Field service management, which refers to the management of jobs performed in the field (e.g., telecom equipment repair), faces continued challenges brought on by the pandemic. While the number of customer service inquiries has increased as enterprises have adopted remote work arrangements, worker availability has decreased. Forty-seven percent of field service companies say that they’re having trouble finding enough quality technicians and drivers to meet business goals, according to a Verizon survey. The shortfall in the workforce has increased the burden on existing staff, who’ve been asked to do more with fewer resources.

Against this backdrop, Simpro, a field service management software company based in Brisbane, Australia, today announced that it raised $350 million from K1 Investment Management with participation from existing investor Level Equity. The new funding brings Simpro’s total capital raised to nearly $400 million, which CEO Sean Diljore says will be put toward product development and customer support with a particular focus on global trade and construction industries.

Simpro also revealed today that it acquired ClockShark, a time-sheeting and scheduling platform, as well as AroFlo, a job management software provider. The leadership teams of Simpro, ClockShark, and AroFlo will operate independently, Diljore says, including continued work on existing services.

“This investment marks the next stage of Simpro’s exciting growth journey. Our mission is to build a world where field service businesses can thrive,” Diljore said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to welcome ClockShark and AroFlo to the Simpro family. Both companies are leaders in their spaces and have incredibly valuable product offerings that will benefit our combined customer bases and help our customers increase revenue. We look forward to growing together and building a range of solutions for the field service and construction industries.”

Managing field service workers

Field service workers feel increasingly overwhelmed by the amount of tasks employers are asking them to complete. According to a study by The Service Council, 75% of field technicians report that work has become more complex and that more knowledge — specifically more technical knowledge — is needed to perform their jobs now versus when they started in field service. Moreover, 70% say that both customer and management demands have intensified during the health crisis.

Simpro, which was founded in 2002 by Curtis Thomson, Stephen Bradshaw, and Vaughan McKillop, claims to offer a solution in software that eases the burden on field workers and their managers. The company’s platform provides quoting, job costing, scheduling, and invoicing tools in addition to capabilities for reporting, billing, testing assets, and planning preventative maintenance.

Bradshaw, a former electrical contractor, teamed up with McKillop, an engineering student, in the early 2000s to build the prototype for Simpro in the early 2000s. Working out of Bradshaw’s garage, they started with the development of job list functionality before adding new features, including a scheduling tool for allocating resources.

Today, Simpro supports over 5,500 businesses in the security, plumbing, electrician, HVAC, and solar and data networking industries. It has more than 200,000 users worldwide and more than 400 employees in offices across Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S.

An expanding product

With Simpro, which integrates with existing software including accounting and HR analytics software, customers can use digital templates to build estimates and convert quotes into jobs. From a dashboard, they can schedule field service workers based on availability and job status, plus perform inventory tracking, connect materials to jobs, and send outstanding invoices.

Diljore expects the purchases of ClockShark and AroFlo to bolster Simpro’s suite in key, strategic ways. ClockShark, a Chico, California-based company founded by brothers Cliff Mitchell and Joe Mitchell in 2013, delivers an app that lets teams clock in and out while recording the timesheet data needed for payroll and job costing. Ringwood, Australia-based AroFlo, on the other hand, provides job management features including field service automation, work scheduling, geofencing, and GPS tracking.

AroFlo and ClockShark claim to have over 2,200 and 8,000 customers, respectively. AroFlo’s business is largely concentrated in Australia and New Zealand, where it says that over 25,000 workers use its platform for asset maintenance, compliance, and inventory across plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and facilities management.

Somewhat concerningly from a privacy standpoint, AroFlo offers what it calls a “driver management” feature that uses RFID technology as a way of logging which field service worker are driving which work vehicles. Beyond this, AroFlo allows companies to track the current and historical location of devices belonging to their field workers throughout the workday.

While no federal U.S. statutes restrict the use of GPS by employers nor force them to disclose whether they’re using it, workers have mixed feelings. A survey by TSheets showed that privacy was the third-most important concern of field service workers who were aware that their company was tracking their GPS location.

In its documentation, AroFlo suggests — but doesn’t require — employers to “speak to [field] users about GPS tracking.”

Aroflo GPS lets you monitor your field technicians across the entire day,” the company writes on its website. “You’ll always know where they are, what they’re working on, and when they finish.”

A spokesperson told VentureBeat via email: “Simpro will continue offering GPS services and also has its own vehicle GPS tracking add-on, SimTrac. Implementation of GPS fleet tracking can help reduce risks, remain compliant with licenses and vehicle upkeep, and reduce costs in the business. It also benefits the technicians by improving their safety, spending less time in traffic and improving time management. Overall, GPS tracking provides improved visibility of staff and understanding of their location, introduces opportunities to reduce costs associated with travel, schedule smarter and even improve driver safety (by limiting their need to race across to another side of town to complete a job).”

A growing field

The field service management market is rapidly expanding, expected to climb from $2.85 billion in value in 2019 to $7.10 billion in 2026. While as many as 25% of field service organizations are still using spreadsheets for job scheduling, an estimated 48% were using field management software as of 2020, Fieldpoint reports. Customer demand is one major adoption driver. According to data from ReachOut, 89% of customers want to see “modern, on-demand technology” applied to their technician scheduling, and nearly as many would be willing to pay top dollar for it.

“The pandemic made many business owners realize how crucial it is to have the right technology in place for remote work. Trades businesses couldn’t afford to abandon projects or lose out on service and maintenance calls because of delayed response times or drawn-out time to complete,” Diljore told VentureBeat via email. “For these businesses, cloud-based software became a necessity for survival when previously it was a ‘nice to have.’”

Simpro competes with Zinier, which last January raised $90 million to automate field service management via its AI platform. The company has another rival in Workiz, a field service management and communication startup, as well as augmented reality- and AI-powered work management platform TechSee.

According to Tracxn, of the over 3,400 companies developing “field force automation” solutions (which include customer service tracking, order management, routing optimization, and work activity monitoring), more than 700 attracted a cumulative $5.8 billion from investors from 2018 to 2020.