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Resource Type: eBook
Published by:  coresystems
Title: An Introduction To Field Service Management

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Synopsis:

Over the course of the past several years, field service management (FSM) software has evolved to keep pace with the changing technologies that have emerged in recent years, such as the cloud and mobility.

In the modern environment, it’s now necessary for field service software to integrate CRM and ERP functionality in order to ensure that all aspects of service can be managed more effectively.

This eBook takes a detailed look at the core fundamental areas of field service management and how you can improve your own processes to ensure your field service delivery is best in class.

Overview:

This eBook looks at the following topics across six chapters

Technology and Field Service

We look at the role cloud and mobility have played in transforming field service and also assess what new security concerns these two technologies may bring. We also look at emerging technologies including IoT and 3D printing and explore what role they could have in field service delivery.

High Value Field Service

For high value industries, which suffer substantial losses when downtime occurs, FSM solutions can help to mitigate the risk of downtime, as well as design, plan, implement and report on high value services which are typically complex  industrial installations.

It’s thought that on average, businesses lose between $84,000 and $108,000 in revenue for every hour that they suffer network downtime. This section focusses on the cost to the customer of poor field service delivery and what ultimately that cost could be to your business also.

What to look for in a FSM solution

When it comes to choosing the right FSM solution for your organisation, there’s a lot to consider. It’s necessary to properly understand how it will be used within the business and how it aligns with business goals. It’s also important that the solution is future-proof in order to allow for existing technologies to work for the organisation, as well as consider how these might change in the future.

In this section we explore what some of the key considerations are in terms of identifying the right type of business to meet your organisations field service delivery demands.

Managing the Field Service Workforce

One of the most important aspects of your FSM solution will be team management. In order to make full use of integrated FSM, it’s necessary that your solution have the functionality to allow you to effectively collaborate and mobilise the workforce. In this section we look at how best-in-class organisations effectively utilise their FSM solution to better manage their mobile workforce.

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Resource Type: eBook
Published by:  Telogis
Title: Shorten Service Windows and Provide Better Customer Service
Download: Click here to Download the full ebook

By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis

Almost all field service engineers have mobile phones, and 80 to 90 percent of them use smartphones. This puts convenient Internet access and a powerful computing device in the field. Smartphones equipped with advanced mobile/location intelligence apps help workers in the field be more efficient and shorten that window from event/customer request to resolution. This eBook covers some of the ways mobile technology is helping improve customer service satisfaction and  reduce costs.

Overview

All mobile service professionals work toward two main goals: making service more predictive and more proactive. The current business model relies heavily on break-fix occurrences, where a failure has occurred and the customer engagement is entirely reactive. By that time, the customer experience has started out negatively.

The not-too-distant future will bring us HVAC and other building components/appliances that talk directly to service providers who can address mechanical issues before they grow into bigger failures (much like heavy equipment and vehicle fleet managers do today). That level of proactivity is near as everything becomes more connected.

Sharing Information/Filing Resources:

Smartphones are for more than Facebook and Instagram – they enable real-time research and information sharing with colleagues and back-office personnel.

This could be as simple as a web search or communicating through the text messaging capabilities of the phone, or as advanced as the incorporation of a work order management app that provides access to important documents. This can include paperless forms, service agreements, customer profiles, instructional material, how-to videos or graphics, parts catalogues – anything that will make life a little easier for the field engineer.

Connecting to Other Mobile Workers

Knowing the location and status of other mobile workers (and their vehicles) in the field can significantly improve customer service. Mobile fleet management apps can relay information on what parts and tools are on a vehicle, and the skill-set of the driver. In the past, if a field engineer was missing a part or a tool, they would travel back to their shop or to the nearest supply store.

Now – with a connected workforce – that field engineer can pull up the real-time location and activity of colleagues in the area, locate the needed part or tool on one of their vehicles, and get back to work sooner.

[quote float="left"]In the past, if a field engineer was missing a part or a tool, they would travel back to their shop or to the nearest supply store. Now – with a connected workforce – that field engineer can pull up the real-time location and activity of colleagues in the area, locate the needed part or tool on one of their vehicles, and get back to work sooner.

 

Navigate and Route Better

Today’s professional navigation and routing applications take into account real-time feeds of traffic and weather information.

This can provide benefits as simple as avoiding major congestion or accidents and routing to the next job in the fastest way possible, or it can help the engineer reorder their day based on the weather.

Dynamic Job Planning/Delivery

We live in an ever-changing, decentralised work environment.

Work order management applications can deliver new plans and jobs directly to the field service engineer without requiring them to return to the office.

Progress

Much of customer service satisfaction is based on expediency. No one likes hearing that help will arrive in a window between noon and 5:00 PM.

Location-based fleet management technology can notify the back office when an engineer has left one job and is on their way to the next, which then allows them to notify the customer that an engineer is on their way and their ETA.

The Future

These are just a few ways that current mobile and location-based technologies help shorten the service window and help businesses provide better service to their customers.

 

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People at the heart of latest issue of Field Service News  writes Editor Kris Oldland in his March/April Leader...

Whilst it is of course quite natural for those of us working in field service us to focus on technology, it is revolutionising the way we work seemingly more and more every year, every now and then we need to take stock and assess the most valuable element in field service - the people.

Because that’s what it’s all about ultimately surely?

We talk about empowering our field service engineers, we talk up the importance of our engineers as the frontline of customer service - increasingly the only human touch-point our customers may have with our brand.

For all the good that remote connectivity, the Internet of Things and machine to machine diagnostics brings to field service, for all the efficiency savings, all the increased productivity, we will still need that human interaction - if we want to engender any form of customer loyalty, we really need it if we want to capture and retain those ever more slippery recurring revenues that field service managers are under ever increasing pressure to secure.

And as I looked across this issue of Field Service News almost everywhere I looked I could see a strong ‘people’ angle to almost all of our stories and features.

In the News section for example there is what to my mind is one of the best stories to have hit our desk here at Field Service News Towers since we launched. That is the story of how field service software provider Keytree are working with food charity Planet Zheroes help fight Food Poverty in the UK. Not only is it a great example of how their system can be put to use, but it’s also a story of triumph on a human level. Through the use of field service technology Keytree and Planet Zheroes are able to stop wastage from some of the country’s leading food organisations and make sure that there are less hungry mouths out there on the British Streets.

My heartfelt thanks and respect goes out to both companies for helping so many who need it. 

Also in the News section is our new comic strip Field Service Funnies and whilst I’m dishing out thank Thank You’s I should also tip my hat to the good folks at ServiceMax for sharing the cartoons with us.

They were actually the result of a competition towards the end of last year where genuine field engineer stories were converted into cartoons. Once again all about the people , but I have a feeling that as in this first example the cartoons may be quite focussed on the sometimes quite astounding stupidity that occurs amongst the general public (trust me I’m probably one of the worst offenders) but I’m really looking forward to seeing more in this series.

 [quote float="left"]In the News section for example there is what to my mind is one of the best stories to have hit our desk here at Field Service News Towers since we launched.

And as the theme of people continues we have coverage of the first two big events of the year so far. Firstly there was the Enterprise Mobile Technology Conference hosted by Panasonic. You can read our write up on page 32 and the event was a really fantastic start to the event calendar but what truly impressed me the most was that despite being a very, very big company, the Panasonic team were both accessible and genuinely interested in their clients thoughts and needs. Special mention should go to John Harris, General Manager Engineering for a fantastic session that could have veered dangerously close to being a sales pitch in the wrong hands but instead was an extremely valuable, and highly open discussion.

 

The other event I refer to is of course Field Service Medical Europe which was held in sunny Dublin just a few weeks ago. As you would expect from the team that host Field Service Europe the three day event was highly enjoyable and packed with excellent content. However, perhaps because of the more niche focus of this event compared to it’s older cousin, there were a few less in attendance but that simply resulted in each session moving more towards an open forum as the barriers of inhibitions were removed due to the more intimate nature of the group.

Finally we’re really pleased to bring you the results of our latest research project which we have run in partnership with Advanced Field Service.

This time around the focus of our research has been on the types of mobility tools being used by Field Service Engineers in 2015.

The research project itself is perhaps one of the broadest topics we tackled as we look at the types of device (i.e. laptop/tablet/smartphone etc), the grade of device (rugged vs. consumer) the operating systems, what we as field service professionals expect from apps, how often we think we should refresh our FSM solutions vs. how often we actually do it, we even explore who is involved in selecting the solutions and look at whether it is a good idea to involve our field service engineers in the selection process.

For me though the most interesting statistics are around our engineer’s satisfaction with their devices. In brief digital is definitely here... So say the people

 

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Want to know more? Then click here to get you hands on a free digital copy of Field Service News issue five now! 

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