ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘nexus’ CATEGORY

Kris Oldland speaks exclusively to Marne Martin, CEO ServicePower on the recent sale of the business to Diversis and ask her what does this mean for the future direction of her company...

KO: It’s been a real period of innovation and growth for you over the last couple of years, with the launch of NexusTM plus the investment on patents such as the work you’ve done in quantum annealing. So what was it that attracted Diversis to invest in you - was it a case of they just wanted access to the growing field service sector or was it more about being in line with the direction in which you were already headed?

MM: Firstly, it was an interesting financial opportunity for them because there is a disconnect between the valuations in the US for companies that are innovating and growing, those that have a national presence, versus what we were seeing on the A market - so there was a financial rationale.

But the real thing that they ultimately believe in, is in companies that have great products, companies that have core differentiators in their market.

They’d been interested in field service for some time - as you know it’s a hot sector and when they saw the use case of what we’d been able to do with Nexus and the wider service management tools...  plus also quantum annealing and taking that towards predictive maintenance, and then spare parts forecasting in the future and thinking about the journey we’ve been on in starting our intelligent customer portal as well... it was really just too good for them to pass up. 

They’ve been really passionate about investing in us, and in pushing us to continue to develop truly great products and as such they’ve brought in operational technical advisors as well as some other consultants, who are helping us to look further and have more functions in the next generation UX/user experiences and then tying the platform functions together more seamlessly, so the user experience is better and more automated.

KO: Of course, the one question that has to be asked with any acquisition is will it be a case of business as usual under a different name, or will there be a changing of the guard in terms of personnel and direction?

MM: I told them when we were doing our due diligence, I felt that we were 75% and we were really looking for someone to get us to 100% of where we saw the opportunity in the sector not just for the current but in the future.

[quote float="left"]I felt that we were 75% and we were really looking for someone to get us to 100% of where we saw the opportunity in the sector not just for the current but in the future.

There will be perhaps some refinement, we are no longer going to be focussing generally on the smaller end of the market from now on, at least not in the US - we are refining the focus towards the mid-market and enterprise space, but that is already pretty much where we were anyway.

 

With Nexus, we’re going to be rolling that functionality out to the core product and we will be transitioning the branding so rather than have all these product names we are going to have modular functionality that are all basically connected to the Nexus mobility and Service Management platform.

So all of the new UIs will be coded in that look and feel, we’ll tie in the mobile with the angular JS front end and we will still have the robust back-end. We are making it more seamless but also more configurable. The message from Diversis is yes it’s still business as usual but they are helping us to accelerate our own trajectories.

KO: Is the recent amount of investment we have seen in the industry - with yourselves, ServiceMax, ClickSoftware and IFS all having been acquired within a period of 18 months an indication of how important service is becoming in the wider world of global commerce?

MM: Absolutely. I think there are two things, firstly there is a lot of money floating around - the only way people make money is by investing, so you do have a lot of money in private equity that they are trying to put to work and that definitely is a factor here.

[quote float="right"]Field service really is the engine for growth in a business.... If you look at CRM and ERP players they are not really doing that much true innovation

It used to be that a lot of the larger endowments or high-net worth family funds might invest in public equity but because valuations have been somewhat volatile, many of those type of investors have actually become backers of private equity funds. That gives more money to PE investors plus the expectation that they are actually going to invest. So that’s one half of the story... 

 

But the second half is that field service really is the engine for growth in a business.

If you look at CRM and ERP players they are not really doing that much true innovation and that’s where if you had the ability to drive return on investment in terms of productivity plus additional revenue in the service arm and you start looking at what we call the e-commerce opportunity - how you can actually build customer prioritisation into your service model?

 

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Who are the most influential people in the global field service sector that you need to pay attention to in 2017?

The Field Service News #FSN20 is our list of the individuals we believe will be key influencers in our industry across the next twelve months. Those included in the list have been selected by our own panel of industry insiders, who were given the simple criteria of identifying people who will have a significant impact on field service thinking.

However, more than just an annual list of 20 individuals the #FSN20 has grown since it’s launch to become a true celebration of excellence and innovation within our industry.

There are some familiar names and some new faces on this years list and as always we don’t expect everyone to agree with our selection – at it’s heart the #FSN20 was conceived as a tool to get everyone in our industry thinking about who it is that they have come across in the global field service sector that has made them think, who has made them question the accepted paradigms, who has inspired them to do just one little thing more in their own day to day role.

The #FSN20 is not just about the list our panel has put together. It is about fostering discussion that celebrates the unsung heroes of the field service sector. So look out for the online version of this list as well to take part in the debate.

But for now, ladies and gentleman and without further a do, in no particular order, we are pleased to introduce the #FSN20 of 2017…

 

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Click here to see page one of the 2017 #FSN20

 

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Nick Frank, Founder and Managing Partner Si2 Partners

Having worked as an international consultant for over 6 years, Nick founded Si2 Partners last year bringing a new approach to consultancy by offering services on demand.

Nick’s focus is on service strategy development, servitization business models, ecosystems, innovation management, service operations and service business development. He works with companies in a diverse range of industries including engineering, high volume manufacturing, equipment manufacturers and technology. A regular columnist in the trade press and a excellent speaker often to be found at industry conferences, Nick also plays a pivotal role in organising the conference sessions for the UK not-for-profit group The Service Community.

 

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Michael Blumberg, President of Blumberg Advisory Group, Inc

Michael Blumberg is the President of Blumberg Advisory Group and is a recognised expert in Field Service and Reverse Logistics in High-Technology industry.

Michael’s thought leadership, service system planning and strategy formulation are cited as having helped many organisations increase profits and he is a prolific author publishing a number of well received projects including white papers and educational video projects.

 

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Aly Pinder, Director of Member Research & Communities, The Service Council

In previous editions we had a rule that we would only include one person per organisation within the #FSN20. However, ever since Aly moved from the Aberdeen Group to The Service Council, we knew we would have to repeal the rule, as both Aly and Sumair are industry heavy weights in terms of analysis of our industry.

In his new role he will be looking to further enhance the already well established research projects undertaken by The Service Community and his addition to their team makes The Service Council one of the most important groups in the entire global field service sector.

 

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Tom Heiser, CEO, ClickSoftware

It may perhaps be unfair to comment that when Heiser took the reigns of the field service management software stalwarts ClickSoftware the company was perhaps at it’s weakest point in some years, indeed they remain a leading provider of field service management solutions at the forefront of the industry.

Yet, based on the sheer level of dominance that they once held and in light of the ever increasing quality of the competition in the field service management space, Heiser had little time to find his feet in the world of field service if he was to ensure the ClickSoftware brand remained as synonymous with delivering service excellence as it had to date - particularly in the natural uncertainty that an acquisition by a private equity firm can potentially cause. 

However, having seemingly spent little more than a few hours in his own office for the first six months as he flew around the world meeting analysts, influencers and customers alike Heiser certainly appears to have not only established a firm grasp of the industry at large but also where the future for field service management technology lies and under his guidance the outlook for the iconic ClickSoftware brand appears to be on a very positive footing once more...

 

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Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower

With their next generation platform Nexus now firmly established within the market place ServicePower have re established themselves as a key company within the FSM solutions sector under the vision of Martin.

However, it is her focus on R&D that really continues to drive Service Power to the forefront of their sector. With a number of patents including a one focussed on quantum annealing that will see them developing cutting edge technology for the foreseeable future. Martin is also a very highly respected speaker on the international field service circuit

 

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Jim Baston, President of BBA Consulting Group Inc

Baston of BBA Consulting is the proponent of Proactive Service, and is a master when it comes to understanding the delicate relationship between service and sales and how companies can maximize that relationship to enhance profits. Author, Speaker and Consultant Baston is an intelligent and experienced leader within his field whilst being a true gentleman and pleasure to talk to, to boot.

 

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Kevin Jones Managing Director Computer Product Solutions, Panasonic Europe

Panasonic remain the undisputed leaders in the rugged space with the ToughPad and Toughbook brands synonymous with rugged computing. The Panasonic ToughBook20 is the worlds first fully rugged detachable and could just be the most perfect device for field service to date being both a tablet and a laptop.

Jones has spent a decade with Panasonic and has total responsibility for the entire ToughBook / ToughPad Products and Solutions in Europe, including Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Operations whilst also sitting concurrently on the board of Panasonic Manufacturing.

 

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Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax

Within less than a decade Yarnold has taken ServiceMax from start-up to being purchased by GE late last year for close to a Billion Dollars.

However, the meteoric rise of ServiceMax wasn’t solely about the technology. Yarnold has a true passion for the service and that passion has filtered down and shone through at all levels of the organisation, which was perhaps the secret source that put them at the top of the sector - having been recognised as the leading FSM solution provider in the most recent magic quadrant report.

Now as part of GE Digital, Yarnold has even bigger visions of how ServiceMax can play a role in building an operating system for the entire industrial sector of which service will be a key component.

Big ambitions?

Yes. But Yarnold is a man that could possibly just do it.

 

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Click here to see page three of the 2017 #FSN20

 

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