Is a field application worthwhile for organizations? What can it contribute to them? Will it save on expenses? Is it only intended for the field personnel or also for the office personnel? How do you examine the benefit-cost ratio?
Many organizations have field personnel
Field personnel are employees whose work is mostly carried outside of the office.
Common positions include: service personnel, sales personnel, drivers, field technicians and others.
How was communication between the office and the field personnel carried out in the past?
In most organizations, the transfer of information between the field and office personnel was carried out in different ways – by SMS messages, WhatsApp, on paper, phones and more.
The transfer of information and communication between the field personnel (who are usually the execution personnel) and the office personnel (who are responsible for the management and documentation) is important and is a necessary condition for the functioning of the organization.
The transfer of information can be on many issues, such as customers, contacts, phones, leads, sales orders, product recalls, treatment status, tasks and much more.
And these days? Field applications!
Field applications allow field personnel to be connected to the organization’s internal information systems in real time.
The applications allow the field personnel to update all the data in the internal operational system (ERP) themselves in real time.
This saves the transfer of data in order for it to be typed in the office – a double waste of time – both for the field personnel and office personnel, minimizing errors and coming with many other benefits.
Implementing an application is an expensive project. How do we know if it is worthwhile for our organization?
Information systems projects are not cheap, but for a proper examination, you should check the project’s return on investment (ROI).
The important question is whether the cost of the system is lower than the possible savings with the help of the application, or how long do we estimate until we have a return on investment for the project? These are important questions that need to be asked at the very beginning of the project.
What’s included in the video?
In this video I explain the benefits of a field application for organizations.
For the office personnel – it saves time typing, searching and filing paperwork, reduces the number of telephone calls between internal employees and field personnel, and frees up time for handling work and customers.
For the field personnel – they receive all updated data on customers/orders/status/production in real time, and can update information in real time on any subject without contacting the office.
Communication between office and field personnel – simpler and better. The field personnel can transfer and receive information from the office through the application, without bothering the office personnel, without calling them multiple times and without waiting for them whatsoever.
Minimization of errors – since the field personnel update the data themselves, errors arising from delays/misunderstandings in the transfer of information to the office are avoided.
Improving the quality of service and information – as the information is updated online, the organization is able to provide a better and more accurate service to the customer, higher flexibility, savings on paperwork and better visibility in front of customers.
In conclusion
When considering a solution of this type, the income and expenses for such a project must be examined. Sometimes you find that the efficiency brings great savings in a short period of time.
And relative to an ERP project? It’s a much shorter, cheaper and simpler project, with tremendous value.
