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In this final part of our series exploring the findings of our research into field service and the potential impact of IoT we look at the key reasons driving adoption of IoT forwards….

If you missed out on the earlier features in this series you can find them at part one, part two and part three respectively

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Actual implementations

In fact we can look further within our data to help us better identify when we will see field service companies embracing IoT on a widespread level by looking at how many companies have indeed already implemented an IoT strategy and how many are currently planning to do so.

Indeed over two thirds (67%) of companies are at the very least ‘actively planning an IoT strategy’, with 15% of companies actually ‘having an IoT based system in place’ and 14% currently in ‘the process of implementing an IoT strategy or solution.’

 

This would indicate that whilst those who stated that they felt IoT was already becoming widespread may be slightly optimistic, in reality we are perhaps three to five years away from IoT becoming a truly common place tool within field service management with only just under a third of companies (32%) not currently planning to use an IoT strategy or solution as part of their field service operations.

Main reasons for adopting IoT

So what are the key drivers for what is seemingly a large appetite amongst field service companies to adopt and develop their own IoT strategies?

In fact there were three key reasons that were cited by our respondents that stood out in our findings. The largest of these was to ‘Improve customer loyalty by improving the service levels we deliver to our customers’ which 68% of our respondents identified as being a major reason for adopting an IoT strategy.

This was closely followed by ‘increasing the efficiency of a field service division’ and ‘reducing costs by moving to a more preventative service model’ which were cited by 62% and 59% respectively. Indeed these three options could be identified as the holy trinity of drivers for investment in field service technology and are quite rightly identified as key drivers regardless of the technology.

 

However, the next group of responses which again were all identified by similar amounts of respondents are perhaps much more   specific to IoT. These were ‘increasing market share by delivering proactive service before the competition’ (43%),’IoT enabling companies to change our business strategy to a servitized, outcome based solutions model’ (42%) and ‘Increasing profits by moving to a more service oriented business model.’

With a high proportion of our respondents backing each of these statements we are also seeing perhaps further evidence of the growing movement towards servitization which is of course often heavily reliant on remote monitoring that comes via the Internet of Things.

Barriers to adoption

Of course we must also explore the barriers to adopting IoT as well and here it seems clear that there are again three major concerns for field service companies looking to develop an IoT strategy.

The first is the perennial fear of twenty first century technology, security. Much like the Cloud there is a worry about being so heavily reliant on the internet especially as it becomes fully ingrained within business critical tools and 46% of respondents stated this was a major barrier to implementing an IoT strategy.

 

Tied heavily to this of course is connectivity.

Whilst for some companies fears around the security of connected devices is a worry, for many others, especially those operating in rural areas actually connecting devices to the Internet in the first place is also a significant challenge and this was flagged up by 56% of respondents.

Finally there is of course the question of the customer. Again security worries remain and 55% of companies believe that their ‘customers would be reluctant to have their devices connected sharing data.’

Conclusion

However, as mobile broadband continues to improve at a rapid pace, connectivity issues will surely subside and whilst the perception of the IoT being a security threat remains, online security is also continuously improving with the likes of Amazon Web Services and recent PTC acquisition Axeda continuing to reinforce online security.

So given that these major fears are likely to fade with time and that there is already a significant groundswell of approval for the use of IoT in field service it seems that it is now perhaps a matter of time before we stop talking about IoT as the future of field service and start seeing it as an integral element within field service operations.

Indeed, the big question for most field service companies is no longer if you will move to IoT but when and what will happen to those who get left behind?

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As we continue our series discussing our recent research into IoT and Field Service sponsored by ServiceMax and PTC we look at why there is such a strong undercurrent in favour of IoT…

Missed the earlier parts of this series? Find part one here and part two here

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Belief in the power of IoT

Given then the fact that the majority of our respondents believe that IoT will be the most important technology to impact the way field service companies operate within the next five years, just how critical do companies feel that IoT will be?

Again our respondents showed a significantly positive approach to the importance of IoT when we asked them “What are your thoughts of the Internet of Things and how it can be implemented in Field Service?”

Over half (55%) of our respondents stated they thought “IoT will become a fundamental part of field service operations in the future” whilst a further 21% went further stating that “IoT is critical to any field service organisation’s strategy”.

 

The same amount of respondents (21%) stated that they felt that whilst ‘IoT is an interesting technology and I can see potential applications for it I don’t think it is ready yet.”

This means that 97% of respondents felt that they could at the very least see the potential of the Internet of Things in a field service environment compared to just 3% who stated ‘I don’t see it playing a part in our field service operations’.

Such figures indicate a truly overwhelming belief that IoT is indeed set to lie at the heart of field service as our industry continues to evolve.

Does size matter?

Of course one of the biggest challenges any emerging technology faces in terms of gaining traction and widespread adoption is whether it is accessible for companies of all sizes.

Often it is the case that when a significant new technology arrives it is cost prohibitive for those smaller companies (and often even mid-sized companies as well) to adopt. In field service this has often been negated by the fact that as well as delivering the opportunity to deliver better service for customers, very often technology in field service management can yield significant cost savings as well.

It has long been a key argument for the implementation of dynamic scheduling, tablets and smart phones and telematics for example that x implementation will have paid for itself within y months.

Of course similar arguments can be put forward for the introduction of IoT but for companies that would be looking to retrofit their assets in the field, such an implementation could have a potentially large initial outlay. So has this impacted on whether field service companies believe that IoT is a technology that could work for companies of all sizes?

We asked our respondents “do you think that IoT is more suited to larger companies or accessible to companies of all sizes?” And it seems that on the whole such challenges are not considered sizeable enough to be prohibitive for smaller companies with almost three quarters of respondents stating they ‘don’t think size matters when implementing IoT’.

 

What is particularly interesting is that when we drill down further into the data to look at responses from those representing companies with 50 engineers or less, this figure remains high at almost two thirds (65%) and in fact the number of respondents from this group who state IoT is ‘more suited to larger companies’ remains almost the same as the group as a whole (15% of respondents when looking just at smaller companies vs. 16% of the group as a whole) with a larger percentage of respondents stating they ‘don’t know’.

So it would appear that even amongst those companies with smaller field service teams, the majority believe that IoT could be suited to their business, again further reinforcing the belief that IoT will be part of the field service landscape across companies of all sizes.

When will IoT be common place?

So it seems that there is a general agreement amongst field service companies that the Internet of Things will become a staple part of field service operations. However, where opinions remain somewhat divided is when we will start to see this happen on a pervasive scale.

 

We asked our respondents “when do you think IoT will become common place within field service operations?” And the results were both varied and relatively evenly spread.

The most popular response was that in fact ‘it is already beginning to happen’ which just under a third (30%) of respondents stated. However, the second most common answer was within the next five years which just under a quarter of respondents (24%) stated. “Within the next three years” and “within the next two years” were the next highest answers with 19% and 18% opting for these responses respectively, whilst 5% felt it would happen within the next twelve months.

Of course varying factors such as industry verticals, company sizes and more will impact when we actually see a widespread adoption of IoT so perhaps such differing opinions may be expected here but what is clear is that again the majority do expect to see IoT become common place in field service. In fact just 3% of our respondents stated they ‘don’t think it will happen at all’.

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In the first part of this series exploring our research into IoT in Field Service sponsored by ServiceMax and PTC we explored the growing number of companies moving away from the traditional break-fix approach towards a preventative approach.

However, our findings indicated that whilst this attitude is widespread, achieving a move away from break fix models is harder to achieve than simply updating policies.In fact responses to our research would certainly strengthen the case for Internet of Things being rapidly accepted and adopted amongst field service companies who can see the benefits of proactive maintenance but are unable to deliver it.

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The tech being used today

So as we begin to form a picture of our respondent companies we can see that on the main they have moved towards a proactive

approach that IoT could quite certainly improve and on the whole they are either regularly investing in technology to improve their field service operations or are open to doing so.

I mentioned in the beginning of this report that technologies such as Big Data, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Computing have evolved together at a similar time to become highly complimentary and the core of what many modern field service management solutions are today.

 

Our next question was included to see what types of technology our industry has already adopted and once again, as has been seen in previous Field Service News research projects there seems to be two clear and distinct groups within field service - the Haves and Have-Nots.

For while over half of all companies (51%) are now utilising Field Service Management Software, with nearly a third (31%) utilising Dynamic Scheduling tools, and just over a fifth (21%) using telematics to manage their field engineers, still almost two fifths (37%) are using paper based systems.

However, the one clear area where companies have made investments in is within mobile computing devices with over two thirds (67%) of companies already utilising some form of mobile computing device for their engineers whether it is a PDA, Smart Phone, Tablet or Laptop.

 

So returning to a perspective of whether as a whole field service companies are ready to turn to a new technology such as the Internet of Things, then it would seem that for many the bedrock of technology required to allow them to truly capitalise on such an implementation is in place.

However there is still a large section of the industry that could be viewed as technologically immature, so whilst the implementation of IoT isn’t necessarily dependant on other technologies, one would imagine that the likelihood of a company investing in an IoT strategy without having already implemented a field service management solution is probably relatively slim.

Yet as the technology continues to evolve, as partnerships such as that of ServiceMax and PTC working together continue to evolve and as disparate platforms become ever more integrated then we will certainly start to see field service management platforms that are built to incorporate IoT become more prevalent, which may give those companies that are currently viewed as laggards a potential quantum leap forward in the way they are utilising technology to deliver service.

Sensor based monitoring

Of course perhaps the most important question when assessing whether field service companies are ready for undertaking an IoT strategy is whether or not they believe they have a product line and install base that opens themselves to sensor based monitoring.

The majority of respondents which was just over two fifths (42%) believe that they do have a product line which would be suitable for sensor based monitoring. This would suggest that there is indeed already a large potential market for IoT amongst field service companies.

However it is also interesting to note that of those companies that didn’t feel they had products that opened themselves up to sensor based monitoring, there were more companies who were not sure if their install base was suitable (26%) as opposed to those who simply stated their product line didn’t open itself up to sensor based monitoring (23%).

[quote float ="left"]The majority of respondents which was just over two fifths (42%) believe that they do have a product line which would be suitable for sensor based monitoring

This opens up an interesting question as to whether there is still a requirement for further education of what is required for Internet of Things to be successfully implemented. How much is possible via retrofitting for example or is IoT wholly reliant on new product development?

 

Such questions certainly provide opportunities for vendors and consultants to help educate those companies who are uncertain about whether the Internet of Things could be of value to them. However, if we bring together the results of the above questions, the opportunity for IoT to become an integral part in the way many field service companies operate is certainly apparent.

So having established that there are a sizeable number of field service companies that could potentially be suited to implementing an IoT strategy, the next big question is of course what is the general perception of IoT amongst these companies – do they see the potential match themselves or will IoT fail to live up to the significant hype surrounding it today?

To help us understand how big the appetite for IoT was amongst field service companies we asked our respondents “which of the following technologies do you think will have the biggest impact on field service operations within the next five years?”Giving them the options of ‘IoT’, ‘Big Data’, ‘Smart Glasses’, ‘Augmented Reality’, ‘Connected Vehicles’ or ‘Other’.

Here there was a clear winner and it was indeed IoT which 45% of our respondents stated would have the biggest impact. In fact this was more than double the second most popular option which was Big Data (19%) closely followed by Connected Vehicles (cited by 15%). Interestingly Augmented Reality, which like IoT could also have a significant impact on field service beyond simply improving efficiencies was only cited by 10% of our respondents as being the technology most likely to have the largest impact on field service, perhaps due to the relative immaturity of the technology on display to date.

It was also interesting to see that despite some very interesting potential applications being produced that again could lead to huge potential savings for field service companies, that smart glasses registered with only 3% of our respondents. A large factor here being the perceived failure of Google Glass perhaps?

 

Interestingly of those respondents that added additional comments within the ‘other’ section there were a number of respondents who admitted that they remain unsure as to what technology will have the most impact with one respondent commenting “I’m not convinced that the industry yet knows what the next big thing will be. Our industry is still coming to terms with the improvements in smart phones and understanding the tangible benefits that can be gleaned from modern apps and lowering data costs.”

This adds some interesting further insight into the fact that whilst for some field service and technology are becoming increasingly entwined, for many companies in the market there is still a cautious approach to allowing technology to redefine the way we do business.

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In this the first part of a new series Kris Oldland, Field Service News Editor-in-Chief explores our exclusive research into IoT and Field Service undertaken by Field Service News and sponsored by ServiceMax and PTC...

 

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We are seemingly blessed to be living in a time of such incredible advancement. Technological trends such as Big Data, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Computing have all pushed businesses forward and often we see these three coming together in the latest field service management systems, where data is easily collected, interpreted and distributed across a business eco-system.

Such systems give engineers instant access to knowledge bases, managers continuous overviews of the performance of their teams and most importantly of all, customers an ever improving customer experience. However whilst the opportunity for improving business processes these technologies present is clear, when it comes to potential for real, genuine industrial revolution, there is another emergent technology that promises to be king and that is the Internet of Things.

Whilst the massive hype that surrounded Big Data meant that the early projects we are seeing today are perhaps a slight anti-climax, (BI on steroids - which is undeniably useful in business but just not quite the life changing scenarios that were being bandied about back in 2013) with IoT almost the opposite is true.

There seems to be less confusion around IoT, which given it’s much more tangible nature makes sense, but have we grasped the magnitude of how big an impact it could truly have on field service industries? To try and understand a little more about the general attitude to and application of IoT amongst field service companies, Field Service News has partnered with ServiceMax and PTC on this research project looking to ascertain just how ready we are in field service for IoT.

About the research

The research was conducted across a period of 6 weeks during August and September this year. Over 100 field service professionals contributed to the research with respondents from both the operational side of business (field service directors/managers etc) as well as senior IT representatives (CIO/CTO etc.) participating alongside business leaders (MD,CEO etc.)

We had a variety of company sizes ranging from those with less than 10 field workers through to those with over 800 field workers, with a fairly even split across these groups so there was fair representation of opinions from companies of differing sizes.

Also whilst there was a slight UK bias in respondents, there were also respondents from India, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany and the USA so there was a mix of nationalities amongst the respondents as well. Before we began looking at the appetite for IoT amongst our respondents we first wanted to see if companies were actually well placed to benefit from adopting an IoT strategy.

 

To do this we needed to assess where the companies in our group were in terms of their approach to technology in general as well as how they approached their own service delivery.

Of course with the introduction of any new technology there will always be laggards and there will always be bleeding edge adopters and if there was a bias amongst our respondent group either way this should be taken into account when exploring other responses and trends identified within the research. Therefore the first question we asked our respondents was “How regularly does your company invest in new technology initiatives to improve field service operations and performance” and we gave our respondents the choices of every year, every two years, every three years, every five years or other.

It would seem our group was on average representing a slightly forward looking set of companies with 35% stating they would invest in new technology an annual basis. Meanwhile 13% stated they did so every two years, 17% every three years and 16% five years. A number of respondents also commented that their company’s investment in technology was slightly less strategic and on more of an ad-hoc basis although members of this group also stated ‘recently the investment in new technology is being increased’

Predictive or reactive?

The next question we asked in this initial section was whether our respondents were working for a company that is either adopting a pro-active or reactive model in terms of their field service planning.

Again this will be a good indicator of how ready field service companies are to adopt IoT as one of the significant factors in why IoT is predicted to be such have such a major impact, particularly in field service, is that it can be the key for companies moving away from the traditional break-fix delivery of service to a more efficient preventative maintenance approach to delivering field service.

 

Indeed it seems that the majority of field service companies do see the benefits of moving towards delivering service in a proactive rather than reactive manner, in theory at least. Whilst the same amount of companies (6%) stated they were either “Fully pro-active with a mix of predictive and preventive maintenance, enabled by remote monitoring and M2M diagnostics” or “We are mostly pro-active using both predictive and preventive maintenance strategies but still have a small percentage of reactive calls.” The largest group of respondents by a long way (44%) stated they “operate a proactive strategy where possible but are still mostly reactive.”

Meanwhile almost a third of companies (31%) state that their “service is half proactive and half reactive” whilst only a small fraction of companies (4%) were operating on a wholly reactive strategy. This would suggest that the perceived wisdom that field service companies should be moving away from the traditional break-fix reactive approach to a more proactive approach, which is better for service providers and their customers alike, is being adopted by the industry at large.

It also indicates that whilst this attitude is widespread, achieving a move away from break-fix models is harder to achieve than simply updating policies. In fact responses to this question would certainly strengthen the case for Internet of Things being rapidly accepted and adopted amongst field service companies who can see the benefits of proactive maintenance but are unable to deliver it.  

 

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In the first part of this feature we looked at the ever growing importance of technology in field service and asked if Big Data or Enterprise Mobility will prove to be the key technology that drives field service forward. Now in part two Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief puts forward the case for Cloud computing and the Internet of Things... 

There is no doubt that Big Data will have a huge impact on field service like it will on almost every vertical. However, then there is the Cloud, a technology almost that a whilst again gradually becoming pervasive within the world of industry, is almost perfectly suited for the often unique demands faced by field service organisations.

Certainly the rapid rise of field service software provider ServiceMax is clear evidence of the industry’s need for and appetite for cloud based field service management systems. The ServiceMax story is one of dramatic and rapid success.

In an industry where the combination of huge amounts of coding to develop a product robust enough to be deemed suitable for ‘mission critical’ operational control sits against relatively low costs per user (in comparison to other IT led products) it is almost impossible for new vendors to penetrate the space. Yet ServiceMax have not only done so but have rapidly established themselves as a leading player within the market within a space of even years.

Indeed ServiceMax’s phenomenal growth is in part tied to their strong relationship with Cloud pioneer Salesforce.

In an interview with Field Service News, ServiceMax COO, Scot Berg commented “If you think of what it would have taken for us to launch a data centre and secure it, to build all the platform capabilities and redundancy, also that some of our first 12 customers were in the Middle East and Europe and there we were with two founders selling everything themselves out of northern California… how could that be right?”

“All because of the global reach and the global acceptance level of the Salesforce.com platform. So yes it was very important early on.”

However, whilst their relationship with Salesforce.Com undoubtedly opened doors for the California company, the truth is the appetite for Cloud as a platform for field service management systems was clearly there and not being fully exploited.

[quote float="left"]As with mobile computing there is a strong argument to be made for the Cloud being the technology to have had the biggest impact on field service in recent times.

 Our own recent research into the Cloud highlights this also with 86% of field service companies either being on, or considering a move to the Cloud for their next iteration of their field service management software.

 

So again as with mobile computing there is a strong argument to be made for the Cloud being the technology to have had the biggest impact on field service in recent times.

However, perhaps the most sensible viewpoint would be that it is the emergence of all three of these technologies at the same time that is the true driving factor behind the development of new field service management solutions that are driving ever greater efficiencies and productivity levels amongst field service companies. Indeed the most sophisticated current field service management systems all boast inclusion and utilisation of Big Data, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud computing.

Yet there is one other technology that has the potential to surpass the impact of all three of the above combined.

For while Big Data, Cloud and Enterprise Mobility have allowed field service companies to optimise their work-flows, it is the Internet of Things, that has the potential to completely realign those workflows, changing the dynamics of field service forever.

The often cited holy grail for field service companies is ‘the first time fix’ and as more and more devices in industry become connected (Gartner predicts 25BN connected devices by 2020) the impact of IoT on Field Service will be truly massive.

Why? Well, connected devices allow field service companies to move away from the costly traditional break-fix model of the past and into a far more efficient preventative maintenance model.

 

Yet unlike, preventative maintenance plans of ‘dumb’ or non-connected devices, which require often unnecessary scheduled checks by a field service engineer, preventative maintenance of connected devices will mean that not only will engineers only be sent out to provide maintenance when a fault is detected but they will, in the main be sent out to that particular job with an understanding of what the fault is, and with the tools or parts they need to complete the job.

With data being provided by the device itself to indicate that a fault is developing, the engineer can not only arrive armed in advance with the knowledge of what that fault is, but also will in many cases be able to rectify the fault before it escalates to a point where the device reaches critical malfunction that stops it from carrying out it’s function.

So not only will field service companies be able to direct their engineers to the most critical jobs, not only will the engineers spend less time resolving each job (with first time fix rates soaring) but also crucially companies will be able to deliver far greater up time to their customers.

This in turn can lead companies to adopting an outcome based solutions approach, whereby they are no longer selling a product and then the maintenance of that product, but selling a solution. There are of course numerous examples of companies adopting this business model, perhaps the most famous of all being Rolls Royce’s Power by The Hour contact whereby they no longer charge a flat fee for a jumbo jet engine, but instead charge for every hour one of their customers’ planes is in flight.

This is of course a seismic shift in business thinking and one that puts field service at the very heart of businesses operations if it is to be successfully deployed. Yet through the advent of IoT it is becoming a more and more plausible and attractive route - one of the key arguments for moving to what is referred to as a Servitization business model is greater profits.

 

So whilst the big three of Cloud, Enterprise Mobility and Big Data have helped field service reach new heights of efficiency in the form of modern field service management solutions, IoT truly has the potential to redefine the way our businesses operate on a fundamental level, and it’s impact will not only improve field service operations, but also place that at the centre of this new industry paradigm.

 

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Field Service has long been an industry open to embracing the latest innovations, but what technology will have the greatest impact in the long term on field service operations? In Part One of this two-part review, FSN's Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland gives his opinion on what technology will be the most important driving field service technology forward.

As technology becomes ever increasingly intertwined with the evolution of business in these early decades of the twentieth century, the importance of identifying the right technologies that can drive a business forward.

As opposed to those that may be either just passing fads (such as the clamour for Google Glass perhaps?) or technologies that become so over-hyped, that we see unrealistic expectations laid at their door, so when initial Beta versions are launched they ultimately seemed doomed to failure making it harder to win over sceptics once the technology finally does mature enough to be significantly deployed (once again… Glass anyone?)

We have seen huge examples of companies backing the right technology, embracing it, building it into their DNA and becoming massive successes.

Salesforce saw the potential of the Cloud and reinvented the global CRM marketplace; MAN Truck and Bus UK embraced telematics to create the Trucknology generation and saw revenue grow by 1000% within a decade.

Then there is Amazon who through a studied focus on developing Big Data based technologies and algorithms, have evolved from being an online shopping portal with ‘a smile on the box’ to being not only the online shopping portal, but also the name in enterprise Cloud solutions, and perhaps the only real competitor to the Apple and Google duopoly of digital music and film distribution via their impressive Prime service.

But it is not only the household names that can take advantage of technology.

 

Take Service2 for example, a local HVAC and Gas Appliance maintenance firm based in the North of England who were a Field Service News case study earlier this year. Through the implementation of field service management software they are now in a position to have far greater grasp on their P&L, deliver a superior level of service to their customers, and are perfectly primed for rapid expansion. For them, field service management technology is a massive enabler and key driver for their business.

Another fantastic example was shared with us by Nick Frank, Frank Consulting on a recent Field Service News webinar. Nick described how Northern Irish business LISTO who have been able to combine an understanding of customers’ needs, some out of the box thinking and using existing technologies have been able to help SME’s help shape not only their own futures but seriously disrupt their relative markets whilst doing so, causing new benchmarks and customer expectations and again being empowered by technology.

So in such an environment where technology can be a genuine key differentiator for companies both big and small, the technology analysts such as Aberdeen and Gartner play a huge role in helping us assess what technologies we should be exploring, researching and investing in to help us become leaders in our field.

Indeed the annual Gartner hype cycle has become one of the most hotly anticipated publications within industry, as a barometer initially of which technologies were gaining the most attention across global media and businesses alike and now also incorporates an indication of maturity for each technology listed as well to help us further understand where such technologies sit in the road map for future business operations that Gartner predicts we should potentially be adopting.

However, the rapid evolution of technology in what many are referring to as a golden age of information, is progressing at such a rapid speed that even Gartner are unable to keep up sometimes it seems. Having dominated business technology conversations for the last two years, Big Data disappeared from the company's 2015 Hype Cycle entirely. The reason, according to Gartner Analyst Betsy Burton is that “Big Data has quickly moved over the Peak of Inflated Expectations and has become prevalent in our lives”.

And whilst this is almost certainly true, the fact is that Big Data remains a mystery to many outside of the Data Scientist illuminati who are redefining the way business operates today.

 

As Dave Hart, ServiceMax Vice President of Global Customer Transformation commented in a previous Field Service News podcast, “Big Data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, but nobody really knows how to do it.”

Yet the fact is the ability to build easily configurable dashboards, that give field service directors and their managers access to the vast swathes of data generated by a field service team is high on the list of any company currently exploring a new field service management system.

John Cooper, Head of IT and Workflow Solutions in Sony’s Professional Solutions explained in a recent exclusive Field Service News interview: “We have this dream of the account managers turning up at customer sites and being completely clued in with all the stuff that’s happened in a nice simple to understand graphical way. So they don’t need to get into technical complexity but they know what we’ve done for the customers, they know of any live issues and they’re not going to get ambushed with you’ve got this problem or that problem.”

Such open flow of data and more importantly is of course powered by Big Data so whilst the technical whirrings of this monumental technology may not be fully understood by those outside of those niche Data Scientist circles, the reality is that it’s impact is very much being felt, even if it is through its output and application rather than a more tangible, physical everyday sense.

 

However, is Big Data the most important technology changing the way business operates today?

Well in the sphere of field service there are justified claims for a number of other recent technologies. Without doubt one of the most important developments that has truly revolutionised our industries and the way field service operates is the leap forward mobile computing pushed dramatically forward by the rise in prominence of the smartphone and iPhone in particular.

Look out for Part 2 of this review where Kris examines the case for the Cloud and the Internet of Things as the most important technology for the future of field service.

 

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Remote asset monitoring specialist Software AG  is integrating its Digital Business Platform with ServiceMax's field service management solution, enabling customers to turn remote asset monitoring events into actionable field service requests.

Software AG customers currently using the predictive maintenance solution on its Digital Business Platform can now access ServiceMax’s field service platform.  The Digital Business Platform connects to any sensored gateway, pulling all equipment sensor data, performing real-time analysis and generating customized alerts. These alerts are then sent to the ServiceMax platform where they are turned into work orders. Once created, the work orders are delivered to service technicians in the field. The integrated offering allows companies seeking to increase the effectiveness of its maintenance services to do so with one integrated platform that combines best of breed technology and expertise.

Software AG’s solution for predictive maintenance exploits the Internet of Things by continuously analysing real-time equipment sensor data via machine monitoring to understand when maintenance will be required. The location of technicians are matched to replacement and repair equipment available and job completion time to identify the best technician available to perform the needed service during a scheduled downtime. By predicting remaining useful life of machinery and specific components, equipment manufacturers are able to schedule technicians earlier and order consumables and replacement components before customers even know they are needed.

Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax, said: “ServiceMax’s partnership with Software AG will add immense value to the ServiceMax platform and underscore the Internet of Things’ incalculable impact on the future of field service automation. We’re very excited to be able to provide our customers with a predictive maintenance platform that will enable them to boost operational efficiency with end-to-end control platform for field service.”

Sean Riley, Global Manufacturing & Logistics Director, Software AG, said: “As the Internet of Things becomes increasingly intertwined with the way people live and work, proactive and predictive service will be a critical differentiator driving real business value. The key to predictive asset maintenance is its ability to act upon the results of real-time analysis and communicate reliable expectations to the parties involved in maintenance services efforts. With the Predictive Asset Maintenance blueprint, maintenance program managers can capture, analyze, aggregate and act upon streaming IoT data in order to maximize equipment uptime, quality performance and yield. It’s a tremendous competitive edge.”

 

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As the ServiceMax Max Live event draws near an exciting name has been added to the agenda that is sure to make the event a true highlight in the field service calendar this year....

Held in Paris from the 2nd to the 4th of November, the event brings together field service professionals to discuss how technology is driving field service, what are the key trends that are emerging and how can we harness them to drive further efficiencies in our own field service delivery.

At last year's event Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland was impressed by the varying range of professionals and experts both speaking and in attendance.

"What has really struck me about the group here," Oldland commented, "is that firstly it is a really broad mix, with companies as large as Sony through to small family run companies with less than ten engineers, yet they are often facing similar challenges and those challenges are as real for a local SME as they are for your household name multi-nationals"

"What has been really impressive about the ServiceMax approach, that has been really evident here at MaxLive, is that they are listening to their client's pain points, whether they be SME or Enterprise, and are reactive to that. There is a real community feel amongst the companies here, and with a fantastic list of guest speakers, there is a very positive vibe amongst the delegates as we look to what the future holds for field service."

 

At this year's event however, there is now one added name to the speaker list that will surely drive interest even higher. That is Kevin Ashton, often referred to as the Father of The Internet of Things, who will be giving a keynote presentation.

Of course IoT is predicted to have a huge impact in a number of different industries, but perhaps none is more keenly anticipated than in how it will impact field service, so Ashton's experience and insight is sure to be extremely well received and it will be also provide an interesting backdrop to the recent research project being undertaken by ServiceMax, PTC and Field Service News which is exploring the impact of IoT in the field service industries.

This research is still open so if you haven't taken part yet you can enter the survey here 

As a thank you for your time there are five signed copies of Ashton's book How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation and Discovery up for grabs too!

 

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

 

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

 

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Reactive vs. Proactive

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

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

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

 

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

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

Underlying technology

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

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

 

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

Views around IoT

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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