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October 24, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

Breaking the Business as Usual Mentality

October 24, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

Breaking the Business as Usual Mentality

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By Greg Lush

Your interview went fantastic and you remain to be pleasantly surprised on how forward-thinking everyone appears to be — this may be a great career fit. With the first round of meetings behind you, they invite you back to "get a feel" for the company by spending a day with several future teammates. Edgar, the accounting manager, welcomes you into his office. He is warm and inviting, and after some small talk suggests that you look at a presentation about the company. As he shuffles through the stack of folders on his desk your enthusiasm begins to wane. "Ahh, here it is," Edgar announces as he pulls the tattered paper copy of PowerPoint 1997 slides. Progressing through the slides, covered with early 2000’s clipart, you tell yourself it is all okay as you look forward to meeting with Angela from Sales. Certainly, the front of the company must be using tools from this decade! Angela did not disappoint, we met in a small conference room with a 48" Microsoft Surface touchscreen. Standing next to the screen, Angela starts the conversation, bouncing from email to email and navigating to her cloud-based file management tool DropBox. Something is off. Why is it that this company, which appears to be only using Office 365, is using other file tools? My sense is an organization that has invested and mastered the ability to "talk a good story;" however, when the first layer is peeled back, they appear to be culturally stuck 20 years back. While they may be innovative on their core business, it appears that business practices take a back seat. Your goal is to land on a company that has some staying power, and these folks are on a fast-moving train headed to 1980, so you decide it’s not for you.

Have I just described your organization? I suppose if we polled folks at your company, we would get many different responses. As you contemplate "alignment," which is necessary for successful digital transformation, the habits of the company, leadership/management team, department leads, and individuals will need to be altered. Achieving transformation for an organization is not a trivial task. Contrary to popular belief, this does not have to be a top-down edict. As a matter of fact, the top-down approach will get folks to change their ways; yet, typically change will be limited to the vision of those "barking the orders.” Unfortunately, this is not transformation, it is simply compliance. Mentioned previously, and important to say again, extracting value from your digital investments is one-part technology and nine parts people. Positioning yourself to be immersed in how the business operates will afford you the opportunity to correlate micro-processes to the available technology stack. Certainly, the idea of translating business speak to technology speak is not new — the real change is the velocity of new products, code-free digital tool configuration, heightened expectations of clients, employees and partners. So how do we look at and respond to this challenge to get us closer down the path of true digital transformation? Here are a few important points to consider.

  • Adoption of transactional systems
    • Most business challenges today will require technology solutions. To be clear, a business challenge is not defined as upgrading an existing system, while these actions need to be addressed, they do not generally require transformation. Instead, upgrades of transactional systems can be bunched into two buckets: implementation (readiness) and deployment (go-live). Although our experience is littered with these types of examples, and we may have even convinced ourselves that we "drove adoption," the fact is we checked the box once the system was live and moved on to the next crisis.
  • Examining daily routines
    • The idiom "you know what you know" comes to mind when I think about folks' daily routines. If I walked up to you and asked, "Frank, how can I help you become more efficient by using your digital tools better?" His response may be, "I am good, thanks for asking." Instead, I would ask, "Frank, if you think about all of the actions that you take with your computer over the course of a week, which is the most inconvenient?" By the way, this does not always work, as having never been asked that question, it can be challenging to answer. A back-up position if the person seems stumped — ask them to show you what tools (digital and paper) they use through the course of the workday.
  • If your organization has or is planning on deploying a cloud platform (ie: Office 365), then you are in a great spot. These holistic cloud platforms are packed with applications, many of which are bundled into the most common licenses. To solve everyday problems, you must put the effort into learning your cloud platform’s technology stack and how these tools can impact your business. The combination of your keen understanding of the technology stack and connection with the business leveraging your new-found listening skills, you should be in good shape. Transformation can only occur when the seed has been planted, in most cases coached out of the business user, and methodically cultivated to become a strong and reliable part of each person’s daily habits.
  • Changing the "way" that you compute
    • Don't just change the computer system, change the way that people compute! Sure, I have heard it all and the excuses like "we will never get them to use the tools" and "this is a training issue" are, well, a bunch of crap. Those may have had some applicability in the past, when a strong separation existed between your enterprise software, IT, and the business. Now the lines are way too fuzzy — who would have ever thought that a marketing department would be tasked with leading digital change? If that is not a sign, I don't know what is. Come on, smell the coffee! How does that Pink Floyd lyric go? "Nobody told you when to run?" Hey, knock, knock… RUN!

The next time that you lead a meeting, make sure that you are using your available digital tools. For instance, in the past you may have brought in your paper notebook and #2 pencil. Instead, consider using the notebook tool (no notepad, old-timer) on your computer along with a modern meeting invitation and task management application. You will be amazed how just one person, changing the way that they compute, can influence a community of people. If you are on any social platform, you know how simple it is to get a movement started — many are more comfortable following than leading. Yet someone must start, how about you?

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The Dichotomy of Exceptional Service Leadership

October 21, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

The Dichotomy of Exceptional Service Leadership

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

When discussing service leadership traditionally, topics such as strong communication and a focus on change management and employee engagement have been top of mind. These things remain incredibly important, but the reality is, what is demanded of service leadership today has evolved along with the industry. In the experience economy with service as a strategic differentiator, innovation is essential. And it turns out, the traits that make a strong operational leader are not the same as those that leaders of innovation possess — in fact, they are often at odds with one another.

One of my favorite sessions from IFS World Conference this October in Boston was by Linda Hill, Co-Founder of Paradox Strategies and Harvard Business School Professor who specializes in innovation. Linda brought to light a number of points on how to effectively lead innovation that I think are especially important for service leaders to be considering. She talked about the concept of the performance gap versus the opportunity gap – the performance gap being the difference between where you are now and were you think you should go, which is a value creator. The opportunity gap is the difference between where you are now and were you could go, which is a game changer. On the topic of building competitive advantage, Linda reviewed a scale of today versus tomorrow. Moving from execution to innovation, from setting direction to shaping context. From focusing on where we’re going to focusing on who we are. Maximizing differences, rather than minimizing them. Shifting from followers that execute to communities who innovate. Building that sense of community, according to Linda, is the intersection of purpose (why you exist); shared values (what we agree is important) – such as bold ambition, collaboration, responsibility, and learning; and the rules of engagement (how we interact with each other) – such as respect, trust, influence, seeing the whole, questioning everything, and being data-driven. A culture of innovation is a big adjustment for many service organizations – an evolution from doing to thinking, from effectiveness to experience, and from delivery to discovery. But moreover, it’s a challenging call for service leaders. The strengths that made these leaders successful at operational excellence and managing change are still incredibly valuable, but far different from the strengths needed to successfully lead innovation. “Leading change is about getting people to follow – using muscles. Innovation is far different – rather than minimizing differences, you want to amplify them,” says Linda. She also points out that innovation is meant to be done collectively, it is an everyone job. “Innovation is emotionally and intellectually taxing, so you need a sense of community. With innovation, there’s no such thing as too many cooks in the kitchen – every viewpoint is valuable. It’s the leaders job to balance and harness this,” Linda says. She went on to discuss some of the aspects of innovation culture that a leader will want to unleash versus harness:

  • Unleash the individual, harness the collective
  • Unleash support, harness confrontation
  • Unleash learning and development, harness performance
  • Unleash improvisation, harness structure
  • Unleash patience, harness urgency
  • Unleash bottom-up thinking, harness top-down

I think another important element of building a culture of innovation is to eliminate the fear of failure and make clear the desire for all opinions and contributions. Many service teams have been programmed, intentionally or unintentionally, to “do their jobs” and not ask too many questions. This is the complete opposite of how you want to promote innovative thinking. You want to make it clear to your employees that you welcome and value all of their thoughts, opinions, and ideas and you want to take the pressure of failure off of their shoulders, because that fear of failure will inhibit innovative thinking. There’s no denying that service leaders today are challenged! I highly suggest checking out Linda Hill’s work – this brief synopsis of her World Conference session I’m sure doesn’t do justice to the wealth of knowledge that she is. You can learn more at http://www.paradoxstrategies.com/.

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October 18, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

How secure is IoT?

October 18, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

How secure is IoT?

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By Ross Coundon

The IoT reality

IoT is growing quickly, but are you prepared for what that means in reality?

The Internet of Things (IoT) involves an increasing prevalence of objects and entities (things) provided with unique identifiers to transfer data over a network. A lot of the increase in IoT communication comes from devices such as computers, sensors, machine to machine (M2M) communication, smart energy grids, smart homes and buildings, vehicle to vehicle communications or wearable devices.

This wave of technology is connecting more and more aspects of our lives to the internet. It is anticipated that over the next few years, over 25 billion devices will be connected. Forbes expects the IoT industry to surpass threefold growth before 2025. All these connections are aimed to improve and enhance our daily lives, but when you stop to think about the fact that even your TV is collecting and sharing your personal data things can start to feel a bit scary.

Humans are the biggest threat to IoT

We as humans can be the biggest threat to ourselves. People can feel there is no more capacity left to take control of an ever-expanding network of devices and sensors, let alone make sense of what they are all doing. And when it comes to security, human error is so often the downfall. We find it hard to protect ourselves in a pre-IoT world, so why do we think we are ready for everything and anything to be connected?

You only have to take WannaCry as an example. Back in May 2017 a malicious campaign crippled hundreds of organisations across the globe within just one day. Every device that is connected to the internet is another opportunity for a hacker. By expanding the number of devices connected, we are creating millions of gateways. All it takes is one skilled hacker to exploit a weakness in one of those devices, and it could compromise not just your home or office but potentially your autonomous vehicle.

Your customers have concerns over IoT security

These security issues need to be taken seriously by organisations considering implementing an IoT strategy. People like to be in control, especially when it comes to their personal data, and it is your responsibility to make them feel that way. You need to take them with you on the digital journey, encouraging and inspiring them to embrace new technology. Address their fears however rational, or irrational, they may seem and reassure them by giving them the facts the rumours or media often leave out.

However, when it comes to IoT security there is no silver bullet. Ensuring you have good application design as well as adapting your existing IT security will go some way to helping to protect against IoT threats.

How big is the issue?

In 2018 some 21% of companies reported a data breach or cyberattack due to unsecured IoT devices. Ensuring security in the face of this trend should be a significant concern but some businesses still have their head in the sand that it won't happen to them. IoT devices can be extremely hard to patch. In many cases they don’t have a physical user interface or a screen and it can be hard for users to understand how updates are to be made.

A recent survey suggested that more than 80% of respondents believe a cyberattack or data breach from unsecured IoT devices is likely to hit them in the next two years. Make sure your business isn't one of them!

Need help?

Working with many field service organisations, at Leadent we have helped organisations design, develop and pilot and implement IoT in the right way.

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Challenging the Service Status Quo

October 14, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

Challenging the Service Status Quo

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Last week was an action-packed week in Boston at IFS World Conference 2019. The event theme was “for the challengers,’ which I must say is a message I can really get behind. There’s a personal appeal, in the sense that I’ve always considered myself to be somewhat of a “challenger” — someone who asks a lot of questions, tries to think outside the box, and doesn’t back down in the face of resistance. But moreover, “challenger” is an identifier I think more companies need to take on if they want to find success in the increasingly complex and ever-evolving world we’re living in today.

The immense opportunity that service presents was front and center at WoCo. IFS announced plans to acquire field service management provider Astea. Interest in servitization from companies that haven’t traditionally focused on service was apparent. And the service organizations in attendance were all excited about the potential that exists for those that embrace the challenger mindset and fight complacency.

I had the honor of moderating a couple of customer panels, including participants such as Eickhoff, Anticimex, Spencer Technologies, and Reliance Home Comfort. These were great conversations that showcased not only the excitement around how service is evolving and expanding, but also some tactical advice for what it takes to seize this opportunity successfully. I thought it would be helpful for me to summarize some of the key points these challengers feel it will take to bring the service potential to fruition.

1: Challengers Are Letting Go of The Past

Rule number one of a challenger is to break out of the “this is how we’ve always done it” mentality. This I know sounds so simple, but the reality is that many service organizations have a deep-rooted past that can make this simple-sounding feat nearly impossible. But those committed to winning know this is necessary and are working at all costs to embrace and evangelize the need to do things differently. Fighting the status quo looks a little different for each company depending on their own history, leadership, culture, and customer base – but there is an overarching need to look at the business with a fresh view. To think about how service delivery and even business models might be changed to better deliver on customer wants and needs. To look for inspiration beyond your own industry and recognize the fact that you aren’t limited by what has been the “norm.” Innovation was an important topic at WoCo and it’s incredibly relevant for those in service who understand that the time is now to push out of their comfort zones and focus on the possibilities instead of the barriers.

2: Challengers Are Focused on Culture and People

If there was a resounding message I heard from the customers I spoke with, it was the acknowledgement that their people and their company culture is where their success lies. They know that investing time, energy, and resources on their people is absolutely critical and they are making this a priority. We discussed a variety of ways that failing to focus on your people will present barriers to accomplishing your goals. This included a discussion around the correlation between employee engagement and satisfaction and customer satisfaction – not being able to deliver on a superior customer experience if you haven’t taken the time to ensure your people are bought into your mission and happy themselves. We discussed the importance of communicating the “why” behind the company’s goals and initiatives as well as the need to articulate realistic, measurable expectations so that employees know both what is being asked of them as well as how they’re performing. We also discussed the fact that from a technology standpoint, focusing on the voice of your employees and centering tools around their needs is essential to adoption and proper use. It can be easy to speed through the day-to-day and not slow down enough to focus on the state of your culture and your employees’ morale, but it is evident that challengers are making this a priority.

3: Challengers Are Building a Logical Technology Strategy

When Christian Pederson, Chief Product Officer at IFS delivered his keynote at WoCo in which he discussed the company’s technology roadmap, he commented that while IFS is working to incorporate all sorts of new features and functionality, customers shouldn’t be focused on the trends and acronyms but rather the business value they provide. In talking with customers at the event, it was clear that this is indeed the challenger approach. These companies aren’t caught up in the trends or buzzwords just for the sake of what’s “cool” – they are hyper-focused on what will provide their businesses, and more importantly their customers, value. They know that to succeed with digital transformation, you must first build a strong foundation of core functionality from which to build. They recognize that the technology strategy for the company needs to be cohesive, not siloed. They are intent on following value, not trends. And they are cognizant of the fact that there’s a greater need than ever for both technology and skills that will allow companies to fully utilize data both internally and in a customer-facing manner.

I truly enjoyed hearing how these companies are balancing their efforts around strategy, culture, and technology to take their businesses to new heights. If you have thoughts on how your company is embracing the challenger mentality, I’d love to hear your story!

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Alignment: The Key to True Digital Transformation Success

October 10, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

Alignment: The Key to True Digital Transformation Success

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By Greg Lush

You have already experienced change and value in applying the former stages of the hierarchy of digital adoption to your businesses: digital trust, contextual computing, and insights. The final component of the hierarchy we will discuss will propel us over the finish line as we take digital trust, contextual computing, and insights stages momentum to alter our business habits. Often the word "transformation" is bandied about, but who really knows what this term means? If Henry Ford, as he was contemplating the horseless carriage, had asked any person in Detroit what they wanted, most would have answered "a faster horse.” For me, transformation occurs as we permanently alter our institutional habits to leverage the digital enterprise. We achieve this by embracing the final stage of my Hierarchy of Digital Transformation: Alignment.

This series was written for all types of digital evangelists and advocates, and for most of you one of the four stages I’ve covered will be comfortable and the others will present some level of discomfort. Our first stage, digital trust, started our journey and required you to apply your emotional intelligence (EQ) over your technical skills. Generally speaking, if you are a hard-core technologist the first section on digital trust was awkward. The final section of alignment is also people-centric with a heavy dose of understanding the business. Technologists, who have been relegated to the data center or IT shop, and really interested in keeping the infrastructure live, will find this section challenging. Conversely, those in business management roles, who shined in the "insights" stage, will also find this final stage "alignment" hard to master. Hey, we are talking about the elusive "transformation,” a state of business rarely obtained.

So, what needs to happen to drive success through this final stage if nobody will be comfortable? The answer is just the point, we must align with one another. Digital transformation, a term which will likely fizzle out, is about us all rowing in the same direction. Alignment, a word which suggests teamwork, will continue to stand the test of time. Businesses have attempted to achieve alignment across their employees, clients, and partners, for decades; how is this 'alignment' anything more than letters on a page? As we get older, theoretically we get wiser. Life experiences, including success and failure (critical), no matter how trivial, are all contributors.

Yet, it is more than that, and therefore alignment, and eventually transformation, has a fighting chance. The answer to this riddle, you ask, is perspective. As humans we gain perspectives through experience, listening, social-economic factors; all of which eventually contribute to our perspectives. However, if we could take our perspectives, actions, and approaches and merge those with others, wouldn't that provide additional insight? Now, mix in trends, which in all honesty today are considered "hunches," by accessing artificial intelligence tools like algorithms, machine and deep learning, and myriad cognitive tools.  Imagine the perspective you could gain, learning things that you didn't know to ask, literally obliterating the idiom "you only know what you know."

I’m excited to share with you some final stories in the coming weeks, centered around alignment, and designed to get you thinking about how you may apply these concepts directly to your business. Hopefully, executing these in sequence as they are all designed to work into one another. Over the next few weeks, we will explore:

  • Business as unusual: understanding and aligning business priorities
  • Our story:
    • Algorithms; getting ready to share your story with a data scientist
    • Data; move past your historical references and how to handle internal and external data
    • Assumptions; seeing things differently, transitioning assumptions to action
  • Speed Learning
    • Learning like never before
    • From predictions to prescriptions

I look forward to diving into this final phase of the hierarchy of digital transformation with you!

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The Death of the Service Dispatch

October 7, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

The Death of the Service Dispatch

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By Tom Paquin

In the face of constricting workforce and increased automation, one thing has become very clear: Industry-leading service companies are learning to do more with less. Through technology, and organizational optimization, fewer internal resources are now needed to complete a service job. That’s certainly true in the truck, but you could argue that it’s equally as true in the back office. Let’s talk about some of the implications of that change.

The Back-Office Benefit of FSM

It’s no secret that employing a Field Service Management platform, as all leading organizations have, naturally increases the dispatcher-to-tech ratio. One of the major benefits of software like that is its ability to optimize and automate repetitive processes, allowing staff to focus on more complex problems that are worthier of their time and attention. Couple this with self-service and zero-touch service solutions, along with chatbots and other customer service-specific utilities present in industry-leading FSM solutions, and moving more service employees out of the back office and into the field is a no-brainer. These benefits extend up and down the organization, and smart firms are finding a variety of ways to make the added efficiency and flexibility offered by these new technologies work best for them. This certainly starts today with a decrease in back office staff. Will it reach a point where the back office becomes a thing of the past?

The Totally-Mobile Workforce

While we’re entering the era of mid-stage digital transformation, advancements in technologies to service assets alongside the ways that business itself is conducted make a dispatch-free service organization an increasingly practical consideration for the next stage. For companies to do it, they’ll need to create a full-featured “service web” that automates or offloads every bookkeeping and logistical activity that would have occurred in the back office. Nearly all of those functions can be handled, at least in part, by technology today. With increased IoT connectivity, better data sources, and things like AI, the evolution of those technologies will continually mitigate the need for an extensive back office staff. Aside from the field service management software itself functioning as the brains of the operation, what are the other components that need to be in place? Naturally, this will differ from firm to firm, but if you break the service lifecycle into three broad categories: Pre-service, service, and post-service, it’s easy to start making sure that you have the right building blocks to move beyond dispatch.

Pre-service will vary most from organization to organization, as business decisions like whether you’ve moved to an outcomes-based model, or servitization, along with the simple nature of the serviceable assets that you manage, can influence the technologies utilized substantially. There are a few things that organizations will generally need: Smart scheduling, routing optimization, automatic dispatches, not to mention the aforementioned utilities like chatbots and self-service engines. Couple any of these with connected sensors on serviceable assets to predict failure and automatically schedule appointments, and that will take a lot of stress off of your back office.

When it comes to service itself, this naturally occurs mostly on the job-site anyway, but the most important piece today is ensuring that appointments are started and completed, notated, and documented using mobile field service utilities. Another key component that will help to mitigate back office tasks is a strong parts management and reverse logistics engine. This ostensibly democratizes a lot of the data entry that would otherwise be managed centrally. The best FSM systems automate the tedious so that techs can focus on the dynamic needs of their customers. Not only is this saving back office labor, it’s improving the service experience across the board.

Post-service falls into a few different categories, most obviously invoicing and ticket closing, which, again should happen via mobile device. That’s of course the beginning, and leading organizations also have the utilities in place to automatically schedule follow-up appointments, maintain an incident history, centralize data about enterprise assets, and use all of that data to automate sales and marketing efforts. This transforms a customer into a client while simultaneously saving on those back office resources. A true win-win. The dispatcher will likely not be going the way of the telephone operator in the immediate future, but with the right technology on your side, you can be sure that their time is being spent on the tasks most worthy of their talents.

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The State of Service Management Software Deployment is in the Cloud. Are you there yet?

October 4, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

The State of Service Management Software Deployment is in the Cloud. Are you there yet?

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By Tom Paquin

It should be obvious to everyone by this point that cloud is not the future anymore; it’s the present. That’s fine in theory, but when it comes to systems that you’ve invested time and physical real estate in, it can be a messy divorce. There’s a few major deviation points when it comes to Field Service and the cloud, and it’s important to be aware of them. Let’s take a few minutes to break it down.

In Service, Not All Clouds are the Same The benefits of moving from on-prem to cloud are, at this point, fairly obvious:

  • It offers dynamic consumption, allowing employees to access tools across desktop and mobile devices
  • If literally saves server space
  • It means you’re always running the latest software build
  • It allows greater flexibility for implementation

That’s just to name a few reasons, and with 5G on the horizon, the functionality, capabilities, and ease of use of cloud-based applications will continue to grow. That’s not to say all cloud applications are the same, though. There are a few points of divergence when it comes to cloud. These divergence points typically fall into two categories: Architectural, or Functional. Let’s start with architectural. Architectural differences in the cloud typically come down to host, security, or distribution, but one particular area of inflection is whether a cloud instance is single- or multi-tenant. The difference is subtle, but key for some businesses. Multi-tenant cloud software means that multiple organizations are running off the same instance of an application (It should be noted, however, that organizations are not able to see one another’s’ data or configurations). Single-tenant, as its name implies, is when an organization’s software instance is used exclusively for them. While organizations will need to weigh the pros and cons of both, some Service Management vendors force your hand one way or another by only offering one implementation option.

When it comes to the industry at-large, Garter's recent Magic Quadrant report has shown that most cloud implementations now are single-tenant. As noted in the report, “Fifty-four percent of the respondents indicated that they utilize a dedicated instance hosted by their vendor (34%) or a third party (20%). The figure for multitenant was unchanged at 24%.” The other piece—the functional, will differ from application to application, but let’s take mobility as an example. Organizations often struggle with downsizing their applications to a mobile form-factor. This means that certain functions, certain views, and certain processes may be unavailable on mobile, while they remain available on the desktop. While in the immediate this may seem like a way to preserve the aesthetic integrity of your platform, with the current trend towards a shrinking back-office, and the need to maximize efficiency, fully mobile field service applications are increasingly becoming an imperative. These are just a few examples, but they help illustrate that nuanced differences in your cloud software, both architectural and functional, can have devastating effects on your business, so if you’ve already deployed in the cloud, now would be a great time to audit those systems to make sure they’re working right for you. If you are still on-prem, or haven’t invested in end-to-end service management, it’s more imperative now than ever to start seriously looking at a cloud solution.

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4 Real-World Roadblocks to Service Revenue Growth

September 30, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

4 Real-World Roadblocks to Service Revenue Growth

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Mid-September I attended the Service Council Symposium in Chicago, where I facilitated a workshop on the barriers to service revenue growth. The workshop had a great turnout with lively conversation. Everyone in the room shared a common desire and need to grow service revenue. This desire is born not only out of every company’s pressure to do more and make more, but also out of demands from customers. Those demands can cause significant frustration for the service organizations intended to fulfill them, but they are also representative of an incredible opportunity for those that are ready, willing, and able to step up to the plate.

However, those at the workshop commiserated that while the opportunity is clear, the outcome of revenue growth isn’t exactly easy to achieve. During our time together, numerous individuals shared some of their specific frustrations and challenges so that everyone in the room could weigh in (and also feel a sense of community in knowing they aren’t alone in their own challenges). While each person’s situation was unique, there were some common themes that surfaced during the conversation that I’ve categorized into four common roadblocks to service revenue growth.

#1: An Inability to Innovate

Reality is, many companies struggle with doing things differently than they’ve always been done. And in the experience economy, and on the path to outcomes-based service, that’s a problem. The inability to innovate can trace back to a variety of root causes – a lack of acknowledgement that customer needs have and are changing, resistance to new ways of thinking, not being willing or prepared to do business based on relationships versus transactions, and even simply not having the right mentality and skills internally to adjust. Whatever this looks like within an individual company, the first step on the path to creating new revenue from service is to do something differently – and that requires a common understanding that change is both needed and desired, and a willingness to innovate and evolve.

#2: Lacking Foundational Technology

Again, this challenge looks different from company to company. But another common theme is somehow lacking the technology to meet customer needs. This can be lacking proper systems to manage service in a way that results in poor efficiency and productivity, which not only dissatisfies customers but also is a foundation that is cracked and impossible to build upon. Or this challenge can be lacking the next-level functionality necessary to create new service offerings or provide insights that customers are willing to pay for, such as IoT and advanced data analytics. Companies also sometimes struggle even with solid technology in place when it comes to the adoption necessary to achieve the intended value. Getting your technology stack in order and having a plan for how you need to build upon it, is imperative to revenue growth.

#3: Operational Silos

While many companies have recognized the strategic potential of the service function and now treat it as such, there was evidence in the room during this workshop that some yet have not. A company with operational silos will have an incredibly difficult time adopting a culture of true customer centricity, which is essential for revenue growth. To capitalize on the opportunity that exists in service, companies need to be aligned from the top on what that opportunity looks like for them, how they need to innovate and evolve to reach that potential, and how functions will need to work together to meet the needs that exist. For some of the folks in the room, there were tales of friction between product and service, service and sales, service and IT, and so on. With the need for service experiences to be seamless and smooth, friction like this is detrimental to satisfaction (and growth).

#4: Skills Gaps and Compensation Misalignment

The final common theme is around having – and harnessing – the talent to grown revenue. For some, this is a capacity problem – they barely have enough service talent to meet the current (basic) needs of their customers and maintain an acceptable degree of satisfaction, let alone focus on new service offerings and growth. Others have service talent but are struggling to determine what that looks like in a more consultative/relationship-based role. Some of the attendees have a commission-based structure in place for their technicians that works well, others shared stories of experiments gone wrong within their organizations – this illustrates the fact that determining not only the right skills, but the appropriate incentives, is a challenging task. Finally, two of the folks in the room were in marketing roles, which we discussed is a relatively new advancement for many service businesses, but likely key in the effort to create and market new offerings and in turn grow revenue. If you’re facing any of these challenges, know that you aren’t alone. The stories shared in the workshop were met with eager head nods and “me too’s.” However, the potential for service is far too large to not fight through these roadblocks and determine your path to revenue growth. We’ll be here cheering you on, sharing any insights we think are helpful in your efforts, and showcasing successes to help you realize it can be done.

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September 26, 2019 | 6 Mins Read

Use Your Words — The Bots Are Coming

September 26, 2019 | 6 Mins Read

Use Your Words — The Bots Are Coming

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By Greg Lush

"Use your words" was often said to me growing up as a young child. Now, it is not what you think — I was a relatively good kid. My identical twin and I formed a unique language that only he and I could understand. For those moments when my brother and I were not bickering, we would communicate using these words, which compelled our parents to remind us to "use our English words.” Our older sister was pretty good at interpreting, she would correlate the bundling of letters, often forming words, to our actions. Essentially, she was understanding our utterances and creating intent, not too different than the natural language processing engines we are just now starting to enjoy as part of our digital landscapes.

If you or your team are the ones tapped to introduce BOTs and Cognitive Speech services to your organization, welcome to a fantastic ride. Assuming you have been following along my prior posts, you should be good to go. A stronger engine does not exist than BOTs to wrap all your enterprise data into a nice package which is accessed by simply asking a question. Do you remember years ago when you waited for the newspaper or the morning news to understand what the weather would be like today? Now what do most of us do? Ask our digital assistants, "Hey XYZ, what does the weather look like today?" Did you feel a bit awkward asking a computer a question? It is interesting when I visit with folks, they seem to ask simple (and limited) questions to computers, almost like we are not very sure how the computer would like us to form the question to seek the proper response. Often we throw in words that we think the BOT will understand forming sentences that we would never verbalize to another human being. For crying out loud, stop the madness! With BOTs, and especially those more sophisticated approaches integrating natural language processing, you should be comfortable asking it a question just as you would a colleague. How the BOT is configured is critical, and your automation targets should be clearly defined and as narrow a scope as possible. Consumers of this technology are not forgiving, they will try once and if the return is not relevant, will often discount the value and may never ask the BOT a question again. Understanding that the sentence seems a bit dramatic, make sure that you have meaningful content which has been trained, repeatedly. You will only have one chance to impress! Three approaches are provided that will help you get started, they are organized by level of complexity.

1. Questions and Answers

Who has not heard of a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list or forum? Interestingly, back in the 70s a book was written suggesting the power of contextual, per software screen assistance known as Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS). Crazy to think that just in recent years the FAQ or Help screens have evolved past functional, and often disconnected from business need, contextual references and guidance. Although many computer users are disenchanted with Help, and they may refuse to return, this is a great opportunity for the simplest level of computer automation with a BOT. Take those FAQs and Help screen contents and work them into a question/answer-based BOT sequence. Add a bit more sophistication by adding natural language processing so you can encourage users to get comfortable asking questions as they would to a trusted colleague.

Delivery of the BOT content can vary widely between text messaging, web pages, embedded within Intranets, etc. For me, if I am asking questions regarding the use of a computer it is always easier receiving that information on another digital tool. Texting responses, with specific instructions or details, seems to work very well. Recipients may then use their phones to ask questions and the computer/tablet to run through the steps or advice. Most BOT engines will connect to an inexpensive tool like Twilio or other SMS service, providing dedicated numbers in a medium that most are comfortable, texting.

2. Business Process

"Let's not boil the ocean" is an idiom often said when enthusiasm meets the pragmatist. Those close to me would say I lean closer to the enthusiasm or dreamer role; however, do not hesitate to refer to me as a pragmatic technocrat. Much of my career, after I came in from the field, was filled with business process assessments. Heck, you need a few different skills to help an organization evolve into a digital enterprise. A passion and curiosity of available technology tools; listening and question asking skills, the ability to see the big picture, and business process mapping. Once high-level business objectives and strategies are mapped it is important to break these down to micro-process improvements. No business, at least that I have ever seen, is not in need of some type of business process engineering. I suppose two books, which you may find interesting, have influenced my perspectives for years, they are:

  • The Goal [Eli Goldratt]: a book read by many in manufacturing; however, the concepts suggested applying to every business. Eli discusses and provides examples of the "theory of constraints," suggesting that you focus on and resolve one constraint, a new constraint will appear. A never-ending process of continuous improvement.
  • How to measure anything [Douglas Hubbard]: fantastic book for anyone and reminds us that anything can be measured.

Deploying process modification within a business without clear objectives and points of measurement is a fool’s errand. When it comes to BOTs and process automation this could not be more important. Sure, many things within a business could stand shoring up; however, which will have the greatest value on your investment? In a perfect world your first process automation target will fund future BOT and process re-engineering efforts. As a friend and former co-worker used to remind us; make informed and deliberate decisions. Prioritizing the business value and potentially choosing an area of improvement which is not that "sexy" is a reality you should be willing to accept in order to be successful. If you only hunt elephants, you may starve while tripping over the rabbits.

3. Industrial IoT

For years my work has been focused on elevating the conditions for the last mile of the field workers. One of my favorite areas of digital interest has been around taking advantage of the consumerization of equipment-based digital fingerprints. Many refer to this as IoT or the Internet of things. While the concept of IoT is not new the amount of information which we are collecting, essentially based on the affordability of the event producer, is tremendous. However, we now must make this information actionable in a meaningful and relevant way which compels a different outcome at the point of service. This interaction with the field worker is the area which has piqued my interest regarding the use of conversational bots.

Sometimes people confuse these bots with sophisticated search algorithms, this is not the area that had any interest to me. Instead, the bot, in my mind, can be used to take advantage of and make meaningful the correlation between a multitude of transactional systems (work order, accounting, CRM, etc.).

Transactional systems can reside either within or outside of your computing environments. One of the greatest advantages, which struck me immediately, was the ability to simply carry on a conversation with a field worker. In the background predicting and guiding the field worker through bots-based responses. Why should a field worker be concerned with what system they must enter this… or go to find that?

As you begin to explore the technology which offers this humanistic conversation-based approach, you will also realize that our possibilities are endless. Not only can we apply these bots, and their underlying algorithms and machine learning routines to field workers, but also apply it to sales, project crews, etc.  Anyplace that we need to correlate and leverage transactional systems in our daily working routines. So, are the bots coming? Yes, I believe in the next few years we will see bots everywhere performing small functions and helping us consume multiple perspectives; so, we as humans can make better decisions.  Are you ready?

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4 Reasons Why Your Service Supply Chain is Failing

September 23, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

4 Reasons Why Your Service Supply Chain is Failing

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By Tom Paquin

Last week at the Service Council Symposium, I had the opportunity to host a roundtable discussion with several service leaders on the topic of the service supply chain and reverse logistics.

As we went around the room and each person shared the current state of parts management across their organization, I couldn’t help my surprise at the immaturity of some of their systems. This reinforced a belief that I’ve had for a long time: When businesses are thinking about service transformation, they’re not thinking about service holistically. They’re thinking about the binary relationship between customers and technicians, and, because of that, the operational underpinnings that actually make a service business work—like parts—are neglected. Is that true of everyone? Obviously not, but this roundtable represented service leaders with not just the forethought to attend a service technology summit, but also the forethought to sign up for a reverse logistics roundtable. Imagine what this looks like for the service leaders who opted to answer emails rather than attend the session! I wish I could say that there’s a long list of “To-Dos” that came out of this session, but what it pretty starkly illuminated, instead, were some of the failure points that businesses were running into. Here are some key elements that will have a negative effect on your ability to manage your service supply chain effectively.

You Don’t Have a Clear Path to End-of-Life for your Serviceable Assets

They don’t make them the way that they used to, right? Apparently so, since some businesses are still servicing 75-year-old machines with cast iron parts manufactured in a warehouse that was converted into condos in 2004. Because of this, organizations are forced to carry excess inventory on-hand (since they obviously can’t reorder these parts), which stretches the concept of “aging inventory” beyond the average lifespan of most mammals. That is an extreme example, but consider the other extreme: Cell phone manufacturers sunset their assets after five years. That means that each year, as the number of skus or service parts increase for new products, you drop close to the same number of skus for end-of-life. Perhaps we can find a happy medium between five years and seventy-five years. Here’s an idea—Each year, increase the part value for repair parts by, say 5% for each part used, and set an additional rule that, once a repair costs 50% of the price of a new machine, that product is automatically sunsetted. With that, you’ll clear inventory space, and you’ll sell new units!

Your Technicians Are Hoarders

I recently reorganized a drawer in my kitchen. In said drawer, I found thirteen wooden spoons that my wife and I have apparently accumulated over the years. We registered for exactly one when we got married, bought several of them, and have received more than one as gifts (thanks?). I was thinking about that, as one member of the roundtable told me that some of his technicians touch certain parts exactly one time a year, when they run inventory on their trucks. The kicker—this organizations’ #1 reason for failed first-time resolution? The technician didn’t have the parts they needed on the truck. Fixing this requires thoughtful internal governance—and a good piece of parts management technology—to make sure that if parts aren’t used in an allotted time, they’re offloaded to a warehouse, sent to a higher-volume branch, or returned wholesale, clearing up shelf space for parts that they will actually use. There are a lot of variances to this that are worth discussing, including peak seasons and routine visits, but that’s why it’s important to have a complete picture of your service business.

You Have Dealer Disconnect

There are two different types of dealers that we’ll talk about here. One would be the dealers from which you are buying parts, the other is the dealers who use your parts to conduct service. We will start with the latter of the two. When you work with a dealer network, in many instances, they’re buying service parts from you, at which point the parts might completely leave your system. There’s a lot of trust, then, that they’re delivering on aftermarket service appropriately. And that’s fine, but as the old adage goes, Trust, but verify. The solution, generally, is to gain some oversight into the operations of your dealer network. The silver bullet is having them employ an extension of your parts management system. That can be like herding cats, sure, but if you start small and build out there is a proven pathway to success, there. Now on to the former: When you’re being supplied with parts from a dealer, there are some complex ins and outs to consider. For example, one leader talked about how they have a system to manage parts brought in from all dealers except for one. For that one dealer—they purchase parts only when they need them. This creates a massive logistical asynchronicity that serves to arbitrarily inflate time to resolution for any repair that requires one category of parts. They do this because of the cost-prohibitive nature of the one line. They simply can’t afford aging inventory of that part category. The solution here is smarter forecasting, which will help to mitigate aging inventory. Buy what you know you’ll need each month, get it in your system, and make it available on demand.

You Lack the Right Tech

We’ve tiptoed around this over the course of this article, but I’ll leave you with one last story from the conference. A utility company, who oversees a global network of branches, dispatches a person to do cycle counts once a week to reorder parts. Well—not real cycle counts, as much as they look into each of the 300 bins that parts are in and make sure they’re at least half full. When I heard that, I nearly fell out of my seat. Imagine how simple it would be to make that process so much more efficient from an accuracy and manpower perspective with technology. A fuller, more accurate, and more automated picture of parts management and reverse logistics has the capacity to make a huge impact on your bottom line. As we often say around here, though, technology in and of itself is not enough. The managerial will, and technician buy-in is key to ensuring that the pieces actually work. Parts management in particular is tricky because any break in the chain breaks down the machine, and often requires multiple stakeholders be involved, often some from outside of your business. Because of that, any tech implementation should be managed with a solid implementation partner. There are many other things that we can discuss beyond this, such as parts disposal, refurbs, and how your inventory is distributed, but I know that for many businesses, they can’t have those discussions until they feel comfortable that the basic underpinnings of parts management are in place. Start there, and plan to build on it.

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