ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘software-and-apps-2’ CATEGORY

Argon Office Systems, one of the Isle of Man’s leading suppliers of IT and Print services, has upgraded its service support capability after installing 2serv, the service management software solution from Purpose Software. 

The new system will enable the organisation to streamline internal workflow processes and deliver an even better level of support to customers operating in the telecommunications, media, healthcare, retail, transport, public, financial services and professional services sectors.

Argon wanted to further increase the efficiency of its service operation after recently achieving a Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) 5 Star service accreditation by demonstrating compliance with the highest standards in training, handling of field service calls, service call processing, customer satisfaction.  Konica Minolta recommended Purpose Software, the leading developer of service management solutions for document and managed print services providers.

2serv enables Argon to increase the efficiency of the whole service operation which is responsible for supporting a wide range of technologies from complete IT infastructures through to multifunctional devices, copiers, fax machines and printers along with other paper handling systems such as shredders, binders and laminators.

 

“Purpose Software understood the unique challenges faced by organisations such as Argon and worked closely with our IT team to ensure an incident-free installation process,” commented Iain Fairbairn, Managing Director of Argon. “2serv has increased the efficiency of our service operation and enabled us to integrate our service, stock and accounting functions to provide more proactive support to customers, whether supplying a single toner cartridge or a complete IT infrastructure project.”

2serv provides instant access to real-time data relating to maintenance and support contracts, installed equipment and outstanding service calls.  It also improves the control of parts and consumables whether in the warehouse, at customer sites or carried as car stock by engineers.  Purchase orders are automatically generated to maintain optimum stock levels, eliminate the incidence of double ordering and ensure compliance with customer SLAs.

2serv generates a wide range of reports at the press of a button, enabling decision-making to be improved in every area of the business.  It eliminates the need for staff to manually compile spreadsheet-based reports and provides an efficient way to measure performance against KPIs such as service and profitability at customer, model and device level.

 The installation also includes 2roam which allows field service engineers equipped with tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices to access and update 2serv from any location across the island.

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

PTC has introduced two new smart, IoT-based connected service solutions: Remote Service and Connected Service Parts Management. Both solutions leverage the company's ThingWorx  IoT platform to help organisations transform the way they execute service for connected products,  optimising decisions for better service delivery.

They are integral components of PTC’s  roadmap for organisations adopting a strategy for smart, connected service.

It helps them redefine their service models to generate unprecedented value for their customers and organisation. The service journey entails three steps:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Understand – Make smarter decisions by analysing service and product data in real-time
2. Advance – Differentiate your service offering by improving and expediting the way products are serviced
3. Outperform – Completely redefine value for customers and the service organization with new offerings and business models.

[/ordered_list]"Many organisations struggle to transform their service environment and desire to take advantage of IoT and the value that can be gained from the data streaming from connected equipment and devices,” says Steve Morandi, senior vice president, Service Lifecycle Management, PTC. “PTC’s connected service solutions help organisations successfully navigate this transformation by optimising their existing service models and creating new value-added offerings. With Remote Service and Connected Service Parts Management solutions, organisations can analyse service and product data in real-time, differentiate service offerings, and improve the way products are serviced.”

Remote Service enables service and support technicians to remotely identify, diagnose, and resolve issues, while continuously monitoring key performance parameters in connected equipment. Remote Service helps service organisations avoid equipment downtime and unscheduled service events enabling organizations to reduce service costs and improve customer service.

Connected Service Parts Management enables service organizations to utilise data directly from connected assets to more accurately forecast and plan service parts demand. Leveraging the power of the ThingWorx IoT platform,  Connected Service Parts Management captures asset location and performance information and feeds that data to the Service Parts Management solution. By collecting, transforming, and organizing data reported directly by equipment in the field, organisations are able to improve service levels and increase equipment availability. 

These smart connected service solutions help companies improve their service revenue and profitability, competitive advantage, and product reliability.

"In delivering better solutions and outcomes to customers, connectivity is a must for service organisations," said Sumair Dutta, chief customer officer, The Service Council. "A connected infrastructure can make a service business more predictive in its service relationships, more efficient in its reactive service delivery, and more responsive in the development of new services that are needed by customers."

 

---

 

Be social and share this story

Australian Field Service Management Software provider The Service Manager have put together this infographic and we think it covers a lot of the bases for the fundamental benefits of field service...

---

Be social and share this feature

Komatsu Forest, the sole supplier for Komatsu timber harvesting equipment in the UK and Ireland, is reaping the rewards having implemented a Mobile Workforce Management solution from BigChange Apps. Since introducing JobWatch, Komatsu Forest estimates it has improved operational efficiency with engineers achieving a three percent gain in productivity. Customer service has been boosted with same day reporting and timely invoicing, and the company has also improved health and safety compliance with automated vehicle checks and risk assessments.

David McIlwraith, Managing Director of Komatsu Forest Ltd, commented, “This was a completely new system for us. For years we have been running our business on spreadsheets, and this resulted in a high level of admin due to the paper trail produced. We were also in the market for vehicle tracking but knew we wanted to everything through a single system.”

[quote float="left"]“On the few occasions we have needed it, the 24/7 RoadCrew support has been excellent; good response times and regular updates.” [/quote]JobWatch from BigChange Apps offers a paperless way to plan, manage, schedule and track Komatsu’s mobile workforce. This powerful web-based platform combines back office software, mobile apps, fleet management and real-time vehicle tracking in one simple to use system.

Prior to the introduction of JobWatch, Komatsu operated a paper based reporting system with engineers completing paper timesheets and job reports – often late and with varying competency. This information was then manually entered into a number of different systems, for example, customer invoicing and payroll. Since implementing JobWatch, Komatsu Forest estimates it has saved in region of 1,000 man hours per year through the automation of essential documents and timesheets. Customer service has improved as service reports are filed on the same day the work is completed, and invoices are issued more promptly, improving the business’s cash flow.

“We now handle all documentation and all time management through JobWatch,” continued McIlwraith. “This includes vehicle checks, timesheets, risk assessments, job cards, machine inspection reports and much more. When we need it, JobWatch will also handle our stock control and invoicing, and we have even had the system adapted to cover workshop usage too. Literally, our engineers do not need to pick up a pen – everything is done at the touch of a screen.

“On the few occasions we have needed it, the 24/7 RoadCrew support has been excellent; good response times and regular updates.”

BigChange founder and CEO Martin Port added, “Securing tangible returns on investment for our customer is what BigChange and JobWatch are all about, and working with businesses like Komatsu Forest to achieve this is truly rewarding.”

[hr]

Be social and share this story

Return on Investment and workforce management should go hand in hand but it can take careful application explains Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower...

Return on Investment “ROI” is such a buzz word, especially in field service.

Most organisations, which offer some sort of field based services eventually realise that to achieve their productivity, customer satisfaction and cost metrics, some level of automated workforce management (WFM) technology is required. Even small productivity gains bring guaranteed benefits to any organisation.

Making the Case

The business cases for WFM vary, but generally, the most common goals are improved efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, decreased costs and streamlined processes, such as collaboration, inventory management and billing.

 

 

While WFM technology does require an investment of course, it can generate huge returns, in as little as nine months according to Gartner, throughout the field service process.

 

The most successful WFM deployments begin with a commitment to improving existing processes and a focus on productivity enhancements.

An example of the sorts of key performance indicators that are possible with the implementation of a WFM technology that includes configurable parameter-based optimisation include:

 

• Total capacity increased from 6,427 jobs to 8,579 jobs (33% uplift)
• % jobs completed late decreased from 78% to 33%
• Average jobs/day/tech increased from 4.72 to 7.18 (52% uplift)

 

To achieve these sort of improvement in your organisation through the implementation of a WFM including algorithm-based technology to maximise your productivity, it starts with well laid plans.

Evaluate WFM vendors:  Select a vendor based on supported deployment models, especially in 2016 when SaaS deployments are increasingly important due to speed of implementation, cost savings in terms of IT resources, hardware, licensing and security. Integration capabilities, and features such as schedule optimisation, mobile dispatch/support of on site processes and business intelligence are also important.

And, look to the future. Business models, customer expectations and technologies change.

The best WFM vendors offer technology which supports your current business model, but also provides a roadmap to support growth and evolution in the future.

Build a solid team: Cross functional project teams, which include executive sponsorship and a strong project leader with the relationships and negotiation skills to navigate across the teams are key to driving consensus and success. Don’t forget the tribe.

 

 

Much information about current operations and the ability to enforce the changes necessary from the bottom up depend on the techs, dispatch, call centre, finance and HR teams that general aren’t initially included in the project because they fall outside to the core field service and IT teams.

 

Every functional group will have its own goals (or not) for the project and varying commitment to it.

Document plans and goals: Drive commitment by attributing specific ROI metrics to each functional group and use a formal ROI model to measure the results.

Collect data: Ensure data is collected prior to launch so that recalculation of the metrics after can be calculated the same way to provide a solid, unquestionable analysis.

Calculating the results

Documenting a ROI on a WFM investment is an exercise which requires data from across the enterprise to accurately measure and understand where you started and the productivity gains that were the result.

Again, the most common data used to measure success and ROI on a WFM deployment are improved efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, decreased costs and streamlined processes.

Specifically, measure technician and dispatcher efficiency. Has the WFM solution increased the number of jobs scheduled per day, per technician?

Has the solution decreased the number of dispatchers required to manage field technicians?

Has technician utilisation improved based on the solution’s ability to handle intra-day schedule changes, decreasing non-working time and overtime?

 

Have field techs been able to improve their efficiency, completing more jobs per day or decreasing the time on the job site? Have first time fix rates improved?

 

Have fuel costs decreased due to more efficient routing? Has headcount been optimised such that resources can be reallocated to other tasks or eliminated? Has schedule compliance improved, decreasing missed or late appointments?

Have customer satisfaction scores increased due to shorter appointment windows, improved schedule compliance or proactive maintenance work supported by the WFM tool?

Collect baseline data and use a robust, integrated, in-memory business intelligence tool to measure the baseline and post deployment data against one another.

ServicePower recently helped a client evaluate the ROI on its deployment of ServiceScheduling.

The client documented increased productivity of 29% and a 32% return on its investment in ServicePower’s mobile workforce management software platform, including fewer miles driven,across the entire fleet, resulting in a $1,611,055 savings per year, and improved schedule compliance resulting in $165,600 in late penalty savings per year.

Continued Success

Mobile workforce management software solutions are critical to maximising the productivity and efficiency of employed resources. Measurable, sustainable ROI is absolutely possible. Positive ROI depends on solid planning, cross functional, deeply experienced teams, agreement on the metrics, data collection and robust, integrated BI. To learn what your ROI on a WFM investment could be, run the numbers with our ROI calculator.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

If you were building a new house you’d use a blueprint, right? Well, your service department needs the same level of planning and visualiaation to transition from paper-based, manual processes to automated service operations, says Joanna Rotter, of service management software provider MSI Data.

Service technicians work out in the field repairing and maintaining equipment at various job sites. Each task requires documentation, scheduling, and data entry, which when automated can save time and mistakes while making the business more profitable. But in order to make a transformation to service automation successful, you need a step-by-step plan.

 The eight-step blueprint.

 The biggest benefits of automating service processes include greater productivity, visibility, and efficiency, which will infiltrate every area of your organisation.[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Get everyone on board, especially leadership.
   When you have a great idea, sometimes selling it to your team is half the battle. To get your team on board for a big organisational shift like automating service, start by creating a vision statement.  It should include a clarity-of-purpose statement and concrete goals for what you want the organisation to look like when the project is finished.
2. Understanding change management—assign an internal team to take charge.
   Understanding and implementing an effective change management program will require more than just a one-time meeting. Make sure the project is a priority by assigning an internal team to motivate the rest of the workers to take the project seriously. The group should include a project leader as well as several user representatives from each operational area (e.g. field, scheduling, inventory, IT, etc.).
3. Begin with the end in mind.
   Know where you want the project to end up before you take the first step. Technology isn’t magic and it won’t solve your problems without some planning and tailoring.[quote float="left"]Know where you want the project to end up before you take the first step...

    

   Nail down the concrete KPIs you want the technology to help you meet. For example, doing service on mobile shouldn’t be the goal; the goal is to increase communication with field techs or reduce time from service ticket to billing by using mobile. The technology is just the tool you use to achieve your goals.
4. Work with your vendor to produce a timeline and roadmap.
   Establish a clear Statement of Work with your software vendor and map out a concrete project plan and calendar. The plan you come up with should be visible to everyone involved and outline individual responsibilities, assign project leaders, set deadlines, etc. This will serve as a constant remind about what’s coming up next and specific accomplishments you’re aiming for.
5. Model it out.
   You can think of this as the ultimate planning phase. Modeling current and future processes is a vital step because it forces you to evaluate where you are now, why you do what you do, and who needs to do what to move forward.
6. Understand your data.
   Before you make plans to collect new data, you need to understand your current data. From there, you can determine what information you want to be collecting in the new system, who you want to have access to what, and how you’ll use the information to guide future decisions. Set goals for what you hope to get out of the data, map out how you’ll achieve those goals, and monitor your progress.
7. Train, train, train.
   Training is an incredibly important step with any new system. It’s important to remember, even the best software in the world isn’t going to do your team any good if users don’t understand how to use it. Make ongoing training a priority with reminder courses, ongoing new employee orientation, and training to roll out new features as they’re released.
8. Invest in mobile devices.
   If the field service app you choose runs cross-platform on any device, you’re free to select the device that best meets your organization’s needs. Each platform and device has its pros and cons, so make sure your app is cross-platform and native so you have device and platform flexibility.

Conclusion
The key to success with any new system is understanding the challenges while sticking to the plan. Keep your eye on the goals you set early on and treat the vision statement as a mantra, reminding yourself why you underwent this journey in the first place.

Follow these steps to automation and you’ll be well on your way to a huge return on investment, happier workers and customers, and a more efficient field service business.

 

---

 

Be social and share this article

For five years UK based field service software provider Oneserve have been quietly going about their way, winning significant clients yet flying under the radar. Now with a young, dynamic new CEO at the helm they are ready to stop being the industry’s best kept secret and step into the limelight...

The story of Oneserve is not that of your average field service software provider.

For a start the company actually began life as an in-house field service management tool developed for Connaught PLC - a company that focussed on repair work in the social housing sector. After an employee buy-out in 2010 Oneserve emerged as a fully fledged solution with the advantage of being unencumbered by the initial costs of R&D that many start-up software companies may have faced when entering what is both a complex and busy market.

However, perhaps more importantly they already had an intimate understanding of what good service, and the tools to enable that, looked like.

After a few quick wins on ‘home turf’ within the social housing sector, the team at Oneserve have quietly yet steadily expanded their footprint across a number of different verticals picking up some top tier customers such as Lovell, Islington Borough Council and Sky along the way.

Yet when compared to some of their competitors such as ClickSoftware, ServiceMax and IFS to name a few, it is fair to say that such success has largely remained under the radar for many in the field service industry.

However, with the appointment of a new, young and dynamic CEO Chris Proctor in February earlier this year, it seems that Oneserve are now ready to step out into the limelight alongside their more established peers and start shouting about just why it is that they feel they are ready to become a disruptive force within the sector.

Indeed, Proctor, who was promoted from Sales and Marketing Director to CEO after just eight months with the Exeter based company, has already made an significant impact in the market with a blistering attack on his peers, accusing field service software providers of ‘holding innovation hostage’ in a press release issued shortly before he took over as CEO.

 

And whilst his background as a marketeer would suggest that he is certainly savvy enough to understand the power of such an assertion in terms of getting people to sit up and pay attention to Oneserve and what they have to say, when speaking to him it is clear that this was not just a simple marketing ploy. Proctor, is a passionate guy who truly seems to get the importance of service in today’s modern world.

And in his eyes technology providers should be simply making it easier for companies to deliver the levels of service excellence that twenty first century customers both expect and demand.

“One of the key things for us was that we really felt we wanted the system to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible,” Proctor explains.

“One of our core tenets is that we are always focused on the end user – always focused on how do we make life for that client better?”

It is not only a noble sentiment but also an approach that is ultimately winning them business, although Proctor himself admits that it is now time for Oneserve to step out of the shadows and kick on, building upon their success to date.

“We’ve been working incredibly hard and diligently for the last five years but we’ve been pretty quiet about it,” he comments.

“I don’t have a quarter of a million pound marketing budget, I can’t attend all the shows we don’t get involved in a lot of that stuff and as a result we’ve kind of kept under the radar of a lot of people. I know it was a surprise not so long ago when we won the Islington contract with a lot of people saying who are these guys?”

“Today we are powering about three and a half million working hours, I’ve lost count of how many engineers, we are working across multiple sectors and now we are being pragmatic in that we are now starting to talk a lot more about what we do.”

 

In fact there are two key facets to the Oneserve approach that appear to resonate with the needs of field service companies today.

Firstly it is a model based on licences rather than professional services which will appeal to those more cost conscious Finance Directors (are there any other kind?). And it is also a fully deployable self service product which will be of interest to both Operations folks and IT alike as it means more control of things like reporting and configurations, without having to go back to the vendor every-time a change is necessary.

This is a big plus in Proctor’s eyes and he uses a neat metaphor to explain his thinking.

“If you buy a car and you drive off the forecourt you turn left – why should you have to call an engineer out to configure your car to be able to turn left, and then right and then left again?”

“Whilst that may make your journey really efficient, it makes it very efficient for a snapshot in time but if you need to diversify, if you need to take a detour or a change in direction you have to go through the same process again.”

“Our principal is exactly the opposite in that if we give you the car, really the emphasis should be on the strength of the car, the strength of the support, the strength of the training and really the overall proposition to allow you get in and drive.”

Given their background as an in-house field service solution which previously had a 360 degree role for enabling service delivery at Connaught, is it a fair assumption to say that the understanding of good service delivery remains closely entwined in the DNA of both the Oneserve product and indeed the team itself?

“Absolutely,” Proctor concurs. “For me it’s really simple. The vast majority of service calls start with a negative. For example ‘my boiler has just blown up’ or this has gone wrong or that has gone wrong. Yes there are other more planned things but by and large it always focuses on a negative,” he explains.

“And we’ve all been on the end of those experiences, those times we’ve waited for an engineer that doesn’t turn up or turns up late, but we’ve also all had those really good experiences.

 

Where they’ve told you they are going to be with you around this time and then an hour or so before they are due they call you and tell you actually I’m going to be with you at exactly this time.”

“Where the engineer has come in, they’ve be really nice, they’ve been really efficient and professional, they’ve had all the tools they’ve needed, they’ve fixed the problem and they’ve been on their way really quickly. And the difference between those two experiences is palpable.”

“It’s the same in the logistics world. We all groan into our hands when we see our parcel is being delivered by Yodel instead of DHL -it’s that differentiation in service,” He adds

“We want to turn the paradigm on its head, we want to turn every negative into a positive. We can’t control the negatives, things will always go wrong and things will always break. But if we can enhance the interactions we can control, if we can make those better, we can improve the end experience and it comes back up the chain and makes everything work much more effectively.”

“And that really is our prevailing thought, that is what we are striving for.”

And whilst empowering their clients through a self-service based product is core to the ethos at Oneserve, Proctor also outlines how closely they continue to work with their clients in order to make sure that those tools they are providing allow companies to ensure they can deliver a positive service experience.

“It remains something very important to us so we do spend time with our clients, we do spend time with them understanding how they are using the system,” he comments.

 

“In the same way we do that digitally in terms of heat mapping and workshops and understanding really what that UX means to the end user - that is very key to us. Understanding how we can make those interactions more effective, more streamlined and more engaging is very important,” he concludes.

It is this commitment to understanding exactly how their clients are using their system that will keep Oneserve close to their roots as part of a service orientated organisation themselves, which in turn allows them to develop their product in line with the needs of their customers.

Hopefully this outlook won’t change as the company continues to grow, but one change that seems inevitable is Oneserve will not be a best kept secret for too much longer.

 

---

 

Be social and share this interview

 

---

 

Best practices, customer insights and recommendations distilled from 20 years of experience are included in the new book written by Mike Karlskind, Stephen Smith, & Alec Berry of ClickSoftware 

 

---

 

Want to get a signed copy? Field Service News readers can pre-order a signed copy now! Register for your copy  @ http://bit.ly/1W6u3Fb 

 

---

 

Over the last 20 years, ClickSoftware’s customers have managed billions of successful service engagements, and have seen firsthand just how hard service delivery can be.

Our new book Service is Hard: Turning Common Field Service Challenges into Customer Engagement Opportunities, contains insights, best practices and recommendations from experts, thought leaders, and analysts, representing hundreds of person-years of experience.

This book addresses eight of the toughest challenges in achieving consistently exceptional service, from best practices for customer experience to managing spare part consumption in the field.

The book’s chapters collect insights from leading service companies, implementers, industry experts, and software developers and provide recommendations on steps to take to successfully address each challenge.

They are:

1. Holding the customer’s hand – why customers expect superior service
2. Aligning conflicting stakeholder interests
3. Metrics for measuring field service management
4. Integrating field service management and legacy systems
5. Managing in-day schedule disruptions
6. Integrating parts into field service management
7. Achieving mobile application adoption
8. Turning the Internet of Things vision into value

 

The Customer Service Imperative

Global economic growth over the past century, driven by the manufacturing and selling of products, has created two groups of unsung heroes whose work is mainly out in the field: technical professionals who install, maintain and repair products; and service-based people who provide services such as home-based health care.

Both groups have typically been viewed as operational cost centres to be contained and optimised. The more recent realisation is that these service heroes are the driving force for effective customer engagement, the brand ambassadors who present the employer’s face to the customer.

 

These companies—from the smallest service contractor to the largest global enterprise—see superior service as a primary competitive differentiator and growth engine.

This shift in thinking recognises important truths about business today.

Customers want (and can mainly get) what they want, when they want it.

You no longer compete only against others who do what you do, or sell what you sell. You compete with every experience that your customer has with every company that provides your customer any type of service.

A Business and Technology Perspective

The nature of assets, equipment, tools, and knowledge used by service-led businesses addressing different vertical markets is unique.

Regulators, competitors, geography, customers and the supply of qualified service professionals are some of the varied characters of these service operations’ external influences, while internal influences include available capital, corporate history, reporting structure and executive strategy. Regardless of type of business or industry, Excel spreadsheets and legacy tools historically used for field service management (FSM) have facilitated only tactical and reactive approaches to the field service challenge.

 

While these tools allowed individual managers or dispatchers supporting a small part of a business or service to make decisions that suited a granular part of the business, achieving total operational awareness was not possible, much less efficiency and effectiveness. Today’s FSM solutions need to support an approach that can consistently deliver against the defined strategy, meet regulatory requirements and deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction while addressing the variability of each business and industry of operation.

Embracing the challenge is only step one.

Customer service excellence is a journey rather than a destination, a cliché that is as true as ever in the context of transforming service.

As noted in our book’s title, “Service is Hard” - it is challenging to implement business changes to improve service delivery and enhance the customer experience at the same time. Our advice: keep your eyes on the prize.

Building world class operations is not easy, otherwise every business would already have done it. Focusing on the top 8 challenges with the right team, the right mindset and the right technology solutions makes excellence in field service operation possible for any organisation.

 

---

 

Want to know more? Field Service News readers can pre-order a signed copy of this book now! Register for your copy @ http://bit.ly/1W6u3Fb

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

This video takes a look at who Exel Computer Systems are and who they can help you improve your field service operations...

 

---

 

Be social and share this video