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Telematics – an intelligent future, like it or not
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Feb/Mar 2008
Field service solutions - evolving fast
Field service automation, once a novelty, is now a mature technology, and suppliers can offer much more powerful applications that integrate better and offer users more benefits. But you need to keep up with the latest trends or you could missing opportunities Having pioneered many of the developments in mobile IT, there's no question that the field service sector is now reaping many of the benefits, including reduced costs, greater efficiencies and improved customer service. Now a further evolution is under way. The latest generation of mobile devices have more functionality, which in turn offers potential to develop service offerings. There is potential for greater integration with back-office systems, which again offers more benefits. Device management and analysis of mobile operations have also moved up the agenda. Service organisations are also demanding applications that can prove compliance with duty-of-care responsibilities to mobile workers and the carbon footprint generated by the operations. 
Integration While many field service solution suppliers now offer some level of integration with back-office systems, there are still issues over integration of new applications with legacy databases. That's the view of Chris Wright, managing director of solutions house Skillweb. He advocates a hybrid solution in which an interim data environment is created to provide access to new data collected as mobile applications are added. 'An example of this might be an existing system that simply manages jobs, with a first-generation link to the back-office ERP system. Then you add stock control functionality on the handheld and manage this data in its own database, using modern Web browser techniques.' The benefit, says Wright is that effectively the core functions aren't changed, and the additional functions can provide added value to an existing system. 'We are moving on from the era when mobile working was about getting rid of paper,' says Matthew Moore, product manager for Dexterra Systems. 'Many field service operations face competition to be best-in-class to win new business, and that means greater integration of other business processes. Companies on their second and third deployments are starting to take advantage of the business intelligence that mobile applications can provide, and they are less nervous about integration with other systems. Our Concert 5 platform is all about making integration straightforward.' While many service companies believe Microsoft will continue to dominate the market for business-class mobile operating systems, Moore believes 2008 will be a big year for devices operating on Linux. 'More companies globally are looking at Linux as an alternative to Microsoft throughout their businesses.' Functionality The latest generation of mobile devices are making it easier to add functionality to a field service operation. 'Upgrading first-generation applications is now easier, and there is a trend to expand the number of applications running on a device to maximise the return on investment,' says Skillweb's Wright. 'The latest devices have bigger memories and faster processing speeds, so adding more functionality won't freeze the application or leave engineers twiddling their thumbs while the device carries out the task.' Wright points out that running multiple applications on the same device maximises the investment in the hardware. 'We should plan on turning our devices into asset trackers, navigators, geo-positioners and cameras, and also run personal information applications such as mailboxes, expenses, diary.' Terran Churcher, managing director of Codegate, agrees. 'There is a big convergence trend, driven by the wider availability of communications technology, and many devices can now incorporating voice and GPS.' GPS data has potential, he believes, to enhance many field service operations. 'In parking enforcement applications, for example, it can give the precise latitude and longitude of the vehicle, so you can prove not just that it is in the car park, but also in which bay.' Future-proofing Because mobile working is such a young industry, future-proofing difficult. However, there are steps companies can take to help the operations migrate and take advantage of the latest technology when it does arrive. For applications, 'software as a service' (SaaS) is gaining popularity as a solution, says Wright, because the applications are then independent of the platform and capable of running in a multiple-application environment. 'SaaS takes away the pain of managing the database, its environment and all reliability issues,' explains Wright. He believes the same approach should be adopted with platform and airtime contracts. 'Bundle the device and the data transmission into a contract with free upgrades every two or three years.' Graham Whistance, managing director of Momote, agrees. 'Many early adopters are growing out of the fixed-functionality solutions they originally put in place in favour of a platform approach providing more flexibility and real-time wireless capability. We think the time has come for service organisations explore how the latest generation of agile technology solutions can deliver further business benefits and a rapid return on investment.' Customer relationship management Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are becoming ever more relevant to field service operations. While centralising data means everyone can share customer details, this brings with it its own problems, however, which service organisations need to address. 'Delays in getting or entering information often result in delays to business processes that lead to a poor customer experience,' says Terri White, global communications manager for Antenna Software Europe. 'Service staff are the eyes and ears of the organisation, because they are the ones who interact with your customers on a daily basis. Mobility empowers workers with access to information at the point of customer contact, helping them to answer questions, resolve issues, or input orders on the spot.' Codegate's Churcher believes digitising customer satisfaction reports could help service companies monitor their performance. 'Companies want information about engineers' performance for quality assessment checks, but it is notoriously hard to get customers to send back forms. We think there is an opportunity to capture this information electronically via the engineer's mobile device. It can be done discretely: the customer can even tap the 'send' button. Remote management With device functionality increasing, attention is shifting to applications and in-the-field management, says Julie Purves, managing director of mobile management specialist B2M. She quotes a survey by analyst Gartner revealing that the hardware costs were only 25 per cent of total ownership costs. 'Remote management of devices and applications is now as important to controlling costs in mobile service operations. Automatic updates to applications, drivers, network and device configuration can save a significant amount of time and cost, and remote troubleshooting means you keep devices in the field instead of bringing them back or replacing them.' Purves warns that the consumer-friendly Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system now being deployed on many mobile devices can lull service managers into thinking that is all they need to manage their fleet of mobile devices. 'Yes, you can get emails sent to the device and deploy software upgrades on the latest generation devices. However, there is no built-in remote diagnostics capability, so if the device fails you may not be able to get it working again, and you can't do a remote wipe of applications and data if it is stolen.' 'Companies with the most successful deployments continuously monitor the usage of the mobile application,' agrees Terri White. 'If there is a data field that no one uses with any frequency, they replace it with something else of more value. Once the initial mobile application is deployed, you can always add new capabilities incrementally to keep the application fresh and relevant to your staff.' Security Security is still a concern for many companies, says Dexterra's Moore. 'Devices are more powerful nowadays and there is more data outside the corporate firewall, simply because devices can store more data. However, there has to be a trade-off between usability and security. Some IT managers go down the ultra-secure route when it is not necessary. This can kill a mobile project, because it destroys usability. Service engineers do not want to have to log on every five minutes.' Automatic user identification is one solution, he says, while another is to run thin-client systems on the mobile devices. 'However, that can create a headache for application developers who may need to write to multiple browsers.' Networks There is growing evidence that the mobile network operators are becoming serious about developing a role as hosted solution providers. Vodafone, for example, has bought several key players in the mobile sector, including integration and field service specialist Aspective. Vodafone's approach is to bring mobile solutions to the masses, says Jeremy Squires, Aspective vice president. 'We want to make it easier for people to mobilise their workforces by offering a hosted managed service for a fixed monthly fee which is easy to buy into, yet can be scaled up.' From Aspective's point of view, says Squires, the company has gone from being a £15 million player in the integrator business to being part of a global business. 'That opens doors. On our own, we were not big enough to sell solutions to large utilities who want a strategic partnership with what they see as a fellow-blue chip company. 'We still have the flexibility to develop solutions to fit customers' needs and we are still a systems integrator. What we do have is extra funding to grow the business in various directions'. Dexterra has developed a version of its Concert 5 middleware platform for Vodafone. It's called an 'in-the-cloud' implementation because it is hosted on the Vodafone network, outside the corporate firewall. Dexterra's SmartClient sits on the device and talks to the Dexterra Concert Platform in Vodafone's network. To save the need for the device to breach the firewall to access an application on the server, a measured amount of data is downloaded to the device at appropriate intervals - enough to allow a user to work remotely on the device without accessing the host system, even for as long as two or three days. Duty of Care Now that the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act is becoming a reality, it's more than likely that field service organisations are being bombarded by suppliers offering solutions that demonstrate the processes in place to ensure compliance for field workers. The Act comes into force in April this year, and while there are implications for business of all sizes, there is also a lot of hype around the subject. Nevertheless, it's something operators can't ignore, as Steve Reynolds, managing director of TBS Enterprise Mobility and chairman of the Mobile Data Association, makes clear. 'The act toughens up and makes clear the duty of care responsibilities a company, its directors and managers already have to provide under the Health and Safety at Work regulations. There are lots or areas where people currently don't think they have responsibility when in fact, they do. Risk assessment and lone worker protection must become priorities.' Senior managers must undertake appropriate health and safety risk assessments, Reynolds advises. They need to make provision for lone workers who may be faced with a risk of violence; to put contact procedures in place for emergencies so that the alarm can be raised and prompt medical attention be provided if there is an accident; and they must that ensure lone workers are medically fit and suitable for the lone-working role. PANEL Case study: Boxing clever If you use a third-party logistics company to deliver parts and materials to your field service team, sometimes you will find that the company in question can also offer the benefit of supplying its own field service software. That is certainly the case with ByBox, whose nationwide network of box-banks offers 18,000 individual drop-boxes, and has already proved popular with many companies for delivering parts to engineers. Its Thinventory and Vanventory are said to represent the first supply chain solutions platform designed exclusively for the field service market. Thinventory provides stock management, while Vanventory extends this by keeping a record of what is of what is aboard the client's fleet of service vehicles at any given moment. Such features have helped various customers including the Tech Guys, the unit set up by DSG to provide after-sales support for customers of Dixons, Currys, PC World and The Link. ByBox currently makes over 2,000 shipments a night to 500 service engineers working for The Tech Guys. By using its Blackstripe service, the company is able to provide full accountability of returning stock so it can be repaired or scrapped. The engineer simply applies a 'black stripe' to the original delivery label to transform it into a return. The two-dimensional barcode in Blackstripe can then tell ByBox's scanning system the part is a return and route it back to its origin using the outbound tracking number on the original label. The solution also helps The Tech Guys comply with the WEEE directive on waste electrical components. PANEL Case study: Mobile solution drives down response times for Bristol Water With 6,500km of pipes, Bristol Water is one of the smaller water utilities in the UK. However, in this closely regulated industry it has to observe the same stringent compliance legislation that applies to its larger counterparts. As project manager Mathew Stevenson points out: 'If we miss a target in our customer charter, we get fined.' Common tasks include meter installation and the inspection, maintenance and repair of pipes. The operation is complex, involving over 30 manual process and 80 paper forms, some dependent on multiple resources and workflows. Previously, engineers worked with printed job cards plus a detailed work specification and any other paper documentation that was necessary. Bristol Water launched a strategic review of the company and its processes. 'We recognised that streamlining the paper flow was essential, but the process review was necessary to identify what was important and what wasn't, and what the business reason for doing a particular task was,' Stevenson explains. 'Any mobile solution had to interact with our SAP ERP 2005 customer relationship management system, Smallworld GIS, and water regulation administration system applications.' The workforce management solution deployed by field service specialist Aspective, now a Vodafone company, encompasses resource planning, work scheduling, business process management, GPS and mobile data communication to laptops and PDAs over the Vodafone network. The workforce scheduling applications is GE Energy's Field Force Automation. This consolidates planned and unplanned work tasks and provides the bridge with the company's legacy systems. 'We have invested considerable time and money into ensuring the interface back to SAP works because that is the key to efficiency,' says Stevenson. 'All the data which previously had to be input manually into the SAP databases is now collected electronically.' Smallworld GIS allows Bristol Water to compress the map data it sends out to engineers, reducing a typical 200 gigabyte file to 6Gb. 'Once in place, the new system will give our field engineers an unbeatable level of support to their day-to-day activities,' Stevenson says, 'driving down our response times and providing customers with improved levels of service.' The first stage of the deployment went live at the end of January, and half of Bristol Water's engineers now use the system. There were some concerns about how engineers would adapt to using laptops, but Stevenson says he has been surprised how older engineers have adapted. 'There's no doubt it makes their working life easier, so they are prepared to accept some of the less attractive features, such as our being able to track them.' The engineers are using Panasonic CF-19 Toughbook portable computers. 'They're robust, and they hold all the information the engineer needs to complete the job, so we are not totally reliant on GPRS coverage.' PANEL Case study: Centralised job booking speeds healthcare servicing operation Introducing a centralised mobile workforce scheduling system has transformed the operations of RL Dolby, a Scottish-based company specialising in the supply and maintenance of healthcare equipment. Previously the company's field engineers were responsible for booking their own appointments with individual patients for equipment servicing, installations and removals. Now the task has been brought into the office, and is handled on a semi-automatic basis. The field force now receive jobs over Vodafone's GPRS network on handheld computers, which they also use to report progress and job completion. The system chosen by the company is ServiceNet from AirVersent (formerly Telepartner). This incorporates a built-in dynamic job scheduling and appointment booking module, and produces a schedule of tasks based on task priority and target end date. Call centre staff now make the appointments with patients. The scheduler responds dynamically to appointments as they are booked to ensure optimised engineer routing and time slots, and the system automatically sends an electronic proof of service document to NHS Scotland as each task is completed. According to Steven Laird, administration and quality manager, the system should enhance engineer productivity, improve operational visibility, and enable the company to deliver a much better service, providing clients with accurate and up-to-date information whenever it is required. 'This really comes in to play with urgent installs, as we can now provide an immediate response.' ServiceNet has been integrated with the company's Strategix back-office system, allowing information from the PDAs to be picked up and processed as jobs happen, taking care of stock transactions and updating the contract record and patient details. PANEL Case study: Carbon reduction To reduce the carbon footprint of its service engineering team, water machine manufacturer Tana Water (UK) has deployed a field service solution called Priority CRM, which ensures its engineers are travelling the least distance between customers, and reduces the number of service visits per customer. Tana has over 15,000 mains-fed water dispensers out in use in the UK. The carbon and ultra-violet filters that remove impurities such as chlorine from tap water have to be changed every six months by an engineer approved by the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme. The company says it is the only one in the sector to do its own filter maintenance rather than contract it out to a third party. Tana is using Priority CRM software to integrate with sales and service data and has installed tracking on each engineer's van. The company can zone territories, matching engineers and customer, and customer visits can be scheduled so that the legally required filter changes are done at the same time as routing servicing. On site, the machines are monitored with HP iPAQ handheld computers, through which settings and temperatures can be adjusted. This system also gives the engineer information on how much water has been dispensed since the last bi-annual service - which in turn helps customers ensure that the enough dispensers are made available to staff. According to managing director Nick Heane: 'Before we installed the tracker devices and Priority CRM software, engineers were literally passing each other en route to customers.' He says the new system not only reduces carbon emissions, but makes good business sense too. PANEL Field service - some are still missing out Research commissioned by Momote and conducted by analysts Freeform Dynamics produced some telling findings about the field service sector. Among the revelations is that while 72 per cent of service organisations believe it is important or desirable for mobile workers to have real-time access to service management systems, most are still failing to realise the benefits of a mobile workforce management solution. The survey found that as many as 90 per cent of organisations still have not cracked problems such as resource optimisation, service flexibility and visibility of operations. There was a lack of confidence in the solutions that companies currently had in place, with just 10 per cent claiming they were able to utilise field service resources effectively, over a third suspecting significant shortfalls in the area of flexibility, and only 20 per cent currently providing mobile workers with real-time access to their service management system. In addition, only 50 per cent of companies had scheduling systems that were able to allocate field resources. 'This places them at a real disadvantage in a competitive market, owing to the inability to make efficiency gains and respond to changing field service requirements,' says Graham Whistance, managing director of Momote. 'Equally worrying, only 45 per cent of companies gave their field workers any degree of remote access to their service management system at all, and are therefore completely missing out on the opportunity to optimise business processes, maximise revenue generation and create competitive advantage through service innovation.'
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