First, what are service companies trying to achieve with mobility? Here is a summary:
- Increasing productivity – more average service calls per service technician in a day.
- Improving management visibility into work done in the field
- Efficiencies in communicating information between the office and the remote service technician or job site.
- Efficiencies in planning and scheduling work based upon qualifications, location, parts and experience.
- Reducing fuel costs.
- Reducing travel times.
- Reducing overtime
- Using least cost employees and contractors
- Increasing productivity – more average service calls per service technician in a day.
- Increasing onsite product and service sales.
- Increasing collections with mobile invoicing, mobile printing of invoices and onsite collections.
- Improving inventory control and management - visibility to parts needed, the location of inventory and parts used on each job or service ticket.
- Reduced risks by reminding service technicians of safety hazards and safety procedures on the job.
- Improved customer interactions
The
following list drills down into more specific areas:
- Eliminate time spent in the office re-typing data collected in the field
- Eliminate time spent on the phone dispatching service tickets or work orders - both the time of the dispatcher and the time of the service technician: Dispatch electronic service tickets direct from your work order management system in the office with the mobile device of your service technician.
- Save time finding each work location: Send driving directions, or links, in the electronic work order that work with the GPS and mapping software in the mobile device.
- Avoid the high fuel costs incurred delivering paperwork to the office and picking it up: Synchronize the data direct from the field to the central database application.
- Avoid the time cost transporting paperwork from the field to the office: Synchronize the data collected from the field with the push of a button.
- Save time and provide better customer service by providing real-time access to enterprise parts, orders, and inventory data while in the field: Enable mobile access to customer history, product documentation, warranty information, inventory information, time sheets, work schedules and much more.
- Save time with field data collection by using barcode scanners and barcode labels, or RFID readers and RFID tags on assets: A quick scan with a handheld computer can automatically display all stored information related to the asset for quick review, edits and additions.
- Save time and reduce admin costs by creating and scheduling new service tickets direct from the field:
- Provide immediate invoicing for faster collections and better cash management: Allow field tech to print the invoice on a mobile printer at the job site.
- Save time and postage costs: Print the invoice and leave it with the customer at the job site, rather than wait and bill later from the office.
- Document proof of work completed to reduce invoice disputes: Leave a GPS audit trail of where work was performed and include a time and date stamp. Digital photo evidence of before and after work is also useful.
- Reduce the introduction of errors: Paper based systems are inherently slow and error prone due to human interaction, copying and re-typing. The more human hands that touch a paper form and add or edit data, the more chances that errors can be introduced to the data which will cause invoice disputes, inaccurate records and confusion.
- Reduce administrative costs by ensuring complete data is sent from the field, as incomplete or inaccurate field data can take hours of work to track down and correct: Send data from the field and ensure it is complete with data integrity features on the mobile devices.
- Reduce administrative costs by avoiding errors and misinterpretations due to poor or misread handwriting: Create electronic forms with pre-made options, check boxes and lists, and by using onscreen digital keyboards.
- Reduce administrative costs by ensuring the accuracy of data: Validate answers in the mobile software application on the handheld PDA.
- Reduce time on the phone and dangerous note taking while driving: Push documents directly from the office to the handheld.
- Save time and fuel by providing electronic dispatch and least cost routing: Use vehicle and/or handheld GPS tracking to view your workforce locations. Smartphones with GPS functionality can display the location of the field worker to help managers better organize service responses.
- Save time by developing estimation and job analysis mobile apps that can help field users make quicker and more accurate decisions and job estimates.
- Save time in the field by automating business processes in the mobile apps: Mobile apps can be configured to perform all kinds of automated business functions, queries, computations and analytics.
- Enforce quality work habits: Automate “best practices” into your mobile apps and provide visibility to managers.
- Automate quality and best practices - Activate the appropriate business process based upon the data entered: A specific answer can trigger the required business process in mobile apps.
- Reduce inventory loss - Avoid undocumented inventory usage and unbilled time: Enforce real time data entry before clock out or work order completion.
- Improve job estimates: Require clock in and clock out on projects to document and analyze the accuracy of work estimates.
- Improve technician training: Train new service technicians and inspectors with audio memos or video clips in the handheld computer application.
- Reduce disputes by documenting deliveries and work with digital signatures, date and time stamps and barcode scanners on the handheld computer.
- Save travel time and fuel cost finding parts: Query available inventory in nearby company vehicles.
- Increase profit per customer: Use information in mobile apps connected to CRMs to up-sell more products and services while onsite with the customer.
- Provider quicker and more accurate estimates: Query latest shipping status, schedules or inventory levels via smartphones or tablets while onsite with customer.
- Increase warranty revenues: Include updated customer information on mobile devices so the service technician can sell warranty and maintenance plans, new products and upgrades.
- Dispatchers with real-time visibility into job progress and status can more efficiently dispatch least-cost service technicians (contractors vs. employees).
In order to achieve true situational awareness with a real-time 360 degree view of your operations, you will need a number of systems to be tied into your mobility platform. Here are just a few ideas:
- CRM
- Work Order Dispatch system
- Scheduling system
- Workforce optimization (workforce and resource planning needs)
- GPS Tracking
- Enterprise Asset Management
- HCM (Human Capital Management) System
- Inventory systems
- Real-time Business Analytics
- Etc.
Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
