Power Solutions International, a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of emissions-certified engines and power systems implements Mize Warranty solution to streamline warranty processing and improve data accuracy.
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Oct 18, 2019 • Software & Apps • News • News Software and Apps • Software and Apps • Mize
Power Solutions International, a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of emissions-certified engines and power systems implements Mize Warranty solution to streamline warranty processing and improve data accuracy.
Aug 08, 2019 • Software & Apps • News • Mergers and Acquisitions • News Software and Apps • ClickSoftware • Salesforce
Cloud-based software firm will purchase Israeli tech outfit to boost service offering.
Cloud-based software firm will purchase Israeli tech outfit to boost service offering.
Salesforce will acquire Click Software in a deal worth $1.5 billion that is expected to complete in the Autumn.
The acquisition will boost Salesforce's service offering, Service Cloud, which, according to the company's June financial statement, has earned the company $1 billion in revenue.
Salesforce's Bill Patterson says that end-uses will ultimately benefit from the purchase. “Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers," the EVP and GM of Service Cloud commented.
Israeli outfit Click Software were founded in 1997, going public in 2000 and were purchased 15 years later by private equity firm Francisco Partners for $438 million.
Salesforce will acquire Click Software in a deal worth $1.5 billion that is expected to complete in the Autumn.
The acquisition will boost Salesforce's service offering, Service Cloud, which, according to the company's June financial statement, has earned the company $1 billion in revenue.
Salesforce's Bill Patterson says that end-uses will ultimately benefit from the purchase. “Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers," the EVP and GM of Service Cloud commented.
Israeli outfit Click Software were founded in 1997, going public in 2000 and were purchased 15 years later by private equity firm Francisco Partners for $438 million.
Jul 16, 2019 • News • apps • health and safety • News Software and Apps • Software and Apps
Celtic Technologies now use StaySafe to provide better protection for their field workers when working underground or remotely.
Celtic Technologies now use StaySafe to provide better protection for their field workers when working underground or remotely.
StaySafe is an app and surrounding cloud-based monitoring service which tracks a lone worker’s location via GPS and alerts their manager if an employee triggers an alert or they do not check-in within a specified time.
Celtic Technologies provide integrated environmental services which operate in the UK, France,the USA and Canada. They are a contaminated land remediation contractor specialising in ground and groundwater treatment, materials management, asbestos management, and brownfield improvement.
Prior to StaySafe, the company relied on traditional safety practices such as asking staff to send text messages or call in to let management know of their whereabouts. However, this method relied heavily on employees remembering to contact the office and was also problematic for those that carried out work in remote areas.
Stephen Kidley Senior Operations Manager at Celtic comments “Set up of the app was very quick and we were all impressed with its simplicity. Our staff are really pleased with the app and feel much more comfortable knowing that they have it with them. The customer service we have received from StaySafe has been excellent and the solutions they provide are great value for money”.
Don Cameron CEO at StaySafe adds “It can be a huge challenge to manage and maintain the safety of field service workers due to the dangerous environments they’re constantly exposed to, StaySafe helps to keep these vulnerable employees safe by offering an innovative and simple way to monitor their safety”.
Jul 09, 2019 • News • News Software and Apps • cloud • servicemax • Software and Apps
Executives bring expertise in growing successful enterprise software companies to ServiceMax’s cloud-based platform.
Executives bring expertise in growing successful enterprise software companies to ServiceMax’s cloud-based platform.
ServiceMax, have announced the appointment of Tony Zingale and Frank van Veenendaal to the company’s board of directors. Zingale, who will serve as chairman of the board, brings more than 35 years of experience building profitable, high growth, enterprise software companies. Van Veenendaal, a 30-year industry veteran and former Salesforce executive, brings extensive cloud, customer service and sales acceleration experience.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Tony and Frank to the ServiceMax board during this exciting period of change and innovation,” said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. “Both leaders bring a wealth of experience building and advising market-leading software companies. Their expertise will bring tremendous value as we accelerate our growth initiatives, pursue new strategic partnerships and continue to help our customers advance their service transformation journeys.”
Zingale previously served as executive chairman and CEO at Jive Software, a global enterprise collaboration software company, where he led the company through a successful IPO in 2011. He is a highly successful executive and board member in enterprise software, including public companies Clarify, Jive and Mercury and several other venture-backed, private SaaS companies.
“I’m honored to join ServiceMax as chairman of the board and look forward to the opportunity to help guide the company during this new chapter,” said Zingale. “I look forward to partnering with Neil and the ServiceMax team as they work to penetrate the $34 billion service execution market with their unmatched expertise and market leading technology.”
Van Veenendaal spent more than a decade in executive leadership roles at Salesforce, including vice chairman and chief sales officer. He was instrumental in the growth and evolution of the company’s sales organization through innovative new compensation plans, pipeline development, sales segmentation, and growth strategies. In addition to ServiceMax, van Veenendaal sits on the board of directors for Onfido, Coupa, Room to Read, and Vlocity.
“ServiceMax’s industry expertise, coupled with its commitment to helping customers improve the productivity of complex, equipment-centric service execution, is truly unparalleled,” said van Veenendaal. “I’m excited to join ServiceMax’s board of directors and help the company continue to deliver on its commitments through the most-innovative technologies available.”
Jun 19, 2019 • Features • Management • Software & Apps • managed print services • News Software and Apps
Managed print services (MPS) emerged to help deal with the commoditisation of the supplies business and injected new blood into a struggling industry. Years later, MPS itself has become a commodity and, once again, office print providers are looking...
Managed print services (MPS) emerged to help deal with the commoditisation of the supplies business and injected new blood into a struggling industry. Years later, MPS itself has become a commodity and, once again, office print providers are looking for new ways of doing things.
This article, from service management software firm Asolvi, looks at the rise of seat-based billing and how it could facilitate a new wave of innovation that will help providers transcend beyond print.
The Commoditisation Issue
In the early 2000s, traditional print resellers began competing on price alone and the need for differentiation became essential, leading to the birth of MPS. MPS was about bundling supplies and services into one recurring price and moving from a transactional, product-oriented arrangement to a contractual, services-oriented one. Instead of customers managing their print environment — placing supply orders after they’ve run out of toner and making service calls when printers go down — dealers started managing it for them.
These new MPS contracts were a win-win. They secured ongoing revenue for dealers while helping customers reduce their printing costs. MPS gave the office print industry a powerful boost.
These new MPS contracts were a win-win. They secured ongoing revenue for dealers while helping customers reduce their printing costs. MPS gave the office print industry a powerful boost.
Yet here we are again with a commoditised product. Only now it’s MPS itself, the one distinguishing feature between most MPS offerings being the price. Still, if there’s anything that office print providers are used to, it’s rapid change. So now they’re looking for a new way to sell. A new way to package their goods and services to create value for the customer and differentiate themselves from the competition.
In this industry, there’s always a new way. One of them is seat-based billing (SBB), an alternative to the traditional way of billing for managed print, which is cost per page (CPP). A number of our clients in this space have expressed an interest in moving from CPP to SBB. As a result, we are already looking at ways of developing our MPS field service management software to accommodate SBB contracts.
But what exactly is SBB? And how does it differ from CPP?
Cost Per Page (CPP) Versus Seat-Based Billing (SBB)
The most popular billing method for MPS has always been cost per page (CPP), also known as cost per click (CPC) or cost per image (CPI). This is where the cost of things like consumables, maintenance, parts, support and toner management are bundled into the cost per page.
The popularity and wide adoption of the CPP model is one of the reasons it can be difficult to set your solutions apart from the competition. An even bigger problem is that it puts you and your customer at odds. You want your customer to print more. Your customer wants to print less. Indeed the whole premise of an MPS solution is to reduce unnecessary printing. And since page volumes are shrinking, basing your organisation’s revenue on a linear association with those volumes is unsustainable.
The popularity and wide adoption of the CPP model is one of the reasons it can be difficult to set your solutions apart from the competition. An even bigger problem is that it puts you and your customer at odds. You want your customer to print more. Your customer wants to print less. Indeed the whole premise of an MPS solution is to reduce unnecessary printing. And since page volumes are shrinking, basing your organisation’s revenue on a linear association with those volumes is unsustainable.
However, seat-based billing (SBB) is now emerging as a more sustainable alternative. Also known as per-user billing or cost per seat, SBB is based on staff numbers rather than pages printed. It is a flat fee billed per end user per month that covers support for all print-enabled devices each person uses.
This could include locally connected printers, desktop printers, multifunction devices (MFDs), fax machines and scanners as well as all consumables, maintenance, parts and software. It plays into the all-you-can-eat mentality that so many customers want and is already popular in other industries, e.g. TV and music subscription services like Netflix and Spotify.
SBB involves a shift in perspective, focusing on users and their needs and behaviours rather than the number of pages printed. This offers an escape from the commoditised world of CPP pricing as well as access to new and more profitable revenue streams. It also ensures perfect alignment between you and your customer. Your customer will spend less but you will make more. This makes for a stronger partnership between you.
How Can You Make More Money With SBB?
Like CPP, SBB involves building a seat price that bundles various services into one fee. But unlike a traditional CPP quote, you have more scope to “layer” additional services onto the seat price. With CPP, there’s only so much you can charge for by the page. Imagine, for instance, trying to charge for VoIP or bottled water by the page. However, it’s perfectly feasible to add these kinds of services onto a user-based price.
For example, you could look to add the following to each seat:
For example, you could look to add the following to each seat:
- Hardware (printers, copiers, MFDs, desktop computers, servers etc.)
- Document management software
- Workflow software
- Print governance software
- Managed IT services
- Coffee and water services
- Digital signage and displays
- Telecommunications including IP telephony and VoIP
Currently you might be offering some of these things by way of one-off sales. However, by bundling them into the seat price, they become part of your recurring revenue stream. And the margins on software are higher, so even as your customers save money, you can mitigate the difference.
The Challenges Of Maintaining A Profitable Seat Price
It’s important to note that with SBB comes the risk that users will abuse the system and print too much or, for instance, print everything in colour. Even though SBB feels like all-you-can-print, it cannot literally be so. That’s because toner is still the most expensive part of any MPS contract. Moreover, the whole point of MPS is to control an organisation’s print output.
So, to make SBB profitable, you first need to build a seat price that is based on a deep understanding of an organisation’s historical print behaviour. You can do this by way of a thorough user- and device-based assessment that gets rid of any assumptions and unknowns. You then need to put as many controls in place as possible to ensure that users don’t overprint.
The first of these controls is having the right language in your contracts, stipulating volume, colour and coverage ratio limits. The second is including print governance software with each seat. This enables your customers to assign user permissions, set restrictions on printing, and keep track of volume and colour usage.
The third is having a strong field service management (FSM) system that gives you full and detailed visibility and monitoring of all service costs. That FSM system needs to integrate with your customer’s machines and let you easily track toner consumption and contract/machine profitability. Your FSM system should make it immediately obvious when your customer is printing more than they should. Easy access to this data enables you to bill correctly, adjust your contract price and/or terms where necessary, and advise your customer on modifying their print behaviour.
With the right controls and software in place, print management can improve with SBB because it puts a name to behaviour. And while managing print volumes is necessary for both CPP and SBB programs, it’s easier to pinpoint misuse with SBB.
For MPS providers that haven’t yet branched into new areas, SBB makes it easier to do so. Billing in CPP doesn’t really allow you to look much past the page. With SBB you can say to a customer, “For an extra £5 per seat per month, we can take care of your desktop computers as well.” There is no additional contract, just an addendum to the existing one. Nor are there any difficult ROI discussions or a large capital budget approval process as it happens immediately and everything is under subscription.
Going forwards, the ability to continually layer the seat with new offerings is likely to be the biggest advantage of the SBB model. It means that SBB could become a powerful way for office print providers to grow.
Jun 19, 2019 • News • News Software and Apps • Software and Apps
XOS UK, a leading Xerox reseller and managed print services (MPS) provider, has described upgrading to Asolvi's Vantage Online as "painless" and "necessary for the company’s growth".
XOS UK, a leading Xerox reseller and managed print services (MPS) provider, has described upgrading to Asolvi's Vantage Online as "painless" and "necessary for the company’s growth".
XOS UK previously used the server-based solution Service Accent, the precursor to Asolvi’s cloud-based Vantage Online solution. With market pressures mounting, they found that Service Accent wasn’t efficient or versatile enough to accommodate their future success. They needed faster processes, superior reports, a clearer way of seeing information and the ability to work remotely anywhere and anytime. When Vantage Online was launched to replace Service Accent and be the growth platform they were looking for, the decision to migrate was a simple one.
“The transition was painless,” says Bob Cudmore, operations director for XOS UK. “No major issues arose regarding data migration. Naturally, this was a project that needed careful management on the part of both XOS and the Vantage team, but with excellent communication and clear project goals and timelines the migration was delivered on time, on spec and on budget. Downtime was also kept to virtually zero.”
Cutting out clicks
Vantage Online does everything Service Accent did, but better. Interfaces are more intuitive and about 50% fewer clicks and screens are required to complete key processes such as work control, stock management, contract administration and meter billing.
Sales order processing (SOP) and purchase order processing (POP) are quicker and easier thanks to increased levels of automation. For example, if XOS sell 10 of the same order, they no longer have to build each order manually 10 times in the system. They simply duplicate the order instead. Now a multi-machine deal takes the same amount of time to process whether it’s for two or two hundred machines. Additionally, Service Accent used a more laborious “find, add” process for attaching accessories such as trays and staple sorters to an order. Vantage Online, on the other hand, produces an automated list of compatible accessories for each machine.
Meter billing is also a more streamlined process in Vantage Online, involving fewer clicks. For example, XOS can now select different invoice types and consolidate them into one, a feature that was missing in Service Accent.
From paper-based reports to live analytics
Before upgrading to Vantage Online, XOS used Crystal Reports, which was integrated with Service Accent and displayed information on screens designed to be printed. It wasn’t particularly flexible or quick and none of the data was live. Now XOS are benefiting from a totally re-imagined reporting system, with dynamic dashboards displaying key data such as volume trends, KPIs, margins, costs and profitability in real time.
Having this data at their fingertips means that users are no longer required to compile as many reports. And when a report does need to be compiled to send to a stakeholder, the information is easily exported as a CSV file to Excel or other programs for further analysis. In effect, it is lightning-quick for XOS to get the information they need, when they need it, in the form they need it in.
XOS' favourite feature: The integration with their data collection agent
Before Vantage Online, XOS weren’t experiencing the full benefit of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. This is because the integration between Service Accent and their fleet management system, XSM, was more limited in scope. In particular, meter readings were only inputted automatically into Service Accent if they came from certain in-scope devices. For the rest of their fleet, XOS were required to manually enter the data from XSM into Service Accent.
“Perhaps our favourite single feature [of Vantage Online] is the integration with XSM, where meter readings are seamlessly transferred into Vantage Online from all our connected devices,” says Bob Cudmore. “This massively speeds up our billing process.”
Easier remote access
The fact that Vantage Online is a more proactive system with fewer screens, more automation and a better user interface is only half the reason XOS decided to upgrade.
The other half is that it’s cloud-based. Service Accent was a server-based Windows-only application which needed to be physically installed on a computer to be accessed. While remote working solutions were available, they needed to be configured and maintained by an office-based IT team with a solid understanding of server infrastructure. XOS simply didn’t have the resources necessary to do that.
As a cloud-based solution, Vantage Online eliminates IT support burdens by shifting the responsibility for maintaining the software to Asolvi. Remote working is much easier to facilitate because there is no server-based infrastructure that needs configuring or maintaining. A remote worker is good to go as soon as they have login details.
XOS UK previously used the server-based solution Service Accent, the precursor to Asolvi’s cloud-based Vantage Online solution. With market pressures mounting, they found that Service Accent wasn’t efficient or versatile enough to accommodate their future success. They needed faster processes, superior reports, a clearer way of seeing information and the ability to work remotely anywhere and anytime. When Vantage Online was launched to replace Service Accent and be the growth platform they were looking for, the decision to migrate was a simple one.
“The transition was painless,” says Bob Cudmore, operations director for XOS UK. “No major issues arose regarding data migration. Naturally, this was a project that needed careful management on the part of both XOS and the Vantage team, but with excellent communication and clear project goals and timelines the migration was delivered on time, on spec and on budget. Downtime was also kept to virtually zero.”
Cutting out clicks
Vantage Online does everything Service Accent did, but better. Interfaces are more intuitive and about 50% fewer clicks and screens are required to complete key processes such as work control, stock management, contract administration and meter billing.
Sales order processing (SOP) and purchase order processing (POP) are quicker and easier thanks to increased levels of automation. For example, if XOS sell 10 of the same order, they no longer have to build each order manually 10 times in the system. They simply duplicate the order instead. Now a multi-machine deal takes the same amount of time to process whether it’s for two or two hundred machines. Additionally, Service Accent used a more laborious “find, add” process for attaching accessories such as trays and staple sorters to an order. Vantage Online, on the other hand, produces an automated list of compatible accessories for each machine.
Meter billing is also a more streamlined process in Vantage Online, involving fewer clicks. For example, XOS can now select different invoice types and consolidate them into one, a feature that was missing in Service Accent.
From paper-based reports to live analytics
Before upgrading to Vantage Online, XOS used Crystal Reports, which was integrated with Service Accent and displayed information on screens designed to be printed. It wasn’t particularly flexible or quick and none of the data was live. Now XOS are benefiting from a totally re-imagined reporting system, with dynamic dashboards displaying key data such as volume trends, KPIs, margins, costs and profitability in real time.
Having this data at their fingertips means that users are no longer required to compile as many reports. And when a report does need to be compiled to send to a stakeholder, the information is easily exported as a CSV file to Excel or other programs for further analysis. In effect, it is lightning-quick for XOS to get the information they need, when they need it, in the form they need it in.
XOS' favourite feature: The integration with their data collection agent
Before Vantage Online, XOS weren’t experiencing the full benefit of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. This is because the integration between Service Accent and their fleet management system, XSM, was more limited in scope. In particular, meter readings were only inputted automatically into Service Accent if they came from certain in-scope devices. For the rest of their fleet, XOS were required to manually enter the data from XSM into Service Accent.
“Perhaps our favourite single feature [of Vantage Online] is the integration with XSM, where meter readings are seamlessly transferred into Vantage Online from all our connected devices,” says Bob Cudmore. “This massively speeds up our billing process.”
Easier remote access
The fact that Vantage Online is a more proactive system with fewer screens, more automation and a better user interface is only half the reason XOS decided to upgrade.
The other half is that it’s cloud-based. Service Accent was a server-based Windows-only application which needed to be physically installed on a computer to be accessed. While remote working solutions were available, they needed to be configured and maintained by an office-based IT team with a solid understanding of server infrastructure. XOS simply didn’t have the resources necessary to do that.
As a cloud-based solution, Vantage Online eliminates IT support burdens by shifting the responsibility for maintaining the software to Asolvi. Remote working is much easier to facilitate because there is no server-based infrastructure that needs configuring or maintaining. A remote worker is good to go as soon as they have login details.
Easier remote access has given XOS the flexibility to offer first-line assistance to customers when machine faults occur. A XOS technician can access the information they need to diagnose and remedy a fault wherever they may be and, if necessary, escalate it to Xerox. Using Vantage Online to manage reactive maintenance requests also allows XOS to branch out and service other brands.
Scope to do more
By increasing the speed and efficiency of their processes, Vantage Online has given XOS the scope to do far more for their customers than they could using Service Accent. This has made them more attractive as a dealer, inciting significant growth of their customer and machine base. They have also expanded internally, taking on more technicians to deal with the extra demand and deliver the enhanced level of service they now offer.
Scope to do more
By increasing the speed and efficiency of their processes, Vantage Online has given XOS the scope to do far more for their customers than they could using Service Accent. This has made them more attractive as a dealer, inciting significant growth of their customer and machine base. They have also expanded internally, taking on more technicians to deal with the extra demand and deliver the enhanced level of service they now offer.
Want to know more about Asolvi? Click here to access their page in the field service directory for more information , articles and resources.
Jun 18, 2019 • News • News Software and Apps • fast lean smart • Route Planning • Software and Apps • Managing the Mobile Workforce
FAST LEAN SMART (FLS) is living up to its name in more ways than one. In Summer 2018 it enacted a faster-than-usual deployment of its scheduling and route optimisation software for the boiler installations division of HomeServe (formerly Help-Link)...
FAST LEAN SMART (FLS) is living up to its name in more ways than one. In Summer 2018 it enacted a faster-than-usual deployment of its scheduling and route optimisation software for the boiler installations division of HomeServe (formerly Help-Link) so it could be ready for autumn and winter, the company’s busiest time of year. Now it’s improving operational efficiency to such an extent that HomeServe is getting to its customers 25% faster than before.
HomeServe is the UK’s second largest boiler installer and the operations have two distinct components. First, a sales surveyor will conduct a video, telephone or in-home survey to assess what kind of boiler a customer needs, recommend one, and produce a quote. Secondly, field engineers will attend a customer’s property to install a boiler once a quote is accepted.
This presents a complex mix of sales surveyors who attend many jobs in one day and engineers with one job that could require one day or several days for installations. So, when searching for new scheduling and route optimisation software, HomeServe needed a tool that could do both.
More than white-space-filling
Sparking the search for a new scheduling solution was HomeServe’s desire to work smarter, not harder. In particular it sought to bring greater efficiency to the way it scheduled its workforce and remove some of the pressure from its back-office staff.
Richard Wilson, IT Director for HomeServe boiler installations, explains, “Previously we had always relied on the personal knowledge of our planning team to know which sales surveyors and engineers would be best suited for a job in terms of geography, availability and skill set. We wanted software that could make smarter, faster decisions than our planners were equipped to.” It was on speaking with other field service and scheduling solution providers that HomeServe first heard of FLS.
Richard says: “A lot of the scheduling tools we looked at were just about filling white space. In other words, finding gaps in people’s diaries to fit in appointments. We wanted a more dynamic tool, one that could continuously optimise, looking at every appointment and every field worker collectively and scheduling everything in the most optimal way. The providers we talked to said, ‘We can’t really do that, but we know a solution that can: the one offered by FAST LEAN SMART.”
A tool that thinks on its feet
Richard and his project team investigated FLS and discovered that its real-time scheduler and route optimiser, FLS VISITOUR, was the solution it was looking for. An intelligent tool that evaluates a company’s entire resource pool and effectively ‘thinks on its feet’, VISITOUR makes smarter, quicker and more efficient decisions than humans and other scheduling technologies.
It works in conjunction with FLS’s platform-independent mobility solution, FLS MOBILE, to ensure that field-based staff get to where they need to be and have the information they need when they get there. Together they cut the administrative burden considerably and automate a process. The company proceeded with the proof-of-concept pilot project that FLS offers all new customers.
This demonstrates the value of VISITOUR in terms of functionality and versatility, in particular its ability to integrate with existing back-end systems.
Richard explains: “Integration was a key requirement for us. We needed to know that VISITOUR could integrate with our service management software. This is why FLS’s pilot projects are so helpful. They’re not just demos where you have to guess and imagine how it’s going to work in the context of your business. With an FLS pilot, they wire it all in and prove it to you. We saw immediately that FLS lends itself to integration. We were also able to see first-hand how feature-rich and multi-faceted VISITOUR really is.”
Richard goes on to refer to a feature that has proved particularly useful for HomeServe: the ability to link jobs. When HomeServe installs a boiler, it needs to schedule a field engineer to do the installation and an electrician to do the wiring. FLS will link the two jobs, even if they take place on different days. This means that if the installation appointment needs to be changed, FLS will move the electrician appointment simultaneously. “Most software will do about 80% of what you need or really want it to do,” says Richard. “The ability to link jobs is a great example of the fact that VISITOUR will do a lot more.”
Faster-than-usual implementation
Winter is the busiest and most challenging time of year for HomeServe boiler installations. The company needed to go from concept to pilot to live very quickly, so that everything could be in place before the temperature dropped and the calls for new boilers started flooding in. Implementation happened in a much shorter timescale than normal. Thanks to strong teamwork between FLS and HomeServe’s in-house developers and back office teams, VISITOUR was live, integrated and scheduling hundreds of multi-disciplined field resources within just weeks.
“We’re so pleased by how well everyone worked to get VISITOUR in place for autumn,” Richard says. “It was a big team effort and FLS really helped us get it in the air. Our back-office staff deserve a lot of credit, too; they worked very hard and very quickly.”
He points out one reason why FLS is generally a quicker-to-implement program than many other scheduling software packages: “FLS is very good on configuration without the need for customisation. We didn’t have the appetite, time or the resources to develop our own boutique functionality. We needed a solution that was already fully functional, which we could tweak to fit our requirements without writing code. That solution was VISITOUR.”
A growth facilitator
HomeServe went live with VISITOUR in September 2018. Since then the company has been scheduling its people more optimally and cost-effectively and planning better, smarter routes to each appointment. This has enabled HomeServe to get to customers quicker. “FLS saves us time in the office, gives us total visibility of who is doing what, and has enabled us to get to our appointments 25% quicker than we were,” Richard says. “It’s really highlighted how efficient your scheduling can be when intelligent software does it for you. We see FLS as a growth facilitator. The efficiency gains are such that we’re now in a position to scale up.”
HomeServe plans to adopt more FLS functionality to better serve its customers, including form-capture on FLS MOBILE and automated email/text functions. “We’re a customer-centric company,” he explains. “That’s ultimately why we’ve done this. We wanted an easy, smart and efficient way of reshuffling appointments so that the customer gets a survey or installation appointment at a time that’s convenient for them. Now that we’ve enabled this, the automated emails and texts will be to keep customers in the loop at all times. We’re all about improving the customer experience and we’re grateful to FLS for helping us do that.”
HomeServe is the UK’s second largest boiler installer and the operations have two distinct components. First, a sales surveyor will conduct a video, telephone or in-home survey to assess what kind of boiler a customer needs, recommend one, and produce a quote. Secondly, field engineers will attend a customer’s property to install a boiler once a quote is accepted.
This presents a complex mix of sales surveyors who attend many jobs in one day and engineers with one job that could require one day or several days for installations. So, when searching for new scheduling and route optimisation software, HomeServe needed a tool that could do both.
More than white-space-filling
Sparking the search for a new scheduling solution was HomeServe’s desire to work smarter, not harder. In particular it sought to bring greater efficiency to the way it scheduled its workforce and remove some of the pressure from its back-office staff.
Richard Wilson, IT Director for HomeServe boiler installations, explains, “Previously we had always relied on the personal knowledge of our planning team to know which sales surveyors and engineers would be best suited for a job in terms of geography, availability and skill set. We wanted software that could make smarter, faster decisions than our planners were equipped to.” It was on speaking with other field service and scheduling solution providers that HomeServe first heard of FLS.
Richard says: “A lot of the scheduling tools we looked at were just about filling white space. In other words, finding gaps in people’s diaries to fit in appointments. We wanted a more dynamic tool, one that could continuously optimise, looking at every appointment and every field worker collectively and scheduling everything in the most optimal way. The providers we talked to said, ‘We can’t really do that, but we know a solution that can: the one offered by FAST LEAN SMART.”
A tool that thinks on its feet
Richard and his project team investigated FLS and discovered that its real-time scheduler and route optimiser, FLS VISITOUR, was the solution it was looking for. An intelligent tool that evaluates a company’s entire resource pool and effectively ‘thinks on its feet’, VISITOUR makes smarter, quicker and more efficient decisions than humans and other scheduling technologies.
It works in conjunction with FLS’s platform-independent mobility solution, FLS MOBILE, to ensure that field-based staff get to where they need to be and have the information they need when they get there. Together they cut the administrative burden considerably and automate a process. The company proceeded with the proof-of-concept pilot project that FLS offers all new customers.
This demonstrates the value of VISITOUR in terms of functionality and versatility, in particular its ability to integrate with existing back-end systems.
Richard explains: “Integration was a key requirement for us. We needed to know that VISITOUR could integrate with our service management software. This is why FLS’s pilot projects are so helpful. They’re not just demos where you have to guess and imagine how it’s going to work in the context of your business. With an FLS pilot, they wire it all in and prove it to you. We saw immediately that FLS lends itself to integration. We were also able to see first-hand how feature-rich and multi-faceted VISITOUR really is.”
Richard goes on to refer to a feature that has proved particularly useful for HomeServe: the ability to link jobs. When HomeServe installs a boiler, it needs to schedule a field engineer to do the installation and an electrician to do the wiring. FLS will link the two jobs, even if they take place on different days. This means that if the installation appointment needs to be changed, FLS will move the electrician appointment simultaneously. “Most software will do about 80% of what you need or really want it to do,” says Richard. “The ability to link jobs is a great example of the fact that VISITOUR will do a lot more.”
Faster-than-usual implementation
Winter is the busiest and most challenging time of year for HomeServe boiler installations. The company needed to go from concept to pilot to live very quickly, so that everything could be in place before the temperature dropped and the calls for new boilers started flooding in. Implementation happened in a much shorter timescale than normal. Thanks to strong teamwork between FLS and HomeServe’s in-house developers and back office teams, VISITOUR was live, integrated and scheduling hundreds of multi-disciplined field resources within just weeks.
“We’re so pleased by how well everyone worked to get VISITOUR in place for autumn,” Richard says. “It was a big team effort and FLS really helped us get it in the air. Our back-office staff deserve a lot of credit, too; they worked very hard and very quickly.”
He points out one reason why FLS is generally a quicker-to-implement program than many other scheduling software packages: “FLS is very good on configuration without the need for customisation. We didn’t have the appetite, time or the resources to develop our own boutique functionality. We needed a solution that was already fully functional, which we could tweak to fit our requirements without writing code. That solution was VISITOUR.”
A growth facilitator
HomeServe went live with VISITOUR in September 2018. Since then the company has been scheduling its people more optimally and cost-effectively and planning better, smarter routes to each appointment. This has enabled HomeServe to get to customers quicker. “FLS saves us time in the office, gives us total visibility of who is doing what, and has enabled us to get to our appointments 25% quicker than we were,” Richard says. “It’s really highlighted how efficient your scheduling can be when intelligent software does it for you. We see FLS as a growth facilitator. The efficiency gains are such that we’re now in a position to scale up.”
HomeServe plans to adopt more FLS functionality to better serve its customers, including form-capture on FLS MOBILE and automated email/text functions. “We’re a customer-centric company,” he explains. “That’s ultimately why we’ve done this. We wanted an easy, smart and efficient way of reshuffling appointments so that the customer gets a survey or installation appointment at a time that’s convenient for them. Now that we’ve enabled this, the automated emails and texts will be to keep customers in the loop at all times. We’re all about improving the customer experience and we’re grateful to FLS for helping us do that.”
Mar 05, 2019 • News • News Software and Apps • PTC • IFS • Software and Apps • Parts Pricing and Logistics
PTC's Servigistics platform will integrate with IFS' Field Service Management, Applications and Maintenix solutions.
PTC's Servigistics platform will integrate with IFS' Field Service Management, Applications and Maintenix solutions.
IFS the global enterprise company have announced a partnership with computer software and services company PTC that they say will reduce asset downtime and improve service part availability.
The partnership will see IFS' three field service platforms - IFS Applications, IFS Field Service Management and IFS Maintenix - incorporate PTC's service-parts optimisation solution Servigistics.
Commenting on the agreement, Aly Pinder, IFS' Program Director of Service Innovation and Connected Products said: " The collaboration between PTC and IFS connects two critical aspects of service – field execution and service parts management. To remain competitive and deliver enhanced service experiences, it is crucial to have the right service part available for a service technician to fix an issue promptly and during the first visit."
Leslie Paulson, Servigistics Business Unit's General Manager was equally positive. “We are excited to partner with IFS to integrate our solutions and pursue new frontiers of innovation in connected service delivery,” she said. “Having the right part in the right place at the right time has never been more important. We’re pleased to be working with IFS to enable companies to differentiate their service and maintenance operations.”
Pricing details have not been yet been revealed, but according to MRO-Network.com, IFS have said this will depend on specific customers' needs.
IFS the global enterprise company have announced a partnership with computer software and services company PTC that they say will reduce asset downtime and improve service part availability.
The partnership will see IFS' three field service platforms - IFS Applications, IFS Field Service Management and IFS Maintenix - incorporate PTC's service-parts optimisation solution Servigistics.
Commenting on the agreement, Aly Pinder, IFS' Program Director of Service Innovation and Connected Products said: " The collaboration between PTC and IFS connects two critical aspects of service – field execution and service parts management. To remain competitive and deliver enhanced service experiences, it is crucial to have the right service part available for a service technician to fix an issue promptly and during the first visit."
Leslie Paulson, Servigistics Business Unit's General Manager was equally positive. “We are excited to partner with IFS to integrate our solutions and pursue new frontiers of innovation in connected service delivery,” she said. “Having the right part in the right place at the right time has never been more important. We’re pleased to be working with IFS to enable companies to differentiate their service and maintenance operations.”
Pricing details have not been yet been revealed, but according to MRO-Network.com, IFS have said this will depend on specific customers' needs.
May 12, 2015 • News • Contractors • News Software and Apps • Xora • ClickSoftware • Software and Apps
ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. have recently announced Service Networks for Contractors, a new mobile field service management solution that synchronises the scheduling, dispatch, and work completion between businesses and their contractors.
ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. have recently announced Service Networks for Contractors, a new mobile field service management solution that synchronises the scheduling, dispatch, and work completion between businesses and their contractors.
Enterprises can now optimally manage their network of contractors to adhere to service level agreements and have better visibility and control of the service delivery process. Simultaneously contractors maintain their autonomy in running their own businesses. Customers, of course, benefit from harmonious service delivery with minimal discontinuities or surprises.
Using the solution, contractors are better equipped to efficiently plan and execute the delivery of service, enabling them to book and complete more jobs overall. The streamlined operations will enable contractors to collect payment faster, thanks to the ability to provide proof of service in real-time, at the time of job completion. The new solution ultimately shortens invoicing and payment cycles to increase reimbursement rates and help drive revenues.
Enterprises can now optimally manage their network of contractors to adhere to service level agreements and have better visibility and control of the service delivery process. Simultaneously contractors maintain their autonomy in running their own businesses
"The field service industry continues to evolve to incorporate more automated scheduling tools, and is quickly advancing to real-time workflow mobile technologies that provide businesses with new capabilities and information to effectively help manage third-party contractors," said Aly Pinder Jr., Senior Research Analyst Aberdeen Group. "These technologies have the potential to enable both enterprise service providers and contractors to more quickly and accurately perform their jobs, while providing consistent customer experience."
"In today's service industry it is very common to see service providers of all sizes operating in a wide variety of outsourcing and contracting models. The Service Networks for Contractors is a milestone in the path to a comprehensive Service network vision where communities of contractors will interact in harmony with each other to deliver outstanding service together with business efficiencies," said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder and CEO of ClickSoftware. "This new network leverages the 2014 acquisition of Xora, seamlessly extending enterprise-grade solutions to workforces of all sizes."
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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