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Across recent weeks here on fieldservicenews.com we've published a series of features analysing an exclusive research project run in partnership with Si2 Partners, WorkAmmo and Service People Matters.

Previously we reflected on Si2 Partners founding partner Nick Frank's initial commentary on some of the headline findings of the research which were first aired in a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast.

Now in the final part of this exclusive research analysis, we dig deeper into the findings and see how the trends the research has revealed support Frank's Si2 Partners initial hypotheses...

The Key Characteristics of a Service Manager

So, to begin let’s explore what the key characteristics field service organisations are looking for when recruiting new service managers.

We asked our survey respondents “What are the key attributes you look for in a service manager” with a list of 14 options to select as well as the option to submit additional information - and we asked respondents to list any options that were applicable to them.

Interestingly, and very much in line with Frank’s comments, the most common response was leadership capability in which 86% of respondents stated was a key attribute they sought within their service managers.

This in itself is a particularly intriguing insight given that as Frank alluded to, leadership capabilities may not be particularly evident based on past performance if organisations are promoting from within and selecting their new service managers from a pool of their highest performing field engineers.

This is not to say that they won’t necessarily exist within that pool, however, the skill set of strong leadership is as we have mentioned in the introduction a different skill set to what makes an excellent field service engineer.

"The most common response was leadership capability in which 86% of respondents stated was a key attribute they sought within their service managers..."

Yet it seems indeed that leadership is absolutely viewed as pivotal within the role of service management today - something that is surely a reflection on the strategic importance of service delivery as a growth driver that Frank refers to.

However, whilst the research findings reveal that whilst leadership skills are the most commonly sought after trait when recruiting service managers, it seems that many service organisations continue to seek out similar attributes within their service managers as those that are often highly valued within field service engineers and technicians.

Specifically, field service organisations were commonly looking for potential service managers to show technical knowledge and application (77%) and be good problem solvers (50%) both key traits often sought after in field service engineers and technicians.

Additionally, both an ability to fight fires and demonstrated performance delivery were both identified as key traits by just under a third (30%) of field service companies look for when recruiting new service managers - again highlighting how the roles of service managers are seen as being a linear progression from field-based roles.

However, given that this number is relatively low, it could also be argued that this could indeed be indicative of a changing tide and that this is part of the evolution which Frank described as service becomes a strategic growth drier rather than merely a cost centre.

Yet, when we look for the skills and attributes that are more firmly in line with what Frank describes as business management skills, again the data sits very much in line with his hypothesis, that perhaps not enough service organisations are showing the levels of ambition that one might expect given the large shift towards service as a profit centre we have seen in recent years.

"A third of companies (33%) who stated that a good head for business is something they look for in a service manager, whilst slightly more (40%) stated that an important trait they look for in service managers is for them to be analytical and metric driven..."

In fact, again it is a third of companies (33%) who stated that a good head for business is something they look for in a service manager, whilst slightly more (40%) stated that an important trait they look for in service managers is for them to be analytical and metric driven - another attribute that is perhaps more aligned to business management than the traditional requirements of service management.

What these findings to appear to reveal is that we do seem to be in the midst of an evolution within the role of the service manager, with some companies still leaning towards selecting the best performers within their field service teams, whilst others are adopting a slightly more ambitious approach to selecting their service management personnel in looking for traits that are more aligned with the strategic business aspects of the role.

There are of course merits in both approaches, as Frank points out, however, there are also a number of traits that are fundamental to being able to ensure that field service operations are delivered optimally and this was also evident in the research findings.

One big attribute that was commonly cited as important for field service companies to seek within their service managers was a customer-centric outlook - which was, in fact, the second most frequently cited of all the options within the survey with 80% of companies stating this is something they look for within a potential service manager.

Alongside this, a large percentage of companies felt that potential candidates for their vacant service manager roles should ideally have a good operational understanding, which two thirds (66%) cited as well as a good rapport with their service engineers which over half (55%) cited.

Whilst both of these latter two attributes could, of course, be developed by an external candidate these are both areas where an internal recruit would certainly have an advantage.

Service Manager Development

So, based on the research findings around the desired attributes of service managers, there remains a strong case for hiring from within, yet at the same time we are certainly starting to see a developing appetite for and a gradual shift towards the more business focussed service management role that Frank describes.

So does this mean that field service organisations are looking to recruit within and then develop the layers of business acumen required for managing a service business as a profit-generating entity?

The research would appear to suggest that this may not yet be the case and the role remains to be seen as being both technical and supervisory rather than being focused on business performance and strategic thinking.

Having  asked our respondents ‘What training do you give to your service managers?’ we found out that indeed, leadership training was the most popular response being cited by just over half (53%) of respondents, whilst technical training was also cited by half (50%) of respondents.

"Less than a quarter of our respondents (23%) stated that they gave their service managers any financial or business acumen training..."

In addition to these attributes ‘coach-the-coach’ style training and also ‘soft-skils’ were both cited by 30% of companies, is another attribute that fits more within a supervisory focused service manager role.

In contrast to this, less than a quarter of our respondents (23%) stated that they gave their service managers any financial or business acumen training.

This would certainly suggest that whilst aspirationally many companies may be beginning to see service as a driver for revenue growth, in reality, the majority of field service organisations still see the role of the service manager as being one firmly rooted in the operational side of the business.

Of course, one answer for this could simply be that many organisations see the more business-focused aspects of service management as belonging within the realm of the service director, rather than the service manager - but that begs the question as to whether we are developing the necessary characteristics within our service managers to make the necessary step up to become highly effective service directors who can drive both a service operation and business growth forward simultaneously?

Could it be that as field service delivery continues to becoming increasingly interwoven within business strategy - particularly as the trend towards servitization and outcome-based contracts become more prevalent that we are seeing demand outstrip supply in terms of service managers who are equally comfortable being operationally efficient, business savvy and who also have a natural proclivity to customer-centricity?

"Over two thirds (70%) of respondents stating that they didn’t feel there were enough candidates to meet demand for service managers roles..."

The research would again certainly add weight to this argument with over two thirds (70%) of respondents stating that they didn’t feel there were enough candidates to meet demand for service managers roles given the fact that field service has become increasingly important operation within many companies wider business strategies.

This lack of suitable candidates again asserts the validity and importance of being able to recruit from within - in essence, to be able to grow your own service management leaders. However, if companies are to do so and to do so effectively, then it would appear that many need to rethink how they approach their management level training programs to incorporate more focus on the business aspects if they are to truly align the role of service manager, with the premise of service as a profit centre.

Yet it is by no means an impossible task and the fact that just under half (44%) of the field service organisations who participated in the research involve their service directors within the recruitment process would suggest that these concepts may well filter down over time.

It seems that there is a small portion of field service organisations who are one step ahead of the pack in terms of developing their service managers to not only be able to deliver operationally but also strategically. The question now must be how long before the rest catch up? how long before the rest catch up?

Executive Findings: 

• 86% of field service companies state that Leadership Capabilities are a key attribute they look for in potential service managers
• 77% of field service companies state that Technical Skills are a key attribute they look for in potential service managers
• 80% of field service companies believe their Service Managers must have a customer-centric outlook.
• 55% of field service companies expect their Service Managers to have an excellent rapport with their service technicians
• 23% of field service companies provide their Service Managers with business or financial acumen training.
• 70% of field service companies believe that there are not enough suitable candidates to fill the demand for Service Managers

About The Research:

The research was conducted over a six week period reaching out to fieldservicenews.com subscribers as well as the respective audiences of our partners inviting recipients to complete a detailed online survey. In total there were 131 respondents.

In addition to this Field Service News Editor-in-Chief conducted a live polling session at the recent Field Service Connect event, held at the Belfry, UK which was hosted by WBR at which an additional 33 senior field service executives were present bringing the total respondent level to 164 field service professionals - a sufficiently large enough response base to provide a fairly robust snapshot of the current trends around recruitment and development amongst field service organisations today.

The respondents represented a diverse range of industries including; Heavy Manufacturing, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Power Generation and Facilities Management. There were respondents from all across the globe including the UK, Belgium, Germany, UAE, Canada, Spain and the USA and there were responses from companies of varying sizes ranging from those with less than 10 engineers through to those with over 800 engineers.

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As we continue our new series we are delighted to bring you a selection of articles taken from the recently released and highly informative, limited edition of Mobile Resource Management for Dummies, which is presented by Verizon Connect. 

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What Is Mobile Resource Management?

The traditional approach to handling business growth is to focus on meeting increased demand – more workers, more vehicles and more warehouses. This can also mean an increase in administrative and management staff and higher overheads.

This linear strategy is fine while the work is there, but in a market filled with increased competition and fluctuating customer demand, committing to fixed expenses can leave a company exposed if business stops booming.

Clearly, saying no to new business is not an option. Fortunately, there is another solution.

Mobile resource management (MRM), or enterprise fleet management technology, helps mobile workforces and the people who manage them to get smarter about how they use their assets.

"Mobile resource management (MRM), or enterprise fleet management technology, helps mobile workforces and the people who manage them to get smarter about how they use their assets..."

This allows them to improve productivity while saving money by avoiding the financial risk of prematurely acquiring additional employees, vehicles or equipment.

MRM refers to a broad suite of hardware and software technology solutions that are used to monitor, track and optimise mobile assets, from tools and heavy machinery to vehicle fleets, employees and more. MRM is focused on making the best use of a business’s existing assets – vehicles, equipment and employees – to maximise its capacity; connecting the vehicle, the people and the work.

Most businesses have untapped potential that could be converted into a revenue-generating activity, but they don’t know it exists, or how to leverage it. You want to find your underutilised or inefficient assets and/or staff, and this can only be highlighted by monitoring them.

That’s where MRM technology comes in. It monitors each of your assets and allows an owner or appropriate stakeholder to see what, where and when resources are being used.

Using the data supplied by location-based technologies fitted to the vehicle or equipment (including phones and tablets), an MRM solution can easily show a range of productivity metrics.

Information that can be reported includes:

• When vehicles arrive at and/or leave a worksite or customer location.
• If the vehicle is anywhere other than where it should be.
• When equipment is being used (engine on).
• Which vehicles or assets have been sitting idle.
• Vehicle travel time (to determine time spent between jobs).
• Whether drivers are taking the quickest and most efficient routes.

Modern MRM solutions increasingly leverage the ubiquitous connectivity, unlimited scale and low-cost advantages of the cloud (discussed in the previous article here).

Some examples of technologies, applications and uses that might be found in a complete MRM solution include:

• Telematics
• Route optimisation
• Mobile technologies
• Data connectivity
• Work order management

Let's explore the first of these, i.e. telematics in closer detail...

Telematics

Telematics integrates vehicular technologies, road transportation and safety information, sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications and more. Telematics is sometimes referred to as ‘GPS (Global Positioning System) vehicle tracking’. However, that doesn’t begin to cover the breadth of capabilities under the telematics umbrella.

"Aside from simply tracking vehicle location, a robust web-based telematics solution offers customisable reports, near real-time vehicle and driver alerts, vehicle health, dashboards, custom map overlays, geo-fences and other tools to help companies manage and optimise fleet operations..."

Aside from simply tracking vehicle location, a robust web-based telematics solution offers customisable reports, near real-time vehicle and driver alerts, vehicle health, dashboards, custom map overlays, geo-fences and other tools to help companies manage and optimise fleet operations.

A comprehensive telematics solution empowers businesses to monitor and understand a broad range of operational factors, including:

Fuel consumption.

Fuel is one of the largest fleet operating expenses. Finding new ways to reduce fuel use provides immediate benefit to any company’s bottom line. With a telematics solution, fleet managers gain detailed insight and visibility into several key areas that have a big impact on fuel use, such as:

• Speeding – According to Commercial Fleet, a van driving at 80 mph uses 20 per cent more fuel than one driven at 70. That adds up quickly when you multiply that by any size fleet over the course of the year.
•  Idling – Unproductive idling is another fuel drain. For example, Figure 2-1 shows that the average yearly idling cost for a fleet of just 15 Transit vans is more than £11,000.
• Vehicle maintenance – It may not be as obvious as speeding and idling when it comes to wasting fuel, but proper vehicle maintenance plays a big role in fuel efficiency. Proper maintenance, including proactively addressing diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) and maintenance alerts, as well as maintaining proper fleet operational levels, help to reduce costly downtime.
• Tyre pressure – According to the UK’s Department for Transport, underinflated tyres lower fuel. For example, four tyres that are just 25 per cent underinflated increase fuel consumption by about 0.2 per cent. Additionally, properly inflated tyres are safer and last longer.
• Unauthorised use – Unauthorised vehicle use equals unauthorised fuel use. Corporate fuel cards can be tied to specific vehicles via telematics to identify if a fuel card has been used without an accompanying work vehicle. Also note the fuel capacity of your vehicles, in case an employee purchases 45 litres of fuel for a company vehicle that only has a 40-litre capacity tank!
• Route optimisation – Are drivers taking the most efficient routes throughout the day? Added miles burn fuel and put unnecessary wear and tear on the vehicle itself.
• Utilisation – Understanding how much of a vehicle’s time is engaged in productive work can provide valuable insight that may allow some companies to perform the same work in the same amount of time with fewer vehicles on the road – which means less fuel use.

FIGURE 2-1: Average idling costs for Transit van and HGV fleets (source: Fleetmatics).

Safety

Any company that has a fleet of mobile workers considers the safety of their drivers and the public to be a top priority. Fleet vehicle accidents are costly on multiple levels – injury claims, repairs, employee morale, loss of productivity, company reputation and government interference, just to name a few.

According to the UK’s Department of Transport, an accident claim can cost an employer over £23,000 in medical care, legal expenses, lost productivity and property damage. That cost can exceed £216,000 when someone is injured, or £1.8 million when a fatality occurs.

"Two big contributors to accidents are maintenance issues and driving behaviour. A telematics solution can provide near real-time alerts on both vehicle maintenance issues as well as driving behaviour..."

Two big contributors to accidents are maintenance issues and driving behaviour. A telematics solution can provide near real-time alerts on both vehicle maintenance issues as well as driving behaviour. These alerts help to ensure that a vehicle is safe and roadworthy. And they provide business owners and fleet managers with solid data on driver performance that helps them better coach that driver to be safer on the road.

According to a National Highway Safety Administration (NHSA) study in the US, speeding is a factor in nearly 23 per cent of all at-fault large truck crashes. The same agency also reports that a tyre 25 per cent below its recommended pressure is three times more likely to be involved in a crash.

Telematics is also a natural companion for driver compliance factors – such as Hours of Service (HOS) – and can automate tracking processes, and help ensure that drivers are fresh and operating on proper/approved rest.

Simply knowing the location of a vehicle can also improve employee safety. If a truck and its driver don’t return when expected, their location can be determined, and, if needed, assistance can be provided.

Productivity.

Almost everything a telematics solution accomplishes leads back to productivity. One of the first things a supervisor will understand is the percentage of an employee’s day that is productive – are there inefficient in their day that can be improved upon? Better routing? If the vehicle spends a lot of time parked or idling, why is that? Telematics identifies symptoms that can be used to diagnose and correct a problem.

Dispatchers can easily identify the nearest possible respondent to a call by vehicle type, driver capabilities, and tools and parts available on board, ensuring that the response is swift and efficient.

The automation and incorporation of paperwork into mobile devices now allows records to be filed immediately during and upon completion of a job, eliminating countless hours of labour, filing and organising.

Finally, the age of compliance is upon us – HOS, tachographs, and Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIR) are a fact of life for commercial fleet managers. The same mobile devices that allow communication and form automation can also be used to streamline compliance reporting, ensure expedient interaction with DOT authorities, and eliminate paperwork almost entirely from the process – all driving productivity.

If a company has a large, decentralised mobile operation that is service- and/or delivery-based, a telematics solution can also take the entire fleet and plot out optimised routes that cut down on miles driven, wear and tear on a vehicle, fuel use and, most importantly, time. All working together to allow a fleet manager to accomplish more – for less.

Maintenance.

The two kinds of maintenance are: planned (scheduled/preventive) and unplanned (failure). The first can be managed. The second becomes a downtime event that sinks productivity, adds unexpected costs (repair and replacement) and stunts profitability because that asset and its driver are unable to work. It also has a downstream effect on everything from customer satisfaction to other vehicle/employee schedules. Luckily, the first can largely prevent the second.

"Telematics automates the tracking of vehicle maintenance schedules and eliminates many of the old labour-intensive tracking processes..."

Telematics automates the tracking of vehicle maintenance schedules and eliminates many of the old labour-intensive tracking processes. Alerts can be scheduled when it’s time to perform regular maintenance activities, as well as to warn a fleet manager if a vehicle is operating out of usual parameters, or if an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solution triggers a diagnostic trouble code (DTC), indicating the potential for a failure and allowing maintenance staff to address it before it becomes a downtime event 

This also allows fleet managers to schedule planned maintenance activities at a time with the least impact on productive work.

These systems can generally track any and all factors that have a direct impact on uptime and performance. From oil temperatures and fluid levels to tyre pressure and the presence of AdBlue in diesel, a telematics solution can help to diagnose a maintenance issue before it becomes a more expensive problem.

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Titos Anastassacos from Si2Partners shares with us some interesting insight on Augmented Reality from their recent research-based reports...

Technology is changing field service rapidly.

In the not too distant future Smart Connected Products will be self-diagnosing; Maintenance will become, almost exclusively, predictive; Spare parts will be 3D printed; And humans will interact at a deeper level with machines through Augmented Reality and Digital Twins, whether the machine is in the same room or on the other side of the planet.

The nature of the service business will shift from technical labour and logistics to knowledge management and exchange. Service delivery will change drastically as will the nature of competition and business models.

"The nature of the service business will shift from technical labour and logistics to knowledge management and exchange. Service delivery will change drastically as will the nature of competition and business models..."

But if the “end-state” medium term can be discerned quite clearly, getting there poses significant challenges.

So, at a Si2 Partners, we developed a series of survey-based management reports, to shine a spotlight into service businesses’ efforts to grasp the opportunities of digitization while dealing with the challenges. We then draw conclusions and recommend the best ways forward. The first report on Augmented Reality is available now, the next report on Predictive Maintenance is due by the end of the year.

The first public demonstration of AR was in 1998 during ESPN’s coverage of a football game: Generation and display of the yellow first down line. The line stayed fixed within the coordinates of the playing field. It was not physically present on the field and was visible only to the television audience.

But from that simple application, only 15 years later, Gartner was predicting that companies would be increasing their profits by over $1 billion annually -by 2017- through the application of AR in their field service business.

Things, of course, are not so simple. Reducing costs does not directly translate into increased profits.

That depends on prices and we know that digitization tends to make them drop, sometimes to zero -think of what happened to chemical photography. But even if we only consider costs, AR is clearly important, in many ways transformational, technology with a potentially very powerful impact.

So, are companies adopting AR for field service? Our survey showed that they are.

Most expect significant cost savings and productivity improvements through AR, mainly in engineering time and travel cost -and, interestingly, smaller companies are at least as much engaged with the technology as larger ones: Upfront investment can be low, and it can be implemented quickly and stand-alone (at least initially).

Importantly, it may help reduce pressure on scarce, highly qualified, and expensive engineering resources, while simultaneously improving the cost-effective support of remote customers (smaller companies are less likely to have extensive service networks).

Overall, we found that while less than 1/3 of respondents already used AR, and, of those, the majority had introduced it over the past 12 months, another third planned to introduce it over the coming 12 months. This indicates an accelerating trend.

Of course, for users, it has not been all smooth sailing. Challenges are numerous: For example, it turns out that connectivity at customer sites is a significant issue, which hampers the use of the technology. But technical problems are normal at this stage of introduction.

Far more important are managerial challenges.

For example, as always, one size does not fit all: The most commonly reported use case is field technicians receiving AR-based support by experienced engineers from a remote central hub.

"Better applications for such cases may be pooling AR-based support, providing technical information through “knowledge-libraries”..."

This may help companies with large field service workforces (possibly with high turn-over rates or fewer qualifications) supporting standardized equipment. It is not much help to vendors of highly complex equipment whose field engineers are already highly experienced and qualified themselves.

In fact, it may be even counter-productive, slowing things down or reducing acceptance.

Better applications for such cases may be pooling AR-based support, providing technical information through “knowledge-libraries”, particularly on rarely encountered problems or legacy equipment, or integrating AR with the IoT, so that operational data can provide real-time context to engineers and support for diagnostics.

However, such applications require investment in digital content, something that many AR users have often not considered, as well as a process of experimentation and development.

Another finding is that following implementation of AR, many managements don’t take the necessary action to lock-in the AR benefits by pushing through change in the support and field service processes. For example, few companies eliminate technical manuals and drawings from a field engineer’s toolbox, delaying the necessary adjustments.

And, while many companies market their AR capability to customers, few have developed AR-based offerings. Yet our survey shows that customers would welcome AR-based support if it would help to reduce costs and improve performance, notwithstanding issues of confidentiality or privacy.

The process to integrate AR into a company’s mode of operations and to maximize its benefits will, as for any new technology, be arduous and bumpy. But the impact on costs and productivity is becoming clear. Though most don’t yet formally track it, 72% of our respondents said that AR is on par with or has exceeded expectations.

Augmented Reality in Service: Ready for Prime Time? Visit the Service in Industry Hub Shop to download the flyer or purchase the report. For more information contact titos.anastassacos@si2partners.com or visit Si2Partners

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Previously on fieldservicenews.com we published an analysis of an exclusive research project run in partnership with Si2 Partners, WorkAmmo and Service People Matters where we revealed that 57% of field service organisations prefer to promote from within when appointing service managers.

Here in the second part of this analysis, we now explore in greater depth whether service organisations should be redefining the role of the service manager and ask what are the key attributes we should look for in service leaders of the future...

As field service operations continue to become an increasingly important part of revenue and customer engagement strategies for organisations of all sizes and in all verticals, it, of course, follows that those leading our field service teams are simultaneously becoming essential to the wider success of a business.

In our previous analysis of our research into development and recruitment trends within field service organisations we revealed that currently just over half of field service organisations prefer to promote from within when seeking to fill field service management vacancies, which is largely how things have been done historically - it is a sure bet that a large percentage of the service directors reading this report will have started their career as a technician in the field and this background and experience certainly has its advantages.

For a start when promoting someone from within they will, of course, have a much more intimate understanding of your organisation, your engineers’ workflows and perhaps most importantly your customer base. These are all factors that will help them hit the ground running in their new management role.

"Sometimes the best engineers, no matter how conscientious and efficient they may be when working in the field, just can’t make the step up into management - running a team requires a very different skill set than keeping your clients’ assets running..."

Yet, there is, of course, a flip side. Sometimes the best engineers, no matter how conscientious and efficient they may be when working in the field, just can’t make the step up into management - running a team requires a very different skill set than keeping your clients’ assets running.

Discussing this particular finding within the research in a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast Nick Frank, Founder of Si2 Partners commented:

“I think it is very natural, especially for companies who see service as a cost centre and as simply a way of generating customer loyalty, to see the people that they want to lead these functions within their own organisation.”

“Of course, these companies will be looking for people with the leadership skills - but they may also have a preference for someone who also knows the business.

“A large reason for that is is because service involves dealing with so many different stakeholders such as R&D and sales. Then it is also good to have someone who also knows the products and how those products work and how they operate in the customer environment.”

“So yes, if you are coming from a viewpoint of 'we are fundamentally there to keep the machines running and try to satisfy our customers’ then I’m not that surprised companies are still predominantly hiring from within.”

“But frankly, to be completely honest I’m a little bit disappointed that the percentage is still so high.”

"Service is becoming much, much more of a strategic growth driver..."

“The reason for that is because for me service is becoming much, much more of a strategic growth driver. Now that’s not to say it is the only drive, but it is certainly becoming recognised as an important strategic growth driver alongside  a number of other things.”

“When you adopt that approach, you’re suddenly your not really looking so much for that in-depth product knowledge in your service leadership - in fact as a leader you should always have people within your team who understand the technical side.”

So the key attributes you want to see in your service managers then become much more about business leadership elements. By this, I mean things such as strategic direction, decision making and getting teams aligned etc. Also, business acumen becomes far more important because when you start seeing service as a driver for growth you are no longer operating as a cost centre, you’re generating revenue and running a business - so in some ways, I was a little bit disappointed that so many are still hiring from within.”

"Business acumen becomes far more important because when you start seeing service as a driver for growth you are no longer operating as a cost centre, you’re generating revenue and running a business..."

“Who knows, maybe these companies are finding people with all those skills within their organisations, but I feel that it is more likely that they are opting to play it a bit safe, rather than being a bit more ambitious with where they want to take their service business.”

It is certainly an interesting topic for discussion and Frank raises many valid points, but is the fact that so many field service companies are still predominantly hiring from within indicative of field service companies erring on the side of caution, or is it perhaps the case that as with many other areas within field service we see patterns evolve at a slightly slower pace often due to the necessity of keeping what is invariably a mission-critical side of the business on relatively stable ground.

To help us understand this better and to dig deeper into the thinking behind many field service companies approach to hiring and developing new service managers, we will focus in this second part of our research analysis on the key trends amongst service organisations in terms what we attribute are key in the next generation of service leadership and how companies are nurturing them.

About The Research:

The research was conducted over a six week period reaching out to fieldservicenews.com subscribers as well as the respective audiences of our partners inviting recipients to complete a detailed online survey. In total there were 131 respondents.

In addition to this Field Service News Editor-in-Chief conducted a live polling session at the recent Field Service Connect event, held at the Belfry, UK which was hosted by WBR at which an additional 33 senior field service executives were present bringing the total respondent level to 164 field service professionals - a sufficiently large enough response base to provide a fairly robust snapshot of the current trends around recruitment and development amongst field service organisations today.

The respondents represented a diverse range of industries including; Heavy Manufacturing, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Power Generation and Facilities Management. There were respondents from all across the globe including the UK, Belgium, Germany, UAE, Canada, Spain and the USA and there were responses from companies of varying sizes ranging from those with less than 10 engineers through to those with over 800 engineers.

Look out for the second part of this analysis where we will explore how a deeper exploration of the research findings correlated with Frank’s hypotheses as we dig deeper into the key characteristics field service companies are seeking when recruiting for new service managers…

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We've all know it for a long time, field service management is a rocking sector. Now Bill Pollock provides us with the evidence - rock on...

Whenever one of your service customers hollers “Help”, you not only need to respond quickly, you also need to Get It Right the First Time – because you certainly won’t want to waste the time and expense of having one of your field technicians Truckin’ to the customer site unnecessarily – and you also won’t want to have to Do It Again later! If you’re not careful, it will all be Wasted Time!

By the way, this is why many of the leading services organisations are incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) into their Field Service Management (FSM) solutions – because Every Picture Tells a Story, don’t it? With all of this “new” technology being integrated into FSM solutions supporting the global field services community, The Times They Are a Changin’, for sure!

For a majority of users, the decision as to which type and brand of equipment to acquire is based more on the quality of service that will be provided after the purchase, rather than on the acquisition of the piece of equipment itself. Plus, it’s not only based on Money, Money, Money – it’s more often than not based on things including Promises, Honesty and A Matter of Trust!

However, once selected, after the services provider asks the user to “Take a Chance on Me”, it will need to, first, make sure that its new customer has a Peaceful Easy Feeling, and that it hasn’t spent a whole lot of Money for Nothing (or you could end up in Dire Straights)!

"After the services provider asks the user to “Take a Chance on Me”, it will need to, first, make sure that its new customer has a Peaceful Easy Feeling, and that it hasn’t spent a whole lot of Money for Nothing (or you could end up in Dire Straights)!"

Further, whether the customer’s equipment is located in Allentown or Katmandu, the services provider must be sure that there Ain’t No Mountain High Enough to keep it away from delivering the services that have been promised. If you cannot cover all of the geographic areas where your customers’ (and prospects’) equipment is located, you may end up with an unhappy customer in Massachusetts, requiring your field techs to work weekends on Tulsa Time, finding a suitable contractor in Sweet Home Alabama, being stuck in Lodi (again), authorizing a costly flight to Kokomo, Going to California yourself – or even worse – having to deal with a Panic in Detroit! One way or the other, you’ll never want to hear one of your Colorado customers tell you to “Get Out of Denver”!

Communications is also a critical component of any services relationship – and the last thing you will ever need to experience with your customers is a Communications Breakdown! Customers will want you to be their “Nights in White Satin”, consistently being able to provide them with what they want, “Any Way You Want It”, so they will always feel Glad All Over.

Customers hate it when they call their services provider and get No Reply! There’s a Fine Line between being only casually responsive and treating your customers with a full measure of Respect – and you don’t want to cross that line the wrong way, otherwise, your customer will feel like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and end up in Misery!

If you get your communications right with your customers, you’ll find that The Winner Takes It All (i.e., your services organization); but if you Try Too Hard, you might end up just Livin’ on a Prayer, waiting for another opportunity to make it up to them – and they may simply tell you, “Not a Second Time”! It’s also important to remember that even if your customers have already asked you 65 or 66 questions, you will still need to be prepared to answer Questions 67 and 68!

So, … if you consistently deliver the expected – and desired – levels of service to your customers, and your field technicians remain Cool, Calm and Collected with respect to managing their customer relationships, then you may be in it for The Long Run! If so, then Long May You Run (that is, in circles around your competitors)!

However, for every services organization that actually “gets it”, there are probably a dozen or so more that don’t! That’s why it is so important to make sure you properly train – and arm – your field techs (i.e., with mobile tools and accompanying technology, etc.) with everything they need All Down the Line, so they can satisfy their customers consistently, and go home every day after their last call feeling Free as a Bird and ready to Rock and Roll All Nite!

Bill Pollock, is President of Strategies for GrowthSM

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The not-for-profit knowledge sharing group the Service Community, has announced their next event will hosted by GE Power at their new Stafford Location on the 16th October 2018...

The event will run from 11.00 – 16.00 and include a light lunch.

You can sign up by emailing us at info@service-community.uk

Agenda

• Meet 10.30 for 11.00 Start
• Welcome & Service in GE
  • Service Challenges in GE Power
• Creating Service focus in a successful product business - Ross Townsend – Business Manager Ishida
  • Ishida is already a successful packaging equipment business. Ross will share his experience of the challenges of developing advanced services in an environment where the product is king. We will have an opportunity to discuss what is working, but also what is not, so this should be a great conversation for those driving change in product orientated businesses
• Networking Lunch
• Selling Service Value - Leon Sijbers Service Director at GE Power
  • One of the biggest challenges of selling business is to identify and quantify the pain points in your customers. Leon is an expert in identifying these pain points and then selling value to close the service deal. He will share with us his own approach which he has developed over the past 10 years in service sales.  An excellent session for anyone developing a service sales team
• Buying Advanced Services and the relevance of a new Service Standard
  • This session will provide insights from one of the most sophisticated buyers of services such as a availability contracts, as to how services are bought, and why the recently published British Standard ‘Through-life engineering services – Adding business value through a common framework – Guide’ (PAS280) is a must read for all professionals involved in servitisation of industrial businesses.
• Networking break
• Assets & Service Data Gravity - Mark Homer: GE Digital
  • Vanson Bourne recently carried out a research programme on behalf of ‘ServiceMax from GE Digital’ aimed at understanding on the importance of service data in managing assets. Mark Homer will share the results and the insights learned.
• 16.00 Meeting Close

Field Service News will be in attendance to report from the event and we hope to see you there also!

Find out more about the Service Community @ www.service-community.uk

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to nick Frank, Founding Partner, Si2 Partners, about some of the key findings of a recent research project recently undertaken by the two companies that explored emerging trends in the recruitment and development of both field service engineers as well as service managers across a wide range of industry verticals.

Find more from Nick Frank @ Si2Partners

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John Cameron outline some key areas of focus for organisations looking to improve the cash flow of their field service division...

Is your Service to Cash Cycle a key topic for you?! There is a detailed white paper on this topic which is available for fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!

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For equipment dealers and companies that manage large service operations, service-to-cash cycles can be a headache. Indeed, the gap between when a technician is assigned a job to when accounting receives payment and recognises the revenue, can turn out to be one of the most stressful tasks if it is prolonged. Why? Because it can put a squeeze on your cash flow and profits.

Aberdeen Group reports that the average service-to-cash cycle is 34 days, with the best performers able to reduce this to around 26 days.

What Causes Long Service to Cash Cycles? 

A recent Trimble study1 amongst equipment dealers and service organisations found that most payment delays will often lie in the service-to-invoice process.

The main reasons for this being:

1. Paper forms are still being used by technicians to capture job details

40 per cent of those surveyed either do not use mobile devices to capture data in the field or are still in the process of rolling it out. If technicians must wait until the end of the day to enter job information, or if back office staff must manually enter job data into a separate billing application, the closing of work orders will be delayed.

2. A lack of visibility into customer data 

When a work order is closed, not having instant access to view customer data, such as discounts, service contracts, warranty info and equipment data may delay the work order process in the back-office.

3. A lack of process automation

When an invoice is generated and sent to the customer, there is a lack of process automation that would otherwise enable invoice creation and email upon work completion. Automated workflows also lack when exceptions occur eg: if additional parts are needed during a repair. 39% of those surveyed admitted that it takes 14-30 days to get an invoice to a customer once the job has been completed.

4. A lack of visibility into job details for the customer

When a customer receives an invoice, there may be little or inconsistent job details added, so the customer disputes it. There may also be no process automation or easy-pay options causing the customer to be dissatisfied and payment is delayed. 48% of those surveyed had no process in place for their customers to pay online.

What is the Impact to the Business?

Long service-to-cash cycles tie up excessive amounts of cash for working capital, instead of using that money to grow the business. When the service workflow and cross-departments are not connected, there is no real-time view of what’s going on in the field. What’s more, if paper-based forms are being relied upon to inform billing departments, the service organisation can suffer from both delayed and missed revenue.

For example, all too often, a technician will arrive at a job to find out that there are multiple items that require a fix. He may perform these fixes, run over his allocated time for the job and forgets to jot his extra hours down as he urgently moves on to the next job. This may end up in customers not being billed for all relevant hours, resulting in missed service revenue.

How Can You Improve Your Service to Cash Cycles?

Turning service-to-cash starts with identifying obstructions that are holding you back from receiving payment quickly and accurately. These can be identified by mapping out your service workflow, from the back office, through schedule and dispatch, to those out in the field.

Since each customer has different service requirements and service delivery can be complex, connecting your entire service workflow with a flexible and automated solution and following a three-step “manage, mobilise, monitor” process, is vital to making sure that no money is left behind.

Manage

An advanced service workflow solution automates workflows and completely removes the unnecessary and error-prone task of having to manually enter the same information, multiple times, into different systems and duplicating work. Being able to pull up work orders, billing information, parts inventory, service contract information and customer data in real-time, from a single source, gives the customer a more tailored experience in a consistent, professional and timely manner.

It is important to ensure that the service workflow solution is fully integrated with other systems, such as ERP solutions, telematics devices and CRM platforms.

This should include a workflow that communicates in real-time with every other part of the business and allows for streamlined business processes that are repeatable, predictable and instantaneous. When done right, companies get service revenue into their business as quickly as possible.

Mobilise

Equipping technicians with a mobile device out in the field enables them to connect and share real-time information with the back office, customers and equipment. They can capture the exact parts used on a job and change work orders to accurately reflect what services were performed onsite, which means that no profit is left on the table. Additionally, if the technician was able to perform some preventative maintenance at the same time, they wouldn’t need to plan a return trip. Mobile service apps give the technician flexibility to pass this information back to the office at the push of a button.

Monitor

Adding GPS into the equation means that you can verify that technicians are at the job when they say they are. Tracking your technicians through their smart device or vehicle telematics allows you to accurately bill for the amount of time the technician was actually onsite. If a task overruns because its actual complexity wasn’t originally planned for, not only are you able to reschedule the following tasks, but you will also be able to recognise that additional time in the billing process.

The back office can be instantly alerted of job completion through both signature capture on the service app and geofencing to notify that the technician has left the area. This process enables invoice generation automatically, reducing the billing cycle.

John Cameron, is General Manager, Trimble Field Service Management 

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

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Grundfos is a well-established company with a 180-year heritage and some active assets in the field over 30 years old still requiring maintenance, at this year’s Spring Servitization Conference they outlined why they see advanced services at the heart of their future...

Grundfos is an organisation with a long, proud and traditional history, yet at this year’s Spring Servitization Conference in Copenhagen, it was their vision of a brave new world, a world in which advanced services sit at the heart of their offering that was the focus of their presentation.

Thomas Rosenkilde Anderson, Group Vice President for Services at Grundfos A/S outlined the thinking behind the Danish Pump Manufacturers shift towards a servitized business alongside his colleague Marianne Kjeldgaard Knudsen, Senior Director, Head of Digital Commercial Offerings at Grundfos A/S.

“Service has already been embedded into the way we serve our customers,” Anderson begins as we sit down after his presentation and he gives me the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the conversation.

When we took the strategic decision from an executive level that now is the time to create a service business unit,“Previously, service was basically just a support function for our sales. It was also something that had evolved differently in each country we operate in. Sometimes it was well structured, sometimes it was very unstructured. So when we took the strategic decision from an executive level that now is the time to create a service business unit, it required a hell of a lot of planning and exercising on how to actually do it.”

“We actually held workshops across all countries across the globe in less than three months. We would be sitting together with the local country manager and their leadership teams and asking ‘how do you approach services here’, ‘who is doing service here?’”

“Then name by name, we went through the personnel undertaking any service work and identified those that were doing 50% of their role in a service capacity as someone who should become part of the service business unit. If they did less than 50% then they should stay where they are - and we did this all around the globe.”

“This was the first time that we really knew exactly how many service people we actually had. This was critical as when I first started I wanted to know what was our service business - how many people did we have and what was our profit margin, but we didn’t have easy access to those questions.”

It is interesting to note that at this point the service business was operated as a cost centre and it was Anderson’s drive to move the service operations to becoming a profit centre that demanded that such lack of visibility be overcome. However, moving to a profit centre was just part of the reasoning behind undertaking such a significant task as bringing transparency across the service operations globally for Grundfos.

However, one thing that Anderson stressed very clearly in his presentation was that such a significant shift in focus within an organisation is not possible overnight. It is a long iterative process - in his presentation, Anderson outlined Grundfos’ own roadmap which stretches across ten years.

Yet, when Anderson first arrived having transitioned from the high-tech sector, this was not necessarily the case.

We were selling basic service contracts in 15 different ways across 60 different locations across the globe, so there were a lot of basics such as tools and processes that we needed to fix first“Coming from a high-tech background I was used to working at a much faster pace, so such introducing change over such a long period wasn’t the original plan,” he explains.

“However, I realised that here the starting point was a bit more unstable, we were selling basic service contracts in 15 different ways across 60 different locations across the globe, so there were a lot of basics such as tools and processes that we needed to fix first. If we had tried to do everything at once and bring very advanced services to the market in one go there would have been chaos”

“In short, we needed to build a solid foundation before we could move forwards further and that takes time,” he adds.

The next phase of this development Anderson explains is to build financial transparency.

“We need to get a firm understanding and have total transparency on what is the cost of service, what revenue are we currently making from services? Then we can have a firm grasp of how service is impacting on our bottom line,” Anderson continued.

“Once this is all in place then we can start the big task of really fully developing our service portfolio and of course building out our tools, processes and customer support and getting that standardised across the globe.

“Then, of course, there is the consideration around the people part of this equation. Service businesses are people businesses. We need to make sure we take care of our people and that we attract the best people - so a lot of our investments are going into leadership positions.”

“We are looking at leadership development, financial training for those that will have commercial responsibilities and technical training for those who are focussed in that part of the sphere.”

What is clear is that whilst the end goal of a servitized business promises great opportunities the road to that goal is long and complex.

However, Anderson and his colleagues have a very thorough and well-defined roadmap to guide them on their way - something that it is essential for any company looking to follow in their path develop for themselves before they start the journey themselves.

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Ericsson has signed an agreement with the Swedish company Transtema Group AB to divest Ericsson Local Services AB (LSS), a subsidiary of Ericsson supplying field service operations and maintenance of fixed and mobile networks in Sweden.

Ericsson Local Services AB is a market leader in field services in Sweden. LSS builds and maintains network infrastructure and delivers services in all areas of Sweden's field service operations market.

Under the agreement, all operations and assets of LSS will be transferred to Transtema ownership. LSS will continue as a legal entity in Transtema Group. As a result of the transaction, Ericsson becomes a minority shareholder and will be represented on the Board of Directors of Transtema Group.

This divestment is in line with Ericsson’s business strategy, a key part of which is Managed Services and operating networks on behalf of our customers. The divestment of LSS is part of executing on that strategy as Ericsson will no longer sell new standalone field services projects.

Ericsson Local Services is a market leader in field service operations in Sweden with a skilled workforce of approximately 700 employees across the countryPer Narvinger, Head of Customer Unit Northern & Central Europe, Market Area Europe & Latin America, Ericsson, says: “Ericsson Local Services is a market leader in field service operations in Sweden with a skilled workforce of approximately 700 employees across the country. They deliver very good support to our customers, and we believe Transtema has an excellent opportunity to continue to develop the field service operations while also executing on existing customer commitments. Together we will ensure a quick and smooth transition and a good relationship.”

Magnus Johansson, CEO Transtema Group says “We intend to operate LSS as a separate legal entity within Transtema Group. With LSS experience, competence and customer relations in Sweden, they will become the backbone of our field service operations business. Our goal is to continue to grow the service business for telecom networks. This is in line with our ambition to develop our operations in Sweden and internationally. We look forward to welcoming and onboarding all LSS employees as soon as the deal is closed.”

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of the calendar year 2018 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Ericsson manages the Network and IT operations and Network Design and Optimization for customers in over 100 countries, providing long-lasting cost-efficient performance through smart automation, analytics and business practice.

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