Field Service Transformation: A Firsthand Approach To Solving Common Business Challenges – Corporate Governance – Corporate/Commercial Law

Field services are an integral part of many industries. The ways
in which these services are delivered have evolved at an
accelerated pace in recent years, affecting frontline workers and
users. Yet parts of the industry continue to face shared
challenges, while further opportunities for service improvement and
productivity remain.

The Covid-19 lockdowns and ensuing business and industrial
disruptions emphasized the importance of field service, which
refers to any service provided to clients or customers outside
company premises. These operations, which could range from general
maintenance and inspection services to facility management and
traffic management solutions, directly represent the business, with
each interaction influencing the customer’s perception about
the quality of service.

While the increased adoption of big data analytics, remote work
and artificial intelligence (AI) tools are transforming the
workplace, they cannot fully replace the essential hands-on work
that field services still provide. This is fundamentally a
“people business.”

At Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), we are often called into
situations both pre- and post-deal to advise and transform
field-based services for our clients. While most clients understand
the necessity for high-quality and profitable field services, it is
extremely hard to get it right, given the dimensions ranging from
managing client demand to geographical presence, skill and
workforce management perspectives. Critical to the process of
identifying improvements is understanding the complexity of the
tasks and activities required, as well as local nuances and working
across the entire value chain.

In this article, we will discuss the typical challenges
encountered by businesses when it comes to field services and how
they can be addressed. We recently worked on a client case in
engineering services, which exemplified many of the common themes
we come across in field-service related industries.

Common Client Challenges

We routinely see demanding situations at businesses, where
several processes have not been adequately managed or conflicts
between departments have been left unresolved and simmered over
time. Outlined below are challenges that typically arise in
fast-growth and ramp-up scenarios, when management focus has
prioritized business development over managing fundamentals and
structural processes.

While these may be evident to an outside observer, operational
management is often pre-occupied with daily issues on hand. An
external assessment triggered by, say, the due diligence process of
an investor (pre-deal), or by a business transformation program
(post-deal) is a typical entry point for A&M. Here are some
themes to look out for:

Due to one or more of these challenges, employees lose
motivation, service quality suffers and profitability slides
downward. While some challenges are common in nature, every
situation is unique and influencing factors will differ, which
means thorough fact-finding is always needed to confirm the optimal
solution for each client case

A&M’s Approach

At its core, field service is a people-oriented business. It is
about skilled people providing customers a physical service that
cannot be delivered remotely or automated. While advising
businesses on field services, we have observed that personnel often
work far away from headquarters and have little contact with other
colleagues. Ensuring field service staff stay engaged, motivated
and are treated with respect is not just responsible business
practice but crucial to keeping customers happy and profitability
growing. Our approach emphasizes the personal, both through formal
interactions and coaching from supervisors, combined with more
informal exchanges with peers and learning. The following are key
considerations for businesses on field service transformation.

Ensure in-depth understanding of challenges by analyzing all
available data across geographies, client bases, field force teams,
skill levels and services provided, and examining key processes
such as those related to planning and scheduling:

Conclusion

Field service teams provide essential and direct benefits to
customers that cannot be fully substituted by AI or remote work
yet. Service providers therefore have a duty of care to provide the
right structure and support for fieldservice personnel who often
work in challenging conditions. Productivity and profitability can
only be enhanced and sustained once the fundamentals of operations
have been set up. With the right tools and catalysts, field
services can be transformed in a way that refines resources and
processes, while maximizing inter-departmental collaboration and
improving conditions for a company’s most valuable asset
– its people.

Originally published 26 August 2024

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.