As I blogged in June, I had an "Aha!" moment at the IQPC Remote Device Monitoring and Management Summit that I refer to as the "Remote Services vs. Human Touch Value Paradigm".  What I heard from the companies in attendance is that by providing service remotely and therefore decreasing the number of times a technician goes on-site to fix a problem, there is a perceived reduction in value delivered by the service team.

While there are external challenges and changes, such as this, that need to be considered when deploying remote service solutions, there are similar internal changes that evolve when moving to a SaaS model. Customer support is an internal group that will see significant changes in their roles and responsibilities.  I see them as morphing from "fire jumpers" to fire preventers" - let me explain...

In a typical on-premise product installation, a support engineer's profile consists of:

• Product specific subject matter expertise
• Fire jumpers, ready to leap into the firestorm
• Intimacy with their software product within a customer's environment
• Focus on fixing customer problems, but be as proactive as possible
• Focused on customer satisfaction

Their day-to-day activities consist of solving one problem after another, documenting the case remedy for future use, and on to the next problem.  Basically a break / fix treadmill.  As well as an engineer can know a customer's environment (as it relates to their software), there are still major challenges from a hardware perspective, numerous 3^rd party components, infrastructure, and configuration settings - making a support engineer's job very difficult and mostly reactive.

Some believe that the role of customer support will be minimized with the advent of SaaS.  An excerpt from a recent blog article by Jeff Kaplan challenges this notion by stating that "neither Google nor Amazon offers this form of customer support where customers can receive support from a real person."  More significantly, in this "faceless persona" model, Jeff comments that "by omitting a customer support capability from their offerings at this stage they are running the risk of driving away customers who don't want to put up with continuing service quality issues."

I agree with Jeff.  With SaaS, support is as important as ever - it's just the daily activities that will change. Instead of having to navigate through the intricacies of a customer's environment, the support engineer will be working with a known set of configurations, a standard level of software product, and a deeper understanding of the base environment.  Much of the on-premise mystery will disappear, as the SaaS technical staff is responsible for the full environment, from configuration, 3^rd party components, and basically managing the entire technology stack.  The number of software upgrade support cases will decrease since the vendor is also responsible for patch and upgrade activities.

It's almost a changing of the guard, moving from being "fire jumpers" into "fire preventers".  As less and less break / fix issues are reported, customer support can become even more customer centric and proactive, which will drive greater customer loyalty, which will help in driving growth and profitability.

In my continuing look at evaluating  remote service software solutions, its time to look outside your company to the real reason you are considering remote services in the first place - to help your customers!

Answer What's in it For Your Customers.  If you can't explain to your customers why remote services are good for them, they won't be motivated to help you make it happen.

For Example...
Let's say you own a particular brand of car and you are standing in your driveway.  Some guy with a logo for that brand of car on his shirt walks up and asks for your car keys.  You kind of recognize the guy from the dealership where you bought the car, but you can't be sure.  Do you give him your keys?

Most people wouldn't think of it.  What is he going to do with the car? Is he going to drive it away?  What are the risks? Are there any benefits for allowing this to happen? Can he be trusted?

Now imagine this conversation.  You approach your customer and inform them of your new remote service offering.  It involves connecting their machine to the Internet so someone can remotely work on it.  Yikes!  They ask themselves the same questions you did when the guy asked for your car keys! 

There is not enough context around the request to elicit anything but a negative response.  It doesn't have to be that way...

A Lesson From Microsoft & Apple
Look at Microsoft with Windows update, Apple iTunes, all the various anti-virus products.  They all deliver remote service in the form of automated software updates to millions of computers every day.  And they don't answer a lot of questions each time they do it either.  Why?  Because they offer a specific and well understood benefit and do it from a position of trust.

The secret to customer acceptance success is to walk in the customer's shoes and understand why and how remote service is valuable to them.  Then articulate that value in a way that means something to their business and to them personally.

Why do People Buy?
I used to have a boss that said there were three reasons people bought something; to save money, to make money, and to stay out of jail.  It's rather crude, but it speaks to the challenge.  How will remote services help your customer achieve their goals?  What's the best way to find out?  Ask them!

Let's return to the car example.  What if before the conversation your dealership had notified you of a new service program where they would change your oil when needed between midnight and 4am.  Or they would remind you when it was time to have major service performed?  Or they would automatically upgrade the nav system with new maps?

Now when the guy walks up, rather than asking for your keys, he asks if you have heard of the new service plan.  Then he explains or reminds you of all the wonderful benefits of the plan.  He answers your questions about risks and process.  By now, convinced of the benefits, you ask how to sign up and what will happen.  The "sale" is made.

Why is All of This Important to Your Evaluation Process? 

• First, it's important internally for gaining corporate support and funding.  If you can't explain how remote services will help your customer and your business, then why do it?
  
• Second, you want to measure features and functions that contribute to value.  If I know what is important to my customer, I can determine what product features support that value. E.g., Data security?  Network security?  Changes to customer IT infrastructure?  Deployment steps?  How does each vendor score on these customer FAQs?
  
• Third, customer acceptance is a critical success element for your program.  The marketing and sales portion of the cross functional team needs to understand the customer's view of value and how to answer their concerns.

In the end, answering the simple question, "What's in it for me?" will result in motivated customers that want to help you get connected to their equipment.  After all, it's a requirement to enjoy all of those benefits you promised!

Integrated Solutions featured Varian Medical Systems' remote service solution - SmartConnect^TM in their August issue. Varian has received a lot of attention lately - with their recent M2M Value Chain award win and now this great piece of coverage that outlines how SmartConnect is improving their support operations.

Varian was one of the earliest adopters of remote service software and among the most forward-thinking companies in terms of how they can use the technology to continue raising their own bar for customer support.  Since implementing SmartConnect they have reduced their Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) by 50%!

The article is interesting in that it goes much deeper into the technology that I usually see. There is a whole section on Axeda Global Access Server (GAS) technology, which accelerates the UI of our Access desktop sharing application for customers with worldwide deployments. This shows how the market is maturing. The basic success stories have been told, now it's time to dig into the details on how to take these initiatives to the next level.

Gartner recently published a case study on Cardinal Health, an Axeda customer and global manufacturer of medical and surgical supplies and technologies. It's always great to have an analyst write about our customers, so that you can get an impartial view.

We are a client of Gartner, but we do not pay them to write case studies; they do this based on their clients' research interests. This is not the case for all analyst firms, but it is for Gartner.

This case study, entitled "Cardinal Health Uses Support Automation to Enhance the Brand Experience," is now available to download from our site for a limited time. The case study includes some great success metrics, such as:

• 15% reduction in field service visits on products enabled with remote monitoring
• Where measured, a 10% reduction in dispatched visits by the field service team
• Complete auditing of regulatory compliance (especially regarding HIPAA) for each device
• An increase of more than 10% in service contract renewal capture rates
• 25 success stories on the Medical Products and Technologies Division Web site
• More than 15 product lines fully enabled with remote service capabilities

Read this case study and share with us how Cardinal Health's story compares to your remote service program results or plans.

Earlier this week we announced that Data Innovations is using Axeda® ServiceLink to proactively support their clinical lab middleware (called Instrument Manager^TM).  Data Innovations provides a good example of how remote service software solutions are expanding beyond machines and equipment.

Service organizations supporting complex machines have a clear business case for proactive service.  Anything that can avoid a trip to the customer site represents a direct cost savings.  Software companies are a bit different.  The support model is often completely reactive - there is no support involvement until the customer calls with a problem. Support is provided from a central call center and there isn't the need or expense of putting service engineers on the road.  Software can be just as complex as any machine and just as mission-critical to the customer.  Anything that can be done to get ahead of, or even better, to avoid problems results in a benefit to both the customer and the support organization.

To help illustrate how proactive service can be applied to software support, I thought of some examples that we have seen from our customers and prospects.

1. Software Updates. A problem found at one customer can quickly ripple through the entire customer base.  The ability to remotely deliver and install updates, patches, or fixes immediately can significantly reduce the impact of a product imperfection.  The alternative is to develop the fix and then wait for your customers to have an issue - and call into the support center - one at a time.
   
2. Database Management.  There are a lot of products that have databases embedded within them.  But, customers often forget to do the necessary maintenance or administration of their system.  When they run out of table allocation space or fill up the disk, the system crashes - losing all of their critical data.  What if you could detect this danger and warn them about it in advance?  Even better, what if you could call and offer a service to provide the necessary maintenance remotely (for a fee of course)?  You not only avoid the problem, you get paid for helping your customer make better use of your product!  
   
3. Configuration. Every support engineer has experienced this scenario.  The customer calls with a problem.  You ask, "Did anything change?" "No," they reply.  Some period of troubleshooting later you discover that someone had made a configuration change that created the problem.  Argh! 
   
   Users never want to admit that they made a configuration change that has had a negative impact on the software performance.  With continuous monitoring, you could detect that configuration files had been changed.  In some cases, you may even choose to upload the files after each change so you could compare what had changed.  Or... you could even offer a service to backup and restore critical configuration files. 

Proactive support can be just as effective for mission-critical software applications as it is for machines and equipment.  It's not just for hardware anymore!

Locating devices in the world of mobile assets is just one of the problems faced by the owners of these devices.  As discussed by Don Clark on the Wall Street Business Journal Blog , tracking has significant value in order for nurses to find pumps in their hospitals. However, as devices become more intelligent and flexible, many other important issues arise such as:

• Are they setup the correct way?
• Are the all setup the same way?
• Are they up-to-date with software updates?
• Have they been calibrated?
• Are they operating efficiently?
• Have the required preventive maintenance procedures been run?
• Which devices are no longer in warranty or support plans?
• Are there parts that are about to fail?
• Are there consumables that are about to run out?

These are vital elements in determining if an asset is ready for use. To address these issues, our customers are delivering value-added remote services that provide additional capabilities for the owners and users of these devices.

To better understand the concept, let's focus on one of our customers, Respironics.  They make ventilators that help people breathe, which is a problem when these devices need regular service like software updates.  Previously, when the service person arrived at the hospital to update a fleet of ventilators, the patient would need to be removed from the ventilator and bagged while the service was performed - obviously not ideal for the patient.

Respironics has helped their customers (hospitals) solve this problem by implementing their remote service solution called Respi-Link.  With Respi-Link, hospitals dedicate a PC within their network that will be used to complete repairs, software updates and configuration changes.  The PC receives information from Respironics for the specific range of ventilators in use at the hospital.  When these ventilators are not in use, they are wheeled down to the Respi-Link "smart repair depot" where they are connected to the PC in order to receive the correct updates and configuration changes.  This eliminates the need to remove a patient from the ventilator in order to service it.

Remote service solutions like Respi-Link allow manufactures to accurately answer the questions listed above, which keeps their mission-critical assets operating at peak performance while significantly reducing inconvenient downtime.   

When evaluating remote service software solutions, it is critical to establish a cross functional team. Everyone doesn't need to be involved in every meeting, but having a wide range of perspectives will help in making the right choice.

Remote service solutions have the potential to touch many different parts of the company.  Support and field service may be the primary beneficiaries, but achieving success may also involve R&D, marketing, sales, manufacturing, product planning, and finance.  The purchase decision is also competing with other financial priorities of the business. The cross functional team provides a forum for proponents and detractors to have a voice in developing the proposed solution.

The output from the cross functional team will be a proposal to the management team tasked with making the spending decision.  The proposal describes the operational (business) need for the project, the recommended solution (with ranked list of alternatives or vendors), and financial calculations that clearly explain the costs and expected benefits of the program over time.

There are 3 elements that need to be considered in building the ideal cross functional team.

• Technical
• Operational
• Financial

Technical
The technical element covers the traditional aspects of a technology purchase.  For example, does the product meet the needs?  Can it be integrated into the existing product and support business systems?  Is it secure?  But wait, how does the technical team know what the needs are?  Without a clear set of needs and use cases, the technical team usually runs a series of experiments with the vendors trying to see which can jump over the most hurdles.  Look for technical team members who can take a big picture view of a problem and balance technology issues with business needs.

Operational
The operational element is made up of the people who will actually use and operate the remote service solution.  In many ways, they are the "customer" for the project. If the system provides value to them, they will use it.

It is critical to get a mix of product and support experts involved in defining the needs of the system.  This should include people who handle front line customer calls, service engineers who have to jump in their trucks and drive at a moment's notice, or the third and fourth level technical support team.  They know what kinds of faults and failures occur in the field and what information they need to make faster diagnosis and better decisions.

Financial
The financial element is focused on converting the technical and operational issues into an ROI metric.  Without this, it is difficult to make priority calls on whether a particular high cost feature is required or a "nice to have."  The financial members of the team don't need to be from finance or be accountants, but they do need to understand the decision making and budgeting process of the organization. 

4 Stages of Small Group Communication|
When you bring your team together, remember the 4 stages of small group communication identified by Bruce Tuckman in 1965:

• Forming - Understand the challenges then agree on goals and objectives
• Storming - Different ideas compete for consideration. Having a skilled leader or bringing in someone from the outside can help facilitate this process
• Norming - Members will begin to adjust their behavior to meet the expectations of the group.  The differences of opinion that were brought out during the storming phase are worked out.
• Performing - A team that reaches this stage operates with a sense of purpose and independence that enables progress and success.

In my experience from the vendor perspective, companies that do not use a cross functional team to develop their program often take a very narrow view on the goals and objectives of the project.  As a result, they have long evaluation cycles and then experience difficulty at the final decision stages where they need the support of upper management and other departments within the business.

Even where cross functional teams are involved, I have seen cases where the members are not equally involved or committed to the project.  As a result, the process is often skewed or falls prey to groupthink. This imbalance creates political issues within the decision process and can result in a project not being sufficiently funded (or not being funded at all).

Final thoughts...
Any strategic initiative should have an executive sponsor with a vested interest in the success of the evaluation.  The executive sponsor should use their influence to get the participation of the other departments in the cross functional team. The project leader should start by determining why each team member is there and if they are committed to the success of the team.  If not, try to replace them. You want a strong team that shares a hunger for success.  For team members, the reward of being on a successful team is recognition and new opportunity as others in the company look for winners to have on their own teams.

I attended the M2M United show last week outside Chicago. Unlike the Remote Device Monitoring and Management show which is focused on remote service, the M2M show is very broad both in terms of problems being solved and technology required. A good representation of that breadth is seen in the M2M Value Chain Awards given out on the last night of the show. The awards were broken down into two main categories; industry specific solutions, and application areas. Included in Industries were Energy and Utilities, Water and Wastewater, Retail, and Manufacturing. Included in Applications were Fleet Management, Location-Based Services, Automatic Vehicle Location, M2M in Action and Smart Services. Most of these solutions involved a wireless connection to a remote asset.

Axeda's customer Varian Medical Systems was recognized in the Smart Services category for their SmartConnect remote service program. Smart Service is another industry term for the remote service software market that we are a part of. Congratulations to the Varian team on receiving this award!

Most of the other categories had solutions that were provided by multiple vendors because of complexity of wireless connections. In the wireless world you need special hardware to make the wireless data connection, and a phone carrier network to connect the data to your network to get the data. We are working with partners to simplify wireless connections, and expect to see much more of these type solutions in the future.

As indicated in my article last week, there was a compelling topic that came out of last week's Remote Device Monitoring and Management Summit. There was consensus among many conference attendees that by providing service remotely and therefore decreasing the number of times a technician goes on-site to fix a problem, there is a perceived reduction in value delivered by the service team.

One presenter referred to this phenomenon as "proof of performance and service delivery".  Essentially, without having a human on-site to fix their product issues, there is a belief that they are not getting the same value they did before remote services.

Since companies are under increased pressure to reduce operating costs, service fees become an immediate target for discounting.  In order to mitigate these pressures, companies who deliver remote services need to equip their sales teams, channel partners, and customers, with data/reports that show the value delivered remotely.

Brian Hayward, VP of Global Services at Avaya, has taken a great approach in arming his sales team and channel partners with what he calls "While You Were Sleeping" reports.  These reports are comprehensive, easy to read, and can be personalized by his sales/channel teams while targeting the CXO level.  Contained in this report are things such as response and resolution metrics, proactive support value summaries, projected revenue loss avoided, etc.

This type of report showcases the value of remote services, while also positioning the benefit to the end customer. Also a great way to get sales and channel partners engaged - during the development of the reports and also by allowing them to drive greater customer intimacy.

It will be interesting to see the traction that this concept gains and how other companies will respond to the "Remote Services vs. Human Touch Value Paradigm."

I am just back from the 5^th Annual IQPC Remote Device Monitoring and Management Summit which took place in Nashville this week. What a great event it was!  I moderated the Best Practice Go-To-Market Strategies for Smart Services panel discussion and had a chance to speak with many of the attendees - all who were in different phases of their remote service initiatives.  

There were definitely some reoccurring themes, as well as some new topics, among the group. The reoccurring themes illustrated the challenges and opportunities of remote service - as well as the winning strategies of some of the early adopters. I have outlined some of the highlights here:

Challenges

• How to package and sell remote services
• How to train a product focused sales force to sell services
• Regulatory constraints across all industries and markets
• Nonexistent connectivity to some assets
• Customer adoption and acceptance continues to be difficult

Opportunities

• Integrating data collected via remote monitoring into the product design cycle for continual improvement.
• Integration of remote service into CRM backend for issue record generation, automated dispatching for field services, and customer entitlement checks.
• Leveraging remote services to a greater degree for perishable items - driving sales opportunities for consumable sales teams
• Increasing interest from their end users looking for assistance in asset auditing and management

Winning Strategies

• Stay away from developing your remote strategies in a silo, get executive buy in, as well as involvement from your internal Services, IT, and Product teams as early as possible.
• Get your end user's IT group involved as early as possible, as it will make customer acceptance easier.
• More companies illustrating their success utilizing Net Promoter Score (NPS) and how this is their key corporate measurement.  Critical success factor is listening more closely to the voice of the customer (VOC), and driving improvement based on their feedback.

Going Green!
Green initiatives were a hot topic as companies continue to focus on shrinking their carbon footprint. The most impactful quote came from Richard Walker of Siemens Building Technologies who stated "corporations need to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations".  Remote services support green initiatives in the form of:

• Remote preventative maintenance
• Additional predictive maintenance
• Energy management
• Avoidance of hyperinflation in the service economy due to surging fuel prices

It's clear in the Green evolution that the climate change argument is over (first step of knowing you have a problem is admitting you have a problem). It seems that companies that adopt a green "remote services" strategy will flourish, and the slow adopters will fall at the wayside.

There was another very compelling topic that came out of the conference, which I define as the Remote Services vs. the Human Touch Paradigm. I will Blog on that next week.  Until then!