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Field service management critical to SA’s economic fortunes

By , Portals editor
South Africa , 10 Jul 2020

Fundamental industries such as construction, mining and engineering are drivers of the South African economy, and efficient field service management is critical their efficiency and success. With the inability to perform certain jobs and tasks in today’s environment, the need to have better systems and processes is critical to maintain business continuity and provide the same level of service to the end customer.

Emma Murray, Managing Director for the Africa market at IFS.
Emma Murray, Managing Director for the Africa market at IFS.

This is according to global enterprise applications provider’s regional operation, IFS Africa.

Bolstered by news of its placement in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management (FSM), and confirmation that its FSM business grew organically by 51% in 2019, compared to 2018, the company believes FSM will make a difference to businesses experiencing difficulty within South Africa’s under-pressure economy.

Emma Murray, Managing Director of IFS Africa says, “Difficult though the times may be in South Africa, the era of digitisation means that we have more tools than ever before to help businesses become more efficient, more targeted and more successful. Efficiency at every level is core to many companies’ success, and this is a focus of our field service management software.”

IFS’s offering combines real-time scheduling optimisation alongside a breadth of service management and field service capabilities.

Marne Martin, President of IFS Service Management adds, “Being once again positioned as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management is, in my opinion, an important validation of our unwavering commitment to enabling our customers to power their growth through service.”

Over the past year, IFS has continued its aggressive investment in the service management business, adding more go-to-market, product, implementation and support resources and expertise to bring even more value to customers, both globally and regionally.

“As we continue to tackle the challenges of 2020 together with our partner ecosystem, our focus remains firmly on empowering our customers to accelerate revenue generation and deliver on digital transformation goals with intelligent service solutions that encompass every business process within the complete service value chain. Your customers and shareholders will thank you,” says Martin.

In May 2020 Murray affirmed IFS Africa’s intention to morph into a more sales-centric unit, and its focus on building the channel to support that approach.

Says Murray, “…in recognition of the fact that the company has got so much more potential than its actually realising in terms of market penetration. So what we are finding here locally is an echo of that … so getting more sales-centric, building up a channel to support that approach, both from a selling component as well as developing their ability to do deliveries so that it is less dependent on us and that we’ve got a broader support infrastructure in the country.”

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