Andrew Quail, Head of IT at SGN, explains how the energy supplier is transforming its mobile app delivery. Sharon Clancy reports...
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May 27, 2016 • Features • Kony • Case Studies • case study • SGN • Software and Apps • software and apps
Andrew Quail, Head of IT at SGN, explains how the energy supplier is transforming its mobile app delivery. Sharon Clancy reports...
Gas companies are one of the most heavily regulated in the UK – after all, gas leaks have the potential to be fatal.
The UK’s energy sector regulatory regime is acknowledged as world-class, but safety and innovation are rarely comfortable bedfellows, and innovation has not traditionally been a strong point for the UK’s utilities companies, who have focused on meeting the demands of the industry regulator Ofgem.
So we were intrigued to hear that one of the UK’s biggest gas distributors, SGN, is embarking on a business transformation process that includes greater use of mobile tools and data for its 2,000 strong field service engineers.
SGN distributes natural and green gas to 5.9 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England via a network of over 75,000 km of gas mains and services.
"Critical business processes such as emergency gas response procedures have been automated for over a decade and have been mobilised to help ensure SGN meets it legal obligations to respond within an hour to any reports that might indicate a potentially lethal gas leak"
“The safety culture at SGN is core to our business and will never diminish. Data on performance has to be accurate and readily available to the regulator, and mobile data played a big role in providing that,” explains Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN.
Quail credits Ofgem with now encouraging an innovative climate that still puts safety first.
“We have relied on our mobile solutions for over a decade to deliver safety-critical services. Our legacy estate was great for some parts of the business: it’s solid, reliable and highly available.”
“However, with the legacy estate, if we change a piece of code or an element within an app, it has potential to affect other things.”
With such a large field workforce, SGN could appreciate the benefits of mobilising other activities in its business.
“Our existing estate was not agile enough to meet the changing needs of our customers and employees,” continued Quail.
“Customised apps take too long to develop and deploy and we wanted faster improvements to our efficiencies and customer services.”
"At the same time, we could not risk any mobility initiative affecting our ability to respond to core emergency repair work. We also wanted to control app distribution to ensure it met our IT security needs.”
"The solution has been to retain the legacy SAP platform for emergency gas response services, while deploying Kony Inc’s MobileFabric cloud-based mobility platform to develop and maintain mobile apps for other parts of the business"
MobileFabric decouples corporate front- and back-end systems so changes can be made quickly.
Connectors and adaptors means back-end integration for mobile apps is configurable and flexible rather than being custom-built.
“We were looking for a platform that would allow us to quickly develop well-designed apps that are attractive to our workforce.”
“At the same time, we wanted to capture data in a standard format that could be distributed and presented to any part of the business.”
“Mobile Fabric is an enterprise-grade mobility platform which is tightly integrated into our legacy systems. One of the attractions was the fact that is cloud-based, says Quail.
“It is a scalable consumption-based model requiring minimum financial commitment. That reduces the risks to our business.”
A cloud-based solution also suits the fast-paced environment of mobility services, he thinks, and help delivers quick wins.
“Our first priority has been to develop customer focused apps to improve the whole customer experience.”
“So one of the first apps we have deployed is a is a customer satisfaction app that has digitalised feedback."
“We get real-time feedback into our ERP system, which means we get early notification of any potential issues for customers and we also get to hear about customers’ positive experiences – which was not always the case in the past” - Andrew Quail, Director of IT at SGN.
“We get real-time feedback into our ERP system, which means we get early notification of any potential issues for customers and we also get to hear about customers’ positive experiences – which was not always the case in the past.”
Another benefit, says Quail, is the app allows SGN to respond quickly to employee and customer suggestions about improving service.
The app was developed and deployed within weeks – much quicker than on a legacy platform and at much lower cost, points out Quail.
Security
IT directors have form when it comes to security concerns about Cloud computing, but Quail is one of the converts who believe Cloud platform services actually can enhance IT security. “
There is no denying that IT security is a sensitive topic and an area with potentially huge corporate risk for SGN.
However, cloud platform providers invest heavily in security, and we are confident the Kony platform is actually extremely secure.”
Moving to a mobility platform has also enabled SGN to define exactly what security standards it needs in various parts of the organisation, he explains.
Future plans
So what’s in the pipeline for the future, we asked?
There are lots of possibilities for efficiency improvements beyond the regulatory environment enthuses Quail.
“We don’t want mobile app development to be a top-down process where IT comes up with all the new apps. We are encouraging our colleagues and employees to suggest what mobile apps might improve their work experience”
Quail believes the introduction of mobile apps will help change the image of IT within the business from enforcer to enabler.
“We don’t want mobile app development to be a top-down process where IT comes up with all the new apps. We are encouraging our colleagues and employees to suggest what mobile apps might improve their work experience.”
Nor is it just field service engineers who are benefiting from the digitalisation of the business, says Quail.
“The Internet of Things” is beginning to transform our operations. When we deploy robots for pipe inspections, for example, we’ll be capture that data in real-time helping us to optimise maintenance with less disruption for our customers.”
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May 16, 2016 • Features • Kirona • KPIs • Software and Apps • software and apps
Nick Shipton of scheduling specialists Kirona takes a look at the importance of measuring performance and constantly shifting KPI focus in a journey of ongoing improvement...
Nick Shipton of scheduling specialists Kirona takes a look at the importance of measuring performance and constantly shifting KPI focus in a journey of ongoing improvement...
Kirona recently collaborated with Field Service News and Bill Pollock from Strategies for Change, hosting an interesting webinar covering the key points raised in Bill’s field service benchmarking report.
During the webinar we discussed key trends across field service in terms of what organisation are looking to implement and improve in the future.
The most popular item on the agenda for UK and European organisations was to develop and improve metrics or KPI’s to measure performance.
The thought here was that organisations need to be measuring things better in order to improve and help with the following:
Customer demand for quicker response time
- Workforce utilisation & productivity
- Service process efficiencies
- Customer demand for improved asset availability
This if course is all very commendable and is absolutely the correct things to be striving for however, is developing new and improved ways for measuring what we are doing actually going to help us achieve these goals, or does it simply stop short and tell us simply how are we are doing today, last month, last year?
Back office systems, scheduling solutions and mobile solutions give us a whole wealth of potential data to look at and report upon (although those organisations who are yet to jump into the world of scheduling and mobile will only have the very basics), but are we using this data to the best of its ability.
“Traditional KPI’s are great for telling us how we are doing now, allowing us to answer the question is the business performing to set metrics? But they stop short of actually giving any insight into how we can improve?”
The setting of targets doesn’t answer the questions that allow us to improve, it merely creates a benchmark.
Having access to information that addresses; I am meeting the set number of field service jobs I need to complete today that’s great but could I do better if the organisation was configured differently.
The key point is that KPI’s are just a set of controls we like to put into a business to give us some comfort that we are running on track, which is as I say great but do they actually give us any view on how we could improve and deliver a better service to our customers, even if we are doing well.
For us at Kirona it’s about taking that wealth of data we have and giving tools to our customers that not only allow them to look at the standard KPI’s to ensure they are on track but also to allow them to start analysing where they could get better and implement those improvements.
If you only currently have only a fairly static back office system your ability to get access to meaningful data is going to be very limited, however with scheduling and mobile solutions such as Kirona’s DRS and Kirona’s Job Manager solution you suddenly have an extra dimension to the quantity, quality and type of data available.
Analysing this in the correct way then allows an organisation to start pinpointing exactly where efficiencies in the business could be made.
This extra dimension of data enables the organisation to understanding questions such as;
- We may be completing our set number of jobs per day, but actually how much is it costing us to do that?
- Are some geographical areas better performing than others?
- Can we improve this by looking at the distribution of our workforce across those areas?
- Am I giving my customers the most efficient times for appointments for my organisation, and can I improve this without impacting my service?
- Am I deficient in certain skills and abilities in different regions?
Are we selling or completing certain services in specific areas of our region and therefore do we need to move the workforce around to support that, or could we be offering a higher level of service in those service areas?
"If you want to keep ahead of your competitors, hitting your targets isn’t going to do this, the only way to do this is to continually challenge those targets..."
Also if you want to keep ahead of your competitors, hitting your targets isn’t going to do this, the only way to do this is to continually challenge those targets, continual improve your business and analyse what the data is telling you.
Look beyond your KPI’s!
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May 10, 2016 • Features • optimisation • servicepower • Software and Apps • software and apps
Marne Martin CEO of ServicePower argues that to be a thoroughbred amongst your competitors you must seek out the best-in-breed technologies...
Marne Martin CEO of ServicePower argues that to be a thoroughbred amongst your competitors you must seek out the best-in-breed technologies...
Spring is the start of the racing season in some parts of the United States, especially in Kentucky where the Kentucky Derby, the first race of the Triple Crown, is run the first Saturday of May.
The 2015 race was historic.
American Pharaoh, a horse owned by an Egyptian immigrant, with half a tail, took the Triple Crown on Saturday, June 7, 2015 by winning the last and longest of the Triple Crown races, the mile and a half Belmont Stakes.
He’s only the 12th horse in history to ever win all three races: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the longest, the Belmont Stakes. And, he won that last race decidedly, taking it in 2:26:65 minutes and 5 ½ lengths ahead of the 8 horse field, the fastest Belmont since 2001 and 6th fastest time since Affirmed ran it in 2:26 4/5.
Only Secretariat, the legendary race horse featured in the movie Secretariat in 2010, ran the Belmont faster at 2:24 by 31 lengths in 1973.
The Pharaoh stands happily at stud now at Ashford, a 2,200-acre farm in Versailles, Kentucky, where, even as unproven, first-year stallion, he commands a record $200,000 stud fee. Thoroughbreds are athletes in every sense of the word.
“To beat the competition down the stretch, we must execute flawlessly by enabling ourselves with the best tools and technology”
We must focus on preparing our people and executing seamlessly by enabling ourselves with the tools and technology that ensure success.
Out of the gate, we must seek out the best in breed field resources. New technologies like social, mobile, cloud and IoT are second nature to the emerging millennial workforce. Find field technicians comfortable with new technologies and provide them with complementary tools which improve their personal success. Collaboration tools like video chat, mobile applications and wearables help them help your customers. Satisfied field resources, trained to use their technology, with access to tools and information to get the job done will increase your first time fix rates and customer satisfaction.
To beat the competition down the stretch, we must execute flawlessly by enabling ourselves with the best tools and technology. Mobile workforce management software is not optional. I think most enterprise level organisations, with several hundred or thousands of field resources get this.
But the necessity of scheduling technology is still nebulous for some small or medium sized enterprises. Every business, no matter the size absolutely can benefit from real time route and schedule optimisation, mobile dispatch and field service management software. There are many options for route optimisation, but not all are the same.
Every business, no matter the size absolutely can benefit from real time route and schedule optimisation, mobile dispatch and field service management software. There are many options for route optimisation, but not all are the same.
For those small, medium and even large enterprises whom do not or cannot deploy a full on MWFM software, Optimization on DemandTM released this summer provides improve productivity and reduced costs without a full workforce management software deployment. Optimization On Demand™ enables field service organisations to book jobs for customers, then pass a set of appointments to ServicePower to optimize, on demand, into the best, least costly order.
Optimization On Demand™ provides a more intelligent tool set, without the expenditure of an entire workforce management or field service optimisation software solution. NEXUS FS™ provides field service organisations of any size an enterprise quality, wholly configurable, cloud-based field service management solution with a comprehensive mobile application.
It supports work order management, dispatch, scheduling, inventory management, time sheet reporting and geolocation, enabling focus on providing high quality service to customers, while benefiting from productivity improvements.
Technology is available/accessible at any level of business operations and is the key to winning the race, beating the competition. To cross the finish line, use of technology is key.
Optimised scheduling, mobility and field service management are all critical components of mobile workforce management software. But, to cross that line, field service organisations must deploy collaborative, operational intelligence and real time control consoles to monitor ongoing operations from across the enterprise.
Monitoring what’s happening today ensures high compliance levels and happy customers. Mining the data, using custom scorecards and predictive analytics enables teams to manage work, coach staff and fine tune processes to get over the finish line today, setting up a successful tomorrow. Do all this, and your organisation will have also won the Triple Crown.
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May 06, 2016 • News • SaaS • Software and Apps • software and apps • Asolvi
GMS Espresso has woken up and smelled the coffee. In order to bolster its efficiency and lay strong foundations for the future, it is teaming up with Tesseract.
GMS Espresso has woken up and smelled the coffee. In order to bolster its efficiency and lay strong foundations for the future, it is teaming up with Tesseract.
GMS Espresso has been supplying, installing and maintaining coffee machines and equipment for nearly fifteen years, but have been relying on a server-based piece of software that just isn’t moving with the times.
“The problem is, our current software isn’t adaptable or future-proof,” says Seamus Doyle, Operations Manager of GMS Espresso. “This is partly because it’s server-based. If we want to change something or introduce a new kind of report, we have to give notice and wait for them to come and install it. That’s one of the reasons we sought out Tesseract, because they offer SaaS.”
SaaS - Software as a Service - means GMS Espresso will pay a monthly subscription to use the service management components of Tesseract’s Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1), which are centrally hosted by Tesseract. The benefit of this is that GMS Espresso will receive new features, improvements and updates regularly and instantly. It also means, if there’s an issue, fault or inefficiency anywhere in the system, Tesseract will fix it immediately in-house.
The coffee enthusiasts were also encouraged by SC5.1’s user-friendliness, which is a huge cut above their current system. Doyle explains that they would often have to go round the houses to get even basic things done, whereas the new software is a lot more efficient and easy to use. It was actually one of GMS Espresso’s own customers who recommended Tesseract, because of their own experiences with the software — testament to the company's influence in the service management industry.
“We’ve had a really good experience with Tesseract,” Doyle adds. “They’re always on hand to answer our questions and make sure we’re understanding everything. They’re also providing regular training to help our people get to grips with the new system, and are always willing to work around our schedule.”
Click here to find out more about Tesseract software solutions
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Apr 28, 2016 • News • field service management • Software and Apps • software and apps • Asolvi
Security and communications company Total Integrated Solutions has deployed Tesseract's service management software as part of a major restructuring programme designed to deliver more towards more proactive service and maintenance solutions for...
Security and communications company Total Integrated Solutions has deployed Tesseract's service management software as part of a major restructuring programme designed to deliver more towards more proactive service and maintenance solutions for customers.
Total Integrated Solutions (TIS) has grown from the company that brought television to Mansfield in the 1950s to a highly recognised and valued brand within the UK’s communications and security systems industry.
With clients ranging from the University of Leeds to the MOD, TIS specialises in telephony, data integration, television and satellite distribution, marine communications, CCTV and fire and intruder detection systems.
"We were aware of them because some of our competitors use them, and we’d heard good things about them from the industry" - John O’Hanrahan, Head of Service Operations at TIS
“Tesseract is one of the most highly rated platforms out there,” says John O’Hanrahan, Head of Service Operations at TIS. “We were aware of them because some of our competitors use them, and we’d heard good things about them from the industry. Following a demonstration from Tesseract, we saw that they offered exactly the level of detail and functionality we were looking for."
Tesseract’s service management software will be integrated with TIS’s ERP system.
It will replace its current, much more manual incident management operation, which requires staff to allocate engineers to deal with issues based on their own knowledge of the engineers’ skill sets, locations and availability.
With Tesseract, everything is automated, improving workflow and visibility and saving TIS a huge amount of time, time which the company can reinvest into working more closely with its customers.
Tesseract’s asset management tools will also help improve the solutions TIS offers to customers. John O’Hanrahan explains,
“Each time a customer logs a fault with a CCTV camera, Tesseract builds a history into that asset. If the camera keeps breaking, it means we can get to the core of the issue and look at more proactive solutions than just repeat repairs. This helps our customers save money, an objective that’s at the forefront of what we do.”
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Apr 27, 2016 • News • servicemax • Software and Apps • software and apps
New products include Service Performance Metrics, the mobile Field Service app, and Catalyst, a new implementation package based on industry best practices
New products include Service Performance Metrics, the mobile Field Service app, and Catalyst, a new implementation package based on industry best practices
ServiceMax, a leading provider of cloud-based field service management solutions, yesterday announced its Spring ‘16 product release.
Built on the Salesforce platform, the ServiceMax Spring ‘16 release is headlined by ServiceMax Service Performance Metrics™, a new product that creates a clear link between field service best practices and field service management technology.
Business leaders have taken notice of the high margins, growth, and differentiation that service can deliver, and with ServiceMax Spring ‘16 field service leaders will have the business insights, mobile apps, and workflows to deliver on these expected outcomes and achieve operational excellence.
“With our Spring ‘16 release, we’re creating a way for field service organization to measure their businesses in ways they previously never could,” said ServiceMax co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Athani Krishnaprasad.
“After working with hundreds of field service businesses across a wide range of industries, we’re uniquely suited to provide a best-practice software platform that helps our customers deliver a best-in-class service experience in the field.” -Athani Krishnaprasad, ServiceMax
ServiceMax Service Performance Metrics™
For the first time, field service leaders will have the insights to increase service revenue and efficiency using predefined, best practice KPIs that are easy to configure, track and compare across the business.
ServiceMax distilled industry best practices for business metrics such as attach rate, contract uptime, utilisation, first-time fix rate and repeat visit into a first-of-its-kind metrics engine. These true business KPIs provide the insight to track and act on performance over time across product lines, technicians, service teams, accounts, and locations.
ServiceMax uniquely guides customers using Business Value Realization™ and Maturity Matrix methodology tools that uncover the opportunities for improvement and define desired business outcomes. Now with ServiceMax Service Performance Metrics™, customers can easily monitor and improve service performance to achieve the results needed to realise desired business results.
The KPIs are configurable to customers’ business processes and flexible calculations enable consistent benchmarks across the company. Data snapshots of the KPIs are presented in an executive dashboard so that service leaders can conduct time series analysis and easily share insights across the organisation.
ServiceMax Field Service App
In Spring ‘16, ServiceMax delivers the ServiceMax Field Service app with a field-service optimised user experience with unmatched offline capabilities. Available as an early access release, the new mobile app supports Windows hybrid devices, such as Microsoft Surface, and provides an optimized design for Android tablets.
The new ServiceMax mobile experience extends to iPad, Android tablets, and Windows laptops and hybrids and offers improved navigation and search for field service engineers. ServiceMax incorporated feedback from technicians, customers and Apple UX experts to create an interface that improves productivity and promotes customer satisfaction.
ServiceMax Catalyst
The ServiceMax Catalyst implementation package provides a wealth of pre-configured service processes, business objects and functionality that can be quickly deployed across enterprise organisations.
With Catalyst, customers have an accelerated path to get started with ServiceMax and gain immediate benefits from their field service business. The Catalyst implementation package delivers a best-in-class ServiceMax experience that is based on over four hundred ServiceMax customer engagements.
"In times like these, organisations can no longer rely on experience and gut feel to make the right decisions. The field team, dispatchers, and service leadership all need data in order to adapt to changing trends and service needs," said Aly Pinder, Jr., Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group.
"The future of field excellence will be enabled through solutions that can take the guesswork out of what to track by leveraging best practices, and the burden off over strapped IT teams to make insights accessible." - Aly Pinder, Aberdeen
In addition, Spring ‘16 expands the list of available localisations by including Finnish and enhanced Japanese language support.
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Apr 27, 2016 • News • field service management • Software and Apps • software and apps • Trimble
Trimble has launched an end-to-end field service management suite called PULSE, designed to improve productivity across mobile workforces
Trimble has launched an end-to-end field service management suite called PULSE, designed to improve productivity across mobile workforces
The PULSET suite is a comprehensive portfolio of end-to-end field service management solutions that enable businesses to deliver field service excellence across a range of industries, including construction, agriculture, telecommunications and utilities.
It is cloud-based and modular, enabling businesses to performing critical field service operations to transform the effectiveness of their work, workers and assets to improve productivity, customer satisfaction and their bottom line. Whether businesses need to streamline efficiencies in the back office, with technicians out in the field or both,PULSE provides an extensible portfolio of capabilities to meet a wide variety of operational requirements.
"The Trimble PULSE suite enables businesses to manage all of their field service operations in one place, with one provider," said John Cameron, general manager of Trimble's Field Service Management division.
"Our combination of telematics, back-office, scheduling and mobile workforce solutions allow us to offer the most complete set of end-to-end capabilities on the market today."
Built upon Trimble's robust infrastructure framework, the PULSE suite offers a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities to manage, schedule, mobilise and monitor the complete operation in real-time.
"We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all field service management solution and more businesses are continually seeking tailored solutions to address their individual pain points and priorities" - John Cameron, Trimble Field Service Management.
Organisations can easily manage customers, calls, service contracts, estimates and work orders along with asset history, inventory and billing.
Scheduling and dispatching - Offers an extensive range of scheduling, dispatch and optimisation tools to manage tasks, appointments, parts, shifts, routing and crew support.
Mobilising the workforce - Provides end-to-end data access and information collaboration through configurable and customisable mobile applications.
Monitoring the work, workers and assets - Offers organisations the ability to monitor work status, view the location of their workers, as well as all their mobile assets and vehicles. Businesses can quickly analyse work in process, utilisation, monitor performance, improve driver safety as well as ensure compliance is met.
"We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all field service management solution and more businesses are continually seeking tailored solutions to address their individual pain points and priorities," said Cameron.
"The modular set of capabilities that characterise the Trimble PULSE suite allows businesses to tailor a solution based on their needs to >streamline operations and achieve field service excellence."
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Apr 19, 2016 • Features • Hardware • Magazine (digital editions) • resources • Digital Issue • rugged • SLA • software and apps
Field Service News Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland looks asks whether too many field service companies are taking the easier short term options that will ultimately lead to greater costs in the longer term...
Field Service News Editor-in-Chief Kris Oldland looks asks whether too many field service companies are taking the easier short term options that will ultimately lead to greater costs in the longer term...
Click here to download a digital version of Field Service News issue 11 now!
Download the digital issue of Field Service News issue 11 now!Is x,y or z fit for purpose? It’s a question that we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis but unfortunately human nature tends to prefer a make do and muddle through attitude rather than face the tougher option of re-evaluating our choices...
Of course this isn’t always true, if it were there would be no innovation in the world and as anyone who reads this column regularly can attest innovation is one thing that gets me excited.
And in fairness in our industry it is all around us, my only fear is that perhaps such examples of smart out of the box thinking are sometimes the exception rather than the rule.
A point in case is to be found within our latest research project where our findings point to so many companies taking the easy options when it comes to device selection for their field service engineers.
In their defence they will likely point to the fact that it was the cheaper option, but all to the often what appears to be the cheapest option up front can ultimately be a more costly choice further down the line. Indeed the Total Cost of Ownership argument that many rugged manufacturers or distributors will put forward is based around facts and figures that support this exact notion.
However, for me the issue is not thinking the choice through in terms of how these devices will genuinely fit into an engineer’s workflow. For example of the 59% of companies that opted for consumer devices to empower there engineers in the field, 71% stated that ideally the devices for field service should have barcode scanning capability.
Now whilst I know the camera on a consumer tablet or smart phone is capable of handling barcodes, but it’s a cumbersome process whereas so many industrial devices are designed to incorporate this functionality with a dedicated button to make our engineers lives easier.
“For me the issue is not thinking the choice through in terms of how these devices will genuinely fit into an engineer’s workflow...”
Basically one product is fit for purpose and the other is not.
Yet the overwhelming majority of companies opt for the device that isn’t fit for purpose because of an initial lower cost per unit. It is a short-sighted approach that leads to potential efficiency improvements being missed, which in turn could see potential additional profits melt away.
OK I may be being a bit melodramatic but I’m sure you get the point.
Considering what is fit for purpose and taking the time to make considered decisions - whether it be around hardware, software or even processes is, in my humble opinion at least, the key to long term success.
In fact this issue is full of examples who questioned if what was the accepted norm was in fact actually fit for purpose or not.
Take Dr. Bart Guthrie, neurosurgeon and founder of Help Lightning to begin with. Ultimately it was his acceptance that the standard means of communicating remotely in the medical sector, i.e. the telephone, wasn’t really fit for purpose anymore that led to the creation of mobile merged reality and Help Lightning which is shaping up to be a significant game changer in both the clinical and field service sectors alike.
Then there is Kony.
A mobile app development platform who have identified the fact that the functionality of many traditional FSM solutions is constrictive and in the context of a digital mobile worlds not fit for purpose.
Or how about IFS’s Tom Bowe.
In our interview he makes a great point about beginning to define new processes today in preparation for the oncoming sea change that will be mass adoption of the Internet of Things.
Very simply Bowe argues that the SLAs currently in place and the processes to support those SLAs will soon no longer be fit for purpose as ultimately technology will make them obsolete.
It is only by challenging ourselves and our decision that we can continuously improve. And the question ‘is it fit for purpose’ is therefore a handy one to keep tucked in our head to help us achieve that.
Click here to download a digital version of Field Service News issue 11 now!
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Apr 19, 2016 • News • Salesforce • Software and Apps • software and apps
Built on the Salesforce Customer Service platform, Field Service Lightning promises to harnesses the latest mobile and IoT technologies, enabling companies to deliver connected, intelligent customer service from phone to field...
Built on the Salesforce Customer Service platform, Field Service Lightning promises to harnesses the latest mobile and IoT technologies, enabling companies to deliver connected, intelligent customer service from phone to field...
Salesforce one of the world’s leading CRM companies, announced this month the launch of Field Service Lightning, a new field service solution built for today’s connected world.
Harnessing signals from connected devices and customer data from Salesforce, Field Service Lightning is designed to be a modern approach to field service that is built for mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT).
With Field Service Lightning, Salesforce state companies can now unite customers, connected devices, agents, dispatchers, and employees in the field with one powerful service platform to deliver a seamless customer experience from phone to field.
With 6.4 billion connected things in use today 2020 predictions stating that number will reach 20.8 billion, the implications for field service are staggering. As connected devices become smarter and more predictive, it will create new opportunities to reinvent the customer service experience.
Built on Service Cloud, Field Service Lightning is built to enable companies to deliver mobile, intelligent customer service from phone to field.
In the initial press release Salesforce have stated that Field Service Lightning users will be able to:
Connect their entire service workforce:
Field Service Lightning connects the entire service organisation from call centre to the field.
Agents, dispatchers and mobile employees in the field will be on a single, centralised platform, bringing a new level of transparency and efficiency to customer service.
Service agents will have a 360-degree view of the customer and can create a work order from any case.
Mobile employees in the field will now have access to the customer’s full service and purchasing history, empowering them to easily resolve any issue that may arise and possibly upsell the customer on another product.
For instance, a homeowner requests a service visit because their Internet connection has gone down.
After resolving the issue, the technician sees within the field service app that the homeowner has previously asked about a faster Internet connection.
Using this insight, the technician presents new packaging options and the customer upgrades to a faster Internet speed at a discounted rate.
Intelligently schedule and dispatch work:
At the core of field service is scheduling and dispatching.
Leveraging features from ClickSoftware like scheduling and optimisation, Field Service Lightning promises to take dispatching one step further by applying a layer of intelligence.
Scheduling is automated based on skills, availability, and location to optimise on-site service. Rules can be put into place to automatically assign senior field employees to complex service issues, and junior field employees to the routine service calls.
Because scheduling is automated, dispatchers can focus on the real-time view of service operations and adjust resources accordingly.
For example, if the first job of the day ends up taking longer than anticipated, a dispatcher can assign a different field employee to the next job so the customer’s appointment does not get delayed.
Or if a mobile employee gets delayed by traffic, a dispatcher could route another field technician to the job.
Track and manage jobs in real-time:
Customer service moves fast and forward-thinking companies need real-time access to their service data.
Field Service Lightning promised to enable all service employees to update work orders, issue change requests and adjust job status, anytime, anywhere and on any device.
A staggering 65% of field service workers still print out their service tickets and bring them in their vehicles, slowing down the service process
Now, an employee in the field can see their open work orders on their mobile device, update them throughout the day as they complete jobs, and all the information is seamlessly updated in Salesforce.
We are just beginning to see what customer service can look like in the era of mobile and IoT,” said Mike Milburn, SVP and GM, Service Cloud, Salesforce. “Field Service Lightning gives companies the ability to reinvent their approach to service by connecting the phone to the field on a single platform, resulting in an amazing customer experience.”
Pricing and Availability:
Available in most regions now Field Service Lightning starts at $135 for organisations that have at least one Enterprise Edition or Unlimited Edition Service Cloud license.
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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