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MOBILE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT OR FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT: THE ANSWERS

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5 min. reading time

22 June 2021 · James Alex Waldron

A lmost every company faces the challenge of efficient field resource, operative, and work order planning across its daily business. With new forms of employment such as 'work from anywhere' this coordination is becoming increasingly demanding. More and more companies are therefore recognising the added value of mobile tools that support them in this task. Field Service Management and Mobile Workforce Management solutions are two critical keywords. However, confusion often arises when choosing the appropriate digital tools. This is because the terms are often used synonymously.

In this post, we explain what specifically lies behind the terms Mobile Workforce Management and Field Service Management and how they differ despite their similarities.

MOBILE WORKER

Mobile workers are people who work outside a fixed workplace such as a company office. This includes, among other things, working from home, at the customer's site, on construction sites or even generally on the move, as is the case for example with healthcare services or is common in the skilled trades. To do their work, they use a wide variety of tools such as mobile devices, hand-held scanners or measuring devices. However, a clear distinction must be made here from remote workers. In principle, they could also do their job at the company's headquarters. Mobile workers cannot do this.

FIELD WORKER

Originally, the term field worker meant people who actually work in the field. But as technology has changed, so has the understanding of the term. Nowadays, it also includes people who work outside the company's headquarters or office - often known as field workers and service employees. Field workers are thus a subspecies of mobile workers. Typical job descriptions can be found in telecommunications, technology, agriculture, logistics or manufacturing.

Nowadays, field workers are held in high esteem by their own company. They are usually the first to notice problems, damages, potentials or even future sources of income while doing their job.

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FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT OR MOBILE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT?

Both field service management and mobile workforce management solutions can help companies optimise the deployment of their mobile resources. This includes mobile employees as well as tools, machines and vehicles. The crucial task is always to schedule the right resources at the right time in the right place.

The more employees or orders a company has, the more complex this planning becomes. This makes it all the more important to use a field service management or mobile workforce management solution for efficient and optimal staff deployment and resource planning in real time.

To find out which specific solution is best suited for the company, one must first ask oneself the question: What am I trying to achieve? Am I trying to optimise human inputs or capital assets?

Is the challenge, for example, to improve the execution of orders by employees and their skills, or to optimise the regular planning process, the customer journey and the administrative processes? Then a mobile workforce management solution is best suited. However, if you are trying to do work on physical products, such as installation, maintenance and repair, then the solution is field service management.

MOBILE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

Mobile workforce management solutions are suitable for all companies whose main business driver is working with people, be it customers or their own employees in the office or in the field.

Mobile workforce management solutions support the optimal planning of customer appointments, service times and employees to be dispatched. The decision-making basis of mobile workforce management is based on quantitative factors such as employee utilisation, working time models or customer business opening hours.

Secondly, qualitative factors such as existing relationships between employees and customers, skills and qualifications of the professionals are included. Taking these factors into account, a company can determine the most resource-efficient qualified and available staff and the optimal service time for the company and its customers.

In addition, the employees have mobile access to the back-office systems. This enables them to work easily on the road - whether communication, service reports or material orders.

Read more: Learn more about efficient mobile workforce management

FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

Field Service Management solutions are suitable for all companies whose main business drivers are physical products that the company either owns or sells to industrial or commercial customers, such as in manufacturing, utilities or infrastructure sectors.

Field Service Management solutions help to optimise the maintenance, repair and servicing of these physical products and devices. If the company receives a repair request from a customer within the framework of an existing contract, an employee qualified for this repair is selected with the help of the field service management tool. In the backend of the system, a comparison is made with an ERP or merchandise management system.

Taking into account the availability of employees and the required spare parts, the urgency of the repair order, minimum service costs and the lowest possible repair costs for the customers, the optimal basis for decision-making is provided. The customer then receives an appropriate service window, a qualified employee is dispatched and the order is carried out.

Whether it's Field Service Management or Mobile Workforce Management, anyone who wants to keep up with the technological changes today and in the future and ensure continuous efficiency, productivity, employee and customer satisfaction should take a second look at these two exciting topics.