A director s guide. 4 steps to selecting service management software. An information guide. consulting software solutions

Transcription

1 A director s guide 4 steps to selecting service management software An information guide consulting software solutions

2 In this guide, we take you through the four key steps of software selection. By taking this structured approach, you can be sure that you ve considered all the options before investing in the right service management solution for your business. Step one: the strategic decision This is the time to sit down and really think hard about your business and its future - your five-year business plan is a good place to start. Think long term It is essential to be clear about what your needs are now and what they will be in a few years time. You don t want to make a change now, only to realise a couple of years down the line that you disregarded a really important feature or element of your software needs. Think about your competitors. Take a step back and view your service management system from a competitive perspective. What systems do your competitors use and what do they do better than you? Have they customised their choice of software to maximise the benefits for your industry? Identify shortfalls Think about your current system s shortfalls. What areas are letting you down and what could be improved on? What effect would changing these have on your business? All of these considerations should lead you to decide whether you need a new system. If you do decide on a new system, now is a good time to start putting together a system specification, involving your users, customers and management team. Step two: the selection process This can be such a daunting task that some people shy away at this point and decide to stick with what they already have. However, once you have recognised the need for a change, it s important to follow this up. With careful planning and some helpful advice, selecting the right software for you and your business can be straightforward. There are two key relationships to consider here: the relationship with the product itself, and the partnership with the software provider. Both can be fundamental to the success of your project. Research the market Now that you have identified any problems that need addressing, you can begin to look at what is available, keeping in mind the product and partner relationships at all times. Too much emphasis on the product and you will end up stranded when system problems arise. Too much emphasis on the partner will leave you with a system that may lack functionality. Be sure to keep this balance in mind when reviewing your options. Thorough research is essential. Make sure you become knowledgeable about what is on offer, what the downfalls of the products are and how they compare to others in the market place only then can you confidently make an informed decision about the right package for you. Get opinions Speak to your key customers and suppliers. Often the systems they have in place can be equally beneficial and complementary to your own business. You can learn from their experiences. The internet is obviously a rich source of information, with many online software demonstrations, free demonstration CDs, downloadable brochures and case studies available. Trade shows, both physical such as the Service Management Expo and online, also provide an ideal showcase to look at a range of software providers. Case studies can offer useful insights into the functionality and reliability of the products available. Make sure that you plan for future growth when conducting your research. Ask yourself the following questions: Does the solution you are considering provide an easy upgrade path, or would an upgrade be like a brand new installation? Does the software have the ability to grow with your business? What help and support is in place if your users experience problems? Many off-the-shelf solutions do not always meet specific requirements. Find out if the software provider can tailor the system to meet your specific needs if required. Shortlisting Once you have researched the options, match them against your key requirements and specification. You should then be in a position to shortlist three or four providers whose product you feel will meet your needs. Contact them and request a demonstration of the product, to you and your system users. How the vendor reacts to this request is potentially very revealing about their company philosophy. An experienced sales manager will first conduct a thorough needs analysis of your company before even discussing software solutions. If they do not take the time to understand your needs, how can they hope to address them? Good vendors will aim to understand the way your entire business works so that they can offer a solution structured around your core business processes and workflows. By discovering your requirements (including those for documents and reports), the vendor will be able to properly address your strategic needs. Steer clear of any vendor that does not undertake a thorough needs analysis before offering a solution. 2 Access E&OE.

3 Background Before the initial meeting, try and find out some background information on the track record of both the product and the vendor including their innovation ability, awards, accreditations, case studies and proof of their success. Going into the meeting with some background knowledge (see step 3) will give you a good base from which to assess their presentation. Ensure to involve other system users at this stage, such your operations manager or field service engineers. This not only ensures you understand all the issues they currently face and how to solve them, it also helps manage their perception of system change. It is strongly advisable that you have at least two demonstrations from your shortlisted vendors. This will enable you to look in detail at the areas of the system you will be using on a daily basis. Further demonstrations are advisable once you have taken the shortlist down to two vendors. If you are looking at financing your purchase, most vendors will have a number of organisations they work with regularly and would recommend. Cashflow and other resourcing issues should not limit your ability to choose the best system at the time you need it. Step three: selecting functionality This section covers the key areas of functionality for the service sector so that you can gain a good understanding of what s available. Once you ve weighed up the specific tools that you might need, you can apply this knowledge to the overall selection process. Call centre/service desk tools In today s fast moving environment, a centralised system for customer details and service contracts is a must, so insist that each customer record provides a full call history with drill-down. Integration with your core financials will also enable your operators to stay one step ahead, for example, on-screen indicators could indicate customer accounts on stop. Screen layout Ensure that the screen layout itself is logical and easy to use. You should be able to set system options to prevent more than one call being allocated to the same engineer at any one time, and to easily drill-down to see current outstanding jobs by engineer. Ensure that the system gives each job a unique call number for traceability, and to help you deal with incoming calls as quickly as possible. Call monitoring A good system will enable your call control team to keep track of progress, providing tools for example to filter work by specific engineer, and to identify work for specific engineers and response times. On-screen colour indicators will also provide instant visibility of call statuses, which should be monitored against contracted response times. This will enable managers to analyse and improve performance. Job scheduling Organising an engineer s schedule is a critical process in meeting response times. A good system will make it easy to plan and monitor all activity, with allocation tools to ensure you maximise your resources. Graphical planners with colour-coding and labelling for example make it easy for you to differentiate between different types of job (for example, breakdowns and service jobs) as well as anything else you need to keep track of, such as meetings, events, holidays and absence. Fast allocation For instant visibility of scheduled activity, look for a system that enables you to view multiple engineer diaries at any one time, and one that enables you to retrieve more detail from within the same application (e.g. double-clicking the planner to reveal detail about the site, maintenance and contract.) The ability to re-schedule jobs by simple drag-and-drop methods will speed up the allocation process, and you should also be able to manage several projects by allocating jobs to multiple engineers over numerous days. Resource utilisation Good systems will also help you allocate resources appropriately. For example, you choose the search criteria and the system will match the best engineer(s) for the job based on filters of your choice such as customer location, engineer skill set, or a combination of both. To keep your engineers up to speed, ensure the system enables job sheets to be sent out directly from the system in flexible formats such as fax, or SMS, along with any call history so they go to your customer s site fully informed. Data capture Your chosen system should be able to capture detailed information at every stage of the job. This could range from the essentials (such as parts used, parts required, fix codes and loan items), alongside optional information such as engineer pad reference and call codes to provide analysis on the most frequent faults and fixes. To keep customers and engineers up to date, ensure you can schedule next visit reminders within the system. Workshop This function will help you see what work s due in, how long it s taking and how much it ll cost. Ensure that this area of your system provides full integration with the call centre module, since this will ensures operators and customers are kept in the loop and provide you with instant WIP analysis. Booking in The system should provide a straightforward booking in system whereby all job information entered by the call centre/field engineer is passed directly to the workshop without re-keying. Good systems will also give you the option of recording timesheets and required parts against each job to ensure all chargeable/non chargeable elements (e.g. parts, stock, labour) are accurately accounted for. Quotes & authorisation Raising quotations for work/parts should be easy, and incorporate a level Access E&OE. 3

4 of authorisation if required, e.g. a purchase order number needs to be entered before the work is carried out. Full integration with the billing area of your system will ensure customers are invoiced quickly and accurately. Non-contract equipment The system should also make it simple to accommodate non-contract equipment, providing for example a trade counter facility to record all relevant customer details and equipment before passing through to the workshop. This will also enable you to manage any internal refurbishment the same way - these items can then be incorporated into your stock system. Parts management A powerful stock control system is a must. This will enable you to optimise your stock holding, enhancing your efficiency while ensuring you always have the right parts close at hand. Sub-analysis When choosing this functionality, ensure you can categorise your parts database at multiple levels, using terminology that s easily understood by your staff. For reporting, this will enable you to filter, sort and subtotal data any way you want it. A good system will also track and consolidate full quantity and value information at each level/location, for each stock record. Multi locations If you have multiple warehouses, vans and workshops, look for a system that enables you to analyse stock over different locations. For businesses with many engineers out on the road, it s useful to have a van transfer facility - this provides a fast and traceable way for employees to meet up and swap stock without having to return to stores. And to help with stock replenishments, ensure you can set minimum and maximum levels per stock item, with alerts to ensure action is taken when these levels are reached. Planned preventative maintenance If creating PPM (Planned Preventative Maintenance) schedules are important to your business, ensure you have the option to choose from fixed-term contracts or to generate schedules on a job-by-job basis, incorporating extras such as pre-paid breakdown call-outs. Creating schedules Flexible systems enable you to specify a fixed quantity of visits over the period of contract (e.g. 52 calls over 2 years will generate PPMs every two weeks), generate by X months from the last call/deadline, or create PPMs on a jobby-job basis, using week numbers to accommodate the work that needs to be carried out. A good system will reflect individual customer needs, e.g. enabling you to create PPMs in advance and to specific schedules. Integration with applications such as Microsoft Office will keep customers informed, providing notification by or preprepared Word document when the pending visit is due. Quota calls If you need to handle quota calls, ensure the system enables contracts to be sold with a number of pre-paid calls and tracked within the system. To help your call centre provide an informed service, it should be clear how many quota calls remain against the contract or line/s within it. Contract management Like PPMs, the keyword is flexibility. Look for a system that enables you to suit as many variations of service contract as you need, for example, catering for customers with numerous machines, across multiple sites, with different contract periods. Creating contracts On creation, each contract should be allocated a contract code, status and type of contract and all details held against it, with different addresses for current, invoice and original delivery locations. An alternative end-user account is also useful - this will enable you to support a reseller model and allow billing to a secondary account, where required. Detailed data capture Whatever system you choose, ensure it can support detailed recording/searching of contract-related data, capturing everything from serial numbers, asset tags, SLA information and warranty periods along with additional information via your own pre-defined fields. This will enable you to interrogate your system in whatever detail you require. Profit reporting A powerful system will also provide storage of detailed component information such as cost price and quantities, prompting you when parts are being used to add to, or replace from, the components list. Finally, the system should record cost prices, including labour, parts and spares, against all chargeable elements. This ensures you ve all the profit-related information you need to make informed decisions regarding contract pricing and uplift upon renewal. Billing & contract renewals This functionality is designed to capture all chargeable work and contract renewals. Chargeable work may include engineer time and parts used on site, or work generated within the workshop functions. In tracking engineer time, the exact labour charges can be calculated and applied where the contract specifies. Rate setting A good system enables you to set up flexible rates schedules for all renewals and chargeable activity, however complex. You should be able to easily see the renewals due in any given period and deploy renewal notices and invoices in your chosen format - this ensures no contract is overlooked or forgotten. Charging structures Your chosen system should make it easy to account for every detail of the work 4 Access E&OE.

5 carried out - for example, enabling you to set rates even at the smallest item of service to provide different charging structures to the same contract for different machines. For ease of use, good systems will enable the invoice wording to be set against different types of SLA, automatically populating the invoice and bypassing the need for accounts department intervention. Contract renewals Good software will enable you to put procedures in place to increase prompt payment and subsequent cash flow. For example, you should be able to easily ascertain which renewals are due, searching by a given date, and then produce renewal notices in the period leading up to invoicing. For flexibility, you should have complete control over rates and charges, which can be reviewed and easily adjusted prior to issuing the invoice. Revenue recognition You should be able to set the rules so that advance billing is recognised monthly, quarterly or however you require. Full integration with the billing area of your system will ensure invoices are posted directly to the sales ledger for credit control and analysis, whereas the income derived from it is posted into the relevant nominal period. Meter billing This is essential functionality for industries that need close monitoring of meter charges, e.g. photocopier servicing companies. Ensure the system you choose has no restrictions on the number of meters that you need to cater for, both for rental and purchase models. Charging methods Choosing tools that support a wide range of charging methods will enable you to service your customers more effectively. Examples include: Stepped or complete usage billing in arrears Stepped cumulative usage billing in arrears Block billing in advance (with or without specific threshold) Advance billing Minimum monthly billing Integration benefits Full integration to your contracts, billing and call centre functions will allow information to pass freely around the system, providing timely, accurate information for real-time reporting. For example, linking to contract information makes it easy to set up each machine configuration and for charge calculations to be entered, while data transferred to the billing module enables invoice information to be processed without re-keying. Similarly, integration will enable service reads captured within the call centre module to undergo detailed analysis of machine usage. Management reporting Any good service management system should come with a comprehensive suite of reports which can be easily tailored to meet your requirements. For example, you could configure certain information to send to engineers (internal or external) or to your chosen customer(s). Workflow To make your overall operation as efficient as possible, you should be able to establish a workflow whereby you tailor the routes that different call/job scenarios take as they pass through the system for processing. Workflow can also be used to ensure your users record certain information, e.g. when logging/processing a call, which may vary depending on call type to offer further flexibility. Good systems will enable you to establish as many workflow scenarios as you need, with each one automating the generation of s, text messages and reports. Remote access/mobile working Distributing the latest information to field service engineers quickly and efficiently is a must for most service organisations. Good providers will integrate with hand-held devices (such as PDAs) or provide remote access to the system via a laptop. This enables engineers to retrieve the very latest job information 24/7, interacting with the core system when moving between sites. Managing jobs Having logged on, staff can view all allocated calls and associated customer details before heading to the customer site armed with all the relevant information. On completion, it should be easy to upload job details back to head office, utilising a PDA or laptop to transfer information such as close times, parts used/required, fault analysis and customer signatures to the core system without re-keying. Customer portals More and more customers want the facility to log their own calls electronically as opposed to contacting the call centre and to be able to view the progress of these online. If this is important to you, ensure the provider can integrate with your chosen customer portal (e.g. your website). This will provide a secure place where customers can see the status of outstanding calls and optionally, to log calls directly. This will improve the customer experience while shifting pressure from your call centre. Step four: planning & implementation Once you have come to a final decision on a product and a partner, you need to work together to draft a project implementation plan. It is vital that you take into consideration the time and availability of your staff that will be involved in the implementation. It is also critical to appoint a key contact in your organisation who will act as the project manager from your Access E&OE. 5

6 side, to liaise with the project manager from the solution provider. Having an owner in each organisation will ensure that issues get resolved quickly and key design decisions made which help the project keep moving in the right direction. An implementation project, no matter how small, should always be broken down into stages to allow work to be structured efficiently, and clear agreement to be reached at each critical stage to move forward or not. Design Most service organisations will use their service management software in different ways. Therefore there may be an element of design work to do. This could be as simple as configuring in-built options to work in a specific way, all the way up to a completely bespoke module or software application to support a particular area of your business. Either way, a statement of how this element should work needs to be documented and agreed between you and the software provider. Clear documentation (however short and simple), coupled with a process of sign-off or agreement helps enormously in reducing risk in the project and making sure the level of understanding is where it needs to be on both sides. Build This is the stage where any elements of the service solution which need to be created by the supplier are developed or written. This may simply involve writing specific reports or creating branded document layouts, but may also include some bespoke software development. Whatever the deliverable is, always ensure that regular checkpoints are set up, particularly if the development work is significant. These checkpoints should be set up to enable you to assess the progress made on the work. As in the previous phase, documentation again is essential in reducing problems late on and making sure that your supplier understands your requirements clearly. Test Whether the solution is simple or complex, there is always a stage where its operation should be tested against your business objectives. This is something which you should take responsibility for, although the supplier should be willing to provide any help and support that is needed. At the end of the day, no-one knows your business better than you do and this is the best opportunity for you to avoid any potentially costly issues while the system is not yet supporting your day-to-day business. Training Any high-quality solution provider should be able to offer you a comprehensive and tailor-made training programme to suit your individual organisation and the skill level of your staff. The approach to training is a good indication of the quality of the supplier as it should be treated as a critical element of the project plan. Good training also requires a different skill-set to other types of consultancy, so having a different person who specialises in this element of the project is often a good thing. The quality and timing of the training programme will ultimately dictate how well your business takes advantage of the significant investment you have made in the new system, so it should never be treated as a last-minute consideration. Implementation & postimplementation The Go-Live date and cutover process should undergo a more thorough planning process than the rest of the project. Based on your business type and the nature of the data you are transferring from your current systems (if any), the cutover plan should ensure that disruption is minimised and the new system is being used straight away. Your supplier should offer extended consultancy during this period and demonstrate a good hand-over process from the project team to the support and customer service team within their organisation. Once the implementation is complete and you have settled in to the new system, a project review will ensure full acceptance of the software into your business. This post-implementation review will check that the product is continuing to meet your needs and will address any areas that still need some ironing out. Supplementary training may be necessary at this time to ensure that you get the most out of your system. And finally To ensure the implementation process is as smooth and successful as possible, make sure you consider the following top tips: Provide good staff training Keep people informed with review meetings Don t rush the implementation Time the implementation to coincide with your company s quiet time of the year Alter job titles to reflect increased responsibilities Review and evaluate the system and implementation on an ongoing basis 6 Access E&OE.

7 Who we are Access will give you the advice, tools and clarity you need to make effective decisions, quickly and with certainty. As both a business-focused consultancy and a specialist software developer, we combine our innovative software with practical experience to deliver a solution that s exactly right for you and your business. You can rely on us to provide you with a solution that s simple, proven and relevant to your company. We have over fifteen years experience of developing software here in the UK and our regional consultants have tailored and implemented this software all over the UK and Ireland. The expertise we ve gained gives us an unbeatable ability to accurately assess your needs and deliver maximum impact with ease and confidence. We believe your solution must be ready for the future, as well as right for today. Because your business will constantly evolve, we provide a software solution that grows with you. Our modular software covers a complete range of business, financial and administration processes and can be flexed to give you the precise view of your business that you need at any time. Our supportive consultants combine their first-class software expertise with in-depth industry knowledge to constantly improve and simplify your business processes so that your solution delivers maximum value and a continual return on investment. With Access, you can be sure you ve got the clarity you need to reach your business goals. Further information For further information on Access consultancy, software and solutions, please telephone us on or info@theaccessgroup.com More information about our service management solutions can be found on the downloads section of our website: Access E&OE. 7