Selecting the best Field Service Management (FSM) solution for your business is vital and challenging. The right field service management system will enhance your ROI, daily operations, and productivity while cutting overhead and costs. With so many options, the task can feel overwhelming. How do you choose? With 30 years of direct field service management experience, we have found that each solution is unique.
1. What are your goals and objectives as a business?
This is an important step – don’t skip the big picture. Framing your choice around what you hope to accomplish over the next 3 to 5 years is essential to avoiding buyer’s remorse. Understanding why you need a new solution paves the way for a successful choice. Think about:
- When it comes to your growth and profit margins, what are your primary business goals?
- Is there a specific direction your service organization is heading towards?
- 3-5 years from now, will you continue with the same services or add new ones?
2. What do you need from a solution?
When researching your options, make sure to pay attention to these factors about any field service management solutions you are considering:
- B2B vs. B2C – What is the solution used for most often?
- How is their installation and support delivered? Do they use subcontractors or internal resources?
- Do they offer different levels of subscriptions, and can you switch plans mid-stream?
- What is the overall size of their business, the number of installations they’ve done, references, and capacity to take you on as a client?
- Do they have experience with complex requirements?
- Do they stay on top of the industry and bring new ideas to their clients? Hint: take a look at their blog and social media outlets.
3. Features of the solution:
Many field management solutions have similar features; however, each might be different or designed for the needs of specific industries. When determining features of the existing IT landscape, you will be using and which ones you can get rid of, think about these things:
- Are there features included for your specific industry?
- How do other businesses like the current applications?
- Which processes are they supporting?
- What applications are currently in use?
- What is the technical state of these applications?
4. Non-functional requirements:
This category includes typical things such as performance, security, availability, and flexibility. When you’re doing your research, you look into the culture and environment of the solution. Does it align with the way you like to run your business?
5. Comparing Apples to Apples:
When you’ve identified your short list of solutions, having a commonly agreed upon evaluation criteria is very helpful. We recommend giving each requirement a weight or value so you can add them up for an overall score. Next, take the top three and evaluate those vendors/solutions on the following:
- Can the solution address your functional and non-functional requirements?
- Does it fit into your existing and future internal technology structure?
- Does it meet your constraints?
- Make sure to check with their references. What do their current clients say about the solution and the vendor?
6. Give the system a test run:
Could you work with your vendor to conduct a proof of concept demo? This will help uncover any non-standard business processes or unique requirements your business might have and confirm that the solution you chose will work for you. Additionally, these demos will help validate and get feedback from the employees using the system.
Caution: 3 Items to Watch Out for…
Please be sure to watch out for these red flags when you choose a new field management solution.
1. Too narrow in focus:
Some field service software packages only deal with one or two aspects of field service work. We often see solutions that only provide scheduling and dispatch as field service management. More is needed for most businesses. Additionally, some of the industry-specific ones might be too narrow for you:
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- Be careful of industry-specific systems. Many solutions designed for break/fix market segments, such as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, do not scale enough to accommodate all your needs.
- Caution with workflow solutions. Solutions like this include built-in workflows that are very specific (e.g., restoration, cleaning, apartment turnover). If they do not have custom additions, they won’t be able to meet your business needs.
- Need a project, field service, and construction combination? Look carefully; many solutions might offer project functionality but lack in other areas. A growing number of the many HVAC/Plumbing/Electrical/Cleaning/Restoration clients we serve throughout the US offer construction/project services through a sister company or have targeted this as a growth opportunity. If you fall into this scenario, don’t get stuck with the challenge of finding two different software applications from two other vendors.
2. Not written on an industry-standard platform:
Could you make sure your software selections are indeed cloud-based solutions vs. hosted? Sometimes, the hosted, client-server-based software solutions require expensive upgrades when written on antiquated programming languages.
3. What is the Total Economic Impact?
Software expense is calculated by looking at your return on investment (ROI) and your total economic impact (TEI), previously called total cost of ownership (TCO). To determine your cost, look at how much it will run you for the first three years. Don’t forget to figure out the cost of integration with other types of software (ERP, CRM/Sales, Project Management, Inventory Control, Accounting, Payroll, and even e-commerce) and add this to your TEI.
Selecting the right Field Service Management solution isn’t always easy. You will surely be on the path to success by using the steps above. We are here to help. With over 30 years of experience, we are the experts in field service management. Learn More about Sentrien Field Service.