Smart field services with IoT connected products

For many equipment makers, an important part of their business model involves aftermarket services. These services include work performed at the customer site after purchase and installation such as equipment repairs, part replacement, regular maintenance, and consultative services.

Unlike customer support that can be provided remotely, field services by definition require employees of the equipment provider to go to the customer site. As a result, equipment makers must manage teams of technical service providers to diagnose, fix and improve customer equipment.

Smart field services involves leveraging IoT data collected from equipment in the field to better schedule, plan and execute on field services. This can allow the maintenance, field service, customer service, and consultative services teams to provide more accurate, timely maintenance, part replacement, and performance management support.

Before offering smart field services, equipment providers must collect operating metrics and asset settings from deployed equipment. This data provides crucial indicators of performance. The equipment maker can use this data to improve efficiencies in how they provide aftermarket care, leading to direct financial benefits for the equipment maker. Improved preventive and predictive maintenance also helps customers improve operating efficiency and enhance uptime.

Smart field services elevate your customers' experience to a completely new level. By offering prompt services that meet their needs and help them maintain uptime, you become a critical partner for your customers' success. Greater customer loyalty improves customer retention and builds your reputation, fueling new product sales.

Specifically, smart field services create opportunities for equipment makers to both reduce costs and build higher-margin services.

Smart field services allow companies to reduce costs in 3 key ways:

1. Improve installation and ramp-up processes to reduce the time to install and commission equipment at the customer site.
2. Deliver firmware & software updates to ensure that all machines run on the latest version for consistent, secure performance.
3. Improve field service offerings, improve first time fix rate, and provide guidance to the customer without going onsite. Condition monitoring enables data-driven understanding of equipment performance and conditions, so the equipment maker can use high-value technical service teams more efficiently: reducing the number of service visits needed and making each visit more productive.

Equipment makers who embrace smart field services can build higher-margin services in multiple ways:

1. Condition-based (predictive) maintenance services: Field service or maintenance programs are based on the actual condition of the equipment, not on a fixed schedule or machine failure. With insights into equipment performance and required maintenance before your technicians arrive on-site, you can complete more repairs, more quickly, on the first visit.
2. Optimized spare part management: With real-time insights into the parts your customers need, you can keep the right amount of inventory in stock. Equipment users benefit from your inventory management with faster fixes that lead to lower downtimes, while you reduce unnecessary inventory overhead. As a trusted supplier of parts and maintenance services, you can significantly improve aftermarket revenue.

Consider the alternative: if you do not embrace smart field services, you will likely lose aftermarket businesses to lower-cost competition, weakening your relationship with their customers. And without being able to allocate field service resources efficiently, your profit margins will erode over time.