ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘tim-jones’ CATEGORY

Running across the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th of June the Service Management Expo remains one of Europe’s key field service events and Field Service News is pleased to be hosting the free educational sessions in the Field Service Solutions theatre once again this year.

In this the final part of this series we look at the third day sessions of the Field Service Solutions Theatre which is being hosted again by Field Service News.

Catch up on what is happening on Day One by clicking here and Day Two by clicking here.

As per Day One and Day Two of the event we see the opening session being given by the Field Service Solutions Theatre co-sponsors IFS and Field Service Management who begin proceedings with a half an hour presentation starting at 12:15pm.

Following on from this session we then move to the first of the days two interviews as once again Kris Oldland takes on his role of interviewer with his guest in the first session being Martin Summerhayes, Head of Stategy and Business Development, Fujitsu live on stage at 1.00pm.

 

In this half an hour session entitled “Employing the next generation of field service engineers” Oldland and Summerhayes will be tackling perhaps the biggest threat that field service companies are currently facing – namely that of the ageing workforce and how companies such as Fujitsu can overcome this challenge.

Having had an exceptional career working from field service engineer himself through to managing teams of varying sizes from a handful to a continent before finally arriving in his current role with Fujitsu, Summerhayes is expertly placed to share his insight into not only the dangers we face as one generation reaches retirement age but also how we must interact with the field service engineers of tomorrow from a young age in order to capture their attention and guide them towards a role in field service.

We follow this session by inviting one of the guests from last year who was a true highlight of the event program, Tim Jones, Professional Services Manager Europe and India. At last years sessions Jones explained how he had moved his field service operations to a de-centralised system, taking time to outline the reasoning for his move, the process he and his team had undergone to make such a transition, how they reorganised there teams, and of course what the early signal are as to how the move is delivering.

It was a bold move when many other field service companies were looking towards doing the opposite and centralising their operations. However, if the amount of questions Jones faced after the interview was any form of indication last years session was certainly left the seeds of an idea in a number of those who attended.

So has it actually worked? Well we’ve invited Jones back to give us the feedback on what has been successful and what has not. What he would have done differently and ultimately if he would advise other companies to follow this path.

 

Finally to bring the sessions to a close we have one final panel discussions which brings together Field Service Solution Zone sponsors TomTom with a number of their partners as we discuss “How connectivity and data are at the core of next gen field service”. The session, which also includes representatives from AllOnMobile, Magenta and Smart Witness is designed to help us put together some of the key leanings from across the three days sessions and see how all of these various technologies can come together to improve a field service organisations daily workflow.

With many predicting that the future of field service will have connectivity at its heart, it will be interesting to see from these various technology leaders about how there various systems can integrate and connect with each other to enrich the data available.  With a focus on enabling smarter decisions the session will ask how can we make the field engineers lives both safer and more effective efficient?

With a full three days worth of excellent and thought provoking line up of sessions the opportunity for discussion over a drink at the end of each day as the theatre becomes a networking hub is sure to be welcomed and on the final day it is certain to be a vibrant opportunity to discuss the ideas and trends highlighted both in the theatre solutions and the wider Service Management Exhibition as well.

 

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To join us at the Service Management Expo click here to register

 

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As the organisers of the Field Service Solutions Theatre at this year's Service Management Expo, Field Service News was on hand to speak exclusively to a number of leading industry professionals straight as they stepped off the theatre podium. In this video series we are pleased to bring you the highlights from the Field Service Solutions Theatre.

Here we hear from Tim Jones, Service Manager, Northern Europe, Waters Corporation

In an on stage interview Jones spoke about how he had taken the decision to move the dispatch of his field service engineers to a local dispatch, giving responsibility to senior field engineers. The move whilst unorthodox has empowered his engineers making their work more manageable and thus improving productivity.