How Can Scheduling Software Impact on Service?

Transcription

1 How Can Scheduling Software Impact on Service? A white paper written by Steve Downton and commissioned by Solarvista 31/10/13 V 1

2 Contents Executive Summary 4 To Schedule or Not to Schedule? 6 Manual, Automated or Optimising? 8 Manual 8 Automated 8 Optimising 9 What are the Benefits? 11 In Conclusion 14 Appendices 16 More information 16 Page 2 of 16

3 Executive Summary Page 3 of 16

4 Executive Summary Scheduling and planning tools offer great scope for ensuring businesses deliver the best service to their customers at the lowest possible cost. The more advanced the solution the more streamlined the business processes, which consequently drives efficiency levels up and costs down. Software solutions to provide scheduling and planning have advanced significantly in recent years and there are now a number of products on the market with varying degrees of functionality, ranging from the basic to the fully dynamic, optimising solution. Gone are the days of manual diary management, scheduling solutions now offer greater capabilities to better manage staff, workload and jobs. It can take into account travel distances and times, skill levels and locations as well as other determining factors in order to ensure that the right engineer goes to the right job every time. Best-in-class organisations exhibit: 82% average first-time fix performance (compared to 65% for all others) 15% average decrease in service cost over the previous 12 months 76% average level of workforce utilization (57% for all others) 16% increase in workforce productivity over the previous year Aberdeen Group (2011) Page 4 of 16

5 To Schedule or Not to Schedule? Page 5 of 16

6 To Schedule or Not to Schedule? For a number of companies, the cost and potential business disruption of implementing a Scheduling Solution is off-putting. Many managers would readily admit that they make do with an existing system already in place, even if it doesn t completely fulfil the needs of their business. But as these businesses grow and the service operations become more complex, manual spreadsheets or paper diaries struggle to cope. At this point scheduling or planning software becomes more than a method to increase efficiency and productivity and becomes essential to competing effectively. We've always been proud of our high levels of customer service and wanted a system that would make us even better. Operations Director, Onwatch Planning and Scheduling ensures that your engineers can more effectively manage their increasing workload and actually attend more jobs per day. In addition, by better utilising the skill sets of engineers and synchronising this with the availability of equipment or parts, companies can reduce, if not eradicate, jobs that miss SLAs whilst at the same time increase their first-time fix rate. A number of Service Management Software providers can provide a total solution that incorporates a Planning or Scheduling capability as part of a suite of business management applications. This integrated holistic solution will support the various areas of your business from a number of perspectives, providing a whole host of benefits to organisations. Page 6 of 16

7 Manual, Automated or Optimising? Page 7 of 16

8 Manual, Automated or Optimising? It is important to define what is meant by each of these terms to ensure that you are investing in a solution that is right for your service delivery; you need to be fully aware of what your chosen scheduling system is, and is not, capable of. Manual Manual planning is the most basic option when it comes to these types of solutions. It requires a worker in the back-office (a Planner ) to plan jobs by having a complete view of the engineers diaries. This would be the lowest price option and relies on the skills of the Planner to determine who is best for the job according to criteria such as location and skills. The software can hold information to help narrow down the possibilities open to them, such as the ability to show all engineers based in South East England, but ultimately the final decision is down to the office staff. Automated Automated Scheduling takes a step further and provides much more functionality that for many companies would be well worth the extra investment. It is much more intuitive in its delivery and can offer a lot of complex and advanced functionality. It can provide total visibility, streamline processes and allow back-office staff to work proactively rather than reactively, meaning the ratio of back-office staff to mobile engineers can be dramatically reduced. This type of scheduling system can book appointments and automatically select the most cost-effective option for your business. Other additional functionality can also be implemented, such as the ability to book appointments that are dependent on each other. Such as when one job needs to be completed before another can start or when a part has to be received before the engineer can attend for example. This guarantees that if the first is delayed or a part doesn t arrive, the dependent job will also be rescheduled; ensuring that no time is wasted attending jobs that can t be completed. Therefore, with an automated scheduling solution businesses can ensure they are always performing at their most efficient and can offer the customer the highest quality of service. These scheduling solutions can offer a very visual and instantly understandable portrayal of the workload, including appointments booked and time available. Carrying an excess capacity for contingencies is a luxury that cannot be afforded in the competitive, and thin-margin, marketplace of today. Reserving capacity only when necessary gives businesses the ability to properly forecast potential demand and capacity. This ensures that an engineer s time is used efficiently and allows for a better service performance, such as more jobs per day per engineer. Page 8 of 16

9 Optimising Optimised Scheduling Software is la crème de la crème of scheduling solutions. It offers a fully automated system that continues, even after the original decision is made and the appointment was booked, to reassess the best option. As more work comes in to the business for scheduling it evaluates the appointments already in the diary and can reshuffle them all should an alternative day, time or engineer become the most efficient and therefore the cheapest option. Page 9 of 16

10 What are the Benefits? Page 10 of 16

11 What are the Benefits? There are many benefits to introducing some sort of Planning or Scheduling option to your business, for back-office workers, mobile engineers, managers, customers and ultimately shareholders too. The most profound benefits can come from the fully optimised solutions, but these are also understandably the most costly to implement and run and it is questionable whether they provide businesses with sufficient return on investment (ROI) to make them worthwhile. Some of the most significant benefits include: Proactive working Rather than having to be reactive to particular situations, Schedulers and other backoffice staff can use the scheduling solution to predict any complications that may arise. They are able to monitor jobs that may fall in to jeopardy and work to counteract the problems, whilst being confident in the fact that all other jobs are going ahead as planned without any input from them. Automating processes Processes can be fully automated, allowing engineers to get on with their job in hand. For example if an engineer is running late, the software can automatically generate a notification to the customer to inform them of the new estimated time of arrival. This means that the engineer doesn t need to worry about having to contact the office or the customer and the office staff don t need to be informed. The notification could be via or text message and aims to provide a better, standardised level of customer service; also ensuring that the engineer is not greeted with hostility on arrival for being late. Efficiency increased With the cost of each appointment determined by a number of correlating factors, a scheduling system can guarantee that the most efficient option is selected wherever possible. An engineer s jobs can be mapped in order to provide the most costeffective route and criteria such as engineer location, skills or experience can also be taken into account to improve first-time fix rates. Implementing such an efficient system can also support significant growth without the need to recruit. Single integrated system By choosing a single system that combines business management with scheduling, businesses can have all relevant information in one central place. From a customer s perspective this provides an end-to-end solution, rather than having to be transferred between departments or staff members. For staff this means that all departments can have access to information stored as part of job details or customer information. Page 11 of 16

12 Improved satisfaction Engineers can work efficiently and maintain their autonomy with the assistance of scheduling software, and back office staff can concentrate on being proactive rather than reactive to situations, improving their overall job satisfaction. Customers are more satisfied with the level of service they are receiving, and ultimately shareholders feel the benefits of a business that effectively delivers a service at the most competitive price. A graph to show the four most common complaints over field service work. Improper billing for service 23% Time to get technician(s) on site 28% Technician(s) did not arrive on time 32% Technician(s) did not resolve the issue 45% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Note: Respondents gave more than one answer. Source: Aberdeen Group, January Page 12 of 16

13 In Conclusion Page 13 of 16

14 In Conclusion In general, implementation of a scheduling solution enables businesses to deliver a higher level of customer service, whilst simultaneously lowering the cost of running the service operation. It utilises the specialist skill sets of field engineers, ensuring the right skills can be synchronised with the right tools and the right parts, in order to achieve a first-time fix rate within the agreed SLA response time. Managing service personnel is complex, especially when combined with managing; parts, inventory, leads, invoicing and all other business processes simultaneously. It s important to ensure that your service management system can cope with the needs of your business, not just now, but also in the future as your business continues to expand and develop. By being able to effectively analyse and control these resources, service businesses can compete more effectively, increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs and ultimately improve profits. [Automated Scheduling] is a tool which brings us significant efficiency gains, increased visibility and faster decision making. Finance Director, Powertecnique Page 14 of 16

15 Appendices Page 15 of 16

16 Appendices Aberdeen Group, 2011 Field Service 2011: Mobility and the Extension of the Service Enterprise By: Sumair Dutta, Aly Pinder Jr. Aberdeen Group, February 2012 Field Service 2012: The Right Technician By: Sumair Dutta, Aly Pinder Jr. Other quotations taken from Customer Case Studies by Solarvista Software Ltd. More information Information about this publication can be found at or please send any enquiries by to Print and electronic rights are the property of Solarvista Software Ltd Page 16 of 16