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ServicePower Inc. a market leader in field service management solutions, has recently released a new Customer Experience service solution that combines its patented Artificial Intelligence engine with its new Gantt, maps, dashboards, improved technician mobile enablement features, and a new integrated registration, diagnostic, self-scheduling and point-of-sale enabled Customer Portal.

This integrated solution is new to the industry, being the first solution to help field service organisations drive a faster, smarter end-customer experience, while also improving the effectiveness of field technicians and operations teams.

“Customer experience is key. This product release uses the latest in artificial intelligence, real-time engagement and mobility tools to deliver a better, and more digitised experience,” said Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower. “Customers and technicians care about great service, which ServicePower now can deliver it in a differentiated way.  Our suite of solutions eliminate many of the frustrations customers experience when requesting installations, maintenance or service.”

ServicePower drives faster service for the end customer. 

The Customer Experience release empowers end-customer users to instantly book appointments through an integrated self-service portal, on any device, utilizing the patented AI technology. Relying on ServicePower to seamlessly book employed and credentialed contracted field technicians using its smart brokering technology, field service organisations can delight customers with faster response times and a consistent, branded service experience, while providing greater call center efficiencies at the same time. The new release also improves visibility for customers through real-time job status notifications and technician location information, enables customers to upload diagnostic and triage information, and engage with their technician as a trusted advisor. Customers gain improved control over their own experience, uploading and viewing job related information and configuring notifications from the platform.

ServicePower drives a smarter service experience for the mobile field technician.  

With the Customer Experience release the field service team gains a market leading set of capabilities, enabling predictive maintenance, higher repair success rates, and delivery of a more personalised service experience to end-customers. Technicians have access to a more complete customer data set, including all relevant job, customer, asset and part information to deliver higher first time fix rates, while being able to push data downstream, improving manufacturing and long-term product viability for customers.  Extensive product catalogs and pricing capabilities enable technicians to deliver parts, accessories and service offers in person, adding value to each customer interaction.

ServicePower drives a unified experience for service operations. 

The Customer Experience release enables field service operators to streamline field service operations, from entitlement and claims management to scheduling, labor and parts forecasting, reporting and analytics. ServicePower’s modern interfaces and patented AI-scheduling algorithm improves customer processes such as appointment booking, with employed or contracted field personnel, while driving productivity up and costs down.  Responsive, collaborative dashboards improve visibility of operations, driving improvements for both the customer and the technician.

Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower said “This latest Fall 2017 product release is all about changing the service paradigm to incorporate the latest in AI technology, digitisation, and a great user experience to empower the technician to deliver great service and the end-customer to manage their own engagement with service organisations, when and where they want, with clear visibility of technicians’ visits, so they know what’s going on. Technicians enjoy providing faster, smarter service, so they can delight the customer and provide more value. Our focus is about streamlining operations on a unified platform to provide a better experience for all, continuing to innovate with new features targeted across the entire service ecosystem.”

 

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ServicePower recently hosted an excellent webinar the discussed the Customer Experience release on which you can access here

 

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Tomorrow's Smart Factory Expo is undoubtedly the UK’s biggest setting for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and will play host to more than 4,000 decision-makers and senior executives, with every single sector of the industry represented.

Partnered with the government, major industry bodies, universities and over 100 exhibitors, the event will showcase the UK manufacturing industry’s world-class professionals and solution providers and gives exhibitors and attendees a platform to see the latest technological advances and discuss the ground-breaking innovations that are the driving force behind 4IR.

Over 100 of the top innovative industry leaders have signed up to exhibit, including Aptean, Cisco, Dell EMC, IBM, Proto Labs, Rockwell Automation, XMPRO and many more.

Solutions Theatres Spotlight

The Solution Theatres will provide conference-style learning where attendees will see over 90 free presentations from companies including: Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, BMW Group, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel.

The Solution Theatres will be broken into four different technology zones:

• Digital Transformation
• Smart Factory
• Industrial Internet
• Industrial Automaton

The Leaders Conference

Running alongside Smart Factory Expo is the Leaders Conference, as with Smart Factory Expo, there are plenty of reasons to attend:

• Following the success of 2016, this is now the event to attend, established as the most comprehensive source of information within the sector.
• An ideal platform for attendees and teams to collaborate and focus their learning experience from experts in the precise area of their industry.
• Features over 120 of the manufacturing industry’s highest level leaders and gives attendees the chance to learn and network with top tier contributors and listen to manufacturing specialists.

Here are just a few of the top speakers presenting at Leaders Conference:

Simon Bradley, VP Global Head of Innovation & Cyber Security – Airbus

An internationally recognised technology leader and driver of innovation and transformation within global organisations, Simon brings a powerful blend of skills and proven capabilities to enable companies to drive forward with vision and deliver on the requirements of key stakeholders.

As Vice President, Head of Innovation Works Systems & Products and latterly as Head of Global Innovation Network within The Airbus Group, Simon has helped build a strong cohesive brand for Research & Technology strategy and development. The Airbus Group was named in the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Innovative Companies list and ranked #30 in the world for Research & Development in 2013 with a spend of 3.1Bn€. His portfolio within The Airbus Group for research covers a wide range of subjects and is global in its scope.

From System & Software Engineering, Virtual Reality & Simulation, Applied Mathematics, Information Technology & HPC, Big Data & Visual Analytics, Maintenance & Services through to Cyber & Homeland Security. In 2015 Simon took on his newest role as Vice President, Product & Cyber Security Program Directorate – helping to protect Airbus Group products, facilities, ICT equipment and people.

Nicholas Leeder, Director PLM and Standards – SKF Group

With the growth of digital opportunities and the new industrial revolution of Industry 4.0, many companies are struggling to understand what this means for them. Nick thrives at this new intersection of business & digital technology, exploiting his practical and professional experiences to drive business results. He is also an internationally recognised speaker around the challenges of these digital transformations.

He is a business and technology leader with a ‘Big 4’ pedigree & over 20 years of global management experience, work for and with some of the most innovative businesses in the world.

Nick operates at ‘C-Level’, accountable for complex operational transformations with enabling technology digital strategies, shaping & leading the delivery of these changes. He brings wide-ranging business & technology experience, as well as transferable industry insights, particularly from industrial, consumer products & high technology sectors. He is the Director of Product Lifecycle Management for SKF Group, having driven the transformations ranging from "Digital Twin", Industry 4.0 and "Smart" Data.

Gunther Boehner, Director of Assembly – BMW Group

His first role with the group was based in BMW Plant Munich as a Process Planner for the Assembly. Since joining the BMW Group Gunther gained experience in many roles including Group Leader Assembly line, involvement in the Quality Project “Zero Rework”, Supplier Quality Management, Leader Project VPS (Value Added Production Systems) BMW Assembly, General Manager for Assembly and General Manager for logistics both based in BMW Plant Regensburg.

In 2014 he moved to Oxford to take up the post of General Manager for Assembly where the MINI is produced. In January 2016 he became the Director of Assembly leading about 2500 associates to build approximately 1000 cars per day.

Gunther’s areas of speciality are extensive knowledge of Value Added Production Systems, and the Kaizen (Lean) Principles.

Before joining the BMW Group he was an Officer in the German Army for 10 years.

 

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Advanced registration is closed but tickets are still available on the door for £45 Find out more @ www.tmsmartfactoryexpo.com

 

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Noventum has released its FSM Solutions Reality Check report, a comprehensive overview of the leading Field Service Management (FSM) solutions to help organisations select the solutions best suited to their requirements.

According to research and evaluations conducted by Noventum, Field Service Management solutions provided by ServiceMax, Microsoft and IFS are best positioned to provide maximum business benefits to service businesses while the potential risks and TCO are the lowest.

Noventum evaluated vendors and their products by assessing their functional and non-functional capabilities against the industry leading Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards to determine whether the solutions can support the key businesses capabilities service businesses need to be successful.

Service organisations that are planning to select a new FSM solution can benefit from the knowledge and data collected to select the best FSM solution for their specific needs and for their specific situation. By using Noventum’s evaluation framework based on SCP this can be done in a much shorter timeframe and with a better and completer set of service requirements and evaluation criteria than is typically the case, ensuring that the selected solution can support all service processes in scope.

 

Through our extensive customer engagements, via product demos and customer references visits, Noventum validated the capabilities of service management solutions to ensure that they meet client’s needs in real world situations.

Visit Noventum’s website to request a copy of the report (http://noventum.eu/whitepaper/fsm-solutions-reality-check).

Join Noventum at Field Service Europe on 6-8 December 2017, with over 55 heads of service speakers.

You can register today http://fs-ne.ws/nCix30gid3o for Field Service, including the including the Service Industry Standards Day with a 20% discount (Service providers only) when you indicate the registration FSEU17FSN

 

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Abbey Logistics Group, one of the UK’s largest bulk liquid and powder transport providers, is deploying a Microlise fleet management telematics solution to 350 tractors and 300 trailers in its fleet.

Microlise Fleet Performance will provide Abbey Logistics with real-time visibility of its fleet and help it to improve driver performance and safety; while reducing fuel costs and environmental impact.  It will replace three different tracking systems currently being used in the business as a result of contract wins and an acquisition.

Driver performance metrics, including A-G grades on a range of criteria, will be available via the Microlise Driver Performance Management (DPM) app. DPM is designed to empower drivers to improve with easy access to insights about their own performance.

The DPM app also gives drivers a view of their performance compared to others in their team, providing the option to motivate drivers through league tables and incentives. Abbey Logistics’ management will also be able to identify poor performance and manage by exception, delivering targeted driver debriefs and training.

 

The full suite of Fleet Performance reports will also be available via the Microlise web portal, giving detailed information about the fleet operation to enable the Abbey Logistics team to understand where improvements can be made.

In addition, Abbey Logistics will also be implementing Microlise Remote Digital Tachograph Download, which automates the collection of drivers’ hours on a regular basis, no matter where the vehicle is.

“The deployment of Microlise Fleet Performance will give us the visibility we need to make effective improvements quickly,” said Steve Granite, Abbey Logistics Group CEO. “We are also hoping to free up management time by removing many manual processes and focusing our resources where they are needed. All of this is aimed at delivering the best service for our customers.”

Abbey Logistics Group was bought in August 2016 by management with funding from a Manchester-based private equity firm. It has announced a string of award wins and nominations in 2017, as well as several large contract wins.

“There is great energy and enthusiasm at Abbey Logistics, along with an excellent company culture. The success it is seeing as a business is no accident. We’re pleased to be supporting the operations team with a telematics product to help identify and enact efficiency improvements,” said Nadeem Raza, Microlise Chief Executive Officer.

DPM runs on both Android and iOS devices, delivering increased driver engagement with telematics, whilst at the same time reducing management resource requirements.

For further information about Microlise Fleet Performance and DPM, visit www.microlise.com/products.

 

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Since 1995, all heavy goods vehicles (HGV) and Public Service Vehicles (PSV) require a daily walk around check prior to service in the UK. Fleetmatics, a Verizon Company, has partnered with Lancashire based company CheckedSafe, to offer its digital fleet compliance app to current and future customers.

CheckedSafe’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) Vehicle compliance app digitises the vehicle defect card by allowing commercial vehicle drivers to complete a driver daily walk around check from their smart phone. The data is recorded into a central database immediately, enabling the compliance manager to verify that the walkaround check has been done. Historically, all previous checks were paper-based, which is time consuming, costly and unreliable.

 

“With pressures mounting on fleet managers, it’s vital to create ways that make it easier for drivers to play their role in the safety and compliance process. By partnering with CheckedSafe, our customers will now be able to monitor all daily checks at the click of a button, and will have added insights into where the checks were carried out, how long they took, and what if any defects were identified,” said Guy Fletcher, product manager of Fleetmatics.

 

Fleetmatics’ partnership with CheckedSafe offers its current and future customers an efficient, practical and virtually foolproof solution that helps customer be fully compliant to all current regulations. The solution works on smartphones or tablets and can be integrated into other Internet-enabled devices.

"With complementary technology solutions and customers, partnering with Fleetmatics is a natural fit for us. We are pleased to have the opportunity to offer Fleetmatics customers our simple and effective solution to help eradicate the issue of either non-compliance or partial compliance with the legislation,” said Darran Harris, director at CheckedSafe.

 

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Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of technology and services, have announced the expansion of its partnership with Avaya to help support Bosch’s digital transformation strategy across its global operations.

Avaya Private Cloud Services (APCS) has signed a $60 million agreement with Bosch to provide a range of business communications solutions to 160,000 Bosch associates worldwide.

The five-year deal builds on Avaya’s existing relationship with Bosch and is part of the group’s wider “Next Generation Workplace” project, designed to further support a globally connected and agile workforce. The "Next Generation Workplace" is a long-term project for Bosch that aims to make efficient mobile working even easier for associates. Through the Avaya APCS solution provided, Bosch can reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for the provision of voice services by as much as 20%.

Avaya will provide a range of private cloud-based voice, contact centre and collaboration services, helping Bosch’s central IT department to roll out standardised solutions to all Bosch group companies worldwide. Avaya’s infrastructure integration solution will also provide enterprise-class assured voice services to Bosch users where they are interfacing through the Skype for Business desktop client.

Bosch, which employs 390,000 associates worldwide, operates in four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading Internet of Things (IoT) company, Bosch offers solutions for smart homes, smart cities, connected mobility, and connected manufacturing, delivering innovations for a connected life.

 

“We have made a major commitment to drive agility by investing in our IT infrastructure. Accordingly, we need trusted partners that can help us deliver on our vision of the “Next Generation Workplace” and deliver the required levels of quality and service to our associates. Avaya’s proven ability to deliver to demanding deadlines, deep knowledge of our business needs and the technical expertise to execute flawlessly makes them a natural choice to be one of those trusted partners. They are helping us to create a global standard solution that will be made available to Bosch’s 440+ subsidiaries and regional companies.” Klaus Hüftle, Senior VP, Bosch GmbH

“This new agreement reflects the confidence and trust that Bosch has built up in Avaya, our capability to deliver on this scale of project, and our ability to create innovative solutions that go beyond our own product space. We are strengthening our relationship with a world-leading technology company, and playing our part in helping Bosch to achieve its digital transformation objectives and empower its workforce. Avaya is proud of the endorsement in us that this agreement reflects and we look forward to working more closely with them over the coming years.” Nidal Abou-Ltaif, President, Avaya International.

The contract with Avaya will also enable Bosch to deliver future innovation, through the introduction of Avaya Breeze applications and Avaya Oceana customer experience solutions.

Avaya Private Cloud Services (APCS) enable companies to create simple, dynamic environments that allow them to roll out new applications and services faster, support new devices, improve application uptime, and gain significantly reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and better return on investment (ROI).

 

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A new study from Vanson Bourne, sponsored by ServiceMax, from GE Digital, the leading provider of field service management solutions, has found that 75% of IT decision makers believe that machines will receive better, preventative healthcare than human beings by 2020.

Leaders surveyed believe advancements in machines having the ability to predict failure, take preventative measures or self-healing actions are widely viewed as beneficial to a company’s bottom line.

For example:

• 46% of respondents say machines requesting help themselves will help their company better manage their equipment assets.
• 39% of respondents say predictive maintenance would help better manage asset equipment.
• 44% of respondents say digital twin with predictive maintenance and artificial intelligence would help prevent major failures.
• 69% of IT leaders surveyed say they would like their own personal digital twin to help themselves and medical professionals regulate their health in non-invasive ways by taking early action and preventative measures.[/unordered_list]

The new study, “After The Fall: Cost, Causes and Consequences of Unplanned Downtime,”  surveyed 450 field service and IT decision makers in the UK, US, France and Germany across the manufacturing, medical, oil and gas, energy and utilities, telecoms, distribution, logistics and transport sectors, among others.

According to Gartner, by 2020, 10% of emergency field service work will be both triggered and scheduled by artificial intelligence. The new study highlights the impact of new technology like artificial intelligence, analytics, and use of a digital twin on how we monitor industrial machines to predict when a piece of equipment will fail and what preventative service maintenance is required.

“In the same way that organisations want zero unplanned downtime with their equipment assets to avoid expensive loss of production or service, we want to mitigate our own human ‘outages’,” said Mark Homer, Vice President Global Customer Transformation for ServiceMax, from GE Digital. “This holistic view of how something is operating – whether it’s a person, an equipment plant or an individual component in a machine – has historically been disjointed and only visible when something goes wrong.

 

Today, organisations are now acutely aware of the value of a real-time view on the health and performance of their critical assets, as well as predictive analytics on when preventative maintenance or intervention is required, and access to time series data, service history and optimisation demands. The research found that more than half of companies are planning to invest in a digital twin in the next three years.

The value of these digital insights in an industrial context is starting to generate interest in preventative maintenance in a human context.”

A copy of the Vanson Bourne Whitepaper and Executive Summary, can be downloaded here

 

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Ericsson and MTS, the largest telecommunications operator in Russia, have agreed to upgrade the network of MTS. Ericsson will deliver the newest software features that will be continuously developed during the next three years.

The scope of the agreement also includes 5G-ready radio hardware, Ericsson Radio Systems and core network with the latest Ericsson Mobile Softswitch Solution (MSS), as well as User Data Consolidation (UDC), providing consolidation of user data for all network functions.

These solutions will upgrade the mobile networks for 2G, 3G and 4G. In addition, MTS will prepare the network for 5G with Ericsson software for Massive IoT solutions, including NB-IoT and Cat-M1 technologies. This enables a wide range of IoT use-cases including metering and sensor applications.

The agreement fully supports MTS’s strategy of preparing the network with 5G and IoT-ready hardware to enable a fast commercialization of these technologies. The deployment starts Q4 2017 and total value of the contract is expected to exceed EUR 400 million.

Andrey Ushatsky, MTS Chief Technology Officer, says: “In April 2017, in Moscow our companies demonstrated 5G technology with peak data rates up to 25 Gbit/sec. Now we have reached an agreement with Ericsson, which will supply MTS new equipment enabling our network to deploy first solutions based on 5G technologies starting 2020. After upgrade, MTS network will provide higher data rates, increased capacity and low latency. These characteristics are critical for IoT and digital services that we are starting to implement today".

 

According to latest edition of Ericsson Mobility Report, many operators will deploy 5G commercially from 2020, in line with the time plan for 5G standardization. In 2022, the number of 5G subscriptions is forecast to reach more than 500 million. The adoption rate of 5G mobile broadband is expected to be similar to that of LTE, and rollout will commence in major metropolitan areas, reaching around 15 percent population coverage by 2022. 5G will enable a wide range of use cases for massive IoT and critical IoT.

Arun Bansal, Head of Ericsson in Europe and Latin America, says: “Early deployment of IoT and 5G technologies positions Russia as an early adopter of the most advanced ICT solutions. Ericsson supports MTS in the company’s goals to meet growing capacity needs and be ready for huge opportunities that will come with 5G and IoT. 5G will be a major technology in booming industrial digitalization, creating and enhancing industry digitalization use cases such as immersive gaming, autonomous driving, remote robotic surgery, and augmented-reality support in maintenance and repair situations.”

This announcement represents a milestone in the large-scale commercialization of IoT and 5G technologies in Russia. It follows the agreement of an extensive 5G Memorandum of Understanding signed by MTS and Ericsson in December 2015.

To further demonstrate the capabilities of 5G and IoT technologies, the two companies will roll out 5G demo zones during FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia.

 

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FieldAware, a leader in made-for-mobile, cloud-based field service automation solutions, have recently launched FieldAware Forms to add enhanced data collection and workflow capabilities to its field service software. The improved solution increases data accuracy, speeds up data collection, automates data routing, and creates a seamless customer experience.

Field service professionals understand that accurate data collection is essential for a successful business, but this is often a lengthy and cumbersome task for those involved due to manual processes and duplicate data entry.

Paper-based processes are fraught with issues from delays in receiving vital information, to missing, incomplete information, or inconsistency in the data captured. With the enhanced capabilities of FieldAware Forms, organisations have reported a 300% improvement in customer response times and a 77% reduction in time taken to invoice by removing paper-based processes from their operations.

 

FieldAware Forms improves productivity further by eliminating redundant data entry tasks, and features like dropdown menus minimize errors and ensure high data quality across systems.

The additional embedded capabilities of FieldAware Forms allow FieldAware customers to generate an unlimited number of customisable forms that can be completed and synced to the back office at the touch of a button. Captured data can easily be searched, extracted, and sent to an analytics engine— transforming collected data into actionable business intelligence.

“The enhancements FieldAware Forms has made to automated mobile workflows will transform the all-important data collection for our customers,” says Steve Wellen, CEO FieldAware. “FieldAware Forms simplifies field data collection, improves data quality, and enables real-time data sharing. The use of dynamic, customisable forms to capture data not only saves time and eliminates paperwork, but ensures accurate records are being kept that can be used to create insightful reporting.”

“FieldAware Forms, as part of the FieldAware solution, will benefit all field service organizations looking to improve their productivity, service quality and significantly adds even greater value to those carrying out inspections and audits with compliance or regulatory obligations as part of their operations.”

FieldAware Forms is available to all new and existing FieldAware customers, extending the feature set with the enhanced mobile forms capabilities.

For more information on FieldAware visit www.fieldaware.com

 

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