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Lenovo
Are You Ready For Field Services 4.0?
Jimmy Auw
Every year, we can see the demand for better customer experience is increasing. But at the same time, we understand that hiring the best talent, developing, and retaining them have been a serious challenge in this industry. Cost will always increase to keep/get good talent, but at the other side, we also know that services are always being pushed for cost reduction. Some companies might invest a bit more on services, but most of the rest still consider services as the cost center, which “should be optimized.”
Time for 4.0?
Quoting from Wikipedia, Industry 4.0 is about “automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and processes, which include cyber-physical systems (CPS), the internet of things (IoT), industrial internet of things (IIOT), cloud computing, cognitive computing and artificial intelligence.” If our Industry is moving to 4.0, can our Field Services stay at 2.0 or 3.0? The answer is a big NO.
Like it or not, the field services world is quite challenging industry and perhaps not in everyone’s top of mind when it comes to industry they are going to work with. But field services is actually everywhere. In this digital world, there is very high expectation on the durability of the product, but we know there is no such perfect product. So when it comes to problem, customer is expecting high First Time Repair (FTR) and Service Level Agreement (SLA). This is where field services will play a very important role. Yes, important, but why field services are always being forced to reduce cost repeatedly? Simply because the basic logic of (more) profit=(higher) revenue + (lower) cost.
High Computing Power + Super Fast Internet=Unlimited Possibilities
Change is inevitable. In fact the only thing that is constant is change itself. And in order to change, we need a change of mindset also. In last few years, we have seen higher processing power and lower RAM/storage cost. Who can imagine if the latest Smart Watch can have more processing power than the previous generation video game consoles? Internet is also transforming to become faster and cheaper. If somehow we are happy with 4G, then be prepared that 5G is coming very soon.
Combination of both above will create a lot of new possibilities which can change the way we run our field services. Few things in mind: artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality/ virtual reality (AR/VR), and Internet of Things (IoT). Again if we are not changing, then we can’t survive. Simply that past strategy most likely won’t work against future problem. So, welcome Field Services 4.0!
AI is now coming in multiple forms. It can be the main interface to our customer (self-service chat-bot to increase case avoidance). It also can accompany our agent in real-time to analyze customer’s response and provide on-the-fly suggestions (still human agents can decide how to response customer). Finally, AI also can be used to crunch big data and find any outlier based on pre-programmed criteria and also machine learning. With good initial criteria set, it’s unlikely for her to miss any potential outlier.
This AI can serve 24/7, never feels tired, never asks for salary increase, is always stable in emotion even working for long hours (non-stop) and even getting smarter as she is learning by doing. Some are connected with the social media like WhatsApp or Line, then Voila! She is basically available everywhere!
Services Will Be Required To Be Able To Provide ‘On-Demand’ Basis And Must Be Agile Enough To Scale Up/Down Based On ‘Market Demand’ Without Needing Of Huge Ramp Up/Down Cost
Finally IoT is coming. Again, when everything is connected through high-speed line, then everything can communicate much faster. This will change what was called “reactive” to “proactive.” All devices will become “smarter” and “always connected.” I attended the Field Services conference in Singapore last month and talked to few colleagues from multiple industries. Interestingly, most of them have already started to incorporate a smart device to monitor the performance of the product then send notification before the product fails. Again, if currently preventive maintenance is done by our engineer visiting customers one by one, then in the future, there will be no need to even physically come unless there is a need to change physical hardware.
With above sample cases, can we imagine how much benefit a company can get? Customer can be served better (availability), scalability is there, while the cost to run will decrease (significantly). Of course there will be investment needed to have all of these, but can be easily justified on the business case.
Change in the Way We See Services
With the above facts, the way we manage our resources also will need to be changed. Services will be required to be able to provide “on-demand” basis and must be agile enough to scale up/down based on “market demand” without needing of huge ramp up/down cost. Apart from that, services also must be able to provide customize offering. If customers need only basic engineers, then they can pay less to get what they want.
Just consider services as an e-hailing business. The owner of an e-hailing business doesn’t need to own the fleet. But business can be ramped up or down fast enough at minimum cost (just recruit more drivers as needed or if business is declining, many drives will quit anyway, with no severance package). Offerings given also can be customized. Customers can choose different cars, from models (like Sedan or SUV) to capacity (4 to 6/7 seaters). Also if time is not critical, customer can share the ride (few customers in one car). I’m quite sure few years back, no one ever thought that there would be a taxi company without owning a single car.
Outsourcing is the Future
To support the agility of the business, outsourcing will again dominate the market. Companies will only keep really good talent and they don’t need a lot of these. It will be centralized and consolidated. These expert teams will manage lower skill engineers remotely (which are most likely to be outsourced labor).
So future fact, many people will lose their jobs or will need to accept pay cut or even movement from permanent to contractor role. At certain level, they are too expensive to run lower skill field engineer jobs, while at the other side, due to whatever reason, they are not chosen to be the expert engineers. They could be the Top five engineers in the company in the past. But now company only needs three centralized expert guys. So there will be no place for #4 and #5.
What brought you here, might not bring you there
Seeing the fact, like it or not, life is changing fast, so is our business. What brought you here, might not bring you there. We might have a very solid organization structure for years. But again with the pressure of cost, while the need to maintain performance and also changes in our customers’ behavior, then we need to keep up-to-date, be super-efficient and super-agile in order to survive. In short, we need to accept the fact and be open-minded to listen, understand, and adept with the change. Sometime as human beings, we used to remember our past victory and confident could win another 100 wars with same previous strategy. Trust me, you could not!
We have seen self-checkout counter at some convenient stores already cut a lot of cashier job (or “transferred” to do other work). Rest assured, the change in field services will also create similar “casualties”. The question for both employer and employee: Are we ready for it?
The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.
