Easily Shortlist Field Service Management Software

What Is Field Service Management Software?

Field Service Management Software organises your job, customer, field worker, inventory, billing, and SLA data in one mobile platform. It is used by business owners, field teams, back office staff, and customers. Features include automated job scheduling and dispatch, real-time engineer tracking, digital forms and certificates, customer portals, and predictive analytics. These capabilities help to:

• Replace spreadsheets and paper-based forms lie job sheets and invoices
• Record details about field assets, jobs, technicians, contractors, spare parts, quotes, and logistics when away from the office
• Plan and schedule jobs using an easy drag-and-drop calendar scheduler
• Assigned jobs to the right engineer by location proximity or skills
• Ensure assets are made available for scheduled jobs to avoid delays or revisits
• Provide detailed quotes on jobs when on-site
• Manage and track field staff via an iOS or Android mobile app
• Increase first-time fix and job completion rates
• Issue invoices and take payments on-site

Field Service Management Software products are used by various business types and sizes. It is used by small businesses with fewer than 10 field workers. Mid-size companies with up to 100 workers and vehicles use FSM Software. As do enterprises with global field teams operating across multiple sites.

UK’s Best Field Service Management Software Solutions

What Are the Common Features of Field Service Management Software?

1. Dynamic Job Planning, Scheduling & Dispatch

Engineer calendar views, drag-and-drop capabilities, and real-time tracking make job scheduling and dispatch easier for business owners and managers. Improved job scheduling ensures better delivery to customers and higher job completion. Field Service Management Software makes it easy to schedule jobs and dispatch workers based on:

• Engineer availability
• Location proximity to next job
• A worker’s skills and qualifications
• SLA and contractual priority
• Availability of spare parts, inventory, and vehicles
• Contractor or sub-contractor agreements
• One-off or recurring visits

Video: Estates & Assets Director at Serco Health, Greg Markham, talks about the future possibilities of using tech to improve the scheduling and dispatching of field workers.

2. Real-time Vehicle and Engineer Tracking

Real-time tracking enables field teams to project and estimate job completion times. It allows managers to track their mobile workforce and vehicles with GPS capabilities, showing their location on a live map. By doing so, engineers closest to a job are assigned, reducing customer wait times.

Tracking features are also used to plan and optimise driving routes. By seeing real-time traffic updates, workers can gauge an estimated time of arrival and pre-warn customers of any delays via text or email.

3. Digital Forms, Quotes, Invoicing & Certificates

Digital invoicing and billing features enable engineers to create invoices from quotes as soon as a job is complete. Using mobile devices, field workers can use templates to produce professional-looking invoices and take payments on the job via digital payment methods like Stripe or PayPal.

This reduces the chances of non-payments and the effort taken to follow up with customers over unpaid invoices.

4. Digitise Job Sheets

Field Service Management Software provides the tools that allow managers to store all job information on digital job sheets. Enabling information such as job type, location, CAD Drawing, expected completion time, and parts needed to be shown on an engineer’s mobile device.

5. Mobile App

Field service mobile apps provide two large efficiency gains:

1. Provide field service information access that’s mobile device (& screen) friendly and secure.
2. Provide offline access to field service information.

Mobile apps help improve first-time fix rates and deliver exceptional service to customers. They enable field staff to:

• See job information on tablets, mobiles, and laptops
• Access job checklists and scheduling calendars
• Update job progress and status
• Track spare parts and inventory
• Easily communicate with office staff
• Take customer payment and send digital invoices

6. Work Order Management Alerts

Managers can track jobs from planning to completion with the right service management tools. They can gain visibility of each job and work order from a centralised dashboard. This lets them know when a job is complete or if a job will be delayed. Engineers update work on the job via a mobile app. Resulting in a live job status update for managers.

7. Contract and SLA Management

Contract management tools provide easy access for office-based staff to have an overview of each customer contract. This ensures service level agreements (SLAs) are being tracked and met during each job.

8. Inventory & Spare Parts Management

Real-time inventory management lets field workers know what spare parts are available. Making sure they have the equipment required to complete a job. If a part is not available, workers can place an order and track its delivery.

9. Reporting and Data Analytics

Leading field service teams use data, gut and judgement to drive field service performance. Reports that amplify your field service delivery and performance icnlude:

• Service incidents and status by customers
• Job completion metrics by technicians
• Profitable service jobs
• Loss-making service calls
• Adherence to SLAs
• Threshold ordering for parts
• Spare parts management
• Vehicle servicing management

What Are the Benefits of Field Service Management Software?

End-to-end Job Management

The main functionality of a field service solution is to provide a complete overview of the job management process, from job planning to service delivery. Having all of this information in one system allows decision-makers to understand what’s working and what isn’t in the service delivery process.

Improve Service Delivery Outcomes and Meet KPIs

By giving technicians and engineers access to the right information (like manuals and tutorials, spare part inventory lists, job information, and more) in a mobile app, the chances of a successful service delivery are greatly improved. That helps businesses to meet targets such as first-time fix rates and one-time job completion rates.

Increase Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Retention Rates

Customers expect quick and quality service delivery. By utilising Field Service Management Software tools to increase the chances of quality service and one time fixes, CSAT rates sky rocket. This leads to receiving good feedback and a higher chance of retaining that customer’s business.

Quickly Dispatch Engineers When and Where Required

Field Service Management Software allows managers to be more dynamic and flexible with job scheduling. Managers can load data into a system and automate the tasks of dispatching engineers. Looking at skills, location, and workload to assign the right worker to the right job. Tools include:

• Real-time calendar view to know which technicians are available and when
• GPS tracking and route planning to calculate a worker’s proximity to a job
• Access to a worker’s labour rate and job knowledge

Podcast: Adam Neale, former UK Field Engineering Director at BT, talks about how AI and connective technology can improve the time taken to assign, schedule and dispatch engineers before failure occurs.

Open Communication Channels Between Office and Field Staff

With Field Service Management Software, all employees have access to a shared dashboard, which includes information that both on-site and off-site workers need such as job requirements and customer information. Without a single point of access, workers rely on job details being sent via email or over the phone.

Our expert’s view on Field Service Management Software

“Without software, I don’t think you would see half of the delivery that you see in the UK now… software will quite often predict what can happen. Now, we’re moving into a world with AI. It’s becoming even better, because AI would look at it and go, “We know the M42 ran by Birmingham Airport is gridlocked between three and six normally.” So that engineer might look like he’s only five minutes away. But truth be known, he’s going to be two hours. Without [software], I think we will probably be needing four or five times the amount of people, which means costs go up for the customers.”

Adam Neale, Head of Advanced Field Services

5 Steps to Find the Right Field Service Management Software

1. Highlight Existing Failures or Opportunities In Your Field Service Management

The initial decision to research Field Service Management Software is based on either a missed opportunity or a failure in the current way of working. This could be:

• Not meeting SLAs
• Inconsistent job completion times
• Job delays due to inaccurate inventory data
• Missed jobs by assigning the wrong technician
• Decreasing first-time fix rates
• Losing customers due to poor service delivery
• Missing out on taking more jobs

This can vary depending on the size of a business, for instance, a large organisation may see a gap in their data security practices. Whereas a smaller field service team wants to digitise its paper-based methods.

2. Identify Must-have Product Features and Vendor Requirements

The top reasons for purchasing software are to improve productivity, meet technology needs, address security concerns, and expand product offerings. Both field service management products and vendors provide the requirements to meet these demands.

To help focus on the key product features that your office team and field staff will use, ask questions like:

• What value does this feature add to a service team?
• Can this feature be used by all stakeholders?
• Will this feature help meet KPIs?
• Is training required to use this feature?
• Are there legal requirements needed to use this feature? (compliance, GDPR laws, privacy policies, etc.)

For vendor requirements, this depends on how much assistance you will need. Does your team require detailed onboarding, training, and support? Will your office team require help with data migration?

For instance, a small field service business with no IT team will require greater implementation assistance.

3. Calculate the Value of the Product and Your Expected ROI

Leading field service businesses set clear goals when determining the value of a product. For instance, if a business receives 300 job requests a month, its total service management costs will be £400,000. The average service time would be 90 minutes.

But, with a field service system in place, a business can improve its targets. Instead, it can set a target to reduce field service costs to £300,000. Whilst also reducing the average service time to 60 minutes.

It’s important to set out in advance what you want to gain from your software purchase by setting ROI goals. Example goals look like this:

Clear and fact-based ROI will get you the speed of decision-making. Taking a numbers-based approach to get the Buy-in is the easiest way to get the tool you want. For example, a business has budgeted £23,000 on Field Service Management Software. They know that this tool will save them £38,000 each year. Meaning they’ll recover their investment in nine months.

For a clear idea on how Field Service Management Software can improve your services to customers, use our ROI calculator:

4. Research and Shortlist Field Service Management Software Options

Whilst most field service management products look similar, there are key differences. Each variation makes a big impact on a product’s ROI. For instance, some systems will prioritise ease of logging job details. Others may focus more on real-time fleet tracking.

When finding a solution, you should have a list of products to compare. Ideally, this list should consist of five different solutions. Once listed, an evaluation team will compare each field service management tool:

• Does it match core requirements?
• Is it easy to use?
• Would it be a good industry fit?
• Is it easy to deploy?
• The support and training offered (Understanding a vendor’s training processes indicates their quality of support and how quickly they’ll be able to resolve problems in the future.)
• The type of solution (web-based, cloud-based, on-premise, or open-source)
• What contract agreements are in place? (How much storage space, what happens to your data when payments stop, etc.)
• Is there a free trial or product demonstration? (validate the product in real-time with the use of your own data)

Be sure to keep researching products during this stage as your initial values may change. 83% of software buyers make changes to their initial list after doing research.

5. Make Your Purchasing Decision

Once you’ve chosen a Field Service Management Software product that best suits your requirements, you should recommend it to the top management team. Ideally, this product should:

• Offers features that match your field service operation
• Provide value to your field service processes
• Fit within your budget
• Be easy-to-use for all office team and field workers

Once recommended, the negotiation and contract agreements begin. Followed by the implementation process.

Bonus: Key Considerations While Searching For FSM Software

Before starting the research journey for Field Service Management Software, you should consider:

• Your field and office teams’ digital experience of using software: :Determine how much training and support will be required
• The simplicity of your requirements: Know exactly what you want from a solution and avoid needlessly complex requirements
• Clarity of your FSM Software goals: To determine the value of the tool and if it has delivered on expected ROI
• End user’s expectations: What do your field workers, office team, managers, and customers expect
• The speed of implementing and rolling out a new system: This can take between 4 weeks and 9 months so plan for realistic expectations

This is also an opportunity to understand your current way of working, by asking:

• How do end customers log service requests?
• How are jobs scheduled (either by priority, technical availability, parts availability, or completion time)?
• How do field staff communicate with office-based staff?
• Are services updated by the customer, job status, or billing?
• How do office-based teams process service requests and information?
• What are the top 3 gaps in your field service management?

Who Uses Field Service Management Software?

Field Service Management Software is used to connect, assign, and dispatch workers in the most efficient way possible. The features found in an FSM solution allows it to be used by anyone working in the field service sector. Particularly those businesses that find themselves regularly moving from on-site to off-site locations, including:

• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Energy providers
• Landscaping
• Pest control

Small Businesses (SMBs)

Small businesses use FSM Software to focus on areas such as:

• Recording jobs, quoting for jobs and completing jobs
• There’s less emphasis on complex planning and scheduling of jobs
• Van Stock, Insurance and completing jobs on time and for a profit quite often are the priorities
• Basic reporting

Medium Businesses & SMEs

Mid-sized field service teams and SMEs will use field service management tools to:

• Providing common visibility and clarity about field service jobs to office-based teams and field technicians
• Moderate planning and scheduling based on skills, availability and cost
• Quotation creation and approval processes
• Time, Labour and Parts invoicing
• Fleet availability
• Van Stock
• Notes and messages management between field and office-based teams
• Reporting on quotes to jobs, first-time fix rates, spare parts, invoicing, productivity by teams, and KPIs set by the field service teams

Enterprise Field Service Teams

Field service management for enterprise business is often complex. Evolution of ENT businesses, acquisition assets, legacy systems, ‘we have always done it that way’ approach and high volume jobs often require Field Service Management Software.

• Relevant and contextual information about the field assets, jobs, technicians, contractors, spare parts, quotes and logistics based on a role
• Log jobs against the field assets
• Recommend solutions to jobs after they are logged
• Self-service solution to jobs
• Manual, algorithmic, automated and dynamic planning and scheduling of jobs
• Fleet assignment
• Fleet tracking
• Fleet maintenance
• Spare parts management
• Provide a simple framework to complete jobs
• Use of augmented reality for skilled technicians to assist new technicians on jobs
• Use of Machine Learning/Artificial intelligence to offer predictive service management
• Integration with sensors
• Ensure jobs are taken and completed safely
• Provide a framework to comply with health and safety standards
• Ensure spare parts are ordered and made available for the jobs
• Quote on jobs
• Take orders for jobs
• Provide an iOS or Android mobile app for field service technicians
• Issue certificates
• Report on, first-time fix rates, jobs completed, jobs open, warranty information, replacement parts, and KPIs and parameters decided by the field service management team.
• Analytics on improving first-time fix rates, identifying service jobs before they are logged, improving remote fixes, reducing cost of service, improving technicians to jobs assignment, integration and data collection from sensors

Field Service Managers and Team Supervisors

Real-time tracking and speedy communication have propelled the efficiency of assigning jobs. Managers can assign workers in the proximity of a job request and schedule jobs with advanced warning. As well as dispatch their more qualified workers to a particular job. This helps to increase the chances of a first-time fix as well as improve customer service levels.

Office-Based Staff

With the right FSM tools, on-site staff are easily able to connect with workers in the field. This helps to improve the collaboration between both teams and increase the speed of data input. Including hours logged, job status, job completions, and payments processed.

Field Workers (Contractors, Sub-contractors, Technicians, Engineers)

Workers have access to a shared dashboard that provides them with real-time updates on things like job locations and inventory levels. This helps to accelerate job completions and ensures that each worker is prepared when going to a job. Without service management tools, workers are more reliant on manual approaches and office staff relaying job information, which results in delays and unsatisfied customers.

Just a decade ago, working off pen and paper, where there would be 4 copies (one for the customer, one for the service technician, one for the back office, and one for finance) of a job card, was a normal practice. Whilst job sheets still exist, they are somewhat less visible.

Service technicians now fully understand the importance of good service data. Easily accessing the information on Open Jobs, Job Types, First-Time Fix Rates, Quotes, and many other aspects of the jobs, helps technicians to be more productive.

Most technicians also fully appreciate that tech, not pen and paper, is the way forward. Hence there’s increasing adoption of the use of field service mobile apps by service technicians.

Customers & Clients

Businesses have the option to share certain details regarding a job and their workers with their customers. This provides customers with real-time location updates to know exactly when a technician will be arriving.

Cloud vs. On-Premise vs. Open-Source FSM Software: Key Differences Explained

Helpful Guides for Using Field Service Management Software

Field Service Management Software FAQs

How Much Does Field Service Management Software Cost?

Field service management software costs depend on:

• Job planning and scheduling requirements
• Spare parts and inventory management complexities and locations
• Number of office, field, and or mobile
• Variances in the type of field jobs you offer
• Implementation complexities (do you require vendor assistance?)
• Hosting requirements
• Brand of the software product

The above components are specific for each company, hence it’s difficult to give a definitive answer. Typically, Field Service Management Software costs have four components:

1. Software costs: £10 to £300 each user a month.
2. Implementation costs: £600 to £1500 a day.
3. Training costs: £600 to £900 a day.
4. Support costs: 2 to 5% of the support costs

In general, the simpler the product requirements and implementation, the cheaper the costs will be.

How Is AI Projected to Change Field Service Management Software?

IoT-enabled job logging: Field assets connected to sensors will pick anomalies and send signals of when a job is required. Not too far in the future, there will be instances where job logging will be done by assets themselves.

AI-driven job planning and scheduling: Using existing planning and scheduling data, there’s a strong possibility that job scheduling will be largely fully automated. However, it will require human supervision and intervention.

Agent-driven spare parts ordering: Using existing spare parts data, it would be possible to use AI agents to order spare parts on a needs basis.

LLM-driven notes and job completion documents: Here we will see AI become the most productive in the short term. Any notes or documentation required during the job logging, execution, and completion stages are easily produced by generative AI functions.

What’s the Difference Between FSM Software and Mobile Workforce Management?

What Type of Field Assets Are Managed With a Field Service Solution?

Physical Field Assets such as:

• Equipment
• Machinery
• Tools
• Fleet vehicles
• People (engineers, technicians, supervisors, etc.)

Most virtual or digital assets cannot be managed remotely using a field service system. For example, software installed on your equipment or machinery cannot be remotely updated easily.

There are many field service systems that offer Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities to monitor field assets remotely. The same technology can be used to train new field service technicians.

For example, a senior technician can be at your office and a new starter technician can be on site. Using AR, the senior technician can see what the junior technician is seeing and guide them to complete the job.

What Applications Can Be Integrated With Field Service Management Software?

Vendors enable end-to-end integration of other software applications to get the most out of your Field Service Management Software. These integrations include:

• Accounting Software: Completed jobs, customer payments, and purchase information on spare parts are listed in an accounting system. Hence most field service tools are integrated using an API with accounting software. Popular field service accounting integrations include Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks.
• CRM: Customer information, job information on quotes, and the need to convert quotes to jobs in a Field Service Management System, require either CRM functionality within FSM Software or integration with a dedicated CRM.
• Location-based tools: These are used to enhance dispatch and scheduling tasks. Field service systems are connected to location-based tools and apps such as What3words and a Geographic Information System (GIS).
• Admin tools: Enterprise field service management is often integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions.

What Industries and Service Operations Benefit From Using Field Service Management Software?

• Utilities Service (Oil and Gas, Water, Power, Renewable Energy)
• HVAC Installation and Maintenance
• Facility and Property Management
• Security Installations and Maintenance
• Plumbing Services
• Telecommunications
• Electrical Services
• Home Services (Lawn and Grounds Maintenance, Pool Maintenance, Pest Control)
• Cleaning Services
• Building and Decorating Businesses
• Construction and Contracting
• Appliance Repairs Services
• Environmental (waste management, recycling, hazardous material removal)