ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘scheduling’ CATEGORY

Three of the largest insurance companies in the UK and Europe have deployed FLS’ appointment scheduling software to improve service and enable efficient field service scheduling and routing of field based resources.

FLS, Fast Lean Smart, a leading provider of workforce scheduling software and mobile workforce management solutions with UK offices in Reading and Warrington, announces that three major general insurance companies have recently deployed FLS VISITOUR for workforce optimisation, appointment booking, workforce scheduling and routing of their claims assessors, including motor engineers and property surveyors, in total more than 500 field based employees.

The challenge

Insurers each operate a criteria upon which they determine when an insurance claim needs to be assessed by a surveyor, either a review of photographs at their desk or a field visit.

Some perform these assessments using employed resources, others outsource this to third-party service providers, often there is a combination of these to best cover the country and cope with ‘surge’ events, for example a flood in Devon can result in an extraordinary number of claims to be managed in that area.

The Insurers objective is to detect fraud whilst also resolving genuine claims quickly and so build a reputation for good service. Insurers use key performance indicators to monitor each stage of the process from first contact to closure but in parallel to this is the continuous need to control and reduce costs so they can offer competitive insurance policy premiums.

The business need

For each of these FLS customers the requirement was to speed up the appointment booking process to visit and assess claims and to gain efficiencies for office and field based staff. VISITOUR achieves this by enabling a central claims liaison team to instantly offer a flexible choice of time slots which are also the most cost efficient to achieve with the available field based resources (and in some cases desk based resources using images) and whilst ensuring previous appointment commitments must be kept.

The approach and benefits realisation Each Insurer took advantage of the FLS offer for a Software-as-a-Service ‘try before you buy’ pilot. FLS VISITOUR was configured and used live for a region of the country to prove the suitability of the solution and return on investment, before the choice was made to continue from pilot to rollout.

Within the first two weeks of pilot, one insurer determined as much as 50% reduction in average mileage and 2 hours a day driving time could be saved, however, for rollout the most important business objective was to give the best possible customer experience to their customer by attending appointments and closing claims sooner, therefore the settings were adjusted in VISITOUR to achieve these priorities.

 

Mobile App for real-time communication and reporting two of these insurers have also deployed FLS MOBILE which enables paper-free provision of case information, capture of assessment reports, and real-time appointment status updates.

This field information also makes it possible to track that progress is on-time, to automatically message customers with estimated arrival times, and to book new ‘same day’ appointments based on this progress – further advantages to offering market leading customer service. FLS UK Managing Director, Jeremy Squire, comments “We are very proud of the success and benefits achieved using VISITOUR by our customers. In partnership with these insurance market leaders, FLS will continue to develop the unique capabilities of VISITOUR to their advantage”.

 

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For those attending Field Service Management Expo FLS are exhibiting on Stand Q770 visit them to find out more

 

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mplsystems will be aiming to transform field service efficiency with new AESOP scheduling & optimisation module launching tomorrow at the Field Service Management Expo in London.

With a bold statement that the new tool will ensure 'organisations can offer rapid response to in-day jobs, provide precise slot times and manage delays, changes and overruns, all without compromising on workforce efficiency' it is set to be a highly interesting launch that could be the highlight of the expo. So Field Service News took a look at what we can expect ahead of the event...

What is AESOP?

mplsystems will be launching what has been billed as the 'pioneering AESOP scheduling and optimisation module' at the Field Service Management Expo tomorrow.

The Advanced Engineer Scheduling Optimisation & Prediction (AESOP) application combines real-time feeds, predictive analytics and flexible rules to enable organisations to manage the complexity of today’s field service. Using the latest self-learning genetic algorithms, this grant funded development builds on mplsystems’ leading dynamic scheduling engine, by providing real-time optimisation.

The module, combines real-time data feeds concerning exceptions, such as; traffic flows; the weather and job overruns, with data from deployed equipment through IoT devices.

This is then correlated with an organisation’s specific preferences, for example rules for engineer workload; regions, ideal working times and travel times, parts and skill set. These priorities are unique to every business and so allows users to configure and evolve their own rules, in order that the AESOP algorithms provide the optimum schedule for their unique scenario.

 

Today’s customers have heightened expectations - they expect an immediate response to reactive requests, precise time slots, informed communications and won’t accept delays. How does an organisation adapt without compromising workforce efficiency? AESOP provides an ideal solution, accepting new reactive requests, monitoring delays and jobs in jeopardy and calculating the optimum plan and routes in real-time.

Intelligent Real-Time Scheduling

Companies typically rely on inefficient manual, or partly automatic internal processes and are therefore unable to react quickly to the constant changes and exceptions that keep the service desk busy each day. With continuous customer requests; delays; overruns; etc, being logged at the service desk throughout the working day, staff usually spend the majority of their time rescheduling field engineers’ diaries and playing the ‘middle-man’ to keep the customer informed.

Real-Time Scheduling

Proving itself intelligent and flexible, the software solution is also able to automatically respond to basic customer queries or emergency work orders, thus minimising the repetitive workload for the service desk staff. This could lead to the company reducing the number of staff required to manage exceptions at the service desk and allow them to relocate their resources to more value adding tasks.

What does this mean for the customer?

Being able to react to requests as and when they come in, rather than back logging them, means that customers are seen to on the same day, if there is an emergency and not long after, if they in a position to wait. With a reactive service team, customers feel looked after and valued, thus improving customer satisfaction.

Intelligent Routing

The AESOP scheduling and optimisation module also calculates the most efficient routes for engineers to take between their jobs. Presenting the field technicians with detailed information about the distance between jobs, travel time and the best route to take, can save up to 80% of time spent scheduling jobs at the service desk. Furthermore, this process can help technicians get to jobs almost twice as quick as before.

The solution also ensures that the customer is automatically sent a message when the engineer is on their way and/or if they run into any potential delays.

What does this mean for the customer?

Having a system to optimise field technicians’ diaries and send out automated messages with journey and job updates, means that customers are continually kept well informed and are able to better manage their day.  Rather than having to wait around for vague half day time slots, they are now able to work around the hour within which their service visit is due. This is a vast improvement for customer experience within the service industry as the sector is notorious for delayed scheduling and ineffective systems.

Predictive Maintenance

Through the digital connectivity that comes with the IoT, devices will be able to self-diagnose problems and immediately alert the service organisation of the issue, often before the asset fails and the customer realises something is wrong. mplsystems’ AESOP module integrates these data feeds to ensure preventative visits can be scheduled in, and aligned with other visits in the local area to minimise travel times.

What does this mean for the customer?

Through the efficiency of preventative scheduling, customers’ machine downtime will reduce by over 30%. They will no longer experience any disruption, as their machine will be revitalised before it fails.

Overall

Keeping the customer connected throughout the service process and providing reactive service, the AESOP module will transform Customer Experience. Meanwhile internally, organisations are estimated to reduce their overall service, planning and administration costs by at least 50%.

 

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Find out more by visiting mplsystems at the Field Service Management Expo | June 20 – 22 | Stand N650

 

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Award-winning providers of field service management software, mplsystems, will be exhibiting at the recently rebranded Field Service Management Expo this June on stand N650.

From their intelligent real-time scheduling, parts management and mobile app software, to their service management CRM and contact centre solutions, many top manufacturing and service companies across Europe, have successfully trusted them to transform their efficiency and customer experience.

Recognising that the customer needs to be the focal point of every field service business, mplsystems’ software places customer experience at the centre of its functionality. Via self-service and multi-channel communications, the customer is kept informed and can interact through their channel of choice. With an intelligent scheduling engine, companies are also able to respond to customers more quickly with precise time slots, without sacrificing workforce efficiency.

New technology launch

mplsystems will also be using the expo as the platform to launch their pioneering AESOP scheduling module.

Using the latest genetic algorithms to provide real-time scheduling, this software will ensure that businesses can be responsive to customer requests in real-time, whilst managing changes and delays without compromising on workforce efficiency. This grant funded development builds on mplsystems’ leading dynamic scheduling engine. See how you can better manage the complexity of your field service operations at Stand N650!

 

Presentations and discussions

Throughout the course of the Expo, their CEO, Paul White, will be delivering a talk session on Minimising Downtime, IoT & Proactive Maintenance. Todays’ customers have heightened expectations, in that they expect responsive service and are much less accepting of any unnecessary downtime. This session addresses how organisations can look to adapt from a reactive to proactive and preventative maintenance model. White will also discuss how unforeseen delays, overruns and changes can be best managed in real-time, without adversely impacting service delivery.

Jon Meredith, mplsystems’ Business Development Director, will be delivering a talk session on Delivering Customer Experience in Field Service. Digital connectivity has changed the way customers perceive field service and has raised their expectations of responsiveness, communications and First-Time-Fix rates.

This session will explore how organisations are using self-service and other communication tools to improve Customer Communications. Meredith will also discuss responsiveness to customer requests and how organisations can better manage changes, delays, overruns and precise time slots in real-time, without compromising workforce efficiency.

 

mplsystems will also be taking part in one of the discussion panels during the Expo this year, exploring the topic of the Ageing Workforce. Panellists; Paul White, CEO at mplsystems; Hans van den Heuvel, Operations Director at Canon Europe and Tom Mills, Business & Field Manager at Concept Resourcing, will evaluate the impact of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to capture and disseminate knowledge, while tracking the evolution of the field service engineer.

Join mplsystems, Field Service News and a number of other key providers to the field service sector on 20 – 22 June at London Excel, to discover the latest field service technology that can transform your scheduling, service efficiency and customer journey, whilst enjoying a packed three days of thought provoking service management discussions.

 

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mplsystems activity overview

• mplsystems | Stand N650
• Talk Session | Minimising Downtime, IoT & Proactive Maintenance | Field Service Theatre | Tuesday 20^th June | 14:10 – 14:40 | Paul White, CEO, mplsystems
• Talk Session | Delivering Customer Experience in Field Service | Field Service Theatre | Wednesday 21^st June | 13:40 – 14:10 | Jon Meredith, Business Development Director, mplsystems
• Panel Discussion | Ageing Workforce | Wednesday 21^st June | 11:00 – 11:30 | Paul White, CEO, mplsystems, Hans van den Heuvel, Operations Director, Canon Europe, Tom Mills, Business & Field Manager, Concept Resourcing[/unordered_list]

 

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In this Field Service News webinar brought to you in partnership with Tesseract, we will be exploring five fundamental field service management technologies that every field service organisation should have in place – discussing why each is vital to making sure your service delivery hits your core KPIs as well as taking a look at how to use the technologies in a live environment.

This webinar will provide a strong hands-on overview of the types of technology that your team should be using with demonstrations and user tips from Tesseract’s Kevin McNally to help you get the most value from field service management technology.

The technology we will be showcasing will be Tesseract’s own Service Centre 5.1 the latest offering from a company with over a thirty year heritage in delivering field service management software, so there will be a great opportunity to see the latest generation of FSM solution in action – although there will be plenty of best-practice advice that will be suitable for users of any FSM solution.

The five key areas we will be focussing on are as follows:

• Contract Management
• Scheduling
• Mobile tools and communications
• Parts & Inventory Management
• Integration=

Who is this suited for: Whilst this session should be of interest to any field service management professionals, the session is particularly aimed at organisations who are either currently still using manual processes or legacy FSM systems/, FSM systems with limited functionality and looking to see the tools and applications that should be expected as standard in a modern FSM solution. 

The technology being showcased in particular is ideally suited to those companies with over 10 field service engineers and the information presented will be aimed towards an audience of field service managers/directors, operations directors or owners/MDs of Service Companies. 

 

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The webinar will be held at 13:00 BST and you can register your place for the session by clicking here

 

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Laraine Geddes, Marketing Manager, Kirona explains how dynamic resource scheduling & mobile working can help you keep promises to customers...

Driving efficiencies in your organisation and ensuring the highest level of customer satisfaction do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Regardless of whether you are managing planned maintenance, reactive field based tasks or complex projects, efficiency comes from doing the right things, at the right time with the most appropriate resources. For the customer, what they want is exactly the same, for you to keep your promises, to perform and complete the task required when you say you will.

Kirona have outlined four ways in which organisations can deliver their promises to customers.

Setting expectations:

It is a careful balance to ensure that customer preferences for appointments are taken into account while also optimising resource utilisation and minimising travel time of operatives. When procuring dynamic resource scheduling software ensure it provides available appointment slots to be offered to customers, whilst highlighting the most efficient slots for the organisation in terms of resource utilisation and travel time.

Setting the right expectation & keeping promises can achieve Customer Satisfaction of 95% or higher.

Communicating with your customer:

One of the primary reasons for appointments being missed is no access to the property, often caused by the customer not being at home.

Kirona’s Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS) makes it easy to keep customers informed. Each appointment can be confirmed by email or SMS, with reminders being sent at time intervals such as 24 or 48 hours before the job is due. When an operative updates the job on their mobile device to say that they are en-route to the property, an SMS can be sent to remind the customer.

There will always be exceptions that occur.

Whether it is an unavoidable overrun of a previous job or delays caused by traffic, it is essential that the customer is kept informed. Through the seamless and real-time integration of DRS and Kirona’s Job Manager mobile workforce application, such delays can be proactively managed with a communication sent to the customer informing them that their operative has been delayed and resetting expectations of when they will arrive. Not only does this approach reduce the negative impact on customers, it can also reduce calls from customers to your contact centre chasing progress.

 

North Lanarkshire Council’s no access rate dropped from 40% to just 3% through use of Kirona’s DRS and Job Manager.

Dealing with the emerging day:

No two days can be the same and it is common for events in the day, including emergency work, to require changes to the schedule. The challenge is to cater for overrunning work or new work items while keeping customer promises and also ensuring that you continue to operate in the most optimum way.

By utilising Kirona’s Job Manager as your mobile working solution integrated into Dynamic Resource Scheduling, you gain full visibility of the work being performed in the field. You can see in real-time potential delays and the impact that this will have on your intra-day schedule Rather than having to hold back emergency slots in your schedule or allocating emergency work on a first availability basis, DRS enables you to take a more efficient approach. As changes in the day occur, DRS re-evaluates the day’s plan, adjusting work allocation to take into account the emerging work or availability to ensure you maintain the most optimum work schedule across all available operatives.

Delivering a first time fix:

Not all jobs run to plan. A job can simply take longer than expected. The efficient way to deal with this is to provide the operative with the time they need to complete the task. This avoids an additional appointment being required and ensures that your original promise to the customer is kept.

Step one to increasing the rate of first time fix is ensuring that for each job you have the right operative, resources and time allocated. Key to this is an effective triage process that ensures you can define the key parameters used for scheduling work. Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS) enables you to define different categories of skills and qualification of each operative and to align this to job requirements ensuring you always send the right operative.

 

When complications or work variations arise, the seamless integration of Job Manager (JM) and Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS), enables for this to be immediately notified to planners. With full visibility across all operatives of the day’s work and its progression, they are able to quickly sanction job variations and realign work items to ensure other customer commitments are met.

Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower talks us through a variety of different scheduling solutions and how they can turbo charge service delivery...

When I think of a ‘turbo boost’, a few images pop into my head. From Superman to a luxury car that eats up the track, a turbo boost ‘supercharges’ an action, with apparent ease, whether that’s saving the innocents or posting the fastest lap times.

In relation to mobile workforce management, a turbo boost to scheduling operations can be just what’s required to achieve the next level performance to drive customer satisfaction, retention and future sales and that turbo boost can only be found in true optimisation that places the power of cognitive computing and big data at your fingertips.

The automation, calculation speed, and schedule quality inherent in true artificial intelligence (AI) based optimisation engines maximises the productivity and efficiency of mobile workforces, while reducing costs and ultimately improving the customer experience.

 

Despite stories from the industry about prolonged deployments, platforms which require heavy development and customisation, engines which can’t process large volumes of work without failing or batching unprocessed job, real AI based schedule optimisation can boost your operation, and it does so with ease.

What does Scheduling Mean?

Mobile workforce management solutions (MWFM), have at their core typically ‘scheduling’, functionality which is used to manage mobile workers and at its most basic includes job scheduling, job dispatch and mobility software.

There are generally 3 kinds of scheduling solutions available which offer varying degrees of benefits, from white board / no optimisation solutions to the real, intra-day AI optimisation that enable your business to be much more productive and scalable.

Types of Scheduling

Basic Scheduling

Basic scheduling software requires building and managing a schedule manually. It’s labourintensive, doesn’t consider travel time, and doesn’t apply any computer logic to scheduling decisions, exception handling or schedule changes.

Most of these vendors offer something similar to Microsoft Outlook with drag-and-schedule functionality. Basic scheduling isn’t scalable, and doesn’t support any kind of complexity or manage large volumes of work well.

There is no turbo boost in this option; it’s more like a bicycle.

Automated, Rules-Based Scheduling

Larger volumes and complexity can’t be handled by basic scheduling. It’s too much and too hard for manual processes. It’s inefficient, costly and inaccurate.

Software which offers simple computer logic is the next option. Vendors often call these rules based computer programs ‘optimised scheduling’, but they aren’t.

Some of them do automatically build a schedule using technician skills, availability, and service level agreements, so these are a better option than basic manual scheduling. However, if these packages can’t use a simple rule based on the skill, availability, and SLA, they can’t schedule the jobs.

These really only fill white spaces. Filling a white spot on a schedule is not optimisation.

There’s no real turbo boost here either. This is like a scooter; there’s some power, but you’re not going very far or very fast.

Artificial Intelligence based Intelligent Scheduling

True route and schedule optimisation, such as ServiceScheduling from ServicePower, uses artificial intelligence algorithms, like Simulated Annealing, and our latest algorithm, Quantum Annealing, to intelligently schedule jobs using hard and soft rules in conjunction with configurable parameters to minimise overall costs, maximise service delivery margins, and reduce response times.

Real schedule optimisation packages select the best mobile worker for each job based on skills, geography, and existing jobs, while also considering required response time, and other configured parameters. They continuously reshuffle the schedule to create the most efficient, least costly version possible, all the while automatically accounting for schedule changes and exceptions.

 

Scheduling optimisation isn’t about manually scheduling jobs, or filling white space based on some basic, hard rules. Real-time or intraday schedule optimisation is about intelligent automation and is absolutely necessary for complex field service operations.

ServiceScheduling, and our Optimisation on DemandTM product, have been proven by our customers to yield:

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• 15-50% productivity improvement of mobile workers based on intelligently, continuously optimising the schedule for decreased response times to customers
• Up to 45% increase in SLA compliance because the optimisation algorithms can account for required response time in the scheduling decision in real time
• Between 25-50% increase in mobile worker efficiency, including decreased cycle time and reduced travel time yielding improved customer satisfaction and service delivery margins

• Ability to process IoT alerts without manual intervention [/unordered_list]

   

What’s more important to understand about real algorithm based schedule optimisation?

It’s intelligent!

The algorithms give your team the power of ‘big data analytics’. It’s using your data, creating schedules and learning throughout the process, continuously re-crunching the data, continuously re-optimising, continuously improving the schedules, productivity and efficiency, without your team spending hours manually analysing and manually decided how the data impacts your operations.

Artificial intelligence based schedule optimisation is the turbo boost that your organisation needs to get around that curve fastest, at the least cost, to win, for your customer!

See Through the Smoke Though 

Given the obvious benefits to artificial intelligence based schedule optimisation, like ServiceScheduling, why aren’t all organisations, no matter the size or complexity, using the technology?

Good question...

There are several misconceptions worth addressing. Schedule Optimisation is hard to implement. No, schedule optimisation is not hard to implement. It can absolutely be deployed on time and on budget and maintain a long term return on investment.

What’s critical is working with a vendor that understands your operations, as well as what it takes to manage a mobile workforce themselves.

Development is required to support you unique business requirements.

Development is expensive and take a long time. The software should be configurable; it shouldn’t require development to deploy and it absolutely shouldn’t require IT resources to maintain basic changes in the business going forward.

Cloud first.

The software should be available in the cloud, to reduce costs and streamline security, or on premise if your security and privacy policies dictate an on premise deployment.

No software is future proof.

Software should support the evolution of your business. It needs to seamlessly and intelligently support scheduling and dispatching of any mobile worker, employed or contracted. It should support full mobilisation of processes, even those that differ by job or customer.

 

It should integrate the latest technologies like the Internet of Things (IOT) and M2M, to support new business opportunities such as proactive or outcomes based service offerings. ServicePower combined out entire platform in one easy to deploy, easy to pay for model, ServicePower Unity, for exactly this reason. It enables your team to use functionality as and when it’s needed by the business.

It’s hard to change vendors.

It doesn’t matter if you already use software to manage your mobile workforce. Safe passage programs exist, and schedule optimisation should be capable of being used in a plug and play model, to provide that turbo boost missing from existing software systems such as ServiceMax, Salesforce,  MS Dynamics or SAP.

ServiceScheduling and Optimisation on DemandTM can be used in conjunction with these software packages to improve the schedule  optimisation (or lack thereof) of what your team has already deployed.

A complete change out isn’t required.

ServicePower has architected its platform so that it can be deployed alongside industry standard CRM and ERP packages, improving the schedules generated such that you, too, can supercharge your field operations.

As an example, one of our clients, already on another FSM platform, was able to generate a 24% increase in productivity and a 29% return on investment by implementing ServiceScheduling. Our team at ServicePower has worked tirelessly to create a mobile workforce management software platform which ‘turbo boosts’ our client’s mobile workforce operations- maximising productivity and customer satisfaction, and achieving real ROI, easily, and quickly. It produces real results regardless of what other software our product must work in conjunction with to achieve those ]results.

We guarantee it.

 

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Stephen Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer, eBECS, provides an outline for optimising field service operations in the new digital age...

In any business, increasing efficiency while minimising costs is absolutely critical, and failing to recognise new opportunities can result in declining profits. This is especially true when existing systems do not accurately track resources and information. So how do you tell if your Field Service processes are doing the job, and when to re-evaluate to see if they can be optimised?

There is a great underutilisation of technology in Field Service that can be solved with an integrated Field Service solution. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service, properly implemented, can have considerable positive impacts on the bottom line, reducing pain points for the field service technicians, customers, and the business overall.

To help businesses understand the value of an integrated solution they first need to recognise the pain points of the three parties involved, and how those pain points are costing them money.

Optimisation of Route Management

When a field service technician is sent out to a location, their fuel costs and driving time are taken into consideration in the overall expense.

The further a field technician has to drive, the higher the cost. So how does Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service solve this? By accurately mapping out each service call, dispatched technicians can service more customers in a shorter period of time, with less travel in between each location for complete route optimisation.

 

This also reduces the time a customer must wait. A report by Forrester Research, Inc. noted that customers felt the most important thing a business could do to provide good service was to value the customer’s time. The less time a customer has to wait, the better experience they will have with the business. Increasing customer loyalty has high impact on the business’s overall profitability.

Improving Resource Utilisation

Each time a field service technician is sent out for a job it costs the business over £800. If that field service agent does not have the right equipment or skills to complete the job, another technician is sent. An integrated Field Service solution ensures that all the information required to complete the job is stored in the system. This enables the business to send the right technician to the location, with the right equipment, reducing the need for a second visit by over 26%.

Real-time visibility and scheduling

Do you know where and at what stage in the service call your technicians are at any given time? And why is this important?

Providing realtime data is essential to any business looking to increase efficiencies. By knowing how long technicians require to complete certain jobs, a Field Service solution can significantly improve scheduling functions. Customers can get updates on when they can expect the technician to be arriving for their service call, and if there are any unexpected delays in the schedule.

 

Overall, proper scheduling helps regulate workloads for technicians, as only service calls that can be handled within a technician’s regular work day are scheduled. This not only reduces overtime, but reduces the number of technicians who find themselves with excessive amounts of downtime and wasted hours between service calls.

Connecting business resources

Poor resource management is one of the biggest leaks in profits. By connecting service requests to work orders and right-parts-monitoring, inventory management improves. The business then has accurate data on all inventory and the specific parts required for each service call. This ties back to the overall goal of reducing second service calls as it ensures that parts are in-stock before a technician is sent.

Business reporting

How does a business forecast with no visibility?

Accurate reporting is essential to understanding both profits and expenses. With an integrated Field Service solution, detailed reports can be generated and used to make key business decisions, including required expansions. These reports include service call time reporting,  analytics on hours used for provisioning and other tasks not allocated to a service call, and parts used for service calls.

Employee engagement

Employee job satisfaction is a key component in a business’s profitability. It can be directly linked to a customer’s experience, increasing efficiency, and reducing errors.

When employees are provided the proper tools and resources to complete their jobs by way of an integrated solution, user adoption is high and coincides with an increase in revenue generated per employee. The right Field Service solution provides technicians with vital information about each service call, real-time guidance, and cross-team collaboration.

 

Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service can have a significant positive effect on your overall business, from providing customers with better service, increasing job satisfaction for employees, providing analytics that can be linked to business decisions, to reducing wasted resources. To learn more on how to optimise your  Field Service business, visit https://ebecs.wistia.com/projects/f0me5yp2eq

 

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Tom DeVroy, senior product evangelist, Enterprise Service Management at IFS outlines three technology driven developments poised to disrupt field service...

Effective field service is about proactively managing your workforce and inventory in order to meet the constantly sliding scale of customer expectations. As a result, field service organisations are constantly looking to improve on the key metrics to better serve customers: first-time fix rate (FTF), mean time to service (MTTS) and mean time to repair (MTTR).

Three new technology driven developments are establishing themselves in the market, with the potential to dramatically impact these field service metrics to benefit both the customer and service provider:

• Advanced mobility: augmented reality, instant messaging platforms and native apps
• Predictive analytics enabling prescriptive maintenance
• Optimised scheduling and demand forecasting in an IoT world

First: Beyond mobility: augmented reality, instant messaging and native apps

A mobile workforce needs a mobile-driven field service strategy. In a recent study on mobility, performance and engagement, 60% of employees said mobile technology makes them more productive in the workplace. But field service organisations are now moving beyond simple mobility, looking for more intelligence and flexibility from their mobile computing platform in order to take full advantage of next generation devices.

Native apps are a key part of this - allowing engineers to receive instant updates, access repair information or collaborate with product experts without leaving the job site. Instant messaging platforms such as Slack and WeChat are also allowing field service engineers to keep connected, with more information and collaboration supported on their mobile device. Engineers are able to contact other colleagues for assistance in real-time – reducing the need to return to base for assistance.

Seeing is believing

 

 

ABI Research shows augmented reality is on the rise, and Gartner predicts businesses will purchase 53 million tablets by 2016. There are instant benefits for field service engineers. Mobile solutions now allow engineers to receive real-time feedback and expertise while on the job, enabling repairs to be completed more quickly and efficiently. An IFS partner, XMReality, is already working on pioneering augmented reality projects like this.

 

With this remote guidance, a support technician is able to watch and guide the engineer through every step of the repair without having to leave base. Using smartglasses, engineers are able to see a real-time and interactive demonstration of the repair job right in front of their eyes. These skills can be leveraged anywhere, any time with the capability of modern mobile technology – drastically improving FTF.

Second: Beyond business analytics: predict and prescribe maintenance:

The rise of IoT sensors and integrated technology on equipment is also enabling more efficient field service. Instead of scheduling maintenance when a fault is recorded, predictive analytics and the remote monitoring of equipment through IoT means faults can be detected before they become a problem.

Combined with business intelligence to make sense of the big data being captured through IoT, predictive analytics can be used to find actionable data to inform business decisions. Enabling service organisations to be proactive in regard to equipment performance means moving away from calendar-based scheduling, and towards predictive maintenance.

IFS has a predictive maintenance capability embedded in its field service applications, allowing better allocation of an engineer's time. With sensors deployed on the factory floor, service organisations can monitor vibration analysis of bearings and predict when machine parts will start to degrade, then schedule maintenance proactively.

Field service solutions should be able to find and collect patterns of data from past actions and use this information to create generic rules to highlight how processes and services can be improved in the future - delivering new insight into operational efficiency.

Mobile devices are now able to run intelligent diagnostics and capture potential problems. Based on the diagnostic output, the mobile device is able to recommend a maintenance plan and the various tasks needed to be performed, before the engineer gets on site. This technology is going one step further than just predicting when faults will occur, and will prescribe which action needs to be taken in order to fully maintain that asset.

Prescriptive maintenance will take into account budget, time and other constraints and provide an optimal order of actions and the work orders to fully maintain that equipment – all in a matter of seconds.

Third: Staying ahead of schedule

First-time fix rates are an important KPI for field service organisations, but recent Blumberg research shows that the industry average for first-time fixes was under 80%, meaning 20% of jobs require additional follow-ups. Inefficient scheduling results in a lower first time fix rate and longer time to final resolution, as unqualified engineers can be sent and the necessary equipment may be unavailable.

Although not a new technology, schedule optimisation is a foundation on which new technologies can thrive. By combining scheduling with data from IoT devices, the next generation of schedule optimisation tools go much further and help to forecast field service demand, SLAs and potential resource needs – all in real-time.

IoT-enabled sensors can trigger actions when an event changes, and automatically re-schedule jobs around this. This combination allows field service organisations to improve FTF, MTTS and MTTR by consistently scheduling the right engineer for the right job, at the right time.

When one hand washes the other

Take one recent example. A custodial services company - that uses IFS to optimise their field scheduling - is responsible for maintaining and replenishing washroom supplies for a large number of hospitals, restaurants, and other commercial facilities. The company has a sizeable contingent of mobile workers who provide delivery and replenishment services.

Much of the work is done on a planned basis, so delivery schedules are organised in advance to streamline operations. In addition, the optimisation software analyses all SLA obligations, geographic considerations and other relevant parameters to design service routes that minimise travel times and costs, and produce the highest possible productivity levels.

 

Since optimising its field scheduling software, the company has saved nearly $3 million in fuel costs alone – thanks to the optimal routes and planning the software generates and its integration with field workers' mobile devices.

Don't get left behind

These new technologies are going to bring serious benefits to field service organisations because they are so tightly integrated with delivering improved customer service and improved bottom lines.

In what is a dynamic and changing market - with tech-savvy customers demanding higher and higher levels of service - it is vital for organisations to be able to implement these cutting edge technologies.

The new breed of enterprise solutions takes away the risk

Traditional field service management solutions are simply too cumbersome and inflexible to enable field service organisations to reap the benefits. To quickly benefit from these latest advances, organisations need the backing of a new generation of flexible, agile enterprise solutions.

Traditional enterprise solutions can take months or years to simply implement, let alone adapt to an entirely new technology. The new breed of modular enterprise solutions are designed to remove the time and pain of modifying existing processes, and instead maximise the opportunities of new technology. These agile systems negate the need to fully customise legacy systems - a costly and timely process - and are enabling organisations to quickly adopt new technology, without the risk of losing out on a competitive edge.

These disruptive technologies and the digital transformation they require offer benefits that resonate throughout the whole service organisation - from the top-down. Strategic planners have real-time visibility to plan tasks and schedule the workforce in an industry with many unknown elements, from customer unpredictability to traffic, and even the weather.

 

This, in turn, directly empowers technicians, providing them with the right tools and information at their fingertips to better perform their job. But ultimately the most important stakeholder reaps the benefits - the customer receives the best possible level of service.

 

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Field Service Management (FSM) Software stalwarts ClickSoftware held their annual users conference in the leafy town of Richmond, Greater London earlier this month. Field Service News’, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland was there to find out what the latest updates were and what the Roadmap for innovation looks like for the FSM software providers...

The location for this year’s ClickConnect users conference, the Richmond Hill Hotel, sitting at the top of the picturesque and historic town of Richmond, nestled on the Greater London border with Surrey, was in some ways a perfect metaphor for our hosts ClickSoftware, and their own position in the Field Service Management (FSM) software provider sector.

Richmond itself is in striking distance away (just 30 minutes by train) from the bright lights of the City of London, itself at the heart of European technology investment and innovation. Yet at the same time, it retains a slightly more refined, more distinguished reputation than other boroughs in Greater London. It’s certainly not cheap either (the average semi detached house price in Richmond is over £1 million) but then cheaper doesn’t always equate to better value. You know what you are getting in Richmond, you know the type of company you will keep. You’re hedging a bet by backing a market leader - and for many years the same could be said of ClickSoftware.

Indeed, ClickSoftware’s position as the leading player within the FSM market for many years was almost unquestionable, especially amongst the enterprise and those clients who had large, complicated scheduling challenges within their field workforce.

However, within recent years the FSM market has gone through rapid evolution and whilst ClickSoftware is still a premier brand within the sector, the competition has certainly begun to move up a gear and mount a serious challenge to their dominance. As a company, now is the time for ClickSoftware to demonstrate the kind of innovation and understanding of the market that propelled them to being the market leader in the first place.

 

Add to this that there had been a recent change of ownership, with Tom Heiser taking the reins as CEO, following on from a private equity takeover, and there is an extra level of attention and a need to impress their core user base that would perhaps be less evident in some of their previous user conferences.

How ClickSoftware approached their own development plans and how it was portrayed at this event, was potentially a huge fork in the road.

Get it right, and they could continue to build on their rock solid reputation as an industry leader, get it wrong however, and it could leave them exposed just when the competition is hotting up.

After an engaging opening keynote by Heiser (which set the tone for an upbeat performance by the ClickSoftware team across the two days) it was straight into the nitty gritty - what developments had been added to the newly launched Field Service Edge, ClickSoftware’s Cloud only offering, as well as what was available for the older generations of ClickSoftware.

And it was in this session that they needed to genuinely impress. They did.

Across the next hour and a half Sassi Idan, SVP Products and Solutions gave us the overview of the latest developments that were either already available or would be available within the next two months.

Of course there were some obligatory discussions around integration but then we would expect any new release to feature easy integration and dedicated APIs.

However, the first really eye catching innovation that Idan announced, with the help of Alegra Dann (via some slightly clumsy/quaint staged theatrics), was a new tool for managing contractors - something that is a key challenge for many larger organisations.

 

The new solution ClickSoftware have brought to the table does appear to be pretty damn slick - offering clear visibility into work orders across the whole of the service supply chain - something that can be a real frustration in particular for OEMs and their customers when service calls fall down between the cracks.

The set up of new contractors was also not only very fluid and simple, but the pricing on this solution is job based rather than licence based which could very well avoid tension between OEM and third party contractors as to who should have to pay for the licence. Smart thinking.

Another strong introduction was the announcement of an improved crew management solution, which allows for optimisation of work groups bringing together the right skills and location mix. This optimisation tool of course sits right at the heart of ClickSoftware’s traditional strength as a scheduling tool, but still the clean interface and intuitive UI that allows for manual control whilst still benefiting from AI provided suggestions for either fixed or dynamic crews was impressive.

However, it was when attention turned to the mobile app that a gentle shift in ClickSoftware’s approach to development was most visibly brought to the fore.

The new ClickMobile solution appears to have been clearly designed with the engineer’s workflow always in mind. Simple, yet intelligent additions such as camera integration and signature capture combined into a slick solution that includes the ability to send a PDF of the job details with full documentation of the work completed, directly to the customer straight from the app. It is little details like this that can really help the engineer to shine whilst on site.

Staying with mobility, ClickSoftware have also formed an interesting partnership with fleet management provider GreenRoad. The upshot is an integrated driver behaviour tool much in the vein of Telogis’ Coach or Microlise’s Clear, which provides in car guidance on how the vehicle is being driven via a mobile app. Whilst the app itself doesn’t break any particularly new ground, it offers good functionality and it’s inclusion in the wider ClickSoftware suite is a welcome addition that brings the focus of driver behaviour firmly into the FSM category.

But for my money the most impressive introduction of the day was still to come in the shape of a new Augmented Reality (AR) solution. As regular readers of Field Service News will know, we’ve long been proponents of the potential of AR in field service.

 

The solution, which is provided by FieldBit, again isn’t perhaps the slickest field service AR app we’ve seen - certainly similar tools from the likes of Scope AR, Help Lightning, and XM Reality all have greater depth of functionality than what was displayed during the live demonstration, but the fact that ClickSoftware’s AR tool is directly accessible from the job page in the ClickMobile app, which of course integrates seamlessly with the other elements of ClickSoftware’s suite of tools is a huge, huge benefit.

In fact, on reflection I think this is what left me walking out of that first session so impressed.

ClickSoftware have clearly been paying attention to the emerging industry trends, and whilst the various new elements introduced may not be best-of-breed, they’ve been brought together in an intelligently thought out system that can improve service delivery in a number of different areas. The product really is a lot, lot more than the sum of it’s parts.

Of course, all of this information was delivered within the first few hours, and across the next two days there were a number of interesting sessions including a series of round-tables and some interesting and diverse case studies including an excellent presentation from Garry Nash, of Costain CH2M which demonstrated some quite frankly incredible project management.

Other highlights included a great overview of Cloud infrastructure from Ian Massingham, Chief Evangelist, AWS and also Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware gave an excellent if all too brief round up of a variety of research projects they had partnered on (including our own recent research into the use of Cloud as a FSM platform), which was both well delivered and genuinely insightful.

However, at a user conference such as this, whilst presentations, round-tables and even gala dinners and cocktail making classes, are an enjoyable side-show, really it’s all about the main event - which will always be what is new in the product.

And here they’ve done well. There will be competitors hot on their heels - it’s an incredibly competitive market right now, but here in Richmond, ClickSoftware showed they aren’t going to just step aside and let someone else take over the leaders baton anytime soon.

 

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