With 200 field service technicians across 11 oil and gas basins across the US, Solaris needed to invest in technology and widen their digital transformation program. They chose ServiceMax for complete asset visibility, flexible mobile access, and for efficient and reliable data collection.
"What we have with ServiceMax today is a relationship where we’ve built such a bond and trust with them, we view them as a partner that helps fuel our longer-term growth. It doesn’t matter what question or problem we put to them. They will work diligently to bring us a solution."
Kerrie Greer, Director of Field Service Operations Support, Solaris Energy Infrastructure
Solaris Energy Infrastructure delivers reliable equipment and technology where our customers need it, when they need it. The company integrates proven energy solutions, in-house expertise and customer-centric service to maximize performance, value and return on investment.
Solaris Power and Logistics solutions are engineered to enhance operational efficiency, maximize uptime and drive long-term value. Its all-electric, mobile technologies are designed for quick mobilization and installation to fit customer operational needs, delivering unmatched reliability and performance.
The Challenge
With over 200 field service technicians working across 11 oil and gas basins across the US, and multiple maintenance and repair yards, Solaris is both manufacturer and service provider of its equipment, serving major oil and gas customers across North America. The company offers round-the-clock support, preventative and predictive maintenance, training and troubleshooting, including 24-hour coverage to ensure the reliability of its systems.
The company’s existing field service tool had very limited functionality, essentially only capturing what actions a technician had taken with very limited opportunity to maximize any wider data collection, asset intelligence or bigger picture insights.
“It was hard to understand maintenance trends across our equipment, gain insights into the time and value our technicians were delivering for our customers, or identify where we could make further service improvements,” said Kerrie Greer, Director of Field Service Operations Support for Solaris Energy Infrastructure. “We measure our success by the value we deliver to our customers. We needed a more comprehensive field service management platform to capture wider trends across specific parts and equipment, give us a more granular view of equipment performance at specific customer sites, as well as deeper insights into technician work and time spent on each job. In the same way we invest in innovation around our products, we wanted to up our game on the way we deliver our services.”
The Solution
In 2019, as part of the company’s ongoing technology investment and wider digital transformation program, Solaris selected ServiceMax as its field service management platform of choice for complete asset visibility, including the ServiceMax Go app for flexible mobile access out in the field. The company also recently deployed ServiceMax Data Guide, enabling technicians to collect information efficiently and reliably so complex forms, inspections and checklists are all executed correctly.
“ServiceMax gives us granular visibility and accountability on how we support our customers, and ensures the safety of our technicians,” added Greer. “If you’d asked me back in 2019 why we selected ServiceMax, I would have said it was because we were trying to solve specific challenges - not knowing all of the great things the platform can do. Now we’re five years in, I can tell you ServiceMax has helped us rethink our service strategy. They are relentless in their own ongoing innovation around their solutions, which benefits us and in turn, our customers. What we have with ServiceMax today is a relationship where we’ve built such a bond and trust with them, we view them as a partner that helps us to fuel our longer-term growth. It doesn’t matter what question or problem we put to them. They will work diligently to bring us a solution and help us think outside the box.”
The Results
For customers, ServiceMax is now instrumental in minimizing non-production time (NPT) for Solaris customers. The platform is not only improving the efficiency of repair and service maintenance work orders, it is also enabling Solaris to provide service feedback to different parts of the organization, such as Sales and Engineering.
“One of the processes we use within ServiceMax is what we call a Job Problem Notification,” explained Greer. “When something happens on a job, we have a whole workflow that feeds into our engineering reviews to see if there is a trend, such as an engineered part. This type of infinity loop – from the field to manufacturing – means we continually learn and improve. We are constantly looking at ways to ensure customer NPT levels are as close to zero as possible.
"Likewise, we have an internal mantra within our organization that ‘facts are friendly’. We look at how a decision or a change in process impacts other departments, outcomes and what it means for our customers. Our technicians can directly provide feedback about a change, for example, saying ‘it’s really good except for this one step.’”
The ServiceMax platform also enables Solaris to identify and resolve equipment issues before the customer even notices there is a problem, thereby avoiding NPT for customers. In this way, customers don’t feel any of the issues while they’re being addressed and before they cause unnecessary downtime.
“Our 200+ technicians are now more empowered than they’ve ever been before, which elevates the service and innovation we deliver to customers,” said Greer. “As a manufacturing company that also delivers service, there’s nothing more powerful than having over 200 people regularly on site with eyes on your equipment every single day and being able to report something as soon as they see it. Having this data come back to the maintenance team or engineering department in real time is a gamechanger for us.”
From a technician perspective, all work and time is automatically logged. When technicians get back to their hotel, there is no additional manual entry, and checklists automatically pop up at each appropriate step of the process. More importantly, it’s helped both Solaris and its technicians better understand their specific skill sets, competencies and bench strength.
“We utilize the technician profiles to make sure we have the right headcount and the right combination of skillsets in each basin – even down to the type of vehicles they’re allocated,” said Greer. “We make sure our headcount and competency combination match the activities and objectives required. When a new technician joins us, we have an automated competency review after day 45, 60 and 90. It’s a win-win for us as employers. Our technicians get the opportunity for knowledge training and progression, and our customers get the right technician for the job,” said Greer.
Additionally, ServiceMax is also delivering rich asset data insights on customer visits for deeper understanding, forward planning and reporting.
“With ServiceMax, we have so much insight into customer visits that it’s almost as if we’re riding along side the technician on their site visits,” Greer added. “We can see exactly what actions were taken, what impact they had on our equipment, and how it impacts the customer. This subset of data alone has transformed our approach to service because we can see things now that we couldn’t see before.”
Moving forward, Solaris is now evaluating additional ServiceMax solutions as it continues to invest in innovation and redefine industry standards for its customers.
“We’re in the business of building relationships and delivering products and services that continually raise the bar for our industry,” concluded Greer. “ServiceMax is instrumental in helping us achieve that.”