Evolutionary Trends in Field Service Scheduling Software

Posted on July 25, 2017January 17, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

There was a time when field service companies relied on paper and pen scheduling methods. Then with the time, the service scheduling process became a bit more complex. To help them in the process, paper pad and printed calendar gave way to spreadsheet based scheduling. These minor improvements helped were not sufficient in resolving the problems and complexity of service management.

Today, new generation of field service software like Field Force Tracker are revolutionizing the field service industry. Field Force Tracker efficiently manages scheduling of work force. It is very easy to move around schedules and re-assign resources as needed. This leads to better utilization of resources.

Changing Field Service Needs

Across industries, modern-day customers demand new levels of real-time communication and visibility when it comes to field service. Unfortunately, legacy solutions and approaches limit organizations from satisfying these growing expectations. The good news is that field service scheduling software is evolving to help deliver exceptional service without compromising profitability. As technology changes the very nature of software, your organization should look for opportunities to take advantage of new capabilities that improve your bottom line and customer satisfaction ratings.

Improving Customer Communication

Outdated processes and technology once forced customers to “start from scratch” each time they interacted with a company or service rep. When it comes to scheduling services, customers increasingly want streamlined communication – and they want it via the channel of their choice.

Today, your service organization can pick up where it left off with customers, no matter the channel. Whether a customer sent an email, used online chat, or spoke to a rep on the phone, the latest field service scheduling software can log these interactions. That means anyone in your company interfacing with the customer has all relevant knowledge at their disposal. And this directly translates into a personalized interaction, leaving customers beaming with pleasure instead of fuming in frustration.

Making Dispatch and Work Order Management More Efficient

There will come a day when customers expect on-demand service. Until that time arrives, your field service organization can at least make the manual dispatch process more automated. Calling upon the algorithms and automation enabled by today’s technology, you can bring dispatch into the modern era.

The likes of emergency protocols, traffic protocols, and real-time updates are enabling dispatch models and modules that allow dispatch professionals to maintain a level of efficiency never before thought possible.

Imagine having access to real-time route information, tech activity while on-site, and notices when jobs are completed. Such insights make it possible for your dispatch manager to keep track of field technicians and job status with ease. And what about being able to predict travel issues (such as traffic congestion and seasonal weather disruptions) to reduce idle time, better plan travel time, and allow for backup resources to step in quickly when necessary?

Field Force Tracker Can Do This All Today

Smart field service scheduling software can also map service technicians’ schedules against customer needs to identify opportunities for greater efficiency. As a result, your organization can assign a mix of high and low priority jobs to technicians, reserving capacity for emergency work without impacting the overall flow of assignments. Moreover, today’s software can deliver alerts and real-time updates so your leadership team is aware of scheduling concerns – and improvements.

Hand in hand with this, relational databases and predictive intelligence are unlocking greater personalization. Picture using predictive software to analyze data gathered across all company systems and get insights that enable proactive work order management. This same technology can be used, for example, to identify the percentage of customers experiencing the same issue, pinpoint when they are likely to experience the issue, and understand the average amount of technician time required to address the issue. By proactively scheduling time to replace or update parts or products before an issue occurs, your field service organization can ensure customers don’t experience disruption – and do it as efficiently as possible.

Delivering Seamless Experience to Customers

We all know that the modern businesses have revolutionized customer interactions. When it comes to field service, the demand for better experiences is real. Specifically, customers crave a way to understand technician location and exact arrival time. Fortunately, field service scheduling software and other advanced technology is evolving to enable more personalized, real-time interactions.

Waiting for a field service visit – or dealing with a tardy or no-show technician – all can be detrimental to the overall customer experience. Combine this with the fact that most field service organizations still rely on phone calls to communicate with customers, and it’s easy to see why customers feel exasperated.

Streamlining the appointment booking process can go a long way to improving the customer experience. Customers hate feeling they are wasting valuable time waiting for a technician to arrive. Your organization can use scheduling software that empowers them to book a day and time of their choice – through their preferred channel, whether that be mobile, web, or via phone.

Utilizing Mobile Solutions

Another way to enter the modern era is to outfit your field service dispatch center and technicians with real-time mobile tracking and, social media channels such as social media and SMS texts. Mobile tracking enabled via your website or custom app empowers your customers to keep tabs on the technician’s location. At the same time, communicating with customers via social media or text brings them the real-time interaction that eases their worries about when and if a technician will show up.

Sometimes the resolution to a customer issue requires a repair away from the customer’s location, such as repairing a downed telecommunications line. These scenarios can be especially frustrating for customers who feel blind to the repair process. In addition, answer the call by outfitting your technicians with wearables such as smartwatches. Using these, they can transmit service data and job updates via voice recognition back to headquarters. By bringing your techs online while on the job, you are empowered to deliver real-time updates to customers across all channels.

Delivering consistently good customer service and keeping pace with ever-evolving customer demands is no small feat. However, by taking advantage of the latest field service scheduling software powered by advanced technologies, your organization can satisfy expectations efficiently. That means you grow your competitive advantage and your profits.

About Field Force Tracker

Field Force Tracker (http://www.fieldforcetracker.com) is a leading global provider of its award winning mobile workforce solutions for service-based businesses of all sizes delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Our solutions enable businesses of all sizes (from 1 user to 10,000 users) to meet the challenges associated with managing and running complex service operations. It helps in improving the productivity of their mobile workforce.

With Field Force Tracker, customers can create service schedule and route quickly, dispatch sooner, collect correct information at once in the field and invoice faster. The field service software makes it easy for users to eliminate waste, get more done in less time and be more profitable.

Field Force Tracker is a wholly owned unit of Rapidsoft Systems Inc. (http://www.rapidsoftsystems.com). Rapidsoft Systems, Inc. has its main office in Princeton, NJ, USA, a US R&D Center in Mercerville NJ, and sales, support and development offices in Palo Alto, CA, USA, Singapore, Dubai (UAE), Bombay, and Noida (India).

Efficient Scheduling For Field Service Management

Posted on March 25, 2017January 17, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

A field service office is a busy office. With dispatchers trying to keep track of jobs, calls and work schedule of each employee, there can be a quite chaotic environment. The old paper and blackboard method scheduling no longer can provide efficient scheduling for a busy office.

For managing a large work force or for saving time in scheduling jobs, you need an efficient job scheduling software like Field Force Tracker. Field Force Tracker with its powerful scheduling capabilities can make it easy to schedule jobs, change schedule and assign and reassign jobs with simple clicks. Mobile Users get notified right away.

Challenges of Job Scheduling

Working in field service you face some pretty unique challenges. Companies with a field service operation often cover a range of different areas of work. They may cover everything from design work to installation, repair, renovation and service work; meaning each day is different to the last and no two jobs are the same in a day. The work may be highly complex and require specific skills, parts or tools for the individual tasks. Workflows may have a number of dependencies, which need to be stuck to, to complete the job so crews have to work well together.

For many of these companies there is also a mix of planned and emergency work throughout the day. The emergency calls that come in obviously need to be managed and worked into the day’s schedule. It means changes to the planned work and it is often difficult to make instant decisions on what needs to be changed around or moved down the priority.

Changes may be needed as jobs overrun due to their complexity, customers not being available or traffic and weather conditions impacting on a technician’s schedule.

Given that many companies still rely on paper-based processes, to some extent, in managing their field service work these challenges becomes all the greater to manage.

This brings additional difficulty to making changes to schedules and dispatch, allocating work to technicians as those in the office may not be working with all the information they need. So, the use of paper-based processes can mean a huge amount of time and resource is taken up by making the schedules for the start of the day and then managing them as changes occur throughout the day.

For any field service company, total visibility of field technicians and their work is key for complete optimization of resources and effective service delivery.

Benefits of Field Service Software Dispatching

Here are ten ways that the right scheduling solution makes a difference. The right schedule and dispatch software –like Field Force Tracker:

Gives you fast, accurate scheduling and dispatch straight from the work order all in one easy application
Enables you to make changes to accommodate incoming work – all at the touch of a button
Provides great visibility of your teams, with maps to show where all your field workers are at any time
Allows you to find the nearest worker to a job and enables better route optimization to get them to the job in the quickest time
Takes into account service regions, worker skills and location
Allows for planned, emergency and in-day tasks to be dispatched to the right, skilled technicians and engineers
Allows you to schedule crews to specific jobs, while recording each individual’s time worked and different rates per crew member on the same job
Ensures field workers have accurate information and the correct parts and equipment
Gives you visibility of assets to assign them to jobs
Provides your field technicians with job information on their mobile device and delivers the back office with job status updates in real-time

Field Force Tracker allows you to schedule your resources easily and quickly and dispatch the job to the field instantly. Our leading field service solution can transform how you run your field operation and ensure that you can get the most out of all the resources you have.

To learn more about Field Force Tracker scheduling take a look at our scheduling and dispatch video.

To find out more about Field Force Tracker’s complete solution why not view our overview video or join our 30-minute webinar.

About Field Force Tracker

Making Use of Field Service Reports – Part 2

Posted on October 4, 2016January 19, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

Service managers need to understand the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery. The lack of service measurements is one such area that lacks in paper base or simple home grown systems. This article describes how field service software can help you better understand the effectiveness of your service delivery. Using extensive analytics information of Field Force Tracker’s reporting module, you can measure the effectiveness for field services in your organization.

Service companies are trying to move to electronic model of providing services. Paper based operation is too slow to address customer concerns and cannot provide suitable data analysis. Field Force Tracker is the most comprehensive software for field service management. It takes care of everything from customer management to the payment collection for a service company. By using this software, our clients can see major improvement in their productivity and the customer satisfaction.

Field Service Reports can Make a Big Difference

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.

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.

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.

Different Stakeholders of Field Service Reports

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 or Company CEOs

For the business owner, or 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 Managers or Service Directors

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

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 Technicians

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.

People Management Managers

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.

Finance and Accounting Managers

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.

Mobile enabled, cloud-based field service software was designed to provide ease of use with incredible flexibility. Along with the ease – and speed – of our implementation and the ongoing support service that we provide we enable companies to take full advantage of today’s mobile field service.

Field Force Tracker’s power mobile apps for iPhone and Android are available to all new and existing Field Force Tracker customers. They can extend the feature set with the enhanced mobile forms capabilities, and better system integration. Field Force Tracker, a mobile enabled web-based field service management software, streamlines technician scheduling, dispatch, customer management, vendor and employee management, work orders, equipment maintenance, inventory tracking, contracts, estimates, invoices, payments and accounting. It is considered one of the most feature rich software of its kind.

About Field Force Tracker

Force Tracker (http://www.fieldforcetracker.com) is a leading global provider of its award winning mobile workforce solutions for service-based businesses of all sizes delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Its solutions enable businesses of all sizes (from 1 user to 10,000 users) to meet the challenges associated with managing and running complex service operations. It helps in improving the productivity of their mobile workforce.

With Field Force Tracker customers can create service schedule and route quickly, dispatch sooner, collect correct information at once in the field and invoice faster. The field service software makes it easy for users to eliminate waste, get more done in less time and be more profitable.

Making Use of Analytic for Improving Field Service

Posted on September 5, 2016January 19, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

We have described in our previous article that an improved understanding of what is happening at any given time can help managers make better decisions. Through the improved visibility that field service solutions deliver, managers and other staff can have confidence that they have the right information and, as such, can make the best decision based on this. Nobody wants to leave anything to chance or to give answers based on gut feel so being able to see at-a-glance the information that is most important to them means they are on top of performance.

For you to track the performance of your service operations and understand your business, in the immediate term and longer term, you’ll need visibility of the right information, when you need it and in a way that is meaningful to you.

Making Use of Reporting Capabilities of Field Service Software

A day in field service operations can often change and be unpredictable as even the best laid plans are affected if emergency work comes in or jobs overrun. On-the-spot decisions need to be made to keep up with and manage those changes and get the day back on track.

Lack of visibility into what is happening out in the field may mean poor decisions are made, which can have further impact on the day’s work. Having access to information can mean that better decisions can be made then and there, keeping the most effective plan for the work. The impact of making changes can be seen immediately and decisions can be based on that, taking into account this impact and any potential outcome on service performance, cost and the rest of the day’s work.

So, field service management technology gives you greater visibility into your field service operations. With that visibility comes a lot of data which is useful to the business, but the amount of data can often feel overwhelming in where to start or how to analyze what is needed. It can sometimes feel so overwhelming that data then sits unused.

Understanding your Business Metrics

You don’t want to be overwhelmed by data, neither have the time to wade through masses of numbers, so let your field service management solution organize the key information for you to identify the crucial stuff you need at any time to make decisions.

With this view into your field operations, you will be able to answer questions like:

Which services are most profitable?
Which are the most productive crews and technicians?
How are changes affecting specific operations?

The visual presentation of data in dashboards needs to be easy to understand and should be easy to filter by service type, individual, crew or any other data point collected.

Business intelligence (BI) dashboards do just that and organize key metrics about your company’s service operation so that you can make fully informed business decisions.

Longer-Term Planning Based on Service Data

Day-to-day access to data is critical to the management of daily performance, but business intelligence is also vital in the longer-term view. Week-to-week or month-to-month comparisons can surface meaningful trends that can help fine-tune a service organization to run at maximum productivity – while maximizing profit.

Identifying business trends is critical to growing revenue, retaining customers and increasing the productivity of field workers. It’s important as a means of discovering problems before they can impact the business.

Improved visibility from field service solutions brings greater understanding of what is happening. Straightforward reporting and being able to access the relevant information easily and quickly is fundamental. This information will then help manage not only the day’s operation, but also feed into the more strategic business planning around budgets, resources, targets and areas to focus on driving performance in the future.

For the best results, you need a field service solution that meets these business needs. Field Force Tracker simplifies field service management to generate a large number of reports.

About Field Force Tracker

Benefits of Using Integrated Field Service Software

Posted on May 18, 2016January 19, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

Service managers are working to improve the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery. However, using improper field service software can hinder their ability to provide better management of their resources. This article describes the benefits of integrated field service software which can help everyone in the company to better manage the effectiveness of your service delivery. Using extensive capabilities of Field Force Tracker’s software, you can improve the effectiveness for field services in your organization.

Organizations often work with a mix of different solutions for their day to day field service operations. This might be because the organization has outgrown original systems so other solutions have been brought in or have been bolted on or that the workflow is so specific to them, that they can’t find one solution that fits all their needs.

Whatever the reason the result can often mean that systems are used in isolation and data from one system doesn’t always work with others.

This can be frustrating and costly to a business as it can mean that data has to be entered into each system individually, taking time to do. If this input is needed multiple times there is also the risk of mistakes being made or data missed.

The Business Benefits of Integrated Field Service Software

The ultimate of any field service solution is quite simply a better workflow to and from the field. Ease of integration is a key part of any new solution as there is no need to upgrade the entire end-to-end system to simply allow this better workflow. There will have been significant investment into existing systems and extending the life of these systems is important.

For a business 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.

The Business Owner/Manager or CEO

For the business owner or 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 or Service Director

The 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. The team in the office can assign jobs faster with the improved scheduling and eliminate paper work with distribution of electronic work orders

The Field Technician or Your Field Employees

For a field worker 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.

Finance and Accounting Department

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.

Good integration of field service management solutions improves efficiencies, from the first call to the final invoice, by providing visibility throughout the business. This can feel like it is going to be an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be.

Why Field Force Tracker

About Field Force Tracker

Using Mobile Applications for Field Service

Posted on January 17, 2016January 21, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

Smart Mobile phone are everywhere, and mobile networks have become very reliable. This is the right time to deploy Mobile applications for field service. This article describes some changes how mobility will impact field service in the future. Using information here, you can develop a case for field service software in your organization.

Service companies are trying to move to electronic model of providing services. Paper based operation is too slow to address customer concerns. Field Force Tracker is the most comprehensive software for field service management. It takes care of everything from customer management to the payment collection for a service company. By using this software, our clients can see major improvement in their productivity and the customer satisfaction.

The question is asked about what mobility will look like in future. A recent study in field service technologies states that an interesting starting point for this is to look at what their survey respondents said when asked about why they were investing in field mobility.

The Field Service Technologies survey found that nearly half of all respondents state their primary objective with their field mobility investment is maximizing productivity. This was followed by 35% saying that improving the customer experience is most important.

Whatever your reasons for looking at investing in field mobility this year, You can always benefit by deploying mobile based software. Below we describe four ways to maximize your advantages from any investment that you make in a field service software.

Easy Integration With Existing Processes

Organizations with a team of workers out in the field often use a mix of different solutions and technologies to carry out their work. There are many different parts to the workflow and different systems are used to oversee these. This can often mean that systems are used in isolation and data from one system doesn’t always ‘talk’ to others.

Back office processes are essential to any service operation, so a field service solution which integrates easily with the existing systems is important. This means that all parts of the business and the workflow can be connected. There is visibility of the work and the day’s performance and decisions can be based on real-time information.

Make Better Use of your Existing Systems

Integrating with back office systems (such as accounting systems, ERPs or CRMs) means that the worker out in the field has access to the job history and customer records. They can get information about the job they are going to and also, if they need to, see what has happened before and why. Knowing the details of the job like this can make the difference between being able to sort out the problem first time or not. This means delivering better customer service, as well as reducing the need for further visits to fix the problem.

Get Up and Running Quickly for a Better Return

With any new solution, how fast you can be up and running is key. A solution which integrates easily with existing systems will be far quicker to implement – a great benefit in any technology choice. Being up and running in days, not weeks, months or even years, means your business is not affected and you get a better return on your investment as it starts straight away.

Keep it Simple

Managers and technicians all report that the difference between good and bad technology choices is often how easy it is to use. Taking time to learn new, complicated ways of working can mean that workers don’t like them and may go back to the way things used to be done or patch together their own way of working round it. With a solution that is easy to use alongside existing systems, the implementation is easier and the quicker people start using it, again the better the return on the investment.

Even if you are not 100% sure of your field service technology needs today and where to make that investment, with an easy to integrate solution you are able to future-proof your requirements because of the flexibility it can bring. It is provided via technology you already have – smartphones and internet – and upgrades, changes and adaptions can all be quickly and effectively made as your business needs change and develop.

For the best results, you need a solution that meets your business needs. Field Force Tracker helps field service companies simplify this decision-making of where to invest.

About Field Force Tracker

Advantages of Deploying Cloud Based Field Service Software – Part 2

Posted on August 16, 2015January 21, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

In Part One of our article, on deploying cloud based mobile field service software, we saw how the cloud and the mobile applications have both brought great benefits to implementing a best of breed field service solution over an on-premise enterprise application.

We looked at the following advantages delivered by choosing cloud-based, made-for-mobile, best-of-breed applications:

IMPLEMENT FASTER
GET THE LATEST FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS
LEVERAGE INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE
PROMOTE BUSINESS FLEXIBILITY

Here in Part Two we look at the following advantages of best of breed applications.

REDUCE RISK OF IMPLEMENTATION

The modular implementation approach utilized by cloud-based, best-of-breed application providers offers companies a valuable way to improve business operations without incurring significant risk. Because implementations effect only a portion of an organization, if a problem should occur, the large majority of business transactions remain unaffected.

Cloud-based, best-of-breed solutions:

Are modular. Therefore, should an existing solution fail to meet business requirements, it can be replaced by a similar module, and supplier without significant impact to the business.
Use APIs to integrate with other applications. Should a problem occur, only users of that application module are affected. This reduces the impact of what in the past, were server, storage, network, or software outages.

INCREASE SYSTEM RELIABILITY

Application reliability and availability are critical components in any business software solution. Cloud-based, best-of-breed applications address these needs using advanced, geographically dispersed hosting solutions (like AWS – Amazon Web Services) and state-of-the-art cloud architectures designed to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions quickly and efficiently.

However, for company managers, best-of-breed applications offer an additional system reliability benefit – a reduction in application maintenance windows. Because best-of-breed solutions impact only specific organizations, maintenance (if required) requirements impact only specific users – not every organization and every process in the company. As a result, maintenance windows are reduced and application reliability and availability increased.

Best-of-breed solutions:

Incorporate the latest in web design technologies which enables them to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions quickly, efficiently and reliably.
Use the latest in web hosting services (AWS) with geographically dispersed instances to ensure high availability and fast, responsive application performance.
Enable companies to perform application maintenance (if required) in shorter time periods that effect fewer users. This helps them improve overall application availability and reliability.

BOOST COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Taking advantage of a new market or business opportunity often requires companies to move quickly – incorporating new suppliers, adapting processes to meet new business requirements and reshaping how affected organizations address the needs of their customers. Companies that rely on cloud-based, best-of-breed applications are best prepared for market change.

Best-of-breed applications enable companies to implement new services or capabilities quickly. Leveraging applications designed specifically for the new market or business opportunity, they can capture market share faster. The best-of-breed approach also allows them to implement more efficient processes – based on new application features and functions – that provide competitive advantage.

Cloud-based, best-of-breed applications:

Enable companies to be first movers in entering new markets.Their modular design and open APIs allow companies to add new capabilities for specific groups or organizations that need them – without impacting the business.

Help companies gain competitive advantage through new features in the application(s) or enhanced processes supported by the application.

IMPROVE PROCESSES

Every field service organization is striving to increase the productivity of their staff. One of the most common ways to increase productivity is through improved processes. Cloud-based, best-of-breed applications allow companies to improve business processes – one organization at a time. As a result, processes can be adapted and adopted more quickly and with less risk to the organization.

Cloud-based, best-of-breed solutions:

Allow companies to take advantage of process improvements to increase productivity and profitability.
Reduce the risk of changes in processes by limiting their impact to specific groups or functions within the organization.

Field Force Tracker simplifies field service management. The seamless integration of our mobile and web-based field service solutions, speed of implementation and ease of use will mean you are up and running immediately, so your business doesn’t standstill.

About Field Force Tracker

Advantages of Deploying Cloud Based Field Service Software – Part 1

Posted on July 17, 2015January 21, 2022 by Field Force Tracker

Until recently, field service organizations seeking to take advantage of a mobile environment often found they had to choose between an on-premise enterprise software solution and a ‘best-of-breed’, specialized field service solution. The on-premise solution delivered numerous and all-encompassing capabilities but was expensive and lengthy to implement. A cloud based solution provided unique features, flexibility and cost advantages but wasn’t easy to integrate into existing systems.

The choice was therefore often difficult as the advantages – and disadvantages – of each were fairly even. Two innovations however, have shifted this balance – and the benefits – to the side of the best-of-breed application:

The Cloud which allows companies to implement applications in weeks – not years
The ‘API Economy’ (Application Programming Interface) that enables best-of-breed, cloud-based applications to integrate with legacy applications – and other cloud-based applications – quickly and easily.

The flexibility and speed of the cloud, along with the APIs have in fact, virtually eliminated the main advantage of the enterprise solution suite – integration of all components into a central data store.

APIs can be delivered by the application provider or through third-party services and enable companies to implement a modular approach for their field service solutions. They can choose the best field service application, then integrate the data across their organization with APIs. As a result, field service organizations can leverage all the benefits of a best-of-breed approach while seamlessly integrating data across the organization.

Here we look at the ways that field service organizations can benefit by choosing cloud-based, made-for-mobile, best-of-breed applications.

IMPLEMENT FASTER

Cloud-based, best-of-breed solutions can be implemented in just weeks – not the months, or even years that are required for a complex, on-premise application solution. Cloud-based applications can be implemented much faster because they:

Eliminate the need to purchase, or make changes to, existing data center server, storage, security and network infrastructure.
Impact the operations and processes of the field service organization only.
Reduce data back-up and recovery requirements (delivered as part of the service by the cloud-based field service automation provider).
Require a smaller, more finite set of data for import into the new system.
Use subscription-based pricing (pay-as-you-go) that enables a phased approach (installation by group or geography)

GET THE LATEST FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS

Cloud-based, best-of-breed field service automation solutions are focused on one thing – delivering the features and functions that field service organizations need to be more productive and profitable. Additionally, these solutions are flexible and can be adapted to incorporate a company’s existing processes and procedures.

A cloud-based, best-of-breed solution:

Is designed specifically for field service organizations
Includes features and functions that are unique to field service organizations – like mobile work order management, field-based quote and estimate creation, customer asset management and field-based inventory management.
Continues to add new features and functions – without requiring customers to purchase software upgrades or invest in expensive software maintenance contracts.
Offers flexible features like custom fields and a standards-based API that allows the application to adapt to almost any existing process or procedure – and readapt itself as processes and procedures are altered in the future.

LEVERAGE INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

The companies, and people, that deliver cloud-based, best-of-breed applications have extensive experience in and with the field service industry. They’ve implemented solutions for hundreds of organizations and helped thousands of end-users to become more productive – and the company more profitable. As a result, companies that provide best-of-breed applications are often able to help their customers uncover additional ways to leverage mobility within their organization or manage customer information more effectively.

Cloud-based, best-of-breed solutions enable customers to:

Leverage the knowledge and experience of the provider to improve their organization’s productivity and profitability.
Discover new ways to manage work orders, satisfy customers, improve processes, increase efficiency – and mobilize their workforce.

PROMOTE BUSINESS FLEXIBILITY

Cloud-based, best-of-breed applications enable companies to implement the capabilities they need – when they need them. They can be ‘plugged-in’ as they are needed, which enables companies to meet the needs of their customers more rapidly and expand into new geographies more aggressively.

Best-of-breed applications:

Can be implemented quickly, enabling companies to adapt to shifts in markets or customer preferences.
Are, using today’s API technologies, ‘plug-and-play’, allowing companies to address the needs of specific groups, organizations or even specific individuals, quickly and cost-effectively.

In Part Two of The Eight Advantages of Cloud based Applications we look at the following ways that organizations can benefit by choosing cloud-based, made-for-mobile, best-of-breed applications:

REDUCE RISK
INCREASE SYSTEM RELIABILITY
BOOST COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
IMPROVE PROCESSES

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