Author: Frank Trompke
Field Service Management
What is Field Service Management?
What is Field Service Management or how can you inspire your customers?
When customer expectations rise, efficient field service is essential.
Find out what Field Service Management is and how it can increase productivity, reduce operating costs and increase customer satisfaction.
The more service availability depends on the company’s own workforce, the greater the impact of the skills shortage.
Added to this is the increasing logistical complexity and expectations of the company’s own customers, who want everything done as quickly, flexibly, transparently and cost-effectively as possible.
It is therefore no wonder that field service management plays a central role in high-quality services and increased customer satisfaction.
And analysts also appreciate this: According to Allied Market Research, the global market for field service management is expected to reach USD 29.9 billion by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate of 19.2% from 2022 onwards.
What Field Service Management can achieve as a result:
- Increase productivity
- Improve service quality
- Reduce operating costs
- Increase customer satisfaction
- Stimulating sales growth
What is Field Service Management?
Field Service Management is at the heart of the management of company resources deployed at or en route to customer sites. It covers the planning and control of all field service activities and technical services (installation, maintenance and repair), including vehicle tracking, employee management, order scheduling and integration with systems such as CRM, ERP (SAP), inventory, billing and accounting.
What is the goal of sales force management?
The core objective of field service management is to ensure that the right people with the right qualifications and the required materials are in the right place at the right time so that they can perform the right tasks efficiently with the available resources.
And by optimizing the fundamental processes for this, Field Service Management aims to achieve this goal in every field service activity.
As a result, dispatchers can react faster, plan and monitor more orders and service technicians can complete more orders per day.
What challenges do FSM systems address?
Modern field service management systems with SAP integration meet the challenges of field service on many levels: At its core, it is about simplifying the logistical complexity involved in planning and coordinating tasks, customer requests and resource deployment.
Added to this are the demands of our fast-paced and digitalized world: more than ever, service-oriented companies need to adapt to changing customer needs and unforeseen events while integrating new technologies.
And while managers face challenges such as a shortage of skilled workers, high training requirements for their service staff and rising operating costs, mobile service staff have to deal with scheduling conflicts, missing data, unclear orders and additional trips on a daily basis.
6 key benefits offered by field service management
Field Service Management optimizes the planning and deployment of field service staff and reduces idle times through automated planning and dispatch tools.
Effective management of inventory, equipment and personnel can maximize the resources needed and reduce costs.
Modern FSM systems offer real-time tracking and analytics to increase visibility and control over field service activities.
FSM supports compliance with industry standards and legal regulations as well as high quality standards.
FSM solutions enable rapid action in emergencies and in the event of unexpected changes, especially in time-critical industries.
Faster response times, adherence to service level agreements and deadlines and a high first-time fix rate increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
How does modern field service management work?
For a long time, much of the field service work was carried out manually, which was as time-consuming as it was error-prone. It was particularly challenging to deal with the mostly incomplete data and resources, missed deadlines or communication difficulties.
Modern field service management is therefore based on a combination of careful process planning, the use of field service management software with advanced technologies and effective resource management.
In order to achieve a seamless data flow and improved overall efficiency, modern FSM systems are usually integrated into other company systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and accounting software, usually from SAP.
What are the components of Field Service Management?
Work order management
The backbone of the FSM ensures that tasks can be efficiently managed, assigned, executed, controlled and completed.
Planning and scheduling
An effective planning system is crucial to deploy field staff based on their skills, availability and geographic location.
Customer management
Functions for managing customer information, including contact information, service history and specific requirements, enable personalized and efficient service.
Inventory management
Ensures that the required materials are always available, reducing delays in order processing.
Mobile accessibility
So that field staff can access important information, make status updates and communicate with the head office in real time anytime and anywhere.
Documentation
Data and information are essential for successful field service management.
And when technicians record these and document their work, they can communicate directly with the office staff.
Reporting and analysis
Through advanced analytics tools, field service managers can collect and analyze performance data to identify trends, pinpoint areas for improvement and make informed decisions.
What distinguishes field service management software?
Good field service management software with SAP integration helps companies to send the right technician with the right resources to the customer to provide technical services such as the installation, repair and maintenance of equipment and systems on site. Field service management software is characterized above all by functions that simplify the complex processes of field service.
Manage, plan and inform
Field service software must enable the efficient management of work orders, with dispatchers processing incoming requirements from customers and internal systems.
They then distribute the orders to technicians and teams.
In addition, FSM software should support the field service with a field service app that provides all the necessary information for assignments and enables detailed documentation.
Mobile Field Service Management
Mobile field service management software with cloud and mobile functions provides technical teams with real-time information and support on the road.
It makes it possible to record images and access data from remote systems and digital twins in order to make detailed diagnoses.
It can also make work easier with AI and augmented reality technologies.
Central components of FSM software
Field service management software consists of planning tools for deployment coordination, a mobile app and interfaces to other systems. The dispatchers should be able to assign orders manually or automatically and optimize the respective routes. Technicians receive orders and information via the Field Service App and document their work in it. The recorded data then flows into the backend system (SAP) for checking, further processing and storage.
Which companies benefit from field service management?
Field service management is particularly valuable for companies that work with a large number of field staff and provide complex or technically demanding services.
Of course, all service-oriented companies that rely on fast response times to customer inquiries also benefit.
Similarly, companies with multiple locations and a need for effective coordination across wide geographical areas can benefit from effective field service management.
Field service management is already proving useful for companies with 25 or more field technicians.
In addition, the benefits increase in proportion to the number of technicians and field operations managed by FSM systems.
For which industries are FSM systems ideal?
For all industries in which employees work in the field and are faced with the challenge of managing various processes and participating teams more efficiently via a central platform, automating routine tasks and saving costs.
FSM can provide support with the installation, maintenance and repair of network and communication devices.
In the field of medical equipment technology, FSM solutions can provide valuable assistance in the maintenance and repair of critical medical equipment in hospitals and clinics.
Field Service Management is used by electricity, gas and water companies to coordinate service work, maintenance work and emergency responses.
Field service management is also essential for managing maintenance and repair work in the construction and real estate sectors.
In the manufacturing industry, FSM can contribute to the efficient maintenance of production equipment and machinery.
Efficient maintenance and repair of vehicle fleets and logistics systems is also important here.
In the retail sector, FSM systems are used for the installation, maintenance and repair of store fitting and POS (point of sale) systems.
FSM solutions help to manage the maintenance and servicing of systems that generate, store and distribute energy.
Cities and municipalities can also use FSM for the management of public works, infrastructure maintenance and municipal services.
FSM systems are used here to coordinate maintenance and repair work on residential and commercial buildings.
Digitization of your technical customer service
Test your individual potential for the digitalization of your technical customer service now!
To the quickcheck
What will field service management look like in the future?
Field Service Management will continue to drive digitalization in field service.
Field service management software will revolutionize the work of dispatchers, field service managers and technical teams through networking and even more support functions by making maintenance possible anywhere and at any time with the help of technology.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is used for even more precise maintenance instructions, automation functions, mobile tech, AI for predictive analytics and augmented reality for remote support.
But even as field service management evolves, the goal remains the same: to enable more efficient and productive field service operations with a higher quality of service, which ultimately leads to greater customer satisfaction and stimulates sales growth.
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