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Our recent research run in partnership with ClickSoftware was focussed on understanding the appetite and prevalence of use of Cloud computing as a platform for field service management solutions. Here, in part three we turn our attention to those who have to date stayed away from the Cloud to understand their reasons for doing so....

 

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Missed the other features in this series?  Find Part One here and Part Two here

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Want to see the full picture? Download the full research report here!

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REMAINING ON PREMISE…

So let’s look in more detail at why some companies are remaining with an on premise field service management system?

To begin let’s return to our hypothesis that whilst on premise solutions are currently more in favour, the Cloud is growing in popularity and will continue to do so as companies slowly move from their current systems to more modern next-gen equivalents.

Again a strong indicator in support of this would be how long those companies which are still using on premise solutions have been with their existing system.

In fact when we look at the responses to this question we do indeed see a mirror of the same question put to those using a Cloud solution, with just 11% of companies having implemented their current system within the last year whilst 62% are using a system that is at least three years old.

 

Further to this we asked those using an on premise solution whether they were likely to consider a Cloud platform for the next iteration of their field service management solution.

Again the response re-affirmed a growing acceptance towards the Cloud with 69% of respondents indicating that they would in fact consider the the Cloud next time round.

Also if we compare this to our 2014 survey, where we asked the same question to those who weren’t using a Cloud based field service solution, we see that this figure has in fact increased by 15%. This adds further weight to the argument that acceptance of the Cloud for field service management is growing.

But whilst there may be evidence of the Cloud becoming more trusted for those who remain unconvinced it is the same issues that represent their biggest fears.

As per our 2014 survey, our research shows that once again Security is the biggest reason that some field service companies do not feel confident in turning to the Cloud with 38% of companies stating this is their greatest concern.

Connectivity issues are also a significant concern cited by 24% as being their number one fear.

 

However some worries around the Cloud do seem to be abating. Worries around integration with legacy systems have fallen from being cited by 37% of respondents in 2014 to just 15% in this year’s survey.

Another commonly cited reason for not moving to the Cloud last year was a desire to stay with an existing supplier.

However, in this year’s findings just 3% of respondents cited that as a reason they would not consider the Cloud. However, as referenced in the introduction almost all field service management software providers are now offering a Cloud based version of their existing software so perhaps this comes as little surprise.

The research also shows that for those companies that aren’t currently using a Cloud based field service management solution the reluctance to move to the Cloud isn’t restricted to the field service division.

In fact over half (52%) of those companies using an on-premise solution for their field service management system have no Cloud based systems at all.

So whilst it appears that the Cloud is indeed gaining momentum as a platform for field service management software, the biggest barrier to adoption for many remains concerns around security.

Of course well documented, high profile consumer breaches such as that of Apple’s iCloud add fuel to the flames and 58% of respondents admitted that incidents such as these influence their opinion of Cloud being used in the enterprise.

Yet in spite of this our research shows that as the Cloud matures perceptions are definitely changing.

Two thirds (66%) of our respondents admitted that they have become more open to the idea of Cloud being used in business in recent years whilst just 8% state that they have always felt the Cloud is too risky and that opinion hasn’t changed.

 

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As we continue our in depth exploration of our recent research project assessing the latest trends of field service companies turning to the Cloud which was run in partnership with ClickSoftware we turn our attention to those companies who have moved their field service management systems to the Cloud to find out what benefits they are seeing and why they made the switch away from on premise field service management systems...

 

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Missed part one? Find it here

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Want to see the full picture? Download the full research report here!

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HEADS IN THE CLOUD

So what are the key findings from those companies who have made the move to the Cloud? Well firstly if our previous hypothesis is indeed correct and one of the key factors in why companies are not moving to the Cloud is that they have yet to move into an upgrade cycle from their existing system, then this should be evident in how recently those who are using a Cloud based field service management solution made the switch.

In fact over three quarters of companies that have moved their field service operations to the Cloud have done so within the last three years. Which again would support this hypothesis. What really adds further strength to the assertion that the Cloud is now gaining momentum however, is the fact more companies have moved to the Cloud within the last six months (29%) than have been using a Cloud system for over three years (24%).

This would seem to be strong evidence that the Cloud is becoming more readily and swiftly adopted today than it has been previously.

So what are the key reasons for companies making this move? As mentioned in the first part of this series  the benefits of Cloud computing are numerous however two reasons were particularly popular amongst our respondents.

These were the fact that Cloud is “scalable and flexible” which 76% of companies highlighted as important to them, whilst 71% of companies cited “easy remote access” as a significant reason for their selection of the Cloud for their field service solution.

Whilst these two reasons were comfortably the most popular, other commonly cited reasons were “less reliance on IT” (59%), “more functionality” (53%) and “disaster recovery” (41%). Of course in part one we also discussed one other reason that companies may move their ield service operations into the Cloud, i.e. many are seeking to integrate smoothly with Salesforce (or of course other Cloud based CRM systems ).

With this in mind it is it was interesting to see that of those companies that were using the Cloud for their field service operations overwhelmingly the most common Cloud solution being used in other areas of business was CRM. In fact 53% of companies who operate a Cloud based field service solution also have a Cloud based CRM.

This was twice as much as the second most common business solution Marketing, which was Cloud based for 24% of these companies. What is particularly interesting is that although beyond the peaks of CRM and Marketing no other areas of business (other options included ERP, Accounting, Payroll, Asset Management & HR) were placed in the Cloud by more than 17% of companies using a Cloud based field service management system.

 

Yet despite this reluctance to put other business solutions in the Cloud currently, 53% of respondents felt that their companies would will ultimately move all of their software solutions to the Cloud and in fact 6% of companies already have.

If we look at the benefits of those using the Cloud for their field service management solution, again there were two clear leading benefits identified.

These were “Cost” and “Productivity”, which were both cited by 47% of the respondents as the biggest single benefit they had seen since moving to the Cloud.

And perhaps the single most revealing finding of the set of questions put to those companies using a Cloud based field service management solution, was that when we asked “Would you recommend a Cloud field service solution over an on premise solution” the respondents answered unanimously (100%) that they would.

However of those who don’t think such a wholesale move to the Cloud is a good thing, security remained the clear overriding concern alongside a reluctance to be fully dependent on the Internet... Look out for the next part of this series where we look at the findings from those companies who felt that the Cloud presented too much risk so have opted to keep their field service management systems on premise... 

 

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As we approach the half way point of our current research project being run in partnership with ServiceMax and PTC that is looking at how those in field service feel around the Internet of Things and it's likely impact on the field service industries Field Service News Editor-in-Chief takes a look at the findings so far and what are the initial emerging trends...

 

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Don't forget that you too can make your voice heard and have a chance to win ONE OF THREE £50 Amazon Vouchers. Click here to enter the survey now! 

 

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Reactive vs. Proactive

There has been a lot of discussion for quite some time around the need for field service companies to move towards a more pro-active model of working, moving towards a more preventative maintenance model instead of the traditional reactive break-fix -approach which has been adopted by service companies for decades.

By moving to a more preventative approach field service companies can of course begin to schedule in jobs to allow for optimum efficiency in terms of routing and planning. However, a regular planned maintenance schedule may mean a lot of wasted hours visiting sites where a device is perhaps underused and maintenance is unnecessary.

Therefore one of the big potential drivers of the Internet of Things in field service management is the ability to remotely monitor device performance and automate service requests from the device itself as soon as it begins operating outside of optimum parameters (but still within normal operating parameters so the device is showing the first signs of potential failure but is still functioning OK). This would allow for a much more effective planned maintenance approach delivering service far more efficiently.

 

To assess if this type of approach would be suitable in field service we first of all asked our respondents if they were working on a reactive basis or preventative or a mix of both. Our findings so far show that a mixture of both reactive and preventative call-outs is very much the way most companies operate with 36% of companies stating they “operate a proactive strategy where possible but are still mostly reactive” whilst the same amount state their “service is half proactive and half reactive”.

This would certainly suggest that one of the big drivers of utilising IoT in field service management is definitely, i.e. the trend towards preventative maintenance model of service delivery is already clearly identified as a means of improving efficiency within service delivery and so the potential introduction of IoT tools to improve this would likely be well received.

Underlying technology

In terms of field service management the Internet of Things is very much being talked about as the next big technology however for it to be utilised as effectively as possible it could be argued that it is imperative to have other underlying technologies in place. For example in the earlier section we looked at how moving to a preventative maintenance model could be really enhanced by IoT and we saw that indeed many companies are adopting this approach.

This would of course be further enhanced by dedicated field service management software to help ensure that those attending each job have the requisite qualifications for the device they are attending etc.

 

In fact the research supports the notion that IoT is part of a vanguard of new technologies being seen as the next generation of field service management tools which will be complimentary to and in addition to those technologies many companies having already invested in such as mobile computing, field service management solutions and telematics solutions which were being used by 63%, 51% and 25% respectively.

Views around IoT

Indeed the interim results of this research certainly seem to show a great deal of confidence in the Internet of Things as a field service management tool.

In fact 44% of companies think that the Internet of Things “will have the biggest impact on field service operations within the next five years?” whilst just half (49%) believe that “IoT will become a fundamental part of field service operations in the future.”

What is particularly interesting however is that having asked “When do you think IoT will become common place within field service operations” over two thirds of respondents (34%) said they felt it already is beginning to happen and also debunking the myth that IoT in field service management is the realm of only the largest enterprise companies, 68% of our respondents felt that the benefits of IoT could be felt by companies of all sizes.

Meanwhile almost a third of companies were planning an IoT strategy whilst a further 32% had either implemented or were implementing an IoT field service management strategy.

 

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How does this match with your opinions? Take a few minutes to share your thoughts on IoT and Field Service Management and you could win a £50 Amazon Voucher

 

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Field Service News recently ran a research project in partnership with ClickSoftware looking at the appetite for Cloud based field service management solutions. We had a great response with over 150 field service professionals giving us their insight. As a thank you for taking the time to give us their input all respondents were entered into a prize draw with three £50 Amazon vouchers to be won and we are pleased to announce the winners below:

• James Shepherd - It Director, Stonegate
• Antony Newton - Regional Service Director, Danwood Group
• Jesus Rodriguez - Service Manager, Daikin A.C SPAIN, SA

Thanks again to all of those who contributed to the research and look out for a series of features outlining the findings coming very soon.

 

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Why not help us with our current research project exploring the potential of IoT in Field Service sponsored by ServiceMax? Once again there is a prize draw with three £50 Amazon Vouchers available!

Click here to take part in our research into IoT and Field Service now and you could be the next winner!  

 

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The UK Government has launched a £20 million competitive fund for collaborative research and development into driverless vehicles, along with a code of practice for testing the technologies. 

The Government says the measures will put the UK at the forefront of the intelligent mobility market, expected to be worth £900 billion by 2025.  It aims to make the UK the best place for testing driverless technology and is inviting bidders to put forward proposals in areas such as safety, reliability, how vehicles can communicate with each other and the environment around them and how driverless vehicles can help give an ageing population greater independence.

The fund is part of the £100 million funding for research into intelligent mobility announced by the Government earlier this year.  Successful bidders will match fund money with their own.

 

A new joint policy unit, the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (C-CAV) has been established to co-ordinate work by the Department for Transport (DfT) and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and formulate future government policy on driverless cars and connected technology.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: "To boost productivity Britain will need to capitalise on new technologies like driverless vehicles, securing high skilled jobs for those who want to work hard and get on, and contributing to a more prosperous future for the whole of the country. Our world beating automotive industry, strengths in innovation and light touch regulatory approach to testing driverless technology combine to make the UK market competitive and an attractive destination for investors."

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said: Driverless cars will bring great benefits to our society and economy and I want the UK to lead the way in developing this exciting technology. Our code of practice clearly shows that the UK is in the best position when it comes to testing driverless cars and embracing the motoring of the future. We now look forward to working with industry to make this a reality." A decade ago Britain’s car industry was in decline, but it is now the most productive amongst the major European producers," commented Jones. "New technology can help it improve its productivity and competitiveness in the future."

A code of practice was published to accompany the announcement to provide the industry with the framework they need to safely trial cars in real-life scenarios, and to create more sophisticated versions of the models that already exist. C-CAV is currently working on a range of new technological developments, including plans to test new roadside communication technology to improve traffic flow and safety through ‘connected corridors’. This would pilot technology that will provide drivers with useful journey and safety information.

 

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Operating a successful field service operation today is a challenging experience. A study recently commissioned by Trimble revealed the main factors UK consumers look for when selecting a field service provider, their expectations and biggest frustrations. John Cameron, General Manager Trimble Field Service Management explains more...

The findings were extremely insightful, revealing that today’s consumers typically expect more and are not shy of complaining, leading field service companies to have to look at new ways to balance service excellence with cost.

Consumers say fix it the first time

Getting a problem fixed on a first visit is the biggest expectation for UK consumers. Indeed, in Trimble’s study, which surveyed 2000 British adults, over half (52 per cent) considered fixing the problem on the first visit to be the most important factor in determining their satisfaction.

However, field service organisations are struggling to fully achieve this as nearly one in four UK consumers report that a return visit is required. Poor inventory and an inexperienced workforce are the most common reasons for this. 40 per cent of UK consumers complain that their technician did not have the appropriate tools or parts to fix the problem on a first visit whilst 27 per cent said that the technician lacked the skills to complete the job.

 

Problems such as this often transpire for field service organisations that schedule daily tasks based on a technician’s allocated territory. However, it is more effective to select the most knowledgeable technician, or one who has the right tools and parts in their vehicle. Adopting intelligent scheduling engines is therefore crucial as they incorporate technician knowledge, parts availability and capacity into the scheduling process to ensure that the technician arriving on site is actually the person who can resolve the customer issue on the first visit.

Short appointment windows a key factor in customer choice

Today’s consumers increasingly expect field service businesses to provide more convenient appointment options to accommodate their busy schedules. However it is apparent that consumers are failing to receive this, as long appointment windows and wait times are considered to be one of the nation’s biggest frustrations with using a field service provider.

In Trimble’s survey, more than 50 per cent considered 1-3 hours to be an acceptable appointment window, yet 36 per cent report experiencing wait times of far longer, in some cases up to eight hours.

By coupling an intelligent scheduling engine with a self-learner tool, field service businesses can look to improve service delivery times through enhanced schedule accuracy, improved productivity and workforce utilisation. The software tool uses a unique algorithm to learn preferences for each technician and will allocate tasks accordingly. This includes which mobile workers normally service particular areas and what skills technicians have and to what degree they are qualified to do certain types of work. The first step to managing productivity requires field service managers to get the right people with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time, and a self-learner tool significantly helps in achieving this.

Price and customer service equally as important

When selecting a field service provider, customer service and price were revealed as being equally as important to UK consumers. Field service organisations must therefore look to balance these if they are to achieve customer satisfaction, retention and profitability.

Over half of UK consumers (55 per cent) said they would refuse to use a service provider again if they were delivered a poor customer experience and with today’s consumers increasingly tech-savvy, it is very easy for them to complain to the masses. If left unhappy, half of consumers would complain formally to the company, 1 in 5 would complain to their technician and 1 in 10 consumers would take to social media to air their woes.

 

Consumers also find lack of communication with a company or service technician prior to arrival to be a major problem and consider being kept up to date on the day about arrival to be the most important factor when selecting a service provider. It is no longer acceptable to say anytime during the day. In fact almost half of consumers have to take annual, sick or unpaid leave to wait for delivery and service.

Field service businesses have a real opportunity to leapfrog the competition by providing excellent service to every customer and technology is available today that can help them to achieve this. The key is making and keeping commitments and then ensuring the customer is informed along the way.

To achieve this, more and more organisations are integrating their work management capabilities into mobile applications, which they can then offer to their technicians to allow them to share, store and view job data while out in the field, offering them a virtual link to the back office that helps to inform and empower them.

The range of information offered through a mobile application can include previous work history of jobs and upcoming work details. For example, if a technician is en-route to a customer, a quick look at service history on a mobile phone can inform them that the customer has complained multiple times to the helpdesk about a product/equipment failure.

This is vital information that can help the technician approach the customer with more care, helping to maintain a good customer service. Furthermore, when a technician reviews and accepts a job within a mobile application, the mobile device’s navigation tool can help them find the most efficient route. The technician can then pull up the customer’s details and call them to confirm when they will be arriving on-site.

The power of technology

To conclude, Trimble’s latest research looking into consumer’s biggest expectations and frustrations with field service providers ultimately suggests that success is achieved by managing productivity and ensuring field service managers get the right people, with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time, whilst keeping the customer informed along the way. Having the appropriate technology in place to achieve this is therefore essential and key to helping businesses meet customer expectations and maintain ongoing brand recognition.

Trimble’s independent study was conducted by OnePoll, a worldwide market research agency. For a summary of the report, visit: http://ow.ly/MdyUU

 

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In a time when more and more field service companies are considering moving to  cloud based solution new research from leading market analysts, Juniper Research, suggests that the rapid digitisation of consumers’ lives and enterprise records will increase the cost of data breaches to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019, increasing to almost four times the estimated cost of breaches in 2015....

The research, entitled ‘The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Financial and Corporate Threats & Mitigation’, has found that the majority of these breaches will come from existing IT and network infrastructure. While new threats targeting mobile devices and the IoT (Internet of Things) are being reported at an increasing rate, the number of infected devices is minimal in comparison to more traditional computing devices.

The Cybercrime Economy Driving Action

The report also highlights the increasing professionalism of cybercrime, with the emergence of cybercrime products (i.e. sale of malware creation software) over the past year, as well as the decline in casual activist hacks. Hacktivism has become more successful and less prolific – in future, Juniper expects fewer attacks overall, but more successful ones.

‘Currently, we aren’t seeing much dangerous mobile or IoT malware because it’s not profitable’, noted report author James Moar. ‘The kind of threats we will see on these devices will be either ransomware, with consumers’ devices locked down until they pay the hackers to use their devices, or as part of botnets, where processing power is harnessed as part of a more lucrative hack. With the absence of a direct payout from IoT hacks, there is little motive for criminals to develop the required tools.’

Other key findings include:

• Nearly 60% of anticipated data breaches worldwide in 2015 will occur in North America, but this proportion will decrease over time as other countries become both richer and more digitised.
• The average cost of a data breach in 2020 will exceed $150 million by 2020, as more business infrastructure gets connected.

The whitepaper, ‘Cybercrime and the Internet of Threats’ is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full research.

 

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In the first part of this exclusive research project run in partnership with Advanced Field Service, we looked at the types of mobile devices being used in the field and why it seems that the days of pen and paper are becoming increasingly numbered. In the second of this four part series we look at whether there is a future for wearables in field service, are devices being used rugged or consumer and has BYOD worked and in part three we looked at how engineers react and respond to the mobility tools they are given.

Now in the final part of this series we turn our attention to what is field service professionals expect from a field service mobile application

There is also a white paper accompanying this series, with even further insights, which you can download here

Operating systems

Having taken a look at whose making the decisions lets return to the decisions being made.

Earlier in this series we looked at the choice between rugged or consumer grade products but what about the software?

Given the earlier finding that the over half of companies are using multiple digital devices it makes sense that the around a third (32%) of companies state they have mixed multiple OS’s in use amongst their field engineers.

 

Aside from these companies however the most popular OS is now Android which alongside the 16% of companies using Apple’s iOS is another clear indication of the rise in prominence of both Tablets and Smart-phones as tools being provided to field service engineers.

However, despite giving away ground to Apple and Android in the mobile market, Window’s still hold onto a relatively strong market share of the OS’s being used in field service with 23% of companies stating that this is their OS of choice.

Also similarly as with the figures around laptops maybe being distorted somewhat by the amount of companies using multiple devices, the same logic would also likely see Window’s market share increase as the majority of laptops would be on a Windows OS of some form.

Going Native

But in an age of HTML5 and Cloud based SaaS solutions how important is an OS anyway?

Well for a very large majority of companies (86%) it seems that operating systems are at the very least a consideration in the selection of a device, whilst for 41% of companies it is a very important factor.

When we reflect back to the worries identified earlier in this report around integration problems then perhaps this is understandable. Keeping HTML5 and web based applications in mind however, is it important for a field service app to be native to any given OS?

Again the majority of our respondents suggested that it is. 

In fact over two-thirds (69%) of companies felt that it was important that a field service app is native to the OS it is running on, whilst 35% felt it was very important. In contrast just 11% felt that it was not important at all.

 

Of course a native app will not only appear far more polished it can often have far richer functionality as it is designed to work in tandem with both the operating system and the device itself.

And our research shows that expectations for field service apps is now extremely high.

Access to account information, access to technical documents, visibility into parts availability, delivery of automatic status updates, recording of time sheets, photo and signature capture and data security were expected as part of a field service app by more than 60% of our respondents.

What we want in a field service app – everything!

However, when it came to the functionality that was required in a field service app the most important element by far was “Access work schedule and complete jobs on site” which almost two thirds of companies (63%) placed amongst the most important functions they require in an app.

Aside from this though almost all other functions had a similar level of responses with “access to technical documents” being the second most popular requirement with 42% of companies identifying this as important to them followed by “delivery of automatic status updates”(41%), “access to account information”(39%), “Photo/signature capture” (35%),“recording of time sheets” (35%), “visibility into parts availability” (27%), and “data security” (23%).

 

Finally lets look at why companies invest in field service solutions.

What is definitely encouraging is that the most common reason for companies upgrading their existing systems is to improve the service they are delivering to their customers.

I am a firm believer in putting the customers at the heart of all we do in field service and it appears I am not alone in this ethos.

However the good news is that often by doing so we can see other benefits. One of these is improving productivity which was the second most commonly cited reason for investing in a new field service management solution.

This was followed by the “reduction of paperwork” and “cost savings” being the third and fourth most popular reasons for a new system while “Automation of routine tasks” was the fifth most popular reason cited. Finally despite the often painted Big Brother impact of a field service solution, visibility into workers was actually the least common of the reasons given for introducing a new field service management solution.

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New study links high customer satisfaction with service providers who fix it on the first visit

Field service organisations need to become more efficient, develop better time-saving approaches and fix a problem on the first visit in order to meet customer expectations, according to a new study commissioned by Trimble Field Service Management

The study, which surveyed 2,000 adults in the UK, revealed that over half (52 per cent) considered fixing the problem on the first visit to be the leading factor in determining their satisfaction. Yet, one in four participants reported that a return visit was required. The most common reason for a return visit was that the technician lacked the appropriate tools or parts (40 per cent), while the technician lacking the appropriate skills was also revealed as a top factor (27 per cent).

"Clearly, operating a skilled and efficient mobile workforce is critical to meeting customer expectations. To achieve that, organisations need real-time access to information about the performance of workers in the field," said John Cameron, general manager of Trimble's Field Service Management Division.

 

"Technology is available that provides technicians with the visibility they need to get to the right place at the right time with the information they need to do their job correctly the first time," Cameron added. "Customer expectations are only going to increase, so having the infrastructure in place to meet and exceed these expectations is critical to keeping customers happy."

Respondents also are not happy with wait times. More than 50 per cent considered 1-3 hours an acceptable appointment window, yet few had experienced this, with 32 per cent reporting wait times between 4-9 hours. 40 per cent of consumers claimed their biggest frustration with using a service provider was long appointment slots.

The independent study was conducted by OnePoll, a worldwide market research agency. For a summary of the report, visit: http://www.pages05.net/trimblefieldservice/Consumer_Research_Results/

 

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