Analytics: the secret weapon of field service digital transformation. As an organization that isn’t currently fuelled by analytics, it might feel like those around you have field superpowers. They are agile to market changes and complete ridiculous amounts of work orders, all while continuously improving processes. Speed is the name of the game — and we all know if you’re not first, you’re last.
It can be daunting to implement analytics if you don’t currently leverage data in your business. Don’t worry. We’ve broken down how analytics can help your field service teams and the beginning steps to ensure a successful deployment. (Psst, at the end we’ve also got your next steps covered.)
Why is analytics important in field service?
Analytics and the data that feeds into it is key to field service workflow optimization. Consider a mass utility installation roll out and the data that is collected during the installation events. This data might currently be tracked with paper forms or on Excel spreadsheets. Unfortunately, information gathered onsite is useless unless it’s logged and actioned. What analytics does is ingest the large sets of data gathered and turns it into something that decision-makers can understand and leverage in real-time.
That sounds great, but how does analytics actually improve field service workflows?
There are three use cases that power analytics in the field: uncovering new data patterns, optimizing decision-making, and innovating.
The first use case is to leverage collected data to locate gaps in workflows. Analytics allows you to view dashboards and reports that pinpoint patterns and potential problems. For example, according to the collected data, team A consistently underperforms compared to team B in the number of installations completed. Line of business leaders can use this information to take corrective action or investigate the root cause. With analytics, issues are addressed immediately before they turn critical or result in loss of revenue.
Next, analytics impacts decision-making at all stages — from the moment data is submitted to prescriptive decision making that determines the next best course of action. By using analytics, you can make a wider set of decisions at all stages that are grounded in facts — not hunches.
Once patterns are established and decisions at all stages are driven by data, this creates room for innovation. Perhaps there is a tool or new process that can be implemented to improve the number of installations completed in a day. With analytics, a business case can be made using concrete numbers.
How to bring your organization on board
Once you understand the value that analytics can bring, the next step is to foster an analytics culture within your organization. Without it, implementing analytics is difficult and might not take root or be adopted across field and office teams.
To build a culture of analytics, you have to start before the first deployment. Before integrating analytics into your workflows, you must create a clear vision of the analytics value proposition in your organization. Why are you using analytics? What areas of the business will it impact? How will it differentiate service delivery? Jumping into analytics because it’s the thing “you should do” will only result in a clunky deployment. Instead, determine what analytics will work to improve, with focused investments in high-value areas.
It is also important to win executive sponsorship to create a top-down alignment and adoption. Without executive commitment, a deployment will likely stagnate at the early stages of analytics maturity — staying in an analytically challenged or analytic aspiration state and halting your progression towards becoming an analytical company.
The future of analytics
It’s not too late to implement analytics and take advantage of data in your organization. Adopting analytics will only better position you for the upcoming shift in field service. After all, it is predicted that 90% of analytics solutions will have AI as a standard feature by 2020.
Analytics isn’t going anywhere and with the spread of AI and machine learning, it is set to become more intricate and predictive than ever before. Combined with improvements in continuous intelligence that will help automate decision-making using real-time analytics and voice-generated data, it’s important to get a handle on analytics to future-proof your organization.
Ready to arm yourself with analytics? Looking to conquer data? We’ve got you covered. Join ProntoForms’ Director of Implementation and Success Aly Mawani for an analytics boot camp to get you started on your path to mastering analytics — from building a culture of analytics in your organization to data-grounded decision making.
