Field Service Software

Myriad vendors offer field service management (FSM) solutions for service fleets. Different systems address different types and sizes of fleets ranging from a single metropolitan shop to a global company with agents and partners that cover the entire world. We’ve written this buyers guide for FSM buyers who want to understand this complex market.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What Is FSM Software?
What Type of Buyer Are You?
The FSM Vendor Landscape

Market Trends You Should Understand
Benefits & Potential Issues

What is FSM Software?

If you have ever waited from noon to 6:00 pm for a service representative to appear, you know the importance of a good FSM system. This software category helps companies schedule and track their field operation. For representatives, FSM provides schedules, routes, customer information, and information regarding necessary supplies and parts. Managers can schedule field agents and resources, track customer service history, and manage work orders. 

Core FSM functions include trouble ticketing, repair center, order management, service level agreement compliance tracking, resource scheduling, dispatching, route planning, parts inventory management, contract management, partner management, and forecasting and reporting. Advanced programs feature mobile support, failure analysis, RMA management, voice-generated customer appointment reminders, and project management.

In the customer service spectrum, FSM expands on help desk (HD) systems and overlaps customer support and service systems (CSS). HD systems provide applications for trouble ticketing and directed problem resolution but do not offer field-related functionality. CSS may provide scheduling and inventory management or may integrate to a complete FSM system.

What Type of FSM Buyer Are You?

Before you can run a comparison of FSM systems, you’ll need to assess what kind of FSM buyer you are. We believe 90%+ of FSM buyers fall into one of the following categories:

• Direct field service buyers. These buyers work for firms that maintain their own field service unit. They have straightforward needs which are addressed by a wide range of providers.
• Contract field service buyers. These buyers work for firms that contract out field service. These buyers have special requirements for passing service requests, tracking request fulfillment, and tracking customer satisfaction.
• Enterprise buyers. These buyers work for large organizations. These buyers may have multiple fleets and they place a premium on integrating information across units and with the customer support organization.
• Small business buyers. These buyers work for small businesses moving beyond Microsoft Outlook, spreadsheets, or even whiteboards and sticky notes, and want to add FSM capabilities for planning service and tracking customer satisfaction.

The FSM Vendor Landscape

Market Trends You Should Understand

• Mobile field services. When Microsoft introduced the Tablet PC version of Windows in 2001, field service organizations were listed as a market. A decade later, FSM mobile support is available for all major mobile and tablet platforms from Blackberry, Android, and iPhones to iPads and Windows 7 tablets.
• Software as a Service (SaaS). Vendors are offering FSM as cloud-based service. For example, ServiceMax is built on Force.com, the cloud platform provided by Salesforce. 
• Web-based interfaces. Service reps and managers can interact with web-enabled FSM systems at the office or on the road. Web-based tools can also let partners access the systems and can even allow customers to schedule their own appointments.
• Customer service consolidation. Software vendors are including more FSM management functionality directly in CRM and CSS software. For example, Microsoft Dynamics CRM lets agents generate a trouble ticket, set an appointment, create an order, and dispatch a rep. Once the rep has completed the work, the order is closed, which closes the trouble ticket.

Benefits & Potential Issues

• Reduce service force scheduling costs. One of the big costs in service management is the actual scheduling of calls. Manual systems needed to leave large “windows” for appointments and allow ample time between scheduled stops. FSM systems can schedule appointments more densely and reduce travel times through intelligent routing.
• Increase customer satisfaction. FSM systems can increase customer satisfaction in three ways. First, they can state more precise arrival times for technicians. Second, they can predict the tools and parts that a rep will need. Third, they can allow the customer to pick the most convenient appointment time.
• Reduce parts inventory costs. FSM systems can analyze history files to predict which parts will fail on what schedule. Service departments can use this information to more accurately manage part inventories to reduce costs.
• Reduce fuel costs. Intelligent route planning is a feature of most FSM systems. It calculates the most efficient way for sales agents to drive to their appointments. This can dramatically reduce mileage and consequently fuel costs.

But there are two potential issues with FSM. The first is obvious: there is a potential to over-schedule reps, which decreases both their effectiveness and level of job satisfaction, and also decreases customer satisfaction since appointments are missed. The second problem is more typical of enterprise software; proper implementation, change management and adoption is required for customers to realize the true benefits of FSM.

Have an opinion on this guide? Email the authors. We appreciate the feedback.