At customer's premises while managing installation, maintenance, repairs etc.
If you call a plumber or an electrician to repair something at your home.
For example, there is no power or any electrical equipment is not working. You call an electrician. Another example, there is something wrong with the tap or no water supply. You call a plumber. You just call them after finding their contact details on the internet or they are somewhere listed in your diaries. There is no sure way to organize all records, work activities, and maintenance-related tasks.
Microsoft dynamics 365 for field service does everything for you. Managing all on-site installations, repairing, timely maintenance in a sophisticated and organized manner while maintaining all the records, and ensuring the highest level of customer support.
Read my book - Dynamics 365 for Field Service
There are end number of benefits:
1. You will be sending the right technician with the right equipment and the right skills for the right job. This enables them to fix everything at one go. You do not need to send another technician to visit the customer's premises again for the same job, which definitely boosts consumer satisfaction.
2. A detailed schedule board where you can maintain all your resources, equipment, work orders, work locations etc. Drag and drop feature to assign work order to the right person (who has got the right skills to perform the required activities). You can view full and available slots, and locations of all your employees on the map, which makes it easier to assign a work order to the resource close to it.
3. A lot of travelling, route optimization is given immense importance. You can optimize all routes to reduce the time. Even when you are driving you can easily check using the mobile app or in your laptop if there is something wrong with your route (any construction work or something else). It is quite possible that when you plan or when you start, there are no such possibilities. But in the middle, you get to know this. In this situation either the dispatcher (your manager) or you (technician or engineer) can change the route using the mobile app. The moment you make any changes, the system gets updated.
4. It helps you maintain all kinds of records like purchase orders, agreements, warranties, billing, work orders, service history, total no. of items in your warehouse, items currently in your truck, installation and maintenance appointments for equipment, on-duty and off-duty engineers, product returns, purchase order requests and fulfillment, total no. of devices and equipment installed at customer's premises, product and technical support manuals etc.
5. For example, you have installed a device at customer's premises. One day, the consumer calls and complains that the machine is overheating. The Field Service solution shows that a thermostat replacement is required to resolve this particular issue, and whether it is available in your warehouse or not. Along with it, you can also see who is the closest (to that location) technician with the right skills (who knows how to replace the thermostat).
It is interesting to know that if you have installed an IoT-enabled device, which is connected to Azure and CRM. Such issues like overheating, temperature control, humidity level etc. can be remotely resolved. You do not need to send your engineers over there. You can read more about Connected field service for Microsoft Dynamics 365 here - Azure IoT Central.
6. Your consumers are always aware of the current status of the ongoing issues. If there is any maintenance or installation required, they will be informed about the time frame when the engineer will visit the premises to attend the service call. All on-site appointments can be scheduled with the consent of the customers (when they are available). This helps you improve the up-selling and cross-selling of your products because you make everything quite convenient for your consumers.
7. You can see the current status of your engineers, technicians, and other resources. What exactly they are currently doing, whether they are on break or working or travelling. You can also see the current status of the service call, whether it is completed or not. if not completed, then what parts and resources required to complete it. It creates a flexible way of communication among field agents, customer service executives, dispatchers, and your customers.
8. Easily maintain purchasing, billing, and returns. You are always aware of the current stock of the items, and the required items to maintain the installed devices at customer's premises, which means no downtime for maintenance.
9. Inventory management is a very impressive feature. You can manage all your devices and equipment. Your field technicians and engineers always ensure adequate stock of all the required items. For example, if your engineer is going to customer’s premises for installation or for maintenance. The engineer can check what items are required to complete this installation, and if the required things are in stock or not. While repairing a machine if there is any sudden need of a sub-component because the original one is found broken inside it or the customer demands the installation of an extra piece, which is currently not available in the warehouse. The engineer updates this status in the field service solution. The dispatcher (who schedules the engineer for a field job) creates a purchase order, which is approved by the dispatcher's manager. Then, this order is sent to the vendor or supplier. Next day or on the same day, whenever the product becomes available, the engineer creates an inventory transfer from the warehouse to his or her truck. Then, the engineer visits the customer's premises again to completes the work order. You can see here that everything goes in a very organized way, and the consumer is also aware of the time frame.
10. Mobile app plays an important role. It does not matter whether you use online mode or offline mode. All details can be entered, and then automatically synced. Field Technicians use the mobile app to know, and then update the status of the work orders that are allocated to them. They can change the route using the app, which is automatically updated in the system. Their manager or dispatcher can see this information in their laptops or mobile phones. On the other hand, the dispatcher can also change the route, and the field technicians can see this information in their mobile phones. The technicians can access the real-time consumer information using the app.
There are immense benefits. It can increase your revenue. It can smoothen and speed up the cashflow. You can experience a maximum optimization of minimum resources. It provides multi-channel communication lines for your employees, customers, and partners to provide a complete satisfaction for all while increasing efficiencies and reducing travel time, overstocking costs, unnecessary admin tasks, unnecessary procedures etc. There is a schedule board to maintain resources, equipment, products and manuals. If you are a service based organization, which is doing lots of on-site installations, repairs and maintenance. Then, you should definitely go for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for field service. A complete package for all your needs.
Very neatly put..Thanks a lot for explaining it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sumit for reading it.
Delete