How to Choose Field Service Management Software

Quixy Editorial Team

January 1, 2024

An excellent field service experience is crucial to business success in an increasingly competitive market. According to a study by Feildpoint, 48% of organizations are using Field Service Management software. Customers today expect one-click purchases, same-day deliveries, and seamless cross-device experiences when it comes to field service management software.

Mobile apps have been adopted widely to improve field service, but they often fall short by not connecting adequately with enterprise applications, providing limited functionality, or requiring manual processes. 

For a mobile app to be truly successful, your field services and IT teams should work together to address both teams’ challenges and needs.

Also, when processing job orders, dispatching technicians, and collecting payments in the field, it is important to choose field service management software to help modern companies manage their field service.

What is Field Service Management software (FSM)?

FSM software, also known as field service management, helps companies better manage field resources and operations. Invoicing, payments, order management, and customer management are all processes that platforms can improve. 

• Management of work orders
• Management of inventory
• Dispatching
• The scheduling process
• Tracking of fleets
• Analyses and reporting

A combination of these features enables the home office to coordinate with warehouses and field technicians, allowing the company to save time and money as well as speed up transactions. By automating tasks like scheduling, dispatching, and matching skills, the software increases field service automation (FSA).

The three main pain points faced by field service management companies are:

• Disjointed communications.
• Overscheduling of resources.
• Incompetent technicians.

When used properly, field service management systems address all of these concerns.

Also Read: Offline Mobile Apps for Field Operations

10 Tips to Choose Field Service Management Software

1. Identify Your Business’s Needs

There are different needs of every business. Consult with field service workers, help desk agents, delivery, and supply chain partners to select appropriate management software. Their expertise can assist you in identifying bottlenecks, gaps that need to be filled, and required features.

2. A security system

The best automation tools follow a role-based model to ensure specific permissions and protect sensitive data. Additionally, they should provide detailed logs of user actions within a particular workflow, document, or account. Furthermore, a reliable solution ensures SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, CCPA, 21 CFR Part 11, and GDPR compliance for storing and sharing documents.

3. Analytical tools

The right field service management tool should provide a seamless data access experience that is achieved by leveraging powerful data analytics modules. Real-time data reporting and easy data visualization through charts and graphs can help businesses make better decisions.

4. Analyze after-sales support

There are always new features, benefits, and sometimes problems with a new piece of software. Regardless of how robust it is, you will likely need support for your FSM software at some point in the future.

Check the quality of the support center, vendor references, and previous case studies. Support helpline numbers that redirect you to call centers offshore that take notes about your problem and promise to get back to you (but never do!) are useless. You’d like your call to be redirected to a software expert as soon as possible.

5. Ensure that all necessary features are present

Vendors are known for their sweet words and false promises. Businesses suffer damage when they use the wrong software. So, you can involve your field service worker in the software development process. Technicians can suggest essential software features.

6. Training and implementation ease

For the software to be implemented successfully, it must be easy to implement. It affects the entire workforce. Coordination and adoption of new technology will be easier if it is easy.

7. Track field visit service tasks

A field worker’s ability to update their work status from time to time streamlines tasks. During a field visit, it is easier to determine where decisions went wrong.

8. Team-build and organize service groups

Choosing a field service management system that allows you to group your technicians based on their expertise and technical expertise is essential if your company offers different services. In addition to replacing machine parts, “routine service” can be handled by a separate group of field technicians.

9. Automating and forecasting with efficiency

Routing tickets, assigning service tasks, and managing resolutions can be automated to speed up the resolution of common service requests. Be on the lookout for time- and event-based automation, missed appointment automation, agent performance automation, etc.  

Field service management software with forecasting capabilities can improve schedules and appointments, predict recurring issues, pinpoint service tasks that need better resolutions, and optimize delivery/service times.

10. Managing returns

Whenever a new customer opts to return or replace a product, Amazon sends reassuring messages about how easy it is. They can, since the process is really simple, with timely updates on the progress. There is, however, a complex process that goes on behind the scenes.

Retail businesses should ensure that their FSM software has a definitive framework for returns management and reverse logistics. Several stakeholders are involved in this process: supply chain units (internal or external), delivery partners, and help desk agents.

Choosing the Right Field Service Management Software: Challenges and Needs

There are three challenges that IT and field services teams will face: technical, organizational, and financial. In each of these categories, the following needs to be addressed:

• As part of the technical challenge, the app must be able to work with or without a steady connection while sharing data with your FSM, ERP, and other systems of record. It is important to keep development time to a minimum, and future changes, such as adding new features and capabilities, should be straightforward to implement. Distributing and using apps should be easy, but they should also be secure.
• As the IT and service departments interact, organizational challenges arise. Divergent priorities often exist among these teams. Field service technicians care mainly about getting the job done quickly and correctly the first time. Effortlessly and effectively performing their tasks requires robust mobile apps. Meanwhile, IT teams aim to deliver apps as quickly as possible, as well as maximize security and minimize maintenance.
• Organizational and technical challenges are both rooted in financial difficulties. Any solution must lead to increased profitability, which means lower operating costs and/or greater revenue opportunities.

Also Read: 15 ways to Transform your Business with Mobile Forms

Build vs. Buy: 3 Field Service Management Software Options

There have been several approaches used historically to develop high-quality mobile field service apps. There are three main options:

1. Software available off-the-shelf (COTS)

Most organizations opt for “ready-to-use” field service software, which saves them time and money. Depending on the application, certain functionality may be lacking. There is often no support available to the field service team.

2. Using no-code tools

Field service teams might build field service software using no-code tools on their own. The use of these solutions allows business users to build simple apps without the help of IT, but the functionality of these apps is likely to be inadequate for the organization’s needs.

3. The traditional code-based development method

Some organizations build their FSM solutions based on traditional development methods to meet their requirements. The IT department is burdened by this, while the field services department waits months or years for their app to develop.

Also Read: Inspection Management Solution: Achieving Operational Excellence

Delivering Field Service Management Software to Mobile Workers

With a high-performance no-code platform, field service teams can get all the functionality they need, while IT teams can customize and maintain robust and up-to-date applications quickly and efficiently. It offers the following:  

Field service team- By automating processes and workflows, project teams, vendors, and clients can collaborate better. Real-time identification of bottlenecks and capture of issues. Make updates on the go and save time with accurate resource management.

Read eBook: 15 ways to Transform your Business with Mobile Forms

Conclusion

Quixy is a perfect no-code for building solutions that can be used with or without the internet i.e., online of offline apps.

You can continue doing your work regardless of whether you have internet connectivity. This is true whether you are completing an inspection, updating your status, collecting survey data, adding notes, entering job hours, etc. Once internet connectivity is restored, a central server automatically uploads and syncs the collected data.

Using Field Service Management Software, you can ensure that no employee is left behind and that our processes run smoothly, even in adverse conditions. We provide a pioneering no-code platform that allows you to not only develop custom applications without coding, but also ensures their functionality and accessibility in any situation.

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)