The importance of data, information, and intelligence has been on the rise over the last decade. Organizations have been seeking to create a more consistent flow of data between enterprise and customer, enterprise and service technician and service technician and customer. Across all phases of the customer journey(sales, operations, financial, service, etc.), this bi-directional flow has become instrumental in creating seamless customer moments. If you subscribe to the theory that every customer touchpoint is a moment of truth (or moment of potential conversion), then being effective depends on being empowered. Thus, being empowered depends on accessibility to the intelligence.
What is driving the need to create an Intelligent Service Enterprise? We explore three dynamics that are motivating service businesses to explore this new journey:
- Customers are transforming: Customers are applying even greater pressure on the user experience for the immediacy of resolution in the event of an issue or to predict and avoid issues through proactive service. In our personal, consumer lives, we’ve experienced digital transformations and empowerment through services provided by brands such as Uber (where’s my ride), Amazon (where’s my package), and Domino’s (where’s my pizza). This “consumerization” of service is permeating B2B industry sectors such as high tech, industrial manufacturing, and medical/healthcare; driving customers’ channel preferences to self-service and video-delivered service and support.
- Service Workers are transforming: The Service Worker is evolving. We are witnessing the aging workforce retire at an increasing rate. An emerging trend is transitioning this aging workforce to work from home, technical support methodology as they approach retirement. Millennials are also entering the workforce with less technical depth and much different communication techniques. From the 2020 Service Leader’s Agenda benchmark survey (Q1, 2020), “Workforce and Talent Shortage” was the 2ndgreatest External Pressure facing service leaders.“Lack of Resources to Support Service Demand” and “Skillsets and Quality of Workforce” (caused by the aging/retiring workforce demographic) were the 2ndand 3rdgreatest Internal challenge.
- Service Work is transforming: Products are more sophisticated and require a stronger technical skillset. According to the 2020 Voice of the Field Service Engineer (VoFSE) benchmark survey released in early December, the two worst parts of the job(as indicated from the Technician’s perspective)include “Paperwork and Administrative Tasks” (64%) and “Time Spent Looking for Information” (32%).
It is not the least bit shocking that the top area of investment amongst service executives, stemming from the previously mentioned 2020 Service Leader’s Agenda benchmark survey, was technology (77%). As we dig into the ¾ of respondents who indicated they would be investing in digital transformation via technology investment; the class of technologies all point towards information access and empowerment:
In a recent webinar we held in partnership with eLogic, we welcomed their customer Adaptec Solutions, Andrew Creathorn (President & CEO). Adaptec is a leading provider of materials handling and robotic automation systems. Andrew was joined by eLogic executives Mike Shields (Founder & Managing Partner) and Justin Pittman (VP, Industry Solutions) whose combined experience represents several decades of service business leadership. With a 20-year history of delivering transformative digital solutions, eLogic is distinguished as a full-service business solutions provider with a 100% focus on Manufacturers and Equipment Service Providers. In the webinar, they discussed Adaptec’s multi-year service transformation to an Intelligent Service Enterprise (Watch Recording).
Andrew discussed what was driving the need for Adaptec to transform to an Intelligent Service Enterprise. “As we talk to customers, there are two common threads: they want uptime to be high and cost to be low.”
Together with eLogic, a path to an Intelligent Service Enterprise was realized, leveraging equipment360™ for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service. Justin Pittman outlined the 3 most critical considerations of this type of journey:
- Building a foundational platform: a comprehensive, modern platform that incorporates collaboration, modern workplace, service twin and covers the full spectrum of business application needs
- Data power: enabled through smart+ connected products and actionable analytics; ability to achieve this “connected” state through direct or indirect connection
- New business models to monetize service: ties the new capabilities within your business from an intelligent service infrastructure to monetization opportunities (contracts with greater uptime guarantees, etc.)
There are also several recommended actions and pitfalls to avoid when making a major transformation. Andrew highlighted these critical elements which accelerated time to completion of their project by two months (4 months vs. 6 months):
- Do your homework: Build an extensive list of business requirements and definitions.
- Don’t change: Align to your business process as much as you can.
- Avoid customization: Utilize out of the box first, then look for enhancements down the road.
- Communicate: Update on the progress and status as often as you can and set expectations of your organization.
To watch the Intelligent Service Enterprise webinar please follow the link (Watch Recording).
