Field Force Tracker is designed to give visibility to internal operations of your business. It helps in organizing the operation better. Whether you are a one person operation or a company with thousands of users, field force tracker can help your business.

Service Managers with responsibility for operational and service areas of the business, need to know what is happening in their organization at any time, that is a given. The manager needs to have this visibility, from wherever they are. Whether they are in the office or out and about they need to have a good understanding of what is actually happening. Not from what was planned for the day or from what they are being told, but what is happening in real-time and at any time. Your ability to support customers depends on the tools that you have.

Better Information Organization

Information needs to be simple to access. It needs to be easy to understand, accurate and instant. Ideally access to job status, customer information, location information, asset information and notifications should all be in one place. That would make life easier for every one.

The ultimate of any field service solution is quite simply better visibility of the workflow to and from the field. Ease of integration is a key part of any new solution as an integrated field service solution means that the two-way flow of data and information is captured just once and in a consistent and efficient way. It means that no data is left unused or delayed while waiting on paperwork to be finished or for collected information to be downloaded and an audit trail is in place reducing the chance of any lost or missing information.

All areas of the business can then have visibility of what they need to access, making their work more straightforward and productive.

Here we look at the benefits different parts of the business can get from the improved visibility that field service solutions bring:

The Business Owner/Manager Benefits

For the business owner, or field service manager, reports can be easily accessed on any criteria as systems are linked and ‘speak’ to each other. The health of the business can be easily monitored and customizable reports can be run on jobs, revenue, inventory, employee hours, customer surveys, invoices and customer data.

Profitability can be reviewed by customer, service or product allowing focus on driving higher overall revenue and increased margins.

The Service Manager Benefits

The Field service manager can see real-time status updates of all jobs (scheduled, started, paused, completed) across the teams and also assess the productivity of individual staff members across jobs and tasks.

Workflow can become automated reducing paperwork and eliminating lost or delayed time through scheduling improvements and job completion rates.

They have this visibility from wherever they are, whether in the office or not as all information can be easily accessed through their mobile device.

Service Administrator/Dispatcher Benefits

For the team in the office they can assign jobs faster with improved scheduling, increasing the number of jobs field technicians receive due to the reduced time. There is real-time visibility for scheduling and updating of jobs, significantly faster capture of customer information and service requests and the distribution of work orders is instantaneous.

There are significant time savings from the reduction or elimination of paperwork and the team or individual is then able to be more productive on other tasks.

The Field Technician Benefits

For a field worker improved visibility, through an integrated mobile solution, means they can do their job in the best possible way. Critical information can be accessed and shared in real time in the office and the field. Through integration with other back office systems, the field worker has access to the job history and customer records allowing for a more detailed understanding of not only the job they are going to but also what has happened before and why. Turning up to site and having this information on the job detail to hand or having access to it, means there is better chance of job resolution on this first visit and all the benefits this brings to an organization, the technician and the customer.

Office Manager Benefits

As the work gets recorded, the work and travel time can be accurately recorded for allocating to customer accounts and also through integration with other systems, the data can be exported into HR applications. This part of the automated process helps to limit erroneous overtime costs and reduce payroll errors.

Accounting and Finance

For those in the finance team invoices can be automated immediately upon job completion. A work order, for example, can be issued, then on job completion the customer can be invoiced immediately, achieving a quicker payment cycle through this order to cash automation. Data can be transferred electronically between systems, making accounting and payroll tasks more efficient and accurate.

Financial reporting becomes more straightforward as customizable reports include all the relevant information on revenue, costs and employees.

Real-time visibility provides many of the answers a field service organization will need to better-manage the day to day operations and deal with whatever the day demands across the entire business.

About Field Force Tracker

Field Force Tracker is a cloud based very comprehensive field service management software for all business types. It can take care of work-orders, customer management, scheduling, customer history, product history, invoicing, payments, inventory management, Timesheet, tracking, parts and assets electronic estimates, and service contracts, Warranty Service, customizable invoices with signatures, email notifications, recurring, Reports etc. It is a very feature rich system with many unique and advanced features for a business like yours. The Field Force Tracker offers many very powerful features to manage your employees.

The program has capability of editing the work orders in the field. The program also has capability to upload pictures, documents and take signatures and notes on the mobile and web. Our solution has GPS integrated in it so you can monitor your technicians when they are in the field. This will allow you to see them live on your map. Each technician’s status will be updated automatically but the technician can update it manually too. We can also integrate your QuickBooks with the Field Force Tracker software (Sage/ MYOB Planned). The solution is supported by mobile apps that work on iPhone, Android and on all tablets. 

Field Force Tracker is a leading solution for Field Service Management. In this article, we discuss how it can help different type of field service organization meet their challenges of optimum service. However, before we do that let us try to understand the results of study that tells how organizations can optimize their returns from field service software.

For field service organizations, automating manual processes using field service management (FSM) solutions is generally a good thing – but only as long as the solution actually addresses the inefficiencies the company is facing. Unsuccessful technology deployments often involve deploying solutions that don’t fix the Field Service Organizations (FSOs) actual problem, or that were built to solve problems they didn’t have in the first place.

Researchers at  cloud-based automation solution provider Field Force Tracker teamed up on a new report that outlines the types of FSM solutions available, their respective benefits, and what field service tasks they are were designed to improve.

Field Service Organization Need Automation

FSOs need that guidance to ensure they get the most out of their investments. According to the report, 75 percent of organizations with more than 50 field technicians will own at least one field service solution by 2018, but they will miss 20 percent of the potential benefits because of “incomplete integration or deployment.”

In the report, researchers have helpfully broken down the field service automation market into six basic categories based on functionality in an effort to help guide field service organizations in their software selection efforts and “see where best to put their investment, based on the outcomes they need to achieve.”

Categorizing Field Service Software Requirements

There are lots of choices all around. You get software that is designed for mom-and-pop operation as well as that is designed for the big enterprise organization. Each software is unique. It is not a bad thing because service organizations themselves vary in terms of requirements.

The six main categories of field service software include:

Field Service Demand Management:

These field service software solutions allow FSOs to gather all work order demand in on place, including parts, tools, and skills, as well as demand signals generated by customers, connected assets, and field technicians themselves. These solutions tie demand to contract entitlements or preferences, SLAs, and warranty coverage.

These  step alone is enough for many organizations to meet their service obligations. This allows you to manage your work orders and service resources optimally.

Field Service Work Planning:

These systems simplify work order prioritization and automate scheduling optimization by using advanced algorithms and machine learning. The software can improve workforce optimization by predicting potential shortages caused by overtime cost, time off, traffic conditions and other constraints. It also takes into account customer preferences, SLA commitments, and regulatory requirements, along with ensuring the availability of required parts.

This software takes you to next stage of service delivery where you can control resources but also manage cost of delivery of your services.

Field Service Technician Enablement:

This is software that can help technicians find equipment or other assets at a customer location, access repair histories, and view instructions for completing a repair. Technicians can also access support resources for diagnostics, source parts, initiate contract adjustments, and scope out new work orders. These solutions depend heavily on the use of mobile technologies, and require a much more active role for the technician in customer and work management.

By doing this, you are increasing the satisfaction of your employees. They are spending less time on fixing problems as they get all the information they need on their mobile devices.

Work Order  Management and Information Management:

This is probably the most familiar FSM solution, and combined with work planning makes up the heart of many work order/field service management solutions.

These systems reduce manual entry by replacing paper work orders and enabling technicians to capture work financials and next steps in real time. Technicians use a mobile device to record time, expenses, parts and tasks completed. In some cases, they can also collect customer signatures and payments, and take photos or videos to document their work.

Service Contract Management and Operations:

These solutions are more focused on back-office activities, and enable office staff to manage contracts, entitlements, billing and warranty. The software also manages the process of recording equipment maintenance histories and documenting coverages and planned maintenance tasks.

Service Analytics, Reporting and Integration:

Analysis is an increasingly important component, as it not only gives FSOs the ability to gauge the success of their technology deployments, but also helps identify and correct potential service problems, such as lagging productivity, parts ordering delays, or SLA compliance problems. Metrics typically include technician productivity (based on completed work orders), first-time fix rates, billable hours, mean time to repair, attach rate, SLA achievement rate, etc.

How Field Force Tracker Can Help

We believe the FFT will take care of the operational requirements of your field service business and we have made it very easy and affordable. We offer most of the key features that are essential to manage your business.

Field Force Tracker is a cloud based very comprehensive field service management software for all business types. It can take care of work-orders, customer management, scheduling, customer history, product history, invoicing, payments, inventory management, Timesheet, tracking, parts and assets electronic estimates, and service contracts, Warranty Service, customizable invoices with signatures, email notifications, recurring, Reports etc. It is a very feature rich system with many unique and advanced features for a business like yours. The Field Force Tracker offers many very powerful features to manage your employees. The program has capability of editing the work orders in the field. The program also has capability to upload pictures, documents and take signatures and notes on the mobile and web. Our solution has GPS integrated in it so you can monitor your technicians when they are in the field. This will allow you to see them live on your map. Each technician’s status will be updated automatically but the technician can update it manually too. We can also integrate your QuickBooks with the Field Force Tracker software (Sage/ MYOB Planned). The solution is supported by mobile apps that work on iPhone, Android and on all tablets.

Call us at support@fieldforcetracker.com

As part of Field Force Tracker’s current mobility campaign, we discuss what to expect from mobility as tool in modern field service.

Using Mobility to Meet Field Service Goals

Before we discuss what is needed of field service mobility, it is important to understand the goals of any successful mobility organization. A field service organization is a revenue enabler for the manufacturing organization. But for a small service business, it is the business in itself. So what should be the objectives? Lets discuss those.
Best-in-Class organizations have four main target areas (in order of priority):

• Improve customer retention and loyalty
• Improve service-related profitability
• Improve quality / relevance of service data
• Improve service information capabilities (i.e. mobility, knowledge sharing)

Focus on Mobility

With advancements in field service management software going hand-in-hand with the mobile evolution, the focus in service operations is quite firmly now on the field worker themselves.
This is quite right too. The technician or engineer has long been the face of the organization and often the only direct contact a customer will have, so the customer experience they are able to deliver counts for a great deal.
The technician needs a mobile solution which helps them to do their job in the best possible way.

The technician needs a mobile solution which helps them to do their job in the best possible way. The workflow to and from the back office has to be seamless as this quick and easy access to information enables better decision-making and ultimately improved resolution.
Through integration with other back office systems the field worker has access to the job history and customer records allowing for a more detailed understanding of not only the task at hand but also what has happened before and why.

Knowledge of the different elements of the task are often fundamental in the delivery of service excellence and turning up to site with this information at hand or having access to it, as we know from business or personal experience, delivers an improved customer experience.

Maximizing Value of Field Service Mobility

Any mobility solution should be easy to use. Overly-complicated systems will be bypassed and worked around or ignored all together
From working with a range of companies, who are either looking at developing their mobile strategy or starting out from scratch, we’ve found that there are some common principals.

Ease of integration is key. You don’t need to have to think about changing your whole field service solution. Extending the life of current systems is all important so look at mobile solutions which will leverage and expand their use.

Implementation needs to be as quick and straightforward as possible. A lengthy implementation process will defeat its objective. So being up and running in days, not months, should be the realistic goal – delivering a much faster ROI.

Any mobility solution should be easy to use. Overly-complicated systems will be bypassed and worked around or ignored all together. The easier to use, the quicker the adoption and the better the ROI.
All mobility software needs to be agile and able to move with the next generation of mobility. Developments are moving fast, so providers keeping their solutions up to speed is important.

It is crucial for any mobility solution to work across mixed digital devices. The apps will need to work across different operating systems too.

Vitally, mobility is about the anytime, anywhere access to information and it is essential that your solution makes it as easy as possible to achieve this.

Next Evolution in the Mobility

Real-time communication technology, combined with field service automation solutions will bring service businesses an entirely new way to communicate across the organization and with customers.
We’re excited about embedded communications in mobility, as with customer expectations higher than ever, the ability to streamline the service process and deliver faster, better service creates a richer customer experience.
Real-time communication technology, combined with field service automation solutions will bring service businesses an entirely new way to communicate across the organization and with customers.

As an example, innovative collaboration tools improve task completion through real-time contact with remote experts through a smart phone or tablet, for improved first-time resolution rates. These capabilities are akin to augmented reality without the prohibitive costs of the hardware. Remote experts can assist multiple technicians, so speeding up the completion and accuracy of the work, while balancing the cost of an organizations service delivery.

At Field Force Tracker we see this as a game changer for any company focused on enhancing the customer experience.

For organizations wanting to improve the efficiency of their field service operations, investment in technology plays a big part in achieving this. For many companies, choosing and implementing a solution can become complex and potential efficiency gains are being missed, meaning organizations are not seeing the full return from their investment.

Field Force Tracker leads the way in simplifying field service and have compiled the following tips to help you get the best results from your investment.

1. Want to go paperless?

Most field service companies now use some form of technology, but there are a lot still operating with paper-based systems for all or part of what they do. Those that still work on paper report that they understand this is a disadvantage and affects their ability to be competitive. With an automated workflow, a service call comes in, it’s captured electronically, dispatched to a field technician’s smartphone, and then available for invoicing upon completion – all within one system. The core workflow is processed instantly without the unnecessary bottlenecks of a paper work order.

2. Need to accelerate your payment cycle?

It goes without saying that the longer it takes to get payment for your work, the more it impacts your business. As a result, you should do everything possible to reduce the time it takes to get an invoice for completed work to your customer. That requires the information for the invoice to be in electronic form so that it can flow directly from the work order without any additional data entry. A work order, for example, can be issued, then on job completion the customer can be invoiced immediately, achieving a quicker payment cycle through this order to cash automation.

3. Want to simplify scheduling?

Improving your ability to handle service requests efficiently has a direct impact on your business, but the day changes as emergency jobs come in, jobs may take longer than planned and traffic delays affect the original schedule. To improve efficiency, service companies use scheduling tools to streamline the process of capturing and dispatching service requests, saving as much as 80% over the effort of a paper-based process. Electronic scheduling also provides visibility for real-time monitoring of assigned jobs and field staff availability. Additionally, centralizing the scheduling data allows all required staff to view it as needed, reducing the number of status requests your dispatcher has to fulfil.

4. Confused by mobility?

Today’s mobile technology gives businesses an opportunity to communicate with their mobile workforce more efficiently than ever. If you are not leveraging the everyday technology of smartphones, for example, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase your overall efficiency through improved communication.

By using technology you may already have (or your technician may be happy to use their own) means you can make use of field service software without the need to buy servers, hardware or other expensive wireless equipment for field staff.

5. Looking to improve customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is critical to a successful field service business. An automated field service solution can make sure you seamlessly deliver the level of service your customers are looking for. Your solution should be centralized so that all of your staff have access to the same customer information. It should be available 24/7 from anywhere you might be when you need it. It should include service history so that you and your field technicians know the full story.

6. Need to understand your business better?

In order to really understand your business, you need to be able to measure the performance metrics that are important to you. Analytical reports that can illustrate any aspect of your operational workflow means you get real-time business metrics at a glance, while also having access to ad hoc reports that can answer any anomalies that occur. While it’s good to know that your field techs are completing 30% more jobs than they did last month, it’s even better to know why so you can capitalize on it.

For the best results, you need a solution that meets your business needs. Field Force Tracker helps field service companies simplify this decision-making and is provided via technology you already have: smartphones and the internet.

To find out more on how Field Force Tracker is simplifying field service with innovative field service solutions, send an email to support@fieldforcetracker.com

 

Field Force Tracker has been slowly building a presence as a rising star among field service management (FSM) software providers for the last several years. However, across the last twelve months or so they seem to be distinctly focusing on pulling together a enviable list of good customers, and a  lot of new features. They have revised new apps and added many features to the system.

The addition of experienced engineering team and marketing leaders has added a depth of industry knowledge and understanding of best-practice in the field service software, go-to-market strategies on the communications side of the business.  The team has experience in successfully working with top-tier enterprise account sales, but also a strong knowledge of product development within FSM systems. Field Service sector will see Field Force Tracker getting new momentum in the sector and competing with established players.

New Momentum in the Field Service Software

There has been a lot of momentum that has been building over time, but now it is beginning to become more visible as things are all coming together around the product, around the marketing and around our go-to-market strategy. We are becoming more visible in the market, but in a controlled way. From the board’s perspective it has been building up the momentum and now they are bringing in key personnel that will drive the company into the next field service market environment.

There seems to have been a very clear plan from the senior team at Field Force Tracker to get the product right, before then building the team that can firmly establish the company as a key player within the FSM software community.

Indeed, as the company CTO explains there was a lot of behind the scenes work in developing the product in order to be able to integrate easily with others that had to be completed before Field Force Tracker could really begin to move forward into the enterprise.

Addressing the Enterprise Field Service Software

Whilst the company were operating primarily in the small to medium sector, we invested heavily in developing a mobile led, innovative solution that was built on an enterprise approach architecture. We wanted the ability to have a field force management solution, where we could have custom objects associated at multiple levels, so the application could through configuration be quickly tuned to the needs of different customers in different verticals.

To then expose that flexibility to all of the communications channels – so out through the API, into the integration layer out to the mobile and then out to the web, as you can appreciate it takes time to build that kind of product, but it was where we saw future.

However, listening to CTO speak it is not just care and attention that Field Force Tracker have put into the development of their product – he is keen to outline how they have taken a very different approach than some of the more traditional vendors in the market have done in the past.

“Our focus has been to develop a mobile application that is very intuitive and easy to use – everything we do is about intuitiveness and being thumb friendly. Successful solutions are always easily adopted because they’re so easy to use.”

“Everything we do is about intuitiveness and being thumb friendly. Successful solutions are always easily adopted because they’re so easy to use…”

“Our approach has been to really focus on empowering the people in the field, the field service technicians that are working directly with their customers and can therefore have the biggest impact on a brand when service is being delivered. By making sure that they have an application that is simple to use but also offers access to rich data that is embedded within the service call (so they don’t have to be reliant on syncing up, it’s all there for them, they can just go ahead and use it) the aim is that it all leads to them being able to deliver better service.”

“So we’ve really been focusing in from that perspective. We’ve been taking into consideration how service manager think when they are in the field and how do the older members of the workforce think whilst they are in the field too.

It’s a different approach from the traditional world of big optimizations that are focused on macro management of a workforce and then driving that work out. In fact, it’s a very different approach.

Field Service Software – Upgrading with New Features

Whereas before the focus has been, both from a technology and a management point of view, about ensuring field service teams are working as efficiently as possible – i.e. on task such as processing the workload and optimizing the work schedule, now with customer service rising to the forefront of most conversations about company wide KPIs, the focus is very much on empowering the field service engineer with the tools at his disposal to be able to delight customers on each and every visit.

Indeed the landscape is ever changing, and Field Force Tracker find themselves in the interesting place of being able to compete with other FSM software but also at the same time offering a solution that can also fully compliment such competitor systems due to their focus on integration.

“Applications like ours enable companies to effectively digitise the last mile – i.e. get all the work instructions, all the processes out to the workforce. They can use it online or offline depending on their connectivity, but is has to be intuitive.’

Of course one trusted route to speeding up adoption which we have discussed a number of times in various Field Service News articles is getting the involvement of some of the field service technicians in the selection process of any given new tool they will be using.

This is a trend that Mason admits he has seen growing in recent years with more and more field service organizations involving a selection of service technicians to give their insight into any potential new solution.

“We’re seeing a growing trend where the selection process will include some members of the field team,” Mason agrees. “What this does do is enable both us and the customer to accelerate the time to value because it allows the customer to see how the tool will work within their wider system, but also allows us to better understand the challenges we’ll have to work through in the project.” He concludes.

It is a sensible route and one that is quite indicative of the customer-centric approach that company has adapted.

So could 2017 potentially be Field Force Tracker’s year? They are certainly getting themselves in the right place at the right time…