White paper. Selecting Field Service Management Software

Transcription

1 White paper Selecting Field Service Management Software

2 Content What is a Dynamic Scheduling Engine (DSE) and IFS 360 Scheduling?... 1 A case in point... 3 Importance of the cloud... 5 Integration with complementary applications... 5 Conclusion... 6 About IFS... 8

3 Selecting Field Service Management Software By Paul Bouchier CIO IFS 360 Scheduling Today, most companies with teams of mobile field technicians are running some type of field service management software. They may have even extended that software to handheld devices used by their technicians in the field. In some cases, that service management software will automate part of the dispatcher s role by using data on technicians and projects to generate a schedule for the day. In this whitepaper, we will discuss the reasons that in addition to their standard field service software solution, your business ought to consider running a Dynamic Scheduling Engine, or DSE. We will define what a DSE is and how it can: Increase the agility of your field service operation Allow you to succeed in meeting demanding service level agreements (SLAs) Schedule field resources dynamically, in real time Use the power of the cloud to drive efficiencies in your business. Reduce drive time and customer site visits while improving customer service Provide visualization of your field service operation enabling easier and more efficient management In depth analysis of service operation by virtually any criteria, geography, service call type, SLA, business unit What is a Dynamic Scheduling Engine (DSE) and IFS 360 Scheduling? A DSE is really a black box that you send your data to be scheduled to. It optimizes that scheduling data and sends it back to you so that you can accomplish more with fewer techs and dispatchers and achieve other goals you tell the DSE are important to you. What is inside of that black box is a set of algorithms that takes your business rules, applies them to those algorithms and creates a very powerful and flexible 1

4 computing engine for scheduling. While the algorithms contained in a DSE originate from the highest echelons of academic mathematics, what makes them applicable and practical from a business standpoint is a data framework which describes resources, skill sets of technicians, activities and the relationships between these things, along with the business rules which the end user company simply defines. It is this ability to apply very advanced mathematics to the way a field service organization will operate that allows IFS 360 Scheduling s DSE to deliver efficiencies to business. But it goes further than that. The IFS 360 Scheduling system then represents the results both visually to dispatchers and electronically to other company systems in an easily understood way. Historical data, the actual performance achieved against expected plan are retained and can be analyzed to determine areas of the business which are underperforming and the reasons for it driving decisions and corrective actions. A DSE is dramatically different from other approaches, where scheduling is considered purely as a mathematical problem that has to be resolved. A DSE takes into consideration not just easily defined quantitative parameters, but certain serious constraints as to what is practical, what the customer has been promised, demand patterns and other factors. And the DSE allows you to change these parameters in real time, updating the scheduling process accordingly. A robust business data framework and the ability to successfully apply business rules are absolutely essential. Think of it this way. There are whole university departments devoted to scheduling and optimization. You can review the history of operational research since the 1950 s, including the ongoing academic study of manufacturing scheduling and how to get the maximum throughput from machines on production lines. And what you will find is that very little of this research or study has been applied in the business context of providing service to customers over varied geographies. This is because as hard as the mathematics of scheduling can be, it is much harder to factor in business constraints, rules and other practical matters. And that is exactly what a DSE delivers a solution to a very complex problem for the real world. Applying these algorithms to business problems becomes more challenging when you realize that your business rules are going to change, and relatively frequently. One of the key principles behind IFS 360 Scheduling technology is that you can change the way the system is operating on the fly. You ought to be able to just throw the DSE some new parameters new emergent projects that demand resources, anticipated demand patterns, an increased prioritization placed on fuel consumption, new SLAs and the schedule instantly reflects these new parameters. This is exactly the type of flexibility demanding field service situations require, and yet this is what market leading field service software cannot deliver without dynamic scheduling. 2

5 Different Types of Scheduling Resource And Shift Planning Static Scheduling Episodic Scheduling Appointment Booking Dynamic Scheduling with Continuous Optimization Schedule Intelligence Planning resources for set shifts over a long timeframe. Planning resources for a fixed number of resources and a fixed number of projects to be completed. Most service management systems in the market provide static scheduling. This type of scheduling solution will use available information to generate a schedule on a periodic basis, making at least some attempt to adjust the schedule for changing circumstances, delays, new jobs in the queue, etc. but on a fixed cycle. As the name suggests, setting appointments to meet customer requirements. This requires the identification of available capacity given the current workload for each technician. Once the appointment is set, it can then go into a scheduling algorithm to deliver the detailed plan. This is what IFS 360 Scheduling s DSE delivers that is unique from other offerings. The DSE optimizes the scheduling continuously as opposed to periodically. This approach takes the scheduling task beyond pairing up resources and work, looking at scheduling as a multi-dimensional problem with variables that are constantly changing. That is why, as any of the variables or business priorities of the organization change, the DSE can make the adjustment on the fly and ensure that the schedule reflects these new priorities. This is business intelligence (BI) for scheduling, allowing long-term measurement and analysis of things like deviation from the planned scheduling-related key performance indicators (KPIs). Note:- IFS 360 Scheduling includes all these types of scheduling in one solution. A case in point As an example of how the degree of flexibility offered by a DSE delivers value, consider the case of a vending machine operator. They have vending machines installed in many public leisure facilities. They are doing repairs and collecting money in a high volume environment. Obviously, when machines are not operational they are losing revenue, which makes machine uptime a key concern of theirs. What they found is that their schedule in the morning would be dramatically different from their schedule in the afternoon. The reason, it turned out, is that at lunchtime, more machines broke down. Their base workload would be distributed fairly evenly because they are doing preventative maintenance and collecting money. But they were able to configure the DSE so that they had a different set of parameters at noon to keep the resources near the likely failures on the machines. The ability to make that kind of on-the-fly adjustment in a system without actually changing the software, as a simple end-user configuration that is the value that truly dynamic scheduling delivers. An end user can determine a new set of priorities or criteria, enter it into the DSE and change the behavior of the scheduling engine. 3

6 This degree of flexibility is possible because the IFS 360 Scheduling DSE calculates the schedules in real time. This always on approach to scheduling allows the schedule to reflect the best knowledge of the environment you are working in so you can meet your business objectives. Real time scheduling does have an intrinsic benefit. We have proven a 2 or 3 percent increase in efficiency just by optimizing all of the time as opposed to doing it every 15 minutes like a traditional schedule engine. On top of this, you need to factor in the efficiencies derived from the ability to prioritize different things, including SLAs, drive time, fuel consumption, skill sets of technicians and other variables in line with changing operational priorities. These priorities change for your business in real time, so your schedule must change in real time too. Only a DSE like IFS 360 Scheduling can deliver that degree of flexibility. How mathematically complex is the scheduling problem? Let s consider the number of possible solutions that need to be considered for a given scenario. Even at the low end of the spectrum with a small number of technicians and jobs, it is clear that a human dispatcher cannot quickly identify all of the possible solutions and pick the best one. 2 technicians, 4 calls: 120 possible solutions 2 technicians, 5 calls: 720 possible solutions 4 technicians, 10 calls: 1,037,836,800 possible solutions 5 technicians, 30 calls: 12,301,367,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible solutions Obviously, the task at hand is enormous in its complexity, and that s before we begin adding variables like the need to optimize the schedule for factors important to the business including: Fuel consumption Drive Time SLAs Skill sets of individual technicians Throughput This is one reason that many service management organizations can benefit from an advanced DSE integrated with their existing service management software. 4 With only two technicians and three service calls, there are already 24 different options for getting the work done. Given the complexities of a larger number of technicians, a larger number of calls, multiple variables including drive time, fuel consumption, tech skill sets, SLAs, this is an impossible task without powerful scheduling automation tools. As any of these variables change, as SLAs are deprioritized in favor of fuel consumption, for instance, a DSE is the only way to adjust the schedule rapidly enough to achieve true enterprise agility.

7 Importance of the cloud The term cloud or cloud computing is being turned into a marketing buzzword for a number of different things. For our purposes, we are referring to cloud computing as a way to deliver unlimited, easily accessible compute and storage resources on an on-demand basis. Cloud computing can refer to any number of practices including running a private cloud or housing data or applications in the public cloud, like the Windows Azure cloud, allowing you to access a virtually infinite IT infrastructure managed by someone else. Obviously, running a DSE for a large service organization requires a powerful server environment, and that is one reason that a DSE is often best deployed in a cloud environment. The degree of computing power required to run a DSE can be highly variable, hard to predict and, during peak load times, significant. One other benefit of the elastic nature of the cloud is the easy availability of additional server resources and, consequently, the ability to divide scheduling tasks across a number of DSE instances running simultaneously. You can give small scheduling problems to a DSE on small servers and the big scheduling problems to the large server. We see variable performance in shared cloud-based environments and have opted to perform independent measurement of how much performance we are actually getting out of each server and then allocating the processing power based on the size of the scheduling problem. In this cloud-based, grid computing environment, the actual data can be spread out in different ways, making it extremely flexible. This is one thing that makes integrating your service management system with a cloud-based DSE so appealing the sheer flexibility and scalability. Integration with complementary applications Integrating a service management software package - be it from Maximo, IFS, Wennsoft with a cloud-based DSE like IFS 360 Scheduling is straightforward. The customer simply needs to buy licenses for however many technicians they have and connect their software environment to a service available to you on the internet. A company running their IFS 360 Scheduling on-premise can integrate with a DSE running in the cloud just as easily, and may want to do so for a number of reasons. Within that cloud environment, we have failover provisions built in with clustered database, and can even, for instance, switch between different regions east coast, west coast for example due to capacity issues or for disaster recovery. So even for our customers running their systems on premise, we can make disaster recovery in that cluster environment available as a service, creating a hybrid on premise/cloud configuration. This hybrid on premise/cloud scheduling system can also offer extra computing power by bolting another DSE dynamically into the infrastructure. So for instance, 5

8 if you have a DSE that can process 10,000 activities in a given timeframe but the company is suddenly faced with a peak workload of 25,000 activities, you can hot swap new DSEs into the system, distributing the workload between the DSEs. So, again, you suddenly have a very flexible architecture where you can scale up and down on demand. There is naturally some reticence, in some businesses, to put their scheduling environment into the cloud. They consider it a core business function, and they want to keep within their own IT system. But we are finding that even these companies, as we demonstrate how the cloud offers resilience and extra disaster recovery options, are beginning to see the a benefit. In particular the ability to quickly have full development and user acceptance testing systems in the cloud on an asrequired basis, the implementation costs reduce, removes delays and improves the quality of the eventual production system whether that is on-premise, in the cloud or hybrid. This graph shows the time taken to produce the first schedule for a small scheduling problem of 250 activities and large scheduling problem of 32,000 activities with varying numbers of processors available. Conclusion Field service scheduling is an amazingly complex task. The sheer number of possible solutions to any scheduling problem alone demands a high degree of scheduling automation. But traditional static or episodic scheduling restricts the ability of that scheduling process to respond to changing business needs. Fuel prices are up? Tell the DSE to prioritize fuel consumption in the route. Increased demand is anticipated within a given geographic region and timeframe? Tell the DSE to prioritize those areas during that timeframe. Deliver on SLAs is becoming a priority towards the end of the financial period? Tell the DSE. The schedule will be adjusted accordingly. 6

9 Does predicted bad weather affect the anticipated travel times? Tell the DSE and travel times are adjusted accordingly. A DSE is built on extremely powerful algorithms built specifically to consider not just some of but all of the variables inherent in the scheduling environment. The flexible architecture of the IFS 360 Scheduling system together with the intensive computing needs make the application an ideal candidate for deployment in the cloud. Only a DSE like IFS 360 scheduling can make these types of real time adjustments to help you: Increase the agility of your field service operation Allow you to succeed in meeting demanding service level agreements (SLAs) Schedule field resources dynamically, in real time Manage by exception Use the power of the cloud to drive efficiencies in your business. Reduce drive time and customer site visits while improving customer service Provide insights into how the your service management business operates Drive business change and increase margins Paul Bouchier is Chief Information Officer for IFS 360 Scheduling. Bouchier has been responsible for mobile software design and architecture for more than 30 years. Prior to involvement with IFS 360 Scheduling, he was Technical Director at ControlForce Ltd, where he was responsible for the development of a complete mobile data product suite for the field service industry. Previously, Bouchier was involved in a wide variety of system design and engineering projects with Oracle, Siemens and Manweb Plc. He graduated in Systems Analysis at Bristol UWE, England. Planning Is A Fundamental Human Trait One, if not the distinctive feature of humans is their ability to imagine different futures and the consequences of actions and events. It is the defining characteristic of the species over other animals and the basis upon which all civilizations have been built. Scheduling and modeling of the environment in which organizations operate is therefore an extension of an innate human quality and goes to the core of the decision making process with in all organizations; whether it is the operational management on a day to day basis or strategic planning over a longer time frame, plus everything in between! 7

10 About IFS IFS is a public company (OMX STO: IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications, a component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology. IFS focuses on agile businesses where any of four core processes are strategic: service & asset management, manufacturing, supply chain and projects. The company has more than 2,000 customers and is present in 50+ countries with 2,700 employees in total. More details can be found at For further information, to info@ifsworld.com Americas Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, United States Asia Pacific Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, new Zealand, Philippines, PR China, Singapore, Thailand Europe east and central asia BALKANS, Czech Republic, GEORGIA, Hungary, Israel, KAZAKHSTAN, Poland, RUSSIA and cis, Slovakia, Turkey, UKRAINE Europe Central AUSTRIA, Belgium, GERMANY, ITALY, netherlands, SWITZERLAND Europe West France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom Middle East and africa India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates Nordic Denmark, Norway, Sweden Finland and the Baltic area Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania This document may contain statements of possible future functionality for IFS software products and technology. Such statements of future functionality are for information purposes only and should not be interpreted as any commitment or representation. IFS and all IFS product names are trademarks of IFS. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. IFS AB 2012 En Production: IFS Corporate Marketing, March 2012.