Shortlist UK’s Best Energy & Utilities Field Service Management Software

What Is Energy & Utilities Field Service Management Software?

Energy and Utilities Field Service Management Software is a specialised type of Field Service Management Software that enables the coordination, mobilisation, and control of field work on large-scale infrastructure projects.

This industry-specific FSM solution ensures field crews respond to real-time infrastructure and maintenance needs, that asset networks are managed correctly, and that customer satisfaction is a leading priority.

FSM Software fronts the digital transformation era of utility and energy companies, with over £500 billion being spent on grid digitalisation alone over the next 6 years. It enables service managers and project directors to track and measure the success of field operations using metrics like first-time-fix rates, mean time to restore (MTTR), completed successful jobs per day, and safety incident reduction.

Among Comparesoft software buyers, the three leading requirements for field service managers are planning and scheduling jobs (16%), job logging (15%), and mobile workforce management (13%).

Why Utility and Energy Projects Require Field Service Software

There are three leading reasons why energy and utilities companies implement a field service management solution:

1. To optimise workforce efficiency, workload, and output across large, distributed networks
2. To ensure equipment compliance and safety measures among field staff
3. To improve outage response time and customer satisfaction

Operational complexities in utilities and energy have reached a tipping point. What was once a sector dealing in centralised network delivery is now expected to meet global demands for speedy, reliable infrastructure delivery and renewable energy integration.

This is driven by the rise in demand for infrastructure like green energy solutions, data centres, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and EV charging infrastructure.

Video: Sandy Laird shared her experiences of meeting demanding electrification deadlines on her Comparesoft FSM podcast episode.

For field teams, they face rising job volumes, increased training expectations, and working within tighter regulatory standards – something that manual scheduling and spreadsheet-based job management control cannot deliver at scale.

5 Best Energy & Utilities Field Service Management Software Solutions

Benefits of Implementing FSM Software For Utility & Energy Field Operations

Engineer and Team Dispatch Across Large Geographical Networks

Utility crews consist of hundreds of engineers, teams, and technicians working across multiple regions and territories. FSM Software provides the features to assign skills, certifications, and GEO-location tags to field workers. This ensures the right engineer is dispatched to the right asset, which is crucial for quick outage responses during storms, bursts, or network failures.

Managing Mixed Internal and Contractor Workforces

Utilities rely heavily on engineers and contractors for surge events and peak maintenance seasons. Field service solutions provide a unified database for all internal and external crews that provides real-time progress updates, safety expectations, and asset awareness to help maintain network reliability.

Reliable Offline Mobile Access For Field Crews

Many utility and energy field projects or network assets are located in areas with poor or no connectivity signal. This creates challenges for engineers updating job progress or accessing documentation. Modern FSM systems work fully offline, which means teams can access job details, safety documents, and checklists from anywhere. This data then syncs automatically when connectivity returns.

Coordinated Communication Across Entire Departments

Energy and Utilities Field Service Management Software provides a centralised platform for all communication. This allows for constant communication between engineers, supervisors, site managers, project leaders, contractors, suppliers, and customers.

Managing Large, Distributed Utility and Energy Asset Networks

With such a vast number of geographically dispersed assets to manage, field teams require an FSM system that supports equipment requests, asset availability, and parts movement. This ensures engineers know what they’re working on and what equipment or materials are required to complete a job.

Outage and Fault Response Coordination

During site faults or network failures, engineers are expected to restore service as quickly as possible. This is where Energy and Utilities Field Service Management Software shines. It is used for:

• Dispatching the nearest qualified engineer
• Coordinating multi-crew response
• Providing real-time status updates to control rooms
• Prioritising repairs based on customer impact

Predictive Maintenance and Emergency Breakdown Support

FSM products can help support the predictive maintenance of equipment. For energy and utilities companies, this reduces unplanned downtime of critical infrastructure and extends asset life. The system accelerates response times by coordinating the closest crew, validating available parts and enabling faster, safer fixes.

GIS, SCADA, Sensor, and AI Co-Pilot Integrations

System integrations vastly extend the capabilities of a field service management system for energy and utility companies. By integrating with SCADA, GIS, IoT sensors, ERP systems, and more, engineers can see asset locations, real-time fault information and network conditions directly in their workflow. GenAI co-pilot integrations also help draw on manuals, historical incident logs and asset records to guide engineers step-by-step through repairs.

Video: Sandy Laird gives insight into the AI and robotics tech most likely to be adopted in the field service industry.

Common Energy & Utilities Field Service Management Software Features

FSM Software products provide features that enable teams to manage vast asset networks, operate under strict safety regulations, and respond to outages that impact thousands of customers.

These features provide specialised capabilities that are essential for maintaining safe, reliable and compliant networks in the utilities and energy sector. Features include:

• Real-time engineer scheduling and dispatch
• Work order management
• Contractor and sub-contractor management
• Stock and inventory control
• Offline mobile app access
• Asset management
• SLA compliance tracking
• Incident management
• Remote diagnostics
• Customisable reporting (field workers and work orders)
• Predictive analytics
• System integrations (SCADA, GIS, ERP, and more)
• Automated workforce and asset performance reports

The Impact of FSM Software on Energy & Utility Project Stages

There are seven key stages of a large-scale project delivery in utilities and energy. These range from planning and design to construction and testing.

While field service management tools impact the need for digital transformation, it’s important to understand what stages of project delivery FSM Software can attribute to and what stages it cannot. As shown in the table below.

Core field service management features centre around scheduling, dispatch, safety, visibility, documentation tracking, field asset management, workflows, and maintenance. This makes FSM Software essential for construction, installation, testing, and maintenance stages.

Whereas other tools like EAM systems, ERPs, CRMs, and Outage Management Systems (OMs) are better positioned for handling the requests of other stages in project delivery.

How Utility & Energy Project Leaders Use FSM Software to Measure Performance

Using Energy and Utilities Field Service Management Software, service leaders can track performance related to workforce productivity, asset health, SLAs, response times, and more. Setting and tracking KPIs is essential for ensuring projects are delivered on time most safely, and efficiently.

Typical KPIs used to track service output include:

• First-time-fix rates
• Mean time to restore (MTTR)
• Completed successful jobs per day
• Safety incident reduction
• Contractor cost control
• Asset availability

FSM tools are set up to track these performance metrics in real-time with incredible detail. They do so by integrating real-time job completion and work order data, automated workflows, and detailed reporting analytics. This is essential for helping managers to identify bottlenecks and improve decision-making.

Video: Allan Fairhurst gave his two most vital KPIs in field service management for building high-performing field teams on his Comparesoft FSM podcast episode.

Energy & Utilities Field Service Management Software FAQs

How Much Does Energy & Utilities Field Service Management Software Cost?

The cost of Field Service Software for Utilities and Energy organisations ranges from £7.50 per user, per month to £250,000 per annum. The price difference is entirely dependent on what is required from the system, such as:

• How many users are going to use the system?
• Is it a cloud or on-premise deployment? (Cloud solutions tend to have less upfront and infrastructure costs)
• Is a full suite of features required, or just a few like core scheduling, mobile access, and outage management?
• Are GIS, SCADA, or AI Co-Pilot integrations needed?
• How much training and staff support is required from the vendor?
• Will add-ons like data migration and hardware installation be needed?

Can Field Service Management Tools Handle Multi- and Single-Visit Jobs?

Yes, most Energy & Utilities FSM platforms support both multi- and single-site visits. They let users create parent–child work orders, split a job into stages, and schedule follow-ons with dependencies (parts arrival, permits, customer access windows). Return visits can also be auto-triggered by inspection outcomes, failed first-time fixes, or QA checks.

Does FSM Software Support Dynamic Re-Optimisation?

If storms, bursts, or faults trigger sudden workload spikes, an FSM system should ingest new incidents continuously, re-rank priorities (SLA, safety risk, critical customers), and reshuffle routes while respecting constraints like skills, authorisations, fatigue rules, shift patterns, and travel time. This is possible with vendor features like real-time scheduling and rules-based dispatch.

Can Dispatch Managers Coordinate Multi-Crew Responses?

The key Energy & Utilities Field Service Software feature to look out for for multi-crew responses is incident-based scheduling and management. The platform should support one incident with multiple linked tasks, assigned to different crews, with shared status, timestamps, and role-based visibility. Handovers are managed through defined checkpoints, plus mandatory capture (photos, test results, sign-off).

How Long Does It Take to Implement Energy & Utilities Field Service Software?

Typically, for a single region or operating unit, Energy & Utilities FSM deployments take 12–24 weeks from contract signature to go-live. Larger, multi-depot rollouts with heavy integrations and offline mobile requirements often run 6–18 months.

Implementation stages will look similar to this:

• Discovery and site/process mapping (2–4 weeks)
• Workflow and configuration design (3–6 weeks)
• Data migration and integration build (4–10 weeks)
• System testing (3–6 weeks)
• Training and go-live support (1–3 weeks)

What Integrations Are Available With Energy & Utilities FSM Software?

Most vendor platforms will integrate with external applications across operating systems, finance controls, knowledge bases, and more. Integrations for utility and energy companies include:

• GIS: Jobs, crews, and assets are location-aware, enabling map-based dispatch, proximity routing, and geofenced safety or access rules.
• SCADA, Sensors & IoT: Raise work automatically from alarms, threshold breaches, and condition readings, with event-to-work rules and prioritisation.
• ERP: Synchronise parts and inventory, job costs, time, purchase orders, and approvals, reducing double entry and keeping finance as the source of truth.
• AI Co-Pilot: Supports enterprise search, pulling manuals, asset history, safety procedures, and guided troubleshooting into the dispatcher or mobile workflow.
• Customer Information & Billing Systems (CIS): Synchronise customer accounts, tariffs, meter reads, and service orders so field work ties back to billing and revenue processes.
• Outage & Distribution Management Systems (OMS/DMS): Link field work with grid status, fault location and restoration workflows.
• Meter Data Management (MDM): Incorporate smart meter data into work triggers, load analytics, and predictive maintenance.
• CRM Systems & communication channels: Support appointment updates, SMS/IVR alerts, and service feedback across touch points.