 By Jessica Binns
WHO: Federated Service Solutions,
headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich., is the fastest growing supplier of technology
installations services for the retail, financial and banking service industries
in the United States.
The company’s field service operations incorporate 90 wiring and cabling
technicians who service some of the nation’s biggest retailers.
CHALLENGE: Under Federated’s old system of
relaying job information to technicians, dispatchers had to place calls to the
techs’ personal cell phones. As a result, the company’s wireless phone charges
were skyrocketing, and in addition to that, Federated was unable to monitor the
technicians’ locations and provide the best job information to the tech closest
to any given location. Also, Federated relied on paper forms for job requests
and techs’ timekeeping reports. The company had no way of receiving job status
updates, which hindered its ability to inform the customer of a job’s progress.
SOLUTION: After some research, Federated
selected TeleNav Track as its wireless dispatch solution and implemented the software on an array on Nextel devices. Because TeleNav Track
incorporates GPS technology, Federated dispatchers can now log onto a Web site
to get each technician's real-time location, thereby streamlining the dispatch
process. It’s also easier now to send detailed job information to technicians
and ensure that they are maintaining their timesheets electronically. Techs use
the turn-by-turn, full-color GPS capabilities to get precise directions to
their next job, instead of potentially losing time by getting lost en route.
The system allows quick and easy access to current job status information,
which helps to dramatically improve customer service.
RESULTS: Federated is finding that TeleNav Track helps reduce fuel expenses and vehicle wear and tear
and save time on each work order. Now that
Federated management can review time estimates for each job, it can revise
estimates as necessary, which ultimately boosts the bottom line—and enhances customer service.
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