• +44 1183 800189
  • info@fastleansmart.com
    MENUMENU
    • PRODUCTS
          • PRODUCTS



          • FLS VISITOUR
          • FLS PORTAL
          • FLS MOBILE
          • DISPATCH NOW
          • TECHNOLOGIES



          • PowerOpt
          • Artificial Intelligence
          • BPMN
          • Integration
          • APPLICATIONS



          • FSM
          • Scheduling
          • Route Planning
          • Mobile Workforce
          • Mobile Solutions
          • Deliveries
    • ABOUT FLS
          • ABOUT FLS



          • Company
          • Careers
          • Offices
          • Blog
          • Why FLS?
          • FAQ
          • CUSTOMERS



          • Customers
          • Industries
          • Case Studies
          • Customer Voices
          • PARTNER



          • Partner Programme
          • Find a Partner
    • CONTACT
          • HOW TO REACH US





            Phone: +44 1183 800189


            Email: info@fastleansmart.com


          • FLS-UK-Book-Demo-banner
    • DE
    • EN
    • NL
    CONTACT
    ✕

    BLOG / SOLUTIONS · SOFTWARE FOR FIELD SERVICE DISPATCH

    HOW MODERN SOFTWARE FOR FIELD SERVICE DISPATCH OPTIMISES PLANNING TEAMS



    Share post
    4 min. reading time

      02 December 2021  ·     James Alex Waldron
    T he work of dispatchers has a great influence on quality, cost, and customer success in field service. Specialist software for dispatchers and scheduling teams support and assist planners to increase company productivity.

    When planning the deployment of field staff and service technicians, dispatchers deal with a multitude of tasks and calculations. The greater the number of job orders, addresses, and employee resources, the greater the complexity. In recent times, unpredictable events such as illness-related absences continue to thwart manual planning.

    All of this makes the coordination of employees in the field increasingly demanding. Organisations discover that as soon as any of these scheduling parameters reaches a certain size, the everyday mosaic of basic tools can do more damage that good; and a purpose-built, always-on, and self-learning solution is required.

    A truly assistive software for dispatchers includes tools that:

    • makes short and long term work easier
    • reduces the need to increase team headcount, especially with a reliance on local/patch knowledge
    • reduces any chance of human error
    • increases the productivity of the field force and profitability of the company

    The key to this is the digital automation of dispatch processes, the correct parameterisation, and smart algorithms to determine optimal schedules and route planning.

    SOFTWARE BUILT TO OPTIMISE DISPATCH TEAMS

    Software for field disptach teams has two main goals: the full use of resources and high (cost) efficiency. As a result, this leads to higher customer satisfaction, less stress, and an increase in productivity.

    The right software for dispatchers overcomes common stresses and challenges, and helps companies to achieve more transparency throughout their processes and workflows. It also enables better communication between the dispatch desk at head office and field service, with customers and with management. How does this work?

    FLS VISITOUR - ★★★★★ SOFTWARE FOR DISPATCH PROFESSIONALS

    FLS VISITOUR offers a best-of-breed solution for the dispatch of field resources. The technology works in the background to lead your scheduling and route planning for field service resources. The heart of this modern software for dispatchers is an algorithm.

    This seamlessly calculates the optimal planning of field deployment; accounting for all restrictions, including your unique specifications and SLAs. An example; the respective skills and qualifications of your field employees. The algorithm finds the optimal distribution and assignment of works orders and automatically avoids conflicts.

    OPTIMISED ROUTES AND TOURS MEANS MORE CUSTOMERS SERVED

    The output of this optimised schedule and route planning proves to dispatch teams the great potential to increase the productivity of the field force and service. In short, the organisation can serve more customers, using the same resources, and in a less frantic manner.

    With a dispatch planning solution such as FLS VISITOUR, dispatchers can choose between manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic planning. The nature of this control can be found in features. For example here, the platform provides the deployment plan with the individual works orders for each employee in a Gantt Chart. With the help of the visually transparent Gantt chart, dispatchers have an overview of all available resources at all times and can thus react to changes in real time.

    START NOW

    Field Service Control for
    an Excellent Customer Experience

    DOWNLOAD

    FLS-WEB-E-Book-Außendienst

    ROUTE PLANNING ACCURATE TO STREET AND HOUSE NUMBER

    The results of the scheduling and route dispatch work only makes sense if they are realistic. A critical component of software is therefore a calculation on the basis of routes that are precise to the street, and destination addresses that are precise to house numbers. Simply planning between road junctions and 'guesstimating' driving times is not appropriate support.

    FLS VISITOUR makes use of raw data from the provider TomTom as the basis for our maps. The European market leader for navigation systems does not only have navigation devices and road maps available, but also global geospatial data. We refine the raw data with further information relevant to dispatch teams, gathered for over 25 years.

    ANOTHER WIN FOR DISPATCH TEAMS: REACT IN REAL TIME

    It's a well known stress factor: dispatchers must face ad hoc changes. Here, too, an algorithm should be successful through its ability to react to unexpected events in real time. FLS VISITOUR software supports dispatchers in recognising changes and rescheduling them accordingly within seconds. Whether in the event of an employee absenteeism, a customer cancellation, or an emergency call, the system continuously optimises order processing. This real-time planning is another winning factor in increasing productivity and assisting the optimisation of the entire dispatch team.

    SIMPLIFIED PLANNING AND FAST PROCESSES

    Software for dispatchers simplifies planning considerably. The automated processes accelerate the entire schedule and route planning and reduce the susceptibility to errors. The software automatically detects conflicts and reacts precisely, removing further optimisation pressures. However, despite these many gains of efficiency, dispatch team members need not worry that the software will optimise them out of their role. This is discussed further below.

    FIELD DISPATCH AT SCALE

    An intelligent algorithm does not care whether it plans 20 or 200 field service resources. Together with your software provider, you adjust the system to your needs, and the computing power takes care of the rest. Suitable software for dispatch teams should be able to grow with your organisation, i.e. it is scalable.

    It is also clear that a modern solution does not stand on its own; it 'talks' to the entire business via connection to an ERP and/or CRM . The integration of a customer-facing portal as well as native mobile applications for employees and field resources (technicians/engineers) are value-added methods to optimise the work of dispatchers. The team may offer customers (already cost-optimised) preferred dates and windows, and your employees are linked live through the Field service app—always supplied with all order-relevant data, past and present.

    OPTIMISED DISPATCH TEAMS STAY WHERE THEY ARE

    Do dispatch professionals need to fear a dimished role as a result of the comprehensive increase in efficiency? The experiences of our customers show otherwise.

    Specialist software changes the task of the dispatcher. As everyday workloads become easier, space is created for strategic tasks and emergency management. Dispatchers can work on simulations (what-if scenarios) that will optimise future deployment planning, including taking on new contracts, field resources, and warehouse locations. In addition, customer case studies prove communication with customers and field staff improves. Another reported outcome: choosing modern software improves dispatch teams' job satisfaction and can make time available for upskilling to increase the overall professionalism in the department.

    BY THE NUMBERS: DISPATCH TEAM OPTIMISATION

    Our customer projects show again and again: The introduction of specialist software for dispatchers leads to concrete results. For example, the pay TV provider Sky has increased its productivity by 72%, reduced travel times by 41% and measurably increased its service quality. (Read the Sky case study ).

    Market-leader for heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and solar, Wolf Heiztechnik, reduced its appointment time window from 4 to 2 hours and has achieved a time saving of 50% in the dispatch scheduling department. (Read the Wolf case study).

    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

    ‹  Back to overview
    FLS Author James Waldron

    Author
    JAMES ALEX WALDRON
    UK Marketing Manager

    +44(0) 1183 800189
    Send Email  ›

    OTHERS


    • YHG-housing-FLS-software-results
      8. March 2023

      YOUR HOUSING GROUP INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY OF ITS FIELD SERVICE BY 25-32% WITH FLS VISITOUR DYNAMIC SCHEDULING SOLUTION


      READ MORE
    • Aufmacherbild für Blogbeitrag FSM-Markt in den nächsten fünf Jahren
      10. February 2023

      TREND REPORT: 8 NEW FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT STATISTICS FOR 2023


      READ MORE
    • housing-disrepair-software
      6. February 2023

      HOUSING DISREPAIR CLAIMS: CRITICAL ASSETS AND MOBILE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT


      READ MORE

      Start  ›  HOW MODERN SOFTWARE FOR FIELD DISPATCH OPTIMISES PLANNING TEAMS

    PRODUCTS

    FLS VISITOUR

    FLS PORTAL

    FLS MOBILE

    DISPATCH NOW


    Why FLS?

    TECHNOLOGIES

    PowerOpt

    Artificial Intelligence

    BPMN

    Integration


    PowerOpt – live?

    TRY NOW  ›

    APPLICATION

    Field Service Management

    Scheduling

    Route Planning

    Mobile Workforce Management

    Mobile Solutions

    Delivery

    Simulation

    CUSTOMERS

    Customer Voices

    Case Studies

    Industries


    SERVICES

    Consulting

    Project

    Customer Service

    COMPANY

    Careers

    Locations

    FAQ

    Code of Conduct


    NEWS

    Blog

    Articles and E-Books

    Events

    Newsletter

    PARTNER

    Overview

    Partner Pathway


    Follow us

    FLS-social-media-icon-linkedIn    FLS-social-media-icon-facebook    FLS-social-media-icon-youtube



    Security and quality meeting the highest standards. Our locations in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands are ISO certified in information security management (ISO 27001). In addition, our locations in Germany and the UK are ISO certified in quality management (ISO 9001) and environmental management (ISO 14001). Learn more ›

    © FLS – FASTLEANSMART   ·   Privacy Policy   ·   GTC  ·   Imprint
      CONTACT
      EN
      • DE
      • EN
      • NL
      • +44 1183 800189
      • info@fastleansmart.com