Field service organizations are looking for new innovative ways to maximize operational efficiency and reduce operational costs. This change has created a fundamental shift in the industry, from expectations through to functionality and approach. As product-based companies move towards a service-based performance model, the shift from commoditization to servitization has become more evident as the way forward.
To better understand how trade/specialty contractors currently use technology to manage their service organizations, we conducted a study of 200 trade contractor executives. In it, current aftermarket field service practices and gaps were revealed.
Construction and contracting customers today are demanding complete through-life service for their assets. Because customers want more than just asset delivery, asset owners are undergoing a change of mindset, looking to performance-based relationships that model whole-life costs and deliver guaranteed outcomes.
76% of manufacturers will increase their use of smart devices or embedded intelligence in two years. While technology can be beneficial and necessary, the key to success will be the ability to distinguish between what is new and what is useful.
Manufacturers and high-tech companies today understand that change presents a constant challenge. Competition can come from anywhere on the globe at breathtaking speed, and risk and opportunity are often closely coupled. Keeping risk at bay, and identifying and seizing opportunity, are traits of companies that thrive in this environment. Enterprise (ERP) software is one of the main tools modern manufacturers leverage to grasp the opportunities that arise from successfully meeting challenges
One of the biggest fears for process manufacturing companies is a product or ingredient being contaminated by an unknown source. The process manufacturing supply chain is long and complex. It includes international and domestically sourced processors, distributors, shippers and consumers. With all this complexity, companies still have to maintain proper regulatory standards while keeping high quality services, in what is an increasingly competitive market.
There are three measurable benefits from deploying a range of solutions with IFS Applications that long-standing IFS customer Miller-St. Nazianz is enjoying. IFS Applications is enabling Miller to fulfill its mission of providing the world’s agricultural producers with innovative and reliable crop protection and storage equipment, and superior service to enable them to increase their productivity and profitability.
Managing, manufacturing and supporting a broad portfolio of agricultural equipment products for maximum profit are a challenge. But Miller-St. Nazianz is running its product development, manufacturing, parts and aftermarket service in a single instance of IFS Applications, delivering total product lifecycle management (PLM) benefits.
Motorola Canada, a division of the global communications leader, had just won a huge contract. They would be supplying and supporting the communications for the police, fire and emergency services for the province of Quebec. To do that effectively, they needed to fully automate their mission-critical field service processes, including call center, scheduling and install base management. They wanted to extend the solution out to the field via a mobile component, and needed a web-portal that subcontractors could use to report their parts usage.
Finally, the solution needed to be presented in multiple languages to support the end-user base.
More often than not, companies that implement an ERP system and have trouble achieving rapid return on investment (ROI) may labor under this misconception, or at the very least may underestimate their own role in successful implementation and operation of their new enterprise software environment.