Aggreko puts customers first with new, fully integrated field service solution

Client Challenge: Aggreko wanted to improve the efficiency and productivity of its field service operations and, as a result, to enhance customer service and satisfaction

Solution: As part of its support for the Aggreko 18 technological transformation campaign, Capgemini deployed a global version of the Salesforce Field Service Lightning (FSL) solution

Benefits:

• Potential for increased efficiency
• Future productivity gains
• Opportunity to improve customer service and satisfaction

Solutions for every sector, anywhere in the world

Aggreko is one of the world’s leading providers of environmentally friendly temporary power generation and temperature control equipment. The Glasgow-based business has extensive operations across Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Its solutions meet a huge range of predominantly short term operational and emergency requirements, for a diverse customer base drawn from every conceivable industrial and commercial sector.

Aggreko is especially associated with high profile, large scale outdoor events. It has been a major supplier of temporary power generation and temperature controls at the Beijing and London Olympic Games, football and rugby World Cups and iconic music concerts, festivals and events such as the Superbowl, as well as major film and television productions.

It has even contributed to the US Government’s space programme, by designing and deploying a unique air-cooling system to enable NASA to test its next generation solid rocket motors, the successors to the Saturn V models that powered the Apollo missions to the Moon.

Embracing new technology

To maintain its impressive business growth and burgeoning international reputation, Aggreko knew that it needed to embrace the best that new technology could offer to support the day-to-day running of its many contracts, the way the business equips, organises and schedules its resources and manages its relationships with customers.

The vast majority of Aggreko’s work is carried out by its field service teams at a diverse range of locations, such as sporting and cultural venues, mines, shipyards, offshore oil and gas rigs, power stations and construction sites.

Each commission involves complex logistical and project management challenges, to ensure that the right machinery, equipment and personnel are in the right place, at the right time, at the lowest cost – and that its field force arriving on site is aware of the detailed circumstances and requirements of the customer and the location.

As a result, maximising productivity and efficiencies, while maintaining great customer service, relies on thorough planning and smart asset management, mobile access to a single, up to date view of the latest customer and project information, and instant communication between customers, partners and colleagues.

Aggreko had identified 18 business improvement technology projects that it wanted to focus on to equip the business for the next stage of its development. As part of its Field Service Management (FSM) workstream, it asked Capgemini to design, develop and deploy a bespoke version of Field Service Lightning from Salesforce as its strategic FSM solution for global implementation.

Investigation and analysis

Capgemini was selected to lead on implementing the Salesforce elements of the Aggreko 18 campaign, as the company’s technological transformation programme became known, due to its market leading expertise and track record in customer relationship management. Field Service Lightning (FSL) was developed by Salesforce to provide a powerful, highly customizable, mobile-friendly field service hub, with the tools and functionality required to manage work orders, scheduling and today’s mobile workforce.

To customise FSL to meet Aggreko’s precise requirements, Capgemini embarked on a detailed investigation and analysis of dozens of user stories drawn from a wide cross section of Aggreko personnel working on site with customers.

Capgemini deployed a range of expertise, including business analysts, change management specialists and technical architects, to develop a detailed specification and roadmap for the Aggreko implementation of FSL, in particular the mobile app that would become the beating heart of its field force’s working day.

Extensive user testing, beginning in Australia and then moving further afield, produced vital feedback enabling fine tuning and enhancements to functionality. Finally, a training programme for every field force employee provided live, hands on experience of the features of FSL prior to a full global launch in late 2019 to more than 1,300 Aggreko team members.

Single, integrated platform

The roll out of Aggreko’s FSL solution is transforming its entire field service management operation, from endto-end, delivering substantial business efficiencies and enhancing relationships with customers and colleagues. For the first time, Aggreko’s field service managers and co-ordinators are using a single, integrated system to control and optimize the way they organise the activities of their mobile workforce, on a national and regional basis.

By having a complete, live overview of the requirements of its customers and the availability and location of its resources, Aggreko can task the right people, with the right skills, carrying the right equipment, and work out the best route to each customer appointment – and then share this information directly with each field force team member, via their bespoke FSL mobile application.

In turn, mobile workers use their mobile app to review their schedule for the day, see customer contact details, assess whether they have the equipment they need and make plans for the task ahead. On arrival on site they have a complete picture of the task ahead, the precise location in which they’ll be working and a 360-degree view of the customer and their detailed requirements. They can create and edit records, create follow up appointments and share information with colleagues.

Bespoke features

Among the many bespoke features Capgemini built into Aggreko’s deployment of FSL was GPS location tracking, enabling the field force to precisely identify each asset, vital on large sites containing hundreds of individual pieces of machinery, and to go straight to it, maximising productivity and efficiency. In addition, Aggreko now has the ability to track whether parts on an asset are within warranty or not. Field technicians now receive a notification about warranty status on their hand-held device when they replace a broken component for a new part, enabling a claim against the warranty agreement to be made, eliminating unnecessary and potentially substantial replacement costs.

“Although it’s early days, we’re confident that our work with Capgemini to implement FSL will enable us to achieve substantial productivity and efficiency improvements,” explained Grant Nairn, Aggreko’s Chief Information Officer.

“Most importantly it’s making a real difference for our customers – we want to be as efficient and professional as possible in everything we do for our customers. And we want Aggreko to be an organisation that’s easy for our customers, wherever they are in the world, to do business with.”