Top 5 Learnings from Field Service Management Rollouts

Are you considering implementing a field service solution to manage your field operations, technicians and assets? In this blog post, we will share our top practical learnings from real-life projects that you can use straight away in preparing for your field service implementation.

1. Define your target state and objectives

Before starting a project, you should clearly define your project objectives and KPIs. What business value do you hope to achieve with the project and ensure that they are achievable within your field service environment and IT landscape.

Are you trying to add revenue by increasing your customer base by providing new and innovative services, or do you want to focus on cost savings by getting the most out of your current resources? The goal of the project affects the scope as well.

Make sure everyone involved in the project is on the same page concerning the goals and objectives. This is the best way to avoid any expectation gaps between the IT and delivery organisations.

2. Understand your data

Field service management has to do with a lot more than just an IT solution implementation. It’s often only a single part of the whole transformation journey. To start, you should go through and outline all the processes that are in the scope of your project to make sure you have a good insight into all the data and integrations needed to achieve your project goals.

Your data strategy is an important factor to consider when implementing a new field service solution. The idea behind developing a data strategy is to make sure all data resources can be used, shared, and moved easily and efficiently.

Disconnected data creates problems. A solid data strategy helps ensure that the data can be managed and used as an asset. Think about what kind of data your to-be operations need, what the current state of your data is,  where the possible gaps are and what you need to do to bring the data quality to an acceptable level.

3. Be creative

Be creative in value delivery. The most straightforward solution often isn’t the one that creates the most business value. But thinking “outside the box” can be challenging, especially if your thinking is based on the current way of doing things. You should always be on the lookout for small process changes that have a big impact on the desired project outcome. Keeping your target state in mind really helps to focus on the right topics.

Use your guiding principles defined at the beginning of the project to drive success. It allows you to prioritise based on business value and not on perception. Use the project to get a fresh view of your processes and your business and to identify additional areas of improvement. By focusing on the project outcome you want to achieve, you run less risk of getting sidetracked by exceptions.

4. Value people

The majority of the change is not about the technology but the people. Drive your organisation’s change by enabling the individuals behind its success. Understanding your team’s motivations and the power of internal promoters is critical to achieving your project goals.

Prepare your team well for the field service implementation project. Ensure the necessary people have the capacity, time, and knowledge to contribute to the project’s success. Don’t forget to train them on the project management methodology if needed. Evaluate your team’s and stakeholders’ experience and availability during the project, so you don’t have any surprises. And remember: frequent and clear communication is an important aspect of change management. It is usually better to communicate too much than too little.

5. Balance value with rollout speed and complexity

Planning is key when it comes to a successful rollout. You should establish realistic timelines for the rollout, and don’t be afraid to reconsider them if needed. Consider your rollout approach carefully and take into account your ongoing governance and dev-ops practices. You should also make sure to pace your timeline to account for local holidays and peak seasons. And listen to the expertise of your implementation partner; they have done this before.

Roll out incrementally, if possible, to minimise risk and optimise value. Try to balance the value delivered against technical complexity by prioritising out-of-the-box features and understanding the TCO of custom features. And as always: focus on the target state and the desired project outcome.