Service companies are increasingly adopting field service automation technologies to help their field workforce. Desktop scheduling software and reporting tools have been around quite a while – as well as software that takes care of individual functions like billing and inventory management.
But what the industry require today is an all-in-one solution. A single software that actually connects with the field workforce instantly and accurately : The agile mobile field workforce.
But mobility in field service has been around for a long time isn’t it? True mobility is still a distant dream for many – there are very few Field Service Management (FSM) software that takes care of all major processes. The ideal software system for a mobile field workforce is one that takes care of instant scheduling, dispatch, routing and tracking. Beyond these it has to have billing, invoicing, reporting, customer feedback capture and more. This is what makes a great field force management tool- the ability to do all this on a single, agile software.
Time is money. A single system will enable field staff instant access to any information regarding service tickets, and help them reach the location quicker, solve it in the first visit, and get feedback directly on the mobile. The results can be outstanding – Our customers have seen an average of 14% improvement in their revenues in the first six months. With reduced Cost. And increased better sales. Now that’s something!
A caveat though – any field service software implementation will be successful only when it used diligently by all field staff. And that means the software has to be easy to use, easy to set-up and easy to scale. An intuitive software improves adoption rates, bring down training costs, and increases usage.
Another way to improve adoption is to use the field staff’s personal mobile device as the FSM device. This concept of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) is fast catching up and helps organizations reduce cost of smartphones purchase, not to mention reduced burden on the field workforce who have only one device to handle.
A fundamental aspect of BYOD is inter-operability – native apps that works on iOS, Android and even Windows will help in a smooth roll-out and get the best out of the mobile field service experience. This will most help smaller organizations – who need not spend on costly devices, and focus on the one that has the best value.
