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Over half of the US Government workforce feel comfortable with technology such as artificial intelligence but want to see accompanying training and guidance readily available.

The survey by Government Business Council, canvassed nearly 500 US Federal employees across more than 30 civil and defence agencies sought opinion on smart technologies such as Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. 

Over half (51%) understood that artificial intelligence will evolve "slightly or considerably" in the next three years and will have an impact on their role in the future, however only 26% said their respected agencies had communicated the impact of AI to them either "adequately, well or very well."

The survey also revealed that workers felt confident in adapting to this change but were concerned that there was a lack of training around the technology, with 61% expressing worry at the absence of technical support.

“AI is one of the most engaging topics we are seeing unfold in the federal government right now,” said Daniel Thomas, Research Manager at GBC and the study's author. “These findings show that there is a significant appetite for continued education around the opportunities that intelligent technologies like AI present to the federal employee." 

You can read the full report here.

Concluding our series our experts, Bill Pollock, Strategies for Growth, Marc Tatarsky at FieldAware, and Richard Pratley from SimPRO, identify potential areas of concern for service companies to look out for in 2019.

In The Big Discussion we bring together three industry experts and put four key questions for them to answer to give us a balanced view of the major trends impacting the field service sector. This week, the panel end our series by picking out areas of concern for the sector that could surface in 2019. 

What is the biggest area of concern that field service companies should address in the next 12 months?

BILL POLLOCK, PRESIDENT, STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
The biggest area of concern for field service companies in the next 12 months will be, if they’re already somewhat behind the technology curve (or with respect to the competitive landscape), what do they need to do today to ensure that they will not fall further behind? And, it’s not just a matter of technology either; many FSOs will need to alter their corporate philosophy and mentality as well.

Technology goes hand-in-hand with the personnel that use it, so attention must also be given to how the organisation goes about replacing, and/or supplementing, its existing field force with new hires or the use of outside, third-party “feet on the street” support.
The services world is evolving so quickly, that any missteps along the way can be devastating – so every step, every move counts.

There will also be no time for any intra-mural infighting – only for collaboration and inter-departmental cooperation. Equipment will keep on breaking, and end-of-lifecycles are getting increasingly shorter. As such, there will always be the need for services organisations to deliver their support! However, only those that have the technological and corporate wherewithal to continually improve the way in which they deliver their services will rise to the top of the competitive order – and stay there!


MARC TATARSKY, SVP MARKETING, FIELD AWARE
The phrase ‘doing more with less’ is common in field service and that can be in relation to numerous resources and assets.
The workforce is a key element in this equation and can preoccupy a great deal of management time. There are concerns over an aging workforce in field service, a high turnover of workers and a shrinking pool of talent as demand increases.

Technology plays a critical role in any succession and resource planning. This may be empowering the workforce with automation to streamline operations, bring in best practice and increase productivity without the need to increase numbers. Using technology differently or embracing emerging technologies to enable remote expert capabilities, so a more experienced worker assists others.

Also attracting new workers, especially millennials, for whom, the latest technology is a big part of everyday life. The technology has to be right for both worker and the organisation to get maximum benefit

RICHARD PRATLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, SIMPRO
Technology is changing at a rapid pace. The technology we use today is very different from that we used five years ago so businesses will always have the challenge of how they can ensure the systems and technology they use are still current. Taking a long term view of the business requirement is vital.

Many businesses consider an off-the-shelf solution won’t fit the unique needs of the business. But think again! Overtly customised solutions can lead to restrictions with software updates and integrations with other systems in the future - not to mention a great deal of ongoing expense and time that should be spent on running the business.

Cloud-based software providers frequently release new updates (that are included in the licence fee) to help businesses stay ahead of tech trends. By ensuring the systems you use now are fit for-purpose, you’ll be able to keep up with future technological developments.

You can read the first instalment of The Big Discussion here, the second here and the third here. 

Firm's AR software will now work across smartphone and tablets, complimenting its smart glasses functionality. 

Upskill, the Augmented Reality software provider, has added mobile functionality to its AR platform, which includes smart glasses and Microsoft HoloLens.

Aimed at the industrial workforce, the software encourages collaboration through live videos and insight capture while workers carry out tasks. 

Brian Ballard, Upskill CEO and co-founder said: “With the latest enhancements to Skylight, it makes critical data, peer collaboration and the unique fidelity provided by augmented reality even more accessible. Skylight accelerates organizations along their digital transformation journey, regardless of where they are today.”

 

In the third of our four-part series, our industry experts Bill Pollock, Strategies for Growth, Marc Tatarsky at FieldAware, and Richard Pratley from SimPRO, identify key areas of focus for field service managers in 2019.

In The Big Discussion we bring together three industry experts and put four key questions for them to answer to give us a balanced view of the major trends impacting the field service sector. This week, the panel pick out trends for field service managers to look out for in 2019, including AI, data integration and connectivity.

What do you think should be the key areas of focus for field service managers across the next twelve months?

BILL POLLOCK, PRESIDENT, STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
The next most important areas of focus for field service managers in the coming 12 months will likely be among the following three items:

(1) embracing the “new” technologies to support an expanded and enhanced capability to deliver their respective service offerings. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning have been around for more than 50 years, but are still relatively new to the services segment – but, it’s time to build them into your service operations!

(2) Changing the way in which you deliver – and price – your service offerings. Traditional break/fix service is essentially “dead”. Long live predictive diagnostics and predictive maintenance! Have you spoken to any chat bots lately? Well, you will!

(3) Re-engineering the way you measure performance metrics, or KPIs. MeanTime Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean-Time-to-Repair (MTTR) will not mean anything in an environment where services are being performed remotely on an ongoing basis. It will be time to replace some of the old “tried and true” KPIs with new ones that can measure systemic productivity, rather than merely individual field technician productivity. It’s time to rethink the entire service delivery process – and adjust to it!

MARC TATARSKY, SVP MARKETING, FIELD AWARE
Integration capability tops software selection criteria consistently for field service leaders. Even those who have been hesitant to integrate in the past, can now see that integration capabilities are far more advanced. Working with the right FSM software creates rapid time to value and ensures minimal risk.

Essentially the integration of FSM solutions into existing business systems of record means there is no disruption to ERP, CRM and accounting systems. Ultimately the real value is delivered through synchronized workflows, enhanced reporting and extending results beyond the current systems. Data integration yields actionable outcomes and connectivity to the wider business.

Field service has long been seen as simply a business cost, but leaders now recognise that integration can elevate their service operation, transforming it to a value-driving organisation that delivers broader business results. The evolution of field service through integration should be a focus to unlock this business value.

RICHARD PRATLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, SIMPRO
We continue to see businesses turning to software and technology to improve the efficiency of their workforce and to support customer service.

Smart connected products and IoT technology is transforming field service operations and we’ll see more adoption of this over the next twelve months. The predictive model not only reduces the cost of reactive maintenance but it addresses any issues before they become critical. For the customer, they won’t ever need to worry about needing to deal with a broken asset ever again.

We already have a number of customers running trials of our IoT technology. Not only are they winning new contracts off the back of it but it’s helping to increase the lifetime value of their existing customers.


The final part of The Big Discussion. You can read the first instalment here, and the second here. 

In the second of our four-part series, our industry experts Bill Pollock, Strategies for Growth, Marc Tatarsky at FieldAware, and Richard Pratley from SimPRO, tackle the area of IoT and its role in field service.

In The Big Discussion we bring together three industry experts and put four key questions for them to answer to give us a balanced view of the major trends impacting the field service sector. This week, the panel look at the impact of IoT in field service and whether it will become a necessity for firms to embrace if they are to keep ahead of the service curve.

IoT has become an increasingly key discussion amongst field service companies in recent years - do you think it will soon be essential for field service companies to embrace IoT?

BILL POLLOCK, PRESIDENT, STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
I believe it is already essential for field service companies to embrace the IoT. That ship has already sailed – and those FSOs that run their services operations on an IoT platform are already beginning to see the return on their investment.

The enormous amount – and wealth – of data that is now being generated through the use of an IoT platform is turning many of the traditional ways of thinking upside-down. For example, it has created an environment where the “old” (i.e., last year’s) way of measuring performance is becoming almost instantly outdated. For example, last year, an FSO might have been assessing its service delivery performance on the basis of asset uptime or SLA compliance, etc. However, this year, they may need to gauge their performance via an entirely “new” set of KPIs!

Measuring your performance in providing “power by the hour” or “airplanes in the air” is quite a bit different than measuring on the basis of the number of monthly site visits, PM calls and asset uptime.


MARC TATARSKY, SVP MARKETING, FIELD AWARE
Undoubtedly, IoT has the potential to revolutionise field service in terms of moving to a predictive model of service, increasing efficiency, reducing cost while improving customer service. But any move to IoT is dependent on various operational factors. These include the prevalence of assets and existing IoT sensors, the ability to add IoT sensors to new sources to collect meaningful data and the technology maturity of the organisation and the FSM platform.

These factors can be dictated by numerous elements – company size, the industry and type of clients they serve, the complexity of the work, the value of assets and equipment they supply and service, and their leadership.

It is important for organisations to establish where they need to be in their operational and technological maturity to help the business thrive. For some companies transformative technologies, like IoT, are a key element of their planning and for others they may not figure at all.

RICHARD PRATLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, SIMPRO
IoT is fast become an essential service offering that customers will ultimately demand of their service providers and it  helps meet the requirement to deliver more for less for customers particularly for those installing and maintaining high-value assets!

When connecting these ‘Things’ to the Internet, using the live operational data and machine learning to analyse performance, it opens up the possibility of variable-based services based on machine condition and utilisation, rather than prescriptive frequency based visits and reactive calls.

This proactive approach can help lower TCO and increase uptime for customers and asset owners, whilst lowering the cost of operation and providing differentiation for the Service Provider. If you want to stay relevant in a competitive evolving market, now is the time to be considering how this technology can be incorporated into your own processes and service offerings.


The third part of The Big Discussion will be published next week. You can read the first instalment here.

Copperberg's annual field service survey report suggests visual technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) could bridge the gap between experienced engineers and new sector entrants.

The survey gathered comment from over 125 Field Service Directors from global manufacturing firms, and revealed visual-based technologies including VR, AR, Visual Assistance and Video Calling could address the growing disparity between mature field service engineers and less experienced workers.

Commenting, Field Service News contributor and BBA Consulting President Jim Baston said: ‘‘As they [experienced engineers] rely more on their tools to troubleshoot and repair and less on their experience, it opens up the door for less qualified individuals who will be able to give comparable levels of technical service.’’

The survey also identified the need for an open digital eco-system between partners, suppliers and customers to encourage collaboration.

You can download the report's findings here.

In the first of a four-part series, we bring together three industry experts and put four key questions for them to answer to give us a balanced view of the major trends impacting the field service sector. With responses from Bill Pollock, Strategies for Growth, Marc Tatarsky at FieldAware, and Richard Pratley from SimPRO, we look forward to what we can expect across the next twelve months.

2018 was a year in which we saw a number of significant changes move from the fringes of discussion within our industry to becoming an established part of mainstream discussion and in some cases fundamental parts of common place strategy within the field service sector.

The Internet of Things (IoT) for example, has become a staple part of field service delivery with many organisation having already adopted some layer of IoT technology which they are utilising within service delivery and the majority of those who have yet to take their first steps into connected field service are actively planning to do so in the not too distant future.

And as is often the case with technology in field service, the emergence of IoT in our sector, much as mobile did before it, has resulted in seismic changes into the processes and work-flows that underpin how we define service excellence. For example, we have seen servitization become an increasingly popular over-arching strategy for many manufacturers as they shift towards more customer-centric, service-focussed revenue strategies.

Even amongst those organisations who have yet to commit to a fully servitized business model, there are many who are shifting towards adopting a pro-active approach to service delivery, with increasing operational efficiencies and greater customer satisfaction two of the major benefits being heralded by such developments - which are again enabled and empowered by IoT.

Yet, at the same time other technologies that should be having positive impacts on field service delivery, in particular Augmented Reality (AR), have yet to evolve as rapidly, seemingly stagnating in the early adopter phase. Perhaps, 2019 may be the year we see AR finally emerge from its embryonic potential to also becoming a fully established part of the field service sector?

Or maybe, there will be other key breakthroughs, whether they be technologies, or strategies, that will shape the future of field serviceTo get a flavour of what we may expect across the next twelve months we’ve brought together a panel of experts to get their opinions on what to expect in 2019. We begin this series, however, by taking stock from last year.

Across the last twelve months what do you think has been the biggest shift in how we approach field service delivery?

BILL POLLOCK, PRESIDENT, STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
The last 12 months have been quite a bit more active among global Field Services Organisations (FSOs) with respect to their acquisition and implementation of new technologies. For example, after having spent a number of years more as a perennial line item on an organisation’s “wish list”, Augmented Reality (AR) has gained a much wider acceptance, and is presently in use by more than twice as many FSOs as just a year earlier. In fact, the trend lines for AR adoption are have begun to increase at an accelerating rate.

We are now also seeing the further incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning into existing FSM systems.
As a result, many FSOs have already begun the transformation from the traditional break/fix model to the use of predictive diagnostics and AI-powered chatbots to facilitate and expedite.

MARC TATARSKY, SVP MARKETING, FIELD AWARE
We are seeing a convergence of technology capabilities changing how field service operations are being enabled. One of the key drivers of this convergence is analytics and a data platform that is empowering organisations to take insights from various new technologies (IoT, AR eg) and existing data within other Systems of Record to provide context and the ability to make “new” business decisions.

Field service organisations, due to the complexity of the operations, have always embraced technology and were early adopters of analytics. We are seeing an evolution of analytics in field service, moving from a need to turn data into information, to meaningful business insight and then to decision-making capabilities.
Over the past twelve months we are now experiencing a shift to a more strategic approach to business intelligence. Field service leaders are applying analytics to drive value-adding initiatives into the wider business, with customising service and product innovation, for example.

RICHARD PRATLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR UK, SIMPRO
There are a number of external pressures that are aggregating together forcing business to make a shift and change about how they are approaching field service delivery.

All businesses are looking to do more for less thanks to a skilled labour shortage, pricing pressures on services, travel and resource and compliance cost increases and customer demand for value.

During the last twelve months, we’ve seen more field service businesses looking to streamline and automate their operations to enable them to scale up their workforce without adding in more resources.

The second part of the big discussion will be published next week, when the panel answer questions on IoT.

Aly Pinder looks at three ways in which manufacturers must consider leveraging augmented service tools...

The way we work, learn, and communicate have all taken a drastic turn from just a couple decades ago. When was the last time you saw a teenager or even a current college student read a physical newspaper, write a note in a notebook or on piece of paper, or look up a definition in a dictionary (not an online one)?

I imagine like me, you probably can’t remember the last time. This transformation has wide ranging implications, the least of which is the collapse of the encyclopedia industry. But this is not another article on why millennials need to be coddled, or how Gen Z is bad for the economy.

I don’t think any generation, ones before or after me, are the problem. But the way in which their behaviours impact the world around us must be addressed and used to help us all evolve.

 

"Manufacturers must take a few steps to turn knowledge into a shared resource  and not just a repository of work instructions..."

 

This is where manufacturers and service leaders come in. For manufacturers, the implications of a changing economy and digital world are even more real as it is becoming more apparent that to fill a growing gap in labor the tools, training, incentives, and motivations of work will need to be transformed as well. Not only do manufacturers need to do more for the customer, it increasingly is coming from more junior workers who need to get up to speed fast.

This convergence is where I believe augmented service tools can play a big role in democratizing knowledge across a varied set of employees and levels of tenure. But to get there, manufacturers must take a few steps to turn knowledge into a shared resource  and not just a repository of work instructions. 

With this in mind there are three things I believe manufacturers should consider.

 

Peer-to-Peer vs. Top Down.

Are you more likely to listen to your boss or your colleague?

The answer may be a bit different depending on whether you work in an office or out in the field. Many manufacturers I’ve spoken with talk about the level of engagement they find when they empower their field teams to work together to share best practices, whether in a newsletter, during beginning of day meetings, or via a video. Insights are more powerful when they come from a peer that is going through the same challenges you are.

Therefore, I believe user-generated content from field service technicians will help speed the adoption of video training tools and knowledge sharing.

But it is up to the manufacturer and service leadership to provide the tools, security, and platform for this technology to work and be accessible to the right people.

 

Amplify Investments in Innovation and Collaboration.

It is probably not prudent to predict industrial manufacturers or an oil & gas company to rival Google or Apple as the next great innovative companies of this generation.

However, there is a lot of innovation happening today within manufacturers that doesn’t often get reported to the outside public. If manufacturers want to draw the talent of the future they must not only have the tools the next wave of workers want to use, but they must also highlight in recruiting and marketing materials the innovative technologies that are used daily to get work done. This may help differentiate from the throng of manufacturers that are trying to procure talent. And why not promote innovation to those you want to bring in as employees in the same ways you woo customers.

 

AR / VR should play a role in the field.

I am not as bullish as my peers regarding the future pervasiveness of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) tools in field service. I do, however, think there are several use cases and environments where this technology makes sense.

 

"What it most important though, is that manufacturers evaluate their infrastructure, environment, and workforce capability to maximise the value of this technology..."

 

What it most important though, is that manufacturers evaluate their infrastructure, environment, and workforce capability to maximise the value of this technology. AR and VR tools do have the ability to help bridge the gap between an ageing workforce that may need to move to a back-office role and a less tenured technician who needs real-time assistance while on a job.

The talent pool or lack thereof is forcing manufacturers to re-think how they recruit, where they recruit, and what tools they need to navigate this environment.

As much as we have all discussed this topic for years and almost a decade now, manufacturers must take this moment to understand the worker of the future. It is imperative that manufactures provide the tools to augment their work environment to bring them in and keep them on the team.

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Aly Pinder is Program Director for IDC

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In the third from our series of articles looking at the key speakers at this year's Aftermarket business conference, Copperberg's Mark McCord reflects on an exciting presentation given by Mika Karaila, Valmet on the potential of Augmented Reality in field service delivery...

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The schedule for Aftermarket 2019 is already being put together and it promises to be a key date in the calendar once again. This is an event that almost always sells out so head over to aftermarketeurope.com now and secure your place at this important industry event...

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Maintenance technicians are busy feeling their way around a new power station in northern Finland – even though the plant hasn’t been built yet.

They’re part of a team that’s breaking new ground with augmented reality (AR) technology, working within a virtual model of the facility, even “walking” its rooms and machinery two years before it’s completed.

In this digital environment the technicians are familiarising themselves with the Oulu Energy Co power station’s layout and using the platform to make alterations to its design before construction begins next year.

 

"It means there are no delays and there is no downtime when the plant eventually opens, the engineers will know every centimetre of it when it’s open..."

 

“It means there are no delays and there is no downtime when the plant eventually opens, the engineers will know every centimetre of it when it’s open,” explained Mika Karaila, research director at Valmet, the Finnish services and automation firm that’s developing the power station and which created the software for them. “They are designing everything there.”

Karaila is a leading expert in the application of AR, and its cousins virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) to maintenance and support services, a subject he elaborated on in detail at Aftermarket 2018. He foresees a future in which crucial training and maintenance will be carried out remotely and virtually.

“The technology is there already and we are using it,” he said.

For more than 30 years, Karaila has been developing and putting into operation distributed control systems and integrated controls systems, and has more recently turned to artificial intelligence and visual technologies.

In his presentation, Karaila donned a pair of high-tech digital glasses and headset to demonstrate how the Valmet software can add virtual elements to a real-life environment. Via a giant video screen linked to Karaila’s headset, assembled delegates watched a huge paper processing machine materialise in the room. As Karaila walked around, his view of the digitally visualised machine adjusted accordingly.

Still, in its infancy, the technology is being driven mostly by the gaming industry, where players demand increasingly immersive and life-like experiences. But Karaila says AR, MR and VR’s application in industry will grow in sophistication as it becomes more widely adopted.

Its potential for field services and aftermarket services are enormous, he said.

“Facilities that are located many miles away can be monitored remotely,” he explained. “That, we can do now, but in the not too distant future it could be used so that an engineer can be at a facility as a telepresence, guiding the actions of a technician at the facility in repairs and maintenance.”

 

"Eventually, of course, we will be able to use this software in conjunction with robots to perform repair and maintenance tasks remotely..."

 

Lasse Laanikari, head of area customer service management at Liebherr, said the technology would be suitable for his company.

“I see training benefits in this,” Laanikari said. “We have earth movers 3,000 kilometres from our base, which we may see once a year and when we send a technician they may never have seen it before. They may travel there and realise they do not have what they need for the job. So you stay there, wait for someone to ship it over and start again. This could offer expert help in the field when they operators don’t know what to do.”

The Valmet technology enables collaboration between multiple engineers in the same virtual space. In a demonstration, Karaila showed how other team members are represented as simple plain head-and-shoulders avatars. But he said soon the software will be able to project images of those individuals’ faces onto their digital forms.

“Eventually, of course, we will be able to use this software in conjunction with robots to perform repair and maintenance tasks remotely,” Karaila said. “The possibilities are endless.”

Interview Conducted by Mark McCord at Aftermarket Business Platform 2018

 

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Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems, reflects back on some of the big predictions he made earlier this year and reflects on the progress made in interweaving the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality into the fabric of field service delivery across the last 12 months...

 

The days are getting shorter and colder, which means the holidays are approaching and 2019 is just around the corner (believe it or not!). So now is the perfect time to take a look back at 2018 and take stock of the advancements the field service industry made this year.

Back in March, we highlighted three trends we predicted would have major impacts on the field service sector in 2018. We noted that while 2017 introduced innovative new technology-based trends with the likes of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), 2018 would bring real-world applications that put those buzzwords into practice.

So let’s review the progress of each of those three trends this year – after all, predictions don’t mean much if you don’t evaluate how accurate they were, right…?

 

The IoT Drives Proactive Device Maintenance, Service and Repair

Since the Internet of Things (IoT) became an integral part of almost every business’ technology mix midway through this decade, field service innovators have been finding ways to use the increased connectivity of the IoT to gain a competitive advantage. We predicted that in 2018, further innovation would allow field service technicians to utilize the IoT and automation in today’s devices – with the goal of providing service in real-time to meet (and exceed) customer expectations.

As is often the case in the field service industry, supply chain and manufacturing organizations were at the front of the line when it came to utilizing IoT-enabled and supported field service. Toward the end of this interview between SupplyChainBrain and various supply chain executives, the benefits of the predictive maintenance that the IoT enables become clear. Regarding sensor-equipped motors in warehouses, automation solutions provider Knapp noted:

“A motor might transmit information about vibration or heat, for example. It could indicate it needs potential maintenance services, and that's important because that would be predictive maintenance as opposed to breakdown maintenance, which is much more costly and can severely impact service levels.”

We’re seeing this focus on IoT-enabled predictive maintenance across the board with our manufacturing customers, so we can confirm that it definitely became a major focus in 2018 – and will continue to do so in 2019.

 

Artificial Intelligence Simplifies and Automates Service Appointments

Although artificial intelligence (AI) is in danger of becoming a somewhat empty buzzword in many industries, it’s here to stay – indeed, Gartner forecasts that 85 percent of customer interactions will be managed by AI by the year 2020.

The field service industry is applying AI in very meaningful ways as we speak, and it’s the concept of predictive maintenance that is driving the adoption of AI. For example, a recent study of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the supply chain sector found that most OEMs are gathering data from sensor-equipped products in the field—a key requirement for predictive maintenance. In addition, more than half of OEMs plan to make AI and machine learning a major investment, while 90 percent intend to invest in predictive analytics within the next 12 months.

Beyond predictive maintenance (but related to it), AI can streamline the field service technician dispatching process – which crucially means customers can get their equipment serviced faster. Influential software authority Capterra highlighted how design consultancy Philosophie, using AI, developed a field service program that handed 90-95 percent of the technician dispatching duties to an AI system – which enabled the field service team to dedicate its human talent to the more difficult field service jobs.

AI most definitely made its stamp on the field service industry in 2018, and the innovation is expected to continue next year and beyond.

 

Augmented Reality Provides Unprecedented Visibility into Worksites

Back in March, we noted that the increased connectivity that the IoT brings will continue to propel the application of augmented reality (AR) in the field service sector. In 2018, we saw AR applied by companies aiming to improve their first-time fix rate on service calls, as well as other vital field service functions.

ZDNet detailed several highly-recognizable brands using AR for service calls, including BP's U.S. Lower 48 onshore oil and natural gas business, which has been equipping field service technicians with AR platforms to assist with repairs, and Caterpillar, which recently tested an AR solution for the technicians who service a line of its onsite portable generators. Caterpillar provides field personnel with an internally-developed iPad app that interfaces with IoT sensors on the generator to provide real-time diagnostics and repair protocols.

While AR is in its infancy relative to the IoT and AI, we’ve seen our own customers' leverage AR to make better use of their field service resources – including servicing their customers’ equipment remotely through AR glasses. We’re very likely to see the usage of AR expand in the field service industry in 2019.

It certainly appears that the trends we highlighted earlier this year continued to gain significant traction in the field service industry in 2018, and we fully expect IoT, AI and AR technologies to continue to drive a wide range of innovative projects and initiatives in 2019. And once the calendar turns to 2019, look out for our predictions on the developments to look forward to next year!

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