The Klipboard Field Service Glossary

Facilities Management is the professional discipline of supporting organisations through the supply of services relating to creating productive environments. This can be through delivering scheduled maintenance, introducing technology to increase productivity and reduce environmental impact, managing security services, maintaining health & safety and public and social housing support.

This is a phrase used to describe the act of dispatching a field service engineer or technician to service or inspect a client's asset or equipment. When a Field Dispatch support team is notified of an incident, breakdown or problem that can't be resolved over the phone, they will dispatch an engineer to the customer.

Field Service Apps are designed to improve the efficiency of Field Service businesses. There's huge variety in the features available between Field Service Apps and many are designed to service specific industries. Most will include some form of job scheduling and dispatch tools, some may include the ability to manage client Assets through the app and also offer Field Service Finance integration for businesses who need to create quotes and invoices for their work.

 

The aim of these Apps is to reduce the workload of field engineers, leaving them to focus on completing more jobs, spend more time servicing their clients and improve the communication between the office and field.

 

To find out Why Klipboard is the best App for Field Service businesses who want to streamline their operation, reduce their admin, complete more jobs and improve their cash flow click here.

Field Service Engineer Software improves the productivity of engineers and technicians who service their client's assets or perform compliance assessments and inspections. It's used to better schedule their workload and empower them with all the documents they need to deliver a great level or service.

 

The features between Field Service Engineer Software may differ from one provider to the next. Some engineers may require a more comprehensive suite of features such as report writing for compliance reports and others may need powerful asset management tools.

 

Klipboard is the best option for Field Service Engineer Software because it can greatly reduce the amount of admin an engineer and the office team needs to produce, the asset management tools make scheduling planned maintenance schedules simple and the excellent report builder helps engineers to make branded reports to their specifications. Click here to find out more.

The Field Service Industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries. It can be defined by work carried out at a customer or client site and often involves the repair, planned preventative maintenance, installation or inspection of equipment or 'assets' in the field.

 

The Field Service market is expected to grow to nearly $8 billion by 2026 and much of that growth will be driven by the need to offer remote solutions to businesses who's operation expand beyond on centralised location. There's a huge variety of exciting roles within Field Service and it's drive for greater efficiency, environmental impact and skills development has meant it's become a leading industry for innovation and introducing new technology to service their clients.

 

Virtual and Augmented Reality, Smart Machines, The Internet of Things, Productivity Software and Building Management Software are just a few of the ways Field Service businesses are innovating.

 

Despite being a fast growing industry the Field Service industry is not without its challenges. In a recent survey carried out by Klipboard, we found out that finding new business, managing their team's workload and communicating with their client are their biggest obstacles. Many are turning to field service Job Management Software to meet those challenges.

Not all Field Service tasks involve the repair, replacement or maintenance of equipment. Many Field Service businesses produce reports from the inspections they carry out at their client's locations.

 

Fire Protection Services Businesses for example, produce reports from their health and safety inspections of passive fire protection equipment found at their client's sites. These reports help their clients meet compliance regulations and keep the buildings and the occupants safe. Field Service engineers play a vital role in keeping the general public safe.

 

Klipboard helps these businesses produce their own workflow forms and bespoke forms for their engineers to complete on site.

Field Service Management (FSM) Software is used to manage the servicing of client assets and complete field service jobs more efficiently. It helps simplify the job scheduling process while giving field teams greater clarity of the jobs they need to do. Good FSM software should streamline a field service business operation and help them complete more jobs which will increase cash flow and revenue.

The FSM software market is expected to grow by around 18% by 2025. This has been mostly boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic which has put extra strain of Field Service businesses and push them to find operational efficiencies to meet demand. FSM software has allowed them to free up more time by spending less of it on admin and complete more jobs.

You can find more details on what Field Service Management is here. Learn more.

Optimisation is a key focus for Field Service businesses. They are often time starved and their client's growing demands put strain on their ability to continue to operate at peak performance. For Field Service businesses to optimise their operation they need a top down approach to how information is shared around their business and they must put their customer in the certain of all decision making.

 

The flow of information from the office to the field is often the bottle neck which creates delays, misinformation, human error and slows cash flow - the life blood of any Field Service Business. Real time access to information and the ability to react quickly to the demands of their customer will help them meet the expectations of their clients.

Field Service businesses who need a structure way of producing reports for inspections and data collected from their client's site use Field Service Report Software. This software helps them control what data needs to be collected, ensuring consistency and compliance for their clients.

 

Having Field Service Report Software is a key benefit of using Job Management Software. It removes human error and creates a data trial that's easy to follow to ensure your team is collecting vital information in the field. The end result is a report that meets the requirements of your client and if you use Klipboard you can build these to whatever specification you need, with your brand and logo on the report. 

Field Service report templates are used by engineers and technicians to create standardised and consistent reports for their business. Creating these reports from a single template helps them ensure their client remains compliant. They can produce a report by pulling through the correct information collected on the job through workflow forms.

 

Klipboard helps simplify this process by offering standard frequently used templates and should you need something a little more bespoke you can easily build it with our intuitive drag and drop report builder.

Engineers and Technicians in the field collect a great deal of information. Field Service businesses can report on what their team discovers in the field by using Job Management Software and smart report building tools.

 

Being able to collect and record data accurately while on site in a structured format allows Field Service Businesses to offer their clients and their internal stakeholders all the information they need to make better decisions.

Field Workers are the term commonly used for Field Service engineers, technicians and professionals who carry out tasks at client locations. Their roles are as varied as the Field Service industry itself. Ranging from HVAC engineers carrying out scheduled maintenance on air conditioning units to Biomedical Field Engineers calibrating sophisticated healthcare equipment.

 

Their roles are vital to the ongoing success of their clients who rely on them to maintain their business critical equipment. Field Workers are excellent problem solvers and are often expected to use their technical knowledge and experience to come up with solutions to unexpected problems.

Fire Protection Software allows Fire Safety Engineers to easily gather information from inspections and turn that data into reports. The contents of these reports ensure a building or location meets fire compliance regulations. The software allows for improved team scheduling, access to customer information, customer history, documentation and with Klipboard the ability to create custom built forms and workflows so the team collects exactly the right information on site.

 

With Klipboard you can send the jobs directly to a Fire Safety engineer's mobile app and update the office in real time, without the need to duplicate the reports later. For more on Fire Protection Software click here.

First Time Fix Rate is the number of service requests resolved during an engineers first inspection or client visit. The ideal goal is to fix and achieve as much as possible in the initial visit, doing so has a significantly positive impact on customer satisfaction.

 

The top 20% of fastest growing and most successful Field Service businesses have a First Time Fix Rate of around 80%. There is a direct link to the success of a Field Service business and their engineer's ability to identify and solve an issue during their first visit.

 

You can measure your First-time Fix Rate by using a simple formula. Take the number of jobs your team complete in their first visit and divide that by the number of jobs completed and that's your First-time Fix Rate.



 

You can read more on what your First-time Fix Rate should be and what you can do to increase it by reading our article. Learn more.

Fleet Management is the management of commercial vehicles, forklifts, private vehicles and aviation machinery. Effective Fleet Management involves managing the life cycle of the vehicles, improving the efficiency of scheduling, improve the productivity of those using the vehicles and ensuring compliance with legislation.