Field force automation and its's Key Challenges

There are a number of businesses that have a direct sales force or a number of staff working across different locations in various parts of the country or the world. They may be selling products face-to-face to your clients or they may be taking products back or they may even be collecting information or making people fill up forms. How do we manage this huge workforce that is out there on the field and doing their jobs? How do you tally the results with the investment or even better, try and make changes to existing field plans?

It is increasingly clear that there needs to be a certain sense of discipline and streamlining of field operations. This is one of the reasons why it is important to automate certain tasks within field sales and operations. This helps you to track your assets remotely and contact with your workforce when required.

In this article, let us take a look at what field force management is and how it is going to help you.

Why you must choose field force management?

Field force management tools help you to stay in control all the time. They automate what can be automated and leave only the most human-human interaction left to your staff. This helps you to keep a record of all interactions and important data within a database, without you having to manually go through sales receipts, complaint slips and other such details. In other words, a field force management tool is a godsend to companies.

Moreover, these tools help to automate several aspects of your staff’s work, leading to an increase in productivity and motivation. By streamlining operations, you will also ensure that important stakeholders are well informed and management visibility is enhanced. This helps you to make smarter decisions and finally help you to serve your customers better.

Cloud based solutions help you automate better?

Field Force Management is usually cloud based which means all data is stored and accessible on secure cloud servers. There is no question of losing important data or not being able to retrieve something important. If something goes missing, there will usually be a backup available. Field force management tools include the software, the hardware and also the kind of training that is required for users to use it efficiently.

The software usually helps in saving and processing information while the hardware helps employees to enter important data into devices while they are on the job. Sometimes, field force solutions can also be a mobile app which negates the need for a specific or special device. This is very important when it comes to field jobs as carrying different devices can prove to be a cumbersome job.

The actual process of field force management?

A field force management tool helps you to remain in contact with your staff while they are at work on the field. This helps you to track your personnel in real time. Field personnel or your staff can log in and enter their attendance using a smartphone. You can assign that particular day’s task remotely using a web console or your own smartphone.

Next, they can carry out whatever duties they need to while you get all the alerts that you set to receive. This helps to increase transparency. You can choose to receive alerts on your phone or on your desktop.

Key Challenges in Traditional Field Force Management

There are numerous challenges in traditional methods of field force management, some of them are: 

1. Inadequate visibility of the field operations which result in disorganized work and extra overhead.
2. Poor communication between manager and field force leads to rework and anxiety.
3. Sub-optimal client service due to slower respose time. 
4. Randomly assigning of tasks causing dissatisfaction amongst the employees. 
5. Traditional Paper based tasks allotment, leading to a time consuming and less productive operations.
6. High operating and administrative cost. 
7. Lack of optimum utilization of resources. 
8. Risk of not meeting agreed SLAs.
9. Lack of communication between the on-site resources and planner/scheduler leads to delay in work execution.
10. Lack of visibility on the work that is executed at a remote location and hence it becomes difficult to manage the productivity of these resources.
11. Prioritization of work becomes a challenge.
12. Grouping of work for a particular location does not happen in an optimum manner.
13. Inaccurate allocation of resources as per required skills.
14. Delay in the reactions on the feedback received from the field resources.