In the first feature of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by BigChange, we look at their first health check of UK businesses running field service teams.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content 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 BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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These trades are the backbone of the economy: plumbers, electrical engineers, construction businesses, maintenance companies, environmental services, and many others with field-based workers.

One in five UK businesses rely on field service teams to deliver their services. We estimate that there are now more than 1.2 million field service businesses in the UK employing 6.7 million people.

Because they all run field service teams, they face similar opportunities and challenges:

• Managerial oversight
  
• Job scheduling and management
• Recruting suitably skilled workers
• Compliance
• Maximising job efficiency
• Competing on customer experience

During August 2021, we engaged the research consultancy Opinium to survey businesses of all sizes with field service teams.

Opinium spoke to 504 leaders from businesses in the building maintenance, cleaning services, drainage, electrical contractors and electricians, facilities management, fire and security, plant hire, industrial doors, plumbing and heating, and the waste and recycling sectors.

We asked about business health and how they fared from August 2020 to July 2021 – the first full 12 months since the easing of the strictest UK lockdown measures.

72% OF THE UK FIELD SERVICE BUSINESSES ARE GROWING, BUT ONLY ONE-IN-FIVE ARE GROWING STRONGER

Across the field service sector, firms have performed significantly better since the end of the first strict lockdown in July 2020

• Workloads are up 70%, and turnovers have soared as prices charged for services increased by an average of 47%

• Demand for facilities management, fire and safety, plumbing and heating, and plant hire services bounced back particularly welL

While the headline figures are positive, the benefits of booming demand are not enjoyed by everyone

• Turnovers rocketed across the sector, yet fewer than half of companies reported making a profit. 26% of firms lost money in the 12 months to August 2021 as the industry was hit by Covid-19 complications, compliance issues and surging costs

• One in eight field service firms fear they could go out of business within a year

• More than eight out of ten firms expect turnover to grow into 2022. But a talent crisis means firms face this increased demand without employee numbers increasing at the same rate. 56% of field service leaders reported difficulty retaining frontline operators.

Productivity is now a major focus for field service firms

• Poor management oversight, outdated technology, and poor planning and workflow were significant barriers to more efficient work. 82% of field- service leaders said they wanted oversight of all parts of their operations in real-time

Our analysis indicates that there is a big difference between growing and growing stronger

• The strongest firms took advantage of rising demand to do more work, but remained in control of costs and became more productive

• In contrast, many firms now struggling for survival, grew too quickly. They took on the highest increases in workload and turnover of any segment, but doubled the size of their workforces and their levels of debt

Customer experience is key for competitive advantage

• Facing rising costs, the ability to compete on price is getting smaller. Customer experience has become the new source of competitive advantage. Most leaders said good service now requires same-working-day fixes for reactive jobs (68%) and that customers be kept fully informed digitally (65%)

Technology is critical in helping firms thrive

• Technology spending across the sector increased by an average of 54% in the last 12 months as firms focused on job management, productivity and customer experience

•  Users of job management technology grew faster, on average, than those relying on spreadsheets and paper processes last year. They are in a better position to take on further work and deliver it profitably in the year ahead

•  Most leaders expect spending in this area to continue growing into 2022

A Defining Period for the Field Service Sector

The following 12 months will be pivotal for field service firms. Everyone has the opportunity to grow, but they must manage significant cost increases and face major challenges recruiting and retaining skilled frontline operators. It will be a year of abundance for some - gaining market share and driving growth in turnover and profitability. Others will see their margins eroded further. Everyone would benefit from becoming more productive and competing on customer experience rather than price.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content 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 BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 in the Field Service industry @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Read more about BigChange on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/bigchange
• Learn more about BigChange @ www.bigchange.com
• Follow BigChange on Twitter @ twitter.com/bigchangeapps

 

Following the initial success of the partnership between global cloud enterprise applications company IFS and leading cloud-based iPaaS provider Boomi, IFS is now unveiling enhanced connectivity to empower IFS Cloud customers to accelerate time to value.

The IFS-Boomi partnership, announced in February, 2020, has already attracted investments from numerous IFS customers looking for a faster and more efficient way to integrate and interconnect their business solutions' landscape with minimum effort and a low total cost of ownership.

CUSTOMER DEMAND FOR INTEGRATION PLATFORM AS A SERVICE CONTINUES TO GROW

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Learn more about the IFS-Boomi partnership @ www.ifs.com/solutions/boomi/
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com/
• Learn more about Boomi @ boomi.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

In this third feature from a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS, we look at how field service organisations can overcome the barriers to achieve remote service success.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content 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 IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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While remote service technologies can have a very positive impact for businesses that reach far beyond their obvious pandemic use case, the reality is that making proper use of the technology is not without its challenges.

First and foremost, companies must understand that augmented reality and remote assistance – like any technology – must be part of a broader, well thought out strategy to have the desired impact and to result in ROI. When you think about the primary use cases for remote service – better customer experience, knowledge transfer, increased speed and effectiveness of training – you can see that the technology addresses needs that demand innovation and alignment beyond one particular tool.

The technology you select needs to fit within this broader strategy and within your digital landscape. “One of the key steps to us selecting the best tool was to ensure we completed a thorough analysis and pilot with a wide range of skillsets involved,” says Scott. If you’re newly incorporating this technology into your business, Roel suggests starting with a function where you know you’re likely to have quick success and impact. “I would suggest starting with internal use first to test it and see that people get acquainted with it and then add customer support in as well,” he says. “Try out some of the different tools on the market. Get a few licenses, spend some hours, and make a list of criteria that you think is most important. For us, connectivity, ease of use, price, and integration with your existing field service management system were important.”

If you know at the outset that the tool will be used in a customer-facing manner, be sure to consider their experience from the very beginning. “Don’t pick the technology and then try and make the process fit,” cautions Marlene. “Think about the customer experience, what you want to get out of the service, your desired result, and how it best serves the customer, then match the technology to those requirements. Also, don’t think one tool will solve the issue, and you may need two or more tools to help facilitate resolution.”

The Criticality of UI

User interface is important, both for internal workers and customers. One of the positives for many of the solutions on the market is that they can be used along with your existing hardware and can be easily accessed by customers using a simple link, without the need to download anything. “All of our techs have an iPad and an iPhone and use the iPhone for remote service,” says Gyner. “Because blue collar workers may be technical repair specialists, but don’t necessarily like technology, so the ease of use is super important in the adoption.”

Keep in mind that user experience is impacted by more than just the UI of the tool you select. “Connectivity was a bit an issue for us and we found we couldn’t use the technology in every location,” explains Roel. “You need to ensure that bandwidth is sufficient for the video stream and we discovered something in our own network setting that caused us not to have such a good connection. So, be sure to do proper testing to remove that burden from your customers and ensure their experience is seamless.” The consensus seems to be that the technology is remarkably easy to deploy but can be a bit more challenging to gain full acceptance of to drive true adoption. “Remote Assistance was very easy for us to roll out,” says Karl. “In fact, actually, the hardest thing was the mindset change internally, with having colleagues start to use this and trying to think of the tool as a different way of working rather than seeing it as an additional tool within their toolbox to apply. We’re working to create some kind of governance structure about how it should be used, when should it be used and that has actually created a lot more thought about how we work now and in the future.”

“Adoption is a challenge because your more senior technicians see technology as a threat to their competency,” says Gyner. “You can get past that by discussing the ‘why’ behind your decision to use remote assistance tools. For instance, explain that in scaling the business you don’t want your workforce working 50- or 60-hour weeks; you want to help them do their jobs more efficiently to enable their success."

Remember that remote service isn’t just an adjustment for your workforce but can be for your customers as well. Some may welcome the opportunity to engage in a remote service interaction, but others may show some initial resistance. “It’s a mentality thing. All of a sudden, I go to my customer now saying I will first try that remote session. That’s an adjustment,” says Roel. “But many of our customers are asking for it. They realize it is helpful for them and easy to use.”

"The hardest thing was the mindset change internally, with having colleagues start to use this and trying to think of the tool as a different way of working rather than seeing it as an additional tool within their toolbox to apply."

Karl, COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions

Tackle Change Management to Create Companywide Adoption

One of the points that comes up in many of my conversations is that promoting adoption of remote service technology can be a bit tricky because, at least currently, for most organizations it isn’t a mandated tool or standard part of the workflow. If it is being presented as something that is valuable, but optional, it is easier for those who prefer the status quo to stick with just that and simply let the tool sit. Of course, this particular challenge is negated if you get to a point where your service strategy is remote-first and therefore the process is required, but many companies aren’t there yet – or don’t plan to be.

Regardless of whether you’re presenting remote service as an optional “tool in the toolbox” or a required step in your service strategy, adoption is important and is touted as the number one challenge companies face in achieving remote service success. Therefore, it is imperative to think about how you’ll manage change related to the introduction, incorporation, or expanded use of this technology – and the broader strategy it is intended to enable. You also need to consider whether you want to take a more hands-off approach to adoption and allow employees to come around at their own pace, or if you want to put more specific measures in place to promote adoption and/or require compliance.

Enlist Your Change Agents

At FortisBC, the focus has been on finding and leaning in on internal change agents. “In my opinion, the key to success is to manage the change and have passionate team members who will push the project forward even in the face of challenges,” says Scott. “From what I have seen in our employees’ adoption it has been largely resistant to the changing work model. Part of seeing our success, however, has been having employees who can buy in and drive the change from the ground level.” While not unique to remote assistance, the concept of finding these internal change agents and empowering them to advocate for the change at the peer level proves impactful.

"We turned to remote service because we wanted figure out how we could bring the competencies of our trainers, who knew those pieces of equipment well, out to the field more quickly to drive down those callback ratios."

Steve Lowes, Construction Supervisor at Fortis BC Digital Services

At Munters, the company isn’t mandating use of the technology but is working hard to amplify its value and impact and to remove any barriers or objections to use and adoption. “We make the technology available at the central level, but we don’t demand its use,” explains Roel. “What we do focus on is removing their objections to its use – it’s too expensive, or whatever else it may be. We also focus on creating super users from which we gather feedback and make adjustments to show are listening and will continue to invest in the tool’s success.”

Gyner points out that in instances where you’re leveraging the technology between frontline and back office workers, you need to ensure that you have those resources aligned in the proper way. “I explained our use cases – for example, ice machines, for which a very small subset of technicians were represented in our pilot,” he explains. “If that’s what the use case is focused on, then the experts on that equipment needed to be available when the technician needs them. You can’t have a technician initiating a session and have no one on the other end to be able to help. If that happens, that is the moment when you lose his heart or her heart. As soon as there is an unavailability or an access problem, they just lose heart in adoption. Especially if they were already skeptical.”

For some, like Panasonic Heating & Cooling Europe, the experience of the pandemic has created a greater openness to change which may not remove but perhaps will minimize resistance. “The experiences of the pandemic, the working from home, the fact that the service organization had to find different ways to support customers, it has all shown us that different things are possible,” says Karl. “It helped us to see that this technology isn’t something necessarily to be afraid of but something that is a real game changer and something that we’re really only scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content 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 IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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 Further Reading:

• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Remote Service on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-service
• Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

Aquant, the leading Service Intelligence Platform that gives service leaders, reps and teams the most vital information they need for every situation, has raised $70 million in Series C funding. The investment will support the growth and advance its industry-leading service intelligence technology.

The funding round was led by Qumra Capital, Insight Partners and Pitango Growth. Previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Angular Ventures also participated in the round, along with new investors Schneider Electric Ventures and Claltech.

Aquant has now raised a total of $110 million. The company will use the fresh capital to support its rapid growth and expand use cases as it strengthens its position as the service intelligence leader in every market for every company that provides service. To accelerate its global expansion, Aquant will grow its engineering, client services and go-to-market teams, adding positions in the US, Europe and Israel. The funding will also drive the continuous innovation of its Artificial Intelligence platform, including the development of cutting-edge technology that combines structured and unstructured data and harnesses the tribal knowledge of experts.

AQUANT'S RAPID GROWTH IS A DIRECT RESULT OF HOW IT'S HELPING COMPANIES OF ALL SIZES MAKE THESE TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGES.

“To win the service game today, it’s not enough to just solve problems anymore,” said Shahar Chen, CEO and co-founder of Aquant. "Companies must also provide a stellar service experience. And when providing a stellar experience, service becomes more than just 'maintenance' for customers – it becomes magic.” Using deep service expertise and specialized Natural Language Processing (NLP), Aquant understands all service data, combines it with tribal knowledge, and provides service leaders, technicians, and reps with the most vital information they need, exactly when they need it. Service has largely remained the same for decades, but is now at a turning point. Companies are seeking to transform the way they deliver service, with service leaders expected to deliver exceptional service to differentiate the brand. They are also being asked to provide customer insights, derived from service data, to help executives and front line managers make strategic business decisions across all lines of business, including service, product development, sales, and more.

Aquant’s rapid growth is a direct result of how it’s helping companies of all sizes make these transformative changes. The company gives service leaders needed insights into their business, enabling them to make proactive, data-driven decisions, identify at-risk customers, understand asset performance, identify compliance risks, and more. The AI-powered technology is also helping to erase the talent shortage by providing the entire workforce access to information that was previously siloed in databases or held in the minds of long-tenured technicians.

Leading market researchers like Gartner Research have noted the unfulfilled need to leverage service intelligence throughout the industry, citing the powerful potential of machine learning and data mining to increase field service efficiency.

Aquant’s proprietary service intelligence platform harnesses Artificial Intelligence to ingest unstructured data, tribal knowledge, and industry insights. This combination gives service leaders meaningful insights into the state of their organization, enabling them to make data-driven decisions. It also empowers service technicians to be at the right place with the right knowledge and the right parts at the right time to solve technical problems immediately. Making every Aquant-powered customer experience a magical service interaction.

“Aquant is revolutionizing service intelligence and is well-positioned to lead this large market given their domain expertise and data savviness. Their technology enables companies to focus on what they’re good at, alleviating one of the most serious business challenges today,” said Sivan Shamri Dahan, managing partner at Qumra Capital. “We’re very excited to partner with them as they continue their rapid growth in order to significantly improve service experiences.”

Service intelligence solves an increasingly problematic talent shortage in the field service industry, providing new hires access to decades of technical knowledge, account data and service history at their fingertips. As Baby Boomers continue to retire from technician roles and younger Millennial and Generation Z employees fill their positions, sharing knowledge and employing data effectively will be increasingly important.

“Customers trust Aquant’s AI-enabled offering, as unlike generic AI solutions, it is tailored to the service vertical’s needs and delivers clear ROI from day one,” said Idit Muallem-Yedid, partner at Pitango Growth, who's joining Aquant's Board. “Aquant's insights shed light on areas traditionally perceived as blind spots in service operations and experience. I am excited to be part of Aquant’s journey, as it continues to bring value to all stakeholders of the service experience and roll out additional solutions highly anticipated by its customers.”

"We look forward to working with our new investors as we enter an important growth phase," said Assaf Melochna, president and co-founder of Aquant. "The service industry is on the cusp of once-in-a-lifetime advancements, and helping these companies transform service by providing critical business insights is built into Aquant's DNA." The company works across a number of industries, including medical device manufacturers, food equipment manufacturers, capital equipment manufacturers, industrial automation and appliances. Its clients include Siemens Healthineers, The Home Depot, 3D Systems, and Sysmex, among others.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
• Read more about Aquant on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/aquant
• Read more about Artificial Inteeligence @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
• Learn more about Aquant @ www.aquant.io
• Follow Aquant on Twitter @ twitter.com/Aquant_io

Burns & McDonnell and Librestream partner to implement collaboration platform supporting critical infrastructure workforces.

To support clients in the critical infrastructure industries, Burns & McDonnell, a 100% employee-owned engineering, construction and architecture firm, and Librestream, the #1-rated provider of augmented reality (AR) and remote collaboration solutions, are collaborating to implement Librestream’s field-to-office collaboration and knowledge capture platform, Onsight. Onsight’s solution is device-agnostic and is compatible with computers, tablets and enterprise wearable devices, and helps field workers conduct their jobs safely and more efficiently.

THE TECHNOLOGY HELPS FIELD WORKERS ACCESS INFORMATION AND RESOLVE ISSUES MORE EFFICIENTLY

Through the value-added partnership, Burns & McDonnell will support training, technology management and system integrations of Librestream’s full-package solution to help clients navigate unprecedented challenges.

“We are excited to partner with Librestream and its technical excellence to enable our clients to access critical information and more rapidly resolve issues in the field,” says Matt Olson, vice president and managing director of the Networks, Integration & Automation Group at Burns & McDonnell. “The integrated experience that captures and shares knowledge across project teams offers advantages in design accuracy, safety and efficiency while creating multiple benefits — both individually and collectively — through each project phase.”

Evergy Ventures, a nonregulated subsidiary of investor-owned utility, Evergy, made a strategic investment in Librestream to accelerate digital transformation within the energy sector. Through its research, Evergy Ventures identified Librestream as the top provider of remote expert and knowledge management tools. Evergy Ventures is supporting Librestream with strategic guidance and helping develop key relationships with utility innovators.

“This is an incredibly transformative time in the energy industry, and it is great to see Burns & McDonnell, one of our trusted partners in our hometown of Kansas City, partnering with Librestream to continue to advance the digital workforce,” says Dennis Odell, vice president of Evergy Ventures.

Librestream's Onsight platform enables workforce transformation through industrial use cases, powering the workforce of the future by combining AR, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) data visualization, as well as enabling automated on-the-job training, reducing cognitive load and driving operational insights. Onsight enables customers to achieve meaningful business outcomes such as 70% productivity gains, 65%-70% increases in asset uptime, and increases of three times the inspections per day, all with a more integrated experience that captures and shares knowledge across the workforce.

“Burns & McDonnell brings strong industry experience with digital technology, use case development, platform integrations, stakeholder management and training,” says Gary McAuliffe, vice president of sales for global utilities, Librestream. “Together, we look forward to bringing all of the services and technology together to provide Burns & McDonnell clients with tools that are simple to incorporate on projects and increase efficiency and safety.”

Through the official partnership, the Onsight platform benefits to Burns & McDonnell clients will include:

• Field collaboration and conferencing built for rugged environments. When traveling to perform a site visit isn’t possible, videoconferencing supports projects through on-site troubleshooting calls from the field to team members working remotely or in the office. Calling from the field also allows the team to capture situational information for future training and work processes.
  
  
• Data gathering and knowledge capture. The technology minimizes time spent sorting through data. It has demonstrated faster field documentation than traditional methods, with Librestream noting a potential 70% productivity gain.
  
  
• Workflow — step-by-step guidance and ability to assign tasks to people in the field. With remote specialists a call away and guided systems in place, less-experienced personnel can perform necessary field tasks if needed. With workflows and guided forms, the software captures and organizes field knowledge automatically.

To publicly launch the newly formed partnership, Burns & McDonnell and Librestream will conduct a joint webinar on Sept. 28, 2021, at 11 a.m. EDT. Zachary Wassenberg, product manager with Burns & McDonnell, and McAuliffe will give an overview of the platform and discuss a specific use case associated with bulk electric system reliability (NERC FAC-008 inspections). Sign up for the webinar here.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Artificial Intelligence on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
• Read more about Augmented Reality on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/augmented-reality
• Find out more more about Librestream @ www.librestream.com
• Learn more about Burns & McDonnell @ www.burnsmcd.com
• Read more about Librestream on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/librestream

In this second article of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS, we analyse what role remote service will play for companies in the post-pandemic world when it comes to customer-facing use.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content 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 IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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Whether remote assistance was in use prior to the pandemic, put in place to persist through the pandemic, or is still on your company’s roadmap, the question at hand is what role remote service will play for companies from this point forward when it comes to customer-facing use.

We know that customers are demanding speed and simplicity, which remote service can certainly provide – but also knowledge and relationships, which often can be more effectively accomplished face-to-face. So, is remote service the new frontline of defense? For many companies, a remote-first approach seems to make sense. For others, there’s reluctance to migrate away from what has always been an in-person aspect of the business. There’s no easy or even right answer here, but it is important to consider the role you want remote service to play in your service strategy going forward and be sure you put measures in place to bring that desired state to fruition.

“To determine the best strategy for remote service, you need to identify issues that can be resolved by a customer, without parts, instructions, and have minimal resolution steps to follow. Then understand why the customer is either choosing to not resolve on their own and address those concerns,” suggests Marlene. “Is documentation lacking or not clear? Is the customer resistant to self-serve? Also start with a small pilot to discover gaps and areas of improvement prior to roll out. Understand what is in it for the customer to participate in remote services and communicate those benefits clearly to them.”

It’s important to keep in mind that augmented reality or remote assistance isn’t the only tool related to being able to deliver remote service, and remote service strategy needs to be considered holistically. This means looking across service functions, and across technology use, to determine how everything in play fits into your customer journey in the best possible way. Despite the best of intentions, fragmented use of multiple tools and processes – no matter how useful on their own – will not positively impact your customer experience, or your productivity. “At RICOH, we are now beginning a formal program for our shift-left work, including combining all of the remote resolution activities across the organization. This formalization will combine the people, technology, and processes, as well as integrate our quality management and knowledge centered services programs, into delivering a holistic approach to remote service and remote resolution,” notes Marlene.

There's No One-Size-Fits-All for Remote Service

Striking the right balance between remote and onsite service might involve exploring company use function by function and scenario by scenario. For Munters, remote service is proving to be a valuable first line of defense but is not in any way intended to detract from or replace onsite interactions. “In warranty cases specifically, it’s a process to start with remote service before you go onsite. I see a shift towards more remote service, but not just because of this solution. I see it because we connect our devices and remote management as a whole service offering. Meaning, I connect to the device, and I maybe include the customer to say, “Hey, I’ve seen this. Can you try this?” That combination might come to a better diagnosis and maybe a faster resolution,” says Roel. “That said, we are still very much an onsite visit company. That mentality is still in there, and it is important to consider the role this plays beyond the actual issue resolution. Customer visits are imperative for our technicians to have the relationship with the customers as a trusted advisor. During visits, sometimes technicians pick up on things that a customer might not be seeing or saying remotely. This is all very important. You can’t lose sight of the customer. It’s not your own efficiency and effectiveness that should be your priority; it is still the customer that is your priority. Finding the right mix of the two is what will make it you can work in an efficient way.”

Of course, in prioritizing your customer needs you have to realize what their specific challenges, restrictions, and objectives are and ensure your strategy aligns. “I think there’s a little uniqueness in how wide what we work on is. We work on thousands of different models and manufacturers of equipment because the kitchen is so diverse,” explains Gyner. “As a support mechanism or competency leveler, I see remote service helping this industry. The customer engagement with remote assistance, though, is more complicated in our industry. There’s a level of safety that is a real consideration. And there’s also the reality of how our customers are resourced and how this constricts them from engaging in remote service. They often have a limited workforce. If you go into a Chipotle, for example, there may be three to six employees working at any given time. To pull one of those employees off and put that expectation on the customer to engage in remote service isn’t entirely realistic. Their focus is on delivering the menu to the customer and providing a great guest experience, not having an employee fix a fryer.”

Opportunities for expanding the strategy certainly exist outside of customer involvement, however, in ways that still have a direct impact on customer experience. “Knowledge management is an area where we see a lot of opportunity. We want to record the remote service sessions, upload them to our LMS and attach metadata so that it is searchable by the technician and information can easily be found relevant to a wide variety of problems to speed resolution and help transfer knowledge from one employee to another,” says Gyner.

"That said, we are still very much an onsite visit company. That mentality is still in there, and it is important to consider the role this plays beyond the actual issue resolution. Customer visits are imperative for our technicians to have the relationship with the customers as a trusted advisor."

Roel Rentmeesters, Director of Global Customer Service at Munters

As you consider what your remote service strategy should look like, you should be looking for opportunities to automate inefficiencies and non-value add work so that the time you do spend onsite is maximized in impact. “Much of field service is not necessarily an efficient use of people’s time. In a country like the UK or like Germany, if you’re in a central city region, sometimes the longest part of the job can be just the driving to sites. We’ve found that it can be one or two hours driving to site if a technician is driving into London, for example. And actually, they know what’s wrong, sometimes within 10 or 15 minutes of being on site. And then it’s the same journey back home or back to the office, so it’s quite inefficient,” says Karl. “What we’ve started to use IFS for is to actually have eyes on to the equipment before we arrive and what we’ve been able to find actually by doing that is that very often, it’s not a warranty problem, it’s perhaps an installation issue or there’s a wire crossed over, something like that. So, what we’ve said to our teams now is that we must support the customer of course but let’s use remote assistance first, so that we can get the unit operationally quicker without the need to dispatch an engineer. It allows a quicker response and, it’s enabling us to do that in a more effective and efficient way as well. This is valuable for an OEM, because it’s very difficult to recover those costs once you’ve dispatched an engineer. Very often, it’s warranty, so it’s seen as free of charge because it’s a manufacturer’s issue. But in reality, it’s difficult to recover those costs when you’re on site, you’ve dispatched an engineer and then you’re saying to the installer or the customer, “I’m sorry, this is not a warranty issue and it needs to be paid for.” So very often, we will do it as a gesture of goodwill. Remote assistance enables us to achieve the same goodwill result without any real cost for us other than maybe a few minutes using the remote assist to aid the customer.”

FortisBC, on the other hand, doesn’t see an evolution to remote-first or for prioritization of remote service, rather views the technology as another tool at the technician’s disposal. “At this time, remote service remains a valuable tool in our technician’s toolbox, but we do not have any immediate plans to move towards a remote only strategy,” says Scott. “Remote service has helped us ensure our customers can still receive a high level of satisfaction in uncertain times through this pandemic and will remain a valuable technology to assist in service delivery post-COVID.” 

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 Further Reading:

• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Remote Service on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-service
• Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

Robots have not taken over the world yet, but there will definitely be a lot more of them by the end of the decade.

GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, forecasts that the robotics industry will pass the $500bn mark in 2030, after a decade of growing at double-digit rates. That is an impressive figure for an industry that generated global revenue of just $45.3bn in 2020.

IN THE NEXT DECADE, INCENTIVES FOR ROBOTICS ADOPTION WILL COME FROM ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS.

GlobalData’s recent report, ‘Thematic Report: Robotics 2021’, reveals that most of the value generated by robotics comes from service robots, a broad category that includes consumer robots, as well as robots used in logistics, healthcare, security, and many other areas of the service sector. However, industrial robots will grow at a faster rate in the 2020s. Moreover, industrial robots are also a source of innovation that often spills over to service robots.

Filipe Oliveira, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Despite the long history of robotics, there is sometimes the feeling that the industry has not reached its full potential. That is about to change due to technological breakthroughs and other factors like the economics and demographics of rich and middle-income countries”.

GlobalData’s report predicts that several conditions are aligned that promise to expand the robotics market. Cloud computing and AI-enabled robots to collaborate, access huge amounts of data uninterruptedly, and, ultimately, become smarter. Further advances are needed in certain AI technologies, including computer vision, conversational platforms, and context-aware computing, and these developments will not happen overnight. Still, the foundations are in place, and advances are expected over the coming years.

Oliveira adds: “Technological developments are important, but on their own will not drive growth. For technology to enjoy wide adoption, it’s not enough for it simply to exist. Whereas scientific ingenuity and creativity are making progress in robotics possible, demographics and the economy will provide the incentives for that technology to be harnessed.”

Before the pandemic, economic growth had started to stagnate in large parts of the world. As countries and companies design their plans to recover from the pandemic, interest in robotics is increasing.

The final incentive for robotics growth comes from demographic trends. Fertility rates are low across all of the developed world, and have declined sharply in middle-income countries too. Societies are looking at robots to care for the elderly and help solve shortages in the workforce.

In the next decade, incentives for robotics adoption will come from economic and demographic trends, and it is the convergence of these trends with technological breakthroughs that promises to unlock the full potential of robots.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Robotics on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/robotics
• Read more about Artificial Intelligence on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
• Find out more more about GlobalData @ www.globaldata.com
• Read more about GlobalData on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/globaldata

The top three most important trends affecting the future of field service are new pricing models, data as an asset, and standardizing and simplifying processes, according to new research conducted by Bain & Company and ServiceMax, a leader in asset-centric field service management software. The global study, “Future of Field Services”, which includes survey data from 283 field service technicians and 25 service executives across the US and Europe, looked at the future of services, organization maturity and trends across commercial models, operations and technology, as well as key challenges and enablers in the field service arena.

THIS CO-AUTHORED GLOBAL STUDY EMPHASIZES THE EVOLVING SERVICE BUSINESS MODEL, THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSET DATA AND OPPORTUNITIES TO REDUCE WASTE AND FRICTION

“In addition to giving us insights into the future of service, the research highlights opportunities to both eliminate waste and reduce friction in service organizations, as well as increase service value and monetize engagement,” said Sumair Dutta, industry analyst and senior director of digital transformation at ServiceMax. “Field service is changing, and the pace of change is likely to accelerate in the next three to five years. This study shows key areas where service executives can close the gap between strategic expectations in the boardroom and tactical execution by technicians in the field, such as empowering cross-selling and upselling enablement, streamlining and simplifying processes, and properly training a digitally-empowered field force.”

According to service executives, the number one trend set to impact the future of field services is the creation of new commercial opportunities, such as the evaluation of new pricing models. Executives increasingly expect their field forces to play a role in selling services, with some companies generating up to 30% of service revenue originated by technicians. However, 70% of surveyed technicians feel they are not particularly skilled to drive sales.

Service executives said the second most important trend is harnessing data as an asset. However, 47% claim current tools aren’t easy to learn and use, and 60% of technicians say that when they’re asked to collect data, they don’t know the reason behind it. Increased access to data is particularly important for supporting dynamic pricing and changes to the commercial model, such as shifting from selling reactive service to selling solutions and outcomes.

Service leaders identified the standardization and simplification of processes as the third most important trend. However, one in three technicians report struggling with current processes. To address this, service leaders should prioritize standardizing the largest part of processes, customizing to specific market dynamics only when required, and embedding customer feedback loops into process continuous improvement efforts.

“In capital-intensive industries, field service has become increasingly critical to growth, profitability and commercial performance,” said Prashant Iyer, a partner in Bain & Company’s Advanced Manufacturing & Services practice. “We at Bain & Company believe that the people closest to the work, those on the frontlines, often have the most valuable input about their business. While there’s no shortage of trends affecting the quickly evolving field service market, this new research allows us to narrow in on the most critical pain points and solutions, as told by the technicians and executives leading this work.”

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about ServiceMax on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servicemax
• Download a copy of the "Future of Field Service" study @ lp.servicemax.com/Bain-Report-2021
• Find out more about ServiceMax @ www.servicemax.com
• Follow ServiceMax on Twitter @ twitter.com/ServiceMax