Companies that deploy technicians in the field struggle with several difficult tradeoffs. They must try to work with the most efficient scheduling without sacrificing punctuality. The correct tools must be brought for each job so that it can be completed in a single trip. Field service management software addresses all of these concerns.
Field Service Management software (FSM) makes scheduling and dispatching seamless and offers instant billing and service data. Field service management software makes running a field-based service business far more predictable and offers improvements to your customer service. Customers tend to appreciate it when appointments occur as scheduled and when technicians arrive fully prepared. This appreciation typically increases customer loyalty.
This guide helps the reader understand what field service management software is and provides a breakdown of the impacts and the software itself, what features are most important, and which industries have the most reliance on this software.
Field service management software is generally a type of service management software delivered via SaaS (Software as a Service). This type of service management software enables managers to schedule, assign, and track staff that need to perform work out of the office. In addition to scheduling, this type of software also tracks warranties, contracts, and service level agreements, helping ensure that commitments are met, even if a given service requires multiple trips to complete the work.
SaaS solutions deliver important, work-related, decision-making information to field service technicians. Field service technicians no longer have to travel to work sites with information that separates them from the office. Now, the same information, analyses, and support available to technicians in the office are delivered to them, wherever they go. This is an important advancement for workforces in the plumbing, HVAC, and telecommunications fields, where the workforce is inherently mobile, and every job/service commitment is unique.
Figure 1: Five broad categories of field service management software.
Not every employee interfaces with the software in the same manner. Technicians use the mobile app to update job statuses, request part replacements, and create invoices. Managers use a dashboard to assign and dispatch work and schedule technicians based on their field and job-related certifications. Finally, support teams use the same data to address customer inquiries and manage customer expectations.
FSM software’s biggest operational advantage is consolidation. Without it, scheduling, dispatching, and resource allocation are spread over different tools and forced across multiple spreadsheets and phone calls. With FSM software, technicians have visibility of their work for the day, work orders are streamlined, and the project members remain in sync with the task activities.
FSM software also offers extensive automation. It performs routine, repetitive activities that would otherwise take dispatchers a good part of the morning, such as matching a technician’s skill set to a particular job requirement. With this automation, manual errors and operational costs are minimized, and dispatchers have the peace of mind of knowing the technician has the appropriate skills and has been qualified for the job.
The automation also helps a service business’s customers through a self-service portal. From a customer perspective, FSM software fills a communication void that once existed and now helps showcase the progress of the technician and the scheduled jobs for the day, including appointment confirmations. This automated service builds customer loyalty, reduces anxious follow-up calls to the office, and supports business growth.
FSM software is not without variety. Vendors have designed unique versions to accommodate different infrastructural requirements, price points, and operational preferences. Knowledge of these categories increases the efficiency of evaluating what the right match for a particular organization is.
Cloud-based FSM software is remote and Internet-based, so there’s no need to maintain hardware. Because it is SaaS, it scales and updates automatically, which eases the strain on your internal IT staff. On-premises solutions are bought and run on your servers. They sacrifice some of the conveniences that SaaS and cloud-based solutions bring. However, they do give you greater control over your data security and greater customization options. Each company has to evaluate what makes the most sense based on its existing resources and infrastructure, the regulations it must comply with, and how much IT capacity is available.
Some companies prefer an FSM platform emphasizing scheduling, dispatch, and real-time field operations. Others choose FSM as one of the modules in their Enterprise Resource Planning system. With the integrated route, field service information flows directly into the financials, inventory, and customer relationship management modules. This gives management a cohesive, all-inclusive perspective of the company.
Certain platforms are designed for HVAC, utilities, telecommunications, or healthcare. Industry-specific solutions usually include asset lifecycle management, scheduled preventive maintenance, and compliance tracking. Instead of providing a general-purpose toolkit, these solutions address specific challenges for each industry.
Field technicians spend very limited time in front of their computers so a lot of modern FSM systems have a mobile centric design. With these applications, field technicians can receive real time job updates, access customer information, edit work orders, and record data from the field, all from their mobile devices. These applications are also useful when signal is poor because a lot of them have offline functionality.
The last category is inclusive of hybrid deployment models. Heavily customized models also belong to this category. These models are usually built considering the current workflows of an organization. They can also work with legacy systems and be adjusted as the organization grows. Models belonging to this category are usually flexible, which can be a good tradeoff for the time and effort that will be used for the implementation, especially with organizations that have complicated or changing needs.
The most relevant category will vary based on the size of the organization and their specific technical context, as well as the particular service delivery challenges they are facing. While the deep integration of systems may be of value to some organizations, other organizations may find particular value in specialized industry functions, or the ability to operate effectively in remote locations.
Modern FSM (Field Service Management) software integrates company asset data and real time data from IoT devices, mobile technology, and remote monitoring. This integration promotes many distinct benefits for organizations that run teams in the field.
FSM systems enable a proactive maintenance approach with the use of information from integrated devices and assets. This is especially critical in the utilities and telecommunications industries. Here, the costs associated with downtime can be significant, and the majority of customers will recognize when there is a disruption. For these reasons, it is crucial to identify the potential failure of an asset before it leads to a breakdown.
Technicians with access to historical information, current equipment status, and live diagnostics are able to conduct successful diagnoses in the shortest time possible. Ensuring the right technician is sent to the right job, the first time, eliminates the time and expense of multiple jobs at the same site. This accuracy is further enhanced by advanced algorithms and real-time mobile communications.
Figure 2: The impact areas of FSM Software.
FSM platforms provide field staff with interactive checklists, going beyond mere task lists. Technicians can use these lists along with additional job details and AR overlays to safely work through and solve complex problems. Safer problem-solving leads to a higher level of task satisfaction and even improved job performance.
Efficiencies in scheduling and route planning, combined with inventory solutions, decrease travel time and fuel costs. They also ensure the necessary parts arrive when a job requires it. These improvements reduce the direct cost of labor and optimize the business’s resources.
Customers are kept in the loop from the beginning to the end of their order process, and consistent on-time arrivals give them a service they can rely on.
Most strong platforms address the challenges of working in the field rather than just dispatch and scheduling. One such feature is the ability to monitor field employees and vehicles in the field, not just in the system. With GPS, the closest technician to the call can not only be assigned, but the system can create the best route to decrease distance, travel time, and fuel consumption, all while providing a reliable ETA estimate.
A complete admin dashboard gives the manager the ability to see the work in progress, availability of stock, and pending approvals, along with ad hoc reporting and interactive views of key business performance indicators to make informed decisions that drive the company. The system has advanced skill matching and uses the profile of the technician to help ensure first-time fix rates are maximized.
The most effective field work solutions give field workers the information they need to complete the job, including client history, safety information, and job checklists to complete the job without calling the office. Work is prioritized based on what has the highest impact on the customer.
Figure 3: Eleven features worth prioritizing when evaluating FSM software.
The best field work management system is the one that gives employees the ability to work out of range of cellular coverage, and the capability to provide status notifications to the customer and manager.
Other features that add to the value of a work management system include: automatic invoicing and expense reimbursement; automatic inventory and supplies ordering; safety and policy guidance; compliance and job related measures and analytics.edictions, fostering continuous service quality and efficiency enhancement.
The fundamental features of FSM software are the same as ever. The methods of implementing such software, however, differ greatly among industries. Companies with unique machinery or stringent compliance standards typically utilize industry-specific versions of the software.
Manufacturers of advanced technology and equipment must balance precision, speed, and the demands of the market and regulatory agencies. Unplanned maintenance becomes extremely costly, combining downtime and defective output. The need for constant training of technicians to keep the team current becomes critical as well. FSM software designed for this space includes advanced features: maintenance scheduling, monitoring, support, and compliance tracking.
Service providers in construction must balance the challenges of having equipment that needs maintenance at the same time as having technicians spread across different job sites and parts that need to be delivered on demand. The downtime of any equipment can halt an entire construction project. An effective FSM solution incorporates all aspects of the maintenance cycle from predictive maintenance and real-time equipment monitoring to service-parts inventory management and smart scheduling.
Companies that service medical devices need to comply with regulations and be responsive. This is because downtime of a medical device can directly affect a patient’s care. FSM solutions designed for this industry require supportive compliance tracking, extensive documentation, real-time monitoring of medical devices, and rapid dispatch services to be effective for patients and regulators.
Distributors of industrial machinery grapple with intricate machinery, massive operations, and challenges relating to the availability of spare part inventories across multiple sites. Modern maintenance and service technology helps reduce the time an asset is not operational and optimize the field service workforce across a vast geographical area.
Utility service companies must contend with aging infrastructure, emerging crises, and widely spread field personnel requiring urgent coordination. FSM software solutions for this sector utilize predictive maintenance for aging equipment, instantaneous infrastructure monitoring, and rich communication tools that enable rapid resource mobilization in the field when a situation occurs.
Work sites in the oil and gas industry often require staff to work in remote and/or dangerous locations. In these locations, staff are required to meet and maintain both safety and environmental compliance.
The FSM platform tailored for the oil and gas industry helps schedule and dispatch staff and equipment to remote field locations. Compliance and safety issues are dealt with via powerful monitoring capabilities for both equipment and the environment.
Businesses have services that take employees outside of the office. Field service management (FSM) software is geared toward automating the scheduling, dispatching, and management of these services. There are a number of benefits this can provide a company, including reduced cost and downtime and enhanced service delivery. For employees who are field technicians, the software communicates with and is accessible from their mobile devices. This enables technicians to carry out their services, while the customers receive a heightened level of service and even more timely updates about their service requests.
FSM software can either be mobile-centric or cloud-centric and can be tailored to even more specific industries. Construction, manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, and energy all can use a specific kind of FSM software. These industries require capabilities beyond the predictive maintenance and advanced analytics offered in basic FSM software. These services often require customizations of the software to better align with the business’s needs, and service delivery can be negatively impacted if the software is not tailored properly.
Field service operations that become more reliant on data will require more advanced FSM software. Businesses whose FSM software is customized to their needs are more flexible in a changing marketplace.
By using the optimal schedule, it shortens the time needed for travel. The management staff can check the status of a service technician and their availability on the job, which enhances productivity and the customer service experience.
Yes. It digitizes everything from the work order creation to the work order completion and everything in between (for each individual work order). Along the way, technicians are able to document progress and improve quality control by appending notes, photos, and videos.
Most platforms have client portals. These allow you to schedule services, submit payments, and check your service history. When these are paired up with tracking and logging services, customers tend to see an increase in satisfaction due to the transparency.
Value for many small service businesses is usually around scale and complexity. If a business has a few appointments a day, they may get by fine without a scheduling system. However, when having to track schedules, multiple service techs, and ongoing customer communications becomes unwieldy, FSM software usually pays for itself by reducing no-shows and providing faster, better-documented service.
