DWL Treuhand AG

Let's face it, managing a team of service technicians is anything but easy.

There are so many things that need to be considered and logged, monitored and controlled by office staff. Tracking all unpredictable changes that can occur at any time takes a considerable amount of time. Miscommunication, delays and incorrect or incomplete information in the field have inevitably plagued many companies on a regular basis, and although electronic databases have certainly contributed, they are still prone to human error.

In recent years, leading service providers have actively sought mobile solutions to help manage field service and free frustrated project coordinators, dispatchers and field experts from the inefficiencies of the traditional work process. As customer requirements and field team management logistics become more complex, it is clear that many executives are discovering the value that FSM software can bring to their business as a whole and to their employees, shareholders and customers. No wonder the FSM market is estimated at over $3.52 billion by 2019 (MarketsandMarkets).

10 processes your company will need to automate in 2019 using field force management solutions to stay competitive.

1) Administration of service requests

The management of service requests is the first step in each of the field service orders and initiates all subsequent steps. In this phase, it is important to capture and process all information correctly and as quickly as possible. The process begins when a new service request for repair or maintenance is received through one of the supported customer service channels (telephone, email, social media or direct message).

This request can also be made through a new customer order or a scheduled customer visit based on an existing Service Level Agreement (SLA). The service call must be documented and classified so that it can be assigned a priority level. Some problems or service calls can be resolved or clarified directly on the phone and require no further attention. Others are very urgent and need immediate attention...

2) Service Preparation

In this phase, the office staff must prepare all the necessary documents for each field assignment. By creating intelligent job profiles, these processes can be easily automated. Depending on the type of order, all required reporting forms, material lists and service history information can be combined to form a user-friendly reporting form that can be accessed on site via a tablet. With this type of workflow, the following steps are adapted to the specific requirements of each company

Although many companies with field staff who are still manually coordinating and scheduling operations are planning to invest in software solutions to automate manual and time-consuming service preparation tasks, more and more companies are planning to do so...

3) Supply Chain Management (SCM) / Logistics

Once the Smart Field Report has been created, the next step is to order and deliver the required parts to the technician's warehouse or service vehicle so that the technicians have the necessary parts on site to provide the required service. The field service software also includes automated inventory management, including real-time tracking and inventory monitoring, to ensure that vehicles are always properly equipped. The scheduler can schedule the service after the parts have been ordered.

4) Order planning

Work planning is an important part of the entire field service. The automation of these steps helps project managers to quickly and intelligently assign sales representatives to each of the pending orders. Each of the planned technicians should have the necessary skills and parts to provide the required service once they are on site. For more complex jobs, it is also necessary to define who should be on site first and who should join at a later stage of the process. According to Gartner's latest field report, 10 percent of field operations will be monitored by artificial intelligence by 2020.

 

5) Route optimization

Planning a route for each sales representative is time-consuming and complicated. And you know more than we do that for a service company like yours, controlling travel time is essential for profit. Companies that employ technicians on multi-stop job routes immediately experience a high return on investment with a small investment in this area.

6) Access from the road

According to Gartner, mobile apps will be actively deployed in 75 percent of field service organizations with over 50 business customers by 2020. Companies can significantly improve onsite and telephone customer service through the use of optimized report handling with ad hoc customer history. When field representatives come to a customer visit, they have an overview of all required information regarding service history, location and customer. The streamlined process minimized unsuccessful on-site visits, reduced waiting times and improved the ability to solve problems more sustainably.

7) Reporting Checklists

Once the sales representatives have completed their work, they can use the Smart Reporting checklists with user-defined material lists, voice-to-text and automatic photo attachment functions to create very detailed reports on the work done. Each step ticked off from the list and the uploaded attachments can then be reviewed by the team leader. The reports can be downloaded by the client to understand all information relevant to the invoice. This includes, for example, what work was done, how many hours the technicians worked, what tools were used and what materials were consumed.

8) Mobile calculation

Sales representatives record the required information and data with their application on the tablet. They can calculate the service costs with the customer on site. The new solution enables the calculation of the order calculation on the basis of the time and material spent on site via predefined dropdown lists with customer prices and optional discounts. By calculating the price with the customers, the company significantly reduces the number of customer inquiries about what work was done during the job and what was billed to them.

9) Closing

Once the reports have been created for the team leader and the client, the job can be completed. Once the customer has received the reports, they can be checked for any discrepancies that could result in the customer not receiving an incorrect invoice. If the project report is in order, the customer can sign the project with his signature on the mobile application.

10) Invoicing

As soon as the customer has signed the work report, an invoice is created at the end of the process, which can be sent directly to the customer via field service software. Since the field service information is complete and detailed, back office staff no longer have to manually search for material names or call technicians to resolve misunderstandings. This allows invoices to be created more quickly, which means the customer can pay faster.

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