Mobile workforce management solutions provide significant benefits for SMBs by improving visibility into field operations, streamlining communication between field staff and office personnel, and increasing field staff productivity. These solutions automate processes like scheduling, job documentation, expense tracking, and payroll to reduce costs while empowering field staff with real-time access to job information on mobile devices. The increased efficiency and productivity enabled by mobile workforce management solutions can substantially impact SMBs' bottom lines.

1. Working Smarter &
Working Faster
How Mobile Workforce Management Solutions
Are Changing the Game for SMBs

2. Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................3
Better Visibility, Better Collaboration ...........................................................4
Ever-Improving Service...................................................................................5
Leveraging Data Seamlessly ..........................................................................6
Simplicity and Savings Through Automation...............................................7
Ease of Implementation and the Real Impact on the Field........................8
Resources.........................................................................................................9
2

3. Introduction
For service-oriented businesses, field staff are playing more important and
multifaceted roles than ever before. Not only are field employees the first line of
defense against customer dissatisfaction, but they are the vanguard of the customer
experience. That proximity to the customer also puts field staff in a strong position
to influence sales and collect valuable information about clients and industry trends.
Clearly, the modern field technician serves a myriad of essential business needs.
It goes without saying, then, that a more agile, efficient, and connected field team
can be a major asset, helping to reduce operational costs, bolster revenue streams,
and provide reliable business intelligence. In order to get the most out of their field
workforces, small and medium-sized businesses are coming to see the value of
mobile workforce management solutions. These solutions give managers much
better visibility into field operations and empower field staff to accomplish more than
ever before. This eBook explores why many SMBs are turning to mobile workforce
management solutions to increase field productivity, reduce costs, and improve
employee engagement.
3

4. Better Visibility,
Better Collaboration
Never missing a step: how visibility helps connect field staff with office personnel
Perhaps the most fundamental challenge facing service-oriented businesses is gaining
good visibility into the schedules, jobs, and locations of field staff. If dispatchers and
back-office personnel have a better understanding of field techs’ workflows and
locations, they can track and schedule jobs much more efficiently. Better visibility also
means faster reporting, since it’s easier to stay up-to-date on field employees’ weekly
hours, when they are on a job, and when the job is complete.
• Location information leads to more precise scheduling
• Automated job updates let office staff know when a customer has been taken care of
• Automated reporting reduces manual paperwork and streamlines collaboration
• Fewer superfluous calls and messages leaves staff free to focus on what is most
important in their communications
4

5. Ever-Improving Service
As service becomes a more significant component of customers’ purchasing decisions,
service-based organizations are recognizing the need to constantly improve their
service offerings. Mobile workforce management solutions offer a unique way to
constantly improve the level of service. Those tools give businesses the opportunity to
better tailor their technician assignments to the job based on skill set, proximity, or part
availability. Mobile management solutions also streamline the job creation process,
which allows businesses to react more quickly to customer requests.
Furthermore, with mobile workforce management solutions, feedback can flow much
smoother from customers to technicians to managers and other office staff. This
creates a much faster, closed-loop feedback system that enables businesses to quickly
learn from each customer interaction. Armed with those insights, businesses can
quickly and iteratively improve their product and service offerings, staying a step ahead
of industry trends and delighting their customers.
Tailoring technicians to jobs is
especially important for SMBs,
which can have smaller field forces.
By helping SMBs to use those
forces more efficiently and make
the most of each employee’s skills,
mobile workforce management tools
can have a substantial impact
on the bottom line.
5

6. Leveraging Data Seamlessly
By going digital, companies are eliminating unnecessary paperwork and consolidating
their information in more convenient and readily accessible digital libraries. Through
mobile workforce management tools, technicians can effortlessly capture customer
and job information. Having that information – such as signed forms, inventory,
and expenses – all in one place has clear advantages for reporting and process
improvement.
Making information capture easier for field personnel does something else: it frees
them up to capture new insights and information that might have escaped them
in the past. In essence, field employees are turning into a great source of business
intelligence, because it is so much easier for them to capture and communicate
information through mobile forms.
16% of service organizations
see big data analytics
as the most essential
investment category in 2015.
Source: Field Service, “Where
Service Meets Sales,” 2015
6

7. Simplicity and Savings
Through Automation Reducing Operational Costs
As we have seen, businesses are leveraging mobile workforce management solutions
to drive new revenue opportunities and improve their service offerings. But those
solutions are also helping companies to reduce their operational costs. Field personnel
who receive all pertinent job information instantaneously via their mobile device no
longer need to fill out manual work orders or spend significant time on the phone with
dispatch to work out job details, addresses, and service information. Mobile workforce
management capabilities make job assignment and communication easier, and thus
more cost-effective.
Businesses are also taking advantage of capabilities like automated payroll and
expense processing to cut down on the time and resources traditionally devoted to
those activities. This is a big advantage for SMBs, because it enables them to shift
valuable resources away from administrative work and toward more productive tasks
and projects. What’s more, businesses can have greater confidence in the timesheets
they process, because they are digitally stamped with time and location.
• Automated payroll and
expense processing
• Digitally-validated
documentation
• Minimizes time spent
clarifying job assignments
7

8. Ease of Implementation and
the Real Impact on the Field
How do mobile workforce management tools impact employees in the field?
Another advantage SMBs see with mobile workforce management tools is how easy they
generally are to implement. Since mobile applications do not require major hardware
or systems investments, they are extremely easy to deploy. For companies without
robust IT departments, this is especially important. With short-cycle implementation
times, companies can have powerful workforce management tools in the hands of their
technicians in days, which can produce quick-hit ROI and productivity improvements.
• Automated payroll processing and easy-to-use expense reports
• No more manual timesheets or expense reports
• Immediate access to important job information
• More complete documentation of jobs, including proof of service
• More efficient scheduling
• Fewer calls with dispatch
• Faster access to help in emergencies
8

9. 9
Resources
Field Service is the leading service and support event, attracting senior-level service and support
professionals from many different manufacturing industries, including Aerospace, Medical Device
Manufacturing, Hi-Tech Electronic, Semi-Conductor and Capital Equipment, Construction, Automotive,
Telecommunications Equipment, Energy, Industrial, and Agricultural Equipment. Field Service tackles
the latest strategies in core service functions, including mobility, workforce management, technical
support, and knowledge management. The event also presents innovative developments in increasing
service revenue, customer soft skills, technician utilization, developing service leadership, and effective
mobile resources management.
Interested in this content? Learn more at digital.wbresearch.com or get in touch with us here.
Field Service
A special thank you to our partner, Field Force Manager whose vision and expertise helped make
this report possible. Field Force Manager is a suite of configurable mobile apps and a web-based
management application that helps give office staff greater visibility into the field and also helps
mobile workers get more done when servicing their customers. With the Field Force Manager
mobile workforce management solution, organizations with employees in the field can instantly
see their exact locations, plan their schedules, gather data from the field, and simplify other back-
office processes like payroll. As the industry’s leading mobile productivity solution, Field Force
Manager helps more than 16 thousand organizations meet their productivity and service goals for
about $1 per day per user. To learn more, visit us here.
Field Force Manager
FIELD
FORCE
MANAGER