Built on the Salesforce Customer Service platform, Field Service Lightning promises to harnesses the latest mobile and IoT technologies, enabling companies to deliver connected, intelligent customer service from phone to field...
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Apr 19, 2016 • News • Salesforce • Software and Apps • software and apps
Built on the Salesforce Customer Service platform, Field Service Lightning promises to harnesses the latest mobile and IoT technologies, enabling companies to deliver connected, intelligent customer service from phone to field...
Salesforce one of the world’s leading CRM companies, announced this month the launch of Field Service Lightning, a new field service solution built for today’s connected world.
Harnessing signals from connected devices and customer data from Salesforce, Field Service Lightning is designed to be a modern approach to field service that is built for mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT).
With Field Service Lightning, Salesforce state companies can now unite customers, connected devices, agents, dispatchers, and employees in the field with one powerful service platform to deliver a seamless customer experience from phone to field.
With 6.4 billion connected things in use today 2020 predictions stating that number will reach 20.8 billion, the implications for field service are staggering. As connected devices become smarter and more predictive, it will create new opportunities to reinvent the customer service experience.
Built on Service Cloud, Field Service Lightning is built to enable companies to deliver mobile, intelligent customer service from phone to field.
In the initial press release Salesforce have stated that Field Service Lightning users will be able to:
Connect their entire service workforce:
Field Service Lightning connects the entire service organisation from call centre to the field.
Agents, dispatchers and mobile employees in the field will be on a single, centralised platform, bringing a new level of transparency and efficiency to customer service.
Service agents will have a 360-degree view of the customer and can create a work order from any case.
Mobile employees in the field will now have access to the customer’s full service and purchasing history, empowering them to easily resolve any issue that may arise and possibly upsell the customer on another product.
For instance, a homeowner requests a service visit because their Internet connection has gone down.
After resolving the issue, the technician sees within the field service app that the homeowner has previously asked about a faster Internet connection.
Using this insight, the technician presents new packaging options and the customer upgrades to a faster Internet speed at a discounted rate.
Intelligently schedule and dispatch work:
At the core of field service is scheduling and dispatching.
Leveraging features from ClickSoftware like scheduling and optimisation, Field Service Lightning promises to take dispatching one step further by applying a layer of intelligence.
Scheduling is automated based on skills, availability, and location to optimise on-site service. Rules can be put into place to automatically assign senior field employees to complex service issues, and junior field employees to the routine service calls.
Because scheduling is automated, dispatchers can focus on the real-time view of service operations and adjust resources accordingly.
For example, if the first job of the day ends up taking longer than anticipated, a dispatcher can assign a different field employee to the next job so the customer’s appointment does not get delayed.
Or if a mobile employee gets delayed by traffic, a dispatcher could route another field technician to the job.
Track and manage jobs in real-time:
Customer service moves fast and forward-thinking companies need real-time access to their service data.
Field Service Lightning promised to enable all service employees to update work orders, issue change requests and adjust job status, anytime, anywhere and on any device.
A staggering 65% of field service workers still print out their service tickets and bring them in their vehicles, slowing down the service process
Now, an employee in the field can see their open work orders on their mobile device, update them throughout the day as they complete jobs, and all the information is seamlessly updated in Salesforce.
We are just beginning to see what customer service can look like in the era of mobile and IoT,” said Mike Milburn, SVP and GM, Service Cloud, Salesforce. “Field Service Lightning gives companies the ability to reinvent their approach to service by connecting the phone to the field on a single platform, resulting in an amazing customer experience.”
Pricing and Availability:
Available in most regions now Field Service Lightning starts at $135 for organisations that have at least one Enterprise Edition or Unlimited Edition Service Cloud license.
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Apr 18, 2016 • Management • News • Augmented Reality • Cranfield University • Service Community
The next event by UK non-profit organisation the Service Community has been announced...
The next event by UK non-profit organisation the Service Community has been announced...
Field Service professionals can reserve their place for free at this next Service Community event to be hosted by the Centre for Through-Life-Engineering Services (TES) at Cranfield University by emailing TheServiceCommunity@gmail.com.
The event will be the afternoon of the 12th May from 13.00 – 17.00. Before the session begins, there is also a great opportunity to visit the Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality lab at the OpEx institute, where you can dip into what these technologies might bring to the future of service delivery. Space is limited for this tour, so please state in your email if you want to attend the VR/AR visit.
Cranfield University is one of the worlds leading global research establishments into TES and is working closely with industry leaders such as Rolls Royce, Bombardier, Babcock, Siemens and BAE, to establish within UK government a National Policy for Services in Manufacturing & Technology.
This event is the first of our Insights Series, where we aim to provide service leaders with practical hands on insights into one of 5 themes that will stretch across many industries including software, technology as well as manufacturing:
- Moving to the Cloud
- New Service Revenues
- Art of Transformation and change
- Workflow management : soft skills, processes and scheduling
- From Reactive to Proactive business: Customer Success, Consumption Gap
The agenda for the 12th May is no exception:
- 12.00: Virtual reality / Augmented Reality lab visit
- 12.30: Pre-Meeting coffee, biscuits, networking
- 13.00: Welcome and introduction from Mathew Caffrey (Mngr Op Ex institute Cranfield)
- 13.15: Impact of VR/AR on Services & the Servitization Business model – Professor Howard Lightfoot (Cranfield)
- 14.00: The Challenge of scaling and expanding a service operation to support a rapidly expanding technology business – Ian Cockett (Services Director Cygnet Texkimp)
- 14.40: Networking Break
- 15.20: Creating a Customer Success Culture – Chris Farnath (Director Customer Success at Allocate Software)
- 16.00: Moving from a Opex to Capex, cloud based business model – Colin Brown (Managing Director Tesseract)
- 16.40: General Discussion & Wrap up
- 17.00: Meeting Closed
To sign up for the event and the tour, please email TheServiceCommunity@gmail.com. Event logistics will be sent out nearer the date.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS & TOPICS
Howard Lightfoot: A leading expert on Servitization having co-written the book ‘Made to Serve’ with Professor Tim Baines
Ian Cockett: Service Director at Cygnet-Texkimp Ltd, a specialist manufacturer of equipment for the global fibre and fabric, plastic, foil and film processing markets. Previously Ian was Director of Service Operations at Bosch UK’s heating division running a service team of over 300 engineers.
Chris Farnath: An experienced Services Director working mainly in the Software and Technology arena, Chris’s current challenge is creating a Customer Success culture and will be sharing & discussing the challenges he faces in his current role. Chris is also a member of the Service Community leadership team.
Colin Brown: Colin is MD/Founder of Tesseract, a leading Service Management solution provider. In this presentation he is going to concentrate on the business challenge of moving from a transactional business model to a pay as you go model through a Cloud based technology platform. In particular how this has changed the business model of his company.
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Mar 23, 2016 • News • mobility platform • Bytes Managed Services • Software and Apps • Managing the Mobile Workforce
Bytes Managed Solutions is transforming its service management operations in South Africa and Africa with Astea International Inc.'s Alliance mobile workforce optimisation platform.
Bytes Managed Solutions is transforming its service management operations in South Africa and Africa with Astea International Inc.'s Alliance mobile workforce optimisation platform.
Bytes Managed Solutions (Bytes MS), a subsidiary of Altron Group, supports and maintains enterprise-wide end-to-end technology solutions and related services for medium to large enterprises in South Africa and Africa. It is the exclusive distributor for NCR products in South Africa and partners with Dell, HP, Lenovo, Alcatel, Burroughs, Unity, Postec, Unisys, Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco, in the financial, retail, petroleum and infrastructure sectors.
The company supports more than 1.2 million devices in over 46,500 locations throughout South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. With the Astea Alliance mobility platform it wanted to gain additional efficiencies, support its green initiatives by reducing paper, emissions and fuel costs, and reinforce its commitment to superior customer service.
Additional benefits resulting from the implementation include the introduction of standardised operating procedures, accelerated billing cycles, and providing employees and partners with real-time access to information, with the expectation of ultimately increasing revenues and boosting customer satisfaction.
The Astea Alliance mobility platform provides a comprehensive mix of capabilities such as mobile workforce management, real-time scheduling optimisation, field service, contact centre, depot repair, customer self-service, sales order processing, logistics and parts management, third party vendor management, professional services automation, and performance management. The end-to-end solution will further drive and improve efficiencies and reduce the cost of service delivery supporting the organizations strategic growth and acquisition strategy.
“We are focused on providing innovative, value-added products, services and solutions to our customers. Our success is based on our customers’ success. We are constantly looking at ways to drive positive outcomes for our customers that will support their service solutions and business objectives,” said Fourie van der Merwe, Chief Operations Officer. “With Astea Alliance, we have gained a leading-edge, unified, robust, and user-friendly solution that will support our initiatives and grow with our business. The solution, which is rated by Gartner in their Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management, is based around service excellence disciplines and best practice experiences drawn from Astea’s long and established history in the service marketplace and is uniquely positioned to meet our needs. The system will enable us to provide a shared service management system platform for the group,” he added.
“Bytes is a leader in its field as a result of its commitment to delivering superior service to its customers, a commitment which is made possible by the company’s continuous improvement of their internal processes,” said Zack Bergreen, CEO of Astea International. “Bytes MS truly understands the strategic value that quality of service can have on overall profitability, customer satisfaction and retention as well as providing a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace. We are extremely proud that Bytes and Altron has selected to partner with us to further automate and optimize their service operations.”
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Mar 10, 2016 • Features • News • Future of FIeld Service • ClickSoftware • field service management • Managing the Mobile Workforce
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing today's field service organisations? Submit your view to ClickSoftware's Service is Hard contest and receive a free Amazon voucher.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing today's field service organisations? Submit your view to ClickSoftware's Service is Hard contest and receive a free Amazon voucher.
Delivering service is hard, acknowledges ClickSoftware. It is compiling a new book on the challenges facing the industry and would like input from Field Service News readers to help it identify and address the industry's biggest challenges and help make delivering service easier in future.
The company wants to combine its 20-years experience in field service with input from customers to create a book which will outline the most critical challenges in the sector market and present recommendations from experts, thought leaders and analysts on how to address these challenges.
All you have to do is to submit your challenges using the short form here by Tuesday 15th March 2016. (The form is in English but you can enter the details of your challenge in your own language.)
No challenge is too small, too simple or too complex.
Everyone who submits a challenge will receive:
- A free copy of the completed book (available in April 2016)
- An Amazon Gift Card worth £15.
If your challenge is selected to appear in the book, we will also:
- Acknowledge your contribution by mentioning you by name as a contributor.
- Send you a signed copy of the book (signed by Alec Berry, VP Consulting and Technical Services, ClickSoftware) thanking you for your support.
- Send you an additional £35 Amazon Gift Card.
Some examples of the challenges already identified include:
- Business Challenge: Service is hard….because we can’t meet our customers’ expectations while keeping operational costs down.
- Functional Challenge: Service is hard….because we lack accurate planning and reliable appointment booking.
- Technical Challenge: Service is hard…because it is difficult and complex to integrate the most advanced field service solutions with our legacy systems.
To submit your challenge, use this form. All challenges will be reviewed but may not all be included in the book.
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Mar 08, 2016 • News • Future of Feld Service • Future of FIeld Service • Events • Service Management
Technology, training and customer collaboration are the key topics for this year’s Field Service Summit taking place on 12 April, St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
Technology, training and customer collaboration are the key topics for this year’s Field Service Summit taking place on 12 April, St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
The one-day conference gathers over 90 senior field service directors from across the UK. They are meeting to explore how new technology and fast-changing customer expectations are shaking up field service management. With a pre-conference networking reception on the early evening of the 11th April, and a unique format enabling all delegates to meet with and talk to all speakers - the Field Service Summit ensures that busy executives maximise their learning opportunities, and minimise time spent out of the office.
Readers of Field Service News, responsible for managing a field service team, can receive a 25% discount off the standard price of a delegate pass,. Quote FSN25 when registering here.
Speaker Lineup
The Field Service Summit ditches slide decks and lets delegates sit in small groups to listen to and ask questions of our stellar lineup of speakers: Martin Summerhayes, Head of Strategy & Business Change, Fujitsu, John Cullen, Vice President, Global Marketing & Brand, Metso; Hans van den Heuvel, Operations Director, Services & Support EMEA, Canon Europe; Christian Nolte, Global Head of Field Service, Wincor Nixdorf; Sanjay Patel, Head of IS Strategy, Architecture & Commercial, UK Power Networks;Graeme Coyne, Manager, Siemens; Neil Taplin, Director of Operations, Arqiva; Coen Jeukens, Service Contract Director, Bosch; Professor Andy Neely, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge; Howard Lightfoot, Professor, Operations Excellence Institute, Cranfield UniversityStandard price tickets to attend the conference are £870+VAT. Please quote ‘FSN25’ to receive Promotional Offer price of £652.50+VAT for Field Service News readers. NB. This offer is only available to serving field service end users - not consultants or solutions providers.; Aly Pinder, Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group; Bill Pollock, President, Strategies4Growth; Jan van Veen, Customer Centric Innovation for Sustainable Growth; James Rock, Managing Partner, DesignThinking; IFS; Astea; ClickSoftware; ServicePower; GreenRoad; FLS - Fast Lean Smart; MPL Systems
World Class Technologies On Show
The latest field service technologies will also be on show from world-class technology providers.
Readers of Field Service News, responsible for managing a field service team, can receive a 25% discount off the standard price of a delegate pass.
Standard price tickets to attend the conference are £870+VAT. Please quote ‘FSN25’ to receive Promotional Offer price of £652.50+VAT for Field Service News readers. This offer is only available to serving field service end users - not consultants or solutions providers.
Register here
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Mar 03, 2016 • News • future of field service • Field Service Medical
Leading field service figures from the medical equipment world are heading to the Hotel Palace in Berlin from 7-9 March for Field Service Medical Europe. The event promises to be an action-packed three days focusing on the field service challenges...
Leading field service figures from the medical equipment world are heading to the Hotel Palace in Berlin from 7-9 March for Field Service Medical Europe. The event promises to be an action-packed three days focusing on the field service challenges faced by medical equipment manufacturers.
Field Service Medical Europe is less of a conference, more of a three-day meeting, says Greg Ashton, Senior Director for the event, helping the leaders in the medical equipment sector transform their business in the digital age, Alongside short, sharp 20-minute presentations , there will be 40-minute panel discussions, deep-dive workshops and small group round tables.
Topics include the rise of the machine, gaining service insight through M2M, how the IoT is changing field service for medical equipment manufacturers and identifying the technicians of the future. Speakers include Tom Buckley, director, Global Technical Service at Boston Scientific; Andrea Giradot, Care Fusion; John Ollerook, Head of Global Customer Service, Philips Healthcare; Stef Vanneste, Terumo-Europe; and Kari Klossner, Perkinelmer.
For more information and agenda click here:
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Mar 02, 2016 • News • Kony Inc. • cloud • Managing the Mobile Workforce
Leading UK gas distributor SGN has selected enterprise mobility company Kony, Inc.’s MobileFabric to develop and manage its mobile enterprise applications and streamline integration with its enterprise backend systems.
Leading UK gas distributor SGN has selected enterprise mobility company Kony, Inc.’s MobileFabric to develop and manage its mobile enterprise applications and streamline integration with its enterprise backend systems.
The move comes as SGN seeks to strengthen customer service and increase employee productivity. The company manages a UK network that distributes natural and green gas to 5.8 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England. It operates over 74,000 km of gas mains and services.
SGN’s Accelerated Delivery Team will use the Kony cloud-based mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS) solution MobileFabric to rapidly develop mobile apps, secure interaction with backend services and simplify the app maintenance process.
“SGN is committed to delivering gas safely, reliably, and efficiently to every one of our customers. Our collaboration with Kony will allow us to deliver innovative mobile solutions that empower our employees and connect us to our customers,” explains Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN. “Customers are at the centre of everything we do and working with Kony helps us to fulfil our promise.”
MobileFabric is part of Kony’s mobile application development platform portfolio that allows developers to use any open mobile developer framework and tool without sacrificing security or quality. SGN anticipates greater efficiencies as MobileFabric will enable seamless integration with its existing enterprise systems.
“As enterprises realise how mobility can transform the way business is conducted, we are seeing organisations find more business processes that can be transformed and new capabilities that can be created," said Jonathan Best, vice president of Europe and Africa, Kony, Inc. “We are excited to partner with SGN as it uses the power of mobility to provide innovative services to their energy customers and increase business efficiency.”
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Mar 01, 2016 • News • frost & sullivan • telematics • TomTom Telematics
TomTom Telematics has been announced as the 2016 European Fleet Telematics Company of the Year in the latest Frost & Sullivan Awards.
TomTom Telematics has been announced as the 2016 European Fleet Telematics Company of the Year in the latest Frost & Sullivan Awards.
The Frost & Sullivan panel commended the company for its successful implementation of industry best practices to innovate and meet changing customer needs. Its open telematics service platform, Webfleet, is enabling partners in different verticals to create applications suited to their individual sectors, which are available to TomTom Telematics customers through the .connect portal.
This allows fleet owners to incorporate a range of software applications that are specific to their industry, enabling them to make smarter decisions to achieve their business goals. Moreover, OptiDrive 360 fulfils the green requirements of customers, helping them reduce idling times, speeding and vehicle maintenance. The technology provides a complete approach to assist drivers in adopting a responsible driving style.
Sathya Kabirdas, Research Manager at Frost & Sullivan, said: “TomTom Telematics has strongly positioned itself in the European fleet telematics market on the strength of its expertise in developing diversified solutions that can help ensure optimum driver efficiency and contribute to operational cost savings for clients.”
Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director at TomTom Telematics, added: “It’s an honour to receive the Company of the Year Award as it is the most prestigious award that Frost & Sullivan bestows on any company. It has been an amazing year for TomTom Telematics and we look forward to driving ahead with our business in 2016, and helping our customers achieve even more.”
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Feb 29, 2016 • News • Kirona • Retail • Fields service management
Software company Kirona and its client Carpetright have been selected as finalists in Retail Week's Customer Experience Initiative of the Year award.
Software company Kirona and its client Carpetright have been selected as finalists in Retail Week's Customer Experience Initiative of the Year award.
Kirona is committed to providing retailers with the technology to enable optimised customer service through software applications that span the complete field-service lifecycle from planning & scheduling through to mobilising the field worker and monitoring the service performance in real-time.
The company's software has enabled Carpetright to optimise their Home Consultant service for their employees and to provide a better service to their customers.
Steve Johnson, Head of Central Operations at Carpetright commented, “Being selected as a finalist for the Retail Week Customer Experience Initiative of the Year award is a testament to the hard work of both the Carpetright and Kirona teams to get this project implemented, meeting both deadlines and with minimal disruption to our workforce. Just as importantly it also highlights that by picking the right partner both technology and retail can merge to create systems and functionality which supports the in store sales process and most of all benefit our customer.”
Neil Harvey, CTO, Kirona said “We are delighted Carpetright and Kirona have been selected as finalists for the Retail Week award and being selected acknowledges Carpetright’s innovative approach to delivering improved customer service whilst also increasing profitability.”
The Retail Week Awards, are celebrating their 21st Anniversary have experience the highest number of entries on record, making it an even greater achievement to be shortlisted this year. The winners will be determined by an independent judging panel and announced at the Retail Week Awards Dinner on 17th March 2016 at the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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