ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘service-management’ CATEGORY

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Kevin Starr of ABB's Oil and Gas Division, to get his take on just how pivotal it is we all get on board with the digitalisation agenda…

Kevin Starr, Program Director, Advanced Digital Services, for ABB jokingly refers to himself as someone who is just getting started, having spent 31 years in the industry.

Given Starr’s wide-ranging background which encompasses installing industrial automation, working with pneumatics, then electrics, DCS and now digital and across roles that include R&D managers, software developer, data scientist and cloud specialist - he is perhaps the very personification and embodiment of how the field service sector is in constant flux on a journey of continuous evolution.

Yet, underneath all that evolution, there also remain fundamental goals in place that we mustn’t lose sight of either.

As Starr himself explains - across his varied career the core objective for ABB, regardless of the technology surrounding the discussion is always to allow their clients to “hit their value, production and quality requirements by providing them with solutions.”

 

"Regardless of the technology surrounding the discussion is always to allow their clients to “hit their value, production and quality requirements by providing them with solutions...”

 

However, Starr also absolutely sees a convergence in the various skill-sets he has honed across his career in the area and era of digitalisation we are all working within today.

Indeed, certainly within field service circles, when it comes to digitalisation Starr is to be regarded a leading subject matter expert – a fact that is attested to the fact he is a highly sought-after speaker at industry conferences as well being the host of a successful YouTube series and author on the topic.

“We definitely are in the industrial revolution 4.0,” Starr asserts with conviction when I spoke to him recently during whilst recording a forthcoming episode of The Field Service Podcast.

All well and good, but what exactly does this shift to the Industrial Revolution 4.0 actually mean in real terms for most companies, who perhaps are lacking the innovative streak ABB certainly have embedded at their core.

Whilst there are undoubted opportunities to be had, for many it means stepping into a brave new world of the unknown and for many, this can be a daunting proposition.

“We are definitely moving into an area where our customers may have some new concerns and fears. There are some misunderstandings that need clarification and there are a number of different issues relating to digital that they have to consider," Starr explains continuing, “so what we’ve tried to do is make this discussion feel more real for them, we’ve tried to make it concrete and actionable.”

 

"When clients hear things like Data Science, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and all the other tech jargon that is being thrown around, they can get nervous...“

 

When clients hear things like Data Science, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and all the other tech jargon that is being thrown around, they can get nervous.”

Additionally, the wave of technological innovation we are witnessing today is only part of the sea change of disruption that currently surrounds us.

“It is something of a perfect storm,” Starr agrees expanding on the topic.

“There is an ageing workforce, there is knowledge retiring, there are new people coming into the workforce who just aren’t ready to spend thirty years with the technology,” he adds.

Yet, it is exactly within these challenges that Starr sees big potential for innovation.

“We have here some opportunities to really change the game for our industrial clients and along with this is what is really an industrial explosion of automation.,” he explains.

“When I started off the controllers were on a wall, so the size of the service was aligned with the physical proximity of a wall. Now, you have dots on a screen. Where once you might have had thirty or forty devices, now you have three or four thousand.”

 

"What we’ve always done in the service space, doesn’t work today..."

 

This anecdote serves as a stark example of just how much service delivery has moved within just a matter of decades.  In terms of actual service delivery, automation, particularly in industrial sectors, has made the way work today almost unrecognisable from how things were done in the past.

This is something which needs to be fully understood and acknowledged for companies to be able to bring their business and operational processes in line with modern means of tackling service delivery.

“What we’ve always done in the service space, doesn’t work today,” Starr states bluntly.

“What this means is that there are a lot more failures, a lot more downtime and a lot more product instability. This leads to a lot more fear, uncertainty and doubt  - because if that phone rings and your client calls you and says my system is down - what do you do?  That is a terrifying call to get and it always has been, but with digital, we can solve all that.”

“In the Oil and Gas sector, for example, we have clients who are trying to remain competitive in an industry in which price changes sent a complete shockwave through the sector. Companies who used to have large corporate staff are shrinking, with reduced manned or unmanned solutions becoming more prevalent.”

“Yet, most solutions involve people working on a system, so we truly have a gap. We’ve got to keep the site running but we also have to make our production and our quality efficient - and of course first and foremost we have to make sure our people are safe.”

“To me, the digital arena is what will allow us to use devices to reduce this problem space.”

Of course, many of the challenges that Starr outlines are also prevalent in sectors well beyond the Oil and Gas industry and searching for solutions for those challenges within the digital realm is now well established as the correct path to follow.

Yet, one of the reasons perhaps Starr has proven to be such a popular speaker on this topic is his ability to blend the technical and the practical and to help those listening to visualise how the often vague concepts sitting under the umbrella of digitalization will manifest in real, pragmatic terms – something he demonstrated again when we spoke with a particularly neat and effective summary of how the implementation of such tools can really have a significant impact on service delivery.

“It’s kind of like a heads-up display in a car. When I have a problem, it advises me so I then know when to dispatch somebody and make sure they have the right tools at the right time,” he explains.

 

"When that happens, great things happen and you can actually push through and hit production, quality and cost to produce levels that have literally been unheard of..."

 

“When that happens, great things happen and you can actually push through and hit production, quality and cost to produce levels that have literally been unheard of.”

“That’s what keeps me just giddy with excitement,” he says before adding wryly “but if it was easy it would already be done.”

Here, of course, Starr has hit the nail firmly on the head with regards to the current dichotomy most service companies find themselves in.

Whilst it seems that digitalisation of service delivery offers us great opportunities they equally bring additional challenges. As with many things in life, it appears there is an ever-evolving arms race between these two. As one challenge is solved thus creating new opportunities, so a new challenge is born.

With this in mind, I was keen to see if Starr sees field service today as something that has been simplified by technology, or in particular as we consider the vast amount of data we are now generating, has it actually become further complicated?

“I was always one of ABB’s smart guys with a bag of tricks. If there was a problem I’d get a ticket and I’d go fix the site. But I was always able to do that because the problem space wasn’t as huge as it is today,” he replies.

“Today our guys have to worry about cyber attacks, IT Security, Back Ups, Disk Space, Uptime, Communication, Visualisation and much, much more – so it’s very difficult to have someone who is an expert in all of those areas - and we’ve got to quit trying,” Starr explains.

“What’s different now is that the components being produced, and ABB makes an awful lot of these, each has their own digital signatures. Basically, they have a built-in data stream associated with the asset.”

 

"If I go outside and see a vapour trail in the sky I know a jet went by – even if I don’t see the jet. That’s the same principle on every single connected asset – it will leave a digital signature behind it..."

 

“For example, if I go outside and see a vapour trail in the sky I know a jet went by – even if I don’t see the jet. That’s the same principle on every single connected asset – it will leave a digital signature behind it.

“I was fortunate to have been the fireman and put the fire out on the site, but I would think ‘If I had just been here yesterday and I could have seen this data trail I could have prevented the failure.’ So that’s where we started packaging that and we called those diagnostic solutions, benchmarks and fingerprints - where we would provide scope and insight.”

“We would go and harvest the data and fifteen or twenty years ago that was very difficult. We would go and hook up resistors and current line – but we learned the technique.”

But it was time well spent and a highly precipitous move that has placed ABB perfectly at home in today’s world where there is more data and storage than they’re ever has been.  And a reflection of their expertise in this area is that they are now getting more requests from customers for us to go and look at there data than ever before.

As the conversation begins to conclude Starr offered up one ore excellent anecdote that really helps visualise the importance of digital in service delivery today.

“I was driving along the road in Vietnam the other day when we came to a bridge across a river,” he begins.

 

"That’s what modern service is – you can either fish with a hook or fish with a net..."

 

“On the side of the bridge there were two men fishing with a line, but in the shallows, there was a man fishing with a net – and he was bringing in a far greater haul than those two guys with their lines.  I thought to myself, that’s what modern service is – you can either fish with a hook or fish with a net.”

“In our world of automation, you don’t need to physically go and touch every single asset, that is hurting people, putting them in harm's way. When there are digital components you can actually send out agents, pull that digital signature back, run data analytics and compare it to known failure rates, known performance and you can tell exactly where your systems are.”

“So you can actually know if your safe reliable and optimised and you can demonstrate it.”

If your organisation hasn’t done so already perhaps it’s time to start thinking about what your digital net should look like as well?

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Subscribe to The Field Service Podcast to be sure to hear the full interview with Starr by clicking here

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Samir Gulati outlines four key technologies that are forming the bedrock for twenty-first century field service...

Twenty-first-century technological advancement has transformed how businesses everywhere communicate and interact with their customers.

Gone are the days of the occasional customer service call. Mobile technology has forever changed how people connect with product and service providers.

Field-service businesses that have yet to embrace digital customer engagement methods and tools must work quickly to do so. Modern consumers don’t like losing whole days waiting for calls from service personnel. They expect field service companies to use the latest technology to streamline the customer experience, create visibility into appointments and reduce hassle.

But which technological innovations should field service providers focus on? Here are some of the key technological tools gaining steam among the customers of the connected age.

 

Customer portals

Because of the pervasiveness of mobile technology, customer portals are everywhere.

Although the quality of these web-based assets varies from business to business, there are a couple essential components that creators of customer portals will always include:

• Information-rich, personalized dashboards allow users to view critical service data.
• Payment and account management give customers transparency into their past service requests and a place to pay for services rendered.

With tools like these, customers can serve themselves, which 67 percent prefer over speaking directly with a customer service representative. That said, direct communication tools such as instant messaging are still valuable, especially if they connect a customer with their personal technician or central dispatch.

These features not only meet the high standards of connected customers. They also simplify field service operations and reduce the likelihood of miscommunication between the provider and the customer.

 

Internet of things:

The internet of things is perhaps the most powerful innovation transforming business-to-consumer interaction today. At the moment, more than 11 billion IoT assets are active worldwide. By 2020, that figure is expected to jump to around 20.4 billion, a good number of which will likely be part of connected field-service operations.

In the field-service industry, asset-based deployments are common. Sensors embedded in equipment or appliances leverage internet connectivity to notify owners or even field-service providers when maintenance may be required, accelerating the repair process. Technician facing IoT workflows are also common and use geolocation to track service teams and route them to customers in need.

 

 

Smart home technology:

Even though web-enabled smart home technologies have received a lot of buzz in recent years, relatively few homeowners have adopted such solutions: In 2017, only 10 percent of families across the had any connected home solutions.

But smart home adoption isn’t unlikely to remain this low for long. Consumers are beginning to understand how much time and money smart home tech can save.

Field-service companies in the utility sector are catching on to the building momentum behind these innovative hardware and software solutions. Smart thermostats, for example, give customers greater visibility into—and control over—their electricity and gas usage. They also give technicians a better way to leverage data in order to provide personalised service and communicate effectively with the customer and the manufacturer.

 

Augmented reality:

Reality, augmented by real-time data, delivers benefits to connected customers by giving their technicians all the resources they need to perform perfect maintenance.

Field-service companies of all sizes are leveraging these tools to revolutionise on-site operations. Many are equipping technicians with augmented reality headsets that allow them to view updated product operating instructions or best practices while performing maintenance or repairs. Others are using these tools in training exercises so new technicians can ramp up quickly.

 

Summary: Embracing Innovation:

Field-service providers without these technologies may still be tempted to hold off on adoption. Perhaps they find these solutions too expensive or too complicated to deploy at the moment. It’s up to the decision-makers at these companies to decide what’s viable and what isn’t.

But these leaders should not underestimate the power of creating a bold new strategy for technology. It can lay the groundwork for excellent service effective operations in the age of the connected customer. As technology moves forward, so do consumers.

Field-service enterprises would be wise to recognize this reality and put into place up-to-date hardware and software that meets the needs of those driving the modern marketplace.

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Samir Gulati, is Chief Marketing Officer, ServicePower 

 

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IX Reach, a leading global provider of carrier services and connectivity solutions, and eStruxture Data Centers, a prominent pan-Canadian provider of network and cloud-neutral data centre solutions are further strengthening their partnership and commitment to providing first-class connectivity, cloud and zero-downtime hosting solutions to major blue-chip networks.

This enhanced partnership with IX Reach complements eStruxture’s strategy to give customers more choice, by offering all the benefits of remote peering to the most popular Internet Exchanges in North America and Europe. Customers can access all major IXPs via a single port and enjoy transit that’s optimised for cost and network routes.

The partnership also demonstrates IX Reach’s dedication to supporting the growth of eStruxture as its market share in advanced network and interconnection services continues to expand in both the Canadian and global business marketplace.

 

"Continuing to set IX Reach apart from other network solution providers is its strong partnerships with major Cloud Service Providers..."

 

Continuing to set IX Reach apart from other network solution providers is its strong partnerships with major Cloud Service Providers: Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. The IX Reach platform enhances eStruxture’s Cloud Connect service, a network and cloud-neutral exchange that allows customers to connect securely, easily and directly from the company’s state-of-the-art data centres to an extensive ecosystem of major cloud service providers, network and application providers, bypassing the Internet and taking advantage of a faster and more reliable option for their cloud strategies.

“Our partnership with IX Reach is hugely valuable to us and augments our ever-growing ecosystem of carriers and cloud services. Our customers are able to avoid open networks by connecting directly to hyper-scale cloud providers and benefit from increased speed and security and lower latency,” says Todd Coleman, CEO of eStruxture. “The leading elastic interconnect platform provided by IX Reach enables customers to securely access major peering points and a rich portfolio of products and services such as hyper-scale cloud providers, SaaS providers and partners, via a single connection.”

“We are thrilled to continue working closely with eStruxture Data Centers,” commented Simon Vye, CEO of IX Reach. “IX Reach and eStruxture started their partnership in 2015; since then, both businesses have grown and evolved to provide their customers with world class services and support. We’re looking forward to building on the success of our partnership in the future. “

From eStruxture’s facility in Montreal, IX Reach is well-equipped to support any network with its national and global expansion, regardless of size.

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It seems there has been something of a convergence between the worlds of rugged manufacturers and their consumer peers across the last few years. In the past, the two occupied very separate worlds.

Rugged was very much the world of heavy, chunky, and robust devices, whilst the consumer equivalents were sleeker, more refined and more likely to break if they got dropped.

Today, however, the line has certainly blurred substantially in the middle. Take Xplore’s R12, a fully rugged tablet that smartly converts into a two-in-one powerful enough to be a more than adequate replacement for a desktop let alone a laptop.

Now, whilst the R12 may still look like a heavyweight lining up against a featherweight if put alongside a Microsoft Surface, which would be its most suitable comparison within the consumer realm, it by no means fits the traditional image of a rugged device - i.e. cumbersome, bulky and awkward. It is a sleek looking and excellently engineered device whose lightweight feel belies its robust rugged credentials.

Of course, this is not a one-way street either.

 

"Consumer devices are increasingly likely to have higher certifications that we previously only would have seen in a rugged spec..."

 

Consumer devices are increasingly likely to have higher certifications that we previously only would have seen in a rugged spec sheet.

Take for example Samsungs current flagship smartphone the Note 8.

Not only does have an impressive 6GB RAM on an 1.7GHz octa-core processor making it an exceptionally fast device, but it also has its own Dex docking station that essentially turns it into a mobile desktop by allowing you to plug into a TV or Monitor via HDMI - something that could be hugely useful for the field engineer who needs to give a presentation whilst on the road for example.

Then when we add into the equation that the Note 8 is certified at IP68 (meaning it is essentially impervious to both water and dust ingress) could an argument could be made for it being a strong device for field service use.

We recently hosted a fieldservicenews.com exclusive webcast with rugged specialists Xplore Technologies and the topic of what defines rugged manufacturers against this backdrop of blurring lines was a major talking point within the session.

Our panel consisted of Steve Priestly and Cliff Adams, VP International Sales and Product Marketing for Xplore respectively as well as Bob Ashenbrenner, President of Durable Mobile Technologies.

 

"With the lines beginning to blur between rugged and consumer mobile devices, is there more to why an organisation should choose to work with a rugged manufacturer other than just the specs these days?"

 

The question was put to the panel ‘With the lines beginning to blur between rugged and consumer mobile devices, is there more to why an organisation should choose to work with a rugged manufacturer other than just the specs these days?’

Priestly was the first to respond “I think you raise a very good point in terms of the lines becoming more blurred. At Xplore, where we have more than 20 years worth of experience, we would say that maybe the words are blurred but the principals of building a rugged device are not blurred at all - they a very common.”

“We have built rugged devices from the ground up, with the most rugged of architectures to support all the elements of rugged mobile working.”

 

"I think one of the areas that people get most confused is IP68 - well what does that mean in a rugged environment?"

 

“I think one of the areas that people get most confused is IP68 - well what does that mean in a rugged environment?”

“What is most important in the enterprise environment is for us to be able to demonstrate that we are rugged, we are classified in the industry standard specifications but our product still has all of the appropriate I/O, accessories and capabilities to be able to run the workflow of the mobile worker.”

“That has to be the same across all of our devices and whilst we may share some common specifications with a consumer manufacturer,  but that doesn’t mean they are as rugged as the products we provide”

Ashenbrenner also concurred with Priestly’s sentiments further adding:

“A lot of consumer devices have very little I/O [input/output]and in an enterprise environment having the right amount of I/O  is really, really important,” he explained.

“Now, without I/O it is fairly easy to make an IP68 device - there are very little openings for water or dust to get in. So these consumer manufacturers have sort of stumbled upon an IP68 rating and have thought they that’s one of the things the rugged guys talk about, let’s declare that we’re rugged -well that’s not how it works.”

 

"IP68 is just one feature. It doesn’t cover knocks, it doesn’t cover drops, it doesn’t cover other abuses such as vibrations and such..."

 

“IP68 is just one feature. It doesn’t cover knocks, it doesn’t cover drops, it doesn’t cover other abuses such as vibrations and such. So my advice to field service organisations is don’t be fooled by that one rating they accidentally got when that is only part of the bigger picture.”

“One thing I would just add is that one thing the IP rating doesn’t give you in terms of dealing with a rugged environment is the ability to operate within a wide range of temperatures,” Adams commented.

“If you are going to be operating out direct sunlight or if you are going to operate in a location where there are extremely cold climates, that wide temperature range is something that you will not find on a consumer device. If you need to perform in such conditions then a rugged device has to be the obvious choice there.”

“This is especially true when it comes to tablet devices, where you are running full feature software applications that consume a lot of processing power. A sealed consumer tablet will not have a fan, something which is critical to maintaining the full power of the CPU in those hot environments.”

[quote float="left"]The Xplore range of tablets have internal fans that are isolated from the elements so they can still  have a high IP rating whilst being able to dissipate that heat and maintain that processing power[/quote]“For example, the Xplore range of tablets have internal fans that are isolated from the elements so they can still  have a high IP rating whilst being able to dissipate that heat and maintain that processing power.”

It is of course, these often nuanced details that can get overlooked when we are looking at spec sheets, especially when as is often the case, the purchasing decision is largely driven by either by members of the field service operations team who may not have the deep technical knowledge to be able to fully compare the two devices, or alternatively IT professionals who perhaps do not have the operational experience to fully understand the complexities of the various operating environments the devices will be utilised within.

Another major difference between rugged manufacturers who are serving the enterprise market and more consumer-focused manufacturers is the frequency with which they update their devices - with consumer devices generally going through an upgrade cycle far more regularly than a rugged equivalent.

Whilst, in the consumer world this ongoing arms race between manufacturers to produce devices that can outperform their competitors is one sense advantageous in that it drives continuous innovation and technological advancement, in an enterprise environment such constant change can actually be a negative.

 

"One of the key requirements for a device used by field service engineers is reliability..."

 

One of the key requirements for a device used by field service engineers is reliability - so it is, therefore, essential that the devices a service organisation deploy to the field are stable.

In addition to this in today’s world where security of data is paramount and the threat of cyber attacks something all companies must be vigilant Mobile Device Management (MDM) is a major consideration - something that can become a significant headache for companies that are tied into the faster pace cycle of device and OS upgrades of consumer devices.

So the longer shelf life of rugged devices designed specifically for use within a business environment is another major plus in their favour - but even then there must be a balance between stability and ensuring the tools you provide your field engineers with are sufficiently up to date to deal with the demands of the software they are using.

This leads us to a critical question - just how long should we wait before we roll out new devices to our field workers? And how should a field service organisation assess the decision of whether it is time for them to invest in new devices for their field engineers?

Most companies when they are deploying tablets and begin a project they think about a three-year time frame,” Ashenbrenner states.

 

"Three years is a good time frame to roll to new technologies and have an R.O.I (return on investment). However, the real issue is 'does it still do the job?'"

 

“That is because three years is a good time frame to roll to new technologies and have an R.O.I (return on investment). However, the real issue is 'does it still do the job?' and most of that comes down to software.”

“If the original device has enough processing power and memory to handle the software you are using - especially the updates that are pretty frequent, and also when new capabilities are being added that is when you tend to see people saying ‘hey this is still working, I can upgrade my software’ and this is when you can see the longer uses in the field - sometimes five years, sometimes even seven years,” he adds.

Adding a slightly different take on the question Priestly commented:

“To my mind, there are a few different things that come into the equation. Firstly, there is a financial discussion which says how long will the equipment be depreciated within the companies financial statements - and typically three years is a good answer to that. It fits well with other technologies and it allows them to look at it in a common way”

“But that doesn’t describe how it is used in the field. The challenge that Xplore faces is that things will dictate outside of this what the life cycle of the device is. It could be something as simple as data security that causes a change in equipment to drive an additional set of features.”

“Or alternatively it could be that everything is fine after the three years and they are getting free use from the devices for as long as they need to.”

 

"One of the things that Xplore would point to is that is in our longest running platform we reiterated the device to stay on top of the processing and memory requirements of the device and were able to do that for seventeen years..."

 

“One of the things that Xplore would point to is that is in our longest running platform we reiterated the device to stay on top of the processing and memory requirements of the device and were able to do that for seventeen years.”

“That is seventeen years within a single eco-system that an enterprise could get around. Yes, the device changed over time, but it remained the same form factor and enabled an enterprise to be stable within its use.”

“Whether that enterprise is a government facility, military would be a good example or perhaps a pharmaceutical clean room environment where the absolute top end of the specification is required - that is the type of thing that Xplore looks to - being on top of the changes in terms of the technical and customer requirement, whilst being able to provide stability for a long period of time both in our service and in our product capabilities.”

“That is a great point and something that must be considered,” Adams adds.

“Especially when we see consumer devices that come out that each have a slightly different form factor because they are really going for those aesthetic changes. A rugged device is really tailor-made for enterprise environments.”

 

"A rugged device is really tailor-made for enterprise environments..."

 

“Change isn’t necessarily good in such environments, stability is something can enable companies to keep costs lower and devices deployed longer and at Xplore, we understand that so we build our chassis so they can be upgraded over the years but still maintain common accessory eco-system over those generational upgrades.”

This is, of course, another hugely important consideration that is often overlooked within discussion around device selection for field service organisations - the range of accessories available. Most rugged manufacturers provide accessories such as vehicle mounts that are designed specifically to fit their devices and to ensure that issues like vibration don’t impact upon the device.

By maintaining the same form factor and chassis, rugged manufacturers such as Xplore are able to help their clients avoid the additional costs of new accessories each time they invest in new devices - something that can stack up to quite a considerable additional cost if you have a large field workforce.

Something that we’ve discussed a number of times in Field Service News that was also reflected within the webcast was that companies must have an understanding of the workflow of their engineers and then select their devices accordingly.

However, for many organisations there will be varying different roles being carried out within the field so how should field service organisations decide just how many different devices and form factors they should deploy to find a balance between equipping their varying types of field workers with devices suitable for their requirements and having to types of devices deployed - which again can cause problems when it comes to MDM?

 

"It is important to have the right device for the person and for the right workflow..."

 

“It is important to have the right device for the person and for the right workflow,” comments Adams.

“At Xplore, we offer an array of device form factors, but also within those form factors, we have an array of different computing options. So you could get an entry-level CPU if that works for the user and they don’t need a top of the line processor we can offer that, but then we also offer within the same form factor high performance options or even different I/O options - so there is a way an organisation can still manager a smaller number of devices and still provide a choice to the user so they are putting the right device in front of the right worker at the right time.”

“To add to that one of the things that should also be considered is the definition of the software to support the workflow you are trying to automate in the hands of the worker,” Priestly adds.

“That will dictate the type of data that needs to be input, the type of data that needs to be viewed and the type of data that any business information is driven from often dictates the type of device that will need to be used.”

“If there is a lot of form filling or repetitive tasks such as barcode scanning a handheld fits that bill very well. Then as you move between that and a larger device such as our twelve-inch tablet very much that is dictated to by the workflow itself.”

“Let me add a few real-life examples,” added Ashenbrenner as the discussion drew to a close.

“In utilities, you will tend to see all of the repair workers will use one type of device but meter workers and meter repair is a whole different area and so you will likely see handhelds being used in that situation.”

 

"Where beat officers on the front line might be using a tablet, detectives in the same police department tend to gravitate towards two-in-ones..."

 

“Another example might be in law enforcement, where beat officers on the front line might be using a tablet, detectives in the same police department tend to gravitate towards two-in-ones.”

Indeed, Ashenbrenner’s final point in the discussion is an important one that highlights just how many variables must be considered when selecting the right devices for your field workforce.

However, one thing that remains clear is that whilst on the surface it may appear that the lines between rugged and consumer devices are blurring, the reality is that for companies seeking to maximise their R.O.I from the mobile devices they use, there are far deeper considerations than headline tech specs - and this is where working with dedicated manufacturers such as Xplore can truly bring additional value to the table via their understanding and insight of how organisations will be utilising the devices in the field, how to extend the life of those devices where possible and of course how to roll out new devices whilst avoiding significant disruption to day-to-day field service operations.

The ball for the time being then remains firmly in the rugged court.

 

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Our series of excerpts from the exceptional industry guide 'Mobile Resource Management for Dummies', which has been commissioned by Verizon Connect has so far explored Understanding Digital Transformation in a Connected, Mobile World and also Thinking Outside the Silo and Harnessing the Power of Telematics.

Now in this latest excerpt, we turn our attention to how field service organisations can realise the value of mobile resource management...

Is Mobile Resource Management a key Topic for you?! Dive straight into the full eBook by hitting the button below!   

Sponsored by:

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this content.  

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If you need to catch up on the previous articles in this series you can find part one here and part two here...

The full chapter this excerpt is taken from explores four key areas how field service companies can ensure they are realising the value of mobile resource management which are:

• Driving Productivity and Efficiency
• Reducing Costs
• Improving Safety
• Increasing Customer Satisfaction

Here we will look at the first of these in greater depth.

 

Driving Productivity and Efficiency:

Productivity, a word loved by managers, is conversely often a word that has frightened many an employee. To them, it just sounds like more work and an opportunity for supervisors to be looking over their shoulders.

But increasing productivity isn’t about being a drill sergeant. Rather, it’s about empowering your team, boosting efficiency and helping – not telling – your employees how to better spend their time.

The fact is that an employee who goes home at the end of the day feeling like they’ve been productive and accomplished a lot is happier and more fulfilled than the not-so-productive employee who’s always looking to pass off work in favour of knocking off early.

In addition to improving worker productivity, there are some other positive and far-reaching benefits to using the right tools with your mobile workforce.

These include:

• Less time spent on non-profitable administrative tasks such as data entry, tracking compliance and paperwork
• Faster processing of compliance requirements such as vehicle inspections.
• Less time spent on paper-based compliance logs for technicians and drivers.
• Quicker and more accurate generation of near real-time service reports.
• Improved customer service and capturing of client data for more effective management of support tickets, sales calls and marketing campaigns.
• Lower hardware costs and easier deployment using the mobile devices your team’s already carrying.

Several opportunities for driving productivity and efficiency in a modern mobile workforce include:

• Streamline work order management.
• Make paper forms disappear.
• Automate regulatory compliance.
• Perform required pre- and post-trip vehicle inspections.

 

Streamline work order management

Keeping teams in the field at their most productive is easy with prioritised mobile job management. Scheduled jobs are provided directly to the worker’s device at the start of their shift.

You can prioritise jobs based on:

• Location
• Proximity to the technician
• Service-level agreements (SLAs), such as time window restrictions on when the job can be done
• Manual overrides

Jobs can be signed on the device by customers and automatically marked as completed on departure and transmitted back to base in near real time. Or, conversely, any issues can be immediately reported back to the office for timely review and resolution.

This means less non-productive time for teams outside the office, fewer miles, more productive time on the clock and better customer service. Mobile job management keeps both workers and customers happy.

 

Make paper forms disappear

Getting your teams to keep their paperwork up-to-date is never easy, but it’s crucial to your service operation. Automation of forms on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, can be a huge time saver for your business.

Paperless forms help you to:

• Log the right information on the right form at the right time
• Keep job history accurate
• Update customer records or government compliance
• Automate the process so that correct invoices are raised automatically (adding to the bottom line)
• Ensure that internal reports and dashboards are current

To improve the accuracy and timing of required paperwork, mobile automated forms are a crucial tool for today’s mobile worker. The impact of reducing the paperwork burden on your drivers and field workers can also improve employee retention.

Electronic forms also save time and reduce errors for your back-office staff who no longer need to decode handwriting from paper forms and manually enter it into the system. All the job information gets saved directly into the database from the driver or field worker’s connected device.

 

Automate regulatory compliance

For any company with a fleet of vehicles, government regulations are a cost of doing business. If you don’t have the right tools in place to comply with these regulations, your company can quickly find itself in hot water.

Automating your compliance processes can help to:

• Reduce workload
• Lessen audit risk
• Ensure that compliance is being met – correctly.
• Minimise fines and violations.

 

The best way to consistently remain compliant is by using a mobile workforce management solution. Not only does it take the guesswork out of deciphering rules and regulations, but it also speeds up roadside inspections due to the device being used for evidence of driver activity without the need to wade through paper logs.

The solution stores your drivers’ activities by recording on-duty, off-duty, sleeping, and driving events, and displays available duty hours.

This helps to streamline operations and eliminate paperwork. With a mobile workforce management solution, each driver is given a Driver ID, which is critical for not only reporting but also serving as a mobile time card.

 

Perform required pre- and post-trip vehicle inspections

Does your company require mobile workers to perform driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs)? Are you looking for ways to automate these reports and make sure that drivers complete them accurately?

DVIRs are commonly overlooked or completed without physically inspecting the vehicle, increasing the chance of fines for non- compliance, breakdowns or even accidents due to missed maintenance and malfunctioning safety features.

With a mobile DVIR solution, you can get immediate confirmation that the report has been completed and the driver did a physical walk-around inspection.

Using their handheld device, drivers scan a two-dimensional Quick Response (QR) code affixed to specific vehicle inspection points. This instantly verifies that the individual checkpoints on the DVIR have been completed. You can also add photos to the report when any damage or maintenance issue is identified.

  

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Infinis, who generate power from sites across the country, have launched StaySafe as a safety solution to enhance the protection and safety of its staff when working on unmanned sites and out of hours.

StaySafe is an app and cloud-based hub which monitors a lone worker’s safety and location on a real-time map and alerts Infinis’ Logistics Centre front desk operators if they do not check-in within a specified time.

Infinis required a more streamlined and secure solution to help enhance the safety of employees whilst working alone on remote sites.

In light of this, Infinis replaced their previous lone worker system which relied on workers to update their location every hour via text, with the StaySafe app which provides clear and consistent GPS reporting to determine a user’s last known location and their safety status. The switch to this mobile app offers a rich range of bespoke features, relies less on the user and provides a safer solution.

Infinis’ HSQE Manager, Mark Skidmore comments: “Over the last 12 months, we have rolled out smartphones within the company and launched StaySafe as a practical and improved safety solution. We understand the risk to our workers who may be vulnerable when working on sites alone and are able to mitigate risk through the app’s hourly timed check-in sessions.

Additionally, we find the app’s note function really useful, allowing staff to provide us with extra detail about their location in order to narrow down our search if they are based on larger sites and in need of support. Overall, we are very satisfied with StaySafe and confident it meets the company’s standards and expectations, to enhance protection of our lone workers.”

Don Cameron, CEO, StaySafe adds “Employees in Energy and Utility based sectors can be vulnerable as they are frequently required to work and travel to sites alone, often outside of normal working hours. We’re seeing a big trend in the sector of companies moving away from user-driven/company manufactured systems and dedicated safety devices towards apps because of the prevalent use of smartphones in the workplace. StaySafe provides a way for organisations to know exactly where staff are and if they are safe – with the added bonus of using equipment staff already carry”

 

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WorkWave, a provider of cloud-based software solutions for the field service and last mile delivery industries, today announced that Network Products Guide, one of the industry's leading technology research and advisory guides, has named WorkWave as a winner in this year's 2018 IT World Awards.

WorkWave Service™ was recognized as a gold winner for Field Service Management, and WorkWave Route Manager™ was recognized as a gold winner for IT Products and Services for Transportation.

WorkWave Service enables field service companies to grow their businesses, be more productive and deliver exceptional service to customers in a scalable and robust, yet easy-to-use way. In addition to helping customers manage their business, it enables businesses to grow by allowing them to easily capture and track leads, and manage and view all sales opportunities.

WorkWave Service enables field service companies to grow their businesses, be more productive and deliver exceptional service to customers in a scalable and robust, yet easy-to-use wayWorkWave Route Manager is WorkWave's all-in-one route planning and GPS tracking solution that is addressing the daily challenges of logistics professionals. It has been proven to drive over 30 per cent operational efficiency and ROI through its smart route technology, and its powerful, proprietary algorithm combined with ease of use makes saving time and money achievable right from day one. Users can also expect to serve 20 per cent more orders, and reduce fuel by 10-15 per cent.

"It is an honour to have both WorkWave Service and WorkWave Route Manager recognized in this year's IT World Awards," said Mike Profit, Chief Product and Service Officer at WorkWave. "Our teams work hard to develop our products to ensure we are enabling our customers to deliver exceptional service to their own customers, while running their businesses from front to back, seamlessly."

The annual IT World Awards recognition program encompasses the world's best in organizational performance, products and services, hot technologies, executives and management teams, successful deployments, product management and engineering, customer satisfaction, and public relations in every area of information technology. More than 80 judges from a broad spectrum of industry voices from around the world participated and their average scores determined the 2018 award winners.

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Jan Van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum, continues his series of articles looking at how service organisations can drive revenue from their services by harnessing the IoT...

Solve bigger customer problems

In the previous issue of Field Service News, I wrote an introduction on the topic “How to Monetise Services and IoT”, covering the dilemma of many business leaders in manufacturing.

In this article, I will elaborate on the first of the three critical steps which often make the difference between success and failure:

• SOLVE BIGGER CUSTOMER PROBLEMS
• Articulate the value
• Build internal momentum for monetisation

Common mistakes in the industry

One of the common mistakes is focusing on the smaller problems and making only small incremental improvements to services or solutions.

 

"One of the common mistakes is focusing on the smaller problems and making only small incremental improvements to services or solutions..."

 

These are typically the standard next step improvements most competitors bring to the market as well. Although these are also necessary improvements – adding features to your solutions - to sustain your market position, they are unlikely to bring about significant growth or opportunities required to monetise. For example, think of new features that car manufacturers introduce to their new models or weekly computer software updates that occur without paying more.

Another common mistake is focusing too much on only the availability and use of the equipment. In most situations, the extra value is having a broader impact of the value creation process for our clients. In most industries, the purchase, financing, and maintenance of equipment is a small portion of the overall budget.

 

Truck manufacturers as an example

As an example, while the sale of trucks was shrinking dramatically, leading truck manufacturers like MAN, DAF and Scania discovered that discounting the trucks did not have that much of an impact. One of the biggest challenges for truck operators was reducing fuel consumption. The leading truck manufacturers took this challenge beyond aero-dynamics and engine efficiency, and developed data-driven services to reduce fuel consumption by improving the way truck drivers drove the trucks.

 

Discovering the bigger customer problems

The ideal practice is to:

• Solve the bigger problems in a significantly better or more efficient way for clients, or
• Solve any new significant problems for our clients

Before developing new services and solutions, it is crucial to have a deeper understanding of the challenges and problems that your clients face. The following activities will prevent any bias from long-standing experience and business norms:

• Reframe addressable customer needs with your team and colleagues who are involved. The aim is to have a broader view and scope on customer needs. Explicitly ban objections against the idea of servicing those needs.
• Focus on actual “jobs-to-do” for your clients and areas where they are struggling or could improve. For example, improving uptime may not be that relevant for clients with a low utilisation rate. Whether you carry out professional customer research or not, it is always good if various colleagues have frequent open conversations with different stakeholders about views on the industry, trends, challenges etc. Sharing the following simple diagram during such conversations is helpful for you and your clients to keep the dialogue open.
• Explore how your clients are solving problems and what suppliers are helping them.
• Also, explore the needs and challenges of the customers of your customers. This will give more insight into your customer’s needs.
• Explore what needs you could/should be addressed now and in the future. With these insights, you can extend and enhance your vision, strategies and roadmap for innovating your services and generating new revenue streams.

 

The Benefit

Manufacturers that solve the bigger problems can better articulate the value for customers and staff, have higher momentum for change and monetisation, generate new revenue streams and differentiate themselves more from the competition.

 

"Manufacturers that solve the bigger problems can better articulate the value for customers and staff, have higher momentum for change and monetisation..."

 

]They perform better and have more resources to keep innovating their business, enabling growth in a sometimes disruptive world.

Monetisation of services and IoT – Impulse Session

If you want to accelerate the monetisation of your (new) services and IoT, join our upcoming Impulse Sessions on “How to Monetise Service and IoT”. These are full-day interactive meetings with like-minded peers during which we will exchange our experiences, insights, and challenges.

Book your seat @ http://fs-ne.ws/1pMC30lpssC

Essence

Great offerings and solutions won’t sell themselves!

It is various colleagues together that drive the value perception and sell the solutions, because of their eagerness and passion to perform, learn, develop and make new things happen, as well as avoid unnecessary obstacles that cause internal conflicts of interest and reduce confidence.

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Jan Van Veen, is Managing Director, moreMomentum, 

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