IFS Service CollABorative: End of Year Retrospective, Feedback, and Look Ahead to 2025

Date of Meeting: 12 December 2024 09:00 AM US Eastern Standard Time

Sarah Nicastro Presentation:

Slide: Agenda

• What we're going to go through today, I'm just going to recap what this year has looked like in terms of the CollABorative sessions. And then I want to share a couple things among the group and then we'll close with just some free form, if you have any feedback if you have any things you would like to see happen in this group next year, if there's any discussion, we want to have, if there's any questions you want to ask one another or Jessica or I, whatever comes up, we can get through that. So that is our plan for today.

Slide: 2024 Retrospective – Sessions Delivered

• So, if we take a look at what we've covered this year. I know there are some folks that are new to the session, so I'll just explain. We typically alternate month to month between what we call Think Tanks and then Tech Talks.
• Think Tanks, the idea there is that those sessions are more topical in nature. They're not necessarily specific to IFS technology. They're more so specific to a trend or challenge or theme that is relevant in the service space and the goal there is for us to sort of have some discussion and some dialogue to basically share knowledge on that theme or topic.
• The Tech Talks are where we bring in someone that leads a different function of the IFS business to share some insights on you know what it is their function is working on, working toward what innovations are upcoming, what feedback they're navigating through, what changes have come, etcetera. And then also give you all an opportunity within those sessions to give them some real time feedback, to ask questions, put them in the hot seat, things like that. So those are the two types of sessions that we alternate between. And as long as we've been having the CollABoratives, we've had sessions every month with the exception of July and August, just because so many folks are on summer holiday. So, with that said, this is what this year look like.
• So, we did a Think Tank on service KPIs back in January.  We had a guest speaker join us in February. She is the CEO of a HR consulting firm and not only consulting, but they actually do for hire project work for organizations. So, they will go in and help them make some changes, or do some innovation and do those projects. So, she came and spoke about some of the trends in recruitment, recruiting, hiring and retention. And actually took a couple of open job descriptions and did some real time coaching on those. So that was interesting. And then in June, we had a meet the Member session with Ged from Konica Minolta talking about their journey.
• On the Tech Talk side, we had a making the most of PSO session in March with Jonathan Hydén and Maxim Wolf. We had an R&D session which we do every year with Steve Jeff Watts in April. In May, we had our Chief Sustainability Officer, Sophie Graham on to speak about that. September was Unified Support with Raymond Jones. October Jessica did a summary of Unleashed for a reminder for the people that were there and a recap for people that weren't able to attend, and then last month we had Bob De Caux talking about AI. So that's what we tackled this year.

Slide: 2025: A Look Ahead – Tentative Calendar

• This is what our calendar tentatively looks like going into our sessions for next year. So, it's always tough. We try and ask for a lot of feedback from you all on what topics you want to see covered, etcetera. And it's harder than you would think to try and fit everything into just 10 sessions. And so we did our best to consider everyone's feedback and some of the more nuanced things, maybe how we can fit them into another topical conversation, etcetera. From an IFS perspective, some of the sessions that tend to be highly attended the session on AI, the session on unified support, the R&D sessions, we certainly wanted to keep. But we did add a session on acquisitions because that was one of the most common feedback points is you all wanting to better understand what companies IFS acquired. What are their solution sets? Who are they relevant for? Etcetera. And while we can't dedicate a session to each one of them, we can do an overview and then give you all ways to get more information on any of them if you would like. So, this is what the calendar looks like for 2025, which is obviously coming up quickly.
• In January, we are having a session with Vivint who, if anyone, isn't familiar is a home security company here in the US. And they're using remote assistance. So, they're using that technology to do a lot more remote service. So, I point that out because I know that that came up and that would be a good session to try and attend. I think regardless of how they're leveraging it, part of it is going to be taking a look at their use case, but then also, having a conversation among the group of indifferent organizations, therefore industries, etcetera. I think there is room for more remote service in pretty much every application. It just depends on what does that look like in your organization and what are some of the different examples of ways that companies are doing that today or thinking about that? What value can it bring? Etcetera. So, I think that'll be a good conversation.

Questions / Answers / Feedback / Responses:

Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in 2024?

Customer 1

• F: So, the lesson learned is not basically on the on the community itself, but we launched out the product this year started in January and now in 11 months, we finished the entire roll out for field service. Next year we will continue with the service centre as well. More than 75 service centres globally and we learned a lot on the how solution works, also on the challenges we have, how the mobile app works, and how to tweak and improve it. And started to 1st get first feedback from the user which we then bring either to IFS or to our own developers. Since we have a quite big team as well. So this is where we are basically.

Customer 2

• F: It's been a really crazy year. So, there there's been a lot of lessons learned in general. Somebody in my position as a VP of Business Systems over service industry, we run a really complex business in that we deliver service to other businesses, corporations. And we say yes to practically everything. So, we don't have our model of services that we're selling. We are delivering field service in a way that whomever approaches us for it. Any of these large corporations will do it their way, which has basically introduced so many intricacies to our delivery model that standardization and optimization have become really challenging. And the priorities change everyday because, let's say a customer will come back to us today and say I need you to do XYZ. And we'll go right, of course. Yes, by tomorrow. You got it. And all the sudden my whole priority for my road map changes, but I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that busy as a statement is no longer accepted. We cannot say we're busy. How are you doing? Well, we're busy. You know it becomes completely meaningless and the lesson that I've learned is that a VP or any type of senior leadership level, you don't help yourself and you don't help anyone else by stating that you're busy. It's just not accepted and we need to overcome that. But then the balance is and how do I leverage the resources against the expectation and how do I how do I fulfil my client expectation. And from a field service point of view, I'm very curious how many companies have a similar field service structure as we do to where we're delivering field service as a service. And how do you deal with these unique demands by client yet keep your scalability and overall optimized process in the field? For example, we have one client to where you cannot refer to the manager on duty as the manager, you will get booted and banned from their locations.  They're supposed to be called captains, and if my field engineer walks into one of those locations and ask where the offices instead of where the bridge is. If they ask, can I talk to the manager instead of can I talk to the captain, they're practically getting a hard band from that store. They're no longer welcome to return. But how do you across 1000 brands that we support, how do you get the technician all the information they need to be successful? Deliver the service at profit, it's gotten really hard because I feel that people are just not as satisfied with simple anymore. The complexity of delivery has really, really, really gone crazy.

Customer 3

• F: I come from a completely different environment of a of a global company that has service stations and service locations around the globe. But I think the challenge is a bit similar in our case, even though we are a corporation, each country has its own ways of working. And we are still in the process of rolling out. We have just this year rolled FSM to North America on top of some of the European countries that we've been already supporting. And I see that a very similar challenge there, maybe not in terms of knowledge and processes, but even more in terms of the technology. So, I think that is a big learning that OK, how do you on one hand, implement a global solution, but on the other hand do not sacrifice the local efficiencies. Maybe some of the local adaptations to the customer needs. So I think that's one of the learnings I can share kind of beginning back on what we did describe.
• R: I just wanted to make one comment, which is if you go back maybe say 10 years ago, everyone was talking about global standardization in service and obviously to an extent that is important. You can't have complete chaos or everything completely different everywhere. It's not scalable, manageable, etcetera. But more and more, I do hear your point, which is we need some degree of global standardization, but how do we then also allow for these regionally. Whether it's best practices, whether it's really unique you know elements whether it’s maintaining some precepted level of autonomy, etcetera. There's a step back from just blanket overall standardization to what's the core approach and then how can we allow people to make that their own in some ways without diluting what we're trying to accomplish.
• F: For field operations, for service operations, geography, demography, those are the things that actually in the physical work play a role in differentiating how you set up your network for example, and you have to accommodate for those different setups.

Customer 4

• F: Every one of our customers has different service needs and demands and we even have assets on places that are owned by two different customers. So, when the engineer turns up, he has to change the process in order to depend on what bits faulty. And the other way we cope with it is by using the attributes in the system to set them up accordingly and contractual attributes and things like that. And different workflows so that as they go engage the workflow kicks up and passes information down to their mobile app and all that to help them along the journey. But it's horrible. And you said you've got thousands. Thank goodness we do with big companies in big cities because we only have big cities rather than individual places. So, from a learning point of view, I haven't really learned much this year because we're on a massive planning for next year. We've got one of the biggest years for our company. Next year we have an awful lot of work going on, big changes, so I'll have a lot to talk about at the end of next year. But we haven't really learnt about anything from a system point of view other than that we implemented mobile comms which is pretty cool. But for me, it's been a consolidation, planning, and design sort of year. So, again, you have to take a deep breath, look what you're doing and move forward, and that's what we're doing.

Customer 5

• F: The big challenges, especially for us in Europe, I guess it's mainly for everyone, is if someone has to get replaced on a high technical level, this is pretty difficult, especially in Germany, it's nearly impossible to get this. We are decentralization. It's one of the biggest topics. We are workings in a couple of years already, but this will not be enough. Closer to customers, native speaking is good and important and absolutely what customers need. But this is not enough. In the future we are talking about 100% remote. That we are able to do as much as possible remote. According to the given frame we have now in the European Union new directive, because of cybersecurity and data security, so no wireless anymore in the plans. High restrictions about who is allowed to look at the machines and tracking and tracing. This is a challenge for us in our critical infrastructure industry where we are in, so this a challenge to get a high level of people because when my generation is going to retire and this will happen pretty soon, we will raise a huge gap. In Germany, for example, 20 million people will retire in the next seven years, but only 12 million will come on, so that will not work. This will not work at all and we will have a huge, huge gap here. So the war about the technicians has already started.
• R: That's a very multifaceted challenge, because there's the element of, how do you start evolving service delivery to minimize the need in some ways. So going remote where it's applicable, introducing more self-service, things like that. But then obviously you also have to contend with still being able to attract and hire talent because you're going to need some of it. So there is a lot of different elements that go into that, but certainly a big challenge.

Customer 6

• So, a couple of you said something that I've been thinking about a little bit. I don't know if I have one concise lesson learned. I'm learning a lot in in this phase of my life, and I would say it almost blends entirely between personal and professional. It's very hard for me to just delineate the two. And I think if I were to try and reflect on what's my biggest lesson learned of the year, it's that I’m putting my energy in too many places. And I'm not being smart enough about what I'm focusing on. And there is a lot of reasons for that, but that's probably something I've learned and something I need to figure out how to navigate. And it made me think of your comment about being busy. The other thing I thought about that is particularly in the United States, we tend to use that as a badge of honour and just how messed up that is. That culturally we say I'm so busy. And it's seen as if you're not, you're doing something wrong and I think that's so flawed. But it's also true. If I try and think back on what have I learned this year, I can barely remember what happened last week, let alone January. And I think that's probably similar for a lot of us. And I was recording the podcast that came out last week and I'm interviewing a gentleman who spent the last 25 years in service leadership and just recently made the decision to go out on his own and do some coaching, and we had a really interesting conversation because I was asking him to give some thoughts on these different topics and as he did I really tried to drill down into some of the specifics. So, one of the points we were talking about is the importance as a service leader of self-reflection. Of thinking about what's working, what's not. So, I said to him, and it this was also a question for me selfishly, because I need to do a better job of that, and I am very guilty of just getting wrapped up in the day-to-day. And I said, but as a service leader who's incredibly busy, truly and constantly prioritizing and an all of that, what does that look like? I mean, I understand the importance of self-reflection. But when do you have time to do that? And he said 10 minutes at the end of every day. 10 minutes at the end of every day, I would just get a notepad out and write down whatever came to mind. If I just thought about what went well today. What didn't go well? What am I feeling? What am I thinking? You know what have I learned? Jot it down. And I really liked that point because I think you know it has to become a daily practice if you're trying to look back on a month or six months or a year, you're not going to remember those points in the way that you could, if you just take a few minutes every day and it's also more feasible to spend 5 or 10 minutes a day instead of spending 2 hours a week. For what it's worth, I wanted to share that because I appreciated that point and it's something that I want to try and incorporate into my own schedule next year to try and be able to get a little bit more specific with myself.

Q: Thinking about what is top of mind looking into 2025? What Trend, topic opportunity are you most excited about, or focused on when you think next year?

Customer 1

• A: Profitability, quite frankly, in 2024 we have tried digital transformation really aggressively and as a result the IT budget or the IT cost, I should say, the budget not necessarily, but the IT cost has doubled in our organization. The cost of delivering our service. And we need to take a real close look at the overall profitability with the cost of everything having gone up and our company not being in a position where we can approach our clients and say, pay more per hour, pay more for these services, pay more. And maybe that's our own wrongdoing. But we can't relay all of the cost increases back to our clients. So, we have to take a look at ourselves and increase our profitability, find out where the cost is going. And hate to admit, make some hard decisions and say maybe certain clients aren't working out for the organization the way that they used to be anymore, and start saying no when letting some clients go. It's a very sensitive topic. But overall as a company we've got to take a look at how do we move forward. And how do we truly implement the things that we have today without turning on another IT project. How do we get good at what we're doing today. Standardize the process. Even with the intricacies. How do we deliver service better, faster, more efficient internally without sacrificing our quality and secure in the future of the company.
• R: I was at a workshop on Tuesday and it was run by the Service Council and it was around sustainability. And the Service Council presented some of their data and I think they have a bit of a global audience, but they're mostly US based. So they presented some data on how little of a priority is sustainability is to service leaders. Which I think is more so true here than anywhere. And there was about 35 people in attendance, all different companies, all different industries, and it was interesting because this company was sharing their story, and it's a great story. I mean, they could be seen as the gold standard and protecting what's good is their tagline, and I'm not taking anything away from that, but I asked who was presenting, I said, how different do you think this story would be if the company weren't family owned? And he's like it would be an entirely different story. So that's just the reality that most service leaders are facing. And so, we have to be able to articulate how some of the things we feel matter. Whether that's making room in consideration for innovation that doesn't have an immediate ROI, or whether that's treating people better, or whether that's sustainability, whatever the things are, we have to work on articulating those things in the language of the shareholders, ultimately. And that's the way to make progress. We can't just say like, well, look at what that company has done because they have a different business model.

Customer 2

• F: Just looking forward to IFS Cloud because in April we are switching to IFS Cloud and this will be a hot topic for us. So yeah, let's wait and see. Quite excited.

Customer 3

• F: Yeah, that's part of our road map as well. We're doing a complete system refresh, redesign, new processes, new organization change. There's a lot going on next year. So, it's quite an exciting time. Really looking forward to it.

Customer 4

• F: It would be very interesting to hear about those experiences because we are also already having at least an eye on IFS Cloud, even though we're rolling out now with FSM, but would be good to hear how it went basically.

Customer 5

• F: We are using IFS Cloud, but we are looking at how to use more service functionality within IFS Cloud. We moved to Cloud from other systems, so we didn't use IFS previously. So, such as the transition from FSM or PSO or an existing solution we don't have that experience. But we are in IFS Cloud and we are looking to incorporate more service functionality.

Next CollABoratives: 

• 21 January 2024 10:00 AM US Eastern Time
  IFS Assets CollABorative: Think Tank - EAM Predictions for 2025
   
• 23 January 2024 10:00 AM US Eastern Time
  IFS Service CollABorative: Meet the Member - Remote Service w/ Vivint
   
• 28 January 2024 10:00 AM US Eastern Time
  IFS Digitalization CollABorative: Tech Talk - Maximizing the Value of Your Technology Investment with Brendan Viggers

If you are an IFS Customer and you do not have the next meeting invitation to this CollABorative and would like to join, please click here to fill out the form.