In the first article of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS, we look at companies that have accelerated adoption of remote services in their operation during the pandemic.
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Sep 24, 2021 • Features • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Covid-19 • Remote Services • GLOBAL
In the first article of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS, we look at companies that have accelerated adoption of remote services in their operation during the pandemic.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
In the midst of COVID, one of the most talked-about and widely leveraged digital toolsets was augmented and merged reality tools that enable remote interaction, collaboration, and service.
In a time of lockdowns and travel restrictions, software that blends two real-time video streams into an interactive environment proved incredibly useful as a business continuity measure for countless businesses, but particularly for field service organizations.
To be fair, many companies had begun using augmented reality and remote assistance technologies prior to the pandemic – but the conditions of COVID rapidly accelerated adoption by those who had not yet considered the role of remote service in their operations. I’ve written about the value proposition of augmented reality for years and am a huge proponent of the impact it can have on remote customer support and resolution, remote diagnosis to increase first-time fix, better utilization of valuable resources, as well as more rapid employee training and knowledge transfer.
What makes for the most interesting conversation today, however, and the purpose of this report is to explore the role remote service will play in a post-COVID world. The
use of the technology when on-site visits are impossible or unsafe is very simple to understand and put into action. What begs a harder question is how organizations who have turned to remote assistance tools for those business continuity purposes will evolve their use of the technology and incorporate it into their overarching service strategy as we move forward. Is it a key enabler of a remote-first service strategy? Or just another tool in the arsenal to improve customer outcomes? This is the question many companies are grappling with as service conditions normalize.
To weigh in on this topic, I invited some of the service leaders I’ve talked with over the last year about their companies’ uses of remote service. On the following pages, we discuss some of the key points related to determining the fit for remote service in your business and how to maximize its potential to create efficiency gains, customer satisfaction, and competitive differentiation.
Beginning the Remote Service Journey
Some of these companies were leveraging remote assistance tools pre-pandemic, others quickly turned to the technology to ensure service could persist throughout the pandemic.
For those who were already leveraging remote assistance, there’s a sense of relief that the investment had been made and that the technology could serve as a means for business continuity in incredibly uncertain times. For those who had the foresight when COVID struck to very quickly get the technology in place, it is clear that it wasn’t an investment made only as a means to survive the pandemic – but a technology that could have both short and long term benefits.
RICOH is one of the companies that had already been leveraging augmented reality before COVID hit but saw use spike 775% when agents and technicians’ normal business practices were impacted. “Originally, we started a Dispatch Avoidance program, now rebranded as Remote Resolution, to focus our service in three key areas (Field Service, Onsite Managed Services, and Commercial Print). All three areas targeted different processes and elements, but in the end, were all primarily focused on shifting support “left” and integrating technology such as augmented reality as part of the process, providing tech to tech support,” says Dr. Marlene R. Kolodziej, DBA, ITIL, Vice President, Centralized Services at RICOH Digital Services. “We did experience an increase in skill set for those resources in the field, since they were potentially supporting devices through augmented reality that they had never supported previously, thereby increasing their knowledge and skills, as well as a shift to increase calls resolved at first level instead of routing to the field.”
While RICOH was able to rely on use of the technology during the pandemic, and therefore saw the 775% spike in use, that rate has normalized now to 150% of pre- pandemic use. “We have also successfully deployed our truck driver MFP Program, using augmented reality with our truck driver delivery program to reduce the deployment of a new MFP from three visits to one. Previously a truck driver would deliver an MFP to the customer, then a field service technician would visit the customer to perform the installation, then the truck driver would return to pick up the old device. Now the truck driver works with our technicians and installs the printer using augmented reality, as well as deliver new/retrieve old MFP, all in the same visit,” says Marlene.
Smart Care Equipment Solutions also had augmented reality in place prior to COVID, but its experience with the technology during the pandemic was far different than RICOH just based on its industry. “We initially invested in the technology because we were looking at two pieces of equipment that had high complexity and a high callback ratio for us: ice machines and combi-ovens in this industry, because remarkably, both of them have electronic controls and both of them have a lot of water with them. There was enough of a gap between those two pieces and all the rest of the equipment and we turned to remote service because we wanted figure out how we could bring the competencies of our trainers, who knew those pieces of equipment well, out to the field more quickly to drive down those callback ratios,” says Gyner Ozgul, COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions. “We had just kicked this off before the pandemic hit and of course our industry was heavily impacted with restaurant closures. I’m pretty confident that it’s going to have a bigger impact as things normalize.”
Utility FortisBC is an example of a company that turned to remote assistance specifically to adjust to trying to maintain service amidst pandemic circumstances. “We were limited in entry into our customers’ premises,” explains Scott Lowes, Construction Supervisor at FortisBC. “Remote service software has allowed our field employees to continue working and providing the best possible customer experience throughout the pandemic, while increasing their safety and reducing potential exposures.” While FortisBC’s initial use of remote surface stemmed from the pandemic, the organization sees potential for use of the technology far beyond those needs.
"We turned to remote service because we wanted figure out how we could bring the competencies of our trainers, who knew those pieces of equipment well, out to the field more quickly to drive down those callback ratios."
Gyner Ozgul, COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions
Munters had remote service on its radar before COVID, but it was on the future roadmap of technology investments. When the pandemic struck, the company saw the opportunity to act fast and speed up this portion of its plans as a way to persist through COVID conditions but also set the stage for post-pandemic success. “We’d been researching remote service applications prior to COVID, primarily looking at how to enable third-line support for technicians. When COVID hit, we saw the opportunity to act fast on the use of the technology in a different way, which was directly with customers,” describes Roel Rentmeesters, Director of Global Customer Service at Munters.
The company was able to act adeptly on the potential for remote service, acting fast to select IFS Remote Assistance and deploying it to more than 200 users across 20-plus countries in just two weeks.
“As our initial use unfolded, we quickly realized we could also use the technology in other areas of the business impacted by COVID, For instance, we used remote assistance to open new manufacturing facilities that previously required travel that became restricted. We also recognized the opportunity to use this technology to train junior technicians – if they get stuck on a job, they can interface with a more experienced resource to aid in resolution,” says Roel. “While the initial use began during COVID, it has become embedded in our organization. Does it mean that every technician is using it? No, but customers accept it and welcome it because you give a faster response than you used to be able to do. It’s more efficient because you don’t need to go onsite before you do it. So, it has become part of our daily way of working and our solutions towards customers.”
"We have also successfully deployed our truck driver MFP Program, using augmented reality with our truck driver delivery program to reduce the deployment of a new MFP from three visits to one"
Marlene Kolodziej, Vice President, Centralized Services at RICOH Digital Services
Panasonic Heating & Cooling Solutions Europe also acted fast to put remote service in place for business continuity during COVID. “Remote assistance was not yet on our road map prior to COVID. The pandemic obviously advanced the need to have something in place pretty quickly. We started this journey with IFS around April of 2020, right at the UK lockdown time. And of course, primarily, we wanted to provide support to customers. We couldn’t dispatch our engineers in the way that we were used to doing, whether that was for direct line product support or some kind of technical support,” says Karl Lowe, Head of Panasonic European Service at Panasonic Heating & Cooling Solutions Europe. “What we’ve found since we’ve gone live with this technology is that our resolution time has been really quick. We’ve had cases where we’ve had a heating problem in a client’s home, and we’ve been able to use IFS to have the heating operational again within 16 minutes. Normally, that would mean maybe a day’s wait for an engineer to be available and then the engineer would drive to site and then spend some time on site. With remote service, within 16 minutes, the heating is back on and the client is happy. It’s helped us and it’s also helped the client. When it comes to heating, if it’s down and it’s not operating, the customer can’t wait too long before there’s a solution. So, for us, IFS Remote Assistance is key to be able to provide high first-time fix rates, high resolution rates but quickly, so that the downtime is kept to a minimum.”
The company has also been struck by the unique way in which remote service technology allows the sharing and transfer of knowledge in an easily accessible, global manner. “Panasonic has tended to work almost silo by silo or country by country, just because that’s how we’ve been organizationally set up. But what we’ve found with remote assistance is that location doesn’t really matter anymore. As such, we’ve been able to network and link our service organizations together,” explains Karl. “So rather than being a siloed service organization, say for example, the UK, has been able to call in an expert from Panasonic in Germany, obviously language allowing. But bringing them into the call to support them. That enables greater knowledge transfer, which certainly for me, is super important because you do get those technicians that have been in companies for an awful long time, they’ve got a wealth of experience. And it’s difficult sometimes to get that experience out into the younger members of the team, the least experienced guys that are struggling to pick up that knowledge. Where with IFS Remote Assistance, we’ve been able to bring them into calls to provide, again, a quicker solution for the customer but also the engineer learns something at the same time as well."
This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Remote Service on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-service
- Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs
May 18, 2021 • Features • Artificial intelligence • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Covid-19
In this final article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we discuss how to achieve the full benefits of digital transformation with less risk, lower cost and in a fraction of the time.
In this final article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we discuss how to achieve the full benefits of digital transformation with less risk, lower cost and in a fraction of the time.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News e-book published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Harness the Power of Integrated Data
The Challenge
In order to create more value for customers annd deliver a seamless, branded experience, organizations need to harness data and intelligence to not only meet, but also anticipate, their customer's future needs.
This type of outcomes-based innovation requires huge cultural and organizational changes, breaking down data silos and coordinating processes across your entire enterprise. By enabling every employee to have a 360-degree view of the customer, teams can deliver a thoughtful, personalized experience at every customer touchpoint.
The Solution
While many businesses today are utilizing technology that helps them manage their customers, people and assets, only forward-thinking innovators can join the dots between these systems so that they can deliver amazing outcomes-based customer experiences.
In order to do that, you need to have solutions that are optimized specifically for your customers, your people and your assets. IFS Cloud will be the single home for IFS's entire portfolio across manufacturing, project management and service, delivering Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and Field Service Management capabilities under one platform - breaking down category silos and giving a single-point of truth for information.
"You need to give customers a consistent level of service no matter where you operate, and this platform allows us to do that"
Gyner Ozgul, Senior Vice President, Smart Care.
The Full Benefits of Digital Transformation
The Challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation in a variety of industries. Yet to achieve the full value of digital transformation, your business must be able to integrate one data source with pmultiple other data streams and software systems.
You also need innovations that can provide scalable, agile solutions that are designed for utilizing complex sets of data this way.
The Solution
Companies struggle to make meaningful use out of their data because it's siloed in different departments and systems. IFS Cloud helps solve that problem. It is built on a common data model and is designed to be completely open to your business and IT landscape. This gives businesses a consistent way to connect its people, assets, products to IFS Cloud and easily integrate with other systems.
A key trend in enterprise software is the concept of the Composable business, which enables organizations to adopt and scale the technology capabilties they need, when they need them. This type of technology also allows you to grow without haveing to constantly introduce and integrate new platforms and data silos. IFS Cloud is built as a containerized environment, on a common platform made up of compostable units. This means you can select the technology capabilties you need with industy best practices built-in, allowing you to implement them in a fraction of the time to support your changing business needs.
Lastly, having innovations embedded in our solution removes complexity and reduces cost and risk for businesses. It also enables you to harness and scale new capabilities across your entire organization, such as IOT, Digital Twins, Ai, machine learning and process automation. You get to choose the exact combination of dunctionality and innovation and the right kind of deployment model that works for your business - all combined with the in-depth industry focus and expertise that you need. With IFS Cloud, there are no bolt-on integrations or expensive proof of concepts. Our embedded, natively builtinnovations mean you achieve value from your technology investment faster.
"By 2023, Gartner predicts that organizations that have adopted a compostable approach will outpace competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation..."
Deliver Amazing Moments of Service
Customers today don't want to buy products, they buy experiences. These experiences can be made delightful if you adopt digital business models and orchestrate your entire value chain to achieve, not only a great Moment of Service, but also the full benefits of digital transformation for your organization.
Discover how IFS can help your organization embrace the service delivery models of the future and the softwate that will meet your ambitions. Download the IFS Service Managers' Buyer's Guide that explains exactly how to align your service workflow uniquely to the technologies that will help deliver growth.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News e-book published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Download the IFS Service Managers Buyer's Guide @ www.ifs.com/assets/service-management-buyers-guide/
- Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs
May 11, 2021 • Features • Artificial intelligence • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Covid-19
In this third article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we look at how to use artificial intelligence to optimize resources and make predictive scheduling a reality.
In this third article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we look at how to use artificial intelligence to optimize resources and make predictive scheduling a reality.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News e-book published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Artificial Intelligence to Optimize Resources
The Challenge
Optimizing the productivity of your field workforce while delivering a great experience for your customers is ever more challenging in today's on-demand world.
Field service software with embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) delivers knowledge efficiently, processes solutions to complex data seta, and automates repetitive activities to allow human workers to focus on personalized service, solving complex problems and escalations - where people excel. AI is revolutionizing the way resources are optimized, paving the way for predictive scheduling and enabling organizations to consistently meet service level agreements for enhanced outcomes.
However, despite almost 90 percent of businesses intending to make an investment in AI, it can be difficult for them to get started on the journey to delivering the value that AI promises. The important thing is not AI in and of itself, but how it can be used as an enabler within our solutions. Our AI solutions are focused on clear use cases that will allow you to better support your business, both now and in the future. We make AI easy to use and to understand for non-technical data specialists, removing the complexity while still delivering solutions that are rubust and powerful in their use of algorithms and data science.
"IFS scheduling optimizing is a phenomenally powerful tool. It is key to us in delivering the outcomes our customers want in the most efficient way possible."
Mike Gosling, IT Service Platforms Manager, Cubic Transportation Systems.
The Solution
IFS gives you what you need to optimize your planning and scheduling activities to manage the strategic, operational and tactical elements of your resource planning.
Powered by industry-leading artificial intelligence, IFS can do in minutes what our competitors take hours to accomplish. Our planning and scheduling solution allowa you to forecast and model your requirements to test strategic changes before you implement them, saving you time, money, and headaches.
Service is the New Product. And It Enables the Move to Outcomes
The Challenge
Adopting Artificial Intelligence allowa your organization to move towards greater automation of business processes when it is effectively combined with other technologies to solve problems end-to-end.
As you've seen, for example, the predictive service of assets relies on effective live data gathering via IoT sensors, machine learning to predict future asset performance using a model built on data sources like maintenance history, and advanced scheduling and optimization to plan the most effective maintenance schedules based on these predictions.
The Solution
The key to how IFS delivers improved processes lies in our Intelligent Process Automation, which is a combination of the following tools:
- Process discovery and representation through a business modeler used for a Digital Twin of the Organization (DTO)
- Data and knowledge management through the creation of connected knowledge representation to describe processes and their related entities and properties
- Process monitoring through Machine Learning, continually improving execution through reinforcement learning
- Automation through a workflow engine that can initiate actions within our software
"It's inevitable: selling products as services will become a major component of businesses over the next decade."
Aly Pinder, Product Director, Service Innovation & Connected Products, IDC.
Business applications have always been about process automation, but historically knowledge has been captured and implemented using human-crafted business rules and thresholds. This approach has shortcomings: the rules used are typically of limited complexity, do not change dynamically over time and purely encode knowledge as directed by humans, who might not be doing things efficiently or correctly. By incorporating machine learning, IFS can help organizations leverage historical data to detect patterns and rules that might not be apparent to people, while learning continues over time to produce the best decisions and enable organizations to adapt to changing business environments.
Look out for the next feature from the e-book "The Future of Service Management Technology" next week where we look at two major service challenges to overcome when it comes to the service workforce.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News e-book published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Download the IFS Service Managers Buyer's Guide @ www.ifs.com/assets/service-management-buyers-guide/
- Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs
May 04, 2021 • Features • Artificial intelligence • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Covid-19
In the second article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we discuss how IoT and machine learning make predictive maintenance a reality.
In the second article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we discuss how IoT and machine learning make predictive maintenance a reality.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Break / Fix is Dead.
The Challenge
As innovators vie to stand out and become leaders in today's highly competitve landscape, the traditional model of break-then-fix is no longer holding weight with the consumer.
To embrace the service delivery models of the future, businesses need to evolve over time from reactive to proactive to democratized and ultimately, to predictive and prescriptive maintenance.
The Solution
IFS' advanced asset monitoring technologies enable you to establish a higher level of service above and beyond fixing individual pieces of equipment when requested. It guarantees your customer continued operation and focuses on building a long-term partnership to increase their asset lifecyles and enhance their operational performance.
IoT measurements and readings draw your attention to possible faults and anomalies before they occur, allowing service teams to deliver quick and appropriate response to avoid downtime.
IFS predictive maintenance adds machine learning power from sensor data and historical asset service information to identify under - or over - maintained assets. You can revise and optimize maintenance plans, moving from time-based preventive action to condition-based predictive action for increased uptime and asset output.
IFS customer Eickhoff, like many manufacturers, has been redefining the role service will play in the company's ability to differentiate. Eickhoff's 1300 employees worldwide support two business units: mining equipment and gearboxes for industrial and wind turbine applications. Its mining customers are focused heavily on uptime and output since any downtime of the equipment is incredibly costly.
"IoT and data analysis are critical to Eickhoff's evolution. Porting notable events from our IoT environment into IFS's platform is helpful in terms of history and documentation, in detecting event that are worth alerting customers to take action on, and to schedule out and event predict service needs. But moreover, the insights we can glean are a new line of customer value. Their ultimate goal is uptime, so not only can we provide the machinery but also insights to help them achieve that goal."
Dietmar Schmitz, Head of Product Development Service, Eickhoff.
We're helping our customer Icelandair to analyze data from multiple sources while utilizing predictive modelling that's powered by machine learning. Plus, we're using explainable AI to not only predict when an aircraft may experience an issue that requires ground-time within a certain time frame, but also predict which area of the aircraft is most likely to experience a failure.
Instead, businesses need to deliver a customer's desired outcome for their product, equipment or asset, and often before the customer has even thought to ask for it. Whether it's B2B or B2C, all customers want greater value from their investment, and that means providing a service that works for them, exactly how they want it to. The additional challenge, however, is for service organizations to deliver this in a way that's sustainable and cost-effective.
"We're saving costs and increasing our on-time performance."
Lilja Scheel Birgisdottir, Reliability Engineer, icelandair.
Subscribe to access the full e-book where you can watch two videos from Icelandair, where Reliability Engineer, Lilja Scheel Birgisdottir explains how, with the help of IFS, they are able to reduce costs by collecting technical data that enables them to constantly evaluate the health of their fleet.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Further Reading:
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Download the IFS Service Managers Buyer's Guide @ www.ifs.com/assets/service-management-buyers-guide/
- Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs
Apr 27, 2021 • Features • Artificial intelligence • White Paper • Digital Transformation • IFS • Covid-19
In the first article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we look at ground-breaking service capabilities that enable you to maximize customer outcomes.
In the first article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we look at ground-breaking service capabilities that enable you to maximize customer outcomes.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Deliver Amazing Moments of Service
In today's customer-driven environment, service is more relevant than ever before. Why? Because it enables differentiation in a crowded, competitive market and is a key revenue driver for future business growth.
In recent years, service has also become the face of your business. As such, it is often the catalyst of customer frustration or adoration and an opportunity to show how you're using technology in intelligent ways, not just to track customer behavior or save on the buttom line, but also to create transformational experiences for your customers. We call these 'Moments of Service'.
These are the moments when everything comes together, when the hundreds of decisions, thousands of processes and people all align to deliver your company at its best. Whether you manufacture heavy industrial equipment, undertake complex construction projects, manage aerospace assets or operate a huge electric or water utility, it takes your entire organisation to deliver value at the exact moment when your customers are engaging and interacting.
Great Moment of Service connect you to your customers and drive greater brand loyalty. But delivering these kinds of experiences requires you to refocus your business on services and outcomes instead of porducts. It also requires next-generation technology that can predict and prevent asset downtime, automate manual activities inside and outside businesses, offer out-of-the-box innovation, and reduce operational costs.
But just how are industry innovators rising to meet these challenges? And how can the right technology help you embrace the service delivery models of the future, such as predictive maintenance and outcomes-based service capabilities, that will enable you to deliver amazing customer experiences?
"As a manufacturer, we must think about how to evolve our operations to ensure the customer outcomes of uptime and information are met. IFS has been instrumental in enabling us to differentiate on service and has prepared us for the future of service."
Dietmar Schmitz, Head of Product Development Service, Eickhoff.
Service is the New Product. And It Enables the Move to Outcomes
The Challenge
Delivering products, even ground-breaking products, is no longer enough to win the hearts and minds of your customers.
Instead, businesses need to deliver a customer's desired outcome for their product, equipment or asset, and often before the customer has even thought to ask for it. Whether it's B2B or B2C, all customers want greater value from their investment, and that means providing a service that works for them, exactly how they want it to. The additional challenge, however, is for service organizations to deliver this in a way that's sustainable and cost-effective.
The Solution
The global pandemic has driven companies of all types and sizes to adopt a customer-outcomes mindset, even for those outside of traditional service provision businesses. In all industries, we are seeing that customers and consumers are willing to pay a premium for better service and a guaranteed outcome.
As your business evolves from seeling products, to selling services as a product to providing outcomes-based service performances, value is delivered through the contract you provide - which safeguards and maintains the uptime of your customers' assets.
"It's inevitable: selling products as services will become a major component of businesses over the next decade."
Aly Pinder, Product Director, Service Innovation & Connected Products, IDC.
For all service organizations, regardless of industry, the move to outcomes provides peace of mind to customers while also giving you more recurring revenue streams and the ability to offer even longer - and ultimately more profitable - contracts. Shifting your entire organization to deliver optimized outcomes and experiences for your customers cannot be done overnight, and it cannot be done alone. Businesses need the right technology and an experienced partner to help them navigate the evolution from simply maintaining customers' equipment to optimizing its performance, extending its lifecycle, and being able to predict failures, enabling your team to take corrective action before your customer experience downtime.
Look out for the next feature from the e-book "The Future of Service Management Technology" next week where we look at two major service challenges to overcome when it comes to the service workforce.
This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.
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Further Reading:
- Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
- Download the IFS Service Managers Buyer's Guide @ www.ifs.com/assets/service-management-buyers-guide/
- Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
- Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs
Feb 16, 2021 • Features • White Paper • Digital Transformation • field service management • Software and Apps • Esri UK
In this final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we look further at the importance of location intelligence and discuss how organisations can achieve optimised field operations.
In this final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we look further at the importance of location intelligence and discuss how organisations can achieve optimised field operations.
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Esri UK who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Last week, we looked at how Esri's ArcGIS platform can help companies in challenging situations, such as containing the spread of a plant disease and saving lives in humanitarian disasters. Today we look at two further case studies highlighting the importance of location intelligence and discuss how organisations can achieve optimised field operations
SUPPORTING DIVERSE AND VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES
With its diverse and varied population, Oxfordshire County Council aims to provide excellent services to all its residents while promoting equality and ensuring fairness.
The Challenge
Oxfordshire County Council’s GIS (Geographic Information Systems) team has an extremely broad brief to provide ICT support across the organisation, including Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire Rescue Service. This small team assesses requirements and requests, gathers business analysis and provides user support while building interactive dashboards and web and mobile apps for internal and external use.
The Solution
Under its Enterprise Licence Agreement, Oxfordshire County Council has been using Esri’s ArcGIS platform exclusively since 2017 as its corporate GIS infrastructure. This has enabled the GIS team to build out a greater number of requirements, more quickly and efficiently, and help transform service delivery.
In March 2019 the Safe and Well service went digital. Workforce for ArcGIS was used to coordinate and allocate daily visits before crews left their stations and questionnaires incorporating broader health messages from the public health team were built using Survey123 for ArcGIS. The electronic forms were filled in onsite at residents’ homes and when there was no signal or internet available, users could carry on working and save a copy of the form on their mobile device. When the devices were next connected, completed surveys were synced directly back to the database in the office so colleagues could see which assessments had been undertaken, and the data visible on a central management dashboard.
The Benefits
Supporting diversity
The redesigned service demonstrates Oxfordshire County Council’s responsibility as a Stonewall Diversity Champion, committed to sexual orientation and gender identify equality. In its second year of inclusion the Council now ranks at 127 (out of 503 organisations) in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, compared to its previous ranking at 220 out of 445.
Secure data collection
Users can confidently collect anonymous data, securely, enabling the Council to collect vital information which ensures that the service it provides residents is inclusive to those of all identities and orientations, as well as help the organisation climb the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.
Saving time
The use of ArcGIS apps has significantly enhanced the efficiency of reporting in the field as well as back in the office. Firefighters making home visits report that the quality of their visits and range of services offered has improved, and they feel more confident and competent in carrying out their work. The administration process has also been streamlined as admin staff no longer have to input data collected from paper-based surveys, reducing the potential for human error.
OPTIMISING THE ROLE OF 60,000 VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers play an invaluable role in helping the National Trust to protect and care for the nation’s cultural heritage and natural landscapes. The not-for-profit organisation is now embracing crowdsourcing and is using ArcGIS in a series of ground-breaking pilot projects that will enable more people to get involved and make a valuable contribution to its conservation work.
The Challenge
The National Trust has over 60,000 volunteers who play a vital role in helping the charity to manage 250,000 hectares of land, 778 miles of coastline, 80,000 archaeological features and 28,000 buildings. The organisation wanted to optimise the role played by this enthusiastic group and find a way to engage even more people in its activities. At the same time, it wanted to show its volunteers the value of their contribution and help them to feel more involved in conservation projects
The Solution
The National Trust is now pioneering new ways to engage with volunteers using Esri’s ArcGIS platform. In a series of pilot projects, the organisation is beginning to use ArcGIS mobile solutions, including Collector for ArcGIS and Survey123 for ArcGIS, to allow volunteers to upload information from their smartphones and tablets to a central portal. Called ArcGIS Hub Premium, this portal provides secure, authenticated identity for huge numbers of volunteers, which allows them to see the data they have collected, in the context of the wider project. Volunteers can therefore appreciate what they have done and the value of their contribution to the National Trust’s conservation schemes.
In the first of the National Trust’s pilot solutions, volunteers in the Peak District are gathering data on the condition of archaeological features on National Trust land, including barrows, ruins and ancient quarries. They are then uploading and sharing this data via ArcGIS Hub Premium, helping the National Trust to build up a clearer picture of the condition of ancient sites that are rarely visited but are nonetheless important to the history of the nation.
The Benefits
Well-informed decision about conservation and maintenance
Over time, the use of the new ArcGIS volunteering apps will enable the National Trust to collect a larger quantity of high quality data, which it can use to support its decision making. In particular, the organisation anticipates that volunteers will be able to help it build up a far more comprehensive picture of the condition of assets and habitats, such as signs and ponds. It can then use this information to see where it should prioritise its conservation activities and how best to plan effective, proactive maintenance programmes.
More successful conservation projectsAlthough it is still early days, the National Trust already recognises that ArcGIS Hub Premium is a highly effective tool for improving collaboration with large numbers of volunteers and partners. In initiatives such as the Riverlands project near Manchester, the organisation expects ArcGIS Hub Premium to play a pivotal role in enabling large numbers of people to share data and work together. “It feels exciting,” Davies says. “Our pilots are putting crowdsourcing into practice and demonstrating how volunteering programmes can be managed more successfully in the future.”
REALISING OPTIMISED FIELD OPERATIONS
A GIS enables the virtuous cycle of efficiency in field activities. Organisations use field operations apps to plan fieldwork based on geography and better coordinate job assignments. Field operations apps connect workers and activities in the field with the office. Real-time navigation tools reduce fuel consumption, save time, and improve customer satisfaction. Data collection apps capture accurate data in the field and feed it into the GIS to become part of the system of record. GIS monitors field activities and generates intuitive maps and dashboards. The GIS suite of focused field operations apps drives location intelligence that helps organisations make faster and better decisions.
The full white paper "Digitally Transform Field Operations" is available on Field Service News.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!
Further Reading:
Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformationFind out more about Esri UK @ www.esriuk.com
Read more about Esri UK on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/esri
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk
Feb 09, 2021 • Features • White Paper • Digital Transformation • field service management • Software and Apps • Esri UK
In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we look at two case studies of how location intelligence helps organisation improving efficiency and refine field operations.
In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we look at two case studies of how location intelligence helps organisation improving efficiency and refine field operations.
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Esri UK who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Last week, we looked at how using the power of location can improve field service operations. Today we look at two case studies describing how the use of Esri's ArcGIS platform can help companies in challenging situations.
CONTAINING THE SPREAD OF A DEADLY PLANT DISEASE
Amid concerns about the possible emergence of a deadly new plant disease, Fera Science has created an ArcGIS app and dashboard to enable hoticulturalists to coordinate thousands of plant and tree inspections nationwide.
The Challenge
One of the most damaging plant bacteria ever identified is spreading in countries around the world. Called xylella fastidiosa (Xf), it has been detected in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal and, if it were to gain a foothold in the UK, it could affect dozens of plant species, including elm, plane and oak trees.
The Solution
Working with APHA, Fera Science has used Esri’s ArcGIS platform to develop a complete end-to-end solution to support plant inspections, including testing plant samples and tracing of the spread of the disease.
When a first case of Xf is detected in the UK, a geoprocessing model, developed using Esri’s ModelBuilder, will create the initial inspection zone around the plant, divided into 100 metre and 1 km grid squares. Inspectors will then use an intuitive app, created with Esri’s Collector for ArcGIS, to view interactive maps of their assigned inspection grids, on their mobile devices, and inspect up to 50 host plants in each square. They will collect a sample from each plant, put the sample into a bag with a barcode and use the Collector app to record the barcode, together with the location of the plant, plant health observations and pictures.
When laboratories test the samples, the results will be recorded against the barcodes and uploaded via a web portal to ArcGIS. Python scripts, developed by Esri UK’s Professional Services team, will combine the test results with the data collected in the field and categorise each plant as either diseased, free of disease or inconclusive test. All the data will then be visibleon an Esri Operations Dashboard, enabling APHA, DEFRA and other key stakeholders to view the locations and health of each inspected plant in near real time. Whenever a new positive result is recorded, the surrounding inspection zones will be automatically created, allowing inspectors to start collecting new samples straight away.
The Benefits
Real-time data to trace the spread of disease
If Xf is detected in the UK, APHA will be able to see near real-time data on diseased plants and their locations, all around the UK. The ArcGIS dashboard presents the data in a spatial, map-based format that is simple to understand at a glance, enabling people to trace the spread of the disease very easily. Users can see which grid squares have been inspected, monitor the progress of inspections and identify where best to allocate resources based on the latest test results.
Effective collaboration of many stakeholders
The ArcGIS solution can be used by multiple stakeholders, not just APHA. Therefore, in the case of a major outbreak of Xf, inspectors from other organisations and landowners, such as the Forestry Commission, could use the Collector app on their own mobile devices to collect standardised data and samples in a coordinated approach. Other organisations can also be given access to the same Esri dashboard enabling them to collaborate more effectively with APHA and implement joined-up strategies to detect and eventually eradicate the disease from the UK completely.
SAVING LIVES IN HUMANITARIAN DISASTERS WORLDWIDE
Working at the scene of some of the world’s most devastating humanitarian disasters, this volunteer-driven charity uses Esri’s ArcGIS to produce up-to-date maps for humanitarian aid organisations. Its new Kiosk product makes vitally important location-based intelligence available to aid workers in digital formats, helping them to respond more quickly and, ultimately, help save more lives.
The Challenge
Since its inception in 2002, MapAction has become an indispensable part of the global response to humanitarian crises. As soon as its volunteer teams, who are specially trained in disaster response, arrive in affected areas, their services are in high demand from multiple organisations. Consequently, on-the-ground teams face growing pressure to produce and distribute more maps, more quickly.
The Solution
Esri UK has supported the work of MapAction for over twelve years, and ArcGIS, Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) platform, plays a pivotal role in the delivery of MapAction’s emergency mapping service. MapAction secured funding for a new ‘selfservice’ mapping facility, and sought out the expertise of Esri UK’s professional services team to help it design and deliver this inventive project using ArcGIS.
Named the MapAction Kiosk, the new GIS solution developed operates using the principles of web mapping and runs on a lightweight laptop connected to a powerful WiFi router. Aid workers in the vicinity of MapAction’s field base can connect to the Kiosk via WiFi and print additional copies of any maps produced by MapAction’s volunteer team. In addition, they can view interactive maps, zoom into specific regions and turn on required data layers to create any customised maps that they might need to inform aid missions. Finally, responders can use the Kiosk to download MapAction’s up-to-date spatial data and incorporate it into their own GIS systems.
The Benefits
MapAction will continue to produce the paper maps that aid organisations around the world have come to rely on. However, now, this unique charity will also be able to make its invaluable location- based intelligence accessible in digital formats to many more people, more quickly, to improve the effectiveness of life-saving humanitarian missions.
Notably, the MapAction Kiosk will help the charity to distribute its maps to aid workers who might otherwise not have had access to a paper copy. It will therefore make situational data accessible to a wider audience and facilitate greater collaboration between multiple aid agencies and local groups. Pennells says: “The Kiosk helps us to give a common operational picture to all responders and agencies working on-the- ground in a disaster situation. The sooner they have this shared knowledge, the closer they can work together to reach people at risk.”
In addition, the Kiosk gives aid workers the ability to create their own customised maps for the first time. They can gain instant access to the mapping intelligence they need – in the precise format they need it – to enable them to respond quickly to emerging new scenarios.
Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we look at two additional case studies and discuss how companies can achieve optimised field operations.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!
Further Reading:
Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformationFind out more about Esri UK @ www.esriuk.com
Read more about Esri UK on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/esri
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk
Feb 01, 2021 • Features • White Paper • Digital Transformation • field service management • Software and Apps • Esri UK
In this new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we discuss how to digitally transform field operations using the power of location.
In this new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we discuss how to digitally transform field operations using the power of location.
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Esri UK who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
HARNESSING THE POWER OF LOCATION
Location is at the heart of field activities. It sounds like an obvious statement, but field management often either completely overlooks location or marginally takes advantage of it.
Field managers and workers are likely to make decisions faster and deliver better customer service if they can access location intelligence in the field. This e-book explains how geographic information system (GIS) technology and a suite of field mobility apps work together to improve performance in the field. Five case studies show how organisations incorporated apps into workflows and describe the returns they gained.
Organisations use GIS to capture, manage, analyse, and display all forms of geographically referenced information and use focused field apps to improve field operations. Its ability to transform data into useful information has proved to be highly valuable to field operations managers in four operational areas: coordination, navigation, data collection, and monitoring.
FIELD OPERATIONAL AREAS
Coordination for exceptional customer care
Daily operations need to quickly adjust to changing conditions including last-minute requests and unexpected resource unavailability and delays. A geographic perspective allows you to easily see the location of the worker nearest the call and quickly assign that worker to respond. This level of flexibility results in exceptional customer service and compliance with service-level agreements.
Workforce for ArcGIS helps you quickly put resources where they are most needed.
Navigation for timely service
GIS does much more than map point A to point B. For instance, users can add other layers of information, such as private road networks and asset locations, to street maps. GIS apps combine this data and calculate optimised routes that fieldworkers see on their mobile devices, even when disconnected. GIS recalculates delivery windows in real time based on traffic conditions, so drivers can give an estimated time of arrival (ETA), which keeps customers happy. GIS is the route optimisation tool of choice for organisations whose reputation and success are defined by on-time delivery.
Navigator for ArcGIS, StreetMap Premium for ArcGIS, and ArcGIS Network Analyst support routing with high-quality street data and give you tools for complex problem solving.
Data collection for accurate information
Built-in GIS capabilities in mobile apps ensure that location information is included in the data. This capability extends to other business data submitted via inspections, incident reports,
or any type of form entered into your system of record. Understanding the location where field activities happen is critical for historical analysis, QA/QC, regulatory compliance, and coordination with other users.
Focused apps allow crews to capture, update, and analye data accurately. Fieldworkers use these apps to create surveys, capture the answers, and analyse the results. Mobile apps provide fieldworkers with their organisation’s maps, allowing them to locate assets and mark up the map with additional details. Drones offer an inexpensive way to capture field imagery, and by using a desktop app, drone-captured imagery can be easily turned into professional quality imagery products that you can use for mapping and analysis. Data generated by these apps can all be synced at the office and shared within the organisation and the public.
Collector for ArcGIS, Explorer for ArcGIS, Survey123 for ArcGIS, and Drone2Map for ArcGIS boost data accuracy and optimise geospatial analysis.
Monitoring for fast analysis and response
It is difficult to manage what you cannot see. GIS provides dashboards that enable real-time monitoring of events and key performance indicators (KPIs) so that you can make decisions at a glance. GIS-based dashboards show information as maps, charts, gauges, and other understandable visualisations. Combined with real-time GIS analysis, GIS dashboards help organisations focus on specific information by revealing exceptions, trends, and patterns that are relevant for decision-making.
GIS also supports tracking of field personnel. Managers and supervisors are able to view where workers are and where they have been through a mobile app that captures their location tracks. This helps them identify workers’ last known locations, confirm the territory covered, and more effectively balance the allocation of workers to needs.
Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS helps users visualise and monitor data that is relevant to them. Tracker for ArcGIS enables monitoring of personnel to better manage what happens in the field activities.
Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss how location intellingence can help organisations in improve efficiency and refine their field operations.
www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.
If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!
Further Reading:
Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformationFind out more about Esri UK @ www.esriuk.com
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk
Jan 06, 2021 • Features • White Paper • field service management • IFS • Service Leadership • Leadership and Strategy
In this third and final excerpt from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum we look at three case studies illustrating successful transformation journeys.
In this third and final excerpt from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum we look at three case studies illustrating successful transformation journeys.
Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.
If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.
Now that we’ve outlined the strategic plans, as well as the technology enablers, let’s consider, holistically, what this looks like in practice. To illustrate the service transformation journey, here are three different case studies that each illustrate a part of the journey:
- The first case study is about a company that convinced the top management to change the business model to a service business. This case study focuses on the first part of the journey ‘Set the climate for Service Transformation’.
- The second case study is about a company that re-engineered their service delivery model to become low cost and perceived as high value by customers. This case study illustrates the step of using customer experience design to (re)design and implement the delivery model.
- The third case study is about a company that whose existing strategy adequately pushed sales but did not promote sustainable growth for the business. This case study highlights the step of redesigning the go-to market model.
1. CONVINCING TOP MANAGEMENT TO CHANGE THE BUSINESS MODEL TO BECOME A SERVICE BUSINESS
The current situation
A division of a German engineering group, that had traditionally produced and sold large machines for the paper making industry, had built a modest service business contributing less than 5% of the division’s total revenue. Their current service offering consisted of providing spare parts plus reactive and preventive maintenance service contracts.
The challenge
They were facing several challenges:
- Price pressure on new equipment sold was increasing due to increased competition from Chinese suppliers
- Annual growth of the company had been below industry average for the past 5 years
- Profitability of the overall business was going down
Two senior managers saw several opportunities to grow the service business but were having difficulties in convincing the board of directors to strategically invest in the service business to develop its potential.
What was done?
The service director used benchmarks, an outside-in view and assessment outcomes to convince the CEO of the company to invest in growing their service business.
The following steps were taken:
- A financial and operational benchmark was performed of the company’s performance against a comparable group of industry leaders. The report included the growth and profit potential for this company if they would strategically invest in the development of their service business.
- A web-based survey was sent out to several hundreds of customers immediately after the most common interaction point of a customer service request by phone or email, a spare part order request, an on-site visit by a field engineer, and following a visit by a sales person.
- Several customer interviews were conducted using video conferencing. The interviews were analysed, and a short video compilation was made to high light the key conclusions about what the customers’ service expectations were and what service they were receiving.
- Growth potential and productivity improvement opportunities were prioritised, and the conclusions were discussed during a workshop with the board of directors of the company. The result was a commonly agreed and documented vision with the strategic and financial objectives defined and a service transformation roadmap for the coming years.
- A short-term plan was made that secured the first real result within the first year. In addition, a multi-year roadmap was implemented by setting up the service transformation governance programme organisational structure, planning and funding.
Benefits
The result was that the board of directors understood that customers were expecting more help from the company. They expected help addressing their business challenges such as improving their competitive position with smart outcome-based services, industry knowledge, data and information systems that would help customers to lower production cost by integrating several players in the value chain.
The company has started their service transformation journey by implementing the multi-year strategic roadmap. This contains several projects that required substantial investment, organisational change, and the development of new capabilities in the company. The financial results in the past 5 years have been a sustained double-digit growth with profit margins above the industry average.
2. RE-ENGINEERING THE TRADITIONAL SERVICE DELIVERY
The current situation
A major manufacturer and service provider for healthcare equipment concluded that if they wanted to increase their market penetration while maintaining their profitability, they needed to dramatically lower their cost of service delivery. This was particularly true in emerging, lower cost markets.
Their service delivery model at that time was rather traditional: customers would call in if they had a problem with their equipment and in most cases a field engineer was dispatched to go on-site, diagnose the problem and fix it. This service delivery model was the result of relatively high cost of the equipment, typically ranging from 700 K Euros and higher per installation. The total cost of maintenance for most clients was relatively low when compared to the cost of depreciation and related operational costs, such as the cost of hospital staff needed to operate the equipment. Customers were expecting a personalized approach in service and they would find it normal that even for small problems, that could have been solved remotely a field engineer, would show up to fix it and explain to the staff what happened. The company was already improving their capability to remote monitor, diagnose and fix equipment but the traditional way of working was hard to change.
The challenge
They were facing several challenges:
- The average price of equipment that was sold in high growth markets was much lower than in the traditional market. The average equipment price was below 50.000 euros but could go as low as 2.000 Euros per device.
- To provide field engineer services for such equipment would result in relatively high cost when compared to the equipment purchase price and cost of operation.
- Healthcare equipment is highly regulated and in most cases mission critical, often lives could be at stake, and delays in treatment of patients could lead to high levels of frustration
- and financial losses for hospitals and doctors involved. Therefore, customers would expect the highest levels of service, especially in emerging markets where hospitals were often small and did not have more than one device.
- Customers would not be willing to pay for higher levels of services and price premiums on service contracts were often not accepted, even though excellent service was certainly an expectation.
- As a result, many customers would leave the maintenance and repair role with their own internal Biomed (internal maintenance services for medical devices) and were, generally, disappointed with the level of service.
- Equipment failure could cause damage to the reputation of the brand, as customers expectation is a very high standard of service.
The company had limited understanding of how customers of medium to low priced equipment were currently experiencing their service. Traditionally, such equipment had not been a focus area for the service division of the company as the general assumption had been that the service business growth potential was limited and the possibility to earn good profit margins was low.
What was done?
To rethink the service delivery model, other industries were investigated to gain ideas. Very inspiring examples were the low-cost airlines that had stripped their services of all extras to the bare bone basic service requirements, simplifying and streamlining business processes, introducing high levels of automation and often asking customers to help themselves with self-service.
Other examples included business models such as Ikea’s knock-down furniture where customers are asked to transport their own furniture and assemble it themselves.
One important element in the success of these examples was that it is important to get the balance right such that increased automation and ease of use for customers, outweighs any perceived reduction in service caused by streamlining and process change. The objective of these models is to increase the value of service for the customer while reducing the cost of delivery for the supplier.
After translating these examples to their own business, the company came up with several high efficiency service delivery models:
- Self-help: Whereby customers solve issues and conduct maintenance themselves without the support of their service provider, including the use of manuals, online FAQ’s, and web videos.
- Supported self-help: Whereby customers solve issues and conduct maintenance themselves with the support of the service provider, i.e.: via a helpdesk (phone, email, chat) or ‘look-over the-shoulder service’, possibly with help of a remote connection for diagnosis.
- Product exchange: In this instance, rather than repairing equipment, a service provider will arrange its replacement whereby the customer will either receive a new or refurbished product.
- Bench repair: Here, the product in need of repair will be shipped to the service provider’s repair shop, after which the product is shipped back to the customer. In the interim the customer may receive a temporary loan product.
- Tech courier: Having determined which part or component needs replacement (via customer or service provider diagnosis), a low-cost courier with basic technical and product knowledge will deliver the component and conduct the swap. In this instance, products are designed for easy access and swapping.
- High efficiency Field engineer: In this instance a field engineer with limited technical skills is dispatched to repair the customer’s product, potentially conducting the diagnosis himself using diagnostics methods and tools that were created by very experienced field engineers • Remotely using a machine to machine (IoT) connection: In this instance a service provider will access a system via a remote connection and not only detect and diagnose the issue but also execute the solution via the remote connection.
- Predictive Maintenance Management: Using the data obtained from connected equipment the problems will be predicted in time so there will be no need to do any corrective repairs. Preventive maintenance plans will be adjusted, often just in time, to reduce the chance of malfunction and reduce downtime and lower maintenance costs in the process.
The following steps were taken to get to these models:
- An investigation was launched into customer’s expectations from the brand. Narrowing down the minimum expectation that should be fulfilled and the most important brand values that would have to be respected and built-into the customer experience.
- The current cost of the service value delivery chain was analysed and the main areas for potential cost reduction by changing the service delivery model were identified. All best practices and the latest trends in service delivery models from other industries were evaluated as well as emerging trends in technology that could help reduce the cost of delivery or improve customer experience.
- Pricing models were developed by benchmarking the equipment “street prices” with pricing of various levels of service. This was validated with various key markets in the world, in particular the markets where the highest growth of new equipment, at lower street prices, was expected.
- New service delivery models were designed and tested. Processes and enabling service information technologies were designed evaluating achievable cost levels, the impact on customer experience and the resulting service value proposition, often defining 2 or 3 basic services with a limited set of optional services to keep the complexity low.
- A multi-disciplinary approach was taken (including R&D, product marketing, manufacturing, and service) which led to the conclusion that sometimes products had to be re-engineered to improve their serviceability. Lowering the cost of service did have a major impact on the total life cycle cost. Product engineers that may previously have had their focus on inventing new features and benefits to the product, now understood the profound impact on customer experience and life cycle cost it would have to design products from the ground up for their desired modes and levels of service.
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The IT team created a Service IT Solution Architecture that would leverage the connectivity of the products and use the data through intelligent applications that were now able to create predictive maintenance models. The data could also be used for process optimisation and designing enhanced services to customers.
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After the design phase the new service delivery models were tested in the markets and rolled-out country by country to allow for local deviations from the standard model.
Benefits
The result was that the new high efficiency delivery models have enabled the company to grow their service business, typically with double digit growth rates. It allowed the company to sell equipment with a “street price” as low as 2000 Euros together with a service contract and still achieve gross profit margins worth of 50% percent. Each delivery model would be able to fix remotely any software problem or problem caused by the end user. The chances of such problems occurring would be reduced by smart predictive analytics capabilities. Users would receive “look over the shoulder” assistance often with remote agents taking control of the device and helping remotely. Hardware problems would no longer require a field engineer to visit the customer site.
In the longer term, the mission critical components in a device would either be engineered with redundant components, or replaceable units that the user of the device could replace by themselves. Alternatively, a “tech courier’ a driver with a limited technical skill set would come on site to replace the unit. Field service, the most expensive element in the chain, had now become a service logistics operation often outsourced to third party logistics providers who had economies of scale and low-cost services. Customers were educated on the new service delivery models and the benefits of self-service, such as the speed of resolution and being fully in control, were also perceived as valuable, on top of the higher reliability and lower life cycle cost.
3. DRASTICALLY INCREASE SERVICE REVENUE BY SMARTLY CHANGING THE GO-TO MARKET APPROACH
The current situation
A pan European medical equipment provider whose existing strategy adequately pushed sales but did not promote sustainable growth for the business. This was because their sales force was still employing traditional techniques which pushed the features, characteristics and pre-defined benefits of their company but were of little relevance to the customers’ situation. In the purchasers’ eyes, the benefits being sold to them were barely distinguishable from those of other providers.
The challenge
The service sales force presented characteristics and benefits of the service offering to the client but used very few ‘hooks’ to effectively highlight the company’s competitive advantage. They frequently spoke to someone other than the decision maker who had different needs. Further, in most cases their approach was reactive rather than proactive, i.e. the customer calls in with a query, or just before their warranty expires.
This resulted in the service sales force encountering issues relating to their client’s ‘budget’ as the person who called only had limited buying power and simply forwarded the proposal to the purchaser without being able to justify the value.
The root cause here was that their approach was not proactive and not customer driven; there was a lack of attention to the customers’ critical business issues. Consequently, a common vision with the decision makers on how to really address critical business issues could not be developed. This customer buying vision is essential however because it defines the value of the offering and the urgency to do something about it.
What was done?
Working with this medical equipment provider, we started transforming their sales approach to embrace customer centricity. The approach required getting a good understanding of client needs and challenges, which is only possible by developing the skills of customer-facing staff so that they can have informed discussions and get a good understanding of the customers’ business. Ensuring that the teams had the necessary capabilities to have such insightful conversations with customers was a specific challenge we addressed before improving the sales process.
A key step here was to train the company’s field service engineers to act as trusted advisors so that they could develop a better understanding of their customers’ needs. They were trained to recognise opportunities for sales which were then communicated to dedicated sales teams.
We designed a new go-to market strategy for each service, launched very specific sales campaigns and set up a dedicated service sales teams that proactively followed up leads and were able to articulate the value of a service in the context of customers’ needs.
That was done by researching customers’ service requirements. The company did have a good understanding of what customers were expecting in terms of product features and quality.
However, they had very limited knowledge of how the products were being used. It turned out that there was no such thing as “The Customer” as groups of customers with similarities in the use of the product and in the expectations of the expected benefits could be segmented by typical customer service needs. Customer service needs were further categorised into product related needs and customer business needs. The product related services needs can typically be satisfied by specifying the service performance characteristics in service level agreements. E.g. performance metrics such as uptime and response time were the key metrics in the SLA but could still be different for each type of customer.
The customer service business needs were a lot more difficult to identify. Customers had non-technical needs such as needing help to optimise the workflow in a laboratory or wanting to pay for the products based on their actual usage (Pay per Use) and leave the technical management to the provider. One segment of customers went so far as to demand that the product provider also manages the entire end-to-end process for a combination of laboratory instruments together with the staff of the customer.
Benefits
Within a year the service revenue had grown by more than 20% as well as EBIT on the service revenue. Ultimately, the strategy forged a path for the development of a range of new products and services, as well as expansion into other market segments. These results would have been impossible without an underlying focus on what has become the defining factor of sales: customer centricity.
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