5 Ways to Get More From Your Field Service Management (FSM) Solution

Jun 29, 2018

Excellence is field service management has become an essential requirement for organizations on the road to service delivery excellence. Flawless service delivery is no longer an USP for companies, but a basic requisite for modern customers.

With the advent of technologies like the internet of things (IoT), machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) making their way into the field service management (FSM) software arena, it is fair to say FSM software can make life easy for both the on-field technician as well as the client themselves.

Most FSM solutions out in the market today come bundled with a host of features and specifications that help in automating your on-field operations, increase visibility and ensure customer success. Here, we take a look at 5 of the best features of field service management software and how you can make the most of it.

1) Contract Management

Contract management is one of the most, if not the most important part of a field service operation. Without extensive visibility into your contracts for all parties involved, you might find your business and clients struggling to answer questions like:

  • What points does the service level agreement (SLA) cover?
  • Does the client have a warranty?
  • Does the contract include variables like spare part costs?
  • When is the contract due for renewal?

Without a proper service level agreement (SLA) outlined, your business runs the risk of not meeting your customer success goals. Not only that, uninformed on-field technicians may even end up give out a service for free. Your organization might even face legal action if proper security laws are not followed. Contract management therefore, is an important feature that you should make sure your team is well trained to utilize.

2) Centralized Scheduling

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A centralized scheduling dashboard keeps your service delivery organization running smooth by letting you efficiently co-ordinate between service calls, scheduled maintenance visits or impromptu repairs.

One of the best ways you can get the most out of this feature is by inputting data from all your on-field technicians like skills, local language knowledge, shift timings, employees on leave, contact information, etc. By doing this you will be best placed to allocate the best resource available for each project based on all the criterion mentioned above, enabling you to attain a higher first-time fix rate.

3) Mobility

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Today, clients and employees alike demand mobility. Meteoric rise of apps like “Uber” have made customers expect similar tracking and history information during a field-service visit. Mobile ready software allows your service workers to have access to all the client information at their fingertips and vice-versa. This enables the technician to focus more on actual maintenance and repairing work rather than wasting time on meaningless paperwork. Being able to use this feature to its fullest, can definitely result in happier customers and employees alike.

4) Inventory Management

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An often neglected part of field service operations, inventory management is crucial to your business growth. Imagine the following scenario:

Your highly skilled service engineer reaches your client site on time, on the scheduled date, but cannot go ahead with the repair because he doesn’t have access to the spare parts required for the job.

What happens next?

Your client raises a complaint, and might even take his business elsewhere if the fix was mission-critical. Your employee ends up disgruntled with the lack of hindsight of his company, and no doubt on the receiving end of some of the client’s backlash. No one wins.

Training your team to utilize the inventory management feature and keeping your stocks up-to-date will help you avoid situations like the ones above. This will ultimately help you retain customers and grow business.

5) Integration Capabilities

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Most organizations use multiple enterprise software to run their operations. All this software produces tons of data, that ultimately might not increase your productivity if you’re not able to garner any insight from it. It is near impossible to manually compare all of this information. This is why integration capabilities of your FSM software is very crucial when selecting the solution.

If you don’t feel like you have the correct software fit or are having troubles with integration, partnering with an implementation and integration partner can be a smart choice. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have the required expertise to know how to best use an FSM software, and can also train your staff to make the most out of it, so that you can get the best possible ROI on your investment. 

For example, IFS, a global enterprise applications company, and a “Leader” in the 2017 Gartner magic quadrant for field service management (FSM) solutions can connect your FSM application to your existing ERP software, so that you can successfully integrate and automate invoicing, accounting, and other internal assets.

If you don’t feel like you have the correct software fit or are having troubles with integration, partnering with an implementation and integration partner can be a smart choice. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have the required expertise to know how to best use an FSM software, and can also train your staff to make the most out of it, so that you can get the best possible ROI on your investment.   

ProV International Inc. are an award-winning IFS partner that provides a multitude of FSM services. ProV FSM experts use data to gain insight and turn it into immediate predictive actions that drive major improvements in how you deliver world-class on-field services and save on cost.

To learn more about how your field service management capabilities hold up in today's market, and how you can enhance your service delivery business take our FREE survey below. One of our FSM experts will revert shortly to help you on your way. For anything else, drop a comment below, or contact us today.

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Topics: IFS, Machine Learning, FSM, Artificial Intelligence, IOT, Field Service Management Providers, field service solutions, field service software, field service management software, workforce management solutions, field service management app, mobile field service software, service scheduling software, field service scheduling tools, service company software, dispatch software