ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘management’ CATEGORY

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief welcomes back Kevin McNally, Sales Director of Asolvi as they look through five key considerations to factor in when trying to build a case for investment within a field service management solution including, definable return on investment, health and safety compliance, increasing customer engagement, reducing staff turnover and avoiding a competitive disadvantage....

Is building a case for investment in FSM a key topic for you?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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In the first of a four-part series of excerpts from an exclusive fieldservicenews.com video presentation Kris Oldland, Editor-In-Chief, Field Service News, is joined by John Hunt, Managing Director, EMEA, Astea discuss the findings of a recent research project Astea worked together with WBR to produce looking at the key trends amongst service-centric manufacturers.

In this initial episode, the two discuss that whilst 37% of companies are mostly or entirely product sales driven, in fact, 45% are seeing product revenue decline, but 75% claim that service revenue is increasing.

 Want to know more? The full length video of this presentation is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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A recent survey has revealed that 88% of field engineers see no opportunity to progress in their careers.

This less than favourable statistic comes from specialist field engineering recruitment consultancy, Concept Resourcing’s latest Field Engineering Salary and Engagement Survey where they delved into average salaries across the industry as well as fluctuations and expectations in pay, employee happiness and ranked the most desirable perks and benefits.

Engineer’s reports of a lack of career progression were backed up by the fact that 81% of Concept’s respondents reported having more than 10 years’ experience in the industry, and yet 75% of them were still in the same role. Not only does this pose a problem for those who are feeling stagnant in their career, but it does very little to help draw the next generation of engineers into the sector, with progression seemingly curbed.

Between an ongoing battle with the STEM skills shortage and burgeoning concerns over an ageing workforce, some would say the field engineering industry has its work cut out when it comes to attracting new talent. When we look at how the sector has changed in recent years, from advancements in innovation - such as automation and augmented reality, to a natural increase in customer demand for instant resource in the digital age - it comes as no surprise that the sector is crying out for new talent.

Aside from attracting individuals into the industry, retention of existing skilled employees is equally as crucial. Particularly to facilitate knowledge transfer to new starters to ease the pressure on the ageing workforce. With that in mind, it comes as something of a surprise that the survey revealed that 44% of field engineering professionals are feeling undervalued at work.

Retaining your field service engineers

It’s easy to assume that field service organisations would be desperate to retain their existing workforce and would be bending over backwards for them as a result. This may well be the case, but if employers are concentrating their efforts in the wrong places – their engineers simply won’t reap the benefits.

Of course, salary is always going to be a big factor to employee happiness, but with a whopping 79% of field engineers stating that they were dissatisfied with their salaries, the industry may well have a problem on its hands.

"Just 9% of those who requested a pay rise were successful, and of those, 62% were still dissatisfied with their salaries, an indication that perhaps the salary increases weren’t significant enough..."

Just 9% of those who requested a pay rise were successful, and of those, 62% were still dissatisfied with their salaries, an indication that perhaps the salary increases weren’t significant enough.

A potential reason for this could be the commoditisation of traditional field engineering sectors and the skillsets of engineers becoming increasingly focused on replacement over repair, meaning salaries have been driven down.

It seems as though the sector as a whole is missing the mark when it comes to giving their workforce what it wants, not through lack of trying – but simply through not knowing what they truly value where non-financial benefits and rewards are concerned.

Thankfully for employers, it’s not all about money. Feeling valued at work can overshadow a less than desirable salary. However, it’s worth noting that it works both ways, 80% of those who said they didn’t feel valued at work were actively looking to leave the company within the next 2 years.

Making your workforce feel more valued

Whilst salary naturally came out as the most important factor when choosing a job, company culture-related factors such as job security, work-life balance and a good work environment all followed.

When asked which benefits made the most difference to their happiness at work, field engineers ranked having a generous annual leave package, access to a good pension plan, a company vehicle and fuel card as their top priorities.

We saw a direct link between employee happiness and training. While only 6% of respondents felt that they didn’t have the necessary skills for their role, the gesture of being supported with personal or professional development clearly had a positive impact. Of those who said they were ‘happy’ and ‘very happy’ at work, 94% had been on a training course in the last 12 months.

Dan Sholl, Concept Resourcing’s Business Development Director for the field engineering division had this to say, “The results of the salary survey have been really eye-opening, to say the least. It’s clear that the sector has some work to do when it comes to both employee retention and attracting new talent.”

“Not every organisation has the budget to be able to provide regular substantial pay increases, but there’s a lot that can be done to make field engineering employees feel valued and happy at work. In our experience as a field engineering specialist recruiter, we often advise our clients on the significant impact that things like regular training can have on engineers and their happiness. Evidently, it’s these additional benefits and perks that can make all the difference when it comes to bringing the next generation of field engineers into the sector.”

If you’re interested in learning about average salaries in field engineering, or if you’re working on your hiring strategy for the year and would like some extra insight, read the rest of Concept’s Field Engineering Salary and Engagement Survey here.

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Oftentimes field service directors and managers can see the importance of investment within a dedicated Field Service Management (FSM) ahead of their colleagues in the boardroom. In this series of articles Kevin McNally, Sales Director, Asolvi outlines how to build a case for investment to drive your field service operations forwards.

In the first instalment in this series, we looked at how FSM systems can deliver easy Return on Investment, in part two we explored how investment in FSM solutions can help you achieve better staff retention and now in part three we turn our attention to how the implementation of an FSM solution can improve worker health and safety.

Is building a case for investment in FSM a key topic for you?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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Perhaps the easiest argument to put forward to an executive board when seeking approval for investment, aside from outlining a clear ROI, is when that investment will mean ensuring the working environments you place your employees in meets any necessary health and safety requirements.

Of course, in a field service scenario, it is not necessarily possible to control the environment in which your field workers will be undertaking their role.

Therefore, monitoring their safety and ensuring they follow all due protocols and procedures is of huge importance.

So let’s take a quick look at some ways in which FSM systems can help you keep your field service engineers and technicians safe.

Geo-Fencing And Lone Worker Support

One reason field service technicians and engineers are particularly vulnerable is simply the fact that they are often working alone - so should an accident happen it could go unnoticed for some time, delaying any necessary medical attention.

There are many lone worker solutions out there, but it is optimum if you can identify a solution that can integrate into your wider FSM system so it can take a data feed of where the engineer is scheduled to be at any given time.

In fact, once that data feed from your scheduling solution is in place, it is possible to establish geo-fencing to make sure that should your engineer either stray outside of where they are supposed to be, or should they fail to arrive where they are supposed to be within a parameter of acceptable margin, alerts can be triggered helping to avoid potential tragedies that can arise from lone worker scenarios.

Indeed, this is one of the key areas in which the importance of the easy flow of data across your field service eco-system can be most easily highlighted – as the benefits literally could mean the difference between life and death.

Smart Scheduling To Ensure Your Engineers Are Safe

The next item on the list is an obvious one, and one that any good dispatcher even working without an FSM solution will pride themselves on doing – however, by automating it we can remove the potential for human oversight and error.

Many FSM systems will allow you to set clear parameters against a job during set up so that should maintenance or repair need to be scheduled then unless those parameters (such as the job requiring specific qualifications or more than one technician being required) are met the job cannot be scheduled.

This relatively simple, yet highly effective inclusion within an FSM system can ensure that the right engineer(s), with the right qualifications, are sent to the job, helping to avoid any potential health and safety issues that could result from under qualified or undermanned service teams being sent out.

Guide Your Engineers When Onsite To Safe Processes Every Time

Even the most experienced engineers can make mistakes – and these are oftentimes the result of simple complacency – again something that can be overcome through the use of mobile tools often found within an FSM solution.

For example, by building a checklist on the engineer’s mobile device that is built into their workflow you can ensure essential steps aren’t overlooked.

It may seem like an obvious thing for the experienced engineer to be told to switch off a core valve or even mains power to an asset before undertaking maintenance, but it only takes one rushed moment of forgetfulness on a bad day to cause an accident that could potentially be fatal.

But your FSM solution could help avoid that entirely by only allowing the engineer to begin work on the asset once they have completed the H&S checks on their mobile device.

Want to know more?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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The advent of Cloud computing has had a profound effect on field service management.

Indeed, there is no denying that the emergence of Cloud computing has been a core driver in the ability for smaller and medium-sized field service companies to be able to compete with their larger competitors - and such competition has raised the bar for service delivery in all corners.

Anecdotally, how often have you heard someone comment (or indeed thought to yourself) ‘how is it that say my local florist is able to give me a detailed overview of where the flowers I have sent to my wife are at any given point within their delivery and are able to give me a 30 minute window for when they will arrive, yet the multi-national organisation that provides one of the key widgets that is essential to my businesses productivity can only tell me that an engineer will be with me at some point between 8 and 5?’

Of course, the truth is that the delivery of flowers is far less demanding of expertise than that expected of a highly qualified engineer capable of fixing said widget – which of course means that the scheduling requirements are also equally less complicated for the local florist.

In addition to this, the local florist will, largely by definition, only be serving a local area – whereas the B2B provider of the widget will almost certainly serve a national market, if not an international one.

So it is unfair perhaps to compare one to the other, accusations of seeking the similarities between apples and oranges are in this instance somewhat understandable. Yet, ultimately in today’s connected world, we must remember that we are no longer competing solely with those companies within our direct vertical sphere.

"Today, we are competing very simply against the best service experience our customers have ever had, whether that be within their consumer or their corporate lives..."

Today, we are competing very simply against the best service experience our customers have ever had, whether that be within their consumer or their corporate lives.

However, what this anecdotal example does highlight with true clarity is how smaller service organisations, be they florists, electricians, HVAC engineers or any of the other array of small entrepreneurial companies that help keep our day to day lives running, have been able to harness the power of modern FSM solutions.

This development is mostly the result of the introduction of SaaS-based subscription-style licensing which makes access to such systems possible. It seems like a long, long time ago that Tesseract, an Asolvi product became the first company in the world to offer their full FSM solution in the Cloud and on a SaaS model. Indeed, today almost all FSM providers now offer their solution in such a manner.

This means that smaller companies can have access to tools like scheduling, stock and parts management and mobile work management applications for their field-based staff to access via a mobile device. Yet, they also have the advantage of being more agile, more streamlined and less weighed down by legacy systems and processes that their larger peers undoubtedly face.

"In a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scenario keeping on top of MDM can sometimes feel like painting the Golden Gate Bridge – by the time you finish at one end it’s time to head back the other way and start all over!"

Many, many aspects of introducing an FSM solution can become more challenging the larger an organisation is.

Optimised scheduling engines need to be ‘taught’ the rules under which they are to operate – the larger the workforce and the more diverse the skill-sets within that workforce, the more ‘lessons’ that need to be fed into the scheduling system for it to operate as intended.

Also, let’s consider the devices that are being utilised by the field workers – mobile device management (MDM) is a challenge that few IT departments will relish.

In a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scenario keeping on top of MDM can sometimes feel like painting the Golden Gate Bridge – by the time you finish at one end it’s time to head back the other way and start all over!

Even in an environment where devices are provided by the organisation, there may be a mix of options within one company, with different devices being provided that meet specific roles within the organisation – such as rugged devices for field-based technicians.

This can result in a mix of iOS, Android and Windows operating systems (possibly even more) which all need to be factored into the MDM equation.

Again, this is a challenge that becomes magnified by the scale of the workforce in question.

Of course, another challenge magnified by the scale of the workforce is the simple fact that the introduction of any new business technology, including an FSM solution, is inherently a change management project – and as any change management consultant will inform you – good change management is about people. It is a simple equation to understand that more people mean more effort and complexity when undertaking such a task.

In terms of FSM solutions, the shift to the Cloud has absolutely changed the competitive dynamics within various industries in favour of those smaller companies who are savvy enough to embrace cloud-based FSM and unencumbered by challenges such as the above which larger companies may face.

This has given smaller organisations to flourish and thrive in the modern business eco-system, but this increased competition has resulted in huge organisations like Thyssenkrupp or ABB further driving innovation as we have showcased in these pages previously.

Our sector is going through a huge evolution with non-competing companies pushing each other to achieve more through service delivery and the cloud has played a major role in that allowing us to do so.

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The customer experience is a crucial differentiator between organisations and that experience needs to be consistent across the whole customer journey, Samir Gulati explains why this is so vital...

Today’s field-service customers demand responsive support, especially digital natives who are used to getting what they want when they want it.

But even though these customers expect field service to be speedy, it pays to slow down and examine the customer journey to better understand their expectations. Field-service providers then know what elements are worth measuring and can, therefore, leverage software solutions to direct their technicians to respond appropriately in real-time.

So let’s take a look at the five stages of the field-service customer journey, as well as the key metrics worth tracking at each step.

#1 The Service Request

The customer journey starts with the creation of a service request. But even a simple request carries the opportunity for deep insight so long as field service providers measure the flexibility of their engagement with the customer and their access to the servicer.

Can users submit such inquiries through multiple channels? Fewer and fewer customers want to communicate through a call centre. Instead, they prefer self-service online portals and machine-to-machine service requests generated automatically by their smart appliances.

But just as customers need access to technicians, technicians need access to customers - namely their service agreements. Automated registrations and entitlement checks, using preconfigured warranty information, allow service providers to assess maintenance options and confirm services instantly.

#2 Scheduling Service

Once a service request is submitted and subjected to the automated entitlement check, it’s time for scheduling. At this stage of the customer journey, scheduling options and response times matter most.

Customers should be able to easily book truth-based appointments, which reflect your technicians’ skill level and actual bandwidth based on a combination of real-time and historical data.

This ensures that the right technician is sent out to the right job, which increases first-time-fix rates.

That same information should populate estimated arrival and completion times so customers can plan for their field-service slots and appointments accordingly. Users can then utilize self-service scheduling to reschedule their service calls, at which point they have access to updated information regarding technician availability.

#3 Tracking Technicians

Modern customers value visibility and expect field-service companies to offer real-time tracking, much like Uber, for two reasons.

First is compliance with scheduling - simply, will the right technicians be selected, and if so will they arrive and complete their work on time?

This is as important for customer satisfaction as it is for maintaining a tight schedule and limiting unnecessary expenses. Second is real-time updates. If a technician finishes a job early or gets stuck in traffic, will the next customer in the queue receive a notification?

Furthermore, if a customer has extra information they’d like to communicate to the technician, can they send it directly to him or her without routing the message through a call centre?

Even simple messages that tell technicians, for example, what the code to a locked gate is or that the dog in the backyard is friendly can make all the difference in the timeliness and quality of a service call, but only if field-service providers open a direct line of communication between the customer and the tech.

#4 On-Site Repair

Once technicians arrive on-site, there are several key metrics that they and their employers ought to track:

• Preparedness: Does the tech have all the right information (and parts) necessary to complete the job on time?
• First-time-fix rate: the percentage of service requests resolved with a single technician visit.
• Time-to-repair: the average period of time it takes for a technician to repair a malfunctioning product.
• Time-on-site versus estimated: the difference between the estimated time-to-repair measurement and the actual repair time.

Field-service providers can use these measurements to assess the productivity and efficiency of their technicians as well as the effectiveness of their appointment workflows.

They can then fine-tune their processes and improve their service.

#5 Post-Service Engagement

Post-service engagement is the crucial last step in the field-service customer journey, which includes payment, customer satisfaction surveys, the ability to re-open a ticket, if necessary, and backend reporting.

By tracking order to cash (OTC), field-service companies can reduce the complexity in payment channels complicated by contract work, warranties claim management and sourcing parts.

And in a world where nearly 7 out of 10 customers leave reviews after purchasing products or services, channels for tabulating repeat services and gathering immediate feedback on services rendered can further provide valuable insight that field-service companies can act on immediately.

Samir Gulati, is Chief Marketing Officer, ServicePower 

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Kevin McNally, Sales Director for Asolvi gives us a sneak preview of a forthcoming white paper that outlines how to build a case for investment in Field Service Management systems by outlining how Return On Investment is such a fundamental part of the equation...

Is building a case for investment in FSM a key topic for you?! There is a full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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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 who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this content.  

Whilst, of course, each and every business has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, there are now certainly enough case studies available on this topic for us to be able to predict fairly confidently, that the implementation of a field service solution if done correctly, will likely  deliver considerable Return on Investment (ROI) within a relatively short time-frame.

In fact, perhaps the biggest challenge is exactly how to calculate the ROI that you are achieving as the benefits come in many different guises and various different aspects of the business!

For example, when implementing a Field Service Management (FSM) solution you can expect to see ROI come from various areas of business expense, including:

• Increasing the utilisation of your existing resources, both in the office and the field allowing you to achieve more without adding additional resources by taking advantage of tools that deliver improved scheduling and workforce planning.
• Warranty control, how often is your service just given away for free because it is uncertain to your engineer if the customer is under warranty – it happens more than you would imagine even in the biggest of businesses, especially if you don’t have a warranty management embedded in your FSM system.
• Reducing the costs of unnecessary second visits. By having greater visibility into the service call as well as parts availability field service companies can ensure the right engineers are being sent with the right tools to do the job first time around. Given that the truck roll is generally the biggest cost line on a field service P&L improving First-Time-Fix will likely deliver significant ROI all by itself.
• Greater transparency and detail within your parts management etc, It is not just with improving first time fix that parts management within an FSM can deliver ROI. Field Service operations are unique in that stock is by necessity in constant transit. Companies can have millions of pounds tied unnecessarily up in van or garage stock which can disappear into a reporting black-hole unless a fit-for-purpose solution is in place.
• Significant costs that might have seemed a necessary evil such as paper and ink can be eliminated through digitising admin in the field with mobile technology.

The Impact of the Cloud

Perhaps the most important development of recent years in terms of gaining ROI from an FSM solution is the shift to Cloud becoming the most prevalent means of deployment for such systems.

Indeed, the benefits of Cloud computing are numerous but in terms of the ROI equation, there are perhaps three big aspects to consider.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the widespread adoption of Cloud has led to most FSM solutions now being offered on Software as a Service model, where the FSM solution provider charges a monthly fee on a per-user basis. One of the big impacts of this trend has been that smaller and medium-sized companies that previously would have found such systems cost prohibitive on a CAPEX basis, could now access the tools that enabled there larger competitors to deliver more efficient service.

However, as the cost of a FSM solution is spread out on a monthly basis, it also becomes far easier for the ROI of that investment to become visible on a P&L sheet that isn’t carrying the heavy initial burden of the outlay of a CAPEX investment.

"When a solution is deployed by Cloud there is far less drain on internal resources for the service provider as the FSM vendor now bears a much heavier share of the workload in terms of actual IT support etc..."

Secondly, when a solution is deployed by Cloud there is far less drain on internal resources for the service provider as the FSM vendor now bears a much heavier share of the workload in terms of actual IT support etc.

Additionally, unlike an on premise solution which could be vulnerable to unseen issues such as flood, fire or even malicious attack, a Cloud-based solution will allow a service organisation to continue operating even should the unthinkable happen – meaning no lost revenue that may be generated from field service related streams.

Finally, Cloud based FSM solutions are in general, significantly quicker to implement compared to more traditional on premise equivalents, meaning that the field service operation can feel the benefits sooner, and thus start seeing that ROI quicker as well.

It is important to remember however, that ROI is just one of many aspects that can be used to build a case for investment in a FSM solution and we shall be exploring this and others in a forthcoming white paper with fieldservicenews.com

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Jan Van Veen continues his latest exclusive Field Service News series on how companies can monetise their services with IoT as he turns his attention to something many companies struggle with - better articulating their value proposition...

Central question: How to monetise Services & IoT

Many manufacturers experience pressure on growth, revenue and margins.

Their products and services are being commoditised. Competition from lower-cost alternatives are arising. On the other hand, there are huge opportunities with new technologies, value propositions and business models.

One of the important trends is that value proposition and offerings become more data-driven and more service oriented. However, many manufacturers are product-driven businesses which do not fully appreciate the value service has for their customers and own business.

So, one of the central questions is: How to Monetise Services and IoT in order to Grow in a Disruptive World?

The capability to monetising service and IoT is mission-critical for sustainable performance and existence of manufacturing:

In a series of articles, we cover 3 critical steps which make the difference between success and failure in monetising services and IoT:

1. Solve bigger customer problems, which is all about creating significantly more value for customers.
2. Articulate the value
3. Build internal momentum for monetisation

Common mistakes

Too often we see that (new) services, solutions or features are promoted without connecting the dots to their bigger problems.

For example, a client of mine – a major equipment manufacturer – experienced the power of explicitly connecting the dots. They were launching the first version of a portal to serve DIY clients which had their own maintenance departments.

They initially presented the benefit of the portal with many online manuals (version 1 of the portal) as a way to save time every time a maintenance engineer of their client would need to find the right manual. It appeared to be tough to sell paid subscriptions for this portal.

Only when the manufacturer articulated their view of the key problems of their clients’ maintenance departments and how the portal would solve these problems, did the clients get really interested.

The dominant problems of the maintenance departments were not finding manuals, but the daily pressure to increase availability and uptime at shrinking budgets and that, that their engineers had slow learning curves due to low volume of certain problem-solving work.

"A portal which would evolve into a broad toolset for best practices, troubleshooting and maintenance management was considered a crucial asset..."

A portal which would evolve into a broad toolset for best practices, troubleshooting and maintenance management was considered a crucial asset.

Furthermore, we often see manufacturers thinking and talking about features and activities, instead of customer value. Clients only pay for the value they perceive, not for what you do.

A striking example were field service engineers of another client, who would spend a full day in pairs to install equipment which was already delivered a  couple of days before. A few days after installation, another colleague would visit the client for training and commissioning.

The two engineers would unpack all components and assemble the components, connect it to a couple of other devices from different brands which involved many integration issues, connect their equipment to the computer network – which involved loads of security and networking issues which the engineers had to solve with IT departments – which by nature tend to be reluctant.

And here is how they briefed their client when they started the job: “We are here to unbox the components, put the bits and pieces together and make sure everything is there, so the trainer is ready to go……”

Their client did not even know what kind of complex integration problems the engineers were solving. Actually, their client even wondered why his supplier did not have more mature and efficient processes to get the job done. And by no means are the engineers to blame for this.

Some practical solutions

You can easily start improving on these common mistakes:

Build a compelling story of your view of your customers' challenges, opportunities and problems, which is validated by (a segment of) your customers. Relate this as much as possible to strategic or crucial priorities of your clients.

• Include a view on how your clients could best pursue these opportunities and solve these problems. Don’t make this a big thing, just start with a first strawman version and let it grow in time.
• Link the characteristics and benefits of your solutions and services to the view of your customers.
• If possible, quantify the benefits in terms of the strategic or critical priorities.
• Ensure that your value story is well articulated in your messaging to (the specific segments of) your clients and is consistent across all touch points. This may involve some staff training..

The Benefit

Manufacturers which are better in articulating their value see that both customer-facing personnel and their clients better see the value, better appreciate the value and therefore also find it more logical pay for this value.

Hence, these manufacturers generate more new revenue streams with higher margins and differentiate more from their competition.

Give monetisation of services and IoT an Impulse

If you want to accelerate the monetisation of your (new) services and IoT, join our upcoming Impulse Sessions on “How to Monetise Service and IoT”. These are full day interactive meetings with like-minded peers, during which we will exchange experience, insights and challenges.

Book your seat @ https://moremomentum.eu/impulse-sessions/ 

Essence

Delivering value to customers does not automatically also capture the value – that is, monetise the value delivered. If the delivered value is not clearly articulated for clients (and staff), both will take it for granted or maybe even not recognise it.

Jan Van Veen, is Founder of MoreMomentum

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Field Service Insights is a subscription-based, membership website headed up by long-time fieldservicenews.com associate columnist Michael Blumberg. Fieldservicenews.com has arranged an exclusive free trial period to this exciting new members community for field service professionals.

Michael Blumberg himself tells us more...

At Field Service Insights, every month, we bring you thought-provoking content designed to help you thrive in core areas of your business.

With over twenty-five years’ experience in the field service industry, we are continuously researching and evaluating industry trends, benchmarks, and state of the art. We are skilled at helping field service leaders anticipate the future, overcome obstacles to growth, and implement lasting change.

Field Service Insights was created based on the thought that providing overall service or having exceptional customer satisfaction is not easy. We know that field service leaders must continually deliver exceptional service, demonstrate value, and contribute to their company’s bottom line.

"Let’s face it, Field Service Organizations can’t invest in new tools or strategies simply because of their competitors. Analysis and due diligence are required when making these types of decisions..."

We understand the many challenges field service leaders face. We are aware that they don’t have access to unlimited capital resources. Every decision must lead to measurable results. Positive impact is key from day one.

Let’s face it, Field Service Organizations can’t invest in new tools or strategies simply because of their competitors. Analysis and due diligence are required when making these types of decisions.

Our mission at Field Service Insights is to provide field service leaders with insights and perspectives that can transform their business and provide added value for their customers. We want to help them shorten the learning curve and accelerate their transformation process.

By joining Field Service Insights, you will gain access to the latest strategies, tools, and perspectives on Field Service Management to help you increase service revenue, boost profits, and customer satisfaction.

For a limited time, we are offering Field Service News viewers a FREE 3-Month Individual Subscription of Field Service Insights.

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ClickSoftware, the leading provider of field service management software, has announced a number of new customer wins and updates from the second quarter of 2018.

The company announced several new customers in a range of industries and geographies, including Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Home, IFM Restoration, and Lattelecom, as well other leading service companies. In the most recent quarter, ClickSoftware also signed a new agreement with a longtime partner, Diabsolut FSM, to resell its cloud-based field service management product, Click Field Service Edge in North America.

In May, the company enhanced its flagship offering, Click Field Service Edge, to further improve efficiency and effectiveness on the day of service by uniquely incorporating real-time traffic data into the scheduling process. Field Service Edge now automatically updates the schedule if an unexpected event impacts the planned route to the next task, such as a traffic accident or road closure, and proactively incorporates live traffic conditions whenever schedules are updated to further increase efficiency and operational insight.

“Field service today requires unprecedented agility to achieve service levels that both exceed customer expectations and are cost effective for the business,” said Mark Cattini, CEO of ClickSoftware. “Delivering measurable impact to service businesses is only possible through a combination of real-world experience and state-of-the-art computer science, and we are delighted to see our customers validating our approach.”

In March, ClickSoftware received industry recognition from Gartner, with the highest product score for the “High-Volume and Volatile Schedules” use case in Gartner’s 2017 Critical Capabilities for Field Service Management* report.

“We believe the achievement reflects the company’s commitment to delivering solutions that enable service organizations to predict and plan for exceptional customer experiences,” said Cattini.

*Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Field Service Management, Jim Robinson, Jason Wong, Michael Maoz, March 27, 2018

Note: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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