Field Service IT workflow example
Summarize
Summary of Field Service IT workflow example
This example illustrates how ServiceNow’s integrated Field Service and IT service management improves issue resolution and operational efficiency for a retail store. It addresses challenges like unclear communication, inaccurate parts delivery, and system downtime that affected sales and customer satisfaction. By automating incident creation and coordinating IT support with field service agents, the solution enhances visibility, speeds up fixes, and reduces costly downtime.
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IT Field Service workflow steps
- Open incident: The store manager uses the Mobile Agent to scan equipment (like a point-of-sale system), automatically creating an incident assigned to IT support.
- Generate work order: Based on incident triage, IT support opens a high-priority work order if a field service action is needed, such as a software upgrade.
- Assign a technician: The work order is automatically assigned to an internal or external technician, who receives notification and travel details. The store manager gets notified with the technician’s estimated arrival time.
- Comprehensive check: Technicians use the Mobile Agent to access full equipment history, relevant knowledge articles, and perform thorough maintenance to reduce future issues and travel costs.
- Complete work order: After completing tasks, technicians document their work and close the work order, which the store manager then digitally signs off, updating the incident record.
- Track and provide audit trail: A PDF summary including task details, parts usage, expenses, and time is automatically attached to the work order, enabling centralized tracking for audits and analytics.
Key outcomes
- Improved communication and transparency with estimated arrival times and status updates.
- Reduced manual errors in parts handling and documentation through automation.
- Faster resolution of IT and field issues, minimizing downtime and lost sales.
- Enhanced asset visibility and technician productivity via Mobile Agent and shared data platform.
- Comprehensive tracking and audit-ready documentation supporting future reporting and trend analysis.
This example describes a coordinated Field Service and IT service management situation.
As a store manager, Joe was unhappy with the quality of IT support and field service. Reporting issues meant many questions and no estimated fix times. Field agents sometimes arrived with the wrong parts due to manual data errors. Outdated software would crash the card transaction system, causing lost sales and unhappy customers.
After implementing ServiceNow, Joe's experience improved.
IT Support and Field Service administrators can create processes to share information and maintenance schedules. Joe can scan equipment to automatically open an incident with IT Support. If a field agent is needed, the IT support rep creates a work order with the necessary details, and Field Service Management routes it to the closest, skilled field agent. Joe receives a notification with the estimated arrival time.
Field agents use the Mobile Agent to review issue details, solutions, and maintenance tasks. They can digitally document and close the work order after completing the tasks.
Field Service Management tracks parts used, expenses, and completion times on a shared platform. Increased visibility of assets, field agent location, and status improved performance and productivity. Reducing documentation time and meeting customer expectations with quicker resolutions helped prevent costly downtime. Better system performance led to increased sales revenue and happier customers for Joe's store.
Field Service IT workflow diagram
IT Field Service workflow steps
The following table provides the steps for the IT Field Service workflow.| Steps | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Open incident | At a store location, the point-of-sale (PoS) systems are having trouble reading cards. The store manager identifies the issue and uses the Mobile Agent to scan the bar code on the PoS system. This automatically creates and populates an incident, which is assigned to the store Support Service desk. |
| 2. Generate work order | The Support team triages the incident and determines whether it requires a software or hardware fix. In this case, the PoS system requires a software upgrade, so the store Support Service Desk opens a high-priority work order directly from the incident with just one click. |
| 3. Assign a technician | The work order can be assigned to either internal or external third-party teams. In this case, the work order is automatically assigned to an internal technician. The technician is notified of the assignment, accepts the task, and starts traveling to the store. The store manager is informed of the technician’s expected arrival time. |
| 4. Comprehensive check | With the Mobile Agent, the technician has access to all the information about the PoS system and its history (for example, inspections, past fixes, and so on), along with relevant knowledge base articles that can help them resolve the issue. Technicians do a thorough maintenance of the PoS system, which helps reduce future issues and travel costs. |
| 5. Complete work order | Once the technician completes the work, they document their work effort, make any notes, and close the work order. The store manager then digitally signs and confirms the work order is complete. This submission automatically updates the incident. |
| 6. Track and provide audit trail | A PDF summary of all the completed tasks, parts used and returned, incidental expenses, and time taken to do the work is automatically created and attached to the work order. All data is tracked in one single platform for future trend analysis, reports, and audits. |