Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News reflects on the alignment of digital transformation and servitization - the two key trends driving innovation and evolution in our industry...
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Dec 01, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation • IFS • Sarah Nicastro • SimPRO • durabook • Servitization and Advanced Services • Iwi Lin • Ricky Sevta
Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News reflects on the alignment of digital transformation and servitization - the two key trends driving innovation and evolution in our industry...
There have been two key trends that have been consistently present within our industry for a number of years. Both have been at the heart of discussions in boardrooms and on conference stages alike. Implementation of both has been accelerated by the pandemic. These two trends are of course Digital Transformation and Servitization - but just how closely related are they?
For Sarah Nicastro, Vice President of Customer Advocacy, IFS the two are very closely aligned.
"We believe that Servitization and Digital Transformation are inextricably linked, in that the progression of digital is a major factor in the increased demands customers have that are prompting companies to Servitize as well as in the fact that it’s impossible to Servitize without digital capabilities," Nicastro explains.
"To seize the potential of advanced services, companies must view Digital Transformation as key to success. Digital is required to gain insights into the performance of assets in a way that allows a proactive and predictive response, to optimize the utilization of both its workforce and inventory in the manner necessary for guaranteeing outcomes, and to ensure the customer experience is seamless and informed.
"Data is also proving to be an integral part of an advanced services value proposition in the form of providing customers unique insights gleaned from digital tools in use. As such, companies should seek a modern digital platform that provides a range of capabilities to eliminate the failure points common in a disjointed environment and to protect the integrity of the customer experience. " she adds.
This is a comment that is echoed by Iwi Lin, Marketing Manager, Durabook.
"Digital transformation is already happening within the business-to-business sector, meaning organizations across every industry need to embrace this digital change," he comments.
"Servitization can only be a consistent and reliable revenue source if your business performance remains equally efficient and dependable..."
- Iwi Lin, Durabook.
"The adoption of emerging technology is where true industry revolution occurs, determining who will rise to the top and who will fail over time. Companies that implement technology to streamline processes, optimize budgets and improve overall workforce performance are predicted to outlast their competition.
"However, servitization can only be a consistent and reliable revenue source if your business performance remains equally efficient and dependable, which is where rugged devices come into play. These computers are fast becoming the focal point of these technologies as they enable organizations to realize even greater operational capabilities,"
Indeed, our world both inside and beyond field service is evolving rapidly in terms of technology and as we add the further pressures of a servitized business model into what is an already complex mix of many moving parts that constitute field service then the importance of being able to leverage, but also importantly trust the technologies we deploy throughout digital transformation is critical.
As Lin adds "With technological evolutions in IoT, 5G, Augmented Reality (AR), machine learning and AI, companies investing in new technologies will be able to predict and prevent operational failure. Computer manufacturers that provide rugged devices can help organizations understand how to operate these devices in the field to enable their digital transformation programs and ensure new technologies are used for their maximum benefit.
"With uninterrupted servitization a crucial factor for business success, the latest equipment is designed with optimum efficiency in mind. Rugged devices are the only models that can withstand the frequently harsh conditions many field computers must endure.
"The latest devices also contain sensors that feed operational data back to the manufacturer on the product’s condition, reducing maintenance issues and downtime. Should a problem arise, the manufacturer or service provider will be automatically notified by the faulty part so it can be quickly fixed. While they may require a greater initial outlay, they are far more cost-effective in the long term because of this lower need for maintenance costs."
"Servitization at its core means providing outcomes rather than products or even services – it’s a company-wide transformation in the identity of the business and the customer value proposition."
- Sarah Nicastro, IFS
Coming from an industry where reliability in the field is a critical component of the success of their products, Lin's point raises an important distinction between servitization and digital transformation. While they are invariably two facets of the same conversation, the latter is the enabler, while the former represents the true paradigm shift.
As Nicastro explains, "Servitization at its core means providing outcomes rather than products or even services – it’s a company-wide transformation in the identity of the business and the customer value proposition, not a simple addition to the service portfolio.
"However, in many cases this transition occurs over time in a phased manner to ease the impact on culture and operations and to help manage change."
Of course, while technological innovation or advances in service design thinking are important, these all become something of a moot point if they are not aligned with what our customers actually need and want. This is a critical part of the discussion which cannot be overlooked.
"Without customers, nothing happens," states Ricky Sevta, CRO, simPRO bluntly.
"Customers we’ve talked with agree. They also know it’s a tricky balance, tailoring your services to the unique needs of your customer while also providing high-quality service to every customer. You also have to do it better and faster than your competitors, and still turn a profit.
"In our experience working with all types of trades businesses, we believe technology like job management software, can help you do it all.
"Job management software helps you better manage all the moving parts in your business, and gives you insights (data) into how well you're truly performing in each area of your business. More importantly, it shows the relationship between these areas.
"You can then pinpoint how your performance, in these areas, good or bad, ultimately impacts the customer experience," Sevta adds.
"Your customers make everything happen. Why make them wait?'
- Ricky Sevta, simPRO
"For example, how does proper stock management impact customer service? Say your field staff arrive at a job only to realize that they don’t have what they need. Now they’re wasting the customer’s time and their time. This can lead to an irritated customer and a job that takes much longer than it needs to.
"Your engineers are set up for success, and empowered to provide good customer service when they know that they have the right materials for every job, and can check stock from anywhere at any time, but so is the rest of the team. With field management software, your admin team can check inventory while talking to a customer rather than having to take their number down, manually check the stock and then call them back."
"Your customers make everything happen. Why make them wait? Job management software, especially cloud-based software, gives staff all of the relevant information they need to deliver the best customer service no matter whether they're remote or on-site," Sevta concludes.
Indeed, there is a broad mix of tools available for field service companies of all shapes and sizes, across all sectors in today's market. Digital transformation is all around us and will continue to evolve at pace. As to will the servitization movement, with service portfolios becoming more advanced and sophisticated as we embrace such tools.
However, as Sevta rightly states, keeping the customer centre to all we do is the one true key to success.
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Servitization and Advanced Services @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/servitization-and-advanced-services
- Read more about IFS @ www.ifs.com/
- Read more about Durabook @ www.durabook.com/
- Read more about simPRO @ www.simprogroup.com
Oct 15, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • field service management • IFS • Sarah Nicastro
Sarah Nicastro, IFS, reflect’s on the recently published Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management and the positive trends it shows for our industry...
Sarah Nicastro, IFS, reflect’s on the recently published Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management and the positive trends it shows for our industry...
The Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management is a highly-anticipated piece of research each year, both for the vendors hoping they’ve achieved a prominent placement and for those in the industry who rely on the Magic Quadrant to help steer their technology investments for the upcoming year(s).
As I read through the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management, I was impressed by the progress the report illustrated not only as it relates to the technology provided by the vendors evaluated but by the statistics that painted a picture of significant progress by service organisations.
I’ve been interviewing service leaders from businesses across a wide variety of industries for more than twelve years. What has been clear to me over the past few years is the seismic shift taking place as service becomes a strategic differentiator for businesses in almost every industry. My personal collection of conversation after conversation reveals immense progress is reflected in some of the research shared in the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management.
OUTCOMES-BASED SERVICE TAKES HOLD
In Gartner’s strategic planning assumptions, shared at the beginning of the report, Gartner states that, “By 2025, over 50% of equipment manufacturers will offer outcomes-based service contracts that rely on access to digital twin data, up from less than 20% in 2019.”
In a later section of the report that shares survey results from 84 customers of 14 vendors evaluated, Gartner reveals that, “One third of respondents are already using this model, up from 19%, and 34% intend to offer this model within the next 12 to 24 months.” We know that Servitization and outcomes-based service are the future – but we also know they are not easy evolutions and take time.
SOFTWARE USE ADVANCES TO MEET SERVICE NEEDS
As service organisations continue on the path to outcomes-based service, more advanced technologies must enable the delivery of those outcomes. The software vendors featured on the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management have evolved quite a bit over the last couple with some of the solutions becoming simultaneously more sophisticated and simpler to use.
Gartner shares two other strategic planning assumptions that reflect more advanced technology demands. First, “By 2025, 50% of field service management deployments will include mobile augmented reality collaboration and knowledge sharing tools – up from less than 10% in 2019.” We’ve seen even more enthusiastic adoption of AR since COVID-19 struck and I wouldn’t be surprised if the number in 2025 is even higher than 50%.
In the survey of 84 customers from the 14 vendors, 64% of respondents are using or plan to use knowledge management within 12 months. Both AR and knowledge management hold great potential in a number of critical areas for field service organisations: improving customer experience, increasing productivity, more efficient training, and the prevention of loss of uncaptured knowledge as older workers retire.
Gartner also shared that “algorithms and bots will schedule over two-thirds of field service work for field service providers dependent on automated schedule optimisation, up from less than 25% in 2019.” In the survey results, Gartner revealed that “Sixty-three percent of the respondents (up from 39%) indicated that they were already offering their customers a means to self-serve.”
Moreover, the report states that “In 2017, Gartner predicted that, by 2020, 10% of emergency field service work would be both triaged and scheduled by AI, up from less than 1% in 2017. Of the surveyed reference customers this year, 23% indicated that they already schedule some work automatically.” Respondents also stated that “the overall average number of technicians handled by each dispatcher was 47, compared with the 21 reported by respondents to the survey conducted for the 2019 Magic Quadrant.”
We see here an interest and readiness from field service organisations to leverage more advanced tools, which I believe stems from a recognition that doing so is essential in order to remain competitive and successful.
It’s also interesting to keep in mind that much of the work for this report was completed prior to the real impact of COVID-19. While the challenges of the pandemic are vast, I do also believe that once we’ve recovered, we will see an acceleration of innovation among field service organisations because navigating the challenges has resulted in more openness to change, increased agility, and greater recognition of the importance of technology.
Further Reading:
- Read more about Gartner’s Benchmarking Work in the Field Service Sector @ www.gartner.com/field-service-management
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Connect with Sarah Nicastro @ www.linkedin.com/sarahhowland/
- Read more exclusive Field Service News articles from Sarah Nicastro @ www.fieldservicenews.com/sarah-nicastro
- Find out more about the services IFS offer to field service organisations @ https://www.ifs.com/uk/solutions/service-management/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/IFSUK
Aug 21, 2019 • Features • Management • IFS • Sarah Nicastro
In the world of automation this and artificial intelligence that, the role of the field technician is often questioned. Will technology eliminate the need for technicians altogether? I think not. But the role and responsibilities are undoubtedly changing and will continue to do so.
The good news, for your technicians and for you, is that this world of automation and intelligence frees them up from manual, preventable tasks to do more value-added work.
The challenge is, this often isn’t a shift that comes naturally. In addition to the proliferation of technology, the entire field service ecosystem is changing. Customers have new and more sophisticated demands, companies are competing less on product and more on service, and data is now our most valuable resource.
With all these changes at play, it is time for you to consider the ways in which you need to upskill or reskill your technicians as their time is freed up in a way that will offer you competitive advantage or impact your bottom line.
As you incorporate tools like IoT, AI, and ML that reduce the drain of manual tasks on your workforce, consider these three areas in which it might make sense to upskill or reskill your talented technicians:
1: Hone Their People Skills
As customer focus becomes prioritised in every field service operation, one of the biggest challenges I hear tell of is the need for more soft skills. Technicians that are highly skilled and knowledgeable in repairing a certain product may not have historically needed to be all that people friendly. Those times have changed.
Today, service is the frontline of your brand – it is the impression that will matter most in how you are viewed in the eyes of your customers. It is a, if not the, major differentiator for organisations today. Therefore, you need to focus on improving the people skills for all your frontline workers.
These skills include communication, empathy, problem-solving, empowerment, engagement, and confidence – as well as a solid understanding of how to be respectful of someone’s time and property.
Going beyond those basics (which, believe me, many need to work on) you will want to consider how to equip your technicians with the skills and ability to be consultative, to suggestively sell/ cross-sell, and to become an expert at providing real-time insights.
2: Harness Their Knowledge to Train and Educate
When you find yourself successfully leveraging technology to the point you’ve reduced your demand for field visits, and you will, you’ll want to think about how you can re-deploy some of your most skilled technicians in an impactful way. One avenue is to mould your technicians to be master trainers and educators.
There are several applications for this – you could use expert technicians to train new field talent, you can enlist their customer-facing knowledge to educate product and sales teams, and you can even look to use skilled technicians to train and educate your customer base.
3: Develop Their Data Analytics Abilities
Data is the foundation that the future of field service is being built on. Service organisations that are embracing Servitization and outcomes-based service are determining not only how data can be utilised internally to provide more predictive service, but how data can be used to create new offerings and revenue streams with customers.
If you are collecting data from assets, you are undoubtedly sitting on a wealth of insights that your customers would likely be willing to pay you for. The hard part is finding out exactly what those offerings are, how to deliver on them, and how to monetise and market them.
This is where businesses are really evolving, and this evolution necessitates more masters of data. Depending on your industry and their skills, your technicians may be able to be leveraged in analysing and creating intelligence from data or in aspects such as determining what insights your customers would be willing to pay for, how those insights could or should be delivered, how best to market and sell these new offerings.
Sarah Nicastro is Director of Service Management Business Development at IFS
Mar 07, 2019 • Features • management • Digitialisation • IFS • Strategy • Sarah Nicastro
In a recent blog titled You Need a New Digital Transformation Playbook, published by IDC, author Meredith Whalen reveals that based on a recent study of digital leaders, 46 percent are what IDC refers to as “digitally determined” while 54% are what IDC calls “digitally distraught.”
It doesn’t surprise me that such a large percentage of organisations fall into the “distraught” category – true digital transformation is a massive undertaking that can prove daunting and frustrating at times. In an effort to alleviate some of the headaches that can come along with such a major initiative, I’m going to share four common missteps I see organisations make related to digital transformation:
#1: Overlooking the Cultural Implications of Digital Transformation
If you think of digital transformation as strictly a technology initiative, you are starting off on the wrong foot. Digital transformation requires just as much cultural change as it does technology use, yet this piece of the puzzle is commonly overlooked for a variety of reasons – leaders assume employees will just “get it,” carving out time for cultural change management seems to slow down progress, or companies just aren’t sure how to tackle such a cultural shift.
I assure you, making an effort to get the cultural part of digital transformation right will pay dividends. I’ve heard countless tales of efforts gone wrong because the employee wasn’t bought in on the concept or properly trained on the tool introduced.
Key areas to focus on are to communicate clearly and regularly with all employees on the need and objectives for your transformation – implement a feedback loop with your employees and listen to what they have to say. Be selective about the technology you adopt as part of your effort – if the tool doesn’t meet the needs of your workforce or
is difficult to use, adoption will suffer. Investing in tools that do what they say they will and deliver an experience your employees actually value will build their trust in your digital transformation efforts. Finally, continually monitor adoption and “take the temperature” of your employees to course correct your efforts as needed.
"Making an effort to get the cultural part of digital transformation right will pay dividends..."
#2: Failing to Set a Solid Digital Transformation Foundation
It’s all too easy to become enamored by some of the ultra-cool facets of digital transformation and gloss over some of the basics. But for true digital transformation to be successful, you have to walk before you run.
You have to ensure you’ve laid a solid foundation of basics from which to build your digital repertoire. While not as sexy as AR and AI, effective and efficient communication, bulletproof scheduling and routing, and solid work order management are examples of more basic technology that simply has to be mastered before being built upon.
As you evaluate your foundation, think about the past — what do you have in place already that is working well; the present — what you want to accomplish in the near term; and the future — what you want your digital portfolio to look like five years from now. This will help you visualise the evolution of how you build on what you have to get where you want to be, or will help you to identify changes you need to make to your current systems before building upon them.
#3: Defining YOUR Desired Digital Transformation State
To achieve digital transformation success, you MUST realise that your desired end state will be unique. I’ve seen organisations get off track because they see what ABC Company is doing and make every effort to replicate their success, rather than tailoring the approach to their own business. It’s fine to look around you for inspiration but staying in your own lane is critical to your success.
Start by defining your business goals, by visualising what YOUR desired digital transformation state looks like (and of course agreeing upon this vision organisation-wide). Each businesses’ end goal is going to be individualised, as well the approach for getting there – no two companies can follow the exact same path.
Once you have your goals set and vision articulated, focus then on only the technologies that will get you there – don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked by the new, shiny thing that will ultimately bring no value to your business but looks really cool. Stay focused and measure your progress to that desired state.
#4: Racing to Reach The “End Goal” of Digital Transformation
I’m here to break it to you: you’ll never reach the end of your digital transformation efforts. The “end goal” is a myth; it doesn’t exist. The reality of digital transformation in the technology age is that it will keep going, and going, and going.
This means you have to work to perfect the art of ongoing cultural adaptation, business goal setting, and technology adoption – because you’ll be adding on to and tweaking your digital transformation efforts from now until the end of time.
Don’t let this overwhelm you – the foundation you are setting will equip your entire organisation to make future adjustments and additions far more seamlessly.
While there is no true state of completion, the race is on to make progress and remain competitive.
Sarah Nicastro is Director of Service Management Business Development at IFS.
Oct 26, 2018 • News • field service • Field Service News • IFS • Software and Apps • Sarah Nicastro • Service Mnagement • Managing the Mobile Workforce
Service management thought leader Sarah Nicastro joins IFS to drive recognition and growth in service
Service management thought leader Sarah Nicastro joins IFS to drive recognition and growth in service
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that Field Technologies Online Editor-in-Chief Sarah Nicastro will join IFS as Director of Service Business Development and Field Service Evangelist.
Sarah brings to IFS over a decade of experience covering the trends, technologies and business drivers that most impact end users of field service solutions. During her tenure at FTO, Sarah’s mission has been to help field service customers tell their stories. In her new role, Sarah will add to the in-house expertise to translate how IFS solutions address the challenges and pain points of savvy field service companies.
Marne Martin, President of IFS Service Management Business Unit and CEO of Workwave, an IFS company, shares her excitement, “With this appointment, IFS will be yet one step closer to our customers, as part of Sarah’s responsibilities include directly tuning into our customer community. Sarah will play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our growth targets, which are ambitious but entirely attainable considering the mix of great products, clients, talent and customer care at IFS.”
Commenting on her appointment, Sarah added, “I am very excited to join IFS, which is one of a small number of companies in the service management space I would consider working for. I know IFS as a strong technology vendor with an unmistakable passion for service management. I look forward to contributing with my expertise to help the company achieve its growth goals by focusing on the needs of the field service community.”
Read more about how IFS’s suite of service management solutions supports service organizations here: www.ifsworld.com/corp/industries/service/.
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