Designed to schedule work, dispatch technicians, and engage with other business tasks while integrating into the company-wide software, field-service management software — also known as FSM — is quickly becoming one of the most important software for businesses of all sizes.
Let’s take a look at what, mainly, an FSM software is, and why it’s essential in the modern workplace.
What is Field Service Management (FSM) software?
Field service management software is utilized today by companies that are looking to streamline their processes. Though they’re typically used by companies that have workers “out in the field” — such as cable companies and other telecommunications companies — FSM software can help a wide variety of companies, as they have the facility of good video call quality for field service.
FSM software is capable of performing a wide variety of tasks, including:
- FSM software can schedule work. Let’s suppose you have a customer that calls into your company to complain about their telecommunications software not working correctly, and you determine that a technician will need to be dispatched to fix the problem. With FSM software, you’ll be able to schedule an appointment in real time for your local area technician. To that end, too, FSM software can help you dispatch technicians, as well.
- FSM software can help you track employee activities. It is especially helpful if you have employees in the field, and you need to make sure that they are not only performing their tasks as planned but that they are doing so in a timely fashion. FSM software, then, helps your company’s employees become more accountable.
- FSM software can trace employee vehicles. Sometimes, it’s not about your employees being unaccountable — it’s about the potential accidents that can occur them as a result of being in the field. Let’s say that there’s a terrible snowstorm, and your field employee hits a patch of ice, causing his truck to veer off the road and into a horrific crash. In this case, your company’s FSM software could save their life by tracking their location. In a less tragic case, of course, your company’s FSM software can confirm that your technician is stuck in traffic, pulled over by law enforcement, or faced with other problems that are beyond their control.
- FSM software can integrate with wearables like augmented reality glasses. It will allow you, as an A-level manager at a company, to be able to keep track of what may or may not be missing from your company’s inventory using advanced features like OCR (Optical Character Recognition) — and will allow you to order necessary parts and other equipment if you should happen to run short.
- FSM software can integrate with other business systems. As one of the few all-encompassing software systems out there, FSM software can integrate with all of your company’s systems to create a perfectly streamlined system of both communication and collaboration. Going back to the previous point, when combined properly with other communications systems, FSM software can send an email to your purchasing department when certain materials run low, as an example.
What are the benefits of field service solutions?
There are some benefits to integrating FSM software into your company’s systems. For example:
- It automates mundane tasks. FSM software can take the most mundane and, frankly, inefficient tasks and gets them automatically done.
- It optimizes tasks. According to Jill Feblowitz, owner of Feblowitz Energy Consulting, FSM Software “allows crews to do as many jobs in a day as possible. It minimizes drive time, increases productivity, and reduces emissions and fuel charges.” This optimization means more productivity and, above all else, more money for a company’s bottom line.
- Field service solutions coordinate the entire field service lifecycle. By implementing an automated system, and by keeping a sense of accountability at every step of the service call, FSM software takes equipment, work orders, labor, service parts, warranties, returns, contracts, and projects into account, making it easier for A-level managers to coordinate everything.
- It makes employees accurate and accountable. When employees are aware that there is some form of software that is keeping their “eye” on their every move that they make while on company time, the employee is not only more likely to be accountable for his/her action, but to perform his/her job more accurately and not in a sloppy, careless manner.
- FSM software is much more user-friendly and agile than ERP software. On a technical level, FSM software, unlike Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, is much easier to use and takes up fewer computing resources.
- It’s flexible. Finally, FSM software can be designed specifically for your company’s needs, since not every company needs every “thing” that FSM software can provide.
Blitzz’s Software is Just What Your Company Needs!
Blitzz’s software is unlike anything else out there today. It provides custom integrations for your workflows and can be integrated even into your existing FSM and CRM tools. By using our software, you’ll be able to pull out insightful analytics and map out the Remote Problem Resolution Journey.