Replacing third parties with on-demand technicians

The company took a measured approach to adopting on-demand labor, starting with basic break/fix work like swapping faulty access points and switches, then expanding into site surveys and more complex networking jobs. The goal was to cut truck roll costs by more than 80%, including labor and travel.

Within five months, they exceeded that target, cutting truck roll costs by 84%.

Some geographic and highly specialized work still runs through third parties, but the majority of work now runs on Field Nation.

“The Field Nation platform is really great. We’re getting the same work done for a fraction of what we used to pay third parties.”

• Operations Manager

Restoring billing visibility and quality control

Working through third parties, the company had lost visibility into field service spend. Rate cards for customers hadn’t been updated in years. Without granular reporting, they often couldn’t bill for truck rolls at all, or waited quarters to do so.

Custom fields for Case Number and Property Name in the Field Nation platform allowed them to track engagements on a property-by-property basis, so the team could finally invoice customers accurately and on time.

Direct technician engagement also raised the bar on quality. Performance data showed a 100% technician timeliness rate and a 0% bounce-back rate, with no completed work orders returned for missing deliverables.

Using third parties, repair times had stretched to 48 to 72 hours, entirely dependent on contractor scheduling. With a direct line to technicians, instead of routing every question through a third party, the company can now respond to customers faster.

“Through Field Nation, I have the ability to control [truck roll] costs myself, instead of relying on a third-party vendor. I know what a job is going to cost before it happens, not after.”

• Operations Manager