Market Perspectives

ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Power and Utilities Field Service: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research. The global population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, up from 8 billion in 2023, fueling efforts to meet growing energy needs. The demand for all types of energy sources—including traditional fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, along with nuclear and renewable sources like solar, wind and hydropower—has introduced a spectrum of innovative energy-delivery technology that must be continuously operated and governed. Now intertwined with governments, the public and the private sector, these systems require physical and digital protection to ensure the continuity of power and utilities everywhere on the planet. Global trends are changing how regions and countries transform energy infrastructure. Impacts include the steadily increasing demand for renewable energy and sustainability, government regulations, the development of smart cities, geopolitical situations and fossil fuel prices. The decarbonization and clean energy transition is driven by significant legislative support and investments to reduce emissions while maintaining market prices that support consumer and business economics. Effective field service in the utility industry is crucial for systematically operating and maintaining physical assets such as turbines, transmission lines and transformers throughout the service life to ensure durability. Implementing strong asset management practices leads to improved productivity, lower maintenance costs, enhanced equipment reliability and increased safety, helping enterprises maximize resource efficiency. The power and utilities industry relies heavily on a vast network of infrastructure and equipment, including power plants, substations, transmission lines and distribution grids. The field service to support power and utilities is always in operation, but in some ways also inevitably in crisis. Ensuring consumer consumption across traditional power grids and equipment requires continuous support and service to those entities and consumers that utilize power. Field service plays an essential role to support the continuity and engagement with customers. ISG Research defines field service management (FSM) as the practice of delivering technical support at the customer's site, as opposed to relying solely on remote communication channels such as phone or chat. This approach is critical in today's market, where power and utility organizations are increasingly pressured to enhance customer experiences while minimizing costs. Field service is not merely about dispatching workers for utility service disruptions; it is a complex orchestration that involves optimizing processes and automating as much of the workflow as possible. The history of field service management dates back several decades, originating in industries that required on-site technical support, such as telecommunications, utilities and manufacturing. Initially, FSM operations required manual processes, with paper-based systems for tracking service requests, work orders and technician assignments. This approach was often cumbersome and slow, leading to inefficiencies and operational challenges. The introduction of basic scheduling software and mobile communications allowed for more efficient dispatching and communication between technicians and the central office. As technology advanced, particularly with the rise of mobile devices and cloud computing, field service management also evolved. Early software solutions integrated functionalities such as real-time communication, GPS tracking and comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) tools. This integration streamlined operations and enhanced the ability to gather and analyze data, leading to improved decision-making and resource allocation. The more recent advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) has further changed approaches by enabling remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, allowing technicians to address issues proactively rather than reactively. Today, FSM is characterized by its focus on mobility, automation and data-driven decision-making. Power and utilities companies are increasingly examining advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize operations, forecast maintenance needs, and improve customer experience. The evolution of field service management reflects a broader shift in how power and utilities organizations should engage with customers, moving from reactive support to proactive service, aiming to enhance value and maintain continuity of an essential utility. Power and utilities organizations often look at field service operations as extensions of contact centers and look to those contact center platforms to manage the process. As dedicated FSM tools have developed, they differ from those used for traditional service in several key areas. FSM tools are less focused on managing incoming customer communications than on facilitating continuous dialogue between customers and technicians en route and between technicians and the organization’s information resources. Everything in field service is focused on mobility: the movement of service professionals and assets like utility vehicles to distribution lines, tracking them and optimizing their deployment. Field service management systems focus on controlling scheduling and communicating updates to operations centers and to customers. Mobile applications are essential in providing remote technicians with knowledge centers of technical data and information on customers and the impact of changes. For customers, communication capabilities and the ability to access updates and gain notifications are essential. The ongoing revolution in data and AI tools has allowed FSM providers to build more sophisticated applications that allow for finer control of the many variables involved in sending out remote teams. By 2028, two-thirds of enterprises will be using AI to coordinate and optimize processes for scheduling the dispatch and workflow of field service technical teams. Contemporary systems can harness much deeper knowledge resources to provide service that is timely, accurate and—from the end customer’s perspective—seamless. Many systems can predict when certain types of service or maintenance will be needed and potentially alert the customer to that need. When evaluating field service management for power and utilities, enterprises should consider several factors. The first step is to assess the scalability and flexibility of the software, ensuring it can accommodate the current volume of operations while allowing for future growth. Integration capabilities are also important; the FSM tool should seamlessly connect with existing operational systems and across CRM and customer service systems to facilitate a unified workflow. Finally, enterprises should examine mobile functionality to better enable technicians to access real-time information and communicate effectively in the field. The stakes are very high in this arena with the dependency on power. Customer expectations for on-site service are higher than for standard interactions. Consumers expect field service as a basic competence. Building a modern field service operation requires a platform that enables precise information and necessary parts and tools, all within a very narrow timeframe. The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Field Service Management in Power and Utilities evaluates software providers and products in key areas, including support for mobile applications, mobile workforce management, scheduling and dispatch optimization, work order and asset management, customer engagement and experience, automation and AI integration, data and analytics, knowledge management, predictive maintenance and proactive service. This research evaluates the following software providers that offer products that address key elements of power and utilities field service as we define it: Comarch, IBM, IFS, Kapture CX, OverIT and Salesforce. This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of power and utilities field service software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool. We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating power and utilities field service offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI. The Buyers Guide for Power and Utilities Field Service in 2025 finds Salesforce first on the list, followed by IFS and IBM. Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader. The Leaders in Product Experience are: Salesforce. IFS. IBM. The Leaders in Customer Experience are: Salesforce. IFS. IBM. The Leaders across any of the seven categories are: IFS and Salesforce which has achieved this rating in seven of the seven categories. IBM in five categories. Kapture CX in two categories. The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating. Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle power and utilities field service, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another. ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our power and utilities field service blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects. You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.

ISG Buyers Guide for Power and Utilities Field Service Classifies and Rates Software Providers

ISG Buyers Guide for Manufacturing Field Service Classifies and Rates Software Providers

ISG Buyers Guide for Field Service Proactive Maintenance Classifies and Rates Software Providers

ISG Buyers Guide for Field Service Customer Engagement Classifies and Rates Software Providers

ISG Buyers Guide for Field Service Management Classifies and Rates Software Providers

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