Field Force Automation OVERHAUL Markem-Imaje is saving $600,000 per year with a new mobile field service management solution used by its 500 technicians. by Brian Albright Field service is an increasingly important competitive differentiator and revenue stream in almost every industry. It s become tough to set your company apart from the competition just by selling high-quality products. To stand out from the crowd, companies must also deliver fast, efficient service. To do that, you must arm your field technicians with the tools they need to be optimally effective on the job. Mobile computing technology helps field techs work more efficiently by automating manual data entry, eliminating paperwork, and providing remote access to customer data. But simply porting existing business systems to a mobile computer is not enough to realize any business benefit. If the mobile solution is difficult to use or connections to the back office are difficult to manage, the mobility system can be more of hindrance than a help. Printer manufacturer Markem-Imaje struggled with an early field service system, until it upgraded to a truly real-time solution with offline capabilities that has increased technician productivity while improving revenue collection. Markem-Imaje, a subsidiary of the New York-based Dover Group, provides thermal, laser, and inkjet printing solutions to 30,000 customers in 31 countries. A key component of the company s success has been its dedication to postsales service and maintenance. Sixty percent of Markem-Imaje s field service technicians work remotely meaning, they work from their homes and rarely report to a central office. The technicians have a service territory assigned to them, and they are responsible for the installed base within those boundaries, says Damon Schingeck, North American technical services manager at Markem-Imaje. With fewer than 100 technicians covering North America, these territories may encompass an entire state or province. For service to run smoothly, having an effective means to communicate with these remote techs is crucial. Avoid Deploying The Wrong Mobile Solution In 2006, Markem-Imaje rolled out an internally designed, laptop-based field service solution in conjunction with a worldwide deployment of the SAP ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. The mobile solution went live in Europe first, then in North America in 2008. As the deployments went live and more users signed on, issues with the field service solution became apparent, Schingeck says. For some smaller markets where there weren t as many remote technicians, the issues weren t glaring at first. But once we got into North America, we noticed some major problems that the tool was creating out in the field. For example, while the system provided remote access to SAP, the fact that it resided behind the firewall and required a direct connection to the ERP system made it cumbersome for the technicians to use. The technicians had to go through the VPN and log in to this portal, which took several minutes. If they lost
name & title of subject of photo photos by Damon Schingeck, North American technical services manager, Markem-Imaje photos by Pete Winkel
network connectivity, they would have to go through this process all over again, Schingeck says. The solution also required a connection to the Internet and that the connection be strong and constant. If the technicians could not successfully log on to the system, they had to call back and forth with the central office to obtain customer and equipment information. This all contributed to technician inefficiency in getting their work completed, Schingeck says. Because they were often able to get a more stable Internet connection in their homes, they took care of all of the paperwork at the end of the day or end of the week, instead of closing out the work orders on-site. This meant each tech was incurring several hours of overtime each week just to make sure the work orders were completed, and this also delayed invoicing. By the end of 2008, it was clear that something had to be done to improve the field service system. Schingeck, CIO Frans Laverman, and the company s business group managers set out to find a new field service solution from an outside vendor. Wireless Connectivity Issues Impact Invoicing The laptop-based system wasn t just causing problems in the field. Because the work orders weren t closed in a timely manner, invoices were issued sometimes weeks after work was completed. With that long a time lag, Markem-Imaje had difficulty collecting payment from its customers. In fact, the company wound up writing off hundreds of thousands of dollars in uncollected revenues. So when Schingeck began looking for a new solution, he knew it would have to both address the issues with the old system, and provide some additional functionality: anytime access to the ERP data, electronic signature capture, faster invoicing, and a solution that would be easier for the company s internal IT staff to support. We needed a solution that would remain operable whether we had a connection or not, Schingeck says. We also needed to create proof-of-delivery documentation by closing out the work orders faster to address our invoicing issues. In addition, Schingeck wanted to avoid the time associated with booting up a laptop on-site. Because the company operates in several dozen countries, all with different business rules, Markem-Imaje needed a solution that would be easy to update and customize. If a division in one region wanted to alter a function in the application, like charging an hourly fee instead of a flat fee, the company wanted to be able to make those changes internally without going back to the vendor. We needed a flexible solution to enable us to make business rule changes based on the individual operations, Schingeck says. We didn t want to build 55 different solutions; we wanted one solution we could easily adjust to fit 55 different scenarios if needed. The project team initially identified three possible solutions providers in Europe, but Schingeck continued to search for potential vendors in the United States. One of the company s business partners suggested Norcross, GA-based Stratix. After an initial meeting, Schingeck and Flexible Software Offers Dynamic Business Rules Management When printer manufacturer Markem-Imaje needed to upgrade its field service solution, software flexibility was a critical factor. The company operates 55 distinct subsidiary locations for sales and service in 31 countries, each with unique procedures and business rules. Some field service operations are primarily office-based, others rely on remote-based technicians so efficient communication and access to data is essential. Because its deployment was global in nature, the company didn t want to have to redesign the solution 55 times and go back to the software vendor whenever a change occurred. We wanted to have the flexibility within our IT support team to be able to change those rules from country to country without having to request new software development, says Damon Schingeck, North American technical services manager for Markem-Imaje. With a mobile field service solution from Stratix deployed on Motorola MC75 handheld computers, Markem-Imaje s field technicians save an average of 20 minutes per day. The company selected the Stratix Mobile Field Service solution, in part because the software provided just such flexibility. The field service solution is built on Stratix s Business Rules Management System, which allows users to easily update or make changes to the application without the cost of recoding the solution. These business rules (such as the minimum transaction amount requiring a customer signature) vary by region and may change during the course of a year. If India, for example, starts charging by the hour instead of charging a flat fee, we can go in and flip that rule, and the entire system is updated, Schingeck says. The IT team can do that very easily, without having to involve Stratix. In addition to business rules flexibility, Stratix was able to provide both software and mobile hardware, was able to integrate directly with Markem-Imaje s SAP enterprise resource planning back end, and could provide 24/7 support services to ensure technician uptime. For more information on Stratix, visit www.stratixcorp.com. 10 November 2011 l FieldTechnologiesOnline.com
Laverman felt that Stratix could provide an end-to-end solution (including hardware) along with the support the company required for 24/7 operation in the field. Customize Your Mobile Solution To Accommodate Various Users In 2009, Markem-Imaje decided to move forward with the Stratix Mobile Field Service software on Motorola MC75 mobile computers, along with the Stratix Service Delivery Platform, the middleware solution that serves as the bridge between SAP and the mobile software. The Stratix software, integrated with SAP, would give technicians access to existing customer data, while eliminating the need to log in to the VPN. Stratix recommended the Motorola MC75 devices because they were smaller and more rugged than the laptops the technicians had been using and also because they support multiple types of keypads. This was an important option since Markem- Imaje wanted to use the same hardware across multiple countries, many of which had specific language or keypad configuration standards. Once the company selected Stratix, the Markem-Imaje team worked closely with the Stratix developers to design a solution that would integrate with the SAP customer service module and provide all of the customer data and invoicing capabilities Markem-Imaje needed in the field. Because this was the first time Stratix had extended mobile access to the SAP customer service module, Schingeck says that it required strong teamwork; it was new for them, and it was new for us. Markem-Imaje piloted the system in North America in March 2011. The company chose North America for the pilot because there were a substantial number of remote technicians in that market and because those techs were having more connectivity problems than their European counterparts. Stratix worked closely with two of Markem- Imaje s service engineers to prepare the solution for a two-week test. At the conclusion of the two-week test, Markem-Imaje then deployed the solution to 14 additional service engineers to continue the pilot for a month. According to Markem-Imaje, the pilot proved invaluable in working out the kinks in the initial design. Initially, we were getting 80% of orders down to the device, and with the other 20% there were some handling issues, Schingeck says. We had some internal back office issues where orders were being created, but not all the pieces were getting completed that were required to dispatch the order. We had to find out why those gaps existed and institute best practices to overcome those gaps. The development team was able to modify the Stratix Mobile solution by adding validation tables within the Service Delivery Platform to ensure that all of the information was present before an order could be dispatched. Once the pilot was complete, Markem-Imaje took a train-the-trainer approach to training. Eight technical support and field managers were originally trained by Stratix as experts in the solution, and those users then trained the field techs. Trainees worked within the Stratix field service solution using a static snapshot of customer data pulled from the SAP ERP system. We got them set up and let them practice using real data, Schingeck says. They would train for one day, then they would go live once they left. The solution was fully deployed by May 2011 with 82 technicians in North America and implementation in Europe scheduled for 2012. The system will be rolled out in other regions as subsidiaries complete their SAP projects, eventually encompassing more than 500 technicians globally. Schingeck says there were no major hiccups during the rollout of the Stratix solution, once the company had addressed the previously mentioned issues with ensuring all of the service orders were properly imported in SAP. While no major issues occured, the integration with SAP was challenging. Stratix s ability to integrate directly with SAP was key to ensuring the transition went smoothly, notes Schingeck. Stratix and Markem-Imaje worked closely to ensure the connection to SAP would be seamless. You have to have deep SAP knowledge on the vendor side, Schingeck says. There s a lot of work to do up front regarding what information you need, how you are going to access that within SAP, and how that connection is going to work. The more work done that early, before any code is written, the better. CIO Frans Laverman explains how Stratix knowledge of SAP, plus the fact that they were a one-stop-shop, was beneficial to Markem-Imaje. Stratix provided us with a faster time to market, in our estimate six to eight months faster, than other alternatives we considered, including internal development. This is because we were able to get everything we needed from just one vendor, he says. This allowed us to achieve our ROI goals by delivering real productivity gains to the technicians and bottom-line benefits to the company. Mobile Solution Provides Immediate Productivity Gains Markem-Imaje identified a number of key metrics to ensure that the new system is providing a return on investment, including work order closure rates, time to completion for each order, and collection rates (dollars collected versus dollars billed). The results were almost immediate. In the first month, the company saw an 8% jump in technician productivity and expects that improvement to reach 18% within the year. Service requests are received through a central help desk, and the information is initially entered into the SAP customer service module. In North America, the help desk then dispatches service requests to one of five planners in the operational offices in the United States and Canada. Planners release those orders from SAP to the technicians via the Stratix solution running on the Motorola MC75s. Once the technician reviews and accepts a work order, it moves automatically to their schedule. The technician can access turn-by-turn directions to each job site on the Motorola MC 75 handheld, as well as access the full FieldTechnologiesOnline.com l November 2011 11
We didn t want to build 55 different solutions; we wanted one solution we could easily adjust to fit 55 different scenarios if needed. Damon Schingeck, Markem-Imaje service history (imported from SAP), including help desk conversations and previous work orders. They can also have access to a full inventory of all parts available to them as well as company email. We didn t have any of that customer information in the field previously, Schingeck says. Now, the technicians have a 30-day service history for every asset right there on the device. And they can access that whether they are connected or not. The access to service history has nearly eliminated calls back to the central office, which Schingeck estimates saves technicians at least 20 minutes per day. During the repair process, the technician uses the Stratix application to record their work, including problem descriptions and repairs, parts lists, and all time associated with the call. They can then present a summary of the information to the customer on the device in order to review any charges, and the customer signs off on the order directly on the mobile computer. That signature is tied to the work order and recorded in SAP, and a final invoice is sent to the customer via email or fax within a few minutes of completion. With instant proof of delivery and signature capture, invoices are generated faster, and billing has improved. In fact, the company expects to save $600,000 per year on a global basis by reducing write-offs. Right now, the majority of orders are recorded in the system on the day of service, Schingeck says. Previously, we had one operation where the average close rate was approaching one month. Delivery reports and invoices would come in 45 days or even 60 days after service. We couldn t collect the money in those cases, and we d have to write it off. We now have an 80% closure rate on the day of service; before, we were at 15% at best. Overall, work order closure rates have improved by 85%. In addition, the company has a better balance of technician overtime. When I look at overtime and how we spend it, we have a much better ratio, Schingeck says. Previously we were spending overtime doing internal work; now we spend it on the customer site. Our goal wasn t necessarily to reduce overtime; we just didn t want to pay these guys on a Saturday to just close work orders when they should have been able to complete that task on-site. The quality of work order and billing data coming from the field has also improved. Because the work order data wasn t getting entered at the customer site, the technicians would enter this information sometimes days later, Schingeck says. We d have people trying to close out ten orders for a week at one time and struggling to remember the details of each. The current data is much more detailed and extensive than it was previously, and we receive it in real time. The more accurate repair data is added to a knowledge database maintained within SAP that is used to track quality issues with Markem-Imaje s products. That information is valuable to train future technicians, for the helpdesk, and to level-two support staff and the engineering groups, Schingeck says. The Stratix system is also integrated with the ADP etime automated payroll solution that Markem uses. The technicians record their time as they go through their day, Schingeck says. The time sheet data can be exported right into the payroll system; we have completely removed the technician s reliance on a PC to complete their work. The old solution added hours of administration work to each technician s week; the new system lets them complete their work much faster and Markem-Imaje believes this led to employee acceptance which made rollout easier. The common thing I hear from them is that at the end of the day, their day is done, Schingeck says. They re relieved to not be going home to do their paperwork anymore. Markem-Imaje is moving forward with the mobile solution in its other markets, and Schingeck says the company is working with Stratix to add virtual help desk functionality for mobile technicians so that the techs can provide support to customers from the road. In some smaller markets, we don t have a dedicated help desk, Schingeck says. We rotate the technicians in that role, and in many cases they may not be in an office sitting next to a phone or a PC, Schingeck says. This addition will provide them with help desk functionality right on the mobile device. The company now has a mobile solution that not only solved the problems created by the old system, but has enabled even more improvements and it all comes down to providing your techs with tools that are the best fit for their unique processes. Previously, we gave them a tool that was just not effective at doing what we had intended to do, which was to have better access to customer information in the field, Schingeck says. We realized our mistake and improved by delivering a unique, mobile solution for our field services group. The evidence that the project has paid off is clear in the productivity increase and close rates. l 12 November 2011 l FieldTechnologiesOnline.com