Field Service Businesses: Why High-quality Data Is The Backbone Of Your Success

Data quality & Centralisation for field service businesses 

You may have heard about some of the­se inci­dents from your col­lea­gues, or they actual­ly have hap­pe­ned to you too:

“Lea dele­ted all the columns she doesn’t use. She for­got she’s not the only one to use the “ins­tal­la­tions” spreadsheet.”

“Andy spent his day upda­ting the cus­to­mer invoice spreads­heet, put­ting the wrong figu­res in the wrong row. You can’t bla­me him, it’s hard to see the row num­ber when it’s the 78th column. And the worst thing is, you don’t know he has made tho­se mis­ta­kes yet and only disco­ver them 2 weeks later when the invoicing goes out to your clients.”

The­se examples seem exag­ge­ra­ted but they are real. They hap­pen and much big­ger orga­niza­tions have made the same mistake.

• JPMor­gan Cha­se lost more than $6 bil­lion USD due to a copy-pas­te error
• US Fede­ral Natio­nal Mort­ga­ge Associa­tion had a $1.136 bil­lion disc­re­pancy due to a spreads­heet mistake.

How are you hand­ling your data now? Are you in cont­rol? Or are you alrea­dy fore­see­ing the night­ma­re when your team size doubles?

5 Reasons Why data quality is essential for your business’ growth

Having your data in order will help you avoid foo­lish, embar­ras­sing errors. Furt­her­mo­re, it will give you bene­fits that will ele­va­te your busi­ness to the next level: 

Confidence

Having all your data in one place, in a sys­te­ma­tic and struc­tu­red man­ner gives you con­fi­dence that your data is cor­rect. It is impor­tant that your who­le team has the abi­li­ty to access data from anyw­he­re, on any device.

Compliance

If you work in a regu­la­ted industry whe­re audit & safe­ty papers are part of your dai­ly busi­ness, you want your data to be safe­ly sto­red in one place. This helps you to pro­tect your busi­ness to avoid major dis­rup­tions (and stress) when the­re is an audit is coming.

Scalability

Having a good data struc­tu­re allows you to sca­le more easi­ly. When the num­ber of users inc­rea­ses, natu­ral­ly more data conflicts will ari­se. Not having a single reliable source of data, will slow down your busi­ness growth or even lea­ve you unable to sca­le larger.

Reporting

Having the cor­rect data at hand is the pre­requi­si­te for good deci­sion-making. Your repor­ting sys­tem is the back­bo­ne of your business. 

Productivity

You and your team want to get the job done. Manual­ly col­lec­ting hardco­py data from various people and recon­so­li­da­ting them eats up your team’s time. It reduces efficiency and takes up valuable time that your team could bet­ter uti­li­se for more impor­tant tasks. Auto­ma­ting data col­lec­tion is a game-chan­ger for any busi­ness loo­king to sca­le larger. 

5 tips for ensuring high-quality data in your field service business

1. Enforce data integri­ty: Ensu­re data is recor­ded exact­ly as inten­ded. Upon ret­rie­val, ensu­re the data is con­sis­tent and iden­tical to when it was ori­gi­nal­ly recorded.
   
2. A single source of truth: Having the data edi­ted in a single place simpli­fies data management.
   
3. Reduce human error by allowing softwa­re to col­lect and orga­ni­se your data. Eli­mi­na­te cost­ly mistakes.
   
4. Lose flexibility/add con­straints: At Emvi­sa­ge, we embrace flexi­bi­li­ty, but to a cer­tain extent. This might seem coun­te­rin­tui­ti­ve, but having fewer options often reduces mis­ta­kes. It also helps you make fas­ter and clea­rer decisions. 
   
5. Use the cor­rect tool for the job and use the­se tools cor­rect­ly.

How Emvisage can help you get your data in shape 

One of the main advan­ta­ges of Emvi­sa­ge Field Workflow Softwa­re is pro­vi­ding a strong struc­tu­re. Having defi­ned con­straints helps your team put the right data in the right place. This way, Emvi­sa­ge beco­mes the single source of truth for your field business.

You can give your team dif­fe­rent func­tions, roles, and access. You can deter­mi­ne what they can see and edit. This helps in reducing con­fusion and acci­den­tal mistakes.

Emvi­sa­ge also helps in trac­king impor­tant data points. You’ll know when someo­ne modi­fied a par­ticu­lar field, which is han­dy especial­ly when it comes to audits and accountability.

The­re’s no magic pill for gat­he­ring high-qua­li­ty data. Howe­ver, buil­ding a strong foun­da­tion and fra­mework to gui­de your team is essen­tial for any field ser­vice busi­ness.

Do you want to improve the way your team handles data? Schedule a free demo and we’ll show you how our field service software can help you transform your data into a powerful decision-making tool.