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The Cloud on behalf of the field workers

The Cloud on behalf of the field workers

Monday 25 february 2019

Over the past two years, next-generation cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) B2B*software solutions have been emerging in a Mobile First approach, with the user experience in the frontline and the sharing of intra and inter-company information at the center of their device.

These applications are now perfectly mature and will take over the old client-server ERP usually deployed on-premise, with a mobility functionality in its infancy and providing outdated user interfaces. These moden application are user-friendly, facilitate the employees' day-to-day by sparing them unrewarding administrative tasks in favor of high value-added actions.

Do away with paper !

With paper-based processes still heavily in place in service providers' companies, field technicians waste valuable time retrieving their intervention forms, completing them, and forwarding them to headquarters. They also very rarely have the information they need to be fully effective: equipment manuals, instructions, list of maintenance tasks, etc. This information, scattered and often difficult to access in the field, can now be brought together in a single application and be available for the technician on the site of the intervention.

On the office side, the situation is not any better: once recovered, the paper documents must be deciphered, checked, filed, recorded and finally transmitted to the client.

CMMS automates the entire information chain. The actions to be taken are recorded as soon as the customer is called and instantly transmitted to the technician who receives a notification. All the additional documents that he will need can be associated with the transmitted message. Once the intervention is over, the technician fills out his report in a few seconds and completes it with photos and digital signatures. All the actors concerned are immediately informed. Time and efficiency gains are considerable.

Get it over with old generation softs

It is also time to put an end to sad, boring and impractical business applications. To bury the ERPs inherited from the 70s and 80s with infinite implementation times, prohibitive license purchase and integration costs. This software, which continues to invade companies of all sizes, is a barrier to their innovation and consequently to their growth and profit potential.

The same applies to intervention management and maintenance monitoring solutions editors who persist in selling heavy, complex to use products to their customers, requiring long periods of training and team downtime. Project management is systematically expensive, difficult, and, icing on the cake, most of the time, deadlines are not respected.

Focus on the user

When creating software, the user, meaning the employee or sometimes the client, should always be the top priority for designers. However, it is clear that they have been so far discarded by business solutions publishers.

CMMS softwares are well-aware of all this and integrated it by developing simple, fluid applications with an intuitive design, that have been highly studied. The goal is to always give priority to the essential by eliminating the little extras and unnecessary heaviness. This constant concern of the development and design team ensures a quick and enthusiastic appropriation of the application by the employees.

There is a lot at stake in the addressed ecosystem in which empowerment and autonomy is key to have maintenance teams motivated to the fullest of their potential. Accessing to information easily and producing new information rapidly is crucial.

Access to information facilitated

By providing the technician with a wealth of information (electronic maintenance logbook, plans, diagrams, photos, workpieces, lists of specific actions, etc.), directly at his place of intervention, and by providing multiple diagnostic aids, CMMS facilitates and speeds up the technician's work, his decision-making in the event of an equipment failure and optimizes the relevance of his choices in his search for solutions. If we add the satisfaction of using a tool based on the latest generation technologies, the company has the ideal combination to improve the accountability, autonomy and motivation of its field workers.

Rapid information production

On the first hand, through the application, the manager has a permanent access to what his technicians are doing at a given time, for instance during an intervention, to where they are, to what they did earlier in the day and what they will do in the future. Furthermode, the manager can also easily appreciate the contribution of each member into the global  team's performance. On the other hand, the technician knows exactly what he has to do, where he has to go and how long will it last. It also could be notified instantly via the application of a change of program or absence, or ask for backups.

This sharing of information and transparency is stimulating for everyone. It empowers the technician and allows his manager to coach his teams more effectively and with more proximity in a constant exchange of information between the two parts.

A bright future

A successful digital transformation means both getting rid of paper and choosing an application for your company that puts the user at the heart of your concerns.

The creation of value in a service company depends above all on people and the success of such a project will depend mainly on the ability of the tools put in place to be perfectly understood, appreciated and used by employees.

This challenge, dodged by the previous generation of software publishers, is now being met by start-ups that are specializing in the development of business applications.

Delivered in SaaS mode in the cloud, these new applications, which are now at the forefront of the software industry, will unlock the productivity and growth of the companies that will adopt them.

*SaaaS B2B means a business software application delivered in Software as a Service mode

By the way, our ambition is to offer an unparalleled user experience. Check it out right away: try CMMS for free. Within 2 minutes, the time it takes to create your account, you'll discover what's newest in this category of software.

You can also benefit from a demonstration led by one of our consultants: book a videoconference

Good discovery and see you soon !

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