A manager sitting in Melbourne assigns tasks to respective field sales team in the morning, sales team members receives the notification and logs into their mobile devices to get the details, and get started with their work across various cities. Apps makes their route maps and various client points sales rep has touched. It consolidates all the orders detail filled in by sales reps, shoots an intimation to inventory team while availing a neatly defined report with key matrixes for it’s management. Sounds good? Read on.
Technology has made its way into numerous areas of our lives. The business world is no different, as variety of tech solutions have provided great improvements in different areas of work. Healthcare, marketing, financial and entertainment industries have been affected in a big way. The transportation industry as well. One such business area, field force management, has greatly been improved. With the creation of various software solutions, in combination with the latest gadgets, field force management has taken a big step forward.
Numbers become irrelevant
The main reasons why enterprise mobility has become a popular solution is due to the fact that many companies achieve growth. As this trend continues over time, it becomes much harder to stay in control of their field force, which starts counting hundreds, and in some cases, even thousands of members. Employee productivity is greatly improved. Not only do teams of people become more productive, but asset management gets a great boost as well.
It is easy to track all company-related data. Additionally, collaboration is greatly improved by enterprise software solutions, as various types of data are always accessible by both people in the field and those who are at the office. Simply put, enterprise mobility technology turns teams that count thousands of people into a well-oiled machine, which gets the job done quickly and efficiently.
As the field force is much better managed, other workflow processes in the company are passively improved. This greatly improves the general efficiency of the company, especially the part that is related to customer services.
GPS tracking
The usual devices deployed in field management are smartphones and tablets. These devices are equipped with GPS sensors, which helps monitor the location of each team member much more effectively. Another important fact is that by only providing the destination address to a team member, an app automatically calculates the shortest route he or she should take to reach that destination.
This enables you to manage your team more efficiently, as you can automatically assign a task to someone who is at the nearest location to the desired destination. Time is a very important thing in the business world, not to mention travelling-related expenses for gas, etc. All this is greatly improved with the utilization of GPS technology, which has become omnipresent.
Data storage
Data is an important part for any company out there. With mobile technologies being present at all times, field force members can easily add any new data to the complete data archive. Constant updates with the latest information from the field are there to improve the whole team’s collaboration efforts. The newly acquired data is easily accessible to all colleagues in the team and, with the right notification system, everyone can keep track of the latest tasks that have been successfully taken care of. More importantly, the acquired data can be in different forms; photos, documents and videos, which serve even better for managing successfully completed tasks.
Customer support
Field force efficiency is very important in cases when customers require some type of on-site support. With the utilization of the above mentioned technologies, sending the right person out to the field is easy for all field force managers, as there is a wide array of data that helps them choose the right person to handle a specific task in the field. Through improved customer support, businesses acquire a lot more loyal customers, which is the most important thing for every business out there.
Real time information funnel
Field force management is greatly depended on the information that is available to all team members. With the utilization of mobile technology along with field force management software, the data stacks up for future references as well. Every completed task is accompanied by a wide variety of follow up data. Who was in charge of the task? When was he or she given the task? How long did it take time to finish the task? How was it handled? Was the customer satisfied?
These are all the important parts of a business protocol and they are great for specific future references. The acquired data gives a perfect insight into the performance of all employees that are deployed in the field. This enables the employer to create special bonuses for people who perform well. It is also a great tool for greatly improving the field force, as those who do not handle the field work well can be transferred to some other positions within the company, where they would be more efficient.
Vividness of information
This is not a determining factor for all field force members. It all depends on the type of work, but, for example, people from insurance agencies often require a lot of different types of data. Filling out a form is something basic, but when a field worker of an insurance agency is in the field, acquiring photos of the a damaged vehicle or any other type of property is easily performed with the use of some of latest technologies. This further improves field force management, as people who are deployed in the field have a wide array of tools in a single device that they carry with themselves at all times.
These are some of the ways in which enterprise mobility positively affects field force management. The newly developed technologies are just perfect for field force management improvements. There is simply too much information concerning the latest gadgets that can be utilized to complete field tasks with great efficiency to be covered in a single article, so feel free to do some additional research and find the best tools for your business. You stand to gain a lot, so it’s definitely worth the extra time you’ll spend looking for the right software and gadgets.
Finoit has assisted numerous enterprises in making their field force more efficient, pro-active and technology driven while improving organizational processes and improving ROI. Please write to us on info@finoit.com for any query or requirement you may have.
