A specialist recruitment platform initially conceived to help fill the service talent gap took on a new significance as an urgent post calling for medical technicians meant the project was fast-tracked to market. Mark Glover uncovers the story behind ServiceMax's Field Service Finder and its extraordinary five-week turnaround.

We are living and working in unprecedented times. All aspects of life are being affected by the pandemic: work, travel, holidays, live sport on TV.

Covid's Impact on the field service workforce

Of course the return of football is rather trivial compared to the health and financial impact this virus is having. As I type, news feeds are reporting Germany’s dip into recession. Indications this normally robust economy is wobbling will send tremors across the rest of Europe and beyond. In the UK, a financial crash is said to be inevitable and in the US the economy is showing significant signs of a downturn, fuelled in part by 26 million Americans losing their jobs as companies take actions to reduce bottom lines.

In service, technicians hardest hit are those in industries locked-down such as hospitality and retail. It means many have been furloughed or made redundant.

It’s another blow to a recruitment pool that has historically always struggled to attract and identify new talent. Field service positions are specialist, they require knowledge across a range of skills and are difficult to fill even without a global pandemic. Service - and I appreciate I’m sweeping broadly here - essentially exists to fix things, but it requires a highly-skilled and technical workforce to do so.

It wasn't always like this however. Post-war optimism and the 'baby-boomers' generation flooded the blue-collar market learning trades that secured a job for life. Now, the US, like the UK, are today seeing a large chunk of their workforce drop off as this generation retire. This decline has left an alarming employment gap that might not be an abyss, but with the advent of Covid-19, it’s looking a lot deeper than before and some sectors are feeling the pinch more than they ever have.

However, for the medical and biotech industries, there are challenges not in reducing staff numbers but significantly increasing them to cope with accelerating service requests.

Medtronic are a medical device manufacturer who have seen a substantial increase in demand for equipment such as ventilators which has in turn increased the need for service technicians to install and fix them. Theirs is a specialist field and even before the pandemic, finding those with appropriate experience and knowledge to service the assets was difficult.

"The site went live on May 4, the result of an extraordinary five weeks of development, testing and refining and more testing..."

As part of a recent recruitment drive the firm reached out on LinkedIn, publishing a post that directed people to their specialist vacancies, hoping it would touch a niche slice of a workforce they desperately needed to engage. The post was noticed by ServiceMax’s Stacey Epstein. “It was something of an urgent plea for volunteers and skilled workers to visit their own internal career page because they were desperately needing help,” she tells me over a Zoom conversation one afternoon, a week after the firm's most recent product launch. 

ServiceMax's Field Service Job Finder is a platform connecting talent with demand across critical industries but even before this pandemic, the project had been in the pipeline for a while, an idea sparked by the aforementioned issues in service recruitment and confirmed following a piece of research from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by ServiceMax looking into the drivers of digital transformation in service.

Consulting 675 decision makers globally the research revealed, rather shockingly, that 97% reported challenges in sourcing talent with 49 % citing challenges identifying candidates who have the required knowledge and expertise. The issue was obvious but how to negate it?

ServiceMax and their customers straddle an array of industry verticals so they already had the audience (or “eyeballs”, Stacey says) for such a platform, however they needed to find the right partner who could provide the infrastructure.

Krios already ran their own recruitment portal. The site is tailored for the gig economy linking freelancers to a range of requests covering graphic design, translation services and web design; a blueprint similar to ServiceMax’s idea but on a different level of vocation. The two firms met, Krios were able to commit and the project quickly spun into action. The site went live on May 4, the result of an extraordinary five weeks of development, testing and refining and more testing. It was much earlier than was planned - but sparked by Medtronic’s post, the relationship the two had anyway (Medtronic are a ServiceMax customer) and the impending pandemic - the site was fast tracked to market. “It was literally seeing that request on LinkedIn,” Stacey explains, “and knowing it was a customer and that we’d already been talking about what we could be doing to help our customers with the skilled worker gap issue, we said, ‘we’ve got to do it now.’”

There are plenty of Medtronics out there, struggling with a challenge the likes of which they have never experienced and conversely, never planned for..."

So they did. To date, traffic has been steady with over 4,000 new users and exceeding 7,000 page impressions and while the majority of users are US-based the site is seeing traction globally being viewed in over 40 countries.

I suggested to Stacey we keep in touch, that I would like to monitor the site’s progress. Beyond the user metrics, I said, it would be interesting to see what comes to the surface after a month or so; to see what service companies are now looking for. It could offer a clear barometer of where service recruitment is, what jobs are available and what skills are being asked for – a glimpse of the new service workplace as the pandemic leaves its legacy.

But for now, this was a project that came from a glance at LinkedIn and a realisation what affect this pandemic was having. Stacey tells me when she saw the post she was pretty sure Medtronic would probably not be the only firm blinking in this new Covid dawn. Sadly, she’s right. There are plenty of Medtronics out there, struggling with a challenge the likes of which they have never experienced and conversely, never planned for.

COVID-19 is unprecedented and changing the very fabric of what we once knew as ‘normal’. For service to survive – and eventually thrive – it needs to pivot and flex; to absorb and react. This starts at the ground - in recruitment and the next generation.

Further Reading: 

• Read more about recruitment in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/recruitment
• Read more about Covid-19 in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid
• Read more about more about empowering field workers @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Read more about ServiceMax's Field Service Finder @ https://www.fieldservicefinder.com/
• Read more about Medtronic @ www.medtronic.com 

Field Service Finder comes in response to covid-19 recruitment challenges.

A collaboration between ServiceMax and freelance marketplace Krios has produced a digital job board for the service sector aimed at firms whose operations are being affected by Covid-19.

ServiceMax Field Service Finder advertises open roles including volunteer opportunities and short-term assistance requests.

impact on Field Service Management Recruitment

The platform comes in response to the pandemic’s impact on service continuity with ServiceMax identifying a varying shift across the sectors it serves. The Biotech and Medical Device verticals, it says are ramping up operations and scaling production, with others reducing or sidelining staff and some switching to a new focus altogether.

"Our mission is to help field services teams keep the world running, and now more than ever there are critical jobs to be filled," said Stacey Epstein, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at ServiceMax. "Because of our close relationships with our customers across industries, we're in a unique position to help connect the talent supply with the talent demand. We're inspired by the efforts made by our customers to pivot and respond to today's crisis and want to support our customers and the industry with their workforce needs now, during this crucial time, as well as in the future."

Prior to the pandemic, there had been significant signs that the service sector was experiencing challenges in filling an expanding talent gap. A Forrester Consulting Study in 2019 interviewed 675 global service professionals on challenges around digital transformation where 97 per cent cited recruiting talent as a major barrier. More specifically, 47 per cent said finding candidates with appropriate knowledge and skills to fill roles was a significant roadblock and it is feared the current situation could exacerbate these issues.

Communication Platform offered free of charge to new customers for three months as CEO says real-time communications can play key role in current situation.
ServiceMax's Neil Barua believes real-time communication will be the key to firms tackling the effect of Corona Virus and has made Zinc, their real-time communication platform available free, for three months to new users.

Travel

Speaking to Field Service News, the firm's CEO said the current situation is affecting how their end-users get to jobs, a key strand of service delivery and challenging their traditional service delivery model. "Our customers are dependent on being able to travel and visit customer sites," he says, "They are having to be flexible on how to accommodate service requests with their teams, creating opportunities for virtual trouble shooting and training of end users."

For end-users trying to satisfy pressurised service requests while adhering to constantly changing guidance from authorities and government, means now more than ever, firms need to be flexible and dynamic. Neil believes if firms are to prosper then clear communication channels will play a significant role. "As it is a constantly evolving situation, it is imperative that field teams have direct lines of communication across the service delivery chain to best serve customers in real time." 

In an effort to enhance connectivity during this time ServiceMax have announced the use of their own real-time communication platform, Zinc, which will be made available free of charge for three months for new users. "We know that our customers have important information to share," Barua said of the decision. "Employees need answers, reassurance and connectedness. We all need to work together and support each other in getting through these unique times safely."

SeviceMax's Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer, Stacy Epstein, will be part of our panel at Field Service News' Covid-19 Emergency Symposium which takes place online this Friday (20 March GMT), which you can sign-up for here.

The Field Service News editorial team offer analysis on the stories circling in the service sector...

An investment injection from Salesforce is set to advance ServiceMax’s focus on assset-heavy industries such as manufacturing and utlities. Mark Glover spoke to CEO Neil Barua after the news broke...

I initially wanted to use this space to focus on the much needed calls for drone advancement and how it has the potential to postively impact on last mile delivery.

However, news that ServiceMax had received a cool $80 million investment from their long-time platform partner Salesforce came to my attention and with that an opportunity to speak to CEO Neil Barua about the announcement.

“The money was probably the least important part of the news,” he told me. “It’s great to be able to fund our growth and development but it’s the strategeic partnership element and the acknowledgement by Salesforce [that] in asset-centric industries ServiceMax is the chosen leader and they’re supporting our innovation for our customers in those industries. It’s a very monumental time in the industry for that decision to have been made,” he said.

Rumours around ServiceMax’s relationship with Salesforce have been circulating for some time now, with some speculating the software firm were ready to show its platform supplier the door, however this news concretes their partnership.The funding injection, the firm says, will enable them to focus on asset-heavy sectors such as manufacturing, oil and gas and utilities.

But it’s the firm collaboration with Salesforce that Barua was keen to extoll and in particular its place at ServiceMax’s varied board room table. “So we have a very dynamic board structure here at ServiceMax including Silverlake participants, incuding GE partcicpants and we’re now going to add Salesforce to that,” he explained. “So the adults in the room can look at things from a board perspective and make sure the two companies are thinking about what’s best independently but most importantly what’s best for customers.”

We shall see ultimately if this windfall affect ServiceMax’s end-user. Next month however my news focus will be drone-based and how that industry could do with $80 million to propel its offering.

... and Field Service News’ Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, also reflects on what the big stories in the news are for him...

Having reviewed the big stories I think I am acrtually going to do the slightly crass thing and highlight our own involvement at the inaugral World Servitization Conference.

However, in my very best humble brag style, I’d really like to bring your attention to just how impressive the journey has been for my good friends at Aston University and the Advanced Services Group and just what an achievement launching the first World Conference is for Professor Baines and his excellent collection of colleagues.

I have had the honour of attending the Spring Servitization Conference for a number of years as both a guest of Aston University and latterly as a Media Partner for the Advanced Services Group and as such have been a first hand witness to just how the conference has grown over the years. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the conference in various pockets of Europe including Manchester, Copenhagen, Luzerne and its great to see it return home to Birmingham in its latest all grown up iteration.

The world of academia and industry really can flourish when they come together to search out solutions and drive each other forward and the Spring Servitization Conference has been an absolutley pioneering and pivotal point within the calendar where that meeting of minds has been able to take place.

And whilst it may sound like an increase in capacity going from the humble Spring Servitization Conference to the more grandly titled World Servitization Conference, the truth is that the name change should have happened a few years back as this annual meet up of the great and the good of the academic servitization community, increasingly being joined by larger and larger numbers of their industry colleagues, really does attract a global audience.

I for one am extremely proud that we are still strongly associated with the conference and am very much looking forward to working with TIm and the Aston team on this event and for many years to come. 

In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the final part of this series on AI our panellists, FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and ServiceMax's Amit Jain, discuss if the technology compliments a wider strategy or can it operate in a silo.

In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the third of a four part series on AI our panellists, FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and ServiceMax's Amit Jain, discuss the benefits the technology can bring to a business.

In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the second of a four part series on AI our panellists, FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and ServiceMax's Amit Jain, define the difference between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

In the Big Discussion we bring together a panel of industry experts and focus on one key topic within the field service sector. In the first of a four part series, we turn our attention to AI where our panel includes FieldAware's Mark Tatarsky and ServiceMax's Amit Jain.

Just how important is ArtificIal intelligence going to be in the future of field service?

Mark Tatarsky, SVP Marketing, FieldAware

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already working its way into many different aspects of field service delivery today.

However, its prevalence and impact will be more influential for some field service organizations than others. It really depends on the industry served; the type of service provided as well as the complexity of the equipment serviced. AI can impact all field service delivery to varying levels.

In many instances, AI can be applied behind the scenes to improve efficiency without the end-user, even knowing it is at work.

An example of behind the scenes activity is when AI improves the optimization engine results for scheduling and routing. Even basic consumer-oriented routing systems like WAZE or GoogleMaps use varying levels of AI to help select the most efficient route.

When field service organizations are servicing sophisticated equipment monitored via IoT connectivity, AI will be applied to the monitoring and deployment process to enable predictive maintenance and automated dispatch based on AI processes and equipment tolerance thresholds.

Amit Jain, Senior VP of Product, ServiceMax. 

Artificial Intelligence is going to play a significant role in many areas that are crucial to field service delivery today and moving forward—it is early stages now.  Much of the conversation in field service now is centred on two key aspects - how we drive efficiency and how we establish the 360-degree view of the customer. In each of these areas, data is an essential factor in terms of driving improvements - and having a view into asset service data is equally important.

Connected asset and service data as maintained in the field hold insights far beyond the service department, providing a better business lens for almost every other line of business. Within field service operations, a major component of any day-to-day business is the data that is used in the variety of operational processes. Field service engineers, dispatchers and managers rely on and collect valuable data direct from source and ensure its accuracy, whether that’s product status and performance, contracts, location or account details.

With the advent of predictive analytics and condition-based maintenance, this data, which can be curated and fed into an organization’s data system has the potential to provide accurate intelligence across the organization. As it gravitates towards the data lake, it can touch and enhance other data sources such as CRM, ERP, parts, logistics and supply chain, HR, compliance and even data sources such as traffic and weather forecasting. Essentially, field service and asset data gives all other data relevance and accuracy.

However, the sheer unprecedented volumes of data being generated today, which is set to continue to increase almost exponentially moving forwards, is simply too vast to be useful unless we implement Artificial Intelligence within FSM systems. This is also the case with interpreting IoT data, which is largely predicted to be the backbone of field service operations of the future, and is empowering field service organizations to move away from the traditional break/fix approach to much more effective and profitable advanced service models.

The second part of this Big Discussion will be published next week, when the pair are asked the difference between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

In this extract from a white paper published by ServiceMax we explore the question of sustainability in field service and how as well as being better for our planet it can also be better for a service organisations bottom line as well...