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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Click Software
Title: The Cloud: Up where customer service for the field belongs
Download: Click here to download the white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

The Harris Interactive Customer Experience Impact report revealed that 86% of consumers have quit doing business with a company because of a poor customer experience—up 59% in four years. Other research has revealed it takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience, whilst 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with the same organization again. This white paper discusses how leveraging cloud solutions to optimise mobile workforces can improve the experiences of customers while lowering operational and IT costs. More field service management software is now available in the Cloud making it more accessible for SMEs and an alternative to heavy IT investments for large service organisations

Overview:

Customer complaints: What you hear is only the tip of the Iceberg. Many service companies don’t realize it when service levels are running low. In an increasingly savvy and connected market where information is readily available and easily accessible, customer service is often the only discerning difference between competing businesses. Investing in customer satisfaction is not only important but imperative for the long term survival of businesses especially where commoditisation has taken place

• Process improvement – to ensure prompt customer service and correct resource assignments
• Workforce development – to give the staff the opportunity to learn new skills
• Automation – rather than relying on error-prone and time-consuming manual processes
• Cultural changes – creating a working environment that stimulates the entire staff

Field personnel: you most valuable players

Only with real-time data can everyone shine. Providing real-time data across the entire organization is key to enhancing the customer experience. All levels of the service organization need actionable information to enhance how efficiently the field-service team operates and to improve experiences delivered to customers.

Silver linings within the Cloud

Cloud-based solutions open new doors for field service companies of all sizes by allowing for the quick, flexible adoption of new technologies that previously proved to be too expensive, risky and time-consuming to deploy.

Delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, cloud solutions provide several advantages over traditional on-premise solutions: inlcluding PAYG, rapid deployment, immediate ROI and free upgrades. In field workforce management, cloud-based solutions typically allow companies to achieve productivity gains of up to 20% and return on their investment within 12 months. The cloud approach gives businesses the opportunity to replace high, up-front capital infrastructure expenses with low, predictable costs, while also delivering other key benefits:

The service delivery chain

Cloud-based mobile workforce management solutions cover every step of the service chain—from planning and forecasting, to real-time intelligent scheduling, shift management, mobility and execution—underpinned by extensive user-defined analytics and dashboards to provide clear and intuitive reports. Optimised scheduling: Advanced resource scheduling and optimisation tools provide the main interface for dispatchers, supervisors and managers. Service companies can increase the efficiency of their workforce with by combining a powerful cloud-based scheduling and optimisation engine with strong decision support tools.

• Multiple scheduling options and policies
• Real-time optimisation immediately responsive to changes
• Optimised scheduling using multiple factors, people, crews, contractors, assets and complexities
• Street-level route optimisation
• Intelligent and flexible appointment booking
• Workflow dispatch and progress updates

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Mobility that connects entire teams. 

Mobile enterprise field execution software should allow both field workers and dispatchers the convenience of real-time communications and full end-to-end visibility. By using real-time mobility, field workers can update dispatchers; they can update customers, thereby benefiting everyone with true connectivity and better productivityReal-time information, when and where you need it. View jobs, service histories, customer information.[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Mobile solutions should be compatible leading devices and operating systems, through all service workflows, and with 24/7 availability
• Mobility is driven by apps. Don’t reinvent the wheel – build your business process using ready-made apps without having to code or go through a lengthy upgrade process
• The enterprise mobility solution must offer a robust and scalable infrastructure that can adapt to the needs of the business and its users.
• Cutting-edge capabilities include artificial intelligence and automation that anticipate and act proactively upon user’s needs

Real-time and historic service performance

Look at the entire service delivery chain - before, during and after the moment of service - and the collected business metrics that result from each moment. Make key performance metrics delivers strategic value to service organizations by placing graphical, easy-to-understand key performance metrics directly into the hands of executives and service managers. Each user chooses which actionable data to report based on their role and business challenges, from the C-suite to front line supervisors.

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Kirona
Title: Six steps to being a leader - the field service checklist
Download: Click here to access the white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Field workforce management software enables organisations with a mobile workforce to significantly improve their operational performance. The State of Service Management 2015: Connect To Your Customers report by Aberdeen's Aly Pinder found that best-in-class field service organisations achieve on average a 14.4% year-on-year improvement in workforce productivity compared to a 4.1% industry average.

This white paper looks at six key steps that field service companies must take in order to reach these heights themselves and establish their organisations as leaders amongst their competitors.

Overview:

Topics within the white paper include: 

• Optimising resource planning: Field resource planning is complex. If you have 100 workers carrying out 5 jobs a day, then that are 10,000,000,000 (1 billion) possible combinations of how those jobs could be allocated. There may also be a myriad of additional scheduling criteria such as worker skills/trade, certification required (and the validity dates), languages spoken, job time frame (appointment slot/site access), the region/ geography, the worker’s experience, parts, materials, equipment required, and the list goes on.  No human planner can possibly consider all these scenarios and determine which is financially the best option with the highest chance of customer satisfaction. It is therefore, not surprising that over two-thirds of Best-In-Class service organisations leverage software for Optimised Resource Planning.
•  Making and keeping appointments: Compliance to your work schedule is critical for two reasons, first it ensures you are working in the planned most optimum way, but second and more importantly, it means you are delivering against commitments to customers. For work types that require a customer appointment, the complexity of scheduling increases. Now an organisation needs to schedule work by considering two diaries; that of the workforce and the customer. Appointments are also disruptive to the customers, so keeping them is essential to achieving high customer satisfaction
• Connecting with the mobile workforce: Equipping field workers with mobile devices is a well-trodden path, however, whether through limitation in mobile working applications or lack of integration, we tend to find that most field service organisations are not maximising the full potential of connecting the field workforce.
• Real time tracking and dynamic scheduling: One of the biggest challenges for any organisation is how to track and monitor field-based activity and to manage the emerging day. Exceptions will always arise, whether through an overrun, no-access or emergency work, the skill is being able to take this in your stride and be able to dynamically reschedule work to take into account the unexpected while ensuring you continue to work to the most optimum schedule.
• Analysis & Continuous improvement: Standing still is not an option for field service organisations. We see continual change from our clients’ including customer demands, executive level priorities and changes in the workforce – all of which requires them to analyse and continually improve their operation. Knowledge is key. Understanding every aspect of your field service operation, gaining insight into not only what is happening, but why this is happening, and then being able to take action on this insight.
• Integration leads to automation: The more staff ‘touch points’ that are required in a service process, the greater its inefficiency. Not only do manual processes create a drain on labour and therefore an increased cost, they are error prone and they create timescale lags. Workforce management software provides an opportunity to avoid this by automating key activities in the service management chain of processes. The more 3rd party systems that are integrated into automated workflows, the greater the benefit to the organisation.

 

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Click here to find out more about Kirona in the Field Service Directory 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: NetMotion Wireless
Title: Service Mobility: The right technology for the right tech
Download: Click here to download this white paper

By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Written by Aberdeen’s Aly Pinder, this white paper highlights the key trends in field service driving further interest in and adoption of mobility. This report will also take a look at what capabilities are necessary to successfully deploy mobile tools.

Overview:

Topics within the white paper include:

1. Mobile still has a strategic place in service

Many firms have identified the field service team as a channel to not only deliver service but also interact with the customer. The importance of the technician to the success of the organization has led to the search for weays to equip them with the right tools. These tools must help these valued resources excel at their jobs while also providing invaluable insight to the rest of the organisation.

2. Mobility must keep service ahead of customer expectations

Will customers ever ask for service to devolve or become slower?  Customers will always want more for their dollars, sometimes even if they are not actually paying for their service. In regards to field service, the top pressure facing service organisations that is leading them to focus on mobility is the customer demand for faster service.

3. Mobility is more than a device

Much of the buzz around mobility and deploying new technology is around flashy new devices that have ever more processing speed. But inherent to this buzz is the fact that any technology will eventually become obsolete. The true value in mobile tools is the ability for this technology to provide insight and intelligence to workers in real time.

4. From paper to productivity

The goal of improved service for the customer starts with some key leading indicators: worker utilisation and worker happiness. Leaders outperform Followers in many key metrics, not least of which is the proof that exceptional field service aided through  mobile devices works (see renewal of service contracts with customers.) Happy and productive employees will go that extra mile to not only do their jobs, but even more importantly, word hard to positively overwhelm the customer.

5. Successfully deploy the value of mobility

Heightened performance in KPI is not a by-product of plugging in mobile technology alone. Top performing organisations implement strategic internal capabilities to ensure that a mobile strategy is maximised by the field to resolve customer issues efficiently.

6. Excel at making mobility key to service excellence

In order for mobility to avoid the buzzword wasteland, organisations need to see a direct impact on what matters to the top and bottom line, profitability. The key link to profitability is delivering the level of service that customers are willing to pay for. This valuable service is not the historical view of service, which was reactive, now service must go above and beyond.

To reach this level of success service firms should follow a few best practices implemented by industry leaders:

• CSOs drive service initiatives in mobile strategy. The chief service officer within an organisation must ensure that a mobile strategy isn’t just a product spend from IT. There must be a clear strategy that understands the ramifications and opportunity of real-time insight into technicians, customers, products, vehicles and equipment. A senior leader also will understand that all things even mobility, must come back to the customer and in turn profitability.
• Build buy in from the front line. A strategy is only as good as the workers that embrace it. Many initiatives have failed as a result of not gaining buy-in from the stakeholders , who ultimately have to use the tools being implemented. Therefore it is integral that service organisations work with front-line employees in regard to the identification, selection and deployment of any mobile technology. If the technician is involved in building the mobile strategy, they are more likely to work to maximize the value of technology for the organisation.
• Make data a source of insight for learning, training, and improvement. Data stored in a knowledge base at headquarters is a waste of time money and effort. Top performing firms empower their organisation to enhance products and service through the data captured in the field. Customers might let you get away with failure once, but they expect the service organisation to continuously improve. In order to improve, the entire team needs to be tied into service excellence.

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: mplsystems
Title: Seven Key Steps to Achieving Customer Service Excellence in the Service Industry
Download: Click here to download this white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Over the last few years we have seen major change in nature of our customers; they are now expecting, and demanding, much more from customer service. In fact, nearly 70% of customers will leave a business if they don’t receive the customer service they expect.

Customers are now demanding quicker response times, more visibility, more control and much more knowledge when speaking to the customer service team.

This white paper analyses what factors influence customer perception of the quality of service delivered, how we measure it and ways service business can improve service delivery.

Overview:

Topics within the white paper include:

1. Successfully measuring service quality to continually improve customer service

Increasingly businesses are adopting analytics to gain deeper insight into operational performance and customer behaviour to improve the customer experience. However it is reported that only 20% of organisations believe they have the technology and skills to gather the necessary insights to effectively measure performance.

Big Data is a buzz word making its rounds across a variety of industries and the field service sector is no exception. Over the last 10 years, field service organisations have become overwhelmed by the relentless flow of information coming in from multiple sources, in various formats and through an array of tools.

The major challenge businesses are facing is not only how to make sense of the massive amounts of data they collect, but knowing what they need to be measuring in order to improve the customer experience, as well as operational efficiencies.

2. Providing a Consistent Level of Customer Experience Across all Channels

Traditionally the service industry has primarily used the telephone as the main channel for customers to find out the status of their service request. However today’s customers have 24:7 access to an array of channels through their mobile devices and expect to able to contact a business through their channel of choice.

A more consistent, cross-channel customer service can be created by having a solution that can manage multimedia in a single universal queue (including voice, email, click-to-chat, fax, SMS, web and social media), rather than service desk agents having to deal with piecemeal technology and legacy systems that are disparate and complex.

All these channels can be placed on the agent’s desktop allowing them to see all required customer details, despite the channel they chose to contact them via.

3. Equip all Customer facing personnel with full, consistent, up to date knowledge

Knowledge is the key to providing high levels of a personalised customer experience and it is important to share this knowledge across the business and not keep it siloed within departments. Although many companies are trying to establish ways of effectively achieving knowledge share, it is common to face difficulties in keeping this knowledge up-to-date and making available to the right person at the right time.

It is important for businesses to understand that knowledge sharing needs to go beyond the confinements of the office walls and extend out to the mobile workforce who depend on knowledge sharing just as much with those in the office.

As customer facing employees and those who go out to fix problems and meet customers, it is essential for them to be able to access the information they need, when they need it.

4. Client Self Service and visibility of service status

The customer’s ability to arrange service calls or get status updates with a company is an important element of how a service organisation is viewed by its customers.

Online portals are currently the most used self-service channel within the service industry, however the functionality of these portals is still quite limited and often do not provide the customer with the control they require. One of the main problems that is limiting self-service portals is the lack of integration with existing business technology such as scheduling systems and field service engineer’s mobile device technology.

Organisations need to ensure that when implementing self-service portals, they are integrating them to all necessary back office systems to allow customers to not only access basic information such as billing, service requests or appointment booking but also allow them to make payments, amend or cancel appointments or have real-time updates of their service delivery without human interaction.

5. Motivate and train your technicians to go beyond basic repair

The field based engineers of your organisation are not just the ones who fix, prevent or manage customer requirements, they become the face of the business and one of the only employees from your business that the customers sees.

With this in mind, it is important to ensure the business is getting the most out of their remote workforce by training them in not only providing the best repair and maintenance service, but also by improving their soft skills in order to successfully communicate, listen and train customers on the products and maintenance best practice.

6. Increase help desk productivity with technical training and automation

Whilst training your engineers to carry out additional tasks such as quoting and ordering, it is also important to ensure that those on the service desk are also doing as much as they can to help improve the customer experience.

The traditional role of the service desk is to log customer requests and schedule them for the next available or most skilled engineer to go out and visit the customer. However, what if the service desk could provide some level of expertise in trying to find out more about the service request to better inform and equip the engineers and on some occasions even help solve the customers problem remotely, over the phone?

7. Stay one step ahead of the customer with proactive maintenance

The amount of reactive service requests coming in to an organisation can cause complexity for scheduling as well as effecting engineer availability, parts ordering and the amount of time it takes for the problem to be fixed.

To avoid the amount of reactive jobs being received, businesses should implement a strategy to track performance of components and analyse common faults in order to predict when maintenance will be needed.

The internet of things will also have a huge impact on service delivery and although still somewhat in its infancy, will soon be able to transform the industry

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Oneserve
Title: The metrics that matter: How actionable analytics can transform field service management performance­
Download:Click here to download this white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here
Synopsis:

The top strategic action for two-thirds of service organisations is to develop or improve the metrics or KPIs used to measure field service performance. And yet only 18 percent of companies believe they have the skills necessary to gather and use insights effectively.

These two statistics represent the predicament of many field service organisations today - they know actionable analytics are vital for business success, but fully utilising the information they gather is a daunting and difficult task. This white paper aims to disentangle the vast quantity of data available in the field service management industry by highlighting the metrics that really matter and demonstrating how analytics can be used to improve business performance.  

Overview:

This white paper covers the following areas:

Customer Centric and Servitisation

Many organisations have data at their fingertips but are paralysed by the complexity and number of data sources available to them. They rely on anecdotal evidence or intuition to make decisions rather than informed business intelligence in order to drive competitive advantage.

Research shows that service organisations that fully interrogate data outperform their rivals. A like-for-like comparison between organisations which use advanced analytics and those that don’t, reveals that adopters of analytics are seeing a 60% higher increase in year-on-year revenue.

Analytics for Field Service Management (FSM)

Analytics for FSM should be based around assets in the field, the resources (time, money and people) it takes to install, maintain and repair those assets and the customer experience. Initially an organisation may just want to understand the numbers around these key activities, then in time improve processes. Ultimately the goal should be to deliver forecast and predictive analytics that achieve optimisation across service delivery.

For field service this goal can be delivered at both strategic and operational levels, for example a director might want to understand how a shift in approach can create gains for the organisation, whereas a manager might want to understand how exactly that shift can be made.

 

Incorporate the metrics that matter

To ensure analytics are able to deliver valuable insight, the right KPIs must be identified. Every service organisation must identify their own metrics based on what success looks like for them. There are however some common measures in the service industry which should be tracked by any service organisation regardless of which sector they operate within.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for field service management should include:

• Business process
• Service delivery
• Customer service
• Operational efficiency

This is by no means an exhaustive list - each metric should unlock more in-depth measures which require analysis. Clear actionable insights will be revealed as part of the analysis from which the organisation can take evidence based decisions and improve the process associated with that measure.

This should be a constant cyclical review process. 

The analytics journey

Assuming a set of KPIs has been defined, there is a hierarchy of analytics that can be applied, dependent upon the richness of the data and the analytics resource available. The advanced analytics journey demonstrated in chart 1 articulates a staged approach, which starts by examining the data and finishes by optimising the intelligence which has been discovered. Evidently each step in the journey becomes more complicated and arguably more useful as the capability and complexity of the analytics increases.

Additional benefits of analytics

Increased customer retention Research by Aberdeen Group shows organisations that embrace analytics outperform their industry average figures for customer satisfaction, customer retention and service improvement. These organisations use analytics to gain a deep understanding of customer behaviour to preempt customer needs and desires without explicit interaction.

Higher levels of motivation in the workforce The mobile workforce is the shop window of any service organisation. In fact some organisations are even combining the role of technician and salesperson. The technician is highly qualified in product knowledge and often in the customer space; this puts them in a unique position of knowledge and trust to be able to sell to the customer.

Improved bottom line Organisations which reap the greatest rewards from business intelligence see a significantly improved bottom line.

Competitive advantage By continuously analysing in-house performance figures these companies can use this insight to monitor their competitors and ensure they stay at the top of their game. The best performing service organisations are twice as likely as all others to consistently benchmark service performance against peers and top performers in other industries.

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Resource Type: White Paper
Provided by: Trimble Field Service Management
Author: Aly Pinder Jr, Senior Research Analyst, Service Management. Aberdeen Group
Title: Emerging workforce in the field: Tech Savvy to Technician

Download: Click here to download this white paper 

By downloading this white paper you agree to the T&C's outlined here

Synopsis:

With Trimble’s ongoing focus on empowering mobile workers Trimble have teamed up with Aberdeen Group to publish a new report looking at the emergence of a new mobile worker in field service. Written by leading field service analyst, Aly Pinder, this paper takes a closer look at how technology is affecting and driving the next generation of field service workers. Are millennials that different from their predecessors?

What are their weaknesses and strengths? And most importantly how do they fit within the evolution of the field service industry itself? With the field service industry facing a rapidly growing issue of an ageing workforce it is even more important than ever to understand how to attract and engage with the next generation of field workers.

Report Highlights:

• 62% of top performers have incorporated some level of BYOD strategy as a result of a more tech-savvy workforce
• The best-in-class are 33% more likely to implement visual collaboration tools to improve communication between technicians and remote experts
• The best-in-class are 70% more likely to provide technicians with access to a knowledge base of recorded training videos and images
• The Best-in-class are 43% more likely to give technicians access to social media and collaborative tools to facilitate knowledge transfer.

Overview:

Replacing good workers is never an easy task and unfortunately the majority of companies wait until it is too late to address what is a lurking problem. In fact, Aberdeen’s Talent Acquisition 2014: Reverse the Regressive Curse report, highlighted that 60% of companies were reactionary in regard to talent acquisition and only recruited when they had an opening, instead of actively recruiting prior to an open vacancy becoming available.

The problem then faced is not only finding the next great field service engineer as a reaction to a departure but also understanding their needs and motivations as much as possible in order to retain their services for the long term. What makes this challenge even more complex currently is that we are in a position of flux when it comes to our workforces.

 

The fact is that the available pool of workers is changing swiftly. Currently the average age of a field service technician is 32 years old, with approximately one-fifth of the current workforce under 30 (as reported in the recent Aberdeen research on Mobile Field Service). So as field service companies bring in new workers from this next generation, dubbed millennials or generation y they need to consider how these workers will begin their journey with the team and manage the way in which this new breed of engineers will use, process and engage with technology.

Finally, to further compound these challenges there is the spectre of an ageing field service workforce to contend with. So, not only is there a need to make the transition from one generation of worker as seamless as possible, there is also a pressing timeframe to contend with as well. To get this transition right, first time around, field service organisations must consider at east three questions as they try to continue delivering exceptional field service with the next generation of field service workers.

• What do your customers want?
• How can you attract the next generation of great field service engineers?
• How does the next generation of field worker help the evolution of mobility in the field?

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In many respects the next generation fits perfectly with the way field service is evolving. So whilst there are some fairly negative connotations associated with the millennial/gen y age group – sharp attention span, sense of entitlement, “I will be CEO in less than two years’ etc. these misconceptions of the industries youngest workforce are not where our attention should lie. Whilst this generation of field workers may be different from their forbearers, they aren’t necessarily worse.

They may have some drawbacks, but when it comes to the evolution of excellent service, they may be just what is needed to wow future customers.

The emerging field service workforce embodies a number of characteristics that will help transform service and the relationship with the customer. These workers are young (30 and under) technology savvy, (they grew up with computers) and collaborative (social networks are a way of life.)

 

These traits and preferences help these workers attain and evaluate data faster than ever. But the integral part is how quickly that data is turned into answers and insight. To find out more about how companies overcome the challenge of an ageing workforce and take advantage of the next generation of great field engineers,

Trimble Field Service Management are offering this white paper for download now

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: mplsystems
Title: Meeting Customer Demand: Evaluation of the Top Three Customer Self-Service Technologies for Field Service
About: This white paper will explore the transitioning role of the customer in field service and how the proliferation and popularity of smartphone devices has created a demand for self-service technology in both B2B and B2C markets. It will discuss the different self-service technologies available and suggest how best to implement these solutions to ensure businesses are achieving a true end-to-end field service management solution.
Download: Download the white paper by clicking here   

Privacy policy: by registering to downloading this white paper you agree to the terms and conditions as outlined here

Overview:

Within the field service industry there is a growing focus on improving communication between the service desk and field engineer teams.

However, businesses are slowly realising that this type of technology can also be used to improve communications with clients, offering a low effort experience that not only increases visibility and loyalty but generates cost savings

Current use of self-service technology

The customer’s ability to arrange service calls or get status updates with a company is an important element of how a service organisation is viewed by its customers.

Given that the role of the consumer has largely changed over recent years due to the consumerisation of technology, customers are now expecting to be able to have more visibility and control when it comes to interacting with a business, especially with online self-service.

Taking Customer Self-Service Portals to the next level

As customers are given more visibility and control in other areas of business through online channels, they are expecting this control in all areas of life. Research carried out by US based consultancy, Software Advice, reported that whilst access to an online portal for self-service tasks such as scheduling and bill paying had the second-strongest positive impact on respondents’ likelihood to hire a field service company the data also indicated that an online portal could have the most negative impact in customers eyes.

It is clear that out of all the customer self-service technologies available, online portals are currently the most used within the industry, however the functionality of these portals is still quite limited and often do not provide the customer with the control they require.

 

One of the main problems that is limiting self-service portals providing the tools the customer needs is the lack of integration with existing business technology such as scheduling systems and field service engineer’s mobile device technology. This means that whilst the portal may provide the customer with basic information such as billing, service requests or appointment booking, they are often unable to make payments through the app, amend or cancel appointments or have real-time updates of their service delivery without human interaction.

Web Chat and Messaging

In a recent interview, Nicola Millard, BT’s Head of Customer Insight and Futures, references how web chat is set to become the dominant customer contact channel of the future. She comments, “Firstly, web chat is an immediate channel, like the phone, you can have a conversation. Secondly, the ability to manage multiple chat sessions means that the economics of chat is positive, assuming the volume is there. Thirdly, chat can be blended with other channels for example email and social media.”

However, whilst this channel is already being successfully implemented across many industry sectors, the field service industry has been somewhat slower in the uptake of web chat. Field service organisations have traditionally struggled to unite two key elements – the technical expertise of their field-based engineers with the availability of their service desks. Not surprisingly, engineers are always busy – either travelling to a customer location or already engaged onsite.

However, as the traditional browser based web chat extends to messaging on mobile devices, it becomes possible to bring field engineers, the service desk and customers together in a virtual world, despite location or device.

Business Clients Mobile Apps

Whilst mobile apps are helping transform operational efficiency for field workers, the extension of this technology to customers is still very limited.

 

Only 5% of organisations currently offer their customers mobile apps as a communication channel into the service desk. However, it is reported that over 50% of smartphone users chose apps over phoning a contact centre and this will continue to rise as the influence of generation Y and the proliferation and innovation of mobile devices continues. Mobile apps are a key technology in field service, but this mostly focuses around apps for engineers who are out in the field and need access to information from the service desk. But if we are able to provide engineers with integrated apps and scheduling capabilities, then why not offer this to business clients as a simple, quick way to check service requests, book appointments or access billing capabilities?

Integration and Interaction

There has been much talk around integration of field service management solutions to create a true end-to-end approach to the customer life cycle allowing full visibility across different areas of the company. However, when adding new technologies, such as customer self-service, businesses often overlook the importance of fully integrating this new technology with existing business systems.

On many occasions, businesses will introduce a third party supplier and then face multiple problems when trying to get each system to speak to each other. In the 2014 Field Service Software research report, it was confirmed that over a fifth of businesses were working with five or more providers to implement their field service technology.

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Resource Type: White Paper

Published by: Exel Computer Systems

Title: How do large Field Service companies gain competitive advantage?

About: Published by UK service management software and ERP provider Exel Computer Systems this white paper looks at some of the challenges that companies can face as their mobile workforce grows to significant size. Concisely written this white paper raises some interesting questions and provides some good advice both for companies with a large mobile workforce as well as those who foresee their organisation and thus their mobile workforce expanding in due course.

Download: Download the white paper by clicking here

Overview:

 Whilst many of the challenges for field service companies are shared regardless of company size or industry vertical, there are some challenges that appear specifically amongst those field service companies that operate with a larger mobile workforce.

 

Understanding these challenges and how to minimise their impact on your business operations is of course important for those field service managers and directors working for larger enterprises, however, it is also important for those managing smaller and medium businesses (particularly those with aspirations of growth) as the adoption of best practices now may mean your company can both potentially avoid such issues as you grow and also enable you to grow your organisation faster.

This white paper from Exel Computer Systems addresses some of these issues and offers some great insight into how to overcome them.

Topics include:

The need for clarity of data within larger field service organisation…

The larger the service team, the more data there is to be potentially collected and analysed by more people across the business. It is here that the often-overlooked area of reporting offers real competitive advantage.

The company which can quickly access its information in appropriate real-time, flexible formats, from multiple points across the business (from the board room to dispatch room) and, most importantly, which can also trust that information, has a real advantage over the company reliant on inflexible reports only accessible and understandable by a limited number of people within the organisation.

Not only is the former company able to be more responsive and agile at an individual job/asset level, it has the potential to be so at a strategic level by being able to analyse and spot any emerging trends and react accordingly. 

Maximising customer facing time

Another challenge facing large service teams centres around maximising customer facing time by intelligently scheduling the best use of each engineer.  [quote float="right"]As the size of the team increases, there is the potential to treat each engineer according to more generic rules which may work better some times and less well at others.

In smaller service teams, there are less engineers to manage and it is inherently easier to optimise their use. As the size of the team increases, there is the potential to treat each engineer according to more generic rules which may work better some times and less well at others.

 

When a company has an FSM system that provides the visibility and accuracy of data described above, each engineer can be treated on an individual basis by the user utilising the knowledge and data held within the system. Not only does this potentially increase the quantity of jobs achieved over a given time period, it also potentially increases the quality of customer service as the customer will invariably get a quicker response.

Greatly increased risk of stock obsolescence

There is also the not inconsiderable challenge of minimising mobile stock levels. A company of five mobile engineers requiring fully stocked vehicles compared to a fleet of 500 vehicles represents not just a vast difference in terms of tied up stock, it also represents a greatly increased risk of stock obsolescence. It is for this reason that companies with large field service teams are beginning to gain competitive advantage by building relationships with suppliers at a local level.

 

If successfully done, local suppliers can either work on an agile basis and replenish individual vehicles as and when required, or even arrange to deliver to a customer site to coincide with an engineer visit.

Improving diagnostics, remote repair and self repair

Companies with large service teams are beginning to gain competitive advantage by proactively encouraging customers to share what can often be mission critical data. One such example is in a service/repair context where customers can aid preliminary diagnostics by sending a picture or video of the asset/problem in question. In some cases, this is enough to enable a skilled service engineer to work remotely with the customer to resolve an issue much quicker than sending an engineer on-site. This can also be advantageous where different engineers have areas of specialist knowledge; an engineer on-site can instantly communicate with another engineer that may have more experience for advice and direction, again removing any unnecessary waiting.

 

For some companies where downtime of an asset can be measured in thousands or tens of thousands of pounds per minute, this is an advantage offering huge potential savings.
 

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Resource Type: White Paper

Published by: Field Service News (sponsored by Solarvista)

Title: End to end field service: a look at the technologies available in each step of the service lifecycle

About: Written by Field Service News Editor, Kris Oldland this white paper explores the technologies available and what considerations to make when selecting the tools for your own organisation at each point within the service lifecycle. Topics include; taking the service call, preventative vs. predictive maintenance, employee management and scheduling, stock management and parts offering, contract management, field based hardware, field based software and transparent communications.

Download: Download the white paper by clicking here

Overview:

End to end field service was one of the biggest buzz phrases heard across the past year. At trade shows, in the industry press and not least from a considerable number of field service technology providers themselves we kept hearing that ‘end-to-end’ was a core consideration that field service organisations should be factoring on when exploring how they can modernise their current service management systems.

However, there was and still remains a number of inconsistencies around exactly what is end-to-end field service management.

 

Is it a case of having all existing systems under one platform? Or perhaps just the need to have each of our various components within the field service chain talking to each other? Is it a software or hardware solution – or is it both? As with any emerging concept it will take time to substantiate into clearly defined parameters (if ever).

However, one thing is certain, taking in a comprehensive overview of each step in the lifecycle of a service call within your organisation is certainly an advisable route to take before even contemplating moving to a next generation solution be it hardware, software or both. Whilst the service journey may differ from organisation to organisation, as in reality, no two companies are identical, yet there are key points within the service cycle that will likely exist within most organisations.

In this white paper we will look across some of these points and explore some of the technology solutions that could help both you and your company in achieving higher first time fix rates and better field service productivity.

Topics include:

Incoming – Taking the service request - Of course in most instances the first part of the service call lifecycle starts with the initial call for a service request itself. However, in today’s age of apps and Internet is that first communication necessarily over the telephone?

Preventative and Predictive Maintenance - Another point to explore in the first steps of the service lifecycle is the benefit of predictive and preventative maintenance, both of which can dramatically reduce the need for customers to put in service requests in the first place.

Getting the right engineer to the right place with the right tools at the right time - Whether it be via machine to machine sensors and predictive maintenance, call centre agent notes or customer provided information via a self-help portal the one key focus of all of the options discussed above should be to collect enough information to allow the effective dispatch of a field service engineer (or engineers depending on the task) with the correct qualifications to the job whilst simultaneously ordering any required parts so the engineer has everything at his disposal required to resolve the issue on the first call out.

Scheduling - The most important aspect of your field service operation is of course your field engineers. They are almost certainly one of your biggest costs as well so managing them effectively is vital if you are going to operate a service division as a profit centre rather than a cost drain on the wider business.

Asset Management/Parts Ordering - Of course getting the right engineer to the right job is all well and good but it becomes a moot exercise if he doesn’t have the parts required to complete his task. The next vital element within a service management solution is being able to both track your existing assets and also to easily order parts not in your existing inventory.

Tools to do the job – hardware - Not only is there the very simple business case that moving to a digital first medium will almost certainly pay for itself when you factor in the saved man hours in needless administration (not to mention sheer paper costs!) but also the perception. Here we look at what you should consider when choosing hardware for your field engineers.

Is BYOD the answer? - Perhaps the biggest of these questions of field service technology of late has centred on BYOD. The BYOD trend has been much vaunted for many years but has yet to truly take off in the UK and Europe as it has done in the United States. Whilst the benefits are clear – less cost, quicker adoption and happier staff using the device of their choice, a counter argument surrounding security, insurance and the murky hidden costs of such a set up is easily made.

Tools to do the job - Software Having selected the device to empower your field engineers the next step is to select the right mobile software to make the most of that hardware. Whilst there has been great strides forward with cross platform HTML5 applications a strong argument lies within a ‘native’ app approach where the application is specifically designed to work alongside your device’s operating system (OS). We look at what you should expect from your field service apps.

Communicating back to HQ - Important data is everywhere and there are few better equipped to collect it than a field service engineer. Giving them the right tools to transmit that data to the place it has most value is a crucial part of the field service mobile app.   

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