Field service management (FSM) refers to the management of a company's resources employed at or en route to the property of clients, rather than on company property. Examples include locating vehicles, managing worker activity, scheduling and dispatching work, ensuring driver safety, and integrating the management of such activities with inventory, billing, accounting, and other back-office systems. FSM most commonly refers to companies that need to manage installation, service, or repairs of systems or equipment. It can also refer to software and cloud-based platforms that aid in field service management.
Industry examples
Field service management is applied across many industries that dispatch staff to customer sites. In telecommunications and cable, technicians install or repair lines and equipment at homes and businesses, and gas and other utilities dispatch engineers to investigate and repair faults such as suspected leaks. In healthcare, mobile nurses and clinicians provide in-home care for elderly or disabled patients. Heavy engineering, mining, and manufacturing operations send technicians for preventive maintenance and repair of machinery and production systems, while property-maintenance services such as landscaping, cleaning, and HVAC dispatch workers to residential, commercial, and industrial sites. Transportation and logistics providers use field service management to schedule and route delivery vehicles, manage vehicle maintenance, and track the movement of goods.
Software
FSM software can be deployed on-premises or, increasingly, delivered as a cloud-based software as a service platform. It is typically integrated with back-office systems such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, parts inventory, billing, and accounting. The underlying operational task, assigning and routing skilled technicians to customer sites subject to constraints such as skills, parts availability, and appointment time windows, is studied in operations research as the technician routing and scheduling problem. Vendors offer a range of features and pricing models, and the market includes many providers whose capabilities differ from one to the next.
The global field service management software market has been estimated by market-research firms in the low single-digit billions of US dollars, with continued growth projected. One 2025 estimate by Fortune Business Insights valued it at approximately US$5.4billion, forecasting growth at a double-digit compound annual rate over the following decade.
Mobility
Field service management software is typically used on mobile devices, allowing technicians in the field to receive job details, customer and site information, and routing directions. Common capabilities include scheduling and route optimization, GPS navigation and time tracking, parts-inventory management, and invoicing. Real-time communication and improved access to job data can help technicians reduce errors and raise first-time-fix rates, lower the administrative costs associated with paper-based processes, and maintain audit trails for regulatory compliance.
12Pourjavad, E.; Almehdawe, E. (2022). "Optimization of the technician routing and scheduling problem for a telecommunication industry". Annals of Operations Research. 315: 371–395. doi:10.1007/s10479-022-04658-8.
