If you’re in the field service industry, you understand the challenges and inefficiencies that come along with conducting work outside the office. Between a lack of communication with field teams, no visibility into project costs and manual, time-consuming processes that create unnecessary mistakes, ensuring customer success and profitability can be tough. Fortunately, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software built for the field service industry can help business leaders eliminate delays, trim costs and help office staff and field teams work together to improve efficiency.
The Benefits of an ERP for Field Service
Simply put, an ERP solution centralizes data, departments and processes into a single platform. For a field service company, that means connecting accounting, project management, payroll and more to establish a single set of workflows and data for all teams.
For team members out in the field, an ERP helps streamline and enhance communication, eliminating unnecessary costs and delays and minimizing downtime. For those back in the office, an ERP will sync field information automatically, helping to ensure that important issues are addressed immediately and administrative tasks and duplicate data entry are greatly reduced.
Here’s a few more benefits of an ERP for field service:
1. Increased Visibility
With access to company-wide data, business leaders can identify operational bottlenecks, make accurate forecasts for labor, monitor and replenish inventory and maintain company-wide productivity.
2. Managed Growth
An ERP is designed for scalability. That means that as your company grows, your software can accommodate changes in size and scope without the need to purchase additional servers or hardware.
3. Mobile Access
Connecting your field team to the office is a necessity. Cloud ERP technology and mobile apps make that collaboration possible by allowing technicians to stay connected to stakeholders and get access to documentation like RFIDs, change orders, project plans, etc. to keep projects moving.
Features to Look for in an ERP
Not all ERP solutions are created equally. It’s important for those in the field service industry to look for an ERP that is designed for real-time business productivity, decision-making and collaboration.
Look for a solution that includes these features:
1. Scheduling and Dispatching Tools
These tools shorten the time from call receipt to job assignment and help management adjust staff and resources in real time.
2. Inventory Management
With the right ERP solution, inventory items can be tracked by specific location and updated as items are used, sold, returned or borrowed. Inventory and ordering can be integrated to trigger reorders when certain items get below a specified threshold.
3. Warranty Tracking
An ERP system simplifies how you manage warranty information by creating a searchable repository for your customers’ parts and components. Multidimensional filters can track various warranty periods for each component in a work order to ensure customers are charged fairly.
Acumatica Cloud ERP – Field Service Edition includes features developed exclusively for field service operations. It helps streamline dispatching, reduce response times and minimize costs all while providing you with a 360-degree view of your customers’ activities.
At NexTec Group, we’ve been implementing Cloud ERP solutions for customers since 2015 and have the largest Acumatica consulting team in North America. To learn if Acumatica is right for your field service business, check out our exclusive Beginner’s Guide and Selection Guide to ERP for the Field Service Industry. If you’re ready to see more, reach out to us. We’d love to show you what Acumatica can do.