Salesforce Announces New Data and AI Innovations to Help Field Service Organizations Maximize Asset Uptime

Data Cloud connects asset data from any third-party source with CRM data to help companies drive proactive service

Salesforce today announced new capabilities to help field service organizations proactively manage and maintain the lifecycle of their physical assets — from purchasing through service. With access to real-time data and intelligence about their assets — including remotely from the field — and AI models that accurately predict potential failures, companies can reduce unplanned, costly repairs, extend the lifespan of their assets to be more sustainable, and even identify additional recurring revenue opportunities like an end-of-life upsell. 

Why it matters: Industries with a high number of assets in the field — like manufacturing, communications, energy and utilities, and automotive — are under pressure to maximize asset value and drive profitability. And with lingering supply chain constraints, the explosion of billions of connected assets, a shrinking mobile workforce, and rising customer and stakeholder expectations, these organizations need a more efficient way to monitor and optimize asset performance.  

What’s new: To meet these challenges without compromising revenue, field service organizations need the right data, surfaced where they’re working in real time, combined with an intelligent, connected platform to orchestrate and get the most out of their assets. With the data and AI-powered innovations unveiled today, companies can:

• Improve availability with an Asset Health Score: This solution integrates real-time data from any source, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), and even legacy systems, through Salesforce Data Cloud to calculate an asset’s overall health and performance based on factors such as age, usage, telemetry (e.g. temperature, speed), and repair history. Now, companies can define criteria to trigger a workflow when an asset is in need of attention. For example, if the heat sensor on a generator picks up a sudden spike in temperature, the performance metric on the Asset Health Score initiates a custom workflow to reduce use and creates a work order for technician repair. 
• Empower mobile workers with asset data: With the Field Service Mobile App and remote access to Asset Health Scores and Einstein Pre-Work Briefs, technicians can now quickly understand key details of their work order including asset status and service history. With full visibility into what’s wrong with an asset, technicians can expedite triage and decide on a fix – resulting in faster job completion and higher first-time fix rates. Additionally, technicians will be able to see other assets with a low health status while onsite and proactively service those to prevent a future truck roll and reduce the chance of downtime.
• Efficiently manage assets with Asset Service Lifecycle Management: Empowers customers to oversee the entire asset service lifecycle seamlessly with pre-configured data kits for Data Cloud combined with a suite of features designed for asset-intensive industries. Now, companies can choose the appropriate service entitlement during case or work order execution with a unified view of all active service entitlements for each asset. And, they can quickly create and send work order-based quotes to customers on-site and centrally manage all service campaigns such as recalls or upgrades.
• Drive actions with Connected Assets: Helps organizations easily integrate asset data with customer information to surface calculated insights and orchestrate actions in response to real-time, bi-directional telematics events. For example, when the Asset Health Score hits a certain threshold, it can trigger a self-healing event like updating the firmware based on the error code to proactively resolve the issue. If the firmware update did not resolve the issue, then a work order can be automatically created and the asset can be added to an upsell campaign to drive additional revenue based on its usage and age. Operator safety can also be improved by providing immediate notifications of potential safety concerns. 
• Predict upcoming asset failures with AI: This out-of-the-box Salesforce AI training model can identify common issues based on current asset data and service history of similar assets, and predict the time of — and reason for — an asset failure. For example, when the cooling fan on a certain model of generators fails, the fuel system tends to need servicing shortly after. With this insight, companies can check and service the fuel system while a technician is already on-site — ensuring asset uptime, increasing asset lifespan, and driving higher service margins by consolidating tech activities to one visit. 
• Make faster, smarter decisions with Field Service Intelligence: This new analytics tool gives field service organizations out-of-the-box dashboards to dig deeper into asset-related KPIs and insights like asset availability, reliability, and downtime. Plus, since Data Cloud works with any third-party system, companies can make decisions based on a comprehensive and accurate representation of the business. Field service managers will also get out-of-the-box dashboards for work orders and service appointments as part of this offering, giving them a more complete view of their operations. 

Salesforce perspective: “Asset-centric field service organizations are facing increased pressure to generate new revenue streams — despite having fewer resources to do so. Having the right data and insights will enable these teams to understand their assets better and optimize their resources to improve productivity and unlock additional revenue,” said Taksina Eammano, GM and EVP, Salesforce Field Service

Having the right data and insights will enable these teams to understand their assets better and optimize their resources to improve productivity and unlock additional revenue.

Taksina Eammano, GM and EVP, Salesforce Field Service

Availability:

• Asset Health Score and Field Service Intelligence will be generally available with Einstein 1 Field Service Edition this summer. Asset Health Score for mobile workers will be generally available this winter.
• Asset Service Lifecycle Management and Connected Assets will be generally available this summer as separate add-ons.
• Asset Service Prediction will be in open beta this winter.

Learn more:

• Register for the Proactive Asset Management webinar to learn more 
• Dive deeper on asset management

Any unreleased services or features referenced here are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.