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  Implementing Real-Time Service - 4 P's and one T
 
Implementing a Real-Time Service solution involves more than just technology. Here are 4 P’s and a T to guide your Real-Time Service implementation, offered as lessons from companies that have taken first steps in this direction.
 
Define your Priorities
Patterson Dental is a $1.6B value-added distributor and service provider to the dental and pet veterinarian markets, with over 850 technicians in North America. The company has established a leadership position in its market, largely due to superior service and customer relationships. Patterson’s management views real-time service as a way to enhance relationships with its customers, which in turn would help the company further differentiate itself from the competition and boost its market leadership.
 
Patterson has conducted a thorough evaluation of the components required to implement a real-time service framework, working with a number of selected vendors to assemble a best-of-breed solution. In prioritizing its rollout of the solution, Patterson has opted to start with implementing GPS functionality first. Over 700 of its US-based technician vans are now equipped with a Mobile Base Station (MBS) that provide Patterson with real-time view of where these technicians are at any time.
 
As it turns out, many service organizations look to gain visibility into their service processes as a first step towards real-time service. It makes sense – you cannot manage what you don’t see. Amada Cutting, for example, decided to start its real-time service implementation with work order automation. Enabling technicians to access and update work order status directly from the field will eliminate lengthy delays in fulfilling service orders and provide management with clear visibility into the status work progress across the organization.
 
Revisit Process
Direct Energy is a home energy appliances service provider, with over 600 field technicians serving greater than 2.5 million customers in Canada and the US. When Direct Energy implemented a workforce optimization solution, they did not merely automate the existing process, but rather instituted a new appointment booking and work assignment process to take advantage of the solution.
 
The old procedure consisted of two separate processes: a call center representative would take a customer call and schedule a date and time for repair visit based on the customer’s request, but with no way to know whether the request could actually be fulfilled at the promised time. A separate process assigned the work orders to technicians, but provided no feedback loop to the customer if the work could not be done on time.
 
The workforce scheduling optimization solution has enabled Direct Energy to automate the appointment booking and work assignment processes, which can now be handled by a third of the staff it used to take prior to the implementation. It also optimizes the assignment of work to technicians, which helps reduce travel time and ensure the assignment of a qualified technician. But even more importantly, it has enabled Direct Energy to move from two disconnected processes to a single, real-time closed-loop process of appointment booking and work assignment. While the customer is on the phone, a call center representative can schedule the visit at a time that is convenient to the customer and verify that it fits into the actual work schedule, ensuring that a qualified technician will be available at the place at the promised time. “Honoring commitments to our customers is the greatest benefit of the system”, says Ivan Mraz, Business Systems Manager for Direct Energy.
 
Get People Involved
When Patterson Dental implemented GPS tracking, they made it a priority to address the concerns of their field technicians, who might have viewed the technology as “Big Brother” looking over their shoulders. “We explained why we are implementing GPS, which was to keep track of their location so we can be more efficient in providing service and to make better use of their time,” says Lynn Askew, VP MIS for Patterson. “There was a lot of frustration among technicians being dispatched to a service call on one side of the metro area, then getting the next call on the other side of the metro area and having to fight traffic to get there, and while driving seeing another one of our vans already in that area. We were able to provide many real-world examples of benefits to GPS that helped address most of the concerns.”
 
Linda Tucci, Director of Services for Diagnostic Products Corporation (DPC), echoes the sentiment. DPC manufacturers and services medical immunodiagnostic systems and related reagents, and has recently implemented a real-time intelligent device management solution. “Intelligent Device Management is a new concept,” says Tucci; “education and training of technical personnel, sales, and customers are keys to swift success.”
 
Be Practical and Patient
While patience and real-time may sound contradicting, you cannot do it all at once. “Big Bang” implementations are risky. Central Parking Corporation, which operates approximately 3,900 parking facilities, worldwide, is piloting a real-time service solution, including handheld devices for real-time field communication, in its New York City service operations. There is a learning process that goes with the introduction of every new system. Going over the steepest portion of the learning curve is much easier and safer in a small-scale, highly controlled pilot environment.
 
“Our pilot experience took place at six sites over a six months period,” says Tucci. “You need live scenarios to ensure defined processes work and to get customer feedback.”
 
Understand and Leverage Technology
Only after you’ve addressed the four P’s are you ready to tackle the T. “We need to make sure we buy a product that is at the right part of its lifecycle,” says Askew. “It is sometimes painful to be in the first 5-10% of the product lifecycle and it is certainly shortsighted to buy a product that is in its twilight. There is a sweet spot where the technology is not too difficult to implement yet you still get enough of the lifespan out of it so it is practical to use.”
 
Both Askew and Mraz emphasize the need for comprehensive scalability testing. As much testing as the vendors do, they can never completely emulate the real-life environment where multiple systems work and connect in real-time. “We certainly talk to vendors but we want to make sure the solution works in our environment. We test database scalability both for transaction volume and transaction accumulation, and we test the application on our networks,” says Askew.
 
Since real-time solutions usually require more data to travel to and from multiple locations and mobile users, security issues must be understood and addressed as part of the deployment process. Linda Tucci of DPC emphasizes the need for companies implementing real-time service solutions to step to the plate and proactively address security concerns. “It is better to provide detailed information before being asked,” says Tucci.
 
To Learn More
Several of the examples above were shared in a webinar series held over the past three weeks – Roadmap to Real-Time Service Optimization. You can view a recording of the webinar at www.real-time-service.com.