Managing a field team with spreadsheets is like driving to work with a map from ten years ago.
It’ll probably work. But there are going to be some problems.
More businesses are realising this fact — and transitioning from spreadsheets to dedicated workforce rostering software and field service management (FSM) platforms built for how teams work today.
Here’s why they’re switching, and what it means for businesses that haven’t made the move yet.
Table of Contents
- The Spreadsheet Problem in Field Service
- What Workforce Rostering Software Does
- Benefits of Switching From Spreadsheets
- Features To Look For
- Conclusion
The Spreadsheet Problem in Field Service
Spreadsheets are comfortable. Most people use them every day. They’ve been around forever — and they don’t cost any money to use.
Except they do.
Once a field service operation grows beyond three or four workers, spreadsheets fall apart. Late arrivals, scheduling conflicts, missed updates… chances are somebody’s working off the version that was saved last Tuesday.
Double-booking technicians, overlapping shifts, and missing availability — these are the most common scheduling mistakes made by field service businesses, and they’re almost entirely due to manual scheduling. Online calendars, pen-and-paper, whiteboards: Doesn’t matter. When scheduling is manual, data gets fragmented and individual entries get overlooked.
This isn’t an inefficiency. This is a flaw in the process.
Which is why 25% of field service businesses still use spreadsheets, whiteboards, and other pen-and-paper methods when scheduling jobs. That number is going down, sure — but every business that switches to a robust FSM platform is one less competitor to worry about.
What Workforce Rostering Software Does
Automated workforce rostering software takes the scheduling, dispatching, compliance, and communications workers need every day and rolls it into a single platform.
Workers manage their schedules, managers assign jobs, admins handle back-office needs — everything happens in one place. Best of all? Workforce rostering software is built specially for field service businesses managing mobile workers.
Workforce rostering software found at www.totalmobile.com handles just that. Automated scheduling and dispatching combines with real-time job management for every stage of the service lifecycle.
Technicians see who’s available, where they’re located, what their skill levels are — and the right worker can be assigned to the right job in seconds.
Seems simple, right? Well it is. And once the rostering is out of the way, the benefits of a dedicated FSM platform extend to every corner of an operation.
Biggest Benefits of Switching From Spreadsheets
Reduce Errors and Rework
Sending a dispatcher to update a spreadsheet isn’t a controlled process. Any link in that chain can fail. The dispatcher forgets to send the update. The worker never checks their email. Instead of updates being distributed to every user automatically, critical information is siloed.
Currently, 52% of businesses rely on manual field service procedures. Talk to any of them and they’ll say the same thing: Moving away from paper and spreadsheets eliminates errors and ensures important updates are pushed in real time to every user across every device.
Schedule Smarter, Route Optimally
Workforce rostering software should do more than plug gaps in a rota. It should factor in everything from employee skills, location, availability, SLAs, and travel time to make sure technicians aren’t just scheduled — they’re scheduled optimally.
Routing no longer takes twice as long as it should. Qualified technicians are automatically assigned to jobs, not just the nearest person. And SLA windows are hit each day — instead of scrambling when things inevitably run late.
Gain Visibility into Every Aspect of Your Workforce
It’s no secret that spreadsheets offer weak visibility into active jobs. Managers can’t see who’s en route until the worker sends an update, or until they return to the office.
Switching to a cloud-based FSM platform solves that problem once and for all. Managers get real-time visibility into active jobs, available technicians — and can assign, reschedule, and dispatch from anywhere with an internet connection.
Which is important when something goes wrong. And it will. Jobs take longer than expected, materials aren’t available, a customer needs to reschedule — these things don’t just happen less often with FSM software, they’re manageable when they do happen.
Ensure Compliance and Generate Audit Trails
Take a business operating in facilities management, healthcare, or utilities.
Compliance. Is. Everything.
But spreadsheets don’t create audit trails. Field technicians can’t easily prove they checked in at their start location. Managers have no visibility into technicians’ certifications. Manual scheduling creates opportunities for error and non-compliance risks that often go undetected.
Dedicated workforce rostering software tracks every activity technicians undertake. Reporting and auditing isn’t a hassle because the tools to do it effectively are already built in.
How to Choose a Field Service Management Platform
Workforce rostering software isn’t a one-size-fits-all tool. Choosing the right platform should be a careful consideration of must-haves:
- Mobile-first — technicians will use it in the field. It needs to work without a desk attached
- Offline-first — cloud-based is great, until a tablet can’t connect to the internet
- Integrations — can it connect to existing CRM, ERP, or payroll providers?
- Intelligence — scheduling is scheduling. But automation and optimised rostering are where the real value is
- Reporting & analytics — good FSM software will make data useful, not just visible
Look for FSM platforms that plug into existing tools — not overwrite them. And ones that place workforce rostering software at the core of their offering.
Are You Switching From Spreadsheets?
The global field service management software market hit $4.8 billion in 2021 — and is expected to grow to over $24 billion by 2030.
The numbers speak for themselves: adoption of mobility and AI solutions is boosting field service agent productivity by up to 40%.
Businesses that switch to FSM software and workforce rostering software now will continue to compound those gains. Businesses that don’t get left further behind with every quarter that passes.
That’s The Takeaway
Field service businesses are moving away from spreadsheets and relying on dedicated FSM platforms to run their operations. Whether that decision gets made now, or ten years from now when competitors have taken the market share… doesn’t matter.
Switching to a platform is the right choice. Operations run more smoothly, workers have the tools they need — and the spreadsheet nightmare stays in the past where it belongs.
