Field Service Management, R.I.P. Long Live Field Service Management.
If the title sounds like an obituary to Field Service Management (FSM), it’s quite the contrary. It is about how to sustain, rejuvenate and rediscover your FSM solution, where “R.I.P” stands for “Realize Its Potential.” Adopting a modern, digital FSM solution is a...
How Provar Closed the ‘Testing Gap’ With ServiceMax
What’s the best thing about ServiceMax? Many of us would say that it’s the ability to deliver change quickly. The company’s core offering benefits its customers greatly, but on top of that, ServiceMax is constantly delivering new features to the platform to keep its...
Technicians Are a Critical Link to all Areas of Your Business
A service organization’s field technicians are the principal customer contacts post-sale and, as a result, they will be heavily counted on to serve as an unofficial communication link to all areas of the business — both within the organization and to their respective...
Taking a Modular Approach to Service Transformation — Part 3: Zinc Real-Time Communication
In this blog series, we’ve been sharing best practices and benefits of taking a modular approach to service transformation. First, Daniel covered installed base understanding, followed by work order management. Now I’m here to tell you about your secret weapon for...
System of Record for Service Execution
Successful and efficient service execution is not possible without accurate equipment data. The more complex or sophisticated the equipment, the more service planners, dispatchers, and technicians, especially, depend on knowing the make and model, the configuration,...
Comic Brake: Fire Sale
Editor’s Note: Today’s cartoon is part of our “Comic Brake” series. Field service management is serious business, but everybody deserves a good laugh after a long week in the field. Check back for cartoonist Terry LaBan’s next installment on FSD.
Our Experts
Suzanne LucasHR expert & author 
Jim BastonPresident, BBA Consulting 
Lubor PtacekSVP of product & solution marketing, ServiceMax
Rosemary CoatesPresident, Blue Silk Consulting 
Drilling for Talent: GTI Takes Natural Gas Training into the Field
Energy, like so many other industries, is on the lookout for skilled workers to replace those who are retiring in droves every year. In 2017, the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), an analysis of the nation’s energy challenges published every four years by the U.S....
Reporting Gone Awry: Can Service Firms Be Too Analytical?
In the last decade, field service has evolved into a highly efficient machine, fueled by carefully scrutinized analytics, which provide the raw power for systems such as routing optimization, dynamic dispatching, workload balancing and dynamic parts replenishment....
Whatever You Do, Don’t Let a Customer Service Mistake Fester
Everybody makes mistakes. That’s a great message to give to your five-year-old when she spills milk over her homework, but lack of perfection and mistakes can cause real problems in the adult world. Undoubtedly, there will be a time when you, or one of your techs,...
3 Recruitment Blunders That Field Service Leaders Keep Making
It’s puzzling why many businesses continue to recruit job candidates like it’s 1980, a time when job seekers were abundant and positions scarce. Today, unemployment is at its lowest level in 50 years, job openings exceed the number of available job seekers, and job...
ICYMI: Creative Talent Gap Solutions in the Trades
It’s impossible to stay on top of every service news story. We get it. Don’t miss a beat with our monthly “In Case You Missed It” series. Keep reading for May's top stories, covering everything from break-fix solutions to the service industry's hiring challenges, to a...
3 Ingredients for Digital Oilfield Execution
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Permian Basin for a ride along with a major oil & gas producer. The Permian Basin is the largest producing oilfield in the world — yes, even larger than Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar oilfield, and it’s continuing to ramp up...