field service news october 2014 edition

The sky’s the limit when you run Solarvista.Our integrated suite of applications are designed to ensure your service business has no limits. For over 25 years, our solutions have helped keep our customers at the leading edge. Here’s just a few reasons why... Our mobile apps work offline*. We built in automated scheduling tools. We developed our own system integration technology to connect to any system. Our new extensibility architecture means we can add custom features in days, without risk. And now we have a new line of apps for modern touch-based devices that embrace the cloud too. In short, it delivers the rich functionality that works with you, now and in the future. Visit solarvista.com, email us at [email protected] or call our sales team now at +44(0)114 221 1000 for more information.

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Editors Leaderfieldservicenews.com

Is it time for change?

Kris Oldland. Editor

The sky’s the limit when you run Solarvista.Our integrated suite of applications are designed to ensure your service business has no limits. For over 25 years, our solutions have helped keep our customers at the leading edge. Here’s just a few reasons why... Our mobile apps work offline*. We built in automated scheduling tools. We developed our own system integration technology to connect to any system. Our new extensibility architecture means we can add custom features in days, without risk. And now we have a new line of apps for modern touch-based devices that embrace the cloud too. In short, it delivers the rich functionality that works with you, now and in the future. Visit solarvista.com, email us at [email protected] or call our sales team now at +44(0)114 221 1000 for more information.

The standard in service management software.

solarvista.com

* some features require connection by their nature

@solarvista solarvista-software

+Solarvista\solarvista

Well Change is certainly a major theme in this edition of Field Service News. In fact it seems to be permeating every inch of the industry right now.

So let’s start at the obvious point. Managing Change (or change management). All too often in our industry we talk about the benefits of implementing a new field service management system or a new mobile workforce management solution or an enterprise mobility management system or whatever we want to call it today.

We get caught up in new technologies, new acronyms and new promises of even greater productivity improvements, efficiency savings, happy staff, happy customers and a generally all round better life experience for anyone within touching distance.

How excited we all are to get away from our spread sheets and post it notes and boldly step into the twenty first century with both feet.

Yet we rarely talk about how we are going to make that leap from a to b. It’s not just a case of handing out a bunch of new devices and switching all the old ones off. Do that and you may as well have

invested a fortune in a bunch of really nice looking paperweights, because without proper roll out amongst your team you can bet a pretty penny or three that at the first hurdle a huge majority of your workforce, will turn their backs on their new tools and revert back to how things were before.

try and stop them and they will find ingenious ways of working around the new tools. Why? Despite what it may sometimes feel like it is not because they are desperately trying to make your life harder. In fact in most cases they are probably working that little bit harder themselves. Staying extra to upload the information onto the new ‘thingy’ at the end of the day.. I actually know of one example where an engineer who when he was given a shiny new iPad to do his work on he would still do everything on paper and then spend an extra half an hour to an hour in his van evry night completing the administration on his iPad. In his mind his priority was to get the job done first and then deal with the admin.

Had this particular organisation gone through a more thorough Change Management program then perhaps our earnest engineer could have seen that this device was as much an investment in him and making his life easier throughout the day rather than an additional duty to attend to and the poor chap could have got home for his supper on time!

One company whop absolutely got it right when it comes to Change Management is Tyco led admirably by the highly impressive Sharon Moura, VP of IT Transformation and Strategy. I’ve had the pleasure of writing a series of articles based around her work in rolling out the ServiceMax field service management solution and she has an uncanny knack of being able to translate things into very simple concepts yet simultaneously covering every inch of ground so no stone is unturned and their are minimal hiccups along the way to a successful IT implementation. You can read more about this in our feature ‘Are you ready for change’ which begins on page 18.

A different type of change is also on the cards for a number of companies including manufacturing giant Siemems. This time however the change is a looming spectre over an ageing workforce that needs a succession plan for somebody to come and taker over otherwise there could be some very serious crises as we begin to enter the second decade of this new millennium.

Siemens who predict they need to increase their existing workforce by an additional 50 field engineers by 2020 to meet current demands, yet face losing up to 100 engineers through retirement are certainly not alone in this predicament. However, they are certainly being both pro-active and innovative about finding the solutions. Having heard the excellent Martin Hotass speaking at the most recent Service Community event on this topic it is clear that they are doing everything they can to remedy the situation and in our interview with Graeme Coyne we look a little closer at what those remedies are. It is certainly an issue you should be aware of today because it will bite you hard when tomorrow comes if you don’t have plans in place like the good folk at Siemens do.

Finally as we continue to stay with the theme of Change there are plenty of changes required in some of the field service organisations that completed our recent survey into field service management standards.

Whilst there were some positives that came out of the research, especially around actually validating the benefits of real-time telematics and other elements of field service management system through some hard and fast data, there were some really quite worrying trends highlighted that suggest a real disconnect between how we judge our standards and how our customers perceive us.

In today’s world of smart phones and sat navs it’s almost impossible to not know where you are at any given time yet unbelievably 43% of companies still have staff getting lost on a regular basis. Even more unbelievable is that 5% have staff turn up at the wrong address every week! Occasionally is forgivable perhaps but a weekly occurrence is an issue that needs to be seriously addressed when your workforce are field professionals. You can find out more about this research in our main feature, which begins on page 23.

Finally if your in Amsterdam this month at either the Field Service Europe or AfterMarket conferences do come and say hello!

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Contents:News:

Features:

Special Report - 23 Revolution - 4Changes - page 18

Contact Field Service News:Sa les@f ie ldser v icenews.com | Ed i tor ia l@f ie ldser v icenews.com | Subscr ipt ions@f ie ldser v icenews.com

Advisory PanelBil l Pol lock, President Strategies for Growth SM, | Nick Frank, Consultant, Noventum Service Management | P r o f . A n d y N e e l y, D i r e c t o r C a m b r i d g e S e r v i c e A l l i a n c e | A l i sta i r C l i f ford- Jones , CEO Leadent So l tu ionsT im Jones , Northern Europe Ser v ice Manager, Waters

Field Service News is a 1927 Media Ltd publication. Some expert views are placed on a paid for basisMail : 95 Hicks Avenue | Greenford | London | UB6 8HB |Phone: +44 (0) 208 133 1927

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Contents

Days of future passed? News round up. pages 6 & 7Smarter working on the road - TomTom launch new driver terminals page 8

Is there space for wearables in field service? page 10Is your ageing workforce about to fall of a cliff pages 12 & 13Of horses and carts - ruggedness and reliability in tablet PC selection in the utilities sector page 14Mind the... Metrics page 16Are you ready for change? pages 18 to 21The advantages and disadvantages of BYOD page 22Special Report - Just a bunch of cowboys. research into field service standards pages 23 to 29The social tech - don’t fear the evolution of field service page 30 Developing and end-to-end technology road map pages 32 to 34Big Data, big chance page 36A question of empowerment. Interview with John Cameron, Trimble Field Service Management pages 38 to 40Service Management Software: The changing concerns of implementing new software page 41Community spirit (Service Community event review) pages 42 & 43Viva la revolution pages 44 & 45Latest resources pages 46 & 47Case Study: British Gas pages 48 & 49Time for change page 50

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Are you ready for change?The case for implementing a modern field service solution is well documented, the benefits

clear and tangible. However the road to a successful implementation is fraught with challenges.

There is no hiding from the reality that the implementation of a modern service management solution involves a major

change within business, including shifts in both processes and culture, driven by the technology.

Change is hard, and without proper understanding of your goals and the challenges you face, successfully managing it can be at best a complicated and drawn out process, at worst an abject failure.

In fact according to Change Management guru John Kotter, 70% of change management efforts fail and this is largely due to a lack of preparation, a lack of understanding of best practices or more often than not a combination of both.

However, at the heart of every successful change management exercise there is one maxim that holds absolutely true. Change Management is always about people.

Despite often being mistakenly pigeon holed amongst Project Management, which is more focussed on business protocol and processes, the key to good Change Management is understanding and confronting the emotional and personal impact change can have on your workforce.

On average two thirds of employees are resistant to using a new system. So before we even begin to plan for change we must consider some of the fundamental reasons why our workforce would be so anti-change, if we are to succeed.

When focussing on the human aspect we can begin to understand the resistance we will face. It is our natural tendency to maximise reward and to

minimise threat.

Sociology teaches us that there are five domains of social experience; status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness and when these are threatened we naturally resist change.

Inevitably an extensive change management exercise is going to impact on all five of these domains amongst your workforce so our goal cannot be to completely eliminate resistance, this would be an unrealistic and impossible task. Instead the intention should be to reduce the gap between introducing the change and full adoption of the change, thereby minimising the level of resistance faced and the duration that resistance lasts.

Research from McKenzie suggests organisations that utilise good change management best practices are likely to achieve 100% better business results through high employee adoption rates.

When it comes to implementing a new system across the workforce the stakes are absolutely huge, success can see significant improvements in productivity, efficiency and of course in the bottom line.

Failure can see value leakage resulting in a far longer time to see R.o.I (if at all) whilst simultaneously causing severe disruptions to the business as a whole. Put very simply there is an incredibly strong business case for making sure you get Change Management right.

Somebody with recent experience of doing just that is Sharon Moura, VP of IT Transformation and Strategy with Tyco after recently heading the

Change Management program when the fire and safety giant moved to the ServiceMax field service management system. Moura herself outlines five key steps that we should focus on when undertaking a similar project ourselves these are:

• Assessing the change• Engaging the head and the heart• Creating a change agent network • Leading through resistance• Leading through the adoption cycle.

Lets take a look at each of these steps in a little more detail.

Assessing the changeFirst we must understand exactly what will be changing.

At first glance this may seem like stating the obvious, however this question runs far deeper than the initial surface change of implementing a new technology. What else will be changing in your organisation as a result?

It is absolutely vital that you take a holistic approach to understanding the level of impact that the Change Management project you are undertaking will have. You must consider how the culture, people, structure, process and tools are all set to change as a result of your project, in order to minimise the disruption on your business and accelerate adoption times.

Culture: This is perhaps the hardest and most complex of the considerations you will have to face as often the impact of change is subtle or even invisible at first.

A bunch of Cowboys? Our exclusive research highlights some worrying trends in field service standards, but hold on partners as there may

just be some good news just over the horizon...

Research sponsored by:

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viva la

revolutionRolls Royce once reinvented service in the aerospace industry with ‘power by the hour’ they are about to do it again with ‘disruption based availability’ writes Kris Oldland...

When it comes to creating real value through service and integrating your service offering and product into one holistic package that generates far greater value for your customers and far greater long-term revenue for yourselves, there is one company whose name is come across in almost every conversation.

One company who are the ultimate example of what getting it right looks like.

One company who revolutionised not only the way service operates in their industry but indeed how an entire industry operated.

That company is Rolls Royce Aerospace.

So when we were asked if we would head down to Bristol to record aninterview with Dave Gordon, Program Director for Rolls Royce’s Defence Aviation division for a series of interviews for the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP) we leapt at the chance. And we were not disappointed.

Accompanied by Service Management Specialist Nick Frank we arrived at the Bristol Base, after submitting an array of additional paper work to allow us to film in what on the surface seemed a fairly regular corporate building, although the strict restrictions on where we could and couldn’t be and the detailed examination of our equipment relayed that this was still for all intense purposes

an integral component in the Royal Air Force’s operations and therefore access was neither granted or to be taken lightly.

And as we met with Gordon he too carried this air of being somewhere between corporate and government official. As we got set up he spoke with a relaxed and comfortable manner of the experienced corporation man. Getting our coffees personally, making light-hearted small talk about a recent decision to have laser-eye surgery etc.

You felt this was a businessman who had sat in many meetings such as these before, that was calm, relaxed and in control. Yet when we begin the interview and talk about the role Gordon plays he speaks about the UK client, he touches on their engines performance in ‘extreme conditions’ and you suddenly realise just how much pressure he and his team must be under to deliver, when your customers are some of the worlds leading military forces and we live in troubled times where the air strikes in Syria, would be just one example of where both Gordon’s and Rolls Royce’s reputations are put to the test in life and death scenarios that will effect the lives of thousands.

Yet still one gets the impression that Gordon would remain the same calm and amiable figure fixing the coffees before the meeting begins, if he was a meeting with a group of RAF Air Marshalls, US Marine Core Generals or as in this instance a member of the trade press.

The other early observation is that he is clearly very proud and passionate about the work he and his team are doing for Rolls Royce.

“Rolls Royce within defence has been on a journey over the last ten to fifteen years, we were a fairly traditional provider of the service we sold a product, we sold a very time and material based service solution, it was very driven by the customer and their management of our product” Gordon begins

“However, it became clear to us that that wasn’t the best fit for our customers” he continues. And it is this attitude, this belief that they can stand in the face of a customer driven process and say ‘hold on, we think we should be doing all this a bit differently’ that has separated Rolls Royce from the rest of the pack in the sectors they operate in.

Although their famous power-by-the-hour service system that is at the heart of their success as a serviced provider required a leap of faith from another global player in the industry.

“There was a very strong pull from American Airlines, who approached Rolls Royce and said we would be far more interested in you providing a solution that kept your engine on wing and we incentivised you for doing that” Gordon explains

“So we worked very closely with that customer and developed a total care solution that very much

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Days of future passed?

New dedicated field service solution from FeedHenryFeedHenry, provider of the open standards based mobile application platform for enterprise, has just announced the release of it’s first ever fully dedicated Field Workforce Management mobile solution.

The solution provides ‘out-of-the-box’ field workforce management features which has a high level of customisation available through what seems to be a fairly intuitive drag and drop process.

“In today’s era of mobility, it’s no longer enough to simply port legacy field workforce solutions onto a mobile device and expect high performance,” said Cathal McGloin, CEO of FeedHenry. “Mobile-first organisations are demanding a more flexible mobile experience that delivers a faster return on investment. For companies where field operations are critical to business results, we’ve created a ready to run cloud-based mobile solution that provides secure, real time updates to and from the field, all with a great user experience.” More @ bit.ly/1tnS4Ki

Masternaut launch transformational telematicsMasternaut, one of the largest European providers of telematics solutions, has announced the MT400 telematics hub which has been designed exclusively by Masternaut’s dedicated R&D team for Masternaut’s Connect platform.

The MT400 delivers unprecedented levels of connectivity, modular applications, and over-the-air device & application management. Masternaut’s patented technology for Vehicle CANbus data acquisition is fully integrated so that real time, accurate odometer, fuel, diagnostics and other floating car data can be extracted for reporting and telemetry applications such as driver behaviour, risk profiling, crash detection, and remote diagnostics.

Alex Rothwell, Masternaut’s CTO commented “The MT400 transforms in-vehicle solutions and is a step-change from current “black-box” technology. It is the culmination of substantial R&D investment, building on Masternaut’s patents and know-how from 10 years designing market leading telematics devices.

“To ensure our customers get the most out of Connect, they need flexible in-vehicle solutions which provide the telemetry, vehicle system

integration, and driver interaction demanded by advanced telematics applications. MT400 addresses this need, and with a new automotive grade design also provides superior performance and reliability.”More @ bit.ly/1rq8TNf

Service logistics experts defy UK roadworksA specialist time critical logistics provider in the UK is overcoming nightly battles against ongoing roadworks to record successful on-time delivery of goods from Europe into the UK…

Bespoke Distribution Aviation (BDA) which is based near to Coventry Airport is still managing to fulfil its orders and keep customers satisfied, despite ongoing disruption to its vital road network.

The roadworks, which are coming at a cost of £105m and won’t be completed until 2016, have caused major headaches to businesses and motorists alike, with some workers in the area complaining that they are extending their journey to and from work by up to two hours each day. BDA relies on its road network to meet critical delivery of spare parts and vital components for the automotive, media and agricultural sectors but is having to battle against the ongoing roadworks in order to deliver on time. The company recently arranged a private meeting with local MP Jim Cunningham to discuss the issue, during which it called for greater communication from the Highways Agency in order to minimise the risk of a knock-on effect to the global supply chain caused by late delivery of goods.More @ bit.ly/1rq9776

Are lines blurring as UK distributor merges divisionsVarlink, the York based specialist IT distributor founded in 2005, has completed the integration of their EPoS sales division, EPoS Distributor.

This process has resulted in significant benefits for retail system supplying resellers who can now access the full product portfolio including EPOS terminals, receipt printers, touchscreens, cash drawers and other EPOS peripherals online at www.varlink.co.uk alongside Varlink’s comprehensive mobile computing and data capture product set which also encompasses leading brands Honeywell, Casio, Datalogic and Zebra Technologies.

Mike Pullon, Varlink CEO, commented “When the EPoS Distribution division was established there

was a clear separation between the products purchased by EPoS specialists and those taken by our established Varlink customer base. Over time, whilst there remains some fundamental differences, there are many product sets that are of interest to both segments of our customer base. We have therefore moved from two websites to a single Varlink branded site which carries all mobile computing, label printing, data capture, networking and EPoS brands.More @ bit.ly/Znvkwb

Masternaut bought by FleetCorOne of the worlds leading companies in specialised fleet management payment cards FleetCor have significantly increased their role in the European fleet management sector by acquiring one of Europe’s leading telematics providers Masternaut.

The acquisition, which was made in partnership with growth equity firm Summit Partners, will open up huge cross sales opportunities across both customer bases with Masternaut rapidly becoming an acknowledged leader in the telematics industry across the whole of the Europe, whilst FleetCor themselves already have an enviable footprint amongst European companies who operate a fleet via the proliferation of their fuel cards.

Masternaut’s rise to prominence has been both swift (the company is less than 20 years old) and impressive with the organisation now boasting over 300,000 vehicles and people connected to the their SaaS based solution. More than 15,000 users interact every hour with the systems, and over 50 million data transactions are processed into 20,000 reports on a daily basis.More @ bit.ly/1tnSVec

In-Car Apps will be commonplace in five yearsA recent report into the telematics sector undertaken by Juniper Research has identified that in-vehicle apps is anticipated to reach almost 270 million within the next four five years. This represents an increase of more than five fold on last year’s figures.

The findings are revealed in the report Connected Cars: Consumer & Commercial Telematics and Infotainment 2014-2018, which also indicates that the dramatic growth in the market will be driven solutions such as Apple’s CarPlay, which will raise awareness of and introduce the concept of in-vehicle apps to the general populace.

As news of next-gen telematics and in-vehicle apps dominate the headlines across the last few

months it seems the cars of the future are finally here...

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News Round Up

The report also suggests that app integration will become simpler as more standardised approaches such as MirrorLink become adopted by Original Equipment Manufacturers.

Report Author Anthony Cox commented “By 2018 most new vehicles will come with integrated apps as standard, after-market app integration will also be commonplace, as head-unit manufacturers launch increasingly sophisticated devices”.More @ bit.ly/1v2xs9d

Telogis making plenty of friends in telematicsHino Trucks have recently announced a partnership with Telogis to exclusively release Hino INSIGHT. The platform is a next-generation solution hailed to be a fully comprehensive, web-based location and telematics solution built specifically for the medium-duty commercial truck market.

Hino INSIGHT 2.0 has been developed as part of Hino’s ongoing strategy of building an offering that gives their customers a much improved total cost of ownership (TCO), including better vehicle uptime and user experiences.

Indeed Telogis are fast becoming a part of the furniture in the road haulage industry, with Telogis now also bringing built-in compliance, telematics and navigation services to Volvo Trucks customers in North America.

Volvo customers are able to access Telogis’ services via smartphones and tablets by leveraging Volvo’s integrated connected vehicle hardware, standard on new Volvo-powered Volvo trucks.More @ bit.ly/1xJyNRP

Xplore make big impression in constructionXplore Technologies Corp manufacturer of ultra and fully-rugged tablets, announced earlier this month that they have received an additional order for approximately 1,500 RangerX Pro fully-rugged

Android tablets that will be used by a major U.S. telecommunications provider’s field technicians in its construction division.

“We believe that the RangerX Pro fully-rugged Android tablet is the best Android solution in the market today. It is the perfect solution for our customers’ technicians in the field” said Mark Holleran, president and chief operating officer for Xplore Technologies. “This order is a follow on order from an existing telecommunication’s customer and we are pleased to see this key relationship expanding.”

The telecommunications provider selected the fully-rugged RangerX Pro because it increases mobility for its field technicians with battery life of up to 10 hours to maximize time in the field, boosting productivity.More @ bit.ly/1o7sXJH

Ford & Telogis deliver next-gen telematicsFord Motor Company and Telogis launched “Ford Telematics powered by Telogis” yesterday, providing actionable information from Ford commercial vehicles that helps customers reduce fuel costs up to 20 percent*, reduce their environmental impact and increase driver safety.

Since 2011, Telogis has been the exclusive technology provider to power Ford Crew Chief in North America, the industry’s most comprehensive

and scalable telematics solution for

commercial customers. The European expansion of the Telogis-Ford partnership leverages the success of Crew

Chief and will meet the demand from current and new Ford customers for visibility into day-to-day operations including vehicle/driver location, vehicle and driver performance and exclusive Ford vehicle diagnostics.

“Ford of Europe is delivering on customer demand for visibility, cost savings and safety with Ford Telematics powered by Telogis,” said Bill Frykman, manager, business and product development at Ford Motor Company. “Telogis is our trusted partner, and the success we’ve had with Ford customers in North America made them the only choice for Ford’s European platform offering.”.More @ bit.ly/1v2yvWJ

Debt collection firm reduce fuel costs by 20%Crystal Collections, the UK’s premier responsible debt servicing company to the motor and asset finance industry, has improved driver safety with in-depth feedback provided by Masternaut’s intelligent telematics system. By improving the understanding of its fleet of recovery vehicles and trucks, Crystal Collections has made a 20% saving on fuel expenditure.

More @ http://bit.ly/1vXaxv3

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fieldservicenews.com News: Latest Hardware

TomTom Telematics recently presents its new PRO 8 series driver terminals at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show, which will

revolutionise the possibilities and impact of fleet management on the business processes of clients in all industries. The driver terminals are connected to the SaaS fleet management platform WEBFLEET, and are designed to seamlessly integrate information captured in the field into back-end systems and thus enable decision-making based on real-time data. The new API, PRO.connect, offers new opportunities to customize the driver terminal with apps to further digitize the workflow process. Applications such as vehicle checks, proof of delivery, question paths and barcode scanning can be integrated into WEBFLEET workflow, making life

on the road easier for mobile workers and, but also improving service quality for end-customers.The PRO 8270 & 8275 comes with a mobile device management platform to administer the various apps and workflow scenarios.

This gives customers full control over platform and devices, and the ability to service the driver terminal remotely. Companies using this platform ensure information security and contribute to increased safety on the road by reducing driver distraction. “WEBFLEET and the new TomTom PRO driver terminals give businesses the flexibility they need to operate fleets more efficiently and to improve customer satisfaction,” said Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director TomTom Telematics. “By providing both driver and back office

information in real-time they can work better as a team to make smarter decisions.” Mobile apps, along with other hardware and software applications available for integration are showcased in WEBFLEET’s’ App Center, which is the first platform in this industry offering ready-made integrations for a wide range of software from standard ERP or warehousing applications up to industry specific industry software. The new PRO 8 series is based on the TomTom BRIDGE and is the exclusive device platform that is fully out-of-the-box compatible with TomTom WEBFLEET.

The PRO 8 series offers additional integration capabilities for customised Apps using the new PRO.connect API, and comes with a ready-to-use mobile device management platform.

Smarter working on the road with new TomTom PRO 8 series driver terminalsIntroduction of PRO.connect API extends WEBFLEET capabilities to fully integrate mobile

workforce applications opening up a number of opportunities for field service management...

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fieldservicenews.com Is there space for wearables in field service?

The lines between consumer mobile technology and business innovation have begun to blur. No longer is it unimaginable

that a field service technician completes a work order on a smartphone. Just a few years ago if techs were mobile, they were carrying a rugged phone or laptop.

But where will this convergence of the consumer and business worlds end? Tablets? BYOD (bring your own device)? Wearables?

It is difficult sometimes to differentiate between hype and true value when addressing technology advancements. The topic of wearables has garnered some interest over the past year as devices like Fitbits, Fuel Bands, and Google Glass gain steam in the consumer marketplace.

Organizations, however, are often slower to adopt new technology as they must build the business case in order to minimize risk and avoid passing fads.

Aberdeen’s recent Service Mobility: The Right Technology for the Tech research (August 2014) revealed that 6% of the field service workforce for those surveyed was equipped with wearable devices.

Despite this relatively low adoption rate, 20% of organizations listed interest in this technology over the next 12 months. There are both opportunities with the technology, but organizations must also be mindful of some challenges.

Insight at the Ready: Benefits of Wearables• Every technician can be an expert. Mobile

devices like smart watches, cameras, or glasses have the ability to provide technicians with data at the point of need. The equipment technicians have to service is becoming more and more complex, requiring more variability of skills to reach resolution. Wearables can enable faster, more dynamic intelligence that isn’t available from reviewing static manuals which are outdated the moment they are published.

• Personal performance trackers empower the tech. In your personal life, it is fun to track the number of steps you take every day or monitor sleep patterns. But organizations must be mindful of technicians who may feel like the service organization is tracking too much. The key is to gain buy-in from the field that these tools are meant to improve productivity and performance, and not a way to penalize. Wearable technology can provide technicians with a benchmark of what good performance looks like, and build an example for future improvement.

Link the tech to the back office. Field service technicians are the face of the organization with the customer.

Their interaction must mean more to the organization that simply a turned wrench. As more technicians get connected to mobile devices, the ability to capture real-time insight into the customer relationship can be made available to other business functions (i.e., sales).

Watch out: Potential challenges of

wearables in the field• Is it just a smaller, less practical smartphone?

Part of the value in mobile tools is the ability to provide real-time information for a field technician. But mobile devices need to empower technicians, and not be treated as just another device. Historically, mobility has evolved to help lessen the number of devices needed to complete field service. However, if wearables are still dependent on a smart phone or laptop, are they really delivering the value service needs?

• Can you hear me now? Disconnection while on the road is a real threat to service employees. Not all field service work is conducted in areas that are connected to wireless networks. Technicians need to be able to do work both on and offline. If wearables can’t provide insight while offline, their usefulness will be limited.

• Tough enough for you? Consumer-grade technology often elicits the fear of damage when put under pressure.As organisations begin to explore the applicability of wearables for field service, devices must get more rugged to handle the demands of many field service environments.

Eight of ten organizations (82%) sampled in Aberdeen’s 2014 mobility research still view mobility as a strategic initiative over the next 12 months. Historically, this evolution was a move from paper to a handheld device for the technician.

As technology advances, field service organsiations are beginning to explore the feasibility of wearables. In order to avoid this technology going the way of a fad, it must improve a worker’s productivity while also directly enhancing the overall customer experience.

Is there space for wearables in field service?Mobility expert Aly Pinder takes a look at the pros and cons of wearables...

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Is your ageing Workforce about to fall off the cliff?With ageing populations across Europe what are you doing to attract the next

generation of field engineers to replace your existing workforce?

Looking to the future is not just about which technology you should be applying to your mobile workforce to ensure that you are beating productivity level KPIs, it is also about looking at how you can ensure sustained growth within the business.

A key part of this is of course staffing.

However, for many companies an ageing workforce could prove to be a significant hurdle to not only growing their business but also to simply maintaining their existing size and standards.

One such company that is attempting to tackle the issue before it becomes irreversible is Siemens.

“We have a habit of looking a few years ahead and we are looking at where will we be in 2020” states Graeme Coyne, Business Development Manager, Siemens Customer Services

“Our particular department is about 200 people in the UK. Based on the growth of our department over the last few years, we believe that by 2020 we will need around 250 people.” on to Coyne explains before going highlight the gravity of the situation that the manufacturing giant faced.

“We had a problem. We have 200 employees now and we needed 250 in six years time but we estimated we were going to lose about 100 people through retirement by then also”

“We’ve got an ageing population. I’ve personally been in Siemens for 30 years; the oldest person in our service organisation is 75 years old. There is a big bulge of people who are aged between 45 and 55 and we are expecting many of them to go fairly soon.”

Siemens are certainly not alone in facing this issue. Indeed it is a problem mirrored in many other companies in many other verticals. So what can be done to resolve the problem and build a sustainable workforce for the future?

“All of our new

technology is moving on,

we are moving to industry

4.0.”

Well of course the first thing to do is to look to engage with the next generation, something that Siemens have done through both traditional and non-traditional routes.

“We’ve gone out to the universities to sponsor students, we’ve got about 1,500 sponsors throughout the UK – it something we have to do.” Begins Coyne. However, Siemens are not just targeting graduates, they have an apprenticeship scheme that means they won’t miss out on those bright young minds that for whatever reason don’t see academia as the right path to choose.

“The other thing that we have done is that we have got 400 apprentices in the UK.” Coyne continues,

“I am told this is not enough. We were talking about taking people from the age of 13, 14 15 – it is essential. So we are trying to do our bit, we’re investing a lot of time and effort into it and it is starting to show results.”

However, the Siemens recruitment machine is far more sophisticated than just supporting and developing training programs.

“We think we are doing an OK job recruiting people” Coyne admits, “What we have been doing is we have been investing in manufacturing technology centres. These are important, as they are specialist areas which are invested in by academia, by manufacturers and by government.”

These technology centres are key to solving both the Siemens problem and that of the wider industry.

By sitting in between the gap between business and academia they allow smart young minds to connect with industry without the pressure that may come from a more formal environment.

As Coyne explains “The idea of these technology centres is that on the one side you’ve got academia producing skilled engineers of many different types and on the other side you’ve got some very good manufacturers. Sometimes in between we lose

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Is your ageing workforce about to fall off a cliff?

things and the idea is that these catapult centres are sat there to help avoid this”

However, these centres play a deeper role in the recruitment and retention of the next generation of field engineers.

They are also important to ensure that that next generation of field engineers are ready for the next generation of technology as well.

“All of our new technology is moving on, we are moving to industry 4.0.” Coyne begins “Basically all the things we are trying to do is so we can get engineers to fit where this next wave of manufacturing technology is going to be”

This approach is commendably, but necessarily long sighted.

“We are talking about something that is not yet ready. It’s going to be ready in maybe 20 years but parts of it are already there.”

However, the manufacturing technology centres, being co-funded by industry, education and state provide opportunities for the next generation of field engineers to start understanding and utilising tomorrows tools today.

This has two-fold importance. It ensures you are not only attracting the best minds but also that they are being readily prepared for the future.

“We need engineers that are fresh faced, fresh minds that know all about the current technology,” states Coyne.

“But I’ve been out and talked to some of our graduates and asked what do you want?“

“They said ‘we want experience, we want to do as much as possible, learn as many skills as possible and get trained so that we can do many different things’”

Getting this balance between what you and your future employees want is not an easy road and it takes time and patience to get it right.

However, it is companies like Siemens who are investing in the future heavily today that will almost certainly be set to reap the rewards when tomorrow finally arrives.

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Expert View: Ian Davies, Motion Computing

Recent independent research conducted by VDC found that the top criteria for evaluating mobile devices to support

applications in the utilities sector are reliability and quality.

By comparison, the issues of water / dust ingress protection and drop protection were third and sixth respectively, mixed with large scale issues such as security and specific features such as GPS performance.

The mobile hardware industry does tend to make a fetish of ruggedisation - and rightfully so. The fundamental difference between a consumer unit and an enterprise tablet PC is the need to perform in any given environment.

Consequently, the ability to demonstrate the level of abuse these units can take is important and there is a need to know what precisely has and has not been tested in order to map hardware capabilities onto job demands.

But reliability is far bigger than ruggedisation and it is time to

put the horse back in front of the cart instead of letting stress test ratings continually define how tablet PCs are

understood in the workplace.

Reliability pulls ruggedisation into the wider issue of the units function, not just its features. This focuses attention on the unit being relied upon to do the job it was intended for, not just the ability to pass lab tests.

In the real world, utility workers need to perform these tasks consistently and efficiently, so the technology has to be a proven solution - the real-world definition of reliability is the trustworthiness of a unit to perform.

This includes far more than IP or MIL ratings. For example, features such as the mode of input choices, integration with back office systems, even something as simple as the outdoor visibility of the screen all contribute to the consistency and effectiveness of the unit.

Battery life is another great example - it impacts directly on the reliability of a unit but is nothing to do with its ruggedisation - and research has shown that almost 2/3 of business users say that their tablet does not last a full shift.

In this context it is easy to see why QUALITY is linked so closely to RELIABILITY. Excellence in the utilities sector is the ability to consistently perform tasks out in the field. That excellence is

based on the complete user experience, not just stress tests of the hardware.

Jon Regan, Head of SAP Competency Centre in Thames Water explained how this arose in their selection of tablet PCs:

“Our trial included over 200 users and we tracked a range of factors, from general user perception, physical features and battery life to toughness, application usage and screen usability.”

“Positive comments on the ergonomics, size, weight and design of the device, as well as the accuracy of the pen input, the photo editing application and the screen viewing angle were consistent across all users.”

According to VDC, 2014 mobility budgets are expected to increase by 11% over 2013 and it is this interaction of reliability and quality that explains WHY utilities want to deploy mobile technologies so eagerly.

The same VDC research showed that improving worker productivity and lowering operational costs were the two top drivers.

Whilst the improved productivity is driven by keenly aligned features it is the reliability that leads to consistent performance that can help reduce costs.

It is also worth remembering the sheer scale of this opportunity - the European mobile utility workforce is the fastest-growing workforce segment. It currently consists of 900,000 workers, and by the year 2018, it will reach 1.2 million.

Developing a mature focus on a workflow based assessment of activities instead of a feature fetish and chasing ever increasing levels of ruggedisation, will be a hallmark of those companies that lead in this industry.

Of horses and carts - ruggedness and reliability in tablet PC selection in the utilities sector

It’s time to put the horse back in front of the cart when it comes to assessing the reliability

of rugged devices argues Motion Computing’s Ian Davies...

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fieldservicenews.com Expert View: Bill Pollock, Strategies for GrowthSM

The services sector has traditionally been guided by a succession of rules, regulations and policies that, hopefully, make us all

better at supporting our customers and the global business economy, as a whole.

Many of these guidelines mirror other aspects of our lives as well, such as “Mind your Manners”, “Mind your Own Business” and – of course, “Mind the Gap!” However, no guideline may be as important to the services community as “Mind the Metrics” – and this is particularly well evidenced in the UK & EMEA geographies.

In fact, a special cut of the results from Strategies For Growth℠’s (SFG℠) 2014 Field Service Management Benchmark Survey reveal that, for the UK/EMEA services community, “developing/improving the metrics, or KPIs, used to measure Field Service Performance” is the number one strategic action currently being taken, as cited by nearly two-thirds (i.e., 64%) of survey respondents (Figure 1).

No other strategic actions are cited by as many as half of respondents, although “investing in mobile tools to support field technicians” rates fairly high at 49%, followed by “improving planning and forecasting with respect to field service operations” at just over one-third (i.e., 34%).

This is no surprise to Steve Alderson, Managing Director at Cognito, a leading, UK-based provider of mobile workforce management solutions to field service organisations, who corroborates that “This exactly reflects what we are hearing from the industry with service organisations facing intense pressure from competitors and rising customer expectations. These survey results confirm the strong sense in the market that getting a better understanding of field service metrics is critical to improving overall performance.”

The primary Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), or metrics, currently being used by a majority of UK/EMEA Field Services Organisations (FSOs) include:

• 78% Customer Satisfaction• 75% Total Service Revenue/Turnover• 68% Total Service Cost• 53% Field Technician Utilisation (i.e., time

spent performing repairs ÷ total hours)

• 53% Percent of Total Service Revenue under Service Level Agreement (SLA)

• 51% Service Revenue, as a Percent of Total Company Revenues

• 51% Service Revenue, per Field Technician

It is interesting to note, however, that most of the primary KPIs that were being used when many of us were just breaking into the business, while still important, are typically only used today by a minority of services organisations (i.e., on-site response time and first-time-fix-rate, each cited by 49%; SLA compliance and mean-time-to-repair/MTTR, each cited by 47%; and several others).

However, what the data do not show is a diminution of importance among the old ‘tried and true’ KPIs, but, rather, an increased emphasis among those factors that are most influential today with respect to customer satisfaction, field tech utilisation and – oh, yes – the bottom line!

Most services industry analysts would also agree that you cannot – and should not – merely collect and tabulate the data – that is basically what a market research analyst firm does.

Running a services organisation, however, is quite different, according to Alderson who suggests that, “Information without action is useless”.

He continues, “As service organisations mature, and implement the next generation of mobile workforce management systems, sophisticated data gathering and analytical capabilities will be mandatory.However, the ability to act on the

insights and knowledge gained, to improve field service performance, will be the key to thriving, not just surviving.”

But, why are KPIs so important to the overall well-being of the organisation? Because, for many, their service performance goals are simply not being met! For example, in the UK/EMEA services community:

• 32% of FSOs are not attaining at least 80% Customer Satisfaction (UK/EMEA average is 82% Customer Satisfaction)

• 8% of FSOs are not attaining at least 80% SLA Compliance(UK/EMEA average is 81% SLA Compliance)

• 26% of FSOs are not achieving at least 20% services profitability(UK/EMEA average is 35% Services Profitability)

For these reasons alone, between a quarter and a third (or more) of the UK/EMEA FSOs probably find themselves in the need for new and/or upgraded mobile workforce management technologies to run their organisations.

Then, of course, they’ll still need to measure their performance along the way.

It’s definitely time to “Mind the Metrics!”

Mind the... MetricsUK & EMEA Services Organisations Clearly Understand the Value of “Minding the Metrics”

argues Strategies for GrowthSM president Bill Pollock...

Service CentreHelp Desk

DynamicScheduling

Mobile FieldService

www.mplsystems.co.uk | [email protected] | 0800 0934 474

“The sheer simplicity of the system means that our staff simplyneed to drag-and-drop a task onto the appropriate field engineer’s

schedule. This action updates diaries and transfers all relevanttask information to the engineer’s mobile device.”

Adam Clarke, Managing Director, SSS UK

End-to-end analytics and reporting to improve business performance

Integrated end-to-end field service management software

“We selected an mplsystems field service management solution because itprovided us with all the benefits and cost-effective performance of an

off-the-shelf application, while also providing the ability for us to customiseour new solution to match the specific requirements of TCSJOHNHUXLEY”

Rob Burgess, European Service Manager

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Are you ready for change?The case for implementing a modern field service solution is well documented, the benefits

clear and tangible. However the road to a successful implementation is fraught with challenges.

There is no hiding from the reality that the implementation of a modern service management solution involves a major

change within business, including shifts in both processes and culture, driven by the technology.

Change is hard, and without proper understanding of your goals and the challenges you face, successfully managing it can be at best a complicated and drawn out process, at worst an abject failure.

In fact according to Change Management guru John Kotter, 70% of change management efforts fail and this is largely due to a lack of preparation, a lack of understanding of best practices or more often than not a combination of both.

However, at the heart of every successful change management exercise there is one maxim that holds absolutely true. Change Management is always about people.

Despite often being mistakenly pigeon holed amongst Project Management, which is more focussed on business protocol and processes, the key to good Change Management is understanding and confronting the emotional and personal impact change can have on your workforce.

On average two thirds of employees are resistant to using a new system. So before we even begin to plan for change we must consider some of the fundamental reasons why our workforce would be so anti-change, if we are to succeed.

When focussing on the human aspect we can begin to understand the resistance we will face. It is our natural tendency to maximise reward and to

minimise threat.

Sociology teaches us that there are five domains of social experience; status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness and when these are threatened we naturally resist change.

Inevitably an extensive change management exercise is going to impact on all five of these domains amongst your workforce so our goal cannot be to completely eliminate resistance, this would be an unrealistic and impossible task. Instead the intention should be to reduce the gap between introducing the change and full adoption of the change, thereby minimising the level of resistance faced and the duration that resistance lasts.

Research from McKenzie suggests organisations that utilise good change management best practices are likely to achieve 100% better business results through high employee adoption rates.

When it comes to implementing a new system across the workforce the stakes are absolutely huge, success can see significant improvements in productivity, efficiency and of course in the bottom line.

Failure can see value leakage resulting in a far longer time to see R.o.I (if at all) whilst simultaneously causing severe disruptions to the business as a whole. Put very simply there is an incredibly strong business case for making sure you get Change Management right.

Somebody with recent experience of doing just that is Sharon Moura, VP of IT Transformation and Strategy with Tyco after recently heading the

Change Management program when the fire and safety giant moved to the ServiceMax field service management system. Moura herself outlines five key steps that we should focus on when undertaking a similar project ourselves these are:

• Assessing the change• Engaging the head and the heart• Creating a change agent network • Leading through resistance• Leading through the adoption cycle.

Lets take a look at each of these steps in a little more detail.

Assessing the changeFirst we must understand exactly what will be changing.

At first glance this may seem like stating the obvious, however this question runs far deeper than the initial surface change of implementing a new technology. What else will be changing in your organisation as a result?

It is absolutely vital that you take a holistic approach to understanding the level of impact that the Change Management project you are undertaking will have. You must consider how the culture, people, structure, process and tools are all set to change as a result of your project, in order to minimise the disruption on your business and accelerate adoption times.

Culture: This is perhaps the hardest and most complex of the considerations you will have to face as often the impact of change is subtle or even invisible at first.

p19

However, it is also perhaps the most important as the culture of a business, i.e. how the employees, management and even the business as a whole pull together, is key to on-going business success. If there is a negative change in the culture of your organisation, its effect will be deeply felt and will have an adverse effect on company wide performance if left unchecked. Therefore it is imperative that you consider the impact on culture your change management project will have in your organisation.

Will the change lead to greater transparency in how field engineers spend their day? How will they react to that change? Will they feel your trust in them is diminished (big-brother is always watching) or will they feel more valued as you invest in the tools required to make their jobs easier?

People:Leading very much on from cultural change we must next consider the people change also. For example will there be any changes to the way teams are laid out? Will there be new management structures needed to be put in place?

One of the flip sides of implementing any technology to improve productivity will be that if the implementation is successful you may need less people to achieve the same workload. Will staff need to be reallocated to different divisions of your organisation or will you need to explore the possibility of redundancies?

Similarly when we look specifically at field service management one of the greatest benefits of implementing modern field service management solutions is that we can open up new streams of revenue directly from the field. Will this change the way we reward our people? Also will it mean that new divisions will be in closer contact? Again a people consideration when we think of how to employ best communication practices.

Structure:So how will your structure change? In the point above we looked at the impact on people of potentially creating new teams and adding or removing management layers but what will this mean from a business perspective? New reporting lines may need to be considered for example and new responsibilities may need to be clearly outlined. It is important to understand how these

changes will be shaped and to communicate any new responsibilities early with clear delineation and definition.

Process:The next area of consideration is process. What is the level of process change? Once again if we look to the above points to be able to begin to what we will need to change in terms of processes in our business, how these changes will impact our business and ultimately how we can best manage these changes.

As with structure the key to managing change in processes is to be able to see the full picture and understand how each interaction within your company may be affected.

As you assess the impact of your change management program it is essential to look across each and every process that is undertaken to understand if it is subject to change and if so what those changes will be. Then as with structure it is imperative that these changes are identified with all stakeholders informed and where required, new lines of responsibility clearly demarcated.

Tools:Finally we come to the point where perhaps many of us may have thought we should start –the actual tools that we will be bringing in, indeed those very tools that are the driving force of the whole change management project itself.

Depending on where you are in the process of selecting your new system you may well have already chosen your new solution/configuration etc.

However, if you are still in the early stages perhaps you should consider bringing in representatives from various divisions of the workforce including managers, as well as field and office based operatives, as part of the selection process. Not

only will they give you great insight into how the tool will be implemented, but also they will form a core of your change agent network – a topic we will look at in further detail later in this feature.

It is important to explore each of the above areas, assessing how they will be impacted by your change management

program and planning how to best manage each of the steps of change. It is

also important to remember that Change Management is not a one hit procedure

and you should be continuously reviewing the impact of change on each of the above areas as you continue through to full adoption and beyond.

Engaging the head and the heartAs mentioned above the key to implementing a successful Change Management project lies in understanding the simple maxim that Change Management is all about people and managing individual responses to change.

For a change management program to be successful it is absolutely vital we acknowledge that change is about individuals, not organisations. Yes, the change will be driven by organisational needs and requirements, but individuals will implement it, individuals will determine its success.

Given this notion we must next consider how individuals will react to change. Successful change management is as much about feeling as it is about thinking. This is one of the key principals in the Kotter Change Management philosophy and is one that Moura also believes is an important step.

“People change when they see a truth that influences their feelings, a picture of the opportunities ahead, that can connect to the head and the heart” Moura explained in a recent webinar hosted by ServiceMax. “It’s less about what they read, it’s less about analysis. That informs their thinking but it doesn’t inform their feelings”

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If we can understand what motivates our workers on the personal level, there then we are on the right track for getting the emotional buy-in we need from these individuals to make this whole change management project a success.

Creating a Change Agent Network. Gartner’s Elise Olding neatly sums up the change agent network approach stating,

“Change resistance is a myth. Employees support enterprise goals when they understand what needs to be done. Peer advocates [or change agents] put a face on change and leverage trusted informal leaders to create understanding among employees and influence organisational change”

In simplest terms when we are facing a change to our daily working lives, it’s not some distant figure from the boardroom that will convince us that this change has our interest at heart, it’s the people sat around us, those who we work with on a daily basis, our colleagues, our direct supervisors, our peers.

What is important is that your change agent network is made up of people who are (or have the potential to be) leaders and influencers amongst their peers.

You are looking for active mouthpieces for why the change is a benefit to their peers on the individual level, so these are the audience you need to

convince first. Show them that they will see and feel the benefit of your

change management program and they will help spread the gospel

amongst the wider staff.

Another key aspect of this approach is that by creating a change agent network your are opening up additional layers of information to assess how your change management program is being accepted and adopted as

you move through the roll out.

Feedback from your project team as to how you are progressing is of course important and expected. However, feedback from the employees is equally important as you can amend and adapt your strategy where necessary in response to what’s being well received and what is not.

By simply ‘translating’ the reason your organisation is going through this change management process from corporate speak back into regular human language you workers can buy-into and then outlining what is in it for them will take you a long way towards a successful change management project.

Having that translation come from trusted and respected members of their work force will take it even farther.

Leading through resistance We mentioned above that the goal of a successful change management program should not be to completely eradicate resistance to change, as this is an almost impossible task that will take far too much energy. However we must focus on reducing the impact of resistance, and overcoming it as quickly as possible to move the change management project from concept to full adoption as swiftly as possible.

A key element therefore in a successful change management program is minimising the impact of resistance in your workforce and to achieve this we must understand the types of resistance we are likely to encounter. According to Moura these will come in three broad categories.

• I don’t get it• I don’t like (or trust) you• I don’t like it

So again let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

I don’t get it:This is an intellectual response where there is a lack of understanding of the reason for your change management program. This is one area

where it truly pays to become a broken

record. If your cannot comprehend the change

or are confused by why your change management project is

being undertaken then getting their buy-in is going to be impossible to achieve.

Therefore it is vitally important that you communicate across multiple different channels – not just resending the same memo over and over. The content here is critical, before you dive

straight into the ‘how’ things will be changing you need to make sure you have fully addressed the ‘why’ and again as we have mentioned in previous features position yourself in your employees shoes and outline why it is beneficial to them not just to the company as whole.

I don’t like (or trust) you:A tough one! This is an emotional response and therefore perhaps potentially a little trickier to overcome. Ultimately this comes down to trust, and whether your workforce trusts you to lead them to a good future state. Perhaps they recall something that happened in the past that they didn’t like? Maybe the company wasn’t as upfront with them as they should have been when changes were made in the past? Why should they trust you this time around when you let them down in the past?

The only way to overcome this type of resistance is to acknowledge it head on. Now is the time for rebuilding broken relationships and tending to neglected ones.

If there is damage to be fixed then taking responsibility for the mistakes of the past whilst simultaneously being seen to deliver on promises today is the only true way you can gain trust. However, as with the whole change management project itself establishing an effective change agent network can really help you get on track much faster and make the process of winning back trust much smoother.

I don’t like it:Firstly, if something is genuinely difficult to use, if it is clunky and unintuitive or overly complicated then this is going to be an issue. We cannot overlook the usability of any new technology when we look to invest in modernising our workflow.

To overcome this form of resistance you must remove as much fear as possible about the new devices or applications whilst increasing the excitement around the change by once again reaffirming what is in it for your workforce.

As we discussed when looking at engaging the head and the heart, our natural reaction to change is not the positive understanding of this being good for the organisation on some level. No, the first question we will ask will be “what exactly is this going to mean to me?”

If you do see potential challenges in the short term then the only way to face these is head on. Work with your end-users and your technology provider to identify these challenges and how best to overcome them.

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Are you ready for change?

Leading through the adoption cycleLooking at the adoption lifecycle Moura identifies four key segments that we should be aware of as the full adoption cycle of our change management program is completed. These are:

• Early Adopters • Majority• Laggards • Naysayers

So finally lets have a look at each of these in a little more detail.

Early Adopters:Moura is a clear believer in the power of utilising a core peer group of field engineers as early adopters when deploying technology as it offers a great opportunity to further improve adoption further down the line too.

“If there is any opportunity to bring early adopters in using the technology or even if it is just getting them in and seeing it you should do so” she explains “They can share their excitement at the deployment out amongst their peers”

Indeed early adopters are likely to give your change management program that ‘buzz’ amongst the staff that will see you move rapidly along the adoption lifecycle.

As Moura comments “What we can do here is we can highlight what the adoption will get them. The “what’s in it for me” and we can communicate the rationalisation of the change, “the why” and then we can build on the excitement generated by the change”

“Its great to have early adopters they’ll really help you gain momentum and quickly move to the next step of the adoption lifecycle.”

MajorityThe next step is to get the majority of our workforce adopted. Now this isn’t as simple as switching their old systems off and their new systems on, which is a dangerous oversight to make and why many change management projects are either long, arduous processes or ultimately just fail.

If your staff are struggling to use your new solution then it will not be long before they are finding work-rounds.

Before you know it spread sheets and post it notes are being used and your new system has become a burden on your field engineers when you it was

supposed to improve efficiency.

Remember that your workers are generally focussed on doing their job and doing it well – this is why you employ them, so it’s not a case of them deliberately not using the new system for any other reason than they do not understand how to use it as part of their workflow.

To avoid this it is important that support continues throughout the adoption lifecycle. It is absolutely crucial that you are constantly reinforcing the benefits of the new system and perhaps one of the best ways of doing this is to highlight every win that comes as a result of the new solution.

Moura comments “Communicate the early adopter stories to the majority. Who’s using the system, what type of insight did they gain, where they able to do something faster? Keep a customer happier?”

Laggards:It’s just a fact of life that some people will only make a switch at the very end of the cycle. Whether they don’t feel they have the time to pay attention to the switch or whether it’s just that they are reliant on seeing demonstrable benefit before they can commit to change it is certain there will be some laggards in your change management program, regardless of the change.

However, for your change management program to be successfully completed to achieve its maximum effect then you must give this group close attention.

“This is really where managers need to be front and centre going one on one with these employees” comments Moura

“It’s also a great opportunity for some of the early adopters to act as peer coaches. Assign a coach to these groups of laggards either one on one or in small groups to help them through the change” she added.

It’s also important to continue the work you began in the previous stage in the adoption lifecycle (Majority) in championing ach and every win and to remember to continue using multiple channels, whether it be company memo, social media or coffee room notice boards.

Nay Sayers:And finally we come to the last category in the adoption lifecycle, the Nay Sayers. These are those that just won’t be swayed. Unfortunately there comes a time in all change management programs when the effort put in begins to vastly outweigh the value you are getting out of it. At this point we need to evaluate the benefit of convincing these die-hard naysayers.

“My recommendation is to ignore the naysayers,” advises Moura. “Recognise when the pursuit is not worth the effort and make alternate plans”

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fieldservicenews.com Expert View: Paul Adams, Solarvista

The advantages and disadvantages of BYOD

The BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) debate is one that has received much coverage in recent months with some in the service

sector as well as other industries arguing that BYOD is the only way forward for businesses looking to compete effectively and offer the most efficient customer service and increased employee satisfaction.

But what is BYOD? What is the impact on the business, the workers, and the customers?

A complete move to BYOD is not going to be right for every business in every service sector, but a lot of businesses may already be partaking in some kind of BYOD scheme without even realising.

For example, if employees have access to company emails on their personal mobile phone or tablet or another device then this is, in effect, BYOD.

In fact research has found that globally 60% of full-time employees use BYOD to some extent. (Gabriel, 2013)

So what actually is BYOD?Simply, “Bring Your Own Device” refers to employees having the ability to connect their own technical devices such as smart phones, laptops and tablets to the company’s network instead of using a device owned by the company.

Recent years have seen an influx of workers bringing their own personal devices into their work environment and using them in their everyday jobs (Millard, 2011).

In fact, 95% of employees have used their own device in work (Gens et al, 2013) and the majority already use their own personal device for a variety of work-related tasks, including communication, content creation and admin (Ellis et al, 2012).

What are the advantages and disadvantages?There are a number of advantages to BYOD for

both the user of the device and the company employing that user.

However, the other side of the debate – the potential pitfalls that a company may face because of BYOD – tend to be less obvious. Below are some examples, but not an exhaustive list, both from the user and business perspective.

Advantages:

• Personal choice• Better work life balance• Improved productivity• No cost for equipment• Decreased support and training costs

Disadvantages:

• Financial responsibility• “Always available”• Loss, theft or damage• Information and network security• Increased support costs

58% of IT security and audit experts view employee-owned devices as a security risk to the enterprise.

Conclusion:BYOD represents the tipping point from corporate-led IT to consumer-driven IT; corporate IT now significantly lags behind the consumer market (Millard, 2011) and this has had a dramatic effect on the desire of employees to use their own devices at work. It is a trend that is set to continue throughout 2014 and beyond.

Over the last couple of years, these devices have become integrated into everyday life for most people as result of the ‘always on’ nature of social media and the 24/7 online world. With the lightning speed at which technology is progressing it is maybe neither cost-effective nor practical for businesses to update their employees’

technological devices as often as both the company and the employee might wish.

Therefore, BYOD has become the natural solution to this problem.

However, there are a number of key considerations when implementing any kind of BYOD scheme in the workplace. Most notably these are around security; of your company’s data and networks, of access to your systems and around confidentiality. The use of industrial-strength security approaches, such as Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory, is important to deliver this with confidence.

One size increasingly doesn’t fit all in terms of tools and technologies for work. The challenge is for the IT department to ensure their business is secure.

Also, there are a number of functionality and cost implications worth noting. If you need particular functionality from your devices that is only available on expensive corporate hardware, then BYOD may not even be applicable at the moment.

Here at Solarvista, our new line of cross-device mobile apps offers a good feature set but it will be mid-2015 before the sheer volume of functionality is available on all platforms.

There are big challenges ahead in ensuring the business remains secure whilst also adopting working methods that are becoming ever more prevalent and popular. It is important to know that BYOD, according to the experts, isn’t going anywhere.

Therefore there should be no rush to implement it without giving proper consideration to all the ways it will affect your business, your employees and ultimately your customers.

It’s been a hot topic for debate for some time now, the positives are clear but so

are the challenges. Solarvista’s Paul Adams takes a closer look...

A bunch of Cowboys? Our exclusive research highlights some worrying trends in field service standards, but hold on partners as there may

just be some good news just over the horizon...


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CAN REAL-TIME TELEMATICS SAVE US FROM THE COWBOYS?Exclusive Field Service News research, sponsored by TomTom

Telematics reveals some worrying trends in service standards...

Over the last few months’ Field Service News has been conducting a research project sponsored by TomTom Telematics which aimed to explore the standards of field service companies. Are they improving or are they falling? Is it that standards as a whole are now under greater scrutiny than ever before as we all become more and more expectant on getting results as soon as we look for them now that we inhabit an age of instant information thanks to the internet?

And what about those companies that are pulling ahead of the competition and not only delivering to their customers’ expectations but exceeding them and delighting them? What tools are they using to do so? What about those falling behind the pack – what are they getting so wrong?

About the research: The research was conducted over a 2-month period in which we contacted members of the Field Service News online subscription as well as using the reach of Field Service News throughout the social media channels. In total their were 291 respondents.

We had respondents from a wide range of companies of differing size from those with less than 10 mobile workers through to those with over 2,500. Our respondents also came from a diverse collection of industries including Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Transport and Local Government amongst many others.

The types of technology being used: To establish whether field service standards are falling, improving or just staying static, an important starting point is to explore how significantly some of the technology, which is designed to make life easier for field engineers, is

actually being applied. Would we see a dramatic difference in standards between those who are using the latest field service technologies and those that are not?

To give us some understanding of the type of technologies that were used we asked our respondents to let us know if they were using ‘real-time telematics when creating work schedules’, ‘dynamic scheduling and planning’, and ‘intelligent scheduling around emergency call outs’.

On top of this we also asked how they inform drivers of their jobs and work schedules and whether they offered job-tracking functionality to their customers.

“Amongst the smallest organisations this comes down to just 17% of companies actually using intelligent scheduling”So first up lets take a look at who’s using what in field service industries…

Real-time telematics data:In fact it was a completely even 50:50 split of companies who are and are not using telematics data.

We do see a bigger trend shift when we look just at those companies in the extremes of both brackets in terms of company size. Of those companies with 500 or more field engineers 84% of companies using telematics data. This is in stark

contrast to those companies that had 50 field workers or less. Here the number of companies using telematics data in real time is just 17%.

Dynamic Scheduling:At first glance it seems a similar situation with dynamic scheduling also. Of the group as a whole 56% of companies were using some dynamic scheduling. Again looking at the outliers, amongst those companies with 50 engineers or less this figure dips dramatically to just under a quarter of companies (24%). Similarly again as we focus on the larger companies this figure once more leaps to an incredible 89%. Again it seems that those companies with larger workforces are taking more advantage of the tools that are available.

Intelligent Scheduling around emergency call outs: Given the trends above it would be a safe bet to assume that we would see similar trends in this area also with the largest organisations predominantly using such tools whilst the smaller companies are either able to cope without out or as yet to see the benefits of the approach. Again starting with the group as a whole we see a very marginal majority of companies using intelligent scheduling around emergency call outs with 54% of companies surveyed using them.

Again amongst the smallest organisations this comes down to just 17% of companies actually using intelligent scheduling. However, unlike the previous two options (dynamic scheduling and use of real-time data) we see slightly less of a significant leap in those using it amongst larger organisations. In fact 63% of companies with a large mobile workforce are using intelligent scheduling. Still a considerable majority but not as exaggerated as in the previous two examples.

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fieldservicenews.com Research Report: Can real-time telematics save us from the cowboys?

The haves and the have nots:Before we move forward lets take a moment to stop and consider the reasons for the wide gap between the large and small in terms of the technology they are using. One possible argument that could support the statistics are that perhaps smaller companies may not need such sophisticated methods to maintain the standards they deliver. This is of course will be proven one way or the other later in this report as we look at the varying levels of standards that are apparent amongst companies of all sizes.

This certainly could hold true when we look at both dynamic and intelligent scheduling. As we have looked at before in a number of features there are many levels of scheduling systems available with dynamic and intelligent systems being both the most complicated and the most costly. However, for a small organisation sometimes these types of systems can be impractical as the effort in establishing the correct rules and data logic in place to get the desired results can sometimes be counter productive for a small organisation where a simpler ‘assisted scheduling’ solution would be more suited to their needs.

This logic in some part could also explain the reason why fewer larger companies are using intelligent scheduling, as it is perhaps the most sophisticated form of scheduling engine available currently, so perhaps even prohibitive for larger organisations who are able to operate with just a dynamic system in place?

However, where this theory does fall down is in the discrepancy when we look at the use of real time data. Whilst there are certainly existing arguments about which types of scheduling systems suit companies of varying sizes there can be no doubt that the ability to track driver and field engineer data in real time can only be a positive for a company regardless of size, both in terms of their own internal efficiency as well as the level of service they can deliver?

Again as we progress through this report we will uncover the truth to this supposition, as with the number of companies offering telematics solutions, the availability of such solutions is high while the costs are reasonably low. If the evidence supports the theory that such tools will help improve service delivery then it will be hard to see an argument for smaller companies not taking this step at the least.

Talking to the field: Whilst the three above options are important

for gathering information from the field and reacting to it. The flipside of a modern field service management solution is how we communicate information back into the field. This is perhaps the most important element of an overall solution to get right as if done well it can not only improve your companies efficiency and increase your service standards but also make your field workers lives easier.

We asked our respondents “How do you inform your drivers of jobs and work schedules?” Giving the options of “Phone”, “Text”, “Paper dispatch note” “Via in Cab navigation” and “via App”.

Paper dispatch:As a starting point lets look at paper dispatch notes. Of the options given this is probably the most arduous means of delivering a work schedule for many reasons. Firstly it is dependent on your field workers arriving at a central depot or office to collect their orders for the day. A waste of time and fuel for everyone involved, and from the field workers point of view an additional hassle at the beginning of the day when they could be starting their first job.

Secondly, paper based work schedules are out of date from the moment they are printed. Such a system has no option for the quick reactive response that you desire when an emergency call comes in that must become your clear priority. Fortunately only 6% of companies are still operating in this manner.

The majority (68%) of these

companies still using paper based dispatch are as one would imagine in the smallest bracket of companies, although examples of companies still using such a system are to be found right up to the 151 – 300 field engineers bracket. Given that their work schedule is largely static,

and it is therefore hard for these companies to react to either emergency call outs or delays either on job or non transit, it is of very little surprise that we see that the most common complaint these companies receive from their customers is missing time slots which 40% of companies cite.

Text & Via App:The most common way of companies to notify their workers of their job schedules is by Text. This is sensible as SMS is a relatively cheap, instant means of communicating and 41% of companies use this method. It could well be that this method will ultimately be replaced by “Via App” so communication becomes part of the wider ecosystem of the companies mobile workforce management program. This is of course ideal as it allows for both additional layers of information to be included, for example the details of the last call out, even photos etc., as well as easy navigation through to other systems. Currently however only 17% of companies are using Via App to communicate to their mobile workers.

It’s good to talk…However, there are a huge amount of companies (34%) that are still using the phone to communicate work schedules. This does have it’s positives in that it can be flexible and you can update the work schedule on the fly according to how the day is progressing however, there are a number of distinct

drawbacks. Firstly there is the issue of wasting resource.

Talking on the phone

takes

time. Not necessarily a lot of time, but still far longer than sending messages automatically from a field service management solution. And if you add up the amount of time that takes across

your whole workforce even if it is just 10 field workers that is a lot

of time being used that needn’t be.



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Then there is also the issue of driver safety. Yes there are a number of solutions available to allow for hands free communication, however studies from road safety charity BRAKE! Show that even hands free calls can be dangerous claiming an incredible 98% of motorists were unable to divide their time without it affecting their driving ability.

In cab nav:It is interesting to see how few companies are using in cab navigation systems to communicate with their field workers. Only 2% of those surveyed are actually using this method. One reason for this may well be the proliferation of smart phones and or tablets now being used as primary mobile devices for field workers.

Indeed there is an evolving movement towards being able to use one device per vehicle such as TomTom Telematics own PRO series of ruggedised tablets, which through the use of open API architecture can provide full access to a whole range of field service and fleet management tools. As devices like this become more prevalent then having both a standalone in cab navigation devices and another device to run your field service software on simply becomes unnecessary.

So what about the standards?We touched earlier on the most common complaints our respondents received from their customers, citing that of those companies using paper based dispatch notes the most common complaint by a long way (40%) was the availability of time slots.

In an interview with Field Service News, Giles Margerison, Director of TomTom Telematics highlighted the need for more flexible time slots commenting: “We as consumers have adjusted our requirements to the service industry, it used to be that we would expect to have a service delivery within a day, now really we expect a one or two hour appointment window. That represents a huge challenge for the industry”

The findings of our research would also appear to back this up also as time slots was the joint second largest complaint for companies with 23% of the full respondent group citing this as the most common complaint.

Interestingly this figure comes down to just 11% when we look at the largest companies. This would indicate that the largest companies have the resources in places to accommodate more efficient systems, which allow for tighter time slots.

Getting the basics wrong? However, the most commonly cited reason for

customer complaints was actually communication which was the most common complaint for 28% of companies.

Given that there are a proliferation of means for companies to communicate with their customers this really is an area that should and could be significantly improved yet seems to be being neglected. In a piece of research undertaken by Field Service News earlier this year we looked at the types of communication field service companies were using.

That research revealed that whilst the 82% offered a call centre, and 62% offered email communication less than a third of companies (32%) offered online service and just 6% offered access via an app.

“Quite simply poor communication between ourselves and our customers should not be tolerated and this should be a key area of concern”This is completely at odds with where the industry needs to be. As Margerison alludes to – our expectations as consumers have changed. We live in an age where we are used to having instant access to information we need on demand. Whilst call centres and email certainly have their place, they are both slow processes when compared to web-based self-service options or online chat portals.

When we consider that we all work in service industries, whether it be manufacturing or medical devices, whether we visit opticians or oilrigs our core goal should always be delivering good service, and doing it efficiently.

Quite simply poor communication between ourselves and our customers should not be tolerated and this should be a key area of concern for many.

The good news is of course those companies that investigate this within their own organisations and remedy issues around communications will very quickly be able to take a step ahead of their competitors.

In line with poor communication is poor response times, which was joint second most common

complaint cited by 23% of companies. Again this is an issue that sits well with the notion that we as consumers are becoming less patient with service providers.

Cost is less of a concern than bad serviceWhat is of particular interest is that the least common complaint is the time charged and invoiced which was a major issue for just 13% of companies.

This would seem to suggest that most customers are happy to pay a fair price in exchange for good service, but the expected standard for service is rising as customers rightly demand the same type of service that they get from the field service companies they deal with as they do from other organisations they use in their daily lives such as Amazon.

And as we start to look further down into the research we can see even further evidence of simple mistakes being made on an alarmingly regular basis.

For example almost half (42%) of all companies stated that they have mobile workers turn up at the wrong address whilst 5% stated this happens on a weekly basis! In a world where Sat Nav’s and routing software are widely used this is almost beyond comprehension.

Perhaps even more incredibly is that when we asked our respondents if they had ever experienced two mobile workers turning up at the same job again almost half of companies (43%) stated this had happened. This is also apparent amongst companies of all sizes, even amongst those at enterprise level almost a third (28%) admitted to two workers turning up at the same time and a similar amount (33%) suffered mobile workers turning up at the wrong address on a monthly basis.

However, if we look at those using technology to improve their service standards we fortunately see improvements so all is not lost! The amount of companies that have a monthly address issue falls to just 13% with thankfully no weekly mishaps!

Also the total of companies that never have this issue rises to 46%, which is 18% higher than the general average.

So it is clear that there is a distinct advantage for those using the technology available to them.

Measuring field worker productivitySo if we were to put together a report card for how

Research Report: Can real-time telematics save us from the cowboys?

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our customers view service standards amongst field service companies then we would be looking at a ‘could do better’ for the field service industries as a whole. However what about the way we measure our own field workers productivity?

We asked our respondents to identify their main KPIs that they set for their field workers given them the options of “number of calls attended”, “number of jobs completed”, “number of first time fix rates”, and “sales/leads generated”.

It seems that when it comes to marking our own performances the field service industries are somewhat more forgiving than our customers with over three quarters of companies (77%) stating that they are generally meeting these KPIs. There is clearly a disconnect between the two realities which needs to be addressed.

Are we setting the right KPI’sLets take a look at these KPIs in a little further detail.

The most common KPI was number of jobs completed, which was cited by over half (54%) of our respondent companies. The importance of ensuring that wherever possible jobs are completed is of clear business benefit; especially if we understand that each additional call is going to not only cause our company additional cost but also add further frustration and potentially lost revenue for our customers. Therefore it is good to see that so many companies value this is as a KPI.

Number of calls attended however, is less of an efficient measure, almost simply a tick box exercise. This is reflected in the fact that far fewer companies, in fact just 13% utilise this as a measure of their employees productivity. Whilst the field workers themselves may work hard to reach their daily rota of allocated calls, if they are not completing the jobs then all that hard work may as well count for nothing.

It is absolutely vital that we empower our field engineers to be able to complete as many jobs as possible. Again the technology is there to improve these odds, systems that enable knowledge sharing, or access to parts inventory, or intelligently scheduling the right worker, with the right skill set required for the job are all widely available from a number of providers such as TomTom Telematics and these really massively improve your productivity levels.

Getting it right, first time. This leads us on to the where many think the focus of the next generation of field service management will lay. Namely focussing on first

time fix rates. Currently only 16% of companies set this as a KPI. In some ways this is a reflection of the current reality, first time fix rates are always desirable but rarely achievable. The fix may be reliant on parts not to hand, or in some cases particularly where complicated machinery or devices are involved diagnosis of the exact problem may take the full allocated time slot.

However, as we move towards a world of remote machine-to-machine diagnostics, the Internet of Things and 3D printable parts the first time fix should become less elusive and even commonplace.

Whilst these concepts may seem futuristic the reality is that they are not too far away, but even if they remain out of reach for now, ideas like improving customer communication so our customers to be part of the diagnostics process is one possible step forward and in some cases requires just a shift in thinking as to how we approach service.

It is very interesting given this that those companies who are currently embracing technology (i.e. using dynamic scheduling, intelligently responding to emergencies and use apps to communicate workloads to their field workers) have a much higher focus on first time fix rates with almost half of the companies in this bracket (47%) stating that this is their main KPI.

The lesson again seems to be that technology is allowing these companies greater productivity and as a by product improving their service standards as first time fix rates will greatly reduce the disruption to their business.

ConclusionThere are a number of interesting points that this research has thrown at us. Firstly there seems to be a big disconnect between the way we are judging the performance of our field workers, and the reality which our customers see.

When we put together the questions for this survey I genuinely felt that very few companies would have had people turning up at the wrong address, for companies whose workforce is based on the road this is surely the simplest of standards to meet, yet it seems it is not only a fairly common issue but a frequent one at that.

Similarly for so many ‘service’ companies to be failing when it comes to perhaps the most important element of service i.e. communication was also a major surprise. It seems that customers and their expectations have evolved rapidly in the twenty first century and many if not the

majority of service companies have fallen behind those expectations.

Having a call centre is simply not enough in any industry these days. Our customers want our attention, they want it now, and they want to use their own preferred getting it whether that be phone, email, online chat or even social media. We need to move quickly to accommodate these needs, because if we don’t you can be sure our competitors will.

However, all is not lost. The technology is their to help and it is no longer prohibitively costly as it was a few years ago. What’s more is as the technology evolves integration between differing systems means we can work with solutions that are tailored specifically for our business. TomTom Telematics for example now have three separate API’s across their solution that allows for integration with a whole raft of other providers enabling you to tailor your solution to meet your exact needs.

As Margerison commented: “There isn’t one off the shelf solution, it would be wrong to try and develop that because every company has their own specific needs. What we as technology providers should do is make sure those systems integrate so customers can choose best of breed for their particular needs and we will work together for those customers.”

As has been shown on a number of occasions as we have worked through the findings of this research, the technology available really can help companies keep pace with our customers growing demands as well as reduce costs and improve productivity.

If we want to improve our report card for next year perhaps we need to start looking at how we can utilise it better?

Want to hear more from TomTom Telematics Giles Margerison? Scan the QR code to see our exclusive video interview...


Research Report: Can real-time telematics save us from the cowboys?

Want to hear more from TomTom Telematics Giles Margerison? Scan the QR code to see our exclusive video interview...

Expert View: Aly Pinder, Aberdeen Groupfieldservicenews.com

The Social Tech: Don’t Fear the Evolution of Field Service

Forums. Blogs. Twitter. Facebook.

Are these channels just avenues to share your latest opinions on that restaurant you ate at last night? Perhaps just another way to market your brand? Or is it possible that social channels have a critical place in delivering effective field service resolution?

While social media can play all of these roles, often times OEMs and service organizations look upon it skeptically, deeming social tools not applicable to enhancing the ability to deliver resolution.

Aberdeen’s State of Service Management: Roadmap for a Profitable 2014 report (March 2014) highlighted that the top challenge facing organizations is the need to improve customer satisfaction (51% of respondents, n = 170). The desire to improve the service experience for customers has become a driving goal for organizations across industries and revenue strata, even above concerns such as operational efficiencies or cost containment.

Despite the fact that these three concerns are often interconnected, the need to focus on the customer should remain paramount as customers directly impact an organization’s top line. Furthermore, customers not only have the ability to walk away with their dollars if you don’t meet their service expectations, they also have the ability to broadcast their

opinions

to a

global network empowered by social channels. In order to improve the customer experience, organizations are looking to all potential avenues that will improve service.

In recent research, Field Service 2014: Access to the Right Information Empowers a Results-Driven Workforce (January 2014), Best-in-Class field service organizations were 43% more likely than peers to give technicians access to social media / collaborative tools to facilitate knowledge transfer (50% vs. 35%, respectively).

These top performers have been able to empower technicians with real-time information and insight to outperform peers in key metrics such as first-time fix, customer satisfaction, and serviceable asset uptime. These are all metrics that matter to the customer.

In order to maximize the value of social and equip technicians with the insight to improve resolution, organizations should follow a few best practices: • Peer to peer to customer. One of the keys

to delivering exceptional service is ensuring that you can meet or exceed customer expectations every time. Customers understand that every now and then equipment will fail; but in the event of a failure the service organization must fix the issue the first time, and as quickly as possible. Top performing organizations make

sure that each technician is an

expert, even if this is the first time

they are seeing a given problem. Social

collaboration enables

technicians to share information, skills, and tools to resolve issues.

• Capture insight and make it available to the right people. Technicians are really good at fixing issues. That is what they do every day. So why do so many organizations make technicians silos of insight? Too often, organizations have technicians work on figurative islands with little interaction with their peers. In order to connect these islands of insight many organizations are leveraging a knowledgebase to capture field solutions making that data available to others. The key is to make it easy for technicians to store these insights and incent technicians to want to post.

• Embrace technology and don’t fear trends. Security concerns and brand management can make social media scary for service organizations. But burying your head in the sand is not the appropriate response. Aberdeen’s recent field service research highlighted that the service workforce is changing due to aging workforce concerns and worker turnover. As new technicians join the organization, it is imperative that the service organization equip them with the tools (both physical and social) that will help make them experts on Day 1.

Social collaboration has a place in field service. It provides the opportunity to connect technicians with peers, customers, and the back office.

But social media collaboration won’t be a magic bullet that will right all of field service’s wrongs; it is one tool in the technician’s kit.

Information and data move too quickly for the service organization to neglect this channel much longer. The future of field service will demand

faster insights and improved resolution.

Aberdeen’s Aly Pinder explains why social media is about far more than just brand building

and letting the world know what you had for dinner last night...

p30


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Developing an end to end technology road mapField Service News Editor, Kris Oldland takes a look at some of the considerations for selecting

hardware when developing an end-to-end field service solution...

End-to-end field service management is a topic that we keep hearing about. Indeed our own recent podcast featuring Paul Sparkes, Product Director at Advanced Field Services focussed on the big question – just what end-to-end field service management?

Paul gave both a detailed and candid response to this question, looking at the broader picture rather than from just his own organisations standpoint, however, whilst we talked in depth about the end-to-end concept from a software point of view, looking both from a field service specific perspective as well as the wider viewpoint of having a number of systems (such as ERP and CRM) fully integrated also, the conversation remained focussed on software and software alone.

All well and good but if we are to explore a fully end-to-end field service solution then we must consider other elements as well.

What type of hardware do our field service engineers require? What about in-vehicle computing? Telematics? Will our field service engineers be creating orders in the field? In which case what about mobile payment options? What about printing options for providing invoices and receipts?

Understanding the needs of your field service engineers is crucial to ensuring that you’re investing in the right technology.

Understanding your customers lifecycleThe first place to focus, as with almost anything in business, is on your customers.

Whilst the benefits of implementing the right technology will of course improve your field service

operation, the underlying reason for investment in technology should be how can my customers benefit from this.

Of course the two are not mutually exclusive, indeed if you bring anything into your business that benefits your customer then it will almost certainly bring benefits to your company as well.

For example if your field engineers are given devices that are capable of video calls and 4G data transfer; the likelihood is that your field service engineers will be far more likely to improve first time fix rates as they will be able to access a wider pool of engineer knowledge whilst on premise than they would have had previously.

Your customer is happy as the disruption to his business is minimal.

The benefits to your company are that your field service engineers are working more effectively, so they are achieving more with less, all while maintaining great service standards.

This example, whilst highlighting the point of working to a customer centric model, is fairly obvious. However, if you keep your customers at the heart of your focus other less obvious, but equally important points may arise.

For example, I mentioned in my introduction mobile printers. Do you know how your clients deal with receipts or invoices for example? Many companies including ourselves here at 1927 Media try to minimise the use of hardcopies in an effort to be more environmentally focussed.

What a waste it would be to invest in a mobile printer for each van in your fleet only to find out that 90% of your customers throw the hardcopy

away after they have scanned it and would have preferred being sent documents by email anyway!

This information is almost certainly already held in your company somewhere; probably the easiest way of finding out is by asking your accounts team. I’m sure they could quickly put together an overview of which of your clients require paper invoicing as they are dealing with your customers invoicing on a regular basis.

Lets say 50% of your clients need printed documents, so maybe you could even allocate printers on a daily basis based on the workload each field service engineer has that day rather than fitting all vehicles with them?

Would this be a more cost effective route? Of course you would have to look at the options.

However, by taking a greater interest in your customers needs then you are able to seek out smarter ways of implementing your own technology

This of course can free up funds for other areas of investment too.

Understanding your working environmentAnother important factor when considering purchasing hardware for your mobile workforce is the environment they will be operating in.

For some companies such as couriers or delivery organisations often a simple consumer device can be sufficient.

If your mobile worker simply needs an interface that allows him to see his updated schedule and collect a signature then a low cost tablet could very well be the solution.

p32

fieldservicenews.com Developing an end-to end technology road map

However, what if your engineer works in a more demanding environment where the device is likely to get wet, or is required to operate in temperatures beyond normal operating thresholds? Is the device likely to be knocked about a bit as part of its general day-to-day use.

As Ian Davies of Motion Computing comments:

“A recent survey from VDC highlights the causes of this expense in using consumer grade units. As part of a research project among IT decision makers at 215 companies managing a mobile device deployment, VDC discovered that the leading cause of device failure was that the tablet had been dropped.

The second cause was software issues but this was only marginally ahead of exposure to water and liquid (and just over 1 in 4 tablet PCs will face such exposure). Other leading causes of failure include excessive heat / cold, dust exposure and vibration.”

Understanding Total Cost of Ownership is a massive factor in deciding whether you should be perhaps taking the more expensive option if in the long term you will see a greater lifespan per unit. Therefore it is essential you take into account your field service operatives working environment as well as their general workflow into account when considering which type of mobile hardware is right for your organisation.

Indeed the topic of rugged vs. consumer is one that continues over and over. There is a huge amount of discussion around whether field service organisations should invest in consumer devices or specialist rugged devices with strong advocates with equally compelling arguments sitting on both sides of the fence. To help you understand which is best for your company lets take a look at some of

the more commonly heard arguments.

The Familiarity ArgumentPretty much ever since the iPhone first entered the market back in 2007 Smart Phones have become commonplace and are now reaching saturation point within almost all developed world geographies. Indeed with the news that Indian firm Karbonn has launched a perfectly acceptable smart phone for just £26, it would seem that the developing and third worlds will soon be following suit also.

The result of such saturation is that almost each and everyone of us is now comfortable and at ease with such devices. This of course includes our mobile workers too. So when rolling out a new piece of hardware if you turn towards one of the big three mobile operating systems in the consumer realm (i.e. Apple’s IoS, Google’s Android or Microsofts Windows 8.1) the likelihood is that you will achieve high adoption rates quickly, as the devices act and respond in the same manner as the employees personal devices – whether they be tablet or smart phone.

However, such is the pace of the evolutionary arms

p33

race that is mobile computing, even the latest fully rugged devices are becoming sleek looking, lightweight devices which look light-years away from their bulky equivalents of just a few years ago. Take for example the latest device from Getac the T800, which whilst being a powerful device, is also proven to be fully rugged up to military standards, and could quite easily be mistaken for a standard consumer tablet.

Similarly rugged devices are readily found in both Windows and Android flavours so familiarity with operating systems should also be swift thanks to the proliferation of smart phones. So whilst familiarity may claimed as one benefit of consumer devices the truth is this no longer really the case.

The prestige argument.A little earlier this year I interviewed Dave Hart, VP Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax for one of our podcasts. However, for most of the half an hour or so we were talking we focussed on his previous role as European Vice President of Pitney Bowes and he made a very interesting point around the franking giants decision to role out Apple iPad’s to their field service staff.

Hart made the decision to not only issue each of his mobile workforce with an iPad but to give them ownership of their device as well. The result was that his fieldworkers responded by taking greater responsibility and Pitney Bowes saw breakages fall to practically zero.

In his own words Hart explains:

“I went out with an engineer for the day and asked him ‘we really budgeted that we would break more of these things, why do you think they are not breaking?’ the engineer turn round to me and said ‘one of the things you guys did was to allow us to use this device personally as well as for business. If I went home and my iPad is broken my kids would kill me!’”

Given the fact that Pitney Bowes were braking 200 PDAs per anum prior to the shift and Hart defined the breakage rate as ‘absolutely negligible maybe one or two out of thousands’ since moving to iPads it would appear that by giving their mobile workers a desirable consumer device that they cherished and giving them ownership of those devices, there is indeed a solid tangible benefit.

The TCO argumentAs we touched on earlier, this is an argument for those in the pro rugged camp we here an awful

lot but with good reason. For whilst for a company like Pitney Bowes, whose field service engineers are mostly working with in an office environment, iPad’s or similar consumer grade devices may well prove to be ideal, for many other industry verticals where field engineers mobile devices are put through their paces in a far tougher environments, iPads could be a costly mistake.

The simple premise of the TCO argument is that whilst purchasing a consumer grade device may be the cheaper option in the short term, longer term if we factor in the cost of replacement devices plus of course the downtime whilst waiting for replacement devices etc across a period of three to five years (the general accepted period that a devices will remain current) the cost of purchasing more reliable, rugged devices would have proven much lower.

“If you’re working in

what we term a critical

working environment, i.e.

if its cold its wet or you

can drop the device then

that is definitely a rugged

space.”

One such proponent of this argument is Getac UK President Peter Molyneux who commented:

“If you’re working in what we term a critical working environment, i.e. if its cold its wet or you can drop the device then that is definitely a rugged space. The discussion really is just whether its what we call semi rugged or fully rugged.”

Molyneux also goes on to point out that as the cost of rugged devices falls, so the TCO argument holds even greater weight. Although he does also admits there is certainly a gap for consumer technology.

“The return on investment on a fully rugged notebook may have cost you £2500 to £3000 not that long ago…” he explains “… today products can be less than £1700 dependent on spec. But if you go forward consumer technology is yet to be proven in the field, there will be applications where it will be fine and applications where it’s not.”

Of course it is the “not’s” where Getac, Motion and

other specialist rugged manufacturers see their market and where TCO truly comes into play.

Ask your field service engineers!Molyneux’s point about rugged or semi rugged also adds to the conundrum and further emphasises the importance of understanding the workflow of your field engineers, which we touched on a little earlier.

Whilst some organisations, like Pitney Bowes will be able to fully realise their needs with consumer grade devices, others such as utilities companies will see far greater benefit in a more rugged solution where despite a larger initial outlay the actual TCO is much lower across a three-year period.

Which is right for your organisation? As with any investment you must take a detailed look at all of the possibilities, where possible look at solutions other companies in your vertical have taken and try to find out the pain points they have felt as much as the successes they have had.

There is no one size fits all option when it comes to field service hardware, what’s right for one company may not be right for another.

However, it certainly pays to know that there are a variety of options available to you from off the shelf consumer right through to military standard rugged.

The next step is finding out where on the spectrum your needs are. Almost certainly the best place to start is to take time out to see some of your field engineers in action.

What about software in an end-to-end solution? Scan the QR code to access our podcast on that very topic!

Attending Field Service Europe? Kris Oldland will be part of a panel discussing this topic at 3.20 on Day 1

Developing an end-to end technology road map

p34


© 2014 Motion Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. Motion Computing and Motion are registered trademarks of Motion Computing, Inc. Microsoft, Windows 8, Windows 7 and the Windows logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Intel, the Intel logo, Centrino, Intel Core, Core inside and Atom are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

www.MotionComputing.co.uk | [email protected]

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p35

fieldservicenews.com Expert View: Philipp Emmenegger, coresystems

This year, at tennis’ US Open, we got a glimpse of just how pervasive the idea has become of big data’s transformative power.

Thanks to cameras and remote sensors trained on the every move of the players, we learned from the estimated 41 million data points collected how important it is to return the ball to the opponent in the least amount of moves. Or, as the new “must-know” tennis stat that tracks the average distance a player travels on the court for each point is called, “Feet (meter) per point”.

It’s obvious that it’s better to expend less energy chasing down a ball, but now there’s tangible proof. The two men’s players to make the finals, Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori, both despite their different styles of play, racked up the least amount of distance per point. Cilic averaged 42 feet per point; Nishikori, 52. In contrast, Roger Federer came in at 57 feet per point, and Andy Murray at 70 feet.

But what does the data crunching at the US Open have to do with field service? Just as in tennis, so in field service: those with the most efficient delivery win. Moreover, just as collecting the seemingly mundane data of the average distance a player ran per point is now being used by tennis coaches to re-examine their player’s games, so a company can collect the most specific data to be transformed into meaningful analytics to eventually give companies an edge.

Indeed, according to the Aberdeen Group, companies have a

strong belief that the

proper use of Big Data will give them a competitive advantage. In the consultancy’s report, “Big Data Perspectives: Users vs. IT,” 43% of IT personnel believe that faster, more complex analytics will give them an edge over other companies.

Moreover, providing superior customer service has been show to impact a company’s bottom line. According to the Aberdeen Group in its recent study, “Secrets to Optimize Field Service for Better Customer Experience,” those companies that hit a 90% + customer satisfaction were also able to achieve an annual 6.1% growth in service revenue, a 3.7% growth in overall revenue, and even more importantly, an 89% current level of customer retention.

But how can field service companies harness Big Data? And, what exactly is “Big Data”? Big data – as opposed to just data – usually refers to the entire process of capturing, storing, managing and analyzing massive amounts of various types of data, according to the Aberdeen Group. Typically, the amounts are in the terabytes or petabytes, stored in multiple formats, from both internal and external sources, and with strict demands for speed and complexity of analysis.

Here are three ways your company can get started:

Collect and Capture Data: Within field service, there are a number of ways big data can be used. The first place to start is to assess the data that your organisation already collects. Using a field service software solution will allow you to collect data quicker and more easily.

A field engineer using a tablet-based solution could seamlessly collect the time the technician was dispatched, the time to fix the job, whether or not the job was fixed the first time, if a technician had to return, what reason they had to go back, and what part was needed.

What other data does your company collect? Is there fleet management of telematics data available? Would placing remote sensors at certain locations to collect data make sense?

Analysing Data: Once you have captured the data, it’s time to make sense of it. You could compare it to historical data

and analyse it for patterns. For example, real-time data from service engineers can show how long a job took on average, giving managers guidance on the right amount of time to assign future similar jobs. In turn, this would impact the accuracy of arrival times, and reduce the amount of jobs that have to be rescheduled, improving customer service.

The next place to look is across departments in your company. Could shared data from different departments lead to more efficiencies or opportunities? For example, could data shared between the field service department and the sales department end in more sales opportunities?

Predictive Analysis: More exciting examples could happen when companies get more sophisticated with remote sensors and machine-to-machine communications.

The term “predictive analytics” is usually spoken of in marketing as the ability to track the behaviour of prospective buyers to help sellers understand the right time to engage them. But now we’re beginning to hear the term “predictive maintenance”, referring to the ability to foresee when a part or piece of equipment is near the end of its life span.

With remote sensors, it would be possible to begin gathering data on whether a particular part is more prone to breaking down by monitoring a machine’s changes over time; or within a certain use case, and what its average life span is. The data could help predict the best time to schedule a pre-emptive service call.

It’s no secret that customer demand for better service has increased and that its success now contributes or takes away from a company’s bottom line. Ironically, as technology helps organizations deliver better customer service, the expectation for even better service just keeps rising. It’s up to companies to use every single tool they have, including the most minute details, to turn them into their own competitive advantage.

Big Data, Big ChanceAs companies capture more data through mobile devices, remote sensors and telematics, the

opportunity to increase the efficiency of field service operations has never been better argues

coresystems’ Philip Emmenegger.

p36


Mobile Computing & EPoS Distribution

Handhelds Mobile Printers Scanners

varlinkltd

Tablets

Field Service Solutions

As companies deploy more and more workers out into the field, the need for them to be connected back to base is vital.

Where traditional pen and paper was once a necessary requirement, mobile computers and handheld tablet devices have now become the fundamental assistant for field workers.

Varlink offer a full range of field service solutions including handhelds, mobile printers, scanners and tablets. All devices come with rugged IP ratings suitable for workers out in the field.

For more information call 01904 717180 or visit www.varlink.co.uk

The need for the perfect enterprise device is becoming ever more essential.

Connect with us:

@VarlinkLtd varlink.wordpress.com

p37

Mobile Computing & EPoS Distribution

Handhelds Mobile Printers Scanners

varlinkltd

Tablets

Field Service Solutions

As companies deploy more and more workers out into the field, the need for them to be connected back to base is vital.

Where traditional pen and paper was once a necessary requirement, mobile computers and handheld tablet devices have now become the fundamental assistant for field workers.

Varlink offer a full range of field service solutions including handhelds, mobile printers, scanners and tablets. All devices come with rugged IP ratings suitable for workers out in the field.

For more information call 01904 717180 or visit www.varlink.co.uk

The need for the perfect enterprise device is becoming ever more essential.

Connect with us:

@VarlinkLtd varlink.wordpress.com

Industry Leaders Interview: John Cameron, Trimble FSM

A question of empowermentAs part of our industry leaders interview series Field Service News speaks exclusively to

Trimble Field Service Management’s John Cameron about what mobile worker empowerment

really means to him...

FSN: What do you think mobile worker empowerment really means?

JC: To me empowerment is all about supporting the individual to do the best job they can. For a field service organisation this means dealing with a growing number of complex challenges around scheduling, monitoring progress and enabling the worker to resolve issues in order to meet service commitments.

We know that having the right real-time information is critical to business success – it is not just about the data that is collected but how that data is analysed and turned into business intelligence and applied that counts.

Both through the companies we work with and within our own business we know that information is only useful if it helps you to make the right decision and that goes through the whole organisation.

Ensuring that mobile workers have the right support and are able themselves to make use of the real-time information goes a long way in helping them to make the right decisions while on the move and remote from office or depot locations, allowing them to resolve issues and deliver the best service they can.

FSN: Do you think offering mobile workers more control of their can benefit a field service organization?

JC: Mobile workers are on the front line, they are the ones who are dealing face-to-face with customers every day.

When jobs go smoothly that’s great, but it often takes a number of factors to align for that job to go smoothly and if not the worker is the one who has to deal with the repercussions and the impact on the customer’s business or home.

We know the biggest cause of customer complaint is that issues are not resolved first time, but give the workforce the means so that the person allocated the work has the right skills, tools and parts and has the right amount of time to get

the work done, then these can often be set into schedules to ensure that commitments are met.

The overall goal in empowering workers has to be to enable them to do the best job possible and the benefits are widespread and include increased productivity and efficiency with greater customer satisfaction and empowering a workforce to be able to control and manage outcomes can significantly impact on their own job satisfaction and ongoing motivation.

FSN: How can businesses approach empowerment in the field?

JC: There are a number of strategies that companies may adopt in field worker empowerment and these could include use of technology, service performance measurement or through cultural change.

“Ensuring that mobile

workers have the right

support and are able

themselves to make use of

the real-time information

goes a long way “

Technology is a great enabler but it is also critical that the organisations make the technology work hard for them and deliver the best benefits and return on investment.

Hand-in-hand with this, measuring service performance is key to a field service organisation in both managing its operation on a day to day basis and also learning from these experiences.

No individual wants to be going out doing the same procedure time and time again if it is not achieving the right results; achieve the right results and then replicate it.

Cultural change is possibly the hardest element to roll out, you can’t simply expect individuals to be ‘empowered’, but rather you need to make sure that they understand the reasons why, what it involves and the benefits to them and the wider organisation.

As with any change programme it is essential that the workforce is totally involved, engaged and committed. It is also imperative that the drive for any initiative comes from the top so there is complete buy-in across a business.

FSN: Does best practice exist when it comes to mobile worker empowerment?

JC: In terms of empowering workers, the field service organisations that we see doing this well are those that look to make continual improvements.

The use of technology has a key role to play, but you can’t install the best solution and then become complacent; field service organisations are finding that work is becoming increasingly complex and critical in terms of timing, skills and consequence and the challenges even greater so the application of best practice and the continual improvement that this brings is paramount in the successful empowerment of a mobile workforce.

Choosing one to three benchmark points from which to grow also keeps everyone focused on specific metrics – trying to improve everything at once is a certain step in the wrong direction.

We have also talked about change management and engagement as key dynamics to any successful roll out and we have seen that those behaviours drive the best success.

FSN: How do you think both mobile workers and businesses can manage the challenges of empowering workers?

JC:We recently undertook a survey and found that, when a field service business sets out to implement business change, whether it is rolling out new technology or processes or ways of working, one of the major challenges it faces is

“No individual wants to be going out doing the same procedure time and time again if it is not achieving the right results”

John Cameron, Trimble FSM

p39

engaging the workforce

Much of this can be attributed to the fact that a field service workforce is typically spread over a large geographical area, with workers carrying out very diverse types of work remotely and rarely spending spending time in the office.

Providing necessary training to the workforce can be a further hurdle.

For many companies this means considerable expense, as well as taking workers away from their jobs especially if the training is carried out in a classroom rather than virtually.

Furthermore, ensuring the training is understood and applied on an on-going basis also poses an issue for field service managers as it can be difficult to monitor field workers to prevent lapse back to the ‘way things used to be done.’

However, these obstacles can be reduced if businesses have effective change management programmes in place to ensure employee buy-in. Involving the workforce in any change plans, from the initial planning stages to the final roll-out, is key.

“The availability of

mobility applications

going forward will

increase, which will

further enable field-based

workers with the real-time

knowledge”

Consistent communication to foster a culture in which the workforce understands the changes, why they are needed, what role they will play in the transformation and how to embrace it are all essential.

FSN: When we talk about providing tools for mobile workers, it would seem that mobility would be a natural element of that – is that something you are seeing?

Mobility is a key technology in empowering workers. Mobility at its core provides field-based workers with a real-time connection back to their business.

With all the information they need at their fingertips, they are able to become more efficient and effective.

There is little doubt that up to the minute information before, at and after a job is vital to the success of completion and provides mobile workers the ability to plan and execute their jobs better via increased knowledge.

This is eliminating time, mistakes and misunderstandings out in the field.

In addition avoiding the need for paper-based knowledge transfer, which adds further demands on the mobile worker, can save hours in a mobile worker’s day.

Utilising cloud-based data storage, the capturing and storing of information on the go is another feature that helps mobile workers collect data in the field that they may need at a later date or to update other business systems.

FSN: With technology playing such a big part in field service, what trends so you see emerging to further transform mobile worker empowerment?

We all consume information via mobile apps on our smartphones and tablets in our consumer lives and more and more of us are expecting to be able to do the same whilst at work.

As a result, the availability of mobility applications going forward will increase, which will further enable field-based workers with the real-time knowledge needed to make better, more intelligent business decisions while in the field.

Niche apps, for example, are seen to present opportunities to reach a new target audience or deepen the engagement and loyalty of users and the adoption in the business environment can only increase, along with such emerging trends as gamification of business-related apps to give greater appeal to the use of apps for everyday processes and procedures. M2M communication is certainly transforming how companies do business. Data transmitted from devices in the field to applications in the office can lead to decisions that significantly improve the business.

In field service, that data flows in from both handheld and in-vehicle data-capturing devices, as well as sensors and monitoring devices on everything from household appliances and utility meters to complex machinery in oil fields transmitting data on diagnostics, measurements,

temperature and overall conditions, all of which is instrumental in preventing equipment failure, scheduling maintenance, and improving safety and energy consumption.Additionally, I think we’ll also start to see a rise in field service businesses offering field technicians the chance to bring their own or choose their own mobility devices to adopt at work.

“M2M communication

is certainly transforming

how companies do

business. Data transmitted

from devices in the

field to applications in

the office can lead to

decisions that significantly

improve the business.”

Field service is undeniably being reshaped by the mobile revolution and with much of today’s information being shared through smartphones, in the not too distant future,

I think we’ll start to see even greater sets of data being shared through wearable technology, such as watches and google glass. This technology will revolutionise the way field technicians go about their day-to-day tasks.

They will be able to stay in touch in real-time and gain immediate access to what’s important the second that they need it, helping to improve productivity and customer satisfaction.

John Cameron was speaking exclusively to

Field Service News ahead of Trimble FSM’s

Mobile Empowerment Week which runs

from the 20th October, 2014.

Industry Leaders Interview: John Cameron, Trimble FSM

p41

fieldservicenews.com Expert View: Paul White, mplsystems

Cost has always been a major concern for many organisations, in the field service management industry, when looking to

invest in new technology.

As a result, organisations had to struggle with the legacy systems they had and add further functionality by deploying separate systems such as scheduling and databases with little or no integration between them.

However, over the last few years, the industry has seen rapid developments in service management software, with key trends such as cloud based solutions, system wide integration and web based services starting to emerge.

In 2014, a research project undertaken by Field Service News and mplsystems asked the respondents what they thought was “the biggest concern when implementing a new technology”. In 2012 respondents report that “the cost of implementation” was the biggest concern when implementing new technology, at 33%.

However only 2 years later, respondents now report that “legacy issues with former systems” is their number one concern, increasing from 22%to 38%. This was one of the biggest changes in response since the last research in 2012 and represents a potentially significant shift in the industry.

The shift away from the cost of implementation being the biggest concern could be explained by the growing popularity of the Cloud and the financial benefits a Software as a Service model brings. Software as a Service model offers many companies the ability to invest in service management software, when in the not too distant past such an investment may have been beyond their reach.

However, the same report also highlighted that currently only 23% of companies have made the shift to a Cloud based environment for their service management software, with 48% of companies planning to do so in the near future.

Alongside this, growing industry competition and increasing customer demand, businesses are starting to realise that relying on manual processes and several different systems for the delivery of service management is no longer suitable.

“Only 23% of companies

have made the shift to a

Cloud based environment for

their service management

software”

mplsystems believes that this is a major driver behind “integration with legacy systems” becoming the main concern for organisations when buying new technology, as they start to look towards the emerging trend; end-to-end service management.

End-to-end service management is when new functionality is integrated alongside existing technology to create one complete service management system across the business.

This approach allows a business to completely eliminate manual processes and creates full traceability of every job and status change.

When dealing with a customer enquiry, the helpdesk is able to access all systems from one single user interface and make changes on job

requests, customer details and delivery times at a click of a button; avoiding manual processes and thus delivering both a quicker and more insightful customer service.

When leading facilities management organisation, Cofely (previously Balfour Beatty Workplace), started looking for ways to improve their overall customer service and help desk operations, they struggled to find a service provider that would provide them with the level of integration they needed.

They relied heavily on their legacy IBM Maximo ERP and were concerned about the level of integration this needed and the impact this would have on the business. After assessing the market, Cofely selected mplsystems’ intelligentContact to deliver the end-to-end service management solution, with a key feature being the built in integration layer that would easily integrate with their Maximo ERP.

Cofely now have a solution that allows their help desk agents to seamlessly access all systems from across the organisation from one simple user interface, avoiding manual processes and increasing productivity.

So whilst integration with legacy systems is now the biggest concern for organisations, the availability of solutions that are able to complete this without incurring high costs or third parties is steadily growing.

This approach allows businesses of all sizes to effectively implement an end-to-end field service management solution.

Service Management Software: The changing concerns of implementing new software

The field service industry is changing and so are the challenges that we face. This no more

evident than when we look the new landscape of Service Management software says Paul

White of mplsystems...

p41p41

Event review: Service Community

The Service Community’s Manchester Event attracted over thirty delegates from a broad spectrum of small, medium and large

organisations with guests travelling from as far afield as Brazil and the USA.

The growth of The Community by more than 75% since the Special Event in June underscores that this clearly taps into the real desire to share best practice, debate relevant issues and network with like-minded professionals.

The generous host on this occasion was Siemens Industry GB&I coordinated by Graeme Coyne, who personally welcomed all guests in the impressive ‘Sir William Siemens House’ facilities in the outskirts of South-West Manchester.

Aston Business School’s Professor Tim Baines opened with a truly engaging and interactive key note presentation focused on “the challenges faced by UK Manufacturers as they adopt Servitisation as a Growth Strategy”.

This insight into some of the pitfalls that face an organisation as they adopt advanced service offerings, supported by pertinent academic research and analysis, was both a warning and highly educational.

This fabulous opening set the standard for an informative and entertaining afternoon.

In the spirit of topical content, the audience was treated to an innovative view of the potential of remote servicing equipment and the Internet of Things. John Pritchard of MAC Solutions explored the trends in device connectivity, leveraging the

revelation that the number of connected devices exceeds the number of people on the planet.

With this point in mind, John described techniques and cost savings in a forward thinking delivery that included a live software demonstration.

Both these opening presentations generated great interest from the audience, and led to a lively networking break that enabled guests to further explore their questions more personally with the speakers.

The networking break seemed to pass as a fleeting blur; however, the promise of further insights lured back the eager delegates.

Martin Hottass rose to the challenge as he laid down the gauntlet that the Field Service Industry is facing the retirement of a quarter of engineers in the next 10 years!

Martin, responsible for Skills & Professional Education at Siemens Energy didn’t just leave us worried about this startling demographic certainty but went on to explain techniques and government funding options available to organisations to help build apprenticeships and graduate recruitment programmes within the industry. The final keynote offered a case study delivered by Daniel Kingham from Elekta (manufacturers of medical equipment).

The fascinating study illustrated how migrating from a solely field based operation to a jointly managed remote and field based service operation transformed the customer experience.

Daniel’s empirical expertise was evident and he smoothly handled an abundance of questions which truly demonstrated his knowledge and left the audience satiated.

Once again, The Service Community delivered on its objectives. The content of the meetings remains the life-blood of The Community, followed closely by the generosity of community members to host events and volunteer time to keep

The Service Community alive. To this point, the next event is proposed for March 2015 – date and location to be confirmed and will be announced via Field Service News as soon as further information becomes available.

For more information on The Service

Community either visit bit.ly/FS_SC

or scan the QR code below...

CommunitySpiritUK based not-for-profit organisation The Service Community continues to flourish with another

excellent event filled with a host of insightful and intelligent presentations, this time hosted in the

impressive location of Sir William Siemens House in leafy suburban Manchester...

p42


Tim Baines, Professor of Operations Strategy at Aston Business School led the presentations with an excellent session looking at servitization as a growth strategy

p43

viva la

revolutionRolls Royce once reinvented service in the aerospace industry with ‘power by the hour’ they are about to do it again with ‘disruption based availability’ writes Kris Oldland...

When it comes to creating real value through service and integrating your service offering and product into one holistic package that generates far greater value for your customers and far greater long-term revenue for yourselves, there is one company whose name is come across in almost every conversation.

One company who are the ultimate example of what getting it right looks like.

One company who revolutionised not only the way service operates in their industry but indeed how an entire industry operated.

That company is Rolls Royce Aerospace.

So when we were asked if we would head down to Bristol to record aninterview with Dave Gordon, Program Director for Rolls Royce’s Defence Aviation division for a series of interviews for the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP) we leapt at the chance. And we were not disappointed.

Accompanied by Service Management Specialist Nick Frank we arrived at the Bristol Base, after submitting an array of additional paper work to allow us to film in what on the surface seemed a fairly regular corporate building, although the strict restrictions on where we could and couldn’t be and the detailed examination of our equipment relayed that this was still for all intense purposes

an integral component in the Royal Air Force’s operations and therefore access was neither granted or to be taken lightly.

And as we met with Gordon he too carried this air of being somewhere between corporate and government official. As we got set up he spoke with a relaxed and comfortable manner of the experienced corporation man. Getting our coffees personally, making light-hearted small talk about a recent decision to have laser-eye surgery etc.

You felt this was a businessman who had sat in many meetings such as these before, that was calm, relaxed and in control. Yet when we begin the interview and talk about the role Gordon plays he speaks about the UK client, he touches on their engines performance in ‘extreme conditions’ and you suddenly realise just how much pressure he and his team must be under to deliver, when your customers are some of the worlds leading military forces and we live in troubled times where the air strikes in Syria, would be just one example of where both Gordon’s and Rolls Royce’s reputations are put to the test in life and death scenarios that will effect the lives of thousands.

Yet still one gets the impression that Gordon would remain the same calm and amiable figure fixing the coffees before the meeting begins, if he was a meeting with a group of RAF Air Marshalls, US Marine Core Generals or as in this instance a member of the trade press.

The other early observation is that he is clearly very proud and passionate about the work he and his team are doing for Rolls Royce.

“Rolls Royce within defence has been on a journey over the last ten to fifteen years, we were a fairly traditional provider of the service we sold a product, we sold a very time and material based service solution, it was very driven by the customer and their management of our product” Gordon begins

“However, it became clear to us that that wasn’t the best fit for our customers” he continues. And it is this attitude, this belief that they can stand in the face of a customer driven process and say ‘hold on, we think we should be doing all this a bit differently’ that has separated Rolls Royce from the rest of the pack in the sectors they operate in.

Although their famous power-by-the-hour service system that is at the heart of their success as a serviced provider required a leap of faith from another global player in the industry.

“There was a very strong pull from American Airlines, who approached Rolls Royce and said we would be far more interested in you providing a solution that kept your engine on wing and we incentivised you for doing that” Gordon explains

“So we worked very closely with that customer and developed a total care solution that very much

p44

fieldservicenews.com Viva la revolution: Rolls Royce Interview

focuses on that end-to-end need and during that process Rolls ourselves have gradually taken on more of the risks, more of the responsibilities for managing those assets”

And Gordon’s own department in defence have followed this path now themselves taking a strikingly similar journey forward with the those he refers to as ‘The UK Customer’

“Within defence we’ve taken some of those core tools and processes and embedded them into our own value offering to our customer and we particularly use the UK Customer as a testing house to work with them.” Gordon continues

“They themselves were going through a major transformation looking to downsize the scale of their operation and drive efficiency. We were very much up for that journey as well. Very much a collaboration we went about introducing a far more availability based solution, which has been very successful”

However yesterday’s revolution is today’s best practice. And the only true revolutionaries are those who continue to innovate, continue to push boundaries and continue to look for ways they can further improve tomorrow.

Both Gordon and Rolls Royce fit into this camp.

“As we look to the future, we’re starting to work with the customer to go beyond just an availability solution and say what’s really disrupting that customers operation? What is really stopping them doing their job?” Gordon comments before taking a moment to pause.

“We want to get to a point where they are no longer thinking about my propulsion system they’re just focussed on prosecuting their

operation. To do that we need to know a little bit about the nature of the disruption and what we can do to help.” He adds with a definite hint of excitement of that future being within touching distance. It is this concept of ‘disruption based availability’ that Gordon and Rolls Royce clearly believe to be the next evolution of there service offering as they continue to lead the industry from the front.

“Disruption based

availability is

something that we been

very focussed on”

“Disruption based availability, or sometimes we refer to it as project zero, as in zero disruption to the customer, is something that both us in Defence and our colleagues in Civil have been very focussed on.” Begins Gordon.

“Understanding that it’s not just about guaranteeing the engine time on wing but actually understanding when the engine does have an incident that causes some disruption to the customer, even something as minor as a delayed take off, still that clearly has a cost. What we have been trying to do is work with our customers to understand very clearly what that cost is.” He adds.

It is a bold vision of where the Aerospace giants next steps will be, yet at the same time it feels like a natural evolution from where they are today. It’s also an approach that will yield a number benefits both hard and soft according to Gordon.

“The benefits are both the tangible where we can build an offering around saying ‘We understand the impact around cost and therefore if we are

able to reduce that we can develop that into a value proposition... but also there is an intangible piece to this as well as it helps me to motivate my teams to understand the exact impact an event will have on a customer. To help them see the fact that there are repercussions way beyond a flight not being able to take off. It will feedback into the impact such an event has on the wider operation, the planning that went into it, the need for contingency planning, and so on…” Gordon explains with enthusiasm

“Understanding the whole eco-system that sits around not just my product, but the system it’s working in and how the customer is using it, and then understanding how we can reduce the impact, you can clearly demonstrate the value to the customer, and we’re working with them to do that….”

He takes the briefest of pauses, giving his next thought some consideration before committing to it. But when he does it sums up exactly what both Gordon and Rolls Royce are all about

“It’s a real motivator for me as the team really starts to understand what customer service actually means.” He adds in an almost solemn tone.

And this for me is it, there is a point in any interview where you grasp the heart of the story, and you see your subject in their truest light. Dave Gordon and Rolls Royce are a perfect fit. Look at the DNA of both the man and the corporation and you’ll find service deeply entwined.

In the heart of each you’ll find a desire to innovate, to keep pushing the boundaries, and to keep on being revolutionary.

Which is why I expect both to succeed.

Want to know more? scan

the qr code to watch

our exclusive series of

video interviews with

dave gordon, program

director, rolls royce

p45

Are you up to date with the latest trends in field service? The field service industry is constantly developing, shifting and evolving. To help you stay

ahead of the curve Field Service News brings you a round up of the key information resources

from the last three months...

Tip: to get the latest resources sent to your inbox as soon as they are published register for free @fieldservicenews.com/subscribe

Infographic: Gamification in business

White Paper: 21st Century Field Service: The impact of IoT

Video Series: Dave Gordon, Rolls Royce exclusive interview

White Paper: 5 steps to change management

ClickSoftware have created this great infographic looking at the uses of Gamification within businesses and how it has evolved throughout the years.

Some key points include: By 2015, 40% of top 1000 companies by market value will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations, Gamification is a key element In consumerisation of enterprise strategy in companies such as Cisco, Pearson and Salesforce

Download a copy from: bit.ly/fsn-gam

In our latest white paper 21st Century field service: The impact of the Internet of Things, we look at how once again technology will reshape the way field service operates. The following is compiled from extracts of that white paper

Preparing for the IoT revolution is not a question of why, but more a question of when and as our white paper reveals the early stages of IoT adoption in field service are already underway, so surely the when needs to be now.

Download a copy from: bit.ly/FSN-21st

Filmed on location at Rolls Royce’s defence divisions head office in Bristol, Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland and Service Management specialist Nick Frank spoke exclusively to Dave Gordon, Program Director for Rolls Royce’s defence division.

This series of six videos charts the journey Gordon and Rolls Royce have been on to change the way service is delivered in the aerospace industry and looks at how they plan to change it once more with disruptive based availability.

Watch part one at: bit.ly/FSN_RR_VID

The accompanying white paper to our exclusive six feature series looking at change management in field service.

Both the series and the white paper look at the five steps that Sharon Moura, VP IT Transformation and Stragey with global fire and security firm Tyco took when she rolled out ServiceMax’s field service management solution.

Download a copy from: bit.ly/fsn-change

p46

fieldservicenews.com Latest resources

Video: Giles Margerison, TomTom Telematics exclusive interview

Podcast: What is end-to-end field service?

White Paper: 5 Benefits of a modern field service solution

White Paper: End-to-end or best of breed, which is right for you?

Podcast: Transforming your field service business

Field Service News Editor, Kris Oldland speaks exclusively with TomTom Telematics Director Giles Margerison.

Includes discussion on the challenges that are facing field service companies in todays world of instant information, how the next generation of technology can help overcome these issues and why there is no such thing as an off the shelf FieldService Management solution.

Download a copy from:bit.ly/FSNP_TTINT

Field Service News podcast featuring Paul Sparkes of Advanced Field Service.

In this exclusive interview Sparkes is grilled on what exasctly does end to end field service mean and he tackles the question from a number of differernt angels in a frank, honest and completley unbiased manner drawing on his wide experience in the field service management software industry both as a product developer and a marketing and sales professional.

Download a copy from: bit.ly/FSN-pod-e2e

Understanding what benefits a modern field service management system can provide is vital if you are going to be able to secure the investment required from senior management to take improve the productivity of your field service operation.

This excellent white paper published by Exel Computer systems is written to give you guidance and understanding of what your should expect and demand from a modern field service managejment solution.

Download a copy from: bit.ly/1ENkZKO

As part of our series exploring end to end field service we are pleased to be able to offer you this excellent white paper published by Advanced Field Service that questions whether an end to end service management solution or best-of –breed solution is the right move for your company.

It is a question that has been debated for some time and it will continue to do so. However, this well written whiet paper helps shed some light on what is a very complicated and tricky subject.

Download a copy from: bit.ly/FSN-best-end

A guest podcast from Trimble Field Service Management’s Aubrey Fox/.

In this podcast which also has an accompanying slide deck Auvrey looks at what is field service before begins looking at some of the research that Timble FSM have conducted within the last year and how we can apply these learnings to manageing our own mobile workforce.

Download a copy from:bit.ly/FSN-5-ben

p47p47

To help customers monitor and manage their energy usage, British Gas is rolling out smart meters as standard to homes

and businesses across Britain by 2020, as part of a Government mandate.

A team of 1200 field engineers (known as Smart Energy Experts) are responsible for this task. To work efficiently, these Smart Energy Experts need appropriate IT devices to support them, but the existing tablet estate was aging, and at the limit of its designed capability….

A partnership approachBritish Gas partnered with Computacenter to help upgrade its tablet estate to Dell devices running Windows 8. Computacenter was responsible for sourcing, testing, pre-configuring and asset tagging the devices before delivering them as required to British Gas sites. The project was successfully completed on time to aggressive timescales.

Smart Energy Experts use the new tablets to support every stage of the smart meter installation process. This includes receiving their jobs and updates through the day, workflow through different types of jobs, as well as the commissioning activities for smart gas and electricity meters. Using the new devices has simplified their day-to-day tasks, and improved

employee satisfaction, productivity and customer service. This will help British Gas achieve its goal of ensuring the smart meter installation is a seamless experience for its customers.

Powering homes and business across the UKBritish Gas is the UK’s leading energy supplier, and serves around 12 million homes in Britain – nearly half the country’s homes – as well as providing energy to one million UK businesses. British Gas provides “value for money, dedicated customer service, innovative energy solutions and the highest quality Home Services expertise in the country.”

Helping customers be smart about energy By 2020 smart meters will be rolled out as standard across the country as part of a Government initiative, replacing current gas and electricity meters. British Gas adopted a strategy to introduce smart meters early in order to bring the benefits to customers as soon as possible, and currently leads the industry with more than one million meters already installed in customers’ homes and businesses.

Each home receives a smart gas meter, a smart electricity meter and a smart energy monitor. Smart meters communicate how much energy is being used to a smart energy monitor so customers can see their energy use and its costs

in pounds and pence in near real-time. The smart meters also record energy use at up to half-hourly intervals and send these readings back to the energy supplier, once a day, putting an end to estimated bills.

Alan Fairhurst, Technical Consulting Manager with British Gas Strategic Systems, explains: “British Gas has already installed over a million smart meters into homes and businesses, and the roll-out is gathering pace as we look towards the Government deadline of 2020.”

To ensure British Gas can achieve this goal and safeguard the quality of customer services, the Smart Energy Experts need to be equipped with the right tools. “The IT devices they use have a big impact on their productivity. We need them to be able to focus on their customers and the job in hand, without worrying about IT issues and downtime,” says Fairhurst.

The team was using tablet devices that were originally selected for their toughness, but the devices lacked the features and ease of use needed to maximise productivity.

1200 New Windows 8 tabletsBritish Gas partnered with Computacenter to upgrade the tablet estate. “We have worked with Computacenter for a number of years,” explains

British Gas roll out 1,200 new Windows 8 tablets as UK energy gets smart...With government legislation driving the installation of Smart Meters across the county UK

utilities giant British Gas had to rapidly roll out a new mobile workforce solution to meet the

target date of 2020. Here we look at how they did so with the help of enterprise mobility

specialists Computacenter...

p48

fieldservicenews.com Case Study: British Gas

Fairhurst. “Mass device change is not our core business, so when it comes to projects such as this, we need a partner with expertise and experience, such as Computacenter.”

Following an internal exercise to evaluate the devices available on the market, British Gas turned to Computacenter to help procure and build the selected Dell Latitude 10 tablets, which run the Windows 8 operating system.

Computacenter helped British Gas negotiate pricing with Dell, and from June 2013 took responsibility for building and delivering the new devices over a four-month period.

“Computacenter managed the logistics of the project, which included monitoring and tracking shipments to ensure they arrived on assigned dates so we could meet our tight deployment deadlines,” comments Fairhurst.

Following delivery at Computacenter’s Hatfield Configuration Centre, each device was BIOS-tested, pre-configured and asset tagged.

They were then packed with accessories, including a ruggedised Griffin survivor case, and retained at Computacenter’s buy and store facilities until British Gas required delivery.

Results:By partnering with Computacenter, British Gas was able to mitigate the risks associated with deploying such a large number of devices within a short timeframe. “It was quite an aggressive project where we had to get the new tablets out to our Smart Energy Experts quickly and get it right first time,” confirms Fairhurst. “With Computacenter’s expertise and experience, we were able to successfully complete the project to deadline without having to invest in additional resources and space.”

As a result of working with Computacenter, British Gas has been able to:

• Reduce project risks: Computacenter’s commitment to British Gas’s tight deadlines, vendor relationships and best practices helped ensure the project was a success.

• Simplify the installation of smart meters: The British Gas Smart Energy Experts use the new tablets every day when installing smart meters. They receive full details of each property and task, and track the progress of every job, via the tablets. The devices are also used to take photos of the meters in location for future records.

• Improve engineer productivity: The

enterprise-grade Windows 8 tablets bridge the gap between the corporate and consumer world, combining the reliability of a corporate device with the ease-of-use of a consumer interface. This not only simplified training, but also maximises productivity on a daily basis.

• Increase employee satisfaction: Although corporately owned, the devices are personally enabled so Smart Energy Experts have an incentive to look after the tablets. They also enable them to take advantage of a growing range of helpful apps.

• Enhance customer service: As Smart Energy Experts can access all the details they need about each customer and site quickly and easily, they can provide a better informed and more efficient service. They are also able to demonstrate a number of British Gas services and products whilst at the customer premises.

“With support from Computacenter, our Smart Energy Experts have the tools they need for the job. They are happier, more motivated and able to provide better customer service,” concludes Fairhurst. “This will help us achieve our goal of installing smart meters as standard to homes and businesses across the country by 2020.”

p49

fieldservicenews.com Time for Change

I recently read that 60% of IT projects fail to deliver on time and on budget. It’s not hard to see why - in the last decade new technologies

have changed the way a business works considerably. Information technology has reached every last corner of industry moving at break-neck speed.

IT projects are no longer confined to implementing one system in one area of the business and with larger IT projects becoming far more complex with tightly integrated solutions, IT Project Managers need to move beyond the comfort of the IT department to interact with others such as Operations, Finance and Shared Services, which means that they will have to lead the organisational change required to meet their project goals.

IT Project Managers used to be safe in the knowledge that they were called upon for their technical skills alone, it wasn’t imperative that they think strategically or have to communicate complex plans to anyone outside of their immediate project team and sponsor. Today however, IT Project Managers are not only required to

deliver complex projects on time and on budget, they are also expected to address the impact on the business, align technology strategy to the business objectives and consider the approach to change required to ensure the project is a success. In short, to succeed IT Project Managers must think like business professionals not just technical ones.

A new set of skills In order for IT Project Managers to succeed in their new roles it is essential that they build their Communication, Leadership and Business Change skills.

In every project there is a demand from the relevant business areas for subject matter experts to advise and facilitate the business impact and change management. Whilst this is critical to all project deliveries, the impact on the day-to-day business operation is often underestimated and not planned as well as it could be.

By enabling and empowering IT Project Managers to manage and influence relationships across the

business, whilst simultaneously championing the new technology they are implementing,

businesses can avoid the sudden pull on key resources. These core skills

will allow Project Managers to look at the broader context of the project across the organisation and understand the impact that this

will have on people and culture, and importantly allow them to create joint IT and business plans to pre-empt the

resource requirement.

IT Project Managers need to be equipped to deal with the human side of IT projects, ensuring that change is embraced, adopted and utilised and

in turn this will allow them to be more aware of the impact upon people, process and

technology across the organisation.

Business Transformation is no longer an event, it is a method for continuous improvement. By embracing the change in concept and through

robust succession planning the IT Project Managers of tomorrow can help businesses to avoid the associated cost spike of a business-wide transformation programme, provide accurate capital investment plans that align to the business strategy and manage the change as though it were business as usual.

A unified approachThe most effective projects will take a unified approach, implementing change on both technical and people fronts. By enabling IT Project Managers to look at both the technical and human side of projects, the efforts become focussed toward a singular objective. The flow of information is integrated so that at the front-end employees are receiving timely information and appropriate messages whilst at the back-end, the project team is receiving effective feedback on usage and adoption. This allows a fluid and dynamic approach, a blend of the traditional ‘Agile’ and ‘Waterfall’ without the rigidity and restrictions but inclusive of the appropriate methodology required to ensure that the right steps can be taken at the right time in the project lifecycle, engaging employees and allowing them to embrace the changes being made.

IT Project Managers need to be held accountable for the success of the project as a whole – not just hitting the go-live date. After all, the success of an IT project should be measureable through results and outcomes – not just time and budget, but by tangible, realised business benefits, a reduction in ‘run-the-business’ costs and how the solution has been embraced, adopted and utilised by the organisation.

IT Project Management and Business Change are complementary disciplines with a common objective. If IT Project Managers of the future are enabled to deliver a unified approach then far more IT projects will be successful.

time for changeIT Project Managers need to adapt to change and develop new skills if they are

to survive in todays market believes Pete Sharp of Leadent Solutions...

North American Office

11150 Sunset Hills Road,

Suite 307,

Reston, VA 20190 USA

sales +1 703 437 4230

email [email protected]

European Office

1 Newmans Row, Lincoln Inn,

Lincoln Road,

High Wycombe, Bucks.

HP12 3RE United Kingdom

sales +44(0)1494 465066


service centre 5.1

service management software

Service Centre 5.1 is available SaaS, is browser

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Service Centre 5.1 is a true end to end web product. Developed using

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8454 Field Service News Advert.indd 1 18/03/2014 10:54

North American Office

11150 Sunset Hills Road,

Suite 307,

Reston, VA 20190 USA

sales +1 703 437 4230


European Office

1 Newmans Row, Lincoln Inn,

Lincoln Road,

High Wycombe, Bucks.

HP12 3RE United Kingdom

sales +44(0)1494 465066


service centre 5.1

service management software

Service Centre 5.1 is available SaaS, is browser

independent and will run on any device -

learn more at www.tesseract.co.uk

Our software runs in the cloud, but if you'd prefer...

...we can install it on your own server!

Service Centre 5.1 is a true end to end web product. Developed using

Microsoft .Net technology Service Centre 5.1 is a browser based HTML

product supporting a range of databases and having a ‘zero footprint client’.

Mono Logo Ratio Guide

Logo Type to Symbol Ratio Master 2007

Ratio 1

Ratio 2

Ratio 3supplying service solutions for over 25 years

Supporting our 7,500 satisfied users ensures that

our feet stay firmly on the ground.

8454 Field Service News Advert.indd 1 18/03/2014 10:54

Fleet management for better team and business performance

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