What Is Field Service Management?
Field service management (FSM) most commonly refers to companies who need to manage regular maintenance, installation, service, or repairs of systems or equipment. Field service management (FSM) refers to the management of a company’s resources employed at or en route to the property of clients, rather than on company property. Examples include locating vehicles, managing worker activity, scheduling and dispatching work, ensuring driver safety, and integrating the management of such activities with inventory, billing, accounting, and other back-office systems. You can read more here.
Datamoto Field Service Management Software (FSM)
The Datamoto Field Service Management solution empowers technicians to boost customer satisfaction with an app that is fully integrated with the Inventory and Order Management solution. Some of the features of the Field Service Management App are described below:
- Schedule Resource Intelligently
- Dispatch the right technician at the right time
- Assign team members in one work order
- Better manage resource assignments by using a drag-and-drop scheduling board
- Match technician’s skills with job requirements
- Schedule machines such as crane at the construction site
- Timesheet to keep track of time spent by resources at the site
- Easy reschedule of work order
- Work Order Management
- Add multiple pieces of equipment in a work order
- Add service notes in the work order
- Track parts at each stage of the work order
- Find vendors for the parts from a vendor catalog
- Locate parts and cost in the truck or other warehouse locations
- Minimize repeat visits by ensuring parts availability
- Create a purchase order for multiple vendors with a click of a button
- Create invoice with complete flexibility of editing quantity and cost
- Take pictures of the job with your iPad or Phone
- Sign the order on the phone
- Send a full PDF service report to the customer
- 360-degree View of Customer Assets
- Asset management
- Organize assets by org for better tracking
- Track and manage equipment and inventory
- Effectively schedule maintenance to minimize maintenance and repair costs
- Reduce asset downtime due to equipment maintenance or failures
- Assign equipment and inventory to specific employees or department
- Track all the service orders and service reports associated with the equipment
- Keep track of user manuals and documents for the equipment
- Capture key identifying information about equipment to facilitate warranty claim assessments, retrofit and revision needs, recalls, and more
- Material, Inventory, and Order Management
- Search parts in the bin, truck, or warehouse
- Complete visibility of available quantities and costs
- Find easily the vendors to purchase the parts from Vendor Catalog or from general Vendor List
- Create purchase order per vendor and edit before submitting for approval
- Invoice the services provided with the parts
- Invoice the parts that used in the order – automatically adjust the quantity in the right warehouse
- Create estimate – automatically imports service notes and materials needed for the job
- Create sales order – automatically imports service notes and materials needed for the job
- Build multi-currency vendor catalog as you go
- Mobile app
- Equipment Recall Report for Medical Equipment
- Equipment search by manufacturer, model, and serial number
- Ability to search by serial number range
- Provide detailed equipment reports and status of the equipment
- Generate the report instantly – at the back office or on the road
- Download the report with the client contact information
- Enterprise Connectors – Dynamics 365, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, Workdays
More on Datamoto Field Service Management Software
What Is Field Service Management Software?
Field Service Management software (FSM software) helps companies deliver effective onsite service by tracking requests, managing personnel, and maintaining visibility into operations. Common field service management software features include
- Work order management
- Inventory management
- Dispatch
- Scheduling
- Fleet tracking
- Reporting and analytics
These features increase coordination between office, warehouse, and field service technicians, saving a company time and money while speeding transactions. These tools increase field service automation (FSA) to take the manual work out of office tasks like scheduling, dispatching, and skills matching.
For most organizations, efficiently managing a team of service technicians, or field service force is one of the most operationally complex tasks. Because it involves so many variables, which until recently had to be logged, monitored, and controlled by human labor, it took a significant amount of time and precision to keep track of all the unpredictable changes that could occur at any time. Miscommunications, delays, and incorrect or incomplete information inevitably plagued many companies in these situations, and while electronic databases certainly helped matters, they were still exceedingly prone to human error.
What is FSM technology?
This massive shift in field service management over the past decade is evolving quickly, thanks to the latest mobile, IoT, and AI technology. With integrated, cloud-based software, field service management can create a supportive, agile environment for technicians that increases customer satisfaction.
In a general sense, FSM is a system for coordinating field operations through a mobile workforce. At a basic level, this entails scheduling service orders, dispatching agents, and tracking vehicle locations and job status. The right software solution helps automate these tasks and provide mobile access through a (usually) cloud-based platform. FSM is prevalent in numerous industries, but particularly those that employ mobile agents or contractors, such as waste management, utilities, telecommunications, public sector transportation, and even in-home healthcare.
The FSM Software
FSM Software helps drive the sales and services of field service workers. A Field Service Management application must be integrated with the Inventory and Purchase Order Management system to drive end-to-end operations. Below is a typical workflow of Field Service Management application:
- Steve, the Facility Manager of Stanford Hospital calls Gregory Medical Supplies to provide immediate service to an Anesthesia machine.
- Diana, the office manager of Gregory Medical Supplies creates a work order for Standford Hospital. Since the said Anesthesia machine was previously serviced by Gregory Medical Supplies, Diana finds it in the Field Service Management asset inventory and assigns the Anesthesia machine to the newly created work order.
- Diana looks for available resources in the Field Service application and assigns Bob to the job for the 3 PM to 5 PM time slot.
- Bob gets the alert of his new assignment. He checks the work order detail and also past services that were performed on the Anesthesia machine.
- Bob checks inventory for available spare parts in the FSM Software. He notices that few parts are not available in his truck but available in the central inventory. He drives to the office to load those parts in the truck.
- While loading the spare parts in the trucks, he makes sure to transfer those spare parts using the Inventory module of the Field Service Application.
- At 3 PM Bob reaches the Standford Hospitals and performs the maintenance of the Anesthesia machine. He uses Anesthesia Maintenance Checklist to perform all the maintenance procedures and notes all the measurements
- Bob updates all the work he performed in the Field Service Management application
- He updates FSM Software with spare parts used
- In the end, Bob asks Steve to sign the work order to confirm the services he performed
- Bob generates PDF report and invoice for the service and emails to Steve
Field Service and Asset Management
The company uniquely targets asset-centric industries that involve complex skillsets, lengthy work assignments, and high-value service contracts. It supports skilled technicians in a range of tasks such as break/fix, maintenance, depot, calibration, testing, inspections, and certifications. Most of the maintenance done in the Factory equipment or Hostpital’s medical equipment are the asset-centric field service.
What is Enterprise Asset Management?
Enterprise asset management (EAM) is a combination of software, systems and services used to maintain and control operational assets and equipment. The aim is to optimize the quality and utilization of assets throughout their lifecycle, increase productive uptime and reduce operational costs.
Enterprise asset management involves work management, asset maintenance, planning and scheduling, supply chain management and environmental, health and safety (EHS) initiatives.
EAM is often associated with a CMMS or computerized maintenance management system, but it’s different. A CMMS can be one aspect of EAM. It focuses on centralizing information to facilitate and automate maintenance management processes. EAM is an asset lifecycle management approach that supports asset performance from acquisition to disposal.
In the Internet of Things (IoT) era — with everything from valves to vehicles connected by sensors and systems — practitioners are incorporating advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) into EAM. Data gathered from instrumented assets is analyzed using AI techniques. The resulting insights help maintenance teams make better decisions, enhance efficiency, perform preventive maintenance and maximize investments in their physical assets.
Field Service for Small Business
Plumbing and electrical engineers, painters, landscape gardeners, medical device service technicians and care worker agencies are all examples of small and medium-sized firms that have technicians or agents operating in people’s homes or other businesses. A key challenge is getting the right field service worker to the right place at the right time. This includes making sure they get to their destination quickly and cost-effectively.
The list of field service management challenges that small businesses face can seem endless. But, many can be overcome through the implementation of tools such as field service management software.
Field Service Mobile App
The mobile field service apps are developed on a standard mobile framework with all the field-ready functionality you need to improve field productivity with any device and operating system (phones, tablets etc.). The mobile field service apps empower field workers to successfully complete work orders, present service reports for customer signature, provide pricing of labor, parts and products in the field and much more.
FSM and Employee Empowerment
Mobile devices powered by FSM technology also allow field service workers to deliver fully on the promise of your customer experience: They can be a hub of knowledge for nearly any question a customer has. One of the key principles of successful management is removing as many obstacles as possible for the technicians to do their jobs in the best manner. FSM solutions empower employees to be the main contact for customers, thereby streamlining the service chain.
FSM Across Industries
Field service management is used to manage resources in several industries.
- In healthcare, medical device sales and service provide services to medical devices
- Mobile nurses provide in-home care for the elderly or disabled.
- In the telecommunications and cable industry, technicians install cable or run phone lines into residences or business establishments.
- Gas utilities, engineers are dispatched to investigate and repair suspected leaks.
- In heavy engineering, mining, industrial, and manufacturing, technicians dispatched for preventative maintenance and repair.
- Property maintenance, including landscaping, irrigation, and home and office cleaning.
- In the HVAC industry, technicians have the expertise and equipment to investigate units in residential, commercial, and industrial environments.
- In the Postal and Packaging industry, technicians find out the exact locations of the customers and deliver/receive the packages.
FSM vs. Mobile Workforce Management: What’s the Difference?
Field service management and mobile workforce management (MWM) are closely related, but there are key differences to consider when choosing a solution for your business.
The difference between mobile workforce management) and field service management software is best summarized by this question:
Are you trying to optimize your business for human inputs or physical products?
If you want to optimize the installation, maintenance, repair, and deployment of physical products you own or have sold, you need a field service management solution. FSM systems are designed to prioritize physical assets, helping you coordinate the cadence and timing of your jobs to keep equipment in optimal shape.
About CMMS
A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), also known as computerized maintenance management information system (CMMIS), is a software package that maintains a computer database of information about an organization’s maintenance operations.
Maintenance professionals use CMMS software to plan, manage, and improve plant and facility maintenance, and to standardize operations. When used maximally, it extends equipment life, reduces overall costs, and increases asset reliability and productivity. There are countless benefits to using CMMS software. Here are just a few:
- Automate recurring preventive maintenance tasks saving time
- Easily document and assure regulatory compliance
- Digitalize forms and other documents while eliminating paper
- Organize inventory and optimize spare parts availability
- Gain a comprehensive view of asset health and identify issues early
A CMMS stores asset data and associated maintenance-related activities and documents in one central location. With web-based maintenance software, teams can access and view asset repair histories and send and receive work requests and work orders from almost anywhere—via mobile phones, PCs, laptops, or other smart devices.