ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘news’ CATEGORY

ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. have recently announced Service Networks for Contractors, a new mobile field service management solution that synchronises the scheduling, dispatch, and work completion between businesses and their contractors.

Enterprises can now optimally manage their network of contractors to adhere to service level agreements and have better visibility and control of the service delivery process. Simultaneously contractors maintain their autonomy in running their own businesses. Customers, of course, benefit from harmonious service delivery with minimal discontinuities or surprises.

Using the solution, contractors are better equipped to efficiently plan and execute the delivery of service, enabling them to book and complete more jobs overall. The streamlined operations will enable contractors to collect payment faster, thanks to the ability to provide proof of service in real-time, at the time of job completion. The new solution ultimately shortens invoicing and payment cycles to increase reimbursement rates and help drive revenues.

Consumers reap immediate benefits, including access to timely and accurate information, including contractor location, estimated arrival time and job status. By creating a fully transparent process, regardless of whether the service is performed by internal employees or third party technicians, the friction is removed, and the consumer experience improves.

 

"The field service industry continues to evolve to incorporate more automated scheduling tools, and is quickly advancing to real-time workflow mobile technologies that provide businesses with new capabilities and information to effectively help manage third-party contractors," said Aly Pinder Jr., Senior Research Analyst Aberdeen Group. "These technologies have the potential to enable both enterprise service providers and contractors to more quickly and accurately perform their jobs, while providing consistent customer experience."

"In today's service industry it is very common to see service providers of all sizes operating in a wide variety of outsourcing and contracting models. The Service Networks for Contractors is a milestone in the path to a comprehensive Service network vision where communities of contractors will interact in harmony with each other to deliver outstanding service together with business efficiencies," said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder and CEO of ClickSoftware. "This new network leverages the 2014 acquisition of Xora, seamlessly extending enterprise-grade solutions to workforces of all sizes."

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

Kony, Inc. a leading enterprise mobility company, recently announced that it has been named as a “Leader” and recognised as one of the best platform offerings for the enterprise, and most comprehensive cloud-based mobile solution on the market in the Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Mobile App Development Platform (MADP) Solution, 2015-16 report.

Kony was also highlighted as one of the most widely deployed application development platforms, with a broad range of both mission-critical enterprise and consumer-facing scenarios. As the largest pure-play provider focused on enterprise mobility solutions, Kony serves more than 20 million mobile app users worldwide and manages more than a billion user sessions annually.

“Mobile will be the ante to the game of commerce, productivity and loyalty,” said Thomas E. Hogan, chief executive officer, Kony, Inc. “As mobile is fast becoming a major catalyst for business innovation and process transformation for the enterprise, I believe companies will either lead with mobile or be left behind. The recognition of Kony as an industry leader by Ovum is a testament to the relentless focus and commitment by our Kony team to help our customers take full advantage of the power of mobile to advance their business agenda.”

According to the Ovum report, “Smart mobile devices are proving to be the preferred choice when connecting to the Internet, not only for consumers, but also now for enterprise workers.”

 

The report also states that many enterprises are prioritising mobile apps over all other app development requirements, for both external (business and consumer-facing) and internal requirements. Furthermore, enterprises today must have a mobile app strategy, driven by consumers choosing to do more with their mobile devices over traditional computers.

Ovum recognised Kony for developing a leading business to address the needs of enterprises as they turn to app development solutions that offer a build-once, deploy to many device operating systems and form factors.

The Kony Mobility Platform is an end-to-end mobile app development platform that offers full lifecycle support on-premise or on the cloud. In the Key Findings section of the report, Ovum states “The advantage of a wide-scope MADP solutions in one box is that developers have a one-stop solution, reducing tool overheads and integration issues, facilitating traceability of work assets.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

TomTom Telematics has launched its next generation of WEBFLEET OptiDrive, incorporating predictive real-time driving advice to empower drivers to drive in a greener, safer style.

TomTom Telematics was the first to introduce direct feedback to professional drivers, using its TomTom Driver Terminals. The feedback on drive style, including harsh braking, speeding and cornering, has now been extended with predictive driving advice. OptiDrive 360 uses vehicle and map data to advise business drivers when to take their foot off the accelerator or shift gear and what their optimum speed should be.

These innovations form part of OptiDrive 360’s complete approach for continuous driving improvement. It provides professional drivers and business management with the information to create a full improvement programme for learning, coaching while driving, post-trip evaluation and in-company comparison.

“OptiDrive 360 marks a ground-breaking development that allows businesses to work more closely with their drivers in a bid to create lasting change to driving standards.” said Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director TomTom Telematics. “The innovation has been developed following years of detailed research conducted in cooperation with the EU ecoDriver Project”.

Pre-trip, OptiDrive 360 provides motorists with best practice advice on how to drive safely and fuel-efficiently. Direct feedback and driving advice is offered during the trip to actively coach the driver. After the trip a snapshot analysis is available to review the trip statistics. All information is displayed via the driver terminal.

 

WEBFLEET provides managers with dashboards that allow them to easily highlight trends in driving behaviour. A series of in-depth reports then enables them to drill deeper for greater analysis and to compare the whole fleet.

OptiDrive 360 scores drivers based on a total of eight performance indicators – speeding, driving events, idling, fuel consumption, green speed, coasting (release gas while in gear), gear shifting and constant speed - which can be used as the basis for performance reviews, training and driver benchmarking.

Young drivers especially concerned, with 55% believing they’ll be replaced by autonomous vehicles

One in four business drivers are concerned that they’ll be replaced by autonomous vehicles in their working lifetime, according to new research from Masternaut, a pan-European provider of fleet telematics solutions.

Over half (55%) of business drivers aged 25-34 said they were concerned that they will be replaced by driverless cars in their working lifetime. Drivers aged 35 and over are less concerned, with only 34% of 35-44 year olds and 12% of 45-54 year olds worried that autonomous vehicles will replace them.

Driverless cars are currently being trialled on UK roads in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Coventry, as ministers consider changes to the Highway Code to allow driverless cars to be used by the general public; although there is still uncertainty over regulatory and legislative implications.

Business drivers believe that the biggest barrier for entry for driverless cars rolling out onto UK roads is integration with regular vehicles (41%), followed by updating road infrastructure (37%) and insurance and liability issues (34%). Meanwhile 33% are apprehensive about viruses and computer glitches affecting the car’s performance and 30% said changes to driving regulations would present a stumbling block to autonomous vehicles.

If they had to work with autonomous vehicles in the future, 15% of professional drivers said that they wouldn’t like it and change jobs, whilst almost a quarter (23%) said that wouldn’t like it but stay in their job. Almost one in ten (9%) business drivers said that they would prefer working with autonomous vehicles.

 

Masternaut surveyed 2,000 UK employees who drive as part of their job, to find out their attitudes towards driverless cars and the effect this will have on their job in the future.

 

Business drivers in London and York are most worried about the technology, with 40% of drivers concerned they’ll be replaced in their working lifetime. Those least concerned are drivers in Bristol, Liverpool and Sheffield, with just 9% worried that autonomous vehicles will replace them.

Steve Towe, Chief Commercial Officer and UK Managing Director, commented: “Driverless car technology is a very exciting development for the automotive industry and represents a major step change for UK roads, one of the biggest changes in history. Previously a science fiction dream, driverless cars are now very real and are being tested on our roads, and we’re intrigued to see what the future holds for the technology.”

He continues, “It’s very important that in order to get the true picture on the future of driverless cars, that we consider the potential impact on a very important group of stakeholders; the business driver, the people who use the roads every day as part of their job. We haven’t heard a great deal from professional drivers on how driverless car technology could affect them in the future, which is something that needs to be taken into consideration, especially considering that to date in 2015, 56% of new vehicle registrations have been fleet vehicles.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

ServicePower a market leader in field service management technology, is pleased to announce that it has signed a five year contract for its ServiceScheduling solution with a leading global manufacturer of hot water products.

The client manufactures and distributes smart, sustainable, integrated climate and sanitary hot water products, such as biomass, solar thermal, heat pumps and micro-CHP heating solutions. The manufacturer operates in 70 countries worldwide, including Germany, France and the UK, as well as Eastern Europe, North America and China.

 

 ServicePower’s patented ServiceScheduling technology will provide the client with on-premise industry leading scheduling technology for both employed and dedicated contracted labour in Europe, beginning with Germany and expanding to France and the UK.  ServiceScheduling will enhance the flexibility, responsiveness and productivity of its field service team, while also providing it with the localisation and product features to support rollouts in countries across the globe.

 

Additionally ServiceScheduling will facilitate simpler installation and maintenance of the client’s hallmark brands by optimising the deployment of a variety of labour resources.

Commenting on the agreement Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower said "This latest customer win demonstrates further progress of the expansion of ServicePower into continental Europe and underlines the capability of our solutions to support global businesses.

Our continued investment in technology innovation was fundamental in this client’s decision to contract with ServicePower. We look forward to supporting our newest client as its deployments expand globally and its products evolve to include more IoT and M2M connectivity to offer increasingly proactive services which lower energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.”

 

---

 

Find out more about ServicePower in the Field Service News Directory here 

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

In a recent email promoting our latest research paper there was a slight error in the terms and conditions section.

Whilst the T&C's outlined in the email were correct in referring to Advanced Business Solutions unfortunately another company was name checked in the text preceding the link due to human error.

Field Service News would just like to confirm that the only commercial partner we have on the research project "Mobility tools in Field Service 2015" is Advanced Business Solutions.

Our apologies for any confusion caused.

Moody Haulage, a Northumberland-based logistics, storage and warehouse business, has improved productivity across its fleet, after deploying a telematics solution from Masternaut.

Fleet managers at Moody Haulage are using Masternaut’s telematics system for vehicle tracking, and monitoring idling and fuel usage. Operating across its fleet of vehicles, ranging in capacity  from 3.5T, 7.5T 18T rigids to 44T artic curtain siders, Moody Haulage has reported a huge uplift in productivity since Masternaut’s telematics solution was installed.

Masternaut provides Moody Haulage with reports on idling and fuel usage to illustrate how fuel is being used, and wasted, across the fleet. This provides Moody Haulage with the tools to educate drivers on how to save fuel and be more efficient in future. Since implementation the firm has achieved double-digit fuel savings, as well as better vehicle utilisation.

 

The technology provides a real-time view of Moody Haulage’s fleet at any time, giving fleet managers full visibility of all vehicles. Fleet managers and customer service advisors are able to provide clients with precise updates on time of arrival, advise on delays, and find the closest driver to a job. The system is also used to prove a driver did attend a job should there be a dispute.

 

Providing powerful routing capabilities, the system is also helping drivers and fleet managers to find the fastest route to customer locations across the UK.

“In the logistics industry, it’s vitally important to ensure we are on time and give our customers the most accurate information possible, and Masternaut has provided a system that does all of the above and more. It’s been totally accepted and embraced by the drivers and is well used throughout the business,” commented Caroline Moody, Business Development Director, Moody Haulage.

“We’ve saved money by reducing the amount of fuel used and improving our scheduling and journey routing capabilities, a return which means the system pays for itself. The accuracy Masternaut provides is unparalleled and as a result, we’ve seen a huge uplift in productivity and efficiency among our fleet drivers.”

Steve Towe, Chief Operating Officer and UK Managing Director, added, “Offering products configured for HGV and Vans from the same platform and shared service has allowed Moody Haulage to make huge gains in productivity and efficiency. We are delighted to support them deliver significant service improvements to their customers.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

Landmark Quest, a leading provider of risk management, mobile solutions and bespoke software for lenders and surveyors, has announced that Connells Survey & Valuation Ltd., now has more than 300 surveyors using its Q-Mobile property data capture solution on Panasonic’s Toughbook tablet PCs, generating major efficiencies with valuation service delivery to mortgage lenders.

In July 2014 Connells Survey & Valuation was awarded the exclusive contract to deliver valuation panel management services to Principality Building Society.  Under the contract, Principality Chartered Surveyors also joined Connells Survey & Valuation business.

Q-Mobile, used in conjunction with Panasonic Toughbooks, improves workflow, standardises surveyors’ site notes and allows Connells’ surveyors to access supporting data for each valuation report while they are on site.  The mobile software provides a seamless process from the receipt of a valuation instruction, scheduling the appointment, undertaking research and the inspection, through to transmission of the valuation report to the client. Connells have been pioneers in developing and using Landmark Quest Q-Mobile, which has supported their surveyors being more efficient in responding to increasingly complex service requirements and improving the customer journey.

Matthew Morgan, Area Director, Connells Survey & Valuation (former Chief Surveyor at Principality Surveyors), comments: “At Principality Surveyors we were researching the best mobile technology system on the market.  Connells Survey & Valuation has an unparalleled reputation for quality service delivery and had already made a major investment in its service involving Landmark Q-Mobile and tablet PCs. This was taken into consideration during the tender process.”

 

Ross Bowen, Managing Director of Connells Survey & Valuation, adds, “Using Q-Mobile has delivered tangible benefits to our clients and superior customer outcomes. We are now even better placed to manage our surveyors’ workloads and work patterns during the course of the day. Within the space of just a few weeks of rolling out Q-Mobile, it has become the established platform underpinning the delivery of our professional valuation services.”

Ross Bowen explains that introducing the new surveying team to Q-Mobile and the latest mobile working methods required three days’ initial training, but has paid dividends in efficient working practices and time saved when responding to queries.

“When a query is raised by an underwriter or solicitor, we can push this out to surveyors in the field and they can respond immediately and effectively. Information such as site plans, photos and post valuation queries are all in one place, so it is much easier to access at the surveyor’s fingertips, speeding response times to clients and their time to mortgage offer Using Q-Mobile in the field has also more than halved the time taken to respond to post valuation queries from two days to under one day,” enthuses Bowen.

Whilst highlighting the benefits, Ross Bowen emphasises that Connells’ investment in Q-Mobile and tablet PCs was part of implementing its next generation service delivery model. “Being able to access data from mobile devices in real time is a major change for our industry and it’s helping to evolve the working patterns of the profession.”

Rachel Brookes, Product Manager at Landmark Quest comments, “We are delighted to be able to support the integration of the former Principality Chartered Surveyors into Connells Survey & Valuation, by using our mobile data capture software to standardise reports and improve validation, efficiency and quality for all surveyors. We will continue to work with Connells to further develop Q-Mobile to incorporate datasets, such as the homebuyer report.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

Global designer and manufacturer of rugged computing devices, Getac, has signed a deal to supply Southern Water with 380 F110 Windows 8 fully rugged tablets for field service use...

The devices will be a critical component of Southern Water’s Work and Asset Management and Management Information (WAMMI) initiative, designed to streamline operations out in the field and improve service for customers.

Southern Water selected Getac as its hardware supplier of choice following feedback from field operatives who rated the F110 tablet as superior to their existing hardware. The utility provider was also impressed by Getac’s service levels and ability to deliver a fully rugged device at a cost-effective price.

Alex Chandler, WAMMI Business Lead, Southern Water, says: “We needed a device with a large screen and rugged reliability for our field workers to effectively work with our geographic information system (GIS). After field testing, we found a very high user acceptance for Getac and the devices were cost-effective. As a result, we’ll have rolled out more than 300 Getac F110s to our teams by the end of June.”

 

The new devices will provide a substantial efficiency boost for Southern Water. Thanks to the F110’s unparalleled connectivity and GPS capability via 4G LTE and SiRFstarIV™ GPS, the devices will be directly synchronised with the utility provider’s GIS solution. This means field workers can easily mark off areas of work and keep HQ dispatchers aware of the progress of operations – information that can then be used to allocate jobs to other workers and keep customers updated.

The F110’s large 11.6” screen provides ample space to display detailed information and allows the easy filling in of electronic forms, while the Windows 8 OS provides a familiar and easy-to-use interface.

The F110 includes Getac’s proprietary QuadraClear® screen which is viewable in even the sunniest conditions, while the touchscreen can be operated without having to remove gloves. MIL-STD-810G and IP65 rated, the F110 can also handle drops, shock and exposure to dust and water without damage. To support Southern Water, Getac has provided a five-year return-to-base warranty and providing full set-up to ensure field workers can boost their productivity the moment they receive their device.

Chandler adds: “We needed a tablet we could rely on in all weathers and conditions, with a familiar interface and high user acceptance – with Getac we have exactly that device.”

The devices are expected to be in operation by the end of June.

 

---

 

Be social and share this story