As mentioned in previous blogs, we've had the incredible opportunity to attend major user events in the fields of service management and field service over the previous 2 months. One of the interesting technology takeaways from all of these events is the increasing number of providers focused on augmented reality and video-assisted resolution solutions for field service.
Topics: SightCall, knowledge managment, vidcie, pristine, augmented reality, Field Service, PTC, ServiceMax, resolutiontube, IFS, video, Perspective, livegenic, xmreality
This week we’re tracking the PTC Live Global event in Nashville. There are a lot of announcements made and discussions being held across all of PTC’s businesses, but our major focus resides with PTC’s updates on IoT and Service Lifecycle Management. Today’s post will focus mostly on strategic business announcements made in keynote sessions that impact service organizations.
Topics: Internet of Things, Service Management, ColdLight, News, Field Service, PTC, ServiceMax, Perspective, ThingWorx, LiveWorx, IoT
Many years back, I remember the first time I took my now 6 year old daughter to the dentist (I was grateful that my wife handled these appointments before this time, so this was my first experience with her). For a 4 year old, the dentist typically isn’t the most exciting appointment. It can be frightening that a person with a mask is sticking something in your mouth with a bright light shining in your eyes. God forbid you get a cavity at a young age as this only compounds the fear of going to see the dentist as a result of that drill sound inside your mouth.
Topics: customer success, customer satisfaction, Perspective
Over the course of the previous 3-4 weeks, I’ve had the privilege to attend some wonderful user and customer conferences. One of these was the IFS World Conference held in Boston. The conference featured the announcement of major milestones (1m worldwide users for IFS Applications) and the continued push around IFS Applications 9 to customers and prospects.
Topics: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia, IFS, Perspective, knowledge management, IFS World Conference 2015
It’s been a busy couple of weeks with some major events in the service management and field service spaces. Hence the slight lag in my reporting. Between May 13-15, John Carroll and I had the opportunity to attend Maximize 2015, ServiceMax’s major user event in San Francisco, CA. The event was extremely well attended with over 600 participants from brands such as Coca Cola Enterprises (Europe), Schneider Electric, and GE Software. Several TSC members and research panelists were also in attendance.
Topics: GE Software, SightCall, maximize, News, Field Service, PTC, ServiceMax, Perspective, IoT, Coca Cola Enterprises
The Internet of Things (IoT) delivers a significant boost to organizations looking to provide better service and maintenance. Data captured directly from equipment and machines allows servicing organizations to better predict future failures and resolve them prior to occurrence. In cases where incidents do occur, intelligent failure analysis and diagnosis allows for intelligent dispatch of the right resources to ensure that the issue is resolved effectively on a first-visit.
Topics: Internet of Things, connected products, Field Service, Perspective, connected service, remote service, IoT
Today we heard the news that ClickSoftware was being acquired and taken private by Francisco Partners. Personally, I have covered ClickSoftware and worked with their team over the course of the previous 10 years and wish them the best as they enter this new journey. ClickSoftware has been, and continues to be, a key player in the field service automation space, and I look forward to tracking their progress moving forward. Over the course of the previous 12 months, two major software providers focused on field service, in TOA Technologies (by Oracle) and ClickSoftware, have been acquired. Most of the field service providers that started off as scheduling optimizers have now been accounted for. There aren’t many independent enterprise-focused field service software companies left.
Topics: field workforce, mobile field service, News, Field Service, Perspective, IoT, clicksoftware
Intro: I have attended The Service Council Symposiums in the past as have several of my colleagues from Xerox and other companies.
Topics: Service Products, Internet of Things, self-service, Predictive Analytics, News, Perspective, Customer Journey Mapping, Self-Support, service cost, service collaboration, big data, IT, Omni-Channel Customer Service
Wrapping up my analysis of the 2015 symposium (Part 1: here), Day three began with a keynote delivered by Joe Brown, Senior Design Lead at Ideo. His topic was “Designing New Service Opportunities”. Joe introduced us to the seven rules of brainstorming. These certainly are helpful for creating some structure in the brainstorming process. There were a series of statements throughout his discussion that have merit. They are as follows: find the right problem to solve, test ideas in minutes not months, 70% of all change efforts fail, the biggest roadblocks to change are behavioral, don’t get ready- get started, when initiating change take baby steps and make the changes temporary until proven.
Topics: News, Service Innovation, Perspective, Perfect Service Visit, service design
The fourth of four symposiums I have attended was kicked off by John Carroll at noon on Tuesday, March 10th. No complaint on the weather or the venue in San Diego they were both beautiful. Ron Kaufman was introduced as the MC for the three days. Ron performed an admirable job of learning the background of each of the speakers he introduced which enabled the attendees to better know each presenter. Our first keynote, Erica Javellana of Zappos!, discussed the creative beginnings of Zappos! by their founder Tony Hsieh. Tony was looking for a certain type of shoe to purchase and when he couldn’t find them, decided to start a company and make them. Erica went on to discuss the ten core values that the employees created which shaped their culture and a set of values that they could then use to hire and fire. The processes, values and culture that Zappos! has put in place give us a solid look at what we will be experiencing with upcoming generations entering the workforce. Following Erica’s talk there were several captivating panel discussions to choose from and enjoy. Karl Hohmann of ServicePower and I chaired a breakout session discussing Hybrid Workforce Strategies to accommodate Third Parties and Contingent Labor. We enjoyed interacting with twenty attendees, 10 having had previous experience with third parties. The discussion was lively and could have gone much longer with good discussion on the pluses and minuses of these topics.
Topics: service workforce, contingent labor, net promoter score, Talent Management, News, Perspective, service culture