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The potential to enhance field service efficiencies through technologies like IoT, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence are out of this world. But to fully realise the benefits they can bring field service companies need to have a foundational framework of technology already in place.

Here we look at five key systems every field service company should focus on before they look to take another giant leap forwards...

Field Service Management technology has become essential to service delivery excellence and in a world of connectivity and ever-increasing customer expectations, service excellence is no longer a USP but a baseline requirement.

Indeed, the rapid evolution of technology and its impact on field service in recent years has led to an increasing integration between process and technology when it comes to field service management.

However, whilst technologies such as IoT and Augmented Reality are grabbing the headlines and can undoubtedly enhance service delivery, their potential is greatly diminished unless you have a fundamental layer of technology in place already. In this article, we will explore five core, fundamental elements that should be at the base of your field service management solution.

 

Contract Management:

Contract management is often viewed as the starting point of almost everything within field service management operations.

Without a view of your service contracts, you cannot have to hand the answers for critical questions such as:

• What is the SLA on any given contract?
• Is a client under warranty or do they have an enhanced level of service contract?
• Does a contract include spare parts and/or consumables?
• Is the service contract due for renewal?

You could be at risk of potentially not meeting your clients' expectations and so putting the potential of renewing or upselling service to that client in danger in the future – or on the other side of the coin, you could be giving valuable service away for free.

Therefore, Contract Management is perhaps the most important of the fundamental building blocks that you should expect to find within a modern field service management solution and perhaps the first area that you should make sure your team is fully versed in utilising.

 

Scheduling:

Scheduling comes in a number of different guises and the various different names given to types of scheduling options can be a somewhat confusing but broadly scheduling will come in three flavours:

• Assisted Scheduling
• Optimised Scheduling
• Dynamic Scheduling

So which is right for your business?

It is often assumed that a dynamic solution is required for a larger mobile workforce, but whilst the size of your workforce is certainly one consideration in which type of scheduling engine would best suit your service operation - this is not the only factor.

The complexity of the service work, as well as the variety of service jobs you undertake, is another significant factor.

For example, an organisation that has a field workforce that services multiple different asset types – perhaps from multiple OEMs, and therefore has a number of different engineer requirements for differing jobs - would likely benefit far more from an optimised scheduling engine than an organisation that just fixes one or two types of assets for which all of their engineers are qualified to undertake repairs and maintenance.

This remains true whether you have 20 or 200 field service engineers.

Similarly, if a large proportion of your field service efforts are focused on planned maintenance calls which have a level of flexibility in terms of getting an engineer on site, then you may not have a need for a dynamic scheduling engine whilst an organisation that is far more reactive, that has a firefighting approach to their service delivery and strict SLAs would benefit hugely from a dynamic scheduling system.

 

Mobile tools and communications:

It is fair to say that the biggest revolution in field service has come from the rapid explosion in mobile computing power.

Today’s smartphones are capable of greater computing tasks than even the laptops of just a few years back.

For the field service organisation, this is fantastic as it puts information at the field service engineers finger tips, empowers them to spend more time on maintenance and repair and less on activities such as paperwork and enables them to deliver a far more effective and impressive service experience for the customer.

 

"Engineer to engineer communications are seamless in today’s world, whether it be using dedicated built-for-purpose business tools or even free to use consumer solutions such as WhatsApp or Skype.."

 

Also, with the advent of smart phones, and then latterly tablets, has come greater communications tools than we could have ever expected ten years ago.

For example, engineer to engineer communications are seamless in today’s world, whether it be using dedicated built-for-purpose business tools or even free to use consumer solutions such as WhatsApp or Skype.

From a FSM solution standpoint again whilst a mobile app was a USP, an add on or even a separate solution entirely just a few short years ago, now almost all FSM solutions will come with some mobile offering included. However, whilst the mobile element in FSM technology is constantly evolving, essentially the most fundamental and core aspect that you want a mobile aspect of a FSM solution to do is to mirror your back-end solution and to do so in real-time.

 

Parts & Inventory Management:

Parts and Inventory management is perhaps an area that in the past has not received the focus and attention that it requires.

It has often been the mantra of field service organisations that they are aiming to get the right engineer to the right job, at the right time.

But that all becomes moot if the right engineer doesn’t have the right parts to hand as well.

Consistently at industry conferences, parts management remains a hot button and a common pain point for a huge amount of organisations.

So whilst it is exciting to talk about emerging technologies such as IoT and Augmented Reality - a primary focus should be on ensuring our field service operation is as efficient as possible at a fundamental level, and that means getting a grip on parts management.

And whilst of course there are supply chain and logistics aspects to the conversation which can make things complicated – especially when you are using third-party contractors – one of the most crucial aspects of good parts and inventory management is utilising a system that can keep track of where your inventory, including van inventory, is at any given point.

One area where many companies get themselves caught out is by thinking that they can use a system such as a financial system that is designed at best for companies whose stock resides in static places such as warehouses and stores.

However, field service is far more dynamic than that, with parts moving back and forth and in and out of locations constantly each and every day.

 

Integration:

Finally, just a brief note on integration.

We are living in a world of data lakes, data rivers, data mountains and all other types of data topography it seems!

But all these vast swathes of data are meaningless unless you are able to draw insight from it, and quite often that means being able to let the data flow seamlessly from one set of business applications to another.

This is why integration is absolutely key in any modern business system – including FSM.

[quote float="right"]Integration is absolutely key in any modern business system – including FSM.[/quote]Of course, our vision of the future is that everything will be plug and play and all technologies will play well together nicely, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Integration varies from provider to provider but often it is led by the integrations they have been asked to undertake, so if your current provider or a provider you have identified as being a good fit for your business don’t advertise integration with a specific system you are using – it is worth discussing the possibilities with them - especially if it is a common platform as making their product integrate may be useful for other future clients also.

Whilst there are still some legacy systems that can prove very difficult to integrate with this is becoming less and less so in today’s day and age. Indeed, we are seeing more and more companies offering ‘off the shelf’ or ‘out of the box’ integration with the leading CRM, ERP and even Telematics solutions.

Finally, it is worth discussing with your providers how they are future proofing their products when it comes to integration – there is, for example, a large amount of proprietary technology centred around IoT at the moment and until accepted universal protocols are in place you want to make sure any investment you make is future-proof.

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Trade service businesses now have the ability to become experts with job management software thanks to simPRO’s new learning resource.

The ‘simPRO Learning | Toolbox’ is the job management software company’s latest global product release, specifically designed to educate and support clients who are seeking short-term answers or long-term knowledge about the technology they use for coordinating business operations.

The new solution offers a growing library of essential resources, including how-tos and standard workflow practice materials, which can be learned at any pace. The online materials are self-directed, interactive and delivered in short, five-minute topics, supporting users in just-in-time learning to get the knowledge when needed. Users also have the ability to complete entire courses on specific simPRO knowledge or workflows. All materials reinforce the learning experience with knowledge checks.

simPRO Global Head of Customer Success, Erika Entz, said simPRO Learning | Toolbox was developed as a supportive resource for time-poor customers who wish to stay up to date with business demands.

[quote float="left"]This is a major stepping stone for simPRO customers, to gain a deeper understanding of our job management software, which has become integral to the trade service industry[/quote]“This is a major stepping stone for simPRO customers, to gain a deeper understanding of our job management software, which has become integral to the trade service industry,” she said.

“The learning toolbox allows businesses to enhance their simPRO knowledge anytime, anywhere. The learning materials will help businesses get new team members up to speed faster, and the self-directed learning allows users to become job management software experts in their own right.”

Ms Entz said the simPRO Learning Toolbox’s wide variety of resources would help simPRO to provide job management software that will lead businesses to future success, and help to make modern software a more accessible mainstream tool in the trade services industry.

“simPRO is dedicated to supporting our current and future customers with a variety of learning resources to ensure we enable our customers to get the most out of their software.”

“We regularly update and add new content, providing our customers with just-in-time learning in our new simPRO Learning Toolbox in addition to other learning resources, such as the simPRO Help Guide, videos and Walk Me Throughs to learn more about our groundbreaking solutions.”

The self-paced microlearning materials are available to users anywhere, anytime with internet access.

The simPRO Learning | Toolbox is included with simPRO customer’s user licenses, and comes at no extra costs and launched on 26 September 2018.

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Web programmers and business managers across the United Kingdom will be able to integrate online applications faster and easier than previously possible thanks to a new API product released by global job management company simPRO.

simPRO’s ‘RESTful API’ product was developed as a software interfacing tool which allows various systems to connect and communicate with a new sense of efficiency, strengthening the bridge between simPRO and other platforms which may be used in the workforce.

An Application Programming Interface, or API, is broadly defined as software that allows two applications to talk to each other, acting as a messenger to allow third-party developers to retrieve and insert specified data into that application.

The simPRO API allows for seamless integration of data between it and other business software platforms.

simPRO Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Eastgate said the simPRO RESTful API would ultimately lead to better software integrations and an overall increase inconvenience for businesses.

“simPRO’s new API is a technical step forward, but its functions are good for users because external applications can be created to move data between simPRO and different applications,” he said.

“With the API you can now create integrations that connect simPRO to mailing and accounting systems, ecommerce, business websites, smartphone and tablet apps and document management systems.

“Thanks to simPRO RESTful API, businesses are able to integrate simPRO and third party applications easier than ever before.

“That’s what we strive to do at simPRO – removing time and complexity from modern necessities like program integration and online product use. We want to empower our partners in the United Kingdom to build valuable businesses around the information flowing through simPRO.

“simPRO’s new API systems will assist in managing workflows and improving efficiencies for thousands of trade service businesses,” Mr Eastgate said.

simPRO’s RESTful API was designed to be up to date with industry standards and features a Developer Centre where users can receive support through a dedicated forum and access assistance resource like code examples and program walkthroughs.

The new API will be made available world-wide upon release and be functional through simPRO’s Service and Enterprise range, making it accessible for a diverse range of users throughout the trade service industry.

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