IoT — Connected Field Service
Connected Field Service is about connecting such smart products to the leading field service software. The following figure illustrates how they all come together to provide a better and smarter field service environment.
Installed Base App provides visibility and real-time equipment intelligence about your install base and products, while the other mobile apps provide offline access to everything needed to deliver quick field service. Using the Service Flow Manager, you can define the best business processes for your service organization and easily extend it to mobile apps. Using ServiceMax's scheduling and dispatch features, you plan and send the right technicians/people and in a timely manner. Auto entitlements, SLAs, and service contract feature in ServiceMax enable you to define and keep the promises you make to your customers. With connected devices, you can better track machines to meet pre-defined outcomes, and most importantly, the customer views your product and your service as exemplary.
The salient features of the Connected Field Service are as below.
• Machine Initiated Service Requests for automating the creation of work orders and service request alerts in ServiceMax based on exception conditions
• Embedded Mashups for visualizing the real-time or historical machine data in ServiceMax
• Remote Access, File Transfer, and Software Management that allows remote technicians to access connected devices and perform remote service
• Connected Diagnostics for automating diagnostics using connected device data and delivering the solution(s) to the field technician
• Contextual Repair Procedures for providing context-based instructions to the field technician
• ServiceMax Installed Base App for providing a mobile window into connected device details for technician visibility and recording in-field activities
Connected Field Service has the potential to fundamentally change the way you deliver service—whether it’s resolving service requests remotely, proactively dispatching the tech before a failure, or providing detailed diagnostics and usage history to the tech while troubleshooting an issue. Some of the key benefits are highlighted below.
Decrease average time to repair by proactively anticipating service needs
• Increase First Time Fix (FTF) rates using automated connected diagnostics
• Maximize the productivity of your field service teams (including service partners) with remote and field technician access to diagnostics and service documentation
• Improve service level agreement (SLA) compliance rates and exceed customer expectations
• Increase customer satisfaction and build your customer's confidence in you as a service provider
• Grow your service business with expansion into new markets and the ability to deliver new service offerings
• Improve technician utilization
• Improve service delivery by analyzing trends and gaining insight on overall time and parts consumption, service history, root cause and failure analysis, and much more
ServiceMax IoT feature allows the machines with smart sensors to detect any potential break-down or repair or maintenance requirement, and automatically create service requests for those incidents.
If you enable the IoT, you can maintain the equipment when there is an actual need, rather than relying on a regular maintenance schedule or repairing it after it breaks down. You can configure to create Work Orders, Cases, or Service Requests, and also update technical attributes of the Installed Product (equipment) using the out-of-the-box configurations provided in the ServiceMax package. You can also create records for other standard objects or custom objects by writing custom web services extending ServiceMax's IoT framework.
ServiceMax and PTC together provide a fully integrated solution that seamlessly combines IoT machine data with a field service delivery system, thus connecting smart products to the leading field service software and providing a comprehensive IoT platform. While PTC integration helps deliver diagnostics, contextual repair procedures, and even remote access to installed assets, ServiceMax provides complete field service capabilities. This results in happy customers and improved first-time fix rates. To know more about the ServiceMax and PTC's integrated solution, contact your ServiceMax representative.