Tech Takes the Field

Companies are increasingly using technology that helps field workers schedule appointments and save time on repairs.

- Heather Clancy

AT THE WORST TIME imaginable, your washing machine starts making noises it shouldn’t and then stops working completely. You carve four hours out of your day to await a technician, who shows up late and then discovers that a needed replacement part must be ordered.

It’s the kind of snafu that companies are increasingly trying to avoid by adopting software that diagnoses equipment problems like cracked pistons—sometimes before they happen—and helps workers better schedule house calls. Instead of using paper, spreadsheets, and email, the nation’s estimated 20 million field technicians—the people who fix appliances and tinker with wind turbines—are shifting to mobile apps for scheduling, submitting reports, and identifying the parts they’ll probably need for upcoming repairs.

“The client relationship changes,” says Gary Johnson, a vice president at shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes, of how his service teams can answer questions more quickly and in more detail after his company started rolling out the technology four years ago. “And our employees benefit hugely.”