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Oftentimes field service directors and managers can see the importance of investment within a dedicated Field Service Management (FSM) ahead of their colleagues in the boardroom. In this series of articles Kevin McNally, Sales Director, Asolvi outlines how to build a case for investment to drive your field service operations forwards.

In the first instalment in this series, we looked at how FSM systems can deliver easy Return on Investment. Now we look at how investment in FSM solutions can help you achieve better staff retention.

 

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Is building a case for investment in FSM a key topic for you?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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Not too long ago we lived in a world where things were expensive and labour was cheap. That dichotomy in most regions of the world has now pretty much been flipped upside down.

As it is, the most valuable asset in a field service organisation is widely perceived to be the field service engineers themselves.

Add into this the ageing workforce crisis that many organisations are facing, leading to dramatic increases in costs to replace those experienced engineers leaving the workplace across the next five to ten years, and the importance of good talent retention should definitely not be overlooked.

Neither should the positive impact that the implementation of an FSM solution that empowers your field service engineers.

Let’s now take a look of just a few of the ways that implementing a new FSM solution can help you keep your field workforce happy and staff turnover in this mission-critical operation low…

 

Offer A Better Work/Life Balance:

One of the key fundamentals of most FSM solutions is some form of scheduling solution. Often when we look at the benefits of scheduling we tend to focus on the business benefits. As mentioned above ROI is a clear selling point for investing in such a solution for example.

Yet, from the engineers’ perspective, a well-planned job schedule within their working day can be a huge positive. By utilising an FSM system you can factor in things like the engineer’s home so their work schedule across the day can bring them closer to home as they approach the final few jobs of the day.

When a field service engineer finishes their last job at 5 pm on a Friday the difference between being close to home or being stuck two hours away in rush hour traffic can have a huge impact on their work/life balance.

 

Keep Them Doing What They Signed Up For Not Endless Mountains Of Paperwork:

While there are invariably exceptions to every rule, in the main, there are some key attributes that field service managers share. They enjoy problem-solving the ability to work autonomously and solving technical or mechanical problems.

What they tend not to enjoy is the endless filing of reports and administrative tasks – which can be necessary for a business granted, but would certainly rank near the bottom of a list of tasks the majority of field service engineers relish most about their work.

Fixing stuff and solving problems is what field service engineers are paid to do and largely it is also what they excel at. Admin is not.

As the late, great Peter Drucker outlined, we are far better off focussing on what we are good at so we can become excellent in that field than trying to improve areas where we are weak – as no matter how much we focus on our weaknesses, we will only ever become average in these areas at best.

This is a major area of improvement to the engineers’ day to day enjoyment of his work that an FSM solution can bring. By automating many of the essential yet mundane admin tasks such as sending completion reports, tracking parts inventory in and out of their van stock, or even sending invoices – the engineer is able to focus on what they do and enjoy best.

 

Make The Engineers The First-Time-Fix Hero:

Our field service engineers are the frontline of our businesses and very often the most frequent face-to-face interaction that your customers’ may have with your organisation.

As such when things go wrong, it is your engineers who are in the firing line.

The flipside of this, of course, is that when things go right, they may as well walk out of your customer’s premises with a cape around there neck and their pants on outside there trousers – the standard uniform for every superhero who has just saved the day.

It is fairly self-evident which of these is the preferred scenario for the engineer, and a good FSM solution can help him achieve that more often in a number of ways.

For a start, an FSM solution can be harnessed to provide the engineer with all the relevant history and information available for the job he is about to undertake, including things like previous maintenance carried out, potential likely failures on the asset and even if this is a regular fault or if this is the first time service has been required on the asset.

 

 

"In addition to things like asset history, many FSM solutions can be integrated with knowledge banks, so should the issue fall outside of the engineer’s current experience, he can access detailed information on how best to tackle the problem..."

 

 

All of these pieces of information can not only allow the engineer to diagnose the issue swiftly but also to gain an understanding of how best to approach the customer – for example, if this is a regular fault that has already been repaired on numerous other occasions, then the customer may require a more delicate and empathetic approach compared to a customer who has had a more favourable previous experience with your organisation – who may be a prime target for potential upselling.

In addition to things like asset history, many FSM solutions can be integrated with knowledge banks, so should the issue fall outside of the engineer’s current experience, he can access detailed information on how best to tackle the problem.

Similarly, engineer-to-engineer communications are something we are beginning to see become included more often in FSM solutions, which can also give an engineer access to the knowledge of one of their peers who may have encountered the problem, they face before.

In fact, engineer-engineer communication can be vital in providing a support network for engineers so they don’t feel isolated and disenfranchised from the business.

Finally, you should remember that investment in tools for your engineers is an investment in your engineers – and when someone understands you are investing in them and that you do so because they are respected and valued within your organization, you will more often than not engendered much greater employee loyalty. In fact, every time you roll out a new aspect of an FSM solution you can reinforce this point simply by establishing change management champions from within your field workforce.

And if your engineers’ feel valued, you can guarantee your staff turnover will be below the average.

 

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Want to know more?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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Scheduling software has long been a foundational technology for field service companies allowing them to meet customer demands. Michael Blumberg lifts the lid on all of the key aspects of this crucial tool...

 

If you have spent any time in Field Service, you probably understand the importance of managing service delivery functions against key performance indicators (KPIs). Among the most critical KPIs in the Field Service Leaders track are First Time Fix (FTF), Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance or Onsite Response Time (ORT), and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). These KPIs measure the effectiveness of a Field Service Organization (FSOs) in delivering quality service in a timely manner.

The inability to meet KPI targets may result in exponential costs, customer attrition and loss of revenue; whereas the ability to exceed customer expectations can result in customer appreciation followed by an increase in profit margins and sales. To effectively schedule/dispatch the right technician to arrive on time with the right parts and skillset plays a significant role in meeting these outcomes. This is definitely not a small feat for your typical FSO.

 

"Scheduling and dispatching Field Service Engineers (FSE) poses a challenge for most FSOs, particularly those with more than 5 FSEs. The reason behind this is there are many variables and factors involved..."

 

Scheduling and dispatching Field Service Engineers (FSE) poses a challenge for most FSOs, particularly those with more than 5 FSEs. The reason behind this is there are many variables and factors involved.

An FSO with only one or two FSEs and a few customers may not perceive scheduling to be a major challenge. The volume of service requests may be relatively low while the options of who, when and where to send them may be rather limited. Scheduling becomes more of a challenge as the volume of service requests (i.e., customers) and the number of FSEs increases.

Adding to this complexity are the business objectives and/or constraints an FSO must optimize to meet its scheduling requirements.

With additional constraints or objectives, the more difficult it becomes to produce a solid schedule. For example, if the objective is to only meet a response time commitment to the customer, then the decision is easy - assign the FSE who can arrive in a timely manner at the customer’s site.

If FTF, MTTR, and/or SLA Compliance targets are also part of the equation, it becomes even more difficult to produce that solid schedule. Adding a profit margin objective, high call volumes, multiple geographies, and a sizable pool of FSEs, the decision becomes even more overwhelming.

 

"The reason why scheduling is so excruciating of a task is that there are numerous factors that an FSO would need to create and evaluate to determine the optimal assignment for each FSE..."

 

The reason why scheduling is so excruciating of a task is that there are numerous factors that an FSO would need to create and evaluate to determine the optimal assignment for each FSE.

This is a time-consuming activity that requires an extensive amount of computational power to achieve. Many companies have suffered from a loss of time and resources in dealing with confusion and potential human error. The solution is Dynamic Scheduling Software.

Dynamic Scheduling Software provides FSOs with the feature-rich functionality that streamlines, automates, and optimizes scheduling decisions.

This technology ensures the FSO sends the assigned technician to the right job having the proper skill set and arriving on time. These applications typically leverage a scheduling engine that optimizes FSE job assignment. Scheduling engines vary in their complexity ranging from those based on business rules to Linear Programming (i.e. goodness of fit) techniques, Operations Research Algorithms (e.g., Quantum Annealing, Genetic Algorithms, etc.), or Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Self-Learning applications.

The complexity of the scheduling problem, number and types of resources involved, duration of tasks, and objectives to be optimized play a role in determining which scheduling engine is most functional.

Critical factors to consider may include whether the scheduling engine can handle:

1. multi-day projects or short duration field service visits,
2. people and assets (e.g., tools, parts, trucks, equipment) or solely people,
3. the number and types of KPIs that are part of the objective, and
4. route planning requirements.

In evaluating Dynamic Scheduling Software, FSOs are also advised to consider the following criteria:

• Cloud versus On-Premise Deployment Options
• Speed and Ease of Implementation
• Integration with Back-office Systems
• Availability of Real-time Visibility by the Customer
• FSO Requirements for Best of Breed or Integrated Enterprise Solution
• Total Cost of Ownership
• Return on Investment
• Vendor Industry Knowledge and Experience

There are over a dozen software vendors who offer some form of dynamic scheduling functionality for field service.

Obviously, no two Dynamic Scheduling applications are alike. Each one has their points of differentiation. The best solution is a function of the level of importance the FSO places on each criterion and how each vendor meets these criteria.

Regardless of which vendor is selected, the benefits of Dynamic Scheduling are clear.

In fact, industry benchmarks show that companies who implement these types of solutions can achieve a 20% to 25% improvement in operating efficiency, field service productivity, and utilization. The impact on bottom line profitability and customer satisfaction is substantial. To enable FSOs to provide customers with an Uber-like experience and significant profitability, FSOs should consider deploying Dynamic Scheduling Software as part of their service delivery infrastructure.

 

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Michael Blumberg, is President of the Blumberg Advisory Group 

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Though still a young company, SensLynx has quickly established itself as one of the foremost brands in the fleet and asset management industry.

Some of the credit goes to its co-founders, both of whom have long-standing track records as executives with other wireless entities and top tier fleet tracking companies. But SensLynx’s world-class GPS tracking hardware and software, as well as its full suite of mobile solutions for companies of all sizes, is another driving force behind its sterling reputation.

Since its inception, SensLynx has broadened its scope into many other IoT areas but sees a powerful opportunity for unlimited growth in the fleet tracking arena through a network of newly minted resale business owners.

IoT fleet management continues to be one of the fastest growing markets globally and is forecasted to be worth over $15 Billion by 2024.

Yet, it is also one of the most under-penetrated, opening a wide window for agile entrepreneurs in a broad range of verticals, such as Transportation, Plumbing, Heating/Air Conditioning, Landscaping, Electricians, Food Delivery, Utilities/Oil/Gas, Construction, Non-Emergency Medical Transport, Airports, Waste Management and Public Safety/Security.

The GMAP program is built around SensLynx’s bundled solution components, which include Fleet & Asset Tracking, Electronic Logging Device, Routing Application, Video/DashCam capture and Workforce Management for smartphones The new SensLynx GPS Management Accelerator Program (GMAP) can either enable start-ups or enhance existing business portfolios with the addition of tracking solutions. GMAP requires no upfront investment or inventory warehousing and is structured to deliver recurring revenue via new sales channels, while also being compatible with legacy business models to capitalize on similar customer profiles.

And because SensLynx white labels its solutions under certain criteria, entrepreneurs earn significant margin on hardware sales (up to 75%!) plus monthly subscription income from the customers they will own outright.

“We believe in the entrepreneurial spirit,” said Rob Garry, Co-Founder and CEO of SensLynx.  “Not only does this Accelerator Program help us grow our IoT Fleet sector on a grassroots level, it inspires others to strike out on their own or expand.”

The GMAP program is built around SensLynx’s bundled solution components, which include Fleet & Asset Tracking, Electronic Logging Device, Routing Application, Video/DashCam capture and Workforce Management for smartphones. At the heart is its comprehensive fleet/asset tracking software, packed with features like Data Handling, Parsing, Database, Mapping, Alerting, Reporting, Dispatch, Maintenance Logging, e-Logs, Local Posted Speed Limits, Addressing, Geofencing, Interstate Miles, Open API-based software and more.  The complete bundled solution with software, hardware and data connectivity is attractively packaged at one guaranteed monthly price.

SensLynx’s GMAP program provides every tool necessary for companies to succeed, including initial training, planning for roll-out, conducting telemarketing for launch, developing website content, providing custom branded marketing materials and online demo support, accessible through the streamlined GMAP Reseller Portal where businesses can also easily manage supply chain and customer accounts.

Tom Maguire, Co-Founder, COO and CMO of SensLynx said, “We’ve worked hard to create a superior, all-encompassing, yet simple program that will ensure our resellers see measurable results in record time with dedicated support from us.”

GPS Tracking makes customer fleets, assets and personnel safer and more productive while reducing operating costs and increasing profitability overall.  The SensLynx GPS Tracking Solution delivers everything and then some.  And the low expenditure, high return GMAP program allows sales professionals to become successful proprietors in an emerging industry rather than employees and augments existing businesses with a leading-edge technology. The future of IoT Fleet Management is very bright.

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Effectively managing the peaks and valleys in field service demand is one of the greatest challenges facing managers and executives across a broad array of market segments says Michael Blumberg, President & CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group, Inc.  Here, we publish the first part of extracts from his White Paper, "The Variable Workforce Model",  on how the momentum for freelance service technicians is building and potential solutions for managing them.

The Field Service Dilemma

Typically, temporary or contingent labour was utilised to support periods of peak demand: when there was a spike in new product sales or when brought about by seasonal issues. For example, a surge in installations or refreshes resulting from new product purchases required that the service organisation employ additional field service engineers (FSEs) to complete the installations in a timely manner.

However, relying on a temporary workforce to handle emergency maintenance was historically viewed as anathema to service executives within companies that sell equipment. This was because the FSEs were typically viewed as an extension of the sales team and thus vital to keeping the equipment operating and the customer happy. The conventional wisdom was that if equipment failed to operate properly then the customer would become irate, blame the manufacturer or reseller, and stop buying their products.

FSEs were considered to uniquely possess the specialised knowledge and skills required to resolve emergency issues. These skills took years to acquire and were difficult to replicate. How could emergency service be trusted to temporary employees with limited knowledge or experience with the product?  As a result, peaks in demand for emergency service were typically handled by asking FSEs to work overtime hours.

Setting the groundwork for the variable workforce

In the mid-1980s a number of service networks were created among like-minded service providers (e.g.  resellers, OEMs, etc.) to provide FSE coverage in geographic areas where their partners lacked specific skills sets: the beginning of the managed service provider concept.  Another driving force behind the decision to use contingent labour was the fact that the economics of hiring full-time personnel were not favourable. With margins declining, it was difficult for service providers to justify hiring additional personnel. Turning toward a network of vendors, subcontractors, and service companies to fill peaks in demand became a viable solution for many service providers.

 

In the 1990s outsourcing of non-core activities became popular with a number of prominent original equipment manufacturers such as Cisco, NetApp, IBM, and HP who outsourced non-strategic field service functions to Third Party Maintenance companies.

The recessions of 2001 and 2008 led to layoffs and hiring freezes across a wide array of industries. Service providers could not risk having situations where field service engineers were not available to support customers’ requests. Rather than keep non-essential workers on the payroll, companies realised they could reduce operating expenses and lower overhead costs by hiring field service engineers on a per call basis; as consultants or freelancers.

The freelance model has now become main stream within the field service industry. It gives service providers the ability to manage field service delivery through a variable workforce model. Maintaining a field service workforce on a full-time basis represents a short-term, fixed cost for service providers. With field service experiencing its own peaks and valleys in demand, a service provider can now convert a short-term fixed cost into a variable expense.

Options for building a variable workforce
[quote float="right"]Field service companies have a number of options available to them for obtaining variable field service labour.

Today, companies who support or maintain large sets of geographically dispersed technology and environments such as ATM machines in retail locations, Wi-Fi access points in coffee shops, or Internet of Things enabled technologies, have a number of options available to them for obtaining variable field service labour. These include: [ordered_list style="decimal"]

 

1. Implement Master Service Agreement (MSA) with one or more companies. This usually requires the OEM hand-off all on-site service requests to the Field Service Organisation who is responsible for managing their own workforce. While this is one of the simplest ways to obtain access to a contingent labour force, it is often the most expensive; particularly if the FSO is using its own workforce to perform the on-site request. This is because the FSO’s price per service call usually takes into account direct labour costs, plus parts, overhead, risk and profit.
   Furthermore, the FSO may not be able to provide their client with full visibility, accountability and control into the service delivery process. Basically, the client is alerted to when a call is dispatched and when it is completed, not to what occurs in between.
2. Manage subcontractors on their own. Another option is for a company to build its own variable workforce through a “Direct-To-Tech” approach. This requires that a company hire independent contractors either directly or through a staffing company, or they can reclassify existing full time FSEs as independents. Reclassification could create problems from a legal and financial perspective.[quote float="left"]The Direct-To-Tech model can be very successful but only if the nature of the work is truly independent contracting, not a second class worker.

    

   More importantly, setting up and managing a variable workforce labour pool requires an investment in mobile communication and collaboration technology, as well as new processes, procedures, and training for both management and dispatch staff.
   Companies who don’t approach this challenge strategically often end up with ad hoc systems and processes that are cumbersome and unscalable. All too often, companies end up blaming the subcontracted or freelance workforce when the real root cause of the issue is a lack of robust and scalable systems that lead to mismanagement.
3. Adopt a “Sharing Economy” model. Companies who are willing and able to manage teams of individual workers can turn to a sharing economy model. In this scenario, a company would use an Internet platform, provided by a 3rd party technology vendor, to recruit, on-board, train, dispatch, manage, and pay individual contractors. There are substantial cost savings to a company who is willing to pursue this course of action. Improvements in service quality and productivity are also possible .Freelance contractors are typically more engaged and motivated since their income is directly proportional to the quality of work performed and number of assignments they accept. More importantly, it avoids the risk of misclassifying workers. Freelancers who make themselves available through this type of labour model have made the decision to become a small business. In their work as independent contractors they have the ability to decide how many companies they contract with and which types of jobs they select, how and when they go about performing their work and how to best use their own tools and equipment.
   [/ordered_list]

All things being equal, we believe the sharing economy model offers the optimal solution for obtaining access to a variable workforce. This is provided the company using this model is prepared to engage in the necessary leg work required to manage teams of independent contractors through a Freelance Management System (FMS) platform.

 

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Watch out for Part 2 of this White Paper. Download the version here

 

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Field Nation, the US company which has developed an on-line marketplace matching independent service contractors with  project management demands, has secured a $30 million investment led by Susquehanna Growth Equity.

Field Nation has been self-funding since its launch in 2008. It has reported rapid growth of 65% a year and during the past year it has connected more than 1,000 organisations with its network of over 65,000 registered contractors.

The company's on-line marketplace connects independent service contractors and companies needing to get on-site work done. It allows service companies and distributed enterprises to directly procure, manage, pay, report and optimise labour requirements. . The broader platform extends the marketplace through Field Nation Complete, a SaaS solution that delivers a complete work management solution when organisations require the combined experience of their internal and external workforce. It also allows contractors to market their skill sets, find new projects, engage with each other, complete work and get paid quickly.

“We have experienced tremendous growth and success as a small company, and now we’re prepared to start the next chapter of the Field Nation story,” said founder and CEO Mynul Khan. “With the financial support and experience from Susquehanna Growth Equity, we will rapidly accelerate our efforts to introduce Field Nation to organizations of all sizes so they can tap the full breadth of our marketplace and get more work done.” This growth-capital investment validates the business model, strategy and disruptive technology of the Field Nation platform, says the company.

The company plans to increase product development and promotion of its SaaS-based total workforce management solution Field Nation Complete and expand its service offerings into new vertical markets.

 

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Marne Martin CEO of ServicePower gives us her insight into why the company continues to focus on evaluating and developing the latest technologies for field service...

Disruptive new, connected technologies are changing the workforce management industry, by leap and bounds.

ServicePower Technologies Plc, is incorporating the latest in technology innovations into its leading field management software solutions. These new technologies, including social, mobile, cloud, analytics, IoT and M2M, and collaboration, drive efficiencies and productivity, reduce costs and increase first time fix rates. Most importantly, they transform workforce management to improve customer satisfaction, recognized as the overall measurement of success.

Schedule optimisation is the cornerstone of workforce management software, and the key on which the success of operations rely. Without real optimisation, the software won’t deliver on its ROI promises. There are generally three types of scheduling approaches: 

1. Basic scheduling: Managers build and manage a schedule manually, using no logic to decide the best tech or the best place on a schedule for a job.
2. Automated/Simple Rules-Based Scheduling: Simple, rules based systems, including computerised logic automatically builds a schedule, filling an open slot on the schedule, with no reshuffling of existing jobs to achieve a less costly schedule.
3. Intelligent Route Optimisation, as offered by ServicePower.  The schedule is built automatically based on configurable parameters and sophisticated optimisation algorithms to minimise costs, maximise margins, reduce response times and improve customer satisfaction, while ensuring that the best field tech is assigned with the right skills and parts. It also re-optimises the schedule in order to reduce costs.Place your list items here

ServicePower pioneered true intelligent, configurable route optimisation,  providing its ServiceScheduling software since the late nineties. We’ve continuously enhanced the engine which is offered through competitive partners as well. In 2015, we incorporated a modern Management Console which provides managers the ability to monitor key metrics, scheduled jobs, staff location and collaborate with remote team members.

We’ve enhanced lat/long travel matrix capabilities, long and complex job functionality, as well as crew and third party scheduling, and are working on evolving our scheduling algorithms to the next generation in artificial intelligence technology.

We’ve improved planning and forecasting using the latest map layering technology and coupled it with a true, non-production modelling environment and robust, cloud self-service Business Intelligence to ensure results.

Most importantly, we’ve realised that at times integration budgets or timelines stand in the way of deployment. Optimisation as a Service (OaaS), our newest product, provides enterprises and SMBs alike the power of true, intelligent, automated, route optimisation, in the cloud and on demand, by offering schedule optimisation as a service, priced transactionally. For field service organisations that want the productivity and cost savings of optimised routing, but don’t necessarily require the power of continuous optimisation, OaaS enables them to book jobs, optimise them, creating the best, least costly schedule available.

OaaS enables any organisation, even SMBs which previously were priced out of the technology, to benefit from real optimisation, moving past manual or simple rules based solutions. Likewise, enterprises looking to supplement existing ERP or CRM solutions without a full workforce management software deployment, or those with sales, stocking, or depot work not requiring travel, will also have the option of utilising OaaS.  OaaS will revolutionise how route and schedule optimisation is deployed.

We’ve also extended our M2M Connected Service product through a partnership with UK-based Concirrus, a top 10 Platform-as-a-Service UK company, and named by Gartner in its report: Cool Vendor in the Internet of Things 2015.   Concirrus adds cloud based IoT services to our scheduling software, creating new opportunities in the insurance sector and other industries with high levels of early IoT adopters, as well as new countries around the world. Additional partnerships are also under discussion in interesting new segments of IoT and application development.

We’ve enhanced ServiceMobility, our cross-platform mobile application, with additional payment and pricing features, estimates, product catalogues real time collaboration and most importantly, configurable, rules based forms. Rules provide the ability to rapidly define when data or forms are to be visible to a technician on a job-by-job basis, deploying new strategies in the field without code changes.

On the back of OaaS and ServiceMobility,  ServicePower launched Nexus FS, in September, providing the same mobile features with a SaaS business management portal that any business, from enterprise to SMB, can use to manage customers, vendors, jobs, and field employees. Combined with OaaS, those enterprises seeking a true end-to-end mobile workforce management solution can rely on ServicePower as a single source vendor for all field service operations requirements.

ServicePower is continuously evaluating new technologies to ensure that clients achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction today, as well as future proofing our workforce management software so it supports our clients tomorrow as well. In 2015, our new products and partnerships are leading the way in technology innovation for field service businesses.

 

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More and more extreme weather events are occurring around the globe and the UK in particular has experienced a strengthening in the severity of extreme weather over the past few years. In recent days we have seen terrible and tragic after-effects of severer weather in The Philippines and Sardinia. Only a few weeks ago we saw southern England brought to a standstill as hurricane-force winds and torrential rain battered the region with gusts of almost 100mph ripping up trees, causing flash flooding and leaving at least 220,000 homes without power.

The severity of extreme weather events varies.  Sometimes the damage is limited but in some cases, and indeed following today’s events, there is widespread damage such as flooded basements, broken gas lines, impassable roads and interruptions in cable and phone service.

There is a lot of pressure on field service organisations to respond to these disasters. Road-clearing crews and utility workers, for instance, get dispatched as soon as the situation permits. Plumbers, electricians, construction workers and HVAC technicians are sent to the scene to reconnect services and rebuild damaged structures.

Telematics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, GPS and cellular communications have been playing an increasing role in guiding field service teams, tracking progress and assigning workers in the aftermath of extreme weather events where safety is a concern. As an increasing number of organisations take advantage of these technologies they are becoming more sophisticated, offering new ways to be efficient and responsive.

Field service technology for the unexpected

An increasing number of Field Service organisations are adopting next-generation workforce management solutions which leverage Fleet Management technology and GPS data to deliver real-time information about worker and vehicle locations and the progress of their work. It provides dynamic scheduling tools to optimise in-day and scheduled work, and performance analytics that help make on-the-spot resource deployment decisions as well as prepare for future events.

The technology provides dispatchers and managers full visibility into work in the field so they can better plan and track the work. Centralised consoles and dynamic GIS maps offer real-time visibility on crew locations. A dispatcher knows exactly when a worker(s) arrive at a job, how long they spend there, and when they leave. So when an assignment is completed, the dispatcher can send the crew to the next task in a smarter, more efficient way and, rather than sending a crew across town for the next assignment, the dispatcher looks on the digital map to see where the nearest job is. Shorter distances between jobs mean less time traveling and more time restoring service.

The technology also collects data on the experience and preferences of workers. If a field worker is more familiar than others with a certain area of town, it makes sense to send that worker to assignments there because the worker already knows back roads, shortcuts and the general lay of the land. In addition, next-generation workforce management solutions feature self-learning tools that “learn” workers’ preferences on geography and types of tasks, which helps fine-tune the assignment of workers to needed tasks. It also helps to reduce overtime costs, travel time and missed assignments.

As the workday progresses, managers and dispatchers receive a constant stream of information on GPS location coordinates and the amount of time spent on each assignment. If certain roads are impassable, dispatchers can plan alternative routes to avoid delays. Using fleet management, dispatchers can route drivers around roads shut by fallen trees or flooding. This helps optimise routing and worker productivity, while improving worker safety.

When workforce management is in use, an exception management tool takes note of when tasks are at risk of being missed and a customer may be in danger and not receiving critical service. Alerts are sent to dispatchers about such situations and other scheduling issues so that they can react and reassign field teams as needed.

Future planning

Beyond field situations, workforce management delivers analytics about the performance and responsiveness of each worker and team. Organisations compile the data into reports for review to spot trends and the need for improvements. For instance, if crews took too long to arrive, managers can better plan standby crews for future situations.

Use of analytical data helps improve productivity, making it possible to complete more jobs per day, and helps control costs. For field service organisations, squeezing more jobs into one day in the aftermath of a disaster accelerates the resumption of operations, which helps to minimise lost revenue and bring employees back to work more quickly. It also creates goodwill among customers, who often get frustrated when service restoration takes too long, especially after a storm or strong winds.

Workforce management increases accountability as well, by collecting accurate, reliable information on field operations and associated costs. Managers are better equipped to make the right decisions regarding resource deployment during emergencies and on a daily basis. Beyond that, organisations that base decisions on accurate, meaningful information that reveals historical patterns, trends and metrics can respond more effectively to not only day-to-day tasks but to the next storm, flood, heat wave or blizzard.

International examples

The municipal utility in Anderson, IN, USA has adopted Trimble Field Management, a GPS-based field services management technology. Before that, when ice storms, blizzards or thunderstorms pulled down power lines in Anderson, the utility department tracked its crews by making phone calls and writing their positions on a chalkboard. “When there were storms, the board looked like a chess game. Now, we know exactly where each vehicle is and can schedule repairs by a truck’s proximity to the outage,” says Jason Tuck, GIS consultant and former GIS Manager for Anderson Municipal Power & Light Division. “We can see our trucks real-time on a map and make faster and more confident decisions because we know their locations are more accurate.”

The public works department in Brookline, USA, can immediately respond to stranded crews by tracking their progress constantly. “Now if there’s a snowstorm and a truck breaks down, we know exactly where to find it and the driver,” says Mark Parece, the town’s fleet manager.

At White Mountain Oil & Propane, North Conway, NH, Trimble Fleet Management technology has proven invaluable in such cases. “Managers can receive off-hours service or emergency calls (when dispatch is closed), log in, and in a minute know exactly where the problem is and send help,” says Todd Miller, the company’s manager of administration. This can be lifesaving when power outages from an ice storm or blizzard leave the elderly or families stranded in freezing temperatures without heat.

With a fully integrated product across the two companies customers are set to benefit from one integrated contact centre solution based on Intelecom Connect and Verint Impact 360 workforce management Software. The offering is available in one flexible cloud-based deployment model.

Intelecom Group AS, a provider of cloud contact centre technology, have announced the availability of  Verint Systems's Impact 360 workforce management and optimisation software as a cloud-based solution integrated into Intelecom Connect. This follows the organisations commencing their relationship earlier this year in May 2013 and is impressive in the speed at which they have ben able to collaborate as well as the depth of the proposition. Adding to Intelcom's contact solution, Verint are prominently placed in a field they define as "Actionable Intelligence" solutions and their product line already includes a suite of award-winning workforce optimisation software as well as an analytics tool Voice of Customer Analytics.

The closer alignment of service to other divisions within an organisation is one that is often cited as a critical steep in moving from cost centre to profit centre, or at the very least in increasing efficiency and reducing costs simultaneously. Of course one of the most obvious and simplest divisions for alignment to the service centre in in many cases is the contact centre as often they fulfil many similar if not overlapping functions.

An integrated, cloud-based solution will help multi-site, multichannel contact centres capture a full range of customer interactions for quality, compliance and customer intelligence that can be used to enhance operations, improve performance and heighten the customer experience. It also opens the doors wide to operational transparency which is key to the successful operation of an efficient service division.

When we then add in the more standard service management-esque elemeents to the solution which can help organisations automate workforce management, including staff forecasting and scheduling, and the ability to track agent adherence, while providing performance management we are starting to see yet another example of the more holistic platform approach to software that Sergio Barata referred to in his recent feature .

Torkel Engeness, CEO of Intelecom comments, “An increasing number of our customers using our cloud-based contact centre are placing more focus on enhancing the customer experience. There are clear benefits in using a robust and well-known workforce optimisation technology, deployed in the same flexible cloud model as our core product. Verint, with its proven portfolio of WFO and VoC Analytics solutions, makes it an ideal partner for Intelecom.”

Nick Nonini, Senior Vice President Sales, Verint Enterprise Intelligence Solutions^™adds, “Verint is committed to working with select partners to deliver our portfolio of solutions in the cloud. Our customers and the industry at-large continue to recognise Verint as the market leader and innovator in deploying WFO applications in a variety of environments, from on-premises to the cloud. With this partnership, Intelecom’s customers have access to a fully-integrated, cloud-based WFO solution.”

Intelecom Connect is at the time of writing as close as any other offering to being the complete contact centre solution available in the cloud.  Of course the fact that it follows the SaaS model also provides a number of other benefits including being affordable to those companies for whom such technology may previously been prohibitively expensive to obtain.

The flexibility of the Connect application programming interface and Web Services allows seamless integration into third-party software environments. This partnership not only provides Intelecom customers with advanced workforce management technology typically associated with on-premise licensing, but also makes it available on an integrated in-the-cloud, pay-as-you-use basis from a single supplier. Offering customers flexibility in deployment, it also can help them meet their business requirements as they evolve.

Verint’s Impact 360 Workforce Optimisation suite enables organisations to capture, analyse and act on customer, business and market intelligence, and gain a complete multichannel view of customer interactions and experiences. Again the type of technology at the top of a lot of field service managers wish lists currently.

Using tools like this companies can identify opportunities to refine and enhance products and services; maximise information and workflow across functions; learn about competitive and other changing market dynamics; fine-tune internal business processes; enhance staff sales/service delivery; reduce operating costs; and realise new revenue opportunities. All extremely commendable in its own right.

Brought together these options certainly make for a compelling package and it's good to see such strong collaboration yielding impressive initial results.