Across industries, companies are finding practical ways to bridge physical reality and digital experiences using hands-free headsets and augmented reality solutions to inform decisions and action on insights produced by smart, connected solutions.

Mixed realitya set of technologies that superimposes digital data and images in the physical worldbrings new opportunities that have become instrumental to how we tap into unique real-world, human capabilities. This technology is becoming more widely used across organizations today and has proven to be transformative to task performance, learning and retention, and collaboration. In fact, the augmented and virtual reality market is expected to reach $372.1 billion by the end of 2022, and swell to $542.8 billion by the end of 2025 according to new data from the IDC.¹

Microsoft’s comprehensive ecosystem of mixed reality solutions such as Microsoft HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides are helping organizations optimize operations, reduce downtime, accelerate onboarding and upskilling, and decrease costs with more precise, efficient hands-free work.

Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality solutions are driving material ROI across industries

Based on the Microsoft-commissioned Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) report, Microsoft HoloLens 2 is delivering 177 percent return on investment (ROI) and a net present value (NPV) of $7.6 million over three years with a payback of 13 months.² Customers across leading industries are realizing significant value from deploying mixed reality solutions in their most common, critical work scenarios.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing companies deploying Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality applications to train their workforces, accelerate employee proficiency, and build more agile factories. Using Microsoft mixed reality, Manufacturers reduced training time by 75 percent, at an average savings of $30 per labor hour.²

Common scenarios in which manufacturers benefit from mixed reality on Microsoft HoloLens 2:

1. Guided assembly and training: Empower employees to learn new skills and complex assembly tasks with holographic step-by-step instructions, no instructor necessary.  
2. Remote inspection and audits: Enable remote employees to solve business problems in real time, using 3D annotations to access, share, and bring critical information into view.
3. Connected field service: Connect field technicians with remote experts to collaborate seamlessly, heads-up and hands-free with content capture abilities, interactive annotations, and contextual data overlays.

“When you describe a problem, imagine that we are speaking different languages. When you explain it, someone on the other side may not understand precisely what’s happening, but when you show it in real time with the HoloLens, people understand.”Eaton Vehicle Group. Read more about the Eaton Vehicle Group customer story.

Education

Educators are turning to Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality applications to help students embrace a new way of learning. For example, education institutions reduced 520 annual hours of instruction per expert by 15 percent.²

Common scenarios in which educators benefit from mixed reality on Microsoft HoloLens 2:

1. Augmented teaching: Captivate students and bring education to life with impressionable, high-impact 3D visualization models that enable virtual collaboration and instruction.
2. Experiential learning: Enable educators to build an experience-based lesson plan, integrating textbook concepts into physical environments to create a simple “learn by doing” approach for studentshands-on and unmediated.
3. Scaled learning and research: Develop a scalable research collaboration model that improves efficiency of research, lab work, and medical training.

“We did a trial back with our medical students. The students that had been in the HoloLens lab scored 50 percent better compared to the rest of the med school class.”Case Western. Read more about the Case Western customer story.

Healthcare

Mixed reality is empowering providers, payors, and health science experts to reimagine healthcare by accelerating diagnoses, reducing time-to-care, and enabling personalization. Using Microsoft mixed reality, healthcare providers reduced average consumables by 80%, saving $4,000 per trainee.²

Common scenarios in which healthcare providers benefit from mixed reality on Microsoft HoloLens 2:

1. Holographic patient consultation: Enable healthcare providers to project 3D holographic visualizations of patients’ internal systems that provide procedural understandingbuilding confidence in upcoming procedures and/or treatments.
2. Remote expert consultation: Support remote consultation and enable medical staff to consult colleagues with heads-up and hands-free through an interactive collaborative experience from anywhere in the world.
3. Training simulations: Train medical staff with holographic step-by-step guidance without subject matter experts being physically present.

“Using Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, doctors wearing HoloLens, can hold “hands-free” and “heads-up” Teams video calls with colleagues and experts anywhere in the world. They can receive advice, interacting with the caller and the patient at the same time, while medical notes and X-rays can also be placed alongside the call in the wearer’s field of view.”Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Read more about the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust customer story.

Architecture, engineering, and construction

With Mixed Reality, architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are empowered to overcome design, modeling, collaboration, and building site challenges to enhance project quality, decision-making, improve productivity. For example, AEC firms have reduced rework by 75 percent, saving $44 per hour.²

Common scenarios in which AEC organizations benefit from mixed reality on Microsoft HoloLens 2:

1. Clash detection: Enable onsite workers to preemptively identify issues, detect clashes, and gain buy-in of onsite workers and key stakeholders with overlay designs on physical locations. This mitigates late-stage design changes that could result in rework, budget overrun, and project delays.
2. 3D plan and model demonstrations: Empower project leaders, designers, and engineers and improve customer service and sales with 3D demonstration and immersive visualizations.
3. Self-guided learning: Equip onsite workers to view task instructions, essential data, and model visualizations while in the flow of work, increasing speed, quality, and safety.           

“We use Dynamics 365 Remote Assist on HoloLens 2 to work more effectively and share expertise at critical milestones. This not only saves us money but also helps us construct datacenters for our customers more quickly.”Microsoft. Read the full customer story.

The Forrester TEI study validates how mixed reality solutions on Microsoft HoloLens 2 are empowering enterprises across industries to achieve more. We believe these technologies have offered not only innovative results, but long-term and sustainable solutions for training, remote collaboration, inspections and audits, field service, and more.

Next steps

We look forward to continuing this blog series with a deep dive spotlight on each of these leading industries. In the meantime, learn more about mixed reality applications on Microsoft HoloLens 2 and get started today:

• Learn more about more about Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality capabilities.
• Learn more about business benefits and cost savings of mixed reality solutions, read the Total Economic Impact Of Mixed Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 report.
• Request a Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality demo on Microsoft HoloLens 2. Book an appointment with our Microsoft Stores team today. Select ‘Other’ under Choose topic and reference HoloLens 2 demo in “What can we help with”.

Sources:

1. Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, IDC, 2022
2. The Total Economic Impact Of Mixed Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 Report, Forrester, 2022

The post Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality bridge physical reality and digital experiences appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is helping manufacturing organizations tackle the challenges they face today while also preparing them for tomorrow’s opportunities. Whether enabling workforce transformation and enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization, helping navigate disruptions by increasing supply chain visibility and improving insights, or standing up reverse supply chains and circular economieswe are dedicated to helping manufacturers build the resiliency and agility they need to succeed. The following three success stories showcase how our modern, cloud-based, intelligent business applications are driving improvements in manufacturing supply chains.

Workforce transformation and ERP modernization

The manufacturing sector has faced labor shortages for some time now, but the pandemic has exacerbated this challenge. This has led many to double down on efforts to utilize technology as a means of offsetting the headwinds caused by ongoing labor shortages.

We see this in manufacturers accelerating workforce transformation of shop floor operations and increasing their utilization of industrial robotics, IoT sensors, AI, and intelligent automation. As these organizations create smarter and more connected factories, they are, in effect, increasing the workforce’s productivity, and this is one means of easing the constraint that labor shortages can have on output.

In addition to easing constraints on labor, manufacturers such as ChemTreat are also benefiting from ERP modernization initiatives. ChemTreat, a water treatment systems company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and in business since 1968, was challenged to overcome the limitations of their in-house, custom-coded, desktop-bound ERP system. While the legacy system had served them well for many years, it now required laborious additional workflows, kept data trapped in spreadsheets, and needed nightly downtime. To keep pace with technology changes in the industry and support its growth, the company implemented Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Today, ChemTreat benefits from real-time, end-to-end supply chain visibility that spans everything from its customers and suppliers to its inventory, expenses, and demand. Direct data visibility is also helping management proactively identify raw material shortages and improve their planning and execution processes. Plus, by modernizing their ERP, ChemTreat has the flexible and composable platform they need to support other digital transformation efforts in the future.

“Dynamics 365 helps us get ahead of challenges, identify potential customer impacts, and determine the best path to the best service.”Katie Journigan, Director of Business Systems, ChemTreat.

Learn more in our blog, Enhance visibility with Dynamics 365 supply chain solutions.

Supply chain visibility and insights

As businesses continue to forge a path out of the pandemic, many find that their current supply chain technologies are ill-equipped for an environment characterized by ongoing disruptions, constraints, and shortages. A recent survey by McKinsey & Company found that successfully implementing AI-enabled supply-chain management has enabled early adopters to improve logistics costs by 15 percent, inventory levels by 35 percent, and service levels by 65 percent, compared with slower-moving competitors.¹ This has led to increased investment in advanced supply chain solutions that can connect disparate systems, unify data, increase supply chain visibility, and utilize artificial intelligence to push actionable insights to decision-makers. One company benefiting from investments like these is Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA).

DTNA is the leading commercial vehicle manufacturer in the U.S., with a portfolio of distinctive brands like Freightliner and Western Star Trucks. The company has more than 20,000 employees in 91 locations and sources hundreds of thousands of parts from its global supply base. To add to this complexity, DTNA collects data from trucks on the road, its in-house ERP system and supply chain applications, and across its operations and production floor.

Breaking down the siloes of these disparate data sources became necessary for DTNA to meet customer and dealer demand and provide accurate delivery dates. To accomplish this, they needed early visibility into potential time constraints and the ability to collect and share real-time supply chain data with suppliers. With Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights, DTNA can make better supply chain decisions with proactive risk mitigation via prescriptive insights powered by AI.

Learn more in our recent blog, Mitigate disruptions with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insightsnow in preview.

Reverse supply chains and circular economies

“Sustainability has become an integral part of all world-class supply chains, and circularity is a leading supply chain sustainability strategy that enables recycling and reuse for the majority of a supply chain’s products.” Jodi Larson, General Manager of Strategy and Transformation at Microsoft.

More and more companies are working to make our world sustainable by embracing environmental, social, and governance goals. One way that manufacturing organizations are improving sustainability is by standing up circular economies. Circular economy, or circularity, is rooted in reverse supply chain management, which deals with what happens after a product’s useful life. According to a 2022 report from Gartner, 51 percent of supply chain professionals expect the emphasis on the circular economy to increase in the two years following the COVID-19 crisis.²

As focus ramps up on circular economy strategies, it’s important to understand that reverse supply chain management in manufacturing requires different operational processes. To state the obvious, manufacturers cannot simply accept end-of-life products at existing factories and warehouses. Depending on the complexity of the product and its recoverable raw materials, separate operations are needed to receive, inspect, sort, and refurbish raw materials before they can be reused.

Setting up these circular economy flows can be challenging without an agile and composable supply chain management application. Here at Microsoft, we have first-hand knowledge of the challenges involved as we have recently delivered our first Microsoft Circular Center. The Microsoft Circular Center program is designed to facilitate the reuse and recycling of servers and hardware within our datacenters, which is part of our commitment to achieving zero-waste and carbon-negative operations by 2030.

When planning the pilot of our Circular Center program, we needed a robust and flexible supply chain management platform to support an optimized warehouse routing and processing system to intercept decommissioned servers from Microsoft datacenters. To date, the Circular Centers model has achieved 83 percent reuse and 17 percent recycling of critical parts while contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions by 145,000 metric tons CO2 equivalent.

“We were looking for a warehouse management system that would allow us to model all the product flows that we needed while also connecting to datacenters and other systems used to manage our cloud assets. Dynamics 365 had all of these functionalities to build exactly what we needed.”Anand Narasimhan, General Manager of Cloud Supply Chain Sustainability, Microsoft.

What’s next?

As we have seen through these customer stories, Dynamics 365 drives improvement in manufacturing supply chains by enabling companies to revamp their existing ERP platform, considerably increase supply chain visibility and insights, and stand-up circular economies through reverse supply chain management practices. It also empowers users to plan better, improves organizational agility, and maximizes asset uptime, allowing companies to operate smoothly and profitably.

If you are ready to see what our modern, cloud-based supply chain management solution can do for your organization, we invite you to start today with a free Dynamics 365 trial. You can watch the on-demand webinar on how to create a resilient and sustainable supply chain and the total economic impact of implementing Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Sources:

1- McKinsey & Company, 2021. Succeeding in the AI supply-chain revolution.

2- Gartner, 2022. Gartner for Supply Chain 3 Key Trends in Supply Chain Sustainability

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Dynamics 365 drives improvement in manufacturing supply chains appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Our business landscape is evolving rapidly. Long-term COVID impacts to supply chains, worksite strategies, and consumer behavior have compelled most organizations to modernize to better serve customer needs. Though migrated Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers will tell you that cloud benefits far exceed the perceived risks of moving or “comfort” associated with remaining on-premises, making this transition is not always straightforward. Large, transformative projects take time, resourcing, skill, and often require buy-in from across an organization. You don’t have to do it alone.

Technology partners are an important extension of Microsoft, offering implementation and industry expertise to every deployment. How to choose the right partner for your organization? Let the Dynamics 365 migration program help you select the right partner for your Dynamics AX or Dynamics CRM migration with these three characteristics.

1. Do they possess the necessary skillset?

Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM customers face some important decisions on modernizing their current on-premises solutions. Selecting the right migration partner to help your organization transition to the cloud should be among these considerations. Like Dynamics 365it is an investment. Consider the partner’s skillset. Migration complexity varies greatly from solution to solution as do the reasons for moving. Migrating from Dynamics CRM 2016 or from Dynamics AX 2009 to Dynamics 365 can look very different across organizations and industries depending on an organization’s data and customizations. Whether you’re migrating to Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations or Dynamics 365 Customer Experience, ensure your partner has proven credentials that demonstrate they have the personnel, skills, and resources to implement that solution in your environment and work with your teams to do so.

2. Do they understand the technology?

Dynamics 365 is a fully managed software as a service (SaaS). Microsoft offers certifications that speak to a developer’s Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and Dynamics 365 Customer Experience capabilities. The same is true at the organizational level. Consider the partner’s technology credentials within the Microsoft ecosystem. This translates to solution competency. Within Microsoft business applications the most important, functional competency is the Cloud Business Application (CBA) certification. The Dynamics 365 migration program requires participating partners must hold a gold or silver CBA certificate. This ensures that they have experience migrating Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM customers, executed these projects efficiently, and possess a solid relationship with Microsoft. Finally, this means customer service is a priority. The partner has a track record of migrating and deploying large, complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions successfully while driving adoption and active usage. This means their customers are realizing value with Dynamics 365 and across workloads.

3. Do they have industry expertise?

Context is important. Migrating to Dynamics 365 will ensure your organization is prepared to meet future needs and challenges, but these vary across organizations and industries. Consider the partner’s experience deploying Dynamics 365 within your industry. A chief technology officer (CTO) within manufacturing versus healthcare or finance has different solutions requirements. The selected partner should have implemented a successful Dynamics 365 with your peersand can prove it. References speak volumes:

Wahl Clipper Corporation migrated from Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365. By leveraging the cloud, Wahl Clipper Corporation can now respond to supply chain demands quickly and better anticipate customer needs. This allowed Wahl Clipper Corporation to continue to be the leader in providing products and services that meet market needs and take care of customers.

Travel Counsellors migrated from Dynamics CRM to Dynamics 365. The cloud opened new opportunities to standardize and integrate communication and data across business-critical areas, including recruitment, infrastructure, and sales. This allowed Travel Counsellors to leverage the entire Microsoft cloud to reduce IT costs, scale quickly, and drive faster decisions.

   Mattress Firm    Lancet Laboratories      Moneris       Lippert Components      Gauteng

Answer your questions with the Dynamics 365 Migration Community

With so much to considerknowing where and how to begin is not always clear. Microsoft established the Dynamics 365 Migration Community to simplify things. Regardless of where you are in your migration journey, the Dynamics 365 Migration Community has the resources to help you make timely, informed business decisions. Visit the community today to access partner discovery resources.

The post 3 characteristics to look for in your Dynamics 365 migration partner appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

When sellers follow a predefined set of activities from day to day, they will usually be more productive. Sales managers and other experienced sellers define these best practices, or sequences, to guide sellers and ensure they follow business processes. However, these sequences must constantly evolve, and the best way to make improvements is to understand their effectiveness. Dynamics 365 Sales Premium recently announced a preview of the reporting capability for sequences.

Sales acceleration reporting (preview) offers a performance dashboard for sequences that provides sales managers with the right information to measure the efficacy of the defined sequences. The dashboard helps them compare the success rate of each sequence and analyze the effectiveness of the related activities. Key data points embedded within the metric charts help managers manage seller activities.

The administrator can enable these embedded Microsoft Power BI reports and they are available at no additional cost for customers with Dynamics 365 Sales Premium licenses.

Improve the sales process

Sequences help sales managers implement a standardized sales process. Even though each sequence reflects years of experience and input, it is necessary to constantly revise and optimize the sales processes by monitoring performance. The dashboard provides the success rates of the sequences, aligned to the business KPIs. The dashboard also helps the manager compare sequences. They can also identify poorly performing sequences through the reports. Standard filters let the manager drill into specific data.

The dashboard reports offer the following key features:

• Check the conversion success rates of the leads and opportunities associated with sequences
• Compare sequences and check the number of associated leads and opportunities
• Monitor the time taken to complete the guided sales activities

A sales manager can view the leads related to a particular sequence to monitor a seller’s activities and ensure adherence to the standardized sales processes.

The sequence stats page offers a grid view for sequences that helps managers compare different sequences and brainstorm ways that a sales process can be more productive.

Ensure high completion rates of seller activities

Sales managers can monitor seller activities with charts in the dashboard. They can filter activities using the following parameters: 

• Date range
• Entity type, such as lead or opportunity
• Sequence name and owner
• Seller
• Territory

By using these metric charts, the manager can identify the channels that are working well and see where improvements can be made. With the help of the activity status charts, the manager can easily recognize the completion rate of activities and decide where to focus to meet expectations. The chart for email engagement tracks the effectiveness of that activity.

Sales managers can find the following key insights with the reporting page:

• Identify the channels that are most used in the sales process
• Track the completion of sales process activities
• Measure the effectiveness of email engagement

Next steps

• To enable sequences in your environment, you need Dynamics 365 Sales Premium or the Sales Insights Add-in for Dynamics 365 Sales.
• Learn more about how to set up and run sales acceleration reporting in the documentation.
• Read this blog post about the value of creating a sales cadence and how to use sequence designer to implement it.

The post Use a performance dashboard to optimize seller activities appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Over the last 15 years, social media has grown rapidly, both in reach and in impact on our daily lives. Facebook reached one billion users worldwide in 2012, only eight years after launch, and has approximately 2.89 billion active users today. Instagram boasts nearly 140 million active users, while 100 million people enjoy TikTok.¹ Beyond their reach, users spend an exorbitant amount of time on social media, with 62 percent of users spending an hour or more on social media a day and 30 percent spending more than two hours.²

Whether engaging with influencers on live-streaming video platforms or viewing short-form videos on Tiktok, social media has revolutionized the way we connect with each other. They have also changed how we discover and engage with brands, unlocking new opportunities for businesses to engage with customers. And with the emergence of social commerce, they’re opening a new channel through which customers can buy products from retailers.

While the concept of linking to a product page within a social media post has been status quo for some time, consumers prefer a seamless experience that won’t disrupt their consumption. Enter social commerce, which can be thought of as the extension of the shopping experience to the realm of social media. With social commerce, users can see an item on a social media platform and purchase it without leaving the channel.

According to Statista, the value of social commerce sales worldwide in 2021 was an estimated $732 billion and is projected to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2026.³ The continued growth of social media and the coming rise of social commerce will allow companies to add new revenue streams by meeting their customers on the platforms they prefer. The opportunity is not, however, without challenges and brand leaders need to understand how the right technology solutions can help them on their social commerce journey.

Engagement through social media

Given the vast audiences that social media can reach, it makes sense that businesses first gravitated to social media primarily as a means of building awareness for their brand. Today, more and more brands are moving beyond awareness by embracing shoppable Facebook pages and Instagram posts, and the reason is clear: in 2021, 63 percent of social media users reported that posts by a brand or company were very/somewhat influential in their purchasing decisions, according to Sprout Social.⁴

In addition to making purchases through social media platforms, the forms of media that brands are using to engage consumers are expanding, as well. For example, live-streaming, which draws audiences by combining live entertainment with the ability to purchase directly in a platform, has taken off in China. Given the direct-to-consumer benefits, live-streaming will likely be a hit in other markets soon.

These trends point clearly to the need for brands to be able to offer content across multiple social media platforms and multiple media types to keep up with their customer’s buying preferences. The challenge for many organizations will be overcoming the constraints of their legacy commerce solutions to capitalize on this evolution.  

Headless commerce

As omnichannel retail took flight around 2010, retailers came to realize that the first-generation e-commerce platforms were not agile enough to keep pace with the evolution of shoppers’ needs. Whether in-store or online, today’s shoppers want consistent messaging, seamless and sensory experiences across devices, and personalized customer service. Plus, they want unprecedented levels of convenienceall points we’ve discussed in previous blog posts.

Now, with the rise of social commerce, retailers face an increased proliferation of customer touchpoints, such as offering the ability to purchase a product via an influencer’s TikTok video, through a shoppable post on Instagram, or in the virtual world presented in AR/VR. Each of these touchpoints can be thought of as a different “front-end” experience that “back-end” systems, such as content management systems (CMS) and traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, must serve and connect to enable social commerce.

Delivering social commerce to multiple front-ends in this manner is challenging for organizations that are unable to leverage a single CMS or are still utilizing monolithic, content-led commerce architectures. Headless commerce solves these challenges by disconnecting the front-end experiences from the back-end systems that enable them. In this way, headless solutions give retailers the ability to provide features like platform-specific content and layout management, personalization, content testing, and analytics. Social commerce enables an organization to deploy content on multiple social media platforms (front-end) while still utilizing the same back-end systems to complete transactions. Not only does this simplify management by bringing all commerce-related activities into a single solution, but it also gives retailers the agility necessary to compete in a future of social commerce.

What’s next?

New social channels and customer touchpoints will continue to evolve and develop, and brands need new digital commerce approachessuch as headless commerceto provide the agility required to adapt to a fast-moving marketplace.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce is a modern, intelligent, and modular solution that can help organizations consistently deliver great customer experiences on any social channel or front-end application. This is because Dynamics 365 Commerce can utilize both headless and other modern commerce architectures to seamlessly connect enterprise systems, such as payment processing, content management, and omnichannel inventory. By connecting and unifying every facet of the customer journey, businesses are well-positioned to embrace social commerce experiences across established and emerging channels, giving them the ability to meet their customers where they are and purchase there too.

To see how Dynamics 365 Commerce can help your brand succeed in social commerce and beyond, we invite you to get started with Dynamics 365 Commerce free trial today.

Sources:

1- Statista, 2021. Most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2021.

2- GWI, 2021. USA Survey.

3- Statista, 2021. Social Commerce.

4- Sprout Social, 2021. The state of social media investment: Five key takeaways for European businesses.

The post Dynamics 365 powers social shopping needs with headless commerce appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The global field service market is continuing to grow at a quickening pace. In 2016, the field service market size was estimated to be $1.78 billion USD, and now that number is predicted to hit $4.45 billion by the end of 2022an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5 percent.¹

Much has changed since 2016. Say farewell to the days of disjointed, paper-based systems as those days have long sunset. Technology has forever positively changed field service managementfrom automating work orders and AI-driven analytics to harnessing the power of mixed reality to complete a job. And the evolution of field service isn’t even close to being over.

Many of the current trends are further improving the delivery of field service. Customers are often driving this change as expectations of what constitutes exceptional service continues to rise. To deepen customer loyalty, field service organizations will need to listen, stay nimble, and continue to innovate to meet these ever-changing, always rising customer expectations.  

With that in mind, there are a number of trends affecting the field service space. Some of these trends may be pivotal to whether some field service brands will flourish or fail.

1. Contact-free or remote service

According to one study, field service organizations will continue to explore contact-free or remote service as a whopping 75 percent of consumers dislike the idea of having field technicians in their homes amid the pandemic unless absolutely necessary.² The idea of contact-free or remote service is not new, but it has quickly become a customer preference due to the pandemic. Field service organizations and their technicians are pivoting to accommodate customer expectations. What is new is that IoT, AI, and mixed reality have helped advance contact-free service, not to mention the added benefits of lowering service operations costs, travel time, and vehicle expenses. Plus, contact-free service promotes the health and safety of techniciansa valuable employee benefit.

2. Shift to automation

It’s not uncommon for field service operations to become bogged down in manually intensive processes. This means administrative workers are often tasked to handle the additional workload or frontline workers are faced with spending less time on critical service tasks like building relationships with customers. Backoffice operations can become overwhelming with managing customer expectations, parts inventory, juggling schedules, confirming appointments, submitting invoicing, plus fitting in that last-minute emergency service call.

This is where field service management software becomes a life ring to administrative workers. Jobs can be automatically scheduled and assigned to technicians by leveraging AI and rules. For example, the closest, most experienced technician can be automatically booked and dispatched without causing excessive disruption to existing schedules. As more and more field service organizations are faced with an aging workforce, optimizing scheduling is becoming even more paramount with fewer experienced technicians to dispatch. This trend in automated scheduling is expected to continue to optimize operations as more technicians retire creating a quickly shrinking talent pool. 70 percent of service organizations surveyed stated they would be burdened by the knowledge loss of a retiring workforce in the next 5 to 10 years.³

3. Proactive, predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance uses AI, machine learning, and analytics to predict device failures before they happen. Predictive maintenance helps you take appropriate preventative measures to avoid device failures while decreasing maintenance costs. Predictive maintenance relies on predictive analytics, which uses historical data to match current behavior and make an assessment. Technicians can use IoT-enabled tools to proactively monitor equipment health, create alerts, and follow protocols to mitigate potential damage. If the same circumstances are occurring, the device is likely to fail again so a work order is automatically created and service is scheduled. Customers can opt for remote service and self-healing initially or can have a technician dispatched.

More and more field service organizations will move to predictive maintenance solutions as it anticipates client needs, reduces outages, and significantly decreases costs for the field service organization and the customer. It can also predict when it is the safest and most optimal time to perform the work, which is important when scheduling device downtime to coincide with off-peak working hours.

4. Self-service portals

Clients continue to demand greater transparency into their work orders and service requests. They want instant access to appointment calendars, the ability to track the technician enroute, and any other information to ensure operations are running well so they are well-informed. To this end, client self-service portals will continue in popularity by offering 24/7 online support, especially when a knowledge base, FAQ, and other resources are also accessible by the customer. Even now, 70 percent of customers expect a company’s website to include a self-service application.⁴

With self-service portals, clients can create service requests and share critical information regarding the device in question. The client can also view past service calls, including the technician who performed the fix, and get simple and routine questions answered without engaging a technician. Customers can even resolve issues themselves without needing to schedule a service call. Self-service portals empower the customer and this increases customer satisfaction, while reducing field service organization costs.   

5. Mobility

Technician access to mobile technology is now an essential tool rather than an option. Around 75 percent of field service organizations with 50 or more users have deployed or plan to deploy mobile apps in the future, and 60 percent allow employees to bring their own devices to work with them; however, only one fifth are currently using mobile devices in the field with the vast majority of field service organizations stating increasing mobility as a top or growing investment priority.⁵

With field service-specific mobile apps, technicians can get their schedule while on-the-go and receive turn-by-turn directions to the client’s site, avoiding traffic congestion and other delays. They can review the customer’s information and service record, and access knowledge articles, product guides, and other company resources to expedite the repair. Technicians can even use Microsoft Teams or other communication apps to reach out to more experienced colleagues for assistance, thereby increasing first-time fix rates. After the repair is completed, a field service mobile app should enable the customer to electronically sign off on the work order in that moment so the work order can begin being processed. Mobility drives technician efficiency in a manner that isn’t possible using pencil and paper. Watch this space as the importance of a mobile app with robust capabilities will continue to grow.

6. Mixed reality

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the growing use of mixed reality within field service. Mixed reality has grown from science fiction entertainment to a versatile and necessary tool. Its influence and use can now be traced from onboarding and training new employees in a safe, virtual environment to reaching out and collaborating with more experienced technicians for guidance on a difficult service call. Mixed reality can even ensure the safety of technicians by conducting virtual fixes using digital twins, virtual inspections, and device audits.

As an example, Microsoft customer, Burckhardt Compression manufactures and services massive gas compressors. Maintenance is critical, but ships are often in remote locations and difficult to reach. Burckhardt Compression now uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist so engineers can use mixed reality to quickly collaborate with ship technicians and provide specialized mechanical expertise. The company has successfully reduced costs, decreased its carbon footprint, and can now respond to customer needs in mere minutes instead of days.

Mixed reality app Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, complemented with a HoloLens 2 headset, provides hands-free capabilities, letting technicians access customer details, device information, and repair history using voice commands and hand gestures to navigate data presented in holographic form. For technicians in remote or dangerous locations, this functionality is particularly useful as the technician can resolve issues without having to hold onto physical mobile devices.

More experienced technicians can share their skills and provide guidance via shared holograms, but knowledge management is just one of the benefits. Mixed reality is a gateway to information about the resolution of the most common issues, with product guides available in hologram formats. Mixed reality can help better train new technicians, accelerate first-time fixes by tapping into the experience of more knowledgeable technicians, and promote better health and safety for front-line personnel. Imagine the direct impact mixed reality could have on customer experience and satisfaction, while boosting your organization’s business performance in an ever-increasingly competitive market. And I’ve only touched on a few of the advantages of using mixed reality.

The possibilities are limitless

These are just a few of the trends affecting change within field service. No other software arena is as exciting as this space as the possibilities are limitless. Each of these trends are customer-driven, yet each trend also impacts another to create an avalanche of technological change that will benefit the customer to meet their ever-growing demandsall the while differentiating field service organizations of tomorrow.

Field service management software like Dynamics 365 Field Service is leading the way by leveraging AI, IoT, and machine learning to deliver one of the most robust and innovative applications available. We continuously design and refine features to meet the needs of your field service organization and help you exceed customer expectations, increase loyalty, and revenue.

Learn more by visiting Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Read more on mixed reality and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist.

Sources:

1. Field Service Connect
2. CustomerThink
3. Service Council
4. Steven Van Belleghem
5. Field Service Connect

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