Mobile field service apps should improve technician productivity and make their lives easier.  But many field service apps are designed to have a technician tap away on a 3.5 inch screen.  Rather than typing just use the phone for its original intention?  For talking!  Imagine that, talking into your phone instead of using it as a type writer.

Virtual personal assistants are native features to iPhone and Android devices.  Products like Siri and Dictation, capture voice memos and transcribes the field notes for you.  No need to tap away on your screen to complete work order details.

For technicians who need to access tight spaces, capturing voice notes is much easier than swiping and tapping on a keyboard.  It is ridiculous to think that you can fill out a detailed work order from just a screen.  Reports will take longer to complete or even risk abandonment due to frustration.  By using the native voice feature increases work order completion rates.  Resulting in being able to bill for jobs faster.

How the Virtual Assistant Came to Life?

The inception of the virtual assistant started from a research project called CALO, developed by SRI.  The non-for-profit, research institute was founded by Stanford University trustees to incubate leading edge innovations.  The CALO project was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense for $150 million.  The intent was to create a personal assistant to help their overloaded military commanders with their chores.

In 2007, a few passionate Researchers from SRI and an Entrepreneur came up with Siri.  Finally in April 2010, Siri was acquired by Apple.

How to Turn On Siri?

Siri is easy to turn on.  There are a few settings that have to be activated in the General and Privacy Settings for it to work.  Once you turn it on, you will truly see the real definition of what a smartphone is.