What's new in the Rome release for Field Service Management

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Make your field service teams more efficient​ 

The Rome release introduces many improvements for ServiceNow® Field Service Management to efficiently manage technician teams, improve technician utilization, and make quicker decisions to respond to issues quickly. These features include, 

• Field Service Crew Operations 
• Intelligent Task Recommendations 
• Dispatcher Workspace Enhancements 
• Mobile Timesheets 

Field Service Crew Operations – 

Many field service organizations often support complex work orders that require a team of technicians to complete the work instead of just an individual. For example, a wellhead installation crew might include a hydrologist, a mechanical engineer, and an electrical engineer. 

With Field Service Crew Operations, field service dispatchers can manage and assign tasks to crews made up of multiple technicians.​​Crews may be built by any criteria, including work type, skills, expertise, geography, and more.  They can be defined in advance as a planned crew – where this fixed team works together over many tasks for a period.  They can also be defined as needed as task-specific crews working together on an individual task. 

This feature gives dispatchers clear visibility into crew assignments and tasks that require crews via the Dispatcher Workspace. This enhances the dispatcher's productivity and experience.​​ 

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Intelligent Task Recommendations –  

Intelligent Task Recommendations helps maximize the number of tasks a technician can complete per day by eliminating gaps in their schedule. ​​ 

It’s time-consuming and inefficient for dispatchers to fill schedule gaps manually, especially when customers cancel at the last minute or technician availability changes. So, when there is an opening in a technician’s schedule, Intelligent Task Recommendations will help identify the best available tasks for that technician. ​​ 

For dispatchers, it’s as simple as selecting an empty block of time in a technician’s schedule and picking from a list of recommended tasks based on that technician’s skills, location, and availability. ​​Technicians can also quickly request additional work from their mobile app. The best available task will be assigned automatically, and the technician can then accept or reject the task.  ​ 

Dispatcher Workspace Enhancements - 

In the Quebec release, we introduced Dispatcher Workspace to give dispatchers a single, modern interface for managing work. In the Rome release, we’re enhancing it based on input from our customers. ​​ 

• First, we have Route Optimization in Dispatcher Workspace. This feature allows dispatchers to re-arrange the order of tasks in a technician’s day to minimize travel while still honoring appointment windows.  ​Dispatchers can also reduce travel time by visualizing multiple technician routes simultaneously, enabling them to see which technician will be closest to an upcoming task during their day.  ​​ 

• We’ve also added access hours to enable dispatchers to assign and schedule fieldwork based on when the customer will be available, which improves the first-time fix rate by avoiding scenarios where the technician cannot access the site. ​

• Finally, we’re enhancing the dispatcher experience with features like a full map view, a work hours view, and SLA indicators on tasks to provide greater visibility. ​​ 

​ The new capabilities in Dispatcher Workspace continue to help dispatchers work faster and more efficiently. 

Mobile Timesheets –  

Technicians do not always have laptop access in the field, so many use the ServiceNow Mobile Agent app.​ Before the Rome release, the timesheets feature is not available for field technicians in their mobile app. Instead, they would use the desktop client to enter, review, submit or query timesheets.  

With the Rome release, we have exposed timesheet functionality, reducing the need for technicians to use the desktop client. Technicians can use the timesheets capability to create, view, edit, or enter notes and submit timecards from a mobile device.  Technicians can also view all approved, rejected, or recalled timesheets or timecards. This reduces the administrative ​​burden while improving the speed and accuracy of timecard submission. ​  

Learn more 

These are just a few of the many new features coming to Field Service Management in the Rome release. From here, review the release notes and product documentation to get additional details. Attend the Release Broadcast on October 13th at 8:00 AM Pacific / 11:00 AM Eastern to see some of these features demonstrated. Then, schedule a conversation and demo with your account team or contact us here. Don’t forget the Customer Success Center is available with essential resources to assist you in planning your upgrade.  

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Join us for the The Now Platform Rome event.

Mark your calendar for the Now at Work, Now Platform Rome release broadcast  

Join us at Now at Work 2021 to learn more about what’s new in the Rome release. You won’t want to miss the Rome release highlights in a keynote session with Dave Wright, chief innovation officer as well as 20 sessions on demand, where we’ll highlight different ServiceNow® products, innovations, the Now Platform, and best practices for upgrading to the Rome release. Register today based on your region:

AMS: https://www.servicenow.com/ams/en/now-at-work.html

EMEA: https://www.servicenow.com/emea/en/now-at-work.html

AP: https://www.servicenow.com/apj/en/now-at-work.html

Japan: https://www.servicenow.com/apj/ja/now-at-work.html

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