How AI Helps Improve Field Service

Its seems that with the current rate of technological innovation that these is something new every single day.  Therefore, you’re always looking forward to a new technological innovation that’s going to help you make your business operations more efficient and automated.

One of the most fascinating milestones in the field of technology is the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business. In one way or the other, AI gives a glimpse of machine supremacy that allows computers to perform tasks that were initially performed by humans. 

Are machines going to completely replace people in the workplace?

Of course, not.  Technologies like AI and Machine Learning are designed and meant to support employees in doing their tasks too boost their productivity.

AI is predominantly used to eliminate jobs and tasks that humans find boring, demotivating or monotonous. In some cases AI is also used to do jobs that are considered dangerous for humans to preform.

Previously the most common implementations for AI were all about gaming, entertainment, and advanced science,  now it’s spreading into a number of industries including the field service industry.

FieldElite – Field Service Software , can help you optimise the day-to-day operations of your business.

AI in field service management will enhance you business capabilities with:

  • Information Sharing
  • Real Time Updates
  • Automated Workflows
  • Digital Form Data Collection
  • Data Analysis

Improved Customer Service

For Service Based companies, customer retention is vital. Primarily because It can be 5-25 times more costly to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing ones.

Therefore customer retention should be a primary focus.? The good news is that by making use of AI you can implement services It can be 5-25 times more costly to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.

Staying on top of and ensuring you satisfactorily address and meet you customer demands and expectations can be a daunting task.? It can also be an expensive one,? especially for small field service based businesses like :

  • Heating & Plumbing Engineers
  • Electrical Contractors
  • Fire Safety Inspectors
  • HVAC Engineers
  • Facility Management
  • Building, Construction & Trade

Implementing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to automate mundane and repetitive customer administration tasks will enable your staff to be free to provide additional value added tasks for your customers. Making your customers happier.

?Think about the active Chatbots. You can always get complaints directly from customers and address them right away.??

If at any point the customer is unhappy with your services, they can always raise the issue via the Chatbots. Since the bots contain necessary customer information, you can always get back to them and fix the issue at hand.?

With AI in field service, you can solve problems before they arise, or what is otherwise known as predictive maintenance,? In that way, you’ll have better customer relations because you’ll be able to address your customer concerns before they even become aware of them.

Improved Productivity

Scheduling tasks and managing the workforce isn’t a walk in the park. It goes beyond assigning tasks to your team members in the field and giving them deadlines to meet. Whether it’s a small firm or a big organisation, it’s quite difficult to organise the workforce.?

However, adopting Artificial Intelligence can iron out the difficulties most field organisations face in scheduling and managing tasks. Some years back, most firms relied on human intelligence to dispatch jobs to the right people based on given conditions. This was quite difficult, especially that it wasn’t always successful. But thanks to AI. With field service apps like FieldElite scheduling tasks and managing workforce is only a few clicks away.?

What’s more? There?s no room for error. Therefore, you’ll always match the right people for the job. Again, your team will always get tasks on time. That means, the job completion rate will go up, and hence the workforce becomes more productive.?

Predictive Maintenance

Usually, most business operations are based on ?solve the problem as it occurs?, which is just OK. However, it’s not always safe to wait until a problem occurs so that you solve it. Prevention is better than cure, and that’s why Artificial Intelligence comes handy in Field Service.

Using FieldElite Workforce Management Software , you don’t have to wait until something breaks.? Utilizing AI in field service enables you to proactively address field service needs and prevent unforeseen failures and interruptions.?

The ability to predict field service needs through field service apps like FieldElite enables you to make more accurate forecasts. In this way, resource planning is made easier, and as such, you’ll have smoothly running workflows. Again, by taking care of unforeseen circumstances in advance, you’re flexible enough to take care of the unexpected. And that means the overall productivity of your business will go up.

Job Management

Most field service jobs involve multiple stages that can take several days to complete. In addition to this, more often than not, you have to coordinate lots of equipment and contractors at the same time. All these can’t be achieved solely by human efforts. For more successful outcomes, it’s important to incorporate Artificial Intelligence in your field service operations.?

FieldElite is the field service solution that can help you manage sophisticated tasks. The app is packed with field service management tools that enable you to assign complicated tasks and keep track of your field techs. For long-cycle jobs, FieldElite app enables you to follow up on the activities going on the field to ensure they’re completed.?

With AI, there?s no room for error even when the jobs become more sophisticated.

Data Analysis

?

Field service industry involves lots of data. Some years back, organisations depended on human intelligence to analyse big data. Well, things still worked out, but as a human is to err, the outcome wasn’t always perfect. However, with Artificial Intelligence data analysis, 100% accuracy in data analysis is achievable. Field service solutions like FieldElite provide sophisticated data analytic tools that enable you to crack massive data and offer accurate solutions.?

FieldElite data analytics capabilities give you an insight into what’s not working and what needs to be improved. In that way, you can always address matters arising and take care of the loopholes.?

It’s time to go paperless with field management software like FieldElite if you?d like to make your business more profitable. Apart from improving the productivity of your workforce, incorporating AI in your business increases profitability. If you’re still doing your usual field rounds with a clipboard, it’s time to simplify your task with FieldElite app.?

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Energy efficiency demystified

Energy bills are all about Energy efficiency but energy efficiency management is not all about bills. Energy efficiency means reducing carbon emissions, lowering energy costs and improving the quality of life. Energy efficiency is therefore about conservation of energy in a broader perspective; in fact energy efficiency is almost becoming a moral obligation.

Through adoption of appropriate energy efficiency measures, companies can significantly bring down the overhead costs making hundreds of dollars in savings. Energy efficiency is also synonymous with a better quality of life. Taking appropriate measures to ensure proper insulation protects your premises against extreme weather conditions leading to more productivity and an improvement in the bottom line.

Improved energy efficiency means a smaller amount of carbon emissions, less pollution and a better environment.

It is now easier than ever to visually identify where your facility is wasting energy, how much energy is being wasted while tracking the progress made in reducing energy consumption by turning that detailed, raw energy-consumption data into useful charts and figures.

Having visibility of your Energy usage gives you knowledge of what power you are consuming. This helps you change energy usage behaviours and this can have significant savings and reduction in your electricity bills. Real-time electricity consumption tracking is enough prodding for you to be on the lookout for inefficient energy consumption unit’s e.g.? Heating and cooling equipment, ducts insulation of your premises or a failure of one of these components to perform as intended. Pin-pointing the problem areas is not a walk in the park but fixing it can make your building more energy-efficient and comfortable.

A wide range of solutions are now available for charting and analysing energy consumption that helps energy managers, facilities managers, energy consultants and building-services engineers. These will not only offer advice but will enable you provide tailor made solutions for your organisation by assisting you in developing a sustainable energy strategy. Our energy monitoring software is one example.?

Computer Forensics

So you had a customer data security breach last weekend? Do you know you could be held liable in court for failing to implement required security procedures? That’s right. Due to the overwhelming surge in identity theft wherein nearly 20 million Americans have already been affected, most states have enacted laws to curtail this fast rising crime. Therefore, it is important to redefine how your company deals with customer data security.

  • First, you’ll want to know what your obligations are as dictated by law. Some places, for example, require the destruction or deletion of personal data through shredding, erasing, or by rendering them undecipherable.
  • Second, not only do you need to comply with the said requirements, you’ll also have to prove in court that you actually complied if ever a security breach does happen.
  • Third, you need to be aware of your post-breach duties to avoid being dealt additional penalties.

Obviously, such situations now call for individuals who are experts in both the legal and technical aspects regarding data security. Such individuals are practitioners of a relatively new discipline known as computer forensics.

Armed with our computer forensics specialists, we’ll be able to help you deal with the above concerns. As a result, you can be prevented from having to pay fines that can go up to hundreds of thousands of euros.

There are other equally important reasons why you would want to avail of computer forensics services. For example, you’ll need computer forensics specialists because you want to:

  • Catch a person involved in criminal activities such as child porn, stealing of personal data, and destroying intellectual property.
  • Investigate a computer, network, or even a mobile device for clues that may lead to the culprit.
  • Determine the extent and possible causes when you discover your digital data has been damaged.
  • Find and recover damaged, deleted or encrypted data regardless of whether the cause was intentional or not. If the data in question will be used as evidence in a legal action, there are certain procedures that need to be followed during recovery operations to retain the integrity of the data. Computer forensic specialists are highly qualified for such operations.
  • Implement security policies in your organisation. Such policies have to operate within legal bounds if you want to avoid possible sanctions in the future. These policies should also be designed such that future forensic operations can be conducted with a high likelihood of success.

That said, a company that integrates computer forensics into its IT security policies and practices will be better equipped to remedy the situation once data security has already been compromised than a company that doesn’t.

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ecoVaro to tackle water stress

For many people within the UK, water is not really something to worry about. Surely enough of it falls out the sky throughout the year that it does feel highly unlikely that we?ll ever run out of it. There certainly does seem to be an abundance of Branded Water available in plastic bottles on our supermarket shelves.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ? Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Despite this, Once-unthinkable water crises are becoming commonplace.  If you consider that In England and Wales, we use 16 billion litres of clean drinking water every day ? that’s equivalent to 6,400 Olympic sized swimming pools.

Currently, water companies can provide slightly more than we need ? 2 billion litres are available above and beyond what we’re using.  In some areas, though, such as south east England, there is no surplus and, as such, these regions are more likely to face supply restrictions in a dry year.

If we take little moment to reflect on some of the most notable water related stories over the past few years, we’ll start to get a picture of just how real the potential and the threat of water shortages can be.

Reservoirs in Chennai, India?s sixth-largest city, are nearly dry right now. Last year, residents of Cape Town, South Africa narrowly avoided their own Day Zero water shut-off.

It was only year before that, Rome rationed water to conserve scarce resources.

Climate change is likely to mean higher temperatures which may drive up the demand for water (alongside population growth) and increase evaporation from reservoirs and water courses during spring and summer.

The impact of climate change on total rainfall is uncertain, but the rain that does fall is likely to arrive in heavier bursts in winter and summer. Heavier rain tends to flow off land more quickly into rivers and out to sea, rather than recharging groundwater aquifers.

A greater chance of prolonged dry periods is also conceivable.  This combined with the harsh reality that no human population can sustain itself without sufficient access to fresh water.

If present conditions continue, 2 out of 3 people on Earth will live within a water-stressed zone by 2025

What is water stress?

Water stress is a term used to describe situation when demand for water is greater than the amount of water available at a certain period in time, and also when water is of poor quality and this restricts its usage. Water stress means deterioration in both the quantity of available water and the quality of available water due to factors affecting available water.

Water stress refers to the ability, or lack thereof, to meet human and ecological demand for water. Compared to scarcity, water stress is a more inclusive and broader concept.

Water Stress considers several physical aspects related to water resources, including water scarcity, but also water quality, environmental flows, and the accessibility of water.

Supply and Demand

Major factors involved when water scarcity strikes is when a growing populations demand for water exceeds the areas ability to service that need.

Increased food production and development programs also lead to increased demand for water, which ultimately leads to water stress.

Increased need for agricultural irrigation in order to produce more crops or sustain livestock are major contributors to localised water stress.

Overconsumption

The demand for water in a given population is fairly unpredictable.  Primarily, based on the fact that you can never accurately predict human behaviour and changes in climate.

If too many people are consuming more water than they need because they mistakenly believe that water is freely available and plentiful, then water stress could eventually occur.

This is also linked to perceived economic prosperity of a give region.  Manufacturing demand for water can have huge impact regardless whether water is actively used within the manufacturing process or not.

Water Quality

Water quality in any given area is never static.  Water stress could happen as a result of rising pollution levels having a direct impact on water quality.

Water contamination happens when new industries either knowingly or unknowingly contaminate water with their industrial practices.

Largely, this can happen and frequently does so because these industries do not take effective control of monitoring and managing their impact on communal water supplies.  Incorrectly assuming this is the responsibility of an additional third party like the regional water company.

The truth is, water quality and careful monitoring of it is all of our responsibility.

Water Scarcity

Simple increases in demand for water can in itself contribute to water scarcity. However,  these are often preceded by other factors like poverty or just the natural scarcity of water in the area.

In many instances, the initial locations of towns or cities were not influenced by the close proximity of natural resources like water, but rather in pursuit of the extraction of other resources like Gold, Coal or Diamonds.

For Instance, Johannesburg,  South Africa is the largest City in South Africa and is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is also located in the mineral rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade.

Johannesburg is also one of the only major cities of the world that was not built on a river or harbour.   However, it does have streams that contribute to two of Southern Africas mightiest rivers – Limpopo and the Orange rivers.  However, most of the springs from which many of these streams emanate are now covered in concrete!

Water Stress and Agriculture

Peter Buss, co-founder of Sentek Technology calls ground moisture a water bank and manufactures ground sensors to interrogate it. His hometown of Adelaide is in one of the driest states in Australia. This makes monitoring soil water even more critical, if agriculture is to continue. Sentek has been helping farmers deliver optimum amounts of water since 1992.

The analogy of a water bank is interesting. Agriculturists must ?bank? water for less-than-rainy days instead of squeezing the last drop. They need a stream of real-time data and utilize cloud-based storage and processing power to curate it.

Sentek?s technology can be found in remote places like Peru?s Atacamba desert and the mountains of Mongolia, where it supports sustainable floriculture, forestry, horticulture, pastures, row crops and viticulture through precise delivery of scarce water.

This relies on precision measurement using a variety of drill and drop probes with sensors fixed at 4? / 10cm increments along multiples of 12? / 30cm up to 4 times. These probe soil moisture, soil temperature and soil salinity, and are readily repositioned to other locations as crops rotate.

Peter Buss is convinced that measurement is a means to an end and only the beginning. ?Too often, growers start watering when plants don’t really need it, wasting water, energy, and labour. By accurately monitoring water can be saved until when the plant really needs it.

Peter also emphasises that crop is the ultimate sensor, and that ?we should ask the plant what it needs?.

This takes the debate a stage further. Water wise farmers should plant water-wise crops, not try to close the stable door after the horse has bolted and dry years return.

The South Australia government thinks the answer also lies in correct farm dam management. It wants farmers to build ones that allow sufficient water to bypass in order to sustain the natural environment too.

There is more to water management than squeezing the last drop. Soil moisture goes beyond measuring for profit. It is about farming sustainably using data from sensors to guide us.

Ecovaro is ahead of the curve as we explore imaginative ways to exploit the data these provide for the common good of all.

A Quarter of the World?s Population, Face High Water Stress

Data from WRI?s Aqueduct tools reveal that 17 countries ? home to one-quarter of the world?s population?face ?extremely high? levels of baseline water stress, where irrigated agriculture, industries and municipalities withdraw more than 80% of their available supply on average every year. 

Water stress poses serious threats to human lives, livelihoods and business stability. It’s poised to worsen unless countries act: Population growth, socioeconomic development and urbanization are increasing water demands, while climate change can make precipitation and demand more variable.  

How to manage water stress

Water stress is just one dimension of water security. However, like any challenge, its outlook depends on adequate monitoring and management of environmental data.

Even countries with relatively high water stress have effectively secured their water supplies through proper management by leveraging the knowledge they have garnered by learning from the data they gathered.

3 ways to help reduce water stress

In any geography, water stress can be reduced by measures ranging from common sense to innovative technology solutions.

There are countless solutions, but here are three of the most straightforward:

1. Increase agricultural efficiency: The world needs to make every drop of water go further in its food systems. Farmers can use seeds that require less water and improve their irrigation techniques by using precision watering rather than flooding their fields.

Businesses need to increase investments to improve water productivity, while engineers develop technologies that improve efficiency in agriculture.

Consumers can reduce food loss and waste, which uses one-quarter of all agricultural water.

2. Invest in grey and green infrastructure:  D Data produced by Aqueduct Alliance  –  shows that water stress can vary tremendously over the year.  WRI and the World Bank?s research shows that built infrastructure (like pipes and treatment plants) and green infrastructure (like wetlands and healthy watersheds) can work in tandem to tackle issues of both water supply and water quality.

3. Treat, reuse and recycle:  We need to stop thinking of wastewater as waste.

Treating and reusing it creates a ?new? water source.

There are also useful resources in wastewater that can be harvested to help lower water treatment costs. For example, plants in Xiangyang, China and Washington, D.C. reuse or sell the energy- and nutrient-rich byproducts captured during wastewater treatment.

Summary

The data is undeniably clear, there are very worrying trends in water.

Businesses and other other organisations need to start taking action now and investing in better monitoring and management, we can solve water issues for the good of people, economies and the planet. We collectively cannot kick this can down the road any further, or assume that this problem will be solved by others.

It is time, for a collective sense of responsibility and for everyone to invest in future prosperity of our Planet as a collective whole.  Ecological preservation should be at the forefront of all business plans because at the end of the day profit is meaningless without an environment to enjoy it in!

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