08 Dec 2022
Field Service Management (FSM) is a fast-growing industry despite two years of the pandemic. Now, many businesses have realised that it is a priority for FSM sectors to address pain points and challenges that could hold them back. If you are looking for some sort of solutions, here in this blog are the listed challenges in the Field Service Management industry and ways to deal with them. Stay tuned till the end!
Read more: The Ultimate Guide on Field Service Management
Schedule Conflicts
Having technicians is not enough for businesses to grow if you do not properly delegate them, leading to client dissatisfaction. Frequent schedule conflicts can damage your business reputation and increase frustration among technicians. There are 3 main types of schedule conflicts that you need to be aware of:
- Unavailability: This happens when a customer asks for a specific time slot but there is no technician available and no replacement.
- Overlapping Appointments: Such incidents occur when one task takes more time than expected and takes up the time of the subsequent appointments.
- Double Booking: This problem takes place when planners mistakenly reserve two workers for the same assigned work or two different works for the same worker.
The root of this challenge is that your business is functioning manually. All work orders are scheduled by paper-based method. In this case, automating the entire process can help. Businesses can consider going paperless by investing in an ERP system with scheduling and dispatching features. This can help to streamline and standardise the operation with smart dashboards, widgets, and calendars.
Work Order Management
Work order management is also not an easy task. The more work orders you get, the more information and data you have to handle and organise in a proper way. Then, updates once technicians back from the sites, invoices, payments, etc. will become a huge data hub. The entry process is not automated. The lack of a centralised database may cause data entry duplication and other associated field service challenges.
Leveraging well-designed field service management software with the work order management module can help businesses integrate all data into a centralised database. Hence, it eliminates the risks of wrong, missed, or duplicated data. With a cloud-based platform, the possibility of losing data will not be a threat as it can help store and retrieve data within a few clicks.
Route Planning
Manual route planning is also a huge challenge in field service. Real-time information, such as technician locations or current traffic status, cannot be in the form of paper-based routes. This will lead to inadequate or inaccurate routing, leading to missed appointments, service delays, and increased travel expenses.
ERP solutions with GPS tracking should be directly in the vehicle and mobile devices. Therefore, it is able to get real-time visibility of technicians and service locations. Real-time traffic information is also updated before suggesting a route to the sites.
Invoice & Payment Issues
For years, not only field service but other industries have been plagued with extended billing cycles and other major invoicing difficulties. Slow payment and heavy paper-based invoice load have burdened both back officers and on-site technicians while clients keep pushing them. ERP systems can lighten this issue with E-Invoicing with InvoiceNow. Businesses are able to get paid faster, reduce costs, easily store and retrieve invoices, and stay eco-friendly. Moreover, all transactions recorded in ERP systems are guaranteed to follow Singapore’s Accounting Standards, so there is no need to worry about violations.
Fleet Control & Maintenance
Vehicles seem to be indestructible but can be delicate if you do not properly care for them. The last thing you might want to happen is that one of your crews gets stuck on the side of the road instead of working on a job site. If you fail to properly maintain your fleets, it will impact more cost and also affect your team’s downtime as well as overall safety.
Firstly, a comprehensive fleet maintenance checklist is helpful for you to avoid potential issues and to hop into maintenance planning. For regular fleet check-ups and tracking, fleet maintenance plans should also include pre-trip and post-trip check standards and maintenance schedules.
Now that you are aware of the challenges that you have to face, you can seek help from digital solutions to streamline and automate your field service processes. Synergix Field Service Management System, an integrated ERP system, is able to optimise field service processes. Our system will help you organise tasks and assign your engineers in the most efficient manner. Thereby, you can deliver top-notch service performance quality and raise client satisfaction to the highest level.
Talk free with our ERP experts today and see if we can commit to your performance!
