As digital transformation spend is increasing around the world, businesses look for technology vendors whose ethics (29 percent) and culture (23 percent) align with their own. Interestingly, these considerations trump innovation in the ranking of desirable traits, demonstrating that having a similar cultural view of the world is playing a larger role in the selection process.

The top two vendor traits selected were specialist industry expertise (32 percent) and long-term solutions (30 percent). This is unsurprising, considering poor advice from vendors tops the list of why digital transformation projects fail at 37 percent, according to a research study from global enterprise applications company IFS.

Combined with poor vendor advice, technology selection teams, especially among businesses with revenues around the one-billion-dollar mark, are also being pressured by senior management to select well-known vendors even when they are a poor fit for the company’s actual needs.

Despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of companies are planning to increase their digital transformation spend, according to study findings earlier this year. With more businesses investing, with the aim of driving revenue post pandemic, the cost of failure is high and it’s becoming even more important to get investment right.

37 percent say poor vendor advice is the main reason why digital transformation projects fail

A resounding 48 percent of respondents at companies with revenues between 850–950 million US$ stated that they had been forced by senior management or the board of directors to use a well-known vendor that was a poor technological fit.

 “The fact that a non-tangible such as ethics is ranked among the top three vendor traits is inextricably linked to the fact that poor advice from vendors was rated as the top reason for failure,” IFS Chief Customer Officer Michael Ouissi said. “Companies investing in technology should expect their vendors to adhere to sound sales and marketing practices based squarely in actual customer value.”

With a focus on previous experiences from past digital transformation projects, the study finds that budgets and timelines are two major pain points. Respondents indicate that failure in past projects makes management more reluctant to engage in future digital transformation efforts, with budget overruns topping the list of reasons management may put the brakes on critical projects at 28 percent and 26 percent saying blown timelines on past projects have made management more risk averse.

Further analysis of the findings shows that success of these digital transformation projects primarily hinges on finding the right technological fit (44 percent) and establishing clear objectives (50 percent). In fact, the top-three vendor trust factors highlighted by respondents are on-time delivery (44 percent), support before, during and after project completion (41 percent), and delivering projects faster to value (35 percent).

 

---

Further Reading:

• Download a complimentary copy of Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond:
  The Technology Equation @ www.ifs.com/digital-transformation-investment-in-2020
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk

 

In a world of digitilization in which it is fully possible to engage with customers without human interaction at all, the field service call has become increasingly rare – it is an opportunity to deal with your customers face to face and in person.

The importance of ‘face-time’ has long been acknowledge within business and so this opportunity to build deeper levels of customer engagement should not be ignored. However, in 2020 the rules have all changed – we now exist in a world of zoom calls and remote service delivery. As we begin to build a new normal there has been much discussion about whether we should be moving to a remote first by default approach. The arguments for doing so are powerful, reduced costs for service delivery against a backdrop of an increasing requirement for zero touch service calls. But could we be throwing out the baby with the bath water in doing so?

As we look towards building the recovery from COVID-19 we spoke to a number of leading field service management experts to ask if field service engineers can and should be still be harnessed to cut through the digital noise and re-introduce the human touch. Now we reflect on those views to reiterate the importance of the human-to-human interaction that the field service visit offers, that perhaps cannot be replaced by a digital alternative.

 

Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director for Service Management at IFS

“Digitalization can streamline and improve the customer experience in many ways, but it will never replace the need for human connection. As digital experiences become more ubiquitous, field service becomes a critical tool in communicating your customer commitment, company culture, and brand identity.

“While customers expect digitalization as a means to simplify their desires to self-schedule, stay informed, and communicate; the more digital our world becomes, the more the face-to-face experience a field technician provides becomes a strategic differentiator.

“COVID-19 has put an even greater emphasis on the importance of human connection, and as recovery ramps the ability to deliver a memorable service interaction will serve as a competitive advantage.”

 

Sumair Dutta, Director of Digital Transformation at ServiceMax

“Human operators become even more vital in an automated environment, not less important. While automation helps shoulder the burden of lower level jobs that don’t generate any added value to the service function – such as locating, moving and loading of stock – it’s the people that often do the best work, innovating, problem solving and understanding customer requirements.

“The human element is essential, as it always has been. And for service teams, this means not losing sight of customers despite increased remote maintenance capabilities. Easier said than done? Not really. 

“Predictive service is one element of a proactive customer management strategy. As Roland Berger identified in its paper Predictive Maintenance: From Data Collection to Value Creation, predictive and not reactive service is essential for any organisation that wants to move forward and embrace digital transformation. By accessing sensor data through IoT networks, machine learning algorithms can analyse and predict in real time, alerting service teams to potential issues before they become serious problems.

 

"It’s so important for service teams to get in front of customers, highlighting potential issues and resolving them..."

- Sumair Dutta, ServiceMax

 

“It shouldn’t stop there. It’s so important for service teams to get in front of customers, highlighting potential issues and resolving them. Cutting through the digital noise requires communication, even if current working practices will limit face-to-face meetings. Using the data and understanding customer equipment status will be increasingly important given cost constraints and everyone wanting to get more bang for their buck. For example, are customers retiring equipment too early? According to a Forrester report commissioned by ServiceMax, From Grease to code: What drives digital transformation, forty one percent of firms don’t know if they’re retiring equipment prematurely due to lack of service data insight, an area where service teams can be proactive in helping customers optimise their equipment use.

“Customer success delivered with the combination of both a human and digital touch should be a strategic priority for service teams. Through analysing service data, teams can provide visible, proactive suggestions to customers (with recommendations delivered by human technicians), on how they can improve. This can lead, where appropriate, to upgrades, new machines or increased maintenance deals but ultimately this is about demonstrating value and building a stronger bond, something which an account rep calling up three months before a renewal can rarely achieve. 

“So, while automation is both the present and future of field service provision, with predictive maintenance the bedrock of modern servitization, organisations cannot afford to sit back and rely on automation alone to illustrate value to customers. As the economy tries to find its feet, demonstrating customer value and keeping the ‘human touch’ front and centre is more important than ever. Service maintenance data is the ammunition for proactive customer engagement, but it will be different skillsets that take this forward, such as softer skills by technicians. Communication is key and human interaction is essential to ensure organisations are not out of sight and mind of their customers.

 

Mark Tatarsky – VP Marketing, FieldAware

"Throughout the service lifecycle, customers continually assess a service company’s value and brand. As the world works to limit human interaction while keeping assets installed, maintained, and repaired, technology creates a duality to decrease “unnecessary” interactions and improve the quality of “necessary” interactions. Field Service Automation enables organizations to schedule and execute on-site jobs while managing social distancing effectively.

"Workforce management and rules-based scheduling systems decrease the number of unnecessary visits by dispatching the right technician with the correct skillset and tools/equipment to complete the job. Points of contact are further reduced via technician location tracking and arrival notifications so customers can meet technicians at the point-of-service at a specific time.

 

"Once the service engineer leaves the site, technology simplifies a digital survey process to close the loop enabling customers to provide feedback and service organizations to react quickly..."

- Marc Tatarsky, FieldAware

 

"Field techs are the face of the brand during the critical moment of service delivery. Investing in technology with innovative customer-centric communications and management capabilities ensures necessary site visits meet the customer’s requirements, SLA commitments, and provide ample time for essential on-site relationship management.

"Digitizing the process to include workforce management, mobile tech enablement, knowledge tools, work instructions, diagnostics, or remote expert advice increases the vital first-time fix rate and customer satisfaction. Ensuring estimated job durations automatically include time for engineers to spend with customers on necessary site visits to discuss their business requirements and identify areas to extend value improves the customer relationship experience. Once the service engineer leaves the site, technology simplifies a digital survey process to close the loop enabling customers to provide feedback and service organizations to react quickly to problems or take steps to solidify a robust user experience."

 

Ashok Kartham, CEO and Founder, Mize

“Digitization of Field Service has brought new meaning to the concept of providing the “Warm and Fuzzies”.   In the past, we may have taken it for granted that courteous and friendly service is the foundation of a good customer experience. Now, when a field service visit is required, technicians can arrive onsite with the knowledge, skills, and resources to fix both the problem and the customer. After all, end-customers expect their technician to be experts. The better the technician can communicate his knowledge about the customer, the customer’s install base, the customer’s experiences, preferences, history, etc. they more valuable they become and the better the experience they provide. Ultimately, this is the human touch they desire, and digitization makes his possible.”  

 

"Customers trust field service technicians because of their product knowledge and solution approach. Customers are more willing to accept advice from a person they trust..."

- Ashok Kartham, Mize

 

“Customers trust field service technicians because of their product knowledge and solution approach. Customers are more willing to accept advice from a person they trust. The Field service technician is in the best position to establish that trusted relation with the customers. “

“By being the main or only direct contact with the customers, field service technicians can help increase the attach rates of service contracts, consumables, and related products and services. Technicians need to be enabled to access customer history, provide quotes, and complete transactions while with the customer.”   

 

Michael Maoz, Senior Vice President, Innovation Strategy, Salesforce

“Advances in embedded intelligence in all devices and structures means that in the near future any on-site presence of a field technician is either for initial installation, or a complex repair. To play Devil’s Advocate, in some ways this will lessen the importance of the technician visit, as an ever-greater percentage of the customer relationship, and therefore customer satisfaction, will be cultivated and maintained remotely, through self service, in-store, or within customer communities.

"Shifts in customer priorities in some countries, brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, increasingly will mean that face-to-face engagement will happen on a screen. Remote video diagnostic sessions done in collaboration with the customer will become the preferred approach. The quality of remote video sessions will explode with the introduction of 5G over the coming three years. It will allow a feeling of genuine presence, due to high fidelity augmented reality in the form of the virtual presence of the technicians, overlaid video instructions, and voice-driven instructions from AI sources.

 

"To prevent the process change and the culture change from overwhelming their field service organizations, tight planning is necessary, and an integrated set of processes across marketing, sales and service..."

- Michael Maoz, Salesforce

 

"This sense of a shared business and customer effort at service resolution will leave the customer feeling a deeper connection with the enterprise. Connections foster trust, and trust fosters loyalty. Loyal customers buy more often and recommend to their friends that they do the same.

“There will be more thorough remote preparation for the arrival of the technician in the cases where this is necessary or a best practice (Such as relationship building, demonstrating new products and services, and marketing new offers). Digitization will simplify the job of the technician onsite. This will give the technician the time and the tools to better engage the customer from a position of empathy, and with a focus on developing business opportunities

“Organizations are already discovering that embracing the enhanced role of the field service engineer requires a new set of criteria and practices to attract talent, train and motivate and compensate talent, and to measure the business outcomes (for example: costs, upselling, retention, churn).

“To prevent the process change and the culture change from overwhelming their field service organizations, tight planning is necessary, and an integrated set of processes across marketing, sales and service. An ability to capture and analyse a constant stream of customer feedback will be vital in helping the enterprise keep such a program on track. The challenges will be great, and the rewards will be even greater.”

Combined with Salesforce Customer 360 Platform and Salesforce Field Service, Asset 360 will create the world's most complete field service solution on the world's #1 CRM platform

ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, today announced ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce, a new product built on Salesforce Field Service, bringing ServiceMax's asset-centric approach and decade-plus of experience to more customers across a broader set of industries to help them keep critical assets running.

In today's environment, companies across all industries are having to reimagine how they operate. Requirements for equipment performance have intensified, while customer expectations continue to rise. In order to thrive, organizations must advance beyond the standard break-fix model to ensure uptime for important assets in a safe and compliant manner. Service teams must prioritize efficient asset performance, as well as the customer experience they provide.

ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will deliver a 360-degree view into install base, service contracts and asset performance to maximize equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs. This advanced insight, natively developed within Salesforce Field Service, will empower customers to shift from selling products to adopting outcome-based strategies that propel businesses forward. This will enable customers to drive operational results, including:

• Accelerating time-to-value to support asset-centric business processes with pre-configured templates and industry best practices
• Gaining greater visibility into warranty coverages and improving service margin by preventing uncovered work with warranty and entitlement management
• Maximizing contract attach rates and renewals by monitoring the install base to ensure warranty-to-contract conversion while delivering on entitlements
• Automating RMA/depot repair processes to efficiently manage returns, meet compliance and lower inventory costs with purpose-built interfaces

The new offering will enable reduced implementation time and deliver new innovation with each release, bringing enhanced workflows directly to customers "out of the box" and access to emerging technologies such as Einstein. ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will be available in November 2020. ServiceMax will also continue to offer, support and invest in bringing new technologies to its existing Core platform.

"For 13 years, ServiceMax has helped customers keep the world running with world-class field service solutions," said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. "We are proud to offer this new solution, built on the Salesforce platform, which will enable even more customers across a broader set of industries to benefit from an asset-centric approach in order to run more profitable, efficient service operations and ensure uptime on the world's most important assets."

"The enhanced partnership between ServiceMax and Salesforce continues the market trend of ecosystem relationships to support end-to-end service lifecycle management with an eye to an industry focus," said Aly Pinder, Program Director, Service Innovation and Connected Products at IDC, and author of IDC's recent Market Scape on Field Service Management. "The partnership moves the conversation past 'let's turn more wrenches in a given day' to 'let's enable service to deliver a better, more proactive customer experience that ensures asset performance.' I am intrigued to follow this from a business relationship perspective and see how this partnership supports the future of field service."

"We're thrilled to be bringing a next-generation field service product to market for our customers," said Mark Cattini, SVP of Field Service Management at Salesforce. "And, with the combination of ServiceMax Asset 360 and Salesforce Field Service, companies across industries will have access to enhanced asset management and dynamic resource scheduling capabilities on a single platform. This is the future of field service and it's connected, proactive and intelligent."      

---

Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with ServiceMax CEO Neil Barua and CMO Stacey Epstein about the new release to find out more. Look out for that exclusive interview coming soon!

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces the availability of new and enhanced capabilities in its customer engagement software enabling companies to respond to the challenges facing the traditional call center and transform their customer engagement. IFS is leading the way for service organizations to become knowledge and outcome centric throughout the entirety of the service experience.

Forward-thinking companies have become customer obsessed knowing that new business and customer retention rely on it. IFS’s customer experience applications are engineered to provide visibility and context for the customer, the contact center, and the service organization throughout the service cycle, through technology that is easy to deploy, configure, and use. This includes enriching work processes with automation and AI capabilities to ready companies for a future where self-service will be at the start of 85 percent of customer interactions by 2022, up from 48 percent in 2019.

The importance of engaging customers through a single, unified experience across every channel—voice, e-mail, chat and social—has never been greater. IFS believes companies overlook this area at their peril. Gartner notes:* “By 2022, 50 percent of large organizations will have still failed to unify engagement channels. This will result in the continuation of a disjointed and siloed customer experience that lacks context. 

highly configurable and integrated omnichannel hub to IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEs

In this latest release, businesses can enjoy:

• A smooth transition from a telephony-based support center to a full omni-channel contact hub in a matter of days—complete with a customer service agent desktop
• A new customer engagement studio that allows companies to configure their own customer service desktop while eliminating the need for costly one-off customizations
• Simple integration to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and field service management (FSM) applications, agents are empowered to handle issues rapidly, driving front-office productivity by an average of over 40 percent

“As businesses use service offerings to power their way to growth in the new normal, the imperative has never been greater to focus on the customer experience,” said Marne Martin, President of IFS Service Management. “Businesses need a single view of a customer, yes, but they also need a complete service management solution that delivers on the service outcome that a customer expects in order to drive net promotor score, sustainability, and growth. This is where IFS is leading the way to deliver sustainable outcomes and knowledge-based service, which is the future for more and more service businesses.”

IFS’s latest investments in customer experience also include remote assistance and “On My Way” to provide a complete customer management solution for businesses looking to grow their service capability and transform their customer experience.

Over the past two years, IFS has seen strong growth in its service management business with more than 50 percent of revenues coming from its field service customer base in the first half of 2020. New license sales across its service management applications, including its recognized FSM offering, grew by more than 150 percent in first half 2020 compared to first half 2019.

 

---

Further Reading:

• Learn more about IFS Customer Engagement @ www.ifs.com/customer-engagement/
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifsuk

 

Salesforce has announced today the next generation of their FSM solution Salesforce Field Service. Which has been designed to equip field service organisations with the power of AI-powered tools to deliver trusted, mission-critical field service.

Built on the world’s #1 CRM, Salesforce Field Service includes new appointment scheduling and optimization capabilities as we see the fruits of last year’s acquisition of ClickSoftware bear fruit. The new release also introduces AI-driven guidance for dispatchers, asset performance insights and automated customer communications. In essence the launch comprises of an impressive suite of tools that each can play a significant role in helping field service organisations achieve the most fundamental and important aspect of service delivery – ensuring field service jobs are completed the first time, on time, every time.

When the pandemic first hit, many industries that send employees out to complete jobs in the field had to shut down entirely. But critical machinery still needs to be repaired—medical devices require servicing, air conditioning units need to be fixed and assembly line machines still malfunction. After getting over the initial shock of COVID-19, frontline workers got back to work and have been at it ever since.

 

"It is more crucial now than ever for field technicians to have the right information and tools to maximize equipment uptime and first-time fix rates..."

 

After an initial dip in March, Salesforce Field Service saw usage jump more than 50% between April and July 2020, and is actually now being used 20% more than at pre-COVID levels as companies and frontline workers scramble to clear the backlog of service requests created earlier this year.

It is more crucial now than ever for field technicians to have the right information and tools to maximize equipment uptime and first-time fix rates. This was the feedback that Salesforce heard loudly and clearly from their customers and they have reacted strongly to these industry requirements.

Leveraging the decades of industry expertise and innovation within their ranks, Salesforce have approached building their next-generation field service management product to help field service organisations overcome the challenges they face as we move towards recovery.

Some of these customers include:

GreenThumb (UK)

Greenthumb, conducts approximately 2.5 million lawn treatment visits to customers’ homes every year across the U.K. Just months after implementing Salesforce Field Service, Greenthumb started saving money—and the environment.

Smarter scheduling enabled their field crew to complete at least one extra job per worker per day, which generated more revenue. “By routing crews efficiently, we estimate it will save over £400,000 in annual fuel costs,” said Paul Edwards, Managing Director. “With no more need for paper work orders, we will cut paper requirement by three million sheets per year, which will rise as we gradually replace traditional mail with digital communications. In addition, working on a lightning-fast system has enabled our dispatchers to resolve customer inquiries an average of 45 seconds faster than before—going from seven clicks per case to just three.”

Best Buy (Canada)

Best Buy Canada is transforming how its 500-member support team helps clients with installations, repairs, and technical support. With the Geek Squad agents having access to the Salesforce Field service application on mobile, this helps provide greater visibility as clients receive real time updates of any schedule changes.

“With Salesforce Field Service, we will be able to optimize the efficiency of the team and improve the accuracy of when an agent is due to visit a client,” said Chris Sallans, Vice President, Retail Operations & Geek Squad. “There are now fewer manual processes for our Geek Squad agents, enabling them to spend more time helping clients resolve their technical issues.”

WBP Group (Australia)

WBP Group, one of Australia's largest, independent property valuation and advisory firms, needed to reshape how it operated to minimize contact between employees and customers in response to COVID-19. Service Cloud enabled the rapid launch of virtual valuations, creating a safe no-touch experience for customers and employees.

Salesforce Field Service has increased the efficiency of scheduling appointments for WBP and will be used in the future to manage valuations from end to end.

---

Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with Salesforce’s Paul Whitelam about the new release to find out more. Read that exclusive interview here!

In this excerpt from the inaugural Field Service News Think Tanks Debrief Session Kieran Notter and Daniel Brabec reflects on the groups comments around the initial operational challenges of Covid-19

---

Missed the full debrief session? Field Service News Subscribers can access the full debrief session on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

---

---

 

The many conversations required for servitization to work: 

As we moved onto the final Think Tank of the three that we were reflecting on during this inaugural debrief session we touched on the longest and perhaps most important Think Tank that Field Service News has ever run. The focus of this session was to assess the impact of Covid-19 and to establish some first steps in building towards the recovery. 

Having put an initial question to the group for them to outline their initial responses to the lockdowns of the pandemic, it made sense for Kieran Notter, VP Global Customer Transformation to be the one that opened up the discussion during the debrief. 

During the actual Think Tank there were some excellent and well considered comments including Alec Pinto, Regional Service Manager DACH & High Growth Markets, Leica Biosystems comment:

“From an operative perspective, we couldn’t go out anymore. So we had to start getting used to the new regulations quickly. What was allowed in hospitals? How could we get our people into hospitals? Suddenly, we were putting our people in areas of risk, so managing that part of the operation and ensuring safety while letting our employees feel secure, that was a big challenge to overcome.”

As well as Rajat Kakar, Executive, IBM, Services EMEA comment: 

“We saw a massive shift in ways of businesses. As an example, companies who provided services for people to migrate from office buildings to homes were busy; they didn’t have enough people to bring the office equipment, set it up at people’s homes and set up home offices. Whereas, companies which were primarily working on standard services, IT services within the corporate environments, they saw a decline in business.”

Reflecting back on both these quotes and the discussion at large Notter said, "for me, it was, it was quite interesting listening to everybody view. We gave them a rough two minutes to try and give a view of what the current situation was about. But it was it was that important or passionate to them that two minutes was nigh on impossible.

"On Alec's points, there was much that he sad that couldn't all fit into one slide but some of the other bits that Alec said that really sort of made a difference. We know med-tech device companies, at least some of them, are really, really it's going to thrive through this pandemic, because it's their business, it's what they do. 

Then we have the other businesses that have done really bad because no one's using their products. There is no service has to be done and it's a very different environment. For someone like Alec, who was sort of in the middle, they were doing that that hospital work, where they had to stay open. It was even the confusion that if a technician went into a hospital to do some work in a schedule, you were asking do they need their quarantine for 14 days because they've been into a hospital? What are the rules behind it? What's the game plan?

Then there is the HR element that came into the conversation. How do we look after the technicians? What happens if they've got dependents at home who are vulnerable?  So that's the level of detail really and understanding of what the challenges are.

"When Rajat, spoke, he spoke about some great points, but one of the most interesting things I thought he raised was one of the simplest. He said, People come to work, the telephones are on their desk. You leave them at home that telephonic system isn't with them anymore. How can they run a call center if they have no telephone? It's just really really simple things like that, that no-one had planned for."

"I think one of the key pieces that we've seen that's come came out of this is around business continuity plans and the way that that companies are starting to reassess the way they approach their customers," adds Daniel Brabec VP Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax.

"We need to use this time to find ways to make and build relationships and any CSO that's looking at things from that perspective, I think, is is poised to thrive moving forward. They're acknowledging that we have a huge issue, but what are the ways that we can address it and not only adjust to the new normal but also come out of the stronger. A lot of that is focused on customer relationships and how they're going to actually approach service in the future."

 

---

Want to know more about this Think Tank Conversation?

The full Executive Briefing Report from this Think Tank Session is now available for Field Service News Subscribers. If you are already a subscriber click the button below to read the report now!

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

 

 

 

---

Follow the latest features from the Field Service Think Tank Sessions @ thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com

---

This premium content is sponsored by: 

   

 

---

Data usage note: By accessing either of the premium content resources listed above you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServiceMax who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of these resources.

---

 

Having given an excellent presentation in the Field Service News Digital Symposium on the application of Artificial Intelligence in service triage, Mark Hessinger, Vice President, Global Customer Service, 3D Systems Corporation spoke with Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News at length about the Aquant solution that they had implemented.

The session was designed to shine a light on the many benefits that 3D Systems Corporation realised from implementing the Aquant AI tool. However, it was also a golden opportunity to explore the potential of 3D printing in the service supply chain - which the two discussed briefly towards the latter part of the conversation.

During his presentation, Hessinger outlined that companies are beginning to move away from seeing 3D printing as a tool for prototyping and moving towards using the technology more in production as well.

Given the recent pandemic where supply chains were put under massive pressure as borders came crashing down, could it be that we'll see a further shift towards 3D printing and use of spare parts within the manufacturing sector and beyond?  

 

"The thing about 3D printing is that it is not just making the same things differently. It enables you to do things a lot differently..."

 

"Yes, with what has happened throughout 2020, and supply chains being interrupted, we do see businesses especially manufacturing sites rethinking their supply chain, how they can do things and using 3D printing is going to really be something that these companies are looking at. 

"We are starting to see that feedback already. There was one of the large UK companies just came out with 30% of their new products have to be produced through additive manufacturing.

"Also, the thing about 3D printing is that it is not just making the same things differently. It enables you to do things a lot differently. That bracket I showed [during the presentation] combined 13 parts. Fuel nozzles can be created much more efficiently because you can create geometries that you could never do in traditional manufacturing. I think we're going to have the impact from both sides. Supply chains need to rethink how they build things, and engineering needs to continue to get creative on how they make things to have better quality."

---

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about Artificial Intelligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Artificial+intelligence
• Read more exclusive FSN news and features from the Aquant team @ www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Aquant
• Connect with Mark Hessinger on LinkedIN @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhessinger/
• Find out more about Aquant's AI-powered service triage @ www.aquant.io/
• Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io

 

In this excerpt from the inaugural Field Service News Think Tanks Debrief Session, Daniel Brabec, Coen Jeukens and Kieran Notter of ServiceMax outline what they think is driving forwards the move to servitization amongst field service organisations.

---

Missed the full debrief session? Field Service News Subscribers can access the full debrief session on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

---

---

 

The many conversations required for servitization to work: 

While there is much discussion about the how of servitization it is also important to understand the why. This was something that came up in on of the Think Tanks covered within this debrief session. 

As Maarten Wijnheijmer, Global Aftermarket Sales Director, Howden commented during the Think Tank in question: 

“I think perhaps one of the most important points around servitization is that you cannot sell the concept to everyone immediately. Although an even more important point around servitization is that, if you want to keep it simple and practical, you don’t need to sell it to everyone immediately either. The trick is to start with customers that recognize the value, test the proposition with them and then scale-up.”

While in the same Think Tank Jan van Veen commented: 

“I think there are two things that need to be considered. One is the belief in the direction, the other is that you need to be able to innovate and try and explore and that you have resources available to do so.  

“Often within companies everything can be so short term oriented, if that is the attitude of top and middle management then innovations will never flourish because such projects are just a disturbance of what is really important which is hitting your monthly and quarterly numbers.”

"I think that buy-in across all the organisation is key," Commented Daniel Brabec, VP Global Transformation, ServiceMax during the debrief session. 

"You have to have all of the different players and a groups and have everyone bought in," Brabec continues. 

"If we think about basic change management skills, you have your project champions. You want to make sure you have champions essentially for servitization across the whole business. That's at the the field service engineer level, that's at the senior leadership executive level and that's obviously at the at the service leader level. I think the one thing that's hugely important is making sure that service has a seat at the executive table

"It's not being directed from any one individual, it's making sure it's a conversation across all areas of the organization and that everyone's bought in. I think one of the things that must think about with servitization is understanding the conversation must make sense for all these individuals. Making sure they understand what it is is actually going to change about the business. It is also focusing on those areas of customer intimacy, operational excellence and product leadership.

"It's understanding all of those pieces, and then the value that will be generated for each of their areas of the business," Brabec adds. 

 

"In answering what is driving the move to servitization, I would say a launching customer..."

- Coen Jeukens, ServiceMax

 

"I agree with, with Daniel's statement," comments Kieran Notter, VP Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax, 

"However, I would also add that there is there is a change now for for many businesses. It probably was a little bit earlier in the IT world, but now it's hitting the rest of the world as well is this change from having two CSOs. One being a Chief Service Officer and the other being a Chief Sales Officer, and obviously, the Chief Sales Officer was generally on that table before his service equivalent ever got there.

"But now there's a change where those two CSOs are disappearing, and you're ending up with a Chief Revenue Officer. By having a Chief Revenue Officer, now, all of a sudden, a company is focusing on where revenue comes from, and where it exists. If you are moving to a truly outcome based services, when you get to the element that you're no longer selling your product, you're actually selling as a service then that changes the whole profile. You know, if you're not selling the product, you don't need the Chief Sales Officer you're selling as a service. So you need someone to look after that revenue and understand that need and how that works between the product and the actual service that you provide," adds Notter

"I really think that Kieran and Daniel are correct from an internal Field Service Organization perspective," concurs Coen Jeukens, VP GLobal Customer Transformation, ServiceMax. 

"All these dynamics are important. in answering what is driving the move to servitization, I would say a launching customer. For instance, I think the most quoted servitization offering is power by the hour by Rolls Royce. However, Rolls Royce developed that service offering not because they thought it was such a good idea, but because the Royal Air Force said we want to have more predictable models. We want to buy it from you, so you develop it for us. So I think tapping into the mindset of the customer and see if you can find a launching customer. I think that is a very good addition to all the internal alignments just by the CEO, CFO or CSO"

---

Want to know more about this Think Tank Conversation? The full Executive Briefing Report from this Think Tank Session is now available for Field Service News Subscribers. If you are already a subscriber click the button below to read the report now!

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

 

 

 

---

Follow the latest features from the Field Service Think Tank Sessions @ thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com

---

This premium content is sponsored by: 

   

 

---

Data usage note: By accessing either of the premium content resources listed above you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServiceMax who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of these resources.

---

 

In this excerpt from the inaugural Field Service News Think Tanks Debrief Session, Kieran Notter discusses his experience when it comes to structuring a field service organisation to adapt a servitized approach... 

---

Missed the full debrief session? Field Service News Subscribers can access the full debrief session on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

---

---

 

The importance of aligning internal and external needs:

In the second of the Think Tanks discussed during this debrief session, the focus of the conversation was centred around the increasing drive towards servitization. 

One thing that came through in the Think Tank from all of the members, was the importance of executive-level buy in for a servitization project to even begin.

However, we also saw across the discussion the importance of buy-in from the bottom up as well. It really does need to be a company wide movement and adoption.

As Christo Roux commented during the Think Tank:

“In our organisation up until two years ago we had two different business units, based on two different technologies but our board reorganised and we now have three units with service being the third. Service now has a seat at the executive table and that has been the real game-changer. Now service has a very high profile, it is no longer that secondary part of the discussion which just gets added to the end of the product sale. Service is now an intrinsic part of the overall sales process. What we have found is that when you have that executive board level representation, focus and support, that does make a difference to how you can servitize.

For a long time, service has proven that in the lows of capital expenditure, service maintains the revenue stream. People always need to maintain their equipment and keep service running, so we were always a constant revenue stream at constant margins.

This was largely driven by a change in the CEO seat and a lot of credit for this shift in mindset has to go to the new CEO who had the understanding and the vision to bring service into the executive conversations.”

In that same Think Tank, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News commented: 

“Another company I have worked with has organised their services within business units so each and every business unit is responsible for developing their own service offerings. However, what I believe they also need is a platform to establish new sertivized offerings, a central competence group that is guiding the teams to what is possible.

“Having covered the establishment of such groups in the past I’ve seen them have a real impact. Such groups, I think, should keep strategy simple and make it practical. Keeping it simple means taking baby steps, but at least you are taking them and moving forward. Making it practical is to enable these business divisions to actually deliver the projects. They are not going to invent the wheel themselves – so you have to bring it to them.

“Another organisational question in this area, is whether service is best structured as a separate business with its own P&L or as part of the product teams?

“The challenge is that if service is joined up, the focus will mainly be on the new builds or implementations, because that is where the big money is. Service is usually many smaller orders as opposed to the one big hit of the product sale. The service side of the organisation has to fight for priority and capacity and a shared understanding of the value of the long-term service relationship may ensure the organisation will accept the required investments in this case. On the other hand, if a company splits the operations, the problem becomes the handover from new build to service and customer relationship management. Ultimately, both models have challenges, the key is to realise what is the ‘inside of the battle’ and to establish the common ground to work together for the greater good.”

 

Oldland's comments reflect something of a common dichotomy in the field service sector. On the one hand there is a new innovative organization within an organization. As a company seeks to build out this servitized or advanced services solutions, they are competing with not only product sales, but also the standard, traditional service approaches within their organisation as well.

Having had experience of such challenges as a service leader himself and also in his role with ServiceMax assisting over service organisations navigate their way towards a servitized business approach, Kieran Notter, VP Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax was well placed to help offer guidance for those on the call. 

"One thing I have learned through the relationships I've had with my own experiences when working in the service industry, and then again, working for a software company like ServiceMax, but mostly through things like the Think Tank is that is never  never clear yes on these answers," Notter began. 

"There's so many variables that come into play such as the vertical that you are operating in. You look at things like new businesses, such as solar panels, they've come into the marketplace and instead of taking an old fashioned approach where they merely sell the solar panel, they have been able to ease into a servitized approach where they sell the outcome - the energy."

 

"There needs to be an alignment in the business. If you move into a siloed business you're not going to help anybody, the customers or yourself..."

- Kieran Notter, ServiceMax

 

"So there is a totally different aspect if you're a new company, you have a little bit more freedom. Whereas in some of the more traditional industries, companies that we expect to talk to day in day out, it's realistically about establishing an understanding from the top level. I personally the key is aligning the goals that people need realised.

"I mentioned earlier about understanding whether the supply chain is service's friend or foe. If you think about the fundamental goals that are required by these two organizations, with the supply chain needing to reduce inventory and service wanting more inventory, so it can increase its first time fix rates.

"On outset, that sounds like an argument, so there needs to be an alignment in the business. If you move into a siloed business you're not going to help anybody, the customers or yourself. So there has to be some sort of alignment.  You'll find that that becomes possible maybe with some of these Tiger teams, where they can bring in people from each area and then they're freed up to do the 'free thinking' that isn't constrained by their their MDO's or their KPIs, or their compensation packages."

"It's about understanding what that is and then of course, there's always the other aspect which is when you come up with these great ideas and these visions, does your customer want to join in with that that vision? Are they acceptable to it or indeed, are they actually against it? Then if you find the ones that are acceptable to the idea, can you actually manage it? What infrastructure do you have to actually manage the offering that you're giving?"

"However, I think the world is dictating a newer approach. You know, when we heard from Coen and Daniel earlier and talking to all of the members of the Think Tank, we're looking at new initiatives, new intelligence, new ways of doing business."

 

---

Want to know more about this Think Tank Conversation? The full Executive Briefing Report from this Think Tank Session is now available for Field Service News Subscribers. If you are already a subscriber click the button below to read the report now!

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

 

 

---

Follow the latest features from the Field Service Think Tank Sessions @ thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com

---

This premium content is sponsored by: 

   

 

---

Data usage note: By accessing either of the premium content resources listed above you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, ServiceMax who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of these resources.

---