Service Council inService™ Podcast Series

The 2024 Service Leader’s Agenda revealed that 72% of service leaders are prioritizing new technology investments. Many of the technology priorities are signaling a renewed attention towards workforce productivity, first-time fix rates and throughput. However, as customer expectations reach all-time highs, more organizations lean on extended networks to achieve efficiency gains. It is critical that they do so in a way that balances efficiency with quality. To find this balance, many service leaders are turning to automation to do things well, while also doing them quickly.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, March 21st at 12PM ET as host John Carroll welcomes guest Thomas Thullier, General Manager North America for Deepomatic. Thomas will talk about how service leaders are automizing quality control through AI and computer vision to drive consistency and value across their entire network.

Thomas Thuillier is the General Manager North America and an officer of Deepomatic. As one of Deepomatic’s first employees, he has been working very closely with the founding team on their global strategy and on the focus on the field service industry. With responsibility over the US and Canadian markets, Thomas has contributed to positioning Deepomatic as a global leader of the First Time Right movement and a trusted supplier in the Telecom industry.

Thomas holds a MSc. in Corporate Finance and Political Science from the prestigious Sciences Po institute in Paris. Prior to joining Deepomatic, he worked in finance and logistics for a beverage distribution and manufacturing company in D.C. and New York.

Year-over-year, field service management (FSM) software remains a top technology investment for service leaders. In 2024, nearly 40% of service executives say they will be investing in field service management (FSM) technology, according to the Service Leader’s Agenda survey. In fact, FSM remains one of the top investments year-over-year. Interestingly, many of these plans are for expanded, not new, investments. This signals that service leaders have yet to fully unlock the power of their tech stack.
Prateek Chakravarty, CEO of Zinier, stops by the podcast studio to discuss how he is seeing organizations tailor their tech stack to fit the nuances of their business requirements, while delivering value to every stakeholder. He’ll also touch on his own rise from field service engineer, working in the oil fields of Siberia, to CEO of a company that is making big waves in field service.
Prateek Chakravarty is the CEO at Zinier, a field service automation platform designed to help service organizations install and maintain their assets in the field. Prior to joining Zinier in 2020, Prateek was a part of the founding team at Bidgely, a Khosla Ventures-funded software company providing AI-driven customer and grid analytics to electric and gas utilities across the world. He started his career in infrastructure-related industries first as an operator and then as an investor. He was a field operations engineer with Schlumberger working in Indonesia, France and Russia. He was also a part of a corporate venture fund for Pacific Gas & Electric and invested in rooftop solar companies such as SolarCity and Sunrun.

In the 2023 Voice of the Field Service Engineer, 45% of frontline technicians said they either didn’t plan on being a tech for the duration of their career, or they weren’t sure. While we can attribute some of that trend to disengagement, there are many others that have ambitions to rise in the ranks and become the service leaders of the future. How can the service leaders of today inspire and empower their frontline to have a real impact?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, January 4th at 12PM ET, as Gyner Ozgul, former President and COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions and current CEO of Perimeter Roofing, shares his story—from a liberal arts background to an impactful service leader, and discuss what’s next for his career. Gyner will also touch on the critical factors as you grow your teams, train the next generation of service leaders, and create a succession plan for your transition.

With a passion for building successful teams and creating positive experiences, Gyner has achieved significant success and growth in his career by empowering teams to succeed. He has over 25 years of experience spanning service, technology, and supply chain roles. Gyner has served in various leadership roles, including 13 years at Ecolab and 7 years at Smart Care Equipment Solutions. He is currently the CEO of Perimeter Roofing.

Future-proofing supply chains remain a top objective in 2024. How can service leaders predict and proactively plan against customer demands? How do they navigate new asset complexity while supporting aging machines? What strategies can they implement today to optimize parts sourcing and service calls? These are the tough questions service leaders will need to answer if they want to build an agile supply chain.

On this episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Lance Johnson, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Baxter Planning. Lance will offer derisking tactics and demand shaping strategies to help service leaders future-proof their supply chain in 2024 and beyond.

In his role at Baxter Planning, Lance Johnson is a strategic partner for customers, working to tackle complex challenges and accelerate the transformation of their Service Supply Chains through deep domain expertise and technology. Lance brings more than 25 years of experience in Aftermarket Service Support to the role. He started his career at Hughes Aircraft Company as a member of their technical staff, where he quickly found his passion in Total Quality Management.

Lance’s experience includes leadership roles at the Exabyte Corporation, where he was responsible for the Services Repair Organization. Subsequently, he joined Sun Microsystems where he served as the Global Supply Chain Planning Director and ran global planning activities, led process and systems improvements in various Global Supply Chain initiatives, and drove significant process efficiencies using Six Sigma and other tools. Lance earned his degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Pacific.

In recent years, service organizations have ramped up investment into AI and other analytics tools, gaining greater visibility into field data than ever before. However, when it comes to data, knowing is only half the battle. How can service leaders use the data they’re getting to identify, enact and reinforce change within their organization?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live as host Jaclyn Cooksey is joined by Juan Cruz, Director of Service Operations NA for Haemonetics. They’ll discuss a critical challenge among service leaders: using data to enact change within their service organizations.

Juan Cruz currently serves as the Director, Service Operations NA for Haemonetics. Before this, he was the Senior Manager for National Field Services for Fresenius Medical Care, the largest hemodialysis company in the world. He has over 23 years in the medical device industry with several medical device companies. Juan has held various roles in his career while in the medical device space, with the last 17 years specifically in the field service profession.

The 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda found that the two biggest challenges service leaders face in 2023 are the workforce and talent shortage and the lack of resources to support service demand. The industry is at a tipping point when it comes to service delivery. More and more, customers are demanding the ability to self-service when possible, and overstretched organizations are realizing it is the best path forward.

Join the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live as Jean-Thomas Célette, CEO of Coresystems, stops by the studio. He’ll discuss how AI is helping organizations combat knowledge attrition and gain additional insights into the service process, starting with self-service. He’ll also discuss innovative – yet practical – ways AI is transforming the service journey, including predicting root causes, standardizing documentation, and more.

Jean-Thomas (JT) Célette is the CEO of Coresystems and his mission is to bring Service Management into the era of Artificial Intelligence. With a focus to continuously improve the end customer’s service experience by fixing their issues faster, he also addresses the industry’s most pressing problems: scarcity of talent, knowledge attrition caused by aging workforce, operational efficiency and sustainability.

Prior to taking the helm at Coresystems, his career has centered around bringing new technologies to work to increase efficiency, market access and safety. He has helped large corporations plan and execute their digital transformations, managed a drone manufacturer to successfully transform industries such as agriculture, mining and civil engineering, and most recently worked for Google.

According to the 2023 Voice of the Field Service Engineer survey, “being tracked and traced by GPS or other means,” is now the second least favorite part of a field service engineer’s job, rising from #7 among frontline workers to #2 in only a year. However, location tracking is an inevitable reality that plays a key role in the customer experience. So how do service leaders find a balance?

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast, host John Carroll is joined by Chris Ruff, CEO of Glympse. Chris talks about why he thinks we’re seeing a rise in employee frustration with tracking, common missteps when introducing these technologies, and how he is seeing organizations achieve successful buy-in.

Chris is CEO of Glympse, a geo-location technology company focused on improving communication, customer service and last-mile commerce using the powerful context of location. His technology leadership experience spans over 25 years in the software, mobile and IoT industries focused in the areas of management, business development, marketing, operations and finance. He has operational experience defining corporate strategy, developing business plans, and raising over $50 million in venture capital and debt needed to create successful high growth technology companies. A recognized leader in the IoT, Connected Car, Hospitality, Cruise, Retail, eCommerce and Gig Economy technologies industries, he has spoken on NPR and at top industry events like CTIA, HITEC, TU Automotive, Consumer Telematics Show, Satellite, Pacific Crest Emerging Technology Summit, App Summit and many more.

As organizations begin to strengthen their self-service and remote service offerings, the topic of content has become front of mind. How do they find it, create it and make it accessible to both employees and customers in a way that enhances the service experience?

On this episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Sam Waicberg, President and Co-Founder of CareAR. Sam stops by the studio to talk about how instructional guidance is changing the way organizations think about information platforms. He’ll discuss how it is being applied in both traditional and non-traditional field service settings, and dive into some intriguing use cases.

Sam Waicberg is the President of CareAR Holdings, a Xerox and ServiceNow supported company. CareAR is an AR/AI powered enterprise visual support platform that makes expertise accessible instantly for customers, employees, and field workers. As the Service Experience Management (SXM) leader, CareAR specializes in bringing the service experience and customer experience together in a seamless digital workflow. Prior to this role, Sam was the General Manager of Xerox Digital Services, a Xerox Business Unit focused on digital transformation by way of automation, efficiency, and innovation for its customers, and solutions. Additionally, Sam joined Xerox via the acquisition of CareAR Inc., where he was the Co-Founder and CEO. Sam is a veteran of the communications software industry and is passionate about creating solutions that disrupt industries, transform work functions, and improve the quality of our daily lives.

How companies are collecting and utilizing field service data can be the differentiator between average performers and best-in-class organizations. However, knowing where to start, what to focus on, and how to avoid complicating the process, can feel overwhelming.

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, Thomas Maiello, PMP, Varian’s Director of New Product Introduction, stops by the studio for a tactical discussion on how organizations can use data to drive improved serviceability, with real-life examples. An expert in the service industry, Tom is adept at developing strategic, data-driven programs that not only increase service profitability but customer satisfaction as well.

Tom Maiello has 20+ years of hands-on experience in new product introduction, global technical and product support, field service management and improvement strategies, and services technologies. He is currently the Director of New Product Introduction at Varian Medical Systems (a Siemens Healthineers company). In this role, he manages global product introductions to ensure early and fast market adoption of new products.

Before joining Varian, Tom managed global support teams at Morpho Detection, Smiths Detection, and KLA. At Morpho Detection Tom initiated and deployed the first secure remote access to installed capital equipment in the highly regulated aviation security space. Previously, Tom was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and earned a commission in the U.S. Army. Tom holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, an MS from University of Southern California, and a BA from State University of New York.

Reactive, cost-based service is no longer a feasible business model. However, according to the 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda, a third of service organizations anticipate still being in this stage of maturity in the next year. For organizations to realize the full potential of their digital transformation and tap into new revenue streams, they must advance their service maturity.
On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast, host John Carroll is joined by IFS’s President and Chief Strategy Officer, Marne Martin. Marne will discuss what really holds organizations back from digital transformation and business process evolution, and how they can plot a course towards service monetization.
Marne Martin is President and Chief Strategy Officer at IFS. In her role, Marne’s focus is to continue to elevate the importance of service management and EAM as part of the overall IFS success story and create greater value for the IFS business and our customers. Previous to this position, Marne held the role of President for the IFS Service Management Business Unit, EAM & Global Industries. Well-respected in the field as a strategic businesswoman unafraid of embracing a challenge, she served as CEO at ServicePower Plc and WorkWave LLC both in the FSM software space and has driven previous IFS acquisitions including WorkWave, Clevest, Astea and more recently Ultimo.
Marne has won a number of awards including 2016 CEO Gamechanger of the Year (FSM) from ACQ 5 Global Awards and 2015 Field Service CEO of the Year from Executive Awards. She also features in the Software Report’s 2019 list of Top 50 SaaS CEOs. When not at work, Marne enjoys competing in dressage and is working to support girls and women pursuing STEM careers.

Once considered science fiction, technological innovations like augmented reality and artificial intelligence have exploded in popularity in recent years. The field service industry is no exception as organizations realize these technologies’ value in solving some of service leaders’ most pressing challenges. However, as organizations advance their digital maturity, how can they prevent gaps between these technologies and create a bridge between the digital and the physical environment?

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by SightCall’s CEO, Thomas Cottereau. They’ll offer some advice on how organizations can address disconnects in their digitization efforts, the evolution of customer relationships and the findings from Service Council’s recent parts management survey.

Thomas Cottereau is CEO and co-founder of SightCall. Under his leadership, SightCall has become the fastest-growing AR-powered visual assistance company in the world, with customers on all continents. Prior to launching SightCall, Thomas spent a decade in telecom where he became internationally recognized as one of the few internet protocol experts who participated in building the Internet infrastructure that we know and use intensively today. Recognized internationally for his work in telecom and innovation, Cottereau has been awarded the 2015 Dell Innovation Award, 2016 Comcast Innovation Award, 2017 Amdocs Innovation in Practice Award, 2017 Graham Bell Award and 2018 NTT Data Open Innovation San Francisco Award.

As workforce and talent shortages continue to challenge organizations, service leaders are placing more emphasis on training and upskilling employees to help mitigate the impact. Findings from the 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda found that 73% of service leaders report increased investment in training and employee development this year, compared to 2022 spending.

Tune into the inService™ Podcast Live as host John Carroll is joined by Josh Washburn, Global Technical Training Manager for Cummins Inc. They’ll discuss Cummins’ current technical training curriculum, including how they are managing the continued learning process, addressing employee engagement challenges, and empowering their frontline with necessary skills.

Josh began his career with Cummins as a diesel technician in 2000. In his current role as Global Technical Training Manager, Josh leads technical skill set development, training and curriculum. Josh has extensive experience in technical training, operations management and customer service.

The age-old battle of driving quality and scalability has forced difficult decisions in terms of when to allow for localization of strategy and approach vs. standardizing. We continue to monitor how leading organizations are establishing a balance between both while centralizing resources, technologies and tools which enable the achievement of best practices.
Tune into the inService™ Podcast Live as host John Carroll is joined by Joe Lang, Vice President, Service Technology & Innovation, at Comfort Systems USA. They’ll discuss how organizations like Comfort Systems are successfully balancing service quality and business growth.
Joe has been with Comfort Systems USA for over 15 years, where he currently serves as the Vice President of Service Technology and Innovation. His role is to provide service leadership to develop and grow the field organization while developing long-term, strategic goals and expectations for the corporation. Additionally, Joe specializes in financial and leadership training, and has a passion for coaching and helping people recognize, develop and leverage their skills and capabilities.

According to the Service Council’s 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda survey, service innovation remains a high priority for 2023 and beyond. However, as the economic climate remains unstable and fears of recession loom, service leaders are being asked to cut costs and reduce budgets, while still increasing revenue.

Tune into the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, as host John Carroll is joined by Lance Anderson, Vice President of Industrial Solutions for CareAR. They discuss what organizations can focus on to not only drive value and innovation in the future, but deliver near-term results as well.

An industry-leading voice in the field of augmented reality (AR) deployment and strategy, Lance joined CareAR in February of 2022. Prior to joining CareAR, he was CEO and founder of Lance-AR, a consulting firm specializing in augmented reality (AR) strategy, providing enterprise clients with an action plan for AR Deployment. Lance holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Service leaders are turning their focus to service operations performance management, service innovation and portfolio expansion in 2023. Visual and generative AI (artificial intelligence) is gaining a lot of traction as service leaders look to deliver the critical intelligence and information needed to achieve this.

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by David Troll, EVP and Chief Customer Officer, GM North America, and Ari Rosenstein, VP of Marketing, at TechSee. They’ll discuss how they’re seeing service executives evolve their technology strategy, as well as what the future holds for visual and generative AI.

David has 20+ years of experience leading enterprise growth and change initiatives, both as a consultant and operating executive. He was previously the VP for DISH Network’s OnTech division, SVP for Glympse, and an executive at field service leader TOA Technologies. David holds a BA from Lehigh University.

Ari leads the global marketing team at TechSee. He is a seasoned marketing executive with nearly two decades of experience in the SaaS enterprise market. Ari has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA from Reichman University in Israel.

Despite ongoing service supply chain challenges, research shows that supply chain continues to lack priority among technology and infrastructure investments. The importance of parts is critical to service execution, so why does it remain so tertiary? In the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Shannon Beecher, Vice President, Services Supply Chain at IBM. They’ll discuss how organizations like IBM are building a resilient supply chain through automation, optimization and leveraging salvage to augment shortages.

With over 40 years of experience leading various functions in Supply Chain, Shannon is currently the Vice President of the Service Supply Chain Operation at IBM. She is responsible for strategy and global business execution, contributing to the NPS for IBM Support in the 80s, driving innovation and transformation resulting in end-to-end digitization, transparency and business optimization. She is accountable for an operating budget of over $300M, inventory over $600M and supports greater than 350k Field Replaceable Units. Shannon leads a team of 450 deeply talented supply chain professionals, supporting over 120 countries, with client response times that range from two hours to next business day.

Reverse logistics has been gaining greater attention in the service industry, as organizations look to improve their ethical footprint. Join the inService™ Podcast Live as guest host, Sheila Ahmed, is joined by Tony Sciarrotta, Executive Director of the Reverse Logistics Association (RLA). Tony will discuss the mission of the RLA, trends and challenges the returns industry is experiencing, and how organizations can strengthen their returns management strategy. He’ll also discuss the RLA’s 19thannual conference, held in Las Vegas on February 7-9, 2023.

Tony took over the RLA in 2016 as Executive Director after 12 years of active involvement on the Advisory Board and on Committees. Tony has held various industry positions including 15 years in returns management at Philips. During his Philips years, Tony developed new reverse logistics strategies and implemented many new returns initiatives. Today, Tony is considered a subject matter expert in reverse logistics and speaks for the industry at conferences all over the world.

The Reverse Logistics Associations provides members with best practices and ideas to reduce that increase, as well a growing number of service solutions providers to help implement new program to reduce returns and increase asset recovery.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are gaining traction, as service leaders seek to build a culture of innovation and belonging within their organizations. Tune into the inService™ Podcast Live as host John Carroll is joined by Eric Rogers, Executive Director – Diversity and Inclusion, of Cummins. Eric will discuss Cummins’ approach to DEI, as well as areas of focus for other companies building their own DEI initiatives.

As Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Eric takes care of programs that touch each of the 60,000 plus employees at Cummins Inc. The programs he leads and provides oversight for help ensure employees feel welcomed, valued, respected, and heard.

Over Eric’s 20 years with Cummins, he has held various roles in human resources. His current and prior roles have informed his philosophy that strong talent, leadership accountability, and an inclusive culture are key levers to organizational transformation and effectiveness. Eric is a certified Diversity coach, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock and a juris doctorate from Vanderbilt Law School.

The results from the Service Council’s 2023 State of the Market: Digital Transformation & Service Technology survey is signaling a greater focus on cross-functional integration and the need for single pane of glass visibility. As organizations continue to grow their digital transformation (DX) initiatives, the need for establishing a digital thread is becoming critical to a successful DX journey.

On our latest episode, host John Carroll is joined by Leslie Paulson, General Manager and Division Vice President of the Servigistics Business Unit for PTC. John and Leslie will look at the role digital threads play in digital transformation initiatives, and discuss how organizations can achieve, and reap value from, their own digital thread.

Leslie Paulson is General Manager and Division Vice President of the Servigistics Business Unit for PTC, where she has global end-to-end responsibility for PTC's Servigistics tools for Service Parts Management, Pricing and Optimization. Before joining PTC in 2017, Leslie spent 29 years at Caterpillar, Inc, where she served in various executive leadership roles that included end to end P&L responsibility for a $1 billion global business. Leslie brings with her considerable knowledge and experience driving change through disruptive technologies to deliver growth and customer value.

Looking to master the rising complexity of machinery? It’s time to leverage service and data intelligence, — especially if you are an organization looking to deliver value to customers in 2023 and beyond. According to the Service Council’s 2022 Voice of the Field Service Engineer survey:

> 84% of frontline agents believe the knowledge required to be effective has increased.

> 82% believe the work requires greater technical knowledge.

> 65% believe the products being serviced are more complex.

Tune into the latest episode of the inService Podcast Live with host, John Carroll, as he welcomes Shahar Chen, CEO and Co-Founder, of Aquant. Shahar will discuss the role he sees intelligence playing in the future of field service, as well as tips for organizations to consider when creating their own intelligence powerhouse.

Shahar Chen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Aquant, a service intelligence company. He is an entrepreneur and expert in service, bringing 15+ years of business and technical expertise in B2B software — especially SaaS service software.

Digital transformation is often talked about in terms of KPIs and metrics. While these are certainly important to measuring success, service organizations should also view it through the lens of people – customers, employees, and the community at large.

Tune into the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast as host John Carroll is joined by Deepika DiGiovine, VP of Digital Applications and Connected Factory at Dover Corporation. Deepika will discuss Dover’s current initiatives around digitizing the customer and employee experience to drive deeper visibility, enablement, and satisfaction. She will also discuss two non-profit organizations that are near and dear to her heart – Girls Who Code and Safer Foundation – and how she and Dover are working to positively impact the community at large.

Deepika is a technology, operations and strategy executive with over 20 years of global experience with General Electric (GE), McKinsey & Co, Infosys Technologies, Uptake Technologies, and Corning Inc. She is currently the VP of Digital Applications and Connected Factory at Dover Corporation, where she is responsible for driving the Digitization of Customer Experience B2B Commercial Applications, Service Digitization and building Manufacturing 4.0 capability. Deepika was recognized in top 100 CIO’s in the Middle East. She also serves on the board of Safer Foundation, is a Forte fellow and an advocate for working mothers in technology leadership.

Organizations across industries face the challenge of driving growth and meeting customer demands with a shrinking pool of talent that is becoming increasingly burned out and unengaged. For service leaders, recruiting and retaining talent must feel like an uphill battle.

On this week's episode of the inService Podcast, host John Carroll welcomes David Watson, Managing Director of RL People. Fresh from the 2022 Smarter Services Executive Symposium, John and David will discuss some of the conversations and solutions around the talent shortage that came out of the event. David will also bring his own unique experience and insights from over a decade in recruitment to the discussion.

David has over ten years of experience in recruitment, with the past five focused on growing RL People into a trusted partner to an impressive portfolio of global organizations. Over the years, he has learned the importance of finding your niche, honing your industry expertise, and becoming a genuinely valuable partner to customers and candidates alike. David enjoys recruiting across the reverse logistics and circular economy landscape.

As service leaders, we are often laser-focused on efficiency and cost-reduction. However, is it possible to be so focused that we lose sight of the human at the center? Join us for a powerful episode of the inService Podcast Live, where we’ll be joined by two passionate and dedicated service professionals in the medical industry that have found themselves on the receiving end of service after being diagnosed with cancer.

On the latest episode of the inService Podcast Live, we're joined by guests Linda Tucci, Senior Global Director of the Technical Solutions Center for QuidelOrtho, and Bob Downey, Medical Team Coordinator for Global Health Teams, who will share their stories. Friends, and former colleagues at Sysmex America, Linda and Bob both recently received life-altering cancer diagnoses. They’ll be discussing their patient journeys – from diagnosis to care – and how their individual journeys have caused them to reflect on the importance of finding that delicate balance between compassion and efficiency in service delivery. It’s one that you won’t want to miss.

Linda is currently the Global Sr. Director of the Technical Solutions Center at QuidelOrtho. In this role, she is responsible for the strategic direction and operations of the Technical Solutions Center providing remote technical support to customers and field escalation support. Prior to this role, Linda held varying service leadership positions in multiple medical device organizations.

Bob is currently the Medical Team Coordinator and serves on the Board of Global Health Teams. Global Health Teams has provided medical care to underserved communities around the world since 1985. Bob also works with St. Damien’s Children’s Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital in Port au Prince Haiti as a Clinical Laboratory Advisor, helping to manage the laboratories and lead laboratory improvement projects.

The field service ecosystem is moving forward in exciting new directions. It is no longer an industry of cost centers filled with outdated processes and technology. As digital transformation takes hold, service leaders are now turning their focus to ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) principles to measure the sustainability of their organization. Of course, with this comes a new set of challenges.

Join the inService Podcast Live on Thursday, September 1st at 12PM ET as host John Carroll is joined by Taksina Eammano, EVP & GM of Field Service at Salesforce. Taksina will be bringing her wealth of knowledge and experience to the studio to discuss next generation field service – how she sees the market evolving, trends that are emerging and how representation and ethical aspects play into it all.

Taksina joined Salesforce in 2014 and is responsible for the overall strategy and vision for the Field Service product, powering the mobile workforce. In addition, Taksina pursues her passion for people through her work with the Project Sunshine group and developing product management talent through various programs. As an Equality Group leader within the AsiaPacForce Employee Resource Group at Salesforce, Taksina has pushed for equity in the workforce and believes that product teams need to represent the communities they serve.

In the Service Council’s 2022 survey, “Service Leader’s Agenda,” 4 out of 10 service executives indicated “Customer Management & Experience Initiatives” as a top focus area for 2022 (the #1 response) with half of respondents citing “Changing Customer Demands” as the top external challenge. Evolving how we support customers is critical both in terms of aligning with the customer’s evolving channel preferences and increasing demands. It is also critical in terms of making a greater contribution to overall company profitability.

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Sajeel Hussain, Chief Revenue Officer for CareAR, A Xerox Company, to discuss his organization’s strategy to empower organizations to “shift left” in their approach to field service.

Sajeel is currently the Chief Revenue Officer at CareAR. Prior to joining Xerox, Sajeel was the Chief Revenue Officer at CafeX, where he was responsible for driving top line growth for the company including sales, marketing and operations globally.

While the demand for outcome-based services has been growing in the industry for some time, the need for this model – and with it, asset visibility – reached a critical point in the last two years. Organizations that were still getting by on “business as usual” asset maintenance models were suddenly forced to embrace asset centricity.

Tune into the latest episode of the inService ™ Podcast Live as host David Nour is joined by Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax, for a deep dive into asset centricity: what it is, best practices for implementation and how other parts of the business can also benefit from asset data.

Neil Barua is the CEO of ServiceMax and a member of the Board of Directors. He has an extensive background in the technology industry and a proven track record of growing businesses. Previously, Neil was CEO of IPC Systems. During his tenure, he sold IPC and led a SaaS and data transformation of the company. Most recently, Barua served as an operating partner at Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing. Earlier in his career, he was part of John Legere’s leadership team that helped transform Global Crossing through consistent growth.

In the Service Council’s 2022 survey, “Voice of the Field Service Engineer,” over half of front-line agents indicated that they don’t plan on remaining in field service for the length of their career. If service organizations want to retain talent and win in a competitive labor market, they must reimagine the experience they are providing for their most valuable players – their field service engineers.

On the latest episode of the inService ™ Podcast Live, host David Nour is joined by Jon Barr, Head of IT – Americas for KONE. Jon discusses his organization’s outside-in service strategy to ensure a world-class experience not just for KONE customers, but for their technicians as well. Jon will also discuss KONE’s unique approach to operational technology and designing for serviceability.

Jon is the head of Information Technology for KONE Americas. In this role, he leads transformational information technology initiatives across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. His efforts focus on ensuring world-class processes and tools are in place to empower business results for KONE Americas. Jon has been with KONE Americas for over 24 years and serves on the Americas Leadership Team.

The pandemic has drastically changed the way organizations think about technology. Companies learned very quickly that, if they wish to survive, they would need to break down workforce silos and embrace digital by moving towards a more connected workforce model.

On this episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host David Nour is joined by Jen Grant, CEO of Appify, to discuss the importance of connecting workers – both employees and independent contractors - in the field. Jen will also discuss her storied career in building companies from the ground-up and what it means to be a customer-focused leader.

Jen Grant currently leads Appify as CEO, delivering a rapid application development platform that supports companies such as TataMD, NECI, and Keysight in quickly delivering apps to their workforces. Jen sits on the board of Dialpad, a leading unified communication platform, and Kyndi, an award-winning natural language processing engine; as well as being an angel investor and limited partner in a number of technology funds. She was recently recognized as one of the Top 100 Princeton Alumni in Technology, a 2021 Woman of Influence with Silicon Valley Business Journal, and #4 of The SaaS Report’s Top Women Leaders in SaaS of 2018.

Companies everywhere are facing the challenge of achieving market growth and increasing profitability while keeping costs down, customers happy and the work desirable for service employees. This week we look at how best-in-class organization Ricoh has managed to achieve this by leveraging their most valuable asset – their field service technicians.

Tune into the inService ™ Podcast Live as host John Carroll is joined by Bob Lamendola, SVP of Technology and Head of Digital Services Center of Ricoh USA, Inc.. Bob is responsible for creating a clear strategy and identity for Ricoh’s digital services portfolio, unifying service development and innovation to enable efficiency and agility, and aligning and prioritizing resources with a customer-centric focus.

With Ricoh for more than 15 years, Bob has held numerous leadership roles within the IT Services organization including management of the Managed Hosting, Application Development, and ITS Infrastructure and Support teams. Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Information Science from Bloomsburg University.

The world depends on the service economy to run smoothly.  So, why is service supply chain so often overlooked? Tune in for the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast as host John Carroll is joined by Oliver Lemanksi, CEO of OnProcess Technology, for a discussion on what sets the service supply chain apart and how organizations can unlock its value potential.

We will be delving into all things service supply chain; including the key trends and challenges, the main goals driving organizations and what skills are relevant in this new service economy. Listeners will also have the opportunity to submit questions for discussion.

Oliver Lemanski joined OnProcess in 2015. Prior to his role as CEO, Oliver was Managing Director EMEA for five years at OnProcess, successfully driving year-on-year growth in the region while establishing strategic relationships with Elekta, HPE, Cisco, Varian, SAP Ariba and others. Oliver holds a Degree and Masters from University of Southampton, UK and is an alumnus of IMD Business School in Switzerland.

Workforce and labor challenges continue to be a top concern for field service leaders as they struggle with how to keep their team staffed and the work desirable. How can organizations redesign workflows so that they can create positive experiences for field service employees and customers alike?  

Don't miss this week's episode of the inService ™ Podcast as host John Carroll is joined by Karin Hamel of Schneider Electric. As Vice President of Services for U.S. Digital Buildings, Karin is highly regarded for scaling organizations to deliver sustainable, profitable performance, as well as disrupting the status quo to future-proof businesses and cultivate a customer-centric culture.   

Karin is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and is active as a Career Advisor for Northwestern University’s Energy and Sustainability Master of Science program.  She was the 2021 recipient of the Service is Humanity™ award from The Service Council, for which she currently serves on the Advisory Board.

In recent years, becoming an agile service organization has emerged as a vital necessity in today’s digital market. But what does agility truly look like and what are the processes organizations need to have in place to make agility achievable?

Tune into the latest episode of the inService Podcast as host David Nour is joined by Bulent Cinarkaya from ServiceNow. Bulent will discuss the pillars of agility that service organizations need in order to be successful at adapting to market conditions and flourishing in a volatile and uncertain economy.

Bulent Cinarkaya is the General Manager of Field Service Management at ServiceNow. An industry veteran with 25+ years in the field service and customer management space, Bulent has held previous leadership roles at Salesforce and Oracle before joining ServiceNow.

Watch the On-Demand webinar “Service Experts: Moving to Best-in-Class KPIs and Metrics” with ServiceNow and the Service Council: https://servicecouncil.com/event/moving-to-best-in-class-field-service-kpis-metrics/

Service revenue growth continues to be at the forefront for service leaders. Finding new and creative ways to enhance their strategies, whether it be expanding their revenues from their existing customers or new ones, is paramount. But what if there was a technology that could help you with both?  

Join this episode of the Service Council inService Podcast with host David Nour, as he welcomes Charlie Warren, CEO and co-founder of Convex. They'll discuss how Convex helps organizations gain greater insight into building service opportunities, empowering sales and field-based teams to enhance revenue-generating activity.  

Charlie has over 10 years of experience in building data, energy analytics, and enterprise software. Holding degrees from MIT, Harvard and Bowdoin, has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Marketplace and the US Department of Energy.

Supply Chain disruptions have been paramount during the pandemic for the past 2 years. Uncertainty in supply chains doesn't appear to be dissipating any time soon, and it is predicted that the challenges facing both the United States and the globe will continue in 2022.

Join host and Service Council CEO John Carroll for an interactive discussion with Alex Ward, Executive Director of Supply Chain Strategy & Transformation from Cummins Inc. Alex will discuss his experience and best practices as it relates to supply chain agility and how Cummins has built resiliency and sustainability into their operations.

According to the most recent Service Council Voice of the Field Technician Survey, 60% of survey respondents (ages 25-44) don’t anticipate remaining in the role over the next decade.

That’s a disturbing statistic for service leaders, particularly given other talent shortage trends such as the aging workforce, the Silver Tsunami, and the Great Resignation.

So, what’s the answer? We believe creating a career lattice of learning and growth opportunities, vs. the traditional career ladder, may provide a glimpse into new ways of defining and measuring the success of field service work.

Join our inService Podcast host David Nour, as he welcomes Rod Cook, Director of NA Service Operations at Trane Technologies to discuss Career Pathing for Field Service Technicians and the impact of the global pandemic on the lives of field service technicians, safety, policies, and quarantine mandates.

From the great resignation, to the silver tsunami, the talent agenda continues to challenge field service, customer service, and customer experience organizations globally. What if there was a unique business model that could provide leaders with a bit of relief?

Join this episode of the inService Podcast with host David Nour, as he welcomes Mynul Khan, founder and CEO of Field Nation. Recognizing the growing need for companies and independent workers to easily connect, Mynul Khan founded Field Nation in 2008, completely changing the landscape for on-site service work. His leadership has turned a once-budding startup into an enterprise-level offering that’s processed over $1B in transactions.

With a degree in Computer Science and a background in programming and data analysis, Mynul continues to expand Field Nation’s platform to allow businesses to grow their service delivery model, and maximize their profitability in the process. Today, Mynul sits on the Field Nation Board of Directors, and the Board of Trustees for St. Cloud State University. He is also an Advisory Board Member of CompTIA.