[Tutorial] How can I improve the flow of information from the field?

In this field service management tutorial, we're going to look at how to improve the flow of information from the field, so as to improve responsiveness and monitoring.

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Context

Between the time when observations are made in the field and the time when they are taken into account by the decision-making bodies, a lot of water can flow under the bridge... It is therefore legitimate to ask what could be done to simplify and improve this work process.

Imagine that you had to visit several sites in the same day. You'd be faced with a number of questions:

• How can you avoid :
  • risk losing information?
  • Mix up information from one site to another?
  • Have to re-enter the different data collected?
    
• How can I :
  • structure my information feedback?
  • summarise the information gathered in a single report?
  • simply add photos and geolocation diagrams to my site visit reports?
    
• How can I be as responsive as possible in :
  • drawing up these site visit reports?
  • transmitting information to interested parties?
    
• How can I enable my staff to make simple changes to my site visit reports?
  
• How can I make simple use of all the data collected over a given period?

Tutorial for digitising and streamlining the management of field reports

Job management software is an essential tool for ensuring the reliability of information feedback and streamlining communication between a company's various departments. It enables you to make the most relevant decisions for your company and its teams in a matter of moments. With field service management software, you'll be able to trace all the operations carried out by your staff in a matter of seconds.

Let's take a look at a concrete example in this tutorial, using the Kizeo Forms software, which saves precious time in reporting information in the field while adapting perfectly to your business.

To illustrate our point, let's take the company BATIMENTEK, which is involved in monitoring the construction of the Grande Route du Littoral. BATIMENTEK's inspectors have to travel several times a day to visit the 15 construction sites on this major road.

The problem? The sites are spread over 120 km. In order not to lose any information and to pass it on as quickly as possible, Mr ILCONTROL, an inspector at BATIMENTEK, spends his evenings transcribing all his observations for the day into Word so that he can send them by e-mail or post the next morning after printing out his site visit reports.

Tired of wasting a considerable amount of time on this time-consuming and unproductive work, Mr ILCONTROL decided to purchase a Kizeo Forms licence.

Step 1: creating the digital form

The first step was for Mr ILCONTROL to go to the kizeo Forms administration area and transpose his paper input canvas into a digital form.

💡 O ur advice before you start: let your creativity flow by reimagining your work medium. Digitalisation offers many possibilities, which is why we recommend that you start by writing down absolutely everything you'd like to be able to do with your digital form. For example, you might want to :

• Add photos or geolocate your data,
• Share your summaries and reports automatically with your partners,
• Include validation conditions.

Mr ILCONTROL connects from his computer to the Kizeo Forms administration area. After a quick tour of the administration area, he clicks on "Create a form" and then :

• Name it: "Site Tracking",
• Drags in photographs, geolocation and text from the creation area (26 options are available),
• Renames the selected elements,
• Save the form.

Step 2: Creating the personalised report

Once his "site monitoring" form has been created, Mr ILCONTROL must create his personalised "site visit" report.

💡 This involves structuring the layout of the data that will be entered in the form, in the form of a Word, Excel or PDF document. You can personalise this document with your company's header, the font and style of your choice, etc. Kizeo Forms offers total freedom in the presentation of this document.

Mr ILCONTROL decides to create a personalised "site visit" report in PDF format.

To do this, he goes to the options for his site monitoring form in his editing area. They click on 'Exports', 'Add' and Word :

• He downloads the example template automatically generated by Kizeo Forms, which includes all these fields using identification codes (##photo##, ##geolocation##, etc.),
• He makes the necessary changes to give it the colours of his company, such as :
  • Adding the company logo to the header,
  • Entering the company's address in the footer,
  • Reorganising the file to match the structure used previously,
• He reinserts the document into Kizeo Forms,
• Save the form.

Stage 3: automating e-mail dispatches

Once his personalised intervention report has been completed, Mr ILCONTROL can set up e-mail scenarios. This means programming the sending of one or more emails to different people with different content depending on the recipient. In this way, once its forms have been completed, emails will be sent automatically to the contacts of its choice with the personalised report attached.

💡 This part allows you to send the right information, in real time, to the contacts of your choice. Each time a form is validated, they will receive the information they need, in the format of their choice.

From his form options, Mr ILCONTROL goes to the E-mail tab and clicks on "Add":

• First, he writes the subject and content of his e-mail.
• From the "Recipient" tab, he sets the recipients of this e-mail by entering, for example :
  • the tag (e.g. ##mailworksmanagert##) for the field in the form where the works manager's email is entered in the list of recipients
  • his colleague's address and his own as a copy,
• In the "Attachment" tab, select the customised report you want to send,
• Save the form.

Each time a form is validated, an e-mail will be sent to the site supervisor attaching the customised site report in PDF format. He and his colleague will also receive a copy.

Still wanting to save time and facilitate the work of his team and communication between departments, he decided to set up the automatic sending of new e-mails with different personalised reports for each contact:

• One for him to facilitate his weekly meetings, with an Excel file attached.
• A second was sent to his superiors, with a PDF file attached summarising progress on the site.
• A third was sent to the safety department whenever a new risk arose on the site.

Once this stage has been completed, Mr ILCONTROL will not have to return to it at a later date.

Step 4: entering the form on the smartphone

Mr ILCONTROL downloads the Kizeo Forms application onto his smartphone. He then goes to "my forms" and uses the search bar to find his "site monitoring" form, previously created on his computer.

They can then start entering the essential information directly from their worksites to ensure that the work is progressing smoothly, and send their site visit reports to their superiors in real time.

💡 O nce you have completed and validated your data entry, your personalised reports will be sent automatically to the contacts you have previously identified, even without an internet connection (in which case they will be sent off-line).

Step 5: Using the data collected in the field

Once the data has been entered by the employees in the field, Ms CKURIZ, in charge of safety at BATIMANTEK, wants to use the data brought back from the field to present it during a QHSE meeting.

💡 This stage, which may in some cases be optional, involves using all the data collected over a defined period for purposes specific to each company.

Once the work is completed, BATIMANTEK would like to know the number of lost-time accidents that have occurred since the site was opened.

To do this, Ms CKURIZ needs to connect to the Kizeo Forms web interface and then go to the "Data" menu and the "History" sub-menu. In this folder, she will be able to find the data entered by users on the "site monitoring" form, and carry out the following actions:

• View the information entered in the form fields,
• Download customised reports or the standard Kizeo PDF,
• Resend the e-mail,
• Modify the data,
• Export some or all of the data to an Excel document.

See all software Field Service Management

In conclusion

With Kizeo Forms, you'll no longer have to write down all your observations in the field and then transcribe them onto your computer at the end of the day. You won't have to wait until you get back to the office to distribute the information: it's sent in real time.

What's more, all your documents will be logged, so you won't run the risk of losing them. The many features of Kizeo Forms can be adapted to all the needs of professionals and will save you a considerable amount of time.

You can easily free up two days a week for your core business activities.

Sponsored article. Expert contributors are authors who are independent of the appvizer editorial team. Their comments and positions are their own.