Field service technician roles due an overhaul (infographic)

27 Nov 2014

With every new device created, another strand of field servicing emerges. But is the world equipped to maintain its machines?

Today’s we’re incredibly dependent on the capacity of machines, but the maintenance of these takes an awful lot of labour and technology.

Everyday an army of field service techs – around 20 million of them globally – wake up with the aim of keeping our world running. The huge irony is that field service itself is one of the last industries to be dragged into the modern age.

According to a new report from ServiceMax, field service techs are underfunded and lagging behind the rest of the innovative fields when it comes to evolving the profession.

Not much has changed in service over the past 40 years. It’s riddled with paper-intensive, time consuming, inefficient processes. Yet field techs are by their very definition a mobile workforce.

That’s why we’re about to see some major leaps forward in the field service arena, amid higher demands from both corporate entities and a device-hunger consumer. In fact, serving field service is itself big business. The field service management industry alone is worth US$15 billion.

As the attached infographic explains, the field service industry is headed for significant changes and technology disruption. “Welcome to the party field service. We’ve been expecting you.”

Technician image, via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt
By Gordon Hunt

Gordon Hunt joined Silicon Republic in October 2014 as a journalist. He spends most of his time avoiding conversations about music, appreciating even the least creative pun and rueing the day he panicked when meeting Paul McGrath. His favourite thing on the internet is the ‘Random Article’ link on Wikipedia.

Loading now, one moment please! Loading