Field Service East 2008

September 9-12, 2008 ■ Hyatt Regency ■ Atlanta, GA
www.fieldserviceeast.com

PRELIMINARY AGENDA

Conference Workshops: September 9, 2008

Remote Monitoring and Intelligent Device Monitoring

Remote Diagnostics: Establishing Value-Add Into Your Customers Networks

• Considering your key drivers:
• Recurring revenues
• Differentiation
• Process efficiency improvements
• Business intelligence
• Determining service bundles with customer segments and value
• Restorative
• Opportunisitic
• Preventative
• Increasing the average service revenue per technician while reducing the required labor workforce
• Specifying the features and functionality of the software and data analysis tools to further meet their expectations

Effectively Integrating Prognostics And Health Management Into Your Product Design

• Pulling faulty information from various systems
• Executing analytical processes at a system level
• Effectively changing the existing tool and technical data you’re going to need
• Ensuring appropriate skill sets are effectively matched throughout the change implementation

Exploring Beyond Diagnostics: Gaining Predictability And Projecting ‘Life-Used’ Remotely

• Effectively pulling centered data from multiple sources and streamlining your analysis processes
• Determining whether the article might need replaced, repaired or upgraded
• Adding prognostic knowledge into design
• Trend analysis and prediction
• Detection of impending failures
• Considering cost factors of implementing prognostics
• Non-recurring engineering costs
• Per unit costs of prognostics themselves
• False alarm costs
• Continuously monitoring the health of the system including:
• Approaches for resource efficient data collection
• Algorithms for data reduction and parameter extraction
• Software for damage assessment and methods for identifying and analyzing precursors based on failure mechanisms
• Techniques for predictions that can be used for assisting maintenance and logistics decisions

Panel Session: Best Practices In Overcoming Security Concerns For Remote Monitoring

• Tackling the vast majority of data
• defining user guidelines and due diligence of IT during technology evaluations
• Reassuring security
• reporting on all user interactions with network devices and servers to ensure compliance
• Verifying network infrastructure capacity before deployment to meet customer expectations
• Enhancing service fulfillment through assurance, validation and troubleshooting activities for embedded technologies
• Creating a standard for establishing value of your systems security capabilities

Knowledge Management

Effective Content Management: Exploring When, With And How Much Autonomy To Allow Into Your KMS

• Understanding the information lifecycle in your organizations structure
• Making document authors accountable for owning and maintaining content
• Exploring practices for delivering tailored content to customers, shareholders, staff, management and partners
• Delivering service standard reporting and support compliance obligations
• Exploring the continuing challenge of convergence trends that may affect data collection in the future

Panel Session: Pushing Institutional Knowledge To The Customer Through Self-Service Initiatives

• Evaluating the value of whether or not to utilize a third-party tool
• Ciphering through the necessary and relevant data from technical troubleshooting databases
• Organizing whole manuals, resources and bulletins into a central location
• Developing internal and external self-help guidelines for follow-up

Utilizing Knowledge Management Systems To Aid Asset Management

• Gathering all of your data samplings and determining a workflow for routine maintenance/repair
• Developing an cross-functional asset team to manage troubleshooting and remote monitoring of disparate assets
• Identifying tools to measure improvements in field data collection teams
• Avoiding common pitfalls in design tools and implementation through work order management processes

Developing A Knowledge Management Strategy And Business Case To Replace Your Current Systems

• Getting a better understanding of off-the-shelf products and solutions
• Making the business case and exploring
• Transaction time
• Time saved on authoring and editing
• Putting a price on knowledge
•  Turning a low performer into a high performer
• Effectively categorizing numerous methods of accessibility and efficiency in distribution 
• Making information accessible from first call to delivery to support your technicians throughout the change

Main Conference Agenda: September 10-11, 2008

Growing Business Through Service Activities

Sculpting Your Customer’s Perception: Stepping Outside A Traditional Break/Fix  Service Model

• Considering alternative methods to problem resolution –
• providing navigational options
• Evaluating roadblocks that would prevent your customers from getting what they want
• Assisting in unanticipated or irresolvable barriers such as price, availability and features of service
• Determining whether or not there are areas of cross-channel experience (gaps, disconnects, distractions) that invite customers down an undesirable path
• Providing customer access to transactional, services, and product information allowing for easy engagement
• Continually testing and improving the experience

Effectively Managing Your Service Parts Business In An Increasingly Global Market

• Establishing key criteria for selecting a network of global partners
• Identifying KPI’s for monitoring and managing their performance on an ongoing basis
• ensuring effective interworking between partners
• Facilitating speed of service through effective information flow across your network of partners
• Drawing up a robust contract to optimize lead and response times and ensure cost-effective service delivery
• Ensuring your people, processes and technologies are fully aligned across international boundaries

OEM’s Servicing OEM’s: Exploring Cross Market Training For Field Technicians

• Developing methods to hone tech skills in product sales, services cross-selling and upselling
• Securing executive buy-in for resources
• Adjusting to the learning curve involved with new product guidelines
• Providing advanced troubleshooting training for field supervisor and management
• Investing in both internal and external training to encourage on-going skill growth
• Product specific training
• Certificate training
• Soft-skill training: Customer relationship management
• Mentorship tools
• Management techniques
• Implementing continuous processes that track the skills used in field and assess new skills for increased productivity

Panel Session: Global Issues Concerning Mobility And Integration

• Evaluating cost and the number of intra-regional assignments and long-term assignments abroad
• Identifying qualified resources to manage these assignments
• Establishing specific internal controls to address compliance risks
• Developing metrics to fully analyze global mobility effectiveness
• Recognizing the opportunity from these assignments as a means to strengthen leadership development

Building Consistency And Predictability Into A Global Service Model

• Appraising complete life cycle support for all project stages including planning, design, testing and deployment
• Defining specific roles and deliverables for enterprise-wide integration
• Analyzing the impact the enterprise-wide integration will have on existing models
• Supporting multi-site developments through distributed work models that cover various global scenarios and management guidelines
• Deploying an operating model that ensures client achieve long-term value

Panel Session: Exploring The Latest Developments And Tools For Your Self-Service Initiatives

• Identifying a platform to offer all self-service capabilities via the web
• Utilizing different elements of self-service for existing processes and techniques
• Avoiding the assumption of what your customer wants: identifying tools to establish a profile
• Effective marketing and education tools to make your customers familiar and aware of your offerings

Outsourcing and Partnering With Third-Parties

Improving Your Cost Control Methodologies Within Service When Third Party Outsourcing

• Examining your core vs. content: Ensuring key characteristics and processes remain under your responsibilities
• Developing a best-in-calls vendor management strategy: identifying fluid opportunities between outsourcing and insourcing
• Examining the internal and external pressure that outsourcing will have on your field service team
• Identifying where your service business is growing and the quality of equipment being service to lower your cost structure and become more efficient in weaker areas 

Panel Discussion: Overcoming The Challenges Of Successfully Managing Your Third Party Service Vendor Relationships

• Effectively integrating your vendors into your enterprise-wide customer service strategy
• Fully understanding the capabilities of your third party vendors technical infrastructure
• Implementing key tools to ensure that your brand is reliably represented at each service call
• Utilizing your vendor relationships to reduce costs and increase customer loyalty
• Balancing the unique skill set of each of your vendors:
• Call Centers
• On-site Technicians
• Logistics
• Establishing a hierarchy to effectively communicate and follow-up with team leaders

Mobility

Getting Continuous Improvement And Lower Costs In The Mobile Support Functions

• Understanding what the “next-level” of real-time data capture means to your service organization
• Determining the level of efficiency of each support function tied into the process
• Optimizing individual assignments from dispatch integration to order workflow
• Measuring the return delivered by each support function
• Going beyond capturing: Defining vital resources and key assets from support to delivery

 
Identifying The Right Mobile Solutions For Your Organization: Outlining Gaps In Your Current Workforce Management Processes

• Examining current practices within your organization and pinpointing areas for improvement
• Gathering key data and feedback from all service teams
• Identifying information inaccuracies being distributed
• Building the business case for adopting new mobile technology
• Analyzing immediate and long-term ROI from mobile solution investments

Building In Wireless Connectivity Into Your Product Design

• Coordinating with IT and engineering to determine wireless development solutions across product lines
• Pulling from a strong foundation of device knowledge, experience and development equipment
• Effectively integrating functionality into your product
• Identify which operations  (i.e. field engineering, customer information systems, outage management, work management systems) to implement the software
• Determining what skills set are required vs. what skills sets the end users have
• Deciding to go with an on or off-the-shelf product
• Assessing the need to use a third-party transforming tool or not
• Implementing a cost benefit analysis model to predict expected long-term ROI
• Continuously monitoring operational performance of each support function

Optimizing Enterprise Mobility Upgrades

• Utilizing six sigma to evaluate existing system efficiencies and evaluating current market solutions
• Upgrading your dispatching systems from manual outdated processes to automated processes
• Effectively bringing your technicians up-to-speed with new systems and capabilities
• Shifting specialized groups to handle everything in terms of services and repair

Panel Session: Outlining The Immediate Benefits Of Evolving Your Workforce Management Processes Into Top-Notch Mobile Solutions

• Improving turn around time for completion of work order from initiation to close out
• Improving work order performance and tracking individual account developments
• Increasing field force efficiencies and back-office response time
• Achieving clear communication across service departments

Creating Interfaces Between Mobile And Back-Office Applications

• Exploring benefits of grass-roots solutions vs. major software programs 
• Effectively capturing field and operational data and ensuring effective communication channels coming and going
• Streamlining the data feed from the field to back office operations 
• Proving efficiencies in usability and field performance

Talent Management

Recruitment: Finding The Right Technical Mix And Flexibility Necessary For Your Workforce

• Identifying the necessary skill sets desired for your service organization and functions

• Continuously assessing the training needs of both your customers and your field service team

• Providing your customers as well as your team with training on an on-going basis to optimize service efficiency

• From a manual to an automated FS organization; narrowing the discrepancy between technical and software skill-sets

• Effectively providing your team with equipment and modification updates

• “They’re not marketers” – Teaching your FS team how effectively communicate with your customers

• Using incentives and KPIs to ensure your support team puts their training into practice

Effectively Engaging Your Workforce: Focusing Career Development Into Your Talent Management Practices

• Creating a entrepreneurial culture for your workforce
• Creating benchmarks and reporting guidelines to allow for self-managed teams
• Exploring the latest tools for organizing field support training techniques
• Developing incentive programs and knowledge sharing initiatives in the field

Panel Session: Developing Tools, Incentivizing And Creating A Clear Path For Personal Growth 

• Utilizing behavioral interviewing and walking them through their concerns and expectations

• Evaluating any discrepancies with core values and your established corporate culture

• Measuring the results in terms of KPI’s for a behavioral class

Panel Session: Examining Required Skill Sets To Optimize Your Field Service And Support Team

• Tracking business changes that cause a realignment of skill sets

• Rebalancing and maintaining the skill sets over time
• Building your companies’ service experts based on your companies’ needs: Recruiting and retaining field service employees with the right competencies

Process Improvements

Utilizing Lean Six Sigma To Manage Operational Change

• Outlining the key principals driving six sigma initiatives
• Identifying critical tools necessary to lead change: Accelerating new change initiatives
• Best practices for helping your organization operate more effectively as multiple changes occur
• Exploring key tactics for gaining support of the vision and winning internal commitment to boost strategic change initiatives
• Consistently monitoring operational change and measuring quantitative and qualitative results

Deploying Process Improvement Techniques To Improve Service and Maintenance Excellence

• Finding the areas of opportunity to apply lean techniques through value stream mapping (or constraints management)
• Creating a change management roadmap (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
• Using lean to help reduce service process complexity and increase response time
• Communicating results and creating checkpoints to sustain process improvements

Leveraging Key Metrics To Help Drive Increased Efficiency And Productivity In Customer Service

• Identifying your top performing service initiative from a customer point-of-view, and evaluating the internal enablement that allows for that
• Creating a successful benchmarking program with like-minded cross-industry service organizations
• Effectively collaborating to share knowledge and data from sales to service reps 
• Consistently monitoring key performance indicators that generate revenue and shareholder value to ensure what’s getting measured, is getting done

Identifying Your Defining Metrics To Accommodate Customer Expectations

• Evaluating internal and external support processes to identify areas of improvement
• Identifying what substantiates the value for which your customers pay
• Staffing an appropriate service and support environment based on qualitative feedback
• Evaluating call routing response time and diagnosis to ensure escalation to the appropriate technician
• Analyzing customer satisfaction: How quickly did you fix the problem, response time and parts replacement

Proving The Value-Add For A Field Service Representative: Effectively Measuring And Managing For Profit

• Analyzing the value out of your senior technicians and accounting for development costs
• Value from the tenure

• Do you have higher expectations for people whom  you are paying a premium

• Creating methods to track and account field manager activities and assigned responsibilities
• Establishing guidelines and practices for the plateau employee: Developing a career path guideline including incentives and skill development

Conference Workshops: September 12, 2008

Contact Center          

Implementing A Successful Performance Management System In Your Contact Center

• Identifying KPI’s relative to your contact centers performance
• Determining which metrics are required to measure each of the KPI’s – and the best data source for each
• Creating balanced scorecards to address productivity, efficiency, quality, training, and customer satisfaction
• Reinforcing training on the new goals and objectives for the contact center
• Institutionalizing the program: Defining the frequency of reports and responsibilities of all impacted areas inside and outside the contact center

Exploring The Implications Of Offshoring And BPM On Your Contact/Support Center (Global Workforce Optimization)

• Exploring methodologies to optimize labor costs
• Determining the skill set spectrum of your field and support staff
• Aligning skill sets to achieve next tier of support functions
• Identifying emerging markets overseas to avoid fixed price increases

Implementing A Transaction Management Workflow Model Into The Contact Center

• Implementing a process for effective demand and resource forecasting
• Matching parts and technicians through a flexible service matrix using location-based services (LBS)
• Distributing tasks based on roles and skill sets
• Adopting your service schedule to unplanned events without uprooting service consistency
• Effectively and swiftly communicating schedule changes
• Monitoring performance across your field service project portfolio

Panel Session: Evaluating The Business Case And ROI Of Contact Center Integration

• Analyzing the current sophistication of your contact center support operations

• Measuring first call response rates originating from your call center

• Evaluating the level of customization that may need to be required

• Weighing the advantages and disadvantages to system certification

• Creating continuity with change implementation and escalation patterns

• Establishing a new set of core competencies to match your new capabilities and expectations on service delivery

Implementing Total Asset Visibility Into Your Contact Center

• Identifying critical inventory to ensure availability based on your SLA guidelines

• Developing the remote capability to communicate this data back to your Hub

• Determining a timeline for parts inventory projections

• Exploring automated IT equipment to wirelessly feed that data in real-time

Long Cycle

Effectively Structuring Your Balance Scorecard To Unlock True Customer Satisfaction Ratings

• Creating a strategic focus to help clarify, consolidate and gain consensus around your overall strategy
• Linking the balance scorecard to all facets of management processes to ensure change is centered around the initial strategy
• Enabling communication tools through the collaboration process and across business units
• Integrating your balance scorecard into enterprise management practices to support business planning, performance monitoring and stakeholder communication
• Linking strategy to action: linking your scorecard to your initiatives and objectives

Ensuring PBL Metrics Are Effectively Applied To Your Field Staff And Customer Service Organization

• Showing the value of PBL contracts to your customers who have not worked with such a comprehensive service contract before
• Flowing down the SLAs of the PBL contract and ensuring your subcontractors live up to expectations
• Creating performance assessment structures that encourage your partners to buy into your business goals
• Using tools such as review cards, open conversations and integrated information portals to optimize the collaboration between you and your subcontractors
• Assessing the investments required to create extensive and effective collaborative partnerships

Improving Service Skill And Incentivizing Professionalism: Orchestrating Best-In-Class Dealer Support To Maintain Brand Differentiation

• Effective placement and one-on-one’s with field specialists

• Optimizing data transfer and consistency from your dealer networks to your back office

• Ensuring root-cause analysis and that specific dealer issues are recorded and centralized
• Organizing a reward/bonus program to acknowledge outstanding service and representation

Panel Session: Exploring Key Tools And Strategies To Drive The Cost of Your Warranty Down

• promoting and selling the product

• keep cost of ownership low

• working through the dealer organization for quick resolution

• Maintaining compliance and dealer requirements

Creating A Standardized Process For Obtaining Accurate Lifecycle Information From Your Customers

• Tying in existing industry standards (if applicable) in order to be proactive

• Accurately getting repair information and status of performance of your customer base

• Ensuring contractual components are supported in numbers

• Obtaining good process and analysis tools to capture data from various customer inputs

Developing Innovative And Profitable Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

• Developing profitable SLAs focusing on a total lifecycle support model versus a pay-per-service model
• Ensuring the SLAs reflect your customers’ critical performance objectives
• Communicating the new SLA elements internally and ensuring the benefits are understood
• Effectively managing lifecycle support SLAs through performance metrics
• Achieving customer satisfaction throughout the lengthy contract lifecycle to ensure you will be awarded the follow-up contract