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17+1 REASONS TO AVOID FREE TOUR PLANNING SOFTWARE

5 min. reading time

24 March 2022 · Christoph Bertram

T o find the optimal route planning and route calculation is the be-all and end-all in many areas. Be it in sales, technical service, logistics or appraisals. Tools for free route planning in field service seem attractive here, but often turn out to be a mistake that costs you business.

We have all got lost at one time or another. Or we have arrived too late because we planned badly. Fortunately, there are now software and apps that make route planning and tour planning easier. Many of them are even free, available as so-called freeware. However, this can backfire on you in a big way.

FREE TOUR PLANNING IS OFTEN JUST ROUTE PLANNING

If you need to plan your journeys in a professional context - possibly every day and not just for yourself - there is more to it than just finding the best routes. You need a trip planner that schedules your jobs and takes all related aspects into account. This requires much more than simply calculating destinations and routes on a map (see below for reason 1).

Read more: What is the difference between a route and a tour?

There are now good tools for field service and route planning on the web, many free of charge. But as soon as it goes beyond private use or beyond a certain number of destinations (for example, if you are looking for a free route planner for more than 50 destinations), you won't get far with free software (freeware). In the worst case, a free field service app will hinder your business more than it helps it.

The following 17+1 reasons show why you should not use free software for route planning in the field and service.

REASON 1

FREE TOUR PLANNING ONLY PROVIDES HALF THE PLANNING

For efficient planning, you need more than just address data. Because you do not simply determine routes, but tours, i.e. the completion of orders and appointments. The best route is only one part of route planning. What you also have to consider (incomplete list): Appointment time slots, customer preferences, visit frequency, staff skills, vehicle types, job types, costs and values. Many free tools are only route planners, not tour planning tools.

REASON 2

MANUAL EFFORT WITH FREE FIELD SERVICE SOFTWARE

In reality, hardly any day goes exactly according to plan. If something changes in the course of the day, for example an emergency appointment occurs or one of your employees is absent, you have to react quickly. With free tour planning tools, you usually have a lot of manual effort to reschedule. Paid software offers the great benefit of automated route optimisation, even across employees.

REASON 3

FREEWARE LIMITS THE NUMBER OF TARGETS OR TOURS

The number of destinations that can be planned is sometimes limited with free route planners. If you have to plan more than 20 destinations or tours for several sales representatives, you may reach a limit. Professional route planning software, on the other hand, allows you to perform a vast number of calculations and route optimisations at the same time.

REASON 4

AND THEN IT BECOMES CHARGEABLE AFTER ALL

You can expand the limited scope of some freeware - for a certain price. For example, you can buy a package to increase the number of possible stopovers and stops. However, the question then arises whether it is not better to go straight for a more professional software or app as the complexity of the planning increases. This costs more, but also gets more out of it.

REASON 5

UNDEVELOPED FREEWARE: THE FEATURES

Free tour planners not infrequently offer extended functions for planning in addition to their basic functions. However, at varying degrees of maturity. It can happen that these additional features are not yet fully developed and provide inaccurate or misleading results. So you end up with a tool that is not fully developed in parts and is difficult to use.

REASON 6

WHAT IF THE INTERNET IS GONE? MISSING OFFLINE FUNCTIONS

The countryside, land of dead spots ... If you are on the road with an online tour planner or a field service app, you may not have internet here and there. Good tools therefore have offline functions so that you can continue to work even in this case. This is not necessarily the case with free apps, route planners and the like.

Read more: Our field service app with online and offline functionality: FLS MOBILE

REASON 7

DOES FREEWARE RESPECT LABOUR LAWS?

A jigsaw of labour laws can be strict and regulates, among other things, working hours and breaks. Especially when you are planning for your employees, you have to take this into account. A solution from Silicon Valley will probably not know the exact working and break times of your people and include them in the route planning or route calculation.

REASON 8

SECURITY RISKS OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

Many a free tools are called a Open Source Software (meaning the source code is public and can be viewed by third parties, changed and used). Open source is usually published with a licence. However, this does not mean that the software has been tested by an official body. And a licence does not mean that the software has been well tested for security weaknesses.

LEGAL SLIPPERY SLOPE WITH FIELD SERVICE FREEWARE

An example in the case of freeware, they should also note the following: "The author makes the software available for free use and merely waives payment, but not his copyright. A corresponding programme may therefore not be sold, changed or taken over in parts into another software." (it-business.de). This means that if you have your own IT and want to make adjustments to the software, you face a problem. In addition, freeware harbours uncertainties under data protection law, for example with regard to the customer addresses entered.

REASON 10

FREE TOUR PLANNING PREVENTS COLLABORATION

If you are not a lone wolf, the question always arises as to how the tools in your company support collaboration. A simple example: You notice that you can no longer make it to a customer. Your colleague is just around the corner and could take over for you. But how do you (and he) find out? Professional route planning software enables this communication and quick rescheduling.

REASON 11

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY FOR MANAGEMENT AND OFFICE STAFF

Management and office staff often lack transparency with free tools: Where is employee Schneider at the moment and what is the order status? How many kilometres has the team covered today? What costs have been incurred? Current insights into daily events and subsequent analyses and evaluations are often not supported by freeware.

Read more: Modern Software for field service dispatch optimises planning teams

REASON 12

NO INTEGRATION WITH YOUR OTHER SYSTEMS

This brings us to the interaction of different programmes. If you use a route planning tool, it makes sense to integrate it directly into your software landscape. Professional tour planning programmes not only offer an address import from Excel, but can also be connected to the leading ERP or CRM system such as SAP or Microsoft Dynamics 365. This simplifies the processes and optimises your sales force and service considerably.

REASON 13

A FIELD SERVICE APP SHOULD NOT ONLY FACILITATE ROUTE PLANNING

... but also the work on site. Do you have all order data directly at hand? Information about the service history? Checklists? In contrast to free online route planners and freeware for route optimisation, paid professional tools support additional processes, such as the documentation of the order and the digital recording of the customer's signature.

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REASON 14

FREE TOUR PLANNING FORGETS THE CUSTOMER

Customers' expectations have risen, especially when it comes to digital possibilities. Ideally, you involve the customer in your planning. For example, via a self-sevice portal, in which he or she can book his or her desired appointment himself or herself. Or by sending him or her an automatic notification of your estimated time of arrival. Unfortunately, free tour planning for the field service rarely involves the customer.

REASON 15

FREE SOFTWARE CAN HARDLY BE CHANGED

What happens if your tour or route planning requirements change? For example, if you want to plan tours for different types of vehicles? Free software can hardly be adapted by you or is not further developed according to your wishes. You are much better off with a provider of professional business software for your route planning.

REASON 16

LACK OF FIT FOR YOUR COMPANY AND YOUR INDUSTRY

This point follows on from the previous one. Companies are specialising more and more and need solutions that are individually tailored to their needs and their business. Customers be configured. Free tour planning software usually only offers a general 'one-for-all' solution.

REASON 17

INDEFINITE SUPPORT FOR TOUR PLANNING FREEWARE

When support needs or questions arise, it becomes difficult with freeware. A provider of free tour planning cannot compete with the support and training offered by manufacturers of paid software. With the latter, you have a fixed contact person with clear service level agreements to help you quickly.

BONUS

THE REAL PRICE QUESTION: WHAT IS ACTUALLY BEING OPTIMISED?

In the end, the question is: What is the tool for? A good solution optimises your tours so that you save time and miles/kilometres - ultimately costs. But this view falls short.

The software should not only be used to optimise routes and costs, but your entire value creation. For example, it may make sense to accept a longer route and additional costs in order to satisfy a disgruntled customer again. Good route planning does not simply plan and optimise costs, but the achievement of your business objectives.

CONCLUSION: SAVE COSTS, BUT DO IT RIGHT

The cost saving is not in the tool (low or no acquisition costs), but in what it can do, how it optimises your business. Professional route planning pays for itself quickly and permanently increases the quality of your sales force and service. Do not regard tour planning as an add-on, but as a central control and optimisation element. The investment is worthwhile.

OPTIMISE DISPATCH TEAMS

To gain an understanding of tools to optimise field dispatch operations and manage efficiency for your workforce and customers book a short discussion or contact us at info@fastleansmart.com.

Read more:
Gannt Charts and Route Scheduling: digital advantages
What modern software can do for tour optimisation
Stop planning Field Service Appointments with Outlook
Route Planning with Google Maps? 5 reasons this is impossible

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