Published on the 14/09/2010 | Written by Newsdesk

A conference late October will provide invaluable help for companies working out how to effectively manage their mobile workforces, deliver cost savings and in turn deliver a high level of customer service…

Field Service & Workforce Mobility, being held at Auckland’s Rendezvous Hotel October 26-28 will provide insights from cross-industry leading organisations including Metrowater, the New Zealand Defence Force, Coca Cola Amatil NZ, NZ Automobile Association, Mainfreight, BP Oil New Zealand and Fonterra.

IQPC Conference Director Kate Tappin says this is the only conference in New Zealand focusing specifically on strategies to overcome the major challenges of:

• Fully optimising technology and solutions to support field service and mobile sales operations
• Managing change and developing buy-in from field service workers and management to advance field service optimisation
• Maximising the customer experience through enhanced services

She said the forum follows the second annual Field Service Management Australia Summit and is based on feedback from CEOs, CCOs, CIOs, Service, ICT and Operations managers. The conference enables experienced practitioners to provide a road map right from winning senior management support to rolling out turnkey solutions and effectively managing change.

IQPC have assembled a range of expert speakers form across various industries. Speakers for Tuesday’s sessions include:

> Tim Hammond, CEO Metrowater
> Tony Day, General Manager Service, Konica Minolta
> Kerry Connors, Chief Executive, Kernmobile
> Becky Lloyd, General Manager Business Marketing, Vodafone New Zealand
> Geoff Polkinghorne, General Manager, Initial Hygiene- Rentokil Initial
> Darren Ruston, Mobility Project Manager, Coca Cola Amatil New Zealand
> Mike Bickers, Field services Manager, Delta Utility Services
> Brent Hayden, Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management Network.

Wednesday’s sessions will hear from:

> Dr Graeme Benny, General Manager for Organisational Services, New Zealand Defence Force
> Superintendent Lance Martin Divisional Officer, Communications Infrastructure Programme, Western Australian Police
> Leon Pavlidis, Senior Maximo Technical Sales A/NZ Maximo Transportation Lead, IBM
> Tyrone Foley, Retail Business Support Manager, BP Oil New Zealand
> Maarten Quivooy, Group Manager –Workplace Relations, Department of Labour
> Craig Shepherd, Managing Director Vircom EMS
> Kevin Drinkwater, Group IT Manager, Mainfreight
> Andrew Field, Information Systems Manager FBNZ, Fonterra ANZ
> Michael Lamont, Head, Mangere Community Health Trust.

Workshops on the Wednesday and Thursday will cover:

• Effectively managing change in your organisation
  The mobility champion’s master class
• Maximising field worker productivity by the streamlining of work processes
• Developing a successful mobile service business with the essential ingredients: simplification, optimisation and efficiency

The export tutors that will lead the workshops are:

> Aldas Palubinskas, Managing Director, Mobico, who has been instrumental in shaping, delivering and supporting many of NZ’s mobility implementations
> Darryl Steven, Group manager, Energy Delivery Transformation, Energex who has worked in a number of industries including primary industry and retail prior to joining Energex 19 years ago
> John Healy, National manager, Road Service, New Zealand Automobile Association who has spent a large proportion of his career in telecommunications and IT.

iStart is the media partner for the event. iStart Editor Nigel Horrocks will chair the opening day.