VARs are hitting home runs in the field service space even among SMBs

Chalk it up in part to the fact that the customer relationship management (CRM) and efficiency gains made by early adopters of mobile field service technology have grown difficult to ignore. For example, tier-one respondents to a study conducted last year by Boston-based research firm Aberdeen Group reported average increases of 27 percent in worker productivity following the deployment of such applications. Subjects also credited mobile field service solutions with having sparked service revenue, customer retention and overall profit enhancements averaging 13 percent, 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Increases in overall productivity, the productivity of customers' assets (such as repaired machinery) and the number of daily work orders completed by field technicians, as well as reductions in travel time per work order, ranked among specific field service application benefits cited by firms studied.

“Companies of every size are acknowledging that they cannot just sweep improvements of this magnitude under the rug,” asserts Chris Hale, vice president, sales and marketing for Agentek, a mobile solutions provider and Symbol/Intermec channel partner headquartered in Atlanta. Hale says Agentek, whose client roster ranges from SMBs to Fortune 500 firms, has seen very strong demand for field service solutions from “home service” providers (landscaping/ lawn care companies and HVAC service organizations, for instance), as well as from companies that sell and service medical, IT and electronic equipment. Industrial equipment manufacturers, cable and telecommunications companies and utilities are demonstrating considerable interest in field service technology as well, Hale observes.

The convergence of several key trends in wireless technology comprises another catalyst here, notes Amy Defayette, product manager, Printek, Inc. Notably, “smartphones” — multi-functional, data-enabled cell phones and voice-enabled handheld computers — have emerged as an alternative to single-function devices, which are more expensive to purchase, integrate and maintain. The introduction of unlimited data plans by most carriers has reduced the cost of transmitting data across wide area cellular network from as much as 10 cents per kilobyte to less than $50 per user, per month.

Additionally, mobile field application service providers have begun to offer software/service bundles and monthly pricing plans that render software, integration, IT infrastructure and ongoing support more affordable for a wider range of field service organizations. For example, Minneapolis-based Gearworks offers its etrace® location-based service (LBS) automation software as a hosted wireless solution. A monthly fee covers the software license and integration with chosen mobile devices and back office tools, as well as application and data hosting on the provider's servers and ongoing support and upgrades.

Also fueling the fire is a growing realization among end users that manufacturing and installing high-quality products constitutes only half the battle in retaining a competitive edge. Servicing these offerings is equally important, and mobile business solutions are the linchpin for doing so, points out Gautam Parasnis, partner, IBM Global Business Services. Parasnis and other experts believe the most significant opportunities for VARs targeting the field service vertical center on applications that allow for real-time data entry and access customer information and/or decision support, as well as dispatch optimization. Here, VSR takes a look at how three different entities are improving CRM and efficiency using solutions that incorporate these features.

Selling More, Servcing Better
Maintenance Resource, Inc., Grandville, Mich., partnered with FieldService Solutions, Inc. (formerly Aereon), West Chester, PA, to implement a field service solution comprised of Intermec 760 Color Mobile Computers for Pocket PC and FieldService Solutions' FieldService Pro software. The company offers maintenance and repair services, employing a fleet of electricians, heating and cooling experts, restaurant equipment technicians, plumbers, painters, tile setters, carpenters, driveway resurfacers and assorted other personnel to serve customers on 15 routes throughout the Upper Midwest.

Before the technology was deployed, technicians would fill out work order forms in the field and submit them the next time they visited headquarters. This spurred invoicing delays, with bills mailed to customers an average of two weeks after jobs were complete. It also caused lost billing opportunities; “sometimes, I'd get materials receipts for a job after I'd already invoiced the customer,” says John Weeber, president.

With the new system in place, a Maintenance Resource dispatcher assigns jobs to technicians as calls come in by sending work details electronically through the Sprint® CDMA (code division multiple access) wireless network to the Intermec units. Technicians then use a combination of their handheld computers and the software to create, print and transmit work orders to headquarters from customers' premises, as well as to generate bills on the spot. They also employ the solution to access customer histories and recommendations recorded during prior visits and identify sales opportunities.

Being able to see a work history instead of working ‘blind' means technicians can finish work faster, as well as do a better job of it,” Weeber observes, adding that the capability of identifying and documenting future maintenance needs in real time goes equally far toward improving technician efficiencies and the caliber of customer service alike.

Jon Rasmussen, Intermec's industry marketing director for consumer goods, deems field service solutions such as that employed by Maintenance Resource characteristic of the next wave of applications for field service. He believes the wireless field service applications category will soon expand to encompass solutions that facilitate the downloading of new schematics and other product information that will further assist technicians in performing equipment repairs and installation.

More Jobs Per Day
For Cincinnati-based drain-cleaning and plumbing service Roto Rooter, the CRM-enhancing benefits afforded by a mobile business solution encompass reducing the amount of time technicians spend between jobs (and, hence, customers' wait for service). Not long ago, the company implemented a solution built around GPS-enabled smartphones and etrace. Through etrace, Roto Rooter dispatchers transmit assignments to field technicians' smartphones. Dispatchers also use the software to track the location of field technicians on digital fleet maps and assign jobs to the nearest available technician with the appropriate skills to handle the call in question.

Upon receiving each new job assignment, technicians can push a key on their smartphones to tap into the system for driving directions and customer details, such as name, address and the nature and exact location of the problem. At the end of the job, a job closure ticket is generated by the system and transmitted back to headquarters, as is an alert that the dispatcher is ready for a new assignment.

According to Roto Rooter CIO Stephen Poppe, the real-time nature of the solution has lead to optimized dispatching by streamlining the wait technicians encounter between the completion of one job and the receipt of another assignment. “There's no waiting on hold for a dispatcher for 15 to 20 minutes anymore,” he explains. Just as significantly, using the system to find the nearest technician with the best skillset, rather than haphazardly designating assignments as in the past, means customers' problems are resolved in the most expeditious fashion.

To further reduce the wait between jobs, Roto Rooter recently augmented the application to include Printek mobile printers with built in mag stripe readers field technicians can utilize to process credit card payments on site and leave accurate, professional-looking receipts. A 20 percent increase in productivity was recorded in the first week of mobile printer deployment.

Such results aren't unusual, according to Bruce Krohn, director, field mobile solutions, Symbol Technologies. “With hardware prices coming down, the payback from mobile devices now exceeds the cost, enough for VARs to make a strong  business case for deployment,” Krohn purports.

A Base of Knowledge
Like Roto Rooter, Aperio, a Sacramento, Calif.-based IT company that specializes in installing, securing and supporting LANs, WANs, email systems and personal computers, chose a GPS-enabled field service solution in order to more effectively route technicians in line with their skills as well as with other factors, such as traffic conditions and unexpected client emergencies. In mid-2006, Aperio teamed up with solution provider Corrigo, Wilsonville, OR, deploying the latter's system and Sprint/Nextel BlackBerry wireless devices to create and track work tickets, track client deployments and work history, record clients' assets and create invoices.

However, Aperio has taken its system one step further: technicians use the BlackBerry devices to populate a knowledge base with data about typical client issues and problems and refer to it when similar situations arise again. Administrators augment the contents of the knowledge base, which resides in the Corrigo database.

  “The entire team benefits from the collective knowledge and experience,” states Cary Warner, Aperio's co-owner. For example, instead of leaving jobs unfinished because of an unusual glitch, technicians working in the field can access the database to see how other colleagues might have handled the same situation and/or obtain insight into alternative approaches to their dilemmas. And, all of this is done in real-time.

VARs can expect to see applications like this one proliferate down the road. “It's a win-win situation because the customers get greater uptime, which keeps their revenue rolling,” Rasmussen insists. “That's much of the appeal of field service solutions, no matter what the industry.”