SAP Field Service Management Implementation at Van Gestel
6 June, 2023Updated at: 23 March, 2026About Van Gestel Commercial Kitchen Technology
For more than 25 years, Van Gestel has been a leading specialist in delivering and installing commercial kitchens, corporate dining facilities, and kitchens for healthcare, education, and recreational environments. From supplying a single appliance to designing and installing fully customized kitchens, Van Gestel places the customer at the center of installation, service, and maintenance. Van Gestel operates its own service and maintenance organization, available 365 days a year. The company is part of hospitality wholesaler HANOS.
The Challenge
Providing service and maintenance to customers is a core part of Van Gestel’s business—and its importance has only increased in recent years. By implementing a new field service management system, Van Gestel aimed to align with the latest developments and further enhance its service levels. Additionally, it was essential to tightly integrate service processes with back-office logistics and financial processes, ensuring that field technicians are optimally supported on-site.
With SAP FSM, we are prepared for the future and our growth ambitions. It also enables us to better support our customers in collaboration and service delivery.
Our Solution
SAP Field Service Management (FSM)
Through inspiration and advisory sessions, Ideo, together with partner delaware, evaluated the best possible solution. After a thorough selection process, Van Gestel’s service organization and HANOS IT chose SAP Field Service Management (FSM). Ideo was responsible for the FSM implementation, while delaware handled the implementation of SAP S/4HANA and overall project coordination.
Using the FSM planning board, planners now have better visibility into daily schedules and improved capabilities to prepare them efficiently. Field technicians use a mobile app that provides a fully digital workspace, covering the entire process from job start to signed service report.
Within SAP S/4HANA Cloud, service orders are created and prepared by the service department, including required parts and associated costs. Once released, these orders are transferred as activities to FSM via standard integration. The graphical planning board supports planners in creating optimal schedules, automatically assigning technicians with the right skills—or suggesting assignments through intelligent planning proposals.
Once the planned date and time are confirmed, customers are notified via email. They also receive an SMS when the technician starts traveling, including the estimated time of arrival.
Technicians can easily launch navigation directly from their task list. Upon arrival, they are guided through their work using equipment-specific checklists that are automatically added, ensuring accurate and error-free execution. Meanwhile, planners have real-time visibility into the status of activities and technician locations.
Through the mobile application, technicians have access to all relevant information from SAP S/4HANA Cloud, including customer details, contact information, and service history. If follow-up work or a quotation is required, technicians can initiate requests directly via smart forms within the app.
Time, materials, and expenses are recorded in the mobile app. When multiple technicians work on a job, a group checkout feature is available. The technician completing the final entry handles the customer sign-off, while all recorded activities from colleagues are automatically consolidated and displayed on the service report. Completed checklists and smart forms are also included.
After job completion, all entries are validated and automatically integrated into the S/4HANA Cloud service order. Because all field data is digitally and accurately transferred, invoices can be generated quickly and efficiently from the SAP backend.
Implementation of SAP FSM
Together with key users from Van Gestel and HANOS IT, the project began with four weeks of fit-to-standard workshops. During these sessions, Van Gestel’s processes were aligned with SAP FSM best practices, and demos were used to identify gaps and requirements. This resulted in an approved solution design. Both standard fits and gap solutions were then implemented, with weekly alignment meetings involving stakeholders. During this phase, the full SAP FSM solution and relevant S/4HANA Cloud components were installed and configured, along with standard integrations between systems. Ultimately, Van Gestel successfully went live with 9 technicians and 7 planners.
The project started approximately one and a half years after the first lockdown, allowing workshops to be conducted on-site again. At the same time, the team leveraged remote collaboration where efficient. Thanks to strong cooperation and communication between Van Gestel, delaware, and Ideo, the project delivered excellent results and satisfied end users. Through effective knowledge transfer to the HANOS support organization—already involved from the beginning—the solution was smoothly transitioned into operations, with no major issues after go-live. Van Gestel is highly satisfied and already benefiting from the new capabilities.
Results/Benefits
- Improved proactive customer communication and higher customer satisfaction
- Digital planning tool with intelligent algorithms supporting planners
- Enhanced daily scheduling through better visibility into work progress
- Standardized and structured way of working across both S/4HANA Cloud and SAP FSM
- Ability to work both online and offline in the field
