The highlights of the Winter Release
Resource planning is at the heart of every service organization. For this reason, we have once again dedicated ourselves intensively to optimizing this feature in this release. As a result, it is now easier for everyone involved to identify related service orders and plan them accordingly.
In addition, there is a helpful change in the mapping of travel options for technicians: From now on, the means of transport used can be flexibly selected in the system. This allows technicians to plan their assignments much more realistically – even if they are traveling from more distant regions.
Another highlight this winter is the expansion of Service1’s price prediction. Here we have added further options that are much more appropriate for the individual requirements in everyday service.
We also made the order acceptance process more intuitive, improved error management, and introduced a special Planning Board for users who do not use Service1 Mobile.
You can look forward to helpful functions that will make the processes in field service that little bit better again.
New innovations and opportunities
We offer you all information about the current release also as PDF for download.
Service1 Release 2023
Download Winter Release PDF
For your success and the satisfaction of your customers.
Scheduling
More efficient deployment planning thanks to merging of related orders
One of the biggest challenges for service organizations is the economic planning of service orders – especially when they are interrelated. It is not uncommon for jobs that could actually be completed in one visit to be split up among several visits to the customer.
Up to now, two things have often been problematic in this context. First, the service orders are usually transmitted to the technician via different channels. This makes it difficult to identify related work. Secondly, it has been very difficult to determine which service technician has the necessary skills and sufficient capacity to perform all the required services at the customer’s site with just one on-site visit.
The winter release of Service1 addresses this issue in several areas and significantly improves the scheduling of these orders. Service orders that belong together are now displayed more transparently in the system for the dispatcher and are thus easier to identify. In addition, characteristics can be defined that identify different jobs as belonging together, for example if they involve the same device, the same customer or the same location.
The system automatically filters out those technicians who have the required skills and capacities. Once the right service employee has been identified, Service1 proposes an appointment. As soon as the scheduler confirms this, the system books the appointment.
This makes deployment planning easier and more efficient for everyone involved.
Scheduling
Select different means of transport
Service organizations today often rely on additional support from service technicians who come from more distant regions. Planning these assignments has not always been straightforward due to the distances involved.
In most deployment planning, it is implicitly assumed that a field service technician will travel to the site by car. Even if there is a willingness to fly by air, this usually cannot be adequately planned in many service organizations. As a result, service technicians from more distant regions – especially for urgent assignments – are not even considered. As a result, these jobs are often completed with considerable delays. If technicians are booked despite the distance, the assumed travel time and reality often do not match.
With the winter release 2023, different means of transport are taken into account in the planning tool in Service1. For example, it is possible to specify whether a field service technician travels to the site by car or by plane. This works for manual planning as well as for automatic planning.
This means it is now much easier to book experts even across regions. In addition, on-site assignments can be organized much more precisely in terms of time because planning is based on the actual means of transport used. As a result, the optimized transport mode leads to significantly better capacity utilization.
Price determination
Simplified service for moving products
In field service, there are usually fixed customer contracts with clearly defined services. However, in the course of the customer relationship, work often arises that deviates from these. The price prediction function usually covers these agreed standard situations at the customer. For services that go beyond these fixed conditions, prices usually have to be added manually in the back office with some effort. From now on, the price prediction function can be flexibly supplemented with this work.
It is now also possible to define conditions – for example discounts for spare parts – per device. This works even if the devices are the same and only differ in terms of their serial number. The same applies to conditions that only apply to a specific order type. For example, a discount for spare parts that only applies to maintenance but not to repairs. Specific conditions can now also be defined for entire customer groups, such as a spare parts discount for all business customers.
The further digitization of price forecasting leads to more clarity for everyone and to significantly simplified workflows. This creates security both on the customer side and on the side of the service organization.
Service Console
More planning overview for all
In service organizations, everyone involved must be able to view and update deployment plans transparently so that orders are processed efficiently. Until now, this was best done via Service1 Mobile. For all customers who do not use this function, Service1 has now been expanded to include a personal planning board that transparently presents all planning to both the dispatcher and the service technician.
Up to now, this group of users has in many cases integrated external calendar tools in order to keep as good an overview as possible of scheduled operations. Not infrequently, however, this led to incorrect or delayed updates between the systems. In addition, service technicians could only store sick days or vacation days in the system independently with some effort.
The new planning board eliminates the need to connect external calendar applications. In addition, it is very easy for technicians as well as schedulers to enter and change appointments. The other party can view these schedule updates in real time. As a result, service calls can be planned and executed with the highest efficiency, even beyond the mobile features.
Support
More intuitive through the order acceptance process
When customers call the call center to request an assignment, the agent responsible has to enter the information provided into the system in a matter of seconds – usually while the call is still in progress. In the process, relevant fields may be overlooked, resulting in unnecessary delays, reduced service quality and dissatisfied customers.
With Winter Release 2023, we have focused on the usability of the Service Console in order to reduce such sources of error. For this purpose, a customized logic for the automatic determination of the respective job role has been implemented. Fields required for the process can be flexibly configured in advance. In practice, this means that the call center agent is better guided through the order acceptance process and has to make significantly fewer clicks. In this way, incorrect assignments are avoided and assignments are handled in the best possible way.
Support
Data transmission simply clever
How smoothly a field service solution runs depends, among other things, on how well the error management functions in the background. With this release, we have therefore extended the transmission of error sources to GMS 3rd level support.
A decisive advantage of Service1 is the offline capability of numerous features. This means that the system can be used extensively even without a functioning Internet connection. In this context, the transmission of complete error reports when a problem occurred used to be problematic. This was because the required data could not be retrieved from the technician’s mobile device if it was not online.
Technicians can now add the complete offline database to the error report. This can then be transmitted to 3rd level support via the mobile device. This also automatically guarantees the quality of the data and enables rapid troubleshooting.
New innovations and opportunities
We offer you all information about the current release also as PDF for download.
Service1 Release 2023
Download Winter Release PDF
Contact
Good service starts with a dialogue.
Service1 is the All-in-One Solution Suite for Service Excellence. It will be our pleasure to provide you more details in a personal conversation and show you new possibilities to advance your service strategy. Send us an e-mail or call us. We look forward to hearing from you.
GMS Development – Gesellschaft für Software-Entwicklung mbH
An der Talle 89
33102 Paderborn
Phone +49-5252-9891-0
Fax +49-5252-9891-19
SAFE HARBOUR STATEMENT
This document may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of GMS Development could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking statements, including: any projections of product or service availability, customer growth, earnings, revenues, or other financial items; any statements regarding strategies or plans of management for future operations; any statements concerning new, planned, or upgraded services or developments; statements about current or future economic conditions; and any statements of belief.
The risks and uncertainties referred to above include – but are not limited to – risks associated with possible fluctuations in our financial and operating results; our rate of growth; interruptions or delays in our service or application; breaches of our security measures; the financial impact of any previous and future acquisitions; the nature of our business model; our ability to continue to release, and gain customer acceptance of, new and improved versions of our service; successful customer deployment and utilization of our existing and future services; competition; the emerging markets in which we operate; our ability to hire, retain and motivate employees and manage our growth; changes in our customer base; technological developments; regulatory developments; litigation related to intellectual property and other matters; and general developments in the economy, financial markets, and credit markets.
GMS Development assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this document; on our web site, press releases, presentations or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase GMS Development applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.
