Transforming Field Service Management (FSM)
We live in the age of the customer, and our field service needs to be more than just “fit for purpose”. It needs to be exceptional, and digitally transforming with field service management software can go a long way towards field service excellence. Talk about starting a blog with a bang!
This blog will be the first in a series providing a detailed overview and education on digitally transforming field service. Previous Totalmobile blogs highlighted how every business could benefit from a digital transformation. The field services you can offer, enabled by the latest technology, are increasingly complex. The benefits of a digital transformation grow in tandem as service complexity increases. In this age of the customer, successful enterprises are systematically reinventing themselves to better understand and serve increasingly powerful customers. Therefore, understanding what a digital transformation is, what is involved, and the benefits is essential. Shameless self-promotion, but I highly recommend you follow this series as we dive deep into the digital transformation of field service management.
Traditional Field Service Management
It’s an exciting yet turbulent time for digital transformation. Many field service operators have had the inevitable wave of service digitisation crash upon them thanks to the pandemic. Some organisations have swam, while others have sunk. Many have had to rapidly accelerate their digital transformation due to the changing nature and complexity of service operations now deliverable in the field. This is especially true for those tasks completed face-to-face. But digitalisation in field service is nothing new, and forward-thinking businesses have already embraced it for nearly 40 years. For context, this began around the same time Huey Lewis & The News really came into their own, commercially and artistically. So what common issues of traditional field service management are organisations looking to overcome?
Common issues with Traditional Field Service Management
Let’s start with the traditional way of doing things. Everything is more challenging when you’re using traditional field service management solutions. Traditional field service management is highly laborious, from manually completing job sheets to constantly trying to (and failing at) organising staff and equipment by hand. It acts as a barrier to offering complete and modern customer service solutions. The most common issues we find are:
1. Too much time-consuming paperwork
There are no two ways about it – completing job sheets, work orders, field data capture forms, invoices, and other associated paperwork is incredibly time-consuming when you have to do it by hand. Wasting time completing paperwork increases operational costs due to the increased requirement for administration staff. Time is also lost in the field as field workers spend more time on-site completing paperwork instead of focusing on the task at hand. Creating accurate invoices at the moment is also very difficult or impossible. This introduces further steps and admin required to complete simple tasks such as invoicing.
Then there’s filing paperwork and maintaining records. Paper admin is challenging to file, space intensive, easily damaged or lost and tricky to transcribe from employees with doctor’s handwriting. In short, physical paperwork is the enemy of a seamless, efficient operation.
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2. Duplication of Data
Data inevitably needs to be duplicated in field service. At one time or another, back-office staff or mobile technicians will need access to different information in different contexts. Duplicating these documents wastes valuable time and company resources that service managers may wish to deploy elsewhere. For example, a mobile technician might spend an extra three hours each week duplicating invoices for office-based accounting staff and admin. By digitising this process, the time lost quickly adds up, and the same mobile technician may be able to complete one extra job every week. An operation’s agility and pace increases, enhancing the bottom line.
3. Data errors
Paper-based data capture is prone to errors. Housing such data often occurs across many different or outdated systems within an organisation. Housing data in disparate systems takes a lot of time to transfer between silos and maintain or upgrade when no longer fit for purpose. The growing resources and skills necessary to support multiple unsustainable data systems bring additional costs. Your staff and customers may be comfortable using these systems, but there will eventually come a time when a change is needed. The common issues we see when evaluating older field service management systems are:
- Mounting maintenance costs.
- Loss of data.
- Errors transcribing data from paper into digital systems.
- Increasing frequency of service downtime.
- Inability to meet service capacity and demand.
In short, traditional field service can be complicated, labour and resource intensive and vulnerable to data inaccuracy with poor real-time flexibility. Considering the challenges of conventional field service, it’s hardly surprising that 91% of field service organisations are engaged in some form of digital initiative. As of this writing, 87% of service leaders describe digitisation as a top priority. So let’s briefly explain what a digital transformation in field service is.
What is the digital transformation of field service?
Even with the apparent value creation digital platforms enable, some field service organisations still consider it optional. This complacency was replaced with the modus operandi “digitise to survive” following Covid-19. Digital solutions are fast becoming the lifeblood required to keep field services profitable and viable.
For field service organisations, layers of complexity and interrelated back-office and in-the-field factors are at play. Operations with several arms benefit most from a digital transformation where communication lines and data transfers are most susceptible to human error and disruption by external factors. For example, field service organisations blend back-end office functions to support mobile workers operating off-site. The challenges connecting these relevant teams are highly apparent in the traditional field service examples above. Connecting both arms and delivering the necessary information requires the introduction of digital solutions, like field service management software.
The definition of digital transformation.
A digital transformation uses digital technologies or platforms to create or change existing business processes to meet ever-changing business and market demands. The methodology of reimagining field service business in the digital age is a “digital transformation”.
Digital transformation transcends sales, marketing, mobile, inventory or customer service roles. A digital transformation of field services holistically encompasses how you engage with and relate to customers throughout the operational structure. Ultimately, it presents an opportunity to completely reimagine how an organisation conducts business with digital technology on its side, reaping the expected and unexpected benefits this may bring. This is the perfect place for me to set up the next article in our series: the benefits of field service management software.
Closing Thoughts
Digital transformation enables new and legacy businesses to future-proof their operation and safeguard their bottom line. Planning, thinking, operating and building digitally creates operational strategies which are agile, flexible, and ready for growth.
Digital transformation, however, does not come without its risks. With increasing technological complexity, vulnerabilities may appear. A recent Information Systems Association report identified a 63% increase in cyber attacks. For many, cyber-attacks are a new challenge they must address, one they may not have been exposed to previously. Organisations must make a point to prioritise cyber security throughout their digital transformation if they wish to emerge as leaders in the industry – and really, who doesn’t want to be a service leader?
Transforming Field Service
Cybersecurity is not a trend that will go away. As a field service company working as an essential service, security is a prerequisite for staying open and building trust with customers. Investing in a field service management platform that protects customers’ personal information such as addresses, numbers and credit cards is essential to keep your customer safe and your business reputable. If this sounds desirable, get in touch with our experts today, who can demo the full suite of capabilities the Totalmobile platform provides.
