01 Apr 2020

Field Service Management (FSM) was once considered to be the toughest service landscape in the past to grow in due to the financial and technological challenges it faced.  But the Filed Service industry has shown significant growth in recent years and is expected to grow to its fullest potential due to the need for digital transformation, changes in customer behavior, and consumption style.

Across different industries, such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, Telecommunication, Utilities, Engineering, HVAC, etc. millions of calls are being made by customers for on-site services. This has blown increasing demand for a competitive and cost-effective Field Service Management Software. Let’s take a look at growth forecasts made for FSM software:

The modern digital era has brought in advanced Field Service Management (FSM) technology to meet the business requirements of FSM organizations such as meeting growing customer expectations, monitoring & improving productivity of field employees, reducing cost on fuel & vehicle maintenance, and generating high business revenue. And how can Microsoft not think of a solution to help SMBs and large companies in meeting these business requirements?

Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 Field Service, a comprehensive Field Service Management software to help companies deliver exceptional on-site service at different customer locations. D365 for Field Service includes work order management, service agreement, service locations, resource management, customer assets, predictive maintenance, preventive maintenance, product inventory, mobility, scheduling and dispatch, customer billing, collaboration, and analytics.

The Dynamics 365 Field Service business application combines workflow automation, scheduling algorithms, and mobility that render complete support to mobile employees while they’re onsite fixing customer issues. The field service application enables Field Service Managers to:

• Improve first time fix rate
• Complete more service calls per technician per week
• Manage follow-up work and take advantage of upsell and cross sell opportunities
• Reduce travel time, mileage, and vehicle wear and tear
• Organize and track resolution of customer issues
• Communicate an accurate arrival time to customers
• Provide accurate account and equipment history to the field technician
• Keep customers updated with the status of their service call and when it’s resolved
• Schedule onsite visits when it’s convenient for the customer
• Avoid equipment downtime through preventative maintenance
• Improve agility in the field

Other Related Post: Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM)

Dynamics 365 Field Service Features & Capabilities

• Scheduling and Dispatching

As a Field Service Manager, you have to be extraordinarily proactive in managing field service teams. D365 provides tools for highly optimized scheduling and dispatching needed to organize teams and equipment for highly efficient customer service. Using AI-enabled scheduling recommendations, semi and fully automated scheduling, you can dispatch the right technician at the right time.

• Schedule & dispatch resources, manually, automatically or with recommendations
• Create a smarter workload and resource balance
• Better manage resource alignments
• Optimize resources, maximize their utilization and minimize travel time

• Inventory Management

Manage inventory, purchase order requests, order fulfilment, product returns everything in one single solution. D365 field service provides you with real-time updates of your inventory, stock history across different locations, including trucks, depots, and warehouses. Drive efficiency and response times, accurately track service stock at fixed and mobile locations, optimize parts management by managing inventory information for transactions such as transfer, stock adjustments, return material authorization etc.

• Mobile

Built keeping highly mobile field service resources in mind, the easy-to-use Dynamics 365 cross-platform mobile apps provide easy access to real-time and offline data for enhanced customer service. Keep your field service agents updated on-the-go by providing a 360-degree view of customers and their transaction history. With the mobile apps, the resources can:

• Get access to 360-degree customer information & transaction history
• Get dynamic multi-day calendars of work order details
• Link work orders with customer case history, product installations, service contacts etc.

• Work Order Management

D365 Field Service provides an easy way to manage work orders. You can create work orders directly from an email, customer portal, a case, or directly from CRM and track against entitlements, CLAs, related costs, and revenues. With the work order management capability, you can immediately create work orders, assign and dispatch personnel to the respective service locations.

• Schedule, assign, complete orders efficiently
• Track the necessary products required to complete the order
• Allocate products automatically for preventive work orders

• Asset and Equipment Management

For exceptional customer service, asset and equipment management is of utmost importance. D365 Financial Service allows you to manage and control customer service location and asset information for smooth maintenance of a 360-degree view of history and service considerations. For complete visibility into service agreements and warranties, audit history and total revenues and costs, D365 Field Service is the one ultimate solution.

Other Related Post: Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

Let’s give you snapshot of the entire features Dynamics 365 Field Service brings:

Dynamics 365 Field Service is the smart FSM software that helps you handle all the clutter involved in field service management such as poorly organized scheduling system, inconsistent dispatching, slopping route playing, sketchy workload balancing, and more.

Switching to D365 Field service shouldn’t be a matter of second thought as Microsoft Dynamics 365 brings the best modern business applications to help you take advantage of the most up-to-date technology available with lots and lots of features being added every now and then to make operations and processes easier for you.

The expert consultants at Star Knowledge can help you in adopting the right Dynamics 365 business application your business needs. Contact our consultants today.

The post

Why Dynamics 365 Field Service is the Best FSM Software