Field Service To Become Primary Revenue Driver By 2018, Says New Research

86% of Companies Say Field Services Will Become A Primary Revenue Driver In 2 Years, With 73% Already Citing Positive Impact of Field Service Management on Profitability

22 June 2016 – London, U.K. – Field service will become a primary revenue driver by 2018, according to a new independent study from Vanson Bourne, commissioned by ServiceMax, the leader in cloud-based field service management solutions.

Vanson Bourne surveyed 200 IT and field service decision makers in US, UK, France and Germany in companies of all sizes with customer field service departments. The report found that 86% of companies state field services will become a primary revenue driver for their organisations in an average of 24 months.

“Fuelled by the shift to outcome-based service models, shrinking product margins, and globalisation, industry watchers have been predicting that service revenue will eventually eclipse product revenue,” said Callum Budd, Project Manager at Vanson Bourne. “This is something echoed in our own research findings as 73% of businesses already cite field service management as having a positive impact on their organisations profitability, and 47% say field service management reduces costs.”

Most manufacturers have spent the best part of the last 50 years making sure they can efficiently make good products and their reward is a profit margin at the point of sale. The problem is that those profit margins are getting thinner and thinner. In a globally competitive market, many products are now commoditised, and with such tightly squeezed margins it’s diminishing the leverage from this sort of production-centric approach.

“Senior management are realising that service is the hidden gem within their organisations, which is something we’re already seeing in our own global customer base,” said Spencer Earp, Vice President EMEA for ServiceMax.

As companies begin to properly monetise their service departments, they have the opportunity to increase service revenues even further by supporting existing third party or competitive products. This creates an ongoing relationship with the customer that effectively locks out competitors, and provides an effective hedge in a downturn economy.
To download a copy of the executive summary and/or the full report findings, please click here.

About ServiceMax

ServiceMax leads the massive global industry of field service management software -- an $18 billion market worldwide. The company continues to reimagine and create solutions for the 20 million people globally who install, maintain, and repair machines across dozens of industries as the only provider of complete end-to end mobile and cloud-based technology for the sector. ServiceMax goes to every length -- from joining technicians on service calls to publishing the industry's leading online publication -- to help customers discover untapped innovation, unleash new revenue streams, drive efficiency, and most importantly delight their end-customer. To learn more, please visit www.servicemax.com.

About Vanson Bourne

Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Our reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and our ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com.

About the report

During April 2016, research firm Vanson Bourne interviewed 100 IT decision makers and 100 field service decision makers from the US, UK, Germany and France. To qualify for the research, respondents' organisations could be from any size and sector, but the organisation had to have at least one field service engineer. The IT decision makers and field service decision makers were interviewed using an online methodology and a robust multi-level screening process was used to ensure only appropriate respondents participated in the project.

Media Contact:

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: +44 (0)7768 693779
vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com