Innovate with Ludia: The Dynamics 365 Physical Operations Podcast
Join us on the 'Innovate with Ludia' podcast for discussions on Physical Operations, including D365 Field Service, IoT, Mixed Reality, D365 Project Operations, AI, and more. We'll cover industry challenges, new features, and insights from Microsoft, MVPs, and ISVs.
Innovate with Ludia: The Dynamics 365 Physical Operations Podcast
Elevating Service Quality with Proactive Technology
Unlock the future of field service with AI and IoT in this enlightening episode of Innovate with Ludia! Join our conversation with Kevin "Raz" Razavi, Ludia’s solution architect, as we uncover the evolution from traditional maintenance to lucrative service streams that customers are eager to invest in. We'll explore how predictive maintenance and proactive service, driven by smart data and AI, are setting new standards for speed and reliability in the market. Kevin shares his expertise on overcoming data management challenges, making the right technological investments, and driving cultural change within organizations to enhance decision-making and service quality.
Ever wondered how AI can solve common field service headaches like incorrect part orders and repeated technician visits? This episode answers that question by showcasing the transformative power of AI in improving data quality and providing smart tools for technicians. We discuss the hidden costs and logistical issues of operational errors and how AI can streamline workflows without replacing human roles. Emphasizing the importance of proper data entry and change management, we highlight the necessity of a robust technology stack and reliable partners in elevating field service efficiency.
Get ready for the Community Summit in San Antonio! We're excited to connect with industry experts and share our insights on how AI can enhance the technician's experience and improve service delivery. This episode captures our anticipation for face-to-face interactions, the thrill of presenting, and the collaborative spirit of the summit. Join us as we thank our listeners and encourage you to stay connected by subscribing to our podcast and following us on LinkedIn. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to stay at the forefront of AI and field service innovation!
Welcome everyone to another episode of Innovate with Ludhia. For those that listened in on our last podcast, we had a session with Nick Tauzma. We're talking all things community summit in his session, and today we're doing the same, but this time with Kevin Raz Razavi. That's why I'm calling you Raz. That's your new nickname, Raz.
Speaker 1:Love it, kevin? How are you Good? How about yourself? Not too bad. So, kevin, you've been at Ludia now for a while and you are a solution architect focusing a lot on the field service, say, project operations, component of things, what we call physical operations. Well, you and I actually are tag teaming on a couple of sessions, which is very exciting, and so I wanted to really bring you in to talk about the sessions and what we're seeing right and what we're seeing out there. And so talk to me about the two sessions that we're doing in our audience and what you know. Really, what's the basis of these sessions that we're going to be presenting on? No one wants to hear from me.
Speaker 2:They want to hear from you. Well, first I want to start. Thanks for having me on today. I'm excited to be speaking with you and speaking at the summit. The topic of field service transformation is something that I'm incredibly passionate about. It's representing a significant change in how organizations think about and deliver field service. The idea of the service station turning services into a profitable revenue stream is gaining momentum. Many organizations are sitting on untapped potential and I wanted to shed light on how they can unlock that, especially with the help of modern tools like field service, physical operations, project operations, and it's just about moving beyond just maintaining equipment and fulfilling service orders. It's about creating the value that customers are willing to pay for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I couldn't have said it any better, and so I agree. Right, what are customers willing to pay for from service? Because, if you think about it, right, let's think about our everyday lives. So let's think about our cars, our automobiles. Right, we have options where we want to bring our vehicles for service, whether it's an oil change or something more significant.
Speaker 1:Right, and so the question becomes who do you go to? Do you go to someone that you trust? Do you go to someone that adds additional value? Do you go to those that are most experienced, or is it all of the above right and so it's? The same thing is with when we talk about field service and we talk about B2B or B2C. That same sort of concept and the tools that technicians have to provide that service and the data that they have access to to provide that service is very critical.
Speaker 2:It is very and it's also when the customer the consumer is looking for that service technician for that repair. They're also looking at who's the fastest right. How can we get a technician scheduled and be working on my car, a piece of air conditioning unit, as soon as possible? And that's where the industry now is buzzing with transformation, because we're seeing more and more companies realizing the value of proactive and predictive maintenance driven by IoT and AI. And these technologies offer smarter, data-driven decision-making, reducing downtime and improving the service quality. And the market is seeing a shift in the customer expectations. Clients today expect faster, more reliable, and they're willing to pay for a premium for that. So the shift is pushing companies to innovate and differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you're spot on. I think that's where you and I have been talking about a lot in terms of preparing our presentations. With that AI flavor in it. It's not just any more about connected field service with IoT and machine learning. It's a combination of everything that's available in the marketplace, and AI and co-pilot whatever we want to call it today is such a huge part of that discussion.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:And with the AI, first step is we got to get all that data the IoT data, the maintenance schedules and providing the service histories and just downloading, giving that brain all that knowledge and then taking it.
Speaker 2:The next step with AI, to transform that data and how that's going to apply with these companies to make faster decision-making, faster repairs and scheduling. It'll be faster for them to schedule and find those work orders so that they can get a technician on site and start, you know, making the repairs and capturing all the data to build a customer. So it's a lot, and that's one of the biggest barriers is the initiation and the initial investment from technology and the change management that comes along with it, because it not just requires a new tool, it's a culture shift within the organization and the complexity of integrating with these technologies with existing systems can be daunting, but it's achievable. And another challenge that companies have to look out for is their data management. Companies always have a ton of data, but they lack the strategy or tool to transform that into actual insights in training their workforce to adopt these new tools.
Speaker 1:Yeah, spot on. I mean, think about it this way. Right, and I thought about this earlier. Right, a lot of us have a I don't want to say her name, alexa, because then she'll start talking uh or a google device or some other smart smart device in their home. Where they can, they can tell it to do things, but it also is smart enough if it's connected to your home, like my home is fully connected, right, it can tell me, you know, x light bulbs have been right, based on the useful life, remaining life of this, because how long I've had this light bulb on? Hey, you might want to look at replacing this. Or my refrigerator water filter or whatever else might need something. Oh, your dryer vent seems to be clogged.
Speaker 1:All of these things are conveniences for us as consumers, but it's the data and it's how often we're using things and we're connected to it, and it's seeing the patterns and the trends and it's providing recommendations or even just suggestions to us. And that's what AI, connected field service, machine learning, all of these different tools if they're utilized properly and you have solid data. The foundation is, of course, going to be the solid data, but if you have these tools in place, then not only is it a value to your organization's field service technicians or field workers, but it's also a value to the customer. And so, to your point, how much is the customer willing to invest? It is an investment. Invest in these additional add-on beneficial services, right?
Speaker 1:I mean, think about, wouldn't it be helpful to understand if a household appliance in your home is kind of on the fritz? Maybe the motor is running hot or it's got some extra vibration, or you know? Hey, based on what we're seeing in the marketplace, this thing's only got about another six more months left to live. I sure I would love to pay, you know. I mean, if that weren't part of the package, as a homeowner I would love to have it because of the inconvenience. But as a business, not having a specific piece of equipment operable for a significant period of time costs revenue. Me it's just an inconvenience. Now I got to wash dishes by hand, okay, or I have to do something else by hand or go whatever, but from a business perspective it's potential loss of revenue.
Speaker 2:It absolutely is and I will say it's having that data and having that visibility from a revenue perspective I mean that is going to generate more revenue have to invest in the change management and they get the buy-in from their key users, Just how we purchase a product and we start using it and we start buying more of it and because you like the product line, the interface, the data provides and it provides a necessary tool in our consumers' eyes. So we need to also do that with these B2B customers and these organizations, to do that buy-in with these tools and the capability that they have with these data transformations and the AI and the co-pilots, and it's going to be revolutionary.
Speaker 1:It's better from a technician's perspective, right. From a technician's perspective, right, if we're out in the field and or even if I'm sitting at my desk and I I want to ask questions, right, and to be able to have the system go out and find the information for me based on what I'm asking it. Right, I did I ever think five years ago this would happen? Probably, I don't know, you know and you know potentially, but okay, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. However, right, if folks attend one of our sessions, which is about the evolution of IoT, which, again, we'll have AI included in it, this conversation started decades ago. This technology started decades ago, before you and I were born. Yes, but no one understands that. There were visionaries way back when that could see hey, connected devices and artificial intelligence, right, that's the wave of the future. And everyone probably thought back then yeah, okay, great.
Speaker 2:We don't even have.
Speaker 1:You know, we didn't even have internet. I mean right, we didn't have Wi-Fi, we didn't have any of this stuff, but all that stuff was in the works decades ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this, and you know, like you said, people thought it's going to be 20, 30, 40 years from now, and this and this is where we are and this is the time, and this is the next big wave, I think, since, since internet, that we've had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean honestly. I mean I remember the internet and when cellular phones first became publicly available and it was like hey, but you got to pay for minutes and there was really no internet, right, it was. You could, you could phone, you could text with all the numbers and that's great and you're paying. You know you're paying a premium for all this stuff and we never thought, oh, we'd get the unlimited data and and not have to worry about phone calls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, free night weekends like wait till seven o'clock or nine o'clock to call somebody.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I'm really dating myself, aren't I? Me too? But again, it just goes to show the evolution of not only technology, but of service right. Because if you think about that from a consumer perspective, that's a. If you had to choose today between hey, here's the service where you could say pay for minutes and pay for you get X number of text messages or your data package and you get so many minutes or so many messages, or hey, for $30 more a month, you don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 2:Stuff you can get unlimited, absolutely, it's just a no-brainer. Yes absolutely.
Speaker 1:We won't get into the whole throttling discussion if you go over all of your data, but that's a story for a different day.
Speaker 1:But I mean, think about it. If you go back to the B2B conversation, right, it's that same conversation that companies can have with their customers about the value add, right, this is, hey, you know, pull up some issues that happened a year ago, two years ago, whatever hey, if we had this back then, here's how we could avoid all this stuff and here's the value right. So it took two days to get another, you know, a part in or a replacement or whatever. And you know, based on industry averages, that costs you X thousands of dollars and lost revenue. How much is that worth for you to not to have that happening? How much is?
Speaker 2:that worth for you, not to you, not to have that happening? Yeah, there's. And then, from a technician standpoint, even now, it's, you know, having that service repair history, because if I've been a customer for a service company for x amount of years and I need you know the technicians out there, okay, when was the filter last replaced? I don't remember. And instead of them, they're going to go through their system, go back, look at work order history, and that's going to take some time. Versus when you have AI, you could just say, hey, when was the last filter replaced at this site, at this customer's house?
Speaker 1:And think about it even at a more macro level. If we take it and say it's a category of equipment or a model or a make and we ask it questions at that higher level and understanding how often something breaks down or something gets replaced, now AI right, if we set it up properly can do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and you're shaving down minutes from the tech it can actually repair. It's saving the customer time and saving them money, and it's also then enabling technicians now to complete work orders and have time to do another service run before they have their shift.
Speaker 1:Or if you're using things like problem resolution codes and your equipment has these codes. Where have I been seeing this or where has this been happening with similar equipment, and what's been those fixes that have occurred or the resolutions that have occurred by other technicians? Have the system tell me that, instead of me looking for it.
Speaker 2:Yes, because that's knowledge transfer right there between the technicians, without even having to phone them up, look through notes. But it's just identifying it and not having somebody to say, oh, this has been a recurring problem, let me go find it. It's like no, that data is there, we can see it.
Speaker 1:So the idea of right. We always talk a lot about metrics in field service and one of the key ones right is first-time fix rate.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And how much a truck roll costs for a second or third time due to, you know, not having the right parts or the right tools or not having the right information. What if AI? Right, because the system alone won't do that for you. Right, it's what the information you pull from the customer. However, what if, in theory, you had AI that could help, could help when you're having these conversations with the customer and they're putting in like I'm having these sorts of issues or it's customer self-service into the right hands so that the proper potential diagnosis could be made.
Speaker 1:The potential parts that may be required are on hand and available to the technician as well as the tools.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you hit on a key part is that the part inventory when the part would be available, how often, and then you can use that data because we know, okay, when these machines hit this certain time, we're going to need to have these parts on hand to swap them out, because we're going to know when we need to replace them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not even a matter of having AI tied into field service in terms of D365. I can have AI tied into my backend ERP system from a parts and inventory warehouse and availability and what's coming in when. Because a lot of times, right, we don't have that in the front end field service system because that's backend, but there's no reason why we can't tie into that. And I can't tell you and I had this conversation during one of previous podcasts with the field service global black belts, with Marcio Ducat and Michelle Albright and David Humphreys, and we talked about my electric stovetop that's in the island and one of the burners the knobs blew. Well, they had to get a component that went underneath, but something got lost in translation between the technician and the system and the people that were ordering it and they sent me burners and not the parts that control the burner.
Speaker 1:So great, he comes out. It's like I don't have the right parts, so then they have to order these other parts. I go what do you want me to do with all these parts? He's like you keep them, they're, they're yours. Now I go what do I need to do? Great, I'll keep them, because if it goes, now I have extra parts. But what does that? That costs somebody something, right? The parts cost something. The technician's time because he had to come out three separate times right, in addition to the initial diagnosis, one, three separate times to fix this issue because wrong parts came Didn't cost me a dime. It was under warranty. But it cost somebody something. It cost the manufacturer, which I think was KitchenAid. It cost them, I don't know, hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars Plus shipping and vehicle maintenance costs, dispatching and the technician again, again waiting for the parts.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah I, I mean. So if you start even not if you to your point, you raise a very good point, because a lot of times we look at it from either the truck roll and the maintenance of the truck and the and the technician's time. What about everyone else's time? How much does that cost? Yes, right, no, we all forget about that. Right, there's people in the back office that are doing the scheduling or the billing or the ordering contacting manufacturing.
Speaker 2:If one company doesn't have it, trying to find it from another manufacturer. It's a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so having AI one right in theory and we've done this for other customers validate certain things or even ask additional prompting questions to make sure we're getting the right information and we understand. Oh so you want this part? No, no, no, I don't want this part. I want this part. No, I don't want this part. I want this part. Let's get that ordered. It's about making the system smarter, but the systems are only as smart and the AI is only as smart as one. What we're asking it and two, of course, the back-end data. That's what everyone, I think, needs to understand as well is that the tools are here. The technology in terms of the transformation for field service and evolving it into this high-performing service-based organization. It's here the onus is going to be on. What's the quality of the data that your technicians and back office people are putting in Right and how are you setting up your technology stack and who are you using and do they understand your industry and that in this space and the technology?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because too many times and we've seen it many, many times you and I right Migrations, new implementations or an upgrade or whatever, and we're looking at this data and we say, oh my God, what happened here? Right, and you know, same customer names spelled differently, addresses abbreviations.
Speaker 1:You know people don't want to put the data in and we always say garbage in garbage. Know people don't want to put the data in and we always say garbage in garbage out. Yes, yes, so you know. That's where I think to your point when you specify change management. That is a key area. It's not just change management in terms of the technology but, again, yes, we do need to educate individuals on what this means. Ai is not taking over the world. It's not taking over technicians' jobs. It's not meant to take over technicians' jobs. It's meant there to be another tool in their tool set.
Speaker 2:I absolutely agree with that, because that's what it's not replacing, but it's enhancing. It's enhancing our work experience.
Speaker 1:Love it, Just like you and I. We use Copilot or ChatGPT or whatever other AI engine to ask questions or find out certain things because, honestly, it's faster.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:We take it with a grain of salt because it's not like it says. It may not always be 100% accurate, and that's fine, it gets me. It may not always be 100% accurate Okay, and that's fine, it gets me to where I need to be going. But from a system perspective. So if we take that AI and we bring it into an enclosed system like a field service or an ERP right, we need to make sure that that data is solid and that the people are understanding that. You need to take the time now, invest the time to put the data in properly. Technicians as well. Technicians don't want to be in front of this putting in field service notes and everything. But now you can dictate to it. You don't have to type it, dictate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can take photos, take pictures, take a video, yeah, you could take photos, take pictures, take a video.
Speaker 1:No-transcript yes, so let's talk a little bit about so. I think everyone probably understands our passion right now for field service, saying, oh my God, are these two ever going to shut up? The answer is no, we're not, so just get over it now. Community Summit as a whole what are you looking forward to, outside of the two of us getting to present and probably driving our audience insane because of our passion? What else are you looking forward to in terms of your time in San Antonio?
Speaker 2:Yeah, looking forward just to connecting with other individuals in the community you know, from end customers all the way to other organizations and just how you and I were discussing all these challenges and what's coming in AI, what we're seeing in the trends and what we're hearing, and really I think the big part of Summit is sharing our experiences and our knowledge and what's been going on and what we we see. You know our predictions and you see what's going to be up and changing and what's going to be driving the next force and and what's working for others and organizations, what didn't work, why it didn't work.
Speaker 1:I think that's going to be the big, big, uh, big talking points yeah, yeah, I think this is a really key year for summit I mean, if you look at, if you go out onto summits you know community summits website, um and you go and look at all the sessions this year I I mean even ones.
Speaker 1:If you just look at just pure AI track, there's a ton of them, but there's so many others that aren't classified as AI, like ours because we put it in field service, that have AI embedded within it, because it really is what I'm going to call it the octopus. It has tentacles all over the place and so to me, when I was looking at and working with you on different topics, I didn't want to just go in there with a pure AI flair and flavor and play. I really want it to be more about. You know again, what I'm so passionate about, which is the field service and physical operations side of things, and really what I call the plight of the technician right and how we can utilize these tools to better enable the technicians, better enable their customers, educate right, educate and inform, make key decisions and inform decisions in a timely manner.
Speaker 2:So I don't know where I was going with that, but I think no, but I think that's where our sessions, that's where we tie in. You know, it's not just AI and representing it. It's really looking at the technician and how AI and tying it all together from the frontline experience to the back office and then, ultimately, which provides an organization's experience and their employees and having their working smarter and not harder, and now they're providing excellent service to their customers and our customers are going to be happy in retention. So it's just one big happy circle then.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and so for me, I love going to community summit, I think one. I love to present and educate folks and really have it be more of, hopefully, an open dialogue. I like to ask the audience questions and make sure that they're getting as much value out of it as possible, I think. For me, the other thing is, of course, being at our booth or just walking around. So we'll have a booth this year Our booth number is, I know it, 1217. I memorized it. So our booth is 1217. I will be, I'm sure you and I will be there quite a bit, you know. But I love talking to folks in the community that are walking by and just have general questions, right, being able to share our knowledge and expertise, or even if it's something that isn't necessarily. I mean, I've had people in the past come up to me and ask me an ERP-related question. Depends on how detailed we're getting, but typically I'll pull in an ERP expert from our organization to say, hey, you know, what.
Speaker 1:I could probably answer that at a high level, but you know, for example, jeffrey Ploshnik, probably better capable person to answer that than me. But I just, and of course, seeing all of our colleagues. I think that's where in this day and age I mean since COVID hit it really hasn't been travel's picked up a little bit from a customer perspective where we are seeing, just like our field service folks right, that on-site presence, especially for repairs, obviously is critical, but our on-site presence sometimes with our customers is critical. So we do get to pick it up a little bit and meet some of our colleagues, but you know there's folks like yourself I haven't met in person yet.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very exciting, you know, and so I think there's a lot to be said about, you know, the community summit. I think, in its wording of it, right, it's bringing the community together, right? It's this massive event talking about, you know, and where folks can go and hear and learn about everything that they want to, whether it's something new to them or something they need to get more details on. I have no idea how many folks will be in our sessions. With all the competing AI sessions, I mean, this year is a massive crapshoot, but hey, look, I don't care if there's 50 or there's five people in there. You know the folks that are in there. They're going to get value from it.
Speaker 1:You know, again, there won't be anything necessarily different about the session in terms of how it's run. It's more about, you know, is it going to be a little bit more personable and asking more questions, or is it going to be, you know, more more structured? Right, I've had it, I think, one year, when it was COVID and everything was online, I think I had one session. I had three people. It was great. We just we made it more interactive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it, yeah, I've had those sessions where it's very small or it's going, you know, it's like 60 people in the room and it's. It's great. I think it's all.
Speaker 1:It's all wonderful just to get together and just chat about this industry and what's going on, and just our experiences and what's upcoming and what's what worked, what hasn't worked. Yeah, no, absolutely so. I think that's that's a great thing about Summit. So, if we go back to our all right, so we're, we're.
Speaker 1:We're getting close to running out of time and I think this is a topic that you and I could probably spend hours on, so we might have to have a follow-up session, kevin and just talk about field service and field service transformation, but I want to let our listeners know the two sessions that we're both speaking at, and the first one is field service transformation how to servitize and monetize any field service organization. That one is on Wednesday, october 16th, from 4.30 to 5.30 Central Time in Room 211. And then the second session is Navigating the Evolution of IoT and Connected Field Service and, yes, it will have AI in it. That one is Thursday morning, october 17th, from 8.30 to 9.30. So, yes, grab your coffee. Maybe, if you're lucky, I'll bring some coffee in for everybody. I know it's early. It'll be early for us.
Speaker 1:That one is in location at room 213B. So, lots of coffee, we'll have a good time. I know it's the last day of the event, but we're not last and we're not the least and we're going to have a good time. We're going to rock out both sessions. So, yeah, just very excited, I think. In general, I think it'll be a good session. You and I have spent probably countless hours putting together our deck and taking things out and putting things in. I still don't think we're done. Probably we're going to add some things and take some things out, but it's been fun putting it together and getting ready for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too. I may look very excited for it.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:So any parting wisdom, Kevin, or I'm going to call you Mr Raz, for our listeners heading into Summit Get ready to socialize and talk and share your experiences and meet new people and meet a lot of great folks in the industry and meet a lot of great folks in the industry.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yep, bring the energy, bring the excitement. If you have any physical operations questions, sales, customer service, field service, project operations or ERP, come, hunt us out, seek us out. If you don't see us in any of the sessions, stop by our booth at 1217, the Ludia Consulting booth, and hopefully we'll get to meet a lot of you there. In the meantime, kevin and I, we thank you for listening or tuning into this session, depending on if you're listening into it on your favorite podcast app or if you're watching this on YouTube. Again, thank you so much for your time and we hope to hear from you soon. Thanks everyone. Thank you for listening to the Innovate with Moody podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app or follow us on LinkedIn. Until next time, I'm Thank you.
