Are You Being Serviced? 5 Simple Steps to Achieve Best Practice Field Service Management
Amid discussions about cost management and efficiency, are Australian companies doing all they can to lift the productivity and performance of field service businesses?
It is surprising to learn that despite a reported increase in service revenues of between 22 to 38 per cent, nearly one-in-five best practice organisations are still using manual processes for their field service operations[1]. When ProQuest consults with Australian field service organisations, we are seeing paper-based processes on a regular basis.
Why is this so, when taking these five simple steps can improve the use of technicians, while improving customer satisfaction and company profitability?
- Stop giving free service from warranty leakages
- Optimise scheduling
- Never lose spare parts
- Empower your service staff to sell more services
- Provide all the information your service staff need by going mobile
According to our partner ServiceMax, McKinley Equipment Corporation, a $25 million industrial equipment distribution business specialising in the servicing of commercial loading docks and lifts, have experienced a service revenue increase of 38 per cent and first-time fix rates of between 16 and 34 percent as a result of automating their field service management. McKinley achieved these results from their ServiceMax implementation, a new generation of Field Service Management software based on the Force.com platform.
Prior to implementing ServiceMax, McKinley found their first-time fix rates were going through the roof. This increase in first-time fix rates was caused by the fact that nine different silos were being used to store customer data, and the firm had narrow visibility on service parts. This, in turn, prevented the right parts from being ordered and thus extended service delivery times.
The improvements experienced by McKinley Equipment Corporation reflect the results of a study into 220 field service professionals by the Aberdeen Group (a Harte Hicks Company). This study showed that Best-in-Class organisations achieved an 88 per cent level of first-time fix, 83 per cent workforce utilisation and 15 per cent increase in productivity. These results were achieved because the organisations involved in the study delivered excellence in scheduling, planning and overall workforce management.
Using the ROI calculator from the ServiceMax site, it is possible to show that a business with annual contracts of $10 million, more than 30 per cent of orders taking more than one visit to resolve and a 15 per cent loss in parts inventory, could conservatively expect the following performance improvements. After just 12 months these improvements would result in a total revenue increase of $300,000 and total savings of 1.9 million.
1 Years Results[2]
| ServiceMax Driven Improvements | Conservative estimates US$ |
| Increased revenue due to higher service contract attach rate | $11,000 |
| Improvement in annual renewals | $36,000 |
| Improvement in field tech utilization | $910,000 |
| Improve Spare Parts Shrinkage | $36,000 |
| Improve Service-to-Cash Cycle time (DSO) | $15,000 |
| Decrease inventory carrying costs | $6,000 |
| Increase in estimation accuracy rate | $240,000 |
| Decrease in warranty "leakage" rate | $58,000 |
| Increase in first-call resolution rate | $200,000 |
| Decrease in mean time to repair | $170,000 |
| Decrease in Operating Costs | $240,000 |
| Decrease in inventory carrying costs | $150,000 |
According to Michael Pascoe, BusinessDay contributing editor for the Sydney Morning Herald, writing shortly after the first federal Budget, the story throughout the resources industry is one of “…management getting back to cost management with a vengeance after years of boom time excess”.
And it's not just the resources industry where cost management is a major focus.
Based on what we are seeing in the local marketplace, he may well be right. There has been an unmistakable and material upswing in the interest around ServiceMax for field service productivity, and it’s a substantial market.
Right now, what are you doing to improve the performance of your service business? Are your customers being well serviced?
What do we offer to companies who are serious about improving the performance of their field service business?
ProQuest Consulting is dedicated to implementing ServiceMax for companies needing to make a generational switch to the world’s leading cloud-based field management software platform. We’ll ensure you leverage ServiceMax to optimise your business processes and effectively differentiate your services from your competition. Using our Agile approach to project delivery, we ensure an efficient and rapid implementation of ServiceMax and a reduction in your project risk.
[2] Source: http://www.servicemax.com/roi-calculator/
