Digital Transformation potential in Future Field Force
Field force service operations are a key aspect of many industries. The success of these operations often depends on managing customer relationships, ensuring the right people are at the right place at the right time and with the right tools, and enhancing KPIs such as the first-time resolution rate, mean repair rate, precise scheduling, resolution time, and asset uptime or availability.
However, achieving these goals is becoming difficult as the field force sector faces challenges with increasing product complexity combined with a shortage of skilled workers. Complex machinery often serves specific customer requirements and can vary significantly in terms of build and configuration, which makes it difficult for field personnel to acquire technical mastery over the entire installed base. Additionally, in some industries, machinery is often installed in remote or inaccessible locations and frequent visits by service technicians can be inefficient and expensive.
Companies can better manage these challenges by incorporating digital technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, virtual reality, and others into their business operations. For example, with IoT and AI, dispatchers can track field workers efficiently and optimise work schedules. Digital solutions can increase the first-time resolution rate , increase the productivity of mobile workers, and decrease truck rolls (and associated carbon emissions), including by addressing some problems remotely.
Five key domains of change in Future Field Force
Overall, we have identified five key domains of change in the Future Field Force sector that are enabled by digital transformation, as illustrated below.
These domains of change are discussed in more detail in our report Digital Transformation in Future Field Force:
The domains of change discussed in the report comprise:
Field Force Management, which refers to the digital solutions that enable intelligent and automated field resource planning and scheduling, capacity management, forecasting, and tracking of field resources.
Remote Monitoring, using technology to gain real-time visibility into the health and performance of deployed assets, enabling stakeholders to identify faults in advance and reduce the workload of field workers.
Remote Servicing, includes technologies that allow companies to perform maintenance, service, support, and assistance (in case of event or fault) completely remotely.
Augmented Field Force, refers to the use of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies for remote assistance, maintenance and inspection, monitoring assets, and training field personnel.
Additive Manufacturing, refers to the use of 3D printing and additive manufacturing for producing spare parts ‘Just in Time’ near the job site to ease the work of field workers and decrease reliance on supply chains.
Collectively, the activities listed above will bring significant changes to the Future Field Force sector.
IoT and the Future Field Force
IoT is one of the key technology groups impacting the Future Field Force sector and further detail and analysis of key IoT applications for the Future Field Force sector can be found in Transforma Insight’s Forecast Insight Reports. Some of these applications are directly relevant to the sector, whilst others are only indirectly related.
Directly related IoT applications and Forecast Insight Reports include:
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Road Fleet Management
– Road Fleet Management covers in-vehicle transportation logistics including job allocation, vehicle tracking, vehicle and driver monitoring, maintenance planning, safety compliance, fuel management, and incident management. It can be delivered as a service via a dedicated aftermarket device or through the factory-fit connectivity (accessed via the vehicle head unit). The forecast takes both heavy and light duty vehicles into consideration. It includes devices deployed in cars, vans, trucks and buses, along with heavy vehicles such as tractors, combine harvesters, pile drivers, tunnelling machines, cranes, and other off-road equipment. Fleet Management solutions are increasingly making use of in-vehicle cameras to monitor both outside the vehicle and within the cabin. These devices, and their consumer counterparts, can be found in the Dash Cams Application Group.
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Remote Process Control
– Remote monitoring of equipment to manage the device in the context of a wider business process and to integrate machine data. Focused on industrial and agricultural processes. Includes factory automation, airport automation systems and baggage handling, and automated port systems. Excludes warehousing. Also part of this Application Group is crop irrigation, including connections to, and control systems for, systems that are deployed in the open air and also in closed environments such as greenhouses.
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Portable Information Terminals
– Portable information terminals for staff in a range of vertical contexts, including retail and hotels.
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Remote Diagnostics & Maintenance
– Remote monitoring of equipment to spot faults and predict requirements for maintenance. Particularly focused on factory machinery, healthcare devices and vertical transportation (elevators and escalators).
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Security Tracking
– Includes a range of security-related applications such as for security guards, prison guards, and also offender tagging. Also includes ‘smart soldier’ equipment used by defence personnel in a military context.
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Worker Safety
– Personal monitoring and support solutions for fire service, police, and emergency medical service personnel. Also includes lone worker safety in multiple vertical industrial contexts, particularly those involving dangerous environments such as logging and mining.
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Dash Cams
– Aftermarket in-vehicle cameras used to record the interior or exterior of the vehicle, often to provide evidence in the event of a road accident.
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Vending Machines
– Two main categories are covered by this Application Group: goods vending machines and ticket vending machines. Goods vending machines dispense hot and cold drinks, prepared and semi-prepared food, cigarettes, electronics goods and sundry other items. Transport ticket machines cover bus, ferry and train stations for the purchase of tickets.
Indirectly related IoT applications and Forecast Insight Reports include:
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Global AIoT Forecast, 2023-2033
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Grid Operations
– The remote monitoring of the gas, water, sewage and electricity grids for maintenance, diagnostics, fault discovery and loss reduction purposes. High pressure gas distribution pipelines are counted as part of the Infrastructure Monitoring Application Group.
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Unmanned Non-Road Vehicles
– The Unmanned Non-Road Vehicles Application Group represents autonomous wheeled and tracked vehicles used for transporting materials, performing specific tasks or other similar activity in verticals such as agriculture, construction, mining, manufacturing, baggage handling, warehousing, space exploration or emergency response. The types of vehicles covered in this Application Group include forklifts, bomb-disposal vehicles, portside automated vehicles, straddle carriers and other specialised vehicles. Although these vehicles will not be intended for on-road use, they may be capable of travelling on public highways.
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CCTV
– Connected video cameras used by governments for monitoring of streets and public places.
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Unmanned Aquatic & Aerial Vehicles (Drones)
– This Application Group consists of two main categories. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles comprises fixed wing and propellor powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for military, government consumer or commercial use. Unmanned Aquatic Vehicles comprise small underwater and surface vehicles, typically for military use or exploration. Neither vehicle is designed to carry humans; automation of vehicles that carry humans (e.g. full sized planes or ships in automation mode) is covered under autonomous vehicles.
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Inventory Management & Monitoring
– This Application Group pertains to the remote monitoring of volumes and inventory, including consumables, warehouse stock, retail stock, and refuse levels. It encompasses stock level and condition monitoring, such as specialist inventory systems, baggage handling systems, soap dispensers, toilet doors, pest control, and various other use cases. It also covers all types of electronic shelf labels. Additionally, this group includes warehouse management systems, which involve picking machinery and warehouse robots (unless counted in other autonomous vehicles or robotics categories as is the case for cobots and automated forklifts).
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Global IoT Forecast Report, 2023-2033
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Roadside Assistance
– Application that notifies recovery services in the event of a vehicle breakdown. Diagnostics and location tracking may be included to improve efficiency. This application includes dedicated devices in addition to applications hosted on the vehicle head unit.
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In-Vehicle Navigation
– Built-in and discrete satellite navigation devices used to provide directions and routing to drivers. Built-in devices that rely on the vehicle head unit for a connection do not register as a discrete connection in our forecast.
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Personal Assistance Robots
– This Application Group covers fully autonomous machines which undertake a diverse set of use cases including security monitoring, maintenance, human interaction, companionship and the performance of other tasks. This includes robotic pets, cleaning robots (e.g. Roomba), lawn mowers, exoskeletons, cooking robots, room and table delivery, and concierge services.
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Autonomous Road Freight Vehicles
– The vehicles included in this Application Group are used for transporting goods on the road in a commercial setting. To be counted as part of this Application Group vehicles must be capable of operating at Level 3 of the SAE levels of autonomy. This level of automation requires the vehicle to monitor the environment and requires “the driving mode-specific performance by an automated driving system of all aspects of the dynamic driving task. In this Application Group the number of autonomous vehicles is represented by RGUs only, the vehicles’ connections will be found in the Vehicle Head Unit Application Group.
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Real World 'Visualisation'
– Includes the use of Human Machine Interface (HMI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) devices such as smart connected glasses, such as Microsoft’s Hololens, or Google Glass, used in either a consumer or enterprise context; standard and ruggedised tablets that can be used to access information about machinery and processes (and more); and large scale video walls, either in the context of control rooms, or to support immersive experiences. To be included in this forecast a device must be standalone, and not attached to a specific machine. Devices must also support some level of enhanced human interaction with machines (and other information, or content) rather than simply existing to relay information from a device or accept commands. Beyond this scope lie innumerable generic tablets, laptops, mobile phones, and other computing devices that can also support some aspects of HMI by simple installation of an application (or access to suitable web pages).
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Real Time Location Systems
– Trackers attached to pieces of equipment for the purpose of locating them, typically with very great accuracy. Used within specific delimited areas (e.g. hospitals, building sites or factories), with dedicated infrastructure to support them.
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Trigger Devices
– Devices that exist to be triggered to indicate an action needs to be taken, typically something has been filled and needs to be emptied, or something is empty and needs be filled. Examples include buttons for room service, table service, the replenishment of communal supplies, mail delivery and collection boxes, and customer voting buttons.
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Delivery Robots
– This Application Group covers small (i.e. not capable of intercity travel or carrying passengers) fully autonomous vehicles that travel on road or pavement to deliver food, beverages, retail shopping, documents and other goods.
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Asset Monitoring
– This application group encompasses a variety of assets that are suitable for remote monitoring. This includes the monitoring of livestock and associated applications such as automated feeders. It also covers the monitoring of fitness equipment located in gyms and other shared contexts. Tracking and monitoring of equipment in ambulances is also incorporated as part of the healthcare vertical.
Furthermore, this Application Group includes connected video gaming machines, gambling machines and other devices such as pachinko machines. Monitoring the condition, availability, and use of assets important to public health such as life rings and defibrillators is also present in this application group, including access to potentially dangerous infrastructure such as substations.
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Waste Management
– Connected refuse bins (such as those provided by Big Belly Solar), aftermarket monitoring devices for wheelie bins, and other refuse collection systems.
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Infrastructure Monitoring
– Includes monitoring of road and rail infrastructure, dams (including hydroelectric and tailing), levees, reservoirs, weirs, and pipelines, for the purpose of checking for structural issues, breakages, theft or other faults. Monitoring devices installed during construction projects counts within the Construction vertical but subsequently to the appropriate specific vertical (typically government) at point of handover.
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Track & Trace
– The use of trackers to monitor the location (and potentially condition) of a particular item, which could include tools, manhole covers, goods in transit or almost anything else. Can be used for supply chain efficiency, theft detection and asset location monitoring. It includes all other location tracking not elsewhere covered. Excludes shipping containers.
Other content and related analysis
Besides the detailed sector-focussed content described above, Transforma Insights offers an extensive range of thematic- and vendor-focussed research that will prove invaluable to any end-user seeking to leverage new and emerging digitally transformative technologies.
Of particular note are our Vendor Insight and CSP Peer Benchmarking reports, which provide detailed profiles of leading vendors who might be able to support a range of end-user digital transformation projects.
Our Key Topic Insight reports focus on the qualitative aspects of Digital Transformation, including investigation of interesting or noteworthy topics.
Detailed analysis of regulations that might apply to digitally transformative projects around the world can be found in our Regulatory Database. Meanwhile, our Case Study Database contains more than 1,000 case studies of technology implementations. Each case study contains detailed information on the specifics of the deployment. Used in aggregate it can provide unrivalled guidance on project prioritisation, best practice and vendor selection.
