Field Service Management is a means of organizing and optimizing day-to-day operations performed outside the office, out on the field, at client locations, etc. Commonly field services are experienced for consultations, sales, repair and maintenance, customer support, and regular inspections.
A strong field management team armed with equally robust Field Service Management software is a must for effective field services. Successful organizations have their field resources, their daily tasks, travel routes, etc. planned in advance for weeks.
Multiple Field Service Applications are available with multiple services and offerings. However, the results accounted for using the comprehensive package of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service Application have been chartbusters. Let us have a look at its basic functionality
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service – a quick overview
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service business application helps organizations deliver scheduled on-field service to customer locations. The application combines workflow automation, scheduling algorithms, and mobility to set up field reps for success when they're on the field with clients, fixing issues, or installing services.
What does Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service offer?
Territories for Accounts
- Accounts can be classified into territories for the resources to manage
- Territories can be created as per resource convenience or easy management
- Postal codes can be associated with the Territories
- Resource management and scheduling becomes easier
Advance Scheduling of Appointments
- The client appointments can be pre-scheduled and followed
- The same for all the resources can be viewed in a comprehensive manner
- Time constraints per appointment could be added
- Advanced schedules can be made for multiple resources for multiple days
Resource Routing
- Travel routes for resources can be predicted and tracked
- Time of travel too can be predicted and viewed over the schedule boards
Device Compatibility
- Field Service enables reps to access their pre-planned schedules, client data, route maps, etc. with the mobile app from anywhere.
- The resources can utilize help manuals for the situations on the field.
- They can consult experts in real-time from the field and get their queries regarding an in-progress problem, resolved.
- Field Service mobile apps make tracking activities easier for field reps.
- They can access bookings, work orders, and assets even when offline.
Predictive Maintenance
- With smart technology in place, issues can be detected in a system even before a client is aware of them and can be resolved before time.
- Field Service and Supply Chain Management work in tandem with combined capabilities.
- A 360-degree view of the client’s assets makes management easier.
Analytical Dashboard Views
- The dashboards enable a field service manager or dispatcher to use the field service reports to monitor KPIs.
- Analytical Dashboards enable users to calculate failures in systems, and crashing of reporting alerts and calls.
- The system comes with several dashboard layouts tailored for any role. A Sales Activity Dashboard could show the status of open opportunities in the pipeline, progress toward goals, open leads, etc.
Does this make Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service a complete package?
They say, perfection in itself is a myth, but perfection can be attempted when working as a team.
Similarly, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service is an excellent package for Field Service Management. However, it can be improved multi-folds with assistance or plugin from many other all-inclusive add-ons available in the market.
80% of the CRM data is associated with a geographical factor. This factor when explored sincerely aids organizations in making location-based strategies. Directions and visualizations could help in redefining business decisions and help pre-empt travels, global expansions, etc. Dynamics users at times feel hindered due to a lack of geo-location-based intelligence while viewing their CRM data. This hampers decision-making and leads to sub-optimal operating efficiencies, lack of real-time visibility into daily operations, etc.
, the 5-star rated App of the is a comprehensive geo-mapping app that empowers business decision-makers to harness geo-analytics’ power by visualizing CRM data on the Map. Maplytics works smoothly with all the modules of Microsoft Dynamics 365, i.e, Sales, Field Service, and Customer Service. Let us have a look at how Maplytics acts as a perfect plugin for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service.
Creating territories for disciplined sales is amazing, but having a chance to visualize the territory records on a map makes it possible to generate balanced territories.
Maplytics gives the user an opportunity to auto-create balanced territories and accommodate hierarchical territories as well.
The boundaries of the existing territories can be edited to be associated with more CRM Records or to divide the records into multiple other territories.
Meetings can be pre-scheduled for multiple days/weeks and for multiple field reps with Maplytics as well.
The view of the schedule board is detailed, and the UI is user-friendly with the travel routes coordinated with the appointment details using color legends
The appointment schedule for each rep can be displayed for each day and/or each week as per requirements.
The travel distance, time, break time, time of the meeting, a destination address, etc. can all be plotted on a single page
Ad hoc meetings, canceled meetings, additional meetings, etc. undertaken by the reps are added and viewed in the schedule
Along with plotting optimized travel routes, Maplytics offers end-to-end navigation directions for the field reps to email, print, or save for later.
A rep on the field can search and plot clients along the route and visit an available one by adding it as a waypoint to his plotted route
Similarly, the rep can search for clients in a specific radius with Radius/ Proximity Search around his current GPS Location and add them to the route for a meeting
The rep can freely search for a café, hotel, airport, or gas station around his place of interest with POI Location while on the field
With the help of Land Area Mapping in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, Maplytics users can visualize the area of agriculture, residential, commercial properties, etc., on the map. They can easily define the area of land for the respective entity records and then visualize the same on the map.
Maplytics enables Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM census data visualization on maps like Housing units, land area, water area, population demographics, and others to take strategic decisions.
Maplytics auto-detects the language of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM application and sets the language automatically. It currently supports German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Hungarian, Dutch, Arabic, Polish, and Russian along with English as the default language.
Mobility across Across
Maplytics can be accessed from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 App for using a dashboard for the Detail Map. The current GPS Location can be picked up for advanced auto-scheduling. Maplytics is compatible with desktops, laptops, mobile, tablets, windows, iOS, and Android.
This is just a glimpse, there are many more hidden add-ons of Maplytics.
Combining the features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service with Maplytics could create a Field Service Management Genius. Let us explore all the possible plug-ins Maplytics could offer for better utilization of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service in this series. Maplytics is equipped with many outstanding features and a proper trial will help you to see the potential within! It has been a valuable contribution to such as , , , , and many more!
You can write to us at [email protected] for your mapping queries, a , or a personalized demo within Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM / Dataverse. To learn more about Maplytics, its applications across industries, and another multitude of features, do visit our or . For further details, you can hop on to our , , and .
Until then,
Stay tuned!
