Inventory Management in Field Services: Keeping the Right Parts at the Right Time
It is common for field service businesses to order more inventory than required so that they can keep up with the demand. However, such services are seasonal in nature, thus making such practices redundant in both peak and low season. Your business may end up overstocked in low season leading to losses, or not have enough to supply demand in case of unusual peaks.
To overcome such obstacles in managing inventory – it is advised to opt for inventory management software or choose a field service management app that includes inventory tracking features.
Read more to know how inventory management features help field service businesses scale efficiently and the top features to look for.
Why have inventory management as a feature in your field service management software?
Field service management software is a specialized tool that helps businesses streamline operations that enable delivering their services to customers. From taking order details, scheduling jobs, and dispatching field service technicians to billing – it can take care of every task and automate it for minimal intervention.
Field service management apps like Zuper include artificial intelligence-enabled inventory and asset management features that help optimize equipment and material expenses.
Inventory management features to look for in your Field Service Management app
5 typical features that help manage assets include:
- Dashboard: FSM apps include an inventory dashboard that helps you visualize the inventory status across each equipment, tool, and material. It includes tracking features like barcodes and IoT trackers to track location and usage status.
- Asset uptime: software helps track the health of your equipment based on best practices and practical usage. By knowing uptime value, your workers can improve the equipment or tool utilization.
- Records storage: never lose any data by digitally keeping the asset records, purchase receipts, maintenance receipts, depreciation, and more.
- Capture images: store proofs of equipment usage for equipment borrowed from vendors. Such steps help bargain prices and not overpay for any damages.
- Preventive maintenance plans: manage your preventive care for expensive materials and equipment digitally. Track maintenance schedules and improve product lifespan.
Software like Zuper also makes such asset management features accessible via a mobile app. This makes it easy for workers servicing remotely to know the status of inventory or update it whenever required.
Benefits of digitizing inventory management with Field Service Management Software
Inventory management features help your field service business as follows:
Optimizes expenses on assets
Field servicing is a seasonal business. Hence, they need to use historical data for optimizing expenses on materials, equipment, and tools. The software uses data from equipment, sales, and the market to determine if you require to restock. With preventive maintenance digitized – it helps increase the lifespan of assets, reducing costs further.
Efficient work order management
Once your work order is scheduled, to successfully dispatch field service technicians you need to equip them with the tools or materials required. For this, the software will assign relevant assets as per the service required and the workers assigned. It will also trigger any purchase orders to make sure you never run out of materials or tools as demand fluctuates.
Accurate billing to customers or vendors
It is unethical to charge customers for equipment or material usage that wasn’t required. Any errors in calculating bill value for asset usage will make customers question your professionalism. The same is true when you’re purchasing equipment from vendors on rent or full payment. Thus, using software removes such ambiguity as it accurately tracks usage for billing – which is not possible in manual workflows.
Integration with other software
FSM apps like Zuper come with multiple integrations that help you share data with other software for more complex analysis or perform tasks beyond field service scope. For example, you can export or import asset data to your chosen operations consultant who may help you optimize your field service business processes.
Without inventory management, you will lose customers
Customers do not like waiting due to operational errors or pay extra for any service. With FSM software with inventory management features, it is possible to manage asset availability, track materials, and reduce costs – thus improving profits.
Book a demo today with Zuper to understand how these features can enable your field service business to perform better.
