Every service interaction is made up of countless micro-moments: brief, high-impact tasks that either move the job forward or slow it down, ultimately coming together to form an experience. Whether it’s simplifying documentation, streamlining parts ordering, delivering relevant insights or surfacing revenue opportunities, these micro-moments are critical to frontline success. For service leaders, the question isn’t just how to adopt AI, but how to apply it meaningfully to positively impact technicians and drive efficiency and growth.
Tune in as we’re joined by Edwin Pahk, SVP of Presales and Customer Success for Aquant. He’ll discuss how organizations are rethinking process clarity, frontline empowerment, and even commercial strategy by meeting techs where they are and reducing friction at every turn. Whether you're a service leader navigating AI strategy or a frontline advocate looking for smarter solutions, this conversation offers practical insights and strategies for transforming the frontline experience through AI.

Edwin Pahk is the Senior Vice President of Presales & Customer Success at Aquant, bringing over a decade of expertise in sales and product marketing within the tech industry. With a distinguished background in leadership positions at Salesforce and ClickSoftware, Edwin specializes in deploying and scaling AI solutions across enterprise organizations, ensuring their successful adoption and impact.

For service leaders chasing efficiency, profitability, and better customer outcomes, there’s one lever that’s often overlooked: service parts. Despite its central role in uptime, technician productivity, and customer satisfaction, parts strategy is rarely treated as a strategic priority. But amongst top performers, that’s changing—and fast.

Tune in as we’re joined by Cole Sutter, VP of Global Customer Success for Syncron. We’ll explore why service parts are becoming a critical pillar of modern service operations. Cole will share insights from the field on how companies are rethinking their approach to spare parts—not just as a logistics challenge, but as a driver of profitability, retention, and long-term customer value. Whether you’re focused on operational excellence, servitization, or workforce stability, this conversation will challenge how you think about your parts strategy—and what it could unlock.

Cole Sutter is Vice President of Global Customer Success at Syncron, where he leads customer satisfaction, retention, and value realization across the company’s global portfolio. Syncron empowers OEMs to sell more parts, more profitably, through aftermarket intelligence that seamlessly connects planning, pricing, warranty, and service. His career spans consulting, product operations, and customer success leadership, including previous roles as Syncron’s Chief Operating Officer of Products and Chief of Staff.

Preventative maintenance agreements play a critical role in business growth. Not only do they secure contracts, but they also boost revenue and customer experience. It’s no surprise that many service leaders are turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to unlock new ways to deliver lasting value. The 2025 State of Artificial Intelligence and Service Technology revealed that over a third of service leaders see 'Predicting installed base maintenance needs at scale' and 'Proactively triggering service events' among the most urgent challenges to address through their AI and service technology efforts.
Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, March 6th at 12PM ET as we dive into the power of preventative maintenance agreements. Host Gerardo Pelayo and special guest, Alex Kablanian, General Manager of Commercial & Construction Markets at ServiceTitan, will discuss how organizations can connect every part of the process—from prospecting to converting service agreements—so you can better track, nurture, and expand opportunities. We’ll also talk AI strategies organizations can deploy to gain a competitive edge and build a foundation for lasting growth.
Alex Kablanian is the General Manager of Commercial & Construction Markets at ServiceTitan. With deep experience in the trades, Alex plays a key role in shaping and executing ServiceTitan’s strategy to empower the success of Commercial Service and Construction contractors. His focus is to help contractors succeed in all aspects of their business - whether that’s running it more efficiently, growing profitability, finding new revenue streams, and everything in between.

Few industries have transformed as rapidly as service and support. Digital advancements have reshaped manufacturing and field service, significantly intensifying both asset complexity and service delivery expectations over the past decade. This tidal shift means both service leaders and frontline agents are feeling the pressure to deliver more for the customer today while also achieving long-term profitability. How can organizations break down existing data silos to gain a holistic view of the service lifecycle that drives aftermarket share and customer retention?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, February 20th at 12PM ET as hosts John Carroll and Gerardo Pelayo welcome guest, Sean O’Neill, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Syncron. We’ll explore strategies for retaining customers post-warranty, optimizing inventory, and aligning pricing and parts planning to boost service delivery and cash flow. We’ll also discuss how organizations can utilize data analytics to be more proactive with parts management, unlock new sales opportunities and stay competitive in complex industries.

Sean has spent the past 25+ years at the intersection of client needs, tech & data possibilities, and business impact. Sean is the Chief Product & Technology Officer for Syncron. Syncron aligns all aftermarket services for OEMs & distributors with its Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) cloud platform, helping companies differentiate themselves through exceptional aftermarket experiences while driving significant revenue and margin growth. Prior to that Sean spent long cycles at Amazon, Tesco, GfK, and tech start-ups in building teams that build products that customers love. Sean holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University), is a co-author of multiple patents, and was certified as a Six Sigma Green Belt at Amazon. Outside of work Sean enjoys painting, traveling the world, and dismantling things.

The challenges created by the labor shortage continue to be felt in field service organizations across all industries. The latest research from The Voice of the Field Service Engineer shows this trend is not slowing down, with half of the engineers who expect to make a career move planning to do so within the next 3 years. While service leaders continue to grapple with these challenges, the frontline feels the pressure as they strive to meet utilization rates and customer demands amidst an ever-increasing flow of data.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, February 6th at 12PM ET as Michael Gonzalez, Salesforce’s VP of Product Management, stops by the studio to shed light on how customers like AAA are utilizing AI agents to augment their workforce. He’ll discuss how organizations can implement similar transformative strategies that improve the experience of field service teams while continuing to drive the customer experience.

Michael Gonzalez is the Vice President of Product Management at Salesforce, specializing in Field Service. With a tenure at Salesforce spanning over a decade, he has played a pivotal role in enhancing the Lightning App Builder, focusing on dynamic pages and component visibility to improve user experience. In recent years, Michael has led initiatives integrating advanced technologies into Salesforce's Field Service offerings, including the use of Apple Vision Pro for spatial computing solutions. His leadership continues to drive innovation in AI and data-driven field service solutions.

As AI continues to redefine how we deliver service, the opportunities to provide smarter, faster, and more cost-effective solutions are mind blowing. But with these advancements come complex challenges: how do we make the case for AI investment, scale existing platforms without disruption, and foster alignment between IT and service teams, all while ensuring our teams remain engaged and energized? The key to AI success lies in navigating this transformation with clarity and purpose.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, January 16th at 12PM ET as hosts John Carroll and Gerardo Pelayo tap into the AI expertise of our guest, Niken Patel, CEO and Founder of Neuron7.ai. Having helped many enterprise organizations navigate AI successfully, Niken will help demystify AI and all that comes with it. He’ll explain how to successfully traverse the many crossroads of the AI landscape to ensure you are prepared today for tomorrow’s service transformation.

Niken is the CEO and co-founder of Neuron7.ai, a company that is transforming customer service with AI solutions for complex, enterprise organizations that need fast, accurate resolutions at scale. Niken has 20+ years of experience in customer service and support, making 400+ customers successful in the last two companies that he led. As a serial entrepreneur and senior leader in high-growth technology companies, Niken has experience in strategy, sales, marketing, M&A, and board duties, with an excellent track record of growing companies from a nascent stage to successful enterprises that create tremendous value for customers and stakeholders.

For service leaders, 2025 brings a lot of promise, as well as trepidation. How can they prepare for all the new year may hold while maintaining their competitive edge?

Kick off the New Year by joining Service Council CEO, John Carroll, and VP of Research and Advisory, Gerardo Pelayo for this special edition of the inService Podcast. Drawing on research data, as well as discussions with Service Council members and partners, they’ll discuss the trends, challenges and opportunities they expect to see over the next 12 months.

They’ll answer questions such as:
• What will the top competitive danger be for service organizations?
• Is there an existential threat facing service leaders in 2025?
• How will customer and frontline experiences evolve and what can organizations do to prepare?
• What technology and data strategies are best-in-class organizations implementing?

As service leaders head into 2025, many have a similar question on their mind: What will the new year hold for customer expectations? The research shows that challenges around customer experience (CX) continue to grow for service leaders. According to the 2024 Service Leader’s Agenda, 41% of respondents said that changing customer expectations would have the most significant impact on their organization, a staggering 12% increase from the previous year. Additionally, troubling reports from Forrester found that CX quality hit an all-time low in 2024. As customers increasingly demand hyper-personalized, seamlessly integrated, omnichannel experiences, how can service leaders anticipate those needs, shape the experience and deliver exceptional outcomes at every touchpoint?
Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, December 5th at 12PM EST, as Chris Dexter, Cisco’s Vice President of Customer Experience, stops by the studio. He’ll discuss Cisco’s bold, omnichannel approach, including autonomous remediation and virtual engineer bots, that is propelling CX to Best-in-Class standards and delivering exceptional outcomes regardless of channel engagement. We’ll also explore how CX trends and best practices might be evolving in 2025 and analyze ways in which data, people, process and technology can be operationalized to rise to the occasion.
With over 25 years of industry experience, Chris Dexter is responsible for ensuring exceptional results and the ongoing evolution of Cisco’s industry-leading Technical Support. Chris has a long record of building and leading successful global teams, delivering operational excellence and strategic business transformation. As an influential innovator, he is responsible for developing disruptive new concepts relating to customer value, productivity, efficiency, and service delivery quality. He is also a featured industry speaker and panelist, discussing the role of analytics, automation, and cognitive systems in service delivery.

Sustainability is becoming an indispensable part of corporate strategy for many companies. In 2022, 96% of the companies in the S&P 500 Index published sustainability reports, while this figure in 2011 was merely under 20% according to the Governance & Accountability Institute. Has this represented a transformational shift in the definition of strategic priorities, the allocation of resources and the strategic differentiators? Or is incremental reporting simply checking a box?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, November 21st at 9:00am EST, as Dr. Arzum Akkas, stops by the studio. Pulling from her professional experience and her academic expertise, she’ll share her perspective on how multiple practices across the supply chain can reduce an organization’s environmental impact while accounting for the necessity of building a business case.

Arzum Akkas is an associate professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems and a Master’s degree in Supply Chain Management from MIT. Before becoming an academic, she worked in industry for 8 years as a management consultant at the strategy and operations firm Archstone Consulting, an operations manager at PepsiCo, and a business systems consultant preselling and implementing solutions of the supply chain software Blue Yonder. Her research has been published at leading academic journals including Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations Management.

AI continues to be a top investment for service organizations across all verticals. As the expectations and applications of this game-changing technology continue to expand, some organizations seem to be at risk of pursuing the “advanced” while losing sight of the “relevant”. To succeed along this journey, organizations would do well by learning from the incremental value perceived by those whom AI is meant to empower.
Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, October 17th, as Circuitry.ai CEO and Founder, Ashok Kartham, stops by the studio. He’ll share his observations and lessons learned from organizations who are utilizing AI to successfully influence the frontline’s experience (a path to higher productivity) and the customer’s experience (strongly impacted by product uptime).
Ashok Kartham is founder and CEO of circuitry.ai, a decision intelligence platform for manufacturers to optimize sales, service, customer outcomes. Cirucitry.ai provides Service Advisor to provide answers, guidance, and recommendations to customers, field service, and contact centers.

What is my purpose? This is a question we’ve all likely asked. Leaders in service and support are uniquely positioned to make an impact in the lives of both their employees and customers. However, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and lose sight of the bigger picture ̶ the people. How can service leaders ensure they are harnessing the full potential of service leadership to transform both customer and employee experience?
Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, October 3rd, as customer experience champion Elizabeth Dixon stops by the studio. Blessed to work for extraordinary brands including Disney World, Gap, YMCA, and Chick-fil-A, she will share the secrets to empowering your frontline to deliver exceptional customer experiences and finding the strength of purpose in service.
Elizabeth Dixon is an author, business leader and serial entrepreneur that connects with executives and their teams to integrate strategy, innovation, leadership, and personal development. Mentored by renowned leaders including Dan Cathy and Horst Schulze, Elizabeth brings 20 years of experience as a leader at the Chick-fil-A Support Center, where she served in Service & Hospitality, Strategy, Research & Development, and Human Resources. She has also collaborated with the great brands of Southwest Airlines, Drury Hotels, Zappos, and Wegmans. She shares secrets to creating exceptional customer experiences and finding purpose for audiences worldwide at live events and through virtual video resources, consulting, and her books, The Power of Customer Experience and The Strength of Purpose.

According to Service Council research, service leaders have their sights set on service innovation to redefine value delivery through primarily predictive and proactive approaches that aim to meet customer demands, combat the consequences of talent and workforce shortages and increase operational efficiency. However, as service leaders plot their course to shift left, they’re hitting a common obstacle: translating the ever-growing data availability into correspondingly incremental value. How can service organizations progress from data overload to applicable insights that drive their shift left strategy?

Tune in to the inService™ Podcast Live as Sidney Lara, Service Principal at Aquant, stops by the studio. An expert at shifting left, Sidney will talk about how Aquant customers are tackling data challenges to optimize efficiency-increasing insights that empower both field service technicians and end users.

Sidney Lara is a Service Executive with over 20 years of service experience ranging from new product development, product support, and field service operations. Sidney is a visionary leader skilled in driving change and leveraging innovative technologies to drive operational improvements.

Field teams don’t know what to do with all that data—and it’s costing productivity. According to Service Council research, field service engineers are 7x more likely to say they have “too much” versus “not enough” data, highlighting the need to equip teams with the skills and tools to turn data into action and drive long-term efficiency. For service leaders who are intentional about simplifying the work-life of their frontline, the challenge is clear: how do you modernize operations and accelerate time to value without overloading the frontline?
On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast, we’re joined by Kapil Singhal, CEO of Vyntelligence, to talk about what’s next for field service in an era of data fatigue, pressures to transform infrastructure and abundance of unstructured data. He shares how Agentic AI Video Intelligence is replacing legacy forms and fragmented workflows with guided, intelligent video—enabling teams and customers to “show and tell” rather than type and scroll. Drawing on real-world examples from utilities, telecom, and infrastructure, Kapil explains how video-led, AI-orchestrated workflows is enabling service leaders to reimagine work for their frontline by solving for the user first.
Kapil Singhal is the CEO and co-founder of Vyntelligence, a pioneering technology company driving sustainable innovation and advancing net-zero goals through a people-first approach to culture and data. With a background as a field service engineer, Kapil witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies caused by excessive administrative tasks and suboptimal data capture methods—insights that inspired him to create a simpler, more effective solution. Before founding Vyntelligence, Kapil held senior leadership roles at the Aricent Group, where he was instrumental in growing revenues from zero to £250 million across Europe, North America, and Australia, even during challenging economic periods like the 2008-2013 downturn. His career journey reflects his commitment to creating impactful solutions for both business and society.

All areas of the service business are dealing with higher expectations in an increasingly complex global landscape, with the service supply chain being no exception. This is motivating a larger number of organizations to aim for a more predictive and proactive service delivery model that better manages uncertainty and empowers the growth mindset that service leaders are pushing for (#1 trend in Service Leaders Agenda). However, Service Council research shows that when it comes to predictive capabilities, too many organizations are failing to bridge the divide between theoretical availability and systematic execution.
Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, August 15th at 12PM ET as host Gerardo Pelayo welcomes guest, Jeff Nieze, VP Solution Strategy, Baxter Planning. Together, the two will talk about the reasons behind the low utilization of leading indicators and tying off early visibility with adaptive next-best workflows in their service supply chain. Jeff will also share how he is seeing partners, particularly those with uptime-critical assets, operationalize and extract the benefits from a predictive supply chain.
Jeff Nieze has over 16 years of experience in the service supply chain space. Currently the Vice President of Solution Strategy for Baxter Planning, Jeff leads their strategic sales consulting and value consulting practice, working with some of the largest global high-tech, healthcare, commercial, and industrial OEM businesses to develop an end-to-end predictive platform for their service supply chain.

AI may be the buzziest buzzword in field service right now. However, we are still seeing organizations struggling to leverage it in impactful and actionable ways. According to the 2024 Voice of the Field Service Engineer’s survey, the frontline is eager and ready to embrace AI, and the 2024 Service Leader’s Agenda survey shows that AI is the #1 technology investment priority for executives. So where is the breakdown in successful implementation occurring?

Join the inService™ Podcast as hosts John Carroll and Gerardo Pelayo welcome guest, Scott Chrismer, Senior Vice President – Field Service & EAM Center of Excellence. Scott will talk about how he’s seeing IFS clients such as Rolls-Royce achieve top-down buy-in, impact bottom lines and drive customer and employee experience.

Scott Chrismer is the Senior Vice President of Field Service & Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) for IFS. With more than 25 years of Enterprise Software, SaaS/Managed Cloud, IT Infrastructure & Consulting, Scott has held leadership roles at Salesforce, ClickSoftware and Oracle. Scott has worked with some of the largest names in the technology industry and has delivered value for many of the largest companies in the world, solving complex business challenges, driving significant cost savings while improving the customer and employee experience.

According to the 2024 Service Supply Chain: Service Parts Management survey, poor visibility continues to be the most frequently reported challenge by supply chain leaders, including a year over year increase from 43% to 49%. The industry is currently in a golden age of technological innovation thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), analytics tools and business intelligence (BI), so why does transformational visibility continue to elude organizations, despite increased investments? For many, the answer lies in people.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Tuesday, July 2nd at 12:30PM ET as hosts John Carroll and Gerardo Pelayo tap into the supply chain expertise of our guest, Scott Allison, Chief Customer Officer at DHL Supply Chain Global Service Logistics. Scott will explain how true transformation starts with organizational readiness, not just the implementation of tools. He will share insights on how DHL customers successfully incorporate the human element into their digitalization efforts by using enhanced visibility tools and control dashboards to improve decision-making processes. Additionally, he will offer advice on how you can achieve similar results.

Scott Allison is Chief Customer Officer – Service Logistics at DHL Supply Chain. He is a member of the DHL Service Logistics and DHL Customer Development Boards and is responsible for all commercial activities within DHL Service Logistics. Scott is a supply chain professional with more than 35 years of experience and has been with the DHL Group since 1992, working in several DHL divisions. His current role involves helping many of the world’s top enterprise companies ensure they offer their customers maximum uptime, mainly in technology, medical or industrial applications.

Technological transformation within field service has exploded in recent years. What was a paper-based industry only a decade ago now finds itself at the forefront of innovation. As organizations eagerly trial new solutions and tech stacks grow more complex, many service leaders are seeing episodic challenges emerge among their most important assets – their field service teams. According to the 2023 Voice of the Field Service Engineer survey, 38% describe the volume of communication received on their mobile device as excessive, and 48% report having to spend too much time on their mobile device when out in the field. While technicians are open and willing to embrace technology, they are also running up against “app fatigue”. Streamlining your technology – and effectively involving the frontline in the process – to enable a single pane of glass on the jobsite has never been more critical.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, July 18th at 12PM ET as hosts John Carroll and Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. tap into the expertise of our guest, C. Aaron Salow, Founder and CEO of XOi . Aaron will talk about how service leaders can create a singular experience on the jobsite that enables technicians to find support and capture necessary information without requiring extra touchpoints and navigation between solutions. He’ll also discuss how to build a use case and engage stakeholders to make the single pane of glass a reality.

Aaron Salow, Founder and CEO of XOi, launched his Nashville-based business to help field service companies overcome a formidable challenge: a glaring shortage of skilled trade workers. This passion led him to create a system of intelligence for technicians and service teams to ensure work quality and effective asset management. Powered by AI-driven insights, XOi enables contractors, OEMs, and distributors to make informed decisions based on data captured and enriched from each job.

In the fast-paced service world, “You don’t know what you don’t know” has never been more accurate. With rapid technological changes and constant new challenges, selecting the right AI tools for your organization can feel overwhelming. As the pressure mounts to see quick returns on AI investments, how can service leaders choose strategic capabilities that adapt to future unknowns?

Join us on the inService™ Podcast as host Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. sits down with Tas Hirani, Aquant’s Director of Revenue Operations and Enablement. In this episode, Tas will share real-world personalized AI use cases and reveal how to ensure these technologies lead to long-term success in service operations.

An AI expert, Tas has guided companies like Comfort Systems USA, Hologic, Ricoh, and Beckman Coulter in successfully implementing personalized AI at scale.

What’s perfect for today's needs might not suit tomorrow’s demands. Don't miss this insightful discussion that will prepare you for navigating the evolving landscape of AI in service.

In a business context which is so broadly and rapidly transforming, including the expectations of customers and service providers alike, the available data, or the emerging technologies, effectively managing change is unquestionably critical. Yet, the fact that over 80% of initiatives keep falling short of expectations denotes a systematic flaw in how change is being managed.
Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, May 23rd at 12PM ET as hosts John Carroll and Gerardo Pelayo welcome Alan Schaefer, CEO and Founder of Banding People Together. An expert at change management and cross-functional team building, Alan will share what he’s learned from helping some of the biggest brands successfully influence their teams and accelerate results. He’ll discuss common barriers service leaders face when it comes to the “people” element of change management and offer prescriptive ways to get the whole team in the groove.
Alan Schaefer is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banding People Together, a supergroup of scientists, strategists, former C-Suite executives, and rock stars who help teams and organizations get in the groove by tuning up soft skills that get in the way of results. His music-centric, data-driven approach is designed to help C-suite leaders understand how their individual characteristics influence their interactions with others, while also identifying quick "mix moves" to enhance collaboration, find your organization’s groove, and amplify outcomes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to rise in priority among service organizations. The 2024 Service Leader’s Agenda survey revealed that it would be the most invested-in technology this year, with 62% of service leaders indicating investment plans. This is also a massive 32% leap from last year, surpassing investment in Business Intelligence (BI) and Field Service Management (FSM) technology. However, while organizations seem initially eager to invest, service leaders still have a complex journey ahead of them to translate the promise of AI’s benefits into a “beyond the pilot” reality.

Join the inService™ Podcast as host John Carroll welcomes guest Sarah Rose, Vice President of Global Services for Daktronics. Having recently overseen Daktronics AI initiative, Sarah will reflect on her journey to date, with an emphasis on what has gone well, what adjustments were needed, and the lessons learned having the benefit of hindsight. She’ll discuss Daktronics’ evaluation process, working with their data structure, and the challenges of implementing AI for the first time in enterprise organizations.

As an experienced Global Services leader, Sarah has spent the better part of her career supporting customers whose systems are mission-critical to their operations. As Vice President of Global Services for Daktronics, Sarah’s team is accountable for the installation and support of over 5.6B installed products across the globe. She was the driving force behind the standardization and improvement of global service foundational approaches that (1) facilitated the development and execution of global service processes, (2) increased the service team's performance, execution, and productivity with development teams, tools/technology, and data and (3) led the era of customer self-service. Sarah holds an MBA from Western Governors University.

The talent shortage continues to beleaguer service leaders. According to the 2024 Service Leader’s Agenda survey, 64% say this is having the biggest impact on their business. Organizations are being forced to think outside the box when it comes to recruitment and retention strategies, while qualified workers are fielding multiple job offers. How do service leaders set themselves apart from competitors and build a talent strategy that will withstand the ever-widening talent gap?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, April 18 at 12PM ET as host John Carroll welcomes guest Tom Parker, CEO of RL People. Tom will share what he’s learned in his years as a recruiter in the aftermarket space, including what makes companies appealing to potential recruits, how he is seeing organizations stand out in a tight labor market. He’ll also talk about the strategies he recommends for future-proofing your talent strategy and building up the team of tomorrow.

Prior to setting up RL People in late 2016, Tom spent the previous 20 years working across global reverse logistics and service supply chains. Tom led sales teams in EMEA, APAC and the Americas, delivering turnkey solutions encompassing recovery, returns, repairs, refurbishment, recycling, spare parts management, logistics and fulfilment, to clients ranging from global OEMs to regional providers. With a genuine passion for the fast-growing, dynamic landscape of service supply chains, Tom launched RL People to provide talent & recruitment services to these markets globally.

Industry trends, research and insights play a critical role in a service leader’s ability to make impactful business decisions. However, as service continues to evolve at a rapid pace, translating those insights into practical innovation is becoming more of a challenge. How can service leaders bridge the divide between research and action to forge a more transformative path forward for their organization?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, April 4th at 12PM ET as host John Carroll welcomes a very special guest: Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D., Service Council™’s new Vice President of Research and Advisory. The pair will talk about Gerardo’s background in academia, the value his addition brings to our community and some common themes he’s seeing in initial partner and member discussions. They will also discuss the preliminary findings of our recent research effort around service supply chain and parts management.

Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. is the VP of Research & Advisory for Service Council. With a hybrid background that integrates cross-industry hands-on experience with his depth as an analytical modeler (Ph.D. in Logistics & Supply Chain from the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program) built on a process-driven foundation as an Industrial Engineer, Gerardo brings to the table a prescriptive communion between dynamic innovation and operational pragmatism.

The 2024 Service Leader’s Agenda revealed that 72% of service leaders are prioritizing new technology investments. Many of the technology priorities are signaling a renewed attention towards workforce productivity, first-time fix rates and throughput. However, as customer expectations reach all-time highs, more organizations lean on extended networks to achieve efficiency gains. It is critical that they do so in a way that balances efficiency with quality. To find this balance, many service leaders are turning to automation to do things well, while also doing them quickly.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, March 21st at 12PM ET as host John Carroll welcomes guest Thomas Thullier, General Manager North America for Deepomatic. Thomas will talk about how service leaders are automizing quality control through AI and computer vision to drive consistency and value across their entire network.

Thomas Thuillier is the General Manager North America and an officer of Deepomatic. As one of Deepomatic’s first employees, he has been working very closely with the founding team on their global strategy and on the focus on the field service industry. With responsibility over the US and Canadian markets, Thomas has contributed to positioning Deepomatic as a global leader of the First Time Right movement and a trusted supplier in the Telecom industry.

Thomas holds a MSc. in Corporate Finance and Political Science from the prestigious Sciences Po institute in Paris. Prior to joining Deepomatic, he worked in finance and logistics for a beverage distribution and manufacturing company in D.C. and New York.

In today’s fast-moving service landscape, leaders are being asked to drive growth, manage transformation, and deliver consistency—all while honoring the unique culture and history of the teams they lead. Many service leaders mind themselves with a dilemma: how can they enact transformation and scale operations without erasing what makes their organization special?

Tune into the inService™ Podcast as we’re joined by Adam Gloss, Chief Operating Officer at Impel. Drawing on his transition from a legacy organization to a startup-like landscape formed by mergers and acquisitions, Adam unpacks the complexity of effective change management, and the importance of creating environments that foster both trust and transformation. With a refreshing emphasis on humanity over hype, this episode goes beyond the buzzwords to examine how values, strategy, and adaptability intersect when growth is non-negotiable but culture still matters.
Adam’s career has spanned from small business to Fortune 50, and is marked by his ability to build high-performing businesses through a focus on strategy and alignment of people, systems, tools and process to achieve exceptional results. As Chief Operating Officer for Impel, Adam is building a world-class organization to impart new energy into flow management applications, delivering comprehensive solutions in field and shop services, supply, and engineered systems though its brands and branches.
Adam was recognized amongst 100 Service Visionaries by Hot Topics and IFS. He has been a featured speaker and panelist at multiple conferences and events in the Field Service and Mechanical Contracting Industries, as well as for organizations including BOMA and Efficiency First. He was a founding Advisory Committee member of the ACCA Building Performance Council and has been a contributor to BUILDINGS magazine, the HVAC/R News, and podcasts and webinars including “Future of Field Service” and more. 

The imperative around Generative AI is clear: embrace it or be left behind. Service Council research continues to show that AI investment continues to climb in terms of priority. However, while service leaders are readily getting the go ahead for AI pilots, many are hitting a wall when it comes to bringing AI to scale. One of the primary impediments is the lack of a foundational data strategy which serves the purpose of building a platform for AI to achieve scale.

On the next episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll taps into the AI expertise of our guest, Haroon Abbu, SVP of Digital, Data and Analytics at Bell and Howell. Haroon will address the “how-to” of implementing AI: how do service leaders build the right team, data strategy, change management initiatives and business case to successfully realize AI at scale?

Haroon Abbu is the Senior Vice President of Digital, Data, and Analytics at Bell and Howell. He has vast experience and expertise in leading digital transformation efforts, leveraging state-of-the-art technology to create customer-focused successes and strategically bring valuable analytics insights into vital elements of the business. A recipient of multiple awards including the data leader of the year finalist, recognition in the 2022 Global Top 100 Innovators in Data and Analytics report, and dataIQ 100 The Most Influential People in Data, Haroon has realized digital transformation to bring about organizational breakthroughs that have empowered employees and facilitated customers to obtain greater value from its services.

Year-over-year, field service management (FSM) software remains a top technology investment for service leaders. In 2024, nearly 40% of service executives say they will be investing in field service management (FSM) technology, according to the Service Leader’s Agenda survey. In fact, FSM remains one of the top investments year-over-year. Interestingly, many of these plans are for expanded, not new, investments. This signals that service leaders have yet to fully unlock the power of their tech stack.
Prateek Chakravarty, CEO of Zinier, stops by the podcast studio to discuss how he is seeing organizations tailor their tech stack to fit the nuances of their business requirements, while delivering value to every stakeholder. He’ll also touch on his own rise from field service engineer, working in the oil fields of Siberia, to CEO of a company that is making big waves in field service.
Prateek Chakravarty is the CEO at Zinier, a field service automation platform designed to help service organizations install and maintain their assets in the field. Prior to joining Zinier in 2020, Prateek was a part of the founding team at Bidgely, a Khosla Ventures-funded software company providing AI-driven customer and grid analytics to electric and gas utilities across the world. He started his career in infrastructure-related industries first as an operator and then as an investor. He was a field operations engineer with Schlumberger working in Indonesia, France and Russia. He was also a part of a corporate venture fund for Pacific Gas & Electric and invested in rooftop solar companies such as SolarCity and Sunrun.

For many organizations, rapid and reactive digital transformations during the pandemic caused valuable data, processes and innovations to happen in pockets and silos. How do service leaders now begin realigning digital and functional roadmaps? Many service organizations are struggling with this question, perhaps none more so than healthcare and medical device organizations, which must also navigate strict regulations and compliance requirements.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, February 2nd at 12PM ET, as Bit Rambusch, Senior Vice President of Service and Solution Delivery, North America for Philips, discusses how Philips is rewiring their people, processes and technology to create an end-to-end experience for customers and employees. They’ll also discuss how the job of field service technician is evolving into a more sophisticated role, as well as how service organizations can make field service “cool” to younger generations of workers.

Bit Rambusch serves as Senior Vice President of Service and Solution Delivery for Philips, a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation. He is currently responsible for the strategic planning, execution and service delivery of a $1B+ P&L across the North America region, as well as leading an organization of 3,000+ professionals consisting of Solution Architects, Project Managers, Field Service Engineers, Technology Consultants, Clinical Specialists, and more. Prior to Philips, Bit served as the Vice President of Online Support and Knowledge Management and Vice President of Global Services Engineering and Quality at Dell Technologies. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and received his MBA from the University of Dallas.

The hype around AI is in full swing and is expected to grow in 2024. There are powerful capabilities behind the hype — driving more efficient operations, enhancing customer service, and enabling every service leader to make better business decisions. And yet, despite the many AI initiatives underway, service organizations need help to cross the AI chasm from pilot to large-scale deployment.

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, January 18th, as host John Carroll is joined by Tas Hirani, Aquant’s Director of Revenue Operations and enablement. An AI expert, Tas has helped customers like Comfort Systems USA, Hologic, Ricoh, and Beckman Coulter successfully realize AI at scale. Tas will talk about the inhibitors she often sees in implementing AI and offer practical advice for organizations to find success. Don’t miss this interactive discussion and bring your burning AI questions for Tas!

In the 2023 Voice of the Field Service Engineer, 45% of frontline technicians said they either didn’t plan on being a tech for the duration of their career, or they weren’t sure. While we can attribute some of that trend to disengagement, there are many others that have ambitions to rise in the ranks and become the service leaders of the future. How can the service leaders of today inspire and empower their frontline to have a real impact?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, January 4th at 12PM ET, as Gyner Ozgul, former President and COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions and current CEO of Perimeter Roofing, shares his story—from a liberal arts background to an impactful service leader, and discuss what’s next for his career. Gyner will also touch on the critical factors as you grow your teams, train the next generation of service leaders, and create a succession plan for your transition.

With a passion for building successful teams and creating positive experiences, Gyner has achieved significant success and growth in his career by empowering teams to succeed. He has over 25 years of experience spanning service, technology, and supply chain roles. Gyner has served in various leadership roles, including 13 years at Ecolab and 7 years at Smart Care Equipment Solutions. He is currently the CEO of Perimeter Roofing.

Future-proofing supply chains remain a top objective in 2024. How can service leaders predict and proactively plan against customer demands? How do they navigate new asset complexity while supporting aging machines? What strategies can they implement today to optimize parts sourcing and service calls? These are the tough questions service leaders will need to answer if they want to build an agile supply chain.

On this episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Lance Johnson, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Baxter Planning. Lance will offer derisking tactics and demand shaping strategies to help service leaders future-proof their supply chain in 2024 and beyond.

In his role at Baxter Planning, Lance Johnson is a strategic partner for customers, working to tackle complex challenges and accelerate the transformation of their Service Supply Chains through deep domain expertise and technology. Lance brings more than 25 years of experience in Aftermarket Service Support to the role. He started his career at Hughes Aircraft Company as a member of their technical staff, where he quickly found his passion in Total Quality Management.

Lance’s experience includes leadership roles at the Exabyte Corporation, where he was responsible for the Services Repair Organization. Subsequently, he joined Sun Microsystems where he served as the Global Supply Chain Planning Director and ran global planning activities, led process and systems improvements in various Global Supply Chain initiatives, and drove significant process efficiencies using Six Sigma and other tools. Lance earned his degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Pacific.

We’ve all heard the adage, “The only constant is change.” However, this might feel like an understatement to service leaders who have been helming their organizations through near constant upheaval in recent years. How can service leaders navigate complex change management initiatives and ensure long term success for the company, service team and customer?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live on Thursday, November 2nd as host John Carroll is joined by Change Management expert, Jim Bohn, Ph.D. Dr. Bohn will talk about what his decades of on-the-job experience and academic research has taught him about Change Management. He’ll delve into the strategies that work and common pitfalls to avoid when initiating any organizational change. This live, interactive discussion will be a can’t miss for any service leader who wants to be an architect of change.

Jim Bohn, PhD is an author and researcher-practitioner focused on improving organizational performance one person at a time. Dr. Bohn has organizational expertise and insight stemming from decades of successfully leading leaders. His business insight derives from observing the organizational behavior of multiple Fortune 500 organizations, ranging from hospitals and healthcare to retail and finance, service, manufacturing and telecoms.

Retiring after 33 years with Johnson Controls, Dr. Bohn launched his own Change Management and Organizational Transformation Practice, PRO/AXIOS LLC. He is the author of several books, including “Getting IT Right: A Leader's Guide for Installing the Organizational App,” now available on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-I-T-Right-Installing-Organizational/dp/1545358656

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the game for service. But service leaders are struggling to cut through the confusion and connect AI concepts to applications. What do you need to know about AI for service? What are the best applications to drive business impact? How do you evaluate different AI solutions?

Tune in to the inService™ Podcast as host John Carroll is joined by Niken Patel, CEO and Founder of Neuron7.ai, for a strategic and tactical “Buyer’s Guide”-style discussion on AI.
Listeners will learn about:

• 
  The different options available in the world of AI for service
• How to evaluate tools and prepare for a successful implementation
• The business impact of AI at scale

Niken is the CEO and co-founder of Neuron7.ai, a company that is transforming customer service with AI solutions for complex, enterprise organizations that need fast, accurate resolutions at scale.

In recent years, service organizations have ramped up investment into AI and other analytics tools, gaining greater visibility into field data than ever before. However, when it comes to data, knowing is only half the battle. How can service leaders use the data they’re getting to identify, enact and reinforce change within their organization?

Join the inService™ Podcast Live as host Jaclyn Cooksey is joined by Juan Cruz, Director of Service Operations NA for Haemonetics. They’ll discuss a critical challenge among service leaders: using data to enact change within their service organizations.

Juan Cruz currently serves as the Director, Service Operations NA for Haemonetics. Before this, he was the Senior Manager for National Field Services for Fresenius Medical Care, the largest hemodialysis company in the world. He has over 23 years in the medical device industry with several medical device companies. Juan has held various roles in his career while in the medical device space, with the last 17 years specifically in the field service profession.

Partner ecosystems are playing an increasingly important role in successful service delivery. However, as organizations come up for air after the pandemic-accelerated digital transformation, they are realizing that, in many instances, their digitization efforts have created more silos and friction for their channel partners.
Join the inService™ Podcast Live as Appify’s CEO, Hari Subramanian, stops by the studio. Hari will talk about the rise of Channel Partner Relationship solutions, and how he is seeing customers employ this innovative technology to connect their entire support and service ecosystem, transform field service management and drive end-to-end success.
Hari is the founder and CEO at Appify, responsible for setting and realizing the product & technology vision. He has worked for more than 30 years in Enterprise software in various roles including support engineer, programmer, solution architect, and engineering leader. Hari’s specialization includes ERP, CRM, workflow management, and document imaging as they apply to large, complex Enterprises.
Prior to Appify, Hari was the co-founder and CTO at ServiceMax, the first-of-its-kind SaaS solution for Field Service Management. In that role, he led the technology vision and engineering from inception in 2007 until the acquisition by GE Digital in 2017 for $1 Billion.

As organizations accelerate digital transformation, the success of these initiatives increasingly depends on how well frontline teams adopt and engage with new technologies. However, there's often a critical gap between leadership expectations and the real-world experiences of field workers — a gap that threatens not just user satisfaction, but business outcomes.
Tune in on Thursday, May 15th at 12pm EST, as we’re joined by Justin Lake, CEO of Skyllful. We’ll unpack the critical misconception surrounding enterprise technology and highlight the unique complexities and risks field workers face when interacting with digital systems in high-stakes environments. We also discuss the concept of "The Last Mile" of tech deployments — where the true business value of technology investments is realized through frontline execution. By connecting human motivation, governance, and financial implications of poor tech engagement, the conversation offers a compelling case for why organizations must rethink how they position, support, and sustain technology initiatives.
Justin co-founded Skyllful with the mission of helping frontline employees use enterprise technology accurately, consistently, and independently—so that business processes are executed correctly, operational outcomes are optimized, and revenue is protected.
With decades of experience across mobile technology and frontline operations, Justin has worked in every part of the ecosystem, from wireless carriers to software development. But his real expertise comes from the field—riding with drivers, shadowing technicians, and uncovering the real-world barriers to adoption. He knows that when technology isn’t integrated into how work gets done, companies face inefficiencies, operational risks, and lost revenue.
Through Skyllful, Justin helps organizations bridge the gap between digital transformation and the frontline workforce, ensuring technology delivers measurable business impact.

The 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda found that the two biggest challenges service leaders face in 2023 are the workforce and talent shortage and the lack of resources to support service demand. The industry is at a tipping point when it comes to service delivery. More and more, customers are demanding the ability to self-service when possible, and overstretched organizations are realizing it is the best path forward.

Join the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live as Jean-Thomas Célette, CEO of Coresystems, stops by the studio. He’ll discuss how AI is helping organizations combat knowledge attrition and gain additional insights into the service process, starting with self-service. He’ll also discuss innovative – yet practical – ways AI is transforming the service journey, including predicting root causes, standardizing documentation, and more.

Jean-Thomas (JT) Célette is the CEO of Coresystems and his mission is to bring Service Management into the era of Artificial Intelligence. With a focus to continuously improve the end customer’s service experience by fixing their issues faster, he also addresses the industry’s most pressing problems: scarcity of talent, knowledge attrition caused by aging workforce, operational efficiency and sustainability.

Prior to taking the helm at Coresystems, his career has centered around bringing new technologies to work to increase efficiency, market access and safety. He has helped large corporations plan and execute their digital transformations, managed a drone manufacturer to successfully transform industries such as agriculture, mining and civil engineering, and most recently worked for Google.

According to the 2023 Voice of the Field Service Engineer survey, “being tracked and traced by GPS or other means,” is now the second least favorite part of a field service engineer’s job, rising from #7 among frontline workers to #2 in only a year. However, location tracking is an inevitable reality that plays a key role in the customer experience. So how do service leaders find a balance?

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast, host John Carroll is joined by Chris Ruff, CEO of Glympse. Chris talks about why he thinks we’re seeing a rise in employee frustration with tracking, common missteps when introducing these technologies, and how he is seeing organizations achieve successful buy-in.

Chris is CEO of Glympse, a geo-location technology company focused on improving communication, customer service and last-mile commerce using the powerful context of location. His technology leadership experience spans over 25 years in the software, mobile and IoT industries focused in the areas of management, business development, marketing, operations and finance. He has operational experience defining corporate strategy, developing business plans, and raising over $50 million in venture capital and debt needed to create successful high growth technology companies. A recognized leader in the IoT, Connected Car, Hospitality, Cruise, Retail, eCommerce and Gig Economy technologies industries, he has spoken on NPR and at top industry events like CTIA, HITEC, TU Automotive, Consumer Telematics Show, Satellite, Pacific Crest Emerging Technology Summit, App Summit and many more.

With the current economic environment companies are viewing field service and their operations completely different than they were 10-15 years ago. Service is no longer a cost center but a profit center.

John Carroll, CEO and Founder of the Service Council, joins Chris Wolff, VP of Strategic Partnerships for PTC, on the Speaking of Service podcast, to discuss how he sees the current stage of field service and what are the predictions for the future and what should field service organizations look out for.

PTC's Speaking of Service podcast uncovers practical ways to grow service revenue, control costs, and improve customer satisfaction. If you’re looking to innovate, gain a competitive edge, or just learn about the latest service trends, visit: https://www.ptc.com/speakingofservice 

As organizations begin to strengthen their self-service and remote service offerings, the topic of content has become front of mind. How do they find it, create it and make it accessible to both employees and customers in a way that enhances the service experience?

On this episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Sam Waicberg, President and Co-Founder of CareAR. Sam stops by the studio to talk about how instructional guidance is changing the way organizations think about information platforms. He’ll discuss how it is being applied in both traditional and non-traditional field service settings, and dive into some intriguing use cases.

Sam Waicberg is the President of CareAR Holdings, a Xerox and ServiceNow supported company. CareAR is an AR/AI powered enterprise visual support platform that makes expertise accessible instantly for customers, employees, and field workers. As the Service Experience Management (SXM) leader, CareAR specializes in bringing the service experience and customer experience together in a seamless digital workflow. Prior to this role, Sam was the General Manager of Xerox Digital Services, a Xerox Business Unit focused on digital transformation by way of automation, efficiency, and innovation for its customers, and solutions. Additionally, Sam joined Xerox via the acquisition of CareAR Inc., where he was the Co-Founder and CEO. Sam is a veteran of the communications software industry and is passionate about creating solutions that disrupt industries, transform work functions, and improve the quality of our daily lives.

How companies are collecting and utilizing field service data can be the differentiator between average performers and best-in-class organizations. However, knowing where to start, what to focus on, and how to avoid complicating the process, can feel overwhelming.

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, Thomas Maiello, PMP, Varian’s Director of New Product Introduction, stops by the studio for a tactical discussion on how organizations can use data to drive improved serviceability, with real-life examples. An expert in the service industry, Tom is adept at developing strategic, data-driven programs that not only increase service profitability but customer satisfaction as well.

Tom Maiello has 20+ years of hands-on experience in new product introduction, global technical and product support, field service management and improvement strategies, and services technologies. He is currently the Director of New Product Introduction at Varian Medical Systems (a Siemens Healthineers company). In this role, he manages global product introductions to ensure early and fast market adoption of new products.

Before joining Varian, Tom managed global support teams at Morpho Detection, Smiths Detection, and KLA. At Morpho Detection Tom initiated and deployed the first secure remote access to installed capital equipment in the highly regulated aviation security space. Previously, Tom was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and earned a commission in the U.S. Army. Tom holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, an MS from University of Southern California, and a BA from State University of New York.

Reactive, cost-based service is no longer a feasible business model. However, according to the 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda, a third of service organizations anticipate still being in this stage of maturity in the next year. For organizations to realize the full potential of their digital transformation and tap into new revenue streams, they must advance their service maturity.
On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast, host John Carroll is joined by IFS’s President and Chief Strategy Officer, Marne Martin. Marne will discuss what really holds organizations back from digital transformation and business process evolution, and how they can plot a course towards service monetization.
Marne Martin is President and Chief Strategy Officer at IFS. In her role, Marne’s focus is to continue to elevate the importance of service management and EAM as part of the overall IFS success story and create greater value for the IFS business and our customers. Previous to this position, Marne held the role of President for the IFS Service Management Business Unit, EAM & Global Industries. Well-respected in the field as a strategic businesswoman unafraid of embracing a challenge, she served as CEO at ServicePower Plc and WorkWave LLC both in the FSM software space and has driven previous IFS acquisitions including WorkWave, Clevest, Astea and more recently Ultimo.
Marne has won a number of awards including 2016 CEO Gamechanger of the Year (FSM) from ACQ 5 Global Awards and 2015 Field Service CEO of the Year from Executive Awards. She also features in the Software Report’s 2019 list of Top 50 SaaS CEOs. When not at work, Marne enjoys competing in dressage and is working to support girls and women pursuing STEM careers.

Service networks are a crucial, and yet overlooked, aspect of the service industry. Distribution and service dealers play a key role in customer experience, company growth, and making products available to a global audience. What does it take to build and maintain a great service network?

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Matt Wong, VP of Global Customer Support at The Manitowoc Company. They discuss how Manitowoc has expanded their global distribution network, and deliver advice on how other organizations can pursue growth through partnerships, dealerships and distributors.

Matt Wong is Vice President of the Global Customer Support organization for mobile cranes with 300+ team members who are focused on growing non-new-machine or aftermarket revenue, such as parts, service, used equipment, and rental, to improve enterprise profitability. Prior to Manitowoc, Matt’s experience included leadership roles at AGCO Corporation and Caterpillar.

Once considered science fiction, technological innovations like augmented reality and artificial intelligence have exploded in popularity in recent years. The field service industry is no exception as organizations realize these technologies’ value in solving some of service leaders’ most pressing challenges. However, as organizations advance their digital maturity, how can they prevent gaps between these technologies and create a bridge between the digital and the physical environment?

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by SightCall’s CEO, Thomas Cottereau. They’ll offer some advice on how organizations can address disconnects in their digitization efforts, the evolution of customer relationships and the findings from Service Council’s recent parts management survey.

Thomas Cottereau is CEO and co-founder of SightCall. Under his leadership, SightCall has become the fastest-growing AR-powered visual assistance company in the world, with customers on all continents. Prior to launching SightCall, Thomas spent a decade in telecom where he became internationally recognized as one of the few internet protocol experts who participated in building the Internet infrastructure that we know and use intensively today. Recognized internationally for his work in telecom and innovation, Cottereau has been awarded the 2015 Dell Innovation Award, 2016 Comcast Innovation Award, 2017 Amdocs Innovation in Practice Award, 2017 Graham Bell Award and 2018 NTT Data Open Innovation San Francisco Award.

As workforce and talent shortages continue to challenge organizations, service leaders are placing more emphasis on training and upskilling employees to help mitigate the impact. Findings from the 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda found that 73% of service leaders report increased investment in training and employee development this year, compared to 2022 spending.

Tune into the inService™ Podcast Live as host John Carroll is joined by Josh Washburn, Global Technical Training Manager for Cummins Inc. They’ll discuss Cummins’ current technical training curriculum, including how they are managing the continued learning process, addressing employee engagement challenges, and empowering their frontline with necessary skills.

Josh began his career with Cummins as a diesel technician in 2000. In his current role as Global Technical Training Manager, Josh leads technical skill set development, training and curriculum. Josh has extensive experience in technical training, operations management and customer service.

The age-old battle of driving quality and scalability has forced difficult decisions in terms of when to allow for localization of strategy and approach vs. standardizing. We continue to monitor how leading organizations are establishing a balance between both while centralizing resources, technologies and tools which enable the achievement of best practices.
Tune into the inService™ Podcast Live as host John Carroll is joined by Joe Lang, Vice President, Service Technology & Innovation, at Comfort Systems USA. They’ll discuss how organizations like Comfort Systems are successfully balancing service quality and business growth.
Joe has been with Comfort Systems USA for over 15 years, where he currently serves as the Vice President of Service Technology and Innovation. His role is to provide service leadership to develop and grow the field organization while developing long-term, strategic goals and expectations for the corporation. Additionally, Joe specializes in financial and leadership training, and has a passion for coaching and helping people recognize, develop and leverage their skills and capabilities.

Whether you're early in your service career or shaping global strategy, our next episode of the inService™ Podcast will be one you won’t want to miss! We’ll be sitting down with Eduardo Bonefont, the Worldwide VP of Technical Services for BD's Life Sciences segment, to reflect on his remarkable journey through the service and support industry. From leading complex international operations to driving business turnarounds as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Eduardo shares hard-earned insights on building team culture, learning to speak the C-Suite’s language, successful P&L management, and navigating service complexity.

Tune in on Thursday, May 1st at 12pm EST, as Eduardo shares his perspective—honed by a career spanning Services, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales, and Marketing —on how the next generation of service professionals can build high-performing teams that consistently deliver value to customers.

Eduardo Bonefont is the Worldwide VP of Technical Services – Life Sciences Segment at Becton Dickinson, where he exercises his comprehensive global management and leadership experience in small-to-large businesses in Services, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain. As a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, he has come to specialize in business expansion, startups, and turnarounds, with full P&L responsibility, in a variety of U.S.-based and international industries, and he has a proven track record in improving business performance with the rigor of consistently making operational, financial, and customer commitments.

According to the Service Council’s 2023 Service Leader’s Agenda survey, service innovation remains a high priority for 2023 and beyond. However, as the economic climate remains unstable and fears of recession loom, service leaders are being asked to cut costs and reduce budgets, while still increasing revenue.

Tune into the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, as host John Carroll is joined by Lance Anderson, Vice President of Industrial Solutions for CareAR. They discuss what organizations can focus on to not only drive value and innovation in the future, but deliver near-term results as well.

An industry-leading voice in the field of augmented reality (AR) deployment and strategy, Lance joined CareAR in February of 2022. Prior to joining CareAR, he was CEO and founder of Lance-AR, a consulting firm specializing in augmented reality (AR) strategy, providing enterprise clients with an action plan for AR Deployment. Lance holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Service leaders are turning their focus to service operations performance management, service innovation and portfolio expansion in 2023. Visual and generative AI (artificial intelligence) is gaining a lot of traction as service leaders look to deliver the critical intelligence and information needed to achieve this.

On the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by David Troll, EVP and Chief Customer Officer, GM North America, and Ari Rosenstein, VP of Marketing, at TechSee. They’ll discuss how they’re seeing service executives evolve their technology strategy, as well as what the future holds for visual and generative AI.

David has 20+ years of experience leading enterprise growth and change initiatives, both as a consultant and operating executive. He was previously the VP for DISH Network’s OnTech division, SVP for Glympse, and an executive at field service leader TOA Technologies. David holds a BA from Lehigh University.

Ari leads the global marketing team at TechSee. He is a seasoned marketing executive with nearly two decades of experience in the SaaS enterprise market. Ari has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA from Reichman University in Israel.

Despite ongoing service supply chain challenges, research shows that supply chain continues to lack priority among technology and infrastructure investments. The importance of parts is critical to service execution, so why does it remain so tertiary? In the latest episode of the inService™ Podcast Live, host John Carroll is joined by Shannon Beecher, Vice President, Services Supply Chain at IBM. They’ll discuss how organizations like IBM are building a resilient supply chain through automation, optimization and leveraging salvage to augment shortages.

With over 40 years of experience leading various functions in Supply Chain, Shannon is currently the Vice President of the Service Supply Chain Operation at IBM. She is responsible for strategy and global business execution, contributing to the NPS for IBM Support in the 80s, driving innovation and transformation resulting in end-to-end digitization, transparency and business optimization. She is accountable for an operating budget of over $300M, inventory over $600M and supports greater than 350k Field Replaceable Units. Shannon leads a team of 450 deeply talented supply chain professionals, supporting over 120 countries, with client response times that range from two hours to next business day.

Manufacturers are leaning more heavily on digital tools to deliver service experiences, including digital communications channels and remote service capabilities to reduce costs, increase productivity and heighten customer satisfaction. New research from The Service Council profiles the impact of digital transformation progress in manufacturing and particularly among service teams, along with the challenges and rewards service leaders are seeing.  

John Carroll, CEO and Founder of the Service Council, joins Chis Wolff, VP of Strategic Partnerships for PTC, on the Speaking of Service podcast, to discuss  new data documenting current trends in dispatch cost and technology implementation, along with timely analysis of customer and company expectations for remote service management.

PTC's Speaking of Service podcast uncovers practical ways to grow service revenue, control costs, and improve customer satisfaction. If you’re looking to innovate, gain a competitive edge, or just learn about the latest service trends, visit: https://www.ptc.com/speakingofservice