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

As part of FieldAware’s current mobility campaign Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, caught up with Steve Mason, Chief Revenue Officer with FieldAware, to get his insight into what to expect from mobility as tool in modern field service... 

KO: So why focus on mobility?

SM: With advancements in field service management software going hand-in-hand with the mobile evolution, the focus in service operations is quite firmly now on the field worker themselves.

This is quite right too. The technician or engineer has long been the face of the organisation and often the only direct contact a customer will have, so the customer experience they are able to deliver counts for a great deal.

The technician needs a mobile solution which helps them to do their job in the best possible way. The workflow to and from the back office has to be seamless as this quick and easy access to information enables better decision-making and ultimately improved resolution.

Through integration with other back office systems the field worker has access to the job history and customer records allowing for a more detailed understanding of not only the task at hand but also what has happened before and why.

Knowledge of the different elements of the task are often fundamental in the delivery of service excellence and turning up to site with this information at hand or having access to it, as we know from business or personal experience, delivers an improved customer experience.

KO: We hear too much about companies investing in fsm solutions and not maximising the value – what do you recommend?

SM: From working with a range of companies, who are either looking at developing their mobile strategy or starting out from scratch, we’ve found that there are some common principals.

Ease of integration is key. You don’t need to have to think about changing your whole field service solution. Extending the life of current systems is all important so look at mobile solutions which will leverage and expand their use.

Implementation needs to be as quick and straightforward as possible. A lengthy implementation process will defeat its objective. So being up and running in days, not months, should be the realistic goal - delivering a much faster ROI.

Any mobility solution should be easy to use. Overly-complicated systems will be bypassed and worked around or ignored all together. The easier to use, the quicker the adoption and the better the ROI.

All mobility software needs to be agile and able to move with the next generation of mobility. Developments are moving fast, so providers keeping their solutions up to speed is important.

It is crucial for any mobility solution to work across mixed digital devices.  The apps will need to work across different operating systems too.

Vitally, mobility is about the anytime, anywhere access to information and it is essential that your solution makes it as easy as possible to achieve this.

KO: What next for mobility?

SM: We’re excited about embedded communications in mobility, as with customer expectations higher than ever, the ability to streamline the service process and deliver faster, better service creates a richer customer experience.

Real-time communication technology, combined with field service automation solutions will bring service businesses an entirely new way to communicate across the organisation and with customers.

As an example, innovative collaboration tools improve task completion through real-time contact with remote experts through a smartphone or tablet, for improved first-time resolution rates. These capabilities are akin to augmented reality without the prohibitive costs of the hardware. Remote experts can assist multiple technicians, so speeding up the completion and accuracy of the work, while balancing the cost of an organisation’s service delivery.

At FieldAware we see this as a game changer for any company focused on enhancing the customer experience.

---

Want to know more? Click this link to download FieldAware's latest white paper 'Making the move to mobility' now

---

Be social and share this feature

Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems takes a look at how crowdsourcing could potentially be a revolution in delivering field service as and when it’s needed...

Imagine a customer calls your customer service line and says he has a problem with his router. He wants someone there to fix it, and he wants them there yesterday. They’re upset because they’ve called your office several times for the past few months requesting service.

Your dispatcher tells the customer that the next available appointment is in two days. Your customer starts screaming at the dispatcher saying that it is unacceptable to have such a long wait time for an appointment.

In a world where a ride can be ordered on demand and Amazon will deliver almost any product you want the same-day you order it, customers’ expectations for the type of service they want to receive from businesses continue to grow more demanding. And timeliness and flexibility often come high on the list of customer desires, even if field service companies did not initially consider these things to be customer priorities. Since field service customers’ hopes are now through the roof, there should be a new way of delivering on-demand field service to meet those high expectations.

Creating an enjoyable customer experience is important for the success of any field service business. To create this experience, field service organizations must prioritize coming up with strategies to deliver instant service that’s fast, personal and predictive.

Service should be more predictive

Gone are the days of waiting around for machines to break, then sending field service workers to the rescue at the next available appointment time. Because of IoT sensors and smart machines, preventive and predictive maintenance are what customers want. Field service workers should be able to predict machine failures and stop problems before they occur, therefore preventing downtime. The pros of predictive maintenance are numerous.

A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy, found that predictive maintenance results in a 35% to 45% reduction in downtime and a 20% to 25% increase in production within the oil and gas industry.

Field service software enables predictive maintenance by collecting and analysing data so service visits can be planned ahead of time.

Predictive maintenance means no more unnecessary truck rolls. Service appointments are scheduled only when needed; at times when a machine has been predicted to fail.

On-demand field service workforce

No matter how an organisation decides to enable predictive maintenance, predicting service needs to be accompanied by a scalable workforce. In order to dispatch field service workers on demand, companies can use crowdsourcing platforms like Mila. The company builds service crowds of pre-vetted, trusted, and qualified technicians who are ready to provide service at a moment’s notice.

For example, Swisscom, a major telecommunications company, is already using this external on-demand workforce consisting of vetted individuals (Mila Friends) and professional service providers (Mila Pros) to help customers with setting up their Wi-Fi, troubleshooting or explaining new products. Having these kinds of workers means they can give customers service that is quicker and more flexible.

The Mila Crowd is most often active in the evening during the week or on the weekends, outside of regular office hours.

More flexible and faster service

In the past, companies have relied on dispatchers to fill their technicians’ schedules with appointments for the day or week.

However, this type of scheduling means all of your workers may be booked up if there’s a spike in problems or customer requests at a certain time. Additionally, if there are certain times of year that are more demanding for your business than others, this style of dispatching can cause long customer wait times for appointments.

By using an on-demand workforce, companies can react to customer requests more efficiently. Workforce-as-a-service also means field service organisations can save money, since they are able to scale their services without having to invest in hiring and training new full-time employees.

Provide more proactive service

Have you ever been at a restaurant and needed a napkin, silverware, or ketchup to eat your food, only to have your server appear out of nowhere and deliver those items? How amazing does it feel to know your server anticipated your need and gave you something you wanted and needed without you having to ask for it?

Customers now prefer service that stops problems before they occur. By implementing preventive and predictive maintenance, companies are no longer just being reactive. Being proactive means offering individualised service and personalised help to customers with consideration for their specific needs.

It also means customer engagement is higher since companies no longer have to wait for customers to come to them with a problem. Field service workers can monitor IoT-connected sensors and smart machines send notifications when a failure is going to occur.

Being proactive, rather than reactive is a better way to run a field service business in today’s market. And workforce-as-a-service makes this possible.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Aeromark, one of the UK’s leading Service Management Systems, has announced it has successfully completed a full integration of its Optimatics Service Management Software with Wolseley UK as part of its unique “Smarter Parts” module.

Optimatics offers a complete Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution specialising in the Domestic Heating, HVAC and Refrigeration Sectors, which covers everything from managing assets and planned service schedules through to dynamic real time scheduling and Engineer Mobile Apps on one simple to use web based software suite.

As the UK’s leading supplier of plumbing and heating products, Wolseley UK is spearheading the development of electronic solutions which redefine the customer experience - helping them to save time, money and hassle through more efficient management of their workflows.

Combined, the systems provide a transformational offering in supply chain optimisation both in terms of operational improvements and also cost savings.

 

On receipt of a service call, Aeromark’s new “Smarter Parts” module springs into action immediately, identifying the Asset and Serial number and matching common faults with previously ordered parts for the same model. It dynamically schedules the best Engineer to the Job based on their route and instantly sends all the relevant information to their mobile app. Once on site, the Engineer has instant access to the pertinent technical information using PartsArena from Infomill.

They can view exploded diagrams of the make and model, and easily identify and select the parts required by simply clicking the diagram’s hyperlinks. The Aeromark system then checks live stock levels at all Wolseley UK branches and customer vans in the vicinity in real time. Having carried out an automated approval process, the system orders the part for either immediate collection or delivery depending on the forecast travel time.

This seamless, end-to-end process removes a considerable number of unnecessary touch points, improves first time parts identification, cuts down on revisits and considerably improves the customer experience.

 

Roger Marks, MD of Aeromark said: “This integration enables Aeromark to provide a more powerful solution to some of the biggest challenges to field service operations – getting the right parts, to the right place, in the optimum time. We are now even able to forecast delivery times for the more obscure non- stock items and optimise dynamically whether the Engineer should collect or order for delivery based on daily workload and travel times”.

Jeremy Maxwell, Multichannel Director, Wolseley UK said: “We are leading the way in developing new digital workflow solutions for our customers which can dramatically improve their efficiency, drive down costs and improve their service levels. This partnership with Aeromark and Infomill has created a market-leading digital platform that could be used by many customers operating at scale in the heating, HVAC and refrigeration space. By delivering accurate real-time information direct to the engineer, enabling faster decision-making and processing of orders, and enabling this to happen on customers’ own systems we’ve made Wolseley UK even easier to do business with.“

Jonathan Ralphs, CEO of Infomill remarked: “Infomill are proud to be partnered with Aeromark and Wolseley UK. This ground-breaking integration will really boost efficiency and improve customer service.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

IFS Applications 9 selected as the new finance and service contract management system for JLA’s growing business in an agreement valued at £1million

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that JLA, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of commercial and industrial laundry and catering equipment , will implement IFS Applications™ 9 for its entire operation.

IFS Applications 9 will provide JLA with an advanced system to manage its customer contracts by encompassing service contracts, rental and asset management, as well as full financials, purchasing, inventory, and production control in one centralised system. Once implemented, JLA will be able to control and improve the quality and efficiency of its service to clients.

 

James Greenman, JLA Chief Information Officer commented “IFS Applications 9 was selected because it not only meets JLA’s current needs, but it is agile enough to adapt to changing requirements, laying the foundations for a long-term strategic relationship. The project will begin immediately and is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2017”.

“It’s great to be working with such a customer-focused and growing company,” IFS UK Managing Director Paul Massey said. “Our work with JLA demonstrates our strength in helping service-centric firms effectively manage business and we look forward to a long and successful partnership.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

Switching from paper to digital mobile forms can  transform field service maintenance operations, says Mark Scott, Vice President Marketing, ProntoForms.

Mobile technologies have taken over our personal lives, enabling us to be more productive and efficient as we shop, consume and communicate daily. When it comes to operations and maintenance in field services, however, mobile technology has been slow to permeate our workforce. Operations and maintenance are critical to ensuring safety, compliance and productivity in field services. Yet, many  maintenance practices today are still relying on paper-based processes that are error-prone, vulnerable to audits, and overall, highly inefficient.

Manual maintenance procedures hinder productivity and add unnecessary steps to operation practices hurting your company’s bottom line. For many businesses, ineffective internal practices also don’t guarantee that safety compliances are being enforced.

Mobile forms technology offers an end-to-end solution for a company’s maintenance programme, by enabling users to accurately collect and store field data, then easily share it in real time with key stakeholders.

Mobile forms bring many benefits to any field services operation. Here are five examples of how a mobile solution can make your business operate more efficiently and ensure your customers take notice:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Embed rich media in your reports
   Sometimes words alone cannot accurately capture a problem or issue in field work, but a picture can tell a thousand words. Mobile forms allow maintenance inspectors to sketch and annotate directly on photos from the job site to highlight specific concerns. In addition to taking pictures on site, images like equipment diagrams can also be pre-loaded onto a form for field workers to reference. Mobile form providers are also offering barcode scanning and audio functions within forms as well so users can include richer field data.
2. Informed decision-making and a logical workflow
   Data gathered in the field is meant to ensure that operational standards are reached and exceeded, but it’s important that the data is communicated in a timely manner and shared with the right people. Mobile forms can be configured to automatically send completed maintenance forms to specific supervisors and decision-makers within a company, based on the data entered. If an inspection pinpoints a safety concern, that form can be configured to automatically send a report to a safety compliance manager. What’s more, maintenance forms can also be scored by the severity of the issue, and if a major maintenance breach is revealed, key stakeholders can be alerted through SMS messages and social media.
3. Business intelligence with analytics
   Analytics can provide a wealth of information, as maintenance trends can be compared over time. This means that a company can leverage its previous response to a maintenance issue and also determine whether this issue had arisen in the past. With mobile forms, in-depth analytics reports can also be scheduled for regular delivery to key supervisors and decision makers. Since field service data can be logged as it happens through mobile devices, these decision makers can analyse performance and spot hidden business trends in real time to predict potential issues or mitigate risks.
4. Dispatching inspections
   Field service workers need to provide accurate and in-depth maintenance inspections, however, they are also pressed for time and need to move on to the next job. Across all departments, improving productivity and automating mundane and repetitive tasks is essential, but this is especially critical for your maintenance programme. By using mobile forms technology, maintenance jobs can be dispatched to specific field workers, which saves valuable time. This means that field workers can avoid unnecessary trips to the head office to receive their next assignment, which gives them more time to spend in the field and conduct detailed inspections.
5. Calendar invites for follow-ups
   Irrespective of the size or efficiency of your field workers, it’s imperative to prioritise tasks and optimize workflows. High-risk maintenance concerns need to be addressed immediately, while less critical issues can wait. However, these low-risk concerns still require a response. As soon as non-critical issues are discovered, field workers can use mobile forms technology to schedule a maintenance technician and send calendar invites while they’re on the go at other appointments

 Now more than ever, it’s critical to take maintenance procedures to the next level by adopting the right type of technology. Businesses utilising mobile technology will see increased productivity and reduced costs, while quality of service is improved and risks are mitigated. When it comes to operations and maintenance don’t let your company fall behind the rest of the industry.

 

---

 

Be social and share this article.

Company:

Intimus International Group is a leader in the Information Security industry.

They offer information security products that include everything from industrial paper shredders to high security and large capacity data destruction machines. Intimus operates in multiple countries across Europe and manages processes and workflows across multiple divisions.

They offer comprehensive solutions throughout the value chain in terms of innovation, development, manufacturing, sales and post-sales services.

Challenge:

“Intimus International wants to be the leading global supplier of security solutions for data management and cash management systems. We have over 11,000 customers in Benelux, and it is our mission to provide them with best-in-class service,” said Gunther Dehaes, General Manager, Intimus.

The company offers service contracts to repair and maintain its product line and the profitability of these service contracts depends on how efficiently the company can meet its obligations.

Working across multiple countries and following a merger and acquisition, Intimus found there were a number of bottlenecks with their existing workflows.

 

They needed to more efficiently coordinate communication between the back office and field engineers and wanted to be able to streamline the workflow as well as how they captured and processed data to and from the field.

“Our problem was the time it took to coordinate, communicate and process everything that happened in the field,” explained Erlyn Grevelt, Supply Chain Manager of Intimus. Dispatchers were having to have lengthy, often complex phone conversations with engineers for every service request. With each call taking up to ten minutes and more than 50 engineers in the field, the calls alone consumed more than 100 hours a week.

Then, as engineers completed service calls, they filled out the job details on paper, which were taken back to the office to be input manually. A team in accounting then reviewed all completed jobs before invoicing, so the entire process to bill a customer took a full day on average.

Operational improvements:

Having recently implemented Netsuite, a leading ERP system, to streamline and simplify their accounting practices and resource planning, Intimus wanted something compatible to improve their operational service, they turned their attention to field service management software.

“We knew from the start that we would need to extend our service needs and NetSuite has a strong partner programme and through that programme we found FieldAware,” explained Grevelt.

 

“FieldAware has a very simple mobile app for engineers and at the same time, it gives me a huge amount of complex information. When an IT solution can offer me that, I’m very pleased.”

Intimus selected FieldAware because of the deep integration with Netsuite, ease of implementation and ease of use for the schedulers and engineers.

The implementation of both Netsuite and FieldAware took just 40 days and with quick and high adoption from their field engineers, the positive impact was immediate.

Together, NetSuite OneWorld and FieldAware transformed the field service workflows in the company’s service operations and accounting, dramatically accelerating the job completion rates and invoicing processes.

Results:

The newly automated processes save considerable time for customers, dispatchers, engineers and back office staff alike. Engineers use FieldAware mobility software to schedule their own time based on customer location and availability.

FieldAware saves 80 hours each week for the dispatch team, and reduced the time required to generate invoices from one day to less than a minute.

“With FieldAware we are more efficient now,” said Peter Gils, Service Manager, Intimus “An engineer’s tablet has a complete list of the workflow he has to do, he can plan his own route without calling the office, we drive less miles which saves us money, and the customers are happy with the shorter response time.”

FieldAware optimised communications between dispatchers and field service engineers, so now dispatchers enter details of each service order into NetSuite, which instantly transfers them to technicians’ tablets. Engineers contact the customer and schedule jobs themselves. The press of a button tracks the service call and FieldAware automatically sends this data back to NetSuite for invoicing and management reporting.

 

“Results have been staggering and the outcome impressive”, said Grevelt. “Most importantly, FieldAware has taken the pressure off the coordination team.”

“In the past, we had to have multiple conversations to be able to service our customer,” added Grevelt.

“Now we have a direct line of communication to the customer through the engineer in the field. We only have one conversation, and that’s the only conversation that matters, and that’s the one with the customer.”

 

---

 

Mobility is helping transform field service organisations. To download FieldAware’s new white paper – ‘Making the Move to Mobility: TheDigitalisation of Field Service’– please visit http://www.fieldaware.co.uk/movetomobility

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Nick Shipton of scheduling specialists Kirona outlines why flexibility is as much a key ingredient in scheduling as optimisation...

Mobilising field based staff is high on the agenda at the moment with many organisations looking to increase the effectiveness and efficiencies of their workforce alongside offering increased levels of customer service and satisfaction.

It is obviously key that in order to mobilise your field staff effectively a complimentary scheduling solution is required to efficiently organise the jobs before dispatching them at the appropriate time to the mobile device.

However, what is sometimes overlooked is an understanding that that scheduling solution may need to react to different types of work in different ways, and therefore it’s key that the solution offers flexible methods of scheduling to suit how you need to drive your organisation.

Organisations often offer a wide range of services to their customers which can result in diverse requirements in terms of how those services need to be accessed by the customer and how that demand needs to be planned, which can cause issues if your scheduler has been built to suit a particular vertical or service, and drives you to fit the service to the schedulers constraints rather than configure the schedule to suit the requirements.

Some services will require fairly simple allocation of one off tasks based on matching skill-sets to the type of work, but if you throw into the mix customers expecting appointments at the first point of contact whether that is via a phone call or self-service this simple offering becomes much more complex, especially if you also want to throw into the mix planned works and programmed works.

 

The key with offering an appointed service is that you need to be able to offer and steer the customer towards taking a slot which not only satisfies them in terms of service levels but also takes into account all the other jobs in the system at that point in time, and allows you at that first point of contact to firstly offer the most efficient slot for you organisation, therefore building in maximum efficiency for the workforce.

Even if your organisation has only a small proportion of these ‘fixed’ appointed jobs they become the key jobs in the solution to plan other work around that has a more flexible time window, as we can’t break the direct promise we’ve made to the customer via that appointment.

Generally planned works have a more flexible planning window so we may need to carry out the job within the next X days or complete the jobs once a week, or once a month but we are not too worried about when we carry it out within that period.

Most scheduling systems will handle this well as there is plenty of flexibility within the large planning window to continually optimise your routes until you are satisfied with the schedule, but if you have an appointment to satisfy then that can throw an expensive spanner in the works as the scheduler doesn’t have the ability to move it where it may want to.

To further complicate matters other services may be carrying out far more complex works such as those which have dependencies and sequencing of tasks required to ensure they are carried not only in the most efficient manner but also in the correct order, or have a service that needs to deal with a very high volume of jobs with a short duration within small geographical locations.

All of the above pose different scheduling questions and of course you could look at implementing different solutions for these different scenarios however you lose the ability to get a complete view of the workforce and lose the ability to look at whether further efficiencies can be gained by carrying out more work at one location whilst you have resources there.

Reporting also becomes a trickier task as you are unable to easily view within one system how different services or regions may be performing.

Analysis can then be done to look if the location and levels of field based staff are correct and whether with a slight adjustment to these levels and locations performance can be improved.

You can also start to look at hierarchical KPI’s, so right down to operative level we can start to look at where and how the business can be improved.

The ability to implement a truly flexible scheduling solution such as Kirona’s DRS not only allows you to both improve the day to day operation of the organisation but also analyse how it can continually improve.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Optical measuring solutions provider GOM UK, whose clients include many major automotive & aerospace companies, is utilising innovative lone worker security solution, StaySafe.

The app, which tracks an employee’s location via GPS and alerts their manager if they do not check-in within a specified time, will be used to ensure that GOM’s engineers are safe whilst visiting and travelling between sites.

GOM works across a range of industries such as medical and transportation, and engineers are responsible for the maintenance and repair of GOM technologies.

The app has been put in place on the advice of health and safety consultants who flagged lone worker safety as a priority focus for the business in 2016.

 

The app works on iPhone, Android and Windows and offers a wide range of functions including a panic button, working session expiry and low battery warnings, GPS tracking, inactivity and duress alerts making it a powerful device for protecting employees working alone. User monitoring can be done in‐house via an online Hub or outsourced to one of StaySafe’s professional partners.

Tim Collier at GOM explains their decision to work with StaySafe; “Our staff are not what you would traditionally call ‘high risk’ but fully meeting our duty of care to all employees is paramount to us. We have just issued all employees with new smartphones so a lone worker solution that would work on their smartphones without the need for any additional technology really appealed. The app has been easy to set up and use and monitoring the app requires minimal resource, which is great”.

Don Cameron, CEO, StaySafe adds “The StaySafe app is a great solution for organisations like GOM who want to provide a high level of security provision for their lone workers without the expense and hassle of providing new technology. The prevalent use of smartphones amongst all age groups means that the app is cost effective and quickly becomes part of an employee’s routine”.

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

When software giant Microsoft announced a raft of highly service orientated features in the latest roll out of Microsoft Dynamics it was clear they were aiming to help their customers, help their customers. But how does that translate into Field service, the dedicated FSM solution acquired by Microsoft last year? Kris Oldland spoke to Carsten Groth to find out more...

Often when a major player in the software world acquires a smaller, niche business one of two things happen.

Either the smaller company gets swallowed up never to be heard of again, or they continue with their brand but as priorities and focusses change they slowly lose a grip on what it is that made them a success in the first place.

Either way there are usually a few fairly easily found voices of discontent somewhere.

But when Microsoft acquired FieldOne (now rebranded to Field Service) in the summer of last year the move went particularly smoothly and it seems to have continued in that vein ever since.

Carsten Groth, A Technology Solution Professional within Microsoft explained that much of the seamless transition could be put down to the way in which Microsoft work with partner developers and ISVs, which is driven by a technology platform that fosters collaboration and integration across the network.

“Basically it is because under the hood of Microsoft Dynamics CRM we have something called the XRM framework which allows partners as well as ISVs to build on top of it,” he explains.

“Think of it like a Lego brick system, so Dynamics CRM is that Lego brick system, then you decide if you build a police station or a fire station.”

“The FieldOne solution came from a global ISV standpoint and what they did was build that ISV solution based on the XRM framework so they reused certain functionalities and entities coming from Dynamic’s CRM because they saw that inside field service there was a definite niche for certain types of data,”he adds.

“They [the FieldOne team] already knew about field service, what are the needs, what are the pain points in it and then they built on top of that XRM framework a field service solution.” “So when FieldOne was acquired by Microsoft there were no pain points as it was a hundred per cent solution fitting inside that XRM story.”

“Basically the only adjustment was the transition from having FieldOne as accompany to having Microsoft as a bigger company.”

So how is the product evolving from FieldOne to Field Service with such heavyweight backing?

“We think of field service as a broad area,” begins Groth, “we do have small specialisations like the medical industry or automotive, but I think perhaps 69% to 75% of challenges are maybe equal.”

“But processes are ever changing and what we as a concept are trying to bring out ‘is here is a change management ability inside your organisation’. Should you buy new software every-time you make changes to your processes? Of course not – and it would be even better if you could make adjustments on your own.”

“For example, feedback from one of your field service technicians saying ‘every day I’m starting my business day it is a lot of effort for me to give you a status feedback - can we simplify it? Is there a way to do that?’ This is exactly what we are able to do inside Field Service. We come up with systems with an easy, simple UI experience that allow companies to form a better connection between mobility devices and all those interactions with the back office.”

“We are trying to change the way field service companies engage both internally and with their customers, by introducing what we call Connected Field Service, which you can now do in the Cloud, with a concept that is a horizontal solution which will still totally align to your vertical business. We then have vertical instruments such as healthcare for instance, to provide a nice smooth kick-off within that system.”

Given Microsoft’s position as a top tier Cloud  services provider, and Groth’s reference to Field Service’s own Cloud functionality, this seems like a perfect time to address the ever-present elephant in the room. Namely Cloud security.

“One of the biggest benefits that Microsoft has is that we can do both the Cloud experience as well as the on-premise experience,” replies Groth.

“So if there is any reason that we cannot go with you to those Cloud services, we can still fall back to the on-premise models.”

[quote float="left"]"We do have customers struggling with firewalls, policies, or they might even have more specific laws inside certain countries, so what we are trying to do is find spots where we can introduce Cloud services and then make their lives easier..."[/quote]“We do have customers struggling with firewalls, policies, or they might even have more specific laws inside certain countries, so what we are trying to do is find spots where we can introduce Cloud services and then make their lives easier.”

“Sometimes the worries are simply because they read news stories about the unsafe Cloud and different types of compliance issues inside the Cloud. But that is changing, it’s changing a lot.”

So does Groth see a growing momentum, in terms of companies wanting to move their field service offerings to the Cloud?

“We do have customers struggling with firewalls, policies, or they might even have more specific laws inside certain countries, so what we are trying to do is find spots where we can introduce Cloud services and then make their lives easier.”

“Definitely, people are struggling with making their work easier and the Cloud and Cloud Services can definitely do that.”

“But it’s new technology and new methodology that we have to learn. It’s like if your not well trained in Outlook, you may well end up having an inbox with 2000 or more unread emails – should it be like that? Definitely not!”

“Why is it like that? It’s because you’ve not been trained in the Outlook experience. And it’s pretty much the same with the Cloud – you must be trained to use Cloud Services and what they are.”

This leads us to the question of whether the selection of a field service management software solution should fall under the remit of IT, Operations or both.

“It’s actually even more complicated because we also have the management conversation as well, bringing in processes and organisational structure elements as well” comments Groth.

“So we have the management coming in and saying this is the way we set out our internal processes are you able to actually adjust the software, or are we able to adjust the software, to continue to allow us to do these processes in this way?”

When Microsoft rolled out the latest feature set of Dynamics in the 2016 release their was a lot of focus on knowledge sharing, to empower contact centre agents by putting the right information they need in front of them as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

With knowledge sharing being a critical tool for field service companies facing a potential crisis, with the prospect of an ageing workforce set to leave on mass in the not too distant future, it would be interesting to see if this level of functionality could now be ingrained into the Field Service product suite as well.

Fortunately, it seems this is very much all part of the plan at Microsoft.

As Groth outlines “Imagine you’re a field technician, trained on a specific device, scheduled to perform maintenance on a customer site. You open up the log board and maintenance files and figure out it’s not revision A that you have been trained on but revision B that is required.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have the capabilities of accessing a knowledge base on the fly to see what are the differences between revision A and revision B? Maybe there are not that many changes in the revision so the field service technician could still provide the maintenance to that customer on site once he sees the difference between A and B?”

“We enabled this by offering, inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, capabilities for these knowledge banks. We even go a little bit further where we are enabling the field service technicians as well as others to comment whether that specific article was useful or not.”

So it seems again the strength of the wider Microsoft platform, is adding weight to the feature set of Field Service.

Of course, other field service solutions, as Groth (who previously worked for German based scheduling and optimisation solution providers FLS) will attest, are easily able to plug into the XRM framework too, or even add further functionality to Field Service, adding ‘one more Lego block to the tower’ as Groth describes it.

But there is also a tangible shift towards field service solutions being part of a wider ecosystem with the likes of Oracle and Salesforce following in the footsteps of ERP provider IFS who made a concerted effort to embed field service within their platform with the purchase of Metric and 360 Scheduling a few years ago.

There are of course arguments both for and against the case for integrated solutions versus stand-alone, and that is consideration each individual company must take.

However, with the acquisition and integration of Field One into their platform Microsoft are now a very, very solid option once more for field service.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature