IFS announces major updates to its ESM offering comprising IFS Field Service Management, IFS Mobile Workforce Management, and IFS Service Management.
The latest version of IFS Field Service Management (5.6.2) is available now and includes a number of enhancements including:
- Microsoft Azure—IFS Field Service Management (FSM) runs natively on Microsoft Azure enabling customers to dynamically scale system resources based on actual usage. Currently available as an IFS Cloud – Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution and later this year as an IFS Managed Cloud solution requiring minimal customer IT support.
- Mobility—IFS's investment in mobility continues at a rapid pace with enhancements including automatic calculation of estimated time of arrival using GPS location data, flexible and intelligent surveys, forms and workflows, as well as the ability to record videos and edit/mark-up pictures. Initial tests have shown a 92% decrease in sync times and a 500% increase in maximum file sizes.
- Notifications & Wearables—Following incubation in IFS Labs, the Android client now supports notifications with Android's notification bar, raising visibility of key events to the users while allowing them to accept or reject job assignments directly from the notifications. Notifications also are pushed to connected Android wearable devices such as Samsung Gear and other smart watches
- Dynamic scheduling—IFS FSM supports crews, utilization percentages, pre-requisite and co-requisite tasks, resource proficiency, location awareness, and on-location incentives—powerful optimization capabilities to increase scheduling efficiency.
- Knowledge management—IFS FSM automatically recommends solutions to a given problem as information is being entered by customer service staff or customers. The system considers user rankings and actual usage. Additionally, solutions include attachments (FAQs, product manuals, etc.), service notes and sync with the mobile devices; extending knowledge management from call center to field service.
The new version of IFS Mobile Workforce Management (5.7) is also available now and offers the following enhancements:
- Support for increasingly complex scheduling problems—IFS Mobile Workforce Management (MWFM) now caters to even more complex scheduling problems including linear assets (scheduling jobs with different start and end locations), rural area travel, part pick-up, stock drop-off and territory balancing.
- Increased support for dispatchers—Enhancements have been made to support organizations implementing dynamic scheduling in phases, from simple visualization of the schedule, manual allocation, and semi-automated scheduling to full dynamic workforce optimization.
- Map providers—Additional enhancements have been made in mapping and visualization, with support for OpenStreetMaps™ and Esri ArcGIS™ in addition to Bing, as well as the ability to easily visualize an engineer's maximum allowed travel when making manual allocations.
- Target-based scheduling—IFS MWFM enables managers to set business goals and KPIs that automatically adjust the behavior of the scheduling software through a simple dashboard that continuously monitors actual performance versus business targets like SLAs , on-time completion percentage, and the like.
- Advanced resource planning—IFS MWFM now supports the extremely difficult manning requirements of oil rigs, ships/vessels, high-tech machinery, and other complex industries. Numerous resource planning enhancements enable skills matrixes, work time and shift directives, flexible crews, and even unique bespoke rules to be utilized.
Updates to IFS Service Management released in IFS Applications 9 include the following improvements:
- Enhanced user experience—Multiple UX enhancements have been made including embedded visualization providing graphical representation and embedded analytics along with improvements that increase accuracy in call logging while ensuring minimal data entry to help organizations increase first-time fix rates and user adoption/satisfaction.
- Remote warehouse—New capabilities aid management of service inventory and logistics, including definition of part assortments for engineers or groups of engineers, automated refill from internal or external sources, and automated material allocation to meet specific work order material requirements.
- Dynamic scheduling—IFS Service Management now supports multi-dimensional SLAs, region and locality-based assignment of resources, location and asset availability, resource preferences, utilization percentages, person proficiency, location awareness and on-location incentives.
- Mobility—A number of mobile enhancements have been made to IFS Service Management providing engineers with a complete solution to manage and execute all stages of their work orders, with or without connectivity. The mobile app contains a built-in designer that enables easy screen configuration and is coupled with smart forms, intuitive workflows and robust security—a flexible and powerful mobility solution that maximizes customers' return on investment.
