5 Reasons Why Now Is A good Time To Go Digital

At FieldCap we often see an uptick in sales during slower times in the oilfield. We’re grateful for it!

Not because we are shallow, opportunistic vultures, but because we started this business to help people and we’ve proven that we can. We spend our days helping oilfield companies operate more efficiently and get paid faster. We’re 100% focused on oilfield services. You go, we go.

It’s not that surprising really. Businesses are like people and they most often seek out change and ask for help during times of struggle.

Here are 5 reason why this time of struggle might just be the right time for you to make the move to electronic field ticketing. (or switch to a new system if yours has not been working for you)

1. Now your office staff and your customers are working remotely as well… indefinitely

It’s not just field staff working all over the place any more.

The original vision of cloud-based field ticketing systems was to make it easy for field workers to enter field tickets and other forms from remote job sites and submit them to the office for processing in real time. This allowed them to get paperwork done from any device or location and had a huge impact on accuracy and efficiency.

Well, the good news is that this same value proposition applies to the office staff and managers who process that information as well. They can process real-time ticket information into invoices, payroll exports and management reports from a single, organized, central location. They don’t have to rely on paper, spread sheets, emails and manual reporting tools.

A few things your team can easily do from anywhere include:

• Create and submit field tickets and other forms in real time
• Capture digital signatures and stamps
• Get tickets signed remotely by customers
• View all tickets by customer, job, dates, etc.
• See what tickets are signed, invoiced, paid
• See what jobs your people and equipment are on
• Run utilization and cost reports
• Turn tickets into invoices in minutes
• Export time from tickets for payroll

And many, many more.

Now could be the best time to make a change.

All of the main benefits of a system are even more striking when your staff and customers are working at home.

 

2. Cash flow is more critical than ever.

Cash is king.

That’s about as old and true a statement as there is in business. It’s a reality that never really changes.

However, it does become even more crucial when your customers are watching their dollars closer and sending all their people home to work. It is inevitable that payment terms will get stretched and your patience will be tested. And the only thing you can control is your part of that chain.

The faster you can get tickets created, signed by your customer and converted into invoices (that are accurate and will match what your customer has on their end) the better you will cope with delays on their end. Cash will come in the door faster.

Here are a few ways that electronic ticket systems like FieldCap help you get paid faster:

• Accuracy – when field staff do less typing, calculating, remembering etc. your tickets are more likely to get signed or stamped the first time.
• Remote approvals – Waiting for the “company man” to sign your tickets leaves the meter running. Giving them the option to approve tickets from anywhere can save days and weeks.
• Real time data – With a central system the second a ticket is approved its available to office staff to invoice.
• Ticket-to-invoice – Almost like magic, office staff can take batches of tickets and turn them in to invoices that have all the signed tickets and back up files attached automatically in just minutes. No more hunting through endless paper and emails trying to get it right.

Remove all the legit reasons your customer might reject or delay paying your invoices. Ensure your invoices will exactly match the tickets they signed and provide everything they would ask for the first time!

No More Lost Revenue (AKA Ticket Leakage)

With a digital system your field staff are far less likely to forget to add chargeable items to tickets. And if they do, your office staff are far more likely to catch it before the invoice goes out.

Trying to call a customer 8 weeks after work was done to recoup a missed charge is painful at the best of times. In tough times its almost impossible.

3. You have some extra time to focus on improvements.

Slow times are painful there is no getting around it. But they can also work to your advantage for some things.

Smart companies always take advantage of slow times to make improvements. To get better in the areas that they are weak so they can survive the tough times and thrive when things inevitably improve. To get leaner and stronger and faster.

Here are a few ways going digital will immediately improve your business:

• Accurate real-time data and information
• Simple, repeatable processes
• Instant approvals, invoicing and reporting
• Central storage of jobs, tickets, forms etc
• Improved scheduling and resource tracking
• Improved job costing

 

4. Your competition will (If they haven’t already)

Let’s be honest. This type of innovation isn’t really a nice-to-have anymore.

There isn’t a Cassette Vs. CD debate going on between paper or spreadsheet tickets and digital ticketing. That ship has sailed.

More and more of your customers are demanding that you have an electronic system in place. In many cases bids for new project work require proof that you have such a system. Why: because your customer is also hyper cost-conscious and your aging systems can’t get them the data they need quickly and in a format they trust. Surprises and errors that were annoying 5 years ago costing people their jobs today.

There simply isn’t any room for errors these days and if you’re the one who causes them you’ll be on the outside looking in sooner than later.

The scariest question is… will you even know that you are lagging behind in the mind of your customer before it’s too late?

 

5. It’s never been easier to switch

Getting a digital system in place used to be quite the ordeal for oilfield companies. For starters there weren’t many systems made specifically for your needs. So you had to choose between hacking a loose-fitting system to work for your business. Or worse, hire programmers and make your own system and pretend you know how to make software. Both these roads lead to the same place of mediocrity, frustration and pain.

Today there are companies like FieldCap (yay that’s us) who can get you running in weeks not months with a system that is made for your industry and tailored to fit your business today and tomorrow.

How easy can it be?

• Weeks not months
• Low team disruption
• Low expertise required
• Low meetings required
• Low risk

Bottom Line:

We can’t control everything that happens in life and in business. But we can control how we react and respond.

We’re here to help. Let us show you some ways that you can use this crazy time to get better with quick but lasting wins in key areas of your business.

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