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Fast Lean Smart (FLS) customer, British Engineering Services (BES), have been crowned winners of The Forum's ‘Innovation award for Enterprise Planning’ at The Customer Strategy & Planning 2019 event. BES, who use FLS' scheduling and route planning software FLS VISITOUR also scooped the award for overall Innovation of the Year 2019.

 

The Forum is an an independent body supporting the contact centre industry since early 2000 and is a supplier-independent and work across all industry sectors to provide specialist support for contact centre and planning professionals.

Widely recognised as the ‘go-to place’ for support teams and business leaders, the team of independent experts offers advice, support and training, helping many organisations develop the capability of their support functions through bespoke learning and development, accreditation, qualifications and standards benchmarking.

 

Each year applications are submitted to the body's for industry awards in specific categories. Aftter FLS introduced BES to The Forum and the company submitted an application directly for the ‘Innovation award for Enterprise Planning’, which you can read below.

The winners were selected by a team which included 12 experienced industry practitioners, many of them previous winners or finalists. Judges visited each of the shortlisted organisations, and then assessed them against a strict set of criteria.

The BES submission: “The power of planning”

How flexible resourcing and strategic use of planning helped them stand out from competitors on service and create a new, one team culture that’s doubled sales and raised month-end service by 50%.

The catalyst for transformation at British Engineering Services was creating a new company, separate from RSA, seizing the chance to stand  out in the market and deliver on ‘making Britain a safer place’. Capacity planning was fundamental, alongside outside expertise with VISITOUR scheduler from FLS. Reliability comes from effective end-to-end planning, delivering the highest quality inspections, on time, every time – an exceptional customer experience. Engineer surveyors remain a key part of the planning process and lifestyle flexibility has been a massive win too. It’s created a customer-driven and flexible mindset and removed traditional territorial boundaries. This is a human organisation that everyone feels part of. Three years on and the evidence is clear – sales up 100%, customer retention up 15%, huge cost savings and delivering the best service in the market.

Key Results

• Customer retention up by 15%
• Cost savings c10-15%
• 50% reduction in wasted downtime in 2018
• 74% improvement for ‘on or before’ SLA for the largest clients
• 100% rise in sales performance in 2018
• The best service in the market

British Engineering Services is the UK’s biggest independent engineering inspection, testing and certification company. 450 highly qualified Engineer Surveyors perform 2.8 million inspections each year, supported by Planning Team members using online reporting systems and FLS VISITOUR scheduler.

You can download the slides here and watch a video of the case study here.

Programme uses a multi-stage approach to enable vehicle manufacturers to connect with the TomTom Telematics Service Platform. 

After joining OEM.connect, manufacturers’ vehicles with line fitted connectivity will roll off the production line WEBFLEET and NEXTFLEET ready. The owners of these vehicles can then access the standard TomTom Telematics’ applications, which help boost the efficiency, productivity and safety of their fleet operations.

If a fleet is made up of cars, light commercial vehicles or trucks from different manufacturers, the data from each vehicle will be presented to the user in the same standardised way on the same interface. This makes comparison and analysis simple.Car manufacturers get the full advantage of TomTom Telematics’ experience in the connected car space and wide geographical scope.

“With more than 20 years’ experience in telematics and fleet management,” said Thomas Becher, VP Business Development, TomTom Telematics. “We have demonstrated through our work with leading car makers like Groupe PSA and Renault and the use of BMW CarData, that our expertise is the key to unlocking the considerable financial and end-user value of vehicle connectivity.”

Benoît Joly, Head of Services Business, Renault, added: “Because business users' requirements differ widely depending on their trade, because there are so many different industries and country-specific needs, Renault partners with TomTom Telematics as one of the best-known telematics service providers to meet each company's requirements. As part of the Renault EASY CONNECT for Fleet ecosystem of connected services, business users can simplify fleet management and reduce costs, with secure and affordable connectivity.”

The confidentiality, integrity and availability of connected car data processed on the TomTom Telematics Services Platform has been certified to ISO/IEC 27001 standards.

Serve announce the integration of its fingerprint recognition technology with its blockchain-based platform. 

Bringing forth a new paradigm in securing deliveries in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and other sensitive consumer goods where chain of custody and proof of delivery are paramount, this seemingly ubiquitous technology offers users an extra layer of security throughout the order fulfillment process without sacrificing efficiency. 

 

“Being involved in the logistics space for over 20 years, the current faults in last-mile logistics have become increasingly apparent,” says Serve’s CEO Shahan Ohanessian. “With the integration of fingerprint recognition technology, Serve increases the security of order fulfillment while also increasing positive business-to-consumer relationships.”

 

Combining fingerprint recognition technology with Serve’s innovative blockchain-based platform, which now includes facial recognition technology, every participant within the Serve ecosystem will experience more secure and positive transactions, from mom-and-pop shops to large businesses. Creating a solid foundation for a decentralized last-mile logistics, Serve promotes efficiency, transparency, and trust.

BullGuard VPN for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS makes it simple for consumers to create military-grade encrypted connections.

Cybersecurity company, BullGuard, today announced the expansion of its cybersecurity product line with the launch of BullGuard VPN. Designed to be easily used across multiple devices, BullGuard VPN features a simplified user interface and quick connect functionality, enabling consumers to fly under the radar and surf the internet in stealth mode while retaining complete anonymity via military-grade encryption. Available for Windowsâ, Macâ, Androidâ and iOSâ operating systems, BullGuard VPN is available for download and purchase on the Apple App Store, Google Play and the BullGuard website.

 

“Cybersecurity to date has been primarily focused on keeping consumers and their devices safe from online threats, but cybercriminals also pose a threat to consumer privacy,” said BullGuard CEO, Paul Lipman. “In today’s cyberthreat landscape, security and privacy must be equally addressed in order to adequately protect consumers. BullGuard VPN enables consumers to safeguard their online privacy in a fast, easy and seamless way – from their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone – wherever they go.”

 

BullGuard VPN secures and protects up to six devices simultaneously – desktop computer, smartphone, laptop or tablet – and consumers can easily switch between 16 different country locations, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Singapore and Australia. BullGuard VPN hides a consumer’s origin IP address, preventing others – including ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and government organizations – from monitoring their online browsing activity, including what websites they visit, what they download or what services and applications they use. BullGuard VPN customers have access to 24/7 customer support.

 

Online consumer privacy is under siege on a near daily basis – from huge breaches where personal data is stolen and cybercriminals absconding with personal information and identities to Facebook and Internet Service Providers caught selling consumer data without consent. BullGuard VPN puts privacy control in consumers’ hands and is the perfect choice for consumers when using an unprotected Wi-Fi hotspot when away from home in airports, hotels or cafes. BullGuard VPN users receive secure connections in to hotspots, which protect them against data theft, privacy breaches, malware and cyber attacks via Wi-Fi. 

Report highlights that threat actors are advanced and persistent, but companies are using outdated systems and technology to save money. Poor security posture, prioritization, and awareness are also gifts to attackers. 

Malicious actors are targeting critical infrastructure (CNI) sites and energy distribution facilities exponentially. Interconnected systems in the energy industry increase vulnerabilities, and cyber attacks often go undetected for some time.

As energy companies save costs against the backdrop of lower oil prices, consolidating operations can weaken business resilience and redundancy levels. This gives rise to new, single critical points of failure, with any disruption across the supply chain potentially having increased consequences.

“Espionage and sabotage attacks against CNI organizations have increased over the years and I don’t think we have seen it all yet,” says Sami Ruohonen, Labs Threat Researcher at Finnish cyber security company F-Secure.

Connecting Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to the Internet is increasing, and a considerable number of CNI systems in use today were installed and built before 24/7/365 internet connections were the norm and the advent of Stuxnet. Many Operational Technology (OT) components have built-in remote operation capabilities, but are either partly or entirely lacking in security protocols such as authentication.

Moreover, cyber security was not a realistic threat when these systems were manufactured, and legacy protocols and systems never had the built-in security controls that we take for granted today. Transitioning these systems to the Internet has opened them up to attacks from a myriad of angles.

“Critical Infrastructure due to its nature is an interesting target for a foreign nation-state, even during peacetime,” Ruohonen explains.

F-Secure’s report shows that:

• A variety of different adversaries, each with their own motivations and tradecraft, constantly strive to compromise organizations that operate critical infrastructure
• Attackers have more time than their targets and will take months to plan their attack
• People are the weakest link in production, with company employees seemingly being criminals’ go-to target
• Attackers continue to succeed mainly due to organizations’ lack of mature cyber security practices
• Nation-state sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are relentless, and continue to seek network foothold positions on CNIs and espionage opportunities in the interests of exercising political leverage
• Nine different attackers/malwares/techniques targeting the energy industry stand out, with spear phishing being the most common initial supply chain attack technique
• Keeping a small attack surface in the energy industry – while often pitched as the best way to mitigate the risk of a cyber attack – is simply not possible

While breaches are a certainty, Ruohonen advises organizations review their cyber security posture to implement latest technologies such as an endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution.

“EDR is a quick way to tremendously increase capabilities to detect and respond to advanced threats and targeted attacks which might bypass traditional endpoint solutions,” he explains. “Managed EDR solutions can provide monitoring, alerting, and response to cover the needs 24/7. This means organizations’ IT teams can operate during business hours to review the detections while a specialized cybersecurity team takes care of the rest,” says Ruohonen.

The complete report is available here.

Global Revenue to Expand at 7.7% CAGR over 2018-2028.

The enterprise asset management systems market is expected to be valued at US$ 4,863.1 Mn in 2028, and is expected to register a CAGR of 7.7% from 2018 to 2028, a new report shows.
Improved ROI with the aid of EAM solutions, widespread penetration of IoT and gradual increase in investment on software by organisations are expected to remain the major factors driving growth of the global enterprise asset management systems market, a report shows.

Enterprise asset management software is primarily used by the enterprises across different industry verticals which are heavily dependent on the complex and expensive physical assets, such as plants, heavy equipment, and vehicles. End users of the EAM primarily include industries such as oil & gas, manufacturing, energy & utility, mining, and others. Enterprise asset management software is offered with the deployment options such as on-premise and cloud based.

Enterprise asset management systems market is categorized on the basis of component, deployment, vertical and region. On the basis of component, the market is segmented as solution and services. The services segment is further bifurcated into consulting services and professional services. The services segment is expected to register a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period.

On the basis of deployment, the enterprise asset management systems market is segmented into on-premise and cloud. The revenue contribution from the clouds segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.0% during the forecast period.

On the basis of vertical, enterprise asset management systems market is segmented as public sector, manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, energy and utility, transportation, wholesale and distribution, food and beverages, paper and packaging, chemical and process industry (including steel industry), mining and service industry. The revenue contribution from the manufacturing segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period.

Among the regions, North America is projected to exhibit relatively high growth in the global market, registering a CAGR of 9.3% over the forecast period. The revenue from the markets in North America and Western Europe are expected to represent a combined share of 45.3% of the total market revenue by the end of forecast period. Some of the top companies identified across the Enterprise Asset Management Systems value chain are IBM Corporation, SAP SE, Oracle Corporation, ABB Ltd, IFS Ltd, Infor Inc., Ultimate Software Solutions BV, Carl International SA, Mainsaver Inc., Mex Pty Ltd and others.

Ericsson and Swisscom, the largest telecommunications service provider in Switzerland, have switched on the first large-scale commercial 5G network in Europe to support commercially available smartphones. 

The long-term strategic partners went live with the network in the first minute of April 17, following Swisscom’s securing of a commercial 5G license. As all the other component parts were already in place, securing the license meant the partners simply had to switch the network on.

Swisscom had already flagged the impending launch of the network, and introduced smartphone and mobile router ecosystem partners, at an April 10 ceremony in Zurich.

The commercial 5G network, and related 5G services, are now available in 54 cities and communities in Switzerland, including the major population areas: Zürich, Bern, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne and Lucerne.

Swisscom subscribers with commercial 5G smartphones and routers in covered areas will immediately benefit from the high speed, low latency and enhanced mobile broadband features of 5G services across infotainment, gaming, virtual reality, and immersive media experiences.

The 5G network switch-on also opens the door to exploring new opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0.

Urs Schaeppi, CEO, Swisscom says: “With the launch of the first commercial 5G network in Switzerland, we are laying the foundation for diverse, new applications and business models. This will not only be great for Switzerland but also inspiring for the people who will now be part of the digital world whether they are living in the city, countryside, or in the mountains.”

Arun Bansal, President and Head of Europe and Latin America, Ericsson, says: “This is a momentous occasion for Swisscom and Europe – 5G is now commercially live. As we continue our close ties with Swisscom, we are also strengthening the 5G ecosystem by reducing the time-to-market for chipset and device makers. We ensure multivendor operability with 5G devices and networks, enabling more 5G devices to come to the market so consumers can enjoy the benefits of 5G services.”

A new, independent survey of the highways industry has revealed that two-thirds of tech-enabled businesses reported a reduction in accidents or no accidents at all in the last 12 months – 50 per cent more than industry standard. 

The report highlights the influence that technology can have on the preventability of accidents, with over two-thirds (67 per cent) of businesses using paper-based processes reporting preventable accidents, compared to only 53 per cent of businesses using digital technology – a reduction of 26 per cent.

 

It also found that not a single business that uses software to enforce process, track job progress and analyse job performance reported an increase in accidents in the past year, compared to 11 per cent of other businesses.

 

Better safety training for workers, more detailed vehicle inspections and improved road quality were listed as the top measures to prevent accidents in future.

 

Graham Whistance, Managing Director of MyMobileWorkers, commissioners of the report, explained:

 

“With 39 million vehicles on the road in Great Britain, our network is being put under more strain than ever before, as are the businesses and workers that make up the sector. However, while maintaining our highways infrastructure is crucial, workforce safety must always be front of mind.

 

“There is no doubt a role for government legislation and regulation here, but what our research tells us that investment in digital technologies is giving businesses an opportunity to take extra control. By making the switch from paper-based to digital, highways companies are improving the safety of some 300,000 workers on the roads today, while also improving compliance, job performance and productivity.”

 

The new research also reveals that using digital software improves business results and productivity. Businesses in the highways sector that track the progress of their jobs using digital technology complete jobs in an average of 4.4 hours while vastly improving quality of work, over 50 per cent faster than those that use paper-based approaches.  

 

What’s more, over a fifth (21 per cent) of those using digital technology to track job progress are able to provide customer updates in real-time, almost double the number of those that don’t (11 per cent).

 

Herts Traffic Management has seen a 40 per cent increase in business efficiencies since switching from paper-based to digital. Richard Soanes, Managing Director, said: “The insights from the Driving Change report are telling. There is a big gap in the highways sector for more efficient and safer ways of working, so having this data to raise awareness and provide a clear solution is invaluable.

 

“Having switched from paper-based to digital ways of working, I have seen the significant business benefits first hand. Compliance and safety performance feel robust and we have seen a 40 per cent increase in business efficiencies through gathering data, accumulated in the office and out in the field.”

 

When it came to compliance, the majority (98 per cent) of those surveyed said they are fully compliant however, some standout challenges still remain. Most notably safeguarding all equipment, which was reported by 45 per cent of businesses. Ensuring all safety procedures are followed and staying up-to-date with new laws, regulation and policies were also cited as leading barriers to compliance in the sector.

 

“While most companies surveyed state they are fully compliant, this report tells us there is still a long list of issues to address,” Graham added. “Compliance is much more than simply filling out a tick-box form, it’s about making sure all areas of the business, from equipment, to employees and ways of working are all as robust as possible.”

According to a new research report from the M2M/IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of devices featuring cellular or satellite connectivity deployed in oil and gas applications amounted to 1.3 million at the end of 2018.

 

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8 percent, this number is expected to reach 1.9 million units by 2023. Remote monitoring of tanks and industrial equipment in the midstream and downstream sectors comprise the most common applications for wireless solutions in the oil and gas industry. Berg Insight expects that shipments in the upstream sector will grow faster, although from a much smaller base, as cellular communications become an increasingly viable alternative to proprietary radio due to improved 4G LTE coverage in North America and broader support from the industry.

 
While the market has been affected by the decrease in oil prices in recent years, significant developments have taken place in regard to the industry landscape and technological advances. Major automation vendors such as Emerson, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Yokogawa, Honeywell and ABB are investing heavily in the development of software platforms to support use cases surrounding predictive analytics and digital twins. Recent developments further include Rockwell Automation’s joint venture agreement with the major oilfield service company Schlumberger to create Sensia, an integrated automation solution provider in the oil and gas industry. On the communications side, several initiatives have been launched to promote the adoption of cellular technologies in the utilities industry, primarily in the US. In early 2019, leading cellular device providers, including Sierra Wireless, Cisco, MultiTech Systems, GE and Encore Networks together with spectrum licensees and utilities formed the Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA) to advance the development of private LTE networks for critical infrastructure industries.

Solutions for remote monitoring of assets such as wellheads, storage tanks and pipeline infrastructure are offered by major industrial automation vendors, as well as a large number of specialised providers. “Key consolidators in the market for remote monitoring solutions are the private equity held companies Quorum Software and DataOnline that have acquired six and three businesses respectively between 2015–2019”, said Fredrik Stalbrand, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight. He mentions recent deals such as Quorum’s acquisitions of the Coastal Flow Measurement family of companies and Flow-Cal in March 2019, as well as DataOnline’s purchase of Sierra Wireless’ iTank business in December 2018. Important vendors that specialise in remote SCADA and tank monitoring further include AIUT, Critical Control, eLynx Technologies, Silicon Controls, SkyBitz, WellAware, Zedi and ZTR Control Systems. “Several players continue to have inorganic growth as a key strategy, so further M&As can be expected among IIoT solution providers targeting the oil and gas industry in 2019–2020”, concluded Mr. Stalbrand.

You can read the full report here.