Addressing field service management operations used to be a straightforward affair – taking notes, making phone calls to technicians on the field of work, sending emails, create folders with maintenance documents. The entire process used to be manual, chaotic and error-prone.
The past decade has seen the uptick of software solutions that help automate field service management and maintenance operations and help both managers and field service technicians communicate more effectively, increase their productivity and digitise the entire process.
These solutions come in the form of field service management software (FSM) or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Today, we will be looking at the difference between FSM, CMMS software to help make the right choice for your business.
What is CMMS Software?
A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) allows companies to manage, run and access data about the maintenance activities of equipment, assets, machinery and vehicle. By having a firm grasp of this data, you can proactively schedule maintenance tasks and achieve a level of predictive maintenance for your inventory management.
CMMS mainly allows users to:
- Create, manage and update work orders in real-time
- Schedule and track predictive maintenance
- Track employee and equipment performance
- Manage inventory
- Create detailed asset profiles with crucial information such as manufacturer, model, serial number, installed location, warranties, repair manuals, tech specs, and more
CMMS Benefits
- Reduce maintenance costs by creating standardized workflows
- Boost team productivity
- Prolong equipment lifespan, increase asset performance and avoid unexpected breakdowns
- Improve customer satisfaction and the overall customer experience
CMMS Features
- Work order management
- Service and maintencance record keeping
- Preventive maintenance
- Technicians communication management
With that in mind, let’s now look at the differences between CMMS software and field service management solutions.
FSM vs. CMMS: The differences
Field service management software covers a lot more field service operations areas than CMMS – CMMS is a essnetially a part of FSM software. FSM is not only focused on maintenance operations and asset longevity, but it also provides features and benefits that automate daily employee operations and improve customer communication.
Let’s look at some features you can expect to find in an FSM software like Frontu that you would not normally find in CMMS software.
Customer relationship management
CMMS software is business and equipment-centric, serving companies internally. Field service management software, on the other hand, is a customer-serving product with high customer expectations. A solution like Frontu, opens the channels of communication with the customer, allowing them to create a new job, leave comments on an existing task and provide their feedback once a project is complete.
By involving customers with such immediacy, you’re reducing the possibility for errors and increasing customer satisfaction.
An end-to-end framework, not a one-off solution
Think of a platform like Frontu, as your one-stop-shop for any information required about your job. Technicians and managers alike need to just get their mobile devices, log in to the app and they will be able to access the information they need. Here are some of the key areas you can automate with Frontu, apart from enterprise asset management:
- Dynamic task scheduling
- GPS tracking for vehicles and equipment
- Improve response times with real-time communication
- Reduce costs by centrealising operations
- Improve forecasting on spare parts, asset and resource allocation through access to data
- Automated reporting for historical data, patterns and trends
Empowering technicians
One of the main advantages of Frontu is that it gives front-line technicians a powerful tool to do their job at a higher clip. CMMS software is usually beneficial for managers and headquarters with less day-to-day usability by technicians.
Frontu has countless capabilities for employees that give them the ability to be more productive. Take the offline mode for example. With Frontu, your mobile workforce no longer has to worry about Internet signal. The app can work perfectly offline and load the new data on the server once you are back online.
Do you want another benefit for the technician? What about being able to invoice clients on the spot, by having them sign on the tablet? That makes the invoice process much more efficient, direct and safe. Forget losing invoices or having to print them, email them and have them linger for weeks on end.
