Choosing the best field service management software

Congratulations on finally shelving your paper-based system of field service management! 

But now that you’ve decided to digitize the process, you’ll quickly encounter a major roadblock: how to pick the best field service management software that can improve and optimize your current workflows and adapt to your future needs. You’ll need to consider several important factors when weighing your options, which we’ve brought together in this thumbnail guide.

Software characteristics 

To start, field service software should be able to:

• Streamline inspection procedures, making them more straightforward and effective;
• Ensure that collected inspection data is beneficial to a broader audience; and
• Enhance the clarity and accessibility of your process.

In other words, the best field service management software should, at the very least, simplify and enhance how you carry out and manage inspection activities, delivering the most value with minimal impact on operations. 

Data collection 

Improving the inspection process starts by enhancing your data collection and sharing, which means your field service management software needs to be able to:

• Guide team members through tasks and workflows
• Provide real-time updates on team activities
• Enhance documentation by allowing employees to capture photos, videos, and audio
• Improve data quality and collection speed by offering specific dropdown lists, choice lists, classifications, and other features to eliminate transcription errors. 
• Seamlessly integrate multimedia data fields into the digital collection process
• Ensure data is not lost by permanently capturing and storing information permanently and making it 100% auditable.
• Automatically timestamp and geotag records

Reports 

The best field service management software simplifies job reporting and data sharing by making report generation easy and versatile, both one-click and accommodating a range of user-friendly formats, from photos to spreadsheets, videos to PDFs. 

Process improvement

To concretely improve the inspection process, the software needs to: 

• Allow managers to make process improvement by creating workflows that automate key processes, leading to greater consistency and less stress for workers.
• Integrate with legacy systems and other critical IT infrastructure, such as GIS or Salesforce, for data-driven automation.
• Enhance workflow efficiency by automating processes whenever feasible and connecting with your enterprise systems to support business operations.
• Provide metrics that demonstrate the value of your programs in improving safety and reducing risks.  
• Power AI analytics that directly feed data from safety and inspection processes into real-time business analytics for faster and better-informed decision-making.

Software platform characteristics 

Pay attention to platform characteristics beyond their immediate functionality, including:

• Cloud computing, which provides flexibility as your program grows and eliminates the need for IT personnel. 
• Software-as-a-service (SaaS), which goes a step further by delegating application management to someone else, reducing the need for IT to perform upgrades. 
• Customization costs. Can you customize the software to your specs without code, or do you need to rely on the vendor for every minor change or even hire a full-time developer?

Vendor requirements 

When selecting the best field service management software, it’s important to assess the vendor’s impact on your business. Consider their financial viability, professional and managed services, support, and reputation. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• Can they provide long-term support and continue to enhance the software as your program expands? 
• Do they offer cost-effective best practices for field inspection checklists and applications? 
• Can they manage the application entirely, saving you time and money? 
• Do they have a good reputation for customer support, as evidenced by positive relationships with clients and substantiated by third-party surveys? 

It’s essential to ensure that the vendor is a good fit for your business and can provide the necessary support for a successful implementation.

Cost

While cost is a factor, it shouldn’t be the only consideration. Choosing software solely based on cost can lead to problems in the long run. For example, selecting cheap fillable PDFs may only exacerbate issues with data sharing and validation, leading to the same issues that existed before, wasting resources and time on a subpar solution.

When selecting software, consider the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), which is the sum of all operational, licensing, hardware, maintenance and service costs. Understanding what you’re getting before deciding on a reasonable cost is important. Cloud-based software offers scalability, while on-premises software requires hardware and maintenance costs. Customization charges and integration work should also be taken into account if you choose to run your own software.

A final word on the best field service management software

If you leave with just one takeaway, let it be this: choosing the best field service management software is not about finding the cheapest option –  it’s about picking the most versatile, powerful, and best field inspection software that concretely improves your current workflows, continually optimizes efficiency and productivity, and adapts to your future needs.

Luckily, we’ve also made it even easier for you to choose the best field service management software: Fulcrum’s leading digital field service platform is only one click away. 

Sign up for a free demo of Fulcrum’s leading field service management software to see what you’ve been missing.