In the quest for greater operational visibility and customer satisfaction, many companies are looking at ways to better connect the front office with their mobile work force. An integrated mobile data solution can be a costly and time-consuming project which is why mplSystems has created iMobile™ in line with Windows Mobile 6.5. This latest enhancement to the intelligentContact™ (iContact) family, mplSystems' fully integrated, multi-media contact and reporting solution, gives any organisation offering a service to customers the opportunity to quickly and cost-effectively link their existing call centre with the field workforce.
iMobile has been developed specifically to allow any piece of information taken at the call centre to be directly shared with field operatives in real time using their mobile device of choice. The applications for the iMobile solution, whether as a standalone facility or as part of an holistic customer/field service provision, are many and varied. Current and trial applications include the following:
Home delivery/installation services
Many organisations want to offer their services to customers in the home in order to reach a wider market or to complement other product offerings. This involves the management of a field force and the supply of up to the minute information on the products and services. The mobile device can be used to collect order information, manage appointments or manage the delivery of special products.
Workforce appointments
Setting appointments for field personnel can be done via mplSystems’ iContact call centre applications using a series of customised rules. These rules might include postcode region, staff skills, loading, travel distance/plan or priority weighting factors. A live central diary is maintained which links directly to the mobile workforce, informing field staff of their appointments in near real time to ensure they are not missed, and also ensuring customers receive a quick response to service requests. The system also provides management with up to the minute reports on successful appointments, workforce utilisation and customer demand patterns, allowing staffing plans to be monitored and altered to maximise profitability.
Field service support
Maintaining field equipment such as vending machines or automated ticket machines may require both emergency response and scheduled maintenance.iContact can be used to schedule both these types of activity and, by grouping together scheduled maintenance tasks, can help to improve productivity. Each task will have a start and end time recorded and will prompt the mobile engineer to carry out a series of diagnostic tests or to replace the equipment. In this way management has further proof that tasks are being carried out correctly and can even modify the diagnostic steps on demand to improve results. All diagnostics are collected by synchronisation with a central database for a real time view of what is happening in the field.
Field sales force automation
Rather than working from bulky laptops that take time to boot up, sales force automation software can now run seamlessly on the Windows Mobile device. Rapid selection of customer details from the appointment is just a few key strokes away and the ability to record the sales detail, such as deal value, qualification information and next steps, is extremely fast. This allows live pipeline information to be available centrally with minimal delay.
Facilities/asset management
With the ability to scan RFID or bar codes quickly it is very easy for the mobile engineer to track the assets being maintained. This can be used to improve diagnostics or asset recognition for maintenance or replacement. The process can also be used as proof that the asset has been visited and worked on. Alternatively a customer signature can be captured at the end of a job to prove the work has been carried out to the required level.
Field marketing
Using the intelligentCampaigns™ module of iContact, a series of questions can be generated centrally, synchronised to the remote device and used to collect marketing information. This may be any type of field data collection from audit facilities to street campaigning. Again, data can be quickly analysed at head office to see if the expected results are being collected and the campaign changed on the fly if necessary. The number of interviews by each operator can be tracked to ensure targets are being met. The exact location of the interview can be captured on GPS allowing geographic or environmental trends to be established with ease.
Reporting
All field information can be sent directly and reported on in near real time helping to improve productivity and save costs.
Key Benefits
Improved field force management and utilisation
Prioritisation of scheduled and emergency tasks
Controlled diagnostics and guidance for field repair services
Faster assess to marketing information
Easy to use sales automation tools
Direct asset scanning and tracking.
Key Features
Local database provides full functionality with no mobile coverage
Integration with CRM database provides all customer information
Only relevant information is sent to the user
Rapid application development through dynamic scripting
Immediate synchronisation allows real time reports at head office
Geographic Positioning System (GPS) can be used to pinpoint field staff
RFID and bar code scanning can be used to track assets
