ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘mplsystems’ CATEGORY

mplsystems, the UK multi-channel contact technology specialist, believes that 2015 will be the year that truly configurable, mash-up powered Customer Engagement Centres start to set the customer contact technology agenda.

“For 2015 we’re expecting an increased focus on those solutions that allow service providers to model exactly the customer engagement approach they require, without having to force their business processes around needlessly complex, one-size-fits-all CRM models. Technologies that support this next generation model, particularly when it comes to taking advantage of digital channels, will play a key role in 2015’s best practice contact technology deployments,” commented Paul White, CEO, mplsystems.

mplsystems' five key Customer Engagement Centre Technology Indicators for 2015 are:

 

• Agent Desktops enable true Customer Engagement Centres – while 2014 saw greater integration between contact centre and CRM systems, organisations still need to go much further if they are to provide agents with truly intelligent Agent Desktops. 2015’s biggest challenge will involve organisations getting much closer to customers, leveraging more meaningful and context-sensitive information through smart Big Data mash-ups to provide agents with relevant insight into all of a customer’s interactions with a business –ensuring that agents no longer need to hand off interactions to other departments
• Embedding customer care into mobile apps – we’re already seeing dedicated mobile apps assume greater importance in service providers’ omnichannel strategies, however for 2015 customer service organisations will build on this by embedding direct contact capabilities such as webchat, callback and instant messaging – effectively offering a Virtual IVR capability for those digital customers frustrated with traditional contact channels
• Web chat on track to become the dominant channel – our recent webinar with BT’s Head of Customer Insight and Futures, Nicola Millard, referenced how webchat is set to become the dominant customer contact channel of the future. 2015 will see chat continue to grow in terms of channel representation, as it transitions from browser-based web chat as we know it, to live messaging via customer mobile apps
• Text Analytics ready to handle increased volume of incoming text messages – whether it’s messages from mobile apps, social media, web chat, email or Visual IVR channels, many contact centres are seriously concerned about how to manage dramatically escalating text-based messaging volumes as customers increasingly engage via digital channels. Some businesses are still seeing major backlogs – sometimes of up to 48 hours – particularly at busy times such as the countdown to Christmas. The latest multi-channel textual analytics solutions are poised to address this during 2015, enabling up to 60% of messages to be handled automatically and freeing significant amounts of agent time and allowing them to focus on more complex customer engagement issues
• Broadening out the Customer Engagement Centre – while refining the customer experience within the contact centre and digitally has undoubtedly helped to reduce customer effort, there are still significant gaps in the provision of integrated service. For 2015 we expect to see more organisations build out their joined-up customer service propositions to embrace other key touch-points including field service, logistics and delivery capabilities as well as in-store engagement in the retail sector particularly and showroom engagement

“2014 has again shown that traditional CRM and contact centre vendors struggle to deploy in months, or even years, what more flexible, cloud-enabled solutions providers such as mplsystems can deliver in days and weeks,” concluded mplsystems’ CEO Paul White.

“It’s this kind of disruptive technology – powered by the five innovations listed above – that will continue to shake up the traditional contact centre infrastructure market in 2015.”

be social and share this feature

Welcome to the latest edition of the Field Service News podcast. This month we are joined by Paul White, CEO of mplsystems as we revisit some exclusive research undertaken by Field Service News in partnership with mplsystems earlier this year.

The research set out to unlock exactly what technology is being used within the field service industries in 2014 and in this exclusive interview Paul and Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland discuss some of the most pertinent and surprising results and explore and extrapolate the meaning of these findings. Amongst the topics discussed are whether the ratio's of dispatchers to engineers in field service companies are actually lower than they should be, whether the smallest companies are getting short shrift from software providers and why mobile has changed the shape of the industry and whether it will continue to do so...

To download the full podcast just click here and complete the brief registration form!

Please note that that promotion of this download is a joint venture between Field Service News and mplsystems and by downloading the podcast you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which are available right here.

You can also find out more about mplsystems in the Field Service News Directory by clicking here

 

 

As part of the analysis of our research project looking at the types of field service software being used today we have created this infographic to give you some of the key findings at a glance.

 

 

In the final part of this series looking at the findings of our exclusive research report into field service software we look at what conclusions can be drawn from the research and analyse what can be expected of modern field service software.  

Missed the earlier parts of this series? You can read the first part of this series which looked at scheduling and integration and interaction here and the second part looking at management reporting here , and the third part looking at the future of field service software here

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report which includes even further analysis then you are able to download it for free by clicking this link.

Conclusion

When we look at the findings of this research as a whole there are a number of conclusions that can be drawn. When it comes to scheduling solutions there is still a large section of the industry not utilising any scheduling software, which ultimately leads to poorer levels of efficiency in the management of the mobile workforce.

This is of course in turn leads to fewer members of the overall workforce being in customer facing roles that could potentially generate revenue.

Based on the improvements in dispatcher to engineer ratios that scheduling software is proven to deliver, for those companies still operating on a manual basis, investing in some form of scheduling is no longer a nice to have but a necessity if they are to remain competitive.

Just a fifth of companies are able to exploit their field engineers’ trusted adviser status by giving them the tools to sell directly. This represents a major opportunity for companies with the means to invest in such systems to capitalise on their competitor’s hesitancy and gain a commercial advantage. Yet despite this opportunity currently few companies place investing in mobile hardware and software near the top of their priorities, with both categories sitting midway on the priority lists of the majority of organisations.

Perhaps the biggest trend this research has unveiled is that cost has become less of a concern for companies looking to implement new technologies, with issues with legacy systems now being the most common concern. [quote float="left"] Many elements that not so long ago were new, premium solutions such as navigation software have now become standard.

 

This could well be a direct result of the influence of the Cloud. The SaaS business model has now meant that service management software is an affordable option for smaller companies, however, integration has been a early documented issue with some Cloud based solutions.

Our research earlier this year on SaaS and Field Service would also seem to support this hypothesis. To sum up, it appears that many elements are coming together to offer vast improvements to the software available in the field service industry. Also many elements that not so long ago were new, premium solutions such as navigation software have now become standard. Meanwhile we also see exciting technologies such as the Internet of Things and Big Data starting to encroach into service management software.

The future indeed seems bright indeed, but in the here and now there are still things that can be improved upon. Whether it be scheduling software or management reporting tools the results of this research indicate that on the whole there is room for improvement in the software being used today.

However, the research also identifies examples of excellence in the service management software as well. Integration is becoming more and more important, and end-to-end service management has become a reality.

Careful consideration is essential when selecting a software provider and an understanding of your own strategic aims is as important as understanding the options available to you. However, it seems that investing in a service management solution in 2014 is both more affordable and beneficial than ever before.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report featuring additional exclusive analysis then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

In this third part of this series looking at the findings of our exclusive research report into field service software we focus on the future of field service software. You can read the first part of this series which looked at scheduling and integration and interaction here and the second part looking at management reporting here 

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

Looking forward:

In the final section of the survey we asked respondents to identify what they thought were the most important technologies likely to appear in service management software, where they believe their organisation should focus their investment and finally what the barriers were to implementing new technologies.

Perhaps the most revealing result of the entire survey was in this final section, specifically surrounding “the biggest concern when implementing a new technology” Surprisingly  “Cost of implementation” is now only the second most common concern with “Legacy issues with former systems” becoming the industries greatest concern in 2014. The amount of companies that now cite this as their biggest concern when implementing a new technology has increased from just 22% in 2013 to 38% today.

This represents a potentially significant shift in the industry. In the last few years we have seen rapid developments in service management software, with key trends, such as the requirement for system wide integration as discussed earlier in this report, starting to emerge. The impact that the Software as a Service model has had on costs offers many companies the ability to invest in service management software, when in the not too distant past such an investment may have been beyond their reach.

Earlier this year in another research project conducted by Field Service News we saw that number increase to 38% of companies with a further 48% of companies stating they could possibly do so in the near future. However, the same report also highlighted that currently only 23% of companies have made the shift to a Cloud based environment for their service management software.

This would indicate that there is indeed a trend for companies to be migrating their service management software to Cloud based systems and it is an on-going process. If this is indeed the case then it would also explain why cost has become less of a concern whilst integration with existing legacy systems becomes a greater worry.

We also asked which emerging technologies would be likely to have an impact on field service software in the near future. The results whilst not surprising indicated how many in the industry seeing field service software evolve once again in the very near future. Over 45% of companies felt that Big Data, The Internet of Things and Connected Vehicles will all start appearing as options within field service management solutions within the next three years.

If each and all of these concepts live up to the massive hyperbole that surrounds them then it the way our industry operates will be fundamentally changed. At the same time 37% of companies also think that they wearable devices will become commonplace within the next three years also.

Whether this comes true is likely dependent on the success of Google's Glass product which offer the greatest promise, although the development of smart watches could potentially offer another wearable device that could be put to use in field service. Interestingly perhaps one of the technologies most established that could offer great benefits to certain field service verticals, namely 3D printing was only cited by 19% of companies as being likely to make an impact in field service.

However, this could be a reflection of the wide ranging industry verticals field service incorporates as much as a lack of faith in the technology. 3D printing will certainly be of more of a benefit to some industries (e.g. manufacturing) rather than others (e.g. retail). That said anecdotally there are are certainly those who have (an unfounded in most instances) lack of faith in 3D printing, we are reminded of echoes of the exaggerated fear of the security of the Cloud somewhat with 3D printing. It many ways the technology simply seems to much like science fiction to be fully trusted.

When we looked at the more immediate needs of the industry we saw some familiar patterns. Despite the questions we raised earlier in this report about the suitability of optimised scheduling for all companies, such systems appear to remain in demand amongst field service organisations.

Our final question in the survey was “In terms of investment, which of the following areas of technology do you think it the most critical for your company to remain competitive?” and we gave respondents 8 choices asking them to rank them in order of priority. The options were Route optimisation, optimised scheduling, integrated CRM, contact centre/help desk, mobile hardware, mobile software, logistics/spare parts management, and reporting/analytics tools.

Optimised Scheduling was ranked as the number one priority by 29% of companies, this was followed by Integrated CRM and contact centre/help desk software, which were the number one priority for 27% and 17% of companies respectively.With nearly three quarters (73%) of companies identifying one of these three areas as their key focus for investment it seems that these are clearly the biggest needs for the industry at large.

 

It is also interesting to note that whilst relatively few companies (7%) identified logistics/spare parts management systems as there number one priority, many companies identified it as either their second (27% of companies) or third (23% of companies) priority. This would indicate that whilst most companies do not see logistics/spare parts systems  as the most burning issue, they do acknowledge that it is an area that they should invest in should funds become available.

The one technology that has perhaps now had its day is route optimisation. This scored as the lowest priority for 56% of companies. There are many reasons route optimisation is now no longer a significant area for investment, whether this is because it is included in many service management software packages or that the technology has been around long enough to reach to near market saturation - the fact is that most companies will now have some sort of route/navigation software already even if it is simply Google Maps and a BYOD.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report featuring additional exclusive analysis then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

In this second part of this series looking at the findings of our exclusive research report into field service software we focus on management reporting. You can read the first part of this series which looked at scheduling and integration and interaction here.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking here.

About the research:

Across April and May of this year (2014) Field Service News in partnership with mplsystems undertook a research project to assess the current usage of field service software.

The survey was split into four categories. Scheduling systems, integration and interaction, management reporting and future options. In total we spoke to over 120 field service companies of differing sizes and differing industries. These were predominantly UK based although there were respondents from all over the world including Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Reporting:

It may be a cliché but the maxim “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” rings true in all industries and with technology now offering more measurement and analytics tools, with greater levels of sophistication than ever before management reporting is an important element of service management software.

In fact 78% of respondents stated that as a manger the ability to get clear and comprehensive management reports from their service management software was an important tool. Further to that, 63% of these went on to define management reporting as “Critical – I couldn’t do my job without it”

When we also factor in that a further 19% of respondents stated that management-reporting tools were “Helpful” it is clear that such tools are utilised by all but a very small minority  (less than 5%) of field service managers.

It may have been what we expected to find but the findings of the research absolutely confirm the fact beyond all doubt. Management reporting is an absolutely integral facet of Field Service Software.

However, whilst management reporting is clearly such vital piece of the field service management software whole, it appears that when it comes to functionality and performance, there remains plenty of room for improvement in the eyes of many field service managers responding to our survey.

In response to the question “Is the reporting functionality you get from your current system up to the task” almost two thirds of respondents stated that they found their current system merely “Acceptable”

So whilst the functionality of these tools is workable, they are still far from perfect. In fact whilst there are a reasonable amount of companies (21%) who identified their reporting functionality as “Excellent”” there is a similar amount of companies (20%) who state that the management reporting of their current system “Doesn’t meet their needs at all”

 There certainly a number of different considerations when purchasing a field service software solution , research is absolutely essential and taking the time to identify your own reporting needs both now but also in the future, before comparing this with the options available to you will potentially save both time and money for your organisation in the longer term.

 

Of course within field service perhaps one of the most important aspects of reporting is real time visibility into the actions of your mobile workforce.

In this area there is an interesting division between companies.

It seems that a large percentage of the companies in the industry (42%) are able to provide real time location and status of their field technicians to not only their dispatchers but also their help desk and customer service teams.

This is an improvement of 24% compared to 2012 figures. Such a dramatic rise is likely due to the fact that such a level of visibility is a powerful tool both in terms of managing efficiency as well as delivering excellent customer service and therefore a key area for investment.

Despite this fact, a surprisingly large number of companies (30%) still have no visibility at all into the activities of their mobile workforce. Whilst this figure has decreased by 9% since 2012 it remains a significant proportion of the industry.

Such a large number is somewhat worrying in that without any visibility there is little hope of these companies being able to improve the efficiency of their field service operations at all. It also means that the levels of customer service are potentially impacted as well.

This gap in implementation of technology could lead to a genuine division appearing in the industry. Those companies who are able to continue to deliver excellent service in today’s modern environment of demand twenty first century consumers, and those whose service standards remain stagnant and out-dated.

When it comes to competing on service, which has become a key battleground for businesses in recent years, there can only be one winner…

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

You can also now find the third part of this series looking at the future of field service software here

Across April and May of this year (2014) Field Service News in partnership with mplsystems undertook a research project to assess the current usage of field service software...

The survey was split into four categories. Scheduling systems, integration and interaction, management reporting and future options. In total we spoke to over 120 field service companies of differing sizes and differing industries. These were predominantly UK based although there were respondents from all over the world including Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Scheduling Systems:

Whilst Service Management software as a whole is about far more than scheduling there is no doubt that it often dominates conversation. This is likely due to the sizeable improvements in efficiency that scheduling software can deliver. In fact companies that were using any sort of scheduling software, be it batch, automated or optimised, showed considerable improvements in the efficiency of their dispatch units with 39% of companies using scheduling software having a ratio of more than 16 engineers per dispatcher.

This figure reduces to just 8% when we look at companies who still operate with manual dispatch systems. In fact of those companies operating without scheduling software virtually half of them (49%) are only able to manage a ratio of 5 engineers per dispatcher at best.

With developments in mobile technology opening up opportunities for field staff to establish new revenue streams (whether directly or indirectly), the greater the ratio of engineers to dispatchers, the more a company’s labour resources are placed in positions which could potentially generate revenue.

With companies shifting away from manual based scheduling and starting to utilise scheduling software, the question of how well that software is performing takes on even greater importance.

The majority of companies (46%) identified their current scheduling system as average, with both extremes (excellent and very poor) being the least common response at 7% each. 14% of respondents identified that they felt their systems were poor, whilst 27% rated their scheduling system as good.

Taking a broader view this does indicate that 80% of scheduling systems being used are operating at an acceptable level of average or better, although it would also indicate that there is plenty of room for improvement as well

Integration and interaction:

There has been much talk of late around end to end service management solutions, whereby all systems across the customer lifecycle such as CRM, Service Management Software, and Asset Management Software are fully integrated with each another, offering full transparency across multiple divisions of a company. This in turn creates greater opportunities for improving customer satisfaction levels, improving efficiency and establishing new revenue streams within a business.

Specialist field service software has been available for some thirty years now, and as the industry has evolved a number of differing elements of service management software has developed such as scheduling, routing, and asset management software etc. In fact a fifth of companies are still working with five or more software providers.

With so many different products in the mix its little wonder that there are issues with integration in field service companies.

Well over a third of companies (38%) are still facing issues with integration stating “We have a number of different systems across different divisions and it makes communications between departments tricky”. This represents a sizeable section of the industry that has the potential to improve the overall efficiency and productivity of their field service operations.

Given that the integration of systems is not fully ubiquitous across the industry, it is important to see how companies ensure that their service management software supports their business processes. The most common means of ensuring this is through customisation by software providers, with 34% of companies taking this path.

With competition amongst software providers high within what is a relatively niche sector, it is such additional layers of customisation that can make a difference when implementing a new service management software system.

Yet conversely almost a quarter of companies (23%) admit to having to fit the way they work around their software.

This represents a real issue, if a company has to change their processes to accommodate their software then there may be a danger of efficiency bleed, in which case the surely the software isn’t fit for purpose? This serves to further highlight the importance of ensuring that you choose software provider wisely. Perhaps the cheaper ‘off the shelf’ solution doesn’t always offer the best value in the long term?

In part two of this feature we will look at what of management reporting software is being used and what fears companies have when adopting new systems.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

 

TCSJOHNHUXLEY is the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of end-to-end live gaming solutions and services. The company offers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of live gaming and electronic gaming products, from quality, handcrafted furniture through to cutting-edge technical equipment that enhances the overall gaming experience, profits and security.

The company prides itself on delivering the highest standards of service and support, with a comprehensive European Technical Support Centre based at Stoke-on-Trent, and a dedicated pan-European network of staff offering 24/7 technical support. Given the company’s continued growth, TCSJOHNHUXLEY was keen to update its service management technology infrastructure so that they had greater visibility across its Europe-wide service and support activities.

According to Rob Burgess, European Service Manager for TCSJOHNHUXLEY: “while we had evolved a fully functional scheduling system for our planned engineering activities - we knew we needed a more integrated solution, to give us visibility and the management information we needed to optimise our processes and really excel in customer service.

“It had become clear that adopting an end-to-end field service management encompassing customer contact, scheduling and mobile field service would give us the meaningful data that we needed to optimise performance. We were also keen to find a solution which would give us reports exactly as we required to allow us to optimise our business, rather than the standard reports that an off the shelf tool would provide”

After looking at a range of different solutions, TCSJOHNHUXLEY selected a cloud-based field service management solution from mplsystems that integrated all its customer contact, service management, parts management and engineer scheduling activities.

 

Available on a pay-per-use basis, mplsystems’ field service management solution directly addresses the three main barriers to field service efficiency: the need to combine disparate IT systems; the ability to schedule reactive engineering tasks alongside planned maintenance schedules; and efficiently highlighting ongoing issues in the field.

 

Combining off-the-shelf functionality with bespoke flexibility

“We selected an mplsystems field service management solution because it provided us with all the benefits and cost-effective performance of an off-the-shelf application, while also providing the ability for us to customise our new solution to match the specific requirements of the TCSJOHNHUXLEY business – particularly in the important area of reporting,” added Rob Burgess. “Combining the dynamic planning and scheduling of service activities with a dedicated application on our engineers’ tablet devices has allowed us to create our mplsystems-powered GEMS Global Engineers Management System that now gives us a true, real-time view of all maintenance activities and reactive calls across the business.”

According to Rob: “working with mplsystems is enabling us to bring our different customer contact, workflow, service management and field service operations together, providing TCSJOHNHUXLEY with the potential for driving efficiency and freeing us to deliver an even higher overall standard of service.”

Working with the mplsystems’ field service management allows the TCSJOHNHUXLEY service team to close the loop, improving efficiency all the way from the initial point of customer interaction through to fault resolution “With our previous more manual process, we wouldn’t necessarily have visibility of a repeat failure with a particular product or component. Now with our mplsystems field service solution we’re able to generate automatic alerts or analyse data to proactively replace components prior to failure or determine a manufacturing fix.”

For Rob Burgess and the TCSJOHNHUXLEY service team, the real benefits come through close analysis of the data unlocked through the mplsystems solution. “It’s all about the data, understanding what’s actually going on in the business and then sharing best practice behaviours and outcomes – both across our UK service team and also with our international operations.”

Business benefits:

• Achieving the best of both worlds – cost-effectiveness of an off-the-shelf field service management solution with the focused benefits of bespoke reporting
• Successful blending or both planned and reactive maintenance tasks – ability to optimise scheduling in real time
• Increased visibility of parts issues, enabling optimisation of overall stock levels and the ability to identify and routinely replace parts or components that fail more often – reducing overall callback rate
• Greater visibility and analysis of engineer schedules – more awareness of time required for fixes, travel time to customer sites,
• Escalation processes now in place, assigning technical specialists for repeat issues
• Better integration of field operations, with immediate service incident reporting via tablets

 

 

mplsystems, the multi-channel contact centre technology specialist, has been listed in the market overview section of Gartner’s new CRM Customer Engagement Centre (CEC) report (1) 8 and  in the vendor categories for both the Web Customer Self-Service and Field Service Management sections of Gartner’s 2014 CRM Vendor Guide (2).

The listing in the CRM vendor guide and in the market overview section of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report follows the recent validation of mplsystems’ intelligentContact offering by contact centre operators voting in Call Centre Helper’s 2014 Contact Centre Technology award. Readers selected intelligentContact as 2014’s top technology, citing the flexibility of the mplsystems’ solution and choosing it ahead of offerings from vendors such as Aspect Software, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, LiveOps, NewVoiceMedia, Noble Systems and rostrvm.

“Our disruptive technology is revolutionising the traditional marketplace, and we believe this further acknowledgement from Gartner confirms it,” commented Paul White, mplsystems’ CEO. “mplsystems’ intelligentDesktops give agents a single view of all customer data from across organisations while managing interactions from any channel - providing massive efficiency savings and Customer Experience gains. What really sets this technology apart, however, is that organisations can rapidly create their own desktops exactly as they need them – and no longer have to force their business processes around over-complex, off the shelf menu-driven CRM models. With deployment options ranging from single or multi-tenant cloud, as well as on premise, mplsystems is one of only a small number of vendors who can provide clients with the flexibility they need to fit in with their existing infrastructure.”

In 2013 Gartner changed its Magic Quadrant title from Customer Service Contact centre to Customer Engagement Centre, recognising the increasingly multi-channel nature of today’s customer contact. Gartner also acknowledges the growing role played by software as a service (SaaS) as the delivery model for these solutions, projecting through 2017 that 60% of core customer support for CECs will be in an SaaS model.