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Trade service businesses across the UK can now forego their landlines and save significant amounts of time, money and logistics with communication, thanks to the latest solution by job management company simPRO.

simPRO’s newest feature, VoIP phone, allows users to use an inbuilt web phone instead of traditional phone handsets or third-party phone software.

simPRO Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Eastgate said the VoIP phone integration would provide a number of benefits to businesses that were looking to take advantage of the trade service industry’s inevitable digital future.

“VoIP provides a flexible, multi-functional solution that couldn’t be simpler to use. Without the need of a traditional telephone handset taking up space on the desk, users can make a call with a push of the mouse or keyboard and connect with people without any disruption to their workflow.

“Incoming calls, re-directs and on-hold calls can all be coordinated on the screen, meaning you can continue to use your simPRO software on your computer while simultaneously speaking freely to colleagues, customers and contacts about important deals, affairs, meetings, files, documents and agendas.”

Mr Eastgate said that while streamlining business communication was a major benefit delivered by VoIP, the costs involved were also a significant variable that would overtly improve a business’ operation.

"Incoming calls, re-directs and on-hold calls can all be coordinated on the screen, meaning you can continue to use your simPRO software on your computer while simultaneously speaking freely to colleagues, customers and contacts..."

 

“VoIP can be much cheaper to incorporate than a traditional telephone line, which typically requires a business to be set up with a costly telecommunications deal.

“It means that businesses that use VoIP need no longer worry about the reliability of their phone connection, the changing rates of their telco deal, and the cumbersome need for dedicated hardware,” he said.

simPRO’s VoIP capability is a product first for the company and is expected to take the lead in the UK market, as many VoIP solutions currently available are limited by specific communication hardware requirements and ties to the UK’s local telecom suppliers.

simPRO's VoIP service is provided to all clients at no charge - they simply continue with their existing VoIP service provider at existing rates whilst getting the benefits simPRO has brought through the integration.

“When using simPRO, the VoIP will draw information to produce caller IDs and maintain call logs which can be viewed in a browser window – all you need is the internet and a headset,” Mr Eastgate said.

“simPRO’s VoIP product is the very embodiment of job management and a great example of streamlining your processes to increase your profits and productivity.”

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Users now can engage their end customers with step-by-step visibility for the field service last mile with a live map view, job details and ETA countdown via a Glympse-powered journey...

MSI, a leading developer of cloud-based field service management software, has partnered with Glympse, the pioneer of real-time location technology, to bring rich technician tracking capabilities to customers of its Service Pro field service management solution. The addition of Glympse will enable MSI to strengthen the powerful value Service Pro delivers to its customers.

The partnership creates new capabilities for MSI to offer to field service teams using its leading cloud and mobile applications. In particular, Glympse will further help those companies meet and exceed customer expectations on the first visit, empower technicians to provide more responsive, proactive service, eliminate costly manual processes, and track technician location and status in real-time.

“Glympse is a clear leader in harnessing location and mobility to positively impact the customer service experience,” said Harvey Shovers, MSI President. “MSI is excited to add Glympse to the Scheduling, Mobility and Customer Experience suite of capabilities of our Service Pro platform, enabling thousands of field service appointments to exceed expectations with a real-time experience for the service customer.”

Through the partnership with Glympse, Service Pro users will now be able to:

• Initiate the customer-facing Glympse experience as soon as an appointment is booked – via SMS, email or push notifications – so end-customers can review appointment details, add to their calendar or connect with their provider right from the interactive web viewer
• Provide end customers with progressive updates and ETA countdown as the appointment draws closer so customers can more effectively manage their day
• Offer a real-time, live map view of the technician on the way to the appointment, including an ETA countdown, and culminating in an arrival confirmation
• Collect feedback via the Glympse Journey to view as soon as the technician completes the field service appointment, adding the ability to follow up with the customer quickly if necessary

“Glympse has a strong history helping field service teams communicate with their customers during the most critical step of a service appointment - when the end customer is waiting for their representative to arrive to their home, their office or even a construction site,” said Chris Ruff, CEO & President of Glympse.

“MSI has demonstrated a precise expertise in building modern field service solutions for diverse industries ranging from cable, HVAC and construction to medical equipment and manufacturing. We’re pleased to add a new layer of engagement to the solutions they’re delivering for these industries and most importantly, to help them give back time and control to the customers ultimately waiting for these critical services.”

For more information about Glympse, visit http://www.glympse.com, or follow the company on Twitter @Glympse, or on Facebook, Instagram or on LinkedIn.

For more information about MSI and Service Pro, visit http://www.msidata.com, or follow the company on Twitter @msidata, or on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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WorkWave, a leading provider of software solutions for the field service and last-mile delivery industries, recently announced its aim to reestablish its focus on customer experience, both through initiatives that further its position as a strategic partner to its customers, as well as with new features and functionality to promote better end-user engagement. As WorkWave’s customers are looking to not only run their businesses with ease but also grow and expand, WorkWave is committed to providing the tools and insight to enable their customers to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Along with its reestablished commitment to customers across multiple fronts, WorkWave is rolling out updated features that have a fresh, new look and feel, as well as new WorkWave PestPac® branding.

“WorkWave solutions have always enabled pest control companies to run seamlessly through its end-to-end platforms,” said Marne Martin, CEO of WorkWave. “Based on our experience and leadership in the space, we are now in a position to take our relationships to the next level and not only be a solution, but also a strategic partner enabling our customers to grow their businesses and provide the best possible service to their end customers.”

In an effort to increase WorkWave PestPac’s focus on bolstering the value it provides to its customers, WorkWave is holding an Executive Advisory Board during PestWorld. This meeting includes senior leadership from the top 15 pest control companies in the world, allowing WorkWave to have access to constructive feedback and industry insight, staying ahead of where the customer needs it to be. WorkWave also put in place its new Customer Success teams and initiatives, which combine customer relationship management and intricate product knowledge to help create and sustain solid relationships with its customers.

To help its customers differentiate themselves against the competition, WorkWave PestPac also unveiled a number of new features that are geared toward the end user, ensuring that they are receiving timely and quality service, and keeping them coming back for more.

These features include:

• Sales Assistant: A convenient way for customers to select, schedule and pay for services right through a pest control operator’s website. Sales assistant provides 24/7 customer accessibility to a business online.
• Route Op: Includes a new visual optimization tool that allows the user to make subtle adjustments to routes, as well as a new flexible workday calendar to add custom dates or holiday schedules. With Route Op, users have the ability to compare cost statistics, view drive time and mileage from each stop, and edit constraints right from the map.
• CustomerConnect Portal: Features a dashboard that provides convenient access to important documents and bills through targeted communications.
• EPay: A simplified payment process where the customer will receive their invoice via text or email, allowing for payment right through the link with no login.

These new features enable pest control companies to put the customer first and provide ways to ensure differentiation between their business and the competition. This not only enables pest control companies to succeed in the marketplace but also to expand and grow.

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FSH, the one-stop construction company servicing the north of England, has transformed its business with a 5 in 1 management system from BigChange.  Operating as a cloud service linked to mobile apps used by workers onsite, the solution provides FSH with real-time operational information for improving efficiency, productivity and service.

Employing 132 mobile tradesmen and 65 office staff, the Castleford headquartered company has regional offices in Hull, Liverpool and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  FSH specialises in insurance-related work, typically repairing flood or fire damaged properties.  A new construction arm handing reactive maintenance work is also driving expansion in sectors such as social housing and education.

“We work mainly for the UK’s biggest insurance firms and providing a consistently high-quality rebuild and refurbishment service is absolutely vital,” says Matthew Cappleman, Managing Director of FSH.  “The monitoring and reporting of our work on site is however just as important and that’s where BigChange comes in.  It gives real-time visibility of every job and provides an audit trail of all work.  We can manage the work better, improve customer service, and provide insurers with immediate job updates and evidence of work done.”

With a fleet of 132 BigChange equipped vehicles providing live data for managing operations, tradesmen are being equipped with rugged Samsung tablets running JobWatch.  Mobile apps completely replace paperwork with live data reporting and the devices capture useful time and location stamped photographs, as well as customer signatures.

"BigChange really does expedite everything as our tradesman can go straight to the job and put in a full, productive 8 hour day.  The system also ensures good work discipline and good practice as the tradesmen are in effect self-managing their work, backed up with their reports and photographs. With JobWatch there is no more sitting around and managers no longer need to go onsite to check the work.  Everyone wins,“ comments Matthew Cappleman.

Stuart Welburn, Finance Director at FSH agrees that BigChange has had a positive impact, adding “Certainly BigChange has been good for business and we estimate efficiency gains of 2 or 3 percent.  However, we anticipate it will improve our profitability not only through better utilisation of our resources but by generally improving our services to continually improve our reputation and win more business’.

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You know the feeling. Whether it’s a patch of water by your washing machine, or an alert from a failing substation, it’s that sinking certainty that something’s wrong and that you need an expert to fix it. From that moment, everything depends on what happens when you make that first call, or raise the ticket.

On the surface, the whole concept of customer service comes down to that feeling.

Do you want customers to experience a twinge of anxiety and annoyance when they contemplate contacting you? Or just a passing moment of irritation about the problem itself, because they know it will be easy to get it resolved quickly?

In this article, we’ll look at how consumer-facing and industrial organisations can use technology to make service a positive, brand-enhancing experience, that builds customer loyalty, reduces cost and creates profitable extra revenue.

We’ll also explore the idea of servitization, and the fact that, these days, the service is the product. Customers are buying outcomes, not products, and it’s great for your bottom line.

THE SINGLE VIEW: IT’S GETTING PERSONAL

Much is written about the difficulty of getting a single view of the customer, when they can get in touch through your website, your contact centre, your twitter feed and so many other channels.

It matters because your customers always have a single view of your organisation.

No matter how they connect, and no matter how the experience looks and feels, customers form an instant judgement of what your organisation stands for as soon as they make contact.

That one-in-a-million moment is your first and best chance to win their hearts and minds or, at least, calm their anxieties. An easy, personalised and effective experience sows a seed of loyalty that can blossom into revenue when they next come to make a purchasing decision.

You may have thousands or even millions of customers, but at any moment the only one that matters is the one entering a ticket on your service portal, or calling your service team.

SERVICE: THE NEW MINDSET

This single view across multiple channels is one of the primary drivers of digital transformation. Organisations are using technology to close the gaps between themselves and their customers.

Ideas around ‘customer focus’ have been around for decades, but there is a renewed momentum behind them now that customers have such high expectations and wield so much immediate power.

Online services such as Amazon and Uber have created simple, rewarding service experiences that customers now expect from almost every organisation, while a single comment, positive or negative, can be amplified in moments across multiple social media channels.

"Getting closer to customers requires more than a digital transformation. It calls for a change of culture across the organisation and a deeper understanding of the entire customer journey..."

But getting closer to customers requires more than a digital transformation. It calls for a change of culture across the organisation and a deeper understanding of the entire customer journey.

If your structure and processes do not reflect a customer-centric strategy, then you will struggle to deliver the value that you promise.

Any investment in building a customer relationship can be compromised in a moment by a call that is not answered quickly, or a technician who arrives late with the wrong equipment.

In this customer-centric competitive environment, service has become a defining differentiator, creating new opportunities for profitable revenue. Products are increasingly commoditised, with little to choose between them, so it’s the service that comes with them that can be the deciding factor when customers buy.

In some instances, this servitization transcends the product, so that customers pay only for the benefits, rather than the product itself. The operators of Amsterdam Schiphol airport, for example, pay for a guaranteed level of illumination, rather than investing in lighting systems. Philips and their project partners Cofely provide lighting as a service, retaining ownership of the products themselves.

The Schiphol example also highlights the fact that this is not just an issue for consumer-facing organisations. Service is equally critical in business-to-business markets, where failures of critical assets can compromise service level agreements.

This may lead to financial penalties and, worse still, reputational damage that may ultimately lose the contract altogether.

JOINING UP SERVICE

Turning service into a decisive differentiator relies on an end-to-end integration of every aspect of service delivery. Data needs to move freely from the customer endpoint – whether it’s a smartphone app, a chatbot, or any channel – to the back office systems that log the service delivery process.

Artificial intelligence is playing a big part in service optimisation now, with the internet of things helping to automate many routine processes. A sensor on a pump at risk of failure can automatically raise a ticket that schedules a maintenance job and checks the inventory for the right parts. The engineer can arrive on site with everything needed to complete the job in one visit, with minimal need for human intervention in the process.

Customers also want more control, with AI enabling self-service apps and web portals.

Rather than joining a call queue, customers can raise their own tickets and track their progress through to the moment the technician arrives. This also relieves some of the pressure on support center agents, who spend less time on routine calls and more time on more complex cases, which again contributes to great customer experiences.

FIND OUT MORE

IFS is a global leader in field service and contact centre technologies. We advise consumer and industrial organisations on strategy, change management and the implementation of our solutions for a complete, connected service delivery capability.

The modular, open architecture of our solutions allows you to introduce services as you need them, and to integrate them easily with industry-standard applications such as Oracle and SAP. We’ll help you make service a rich source of revenue and growth while boosting efficiency, increasing productivity and reducing costs.

Visit https://www.ifsworld.com/uk/news-and-events/one-in-a-million/

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In the early part of this century we have seen huge technological developments impact field service management and increasingly technology and service delivery have become entwined - but investing in the wrong technology can be an expensive mistake, Paul Whitelam, VP Product Marketing, ClickSoftware outlines how we can ensure we avoid such pitfalls...

As we count down to 2020, companies are considering how to prepare for the next decade and get a jump start on the future.

There are many exciting technologies about, which offer much promise. In field service management,

where there is serious complexity that raises the stakes for any technology investment, it’s important these promising avenues realize their potential sooner rather than later.

But investing in new tech doesn’t guarantee its potential will be fully realized. It remains within the purview of the tech buyer to ensure the business extracts maximum value from new technology.

Identify Opportunities for Improvement 

Understanding your business strengths, weaknesses, and technological maturity is prerequisite to any exploration of new technology.

Have you outgrown an existing solution and need greater sophistication, or are you limited by processes rather than technology?

"Knowing your biggest obstacles and inefficiencies is the starting point for any tech conversation..."

Knowing your biggest obstacles and inefficiencies is the starting point for any tech conversation.

Are you able to measure everything and set benchmarks for desired performance? You will need to in order to have a productive conversation with a vendor.

For example, if you know you want to reduce windshield time rather than mileage this creates different requirements for a routing solution and what methodology it uses to map routes for service workers.

In organizations new to field service management solutions, there might be a lack of sophisticated measurement and benchmarks.

If you are moving from spreadsheets and manual paperwork for the first time, the leap can seem daunting. But this is the perfect opportunity to put prospective vendors to the test and use their expertise to source measurement frameworks, benchmarks, and best practices—then hold them accountable for delivering.

Invest in Outcomes, Not Products

Anyone trying to sell you a hammer will characterize your problems as nails, regardless of their nature. Once you’ve understood your challenges, you can articulate desired outcomes that can define the required capabilities for a solution.

The underlying technology is not irrelevant, but how it’s utilized is most important, and to what end.

Imagine you want to speed up response times without adding staff.

This will require the ability to schedule and dispatch workers automatically—with zero touch.

This could lead you to AI-driven automation and keeps the horse before the cart. The desired outcome first, tech and methodology second.

Whether your ultimate aim is to reduce costs, increase revenue, or improve customer experience, it should be clearly stated and technology agnostic.

Don’t let shiny new technology give you the old razzle-dazzle—you’re in the business of getting real work done—drive every conversation back to outcomes and proof.

Incorporate Change Management

New and innovative solutions can fall short of their promises if not wholly adopted by your workforce.

Even the best solutions can fall flat if your team is not on board.

Many field service organizations save money by using augmented reality wearables to remotely assist junior technicians on advanced jobs.

A senior technician can provide the expertise and guidance without having to travel. This sounds like a great idea to implement until you realize senior technicians are uncomfortable with the technology and prefer to use phones or to be dispatched to the job themselves—at a higher hourly cost.

"When talking to your technicians, extol the benefits of the change from their point of view, rather than the potential..."

Ensuring your new process and field adoption line up with your vision requires an early focus on change management and communicating with all levels of your service organization.

When talking to your technicians, extol the benefits of the change from their point of view, rather than the potential. They’re more likely to buy into an idea that impacts their work positively.

Have a plan for communicating with, training, and reassuring your workforce about what’s in it for them.

Looking ahead, make sure you recruit employees who are technology friendly and are eager to learn and use the latest and most advanced solutions available.

Automation, machine learning, real-time traffic based routing, and augmented reality all have practical applications in the field today.

Just as the technologies of yesteryear that they’re succeeding, these are simply tools to enable the job field service workers have always done.

To capitalize on their potential, whether you’re considering an upgrade, a process change, or purchasing a new solution, remember to lead with your biggest challenges, define your desired outcomes, and ensure your team is excited about the coming changes.

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Fast Lean Smart (FLS) is helping to cut down travel and admin time for British Engineering Services, enabling field engineers to be more productive by up to 15% each day.

Paul Hirst, Managing Director Engineering Inspection, says “FLS have proven an outstanding partner since we began together in 2015. The FLS VISITOUR advanced scheduling solution is at the heart of our business strategy for field engineering efficiency whilst delivering the best customer experience.”

British Engineering Services is the UK’s biggest independent engineering inspection, testing and certification company and has a long history dating back to 1859. Customers include all kinds of businesses, from factories to nuclear power plants, from hospitals to schools. Until 2015 it was part of RSA, one of the world’s leading insurance groups and a FTSE 100 company, but is now established as a privately owned company.

Today, British Engineering Services employs 450 highly trained and qualified engineer surveyors and consultant engineers who perform 2.8 million inspections per year. Its customers benefit from state-of-the-art technology and excellent online reporting systems that can deliver information quickly and efficiently.

Never standing still

“We constantly review our performance and look for ways to exceed customer expectations,” says Stephen Doyle, Operations Development Leader for British

Engineering Services. “We pride ourselves on having some of the best people in the industry working for us. Many of our staff have been involved in engineering inspection and certification for decades. It is this deep knowledge and understanding of our customers’ requirements that has shaped our business and led us to working with FLS.”

The right engineer for the right job at the right time

FLS’s flagship solution, FLS VISITOUR, helps to match availability with customer demand. The software automatically schedules inspections for the entire engineering team and selects the right engineer with the right skill set for the right job. Through

customisable variables, the FLS solution consolidates multiple inspections due at one site into a single visit. It also uses advanced mapping software to choose the most efficient routes to each appointment, including consideration of traffic at the time-of-day. FLS VISITOUR will ensure that each appointment is the best fit for the customer, the engineer and British Engineering Services as a whole.

"The initial findings from FLS VISITOUR clearly demonstrated a significant reduction in travel time but also the added benefit of reduced admin time for the Engineers..."

Stephen explains, “We looked at lots of different scheduling solution providers, but none of them gave us the flexibility that we wanted. Then we found FLS, who offered a highly configurable system and made every effort to understand our company, our data, and deliver what was right for us and our customers. They also demonstrated what their software could do with initial data tests and a ‘try before you buy’ trial. This was a big reason why we chose them.”

The initial findings from FLS VISITOUR clearly demonstrated a significant reduction in travel time but also the added benefit of reduced admin time for the Engineers by enabling the introduction of a central planning team to arrange the inspections.

Stephen says, “The trial proved the efficiency and productivity-fuelling benefits of FLS VISITOUR, but it also helped us prepare for the full implementation. We learnt what to do, who to involve, and how to make the transition as smooth as possible for our people.”

Inspection timing and risk management

British Engineering Services take safety and compliance very seriously and have unsurpassed engineering inspection certification accreditations and memberships. Inspections are planned in advance to give the customer notice and allow any access issues to be addressed before the day.

One of the business challenges is that inspections performed too early would bring subsequent inspections forward which increases costs, but overdue inspections could create a safety and compliance risk. The fact that FLS VISITOUR manages this timing and enables the coordination of multiple inspections in one visit is not just beneficial in reduced travel time and costs, it is also less disruptive for its customers whilst ensuring safety standards are met.

Working in partnership

“We’ve found the whole team at FLS really helpful and approachable and feel this is a genuine partnership that continues to improve our efficiency and quality of service.” Stephen explains. “They’re always available when we need them and regularly review the rules and settings within VISITOUR to ensure we are meeting our own customers’ expectations in the best possible way. I cannot recommend FLS highly enough.”

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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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