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June 26, 2023 | 3 Mins Read

What Are The Opportunities for Digital Twins in Field Service?

June 26, 2023 | 3 Mins Read

What Are The Opportunities for Digital Twins in Field Service?

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

It’s exciting to see more service organizations rolling out remote service initiatives, but a technology that is still in its nascent stages with the potential to have big implications when it comes to service is digital twins. 

A digital twin is a digital representation of a specific physical object that can be updated in real time via data received from its real-world counterpart. For field service veterans, that probably sounds a lot like the Internet of Things (IoT), and that's a pretty good assessment of where things stand in most industries – but digital twins can take that concept a lot farther.

Digital twins link together IoT technology, simulation, modeling, analytics and big data advancements to create full digital versions of real-world things (from consumer electronics and car parts to entire airplanes and even factories). Conceivably, the digital twin can provide a real-time, virtual view of how an asset is operating in its environment as a 3D model. What's more, that model can be manipulated in a virtual environment, which is where things can get pretty interesting from a service perspective.

Scenarios Where Digital Doppelgangers Prove Useful

For predictive maintenance, digital twins can provide accurate data about actual usage which can make it easier to manage scheduled maintenance and repairs before failures happen. Companies are already doing this with sensors and direct connections to customer equipment but serialized digital twins can give you a more granular view of these assets.

For manufacturers and third-party service organizations, digital twins can open up the possibility of offering better lifecycle support contracts. And because digital twins are asset specific, service organizations can do a better job of scheduling service based on actual utilization. Digital twins can also provide a much better understanding of how equipment is functioning over time, and that data can be fed into product lifecycle management or asset performance management applications to create better recommendations around not just service, but installation and even design.

There are already major software vendors linking together CAD, service, and enterprise data management applications to help close that design-service loop so that design engineers can improve next-gen products based on feedback from field technicians. 

Because digital twins are a full-scale virtual model of an asset, they can possibly create some new applications that can make service easier and more effective, too. Using simulation tools, you could perform virtual repairs and see, with fairly high accuracy, what effect they may have on the actual equipment. Even with a technician on site, a more experienced engineer can view what's happening in the digital twin as the on-site tech performs tests and repairs and offer remote guidance or feedback.

All these potential service applications for digital twins are even more valuable for remote assets – offshore oil and gas equipment, mining equipment, cell towers, etc. From a diagnostic and even repair standpoint, being able to have this real-time view into specific pieces of equipment can save multiple truck rolls. In some industries, those truck rolls cost thousands of dollars each, so the savings can be significant. 

While a lot of this is still future state, it’s interesting to see the potential that exists. A lot of legacy equipment may never have enough sensors or connectivity to work under this model, but a lot of new products do. BMW even leveraged some technology from NVIDIA to build a full virtual model of an entire factory – before it even broke ground. They did so to iron out any potential kinks before construction, but the same model can be tied to the actual factory once it's built for maintenance and monitoring purposes. 

While digital twin deployment is still relatively low the continued shift toward more digital, more connected service models give these virtual representations of actual machines an increasingly important role to play. If you have thoughts (or experiences!) about digital twins and service/maintenance applications, feel free to send them my way.

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What Lies Between Workplace Inclusion Intent and Impact?

June 19, 2023 | 5 Mins Read

What Lies Between Workplace Inclusion Intent and Impact?

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Companies today are focusing more heavily on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives for a variety of reasons, some perhaps more virtuous than others.  Motivators can include repercussions of not being seen as a diverse employer, a tactic to try and combat the labor shortages, but the best motivator is the understanding that DEI truly matters. These companies embrace DEI not because they feel they “have to,” but because they recognize that a more diverse and inclusive organization leads to more creativity, innovation, and better results. 

While DEI is often mentioned as an acronym, the three components require quite distinct focus and effort to achieve. Perhaps the hardest of the three is inclusion, because it is in many ways more ambiguous than diversity (which you can set targets for) or equity (which can be assessed). Inclusion is very tied to company culture and leadership, leaving plenty of room for bias and even toxicity to creep in and exist in a manner than can be very challenging to pinpoint, address, and rectify. 

This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that many leaders and organizations would prefer not to dive into some of the realities that can cause a hard look in the mirror. So, I was excited to hear of the book Mita Mallick is writing, Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths to Transform Your Workplace. Mita was first a guest on the Future of Field Service podcast in episode 68 and I’ve been a fan of her work ever since. 

Mita is the Chief Diversity Officer at Carta, co-host of the podcast Brown Table Talk, and a top LinkedIn Voice. She is passionate about DEI work and related topics and outspoken on social media about things many remain quiet on. In fact, her mission in writing this book is to “say all the quiet parts out loud of what holds us back from making meaningful progress in inclusivity work."

On last week’s podcast, Mita came to give a sneak peek into some of the myths covered in her upcoming book – a conversation I believe is important for everyone to listen to and reflect on. No matter what industry your company is in, what role you have in the organization, or where you are today with your efforts around inclusion, doing better is going to be imperative when it comes to not only attracting and retaining top talent but also for achieving the diversity of thought that is essential for innovation. 

Here's a partial synopsis of the myths Mita and I discussed on last week’s episode:

  • I'm all for diverse talent as long as they're good. “That myth really goes to how we have different standards for different people. A lot of companies have systems and processes in place to help with creating inclusive and equitable cultures. And yet, at the end of the day, it's all about the leader. It's all about Mita and how she shows up to work. And if I can't interrupt my bias, it's going to be a different result that actually might go against the system or the process,” she explains. “And so, when we say things like, ‘I'm all for diverse talent, as long as they're good,’ would we ever say, ‘I'm all for non-diverse talent as long as they're good? These are the things we have to ask ourselves. And then, as a result of questioning it, what I say next and what I do next will be different because I interrogated it.”
  • We protect the A-holes because our businesses wouldn't run without them. “A lot of companies, especially big public companies, private companies, have systems and processes in place. But we make exceptions,” Mita says. “You have a toxic leader on your team. How many people need to leave? How much hurt or harm does this person have to cause for you to say, ‘I'm walking away.’ How much is your personal relationship more important to you than the impact on the company? Are you really listening to all the feedback? Are you going to protect this one person versus protecting the company? Because here's the thing: We always set up in our mind, it's the employee versus the company. Employees are the company. They're one and the same. The company doesn't exist with those employees.”
  • We need more people of color in leadership. Let's launch a mentorship program. “I have been over-mentored and under-sponsored in my career. I have had so many amazing mentors. But here's the thing: Mentors are not the same as sponsors,” cautions Mita. “When you think about a mentor, they could give me career advice. Sponsors are typically going to be someone who's two levels above you in an organization. They have access to big budget, P&L, they're in the room when the doors are closed and people are talking about your career. They have access to the C-suite. They might be in the C-suite. They know about roles that are coming up that haven't been listed, special projects, assignments. Sponsorship is people with power and privilege in the organization taking an interest in other individuals and actively saying they're going to help them advance their career.”
  • Of course, we support women. We just extended maternity leave. “This is the notion that all women want to become mothers, and it actually ties back to a lot of the cultural stereotypes, the gender norms we grew up with in our homes. This idea that we extended maternity leave is enough for mothers that we check the box,” says Mita. “Also, in this myth, I talk about gendered ageism. Women are never the right age. We're too young or we're too old. It's like that one year where we had the perfect moment, right? But gendered ageism shows up at the workplace a lot.”
  • These DEI efforts don't benefit me. My voice as a white man doesn't count anymore. “The white men that I've worked with in my life, many of them do express that they have at some point feel shamed, named, blamed, demonized,” explains Mita. “So, in my role as the Chief Diversity Officer, if white men come to me asking questions, I have the space to answer those questions with grace and kindness, and to help educate and teach. And at the same time, white men listening need to understand that they do have a place in this work, because the world of work for everyone can't change without them. There’s a very, very long action list of things that men can be doing to show up. Interrupting bias in the moment, taking parental leave, if you're on a panel and it's all white men, give up your spot, make recommendations. Are you paying your teams fairly and equitably? There are so many ways.”

The full conversation is well worth a listen, and you can pre-order Mita’s book now on Amazon. 

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Q&A: How Field Service Leaders Can Encourage Safety Culture

June 12, 2023 | 6 Mins Read

Q&A: How Field Service Leaders Can Encourage Safety Culture

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service 

Field service technicians face a lot of unknowns when they report to work, as well as a lot of risks. Depending on which industry they work in, they may be repairing equipment in a cushy office or noisy factory; they could be working in a dangerous neighborhood, or in a house with an angry dog. Some technicians work in mines or climb tall towers or work to repair heavy, dangerous equipment. 

And in addition to their own safety protocols, service technicians often must also follow safety protocols of their customers – which sometimes aren’t in harmony. Different service scenarios bring different safety needs, but no matter the working conditions safety is always critical. 

According to Ken Chapman (an industrial psychologist and consultant) and Tony Orlowski (an engineer and executive at McWane, Inc.), authors of the book Safety Beyond the Numbers: A Path to Principled Leadership, workers are probably safer than they have been at any time in the past century, but additional improvements have been hard to come by. In their book, they note that workplace safety statistics have plateaued over the past few decades. 

To make the workplace even safer, they say that companies need to embrace a culture of safety, rather than just focusing on compliance. That sounds a lot like many of the conversations we have had here at Future of Field Service around technology adoption and digital transformation, so I was pleased to have a chat with Tony, looking at some of the concepts in the book, from a field service lens.

In the book, you note that workplace safety statistics have plateaued over the last couple of decades. Can you put that into some historical context? How safe are we now compared to prior decades? Is the U.S. more or less safe than other similar countries? 

Tony Orlowski: Workplace injury reduction has come a long way. In the 1920s and ‘30s, workplace fatalities occurred at an annual rate of approximately 15 per 100,000 population. By 1970, that rate was about cut in half, and by the 1990s it was cut by half again. Then, it essentially plateaued. The fatality rate has remained largely the same for 30 years while total injury rates have continued to decline. This tells us two things: We have not gotten to a point of diminishing returns where further improvement is impossible and, we are not effectively dealing with the issues that have the most impact on human lives. Technology is and has been responsible for most improvements in workplace safety over time, but its benefits now appear to be butting up against and limited by the human element of safety. That is where Safety Beyond the Numbers can help. 

In field service, we have talked a lot about how compliance/punishment-focused approaches to new programs or new technologies are ineffective; you really want manager and employee buy-in. What are some ways that an ownership culture can impact workplace safety? 

Tony Orlowski: We think referencing the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman is a helpful way to understand the benefits of an ownership culture. Friedman once qualified the effectiveness of spending money in terms of whose money it was, and on whom it was spent. There are four specific ways, but only two apply here. One way is to spend your money on someone else, such as when you buy a gift for a friend on their birthday. In that case, you will be very careful about the amount you spend, but much less concerned about the quality of the gift you give (It is, after all, the thought that counts!) Another way is to spend your money on yourself. You will still be careful about how much you spend, but you will be much more concerned about getting exactly what you want. Compliance matches the first example. We are asking other people to expend their efforts for the results we want. As a consequence, their effort is always measured, and the results rarely better than “good enough.” Ownership, in contrast, allows you to spend your efforts on you, and on what you want, and we think the logical effect of that on the quality of safety outcomes is self-evident.

Leadership is key in safety (and other) initiatives, in order to get team members to take ownership of the process. But how do leaders themselves get there? In other words, for leaders that have not yet really taken safety as a moral imperative, rather than an issue of compliance, are there good ways for organizations to get their leadership team on the same page on this issue? Managers in some companies tend to view things through a prism of compliance, KPI measurement, box checking – but what you are proposing sounds like it requires a different viewpoint. 

Tony Orlowski: It certainly does require a different viewpoint, and you are correct in that it is absolutely necessary for management to “get there” to be successful. Leaders must begin by understanding and embracing the moral imperative. This means choosing not to view business as primarily a profit-making enterprise, but as an economic engine for the common good. That is to say, if a business is perceived by society as not providing it value, then society (the market) will not support it. Therefore, the business will ultimately fail. 

Profit remains essential and vital, but rather than being the goal, it is the result, and the “profit” is a measure of the good that is done by the business. From this viewpoint, a business is a moral institution. So, there is no logical argument for harming employees in the process of “doing good.” The validity of this logic lies in the difficulty of arguing the opposite; that the best path to business success is taking advantage of customers (net-negative societal value) and exploiting employees. Few business owners would say they believe in that logic, but the problem is they are not always sure they don’t believe in it. And when they aren’t sure, their leaders (managers and supervisors) are not sure, either. When ownership is ambivalent about the purpose of the business, their leaders’ default to what they are sure about: Profit, compliance to the law and following written rules. But when ownership is committed to a moral view of their business, then leaders and the rest of the team recognize it immediately. They get on board very quickly. It’s really as easy (and difficult) as that.

What are some key strategies organizations can take to improve safety, leveraging the idea that the human factor is a key area that many have not successfully addressed in the past? What are some successful ways that leaders have been able to achieve that type of organizational buy-in? 

Tony Orlowski: If we are to break it down into a few statements, we would say: Treat people with respect; tell them, and yourself, the truth; be responsible for yourself and responsible to others. These are simple statements, but with profound implications for the business. If you think about them, you will discover many of these implications. Reading Safety Beyond the Numbers will give you even more to consider.

Field service is also somewhat unique in that technicians are usually working in an environment owned/operated by someone other than their own employers/leaders. How would you recommend that technicians take that culture of safety with them into environments owned by other people? 

Tony Orlowski: An organization should never be willing to trade another person’s safety for profit, convenience or approval. That includes at another organization’s worksite. A business should make that clear to all employees, and to the clients they work with. In addition to communicating that expectation internally and externally, training, communication and preparation also help to avoid landing in an uncomfortable and potentially unsafe situation. But there will still be times when a person reaches a site and is unexpectedly thrust into an urgent and unsafe assignment. In that case, you must have developed a culture where it is safe for them to say, “I’m sorry I can’t do what you are asking. It’s unsafe, and I know you would not ask me to risk my safety in doing it. My company would not allow it either. Let’s see what we can change so I can be of help to you.” Any business lost by those statements are customers you almost certainly do not want.

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What I’m Left Pondering About Service After My Recent Travel Woes

June 5, 2023 | 5 Mins Read

What I’m Left Pondering About Service After My Recent Travel Woes

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

I shared on LinkedIn recently that I had a really tough time traveling from the U.S. to London. The experience was so poor that my gut reaction was to take “pen” to paper and document a tirade of each and every misstep. Thankfully, I knew better and waited until I was home, well rested, and had thought clearly about what had happened to write this because while I’ve no intent to blast the airline, I do think the experience is representative of an overall question service organizations really need to consider. That question is, how do we ensure we are balancing the truly impressive capabilities of automation with the irreplaceable human touch when it is indeed needed?

Let’s back up a step and I’ll share a bit of what happened before I get to the assessment and fundamental question it begs. I almost always fly United and was flying from Cleveland, Ohio (the large airport nearest me) to Newark and on to London Heathrow. We departed Cleveland 10 minutes late but made that time up in the air, landing in Newark on time. However, there was no gate for us to pull into so we sat on the runway for an hour and ten minutes until we could de-plane. By the time we did, I’d missed by 10:00 PM flight to London. I saw there was an 11PM flight, so I raced to the gate for that flight to see if I was able to take it – only to be greeted by an incredibly unfriendly (rude) employee. 

I did get a seat on that flight, and we boarded around 10:30PM and pulled away from the gate right on time. I was in a different cabin than what I’d booked but was just happy to be en route. After a few minutes of taxiing, however, we returned to the gate and the pilot said there was a light that indicated a mechanical issue that needed to be checked. It took quite some time for that to happen and by then there was an issue that once we were in the air the crew would time out. Long story short, we sat at the gate from shortly after 11PM until 4:30 in the morning at which point they cancelled the flight altogether. I went to a nearby hotel United offered to sleep for a couple of hours and regroup, having to juggle plans for work that I had in London for Monday. I had been rebooked onto an 8PM flight for Monday night, which was the next available, but by the time I woke up after a two-hour nap that flight had already been cancelled.

At this point I was losing faith that I would make it out of Newark on United on time, knowing at this point I had missed not only Monday’s work in London but also wouldn’t be arriving until sometime Tuesday with the Live Tour happening on Wednesday – so very little buffer. I won’t go into all of the details of the many hours I spent talking with United Monday morning, but I ultimately decided to fly Virgin Atlantic out of JFK because I had more confidence in that route. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to personally collect my luggage from United at Newark, so I had to have them return it to my home and leave for a 12-day trip to the U.K. and Paris without any luggage. That’s the overall synopsis (I should also mention that my return flight home from Paris, also United, was also delayed by two hours – but luckily, I made my connection). 

How Do We Balance Automation and Human Touch?

Now, that brings me to my less emotional assessment, so thanks for bearing with me! What I want to start with is the positive, which is United’s automated service through their app (and text if you have text enabled). Over the last couple of years, it has become truly impressive – the app will always alert you to gate changes, delays, arrival times, etc. faster than an employee or in-airport signage. It proactively works on fixing any issues, so for instance if it does look like you’ll miss a connection, it offers you next available flights and confirms your seat for you very proactively and reliably. I even had a time not long ago that my luggage somehow wasn’t loaded onto my connecting flight, and when we landed, I received a text apologizing and asking me to schedule delivery via the app – less than three minutes later, I had the claim created with delivery of the bag set to my home. 

I’m a pretty skeptical person, so I’ve really tested the app’s reliability – I remember on my way to Field Service Connect in Austin last year, my flight leaving Houston was cancelled and I didn’t trust the app so joined the line of dozens, maybe hundreds of customers waiting to speak to the on-site service staff. After more than an hour in line, they literally told me to use the app – and when I did, I realized I could’ve sorted things out in about ten minutes had I started there. From that point on, I have used the app exclusively and it has proven to be accurate, proactive, and reliable. 

This is a real-world example of how powerful automated service can be using today’s technology – and kudos to United for investing in keeping customers informed and ensuring the app can help improve resolution time when issues occur. 

Here’s the issue, though. When there’s an issue that does demand human intervention, in my recent experiences, the customer service is horrible. And this is an even more significant problem with the automation in place, because when a customer is calling in or waiting in line because they can’t resolve what they need to via the very capable app, they are probably quite frustrated and stressed. This is where human touch and empathy become incredibly important, something that seems to be truly lacking among the staff today. I had no fewer than ten interactions during this recent situation and each person treated me as though what was happening was my fault – absolutely no apology, empathy, or understanding. In fact, many of the employees argued facts with me or were downright rude. It was truly unacceptable. 

So, this begs the question to me of how we balance the really compelling increase of automation without losing the irreplaceable value of human touch when it is needed. There’s so much you can accomplish using United’s app today – and that’s really a helpful and convenient thing. But when you do need help beyond that automated service, the experience is truly subpar, and I think that’s not only a missed opportunity for them but a very important balance for all companies looking to increase automation to be aware of and work to achieve. 

What do you think?

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Trends Among the Contract Workforce to Factor into Your Overall Talent Strategy

May 30, 2023 | 7 Mins Read

Trends Among the Contract Workforce to Factor into Your Overall Talent Strategy

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

As we look to determine not only what the role of the service workforce of the future looks like, but how we’ll fill those roles with talent hard to come by, we’d be remiss not to factor in the contract workforce. Some companies have already embraced the contract model, even exclusively. Others have been hesitant to do so for a variety of reasons. But recent trends discussed here may weigh into your strategy. 

There are many factors at play: aging workers, a Covid-sparked recalibration among workers when it comes to what they want out of a job, and preferences of younger talent that want a lot more flexibility. According to a recent study from on-site talent management platform Field Nation and research firm Radius, one impact of these factors is an increase in talent preferring an independent contractor role. 

I recently had a chat with Mynul Khan, founder of Field Nation, about the trends they are seeing in the IT services sector. Their recent study found that larger numbers of IT service professionals are opting to become independent contractors – 98% of respondents said they preferred independent contracting or a hybrid set-up to a traditional full-time position. (You can download the study here.)

Q: People may think of IT as a market that might face less recruiting challenges than other skilled trades. What is driving the shortage of field service techs in the IT sector? 

Mynul Khan: Finding and retaining skilled labor is a significant challenge across all industries, from manufacturing and construction to insurance and high tech. Some reports estimate an industry-wide deficit of 3 million workers across the skilled trades over the next five years, and according to Service Council research, 50% of field service organizations currently face a shortage of resources to meet service demand. And the IT field services profession is no exception. 

Today the IT field service industry has more work than ever before, with digitization of customer experience growing exponentially, and not enough skilled professionals who can do the work. That’s what we have been seeing and hearing from the industry consistently over the last couple of years. 

There are three major trends in the market that are present, creating that perfect storm, and here for the long-term contributing to the labor shortage crisis. 

The first is often referred to as the “Silver Tsunami” which means there is an aging population in field services with one-third of workers 50 years of age or older. This finding is consistent with Service Council’s field engineer survey results – 50% of IT techs are 45 years or older. Whether IT, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, you name it, this issue is plaguing trade workers across the market and the entire community. 

Another trend is low unemployment sitting at just below 2% (CompTIA). There are options for people of all demographics to choose in terms of the work they do. Why they are not choosing to get into the IT field services business is not something covered in our research but my experience and in hearing from technicians and customers reveal there are a few things that could drive support – creating more flexibility and autonomous work environments, which is what we heard from the independent contractor study, and the importance of mentorship to drive community and skill-building. 

And finally, this unprecedented boom in technology deployment. Massive amounts of technology is being deployed everywhere from retail to home to offices to restaurants to warehouses. And all of these require an expert to install, maintain and refresh, and devices connected to the network. Then comes the infrastructure work with cabling networks and connecting it all to back-office servers. 

What’s encouraging is the growth and preference to be and to stay an independent contractor for years to come. From retirees lending their skills to side hustles to professionals choosing to contract as their full-time career, our study found workers of all backgrounds are looking for something that works for their lifestyle, with one-third sharing their desire to stay working for 11-plus years. Embracing a new way to think about your labor model and aligning to your organizational goals is the only way to get ahead of competition and deliver profitable growth. 

Q: What has made contract work more appealing for the technicians? 

Mynul Khan: According to our recent State of Independent Contracting in Field Services Report, flexibility (36%) and control and autonomy (27%) top the list for technicians in 2023. While income is still a consideration (20%), having the ability to control their work and life, create a schedule that works for them and their families, is at the heart of why field service workers are choosing independent contracting. That insight is critical when designing roles for today’s workforce.

More importantly, these independent IT field service professionals are increasingly satisfied with their decision. 82% say they are satisfied or highly satisfied with their work. 

Q: What about the downside? How are techs grappling with things like benefits/insurance, reliable income, and business management?

Mynul Khan: Just like with any role, these are all considerations for independent contractors. Unpredictability in income and schedule were shared as the most difficult things about being a contractor. In some ways, this is the other side of the coin in that flexibility and having autonomy are the top reasons to be an independent contractor. This, along with healthcare, retirement and other benefits, in particular, are something to consider when making the shift to this kind of work. These are difficult issues to work through and our commitment is staying engaged in the conversations with key trade associations, our technicians and customers.

In terms of reliable income, the great thing about working as an independent contractor is you can pick up work where and when you want. These people can also work with more than one client at a time, mitigating risk. If one client cuts budget and goes in a different direction, the contractor may have a couple other clients to lean on. Some of these independent contractors have several sources of revenue, too – IT and field service work is just one stream. 

Q: For businesses hiring these contractors, what are some of the key advantages? What makes the use of contractors or a blended workforce more or less appealing?

Mynul Khan: In some ways, companies are being forced to adopt a blended workforce model. IT spend as a factor of revenue has increased 40 to 50% since 2019 (according to research and advisory firm IHL group), which is driving businesses to find new ways to ensure schedule flexibility and widespread availability of IT professionals across locations. 

For the businesses that are ahead of the curve, they’re already recognizing that a blended workforce helps them meet temporary workload needs, increases productivity, provides a reliable solution for completing tasks, and keeps costs down. And maybe the most important benefit to hiring contractors right now is the ability to access specialized skills and hard-to-hire talent, nationwide. 

However a field service leader decides to divvy up the work is really up to them, but it starts with taking a deep dive into how they can achieve their goals in the most effective and efficient way possible. 

Q: How are independent technicians connecting with employers? What technology is helping make this transition easier for businesses and contractors?

Mynul Khan: Increasingly, contractors are turning to digital labor platforms (full disclosure: Field Nation is one such platform). The availability of these digital labor platforms has increased fivefold in the last 10 years, and businesses have taken notice.

According to MBO Partners’ State of Independence in America Report 2022, 41% of independent contractors who provide services to businesses reported finding work on labor platforms, up from 15% in 2015 and just 3% in 2012.

Like anything, being an independent contractor has both tremendous benefits and a few challenges. Finding what works for you is most important. Independent contractors are passionate about their craft, spending time in both the front-end and back-end tasks – from selling and marketing to invoicing and collecting. Over time this becomes burdensome and takes away from the work and quality outcomes they could be bringing to businesses. That’s why on-demand labor platforms are so enticing. 

Q: Are there particular market conditions that might change the dynamics of the demand for contract work, either tipping the industry toward more freelancers, or pulling them back toward full-time positions?

Mynul Khan: Market conditions are constantly shifting. So, it’s tough to say what, specifically, would tip the industry one way or another. However, I do think it will continue to tip toward companies using more independent contractors. The average contingent labor share of enterprise workforces is expected to increase from 28% today to 33% in 18 months, and 36% in 5 years, according to the Contingent Labor Imperative Report. 

While this shift in labor model is growing, the reality for companies that are moving from W2s to independent contractors is feeling secure in knowing quality outcomes for customers is unchanged which means trust in a tech representing their company like an employee would is critical. 

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The Hard Work of Soft Skills

May 22, 2023 | 5 Mins Read

The Hard Work of Soft Skills

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Across sectors, companies are grappling with labor shortages, shifts in how, where and when people work, and a spike in retirements and quit rates in a number of critical professions. In field service, one very large group of people (the Baby Boomers) are retiring, and younger employees are entering the workforce with very different backgrounds, skills, and expectations.

The reality of more open positions than available workers has led to an arms race in perks and salaries to attract and keep employees. What is less discussed, though, is the thinking and evaluation companies are doing around what skills they want those new workers to have. A shift in priority from technical skill to softer skills, including communication, attitude, and teachability, is taking place according to many service leaders I speak with. 

There was an interesting piece on The Hill earlier this year about the increasing importance of soft skills or social skills across different industries. LinkedIn reported that soft skills were featured in 78% of the jobs posted globally over the last few months. You can read the article here, but the overall theme was that when it comes to hiring, focusing on what potential employees know is going to be less important than how they approach the job and solve problems. How do they cope with uncertainty? Can they show empathy? Can they work collaboratively with clients and coworkers to address challenges?

The need to focus more on soft skills relates to something I have touched on in a few past articles and podcast interviews – vulnerability. In this case, though, customer vulnerability is the focus. Service technicians and customer support personnel are working with clients when they are in a vulnerable state, whether the customer is a homeowner with a broken furnace or a plant manager who had to shut down a line because of a problem with a machine. 

To really deliver great customer service, technicians need to be able to read the room, so to speak. What is it the customer really needs? Fixing the immediate equipment problem is usually at the top of the list (and that should always remain a key focus, of course), but there are usually other priorities on the client's mind, too. In the case of the homeowner, maybe they are expecting out-of-town guests, or they are worried about heating their house during a big storm. For the plant manager, they might be under pressure to deliver a big order ahead of schedule. 

Whatever those underlying needs are, they cause emotions that can lead service to fall short if not navigated adeptly by service personnel. This can mean something as simple as listening, acknowledgement, empathy, and clear communication. Sounds simple, right? What makes soft skills hard is that they can be far more challenging to “teach” than technical skills. And, according to many that I’ve interviewed recently, they are skills that many younger workers entering roles really lack.  

Differentiation Hinges on Soft Vs. Technical Skills

What exacerbates the need to improve your team's skill sets around the non-technical aspects of service is that the advantages you may have around technical competency, scheduling/dispatching optimization, or diagnostic capabilities are leveling off. As service becomes more digitally focused and more of your competitors adopt the same service automation technologies, there are diminishing returns when it comes to competitive advantage based solely on technical skill. As such, now and into the future, your ability to differentiate through service will increasingly depend on your reliability, those interpersonal interactions, and delivering customer insights.

So, what types of soft skills are we talking about? There are a variety, and some needs differ based on the structure and scope of the frontline worker’s role (which is also changing, but that’s a topic for another article!). But while it may seem elementary, you should start with the basics of on-site behavior – think of anything necessary to ensure a customer feels respected and well cared for during a visit. This can include where to stand when ringing a doorbell, practicing polite client interactions – especially when a customer may be frustrated, and awareness of any missteps that could make a customer feel uncomfortable, unheard, or unappreciated.

Communication is key. Your technicians should be trained to keep clients informed of their service status – what the diagnosis is, how they will fix it, how long it will take, and what progress they are making. Answer questions as quickly and thoroughly as possible and follow up if there are any outstanding issues (like a part being on order). It’s one thing to have a service visit end without resolution, but another for the customer left wondering what the next step is.  

Empathy is also incredibly important. You can’t really teach how to have empathy, but showing empathy may take some work, particularly in industries where technicians have been trained to be laser focused on the mechanics of fixing the problem at hand. 

Be sure you are also encouraging curiosity and active listening. This is important in avoiding miscommunications or missed expectations and can also lead to uncovering new customer needs. Technicians should be skilled at asking customers what they want/need, making sure they understand their answer, and continuing the dialogue until a customer’s needs are fully uncovered, understood, and documented so that they won’t need to be repeated at another point in the customer journey. 

Remember that fostering soft skills of managers is important, too. Many existing managers came from technician roles, so may have the same lack of these skills that’s evident in a generation of workers for which they weren’t nearly as important. Your technicians need good managers; they are going to have a hard time delivering friendly, empathetic, and competent service if they are exhausted or stressed out. If your scheduling, technician workloads, or performance measurement metrics are out of balance, that will eventually lead to a drop in service quality. 

It looks like a lot of companies are already doing the hard work of fostering more soft skills. A McKinsey survey from 2021 found that the majority of companies were doing more skill building than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As I mentioned before, this has also come up in a lot of conversations with service leaders and consultants – including in my conversation with Venkata Reddy Mukku at Bruker Nano Surfaces & Metrology, in this piece about the role of leaders in service transformation, and my article from last year on mental health and the workplace. This shift in how organizations are hiring and what skills they are trying to identify and foster may be a challenging one, but I am excited to see the impact it has on what the future of service looks like. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on what skills (hard, soft or otherwise) you are looking for in your next generation of service technicians and leaders and how you are upskilling or reskilling your more tenured teams.   

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How Long Until Traditional Service Delivery is Dead?

May 15, 2023 | 4 Mins Read

How Long Until Traditional Service Delivery is Dead?

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Technology enabling remote service is fundamentally changing how and when service is delivered – and as you may have gathered from the headline, I firmly believe it's going to play a bigger and bigger role in service moving forward. To be clear, I don’t believe the traditional field service visit will ever completely disappear, but I do think relying on only traditional methods of delivery (customer calls with issue, technician visits to diagnose, repairs or perhaps has to return to repair) is a practice that will soon put a number of service organizations at a competitive disadvantage.

A lot of firms were forced into some flavor of remote service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, using software to remotely diagnose or even remedy equipment failures, leveraging online video to support customers or other technicians, and in some cases implementing augmented or virtual reality (VR) tools. We learned that these capabilities provide some compelling options for making our service operations smarter rather than always trying to work harder to keep up.

Yes, remote service also raises some questions that can give service leaders anxiety. How do you maintain the personal connection with customers in this environment? Is it going to cost technicians their jobs? How reliable is it? Will customers pay for it if they don't see a tech in their building? While valid points, answers are being found at a rapid pace and many companies are committing to a remote-first service model.

In last week’s podcast, for example, I spoke to Steve Goulbourne, the Global Service Program Director at Mettler-Toledo, about the company's experience with remote service, its disruptive potential, and how he is responding to some of those concerns.

Mettler-Toledo began embracing remote service during the pandemic because they needed a way to take care of customers without going on site. Because of the types of equipment the company services, remote-only interventions are often not feasible. While software fixes can take care of some problems, a technician still usually needs to install a spare part. However, as Steve describes it, remote service at Mettler-Toledo is really a way for technicians to arrive on site for that spare part install better prepared and informed about what the job will entail. They are using the technology to arm technicians with enough knowledge to maximize their first-time fix rates.

Repeat Trips Compound Talent Shortage Woes

“We can actually see what's happening versus a traditional triage where you're asking questions,” he said. “This can really allow us to fully understand a situation before a truck rolls and then we can make sure that we send the right technician with the right skills and the right spare part to try and make sure that we get the equipment fixed the first time. That's the most important to our customers because that increases their uptime.”

At Mettler-Toledo, like many others, the first truck roll has traditionally served as a diagnostic/triage visit. In some cases, the technician can’t even start the repair during that initial visit. That's a costly way of doing things, and can lead to some disappointed customers when the first technician on site tells them to expect a second visit, with a completely different engineer and a different set of parts and tools.

“Those second visits, they drain capacity,” Steve said. “And I think when we listen to the voice of the customer a lot of times … technicians always get very high scores in terms of customer experience, but actually scheduling and finding time to be able to do the work is a challenge. So if we can improve the capacity by reducing those unnecessary second visits, I think that definitely helps.”

Saving those second visits doesn't just help with first-time fix rates, uptime, and net promoter scores; it also reduces costs. Depending on the industry, each truck roll can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Remote service also helps with the service sector's current talent challenge by more efficiently using technician time. In an era where there is a shortage of qualified service engineers, it’s not hard to make an argument for maximizing resource utilization by reducing unnecessary site visits.

Steve also pointed out that younger technicians entering the workforce not only expect to see better use of remote and mobile technology (which, as digital natives, they have been raised using), they also want to minimize their time on the road. In some industries, technicians may spend several days or even a week at a remote site diagnosing and fixing a problem, and a lot of that time is often spent waiting on parts or information.

Using remote service tools to minimize time on the road puts service jobs more in line with the work/life balance these younger workers are looking for. “If we can get better resource capability and resource capacity because we're using these tools, it means we can plan more effectively,” Steve said. “By planning more effectively, we can make sure that that person does nine-to-five hours, or whatever they may be.”

We covered a lot of ground during our discussion, so I would encourage you to listen to the entire podcast here to find out more about how Mettler-Toledo is using remote service to improve operations. As for the question of how long until traditional service delivery is dead; it’s hard to say – but the business case for embracing a remote-first approach is very strong and I expect we’ll see a lot of stories similar to Mettler-Toledo’s in the coming year.

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Keeping Digital Transformation Safe and Secure

May 8, 2023 | 5 Mins Read

Keeping Digital Transformation Safe and Secure

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service 

With service organizations deploying new technologies at a rapid pace to stay competitive and improve their customer experience, we must be sure to fully examine the security ramifications of those digital transformation initiatives. With every mobile device, mobile app, smart device or Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint, you are bringing greater intelligence into your business; but you are also introducing new vulnerabilities to your networks.

When it comes to connected field service, cyber security should not be an afterthought. Small and mid-sized companies are as much as three times more likely to be targeted by cyber criminals (you can read more in this Forbes article). If you think your regional HVAC service company can’t possibly be on the radar when it comes to cybercrime, you need to think again. Increasingly, criminals are launching ransomware and other types of attacks against all types of companies (there have even been attacks against regional utilities and school districts). If you have data, it can be stolen. So how do you ensure that while you are driving technological advancement, you’re also mitigating cyber security risk?

Charlie Hales is the Managing Director at Waterstons, an Australian business and technology consulting firm. Charlie joined us at the Future of Field Service Sydney event and spoke about how service organizations can leverage new automation and intelligence technologies while still keeping their company secure against cyber-attacks. I asked Charlie for a follow-up discussion to go into more detail about cyber security and field service, and you can read about that discussion in the Q&A below.

What are the biggest cyber-security risks that service-based businesses face today?

Charlie Hales: With the move to remote working during COVID and advances in technology to monitor and manage systems remotely there has been a push to do more with less, including implementing remote access technologies. Some of this was implemented quickly without looking at best practices from a security perspective; this has actually made companies less secure and added vulnerabilities to the service-based business and the clients they’re supporting. If you work in the infrastructure sector this is even worse with new legislation to ensure better security implementations and data management in place. So, all companies should review what they do in this area to ensure cyber security is factored in. This doesn’t need to make access harder, to be clear, which is what some people think. The technologies available these days to protect businesses are great and can keep the access seamless but also secure.

As companies seek to increase connected assets, incorporate more automation, and drive more predictive models, what needs to be top of mind from a security perspective?

Charlie Hales: Everything that is connected to a network and the Internet adds a new vulnerability to your environment. This does not mean you shouldn’t use this new technology, but it does mean you need to implement and manage it correctly. Also, there is a misconception that everything needs to be updated 100% of the time, but this is not the case. You should do so for critical infrastructure and anything storing your data but items like printers, smart IoT, CCTV, etc., can be updated less often as long as they are on a separate network with no access or very limited access to the network connected to your critical systems and data. This network segregation between IT, OT and IoT is crucial, along with access controls and information management.

Automation also comes with benefits as well as risks. Automation is great for companies that want to implement it for repeatable tasks; they just need to think about where human elements need to be added or where monitoring should be implemented to ensure this automation isn’t breached. For example, if the automation usually pulls in data from a process to help with new orders and there was a big fluctuation in order volume, this should be flagged to check that nothing is amiss.

What’s the #1 mistake you see companies make related to cyber security?

Charlie Hales: The #1 mistake is that companies think cyber security is an IT problem. IT teams are great, but they are not cyber experts and shouldn’t be expected to be. Cybersecurity needs to be built in at a board level (they’re ultimately liable if something happens), factored into corporate risks and managed and driven through the business accordingly in partnership with the Cyber and IT experts.

Over the next five years, what changes will most impact how companies need to approach cyber security?

Charlie Hales: In Australia, we will see data management and protection. With recent breaches throughout Australia there will be a move to implement things similar to GDPR across Europe.

Globally I see more collaboration defining what can/can’t be done and managed (and by who), and recent examples include the likes of ChatGPT and TikTok. What you can use where and what data can be stored where is a hot topic at the moment, and I only see it getting bigger.

For companies looking to better understand the topic of cyber security, what resources do you recommend?

Charlie Hales: There is so much out there. A couple of examples include academy.attackiq.com and udemy.com. They have some great videos for CISOs as well as other videos for various roles in the business. But where I would start is to engage an expert to work with you in your organization to understand your business and what risks apply from a cyber security perspective. If you support infrastructure, you will have very different requirements than a manufacturing plant. What you need to do and what business risks you can accept will be very different. A general solution for all companies is not the answer. Understand what is critical to your business and then apply appropriate cyber security around that.

Given the shortage of IT staff in general and cyber security specialists specifically, how can service organizations make sure they are properly addressing their security needs? What options are available?

Charlie Hales: There are many cyber security consultants out there so find a partner you trust to work with. That way you can actually get a multitude of skills for less than recruiting an in-house team. If you are a large organization, you will likely want someone internally to manage your cyber risks and program of work, but you don’t need all resources in house. That will be cost prohibitive at the moment. You can get multiple part time staff members from a provider with varying skills for less than a full-time person with expertise across multiple areas.

Any other comments?

Charlie Hales: Don’t think that cybersecurity is a massive issue that’s too hard to look at, or that a breach is something that won't happen to you. It will. What are the biggest risks to your business, customer data, production line, internal designs? You need to protect them. Find an expert that can understand your business to advise you about where you can add the best cybersecurity protection for your organization. That way, when an attack does happen you can recover quickly with little impact to your business and your clients.

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Have You Avoided Innovation for Any One of These Reasons (aka Excuses)?

May 1, 2023 | 3 Mins Read

Have You Avoided Innovation for Any One of These Reasons (aka Excuses)?

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

I spent last week in sunny Palm Springs, California for the 20th anniversary of WBR’s Field Service event. Despite wracking my brain to remember which year was my first, I am not quite sure if it was 2009 or 2010. What I do know is that this year’s event looked a lot different from my first – we’ve come a long way. I’ll share more of my thoughts from the event, as well as a look into the keynote I delivered, on this week’s podcast. But in the meantime, I wanted to share a bit of one of the sessions from day one that resonated. 

Darren Elmore, GM, Service at RICOH traveled from New Zealand to Palm Springs to talk about RICOH’s approach to adopting a remote-first service model. I am not going to get into any details around that story because I am hoping Darren will soon share it himself on the podcast, but in his presentation, he began with talking a bit about how service organizations need to embrace innovation. I couldn’t agree more (as you probably know!) and the point was reinforced throughout the remainder of last week’s event – what was once a fairly stagnant industry has changed immensely, and that change is only snowballing. Companies who get comfortable getting uncomfortable will be those who make the highest profits, attract and retain the best talent, and create impactful customer loyalty. 

But as we know, change is hard. In Darren’s presentation, he shared five reasons he hears for not innovating (aka excuses):

#1: We’re successful today. As he said, “Success today doesn’t guarantee success tomorrow.” Yes, it can be hard to choose to disrupt successful smooth sailing with innovation, but the alternative is to remain in your comfort zone until disruption finds you – and creating disruption versus reacting to it is a better position to be in.

#2: We’re too busy. Everyone is busy in some way; that’s no reason not to take a strategic view of your business. Staying focused only on today’s fires ensures you’ll be surpassed by competition that does the necessary work of determining how to balance the needs of today’s business with creating the business of the future. 

#3: Customers aren’t asking for it. Darren shared the famous Henry Ford statement about customers asking for a faster horse, not a car. Innovative organizations don’t wait until innovation is requested or demanded, they look for ways to create new value that customers will be excited about – and appreciate not having to ask for. 

#4: We tried it before, it didn’t work. Efforts of innovation rarely succeed on the first try; failure is part of the cycle. This mentality is fear-based, and a fear-based culture is at odds with innovation. What you tried before is irrelevant beyond what you can learn from that failure and it’s certainly no reason to avoid trying again. And again.  

#5: Innovation is risky. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “no risk, no reward.” And it’s true. Playing it safe will get you mediocre results, at best. Risk is necessary at times, particularly when it’s calculated and intentional. And one point Darren made here that I love is that this isn’t just about the risk of innovation to a business, but the personal risk of innovation to the leader spearheading it. But we need to shift our thinking around risk to not being perceived as only a negative but also a potential opportunity. 

I’m looking forward to hopefully having Darren come share with you all more of his story of personal risk in the journey RICOH is on in remote-first service, and I’m also looking forward to sharing more with you on Wednesday’s podcast about last week’s event. Stay tuned!

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The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management: End of an Era 

April 24, 2023 | 3 Mins Read

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management: End of an Era 

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

For the past seven years, the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management software has served as a touchstone in the industry, helping field service organizations select technology to improve operations and giving software providers a gauge of how they measured up to their competitors. 

But going forward, companies will need to look elsewhere for guidance and validation of their technology investments. Back in January, Gartner informed the vendors participating in the Magic Quadrant that it will be retired report after the 2022 edition with plans instead to transition to a Market Guide format expected to launch later this year.  

Why the end of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for FSM? Gartner cited several reasons, including the fact that many of the vendors assessed in the report have achieved what they describe as a “high level of functional parity,” and that vendor movement from one position to another has been slowing.

The quadrant divides vendors into four categories – Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries and Niche Players. In retiring the assessment, it seems Gartner feels that companies like IFS (which has been ranked as a leader in all seven reports) are consistently strengthening their position in the market while improving their technology, and that vendors in other categories have found a comfortable lane that they don't seem to be expanding out of any time soon.

While this “high level of functional parity” may mean the end of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for FSM, it doesn't mean innovation isn't continuing. Field service remains a dynamic market that demands a high level of execution when it comes to optimizing and automating workflows. 

In the final report (which you can access here), Gartner notes that the estimated revenue from packaged FSM software licenses, cloud subscriptions, and maintenance reached $3.51 billion in 2021, an 18% increase from the previous year – and did so during a period of economic instability and a global pandemic. There were product improvements across all 10 of the critical FSM capabilities identified by Gartner, and in the ability to deliver great customer service.

Gartner identified a few key trends in product development, quite a few of which we have discussed in previous articles and podcasts: 

Augmented Reality: Gartner says that all of the vendors in the evaluation now have augmented reality solutions to enable video collaboration and live guidance in the field, and a lot of customers are using these capabilities to work with technicians for diagnostics and support.

Sustainability: This is a big buzzword in a lot of industries, but in service the focus has been on energy efficiency. Some organizations are at least partly cost-justifying their FSM investments through reduced fuel consumption thanks to better routing, for example. The software helps companies reduce truck rolls and keep driving distances and idling to a minimum.

Knowledge Management: This functionality keeps growing in importance, particularly given the high number of retirements and overall shortage of technicians. Some FSM packages are providing features that help better record insights from actual service visits and leverage artificial intelligence to curate and provide easier access to those insights for other technicians.

Self-Service: Again, with fewer technicians and call center staff being asked to shoulder more work, the trend toward customer self-service portals is also accelerating. Customers can initiate and track work orders, pay for services, and even initiate some diagnostics using these products.

So, what’s next? In the final report, Gartner touches on some needs that will likely influence further FSM software developments over the next few years, including the use of machine learning and natural language processing to mine service data, cross-organizational collaboration, new regulatory guideline support, better subcontractor integration, built-in integration with other platforms (like ERP, digital twins, and knowledge management), and more advanced analytics.

It'll be interesting to see how Gartner will continue watching the FSM space through its Market Guide but moving forward it may be a bit more difficult to get the same kind of comparative look at how the software tools are evolving. To stay up to date on how IFS is addressing the needs of service management and beyond, visit ifs.com. 

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