White Paper

3 Field Service
Management Trends
You Can’t Ignore

Coresystems AG
www.coresystems.net
 White Paper: 3 Field Service Management Trends You Can’t Ignore

3 Field Service Management Trends You

Can’t Ignore

As technology evolves so too does the capability of many industries when it comes to
customer service, improved marketing, making use of data and much more. Field ser-
vice management is no exception; better software has come onto the market, allow-
ing for improved communications across the board. Add to this the power of technol-
ogies such as the cloud, which allow us to access work data from anywhere and it’s
easy to see how a field service business can mobilize engineers more effectively.
Technology is forging ahead at an astonishing rate and as it does, new trends begin to
emerge which enable us to provide a better service. With this in mind, let’s have a
look at three of the most exciting trends that you should pay attention to if you want
your field service business to remain highly competitive.

#1: Mobile
It’s very unlikely that you’ve missed the smartphone revolution that has taken place
over the course of the past few years. Mobile has become increasingly powerful and
now, we all carry around little computers in our pockets. In fact, according to search
giants Google, there’s now more people in the world that own a mobile phone than
there are those that own a toothbrush. There’s no escaping mobile and for the most
part, the majority of us wouldn’t want to – it enables better communication and a
means for accessing documents and email when on the move and much more.
As such, we’ll see more and more integration with mobile to allow for improved com-
munication, deployment of field staff and integrated analytics. This will allow field
service businesses to mitigate the risk of accident through vehicle tracking and rout-
ing using mobile. It will also allow the business to more effectively manage field staff,
as mobile apps allow you to work in real time to send field staff to jobs, pick up parts
and liaise with others.
Further to this, you’ll be able to reduce paperwork, as more can be done directly on a
mobile device out in the field, effectively allowing engineers to sign jobs off whilst
still onsite with the customer. All of this and much more will allow you to reduce
overheads and using real-time data, to make better, more informed business decisions
quickly. As well as reduced costs, you will also be able to make even more of an impact
in improving customer satisfaction.
Mobile is here to stay – mobile internet speeds are continuously increasing, with 5G
on its way1 soon enough, and this means that we’ll be even better placed to utilize the
power of the internet no matter where we are.

1: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31622297

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 White Paper: 3 Field Service Management Trends You Can’t Ignore

#2: The Internet of Things (IoT)

According to technology research house Gartner, Inc., 2015 will see 4.9bn devices
connected to the internet and this will reach 25bn by 2020. It’s likely that we’ll see
IoT transform many industries and the field service management sector is no excep-
tion. Field service technicians and management staff will be able to connect directly
to devices onsite. When it comes to software errors, it’s likely that these will be able
to be corrected remotely whilst with hardware errors, engineers will be able to test
the device and gain insight into the problem before reaching the customer location.
Indeed, field engineers and service agents will be able to detect a fault in some equip-
ment by using real time monitoring to pick up errors even before the customer has
discovered that something is wrong. This will reduce downtime in equipment at the
customer’s location, optimize the productivity of field staff and lower the cost of ser-
vice visits whilst improving customer satisfaction and relationships.
Gartner, Inc.,’s Peter Middleton said: “By 2020, component costs will have come
down to the point that connectivity will become a standard feature, even for proces-
sors costing less than $1. This opens up the possibility of connecting just about any-
thing, from the very simple to the very complex, to offer remote control, monitoring
and sensing. The fact is, that today, many categories of connected things in 2020
don’t yet exist. As product designers dream up ways to exploit the inherent connec-
tivity that will be offered in intelligent products, we expect the variety of devices of-
fered to explode.”
IoT is a very exciting technological development for field service businesses and one
in which we’re likely to see a lot of movement in coming years.

Top Pressures Advancing Increased Remote Connections

(percentage of respondents, n = 107)

% 2013 2012
60
53% 52% 50% 50%
50 49%
40 38% 37% 34%
30 31%
20
10 10%
0
Need to reduce Customer demand Customer demand Competitive Mandate to drive
service-related for faster, more for improved asset pressures / new service revenue
costs efficient service availability differentiation opportunities

Source: Aberdeen Group, May 2013

IoT can be used by consumers in the home, or by manufacturers in the factory. For
the latter, we’ll see an increase in interest in machine-to-machine connectivity so
that businesses can reduce downtime and save on maintenance costs. For the field
service business, the opportunities that IoT affords are not to be missed.

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 White Paper: 3 Field Service Management Trends You Can’t Ignore

#3: 3D Printing
3D printing is one of those technologies that is likened to Star Trek’s replicators – us-
ing it you can now print all manner of things, from guns, to make up and even your
own chocolate or pizza. In field service, it’s very likely that in years to come we’ll see
some enterprising businesses creating and printing spare parts. A recent survey car-
ried out on more than 100 manufacturers found that two-thirds already use 3D print-
ing in some capacity. So it’s a technology that is already being adopted by many for-
ward thinking companies and for field service management, it could mean that not
having the right parts to hand could become a thing of the past.

How is your company

currently using 3-D printing technology?
Experimenting to determine
how we might apply 28.9%
Prototyping only 24.6%
Prototyping and production 9.6%
Building Products that cannot be
made from traditional methods 2.6%
Production of final
products/components only 0.9%
Not implementing 33.3%
Source: PwC and ZPryme survey and analysis, conducted in February 2014

Whilst the technology has dropped in price quite considerably over the course of the
past year, it still remains fairly expensive, so it’s likely that in the first instance we’ll
see 3D printers installed at the central office, rather than in service engineer vans.
This would allow field service technicians to order parts that they need which they
can then pick up before they head off on their daily rounds.
General Electrics is just one of the global players that are already experimenting with
and using 3D printing and if the technology continues to drop in price, then it’s surely
not too far away that everyone will be making use of it to their benefit, both in homes
and in business. For the field service management business, it will be beneficial in
terms of being able to produce parts that might not be available anymore, as well as in
the creation of parts where it’s not feasible for the manufacturer to run production.
However, in terms of cost, it will be a while before 3D printing will be able to over-
come the benefits of mass manufacturing.
For complex parts, or those that are not suitable for a production run-through, 3D
printing could prove to be invaluable in coming years.
The Information-Sharing Age
We live in an increasingly connected world and this has numerous benefits to busi-
ness and the way that we work. For the field service management industry, it means
having the capability to communicate both with engineers out in the field and direct-
ly with customers and even their devices. This can vastly improve costs, by reducing
the amount of time spent on paperwork and field service jobs. It also allows us to cre-
ate much stronger relationships with customers through better communication and
the service that they enjoy.
Mobile should now be at the heart of the contemporary field service business and
those that don’t utilize it will lose out to those who do. The ability to communicate
and receive important data in real time is invaluable to the modern field service man-
agement business.

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 White Paper: 3 Field Service Management Trends You Can’t Ignore

When it comes to the Internet of Things, we will see a lot of movement this year, if
Gartner’s predictions are realized. Again, it’s a technology that will save a lot of time
and reduce costs by allowing error diagnoses before the customer even notices that
something is wrong.
The data that’s generated by connected devices can also be shared amongst field ser-
vice technicians to improve knowledge on the devices that they serve. Data analytics
– which every business should now be making use of – can also be used to find trends
when it comes to which parts need replacing more often and similar. Further, field
staff can be more effectively managed in every sense, from driving safety to customer
satisfaction when they’re onsite.
As discussed, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a big move into using 3D printing in the next
year, but the industry as a whole is moving pretty quickly, with new projects appear-
ing daily and prices coming down considerably. We won’t see 3D printers installed in
field service engineer’s vans anytime soon, but it is likely that we’ll begin to see them
used increasingly in the central field office. The ability to print your own parts could
be one that’s hugely disruptive to the industry, with less time being wasted on waiting
for parts to be delivered and a viable solution on offer to print parts that are obsolete.
All-in-all, it’s due to be an exciting few years for the field service management indus-
try. The cloud and mobility have conspired to allow for better connection to the office
for field service engineers no matter where they might be. This does away with the
need for them to come back to the office to fill in paperwork as they can now do it on
a mobile device, whilst at the customer’s location. These technologies can help every
field service business provide an improved service, whilst cutting costs dramatically
and improving both the field service business and the customer’s business.

About Coresystems
Coresystems is a leading provider of mobile and cloud-based field service and
workforce management software for mid-sized and large enterprises’ field service
organizations. Since Coresystems’ founding in 2006, more than 190,000 users
across the world have utilized Coresystems’ innovative, real-time field service
management software to improve their business and field service processes. Core-
Coresystems systems has also pioneered “crowd service” – which allows customers to leverage
CH: +41 56 500 22 44 an Uber-like platform to find available field service technicians in real-time. Core-
DE: +49 761 887 95 777 systems is headquartered in Switzerland with international offices in San Francis-
USA: +1 (415) 887-1944 co, Miami, Berlin, Freiburg, Shanghai, São Paulo and London.
www.coresystems.net

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