Earlier this month, Glenn Chenier, Chief Product Officer at TrueContext, introduced a new feature for TrueContext’s Connected Worker platform: Work History. This capability is the first in a series of platform improvements building toward the company’s Master Technician vision. Designed to transform how field service technicians access historical data, this feature promises to streamline workflows, reduce search time, and empower technicians with key insights where they need them most — directly within their active form workflows. Below, we cover the highlights from the webinar, key feature benefits, and practical use cases demonstrated during the session.
Access to Historical Data: An Industry-Wide Problem for Field Service
Through the webinar, Glenn Chenier underscored a critical challenge in the industry: the inefficiency caused by the lack of accessible historical data. According to the Service Council’s Voice of the Field Service Engineer survey, field technicians spend 36% of their day searching for data. This inefficiency, paired with frustrations over dealing with paperwork and administrative tasks, leaves technicians struggling to access the information they need to understand the full history of the assets they service.
As Glenn explained, while work orders, service reports, and back-office records do contain data, the information is often incomplete. Key observations like inspection results, technician notes, and judgment calls are locked away, making it difficult for technicians to perform their jobs efficiently and confidently
Introducing the Work History Feature
TrueContext’s new Work History feature addresses these challenges head-on, ensuring technicians have instant access to relevant, detailed historical data inside their workflows. Here’s how Glenn described its value: “Take that rich history that already exists in your TrueContext data and put it in front of the technician inside of their workflow at the moment it’s useful.”
With Work History, technicians can view actionable data without needing to leave the app or dig through external systems. The feature launches the moment a technician selects or identifies the asset or site they’re working on, instantly displaying the associated history. Glenn also emphasized that existing TrueContext customers with captured workflow data won’t need to migrate or import anything, as this history is automatically surfaced.
Key Views: Record History and Data History
Glenn showcased two complementary views that make Work History a technician’s best friend:
- Record History: A wide-lens view that answers the question, “What’s been happening with this entity, asset, or site?” It organizes historical workflows based on the technician’s current work context, surfacing corrective actions, inspections, and preventive maintenance records.
- Data History: A zoomed-in view that focuses on trends over time for specific data points. For example, technicians can track temperature readings, cylinder weights, or other metrics, comparing values across multiple visits.
These views enable technicians to see both the broader story and granular trends with just a few taps—dramatically reducing time spent searching for information.
Key Features and Capabilities Demonstrated
During the webinar, Glenn demonstrated practical use cases to showcase how technicians can leverage Work History in the field. Here are the standout features:
Seamless Integration
Work History integrates directly into workflows without requiring technicians to leave the app or manually search external systems. As Glenn described:
“It’s all brought right to them without them having to specifically query for anything.”
Visual Inspection History
Technicians can view photos from previous records, see who took them, and analyze how wear and tear progresses over time—providing immediate insights during inspections.
Grouped Metrics
Workflows organize data into pages and sections, and Data History reflects this structure for intuitive navigation. Technicians can explore grouped data points over time to identify patterns and potential risks.
Answer Exceptions
An advanced feature allows technicians to define acceptable ranges for metrics, enabling proactive management. For example, if a metric drifts out of range, the system can immediately flag it for attention:
“Technicians see at a glance whether readings have been within tolerance or drifting of bounds. That’s the kind of insight that helps catch problems early.”
Offline Accessibility
Connectivity challenges in remote work environments don’t limit Work History’s functionality. Relevant historical data is synced to devices, allowing technicians to access it offline—perfect for field operations in regions with unreliable networks:
“As part of reconciliation… it brought some history items with it.”
Customization and Knowledge Sharing
TrueContext provides extensive options for customizing Work History to ensure technicians see the most relevant data. Administrators can set permissions to restrict access to technicians’ own records or enable broader team-level visibility for sharing institutional knowledge.
“That’s how knowledge can get shared across the team.”
Customization also extends to filtering history based on entity types, such as assets, sites, or customer records. As Glenn noted, longer-term use of TrueContext allows organizations to continuously expand and enrich their data, making Work History even more powerful over time.
Roadmap and Future Vision
Glenn framed the launch of Work History as a significant step toward realizing TrueContext’s vision for enabling technicians with richer contextual access to institutional knowledge:
“The idea that…every technician should have access to the kind of context and institutional knowledge that your most experienced veterans carry around in their heads.”
Future enhancements are already in progress, including integration with external systems for real-time data, AI-powered insights, and additional filtering capabilities. The goal is to further enrich workflows and expand accessibility across broader data sources.
The Work History feature represents a transformative leap for field teams using TrueContext. By seamlessly bringing actionable historical data into workflows, technicians can make better-informed decisions, reduce wasted time, and catch issues before they escalate—all while sharing knowledge across their teams. Whether accessing data online or offline, this feature empowers technicians with organization-wide intelligence.
