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Nick Frank previews the next event.

The Service Community is holding its next event at the Henley Business School’s site near Henley on Thames on the 31st March.  

 

The event is being hosted by MCFT (McFarlane Telfer), a maintenance provider of commercial kitchen equipment who have a Royal Warrant for Services to the Queen. We are really excited that MCFT stepped forward to host the event as it is a chance for a successful UK SME with a customer base in the UK and Middle East, to show case their approach to Services.  

 

Chris Craggs, MCFT CEO will will talk about their vision for leveraging  technology to more effectively integrate with Customers as well as suppliers. He will talk about the key challenges in ‘opening the eyes’ of key stakeholders as to the mutual value that can be delivered, as well as the integration challenges that SME’s face in connecting to different ‘things’ in the value chain.  

Then Veronica Martinez from Cambridge University will share recent research on how blockchain technology is being used to enable customer order management. Veronica who has spoken at previous Community events and is a recognised thought leader from the Cambridge Service Alliance and the Centre for Digital Built Britain.

We will hear from two other practitioners. Chris Leather from €3.6bn Gauselmann Gaming Group will share how IoT Technology and thinking has been integrated into their service model to achieve maximum uptime of their gaming equipment.

As a buyer of services, Tim Bennet from Rolls Royce will provide a manufacturing perspective on why he buys services and perspective as an Asset User. This will provide excellent insights for any manager looking to develop their Service Sales function.

And between these conversations, we will run a 60mins “Discussion Cafe” on the topics raised in the Community meeting.

 

So the 31st promises to be another excellent opportunity where 30-40 service professionals have a chance to learn from colleagues in a unique community environment  There are no sponsors, no sales people, no fees, just professionals who volunteer to share their experiences, facilities and time.  

You can sign up for this unique event through this link  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mcfarlane-telfer-at-henley-business-school-tickets-78879652163 or by contacting us at info@service-community.uk

 

Mark Glover sat in on the latest Service Community event where the agenda covered 3D printing, data-driven manufacturing and PAS 280, the beginnings of a British standard for life-cycle engineering services.

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Nick Frank, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Si2 Partners of Field Nation, discusses the ethos behind The Service Community, a knowledge-sharing, independent service members' group and looks forward to the organisation's next gathering taking place at Renishaw's HQ in Gloucestershire, UK. 

 

In this episode, Field Service News Deputy Editor Mark Glover, speaks to one of the spearheads behind The Service Community, Nick Frank, who explains the origins of the group's and explains its future goals. Nick also shares some of the challenges that members are highlighting in the service sector and tells us what delegates can expect at the association's next gathering taking place at the beginning of April.

You can find out more information about The Service Community here and sign-up for the group's forthcoming event at Renishaw's HQ in Gloucestershire on 2 April here.

Engineering and scientific technology firm Renishaw will host The Service Community's next gathering in April, which offers "real insight from real people on service-led growth."

Taking place at Renishaw's HQ in Glocesteshire, South West England on April 2, The Service Community's one-day event features a tour of the company's innovation centre as well as talks from industry professionals and experts.

Highlights include Chris Raddats, from Liverpool University will lead a discussion based research he undertook for four leading UK companies on how relationships are increasingly important in service business growth, following 11 years in the industry with Marconi and David Schmedding, Head of Customer Segment Management and Subscription at digital printers Heidelberg will share insight into the firm's next phase of outcome services at the event. 

Nick Frank from The Service Community said: "We are again lucky to be hosted by Renishaw, one of the UK’s most highly rated technology companies who will share how they have overcome the challenges of growing service businesses.

"I am also excited to have Heidelberg, one of  the world’s leading Digital printing equipment manufacturers and Service leaders to share their experiences. This will be a unique chance to discuss with the company responsible person, how digital technologies and organisation change have led to the possibilities of a new subscription based business model.  

"And then we have some real pragmatic thought leadership shared by Chris Raddats from Liverpool University. This event really lives up to our goal of offering real Insights from real people on Service led growth." he said.

You can register for the event here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UK not-for-profit group The Service Community, run by service professionals with the simple aim of sharing knowledge within the community,  continues to go from strength to strength. Their latest conference held at Aston Business School, discussed Big Data.  Community member Chris Farnarth of Allocate Software reports on the day's presentations.

The Service Community’s Aston University Special Event focused on “Big Data” attracted over thirty guests to participate in a lively forum of discussion with a range of academic and practitioner based perspectives. The host for this Big Data themed event was Aston University, enerously made available to us by Community favourite Professor Tim Baines and Jill Forrest.

The Community continues to thrive with over 140 registered members and each event drives more involvement and new participation. Four key note presentations were delivered offering insight into the ubiquitous subject matter of Big Data.

Aston Business School’s Dr Andreas Schroeder opened with a truly engaging and interactive keynote presentation that reviewed the role that data plays in developing basic, intermediate and advanced services, in particular the technical, organisational and strategic considerations a company should consider.

In the second keynote presentation, Andrew Harrison explained that big data is a cost to Rolls Royce and is only turned to value through knowledge by contributing to three areas of their business:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Creating value potential in the design of a product
2. Maximising value in the use of product
3. Refreshing value a product’s life and recovering value its end of life

The audience by this stage were truly engaged, challenging perspectives and generating a liely interaction.

 

Andy Reid energised us further with another perspective of Big Data and how Pitney Bowes has used it with great effect.

Andy set the scene explaining the “4 V’s” of Big Data; Volume, Velocity, Variety and Veracity and went on to demonstrate how Pitney Bowes is developing infrastructure to make its own operations more efficient through its use of data, as well as offering location services that can help the company monetize their big data.

Our final key note was presented by Mark Noble of Inca Digital who told his story of how using the data already generated by their high tech digital printers, they were able to dramatically improve the productivity of their Service organisation.

The key lesson being it’s not the quantity of data that is important, but knowing what to do with it!

For example he showed how by combining 3 key indicators of machine performance, his team were able to prioritise service actions on the worst performing machines.

Thus saving money and improving customer satisfaction.

Once again, The Service Community delivered on its objectives. The content of the meetings is the life-blood of The Community, followed closely by the generosity of participants to offer facilities and key skills such as PR, marketing promotion or other services that will keep The Service Community alive.

To this point, the next event is proposed for March 2016 – date and location to be confirmed.

 

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September is a busy time for conferences, and if you are in the UK there's an opportunity to attend two very down to earth events.  Here’s a preview by Nick Frank,  who also reports on the latest developments in a campaign to re-invent manufacturing and service in the UK.

30th September: The Service Community

Hosted by the Aston University in Birmingham. A very different event for service industry professionals. We are expecting over 40 participants to discuss and debate how Big Data is being used to affect customer outcomes. Practitioners from Rolls Royce, Pitney Bowes and Inca will be discussing their personal experiences.  In addition we will have a view of the future from Andreas Schroeder of the Aston Business School. This event is unique: there are no sponsors, no hidden agendas, just professionals talking to professionals…a true community. To sign up see the Service Community website

6th October: Creating Value through Service.

A one-day conference hosed by the Cambridge Service Alliance . Although a paid conference, I always find the CSA events well worth going to as they present ideas that are on the leading edge of services development in industry.

Something up in UK manufacturing

There is something up in the UK which will have tremendous implication on field service in the future. I was at the House Commons with Professor Raj Roy and his team from Cranfield as well as senior leaders from some of the UK’s leading manufacturing and engineering companies when they presented a case for a National Policy for Through Life Engineering Services to MPs.

Through Life Engineering Services can be described as ‘Engineering for Life’ – making things work better for longer; delivering lifetime value from products, assets and infrastructure

Cranfield’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing has been working on the engineering expertise that underpins the ability for companies to provide their customers with AVAILABILITY and/or OUTCOME based contracts. These contracts reflect a world where customers no longer want to purchase the asset, but are redefining their needs in terms of outcomes - Rolls Royce’s Power by the Hour is one of the best known examples.

Research has shown that the TES market in the UK generated £23bn revenues for the UK. The exciting thing for the UK is that politicians, technology and industry are starting to realise that manufacturing must re-invent itself, if it is to be sustainable and competitive. They see that manufacturing is no longer just about the product. With the IoT, data and analytics it has become much much more fuzzy. This has tremendous implications for field service. A National Policy will speed up this change and hence the new skills sets required to effectively operate in these re-defined business environment. We will return to this subject at a later date.

Welcome back from summer!!

 

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The next event of the Service Community will be the held on the 30th September 2015 from 12.30 to 17.00. We are very lucky to be hosted by the Aston Business School, where Professor Tim Baines, Director of the Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practice leads one of the largest UK teams looking to support UK manufacturing be more successful through service based business models.

This special event is themed on a current key industry issue:

‘Using Big Data to achieve successful customer Outcomes’

Dr Andreas Schroeder from the Aston Business School will provide a perspective based on leading edge research as to how to overcome the challenges of leveraging the big data opportunity to deliver successful  customer outcomes.

We will then hear from industry speakers as to the hands on challenges their companies have faced in using data to create competitive advantage.

• Andrew Harrison will be talking about the how Rolls Royce Aerospace use the data they collect from their engines to deliver new services and reduce costs
• Jeremy Harpham from Pitney Bowes will present the role data is playing as this household brand transforms itself into a leading global e-commerce provider
• Marc Noble will tell us about the role data has played in  Inca Digital’s journey to service excellence

The format will be very informal to encourage as much dialogue as possible, and if there is time we will have a Panel Q&A.

To register your interest and reserve a place – please send your contact details to TheServiceCommunity@gmail.com

Please tell your colleagues about the event, which is free of charge.

For details of our last event in April where  35 professionals met at Fujitsu, Stevenage, see this link.

And for more background on this unique community of like minded people, see this link

 

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Next Service Community event:

Date: 1st October
Time 1pm - 5pm
Venue: Sir William Siemens House, Princess Road, Manchester, M20 2UR
To Register: Attendance is free but you must be registered Click here to email the Service Community team to register

All about... The Service Community:

"The Service Community is made up of people interested in finding out more about the service industry from its participants. The Service Community aims to provide opportunities to find out what practices have worked for others, and what hasn't worked, and why; to move away from the theory of what could be done by examining what others do and evaluate successful practices. Meetings (no fee is charged) will aim to provide content which doesn’t appear to be readily available, and to stimulate and inform in a format that is easy to access and use, and relevant to the user." - Steve Downton

Founded by the late Steve Downton, The Service Community is a non-profit organisation that seeks to drive service improvements and innovation through collaboration. Run by service professionals for service professionals The Service Community runs a series of events across the year with expert presentations from some of the UKs leading service professionals  from a wide array of industries. Recent speakers include: [unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Mark Rawding, Coca-Cola Enterprises
• Andy Beer, Pitney Bowes
• Martin Gilday, Elekta
• Martin Summerhayes, Fujitsu
• Graham Coyne, Siemans

[/unordered_list] Attendance is free for all Service Professionals and each event is not only a fantastic opportunity to hear of best-practices from leading industry professionals but also to network with other service professionals across the day also.

News & Features from The Service Community:

Next Service Community event announced

The next session of the Service Community has been announced and will be held in Manchester on the 1st of October. 

Following on from the fantastic success of the last meeting which was dedicated to the memory of founder Steve Downton this event sees yet another fantastic line up of service specialists from across the a broad spectrum of industries speaking. Click here to read more

 

A sense of community… Service Community special event review

The Service Community’s Special Event attracted nearly 60 service professionals who were clearly up to the challenge of debating key service challenges whilst paying tribute to the legacy of Steve Downton, founder of the Community who lost his battle with cancer in January this year. Click here to read more

Service Community to host Steve Downton tribute

Field Service News is delighted to announce the Service Community is hosting a business as usual event this June to celebrate the achievements of the late Steve Downton within the service industry.

This includes presentations from businesses influenced by Steve’s way of thinking; Pitney Bowes, Coca Cola, Elektra, Fujitsu and Siemens. Click here to read more

Steve Downton: A friend, guide and mentor to the whole of the Field Service industry

The field service industry made it’s final farewells to a trusted friend, guide and mentor yesterday as one of it’s leading lights Steve Downton was laid to rest after a long fight with Cancer. Click here to read more

The Service Community’s Special Event attracted nearly 60 service professionals who were clearly up to the challenge of debating key service challenges whilst paying tribute to the legacy of Steve Downton, founder of the Community who lost his battle with cancer in January this year.

The generous host for the event was Unisys, coordinated by Alistair Martin, who ensured guests were treated to first class refreshments and facilities at the Customer Services Centre in Milton Keynes

Clara Downton, Steve’s second eldest daughter opened the session with a touching message from the Downton family reflecting on the spirit of the occasion and how proud Steve would have been to see the passion that was on show. Steve’s widow Kate, was guest of honour and engaged with old friends and new community members throughout the event.

The agenda had been deliberately paced to pack in many presentations and practitioner case studies to showcase the Community at its best. We were not disappointed.

“Transforming for Tomorrow” kicked off the presentations in earnest. Pitney Bowes’ Field Service Management Andy Beer and Mark King shared a fascinating case study of how they deployed a service application to avoid meaningless data and to provide real-time information to ensure that their field service team were truly optimised.

To follow this punchy opening, would take something special, luckily Mark Rawding of Coca Cola Enterprises was ready for the challenge. Mark’s insight into deploying technology for customer satisfaction, dovetailed perfectly with the Pitney Bowes’ experience. The key messages of Mark’s success were appropriate for a mobile application; focus on device selection and engage more with the customer. Both these opening presentations generated great interest from the audience, with pertinent questions and full engagement a true indicator that the sessions had nit the mark.

The Service Community welcomed Martin Gilday to the stage. Martin, SVP at Elekta (manufacturers of medical equipment) recounted his memories of Steve as he blended the importance of effective knowledge management at Elekta with personal experiences from his long services career. The content and relaxed delivery kept the audience captivated and carried us effortlessly to the halfway mark. The networking opportunity of the Community is a key feature that Steve understood to be one of the value-added benefits of the organisation; this was underscored by the lively discussions and interactions that ensued throughout the break.

 

The penultimate presentation got underway, Martin Summerhayes picked up without missing a beat, deliberating about the reality of field service practices, describing what is known at Fujitsu as the ‘infinity loop’ of the service cycle. His interactive style ensured that Martin gained optimal feedback as he demonstrated why he has been invited to speak on several occasions at the Service Community events.

Incredibly after what was aptly described as a ‘marathon sprint’ the final presentation was underway. Graeme Coyne of Siemens hit a chord as he described the challenges of inspiring the next generation of Service Engineers and producing a powerful service operation. The audience responded energetically, asking hard hitting questions about how to relate to young people in a way to attract them into the service industry. It was a lively conclusion to the formal presentations and generated relevant content for a future meeting.

This packed Special Event easily delivered on its objectives, whilst the energy and involvement of the guests certainly demonstrated that active participation is the only type that matters. Chris Farnath of Allocate Software chaired the event and wrapped the formal session. As indicated ahead of the event, he then invited interested guests to debate the future direction of the Service Community. As a testimony to the success of the proceedings, nearly three quarters of the guests remained for the break-out session, where it became very clear, very quickly that the Service Community had relevance, longevity and a unique position to offer service professionals.

The content of the meetings is the life-blood of The Community, followed closely by the generosity of participants to offer facilities and key skills such as PR, marketing promotion or other services that will keep The Service Community alive. To this point, the next event is scheduled for September – date to be confirmed.