October 31, 2025 • 41 mins
The wrench turns faster when the app gets out of the way. That’s the spirit of our deep dive with Microsoft’s Luis Masieri, Group PM for Dynamics 365 Field Service, as we unpack how AI is reshaping frontline work, customer outcomes, and the business model of service. We explore why the mission has shifted from operational efficiency to AI-first growth, and how technician experience sits at the heart of it.
We start with the mindset that separates thriving rollouts from stalled ones. Lift-and-shift thinking fails because it copies legacy processes into a new tool. The teams that win revisit outcomes, simplify flows, and invest in change management so techs, dispatchers, and managers adopt with confidence. From there, we dig into where AI delivers now: scheduling optimization agents that handle routing and exceptions, Copilot experiences that surface procedures and history, and remote assist that turns senior expertise into a force multiplier. The result is faster ramp for new techs, fewer taps in the mobile app, and better first-time fix rates.
Luis shares how Dynamics 365 Field Service balances domain complexity—assets, warranties, inventory, contracts—with approachable workflows that work across industries. We talk subcontractor realities, licensing that reduces friction, and integration between CRM and ERP to keep data flowing end to end. You’ll also hear what’s new: Outlook and Teams calendar sync for bookings, scheduling engine enhancements, the ability to extend Copilot with your own knowledge, and the steady reliability and security work that keeps everything running.
Looking ahead five years, picture a connected, predictive network where assets signal their own needs, AI agents take the first action, and humans handle the edge cases. Mixed reality resurfaces with better hardware and hands-free guidance. Documentation writes itself as work happens. The paperwork burden shrinks, and the joy of the trade returns. If you care about technician productivity, customer loyalty, and turning service into a growth engine, this conversation will help you see the path forward.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review so more service leaders can find it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening,
everyone.
This is Scott LaFonte, your hostfor the Service X Factor
Podcast.
Unfortunately, my co-host, WillMcClendon, is on assignment, aka
he's stuck in an airport.
So we're gonna do this onewithout him today.
And today we do have a veryspecial guest from Microsoft.
And I'm gonna let him introducehimself because he could do a
(01:01):
better job of it than I can.
But today we have LuisMessinieri.
Hey Luis, how are you, man?
SPEAKER_01 (01:08):
Hey Scott, it's good to be with you.
I'm doing well.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
Yep.
So so for those that don't knowwho you are, Luis, uh why don't
you tell us a little bit aboutuh what you do at Microsoft?
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
Sure.
Uh so I'm a group productmanager in the Dynamics 365
Field Service Team.
Uh and my team and my area Ilook after is uh the easiest way
of explaining to people iseverything but scheduling.
And so all things related tolike their frontline worker
experience, the mobile app, uh,all the way through like the
(01:41):
back office uh service managers,how they use a product to get
insights out of it and managework quarters, all the way
through like the IT teams thatconfigure the application to use
uh for their organizations.
SPEAKER_00 (01:54):
Awesome.
Awesome, that's great.
Yeah, and as you know, I asfolks may know, I've I've been
in the field service space forabout uh 14 years now, and and
I've known Luis actually forquite a few years now.
We've we've conversed on on theproduct and different things on
the roadmap and feedback.
So, you know, so I think youknow we have a a pretty good
(02:15):
relationship and and I don'tgive you a hard time, so that's
good.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Absolutely.
No, it's great to be with youand and kind of I don't want to
say the culmination, but uh astopping point along our uh
journey to just do thistogether.
So uh I'm excited to be herewith you.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
It's been a long time coming.
I've had on you know Jason Cohenand Dan Gittler before, who I
gotta get back on since he's inhis new role and and it's been
quite some time.
So, but yeah, definitely uhhappy to have you on today.
It's like I said, been a longtime coming.
So um, you know, I think for ourlisteners' perspective, Luis, I
mean, uh talking about yourpersonal journey, I mean, what
(02:54):
you know, what drew you uh tofield service, or is it just one
of those things where it's like,all right, you know, I I you
know got this job and and I'massigned field service and let
me do my thing.
And I mean, how how did you getstarted in field service?
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
Yeah, great uh question.
And uh the answer is somewherein between.
Uh so yeah I have always beendrawn to work that uh really set
the intersection of liketechnology with uh real world
impact.
And I think field service is agreat example of that.
It's really where it's asoftware where it meets people
(03:31):
where they are, and really justbeing having the ability to just
have great service that we canprovide and great customer
experiences to create brandbrand loyalty is something that
I I find pretty uh energizing.
So uh it was both an opportunitythat I came up, I didn't know
how much I was gonna enjoy thework because of the impact that
(03:53):
I get to see the in and the out.
And so it's been a really funjourney to just uh help build
this product and evolve it.
That's great.
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
Yeah, I I always can relate to, I think when I got
involved in field service, uhone, I didn't I didn't know
anything about it except youknow the way it was explained to
me, of course, and the way Irelated to it, and what got me
excited was like, oh I could Icould explain it from right
yours and I and my personalexperience, like if we have a
technician come out to our houseto fix something, right?
(04:26):
And so it becomes very relatableto people like, oh, okay, now I
get it.
And then we talk about thedifferent industries, of course,
that that are applicable tofield service, and you know,
we'll get into that and and someof the different uh different uh
industries that have used it andand what you've seen over the
(04:46):
years or heard over the years.
So kind of piggying back off ofthat, I mean, what's what would
you say is the most rewardingpart of your role at Microsoft
and you know what really getsyou excited to come to work
every day?
SPEAKER_01 (05:00):
Yeah, you know, I would say that at Microsoft at
large, it's really the scalethat that we have as a company
and and the ability to see theimpact, not just in a small
pocket in uh Seattle orCalifornia, uh, but really just
throughout the world.
Uh, we have customers that arespread uh all the way from South
(05:22):
America to Asia to Europe to theUnited States, and really being
able to see how this productjust crossed geo boundaries and
has an impact uh everywhere inevery corner of the world is
just uh fascinating.
And so I I appreciate the scaleof the work.
I think the other part of it,particularly now in the AI era,
(05:47):
is really having the scale ofMicrosoft.
Also gives you access to uh thelatest and greatest AI tools and
really the capabilities toreally build on what's next.
So having so much access reallycreates an exciting opportunity
to be able to build the bestproduct out there.
SPEAKER_00 (06:08):
Yep.
And that's great.
And we've you know we're seeinga lot more of that AI
capabilities, and and you know,I'm gonna ask you some questions
about AI, of course, later.
But you know, in terms of withinthe the product stack, we're
seeing the you know copilot forfield service, you know, and
being able to use some of thatco-pilot, at least from a
(06:28):
summary perspective, and askingsome things on the mobile, and
of course, not that you doscheduling, but now we're seeing
that you know some of thatwithin the scheduling area as
well.
So there's been a lot ofevolution and a lot of emphasis
on AI, probably not just atMicrosoft, but really, I mean,
if you look at it even just froma you know M365 co-pilot, you
(06:50):
know, and then you got the chatGPTs, the clouds, and probably
uh a whole bunch of tools thatI'm not even aware of, but you
know, I use several because someare some are good for certain
things and some are better forothers, but I really impressed
really impressed with what hasbeen going on within the D365
stack from uh um an AIperspective.
(07:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:11):
And I'll add, you know, on top of the Microsoft
scale of the impact, I think thethe most rewarding part of the
job obviously is being able tojust deliver capabilities to
customers and to organizationsand just seeing their eyes light
up when we're able to solve abusiness challenge that they've
(07:32):
had.
So whether it's a customertelling me that they've seen the
highest level of productivitiesever for their technicians
because of how they'veimplemented field service and
they've been able to justoptimize the workflows to
people's reactions to seeingsome of the future of field
service and some of those AIcapabilities that really put
technicians back into the fieldand outside of just dealing with
(07:55):
a mobile app, uh, those are veryrewarding moments that really
make all the hard work uh feellike it it matters and it pays
off.
SPEAKER_00 (08:05):
Yeah, no, that's that's uh spot on because I've
I've you know, and I'm sureyou've you've heard obviously
the success stories that youjust talked about, you know,
some of those where you knowcustomers are getting really
excited and they're reallyseeing the ROI of field service.
And then on the flip side, I'veseen some customers struggle
because maybe they don't have aclear objective or roadmap, or
(08:28):
maybe they don't have the rightpartner engaged.
I I've seen it, you know,anywhere in between those as
well.
And and it's heartbreakingbecause you know they get
frustrated because they thinkit's the product that that isn't
suitable for them, when inreality it's it's probably the
exact opposite.
It's not that the product can'tdo it, it's just that either
(08:51):
expectations aren't setappropriately, or you don't have
the right goals and objectivebetween, or you've gone you
know, completely custom insteadof understanding what the tool
can do for you out of the box,and then sort of doing the
building blocks on top of that.
And so that was one of thethings that I focused on.
(09:11):
And I think Jason Cohen came tomy session uh last week at
Summit, where I really talkedabout tips and tricks and and
things that have causedimplementation failures and and
what you can really do to avoidthose.
So it was a really great sessionand and happy to see uh, of
course, my my good friend Jasonthere.
But yeah, I I mean it's it'sjust one of those things that to
(09:33):
your point though, when when acustomer is is doing really
well, it's it's super excitingand really gets you uh juiced up
to continue going along thefield service journey.
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
What I see as kind of the differentiating factor
between those kind of successfulimplementations and those
customers that struggle attimes.
And I talk to customers veryopenly about this when we do uh
executive briefings or or salespitches or whatnot, is really
the change management piece.
Uh, I think to your point, I seea lot of customers just kind of
(10:08):
say, I want to lift and shift,have been doing things for 30
years into this new product, andI expect it to work exactly the
same way, but they're notwilling to put in the work to
just reassess why some of thoseprocesses are done the way that
they were pre-AI,pre-technology, pre-internet.
And it just not a one-to-oneshift.
(10:30):
So having the open mind of weneed to rethink why things were
done a certain way and justreally try to see what was the
outcome that you were trying toaccomplish, and then figure out
how do you evolve it to a newway of doing things, is how I
see success happens.
And the other part of changemanagement.
So that's that's one part of it.
(10:52):
The other part of the changemanagement is really just the
rollout and really dealing withpeople in the organization,
right?
If they've had been used todoing things a certain way for
10 years, and all of a suddenyou put a new tool in front of
them without any training,without any guidance, without
any change management, of coursethey're gonna struggle.
Of course, they're gonna resistthe change.
(11:12):
So putting proper changemanagement really just makes a
huge difference in whetherpeople accept the tools or it
ends up being a failedimplementation.
SPEAKER_00 (11:23):
Yep.
No, that's spot on.
And that was definitely one ofthe things, and I'm glad you
brought it up, one of the thingsthat we discussed last week, and
one of the things that really isdiscussed you know on field
service projects, but you know,really every project needs to
have change management.
Because to your point, withoutit, you know, projects fail,
right?
Right.
And and it's probably one of thebiggest reasons why projects
(11:45):
fail is lack of of proper changemanagement.
So uh definitely glad you youbrought that up.
So let's let's talk about um youknow what what do you feel or or
you know for folks is you knowwhat is what is the core mission
of your team?
And you know, what do you whatis the team trying to really
(12:06):
accomplish for the field serviceorganizations that are out
there, especially now in the inthe evolution of AI.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (12:15):
You know, at the core of it, our mission is
really to empower organizationsto deliver exceptional service.
And so that means getting theright technician with the right
skills at the right time withthe right data to really fix
things.
And uh historically, this hasbeen focused a lot around like
just optimizing operations, sowhether it's scheduling,
(12:37):
dispatching, work ordermanagement.
But as we look forward to thefuture, our mission has really
transformed to be one ofbuilding the best AI-first tool
for field service organizations.
So we're able to transform thoseorganizations from just a
service engine to a growthengine for organizing for their
(12:58):
companies.
So the introduction ofpredictive maintenance, the
introduction of like AI powercapabilities and a deeply
connected customer experience isreally how we see the future of
field service and how we'll beable to differentiate ourselves
from our competitors and howwe'll be able to help
organizations transformthemselves uh into a future.
SPEAKER_00 (13:20):
Yeah, that's that's awesome because you know, I
think it goes into one of thequestions I was going to ask,
and I think you spot on is youknow, how has that mission and
solving problems today differfrom three to four years ago?
Um, and you know, and I knowthree or four years ago probably
everyone was yeah, you know,knew that AI was coming.
(13:42):
It just was a matter of of whenand then how quickly it would
evolve.
And so we're seeing thatinnovation.
I mean, even you know, heardabout it last week from there
was a lot of Microsoft folks atuh Summit.
And then of course this week atPower Platform Community
Conference, uh there was a lotof uh excitement and discussions
(14:05):
around AI and a lot of theproduct evolution that has just
either recently come out or iscoming out in the next release,
and the different things from aroadmap perspective.
So it's really gettingorganizations uh really excited
about what is coming and howMicrosoft is evolving and
(14:27):
becoming, or it is or becomingit depends on how you look at it
and who looks at it, uh, aleader in this space.
SPEAKER_01 (14:36):
Yeah, so one of the funny anecdotes a year to this
date.
So we have those customer advicereports that we bring uh top
customers are using the producttwice a year, one time in North
America, one time in theEuropean area.
And a year to this date, we werein the European CAB, and
customers did not want to talkabout AI, like they were kind of
(15:00):
coming at us, they're like, Idon't want to talk about AI, I
want to talk about like thisspecific feature, this specific
bug in the product that is notworking.
Like, when are you gonna fixthat?
And it's so interesting to seehow much a difference a year
makes.
Because like this year, I justcame back from being with some
of our customers in Ireland, andthe conversation on the tone had
(15:23):
completely shifted.
Customers were excited, bringingup ideas before we even talked
about AI on how they're thinkingwithin the organizations, how AI
can help them with their fieldservice departments and
operations.
And it's just really eye-openingto see how much of a difference
a year made, let alone threeyears to your point, on what we
were doing three years ago withfield service to kind of where
(15:45):
we are now.
And so it's just really excitingto see what where the market is
at, where customers are at, andkind of where we go from here.
SPEAKER_00 (15:56):
Yeah, no, and and that's also uh fantastic because
I've I've seen a lot of the samething where dealing with
customers last year that were uhhesitant to go into the AI
space, you know, for a bunch ofdifferent reasons, right?
Securities, privacy of data, allthese different things.
And even though you can talkabout you know what Microsoft
(16:20):
does to keep you know your datauh private and secure,
especially within uh you knowMicrosoft D365 and how it
utilizes the whole securitymodel of D365, there's there was
still that doubt.
And then this year thatconversation has shifted to say,
hey, we want to use AI, and andnow it's not even just did the
(16:44):
co-pilots within D365, it's now,hey, how can we use you know
Copilot Studio?
How can we use Azure Open AI?
How can we use all thesedifferent tools to really uh
solve some of these and thesemundane or do these mundane
tasks or ask these questions sothat we can save our people time
(17:06):
and focus on you know the itemsthat truly matter?
SPEAKER_01 (17:10):
Yeah, and I think this goes back to the point that
we were making previously aroundchange management.
At the core of it, I think it'severybody a year and a half, a
year ago, had just fears of kindof AI coming for their jobs or
or just really not understandingwhat AI could do for them.
And I feel like as people havegotten more familiar with their
(17:32):
own personal experience with AI,whether it's using Cloud,
ChatGPT, M365, Copilot, theyhave kind of seen the value of
what it can do for them.
And I think it makes it a littlebit easier for them to digest.
Well, if this can do this forme, I can only imagine what it
can do for our organization atscale.
So I think that that's part ofthat internal change management
(17:54):
for people to really just getmore comfortable with the tools
themselves and therefore be morecomfortable with thinking of the
use cases and the adaptabilityof that for their organizations.
SPEAKER_00 (18:06):
Yep.
Spot on.
And you know, speaking about AI,I mean, in in your opinion, you
know, how is AI transformingfield service and you know what
AI capabilities are are you andyour team really you know super
excited about?
SPEAKER_01 (18:23):
Yeah, so when it comes to field service, I think
there's a couple different uhways that I think about how AI
is transforming theorganizations and the product.
Um the first one is reallyhelping organizations move from
(18:44):
reactive to proactive servicing.
So instead of asking whathappened, being able to ask what
will likely happen next.
Uh, those are just reallypowerful moments in in the
experience for organizations toreally just be able to move from
one of the uh from the old wayof doing things to a new way of
doing things.
(19:05):
I think as it comes to theproduct, it's the part where I
see AI really transforming theproduct the most, I think in in
two areas.
One of them is obviously acrossour scheduling area.
Um, as you pointed out earlier,like that's not my core area of
focus for the product, but Istill represent the overall
(19:25):
portfolio.
And we're seeing some greatsuccess and adoption with our
scheduling optimization agent,which is out in the market, and
uh just being able to justoptimize how technicians are
routed to their next jobs andkind of handling exceptions and
things like that.
So that is a pretty excitingpart of it.
The other part of that is reallyjust for the technicians
(19:48):
themselves, and really our goalhas really evolved in a very
non-intuitive way, I guess, toget technicians out of the app.
So we want technicians using theapp the least amount possible,
because what we hear time andtime again when we talk to
(20:10):
technicians and organizations isthat what people enjoy the most
about their jobs is actuallydoing whatever their core skill
set is.
So whether it is installing anew pipeline or uh fixing an
HVAC, they just want to betwisting bolts and changing
pipes.
They don't want to be spendingtime wrestling with technology.
(20:32):
And so historically, a lot ofour products in the field
service market have been allabout like tap, tap, tap, uh
getting into the app, capturingdata for the organization.
And really, AI is providing anew way for us to think about
how do we do all of that fasterand in a way that really allows
(20:54):
the technician to spend lesstime inputting data or searching
for data and really spendingmore time doing their jobs.
And so I'm pretty excited aboutwhere that is going and kind of
what we'll see in the next yearuh in field service uh for
technicians.
SPEAKER_00 (21:13):
That's awesome.
And and have you seen that interms of, you know, speaking of
technicians, you know, we've allheard about the uh shortages and
skill gaps, and they they calledit for years the silver tsunami
and and was really uhexasperated by of course the the
pandemic.
Um you know, has that influencedin any way the product
development uh on the on themobile side?
SPEAKER_01 (21:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we have been hearing aboutthis for for a while to your
point, and there's kind of liketwo ways in which we have been
trying to work withorganizations to help them deal
with this.
Uh the first one is as far as AIgoes, uh being able to uh work
(21:58):
and bring to market capabilitiesto help people just find find
information faster.
So through Copilot Studio andM365, Copilot, uh being able to
use parse, a library of uh PDFdocuments, and being able to
find the answers to questionsfaster that really helps new
younger technicians uh on boardwithout having to have all that
(22:21):
knowledge given to them beforethey go to the first job.
The second one is uh the remoteassist capabilities in the
product.
Uh so really having not havingto have a ton of technicians
with all the knowledge outthere, but instead had a handful
of them available.
And those newer technicians thatdon't know everything, when they
(22:44):
get stuck in a job, they canremotely call that expert and
just get their guidance and thenthey learn from that.
And so that is another way thatwe have kind of evolved the
product to help address some ofthat.
And then the third part of itthat we hear very often is
organizations also moving to usemore subcontractors to really
address that shortage.
And so we have been investing inthe product and making dealing
(23:08):
with subcontractors in fieldservice uh easier, whether it's
the launch of a reduced priceskew for subcontractors or some
capabilities within the productto like help them onboard faster
and work in the product easier.
And that's another way thatwe're helping organizations just
really deal with the shortage ofstaff.
SPEAKER_00 (23:29):
Yeah, no, that's great because you know I hear it
time and time again withimplements as well, uh, where
they're they're struggling orthey're using, to your point,
those subcontractors.
And um, you know, now of course,with as you said, the ability to
have a sub subcontractor SKU, Ithink uh alleviating some of
(23:50):
those barriers to entry fororganizations that say, do I
really want to pay for a licensefor a subcontractor, or do I
want them to use a portal, whichof course then has limited
capabilities and presents itsown challenges, right?
So I think that's really openpeople's eyes and it probably
(24:12):
just also changed a little bitof their expectations around
their experience with fieldservice.
SPEAKER_01 (24:19):
Yeah, and without giving too much away, I think
this is an area where we'regonna continue to like double
down uh helping managesubcontractors and the work uh
collaboration between these twoorganizations.
And so you will see some more ofthose workflows light up in
field service in the comingmonths and years.
So uh look forward, keep an eyeon that.
SPEAKER_00 (24:40):
Yeah, no, I definitely look, you know, as
you know, I spend uh most of mytime in field service, so
definitely looking forward toseeing what comes uh comes next
in the in the next uh years tocome.
Um if we turn our our sites intosay, you know, you know, the
product team in terms ofinsights, I mean, what has been
(25:03):
the most challenging aspect ofof building uh a field service
software?
And you know, of course, in youropinion, uh, you know, what have
what have been some of thosethings that have really just
been like, man, this is this isthis is a challenge that of
course you're willing toovercome, but it's been really
um a little bit difficult orchallenging at at certain times.
SPEAKER_01 (25:25):
How long do I have?
I probably have a long list ofof challenges that I can go
through.
I would start by saying uh atthe core of it for us as a
product team is really balancingthe complexity of the domain
with the simplicity of theexperience.
So field service goes all theway from scheduling to
(25:49):
warranties, dealing withcontracts, assets, the mobility
of technicians.
And our job at the core of it isto really hide that complexity
and build intuitive workflowsfor the organizations to really
get their job done.
Now that said, it's easier saidthan done.
So for it to feel thateffortless, it really requires a
(26:13):
lot of work on our end to justabstract all of that complexity.
And on top of that, because weare building ultimately a a more
flexible platform for customersto really solve their business
challenges, it creates anotherlayer of complexity for us
(26:36):
because every customer isslightly different.
Every industry where fuelservices use is slightly
different.
And so creating somethinggeneric that works across the
board is very challenging.
And that's where partners likeyourself and our partner
community really come in to justreally help with that last mile
(26:58):
of the implementation to reallymake it look and feel exactly
like it needs to be for thatorganization.
So if you take the product outof the box, it's probably gonna
get you like 90% there.
There's still like 10-15% thatneeds to be done to be tweaked
to get it to your needs andliking.
(27:18):
The third area is the fact thatfield service itself sits
somewhere between CRM and theERP.
And so being having to talk toso many systems to just keep
track of your inventory, to keeptrack of your technicians'
hours, to keep track of thecustomers themselves and the
(27:39):
relationships and the churn andthe lifetime value of customers,
having to just sit at theintersection of those two
systems creates another layer ofcomplexity because we can't
foresee where all this data isgoing to come from and how it's
gonna be used by organizations.
And this is again where thepartner community really helps
(28:00):
us uh get that implementationright for their customers.
And so those are some of thebiggest challenges that I've
seen over the years in buildingthe successful field service
software.
Now, more recently, althoughmore internal facing, let's say,
the AI revolution that we'regoing uh also poses a new set of
(28:24):
challenges, in which, to yourpoint, part of it is just
getting customers to understandwhy AI is important and how it's
gonna help their business.
Uh, but the other part of it iseverything is moving so fast and
so quickly that it's hard forourselves to really stay up to
date with the latest.
It's hard for our customers toadopt everything uh that we're
(28:46):
putting out because we're doingit so quickly.
So it it does create a new setof challenges, uh, that
everything is moving so fast.
Uh it's exciting, obviously, butalso I understand that for
customers receiving the end, uh,it can feel like a lot and that
sometimes they're missing someof the new things that are
happening just because of thevolume of things that are coming
(29:08):
out so quickly.
SPEAKER_00 (29:09):
Yeah, and and I gotta imagine that as you're as
you're building these new items,especially around AI, right?
It's kind of like technology inin general, right?
You you buy a laptop six monthslater, it's really outdated.
Right.
It's probably the same thingwith AI because it is evolving
so quickly that by the time yourelease some new features,
(29:32):
you're already you you alreadyhave to be thinking or at least
building all those upcomingfeatures as well, because
otherwise you're just gonna fallfall further and further behind.
So it's just like a catch 22.
It's just like it's a you know,constant, you know, hamster
wheel where you guys are, Iwould imagine, just churning and
(29:52):
just be like, okay, you know, wegot this out, but we're still
building for all these otherfeatures that just came out or
the new technology that makes itbetter, makes it faster and
smarter.
And uh, I can't even imagine howyou guys keep up.
I think you guys work 23 hours aday is what I think.
SPEAKER_01 (30:08):
Yeah, and you know, I would say on that point, it
that is also a reason forcustomers to buy the product or
a product as opposed to likebuild it themselves.
Because, like the moment thatyou are buying the platform and
and the SaaS, then you don'thave to worry about keeping up
(30:29):
with all of that because.
Like that becomes our job tojust like enhance those
capabilities with the latest anduh release those new
capabilities that you haven'tseen yet.
And if you are trying to justimplement a field service
software for your company, andon top of that, you feel like
you want to go out out of yourown to build your own AI
journey, then good luck withthat.
(30:51):
Because to your point, in three,by the time you're done even
speculat the V1 of your AIcapabilities, you're probably
gonna that the landscape wouldhave changed already, and you're
probably gonna have to likeevolve it again, right?
And so if you take a bet on aplatform like uh Microsoft and
Dynamics Physics, uh you reallyget all of that baked in and you
don't have to worry about that,but it's really about lighting
(31:12):
up those scenarios and we'llcontinue to evolve it for you
underneath the surface with thelatest and greatest.
SPEAKER_00 (31:18):
Exactly.
And like I've told customersbefore, I said, hey, if you need
to add in, like let's just sayyou have a a custom table,
right?
And and and we know this is youknow, in in certain co-pilots
within, you know, like let'sjust say co-pilot and sales and
and I'm sure eventually fieldservice, but in service, you can
(31:39):
add in those those custom tablesand start asking questions.
Um so and that's really youknow, to your point, I don't
have to do anything else.
I can just add knowledge um andstart asking questions, and
Microsoft does the rest.
Yeah.
You know, in your opinion, whatdoes field service look like,
(31:59):
say, in five years?
I mean, what do you think?
Is it going to be a ton of moreAI and autonomous agents within
there doing a lot of the heavylifting work, or is it going to
be something even different?
SPEAKER_01 (32:15):
Oh god, uh such a great question.
And I think if I had a magicbowl, then I probably would have
retired already.
Um but I would say that Idefinitely think in five years,
just seeing what has happenedjust in the past three, just
kind of predicting five yearsahead, we'll look back and
wonder how we ever work withoutthese AI agents.
(32:37):
I think for a field serviceit'll be it'll become fully
connected, a predictivepredictive network where assets
signal their own needs to us,agents take the first action,
take the first step at it, andthe humans are really there to
handle the exceptions.
Now, I think that's true forlike kind of just getting the
(33:00):
work going.
I think for technicians, it'sgonna be probably the most
exciting time of their livesbecause they went from being
trademark and women that justknew how to do work really well
to like having all thispaperwork added on top of it for
themselves.
(33:20):
And I really think that AI isgonna help bring back that joy
of their day-to-day becausethey're not gonna be having to
deal with technology, buttechnology is really gonna
augment their work.
And so, whether it is throughhelping them find what they need
faster so they can get back in,uh having access to knowledge
that they didn't even know theyneeded or they had access to in
(33:42):
their pockets, or really again,just reducing that friction of
them having to be in theapplication to capture the work
that they've done by just havingcopilot and mixed reality, uh
really help them just capturethings as they go along, right?
So I think as I think aboutthose emerging technologies, it
(34:02):
seems like the pendulum keepsswinging back and forward with
like mixed reality, uh, but Ireally see that as a game
changer for the field servicespace.
And if we could get some ofthose like glasses where
technicians we can just beseeing what technicians are
doing and they can ask questionsabout what they're seeing, oh my
(34:23):
gosh, that that is gonna reallychange the game.
Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (34:27):
Yeah, and and I'm hoping too that a lot more
organizations, and I'm seeing ita little uh get more to that, as
you said earlier, right?
The predictive maintenance orand even prescriptive
maintenance, right?
We see, of course, organizationsstill use an agreement, and I I
love agreement.
Um, and that's you know, alittle bit of being proactive,
(34:49):
um, but really getting to thatto your point, like, hey, you
know, using AI to say, yeah,great, you're fixing this, but
based on what we're seeing, andbased on maybe even uh assets
within this particular category,here's what we're seeing, and
here's what we'd recommend.
Um, I think that's wherehopefully as well, I'm keeping
(35:09):
my fingers crossed thatorganizations start um really,
you know, use uh the technologyuh to do that as well.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
Yeah, and again, without saying too much, you'll
have to keep an eye uh to seewhat comes in the product, uh
definitely an investment andfocus for for the team.
SPEAKER_00 (35:28):
Awesome.
And then you know, one lastquestion, uh Luis, because I
know we're getting to the to theend of our time here.
I mean, from a releaseperspective, and I know we're in
in the uh we're getting towardsthe the tail end.
Well, no, I guess we're kind ofin the uh of the release.
I mean, what are some things uhif if folks haven't read the
release notes, you know, whatare some things that are that
(35:50):
are in this release or even theupcoming release if if it's uh
that they should keep their eyeout, their eye on for?
SPEAKER_01 (35:59):
So there's definitely a bunch of
improvements across our um AIstack.
So whether it is in the FieldService Web, the ability to not
customize the copilot side uh inco-pilot studio so that you can
add custom knowledge extrainformation, uh, that will
definitely have an impact forlike the service managers and
the back-end persona using theproduct.
(36:22):
So that's a pretty exciting partof the release.
The other piece of it is uh oneof the number one pieces of
feedback that we have gotten foryears has been the ability for
the fuel service bookings tosync for technicians into their
calendars in Outlook and Teamsso they can see both their
bookings and their M365 calendartogether.
(36:45):
And so, like we just launchedthe capability uh in the product
to do just that and uhconfiguring that and taking
advantage of that uh exciting.
Um, we continue to makeimprovement in our scheduling
engine as well.
So, improvements on just to uhschedule optimization agent that
we just launched, but also theschedule board itself.
There's a bunch of paper cutsthat we have been really
(37:07):
listening to that feedback andadded to uh for new capabilities
that just really make thequality of life of schedulers
better, whether it is being ableto just share like a uh or just
save that URL and it deeply goesto like where you where you were
at, uh, or just seeing the timescales in the schedule board.
There's a lot of really smallthings that like are sometimes
(37:30):
invisible, but like when you runinto them, I I'm excited about
some of that as well.
And then like there's alwaysthat invisible work that happens
behind the scenes that is justhard to quantify, hard to talk
about.
But uh the team really spends alot of time uh fixing that, but
also you're strengthening theproduct so that your data stays
(37:51):
secure, the product stays up uhso that you don't have to worry
about those things.
You don't have to worry aboutlike outages and things like
that.
Uh security and fundamentals arereally a core priority for our
product, have been and continueto be.
SPEAKER_00 (38:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And and to your point, I mean,I've seen it evolve uh over the
years in terms of even just thatcapability to, as you said
earlier, right?
It you know, it's kind of kindof sits between CRM and ERP and
really having that you knowtightly knit integration.
You know, we've seen it withFNO, but now we see it with you
(38:25):
know the business uh connectoras well, which is which is great
because as you said, right, wehave to manage inventory, we
have to do things with on the onthe financial back end, all
these different components arereally exciting to see how the
product has evolved and how itwill continue to uh in you know
in the you know next year, theyear and you know, five years
(38:47):
down the road.
So super exciting.
I can't wait to see what you andthe team are gonna continue to
build.
As you know, I'm probably one ofyour biggest supporters, and uh
it's been great for uhobviously, you know, be part of
in some cases the privatepreviews, the test out, for
example, the whole you know,adding bookings to the to uh
Outlook calendar, which is wasfor me a game changer.
(39:10):
It's like yeah, you know, uh itwas one of those things I was
like, man, this is great.
Yeah, you know, never would havethought of it either.
But it was fantastic.
So, you know, really um, youknow, and I super, super love
talking to you and and happy tohave you on today.
And you know, we're gonna haveto bring you on like a panel,
(39:31):
maybe you, Gitler and and Cohen,and we'll just all we'll jam on
field service.
SPEAKER_01 (39:37):
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Thank you for for having me andthank you for kind of spending
time talking about this.
I think I'll kind of close byjust reinforcing the piece that
is most exciting to me about thework that we're doing in field
service right now is when wetalk to organizations about the
(39:58):
impact that AI could, uh,there's a lot of pockets where
people fear that AI could comefor their jobs.
But when we talk about it in thecontext of field service, people
are asking us for like more,faster, better, because they
really see the value that AIcould have to really just reduce
the amount of work thattechnicians need to do and
(40:20):
really get them back into whatthey love doing, which is
twisting those knobs andwhatnot.
So it's really not copilot, it'snot about replacing people, but
about amplifying them and uh somuch excitement uh in this
space.
I am super excited to continueto share some of that with you
all and keep an eye on what willkeep coming next.
(40:42):
Awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (40:43):
Thank you, Luis, for that.
And thank you for being uheveryone.
We appreciate you for listening.
And until next time, have agreat day.
Thanks, everyone.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening,
everyone.
This is Scott LaFonte, your hostfor the Service X Factor
Podcast.
Unfortunately, my co-host, WillMcClendon, is on assignment, aka
he's stuck in an airport.
So we're gonna do this onewithout him today.
And today we do have a veryspecial guest from Microsoft.
And I'm gonna let him introducehimself because he could do a
(01:01):
better job of it than I can.
But today we have LuisMessinieri.
Hey Luis, how are you, man?
SPEAKER_01 (01:08):
Hey Scott, it's good to be with you.
I'm doing well.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
Yep.
So so for those that don't knowwho you are, Luis, uh why don't
you tell us a little bit aboutuh what you do at Microsoft?
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
Sure.
Uh so I'm a group productmanager in the Dynamics 365
Field Service Team.
Uh and my team and my area Ilook after is uh the easiest way
of explaining to people iseverything but scheduling.
And so all things related tolike their frontline worker
experience, the mobile app, uh,all the way through like the
(01:41):
back office uh service managers,how they use a product to get
insights out of it and managework quarters, all the way
through like the IT teams thatconfigure the application to use
uh for their organizations.
SPEAKER_00 (01:54):
Awesome.
Awesome, that's great.
Yeah, and as you know, I asfolks may know, I've I've been
in the field service space forabout uh 14 years now, and and
I've known Luis actually forquite a few years now.
We've we've conversed on on theproduct and different things on
the roadmap and feedback.
So, you know, so I think youknow we have a a pretty good
(02:15):
relationship and and I don'tgive you a hard time, so that's
good.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Absolutely.
No, it's great to be with youand and kind of I don't want to
say the culmination, but uh astopping point along our uh
journey to just do thistogether.
So uh I'm excited to be herewith you.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
It's been a long time coming.
I've had on you know Jason Cohenand Dan Gittler before, who I
gotta get back on since he's inhis new role and and it's been
quite some time.
So, but yeah, definitely uhhappy to have you on today.
It's like I said, been a longtime coming.
So um, you know, I think for ourlisteners' perspective, Luis, I
mean, uh talking about yourpersonal journey, I mean, what
(02:54):
you know, what drew you uh tofield service, or is it just one
of those things where it's like,all right, you know, I I you
know got this job and and I'massigned field service and let
me do my thing.
And I mean, how how did you getstarted in field service?
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
Yeah, great uh question.
And uh the answer is somewherein between.
Uh so yeah I have always beendrawn to work that uh really set
the intersection of liketechnology with uh real world
impact.
And I think field service is agreat example of that.
It's really where it's asoftware where it meets people
(03:31):
where they are, and really justbeing having the ability to just
have great service that we canprovide and great customer
experiences to create brandbrand loyalty is something that
I I find pretty uh energizing.
So uh it was both an opportunitythat I came up, I didn't know
how much I was gonna enjoy thework because of the impact that
(03:53):
I get to see the in and the out.
And so it's been a really funjourney to just uh help build
this product and evolve it.
That's great.
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
Yeah, I I always can relate to, I think when I got
involved in field service, uhone, I didn't I didn't know
anything about it except youknow the way it was explained to
me, of course, and the way Irelated to it, and what got me
excited was like, oh I could Icould explain it from right
yours and I and my personalexperience, like if we have a
technician come out to our houseto fix something, right?
(04:26):
And so it becomes very relatableto people like, oh, okay, now I
get it.
And then we talk about thedifferent industries, of course,
that that are applicable tofield service, and you know,
we'll get into that and and someof the different uh different uh
industries that have used it andand what you've seen over the
(04:46):
years or heard over the years.
So kind of piggying back off ofthat, I mean, what's what would
you say is the most rewardingpart of your role at Microsoft
and you know what really getsyou excited to come to work
every day?
SPEAKER_01 (05:00):
Yeah, you know, I would say that at Microsoft at
large, it's really the scalethat that we have as a company
and and the ability to see theimpact, not just in a small
pocket in uh Seattle orCalifornia, uh, but really just
throughout the world.
Uh, we have customers that arespread uh all the way from South
(05:22):
America to Asia to Europe to theUnited States, and really being
able to see how this productjust crossed geo boundaries and
has an impact uh everywhere inevery corner of the world is
just uh fascinating.
And so I I appreciate the scaleof the work.
I think the other part of it,particularly now in the AI era,
(05:47):
is really having the scale ofMicrosoft.
Also gives you access to uh thelatest and greatest AI tools and
really the capabilities toreally build on what's next.
So having so much access reallycreates an exciting opportunity
to be able to build the bestproduct out there.
SPEAKER_00 (06:08):
Yep.
And that's great.
And we've you know we're seeinga lot more of that AI
capabilities, and and you know,I'm gonna ask you some questions
about AI, of course, later.
But you know, in terms of withinthe the product stack, we're
seeing the you know copilot forfield service, you know, and
being able to use some of thatco-pilot, at least from a
(06:28):
summary perspective, and askingsome things on the mobile, and
of course, not that you doscheduling, but now we're seeing
that you know some of thatwithin the scheduling area as
well.
So there's been a lot ofevolution and a lot of emphasis
on AI, probably not just atMicrosoft, but really, I mean,
if you look at it even just froma you know M365 co-pilot, you
(06:50):
know, and then you got the chatGPTs, the clouds, and probably
uh a whole bunch of tools thatI'm not even aware of, but you
know, I use several because someare some are good for certain
things and some are better forothers, but I really impressed
really impressed with what hasbeen going on within the D365
stack from uh um an AIperspective.
(07:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:11):
And I'll add, you know, on top of the Microsoft
scale of the impact, I think thethe most rewarding part of the
job obviously is being able tojust deliver capabilities to
customers and to organizationsand just seeing their eyes light
up when we're able to solve abusiness challenge that they've
(07:32):
had.
So whether it's a customertelling me that they've seen the
highest level of productivitiesever for their technicians
because of how they'veimplemented field service and
they've been able to justoptimize the workflows to
people's reactions to seeingsome of the future of field
service and some of those AIcapabilities that really put
technicians back into the fieldand outside of just dealing with
(07:55):
a mobile app, uh, those are veryrewarding moments that really
make all the hard work uh feellike it it matters and it pays
off.
SPEAKER_00 (08:05):
Yeah, no, that's that's uh spot on because I've
I've you know, and I'm sureyou've you've heard obviously
the success stories that youjust talked about, you know,
some of those where you knowcustomers are getting really
excited and they're reallyseeing the ROI of field service.
And then on the flip side, I'veseen some customers struggle
because maybe they don't have aclear objective or roadmap, or
(08:28):
maybe they don't have the rightpartner engaged.
I I've seen it, you know,anywhere in between those as
well.
And and it's heartbreakingbecause you know they get
frustrated because they thinkit's the product that that isn't
suitable for them, when inreality it's it's probably the
exact opposite.
It's not that the product can'tdo it, it's just that either
(08:51):
expectations aren't setappropriately, or you don't have
the right goals and objectivebetween, or you've gone you
know, completely custom insteadof understanding what the tool
can do for you out of the box,and then sort of doing the
building blocks on top of that.
And so that was one of thethings that I focused on.
(09:11):
And I think Jason Cohen came tomy session uh last week at
Summit, where I really talkedabout tips and tricks and and
things that have causedimplementation failures and and
what you can really do to avoidthose.
So it was a really great sessionand and happy to see uh, of
course, my my good friend Jasonthere.
But yeah, I I mean it's it'sjust one of those things that to
(09:33):
your point though, when when acustomer is is doing really
well, it's it's super excitingand really gets you uh juiced up
to continue going along thefield service journey.
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
What I see as kind of the differentiating factor
between those kind of successfulimplementations and those
customers that struggle attimes.
And I talk to customers veryopenly about this when we do uh
executive briefings or or salespitches or whatnot, is really
the change management piece.
Uh, I think to your point, I seea lot of customers just kind of
(10:08):
say, I want to lift and shift,have been doing things for 30
years into this new product, andI expect it to work exactly the
same way, but they're notwilling to put in the work to
just reassess why some of thoseprocesses are done the way that
they were pre-AI,pre-technology, pre-internet.
And it just not a one-to-oneshift.
(10:30):
So having the open mind of weneed to rethink why things were
done a certain way and justreally try to see what was the
outcome that you were trying toaccomplish, and then figure out
how do you evolve it to a newway of doing things, is how I
see success happens.
And the other part of changemanagement.
So that's that's one part of it.
(10:52):
The other part of the changemanagement is really just the
rollout and really dealing withpeople in the organization,
right?
If they've had been used todoing things a certain way for
10 years, and all of a suddenyou put a new tool in front of
them without any training,without any guidance, without
any change management, of coursethey're gonna struggle.
Of course, they're gonna resistthe change.
(11:12):
So putting proper changemanagement really just makes a
huge difference in whetherpeople accept the tools or it
ends up being a failedimplementation.
SPEAKER_00 (11:23):
Yep.
No, that's spot on.
And that was definitely one ofthe things, and I'm glad you
brought it up, one of the thingsthat we discussed last week, and
one of the things that really isdiscussed you know on field
service projects, but you know,really every project needs to
have change management.
Because to your point, withoutit, you know, projects fail,
right?
Right.
And and it's probably one of thebiggest reasons why projects
(11:45):
fail is lack of of proper changemanagement.
So uh definitely glad you youbrought that up.
So let's let's talk about um youknow what what do you feel or or
you know for folks is you knowwhat is what is the core mission
of your team?
And you know, what do you whatis the team trying to really
(12:06):
accomplish for the field serviceorganizations that are out
there, especially now in the inthe evolution of AI.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (12:15):
You know, at the core of it, our mission is
really to empower organizationsto deliver exceptional service.
And so that means getting theright technician with the right
skills at the right time withthe right data to really fix
things.
And uh historically, this hasbeen focused a lot around like
just optimizing operations, sowhether it's scheduling,
(12:37):
dispatching, work ordermanagement.
But as we look forward to thefuture, our mission has really
transformed to be one ofbuilding the best AI-first tool
for field service organizations.
So we're able to transform thoseorganizations from just a
service engine to a growthengine for organizing for their
(12:58):
companies.
So the introduction ofpredictive maintenance, the
introduction of like AI powercapabilities and a deeply
connected customer experience isreally how we see the future of
field service and how we'll beable to differentiate ourselves
from our competitors and howwe'll be able to help
organizations transformthemselves uh into a future.
SPEAKER_00 (13:20):
Yeah, that's that's awesome because you know, I
think it goes into one of thequestions I was going to ask,
and I think you spot on is youknow, how has that mission and
solving problems today differfrom three to four years ago?
Um, and you know, and I knowthree or four years ago probably
everyone was yeah, you know,knew that AI was coming.
(13:42):
It just was a matter of of whenand then how quickly it would
evolve.
And so we're seeing thatinnovation.
I mean, even you know, heardabout it last week from there
was a lot of Microsoft folks atuh Summit.
And then of course this week atPower Platform Community
Conference, uh there was a lotof uh excitement and discussions
(14:05):
around AI and a lot of theproduct evolution that has just
either recently come out or iscoming out in the next release,
and the different things from aroadmap perspective.
So it's really gettingorganizations uh really excited
about what is coming and howMicrosoft is evolving and
(14:27):
becoming, or it is or becomingit depends on how you look at it
and who looks at it, uh, aleader in this space.
SPEAKER_01 (14:36):
Yeah, so one of the funny anecdotes a year to this
date.
So we have those customer advicereports that we bring uh top
customers are using the producttwice a year, one time in North
America, one time in theEuropean area.
And a year to this date, we werein the European CAB, and
customers did not want to talkabout AI, like they were kind of
(15:00):
coming at us, they're like, Idon't want to talk about AI, I
want to talk about like thisspecific feature, this specific
bug in the product that is notworking.
Like, when are you gonna fixthat?
And it's so interesting to seehow much a difference a year
makes.
Because like this year, I justcame back from being with some
of our customers in Ireland, andthe conversation on the tone had
(15:23):
completely shifted.
Customers were excited, bringingup ideas before we even talked
about AI on how they're thinkingwithin the organizations, how AI
can help them with their fieldservice departments and
operations.
And it's just really eye-openingto see how much of a difference
a year made, let alone threeyears to your point, on what we
were doing three years ago withfield service to kind of where
(15:45):
we are now.
And so it's just really excitingto see what where the market is
at, where customers are at, andkind of where we go from here.
SPEAKER_00 (15:56):
Yeah, no, and and that's also uh fantastic because
I've I've seen a lot of the samething where dealing with
customers last year that were uhhesitant to go into the AI
space, you know, for a bunch ofdifferent reasons, right?
Securities, privacy of data, allthese different things.
And even though you can talkabout you know what Microsoft
(16:20):
does to keep you know your datauh private and secure,
especially within uh you knowMicrosoft D365 and how it
utilizes the whole securitymodel of D365, there's there was
still that doubt.
And then this year thatconversation has shifted to say,
hey, we want to use AI, and andnow it's not even just did the
(16:44):
co-pilots within D365, it's now,hey, how can we use you know
Copilot Studio?
How can we use Azure Open AI?
How can we use all thesedifferent tools to really uh
solve some of these and thesemundane or do these mundane
tasks or ask these questions sothat we can save our people time
(17:06):
and focus on you know the itemsthat truly matter?
SPEAKER_01 (17:10):
Yeah, and I think this goes back to the point that
we were making previously aroundchange management.
At the core of it, I think it'severybody a year and a half, a
year ago, had just fears of kindof AI coming for their jobs or
or just really not understandingwhat AI could do for them.
And I feel like as people havegotten more familiar with their
(17:32):
own personal experience with AI,whether it's using Cloud,
ChatGPT, M365, Copilot, theyhave kind of seen the value of
what it can do for them.
And I think it makes it a littlebit easier for them to digest.
Well, if this can do this forme, I can only imagine what it
can do for our organization atscale.
So I think that that's part ofthat internal change management
(17:54):
for people to really just getmore comfortable with the tools
themselves and therefore be morecomfortable with thinking of the
use cases and the adaptabilityof that for their organizations.
SPEAKER_00 (18:06):
Yep.
Spot on.
And you know, speaking about AI,I mean, in in your opinion, you
know, how is AI transformingfield service and you know what
AI capabilities are are you andyour team really you know super
excited about?
SPEAKER_01 (18:23):
Yeah, so when it comes to field service, I think
there's a couple different uhways that I think about how AI
is transforming theorganizations and the product.
Um the first one is reallyhelping organizations move from
(18:44):
reactive to proactive servicing.
So instead of asking whathappened, being able to ask what
will likely happen next.
Uh, those are just reallypowerful moments in in the
experience for organizations toreally just be able to move from
one of the uh from the old wayof doing things to a new way of
doing things.
(19:05):
I think as it comes to theproduct, it's the part where I
see AI really transforming theproduct the most, I think in in
two areas.
One of them is obviously acrossour scheduling area.
Um, as you pointed out earlier,like that's not my core area of
focus for the product, but Istill represent the overall
(19:25):
portfolio.
And we're seeing some greatsuccess and adoption with our
scheduling optimization agent,which is out in the market, and
uh just being able to justoptimize how technicians are
routed to their next jobs andkind of handling exceptions and
things like that.
So that is a pretty excitingpart of it.
The other part of that is reallyjust for the technicians
(19:48):
themselves, and really our goalhas really evolved in a very
non-intuitive way, I guess, toget technicians out of the app.
So we want technicians using theapp the least amount possible,
because what we hear time andtime again when we talk to
(20:10):
technicians and organizations isthat what people enjoy the most
about their jobs is actuallydoing whatever their core skill
set is.
So whether it is installing anew pipeline or uh fixing an
HVAC, they just want to betwisting bolts and changing
pipes.
They don't want to be spendingtime wrestling with technology.
(20:32):
And so historically, a lot ofour products in the field
service market have been allabout like tap, tap, tap, uh
getting into the app, capturingdata for the organization.
And really, AI is providing anew way for us to think about
how do we do all of that fasterand in a way that really allows
(20:54):
the technician to spend lesstime inputting data or searching
for data and really spendingmore time doing their jobs.
And so I'm pretty excited aboutwhere that is going and kind of
what we'll see in the next yearuh in field service uh for
technicians.
SPEAKER_00 (21:13):
That's awesome.
And and have you seen that interms of, you know, speaking of
technicians, you know, we've allheard about the uh shortages and
skill gaps, and they they calledit for years the silver tsunami
and and was really uhexasperated by of course the the
pandemic.
Um you know, has that influencedin any way the product
development uh on the on themobile side?
SPEAKER_01 (21:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we have been hearing aboutthis for for a while to your
point, and there's kind of liketwo ways in which we have been
trying to work withorganizations to help them deal
with this.
Uh the first one is as far as AIgoes, uh being able to uh work
(21:58):
and bring to market capabilitiesto help people just find find
information faster.
So through Copilot Studio andM365, Copilot, uh being able to
use parse, a library of uh PDFdocuments, and being able to
find the answers to questionsfaster that really helps new
younger technicians uh on boardwithout having to have all that
(22:21):
knowledge given to them beforethey go to the first job.
The second one is uh the remoteassist capabilities in the
product.
Uh so really having not havingto have a ton of technicians
with all the knowledge outthere, but instead had a handful
of them available.
And those newer technicians thatdon't know everything, when they
(22:44):
get stuck in a job, they canremotely call that expert and
just get their guidance and thenthey learn from that.
And so that is another way thatwe have kind of evolved the
product to help address some ofthat.
And then the third part of itthat we hear very often is
organizations also moving to usemore subcontractors to really
address that shortage.
And so we have been investing inthe product and making dealing
(23:08):
with subcontractors in fieldservice uh easier, whether it's
the launch of a reduced priceskew for subcontractors or some
capabilities within the productto like help them onboard faster
and work in the product easier.
And that's another way thatwe're helping organizations just
really deal with the shortage ofstaff.
SPEAKER_00 (23:29):
Yeah, no, that's great because you know I hear it
time and time again withimplements as well, uh, where
they're they're struggling orthey're using, to your point,
those subcontractors.
And um, you know, now of course,with as you said, the ability to
have a sub subcontractor SKU, Ithink uh alleviating some of
(23:50):
those barriers to entry fororganizations that say, do I
really want to pay for a licensefor a subcontractor, or do I
want them to use a portal, whichof course then has limited
capabilities and presents itsown challenges, right?
So I think that's really openpeople's eyes and it probably
(24:12):
just also changed a little bitof their expectations around
their experience with fieldservice.
SPEAKER_01 (24:19):
Yeah, and without giving too much away, I think
this is an area where we'regonna continue to like double
down uh helping managesubcontractors and the work uh
collaboration between these twoorganizations.
And so you will see some more ofthose workflows light up in
field service in the comingmonths and years.
So uh look forward, keep an eyeon that.
SPEAKER_00 (24:40):
Yeah, no, I definitely look, you know, as
you know, I spend uh most of mytime in field service, so
definitely looking forward toseeing what comes uh comes next
in the in the next uh years tocome.
Um if we turn our our sites intosay, you know, you know, the
product team in terms ofinsights, I mean, what has been
(25:03):
the most challenging aspect ofof building uh a field service
software?
And you know, of course, in youropinion, uh, you know, what have
what have been some of thosethings that have really just
been like, man, this is this isthis is a challenge that of
course you're willing toovercome, but it's been really
um a little bit difficult orchallenging at at certain times.
SPEAKER_01 (25:25):
How long do I have?
I probably have a long list ofof challenges that I can go
through.
I would start by saying uh atthe core of it for us as a
product team is really balancingthe complexity of the domain
with the simplicity of theexperience.
So field service goes all theway from scheduling to
(25:49):
warranties, dealing withcontracts, assets, the mobility
of technicians.
And our job at the core of it isto really hide that complexity
and build intuitive workflowsfor the organizations to really
get their job done.
Now that said, it's easier saidthan done.
So for it to feel thateffortless, it really requires a
(26:13):
lot of work on our end to justabstract all of that complexity.
And on top of that, because weare building ultimately a a more
flexible platform for customersto really solve their business
challenges, it creates anotherlayer of complexity for us
(26:36):
because every customer isslightly different.
Every industry where fuelservices use is slightly
different.
And so creating somethinggeneric that works across the
board is very challenging.
And that's where partners likeyourself and our partner
community really come in to justreally help with that last mile
(26:58):
of the implementation to reallymake it look and feel exactly
like it needs to be for thatorganization.
So if you take the product outof the box, it's probably gonna
get you like 90% there.
There's still like 10-15% thatneeds to be done to be tweaked
to get it to your needs andliking.
(27:18):
The third area is the fact thatfield service itself sits
somewhere between CRM and theERP.
And so being having to talk toso many systems to just keep
track of your inventory, to keeptrack of your technicians'
hours, to keep track of thecustomers themselves and the
(27:39):
relationships and the churn andthe lifetime value of customers,
having to just sit at theintersection of those two
systems creates another layer ofcomplexity because we can't
foresee where all this data isgoing to come from and how it's
gonna be used by organizations.
And this is again where thepartner community really helps
(28:00):
us uh get that implementationright for their customers.
And so those are some of thebiggest challenges that I've
seen over the years in buildingthe successful field service
software.
Now, more recently, althoughmore internal facing, let's say,
the AI revolution that we'regoing uh also poses a new set of
(28:24):
challenges, in which, to yourpoint, part of it is just
getting customers to understandwhy AI is important and how it's
gonna help their business.
Uh, but the other part of it iseverything is moving so fast and
so quickly that it's hard forourselves to really stay up to
date with the latest.
It's hard for our customers toadopt everything uh that we're
(28:46):
putting out because we're doingit so quickly.
So it it does create a new setof challenges, uh, that
everything is moving so fast.
Uh it's exciting, obviously, butalso I understand that for
customers receiving the end, uh,it can feel like a lot and that
sometimes they're missing someof the new things that are
happening just because of thevolume of things that are coming
(29:08):
out so quickly.
SPEAKER_00 (29:09):
Yeah, and and I gotta imagine that as you're as
you're building these new items,especially around AI, right?
It's kind of like technology inin general, right?
You you buy a laptop six monthslater, it's really outdated.
Right.
It's probably the same thingwith AI because it is evolving
so quickly that by the time yourelease some new features,
(29:32):
you're already you you alreadyhave to be thinking or at least
building all those upcomingfeatures as well, because
otherwise you're just gonna fallfall further and further behind.
So it's just like a catch 22.
It's just like it's a you know,constant, you know, hamster
wheel where you guys are, Iwould imagine, just churning and
(29:52):
just be like, okay, you know, wegot this out, but we're still
building for all these otherfeatures that just came out or
the new technology that makes itbetter, makes it faster and
smarter.
And uh, I can't even imagine howyou guys keep up.
I think you guys work 23 hours aday is what I think.
SPEAKER_01 (30:08):
Yeah, and you know, I would say on that point, it
that is also a reason forcustomers to buy the product or
a product as opposed to likebuild it themselves.
Because, like the moment thatyou are buying the platform and
and the SaaS, then you don'thave to worry about keeping up
(30:29):
with all of that because.
Like that becomes our job tojust like enhance those
capabilities with the latest anduh release those new
capabilities that you haven'tseen yet.
And if you are trying to justimplement a field service
software for your company, andon top of that, you feel like
you want to go out out of yourown to build your own AI
journey, then good luck withthat.
(30:51):
Because to your point, in three,by the time you're done even
speculat the V1 of your AIcapabilities, you're probably
gonna that the landscape wouldhave changed already, and you're
probably gonna have to likeevolve it again, right?
And so if you take a bet on aplatform like uh Microsoft and
Dynamics Physics, uh you reallyget all of that baked in and you
don't have to worry about that,but it's really about lighting
(31:12):
up those scenarios and we'llcontinue to evolve it for you
underneath the surface with thelatest and greatest.
SPEAKER_00 (31:18):
Exactly.
And like I've told customersbefore, I said, hey, if you need
to add in, like let's just sayyou have a a custom table,
right?
And and and we know this is youknow, in in certain co-pilots
within, you know, like let'sjust say co-pilot and sales and
and I'm sure eventually fieldservice, but in service, you can
(31:39):
add in those those custom tablesand start asking questions.
Um so and that's really youknow, to your point, I don't
have to do anything else.
I can just add knowledge um andstart asking questions, and
Microsoft does the rest.
Yeah.
You know, in your opinion, whatdoes field service look like,
(31:59):
say, in five years?
I mean, what do you think?
Is it going to be a ton of moreAI and autonomous agents within
there doing a lot of the heavylifting work, or is it going to
be something even different?
SPEAKER_01 (32:15):
Oh god, uh such a great question.
And I think if I had a magicbowl, then I probably would have
retired already.
Um but I would say that Idefinitely think in five years,
just seeing what has happenedjust in the past three, just
kind of predicting five yearsahead, we'll look back and
wonder how we ever work withoutthese AI agents.
(32:37):
I think for a field serviceit'll be it'll become fully
connected, a predictivepredictive network where assets
signal their own needs to us,agents take the first action,
take the first step at it, andthe humans are really there to
handle the exceptions.
Now, I think that's true forlike kind of just getting the
(33:00):
work going.
I think for technicians, it'sgonna be probably the most
exciting time of their livesbecause they went from being
trademark and women that justknew how to do work really well
to like having all thispaperwork added on top of it for
themselves.
(33:20):
And I really think that AI isgonna help bring back that joy
of their day-to-day becausethey're not gonna be having to
deal with technology, buttechnology is really gonna
augment their work.
And so, whether it is throughhelping them find what they need
faster so they can get back in,uh having access to knowledge
that they didn't even know theyneeded or they had access to in
(33:42):
their pockets, or really again,just reducing that friction of
them having to be in theapplication to capture the work
that they've done by just havingcopilot and mixed reality, uh
really help them just capturethings as they go along, right?
So I think as I think aboutthose emerging technologies, it
(34:02):
seems like the pendulum keepsswinging back and forward with
like mixed reality, uh, but Ireally see that as a game
changer for the field servicespace.
And if we could get some ofthose like glasses where
technicians we can just beseeing what technicians are
doing and they can ask questionsabout what they're seeing, oh my
(34:23):
gosh, that that is gonna reallychange the game.
Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (34:27):
Yeah, and and I'm hoping too that a lot more
organizations, and I'm seeing ita little uh get more to that, as
you said earlier, right?
The predictive maintenance orand even prescriptive
maintenance, right?
We see, of course, organizationsstill use an agreement, and I I
love agreement.
Um, and that's you know, alittle bit of being proactive,
(34:49):
um, but really getting to thatto your point, like, hey, you
know, using AI to say, yeah,great, you're fixing this, but
based on what we're seeing, andbased on maybe even uh assets
within this particular category,here's what we're seeing, and
here's what we'd recommend.
Um, I think that's wherehopefully as well, I'm keeping
(35:09):
my fingers crossed thatorganizations start um really,
you know, use uh the technologyuh to do that as well.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
Yeah, and again, without saying too much, you'll
have to keep an eye uh to seewhat comes in the product, uh
definitely an investment andfocus for for the team.
SPEAKER_00 (35:28):
Awesome.
And then you know, one lastquestion, uh Luis, because I
know we're getting to the to theend of our time here.
I mean, from a releaseperspective, and I know we're in
in the uh we're getting towardsthe the tail end.
Well, no, I guess we're kind ofin the uh of the release.
I mean, what are some things uhif if folks haven't read the
release notes, you know, whatare some things that are that
(35:50):
are in this release or even theupcoming release if if it's uh
that they should keep their eyeout, their eye on for?
SPEAKER_01 (35:59):
So there's definitely a bunch of
improvements across our um AIstack.
So whether it is in the FieldService Web, the ability to not
customize the copilot side uh inco-pilot studio so that you can
add custom knowledge extrainformation, uh, that will
definitely have an impact forlike the service managers and
the back-end persona using theproduct.
(36:22):
So that's a pretty exciting partof the release.
The other piece of it is uh oneof the number one pieces of
feedback that we have gotten foryears has been the ability for
the fuel service bookings tosync for technicians into their
calendars in Outlook and Teamsso they can see both their
bookings and their M365 calendartogether.
(36:45):
And so, like we just launchedthe capability uh in the product
to do just that and uhconfiguring that and taking
advantage of that uh exciting.
Um, we continue to makeimprovement in our scheduling
engine as well.
So, improvements on just to uhschedule optimization agent that
we just launched, but also theschedule board itself.
There's a bunch of paper cutsthat we have been really
(37:07):
listening to that feedback andadded to uh for new capabilities
that just really make thequality of life of schedulers
better, whether it is being ableto just share like a uh or just
save that URL and it deeply goesto like where you where you were
at, uh, or just seeing the timescales in the schedule board.
There's a lot of really smallthings that like are sometimes
(37:30):
invisible, but like when you runinto them, I I'm excited about
some of that as well.
And then like there's alwaysthat invisible work that happens
behind the scenes that is justhard to quantify, hard to talk
about.
But uh the team really spends alot of time uh fixing that, but
also you're strengthening theproduct so that your data stays
(37:51):
secure, the product stays up uhso that you don't have to worry
about those things.
You don't have to worry aboutlike outages and things like
that.
Uh security and fundamentals arereally a core priority for our
product, have been and continueto be.
SPEAKER_00 (38:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And and to your point, I mean,I've seen it evolve uh over the
years in terms of even just thatcapability to, as you said
earlier, right?
It you know, it's kind of kindof sits between CRM and ERP and
really having that you knowtightly knit integration.
You know, we've seen it withFNO, but now we see it with you
(38:25):
know the business uh connectoras well, which is which is great
because as you said, right, wehave to manage inventory, we
have to do things with on the onthe financial back end, all
these different components arereally exciting to see how the
product has evolved and how itwill continue to uh in you know
in the you know next year, theyear and you know, five years
(38:47):
down the road.
So super exciting.
I can't wait to see what you andthe team are gonna continue to
build.
As you know, I'm probably one ofyour biggest supporters, and uh
it's been great for uhobviously, you know, be part of
in some cases the privatepreviews, the test out, for
example, the whole you know,adding bookings to the to uh
Outlook calendar, which is wasfor me a game changer.
(39:10):
It's like yeah, you know, uh itwas one of those things I was
like, man, this is great.
Yeah, you know, never would havethought of it either.
But it was fantastic.
So, you know, really um, youknow, and I super, super love
talking to you and and happy tohave you on today.
And you know, we're gonna haveto bring you on like a panel,
(39:31):
maybe you, Gitler and and Cohen,and we'll just all we'll jam on
field service.
SPEAKER_01 (39:37):
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Thank you for for having me andthank you for kind of spending
time talking about this.
I think I'll kind of close byjust reinforcing the piece that
is most exciting to me about thework that we're doing in field
service right now is when wetalk to organizations about the
(39:58):
impact that AI could, uh,there's a lot of pockets where
people fear that AI could comefor their jobs.
But when we talk about it in thecontext of field service, people
are asking us for like more,faster, better, because they
really see the value that AIcould have to really just reduce
the amount of work thattechnicians need to do and
(40:20):
really get them back into whatthey love doing, which is
twisting those knobs andwhatnot.
So it's really not copilot, it'snot about replacing people, but
about amplifying them and uh somuch excitement uh in this
space.
I am super excited to continueto share some of that with you
all and keep an eye on what willkeep coming next.
(40:42):
Awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (40:43):
Thank you, Luis, for that.
And thank you for being uheveryone.
We appreciate you for listening.
And until next time, have agreat day.
Thanks, everyone.
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