This blog comes from our partners at FLS – FAST LEAN SMART. To find out more about our partnership with FLS, check out our spotlight here: Partner Spotlight – Fast Lean Smart – Cloud 9 Insight
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) know that effective business management begins with effective data management. With Dynamics 365 powering your ERP and CRM processes, Microsoft’s solution to automate field operations has arrived with Dynamics 365 Field Service. Dynamics 365 Field Service is specifically designed for organisations that provide field services, such as repairs and maintenance, installation, inspections, and surveying. Integrating Field Service streamlines workflows through tools for efficient scheduling, resource management, and communication. Specifically, it creates a unified platform for end-to-end business processes and allows field operations to transition away from one of the final inefficient hurdles: Scheduling.
Leveraging Dynamics 365 Field Service works over and above service management and ticket systems to enhance efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and make data-driven decisions to drive overall business success. The tool complements your existing Dynamics 365 apps to remove the daily service pressures of:
Microsoft Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO) is an additional Dynamics 365 Field Service component. RSO is the module designed to optimise the scheduling of specific resources, such as field service operatives and equipment, to maximise efficiency and improve overall service delivery.
RSO succeeds when both assisted and optimised field scheduling is required. Assisted scheduling balances the insights of an experienced dispatch agent with intelligent optimisation. This is well-suited for smaller organisations transitioning into a growth phase, recognising the potential risk of losing skills and knowledge if a team member departs.
Fully optimised field scheduling therefore becomes essential when a field service department seeks to automate certain decision-making aspects of scheduling. For instance, an organisation might prefer to retain its call centre for appointment bookings. This optimisation often incorporates the use of algorithms to streamline decision-making processes.
For authentic field service optimisation, consider a third option: Dynamic, real-time field service. Real-time scheduling solutions are ideal for operators facing daily challenges of greater complexity and management, both in-day and across the longer term. Businesses in this category may find themselves stuck with inefficiencies, frustration over a lack of transparency and control, and few options to adapt to changes without broader consequences.
FLS – FAST LEAN SMART is Europe’s technology leader for real-time field service scheduling and dynamic route planning, and most importantly, a Microsoft-accredited ISV (Independent Software Vendor).
FLS develops award-winning dynamic scheduling, route optimisation and mobile job management solutions that enable digital transformation to achieve all-new levels of productivity and customer engagement. FLS VISITOUR customers range from 50 to 1000s of field operatives, planning and managing their field services in real-time with cost-optimised appointment booking and scheduling with greater accuracy and efficiency than RSO can produce.
FLS VISITOUR extends beyond capabilities provided by Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO) in Dynamics 365. Requirements for truly optimised appointment booking for hundreds or thousands of field resources, high volumes of jobs per route, dynamic in-day response, and complex rules/dependencies can all be met with an integration that integrates the real-time scheduling and embedded routing engine of FLS VISITOUR.
By retaining your Dynamics suite and adopting dynamic real-time scheduling, your field service operation can achieve heightened productivity whilst saving up to an additional 30% in costs. Plus, FLS is ‘always on’, ensuring real-time event-driven optimisation – keeping your schedule optimised, regardless of changes. It equips planning teams with tools for efficient escalation management and optimisation, reducing overall costs.
Here’s how:
If you’d like to find out more about Dynamics 365 Field Service, any other module in the Dynamics suite, or our partnership with FLS, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team here at Cloud9 Insight.
