2008 Articles
March 19, 2008
Service Management Magazine: "Knowledge Management - The First Step in Remote Fixing"
Remote device management can not only diagnose the problem but also fix it without interaction with a call centre agent or a field technician. However, the problem can also be remotely diagnosed and potentially repaired by taking the user through a series of questions using case-based reasoning. This is Knowledge Management, the next step toward remote diagnostics.
When, in 2005, the Yankee Group spoke to field technicians to establish how they spend their day, it discovered that they actually only dedicate 21 per cent of their time to fixing customer’s problems. With the rest taken up by travel (26 per cent), paperwork (16 per cent), communications with call centres (16 per cent), parts management (11 per cent) and waiting (11 per cent), there was a clear opportunity to improve efficiency. It was recognised that the next step towards improving efficiency is to reduce the need to dispatch field technicians altogether, so how can you limit the need to dispatch for repairing a malfunctioning asset?
In many cases, the customer’s problem may not even require a field technician visit and according to Boston-based research firm Aberdeen Group, the unnecessary dispatch of a technician cost £142. Imagine if there are ten unnecessary visits a day over six days: that’s a loss of more than £34,000 per month. How can this loss of time and money be avoided? By assessing the problem remotely.