Microsoft is to acquire FieldOne Systems, a provider of field service management solutions that allow organisations to better manage and deliver service to their customers in the field.
Bob Stutz, corporate vice-president of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, explains the thinking behind the move: “In today’s connected world, people expect to engage and be engaged by organizations in new ways, in ways that are most convenient for them. To help businesses respond to these changing expectations, we are committed to providing the most comprehensive customer service offering, and this includes the best field service capabilities.
“Field service management is a specific but critically important area of customer service, providing companies with the ability to deliver end-to-end field service. This is a unique and transformational point in time for these solutions as enterprises look to improve their responsiveness to customers with service in the field – taking service directly to the customer anytime a service cannot be managed by phone or other channels.”
FieldOne provides the baseline functionality that organisations need to drive a more effective field service operation,” he adds.
“They are a leading provider of end-to-end solutions that enable businesses to drive revenue, reduce costs and deliver great customer service. Their industry-leading solution specialises in delivering a full set of capabilities that include work order management, automated scheduling, asset contract, inventory and procurement management, workflow capabilities and mobile collaboration – providing enterprises with a comprehensive modern field service solution.
“This gives companies the ability to do things such as adjusting routing on the fly and delivering service arrival estimate times within a smaller window, which is essential for more personal customer engagement.”
Stutz adds that FieldOne adds to the Dynamics CRM customer service capabilities.
“FieldOne is offered to customers as a cloud service. It’s built on Microsoft technology for fast integration, it already works great with other Microsoft productivity offerings like Office 365 and SharePoint, and has cross-platform capabilities meaning it can work on different devices enhancing the mobile experience which is so critically important in field service management.”