Making field service work order allocation intelligent

Application Development — A Global Pioneer In Precision Instruments

Case Study

Manufacturing

PiServe assists a precision instrument manufacturing leader to transform its field service work order allocation system, intuitively matching assignments with resource availability.

About the client

The client is a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of precision instruments, with its products well trusted across laboratory, industrial and retail applications. The company maintains its presence across multiple geographies, complemented by a robust sales and servicing network. The organization boasts of having numerous industry-first features and innovations to its name.

Abstract

The client’s legacy field service work order management system, responsible for allocating cases to its army of on-field technicians, was hard-coded. It dished out cases for the support personnel in volumes, much more than they can actually handle. Consequently, the quality of services declined. In respite, the company wanted to transform its work order management system, bringing in a new digital front and an analytical engine to predict and rationally allocate cases to the field staff.

Business challenges

As an industry frontrunner, the client is committed to bringing best-of-the-breed products to its customers and providing services with minimum delay. However, its aging field service work order management system conflicted with the company’s vision to deliver responsive and high-quality services. As a conventional, algorithm-based system, it was found to allocate cases methodically without considering variables like the skills and the bandwidth available with the on-field support personnel. It quickly degraded the service experience for the customers.

To turn the tide, the company’s leadership must:

Build an intelligent and highly integrated service management landscape that promotes efficiency and compliance
Gain end-to-end visibility into various servicing and maintenance operations and costs incurred therein
Standardize the management of the field-service work orders across its complete range of products
Improve customer satisfaction through just-in-time servicing and repairing interventions

Understandably, the organization urgently needed proven application development and UX design expertise to modernize and be competitive.

Our approach

The PiServe team thoroughly assessed the state of the client’s work order management system and found significant scope for intervention. Our consultants were convinced that the post-modern enterprise management and workforce orchestration capabilities already available with SAP could bring much value to the client. Accordingly, the team:

Custom-built a cloud-based application on top of SAP technologies to add service and repairs tracking capabilities and end-to-end management of its field-service orders and repairs
Developed separate customized modules for handling critical tasks like complaints management, test plan creation, orders management, inventory, and invoicing
Migrated the operational data from the legacy system landscape into the new application using an integrated cloud migration platform
Automate various vital processes, including service-call intake and job ticketing, technician assignments based on skill sets and geography, work-order processing, and inventory management

Modernizing legacy mission-critical work order management system with the expertise of PiServe’s application development services which helped the client to increase 40% growth in customer satisfaction through better service management.

The result

Among the many benefits that the PiServe solution brought for the company, some are as compelling as:The PiServe team exceeded the client’s expectations by delivering a cutting-edge, cloud-based solution that integrates and intelligently manages the company’s diverse service management processes across product lines in more than 50 countries. It is a smart system that can continuously track field service needs, auto-assign resources based on their skillsets, maintain audit trails for regulatory compliance, and deliver actionable insights.

Among the many benefits that the PiServe solution brought for the company, some are as compelling as:

Happy customer

A 40% jump in customer satisfaction has been recorded owing to a seamless complaint registration process and skill-defined work order assignment to engineers

Impactful service

A 35% improvement in work order assignment was attained by bringing in intelligent process automation

Better management

With the complete audit trail for cases available on-demand, the organization can avail end-to-end visibility into customer service operations, detecting scopes for improvement.