WE LIVE AND DO BUSINESS in a highly connected world. That brings clear benefits, such as being able to use real-time data capture and mobile access to applications to create efficiencies, but it also brings potential challenges. The connected customer demands more from retailers, logistics providers and services companies. One bad experience and the customer may leave forever.
New data capture capabilities can create a complete view of the health and activity status of a field worker and, when coupled with a dispatch function, a chance to improve that field worker’s condition or a situation as a whole and to provide the foundation of a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
One of the ways utilities are increasing their own competitiveness is by enhancing their service offerings (such as recommending smart meters), provide better customer service, become more responsive and, of course, optimize their operations to become more productive. Helping some of these business objectives become a reality are mobile and cloud strategies.
Thanks to advancing technology, machines are increasingly complex, which emphasizes even greater need for a mobile management system and strong customer service.
Running a successful IT practice is hard work, which is made all the more difficult by the fixed-cost workforce model many IT providers rely on to staff their companies. Indeed, headcount (too high or too low) and quality can severely limit an organization’s ability to scale and succeed. However, there is a paradigm-busting transformational movement in how organizations and companies are completing their work.
For businesses deploying workers in the field — regardless of their size — operational process disruptions and disconnects that negatively impact revenue, costs, and customer satisfaction remain key targets for increasing efficiency and productivity through new technologies.
In 2015, field service saw the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the boom of Big Data. The growth of new companies and technologies have made it easier for service businesses to offer customers strong service programs and deliver more uptime for equipment end users.
Back in my home country of Australia a recent series of shark attacks, far above average, are causing distress among swimmers and attracting a lot of media attention. The reason for the change in shark patterns however is because the fish schools are coming in closer to shore, apparently a result of warming sea currents, bringing the predator sharks with them.
It’s almost assumed that large service companies use the latest and greatest technology. They serve thousands of customers across multiple regions and manage a vast army of technicians, equipment, and vehicles, so of course they need the best field service management (FSM) software.
Managing a service department is more than just paper and pens. Field service organizations depend on software that manages all of their needs. In order to help businesses narrow their search, we studied the best software and found the key features that make their service organizations best-in-class.