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Stephen Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer, eBECS, provides an outline for optimising field service operations in the new digital age...

In any business, increasing efficiency while minimising costs is absolutely critical, and failing to recognise new opportunities can result in declining profits. This is especially true when existing systems do not accurately track resources and information. So how do you tell if your Field Service processes are doing the job, and when to re-evaluate to see if they can be optimised?

There is a great underutilisation of technology in Field Service that can be solved with an integrated Field Service solution. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service, properly implemented, can have considerable positive impacts on the bottom line, reducing pain points for the field service technicians, customers, and the business overall.

To help businesses understand the value of an integrated solution they first need to recognise the pain points of the three parties involved, and how those pain points are costing them money.

Optimisation of Route Management

When a field service technician is sent out to a location, their fuel costs and driving time are taken into consideration in the overall expense.

The further a field technician has to drive, the higher the cost. So how does Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service solve this? By accurately mapping out each service call, dispatched technicians can service more customers in a shorter period of time, with less travel in between each location for complete route optimisation.

 

This also reduces the time a customer must wait. A report by Forrester Research, Inc. noted that customers felt the most important thing a business could do to provide good service was to value the customer’s time. The less time a customer has to wait, the better experience they will have with the business. Increasing customer loyalty has high impact on the business’s overall profitability.

Improving Resource Utilisation

Each time a field service technician is sent out for a job it costs the business over £800. If that field service agent does not have the right equipment or skills to complete the job, another technician is sent. An integrated Field Service solution ensures that all the information required to complete the job is stored in the system. This enables the business to send the right technician to the location, with the right equipment, reducing the need for a second visit by over 26%.

Real-time visibility and scheduling

Do you know where and at what stage in the service call your technicians are at any given time? And why is this important?

Providing realtime data is essential to any business looking to increase efficiencies. By knowing how long technicians require to complete certain jobs, a Field Service solution can significantly improve scheduling functions. Customers can get updates on when they can expect the technician to be arriving for their service call, and if there are any unexpected delays in the schedule.

 

Overall, proper scheduling helps regulate workloads for technicians, as only service calls that can be handled within a technician’s regular work day are scheduled. This not only reduces overtime, but reduces the number of technicians who find themselves with excessive amounts of downtime and wasted hours between service calls.

Connecting business resources

Poor resource management is one of the biggest leaks in profits. By connecting service requests to work orders and right-parts-monitoring, inventory management improves. The business then has accurate data on all inventory and the specific parts required for each service call. This ties back to the overall goal of reducing second service calls as it ensures that parts are in-stock before a technician is sent.

Business reporting

How does a business forecast with no visibility?

Accurate reporting is essential to understanding both profits and expenses. With an integrated Field Service solution, detailed reports can be generated and used to make key business decisions, including required expansions. These reports include service call time reporting,  analytics on hours used for provisioning and other tasks not allocated to a service call, and parts used for service calls.

Employee engagement

Employee job satisfaction is a key component in a business’s profitability. It can be directly linked to a customer’s experience, increasing efficiency, and reducing errors.

When employees are provided the proper tools and resources to complete their jobs by way of an integrated solution, user adoption is high and coincides with an increase in revenue generated per employee. The right Field Service solution provides technicians with vital information about each service call, real-time guidance, and cross-team collaboration.

 

Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service can have a significant positive effect on your overall business, from providing customers with better service, increasing job satisfaction for employees, providing analytics that can be linked to business decisions, to reducing wasted resources. To learn more on how to optimise your  Field Service business, visit https://ebecs.wistia.com/projects/f0me5yp2eq

 

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