Need to purchase field service management software?
Whatever your reasons for making the purchase, one thing is for sure – you need to eliminate the unexpected and increase your chances of success significantly during the purchase process. Below are some of the best practices for purchasing field service software for small business.
- Understand the Business Case
For your field service team to have the kind of impact you desire, you will need to invest time and money. You need to understand, communicate, document and justify the business case for the new system. This simply means understanding what exactly you want to achieve by investing in the software. You will need to communicate your objectives to the vendor so that they can tailor the solution to your unique use-case. Identify the business processes that need improvement and determine how success is measured for each process.
- Compare
There are tons of field service management systems available in the market. This can make it a bit difficult to select what will work for your business. This is not made any easier by the fact that they all sound and look the same. The process of selecting the best solution for your business will involve more than investigating what the system does. What’s more important is how the system operates. This will help bring out the differences and weaknesses that may not be apparent. Pick a system that operates in a way that will be suitable for your use case. Make sure to include your team in the selection as they might provide insight that you may not be able to. You should also prepare a list of must-have and good-to-have features.
- Engage the Field Technicians
Your field technicians will be the ones interacting with the system and customers on the ground. They are also most familiar with the processes involved to record work. You should involve them in the purchase process from the word go. Doing this will reduce or eliminate resistance to the new system and might also uncover some great ideas about how to get things done in a much better way. Start off by identifying technicians that will represent a cross-section of the whole fleet to serve on the new software committee. Make sure to get their views on the mobile device strategy.
- References
This is an often-ignored step in the software selection process. It’s easy to let your enthusiasm over a new vendor cloud your judgment and forget to seek out reviews from people who have actually used the system in question. Call organizations that use the system and ask as many questions as possible. Write down the list of questions before making the calls. You should make sure to find out how long they have been using the system and whether they have experienced any hitches. Ask them what they think about the vendor and their support.
- Training
Field service management software systems are not made equal. Therefore, your team will need to be trained on how to use the new system. This should be planned for accordingly. Have an implementation team leader who will work hand in hand with the vendor during the training process. Communication lines between you and your service team should be open throughout the roll-out phase and after.
