Transforming Field Service Operations by Leveraging Technology and The Salesforce Ecosystem
Field Service is a critical functional area for any industry that needs to physically move goods or personnel; essentially involving inventory management, fleet management, and managing delivery schedules along with its associated billing and accounting functions.
In the age of Innovate-Disrupt-Repeat, Field Service Operations are under accelerated evolution driven by the opportunities enabled by digital, with Field veterans claiming that the real disruption is yet to come.
" In this blog, Damco examines the emerging challenges of field service operations, confronting the businesses across industries"
Critical Challenges of Field Service Operations
Like other processes, Field Service operations are also facing the challenges of Operational Silos, Increasing Cost of Legacy Systems, Inefficient Redundant Tasks, and evolving Customer Expectations.
Challenge #1: Operational Silos Structure
In most industries Field Service exists in silos, not interacting with Marketing or Sales. Despite Field Service being customer-facing yet, organizations lose on opportunities to gain a 360° unified view of the customer.
Without integrating Field Services with other processes, critical information is lost. For example, production teams miss data such as the number of repairs requested in warranty, parts needing frequent replacement, the average time to asset failure, etc.
While Field Service continues to be in silos, the cost is incurred due to overstocking and administrative overhead. Fragmented IT infrastructure maintains status-quo and inhibits communication.
To reduce operational expenses and increase the efficiency of asset management at the warehouse, a unified holistic integration of field service operations and collaboration with other departments is the need of the hour!
Don't forget to check out: What is Batch Apex in Salesforce? How to Execute Batch Apex Class?
Challenge #2: Rising Cost of Legacy Systems
Many organizations are still using obsolete software of Field Operations based on legacy technologies which are getting costlier to maintain. With the number of experts declining each day and software providers calling off their support, legacy platforms pose a significant risk to data and efficiency of the coupled process.
Obsolete technology stack frequently causes missed communication between teams, data corruption, or global service outage, all having the potential to inject inefficiencies that magnify at the next step. Moreover, the lack of mobility in legacy technology decelerates the efficiency of the field workforce.
Lacking features like automation, cloud storage, and predictive-analytics; such legacy system cost opportunity to focus on production as they need huge resources to just maintain them.
Field service operations across industries demand solutions based on cutting-edge technology to survive and thrive in the evolving competitive landscape
Challenge #3: Recurring Redundant Tasks adding inefficiencies
Two prominently redundant tasks in Field Service Operations are Route Planning and Assigning Field Resource. Route Optimization is critical to cut-delivery time and needs to take into account the fleet availability, weather fluctuations, update in addresses, preferred time window, road closures, etc. Unless planned well, it adds to the fuel cost.
Similarly, the assignment of Field Resource, without considering the skill set required for meeting customer requests, costs additional man-hours. For example, if the deliverable requires installation then a delivery agent capable of installing the item can save on the additional cost.
Unless automated, these redundant recurring manual tasks will allow inefficiencies to creep in the field service operations. Automation is also required to optimize the availability of human resources for core tasks like strategic planning and implementation.
Challenge #4: Evolving Customer Expectations
Logistical success has a rather new and complex metric ‘Customer Satisfaction’, which depends not just on timely delivery but on previous interactions with the vendor, customer support, and delivery agent. If the interaction is opaque to the next person in the pipeline, it becomes difficult to bring a disenchanted customer back who is ready to defect with a single instance.
Delivering products/services in partnerships with aggregators has added another layer of challenge to vendors. From preferred time-slots, last-minute cancellations, changes in address, or request for real-time updates, there are many scenarios where consumer expectations demand every step of the supply chain to communicate with each other.
With competition leveraging technology to get closer to customers every day, leaving the opportunity to collect feedback is unaffordable.
Unless the technology platform is capable of capturing and responding to Field Service feedback, customer experience can’t be improved.
The market landscape is evolving and organizations across industries are now recognizing the criticality of field service solutions to improve the efficiency of field technicians and attain new revenue streams.
How Field Service Management Software Alleviates Challenges of Field Service Operations?
FSM software addresses challenges of Field Services and facilitates every step of the supply chain to be managed with granular visibility. From automation of field operations, collaboration among field service professionals, coordinating changes on the go-to instant update in tasks; it acts as a platform to streamline the entire gamut of Field Service Operations.
A cloud-hosted Field Service software bypasses the need to maintain an on-premise server and is updated as per the need. Informational access on mobile devices improves the experience of every stakeholder who can engage the end consumer in innovative ways, establishing customer delight.
With automated scheduling, the productivity of both managers and the technicians is optimized. Real-time and predictive analytics makes monitoring the status of jobs simpler. Field Service Management tool empowers Field Service personnel to be the main contact for customers and establishes trust with the end consumer.
As per a Markets and Markets Study, by deployment type, the cloud-based field service management solutions are expected to witness a faster growth rate.
It is critical for organizations across industries to select the right Field Service Management solution out of the pool of options available to them in the market ecosystem. The decision-makers must ensure that the software has capabilities to address their specific business requirements and can help them to gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly volatile and competitive market landscape.
This blog explores the top cloud-based Field Service Management Solutions available in the Salesforce ecosystem that are flexible, scalable, and affordable. Salesforce, the world’s number 1 CRM, is a pioneer in enabling organizations across industries to improve the speed and efficiency of their field service operation.
- Field Service Lightning
- Optima Pro
Field Service Lightning: A Complete Field Service Management Solution
Field Service Lightning is a Salesforce product– a powerful, highly customizable platform that can be used to set up a mobile-friendly field service hub in Salesforce. As the most preferred Field Service Management solution, FSL offers the following benefits.
One Platform Connects All
Salesforce FSL facilitates the entire workforce to connect with each other through a single platform. Workflows are optimized for each role– managers, mobile workers, dispatchers, etc.
Single Tool Multiple Functions
AI-powered scheduling of work orders, inventory tracking for van/warehouse, and categorized knowledge articles are accessible with or without the internet.
Creation of Work Orders Swiftly
Create, manage, share, and optimize work orders for field service operations that are integrated with standard Salesforce fields such as Accounts, Contacts, Assets, Cases, Entitlements, and other customized objects.
Intelligent Schedule Optimization
Automatically assign the right resource through the Service Console. Optimize availability based on time, skills, location, and other custom rules.
Connected Workforce On the Go
FSL mobile app for real-time collaboration regardless of internet connectivity. The app can be customized for the role-based workflow, providing just what is needed.
Access to Einstein Vision
Intelligent van inventory management– image recognition to immediately identify assets and double-check the part that needs repair/replacement.
Measure and Improvise
Field Service Analytics provides managers and dispatchers real-time performance data against KPIs to make data-driven decisions.
Zero dependencies for On-premise
The cloud-based portal is accessible from mobile devices with no-downtime, inexpensive data storage in a global network of secure data centers.
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Optima Pro: A Comprehensive, Field Service Platform
Optima Pro is Damco’s proprietary Field Service Software based on the Salesforce platform, which is a comprehensive solution to address the daily challenges of the field service industry and delight the end consumer through a superior experience.
Apart from the core functions of cloud-based FSM software like automated scheduling, real-time visibility into the workflow, and connected workforce; it offers below-listed features that can be customized to fit the business needs.
Manage the Entire Service Organization
Built-in process for managing the complete Service Organization which includes territories, teams, and technicians along with their skills, expertise, and current location.
Track Warranty and Service Contracts
The built-in process to define the rules to auto check the warranty and service contracts so that the service personnel can be updated on potential revenue opportunities.
Delight Consumer by Preventive Maintenance
Pre-configured support for Preventive Maintenance to keep technicians updated for upcoming maintenance services ensuring fewer breakdowns of customer products.
Proactive Inventory Update
Request parts on the fly from fellow technicians and depot locations by the appropriate stock search. Geo-location based dispatch for cost-effective and timely service.
Transparent Invoice Generation
Retrieve previous invoices/work orders, generate service bills/invoices, and modify them in real-time. Record details about the work performed and check for previous sessions.
Integration with Time Slate Pro
A feature-rich comprehensive calendar that can be used with any object; standard or custom. Multiple views for daily, weekly, and monthly display of events.
Use Case
Medical Equipment Manufacturer
The client is a manufacturer and distributor of medical equipment like Cyclotron, CT Scanner, MRI, etc. This equipment requires special packaging, carriage, unboxing procedure, and trained personnel along with on-site engineers to supervise the installation.
Business Needs
- Track inventory– equipment parts, installation material such as steel shielding for installation on site
- Set operating hours and organize personnel with the right skill sets to conduct installation
- Schedule availability of specialist engineer for installation and the first run of the equipment
- Ensuring compliance for radioactive equipment through serial accountability of the installation crew
The Solution
- Implementation of Field Service Lightning Managed Package and Core Field Service Lightning with customized workflow
- Optimization of workflows to provide complete visibility to each stakeholder with detailed log and custom work rules
- Field Service Lightning Mobile App with knowledge articles for safety on radioactive equipment and installation guide videos
- Push notifications for installation milestones to all stakeholders and admin review for next steps
About Damco
At Damco, we take pride in building innovative, efficient, and robust IT solutions for our clients. As a leading Salesforce Silver Consulting Partner in the US, our expertise spans Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, Communities, Field Service solutions, Pardot, Lightning, and App Cloud.
We have been pivotal in building success stories of great customer experience, incremental efficiencies, and ROI transformation. Through our robust consulting methodology developed over the course of numerous successful Salesforce implementations, we help organizations across industries to unlock the Salesforce potential and transform their field force capabilities while remaining cost-effective.
Reference: damcogroup
