flevyblog

Flevy Blog is an online business magazine covering Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP STRATEGY, MARKETING, SALES OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANIZATION & CHANGE IT/MIS Other

The Key Features of Field Service Management Software

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Service Delivery Management (70-slide PowerPoint presentation). Outline * Introduction * Who is the Customer? * What is a Service? * The Service Lifecycle * History of Service Delivery Management (where did it come from?) * Goals and Objectives of SDM * The role of the Service Delivery Manager * Key Responsibilities (core) and [read more]

* * * *

Field service management is a term used to refer to organizing and coordinating resources, employees, and equipment in work activities performed outside the office or away from the company property. Field services include repair and maintenance, customer support, sales, consultations, and regular inspection.

Field activities require tracking, streamlining, organizing, and updating. Without a central managing system, conducting effective business will be difficult. If you run a business in the field service then you need field service management software.

You need a field service management system to help you achieve both long-term and short-term business benefits. Such benefits include improved customer experience, saving on time and money, and quicker reaction times.

Many companies already have field service management systems in place. However, if your company is yet to implement a new field service management system, there are features to help you make it happen sooner than later.

Dispatch and Manage Technicians

For your organization to run efficiently, you need to manage your field schedules well. As a field service manager, you need to know your team and understand who is available at what time. An FSM system allows everyone to see who is responsible for a task once you assign the job.

The system also allows you to distinguish your team of technicians by their skill set and expertise and assign specific technicians to work orders to perform their duties on time. The system will also help you collect data from the fields in the form of videos, notes, and pictures. Your field workers can then access this information through their mobile devices.

This is especially beneficial when utilizing technology for fire protection contractors, ensuring that specific technicians are assigned to work orders where their unique skills are most needed. 

Scheduling Maintenance

Scheduling has always been one of the biggest problems for dispatchers and field technicians. FSM software offers real-time scheduling alerts, for you to get more efficient bookings. With the FSM system, your team will comfortably choose the best order for finishing the task.

Scheduled equipment maintenance refers to repairs and inspections that you can perform following a predefined maintenance schedule. Scheduled maintenance is made of components like periodic and recurring services such as machine lubrication and calibration, personnel, and time for task completion.

Scheduling maintenance can have a strong return on investment. The system also allows you to generate maintenance schedules, create work orders and task completion dates. FSM will deliver tangible scheduling maintenance results across a spectrum of industries. The system will turn scheduled maintenance information into informed decisions to help you minimize added activities that do not add value.

The software allows you as a field service manager to efficiently track and analyze equipment and tasks, and attend to urgent maintenance needs. It helps you make improved and forward-thinking strategies and is a perfect platform to help you learn about preventive maintenance.

Work Status Updates

Field service management software helps you streamline work orders, resolve issues with the field team while keeping track of labor hours and money spent. The system is easy for everyone in your organization to use to submit work requests from a central location.

As a manager you can keep track of work progress and status, giving you better insights into how your department, equipment, and facilities are performing. FSM, therefore, helps you cut costs, save time, and automate routine processes.

Comprehensive Payment System

One of the most crucial ways to maintain financial stability for your company is ensuring your financial infrastructure is strengthened. If you are a business owner, you may argue that invoicing can be a tedious yet straightforward task that may not require your full attention.

However, proper invoicing is crucial for ensuring that your business maintains a positive cash flow. If you run a healthcare business, you know how every organization has special needs, departments, rules, and systems. A healthcare payment system can help you run a smooth business and hence serve patients better.

Whether you run a small clinic or a hospital, an FSM system ensures that you have seamless payments to multiple service providers. Specialty billing is one of the challenges faced by the healthcare sector and a field service management system can help solve specialty payment needs using specific health payment models. The system will improve your health facility patient experience, ensure efficient healthcare practice as well as retention.

The Decision

If you’re still thinking about whether to acquire a field service management system or not, think about the future of your business first. If your competitors are on the run to adopt new systems, go paperless, and automating their operations, you risk being left behind. Stay ahead of the game to find continued success in the future.

69-slide PowerPoint presentation
ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 is an international standard for Service Management Systems (SMS). This standard provides guidance on planning, designing, transitioning, delivering and improving services to meet service requirements and deliver value. Implementing the ISO/IEC 20000 framework can lead [read more]

Do You Want to Implement Business Best Practices?

You can download in-depth presentations on SLM and 100s of management topics from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives.

For even more best practices available on Flevy, have a look at our top 100 lists:

These best practices are of the same as those leveraged by top-tier management consulting firms, like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Accenture. Improve the growth and efficiency of your organization by utilizing these best practice frameworks, templates, and tools. Most were developed by seasoned executives and consultants with over 20+ years of experience.

Readers of This Article Are Interested in These Resources


129-slide PowerPoint presentation
This document is a 129-slide PowerPoint presentation that provides an overview of IT Service Management based on the ITIL V3 Best Practice Framework, and is inclusive of the 2011 updates The whole of the Service Lifecycle (Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service [read more]


 
34-slide PowerPoint presentation
 
 
32-slide PowerPoint presentation

About Shane Avron

Shane Avron is a freelance writer, specializing in business, general management, enterprise software, and digital technologies. In addition to Flevy, Shane's articles have appeared in Huffington Post, Forbes Magazine, among other business journals.




Complimentary Business Training Guides


Many companies develop robust strategies, but struggle with operationalizing their strategies into implementable steps. This presentation from flevy introduces 12 powerful business frameworks spanning both Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. [Learn more]

  This 48-page whitepaper, authored by consultancy Envisioning, provides the frameworks, tools, and insights needed to manage serious Change—under the backdrop of the business lifecycle. These lifecycle stages are each marked by distinct attributes, challenges, and behaviors. [Learn more]

We've developed a very comprehensive collection of Strategy & Transformation PowerPoint templates for you to use in your own business presentations, spanning topics from Growth Strategy to Brand Development to Innovation to Customer Experience to Strategic Management. [Learn more]

  We have compiled a collection of 10 Lean Six Sigma templates (Excel) and Operational Excellence guides (PowerPoint) by a multitude of LSS experts. These tools cover topics including 8 Disciplines (8D), 5 Why's, 7 Wastes, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and DMAIC. [Learn more]
Recent Articles by Corporate Function

  

  

  

  

  


The Flevy Business Blog (https://flevy.com/blog) is a leading source of information on business strategies, business theories, and business stories. Most of our articles are authored by management consultants and industry executives with over 20 years of experience.

Flevy (https://flevy.com) is the marketplace for business best practices, such as management frameworks, presentation templates, and financial models. Our best practice documents are of the same caliber as those produced by top-tier consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, BCG, and Deloitte) and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Learn more about Flevy here.


Connect with Flevy:

     
  


About Flevy.com   /   Terms   /   Privacy Policy
© . Flevy LLC. All Rights Reserved.