PROFITS
®
Working with clients, not just for them
W H I T E
P A P E R
“Going UP?”
Technology-driven steps to help
your small company grow profits.
A small business that’s ready to grow has a completely
different set of priorities than one satisfied to remain
modestly small, or a large enterprise that has already
matured into a large, complex corporation with its own
inherent challenges.
In this White Paper, we will discuss four primary areas
where you can leverage technology to create the revenue,
employee behavior and business logic you need to
accelerate growth and bring your company up to the next
level. These trends are amongst the most popular among
your competitors in the Elevator Service industry, and this
guide will focus on the ROI-driven areas in which you need
to invest in order to keep up.
The goals we will be discussing are:
1.Changing service from a cost center into a
profit center
2.Harnessing the power of mobility,
understanding its centrality in today’s
mechanic’s workflow
3.Centralizing management software, tasks
and data
4.The ability of reporting and forecasting to
drive crucial, needle-moving decisions.
It’s important to note that these four efforts and
their resulting benefits apply to all core segments
of the Elevator Service: Maintenance, Repair,
Modernization and Violations.
Ready to grow your business? Call 888.725.2555 or email us : [email protected]
...and start a discussion with a business technology expert.
www.sbsgroupusa.com
Birth of a Profit Center
methodology does not require significant changes in
your business structure. The same back-office teams,
As recently as three of four years ago, it was an managers and mechanics, using the same hardware,
intriguing idea that was debated but rarely acted on: are simply working by the rules of a new business
Field service departments were seen as a cost center. strategy. Yes, there are some software changes
SLAs and other contractual obligations created a required, but these are generally part of ongoing
“gamble” in which a good year meant the service software upgrades that occur periodically, regardless.
The terminology is the same, the assignments are the
department wasn’t busy.
same, and the clients are the same. What’s changed
But as we’ll see, something has changed: in 2013 is the dynamic of the interaction with those clients.
(according to the Service Council Report of Field
Service, 2013), an overwhelming 68% of respondents How does technology provide a new way to interact?
indicated that they were in fact managing field To put it simply, we’re talking about a pro-active
service as a profit center, and 72% expected these approach to service replacing a re-active one.
departments not to simply drive new, untapped
revenues, but to actually be profitable in the next Today, when your customers trigger a job event,
your role is as a responder, and there are two
year.
primary downsides to that. First, you have no way
So what’s behind this revolution, and how can it to accurately forecast revenues (or costs) because
possibly be changing the service landscape so equipment failure, inspection success/failure and a
client’s decision to order a routine overhaul are not
dramatically?
always predictable. Second, the client sees you as
The first answer is that this new revenue-driving the “crisis team”. Your communications are usually
We’re talking
about a
pro-active
approach
to service
replacing
a re-active
one.
“Going UP?”: Technology-driven steps to help your small company grow profits.
Page 2
under pressure, and it’s difficult for them to then shift
your role into advisor or consultant.
But when your software automatically tracks DOBrequired maintenance and inspection schedules or
violation deadlines, your dispatchers can pick up the
phone and helpfully point out that it’s time to have a
mechanic give a car (or entire system) a preventative
maintenance once-over or an inspection pre-check.
Suddenly your role has shifted to one in which you
literally and figuratively ensure a “well-oiled machine,”
which eliminates fines and unexpected downtime.
It’s especially valuable because let’s face it — often,
the customer doesn’t even know the questions to
ask.
When mechanics are armed with mobile devices
(more on that shortly), they can take the initiative
to proactively recommend to their managers the
obvious, appropriate and revenue-generating upsells
and spot-checks based on the information they have
in their hand. When you offer mechanics incentives
to find these opportunities, everyone wins. The
alternative — having him show up only when called,
complete a task assigned to him, and then leave
— represents a lost opportunity. And that’s where
the technology comes in: a mechanic can only
recommend these offers when he has job history,
inventory, scheduling and pricing immediately
available.
Everyone knows that it’s more expensive to attain
new customers than it is to keep the old ones. Today,
this is doubly true not only because of the onboarding
costs of new clients, but because existing clients
provide some much historical data, that acting on it is
a virtual roadmap to keep them loyal and producing
revenue for you.
Mobility means Productivity
As your workforce is made up more and more of
Millennials (those born in the 80s and who began
joining the workforce around the year 2000), the
coordination of logistics and communications on
mobile devices is becoming a given. Each quarter,
with each new version, devices are becoming more
“Catch-all” field service apps
There are many companies offering ERP systems
with add-on, minimalist mobile clients that work
for dozens of industries. You purchase the base
system, and then customize the system and
the mobile app for your particular industry and
business. While these companies consider this
flexibility a positive feature, it is only necessarily
because the product is a broad-use application
for general field service.
A system designed for Elevator Service, on the
other hand, emulates the way a mechanic works
with his manager, and enhances it. It already
has the terminology (like pre-defined tasks
classified in maintenance, inspections, repairs
and modifications), the workflow logic, local DOB
regulations, the data that drives live reports, and
the invoicing framework that managers are used
to — without a large Professional Services invoice
required for getting to that point.
The alternative — an app designed only to
receive a generic ticket from dispatch, schedule
it, and mark it as done — leaves the entire rest
of the workflow to the back-end, and thus out of
the mechanic’s hands. He doesn’t have the job
history, the parts involved, or input into helping
manage scheduling changes. In other words, the
most helpful apps are not portals into one aspect
of a back-office system; they are the system,
shrunk to mobile convenience.
rugged, flexible, powerful, and most importantly,
quick and easy to use.
What this means first and foremost is that paperwork
is, finally, on its way out. Mechanics don’t need
to collect batches of paper from the office each
morning, nor do they need to file equivalent piles
in the other direction. They can photograph the
“Going UP?”: Technology-driven steps to help your small company grow profits.
Page 3
work done and attach those
images and additional notes
to the record, and all this
completely eliminates the
double entry of data, back
at the office. The prompt,
online work assignment
in one direction, and the
documentation of progress
in the other, yield data
that’s not only accurate, but
instant.
One of the most concrete,
measurable savings points
becomes clear when a
job is off-track (in time or
budget), and the mechanic’s
online logging of these facts
can give his manager the
information he needs to make
scheduling decisions, to
update his customer contact,
or to advise the mechanic to
change the approach. One
significant decision like this
can more than cover the cost
of an entire month’s mobile
deployment.
When done right, you discover new
avenues of productivity when
data can be cross-referenced,
call center operators see all customer
data on one screen, and mechanics in
the field have access to Big Data.
Automatic routing can be
optimized to squeeze every available minute from a field
team’s day. Job assignments can change in priority and
personnel without confusion or frustration. And on the
job site, the ability to access job history, notes, manuals,
and part inventory mean that delays, dilemmas and
long phone calls to the office shrink to minimal levels.
to dollars and cents even when you don’t spot each
issue, as workers feel more accountable for their time
and their decisions.
In short, an investment in mobile devices and
software should not be considered a long-term
capital expenditure luxury; when apps are designed
specifically for the Elevator Service industry (as opposed
Now, let’s be honest about your employees. They will
to a catch-all field service app – see sidebar), the ROI
always ask for fair wages, reasonable perks, and ideally,
can be extremely short as a half dozen benefits drive
a work environment they will commit to long-term.
measurable upticks in efficiency and on-site sales.
Prudently, you will provide these to keep them as
dedicated employees and to attract new ones. But in
Find your center
return, you have expectations: You want to know that
when time is on the clock, it’s being used effectively. Every small business evolves. And the most dramatic
Mobile job tracking is so much more accurate than (and sometime scary) dynamic in this evolution is
manual “scribble logs”; you can assess a mechanic’s leaving behind your collection of patched-together,
productivity at an absurdly granular level. This translates disparate legacy systems that manage job dispatch,
“Going UP?”: Technology-driven steps to help your small company grow profits.
Page 4
inventory, time sheets, customer data, and all the rest,
to be unified into a single system that manages it all
centrally.
is a tidal wave of data produced every day. And yes, the
term “tidal wave” is appropriate because all the data in raw
form is simply overwhelming and virtually impossible to
navigate. To be blunt, many field service managers and
Don’t let anyone tell you it’s a simple process, even with owners come from the “hands on” part of the business,
the best vendors and consultants. The analysis and and don’t necessarily have degrees in advance business
planning may be extensive, and is rarely something administration, or statistical data analysis.
you can do comprehensively alone. But when done
right, you discover new avenues of productivity when Put another way: Unless you have an expert dedicated
data can be cross-referenced, call center operators see to crunching the numbers every day, you are missing
all customer data on one screen, and mechanics in the
field have access to Big Data — and hence, the Big
Picture. (We’ll talk about Management’s access to data
in a moment, when we discuss Reporting).
This means dispatchers no longer simply assign
mechanics to locations — they can check the SLA terms
and make sure they comply, check the qualifications of
mechanics to assign the more appropriate ones who
are available and in the area, even see the inventory in
a specific truck, to confirm that a mechanic has what
he needs for a specific job. When a schedule change
is necessary, the effects can gently ripple through the
system, smoothly adjusting assignments and schedules.
In short, nothing fall through the cracks.
Your parts warehouse benefits from this centralization
as well. The manager there has to deal with vendors and
suppliers on one hand, and your field teams on the other.
When an elevator car is out of commission, the owner
doesn’t want to hear that a part is on order. So when a
reorder is triggered automatically by usage happening
in real time, in the field, these crises are averted.
business opportunities to fix what’s broken and
streamline what’s mediocre.
For instance: Do frequent, separate calls to clients,
offering proactive visits, generate more revenue than
a quarterly call grouping multiple tasks? Do cheaper
tools and parts end up saving more than investing in
more expensive ones that are costly to replace? Does
one longer lunch break contribute more to productivity
than a series of short breaks? Does the specific SLA
Reporting and forecasting
model you’ve been using really make the most sense,
Thus far, we’ve talked about the ways that new or is there room for improvement that benefit both you
technology solutions can replace old practices with and the customer?
automation to reduce mistakes, cut paperwork, and
drive efficiency. But the most profound change to your You get these answers from an ERP system’s forecasting
business comes from the “side effect” of all this activity: and reporting tools. They are usually, by definition (and
luckily!), high-level summaries of various departments,
data turning into dollars.
in the form of a concise dashboard or bottom line
When logistics and workflow move from disconnected overview report. Sure, the deep data is there behind it all,
systems (or worse, clipboards, dry-erase boards or but what you want is the upshot. The alerts. The insight.
spreadsheets) to a centralized, live, dynamic system, there The triggers to improvement. And while managers
“Going UP?”: Technology-driven steps to help your small company grow profits.
Page 5
have traditionally drawn these types of conclusions
at the end of the month as figures are tallied, today’s
reporting tools can slice and dice your data and give
you meaningful deductions you can act on, up to date
and around the clock, every day of the year.
The Reporting module of your system is perhaps the
easiest to justify from the perspective of purchase and
training costs. With the right reports, you are ready
to identify money that you are spending instead of
keeping, employees who aren’t pulling their weight, and
departments that can be earning more. What’s more,
And you can leverage the work of others on your sector. the entire art of budgeting can now be managed with
Because no business is completely unique, much of the uncanny accuracy as the data you collect guides you
heavy lifting in designing these reports has already been clearly to what you need to spend on and what you don’t.
done for you; standard reports and pre-built forecast
template can tell you 90% of that you need to know, Conclusion
while some simple customization can fill in the rest. If the
questions you’d like answered are fairly straightforward, As your business grows, it takes a lot of “doing it right”
you can even customize reports yourself. Alternatively, to succeed. There are dozens of tough decisions to
the vendor who provided your ERP system can use make each week, and only your dedication, experience
industry experience to guide you to the right data, even and the skills of your team can move the company in
if you didn’t know it was accessible.
the right direction. But of the many areas you’ll need
to tackle, you’ll find technology at the hub. Whether for
When it comes to finances, too often will cash in the tracking client needs, arming your field staff, bringing
bank be a misleading indication of success, failure or risk. departments together or gleaning conclusions from
Cash flow is the true measure of where your business your data, you’ll find that implementing a system that
stands, and with the right data, that cash flow can be works for you 24/7 and effectively eliminates human
predicted with greater accuracy than ever before. By error is a natural, effective and revenue-generating
customer. By region. By department.
investment.
Companies Grow.
Revenues Grow.
Opportunities Grow.
We’ll make sure your
business systems grow with you.
From local offices across North America, SBS Group provides
Why SBS?
Over Years
25
Project
99% success
rate
Customer
97% retention
rate
Over Certified
200
consultants
business management solutions to help growing companies
to meet their operational, financial, regulatory, and
technical challenges. Through a proven process of Discovery,
...and 100% dedication to helping you get
the most out of your data & business technology.
Analysis, Design and Delivery, we leverage ERP, CRM, Business
Intelligence, and Office Productivity technology to build,
deploy, and support innovative systems in your data center or
in the Cloud.
Ready to grow your business? Call 888.725.2555 or email us : [email protected]
...and start a discussion with a business technology expert.
www.sbsgroupusa.com