Across the following months we will be analysing the biggest research project undertaken by Field Service News Research which in partnership with FieldAware involve over 220 field service management professionals. In this opening feature we reflect on how the global pandemic has shaped the thinking of industry leaders…
The last 6 months have been as tumultuous and challenging as we collectively as a global society have known since the end of the second world war in 1949. Indeed, during the pandemic it was almost impossible to not use various war analogies when discussing the challenges, we all faced. We were all in the trenches together facing an unprecedented threat, magnified by uncertainty, amplified by the very foundations of the global society we live in today.
Borders lifted by the political and economic harmonisation of a truly global economy in areas such as the EU’s Schengen zone came crashing down, while in the heat of panic even medical supplies were held, as nation after nation stared into the oncoming headlights.
However, this was not a world war, this was a battle against an enemy who cared little for borders, an enemy that had no concern about the ethnicity or nationality of its victims. This was an enemy that was coming for all of us, and so unlike a war that pulled nations apart, the global pandemic of 2020 brought us together, in our hour of adversity, we ultimately, beyond the petty bickering of the politicians and media, stood together.
In business, our economy was decimated by a prolonged lockdown that still continues in various degrees in differing nations – at least at the time of writing this report in October 2020. Debate has been ongoing since the earliest of the lockdowns as to whether the economy would see a sharp V shaped bounce back or if we would see a much more protracted deeper cutting global recession.
Currently, hesitantly, the signs are positive. In the US the economy has showed almost as dramatic an uptake as it declined and predictions for the next quarter from the majority of analysts remain favourable. How robust and sustained such bursts of recovery prove to be, however remains uncertain, although it does at least offer a glimmer of hope.
“Throughout the pandemic field workers alongside front-line medical staff, delivery drivers and countless others have continued to keep the world ticking over while the majority adapted to the safety of working from home…”
What is certain however, is that whenever we find ourselves moving back towards a more standardised version of working, whenever we fully emerge into the ‘new normal’, it will be an environment that is very different from what came before.
For us in field service we have a peculiarly unique front seat in how this new normal is evolving.
Ours is a sector that cannot and could not ever fully stop. As an industry we have long seen our field service engineers and technicians as the unsung heroes keeping the world moving, long before as a wider society we held a collective understanding of essential workers. Throughout the pandemic field workers alongside front-line medical staff, delivery drivers and countless others have continued to keep the world ticking over while the majority adapted to the safety of working from home.
“2020 will be year that will long live in the memories of all of us for many reasons, but for our industry it is a significant period of disruptive change that will shape the very way we approach service delivery here on in…”
As field service leaders we have had the dual challenge of keeping operations running, adapting on the fly to the ever-changing environment that has been field service delivery in 2020, while simultaneously planning for what service delivery will look like for our organisations both on the route towards recovery and beyond.
2020 will be year that will long live in the memories of all of us for many reasons, but for our industry it is a significant period of disruptive change that will shape the very way we approach service delivery here on in. With this in mind it is essential that we both document the changes that we have seen emerge, understand where we are seeing emergence of new best-practices, and understand the technologies that are being harnessed today that will become an essential part of the field service management tool box in 2021 and beyond.
Working in direct partnership, Field Service News and FieldAware have conducted a broad ranging study to try to get an understanding of these trends and in this first report of two based on this research, we will begin to evaluate the data from over 220 field service management professionals, allowing you as a field service leader, to benchmark your own current thinking and organisational position.
Across the coming weeks we will be publishing a series of features with insights from this extensive research project exclusively here at research.fieldservicenews.com so bookmark this page!
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