The Three E’s of Workforce Management (WFM) for Field Service Management

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Last updated Apr 29, 2022 at 12:13PM | Published on May 9, 2013 | Blog

For field service management, monitoring the workforce is no longer just about being able to collect time. It’s the ability to service customers effectively, efficiently and provide exceptional customer experience. To be able to deliver the three E’s, field service management companies must be able to: (1) plan for better resource utilization, (2) assign jobs/work orders and dispatch service calls, (3) integrate to inventory systems to see available stock and parts, (4) create parts requisitions for jobs if parts are on hand, (5) streamline administrative tasks for field engineers through mobile enablement (6) self-serve and bid/fill job requests, and lastly, (7) review analytics to understand the how the business is running and optimize processes. To achieve full potential, workforce management systems must do the core time, scheduling, expense, and task transactions, as well as collaborate with other systems and process transactions to complete the service cycle.

Capacity Planning:

Planning resources and time based on the service demand forecast allows field service technicians to be fully utilized during peak and slow times. During downtimes, resources can be reassigned to other value-added tasks, or they can be scheduled for courses/certifications to increase their skill levels. In turn, charge a higher rate for that resource and produce higher services margins.

Centralized Workforce Field Scheduling and Dispatching:

Having service scheduling capabilities within the WFM system maximizes efforts spent on finding available resources. Resources are assigned to jobs, and schedules are sent with work order details once the request has been accepted. Scheduling workflows notify resources and dispatchers on the status of every request so nothing falls between the cracks or through untraceable communications.

Inventory Integration and Parts Requisition:

In most cases, inventory resides in a financial or ERP system. With that being said, technicians need to be able to see what parts and materials they have on hand, either at a warehouse, trunk stock, or perhaps sitting in another tech’s truck. Having visibility reduces costs and also improves service times with customers. Nothing is more annoying than a service technician showing up empty-handed and having to come back on a different date with the right parts. Schedules can be adjusted in advance based on when parts are available on hand or through drop-shipment. Requisitions can be made on the fly or can be done in advance during the time of the job booking.

Mobile Enablement:

Make administrative tasks for field service management easy like completing work details, time entry against a job, and creating invoices. Provide mobile solutions that can automate these tasks without needing to fiddle with multiple devices and going in and out of different systems.

Self-Service:

Having technicians self-schedule themselves for job requests improves utilization rates and reduces costs. For break/fix or unforeseen issues, a simple notification can be sent out to both full-time personnel and independent contractors. Contractors closest to the job, or those who have availability, can bid on the job and take the service request. This eliminates scheduling headaches.

Analyze, Measure and Optimize:

Understand your deficiencies and improve on them. Knowing the gaps in your business will enable you to improve operational efficiency. Moreover, understanding the margins and/or the cost of every job at every stage is important to running a leaner and more profitable business.

Find out how Fieldpoint can transform your operations and triage the three E’s for your field services business.

Contact us today for a live demonstration of our FSM Software