Who doesn’t want growth? Every business wants growth, right? Well, not so fast. Growth is generally good, but as we often see in our consulting work, some businesses are more ready for growth than others. Several factors come into play in determining if revenue growth is going to benefit a business. One issue involves people and organization. Some companies find themselves hiring quickly to catch up with demand. This can be a problem, especially if a second element comes into play, which is the state of the company’s technology.
Without the right tools, a company can get worse at customer support as it grows. Or, and sometimes in addition, unchecked growth leads to unexpected increases in operating expense because inefficient processes are applied to a growing account base—a formula for declining net income. You might double your revenue and actually shrink your bottom line in the process.
Companies that offer field service are no exception to these forces affecting the profitability of growth. In some respects, field service businesses are even more vulnerable. They have more time-critical, customer-facing situations than many other businesses. And, profitability depends on a careful choreography of people, schedules, inventory, logistics and software. In this challenging environment, Acumatica cloud ERP software has created a Field Service Edition that addresses many of the factors that inhibit growth or cause growth to become a net negative.
With that in mind, here are 10 ways that Acumatica Field Service Edition helps a Field Service Business grow—the right way:
1) Resource Scheduling
Resource scheduling that maximizes utilization of technician time, equipment and fleet—Inefficient scheduling negatively affects profitability. In addition, field service technicians need the right parts and equipment with them. Field Service Edition delivers optimal scheduling, making sure that techs have what they need, while getting to more appointments in a day.
2) Inventory Planning
Inventory planning that optimizes the inventory of service parts—Field Service Edition offers strong inventory management features that enable companies to minimize inventory carrying costs and cut down on stock-outs that are bad for the customer experience. The software lets operators know what inventory they have in house and on each field service vehicle.
3) Route Optimization
Route optimization that gets field service reps to jobs more quickly using optimized routes—The process of route optimization can get complicated, especially as appointment schedules change and high priority jobs force rapid re-assignment of technicians. Even issues like traffic can affect route optimization. Acumatica Field Service Edition does route optimization through its integration with WorkWave, the leader in cloud-based fleet management solutions.
4) Warranty Tracking
Warranty tracking to simplify warranty management for parts and service—Warranties often drive service appointments. It’s very useful to know what equipment the customer owns, along with the warranty details for each component. Field Service Edition keeps track of this information and makes it available to dispatchers and techs in the field.
5) Project Integration
Project integration to manage the various complexities of a field service project—Not all field service appointments are one-offs that begin and end with a technician visit. They’re often part of bigger projects, such as the building of an industrial facility. For this reason, it’s helpful for growth to be able to link field service operations with project accounting and project management.
6) Equipment Management
Equipment management that helps take care of company-owned and customer equipment —Acumatica’s equipment management features allow field service managers to stay on top of internal and customer-owned equipment, using flexible workflows and user-defined configuration to manage virtually any kind of field service equipment requirements.
7) Customer Experience
Customer experience, making it possible to exceed expectations—Field Service Edition enables a company to differentiate from its competitors with options like flexible service management, customer portals and embedded customer support.
8) Contracts and Billing
Contracts and billing, automated for efficiency and speed—Recurring service contracts can be the foundation of revenue growth. But, the billing and contract management processes need to be as automated as possible to realize the profitability of the growth. Field Service Edition provides visibility of renewal dates for each contract, creates contract management dashboards and alerts managers about expiring contracts.
9) Business Insights and Analytics
Business insights, from built-in data analytics—Field Service Edition gives users a great deal of data to work with, as well as reporting and data visualization tools, to assess how the field service business is going. This is critical for profitable growth. Unexpected drags on profitability can easily creep into the work, but if they become visible, they can be addressed.
10) Mobility and Connectivity
Mobility and connectivity, so people can work anywhere—The workforce today is on the move or working remotely. This includes field service managers. Now, Acumatica Cloud ERP offers mobility and connectivity for field service operations. The software facilitates communication and collaboration between employees, customers and vendors.
Get the Full eBook to Optimize Field Service Operations and Grow Your Business
Managing field service operations effectively requires access to real-time information about your equipment, inventory, and technicians. It’s the only way to respond effectively to constant changes in customer demand. Unfortunately, legacy applications create data silos that prevent the real-time visibility you need.
When you move your business processes to a native cloud-based ERP application, you gain the ability to manage your business anytime, anywhere, on any device. Learn how Acumatica Field Service Edition enables you to do just that in a new eBook: 10 Ways Field Service Companies Grow With Acumatica.
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Expectations drive relationships in the field. When technicians are face-to-face with customers, being able to access anything necessary to keep everything moving smoothly on a designated touchscreen is impressive and adds value to the relationship. Integrating a flexible cloud platform into your field service business can serve as the basis for a profitable growth strategy. We have helped numerous field service companies follow this path to bigger businesses and higher earnings. To learn more, contact us for a demo of Acumatica Field Service Edition and a free consultation.
Additional Field Service Resources
How Field Service Companies Can Exceed Customer Expectations with Acumatica Cloud ERP
Acumatica Cloud ERP: Field Service Case Studies
What is Field Service Management Software and Why You Need It