How Digital Inspection Forms Streamline the Inspection Process
Digital inspection forms are a powerful solution for life safety service contractors looking to streamline operations.
However, at present, a majority of contractors in the fire protection business are still using paper. There’s a 60% chance that’s you!
But as the world has come to rely on digitization, and more digital offerings like ServiceForms have come on the market, the age-old tradition of paper-based inspections has begun to make less sense.
If you’re feeling a mounting need to improve the efficiency of your inspections and better manage liability, you’re not alone.
Here is a look at some of the biggest benefits of replacing paper-based inspections with inspection automation software.
More Efficiency and Less Liability Risk With Digital Inspection Forms
A step-by-step set of tasks that lead experienced and novice technicians alike through the process
Ability to easily and legibly document deficiencies found in inspections
Ability to attach digital photos into the form when deficiencies are found
Multiple audit trails with time-stamped actions that prove what work was done, and when
Online access to inspection history information, inspection forms, and much more.
In addition, fire inspection software helps ensure that techs use the right inspection form from the get-go. And required fields ensure that technicians fill out the form completely – with all the data that’s required by Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) for that particular type of inspection.
Digital Inspection Data Makes Creating Inspection Reports Simple
After the service has been completed, the post-service report is what builds long-lasting business relationships with customers, owners, and stakeholders. Once a service has been performed, a digital reporting system like Service Link allows for the fast generation of a professional, easy-to-read, branded report with supporting photos.
This report provides proof that the services actually were performed. It also helps generate additional revenue by highlighting opportunities for improvements or deficiencies that need to be resolved. When stakeholders read a service report and understand what was done and what’s needed, the submission of a service quote for additional work comes as no surprise.
Digital Inspection Software = An Easier Way to Meet NFPA Code Standards
Inspection forms for each NFPA standard (25, 72, etc.) must address all the safety attributes and devices that are contained within that particular type of inspection. The NFPA offers standard inspection testing forms in a PDF format that can be printed and filled out by hand. However, most companies that provide life safety inspection software have their own inspection forms.
If you’re using an inspection form straight from the NFPA, it’s going to meet NFPA standards. However, if you’re using an inspection form from a third-party inspection tool, it’s best to ensure that the forms are routinely updated as NFPA standards change.
Note: With the acquisition of Asurio, ServiceTrade now has a team of code experts who review changes in NFPA standards and modify inspection forms to reflect updated standards and changes in code.
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When it comes to a side-by-side look at paper vs. digital solutions, digital service forms and reports provide transformative, game-changing features and functions that build customer relationships, and also generate more business and profit in the long term.
For more information on ServiceTrade’s digital inspection form capabilities, check out ServiceForms.
SELECTING SERVICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE (That Keeps Accounting Happy)
You know it’s time. The service work has backed up and it’s becoming difficult to manage your limited labor resources. You’re ready for a new software solution to help take your service department to the next level.
At this point, many commercial service contractors turn to their accounting team for guidance. Why? Because their accounting tools are deeply embedded into company-wide processes. They ensure finances stay on track and customers get billed for services. It’s no wonder leaders are reluctant to disrupt the back office.
But while you should certainly consider accounting when evaluating software, back-office needs shouldn’t drive this decision. The needs of your service department should. In the end, your objective should be to find a robust service platform that will streamline operations, prioritize customer experience, grow service revenue—and also keep accounting happy.
Essentially, there are three options to consider:
All-in-one service and accounting software
An add-on service module to your accounting system
Purpose-built service management software that integrates with your accounting system
Option 1: An all-in-one solution
In your search you’ll probably encounter a few software companies that claim to have it all—all the tools for service management and accounting on one platform. Beware of this “all-in-one” messaging. Because while the software you’re looking for should certainly offer many capabilities and tools, no software to date is purpose-built for both service management and accounting.
Note: Some service software companies will use “all-in-one” messaging while relying on accounting software integrations—an option we’ll cover below.
Option 2: An add-on service module
Most construction-focused accounting platforms have attempted to solve service management for their customers with an add-on module. These types of modules are offered by the creators of Sage 100 Contractor, Sage 300 CRE, and Deltek+ ComputerEase accounting programs.
But these modules have accounting principles at their core. They try to shoehorn the complex work of commercial service departments into something that looks like accounting. For growing service departments, these modules lack the tools you’ll need to streamline operations and put your customers first.
Option 3: A purpose-built service management platform
The best option for streamlining and growing your service department is—no surprise—software built for service management. ServiceTrade resides in this category and has a team of product engineers entirely focused on building and maintaining the best service software for commercial contractors. Now that’s the specialized solution you need.
As for accounting, service management platforms will often integrate with your current system. The complexity of the initial setup will depend on which accounting software your business uses. As a general rule of thumb, if your accounting software is server-based, setting up an integration will be more complicated and costly than cloud-based accounting applications like Sage Intacct.
3 QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATING PURPOSE-BUILT SERVICE SOFTWARE
If you decide to go with service management software, you’ll find yourself with several options. We recommend using software designed specifically for commercial contractors as residential-minded software does not have the best tools for the complexity of commercial service.
We also recommend asking these three questions.
Question #1: Who is driving the decision?
Up until this point, your accounting department has likely led the way on technology decisions because they hold the keys to what has been the most important software system in your business. But prioritizing the needs of accounting above all others when selecting a service management application is a common trap for commercial service contractors.
The good news is you can adopt service management software that keeps your accounting department happy, while also prioritizing the needs of your customers – the group of people whose needs must be driving your decision. This leads us to the next question…
Question # 2: Does this solution prioritize customer experience?
Accounting needs relevant service data so they can deliver an accurate invoice to the customer. But is that all your customers need? Of course not.
Your customers need to know what your techs found on the service call – risks to their business, their severity, and how the customer should address those risks. Strong service management software will empower your techs with tools to collect this information and deliver it to customers quickly and conveniently, which builds trust and generates additional revenue for your business.
Question #3: How will the integration work, and who will set it up?
Depending on which software you’re integrating, you may be working with a third-party integration expert or the service software business’s integrations team.
You can address the complexity of the integration and who will be in charge of setup during the sales process. Ask for referrals from customers who use your accounting software so you can hear directly from them how the application works with your current systems and their lessons learned for what matters most in integrating service management and accounting software.
What Software Buyers Can Learn from Agile Development and Lean Manufacturing
Software companies long ago abandoned complex release processes where comprehensive new versions would show up every few years. So why do software application buyers continue to plan for and tolerate implementation schedules that span several months or in some cases even years? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and software buyers need to wisen up and stop being lulled into an unreasonably long technology implementation that will almost certainly not yield the benefits promised during the sales cycle.
What is Agile?
Agile development has been a mainstay in software development for at least ten to fifteen years now. It coincides with the rising popularity (and dominance these days) of software as a service (SaaS) offerings. The basic premise of agile development is that you deploy new technology frequently with the smallest amount of incremental code possible. Agile development also gave birth to the popular notion among technology startups of the minimal viable product (MVP). In all these cases, the idea is to do and learn and do and learn and do and learn – over and over again. Here are the four key principles of agile development from the agile manifesto:
individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
working software over comprehensive documentation;
customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and
responding to change over following a plan.
These principles contrast with the historical waterfall method of software development where you plan and plan and plan and plan and plan and code and code and code and code and code and then deploy and OH SHIT! NOTHING IS AS WE EXPECTED!!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!!
Agile is so popular because waterfall is simply broken. For so many reasons, but primarily because planning is filled with the flaws of confirmation bias. When development teams have lots of time to plan and code, they avoid real feedback from the market for extended periods of time and just do what they want to do. Agile and MVP concepts force the issue of a reality check as quickly as possible. It’s like the Japanese concept of lean manufacturing: reduce the amount of work in process inventory and you will find the flaws and waste in your manufacturing process. Funny how all these industries, from software development to manufacturing, all ultimately arrive at the same wisdom over time.
Use Agile and Lean Concepts for a Smoother Software Deployment
It’s time for the folks that buy and deploy software to learn from these agile and lean concepts. I cringe every time I hear about a potential customer’s long planning and deployment cycle for a new software package. When they are thinking in terms of several months or even years before the first system capability hits production, they are not thinking about the problem the right way.
The problem
Planning for the perfect system that does everything is the enemy of real progress that could improve the business tomorrow. First, you will inevitably not plan for several things that could improve the business because you have confirmation bias in believing that you really understand what will actually improve the business.
Second, the thing that you believe should improve the business (although it might not) will undoubtedly work differently in production than the staged demonstration that you observed. You simply cannot plan for success when the scale is too big because few organizations (none) have the resources to actually plan and deploy at large scale. It just doesn’t work for all the same reasons that software developers abandoned waterfall and embraced agile.
The solution
So what is the solution? Simple. Small and incremental deployments of minimal viable technology functions that deliver well defined outcomes (a minimum viable deployment, MVD if you will). And then another deployment. And another and another and another. In this manner, any singular failure is quickly discovered and quickly modified to address the flaw that was not visible in planning. The failures will also tend to be small and minimally disruptive. As the principles above direct, let people do, learn, collaborate, and correct instead of thinking you can plan your way to large scale successes.
3 Tips to Put Into Practice
How might this work in practice? First, constrain the timeline to have something, anything, deployed in production and improving the business. Any schedule longer than six to eight weeks from initial kickoff to first production output is too long. Narrow the scope until you can hit the schedule target. You can narrow the scope by feature winnowing or by narrowing the portion of the organization that faces initial adoption.
Second, don’t be overly concerned about integrations and optimizations until primary value is achieved. Primary value is NEVER the elimination of gaps between systems. Primary value is always something more fundamental like faster quoting, easier payment of invoices by the customer, easier scheduling due to a map or routing feature, a better sales demonstration, and/or faster communication to technicians through mobile dispatch.
You can always streamline administration between systems AFTER primary value has been achieved. I cannot tell you how many folks buy on the value of “integration” only to discover the integrated solution is a horrible piece of software that fails to deliver the primary value they were seeking. When the primary value fails, the promise of integration is worthless.
Finally, just say no to any vendor that proposes a huge services implementation requirement for your organization to see first benefit. Force them to absorb the risk or rescope the project until you see value in six to eight weeks. This will eliminate most of the failures you are likely to encounter BEFORE you spend a bunch of money for the simple benefit of learning from a failure.
Forcing the discipline that has made agile development so popular onto the application purchasing and deployment process will speed deployments, minimize expenses and failures, and maximize the amount of innovation your organization is able to absorb. Pay close attention to the key principles of agile enumerated above as you plan your next software purchase and deployment, and I bet you will get a far better result for your organization.
Selecting Service Management Software (that keeps accounting happy)
You know it’s time. You need to purchase software to help streamline your services department. Up until this point, your accounting software has been your biggest investment in technology to run your business.
As tempting as it is to throw away your current system in search for the perfect all-in-one (a mythical unicorn if you ask us), transitioning away from your existing core financial system is risky. On top of that, why change what works for your construction division and back office just to solve the problems in your service department?
While an all-in-one is not the answer, you also know you can’t afford to adopt service management software that doesn’t work with your company’s accounting system.
What are Your Options?
Given that 1) you want to stick with your current accounting system, and 2) you need service management software that works well with this system, you have two options:
An add-on service module to your accounting system
A stand-alone application that integrates with your accounting system
Option 1: Add-on Service Module
Most construction-focused accounting programs have attempted to solve the service management pain point for their customers with an add-on module that talks to the core accounting system. Examples include Sage Service Operations (SSO) as an add-on to Sage 100/300, and FieldEase as an add-on to ComputerEase.
But these add-ons are designed with your accounting system (and ONLY your accounting system) in mind. These modules help gather the relevant accounting information, but how else are they benefiting your company and your customers? More on this below.
Option 2: Stand-alone Application
Integrations may vary depending on what’s possible with your accounting system. Look for a page like this on the application’s website. Integrations with server-based systems require more of an investment than integrations with cloud-based software. You’ll want to ensure the company offering the application has made that investment and knows their stuff. You can address this in the evaluation process during your demo. After the demo, ask for referrals from customers who use your accounting software, so you can hear directly from them how the application works with your current systems.
5 Questions to Help Evaluate Options
Let’s start with the most essential question – one you need to answer for yourself before speaking with vendors.
Question #1: Who Drives the Decision?
Up until this point, your accounting department has likely led the way on technology decisions because they hold the keys to what has been the most important software system in your business. But prioritizing the needs of accounting above all others when selecting a service management application is a common trap for commercial service contractors.
The good news is you can adopt service management software that keeps your accounting department happy, while also prioritizing the needs of your customers – the group of people whose needs must be driving your decision.
Make Your Customers Your North Star
You are operating in a market that is more competitive than ever. You have new competitors that are undercutting you on price, you are finding it more difficult to hire and retain good techs, and your customers are demanding more information, transparency, and convenience.
These customer expectations will only grow. Look at what companies in other industries did to leave the competition in the dust, or worse, put them out of business:
The success of each of these market leaders is in large part due to their relentless focus on meeting customers’ needs and exceeding expectations by delivering an unparalleled customer experience. It’s time commercial service contractors adopt the same approach. A strong service management application will help you do so.
Accounting needs relevant information from service management software so they can deliver an accurate invoice to the customer. But is that all your customers need? Of course not.
Your customers need to know what your techs found on the service call – risks to their business, their severity, and how the customer should address those risks. A strong service management application will empower your techs with tools to collect this information and deliver it to customers quickly and conveniently, which builds trust and generates additional revenue for your business.
Avoid Costly Mistakes – Get Started
So you’re ready to invest in software to improve service management but you need it to work with your current accounting system. You know your decision must be guided by the needs of your customers, not the needs of accounting.
What other questions should you ask when evaluating your options?
To help you along, we’ve developed a simple, straightforward resource for those involved in the software purchasing process for commercial service contracting companies. If your company is ready to take a customer-centric approach to service management software adoption, then it’s time to talk to ServiceTrade.
Cyber Attacks in Fire and Life Safety
In 2019, there’s a fresh wave of ransomware hackers targeting US-based fire and life safety contractors that have legacy server systems. Several have been either forced to pay a bounty or face devastating disruptions when the cyber attack is unleashed. If you believe you are safe because no one is going to notice or care about your business, you are wrong. And the weakest link on your network that hosts your legacy server systems is no match for the professional criminals that are extorting you.
Now is the time to move all of your critical customer operations data to a modern cloud architecture. It is no longer a matter of being competitive in customer operations in your market. It is now about a choice to remain an ongoing business concern or be wiped out by a cyber criminal. The idea that you want to connect all of your technicians and all of your customers to a server on your network for them to collaborate in delivering your service value opens up innumerable vulnerabilities. It is just a crazy idea. If instead, they are all connecting to Amazon’s network (all ServiceTrade applications are protected by Amazon’s security) or Google’s network or Microsoft’s network, you are largely insulated from attack.
No one keeps their financial assets in a safe on their property any longer – they trust a commercial financial institution to be a good steward and use computers to deliver interesting applications to protect those assets while growing their value. It is time to take the same approach with what is arguably the most valuable asset of your business – your customer operations data. Who do you serve? What is the schedule? What equipment do they have? How do they pay you? What is your contract with them? What new opportunities for revenue are at their locations? If this information is protected by Amazon or Google or Microsoft, your business can continue to deliver value everyday. If it is vulnerable because of a legacy server on your network, that value can slip away pretty quickly. Don’t lose what you have worked so hard to build simply because you did not take the time to transition to a modern customer management platform.
Need help buying SaaS software?
You’ll always make good software-buying decisions when you follow the 6 pieces of advice in the Software Buying Guide for Commercial Service Contractors. Download and read it here.
The All-in-one Software Fairy Tale
There is no such thing as an “all in one” software application for anything. Like a unicorn, it is a neat idea (who wouldn’t want a friendly horse with a horn) that is nothing more than a fairy tale. Yet it is probably the most popular unicorn that commercial service contractors (and others as well) search endlessly to discover. And yet it just will not die in the minds of those that seek it.
So what do software vendors do? They play to market bias and adopt the “all-in-one” promise into their marketing messaging. They pique your attention with claims of the elusive all-in-one software. However, when you take a closer look, you find the unicorn is simply a horse with a horn taped to its head. And the vendor trying to sell it to you is a charlatan. Their website sucks. Their technology is server-based. (Which nobody should be buying in 2019). And their LinkedIn page shows they have like 9 employees, with the trendline going down, not up.
We have debunked the idea of a magical “all in one” application over, and over, and over, and over again. So you can imagine my shock when I saw a company that I admire marketing their application as an “all-in-one”.
ServiceTitan: “All in One” for Home Service Companies
ServiceTitan is a very successful company that offers a high-quality, modern customer service application for home services companies. I admire their growth. I admire their management team. I admire their technology architecture. And in their marketing, they use the “all-in-one” label to get your attention. I get the idea. I suppose it just makes sense if everyone is looking for “all-in-one” you might as well have them look at your application and decide for themselves which “all-in-one” is best for them.
But it’s just not true.
How do I know?
Straightaway, ServiceTitan tells potential customers they will need to buy an accounting application such as QuickBooks or Sage Intacct. “Wait a minute!” you say, “I thought ServiceTitan was an all-in-one?” Nope. Not really. That was just marketing.
Second, they promote several other integrated partner applications to their customers so that they can get greater value from the platform. These include GPS tracking, pricing, and online review applications. “Wait, what about the all-in-one?” you declare again. Nope. Sorry.
Finally, they publish extensive documentation for developers to extend the application and integrate it with other applications via their Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). “Wait!” you say again, “A true all-in-one doesn’t have to integrate with other applications because it should already do everything.” Sorry. That’s just not the case.
Separating the ServiceTitans from the Charlatans
So how do I square all of my admiration for ServiceTitan with my historical disdain for companies that, like them, make the “all-in-one” promise? More on that in a minute.
First, let’s answer a more important question. How can you, the commercial service contractor, know how to quickly spot a charlatan promising a unicorn but secretly selling you the same, tired horse with a taped on horn?
Do a little research and answer some basic questions to look for red flags:
What does their website look like? Is it modern and mobile friendly, or does it take you back to the 1990s?
Is their software cloud or server based? No one should be buying server-based software in 2019.
Check out the company LinkedIn page. How many employees do they have? What are their backgrounds? Has the employee count grown in the last few years? Growth is good.
Can their software easily connect with other applications? Look for a list of integrations or search for API documentation. It should be obvious how the software can connect with other interesting applications to further extended its capabilities.
(For a more in-depth resource to help you with vendor selection and software buying, download our free software buying guide here.)
Rethinking “All in One” – What ServiceTitan Taught Me
I’ll admit it. ServiceTitan forced me to stop and table my typical disdain for “all-in-one” promises from software companies. They are a sound company with a high-quality product. And while they may not be an “all-in-one” application, they are “all-in” for their customers’ success. Plus they are very focused on who that customer is – home service companies – and it shows on their website.
My advice to you? Stop chasing that elusive unicorn – stop looking for an “all-in-one” system because – just like the unicorn – it’s only a fairytale. And it’s not what you really need.
Instead, look for the vendor that is “all in” for your success. A vendor like ServiceTitan. They know your business, they understand their strengths and limitations and can connect you with trusted partners who can meet your needs that are outside their scope. They’ve blazed a new trail for companies just like you in your industry who want to be innovative, and they’ve guided hundreds down the path before you. Just like ServiceTitan is “all in” for home service providers, ServiceTrade is “all in” for commercial service contractors. If you want to learn how ServiceTrade is “all in” for our customers, schedule a demo today.
The Road to Success is Paved with Good Integrations
As VP of Customer Success at ServiceTrade, what everybody calls me at work is “that guy who can answer your questions about integrations.” The number of meetings I’ve been called into to discuss integrations with customers has gone up dramatically in 2018. I’ve noticed a theme in a lot of these conversations: customers aren’t really comfortable talking about integrations. They don’t know the terms, they don’t know where to start thinking about it. So today I want to tell you some basics about how to integrate good software with ServiceTrade.
Good software should have an easy-to-find API. If you aren’t sure whether a software application you’re considering has an API, it should be as easy searching Google for “____ API documentation.” No search results is a bad sign! Good software is often found on Zapier.com, which is an integration platform that moves information between web applications automatically. If a software application is on Zapier, you can be assured that it definitely has an API, it’s modern, and that it should play nicely with other pieces of good software. If you’re buying good software, you can avoid getting trapped by bad software decisions.
To set the stage to talk about good software integrations, it’s important to understand that everything in life – including software – has a special purpose. It has one thing it was designed to do and if you expect much more out of it, then you’re going to have a bad experience.
Let’s use an analogy. If you had to choose between those two vehicles: If I want you to hop into one, head around town, pick up groceries, drop off the kids. Which one would you choose?
The car. That’s an easy one.
I’ll ask you another easy one. What if I want you to tool around the bay, do some fishing, and some sunbathing.
Right. The boat.
Let me make it a little bit harder. What if I ask you to do both of those things? What if I ask you to run some errands, pick up the groceries, then head out and do some fishing and some sunbathing, then head on back home?
I think you’d tell me that you’d hop into the car to do the first set of things and head down to the boat to do second of things, then you’d get back into your car to head home. That seems pretty obvious.
But when it comes to software, a lot of people think, “You just asked me to do car things and boat things . . . I’ve got to have a carboat! How am I going to do car things and boat things unless I go buy one of these?”
This looks a little ridiculous, it doesn’t make any sense, and I think it’s obvious when you look at this photo why. This is not a very good car. And it’s not a very good boat.
When you’re looking to solve your business problems, that is the perfect time to be thinking about choosing the right software application for each of your specific problems. It’s also the perfect time to make sure you’re not about to make a carboat-buying decision.
So what should you look out for? If you hear:
“Well, it wasn’t designed to do that, but it could.”
They mean that 8 months and thousands of dollars later, it still won’t do what you want.
“I think there’s a workaround.”
They mean it’s going to be harder and more complicated than you want.
“It doesn’t have all those things you said you needed, but it should get the job done.”
They mean it doesn’t have the things you need and it won’t get the job done.
We do not tell people that ServiceTrade is going to solve all their business problems. We often point out all kinds of things that we aren’t the best choice for like payroll, accounting, truck tracking, payment processing, and sales CRM. We like to talk about ServiceTrade as good software that you can integrate with other good software to solve those problems.
So rather than focusing on making a carboat, focus on easing the car-to-boat transition. Or, bringing it back to software, easing the transition from one piece of software to another piece of software. At the end of the day, that is what integrating is all about – easing the data transition from one system to another system.
But if you aren’t careful, you’re going to end up with a very bad car-to-boat transition.
Let’s define 4 stops on the road to success so we don’t drive a boat into a car.
1. Know what you want. You’re going to have all kinds of questions about how things work, and that’s good. I recommend working a structure around those questions called “if this, then that.” It’s very simple: If this thing happens, then this other thing should happen. If you use this formula to think about what you want to happen in an integration, you can hand this to any software developer and you’ll be way ahead of the game. 2. Document your ideas.
Determine the source of record – where your information originates and what direction that data should sync. Here’s an example using Pipedrive (a CRM) and ServiceTrade.
Create a Flowchart. Create a visual representation of your integration. Check out this example from the online cloud-based application at app.flowmapp.com. I used this tool to document the service workflow for a ServiceTrade customer to clearly demonstrate where ServiceTrade fits into their existing business process. You get a really nice visual representation of your integration and gives you a good way to make sure you’ve covered all your requirements.
Document a scope that includes:
Description
Requirements
Desired user behavior
Deliverables
BudgetFor documentation, use online collaborative tools like Google Apps. The sharing feature and version control of shared files gives you a single source of record for your integration documentation.
Test cases This is a more detailed version of your “if this, then that” thought process. It’s clearly-defined step-by-step processes that ensure that you can test that the integration is working like you expect.
3. Manage the project. Use project management software to organize your thoughts, your plans, and your team around the integration. Take a look at Asana and Trello.
4. Do the work. Who is going to do the work? Is it you? This is the reaction you should have to that question:
There are lots of places to find qualified developers to write integrations for you. The first stop you should make is ServiceTrade. We’ve gotten pretty good at integrating various web apps with ServiceTrade. But we’re not the only game in town, you can look at hiring a freelancer from Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer. With everything you’ve documented, toss it to a developer and let them bid on it. You’d be surprised by what you can get done on these sites.
If someone else is doing the work for you, what are you responsible for? Testing, testing, testing, testing, and testing again. You’ll also be responsible for documentation for the business processes that you want everyone to follow. No matter how obvious steps are to you as the creator, it’s definitely worth documenting it for the rest of your team.
Here’s a list of applications that ServiceTrade customers have integrated with our app to expand the power and functionality of our application. It includes things like CRM, custom notifications to customers, after-service surveys, general data sync for additional file backup or sending notifications to Slack channels, custom forms, accepting credit card payments onsite, the possibilities really are endless.
AI, IoT, M2M, Big Data – The Alphabet Soup of Technology Jargon You Need to Understand (Part 1 of 2)
In 1984 I was seventeen years old and working as an usher in a movie theater when the science fiction thriller The Terminator was released. It was a surprise hit, and I must have seen the movie a couple of dozen times. In case you are not familiar with the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a human-like cyborg, a Terminator, sent from the future with a mission to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future resistance leader that is fighting the Terminator’s artificial intelligence master, Skynet. Aside from the obvious standout qualities of Schwarzenegger’s physique (a former Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia) and the incredible strength demonstrated by the cyborg, the Terminator looks and even acts somewhat human. To remind the audience that the Terminator is actually a very sophisticated computer, director James Cameron sometimes displays the action from the perspective of the Terminator.
In these “look through” scenes, the audience is presented with a screen that is apparently the field of vision of the Terminator. The film color quality is replaced with mostly red, white and black imagery. Superimposed on the imagery is a bunch of scrolling text gibberish and some highlighted, flashing square boxes to call attention to certain data elements the Terminator may be analyzing – a person’s body size for suitable clothing, weapons in the hands of potential antagonists that must be foiled, etc. Of course, if the Terminator was really a sophisticated computer cyborg, there would not be an internal display barfing computer gibberish onto a screen in a manner that was readable by humans. Computers do not need human-readable text to operate on data the way humans need it. The computer would simply be ingesting external data via the cyborg’s camera eyes and his microphone ears along with any other external sensors for temperature, pressure, odor, and what not. Based on this observed data, the Terminator would be making judgments and taking actions that would have a high probability of creating a path to accomplish the mission – the termination of Sarah Connor. All of this would be happening without a human readable screen display.
Why am I talking about The Terminator? Why is the detail of the Terminator’s view of the world as depicted by the movie director important? I am talking about The Terminator to illustrate the point that artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), big data, and all of the other alphabet soup puked up on a daily basis by technology media and vendors hyping their products is generally nothing more than the collective, gradual evolution of computers. In 1984, James Cameron could imagine a computer that understands and speaks natural language, sees real-time imagery, reacts to its environment, and takes actions to accomplish the mission. To portray the Terminator as a sophisticated AI being, Cameron showed the audience a visual model that generally represented what computers looked like to the masses in 1984 – a somewhat low-resolution screen with digitized text scrolling on it with an occasional selection option that would become highlighted if you tabbed a cursor to it (remember, the mouse was a new thing in 1984 as the first Apple MacIntosh computers just shipped that year). Cameron could not assume that the audience would make the leap to his futuristic interpretation of an AI-enabled cyborg, so he showed the audience a 1984 computer interface to make certain they got the connection. All this stuff in the media about AI, IoT, machine learning, big data, blah, blah, blah is just the real world catching up to what James Cameron predicted would happen way back in 1984.
Today we are talking to our phone to have it dial our best friend. We are issuing verbal commands to our Alexa assistant to have it order pizza or play our favorite music. Our Nest thermostat is monitoring our habits, such as when we come and go, along with our preferences for ambient temperature in order to take actions regarding raising and lowering the temperature where we live. These common applications of AI would have been totally foreign and inconceivable to a movie audience in 1984. But James Cameron had a vision of what artificial intelligence could potentially accomplish in the future, and he did a really good job presenting that vision to the audience in a way that they could understand it. Let’s do a quick reset on some over-hyped terms – AI, IoT, and big data.
Artificial Intelligence – AI is just the trend toward computers ingesting more diverse data in more formats (i.e. images, audio, natural language, pressure, temperature, humidity, etc.) to enable analysis that leads to judgments and actions related to accomplishing a mission or objective. Because AI is more of a trend than a definitive end-state, AI can simply be classified as Hofstadter, a famous AI scientist, describes it – “AI is whatever hasn’t been done yet.” More accurately, AI is simply the leading edge of new capability for computers to operate more intelligently on a broader diversity of data.
Internet of Things – IoT is simply a trend where more and more things are connected to the Internet to send or receive data or to act upon data received. Historically connections to the Internet were people staring at screens (and increasingly listening to audio speakers) and entering data or responding to data received. “Things,” whether a cyborg like the Terminator or a $10 temperature sensor, don’t need screens (nor keyboards or a mouse or speakers) to send and receive data or to act upon data received.
Big Data – Big Data is simply the collection and analysis of data sets that are too large for humans to effectively parse, analyze, and extract intelligence from using simple programs like Excel. Ever cheaper storage and computing cycles lead to ever-increasing data collection, storage, and analysis. Again, big data is simply a trend and not a definitive end state.
Over time, computers will progress to read a broader spectrum of inputs, make more sophisticated judgments, and take an increasing variety of actions that lead to desired outcomes. No one was talking about AI in 1984 – no one in the mainstream media anyway – because the topic was confined to a small group of computer nerds at top technical institutions like Stanford and MIT. Yet the director of The Terminator could imagine a future where a computer becomes so powerful that it can measure its environment in a humanlike manner, make judgments based upon those measurements, and take intelligent actions to execute a mission – in this case, the termination of Sarah Connor. It is unlikely that anyone who saw The Terminator in 1984 remembers the on-screen effects that Cameron used to connect the audience to the idea that the Terminator was a computer. I bet everyone who saw the movie remembers the Terminator’s mission, however. What was the mission? To terminate Sarah Connor of course.
Whether an innovation can correctly be labeled as AI (or with any other overhyped term of the day) is far less important than whether the innovation helps accomplish the mission. The Terminator’s mission was to terminate Sarah Connor, and the Terminator was extremely well suited for carrying out the mission (although it actually failed in this case). Defining the mission that you would like to accomplish with AI, IoT, big data, etc. is actually much more important, in my humble opinion, than the actual technology you select to achieve the mission. Have you thought about the mission that you want to accomplish using technology?
I believe the mission you are generally attempting to accomplish through technology is to maximize customer equipment performance while eliminating equipment failures so that your customer experiences the least risk, expense, and disruption in their business. The reason that technology is important as an enabler of this mission is because it is generally cheaper and easier to manage (sometimes) than people. If you accomplish this mission, your customer will spend zero dollars recovering from disruptions (lost output, spoiled inventory, damaged property, emergency services) while maximizing the amount of money they spend with you relative to other suppliers.
I will continue this topic next week with real-world examples of how AI, IoT, and big data are being used by service contractors today. I’ll also have some advice to make sure that what you’re building is more like a high-performing Terminator than a cobbled-together Frankenstein monster.
ServiceTrade sells software, so we spend a reasonable amount of time coming up with ideas and content (like this blog post) to help customers make better and faster decisions about buying software (preferably from ServiceTrade). We are particularly fond of catchy, summary phrases and slogans that are memorable for the same reason that consumer marketers come up with jingles that stick in our head. Humans are impressed by and gravitate to rhythm and rhyme (along with images and stories) as a mechanism for storing and retrieving information. It is easier to learn the lyrics to a song than to memorize a speech. If it has rhythm and rhyme, you are more likely to remember the phrase.
So what is the catchy breakthrough I am seeking with this post? I have been writing a lot about how to evaluate and purchase software applications to increase the value of your business. You can check out some of that content here, and here, and here. My latest breakthrough in measuring software value is what I call the “bank bandit barometer” (note the meter and alliteration of that phrase! nice huh?). Why did Jesse James rob banks? ‘Cause that’s where the money was held. Banks are more dense in money than restaurants, or retail outlets, or hotels, for example. A robber is going to get more bang for his buck (or more bucks for his bang if he has to deploy his weapons) by focusing on banks instead of these other cash-poor outlets.
So what does any of this have to do with software? Well, the “bank bandit barometer” for software purchases would say to look for software that helps bring more bucks into the business. What is the metaphorical bank for a service contractor? Where is all of the money? I would argue that the biggest hoard of cash to go attack with software is the cash that is in the hands of the prospective customers in your market. Cash that is currently being spent with other vendors or not being spent at all due to lack of attention. The potential customer spending in the addressable market that can be reached by your services represents probably 1,000 times your current revenue. Maybe only 100 times your revenue if you are a larger contractor in your market.
Contrast this bank vault of customer spending with the focus of most service contractor software consideration – how do I lower my payroll by being more efficient internally? How do I lower my administrative costs? By definition, your administrative costs are some small fraction of your overall revenue. Maybe 10%, or .1 times your current revenue. If you were a bandit, you would be doing poorly using software to “stick up” your administrative payroll. Wringing dollars from administrative payroll is like a bandit sticking up the local neighborhood kids lemonade stand. There just ain’t much money there, so any robbery that is focused on extorting dollars from the lemonade stand is doomed to marginal success at best.
So, what do you think about the “bank bandit barometer” for software purchases? Are you focusing on innovations that help you take more money from the bank that is the market you service? Innovations that help you sell to the customer accounts that you covet? Innovations that help you charge more? And deliver new capabilities? And attract a better class of customer to your business? Are or you content to hold up the lemonade stand because the poor kids running it are a soft target? Think like a bank bandit next time you go out shopping for software applications.
When I joined ServiceTrade to begin its services division in 2012, Billy greeted me with the welcoming threat “if you screw this up I’ll fire your ass.” I’m still with the company, so here is my advice for how to buy good software and not get fired in a growing company.
Use the right tool for the job. I didn’t set out to solve our CRM, marketing, accounting, and payroll challenges. I was looking for the right tool for customer service. Any software that says it can solve all of your problems is going to be terrible at everything. I focused on choosing the right tool for one problem at a time.
Choose good software. Two of the most important elements of good software is open APIs that allow for integrations with our other applications and that it is SaaS. The picture below shows what integration looks like with bad software. Nobody at ServiceTrade is spending time managing our own servers. We have better things to do with our resources.
This is what integrations look like in a server environment.
Blow it up from time to time. When I started, I chose ZenDesk to run customer service. About five years later, we blew it away because something better came along. We discovered that Intercom offered a few more integration options and we like its online chat. So one morning in about four hours we unplugged ZenDesk and plugged in Intercom. It didn’t require us to change our accounting system. It didn’t bring down our CRM. It was just like when you get a flat tire – you pull over, change the tire, and leave the rest of the car alone.
Enable more integrations. In making the change to Intercom, we added more options for creative integrations. We rely heavily on Zapier to connect our apps to each other, so compatibility with Zapier is a must. Search for “Zapier library” to get an idea of how an application you are considering can connect with other apps in your company.
Be decisive. The Practical Guide to Buying Software for Service Contractors gives you six things that should be easy to determine when you’re working with a good software company. It’s important to us that our applications keep up with the pace of our growth and new ways to help our customers. If that means adding new software, we’re decisive and act fast by following the tenets in this guide.
This blog post is adapted from a 2017 Digital Wrap Conference presentation by ServiceTrade Vice President of Customer Success James Jordan. Presented here without the rooster photo.
You’ll always make good software-buying decisions when you follow the 6 pieces of advice in the Software Buying Guide for Commercial Service Contractors. 
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