Field service has traditionally been closely linked to customer support centers. Today customers can try to resolve problems themselves and enlist the aid of a support center rep, but sometimes there is still a need for a friendly visit from a field service technician to solve their problem.

Your friendly neighborhood telco is the best example of this integration. Some problems can be solved by the customer, e.g. did you plug it in? Others are diagnosed by the support center (when they test the line), while other problems need to be checked out and fixed by the line personnel. Like too many people and too few lines serving your neighborhood, leading to overhead conversations on your supposedly private phone line.

Field service departments are increasingly dependent upon support centers to manage service calls, and many companies are taking the next logical step automating the link between field service and support center systems.

Vendors know this and offer applications that provide some or all of the following types of functionality. These include installed product configuration management, service requests and work orders, service entitlements (service agreements, warrantees, etc), technician dispatch and scheduling, spare parts inventory management and mobile & Web access.

With a virtual private network (VPN) at the helm, you could take this link a step further and provide a CRM-enable a field service link (see chapter 11 for more on CRM). That way everyone is literally on the same page. Much of today's...