IMS Field Service Software “Service Management Excellence”
IMS Field Service software takes service management to a new level with a system that is simple enough to user for non-technical people yet powerful enough to streamline workflow and provide significant improvements to back end efficiency, productivity, cash flow and bottom line profits.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Taking The Plunge
One of the big advantages with IMS is how fast you can get up and going. Most of our new customers take advantage of this and start gaining the benefits almost immediately. One recent example of this is a plumbing company in Canberra who had their 10 field staff interacting with the system within a week of deciding to go ahead.
While our success stories far out weigh the companies who are slow on the uptake we still have a number who find it hard to get going despite significant improvements in our documentation and customer service.
So why does it happen and is there anymore i-man can do to help?
The main problem we are seeing is that companies or key personnel are not committed to change. The situation is made worse when only half hearted attempts are made to implement the system. This leads a breakdown in information workflow because only some people are using it, reducing the benefit the system.
Alan Quinn from Project Relocations was one such case. The company runs a team of riggers who specialize in relocation of electrical equipment, Switchboards, generators etc. Envisaging riggers entering daily job sheet information into a PDA was difficult for them to get their head around.
Project Relocations first implemented IMS in September 2008 but they hardly used the system until March 2009. Alan new they were missing out big time on chargeable hours and finally committed to using IMS properly, they have not looked back since.
The business reality for anyone who has workers in the field is that if you can not streamline your information flow between the office and the field it will be costing you time and money, lots of it!
The tangible benefits were significant and immediate but they noticed intangible benefits as well. Alan recently had a customer ask for a break up of hours and crane rates for a job. "I called him back a few minutes later and gave them to him, he could not believe it. He was expecting me to get back to him in a couple of weeks, and this left a very positive impression with our customer".
There is little i-man can do to speed up the implementation process if the commitment is not there from the company. You need to ask yourself what it is costing you in time and money if you do not commit.
While our success stories far out weigh the companies who are slow on the uptake we still have a number who find it hard to get going despite significant improvements in our documentation and customer service.
So why does it happen and is there anymore i-man can do to help?
The main problem we are seeing is that companies or key personnel are not committed to change. The situation is made worse when only half hearted attempts are made to implement the system. This leads a breakdown in information workflow because only some people are using it, reducing the benefit the system.
Alan Quinn from Project Relocations was one such case. The company runs a team of riggers who specialize in relocation of electrical equipment, Switchboards, generators etc. Envisaging riggers entering daily job sheet information into a PDA was difficult for them to get their head around.
Project Relocations first implemented IMS in September 2008 but they hardly used the system until March 2009. Alan new they were missing out big time on chargeable hours and finally committed to using IMS properly, they have not looked back since.
The business reality for anyone who has workers in the field is that if you can not streamline your information flow between the office and the field it will be costing you time and money, lots of it!
The tangible benefits were significant and immediate but they noticed intangible benefits as well. Alan recently had a customer ask for a break up of hours and crane rates for a job. "I called him back a few minutes later and gave them to him, he could not believe it. He was expecting me to get back to him in a couple of weeks, and this left a very positive impression with our customer".
There is little i-man can do to speed up the implementation process if the commitment is not there from the company. You need to ask yourself what it is costing you in time and money if you do not commit.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
IMS – Now with GPSTrack
IMS now has a solution to fill the gap between efficient job management and the benefits of GPS tracking by integrating GPS capabilities into the job management system. Using the latest technology, IMS is now able to capture a users coordinates and record them with job information.
The information can be used to verify when and where information was recorded and assist in locating personnel for scheduling purposes. This also improves the speed of creating efficient job runs by scheduling jobs nearest to each other or to a field workers last known position, helping to minimise travel and optimising time spent on productive work.
The need for scheduling can further be reduced as field staff can find the nearest un-assigned job to their current position from their PDA, without calling the office or being scheduled to a job.
The system can be used with most PDA / Smart phones on the market but is more accurate with devices that have a built in GPS chip, no other hardware is required.
Initial implementation of GPS capabilities into IMS has focused on the job management functions but will in the future incorporate other areas like locating suppliers and recording when and where compliance forms were completed.
IMS GPSTrack provides a cost effective solution that integrates into the existing job management system, providing the ability to verify when and where forms have been completed and locating field staff. This will assist in improving visibility without a costly GPS system that some employees may feel intrusive.
The information can be used to verify when and where information was recorded and assist in locating personnel for scheduling purposes. This also improves the speed of creating efficient job runs by scheduling jobs nearest to each other or to a field workers last known position, helping to minimise travel and optimising time spent on productive work.
The need for scheduling can further be reduced as field staff can find the nearest un-assigned job to their current position from their PDA, without calling the office or being scheduled to a job.
The system can be used with most PDA / Smart phones on the market but is more accurate with devices that have a built in GPS chip, no other hardware is required.
Initial implementation of GPS capabilities into IMS has focused on the job management functions but will in the future incorporate other areas like locating suppliers and recording when and where compliance forms were completed.
IMS GPSTrack provides a cost effective solution that integrates into the existing job management system, providing the ability to verify when and where forms have been completed and locating field staff. This will assist in improving visibility without a costly GPS system that some employees may feel intrusive.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Effects of Eliminating Paperwork
In November 2006 Velocity Electrical, a small electrical contracting business with 5 employees, was at breaking point. Although they had plenty of work, the company was experiencing severe cash flow problems, profit was minimal, the business owner Mike Brewitt spent most of his time performing operational tasks like scheduling and paper work. He was stuck spending his time in the business and not doing business, but did not know how to you turn it around. Something had to change or it did not make sense continuing.
Mike began searching for a solution and came across IMS, a web based job and compliance management system that allows the field staff to receive and update job information in real time, eliminating paperwork and streamlining work flow. After seeing a demonstration of the system he jumped at it.
“I had been looking for a while, this was different to other systems I had seen and I felt it was something that could solve my problem”, says Mike.
Mike went about setting up IMS with the enthusiasm of someone first starting a business. The implementation of Velocity Electrical was one of the fastest i-man had ever done, their field staff were using it within 3 days and the benefits flowed from there.
The results were amazing, they were able to get through much more work and their billable hours increased from an average of 30 to 35-40 hours per employee per week. In the office, the results were even better. They currently estimate it is saving them around 20 hours a week in admin time and invoices are getting sent out as the work is completed.
The net benefit is that cash flow position, revenue and profit significantly improved, not to mention their quality of life for people in the business. Mike’s time is now free to chase new opportunities; he is now working on the business rather than in it.
i-man continues to develop IMS, working closely with their customers to identify what functions need to be added that can help streamline things even further. Recent improvements include better support for projects, automatic conversion of emails into jobs and adding some powerful reports that can assist with performance monitoring and prioritising work.
For more information go to www.i-man.com.au
Mike began searching for a solution and came across IMS, a web based job and compliance management system that allows the field staff to receive and update job information in real time, eliminating paperwork and streamlining work flow. After seeing a demonstration of the system he jumped at it.
“I had been looking for a while, this was different to other systems I had seen and I felt it was something that could solve my problem”, says Mike.
Mike went about setting up IMS with the enthusiasm of someone first starting a business. The implementation of Velocity Electrical was one of the fastest i-man had ever done, their field staff were using it within 3 days and the benefits flowed from there.
The results were amazing, they were able to get through much more work and their billable hours increased from an average of 30 to 35-40 hours per employee per week. In the office, the results were even better. They currently estimate it is saving them around 20 hours a week in admin time and invoices are getting sent out as the work is completed.
The net benefit is that cash flow position, revenue and profit significantly improved, not to mention their quality of life for people in the business. Mike’s time is now free to chase new opportunities; he is now working on the business rather than in it.
i-man continues to develop IMS, working closely with their customers to identify what functions need to be added that can help streamline things even further. Recent improvements include better support for projects, automatic conversion of emails into jobs and adding some powerful reports that can assist with performance monitoring and prioritising work.
For more information go to www.i-man.com.au
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
New Features To Save More Time?
Automatic conversion of email into IMS jobs!
If you have customers who send you jobs via email you now have the option to have them automatically converted into IMS tasks saving you time re-keying data. The function requires a standard email format so that text can be mapped to the correct fields in IMS. It can convert directly from email content or from work orders attached to an email. IMS support staff will assist setting up 1 email format for each of our customers, standard rates apply for setting up additional formats.
In other development news, work is progressing steadily on the new estimating/quotation module and we should have a release date within the next month. The new module has been designed with significant input from our customer base and will provide more flexibility in formatting quotes and speed up the estimating process.
If you have customers who send you jobs via email you now have the option to have them automatically converted into IMS tasks saving you time re-keying data. The function requires a standard email format so that text can be mapped to the correct fields in IMS. It can convert directly from email content or from work orders attached to an email. IMS support staff will assist setting up 1 email format for each of our customers, standard rates apply for setting up additional formats.
In other development news, work is progressing steadily on the new estimating/quotation module and we should have a release date within the next month. The new module has been designed with significant input from our customer base and will provide more flexibility in formatting quotes and speed up the estimating process.
How is your Service business performing
In confronting the challenging business environment we are now in, companies need to closely monitor their trading position to ensure cashflow and productivity is kept at an optimum. Losing out on billable hours, delays in invoicing and poor job management will cost you money and affect customer retention.
Companies who have maximized the benefits of IMS have used it to control and improve these areas of their business, many with some dramatic results. To provide further support in these areas of your business, we have produced a new report called 'Company Diagnostic' to summarise the current status of key performance indicators.
The Company Diagnostic report gives you a single view to show job throughput, productive hours vs non productive hours and the dollar value of closed jobs that have not been invoiced. It also gives you the cost of jobs in the report period vs the value invoiced for the same period.
Missing out on billing one hour a week will reduce your annual revenue by over $3,500 a year, so it is important to ensure you maximise your return on your labour. The IMS benchmark is 100% return on labour, that is a company that was a losing out on 25 hours a week across five technicians prior to implementation. How is your business performing?
The Company Diagnostic can be found under the invoicing tab in the reports menu.
www.i-man.com.au
Companies who have maximized the benefits of IMS have used it to control and improve these areas of their business, many with some dramatic results. To provide further support in these areas of your business, we have produced a new report called 'Company Diagnostic' to summarise the current status of key performance indicators.
The Company Diagnostic report gives you a single view to show job throughput, productive hours vs non productive hours and the dollar value of closed jobs that have not been invoiced. It also gives you the cost of jobs in the report period vs the value invoiced for the same period.
Missing out on billing one hour a week will reduce your annual revenue by over $3,500 a year, so it is important to ensure you maximise your return on your labour. The IMS benchmark is 100% return on labour, that is a company that was a losing out on 25 hours a week across five technicians prior to implementation. How is your business performing?
The Company Diagnostic can be found under the invoicing tab in the reports menu.
www.i-man.com.au
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Who Uses IMS Service Software
Companies who adopted IMS service software have identified issues that were affecting their company's viability, these include:
- Collection & collating job information for invoicing and timesheets is resource intensive affects cashflow, efficicency and profitability.
- Inaccurate or non billing of jobs = lost revenue.
- Poor access to information = Operational issues managing field personnel and affecting service delivery.
- Having difficulty managing and controlling compliance leaving company exposed.
- Poor delivery of service and lack of systems effecting customer retention and winning new business.
- Time spent managing the business effecting business operators personall lives.
Service software can run on iPhones http://www.i-man.com.au/software/iphone-service-software.cfm
What is IMS Service Software
IMS is a web based service software solution that supports job and compliance management. It enables you to communicate with your mobile workforce in real time eliminating paperwork and streamlining work flow dramatically improving efficiency and profitability.
More information can be found at http://www.i-man.com.au
More information can be found at http://www.i-man.com.au
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