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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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IFS, a global enterprise applications company, announced recently at the IFS World Conference 2016 the launch of IFS Mobile Workforce Management version 5.8.

Among the enhancements in the new version are:

• Automatic shift generation—The new version supports automatic shift planning and rostering for individuals or groups based on constraints such as number of work hours, number of work days, and permissible shift patterns. With only one click, the solution then automatically plans shifts that are optimized for the company’s requirements and constraints.
• Self-learning scheduling—Leverages an extended data archive to allow for more educated and informed scheduling decisions based on historical data. The solution automatically learns to produce more accurate work schedules by analyzing a broad range of data including average job duration by activity type, customer and contract.
• New cloud deployment options—Features such as capacity planning and target-based scheduling can now run in scalable, multi-tenant Microsoft Azure environments to support occasional users and ensure maximum system availability for the solution’s Dynamic Scheduling Engine (DSE).
• Big data optimization—The new version offers even better support for large datasets, including support for aggregation and de-aggregation of planning data, extended options for filtering tasks and time-slicing as well as intelligent support for allocating processor time.
• Enhanced visual insights—A new cockpit view empowers users with customizable key performance indicators for quick and easy data access, driving efficiency and a positive user experience.

IFS product director for service-, asset-, and project-based solutions Jørgen Rogde added, “The new version of our dynamic work scheduling solution represents a major product investment aimed at helping our clients streamline and automate their scheduling processes while maintaining and enhancing the flexibility of the solution through new options for cloud deployment and big data management. It will help our customers use their resources more effectively, ultimately saving them time and money.”

 

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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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Local government needs wider changes if adoption of such frameworks are to rise writes former Councillor and Chief Executive Officer with supplier Oneserve, Chris Proctor...

The recent commitment from Warren Smith, the head of G-Cloud and the DOS framework, to re-look at G-Cloud 9 with a fresh pair of eyes, is a real step in the right direction if we are to overcome many of the obstacles that remain in the way of wider adoption.

However, all of us that have been involved in local government IT procurement know that there need to be wider changes if there is to be a step change in the usage of frameworks such as G-Cloud.

The original aims of G-Cloud, that Smith seems to want to move back towards, remain sound.

Indeed, it could be argued that local government can actually get more value from G-Cloud than other parts of government, both to make the purchasing process easier and for the public sector to implement the best, most innovative solutions; from companies of all sizes.

Obviously this is much easier said than done; lamentably, local government, largely remains behind the curve, especially when compared to central government department levels of engagement.

So, whilst we on the whole welcome a full revision of the framework, in order to increase local government buy-in there needs to be more fundamental change, not necessarily just in the nuts and bolts of how the framework runs.

Having been a city councillor I have experienced how local councils can be a fearful place. Not only do you have a line manager, a supervisor, a portfolio holder and a chief executive, you also have a number of elected members and of course and electorate. All of whom are looking to deliver the best for their own masters, or at least the ones shouting loudest.

 

Decision making within this context can be like entering a bear pit, especially within councils with no overall control. Procurement decisions can frequently face scrutiny at multiple levels, leading to guessing, second guessing, political point scoring and directional changes.

On top of that, we have a whole sea change potential every four years or less in some cases. How really, can one truly expect to make pragmatic, strategic decisions in such an environment?

Does this give councils the confidence to look at large capital projects within the IT infrastructure, which, whilst improving services, would be a large expense, and not necessarily as visible as keeping front line services operating?

What needs to happen is a wider, cultural shift, one that facilitates decision making, both from a capital and an empowerment basis.

Should councillors, who, have no pre-requisite to be business experts, when they are elected have the ability to change the playing field to the extent that they do? Of course there is a more fundamental question here, but in order to facilitate proper planning and strategies, questions do need to be debated as to how this can be made possible, or at least extents thereof.

As well as the wider changes at a procurement level there needs to be more of a focus on ensuring that local government departments are fully up-to-speed with G-Cloud and it’s potential.

Local government has no fear of spending budget on SaaS. Some of our biggest contracts remain with local government but they are almost all exclusively done outside of the framework.

There is a responsibility from Warren Smith and his team, as well as vendors, to ensure that the benefits are well communicated. The G-Cloud framework was set up to give local government more access to smaller, more innovative companies, that can offer great solutions for a great price.

The obsession remains very much with the traditional vendors, which means something is clearly broken at this level.

Education needs to be placed right at the front alongside the wider procurement changes to ensure that local government is fully aware of the potentially fantastic impact working across the framework can have.

But there is hope.

If Smith can truly get G-Cloud into a position where it can provide the entire public sector with access to the extraordinary level of innovation that exists within SMEs in the UK, then that has to be good for those companies, the public sector and most importantly the tax payer.

 

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Kris Oldland talks exclusively to Pål M. Rødseth, CEO Evatic as they announce the acquisition of Tesseract Service Management...

Evatic AS, a leading software vendor within Service Management, have acquired Cranbox Ltd in the UK, the owner of the Tesseract service  management software product trading under the name Tesseract.

Together Evatic and Tesseract will complement each other’s product portfolio and strengthen the product offering within the service management field in the market. Tesseract has its main office in High Wycombe just outside London and an office in Reston, Virginia in the US.

“We believe that the two organisations will complement each other both when it comes to products, industries and geographies”

“We are extremely happy to add Tesseract to our product family” says Pål M. Rødseth, CEO of Evatic. “We have known Colin and his team for years and we believe that the two organisations will complement each other both when it comes  to products, industries and geographies. The Tesseract solution with a cloud based platform will make a great addition to the Evatic software suit.”

 

“I believe that Tesseract are in the best hands going forward”, says Colin Brown, founder and CEO of Tesseract.

“With more than 150 customers in a wide range of industries, there is very little overlap with Evatic both when it comes to customer industries and geographies, and I am confident that the product and the customers will continue to thrive under the Evatic ownership”.

Evatic is a leading European service management software company with the head office in Trondheim, Norway and offices in Sweden, Germany, France, Poland and Singapore.

With a global reach and more than 300 customers in 30+ countries Evatic offers a broad product suit for companies that need to make their services profitable. Evatic is a private company owned by the founders and Viking Venture.

Speaking exclusively to Field Service News on the day of the announcement Rødseth commented “We have known Colin for a good number of years and we were actually having the same discussion about four years ago - before I joined Evatic. But somehow those discussions didn’t end in a conclusion, so we picked up the ball again about six or seven months ago and had a long and fruitful discussion that ended up in Evatic acquiring Tesseract - and we are really delighted with that.”

From an outside perspective there seems to be a lot of synergy between the two companies with each being able to fill gaps in the others markets and solutions. Something that Rødseth was keen to highlight.

“There really is a complimentary side to this, we view the UK as a really interesting market,” he began.

Currently in Evatic we are focussing our business around the copier/print industry - that’s where we have our main customers and we have a system that offers a really specialist contract management tool, which is great for advanced or complicated contracts that a lot of the copy/print guys do. So we have a great system for them.”

“However, we are not as good in the generalist service management solutions, for example repair centres and stock management solutions - that is where Tesseract fits into the picture.”

In terms of how the company focus will be split, it does indeed seem that the two different products, Tesseract and Evatic will live alongside each other as complimentary but distinctly separate entities.

 

“We now see this as one company with two different products, one being the Evatic product and one being the Tesseract product.” He added.

“I think we will continue to build the Evatic solution to tailor to industries that require really, really complex contract management solutions - and the key vertical for us there is the copy/print industry.”

Rødseth explained “However, we do have some customers outside of this sector and we are already actively looking at if we can move them over to the Tesseract solution.”

“A lot of the smaller customers that we have would benefit from running a Cloud solution with Tesseract so we hope to have some customer synergies from that. However, the primary reason for the acquisition was geographical expansion into the UK and the US.”

“Where we have our customers today is mainly in the Nordics and we also have offices in Norway, Sweden, Germany, France and Singapore but for whatever reason we have never had a strong presence in the UK. We now hope to build the Evatic brand in the UK now that we have a presence there via Tesseract and similarly we hope to be able to bring Tesseract to the European regions where Evatic is already strong.”

“So hopefully quite soon our sales guys will open their jackets and there’s not only an Evatic or Tesseract logo there but there is both.”

And it seems it will be business as normal for both companies in the short to medium term as Rødseth alluded to there being no loss of the newly acquired Tesseract band.

“The Tesseract brand has been over 30 years in the market it is a very strong brand so we will continue to keep that for the Service Centre and build on that and we will keep the Evatic brand for the document management vertical” he said.

What is clear is that there is a great deal of respect between the two parties, especially from Evatic towards not only the heritage of the Tesseract brand but also towards industry veteran Brown who will be stepping down from his role as MD but will remain working with Evatic in a consultancy role.

“Of course it is not going to be easy to filling the shoes of an industry veteran like Colin, but we will do our best to keep up innovating with Tesseract as we’ve done with Evatic as well.”

“We have 20 + people here that all have experience with the product and there is deep knowledge here within the organisation - we are hopeful towards a very positive future for both Tesseract and Evatic following this change.”

 

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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).

[/unordered_list]

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:

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• 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.

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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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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by:  IFS
Title: Software selection for enterprise service management

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Click Here to access the white paper

 

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By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Choosing to invest in a new service management solution is one thing, selecting the right system for your organisation is an entirely different challenge...

Service is becoming a central pillar of most organisations operations and investment in the tools to improve your service delivery are well documented to deliver clear R.O.I. However, the market for service management systems is highly competitive with numerous different vendors offering a multitude of solutions.

This white paper written by IFS's Tom Bowe, one of FSN's 20 most influential people in Field Service, offers some excellent, impartial and objective advice as to how you can identify the right solution for your organisation...

Overview:

This white paper, published by IFS, discusses the following key topics:

• Common business challenges including rising competition, greater margin pressures and burgeoning communications demands
• How the right software can address these business challenges including improving vision, knowledge sharing and flexibility
• A dozen key questions to ask when selecting the right service management solution for your organisation

Common business challenges:

Rising competition:

Competition in services is rising, from both big players and small players. Consider a manufacturer providing field services to customers that have purchased their equipment. Today there are huge service players that come in saying they can service everything, as well as small, nimble service organisations with a regional focus.

So for the manufacturer, sophisticated global competitors pressure service at the top end and agile competitors with a local or regional focus pressure service at the bottom end. They’re getting squeezed, and in this they are not alone among service organisations.

Greater margin pressures

In many business sectors, markets have matured for strong product growth, threatening revenue streams and driving down margins. The challenge and opportunity here is service growth: a part of the business heretofore an afterthought has moved to the front in executive suites. The immediate need is to turn service from a cost centre into a profit centre. The window of opportunity to do this effectively will not stay open forever.

Burgeoning communication demands

The proliferation of technology has had multiple effects, all of which act to increase the need for fast and pervasive communications. We see this embodied in the ubiquitous smartphone, conditioning a generation to expect access to information 24/7/365 and answers to questions immediately at the touch of a screen or click of a mouse. This has changed the game in service delivery, where performance issues (i.e., risk) have become more pronounced with lack of responsive speed or inability to deliver as promised.

The flip side of this risk is the opportunity that comes with new technology. Consider what McKinsey reported from a survey at the decade’s outset, as emerging Web-based technologies were beginning to create the networked enterprise: “The attainment of higher operating margins ... correlated with a different set of factors: the ability to make decisions lower in the corporate hierarchy and a willingness to allow the formation of working teams comprising both in-house employees and individuals outside the organisation. These findings suggest that Web technologies can underwrite a more agile organisation where frontline staff members make local decisions and companies are better at leveraging outside resources to raise productivity and to create more valuable products and services.”

 

How the right software can address these business challenges:

The right enterprise service management software supports an organisation’s ability to meet emerging challenges and respond to constant change by providing the foundation for enterprise agility. The concept of business agility involves the development of capabilities to achieve sustained competitive advantage in an unpredictable environment. Agility is the product of three foundational blocks—vision, knowledge, and flexibility—that effectively designed and developed software facilitate across the business.

A dozen questions to ask when selecting service management software

1. DOES THE SOFTWARE PROVIDE ESSENTIAL ACCESS TO DATA—THE RIGHT DATA FOR
   THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT TIME?
2. SOFTWARE SELECTION FOR ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT
3. DOES THE SOFTWARE ALLOW FOR FUTURE GROWTH?
4. IS THE SOFTWARE APPEALING TO TODAY’S GENERATION OF WORKERS?
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To get the full list of questions (and why these questions are important) download the white paper by clicking the link below and completing the brief for and it will be sent straight to your inbox.

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Click here to access the white paper 

 

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Alastair Clifford-Jones, CEO at Leadent Service Cloud, looks at the challenges IT managers working within service organisations face... 

If you are an IT Manager in a service business, you have a tough job. With an increasingly-squeezed budget, you are constantly expected to deliver more for less. When it comes to your organisation’s fieldforce the responsibility to provide an effective field service software tool for minimum cost and maximum return may well lie with you, together with managers of the operation itself.

But whilst budget is obviously important, we don’t believe it should be the top priority in the decision-making around IT investment. (And yes, we hear your response of “Well, you would say that”, but bear with us.) We think you need to think more broadly, think bigger.

Whilst the budget for field service software may sit with IT, primarily it’s the operations of the business who will be using it day in, day out. If implemented and used correctly, field service management solutions can offer a whole host of savings and benefits, including a good number that will directly impact the IT department and budget.

In trying to explain the return on investment from field service software, we’d usually talk about savings in diesel costs through the use of optimised driving routes, completing extra jobs per day through a more optimised scheduling system, or adding a new customer because you have been able to eliminate repeat visits. All of these savings have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line, and we do acknowledge that they come primarily from the operation. But there’s more to it than that - what about the IT savings that will result from using a best-in-class, cloud-based solution rather than a bespoke or customised system from a small, niche provider?

 

The benefits of a Software as a Service (SaaS) model have been much discussed and well documented. It allows IT Managers to hand responsibility for up-time, service levels, bug-fixing and support back to the software vendor. No more out-of-hours server upgrades (at least not for these systems), or working through complex contracts to understand what’s your responsibility; all you really need to do is make sure that hardware is available and the users’ browsers are the correct version.

When it comes to a system as central to the organisation as field service management, think how much effort and stress could be saved by not having to worry about the system going down. Or, not having to think about how it will integrate with other systems that you might purchase in the future. When you use a market-leading product (like that which Leadent Service Cloud is based on), these worries are a thing of the past.

Obviously, this will never be a decision that sits solely with either IT or Operations; we think it’s vital that the business and IT work together to come up with an aligned approach that focuses on benefits to the organisation as a whole, and which looks at costs/savings across all budgets, rather than putting this all on a single department.

IT Managers are used to having to support business needs – it’s the whole purpose of the function and it happens brilliantly in organisations every day without too many people noticing. So when it comes to field service management software, we’d encourage you to think big, get involved with the Operations teams and consider the organisation-wide benefits of a using a best-in-class solution, as well as thinking about the financial and workload flexibility you can derive from a SaaS solution.

 

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If you would like to know more about how Leadent Service Cloud can help you improve your field service then please visit www.leadentservicecloud.com

 

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