Supporting the Enterprise in a Post-COVID World

cgsinc.com2021

Supporting the Enterprise in a Post-COVID WorldTech strategies defining the road ahead for operational leadership

™

In our recent Post-COVID Operational Technology Trends Survey, CGS

polled 100 operational leaders across a range of functions – from the

C-suite to engineering, field service, operations and more – about their

expectations for the upcoming year.

Our goal with this report is to arm operational leaders with insights

around the priorities, strategic shifts and technology solutions that are

being embraced or ignored by their peers across the organization as the

business community begins to look toward its COVID exit strategies.

Perhaps unsurprisingly after a year like 2020, organizations are

squarely focused on maintaining stability in 2021. Yet 2021 also

appears poised to be a year in which cutting-edge technologies like

Augmented Reality enter the mainstream.

Last year was unlike any other in recent history. The big question is:

So, what comes next?

02Supporting the Enterprise in a Post-COVID World


Our survey data reveals several interesting conclusions, which fall into three key themes:

Organizations expect to continue

investing in technologies that facilitate

remote collaboration and health &

safety to maintain stability. Other

technologies, such as Artificial

Intelligence, also receive a fair amount

of attention, while certain cutting-edge

technologies like Augmented Reality

are particularly well-suited to the

challenges of the current moment.

2021 appears set to be the year in

which Augmented Reality moves

beyond early adopters to gain traction

in the mainstream.

Seeking Stability in a Remote

Paradigm

The Technology to Get Us There

The Tipping Point for Augmented Reality Is Now

Organizational priorities and expected

trends all point to the same message:

business leaders are intensely focused

on issues of stability, while continuing

to embrace and empower remote work.

Supporting the Enterprise in a Post-COVID World 04

Seeking Stability in a Remote Paradigm

After a uniquely bruising year like 2020, operational leaders are tightly focused on one objective going forward: steadying the ship

While there is some room for pushing the

enterprise forward in exciting new directions –

including some directly boosted by the global

pandemic, such as eCommerce – our data reveal

a robust consensus that this year will primarily

be about safeguarding fundamentals.

We asked leaders to rank order 11 drivers in

terms of the extent to which each will factor

into operational initiatives in 2021.


To take actionable conclusions away

more easily from the raw data, we have

grouped these

Average rank out of 11 options in response to the prompt “Planning toward a post-COVID environment, what will drive your operational initiatives through 2021?“ A lower number indicates a higher ranking and a more important issue.


Maintaining day-to-day operations Customer demands

/ expectations / loyalty

Safety and health of your teams and

customers

Workeravailability

Shoring up inventory / supply chain

Adapt-and-response strategies

6.0Pandemic Recovery

4.5

Steady State Initiatives

6.0

Forward-looking Initiatives

Too Early to Tell9.3

Real-time communications

Digital transformation

Training (upskilling or reskilling technicians)

11 drivers into 4 themes:

Average rank out of 11 options in response to the prompt “Planning toward a post-COVID environment, what will drive your operational initiatives through 2021?“ A lower number indicates a higher ranking and a more important issue.


Steady State Initiatives

Health and safety ranked first among all potential initiatives in our survey. This

should surprise no one given the ongoing public health, economic and personal

challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other top-ranked initiatives include responding to customer demands and

maintaining day-to-day operations.

3.57.5

7.0

6.5

6.0

5.5

5.0

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

00.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5

% S

tead

y St

ate

Init

iati

ves

% Initiatives

Safety and health of your teams and customers

3.6Customer demands/expectations/loyalty

4.4Maintaining day-to-day operations

6.5Meeting KPIs

Initiatives that exist specifically in response to the effects of the pandemic ranked

below more stability-oriented themes like maintaining day-to-day operations.

This indicates that organizations have largely solved the personnel and supply chain

issues that were so threatening only a few months ago – or that organizations have

adapted to the new normal and have incorporated those challenges into their

operating models.

However, the ongoing uncertainty and constant change associated with the pandemic

has led to a continued focus on adapt-and-response strategies.

Pandemic Recovery


1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

8.0

7.0

6.0

5.0

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0

0

% E

ffec

ts o

f th

e p

and

emic

% Initiatives

4.2Adapt-and response strategies

5.9Worker availability

7.8Shoring up inventory/supply chain

planned to focus on the resilience of their supply

chain1 – and yet today it ranks dead last among

specific initiatives.

(i.e., not including the “too early to tell” response)

of manufacturing and supply-chain professionals


This is a stark shift from earlier in the pandemic.

In July, McKinsey found that:

With so much attention focused on keeping things running smoothly in

2021, there is not much capacity left over for more forward-looking

initiatives, such as digital transformation and upskilling. While progress

will still undoubtedly be made on these fronts this year, it will not be a

primary focus.

Forward-looking Initiatives


% Initiatives

6.3Digital transformation

6.7Real-time communications

7.8Training: Upskilling orreskilling technicians

8.0

7.0

6.0

5.0

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0

01.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

% F

orw

ard

-lo

oki

ng

init

iati

ves

In aggregate, “Too early to tell” ranked dead last among all responses, meaning

that confidence in these predictions is high. While there was one exception:

This is a far cry from the deep uncertainty that permeated the enterprise in the

spring of 2020.

The uniquely high level of uncertainty among Customer Experience (CX)

leaders could be the result of the exceptional degree of change that CX

organizations underwent in the previous year.

While all operational roles were affected by the pandemic, few were impacted as

severely as Customer Experience, with 25 percent of CX organizations going

entirely digital during the pandemic, 25 percent being forced to “totally

reimagine” their strategy, 33 percent making “major changes” and 79 percent

experiencing an increase in customer demand – all at the same time.2


“Too Early to Tell”

of Customer Experience / Support leaders cited “Too early to tell” as their #1 response to what will drive their operational initiatives.

FEWER THANof respondents in any other organizational area ranked “Too early to tell” as their #1 response.

SEEKING STABILITY: A VIEW FROM AROUND THE OFFICE

Among the various roles included in our survey, Operations leaders had the most complex ranking of the issues. While “Safety and health of teams and customers” was the number one driver for 41 percent of Operations respondents, second and third priorities were very fractured, showcasing the amount of change and the number of parallel initiatives that this business unit will need to plan and execute on as we move past the global pandemic.

Where do different teams within the organization diverge in terms of their operational priorities?

Safety and health of your teams and

customers

Real-time communications

Workeravailability

Shoring up inventory / supply chain

Training (upskilling or reskilling technicians

Too early to tell

Maintaining day-to-day operations

Customer demands / expectations / loyalty

Adapt-and-response strategies

MeetingKPIs

1,0

3,0

2,0

4,0

5,0

6,0

7,0

8,0

9,0

10,0

1,0

3,0 2

,0

4,0

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4,0 5

,0 6,0 7

,0 8,0 9

,0 10

,0

Digital transformation

Field Servicesleaders put less emphasis on real time communications than do other teams.

Confidence is high across board – in

general, there is agreement that we

already understand what our priorities

will be in 2021.

Operations leaders see a

much greater need for training

than do other teams.

Field Services leaders place the most emphasis on Customer Demands and adapt -and response, while Customer Support leaders place the least.


C-level

Engineering

Innovation & Strategy

Operations

Customer experience Support

IT/ Technology

Field Services

C-Level

Customer Experience Support IT/ Technology

Engineering

Field Services

Operations


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05

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06 Digital transformation07 Meeting KPIs08 Real-time communications09 Shoring up inventory / supply chain10 Training (upskilling or reskilling technicians)11 Too early to tell

01 Safety and health of your teams and customers02 Customer demands / expectations / loyalty03 Adapt-and-response strategies04 Maintaining day-to-day operations05 Worker availability

This means that most had little experience making rapid, deep adjustments to

how they run their business. And yet the pandemic forced organizational

change on a scale that was unprecedented during peacetime; as a case in point,

Accenture’s CEO recently highlighted one client who “asked us literally to go

from zero people using Teams to their entire 61,000 workforce in five days.”²

While working from home or collaborating remotely has quickly become the

new normal, it’s easy to forget how strikingly abnormal that was even a year

ago – especially for employees in operational roles.


Why such a focus on steady-state initiatives this year?

of organizations were highly prepared

for the impacts of COVID-19.3 Even

worse, only

of senior executives updated their

operating models more often than

“rarely”

2020 WAS ALL ABOUTSUPPORTING REMOTE& DESKLESS WORK

Coming into the crisis, Gartner found that

These aggregate statistics, though, mask sharp divergences among different job

types; for example, the same BLS data shows zero percent of workers in many fields

(including installation and maintenance; transportation / material moving; and

production) working from home even part of the time, and only 7 percent of

services workers working even partially from home.

These in-person occupations were counterbalanced by roles like management,

financial occupations, sales and professionals, each with 28 percent to 30 percent

of workers working at least partly from home.

Many of what we consider essential industries, including manufacturing,

construction, retail, healthcare and transportation, rely heavily on deskless

workers. Think field technicians, warehouse staff, flight crew, utility workers and so

on. In short, working from home just wasn’t a thing for operational teams as

recently as 2018.


Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in 2018

and in the same year, Global Workplace Analytics found that

of American workers worked from

home at any point during the year,4 ONLY

of American workers spent more than

half their time working from home.A MERE


Contrast that with the results of our

recent survey of operational leaders, in

which 44 percent of respondents

indicated that a majority of their team’s

personnel are made up of deskless

workers or are currently working

remotely. More than one-quarter

reported that over 75 percent of their

staff were currently working remote /

deskless.

Breakdown of responses to the question “What percentage of your organization is comprised of remote and/or deskless workers?”

Less than one-tenth remote or deskless staff

Up to one-quarter remote or deskless staff

Up to one-half remote or deskless staff

Up to three-quarters remote or deskless staff

More than three-quarters remote or deskless staff


18%16%

23%

17%27%


of companies

of companies

of companies

of companiesof companies

This shift appears likely to be largely permanent. Gartner finds that 82 percent of HR leaders plan to permit some working from home post-COVID, with 47 percent planning to allow employees to work remotely full time.9 And to support deskless workers, the good news is that several major industries now plan to increase their investment in deskless technology.

Venture Capital firm Emergence conducted a study of 100 companies and found that 82 percent of firms with a substantial number of non-desk employees plan to empower their human workforce by increasing their tech spending. In terms of industries, Transportation (100 percent) is wholly committed to its deskless technology initiative. Manufacturing (91 percent) comes in second, with Retail (83 percent), Hospitality (82 percent) and Construction (78 percent) rounding out the top five.

3.6%

58%


Working remote at least part-time Oct. 2020

Working remote at least part-time

2018

The pace of this change was shocking. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 31 percent of U.S. workers were working from home by early April,

6

and by May of 2020, less than two months into the pandemic, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that roughly 50 percent of American workers were working from home full time.

7

Gallup found that at the peak in late July, nearly 70 percent of American workers were working from home at least part time, and that by October that number was at 58 percent.

8


Looking beyond their own priorities to broader trends within their industries and organizations, operational leaders expect the most important strategies to increase focus not only on remote work itself, but on an expansion in the set of tasks that can be done remotely.

The only other trend with very strong expected tailwinds is a continued focus on

health and safety. Everything else is secondary.

One other interesting observation from this data is that respondents expect both

service response times and first-time fix rates to increase in 2021 (although there is

less consensus on this point than with remote-oriented trends like supporting

remote collaboration).

One interpretation here could be that service organizations are shifting toward

investing more time in their first interaction, reducing the likelihood of additional

interactions with the same customer. Given that first-time fix rates currently hover

around 75 percent10, there is plenty of room for improvement on that front.


2021 WILL BEALL ABOUT REMOTEEVERYTHING

ALL REMOTE EVERYTHING: A VIEW FROM AROUND THE OFFICE


C-level Customer experience Support

IT/ Technology

Engineering


Operations

Field Services

How do leaders of different functions within the organization expect various factors to trend in 2021?

Consensus = increase

Consensus = decrease

C-Level executives have the highest expectationsfor self-service and remote diagnostics.

Innovation and Strategy leaders are most bearish about customersatisfaction in 2021.

Supportingremote employeecollaboration

Use of remote or guided repair, service,maintenance tech

Focus onSafety &Compliance

Enabling customers with remote diagnoses and/or self-service tools

Customersatisfactionratings

Preventativemaintenance

Serviceresponse

times

First-timefix rates

Product design

80%

100%

60%

40%

20%

0

-20%

-40%

-60%

80%

100%

60%

40%

20%

0

-20%

-40%

-60%

80

%10

0%

60

%

40

%

20

%

0

-20

%

-40

%

-60

%

Customer Service leaders are least convinced that remote repair & service will be a trend in 2021 – perhaps this could be because they expect in-person operations to pick up as worker availability stabilizes.


The Technology to Get Us There

Percentage of respondents who selected a given technology in response to the question

In keeping with the theme of seeking stability in a remote paradigm, the top three

technology investments of 2021 all facilitate remote work and remote interaction

with customers.

As might be expected, the extent of investment in remote communication and collaboration technologies is significantly greater among highly remote organizations.

>50% Remote workforce

Communicationsoftware

Multi-userCollaboration tools


<25% Remote workforce

73%

41%

71%

33%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

61%57%

42%

36%

23%18% 16%

14%

Communication software

Multi-user collaboration tools

Remote diagnostics

Artificial intelligence

IoT

Augmented reality

Robotics

Virtual reality

“What new technologies are you using or considering to help optimize your operations?

(Please choose all that apply)”

THE TECHNOLOGY TO GET US THERE: A VIEW FROM AROUND THE OFFICE

What technologies are different functional groups expecting to use in 2021?

C-level executives and Field Services leaders are much more committed to adopting IoT than are leaders in other roles.


CommunicationSoftware

Multi-userCollaboration Tools

RemoteDiagnostics

ArtificialIntelligence

IoT

Augmentedreality

Robotics

Virtualreality

70%

80%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

70

%

80

%

60

%

50

%

40

%

30

%

20

%

10

%

0%

70%

80%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

C-level Customer Experience Support

IT/ Technology

Engineering


Operations

Field Services

Remote Diagnostics is the most controversial tech, with levels of adoption varying widely by role.

THE TECHNOLOGY TO GET US THERE: A VIEW FROM AROUND THE OFFICE

C-level executives are much more committed to Virtual Reality and Robotics than are leaders in other roles in the org.

Field Services leaders place less emphasis on multi-user collaboration tools than other leaders do, likely because their own organizations are less reliant on these solutions and much more dependent on other tech.


Augmented Reality and other immersive technologies are exceptionally well-

positioned to help organizations tackle the major challenges of 2021. Augmented

Reality, or AR for short, is a family of technologies that combine the real world with

the virtual world. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR) technology, which involves a user

becoming completely immersed in a digitally generated world, AR technologies

overlay digitally generated information on top of the real, physical world.

of respondents believe that

AR can help organizations

recover from the impact of

COVID-19.77% 56%

Even among organizations with

no plans to invest in AR by the

end of 2021, a majority of

respondents believe that AR can

help with COVID-19 recovery.

AUGMENTED REALITY IS PARTICULARLYWELL-POSITIONED FOR 2021


AR combines aspects of many other popular technology families: remote

collaboration, communications, IoT and remote diagnostics. Because AR technology

allows for more-sophisticated remote engagement with the physical world, it is

especially well-suited to tackling the challenges faced by operational leaders.

Why are operational leaders so enthusiastic about Augmented Reality?

Communication software

Multi-user collaboration tools

Remote diagnostics

Artificial intelligence

IoT

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

61%57%

42%

36%

23%

“What new technologies are you using or considering to help optimize your operations?

(Please choose all that apply)”



What’s Driving the Interest in AR for Operational Leaders?

Decrease costs

ROI

Rapid shifts in operations

Simulate an experience they need to experience

but cannot

Employee collaboration and

co-working capabilities

To be able to see and analyze before

working on something

From a customer perspective, offer a solution other than

rolling a truck



What’s Driving the Interest in AR for Operational Leaders?

Percent of free-form responses to the prompt “What is the top driver for deploying Augmented Reality solutions?” falling into a given category.

In your view, what are the top 3 key benefits of Augmented Reality (AR)/Extended Reality (XR)? (Choose three)

Provide new ways to sell and demo products

Boosted first-time fix rates/reduce repeat visits

Reduced number of errors

Improved staff safety

Heightened cost savings

Remote connectivity/collaboration

Improved customer satisfaction

Accelerated training

Extended expert reach

Reduced travel time

Increased employee productivity

41%

39%

32%

31%

30%

26%

25%

19%

16%

14%

10%

%

Financial considerations

Customer service

Better or more flexible training

Field services improvements

Enhancing remote work, collaboration or communication

Responding to COVID

Enhanced flexibility

Other

21%

15%

13%10%

9%

9%

9%

13%


Here’s a real-world example of how Augmented Reality might improve service

quality and reduce cost in an operational context.

Today, the average first-time fix rate across field services organizations sits at 75

percent. Meanwhile, 51 percent of first-time service visits that fail to resolve the

issue are failing due to a lack of proper parts.10

AR offers a straightforward solution for many of those failed service visits, simply

by having a technician review video footage of the equipment in need of service

(collected by the customer using a smartphone, by a remotely operated drone, or

in some other way).

Combined with remote diagnostic software, the number of teams rolling to sites

without the proper parts could quickly be driven to zero. And given that the

average cost per truck rolling to a customer site is in the $200 to $300 range,12

field services organizations that embrace Augmented Reality stand to reap

substantial financial benefits.


What Can AR Do for Operational Teams?


Customer Service is becoming a very popular application for AR, a key perceived

benefit, and a key driver for why organizations are considering AR.

Among organizations that have not yet made an AR investment but plan to do so

in 2021:

AR in Customer Service

have incorporated AR into

technical support for customers

plan to do so this year.


plan to incorporate AR into

technical support for customers

this year.

Among organizations that have already made AR investments:


For advice on how to improve these and more customer service issues, please see our

earlier report How to Meet Customer Service Demands in light of COVID-19.13

The primary perceived benefits of deploying AR in a customer service context

are financial:

Increased first-time fix rates • More efficient training • Lower cost of service

What do you feel would be the biggest benefits to incorporating AR into customer-facing technical support?

What are the top 3 customer expectations when it comes to technical support?

58

%

55

%

40

%

30

%

29

%

1%

60

%

51

%

51

%

44

%

32

%

27

%

21

%

Because first-time problem solving is the second most important issue for customers,

and low wait times (which are facilitated by solving more customer issues on the first

visit) are number three.

Why is this so important?


Percentage of respondents who selected a given technology in response to the question

Improved first-time fix rates

Reduced cost of service

Reduced training time in learning programs

Reduced product returns

Increased CSAT score

Faster resolution

Quick resolution time

Low wait times

First-time problem solving

Knowledgeable support specialist

Personalized experience

Multiple ways to contact support

Clear communication process

The Tipping Point for AR Is Now


46%

This year seems poised to be the one in which Augmented Reality technology goes

from the cutting edge to the mainstream.

OF ORGANIZATIONS WILL HAVE INVESTED

IN AR

By the end of 2021

61%

TODAY

UP FROM

28%

Gartner expects “By 2025, over 50% of FSM deployments will

include mobile augmented reality collaboration and

knowledge sharing tools, up from less than 10% in 2019.”14


Among organizations that have not yet implemented AR, plan

to do so in 2021.

THE TIPPING POINT FOR AR IS NOW

Why Now?

The time is right for AR today largely because the

infrastructure necessary to make AR seamless exists

today in a way it didn’t even a few years ago.

Today, 98 percent of companies use or plan to use

phones or tablets, 69 percent use or plan to use wear-

ables, and 58 percent (100 percent in Construction)

use or plan to use drones.15

The pandemic has also pulled forward demand for AR

for reasons we’ve already discussed – an increased

emphasis on sophisticated interactions in a remote

paradigm, a greater need for remote collaboration and

training tools, etc.



While AR is still a small share of most technology budgets, more than 20 percent of

organizations have dedicated over 20 percent of their total technology spend to it.

Has your organization increased or planned to increase spend on AR technology because of the pandemic?

How much of your technology budget is or will be dedicated to AR technology?

A Look at How AR Is Positioned in Technology Budgets

%

9%7%

13%

17%

54%


14

%

4%

18

%

43

%

17

%

2%

Too soon to tell

Significant increase

Moderate increase

Slight increase

No change

Decreasing

>30% of budget

21-30% of budget

11-20% of budget

1-10% of budget

0% of budget

ofcompanies


Not all organizations are equally enthusiastic about Augmented Reality. Those with

less of a technological, forward-looking perspective are less likely to be interested

in investing in AR.

Organizations that are not planning to invest in AR are planning to invest in far

fewer technologies than organizations that are planning to invest in AR.

Who Isn’t on Board?

Percentage of respondents who selected a given technology in response to the question “What new technologies are you using or considering to help

optimize your operations? (Please choose all that apply)”


Communicationsoftware

Artificialintelligence

Multi-userCollaboration tools

Remotediagnostics

Augmentedreality

Virtualreality

Robotics

IoT

35%

6%

33%

16%

2%

1%

3%

3%

56%

52%

51%

47%

34%

28%

23%

20%

Investing in AR

Not investing in AR


Organizations that are not planning to invest in AR are also less likely to expect

increases in forward-looking strategies in 2021.

AR Investing and Forward-Looking Strategies

Responses to the question “At this stage of the pandemic response, what is your expectation for how the following factors will trend for your

organization?”


Supporting remoteemployee collaboration

Use of remote or guidedrepair, service,

maintenance tech

Enabling customers with remote diagnoses and/or

self-service tools

Product design

77%

68%

69%

47%

61%35%

25%

10%

Numbers are a percentage of respondents answering “Increase” minus percentage of respondents answering “Decrease.”


One interesting and unexpected wrinkle is that less remote organizations appear to

be more interested in AR:

Percentage of respondents who selected “Augmented Reality” in response to the question “What new technologies are you using or considering to help

optimize your operations? (Please choose all that apply)”

Among orgs that have already invested in AR or plan to do so in 2021, 90% of respondents believe that AR can help companies recover from COVID-19

and 80% of C-level executives at those organizations agree.

C-level leaders are the most likely to cite Augmented Reality as a technology that

their team is investing in (see page 22, The Technology to Get Us There: A View from

Around the Office), so there is clearly buy-in for the technology from the top.

Buy-in from Unexpected Places

80%

91%Others

C-level


70%

83% Organizations with >50% remote workforce

Organizations with <25% remote workforce


When identifying hurdles to their own organizations adopting AR technology, most

respondents cite issues around fit (identifying a use case or understanding what

options exist) and organizational support (executive buy-in, budgeting or

competing priorities).

Relatively few point to implementation hurdles (hiring the right people to manage

the technology, finding the right vendor or content development).

“What are the biggest hurdles contributing to the timeline for getting started with immersive tech? (choose all that apply)”

What Might Hold AR Back?


Budget

Identifying the right use case

Knowledge/Understandingtechnology options

Competing priorities

Exec buy-in

Finding the right vendor

Content development

Finding the rightinternal talent

59%

57%

47%

37%

31%

25%

22%

18%


No matter what happens in 2021, it seems certain that it will be a more

predictable and less stressful year than the one we just completed.

With organizations focused squarely on stability in a remote paradigm,

the shape of things in the near-term future seems relatively clear.

Equally clear is the potential for technologies like Augmented Reality,

once considered fringe bits of bleeding-edge tech, to solve very

mainstream problems faced by many operational teams in the current

environment and perhaps prevent future issues from erupting.

From virtually any angle, the near-term future looks significantly brighter

than the recent past.

Tying It All Together

https://www.cgsinc.com/en/resources/thank-you-downloading-enterprise-augmented-reality-annual-trends-report

Conducted in December 2020, this survey gathered insights from 100

operational leaders representing the C-Suite, Operations, Technology,

Engineering, Field Services, Innovation, Strategy and Customer

Experience. The focus was to gauge expectations for investment,

operational priorities and challenges in an unprecedented year of

change that would include remote work, pandemic recovery and

accelerated digital transformation.


A Note on the Methodology

7%

C-level

15%Engineering

18%Operations

35%IT /Technology

8%Customer Experience Support

7%

Innovation& Strategy

10%

Field Services

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/industry-40-reimagining-manufacturing-operations-afte

r-covid-19#

https://www.mycustomer.com/service/management/covid-19-causing-sea-change-in-cx-programmes-study-finds

https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-120/Accenture-COVID-19-Continuity-in-Crisis-Effective-Business-Services.pdf

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/ability-to-work-from-home.htm

https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/ability-to-work-from-home.htm

https://www.nber.org/papers/w27344

https://news.gallup.com/poll/321800/covid-remote-work-update.aspx

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-07-14-gartner-survey-reveals-82-percent-of-company-leaders-pla

n-to-allow-employees-to-work-remotely-some-of-the-time

https://fieldpoint.net/first-time-fix-rates/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNzTasuYEw

https://fieldpoint.net/first-time-fix-rates/

https://www.cgsinc.com/blog/how-meet-customer-service-demands-light-covid-19

The Future of Field Service Management, December 2019

http://desklessworkforce2018.com/

Sources

Through the launch of Teamwork AR™ – a next-level learning, development and field support solution – CGS provides organizations with the capability to support workers with seamless visual demonstrations, real-time guidance and interactive, on-the-job training to further global digital transformation strategies and enable technicians and deskless workers in the field.

Teamwork AR is compatible and available through any device, pairing collaboration, chat, analytics and global support tools with high-quality custom content in the form of rich augmented reality experiences. Suited for all industries, the highly secure platform provides engaging, practical, hands-on knowledge transfer at the time of need.

The solution allows for continuous training for global employees through cost-effective means. From knowledge capture and transfer to collaborating with and assisting remote workers, the platform allows for more efficient learning, while increasing employee productivity.

And with Teamwork AR Agent Assist, CGS agents are transported into homes using a customer’s phone or tablet to visually guide them through issue resolution with remote interactive assistance. This helps the customer simply show rather than explain what’s wrong. And, it allows the agent to easily communicate steps to even non-digital native customers by adding visual cues to the real-world environment, showing them exactly what to do.

Agents can connect with customers prior to onsite dispatches to diagnose issues, walk through simple repairs or help customers order necessary replacement parts in advance. This can reduce the number of dispatches, lessen the amount of time spent onsite for technicians and eliminate the need for repeat visits.

To learn more contact us at [email protected] or 212-408-3800, or visit cgsinc.com.

Copyright © 2021 by Computer Generated Solutions, Inc.

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