Field Service Industries Can Revolutionise Site Audits With Smart Video

Field Service Industries

With smartphone penetration increasing in the UK, many organisations have started to adopt bring your own device (BYOD) policies for enterprise collaboration. Companies with large field services teams are taking this one step further, utilising the power of video for rich information capture, intelligence, and insight.

With close to 1 million minutes of video crossing the internet per second in 2020, and nearly 59% of executives saying they would rather watch a video than read text, the power of video in field services is real.

Video technology can deliver efficiencies in field services while helping companies enhance worker safety. Vyn SmartVideoNotes capture updates from your field engineers in simple, 30-60-second ‘vyns’ and helps augment workflows with its embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The solution’s state-of-the-art algorithms can not only transform field workforces but also benefit enterprises with intelligent automation, smart recommendations and real-time analytics.

Video intelligence an alternative to site audits: Here’s how

Field service organisations are constantly looking to improve efficiency and reduce the number of visits required to a site. This is because field audits often require multiple visits by different engineers leading to increased spend in terms of time and company overheads. Scheduling multiple visits leads to delays and customer frustration, sometimes even attracting regulatory criticism. Moreover, information shared over the telephone or in writing cannot always accurately capture the nuances of the site. This is where video intelligence can help make remote audits more efficient.

Moving away from complex forms, AI-powered smart video technology, such as Vyn SmartVideoNotes, digitises and enriches the paper-based process and significantly reduces the need for repeat site visits. Any engineer can go to a site, open a smartphone, shoot a guided video based on a predefined ‘storyboard’, and then upload it. The rest of the work is done by the video intelligence platform, which converts voice to text and video to annotated photographs, ready for audits.

Some of the key features of video intelligence are:

Customisable storyboards:

When a field services engineer visits a site for a preliminary audit or to carry out repairs, all they need to do is open the Vyn for Service app on their smartphone and start shooting. To ensure all the key areas are covered, the platform features ‘storyboards’ – which are essentially prompts that guide the engineer to record all the key aspects of the site. For example, ‘Is the water inlet in good condition?’ and ‘Is water flow now normal?’ – for each prompt, the engineer simply records the appropriate footage. Once the video is uploaded to the platform, Vyn’s technology converts all these recordings into individual images with text captions, stamping them with the date, time and location to enable convenient retrieval.

Seamless integration with CRM/WFM systems:

The Vyn for Service platform can be seamlessly integrated with enterprise CRM and back-end systems. Upon upload, video notes are automatically labelled and categorised into the existing enterprise workflow. This harmonises communications between the field, the enterprise and external stakeholders, such as third-party contractors. Companies can also integrate the solution into Salesforce (or other platforms), providing the sales teams with complete visibility of opportunities, while removing all burden of remembering aspects of client interactions. With Vyn ‘prompts’, links to previous relevant videos will be emailed to teams before a client meeting to ensure they are fully briefed.

Predictive analytics for smarter decisions:

Once a site visit is completed, a supervisor is able to access SmartVideoNotes, review the information and make a judgment without having to visit the site. Vyn’s AI-based analytics platform can spot trends, predict actions and propose recommendations, enabling supervisors to easily decide next steps. Executive decisions like provisioning equipment, sending the right teams and obtaining the right permissions — these can all be completed faster and with greater accuracy.

Deploying video intelligence for audits

Vyn’s smart video technology can be deployed by industrial companies for remote audits. During Q2 2020, one UK utility company was facing limited availability of call centre agents and technicians, putting pressure on their customer services. The organisation deployed Vyn’s SmartVideoNotes to integrate video intelligence into its day-to-day workflow. The deployment enabled it to achieve a safe and superior customer experience and the need for field visits reduced by at least a third.

Another client, a UK telecoms network infrastructure provider, wanted to conduct an audit without the need for supervisors to physically visit the sites. The organisation deployed Vyn for Service SmartVideoNotes and achieved same-day audits without the need for site visits.

Intelligent solution for future-proofing remote audits

The field service market will be worth $5.1 billion by 2025. But field service organisations are constantly looking to improve efficiency and reduce the number of visits required to a site. Now, with the ongoing pandemic, fewer field visits and remote working has become the need of the hour.

With Vyn SmartVideoNotes, field engineers can optimize site visits by opening a smartphone, shooting a guided video and then uploading it online. The rest of the work is done by the state-of-the-art algorithms which provide enterprises with access to intelligent automation, smart recommendations and real-time analytics. Over time, continued insight from the technology can improve organisational productivity and compliance.

Find out how VynSmartVideo notes could benefit your enterprise by improving the efficiency of field engineers and optimising site visits. Contact us for a demo today at [email protected]