The Benefits and Challenges of Digitalization for Field Services

Digital transformations are affecting every industry and every aspect of business, including Field Services. It can be used to solve traditional problems and challenges, with many benefits. When companies are complacent to the waves of digital transformation as they sweep through their industry, the results can be disastrous. Current challenges for field services businesses that have not yet digitalized their organization: The equipment is on-site. The technology is bought as an asset and is operated on its own, making business telemetry and performance visibility to be challenging. The equipment is not adequately connected. While on-premise technology can be enabled to "phone home," the most common frustration we hear from legacy product service organizations is that they have weak access to business telemetry. It is not rich and robust enough to enable value realization and improve business outcomes. The equipment was sold by the channel. The channel has always been an incredible asset for companies selling on-premise equipment. The channel enabled scale, but now that asset is becoming a liability. When a product is sold through the channel, the manufacturer can lose critical visibility. Who specifically bought the product? Where is it actually installed? Who is using it? Are they still using it? This visibility is required to drive value realization and business outcomes. While the road ahead will be tough, the benefits of digitalization for field services outweigh its cost. Benefits of digital transformation for field services companies: Increased savings and revenue. By some estimates, companies can uncover as much as $20 million in annual cost savings by adopting new digital approaches. This increase in revenue stems from improved technological capabilities that streamline processes and operational efficiencies. This frees up field technicians and other employees’ time to gain valuable hours that could be spent elsewhere, and also leads to the next benefit. Improved satisfaction. Streamlined processes mean less wait time for companies and less need for them to rely on customer support. Improved efficiency is critical as you go digital. The advanced data analytics that comes with going digital will give your company the digital tools you need to not only meet expectations but exceed them. Don’t ignore the waves of digital transformation. Ride the waves with us. Learn more about our Managed Services and Cloud Hosting and request a quote for your field services organization here.