Exploring the Cost/Benefit of New Workflow Technology
In today's distributed service industry, many organizations are looking at new technology to 1) set them on the path to
increase efficiency, or 2) scale current hurdles
hindering them from exploring new opportunities. The advantages that come with automating internal processes, automating data
accessibility to and from field personnel and automating lookup information for customers, asset and historical job data
provide favorable cost to benefit ratio and return on investment. Conversely, companies looking to expand their
customer base without a scalable technological infrastructure will incur certain hurdles that may be prohibitive. For
these companies, in order to expand, they will need to increase both field service personnel to handle the extra work-load
and increase office personnel to handle the expanded paperwork and client demand. All of which translates to
increased overhead. In many cases, the expected cost for the expected benefit
is simply too high a price - the return on investment too low. However, with the right technology, these organizations can find
a pathway to reduce costs, increased efficiency and increased cash-flow to ultimately achieve their goals.
The best example of how Mobile FieldPro can cut costs and improve efficiency is to examine what happens both in the field
and in the office. In the field, job information is entered on-site by
your field personnel and wirelessly sent back to the office. This means less time spent driving to and less time spent in the office
picking up or dropping off paperwork. Field personnel can start and end each day on the job site. More time can be spent on actual billable work. If
you replace the 1 to 2 hours a week of paperwork windshield and in-office time with actual billable hours, multiply that by the
number field of personnel and then by 52 weeks in the year, you can see how Mobile FieldPro can really
improve your bottom line.
In general, your field work force will enjoy increased overall efficiency gains. No more lost paperwork - every job is tracked by
the Mobile FieldPro server. Historical job search, inventory parts search, equipment specification lookup, and work
schedule search are all available and easy to perform from their wireless devices. Optionally, you can have a weekly time summary report
automatically sent to each of your field personnel so they can verify their time's accuracy for billing and payroll.
Your office personnel will see tremendous gains in efficiency and time savings as well. Since data collection happens in the field, there is no
need for office personnel to perform a duplicate data entry
function; no more transferring from paper into another system. With Mobile FieldPro, your field personnel enter
the data once in the field, and your office personnel only need to edit and review the work already in the system. This can literally
save your office personnel up to 90% of the time it takes to promote service and maintenance items to invoicing in a typical paper-based system. Mobile
FieldPro Workflow Management is a paperless system. The stacks of paper sitting on someone's
desk waiting to invoice are gone. The status and job tracking capabilities of the platform prevents lost tickets
(and the time and money tracking down lost service information). Mobile FieldPro has built-in reports that will
alert for any work items which are stagnant. When a customer calls requesting information,
no more running to the filling cabinets. Current and historical information about location and equipment
is simply a mouse click away. Mobile FieldPro also has the ability to track labor and parts warranty
information associated with each individual piece of equipment you service, giving your staff pertinent
information during job creation. The bottom line is your office and field personnel are better informed, better equipped and
more productive. With Mobile FieldPro, your staff can handle many more jobs with much less effort.
Any time an organization implements new technology, it will have its own set of ramp-up costs which include setup and training. Mobile
FieldPro's philosophy is to make this process as easy and minimally invasive as possible. We've designed the user interface to be as
simple and as intuitive as possible. Although there is a lot of functionality built-in, your office and field personnel will feel
very comfortable with our workflow platform within a few days. We find that after the training session, most feel confident about
using the software.
If you would like
more information regarding the R.O.I. for your organization, please contact us and we can
send you an R.O.I. worksheet based on the number of office and field personnel you have.