“Field service” refers to any job that takes place outside of a central office. It typically refers to companies like cleaning firms, contracting companies, and repair companies whose employees have to leave the company premises to visit homes and businesses in order to complete a job. This could be anything from repairing or maintaining a system, to installing a new cable or phone network, to cleaning. There are lots of industries who offer a field service. However, what about field service management? What is it and how could it benefit your company?
Where Does Field Service Management Come In?
Field service management is an umbrella term for the way services are managed in the field. Everything from dispatching employees to work assignments, to managing project inventory and availability, and communicating with employees is involved here. In the past, this kind of management was not very efficient and often harmed an employee’s productivity. Employers had to contact their staff manually for updates, and any queries from field employees often took a long time to get a response to. This has changed with the introduction of field service management software.
What is Field Service Management Software?
Field service software for small business, such as that offered by GoCanvas, has transformed the way that field employees work. To put it in layman’s terms, it’s a consolidated system that encompasses a whole manner of tasks all in one software. Everything from payroll and billing, to customer queries, to employee scheduling, and inventory management can be completed through one piece of software. This eliminates the need for employees and employers to regularly phone each other throughout the day, as everything can be entered into the software, giving both sides of the company up-to-the-minute information whenever they need it.
What Can We Expect from the Future?
Field service management is currently a $1.8 billion industry, and this figure is only expected to continue growing, with experts believing the industry will be worth $3.5 billion by the year 2021. The major reason for this growth is the widespread use of mobile devices, combined with the strong need most companies have for a centralized system that can handle all of the processes mentioned above.
What’s more, it is expected that the general workday will continue to change into the future as well. In the past, most workers completed a 9 to 5 and that was it. Nowadays, however, employees work during all hours of the day, including on the weekends. And, in addition to full time employees, a lot of companies now opt to hire part time employees and contractors as well. Being able to manage all of these people efficiently and schedule their jobs and times is going to become more and more important as time goes on.
Successful field management software looks different for every industry, however almost all companies who work in the field agree that it has completely revolutionized the way they perform business. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.