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Field service businesses have a lot of problems that keep them from thriving—like scheduling challenges, high fleet maintenance costs, too few jobs, and wide service windows that keep customers waiting all day.

Now, these businesses can solve all these issues (and more) from within their field service management system with Commusoft's new Real-Time Vehicle Tracking feature.

The new feature builds out from the Commusoft cloud-based software package designed for field service companies both large and small, including plumbers, heating engineers, renewable engineers, electricians, oil technicians, property managers, fire & security companies, and builders.

How is Commusoft's Real-Time Vehicle Tracking feature better than a standalone GPS?

Why pay for a GPS system that doesn’t work hand-in-hand with your job management software? Because Commusoft's real-time GPS system is tightly integrated into a world-class job management system, it allows operations managers to make better decisions when it comes to tracking jobs. 

By bringing scheduling information and engineers’ locations together, Real-Time Vehicle Tracking gives operations managers the ability to create faster, more efficient schedules, which in turn lets them:

• Reduce engineers’ travel time.
• Reduce costs by pinpointing unsafe driving and rough vehicle handling.
• Schedule more jobs into a single day.
• Reduce service windows and provide faster customer service.

Real-Time Vehicle Tracking also increases the odds of recovery in cases of vehicle theft. 

'These are all benefits a business wouldn't see with a traditional GPS,' says Jason Morjaria, founder of Commusoft. 'Our Real-Time Vehicle Tracking now gives businesses of all sizes access to a world-class schedule optimising solution.'

How does Commusoft's Real-Time Vehicle Tracking work?

Commusoft sends users a dedicated Commusoft GPS vehicle tracker; it's highly precise, and can’t run out of battery or be left behind at a work site—unlike tracking solutions that rely on a mobile phone’s built-in GPS. Plus, there's no need to track your engineer’s personal device, just the company vehicle.

The vehicle tracker interfaces with the Commusoft job management software to let the user track their vans and engineers in real time from their desktop or mobile device.

Commusoft’s Real-Time Vehicle Tracking is included at no extra monthly charge for Commusoft's Paperless Office plan users and higher. Users pay a one-time charge per vehicle tracker (one per vehicle), but no extra after that. Now, field service businesses can finally say goodbye to monthly vehicle tracking fees, and say hello to real-time GPS tracking included in the price of their job management software.

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Sathivel Adrin Anusanth has joined Asolvi's global workplace to play a key role in implementations of the cloud-based Tesseract product, Asolvi's longest-standing service management solution.

Sathivel will be working with the consultancy team to ensure smooth, successful delivery of Tesseract to customers. Comprehensive yet easy to use, Tesseract has been a market favourite since 1985 and continues to optimise the service chains of thousands of organisations in the field service industry all over Europe.

Sathivel brings 15 years' experience in delivering IT solutions to the B2B market in Europe, Asia and Africa, and has a good understanding of the cultural values and variations and diverse customer needs in those markets.

He has successfully managed many large banking and finance projects on time and on a budget, exceeding customer expectations along the way. His expertise at both technical and commercial levels enables him to help customers in a multitude of industries identify the right solution for their business needs.

Asolvi's new technical consultant, Stuart Page, will help bring the benefits of its well-established Tesseract service management product to field service organisations Europe-wide.

Tesseract is Asolvi's longest-running application and known for its extensive functionality and user-friendly interfaces. Stuart is expected to be involved in all technical aspects of a Tesseract implementation, from solution scoping to installation and rollout. His remit includes project work and upgrades to the latest version of the Tesseract system for existing customers.

Stuart brings 18 years of experience in deployment of business solutions, primarily ERP, helpdesk and quoting systems, working closely with clients' technical staff as well as management representatives and end users.

"That fact that Asolvi is a business consultancy as well as a software provider is what drew me to it," says Stuart. "It's not just concerned with selling software. It cares about making sure its customers succeed and are profitable in their respective industries. I was also drawn by its significant European and international presence and ongoing expansion plans. Asolvi is determined to play a key role in shaping the future of field service for businesses of all sizes, particularly those finding it difficult to compete. I'm excited to be a part of that."

Stuart and Sathivel are the latest in a string of hires as Asolvi moves to position itself as the leading provider of service management software for small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe.

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The water sector is coming under immense pressure to improve the quality of its service after Ofwat announced it will intervene in water companies whose business plans for PR19 don’t match the “high bar” it expects for customer service...

With an increased demand for water, an ageing infrastructure and rising costs, some large water providers are exploring the use of cloud-based technologies, as a way to make considerable cost savings and manage the network more effectively.

Yorkshire Water is one such water company that has been investing heavily in advanced technology to improve the services it provides.

Since adopting the WorkMobiles’ mobile data capture app, the company has used it to become more agile and efficient compared to its previous method of data capture.

Previously, field engineers were relying on paper-based forms and handheld cameras to capture information on jobs and projects and were then having to drive at least five miles back to head office to load their job data into the company portal. Yorkshire Water recognised that it needed a digital solution that would help to collect and manage essential project information more effectively and also reduce administration costs based on the price of fuel and non-productive wage costs.

After trialling the cloud-based application with a team of 400 workers, the water provider has deployed the WorkMobile solution to over 1,800 of its employees.After trialling the cloud-based application with a team of 400 workers, the water provider has deployed the WorkMobile solution to over 1,800 of its employees. They are also continuously looking for new ways to further increase usage of the app.

WorkMobiles’ flexible form designer allows users to create mobile forms relevant to the specific job in hand, including site inspections, health and safety forms and timesheets for all workers on site. Using a digital form to capture the information for these important documents reduces the risk of data being lost or incorrectly collected.

Job details can now be sent to employees in the field and project data can also be captured in real-time, with all information integrated into internal project management systems. Work can now be completed quickly and recorded more accurately, making for a more efficient network management process.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “There is an increasing pressure to become more efficient and innovative in order to remain competitive and deliver an even better customer service. However, with new, emerging technologies, water companies are now gaining the ability to streamline their working practices and meet the needs of their customers more effectively.

“Our main challenge was that our previous data capture process was simply not cost-effective and meant that our teams were spending extra hours travelling back to base to record their job details. We needed a solution that could provide greater efficiency and connectivity, so staff working out in the field could record and share information in a timely manner.

“With our aim to roll out the WorkMobile application across various departments in the business, we have calculated that this will result in huge cost savings for us and our customers. The money we save as a result of this switch will help to relieve some of the pressure on our resources and will also help us to provide a better quality of service to our customers.”

With pressure mounting from Ofwat to provide a better quality service through the use of innovation, water companies are looking for ways to become more agile and efficient so they can work more effectivelyColin Yates, Chief Support Officer at WorkMobile, said: “With pressure mounting from Ofwat to provide a better quality service through the use of innovation, water companies are looking for ways to become more agile and efficient so they can work more effectively. The sector is facing a number of challenges, particularly due to ageing networks that can’t cope with the rising demand for water and the inherent leakage synonymous with older pipes. In order to keep these networks operational, now is the perfect time for water companies to get smarter and embrace new technologies so they can deal with issues quickly and successfully.

“It’s great to see that solutions such as ours are helping the water industry to combat its current issues. Yorkshire Water, for example, now has a tool that can help meet the needs of its workforce, so that work can be quickly recorded by employees and information then sent back to the office. The business has now seen greater efficiency amongst its workforce, along with huge cost savings. Every water company across the sector should be looking to embrace technology to achieve similar results in order to create a more sustainable future.”

For more information, please visit: www.workmobileforms.com/

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Coresystems, a leading provider of cloud-based field service and workforce management software for mid-sized and large enterprises’ field service organizations, today announced that Orchard Machinery Corporation (OMC) is using Coresystems’ platform to support OMC’s field service operations. OMC is the world leader in orchard harvesting equipment, using its patented Shakermaker machines to harvest fruits and nuts for worldwide distribution.

OMC was created from a dire need to automate the extreme labour required to pick fruits and nuts by hand. As OMC’s Shakermaker deployments and operations expanded, it ran into similar obstacles of suboptimal field service productivity. During rotating shifts from early mornings to late nights, OMC’s field service technicians would fill out paperwork to document service projects and request additional parts. However, the paperwork would typically take up to three days to process, which was often too late to restock the field service technicians’ trucks before the next appointment.

OMC turned to Coresystems to automate and accelerate its field service operations, and thus improve productivity for its travelling technicians. Coresystems’ platform provides OMC with a manufacturing and enterprise resourcing planning (MRP/ERP) solution to make time-intensive paperwork obsolete, fully incorporating existing field service processes into mobile phone and tablet devices. With the mobile platform, OMC’s technicians' input project updates and part requests in real-time. This not only streamlines inventory management for OMC’s in-office service managers, enabling them to focus on customer service within the shop, but it also provides OMC’s upper management valuable insights of the number of service calls fulfilled most profitable customer integrations and more.

Between manually inputting paperwork and waiting for requests for restocked parts, our field service operations ended up being an all-hands-on-deck effort“Previously, OMC’s field service operations revolved heavily around paperwork – and the rate at which we were able to process it. Between manually inputting paperwork and waiting for requests for restocked parts, our field service operations ended up being an all-hands-on-deck effort,” said Brian Kaufman, Parts Manager, Orchard Machinery Corporation. “With Coresystems, we are able to automate and streamline our field service processes, optimizing our in-field technicians’ workdays and freeing up in-office service managers to focus on driving business goals elsewhere. We are now much better equipped to ensure the thousands of deployed Shakermaker machines are in prime condition to produce bountiful harvest seasons worldwide.”

OMC selected Coresystems for the customization capabilities of its platform, as well as its ability to address OMC’s needs that are highly specific to the agricultural industry. OMC’s ERP systems use unique terminology, to which Coresystems can translate generic field service descriptions for various assets.

“While the agriculture industry is built upon a history of physical, manual labour, innovators such as OMC are discovering new methods of automating and accelerating the industry – but they require the back-end infrastructure to enable them to do so,” said Manuel Grenacher, CEO of Coresystems. “By offering OMC a paperless, mobile solution, Coresystems addresses the specific needs of harvesting operations and elevates them to the real-time pace of technology today.”

OMC plans to expand the Coresystems implementation to additional service centres, extending the reach of its field service offerings. OMC also envisions incorporating third-party integration with customers and dealers to further streamline inventory management, sales orders and requests for parts.

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Bill Pollock, President & Principal Consulting Analyst at Strategies For GrowthSM, takes a look at the biggest two tools being used for field service management and explore the merits of each...

In today’s business environment, too much attention is often focused on new technologies on the horizon, and whatever else might be “hot” in the blogs or other social media, rather than on the core attributes of substance and sustainability.

However, when it comes down to selecting the right Field Service Management (FSM) solution for your organisation, one thing remains very clear – it must “fit” your organisation with respect to functionality, application, accessibility, scalability and – of course – cost.

While some organisations may prefer an all-encompassing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that addresses all areas within the company (e.g., manufacturing, engineering, distribution, sales, marketing, etc.) in addition to services, others may prefer to use a Best-of-Breed FSM solution that serves as a custom “fit” to its services operations.

Differentiators that Distinguish Best-of-Breed vs. ERP solutions:

There are many definitions of Best-of-Breed currently being used in the global services community, ranging from “best in segment”, to “best anywhere”, to “best currently available”, and so on.

However, much too often, “best in segment” may not necessarily reflect “Best Practices”; “best anywhere” may be too elusive, and “best currently available” may not be quite good enough. With so many alternative definitions, some organisations may eventually end up not quite knowing which “best” they should be aspiring to.

Further, what may be “best-of-breed” in the manufacturing sector may not even be relevant in the medical device sector, and vice versa.

The complexity of the concept of “best” as it pertains specifically to a field services organisation can cloud the ability of management to choose either the precise goals to target, or the appropriate technology solutions that will be required to attain them.

Research has shown that the ability to pick and choose the specific components to support an organisation’s FSM activities offers a much more tailored solution that is able to address all facets of this service-centric process.Research has shown that the ability to pick and choose the specific components to support an organisation’s FSM activities offers a much more tailored solution that is able to address all facets of this service-centric process.

That is not necessarily to say that an ERP solution will not, or cannot, support FSM – rather, that a robust, application-specific, Best-of-Breed solution may be able to do it better.

Further, many ERP solution providers go-to-market with messages that proclaim “everything your organisation needs to support its services activities”. However, the “everything” that is offered by some of these vendors may only follow the 80/20 rule; that is, providing only “80% of the FSM functionality required”, but delivered by a “brand name” company typically as an add-on to a more extensive – and expensive – ERP solution.

On the other hand, a Best-of-Breed FSM solution typically offers 100% – or close to it – of the specific functionality required by the field services organisation from a services-oriented solution provider that truly understands the user’s needs from the requisite functional specs; to the terminology and buzzwords to the requirements for installation and training; and ongoing technical and customer support.

In addition, Best-of-Breed solution providers in the services segment have typically supported clients in their field for decades, gaining a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the market space including who the key and niche players are (i.e., vendors and users), how customers’ service organisations operate, what specific functionalities are required (and available), how usage has been and will be evolving over time, and what the key pain points are for all parties involved.

Most of today’s Best-of-Breed vendors represent the ones that have been successful in differentiating themselves beyond the enterprise-wide capabilities of the ERP generalists and the 80/20 CRM vendors.

Evaluating and Comparing Best-of-Breed vs. ERP Alternatives

Just as “you cannot tell a book by its cover”, it is uncertain – and unwise – to try to assess a solution provider simply by its marketing collateral.

Just because they say they can do it all, does not necessarily mean they can – and just because they say they support the field services segment does not mean they are specialists in doing so.

Many organisations have found that the difference between a generalist and a specialist can make all the difference in the world.

That is why it is so important to make sure that when selecting an FSM solution provider, the organisation evaluates all vendors with the same high level of due diligence – that is, assessing and comparing all vendors using the same criteria, and holding them to the same standards whether they are ERP generalists, FSM Best-of-Breed specialists, or anything else in-between.

Whether Best-of-Breed or ERP is better for your organisation will ultimately be your call – however, the results of a thorough needs assessment and long list/short list evaluation of potential solutions (and vendors) will take you to the point where you can make the right decision.

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The company that made UK showers smart is about to do the same to its scheduling operation, by overhauling it with powerful new software from Fast Lean Smart (FLS).

Aqualisa was the brainchild of founder Derek Goldsmith, an engineer who bound together two dissimilar metals to create the Bi-Metallic Coil in 1976, making cold showers a thing of the past. In the 00s, Aqualisa introduced the digital shower, which provides consistent, no-fluctuation water temperature at the touch of a button. Over the years, Aqualisa’s smart showers have become ever more sophisticated, particularly with the recent introduction of the QTM, which has personalised functions promising the perfect shower.

Aqualisa employs a network of field engineers to service and maintain its showers, which are supplied under warranties of up to five years. To book maintenance appointments, Aqualisa used scheduling software that did the job but was limited in scope and had received very few updates since it was implemented. Kieran McNally, field service manager for Aqualisa, explains, “We knew there were better products on the market. So as our contract with the previous provider came up for renewal, we shopped around, attended exhibitions, and invited potential vendors to present their product. FLS was one of them.”

The way the data is presented makes it easy to read, understand and manipulate, so we can see what’s happening across the whole service chain.FLS demoed its real-time scheduler and route optimiser, FLS VISITOUR, and offered an initial test: taking jobs already scheduled by the old system and seeing if FLS VISITOUR could do it better. Without changing appointments, FLS VISITOUR brought back a 9% fuel saving and showed the potential for much more if it had been used to schedule the appointments in the first place.

“The fuel saving was significant, and was one of the reasons why we chose the system” says Kieran. “There were other factors too. FLS VISITOUR has a number of cost- and time-saving functions the old system didn’t. For example, if an engineer phones in sick, the system will automatically reassign their jobs or propose the most economical engineer if overtime is required. The on-screen graphics are well laid out too. The way the data is presented makes it easy to read, understand and manipulate, so we can see what’s happening across the whole service chain.”

Aqualisa proceeded with a ‘try before you buy’ trial, which FLS offers all new customers. This involved a light integration with Aqualisa’s service management system, Tesseract, and live operation for eight engineers. “The results of the trial were really positive,” says Kieran. “Mileage costs were reduced and we saw an increase in the average number of jobs per day. We quickly learnt how to use the system and received a very good, very accommodating service from FLS.”

With the business case for using the software proven, FLS VISITOUR will be deployed company-wide this month. For Kieran the outlook is positive. “It’s a huge improvement on the system we had before and makes us far more efficient than we were. What’s more, FLS is constantly refining it, making it better for customers, so that we can provide a better service to ours.”

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CSG the trusted partner to simplify the complexity of business transformation in the digital age now offers even more ways for Pay-TV and other service providers to proactively communicate in real-time with consumers about their service appointments.

CSG's Where's My Tech solution offers a real-time view of a service technician's arrival schedule.

As part of CSG’s overall philosophy to enable an exceptional, interactive experience between service providers and their customers anytime, anywhere, on any channel, CSG now offers a real-time option for consumers to follow the arrival progress of a service technician.

Today’s digitally-savvy consumers are conditioned to receive updates from the companies they do business with at every step of the customer experienceThe new solution, named Where’s My Tech, is part of CSG’s field service management solution, Workforce Express (WFX), which offers the ability to get the right technician, to the right job, at the right time and now, can show consumers exactly where their service technician is and when they will arrive at the job site.

Where’s My Tech offers consumers real-time information about the status of a service technician appointment, enables consumers to digitally follow the technician while they are on their way to the service location, and receive email or SMS messages with the estimated arrival time of their technician’s arrival.

“Today’s digitally-savvy consumers are conditioned to receive updates from the companies they do business with at every step of the customer experience,” said Tim McElligott, senior consulting analyst at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan. “When those real-time updates don’t happen, the customer experience is tarnished which can potentially have a negative impact on customer satisfaction, and even a Net Promoter Score.”

The Where’s My Tech solution is the latest enhancement to WFX, in addition to real-time traffic, capabilities announced earlier this year.

“CSG’s communications management solutions offer an integrated approach for service providers to manage and more actively engage with their customer interactions throughout the customer lifecycle,” said Chad Dunavant, head of product management, CSG. “This solution is the latest step we have taken to help our clients deliver easy-to-use, connected experiences that instantly raise the consumer experience to a new level.”

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With a new CEO taking the helm Swedish FSM and ERP providers, IFS enter a new era of their ongoing development. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief was on hand at the IFS World Conference in Atlanta to see the developments first hand and caught up with FSN associate columnist Mark Brewer, Global Director of Field Service, to get the inside scoop...

The IFS World Conference is an event that never really fails to deliver at least one key highlight of interest. Memories of CTO, Dan Matthews bouncing around madly to Bruce Springsteen on the stage last time out in Gothenburg- he was demonstrating how IoT sensors work just in case you were wondering, is one such example of the unique way the Swedish company approach things.

Similarly, Ulf Stern, one of the companies original founders keeping customers, prospects and the press alike entertained playing some (pretty darned good) rock and roll with his band in a ‘Fish Cathedral’ later that evening is just another example of how the same core ethos remains in the company today as it did when they first started out some 35 years ago. Despite significant growth and development across the years, there all often overlooked secret-sauce that can allow a company to flourish, the uniqueness within their DNA - has always remained the same.

Who IFS are today is very much a different company to who they were then, just 18 months ago.Yet, who IFS are today is very much a different company to who they were then, just 18 months ago.

Firstly, there is the acquisition by - investment firm EQT. Which was in fact announced just days before the Gothenburg World Conference.

At the time the discussion had been highly positive - especially from a field service point of view as the message from EQT was clear - we are giving you the funds to go and do what you do better and faster - with field service being one of the top three areas IFS would be targeting for significant growth.

Given their stature in the market at the time as an already established major player within the field service industry, this was certainly an exciting announcement for those close to our sector.

Indeed, there have already been some significant acquisitions that Field Service News readers, especially those from the UK will be aware of which have followed after the acquisition.

The first of these was to bring IFS UK and Eire reseller Field Service Management in-house, which was a sensible and largely expected move.

The second, which saw mplsystems become part of the IFS family, however, was far more strategic.

mplsystems core strength lies is there omnichannel contact centre technology, essentially plugging a major gap in the IFS solutionAlthough, an FSM solution provider themselves, mplsystems core strength lies is there omnichannel contact centre technology, essentially plugging a major gap in the IFS solution and giving them a genuinely robust end to end service solution.

This is not to mention the US acquisition of WorkWave, an FSM solution that is dedicated to the SMB market - which instantly gave IFS access to a huge market, which many of the larger FSM solution providers struggle to penetrate.

So in fairness the record of EQT in terms of delivering on their promise has been mightily impressive and IFS have continued to grow in stature within the FSM sector as one of the true key players - an achievement all the more impressive given the attention our sector has had within the last few years with the lieks of GE, SAP, Microsoft and Salesforce all investing significantly in building a global presence.

My anticipation was therefore high when I spotted that the launch of FSM6 was to be given a major spotlight, being presented on the main stage as a key announcement on day 1.

Mark Brewer, Gloabl Director, Field Service, alongside Steve Jeff-Watts, Senior Advisor, IFS were the men tasked with giving that presentation.

“If you go back to the origins of IFS, we are an ERP company, but that can be something of an ambiguous term,” opened Brewer when I caught up with him.

We built a product that managed service, maintenance and projects. This means the intrinsic DNA of the business is actually service not manufacturing“ERP for most people is a product built for managing a manufacturing business. IFS did not ever take that approach. We built a product that managed service, maintennance and projects. This means the intrinsic DNA of the business is actually service not manufacturing.”

“Fast forward to today with the IFS FSM platform you’ve got a best in class service offering, there is an almost equivalent best-in-class service functionality in an ERP in Apps 10.”

“This means you can already have an existing ERP such as SAP or somethign similar which you are unable to swap out, we can layer that with best-in-class field service. However, if you also need solutions for your manufacturing, supply chain, financials etc then we can also give you all of this whilst encapsulating a best-in-class service solution within it.”

Customer experience is a huge part of the equation in service organisations now and we are moving into the experience economy “It is a unique position, where we can not only offer the stand alone FSM solution but the wider ESM (Enterprise Service Management) solution as well.”

“I also thought it was very telling that the announcement of our acquisition and mplsystems and our integration of their technology into IFS FSM was front and centre on the main stage during the opening key note sessions.”

“We call our solution IFS FSM but the truth is now that it is a full end-to-end lifecycle management solution. It is far more than just field service, it includes depot repair operations, reverse logistics, customer specific billing, deep contract and warranty capability.”

“Given that it goes all the way to the end, we were missing a piece at the front,  and mplsystems omni channel solution completes the picture. Customer experience is a huge part of the equation in service organisations now and we are moving into the experience economy so that customer journey needs to be consistent across the whole lifecycle.”

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