Service Smarts

Astea and Frost & Sullivan Webinar: Managing the Mobile Field Service Frenzy

Mobile applications continue to be a main topic of discussion when it comes to field service. The impact and benefits that mobile applications can have on a service organization are already abundantly clear to organizations of all sizes. If delivering service is mission critical to your business, you already know that deploying a mobile field service application is not just a “nice-to-have” but rather a “must-have” for ongoing success and differentiation.

But where do you turn? There are so many things that need to be considered how does a busy executive like yourself ensure that you are on the right path? Even if you have implemented a mobile field service application, is it providing you with everything you need for optimized efficiency and productivity not only for today but well into the  future?  What is happening in the mobile field service market and how might it  affect your organization? How are devices having an impact?  How can you ensure technician adoption? What are leading companies doing to improve  technician efficiency and drive service revenues?

Don’t miss the chance to hear the answers to these questions, and many more. Register today to attend this compelling webinar and let leading industry experts Jeanine Sterling, Senior Industry Analyst – Mobile and Wireless Communications, Frost & Sullivan and Debbie Geiger, VP Global Marketing with Astea International, provide insights and guidance in an ever changing mobile world.

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This whitepaper, written by The Service Council, presents key market dynamics and business justification for the initiation of Field Service Management transformation and illustrates the efficiencies gained by organizations that have embraced technology.

Recent research conducted by The Service Council indicates that services executives have turned their attention away from cost-cutting initiatives they were forced to implement over the recent recession years in exchange for the more positive strategy of managing revenue growth in the expanding global services economy. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents expect their services-related revenues to increase through the course of the year, and almost everyone (94%) agrees that they do not expect revenues to recede in 2013. A majority of services executives also have specific plans this year to use their expanding revenue base to strengthen their respective services operations. Almost two-thirds (62%) plan to leverage their already strong internal service culture, coupled with their expanding revenue base, to focus on the following key outcomes:

• More satisfied customers
• Deeper partnerships with customers
• More consistent service performance and delivery
• Stronger competitive advantage
• Enhanced market image and reputation
• Healthier bottom line for the organization

Reaching these goals requires a comprehensive, structured, and well-coordinated approach to services management and this, in turn, requires reliance on improved service management and delivery solutions that can only be enabled by the adoption of new technology. As a result, many are beginning to invest in new technologies to support the anticipated growth and keep the momentum going.

Download this whitepaper today

The transformation of the service organization continues into 2013. This transformation isn’t limited to a more profit-centric view of service, but touches upon the changing role of the service organization. No longer is service just about delivering support, but more and more it’s about a true understanding of customer needs and the provision of solutions to ensure customer delight, profitability, and maximum value. Sumair Dutta, Research Director, Service Management – Aberdeen Group, presents his findings and outlook for 2013 in both a whitepaper as well as a webinar.

From both the webinar and whitepaper, you will:

- Get updates on the latest trends
- See what your peers are doing to drive customer satisfaction, retention and overall profitability
- Walk away with new ideas for 2013 to help transform your service organization

Download both today!

More and more companies speak about their strong desire to improve their service management operations but have limited funds. They want a powerful solution but one that is affordable, easy to use and quick to implement. For their customers and their business, speed matters. But it isn’t just about being fast, it is also about delivering quality, value-added differentiated service. Check out the latest joint webinar with Aberdeen and Astea to learn about the latest trends in field service and mobility solutions as well as how the cloud is making it easier and affordable for companies to provide the ultimate service experience that does more than just delight your customers, it also excites them!

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Service Revenue 2012
Service to Services:  Revenue and the Development of New Opportunities

It’s no secret that organizations are looking to their service business to drive more revenue.  Aberdeen’s State of Service Management: Forecast for 2012 (January 2012) revealed that revenue growth was the top goal for service businesses in 2012, as it was in 2011 for attendees at Aberdeen’s Chief Service Officer (CSO) Summit.

Leading service organizations are not only aggressive in setting revenue goals, but much more successful in attaining these goals via a combined focus on contract management, workforce empowerment, pricing optimization, organizational collaboration, and the development of new value-added services.  This document highlights the steps taken by these leading organizations to emerge as champions in the battle for service revenue.

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With any mobile deployment strategy comes a fundamental decision: it is better to build or buy the mobile applications that your workforce will be using in the field? It may seem more economical to develop your app in-house, but there are a number of challenges you’ll need to address – from time and personnel requirements to ensuring the application is optimized and will continue to run effectively when technology upgrades occur.

Companies with extensive experience in mobile app development for the service management market can foresee these pitfalls and offer complete solutions in a way that no in-house deployment ever could — simply because they have experience with issues you probably have not even considered and have staff whose only responsibility is developing mobility software.

This white paper explores the considerations of ‘build versus buy’ to help your service organization achieve the most successful mobile deployments.

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Download this insightful Aberdeen report today

For service organizations, the field continues to be a major proving ground in the quest for improved customer satisfaction, higher customer retention and increased profitability.  On average, as revealed in a recent field service survey of 220 organizations, 65% of incoming service requests require a field visit or dispatch.  Nearly 26% of these dispatches require secondary or additional follow up visits, thereby making the effective management of field resources and the overall field service organization extremely vital in the pursuit of service excellence.  For the Best-in-Class, field service management encompasses excellence in scheduling, planning, and overall workforce management.

This document will focus on the steps taken to put the right technician in place and provide an in-depth look into processes, procedures, and methodologies leveraged by Best-in-Class service organizations to attain service excellence.

Download this insightful Aberdeen report today

Innovative Technology Has Dramatic Impact on Streamlining Operations

Over the last year, TSIA has sharpened its focus on field service operations, initiating additional benchmarking of key field service financial, quality, and operational metrics. The data is now becoming available, and it paints a worrisome picture of the current state of the industry: The average cost of an enterprise field service visit has now surpassed $1,000. With companies looking for ways to improve operational efficiency and lower costs, field service is poised to dramatically reinvent itself, leveraging innovative technology and approaches to change the way companies interact with customers in the field.

Not only can optimizing field service reduce costs, it also can enable a project to generate revenue. Field agents, with their face-to-face interactions with customers, have a major impact on customer satisfaction and incremental revenue. In this report, five critical areas of the end-to-end field service processes will be examined, with recommendations for short- and long-term optimization for each. Longer term options will include how innovative approaches such as cloud technology and mobile tools are helping companies make dramatic improvements to productivity and cost.

Check out this insightful white paper to learn more

Selected Astea’s Premier End-to-End Service Management Platform to Optimize Mobile Workforce; Reduce Service Costs; Increase Customer Satisfaction; and Drive Revenues

Astea International Inc. (NASDAQ:ATEA), the leader in service lifecycle management and mobility solutions, announces that Brains II, Inc., a leading provider of manufacturer-independent IT maintenance services, has selected the Astea Alliance solution suite to further streamline and strengthen their service business reinforcing their commitment to delivering superior service.

“Our ongoing success and competitive differentiation is built by delivering superior service at a lower cost,” stated Charles Hanna, President and CEO for Brains II. “We were looking for a robust and proven solution that could provide us with the integrated service delivery platform necessary to further improve our exemplary service capabilities. After an extensive and exhaustive search for a service management and mobile workforce management solution, we found that Astea’s deep domain expertise in conjunction with their robust solution offered the breadth and depth of functionality, on a single platform, that was the perfect fit for our organization’s needs.”

Brains II selected Astea for their extensive and proven experience, over 30 years, in developing and implementing global service management and mobility solutions to enterprise companies in the IT Services industry. Additionally, the Astea Alliance solution suite provides end-to-end service management & mobility functionality, incorporating industry best practices all on a single platform, with ease of integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP. Astea’s solution will provide Brains II with a comprehensive and robust mix of capabilities such as, mobile, field service, contact center, depot repair, customer self-service, sales order processing, marketing automation, logistics, third party vendor portal, professional services automation, knowledge management and performance management that will help to further drive and improve the efficiency and costs of service delivery as well as support their strategic growth and acquisition strategy.

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As cost cuts in response to the overall economy have taken their course, organizations are now down to their core value generating resources, and are therefore looking to these resources to generate sustainable and predictable revenue streams to help support margin initiatives. Increasing service revenues is imperative for companies today as we all know that a strong service business can help a company weather a downturn in product sales. To achieve best-in-class performance, companies must: increase visibility and insight into customer service history; increase sales and marketing support of service offerings; empower front-line agents to identify and capitalize on service revenue opportunities; and increase overall contract coverage. If you already have a service revenue initiative in place or planning on implementing one within the next year, you won’t want to miss this event.

Register Today