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Jan Van Veen continues his latest exclusive Field Service News series on how companies can monetise their services and data by exploring how companies can remove the obstacles that are stopping them build momentum with their clients...

 

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Catch up with the previous articles in this series How to Monetise Services and IoT and How To Monetise Services And IoT: Better Articulate Value now! 

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Central question

Many manufacturers experience pressure on growth, revenue and margins.

Their products and services are being commoditised. Competition from lower cost alternatives are arising. On the other hand, there are huge opportunities with new technologies, value propositions and business models.

One of the important trends is that value proposition and offerings become more data-driven and more service-oriented. However, many manufacturers are product-driven businesses which do not fully appreciate the value that service has for their customers and own business.

So, one of the central questions is: How to Monetise Services and Data in order to Grow in a Disruptive World? The capability to monetising service and IoT is mission critical for sustainable performance and existence of manufacturing.

In a series of articles, we cover 4 critical steps that make the difference between success and failure in monetising Services and Data:

1. Solve bigger customer problems, which is about creating significantly more value for customers. 
2. Articulate the value
3. Build momentum with clients to adopt
4. Build internal momentum for monetisation

 

Common mistakes

Too often we see that with (new) services, the new solutions and features we launch are not always that easy to start using for our clients. If the obstacles to adopt are too big and not solved, less clients will use it or will delay using it significantly, and in the meantime will not see the real value, in turn creating more obstacles and resistance, resulting in limited commercial success.

If you encounter such signals, it may not always be easy to get a clear picture whether;

1. Your clients simply do not have the problem that your solution is trying to solve
2. Your solution is not adequately fixing the problem compared to other solutions
3. There are serious constraints in applying your solution, even if it is a good solution

So, caution is advised in these situations not to jump to wrong conclusions.

For the sake of this article, let us assume 1) and 2).

The obstacles in applying your solution can be categorised as follows:

 

Lack of money

The new solution you are offering appears to be too expensive for your client.

It is seen as too big an investment and/or recurring cost in relation to the value they perceive will be received.

It could be that the issue is more related to the perception of the value, how well that has been articulated (see previous article on ‘Better Articulate the Value’) or that you are not talking to the right decision makers in your client’s organisation.

 

Lack of skills

Using the new solutions are too complex and difficult for your client, as they are complex to use and require a lot of training to acquire the necessary skills.

 

Lack of access

Often, the new solutions can only be used and generate value in certain circumstances.

Commonly overlooked is that applying the new solutions and receiving value from it, often requires:

• A significant change in the way of working by staff, which triggers too much resistance
• A significant overhaul of the processes and information flow
• A change in the structure of the organisation and roles, with some staff even losing their role/ job

 

Lack of time

For many new solutions, it takes time and effort to make sure they are adequately used and embedded in the organisation. If the pressure from daily business and other projects is high, it easily happens that adopting the new solutions is put on the back burner and falls off the radar.

 

Risk

In essence, there could be two main sources of perceived risk:

• The risk that the solution does not work as expected and hence does not bring value
• The more social risk of sticking out your neck for change which might not be accepted by stakeholders
• Too often we focus on the technical part of our new solution or features, and do not give other client needs and obstacles enough consideration,  when:
• Gaining customer insight into their bigger problems
• Developing a remarkable solution to solve these bigger customer problems
• How and with whom we discuss the client problems, and promote and sell our solutions

An interesting example is a major metal wholesaler that is looking into adding extra value to industrial clients by not only offering standard trade sizes, but other services too.

They also offer services like cutting, drilling, bending and even picking packages for direct delivery into different locations in the manufacturing  for their clients. This really solves a lot of challenges for low-volume high-mix manufacturers.

However, using these services means that equipment and people doing the pre-manufacturing work becomes redundant or they have to change their role. It also means inventory goes down, which changes the (perception of the) stability and contingency in the production line, depending on an external party.

The result was that initially most clients did not buy the new offerings, regardless of the well-articulated (financial) benefits and business cases.

At some point, stakeholders started doubting the potential of the added value services and whether to abandon the initiative or not.

 

Some practical solutions

Manufacturers that are quite successful in launching and growing customer adoption of the new solutions and features, have the following good practices:

1. The have a broader view on the bigger customer problems and challenges beyond the functional requirements of equipment. They better understand the operational and change challenges and therefore have a more integral view on what it takes to improve on these problems and challenges. Important obstacles are included in the design instead of as an afterthought.

2. They develop a more concrete and remarkable solution to solve the bigger customer problems. Where needed, the obstacles (in using the new solutions) are already designed into the solution.

For example:

a. They focus more on simplifying the solution, making it easier to use with less training and implementation effort for their clients.

b. Their solution is more than a technical solution and includes support in implementing and maintaining a new way of working.

 c. They offer an ascending engagement model in which customers step-by-step can implement and use portions of the overall solution. This way they can mitigate risk, reduce the change challenge and allow their organisation to become familiar with the new way of thinking and working. Simplify the solution and ease of use.

 

3. They involve the right stakeholders in the client’s organisation – who have a stake in the problem being solved, in the decision-making phase and in the implementation phase.

Further to the metal wholesaler example above, the next steps of the added services portfolio were to:

• Organise open workshops for clients, discussing trends and changes in the sector, and some best practices and success stories.
• Workshops with the client’s key stakeholders to get a full picture of the journey of maturing their manufacturing operation, supply chain, plant layout, equipment, competencies and people. And then use the information to develop a road-map on how to step-by-step develop. It also helped to get stakeholders on the same page and engaged.
• Provide project management and change management practices and resources.
• Organise pilot tests, get used to new ways of working and building trust.
• Offering ongoing performance management dashboards to get full visibility and transparency of performance, progress and issues. This helped preventing blame for every incident, and also helped to feed a continuous improvement programme.

 

The Benefit

Manufacturers that are better in building momentum with their clients to adapt to their new solutions, see that their customers fluidly adopt new solutions and have a fairly high pace of scaling up.

Hence, these manufacturers generate more new revenue streams with higher margins and differentiate more from their competition.

 

Give monetisation of Services and Data an Impulse

If you want to accelerate the monetisation of your (new) Services and Data, join our upcoming Impulse Sessions on “How to Monetise Service and Data”.

These are full day interactive meetings with like-minded peers during which we will exchange experiences, insights and challenges.

Book your seat @ http://fs-ne.ws/5gyg30mWzze

 

Essence

Our value is not only in the developing and offering of great solutions to our customers’ big problems, it is about how our clients use and benefit from our solutions.

 

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 Jan Van Veen is founder of MoreMomentum 

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Aly Pinder looks at three ways in which manufacturers must consider leveraging augmented service tools...

The way we work, learn, and communicate have all taken a drastic turn from just a couple decades ago. When was the last time you saw a teenager or even a current college student read a physical newspaper, write a note in a notebook or on piece of paper, or look up a definition in a dictionary (not an online one)?

I imagine like me, you probably can’t remember the last time. This transformation has wide ranging implications, the least of which is the collapse of the encyclopedia industry. But this is not another article on why millennials need to be coddled, or how Gen Z is bad for the economy.

I don’t think any generation, ones before or after me, are the problem. But the way in which their behaviours impact the world around us must be addressed and used to help us all evolve.

 

"Manufacturers must take a few steps to turn knowledge into a shared resource  and not just a repository of work instructions..."

 

This is where manufacturers and service leaders come in. For manufacturers, the implications of a changing economy and digital world are even more real as it is becoming more apparent that to fill a growing gap in labor the tools, training, incentives, and motivations of work will need to be transformed as well. Not only do manufacturers need to do more for the customer, it increasingly is coming from more junior workers who need to get up to speed fast.

This convergence is where I believe augmented service tools can play a big role in democratizing knowledge across a varied set of employees and levels of tenure. But to get there, manufacturers must take a few steps to turn knowledge into a shared resource  and not just a repository of work instructions. 

With this in mind there are three things I believe manufacturers should consider.

 

Peer-to-Peer vs. Top Down.

Are you more likely to listen to your boss or your colleague?

The answer may be a bit different depending on whether you work in an office or out in the field. Many manufacturers I’ve spoken with talk about the level of engagement they find when they empower their field teams to work together to share best practices, whether in a newsletter, during beginning of day meetings, or via a video. Insights are more powerful when they come from a peer that is going through the same challenges you are.

Therefore, I believe user-generated content from field service technicians will help speed the adoption of video training tools and knowledge sharing.

But it is up to the manufacturer and service leadership to provide the tools, security, and platform for this technology to work and be accessible to the right people.

 

Amplify Investments in Innovation and Collaboration.

It is probably not prudent to predict industrial manufacturers or an oil & gas company to rival Google or Apple as the next great innovative companies of this generation.

However, there is a lot of innovation happening today within manufacturers that doesn’t often get reported to the outside public. If manufacturers want to draw the talent of the future they must not only have the tools the next wave of workers want to use, but they must also highlight in recruiting and marketing materials the innovative technologies that are used daily to get work done. This may help differentiate from the throng of manufacturers that are trying to procure talent. And why not promote innovation to those you want to bring in as employees in the same ways you woo customers.

 

AR / VR should play a role in the field.

I am not as bullish as my peers regarding the future pervasiveness of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) tools in field service. I do, however, think there are several use cases and environments where this technology makes sense.

 

"What it most important though, is that manufacturers evaluate their infrastructure, environment, and workforce capability to maximise the value of this technology..."

 

What it most important though, is that manufacturers evaluate their infrastructure, environment, and workforce capability to maximise the value of this technology. AR and VR tools do have the ability to help bridge the gap between an ageing workforce that may need to move to a back-office role and a less tenured technician who needs real-time assistance while on a job.

The talent pool or lack thereof is forcing manufacturers to re-think how they recruit, where they recruit, and what tools they need to navigate this environment.

As much as we have all discussed this topic for years and almost a decade now, manufacturers must take this moment to understand the worker of the future. It is imperative that manufactures provide the tools to augment their work environment to bring them in and keep them on the team.

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Aly Pinder is Program Director for IDC

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Ultra Consultants, Inc., an independent research and enterprise solutions consulting firm serving the manufacturing and distribution industries, today announced the availability of a complimentary ERP Toolkit eBook.  The in-depth eBook provides comprehensive ERP education to help teams work effectively through business process improvement, enterprise technology evaluation, selection and implementation. The resources curated in the eBook draw upon Ultra’s decades of expert methodologies and deep knowledge of manufacturing and distribution.

Developed for project teams at manufacturing and distribution organizations considering an active ERP project, the ERP Toolkit delivers in-depth educational resources, including videos, white papers, podcasts and more.

Project teams are invited to download the ERP Toolkit eBook to prepare for 2019 planning.

Key resources include:

• Educational assets to get started and plan for an effective technology project
• Tips to organize a project, reduce risk of failure and drive change management
• A curated guide to help teams understand what it takes to evaluate, select and implement enterprise technology

“The decision to upgrade or implement a new enterprise technology system is likely one of the most complex and resource-intensive initiatives a company will face. The manufacturers and distributors we speak with have told us that it’s difficult to understand how to begin an enterprise technology project,” notes Ultra Consultants Founder and CEO Jeff Carr. “This toolkit gathers insight and leverages Ultra’s unique perspective as trusted, independent advisors serving manufacturing and distribution teams. We encourage project teams to download the eBook for insight specific to their organizations.”

 

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In the first of a four-part series of excerpts from an exclusive fieldservicenews.com video presentation Kris Oldland, Editor-In-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by John Hunt, Managing Director, EMEA, Astea discuss the findings of a recent research project Astea worked together with WBR to produce looking at the key trends amongst service-centric manufacturers.

In this initial episode, the two discuss that whilst 37% of companies are mostly or entirely product sales driven, in fact, 45% are seeing product revenue decline, but 75% claim that service revenue is increasing.

 

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 Want to know more? The full length video of this presentation is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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Ultra Consultants, Inc., an independent research and enterprise solutions consulting firm serving the manufacturing and distribution industries, today announced the launch of its Center of Excellence.

Located at https://ultraconsultants.com/centerofexcellence, the Center of Excellence provides clients educational resources and best practices about effective selection and deployment of enterprise technology and the tools required to choose the right solution.

Manufacturing and distribution project teams are faced with a bewildering array of enterprise technology solutions and a time-consuming challenge of determining the best processes to achieve an efficient, optimally functioning enterprise that fully leverages the advantages provided by technology.

[quote float="left"]Manufacturing and distribution project teams are faced with a bewildering array of enterprise technology solutions[/quote]The Center of Excellence supports organizations by providing solutions for vertical industries such as automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and others. Market-specific information is based on decades of experience helping manufacturers and distributors select and implement the right solution for their unique needs. Project teams will be able to review best practices for niche market segments and benefit from Ultra’s collective experience in serving clients.

“Selecting the proper technology solution requires a careful analysis of the company’s needs and a thoughtful picture of its desired future state,” stated Ultra Consultants Center of Excellence Director Andrew Bolivar.

“The Center of Excellence helps cut through the marketing verbiage and enable users to thoroughly understand the benefits and potential pitfalls of different approaches. The collective experience of our team of consultants will help companies maximize the benefits of their investment in technology.”

“The Center of Excellence is another useful tool in our arsenal to help manufacturers and distributors determine the most effective technology solution for their enterprise,” said Ultra Consultants CEO and Founder Jeff Carr. “Our shared legacy of providing critical selection and deployment insight assists companies in operating more efficiently and rapidly achieving ROI.”

 

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Aly Pinder outlines how the growing trend for connected products is set to revolutionise the way we approach service...

What is the value of a connected product or asset? Some might argue, connected products allow a manufacturer to capture a wealth of product data which can be used to make better products in the future.

Others might state, connected products open a window into customer usage data which can help manufacturers and sales teams target customers more effectively driving increased revenues.

These are two important use cases and show some of the promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected products.

But I think there is an even more impactful area of value from the ability to connect to products – field service.

Now you may be thinking, of course, it’s all of field service, as you peruse the articles of Field Service News. But even if I am preaching to the choir, the impact that connected products can have on the ability for manufacturers to transform the way they deliver field service and customer support is not necessarily a given.

However, as more products and assets are connected I believe there is a real opportunity to see great leaps in field service and the transformation of the way manufacturers interact with the end customer.

Three opportunities, in particular, jump out as big wins for the future of field service as a result of data captured from connected products and equipment:

 

Finally, predict and not react

The journey from reactive field service to proactive and predictive persists for many manufacturers. I don’t think this is necessarily a battle which will ever reach a state of 100% predictive service, and nor should it.

But I do think there is a great opportunity to take the volumes of data being captured in real-time to make smarter decisions in field service which can lead to a different balance of reactive, proactive, and predictive support.

Also, data gleaned from connected products can help make reactive service calls more valuable and efficient as a technician should have the answers to the issue without having to guess or lean on gut-feel.

 

Service without a truck roll.

As noted in recent IDC research, by 2020, 50% of global OEMs with connected service offerings will have incorporated augmented service execution and/or remote management thus improving service margins by up to 30%.

The ability to resolve issues remotely or to utilize a centralized expert to help a customer solve a problem can be transformative for field service. This type of model could help service leaders allocate their seasoned technicians to the most complex problems as opposed to just an issue within their geographic footprint.

Connected products enable a manufacturer to know what is wrong in advance of a response and ensure the right response is the one scheduled for a scarce set of resources.

 

Focus on the value of the human interaction.

When we think about the negatives associated with the rise of the machines (i.e., Terminator), we often miss something.

This should be an opportunity not a threat.

Connected products which ‘talk’ to each other provides an opening for field technicians to focus on the humans while they are on site as opposed to spending time looking for information, turning wrenches, or filling out paperwork.

Obviously, this will mean manufacturers and service leaders will need to train their technicians on a new set of skills and activities. But as the workforce and economies evolve, the skill of interaction will be in more demand and provide more value in the customer relationship.

And manufacturers which leverage connected product data to have their field teams focus on the customer will succeed.

The promise and value gained from connected products is more than just additional data points.

As manufacturers look to transform their organizations and teams, connected products should be the catalyst for a journey of new ways of delivering value to customers and not the end result of a technology investment.

Field service should be the aspect of the business which sees the biggest gains from connected products and equipment.

The possibilities are endless, and I look forward to seeing where manufacturers take this technology as it extends beyond IT and engineering to the field.

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Aly Pinder is Program Director - Service Innovation & Connected Products, IDC Manufacturing Insights

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Sergey Krasovski, Strategic Marketing Analyst, Trimble explores the opportunities that augmented reality can present for field service organisations... 

The mass and wide-scale adoption of augmented and mixed realities are gathering pace across a multitude of industries. To define, augmented reality refers to the process of superimposing a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world. Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations.

In the field service industry, this emerging technology can play a significant role in changing the way field technicians and the business collaborates to resolve technical issues, provide support and access documentation. Indeed, technologies such as AR smart glasses can overlay digital information (such as text, video or audio) onto the human field of view, interactively and in real-time. ABI Research sees a turning point for AR smart glasses, predicting that 21 million units of AR smart glasses will be shipped in 2020, with sales expected to reach $100 billion.

 

Optimizing Service Workflows

Mixed and AR technologies present strong use cases for the field service industry for optimizing service workflows. The ability to perform time-critical jobs thoroughly, quickly and first time around, by obtaining the right information from the correct source, is one.

Historically, service technicians had to sift through paper manuals or search their own memories to find a fix for complex equipment issues. This was an onerous process to go through and often resulted in a disgruntled customer. Today, however, Augmented Reality headsets provide technicians with the ability to communicate, collaborate and solve issues more efficiently. They could be dispatched to a job where they could see the service manual, real-time data and technical details about the product directly overlaid on it. There would be no need for a clunky laptop, phoning a colleague for assistance or contacting the back office for customer information; everything they need would be accessible with a flick of their head.

There is a big place for Augmented Reality in optimising service workflows. However, deploying new technology takes careful planning to realise the full benefits.

 

Empowering Less Skilled and Ageing Workforces

In mission-critical industries, such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture, ensuring that the service team captures knowledge and transfers it efficiently across the organization is a ‘must have’, not a ‘nice to have’. Asset downtime or system failure is not an option as it may result in entire projects grinding to a halt and monetary losses. Issue resolution needs to be quick and this is where collaborative video tools can best support a less skilled and ageing workforce.

 

"Video collaboration with augmented peer-to-peer help is being designed and implemented to connect less skilled technicians with more skilled ones remotely..."

 

Video collaboration with augmented peer-to-peer help is being designed and implemented to connect less skilled technicians with more skilled ones remotely. A technician with specific areas of expertise may reside in an office and virtually walk an apprentice through a service call, step-by-step. Markups can be made during a video call between an expert and field technician to visually show what needs doing and to be sure the field technician is clear about what to perform service on. The expert can draw a circle or arrow on a screen to highlight a specific area, eliminating costly mistakes.

There are parts of the world where you can’t get the right expertise for a job or flying out a specialist may prove too costly for a company. Augmented reality eradicates these concerns by allowing experts to take those of less skill through the entire process. Not with a manual and not on the phone, but they can actually see what they are doing.

Many technicians are performing this peer-to-peer help in ad hoc ways today; using tools like Facetime and Skype. This, however, has resulted in issues. For example, sending a facetime request to another technician can be very disruptive. It is also difficult for the technician requesting help to know who to contact and if they are available. Whilst the time spent by the expert is not often tracked. For organizations that want to successfully scale this technology, they need to consider how to integrate it more tightly into the service workflow.

 

"As technicians age and a new crop of workers join the business, it is imperative that the latter be able to leverage past knowledge. An ageing workforce is putting pressure on service organisations..."

 

As technicians age and a new crop of workers joins the business, it is imperative that the latter be able to leverage past knowledge. An ageing workforce is putting pressure on service organisations. The benefit of augmented or virtual reality is its potential as a highly detailed, highly visual training tool. Companies are recording repairs being performed on older pieces of equipment to be used as a reference by less experienced technicians. By utilising augmented reality to make markups pointing to specific equipment details, service companies can create a searchable library using descriptive metadata, and hashtags for quick access. This is a great way to offer on-the-job training and avoids the downtime and loss of productivity associated with having the entire team come into the office to learn new techniques.

Collaborative video tools not only provide the field team with the real-time assistance when solving complex issues, they also connect field service to the entire organization. Indeed, video content, such as markups and screenshots, can be captured by augmented reality tools and stored in a cloud. The stored data can then be tied with a work order and include valuable metadata such as geolocation, type of equipment, date of last service etc. If such data is centrally stored and can be easily accessed, it could be used for purposes like new technician training, proof of work and so on.

For more information on how you can look to roll out augmented reality across your field service operations, visit: www.trimblepulse.com

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Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing Officer, ServicePower explains why savvy service organisations understand that building an excellent customer experience must begin from the first interaction, but must continue through every service touch point onwards - and how IoT data can be a key tool in achieving that...

Customers purchase products and don’t interact with the OEM or retailer again until something fails. Thus, your next contact with the consumer is one in which your product has become their problem. You are behind the eight ball right out of the gate. 

While the industry has focused on metrics important for operational improvements, such as first-time fix rates, productivity, efficiency of field technicians and fuel utilization, all of which are critical to any business, we now must recognize that customer experience must be the driving force behind our strategies, the top priority for our operators, for sales and marketing and for our service teams.   

Considering the customer experience from the very beginning is the surest way to drive downstream revenue.  

Start at the Beginning 

Customer experience must be considered from the point a product is manufactured or sold, not simply from the perspective of field service downstream. 

Customer experience must be considered from the point a product is manufactured or sold, not simply from the perspective of field service downstream. Ensure that your product includes features which makes your customers’ experience with your product easy and helpful, that it meets expectations. Don’t stop there though. Make sure the product exceeds expectations. With the ease at which IoT sensors can be embedded in products and used to provide proactive new accessories and services, makes tapping into this technology a no-brainer.

IoT isn’t reserved for heavy industry. Consumers, both residential and commercial, are using IoT in their lives every. Use it to your advantage, and theirs. 

Take the Next Step 

Your responsibility to your customer doesn’t stop at the point you ship or sell a product or service. Once the product is in hand, make sure you’ve made it easy to connect with your organization in real time.

If a customer has questions about usage or features and functions, needs accessories or complementary products, or in the event, there is an issue with a product, omnichannel connectivity gives them the ability to connect with you in ways that are convenient for them.

Use web portals and mobile apps, use Smart Speakers. Image how much better a repair experience could be if Siri could schedule an appointment for your customer.  

Go Beyond Service Delivery 

Enabling field teams with technology with the information, part and tools required to fix a problem in the field is the minimum expectation of field service organizations now.

If you’re not there, and recent data suggests that almost 50% of field service teams are not, get there fast. Look to configurable, cross-platform mobile applications that you can deploy quickly, on any device, with the process and forms needed- by your employed or contracted field technicians- to get onsite and problem solve in real time.

But don’t stop there.

Tap into the data you’ve collected from manufacturing, the point of sale, IoT and service history to offer your customers more.Tap into the data you’ve collected from manufacturing, the point of sale, IoT and service history to offer your customers more. The data at your fingertips makes it possible for you to offer new services using that data, directly from your field technicians.

Make the customer happy with a single visit fix. Make them happier with maintenance contract offers that keep their products up and running longer. Delight your customers with proactive service and seamless communication with every member of the product lifecycle ecosystem.

Use the data and the technology available to both your organization and your customer, to seamlessly drive positive, profitable post-sale interactions with every customer.  

 

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In the Big Discussion, we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put three key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...

This issue our topic is the what to expect in 2018 and our experts are Michael Blumberg, Blumberg Advisory, Bill Pollock, Strategies for GrowthSM and Jan Van Veen, moreMomentum

The first question we tackled was What is the biggest challenge facing field service companies in the next 12 months?

Now let's turn to the second question in the discussion...

What is the biggest opportunity facing field service companies in the next 12 months?

Bill Pollock: The biggest opportunity facing field service companies today is the ability to compete head-to-head with any of their main competitors – however large or small – through the implementation and/or upgrade to a Cloud-based Field Service Management (FSM) solution. Over the past several years, Cloud technology has normalized the playing field for both FSM solution providers and their customers, who are no longer encumbered by the cost and complexity of their legacy premise-based solutions and applications.

Advances in technology are also giving a boost to those field service companies that have embraced these new technologies. For example, the greatest opportunities over the next 12 months will most likely be realised by those companies that will have already implemented Augmented Reality (AR) and/or Merged Reality (MR) into their field service operations. However, the most likely dominant field service organisations will be the ones that have also taken steps to explore the benefits of moving to an Artificial Intelligence- (AI) and Machine Learning- (ML) driven field service solution.

The technology is already there for every field service company; however, only those that embrace – and implement – these technologies will actually be able to reap the benefits.

 

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Jan Van Veen:  When talking about the biggest opportunities, I think we need to look beyond 12 months. It is mission critical to act now on future success.

Most industries are somewhere around the top of the life cycle and are facing (first signs of) commoditization.

The big opportunity for them is to go through the next life cycle where the added value is about enhancing the use of technology. The new value propositions will be heavily driven by data, algorithms and intelligence. The value will be far beyond predictive maintenance and uptime of technology.

This is a domain in which young, rapidly growing data-driven companies are in their comfort zone. So, the opportunity here is moving up the food chain and increase relevance for clients. By failing to pursue these opportunities, the threat is being forced down in the food chain and seeing other players deliver the high value, whilst seeing your role being limited to manufacturing equipment, spare parts and, to some extent, delivering low skilled hands-on machines for maintenance.

For those companies who are not ready to focus on these opportunities, I think your top priority should be to build the missing foundation and make sure you are ready to pursue the opportunities soon.

 

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Michael Blumberg: The biggest opportunity facing field service companies in the next 12 months lies in pursuing strategies that will advance their journey along the path toward servitization.

The specific strategies vary from company to company based on where they are on their journey. For some companies, 2018 will be the year when they finally transition their field service operation from a cost centre to a profit centre. For others, the opportunity lies in monetizing service offerings and effectively marketing and selling service outcomes.

Still, others will have the opportunity to invest in digital technologies that enhance service quality, boost productivity, and create an uber-like experience for their customers.

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