AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

Landmark Quest, a leading provider of risk management, mobile solutions and bespoke software for lenders and surveyors, has announced that Connells Survey & Valuation Ltd., now has more than 300 surveyors using its Q-Mobile property data capture solution on Panasonic’s Toughbook tablet PCs, generating major efficiencies with valuation service delivery to mortgage lenders.

In July 2014 Connells Survey & Valuation was awarded the exclusive contract to deliver valuation panel management services to Principality Building Society.  Under the contract, Principality Chartered Surveyors also joined Connells Survey & Valuation business.

Q-Mobile, used in conjunction with Panasonic Toughbooks, improves workflow, standardises surveyors’ site notes and allows Connells’ surveyors to access supporting data for each valuation report while they are on site.  The mobile software provides a seamless process from the receipt of a valuation instruction, scheduling the appointment, undertaking research and the inspection, through to transmission of the valuation report to the client. Connells have been pioneers in developing and using Landmark Quest Q-Mobile, which has supported their surveyors being more efficient in responding to increasingly complex service requirements and improving the customer journey.

Matthew Morgan, Area Director, Connells Survey & Valuation (former Chief Surveyor at Principality Surveyors), comments: “At Principality Surveyors we were researching the best mobile technology system on the market.  Connells Survey & Valuation has an unparalleled reputation for quality service delivery and had already made a major investment in its service involving Landmark Q-Mobile and tablet PCs. This was taken into consideration during the tender process.”

 

Ross Bowen, Managing Director of Connells Survey & Valuation, adds, “Using Q-Mobile has delivered tangible benefits to our clients and superior customer outcomes. We are now even better placed to manage our surveyors’ workloads and work patterns during the course of the day. Within the space of just a few weeks of rolling out Q-Mobile, it has become the established platform underpinning the delivery of our professional valuation services.”

Ross Bowen explains that introducing the new surveying team to Q-Mobile and the latest mobile working methods required three days’ initial training, but has paid dividends in efficient working practices and time saved when responding to queries.

“When a query is raised by an underwriter or solicitor, we can push this out to surveyors in the field and they can respond immediately and effectively. Information such as site plans, photos and post valuation queries are all in one place, so it is much easier to access at the surveyor’s fingertips, speeding response times to clients and their time to mortgage offer Using Q-Mobile in the field has also more than halved the time taken to respond to post valuation queries from two days to under one day,” enthuses Bowen.

Whilst highlighting the benefits, Ross Bowen emphasises that Connells’ investment in Q-Mobile and tablet PCs was part of implementing its next generation service delivery model. “Being able to access data from mobile devices in real time is a major change for our industry and it’s helping to evolve the working patterns of the profession.”

Rachel Brookes, Product Manager at Landmark Quest comments, “We are delighted to be able to support the integration of the former Principality Chartered Surveyors into Connells Survey & Valuation, by using our mobile data capture software to standardise reports and improve validation, efficiency and quality for all surveyors. We will continue to work with Connells to further develop Q-Mobile to incorporate datasets, such as the homebuyer report.”

 

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Global designer and manufacturer of rugged computing devices, Getac, has signed a deal to supply Southern Water with 380 F110 Windows 8 fully rugged tablets for field service use...

The devices will be a critical component of Southern Water’s Work and Asset Management and Management Information (WAMMI) initiative, designed to streamline operations out in the field and improve service for customers.

Southern Water selected Getac as its hardware supplier of choice following feedback from field operatives who rated the F110 tablet as superior to their existing hardware. The utility provider was also impressed by Getac’s service levels and ability to deliver a fully rugged device at a cost-effective price.

Alex Chandler, WAMMI Business Lead, Southern Water, says: “We needed a device with a large screen and rugged reliability for our field workers to effectively work with our geographic information system (GIS). After field testing, we found a very high user acceptance for Getac and the devices were cost-effective. As a result, we’ll have rolled out more than 300 Getac F110s to our teams by the end of June.”

 

The new devices will provide a substantial efficiency boost for Southern Water. Thanks to the F110’s unparalleled connectivity and GPS capability via 4G LTE and SiRFstarIV™ GPS, the devices will be directly synchronised with the utility provider’s GIS solution. This means field workers can easily mark off areas of work and keep HQ dispatchers aware of the progress of operations – information that can then be used to allocate jobs to other workers and keep customers updated.

The F110’s large 11.6” screen provides ample space to display detailed information and allows the easy filling in of electronic forms, while the Windows 8 OS provides a familiar and easy-to-use interface.

The F110 includes Getac’s proprietary QuadraClear® screen which is viewable in even the sunniest conditions, while the touchscreen can be operated without having to remove gloves. MIL-STD-810G and IP65 rated, the F110 can also handle drops, shock and exposure to dust and water without damage. To support Southern Water, Getac has provided a five-year return-to-base warranty and providing full set-up to ensure field workers can boost their productivity the moment they receive their device.

Chandler adds: “We needed a tablet we could rely on in all weathers and conditions, with a familiar interface and high user acceptance – with Getac we have exactly that device.”

The devices are expected to be in operation by the end of June.

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: mplsystems
Title: Seven Key Steps to Achieving Customer Service Excellence in the Service Industry
Download: Click here to download this white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

Over the last few years we have seen major change in nature of our customers; they are now expecting, and demanding, much more from customer service. In fact, nearly 70% of customers will leave a business if they don’t receive the customer service they expect.

Customers are now demanding quicker response times, more visibility, more control and much more knowledge when speaking to the customer service team.

This white paper analyses what factors influence customer perception of the quality of service delivered, how we measure it and ways service business can improve service delivery.

Overview:

Topics within the white paper include:

1. Successfully measuring service quality to continually improve customer service

Increasingly businesses are adopting analytics to gain deeper insight into operational performance and customer behaviour to improve the customer experience. However it is reported that only 20% of organisations believe they have the technology and skills to gather the necessary insights to effectively measure performance.

Big Data is a buzz word making its rounds across a variety of industries and the field service sector is no exception. Over the last 10 years, field service organisations have become overwhelmed by the relentless flow of information coming in from multiple sources, in various formats and through an array of tools.

The major challenge businesses are facing is not only how to make sense of the massive amounts of data they collect, but knowing what they need to be measuring in order to improve the customer experience, as well as operational efficiencies.

2. Providing a Consistent Level of Customer Experience Across all Channels

Traditionally the service industry has primarily used the telephone as the main channel for customers to find out the status of their service request. However today’s customers have 24:7 access to an array of channels through their mobile devices and expect to able to contact a business through their channel of choice.

A more consistent, cross-channel customer service can be created by having a solution that can manage multimedia in a single universal queue (including voice, email, click-to-chat, fax, SMS, web and social media), rather than service desk agents having to deal with piecemeal technology and legacy systems that are disparate and complex.

All these channels can be placed on the agent’s desktop allowing them to see all required customer details, despite the channel they chose to contact them via.

3. Equip all Customer facing personnel with full, consistent, up to date knowledge

Knowledge is the key to providing high levels of a personalised customer experience and it is important to share this knowledge across the business and not keep it siloed within departments. Although many companies are trying to establish ways of effectively achieving knowledge share, it is common to face difficulties in keeping this knowledge up-to-date and making available to the right person at the right time.

It is important for businesses to understand that knowledge sharing needs to go beyond the confinements of the office walls and extend out to the mobile workforce who depend on knowledge sharing just as much with those in the office.

As customer facing employees and those who go out to fix problems and meet customers, it is essential for them to be able to access the information they need, when they need it.

4. Client Self Service and visibility of service status

The customer’s ability to arrange service calls or get status updates with a company is an important element of how a service organisation is viewed by its customers.

Online portals are currently the most used self-service channel within the service industry, however the functionality of these portals is still quite limited and often do not provide the customer with the control they require. One of the main problems that is limiting self-service portals is the lack of integration with existing business technology such as scheduling systems and field service engineer’s mobile device technology.

Organisations need to ensure that when implementing self-service portals, they are integrating them to all necessary back office systems to allow customers to not only access basic information such as billing, service requests or appointment booking but also allow them to make payments, amend or cancel appointments or have real-time updates of their service delivery without human interaction.

5. Motivate and train your technicians to go beyond basic repair

The field based engineers of your organisation are not just the ones who fix, prevent or manage customer requirements, they become the face of the business and one of the only employees from your business that the customers sees.

With this in mind, it is important to ensure the business is getting the most out of their remote workforce by training them in not only providing the best repair and maintenance service, but also by improving their soft skills in order to successfully communicate, listen and train customers on the products and maintenance best practice.

6. Increase help desk productivity with technical training and automation

Whilst training your engineers to carry out additional tasks such as quoting and ordering, it is also important to ensure that those on the service desk are also doing as much as they can to help improve the customer experience.

The traditional role of the service desk is to log customer requests and schedule them for the next available or most skilled engineer to go out and visit the customer. However, what if the service desk could provide some level of expertise in trying to find out more about the service request to better inform and equip the engineers and on some occasions even help solve the customers problem remotely, over the phone?

7. Stay one step ahead of the customer with proactive maintenance

The amount of reactive service requests coming in to an organisation can cause complexity for scheduling as well as effecting engineer availability, parts ordering and the amount of time it takes for the problem to be fixed.

To avoid the amount of reactive jobs being received, businesses should implement a strategy to track performance of components and analyse common faults in order to predict when maintenance will be needed.

The internet of things will also have a huge impact on service delivery and although still somewhat in its infancy, will soon be able to transform the industry

 

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Click here to access this white paper now

 

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Getting company vehicle drivers on board with the implementation of a new GPS fleet tracking system is not always a smooth ride...

That’s why Fleetmatics, a global provider of fleet management solutions for commercial fleet vehicles delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), has launched a new e-book which breaks down the introduction process into five easy steps.

Freely available online at www.fleetmatics.co.uk/ebooks-library, the e-book explains how sharing your plans with the employees can be key to successfully introducing the new system. Initial resistance by the workforce towards the new system can be driven by misconceptions as some employees can be unfamiliar with the technology and its purpose.

As suggested in the guide on How to Manage Change by the UK’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS),¹ careful communication can facilitate the introduction process. Once staff understands how the implemented change can help support a successful and sustainable future for the company and for them, they can be more likely to support it, according to ACAS.

 

The GPS tracking system enables organisations to gain a more accurate insight into the movements of their fleets and this information can be used to improve workforce management, gain greater efficiency, reduce environmental impact, increase productivity and use resources more effectively. Some of these benefits are directly transferable to staff. For example, after the installation of the monitoring system, many Fleetmatics customers report that their employees benefit from a reduced amount of paperwork, more evenly shared workload and fewer delays with less unwanted overtime.

Richard Brooks, Fleetmatics Marketing Director for Europe, explained, “Openness and honesty can help cement the mutual understanding required to reap the full benefits of the system. With the support of the guidelines provided in this e-book, managers can help employees understand the benefits of the new system and encourage them to see the installation as an improvement, not an obstacle.”

As the Internet of Things, Big Data, and Cloud computing all become commonly heard phrases within Field Service we must start to consider the very real question of cyber-security with ever greater attention. But what does Cyber security look like in 2015?

One of the significant themes that came through from the victims of high profile cyber attacks in the last year was that they all had heavy investment in IT security, regular testing programmes and almost certainly long lists of accreditations. However, event his was not enough to keep them safe from groups of attackers and the resultant losses and associated fines for such detected breaches.

This year the cyber security landscape will once again continue to develop swiftly as attacks likely become even more frequent and sophisticated and from more corners of the world than ever before. The one thing that will remain the same however is that investing in the wrong defences will again result in an openness to cyber attack and the potential of real damage.

Cyber threat actors are commonly split into three groups: nation states, cyber criminals and cyber activists or hacktivists. As 2015 evolves these threat factors look set to continue to advance their capabilities.

Often nation states – who see cyber attacks as being a cheap, effective and most importantly plausibly deniable espionage tool – can be the dark hand behind theft of proprietary or sensitive data for the benefit of one of their home-grown enterprises.

Cyber criminals, motivated by financial gain, have traditionally targeted a company’s customer base, stealing personal details or credit card information to use in fraud or to sell.

Cyber activists, motivated by a range of factors – including most simply personal amusement, but also factors such as, anti-capitalist sentiment, environmental concerns, religion and nationalism – base their activities on disrupting operations or generating embarrassment.

An ever-changing landscape

It is also predicted that many global political developments will also have their impact on shaping the cyber threat environment across 2015 and beyond.

Countries that not too long ago would have been clumsy and naive when it comes to their cyber capabilities have now established sophisticated capabilities by nurturing their local home-grown hacktivist groups.

Meanwhile new hubs of cyber criminal activity will emerge and will set their focus on new targets. Driven by the disparity between the rich nations and the poor on an international level, plus the growing access of IT and as such rapidly developing IT skills of members of the latter.

All of this is also becoming easier and being better facilitated by new ways of communicating, such as cyber criminals' and activists' use of the Dark Web to buy and sell hacking tools and techniques, using anonymous currency such as Bitcoin.

 

Another trend that we will likely see continue on from 2014 is the gradual blurring of the lines of the roles and loyalties of these threat actors. Last year we shad the emergence of criminals acting with a degree of impunity contingent on targeting politically expedient victims, or hacktivist groups becoming involved in attacks in support of government agenda.

As sophisticated tools and techniques become more widespread, and the distinctions between the threat actors become more blurred, the long-term outlook for cyber threats is concerning. The constraining factor previously was that the people with the intent to conduct widespread and high-impact cyber attacks – the activists and the criminals – did not have the capability. This may not remain the case for much longer.

How best to defend your organisation

Very simply throwing more money at the problem is no longer a viable solution.

With finite resources, it is just simply impossible to protect every asset against every possible threat.

The key is to understand which threat actors are likely to be targeting your organisation, what are your key assets and how do you protect those.

Modern Cyber defence needs to be intelligence-led, risk-based and prioritised – it is no longer just a compliance exercise.

There are five mistakes that organisations cannot afford to make during 2015:

1. Taking a broad sweep approach: You cannot fail to build your cyber defences around a granular understanding of threat. In 2015 all cyber-defence programs should be intelligence led. This includes collecting operational and strategic information that helps you understand the specific nature of the threat. It may also be necessary across your supply chain, as vulnerabilities in subcontractors or suppliers often affect a larger organisation (or vice-versa) – attackers will always focus on the weakest link.
2. Spending too much time, effort and money on prevention and not enough on detection. Companies need to just accept that breaches will be inevitable in todays world and spend time developing and testing response plans, moving form different types of attacks to highlight which plans are most important.
3. Treating cyber security as an IT issue rather than a business risk. Many organisations accept that cyber security is a business risk, rather than an IT-specific issue – but not many act on this by integrating cyber security risk management with wider business risk management processes.
4. Not identifying and protecting your most important assets. Companies need to focus their budgets on prioritising protection. Many tend to be excessively targeted on delivering company-wide compliance, yet don’t effectively protect their key assets.
5. Final many companies simply do not have the technical defences to deal with sophisticated and persistent threats. Across 2015, an increasingly broad group of highly capable actors will target critical assets across a wide range of organisations.

 

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Xplore Technologies Corp a manufacturer of award-winning rugged tablet PCs, announced in the last few days that it has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Motion Computing, Inc. and its subsidiaries Motion, another Austin, TX-based leader in the rugged tablet space, which is currently the second largest provider worldwide of rugged tablet PCs, according to VDC.

“The acquisition of Motion is consistent with our goal to establish the best and broadest line of rugged tablets for the enterprise market,” said Philip Sassower, chairman and CEO of Xplore.

“Motion represents a unique opportunity for Xplore to acquire an Austin-based company with deep industry domain expertise and that possesses products and channels complementary to our own. Together we will address a broader range of customer needs and provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for rugged tablets.”

“Nearly fifty percent of Motion revenue comes from outside the United States,” said Mark Holleran, president and COO of Xplore. “Leveraging the mature distribution channels that Motion has developed over the last 10 years, Xplore will significantly expand its international reach.

We are particularly excited to include in our offering Motion’s R12, which was recently named by PC Magazine as Editor’s Choice for Rugged Windows Tablet PC.  Its 12.5” LCD form factor has been very successful in law enforcement and manufacturing markets and is just one example of the expanding market in which Xplore will now participate.”

[quote float="left"]We are particularly excited to include in our offering Motion’s R12, which was recently named by PC Magazine as Editor’s Choice for Rugged Windows Tablet PC.

“Motion is excited about what this combination brings to its customers and business partners,” said Peter Poulin, CEO of Motion.  “The capital backing of Xplore supports a robust product pipeline and customer service capabilities that are critical to enterprises with whom Motion has had long standing relationships.”

 

“Xplore has a proven track record in focusing its resources to generate sustainable growth,” said Mike Rapisand, CFO of Xplore. “After a successful recapitalization and offering in 2012, we invested cash to significantly expand our addressable market, revenue and EBITDA.

Our executive management team has over 200 years’ combined experience in managing companies like Xplore and Motion, and we are confident that the two businesses will be successfully integrated to deliver growth and value to all of our stakeholders.”

The transaction will be effected through an asset purchase and sale agreement by and among Xplore, Motion and Square 1 Bank.  Xplore will acquire Motion for approximately $9 million, plus the assumption of approximately $7 million in net liabilities.

The closing of the transaction is expected to occur on or about April 17, 2015 and is subject to numerous conditions, including the receipt of financing and third party approvals and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.  Xplore intends to consummate the transaction using proceeds from a new $15 million credit facility with Square 1 Bank and to support integration and growth of the two businesses with its cash on hand.

In its most recent fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, Motion’s unaudited revenue was approximately $83 million, its unaudited gross margin percentage was approximately 25% and its unaudited net loss was approximately $7 million. Xplore intends to file a current report on Form 8-K on or about June 30,

2015 that will include Motion financial statements, as well as historical pro forma financial information for the combined businesses.

 

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UK Gardening firm Town & County Gardens turn to Fleetmatics telematics solution to trim their costs...

Keeping on top off staff working hours can be time consuming and complicated, especially for companies that rely on employees to log their own hours. In order to get clarity on staff hours and combat unnecessary spending on unwarranted overtime, the gardening and landscaping company Town & Country Gardens introduced Fleetmatics GPS vehicle tracking throughout their fleet. Since signing up with Fleetmatics REVEAL nearly two years ago, the company has seen some concrete results.

Based in Fulham, South London, Town & Country Gardens has been offering a wide range of gardening services including garden maintenance, landscaping and tree surgery for over 20 years. The company operates a fleet consisting of six vans, some equipped for gardening and others for landscaping purposes.

Currently, the company has 14 core staff, but the number of employees nearly doubles when extra help is hired during the summer. This used to boost the overspending on staff hours even further, until Director Ben Skinner decided to put an end to it. After researching different providers on a vehicle tracking comparison website, he decided to sign up to Fleetmatics REVEAL, which was the most the cost-efficient option available.

“Before getting Fleetmatics, the biggest problem for us was overspending on staffing hours,” said Mr Skinner “We used to rely on our staff to report their own hours at the end of the day when they returned on site, but this meant that we ended up paying for a lot of hours that were just not justified.

 

After installing Fleetmatics GPS tracking, the change was almost immediate; in the first year we saved almost £20,000 in staff hours. These savings alone made the introduction of the tracking system worthwhile.”

In addition to the significant savings achieved, since installing REVEAL, the company has seen improvements in other areas of business as well. For Town & Country Gardens, as for many London-based fleets, traffic is a daily problem. With the roads of the Capital often at a standstill, reaching customers in time is an ongoing challenge.

However, REVEAL’s Live Map feature has provided the company with new ways to beat the traffic. “Thanks to the live feed, we can now see if our staff are taking inefficient routes on their way to the next customer. This enables us to redirect them to a better route and avoid unnecessary delays,” Mr Skinner says.

 

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People at the heart of latest issue of Field Service News  writes Editor Kris Oldland in his March/April Leader...

Whilst it is of course quite natural for those of us working in field service us to focus on technology, it is revolutionising the way we work seemingly more and more every year, every now and then we need to take stock and assess the most valuable element in field service - the people.

Because that’s what it’s all about ultimately surely?

We talk about empowering our field service engineers, we talk up the importance of our engineers as the frontline of customer service - increasingly the only human touch-point our customers may have with our brand.

For all the good that remote connectivity, the Internet of Things and machine to machine diagnostics brings to field service, for all the efficiency savings, all the increased productivity, we will still need that human interaction - if we want to engender any form of customer loyalty, we really need it if we want to capture and retain those ever more slippery recurring revenues that field service managers are under ever increasing pressure to secure.

And as I looked across this issue of Field Service News almost everywhere I looked I could see a strong ‘people’ angle to almost all of our stories and features.

In the News section for example there is what to my mind is one of the best stories to have hit our desk here at Field Service News Towers since we launched. That is the story of how field service software provider Keytree are working with food charity Planet Zheroes help fight Food Poverty in the UK. Not only is it a great example of how their system can be put to use, but it’s also a story of triumph on a human level. Through the use of field service technology Keytree and Planet Zheroes are able to stop wastage from some of the country’s leading food organisations and make sure that there are less hungry mouths out there on the British Streets.

My heartfelt thanks and respect goes out to both companies for helping so many who need it. 

Also in the News section is our new comic strip Field Service Funnies and whilst I’m dishing out thank Thank You’s I should also tip my hat to the good folks at ServiceMax for sharing the cartoons with us.

They were actually the result of a competition towards the end of last year where genuine field engineer stories were converted into cartoons. Once again all about the people , but I have a feeling that as in this first example the cartoons may be quite focussed on the sometimes quite astounding stupidity that occurs amongst the general public (trust me I’m probably one of the worst offenders) but I’m really looking forward to seeing more in this series.

 [quote float="left"]In the News section for example there is what to my mind is one of the best stories to have hit our desk here at Field Service News Towers since we launched.

And as the theme of people continues we have coverage of the first two big events of the year so far. Firstly there was the Enterprise Mobile Technology Conference hosted by Panasonic. You can read our write up on page 32 and the event was a really fantastic start to the event calendar but what truly impressed me the most was that despite being a very, very big company, the Panasonic team were both accessible and genuinely interested in their clients thoughts and needs. Special mention should go to John Harris, General Manager Engineering for a fantastic session that could have veered dangerously close to being a sales pitch in the wrong hands but instead was an extremely valuable, and highly open discussion.

 

The other event I refer to is of course Field Service Medical Europe which was held in sunny Dublin just a few weeks ago. As you would expect from the team that host Field Service Europe the three day event was highly enjoyable and packed with excellent content. However, perhaps because of the more niche focus of this event compared to it’s older cousin, there were a few less in attendance but that simply resulted in each session moving more towards an open forum as the barriers of inhibitions were removed due to the more intimate nature of the group.

Finally we’re really pleased to bring you the results of our latest research project which we have run in partnership with Advanced Field Service.

This time around the focus of our research has been on the types of mobility tools being used by Field Service Engineers in 2015.

The research project itself is perhaps one of the broadest topics we tackled as we look at the types of device (i.e. laptop/tablet/smartphone etc), the grade of device (rugged vs. consumer) the operating systems, what we as field service professionals expect from apps, how often we think we should refresh our FSM solutions vs. how often we actually do it, we even explore who is involved in selecting the solutions and look at whether it is a good idea to involve our field service engineers in the selection process.

For me though the most interesting statistics are around our engineer’s satisfaction with their devices. In brief digital is definitely here... So say the people

 

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Want to know more? Then click here to get you hands on a free digital copy of Field Service News issue five now! 

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xMatters, inc., a provider of communication-enabled business processes, have recently announced a major new release of one of the industry’s most advanced communications systems for managing, deploying and rapidly resolving IT incidents.

The xMatters On-Demand platform is award-winning technology that automates pinpointing and alerting for the individuals, IT teams and external service providers who need to work together to quickly rectify critical business disruptions.

The communications market is undergoing a seismic shift. After decades of declining revenue and stagnant innovation, a new market is ascendant. This market is being driven in part by cloud economics. IDC forecasts the cloud communications platforms market will grow from global revenue of $123.4 million in 2013 to reach $7.5 billion in 2018 at a 127.5% CAGR[1].

New IDC Vendor Spotlight Report

According to a new IDC Vendor Spotlight report by xMatters and titled “New Approaches to Optimising Business Operations With Cloud Communications,” cloud communications platforms are on a course to undermine telephony system equipment markets which will significantly devalue traditional carrier voice and messaging markets as well. These platforms are changing ideas about how customers, end users and subscribers can communicate with enterprises. A simpler, more flexible platform approach is fuelling a new convergence of communications and business processes. This makes it easy to blend real-time communications into business-critical workflows.

The report states a new cloud communications approach, layered with the flexibility of a software-defined architecture, solves traditional business communications problems by delivering personalisation, timeliness, multi-channel use and integration and automation.

For companies to assure their environment and business operations in the event of disruptions, a new communications approach that automates the directory and staff schedule to simplify stakeholder whereabouts, ensures multi-modal communications to reach stakeholders via preferred channels and integrates easily with other systems for coordinated efficient and agile operations is needed. To the extent that xMatters technology can address the challenges described in this paper, IDC believes the company is well positioned for success.

 

“In the event of an interruption to the business, which is inevitable at some point, companies need to keep ahead of the game to assure their business operations run smoothly and downtime is minimised. We’re pleased to offer the market a modern and intelligent cloud communications platform that automates the directory and staff schedule to ensure communications reach stakeholders via preferred channels and also integrates easily with other systems for coordinated efficient and agile operations,” said Troy McAlpin, CEO of xMatters. “IDC is aware of today’s communications challenges in the marketplace and we’re thrilled they recognise xMatters is well-positioned for success.”


New xMatters On-Demand ReleaseFeatures

Highlighted new features and functionality for the latest xMatters On-Demand cloud release, available today, include:

Vastly Improved Scheduling: The new On-Call Scheduling module and associated functionality make it easier to automatically manage all facets of scheduling, such as schedule recurrences, holiday schedules, automated rotations and temporary replacements. The xMatters On-Demand technology also proactively reveals “hollow shifts” – those lacking on-call resources – and dynamically resolves rotations, temporary replacements and holiday schedules to immediately show on-call information.

Group Overview: The new Group Overview is the 'home page' for the assigned group. It allows users to quickly identify on-call gaps, to understand who is currently on call, the escalation process in place, identifies the group supervisors and also includes full team contact information.

Improved Calendaring: The new calendar function shows a complete view of team shifts and supports adding new shifts and changing existing ones with drag-and-drop interactions based on common calendaring tools, such as Outlook and Mac Calendar. Users can easily view the scheduled shifts for the week and click on them to see the team members scheduled on duty and their contact information, the escalation process in place for the shift and other key details.

Improved Roster: The redesigned, single view of resources can more easily pinpoint for team’s who is available and move them into shifts.

Enhanced Conferencing: Conference bridges remain an effective mechanism to mobilise multiple people for sharing information and deciding on action steps. The new On-Demand release includes a redesigned conferencing report, which makes it easier to identify all of the attendees on the call. Also, the conference administrator now has the ability to edit phone numbers to people’s names to ensure everyone is accounted for. This new ability makes for easier reporting after the incident has been closed.

Strengthened Mobility Capabilities: The new release also brings multi-login support, allowing those users that are responsible for different use cases or multiple xMatters environments to be able to log into all of them via their iOS device.

 

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