Field Service Automation: Turning a loss into a profit

Traditionally, one way of ensuring high profits is by keeping costs down. This is particularly the case in field service where, unless tightly controlled, operating costs can threaten the survival of the entire operation.

Since spending large amounts of money on application software has traditionally gone against the grain of any seasoned service manager, the adoption of field service automation has lagged behind its counterparts in other enterprise applications like supply chain and ERP. But that may no longer hold true as the world of field service continues to change.

Why are we suggesting you go against conventional wisdom? Because in today's world, by ignoring field service automation you may be losing out on a chance to cut costs and improve your competitiveness.

If you are still scheduling with spreadsheets and tracking inventory with an unrelated database or asking your technicians to provide debriefs on paper, you may want to pay attention.

Thrifty Scots Cut Costs
Consider the case of Scottish Water. Utilities in general are not known for risk-taking and yet for Scottish Water the move to field service automation made the difference between remaining the local provider of choice to more than 5.2 million domestic and commercial customers, or losing the lion's share to competitors in neighboring England.

In January 2002, Scottish Water initially implemented a pilot program involving several field service applications that, if successful, would replace legacy systems in the organization's call centre, as well as paper-based systems in the field.

Dubbed the 'Promise to Resolution' project, the scope called for massive transformation of field service processes pertaining to everything from managing ruptured water mains to fielding incoming customer calls.

'We wanted our customers to hear a human voice in our call centers, but we also wanted their problems dealt with as soon as possible,' explains Cheryl Black, customer service director of East of Scotland Water. 'Automation is helping our engineers out in the field provide the best service we can, as fast as we can.'

The project connects 150 call centre operators with 100 field service agents via laptops using mobile technology.

With updated information flowing back and forth between operators and field agents, they now have the flexibility to schedule appointments on the spot and provide up-to-the-moment progress reports on standing orders.

The successful pilot is now being moved into production and Black is confident this will translate into higher productivity. 'This will allow more jobs to be done in a day as engineers are relieved of the burden of paperwork associated with briefing and debriefing of jobs.'

How Can Automation Drive Profitability? Let Me Count the Ways
Automation helps boosts your profits through increased efficiencies. Four key areas where automation opens the door wide for lower costs and higher revenues include:


• Eliminating paperwork and redundant, error-prone data entry;


• Accelerating billing cycles by streamlining payment methods;


• Increasing the visibility of the mobile workforce and communicating with them in real time;


• Reducing time between service calls and facilitating faster customer response.

For customers like Scottish Water, the net gains have been better planning, higher productivity, happier customers and increased profits. 'This project will play a major role in helping us achieve our goal of trimming 40 percent of our cost base,' says Black.

As for hard numbers, according to Black, Scottish Water now averages one call per incident instead of the usual two or three. They've also been able to bump up the number of blocked water line repairs completed during a workday from four or five to an average of nine.

Keep Your Project Out of the CRM Obituaries
You may be asking yourself, 'how do I prevent your venture from ending up like one of those failed CRM projects one reads about?' With so many choices on the market, it can be confusing for customers to know what solution is right for them. A short list of 'must-haves' to look for when considering your options includes:


• Functionality that provides for integration with back-office applications-including vital processes such as billing, financials and inventory. Everyone knows that field service does not happen within a vacuum; it is a part of business processes that span all organizations. Software for field service should be designed with that in mind.


• Advanced scheduling capabilities, including the ability to plan routes.


• Spare parts integration that provides visibility into parts availability and logistics, putting service engineers in a position where they're never at a jobsite without the right parts. This also helps suppliers maintain minimum inventory levels and avoid the risk of stock-outs and obsolescence.


• A wide range of mobile and wireless connectivity-laptops, PDAs and voice recognition capabilities built on proven technology that can be customized according to business needs of the intended users. Questions to ask here include: Will my technicians benefit from the information they access on-site? Am I able to reduce the billing cycle and eliminate errors? Will my technicians be able to use the technology comfortably?


• A comprehensive customer data model that provides a single view of your customer and direct access to any equipment using installed-base data. Combining these pieces of information leads to cross-selling and up-selling opportunities and higher revenues.

Automate or Be Left Behind
And while Scottish Water is an innovator in its field, it is not alone in identifying the benefits of field service automation.

The demand for field service management solutions is growing at roughly 8 percent per year-analysts at Aberdeen Group forecast field service management applications will be a US$752 million market by 2005. With the market growing to that size, clearly someone is going to be buying field service software.

And while you can't be certain if it's one of your fiercest competitors, can you really afford to ignore that possibility and not at least explore field service management solutions and what they can do for your organization?