How can Mobile Workforce Automation transform
Field Service Management?

Top 5 features that ensure service optimisation with technology!

The introduction to mobile workforce automation platform is not new to field service management. But the impact is yet to be felt and exploited on a larger scale with correct implementation. Technology is the best enabler to adopt the changing trends of the field service industry. Currently, one of the major hindrances is the availability of such future-oriented cutting edge solutions at a price that can support the business transformation with economic feasibility.

However, new delivery models promise to provide technology as a service based on subscription and service consumption, making it easier for the organisations to take that big step. The much-anticipated revenue generation targets can definitely be achieved with a planned investment in reliable-and-tried technology. In essence, mobile workforce automation for field service aims to nullify the time and efforts wasted in unproductive or repetitive work and focus on meeting customer expectations with following five factors-

Task Assignment 

The basic requirement of the field service industry is to manage job allocation in the most efficient manner. Considering your team will be working away from the office premises, there are many factors to be taken care of. Talking about the first generation methods (that are still in use by some companies), the common paper-based approach involving forms notes, and details to dispatch jobs is no longer yielding productivity. On the contrary, modern mobile workforce automation applications are a boon.

A MobileWorker app enables your technicians and supervisors to receive their work-orders right on their application. Eliminating the use of paper, service records and details related to the customer availability, type of work, evidence in the form of images and videos, instructions, etc. is made available on the app itself before the worker starts his day.  

Intelligent Routing 

In the sales and service organisations, location routing features of mobile workforce automation platform are quite worthwhile to optimise worker’s day and ensure a satisfactory customer experience. GPS integration is principally beneficial to track the workers’ current individual locations, spot nearby field personnel to promptly assign an urgent task, know the estimated time duration of each task, notify the customer of the arrival time of the team member at their site and be connected and aware of the worker’s safety.

As soon as a worker picks his tasks for a particular day, he can use the auto-routing feature of MobileWorker app to align them in a way that takes up minimum time and distance. Moreover, it reduces the trip time, fuel costs, re-visits, re-organises queues to accomplish emergency tasks, sustains environment and achieves high productivity.

 Schedule and Stock Management

Managing remote or mobile teams and fleets is one herculean task! It takes a lot of efforts to keep an eye on their actual workload and balance the customer expectations. Advanced capabilities of mobile workforce automation technology are handy to monitor every worker, manage shift labour and allocates tasks to them as per their availability, expertise, priority and location. Moreover, this also helps to manage inventory of mobile assets and instruments used by the worker. An overall administration of all the teams handling multiple tasks across different area boundaries becomes effortless.

Mobile workforces can maintain their profile details via their device and update the stocks inventory on a timely basis to synchronise the information with the back-office team. This gives a fair idea to auto-schedule the tasks for every worker and meets the compliance standards set by the organisation. Also, it reduces manual intervention to organise workforce, keep a check on their logs and work-order receipts.

Instant Communication 

It’s highly appreciated to abide by the duty of care legislations and stay connected with your workers, especially if they are involved in field jobs with a degree of risk. The new technologies support instant communication of service desk executives with the mobile workers where they are notified at every stage with a check-in button using lone worker features. Also, the field workers can get in touch with their fellow teammates and office teams in case of queries and emergencies.

All-in-all the communication module speeds up the process and boasts a level of trust and reliability. The worker can collect customer signature on the app upon task completion and communicate the same to the back office. Information can also be shared and synchronised quickly, allowing the desk executives to coordinate with the customers with timely updates.

Offline Integration 

Field service work demands travelling to a number of locations under varied conditions. It is, therefore, beneficial to have technology that can be helpful to the workforce in completing their work as well as synchronise the information with the back-office team. Offline integration is one of the most useful features to save time and costs recurred in travelling. The substantial loss due to disconnected services can be avoided using mobile workforce automation platform.

Consider a situation where the worker has already received his tasks and headed to complete it across the day. Due to some reasons, he has no access to the internet, but he can easily use the application to check his already downloaded work-orders, execute the tasks and update the status information locally. As and when the internet is available, the same gets synchronised with the service desk software, eliminating the need to travel back to the office again.

As the companies seek an unprecedented way to keep up with the competition, they need to modernize their working with an array of automation techniques. For more updates and advice on strategizing the implementation of field service technology, connect with us!

Make your move now!

iTouchVision is one of the world’s leading cloud-based service provider with innovation & excellence at its base. The company has made its presence in all business verticals with its technical & operational capabilities to enhance the working of private & public sector organisations. Our products, ranging from Web-based software to Mobile applications have made their mark globally to transform the way work is completed.