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T he demand for renewable energies such as solar energy and wind power is increasing. To cope with the growth, solar and wind power suppliers and technical service providers need to ensure the most efficient installation, maintenance and repair possible. The key to this is modern software for deployment and route planning.

The growth of the market for photovoltaic, solar thermal and wind energy systems - and the now persistently-high demand - poses great challenges for suppliers: On the one hand, there are supply bottlenecks in all areas. On the other hand, well-trained, skilled field technicians for solar plants and wind turbines are now also in short supply.

This not only slows down the construction and installation of further plants. The proactive maintenance and reactive repair of existing photovoltaic systems and wind turbines must also be better coordinated when the field technicians are working at full capacity. Only in this way can providers remain competitive in the long term by always offering their customers the fastest and best possible service for their wind energy and solar plants.

FIELD SERVICE SOFTWARE FOR SOLAR AND WIND POWER UTILITIES MAINTENANCE

In essence, efficient technical service for solar plants and wind turbines is about future-ready, professional Field Service Management: How do you organise the assignments of your field technicians in the most effective way possible? How do you manage the orders and, in particular, ad hoc emergencies when a critical system breaks down? How do you avoid unnecessary travel times and kilometres?

Software for field service management therefore focuses particularly on cost-optimised deployment and route planning. On the one hand, modern tools for the maintenance and servicing of solar and wind power plants enable efficient scheduling for the head office. On the other hand, they support the field service in the form of apps on the technicians' mobile devices.

Modern software for technical service therefore optimises several important aspects of deployment and geocoded route planning at the same time:

• Route planning: How do you plan your employees' routes between solar plants or on-shore wind turbines in the most effective and time-saving way? Field service management software finds the most effective routes and job sequences in just a few seconds.
• Dynamic route planning: Powerful software reacts quickly to short-term changes in the daily schedule. A smart planning algorithm can adjust and optimise current tours much faster than purely manual planning.
• Workforce scheduling: A lot of expertise is needed for maintenance and repair. Powerful software keeps a close eye on the skills and availabilities of your technicians when planning tours and assigns employees to the appropriate jobs.
• Order entry & processing: Your employees can record comments on the respective order directly in the mobile app and complete it independently.
• Mobile communication solution: Field service technicians often need to consult with superiors and colleagues. That's why powerful field service management software has built-in communication channels.

WHAT GOOD PLANNING SOFTWARE BRINGS TO YOUR TECHNICAL SERVICE

Professional field service management and optimised route planning bring considerable advantages for companies in the solar and wind energy industry. As a result, the initial investment and familiarisation phase pay off within a very short time.

Less scheduling and administration effort Less dispatching and administration effort With field service management software, route planning for technical service is done much faster. This leaves more time and resources for other things such as improving internal processes, escalation management or training your employees. The same applies to order processing: By entering all appointments at the solar and wind power plants into the system, your field staff can immediately process them digitally on their mobile devices - this saves a lot of time and resources.

Optimised routes for better utilisation The improved deployment and route planning reduces fuel costs and CO2 emissions and at the same time increases the productivity of the technicians. This means that you can complete more assignments each day with the same number of employees and vehicles.

Technicians who spend most of the day in their cars because of inconvenient routes are rarely in a good mood. By reducing the time spent on the road, more of the day remains for the actual work. This is further facilitated by checklists, order overviews or digital customer signatures: Your service technicians can concentrate on the job at hand and spend less time on paperwork.

Better customer service Built-in practical features such as automatic notification of your customers' estimated time of arrival improve your service - without you having to do much. More importantly, automatic routing skillfully integrates emergencies into routing, minimising wait times for solar installation technicians. In addition, the assignment of technicians to jobs, taking into account their qualifications, ensures a higher first-time-fix rate - much to the delight of your customers.