Field Service Insight Trend #3: Understanding Big Data

This is part three of a five-part series outlining the top trends in the field service market. Our third trend is one that is enabling a more predictive forward-view of data which can help with business planning.

Predictive Analytics

Making smarter, data-based decisions is a key innovation focus. With cloud-based analytics, organizations can bring disparate datasets to one place and harness the insights with all relevant information at their fingertips. This can be achieved through machine learning, whereby data is moved from a rear-view (reports that tell you what has happened/what the trends are) to a more predictive forward-view which can help with business planning.

Advanced and predictive analytics offers a tremendous opportunity for field service organizations to better optimize their workforce, which will drive improved utilization and ultimately, higher customer satisfaction. Gartner recently pointed out that data and analytics will drive modern business operations and not simply reflect their performance. Indeed, there is a great opportunity to take the volumes of data being captured in real-time , to make smarter decisions in field service which can lead to a different balance of reactive, proactive and predictive support.

One area in particular that can benefit is with technician scheduling. Scheduling field technicians often drives inefficiencies in organizations, particularly for assets in the field that move from one location to another, such as construction or agricultural equipment. Reacting to unplanned service needs from customers adds additional complexity that is often difficult for schedulers to account for when assigning tasks.