May 29, 2025 • 56 mins
Welcome to the premiere episode of the Service X Factor podcast, where we dive deep into the transformative power of modern field service technology!
Microsoft Global Black Belts Michelle Albright and David Humphreys join hosts Scott LeFante and William McLendon to unpack the evolution and future of field service. With over 42 years in the industry, David shares how field service has progressed from an era without mobile devices to today's AI-powered solutions, while Michelle offers invaluable insights on implementation success strategies.
The conversation explores a fundamental misconception – that field service is "just dispatching." Our experts reveal how it encompasses comprehensive work intake management, preventive maintenance, inventory control, and frontline worker enablement applicable across every industry from healthcare to manufacturing. They highlight often-overlooked features that deliver exceptional value, including IoT alerts that detect equipment failures before they happen and incident types that standardize service operations for better planning.
Copilot emerges as the game-changing force in field service, revolutionizing how technicians work by automating documentation, providing critical information in context, and even enabling voice-controlled inspections. Looking toward 2025, our experts preview exciting developments including deeper integration between field service and project operations that will create seamless workflows for complex service scenarios.
The panel also addresses critical challenges in service transformation – from managing the retirement of experienced technicians and their institutional knowledge to overcoming resistance to change. Their advice for organizations at any stage of their field service journey? Start small, focus on business value rather than cost, and leverage the increasingly powerful capabilities that make today's field service platforms true revenue engines.
This episode establishes why field service has become the strategic differentiator for forward-thinking organizations. Subscribe now to discover your organization's service X-Factor!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey there and welcome to the Service X Factor podcast
.
I'm Scott LaFonte, seven-timeMicrosoft MVP and field service
strategist at CongruentX, andyour guide for today's episode
On this show.
My co-host, fellow MicrosoftMVP and service innovation guru,
will McClendon, and I willspotlight the people, platforms
and ideas that transform serviceteams from cost centers into
(00:33):
revenue powerhouses.
Each episode will unpackreal-world wins, hard-learned
lessons and the emergent techreshaping the front lines Think
AI, co-pilots, predictiveanalytics and everything in
between.
So grab your coffee, settle inand let's discover your
organization's X-Factor together.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Good afternoon, good morning, good evening everyone.
This is Scott LaFonte, co-hostwith Mr William McClendon on our
Service X-Factor podcast andour inaugural event.
Well and we have to kick thatoff.
We have actually two specialguests.
I'll let you introduce them,since you're the MVP here.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I thought we were all MVPs right.
Well, we are.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It depends on your definition of MVP.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
So I'm going to introduce these folks because
they are all MVPs in ourcommunities, at least in my book
, right.
First and foremost, I want tointroduce you to Michelle
Albright, and Michelle is justflat out amazing and knows field
service in and out and amongstother things as well.
So, michelle, I'll introduceyou.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Hi, I'm Michelle Albright.
I'm a GBB which is known as aglobal black belt at Microsoft.
I'm a GBB which is known as aglobal black belt at Microsoft.
Think of us as David is myco-worker.
We're actually on the same team, report to the same manager,
but so we are considered likesubject matter experts, so
especially in field service, butI also know project operations
(02:03):
and customer service, so kind oflike service all up, right,
right, excellent, and I'mlooking forward to introducing
Dave Humphreys.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Just so you guys know , dave knows more about this
product, or has forgotten moreabout this product than all of
us know combined.
This man is a genius and I havenothing but the utmost respect
for this man's wealth ofknowledge.
Dave, go ahead and introduceyourself and tell them who you
are, buddy.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Thanks, William.
Yeah, I don't know if I'm agenius or if I just have been
around a really long time, butyeah, I'm David Humphries and
I'm also a Global Black Belt,along with Michelle at Microsoft
.
I've been with this productsince 2014, and I've been in the
field service software businesssince 1982.
So it's at 42 years.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, wow, that's awesome, so we're going to have
some good fun with you.
David, since you've probablyseen, this industry and the
products that support thevarious industries that use it
changed so much over the last 40years I mean even since 2014
(03:09):
with Field 1, right, I mean,that's when I got my sort of
wings clipped here, but, yeah,things have dramatically changed
.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
So they really have.
I mean, back in the early daysthere wasn't a mobile device,
there wasn't even a cell phone,so you couldn't even call for
help.
So it's quite different.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Everyone listening is probably like wait, no cell
phones.
How did you guys talk?
What did you do?
You had those rotary phones.
Yeah, we had some of those.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I had a job where I traveled when I was young, like
in my like mid-20s and um, and Iwas.
I was literally like landing,and this is before cell phones,
or I mean well, you had cellphones but not smartphones and I
remember having to print outmap quests.
I print out like how to getfrom the airport to the hotel,
from the hotel to the customer,customer back to the airport.
And if you got lost at oneo'clock in the morning, you just
crossed your fingers and prayto god.
That one to the hotel, from thehotel to the customer, customer
(04:04):
back to the airport.
And if you got lost at oneo'clock in the morning, you just
crossed your fingers and prayto God that one.
There was a gas station opensomewhere, and this is that like
me at 25.
So you know I'm.
I cannot believe I haven't beenmurdered or some.
I can't believe I'm still alivein here to tell the story.
So anyways, Well, we're.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We're glad you're still here, michelle.
Well, we're glad you're stillhere, Michelle 100%.
So what got?
And I'll pose this to both ofyou I mean, what got you into
the field service space?
I mean, how did you get started?
And then how did you know like,hey, this is a really cool area
to be in, this is what I wantto do.
(04:42):
So I don't know.
Michelle, if you want to goahead and start out.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I'll start because it's kind of because of David,
but not really it's sort ofconnected.
So I was working for a partner.
So prior to Microsoft I've beenwith Microsoft.
I'm going on nine years.
Prior to Microsoft I was withHitachi.
I was with Avanade and thenHitachi, and at Hitachi they
were very industry specific andso Martin was in charge of
(05:07):
manufacturing and I was.
This is when it was called notDynamics but just CRM and we had
service, customer service,service and then sales and the
service piece was horrible.
It was like basically marketingservice.
But so I was helping out, I wasworking with our developers and
(05:29):
whatnot to build out, becausewe there was no concept of a
work order in in, in crm, therewas no assets, there was none of
that.
So I was literally working withthe developers to create this.
These were all this stuff, youknow, these solutions for
Hitachi to resell to thesemanufacturing companies.
And then all of a suddenthey're like stop, stop it,
(05:50):
michelle, stop doing what you'redoing, because Microsoft just
bought FieldOne and it has allthe stuff that you're doing
right now already built.
I was like, oh, so I attendedthe first.
I remember because I attendedthe first Microsoft slash field
one training ever.
I was there, attended that andlearned and you know.
(06:10):
And then from that point on Ijust became the field service
expert at Hitachi and then itkind of again rolled over to
when I just loved it, I justthought it was such a great
product and it's just improvedsince then.
So then that rolled over intoMicrosoft world.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
So, yeah, awesome, yeah, I got into field service
because I was going to be afamous musician and I gave that
a really good shot.
I got pretty close and you know.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
What was that show you were on, David?
What show were you on againAmerican.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Bandstand, american Bandstand, yeah, with a guy
named Paul Davis back in the 70s.
But anyways, that career didn'tpan out.
So I went back to school andgot my degree in computer
science and while I was inschool I started working for a
company that did medical billingsoftware, so for doctors and
(07:06):
dentists, and we did, you know,the system at the front desk and
we did the thing that turnedtheir CPT codes into insurance
filings and all that kind ofstuff, and so that was kind of a
software.
But I was also the tech guy, sowhenever there was a problem in
the doctor's office I would goout and I would fix the problem.
So I kind of, you know, learnedfield service in that respect
(07:31):
as well as computers, and sothose two careers kind of joined
together then about 1982, and Igot fully into the software
business and the rest is historyand um rest is history.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, I was gonna say well, you know what we'll have
to have, maybe on uh an episode.
Have you sing one of your songs, or?
Or you know whether that was itan instrument?
Were you singing, was it?
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I would I played guitar um if he would take off,
if he would if he would allowhis background to show.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
He has like 20 guitars hanging on his wall he
has to make our intro music.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
That's what we got it .
That's what he has to do.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
You have to make our intro song dave, like you have
to yeah, I'm not a singer, soit'll be an instrumental.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
But that's fine.
Instrumental's good.
Love it.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
That is awesome so you guys both talked about your
journeys into field service.
You know, dave, you startedback in 82.
Michelle, you started when theacquired field one.
So you guys seen it grow fromthis to this massive behemoth
that it is now.
Question what makes you excitedabout 2025 for field service?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Should we say the word that we're probably going
to repeat about 100 more timesduring this uh podcast?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
yeah, you see, there's no it's, it's no,
there's no wrong answer.
It's what makes you excited.
So, like I mean, I go for it.
We all know what it's going todo.
Go be so, go for it copilot,copilot, copilot, copilot.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
There.
I already got a guide done 10times.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
We only have 90 more to go.
It's like.
It's like beetle juice, rightyeah, you right.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, you know, it really is like Beetlejuice.
It just it's exploding and it'sin everything we do these days,
and not just for Microsoft.
But you know, it's taking overthe market and the frontline
worker is one of the areas thatbenefits the most from a lot of
(09:24):
these capabilities.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I mean, it's not just you bring up a good point.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, and it's cool because it's not just the
co-pilot features that they'rehaving that are just built into
field service.
One of the examples is the workorder summary piece.
When you're done with the workorder, instead of the technician
having to sit in his or her carand write everything up, they
could just hit summary and it'lltake all the tasks completed,
(09:49):
all the products you use.
You know, so that's great.
So that's just part of thelicense, but in addition to that
, they're doing all these.
You know you guys have evenmentioned a lot of these
partners and you know productteam.
They're building these agentsthrough Copilot Studio.
So it's not so it's not likethis stuff built into field
(10:10):
service, but that it's like,well, we want to customize it,
we want to pull from here andpull from there and do this and
do that.
Well, you can, because you canbuild these agents who will do
that?
You know these Copilot agents.
There are fields that arespecific, but you know, so
that's, you know, that's cooltoo.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
I think what always used to make you know a service
technician or you know reallyanybody who goes outside of
their four walls to service acustomer.
You know it was so tediousbecause you had information
everywhere and trying to findthe information you needed to
fix the problem, what part itneeds to be used, what are the
(10:44):
steps to do it.
You know what do I have toreport on from a regulatory
perspective?
All those things were spreadeverywhere and you know, in
today's world the biggest thingthat's changing is it doesn't
matter where that is.
You can, you know, access itall.
You can summarize it rightwithin the context of that
technician's phone or device outin the field and summarize what
(11:08):
he needs to do and summarizewhat he did based on his voice
commands.
There's just so much power inwhat's coming and it's really
changing the way people work.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yes, it's definitely changing just the way that I
work, because I can't evenimagine, I mean right, a year
maybe, you know, a couple yearsago, right, when we were all
talking, a co-pilot's coming,it's here, it's kind of it was
in its infancy state andlearning it and it was like, ah,
this is really cool.
I could see the potential hereand now, you know, not just in
(11:43):
field service, right, whilewe're building demos or building
cool innovation, but just ingeneral using AI for day-to-day
tasks, right.
I mean there's, you know, like,if I get a huge document from
somebody, I'm putting that intoCopilot.
I'm saying, can you summarizethis for me?
I don't have time to go throughyou know 40 pages and then I
can ask it.
(12:03):
You know additional questions.
I mean it's just like having aconversation with somebody.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I can't imagine life without ai now, which is kind of
scary well, even, yeah, I mean,like I said, even outside of
field service, like, for example, we have to do microsoft, we do
uh connects, which is ourreviews.
You know our yearly reviews andI, you know, I keep everything
and I keep everything in a onenote.
But is our reviews?
You know our yearly reviews andI, you know, I keep everything
in.
I keep everything in a one note.
But then I literally said, youknow, please, you know I took
(12:29):
all my.
You know I did a summary.
So, okay, this is what I didfor this customer.
And then I said, take this andco-pilot, make it professional
for my year end review and putit into these four buckets and
it it makes me look so smart andI'm just not that smart, but it
made me look really, reallysmart and I, I'm a horrible.
I cannot write.
I'm a horrible when it comes tolike ink, like writing emails
(12:53):
and writing papers.
I, I was horrible at that.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Now I look like, you know, I went to harvard, so it's
awesome, you get your phd atharvard, love it one thing I
really appreciate that microsofthit the nail on the head with
and again I'll give credit wherecredit is due is for us who
work on the technical aspect ofit.
We know that there's adistinction between AI and
automation, like it's clear asday for us.
You know there's a line studio,kind of marrying the two but
(13:26):
yet keeping it so separate,separative, but giving the
customer this wonderfulexperience man, they hit the
nail on the head and being ableto incorporate it to any work
stream.
Right, so it can be fieldservice, customer service.
It can just be a regular powerapp.
I mean, they hit the nail onthe head.
I think that's where they'rereally going to excel for 2025.
I just nothing but good thingsthat come out of it.
Like Scott said, when we firstsaw PVA, we were like, okay,
that's cute, nobody's going toadopt it.
Now we look at Copilot Studio,we're like man, we're literally
(13:51):
you know.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Every time I go in it's changing.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Every time I go in there's something new and
exciting to do.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
But just to get clarity around, you know what
PVA is and what Copilot is.
We now have terms at Microsoft.
We have Copilot, which is anassisted guide that walks you
through, you can ask questionsof, or it can present back
(14:18):
analytical information, or itcan compile information across
multiple sources.
And then we have agents, whichare those more autonomous things
that run for you in thebackground and do a lot of those
tasks that have been so tediousfor humans to do for so long.
It's all that type of stuff.
So we have co-pilots and wehave agents.
Now.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And that's a great distinction, because I hear all
the time from customers andprospects well, what's the
difference between co?
You know, I hear co-pilot and Ihear agents.
And so I think, david, yourdefinition was spot on, because
I think that's going to help alot of people to say, oh, okay,
that's the difference.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Now I, now I get it yeah, and if you take a co-pilot
in co-pilot studio and tell itwhat you want it to do, it'll
create that agent for you usinga co-pilot.
So I mean it's like gettingbetter and better and better and
doing a lot of things to helpreally across the board in
(15:20):
technology.
Whatever your role is, you'regetting touched by a, you know,
co-pilot or AI agent in someform.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
So I'm going to go back to field service.
I'm just being nosy.
So when I first started fieldservice and aggravating Ben and
you know, you know, dave andthen, and then we only bring his
name up three times.
I think it's co-pilot.
Then to talk about Ben in thisone?
No, no, we only bring his nameup three times.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
We're going to cut that part out.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I think it's co-pilot .
Then we talk about Ben and thenwe talk about some more of the
product, right?
No, but I remember going to theconferences and talking and
asking you guys and learningabout CRM was a little bit hard
to grasp.
But then for me, someonesimplified and they said field
service is just dispatching.
I'm being nosy now.
When was your moment when yourealized, okay, this is so much
more than just dispatchingtechnicians.
(16:09):
What is it that you're seeingin the market, instead of seeing
the market, that makes itgreater than just dispatching?
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Well, I think in my case you know that was never
really true.
You know, field service wasalways greater than just
dispatching and field serviceoriginally was part of an ERP
solution.
So it was managing, you know,the work intake.
It was managing, you know, theparts, inventories, it was
(16:36):
managing your contract termswith your customers on, you know
, maybe a rate card or SLA oryou know those kinds of things.
And then it was also preventivemaintenance and then the
dispatching came as part of youknow, trying to get all of that
scheduled.
So dispatch is kind of in themiddle, so maybe it's the core.
But you know there was alwaysthat front end of things as well
(16:58):
.
That again, typically lived inERP until about maybe 10 years
ago.
And then on the back end you'vegot that frontline worker guy
who's outside of your buildingand needs to connect to get
information, and you know that'skind of evolved as well.
But that dispatching is in thecenter of all of that.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, michelle, to a specific industry.
So we have people from federal,from healthcare, from retail,
from manufacturing asking us todo demos, and it's to me it's
anytime.
And I remember a couple oftimes the retail was like oh,
retail doesn't need retailespecially, and also healthcare
doesn't need field service.
I'm like you schedule doctorsand patients right, you're
(18:00):
scheduling stuff.
And then, with retail, you'rebuilding a new I don't know.
You know fast food restaurant.
You're having to install thegrills and you're having to
install the.
You know the point of salesystems and you're having to.
You know I'm like that's, youknow that's a war corner Anytime
.
You know like delivery service.
You know like a big, like a bigHome Depot or Lowe's, you're
(18:22):
delivering the refrigerator.
I'm like that's all anythingwhere you have it scheduled.
So I know that is dispatchingtoo, but anytime, think of
scheduling as a whole.
And then again, the big part Ithink which differentiates us
from other people is, like Davidsaid, the field service, mobile
(18:43):
app, the frontline workers tomake their life easier, and we
see a lot of that coming out onthe roadmap and whatnot, on how
the product team is reallytrying to make it easier for
those technicians to get thingsdone Instead of having to take
an hour someplace, they might beable to get it done in 45
(19:05):
minutes Only because they're nothaving to type things or write
things down or things of thatnature.
So it is.
I mean, I've had some peoplecome up with some funky use
cases.
I'm like, yeah, that would work, you know.
So, you know, because again,it's scheduling.
You know it's scheduling andit's like it's frontline workers
and it's the preventivemaintenance, it's, it's all that
(19:25):
.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And I can't think of one industry that doesn't need
some sort of field service.
Not one.
There's not one industry.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah, I'm with you, Michelle.
Like when I, when I, when I gotinto the product, I was like
this is so much more than justscheduling.
And I was.
And then I want to correctmyself just to make sure I
didn't sound like I thought Ithink it's only scheduling.
That's not what I was thinking.
It was initially.
When I was like explaining tome, somebody just said, hey,
it's scheduling, and I'm likeokay, and then I got into it.
I'm like there's so much moreto it.
To your point, Scott, you andSean and, um, those folks you
(19:57):
know, you guys, you know, helpedme to understand when I first
started.
You can do asset maintenance,asset servicing, you can do work
order management, all thethings that Michelle brought up.
I mean, there isn't an industrythat really wouldn't benefit
from the product itself.
So once you just get your handsin it, you understand it's huge
, it's huge.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And there's so much power, right?
So right now we're building anew demo environment at Congro
and X for field service, and I'mdoing it for a specific
industry use case at the moment.
But all of the different demodata that goes in, you don't
even think about it, right?
How robust the tool has becomewarranties, trades, not to
exceed all these differentfeatures, insurance coverage and
(20:42):
, okay, some of it.
You sit there and say, well,it's basic, okay, but it's there
to be configured, right anddavid.
You and I have spoken about thistime and time again when I've
come up with ideas on on how to,you know, extend.
You know things around.
Cut, say, for example, customerassets.
Well, it's the same sort ofconcept, right, if you're doing
(21:03):
insurance coverage well, is thatinsurance on the actual account
?
Is it on the assets?
It's the same sort of concept,right, if you're doing insurance
coverage well, is thatinsurance on the actual account
or is it on the assets?
It's probably on.
You know, there's so manydifferent ways to look at it and
how does that impact?
You know the billable.
There's a dog barking thebillable aspect of, you know, of
a work order you know of a workorder.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah, yep, yeah, I mean, you know the makeup of a
work order can be as basic or asdetailed as you want it to be.
So in the early days of fieldservice, you know a lot of the
functionality.
There wasn't a lot offunctionality, it was just a
basic.
Here's what needs to be done.
Here's the description of theproblem.
Here's a problem, a cause and arepair code.
And you know, go complete thatwork and then give me what
(21:52):
problem cause and repair codeyou used.
And you know the key for sellinga lot of these solutions was oh
, we have this vast list ofproblem codes for this industry
or that industry and what therepair codes are and what the
billing rate should be and thosekinds of things.
But then that got veryrestrictive because when you
wanted to go outside of thoseparticular codes or new problems
(22:14):
have started to arise, you knowyou didn't have that in there
any longer.
So that's where more systemsbecame.
Let's provide functionality andlet you create your own data to
support things like problemcause and repair or, in our case
, incident type products andservices.
You know those are things youcan set up and you can import
and you can configure the wayyou want them to be so that you
(22:36):
get the result you want, and itthe application, because it has
all this various functionality,now fits for a lot of different
industries if you put your owndata in there, so for those
things.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
So yeah, no, that's.
That's exactly the messagingthat I always tell everyone,
because everyone needs to comeup.
If you remember, you know, backin the day there was, there
were different industryverticals being built.
I mean, right, there's some forsustainability and things of
that nature, and so everyone'slike, well, how come there's
(23:08):
nothing there for field service?
It's like you have to have thatconversation to understand all
the different nuances betweenone industry and the other.
There are similarities, butthere's a lot of different
nuances, even within that sameindustry.
It's really hard to then builda vertical for, say, healthcare,
(23:32):
because healthcare will do it alittle bit differently.
You're talking about homehealthcare.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
You're talking about pharmaceuticals patients right
yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So it becomes this big, huge behemoth.
But if you sit there and say,well, hey, we've got this base
product that's robust enough andflexible enough for you to go
do it in you know, healthcareover here, manufacturing and
distribution over here, retailover here then you know there's
not a whole lot out there.
You sit there and it's like,wow, this is really flexible and
(24:00):
on top of everything else thatthe platform has to offer, so it
really becomes, you know, avery powerful tool and one that
I always say configure wisely.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Yep, start slow.
I mean, just because you candoesn't mean you should.
And you know and what I'mgetting at is you don't need you
know a million problem codes.
You know you're never going tobe able to sort through that and
make any sense out of it, andthe technicians aren't going to
go search a list to pick theright one.
So now your data starts tobecome garbage.
(24:35):
Keep it simple, keep it focusedand, you know, capture the
information that's meaningful toyour business and has a value
to your business, right.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Absolutely.
I see Will.
I see Will.
He's thinking.
I see the smoke coming out ofthe ears.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
No, no, he's right.
I'm like if they only did whatDave just preached, like if I
can just copy this in ourpodcast and just repeat this for
next hour, that would have madeprobably my first 10
engagements the easiest.
I think we're so quick to goahead.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I was gonna say it goes back to one of my college
professors.
Kiss right, Keep it simple,stupid.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, there's.
There's so much thought that'sactually went into the product
from the Microsoft side.
You don't necessarily need tobreak it apart and destroy it in
order to get it to work.
A lot of configurability withinit.
So I have to be nosy, becausethis kind of bleeds us into our
next topic.
So core technology and strategy.
So adoption is huge for me, asit is for most, as it is for
(25:33):
most, and so I'm just curious toget your take, because,
michelle and David, people cometo you with complex problems and
you're the ones that have tokind of break it down into
smaller chunks and make itsimpler.
What have you seen as far asmodernizing legacy old field
service apps and what kind?
Is holding your customers backfrom adopting D365 field service
(25:54):
?
Is there resistance to changeissues around licensing,
integration hurdles?
What is the common issue thatyou've seen and how do you
overcome that?
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Well, you know, I try to look at things in terms of
what value does it bring to thebusiness, not how much does it
cost, because you know if itbrings you a huge amount of
value in terms of revenue orcustomer satisfaction or meeting
your KPIs, whatever it is, it'sworth it at any price.
(26:25):
You know, and you have to kindof weigh that.
You know.
Is it going to bring enoughvalue to the business?
So we try to point out thethings that you know are going
to be valuable.
The biggest hurdle, I thinkright now is that people are a
little bit afraid of AI and whatdoes it mean in terms of you
know how they change, the waythey work and they're going to
(26:49):
have to start to get on boardbecause other people in their
industry are doing it and it'sgoing to start to leave them
behind.
And with a lot of those legacysystems, data was spread
everywhere and data was hard toaccess.
And the longer you wait to getinto a more modern tool, the
(27:12):
harder it's going to be toconsolidate all that data into a
particular place.
Now I said at the top of thehour that we, you know, with
these co-pilots and AI, you canreally look at data anywhere,
but the more places that is, theharder it is going to be to get
your AI kind of tuned upproperly.
(27:33):
So make sure that you knowyou're looking at more modern
tools that you know have thedata you need or that's
important to your business andyou know can support that.
What is that called?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
What's that phenomenon called?
Right now, where you have a lotof these technicians, engineers
et cetera, where they'relooking to retire and a lot of
it's not even a lot of it's intheir head, not even in a
database or on paper?
What?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
is it Graveyarding Institutional knowledge?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
No but it's called, isn't it called graveyarding or
something?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I forget what it is yeah, I think something like
that.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Something like that.
But yeah, I mean, I think.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
So many terms.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, you know, I'm dealing with a couple One is a
bank and one is federal where Ithink it's going to be user
adoption.
And you see, though, these newCIOs, these new people coming in
who really want to be innovated.
But then you have the users whoare like they're literally
working on AS400s.
They're 25, 6, 1, 2.
And I'm like like what they'redoing?
But yet again you've got theseCIOs coming in and these CTOs
you know, who are like we needto get up with the times people.
So I see again user adaption,so having having partners who
(29:08):
come in and can really help withgap analysis and the difference
between the two and just makingit easy and making sure they
test it out with not only thesmart, the two, and just making
it easy and making sure theytest it out with not only the
smart the people have beenaround for 20 years, but then
the people who are only therefor only been there for like a
year, that's.
I think that that's that'sgoing to be one of the keys to
getting people you know up tospeed.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I see that a lot, that bridging that gap and
sort of future-proofing theirinvestment right and sort of
like, hey, we got people like methat maybe only have 20 years,
15 years left in the workforce,but you have ones that are going
to be right.
All that knowledge needs to besomewhere and it can't be in my
(29:52):
head and it can't be on some oldantiquated system.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
And keep in mind too.
For us in the software business, it's not just the knowledge.
The technician has to do a jobor a dispatcher has to get the
right person assigned to the job, it's also the guy who
customized the solution they'vebeen using for the last 20 years
is retiring out of the business.
And now there's nobody out ofthe business.
And now there's nobody tosupport the application.
(30:18):
So they're getting it.
Businesses are getting it fromboth sides, and now's the time
to take action, or you know,you're going to be left behind.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Right.
Yeah, I see that time and timeagain you know we go into a
client and you sit there and say, well, let's take a look even
at their field serviceimplementation newer and their
previous partner is gone.
There's no documentation,there's a lot of customization,
and you try to sit there and say, where do?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
we start.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
What is going on?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Keep it PG-13.
We'll keepg-13, but but you,you see it, even with newer
systems.
So to your point, right, yougot these old, antiquated
systems and and the folks thatare supporting it are retiring
what happens, right, whathappens then?
There's going to be no onearound to support it.
Yeah, and that's a big, big the.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead, david I was just going to
say that's a big value of youknow, some of these ai tools
like co-pilot is here.
We're making things easier andwork more like the you.
The worker works so that it'seasy for them to follow and they
don't need a whole lot oftraining for it.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
No, we appreciate that.
But I've been thinking too,scott and dave and michelle, you
know, before.
As you guys know, I'm aproponent of measuring twice and
cutting once before we actuallytake our first step.
Part of that calculation forroi, and one of the factors we
take into our calculation forroi, needs to be, you know, the
technical debt and the risk oftrying to support these old
(31:51):
applications.
Um, it's true, anyone can builda dotNET application and do all
this fun stuff.
But really, how do youdetermine the worth of bringing
in a SaaS offering like thefield service?
What comes with it?
All these things need to betaken into consideration before
(32:12):
you say, okay, there's a cheaperoption and you throw it out the
window because it's not justcost to that point.
So to your point, dave andMichelle.
So I have a quick question.
I'm going to be funny with it,all right.
So, most overlooked fieldservice capability.
What is the most overlookedfield service capability?
So it can be something assimple as the asset hierarchy
(32:32):
little widget.
It can be the cool scheduleboard which I think is
scheduling is outside of fieldservice.
We kind of throw them in there.
So throwing out there with youguys, what is the most under or
overlooked capability in fieldservice interesting question or
under that or under value.
(32:53):
Yeah, under value, because youget a lot of bang with your buck
buck with field service.
Like there's a lot of bang withyour buck with field service.
There's a lot of little hiddennuggets there.
Like I said, the assethierarchy tool I mean that's a
gnarly PCF control.
I mean it is, and we've seen alot of people in our community
copy it and duplicate it.
But let's give credit wherecredit was due.
It was a beast of a tool beforeeveryone else started copying
(33:15):
it right.
So you, it was a beast of a ofa tool before everyone else
started copying it right.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Um, so you know which one do you think like was, like
man, this is amazing.
I think I still go back to iotalerts.
I mean I it's just, it'samazing if, because it's so
proactive yes you're not.
You're not like, oh my god, thethink of a grocery store, publix
.
We have Publix here in Florida.
You know a Publix.
(33:39):
You know, if one of theircoolers goes down that has meat
in it, they're losing probablymillions of dollars of meat, you
know, and somebody didn't catchit until they came in the next.
They come in, you know 5o'clock in the morning and
there's, you know, and theysmell the meat, the gross
decayed meat.
So the fact that you can have anIoT alert on that cooler that
(34:01):
says, if it gets below 50,automatically send an alert,
create a work order, and you canautomate the whole process to
where, before somebody knowsthat it's down, there's already
a technician there at seveno'clock in the morning to fix it
.
You know, or oh, or even youknow, it knows, oh, it should be
(34:21):
50 degrees, it's 51.
Hmm, maybe we should do somepreventive maintenance on that
cooler.
It's, you know it's, and itkeeps on.
It goes up a degree, like everyday.
So the fact that you know thatthat's still one of the coolest
and I'm just shocked at them.
I mean, I know there's someindustries that IoT alerts don't
make sense, but anything thathas like a temperature control
on it and you can lose millionsof dollars.
(34:42):
Get an IoT alert.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Yeah, or even measuring humidity, Like come on
, that was a real deal use case.
That is 100%.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Absolutely, and you know all kind of.
In that same vein, I think mineis the use of the incident type
properly.
You know a lot of customers.
Well, we don't want to have tothink those up and everybody
calls it something different.
Well, you need to standardizeso you can start to not only
manage it but start to analyzeit and determine.
Okay, you know, this incidenttype we think takes, you know,
(35:13):
45 minutes, but it's reallytaking an hour.
So now I've messed up myscheduling if I schedule 45
minutes and I'm losing theability to make it on time to
the next job.
Knowing what tasks need to bedone and what you know products
should be in there helps youbuild better just-in-time
inventory, and you know so byreally utilizing that
(35:33):
functionality around theincident type or a job template.
And you know understanding.
Oh well, we said it needs thesethree parts to do this
maintenance procedure, but we'refinding that it's really taking
these five parts, so let's addthose other two there.
Now we will ensure we have themwhen we need them, and we know
the technician will put them onhis truck, and you know so.
(35:55):
There's a tremendous amount ofvalue in that, and if you think
about what Michelle said so.
Now we get an automatic workorder created from an IoT alert.
We know what is needed for thatjob, we know how long it's
going to take, we know whatskills are needed to get the job
done.
Now we can schedule itautomatically and know that
we're pretty accurate in gettingthe right person there with the
(36:16):
right parts at the right time,and so it kind of closes that
loop.
And then you throw in analyticson top of that and say, okay,
well, you know, we guessed wrong.
That is not the correctconfiguration for that incident
type or that type of job, so goin and fix it and let AI fix
that for you and start to tuneit up.
So now you're getting betterand better on your scheduling.
(36:37):
You're getting better andbetter on your first-time fix
rates.
You're getting your customersatisfaction score up.
You're starting to you know beable to add other services in
and you know know when to upselland when not to.
So I mean it's a snowball.
You know it really gets biggerand bigger and bigger.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
And I see those go ahead michelle, sorry to add
david, because we all see, youknow, there's a um, there's an
instant type suggestion, which Imean people, I mean I, I'm so
people just don't utilize thatand they'll and they're like,
how can we improve yourproductivity?
And like because, and you know,and why would our, you know,
why would we want our, ourtechnicians to go through these
(37:17):
tasks like, well, it's not justyou know, not like, if you go
through the tasks, that they adda new task or they say this
task to them.
Think of a software upgrade,something like, and a large
piece of equipment and there wasa, some kind of software that
runs equipment and it used toonly take them 15 minutes to do
the upgrade.
Now it's taking them like 30because there's some extra thing
.
So that means that technician,on every job that has that
(37:42):
incident type is running 15minutes late because it's taking
them 30 minutes to 15.
And the incident type suggestionwill come back and say hey, by
the way, this past week you'vehad these five technicians take
this one specific instant type,it's taking them an extra 15
minutes.
Do you want to increase that?
To be an extra fit, that onetask to be an extra 15 minutes,
(38:04):
and then so it will thenschedule it appropriately from
that point on so you can say,yeah, go ahead.
And again, that's another aifeature, that that's been around
for a while, that that, uh,it's a type suggestion that's
been that's been around for awhile, that that, uh, it's a
type suggestion, that's been,that's been around for over a
year.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, um and well, and think about.
Think about this too.
Right, we talked about theaging workforce and now you have
this template that tells me thetasks, the steps that I need to
do from a technicianperspective.
But I'm gonna flip it now andsay the customer gets a bill,
what did you do?
Yeah, I want to see the list ofeverything that they did.
That's what they're that.
(38:39):
So those tasks come in, youknow, twofold, and not just for
the technician but also for thecustomer to say, oh wow, you
know, I didn't realize it wasthat labor intensive with all
these different things that you,you had to, you had to go and
endure, to go ahead and get yourrefrigerator back up and
running.
So those are the types ofthings where it's value add on
(39:02):
both sides.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Yeah, and think of it in terms of maintenance.
So I have a maintenancecontract that says I'm going to
do these things, but at the endof the year, when you're
renegotiating your contractprice, how do you prove you did
all those things if you don'thave them on the board?
And there's one other thing Idid want to bring up, because
nobody is using this, and itused to be part of the core
(39:25):
product and they took it outsomewhere along the line and
talked to engineering and they,oh yeah, you're right, let's we
put it back in.
It was very simple and it's thefact that when you close a
booking or a visit to a customer, you close that it closes the
work order.
Well, that's configurable onyour booking setup for completed
(39:48):
and you can say just because Iclosed the booking, I don't have
to close the work order.
So if you think about that, nowI can continue to calculate my
first time fixed rates moreaccurately.
I can keep from generatinganother work order for the same
job because I had to go back asecond time.
I can start to do moreanalytics on it that are more
(40:12):
accurate, provide you more valuein how you're looking at your
data and it's less confusing tothe customer.
The customer doesn't want twoinvoices for the same job.
You had to go out there onceand you built time and then you
went out there again when yougot the right part.
They don't want two invoices,they want one invoice.
(40:34):
So by having one work workorder to my invoice, you've
accomplished that.
So there were a lot of inherentproblems in not being able to
close a visit or a booking, aschedule item, and leave the
work order open.
But nobody's using that featureand it's just a flag on your
(40:56):
booking setup.
So keep that in mind when youdo implementations, because that
super important.
Um, I had a quite a fewcustomers I think one of them or
two of them were yours thatcame back and asked what, what
this?
Why is this?
This is wrong because I Ifigured it was had to be
williams no man, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
I mean, look, I ain't gonna let pat me on the head.
No, it probably was no, butthose are those things.
Honestly, I love how michelleand david are hitting on the
nail on the head.
Those are those things.
Honestly, I love how Michelleand David are hitting on the
nail on the head.
Those are those, you know loweffort, high impact items that
you know can literally justchange your entire entire
process and you can see greatrewards from that.
(41:35):
I mean, that's just the beautyof the application that they
built.
And seriously, you mentioned itearlier talking about change
management how, when you'reabout to go through the
installation or implementationphase and you realize, oh my
goodness, there's somethingawkward with our process, I
think sometimes our customersthey fail to understand that
(41:55):
before we build these products,or before Microsoft has built
D365 field service, there was alot of market research that went
involved, and so you know jobsto be done and things such as
that were already accounted forwhen building it.
So you know, if they're givingyou a nice little lens to look
through when you're looking atthe product, it probably would
be better if you just, you know,roll with it.
(42:17):
So change management is a bigdeal right.
Change management is a big dealright.
Speaker 5 (42:22):
So I'm going to.
I think that's the biggestreason that you know any project
, really any type of softwareimplementation fails is because
they don't set the rightexpectation for change and they
don't support that change withtheir users.
So you know, you've got toexpect change and you've got to
(42:46):
be able to educate your usersenough that they're going to
understand the value of it andit's going to make their job
easier.
And that's what we're trying todo as the software evolves is
just make the user, whoever heis, make his job easier.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Oh, that's all.
That was great.
We really appreciate it.
So we're, we're, we're going toask her go right into our next
topic.
We're going to go into roadmap.
So question what do you thinkis going to?
What's coming down the roadthat's not under NDA?
Speaker 2 (43:17):
put out there in the next few years, or what do you
hope would be out there in thenext couple of years.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
Yeah, what do you hope, do you see out of the
product in the next couple years?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
co-pilot co-pilot, co-pilot.
Wait, how many times have wesaid it now?
I got mine in love it well, Ithink also another thing that's
um, it's more kind of it's funnybecause it's not as exciting as
Copilot and not as cool asCopilot.
(43:50):
But the fact that now fieldservice and project operations
are going to be more closelyconnected because just this is
field service hasn't moved,connected because just this is
field service hasn't moved.
It's still under the Dynamicsumbrella but the product team is
now under the F&O umbrella.
So there are some really coolthings and this makes this
(44:12):
excites me because I do bothproject ops and I do field
service.
So there are so many thingsthat project ops does that I'm
like man that'd be really coolin field service and vice versa,
like I can see, and I and I'vetalked to both products, both,
both sides, and been like haveyou seen this, have you seen
that?
And that you know and peopledon't realize.
But I always use the example ofof a new fast food chain that
(44:39):
you know they're building.
There's a fast food chain wherethey're building I think
something like 225 a year andand that is project ops and
field service.
It's both because you know,like you still have a project
you still have I need to get thelicensing, I need to get the
permits.
I need to make sure we havethis, you know.
(45:00):
So that's all project ops and Ihave these resources.
But then when you get into, likeI was saying, I need to install
the grill now, I need toinstall the cooler, well, that's
a task in project that needs tobecome a work order on the
field service side.
And not only that, but theasset, the actual, you know,
(45:20):
because you take a product whichis the grill, and that you're
installing that, but then thatturns into a customer asset on
the customer side.
So it's that whole connectionbetween the two that I think is
we're going to see it a lotsmoother, we're going to see it
more just.
I think it's that piece alone.
(45:41):
I mean, and it's funny becauseDavid and I and also Marcio, who
unfortunately couldn't makethis call, you know, we've
discussed, we've talked aboutthese two working together
constantly and really, if youreally really think about it,
almost it's almost always a.
There's a few things like maybebreak fixes aren't necessarily
need project operations, butalmost anything where it's like
an install is, yeah, kind ofproject office infill first.
Speaker 5 (46:04):
Anything where there's dependencies and you
know multiple work breakdown,structure items.
But you know what I remember.
When we started thisconversation I said field
service used to live in ERP andyou know, 10 years ago we moved
it out to.
Crm ago we moved it out to CRM.
(46:25):
Well, now we're moving it backunder, you know, not really
under ERP, but more in line withERP, so that we are starting to
pick up the best of both worldsand make a stronger application
.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Well, I think that's a great point that you make,
david, because for so many years, right, think about I'm going
to say the dirty word dual right.
There's been so many Give dualright.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
some love Give dual right.
Some love Give it some love.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Out there in the ecosystem, it gets a bad rap.
And then you hear customers sayhey, does the right hand talk
to the left hand?
Well, now, the right hand isgoing to be talking to the left
hand because they're going to besitting virtually side by side
and so it's only going to, toyour point, make the product
(47:17):
stronger, not just theintegration, but just overall.
Right, Because there is so muchoverlap and there is that
back-end processing of fieldservice.
We have to invoice work orders.
We have to update inventory,right.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
All these other components you have to invoice
customers, yeah, and it's allstarting to get tied together.
Now, with the supply chainintegration, with the dual write
capability and the integrationsthat Microsoft came out with,
we can actually create thatasset in F&O and have it appear
in field service.
(47:47):
We can start to pull inventoryfrom a location within another
warehouse it's not thetechnician's truck or order
parts, and then those can flowdown to the technician's truck.
We can invoice a customer andif you have terms with the
customer where they get oneinvoice a month for all the
(48:07):
service work you did, that canroll up to a project and you
build that project any way thecustomer wants you to.
So there's all kinds ofcorrelations between these two
products now that are startingto be super important and have
always been important, but havebeen cumbersome in the past.
The other aspect is you knowwe're doing this with F&O, but
(48:28):
we you know that kind of gave usthe framework to do it.
We have an SAP integration andwe're working on an Oracle
integration and there's a lot ofyou know solutions out there
that we can now communicate with, based on you know where they
fit in the puzzle.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
I think one of the fun ones, though one of the fun
because that's again, that'scool, that's for us geeky people
, that's you know, you know, butto most people like that's not
fun, you know, that's like oh,ok, you know, because that's
kind of like all back officestuff.
But one of the fun things andDavid, I'm going to come up, but
one of the fun things and David, I'm going to come up, this is
the one that, and it's on theroadmap is the fact that you can
(49:06):
have a talk-to inspection,meaning you can have this
inspection template and let'stake, I don't know, let's.
Again, this is not a customer,this is, you know, this is just,
let's say, a very large,well-known, you know, rental car
company, and so before takingout the rental car, you know
there's an inspection that saysyou know what's the mileage, you
(49:29):
know, and it's written you knowwhat's the mileage, what's the
gas at, what's the?
You know are there any dents,are there this, are there that?
And you know before, right,well, right now, you know you
haven't.
We absolutely do inspections.
Where you can, you read it, youput it, you type in the mileage
or now you can actually you canhave it read to the inspector
(49:50):
or to the technician, so thatyou can say, literally, the
phone will be like what is themileage on the car?
And you can, you know, and themileage is, you know, 2,500.
And what is the gas tank level?
And you're like, so it it'sliterally so.
They don't even have to thatthat inspector or technicians, I
even have to look at theirphone, the the phone's talking
(50:11):
to them and they're talking backto the phone.
It's filling up the inspectionautomatically for them.
Take a picture, take a picture.
I mean so things like that, um,but that, just that, make that
that technician or inspector'slife so much easier.
Speaker 5 (50:23):
I mean wow, think of the effort involved in getting
those inspections into thesystem.
You know, there's one argumentwe always hear Well, now we have
a co-pilot that will allow youto take a you know, pdf file or
a Word document, or whereveryour inspection is, and import
it into the system, and then onthe back end we can answer the
(50:44):
questions verbally, we can takea picture of the odometer and
the system will put the mileageright into the question for you,
so you don't have to even speakit so lots of cool things
coming in that regard.
You guys are completely killingit.
Copilot copilot copilot.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
So I have to ask I wanted to get your.
Speaker 4 (51:03):
I wanted to pick your brains and you know I think
this will probably be where wewrap up the the the series Again
.
I've known you guys for quitesome time.
I know how much you've helpedme out in the industry and how
much I've, you know, justwatched from a distance for
newcomers, you know, cause wehave a lot of people getting
into the industry.
Ai has made it very easy.
It's not that much of a climb,as it once was For newcomers or
(51:25):
people who have already adoptedthe product.
I'm going to start with you,michelle.
What kind of advice would yougive them?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
Newcomers.
You talk about newcomers likeourselves getting into field
service or a technician.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
Sorry about that.
I'm interrupting you.
That's my apologies.
It can be newcomers it.
I'm interrupting you.
That's my apologies.
It can be newcomers.
It can be people experience.
What's your advice in regardsto the product?
If you had like two minutes tosay what you wanted to say about
it, to help people really justlearn it or even just to get
something good out of it, whatwould you say, like what would
be your spiel or your sell intwo minutes?
Speaker 3 (51:56):
Gosh, I'm trying to think for a newcomer.
I would say oh, take it.
Kind of like how they say howdo you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Right.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
You know, learn.
You know, because there's, aswe've said, there's a lot in
field service.
You know, maybe first learn howto set up the resources
themselves and make sure becausethere's, you know, when setting
up the resources you need to,you know you need a territory,
you need a skill, you need youknow, and in order to see them
(52:27):
on the schedule board and okay,get that down, packed.
Okay, now go to the next thing.
Okay, now, oh, preventivemaintenance, okay Now.
Oh, now we have assets, let'sadd assets.
Let's okay, now let's add RSO,resource scheduling,
optimization.
So it's, it's taking it inphases, I believe, and not just
trying to.
You know, take it all in at thesame time.
You know there's a lot oftraining online.
You know there's not onlypartners that provide training,
(52:50):
but there's training onMicrosoft.
Learn that you can take too.
Speaker 5 (52:54):
And there's videos as well as printed documentation,
Right and shameless plug.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
you can attend UG Summit in my academy course on
field service.
Right there you go, and evenlike now they've on field
service.
Right there you go, and andeven like now they've made it
easier.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
If you go to the home page when you first log into
field service, you go to thehome page.
It literally says walk throughthese steps to set up a resource
.
Walk through these steps to setup, you know, an asset.
Walk through these steps.
So I mean it literally.
I mean it, there's, it's,they've.
Microsoft and team have made itmuch easier to get started and
understand how it works.
Speaker 4 (53:25):
Yes, ma'am, Dave.
What about you, buddy?
Speaker 5 (53:27):
I would say you know just what Michelle said.
But I would also say we alllive in this world.
We've all had to have servicedone on something, whether it's
our car or air conditioner or,you know, our dishwasher.
So apply practical examplessomething you've experienced, so
you know what you know ourdishwasher.
So apply practical examples.
Something you've experienced soyou know what you know happens
along the way You've been,you've lived through it.
(53:48):
So use a practical experienceof whatever it is.
It could be going to the doctor, you know, you got to schedule
it, you got to go to the office,you got to, you know, get the
diagnostics and so think about areal-world scenario to apply to
the documentation and it makesit a lot easier to follow.
Yeah 100%.
Speaker 3 (54:06):
And be nosy.
Every time someone shows up atmy house and they're doing some
kind of maintenance to my house,I'm like what are you using
over there?
Can I see it?
Can I see what you're using?
And they look at me like I have10 heads.
I'm like, no, this is what I dofor a living.
Like ooh, it's software music.
And they're like I don't knowit's software.
But I love being nosy andlooking at you know, seeing what
(54:27):
they're typing in.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
No, I think that's great.
I think to your point, it'sright Be inquisitive, you know.
Explore the product, start Ithink, david, you said this
earlier start small.
You don't need to do the bigbang, implement everything you
know.
Start out small, get that smallfootprint going, figure out
what's working, what you need toexpand upon.
I think those are, all you know, really good, sound pieces of
(54:52):
advice for folks getting engagednow.
But I think it's good for us aswell that have been around to
just remember right, start smalland remember to be inquisitive,
because new features are comingand they're coming fast and you
know we need to be on top of it.
Speaker 5 (55:07):
Yeah, and you know, I don't think that anybody's
going to wake up tomorrow andsay, oh, you know what I'm going
to learn field service today.
I think they're all you knowlearning it for a purpose.
You know whether that's they'vegot a new job that's in the
service industry, or they workfor a software company and they
got a client who needs to haveit implemented.
But I think you got all thetools and things that we
(55:31):
mentioned to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (55:38):
Well, I wanted to go ahead and give you guys a
straight up shout out man, weappreciate your time, dave.
It's always a pleasure.
Michelle, you are always sogracious.
We greatly appreciate youjumping on board with us.
And, uh, next time we got tomake sure we get marcio um to
jump on in, because you knowhe's probably doing something
else.
He's probably in the beaches ofrio drinking a caipirinha.
We know, we know how marcio is.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
We know how he rolls he's been pinging me here that,
oh, it's too late for me to join.
I don't want to interrupt.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
Marcio, we'll get you on Absolutely, absolutely, so
we thank you, guys.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
We appreciate what you do for our community and
we'll catch up with you nexttime.
Speaker 3 (56:14):
All right, okay, thanks.
Speaker 4 (56:16):
Bye, bye, thank you.
Hey there and welcome to the Service X Factor podcast
.
I'm Scott LaFonte, seven-timeMicrosoft MVP and field service
strategist at CongruentX, andyour guide for today's episode
On this show.
My co-host, fellow MicrosoftMVP and service innovation guru,
will McClendon, and I willspotlight the people, platforms
and ideas that transform serviceteams from cost centers into
(00:33):
revenue powerhouses.
Each episode will unpackreal-world wins, hard-learned
lessons and the emergent techreshaping the front lines Think
AI, co-pilots, predictiveanalytics and everything in
between.
So grab your coffee, settle inand let's discover your
organization's X-Factor together.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Good afternoon, good morning, good evening everyone.
This is Scott LaFonte, co-hostwith Mr William McClendon on our
Service X-Factor podcast andour inaugural event.
Well and we have to kick thatoff.
We have actually two specialguests.
I'll let you introduce them,since you're the MVP here.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I thought we were all MVPs right.
Well, we are.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It depends on your definition of MVP.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
So I'm going to introduce these folks because
they are all MVPs in ourcommunities, at least in my book
, right.
First and foremost, I want tointroduce you to Michelle
Albright, and Michelle is justflat out amazing and knows field
service in and out and amongstother things as well.
So, michelle, I'll introduceyou.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Hi, I'm Michelle Albright.
I'm a GBB which is known as aglobal black belt at Microsoft.
I'm a GBB which is known as aglobal black belt at Microsoft.
Think of us as David is myco-worker.
We're actually on the same team, report to the same manager,
but so we are considered likesubject matter experts, so
especially in field service, butI also know project operations
(02:03):
and customer service, so kind oflike service all up, right,
right, excellent, and I'mlooking forward to introducing
Dave Humphreys.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Just so you guys know , dave knows more about this
product, or has forgotten moreabout this product than all of
us know combined.
This man is a genius and I havenothing but the utmost respect
for this man's wealth ofknowledge.
Dave, go ahead and introduceyourself and tell them who you
are, buddy.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Thanks, William.
Yeah, I don't know if I'm agenius or if I just have been
around a really long time, butyeah, I'm David Humphries and
I'm also a Global Black Belt,along with Michelle at Microsoft
.
I've been with this productsince 2014, and I've been in the
field service software businesssince 1982.
So it's at 42 years.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, wow, that's awesome, so we're going to have
some good fun with you.
David, since you've probablyseen, this industry and the
products that support thevarious industries that use it
changed so much over the last 40years I mean even since 2014
(03:09):
with Field 1, right, I mean,that's when I got my sort of
wings clipped here, but, yeah,things have dramatically changed
.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
So they really have.
I mean, back in the early daysthere wasn't a mobile device,
there wasn't even a cell phone,so you couldn't even call for
help.
So it's quite different.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Everyone listening is probably like wait, no cell
phones.
How did you guys talk?
What did you do?
You had those rotary phones.
Yeah, we had some of those.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I had a job where I traveled when I was young, like
in my like mid-20s and um, and Iwas.
I was literally like landing,and this is before cell phones,
or I mean well, you had cellphones but not smartphones and I
remember having to print outmap quests.
I print out like how to getfrom the airport to the hotel,
from the hotel to the customer,customer back to the airport.
And if you got lost at oneo'clock in the morning, you just
crossed your fingers and prayto god.
That one to the hotel, from thehotel to the customer, customer
(04:04):
back to the airport.
And if you got lost at oneo'clock in the morning, you just
crossed your fingers and prayto God that one.
There was a gas station opensomewhere, and this is that like
me at 25.
So you know I'm.
I cannot believe I haven't beenmurdered or some.
I can't believe I'm still alivein here to tell the story.
So anyways, Well, we're.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We're glad you're still here, michelle.
Well, we're glad you're stillhere, Michelle 100%.
So what got?
And I'll pose this to both ofyou I mean, what got you into
the field service space?
I mean, how did you get started?
And then how did you know like,hey, this is a really cool area
to be in, this is what I wantto do.
(04:42):
So I don't know.
Michelle, if you want to goahead and start out.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I'll start because it's kind of because of David,
but not really it's sort ofconnected.
So I was working for a partner.
So prior to Microsoft I've beenwith Microsoft.
I'm going on nine years.
Prior to Microsoft I was withHitachi.
I was with Avanade and thenHitachi, and at Hitachi they
were very industry specific andso Martin was in charge of
(05:07):
manufacturing and I was.
This is when it was called notDynamics but just CRM and we had
service, customer service,service and then sales and the
service piece was horrible.
It was like basically marketingservice.
But so I was helping out, I wasworking with our developers and
(05:29):
whatnot to build out, becausewe there was no concept of a
work order in in, in crm, therewas no assets, there was none of
that.
So I was literally working withthe developers to create this.
These were all this stuff, youknow, these solutions for
Hitachi to resell to thesemanufacturing companies.
And then all of a suddenthey're like stop, stop it,
(05:50):
michelle, stop doing what you'redoing, because Microsoft just
bought FieldOne and it has allthe stuff that you're doing
right now already built.
I was like, oh, so I attendedthe first.
I remember because I attendedthe first Microsoft slash field
one training ever.
I was there, attended that andlearned and you know.
(06:10):
And then from that point on Ijust became the field service
expert at Hitachi and then itkind of again rolled over to
when I just loved it, I justthought it was such a great
product and it's just improvedsince then.
So then that rolled over intoMicrosoft world.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
So, yeah, awesome, yeah, I got into field service
because I was going to be afamous musician and I gave that
a really good shot.
I got pretty close and you know.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
What was that show you were on, David?
What show were you on againAmerican.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Bandstand, american Bandstand, yeah, with a guy
named Paul Davis back in the 70s.
But anyways, that career didn'tpan out.
So I went back to school andgot my degree in computer
science and while I was inschool I started working for a
company that did medical billingsoftware, so for doctors and
(07:06):
dentists, and we did, you know,the system at the front desk and
we did the thing that turnedtheir CPT codes into insurance
filings and all that kind ofstuff, and so that was kind of a
software.
But I was also the tech guy, sowhenever there was a problem in
the doctor's office I would goout and I would fix the problem.
So I kind of, you know, learnedfield service in that respect
(07:31):
as well as computers, and sothose two careers kind of joined
together then about 1982, and Igot fully into the software
business and the rest is historyand um rest is history.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, I was gonna say well, you know what we'll have
to have, maybe on uh an episode.
Have you sing one of your songs, or?
Or you know whether that was itan instrument?
Were you singing, was it?
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I would I played guitar um if he would take off,
if he would if he would allowhis background to show.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
He has like 20 guitars hanging on his wall he
has to make our intro music.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
That's what we got it .
That's what he has to do.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
You have to make our intro song dave, like you have
to yeah, I'm not a singer, soit'll be an instrumental.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
But that's fine.
Instrumental's good.
Love it.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
That is awesome so you guys both talked about your
journeys into field service.
You know, dave, you startedback in 82.
Michelle, you started when theacquired field one.
So you guys seen it grow fromthis to this massive behemoth
that it is now.
Question what makes you excitedabout 2025 for field service?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Should we say the word that we're probably going
to repeat about 100 more timesduring this uh podcast?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
yeah, you see, there's no it's, it's no,
there's no wrong answer.
It's what makes you excited.
So, like I mean, I go for it.
We all know what it's going todo.
Go be so, go for it copilot,copilot, copilot, copilot.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
There.
I already got a guide done 10times.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
We only have 90 more to go.
It's like.
It's like beetle juice, rightyeah, you right.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, you know, it really is like Beetlejuice.
It just it's exploding and it'sin everything we do these days,
and not just for Microsoft.
But you know, it's taking overthe market and the frontline
worker is one of the areas thatbenefits the most from a lot of
(09:24):
these capabilities.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I mean, it's not just you bring up a good point.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, and it's cool because it's not just the
co-pilot features that they'rehaving that are just built into
field service.
One of the examples is the workorder summary piece.
When you're done with the workorder, instead of the technician
having to sit in his or her carand write everything up, they
could just hit summary and it'lltake all the tasks completed,
(09:49):
all the products you use.
You know, so that's great.
So that's just part of thelicense, but in addition to that
, they're doing all these.
You know you guys have evenmentioned a lot of these
partners and you know productteam.
They're building these agentsthrough Copilot Studio.
So it's not so it's not likethis stuff built into field
(10:10):
service, but that it's like,well, we want to customize it,
we want to pull from here andpull from there and do this and
do that.
Well, you can, because you canbuild these agents who will do
that?
You know these Copilot agents.
There are fields that arespecific, but you know, so
that's, you know, that's cooltoo.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
I think what always used to make you know a service
technician or you know reallyanybody who goes outside of
their four walls to service acustomer.
You know it was so tediousbecause you had information
everywhere and trying to findthe information you needed to
fix the problem, what part itneeds to be used, what are the
(10:44):
steps to do it.
You know what do I have toreport on from a regulatory
perspective?
All those things were spreadeverywhere and you know, in
today's world the biggest thingthat's changing is it doesn't
matter where that is.
You can, you know, access itall.
You can summarize it rightwithin the context of that
technician's phone or device outin the field and summarize what
(11:08):
he needs to do and summarizewhat he did based on his voice
commands.
There's just so much power inwhat's coming and it's really
changing the way people work.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yes, it's definitely changing just the way that I
work, because I can't evenimagine, I mean right, a year
maybe, you know, a couple yearsago, right, when we were all
talking, a co-pilot's coming,it's here, it's kind of it was
in its infancy state andlearning it and it was like, ah,
this is really cool.
I could see the potential hereand now, you know, not just in
(11:43):
field service, right, whilewe're building demos or building
cool innovation, but just ingeneral using AI for day-to-day
tasks, right.
I mean there's, you know, like,if I get a huge document from
somebody, I'm putting that intoCopilot.
I'm saying, can you summarizethis for me?
I don't have time to go throughyou know 40 pages and then I
can ask it.
(12:03):
You know additional questions.
I mean it's just like having aconversation with somebody.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I can't imagine life without ai now, which is kind of
scary well, even, yeah, I mean,like I said, even outside of
field service, like, for example, we have to do microsoft, we do
uh connects, which is ourreviews.
You know our yearly reviews andI, you know, I keep everything
and I keep everything in a onenote.
But is our reviews?
You know our yearly reviews andI, you know, I keep everything
in.
I keep everything in a one note.
But then I literally said, youknow, please, you know I took
(12:29):
all my.
You know I did a summary.
So, okay, this is what I didfor this customer.
And then I said, take this andco-pilot, make it professional
for my year end review and putit into these four buckets and
it it makes me look so smart andI'm just not that smart, but it
made me look really, reallysmart and I, I'm a horrible.
I cannot write.
I'm a horrible when it comes tolike ink, like writing emails
(12:53):
and writing papers.
I, I was horrible at that.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Now I look like, you know, I went to harvard, so it's
awesome, you get your phd atharvard, love it one thing I
really appreciate that microsofthit the nail on the head with
and again I'll give credit wherecredit is due is for us who
work on the technical aspect ofit.
We know that there's adistinction between AI and
automation, like it's clear asday for us.
You know there's a line studio,kind of marrying the two but
(13:26):
yet keeping it so separate,separative, but giving the
customer this wonderfulexperience man, they hit the
nail on the head and being ableto incorporate it to any work
stream.
Right, so it can be fieldservice, customer service.
It can just be a regular powerapp.
I mean, they hit the nail onthe head.
I think that's where they'rereally going to excel for 2025.
I just nothing but good thingsthat come out of it.
Like Scott said, when we firstsaw PVA, we were like, okay,
that's cute, nobody's going toadopt it.
Now we look at Copilot Studio,we're like man, we're literally
(13:51):
you know.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Every time I go in it's changing.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Every time I go in there's something new and
exciting to do.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
But just to get clarity around, you know what
PVA is and what Copilot is.
We now have terms at Microsoft.
We have Copilot, which is anassisted guide that walks you
through, you can ask questionsof, or it can present back
(14:18):
analytical information, or itcan compile information across
multiple sources.
And then we have agents, whichare those more autonomous things
that run for you in thebackground and do a lot of those
tasks that have been so tediousfor humans to do for so long.
It's all that type of stuff.
So we have co-pilots and wehave agents.
Now.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And that's a great distinction, because I hear all
the time from customers andprospects well, what's the
difference between co?
You know, I hear co-pilot and Ihear agents.
And so I think, david, yourdefinition was spot on, because
I think that's going to help alot of people to say, oh, okay,
that's the difference.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Now I, now I get it yeah, and if you take a co-pilot
in co-pilot studio and tell itwhat you want it to do, it'll
create that agent for you usinga co-pilot.
So I mean it's like gettingbetter and better and better and
doing a lot of things to helpreally across the board in
(15:20):
technology.
Whatever your role is, you'regetting touched by a, you know,
co-pilot or AI agent in someform.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
So I'm going to go back to field service.
I'm just being nosy.
So when I first started fieldservice and aggravating Ben and
you know, you know, dave andthen, and then we only bring his
name up three times.
I think it's co-pilot.
Then to talk about Ben in thisone?
No, no, we only bring his nameup three times.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
We're going to cut that part out.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I think it's co-pilot .
Then we talk about Ben and thenwe talk about some more of the
product, right?
No, but I remember going to theconferences and talking and
asking you guys and learningabout CRM was a little bit hard
to grasp.
But then for me, someonesimplified and they said field
service is just dispatching.
I'm being nosy now.
When was your moment when yourealized, okay, this is so much
more than just dispatchingtechnicians.
(16:09):
What is it that you're seeingin the market, instead of seeing
the market, that makes itgreater than just dispatching?
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Well, I think in my case you know that was never
really true.
You know, field service wasalways greater than just
dispatching and field serviceoriginally was part of an ERP
solution.
So it was managing, you know,the work intake.
It was managing, you know, theparts, inventories, it was
(16:36):
managing your contract termswith your customers on, you know
, maybe a rate card or SLA oryou know those kinds of things.
And then it was also preventivemaintenance and then the
dispatching came as part of youknow, trying to get all of that
scheduled.
So dispatch is kind of in themiddle, so maybe it's the core.
But you know there was alwaysthat front end of things as well
(16:58):
.
That again, typically lived inERP until about maybe 10 years
ago.
And then on the back end you'vegot that frontline worker guy
who's outside of your buildingand needs to connect to get
information, and you know that'skind of evolved as well.
But that dispatching is in thecenter of all of that.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, michelle, to a specific industry.
So we have people from federal,from healthcare, from retail,
from manufacturing asking us todo demos, and it's to me it's
anytime.
And I remember a couple oftimes the retail was like oh,
retail doesn't need retailespecially, and also healthcare
doesn't need field service.
I'm like you schedule doctorsand patients right, you're
(18:00):
scheduling stuff.
And then, with retail, you'rebuilding a new I don't know.
You know fast food restaurant.
You're having to install thegrills and you're having to
install the.
You know the point of salesystems and you're having to.
You know I'm like that's, youknow that's a war corner Anytime
.
You know like delivery service.
You know like a big, like a bigHome Depot or Lowe's, you're
(18:22):
delivering the refrigerator.
I'm like that's all anythingwhere you have it scheduled.
So I know that is dispatchingtoo, but anytime, think of
scheduling as a whole.
And then again, the big part Ithink which differentiates us
from other people is, like Davidsaid, the field service, mobile
(18:43):
app, the frontline workers tomake their life easier, and we
see a lot of that coming out onthe roadmap and whatnot, on how
the product team is reallytrying to make it easier for
those technicians to get thingsdone Instead of having to take
an hour someplace, they might beable to get it done in 45
(19:05):
minutes Only because they're nothaving to type things or write
things down or things of thatnature.
So it is.
I mean, I've had some peoplecome up with some funky use
cases.
I'm like, yeah, that would work, you know.
So, you know, because again,it's scheduling.
You know it's scheduling andit's like it's frontline workers
and it's the preventivemaintenance, it's, it's all that
(19:25):
.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And I can't think of one industry that doesn't need
some sort of field service.
Not one.
There's not one industry.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah, I'm with you, Michelle.
Like when I, when I, when I gotinto the product, I was like
this is so much more than justscheduling.
And I was.
And then I want to correctmyself just to make sure I
didn't sound like I thought Ithink it's only scheduling.
That's not what I was thinking.
It was initially.
When I was like explaining tome, somebody just said, hey,
it's scheduling, and I'm likeokay, and then I got into it.
I'm like there's so much moreto it.
To your point, Scott, you andSean and, um, those folks you
(19:57):
know, you guys, you know, helpedme to understand when I first
started.
You can do asset maintenance,asset servicing, you can do work
order management, all thethings that Michelle brought up.
I mean, there isn't an industrythat really wouldn't benefit
from the product itself.
So once you just get your handsin it, you understand it's huge
, it's huge.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And there's so much power, right?
So right now we're building anew demo environment at Congro
and X for field service, and I'mdoing it for a specific
industry use case at the moment.
But all of the different demodata that goes in, you don't
even think about it, right?
How robust the tool has becomewarranties, trades, not to
exceed all these differentfeatures, insurance coverage and
(20:42):
, okay, some of it.
You sit there and say, well,it's basic, okay, but it's there
to be configured, right anddavid.
You and I have spoken about thistime and time again when I've
come up with ideas on on how to,you know, extend.
You know things around.
Cut, say, for example, customerassets.
Well, it's the same sort ofconcept, right, if you're doing
(21:03):
insurance coverage well, is thatinsurance on the actual account
?
Is it on the assets?
It's the same sort of concept,right, if you're doing insurance
coverage well, is thatinsurance on the actual account
or is it on the assets?
It's probably on.
You know, there's so manydifferent ways to look at it and
how does that impact?
You know the billable.
There's a dog barking thebillable aspect of, you know, of
a work order you know of a workorder.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah, yep, yeah, I mean, you know the makeup of a
work order can be as basic or asdetailed as you want it to be.
So in the early days of fieldservice, you know a lot of the
functionality.
There wasn't a lot offunctionality, it was just a
basic.
Here's what needs to be done.
Here's the description of theproblem.
Here's a problem, a cause and arepair code.
And you know, go complete thatwork and then give me what
(21:52):
problem cause and repair codeyou used.
And you know the key for sellinga lot of these solutions was oh
, we have this vast list ofproblem codes for this industry
or that industry and what therepair codes are and what the
billing rate should be and thosekinds of things.
But then that got veryrestrictive because when you
wanted to go outside of thoseparticular codes or new problems
(22:14):
have started to arise, you knowyou didn't have that in there
any longer.
So that's where more systemsbecame.
Let's provide functionality andlet you create your own data to
support things like problemcause and repair or, in our case
, incident type products andservices.
You know those are things youcan set up and you can import
and you can configure the wayyou want them to be so that you
(22:36):
get the result you want, and itthe application, because it has
all this various functionality,now fits for a lot of different
industries if you put your owndata in there, so for those
things.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
So yeah, no, that's.
That's exactly the messagingthat I always tell everyone,
because everyone needs to comeup.
If you remember, you know, backin the day there was, there
were different industryverticals being built.
I mean, right, there's some forsustainability and things of
that nature, and so everyone'slike, well, how come there's
(23:08):
nothing there for field service?
It's like you have to have thatconversation to understand all
the different nuances betweenone industry and the other.
There are similarities, butthere's a lot of different
nuances, even within that sameindustry.
It's really hard to then builda vertical for, say, healthcare,
(23:32):
because healthcare will do it alittle bit differently.
You're talking about homehealthcare.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
You're talking about pharmaceuticals patients right
yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So it becomes this big, huge behemoth.
But if you sit there and say,well, hey, we've got this base
product that's robust enough andflexible enough for you to go
do it in you know, healthcareover here, manufacturing and
distribution over here, retailover here then you know there's
not a whole lot out there.
You sit there and it's like,wow, this is really flexible and
(24:00):
on top of everything else thatthe platform has to offer, so it
really becomes, you know, avery powerful tool and one that
I always say configure wisely.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Yep, start slow.
I mean, just because you candoesn't mean you should.
And you know and what I'mgetting at is you don't need you
know a million problem codes.
You know you're never going tobe able to sort through that and
make any sense out of it, andthe technicians aren't going to
go search a list to pick theright one.
So now your data starts tobecome garbage.
(24:35):
Keep it simple, keep it focusedand, you know, capture the
information that's meaningful toyour business and has a value
to your business, right.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Absolutely.
I see Will.
I see Will.
He's thinking.
I see the smoke coming out ofthe ears.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
No, no, he's right.
I'm like if they only did whatDave just preached, like if I
can just copy this in ourpodcast and just repeat this for
next hour, that would have madeprobably my first 10
engagements the easiest.
I think we're so quick to goahead.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I was gonna say it goes back to one of my college
professors.
Kiss right, Keep it simple,stupid.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, there's.
There's so much thought that'sactually went into the product
from the Microsoft side.
You don't necessarily need tobreak it apart and destroy it in
order to get it to work.
A lot of configurability withinit.
So I have to be nosy, becausethis kind of bleeds us into our
next topic.
So core technology and strategy.
So adoption is huge for me, asit is for most, as it is for
(25:33):
most, and so I'm just curious toget your take, because,
michelle and David, people cometo you with complex problems and
you're the ones that have tokind of break it down into
smaller chunks and make itsimpler.
What have you seen as far asmodernizing legacy old field
service apps and what kind?
Is holding your customers backfrom adopting D365 field service
(25:54):
?
Is there resistance to changeissues around licensing,
integration hurdles?
What is the common issue thatyou've seen and how do you
overcome that?
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Well, you know, I try to look at things in terms of
what value does it bring to thebusiness, not how much does it
cost, because you know if itbrings you a huge amount of
value in terms of revenue orcustomer satisfaction or meeting
your KPIs, whatever it is, it'sworth it at any price.
(26:25):
You know, and you have to kindof weigh that.
You know.
Is it going to bring enoughvalue to the business?
So we try to point out thethings that you know are going
to be valuable.
The biggest hurdle, I thinkright now is that people are a
little bit afraid of AI and whatdoes it mean in terms of you
know how they change, the waythey work and they're going to
(26:49):
have to start to get on boardbecause other people in their
industry are doing it and it'sgoing to start to leave them
behind.
And with a lot of those legacysystems, data was spread
everywhere and data was hard toaccess.
And the longer you wait to getinto a more modern tool, the
(27:12):
harder it's going to be toconsolidate all that data into a
particular place.
Now I said at the top of thehour that we, you know, with
these co-pilots and AI, you canreally look at data anywhere,
but the more places that is, theharder it is going to be to get
your AI kind of tuned upproperly.
(27:33):
So make sure that you knowyou're looking at more modern
tools that you know have thedata you need or that's
important to your business andyou know can support that.
What is that called?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
What's that phenomenon called?
Right now, where you have a lotof these technicians, engineers
et cetera, where they'relooking to retire and a lot of
it's not even a lot of it's intheir head, not even in a
database or on paper?
What?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
is it Graveyarding Institutional knowledge?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
No but it's called, isn't it called graveyarding or
something?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I forget what it is yeah, I think something like
that.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Something like that.
But yeah, I mean, I think.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
So many terms.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, you know, I'm dealing with a couple One is a
bank and one is federal where Ithink it's going to be user
adoption.
And you see, though, these newCIOs, these new people coming in
who really want to be innovated.
But then you have the users whoare like they're literally
working on AS400s.
They're 25, 6, 1, 2.
And I'm like like what they'redoing?
But yet again you've got theseCIOs coming in and these CTOs
you know, who are like we needto get up with the times people.
So I see again user adaption,so having having partners who
(29:08):
come in and can really help withgap analysis and the difference
between the two and just makingit easy and making sure they
test it out with not only thesmart, the two, and just making
it easy and making sure theytest it out with not only the
smart the people have beenaround for 20 years, but then
the people who are only therefor only been there for like a
year, that's.
I think that that's that'sgoing to be one of the keys to
getting people you know up tospeed.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I see that a lot, that bridging that gap and
sort of future-proofing theirinvestment right and sort of
like, hey, we got people like methat maybe only have 20 years,
15 years left in the workforce,but you have ones that are going
to be right.
All that knowledge needs to besomewhere and it can't be in my
(29:52):
head and it can't be on some oldantiquated system.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
And keep in mind too.
For us in the software business, it's not just the knowledge.
The technician has to do a jobor a dispatcher has to get the
right person assigned to the job, it's also the guy who
customized the solution they'vebeen using for the last 20 years
is retiring out of the business.
And now there's nobody out ofthe business.
And now there's nobody tosupport the application.
(30:18):
So they're getting it.
Businesses are getting it fromboth sides, and now's the time
to take action, or you know,you're going to be left behind.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Right.
Yeah, I see that time and timeagain you know we go into a
client and you sit there and say, well, let's take a look even
at their field serviceimplementation newer and their
previous partner is gone.
There's no documentation,there's a lot of customization,
and you try to sit there and say, where do?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
we start.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
What is going on?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Keep it PG-13.
We'll keepg-13, but but you,you see it, even with newer
systems.
So to your point, right, yougot these old, antiquated
systems and and the folks thatare supporting it are retiring
what happens, right, whathappens then?
There's going to be no onearound to support it.
Yeah, and that's a big, big the.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead, david I was just going to
say that's a big value of youknow, some of these ai tools
like co-pilot is here.
We're making things easier andwork more like the you.
The worker works so that it'seasy for them to follow and they
don't need a whole lot oftraining for it.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
No, we appreciate that.
But I've been thinking too,scott and dave and michelle, you
know, before.
As you guys know, I'm aproponent of measuring twice and
cutting once before we actuallytake our first step.
Part of that calculation forroi, and one of the factors we
take into our calculation forroi, needs to be, you know, the
technical debt and the risk oftrying to support these old
(31:51):
applications.
Um, it's true, anyone can builda dotNET application and do all
this fun stuff.
But really, how do youdetermine the worth of bringing
in a SaaS offering like thefield service?
What comes with it?
All these things need to betaken into consideration before
(32:12):
you say, okay, there's a cheaperoption and you throw it out the
window because it's not justcost to that point.
So to your point, dave andMichelle.
So I have a quick question.
I'm going to be funny with it,all right.
So, most overlooked fieldservice capability.
What is the most overlookedfield service capability?
So it can be something assimple as the asset hierarchy
(32:32):
little widget.
It can be the cool scheduleboard which I think is
scheduling is outside of fieldservice.
We kind of throw them in there.
So throwing out there with youguys, what is the most under or
overlooked capability in fieldservice interesting question or
under that or under value.
(32:53):
Yeah, under value, because youget a lot of bang with your buck
buck with field service.
Like there's a lot of bang withyour buck with field service.
There's a lot of little hiddennuggets there.
Like I said, the assethierarchy tool I mean that's a
gnarly PCF control.
I mean it is, and we've seen alot of people in our community
copy it and duplicate it.
But let's give credit wherecredit was due.
It was a beast of a tool beforeeveryone else started copying
(33:15):
it right.
So you, it was a beast of a ofa tool before everyone else
started copying it right.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Um, so you know which one do you think like was, like
man, this is amazing.
I think I still go back to iotalerts.
I mean I it's just, it'samazing if, because it's so
proactive yes you're not.
You're not like, oh my god, thethink of a grocery store, publix
.
We have Publix here in Florida.
You know a Publix.
(33:39):
You know, if one of theircoolers goes down that has meat
in it, they're losing probablymillions of dollars of meat, you
know, and somebody didn't catchit until they came in the next.
They come in, you know 5o'clock in the morning and
there's, you know, and theysmell the meat, the gross
decayed meat.
So the fact that you can have anIoT alert on that cooler that
(34:01):
says, if it gets below 50,automatically send an alert,
create a work order, and you canautomate the whole process to
where, before somebody knowsthat it's down, there's already
a technician there at seveno'clock in the morning to fix it
.
You know, or oh, or even youknow, it knows, oh, it should be
(34:21):
50 degrees, it's 51.
Hmm, maybe we should do somepreventive maintenance on that
cooler.
It's, you know it's, and itkeeps on.
It goes up a degree, like everyday.
So the fact that you know thatthat's still one of the coolest
and I'm just shocked at them.
I mean, I know there's someindustries that IoT alerts don't
make sense, but anything thathas like a temperature control
on it and you can lose millionsof dollars.
(34:42):
Get an IoT alert.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Yeah, or even measuring humidity, Like come on
, that was a real deal use case.
That is 100%.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Absolutely, and you know all kind of.
In that same vein, I think mineis the use of the incident type
properly.
You know a lot of customers.
Well, we don't want to have tothink those up and everybody
calls it something different.
Well, you need to standardizeso you can start to not only
manage it but start to analyzeit and determine.
Okay, you know, this incidenttype we think takes, you know,
(35:13):
45 minutes, but it's reallytaking an hour.
So now I've messed up myscheduling if I schedule 45
minutes and I'm losing theability to make it on time to
the next job.
Knowing what tasks need to bedone and what you know products
should be in there helps youbuild better just-in-time
inventory, and you know so byreally utilizing that
(35:33):
functionality around theincident type or a job template.
And you know understanding.
Oh well, we said it needs thesethree parts to do this
maintenance procedure, but we'refinding that it's really taking
these five parts, so let's addthose other two there.
Now we will ensure we have themwhen we need them, and we know
the technician will put them onhis truck, and you know so.
(35:55):
There's a tremendous amount ofvalue in that, and if you think
about what Michelle said so.
Now we get an automatic workorder created from an IoT alert.
We know what is needed for thatjob, we know how long it's
going to take, we know whatskills are needed to get the job
done.
Now we can schedule itautomatically and know that
we're pretty accurate in gettingthe right person there with the
(36:16):
right parts at the right time,and so it kind of closes that
loop.
And then you throw in analyticson top of that and say, okay,
well, you know, we guessed wrong.
That is not the correctconfiguration for that incident
type or that type of job, so goin and fix it and let AI fix
that for you and start to tuneit up.
So now you're getting betterand better on your scheduling.
(36:37):
You're getting better andbetter on your first-time fix
rates.
You're getting your customersatisfaction score up.
You're starting to you know beable to add other services in
and you know know when to upselland when not to.
So I mean it's a snowball.
You know it really gets biggerand bigger and bigger.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
And I see those go ahead michelle, sorry to add
david, because we all see, youknow, there's a um, there's an
instant type suggestion, which Imean people, I mean I, I'm so
people just don't utilize thatand they'll and they're like,
how can we improve yourproductivity?
And like because, and you know,and why would our, you know,
why would we want our, ourtechnicians to go through these
(37:17):
tasks like, well, it's not justyou know, not like, if you go
through the tasks, that they adda new task or they say this
task to them.
Think of a software upgrade,something like, and a large
piece of equipment and there wasa, some kind of software that
runs equipment and it used toonly take them 15 minutes to do
the upgrade.
Now it's taking them like 30because there's some extra thing
.
So that means that technician,on every job that has that
(37:42):
incident type is running 15minutes late because it's taking
them 30 minutes to 15.
And the incident type suggestionwill come back and say hey, by
the way, this past week you'vehad these five technicians take
this one specific instant type,it's taking them an extra 15
minutes.
Do you want to increase that?
To be an extra fit, that onetask to be an extra 15 minutes,
(38:04):
and then so it will thenschedule it appropriately from
that point on so you can say,yeah, go ahead.
And again, that's another aifeature, that that's been around
for a while, that that, uh,it's a type suggestion that's
been that's been around for awhile, that that, uh, it's a
type suggestion, that's been,that's been around for over a
year.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, um and well, and think about.
Think about this too.
Right, we talked about theaging workforce and now you have
this template that tells me thetasks, the steps that I need to
do from a technicianperspective.
But I'm gonna flip it now andsay the customer gets a bill,
what did you do?
Yeah, I want to see the list ofeverything that they did.
That's what they're that.
(38:39):
So those tasks come in, youknow, twofold, and not just for
the technician but also for thecustomer to say, oh wow, you
know, I didn't realize it wasthat labor intensive with all
these different things that you,you had to, you had to go and
endure, to go ahead and get yourrefrigerator back up and
running.
So those are the types ofthings where it's value add on
(39:02):
both sides.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Yeah, and think of it in terms of maintenance.
So I have a maintenancecontract that says I'm going to
do these things, but at the endof the year, when you're
renegotiating your contractprice, how do you prove you did
all those things if you don'thave them on the board?
And there's one other thing Idid want to bring up, because
nobody is using this, and itused to be part of the core
(39:25):
product and they took it outsomewhere along the line and
talked to engineering and they,oh yeah, you're right, let's we
put it back in.
It was very simple and it's thefact that when you close a
booking or a visit to a customer, you close that it closes the
work order.
Well, that's configurable onyour booking setup for completed
(39:48):
and you can say just because Iclosed the booking, I don't have
to close the work order.
So if you think about that, nowI can continue to calculate my
first time fixed rates moreaccurately.
I can keep from generatinganother work order for the same
job because I had to go back asecond time.
I can start to do moreanalytics on it that are more
(40:12):
accurate, provide you more valuein how you're looking at your
data and it's less confusing tothe customer.
The customer doesn't want twoinvoices for the same job.
You had to go out there onceand you built time and then you
went out there again when yougot the right part.
They don't want two invoices,they want one invoice.
(40:34):
So by having one work workorder to my invoice, you've
accomplished that.
So there were a lot of inherentproblems in not being able to
close a visit or a booking, aschedule item, and leave the
work order open.
But nobody's using that featureand it's just a flag on your
(40:56):
booking setup.
So keep that in mind when youdo implementations, because that
super important.
Um, I had a quite a fewcustomers I think one of them or
two of them were yours thatcame back and asked what, what
this?
Why is this?
This is wrong because I Ifigured it was had to be
williams no man, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
I mean, look, I ain't gonna let pat me on the head.
No, it probably was no, butthose are those things.
Honestly, I love how michelleand david are hitting on the
nail on the head.
Those are those things.
Honestly, I love how Michelleand David are hitting on the
nail on the head.
Those are those, you know loweffort, high impact items that
you know can literally justchange your entire entire
process and you can see greatrewards from that.
(41:35):
I mean, that's just the beautyof the application that they
built.
And seriously, you mentioned itearlier talking about change
management how, when you'reabout to go through the
installation or implementationphase and you realize, oh my
goodness, there's somethingawkward with our process, I
think sometimes our customersthey fail to understand that
(41:55):
before we build these products,or before Microsoft has built
D365 field service, there was alot of market research that went
involved, and so you know jobsto be done and things such as
that were already accounted forwhen building it.
So you know, if they're givingyou a nice little lens to look
through when you're looking atthe product, it probably would
be better if you just, you know,roll with it.
(42:17):
So change management is a bigdeal right.
Change management is a big dealright.
Speaker 5 (42:22):
So I'm going to.
I think that's the biggestreason that you know any project
, really any type of softwareimplementation fails is because
they don't set the rightexpectation for change and they
don't support that change withtheir users.
So you know, you've got toexpect change and you've got to
(42:46):
be able to educate your usersenough that they're going to
understand the value of it andit's going to make their job
easier.
And that's what we're trying todo as the software evolves is
just make the user, whoever heis, make his job easier.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Oh, that's all.
That was great.
We really appreciate it.
So we're, we're, we're going toask her go right into our next
topic.
We're going to go into roadmap.
So question what do you thinkis going to?
What's coming down the roadthat's not under NDA?
Speaker 2 (43:17):
put out there in the next few years, or what do you
hope would be out there in thenext couple of years.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
Yeah, what do you hope, do you see out of the
product in the next couple years?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
co-pilot co-pilot, co-pilot.
Wait, how many times have wesaid it now?
I got mine in love it well, Ithink also another thing that's
um, it's more kind of it's funnybecause it's not as exciting as
Copilot and not as cool asCopilot.
(43:50):
But the fact that now fieldservice and project operations
are going to be more closelyconnected because just this is
field service hasn't moved,connected because just this is
field service hasn't moved.
It's still under the Dynamicsumbrella but the product team is
now under the F&O umbrella.
So there are some really coolthings and this makes this
(44:12):
excites me because I do bothproject ops and I do field
service.
So there are so many thingsthat project ops does that I'm
like man that'd be really coolin field service and vice versa,
like I can see, and I and I'vetalked to both products, both,
both sides, and been like haveyou seen this, have you seen
that?
And that you know and peopledon't realize.
But I always use the example ofof a new fast food chain that
(44:39):
you know they're building.
There's a fast food chain wherethey're building I think
something like 225 a year andand that is project ops and
field service.
It's both because you know,like you still have a project
you still have I need to get thelicensing, I need to get the
permits.
I need to make sure we havethis, you know.
(45:00):
So that's all project ops and Ihave these resources.
But then when you get into, likeI was saying, I need to install
the grill now, I need toinstall the cooler, well, that's
a task in project that needs tobecome a work order on the
field service side.
And not only that, but theasset, the actual, you know,
(45:20):
because you take a product whichis the grill, and that you're
installing that, but then thatturns into a customer asset on
the customer side.
So it's that whole connectionbetween the two that I think is
we're going to see it a lotsmoother, we're going to see it
more just.
I think it's that piece alone.
(45:41):
I mean, and it's funny becauseDavid and I and also Marcio, who
unfortunately couldn't makethis call, you know, we've
discussed, we've talked aboutthese two working together
constantly and really, if youreally really think about it,
almost it's almost always a.
There's a few things like maybebreak fixes aren't necessarily
need project operations, butalmost anything where it's like
an install is, yeah, kind ofproject office infill first.
Speaker 5 (46:04):
Anything where there's dependencies and you
know multiple work breakdown,structure items.
But you know what I remember.
When we started thisconversation I said field
service used to live in ERP andyou know, 10 years ago we moved
it out to.
Crm ago we moved it out to CRM.
(46:25):
Well, now we're moving it backunder, you know, not really
under ERP, but more in line withERP, so that we are starting to
pick up the best of both worldsand make a stronger application
.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Well, I think that's a great point that you make,
david, because for so many years, right, think about I'm going
to say the dirty word dual right.
There's been so many Give dualright.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
some love Give dual right.
Some love Give it some love.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Out there in the ecosystem, it gets a bad rap.
And then you hear customers sayhey, does the right hand talk
to the left hand?
Well, now, the right hand isgoing to be talking to the left
hand because they're going to besitting virtually side by side
and so it's only going to, toyour point, make the product
(47:17):
stronger, not just theintegration, but just overall.
Right, Because there is so muchoverlap and there is that
back-end processing of fieldservice.
We have to invoice work orders.
We have to update inventory,right.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
All these other components you have to invoice
customers, yeah, and it's allstarting to get tied together.
Now, with the supply chainintegration, with the dual write
capability and the integrationsthat Microsoft came out with,
we can actually create thatasset in F&O and have it appear
in field service.
(47:47):
We can start to pull inventoryfrom a location within another
warehouse it's not thetechnician's truck or order
parts, and then those can flowdown to the technician's truck.
We can invoice a customer andif you have terms with the
customer where they get oneinvoice a month for all the
(48:07):
service work you did, that canroll up to a project and you
build that project any way thecustomer wants you to.
So there's all kinds ofcorrelations between these two
products now that are startingto be super important and have
always been important, but havebeen cumbersome in the past.
The other aspect is you knowwe're doing this with F&O, but
(48:28):
we you know that kind of gave usthe framework to do it.
We have an SAP integration andwe're working on an Oracle
integration and there's a lot ofyou know solutions out there
that we can now communicate with, based on you know where they
fit in the puzzle.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
I think one of the fun ones, though one of the fun
because that's again, that'scool, that's for us geeky people
, that's you know, you know, butto most people like that's not
fun, you know, that's like oh,ok, you know, because that's
kind of like all back officestuff.
But one of the fun things andDavid, I'm going to come up, but
one of the fun things and David, I'm going to come up, this is
the one that, and it's on theroadmap is the fact that you can
(49:06):
have a talk-to inspection,meaning you can have this
inspection template and let'stake, I don't know, let's.
Again, this is not a customer,this is, you know, this is just,
let's say, a very large,well-known, you know, rental car
company, and so before takingout the rental car, you know
there's an inspection that saysyou know what's the mileage, you
(49:29):
know, and it's written you knowwhat's the mileage, what's the
gas at, what's the?
You know are there any dents,are there this, are there that?
And you know before, right,well, right now, you know you
haven't.
We absolutely do inspections.
Where you can, you read it, youput it, you type in the mileage
or now you can actually you canhave it read to the inspector
(49:50):
or to the technician, so thatyou can say, literally, the
phone will be like what is themileage on the car?
And you can, you know, and themileage is, you know, 2,500.
And what is the gas tank level?
And you're like, so it it'sliterally so.
They don't even have to thatthat inspector or technicians, I
even have to look at theirphone, the the phone's talking
(50:11):
to them and they're talking backto the phone.
It's filling up the inspectionautomatically for them.
Take a picture, take a picture.
I mean so things like that, um,but that, just that, make that
that technician or inspector'slife so much easier.
Speaker 5 (50:23):
I mean wow, think of the effort involved in getting
those inspections into thesystem.
You know, there's one argumentwe always hear Well, now we have
a co-pilot that will allow youto take a you know, pdf file or
a Word document, or whereveryour inspection is, and import
it into the system, and then onthe back end we can answer the
(50:44):
questions verbally, we can takea picture of the odometer and
the system will put the mileageright into the question for you,
so you don't have to even speakit so lots of cool things
coming in that regard.
You guys are completely killingit.
Copilot copilot copilot.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
So I have to ask I wanted to get your.
Speaker 4 (51:03):
I wanted to pick your brains and you know I think
this will probably be where wewrap up the the the series Again
.
I've known you guys for quitesome time.
I know how much you've helpedme out in the industry and how
much I've, you know, justwatched from a distance for
newcomers, you know, cause wehave a lot of people getting
into the industry.
Ai has made it very easy.
It's not that much of a climb,as it once was For newcomers or
(51:25):
people who have already adoptedthe product.
I'm going to start with you,michelle.
What kind of advice would yougive them?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
Newcomers.
You talk about newcomers likeourselves getting into field
service or a technician.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
Sorry about that.
I'm interrupting you.
That's my apologies.
It can be newcomers it.
I'm interrupting you.
That's my apologies.
It can be newcomers.
It can be people experience.
What's your advice in regardsto the product?
If you had like two minutes tosay what you wanted to say about
it, to help people really justlearn it or even just to get
something good out of it, whatwould you say, like what would
be your spiel or your sell intwo minutes?
Speaker 3 (51:56):
Gosh, I'm trying to think for a newcomer.
I would say oh, take it.
Kind of like how they say howdo you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Right.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
You know, learn.
You know, because there's, aswe've said, there's a lot in
field service.
You know, maybe first learn howto set up the resources
themselves and make sure becausethere's, you know, when setting
up the resources you need to,you know you need a territory,
you need a skill, you need youknow, and in order to see them
(52:27):
on the schedule board and okay,get that down, packed.
Okay, now go to the next thing.
Okay, now, oh, preventivemaintenance, okay Now.
Oh, now we have assets, let'sadd assets.
Let's okay, now let's add RSO,resource scheduling,
optimization.
So it's, it's taking it inphases, I believe, and not just
trying to.
You know, take it all in at thesame time.
You know there's a lot oftraining online.
You know there's not onlypartners that provide training,
(52:50):
but there's training onMicrosoft.
Learn that you can take too.
Speaker 5 (52:54):
And there's videos as well as printed documentation,
Right and shameless plug.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
you can attend UG Summit in my academy course on
field service.
Right there you go, and evenlike now they've on field
service.
Right there you go, and andeven like now they've made it
easier.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
If you go to the home page when you first log into
field service, you go to thehome page.
It literally says walk throughthese steps to set up a resource
.
Walk through these steps to setup, you know, an asset.
Walk through these steps.
So I mean it literally.
I mean it, there's, it's,they've.
Microsoft and team have made itmuch easier to get started and
understand how it works.
Speaker 4 (53:25):
Yes, ma'am, Dave.
What about you, buddy?
Speaker 5 (53:27):
I would say you know just what Michelle said.
But I would also say we alllive in this world.
We've all had to have servicedone on something, whether it's
our car or air conditioner or,you know, our dishwasher.
So apply practical examplessomething you've experienced, so
you know what you know ourdishwasher.
So apply practical examples.
Something you've experienced soyou know what you know happens
along the way You've been,you've lived through it.
(53:48):
So use a practical experienceof whatever it is.
It could be going to the doctor, you know, you got to schedule
it, you got to go to the office,you got to, you know, get the
diagnostics and so think about areal-world scenario to apply to
the documentation and it makesit a lot easier to follow.
Yeah 100%.
Speaker 3 (54:06):
And be nosy.
Every time someone shows up atmy house and they're doing some
kind of maintenance to my house,I'm like what are you using
over there?
Can I see it?
Can I see what you're using?
And they look at me like I have10 heads.
I'm like, no, this is what I dofor a living.
Like ooh, it's software music.
And they're like I don't knowit's software.
But I love being nosy andlooking at you know, seeing what
(54:27):
they're typing in.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
No, I think that's great.
I think to your point, it'sright Be inquisitive, you know.
Explore the product, start Ithink, david, you said this
earlier start small.
You don't need to do the bigbang, implement everything you
know.
Start out small, get that smallfootprint going, figure out
what's working, what you need toexpand upon.
I think those are, all you know, really good, sound pieces of
(54:52):
advice for folks getting engagednow.
But I think it's good for us aswell that have been around to
just remember right, start smalland remember to be inquisitive,
because new features are comingand they're coming fast and you
know we need to be on top of it.
Speaker 5 (55:07):
Yeah, and you know, I don't think that anybody's
going to wake up tomorrow andsay, oh, you know what I'm going
to learn field service today.
I think they're all you knowlearning it for a purpose.
You know whether that's they'vegot a new job that's in the
service industry, or they workfor a software company and they
got a client who needs to haveit implemented.
But I think you got all thetools and things that we
(55:31):
mentioned to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (55:38):
Well, I wanted to go ahead and give you guys a
straight up shout out man, weappreciate your time, dave.
It's always a pleasure.
Michelle, you are always sogracious.
We greatly appreciate youjumping on board with us.
And, uh, next time we got tomake sure we get marcio um to
jump on in, because you knowhe's probably doing something
else.
He's probably in the beaches ofrio drinking a caipirinha.
We know, we know how marcio is.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
We know how he rolls he's been pinging me here that,
oh, it's too late for me to join.
I don't want to interrupt.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
Marcio, we'll get you on Absolutely, absolutely, so
we thank you, guys.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
We appreciate what you do for our community and
we'll catch up with you nexttime.
Speaker 3 (56:14):
All right, okay, thanks.
Speaker 4 (56:16):
Bye, bye, thank you.
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