Gartner predicted that by 2020 there would be almost 21 Billion connected things, it is no surprise therefore that an interconnected world will ultimately provide a wealth of new opportunities for service organizations. It will allow these service organizations the ability to expertly and remotely connect equipment with technicians’ mobile devices and their office in real-time, thereby enabling a rapid response to service requests and efficient remote diagnostics.
Field service lies at the heart of the Internet of Things (IoT) evolution. With more and more organizations needing to manage a vast array of physical assets, there is a greater need for many to implement an IoT Field Service Management solution such as Hellothing that provides real-time visibility on the location and status of their assets.
Traditionally, Field Service Management or FSM has largely been accountable for events such as scheduling maintenance work orders, locating fleet vehicles, and dispatching technicians to sites, often these tasks are quite manual intensive, laborious and time-consuming, with a lot of room for error which could result in unnecessary equipment downtime due to failure or unscheduled maintenance work.
However, IoT field service management (FSM) software such as that from Hellothing has made the overall diagnosis procedure much easier since it vastly eliminates the requirements of manually having to diagnose an equipment error or malfunction. Using IoT, Field technicians can now become connected to their equipment and headquarters in real-time via their mobile devices. This ultimately changes the way that technicians respond to service requests, as well as how diagnostics are performed.
Having the ability to analyze historical information on the location, the condition, and the usage of assets, it is possible to implement more effective asset maintenance programs. For example, the analysis of information on the placement and usage of a group of assets can provide a foundation for optimizing the scheduling of field service operations. Additionally, asset location tracking information can be also combined with information from other sensors to enable more succinct maintenance programs.
But the opportunities for IoT go beyond inbound device signals over the internet. The increase in intelligent service resources, offers benefits of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication that promise to transform the service industry.
Remote monitoring applications already save billions in transport and human capital management costs. Add the potential positive impact on customer engagement and its associated business value, and the call to action becomes clear. Implementing a complete IoT solution such as Hellothing can lead to better and faster decisions throughout the service delivery lifecycle.
Additionally, the Hellothing platform can be used as a standalone solution. The platform’s flexibility allows for easy, fast customisation to integrate with existing operational systems.