Everyone seems to be obsessed with mobile work these days – including, of course, field service management companies. And when we say mobile work, we mean things such as working from home, being able to access work tools from any device, the BYOD (bring your own device) policies adopted by many companies and any other strategy that helps you change the traditional way of working at an office.
Technology has certainly changed the way we work nowadays. But the biggest challenge is yet to come: to change desk-bound employees into a fully mobile workforce.
No matter what field your company belongs to, if you’re thinking about adopting any of these mobile work strategies, field service management companies can be an excellent role model. Maintenance technicians, delivery drivers, repair technicians and other mobile workforces are already experts in this area.
Because, if you think about it, field service management companies are the origin of mobile teams – especially since many of them have adopted the right software to manage their work. So, even if you’re not in this professional field, you can still learn many key things from them in your transformation towards a mobile company. Let us list some of them!
1. Augmented reality in field service management
Drones, smartwatches, smartbands… even connected cars! There are many examples of technology applied to companies, and augmented reality is one of them. Even after the Pokémon Go boom is long gone, augmented reality is still very much in consideration for the public and the professional minds.
Within the professional field, field service management companies are already ahead of the rest thanks to products such as Ubiquitous by Fujitsu. This wearable allows the technician to receive instructions in real time, in order to help him finish any repairing or maintenance task. Yes, it does look like a scene from a sci-fi movie, but it’s real!
Benefits for your company: even though you don’t have those fancy AR glasses, this technology can be very helpful for employee training. For instance, an AR app for the smartphone can help the technician obtain more information about any repair or maintenance task in progress, of even learn to use certain equipment he’s not used to.
2. Field service technicians are going green
The traditional office as we knew it is slowly going away. These days, thanks to devices such as laptops and smartphones, time and location are more flexible than ever. Employees can work from literally anywhere at any time. But this mobility comes with a requirement: having all your work documents in digital format.
Leaving paper behind and replacing it with a totally digital management is something field service management are already familiar with. When adopting a professional software solution, many companies in this field have finally ditched paper and are already enjoying the advantages of paperless work.
Among other things, these companies no longer have to worry about making copies of documents, or losing any important paper, or even forgetting it when visiting a customer. All documents are backed up in the cloud and accesible anytime, anywhere. And what’s more important, it saves a ton of time… and money.
Benefits for your company: any company can start saving paper costs in a very easy way, with just a Google Drive or Dropbox account. This first basic step already allows you to share documents online, have a copy always at hand and make sure you never lose an important document again. From that point on, the next logic step is to jump to a professional field service management, like Synchroteam.
3. Field service management technicians are used to agility
A field service management company employee knows how his day is going to start, but not how it will end. Each working day is a new adventure, with tasks in different locations, dealing with different customers, and a different kind of job every single day. And in order to be prepared for this ever-changing work, you need to be an agile employee.
Keeping a good level of agility and being able to cope with ever-changing circumstances is a good asset in any type of employee and company. It’s also something field service management companies have been already doing for a long time. And it’s something where field service management software can be really helpful.
With this software tool, a company can schedule jobs more easily, adjust workload according to available teams, optimize routes, or find the closest technician to a certain customer, so an urgent task doesn’t take too long to be completed.
Benefits for your company: even if your business doesn’t involve sending field workers away, making your workflows more agile can’t hurt. For instance, it can help you make and send invoices quicker. If you can get paid in one week, why wait two?
If you want to keep learning from field service management companies, you can start by testing the software many of them are already using. It’s free to try!
