The Introduction:

Our client is one of the leading companies in field service industries. They have been serving the sector for more than a decade now. They excel in providing all-round field service management solutions enterprise-wide. Being a pioneer in the industry, our client has always been keen to adopt solutions that improve their productivity. After migrating to the cloud and digitizing most of their in-house operations, field service management was one segment that lagged behind. Adhering to the above, they now plan to automate the field service management tasks and further, optimize the overall business operation and to make an automated process to route and schedule orders.

Challenges

Field Service companies are having a tough time aligning services with customer expectations. Be it the poorly planned transitions or the siloes infrastructure, the inappropriate resources or the miscommunication, there is a lot to be done in the field service sector. While these might skip the attention of the organizational leader but eventually all of the above, dramatically affects the efficiency of customer service, draining off the productivity of the organization.

In addition to the above, the existing field service suffers from an array of issues rather than challenges.

Offline Incompatibility

The fact that the prevailing infrastructure suffers from several network issues, the technicians fail to work in offline mode.

Inventory management​

Managing inventory is a tough task and owing to the presence of our clients across different regions, the manual workforce isn’t able to efficiently track and manage inventory. This might induce errors and deteriorate the productivity.

Poor Scheduling & Contract Visibility​

There isn’t any significant visibility of agreements in the traditional field service management solutions. Also, it doesn’t adhere to the schedule, increasing the time and efforts needed to execute processes.

Identify Skills and assignment of tasks

There is no automated process where service assigned automatically based on skill set and availability of person.

Device visibility and performance, alerts​

There is no system provide visibility and in case any issue or urgency, no notification and alerts to Workers.

Needless to state that all of the above reduces the performance of the industry, failing to meet the expectations of the users.

“Looking for a reliable partner was a tough job until we crossed paths with Stridely Solutions. Earlier, it seemed that we have different work policies but the sincerity and versatility depicted by them out reasoned all our Skepticism. Not only did they provide us the desired solution but were open to suggestions and helped us grow. We look forward to a long-term collaboration.”

The Solution

Our client witnessed all of the above. Knocked down by the limitations of the current system, they rescued out to us for help. Experts at stridely solutions then looked down the entire problem and came up with a series of solutions.

We held several sessions with the client, proposing to them all of our aspects and finally, agreed to adopt dynamic 365 for the field service management needs. As it appeared, the new solution would leverage on the compatibility with the mobile device, enabling the leaders or the technicians to work in offline mode. Further, the system was adept in the remote installation of products with real-time information dispatched to all that are part of the system.

D365 also encompasses a solution where the inventory can be managed automatically with improved contract management. The application would have inbuilt sensors and IoT devices that promote bar code scan and allow take pictures and store them digitally.

Digital documents can be uploaded with the application, with improved SLA management of orders. All in all, the Dynamics 365 would provide a 360° view of the data and operations, increasing the efficiency of the system.

Tools used: CRM 365, RSO, ASP.NET, Azure, Power BI, IoT, SAP/BW, xrmtoolbox, xrmtoolkit, Wood-Ford, Resco​

Results

The perks of using Dynamics 365 for field service is huge. Cutting down the list of the benefits driven by the application of D365 solution in the field service industry includes:

Optimized scheduling ​– using RSO​

Dynamics 365 promotes scheduling and also assigning resources automatically on the basis of the workload, the skills of the employee, the location and the mandated pieces of equipment.

Cutting cost and quick invoices​

Offering a reduction in the total cost of stocking and increasing the visibility of parts, the d365 solution for field service leads to optimization of the workforce, lowering the costs incurred in the administrative tasks; alternatively improving the efficiencies.

Mobile Support

Workers can work from anywhere using the smart-phones​. Workers create forms or add information, the compatibility with the mobile devices accelerate the pace of operation execution. Also, it helps keep track of all of the tasks remotely which rendering an overall view of data at all hours of the day.

Increase Employee Productivity

The fact that D365 accounts for total automation of field service operations, increases the ability of field utilization, fosters deletion of duplicate data, and in a way leads to higher employee satisfaction.

Seamless Asset and Equipment Management

The ability to manage and monitor all of the equipment components leads to better visibility of warranty and service agreements; audit history and the total revenue with related costs.

Real-time monitoring

Connected Field Service for Dynamics 365 allows real-time monitoring of devices; once the devices are registered, connected, and configured in Azure IoT hub, field service managers and technicians can define device properties

In Details

D365 for field service is an all in one solution to manage and also monitor the field service needs. To start, vital leads to automation in diagnostics on the basis of the service history and analyzed studying the fault codes.

The solution is so tailored that it provides a full view of the data within the organization and further, the level of automation embedded in the solution results in quick rescheduling and faster work order creation​.

We built a mobile app for the solution so that the technicians and the professionals could attain real-time updates and track the live geo-location for the technician​. Inbuilt sensors were capable of scanning products, keep track of the inventory, and also detect errors long before the occurrence improving the all-round productivity.

Field service is no longer limited to the toolset that helps manage activities. Instead, it looks for a better environment that can map the level of customer expectations and at the same time, enhance organizational productivity. The implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 to manage and monitor Field Service Management Tasks is proven to :

• 60% reduction in maintenance and repair services charges.
• 10% fewer field dispatch
• 50% reduction in commuting hours
• 20% reduction in service calls
• 6 months payback