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Trimble and Intelligent Audit, a leader in freight audit and transportation spend optimization, announced a collaboration to integrate their solutions to enable users to benefit from both real-time visibility and one of the most robust audit analytics tools in the industry.

The collaboration between Trimble and Intelligent Audit allows the two companies to provide a solution that solves some of the most significant pain points for shippers today. Users can access visibility and tracking through Trimble's supply chain solution and audit and spend analytics through Intelligent Audit. In addition, Intelligent Audit and Trimble's data sharing will enable both companies to enhance their products, providing a compelling solution for users in the transportation and logistics industry.

Customers of both companies will benefit from this new integration that provides a solution for the supply chain," said Joe DeBoth, vice president and general manager, Trimble Transportation Visibility. "Users have access to improved reporting and analytics with the added freight visibility and tracking abilities through the audit process."

"We were the first company to automate the audit and recovery process in transportation," said Hannah Testani, chief operating officer at Intelligent Audit. "Each year since our inception, we've worked hard to continuously improve our product. Working with Trimble to tap valuable supply chain data will further advance the audit process and is another step in the evolution to continually reduce transportation costs, improve customer experience, and enhance visibility throughout the supply chain."

Trimble's Visibility solutions provide supply chain organizations with visibility into operations featuring a secure, multimodal, real-time information platform. Its features include: Transportation Management System (TMS) integrations, dynamic ETAs, proactive weather and risk alerts, rich data down to the SKU level, temperature control tracking, exception management and final mile functionalities, efficient workflow automation, and a world-class, user-friendly interface.

 

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Sergey Krasovski, Strategic Marketing Analyst, Trimble explores the opportunities that augmented reality can present for field service organisations... 

The mass and wide-scale adoption of augmented and mixed realities are gathering pace across a multitude of industries. To define, augmented reality refers to the process of superimposing a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world. Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations.

In the field service industry, this emerging technology can play a significant role in changing the way field technicians and the business collaborates to resolve technical issues, provide support and access documentation. Indeed, technologies such as AR smart glasses can overlay digital information (such as text, video or audio) onto the human field of view, interactively and in real-time. ABI Research sees a turning point for AR smart glasses, predicting that 21 million units of AR smart glasses will be shipped in 2020, with sales expected to reach $100 billion.

 

Optimizing Service Workflows

Mixed and AR technologies present strong use cases for the field service industry for optimizing service workflows. The ability to perform time-critical jobs thoroughly, quickly and first time around, by obtaining the right information from the correct source, is one.

Historically, service technicians had to sift through paper manuals or search their own memories to find a fix for complex equipment issues. This was an onerous process to go through and often resulted in a disgruntled customer. Today, however, Augmented Reality headsets provide technicians with the ability to communicate, collaborate and solve issues more efficiently. They could be dispatched to a job where they could see the service manual, real-time data and technical details about the product directly overlaid on it. There would be no need for a clunky laptop, phoning a colleague for assistance or contacting the back office for customer information; everything they need would be accessible with a flick of their head.

There is a big place for Augmented Reality in optimising service workflows. However, deploying new technology takes careful planning to realise the full benefits.

 

Empowering Less Skilled and Ageing Workforces

In mission-critical industries, such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture, ensuring that the service team captures knowledge and transfers it efficiently across the organization is a ‘must have’, not a ‘nice to have’. Asset downtime or system failure is not an option as it may result in entire projects grinding to a halt and monetary losses. Issue resolution needs to be quick and this is where collaborative video tools can best support a less skilled and ageing workforce.

 

"Video collaboration with augmented peer-to-peer help is being designed and implemented to connect less skilled technicians with more skilled ones remotely..."

 

Video collaboration with augmented peer-to-peer help is being designed and implemented to connect less skilled technicians with more skilled ones remotely. A technician with specific areas of expertise may reside in an office and virtually walk an apprentice through a service call, step-by-step. Markups can be made during a video call between an expert and field technician to visually show what needs doing and to be sure the field technician is clear about what to perform service on. The expert can draw a circle or arrow on a screen to highlight a specific area, eliminating costly mistakes.

There are parts of the world where you can’t get the right expertise for a job or flying out a specialist may prove too costly for a company. Augmented reality eradicates these concerns by allowing experts to take those of less skill through the entire process. Not with a manual and not on the phone, but they can actually see what they are doing.

Many technicians are performing this peer-to-peer help in ad hoc ways today; using tools like Facetime and Skype. This, however, has resulted in issues. For example, sending a facetime request to another technician can be very disruptive. It is also difficult for the technician requesting help to know who to contact and if they are available. Whilst the time spent by the expert is not often tracked. For organizations that want to successfully scale this technology, they need to consider how to integrate it more tightly into the service workflow.

 

"As technicians age and a new crop of workers join the business, it is imperative that the latter be able to leverage past knowledge. An ageing workforce is putting pressure on service organisations..."

 

As technicians age and a new crop of workers joins the business, it is imperative that the latter be able to leverage past knowledge. An ageing workforce is putting pressure on service organisations. The benefit of augmented or virtual reality is its potential as a highly detailed, highly visual training tool. Companies are recording repairs being performed on older pieces of equipment to be used as a reference by less experienced technicians. By utilising augmented reality to make markups pointing to specific equipment details, service companies can create a searchable library using descriptive metadata, and hashtags for quick access. This is a great way to offer on-the-job training and avoids the downtime and loss of productivity associated with having the entire team come into the office to learn new techniques.

Collaborative video tools not only provide the field team with the real-time assistance when solving complex issues, they also connect field service to the entire organization. Indeed, video content, such as markups and screenshots, can be captured by augmented reality tools and stored in a cloud. The stored data can then be tied with a work order and include valuable metadata such as geolocation, type of equipment, date of last service etc. If such data is centrally stored and can be easily accessed, it could be used for purposes like new technician training, proof of work and so on.

For more information on how you can look to roll out augmented reality across your field service operations, visit: www.trimblepulse.com

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Resource Type: eBook
Published by:  Trimble
Title: A Connected World: Field Service Insight Report

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Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!

Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you this white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!

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Synopsis:

Having been amongst its earliest adopters, field service organisations are well aware of the role that connectivity has in their everyday operations.

By the nature of field service a wide range of elements come into play and the difference between what makes a great working day or a poor one, are all too often to do with how these components are connected.

Overview

The eBook focusses on four key areas in which the connected world is impacting field service delivery - Connected Operations, Connected Customers, Connected Workforce, and Connected Intelligence.

Connected Operations:

The success of a field service organisation hinges on getting all parts of the organisation – the back office, the mobile workforce, the fleet management and billing and finance – working together.

Field service technologies have a critical role to play in connecting the many elements involved in the operations across the organisation and the eBook explores how the connected operation could look, not in the future but today.

Connected Customers:

Customer service is widely recognised as being the number one business priority with a proven link between customer satisfaction, retention and profitability.

Aberdeen Group report that organisations that reached a 90 percent plus customer satisfaction rate achieved an annual 6.1 percent increase in service, 3.7 percent growth in overall revenue and an 89 percent level of customer retention

Connected Workforce:

Mobile technology isn’t just changing service; it’s changing the technician as well. No longer just someone who can install or make repairs, a field technician is also a knowledgeable and trusted advisor.

With so much information at their fingertips, technicians can do their jobs more efficiently, resulting in an enhanced customer experience Field service leaders report that implementing a mobile strategy provided an 18 percent increase in service visits per technician and a 40 percent increase in service revenue contribution per technician.

Connected Intelligence:

Field service organisations are characterised by complex workflows and interdependencies which call for a sophisticated approach to measuring the KPIs that go across all aspects of their operation.

Our research shows that nearly 30 percent of field service managers believe that their organisation is ineffective at using the data they collect and just 1 in 5 believes they get the information they need from field service data to help do their job.

This conflict is a major issue facing all too many field service organisations – there is a wealth of business intelligence available to them but making use of it is seen to be an overwhelming, almost impossible, task.

Processing the volume and speed at which ‘Big Data’ is gathered and turning it into useable information is a major challenge.

 

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Want to know more? Access to this resource is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a Field Service Professional you may qualify for a complimentary industry practitioner subscription!

Click here to apply for your subscription now and we’ll send you this white paper to your inbox now instantly as a thank you for your time!

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by:  Trimble
Title: A Quick to Field Service Metrics

 

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Click here to subscribe to Field Service News and get this white paper sent directly to your inbox now

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Synopsis:

Field Service Managers face a big challenge balancing customer service with operational efficiency. It can be often hard to know how each important aspect is performing; and making changes in one area can affect the other. A successful Service Manager will leverage KPIs to gain visibility into their operations; helping them to manage both aspects of their business.

This White Paper published by Trimble Pulse takes a look at the some of the key considerations as to what metrics field service managers should be focussing on.

The white paper includes sections on:

• The importance of KPIs
• The top 5 field service KPIs
• A guide to benchmarking your own KPIs against best in-class field service organisations.

Overview:

Historically, field service organisations measured their success based upon the cost of service delivery and revenue generation. However, as competition in the industry heats up and customer expectations reach an all-time high, measuring additional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has become critical to success.

Field service companies need to know what is working and what isn’t in their operations in order to make improvements. This is easier said than done.

With so much data flowing in from multiple sources, in various formats and through an array of tools, determining what is useful can be a minefield for service organisations. Nearly 30 per cent of field service managers believe their organisation is ineffective at using the data they collect and just 1 in 5 believe they get the information they need from field service data to help do their job.

 

Field Service Managers need to extract data from their operations in two ways.

Firstly, they need instant, accurate information on which they can make on-the-spot decisions and secondly, performance management analytics should also be gathered so they can benchmark performance trends and learn from  experiences.

Ultimately, you cannot improve on what is not already being measured.

Identifying KPIs, measuring them and setting goals for improving them will reap rewards for any service operation.

Importance of KPIs

In order for field service organisations to obtain and retain customers, they must have a solid understanding of how their field operations are performing at all times. When utilised well, KPIs keep the service team focused and, most importantly, identify where improvements in the business are needed.

The business dynamics of delivering field service have changed, and customers are demanding higher levels of service. Field service organisations need to adapt accordingly which often means empowering their technicians with the tools and knowledge to fix things the first time – every time.

KPIs can help measure how well an organisation is meeting this objective as well as provide data that will help improve the effectiveness of each technician in completing their job.

Top 5 field service KPIs

The white paper takes an in-depth look at the following KPIs

• Customer Satisfaction
• SLA compliance
• Technician Productivity
• Technician Utilisation
• First-time-fix rate

How do you compare

The white paper explores research by Trimble Pulse which highlights that there is a lot of room for field service organisations to improve upon when it comes to using field service data. The research surveyed field service managers to find how their organisations use KPIs and whether they are successful at leveraging KPIs to improve business productivity and efficiency.

Trimble asked a range of questions looking to establish what field service organisations perceive to be the top most important KPIs to how they use KPIs to inform business decision making, that’s if they use KPIs at all. Without this insight, how can you make decisions which enhance business productivity, cost efficiency and create loyal customers? Essentially, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

 

The final section of this white paper explores the findings of this research and outlines best-practice approaches to field service metrics.

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Research by 6Wresearch reveals that India has become one of the most potential markets for telematics solutions globally...

Over the last four years, India has registered increased deployment of telematics solutions especially in commercial vehicle segment. Key application areas of the market include- cold chain, courier, pharma, retail and others. Presently, cold chain sector accounted for highest market share, followed by courier and others. Cold storage freight trailers are deploying telematics solutions to gather time-series data of the temperature inside the cargo container.

According to 6Wresearch, the Indian Commercial Vehicles Telematics Market installed base is projected to reach 1.4 million by 2022.

Increasing road accidents, security concerns and need for fleet management are driving the adoption of telematics solutions in the country. Additionally, benefits such as reducing fuel consumption and repair costs would further spur the growth of the market.

According to “Prijo Samuel, Assistant Research Manager, Research and Consulting, 6Wresearch,” in commercial vehicle telematics market in India, Heavy-Commercial Vehicles (HCVs) accounted for majority of the market share; however, Medium Commercial Vehicles (MCVs) segment is poised to register significant growth over the next six years.

Ravindran Natarajan, Director Business Development, Trimble Navigation (a leading player within the sector) said, “Although, MCVs/ HCVs covered entire market, however Light-Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) segment is anticipated to excel in the coming years. This would be primarily due to overall structuring of e-commerce industry in relation with the change in entire supply chain logistics from first mile pick-up to last mile delivery.”

 

He further commented, “During recent times, India witnessed entry of various companies in freight market, which have changed the whole market dynamics. This would create more opportunities for telematics market players in India.

Suresh Mishra, Director, QTS Solutions (an emerging player in the market), established in 2016 said, “The telematics industry in India would exhibit robust growth due to the deployment of portable telematics devices in MCVs, which runs on trip to trip basis.”

He further added, “Telematics market penetration in HCVs segment would reach between 90-95% by 2022 owing to growing acceptability along with mandatory policies to install telematics solutions in various commercial vehicles.”

The major companies in India commercial vehicles telematics market include- Arya Omnitalk, CMC, Dhanus Technologies, EFKON, TATA Motors (Tata FleetMan) and Trimble Navigation.

“India Commercial Vehicles Telematics Market (2016-2022)” provides in-depth analysis with 44 figures and 8 tables covered in 100 pages. The report estimates and forecast overall India commercial vehicles market by revenue, sales volume, installed base, sectors, regions and by vendor type i.e. aftermarket and OEM. The report also gives the insights on competitive landscape, market share by companies, company profiles, market trends, drivers and restraints.

 

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For a detailed report on this research with purchase options please click here

 

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John Cameron, General Manager, Trimble Field Service Management gives his expert insight into how companies can best make the shift away from manual processes to automated...

Field service companies of all sizes will be at different stages in their scheduling journey. Some will be very experienced with using scheduling automation whilst others are still using manual, paper-based systems to schedule work. Surprisingly, there are many field service businesses out there today that are still at the manual stage and looking to automate their processes for the first time.

With so many advanced scheduling solutions on the market today, it can be a daunting task knowing what type of technology and level of sophistication would be the best fit for a business, as well as how to tackle challenges around change management.

According to Aberdeen Group, 44 per cent of field service managers regard planning and scheduling to be the greatest opportunity for investment. The benefits realised by fully automatic scheduling and optimisation tools are undeniable; allowing the scheduling algorithms to automatically manage resources in the most efficient way not only improves productivity but allows the dispatcher to concentrate on other, more valuable tasks.

[quote float="left"]44 per cent of field service managers regard planning and scheduling to be the greatest opportunity for investment.

However, the change from paper to automatic scheduling is a jump too far for many. A stepped approach or journey is a more sustainable way to manage the business change and ensure that a field service business achieves its primary objective – getting the right technician to the right place at the right time with the tools to do the job, first time.

 

The following article explains the various scheduling strategies as steps, allowing businesses to select the stage that best describes its current operation and identify the goal for its future scheduling needs.

 1.     Paper-based

A dispatcher can typically manage 15-20 technicians via a paper based system. Whilst many service organisations still use paper-based processes today, this is field service scheduling at the simplest level and it can quickly start to fail when volume, complexity or volatility increases.

Often a day’s schedule is forced to change, due to such circumstances as a new high priority service request comes in, a job overruns or a technician gets caught in traffic and arrives late. When circumstances like this happen it becomes very difficult to reconfigure the schedule for the rest of the day, given the number of dependencies, geographic distances and demands of each individual piece of work.

2.     Manual Scheduling

Manual scheduling is characterized by ‘drag and drop’ features whereby a dispatcher can easily drag and drop work orders and tasks onto technicians’ calendars and dispatch work out to them electronically. Typically the system will do some automatic checks once the task is dropped. For example, to check if the technician allocated to a job has the skills to complete it. Manual scheduling offers a more automated and predictive solution to a paper-based system, helping businesses to save time and improve accuracy.

However, as human intervention is heavily involved, it can prove difficult to manage complex scheduling processes via this system.

3.     Intelligent Advisor

A Semi-Automatic scheduling service is invoked by a user, to start an automated process. Although this scheduling system is automatic, it still requires some level of human interaction, which is something few vendors provide yet many businesses prefer as it allows them to maintain some level of control and trust.

[quote float="right"]Having decision making tools built in to a scheduler can also help to alleviate a lot of headaches experienced by a field service manager.

Having decision making tools built in to a scheduler can also help to alleviate a lot of headaches experienced by a field service manager.

 

For large field operations, emergency jobs often come in that need to be added to the day’s schedule so having a tool that advises on the impact of what adding this job in will have before it is assigned can help to prevent the de-railing of a field service operation. Often known as a ‘what-if’ tool or an ‘intelligent advisor’, such a feature allows dispatchers to make quick, informed decisions to keep the best possible quality of the schedule.

For these reasons, transiting from a manual to semi-automatic system is recommended instead of diving head first into a fully automatic process.

4.     Automatic Scheduling & Real-Time Optimization

Some companies may not have the time or resources to drag and drop work orders into manual and semi-automatic systems and check all the details. It can also prove difficult to keep on top of scheduling all of the in-day emergency tasks. Fully automatic scheduling takes the intuitive nature of automated scheduling even further. Such a tool quickly and easily builds schedules automatically and dispatches work to technicians out in the field based on pre-defined parameters. The process completely eliminates manual intervention.

A Case in Point: Pacific Telemanagement Services (PTS)

PTS achieved a 95% job completion rate and 75% productivity increase transitioning from manual to automated scheduling.

The company operates a fleet of 90 mobile workers who service pay phones and pay internet kiosks, as well as perform freezer cleaning and maintenance for their ice cream distribution company, Arctic Express. Until recently, it was using a manual scheduling process to assign tasks each day, which lacked efficiency and productivity suffered as a result.

[quote float="left"]We used to just throw a group of tickets at our technicians in an assigned region to see what they could get done in a day...

“We used to just throw a group of tickets at our technicians in an assigned region to see what they could get done in a day. Each morning they would print out a list of their tasks, then spend a half hour planning routes based on their own knowledge of the area. We saw that this way was not always most efficient,” said Justin Keane, Chief Operating Officer of PTS.

 

The company tried using a map feature to sequence the stops but this took an hour a day for each regional hub, and as they manage 8 regional hubs, it took 8 hours a day to build the routes.

PTS implemented Trimble’s cloud-based scheduling solution to help it improve the efficiency of its scheduling process and raise the productivity level of its workers. By transitioning from manual to semi - automatic scheduling, PTS has been able to cut 3 hours a day spent on routing per dispatcher to about 45 minutes a day — a productivity saving of 75%, or about 9 hours per week. Furthermore, technicians no longer have to plan their own routes, saving an additional 90 hours per week of their time so that they can spend it on completing more jobs per day.

 

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