Hollie FrancisAfter last year’s successful event, we returned to the Salesforce Tower for the 2nd Field Service Customer Forum.
The goal was to demonstrate the value this solution can have, whilst also highlighting the importance of preparing your team and your technology to help ensure a successful project implementation.
After all, if your team or your data isn’t ready, it’s going to be a lot harder to get the most out of a new system.
So, in case you missed it, here’s what you need to know!
Sarah Machin: Reflecting on a successful implementation, plus the 3 pillars to get you there
Sarah recently joined Simpala after 3 years as a Business Service Director at Power Saving Solutions. Here, she was our main point of contact when we implemented Field Service, and has seen the benefits of the solution first-hand. She’s joined Simpala to ensure our customers set themselves up for success and reap the same rewards as she did at PSS.
In true energetic Sarah style, she walked us through what PSS built with Salesforce and Simpala: a live asset map, engineer visibility, automated job scheduling, service reports and stock management.
Sarah’s story takes us from spreadsheets with eye-rolling naming conventions (think: “Engineer Schedule v9_FINAL_FINAL.xls”), to an intelligent business hub that not only saved the team time and admin effort, but helped create new revenue streams.
The real takeaway, however, was her three pillars for making change stick internally: clarity, involvement and support. Get your team involved from day one, help them understand why and how a new system will help them, and then train them to actually use the solution effectively.
David Okpala: What separates the projects that succeed from the ones that don’t
With over 250 projects behind him, David has seen firsthand where things can fail during projects, and it’s always related to preparation before the implementation even starts.
David shared three areas every business needs to have sorted before they get started: process (document how you actually work, not how you think you work), data (Field Service is 80% data; if it’s bad, everything else suffers), and people (adoption is everything, one engineer who doesn’t get on board can unravel months of work – which links back to Sarah’s advice too).
And his one goal for every project: make it boring! An unmemorable, smooth and well-prepared implementation that delivers exactly what is promised.
Stefan Jankowski & Adit Chittilappilly: AI in Field Service — think big, but start small
And finally, our Salesforce duo presented the latest AI updates designed to support all roles within a field service team, from engineers on the road to dispatching planning schedules.
Stefan and Adit explained that there is technology available to support and enhance your field service operations, and you don’t need to overhaul everything to start seeing the benefits.
Intelligent scheduling helps dispatchers get the right engineer to the right job, leading to fewer delays and higher first-time fix rates. Engineers on site can access automated job briefings, fill in digital forms and bill clients for parts there and then – less faffing with admin and more time to do what they’re good at!
The key takeaway: think big picture, but start with small steps that will get you there.
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