How Cloud Storage is Revolutionizing Remote Collaboration for Field Workers

With Cloud Storage, remote field service personnel can easily collaborate and share data and knowledge, which will help them provide excellent customer service.

Cloud computing has been around for a few years now. You may not fully realize it yet, but you will be thoroughly amazed once you understand the impact it has on our lives.

From healthcare to education, from scientific research to communication, its influence is more widespread than you can imagine.

However, it has only been a short while since businesses have started to take advantage of this disruptive technology. Yet the consequences have been revolutionary.

Like several other industries, field service has also begun to leverage cloud technology to further its growth.

But, surprisingly, it has become more of a necessity for service-based organizations than just a novel digital tool within a very short period. To be more specific, cloud storage technology is now regarded as a significant competitive advantage for service-based companies, regardless of their size and strength.

The most significant area cloud technology has boosted in field service management is remote collaboration.

 

For field service, knowledge sharing and communication are two of the most important elements to maintain service quality and efficiency. As a trickle-down effect, they also impact other important bottom lines, including productivity, transparency, and profitability.

Currently, cloud storage technology has a crucial role to play in improving remote collaboration in field service. In light of this, it can also be said that it has a significant impact on other important bottom lines, as mentioned above.

In case you are thinking that this is going to be all about some high-end technical jargon that hardly affects you or your service business, you cannot be any farther away from the truth.

Ice In reality, cloud technology has revolutionized field service management in recent years, and it applies to even small local businesses.

In this blog, you’ll find precisely what cloud storage technology is all about and, more importantly, how YOU can benefit from this cutting-edge technology.

Importance of Remote Collaboration in Field Service Management

Before talking about the technology and how it is an advantage for field service businesses, let’s try to understand the aspects it impacts.

In other words, let’s try to grasp the importance of remote collaboration in field service management before we understand how cloud technology helps with remote collaboration in field service management.

This will help us understand why cloud storage technology has become so important in terms of remote collaboration and communication in this very sector.

Unlike many other industries, the actual job of field technicians necessitates them to step out of the office and take charge of their day-to-day tasks out in the field.

However, field service is more than just installation, repair, and maintenance. As much as they need to work hands-on, they also need a significant amount of support from the back office—from people sitting behind desks and clicking away on computers.

Therefore, effective field service is essentially a joint venture between field technicians and back-office executives.

This is the reason why remote collaboration is crucial in field service management. To deliver high-quality services, you must facilitate seamless communication between the office and the workers in the field.

Your field technicians attend to multiple job assignments on a single day. It is next to impossible to remember all the details of these appointments on their own.

However, if they are not aware of the customer details, historical data, and nature of the problem they are attending to, there is no way they can complete the job, let alone maintain the desired first-time fix rate.

This, however, is not the only instance of remote collaboration that field service management requires. When it comes to large projects, multiple teams are often involved.

Each of them is responsible for different parts of the project, and they need to communicate and share knowledge to complete the project successfully.

Not to forget, these teams working at different job sites also need support from the back office. And there is no way you can set up an office at every spot where one of your field teams is working.

To facilitate seamless remote collaboration, therefore, you must employ effective collaboration tools.

No matter which industry you work in or what size projects you undertake, you have to have a system via which your employees can communicate and share important information seamlessly to deliver quality service and achieve desired customer satisfaction levels.

And this is exactly where cloud storage technology comes into play.

Cloud Storage Technology: An Overview

What is Cloud Storage?

By definition, cloud storage is a type of computer data storage in which digital information is saved on servers located off-site.

A third-party service provider manages the servers and is in charge of managing, hosting, and securing the data saved on the network.

The service provider assures that data saved on its servers is always available for access via private or public internet connections.

Cloud storage allows enterprises to store, access, and preserve data without owning and operating their own data centers, shifting expenditures from a capital-intensive expenditure approach to an operational expenditure model.

Cloud storage is scalable, which means businesses can extend or contract their data footprint as required.

Know more about How to optimize cloud storage.

How Does Cloud Storage Work?

• Cloud storage saves data such as documents, company information, videos, or photographs on remote servers.
• Users upload files to servers using an internet connection, which saves them on virtual machines on a physical server. To ensure availability and avoid redundancy, cloud service providers frequently distribute data over numerous virtual computers in data centers situated across the globe.
• If storage requirements grow, the cloud storage provider will create new virtual computers to handle the increased workload.
• An application programming interface (API) allows users to access data in cloud storage via an active internet connection and software applications like a browser, web portal, or mobile app.

Know more about how AccuWeb.Cloud will support your cloud hosting requirements.

Advantages of Cloud Storage: Field Service Management

1. Flexible Workflow:

   The biggest advantage of cloud storage is that anyone (with the necessary authorization) in your organization can access necessary information using the cloud from nearly anywhere.

   Cloud computing is a far more agile approach to data storage than the on-premise model, which uses actual computers in your office to store your data.

   When your field teams are working on the job site, it is by no means feasible to get back to the office every time they need a piece of vital information, such as customer details, job order details, historical data, parts, etc. But if

   they have access to cloud storage, they can access the data and use it to get the work done faster and more efficiently. This is not only convenient, but it also saves significant time and hassle, reduces operational costs, and, most importantly, increases productivity and first-time fix rates.

2. Real-time Updates:

   Using typical office tools to track document changes is difficult, if not impossible.

   While desktop programs such as Microsoft Word have incorporated capabilities like comments and revision tracking, sharing these modified documents via traditional means such as email can result in confusion and version-tracking problems.

   Cloud collaboration technologies, on the other hand, centralize all of your documents and keep them up-to-date in real-time, even when numerous individuals are working on the same file.

   Team members can see who is editing the document, communicate with each other using group chat tools, and leave comments and remarks for their teammates to review later using cloud storage systems. These capabilities keep all users on the same page, ensuring consistent progress.

3. Improved Communication:

   One of the major challenges that remote workers face is feeling alienated. And it’s difficult to stay engaged when connecting with coworkers is more difficult than necessary.

   Cloud collaboration tools remove these obstacles by making it easy for employees to check in and share information with others in an organization regularly.

   Cloud-based communication channels, including instant messaging and video conferencing systems, allow remote team members to develop a sense of community and belonging, increasing engagement and retention rates.

   When employees feel involved in the process, they are more likely to share their ideas, which can lead to creativity and innovation.

4. Reduced Cost and Enhanced Scalability:

   When compared to on-premise storage, cloud computing allows you to quickly raise or reduce your storage capacity.

   This also implies that you may customize your storage requirements to be more cost-effective, which is essential during times of crisis.

   Furthermore, using cloud storage instead of on-premise systems can help reduce operational costs because your IT staff can effectively identify methods to minimize the total number of servers you require and additionally reduce costs. After all, there are no large, expensive projects involved, as there are with on-premise storage.

5. Data Safety:

   Although it is a prevalent misconception that cloud storage is not safe, it does have numerous safety measures in place.

   In reality, it helps you ensure maximum data security and efficient document management. There are access management tools for cloud-based resources that allow you to ensure that only authorized personnel can access that cloud service.

   You can regulate who can view and potentially impact your data by using access management for cloud computing.

   Furthermore, once you put your data in the cloud, it is safe forever. Unlike physical documents, you need not worry about misplacing a file. Once it is saved on the cloud, authorized users can access it whenever they want, no matter where they are.

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Effective Way to Leverage Cloud Storage Technology

Considering the benefits of cloud storage technology in field service remote collaboration, there is no doubt that business owners around the world are quick to adapt to this technology.

At this point, however, you might want it too. But what is the best way to get that technology for your employees?

Technologies like cloud storage are now easily available with AccuWeb.Cloud services.

You can easily store and deliver your data to your field engineers using AccuWeb’s popular cloud storage solutions.

Apart from this, you can also use a cloud-ready solution like field service management software application. Essentially, it is a cloud-based mobile app that helps automate and streamline your workflow.

Using the app, you can store and manage all your data on the go. Besides, your field workers can access, update, and share them, even from the job site.

That is not all. Field service apps allow you to automate all your administrative tasks, such as scheduling and dispatch, creating estimates, tracking, reporting, inventory management, invoicing, and more, all while leveraging the advantages of cloud storage technology. No wonder it is the most efficient way to facilitate remote collaboration in the field service industry.

Final Thoughts

Over 94 percent of organizations already use at least one cloud storage service, and by the end of 2020, 83% of workloads will be in the cloud. Cloud computing accounts for over 30 percent of organizations’ entire IT budget.

These statistics indicate the rapid growth in the popularity of cloud storage as well as its importance. Therefore, it is no wonder that field service management has embraced this cutting-edge technology with such fervor. Considering its role in improving remote collaboration and communication, cloud storage technology has become the much-needed advantage that empowers field service organizations to stay ahead of the crowd.

It is the magic tool that enables knowledge sharing in real time and improves productivity, scalability, and efficiency in your organization.

Therefore, if you are not yet leveraging cloud technology for your field service business, you are missing out on the best competitive advantage you can ever get your hands on. So, hurry up and sign up for a field service mobile app and start your journey to the future.