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Tecalemit is a leading UK supplier of vehicle servicing equipment. It first began using Tesseract’s service management software in 1999 and has been pursuing increased automation, greater efficiency and better service ever since assisted by its growing and developing relationship with Tesseract.

Tecalemit Garage Equipment Company Ltd is one of the most recognised brands in the automotive industry, both in the UK and worldwide, and has been operating for nearly a century. The company and its partners design, manufacture, supply and maintain a huge range of vehicle servicing equipment and MOT testing equipment, such as roller brake testers, vehicle lifts and emissions testers.

In the UK, equipment is stocked in two main warehouses and sold to Tecalemit’s ever-expanding network of customers across the country. They range from small and independent vehicle garages and workshops to major national and international car and motorcycle companies.

Once the equipment is sold, Tecalemit have a team of  60 factory trained and accredited engineers in charge of maintaining the equipment, from planning maintenance and servicing to remedying faults and breakdowns.

The customer  service centre is based in Plymouth and handles 500 calls a day from more than 50,000 customer sites across the country. With such an extensive customer bases, it is important for  Tecalemit to have an efficient service management system in place.[quote float="left"]The customer service centre handles 500 calls a day from more than 50,000 customer sites across the country.

 

Tesseract: the early days

Back in 1999, the Millennium Bug was a popular fear for businesses relying on computers and software throughout the world and Tecalemit harboured growing concerns about their own Unix-based service management system. It was not particularly user-friendly or efficient and bore some functionality aches. The fear was that it was going to crash when the year 2000 hit. Therefore, Tecalemit opted to implement something new and browser-based, with much greater functionality and
flexibility.

Tesseract was shortlisted along with three other systems, and eventually selected on the basis of cost, user-friendliness and powerful functionality. Tecalemit incorporated Tesseract’s core system which managed the logging of calls, stored immediately accessible data, and gave Tecalemit the ability to generate countless reports, providing much greater visibility.

Moving into the 21st century

Development and evolution at Tesseract is constant and Tecalemit have benefited from evolving with them, regularly adding new software components. This development has been particular comprehensive in the last five years, with a move from paper-based systems to electronic ones.

For example, Tecalemit have replaced a paper-based diary system with Tesseract’s electronic diary. This gives them much greater visibility over what is going on with service activities, and receives regular upgrades. Another paper-based system that has been replaced with an electronic syustem is stock-taking, which is now faster and more accurate.

One of the most recent implementations is the Quote Centre, which enables and manages the generation of quotes and converts them easily into customer contracts.

Field service management overhaul

The biggest development, however, has been the overhaul of Tecalemit’s field service management system, thanks to the implementation of Tesseract’s Remote Engineer Access module (REA).

 

Tecalemit began using Remote Engineer Access (REA) in January 2014. Before this, Tecalemit's  allocation of jobs and deployment of  engineers to customer sites was a largely manual process. Tecalemit would receive a call, log it on the Tesseract system, and the office would fax, phone or post details of the job to the relevant engineer. Once a job was complete, the engineer would fill in a paper job sheet and post it to the office.  There was no visibility, no instant data, and processes such as parts ordering and invoicing took a lot longer.

“We wanted to streamline the system,” says David Monteith, the Service Office Supervisor for Tecalemit. “We wanted faster invoicing, faster ordering of parts, better visibility, and we wanted to be able to see jobs through to completion directly and with all the relevant information to hand. REA has totally delivered on all those counts.”

REA has allowed engineers to generate live reports, order parts, close down jobs and raise same-day invoices from their tablet devices. They can input their data into the Tesseract system – data which is then fed back to the office directly and instantaneously. In addition, REA has a useful offline function. This means engineers can input data even when they are working at sites with minimal or no communications signal: that data is sent through to Tecalemit as soon as the signal is restored.

Tecalemit has also started to use Tesseract's contract management system, which raises planned maintenance tasks for equipment that has been installed at customer sites. In total, the system raises approximately 500 planned maintenance tasks each month. These jobs are assigned to the engineers, who then use REA when carrying out and completing the job.

 

Next step: automatic job allocation

However, there is one undertaking that remains predominantly manual and is still part of this process, but it’s one that Tecalemit are looking to automate: deciding which engineer should attend to which job.  Currently the service controller decides who to assign, looking at skill set and geographical location, among other factors. The service controller then notifies the relevant engineer using the REA system. In all, this is a time consuming process with scope for human error.

Tecalemit are planning to incorporate Tesseract’s Diary Assist scheduling system to automate this task. It will assign engineers to particular jobs based on skill set, availability, travel time, work time and shift patterns, call response time and customer site cover times.[quote float="right"]We can see Diary Assist saving us a lot of time

 

“We can see it saving us a lot of time,” said David Monteith. “We plan to integrate it with our contract management system. That system will raise the calls, then Diary Assist will take over and allocate the call logically and geographically sensibly. Then we have REA to cover the job itself. It is just another step towards automating and streamlining what we do.”

The future is bright

Tecalemit have watched their processes develop, their efficiency rise and their service to customers improve since they welcomed Tesseract into the fold.

“We now have faster, more accurate information,” says Monteith. “We have cut down on admin, including paperwork and postage, and we can now respond to customers more efficiently. Our staff has better visibility as regards service history, what equipment they’ve got and what needs doing and,  with less admin requirements, can concentrate more on their overall role. We will continue to look at what Tesseract offers, too, because they are very good at driving change and there is always room for improvement.”

 

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Last month, Marne Martin, CEO of Servicepower, evaluated the need to focus on the technology required to operate a field service operation and discussed recruiting, training, motivating, and retaining new Millennial employees (Technology and Technicans in field service). This month, Marne discusses the importance of performance management and how to implement it in your organisation.

Once the technology and staffing are taken care of, performance management is the next essential step to the success of a field service organisation (FSO). It involves accessing meaningful metrics, working across teams, and aligning execution to improve performance across the entire field service organisation. It involves having the right people communicate the key messages from the metrics and implement change, using analytical information to drive continuous technician improvement, business productivity goals, and customer satisfaction. This is where the best organisations differentiate themselves. Performance management provides the opportunity to train and encourage Millennials with a responsive performance culture in mind.

What is Performance Management?

Performance management is an employee centric program including metrics, leadership supported processes, and technology used to measure employee performance against pre-defined targets driven by company strategy and goals. A well-formed performance management programme incentivises employee behaviours that support company strategy and goals by measuring and reacting to positive or negative performance metrics. Flexible technology which provides easy to understand analytics that can be viewed conveniently, on a variety of devices, is essential. It also requires committed management that mentor and drive accountability, as well as a group of technicians that are motivated to continuously improve.

In the following sections, we define the building blocks of implementing performance management in your organisation.

 What are the Most Important Metrics for field service operations?

ServicePower has published several pieces on key performance indicators (KPIs) for field service, including a white paper, and a new infographic which defines the top KPIs measured by best practice field service organisations - those companies leading in service profitability.

The top KPIs include: customer satisfaction, total revenue, total service cost,  service revenue, mean time to repair, on site response time,revenues under SLA/contract, SLA compliance, contract renewal rates, field technician utilisation, first time fix rate, service parts revenue, customer retention.

The survey on which the infographic was based indicated that 62% of best practice FSOs list development and improvement of metrics or KPIs to measure field service performance as their top strategic action!  It also indicates that best practice FSOs measure field technician utilisation and productivity less frequently than peers, because they’ve already deployed intelligent scheduling and optimisation software.

 

So, assuming intelligent scheduling and optimisation technology is in place, what should a robust performance management plan look like?

Each plan should include the following:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Defined targets:-The operations team must decide on the baseline, and define standards or targets for scoring technicians.The KPIs mentioned above are clearly important to the best practice, top performing FSOs. Other KPIs to consider include net promoter score,  quality/inspection score, and sales.
2. Defined scoring methodology:- Scoring  can be done a number of ways, but typically the process is similar to school grading scales, which takes individual scores and rolls them up to a total score for some time. For example:[unordered_list style="bullet"]
   • First time fix rate = 90%
   • 95-100% = Exceeds expectations
   • 85-95% = Meets expectations
   • 0<85% = Does Not Meet expectations

What are the Prerequisites for a successful performance management process?

The devil is in the details. Once targets or KPIs and scoring methodology is established for each field technician, it is a matter of measurement and issuing ‘grades’ for each technician. It is also necessary to establish the process which will be used to manage the plan.[quote float="right"]Ensure the plan is easy to use,  has a defined dispute process, recognises that money talks, and encourages collarboration and competition

 

Ensure the plan is: [ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Easy to use. Measuring, scoring, delivering the results and incentivising behaviours must be easy to administer. The process must deliver score reviews regularly, using real time information delivered to the technician on his/her connected device. Subsequent coaching must be built into the process if technicians do not meet targets/KPIs following score reviews indicating shortfalls.
2. Has a defined dispute process. The plan should incorporate a defined process for technicians to dispute metrics, in a non-confrontational way. For instance, give technicians 5-10 days to dispute a score before closing out the report for the month. Providing technicians access to real time metrics, eliminates surprise. However, escalation processes need to be defined as they will be needed from time to time.
3.  Recognises that money talks. When possible, tie compensation to meeting or exceeding targets and also tie performance improvement plans to missing targets.
4. Encourages friendly competition and collaboration. Sometimes, creating competition associated with individual, team or department scores can drive additional motivation for improving scores. Likewise, collaboration can help share best practices especially if an organisation recruits new technicians often.

Utilise technology to make performance management programes easier to administer.

Technology solutions often offer integrated business intelligence tools.[quote float="left"]Analytics data may have a negative impact on some KPIs, but yield improved overall results for a company.

Take advantage of reporting and dashboards available in your field service management software to establish targets/KPIs, continuously measure them, and use the data back at all levels of the organisation, such that it can be used to fine tune operations. The analytics data will also help to quantify and communicate gains from collaboration with other departments, such as improving call center triage for improved first-time fix, or considering parts availability when dispatching a technician. Both may have a negative impact on some KPIs, but yield improved overall results for a company.

 

Ensure that your technology is simple to understand and use, and provides data to all silos within the organisation, including the individual technicians.

Ensure that the right security is in place to limit the technician view to his/her own scores.

Establish user hierarchies. Scores typically roll up from the technician, to a higher level. Set permissions such that each user may view data and scores for his or her own team members.

Perhaps most importantly, the analytics technology must be flexible so that management can adjust targets when needed, and use the data across function groups, such as operations, marketing and sales, to drive continuous improvement across the enterprise, as well as new business opportunities.

What are the keys to successful deployment of a performance management programme?

1. Agree on metrics across the company before discussing with technicians. It’s difficult to deliver concise, understandable targets/KPIs when they conflict, or business silos have different priorities. For instance, quality and productivity can be at odds. Agreement must be achieved before delivery to field technicians to avoid confusion and disputes.
2. In union environments, rolling out a process takes longer and requires more approvals. Understand the environment in which you are working and plan ahead to facilitate / enforce adoption.
3. Pilot the plan before rolling out to the entire field organizations.

Is Performance Management Applicable to 3rd Party Contractors too?

Absolutely! Though some employee KPIs, like those above, can be utilised to measure and score 3rd party contractors, often the metrics are slightly different. The following 3rd Party KPIs can also be used to measure the effectiveness of contractors:

• Jobs accepted, % work-in-progress, job status, repair turnaround time
• Claim submission time
• % Parts used on claims
•  Number of parts used on claims
• % Labour only claims
• % Trip charges
•  Fraud

Now About these Millennials: What is the performance management opportunity?

Millennials grew up with technology, gaming, and social media. Find ways for the Millennial workforce to show self-expression by developing ideas for improved processes and efficiency. Facilitate sharing throughout the organisation.[quote float="right"]Make field service cool. Spending time around field service technicians is never boring

 

Make sure that they feel connected to their fellow technicians, even from the field. Encourage best practice sharing and competition to improve and be the best.

Make sure that the performance metrics tie into financial and other rewards so that your Millennial workers don’t become jaded about putting in the effort to sustain continuous improvement.

And lastly, make field service cool. Spending time around field service technicians is never boring. Their stories and humor are usually second to none, so facilitate interaction between the older generation that perhaps didn’t see technology as their friend, and the Millennials who couldn’t imagine being without it. This helps transfer knowledge from more experienced workers and drive KPIs achievement by new employees that need to learn about company assets, but also how to work in a world enabled by IoT.

 

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A device to protect lone workers against the daily risks of their job has been launched by telematics provider Matrix Telematics.  The pocket-sized LoneWorker device incorporates the latest in GPS and sensor technology to help employees working on their own stay safe while carrying out their day-to-day work. It delivers end-to-end real-time tracking, giving organisations the ability to monitor the movements of their staff who are out in the field and provide both parties with vital security protection.

The device is discrete and ultra-sensitive to the slightest movement, claims Matrix.  The product can be configured in hundreds of ways so can be customised to match business and employee needs. This can include the ability to send a distress call if the device records unusual activity or a lack of motion, reminders to the employee to ‘check in’ after a certain amount of time, or for a control centre to dial in and listen silently to audio from the device. Alternatively, employees can activate an emergency button and open up a two way conversation with head office if they fear for their safety. All data can be integrated with a company’s CRM system which provides organisations with easy access to the information when it is required.

 

Geoff Ball, MD of Matrix Telematics said: “The definition of a lone worker has changed dramatically. From social workers to delivery drivers, postmen to pest control; lone workers make up almost a quarter of the UK’s working population, but the nature of their job leaves them open to a unique set of risks that employers need to be aware of.
“While most lone workers will hopefully never experience any problems, to have the peace of mind that there’s someone just at the other end of the line should they need it is a big reassurance for employees and a sensible precaution for employers to take.”

LoneWorker also helps organisations to report on employee activity and productivity enabling staff to record where and when jobs take place , automating timekeeping and billing processes.

 

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