Intelligently run your Field Service Business

[Alex_Altermann]

Today, industrial manufacturing companies are facing challenges including supply chain disruptions, undertaking digital transformation, talent shortages, and sustainability requirements. For many Industrial manufacturing companies aftermarket service has changed from a supporting functionality to a revenue driver for their business. According to Deloitte Manufacturing Industry Outlook 2024, 71% of Industrial manufacturing Industries recognize the importance of aftermarket and service and see 2.5x greater operating margin than for equipment sales.

SAP has defined industry end-to-end scenarios, which leverage the right products out of the portfolio to solve specific business challenges. “Field Service Excellence” was developed to help industrial manufacturing companies make field service more profitable by optimizing and digitizing the aftermarket process.

The scenario covers the entire lifecycle from the initial request to the service quote, through planning and scheduling the service, executing the service delivery and then the and the management of customer invoices. All relevant information about the equipment, the customer, and the service process is in one place which improves service efficiency with reduced operational and administrative efforts and costs. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and retention.

To dive into more details - the end-to-end scenario starts with a service request – the customer can use a self-service tool, or the request can come through a call center. A service planner orchestrates the resources needed such as spare parts and tools. In the dispatching, the technician with the right qualification is planned for the service. If a customer asks for a specific task or if a company relies on third party service providers, the service orders can be handed over. The technician can use a mobile app to support task preparation, execution, and reporting. If they need more information, remote support or a knowledge database can help the technician, even when onsite, to access the information so that fulfill the service effectively. After a completing the service successfully, the customer can confirm completion to the technician, which is immediately sent to the backend so that invoicing can start right away.

To improve effectiveness the following intelligent technologies including AI-based capabilities are available in the end-to-end scenario:

• AI-based scheduling and dispatching for the field service.
• Guided workflow and smartforms, that provide field workers with a step-by-step guidance and relevant data at the right time.
• AR remote assistance helps solve complex problems on site immediately by connecting technicians to remote experts.
• Increased efficiency with AI-driven insights in the knowledge database.

Field Service Excellence shows how to combine SAP products, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Field Service  Management and SAP Service and Asset Manager , with partner solutions like Teamviewer Frontline xAssist and SAP Knowledge Central by NICE. SAP also worked with partners proaxia and Evora IT to provide a clearly defined implementation approach, both full scope and step-by-step adoption packages. Further information on this can be found in the next blog (coming soon).

SAP enables its customers to become an intelligent, sustainable businesses by bringing together a comprehensive portfolio of solutions and technology in service to customers’ business process needs. Field Service Excellence helps Industrial Manufacturers to intelligently run their end-to-end processes for Field Service.

If you need further information, please contact me directly.