Field Service News and Technology Roundup September 2018 Edition

Field Service News & Technology Roundup is our blog series, where we feature the latest interesting field service and technology insights impacting field service organizations.

As September marked the beginning of Fall, the world of field service news has been abuzz with what’s new, next and exciting. This month features a few must-read articles to keep you in-the-know and expand your knowledge of the field service management space. If you haven’t had a chance,check out past issues of our Field Service News and Technology Roundup..
 

How IoT Is Impacting 7 Key Industries Today
Source: Forbes
Author: Forbes Insights Team

With IoT making headlines and headways every day, it’s no surprise the first article in our September edition centers on this topic. In fact, we’ve even talked about IoT in a recent blog post, The Promise of an Interconnected World: The Impact and Challenges of IoT on Field Service Organizations. This article is particularly useful in that it breaks out how IoT will specifically affect various industries or how a specific industry may leverage IoT.

For instance, the energy sector considers the remote monitoring of assets to be of extreme importance, which is no surprise to us at Field Squared since we offer enterprise asset management solutions. What is interesting is the statistic that 34% of energy organizations leverage visual analytics to aid in monitoring assets, such as the use of camera-mounted drones. The article also presents interesting statistics for telecommunications as well that are well worth reading.

Does Your Company Suffer From “HQ Syndrome?”
Source: Field Technologies Online
Author: Guest Column by Irene Lefton, Customer Success Evangelist

One of the unique challenges organizations that have a field or mobile workforce maintaining a balance of communications with both office workers and field workers. In a guest column by Irene Lefton in Field Technologies Online, Lefton brings awareness to what she calls “HQ Syndrome,” or as she defines it, “what happens when staff at a company’s headquarters loses touch with the company’s field employees.”

Lefton provides keen insight on what HQ Syndrome is, precautions to take and how to avoid it altogether. If you are experiencing communications challenges at your field service organization, this is one article you should read today.

7 Field Service Processes And Workflows To Automate Today
Source: Field Technologies Online
Author: Mark Percy, VP Technology at Field Squared

The average field service organization maintains many processes and workflows across their field operations. We’ve learned the impact of incremental automation has on improving field service operational efficiency.

7 Field Service Processes and Workflows to Automate Today, by our own VP of Technology via Field Technologies Online, provides insight from years of helping field service organizations to automate their field service processes. What’s more, these are simple tasks to get you started with field service management automation, but just imagine what can be achieved with the more highly complex workflows across back-office systems.

 

Top 35 Books Every Field Service Professional Needs To Read
Source: Capterra
Author: Geoff Hoppe

With so many resources for field service organizations, Capterra put together a list of the top books to read. From myths, rules and equations to specific industry use cases (The Electrician’s Trade Demystified or 101 Ways to Suck as an HVAC Technician), there is something for everyone at every level of the organization to learn.
 

Digital Twins Concept Gains Traction Among Enterprises
Schneider Electric CIO predicts software models of industrial equipment will be widespread in 10 years
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Author: Sara Castellanos

On the topic of IoT and embedded sensors, the digital twin concept has been a topic on the bleeding edge for quite some time. Now, with greater advancements in technology—sensors, chips, modeling tools, AI—are bringing the concept to reality.

In Sara Castellanos article from the Wall Street Journal, Schneider Electric takes center stage as CIO Elizabeth Hackenson prophesizes the future technological impact across industrial equipment. She states, “In 10 years, digital replicas of industrial equipment in industries ranging from food and beverage to manufacturing and health care will be widespread.” Castellanos hits on a number of industry statistics as well as tells the story of how Schneider is reaping the benefits of being able to provide such services.

 


Image Source: Unsplash by Keith Misner