ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘software-and-apps-2’ CATEGORY

With a view towards the looming new year the team at Bizness Apps have put together this fantastic infographic outlining some of the key trends in mobile to look out for in 2017...

 

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Sterilizer specialist ESTS is about to usher in a new era of fast, paperless servicing, courtesy of Tesseract’s field service software.

ESTS is the brains behind Logiclave, a leading brand of sterilization devices, including autoclaves, steam sterilizers and washer disinfectors. ESTS designs and manufactures the devices for hospitals, universities, pharmaceutical companies and the biotechnology sector, and makes sure all are properly and regularly maintained under service contracts.

At present, ESTS uses a basic software system to manage its service activities. However, it’s simply a diary and a database, lacking any intuitive call control or dispatch functions, asset management tools or mobile working solutions. The company also uses a separate software system for stock control.

“Our processes are quite labour-intensive,” says David Hawtin, Director at ESTS. “Our engineers have to handwrite service sheets and post or hand-deliver them to the office. Then our admin team has to process them and submit paper invoices to our accounts department. Engineers are dispatched by email or telephone. And with parts, engineers call our storeman and he orders them in. Tesseract is going to transform all of this.”

 

Tesseract’s service management software will provide ESTS with automatic dispatch, stock control, automated invoicing, asset management and, most importantly, a mobile field service solution for the engineers. This will eliminate numerous manual processes and the need for copious paperwork.

ESTS remembered Tesseract after seeing a demonstration of the software at a trade show a few years ago. Hawtin explains, “We saw a demonstration of two systems, but decided to go with Tesseract for two reasons. Tesseract offered a cloud-based version, and the system worked on both android and iOS devices. The other system lacked these features.”

ESTS will soon be implementing the cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of Tesseract’s Service Centre 5.1 (SC5.1). Hawtin says, “The fact that Tesseract offers a SaaS version of SC5.1 made it more accessible to us. It means we don’t need to upgrade our server to implement it, and it’s less of a burden on us because Tesseract maintains it in-house.”

 

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FieldAware, the leader in made-for-mobile, cloud-based field service automation solutions today announced it has been positioned on the November 2016 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management by Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company.

The Field Service Management (FSM) Magic Quadrant recognizes companies based on criteria which includes their ability to execute and the completeness of their vision.

“We are delighted to be recognized in Gartner’s FSM Magic Quadrant for the first time,” said Steve Mason, CRO of FieldAware. “We believe we have focused on bringing a new, dynamic edge to field service, so to be recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant is fantastic.

 

“Our goal is to simplify field service management. We want businesses to get the most value out of our solution, quickly, without having to worry about lengthy implementation and adoption. Our mobility and integration capabilities have been instrumental in our momentum and we believe that Gartner’s recognition is further proof of our approach.”

To find out more on how FieldAware is simplifying field service with innovative field service solutions – join one of our 30-minute webinars by clicking here

To access the 2016 FSM Magic Quadrant click here

 

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The public sector needs to take a long overdue look at the benefits of field service technology is delivering in the private sector writes Laraine Geddes, Marketing Manager, Kirona...

Kirona When thinking about field service, typically private sector examples spring to mind, such as electricians, plumbers, or other types of contractors performing work in our home or place of business.

We typically don’t think of field workers being associated with government, yet this is a vital component of public service.

Organisations, whether public or private, are leveraging field service technology to improve their customer experience by making the journey less about how they interact with customers and more about the relevancy and context of why customers need to communicate with them.

The objectives of field service work in the private sector are the same as the objectives of public sector field service. Ever present is the need to reduce wastage while at the same time improve real-time visibility and communication between the field based employees and their headquarters, and field based employees and their customers.

It’s imperative for field service technology to allow real-time communication; otherwise important decisions could be made based on older, non-relevant information. At the same time, customers need to be kept informed throughout the lifecycle of a field service interaction.

Kirona have enabled public sector organisations such as North Lanarkshire Council save in excess of £1.5m since implementing Kirona’s field service automation solutions across its Housing Property Services and Home Support Services. Together with the impressive cost savings the council has improved the service for patients receiving care at home vie the Home Support Team, as well as their social housing tenants.

Another example of field service technology enabling impressive savings is South Gloucestershire Council. The council serves a community with a population of approximately 270,000 in the South West of England.

As with many public sector organisations in recent years, the local authority has faced the significant challenge of maintaining service levels whilst undergoing spending cuts.

Seeking to make cost efficiencies the council implemented Kirona’s Job Manager mobile worker solution to 90 of its Street Care team. Job Manager enables the council to reduce paperwork, reduce drive time and phone calls, and automate job allocation and increase real-time job visibility.

The council has reduced Street Care costs by £500k per year and response time now averages 3 days compared to 7 day prior to implementing Kirona’s software.

 

Now, compare these outcomes to those of Carpetright, the leading flooring retailer.

Carpetright introduced dynamic scheduling and field service automation to its team of 320 Home Estimators.

Service improved with customers being able to book convenient appointment slots, estimators travel time reduced to reach customer appointments and estimated sales increased by 34%.

These examples show how field service software solutions in both the private and the public sector are being used to increase productivity, reduce costs, and significantly improve customer satisfaction.

However according to techUK adoption of field service technology for public services is being held back due to lack of skills despite civil servants agreeing technology is critical.

“Technology has a key role in helping the government deliver more for less and it’s great to see such widespread acknowledgement of the benefits technology has to offer,” said Julian David, CEO of techUK.

With the creation of the Crown Commercial Service G-Cloud Digital Marketplace, adoption of field service technology is set to increase.

The G Cloud framework simplifies procurement for public sector organisations, with organisations such as Kirona being selected as approved suppliers, thus speeding up the procurement process for many organisations within the public sector.

Field service technology can enable public sector organisations meet the challenge of delivering services with reduced budgets, and keep apace with today’s customer-centric approach to business, which sectors such as retail have traditionally championed. All hail the customer is king!

For more information on G-Cloud or the technology employed by North Lanarkshire Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Carpetright, take a look at Kirona.com

 

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The Field Service Management software industry is fiercely competitive and one that in the last few years has been in almost constant flux as new technologies continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Yet, across the last decade there has been one company that has risen from a humble start-up to globally recognised industry leader. That company is ServiceMax, and the man that has led that incredible rise to prominence is CEO Dave Yarnold. Kris Oldland, FSN Editor-in-Chief, spoke exclusively with him as he stopped by the ServiceMax London HQ on whistle-stop tour of Europe...

The ServiceMax story really is an incredibly compelling one - while stories of start-ups that become market leaders are not completely unique, they are few and far between and in the competitive world of field service management systems, their rapid rise to prominence within the last decade is out their on it’s own in terms of success.

Indeed, there are some really great service management providers out there that have a built solid businesses serving their small corner of what is in reality a huge market. Companies that are happy to feed off the crumbs (and make a very profitable living in doing so) that fall down from the big table where the traditionally established players such as ClickSoftware or Astea fight for elbow room with software heavyweights such as Microsoft and Oracle.

But this was never going to be the path that Dave Yarnold, CEO and co-founder of ServiceMax was going to choose.

Even back in the inception days in what Yarnold affectionately refers back to as the ‘beige palace’, a nondescript office tucked away in Silicon Valley, there was a distinct vision - and perhaps a key reason for their success was that, that vision wasn’t just to be another software provider trying to serve the field service sector but instead to form a company that intrinsically understood what good service was and then build tools to help engender that within their clients.

“We looked at what everybody was doing around service and we thought everyone was missing the point in two respects,” Yarnold begins “One was that everybody was focussed on consumer call centres and basically reducing the amount of touch that companies were going to have with their customers, so all the technology was geared towards efficiency and reducing interaction.”

 

“We also felt that all the technology was geared to taking cost out and what we stumbled on early on was an interesting trend that anybody who was building products were experiencing much faster growth in the services side of the business than the product side.”

“The global economy has slowed down - especially since the last great recession, so that means you’re not selling as much product but there is certainly enough opportunities to get value out of the infrastructure, customer base and install base that you have. So we focussed on helping companies to grow their service business as opposed to squeeze their technicians for more productivity - which is still where most of the technology in our space is focussed.” He adds.

It is a valid point that Yarnold makes, as the economy crashed on a global scale, suddenly service became fore and centre as very simply there were no more margins left to cut. Competing on price in many industries was just no longer an option.

However, with the economy on (slightly) more stable footing these days, the shift to service centric businesses is less about a necessary differentiator and more about building more profitable and sustainable, longer term relationships. A case in point being Sony’s Professional Service’s division, who have developed a servitized business model, using ServiceMax as their FSM system. But was this shift to services something that Yarnold had always envisaged?

“A great analogue to answer that question is to look at the software industry.” He replies. “I remember back in the year 2000 when Salesforce emerged and the idea of Cloud computing and Software as a Service as a business model was nowhere to be seen. The reason why it became the primary mode of delivering software was because it was what customers wanted. They wanted a balanced relationship , a long relationship, a relationship where they felt like they weren’t entering into an agreement knowing the supplier was getting all of the profit up front on day one.

Think about the imbalance in that type of relationship and of course outcome based services makes a ton of sense to customers. It’s far more balanced, it’s what customers want. The fact that the software industry has gone through this complete disruption, and all the leaders in the sector have now embraced this model - that’s not lost on manufacturing companies. Most heads of manufacturing businesses today will be looking at what software businesses have become, they look at the multiples that recurring revenue streams produce and they want that to.”

 

“You look at the long-term, recession proof benefits of that business model and the lock in that that brings, it’s a really attractive proposition.”

Of course mention of Salesforce, brings us to the elephant in the room.

While Yarnold and his co-founders vision was certainly a driving force for the success of ServiceMax, it is undeniable that they also rode the slipstream of Salesforce’s own phenomenal growth. Now with Salesforce entering the market themselves with Field Service Lightning, does this represent a significant threat to ServiceMax’s continued growth?

“It’s not like it was a surprise to us, it took them a while but they realised that this [field service] is a pretty big market,” Yarnold begins bullishly.

“For us, it’s interesting being the only guys in the market that believe in the business model of servitization and where this is all going. I see even in the direction of their [Salesforce’s] product that it’s the old cost reduction approach. It’s a scheduling centric app that is leveraging technology that ClickSoftware built on their platform - which is all around schedule optimisation.”

“Yes, it’s part of our suite also, but our product is built around assets and contracts and relationships and the business processes that drive a service business. It’s not just geared towards squeezing an extra few percentage out of the engineers. That’s part of the overall RoI of running a service business, but it’s only part of it. Basically, I think it’s interesting what they [Salesforce] are doing, but it is also old school in my opinion, it’s still cost based, which is kind of boring to people who run service businesses.”

 

One for is for certain though, if an original vision and harnessing the growing momentum of Salesforce were the initial keys to success, the ‘special sauce’ that has allowed ServiceMax to truly flourish has been there intelligent acquisition of talent in key roles that truly understand the industry. Yet, it’s clear that the passion for service stems from the very top.

“At the core of it, if you go back to the three of us when we started, we just care about this. We think it’s vital. From a standpoint of what we as consumers expect from a service relationship. When we really start to dig into it, it’s not just software, it’s an important part of business, an important part of the relationship that we all expect and take for granted, and there’s this army of people making it all happen.”

“So the follow on from that is if we are going to try and enable all this, then we’ve got to try and find people who’ve experienced it - people like Dave Hart (a former Service Director and customer now working in a global customer transformation role with ServiceMax) who live eat and breath this stuff and have built there career around it.”

Having spent an hour in Yarnold’s company the one thing that is clear is that ServiceMax isn’t just a software company. They are a company which already deeply understands field service, yet is continuously learning more about the sector each day and that I would venture is the true key to their success.

 

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The agreement expands the existing partnership that has driven significant productivity across GE; adds new capability to offer in the $1 trillion market for industrial service

GE Digital  yesterday announced it has acquired ServiceMax, a leader in cloud-based field service management (FSM) solutions, for $915 million.

The acquisition provides GE Digital with enhanced capabilities to advance its Industrial Internet vision, enabling customers to immediately gain more value from their assets and find greater efficiency in their field service processes.

Service has always been a core part of GE’s strategy and capability and was an early target for the company’s work in analytics and productivity. GE has invested in the build out of digital twins for industrial assets. In addition the company has accelerated productivity improvements through digitizing service processes.

The ServiceMax product offering was an essential element to driving GE internal productivity. With this acquisition GE plans to add analytics and insights into the ServiceMax logistics, workforce optimization and deployment models. GE estimates there is a market-wide opportunity to improve service productivity by $25 billion through the use of analytical tools.

ServiceMax’s platform provides a full suite of applications, including inventory and parts logistics, scheduling and workforce optimization, and work order management.

As a result of this transaction, customers will be able to access these offerings from a modern rapid application development cloud and field-ready mobile platform that combines the strength of GE’s deep domain expertise and advanced industrial portfolio with ServiceMax’s field service expertise. The company plans to leverage the Predix platform to further the development of additional industrial applications focused on service delivery.

“This acquisition builds upon our ongoing efforts to enhance our overall technology stack around the Predix platform and advance our Industrial Internet vision,” said Bill Ruh, CEO, GE Digital. “Improved productivity is critical for the Industrial Internet and digitizing field services is a cornerstone of a successful digital industrial strategy. This transaction, along with our previous acquisitions of Wurldtech and Meridium, is directly aligned with our strategy to drive growth both inorganically and organically by building the capabilities to support the digital industrial transformation through Predix, APM and the Digital Thread.”

 

The addition of ServiceMax’s complementary capabilities and highly-talented team better positions GE Digital to develop and accelerate the commercialization of Predix applications, delivering service products through a single, robust platform. This platform will address the service needs of enterprises across the entire service delivery process and provide the critical expertise and technologies needed to accelerate GE Digital’s existing services solution roadmaps. Coupled with the recent acquisition of Meridium, GE Digital will now provide a full suite of applications centered on driving comprehensive asset management for the Industrial Internet.

In addition, this transaction brings to GE Digital an immediate vertical customer base as well as significant recognition in the market and enhances GE Digital’s ability to commercialize its field services solutions. ServiceMax will have access to new verticals and will be able to utilize GE Digital’s scale and comprehensive Predix platform to enhance and strengthen their offerings for customers.

Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax, said, “The transaction will help position ServiceMax to reach its next phase of growth by having access to GE’s broad and advanced industrial portfolio, deep domain expertise and substantial customer footprint. We look forward to benefitting from GE’s experience, capabilities and resources as we expand into new markets while continuing to deliver the best tools to help customers maximize productivity and efficiency.”

 

Acquisitions are part of the GE Digital strategy to accelerate efforts in leading the Industrial Internet. The company will provide an update on their strategy and demonstrate progress at their flagship Minds and Machines event November 15-16 in San Francisco.

The acquisition of ServiceMax is expected to close in January, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.

Morgan Stanley acted as exclusive financial advisor to ServiceMax with Gundersen Dettmer LLP serving as legal counsel for ServiceMax. King & Spalding, LLP served as legal counsel for GE Digital.

 

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Field Service Management (FSM) Software stalwarts ClickSoftware held their annual users conference in the leafy town of Richmond, Greater London earlier this month. Field Service News’, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland was there to find out what the latest updates were and what the Roadmap for innovation looks like for the FSM software providers...

The location for this year’s ClickConnect users conference, the Richmond Hill Hotel, sitting at the top of the picturesque and historic town of Richmond, nestled on the Greater London border with Surrey, was in some ways a perfect metaphor for our hosts ClickSoftware, and their own position in the Field Service Management (FSM) software provider sector.

Richmond itself is in striking distance away (just 30 minutes by train) from the bright lights of the City of London, itself at the heart of European technology investment and innovation. Yet at the same time, it retains a slightly more refined, more distinguished reputation than other boroughs in Greater London. It’s certainly not cheap either (the average semi detached house price in Richmond is over £1 million) but then cheaper doesn’t always equate to better value. You know what you are getting in Richmond, you know the type of company you will keep. You’re hedging a bet by backing a market leader - and for many years the same could be said of ClickSoftware.

Indeed, ClickSoftware’s position as the leading player within the FSM market for many years was almost unquestionable, especially amongst the enterprise and those clients who had large, complicated scheduling challenges within their field workforce.

However, within recent years the FSM market has gone through rapid evolution and whilst ClickSoftware is still a premier brand within the sector, the competition has certainly begun to move up a gear and mount a serious challenge to their dominance. As a company, now is the time for ClickSoftware to demonstrate the kind of innovation and understanding of the market that propelled them to being the market leader in the first place.

 

Add to this that there had been a recent change of ownership, with Tom Heiser taking the reins as CEO, following on from a private equity takeover, and there is an extra level of attention and a need to impress their core user base that would perhaps be less evident in some of their previous user conferences.

How ClickSoftware approached their own development plans and how it was portrayed at this event, was potentially a huge fork in the road.

Get it right, and they could continue to build on their rock solid reputation as an industry leader, get it wrong however, and it could leave them exposed just when the competition is hotting up.

After an engaging opening keynote by Heiser (which set the tone for an upbeat performance by the ClickSoftware team across the two days) it was straight into the nitty gritty - what developments had been added to the newly launched Field Service Edge, ClickSoftware’s Cloud only offering, as well as what was available for the older generations of ClickSoftware.

And it was in this session that they needed to genuinely impress. They did.

Across the next hour and a half Sassi Idan, SVP Products and Solutions gave us the overview of the latest developments that were either already available or would be available within the next two months.

Of course there were some obligatory discussions around integration but then we would expect any new release to feature easy integration and dedicated APIs.

However, the first really eye catching innovation that Idan announced, with the help of Alegra Dann (via some slightly clumsy/quaint staged theatrics), was a new tool for managing contractors - something that is a key challenge for many larger organisations.

 

The new solution ClickSoftware have brought to the table does appear to be pretty damn slick - offering clear visibility into work orders across the whole of the service supply chain - something that can be a real frustration in particular for OEMs and their customers when service calls fall down between the cracks.

The set up of new contractors was also not only very fluid and simple, but the pricing on this solution is job based rather than licence based which could very well avoid tension between OEM and third party contractors as to who should have to pay for the licence. Smart thinking.

Another strong introduction was the announcement of an improved crew management solution, which allows for optimisation of work groups bringing together the right skills and location mix. This optimisation tool of course sits right at the heart of ClickSoftware’s traditional strength as a scheduling tool, but still the clean interface and intuitive UI that allows for manual control whilst still benefiting from AI provided suggestions for either fixed or dynamic crews was impressive.

However, it was when attention turned to the mobile app that a gentle shift in ClickSoftware’s approach to development was most visibly brought to the fore.

The new ClickMobile solution appears to have been clearly designed with the engineer’s workflow always in mind. Simple, yet intelligent additions such as camera integration and signature capture combined into a slick solution that includes the ability to send a PDF of the job details with full documentation of the work completed, directly to the customer straight from the app. It is little details like this that can really help the engineer to shine whilst on site.

Staying with mobility, ClickSoftware have also formed an interesting partnership with fleet management provider GreenRoad. The upshot is an integrated driver behaviour tool much in the vein of Telogis’ Coach or Microlise’s Clear, which provides in car guidance on how the vehicle is being driven via a mobile app. Whilst the app itself doesn’t break any particularly new ground, it offers good functionality and it’s inclusion in the wider ClickSoftware suite is a welcome addition that brings the focus of driver behaviour firmly into the FSM category.

But for my money the most impressive introduction of the day was still to come in the shape of a new Augmented Reality (AR) solution. As regular readers of Field Service News will know, we’ve long been proponents of the potential of AR in field service.

 

The solution, which is provided by FieldBit, again isn’t perhaps the slickest field service AR app we’ve seen - certainly similar tools from the likes of Scope AR, Help Lightning, and XM Reality all have greater depth of functionality than what was displayed during the live demonstration, but the fact that ClickSoftware’s AR tool is directly accessible from the job page in the ClickMobile app, which of course integrates seamlessly with the other elements of ClickSoftware’s suite of tools is a huge, huge benefit.

In fact, on reflection I think this is what left me walking out of that first session so impressed.

ClickSoftware have clearly been paying attention to the emerging industry trends, and whilst the various new elements introduced may not be best-of-breed, they’ve been brought together in an intelligently thought out system that can improve service delivery in a number of different areas. The product really is a lot, lot more than the sum of it’s parts.

Of course, all of this information was delivered within the first few hours, and across the next two days there were a number of interesting sessions including a series of round-tables and some interesting and diverse case studies including an excellent presentation from Garry Nash, of Costain CH2M which demonstrated some quite frankly incredible project management.

Other highlights included a great overview of Cloud infrastructure from Ian Massingham, Chief Evangelist, AWS and also Marina Stedman, Global Field Marketing Director, ClickSoftware gave an excellent if all too brief round up of a variety of research projects they had partnered on (including our own recent research into the use of Cloud as a FSM platform), which was both well delivered and genuinely insightful.

However, at a user conference such as this, whilst presentations, round-tables and even gala dinners and cocktail making classes, are an enjoyable side-show, really it’s all about the main event - which will always be what is new in the product.

And here they’ve done well. There will be competitors hot on their heels - it’s an incredibly competitive market right now, but here in Richmond, ClickSoftware showed they aren’t going to just step aside and let someone else take over the leaders baton anytime soon.

 

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Fire protection specialists Surefire have found a ‘surefire’ solution to their service management software needs: Tesseract...

Surefire Services is a UK company that sells, installs and maintains fire protection systems, including fire alarms, gas suppression and sprinkler systems, extinguishers and dry risers. Presently, its sales, installations and maintenance departments rely on three separate management systems involving basic software and spreadsheets. The company has decided it’s time to move away from paper, update its software and bring its three departments under one umbrella.

“Frustration is one of our main motivators for changing,” says Marcus Kemp, Service Director for Surefire. “Our current system is too basic and we struggle with reporting as the software keeps failing. We are implementing Tesseract so we can speed everything up, improve cash flow and provide a better service to our clients.”

 

Surefire has opted for the cloud-based SaaS version of Tesseract’s service management software for two reasons. First, the SaaS version is managed in-house by Tesseract, which means instantaneous fixes and upgrades. Second, it keeps space free on Surefire’s server, which is home to a great deal of data.

“The reason we chose Tesseract is because their software is easy to use and reasonably priced,” says Kemp. “They also offer a sales module—the other companies we looked at didn’t. This will allow us to bring our three departments under one system, ensuring faster processes and a better flow of data.”

The plan is to launch Tesseract within the maintenance department first, followed by installations and then sales. Tablet devices will be rolled out to Surefire’s engineering team, eliminating the need for paper timesheets, worksheets and invoices and allowing Surefire to receive real-time, instantaneous data about each job. Staff will also be able to create Key Performance Indicator Reports, something they cannot do currently.

 

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Bill Pollock, President & Principal Consulting Analyst, Strategies for GrowthSM explores what Cloud CRM giant Salesforce entry into the FSM market will mean for the sector...

 

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With the introduction of Salesforce’s Field Service Lightning, the FSM market has now witnessed, in the space of only two years or so, a trifecta of large, established, ubiquitous, global companies – each historically known for their respective other business platforms and solutions – entering the FSM market in a “big way” (i.e., in terms of market posturing, press releases, promises of FSM market dominance, etc.).

The largest – and potentially, most promising of these – include:

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Oracle, acquiring TOA Technologies in 2014;
• Microsoft acquiring FieldOne in 2015; and, now
• Salesforce announcing Field Service Lightning (FSL) for market launch in Spring/Summer 2016 (i.e., no acquisition made; platform includes ClickSoftware technology).

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However, of these “big three”, only Salesforce has elected (i.e., at least, so far) to build its FSL functionality, albeit, with help from ClickSoftware for schedule optimisation), while the remaining two have each elected to “buy” their way into the segment.

Whether it makes a difference to potential FSM solution users as to whether their vendors have acquired their way into the business, or have built a home-grown model is unknown at this point in time.

However, past research conducted by Strategies For GrowthSM (SFGSM) would indicate that it will most likely not be a major selection or evaluation factor for most potential solution acquirers. In fact, it will probably end up being a non-issue for most.

 

Other smaller – but typically faster-growing – FSM solution providers may have brought their respective solutions to market much earlier than Salesforce, although Field Service Lightning still has certain advantages that these other relatively new entries to the global FSM market are not as likely to have.

Further, the introduction of Salesforce into the global FSM through its Field Service Lightning offering now provides an added level of competition to the competitive landscape – a level that ServiceMax and its peers have not seen in recent years (i.e., save for the emergence of the acquired “newbies”, such as Oracle/TOA, IFS/Metrix and Microsoft/FieldOne, etc.).

For example, ServiceMax – which is essentially built on the Salesforce platform, itself – had virtually dominated the recent FSM user market in terms of familiarity/awareness, marketing and promotion, and user consideration and adoption in recent years.

However, the May, 2015 announcement of the company’s strategic partnership with PTC “to provide [a] comprehensive and connected Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) solution offering” (i.e., where ServiceMax provides the SLM support, powered by PTC’s ThingWorx IoT-based platform) positions it, in some minds, as just another one of the industry’s “new” and/or reengineered SLM vendors, among other like vendors.

All-in-all, the entry of Salesforce into the FSM market does not simply represent the addition of a single “new” competitor to the overall landscape – but, rather the introduction of a “new” synergistic “mix” of traditional FSM functionality (i.e., built on the platform of one of the most popular and well-respected vendors, ClickSoftware), but seamlessly integrated into the overall Customer Experience, CSM and Sales Management suites offered by the “world’s #1 CRM company”.

 

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As such, potential users have the opportunity to not only choose a “new” FSM solution provider – but a “new” type of integrated FSM vendor, with a “new” (i.e., to the FSM market) corporate culture and philosophy for providing “cradle-to-grave” pre-sales, sales, after-sales service and perpetual customer support to an ever-evolving and demanding customer base.

In any event, the introduction of Field Service Lightning reflects Salesforce’s continuing “push” to enter this expanding global market segment on at least an “at par” basis with the other major players currently comprising the “new” FSM market entrants.

However, while its entry into the market may initially seem like something “new” for Salesforce, it is not necessarily a “new” idea to the many services organisations that could realistically be thought of as potential Salesforce FSM customers – actually, many have already been using Salesforce to assist in running their respective services organisations for some time now.

For example, the results of SFGSM’s previous two Field Service Management Benchmark Surveys, conducted in 2011 and 2014/15, respectively, reveal the following about Salesforce’s historical positive image and reputation within the global FSM community – even before it had formally entered the market this year with its Field Service Lightning offering.

 

The following data is derived directly from these two SFGSM FSM Benchmark surveys:

In SFGSM’s 2011 Field Service Management Benchmark Survey, respondents were asked to answer a number of questions relating to their familiarity with each of 48 individually listed FSM solution providers. The specific question asked was: “For each of the solution vendors listed below, please indicate the ones with whom you are currently familiar in terms of their Field Service Management applications.”

For the 2011 survey, Salesforce was not included among the 48 pre-selected FSM vendors listed in the questionnaire; however, based on new information obtained during SFGSM’s one-on-one telephone interviews conducted as part of the 2014/15 survey Discovery Phase, Salesforce had been mentioned enough times to be included as the 49th FSM vendor – although, it still did not technically offer an FSM solution at that time!

Therefore, in 2011, the most cited FSM solution providers, listed in terms of their respective familiarity among the respondent base, specifically as a “Field Service Management solution provider”, were as follows:

2011 SFGSM FSM Survey Results (percent familiarity as an FSM solution provider):

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• #1 @ 39%; SAP
• #2 @ 33%; Oracle
• #3 @ 29%; ServiceMax
• #4 @ 26%; ClickSoftware
• #5 @ 24%; Astea
• #6 @ 18%; Servigistics
• #7 @ 17%; Metrix
• #8 @ 15%; Microsoft Dynamics

[/unordered_list]

The 2011 survey results reaffirmed the #1 & #2 standings of SAP and Oracle from earlier FSM surveys, and reflected the growth of ServiceMax which, for the first time, had surpassed ClickSoftware in this historical series of surveys.

Further, although Microsoft also did not yet offer an FSM solution in 2011 (i.e., the company did not enter the FSM solution market until July, 2015, via its acquisition of FieldOne), it was still listed as #8 (i.e., at 15% familiarity) by the respondents to the survey. It is noted that two other of the highest cited vendors have since been acquired by larger organizations (i.e., Metrix, by IFS in May, 2012; and Servigistics, by PTC in October, 2012.)

However, SFGSM’s 2014/15 FSM Benchmark Survey update (i.e., with the expansion of the list of potential FSM solution vendors to include Salesforce, for the first time) reveals a largely altered ranking of the most familiar FSM solution providers, as follows:

2014/15 SFGSM FSM Survey Results (percent familiarity as an FSM solution provider):

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• #1 @ 56%; Salesforce
• #2 @ 50%; SAP
• #3 @ 35%; ClickSoftware
• #4 @ 32%; Oracle
• #5 @ 28%; ServiceMax
•  #6T @ 25%; Astea
• 6T @ 25%; Kronos
• #8 @ 21%; AT&T Advanced Mobility Solutions
• #9 @ 21%; Microsoft Dynamics[/unordered_list]

In 2014/15, while SAP actually increased its FSM market familiarity to 50% (i.e., from 39% in 2011), and Oracle dropped a mere one percentage point to 32%, Salesforce, the “new” entry to the list of vendors, was cited by 56% of survey respondents as one of the FSM vendors with which they were currently familiar – again, however, without actually offering an FSM solution at the time.

Thus, the key takeaways revealed by trending the two most recent SFGSM FSM Benchmark Surveys, are the following:

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• In 2014/15, Salesforce had already been recognized as a potential FSM solution provider by a majority (i.e., 56%) of the field services marketplace – despite the fact that it did not actually offer an FSM solution at that time.
• Microsoft, through its CRM Dynamics platform, had also risen in familiarity as a potential FSM solution provider, growing from 15% familiarity in 2011, to 21% in 2014/15 – despite not formally entering the FSM market until July, 2015.
• The historical leaders in terms of FSM solution familiarity (i.e., SAP and Oracle) have, as a result, since been relegated to the #2 and #4 positions, respectively, trailing far behind Salesforce.

[/unordered_list]

We have seen these types of familiarity rating anomalies in the past; however, what the trend data clearly reflects is that many field services organisations have already been using (arguably, mis-using?) either the Salesforce and/or Microsoft platforms for more than just sales management and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, respectively.

And, that this is apparently not limited only to Small/Medium Businesses (SMBs), but also to small-to-medium-sized divisions of larger services enterprises, as well. In many cases, Salesforce (and/or Microsoft CRM) serve double duty within the organisation with respect to their use in managing some of the key components of FSM. In fact, in 2014/15, 7% of respondents also reported that Salesforce was their “primary FSM solution provider.”

 

What this all means is actually good news for Salesforce – and especially for the services organisations that have historically been relying on the company’s platform to support their field service operations, in that, with the introduction of Field Service Lightning, they will now be afforded with much greater FSM functionality – however, this time from a solution that is specifically designed for use in running a services organisation.

While other companies, all with fairly deep pockets, have either tried to buy their way into FSM, grow an FSM capability organically, or some combination of the two, not all have had either the resolve – or inclination – to strive to dominate the FSM market.

However, with respect to Salesforce, the combination of a corporate mentality that looks to dominate in each of the markets they serve, with a documented history of key players in the FSM community having already been using (i.e., or mis-using) their CRM platform to assist in running their respective services organizations, the prospects for Salesforce actually becoming a dominant leader in the FSM marketplace may be a somewhat safer bet.

Nonetheless, it must still be stated that, so far, Salesforce has only announced a very small portion of field service capability (i.e., key components including contract management, parts management, etc. are still missing) and, as a result, the jury will continue to be remain “out” until more of the company’s Field Service Lightning offering actually hits the market – in full – and in sync with the market’s expectations.

 

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