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From our Field Service experts
The top 4 challenges in Field Service for 2024
26 Jan, 2024
In this blog Henk-Jan van de Beek, Global Director CE at HSO, who has been working with field service organizations for over a decade, outlines the upcoming challenges he sees in the market, moving into 2024. Spoiler alert: adopting the latest technology is a pain point, but at the same time, it can be a huge accelerator for necessary change.
Looking ahead: the top 4 challenges in field service for 2024
Five years ago, field service organizations faced the challenge of integrating their field service process and creating a 360-degree customer view. This required reliable data and insights to make better decisions. They also needed to deal with an increasing amount of data, driven for example by IoT.
These challenges are still relevant today, but new ones have emerged. For instance, customer expectations keep evolving, ESG is a key business factor, and technology is advancing rapidly, with generative AI as a game-changer. When moving into 2024, these are the most urgent pain points we see in the industry:
- 1
Adopting and integrating new technologies
Despite the digital transformation and IT modernization that many companies are or have been going through, we still find many customers struggling with legacy systems, having processes and data in siloes.
Implementing new solutions is a big and urgent challenge, since technology is developing fast, such as IoT, remote assistance, wearables, and customer self-service portals. The speed of change asks for more flexible, agile organizations and platforms.
- 2
Servitization: selling performance ‘as a service’
With the rise of servitization, delivering a service instead of just a product, customers need integrated processes, data and applications in one platform to be successful. For many organizations, building a profitable service business model is quite a challenge. Legacy systems and administrative processes, lack of integration and access to data are obstacles on their way to success.
- 3
Addressing the skills gap and workforce shortage
Although this is not a new topic, we see the demand for services and the complex technology involved increasing. To improve the speed and quality of the service and for example the first time right-score, a company needs capable people in the first place, that also have access to knowledge and assistance on the spot.
With an ongoing scarcity of skilled people and an ageing workforce, many of our customers tell us that this is one of their top challenges.
- 4
Achieving sustainability goals
Many field service companies seek to reduce their environmental impact, comply with regulations, and meet customer expectations. However, achieving sustainability goals often requires changes in business processes, operations, and culture. For example, field service companies may need to optimize their routes, reduce their fuel consumption, adopt green technologies, and recycle or reuse their materials and equipment.
How to overcome these challenges with confidence (and the latest technology)
Over the past years, we have helped many customers improve their field service operations, by aligning their processes and adopting an integrated field service solution, like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service.
To stay ahead of the game, companies need to take their digital transformation to the next level. As HSO, we have extensive experience optimizing field service processes. At the same time, our Data & AI teams help companies set out their data strategy and build a foundation to successfully develop and implement AI applications that add actual value. This is how we help companies become proactive, predictive, and prescriptive.
Ready for the next step?
Assessment of your Field Service capabilities
With a Field Service Scan, a team of experienced consultants will audit your current field service capabilities and processes. We identify bottlenecks and potential opportunities for improvement.
The outcome is a comprehensive report with recommendations on how to improve performance and business value and on how HSO and the latest technology can help you become more proactive, predictive, and prescriptive.
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Are you interested in bringing your field service performance to the next level? We look forward to connect, determine your team’s priorities and provide a customized offering.