Field Services companies are celebrating. The technological and economic situation has placed them in an optimal position to carry forward an effective and long-lasting transformation of their activity. One the one hand, there has been significant technological and functional advances in Field Services Management tools, geolocation, Cloud management systems, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. And on the other, is the cultural change that brings digital transformation and its orientation 100% to the client in all their business processes. Last but not least, is the ever greater management awareness of technology and innovation as a profitable investment rather than an expense.
Technology, business culture… and 7 more keys for transforming your Field Services
In a recent article, we wrote about the levels of digital maturity within field services businesses, a concept which is closely linked to the transformation of organisations within the sector. The conversion of a traditional field services company into a modern one has two basic concepts: technology and innovation, and the business culture.
Because of our experience with Field Services businesses, at Intelligence Partner we offer you the 9 essential keys so you can successfully transform your organisation with these two concepts. This way, you will achieve 100% competitiveness within the digital environment, and the service you provide for your clients will guarantee their full satisfaction:
1. Invest in technology and innovation. Technology and innovation are the main foundations for transforming your field services: they facilitate the continuous optimisation of all processes. Choose a provider like Intelligence Partner, who will show you the best way to integrate and take advantage of technological opportunities such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, data analysis and geolocation in the services you offer your clients, and which will also keep you up to date with the latest innovations in these and other areas of interest for your business. A final piece of advice: your field services management tools should have SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud) technologies, such as Task4Work.
2. Change the chip: from reactive to proactive. Services businesses are well aware that the age of sitting and waiting for calls from clients has long gone. Today it is the businesses themselves that recommend their services to their clients. For example, with the real time information they receive from connected machines (IoT) they can advise their clients on the best time to carry out updates and maintenance. Another area where proactivity is important is in communicating with clients: integrating the new Field Services solutions with social networks and the new messaging tools (the S in the SMAC technologies) allows you to connect with your client in real time and in a personalised manner.
3. Choose modern mobility and devices. The M in the SMAC technologies. Intelligent devices are one of the best allies for Field Services businesses. Equip your field technicians with intelligent phones and/or tablets so that they receive and indicate the appropriate service information at the client’s installations or home. As these devices also have geolocation abilities, you will also know instantly where your technicians are and you will be able to assign the nearest technician to any urgent operation.
4. Automate all service processes. Come what may, the successful transformation of a service organisation is achieved by automating its business processes: according to IDC, this means a 20% increase in the productivity of your employees. Before choosing a solution, make a record of what these processes are within your organisation and analyse jointly with your provider how you can execute these from a Field Services Management solution like Task4Work.
5. Take decisions based on data. The A in the SMAC technologies. The information about your daily activities, along with the data analysis solutions (or Business Intelligence), helps you to improve management efficiency (by up to 20%, according to IDC consultancy) and to increase the success of your decisions. Thanks to these, you will learn about your client’s consumption trends, the most profitable territories, or the most productive technicians, as well as some of the weak points in your processes that you will need to address. You can even simulate new hypothetical scenarios (what-ifs) so that you can study the profitability of your potential future decisions.
6. Involve, train and listen to the whole team. The transformation of your services and, by extension, the digitisation of your organisation is not limited to the technology. It is a profound change in business culture, directing it 100% towards the client in all its tasks and, for this reason, all employees should take part in the process. Their involvement in the project is an essential part of its success. Employees should be given a voice at meetings and project work committees, they need to be provided with in-depth training of the new tools and their proposals for improvement should be taken into account. In this way, their productivity will be improved, as will the quality of the client care, and they will see themselves as an essential part of the organisation’s success.
7. Analyse and collect feedback from your clients. Offering the best quality service to your clients largely means taking account of their opinions and feedback. Current technology allows the registration of numeric feedback and comments about the service received from the same mobile device, information which is very valuable and which can be studied in detail for the continuous improvement of the service. Other tools of interest for managing client feedback are the more modern CRM solutions that collect comments made about your company on social networks, as expressed by clients and members of the general public, and uses advanced Social Listening technology and feelings analysis to analyse these.
8. Choose an appropriate Field Services Management solution. Make a detailed analysis of your company’s processes, its particular requirements and the objective for its transformation, and with this information, find the FSM solution that best adapts to your requirements. At Intelligence Partner, we recommend the following in relation to your solution: it possesses SMAC technologies, it can be personalised, it integrates with other management solutions (ERP, CRM and BI) and responds quickly to the changes that you require. An example of a solution that fits this profile is Task4Work.
9. Create a digital ecosystem. Your new Field Services Management software offers you many more benefits when it forms part of digital ecosystem management. Ensure that your provider allows you to build it with tools that integrate with each other 100%, as this will facilitate the natural flow of information between the different areas of the company (for example, service costs are accounted for directly in the ERP Finances module without need for the complex transfer of information). The solutions forming part of a Field Services company’s standard digital management ecosystem would be: FSM, ERP, CRM and Business Intelligence.
Task4Work is advanced Field Services Management software that facilitates the digital transformation of services businesses such as yours. Contact us and tell us where you want to get to. Our experts will study your case and will show you the best way to achieve success with this transformation process.
