How important it is for the field workforce to coordinate with back-office?

The importance of your field workforce coordinating regularly and coherently with your back-office cannot be overstated. Your field workers rely upon the intelligence provided by your administrative hub to carry out their duties suitably and, likewise, the productivity of your back-office depends upon your field workers relaying important information about the completion of their deliveries whilst they’re on the road.

Without fluid and precise communication between your mobile workforce and your base of operations, how can you expect to be informed about the status of customer orders, or be able to aid your drivers if they encounter problems whilst in the field?

Having an easy-to-use and reliable medium of communication between the two entities is vital to your fleet’s success. Read on the views shared by our guest author to find out the range of services good field service software can offer that will enhance your back-office-to-driver coordination, and ultimately boost your businesses capabilities with integrated workforce management.

Safety

The most important aspect of any job is safety, something which is impossible to guarantee without coordination between your back office and field workers. Police forces, fire brigades and ambulance services around the world rely on digital solutions to provide them with up-to-the-minute visibility on their location.

Having a way of reporting defects on the vehicles and equipment they are using is vital for safety. Fleet mobile forms solutions can be used reported back to fleet maintenance systems, to schedule repairs effectively.

Field service solutions allow your back-office and field operatives to communicate information in real-time, especially valuable for lone workers. Worker safety is at big risk without said means of coordination and communication.

Task management

Effective co-ordination between your back-office and mobile workers can also drive efficiency and increase your customer retention. Management systems allow your base of operations to manage the tasks of your mobile workers, streamlining processes and enabling jobs to be completed as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.

Task management coordination means that your drivers can have their routes optimized for the quickest arrival time, saving fuel and time, as well as boosting customer satisfaction. This mobile data collection is then communicated back to your back-office who can add more tasks to your field workers respective job lists, or, likewise, allocate jobs to other workers if your field professionals reject jobs for any reason. Once jobs have been completed, field workers can upload their notes and reports to their back-office colleagues, allowing records to be updated and your customers kept satisfied.

The very best software even allows back-offices to allocate jobs by location, meaning that workers in a certain area can complete a greater amount of tasks thanks to intelligent coordination between the two parties.

Constant Coordination

To fully realize the safety and profit-making benefits of coordination between your back office and fleet workers, being able to communicate regardless of time, situation or location is necessary. Field management software grants your back office the ability to empower your workers in the field, wherever they are, thanks to its cross-device functionalities.

Got employees on one of the many different operating systems? The best field management software can remedy this through mobile data collection for all Windows, iOS and Android devices, meaning your fleet is operating at full capacity regardless of the mobile form they’re using.

Offline synchronization capabilities can also be used by off-site field workers to access key features and information even when operating in areas with little or no network coverage. This means that productivity isn’t affected and there is no extra time wasted while field operatives are working in unfamiliar areas.

Coordination will change the game!

There’s no doubt that clear communication channels between field operatives and back offices are essential to reducing excess costs and increasing efficiency. Ensuring this coordination not only safeguards your workers from potentially perilous circumstances, it also offers an abundance of task management that can increase productivity, minimize costs, save time and attract and retain new customers. Effective communication will not only improve day-to-day operations but will ultimately allow you to get ahead of competitors by offering much quicker and more effective services. If implemented properly, integrated workforce management will reduce any wasted time and will ensure that you’re effectively utilizing your time and resources while still minimizing overheads.