An analysis of more than 250 TrackVia customers finds that field teams commonly begin with inspections and work orders before extending automation to inventory, safety and other operational processes.
TrackVia has published 7 Ways to Cut Friction in Field Operations, a report examining which processes field-intensive organizations automate, how they expand those efforts and the improvements they report in speed, visibility and productivity.
The research covers organizations in construction, manufacturing, healthcare and other sectors. It comes as field operations leaders face staffing challenges, rising material and fuel costs, and expectations for faster service and greater visibility into work.
Aylin Basom, CEO of TrackVia, said:
Aylin Basom, CEO of TrackVia
“What stood out in the data is that companies rarely start by trying to transform everything at once. Leaders start with one operational problem that matters: an inspection process, a work order, inventory in the field. They prove the value, and then expand from there. With labor tight and costs rising, field teams can’t afford to spend time entering the same information twice, chasing missing forms or waiting on reports that are already out of date. The companies making the most progress are building operational intelligence one workflow at a time.”
Key findings from TrackVia Field Operations Research include:
Field/Quality inspections are the most common entry point for automation. 60% of customers have automated and mobile enabled field inspections, making it the most common process in the research. The share is 75% in construction, 57% in manufacturing, and 35% in healthcare. Crew and subcontractor management (31%), work orders and field operations (31%), parts and materials inventory (23%), asset tracking (20%), and safety and compliance (16%) follow.
Most teams connect more than one process. 46% of customers have automated three or more processes. The median is two, and construction customers in the research run a median of five.
Manual work remains the most common starting problem. 70% of the customers who described their situation before TrackVia said manual, paper, spreadsheet, or email processes were slowing their operations. More than half had no central, real-time view of the work.
Customers report measurable results. The gains show up in cycle time, productivity and consistency. A utility contractor that moved a paper form to mobile capture cut invoicing from about six days to a few hours. A training and compliance team reports up to 80% time savings on data collection and reporting. A hospital system now runs one inspection standard across three hospitals and eight outpatient centers.
Cascade Stucco, a TrackVia customer, also expanded its use of the platform as the business grew. Jared Reeves, Director of Technology at Cascade Stucco, said:
“When we went from a few jobs a month to a few every week, about half of my time went to handing out paperwork. Now our jobs, crews, and materials are in one system. I can see where each job stands and what it earns without chasing anyone for paper.”
The report sets out seven practices focused on common field operations challenges, their business impact and potential starting points. TrackVia suggests beginning with one site, team and process, measuring the results over 30 days, then considering whether to expand.
The findings point to a growing connection between field service operations and customer experience: faster, more consistent work and better visibility can help organizations provide more reliable service and clearer updates to customers. For service leaders, the practical takeaway is to include frontline and field workflows in service improvement efforts, while measuring whether operational gains translate into outcomes customers notice.
