In this final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we look further at the importance of location intelligence and discuss how organisations can achieve optimised field operations.

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

Last week, we looked at how Esri's ArcGIS platform can help companies in challenging situations, such as containing the spread of a plant disease and saving lives in humanitarian disasters. Today we look at two further case studies highlighting the importance of location intelligence and discuss how organisations can achieve optimised field operations

SUPPORTING DIVERSE AND VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES

With its diverse and varied population, Oxfordshire County Council aims to provide excellent services to all its residents while promoting equality and ensuring fairness.

The Challenge

Oxfordshire County Council’s GIS (Geographic Information Systems) team has an extremely broad brief to provide ICT support across the organisation, including Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire Rescue Service. This small team assesses requirements and requests, gathers business analysis and provides user support while building interactive dashboards and web and mobile apps for internal and external use.

The Solution

Under its Enterprise Licence Agreement, Oxfordshire County Council has been using Esri’s ArcGIS platform exclusively since 2017 as its corporate GIS infrastructure. This has enabled the GIS team to build out a greater number of requirements, more quickly and efficiently, and help transform service delivery.

In March 2019 the Safe and Well service went digital. Workforce for ArcGIS was used to coordinate and allocate daily visits before crews left their stations and questionnaires incorporating broader health messages from the public health team were built using Survey123 for ArcGIS. The electronic forms were filled in onsite at residents’ homes and when there was no signal or internet available, users could carry on working and save a copy of the form on their mobile device. When the devices were next connected, completed surveys were synced directly back to the database in the office so colleagues could see which assessments had been undertaken, and the data visible on a central management dashboard.

The Benefits

Supporting diversity

The redesigned service demonstrates Oxfordshire County Council’s responsibility as a Stonewall Diversity Champion, committed to sexual orientation and gender identify equality. In its second year of inclusion the Council now ranks at 127 (out of 503 organisations) in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, compared to its previous ranking at 220 out of 445.

Secure data collection

Users can confidently collect anonymous data, securely, enabling the Council to collect vital information which ensures that the service it provides residents is inclusive to those of all identities and orientations, as well as help the organisation climb the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.

Saving time

The use of ArcGIS apps has significantly enhanced the efficiency of reporting in the field as well as back in the office. Firefighters making home visits report that the quality of their visits and range of services offered has improved, and they feel more confident and competent in carrying out their work. The administration process has also been streamlined as admin staff no longer have to input data collected from paper-based surveys, reducing the potential for human error.

OPTIMISING THE ROLE OF 60,000 VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers play an invaluable role in helping the National Trust to protect and care for the nation’s cultural heritage and natural landscapes. The not-for-profit organisation is now embracing crowdsourcing and is using ArcGIS in a series of ground-breaking pilot projects that will enable more people to get involved and make a valuable contribution to its conservation work.

The Challenge

The National Trust has over 60,000 volunteers who play a vital role in helping the charity to manage 250,000 hectares of land, 778 miles of coastline, 80,000 archaeological features and 28,000 buildings. The organisation wanted to optimise the role played by this enthusiastic group and find a way to engage even more people in its activities. At the same time, it wanted to show its volunteers the value of their contribution and help them to feel more involved in conservation projects

The Solution

The National Trust is now pioneering new ways to engage with volunteers using Esri’s ArcGIS platform. In a series of pilot projects, the organisation is beginning to use ArcGIS mobile solutions, including Collector for ArcGIS and Survey123 for ArcGIS, to allow volunteers to upload information from their smartphones and tablets to a central portal. Called ArcGIS Hub Premium, this portal provides secure, authenticated identity for huge numbers of volunteers, which allows them to see the data they have collected, in the context of the wider project. Volunteers can therefore appreciate what they have done and the value of their contribution to the National Trust’s conservation schemes.

In the first of the National Trust’s pilot solutions, volunteers in the Peak District are gathering data on the condition of archaeological features on National Trust land, including barrows, ruins and ancient quarries. They are then uploading and sharing this data via ArcGIS Hub Premium, helping the National Trust to build up a clearer picture of the condition of ancient sites that are rarely visited but are nonetheless important to the history of the nation.

The Benefits

Well-informed decision about conservation and maintenance

Over time, the use of the new ArcGIS volunteering apps will enable the National Trust to collect a larger quantity of high quality data, which it can use to support its decision making. In particular, the organisation anticipates that volunteers will be able to help it build up a far more comprehensive picture of the condition of assets and habitats, such as signs and ponds. It can then use this information to see where it should prioritise its conservation activities and how best to plan effective, proactive maintenance programmes.

More successful conservation projects

Although it is still early days, the National Trust already recognises that ArcGIS Hub Premium is a highly effective tool for improving collaboration with large numbers of volunteers and partners. In initiatives such as the Riverlands project near Manchester, the organisation expects ArcGIS Hub Premium to play a pivotal role in enabling large numbers of people to share data and work together. “It feels exciting,” Davies says. “Our pilots are putting crowdsourcing into practice and demonstrating how volunteering programmes can be managed more successfully in the future.”  

REALISING OPTIMISED FIELD OPERATIONS

A GIS enables the virtuous cycle of efficiency in field activities. Organisations use field operations apps to plan fieldwork based on geography and better coordinate job assignments. Field operations apps connect workers and activities in the field with the office. Real-time navigation tools reduce fuel consumption, save time, and improve customer satisfaction. Data collection apps capture accurate data in the field and feed it into the GIS to become part of the system of record. GIS monitors field activities and generates intuitive maps and dashboards. The GIS suite of focused field operations apps drives location intelligence that helps organisations make faster and better decisions.

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The full white paper "Digitally Transform Field Operations" is available on Field Service News.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

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Further Reading:

Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
Find out more about Esri UK @ www.esriuk.com

Read more about Esri UK on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/esri
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk

In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we look at two case studies of how location intelligence helps organisation improving efficiency and refine field operations.

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

Last week, we looked at how using the power of location can improve field service operations. Today we look at two case studies describing how the use of Esri's ArcGIS platform can help companies in challenging situations.

CONTAINING THE SPREAD OF A DEADLY PLANT DISEASE

Amid concerns about the possible emergence of a deadly new plant disease, Fera Science has created an ArcGIS app and dashboard to enable hoticulturalists to coordinate thousands of plant and tree inspections nationwide.

The Challenge

One of the most damaging plant bacteria ever identified is spreading in countries around the world. Called xylella fastidiosa (Xf), it has been detected in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal and, if it were to gain a foothold in the UK, it could affect dozens of plant species, including elm, plane and oak trees.

The Solution

Working with APHA, Fera Science has used Esri’s ArcGIS platform to develop a complete end-to-end solution to support plant inspections, including testing plant samples and tracing of the spread of the disease.

When a first case of Xf is detected in the UK, a geoprocessing model, developed using Esri’s ModelBuilder, will create the initial inspection zone around the plant, divided into 100 metre and 1 km grid squares. Inspectors will then use an intuitive app, created with Esri’s Collector for ArcGIS, to view interactive maps of their assigned inspection grids, on their mobile devices, and inspect up to 50 host plants in each square. They will collect a sample from each plant, put the sample into a bag with a barcode and use the Collector app to record the barcode, together with the location of the plant, plant health observations and pictures.

When laboratories test the samples, the results will be recorded against the barcodes and uploaded via a web portal to ArcGIS. Python scripts, developed by Esri UK’s Professional Services team, will combine the test results with the data collected in the field and categorise each plant as either diseased, free of disease or inconclusive test. All the data will then be visibleon an Esri Operations Dashboard, enabling APHA, DEFRA and other key stakeholders to view the locations and health of each inspected plant in near real time. Whenever a new positive result is recorded, the surrounding inspection zones will be automatically created, allowing inspectors to start collecting new samples straight away.

The Benefits

Real-time data to trace the spread of disease

If Xf is detected in the UK, APHA will be able to see near real-time data on diseased plants and their locations, all around the UK. The ArcGIS dashboard presents the data in a spatial, map-based format that is simple to understand at a glance, enabling people to trace the spread of the disease very easily. Users can see which grid squares have been inspected, monitor the progress of inspections and identify where best to allocate resources based on the latest test results.

Effective collaboration of many stakeholders

The ArcGIS solution can be used by multiple stakeholders, not just APHA. Therefore, in the case of a major outbreak of Xf, inspectors from other organisations and landowners, such as the Forestry Commission, could use the Collector app on their own mobile devices to collect standardised data and samples in a coordinated approach. Other organisations can also be given access to the same Esri dashboard enabling them to collaborate more effectively with APHA and implement joined-up strategies to detect and eventually eradicate the disease from the UK completely.

SAVING LIVES IN HUMANITARIAN DISASTERS WORLDWIDE

Working at the scene of some of the world’s most devastating humanitarian disasters, this volunteer-driven charity uses Esri’s ArcGIS to produce up-to-date maps for humanitarian aid organisations. Its new Kiosk product makes vitally important location-based intelligence available to aid workers in digital formats, helping them to respond more quickly and, ultimately, help save more lives.

The Challenge

Since its inception in 2002, MapAction has become an indispensable part of the global response to humanitarian crises. As soon as its volunteer teams, who are specially trained in disaster response, arrive in affected areas, their services are in high demand from multiple organisations. Consequently, on-the-ground teams face growing pressure to produce and distribute more maps, more quickly.

The Solution

Esri UK has supported the work of MapAction for over twelve years, and ArcGIS, Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) platform, plays a pivotal role in the delivery of MapAction’s emergency mapping service. MapAction secured funding for a new ‘selfservice’ mapping facility, and sought out the expertise of Esri UK’s professional services team to help it design and deliver this inventive project using ArcGIS.

Named the MapAction Kiosk, the new GIS solution developed operates using the principles of web mapping and runs on a lightweight laptop connected to a powerful WiFi router. Aid workers in the vicinity of MapAction’s field base can connect to the Kiosk via WiFi and print additional copies of any maps produced by MapAction’s volunteer team. In addition, they can view interactive maps, zoom into specific regions and turn on required data layers to create any customised maps that they might need to inform aid missions. Finally, responders can use the Kiosk to download MapAction’s up-to-date spatial data and incorporate it into their own GIS systems.

The Benefits

MapAction will continue to produce the paper maps that aid organisations around the world have come to rely on. However, now, this unique charity will also be able to make its invaluable location- based intelligence accessible in digital formats to many more people, more quickly, to improve the effectiveness of life-saving humanitarian missions.

Notably, the MapAction Kiosk will help the charity to distribute its maps to aid workers who might otherwise not have had access to a paper copy. It will therefore make situational data accessible to a wider audience and facilitate greater collaboration between multiple aid agencies and local groups. Pennells says: “The Kiosk helps us to give a common operational picture to all responders and agencies working on-the- ground in a disaster situation. The sooner they have this shared knowledge, the closer they can work together to reach people at risk.”

In addition, the Kiosk gives aid workers the ability to create their own customised maps for the first time. They can gain instant access to the mapping intelligence they need – in the precise format they need it – to enable them to respond quickly to emerging new scenarios.

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we look at two additional case studies and discuss how companies can achieve optimised field operations.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

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Further Reading:

Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
Find out more about Esri UK @ www.esriuk.com

Read more about Esri UK on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/esri
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk

In this new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Esri UK, now available at Field Service News, we discuss how to digitally transform field operations using the power of location.

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

HARNESSING THE POWER OF LOCATION

Location is at the heart of field activities. It sounds like an obvious statement, but field management often either completely overlooks location or marginally takes advantage of it.

Field managers and workers are likely to make decisions faster and deliver better customer service if they can access location intelligence in the field. This e-book explains how geographic information system (GIS) technology and a suite of field mobility apps work together to improve performance in the field. Five case studies show how organisations incorporated apps into workflows and describe the returns they gained.

Organisations use GIS to capture, manage, analyse, and display all forms of geographically referenced information and use focused field apps to improve field operations. Its ability to transform data into useful information has proved to be highly valuable to field operations managers in four operational areas: coordination, navigation, data collection, and monitoring.

 

 

FIELD OPERATIONAL AREAS

Coordination for exceptional customer care

Daily operations need to quickly adjust to changing conditions including last-minute requests and unexpected resource unavailability and delays. A geographic perspective allows you to easily see the location of the worker nearest the call and quickly assign that worker to respond. This level of flexibility results in exceptional customer service and compliance with service-level agreements.

Workforce for ArcGIS helps you quickly put resources where they are most needed.

Navigation for timely service

GIS does much more than map point A to point B. For instance, users can add other layers of information, such as private road networks and asset locations, to street maps. GIS apps combine this data and calculate optimised routes that fieldworkers see on their mobile devices, even when disconnected. GIS recalculates delivery windows in real time based on traffic conditions, so drivers can give an estimated time of arrival (ETA), which keeps customers happy. GIS is the route optimisation tool of choice for organisations whose reputation and success are defined by on-time delivery.

Navigator for ArcGIS, StreetMap Premium for ArcGIS, and ArcGIS Network Analyst support routing with high-quality street data and give you tools for complex problem solving.

Data collection for accurate information

Built-in GIS capabilities in mobile apps ensure that location information is included in the data. This capability extends to other business data submitted via inspections, incident reports,

or any type of form entered into your system of record. Understanding the location where field activities happen is critical for historical analysis, QA/QC, regulatory compliance, and coordination with other users.

Focused apps allow crews to capture, update, and analye data accurately. Fieldworkers use these apps to create surveys, capture the answers, and analyse the results. Mobile apps provide fieldworkers with their organisation’s maps, allowing them to locate assets and mark up the map with additional details. Drones offer an inexpensive way to capture field imagery, and by using a desktop app, drone-captured imagery can be easily turned into professional quality imagery products that you can use for mapping and analysis. Data generated by these apps can all be synced at the office and shared within the organisation and the public.

Collector for ArcGIS, Explorer for ArcGIS, Survey123 for ArcGIS, and Drone2Map for ArcGIS boost data accuracy and optimise geospatial analysis.

Monitoring for fast analysis and response

It is difficult to manage what you cannot see. GIS provides dashboards that enable real-time monitoring of events and key performance indicators (KPIs) so that you can make decisions at a glance. GIS-based dashboards show information as maps, charts, gauges, and other understandable visualisations. Combined with real-time GIS analysis, GIS dashboards help organisations focus on specific information by revealing exceptions, trends, and patterns that are relevant for decision-making.

GIS also supports tracking of field personnel. Managers and supervisors are able to view where workers are and where they have been through a mobile app that captures their location tracks. This helps them identify workers’ last known locations, confirm the territory covered, and more effectively balance the allocation of workers to needs.

Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS helps users visualise and monitor data that is relevant to them. Tracker for ArcGIS enables monitoring of personnel to better manage what happens in the field activities.

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss how location intellingence can help organisations in improve efficiency and refine their field operations.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

---

Further Reading:

Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
Find out more about Esri UK @ www.esriuk.com
Follow Esri UK on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/esri-uk
Follow Esri UK on Twitter @ twitter.com/esriuk

In this third and final excerpt from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum we look at three case studies illustrating successful transformation journeys.

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

Now that we’ve outlined the strategic plans, as well as the technology enablers, let’s consider, holistically, what this looks like in practice. To illustrate the service transformation journey, here are three different case studies that each illustrate a part of the journey:

• The first case study is about a company that convinced the top management to change the business model to a service business. This case study focuses on the first part of the journey ‘Set the climate for Service Transformation’.
• The second case study is about a company that re-engineered their service delivery model to become low cost and perceived as high value by customers. This case study illustrates the step of using customer experience design to (re)design and implement the delivery model.
• The third case study is about a company that whose existing strategy adequately pushed sales but did not promote sustainable growth for the business. This case study highlights the step of redesigning the go-to market model.

1. CONVINCING TOP MANAGEMENT TO CHANGE THE BUSINESS MODEL TO BECOME A SERVICE BUSINESS

The current situation

A division of a German engineering group, that had traditionally produced and sold large machines for the paper making industry, had built a modest service business contributing less than 5% of the division’s total revenue. Their current service offering consisted of providing spare parts plus reactive and preventive maintenance service contracts.

The challenge

They were facing several challenges:

• Price pressure on new equipment sold was increasing due to increased competition from Chinese suppliers
• Annual growth of the company had been below industry average for the past 5 years
• Profitability of the overall business was going down

Two senior managers saw several opportunities to grow the service business but were having difficulties in convincing the board of directors to strategically invest in the service business to develop its potential.

What was done?

The service director used benchmarks, an outside-in view and assessment outcomes to convince the CEO of the company to invest in growing their service business.

The following steps were taken:

• A financial and operational benchmark was performed of the company’s performance against a comparable group of industry leaders. The report included the growth and profit potential for this company if they would strategically invest in the development of their service business.
• A web-based survey was sent out to several hundreds of customers immediately after the most common interaction point of a customer service request by phone or email, a spare part order request, an on-site visit by a field engineer, and following a visit by a sales person.
• Several customer interviews were conducted using video conferencing. The interviews were analysed, and a short video compilation was made to high light the key conclusions about what the customers’ service expectations were and what service they were receiving.
• Growth potential and productivity improvement opportunities were prioritised, and the conclusions were discussed during a workshop with the board of directors of the company. The result was a commonly agreed and documented vision with the strategic and financial objectives defined and a service transformation roadmap for the coming years.
• A short-term plan was made that secured the first real result within the first year. In addition, a multi-year roadmap was implemented by setting up the service transformation governance programme organisational structure, planning and funding.

Benefits

The result was that the board of directors understood that customers were expecting more help from the company. They expected help addressing their business challenges such as improving their competitive position with smart outcome-based services, industry knowledge, data and information systems that would help customers to lower production cost by integrating several players in the value chain.

The company has started their service transformation journey by implementing the multi-year strategic roadmap. This contains several projects that required substantial investment, organisational change, and the development of new capabilities in the company. The financial results in the past 5 years have been a sustained double-digit growth with profit margins above the industry average.

2. RE-ENGINEERING THE TRADITIONAL SERVICE DELIVERY

The current situation

A major manufacturer and service provider for healthcare equipment concluded that if they wanted to increase their market penetration while maintaining their profitability, they needed to dramatically lower their cost of service delivery. This was particularly true in emerging, lower cost markets.

Their service delivery model at that time was rather traditional: customers would call in if they had a problem with their equipment and in most cases a field engineer was dispatched to go on-site, diagnose the problem and fix it. This service delivery model was the result of relatively high cost of the equipment, typically ranging from 700 K Euros and higher per installation. The total cost of maintenance for most clients was relatively low when compared to the cost of depreciation and related operational costs, such as the cost of hospital staff needed to operate the equipment. Customers were expecting a personalized approach in service and they would find it normal that even for small problems, that could have been solved remotely a field engineer, would show up to fix it and explain to the staff what happened. The company was already improving their capability to remote monitor, diagnose and fix equipment but the traditional way of working was hard to change.

The challenge

They were facing several challenges:

• The average price of equipment that was sold in high growth markets was much lower than in the traditional market. The average equipment price was below 50.000 euros but could go as low as 2.000 Euros per device.
• To provide field engineer services for such equipment would result in relatively high cost when compared to the equipment purchase price and cost of operation.
• Healthcare equipment is highly regulated and in most cases mission critical, often lives could be at stake, and delays in treatment of patients could lead to high levels of frustration
• and financial losses for hospitals and doctors involved. Therefore, customers would expect the highest levels of service, especially in emerging markets where hospitals were often small and did not have more than one device.
• Customers would not be willing to pay for higher levels of services and price premiums on service contracts were often not accepted, even though excellent service was certainly an expectation.
• As a result, many customers would leave the maintenance and repair role with their own internal Biomed (internal maintenance services for medical devices) and were, generally, disappointed with the level of service.
• Equipment failure could cause damage to the reputation of the brand, as customers expectation is a very high standard of service.

The company had limited understanding of how customers of medium to low priced equipment were currently experiencing their service. Traditionally, such equipment had not been a focus area for the service division of the company as the general assumption had been that the service business growth potential was limited and the possibility to earn good profit margins was low.

What was done?

To rethink the service delivery model, other industries were investigated to gain ideas. Very inspiring examples were the low-cost airlines that had stripped their services of all extras to the bare bone basic service requirements, simplifying and streamlining business processes, introducing high levels of automation and often asking customers to help themselves with self-service.

Other examples included business models such as Ikea’s knock-down furniture where customers are asked to transport their own furniture and assemble it themselves.

One important element in the success of these examples was that it is important to get the balance right such that increased automation and ease of use for customers, outweighs any perceived reduction in service caused by streamlining and process change. The objective of these models is to increase the value of service for the customer while reducing the cost of delivery for the supplier.

After translating these examples to their own business, the company came up with several high efficiency service delivery models:

• Self-help: Whereby customers solve issues and conduct maintenance themselves without the support of their service provider, including the use of manuals, online FAQ’s, and web videos.
• Supported self-help: Whereby customers solve issues and conduct maintenance themselves with the support of the service provider, i.e.: via a helpdesk (phone, email, chat) or ‘look-over the-shoulder service’, possibly with help of a remote connection for diagnosis.
• Product exchange: In this instance, rather than repairing equipment, a service provider will arrange its replacement whereby the customer will either receive a new or refurbished product.
• Bench repair: Here, the product in need of repair will be shipped to the service provider’s repair shop, after which the product is shipped back to the customer. In the interim the customer may receive a temporary loan product.
• Tech courier: Having determined which part or component needs replacement (via customer or service provider diagnosis), a low-cost courier with basic technical and product knowledge will deliver the component and conduct the swap. In this instance, products are designed for easy access and swapping.

• High efficiency Field engineer: In this instance a field engineer with limited technical skills is dispatched to repair the customer’s product, potentially conducting the diagnosis himself using diagnostics methods and tools that were created by very experienced field engineers • Remotely using a machine to machine (IoT) connection: In this instance a service provider will access a system via a remote connection and not only detect and diagnose the issue but also execute the solution via the remote connection.
• Predictive Maintenance Management: Using the data obtained from connected equipment the problems will be predicted in time so there will be no need to do any corrective repairs. Preventive maintenance plans will be adjusted, often just in time, to reduce the chance of malfunction and reduce downtime and lower maintenance costs in the process.

The following steps were taken to get to these models:

1. An investigation was launched into customer’s expectations from the brand. Narrowing down the minimum expectation that should be fulfilled and the most important brand values that would have to be respected and built-into the customer experience.
2. The current cost of the service value delivery chain was analysed and the main areas for potential cost reduction by changing the service delivery model were identified. All best practices and the latest trends in service delivery models from other industries were evaluated as well as emerging trends in technology that could help reduce the cost of delivery or improve customer experience.
3. Pricing models were developed by benchmarking the equipment “street prices” with pricing of various levels of service. This was validated with various key markets in the world, in particular the markets where the highest growth of new equipment, at lower street prices, was expected.
4. New service delivery models were designed and tested. Processes and enabling service information technologies were designed evaluating achievable cost levels, the impact on customer experience and the resulting service value proposition, often defining 2 or 3 basic services with a limited set of optional services to keep the complexity low.
5. A multi-disciplinary approach was taken (including R&D, product marketing, manufacturing, and service) which led to the conclusion that sometimes products had to be re-engineered to improve their serviceability. Lowering the cost of service did have a major impact on the total life cycle cost. Product engineers that may previously have had their focus on inventing new features and benefits to the product, now understood the profound impact on customer experience and life cycle cost it would have to design products from the ground up for their desired modes and levels of service.

6. The IT team created a Service IT Solution Architecture that would leverage the connectivity of the products and use the data through intelligent applications that were now able to create predictive maintenance models. The data could also be used for process optimisation and designing enhanced services to customers.

7. After the design phase the new service delivery models were tested in the markets and rolled-out country by country to allow for local deviations from the standard model.

Benefits

The result was that the new high efficiency delivery models have enabled the company to grow their service business, typically with double digit growth rates. It allowed the company to sell equipment with a “street price” as low as 2000 Euros together with a service contract and still achieve gross profit margins worth of 50% percent. Each delivery model would be able to fix remotely any software problem or problem caused by the end user. The chances of such problems occurring would be reduced by smart predictive analytics capabilities. Users would receive “look over the shoulder” assistance often with remote agents taking control of the device and helping remotely. Hardware problems would no longer require a field engineer to visit the customer site.

In the longer term, the mission critical components in a device would either be engineered with redundant components, or replaceable units that the user of the device could replace by themselves. Alternatively, a “tech courier’ a driver with a limited technical skill set would come on site to replace the unit. Field service, the most expensive element in the chain, had now become a service logistics operation often outsourced to third party logistics providers who had economies of scale and low-cost services. Customers were educated on the new service delivery models and the benefits of self-service, such as the speed of resolution and being fully in control, were also perceived as valuable, on top of the higher reliability and lower life cycle cost.

3. DRASTICALLY INCREASE SERVICE REVENUE BY SMARTLY CHANGING THE GO-TO MARKET APPROACH

The current situation

A pan European medical equipment provider whose existing strategy adequately pushed sales but did not promote sustainable growth for the business. This was because their sales force was still employing traditional techniques which pushed the features, characteristics and pre-defined benefits of their company but were of little relevance to the customers’ situation. In the purchasers’ eyes, the benefits being sold to them were barely distinguishable from those of other providers.

The challenge

The service sales force presented characteristics and benefits of the service offering to the client but used very few ‘hooks’ to effectively highlight the company’s competitive advantage. They frequently spoke to someone other than the decision maker who had different needs. Further, in most cases their approach was reactive rather than proactive, i.e. the customer calls in with a query, or just before their warranty expires.

This resulted in the service sales force encountering issues relating to their client’s ‘budget’ as the person who called only had limited buying power and simply forwarded the proposal to the purchaser without being able to justify the value.

The root cause here was that their approach was not proactive and not customer driven; there was a lack of attention to the customers’ critical business issues. Consequently, a common vision with the decision makers on how to really address critical business issues could not be developed. This customer buying vision is essential however because it defines the value of the offering and the urgency to do something about it.

What was done?

Working with this medical equipment provider, we started transforming their sales approach to embrace customer centricity. The approach required getting a good understanding of client needs and challenges, which is only possible by developing the skills of customer-facing staff so that they can have informed discussions and get a good understanding of the customers’ business. Ensuring that the teams had the necessary capabilities to have such insightful conversations with customers was a specific challenge we addressed before improving the sales process.

A key step here was to train the company’s field service engineers to act as trusted advisors so that they could develop a better understanding of their customers’ needs. They were trained to recognise opportunities for sales which were then communicated to dedicated sales teams.

We designed a new go-to market strategy for each service, launched very specific sales campaigns and set up a dedicated service sales teams that proactively followed up leads and were able to articulate the value of a service in the context of customers’ needs.

That was done by researching customers’ service requirements. The company did have a good understanding of what customers were expecting in terms of product features and quality.
However, they had very limited knowledge of how the products were being used. It turned out that there was no such thing as “The Customer” as groups of customers with similarities in the use of the product and in the expectations of the expected benefits could be segmented by typical customer service needs. Customer service needs were further categorised into product related needs and customer business needs. The product related services needs can typically be satisfied by specifying the service performance characteristics in service level agreements. E.g. performance metrics such as uptime and response time were the key metrics in the SLA but could still be different for each type of customer.

The customer service business needs were a lot more difficult to identify. Customers had non-technical needs such as needing help to optimise the workflow in a laboratory or wanting to pay for the products based on their actual usage (Pay per Use) and leave the technical management to the provider. One segment of customers went so far as to demand that the product provider also manages the entire end-to-end process for a combination of laboratory instruments together with the staff of the customer.

Benefits

Within a year the service revenue had grown by more than 20% as well as EBIT on the service revenue. Ultimately, the strategy forged a path for the development of a range of new products and services, as well as expansion into other market segments. These results would have been impossible without an underlying focus on what has become the defining factor of sales: customer centricity.

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'Overcoming the Barriers to Servitization' white paper is available on Field Service News.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

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Further Reading:

Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
Learn more about Noventum @ www.noventum.eu
Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum, now available at Field Service News, we analyse how to deal with organisational resistance, develop internal skills and capabilities and how to use technology solutions to support effective service delivery.

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

The next two blocks of the Service Transformation journey must be run in parallel.

In the ‘dealing with organizational resistance’ block, you manage the service transformation journey; ensure there is a path to keep the C-suite engaged; and have a path for escalation in case issues need to be solved in the bottom block of the journey.

Undertaking these steps is required so you can continuously focus on making sure that the whole organization supports the journey and contributes to it, to identify people that are against the change, and to ensure that the steering committee can take the necessary steps to have a conversation with those stakeholders.

In the table below we outline the steps on ‘dealing with organizational resistance’.

DEVELOP INTERNAL SKILLS AND CAPABILITIES

In the ‘develop internal skills and capabilities’ block you are designing, developing and implementing every element that is needed to successfully achieve the set strategic and financial objectives. Doing this by design will ensure that no element will be forgotten, and that people will be able to form a clear picture of the changed organization.

In the table below we outline the steps on ‘Develop internal skills and capabilities’:

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO SUPPORT EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY

Service transformation is a multi-tiered initiative that requires a blend of organizational and technological changes working in tandem with on another. Positioning your current technology stack alongside capabilities deemed critical offers the synthesis necessary to enable successful transformation.

Traditional Field Service solutions just don’t stack up when it comes to enabling uptime for critical assets and truly delivering on outcome-based service. Outlined below are a variety of tools, and capabilities that are essential in any field service management solution which can truly propel you on this service transformation journey efforts.

In the next and final feature of this series of excerpts coming next week, we will look at three different case studies that illustrate successful service transformation journeys.

 

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Look out for the final feature of this series coming next week where we will look at three case studies of successful service transformation journeys.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

---

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Learn more about Noventum @ www.noventum.eu
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

In this new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum, now available at Field Service News, we analyze how to productise services and set the climate for the service transformation...

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

With ever increasing internal and external market pressures, manufacturers have been searching for ways to diversify their revenue streams. Within product-oriented businesses, there has been a drive to offer a greater diversity of aftermarket services, we refer to this shift as servitization.

Both those organizations looking to servitize their business, as well as businesses who previously include service contracts or warranty offers, are diversifying the established business models inherent in these approaches. Most notably, organizations are employing contracts based on asset or product outcomes, uptime, and output rather than focusing on a break-fix approach and maintenance contracts.

These dramatic shifts in both the go-to-market and service delivery approach runs the risk of increasing organizational complexity, creating redundant systems, and unforeseen personnel risks. In an environment where margins are tight, servitization will be a strategic differentiator and a path to growth BUT manufacturers must ensure they carefully manage the transformation journey to ensure they deliver value and not give away service for free.

Recent research from IDC investigated the factors which are preventing manufacturing companies from progressing on their Servitization Journey. Lack of internal know-how, organizational resistance and lack of technology systems were found to be the most common inhibiters.

What is limiting your companys ability to deliver more technology-enabled services as part of your overall business?

What Is Limiting Your Companys Ability to Deliver More Technology-Enabled Services As Part of Your Overall Business?

All these challenges need to be addressed when companies embark on Servitization. This report will explore the organizational, cultural, and technological challenges and look at methods that businesses have employed to ease in the shift towards Servitization.

HOW TO PRODUCTIZE SERVICES? THE SERVICE TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

To answer this question, we have investigated what steps manufacturers that have a successful service business undertook and how these steps have helped to overcome these challenges.

Aside from these steps, we also identified a particular sequence in undertaking these steps to overcome these challenges. Based on these insights, we developed the ‘Service Transformation Journey’:

As the above illustrates, there are several steps to undertake which emphasizes that a Service Transformation is not something you can do in a day. But what is each step, and why is it essential?

SET THE CLIMATE FOR SERVICE TRANSFORMATION

The first block contains the steps related to ‘Set the climate for Service Transformation’. It is essential to start with this block to deal with most of the identified barriers. Undertaking these steps will also ensure you get funding for the full journey; get help to set the right priorities; ensure that you develop services for which there is a customer demand; and be able to deal with organizational resistance from start to finish.

In the table below we have outlined the first steps that are necessary to set the climate for Service Transformation:

 

In the next feature of this series of excerpts coming next week, we will discuss how to deal with organisational resistance, develop internal skills and capabilities and how to use technology solutions to support effective service delivery.

 

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss how to deal with organisational resistance.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

---

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Find out more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Learn more about Noventum @ www.noventum.eu
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

In this final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Appify, now available at Field Service News, we break down the budgeting and division of labor...

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

 

How Many Work Orders Do You Typically Receive in a Month?

It seems that keeping projects on budget isn't a pressing concern. However, organizations can still improve budgeting at the margins. We asked respondents "How much time would you estimate each field technician spends managing/administering work orders vs. actually performing the work?"

One-quarter of all respondents replied that field technicians spend between 15 and 30 minutes performing administrative work. A slightly smaller proportion (19.48%) of field technicians replied that they spend between 15 and 30 minutes on administrative work. One-third of managers replied that field technicians spend that amount of time doing administrative work.

 

How Much Time Does Each Field Technician Spend on Managing / Administering Work Orders vs Actually Performing the Work?

Managers think that field technicians spend a minimal amount of time on administrative work than the field technicians themselves. This difference is illustrated more boldly when we examine the rate of respondents that think field technicians spend more than two hours on administrative work. Almost 7% of managers think field technicians spend more than two hours on administrative work. But almost, 16% of field technicians report spending more than two hours on administrative work.

Managers have a different idea than field technicians about the amount of time technicians spend on administrative and work- order management tasks relative to their service tasks. For the Field Service industry in particular, time is money, and any excess time spent on administrative work relative to servicing the work order in question is lost time and therefore lost money.

Bridging this gap using technology and better collaboration can help field technicians see eye to eye with managers about how much time is lost to paperwork and other similar activities.

 

Are You Looking to Invest in New Technology for Your Service TeamS Post-COVID-19?

Change happens. The question is, will your business be flexible enough to manage through the change. To ensure you can, addressing the needs of the field service teams, continuously examining business processes to look for efficiency gains and improving your technology are key to the continuity of servicing your customers when change occurs.

Field Service remains a vital part of our infrastructure. Allowing employees to focus on the job at hand while increasing productivity to satisfy the needs of their customers should be the goal of any organization. It's clear, however, that many organizations are not prioritizing technology investments in the near future.

It is unwise to buy technology for the sake of having shiny new tools. Yet, companies can still reevaluate their current platforms. If tools in use today are not providing the efficiency needed to service customers and keep field technicians from spending inordinate amounts of time doing administrative work, it may be time to consider a new solution.

 

IS YOUR BUSINESS READY TO MANAGE THROUGH CHANGE?

Change happens. The question is, will your business be flexible enough to manage through the change. To ensure you can, addressing the needs of the field service teams, continuously examining business processes to look for efficiency gains and improving your technology are key to the continuity of servicing your customers when change occurs.

Field Service remains a vital part of our infrastructure. Allowing employees to focus on the job at hand while increasing productivity to satisfy the needs of their customers should be the goal of any organization. It's clear, however, that many organizations are not prioritizing technology investments in the near future.

It is unwise to buy technology for the sake of having shiny new tools. Yet, companies can still reevaluate their current platforms. If tools in use today are not providing the efficiency needed to service customers and keep field technicians from spending inordinate amounts of time doing administrative work, it may be time to consider a new solution.

 

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In this feature, we analyzed budgeting and division of labor.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can subscribe to our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard and get instant access to this white paper as well as our monthly selection of premium resources. 

 

 

 

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about Field Service Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/field-service-management
• Find out more about Appify @ appify.com
• Follow Appify on Twitter @ twitter.com/AppifyInc

In the third excerpt from a recent white paper published by Appify we discuss the resources and technology investments for field service....

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

 

We asked respondents what resources are currently being provided to enhance the work and on-site performance of their service teams. Nearly 60% of field technicians replied with "online self-paced education (60%)," "peer-to- peer mobile communication tools (55%)," or "mobile technology (57%)."

Very few field technicians (13%) report using augmented reality (AR) software, and fewer than one-third (31%) report leveraging in-person classroom resources.

 

What Resources Are Being Provided to Enhance Team Performance

 

 

How Would You Rate the Mobile Technology You Are Using to Service Your Customers?

Responses to these questions can provide organizations with a better understanding of the types of resources technicians may need moving forward. A venture capital firm's survey found that 80% of the global workforce is deskless1. And, despite these workers' reliance on mobile devices, they rarely seem to be considered when it comes to new technology advancements.

For example, just 5.48% of our field technician respondents feel their mobile technology is "excellent." And, while a majority (54.79%) feels their mobile technology is "good, it gets the job done," a further one-quarter say their mobile technology is "average and just OK."

 

 

Are You Looking to Invest in New Technology for Your Service TeamS Post-COVID-19?

Technology investments might be in order, given those challenges. But, 62.9% of managers and above said "no investments planned" when asked if they are looking to make investments in new technology to support their team post pandemic (though we may again here consider the pandemic to equate with any future upheaval organizations may encounter).

 

 

How Much Are You Budgeting for New Technology to Support Your Service Teams post COVID-19?

 

To help determine the types of investments that may help technicians, we asked them to rank,in order of importance, the features they need from their mobile application in the field. Two-thirds (62%) or more of the respondents felt work order information, communication with customers, and maintenance procedures and knowledge base were "very important."

While customer communications and work order information are likely available to field technicians currently, it seems that their tools may be lacking the ability to pass down the organic knowledge base. When a 25-year veteran technician retires, does their domain knowledge leave with them?

Technology decision making must take into account non-traditional forms of data, such as institutional knowledge, in order to provide field technicians with the information and skills they need to succeed.

 

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss how to measure field service readiness.

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

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

---

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Find out more about Appify @ appify.com
• Follow Appify on Twitter @ twitter.com/AppifyInc

In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by Appify, now available at Field Service News, we provide an analysis on how to measure field service readiness...

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

How Would You Rate The Quality of the PPE You Are Using to Service Your Customers?

How Ready Are Your Service Teams to Service Customers Post COVID-19?

Many respondents don’t feel that the pandemic will impact their field readiness. We asked respondents to rate how ready service teams will be to go on-site to service customers post COVID-19. Field technicians responded, on average, with a rating of about 8.3.

IMPROVING WORK ORDER MANAGEMENT EFFICIENCY

The current societal disruption may very well cause ongoing changes to the types of work orders technicians service. When people stop using hotels en masse, there is less of a need for maintenance. Textile factories have likely seen an uptick in machine usage due to the demand for cloth masks. Those machines will need more frequent attention than they did in the past.

We may see spikes in work orders for industries that previously relied on only semi-regular maintenance visits. Other industries will demonstrate a marked drop in demand for their equipment.

Currently, field technicians see about 50 orders or fewer in one month. Forty-four percent of field technicians report receiving fewer than 50 work orders in one month.

How Ready Are Your Service Teams to Service Customers Post COVID-19?

There is a range of time frame durations for these work orders. More than one-third (39%) of field technicians have work orders stretching over multiple days, 35% have work orders that last one day, and 25.97% have work orders that last a few hours.

How Long Does It Take to Complete a Work Order?

The volume of these orders and the duration they last may shift dramatically in the coming months. How organizations respond to changing demands will likely dictate future success.

 

 

Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss resources and technology investments for Field Service.

However, www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about Field Service Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/field-service-management
• Find out more about Appify @ appify.com
• Follow Appify on Twitter @ twitter.com/AppifyInc