4 Foolproof Steps to Kick Off a Tech Deployment

May 07, 2021 • Features • Augmented Reality • Digital Transformation • Service Leadership • technology • Aquant

In this new article by Aquant, we look at a step-by-step approach that all service leaders should consider to ensure a smooth tech deployment.

Artificial intelligence is a growing force in the service space, but without proper pre-project planning, problems are bound to arise. To ensure a smooth deployment, team leaders should rely on a step-by-step approach to bring the final product over the finish line.

Enter the mighty checklist, whose power to manage expectations, help stakeholders remain consistent, and guide a project to completion knows no bounds. In our recent Service Leaders Spring Break sessions, we identified four essential steps that all service leaders should consider when implementing AI tools within their organizations.

let's put together the plan

Define the problem. Hone in on the larger business problem, then tie your service challenges to those broader business initiatives. Begin by diagnosing what the problem actually is — that means trying to solve for the root cause instead of putting bandaids on symptoms. Next, show the C-suite that your proposed service deployment will address those big issues. For example, if increasing customer satisfaction is a top initiative, be clear how technology that increases first time fix, or helps spread technician knowledge will result in boosting those customer service goals. Lastly, break those big goals down into tangible wins that will resonate across departments. For example, IT wins with cleaner data, and managers can rejoice at trackable KPIs.
Create a stakeholder map: Stakeholders, assemble! From executives to end users, it’s important to determine who has an interest in the outcome, as well as influence over the overall project. A successful team contains a healthy mix of partners with the power to set and modify requirements, as well as others who will be directly impacted by the project's outcome. Once you assemble your dream team, you can determine what they need to succeed and start guiding the project to be as successful as possible. Throughout the duration of the implementation, your stakeholders will give you quick feedback and deeper insights — both necessary for a successful end result. Don’t forget to get back to basics by assigning tasks, due dates, and keeping everyone (equally) informed with regular check-ins. In short, don’t let any one group feel left out.
Perform a data reality check: There’s no such thing as good or bad data — only existing data and what you make of it. In most companies, IT and business departments will need to work in tandem: the first gathers the data, and the latter interprets it. For a successful implementation, both parties need to have an understanding of what data exists, and how they’d like to use it to achieve results. The AI vendor can further analyze and interpret. One last note here, don’t worry that your data is too messy or that your company doesn’t have enough data. The starting point should be simply assessing what’s available.
Agree on realistic project expectations: We’ve heard the horror stories when it comes to AI implementations — complexities, escalating timescales, and spiraling costs can run rampant. For these reasons and more, companies tend to label large-scale implementations as confusing and risky. However, keep in mind that artificial intelligence is a “living” tool — one whose capabilities expand and contract as it absorbs more data. You should not expect your AI to work at 100% efficacy right out the gate, but rather, remember that its accuracy will increase as it learns how to utilize your organization’s data. That means that project expectations should start small and grow in relation to the project. Don’t forget, implementation is the first step, then comes full user adoption, and that’s when results will really take off.

Once you hit these pre-project milestones, it will be easier to move forward gaining approvals and rolling out the projects.

need some inspiration?

We built the checklist so you don’t have to.

To accelerate your project, Aquant created The Ultimate Guide to Tech Deployments, a comprehensive list designed to help you fully define the benefits of AI and leverage its power within your organization. We know it can be overwhelming to consider the many puzzle pieces, so you can use our checklist to take your deployment to the next level, or simply use it as a guide.

IFS launches IFS Cloud

Mar 10, 2021 • News • Artifical Intellignce • Augmented Reality • Rebrand • Digital Transformation • IFS • IoT • Technology

IFS today launches IFS Cloud™, a single platform that innately connects all its products to deliver the end-to-end capabilities a company needs to orchestrate its customers, people and assets and deliver amazing Moments of Service.

Customers can choose to deploy best-of-breed or leverage the power of connecting their value chains across capabilities such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), human capital management (HCM), asset management (EAM) and field service (FSM).

With IFS Cloud, IFS offers a unique and single technology platform with one common user experience, one data model and one consistent support offering. IFS Cloud brings simplicity, choice and innovation to organizations that need to evolve to new business models, control costs, expand faster and serve their customers better. By implementing IFS Cloud, companies can easily scale and simply switch on new functionality (such as additional modules or new innovative capabilities) when the time is right for their business.

IFS CLOUD MAKES IT PRACTICAL AND AFFORDABLE FOR CUSTOMERS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE NEWEST TECHNOLOGIES

Likewise, customers can choose how and where they deploy IFS Cloud, which has been engineered for the cloud but can be deployed on-premises with a choice of residency. Unlike many offerings, IFS customers will benefit from the same solution functionality and delightful user experiences, regardless of their deployment choice, without compromise.

As a departure from competing, legacy suites and software portfolios that rely on complex and costly integrations, IFS Cloud is designed to make it easier and more cost-effective for customers to buy, deploy, run, and update their enterprise software. IFS Cloud marks the start of twice-yearly feature releases, giving customers the choice to move to the latest version as and when their business is ready.

Darren Roos, IFS CEO, commented, “The path to digital transformation is not a simple one. Most businesses are complex and have intricate value chains, which is why few organizations succeed and even fewer vendors provide the tools to truly enable it. At IFS, our single most important goal is to deliver value to our customers, and we want to provide a clear path for them to evolve to new business models, compete and win.

Roos continued, “Customers have told me that their main goals are to drive efficiency, control costs and to develop better products and services. We know that to achieve this, cloud is a pre-requisite. Digital innovations need to be easily consumable and embedded into daily business operations, which is why I am confident that IFS will succeed where others have not. IFS Cloud is unique and delivers on customer centricity and experience as well as capabilities. I am proud to say we are again keeping our promise to deliver value so that customers can deliver on their Moment of Service.”

With digital innovations embedded, IFS Cloud’s architecture also includes new and improved application services for intelligent and autonomous business that can be natively leveraged across IFS products and across industries. This makes it practical and affordable for customers to take advantage of technologies such as machine learning (ML), augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR), artificial intelligence (AI), and internet of things (IoT), ready to use ‘out of the box’.

IFS Cloud is being adopted by a number of pioneer customers across IFS’s focus markets of Aerospace & Defense, Construction & Infrastructure, Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing, and Service industries. One such customer is Cimcorp Group, a world-leading manufacturer of robotics and automation systems.

Commenting on the benefits of IFS Cloud, Cimcorp Technology Director Jyrki Anttonen said, “The manufacturing and manufacturing service industries are very dynamic and highly competitive, which means we are constantly looking for technologies that will allow us to work smarter and faster than our competitors. Company growth is certainly a goal, but we are a global business and therefore we need to have visibility into our operations globally so that we can target efficiencies, control costs and devise news ways to create value for our customers. IFS Cloud is a platform with next-generation technology built for our industry and this gives us the confidence we need to achieve this and flank the competition.”

IFS Chief Product Officer Christian Pedersen said, “IFS Cloud was designed and built to respond to customers’ needs when shifting to digital business models; something we never lost sight of over the last two years.” Pedersen continued, “We recognize that IFS Cloud will be pivotal in bringing success in a customer’s business and this shaped our approach in several areas: being able to make fast and informed decisions based on a single data model, being completely open with native APIs and providing one single upgrade experience so that customers can focus on what is important, which is to deliver exceptional moments of service to their customers.”

Also released today is the first instalment of IFS’s application lifecycle management capability, IFS Lifecycle Experience. IFS Lifecycle Experience features a portal that puts users in control of their application by fusing multiple touch points, to give them access to information, tooling, code, and permissions.

Learn more about IFS Cloud at www.ifs.com/corp/ifs-cloud/ifs-cloud-overview.

Hear what IFS customers have to say during the digital launch event: www.ifs.com/possibilities.

For additional information on IFS Cloud, read blogs from Antony Bourne, Christian Pedersen, Dan Matthews, Michael Ouissi, Riccardo Bocci and Raymond Jones.

Digital Transformation Is Still Fundamentally Human, IFS Study Finds

Oct 29, 2020 • News • Artifical Intellignce • Augmented Reality • Digital Transformation • IFS

The human factor is widely recognized as an essential component to digital transformation success. In fact, over a quarter (27 percent) of companies acknowledge that despite being key, people are often overlooked when planning and executing...

The study goes on to identify poor change management as one of the key reasons digital transformation projects fail. When implementing new digital transformation projects, businesses are focused on implementing the key technology and solutions but aren’t considering the importance of staff buy-in and acceptance of the project, which is intrinsically linked to its overall success.

INNOVATION IS THE KEY TO BUSINESS RESILIENCE

When asked about the reasons for failure in past projects, businesses also cited lack of employee engagement among the top four reasons. In addition, respondents named past experiences of low employee buy-in as one of the top two reasons for hesitating to launch new digital transformation projects. This can potentially have a great impact on the overall development of a business, as in times of downturn many believe innovation is the key to business resilience.

The broad focus on people-related considerations among companies goes hand in hand with a widely held concern for soft values such as vendor culture and ethics, which was revealed by a previous IFS study.

Although one third of respondents identified involving the human resources (HR) department from the beginning to ensure employee awareness as key to digital transformation success, one quarter of companies admitted that they have been guilty of not doing so in the past. Furthermore, 21 percent of companies expressed that employee engagement is more of a “tick-box” exercise, as opposed to being critical for success, revealing an obvious mismatch between recognition and actual execution.

PR Study Infographic_Global(1)

From an HR perspective, there is ample proof that digital transformation makes good business sense. 29 percent of respondents stated that employee retention would be higher if the business could offer more exciting technology to its people, indicating that technology does have employee retention possibilities. Furthermore, 39 percent said that technology provides the ideal opportunity to retrain and upskill existing staff, thereby bridging the skills gap that is a major pain point in many industries.

“Through continuous dialog with our customers as well as first-hand experiences from our own digital transformation, we have always known that people can act as both an enabler and a barrier in transformation projects,” IFS Chief Human Resources Officer Jane Keith said. “This report drives home the point that if digital transformation is kept human centric and if change management is handled effectively and employees are aware and inspired to support the transformation, the business is much more likely to reap success. Staff involvement should not be seen as a just a tick-box exercise but as the secret sauce that will ultimately determine the outcome.”

Download a complimentary copy of Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond: The Undeniable People Factor.

Augmented Reality in Field Service

Oct 05, 2020 • News • Augmented Reality • Virtual Reality • Digital Transformation • OverIT • Managing the Mobile Workforce

The power of technology-enhanced remote assistance has become a mainstream concept in 2020 as we adapted to the needs of zero-touch service delivery during lockdown, yet the benefits of such tools go way beyond the confines of the pandemic. However, for those of us only just getting up to speed on this technology OverIT's Alberto Battistutti is outlines the core distinctions of some of the technologies at play...

Augmented Reality (AR) can be seen as an extension of the user’s environment, which gets enriched in real time with superimposed digital models and information, such as texts, graphics and multimedia. The aim of this technology is to “augment” or, in other words, to improve the physical world with contextual, significant and relevant information.

The antithesis of AR is Virtual Reality (VR), a technology radically changing the users’ perception of the world as it immerses them into an artificial, unreal and computer-generated environment. Elements are then separated from the actual world and replicated into a virtual one, in which users rely on their five senses to interact with objects and places.

Merged Reality (MR) can be positioned in the middle, as it integrates digital models into the physical world, enabling users to interact with them while remaining aware of the real environment around them.

The main differences are about the devices used and, therefore, the functions provided and the sector where such functions can be employed.

The rapid deployment of supporting technology and the fall in prices of wearable devices (as already happened to handheld ones) will increase the spread of AR, MR and VR solutions, now expected to be a “can’t-live-without tech” for every company.

BENEFITS AND APPLICABILITY OF THE THREE TECHNOLOGIES

AR, MR and VR apply to a wide range of business opportunities, way beyond the initial expectations of the general public, which were limited to the entertainment and video game industry. Indeed, they have marked a turning point in many different business processes, from sales and marketing activities to Field Service and remote support, from training & learning to the manufacturing sector.

AR, MR and VR have proven to bring value to the business of those companies adopting them, both in terms of reduced time for work execution, thanks to faster maintenance procedures, improved staff productivity and efficiency, as well as of increased workforce safety, thanks to hands-free activity, remote training and collaboration.

Products based on such technologies are key factors for all companies, regardless of the sector they are operating in, their size and business turnover. Utility and Industrial Manufacturing sectors are currently leading the way in this digitalization process, due to the intrinsic nature of the activities their operators are always exposed to. AR, MR and VR are able to “extend” the resources’ capabilities. supporting them through guided procedures while carrying out maintenance activities on production lines, arming them with pertinent information on plant assets and, last but not least, connecting them with other colleagues to receive or give real-time assistance. The continuous transfer of corporate knowledge is therefore now a reality.

TYPICAL USE OF AR, MR AND VR IN BUSINESS

Very common cases where such technologies have a staggering potential are: remote execution of maintenance activities, virtual collaboration, training and product presentation.

On-field resources often face unknown assets, thus asking the company to send an expert on site. It goes without saying that such procedure is costly and time-consuming; in short, inefficient. Likewise, maintenance and repairing interventions nowadays represent the most critical processes for companies. Augmented Reality can bridge the skills gap and reduce errors made by technicians, thus ensuring a rapid and efficient sharing of know-how as well as increasing the percentage of first-time fixes and giving more accurate diagnoses. By harnessing the power of a shared, Artificial Intelligence-driven knowledge base, the application automatically suggests all possible solutions generated from learning the procedures of previous interventions.

The information provided can be integrated with the Geographic Information System data, thus allowing users to view networks, assets and technical data, as to assess in advance the impact caused by the creation of plants and networks, while cutting down the time required to identify assets over the territory.

"Expert maintenance technicians are extremely rare to find and are usually forced to move across the world to respond to growing requests for intervention..."

Moreover, the assets’ digital twins can be manipulated in real time and enriched with further details, by anchoring notes shared by those remote users with the skills necessary to support the execution of field activities. Such functions extend competences and allow to complete maintenance and assistance interventions rapidly and efficiently.

The technology breakthrough reflects into increasingly sophisticated machines, requiring maintenance interventions performed by resources with a higher degree of specialization. Expert maintenance technicians are extremely rare to find and are usually forced to move across the world to respond to growing requests for intervention, thus extending machine downtime and increasing expenses for companies. In this regard, remote training on new procedures or complex activities is becoming more and more important. Implementing these functionalities proves to be game-changing for situations which are difficult or too expensive to recreate in reality.

It is worth noting how the current global emergency situation and the resulting restrictions have boomed sectors concerning remote collaboration and product presentation. These two particular uses of technology allow to minimize travels of personnel, both in case of operational and commercial activities, thus taking digital information wherever the business requires it, in total safety, and with even higher results than those achievable with traditional methods.

Beyond the Headlines: Scope AR Partner with ServiceMax (Part One)

Sep 08, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • Scope AR • servicemax

A few weeks ago, Scope AR and ServiceMax announced that they had established a partnership that would allow ScopeAR to be embedded into the workflow of ServiceMax users...

On the surface, it promises to be a powerful alliance and one that could provide the ease of deployment that has been a barrier for many field service organisations adopting Augmented Reality (AR) solutions as part of their field service deployment.

As we build towards the recovery, many are envisioning a world where on-site touchpoints are to be minimised and so the focus on first-time fix is greater than ever before. Therefore, how we approach service delivery and ensure we are empowering our engineers and technicians fully by giving them access to the information, they need when they need it. The most efficient manner of communicating such information is very much centred around AR, which is now sitting at the very heart of how best-in-class field service organisations are focusing their efforts.

As part of our Beyond the Headlines series of features we Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief Field Service News invited Gabriele Bodda, Vice President of Product Management, ServiceMax and Scott Montgomerie, CEO and Founder of Scope AR to join in him for a discussion on the Field Service News Digital Symposium.

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward..."

- Gabrielle Bodda, ServiceMax

In the first of two excerpts from that session, we look at the practical side of the discussion and ask how seamless the experience of is using Scope AR within the ServiceMax platform?

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward,” commented Bodda during the session.

“This is something that we put a lot of attention to when we worked through the partnership, as we do with every partnership,” he continued.

“It is not just about a go-to-market, it is not just about the mutual endorsement, it is about bringing to our customers an end-to-end experience, it is about bringing to the customers something that is ready to use.”

However, the fact that there is an ‘oven-ready’ version of the tool doesn’t mean that it cannot be customised to suit any given companies more specific requirements. As Bodda confirms, “customers can of course change it and adapt it but they also have something to start with that can be deployed very quickly.”

One point that is raised often in conversations around AR in field service is whether there is a need for additional hardware, such as smart glasses or head-mounted computers. However, having led the way with apps for technicians on Apple’s iOS platform, ServiceMax is almost synonymous with harnessing the power of the engineer’s existing device. Will Scope AR fit in with that approach or will the additional investment be required for companies that are to make the most of this partnership“There is no additional hardware necessarily required,” confirmed Montgomery when this question was put to him during the session. “For more complicated use cases, we do support a number of headsets, but for standard integration, iOS and Android are more than capable.”

"We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do..."

- Scott Montgomerie, Scope AR

So how seamless is the integration itself? According to both Bodda and Montgomerie in effect, the integration should function intuitively and holistically. This is crucial to the success of the collaboration.

“We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do,” explains Montgomerie.

“The integration we’ve built with ServiceMax is geared towards that ideal scenario where they [the field technician] is already within the work order where they can click on the procedure through a deep linking mechanism – it’s very seamless,” he concludes.

Look out for the second excerpt from this session where we look at the broader use cases of Augmented Reality in general. In that upcoming article, we get Bodda’s and Montgomerie’s insight into how the companies they are working with are leveraging the tools to navigate their way through the current crisis we are all facing.

Scope AR & ServiceMax Parner to Deliver Knowledge Management Tools

Aug 18, 2020 • News • Augmented Reality • Digital Transformation • Scope AR • servicemax

New integration between the companies’ WorkLink and Field Service Management platforms gives field service technicians real-time access to augmented reality work instructions and remote assistance...

Scope AR, the pioneer of enterprise-class augmented reality (AR) solutions, today announced it has partnered with ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, to enable a visual knowledge base for industrial work processes. As a trusted technology partner, Scope AR’s WorkLink platform will integrate with ServiceMax’s Field Service Management (FSM) platform to give field service technicians the real-time knowledge they need to more efficiently and accurately complete work orders. Users will now have access to detailed augmented reality work instructions and the ability to initiate live, remote assistance calls, while enterprise organizations can now capture and scale expert knowledge through the creation of work instruction catalogs.

"We’re excited to be a part of the ServiceMax Partner Program and extend the value of their FSM platform..."

- Dave Gosch, Scope AR

“AR is uniquely positioned to help close the growing skills gap in field service across industries, and can deliver on-demand knowledge transfer and empower workers to become experts at any given task with very little training time,” said Dave Gosch, VP of sales and solutions at Scope AR. “We’re excited to be a part of the ServiceMax Partner Program and extend the value of their FSM platform.”

Beyond increased efficiencies out in the field, the partnership also delivers benefits at the enterprise level. Insights gained from data available across both platforms provide a comprehensive view of how work is actually completed, offering visibility into areas of continuous improvement or where additional training may be needed. Additionally, enterprise organizations can leverage the creation of work instruction catalogs to build a knowledge repository. This allows companies to effectively overcome the constraints of remote work and the growing skills gap that plagues field service teams. Additionally, companies retain and scale expert knowledge that can be permanently accessed after a worker retires.

“Visual work instructions that leverage AR provide the ultimate form of knowledge transfer to both novice and expert front-line workers alike, helping them perform the job faster, thus increasing overall business agility,” said Joseph Kenny, VP Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax. “With the integration of all systems that affect this experience - from field service management and learning and development, to competency management, team communications and now AR work instructions - organizations are finally able to achieve optimized service and skills management.”

Key Questions: Can Augmented Reality Combat the Ageing Workforce Crisis?

Aug 17, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • OverIT • Managing the Mobile Workforce • Space1 • Field Service News Digital Symposium

In the final excerpt from this exclusive Field Service News Digital Symposium Presentation we look at how SPACE1's clever use of Artificial Intellignece could rapidly spped up the time it takes to get field service technicians out of the...

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One of the things that really stood out of the recent Field Service News Digital Symposium Presentation from Space1 was towards the end of the presentation when Francesco Benvenuto, who was displaying the solution outlined a function that really showcased the power of Artificial Intelligence

During the live presentation Benvenuto outlined how the embedded Artificial Intelligence, was able to pick out and build a transcription of a video.

However, what was a massive additional benefit demonstrated was SPACE1’s ability to also translate that transcription into a different language.

"With Space1, we provide the automatic digitilisation of content that has been captured and enhanced by the artificial intelligence algorithm..."

-Francescon Benvenuto, OverIT

This allows for training documentation to be captured in real time and in-situ and then almost instantly that training material can be available in different regions globally. For any global enterprise working across different international markets, this has the potential to be a huge plus.

“With Space1, we provide the automatic digitilisation of content that has been captured and enhanced by the artificial intelligence algorithm. As we have many clients who are working globally, the idea is to allow them to acquire data from the technician in a specific language to translate it automatically and to create a new content out of the dialogues, video recordings or any data that we capture. Using AI we can translate automatically and from there create a new digital work instructions, started from the content translated.”

This is perhaps one of the key areas of benefit for tools such as SPACE1 – it allows field service organisations to get their new technicians out of the training room and into the field where they can bring value to the business a lot quicker.

With almost every company in our sector, all around the globe facing their own challenges around an aging workforce, plus the additional challenges of recovering a lot of lost capacity as a result of the lockdowns it is imperative that we reduce the time it takes to get engineers out into the fild – is SPACE1 allowing companies to achieve this?

“We are seeing for many customers that leveraging augmented reality/mixed reality/virtual reality but also the knowledge management they can use just such data to train people in a much faster way so they no longer need to travel to visit other countries to meet new employees to train them in person today, thanks to the collaboration tools. We can do everything remotely. And most of all, we can leverage the technology to share data that were part of previous session. The time spent to train new resources really can be reduced drastically.

Key Questions: Do We Need Extra Hardware for Augmented Reality in Field Service?

Aug 10, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • Smart Glasses • OverIT • Space1 • Field Service News Digital Symposium • realware

One of the things that has often been suggested as a potential barrier to the adoption of augmented reality in field service has been the reliance on additional hardware. Indeed, during a recent presentation on the Field Service News Digital Symposium demonstrating OverIT's Space1 Augmented Reality solution for field service workers, a slick video showed the potential use of the tool, with transportation workers using a real ware head-mounted computer...

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While the technology is a fantastic device, it is, as are all such devices an additional expense. Of course, the ability of an engineer to work hands-free is hugely valuable. But at a time when we are looking at an ongoing and unprecedented global economic downturn, many field service organizations may be looking at such additional costs as a barrier to adoption. This may even be the case even though such solutions could become essential in a world where remote assistance is becoming increasingly important.

So is that a requirement for the Space1 solution to be utilized in the field? Does it require a head-mounted computer or smart glasses? Does the solution have to run on a real ware device, or is it device agnostic?

"We typically support any hardware that it's available on the market, and most of all, we support our customers in finding the device that will work best for them..."

- Francesco Benvenuto, OverIT

"In space one, we are agnostic in terms of hardware," explained Francesco Benvunto of OverIT during the Q&A section of the presentation.

"We typically support any hardware that it's available on the market, and most of all, we support our customers in finding the device that will work best for them. This ranges from tablets and mobile phones to devices like the real wear head-mounted device and even more immersive tools such as Hololens. We are totally agnostic.

Of course, another big question around hands-free devices is just how easily they can respond to voice commands. In the demonstration provided by Space1, for example, the worker was in a busy rail depot where one would imagine there could be a significant amount of background noise.

In such environments, noise cancellation and the ability for the device to read and respond to aural commands effectively is crucial to whether it is fit-for-purpose. One question field service organizations must consider when exploring such solutions is the effectiveness of the solutions ability to operate in such environments - and is that a hardware or software consideration?

"It's both on the hardware and the on the software," explained Benvenuto.

"We have optimized our solution to work in the best possible way with various hardware. We have so many customers all over the world that are; you know that have those requirements in that they want to allow a technician to work in places where there's a lot of noise. So noise cancellation that is a vital part of the solution.

"Everyone can calibrate the solution for working in such environments. We are also readily available to allow customers to try the solution and to demonstrate the capabilities."

Key Questions: Can Augmented Reality Operate on Low Bandwidth?

Aug 03, 2020 • Features • Augmented Reality • Remote Assistance • Digital Transformation • OverIT • Space1 • Field Service News Digital Symposium • low bandwidth

One of the things that is often questioned about the suitability of augmented reality as part of the field service delivery tool kit is whether it is able to operate on lower bandwidths. This is because by default field service doesn't only occur...

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Low bandwidth is a major issue particularly for organisations in sectors such as oil and gas, transportation or utilities who often work in remote locations. Ironically, it is also the harder to get to locations, where bandwidth could be restricted that augmented reality is needed the most.

Therefore, when OverIT's Francesco Benvenuto presented the latest updates to their augmented reality tool SPACE1 the importance of an inclusion of a low-bandwidth mode was a crucial element that caught the eye of host Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News.

"Basically, there are so many solutions in the market and this is where we can differentiate ourselves from others," commented Benvenuto.

"Since we [OverIT] are coming from the field service management industry, we know how important it is for technicians to be able to operate in a location where there's a bad connection. For this reason, we have implemented the low bandwidth mode where we are able to bring the resolution to 640 by 480 pixels so we can guarantee a good quality of the streaming. We also reducing the frames per second to two values that are ranging between 0.5 and three. There are lots of different ways to provide the technicians good audio/media streaming but for sure low bandwidth is among the ones that is really, really important."

"We are working in different industries, energy, utility, oil and gas, where every industry has its own slightly different use cases, we wanted to provide a solution, where we can customize the way that we leverage artificial intelligence..."

While the low-bandwidth mode is a critical component for any AR solution that is targeting the field service sector another of the impressive features of Space1 that was on show during the demonstration was the embedded Artificial Intelligence in the tool.

In a similar way to how a dynamic or optimised scheduling engine learns and improves over time so too does Space1's ability to improve the way it surfaces information in an iterative manner essentially allows it to become an increasingly more powerful tool over time. Essentially, the more it is used the more powerful it becomes.

"In Space1 we provide the ability to train the machine learning techniques," Benvenuto explains.

"This way we can provide even more precise data to the technicians that are that are working out in the field. Since we are working in different industries, energy, utility, oil and gas, where every industry has its own slightly different use cases, we wanted to provide a solution, where we can customize the way that we leverage artificial intelligence.

"From the back-end side of SPACE1, we can set up different values in order to be more precise when it comes to extracting data."

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Further Reading:

IFS CLOUD MAKES IT PRACTICAL AND AFFORDABLE FOR CUSTOMERS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE NEWEST TECHNOLOGIES

Further Reading:

INNOVATION IS THE KEY TO BUSINESS RESILIENCE

Download a complimentary copy of Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond: The Undeniable People Factor.

Further Reading:

BENEFITS AND APPLICABILITY OF THE THREE TECHNOLOGIES

TYPICAL USE OF AR, MR AND VR IN BUSINESS

"Expert maintenance technicians are extremely rare to find and are usually forced to move across the world to respond to growing requests for intervention..."

Further Reading:

"For a ServiceMax user to utilise and harness the power of Scope AR within our platform is going to be straightforward..."

- Gabrielle Bodda, ServiceMax

"We really think of Augmented Reality as a way to enhance the knowledge transfer that’s needed between someone that is in the field that is the hands to solve the problem and expert that knows what to do..."

- Scott Montgomerie, Scope AR

Further Reading:

Further Reading:

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Further Reading:

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full presentation by clicking the button below. If you are yet to subscribe the button below will take you to our subscription page, where you can see the range of subscription options available.

Further Reading:

Would You Like to Know More? www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can access the full presentation by clicking the button below. If you are yet to subscribe the button below will take you to our subscription page, where you can see the range of subscription options available.

Further Reading:

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