Planning the new competitive advantage of field service

Field services - Field services are under strong pressure on their margins and therefore depend on the efficiency of operations. The task planner takes on a very relevant weight in cost efficiency, business control and the quality of the service provided. There are different degrees of automation in the management of work orders, ranging from the allocation of resources based on historical information (static planning) to the use of real-time and context information (optimized planning). Organizations can take advantage of this new technology to incorporate new ways of working that are better adapted to market conditions and business objectives, going beyond the mere improvement of process efficiency.rnIncreasing automation in the management of field services allows companies to combine a reduction in costs with a better service, thanks to improvements in service planning. In the evolution towards greater planning maturity, three states can be distinguished:rnStatic planning: This corresponds to a basic degree of automation and consists of the automation of work orders based on historical information under predefined deterministic assumptions, which, although it provides some visibility of information to business units, has the limitation of which is rigid against deviations from what is already planned. Adaptive planning: This corresponds to a state in which companies can perform an analysis of both explicit information - ex. Field workers input - as implicit –EJ. The information generated by systems such as GPS coordinates - providing new information of value to the service managers in real-time, which allows adaptive management against events not contemplated in the planning. Optimized planning: This state is the most advanced and allows companies to provide real-time, integrated and proactive management of the service, through the ability to predict and analyze scenarios that go beyond the ability to adapt, offering the best response to from the specific patterns of each field worker. A model is enabled that allows massive customization of services and for each field worker. Although each company evolves at a different rate, depending on its sector of activity, the market, in general, is in the first state. Few companies are at the most mature stage where the combined adoption of mobility, big data and cloud technologies is required.rnAmong the functionalities of field development planning software Service we will find different types of planning: Assisted Assignment: This functionality allows the dispatcher to search for a particular specialist, at a date and time of the appointment required by the client. FutureOn field service will show a list of options, the dispatcher user will be able to select the one that best suits according to the criteria of distance, skills and solution time. Scheduling Optimization: An order optimization engine allows selecting the indicated specialists and optimizes the route to provide the best service with the least amount of resources. With this objective, the engine takes into account variables such as engine cost, travel time, level of compliance with SLAs or suitability of the skills of the field specialist. Configuration of the Programming Algorithm According to the Business: A configuration screen allows you to select the importance of the variables for your company and thus configure the order allocation algorithm based on what is important. Assignment Notifications: Assignment notifications will be sent to field specialists and clients to ensure service compliance. Learn more about field development planning software here, and let your company always have the right specialist available to attend a field service.