What challenges do you share with your peers in the field service industry? Which solutions have been successful for you? What trends and priorities are coming down the line for Field Service professionals? What can you share with the network to help contribute to collaborative learning and the future of ServiceMax solutions?

If you can answer any of those questions, you should definitely join our upcoming ServiceMax user groups:

Las Vegas User Group​ and Boston User Group​!

What is it?

We wanted a space where ServiceMax users could come together, discuss their solutions, ideas, problems, and learn from each others' experience. Thus, our user group program was born. These sessions are full day programs featuring customer-led discussions, table topics, and a chance to meet and engage with various ServiceMax teams like product, education, and customer success.

User group themes vary every year, depending on the industry, our customers, and our product. This year we are focusing on the customer lifecycle. Topics will include:

• Customer Workshop: Best practice throughout the stages of implementing successful programs that combine technology, people and strategy
• Outcomes and KPIs: Universal 9 metrics and how they relate to various end user personas and strategic objectives
• Organizational Change Management: Managing change across your people, process and technology, including unifying roles, centralizing processes, redefining processes, leveraging tenured FSEs to provide remote support.
• Implementation and Roll Out: The pros and cons of POC (Proof of Concept), a Pilot Program, a Global Template
• User Experience and Adoption: There are varying process flows for work orders and explore the options in the SFM set up to drive easy usage and better adoption

Among these topics will be customer-led conversations and product team Q & A's, and of course a provided lunch. (Yum!)

Who is invited?

This is a customer-exclusive event. If you manage or work closely with your company's ServiceMax platform, we want you there. Our past attendee types included superusers who are close to the field service teams, business owners who are influencing the strategy, training programs, and coordination of field service teams, and IT experts who coordinate technology and human resources for success.

Over the last few years, we've had over 50 customer logos represented from various industries, so there's no doubt that you'll find someone with similar experience as you.

Why should I attend?

1. Exclusive training content - leverage best practices for your next project
2. Early and exclusive insights - see what's coming so you can start planning
3. Networking opportunities - join a community of those with access and influence at ServiceMax

When is it?

Las Vegas - May 15th, 2018

Boston - May 21st, 2018

Where is it?

Las Vegas, Nevada - W Las Vegas

Boston, Massachusetts - Marriott Long Wharf​

This user group experience is exclusive to our Maximize Tour 2018. You get two chances to join, so don't miss out! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Deirdre Yee​ or myself!

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What other topics do you want to cover during the user group? Who are you looking to meet?

As many of you know, the 2018 Maximize Tour is just around the corner! It will take place at the Las Vegas W Hotel, Las Vegas on Tuesday, May 15th to Wednesday, May 16^th and at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf, Boston on Monday, May 21st to Tuesday May 22, 2018. maximize18 is your one stop shop to understanding how you drive digital transformation for field service, find out how to define the service outcomes that matter to your business, and how an equipment centric strategy helps you achieve these outcomes.

We can't do these events without you though. You, our customers, play a large role in two aspects of Maximize: the presentations and the MaxChoice Awards.

Call for Presentations

Some of our favorite content has been presented by customers at Maximize. Because of real-life examples, these sessions truly show the power of ServiceMax and the importance of starting your digital transformation. So, once again, we want you to share you knowledge and expertise during a 45 minute session!

• When should I submit my presentation by? February 28, 2018.
• When will I be notified about the status of my submission? March 31, 2018.
• What kind of topics do you want to see? We are currently planning three tracks.
  • Leadership Track - Aimed at service leaders for delivering service outcomes and navigating workforce & business challenges in global service organizations.
  • Product Track - Aimed at existing or prospective customers who want to be abreast of ServiceMax product vision and the exciting product areas where we are investing in.
  • Transformation Track - Aimed at prospective customers to learn how ServiceMax customers have successfully transformed their service organizations for their end customers.
• Can I submit multiple presentations? Yes! Complete the submission process for each topic.

SUBMIT A PRESENTATION TODAY ​

MaxChoice Awards

The MaxChoice Awards are always a crowd favorite. This is our way of recognizing you for your hard work, dedication to field service and outstanding contributions to their own companies and to the industry. 

• Who can be nominated? ServiceMax customers are eligible to be nominated by self-nomination, by ServiceMax employees or by ServiceMax partners.
• When is the deadline for the award nominations? March 30, 2018
• What are the categories?

NOMINATE AN ORGANIZATION TODAY​

To summarize, Maximize is not the same without our customers. Thus, we'd love for you to present, and participate in the MaxChoice Awards!

If you have ANY questions, feel free to comment below.

Stay tuned for more updates, but for now, let's maximize​!

As 2017 comes to an end, many of you have begun budgeting for next year. What are your plans? What are you asking for? What's on your wishlist? We hope Maximize 2018 is.

We're excited to announce that Maximize, our global field service summit, will take place in TWO U.S. locations this upcoming year: Boston and Las Vegas. Whether you prefer the bright lights of Vegas or the delicious lobster rolls of Boston, each location will provide you with the same valuable Maximize experience where you will connect with field service thought leaders, ServiceMax customers, partners, and product experts. We can't wait for Spring 2018!

We're ringing in the new year right and opening registration in January. If you're interested in attending, we encourage you to sign up for the Maximize email list today. Take a look at this year's video to see some of the event's highlights!

Maximize 2017 Recap

And don't worry, Maximize is still a global conference, and will make a stop in other locations across the world! Stay tuned for more information.

Enjoy your holidays everyone!

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Are you located near Boston or Vegas? What would you like to see or do in those cities? If you could pick one city for Maximize to be in, where would it be?

Many Maximize Las Vegas attendees were captivated by Gene Kranz and Jim Lovell's American space age story, thus I'm so excited to share that astronaut Dr. Michael Foale is onboard to speak at Maximize Berlin! Here's a snippet of Sarah Lloyd Parry's blog featured on Field Service Digital:

On June 25, 1997, British-born NASA astronaut Dr. Michael Foale was aboard the MIR space station when it collided with a seven-ton cargo ship the size of a bus. Unaware to Dr. Foale, while his Russian colleagues were practising a docking procedure, Russian Mission Control ordered the automatic docking system to be switched off, based on concerns its radar might interfere with the ship’s visual monitor. The result was catastrophic, creating in the worst collision in the history of manned space flight.

Leaking oxygen, the MIR began spinning out of control at the rate of about one degree a second with a puncture in one of the modules, causing life threatening decompression. Dr. Foale and his colleagues worked feverishly to repair the damage over a critical six-hour period — with no power.

Dr. Foale is no stranger to the challenges of repairing equipment in space. With 22 hours of space walking time logged, he says his biggest challenge is the size of the responsibility.

We are fortunate enough to have Dr. Foale as our keynote speaker at this year’s Maximize Europe 2017 customer conference in Berlin. Dr. Foale will be discussing what it’s like to deal with the unique scenario of equipment failure in space, the critical balance of when to trust human instinct over emergency machine operating procedures, and the leadership qualities, training and team dynamics required to overcome such problems on a space ship he likens to an oily smelling cluttered garage, akin to working in someone’s esophagus.

To read the Sarah's full blog post about Dr. Foale's phenomenal experience, visit Field Service Digital. To hear him in person, secure your spot for Maximize Berlin​ today! We hope to see you there.

And just like that, Maximize Las Vegas is over! It was three days packed with interesting new content, fun networking events, and collaborative conversations. Many of our community users attended, which is fantastic! So please, if you attended Maximize, joined the UG, or spoke at the event check out your badges. We wanted to recognize you for your contribution to our conference!

Here's what the badges look like!

Visit Steve Nava's, Victoria Butt's, Eric Rivas​', or Karen Mehal​'s profiles to see what they look like. If you're missing a badge you rightfully deserve, please let us know!

We also awarded 6 of our customers during our MaxChoice event.

Winners include:

• ServiceMax Rookie of the Year: LiftOne, for outstanding accomplishment in their organization in their first year of implementation.
• ServiceMax "We Keep the World Running" Award: PAC, whose use of ServiceMax keeps the world running and has become critical to serve their customers.
• ServiceMax Customer Impact Award: Topcon Medical Systems, who has experienced a marked change in culture and transformation as it relates to their customers since implementing ServiceMax.
• ServiceMax Business Impact Award: Molecular Devices, who realized exceptional business results and ROI through the adoption of a field service management strategy for their extended enterprise.
• ServiceMax Innovation Award: Carrier, who has demonstrated innovative use of ServiceMax on mobile devices and in disconnected environments.
• ServiceMax Raving Fan of the Year Award: Erikson Living, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in field service and who has been a great advocate of ServiceMax.

We hope you gained as much out of the conference as we did, let us know here Are you excited about Maximize?

If you attended Maximize Las Vegas also have access to many of the breakout presentations. See Maximize Las Vegas 2017: Resources​.

And if you weren't able to make it, don't forget about Maximize Tokyo and Berlin. Hope to see you there!

205,000 miles.

That’s how far Apollo 13 was from earth on April 13, 1970, when an oxygen tank exploded, crippling the Service Module upon which the Command Module had depended. Despite well-documented hardships caused by limited power, freezing temperatures, a shortage of potable water, and the critical need to make fast repairs, the Apollo 13 crew returned safely to earth just days later.

As someone who grew up fascinated by the NASA space program, I am thrilled to share that Jim Lovell and Gene Kranz of the Apollo 13 mission will be keynote speakers at our annual customer event, Maximize 2017, this September in Las Vegas where they will share their stories of leadership, perseverance and competence.

The story of Apollo 13 is an extreme example of field service where “the machine” had to be fixed and decisions needed to be made quickly in a life-threatening situation. The majority of field service projects are not quite so dramatic, but they are still critical to their industries.

There are tens of millions of field service technicians around the world who maintain billions of machines that have a profound impact on our lives — in our homes, at our work, at our hospitals and cities and airports. Literally everywhere.

Who are these everyday heroes? Are you one of them? I'd love hear your stories in the comments below, on Twitter (@dyarnold), or at Maximize 2017, the most valuable field service event in the industry. Review the Maximize agenda and register at www.servicemax.com/maximize. I look forward to seeing you there!

To read the rest of my blog, visit Field Service Digital.

Maximize is around the corner, which means a customer user group is too! The conversation will take place Monday, September 18 from 1 PM to 6 PM at our Maximize Las Vegas event.

Do you know what a user group is?

A user group is a group of people with a similar set of goals, ideas, and interests. In this case, our user group attendees are managing the ServiceMax platform, leading teams, and looking to plan for the future. This session is meant to be a time where customers can talk about their experience, their concerns, and their new ideas. Our user groups are customer-led (and customer-exclusive). After Maximize, groups of customers meet online, like here in the community, and in person throughout the year.

Here are a few user groups you can join: East Coast User Group West Coast User Group​ EMEA User Group​. There will be a specific group for all those who join our session in Las Vegas!

We hope you'll take this opportunity to join other ServiceMax customers on day one of Maximize for a half-day program of collaboration and sharing. For more detail on the agenda, check out the schedule below.

We will also be hosting a user group with a similar agenda in Maximize Berlin for customers who are attending that event.

For more information on Maximize, click here.

Who would you like to meet at our Maximize user group? After reading over the schedule, what conversation are you most looking forward to?

Well, it could be you! Maximize is just around the corner, which means MaxChoice Awards are coming soon. Click here to submit your nominations.

​

What are the MaxChoice Awards?

The award program recognizes ServiceMax customers who have successfully implemented ServiceMax and who are experiencing great success and adoption. Recipients will be honored for achieving positive business results using ServiceMax.  This is our way of recognizing customers and partners for their hard work, dedication to field service and outstanding contributions to their own companies and to the industry.

Why would I nominate our company?

Wouldn’t you love to learn from others’ projects and potentially connect with others who have been successful?  Other customers would love to better understand what you’ve done to help drive field service and provide a positive environment for your employees and customers.  Are you able to provide better customer service since using ServiceMax?  Is your field service organization operating more efficiently?  Have you noticed that your sales revenue has increased since ServiceMax?  Are your products and services critical to people?  Your story matters. Plus this is a great way to update your resume and LinkedIn profile!

What are the award categories?

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The nomination should only take you a few minutes, so don't wait! Click here to submit your nomination and visit Maximize 2017​ for more details on Maximize.

I am the Regional Marketing Manager for Southern Europe.  Deirdre Yee interviewed me, she wanted me to share a little bit about myself, my role at ServiceMax, and our work in Southern Europe.

I live in Milan, Italy. My favorite thing about my city might be the food - I love tortellini in brodo. I also love travelling with friends. New York is one of my favorite places; to me, it feels like the center of the world.

I’ve spent my career in marketing, and spent most of my time focused on regional work in Southern Europe. I would be happy to share my knowledge about doing business in this region with ServiceMax Community members. I will post updates with great new assets, events, and news regularly, here in the community.

I was pleased to help with Technologies du Field Service du futur, a wonderful event we hosting in September 2016 in Paris, with a great agenda of content, including 5 top priorities for Field Service Teams in 2016, Connected Field service, powered by IoT, Augmented reality in field service, and achieving excellence through our Field Service maturity matrix assessment tool. Below a picture of the event.

We also joined the IoT World Congress in Barcelona in October, a great event for IoT; full of business managers, CTOs, CMOs, technical experts who are interested in IoT Solutions. We met great contacts across Manufacturing, Energy, Utilities, Transportation, Healthcare, and technology organizations.

One event I am looking forward to next year is the SPS Italian Automation event in Parma in May. Focused on industrial automation, and growing quickly, this conference is great for manufacturing companies and the content will be important for field service teams in Italy. It is very important for us to expand coverage for new markets, to represent field service for customers from these areas.

My customers in Southern Europe, they are interested in the technology and understanding how our software works, how it can be flexible for their needs. On the other hand they are focused on ROI and how it can improve their customer’s experience.

One of my goals is to deliver information for different roles, particularly for Southern Europe. There can be many stakeholders in the process, from the CFO, IT team, line of business, Services team. Each person has needs, has questions, and wants to understand more. All may be involved in the decision making process and I want to help address their interests and questions.

Here are some recent assets for you or your team members in Southern Europe or who speak Spanish or French.

ServiceMax y PTC anuncian Servicios de Campo Conectados (Spanish subtitles)

This is a video where ServiceMax and PTC present their co-joint offer on Connected Field Services. Moreover you can see how IoT technology will be very important in the upcoming years, and also how McKinley Equipment has already started using it.

ServiceMax démonstration - Le rôle du field service (French audio)

Improving field service operations requires a complete understanding of and visibility into the complexities of field service delivery. It starts when your customer purchases a product or service from you, and extends through delivery processes such as work order management, and finally to analytics to understand the business as well as ultimately deliver predictive service. Watch this demo video to see how ServiceMax has focused on building deep technology for the entire field service delivery chain.

• Are you based in Southern Europe?
• Do you have teams in Southern Europe?
  
• What do you provide for those teams?
  
• What are the cultural considerations you take?

I’m interested to collaborate with members who are doing business in my region, and eager to provide more assets to help with your field service evaluation.

• What documents, assets, webinars, etc would you like to see in Italian, Spanish, French, or Portuguese?

Thanks!

Mauro

x

There are 3 days left to submit MaxChoice award nominations.  We have received many nominations including customers in a variety of industries, size and locations from around the world.  Join your fellow ServiceMax customers in showcasing your efforts by submitting a nomination here.  There are several categories to choose and one or more are certain to highlight your success.  The deadline is Friday, May 13, 2016, but don't let that scare you!

See ServiceMax CEO Dave Yarnold being interviewed by PTC's CEO at PTC's ThingEvent in Boston this afternoon at 3 PM EST. 

This event is  PTC's worldwide live stream launch event co-hosted by ThingWorx™ and Vuforia™.

You can join the virtual event to see how Augmented Reality (AR) is completely changing the way you see things in the Internet of Things.  Currently there are over 14,500 virtual registrations from across the globe that will be attending this virtual broadcast from Boston.

Our presentation will be very relevant for Field Service professionals who are interested in understanding why  "service is the killer app for IoT".

See highlights from the MaxLive 2015 event in Europe!

Stay up to date on the 2016 Europe event at http://maxlive.servicemax.com/europe/

Asiakkaan puheenvuoro / Customer case study (Ville Välikangas, CIO, Inspecta Group Oy)

BiiT ja ServiceMax -aamiaistilaisuus syyskuussa 2015 (Hotel Crowne Plaza, Helsinki)

Biit and ServiceMax organized a field service event on the impact of the Internet of Things, and Servitization in September 2015.

With all the sessions next week at Dreamforce, this is one you do not want to miss.

Come hear Steve Nava​, Michael Majerus, and Kevin Rusin​ speak about their connected field service experience at Dreamforce! Don't forget to register ahead of time for the session on the Dreamforce website. Thursday 9/17, 2:30pm at Metreon, AMC Theater #10.

See you there!

And the Award Goes to:

We would like to congratulate the customers who were awarded the MaxChoice Awards at Maximize 2015.  I am proud that we were able to create this new awards program at ServiceMax and award our successful customers with recognition in the industry and also among their peers.  In case you missed it, here are the winners of the 2015 MaxChoice Awards.  Please give them a big 'like' and leave a comment!

• Field Technician Team of the Year: Westmor Industries Beth Koehl​, and Mark Kragenbring's team.
• Rookie of the Year: The Nautilus Company (Bill Payzant and Denise Carpentier)  and W. Vernon Whiteley (Sara Whiteley​)
• Power Award: Coca-Cola Enterprises (Nick Collins and Easwaran Krishnamurthy)    and Zamil CoolCare (Nasser Al-Maidhan, @Zaki Sabbagh and shakil Hamdule
• We Keep the World Running: WirelessWerks (Gord Breese nominated by Christina Rampone of #ForeFront,) and  Medtronic (Victor Colbrese)
• Transformation: Merck Millipore (Bridget Reiss and Marc Coleman)   and Luminex Corporation (Steve Nava​, Jason Pena, and Michael Queen)
• Raving Fan:  Kevin Rusin​ of McKinley Equipment Corporation

We will continue the MaxChoice Awards Program annually and will keep you posted on any other award opportunities outside of ServiceMax that may be suitable for our customers. We look forward to perpetually recognizing our Raving Fans and successful customers!  Thank you for your outstanding support!

Calling all customers! Take advantage of the discounted rate of $279 for your Maximize 2015 full conference pass by registering today and tomorrow. Maximize will have more than 600 attendees from field service and IT roles and feature 30+ sessions in tracks about revenue & growth, field service management, technology, and integration. You won't to miss this field service event of the year. Learn more and register at Maximize 2015 | ServiceMax .

The ServiceMax MaxChoice Customer Award Program is here!

I am so excited to unveil the brand-new ServiceMax MaxChoice Customer Awards Program.  This is a prime opportunity to recognize you and your company for your outstanding use of ServiceMax and give you the recognition you deserve.

The ServiceMax MaxChoice award program recognizes ServiceMax customers who have successfully implemented ServiceMax and who are experiencing great success and adoption. Recipients will be honored for achieving positive business results using ServiceMax. You have worked hard to successfully utilize ServiceMax and elevate field service at your organization;  this is our way of recognizing you for your hard work, dedication to field service and outstanding contributions to your own companies and to the industry.

So, you are asking, ‘Why would I nominate our company?’  Wouldn’t you love to learn from others’ projects and potentially connect with others who have been successful?  Other customers would love to better understand what you’ve done to help drive field service and provide a positive environment for your employees and customers.  Are you able to provide better customer service since using ServiceMax?  Is your field service organization operating more efficiently?  Have you noticed that your sales revenue has increased since ServiceMax?  Are your products and services critical to people?  These are all stories that matter and would be great to share with others. (Not to mention, this is a great way to update your resume and LinkedIn profile!)

The nomination process should only take a few minutes and we have made it easy for you to complete the nomination online We have created several categories for just about everyone.  The online nomination form and further details can be found here.

But, please don’t wait... the deadline is April 1, 2015.

For any questions, please contact Sue Domagalski or via phone at (908) 894-5140.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have.

-Thomas Jefferson

Register today for the field service event of the year!

Maximize 2015

May 13th - 15th

Westin St. Francis | San Francisco

It's time elevate field service. Find out how at Maximize 2015.

The field service industry has entered a new era of business: new strategies, new revenue streams, and ultimately, a new way to interact with your customers. Field service is the key differentiator for more and more companies, and technology is powering it all.

Join more than 600 of the field service industry's most innovative people at Maximize to discover the strategies that define this new era of field service, experience the technology that enables them, and learn how you can apply it to your business.

At Maximize 2015, ServiceMax customers will learn how to get the most value out of their investment in ServiceMax.

Learn more at http://maximize.servicemax.com/ and register today to receive the Early Bird rate of $279.

Earlier this month, I attended MaxLive 2014 Paris, our first major ServiceMax customer event held in Europe.  It was an amazing event, filled with extremely interactive customer session, user group meetings, an inaugural CSO Summit and more. 

One of the highlights of the event included a customer panel, in which several top-notch ServiceMax customers and Dr. Howard Lightfoot, a thought-leader in the service industry spoke about their experiences in non-field service roles, and field service's impact on their individual roles. 

One of the most notable observations of the panel is that not one person had 'Service' or 'Field Service' in their title.

The customer panelists  included Vincent Lore, Director of Business Development at Videlio IEC, Vincent Dériot, CIO of Neopost, and Damian Hudson, Manager of Information Systems at SPP Pumps.  The overarching message of the panel was that field service has had a ripple-effect impact on the entire organization, and not just on the service side.  Information Technology, Finance, and Business Development are now brought to the table where they can show the influence of service on the organization, including generating revenue, closing service calls faster, invoicing customers in hours instead of weeks and more. 

Have you had similar experiences at your organization? 

What is the most significant change you've experienced either on the service or non-field service side?