when we identified a recurring problem on the point of sale system at a fast food outlet. A plastic part of the POS hardware was continuing to break, causing the same reason code in the majority of the support calls. When the business analysed the fault, they found the operators were leaning on the part of this hardware during use. The plastic was simply not robust enough. By tooling a metal replacement part, the problem was resolved permanently.

Delivering customer satisfaction is a critical part of any business and deriving intelligence plays a large part in the experience. Diagnostics of reason codes is therefore vital, yet many do not see the long term benefits which have an adverse affect on customer satisfaction within the service supply chain.

If businesses diagnose the reason codes, business intelligence can be created, which in turn can be used to offer improved SLA’s, rather than accepting a failure rate.

Why should we plan to fail?

In addition to the people, processes and data, the service supply chain is heavily reliant on service level agreements. We need to  question the current ethos in place throughout the service supply chain, claiming some companies are in fact preparing for failure.

There are circumstances where SLA’s are not being met as a direct result of people and processes being deployed without applying context to the data which has been sourced. I also question why SLA agreements are being signed allowing up to a 15 per cent failure rate when the deployment of business intelligence can realistically create a network in which success is inevitable.

The need for such change was identified in a business intelligence not utilising business intelligence, which resulted in an SLA being missed.

A client of ours works closely with a very well known American diner chain and have in place an agreement which states once a call has been made to report a technical fault, there must be a field-service engineer on-site to resolve the issue within four hours.

The issue here was, these calls can come in at any time of the day and the mentality was that the SLA must be met at all costs. So, when a call reporting faulty point of sales systems was placed at 1.00pm, processes were set in motion to guarantee an engineer was on-site by 5.00pm.

However, once they arrived, they were turned away, as the restaurant was unable to accommodate the work during their busiest period as this would result in a decline in productivity which in turn can lead to a loss of custom. Ultimately, the SLA was not met.

This demonstrates just how vital it is that the service supply chain changes, as had business intelligence been utilised, there is no way an engineer would have been sent to a restaurant during such a busy time.

Business intelligence is the future

Efficient communication, processes and correct analytics provides the business intelligence needed to simplify the fragmented supply chain. Simplification leads to more efficient service delivery, guaranteed SLA’s, greater customer satisfaction and ultimately transforms the service supply chain for competitive advantage.

Now is the time for senior decision makers to challenge all elements of the chain; without constant innovation and new thinking the industry will continue to be perceived as a laggard – a disparate set of fragmented, commoditised services that fail to meet the required standard.

 

 

 

For field service organisations looking to augment their end-to-end service management offering, there’s a range of innovative technologies that can make a real difference. We’ve already seen technologies such as cloud, mobile, social media and self-service start to extend the capabilities of field operation, however one that has had less focus until now is the increasing use of web chat.

Field service operations have traditionally struggled to unite two key elements – the technical expertise of their field-based engineers with the availability of their service desks. Not surprisingly, engineers are always busy – either travelling to a customer location or already engaged onsite.

Now with multi-way web chat, however, it is possible to bring field engineers and the service desk together. Service agents can now bring other experts from any department into their customer conversations, and – through mobiles and customer service apps – bring in field-based engineers from any location.

Web chat is one of the most rapidly growing channels – particularly among younger customers. As well as providing an additional channel for customers to check for updates and advice from the service desk, chat is now set to play an increasingly important role within field service management.

Examples of how chat can be put to work include helping field staff to exchange best practice, and also connecting customers directly to field staff to speed resolution.

Chat can enable direct communications between field staff, allowing them to use mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets to create conversation threads to share knowledge on recent issues and exchange resolution tips.

Chat can also be put to use as part of an integrated customer service approach. When clients are speaking to a service desk agent and need further assistance, the agent can quickly open up a 3-way chat session with the appropriate expert field service engineer. Often client issues can be resolved in this way without the field service professional actually needing to visit the client site.

For organisations looking to add chat to their service management portfolio, it’s important to look for solutions that can extend the value of their existing systems approach. Key functionality should include the ability for service centre agents to conduct multiple chats, chat conferencing, as well as the ability to integrate with knowledge bases and FAQs.

While chat can be deployed on a standalone basis, it delivers optimum value as part of broader multi-channel universal queue approach – ideally accessible from the service desk via a streamlined service agent desktop. Implemented correctly, chat increases choice for customers, and opens up the opportunity to link directly with service experts who can resolve client requests quickly and cost-effectively.

Managing a field service operation in today’s marketplace is not an easy feat and there are many barriers that need to be overcome and steps that need to be taken in order to execute a perfect workday. Trimble FSM's Mark Forrest explains how this can be achieved. 

With customer expectations at an all-time high, the pressure to deliver the best service performance has never been higher and it is a clear objective for any field service company that wants to remain competitive. However, budget constraints have led businesses having to achieve service excellence with fewer resources, resulting in meeting SLA Commitments, providing short appointment windows and ensuring the ‘first time fix’ that much harder to achieve.

When it comes to managing a field operation and achieving the perfect workday, it is often supposed that knowing each vehicle’s position would be at the heart of the solution. However, it isn’t where the vehicles are that’s important, its where the engineer or field service worker is and what they are doing that is of paramount concern, as ultimately they are the ones providing the service to the end customer.

So executing  a ‘perfect’ mobile workday may be a rarity as field service workers are regularly faced with obstacles often out of their control. For example, jobs may overrun as they turn out to be more complicated than first thought, emergency work may come in which changes the day’s schedule or traffic congestion and vehicle breakdown can cause delays or failure to meet an appointment. Additionally, with workers calling in sick, starting late or getting lost; all these factors can impact adversely on the productivity of the workforce. With much field-based work becoming increasingly mission-critical in terms of timing, skills and consequence more importantly than ever companies need to ensure that their field service is not derailed by unpredictable dynamics of the working day.

Achieve your perfect work schedule

In a recent survey by The Service Council, nearly half of organisations highlighted their interest in broader investments in field service in the next 12-24 months[1]. Developments in Work Management technologies, for field services, have come to the fore as solutions able to transform the way in which work is performed, through intelligent scheduling tools and advanced performance analytics. This capability provides the stepping stones needed to help organisations measure, manage and improve their operations through optimising resources, offering real-time visibility and monitoring and giving warning of tasks at risk or showing the impact of work allocation decisions.

Such capabilities helps to increase the profitability of service delivery as it allows the field service manager to schedule tasks to meet SLAs, produce efficient routes to reduce travel time, fuel costs and overtime and ensures work is only given to those with the right skills.

Many organisations schedule tasks based on a technician’s allocated territory, however selecting the most knowledgeable technician, or one who has the right tools or parts in their vehicle, is also crucial. More and more organisations are beginning to realise the value of ‘intelligent scheduling’ - incorporating technician knowledge, parts availability, and capacity into their scheduling processes to ensure that the technician arriving on site is actually the person who can resolve the customer’s issue first time. AberdeenGroup[2] found that intelligence is at the heart of scheduling with over half of organisations using service performance data to evaluate the effectiveness of scheduling criteria.

Self-learner tools help with intelligent scheduling. They incorporate an algorithm that quickly learns preferences for each mobile worker and will allocate tasks accordingly. This includes geography (which mobile workers normally service particular areas) and skill (learns what skills mobile workers have and to what degree they are qualified to do particular types of work).The first step to managing productivity requires field service managers to get the right people with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time and the self-learner tool significantly helps in achieving this.

Optimise productivity to achieve quality of service through greater business intelligence

It is important to remember that technology is purely an enabler and measuring the effectiveness of technology is just as important as the initial install. It is the management information and performance management analysis and how this is used that is fundamental in meeting business targets. A survey by the Service Council confirmed that performance management and visibility was a major area of concern in field service. Reassuringly, developments in workforce management technology have begun to offer a solution to these concerns.

Performance Management Analytics (PMA) provides field service managers with the visibility to analyse the productivity of their fleet operations. For example, scheduling statistics for individual workers can be recorded from the start of the day and compared with the position at the end of the day. Based on actual location data, easily digestible performance reports can be generated and customised to showcase the key metrics of a field operation. These can range from if the quality of service has been met/failed, utilisation (total time vs. time spent on tasks), efficiency (actual vs. estimated task duration), total tasks completed, total fuel usage and total distance travelled.

By adopting PMA the field service manager is provided with the visibility to identify what is preventing the company from doing more jobs and able to identify gaps in the working day where mobile workers could be utilised elsewhere.

An additional capability of the technology is that it provides the field service manager with the ability to learn from day-to-day experiences. Data can be collected about the trends in the field, the type of jobs that overrun, the number of commitments met and the performance of individual and groups of service workers. If, for example, a service worker takes 40 minutes for a particular task whereas the average for others is two hours, then is that worker cutting corners or are they simply an outstanding employee? Conversely, if taking two hours as opposed to 40 minutes then do they need additional training?

Such integration not only ensures that all relevant stakeholders across different business units have the salient information they need to manage the daily performance of the organisation, but the performance analysis also helps feed into strategic business planning on targets, budgets and resourcing.

Ultimately, the capabilities provided by Work Management technologies overcomes the business challenges field service companies have been faced with for years. How do I know what is really happening in my field service operations? How do I know that what my workers say they are doing is true? How can I get more jobs done per day? What prevents me from doing more work? How good is the quality of service? How effectively are resources being met? Taking a holistic approach across field operations and obtaining visibility into the work in its entirety is essential and the business intelligence provided by Work Management technology achieves this, suggesting that the old adage of ‘you cannot manage what you cannot measure’ certainly rings true.

To find out how to achieve your perfect workday, demonstration videos are available, featuring Aubrey Fox, Work Management Product Manager for Trimble Field Service Management:

Performance Analytics - http://www.youtube.com/embed/bIjrXqG60KE

Scheduling and Optimisation - http://www.youtube.com/embed/cFO__9_IK-g

With the current economic business pressure, reducing costs in the service management supply chain without compromising customer satisfaction is a challenge which must be faced head on. Glyn Dodd, Managing Director of Centrex Services explains why...

Facing the challenge...

Managing this balancing act requires business intelligence, which refers to the applications, tools, infrastructure and best practices which enable raw data to be transformed into significant information, and as such can be utilised to improve outdated processes in the service management arena.

Sadly, the current service supply chain model does not use business intelligence, but relies on a silo system, in which each area of the network, namely diagnostics and scheduling, parts, logistics, field service and repair, is run by a separate company.

Although the majority of companies working within the service supply chain use this silo model, there are major pitfalls to doing so which seem to be overlooked by the decision makers which strategically drive the agenda.

Quite simply, these are issues that cannot be overlooked in modern service management.

We know the service supply chain model has been working inefficiently, with separate entities running each sector of the network. Unsurprisingly, the communication between these areas is often found lacking, as an issue which the diagnostics team are unable to resolve is simply passed on to the next stage, when in reality it may not have been necessary to do so.

The current model invariably results in the deployment of field service engineers, regardless of the scale of the problem, due to a lack of business intelligence. The cost-effectiveness of such a system must therefore be scrutinised.

There are three key elements to the service supply chain which transcend each of the five silos. By studying the people, processes and data which unite to create the service supply chain, while simultaneously identifying the inefficiencies within these silos, each element can be challenged. Ultimately, this will culminate in a far more efficient network.

Correctly skilled representatives create cost-effectiveness in service management

The three key elements which are vital to the functionality of the service supply chain must be dissected to create the most effective model available. The first of these are the people who represent businesses in the service supply chain. This is the element which is easiest to directly challenge, as this can be controlled through efficient management of correctly skilled representatives.

Personally, I believe that the current silo model within the service supply chain is in fact impeding such change.

Communication is of paramount importance in all businesses, and this applies to those working in the service management, where we live and die by the level of customer service we are able to offer.

It is therefore unacceptable that the communication silos which the majority of businesses seem to rely upon result in a system where cross-silo communication is so poor. This is especially poignant when it is the customers who pay the price. It is hard to believe, when some businesses utilise an integrated service network which improves communication, that the silo structure continues.

A recent study by the Aberdeen Group shows service supply chain customers agree with this sentiment. 58 per cent of respondents state they want to see an improvement of diagnosis of triage at the initial call level. With further statistics showing there is a 24 per cent increase in first-time fix performance, from 62-86 per cent, when all calls are routed via triage, it is clear that such intelligent communication can increase service level agreements (SLA) and in turn, customer satisfaction levels.

Inefficient processes must be challenged

Customer satisfaction levels cannot be increased solely through challenging the service supply chain businesses representatives. Alongside this, processes must also be scrutinised to construct an efficient service in which business intelligence can be utilised.

With business needs evolving continuously, the processes which are currently commonplace within the network cannot be sustained in the long term.

Although this is a vital step in the evolution of the service supply chain, this message is not reaching the relevant decision makers.

Those decision-makers who strategically alter the function within the service supply chain do not necessarily have the knowledge required to alter the inefficient processes which currently plague the system.

With businesses worried about maintaining their profit margins in these difficult times, altering the processes they use can seem like an unnecessary burden, which is then wrongly linked to excess spending. If they used a leansource approach to integrate the service supply chain rather than tactically selecting separate companies, efficiency levels would increase, while spending decreases and complex issues are transformed into competitive advantage.

A study by research organisation McKinsey looking into the priorities in the global supply chain support this. 61 per cent of respondents cited reducing operating costs as a priority over the past three years, which is a task manageable through creating more efficient processes within the service supply chain. Once achieved, the percentage of SLA’s which are successfully achieved will increase without any additional pressure being applied on the deployed field service engineers.

Read the second part of this  feature here where Glyn outlines why Big Data isn’t the answer to solve all the service management industries issues, why failure is a good thing, and why true Business Intelligence is perhaps the key to unlocking a successful future for service management...