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Logic Instrument, manufacturer of rugged mobile computers extend its range of the already widely accepted professional Fieldbook tablets with a new model that combines ruggedness, lightweight and unique functionalities offering multiple uses in industrial environments. Its 12.2-inch format ensures great display comfort that is vital for specialists in the fields of automation, automotive, construction or service technicians across all industries.

 The “cross-usage” Fieldbook combines the functionalities of a laptop and a tablet: a large screen, a full-sized, detachable keyboard, mobility and a variety of interfaces – all this considering its reduced weight and increased flexibility.

“This cross-usage tablet represents a new step in the evolution of Logic Instrument’s product range. It allows us to position ourselves in new markets with a device that is 50% lighter and fully rugged, for application in harsh industrial environments,” says Loïc Poirier, CEO of Logic Instrument.

Big Screen with Full HD Resolution

The 12,2-inch screen with 1920x1200 pixels displays all the details even of complex applications, GIS maps or large spreadsheets. The IPS technology allows for wide viewing angles with high contrast and good color reproduction. At the same time, the screen is protected from scratches and drops by Corning’s Gorilla® Glass. Data input can be made either with fingers, even on a wet surface or with gloves on, as well as with the attachable keyboard.

Long-life Battery

The Fieldbook K122 is powered by a 13,000mAh battery that keeps the device running for more than a normal working day. And if necessary, the user can easily replace the battery without needing specific tools.

Well Balanced

Powered by an Intel x5-Z8350 quad-core processor, the Fieldbook K122 achieves great performance combined with low power consumption. The standard version already has 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage, which can be extended by a micro SD card. An integrated WWAN module offers mobile broadband up to 4G/LTE speed. Also integrated are dual-band WiFi and an uBlox GPS module. Two USB type-A, one type-C, HDMI, Gigabit-LAN and up to two serial interfaces are available for wired connections.

A Fieldbook Loyal to Its Principles

Straight from the line of the Fieldbook, this K122 model does not deviate from the rule that has made the success of this equipment for many years: ruggedness, performance and versatility at the best price. Thanks to its hardened design, the K122 resists dust, water (IP65), drops as well as high and low temperatures. This ruggedness makes the Fieldbook K122 the ideal companion in all environments, even the most hostile.

The Fieldbook K122 will be available from February 2017 at a MSRP of 1598€.

 

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Heating engineers across the UK will enjoy a new, updated version of PartsArena Pro from January 2017 as creator, Infomill rolls out its latest improvements to the leading source of heating parts and technical data to over 2,600 licensed users.

With the ability to access the app offline on iOS, Android and Windows, PartsArena Pro has fast become an essential efficiency tool for heating engineers whilst out in the field. Instant access to technical manuals, part imagery, interactive exploded views, parts codes and a stockist locator helps engineers to reduce time on-site and improve the first time fix rate by ensuring much more accurate parts ordering.

The system is being used by heating companies including larger organisations and SME’s to enhance customer service and cut cost on site. Many engineers are benefitting from integration with their field management systems, enabling automated parts ordering.

The January update of PartsArena Pro will see many improvements and enhancements, often developed from valuable user feedback. These include:

• A new user interface with dropdown menu replacing tabs
•  One-time log-in account for activation
• Manually add notes to an appliance or part for handy reminders
• Create a Favourites list of appliances and parts for swift access
• Quick access to recently viewed parts and documents
• Copy part codes to a clipboard to paste into external documents
• Automated feedback forms as part of the help and support available
• Full on-screen help throughout the app

 Jonathan Ralphs, Managing Director, Infomill commented on the update saying “We’re very proud of our market-leading app that continues to provide huge efficiency benefits for heating engineers nationwide. Forever wishing to keep PartsArena Pro cutting-edge, we have a highly skilled team that reviews all user feedback in addition to technological advances, to understand how we can make this invaluable app even more effective and intuitive to use. The result being that this updated version will certainly enhance service performance every single day."

PartsArena Pro is increasingly being integrated into field service management systems to offer efficiencies at every level coupled with a better customer experience. A recent example concerned field service management company Aeromark working with Infomill and Plumb & Parts Center to deliver a brand new, fully integrated system for use by Swale Heating; a ground-breaking USP for this heating company.

 

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Tesseract’s service management software is about to be put to extremely good use. BCAS Biomedical Services Ltd (BCAS Biomed) will use it to more effectively manage thousands of life-critical devices for hospitals, healthcare professionals and the emergency services.

BCAS Biomed is a leading UK provider of Managed Equipment Services for the medical sector, maintaining everything from ventilators to defibrillators to ultrasound machines. Its current medical-sector-specific management software tells BCAS Biomed what assets need servicing and when, and also manages the scheduling. However, BCAS Biomed’s recent growth has highlighted some limitations, as well as the need for a mobile working solution for the field service engineering team.

“With some of our hospital contracts, we’re literally managing thousands of assets,” says Steve Dampier, Operations Director for BCAS Biomed. “Because these are life-critical devices, compliance is of the utmost importance. We chose Tesseract because their asset management software will help us track the history of the equipment more efficiently. They also offer local support, which is really useful for us.”

 

BCAS Biomed will be incorporating Tesseract’s Diary Assist and Remote Engineer Access (REA) modules in an effort to cut out delays, improve visibility and go paperless. Diary Assist will be used to schedule planned maintenance, replacing the company’s manual diary. REA will allow engineers to create and submit digital worksheets in real-time, rather than having to handwrite service reports and post them in.

Steve says, “Tesseract has much more functionality and longevity than the sector-specific system we have now. There are so many layers to the Tesseract system, so much scope for flexibility. It’s basically future-proof.”

 

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rapidBizApps has announced the launch of SunSight, a new field service management software for Solar energy providers. The software was built for solar installers to gather field data digitally, streamline business workflows and do more installations.

With SunSight, Solar installer companies can now maximise productivity of field workers, maximise their vendor time utilisation, save time and convert overhead costs into profits.

“While the potential for green energy is immense in the United States, many Solar companies are faced with challenges of overhead costs that does not allow them to fully tap into the potential of Solar growth.”

“With SunSight, solar companies can shorten the time it takes to get data from the field and quicken business operations. This translates to faster project delivery, more installations per month and more profit per project,” said Satish Penmetsa, CEO of rapidBizApps.

Designed for ground staff, operations managers, project managers and members in the field service management organisation, SunSight features project portfolio management, digital field data collection and a one-tap approval system to make time consuming tasks faster than ever before. Managers can also create their own custom forms to collect data of their choice. More importantly, Solar projects can be managed even when on the move.

 

Project and Business stakeholders can get an instant snapshot of all business activity to stay updated whenever any activity is made on a project. SunSight can be connected to an analytics platform of choice to receive actionable insights that can help transform the way projects and field services are managed.

“Solar companies now have the power to deliver projects faster and bring in the Solar revolution. SunSight is designed to handle the hassles of field service management, data collection and project management while industry professionals can focus on field service innovation and delivering value to customers,” adds Satish.

SunSight is built for a workforce using the Android, iPhone or iPad devices. SunSight is also fully cloud-based which means the software can be accessed on any computer with an internet connection and a modern internet browser.

All data is safely and securely stored on the cloud with cutting-edge technology to protect information and customer privacy. SunSight also adds integration with CRM and ERP systems making it a fully integrated solution for Solar Providers. Since the software is cloud-based, it is constantly updated with newer features that are instantly available to anyone using it.

 

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According to a new research report by Berg Insight, the number of telematics service subscribers using embedded systems will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.4 percent from 26.5 million subscribers at the end of 2015 to 170.2 million subscribers at the end of 2021. Moreover, Berg Insight forecasts that shipments of embedded car OEM telematics systems worldwide will grow from almost 13.8 million units in 2015 at a CAGR of over 25.1 percent to reach 52.8 million units in 2021. In Europe, uptake will increase rapidly due to the eCall initiative in the EU and ERA-GLONASS in the Eurasian Customs Union, scheduled to be fully implemented in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

Connected car services have evolved from being a differentiating factor to a common feature with a high attach rate among the premium car brands and are rapidly becoming increasingly common in mid-range vehicles. GM’s OnStar was launched 20 years ago and is today the market leader worldwide with more than 7.0 million paying subscribers and well above 10.0 million active users in total. BMW includes telematics hardware as a standard feature on all its cars sold in 43 markets worldwide and has the second largest user base with 3.4 million equipped vehicles. PSA is in third place and manages 1.8 million connected vehicles in Europe.

 

“Carmakers and car owners are starting to see the benefits of connected car services as a growing number of new vehicles are equipped with the technology”, said Jonas Wennermark, IoT/M2M Analyst at Berg Insight. However, the really exciting development will happen when we move from telematics services as an add-on to actually design a vehicle with connectivity in mind. Starting with Tesla, several car makers have introduced vehicles with large dashboard touchscreens and the ability to receive Over-the-Air updates. “We have also seen Volvo and Bentley launch interesting concierge services for the premium segment, such as fuel-delivery to the customer’s vehicle”, added Mr Wennermark.

 

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Click here to download report brochure: The Global Automotive OEM Telematics Market

 

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More than a quarter (27%) of transport professionals who attended the FTA Transport Manager events said they do not have the systems and technology in place to benefit from the DVSA’s Earned Recognition scheme; and a further 15% do not know if they have.

The survey findings are based on responses from more than 900 delegates who have been attending the conferences taking place up and down the country since September, finishing in Coventry this month.

The DVSA’s new Chief Executive Gareth Llewellyn confirmed in September that transport service providers will need technology in place to enable the sharing of information to take full advantage of the scheme, due for launch in 2017.

Hinging on next generation enforcement, operators will be able to achieve Earned Recognition status by sharing tachograph and maintenance data with the DVSA. Exemplar transport service providers would then not be engaged at the roadside, reducing delays and associated costs.

The survey also uncovered which technologies transport professionals feel make the biggest difference in supporting compliance; and how they gauge liability following an incident.

 

The majority (32%) felt that digital walk-around checks make the biggest difference for compliance, with driver hours visibility and alerting (24%) and remote digital tachograph download (15%) the second and third most influential technologies.

Meanwhile 66% said they use video, telematics or integrated telematics and video to gauge liability following an incident. Just over a quarter (26%) take their drivers’ word as the main source of evidence; and just 7% use an external accident investigation service.

“It’s great that almost half of those who responded at the FTA Transport Manager conferences have got the technologies and systems in place to take advantage of Earned recognition next year. But it still leaves a large proportion who aren’t sure, or know they aren’t ready,” said Matthew Hague, Executive Director – Product Strategy, Microlise. “I believe Earned Recognition will be a game changer for compliant operators – delivering a real competitive advantage for those that are ready.”

Existing Microlise fleet management solutions which can benefit operators with compliance include Remote Digital Tachograph Download, digital vehicle walk-around checks and tools to ensure optimum vehicle health and record keeping.

 

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Research reveals that one third of organisations are challenged with gaps in skills, yet only 5% will increase their training to meet the changing customer demands in the future whilst 60% stated a future adviser should be able to handle complex interactions, yet only 11% stated advisers should have decision making skills...

Based on new research [1], UK customers are likely to find themselves dealing with contact centre agents who are untrained to service with their requests.  The research, commissioned by outsourced contact centre specialists Kura in partnership with the CCA (Contact Centre Association), set out to understand where businesses were positioned today and their ambitions for the future.

Responses from across 74 organisations were gathered to reveal current challenges, barriers to improvement and predictions for the future of the contact centre agent.

Although a third of organisations surveyed recognised that they have a skills gap with staff not fully equipped to answer the needs of their customers, only five per cent have committed to increasing their training budgets to address this.

“Whilst many organisations look to broaden their multi-channel offering, this places an added strain on agents who are then dealing with a greater number of channels.” said Brian Bannatyne, Kura’s Chief Executive. “While simple queries can be resolved through self-service offerings, more complex interactions across multiple channels would need to be handled by a well-trained agent.  If this interaction is dealt with poorly, it could have a serious impact on the customer relationship and future business prospects.”

 

Interestingly, according to the survey, the two skills most desired in contact centre agents of the future are the ability to handle multi-channel interactions (76%) and a high level of training to service complex interactions (59%) highlighting the increasing demands on contact centre agents.  This is supported by the fact that two-fifths of respondents believe that the primary purpose of today’s contact centre is to improve service by handling more complex requests.

“Based on the results of this study, most would agree that the days of the transactional contact centre are limited yet many are delaying the investment in agents that will be required to adequately service the customer of tomorrow.” added Brian Bannatyne.

“Not addressing this training deficit now will only cause greater frustration for agents and more problems down the line as the demands of the average customer continue to evolve.  At Kura, we do things differently, we’re not like other organisations, we’re building a unique culture that looks after people.  When you build a culture that looks after people, you grow people who look after customers.”

The key challenges identified by the contact centre professionals surveyed included ‘Increasing customer self-service’ (68%) and ‘Reducing customer effort’ (61%).

Participants in the research were from organisations in both the private and public sectors, including outsourcing organisations as well as in-house contact centres, responsible for different-sized operations.

 

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[1] These statistics are from new original research from CCA in partnership with KURA where 74 organisations shared their opinions on future service strategies – Oct, 2016.  The survey findings were analysed and interpreted in a desk research phase alongside contextual information from other sources including CCA’s research archive.

 

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Late last year Retriever Communications celebrated a 20-Year Anniversary of providing mobile strategies to industrial enterprise with the mobile-first company looking back at two decades of sustainable growth and innovation and putting forward the argument that experience trumps transient fashion...

Retriever Communications, a global provider of mobile automation solutions for enterprises in the industrial space, celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. Born from the mobile-first vision of its founder and CEO, Mary Brittain-White, Retriever helped bring field service management into the 21st century with its robust and intuitive mobile applications, while continuing to innovate based on the latest technologies and end-user research.

"In some tech hubs of the world, the pursuit of youth and unicorns has overshadowed understanding of what enterprises actually need. We built Retriever on the basis of experience, sustainability and understanding of our own and our customers' environments. Retriever's 20th anniversary celebration is a testament that this model works and it is here to stay. There's something to be said for validation and experience," said Mary Brittain-White.

 

Retriever Communications has been featured by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant, Field Service Management, for the past four years in a row. This year, Retriever was the only vendor in the Quadrant not to lose a single customer over the past year and had the highest customer satisfaction results.

In fact, Retriever's average customer relationship spans more than 10 years. "Our experience and research show that customers want industrial-strength apps that are responsive and robust, not gimmicky. And in addition to developing apps that work well regardless of the connectivity environment, we also take a hands-on approach to service, so our customers know we are always there for them," Mary Brittain-White added.

Retriever serves enterprises in a variety of industries across 3 continents, helping companies streamline their field operations, witnessing increases in productivity of 20-35 percent, improving customer service and cutting IT costs.

 

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High-Tech manufacturers and their channel partners have begun to recognise the strategic value of providing extended warranty and extended service programs in the aftermarket. Indeed, these programs can represent a significant source of profitable and recurring revenue. As result, more and more service executives are tasked with the responsibility of building and growing these programs writes Michael Blumberg, President, Blumberg Consulting Group 

At issue, some companies are very effective at marketing and selling these programs while others face challenges. What factors set these companies apart? Does it have to do with warranty price being too high, service offerings being inadequate, sales efforts not effective, or just lack of interest among customers? Which begs the next question… What can service executives and warranty professionals do to overcome these challenges?

To answer these questions, Blumberg Advisory Group in conjunction with Giuntini and Company have launched a market research study among warranty and service professionals who influence, recommend  or make decisions about extended warranty and/or extended service programs.

The objective of this survey is to identify best practices involved in marketing and selling extended warranty and/or extended service programs, and evaluate the impact of these practices on key performance indicators (KPIs).    The findings will validate which strategies and tactics have the greatest impact on maximizing service revenue which in turn will help managers and executives become more effective in marketing and selling extended warranty/service programs.

More specifically, the survey result will evaluate how various elements of the service marketing mix (e.g., pricing, portfolio, terms & conditions, etc.) and service delivery infrastructure help or hinder KPIs. It will also examine the impact of alternative types of sales approaches and pricing strategies impact attachment and renewal rates. The information will be compiled a new benchmark research study, never presented, as well as from twenty years of progressive industry analysis of best practices.

 

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If you are interested in participating then you can access the survey through this link 

 

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The survey should take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. One out of every 50 participants will receive a $100 American Express Gift Certificate, and every participant will receive an executive summary of the survey results.

Please note that the survey will close January 18th 2017. We also expect to publish results of this survey in Field Service News in the March/April timeframe

 

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