“We already have a CRM, so why would I need field service software as well?” We hear that question at almost every demo. It is understandable: Stator-CRM and Rotor-FSM both handle customer records, histories and PDF documents. From a distance, they look alike.
Up close, they are two different jobs. Stator-CRM handles what happens before and during the sale — in the office, between a salesperson and a customer. Rotor-FSM handles what happens in the field — at the customer's site, when a technician physically works on a machine. The confusion comes from the word “customer”: both tools use it, but not for the same thing.
This article sets out the boundary in black and white, with concrete cases, so that you know which of the two (or both) fits your business.
Stator-CRM: what happens before and during the sale
Stator-CRM covers the entire sales and administrative cycle of an industrial customer: prospecting, quotes, follow-ups, sales rounds, account mapping, and administrative after-sales service — following up a case, a warranty or a complaint, without a technician necessarily having to travel.
It is the tool of the person who sells: a salesperson, a managing director who handles their own accounts, a sales administration team. They work mostly in the office or at customers' premises, discussing, negotiating, getting contracts signed. They produce PDF quotes, schedule automatic follow-ups so that a quote does not die in a mailbox, and keep an overview of the customer portfolio, with a map to organise their sales rounds.
If your business revolves around selling equipment, parts or contracts — without you having to go to the customer's site yourself for maintenance or technical assessment — Stator-CRM already covers most of your needs. To understand how a CRM designed for industry differs from the generic CRMs you can find by the dozen, our article on the industrial CRM versus the generic CRM details the concrete differences.
Rotor-FSM: what happens in the field
Rotor-FSM, for its part, does not deal with sales. It deals with execution: scheduling field service jobs, the assessment form the technician fills in on a tablet while at the customer's site, the photos taken on site, the professional PDF report handed over at the end of the job, and the complete history per machine — not per customer, per machine.
It is the tool of the technician and of whoever schedules their routes: an after-sales service manager, a maintenance manager, a workshop manager. The question is not “what are we going to sell this customer?” but “what are we going to do on this machine, and how do we document it properly?”. The service report generated by Rotor is not a sales document: it is technical proof, handed to the customer, for which the company is accountable.
If your job is to carry out field work — inspection, repairs, maintenance, technical assessment — for customers without having to manage a complex sales cycle upstream (no elaborate quotes, no active prospecting), Rotor-FSM alone may be enough. The subject is covered in more detail in our dedicated article on field service management software.
Stator answers the question “what are we selling, and to whom?”. Rotor answers the question “what did we do, and where?”. A CRM never replaces a field tool, and the reverse is just as true.
Three concrete cases to help you choose
You sell equipment, with no field service
You are a distributor or reseller, or you manufacture equipment that the customer installs themselves or has installed by a third party. Your work stops at the sale and at administrative after-sales service — replacing parts, handling warranties by phone or email. You never send a technician on site. In this case, Stator-CRM alone meets your needs. No need for Rotor: you have nothing to document in the field, since you never go there.
You work at customers' sites, with no complex sales activity
Conversely, you are a pure inspection, testing or maintenance company: customers contact you for a job, you schedule it, carry it out and invoice at a simple rate or under an existing contract. You have no sales cycle to manage — no complex quote to negotiate, no sales follow-up to automate. In this case, Rotor-FSM alone may well be enough. Adding a full CRM would be superfluous: you would be managing a sales layer that your business does not have.
You sell AND install or service your equipment
This is the most common case among manufacturers and integrators of industrial machinery: you sell a piece of equipment (full sales cycle, quote, negotiation), then you install it, commission it and maintain it over time (maintenance contracts, repairs, periodic technical assessments). Here, both tools are needed and, above all, they must be connected. This is exactly the scenario the suite was designed for.
Still unsure between Stator, Rotor or both?
Compare all Indusiax plans
What connecting Stator and Rotor changes in practice
Used separately, Stator and Rotor each already work very well on their own. But in a company that sells AND carries out field work, connecting them changes day-to-day work on one specific point: re-keying disappears, and information flows in both directions.
In practice: a quote signed in Stator can lead directly to a job scheduled in Rotor, without re-entering the address, the contact or the machine references by hand. And in the other direction, the service report written by the technician in the field — with photos, findings and recommendations — is automatically added to the customer history, where the salesperson can see it.
That last point is the one that changes daily work the most. The salesperson sees what the technician saw without having to call them or wait for a vague verbal account. A machine showing signs of wear during a job becomes a usable sales signal: offering a maintenance contract, anticipating the replacement of a part, following up on an upgrade quote. Conversely, the technician arriving at a customer's site has the complete sales history — what was sold, when and on what terms — without having to ask for it again on site.
It is this flow of information between the office and the field that distinguishes a connected suite from two separately purchased programs that do not talk to each other.
How to decide if you are still unsure
The right question is not “which is the best tool?” but “what does my company actually do?”. If you cannot decide between the three cases described above, here is a simple trick: over a typical week, list who in your team physically goes to a customer's site to work on a machine. If nobody does, you do not need Rotor. If there is no salesperson negotiating quotes, you do not need Stator on its own. If you have both, the question is no longer “which one to choose” but “how to connect them”.
Can I use Rotor-FSM without Stator-CRM?
Yes. Rotor-FSM works on its own for any company whose business centres on field service — inspection, repairs, technical assessment — with no complex sales cycle to manage alongside it.
Do the two tools share the same customer records?
Yes, in the suite offer. Stator and Rotor rely on the same customer record and the same installed base of machines, which avoids double data entry and ensures that the salesperson and the technician see the same information.
Which tool is right for a company that sells AND installs equipment?
Both, connected. Stator handles the sale and sales follow-up, Rotor handles installation and maintenance. The connection between the two feeds the service report into the customer history, where the salesperson can see it.
How much does it cost to have both tools?
The full suite costs €990 per user per year, with 2 months free, with Stator and Rotor connected. Details of all plans, including the tools used separately, are available on the pricing page.
Stator-CRM and Rotor-FSM are not two ways of doing the same thing: they are two halves of the same customer journey, one before and during the sale, the other in the field. First identify what your company actually does, then choose the tool — or both, connected — that fits your reality, rather than the other way round.