"[Field service] is a very important customer touch point," says CIO Greg Buoncontri. "It is also a very interesting revenue opportunity [because] if you have information about customer habits, you have the opportunity to see if the customer needs anything at that point."
Wireless Cuts Through the Baloney
According to Ralph Nichols, service program manager at Pitney, the company lacked a global view of its customers, employees and products. Some processes were left open-ended, making problem resolution vague, and the legacy batch systems were out of synch with one another. The Siebel upgrade was designed to handle many of these problems, but the company still needed to improve its wireless capabilities in the field.
The smaller of the two divisions, Document Messaging, started its wireless field service system implementation first. Pitney chose Antenna Software's A3 solution for Siebel Field Service, using Research in Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry 957 devices running on the Cingular wireless network. Systems integrator Extraprise helped with the implementation. With the Antenna systems, the client software resides on the RIM device, and information is managed wirelessly using Antenna's store-and-forward technology.
The Antenna application helped clean up Pitney's field data, which was previously reported using internal codes. "It was gibberish to read, and there was little audit quality," Nichols says. "The customers didn't know what we were talking about." Service reports are now in clearly understandable text, and the field application uses pull-down menus for data entry, which prevents ambiguity.
The Antenna system lets managers know which technicians are on what job and what parts have been used. As service technicians draw inventory down, the Siebel system automatically places replenishment orders with human intervention. This helps keep trunk stock levels optimum and cuts down on emergency part orders.
Of the 810 users, a little more than 100 employees use notebook and desktop computers, while 660 technicians in the field use the RIM device at 3,500 customer sites.
"For most staff, the RIM device allowed them to retrieve or input all of the information necessary almost all of the time," Nichols says. "The telephone or computer is used in only rare instances."
The new Siebel system, augmented by Antenna's wireless capabilities, provides real-time information and more tightly controls business processes so that there is a closed service loop. Nichols says the system has also improved responsibility and accountability in customer service by naming the representative handling each transaction.
"It's much simpler to cut through all of the baloney," Nichols says. "There's no more guessing."
Nichols says the Antenna installation, which went live in April, went smoothly thanks to early involvement on the part of the technicians and other end users. "That helped the team understand what the user wanted to have," Nichols says. "Most of the information used in the organization comes from data in the field. We're dependent on good information."
Another contributor to the success of the system was that the company altered its business processes to limit software customizations. "Technology was an enabler, not the solution," says Nichols. "Process change was strongly encouraged over customization."
The group expects a 90% reduction in emergency and rush orders, a 10% improvement in the first-time fix rate, and a 15% inventory reduction. Pitney also now has access to more granular product and lifecycle metrics. "Which parts do we service more often?" Nichols says. "We can find that out now, and we really couldn't do that easily before."
Nichols says the Antenna system was expected to pay for itself in 12 months, based primarily on inventory improvements. Efficiency improvements weren't included in the business case because they were harder to quantify.
A Different Path
Meanwhile, Pitney's Global Mailing organization was shopping for a wireless solution of its own. The larger division handles 800,000 to 1 million service calls per year and employs 2,000 technicians in the . alone.
The group was not able to upgrade its wireless systems in the same time frame as that of its counterparts in Document Messaging. Because of the scope of the project and different application requirements, the division decided against using the Antenna solution.
Technicians originally used a homegrown service management system and carried brick-style mobile computers that were later replaced by RIM devices operating on Motient's packet-data network.
According to Mark Davis, vice president of customer service, the Global Mailing group wanted to take advantage of improved cellular communications technology and find a new mobile device that could handle the technicians' voice and data needs.
"The new system had to be flexible because of changing requirements," Davis says. The group chose the hosted Atlas Field Service Solution for Seibel from RPA Wireless Inc. to extend the CRM system out to the technicians.
With the RPA system, Pitney can select from multiple devices and multiple wireless carriers. Right now, Davis says the company will get % customer location coverage using a combination of three different wireless carriers.
Davis says the company is looking for new mobile computers that combine phone, PDA and pager functionality, which will save Pitney some money in device support. The company decided not to use ruggedized mobile devices because their operating environment is not very harsh, Davis says.
The RPA system enables wireless communication between the technicians and the Siebel field service application. Technicians will be able to access call history, parts availability and other information through their wireless computers.
With that information at their fingertips, technicians can search for nearby repair parts, saving time at the customer site, and check equipment history to better diagnose current problems. Davis also expects an increase in productivity because Pitney will be able to assign the right technician to each job based on experience and location, which should improve first-call problem resolution as well.
Rollout of the RPA system was set to begin this month and continue through June, at which point 1,800 . field technicians will be online with the system. Pitney will hold one-day, on-site training to educate the technicians about the new application functionality.
Wireless Convergence
As the two divisions began rolling out their wireless systems, Antenna announced it was acquiring RPA Wireless.
While the two companies offered largely complementary technology, Antenna CEO Jim Hemmer says RPA was beginning to overlap and compete with Antenna in some markets. The merger brings RPA's hosted solution together with Antenna's products. The company can now support both models and plans to start bringing the two systems' common application components together.
"When I was informed of the merger, I was quite excited," Davis says. "Both had characteristics that the two organizations were looking for, and we're hoping that the best of each will be combined into one product."
The changes keep coming. Late last year, Pitney Bowes reorganized itself into two divisions based on customer requirements, Global Mailstream Solutions and Enterprise Solutions (which includes the Document Messaging operation). Davis says the SAP/Siebel roll-out should be completed by 2005. Pitney's wireless field service applications are also expected to expand throughout its global service operations as well.
At A Glance
User: Pitney Bowes
Application: Field service automation
Technologies: Mobile computers, wireless communication, field service software
Benefits:
* Increased productivity
* Improved customer service
* Expected 15% reduction in inventory
* Expected 90% reduction in emergency orders
* Expected 10% improvement in first-time fix rate
Company Information
Antenna Software Inc.
Jersey City, .
800/879-5860
.com
Cingular Wireless
Woodbridge, .
866/246-4852
.com
Extraprise
Boston, Mass.
617/880-4000
.com
Motient Corp.
Lincolnshire, Ill.
847/478-4200
.com
Research in Motion
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
519/888-7465
.net
SAP
New York, .
800/880-1727
.com
Siebel Systems Inc.
San Mateo, Calif.
650/295-5000
.com
Extra! Extra!
For further reading on this and related topics, see these articles, available at .com/032004links:
"Pitney Bowes Will Extend Data to Its Mobile Workforce"
October 2002
"Flipping Switches on ERP and CRM"
September 2002
