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These days, it is common to find yourself using apps or software on your phone for most everyday tasks, Such as adjusting the temperature in your home or even turning on the lights. But in fact, that convenience can become a hindrance — in the case of serving the end customer — with a slightly different priority.
Inflexible software threatens even the best plans of service providers. The nature of service companies is often complex, and they are often threatened by a cultural mismatch through acquisitions or organizations working with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), distributors, aftermarket parts manufacturers, or temporary employees. On top of that, service delivery itself doesn’t fit into a neat box. Instead, it spans many industries that provide home or mobile services to end customers.
The goal of service software is to enhance the service process and help complete the action – not to disrupt it in any way. But this level of sophistication means that many service providers struggle to get their teams to coordinate the use of the technology they master.
For example, if an HVAC installation provider can only build technicians’ work schedules to load based on availability three weeks in advance, and can’t update them on the same day, they can’t effectively utilize their time. Changes may occur due to illness, sudden high-priority outages, or any other day-to-day issue. If the software can’t adapt, it’s worse than pen and paper. This is an obstacle.
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Mastering containerization to remove complexity
This is why service providers need to focus on containerized applications. Gartner predicts that by 2023, 70% of global organizations will be running more than two containerized applications, up from 20% in 2019. The concept of containerization, in the simplest terms, is the packaging of software with all auxiliary processes so that it can be deployed at the discretion of the end user.
With containerization, service organizations can begin to introduce enormous flexibility further down the value chain, whether it be reverse logistics or last mile logistics, virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (answer). There are many options.
In the cloud or on the ground: deployment flexibility is at the core of containerization
Cloud-based solutions and containerization are intrinsically linked. Cloud-first software offerings allow service organizations to completely offload the IT burden of managing maintenance, upgrades, licensing, and operations.
But a containerized product, one that lives natively in the cloud, can be easily packaged and deployed on a home server with the same internal structure, the same API, and Same effect. If your infrastructure requires it, cloud solutions can meet those needs, rather than laying down terms on how you interact with the product.
Depending on the user, even the deployment of service software requires flexibility. Some service companies simply require their solutions to be managed locally for regulatory reasons. Others have managed cloud space they want to use.
Others can migrate to the cloud. None of these (or any other adoption permutations) are wrong, and software that supports this flexibility will be key.
Containerization opens the door to increased agility and new technologies – into Kubernetes
Once a service organization has deployed a containerized software architecture in a way that suits its business, it can begin to be introduced further down the value chain Huge flexibility. This could be the introduction of a new business model, such as reverse logistics, or new technologies, such as AR and VR, and expert-to-expert or expert-to-customer collaboration.
Enter Kubernetes.
Kubernetes is an open source technology that helps facilitate containerization. It’s a “must have” for cloud computing because it makes it easier to configure systems, improve reliability, speed software deployment, and use computing resources more efficiently. According to a VMware study, 95% of participants are aware of the benefits of Kubernetes, with 56% saying they have seen an increase in resource utilization.
Kubernetes-enabled software can accelerate service companies to bring new features and capabilities to market and into the hands of customers. The business itself, in turn, can quickly adapt to changes in the market and regulatory environment, and even turn this agility into a competitive advantage that, from a service perspective, will only benefit end users tenfold.
Peak demand or business stagnation, your service will always be there
The benefits of containerization are obvious – it’s a versatile, multi-benefit approach to software, Only enhance service delivery. Kubernetes and containers are built to be highly scalable and can even be set up to scale up and down services in real time. When traffic to these servers increases or decreases, you can rest assured that your service will always be available to employees and customers, not just a surge in demand that depends on market forces.
Raymond Jones is Senior Vice President of Cloud Operations at IFS.
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