Having worked together on an exclusive new Field Service News White Paper, Kris Oldland joined Martin Knook, CEO of Gomocha, to discuss the benefits and challenges to both centralization and decentralization approaches to field service.
In this engaging, long-form discussion, the two discuss the modern tools available to field service organizations as we see the emergence of next-generation field service management software and how combining both centralized and decentralized approaches to field service is increasingly possible.
In this excerpt, the two discuss the key benefits of the centralized model, outlining why it has become the clear direction most organizations were heading in for the last decade and where the strengths of centralization can empower field service organizations to achieve increased profits, enhanced customer service levels, and scalable growth.
This interview is part of the FSN PRO library of premium content. It is available in FSN’s free subscription tier FSN FREE. Make sure you log in to view the complete whitepaper and videos.
TRANSCRIPT
The following is an excerpt from Field Service News’ video: Interview: Centralizing Decentralization, featuring Martin Knook, CEO, Gomocha
Kris Oldland: And then when we start looking at it from a service point of view, it’s the economies of scale, we can reduce the redundancy, we can simplify some of the management aspects. For resources, that’s where I would see the benefits, what’s your kind of opening for that, and that’s kind of pushed the case, let’s do another case for centralization.
Martin Knook: Putting them apart, in what’s the real kind of ideal benefit from a centralized model, it’s a challenging exercise to do, I have to admit, because I think we all know that it’s really all the way for centralization. There, you will have no restrictions to accept. So, I like to think about centralization, as a concept is much easier. If you have a smaller operation, if you serve a local market, and you can still have a large operation, and hundreds of 1000s of your operators in the field. But in the end, if you’re going to cross [a] border, or even in the US, in different states, you have to face different regulations. You’re touching on these edges where centralization starts to become harder. But if I think that a more local approach for centralization, it’s a model there, which allows you to take competitive advantages. That’s what I see some of my customers or clients doing. They really optimize the whole customer experience. To the max, you can really make your processes, so tremendously easy for your field technician, but also for your customer to participate in that process. So, from that centralization perspective, you can optimize your communication, you can optimize your interaction points, because you really have put so much quality into what you do in each step in your process. Centralization is really calling for kind of high-quality processes in high-quality outcome and high-quality customer experiences. I think that’s what from a business perspective, I see why it’s such an interesting model to push that envelope to centralization, of course, has been made possible that globalization and technology and centralized computing facilities, and all that kind of technology underneath communication infrastructures. But in the end, centralization drives that quality aspect of your service, you’ll ultimately provide to your customer to a higher level. And that’s one of the main benefits that I see for a centralized approach. And, just to go a little deeper, that quality aspect comes with a lot of side effects that are very beneficial. It’s much easier to benchmark the performance of individuals in your team, to evaluate the performance of contracts. So, you push that quality level of your service and the information you have about that service, there are so many positive side effects that will help you to make better decisions all the way back to your pricing or even the continuation of products or services that you offer. So from that perspective is a very strategic component, managing your field operation there.
End of Transcript
This blog was originally posted on the Field Service News blog, The Key Benefits of Centralization