MSI Data

Hands Free: 5 Ways Siri has Changed Field Service with Voice Recognition

admin — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:09:28 +0000

Ease of Use

If Location, Location, Location is the mantra of real estate, then Apple has shown us that Ease of use, Ease of use, Ease of use should be the mantra of technology. Not too long ago you needed a separate application, hours’ worth of training, and some sort of airplane pilot-like headset to use voice recognition software. Thanks to Apple’s innovation with Siri, all of these are relics of the past. By pressing a single button, one can simply speak in normal language and obtain any sort of information or input text using one’s voice. It seems most people have already become so accustomed to it that it no longer seems as remarkable as it should. With voice recognition software of the past, one would typically have to read chapters of a book in order to teach the software the specifics of the person’s voice. Now, someone watches a commercial or learns from a friend in a few seconds. Because of its’ ease of use in operation, Siri requires virtually no training, making it something easily shareable with friends, resulting in more people using it. For service managers, this means a greater likelihood of technicians using technology alongside their mobile field service app to improve their productivity.

Ubiquity

This brings us to point #2: Ubiquity. Siri is everywhere both in terms of people using it and in terms of apps on the iPad or iPhone. Much of Apple’s success in the mobile space is a result of its incredible application ecosystem, better known as the App Store. Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about Siri is how easy Apple made it for developers to take advantage of Siri in their apps. Essentially any text field can take advantage of voice input via Siri. Furthermore, it works the same from app to app, further increasing the ease of use mentioned above and of course leading to more people using it in more places.

Acceptance

Not too long ago if you found two people talking about voice recognition, odds are they were Computer Science majors or at least avid computer users. Thanks to Siri, now people with a social life are enjoying the benefits of voice recognition. Don’t worry, I can say that – I majored in Computer Science. In all seriousness, service managers are now much more likely to get their field technicians inputting data since it’s easier and there are widely accepted ways of doing it.

Commoditization

Some people might view the best part of Siri as its cost: free. While it’s true, one does need a relatively recent iPhone or iPad as well as an internet connection (both of which typically aren’t free unless you believe all the spam that you receive) the functionality itself isn’t any incremental app purchase or service subscription. For field service organizations, this means one less bill to pay and cost to justify to management.

Speed

While there is a slight delay in Siri getting back to you with a response, let’s be honest – Siri is pretty fast. It’s likely the voice processing is done server-side to increase its accuracy but we’re still talking seconds here. From a field service perspective, it’s typically faster than a field technician calling into the office to relay a message and requires about one less person compared to that exchange. Perhaps the only place Siri might not be faster than typing is in a noisy environment, but most service organizations I know would be ok with that if it means less greasy fingers on a touch screen keyboard.

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Sage Customers and Partners can Preview Service Pro® in D.C. at Sage Summit

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:54:06 +0000

Thousands upon thousands of great companies use Sage software products to run their businesses, and each year, they congregate for the Sage Summit, the largest gathering of the year for Sage customers and business partners. This year’s Sage Summit event will be held July 21st to the 26th in the nation’s capital, and will feature dozens of integrated productivity solutions.

Sage Customers and Partners

If you’re a Sage customer or partner that will be attending the Sage Summit this year, we look forward to meeting you. As a Sage development partner providing field service and repair software for Sage 100 ERP, we help service organizations’ technicians, schedulers and service operations personnel become more efficient, maximizing your Sage 100 ERP investment.

Mobile Service Technician app for iPad, iPhone, Android or Windows

As evidenced by Sage’s surveys, companies are investing heavily in mobile technology for their remote workers, with excellent results. Service Technicians are the most important link to the customer in a field service business, and properly equipping them with the right information tools before, during and after site visits is the key to achieving a highly efficient service operation. With Service Pro®, service technicians can be outfitted with an integrated app on any device running iOS, Android or Windows.

Web-based, Drag and Drop Field Service Scheduling

A major ongoing challenge all service organizations face is the task of assigning work orders to the right technician as quickly as possible, taking many important variables into consideration, from tech location and skill set to worker status and parts availability. Service Pro® dramatically simplifies this task with a visual scheduler, offering office personnel a single place to make scheduling decisions and rapidly put them into motion.

Service Management integrated with Sage 100 ERP

With a deep integration to Sage 100 ERP, Service Pro® automatically interacts with customer, site, inventory, accounting, equipment and other data in Sage 100 ERP. If you’re interested in learning more, please visit us at the Sage Summit at booth #420, or request a demo.

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Focused on Field Service for Software and Mobile Technology Investment

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:25:05 +0000

Is your business thinking about making an investment in software for your field service operation? If so, you are not alone! According to Forrsights, recent software survey by Forrester, global business leaders are consistently ranking field service software as a top-ranked technology investment priority for 2013. Not only did Field Service rank in the top four departments considered for software investment in the next year, field service ranked even higher when it came to investing in mobility software, with 42% reporting that they plan to invest, just behind mobile sales software at 48%.

The results of the survey come as no surprise considering the fact that field service is becoming a critical component of many organizations, with employers adding 221,000 more field service jobs in the US since last year, according to the Department of Labor.

Software: The New Equipment for the Service Technician

Service technicians are now playing a more pivotal role in meeting service firms’ organizational objectives. 73% of business leaders surveyed by Forrester said “Acquiring and retaining customers” was their top priority for 2013, tied with “Growing overall company revenue”. Addressing rising expectations of customers and improving customer satisfaction was a close second (68%). Companies are beginning to recognize the value of investing in field service as a way to raise their productivity, increase their customer satisfaction and improve the profitability of their service process. Equipping field service technicians with the right tools is the best way to achieve these goals. As service industry leaders begin to adopt more technology-based solutions, outfitting their technicians with the correct mobile solutions simply makes sense.

Field mobility solutions are now designed to have the largest impact on service organizations in the areas that have the highest cost, which is labor. Before leaving for a job site, technicians can access site information, equipment and access details, work order type and invoice history, customer comments about the equipment’s current problem, and the assigned tasks to complete the service, all on their mobile device. With this information at their fingertips, technicians can bypass process inefficiencies and focus on the inspections and repairs, lowering the time-to-service for each technician and leading to a significant improvement in service operation productivity, ultimately leading to higher profitability.

Technician information access is also helpful when trying to increase a department’s customer satisfaction rate. Through field service software, companies can provide all the information needed to correctly perform the job on the first visit, from general profiles on equipment, past repair cases, and customer records, to downloadable drawings, schematics, and instruction manuals. This level of on-site access allows higher service success rates as well as increased first-time fix rates, leading to customer retention and maximized profitability in a business climate that has an expectation for immediacy and little tolerance for error or delay.

As you can see, field technicians are essential resources in keeping your customers satisfied and turning them into repeat customers. When a missed service, late arrival or faulty repair can lead to losing a customer, it is vital that technicians be provided with the technology and information they need to resolve problems in the field.

Buyer’s Guide

In conclusion, increased competition within the field service industry is putting pressure on businesses to improve efficiency while satisfying customers and boosting productivity. By managing tasks with mobile field service software solutions, organizations can more efficiently deliver their services to their customers while meeting their business goals and objectives. It looks as if companies are starting to realize these benefits and are more willing to invest in mobility. So, if your business is thinking about making investments in mobile field service technology, make the smart choice and join the movement.

7 Best Practices for Choosing New field Service Software

There’s plenty of reasons that service organizations review, purchase and implement new field service management software. Regardless of what situations force your service organization to that tipping point, there are several tried and true methods you can use to organize the buying process, eliminate the unexpected and significantly increase your chances of success with your new software.

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Hands Free: On Mobile Device Usage in Field Service

Alex Morask — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:06:30 +0000

Just yesterday, Information Week published an article about Steve R. Spriggs, a man in California given a citation for using the navigation on his phone while driving. The article continued by pointing out that any form of cell phone usage that requires hands, including navigation, is illegal in California. This is contrary to some people’s belief that only talking, texting and listening are banned.

The issue of hands-free mobile devices definitely hits home for field service fleets, where technicians who spend a majority of their time on the road constantly have to use their mobile device to get directions, access work order details, communicate with their office and so forth. With so much distracted driving, it’s only a matter of time before accidents happen.

That’s why we here at MSI feel the need to stress that one of our most awesome integrations directly addresses the issue of hands free driving. Our TomTom WEBFLEET integration instills the power of ServicePro® into TomTom GPS devices. That way, instead of using a mobile device to look up directions or work order details, field technicians can access all the information they need through their heads-up navigation system.

They can have access to details of the work order they’re assigned, their customer’s address and turn-by-turn voice navigation to the jobsite, all through the same hands-free device. Additionally, once a technician starts navigating to a jobsite, TomTom calculates the ETA and shoots it directly to ServicePro. ServicePro then sends that ETA straight to the customer by whatever means desired. This way, the technician doesn’t have the hassle of contacting the customer to let them know he/she is on the way.

What are some new ways you’ve seen field service organizations deal with keeping their technicians’ hands on the wheel? Leave your answers in the comments!

(image via airbuds.com)

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The Paperless Trail (Part 5) Mobile Field Service Scheduling

Alex Morask — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:18:43 +0000

Hey there everyone. Welcome to our final installment of The Paperless Trail, our content series focused on making mobile field service a reality in your operation. Today, we’re zeroing in on scheduling and dispatching, and how integrated software can make field service scheduling a strength of your service firm, rather than an obstacle.

At the root of any successful service operation is the ability to efficiently schedule field technicians and inspectors. For dispatchers, precise coordination is necessary—not just to meet SLA requirements—but to go above and beyond, surpassing competitors. By making scheduling and dispatching as simple as humanely possible, companies can cut down their service times, save on gas and generally make customers happier.

Field service Scheduling and dispatch is all about one key idea: Getting the right technician to the right place at the right time. Let’s look at each aspect of this notion to understand how it can be accomplished by your firm.

Getting the Right Technician

Although dispatchers may have multiple techs in the field that can handle a pending service call, it’s important that they always find the perfect technician for the job. Scheduling a technician that’s too far away, currently unavailable or unable to solve the service issue won’t do any good, no matter how easy it was to assign them.

That’s why many companies turn to software solutions to handle their field service scheduling process. The software’s mobile capabilities allow them to assign technicians based on 3 important factors.

Their location – With a mobile field service app, a field tech’s mobile device will use its GPS to ping the tech’s location back to the main office software. Therefore, dispatchers can track their technicians’ whereabouts to see which techs are closest to certain open work orders. This process is even stronger when service vans carry an installed GPS.
Their Availability – A connected tech can use his mobile device to set a “work status” that is always visible to the back office. For example, a tech can set his status to working, in-transit, restocking, etc. Having tech status readily available further aids dispatchers in selecting a tech that is readily available.
Their Skill-Set – Although not necessarily a function of the mobile application, field service software allows dispatchers to filter through available technicians by their skill set in a heads up scheduling dashboard. So if a work order requires electrical work, dispatchers can search their techs by the electrician specialty and then assign them using the two previous categories.

…To the Right Place

After the right technician has been selected, the dispatcher has to get him to work-site as efficiently as possible. The best tool for this job is the technician’s mobile own device—where he/she can receive point-to-point directions straight to his/her assigned job site. Plus, with voice navigation, the technician will never have to drive dangerously or break any hands-free laws.

Once the technician arrives on site, his/her mobile application continues to help.The application can inform the technician as to the area of the facility that holds the service asset and it can also store the name of the customer contact in case certain building permissions are needed for access to the asset.

…At the Right Time.

Like we mentioned in the first section, field service software gives organizations’ visibility into both the locations of their technicians in the field and their assets tied to work orders. This, along with knowing the work status of their technicians, helps dispatchers choose techs that can get to service locations faster.

However, another key factor in conquering service timing is understanding SLA requirements for each specific work order. Every SLA calls for a mandatory time to service, which depends on the contract. One SLA may demand break/fix service within two hours and another within two days. With this much disparity, it’s important that both techs and dispatchers know which work orders can be put on the back burner and which ones need to be handled hastily. Mobile field service software provides both dispatchers and technicians with this information.

All in all, mobility adds a powerful new dimension to field service scheduling; one that can simplify the dispatcher’s responsibility of getting technicians where they need to be. Couple the benefits of automated scheduling with the other features of field service software and you can see why many organizations are making the move towards digital solutions.

Automate your Field Service Scheduling with Service Pro®

Service Pro is a fully integrated, mobile field service software system designed to dramatically boost service efficiency by automating key processes. Service Pro’s features, which include visual scheduling, GPS integration, service portals, inventory tracking, asset management and more, help companies turn their fleet into a mobile field service powerhouse. This means better first-time fix rates, higher technician utility and improved customer satisfaction.

The post The Paperless Trail (Part 5) Mobile Field Service Scheduling appeared first on MSI Data.

The Power of Field Asset Management – The Paperless Trail (Part 4)

Alex Morask — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:32:12 +0000

Hey folks, welcome back to part 4 of The Paperless Trail – our content series focused on making powerful mobile field service a reality in your organization. In our last installment, we looked at service tasks and how managing them effectively can improve work tracking and increase package profitability. This week, we’re discussing how field asset management can help you improve your service operation.

Let’s begin this post with the basic concept that knowledge is power. This overarching idea, which was a core theme when we discussed information access in mobile field service, is also the core foundation for our discussion of managing field service equipment assets.

The more information a service firm has on their assets in the field, the more opportunity they have to improve—not just their service efficiency, but their chances for up-sell, their scheduling processes, their customer satisfaction and more. It’s all part of what we like to call field asset management.

Exceptional field asset management, the kind that helps organizations exceed expectations, starts with having detailed data on every customer asset your organization has in the field, as well as having that data constantly available to both technicians and administrators. Service firms should know when a specific asset was installed, the customer name and location, serial number, components, service history (and parts used), warranty coverage, meter readings and any other information related to their service offerings.

By having organized, detailed sets of asset information available at a moment’s notice, your organization can improve on both ends of their service spectrum; both the break/fix repair side the preventive maintenance aspect.

To get a real look into the importance of field asset management, let’s examine two different scenarios. In the first, the service firm chooses not to conduct asset management. In the second, they embrace it.

This is Your Organization on “No Field Asset Management”

The phone rings in your call center and is dutifully picked up by one of your customer service reps. It turns out to be a service request for broken equipment at a manufacturing plant. to start, the customer’s information is taken down on a piece of paper or typed into the CRM/database. From there, either the call center or dispatcher creates a work order and a technician, let’s name this one Fred, is notified of the new service call.

When Fred receives the work order (by phone, email or mobile application), he receives the name of the customer (B&G Manufacturing) and the location of their manufacturing plant. Fred responds to dispatch, telling them he’s accepted the work order and is on route. He then plugs the job site into his GPS and sets off on his trip.

When Fred arrives at the facility, he heads towards the administrative office so that he can speak with his customer contact, Jim. Since Fred doesn’t have the serial number of the asset, he doesn’t know which piece of equipment he’s supposed to work on or what the issue is with it. After waiting for Jim to finish up a phone meeting, Fred speaks with him and is led to a material handling system on the main floor of the factory.

When Fred asks about the equipment issue, Jim points out that there seem to be diagonal breaks in the main conveyor belt of the system. Fred, who is looking at this piece of equipment for the first time, struggles in brainstorming a possible diagnosis. On top of a general lack in understanding of the equipment, Fred’s unfamiliarity with the conveyor belt’s components are also hindering his ability to start the repair.

Remembering that his coworker and fellow technician, Henry, has worked with B&G before, Fred calls him up to ask for help. Luckily, Henry has extensive experience with conveyor belts and appears to know what the problem is. Henry helps Fred perform an inspection and together they diagnose that the belt’s fastener plates are too long for the pulley.

Unfortunately for Fred, this means that to complete the repair he’ll have to replace the fastener plates. But since Fred didn’t know what equipment he was assigned on when he received the work order, he didn’t stock the right size fastener plates in his van’s inventory.

With Fred’s chances for a first-time-fix now non-existent, he tells Jim that he must go to a warehouse to retrieve the needed part, and that he’ll be back later to finish the service. Fred also asks Jim if, in the meantime, he could dig through his file cabinets to see if he can find the conveyor’s warranty. That way, Fred can bill the service correctly. Back in his van, Fred logs his service time on so he can enter it back at the office.

What Could Have Happened

Clearly, lack of asset information led Fred to poor service performance. This reflects badly on him and his firm as a whole. Here’s how Fred’s trip could have gone if his organization had consistently practiced asset management.

After receiving the work order, Fred uses his mobile device to analyze the piece of equipment he’ll be repairing (MHS Main Conveyor Belt). He also checks out the issue as it’s reported by Jim (diagonal breaks in belt). He then searches through his technician service portal to find the profile of the conveyor belt.

After looking through multiple service cases from other technicians, Fred sees that transverse breaks have occurred in these conveyor belts before. He sees they often happen when the fastener plates are too long for the pulley. Fred decides this is likely B&G’s issue, so now he can check for parts.

Fred uses his mobile device to search the conveyor belt’s components until he finds the fastener plates. He runs the plates’ ID’s against his vans inventory to see if he has them on-stock. Finding that he doesn’t, he decides he’ll have to stop at a warehouse on the way to the job site to pick some up if he wants to make a first-time-fix.

After arriving on the job site, Fred throws his fastener plates in his bag and heads to the administrative office. He gets on his mobile device to access the serial number for the specific conveyor belt he’s supposed to work on and shows one of the administrators. She then gives him directions to the equipment.

Fred conducts an inspection of the conveyor on his mobile device and determines his original diagnosis was correct; the fastener plates are the issue. Fred uses his Service Portal to access PDF instructions of how to make the replacement, and follows along without any problems. When the repair is complete, Fred uses his mobile device to look up if the conveyor belt is covered under some kind of warranty. He finds that it is; for both time and parts.

Fred heads back to the B&G office to tell the administrator that the repair is complete. He also tells them that, because of the warranty, there will be no charge for his service today. Grateful for the excellent service, the administrator thanks him and takes his business card. Fred leaves B&G with a smile on his face and a job well done.

Automate Your Field Asset Management with ServicePro®

ServicePro is a fully integrated, mobile field service software system designed to dramatically boost service efficiency by automating your organization’s key processes. ServicePro’s features, which include complete asset management, service portals, inventory tracking, visual scheduling, and more, help companies turn their fleet into a mobile field service powerhouse. This means better first-time fix rates, higher technician utility and improved customer satisfaction.

The post The Power of Field Asset Management – The Paperless Trail (Part 4) appeared first on MSI Data.

Industry Field Mobility: Evidence From Sage Software Surveys

Alex Morask — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:46:25 +0000

Just recently, one of our Service Pro® integration partners, Sage Software, released the results of multiple surveys they conducted that explored the condition of mobility in small and medium sized, North American businesses. These surveys unveiled some interesting facts and figures that support findings we’ve uncovered as a provider of mobile field service and inspection software for industries such as manufacturing, distribution, construction and more.

Enterprise mobility can be a complicated subject in businesses where new technology represents a dynamic functional change in the organization; i.e. in industries like the ones we service. Businesses that adopt a software solution can understand it’s positive operational effect by using a “before and after” comparison. And it seems the effects of mobile implementation are positive considering 85% of general SMB’s surveyed by Sage reported mobile technology having a positive effect on their business.

(Source: Sage)

In our experience, such a positive response to the implementation of field mobility technology is not surprising. More helpful, however, is comprehending how and why mobile technology is so positively impacting these businesses. In what fields are these small and medium sized businesses? What tasks and processes has mobility helped them improve? What devices are they using? What is corporate policy in regards to devices?

To get a real understanding of enterprise mobility adoption, one must analyze how mobile technology disperses throughout specific industries. To do this, we’ll be analyzing the results of other Sage surveys that specifically address mobile technology in the construction and manufacturing fields. In addition, we’ll add some insights that we’ve uncovered as to how these specific fields are adopting field mobility.

Mobility in the Manufacturing Field

In the manufacturing industry, we can see how enterprise mobility is addressed a little differently than other fields. Key processes take place throughout company facilities and mobile solutions are required in order to help supervisors, equipment techs, quality inspectors and operators perform their jobs more efficiently and in a more connected manner. With such a wide variety of mobile workers, each attending different needs, we can see why technology usage is more evenly distributed across devices.

(Source: Sage)

However, even with many devices being used in the current manufacturing process, organizations are still citing an increase in the usage of mobile devices over the past year. 63% reported an increase in tablets and 78.3% cited an increase in smartphone usage. And when asked about organizational productivity as related to mobile technology, there is an overwhelming sentiment that mobility has had positive effects on efficiency.

(Source: Sage)

So now the question becomes, how are manufacturers using mobile devices to improve these processes?

It all starts with organizational empowerment through service management software. By having a system that integrates back-end functions and also provides workforce mobility through native applications, manufacturing organizations can simplify their processes from start to finish.

Information access makes up a significant part of field mobility. No matter their position, manufacturing workers with remote access to important business information are simply more efficient. Take, for example, the equipment technician who can pull up past maintenance logs and video repair guides on his mobile device when servicing a molding machine.

At the other end of the mobility spectrum is remote data entry and syncing. Enabling workers to upload formatted information to the office database without making a cross-facility trip can make huge improvements in operational efficiency. An example here would be a quality inspector performing pre-designed inspections on his mobile device, and then uploading the results to the company’s database by syncing that device. Additionally, new technologies like the RFID chip can greatly improve the manufacturing inventory process when coupled mobile management features.

Back at the main office, administrators can have access to a wide range of features through integrated desktop software. They can manage schedules and inventories, track orders and invoices and setup automated alerts to speed up the distribution process.

Mobility in the Construction Field

For construction companies, enterprise mobility represents an ideal business state. With inspectors, contractors and technicians constantly working in the field, being able to stay organized and maintain productive processes is the key to operational success. That’s why more construction companies are choosing devices that are better fit for mobility rather than clunky devices that prove bothersome to transport. Sage’s survey of construction companies (graph featured below) echoes this sentiment.

For construction companies, enterprise mobility represents an ideal business state. With inspectors, contractors and technicians constantly working in the field, being able to stay organized and maintain productive processes is the key to operational success. That’s why more construction companies are choosing devices that are better fit for mobility rather than clunky devices that prove bothersome to transport. Sage’s survey of construction companies (graph featured below) echoes this sentiment.

Question: How many of your employees are using the following to access work-related information when they are not in the office?

(Source: Sage)

Additionally, as the amount of involved employees continues to rise, construction companies are using far more smartphones to accommodate remote access than any other device. This growing preference is in plain sight. In fact, when asked how much they believe use of the different devices has changed over the past year, construction survey respondents reported the following:

(Source: Sage)

With over 75% of respondents stating the use of smartphones and tablets (the 2 truly mobile devices in the survey) has increased, it’s clear that the construction field has a trending preference for mobility and that as innovation continues, more and more companies will adopt a culture centered on the highly mobile workforce.

Yet, while these construction organizations have shown a trend towards mobility, are they really getting the most possible use out of their smartphones and other mobile devices? The survey reports that over 40% of construction companies said using a mobile device was not useful at all for:

Viewing a calendar
Keeping up with the status of projects and organizing project details
Creating invoices
Keeping a task list
Accessing customer information

With integrated service management software, construction companies would be able to accomplish each of these goals and more quite easily on a mobile device. This leads us to believe that, despite technological trends in favor of mobility, the construction field should seek software solutions that ensure they’re reaping all the benefits of a mobile-connected workforce.

For example, here are some the tasks construction organizations can accomplish by using service management software:

Seamless inventory & time management – Contractors can log the time they spent on a job site as well as the parts they used (either from their vehicle or from a facility) all from their mobile device in real time. This makes invoicing and managing parts much easier for administrators.
Simplified job site safety compliance – Safety inspections can be constructed with drag and drop features. Then, safety inspectors can perform these inspections on their mobile device, recording not just text, but pictures and video as well. After the inspection is complete, they can sync up their device to send the results to the office database.
Complete visual scheduling – Managers at construction agencies can use a heads up dashboard to monitor all of his/her employees in the field. Employees can be sorted by skillset (carpenter, contractor, safety inspector) and other fields and drag and drop features make fast-paced scheduling a breeze.

BYOD

One of the hottest mobility topics in 2013 has been the issue of whether employees should be able to perform work-related responsibilities on their own mobile device or whether businesses should provide employees with devices. Issues such as unanimous operating systems, information security and policy preparedness are all key argument points in the BYOD discussion. So, as the discussion continues, we wished to examine how the construction and manufacturing industry are currently addressing BYOD throughout organizations.

In construction, the majority of businesses seem to favor providing their employees with mobile devices rather than relying on a BYOD policy. Only 30% of companies allow their employees to use their own device and in some of those scenarios, the companies pay for the service on employee-owned devices.

(Source: Sage)

When asked about BYOD policy in construction companies, responses were consistent with the data above. 33% of respondents said they already have a company policy that allows employees to bring and use their own mobile devices. In addition, 8% of companies surveyed are currently considering a policy like this.

But here’s an interesting data point in the BYOD policy question:

(Source: Sage)

These responses go to show that, although most construction organizations currently provide their employees with mobile devices rather than instituting BYOD; the majority of companies have simply not yet considered a BYOD policy. There are few organizations (10%) that have actually considered a BYOD policy and then shot it down. Meaning that in the future, we may see may more BYOD policies instituted, even to the point where they overtake preference for company-issued devices.

In manufacturing, things are not so much different. Some of the noticeable variations from the construction industry include more employees bringing their own devices (28% vs. 23%) and more manufacturing companies paying for the service on employee owned devices (18% vs. 7%).

Data on BYOD policies in manufacturing organizations is, again, consistent with the increase we just noted. 46% of companies say they have a BYOD policy in place, with 8% currently considering such a policy.

When compared with construction, fewer manufacturing organizations cited that they have not yet considered a BYOD policy (30% vs. 46%), but this may be attributed to the higher number of companies that have already passed a BYOD policy. The number of companies that have denied a BYOD policy are relatively similar (13% vs. 10%).

These numbers suggest that both industries, although having minor differences, are trending in the same direction. It would seem that, as mobile devices continue to enter the workforce and more BYOD issues are addressed, the majority of companies will at least consider a BYOD policy. And judging by the small amount of companies that have shot down these policies, it seems more often than not that consideration leads to adoption.

Over to You

Workforce mobility is a growing theme across almost all industries. As we’ve detailed above, manufacturing and construction are fields where workforce mobility is not only being vastly adopted, but also leading to overwhelmingly positive business results.

Has your business implemented or planned on implementing mobile workforce solutions? What have the results been? Any troubles throughout the implementation? Leave your comments below!

Construction & Manufacturing Workforce Software

Service Pro is a fully integrated, service and workforce management system designed to dramatically boost operational efficiency in manufacturing, construction, field service, cable companies and more. Service Pro’s features, which include everything from workforce portals to inventory and asset management as well as mobile applications solutions, help companies optimize their routine processes as well as help consistently grow their business.

The post Industry Field Mobility: Evidence From Sage Software Surveys appeared first on MSI Data.

Task Management in Mobile Field Service – The Paperless Trail (Part 3)

Alex Morask — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:17:04 +0000

Welcome back to part 3 of the Paperless Trail, our content series focused on making powerful mobile field service a reality in your organization. Last week, we discussed managing spare parts and went into detail on how field service management software can make inventory tracking a breeze for your operation. For this installment, we’re shifting the focus a little bit, and taking a look at managing service tasks in the field and in the back office.

A task can be any completed action or action that needs to be completed on a work order or on a specific asset. Tasks can include anything from miles traveled by a technician to a completed inspection or replacing a key part in a piece of equipment; as long as these actions are logged against the work order or service asset, they’re a task. Tasks are essentially the building block of a work order and they allow both the service firm and their customer to understand what exactly is taking place on a service call.

In a general trend, mobile field service teams are looking to ease the burden of assigning, logging and invoicing tasks by implementing field service management software solutions. These firms have realized that managing tasks through a software system will give them a leg up on their competition because they’ll be able to simplify high-level responsibilities such as:

Providing detailed work tracking across the service fleet.
Ensuring that maintenance contracts and service packages are profitable.

To get a better understanding how automated task management can help your organization operate at a best-in-class level, let’s take a look at both of the service-related responsibilities listed above.

Detailed Work Tracking

With both customer demands and costs of service on the rise, many firms want to know how their service calls are being handled by technicians, no matter if they’re preventive maintenance or regular repair service. But asking technicians to record each of their many actions on pen and paper will cost far more in work hours than it would pay off in insights. That’s where field service task management comes in.

Technicians on a mobile-optimized team can access interactive work orders through their mobile devices. And these work orders can hold pre-assigned tasks that outline the tech’s responsibility for that specific service call. In the case of preventive maintenance work, work orders can have a master task (i.e. Quarterly Generator Maintenance) that’s broken into multiple sub tasks (i.e. base unit inspection, replace filter, etc.). This allows the technician to conduct the maintenance more quickly and, after logging his/her time, allows administrators to see how just how efficient the tech was at completing the service.

Mobilized techs are also able to log new tasks, time and parts on the work order. This ability comes into play when they receive unplanned, “time and parts” service calls. For example, if a technician responds to an undiagnosed, home generator fuel issue, he may receive a work order that only contains the tasks Mileage (Distance to service location) and Generator Fuel Inspection (The inspection he has to complete to diagnose the issue). After completing the inspection and making an assessment of the issue, the tech can add new tasks to his work order as he completes the repair (Replace fuel hose, Change Oil, etc.). He can also log his parts used and his time, which helps administrators get a step-by-step understanding of the completed repair and also helps them invoice properly.

Maintenance Contract & Service Package Profitability

Maintenance contracts and service packages are huge revenue drivers for service firms or companies with a mobile field service arm. However, to ensure these packages remain profitable, organizations must be certain that poor technician efficiency isn’t biting into the flat-rate payments that the maintenance contracts and packages provided. Additionally, as customer demand increases, organizations must seek new ways to reduce the time-to-service for their preventive work in order to keep growing income.

Let’s say a field service firm signs a contract with a customer to provide quarterly maintenance for their industrial refrigerators. Although the contract is a great source of revenue, it’s up to the firm to make sure their technicians work efficiently so that technicians’ hourly pay doesn’t cut down the contract’s profit. Essentially, the more efficient the field techs are at servicing the refrigerators, the more profitable the maintenance contract becomes.

Task management can help this process in multiple ways. For one, organizations can build out task lists for each of the preventive maintenance measures in their contracts. As we covered earlier, task lists can be used to organize a certain service package, such as Industrial Refrigerator Operating Inspection. Since the task, “Industrial Refrigerator Operating Inspection” is comprised of the same sub tasks each time it’s assigned; the organization should know how long an industrial refrigerator operating inspection takes. With that knowledge, managers can compare how their techs are performing against average efficiency and take business action accordingly.

In addition, a sort of A/B testing can be used to some effect here. If a service manager is looking for ways to improve the efficiency of a task process, say for the task “Industrial Refrigerator Operating Inspection (IROI),” then it might be worthwhile to work with multiple versions of the IROI. Technicians and managers with IROI expertise can offer suggestions as to what tasks in the process should be added, removed, changed or reordered so as to create a new IROI that could be more efficient. Then, with two different versions of the IROI at hand, the manager can assign each one to a technician test group. If the manager sees that the new IROI version has a better service time, he can use that version for all service dates in the contract.

Closing Thoughts

As the service industry adapts to stronger consumer mandates, the specific tasks of each and every service call are warranted for inspection and optimization. By managing tasks with a mobile field service software system, organizations can deliver detailed responsibilities to their technicians in the field as well as understand the work that encompasses their techs’ “time and parts” service calls. In addition, there are great financial benefits rooted in improving the efficiency of service calls that fall under a maintenance contract or service package.

7 Best Practices for Choosing New field Service Software

The post Task Management in Mobile Field Service – The Paperless Trail (Part 3) appeared first on MSI Data.

The Paperless Trail (Part 2): Spare Parts & Inventory Management in Mobile Field Service

Alex Morask — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:49:24 +0000

Welcome back to The Paperless Trail! Last week, we covered the types of information that field technicians need in order to operate at a best-in-class level. This week, we’ll be digging into the intricacies of inventory management and specifically how mobile field service software can help organizations improve their logistics at each point in their service process.

To understand how mobilization can improve inventory management, we must first understand some of the inventory issues currently plaguing service departments. The most common and costly issues stem from a service department’s responsibility to get the right parts to the right customer in the most efficient manner possible. This responsibility has escalated recently as customers are constantly demanding better service and inventory costs continue to rise. To remedy these concerns, organizations need to master these three parts & inventory best practices:

Organizations need to set up an early warning system that can alert managers as to low inventories and other key business conditions.
Organizations need to utilize mobile devices to make their technicians a more integral part of the spare parts and inventory management process.
Organizations need to use insights collected from the field in order to improve their parts planning and forecast.

With these concerns addressed, service companies can lower their inventory costs while simultaneously increasing their customer satisfaction. These improvements together pave the way to mobile field service profitability, a maturing business theme in 2013.

Automating Inventory Alerts

Clearly, there are a lot of moving “parts” in parts and inventory management (pun intended). The manager(s) responsible for maintaining dependable inventories has to monitor equipment across a number of warehouses and service vans. Depending on the organization, hundreds or even thousands of parts can fluctuate in and out of the supply chain every day. Parts can go from one inventory to another, from an inventory to a customer asset, from a customer asset back to an inventory and from inventories to manufacturers or repair centers. With so many paths of transaction, you can see why managing inventory with paper processes is simply out of the question.

With mobile field service software, organizations can streamline their inventory processes by establishing alerts that inform key stakeholders when specific business conditions occur. Although these alerts work across all aspects of the service process, they are especially helpful for handling assets because of all the conditions that require managerial action in the inventory process.

For instance, managers can use alerts to know when specific parts are running too low or too high in a service van, a warehouse or any other inventory particular to their operation. They can use this information to advise technicians on what parts to pick up and which to return when they restock at the warehouses. Another similar option involves setting an alert for when allocated quantities of specific parts exceed their availability. This alert is especially helpful for not endangering first-time fix rates and customer satisfaction. These are just two examples, but with leading field service software, alerts and events systems can be customized to fit almost any business condition. This is because the system uses a rules-based engine to perform advanced data analysis. This gives organization he ability to set a wide range of inventory alerts including:

Alerts for When Items Haven’t Shipped or Arrived
Alerts for Items Without Standard Costing
Alerts for Technician Use of Inventory
Alerts for Non-stock Parts
Alerts for Obsolete Parts
Alerts for Shelf Life Expiration

Precise and coordinated inventory management is vital to the success of a service department, so the level of functionality that system alerts provide can be a driving force behind improving processes and cutting costs for the organization. And coupled with the other features that mobile field service software provides, inventory alerts make service organizations a force to be reckoned with.

Inventory Management in the Field

Like we discussed in previous articles, mobile field service is a pathway to success for many service departments. Issuing mobile devices with advanced software can make technicians more capable in the field and more beneficial to the service process as a whole. This rings especially true for businesses looking to manage their parts and inventory more efficiently.

Since each technician carries, unloads and stocks specific spare parts, giving them the ability to monitor and update their inventory from a mobile device can greatly simplify parts management. Top-class field service software allows technicians to track and search spare parts in their service van, other technicians’ vans and the company’s warehouses and facilities. With parts visibility across the board, techs know where and how to quickly acquire parts needed for their work orders when they don’t have them stocked in their van.

Additionally, with access to the company’s service portal, technicians can see which parts are needed for their work orders before they head out on a call. They can cross reference their needed parts with their vans inventory and then determine where they can stock up on a needed part if they don’t have it on hand, all from their mobile device. The benefits here? High first-time fix rates, happy customers and outstanding tech utility.

Does your organization have SLA “ship direct to customer” standards? Mobile inventory management can handle that too. A mobile-optimized technician can use his device to order parts in the field so he/she can reduce the overall time to service for “direct to customer” SLA’s.

Analytical Parts Planning

Often times, service organizations manage their inventories based on guesses of past usage and assessments of which repairs occur most frequently. However, guesses are just that, guesses. Instead, service companies should be collecting data and using parts analytics to plan their inventory purchasing, stocking and allocation.

Organizations looking to start collecting and using inventory data need to understand that field technicians play a major role in this process. With a mobile field service software application, technicians can sync up their inventory with their company’s back-end database to show which parts they used on certain customer assets during their service call. As inventory data continues to build up over time, managers can begin to derive useful insights from it such as:

Which parts or pieces of equipment are leading to the most work orders. From here, a decision can be made to alert the part’s manufacturer of the constant defects or remove the part from the supply chain altogether.
Which parts are being allocated in a higher quantity than they’re stocked, leading to an inventory deficiency. With this information, the manager can readjust his/her orders based on the data to make sure there are always enough units in stock.
Which parts are considered non-stock parts. After identifying these parts, managers can eliminate them or choose to stock minimal units instead.
Parts and inventory values by using average, last and standard costing methods.

All in all, collecting and analyzing inventory data can lead to a variety of insights that will help organizations optimize their service offerings. With field service software, this data can be easily collected and stored into the back-end system, reformatted and loaded into reports for various stakeholders.

Automate your Inventory Management with ServicePro®

ServicePro is a fully integrated, mobile field service software system designed to dramatically boost service efficiency by automating key processes. ServicePro’s features, which include service portals, inventory tracking, visual scheduling, asset management and more, help companies turn their fleet into a mobile field service powerhouse. This means better first-time fix rates, higher technician utility and improved customer satisfaction.

The post The Paperless Trail (Part 2): Spare Parts & Inventory Management in Mobile Field Service appeared first on MSI Data.

The Paperless Trail (Part 1): Information Access in Mobile Field Service

Alex Morask — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:04:26 +0000

Hello everybody and welcome to part 1 of the Paperless Trail; our new content series focused on optimizing mobile field services and modernizing the technician workforce. In this post, we’re going to cover mobile access to important information by technicians in the field and what kind of data field techs need in order to be successful at service. Let’s get started!

Mobility is hardly a foreign topic to the field service industry; all field service is mobile. What we’re discussing here is the extent to which field service organizations can utilize mobile solutions to their advantage when trying to improve their business. Specifically mobile solutions that empower field technicians with seamless information access and database syncing.

In 2013, firms are striving endlessly to optimize their service operation against key performance indicators. According to a recent Aberdeen study, some of the objectives these organizations have are to raise their productivity (55%), increase their customer satisfaction (51%) and improve the profitability of their service process (28%). Considering these goals, it’s no surprise that 55% of field service organizations are also evaluating software solutions that can help them increase the capabilities of their field workforce.

Maximizing technician access to important information in the field is integral to achieving each of these service objectives. And making vital information available to techs both before and during the service process will ultimately improve service efficiency as a whole. Difficult as this task may seem, advanced data-sharing can be done relatively simply through a field service software system that has strong mobile capabilities and cloud-based features.

Improve Productivity

Using mobile field service software, organizations can essentially turn their technicians into rock-stars by outfitting them with all the information they need to work efficiently. They can also accomplish this without the use of paper-forms. Making technicians as productive as possible is imperative for service businesses because technician utility will play a major role in the overall measurement of service success. Here’s some of the information technicians can have access to when using advanced field service software (before even leaving for a job site):

Customer/Contact Info
Site Information
Equipment/Asset Details
Work Order Type
Invoice History
Customer Comments on Equipment Issue
Assigned Tasks to Complete Service

As you can see, by the time the tech is assigned a work order he/she will know: which customer they’re servicing, what the service call’s priority is, what tasks or abilities the service call requires and the location of the work-site. They’ll also know what piece of equipment they’ll be servicing, the customer’s past invoice records and the customer’s comments as to the equipment’s current problem. All of this knowledge means the technician can bypass process inefficiencies and focus on the inspections and repairs they were meant to do. This lowers the time-for-service for each field technician. Expand that across an entire service fleet and you’ve got yourself significant improvement in the productivity of your service operation.

Increase Customer Satisfaction

Probably where technician information access is the most help is when trying to increase a department’s customer satisfaction rate. Through field service software, organizations can provide technicians with all the information they need to get a job done right the first time and leave the customer singing praises. This advanced information sharing can be done through the use of service portals; cloud-based content hubs that technicians use to access all sorts of organized data through their mobile device.

Let’s say that a field technician finds he/she is unable to diagnose an equipment issue after performing the proper inspections. That tech has a range of helpful options available to him through his service portal. For one, he can log in and view that type of equipment’s profile to find past repair cases that match his/her situation. He can also pull up his/her customer’s records to see what service has been done on that specific piece of equipment and what parts were used.

Another example would be if a field technician has diagnosed an issue, but isn’t familiar with the repair required for a first-time fix. Through the service portal, that tech can access video demonstrations of the repair right there on his/her mobile device. He/she can also download drawings, schematics and instruction manuals from the service portal to get a better sense of the equipment’s architecture or dig up further repair instructions.

This level of on-site information access for technicians allows them to achieve higher service success rates as well an increase their first-time fixes. And since Aberdeen’s study noted that “Not solving the issue” was the number one customer complaint of field service work in 2012 (45% of respondents), service organizations would be wise to aim for an increased fix-rate performance.

Increase Profitability

As competition becomes more fierce and the cost of customer acquisition continues to rise, service profitability has become a key theme in 2013. And although generating revenue through a service operation is no easy task, technician information access can lend a helping hand.

One way info-access can help is by having technicians inspect customer contract information prior to conducting service. If a technician pulls up their customer’s data and realizes they currently don’t have a maintenance contract, the tech can try to sell them one so their next preventative maintenance or service requests are covered. Additionally, if a technician on a call sees that their customer’s maintenance contract is soon to expire, they can alert their organization’s sales team as to the coming opportunity. This level of sales-service collaboration is an easy way for organizations to grow their service revenue.

When discussing profitability, its important to hammer in that bringing on new customers is more costly than keeping old ones. Therefore customer retention is an important goal. And everything that we’ve discussed in this article in regards to productivity and customer satisfaction applies here. Field technicians are clearly the best weapon a company has to keep their customers coming back for more. And excellent field service is a paved road leading straight to profitability.

When a customer becomes comfortable with an organization because of their excellent service, that customer will likely continue the business relationship. As such, the organization can continuously get maintenance contracts on the equipment the customer already owns as well as contracts on equipment the customer will purchase in the future. In addition, that customer is likely to recommend the company to friends, coworkers and family if the service-level is strong. All of this translates into more revenue as time goes on. So When a missed service, late arrival or incompetence in repair can mean losing a customer, it’s vital that techs be provided all the information they need to succeed in the field if the organization wants to turn a profit.

A Quick Wrap-Up

There’s no denying that knowledge is power. And the more technicians know, the better they’ll be able to perform in the field, making your service organization more efficient and making your customers happier people. How has giving your technicians access to important information in the field helped your service process? Leave your answers in the comments!

Mobilize Your Technician Workforce With ServicePro®

ServicePro is fully integrated mobile field service software system that was built to dramatically boost field service efficiency. Features of ServicePro such as service portals, inventory tracking, visual scheduling, asset management and more help companies turn their service fleet into a mobile powerhouse, meaning better first-time fix rates, higher technician utility and improved customer satisfaction.

Photo Credit: fwrdcrm via Compfight cc

The post The Paperless Trail (Part 1): Information Access in Mobile Field Service appeared first on MSI Data.