Service Smarts

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.

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The attainment of revenue from service continues to be a major goal for service organizations in 2011.  A poll of Chief Service Officers (CSOs) in Aberdeen’s State of Service Management research (September 2010) found that 43% of service leaders identified revenue growth as the key goal for their businesses in 2011.  Subsequent function-specific polling in 2011 around field service, the contact center and service parts, as well industry-specific polling around high-tech and medical device organizations confirms the strategic focus on revenue from the service side of the business. 

This document highlights key trends in the pursuit of service revenue and document practices relied upon by leading service organizations to capitalize on the goodwill and loyalty of their customer base.

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The demand for mobile field service solutions is on the rise. Simultaneously, the number of mobile devices entering the market is also increasing at a rapid pace. As these factors increase so does the need for protecting your mission critical data. If you are in the process of selecting a mobile field service solution or already have one in place you will not want to miss this eye-opening event.

Join VDC Research, Astea International, and SOTI for an informative webinar on how the right combination of mobile technologies can bring vital back-office information to each and every field service worker in a secure and controlled environment regardless of the devices being used.

• Hear about the industry trends in the mobile field service enterprise market. Gain visibility into the areas of impact that mobile technologies are making on organizations, and understand the nuances that will be critical for enterprises rolling out mobile solutions.
• See a demonstration of Astea’s Alliance Mobile Universal solution that leverages the latest HTML5 technology to deliver a sleek and innovative user interface while still providing both connected and disconnected modes of operation. Able to now also operate with Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones, and iPads, organizations can choose the devices that work best for their environment.
• View a demonstration of SOTI’s MobiControl solution, the best-selling Enterprise Mobile Device Management solution, equipped with an array of features to enable Corporate IT departments to manage, support, secure and track enterprise and employee-owned Windows, Apple iOS and Google Android devices.

Register Today: http://www.astea.com/en/forms/request.aspx?t=webinar40b

If you have technicians providing service in the field, then this is a “Can’t Miss” webinar for you. Service-related costs continue to escalate and customers continue to demand faster response times, but just because the technician shows up on time does not mean your problems are solved, you need to really ask yourself:

Are my technicians as productive as they could be? Have I removed all of the redundant processes that are hampering their productivity? Are they using the right device for their environment?

Did I send the right technician with the appropriate skills? Does the technician have the necessary parts and tools necessary to fix it right the first time?

 Does the technician have instantaneous access to customer history; comprehensive technical manuals; service history; contract information? Can they easily capture customer signatures, add attachments (pictures, files, etc.) and accurately record parts used, diagnostics, time & expenses, and other service related information?

Aberdeen Group and Astea International provide an informative webinar on how the right combination of mobile technology and devices can bring the information contained within the back office to each and every field service worker.

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Leading organizations are taking significant steps to improve their ability to capture, assimilate and organize performance data across the entire service spectrum and beyond, and we are therefore enabling the pursuit of business transformation. To dig deeper into the performance management capabilities of service organizations, Aberdeen’s service management team conducted a specific research poll to evaluate how leading organizations are leveraging performance insight and information to drive service business change in order to boost customer-facing and internal operational or financial results. For the purpose of this study, the area of performance management wasn’t just confined to performance insight, but split into: performance capture – getting the right data; performance insight, organization and analysis – understanding what the data is implying; performance-based business decisions – acting on the data provided.

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When it comes to field service technologies one can feel overwhelmed with the different solutions that are in the market today. Deciding which one is the best fit for your organization can be a daunting challenge. 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 service solution, 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 field service market and how might it affect your organization? What are other companies doing to improve technician efficiency and drive service revenues? How does your organization compare?

Attend this webinar to learn more….

Attendees at Aberdeen’s 2010 Chief Service Officer (CSO) Summit indicated that field service was the top area of improvement for their service organisations in 2011.  This was supported by respondents to the Aberdeen’s State of Service Management (September 2010) research project, where in survey respondents indicated that field service was a top three area of focus for 2011 along with improved performance management and knowledge sharing.  As opposed to just relying on scheduling changes to drive more from day-to-day execution, Best-in-Class CSO’s are beginning to invest in tools and processes around planning and employee management that allow the field worker to be more effective in the delivery of service.

Best-in-Class Performance
In December 2010 and January 2011, Aberdeen Group surveyed over 300 service professionals.  Those defined as Best-in-Class exhibited the following:

• 93% current performance in customer retention (77% for all others and a 11% increase in service revenue over the previous 12 months)
• 74% level of workforce utilisation (60% for all others) and a 9% increase in workforce productivity over the previous 122 months
• 91% compliance with stated response or project completion times (74% for all others)

Check out this insightful white paper to learn more and see how your service organization compares.

TDIndustries received payback in just 2.5 years – half the time it anticipated.

When evaluating mobile technologies, it is easy to become wrapped up in the “cool” and “shiny” of available options. Doing so, however, can lead to a detrimental mistake – choosing a technology based on its cool factor rather than its ability to address your business objectives. To bulletproof your technology selection, you must fully understand the business pain points the technology should address, outline your goals for making an investment, and identify the must-have features necessary to achieve your outcomes. Then, stick to this data like the golden rule. If a solution doesn’t meet your needs, move on — no matter how cool it may be. TDIndustries spent ample time identifying its business needs and outlining necessary features of a solution before making its technology investment. This process led the company to a solution tailored to meet its specific needs that is paying off exponentially.

TDIndustries recently rolled out a field force automation solution to its 300 technicians that consists of FieldCentrix service management software from Astea deployed handheld computers. This article explains TDIndustries’ deployment and will help you understand how your company may benefit from a similar solution.

> Live TSIA Webcast Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 9am PT / 12pm ET: Register Now!

After two years of economic gloom, TSIA’s annual Member Technology Survey showed field service organization were spending again, with one in five companies having approved budget for field service optimization and logistics tools in 2010-11. But the big surprise was mobility: a whopping 34% of field service members have budget for mobile field service tools over the next year.

Tune in to find out about:

• Mobile ROI: Five business benefits for adopting mobile field service capabilities
• Mobile usability: learn the three phases of sophistication for mobile tools, and the pros/cons of each
• Mobile features: Real world examples of how companies are using innovative mobile tools such as real-time scheduling optimization, GPS tracking, parts visibility and management in the field, in-depth service histories as well as contract entitlement and SLA management.

Register now! Attendees will receive a free copy of a new joint research report from Astea and TSIA: “Mobile Enablement: Field Service Automation,” with more detail on each of these trends, as well as customer case studies.