All About Field Service Management

Field management is big business. So big, in fact, that Microsoft acquired FieldOne Services, a supplier of  field-service applications to companies like United Technologies and Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems, for $39 million in 2015. Explaining the purchase, Bob Stutz, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, said, “In today’s connected world, people expect to engage and be engaged by organizations in new ways, in ways that are most convenient for them. To help businesses respond to these changing expectations, we are committed to providing the most comprehensive customer service offering, and this includes the best field service capabilities. Field service management is a specific but critically important area of customer service, providing companies with the ability to deliver end-to-end field service. This is a unique, and transformational point in time for these solutions as enterprises look to improve their responsiveness to customers with service in the field – taking service directly to the customer anytime a service cannot be managed by phone or other channels.”

Business leaders are aware of an economic truth: bad customer service adds up to big business losses. In an August 2016 article in Forbes, customer service expert Shep Hyken stated that businesses lose $62 billion a year because of poor customer service. That number has increased by $20 billion since 2013. One possible reason the number has gone up is that people are more likely to share their dissatisfaction through social media. 

That’s why businesses leaders are asking their field service managers to increase efficiency and improve customer satisfaction while maintaining safety and quality. Field service management software and apps that integrate into daily operations are used by forward-thinking organizations for several reasons, including the following:

• Scheduling and order management: Scheduling can be the most time-intensive need of service businesses. Real-time scheduling and order management are essential to profitability. 
• Vehicle/technician route optimization and location tracking: Guiding technicians with the most efficient route to a job site using GPS navigation minimizes downtime, and also matches the closest technicians to additional work sites when they have completed tasks or when work orders change. 
• Job status updates, time tracking, and driver logs: Real-time information captures workers’ time and activities in the field. It also improves worker management, (the ability to estimate future projects and generate accurate invoices).
• Knowledge and asset repositories: Having access to historical information and data, a place to check regulatory compliance items, streamlines field work.
• Parts and inventory management: Knowing what’s on hand and what is needed (and continuously updating that information) ensures that the correct parts are always available, as well as what items may need to be dropped from inventory. 
• Integrated invoicing/payment processing: Technicians can handle current orders, create additional orders at at worksite if needed, and invoice and process payments on the spot.
• Customer portals: During every step of the field worker’s day - from ordering to work status to a survey after work is completed - having the ability to communicate with the company improves customer’ satisfaction and fosters return business. 

These are just a sampling of the long list of upside traits of FSM hat apply to many different types of business in a variety of sectors.

Field service management is used for commercial, residential, industrial, or energy services markets, like Cable Companies, Construction, Medical Equipment, Field Repair, Government, Power Equipment, Property Maintenance, Security Systems, Pest Control, HVAC, Irrigation, Property Inspections, Oilfield Services, and Utilities. Here are some examples of how some industries use field service management to get techs where they need to go:

• Gas or water utilities: Engineers are dispatched to find and fix suspected leaks.
• Telecom and cable industry: Techs install cable or phone lines into residences or businesses.
• Healthcare: Mobile nurses who provide in-home care for elderly or disabled can track patient information.
• Mining: Techs are provided with information about the precise location of a service event.
• Property maintenance: Facilitation of services for landscaping, irrigation, and home and office cleaning.

Any company that provides installation, service, or repairs of systems or equipment can be a field service management software user and realize great benefits for their organization and their customers when implementing it.  

Whether an organization has a vast number of techs and hundreds of vehicles in its fleet or is attempting to make the most of the resources of a small crew, effective field service management is challenging: How do you assign techs? Is it based on what they do best? On the availability of parts and tools? On shift schedules? 

However, don’t be intimidated by the challenges. There are multiple, interconnected benefits of FSM that help companies handle even the most complex jobs: 

• Coordination: The ability to set and monitor employee schedules, appointments, and timelines.
• Monitoring: Proactively monitor inventory and employee activity.
• Automation: Scheduling, dispatch, and invoicing can all be brought online. Task status can be updated with anytime access.
• Communication: Increase communication and transparency between field-workers and management.
• Savings: With appointment optimization features, time and gas can be saved. There’s another ultimate benefit: businesses that don’t want to employ a field service manager can use software/apps to schedule worker tasks, manage activities, integrate work with employee availability, track billing, and more.
• Scale: Everyone wants to expand and grow his/her business. Transforming traditional field workforce solutions into a mobile field service is the first step to scaling upward.
• Data-driven decision making: Businesses can use data to make decisions that increase efficiencies, and also motivate and boost team morale. For example, there are a lot of Uber-style car services businesses in the field - these companies use field service software or apps depending upon their size. Data collected from these sources is then used to analyze the steps to increase business and grow further. 
• Employee satisfaction: Making a switch to a user-friendly field service app will act as a catalyst in coordinating between you and your employees, and ensure that workflow is simplified and techs aren’t over scheduled. The more satisfied the workforce, the lower the attrition rate.

A survey by Software Advice found that although companies were interested in the benefits of software solutions for field service management, 54 percent still used manual methods including paper, whiteboards, and simple tools like Excel. That is changing, and field service will become a primary revenue driver by 2018 in the US, UK, France, and Germany as companies see the benefits competitors gain,lowered costs with cloud-based solutions, and the world goes increasingly mobile.  

Research firm Markets and Markets 2020 Global Forecast suggests, “The Field Service Management (FSM) market size is estimated to grow from USD 1.97 Billion in 2015 to USD 5.11 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 21.0%.” Much of that growth is fueled by larger enterprises, but as the costs and availability come down through cloud-based services, small businesses will adopt field service management solutions, too.

Here are just some highlights of industry trends:

• Internet of Things (IoT): The IoT will provide benefits for service companies, which include being able to determine the status and efficiency of equipment, and improve equipment availability. A result will also be less downtime because preventive IoT data will enable service providers to proactively resolve issues. 
• Big Data: In this age of analytics and intelligence, field service organizations have access to more data about their customers, their business, and their competitors. An Equipment World article quoted Mark Spates, the president of the Internet of Things Consortium: “We’ve been in the Information Age since the 80s. But as more findings are connected, we’re going to have more data. The Intelligence Age means figuring out how to use that data.” 
• Advancing vehicle technologies: Autonomous vehicle systems that use Big Data and next generation fuel systems will improve everything from safety to saving on gas. Vehicles will be able to detect the need for maintenance, be able to monitor blind spots, have adaptive cruise control, and more. Vehicles with new fuel-efficient systems will generate savings and profits for service businesses managing large vehicle fleets.  
• Technology-and-mobile-centric service technician training: As more high tech sensors and devices are added to vehicles, the way organizations provide service will shift, too. Technicians will need to be trained so they can understand the high tech equipment and use the mobile devices and apps to keep the process as streamlined as possible. 

The most important factor driving the adoption of field service management software is the next generation of workers who will want automated processes and online paperwork. The change won’t just be an add-on: it will be a move to the real-time technology that cloud and mobile applications offer and will be integral to every service business. 

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.