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Cognito, the field service  management solutions company, has appointed Laurent Othacéhé as CEO, as part of  a wider organisational restructure intended to position the company for  growth.

Othacéhé joined Cognito in 2014 as Sales Director, bringing with  him more than 20 years’ experience in the field service industry. Prior to that he was CEO of 360 Scheduling, a company he created from scratch, which grew to be one of the world’s leading providers of mobile workforce scheduling and  optimisation software.

Othacéhé was recently named by Field Service  News as one of the ‘20 most influential people in field service’.  As such, he is ideally suited to lead Cognito as the company seeks ongoing investment to  fund its growth strategy.  “Innovation is at the heart of our business, so  I’m thrilled to be leading a company whose people are known within our industry  for their creativity, expertise and dedication to customer service” said  Othacéhé.

 

Cognito’s plans to grow the business include expansion  into new markets, and the goal of the restructure is to support this  strategy.  Other changes of role within the management team include the  appointment of Dave Webb, who joined Cognito in 2010, as COO, and Steve  Alderson, who has been with the ompany for more than 20 years, as SVP – Service  Operations.

 

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Continuing our series of interviews with industry leaders, Kris Oldland took the opportunity to sit down with IFS Managing Director, Paul Massey at the IFS World Conference in Boston last month. Against the backdrop of the launch of the swedish ERP provider’s latest product suite Applications 9, the conversation looked at both Massey and IFS’s journey across the last twenty years or so…

It’s been a busy month for IFS with a raft of new developments announced at their 2015 world conference including the launch of IFS Applications 9, key partnerships with Accenture and Microsoft, the launch of a Managed Cloud Solution plus a number of improvements to their field service offerings.

Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland spoke to Paul Massey to discuss what these announcements mean for the Scandinavian based company.

With so many big announcements coming in the first morning of this years world conference it felt like a sensible idea to try and put this into context of the near twenty year journey Massey has been on with IFS.

“Back when we became IFS back in early 1997 that was when the product was becoming graphical” Massey begins.

“There was a long history with my company Avalon and IFS who at the time were our Scandinavian distributor. Basically Avalon didn’t make the transition from character to graphical so IFS acquired most of the assets of and at the outset it was all about that new graphical user interface along with the component architecture story that IFS already had. So for us that was the first major milestone and in a way that was the first wave of internationalisation for IFS.” He continues.

Indeed IFS had been a very Scandinavian centric company before that point with one operation in Poland but little else beyond there home market.

This all began to change in the the late nineties as following on from the UK acquisition France and Germany and then a US acquisition.

As Massey explains “The first three or four years of our time with IFS was all about becoming an international company. There was a massive amount of investment in that area in sales and marketing functionality to cover other markets etc so that was a big investment period for IFS so in the early noughties there were some financial difficulties from a financing point of view because that was such a period of aggressive expansion. I wasn’t involved in the senior management then as I am now but I’m guessing they saw that was required to get a global footprint as quickly as possible.”

 

In fact this aggressive expansion plan resulted in a marked a period for IFS between 2000 and 2004 when there was negative growth. However as the world faced an economic crisis in 2008 IFS had already taken their hit and as competitors started to suffer they emerged as a healthy, profit making organisation.

“We’d finished spending our money and were set to reap the benefits of our investments” Massey admits. “We managed to more than survive that phase because it definitely impacted on others much more than it did us. We continued to grow as we moved from a negative cash flow to a really positive cash flow and we came out the other ends of that in a very healthy state.”

But what about the product how did evolve also?

“Having gone through the transition to graphical interface right at the beginning the next major milestone was enterprise explorer, the .net client in the Apps 7.5 release.” Massey explains.

 

“That was the next technology milestone from IFS’s point of view from then all of the releases i.e. 7.5 then 8 and now 9 have been more heavily focussed on broadening out the level functionality in each of the industries we target and obviously keeping the technology up to date.”

Which brings us up to Apps 9 which has brought a number of new features that had the delegates of their world conference more than impressed (see page 48)

“From a technology point of view I think the Layered architecture and some of the stuff we are doing with in-memory optimisation (which will be in an update of Apps 9 a little later in the year) is really important.” Explains Massey “You’ve got to keep the functional and technical streams running together in parallel which I think we’ve done. I think there is enough of both of those things in this release to get the customers interested in it.”

Look out for the second part of this exclusive interview where the conversation turns to the Cloud…

 

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Within field service the IFS brand is well known, having gone through an aggressive expansion drive fuelled by key acquisitions of US based Metrix and UK based 360 Scheduling the brand has secured both headlines and customers alike within our industry in recent years. However at this year’s IFS world conference held in Boston there was a real sense that the ERP software provider has truly come of age as a key global player.

Hosted in Boston the three-day event combined some inspirational keynote speakers, a slick mix of presentation formats – including a US TV Style panel show and most importantly given the profile of the delegates an impressive array of technology for the attendees to get their hands on.

At the heart of the conference was the announcement of IFS Applications 9 which having be revealed on the first morning of the conference caused a significant amount of interest and excitement. Admittedly the audience was already fairly engaged with IFS’s product suite with an initial poll showing almost half of those in attendance were already considering moving to Applications 9, however, if the general reception to the series of new functionalities and tools announced was anything to go by, by the end of the three days that figure may well have increased further.

IFS Applications 9 revealed

After an initial opening keynote from IFS CEO Alastair Sorbie we were soon greeted with an impressive promotional video giving us a glimpse of what the next generation of IFS applications will include. Shots of a very modern, intuitive looking interface sitting across multiple devices, including interestingly a variety of smart watches ensued as the video rolled across the obligatory 100ft screen, accompanied by an upbeat dance track.

The message was very clear. IFS Applications 9 was something the Scandinavian based company were very proud about and they wanted the world to know it.

 

As Thomas Sald SVP Research and Development, IFS announced as he took to the stage as the video came to an end “It looks quite exciting doesn’t it? And it’s beautiful as well”.

Indeed this is perhaps the first initial response of IFS Applications 9. It simply looks great. It is a clean, modern, and intuitive looking user interface. The growing trend of customisation in enterprise technology is something that the development team of IFS have clearly given a lot of consideration to.

“We know that user experience is important to you as it is directly linked to your business.” Sald continued “A great user experience increases productivity, makes it easier to make the right decisions and helps in attracting and retaining talent. It also shortens the implementation time and creates enthusiasm for the new system.”

“User experience is important. Yes it’s looks good, but it is important because it supports your business and the people that run your business.”

However, there needs to be more to a new system than just a facelift. Fortunately IFS Applications 9 has introduced a number of new capabilities that also raise the bar in terms of the functionality of the software that could potentially some real benefits to those field service companies that elect to implement it.

The first of these introduced was the IFS Lobby.

IFS Lobby essentially provides a very clear and highly customisable view of a business or a specific project within a business, in relation to a specific job role or process. Being fully customisable IFS can bring the users at-a-glance information that they need for their own specific requirements and it can be tailored to each unique user.

The user is also then able to drill down into specific finer details relating to either their role or a specific project and it’s elegant UI is fully responsive making it accessible from desktop, tablet or even smart phone.

 

Such easy access to key information whilst out in the field could of course be equally as vital to enhancing and improving how a field engineer’s workflow as it could to making reporting at management level a far easier and less troubling task.

Another impressive benefit of lobby is the ability to observe and interact with other departments within the ERP structure and this leads neatly into the second big introduction of IFS Applications 9 – Streams.

Streams is basically an inbuilt notification system within IFS Applications 9. With a similar look to something akin to the lovechild of instant messenger and twitter it was a neat way to receive updates on tasks that require your action.

However, Streams doesn’t just sit in your Lobby waiting for you to spot the new notifications pop up. No Sir, with apps for both smart phones and smart watches available Streams is able to bring your attention to the task at hand as soon as it arrives.

What was soon becoming clear with the release of IFS Applications 9 was that the software is hugely customisable. From being able to quickly and effectively build your own Lobby that provides the key information you need at a glance through to tweaking the UI so that it looks more familiar and comfortable to you and your colleagues.

However, being able to make aesthetic changes and user level functionality is one thing but a true customisation, one which essentially changes elements within the base code, which are sometimes still both genuinely needed and well motivated is another entirely.

In the past a significant consideration if you have a customised version of any software, let alone something as mission critical as an ERP, is how much additional work is there to make the upgrade feasible due to the customisations in place. Often the amount of work to transition from one version to another can simply outweigh the benefits of moving to the new platform.

This is where the next major new element of IFS Applications 9 comes in. It is built on a ‘Layered Application Architecture’ which essentially removes such worries from the equation making upgrades as simple a process for customised versions of the system as those that have been run straight out of the box.

“We’ve broken the code into separate transparent layers” explained Sald “That means when we come with an update to IFS applications your customisations can remain unchanged. That’s going to save a lot of time.”

Indeed it is, and this layered architecture has been applied to all of the varying pieces of IFS Applications 9 such as the data models, the design models the business logic and the user interface which could be a potentially massive incentive for those companies looking to opt for a system which is set to grow with them.

 

The other big enhancement that could be a real game-changer for both IFS and ERP providers in general is the inclusion of an embedded CRM. As data becomes more and more important in field service both in terms of capturing it, interpreting it and most importantly removing barriers to accessing that data for those who need it is critical.

With the inclusion of Embedded CRM within IFS Applications 9 essentially users can now have an enterprise application that combines ERP and CRM into a single package so now the barrier of using a CRM as a separate application with it’s own separate database is removed.

However, whilst each of these components of the new release are important, it was undoubtedly the Lobby function that had caused the most excitement with the conversations in the coffee break clearly being centred around this new innovation, with a number of attendees clearly keen to get a hands on experience with it in the later sessions.

Playing with the Big Boys…

I mentioned at the beginning of this feature that this was the year that perhaps IFS have truly emerged as a major global player. And whilst IFS Applications 9 is truly an impressive step forward for the company, it was just element of the announcements revealed at the conference that led me to this conclusion.

Another significant factor is the announcements of a number of key strategic partnerships that signify just how far IFS have progressed in recent years and how important a player they may set to become in the various verticals they operate within.

The event itself saw a number of these partners including the likes of Oracle and Intel showcasing how they are working with IFS in the innovation and networking area.

However, there were two top tier partnerships that really caught the eye. The first of these was a co-operation agreement wit Accenture that was announced the day before the conference, which will see the two companies, strengthen there existing partnership with training and certification of over 100 consultants through the IFS Academy.

With IFS and Accenture jointly pursuing sales and delivery opportunities the core of the agreement will focus on growing IFS’s licence sales together with Accenture’s implementation and application management services. Such an approach could be key in opening up a path to top tier, blue chip organisations for IFS who have traditionally be more focussed on the mid-level sector.

Whilst this five year partnership may well prove significant for IFS, it was the other ‘diamond level’ partnership that was announced that is of likely interest to their customers both past and present.

That partnership was with Microsoft.

As a result of this high level collaboration IFS announced during the conference the global availability of IFS Applications as a fully managed service on Microsoft Azure, which could provide a much more flexible and cost effective way to take advantage of the IFS suite of solutions.

 

Optimised for IFS Applications versions 8 and 9, IFS Managed Cloud is a security-enhanced single-tenant cloud within the world-class Azure environment. Customers can decide how and when changes are made to IFS Applications, specify maintenance and upgrades to suit their business needs.

“Not everybody wants to go about the cloud in the same way” began Dan Matthews, Chief Technology Officer IFS as he made the announcement. “Some of you may see it as a virtual data centre, others may be working with a partner who are moving multiple assets to the cloud. Some of you may want the vendor to take care of everything for you”

It is to those in the last categories that IFS Managed Cloud is aimed at.

“IFS Managed Cloud marks a major milestone in our company’s history as it offers our customers a new set of options for deploying, running, and using our solutions,” Matthews commented in the accompanying press statement to the launch.

“We have designed IFS Managed Cloud to provide flexibility, improved security, and reliability at a level that would be very expensive to achieve in any on-premise installation. Coupled with the layered application architecture of IFS Applications 9 and the ability to utilize Azure’s global network of data centres, we are offering a truly future-proof cloud solution that reduces complexity, risk, and cost.”

So what about Field Service?

Of course whilst understanding the bigger picture is important, for those with field service operations the burning question is what have you improved for my team and me. In fact there were a number of major updates that were announced during the conference that related specifically to their IFS Enterprise Service Management (ESM)suite of products, which comprise of IFS Service Management, IFS Field Service Management and IFS Mobile Workforce Management.

In fact Cindy Jaudon, North American President for IFS went as far as defining IFS ESM as the most “comprehensive suite of service management solutions available.”

So what has been added?

For a start the latest iteration of IFS Field Service Management (version 5.6.2) includes a number of enhancements including running natively on Microsoft Azure which as well as being a robust and proven platform of allows customers to dynamically scale system resources based on actual usage.

There has also been a large focus on added mobility tools with some really nice enhancements including an automatic calculation of ETA using GPS data and the long awaited ability to record videos with the system. However, here it is perhaps the under the hood tweaks that were most impressive with initial tests showing that the new update is delivering 92% decrease in sync times and a 500% increase in maximum file sizes.

 

Notifications have had an overhaul too with the Android version now support the Android notification bar (a key missing feature for many Android users) and alongside the ability to accept or reject a job assignment directly from notifications just makes the user experience that much more streamlined than before. We also see the notifications system having a wearable option for the first time as well with integration with Samsung and other Android watches.

There is also the introduction of what promises to be an excellent automated knowledge management solution, which will make recommendations of which solutions are appropriate for a job as information is being entered by customer service staff or customers.

The system considers user rankings and actual usage. Additionally, solutions include attachments (FAQs, product manuals, etc.), service notes and sync with the mobile devices; efficiently extending knowledge management from call centre to field service.

In both IFS Field Service Management and IFS Mobile Management there is a focus on scheduling and IFS Mobile Workforce now features support for a number of increasingly complex scheduling problems including being able to now even cater for jobs that have different start and finish areas.

Alongside this there is increased support for dispatchers including simplified visualisation of the schedule, and manual, semi automated and dynamic scheduling options.

For management there is then the excellent inclusion of target-based scheduling which gives them the ability to set business-goals and KPIs within the system that automatically impact on the way the scheduling system allocates work whilst at the same time it can consistently monitor actual performance versus business targets such as SLAs and first time fix rates etc.

IFS Mobile Workforce Management also now incorporates an Advanced Resource Planning tool, which supports the manning requirements of more challenging and complex operations such as Oil Rigs, Ships, high-tech machinery and so forth.

Finally IFS Service Management boasts the same love and attention to it’s UI that has been seen across the whole of IFS Applications 9, plus improved remote warehouse capabilities, and again a focus on both scheduling and mobile.

Milestones

As I mentioned in the beginning, the IFS World Conference from the very start had a sense of celebration and pride about it all underscored with a deep lying confidence.

The technology showcased across the three days was undoubtedly impressive and at the forefront of the various industries it is designed for. And as we’ve touched on here through some strong strategic partnerships IFS may well soon find themselves playing in a bigger pond and attracting even bigger fish.

Another announcement made at the conference is that IFS have now got 1 million users on board.

 

It’s a big milestone but one that is all the more impressive if look back at their history and see that it took, 21 years to reach the 500,00 mark. A further 8 years to grow that figure to 750,000 and just a further 2 years to grow there user base by a quarter of a million users to hit the big seven figure milestone.

One thing is sure; IFS’s growth is now gaining some serious traction. They’ve got a product that can deliver and are rubbing shoulders with some very powerful friends.

Now wonder they’re feeling confident. The question is now just how big can they become? How long before we are talking about the next milestone? And just what will that Milestone be?

 

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New and extended business modules for customer experience management software include configurable self-help portals, enhanced field service technician mobility applications, real-time integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX, and dynamic field scheduling with optimisation 

Vertical Solutions, Inc. (VSI), the developer of customer experience management software solutions,announces new business modules for field service solution VServiceManagement™.

Modules include self-service supply chain portals, a multi device field technician app that includes Android and iOS apps for field service management, a routing and scheduling optimiser, and a robust Microsoft Dynamics AX API. These modules are integrated in the cloud version of the field service management software, and also are available for on-premise installations.

• MyServicePortal™ enables external partners and customers across the service supply chain to schedule, monitor, and manage their service experience via a secure, online portal. This self-help portal experience offers real-time configurable dashboards, appointment scheduling, service history, and parts orders. All service-related information is available via any device, at any time.  
• FieldCom™ is a highly configurable online/offline mobility application for field service organisations. Field technicians can access current assignments, view inventory levels, access knowledge articles, create parts orders, view their KPIs, and more while posting their labor, parts, and expenses. Additional functions such as signature capture, payment processing, and bar code scanning are also now available. Featuring online and offline capability, FieldCom supports iOS, Android, and Windows-based smartphones, tablets, and notebook devices.
• VSchedulerTMdelivers dynamic optimised field scheduling, mapping, and routing. Field technician scheduling can incorporate skills, service level agreements (SLAs), travel times, inventory availability, shift patterns, and more. When variables change, VScheduler suggests the most efficient and cost-effective route and schedule for each field tech, with auto-updating when variables change. Further, integration with leading GPS/telematics providers allows for geo-fencing and automated alerts throughout the scheduling process, enabling a pleasant (or satisfying)  customer experience.
• VSM-Connector™ offers real-time integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX, using direct web services. The Certified for Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD) integration enables companies to benefit from the native business logic and workflows of each system, yet share all service information that has financial implications – including entitlements, incurred costs, inventory, and invoicing – in real time.

 

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ServicePower Technologies have announced that it has signed a contract with a leading US based manufacturer and marketer of automotive appearance protection products, PermaPlate Inc., which will implement ServiceOperations to reduce administration, cut costs and improve the service levels delivered to customers.

PermaPlate, headquartered in Utah, manufactures and distributes appearance protection products which protect the interior and exterior surfaces of vehicles; it also underwrites vehicle appearance warranties. PermaPlate will use ServiceOperations to intelligently dispatch work to contractors in markets where service is required, as well as create robust claims payment authorisation processes for its experienced technician network.

PermaPlate works in a fiercely competitive sector and in order to improve services to customers it has enlisted ServicePower’s product and development teams to produce new features within the application which facilitate the discreet logic required to manage a network of 3^rd party contractors so that they can deliver more competitive SLAs. Repair claims will also be managed through ServiceOperations, providing robust validation logic to the customer to enhance its warranty management process.

Victor Diercksen, Director of Business Technology, PermaPlate Inc., commented “Our dedication to quality products and superior customer service has driven growth of 50% year over year for the past 3 years.  Our growth was severely straining our legacy service management system which was in dire need of replacement.  We took this opportunity to upscale to an enterprise quality system like ServicePower to improve our service times while reducing or eliminating manual processes.  ServicePower is the latest in a series of investments in business systems that will allow PermaPlate to maintain its leadership position in the automotive appearance protection industry.”

Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower, stated “We are really pleased to be working with another world-class organisation, in a new vertical, that sees the benefits of our cloud based, 3rd party ServiceOperations product. Using Operations, PermaPlate Inc. will be able to manage its resources intelligently and cost effectively to meet demand.

 

“PermaPlate benefits from our early investment in a completely industry agnostic, truly multi-tenant SaaS application in ServiceOperations, which continues to differentiate ServicePower from other Field Service Management vendors. We’re able to offer true hosted, intelligent, dynamic dispatch and warranty claim management to clients who utilise 3^rd party contractors or vendor partners in their service delivery equations. Our team of field service experts provides the experience critical to our customers’ success by not only advising how best to set up the software, but by providing advice and industry best practices in  managing a connected, contracted workforce.

“With continued enhancements to ServiceOperations, part of our connected field management platform, which provides industry acknowledged scheduling optimisation, cutting edge mobile technology and asset tracking, robust business intelligence, M2M Connected Services and Smart Scheduling of mixed labor pools, ServicePower has positioned itself as not only a visionary, but as a field service management solution of choice to organisations which endeavour to operate most efficiently in today’s changing field service environment.”

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Kirona
Title: Six steps to being a leader - the field service checklist
Download: Click here to access the white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Field workforce management software enables organisations with a mobile workforce to significantly improve their operational performance. The State of Service Management 2015: Connect To Your Customers report by Aberdeen's Aly Pinder found that best-in-class field service organisations achieve on average a 14.4% year-on-year improvement in workforce productivity compared to a 4.1% industry average.

This white paper looks at six key steps that field service companies must take in order to reach these heights themselves and establish their organisations as leaders amongst their competitors.

Overview:

Topics within the white paper include: 

• Optimising resource planning: Field resource planning is complex. If you have 100 workers carrying out 5 jobs a day, then that are 10,000,000,000 (1 billion) possible combinations of how those jobs could be allocated. There may also be a myriad of additional scheduling criteria such as worker skills/trade, certification required (and the validity dates), languages spoken, job time frame (appointment slot/site access), the region/ geography, the worker’s experience, parts, materials, equipment required, and the list goes on.  No human planner can possibly consider all these scenarios and determine which is financially the best option with the highest chance of customer satisfaction. It is therefore, not surprising that over two-thirds of Best-In-Class service organisations leverage software for Optimised Resource Planning.
•  Making and keeping appointments: Compliance to your work schedule is critical for two reasons, first it ensures you are working in the planned most optimum way, but second and more importantly, it means you are delivering against commitments to customers. For work types that require a customer appointment, the complexity of scheduling increases. Now an organisation needs to schedule work by considering two diaries; that of the workforce and the customer. Appointments are also disruptive to the customers, so keeping them is essential to achieving high customer satisfaction
• Connecting with the mobile workforce: Equipping field workers with mobile devices is a well-trodden path, however, whether through limitation in mobile working applications or lack of integration, we tend to find that most field service organisations are not maximising the full potential of connecting the field workforce.
• Real time tracking and dynamic scheduling: One of the biggest challenges for any organisation is how to track and monitor field-based activity and to manage the emerging day. Exceptions will always arise, whether through an overrun, no-access or emergency work, the skill is being able to take this in your stride and be able to dynamically reschedule work to take into account the unexpected while ensuring you continue to work to the most optimum schedule.
• Analysis & Continuous improvement: Standing still is not an option for field service organisations. We see continual change from our clients’ including customer demands, executive level priorities and changes in the workforce – all of which requires them to analyse and continually improve their operation. Knowledge is key. Understanding every aspect of your field service operation, gaining insight into not only what is happening, but why this is happening, and then being able to take action on this insight.
• Integration leads to automation: The more staff ‘touch points’ that are required in a service process, the greater its inefficiency. Not only do manual processes create a drain on labour and therefore an increased cost, they are error prone and they create timescale lags. Workforce management software provides an opportunity to avoid this by automating key activities in the service management chain of processes. The more 3rd party systems that are integrated into automated workflows, the greater the benefit to the organisation.

 

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Click here to access the white paper

 

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Click here to find out more about Kirona in the Field Service Directory 

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Severn Trent Services has been using service management software supplied by Tesseract for nearly four years. In the latter months of 2014, they saw the wisdom of upgrading to the latest version of the software, Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1).

Already they are enjoying huge time savings and greater efficiency as a result of the new components available to them. UK-based Severn Trent Services is part of a major international conglomerate that in total serves 4.2 million households and businesses throughout the world. It is the leading national supplier of water and wastewater services to businesses in the UK, currently providing services to more than 1,500 sites nationwide.

Their work includes water hygiene services; controlling and maintaining assets such as sewage and water treatment works and sewage pump stations; and connecting water supplies to housing developments. Their national status means they have the capability to give businesses with multiple sites the ease, simplicity and efficiency of dealing with one supplier for all their locations.

Severn Trent use Tesseract to run their water hygiene service, which is a hugely important part of their work. Essentially they make sure businesses comply with water hygiene legislation by carrying out inspections, cleaning tanks and pumps, performing disinfections and conducting remedial works to bring water systems to the necessary standard.

Moving away from labour-intensive processes

Before the upgrade, Severn Trent only relied on Tesseract’s software to manage their customer contracts and invoicing. Their field service management depended on a variety of manual and labour-intensive processes. Several different software systems were used to manage the engineers – one for allocating the jobs, one for travel planning and one for collecting feedback, time capture and other data.

“Extensive manual intervention was required to make these systems work together properly,” says Jack Fleet, Water Compliance Scheduling Technician for Severn Trent Services. “This eventually became clunky and we saw that there was too much room for human error. It also took up a lot of office time.”

In July 2014, Severn Trent reviewed their business, looking at how timely and how efficient their processes were, and how they could serve their customers better. Having been using some components of Tesseract’s service management software for several years, they decided to extend that usage to field service management. They wanted one whole, cohesive software system managing their engineers instead of several. A field service management overhaul By upgrading to SC5.1, Severn

Trent are now benefiting from Tesseract’s Remote Engineer Access software (REA). This allows engineers to log in remotely from their i-Pads, view allocated calls for dispatch, look at the call history for a site, product or customer, raise parts requests, add service reports and close completed jobs - amongst many other functions. REA completely streamlines field service management and removes the bulk of manual interventions that were previously necessary to perform these functions.

 

Severn Trent also have the benefit of Tesseract’s flexible Email Service, which automates the sending and receiving of emails from Tesseract Service Centre. Severn Trent are using the Email Service to handle customer appointments and reports, but automated emails can be triggered by all kinds of activities, such as when calls are logged and closed, and parts have been shipped.

Finally Severn Trent are using Tesseract’s fully customisable Reporting Service, which enables customers to schedule and run reports at any time during the day or night.

A bespoke feature

Currently in development is a bespoke feature of the software, which Tesseract are producing especially for Severn Trent. This feature will help to assess whether certain site restrictions mean that specific engineers are required to attend them. For instance, the engineer might need to have a DBS check, a certain qualification or skill set, or a certain level of training to be able to work at the site.

Tesseract are looking at inserting some additional fields to the allocation software to help Severn Trent assign the right staff. “The good thing about Tesseract is their enthusiasm for customisation,” says Jack Fleet.

“They are developing this feature specifically for us because they are persistent in wanting to improve and expand what they offer. If this feature ends up working for us, it’s something Tesseract will make available to other customers.

In the same way, if Tesseract develop something for another customer and think it will work for Severn Trent, they will make it available to us.”

What does the future hold?

Tesseract’s SC5.1 went live at Severn Trent Services on December 1st 2014 and already Severn Trent have seen a massive saving in office time. Efficiency has improved enormously thanks to REA and the upgrade has made customer contracts and invoicing more effective and timely as well. Severn Trent have plans to install Tesseract’s Prospect Centre. This is a sales enquiry and action follow up module allowing for the registration of both existing customers and new sales leads so that sales activity can be monitored. It contains data such as the sales source, sales value, product required and next action date, and has a helpful ‘Salesman’s To Do List’ feature. Severn Trent also want to implement Tesseract’s Quote Centre, which enables sales teams to generate quotes and easily convert them into customer contracts once the quote is accepted.

 

However, Severn Trent’s more immediate priority is Tesseract’s Diary Assist, which they will incorporate in July 2015 in order to further streamline their field service management processes. Diary Assist is a centrally hosted web service for call optimisation which handles both planned and reactive maintenance calls. It allocates jobs to engineers based on skill sets, availability, travel time, customer site cover times and various other factors, and effectively automates the deployment process even further.

 

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Find out more about Tesseract in our directory section by clicking here

 

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xMatters, inc., a provider of communication-enabled business processes, have recently announced a major new release of one of the industry’s most advanced communications systems for managing, deploying and rapidly resolving IT incidents.

The xMatters On-Demand platform is award-winning technology that automates pinpointing and alerting for the individuals, IT teams and external service providers who need to work together to quickly rectify critical business disruptions.

The communications market is undergoing a seismic shift. After decades of declining revenue and stagnant innovation, a new market is ascendant. This market is being driven in part by cloud economics. IDC forecasts the cloud communications platforms market will grow from global revenue of $123.4 million in 2013 to reach $7.5 billion in 2018 at a 127.5% CAGR[1].

New IDC Vendor Spotlight Report

According to a new IDC Vendor Spotlight report by xMatters and titled “New Approaches to Optimising Business Operations With Cloud Communications,” cloud communications platforms are on a course to undermine telephony system equipment markets which will significantly devalue traditional carrier voice and messaging markets as well. These platforms are changing ideas about how customers, end users and subscribers can communicate with enterprises. A simpler, more flexible platform approach is fuelling a new convergence of communications and business processes. This makes it easy to blend real-time communications into business-critical workflows.

The report states a new cloud communications approach, layered with the flexibility of a software-defined architecture, solves traditional business communications problems by delivering personalisation, timeliness, multi-channel use and integration and automation.

For companies to assure their environment and business operations in the event of disruptions, a new communications approach that automates the directory and staff schedule to simplify stakeholder whereabouts, ensures multi-modal communications to reach stakeholders via preferred channels and integrates easily with other systems for coordinated efficient and agile operations is needed. To the extent that xMatters technology can address the challenges described in this paper, IDC believes the company is well positioned for success.

 

“In the event of an interruption to the business, which is inevitable at some point, companies need to keep ahead of the game to assure their business operations run smoothly and downtime is minimised. We’re pleased to offer the market a modern and intelligent cloud communications platform that automates the directory and staff schedule to ensure communications reach stakeholders via preferred channels and also integrates easily with other systems for coordinated efficient and agile operations,” said Troy McAlpin, CEO of xMatters. “IDC is aware of today’s communications challenges in the marketplace and we’re thrilled they recognise xMatters is well-positioned for success.”


New xMatters On-Demand ReleaseFeatures

Highlighted new features and functionality for the latest xMatters On-Demand cloud release, available today, include:

Vastly Improved Scheduling: The new On-Call Scheduling module and associated functionality make it easier to automatically manage all facets of scheduling, such as schedule recurrences, holiday schedules, automated rotations and temporary replacements. The xMatters On-Demand technology also proactively reveals “hollow shifts” – those lacking on-call resources – and dynamically resolves rotations, temporary replacements and holiday schedules to immediately show on-call information.

Group Overview: The new Group Overview is the 'home page' for the assigned group. It allows users to quickly identify on-call gaps, to understand who is currently on call, the escalation process in place, identifies the group supervisors and also includes full team contact information.

Improved Calendaring: The new calendar function shows a complete view of team shifts and supports adding new shifts and changing existing ones with drag-and-drop interactions based on common calendaring tools, such as Outlook and Mac Calendar. Users can easily view the scheduled shifts for the week and click on them to see the team members scheduled on duty and their contact information, the escalation process in place for the shift and other key details.

Improved Roster: The redesigned, single view of resources can more easily pinpoint for team’s who is available and move them into shifts.

Enhanced Conferencing: Conference bridges remain an effective mechanism to mobilise multiple people for sharing information and deciding on action steps. The new On-Demand release includes a redesigned conferencing report, which makes it easier to identify all of the attendees on the call. Also, the conference administrator now has the ability to edit phone numbers to people’s names to ensure everyone is accounted for. This new ability makes for easier reporting after the incident has been closed.

Strengthened Mobility Capabilities: The new release also brings multi-login support, allowing those users that are responsible for different use cases or multiple xMatters environments to be able to log into all of them via their iOS device.

 

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Red Hat  a leading provider of open source solutions, today announced its vision to help organisations succeed in the mobile-first economy. Customers can take advantage of Red Hat’s experience and leadership in enterprise IT, and its portfolio of enterprise-grade open source technologies – including mobile capabilities from the recent acquisition of FeedHenry – to overcome their mobility challenges.

Mobility is increasingly becoming a top priority for business as a means to drive innovation and streamline operational efficiency; however, it is also creating demand for faster and continuous development cycles that challenge traditional IT infrastructure and development methodologies. To become mobile-centric, enterprises must evolve in a way that supports both the agility of new mobile initiatives and stability of core IT.

In response, Red Hat is focusing its enterprise mobility vision on four areas: platform architecture, developer experience, technology integration, and collaboration in two-track IT environments.

• Platform architecture: The public cloud or private Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)-based architecture of the Red Hat mobile platform facilitates agile development and DevOps processes, leverages RESTful APIs and microservices, and accelerates time-to-deployment to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Developer experience: A developer-centric approach that embraces modern toolchains, collaboration, and continuous development and integration allows organisations to use existing IT skill-sets for new mobile initiatives.
• Technology integration: Simplified integration of the platform with other enterprise middleware components, based upon a common REST API architecture, captures and stores new data generated by connected devices to help unlock the value in existing systems of record.
• Collaboration in two-track IT environments: Adopting a two-track IT approach, using mobile as the catalyst for building a “fast IT” organisation, helps balance agility with stability and fosters greater collaboration and cooperation between the two tracks.[/unordered_list]

Since accelerating into the enterprise mobile market with the October 2014 acquisition of FeedHenry, a leading mobile enterprise application platform provider, Red Hat has achieved several notable milestones in its mobile journey, including:

•  Release of platform enhancements for mobile Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and collaboration.
•  Integration of the platform into Red Hat’s award-winning integrated development environment (IDE), JBoss Developer Studio.
• Deployment of FeedHenry technology as a mobile service in OpenShift as part of Red Hat’s xPaaS strategy for cloud-based application development.
• Customers in industries ranging from manufacturing and transportation to workforce management are using Red Hat mobile technologies to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and extend critical enterprise systems to mobile devices.
• Recognition of the FeedHenry platform as the top Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS) in a sector analysis by GigaOM Research./unordered_list]

Red Hat plans to expand deployment options for the FeedHenry platform and roll out new integrations with the existing Red Hat middleware product portfolio, giving enterprises greater freedom of choice by extending its industry-leading capabilities across hybrid environments.

Commenting on the announcement Craig Muzilla, senior vice president, Application Platforms Business, Red Hat said “The mobile phenomenon has had a profound impact on the way we think and act and consume information in our daily lives.

 

That impact is now rippling throughout enterprise IT as organisations come face-to-face with the reality of doing business in a new ‘mobile first’ world, where speed and agility must be prioritised without forsaking the stability of core IT. Our vision is to help enterprises evolve in a digital world and provide them with an open and flexible architecture and the technologies that accelerate this transition.”

Chris Marsh, principal analyst, Enterprise Mobile App Strategies, 451 Research also commented stating “51% of organisations recently surveyed are further increasing their mobile budgets this year.

The enabling technologies are falling into place for companies to break out of the way they think about mobile from the silos in which it has traditionally resided, but the process needs to evolve to support this.

Over the past year, it has become clearer that traditional waterfall development across the software lifecycle is ill-suited to mobile, and that agile methods are more applicable."

 

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