Modern day FSM Software to keep your Service Business Thriving
Evolution of Field Service Management
Tracing the evolution of field service management(FSM), from the 1990s to 2020, it has been improving gradually along with technological advancements and change in lifestyle.
The precursor ones in early 90s were just a single step advanced from a paper based system used for maintenance management. Unfortunately the growth of maintenance software and their capabilities was meagre with ineffective tools and processes. The facility managers found it difficult to keep track of maintenance operations and data on maintenance. Delays were a common norm of those days.
FSM Market: Global statistics & Forecast
InnoMaint is truly mobile in the sense that it permits offline operation mode and the data can be synced with cloud server when you’re back online. The global market for field service solutions reached $2.9B in 2018, and it is projected to reach $5.7B by 2023 with a 15.0% CAGR. 61.0% of fieldwork organizations track customer satisfaction. 84.8% of field service organizations use third party technicians to complement their current services or broaden their scope of operation.
The necessity for FSM Software
Even today the importance of maintenance operations is being looked down upon and many organizations adamantly stick to their excel sheet, spreadsheet approaches. With the growth of organizations the maintenance became more complex and tedious to handle. As a good effect amid the devouring nature of covid-19 pandemic business firms have started realizing the importance of maintenance and are swiftly switching over to digital approach to deliver excellent services on field work. To term a Field Service Management Software as modern it should mandatorily leverage advanced analytics, Big data management, artificial intelligence and cloud storage.
Why field service management software ?
A good Field Service Management Software should standardize maintenance operations, facilitate easier audit for retrospection on operations, provide means for better reporting structure, set benchmarks for performance and provide instant help to technicians at field when they are in dire need of it. Your data is backed up daily and stored safely on best cloud servers across the country. Such a CMMS unifies all stakeholders and when fully utilized they become a part of solutions rather than a part of problems. A FSM software can prove its mettle by making the workflow simple and transparent greatly reducing miscommunication, communication gaps and excuses.
Improve First Time Fix Rate with InnoMaint
InnoMaint is one such FSM software that provide a thumbs up to customer-centric operations and makes the technicians at field accountable for their actions. Help is available to technicians in the form of solution bank accessible via a mobile app. Solution bank provides a means for retaining the valuable knowledge of experienced seniors with the approval of Admin. They provide solutions for the common defects on asset types in the form of fixes based on incidental data. Consequently there is a significant increase in first time fix rates.
It alleviates the major pain points of Field service management companies such as communication issues, uneven scheduling of work to technicians and lack of technical competency among technicians.
Before assigning tasks to a technician the SuperAdmin / Supervisor can conveniently view the relevant group of technicians with dynamic information on the workload of each technician and their proximity to the customer location.
Rule Based Scheduling
Scheduling employees for maintenance tasks needs to be fair and accurate for achieving best results. InnoMaint’s rule based scheduling system automatically triggers the creation of a ticket you define based on the values of parameters observed during routine monitoring tasks. You can use this feature to your advantage by defining best corrective actions based on the defined conditions. Such schedules can be created for all the business locations of a client with hassle free movement of resources and technicians across locations.
Better Visibility on Maintenance
Field service management systems, when used to the fullest potential, can go a long way in reducing repairs, providing the management a better visibility of the big picture on maintenance, clearly presenting the step by step checklists in an exhaustive manner accompanied by image or video files for a diligent approach to problem solving and gaining the trust and confidence of customers. They reveal if your budgets are reasonable and go in the right track, let you know the weaker areas for identification of training needs etc. The meticulous reports make it possible for the senior management to make sound and well informed decisions. A 52 week PPM calendar provides a single source from which you can conveniently have an overview of tasks slated for a day, month or year.
Catch up on maintenance 24×7 & get instant feedback
Provide real-time updates to your precious customers and the privilege of tracking technicians on their way throughout along with an ETA. Obtain feedback, rating and digital signature of customers. Such a feedback can also trigger improvements in front-office processes apart from optimizing back office processes. The pressures on field service organizations have grown multi fold over the past few years. Realizing this InnoMaint enables field managers to assign tickets to service technicians while they are away from office 24×7.
Workflow for external Service Contractors
Sometimes necessity may arise for Field Service organizations to hire the services of an external agency in cases of absence of their own technicians or a shortage of a specific technical skill. InnoMaint takes into account such considerations and provides an exclusive workflow for handling external Service Contractors and their group of technicians.
FSM Customer base & Transparency in service
FSM systems can also help companies who handle installations, services, or repairs of assets and equipment in benefiting any company whose workers spend considerable time in the field. Cable service providers, inspectors(inspection task to keep track of values of key parameters), utility engineers and HVAC workers, branded service – all these people are most commonly associated with field service work.
A good FSM system provides tools for managing work orders, customer appointments, ticketing system, spare management etc. With InnoMaint, you can clearly agree upon work order expenses with the customer before reaching their premises & easily modify the appointments. Present FSM software market is characterized predominantly by on-premise solutions, but cloud deployment is also on the rise which means you no need to pay for a long term. North America retains the most market share closely followed by Asia which is in line for becoming a major player, too.
Streamline Maintenance Operations
Customers can notice the difference in the form of shorter wait times, quicker repairs, less number of tickets owing to complete fixes and self diagnosis questionnaire customer service, and faster job completion . Uphold and maintain the accuracy of measuring instruments with a calibration workflow. Quote generation and work order management process are streamlined for betterment.
In line with “new normal” of covid-19 era
In this age of widely accepted new normal period caused by the pandemic technicians might be required to minimize the visits to your service organization. With InnoMaint, they can complete several full cycles of maintenance for days together before returning to office. Attendance Management adds an additional authentication, warranty management of asset instances also deserves a special mention. Technicians can pull up the entire service history by scanning QR code pasted on the asset with their mobile which shall help in providing a complete fix.
Tools for internal collaboration
You might have felt that there could be something a class apart when compared to the current tools used for internal communication and collaboration. We empathize with you and understand that a fast, reliable and powerful dedicated channel for team collaboration is required during these unpredictable times of the covid-19 pandemic demanding remote work from disparate locations.
You need to unify various stakeholders in a single digital system that provides for continuous learning, networking among internal teams and a means to reach out a wide audience base drawing their immediate attention. According to several surveys 70% success of any business relies on effective communication mechanism.
Broadcast urgent messages with no boundaries and interruptions holding you back. Be well positioned to handle emergency situations and unpredictable situations, at job front, in the interest of safety of the community, at large. Field Managers can provide instant help in the face of conflicts with customer advising them on the right & diplomatic course of action.
These powerful capabilities which occupy a centre stage while on use should silently fade to the background with ease of access while being dormant with no impact on existing CMMS functionality. Such a feature shall also eliminate longer wait times for answer.
A CMMS product with the feature discussed above has the potential to go deep into a business and across multiple businesses.
