Whether B2C or B2B, all consumers have the same wishes when their technology stops working: that their item be fixed quick, cheaply, and that it won’t happen again. Ray Thomas, vice president of sales for MSI Data, knows this well. When it comes to critical machinery, it's paramount that the field service agents inspecting or repairing it can do it quickly and efficiently.

On the first episode of Field Fix, Thomas explains how comprehensive field service management is improving customer service with IoT, the impact that automating and streamlining repairs has on businesses, and why the field agent needs the support of software to stay safe and productive. This software is no small add-on; to Thomas, it's as powerful as Excel was when it took people from paper spreadsheets to digital ones.

Where as before, solutions might have included using a lot of paper, making a lot of phone calls to techs and a myriad of miscommunications, systems like MSI's can look at which jobs are ongoing, which techs are where, and how far along each job is. For the technician, reporting the information for a speedy fix is seamless; it's turned in by the technician electronically, they can see the service history of other technicians, what steps they’ve gone through previously, the make and model for each piece of equipment, and even where they’re all located.

You can scan parts, clock in and out, create the bill with one button, and even monitor service vehicle tanks to know exactly at which moment one may be empty. In essence, it transforms the entire process from top to bottom, and like Thomas explains, the effects ripple outward.