Notes from presentations by James Jordan and Brian Smithwick

DWC Recap: Part Two

Last week, we shared notes from Billy and Shawn’s keynotes. This week, we’re recapping James Jordan’s Amplify Your Advantage With AI and Brian Smithwick’s ServiceTrade Innovation Roadmap. 

One quick note before we dive in: DWC attendees can save 15% on annual subscription upgrades and new SalesManager, PartsManager, and InspectionManager subscriptions through June! Book some time with your account manager to learn more. 

Now, let’s get started with AI. 

Amplify Your Advantage With AI

Is AI, as it exists today, capable of anything? No. Is it capable of a lot of things? Yes! James Jordan began his presentation with some examples of what AI can do. It can design a warehouse, create a web application, produce a song or a video. And (this is not in the presentation) it can take good notes. 

And so, since we have a pro-AI culture, and I am an, ahem, efficient writer, I’ll let our AI take it from here…

Introduction

• James Jordan introduces himself as the VP of Artificial Intelligence at ServiceTrade.
• He intends to discuss how AI can amplify advantages for businesses.

AI’s Ubiquity and Impact

• AI is a hot topic with frequent announcements from companies.
• AI is creating, transforming, or potentially eliminating jobs.
• James is an AI evangelist, believing AI will be a positive force for growth and value.
• He asserts that AI will make ServiceTrade more valuable and help customers grow.

Addressing Skepticism

• Acknowledges some may not believe in AI’s potential or feel lost on how to start.
• Introduces the concept of the “AI Aha! Moment,” a tipping point where one realizes AI’s potential.
• Encourages audience interaction to share their AI Aha! Moments.

Overcoming Initial AI Failures

• Discusses common experiences of initial AI failures leading to abandonment.
• Shares a story about ServiceTrade’s CTO, Brian Smithwick, who initially dismissed AI but was eventually impressed by an AI-generated ASCII art of a chicken.

Investment in AI

• Massive investments in AI signify its importance and future impact.
• Key Statistics:
  • Funding for generative AI increased eightfold since 2022.
  • Nvidia reached a $1 trillion valuation.
  • Significant investments by Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and others in AI technology.

Historical Context and AI Evolution

• AI has a long history, starting with the word “robot” in 1921.
• Key milestones include Alan Turing’s work, early chatbots, driverless cars, IBM’s Deep Blue, and Watson.
• Differentiates between AI, machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI.

AI’s Current Tools and Popularity

• Popular AI tools: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, DALL-E, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, Meta AI, and Anthropic’s Claude.
• AI’s rapid growth: ChatGPT reached one million users in five days.

Addressing AI Concerns

• AI’s rapid development can be concerning, but it should not lead to inaction.
• Historical skepticism towards new technologies (cars, email, internet) parallels current AI skepticism.

Practical Steps and Future AI Uses

• Identify AI Champions: Designate individuals in the company to lead AI initiatives.
• Have Fun with AI: Encourages playful exploration of AI to discover practical business applications.
• Examples of AI Use Cases:
  • Intelligent scheduling and dispatching.
  • Predictive maintenance.
  • Augmented reality for field service.
  • Voice to text for field technicians.
  • Automated invoicing and HR management.

Have you seen ServiceTrade’s Smart AI features?

“I want to highlight the driving principle behind every Smart AI feature we’re working on:  unblocking your revenue generating asset, the technician. We want to help you give them more information more efficiently, and remove as much admin burden from them as you can. We are confident that Smart AI will help you do just that.” – James

Data Collection for AI

• Emphasizes the importance of gathering and structuring data for effective AI use.
• Discusses ServiceTrade’s Smart AI features designed to improve efficiency and reduce admin burden.

Addressing Labor Shortage and Experience Gap

• AI can help mitigate the labor shortage and fill knowledge gaps as older technicians retire.
• Potential AI applications include dispatching, scheduling, equipment failure prediction, tasking templates, field expertise, and AI vision and audio capabilities.

Encouraging AI Exploration

• Explore AI tools: Use AI tools to enhance various business operations.
• Be Curious: Stay open to new AI-powered tools and innovative uses.

Conclusion

• AI is an unstoppable force that will reshape the world.
• Businesses need to embrace AI to avoid being left behind.

THE SERVICETRADE INNOVATION ROADMAP

Next up, Brian Smithwick, the CTO and cofounder of ServiceTrade, shared the ServiceTrade product roadmap, highlighting newly implemented and soon-to-come updates.

To start, he summarized what you’ve been up to…

Achievements of ServiceTrade Customers

• ServiceTrade customers perform 5.8 million jobs annually, with 24,000 appointments each business day.
• $6 billion in invoiced commerce flows through ServiceTrade yearly.
• Customers create $7.5 billion worth of quotes, with more than half approved.
• Over $200 million in parts are purchased through the platform.
• Fire protection customers submitted over 800,000 NFPA inspection forms.
• Mechanical customers created over $3.5 billion in maintenance and project proposals.

ServiceTrade’s New Brand Presentation

Then, Brian reminded everyone that we have some new branding around here.

• ServiceForms is now InspectionManager.
• PartsLedger is now PartsManager.
• NorthBoundary is now SalesManager.

ServiceTrade Platform Areas of Focus

As our product team innovates, they are always keeping these five core areas, the essence of ServiceTrade, in mind:

• Technician Productivity: Providing task lists and rich asset details for technicians.
• Office Coordination: Improved scheduling, dispatching tools, parts, time tracking, project management, and asset insights.
• Customer Communication: Enhanced communication tools like Service Links, Invoice Links, and a customer portal.
• Management Visibility: Greater visibility into data, from a holistic view to individual asset details.
• Sales Success: Detailed maintenance and inspection proposals to facilitate sales.

ServiceTrade Ideas Portal

The ideas portal is a platform for customers to submit, vote, and comment on product suggestions. Over 40 customer suggestions have been implemented since the portal’s launch in February! You can participate at ideas.servicetrade.com.

Feature Release Process

Brian summarized how ServiceTrade releases new product features and updates. It typically happens in three phases:

• Early Adopter Phase: Initial access for selected users to influence development.
• Open Beta Phase: Feature is stabilized and ready for broader testing. Chat with your account manager if you’d like to join!
• Generally Available Phase: Full access for all users with complete support and documentation.

Recent and Upcoming Innovations

• Office Coordination: Improved project management, financial oversight, change order tracking, job page updates, and purchase order tracking.
• Technician Productivity: Enhancements in deficiency recording, asset comments and attachments, time clock improvements, and job items workflow.
• Customer Communication: New look for Service Links, automatic quote reminders, and enhanced quoted services.
• Sales Success: Introduction of SalesManager with built-in pricing templates, CRM, pipeline management, and professional proposal templates.
• Platform Enhancements: Unified experience across products, simplified user access with Single Sign-On, and smarter use of data with AI innovations.

Smart AI Features

• Smart Transcribe: Voice-to-text transcription for capturing tech insights.
• Smart Comment: Converting raw transcriptions into professional job comments.
• Smart Summary: Compiling detailed summaries of job histories for customer reports.

Upcoming Smart AI Feature

• Smart Asset: Providing techs with comprehensive summaries of asset service histories.

Simplified Login Process

• Single Sign-On (SSO) for secure access across ServiceTrade products.
• Integration with Microsoft Entra ID and Google Workspace for seamless user login.

User Experience and Navigation Refresh

• A more modern, responsive, and unified user experience across all ServiceTrade products.

Office Coordination Enhancements

• Introduction of a new dispatch board with improved views, job queue, job search, and filter capabilities, and map scheduler integration.

Technician Productivity Improvements

• ServiceTrade Tasking: Simplifying repetitive asset tasking and ensuring techs perform the right tasks at the right times.
• InspectionManager Forms: Adding 40 new NFPA forms for fire and life safety contractors.
• Compliance Engine Integration: Automatically uploading inspection reports to Brycer’s Compliance Engine.

Management Visibility Enhancements

• New ServiceTrade Dashboard: Embedded, cross-product, fast, and predictive analytics with customizable drag-and-drop dashboards.

Sales Success Enhancements

• SalesManager to ServiceTrade Data Sync: Seamless conversion of maintenance agreements into customer contracts and assets.
• Enhanced CRM capabilities, activity reminders, opportunity views, and sales lead entry form.

Get Involved!

To end the presentation, Brian encouraged you to join the Open Beta programs and let us know your ideas via the ideas form.