The Benefits of Automating Field Service Management

Time – The Super-Precious Resource:

In a world that hates the word “buffering”, time is vital. People have recognized the significance of efficient time-management, be it on the personal or the professional front. Meanwhile, there has been a growing need to optimally utilize available resources and keep track of everything. Any organization will agree that the unbiased and uncorrupted data collected through the automation of time-management and reporting is key when arriving at significant business decisions.

The Need for Automation:

To ensure that there is no compromise in the utilization of time and resources, it is important that every activity and every task is scheduled and tracked even to the last minute. This presents a new realm of challenge – to schedule the tasks and to allocate them to the right people. Parallel to this, there is also a need to track nonperformance – even the absence and time-offs. These tasks, in themselves, could take around a week to set a process! What if the scheduling and tracking could be automated?

The Surface-Bliss of Automation:

Yes, we are going to talk about a few of the more profound advantages of automation. Although they are peripheral, they surely have a lot of business importance.

• Planning ahead – One of the greatest advantages of using an automated scheduler is that you can plan for a week for the entire workforce, and this can be done in a day! This would mean that the entire management is aware of what is going to happen. This would also give enough room to plan for any contingencies and even for the week after.
• Keeping records – Any Government or Federal office, especially before the era of computerization, would definitely know the importance of keeping records. This also includes absence, time-off-work, and even overtime. Automated scheduling provides clean and unaltered records of employees, their breaks, and their overtimes; this eliminates clerical errors and probable duplications in the payroll. It ensures an automated calculation of the workers’ hours and influences the direct transfer of hours worked.

• Centralized access – One of the key advantages of the automation of scheduling is that the management can have centralized access to all the plans and the activities of all the employees. This would ensure that there is no missed communication as everyone is in the loop. This can also give a lot of transparency with regards to overtime opportunities and leave requests. The much needed streamlining of operations can be improved by automated scheduling.
• Infusion of New Age Technology – Automation in itself is a great technological development. This technological development also begets a few other advantages. An automated scheduling system reduces paperwork and hence is eco-friendly. With some investment in suitable software, the entire automation system can be accessed using a web-based or an app-based interface. Being in the network or on the location will not be a mandate to manage the services.

The Deeper Bliss of Automation:

• Data-driven intelligence – We were talking about time as an inevitable asset. As much as time, data is another important asset. A properly structured data can give a lot of business relevant intelligence to plan the next move. This data, given its degree of accuracy, would definitely be helpful in planning your resources, time allocation, and even recruitments and cost-benefits.
• Assuring compliance – There are a lot of laws in the United States of America that have been enacted by the Ministry of Labor. It is of utmost importance for an organization to comply with these laws or face legal consequences. With an automated scheduler in place, you can be assured that you comply with the laws like the Affordable Care Act, and the Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Looking at things from the other side, the automation of scheduling will also help you prove your complaints in cases of false accusations during audits.
• Save Money – We will have to accept that it all boils down to the bottom line. To measure the effectiveness of any new process or tool, we need to think in terms of the revenue it generates in comparison to its predecessor. With automated scheduling, you can be assured that the organization is not spending unwanted time or money and is utilizing its resources to the fullest. This, in turn, enables you to plan your next business move to bring about a business advantage.

With so many advantages bundled up, automated scheduling is definitely an asset in terms of Field Service Management. However, it has to be understood that the automation of scheduling, or any automation for that matter, can only work at its best when the organization has figured out its assembly line of activities.
Enterprises also require a comprehensive tool that has been developed in line with the requirements of scheduling and presents the advantages of automated scheduling in numbers – something that is more-than-adequately fulfilled by the ReachOut Suite. Reach Out presents a holistic resource for your scheduling needs, including support for ticketing and audits.
We firmly believe: “Why should the precious creativity and lateral thinking of human beings be wasted on something mundane when it can be automated”? And this is a million dollar question, literally!