Installation work breaks most of the assumptions a service board makes. A job is a day or more rather than an hour. The date was agreed weeks ago and the customer has taken time off for it. And two or three people plus a delivery have to be in the same place at the same time. Software sold on optimisation is aimed at a different problem than the one an installer has.
The date is fixed and everything else moves
A service call can slide by an hour. An installation cannot slide at all without a conversation, because the customer has arranged their week around it. That makes installation scheduling a capacity reservation problem rather than a sequencing one, and boards built around a day of short jobs handle it badly.
Where map based scheduling earns its keep
Clustering by area is worth real money. On the worked example this site publishes, 22% of the working day goes on travel, which is 144 jobs a month worth $41,081 of capacity. For installers the gain is smaller in job count and larger per job, because a wasted trip is half a day rather than half an hour.
What optimisation cannot do for you
It can order the stops and suggest who goes. It cannot decide which customer to disappoint when a delivery is late, and it cannot know that this particular customer has already been moved once. Treat optimisation as help with the driving and keep the promises where a person can see them.
Materials have to arrive before the crew
The commonest cause of a failed installation day is not scheduling at all, it is a delivery. Whether or not your board holds stock, it should hold the fact: a job that is not ready is not a job to send three people to, and marking it so is cheaper than finding out at eight in the morning.
Questions people ask about installation scheduling software
Should installations be on the same board as service calls?
Yes, because they consume the same people. What they need is to appear as occupancy across days rather than as an appointment.
How far ahead should installations be booked?
As far as your materials lead times require and no further, because a date booked before the goods are certain is a date you will move.
Is this project management?
No. A multi week build is a project. A one or two day installation is a long job, and the board handles it as occupancy.