What is the structural relationship between field service and fleet management?
What is the structural relationship between field service and fleet management?
In the first FSN Research study of 2023 we have partnered with GPS Insight to better understand the relationship between fleet management and field service operations…
Our goal in the study is to understand if the two business units work together and use these shared tools to drive efficiencies across the business as a whole or if they’re being used in isolation.
Across a series of articles, we will now explore the findings of the study’s quantitive phase, presenting the data with little editorialisation so you can see the trends directly. In this fourth article in the series we now turn to the findings that outline the maturity of service offerings and how these correlate with integration between fleet management and field service.
In the opening section of this study, our focus was on better understanding the maturity levels across field service and fleet management systems within the industry, with the number of study respondents offering a robust enough snapshot of the industry to provide meaningful insight.
As we have seen in the previous section of this report, the data from this quantitative opening phase of the study indicates that while there are levels of maturity both in field service systems and fleet management systems in general, in terms of these systems interacting, it is only within a leading class group of just under a third of respondents that we see data flow across these systems which would be a market for firmly established and mature use of these tools to an optimum level.
In previous FSN Research studies, we have seen a clear correlation between the maturity levels of service organizations in terms of their adoption of technology and the sophistication of their service offerings. We were keen to see if this also extends to fleet management technology – in essence, are those companies who are further along the maturity curve in terms of their service offerings more likely to have better integration of their fleet management systems?
To understand this better, the second section of questioning we put to our respondents was centered around their service offerings. As in the previous section of this report, we will first look at the top-line findings and then compare the overall data with the data from the smaller response group that has identified that they have data flow across the two business units of fleet management and field service.
The first question we asked our respondents was to identify how many companies offered preventative maintenance or up-time-as-a-service solutions as part of their service offering.
When we look at the overall data set, we saw a significant number of all service organizations within the study do indeed offer such offerings. 73% of the study’s service organizations stated that they provide such solutions.
However, when we look at the sub-group of service organizations that stated they have data flow across their field service and fleet management systems, we see a further increase, with 81% of organizations saying that they offer these more advanced layers of service in addition to the traditional break-fix model.
In the first FSN Research study of 2023 we have partnered with GPS Insight to better understand the relationship between fleet management and field service operations…
Our goal in the study is to understand if the two business units work together and use these shared tools to drive efficiencies across the business as a whole or if they’re being used in isolation.
Across a series of articles, we will now explore the findings of the study’s quantitive phase, presenting the data with little editorialisation so you can see the trends directly. In this fifth article in the series we now explore the relationship between field service and fleet in terms of management structure.
So far in this report, we have been able to identify that there is some correlation between those service organizations who are further along the maturity curve both in terms of their service offering and their FSM technology and their ability to allow data to flow from their fleet management systems and their field service operations.
In the final part of this study, we wanted to explore the organizational relationship between field service and fleet management, as in doing so, we would be able to understand better whether there was a need for closer integration between the two business units or whether operating as two standalone but complementary operations within a business was sufficient.
The first question we asked our respondents in this last section of the study was which of the following best described the situation in their organization:
- Fleet management is a separate business unit from the field service operations
- Fleet management is part of the field service business unit
The study results show that the first of these two options is the most common setup, with 48% of companies stating this is the case for them. Slightly under a third of 31% of organizations said that their fleet management business unit was part of their field service operations team, while just over a fifth of respondents (21%) noted that the fleet management business unit was encompassed within another business unit (with a common reference here being HR).
It is perhaps not surprising but necessary to note that, once again, there was a strong correlation between those organizations who operate their fleet management within the field service business unit and those who can see the data flow between the job functions of field service management and fleet management. 86% of such organizations had this capability.
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"while it is clear that amongst most organizations within the study, fleet and field service business units operate separately, they are still primarily aligned..."
Fig.5 Which division does fleet mangement fall under?
Part of other division – 21%. Seperate business unit – 48%, Light Blue: Part of Field Service – 31%,
Similarly, we see more frequent communications within those organizations where fleet management and field service are under the same umbrella.
Amongst these organizations, daily communication between the field service and fleet management teams occurred in 32% of companies compared to 16% of the remaining organizations within the entire response group. In contrast, weekly communications, which was the most common interval for this subset response group, was cited by 38% of companies, compared to only 22% of organizations where fleet management was either standalone or within another business unit.
For those organizations where fleet management operates outside of the field service business unit, the most common frequency of communication between the fleet management and field service management team was monthly, which was the frequency 36% of companies stated was the case in their business.
What is somewhat surprising is that it is very rare amongst all companies, including those where field service and fleet are within the same business unit, for the field service lead to have responsibility for the fleet management team.
Even amongst those organizations where the two business units were within the same division, we only see dotted-line responsibility in this regard. This was only present in 17% of companies within this group.
However, while it is clear that amongst most organizations within the study, fleet and field service business units operate separately, they are still primarily aligned. 74% of all companies within the study stated that they believed the two business units aligned to the same organizational goals.
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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content GPS Insight who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this briefing report.
