Transforming Business Systems with Field Service Management

Albert Einstein once said “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” When it comes to field service, providing that value can be expensive, time consuming, and overly complex without a good field service management system.

The Global Field Service Management Market is expected to grow by 15.12% between 2022 and 2027. Field Services has garnered more and more attention as innovations in cloud computing and mobile processing make it easier for information to be distributed across a wide range of devices across the globe. Businesses across several industries are already taking advantage of these innovations in the Construction, Industrial Equipment Services, Facilities Management, Inspection & Certification, to name a few. In this article, we’ll go into greater detail about how these industries are benefiting from Field Services, but first let’s talk about what Field Service actually is.

Field Service Management (FSM) is an umbrella term that encompasses any work or service that is done at the customer’s location instead of at the service provider’s. An example of this could be a fire safety inspector traveling to a newly built hotel to conduct a routine inspection. It could also be leasing a large industrial drill that will be used in a mineral quarry out of the country.

There are several different use cases where field services come into play, and more are being implemented every day. As the field service industry continues to grow, more and more ERPs are implementing FSM into their products. This includes FSM operations that can be as short as a few hours for a routine equipment inspection, to a multi-year construction project for a luxury resort that has several different implementation phases. Being able to manage your field services effectively is important because it helps provide improved visibility and transparency into complex operations with several moving parts.

Let’s go into deeper detail on the benefits of being able to manage your field services.

The most obvious benefit is that FSM allows you to better schedule resources quickly and efficiently. Knowing and understanding who is the best fit for a job and what their schedule is can help you get the right people in the right place at the right time. If this your company is still using paper, pencils, and a large whiteboard you took out of storage in order to conduct this process, then you could find yourself in trouble as your business begins to grow. Scheduling a resource that is unavailable accidentally means that the project is off course before it has even begun. This causes delays for everyone and immediately damages the trust between you and your customer.

By centralizing resource scheduling and leveraging software automation, not only can you ensure that your resources are accurately scheduled, but they’re done much quicker with greater efficiency.

Another major benefit to FSM is being able to track your inventory and equipment that is no longer in your warehouse. As your company grows, knowing the current state of your inventory becomes paramount to preventing bottlenecks due to unavailable materials and equipment. Knowing how to track demand and usage will keep saving your employees time and effort before they go out on jobs. FSM Inventory Management provides more data to your technicians which ultimately increases company wide accountability.

Time to get to the bottom line: Money.

Field service operations involve several different costs that can vary drastically from project to project. A poorly estimated job can quickly spell disaster for a project if the customer or the service provider is forced to take unexpected financial losses. Fuel and freight costs, equipment maintenance, subcontracting fees, project delays, and other expenses can turn a $100k profit into a $50k loss over the course of a few weeks. Nothing is worse than having resources tied up on a project that is losing you money for an extended period, so being able to accurately estimate projects and effectively forecast your resources is paramount to your field service success.

Proper field service job costing can help your business gather several different data metrics that can be monitored throughout the project life cycle, so you know ahead of time if a project is in danger of going into the red.

There are thousands of companies in the field service sector. Incorporating FSM Software into your company can give you the edge in efficiency, productivity, and agility, compared to your competitors in the market. Sometimes the difference between a lost client and won client is just being able to get there a few hours before the competition can. Once that client is won, you can service that client in the most efficient way possible to improve margins and cut down on wait time for the client.

Now that we know the importance for Field Service Management software, it is important to find the right software for your business. There are countless solutions out there and it can be difficult to find the right one to fit your business.

Of course, we have to say it: Pair with an FSM consultant team like OSI. We can implement the right field service management system for you. When it comes to finding the right field service implementation, you don’t have to do it alone.