SAN FRANCISCO, July 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the global leader in CRM, today introduced Einstein AI and Analytics for Field Service Lightning, empowering companies to deliver a smarter onsite customer experience that is built on the world’s #1 customer service platform. Field Service Lightning now brings together the insights and intelligence mobile workers need to increase productivity, boost onsite efficiency and drive revenue.

The Salesforce Service Cloud has redefined customer service across every major technological shift—including cloud, mobile, social, messaging and more. And last year, with the introduction of Field Service Lightning, Salesforce extended the power of Service Cloud to create a full-service platform for managers, dispatchers and mobile workers. However, as the multi-billion dollar field service market^[1] expands into new industries—including finance, healthcare, manufacturing and retail—there is even more demand to deliver onsite service. Field service technicians have to deal with complicated equipment, but don’t always have the right parts and often lack insight into pre-existing customer issues. This leads to confused employees, frustrated customers, and in the end, multiple trips to resolve customer issues.  

Field Service Lightning Brings Insights, Onsite
Now, Salesforce is taking field service a step further, arming mobile workers with the intelligence and insight they need to be more productive and improve first-time fix rates. With three new innovations, Field Service Lightning enables a service organization—managers, dispatchers and mobile workers—to move with speed and efficiency. New innovations include:

• Einstein Vision for Field Service harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to bring image recognition to field service. Companies can leverage pre-trained image classifiers—or train their own custom classifiers—to handle a vast array of specialized image-recognition use cases. For example, with similar looking parts and serial numbers, dishwasher repairs are often complex. Now a dishwasher repairman who needs to replace a water inlet valve can simply snap a picture of the valve, and Einstein Vision for Field Service will quickly identify the exact product type—saving time for the customer, repairman and company.
• Equipment and Inventory Management leverages scheduling automation to ensure the correct work crew, equipment and trucks are always where they should be. Managers and dispatchers are able to send technicians into the field with confidence, knowing they’re armed with the equipment and knowledge they need to complete any job during the first visit. For example, a cable company dispatcher is able to use Equipment and Inventory Management to automatically see which technician is closest to the customer and has the correct cable splitters necessary to get the customer’s television set up successfully.
• Field Service Analytics provides actionable insights for managers to improve productivity throughout their mobile workforce. Service managers can now integrate all of their data into one easy-to-use application for a complete view of their mobile workforce. And then, they can take action right from their dashboards. For example, a service manager at a medical device company can quickly see that several of her technicians are struggling to install an EKG machine, enabling her to identify classes and set up times for them to shadow senior technicians to get on-the-job training.

Comments on the News:

• “For nearly a decade, Salesforce has paved the way for innovation in the service industry,” said Adam Blitzer, EVP and GM, Sales and Service Clouds, Salesforce. “Today, we’re excited to bring our innovation a step further. With the introduction of Einstein and Analytics for Field Service Lightning, our customers will be able to deliver a smarter, more efficient onsite customer experience.”
• “At Atlantic Energy, our goal is to create a cleaner, more energy efficient world,” said Noel Zammit, CIO, Atlantic Energy, LLC. “With Field Service Lightning, we’re able to arm our technicians with the intelligence and insights they need to service our customers faster than ever—reducing energy consumption and costs around the globe.”
• “While the direct customer experience has benefitted from digital transformation, field technicians still struggle to deliver a modern onsite experience. Customer expectations have escalated across the board, and so have expectations for in-the-field diagnostics and issue resolution,” said Mary Wardley, Program Vice President, Customer Care and CRM, IDC. “With features including image recognition, automated equipment tracking and analytics baked into the field service process, digital transformation is reaching the field and will enable companies to run their field service organization faster and more efficiently.”

About Service Cloud
Service Cloud, the world’s #1 intelligent customer service platform, enables companies to transform the customer and agent experience with an AI-powered, agile platform built for the modern era. Whether engaging customers via messaging, video, communities, web chat, in-app, email, phone or even communicating directly with IoT-connected products, Service Cloud helps leading brands use service as a competitive advantage by delivering personalized, connected customer service experiences across every channel and adapting service operations to business needs quickly. Companies that have deployed Service Cloud have seen an average of 31 percent faster case resolution, an average of 28 percent increase in agent productivity, an average of 26 percent increase in customer retention, an average of 22 percent decrease in support costs, and an average of 35 percent increase in customer satisfaction, according to a third-party research report sponsored by Salesforce. Salesforce has been recognized as a leader for nine consecutive years in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center.

Pricing and Availability

• Einstein Vision for Field Service is currently in pilot and is expected to be generally available in the first half of 2018.
• Field Service Equipment and Inventory Management is generally available today with any Field Service Lightning license, which starts at $150 for organizations that have at least one Service Cloud license in Enterprise Edition or above.
• Field Service Analytics is generally available today with any Service Analytics and Field Service Lightning license. 

Additional Information

• To learn more about Salesforce Field Service Lightning please visit: https://www.salesforce.com/products/service-cloud/features/field-service-lightning/
• To learn more about Service Cloud, please visit: https://www.salesforce.com/service-cloud/overview/
• Discover how Service Cloud can help companies deliver personalized service to their customers via Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trail/service_cloud

Connect with Salesforce

• Like Salesforce on Facebook http://facebook.com/salesforce
• Follow @salesforce and @servicecloud on Twitter

About Salesforce
Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM.” For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

^[1] Markets and Markets, March 2017, Field Service Management Market by Solution (Schedule & Dispatch, Work Order Management, Mobile Field Execution), Service (Implementation, Training, Consulting), Deployment Type, User Type, Industry Vertical, and Region – Global Forecast to 2021

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SOURCE Salesforce