In today’s booming business environment, field service management (FSM) software is a must. Keeping track of every aspect of your particular business — from product shipments and inventory management to the connectivity of your field agents — is made easier and more convenient through FSM software.
Thanks to developments in cloud-based technology, data storage has become cheaper and mobile devices have adapted to handle more sophisticated FSM programs. Now, field service technicians are able to have constant access to updated tickets, on-the-fly changes, and customer requests; this means that managers, service workers, and customers can communicate much more efficiently, ultimately leading to improved satisfaction. It’s no wonder that 97% of FSM software users said it made a positive impact on their business operations!
Rent or Buy?
You can’t have a cloud-based connection without advanced software. Most businesses opt for a subscription-based plan through companies that offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). While this rental option may be better suited to some individuals and businesses, purchasing your software outright and owning the license to it offers benefits as well. Let’s compare the two.
- SaaS: Purchasing software on a subscription basis allows a customer to pay on an expense budget rather than the capital budget. This is beneficial because most expense budgets are well below the normal threshold for a capital budget spend — they’re generally more affordable. At the same time, that lower up-front cost is attractive for businesses looking to start small and scale up and down depending on need; if you’re frequently gaining and losing technicians, you don’t want to have to pay the same large amount if you don’t need all that access. Since SaaS is malleable over time, smaller business can scale the solution across a broader number of users when the time comes.
- Buy the license: Because software is such a central component of business these days, some companies prefer to own the license outright. This allows them flexibility in building their vital processes around it precisely to their specifications. The cost is paid up-front and the rights to use it last indefinitely. Management can be trickier: you can either provision software on your own servers and support it with your own IT personnel, or you can place it in a private or public cloud run by a third-party vendor. This permits the outsourcing of common IT administrative tasks while ensuring server capacity can scale effortlessly to meet user count or transaction volume demand.
Regardless of which option you choose, the important thing is that you’ve found the solution that works best for your business. Take a good look at your personal and professional needs and go from there.