What is Field Service Management?

Digital tools and processes, such as mobile devices or intelligent automation, are meant to support and help employees deliver better services. These tools and processes can be implemented to reduce the impact of service delivery risks from miscommunication, resource shortages, or planning inefficiencies, while contributing towards value creation and customer satisfaction.

For example, implementing smart cleaning processes will enable field workers to adjust to the various health and cleanliness demands of multiple offices, buildings, and clients without a loss in productivity. Processes for delivering services and complying with contracted service level agreements are improved by automated capacity planning and dispatching that is aligned with resource availability and desired service levels.

To increase the productivity, efficiency and quality in field service management and to reduce associated costs, digitalisation of processes with professional software solutions is a necessity. This will require service providers to follow a three step process:

1. Digitise existing data and the process for gathering new data to reduce errors
2. Use a software solution to access and analyse the data for performance insights and task automation
3. Review the opportunities to implement end-to-end process automation to support field service workers with efficiently delivering quality services

Advance from point solution to integrated platform

Efficient field service management is more than digital work order dispatching from an operations centre to field workers. As Gartner’s definition of FSM states, it includes customers, planners, executors, contractors and more. That is why point solutions likestandalone mobile field service apps become inefficient, as all these stakeholders need to be unified into one integrated digital process, such as:

• Customers who register service requests and track progress
• Contract managers who monitor the agreed service level, priority and customer health.
• Planners who plan and dispatch work orders
• Field workers who execute the jobs
• Managers who monitor progress, performance and quality
• Financial administrators who report or back charge costs

To implement integrated end-to-end digital processes, FM services providers need a more comprehensive field service management solution which includes functionality for:

• Customer and building occupant communications
• Optimised worker capacity and resource planning
• Contract management
• Subcontractor management
• Mobile coordination & execution support
• Maintenance planning
• Integration with Internet of Things (IoT) devices, building systems and digital twins
• Price and revenue calculations and data tracking for accurate invoicing

Use platform-based mobile apps for field service management

There is no turning back now. If you provide field service management, it is a requirement to have a mobile field services solution. Field worker productivity and the quality of service delivery are heavily impacted by having access to the right information at the right time. Rather than re-entering information at a central office, field workers now have access to mobile tools that enable them to register work progress and status, track resource availability, request on-demand virtual support, query relevant information, track service level agreement (SLA) compliance, and get a digital client signature to close out work orders.

These mobile devices and apps are connected in real-time with central platforms to ensure that information is always up-to-date. This reduces instances of data entry and communication errors while supporting the capture of additional field information on asset and facility conditions that may need corrective action before becoming a costly problem.

Optimise resource scheduling

Platform solutions designed to integrate reactive, preventative, and condition-based maintenance with field service management optimise the delivery of field services to ensure that work orders are executed according to agreed contracts and service levels. To ensure the highest productivity of teams and individuals in the field, integrated software solutions enable efficient resource scheduling based on availability, skills, workloads, travel and other factors to plan the best possible execution of field services. After scheduling, the central operations system automatically dispatches work orders to the mobile devices of the corresponding field engineers or teams.

Ensure Health & Safety compliance

Compliance with health and safety legislation is a significant concern in the delivery of field services. These regulations and compliance requirements are stipulated in directives such as the EU-OSHA or OSHA in the US. Maintenance activities can potentially expose people to all sorts of hazards like asbestos, falls, injuries, fire, or electric shocks.

To enable field workers to work safely, they need to be properly briefed on health and safety processes that pertain to each site and asset, and they need to follow safe working practices. Mobile field service management solutions support field engineers and contractors in real-time with relevant information and workflows to ensure they work safely and according to legislation.

This information includes work instructions, checklists, manuals, and approvals needed to proceed with work. All activities on the mobile app like acceptance of work, safety checks or agreed instructions are automatically saved in the central operations platform for compliancy checks, reports, or analysis in case of accidents.