We recently interviewed Milo Mell, technical support manager at LT Enterprises [a North Dakota-based transporter of crude oil] for an upcoming article in Field Technologies magazine. While talking with Mell, we asked his thoughts on the following question and thought you may  Continue reading

Poor Google Glass — when it comes to business uses, the naysayers have been piling on the soon-to-be-released head gadget, suggesting that privacy and security concerns may lead companies to ban the devices from the workplace.
But heads up, killjoys. Field service  Continue reading

When news broke last month that jobs in field service are booming, we turned to Peter Cannone, the CEO of OnForce, a Lexington, Mass.-based outsourcing firm, to learn more about hiring trends in field service. Perhaps it’s no surprise that he  Continue reading

Drones are known for their military service, not field service. But that might change.
A New Zealand-based electricity distributor, Counties Power, is reportedly looking into the use of drones, a.k.a. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for emergency repairs. When power poles and  Continue reading

What do global business leaders list as a top-ranked technology investment priority for 2013? Field service software, according to a new survey from Forrester, which surveyed some 2,200 software decision-makers on their capital spending plans for 2013. Field service ranked  Continue reading

Editor’s Note: Scott Molinari, general manager of Adduco Digital e.K. in Zweibrücken, Germany, took issue with OnForce CEO Peter Cannone‘s analysis about contract-hiring trends in the field service sector. Molinari believes strongly that training and investing in full-time technicians, not contractors, is far  Continue reading

How many field technicians does it take to service, say, a hospital CT scanner, or HVAC equipment in a high-rise? A surprisingly large number of field service organizations don’t really know. According to Aberdeen Group, 17 percent of service firms  Continue reading

In a recent survey by eyefortransport, 48% of companies found that improved fuel and route management was the most important result of adopting fleet tracking technologies. How do these technologies pull off these impressive improvements? By collecting, analyzing, and utilizing  Continue reading

How can fleet managers put new technologies to work to streamline their operations and slash fuel costs?  Todd Ewing, director of product marketing at Fleetmatics –  the Boston-based company that offers GPS fleet tracking technology — shares his insights with SmartVan.
With  Continue reading

How is the mobile and cloud revolution changing old-line industries like manufacturing and field service? Dave Yarnold, CEO of ServiceMax, writing in VentureBeat, calls out three compelling promises of mobile technology that are “completely transforming entire business functions in some amazing ways.” A few  Continue reading

The latest jobs report from the Department of Labor had some surprising news for the field service sector: while overall job growth was weak for the month, the demand for field service technicians surged. With 221,000 workers added last month  Continue reading

Sometimes field service is like Rodney Dangerfield — it gets no respect. But if the latest job numbers show anything, it’s that field service not only deserves a lot more respect, but also a lot more attention from tech innovators.  Continue reading

Who’s the MVP of your local bowling alley? Easy. ”The mechanic,” says Greg Pasdiora, president of International Bowling Lane Specialists. “He’s definitely the most important person in the building. The unsung hero.” Why? Even the smallest tilt in the bowling lane can send balls into  Continue reading

Ask someone on the street what (or who) a field service technician is and you might get a blank stare back. It’s hard to believe that a position that  drives a multi-billion-dollar profession across dozens of industry sectors could remain  Continue reading