How Innovation and Ai can Transform the Future of Field Service in APAC

Con Balaskas, Managing Director, Motorola Solutions

Con Balaskas, Managing Director, Motorola Solutions

For many of us, the term field service conjures up images of crews in “high vis” uniforms working on the side of the road. It’s a fleeting sight you might have zoomed past while driving down the highway and forgot about shortly afterward.

Yet the work these crews are doing is worth further consideration. Firstly, they are delivering important services, helping to ‘keep the lights on’ for essential services and supporting our economy.

According to Reports and Data, demand for the global field service management market will reach US$9.88 billion by 2026 led by some of Asia’s largest economies including China, India and Japan. The solution system segment, which empowers organisations to efficiently manage their field operations via a centralised platform, will represent more than 60 of the overall field service market by then. As a company that specialises in delivering managed and support services referred to as being ‘mission-critical’, Motorola Solutions provides public safety, mining, and other commercial organisations with secure and robust communication technologies and support 24/7.

While organisations like these always need reliable communications, those services are never more important than when major events and emergencies strike. At these times, instant, team-based voice communication helps them to coordinate their efforts efficiently while keeping frontline workers and community members safe.

Mission-critical communications technology has to be robust enough to survive these major events, but field service crew also play a very important role.

One example that highlights our experience is the Black Saturday bushfires that swept through the Australian state of Victoria in 2009. Public safety agencies needed to maintain constant connectivity to effectively manage the catastrophic event–a requirement that posed real challenges for our field services teams.

According To Reports And Data, Demand For The Global Field Service Management Market Will Reach Us$9.88 Billion By 2026 Led By Some Of Asia’s Largest Economies Including China, India And Japan

Fire conditions were so extreme that coverage was lost at some radio network sites across the state. Field service crews played a crucial role in getting services back online by refuelling critical sites to maintain capacity and availability.

In areas where cellular coverage was lost, our crews re-aligned radio network infrastructure to extend mission critical services even further.

All of this work can be risky work for field crews. That’s why they need to be constantly supported by their colleagues working in network control centres who monitor their safety and wellbeing while keeping a constant eye on emergencies as they unfold.

A new era of innovation

While the physical efforts of field service teams will be needed well into the foreseeable future, the era of digital disruption is already changing the way these teams work. Organisations are investing in a variety of new tools and digital services to remain competitive, increase their operational efficiency and keep their workers and community members safe.

Cloud-based technologies and are helping to make sense of the masses of data that flows through our communities. At the same time, sophisticated video analytics, the Industrial Internet of things, and artificial intelligence (AI) are also growing in prominence.

These advancements will bring considerable benefits to field service organisations. Imagine how AI could be used to eliminate some of the manual or repetitive tasks that crews are required to do today. Video analytics combined with AI and thermal cameras could be used to find potential hot spots in network infrastructure so that proactive maintenance efforts can be managed before faults occur.

For a mining company, these kinds of technologies can be used to monitor safety requirements–for example, ensuring all team members on-site are wearing the appropriate clothing for work in high temperatures or that they have an advance warning before entering potentially dangerous environments.

With field service crews often working in physically tough conditions, our organisation uses a variety of tools and processes to track their whereabouts and keep them safe at all times. As the use of AI becomes more widely adopted, we expect to see even more tools being used to help protect the health and wellbeing of field service crews. This could involve applying AI to multiple data sources - from weather reports to social media posts and beyond-to assess the risk levels of crews working in certain areas and conditions while providing better intelligence on the equipment and resources they need. The continuing evolution of these kinds of technologies will make the most of data for organisations that invest in field services.

While the future of the field services industry will likely involve some changes to more labour-intensive tasks, the real power of ingenuity will be realised with humans and AI working together to deliver better outcomes and continued innovation.