In an enterprise, two teams are the most mobile – sales teams and field services (FS) teams. While the former are primarily visiting boardrooms and conferences, the latter have the charter of being on the go almost the entire day, meeting customers’ end users and solving their problems. Be it business operational field services or technology desk side support, the FS teams have the biggest impact on customer satisfaction (CSAT). Therefore, enabling them to do their jobs better is a mission critical. Traditionally, these teams have been equipped with bulky handheld devices which are cumbersome, and have limited functionality. Enterprise mobility has changed that, and today the tools of the trade for the hands-and-feet crowd reside within their smartphones / tablets.
Enabling the resources on the ground to use their smartphones for work related tasks has many advantages. Firstly, they do not have to carry brick sized, cumbersome devices. Secondly, doing away with handhelds saves a lot of money in purchase and maintenance of the same. Cost is further saved because the enterprises do not need backend software and infrastructure to pull data or charge those monsters. Also, smart devices are better connected (through cellular or wi-fi networks), and the employees do not have to go through a learning curve to use them. Lastly, the use cases for a smartphone / tablet are virtually unlimited, empowering the FS resources to access all relevant information anytime, anywhere.
Due to these advantages, enterprises are investing in field services mobile apps that provide very useful functionalities.
Work order management: These applications let the managers allocate work efficiently, and control and monitor its execution closely. From a central console, a manager can identify the resources closest to the requirement through geo location services, and assign the work to them. The agents on the ground get a notification with all the relevant details like location, nature of the work, the priority and SLA. They can then accept the work order and proceed to the location. Once done, they can update the work order with the outcome, and the manager sees the same immediately.
Invoice Management: Keeping a track of invoices and payments can be a headache when you have hundreds of employees on the field involved in the transactions. As an FS organization, if you have to physically collect and input all the receipts, it becomes a nightmare, and has immense potential for human error. Using a mobile app to issue invoices and receive payments, with the ability to process credit cards can greatly reduce the effort required for this process and the potential for errors.
GPS tracking: How many times does the help desk receive a call from an irate customer saying “I am still waiting for your person to reach here”. The standard response is “He should be there soon”. Imagine a world where the helpdesk agent can tell the customer “Sir, he is 2.1 miles from your location. As per the traffic data, he should reach there in approximately 7 minutes.” Tracking your resources and knowing here they are at all times gives your business a huge efficiency boost. Not just people, tracking assets and vehicles on the move also help security and CSAT. ‘Knowing’ is the first step towards improving, and GPS tracking systems keep you in the know.
These are but a few use cases for mobility in field services. Copper Mobile can help you in connecting with your field staff like never before with our mobile field service app. We design customized applications for smart devices such as mobile phones and tablets, which can be accessed from anywhere across the globe.
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