ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘software-and-apps’ CATEGORY

The late Steve Downton was widely regarded as one of the service industries truly great thinkers. His forward outlook on how the industry can and must evolve has helped shape many best in class service organisations over the years and we are pleased to be able to offer you the opportunity to download this excellent white paper commissioned by Exel Computer Systems and written by Steve.

The paper explores exactly why fully integrated solutions can now be seen as the only effective way forward for those companies who are aspiring to achieve best in the class levels of service. It examines how the companies recognised for delivering service excellence are achieving success through taking full advantage of the technology available and utilising it to create effective and streamlined processes, taking full advantage of the ability to widen the individuals knowledge base and capabilities through a fully integrated approach.

The paper looks at the importance of the fully empowered customer, who have the power at their fingertips to assess not only your company but your customers as well. In todays environment it is essential to be seen as being efficient and effective. Customers’ expect a joined-up experience and offer little understanding if they meet with poor processes which ultimately lead to a poor customer experience.

However, integrated service delivery puts us on the cusp of a completely new way of doing business that actually provides value for the customer and the service provider alike. The paper highlights the importance of breaking down the siloes that are the legacy of outdated, old-style thinking and building clear transparency across the core operations of a business such as service, logistics and call centre.

When this is achieved and the service operation is fully integrated with the other elements of the organisation, a company can become ‘super charged’ in terms of reducing effort (cost/time) whilst simultaneously improving the service experience for customers and staff alike.

As the paper continues Steve outlines how such an integrated approach cannot only bring benefits in the present but can shape an organisation to become future-proofed for further evolution as service standards continue to develop, adapt and grow. The paper also explore the advance of mobile solutions, the key factors to understand when making the move towards a mobile mid-set and again looks to the future and the incoming generation of staff to whom mobile computing is nothing more than standard.

On the whole the white paper provides an intelligent, balanced and forward looking perspective on why field service companies should be looking to integrated solutions. Nothing less than you would expect from one of the industries sharpest minds.

Download your copy of this excellent white paper for free here

 

 

Click Software continue to build their reputation as a stand-out provider of field service solutions to the telecommunications industry having won the contract to supply one of Italy’s largest mobile telecom operators WIND Telecomunicazioni Spa, with a new field service solution to enable greater mobile workforce management.

The solution will replace the Italian telecoms companies existing workforce management system and is being implemented by WIND to enable the company to build a more efficient mobile workforce by utilizing ClickSoftware’s assisted scheduling engine. The Italian telecoms company is hoping that by further improve the levels of service they are able to provide they will be able to firmly cement their position as leader within their sector.

Nicola Grassi, Chief Technology Officer at WIND commented:

“We have always been committed to fortifying the fundamentals that strengthen our core activities and that are able to increase the flexibility and efficiency of our operational services. Customer satisfaction is crucial to our business and we needed a solution that was reliable, easy to implement and develop, with a measureable amount of results,”

“We believe that we can meet such challenges working with ClickSoftware” he added.

With almost 1,000 field engineers, WIND’s dispatchers will now be able to capitalize on the benefits that a modern field service system such as the one ClickSoftware provide which incorporates powerful optimisation capabilities as well as delivering reliable, precise information directly to the smartphones of the field technicians out in the field. An added benefit of the solution is that the field management team at WIND now have the ability to gain visibility into all aspects of the business, especially in times of emergency.

 Commenting on the implementation Dr. Moshe Ben Bassat, Founder and CEO of ClickSoftware stated:

“WIND understands the strategic importance of customer experience, and ClickSoftware will help meet its service goals”

 “Our objective is to always help customers use their resources in the most efficient way while meeting its targets for customer satisfaction. With so many engineers in the field, ClickSoftware will make a considerable impact on both the reliability of information shared and time saved in completing jobs.” He concluded.

 

Find out more about ClickSoftware including features, news and video in the FIeld Service News directory here

 

Welcome to the second edition of our Field Service News podcast. This month we are joined by ServiceMax's Vice President of Global Customer Transformation, Dave Hart who has an incredible background in the field service industry having worked his way up from field service engineer through to European Vice President of Service before joining ServiceMax where he is able to give his clients the benefit of 30 years worth of experience.

Tapping into that experience we talk to Dave about some of the key challenges he faced throughout his career as well as taking the opportunity to get some excellent advice from a man who has 'been there and done it' when it comes to developing successful field service teams.

Download the full podcast now for free to hear Dave's advice on:

 

• How best to approach choosing a new service management solution
• Deciding whether optimised scheduling is the right move for your company
• Getting the buy-in from your mobile workforce after implementing a new system.
• What challenges need to be addressed when moving from cost centre to profit centre
• What technologies you should be looking to as the future of field service

 

To hear the full interview and see how Dave responds to these questions plus many more click the link below and complete the very brief registration to download the podcast for free!

 

 

Note: this is a joint promotion between Field Service News and Service Max Europe. By downloading this podcast you are consenting to the T&C's of our privacy policy available here. 

 

 

FeedHenry, who are a next-generation provider of cloud based mobile enterprise applications have recently announced a technology partnership with AirWatch which could prove to be significant for the field service industry.

AirWatch themselves are one of the leading Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers with a solid track record within the industry, whilst the relatively young Feed Henry have already established a strong reputation after a number of successful projects involving the creation of mobile enterprise applications, including developing a large number of apps for different elements of the network rail group which saw the transportation giant improve field service efficiency dramatically.

Working together the two companies will provide a joint solution, which will enable the simple and rapid creation of mobile enterprise applications which will be able to be immediately deployed and managed within the AirWatch app catalogue.

AirWatch CEO John Marshall commented;

“IT organisations often need to develop, deploy and maintain mobile applications quickly and securely to accelerate business opportunities and promote employee productivity,”

“FeedHenry’s platform integration with AirWatch provides enterprises the ability to secure their mobile devices and to simplify app development with connectivity to backend systems through RESTful APIs in the cloud.”

By integrating with AirWatch, Feed Henry’s Mobile Application Platform enables companies to develop, integrate and secure mobile enterprise applications as well as content on mobile devices, whilst giving IT departments the ability to manage policies and provide access controls at the enterprise level.

Feed Henry CEO Cathal McGloin comments:

“The integration of our next generation Mobile Application Platform with AirWatch’s EMM solution now gives enterprises secure device management, along with the ability to develop, host and manage native, hybrid and HTML5 applications,”

“Most mobile enterprise deployments have been focused on the development of one off, tactical applications for specific groups of employees or customers. Increasingly however, organisations are looking towards more advanced mobilisation of a broader set of assets and back-end data sets. We believe that agile, cloud-based mobile application platforms, alongside MDM solutions, will play an important role in this enablement.”

The benefits that Feed Henry can offer to AirWatch users include simplifying and securing the connectivity of apps with any enterprise systems through Feed Henry’s ‘mobile backend as-a-service’ and accelerating development cycles and go to market by deploying apps to the device server-side code to the cloud – whether it is public, private or hybrid with just one push.

Developers can also now publish apps and make them AirWatch enabled seamlessly whilst being able to push app updates to all enrolled devices on the AirWatch MDM platform and enterprises are able to monitor and tack all newly created apps via the AirWatch console.

Find out more about mobile enterprise application and field service software providers including case studies, videos and other resources in our online directory here. 

Infographic showing the key benefits of a truly end-to-end field service software solution based on exclusive research conducted by mplsystems and existing client case studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are currently conducting a research project in partnership with Tesseract, which aims to establish exactly what you think about SaaS field service solutions. Having now reached the half waypoint of this project there are some interesting results already becoming prominent…

SaaS field service solutions still in the minority

Of the total respondents so far the overwhelming majority (83%) are currently still using an on premise solution as opposed to a SaaS field service solutions. However, of those still using an on-premise solution 62% have stated they were considering moving to a SaaS platform when they next upgrade their field service management software.

The key driver in this shift towards the cloud is the added mobility cloud solutions offer, with 66% of companies citing most easy remote access as a factor in why they are considering SaaS. Other common reasons were the scalability of SaaS solutions and the more affordable pricing structure of SaaS, which 59% and 51% of companies cited respectively.

Mythbuster – security is not an issue for SaaS field service solutions

The biggest fear around moving to a SaaS field service solution was security which 52% cited as a reason they would not choose SaaS. This is largely to be expected due to the often-high profile doubts raised about cloud security.

However, it would seem it is not substantiated by the facts. Of those companies operating a SaaS field service solution none cited security as an issue they had faced.

The biggest issues surrounding cloud based systems were in fact connectivity and communication with existing legacy systems. Exactly half of companies with a cloud solution had suffered from one or both of these issues. However, only 36% of companies cited either of these as a reason why they wouldn’t choose SaaS.

Of those who have chosen SaaS all have identified easy remote access as the key reason why they opted for SaaS. Scalability was the second most popular reason for opting for a SaaS solution which was cited by 75% of companies. A more affordable pricing model and built-in disaster recovery being the joint third popular reasons that 57% of companies listed.

Additional benefits of SaaS provided by respondents included increased functionality and availability, cost, flexibility, ease of upgrades and infrastructure and all countries being moved to the same platform.

It is interesting that for both companies either already on a SaaS field service solution or considering a SaaS field service solution that less reliance on the IT department was the least common factor in choosing the cloud.

Only 28% of companies already using a SaaS field service solution identified this as a reason for choosing SaaS whilst only 10% of companies considering a SaaS field service solution cited it as a reason for consideration.

Who’s in the DMU

Whilst it is certainly true that SaaS will reduce the strain on the IT department, it is clearly not a factor that most field service managers take into consideration.

However, what is clear is that when the CIO/IT Director etc is involved within the decision making process there is more likelihood of the company opting for a SaaS field service solution.

In fact the CIO or equivalent was involved in the decision making process in 71% of companies who had opted for SaaS field service solution and was the most common figure within the decision making unit (DMU) of such companies.

However, for companies who were still operating on an on premise solution the CIO or equivalent was only involved in 46% of cases with the CFO/FD being more prominent and being involved in the DMU in 56% of cases.

As you would expect in both instances the Field Service Manager was a prominent figure in the DMU being the second most common member in companies with SaaS and most common within those companies still operating an on premise solution.

Bringing in the mobile workforce

However it appears that there are two groups that are largely being omitted from the DMU yet who strategically could have a massive impact on the success of the implementation of any new platform whether it be on-premise or a SaaS field service solution.

One of the biggest obstacles often highlighted to a successful implementation of the technology is getting the buy–in of the mobile workforce.

It is a topic we have discussed on field service news a number of times and one regular suggestion by industry experts is to get representatives of the field staff to be part of the DMU for the latest field service solution you intend to deploy. However, in both groups (SaaS or on premise) less than 15% of companies sought to include representatives of their field staff in the process.

Also with the trend to move service departments away from being cost centres and towards profit centres it would surely be sensible to include a senior figure from the sales division into the conversation also. However, again the inclusion of a sales director or equivalent was a rare occurrence with no more than 7% of companies bringing the sales director into the process.

How does this shape up to your own situation? Is your company operating a SaaS field service solution? Are you considering a move to the cloud  or do you think that you would always rather a platform that remains on premise instead of a SaaS field service solution?

If you haven’t taken part in the survey as yet then please do and help us build up a complete picture of the industry today.

As a thank you all respondents who complete the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win one of three £50 Amazon vouchers!

The survey is designed to only take about 2 to 3 minutes to complete and will be no more than 12 questions maximum. Enter the survey now by clicking here.

One of the UK’s leading building insurance claims management companies LAS Claims Ltd has achieved a 32% saving in fuel costs just one month after implementing two systems provided by field service software provider FLS.

LAS Claims who manage thousands of claims for household buildings claims every year work on behalf of a number of the UK’s leading insurers. The claims management process requires LAS Claims to deal with validation, investigation, and then achieving the best settlement outcomes and then fulfilment.

They have chosen to implement both FLS VISITOUR which incorporates real-time scheduling and optimisation technology alongside a cost-led booking system as well as FLS MOBILE, which delivers improvements in the efficiency of the field force. Together the two technologies have allowed for quicker response times for both LAS Claims’ insurer clients and of course the insurers customers also.

With offices in Birmingham and Bristol the claim management company have a number of strict SLA timescales to adhere to when reacting to a claim. An appointment for a home visit must be scheduled and attended by one of the LAS field force which is comprised of 65 claim surveyors. These claims surveyors also need to be flexible to relocate to meet the demands of surges in claims such as the recent flooding and devastation in much of Somerset and other areas in Southern England as a result of the recent extreme weather.

The FLS solution is delivered via a Software as a Service platform so was able to be fully deployed and being used by all of the team at LAS including office based staff and the field operatives within just 3 weeks of the projects start.

Having adopted a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy for subcontractor surveyors FLS MOBILE, which is device agnostic allowed easy deployment, whilst FLS VISITOUR is being used alongside the LAS Claims proprietary claims management system in the central offices.

Ian Hogarth, LAS Business Development Director, commented:

“We have long believed that technology can deliver significant improvements to claims management in the UK household market. FLS VISITOUR is the latest addition to our technology portfolio, and we are delighted with the results to date.”

“FLS allows our claims handlers to select an appropriate appointment date/time, it tells us where the surveyor is, how long it will take to get to their appointment, how long the surveyor has been on site, and where they’re going next,” he said.

“It enables us to give our customers real time information for example exactly when to expect our surveyor to arrive, but also ensures we only send a surveyor with the appropriate skill set and equipment for each claim, not just any surveyor.”

He added “We can cluster the appointments to optimise the number of visits per day, and this has been especially effective during the recent surge, where LAS claims volumes increased by over 600% above the daily average.”

“We have been using FLS for a month across our business and it has already delivered exceptional benefits. For example, we have reduced surveyor mileage between appointments from an average of 34 miles per job to 23 miles. This means less travelling time and more time spent in customer’s homes helping them after a claim.”

Aside from improvements to scheduling, Mr Hogarth points to other benefits from using FLS:

“There are the obvious environmental benefits from travelling fewer miles, but it also helps improve the safety of surveyors, who are almost all lone workers, as we know where they are at any given time.”

Jeremy Squire, FLS UK Managing Director stated:

“LAS Claims are using FLS VISITOUR to great advantage in a competitive industry. We are proud to welcome LAS as a new customer and of their early achievements using FLS technology. Further gains are attainable and we will work closely as a team to quickly achieve these.

 

 

Delivering high quality service is clearly essential for any successful Field Service Management provider. That’s why it’s so important for service-based organisations across the facilities management, property management, maintenance and cleaning sectors to avoid the common pitfalls that can lead field service operations to fail in delivering service excellence.

Typical issues here can include a lack of integration between service desks, planning/dispatch operations and field staff; poor visibility of customer data, updates, stock and asset information; the breakdown of customer feedback and audit trails in the field; as well as the introduction of vulnerable manual processes and unnecessary administration costs. It’s this inability to join the dots that can make it increasingly difficult for service providers to achieve efficiency savings and remain competitive.

Recent mplsystems research identified mobile field service team visibility as a critical element for helping to address these issues. At a time when increasing field workforce productivity is proving a key challenge, we found that almost 40 percent of service management operations admitted to having no visibility of their mobile workforce at all. For larger field service teams, gaining insight over field service teams is even more difficult, with the dispatch function becoming critical – and a potential bottleneck to performance.

What’s needed is an approach that works to resolve this service disconnect – one where messages are always shared with field-based staff, where updates are accessible across end-to-end processes, where performance monitoring extends across all activities, and where interactions aren’t lost as they pass through multiple departments and systems.

That’s why at mplsystems we have built an end-to-end field service management solution that can provide organisations with a true real-time of all their current maintenance and support activities across their entire operation. Key functionality includes a unified service desk portal; the automatic and dynamic planning and scheduling of service activities within defined SLA adherence guidelines; supporting mobile personnel through dedicated apps for in-field data collection and route optimisation; as well as comprehensive analytics and SLA reporting.

By directly linking service desk and field operations, organisations of any size can effectively automate key processes such as parts and asset management, optimise their scheduling and even deploy customer self-service portals so that clients can carry out their own bookings and changes. And because this service is now available on a Cloud-enabled pay-per-usage basis, it can prove particularly cost effective for all workforce sizes, from just 15 to over 500 mobile staff.

When Balfour Beatty Workplace combined its multiple UK service centres into a single major mplsystems-powered National Operations Centre it deployed just this type of flexible helpdesk solution, helping the TFM operator to manage bookings and plan jobs across its multiple accounts. For Balfour Beatty Workplace the results have been impressive; initial savings of over £500,000 in terms of efficiency savings and penalty reductions have been realised. In addition there has been an 18 percent improvement in response rates, non value-added calls have been cut by 2,000 a month and the company has seen a 28 percent improvement in planned maintenance performance SLAs.

Before deploying its mplsystems field service management solution, Gamestec – the UK’s largest gaming and amusement machine operator – needed separate contact centre technology, CRM and handheld devices to maintain communications with its engineers. By implementing an mplsystems solution, Gamestec has seen an 88% reduction in ongoing IT costs, with increased efficiency across the organisation in terms of how service and field staff are deployed.

Metric Group, the leading provider of car park payment terminals, also uses an mplsystems solution to support its field service engineers. The solution gives Metric Group a single view of all its engineering resources, allowing the company to optimise service schedules, increase field service productivity, improve response times for customer and dramatically simplify reporting.

 

“Transforming Field Service - Key trends and common pitfalls: how can new technology combat your field service issues?” is a brand new white paper published by mplsystems which provides an excellent review of the key considerations Field Service Managers should be aware of when assessing their own operational systems and processes.

Written from a refreshingly impartial viewpoint this detailed white paper provides a clear picture of the issues currently facing Field Service Managers in todays service industries whilst giving solid, intelligent guidance on the technologies that are currently available to circumvent those issues as well as advice on what questions you should be asking of potential providers when reviewing possible solutions.

Drawing on research from a number of different sources including Aberdeen, The Service Council, Gartner as well as exclusive research commissioned by mplsystems themselves the white paper presents a considered and balanced viewpoint on the industry today.

The white paper begins with perhaps the most important question any Field Service Manager should be asking – Why do some organisations fail to deliver? As the white paper explains the picture of the European service standards are not quite as rosy as one may expect.

Indeed although field service technology has moved forward in giant leaps across the last decade, the stark reality is that still the vast majority of organisations are failing to dramatically improve their service standards.

According to mplsystems there are three key underlying factors that are preventing improvement; these are disparate systems, reliance on overly complex scheduling and large ERP systems and finally a lack of visibility in the field. However, there is a huge array of technology based solutions to overcome these problems and this white paper explores many of these systems, whilst providing honest commentary on why the technology may or may not be the right fit for your own company.

The technology trends covered within the white paper are:

 

• Mobile field service
• Scheduling and optimisation
• Parts locator and boot stock management
• Analytics
• Real-time monitoring
• Sales and marketing in field service
• Off the shelf versus customised
• Self service and web portals
• End to end KPI’s
• The rise of cloud

Each of the above sections of the white paper contains an overview of the relative trends which combines a strong understanding of the technology, yet manages to present the information in clear, jargon-free language. Making this 8 page document simultaneously meaningful, yet easily read. The content is logical, well thought out and certainly provides the reader with valuable insight that is required when facing a combination of constantly emerging technologies and numerous suppliers offering what on the surface at least can appear to be very similar products.

I am pleased to recommend this white paper as a highly valuable resource and would strongly suggest downloading it.

To register for your copy of this excellent white paper, simply click here to complete the 10 second registration form.

Find out more about mplsystems in our online directory. Click here to go to the mplsystems directory page.