Service Workforce Management FAQ

Q: What is Service Workforce Management?
Service Workforce Management is the complex process of planning, optimizing and deploying the cost intensive service resources (technicians, drivers and vehicles) required to meet agreed upon customer commitments which are typically defined as service level agreements (SLAs), on an “on call” and/or a “scheduled” basis. The efficient planning, scheduling and deployment of such resources can dramatically improve productivity, revenue, profitability and customer loyalty.
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Q: Why is Service Workforce Management gaining executive level attention?
As global competition intensifies, the service delivered after the initial sale of a product is becoming increasingly strategic to revenue, profitability and customer loyalty. Case in point: profit margins on post-sale service are 25% to 1000% higher than those on products, and post-sale service is delivering 10% to 40% of revenue for many discrete manufacturers.

So, it should be no surprise that these margin opportunities are driving executives around the world to closely examine how they manage their cost intensive service resources which include workforce technicians, drivers and vehicles.
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Q: Why is Service Workforce Management important?
The cost of acquiring a new customer is 2 to 20 times more expensive than retaining an existing one and the quality of a company’s post-sales service is critical to customer retention. The efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s field workforce plays a vital role in its ability to deliver quality service. Additionally, the costs associated with the management of a mobile field workforce continue to increase. As a result, a significant opportunity exists for most companies to optimize these resources and drive significant improvements in efficiency while reducing cost and improving customer loyalty and profits.
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Q: How does Service Workforce Management apply in Field Service?
Service Workforce Management applies where there are customer service commitments and mobile resources (technicians, drivers) which need to be deployed (routed, scheduled and dispatched) to provide a service. Service Workforce Management applies to companies responsible for both installation and service (break-fix) operations.
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Q: What are the goals of Service Workforce Management?
The goal of Service Workforce Management is to cost effectively and efficiently plan, schedule, dispatch and manage the service resources (technicians, drivers and vehicles) required to deliver on the service commitments defined in most service level agreements (SLA). The efficient and effective management of service resources enable companies to reduce windshield time, reduce route miles, balance routes and automate manual processes all which improve the top and bottom lines.
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Q: What are the measurable benefits associated with the implementation of Service Workforce Management solutions?
A recent study found that companies using advanced workforce management solutions are 33% more productive than companies using spreadsheets or homegrown systems. Many of these companies have recognized a significant ROI within 12-months of a system “go-live”. Furthermore, a recent study by AberdeenGroup highlighted the importance of using technology solutions to integrate workforce management processes with service parts management processes.
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Q: How important is the alignment of ServiceWorkforce Management with Service Parts Management?
A recent AberdeenGroup’s report titled “The Convergence of People and Parts in the Service Chain,” strongly suggested companies can drive significant business value by using technology to integrate their workforce and service parts management processes. The following are key findings included in the report:

82% of polled companies said that combining the planning and provisioning of field technicians and service parts under a strategic service management approach is very or extremely important to their company’s overall performance.
For 69% of the companies AberdeenGroup surveys, provisioning of field technicians and service parts are either loosely aligned or not aligned at all, and are governed by separate sets of workflows
Companies that align their service labor and inventory processes are nearly three times more likely than silo’d companies to have first call service order resolution rates greater than 85%
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Q: How do most companies currently manage their service technicians?
While progressive companies utilize dispatch centers to route service technicians, many do not automate the process to fully leverage their dispatchers and technicians. Manual processes and dispatching is typically inefficient and ineffective at coordinating service agreement commitments, technician skills, current assignments and availability of anticipated repair and service parts. The sheer volume of incoming planned maintenance and unplanned service events can be overwhelming – best-in-class companies manage by exception by automating dispatch to free up their experts to solve critical service issues.
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Q: Are Service Workforce Management solutions only used to reduce technician or dispatcher headcount?
No – many companies implementing a service workforce solution have leveraged their existing service staff to improve customer satisfaction, free-up technicians to improve daily productivity, optimize the part ordering process, and grow top line service revenues and profits.

Since service has become a strong competitive advantage for many companies, they are using new technology to compete in the marketplace, rather than simply cut costs.
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Q: What are the major components of Service Workforce Management Solutions?
Service Workforce Management solutions are comprised of the following major components: people/skills planner, scheduler & dispatcher, mobility, parts locator and command center. Each Service Workforce Management solution component serves a distinct purpose but is purchased as one integrated solution.
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Q: How has the Servigistics Service Workforce Management Solution delivered measurable results to clients?
When a high tech service organization wanted to capitalize on the revenue and profit opportunities associated with improved customer satisfaction and service commitment management, they turned to Servigistics for assistance. The following case study outlines the problems, solution and results related to implementation of the Servigistics solution.

Problems:

Limited coordination of people and parts for service work orders

No visibility to real-time service performance metrics

Little coordination of service partner activities

Solution:

Implemented a service command center to provide real-time visibility to work orders and service exceptions

Began forecasting work orders to anticipate full-time, part-time and contractor needs to achieve overtime, cost and service level plans

Implemented a closed loop process to coordinate service technicians and parts, deploy to solve service outages, and measure the results and service performance in real time.

Results:

Increased customer satisfaction and service commitments with no increase in dispatcher or service technician overtime costs

Improved visibility to service operations
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Q: What does Service Workforce Management Planning involve?
Service Workforce Planning includes the planning and forecasting of the amount, type and location of field technicians required to meet current and future service commitments. Advanced workforce management solutions deploy advanced forecasting techniques to forecast and plan the skills and people required to achieve customer satisfaction goals and metrics in a cost effective manner. Finally, these solutions provide visibility, tracking and management tools that enable companies to effectively and efficiently resolve service issues as they arise to maximize service profits and customer satisfaction.
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Q: What does service technician optimization involve?
Service technician optimization involves more than just dispatch and scheduling. It involves the tight integration of technician scheduling coupled with part availability, based on service level agreement response time prioritization. It also includes optimal longer-term deployment of service technicians using forecasting and planning decision support techniques that proactively plan for service outages.
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Q: What makes service technician planning difficult?
Technician adoption. A system must be easy-to-use and include accurate and proven street level routing that takes into account the service organization’s business rules. In addition, long-term resource needs planning and tactical service technician optimization must be addressed. Choosing the right solution is critical, since strategic and tactical resource planning must be addressed with any technician planning.
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Q: How do I get started?
The Servigistics Value Assessment Program provides a fast, high impact analysis to determine potential value opportunities within the service parts operations for your company. This analysis is typically executed over a 2- to 3-day period at your business, and provides a document that outlines the value potential with recommended improvements in your service parts operations and processes.
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Service Workforce Management FAQ