DECEMBER 2018CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8IN MY Viewrom the 10,000-foot view for field service, the priority is typically to enable faster fixes, for less cost, at less risk, and ideally with a seamless automation of administrative processes. For the CIO managing a portfolio of field enablement projects, these will likely seem like familiar criteria.But, field service performance criteria are already under pressure to change. The new age of digital has given the enterprise a different view into what it means to focus on customer connection and startups such as Airbnb, Uber and Tesla have continued to put added pressure on traditional business models to adapt to the new world of customer expectations. The net result is that the customer expectations are rising, and all industries are feeling the pressure to step up their game.There are also revenue opportunities emerging as what was once was a post-sale service contract is rapidly becoming the platform for new business models. For example, ThyssenKrupp now see significant revenue opportunity in servicing all elevators in the marketplace with their recent enhancements in IoT and maintenance predictive algorithms. Examples like ThyssenKrupp show a trend where goals are shifting from simply selling the product over to servicing a solution end-to-end regardless of which product is being used.In this new digital world, it seems that connection to customer is a critical differentiator for everyone. Field service is a critical customer connection opportunity. So, it MICHAEL ALCOCK, DIRECTOR-CIO EXECUTIVE PROGRAMS & CONTENT, MICROSOFT [NASDAQ: MSFT]AI and the Future of Field Service:Moving from Efficiency to Innovationwould follow that some of our greatest efforts to innovate would be in the field service space. And indeed, we find tremendous renewed interest in this space; yet, even a casual review of articles from researchers, analysts and luminaries reveal that much of the focus in field service is still on the familiar criteria: faster fixes, for less cost, at less risk.CIOs might recognize this familiar conundrum. The existing field services system works and is continuously being optimized for better performance but there is growing evidence that the whole system or some significant part of the system will need to adapt to competitive forces from digitization. What investments can a CIO make today that will position both the IT IN MY ViewF
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