In this age of universal mobility and smart phones, Field Service Industry is going through the big change. Field service software like Field Force Tracker are changing the software industry by their revolutionary features and with its low cost of implementation. Because it is a cloud based field service software software is based in the cloud, you have no infrastructure to maintain, and no servers to update. You need no IT person to maintain it.
However, if you are moving from paper or spreadsheet based scheduling, you will be making a big change in the process. To make sure that you get the most benefits, this article will explain that.
While all companies are benefiting from new technology and software that helps connect different departments and processes, organizations that rely on workers in the field reap some of the largest rewards from cloud-based software. When dispatching, collecting payments and monitoring daily activities, service management software that is provided as a service means technicians in the field are no longer removed from the companies they work for while performing their jobs.
Benefits of Software As a Service (SaaS) Field Service Software
Software as a service also allows field service companies to cut down on overhead costs such as new hardware, according to Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News. According to their recent article, SaaS allows in-field workers to access field service software on nearly any device that has a Web browser. This opens the door to companies that want to save costs with BYOD (bring your own device) policies or use existing hardware.
BYOD is growing in popularity and since many workers already own a smart device, there is essentially no hardware cost and technicians will be able to navigate the field service software using a device that they are already familiar with, cutting down on training time.
Field service software impacts Customer Service
Customer service is also improved when workers in the field have better connectivity to the home base of the organization. They can provide customers with more accurate estimates on how long it will take to order a needed part and how much it will cost. Technicians can locate much of this information on their own, without speaking to an off-site employee who must search and report it back to them.
Repair service software can expedite the payment process and reduce the need for invoicing for some services. Technicians running late can also quickly communicate their situation to the company so that impact on other customers is reduced. This can help workers and customers adjust to possible, unforeseen interruptions in the schedule, which are common in industries such as HVAC.
With BYOD, contact is also made through a device that the technician is likely to have on their person at all times. This way, communication can continue even if the worker is at a site that does not have telephone, Internet access or is not near a radio in their fleet vehicle. The software will connect them to all of the information that may need when on the job.
The Cost of Not Deploying Field Service Software
A service company spends significant hours on service paperwork, emails and phone calls in your office. If those activities were replaced with something more high-value like customer care, business planning or marketing the company can greatly benefit from it.
And what if instead of mailing out invoices days after a job was completed and then waiting for payment to be mailed back, the invoice instantly arrived in your customer’s email box as soon as the task or project was completed?
Think of the revenue gain, if you could complete another job every day just from better scheduling and dispatch.
These are all missed opportunities that cost you money every day.
You may not be the only one waiting. You customers may be getting faster service from competitors who have shorter service windows and deploy the closest technician to their home or business. How much business will you lose if your competitors get there faster and more reliably?
Even if you already have a field service software solution, there are likely gains to be made from newer, mobile and cloud built solutions. If you’re using a premise-based solution for instance, there’s a good chance it’s costing you in IT and maintenance fees. Worse, field workers aren’t getting things done as efficiently as they could with native mobile apps designed specifically for use on a variety of devices. Inefficiency means less work gets done and that costs you.
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).
