By design, service businesses look to adopt scheduling tools to reduce the reliance on manual data entry, order creation, schedule and dispatch so as to reduce the possibility of errors and improve accountability for all variables that are deemed important in resource scheduling. As such, while we have seen the average number of field service technicians increase across most companies, there has been a decrease in total dispatchers. Service organizations use Service Management Software to keep tabs on the overall technician-to-dispatcher ratio so as to measure the value of their scheduling solutions. A higher ratio inherently means that a single dispatcher is able to assist the needs of a larger number of technicians, inferring that the scheduling system adopted is actually performing its task while allowing the dispatcher to provide exception or jeopardy management.
Results in a recent research project show field technician to dispatcher ratio has shifted from 15:1 in 2008 to 18:1 in 2009. Therefore while these companies are becoming more efficient, they are inherently decreasing dispatch resources, in adherence with what is being felt throughout the economy. However, there is a significant opportunity for these resources to be trained and reallocated in other aspects of the service business by using Service Management Software so as to ensure that the 6% improvement in service costs from the use of optimization tools is achieved due to improved resource utilization and not from morale dampening workforce layoffs and cutbacks.
Reinvestment of service resources also reinforces the importance of change management that needs to be enabled with an investment in scheduling process change or in optimization technology. As organizations are battling to boost field resource utilization and overall compliance rates, the impact of effective change management cannot be programmed into a scheduling algorithm. Therefore organizations that are best-in-class are those that use Service Management Software and are able to develop the appropriate mix of process improvements and organizational change as enabled with executive service leadership, real-time performance measurement and improved accountability and visibility for service performance across all levels of the organization. In addition, these organizations are able to blend both planning and execution capabilities with regards to service resource optimization and therefore enjoy 50%+ performance advantages over others in service efficiency and workforce utilization.
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