Booking the wrong kind of engineer is one of the most common – and avoidable – causes of failed site visits. Send too little skill and the job comes back. Send too much and you pay for experience the job never needed.
What is smart hands?
Smart hands is on-site help guided by your remote team. The engineer is your eyes and hands on site: they reseat a cable, swap a part, power-cycle a device, read out a serial number or connect a console cable while your network or server team does the thinking remotely.
Smart hands works best when:
- Your remote team knows exactly what needs doing
- The task is physical and clearly defined
- Someone from your side is available on the phone during the visit
What is a field engineer?
A field engineer brings their own diagnosis and fix. They arrive with the skills to find the fault, decide what to do and complete the work without step-by-step guidance. They can configure, troubleshoot and make judgement calls on site.
A field engineer is the right choice when:
- The cause of the fault isn’t known yet
- The job needs configuration or testing, not just a swap
- Your remote team can’t stay on the call for the whole visit
A simple way to decide
Ask one question: “Who will make the decisions on site?” If the answer is your remote team, book smart hands. If the answer is the engineer, book a field engineer.
Write the ticket for the engineer, not for yourself
Whichever you choose, the ticket decides the outcome. Include the site address and contact, access times, the exact task, the hardware involved, any parts being shipped, and who the engineer should call if the job changes. A clear ticket turns a two-visit job into a one-visit job.
How Dexis helps
When you book with Dexis IT, we read the ticket before we dispatch and match an engineer to the skills it really needs. If a smart-hands ticket looks like it needs a field engineer, we tell you before anyone travels. That saves you a wasted visit – and your client a second wait. See our field engineering service.