Prominent Communications IT Provider Increases Field Service Productivity and Customer Satisfaction through Field Service Automation
Business Situation
Field Service technicians quickly and accurately track parts inventory, validate customer warranty and maintenance records with Flic Cordless Scanner, Palm Treo 650, SerialMagic Pro, and an internally developed application. Business Situation Job StatusThe company utilizes 1,500 field service technicians to install, maintain and repair private communications infrastructure across the United States. A large and distributed work force creates problems in tracking service parts, incomplete warranties, and missing maintenance information. The company was looking to reduce operating costs while improving customer satisfaction.
Business Solution
The company automated their field service operations by arming field service technicians with a mobile inventory and warranty tracking solution. The solution consisted of a Palm Treo 650, a Flic Cordless Scanner with Bluetooth, and an internally-developed field service application using Serial Magic Pro as the bar code scanner interface. Field service technicians now use a Flic Cordless Scanner to scan bar codes on hardware being serviced such as phones, switches, hubs, circuit packs, and more. The bar code information is wirelessly transmitted to the Palm handset via Bluetooth. Serial Magic Pro software running in the background automatically pushes the bar code data into the field service application running on the Treo 650. Technicians then send the information to corporate over the Cingular and Sprint networks to access the customer warranty and maintenance information. Information related to the customers warranty and maintenance contract is then automatically retrieved by the field service technician, bringing them quickly up to speed. Using the Simple and Affordable Flic Cordless Scanner, Palm Treo 650, and SerialMagic Pro for Palm, this company was able to quickly bar code enable their internally developed application and deploy a complete solution that decreased operating costs and increased customer satisfaction.
Benefits
- Increased Productivity – as a result of the more efficient time management, technicians were able to serve 25% more customers per day.
- Increased Revenue – by servicing equipment only under warranty or under service contract, a 33% increase in revenue was realized.
- Increased Customer Satisfaction – validating warranty and maintenance contracts while at the customer site immediately informed customers on warranty status and decreased customer escalations.