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Surrey Based service management software provider are selected by nationwide building materials company and announce a new improvements to their Service Desk solution…

Specialist Service Management software Sunrise Software have recently been selected by the Nicholls and Clarke Group as they move to improve their customer service standards through the implementation of an improved IT infrastructure. With a team of over 550 employees based within 24 offices nationwide, the Nicholls and Clarke Group are recognised as leaders within the building materials sector operating as manufacturer, distributor and retailer. With a diverse range of activities and locations within the organisation it is of course imperative that their back office systems are robust and that integration between divisions is as seamless as possible to allow operations to remain effective.

In acknowledgement of this Nicholls and Clarke have already established an impressive approach to IT Service Management and ITIL best practice and the addition of Sunrise ITSM will further enhance this effort.

Narendra Joshi, Head of IT at Nicholls and Clarke explained “Previously we used a home grown Service Desk system. However, in an ITIL compliant environment like ours, where all IT staff are ITIL trained, we felt that we needed to make the investment in a platform that would rise to meet our operational standards and grow with us into the future.”

The decision to work with Sunrise followed on from an extensive review of the solutions available
Before selecting Sunrise based on a blend of their technology, people and also the company’s pragmatic and understated approach.

“We liked the flexibility that the software platform’s modular approach presented to us,” added Joshi. “It means that we can take a phased approach and grow across the business. The browser based interface is ideal for our environment and, coupled with the software’s integration with social media, showed Sunrise to be a really forward thinking company.”

A phased service management implementation:

The implementation will initially begin in the IT department, where Sunrise ITSM is providing a comprehensive Service Desk solution that will be especially beneficial in supporting the group’s ITSM best practice approach. The system will provide support for each of the 100+ merchant trade account, desktop, manufacturing, distribution, ERP and financial systems that need to be maintained across the 24 sites.

Nicholls & Clarke then plan to create a software Asset Management system heavily based around ITIL best practice to support the creation and management of a group-wide software library so that the IT team will be able to track and manage software versions, license management and renewals planning by using Sunrise ITSM’s reporting functions.

The next step will include extending the rollout to the customer services team; providing a support desk infrastructure to track and monitor operational and business issues ranging from pricing enquiries to business processes, order queries and web order support.

Geoff Rees, Sales Director at Sunrise Software commented “organisations like Nicholls & Clarke that have seen strong organic expansion often out-grow their existing software systems. The business benefits of moving to a fully integrated Service Management Platform that can span all service and customer facing functions, without the overhead of maintaining an in-house developed system, are wide-reaching; enabling the business to operate more efficiently, provide better customer service and better information to support commercial business decisions.”

New iteration of ‘Wall-board’ Service Management Software

Meanwhile the Surrey based software company have also released an improved version of their web-based portal, which includes improved visual displays and trends analysis of key performance data

The latest version of ‘Sunrise Wallboard’, which displays metrics for Service Desk performance, includes improvements to the display of critical operational KPIs as well as a simplified, easier to use interface.

It has been updated to include new FusionCharts libraries enabling animated and interactive data displays, new chart types for enhanced data visualisation, and has improved compatibility with Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 to meet customer demand. Also included within the new version is an enhanced aggregation engine to enable multiple data sets to be compared over time to enable trends analysis - for example tracking the volume of Incidents logged by month according to severity and displaying this on a chart.

Sunrise Software’s Product Director at Neil Penny, commented:

“Visual Service Desk metrics are critical to an organisation when providing real-time data on which to base informed decisions. We have enhanced Wallboard, which is available across all our Service Management products, making it easier for our customers to use it to its full capacity, supporting decision making and efficiency. This latest version has been designed with the user in mind, with increased capabilities for data analysis and providing more choice for how data is displayed. It puts more control into the hands of the Service Desk, enabling them to fully interrogate, analyse and display critical performance data.”

 

In the final part of this series looking at the findings of our exclusive research report into field service software we look at what conclusions can be drawn from the research and analyse what can be expected of modern field service software.  

Missed the earlier parts of this series? You can read the first part of this series which looked at scheduling and integration and interaction here and the second part looking at management reporting here , and the third part looking at the future of field service software here

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report which includes even further analysis then you are able to download it for free by clicking this link.

Conclusion

When we look at the findings of this research as a whole there are a number of conclusions that can be drawn. When it comes to scheduling solutions there is still a large section of the industry not utilising any scheduling software, which ultimately leads to poorer levels of efficiency in the management of the mobile workforce.

This is of course in turn leads to fewer members of the overall workforce being in customer facing roles that could potentially generate revenue.

Based on the improvements in dispatcher to engineer ratios that scheduling software is proven to deliver, for those companies still operating on a manual basis, investing in some form of scheduling is no longer a nice to have but a necessity if they are to remain competitive.

Just a fifth of companies are able to exploit their field engineers’ trusted adviser status by giving them the tools to sell directly. This represents a major opportunity for companies with the means to invest in such systems to capitalise on their competitor’s hesitancy and gain a commercial advantage. Yet despite this opportunity currently few companies place investing in mobile hardware and software near the top of their priorities, with both categories sitting midway on the priority lists of the majority of organisations.

Perhaps the biggest trend this research has unveiled is that cost has become less of a concern for companies looking to implement new technologies, with issues with legacy systems now being the most common concern. [quote float="left"] Many elements that not so long ago were new, premium solutions such as navigation software have now become standard.

 

This could well be a direct result of the influence of the Cloud. The SaaS business model has now meant that service management software is an affordable option for smaller companies, however, integration has been a early documented issue with some Cloud based solutions.

Our research earlier this year on SaaS and Field Service would also seem to support this hypothesis. To sum up, it appears that many elements are coming together to offer vast improvements to the software available in the field service industry. Also many elements that not so long ago were new, premium solutions such as navigation software have now become standard. Meanwhile we also see exciting technologies such as the Internet of Things and Big Data starting to encroach into service management software.

The future indeed seems bright indeed, but in the here and now there are still things that can be improved upon. Whether it be scheduling software or management reporting tools the results of this research indicate that on the whole there is room for improvement in the software being used today.

However, the research also identifies examples of excellence in the service management software as well. Integration is becoming more and more important, and end-to-end service management has become a reality.

Careful consideration is essential when selecting a software provider and an understanding of your own strategic aims is as important as understanding the options available to you. However, it seems that investing in a service management solution in 2014 is both more affordable and beneficial than ever before.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report featuring additional exclusive analysis then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

Paul Adams, Marketing and development manager at Solarvista looks at why no two field service companies are ever quite the same and what that means when choosing service management software...

 'At Solarvista, we have implemented hundreds of service management and workforce mobilisation systems over the years. And the biggest thing we have learned over that time is that everyone in service management does everything differently… even in the same industry sectors!

This issue became quite a big problem for us. We’d be approached by a prospective user in the same industry sector as current customers (they were often referred to us by them) and we’d think, “Great, we have a service management solution off the shelf for you”. Then, we’d find out that they did just about everything differently! Ouch.

We’d pitch modifications that required the use of developers going into the core product and making changes to meet those needs. In itself, quite a workable proposition and we’d done this successfully for many years. But as we grew, managing this code change became more costly to us, and sometimes to the customer. And it’s fair to say that developers don’t come cheap.

The ‘gaps’ that we normally address with specific modifications or code usually are categorised as:

1. Missing functionality
2. Integration to legacy systems
3. Logic or business logic modifications/additions

 

To our customers, these gaps needed to be filled to ensure a successful, efficient solution was implemented. But, deep down, it often felt risky to them… they couldn’t see what they were getting until the latter stages of the project, when maximum resource exposure occurred. It doesn’t matter how good we are as developers, it’s only natural to feel anxious about such risks.

We needed to do something that enabled us to address the (mostly) totally different needs of each customer without resorting to changing or modifying our product.

I’ve written in previous articles about our R&D effort in cloud based services and some of the answers came as a result of this research. In cloud systems, one of the key cost reduction drivers is “one version of software for all customers”. But we knew that this was contra to what service management systems need. After some deep thinking by our best developers, we managed to find a solution.

Firstly, we re-architected many parts of our software to offer, what we call, Extensibility. This means that we can add completely new client-side features, 100% integrated with the core product, without needing to modify a single line of the underlying product code. In other words, one version of software BUT with new functionality added specifically for the customer needs, which operates as if it’s part of the existing product (the user wouldn’t realise). Not only that, the feature can be added in (literally) hours or days (not weeks) and with no requirement to regression test the underlying product. This enabled us to address Missing Functionality and Business Logic Change issues.

This didn’t solve the problem of connecting to ever increasing legacy and partner systems however. Often we would need to read customer data from a corporate system, or update a third-party system of a partner company. In fact, we often built 30+ interfaces in one system! How could we do this without needing expensive development?

The answer came again from our R&D into cloud architecture. We thought about power supply adapters and how they could be “plugged” together to achieve a whole unit. From this we built something we call a Dynamic Adapter operating via our Service Bus system that allows us to connect as many systems together without needing to code a single line. Once again, one version of software, but implemented doing very (very) different things.

The results have been impressive. In fact, we have recently addressed the service management needs of a very famous coffee shop company using Extensibility and Bus/Adapter technology alone without needing any core changes to our products. Another, in the automotive sector, that had pulled out of a service management project with a competitor, has had 35 ‘gaps’ filled with this same technology.

Service management software is often standard. But this doesn’t mean you cannot have exactly what you want.

 

In this third part of this series looking at the findings of our exclusive research report into field service software we focus on the future of field service software. You can read the first part of this series which looked at scheduling and integration and interaction here and the second part looking at management reporting here 

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

Looking forward:

In the final section of the survey we asked respondents to identify what they thought were the most important technologies likely to appear in service management software, where they believe their organisation should focus their investment and finally what the barriers were to implementing new technologies.

Perhaps the most revealing result of the entire survey was in this final section, specifically surrounding “the biggest concern when implementing a new technology” Surprisingly  “Cost of implementation” is now only the second most common concern with “Legacy issues with former systems” becoming the industries greatest concern in 2014. The amount of companies that now cite this as their biggest concern when implementing a new technology has increased from just 22% in 2013 to 38% today.

This represents a potentially significant shift in the industry. In the last few years we have seen rapid developments in service management software, with key trends, such as the requirement for system wide integration as discussed earlier in this report, starting to emerge. The impact that the Software as a Service model has had on costs offers many companies the ability to invest in service management software, when in the not too distant past such an investment may have been beyond their reach.

Earlier this year in another research project conducted by Field Service News we saw that number increase to 38% of companies with a further 48% of companies stating they could possibly do so in the near future. However, the same report also highlighted that currently only 23% of companies have made the shift to a Cloud based environment for their service management software.

This would indicate that there is indeed a trend for companies to be migrating their service management software to Cloud based systems and it is an on-going process. If this is indeed the case then it would also explain why cost has become less of a concern whilst integration with existing legacy systems becomes a greater worry.

We also asked which emerging technologies would be likely to have an impact on field service software in the near future. The results whilst not surprising indicated how many in the industry seeing field service software evolve once again in the very near future. Over 45% of companies felt that Big Data, The Internet of Things and Connected Vehicles will all start appearing as options within field service management solutions within the next three years.

If each and all of these concepts live up to the massive hyperbole that surrounds them then it the way our industry operates will be fundamentally changed. At the same time 37% of companies also think that they wearable devices will become commonplace within the next three years also.

Whether this comes true is likely dependent on the success of Google's Glass product which offer the greatest promise, although the development of smart watches could potentially offer another wearable device that could be put to use in field service. Interestingly perhaps one of the technologies most established that could offer great benefits to certain field service verticals, namely 3D printing was only cited by 19% of companies as being likely to make an impact in field service.

However, this could be a reflection of the wide ranging industry verticals field service incorporates as much as a lack of faith in the technology. 3D printing will certainly be of more of a benefit to some industries (e.g. manufacturing) rather than others (e.g. retail). That said anecdotally there are are certainly those who have (an unfounded in most instances) lack of faith in 3D printing, we are reminded of echoes of the exaggerated fear of the security of the Cloud somewhat with 3D printing. It many ways the technology simply seems to much like science fiction to be fully trusted.

When we looked at the more immediate needs of the industry we saw some familiar patterns. Despite the questions we raised earlier in this report about the suitability of optimised scheduling for all companies, such systems appear to remain in demand amongst field service organisations.

Our final question in the survey was “In terms of investment, which of the following areas of technology do you think it the most critical for your company to remain competitive?” and we gave respondents 8 choices asking them to rank them in order of priority. The options were Route optimisation, optimised scheduling, integrated CRM, contact centre/help desk, mobile hardware, mobile software, logistics/spare parts management, and reporting/analytics tools.

Optimised Scheduling was ranked as the number one priority by 29% of companies, this was followed by Integrated CRM and contact centre/help desk software, which were the number one priority for 27% and 17% of companies respectively.With nearly three quarters (73%) of companies identifying one of these three areas as their key focus for investment it seems that these are clearly the biggest needs for the industry at large.

 

It is also interesting to note that whilst relatively few companies (7%) identified logistics/spare parts management systems as there number one priority, many companies identified it as either their second (27% of companies) or third (23% of companies) priority. This would indicate that whilst most companies do not see logistics/spare parts systems  as the most burning issue, they do acknowledge that it is an area that they should invest in should funds become available.

The one technology that has perhaps now had its day is route optimisation. This scored as the lowest priority for 56% of companies. There are many reasons route optimisation is now no longer a significant area for investment, whether this is because it is included in many service management software packages or that the technology has been around long enough to reach to near market saturation - the fact is that most companies will now have some sort of route/navigation software already even if it is simply Google Maps and a BYOD.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report featuring additional exclusive analysis then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

In this second part of this series looking at the findings of our exclusive research report into field service software we focus on management reporting. You can read the first part of this series which looked at scheduling and integration and interaction here.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking here.

About the research:

Across April and May of this year (2014) Field Service News in partnership with mplsystems undertook a research project to assess the current usage of field service software.

The survey was split into four categories. Scheduling systems, integration and interaction, management reporting and future options. In total we spoke to over 120 field service companies of differing sizes and differing industries. These were predominantly UK based although there were respondents from all over the world including Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Reporting:

It may be a cliché but the maxim “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” rings true in all industries and with technology now offering more measurement and analytics tools, with greater levels of sophistication than ever before management reporting is an important element of service management software.

In fact 78% of respondents stated that as a manger the ability to get clear and comprehensive management reports from their service management software was an important tool. Further to that, 63% of these went on to define management reporting as “Critical – I couldn’t do my job without it”

When we also factor in that a further 19% of respondents stated that management-reporting tools were “Helpful” it is clear that such tools are utilised by all but a very small minority  (less than 5%) of field service managers.

It may have been what we expected to find but the findings of the research absolutely confirm the fact beyond all doubt. Management reporting is an absolutely integral facet of Field Service Software.

However, whilst management reporting is clearly such vital piece of the field service management software whole, it appears that when it comes to functionality and performance, there remains plenty of room for improvement in the eyes of many field service managers responding to our survey.

In response to the question “Is the reporting functionality you get from your current system up to the task” almost two thirds of respondents stated that they found their current system merely “Acceptable”

So whilst the functionality of these tools is workable, they are still far from perfect. In fact whilst there are a reasonable amount of companies (21%) who identified their reporting functionality as “Excellent”” there is a similar amount of companies (20%) who state that the management reporting of their current system “Doesn’t meet their needs at all”

 There certainly a number of different considerations when purchasing a field service software solution , research is absolutely essential and taking the time to identify your own reporting needs both now but also in the future, before comparing this with the options available to you will potentially save both time and money for your organisation in the longer term.

 

Of course within field service perhaps one of the most important aspects of reporting is real time visibility into the actions of your mobile workforce.

In this area there is an interesting division between companies.

It seems that a large percentage of the companies in the industry (42%) are able to provide real time location and status of their field technicians to not only their dispatchers but also their help desk and customer service teams.

This is an improvement of 24% compared to 2012 figures. Such a dramatic rise is likely due to the fact that such a level of visibility is a powerful tool both in terms of managing efficiency as well as delivering excellent customer service and therefore a key area for investment.

Despite this fact, a surprisingly large number of companies (30%) still have no visibility at all into the activities of their mobile workforce. Whilst this figure has decreased by 9% since 2012 it remains a significant proportion of the industry.

Such a large number is somewhat worrying in that without any visibility there is little hope of these companies being able to improve the efficiency of their field service operations at all. It also means that the levels of customer service are potentially impacted as well.

This gap in implementation of technology could lead to a genuine division appearing in the industry. Those companies who are able to continue to deliver excellent service in today’s modern environment of demand twenty first century consumers, and those whose service standards remain stagnant and out-dated.

When it comes to competing on service, which has become a key battleground for businesses in recent years, there can only be one winner…

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

You can also now find the third part of this series looking at the future of field service software here

FeedHenry, provider of the  open standards based mobile application platform for enterprise, has just announced the release of it's first ever fully dedicated Field Workforce Management mobile solution.

The solution provides 'out-of-the-box' field workforce management features which has a high level of customisation available through what seems to be a fairly intuitive drag and drop process.

As our own research here at FIeld Service News recently revealed with roughly a quarter of companies struggling to fit there work processes around their software solution such simple yet effective customisation is a big positive. The mobile workers apps can be easily configured to support company-specific field workflow processes, backend data integration, forms, and branding. The solution is also cross-platform supporting deployment to all major mobile devices, and as you would expect makes use of location, camera, signature capture and other device features.

Powered by FeedHenry’s flagship FeedHenry 3 platform, the new Workforce Management (WFM) solution gives businesses the option to implement as a standalone solution, or to securely integrate into existing work order, ERP or other systems. FeedHenry’s cloud-based platform architecture supports secure backend integration, data storage and caching, online/offline data syncing, user authentication, and app management that underpin secure, scalable and sustainable mobile innovation.

“In today’s era of mobility, it’s no longer enough to simply port legacy field workforce solutions onto a mobile device and expect high performance,” said Cathal McGloin, CEO of FeedHenry. “Mobile-first organisations are demanding a more flexible mobile experience that delivers a faster return on investment. For companies where field operations are critical to business results, we’ve created a ready to run cloud-based mobile solution that provides secure, real time updates to and from the field, all with a great user experience.”

Key features of FeedHenry’s Field Workforce Management solution include:

Cross-Platform Development and Deployment – Using the functionality of the FeedHenry 3 platform, the new WFM solution supports both development and deployment across multiple devices and platforms: iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Featuring built-in scalability and security, the solution’s backend connections are reusable, making subsequent app developments fast and cost-effective.

Ready-To-Use Functionality – A flexible off-the-shelf solution, major field force management features are already built out and ready to use, including scheduling, dispatch, data capture, forms, location, reporting and messaging. The WFM solution also helps organisations to take full advantage of native mobile device features, allowing for text, photo, signature and barcode capture with the ability to add GPS and timestamps for any work order type, with zero coding required.

Drag and Drop Forms - Flexible workflow configuration is supported with drag and drop forms which allows non-developers to define job order types, without the need to change business processes.

Real-time communication between back office and frontline staff – FeedHenry WFM provides a highly functional web portal that provides a range of administration tasks. Office supervisors can communicate with workers in the field by creating, managing and dispatching new work order information as well as sending in-app messages to the workforce. Real time reporting is available, complete with worker tracking, helping to increase collaboration across teams and improve response times.

Designed to provide high mobile ROI – FeedHenry’s cloud-based WFM solution includes cloud storage and caching to improve app performance and scalability. In addition cloud data sync functionality allows workers to continue using their apps while offline, with data automatically syncing when back online.

“Enterprise mobility has the power to improve employee productivity, transform business processes and drive new revenue streams. This has elevated mobility to a strategic level,” said Chris Marsh, principal analyst at Yankee Group. “Companies should look to cloud-based and agile mobile application strategies to support their growing mobile workforces, without which enterprise productivity and profitability improvements will suffer.”

 

Resource Type: White Paper
Title: 6 things you need to know when purchasing Service Lifecycle Management software
About: Based on independent research Michael Blumberg provides critical information for anyone who is preparing to purchase Service Lifecycle Management (or Service Management) software.
Download: Download the white paper by clicking here.

 

Synopsis:

As President of the Blumberg Advisory Group, Michael R Blumberg is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading consultants across field service, aftermarket services and reverse logistics. He is also a prolific commentator on industry and an accomplished author of many white papers. Field Service News is pleased to bring a selection of his white papers to you. The first of these is based on an exclusive research conducted by the Blumberg Advisory Group which was a yearlong market research study sponsored by the CSDP Corporation which looked at the experiences of hundreds of companies when purchasing Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) software.

As Jerry A Edinger, CEO of CSDP corporation comments “An ideal SLM solution puts terms and conditions of the contract at the heart of the system and builds on that system with solid experience in service delivery.” “There are many Niche players in the SLM space. Decades of  experience  and trusting your provider is key to everyone’s success. We treat all of our clients as a trusted partner.  By doing this,  it creates a Win-Win for everyone” In this white paper “6 things you need to know when purchasing Service Lifecycle Management software” Blumberg distils the knowledge found in this research into six key findings for organisations looking purchase enterprise standard service software. These are:

What to expect in the sales process?

Whilst you are almost certainly going to be doing a lot of research prior to even speaking with any software providers (like reading this feature and then downloading the white paper for further detail) when you do reach the point where you are contacting providers what can you expect? Well first of all most software provider’s will give you a top level demonstration of their software either during your initial call or soon after. Typically this is just meant to give you an idea of how the software works and a more detailed, a second demonstration, customised to your own specific company’s requirements will follow. Often the software provider will request that you fill out a demo prep form ahead of the next demonstration so they can tailor the demo to your needs.

What to look for in a Software Lifecycle Management software vendor?

The service management software market is a crowded niche, there are a number of software vendors available to you and understanding the different offerings can be a confusing if not overwhelming. In this section Blumberg looks at what were the common features that companies sought from software providers. The top three factors were software feature and functionality, technical competency of vendor, and vendor flexibility, with all of the respondents rating these factors as either the most important or second most important factor they considered when purchasing service software.

How important is price?

Interestingly price is far from the dominant factor when purchasing service software with only a quarter of companies indicating that price was the most important factor when purchasing SLM software.  In fact over half of respondents selected a software solution that was somewhere in the middle in terms of cost.

How important is the role of discounts in the buying decision?

As in many industries discounting is reasonably standard and common place when pricing software so there is often room for negotiation in the purchasing process. Blumberg reveals that 83% of those who purchased an enterprise software solution in the past 24 months received a discount and 89% of those planning to purchase in the next 24 months expect a discount. However, remember to be wary of software providers who drop their price too much without concession. The lower price may just come to haunt you when it comes to implementation.

CRM, ERP or best of breed service software?

For service lifecycle management software there are often three choices; buy your service software form your CRM provider, buy from your ERP provider or choose a best of breed service software provider. Whilst it may be easier to go with the CRM or ERP providers who you already know, best of breed providers specialise in service and their products are designed to contain all the functional requirements to support the full service lifecycle management process in an organisation.

What happens after the sale?

Perhaps the most important aspect of the white paper, understanding what you can expect after you have purchased the software is of course an essential piece of insight that will shape your decision on choosing the right vendor. It is important to understand exactly what the vendor’s expectation are of you during the implementation as well as understand the level of resources the vendor will commit to you during the implementation and for post implementation support. In this final section of the white paper Blumberg provides some excellent guidance on getting this detail correct. Buying any kind of software can be a daunting, this is magnified when it is for business and when it comes to mission critical software such as Service Lifecycle Management software the stakes are even higher. Understanding the buying process is an important element of getting the right product, at the right price, with the right level of implementation support that your company needs. Drawing on the insight of hundreds who have been through the process this white paper is therefore a great resource for those considering SLM software.

Download the white paper by clicking here.

Across April and May of this year (2014) Field Service News in partnership with mplsystems undertook a research project to assess the current usage of field service software...

The survey was split into four categories. Scheduling systems, integration and interaction, management reporting and future options. In total we spoke to over 120 field service companies of differing sizes and differing industries. These were predominantly UK based although there were respondents from all over the world including Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Scheduling Systems:

Whilst Service Management software as a whole is about far more than scheduling there is no doubt that it often dominates conversation. This is likely due to the sizeable improvements in efficiency that scheduling software can deliver. In fact companies that were using any sort of scheduling software, be it batch, automated or optimised, showed considerable improvements in the efficiency of their dispatch units with 39% of companies using scheduling software having a ratio of more than 16 engineers per dispatcher.

This figure reduces to just 8% when we look at companies who still operate with manual dispatch systems. In fact of those companies operating without scheduling software virtually half of them (49%) are only able to manage a ratio of 5 engineers per dispatcher at best.

With developments in mobile technology opening up opportunities for field staff to establish new revenue streams (whether directly or indirectly), the greater the ratio of engineers to dispatchers, the more a company’s labour resources are placed in positions which could potentially generate revenue.

With companies shifting away from manual based scheduling and starting to utilise scheduling software, the question of how well that software is performing takes on even greater importance.

The majority of companies (46%) identified their current scheduling system as average, with both extremes (excellent and very poor) being the least common response at 7% each. 14% of respondents identified that they felt their systems were poor, whilst 27% rated their scheduling system as good.

Taking a broader view this does indicate that 80% of scheduling systems being used are operating at an acceptable level of average or better, although it would also indicate that there is plenty of room for improvement as well

Integration and interaction:

There has been much talk of late around end to end service management solutions, whereby all systems across the customer lifecycle such as CRM, Service Management Software, and Asset Management Software are fully integrated with each another, offering full transparency across multiple divisions of a company. This in turn creates greater opportunities for improving customer satisfaction levels, improving efficiency and establishing new revenue streams within a business.

Specialist field service software has been available for some thirty years now, and as the industry has evolved a number of differing elements of service management software has developed such as scheduling, routing, and asset management software etc. In fact a fifth of companies are still working with five or more software providers.

With so many different products in the mix its little wonder that there are issues with integration in field service companies.

Well over a third of companies (38%) are still facing issues with integration stating “We have a number of different systems across different divisions and it makes communications between departments tricky”. This represents a sizeable section of the industry that has the potential to improve the overall efficiency and productivity of their field service operations.

Given that the integration of systems is not fully ubiquitous across the industry, it is important to see how companies ensure that their service management software supports their business processes. The most common means of ensuring this is through customisation by software providers, with 34% of companies taking this path.

With competition amongst software providers high within what is a relatively niche sector, it is such additional layers of customisation that can make a difference when implementing a new service management software system.

Yet conversely almost a quarter of companies (23%) admit to having to fit the way they work around their software.

This represents a real issue, if a company has to change their processes to accommodate their software then there may be a danger of efficiency bleed, in which case the surely the software isn’t fit for purpose? This serves to further highlight the importance of ensuring that you choose software provider wisely. Perhaps the cheaper ‘off the shelf’ solution doesn’t always offer the best value in the long term?

In part two of this feature we will look at what of management reporting software is being used and what fears companies have when adopting new systems.

If you want to read the full 10 page benchmarking report then you are able to download it by clicking this link.

By registering for this white paper you agree to the fascinating terms and conditions which you can read right here.

 

Software provider Fast Lean Smart (FLS) have recently announced that they have secured a significant new customer win in the form of Mitie’s pest control division.

German owned FLS who operate their UK division for their Reading office are providers of specialist mobile workforce management and scheduling software and in Mitie they have won the business of the UK’s third largest provider of pest control services. Having seen consistent organic growth greater than their peers within the last decade Mitie were in the market to support yet further development and growth by implementing optimisation solutions for both routing and task scheduling as part of a drive to improve their service offering by responding quicker to customer call outs.

With a client base that encompasses both residential and commercial clients, Mitie offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ service offering that covers everything and anything to do with pest prevention and eradication. They maintain their high standards of service by undertaking all services in-house and as a business they employ a nationwide field force of pest technicians.

Commenting on the agreement with FLS, Peter Trotman, Mitie Pest Control Managing Director said ‘Our success has brought us many challenges, especially in organising resource to meet our objectives which include continuously improving customer service, but also to reduce operational costs. We already differentiate our services through advanced management information and customer portals and we are now embarking on a dynamic enterprise to interface a route planning and resource optimisation tool to further our leading edge technology”.

Trotman added “As part of a year long evaluation of potential vendors, we completed a successful pilot with FLS which proved FLS VISITOUR technology was flexible to meet our requirements and the ideal choice. We are now pleased to appoint FLS as supplier and implementation partner for this immensely exciting project from which we already know the opportunity for performance improvement is significant”.

Jeremy Squire, FLS UK Managing Director, also commented saying “FLS are pleased to welcome Mitie Pest Control to our growing family of UK customers, the mix of routine visits, booked appointments and requirement to quickly react to emergency callouts make excellent use of FLS VISITOUR real-time scheduling capability. We look forward to making this deployment a showcase for the dramatic efficiency gains achievable and the ease of configuring our technology to meet unique customer needs.”