SAN FRANSISCO: Salesforce, a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, announces Field Service Lightning, a field service solution for applications with the connected world.

Field Service Lightning is a modern approach to field service that is built for mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT) by harnessing signals from connected devices and customer data from Salesforce. Field Service Lightning enables companies to unite customers, connected devices, agents, dispatchers, and employees in the field with one service platform to deliver a seamless customer experience from phone to field.

According to a report by Gartner, the number of connected things will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. Even though since inception, field service has been disconnected from customers and the service organization, creating disjointed customer experiences and limiting field employees’ effectiveness.  This will only worsen as more number of devices comes online. According to Salesforce’s 2016 Connected Manufacturing Service Report, 92% of service executives believe they need to adapt their service models in order to keep up with customers’ needs. Despite the huge service opportunities that IoT presents, only 19% of service executives surveyed have an IoT strategy.

Field Service Lightning allows companies to:

 Field Service Lightning enables companies to connect their entire service workforce. Field Service Lightning connects agents, dispatchers and mobile employees in the field on a single, centralized platform, bringing a new level of transparency and efficiency to customer services. Service agents can have a 360-degree view of the customer and can create a work order from any case. Mobile employees in the field now have access to the customer’s full service and purchasing history, empowering them to easily resolve any issue that may arise and possibly upsell the customer on another product.

Field Service Lightning allows companies to intelligently schedule and dispatch work. Leveraging features from ClickSoftware, Field Service Lightning automates scheduling and optimization. Scheduling is automated based on skills, availability, and location to optimize on-site service. Rules can be put into place to automatically assign senior field employees to complex service issues, and junior field employees to the routine service calls. This allows dispatchers to focus on the real-time view of service operations and adjust resources accordingly.

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Field Service Lightning eases companies to track and manage jobs in real-time. Field Service Lightning enables all service employees to update work orders, issue change requests and adjust job status, anytime, anywhere and on any device.

"We are just beginning to see what customer service can look like in the era of mobile and IoT,” says Mike Milburn, SVP and GM, Service Cloud, Salesforce. “Field Service Lightning gives companies the ability to reinvent their approach to service by connecting the phone to the field on a single platform, resulting in an amazing customer experience.”