Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group
Field communications has been seen by many businesses as a mechanism for controlling their engineers, however in the current customer-focused environment, this concept is proving to be both outdated and outmoded. Judging from a recent study by Gartner, which looked at the current situation of field communications implementations, the situation is far from ideal. Their findings show that of the 800 companies to pilot a new mobile enterprise application with an IT service provider in Europe since 2000, less than 10 percent of projects have gone past the pilot stage.
Most of these implementations were not stopped because of the technology. The usual reason given was a poor take up in the field or various teething problems that seemed difficult to resolve. In fact the real reason appeared to be that there was not the necessary level of acceptance of the technology and tools, by staff and engineers. In many cases field communications has been seen negatively as a way of micro managing the engineer. This has brought with it a concern by the engineers about the real purpose of the close control, particularly when the structures and culture in place were not originally designed for the short leash control that is provided by modern field communication solutions.
This clearly underlines that to have a successful implementation, it is essential to gain the necessary buy-in and acceptance of the technology and processes, from the staff and engineers, and even customers.
The problem is that most business cases or Return on Investments (ROIs) for field communications service projects, focus on the technology or device to be used; with the major decision criteria, not surprisingly, generally based on cost. All very valid and business-like, however this does not take much account of how, where and when the technology will be used, and the value it offers to the engineer and customer. As a result, little or no attention will be paid to understanding the full benefit of field communications, in liaising with the field engineers and the customers, and ensuring effective two-way feedback with the field engineers, regarding customer needs. If there is little value to the engineer or customer, the system will not be used extensively, so any assessment of value to the organization, based on cost savings, is questionable.
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