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Kevin McNally, Asolvi gives us the inside track on what makes a strong RFP when looking for a new FSM solution, and the benefits the process can yield...

Want to Know More? There is a white paper that expands upon which is available to Field Service News subscribers. Not a subscriber? If you're a field service management professional click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription

When building your initial RFP (i.e. the document you give to prospective solution providers that outlines your needs and objectives) for a field service management system, you are able to establish not only a firm understanding of what the challenges are that you are looking to resolve, but also a reasonably wide-ranging understanding of what is possible.

I recently co-authored a white paper with Kris Oldland, Field Service News that offers five fundamental points for consideration to help you ensure that your RFP gives you the very best chance of selecting a solution provider that will be able to work with you to deliver the right solution to help you improve efficiency in the mission-critical operations of field service.

The white paper looks at each of these in some depth but let’s take a quick look at each now.

Consideration #1: Don’t wait until you’ve completed your RFP to approach potential Field Service Management solution providers use them to develop and refine it from the outset...

Some companies like to come to the table with an understanding of what their needs are and will approach the market with a fully formalised RFP. Other companies may be less sure of what a solution can provide so they may engage with a number of providers at an earlier stage.

In today’s business world we are in the era of Everything as a Service, where business and system ecosystems and outcome based contracts require building deeper relationships - a strong argument can be made for the latter approach.

In fact, there are a number of reasons behind why this approach is becoming more and more popular and in the white paper we take a look at three of these which are:

1. You’ll never know what you don’t know you don’t know!
2. Get a feel as to if a potential provider is in it for the long-haul or the quick-buck
3. Strong relationships are built over time, but all have to begin somewhere

Consideration #2: It is crucial that you keep the fundamentals in place of what you require from a new field service management solution as you build the RFP...

As you begin to develop your RFP it is absolutely crucial that you keep the fundamentals required in mind when bringing together the roadmap for where you want your service operation to go and how you want your new solution to take you there.

Whilst the obvious starting place is to look at your current pain points, far too often companies can tend to put too much emphasis on various small problems rather than focus on the bigger picture

During this stage, you really need to be thinking macro rather than micro.

Consideration #3: Get a firm understanding of the key baseline technologies that you should be expecting from a modern FSM solution...

You’re looking for your FSM solution to become the link between your back office operations and your field workers. At its core this means that the functionality you need as a minimum requirement is to facilitate communication - whether that be between dispatcher and engineer, engineer to engineer or even the easy flow of data to and from the field and all other co-dependent business units.

Real-time information flow is therefore absolutely critical and something that you should be seeking from any modern FSM solution that you consider.

Consideration #4: Don’t make a decision from the top of an ivory tower - make sure you take in some feedback from the guys who will actually be using the system day in, day out...

It is important to get an understanding of your existing work-flows and how the end users in your team are going to be using a system. A natural default is to focus on how the engineers are going to utilise a system, but don’t fall into the common trap of glossing over how a new solution will impact on the way the back office support team works as well.

Those companies that tend to get the most out of a new FSM solution are often those that have built up a fuller picture of how they will be using the system throughout the process of building their RFP.

It is very often the case also that the companies that get this right have taken the time to listen to their end users both in the field and in the back office.

Consideration #5: Integration needs to be at the forefront of your thinking - will the FSM system play nicely with both legacy systems and even systems you may need in the future?

In one sense it almost feels that in today’s world where, as we’ve already alluded to, easy data flow should be at the top of your list for any prospective new FSM solution (or business system in general for that matter) that integration should be a bit of a gimme.

However, things aren’t quite as simple as that - it is still an important question to ask, just as it is important to understand that one integration to another can be hugely different.

There will be certain integrations that are a given - but there may well be some that fall outside of that group, so it is important that you understand the whole ecosystem of your business network across various different units of your organisation.

Want to Know More? There is a white paper that expands upon which is available to Field Service News subscribers. Not a subscriber? If you're a field service management professional click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription

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One of the largest suppliers of equipment and consumables for the dental industry is all pearly white smiles after deciding to swap its predominantly manual service operation for an automated one: Tesseract.

Wrights Dental supplies both NHS and private dentists with everything from syringe tips and toothbrushes to dentists’ chairs, digital imaging scanners and suction systems. Much of its business revolves around the sale and installation of equipment, but in the last five years, a shift has occurred. Mark Pitts, Technical Services Manager for Wrights, explains,

“Now, the ongoing service and maintenance side of things is just as important as sales. This is because the industry has changed. Dentists are open longer hours, which means more service and support is required. As a result, we’ve had to expand our service teams and increase their skill sets, flexibility and working hours.”

Till now, Wrights has got by with SAP for billing and invoicing, and Microsoft Outlook for diary management. “This was fine for a small service team,” says Mark. “But as soon as we began growing our teams to meet the increased demand, we realised we needed something more substantial.”

One of the big things for us was spare parts management. Tesseract gives everyone in the company full visibility on what we have and whereThe biggest problem with Wrights’ existing service management system has been its manual nature. A particular issue for Wrights was the movement of spare parts. As demand and the level of customer expectation grew, Wrights’ commitment to delivering the first-time fix became ever more important. There were instances when engineers would turn up on site without the parts they needed to complete the job, largely because tracking stock manually is arduous and prone to error.

This led Wrights to Tesseract, a comprehensive service management system from leading solutions provider Asolvi. Mark Pitts says, “We came across Tesseract on LinkedIn and it was obvious pretty quick that there were a lot of things it could do straight away. One of the big things for us was spare parts management. Tesseract gives everyone in the company full visibility on what we have and where. Everything is live on the system, including the full-service history of the site. It’ll help make sure all our engineers have the parts and information they need when they arrive, improving the likelihood of a first-time fix.”

Another big benefit for Wrights is Tesseract’s Remote Customer Access (RCA) tool. Instead of phoning a helpdesk, Wrights’ customers can report issues directly through the system.

“This saves our customers time,” says Mark. “It also stops the information from getting diluted before it gets to us. A customer can report the issue directly rather than passing it to a receptionist to make a phone call, which can lead to misinterpretation. Also, the improved accuracy of the information helps us work out which jobs are emergencies and which aren’t.”

In general, Wrights expects to offer a higher standard of customer service via the Tesseract system. The automation and optimisation of scheduling and stock management will ensure four things: right engineer, right area, right tools, right time. In addition, Tesseract will reduce the number of customer queries Wrights receives because RCA lets customers see live information about billing, outstanding jobs and the terms of their contracts.

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GE Digital's acquisition of leading field service management solution provider Servicemax just over a year ago sent shockwaves across the industry for multiple reasons.

Firstly, in an industry that has been going through a spate of acquisitions over the last two years, the amount was quite simply eye-watering and just blew everything out of the water. Secondly, this was an acquisition that came right out of left field. Many analysts may have predicted that ServiceMax would eventually be acquired having been the industries biggest success story, but few would have suggested that an industrial force such as GE may have been the suitor that would become their new home. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke exclusively to the senior players at both ServiceMax and GE Digital to find out how things are bedding in...

When the ServiceMax from GE Digital train rolled into Berlin towards the end of last year for the European leg of their series of Maximize conferences, there was an exciting mix of vivacious confidence between the ServiceMax team and keen curiosity and anticipation between the delegates - who were in the main ServiceMax customers.

Of course, this was to be expected - as it is at such events that ServiceMax have traditionally announced their latest developments and outlined how they had refined their roadmap. In past iterations of the conference, we've seen ServiceMax announce a number of industry firsts including the announcement in 2016 of Field Service Connect - which essentially established a blueprint for the role field service management systems will play in our sector adopting IoT that is being mirrored by a number of their peers.

And that's not to mention the little matter of GE Digital's acquisition of ServiceMax for an incredible $900Bn which was announced just days after 2016's Maximize Europe event in Amsterdam.

With just over a year having passed it was a perfect time to see how well embedded ServiceMax had become within the GE Digital machine, and just how much such significant investment had changed their vision for the future of both their organisation and of field service delivery itself.Indeed, with just over a year having passed it was a perfect time to see how well embedded ServiceMax had become within the GE Digital machine, and just how much such significant investment had changed their vision for the future of both their organisation and of field service delivery itself.

Having spent a lot of time with Yarnold and his senior team over the last few years, one thing that has always come to the fore was that there was an inherent understanding of what excellent service looked like, and the ServiceMax vision was always about trying to develop the tools to make meeting standards of service excellence that much easier.

I recall speaking to Yarnold in 2016 about the ethos of the company, and he explained then how they felt that most of the technology in the Field Service Management sector was  geared towards taking cost out. What they realised very early on into their journey to becoming a leader within the industry was that there was a critical emerging trend - companies who were building products were experiencing much faster growth in the services side of the business than the product side.

We focussed on helping companies to grow their service business as opposed to squeezing their technicians for more productivity - which is still where most of the technology in our space is focussed"So we focussed on helping companies to grow their service business as opposed to squeezing their technicians for more productivity - which is still where most of the technology in our space is focussed" Yarnold had stated back then.

Of course, this approach has become widely embraced by most of ServiceMax's peers as solution providers realise that most companies now have at least one foot planted firmly in a service-centric world and as concepts such as servitization and outcome-based services go mainstream.

However, while there is no denying the prescience of Yarnold and his team's approach, until last year they were always just an observer of trends within the field service sector, only experiencing them indirectly via how they impacted their client base. But now as part of GE, an organisation that has something upward of 40,000 service engineers in various different divisions and across multiple sectors globally, they now have a direct line into a wealth of field service directors that are all on the same team.

I was curious as to what if any impact this would have on ServiceMax regarding how they position their worldview on what great field service looks like. In his opening address early that day Yarnold had touched upon shared learnings - so was it a case of their previous assertions being validated? Or was there an element of identifying essential details that could only be seen when one is embedded that little bit closer to the actual coalface?

"It is a bit of both" responds Yarnold. "We are part of GE Digital which has the Predix platform and then these application areas APM and ServiceMax, and we are separate from the rest of the GE business which are the industrial business units such as Oil and Gas, Power Generation and Healthcare and so on. Each of those business has their own field service operation, and each of those businesses is rolling out ServiceMax. So we're not part of the organisation, but we have the home team there to draw on."

To bring this message to life Yarnold recounts how before the acquisition Sharma, who at the time was the CIO of GE's Oil and Gas business had been a somewhat challenging customer, but once they were on the same side of the table the value that ServiceMax brought to the table was revealed to actually be hugely valued. "I do wish he'd maybe told me a bit sooner'' Yarnold said playfully which brought a warm laugh from Sharma - and in this brief exchange, the camaraderie and trust between the two were immediately brought to the fore, something usually found within relationships built on a mutual respect.

It's been a good balance so far, and we're just starting to tap into that knowledge of those industries and the vertical specific complexities of those industries. It keeps things fresh and challenging, but that's what we want. We want that challenge"So yes there was a lot of affirmation" Yarnold commented returning to the initial question. "Then where I think the learnings are coming in. As we start to work with these folks and we start to understand what their customers, the service, and maintenance organisations are all about - we need to ask how do we continue to evolve and build our product so that they fit those organisations. Utilities, Airlines, Railroads, Oil Companies - these have not necessarily been our direct customers to date and we're learning a lot about that. We're also learning a lot about metrics and measuring business. It's been a good balance so far, and we're just starting to tap into that knowledge of those industries and the vertical specific complexities of those industries. It keeps things fresh and challenging, but that's what we want. We want that challenge."

So would it be fair to assume that given this additional stream of insight there maybe a change to the roadmap that ServiceMax has outlined for themselves? Kasai picks up this point. "I think you outlined it well when you positioned it as an expansion" he replied when we tackle this topic.

"Both being part of the wider family of GE but also the massive investment is a much needed, as we really need to expand our portfolio into new markets and new capabilities. We'd always made a conscious effort not to go into many of these industries for a variety of reasons, but largely from a focus point of view. But now we have I believe, a solid competitive edge from a channel point of view with great customer relationships. We have an understanding of the domain within those industries, and it would have been tough just to walk in and grow that knowledge. Thirdly, we have the capital to go ahead and invest in the development of the products to actually develop those capabilities for these industries. It is a combination of these three things which essentially makes a brand new company - there is so much potential and that what we're all really excited about, where do we go next?"

It is interesting the Kasai mentions how the new environment in which they find themselves in is in many ways akin to being an entirely new company. It brings back recollections of another previous conversation with Yarnold the day the acquisition was announced. "It is not the start of a new chapter; it is the start of a whole new book" he had commented, which is a strong analogy, as this latest incarnation of ServiceMax is indeed a distinct creature than that which has come before. However, likely any great novel within a series, the fundamental aspects of what made it a best-seller in the first place must remain in place. To extend the metaphor to its very limits, there must be a familiarity and continuity in place if it is going to build on the successes of previous in the broader in the ongoing saga.

In other words, ServiceMax as part of GE Digital must build upon the strong foundations that are already in place. Yet, for such a substantial investment, they simply have to evolve as both Kasai and Yarnold suggested. However, it seems that this is something that is very much already starting to happen as the ServiceMax team becomes plugged into the broader world of GE.

Such cohesion and deep level insight will not only drive the functionality of ServiceMax forward hugely but by doing so will also raise the bar for the industry as a whole. As Sharma explains" Something we have done recently is to have seven business swarm ServiceMax from which we've then built a core centre of excellence capability - it is a very focused team, they have both deep domain expertise and have also been ServiceMax users for a very long time. From this, we have developed accelerators to help improve deliverability, but it has also become a great feedback loop to Rei and the product team."

It is this type of integration that many of the analysts within the industry (including myself), hoped to see emerge when the acquisition was announced. As such cohesion and deep level insight will not only drive the functionality of ServiceMax forward hugely but by doing so will also raise the bar for the industry as a whole.

It was undoubtedly one of the most interesting aspects of the acquisition that I discussed at the time in that there is vast potential for the further development of important solutions when a major player such as ServiceMax is embedded within an organisation that has such a fine-grained level of knowledge of delivering service, rather than being swallowed up by just another major software house that many would have expected.

Yet for the full value of this to be played out there has to be a true ebb and flow of dialogue between ServiceMax and the wider organisation - something which Sharma indicates clearly exists. "We attack things together, working with the platform team, ServiceMax and ourselves, on an integrated asset model of the future. We are talking about working within large-scale operations and exploring how do you augment and drive participation? It is a great way to valid test or experiment with a capability, and we give instant feedback."

We have the fortunate situation where we have a very large-scale service organisation as a captive audience, and we have an organisation that's capable of delivering these great capabilities to these organisations. "When you develop new products you have to be very iterative, you have to have a small set of customers to be constantly testing against so you that you eventually build a scalable product for the masses. If you look at these new capabilities, we are looking at it very much through that lens, and we have the fortunate situation where we have a very large-scale service organisation as a captive audience, and we have an organisation that's capable of delivering these great capabilities to these organisations."

Of course, the most visible return on GE's investment so far, certainly from a product perspective, would for most people in the industry be the close integration between ServiceMax's Connected Field Service suite and another of GE Digital's offerings, Asset Performance Management (APM). As we've covered previously in Field Service News, the combination of these two tools pushes us with far more certainty than ever before into the world of IoT based field service. So is this a clear indication of the direction that both GE and ServiceMax see as the future of field service delivery?

"I think what the move to predictive really does is that it puts everything on your terms," comments Yarnold. "You're planning ahead of time; you can predict who is going to go where with a high probability of success. This will, of course, increase efficiency but it is also a huge value add to the customer - you're in a position to now delight them, because the right people are showing up, they know the history, they know what is required and so on. I just think it changes the model entirely."

"Outages are needed, machinery gets worn out" adds Sharma, "the question is how can you replace these in a planned way because when it's unplanned, that's where really bad stuff happens. The notion that is important to me is about focusing on getting to almost zero-unplanned downtime. That is where I think the industry is going to head."

As Yarnold had expressed to me previously, it seems clear that there are kindred spirits and a shared DNA somewhere between the two organisations, and most certainly a shared vision for the future of field service. In terms of their influence on the wider market both ServiceMax and GE have played a role in getting us to where we are today. How far they can continue to push the field service sector forwards as one cohesive unit remains to be seen, but the early indications would suggest that they will remain at the vanguard of innovation within service delivery for the foreseeable future. As each of Kasai, Yarnold, and Sharma commented at various points across our discussion - it's all hugely exciting.

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Field service management software is transforming trade/ speciality contracting as more revenue comes from service contracts and maintenance...

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has released a primary research study revealing that legacy software solutions used by speciality and trade contractors could prevent them from profitably delivering aftermarket services to their customers.

These contractors are finding aftermarket service an important source of revenue growth as project owners wish to outsource asset maintenance to the companies that constructed, fabricated or installed the asset on their behalf.

The survey of 200 HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), plumbing, electrical, building automation, low voltage electrical, signage, overhead door and other speciality contractors paints a picture of an industry in the grips of a digital transformation.

85 percent of study respondents said they have maintenance contracts with customer-specific terms, service level agreements (SLAs) and pricing, but only 14 percent said their software facilitated these contracts “very well.”

85 percent of study respondents said they have maintenance contracts with customer-specific terms, service level agreements (SLAs) and pricing, but only 14 percent said their software facilitated these contracts “very well.”Many respondent companies did not enable field technicians to improve the customer experience or drive new revenue. Only 38 percent said technicians could access information on the terms of the contract including customer-specific requirements. Only 15 percent of respondents have the technology to empower field technicians to upsell or sell new service contracts, only 25 percent could issue new estimates and 23 percent could get customer approval for an estimate.

89 percent of respondents said they use subcontractors, but just over 10 percent have adopted the current technology by giving their subcontractors a mobile app to interact with their field service management software.

Respondents reporting greater readiness for digital transformation—Digital Transformation Leaders—are nine times as likely to say their software prepares them well for the essential process of service contract administration. Only 30 percent of Digital Transformation Laggards were even offering customer-specific contracts, while Digital Transformation Leaders were more than nine times as likely to say their software prepared them very well to support these contractual obligations with specific requirements for each customer.

Our data shows that residential contractors seem to be ahead of commercial contractors when it comes to Digital Transformation.IFS Industry Director for Field Service Management Mark Brewer said, “These trade and speciality contractors are at an inflexion point with field service management software. Many of them have invested in some level of field service technology to support aftermarket service work. Often, this same software helps them manage construction crews during the initial project. But now they are at that point where they need to become more attentive to customer-specific SLAs. They need to upsell and drive more sales from each customer and improve the customer experience.”

IFS Senior Product Evangelist for Field Service Management Tom DeVroy added, “The adage is that the future is here—it is just not evenly distributed. This is true for trade contracting, where our data shows that residential contractors seem to be ahead of commercial contractors when it comes to Digital Transformation.

This is mostly the result of customer demands that have pushed them towards software that optimizes the field service schedule, enabling them to give an accurate estimated time of arrival and issue proactive customer alerting. They are further ahead on automated subcontractor management, automated parts ordering and fulfilment, and field-based, point-of-service payment processing. Contractors engaged strictly in commercial work need to catch up as their own customer expectations evolve.”

Download the entire study, Are Trade/Specialty Contractors Leveraging Field Service Software for Aftermarket Service? @ fs-ne.ws/MNNo30inF0F

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Noventum have been a trusted pillar of the service management community for a long, long time and now they have established an excellent process to allow field service companies establish which FSM vendors best meet their needs. René Boverhuis guides us through their methodology...

A Field Service Management (FSM) solution is a key enabler for a service business to deliver best-in-class customer experiences, maximise business efficiency and achieve strategic goals.

Selecting the most suitable FSM solution can be a daunting task as there are numerous products on the market, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and no single product can support complete end-to-end service processes.

A complete service solution will almost always consist of a combination of several products, some of which may already be implemented, except in a greenfield situation. Organisations thus have to accommodate their existing IT strategy and architecture in which the FSM solution should be integrated.

To select a FSM solution, Noventum recommends a seven-step approach:

1. Define strategic business objectives and goals

Before starting to select a new FSM solution, it is important to understand why an organisation needs this and what the organisation wants to accomplish with it.

Questions that need to be answered include:

• What direction is your service organisation heading?
• What type of services will be provided to your customers three to five years from now? Outcome based, predictive maintenance, etc.
• What are the main business goals in terms of growth and profit margins?
• Why not strive for a standardised global operating model and supporting service IT architecture?

It is important to understand the strategic objectives and goals as the new solution should be able to provide the functionality to enable the business to achieve the goals and be able to support the services that will be launched in the future.

2. Identify key service characteristics and service process scope

The type of service contracts that are offered, the type of market the organisation is addressing and the way these services are delivered greatly influence the required capabilities that a FSM solution must provide.

To get an understanding of the nature of the service business that needs to be supported, insight into key service characteristics is needed, including:

The different service contract types that are offered.

Service market as a B2C service organisation has quite a different dynamic than a B2B.

How is service delivered? By using internal resources, subcontractors, outsourcing of service activities, or a combination? Does this differ per county, region or business unit?

Size of the service business (if possible broken down per country, region or business unit) in terms of:

• Service revenue per year
• Total number of service contracts, service requests and work orders per month
• Number of technicians, dispatchers, service managers
• Value of service parts consumed per month
• Total number of installed base objects

The functional scope required of a FSM solution is dependent on the service processes that the organisation needs to have in place. To be future proof, the processes required in the future also must be identified to be able to support new type of services that are planned.

At Noventum we use the Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards as a framework to identify the business capabilities that should be included in the scope. A good way of determining which service business capabilities are relevant for an organisation is by identifying key end-to-end business scenarios and for each business scenario determine which SCP capability is touched by it.

Using this approach, a high-level business capability model can be created relatively quickly. This can also be used as a starting point for the definition of a new global standard.

3. Design High-level Service IT Architecture

Most organisations already have IT applications in place that support part of the service business, often this differs per geography or business unit.

To determine which elements of the existing IT landscape can continue to be used or which applications are no longer needed, it is important to fully understand the landscape. It is important to understand:

• Which applications are currently in use?
• Which processes are they supporting?
• What the technical state of these applications?
• How satisfied the business users are with the current applications?
• What are the gaps in terms of functionality?

This analysis can then be used to design a high-level vision of the future service IT architecture which can be used to: decide which applications should continue to be used, identify the gaps for which a new solution must be found, and determine any dependencies that should be considered.

This also includes a mapping of the service process onto the new architecture. For example, it could be the case that the existing ERP implementation is used for production and installation at customer sites. The initial installed base then is created in the ERP, then transferred to FSM solution and maintained in the FSM solution from that point on. Using the new High-Level Service IT Architecture, the process scope for the new FSM solution is further refined.

4. Define functional and non-functional requirements and constraints

Now that the business processes have been defined, the next step is to define the functional features that the new FSM solution must have.

To define the required features, Noventum’s SCP Functional Reference Architecture is used. The reference architecture consists of a set of functional domains, each with a set of typical features. The processes from the SCP Standards are mapped to the functional domains and therefore we know which ones are relevant for the process scope (fig.1).

This results in a comprehensive list of features that the new solution must support. This list is prioritised according the business goals and strategy.

Besides the functional requirements, the non-functional requirements and constraints are also defined. This includes the typical things like performance, security, availability, flexibility and interoperability, and constraints that define the context and environment in which the new FSM solution must be deployed.

5. Identify short-list of FSM products that match requirements and constraints

The functional scope, High Level service IT Architecture, functional and non-functional requirements and constraints can now be used to the define a short-list of products.

Noventum has good understanding of the FSM products on the market today, which includes that feature they provide and how they fit in existing architecture. We regularly publish our FSM Reality Check (fig.2) which ranks each FSM solution in terms of the ability to provide business benefits vs. the risks and costs involved in implementing and operating these solutions.

Using our knowledge of the FSM products, Noventum can help organisations to quickly reduce a long-list of potential products and vendors to the two or three most suitable ones, eliminating the need to go through a lengthy RFI process.

6. Evaluate FSM products and vendors

For each of the vendors and their product on the short-list it needs to be evaluated into detail to what extend the product can address the functional and non-functional requirements, whether it fits into the existing/future IT architecture and if it can meet the constraints.

To significantly shorten the time required to select a solution, Noventum often assists organisations in defining the RFP (using the functional scope, non-functional requirements and constraints) and evaluating the RFP responses, demonstrations and presentations.

As part of the process Noventum believes it is important that reference visits are part of the selection process as this provides the opportunity to hear from peers about their experience with the solution.

Reference visits also provide insight into why an organisation selected their specific solution and to give confidence that the solution works in practice.

7. Conduct Proof of Concept

High user adoption of you FSM solution is a critical success factor and there might be some essential specific functionality for a service organisation that needs detailed evaluation.

A Proof of Concept is a good way to validate whether the technicians are comfortable using the mobile FSM app to do their job, for example. Other examples include testing contract types, SLA’s or complex preventive maintenance schedules.

Together with Noventum and the product vendor, some of the key business scenarios defined in Step 2 can be implemented in a short period of time and validated with a select group of stakeholders.

The Proof of Concept is thus used to confirm that the selected product indeed is the best suitable FSM product to support the service processes and enables the service organisation to meet their strategic goals.

Conclusion

Although selecting the right FSM solution for an organisation is a daunting task, by using the right frameworks, knowledge of the service business and FSM market, it can be done in a much shorter time frame and cost. While an organisation can be sure that they select a solution, which is able to support their service business now and in the future.

 

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Leadent CEO, Alastair Clifford-Jones tackles the tricky issue of ageing technology...

Many organisations that have implemented field service management solutions now face a dilemma. Recent advances in technology platforms, software and hardware, have caused these organisations, that had previously enjoyed a competitive advantage, to risk being left behind. And it’s not just the advancement of technology that is driving this, the focus for many field service organisations has changed due to consumers’ ever-increasing expectations, and the deregulation of some industries.

Given the pressure on organisations to provide a better customer experience, many assume the solution is to replace or upgrade ageing technology; especially considering that the replacement could be a Cloud or SaaS-based solution that would shift the costs into an OPEX bucket. Whilst this might be seen as a silver bullet, the truth is more complicated.

When organisations first considered field service management systems they were trying move away from the Chaotic Survival state (as per the maturity model shown below.) Business cases were predicted on an improvement in operational efficiency by ensuring the right job was given to the right operative, with the right skills/tools/parts to meet customer service levels at an optimal cost.

 

To become a Supply Led business required a limited change in technology, and more of an organisational change as it is much more about breaking down silos within a business.

However, transforming into a Demand Led organisation requires significant investment, and a completely different way of thinking. This is where organisations need to be truly digitally enabled with multi-channel customer touch-points.

So, what’s the right direction for organisations?

It depends. There are several aspects to be considered.

The first is not just what technology you have, but how well it’s been implemented into the business; are processes understood and adhered to? Does the business model match both the objectives, and process model?

Often organisations believe technology is at the root of their problems – if they could just have faster software or more flexible configuration life would be so much simpler. In reality it’s often the way technology has been implemented and this isn’t just about customisation or configuration, it’s about embedding process and mindset change into the business. Even in today’s world, there are far too many technology-driven implementations that are not owned or controlled by the business.

The second is deciding where the business needs to be. In the diagram above, it is clear the ‘best’ position is on the right-hand side, but this is primarily driven by consumers. If your customers don’t need you to be this type of business, there is no point trying to position yourself there. But don’t kid yourself, this would make you the exception, not the norm.

Your business’s starting point, and where you need it to be will give you an indication of the gap that needs to be closed to deliver competitive advantage. This then begins to formulate a basis for the decision to upgrade or replace technology. But, as ever, there are a number of ways to close this gap, with many requiring some technology, but how do you make the right decision?

The options are:

• Drive more value from a current deployment
• Implement point solutions to add functionality
• Upgrade an existing solution
• Replace the current system

Getting more Value from a Current Deployment

Many implementations have failed to deliver the anticipated value. It’s not that businesses are over optimistic when the business case is developed, but more that they don’t take the opportunity to truly transform. The field service management solution is seen as an operational tool and implemented in a silo.

This silo thinking has resulted in the lack of an integrated view of the end-to-end customer journey. In reality, this is not because the business failed in the implementation, but more that efficiency was the focus at the time.

 

Getting more from a current deployment is all about the end-to-end customer journey. Often greater value can be achieved from just having an integrated view, which means looking at processes and how the organisation matches this view.

In my experience, there is always more value that can be generated from a current deployment. But the big question is, is it ever enough to meet current and future requirements?

Implementing Point Solutions

If the scheduling and dispatch solution is working well, and an organisation is just trying to improve the customer experience, there is no reason why the existing solution cannot be enhanced by implementing greater functionality via integration with other software such as online booking or customer communications.

This way a customer can get the ‘digital experience’ with minimal disruption to operations. Given integration capabilities and the proliferation of APIs, it is much easier in today’s world to integrate a point solution with current platforms. The main gripe for customers is the lack of information from the organisation. If you keep your customers informed via appropriate channels - a web or mobile app, or even a lowly text message, it can dramatically enhance customer experience.

In addition to improving the customer experience, it alsomakes operational sense. The business case for delivering better customer information can often be satisfied by the reduction in calls to call centres alone.

Upgrade an Existing System

Upgrades come in many forms. Vendors are working hard to shift customers from on-premise solutions to their new cloud variants. While the existing cloud vendors are innovating and adding functionality to stay out in front. Often the decision to upgrade is with the supplier in that support will usually be withdrawn for non-upgraded systems, for example, where the cloud option becomes the only option.

Where the organisation has an option to upgrade to get enhanced technological capabilities, it is very important to understand the impact it will have on the people and processes. In my experience, upgrades often fail because the processes have not be realigned, or the teams have not been properly informed or trained.

Organisations that have really benefited from enhanced functionality have conducted a full impact analysis on the processes and realigned their businesses appropriately to make best use of new capabilities.

Replacing a Current System

To many organisations, replacing a system fills them with dread as the initial implementation was a particularly expensive and painful experience but, in reality, much of the hard work has already been done. Much of that pain was in moving from a manual system to auto-scheduling and mobile dispatch. This was a change management exercise, and isn’t a reason not to replace. In fact, if it was done well, it’d be shame not to further capitalise on that investment.

Additionally, moving to a cloud or SaaS based system will not require the capital outlay which was required in the past and, should an organisation choose to move to the cloud, the new IT landscape and architecture needs to be considered, particularly in terms of integration and security.

 

Of course, there are benefits of replacing a current system beyond those of better functionality, for instance, some new systems offer much greater business flexibility. For example, the way different providers treat capacity can offer greater benefits; where many assign an engineer at the time of appointment, some now look at the overall capacity and perform the assignment on the day. For the majority of businesses and use cases, this increases efficiency.

If we are looking at moving organisations to the right on the maturity model it’s essential to have an integrated approach to the end-to-end customer experience, which may be constrained by that organisation’s field service management solution.

Don’t Get Left Behind!

As we’ve seen, moving towards a truly Demand Led model for field service can be achieved via a number of different paths. Where your organisation sits within the maturity model and how much focus is placed on the customer journey will dictate the path you need to take.

But in all cases, it is imperative to make those decisions with a critical eye on your own maturity and the end-to-end customer experience in mind. Failure to do so risks leaving the business trailing in the wake of those who do.

 

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ServicePower Inc. a market leader in field service management solutions, has recently released a new Customer Experience service solution that combines its patented Artificial Intelligence engine with its new Gantt, maps, dashboards, improved technician mobile enablement features, and a new integrated registration, diagnostic, self-scheduling and point-of-sale enabled Customer Portal.

This integrated solution is new to the industry, being the first solution to help field service organisations drive a faster, smarter end-customer experience, while also improving the effectiveness of field technicians and operations teams.

“Customer experience is key. This product release uses the latest in artificial intelligence, real-time engagement and mobility tools to deliver a better, and more digitised experience,” said Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower. “Customers and technicians care about great service, which ServicePower now can deliver it in a differentiated way.  Our suite of solutions eliminate many of the frustrations customers experience when requesting installations, maintenance or service.”

ServicePower drives faster service for the end customer. 

The Customer Experience release empowers end-customer users to instantly book appointments through an integrated self-service portal, on any device, utilizing the patented AI technology. Relying on ServicePower to seamlessly book employed and credentialed contracted field technicians using its smart brokering technology, field service organisations can delight customers with faster response times and a consistent, branded service experience, while providing greater call center efficiencies at the same time. The new release also improves visibility for customers through real-time job status notifications and technician location information, enables customers to upload diagnostic and triage information, and engage with their technician as a trusted advisor. Customers gain improved control over their own experience, uploading and viewing job related information and configuring notifications from the platform.

ServicePower drives a smarter service experience for the mobile field technician.  

With the Customer Experience release the field service team gains a market leading set of capabilities, enabling predictive maintenance, higher repair success rates, and delivery of a more personalised service experience to end-customers. Technicians have access to a more complete customer data set, including all relevant job, customer, asset and part information to deliver higher first time fix rates, while being able to push data downstream, improving manufacturing and long-term product viability for customers.  Extensive product catalogs and pricing capabilities enable technicians to deliver parts, accessories and service offers in person, adding value to each customer interaction.

ServicePower drives a unified experience for service operations. 

The Customer Experience release enables field service operators to streamline field service operations, from entitlement and claims management to scheduling, labor and parts forecasting, reporting and analytics. ServicePower’s modern interfaces and patented AI-scheduling algorithm improves customer processes such as appointment booking, with employed or contracted field personnel, while driving productivity up and costs down.  Responsive, collaborative dashboards improve visibility of operations, driving improvements for both the customer and the technician.

Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower said “This latest Fall 2017 product release is all about changing the service paradigm to incorporate the latest in AI technology, digitisation, and a great user experience to empower the technician to deliver great service and the end-customer to manage their own engagement with service organisations, when and where they want, with clear visibility of technicians’ visits, so they know what’s going on. Technicians enjoy providing faster, smarter service, so they can delight the customer and provide more value. Our focus is about streamlining operations on a unified platform to provide a better experience for all, continuing to innovate with new features targeted across the entire service ecosystem.”

 

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ServicePower recently hosted an excellent webinar the discussed the Customer Experience release on which you can access here

 

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We take a look at how UK window and doors specialist SafeStyle UK improved their field service efficiency by turning to FSM provider Exel Computer Systems 

Business imperative

With 13 installation and 36 sales branches around the UK, and a 600-employee factory manufacturing over 6,000 doors and windows each week, Bradford-headquartered Safestyle is one of the country’s leading businesses in the replacement door and window market.

But by late 2013, the company recognised that it needed to update its aftersales customer service capabilities, which had become spread over three distinct systems, giving rise to inefficiencies and data duplication.

Challenge

The core system was a decade-old customer care system, directly fed from Safestyle’s ERP system, which handled maintenance work associated with the ten-year guarantee that Safestyle offers its customers.

In addition, any aftersales maintenance necessitated by customer complaints was handled by a second system. This did not benefit from a data feed from the ERP system, and so required manual data entry.

Finally, a specialist scheduling system handled service engineer scheduling and routing, creating the service engineers’ daily work programmes and vehicle routings.

While each system worked acceptably well when viewed in isolation, a very different picture emerged when they were viewed as a whole.

 

Service engineer visibility required enhancements to go to the next level, management reporting was limited, and opportunities for better scheduling were being missed.

In addition, adds Nick Stokes, Safestyle’s IT Change Manager, the whole process was overly reliant on paper, using printed work schedules against which service engineers would report progress by telephone, requiring headquarters staff to manually update the relevant system.

Clearly, schedules provided on tablet computers, and directly updated by the service engineers themselves, would be far more efficient, as well as providing real-time progress visibility.

Finally, adds Nick, the core legacy system was becoming both difficult and expensive to maintain.

“As a business, we’re passionate about customer service, and so retiring these various systems and replacing them with something that was both newer and better would be an obvious step forward,” he recalls.

The only question: replacing them with what, exactly?

Why Eagle Field Service? 

Consequently, in early 2014, Safestyle began surveying the marketplace for field service management systems, and subsequently invited a number of suppliers to submit quotations for supplying a replacement system.

The clear winner: Exel Computer Systems’ Eagle Field Service solution.

“From a functional and ease-of-use perspective, it offered all the functionality that we were looking for,” recalls Nick, “in addition, although this hadn’t been a formal requirement, we could see that we might, in future, want to be able to use elements of Exel’s EFACS E/8 ERP system. So for a variety of reasons, going with Exel and Eagle Field Service made good sense.”

This is due to the fact that Eagle Field Service is an element of the EFACS E/8 ERP solution, utilising the functionality and modules required, such as Document Management and Workflow.

Should a client require the manufacturing functionality, licences are bought, the modules implemented and the staff trained.

Implementation

Implementation began in early 2015, with a goal of commencing a phased rollout by the third quarter of the year.

Implementation was straightforward, recalls Nick, noting that as Eagle Field Service’s intuitive interface and ease-of-use is driven by a rules-based engine, time had to be devoted to creating the required rules. In addition, he points out, the move away from paper schedules to tablet computers called for careful testing, the provision of user training and thorough User Acceptance Testing.

 

“Customer service is important to us,” he stresses, “it was better to be right, than rushed.”

But with testing and training complete, rollout began as planned, and was completed within a few weeks.

Business benefits

The move to Eagle Field Service, relates Nick, has delivered a number of very distinct benefits. The user experience—both for headquarters staff, and service engineers—is far more intuitive, and enables people to work more efficiently.

“There’s no need to tab between different systems,” he explains, “all the information that people want is in one place.”

What’s more, in the case of Safestyle’s service engineers, that ‘one place’ is a simple and easy-to-use tablet interface—an interface that also provides real-time updates back to Safestyle’s headquarters, as jobs are completed.

Moreover, adds Nick, the scheduling of service engineers isn’t just easier than before, it’s also more powerful, resulting in a more efficient routing of engineer visits, and better optimisation of engineers’ time.

 

Roll it all together, and the combined effect of a reduction in paperwork, the elimination of duplication and data entry, and better engineer scheduling, has enabled a significant improvement in engineer utilisation, notes Nick.

Finally, the move to Eagle Field Service has delivered better reporting—reporting not just of metrics such as customer service levels and engineer efficiencies, but also the detailed reporting of faults and maintenance issues.

“By providing data on the underlying reasons for service calls, Eagle Field Service has given us an enhanced ability to perform root cause analysis, giving us much better visibility into particular parts that are subject to early failure, so that we can address this during design and manufacture.” concludes Nick.

“This has always been an objective—and now we have achieved it.”

 

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Tesseract’s Sales Director Kevin McNally, with over 15 year’s experience in the industry, explores the key elements with Kris Oldland Editor of Field Service News...

 

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Want to know more? A white paper on this topic is available for Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!

Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you the white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!

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[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ield Service Management technology has become essential to service delivery excellence. Service excellence is no longer a USP but a baseline requirement. However, whilst technologies such as IoT and Augmented Reality are grabbing the headlines their potential is greatly diminished unless you have a fundamental layer of technology in place already.

This two part article explores what to expect from a FSM system and offers best-practice tips to help you get the most from your investment...

Contract Management:

[quote]“The starting piece for everything is the contract and the control of the contract. Without that in place it is very difficult to bring everything else on top of that.”  Kevin McNally, Tesseract.

 

Contract management is often viewed as the starting point of almost everything within field service management operations. Without a view of your service contracts you cannot have to hand the answers for critical questions such as:

• What is the SLA on any given contract?
• Is a client under warranty or do they have an enhanced level of service contract
• Does a contract include spare parts and/or consumables?
• Is the service contract due for renewal?[/unordered_list]

You could be at risk of potentially not meeting your client’s expectations and so putting the potential of renewing or upselling service to that client in danger in the future – or on the other side of the coin, you could be giving valuable service away for free.

From the point of view of understanding the assets and also the entitlement that the customer is due as we go through a process of raising a service call or indeed, raising a sales order, we need to fundamentally understand what we should be doing with the entitlement for each specific client.

Scheduling:  

[quote]Optimised Scheduling in our world tends to be more geared to the planned maintenance aspects of service calls – i.e. for those companies who are looking to do things in advance and are looking for the best possible route to achieve this – Kevin McNally, Tesseract

 

Scheduling comes in a number of different guises and the various different names given to types of scheduling options can be a somewhat confusing but broadly scheduling will come in three flavours:

• Assisted Scheduling: Assisted Schedulers are essentially a manual tool, that as the name denotes offer a layer of assistance to the dispatcher making their job that little bit easier and thus increasing efficiency.
• Optimised Scheduling: With an optimised scheduling tool most of the work is done by the system. It will search through the scheduled service jobs and the available engineers and pull together an optimised work schedule for the day taking into account things like travel times and distances, priority jobs and field engineer skillsets etc. However, when things fall outside of established parameters, it is down to the dispatcher to make necessary adjustments to the schedule to make sure SLAs are met etc.
• Dynamic Scheduling: Dynamic scheduling is a further evolution of optimised scheduling that draws in data from mobile applications and telematics data etc to continuously revise the schedule throughout the day, reacting to situations such as a delayed engineer and reallocating jobs to ensure that the days schedule is continuously optimised.[/unordered_list]

Ultimately, when it comes to scheduling, it really is a case of horses for courses and establishing what is the best fit for your organisation.

Whilst not all companies will see a need for a dynamic scheduler, all but the smallest of organisations can benefit from at least some form of optimisation within their scheduling solution and the efficiencies that can be delivered are significant so it is an area of your FSM solution that you should get to understand and know fully.

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Want to know more? A white paper on this topic is available for Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may well qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!

Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you the white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!

 

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