Service CollABorative November 2023 - 2023 Retrospective + 2024 Ramp Up

IFS Service CollABorative - Think Tank Session – 2023 Retrospective + 2024 Ramp Up

Date of Meeting: 09 November 2023 10:00 AM US Eastern Time 

Sarah’s Insights – Top Themes of 2023

Slide: Agenda – November 2023

• I wanted to use today's time to sort of do a bit of a look back on the year, a look ahead to next year, get some feedback from you all, talk a little bit about as much as you guys are willing to share some things with one another and we'll see how we get on. So, what I want to do to start is just talk a little bit about 2023. I'm going to sort of recap what happened in this group and if we want to talk about any other major trends, themes, etcetera, we can do that. I want to share with each other, maybe a lesson learned or an observation that we're reflecting on from the year. Take a look at 2024 and talk a bit about what we think 2024 might bring, what some of the focus areas are for you all going into next year, etcetera. And then I also want to spend some time getting some feedback from you all and talking about what we would like to see in the collaboratives as we go into year two.

Slide: 2023 Retrospective – Key Themes

• So, if we take a look at the sessions we had in this group throughout the year, just to sort of reflect back, obviously those sessions are split between what we call Think Tanks, where they're more sort of topical discussions sharing among members, not necessarily talking specifically about IFS technology, although they could. And then we have the Tech Talk sessions where we bring in different IFS leaders to talk about the area of the business that they had up, share knowledge with you all, but also spend some time listening, answering questions, etcetera. If we think back to the goals that I had when I set out to create the CollABoratives this year, it's to have you all feel closer to IFS and for us to have more frequent opportunities to hear what’s important to you both in your businesses and related to how you use IFS technology, and also to give you an opportunity to get to know and to learn more from one another.
• So, in February if you remember back that far, feels like a long, long time ago, we had a session with Doctor Elizabeth Moran where we talked about change leadership and some of the differences between change management and change leadership, some of those if you remember specifically she talks a lot about the neuroscience behind change leadership. I think that's always an important topic and I liked her approach, so hopefully you guys found that session valuable.
• In April, we had a discussion around attracting and retaining talent.
• September we spoke about how remote capabilities in a variety of areas are changing and will continue to change service delivery. And then that obviously ties into some other topics as well.
• And then in terms of the Tech Talk sessions, we had two R&D sessions with Stephen Jeffs Watts, one in March and one in October, we had a session about IFS Success with Matt Kempson in May, a session on Customer Experience with Cathy Hall in June, and then we have the session next month with Raymond Jones.
• So, if we look back in in these groups, what we accomplished overall, and I'm going to keep going just because we will get to a point where we open things up for discussion and where I would really like to get some feedback from you all talking about what did we miss, what do we need to focus on next year, etcetera.

Slide: 2023 Retrospective - #1 Lesson Learned

• But before we do that, I'd like to chat if we could about a reflection or a lesson learned from 2023. You all know that I'm a big believer in this idea of coming together as a community, connecting, sharing. It's just a good way to get each other thinking and so I really like this quote from Ken Robinson. “Curiosity is the engine of achievement” and I'm curious to hear from you all, something that you observed, learned or are thinking about as we come to the end of 2023.
• But I thought I would start by sharing mine. It relates to these groups, but also, just a lot of other things and that is, I'm very passionate person and I think overall that's a pretty good thing. I have a lot of conviction behind what I do and I believe in it a lot and I shared in the group yesterday if some of you may know this, some of you may not. But before I came to IFS, I was in the media, so I was the editor in chief of a publication. And it was a very, very different environment in many, many ways. But one of them is, I had so much control over the process. I was at the helm of the publication, so if we wanted to make creative changes, that was largely on me to do, if we missed the deadline, it was my fault, right? There was a lot that was in my control and that was great, but my lesson to get to the point is when you have a lot of passion, to see change come to fruition, you also have to have a lot of patience and that is a lesson that I have been learning at IFS and I am learning and, I think it's been a growth opportunity for me to understand that when you come in to an organization that has 6000 employees, many of whom also have a lot of passion and a lot of drive and a lot of great ideas. What it looks like to bring change forward is just not the same and I think I've struggled with that a little bit because I see the vision and I want to go, go, go and sometimes that's just not realistic. And so having patience, if you really believe in what you're passionate about and taking the time to see that come together is what I am working on. So that's mine.

Slide: 2024: A Look Ahead – Trends Top of Mind

• So, if we take a look at 2024 and we'll get into what each of you think and are focused on, there's a huge amount of buzz around AI right now and good, better and different that's going to continue. I think a lot of it is good when it's grounded in business value and practicality. I think it is something that because it's in every headline and there's a lot of different definition and context to it. I think it's also something that can be a distraction from some of the work that needs to get done first, but I think that's something we'll continue to work through next year.
• I think most organizations are and continuing to be very cost conscious. So that sort of amplifies the need to work smarter. I don't think many companies are at the point where they're cost conscious to the extent of wanting to negatively impact the customer experience, the employee experience. So, we need to look for the opportunities within operations to work smarter and maximize efficiency while also maintaining the employee and customer satisfaction.
• I think leadership and company culture continue to be a big area of evolution and are very important, particularly as we mentioned change leadership and all of that and the talent gap. I said evolution only because I think with things like remote service are some of the ways the frontline role is changing. I think what that gap looks like and some of the actions we can take around it are changing.

Customer Feedback:

If anyone else would be willing to share, it can be a lesson you've learned in this group. It could be a lesson you've learned in your role. It could just be something you're thinking about. Could be personal. Its completely up to you, but if anyone has anything they’d be willing to share related to this, that would be great.

• F: Its quite interesting actually because I had a quite an interesting meeting today with one of my major customers. And one of the lessons that I've learned and I'll keep learning, but I've learned again today and this year is that we're in a quite a big stage of change in our business. We're going through another change, we're trying to move things forward, we're trying to make things better and implement different systems and sometimes your major stakeholder company that you think is behind you doesn't necessarily align with your strategy, and I really believe in the strategy and the way that we are going is the right way, but the stakeholder companies are not with you. And there are people that fund the contract and they're the people that ultimately are going to sign it off. It becomes a bit disheartening, and you've got to realize that sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the overall strategic goal of your customer and to win your customer, it means that sometimes you've got to give up a little bit of what you think is actually the right way forward, because ultimately they're going to end up with what they want, which is what ultimately we want, which is how we get our money. So, what I'm learning is that sometimes I have to roll back my own ambitions for how things look and align them more with what the customers are trying to do. Which is a bit of a shame, but unfortunately that's the way it is sometimes.
• R: And I think sometimes in that situation, not in an I told you so way by any means, but sometimes you have to realize it's like parenting, right? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Sometimes you have to let things play out.  And you have to be humble enough to know you could be wrong. But you also need to be confident enough that if that vision you have is the right one, if what you believe is the best approach truly is, you can't force it to happen. But there might have to be some fits and starts before ultimately, it comes back around and then obviously you can't say, well, I told you guys. You have to just internally say OK, you know you were right and here we go.
• F: No, you're absolutely right. It's just that it I feel it stifles innovation a little bit because we're always trying to move the world forward and there's an inertia by our customers that are holding us back because maybe it's because they don't want change and they are scared of change and they don't believe that everything's rosy on their world. It’s just a bit annoying.
• R: Yeah. And I think looking for ways to not let yourself be deflated, defeated, disheartened and continue bringing the same energy to the situation that you would, even if it were going the way you wanted it to, that's challenging, it's really challenging. Recently I was at Field Service Europe and I had the opportunity to present and I was having a chat offline with the woman Charlotte that I presented with and we were talking about a lot of different things. But this idea of staying energized, and she has recently adopted a practice that I thought was a really good idea, which was taking 5 minutes at the end of the week, and this can be work related or it could be a combination of work and life. I guess it depends on how you want to do it, but just journaling about what's something this week that gave me energy and what something this week that took my energy with the idea of being able to go back and reflect on that and think about then are there ways to maximize the things that give you energy, minimize things that don't, or do you have to just accept that some of the things that took your energy are just, it is what it is type of stuff.

• F: One big lesson learned was to go a little bit slower on the way forward, and you reach your goal much faster than running. In the beginning of this year, it was a lot of work, very stressful, different requirements, different people put work on my desk and so on and so on and it ended up in some illness in Easter. So, things were not so good. And nearly one to two months to realize, OK, you cannot do everything in one day. You need to prioritize points and put some things in a row and learn a new word. And this word was no. So, say sorry I can't do this at this time. And I think it's still a learning process for me as well because people around accept this in this situation. But few months later, they think ohh, he’s back, and he’s in full shape, and now we can put all this work on him again. And so you have time sometimes to renew this word, no and say it  takes more time and things. Yeah, sometimes you need a wake up call to realise yourself and bring things in the right order. And hopefully that will be something for the next round, as a learning curve that I will continue in the 2024.
• R: Yeah, you know, two things come to mind on that. One is another alternative to no is not now. And sometimes I think for someone that has trouble saying no, it has to be true, I mean, because otherwise you're going to have people coming back to a week later, and maybe you need to give some parameters around that, but I think that can be an option. The other thing I'm thinking and I struggle with this too very much and I think sometimes it's pressure from the environment but sometimes it's pressure we put on ourselves and I think when it's more of pressure you put on yourself, I think you're having a harder time with saying no than someone is hearing it. And that's something that that takes effort to overcome. I’m no there yet. I’m with you. I’m still working through that, but that’s a good one.

• F: I think I said to you earlier this year, culture eats strategy for breakfast. And it's still resonates inside me that we have a great strategy. We have people who agree with that strategy. We invest in that strategy and then when it comes to actually delivering that strategy at the call phase, everybody steps back again and it reminds me of the picture. Who wants change? Everybody stands up in the room. Who wants to lead change, nobody stands up and then something happened. I've been sitting in an airplane for 50 hours in the last week and a bit. So, your brain sits and thinks about different things and something that happened in our business and I don't know if it resonates with everybody else. I'm a profit centre or I was a profit centre. And then I suddenly realized we're a diesel engine in the modern world. Nobody actually wants us. We’re dirty. We're seen as a necessity that's expensive to run and everybody wants this electric engine. We're actually the electric engine as well, with the driver of change, we’re the driver of innovation, we've constantly set ourselves high targets to achieve. So, if you think on the environment, cutting carbon footprint is one of our targets we all do. And without us, business actually stops. But putting that across to our sales forces, putting that across to our management to say invest, and in the same analogy, just wouldn't work. But I've tried it on one or two people and it might sound really awful, but I'm going to say it, lower down from the management and they all nod their heads and they suddenly realize we drive profit. If you're a profit centre, where I live, we open the doors. So, sales is the cream on top and we have got The Dirty jobs. We have got the biggest amount in the heaviest weight with inside the car because with the diesel engine that runs it and that's what the customers see, it's what the customers hear before we come around the corner. And it works for those who represents us, and we've got to actually be proud of it, and actually start getting the world to realize that there are ways that we can be seen for the business as a positive, and if they invest in that positive, they’re going to invest in the future of the business. The sales can then sell from it.

• F: We're going live with cloud, so I've missed several meetings cause I've been doing nothing, but testing, testing and testing. So, my role at my company, I'm the warehouse assembly manager and then I dabble into the repair side of the business, which has a lot of service. So, my outlook for 2024 is our goal as an organization, how do we start to incorporate this repair service? Taking customers assets, holding customers assets, where are they located in the IFS business system, so when you have a big customer that comes in and says I want to see my asset and instead of looking at a spreadsheet or piece of paper or something like that, we go into the business system and say it's in this location and we can walk that customer to that location and say there's your valve. And increasing that whole pool program and stuff. So that's my outlook for 2024 with service because that's going to be the big driver for our organization going forward is service and then trying to figure out how do we make that work with inventory and inventory control and accountability and all that. So that's really where my outlook is looking for 2024.

• F: We went live with cloud in October of 2022. So just over a year now and as we were in the depths of preparing to go live and staring up at the top of the mountain from the bottom, one of the mantra that we adopted was “everything is figureoutable”. So this is  displayed in my office here. This is actually given to me by some of our leadership at my company and we go back to that every time that we think, jeez, we're not going to be able to get this. We're not going to be able to get this. No, we can get it. It's figure-out-able. So, we just got to dig in, get the right resources involved and climb to the top. And that's what we did.
• R: There's a lot of this, whether you're thinking about overcoming the challenges or whether you're thinking about grappling with the challenges, it's a lot of tenacity. It's a lot of, just don't give up. Don't get deflated. Don't get overwhelmed. It's just keep one foot in front of the other. I have to remind myself of that too. When I get overwhelmed, it's always because I'm thinking too far ahead and it's bringing it back to, OK, yeah, we'll get there. But what do we need to do right now.

What's top of mind for you as we as we head into 2024?

• I appreciate your slide with the AI. And I almost look at AI five years ago, everyone was talking about IoT, right? And it was just this big buzzword. And no one really ever helped me understand how our company was going to benefit from the Internet of Things. And I'm in the exactly the same place with AI. I understand what AI is, I use chat GPT, I see the promise, but I've yet to have somebody explain to me how my life's going to be different in 2024-2025 because of AI. And so again, very much like the Internet of Things. Never really did do it for me. It was just a buzzword and certainly connected machines are all around us, that is wasn’t like a day where we all talked about ohh all of a sudden machines are connected that happened on March the 15th of 2017, but now there are certainly a lot more of machines that are connected today than they were in 2014, when I first started going to field Service USA. So for me, that's really the theme is what do you make of all this stuff related to AI.
• R: I think that's a good point. And it parallels a point that came up in our conversation yesterday and for what it's worth, and this is just my personal opinion or observation, I actually think it's quite different. I think the conversations that are happening right now are quite different than IoT because I think IoT was a lot more of an incremental innovation in the sense that, it's an enabler of other things that are happening, but it isn't the thing, and so let me explain that a little bit. This is what I said in in yesterday's conversation.  So, I think if you look back a little bit further, 10 years, 15 years, every headline you would read, it was digital transformation, every headline, and it was a term that in essence is relatively vague in what it means specifically to your business. But it was a significant shift for most organizations in taking what was largely manual operations and digitizing all of that. So I would call that a pretty fundamental change in the way we all worked. Now, where are companies are at having digitally transformed, varies. I mean, I still talk to companies that are using paper, and that's still a reality for some. And then there's others who have not only digitized their business, but really are at a point where they're ready for the next wave. I would consider IoT as part of that wave of digital transformation. I think on a progression. To me AI is more representative of the next big shift, which is like an intelligence transformation. Because now that we exist, most of us generally speaking in a digital landscape, that doesn't necessarily mean it's an intelligent optimized digital landscape. It just means it's a digital landscape. And AI then becomes a very vague term, like digital transformation was, but AI is and not just AI, but the whole lump of technologies that that exist within that sort of general term, are what will allow I think the next wave of significant innovation because it's then taking this digital landscape and layering in intelligence in a way that really allows us to again fundamentally change the business. So it allows that next wave of really automating manual efforts, just all sorts of different things. So, I think it's exciting. I think what happened with digital transformation and the risk of what's happening with AI is similar in the sense that people get so excited about the headline that they under estimate the work that goes into doing it. And so I think what we're at risk of happening today is companies who want to do all the AI stuff that haven't really digitally transformed to the point of being ready to do that because, we saw companies, I'm talking 15 years ago, that were like well, we're digitally transforming, but really all they were doing was taking manual really crappy efforts and digitizing them. And that's not really digitally transforming. You're not optimizing. You're not reflecting on the process and making it better. You're just layering something on top of it. I think we run the risk today of companies that don't really have a good digital foundation that are just racing to invest in AI because they think they should based on headlines. And that's risky. So, all of that to say, that's my take on where we are. Your point is a very good one that also came up in yesterday's conversation, which is a gentleman shared that he feels that IFS and others, assume that our customers know what this means to them. So it's we're going to, here's how we can help without educating on here's why it's important that we help. Or here's where this help is beneficial. And so, I think that's something that I mentioned to him. I think it's a really good point. I think we need to be conscious of knowing people are in different phases both in that digital transformation, but also in their knowledge of what does all of this mean to us. And I think that's an area we can help a bit, along with the actual technical innovation.
• F: So, I want to put another perspective on what you are saying, and I guess we are talking at the moment about AI and I think it’s the same at every company, someone reads this, someone has heard about open AI and ChatGPT and a lot of good and maybe not so good articles about that, but please think back to 2007. The iPhone was released from Apple, a lot of companies before coming around with a smart phone, Nokia and Palm and HTC and everybody was thinking yeah, it's some nice tool, but nobody was really thinking that it was helpful. For some nerds it was interesting, but it was not for everybody or not for daily work. And then someone came around in this area, it was Apple in my point of view and put these ideas in a completely new shape and make some clever combination of ideas that were already there, and when the first iPhone was put on the market. Of course, there's a lot of marketing and money and image and so on, and I think smartphones now, nobody wants to miss it today because it's so comfortable and I think the same situation maybe 2005, 2003, we have at the moment with AI, a lot of companies are playing around and doing things, thinking, but I think in the next 2-3, maybe five years, someone will have some great idea. Think open AI and behind Microsoft and ChatGPT is one point, no single application, but I think in the next 2-3 years someone will have the great idea to put these mechanisms in the right combination and we have something when we are talking in 15 years and say, oh, that was a great moment when 2025 company invented these like Apple did it with iPhone. So, we will see what happens there.
• R: Yeah, there's definitely a lot that is going to be interesting to watch and see how it plays out, and at the same time, you all are tasked with meeting the needs of the business today and also thinking about what that future is going to look like.

• F: Talking about IoT and machine learning and AI, we collect loads of information from our devices and that's transformed the way that we actually do business, to the data coming in transform the way that we manage the data, mange the systems, it was transformation as you said, but interestingly now that we've got this, they call it data lakes, data seas, we got this huge ball of data that's where we want to start spinning back and making use of that, making sense of that. Because only a small amount of it are actually incidents being logged, a small amount of actually turning into tangible to go to the field, there's a huge pile of it that is messages like hello I'm here, and I'm not here, and this has happened, and that transactions happened, this happened, and that sort of stuff. And understanding how they turn into incidents and do they relate to incidents, is it a collection, is it collection on part, and using our learned data and AI to feed back into engineering to fix it at source, rather than putting a stick and tape on it by doing preventative maintenance which is what everyone says, let's use this data for estimations, I would have backed engineering to say, hang on a second, we've spotted that this happens so many times and then we get this instance, can you fix that at source to see if that is the root cause of that instance. And some of that data may on paper be completely intangible and say well why would that message result in that incident occurring, but that's the whole point of AI, is to go and look for those patterns and those connections and those things and that's what I'm quite excited about is looking at that information, and there's a lot of it to look at so it's not going to be something that we're going to do over night but I want to start that journey.
• R: I think it is exciting and I think that's where the big change is, in the sense of, the story itself isn't all that different than what we were talking about 10 years ago when it was, what if we could get our data from the machines, move to predictive environment, it's the same story, it's just now becoming reasonably possible to do.
• F: But I'm not that concerned about predictive maintenance. I'm more concerned about fixing the engineering solution to start with, and actually having a full holistic circle of, we improve the device of the source, which improves the reliability which has a knock on effect with predictive maintenance and vice versa. And there's going to be a point where you can't move any further, but that's what I'm really excited to look about.
• F: Yeah. So, you made the exactly point I think that I'm struggling with, is to me a lot of these technologies were focused around not being able to find service techs, making that job easier, the Silver Tsunami, and all my guys are retiring and I want to take all this data and all these solutions and make them available. We had Help Lightning and that was going to be the answer that we were going to have our experts back in the Home Office teaching the young guys how to fix these machines in the field through augmented reality and none of that has come true for me. I'm still trying to find techs and train them up to be good techs and what I'm finding is a lot of these technology topics, whether it be AI or IoT or all these other things, want to make it so that it's focused on the service tech and making the service tech of the future a reality. But what happens is, you get the conversation and it goes off to oh, wait, no, this is about improving the product or no this is about making sales to the customer and so all of these technology things that we started at, AI can be exactly that for us, instead of us going down the path of using AI to make the service techs job easier, we're going to use it to develop CNC programs for applications, engineering departments, so all of the AI resources are going to go toward that, instead of towards what's important to me, which is this field service tech of the future. How is the field service tech going to be doing his job in 2030? And that's my job, to focus on that, but then all these other technologies affect our company and many very different ways and I just don't know that AI is really the tool. We just dropped Help Lightning. Loved it, I think we were pretty early adopters of it, had it for five years, but now all of a sudden people were telling me they're using FaceTime instead of Help Lightning. I'm like, so tell me again why I'm paying for Help Lightning? And so, the technology just got lacked, and I'm afraid some of these others are going to do the same thing. And at the end of the day, how's the service tech doing his job in 2030?
• R: Yeah. And I think part of a presentation I did, I think it was 2019 at Field Service Europe, but it was about how you guys use PSO which is an AI enabled tool. But it was about the fact that, one of the things that's awesome but also challenging about these technologies is that they can do a lot of different things for companies, and so we talked about the importance of knowing your success criteria. Like you have to know what it is you're trying to accomplish. And then use it to drive toward that.
• F: Yes, you have to absolutely define the story, otherwise you'll end up going off down a million branches and you've got a measure, your success criteria.  Absolutely. And that's something that we're trying and I could have actually just given that as the answer to the thing, is that we're looking to really define our success criteria, to use that data and that's what I'm really trying to engage with people is to get those stories defined. How the hell do we use this data? Get that success criteria defined and then that becomes our goal.
• R: I do understand your point, and I’m guessing there’s a couple different things at play for you, both in clarifying what is possible, but also clarifying then prioritizing internally what the company values and those can both be challenging.

Slide: IFS CollABoratives: Year 1 – Feedback
Slide: IFS CollABoratives: Year 2 – What’s on Your Wishlist?

So I want to spend a little bit of time getting some feedback from you all on the CollABoratives, this format, etcetera. Just thinking back on this group, to be honest, I think this year when pretty well. There's certainly things that that I hoped to achieve that we haven't and will work toward next year, but any feedback I guess on what we experienced here in 2023 and then we'll talk about what we might like to see next year.

• F: I think I'm really happy that it is not a big change from the format we had before, so that sounds to me that the former format was as well a really good one and you keep a lot of things in this new one. The mixture you have already mentioned in the recap and the IFS technical things like IFS Success or the technical sessions with Stephen Jeffs Watts, I think that was a really good one. Unfortunately I could not join every session, it's only 11 in the year, and sometimes I have collisions with other meetings and other appointments. But what I get from this year, it was a good mixture. It was overall, some technical sessions or some product related session, methodology something like this that was good. What I like to see what it is not, realizing from your side it's in my time zone very late in the day and it's nearly the last thing I do on a day when I joined this meeting and afterwards I'm tired and going home and sleep hopefully well, but to change the whole time system in the world will be too huge challenge for us so that I can join this in the morning. But nevertheless, if this is only the thing we can change, I think we are in a very good away with this group. And of course, feedback to everyone else where we open discussion and where we could feedback on situations. I think that is what I found this year as a very positive thing in this group.
• R: I appreciate that, and I think the point about time is tough because we chatted about that yesterday as well and I think I really do feel there's so much benefit in being able to not just have these be regional discussions, to be able to have that mix, but it does make it hard, because we have people from California, Europe, etcetera.

• F: Just generally like the format, I do like the mix between the more general topics and the IFS specific stuff and I'd like to see you keep that. One interesting thing I don't know if anybody else has this experience, I love that you send out the recordings for the ones that I miss, and I dutifully mark those in my inbox and I don't think I've ever actually gone back and listened to recordings. Just there's so many other things demanding my attention that if I don't make the time or whatever reason I can't get here, even if I wanted to and had all the right reasons to want to listen to it on the recording, I haven't been able to get that done. But don't stop doing it, because there might be really important one that I'll want someday. Just curious if anybody else has benefited from the recordings?
• F: I feel the same way, but that exceeds far beyond IFS Collaboratives just alone. I'm always getting recordings and emails like look into later, then a year later I archive them because I just can't get to it.
• R: We're probably all in the same boat there, but Jessica does type a synopsis of notes, which if you ever just wanted to glance through those would just take a couple minutes and then you would know if there was any points you wanted to try and make it a point to time stamp and listen to. But, I think even just coming when you can and engaging in real time is great, and it's never been the expectation that people that are involved are able to make or watch every single session. I've always said you'll get out of it what you put into it which is if you sign up and never come you know they're not going to gain much and if you can make it as often as you can then you know that's wonderful.
• F: And then for a what I'd like to see going forward, one of the other things I think you do that's really good, but I don't do it as often enough as the future of field service podcasts. It would be wonderful if you would take 10 minutes or even 5 minutes at some of these sessions to tell us, hey, and you do this from time to time and I've taken you up on that is, hey, I just did a feature field Service podcast 2 weeks ago on this topic. And I think you all be really interested in it. I like it when you do that and I think making that a regular part of this session to say, here's something I did good in the last couple months that you might have missed on another format.
• R: Yeah, that's a really good point. That's probably something we could just work into our sessions, even if we did it as follow up of hey, thanks for attending today's session, here’s a couple of related podcasts or articles that you might find valuable. Whether they come up in the conversation or we just reflect back and think of a few, that might be a really good idea.

Are there certain topics, whether you think about it topically like for a Think Tank or IFS related for someone we could bring in to speak to XY or Z that that you would want to prioritize for 2024?

• F: Yeah, I think what we stated a few minutes earlier, how AI can enable technicians and/or business with technicians. I think I know that IFS is working in the labs massively on AI and maybe that will be a good opportunity to provide IFS a little bit of feedback or proof some ideas they have. We have to see how many times we have, how deep we will go, maybe it's two sessions. That is one thing and the second one is quite close on that. Maybe if we have some opportunity to get some expert on hype. Seems like with AI, know how we can use this new technology or something like this. We have to be aware that a few technologies, maybe the same old stuff we heard from a few years ago, but to identify the right one and right metrology and the right technology for us and for the business that will be so two things.

• F: I think something around hiring and retaining talent. I remember at field Service USA, Josh Zolin who wrote Blue is the New White would be good, just talking about 2023-2024, where do you find talent? What we're doing now with high schools and the technical centres in Ohio here, every group of high schools has one, what we used to call vo-tech that you can opt out your junior or senior year and go. And we now bring those people in twice a year and have all the kids just come around. That’s playing the really long game because they're high school kids, but just trying to get people excited about field service and working in a trade.

• F: A few mega short presentations, maybe 1-2 slides and share their experience. What they did, maybe for AI or for such a solution. I think through this whole area we are from US, West Coast, East Coast up to Germany, I think there will be a good opportunity to see different perspectives or maybe on the same issue. We are all working in a service, we have all our daily work and our challenges and maybe what we did as a missionary building company with AI or what we are thinking about AI maybe as a good input for someone else. And so we can learn a little bit from each other and exchange experience, that will maybe be a session next year.

If you are an IFS Customer and would like to watch the recording, please email jessica.foon@ifs.com

A copy of the slides can be found in the attachments section below.

Next Meeting: 12 December 2023 10:00 AM US Eastern Time
IFS Combined CollABorative - Tech Talk Session with Raymond Jones, SVP, Unified Support at IFS

If you are an IFS Customer and you would like to join the CollABoratives, please click here to fill out the form.