ASTEA CUSTOMERS IN ACTION: CentricIn this age of advanced remote and mobile communications technology, some might think that the need for feet on the street in the form of the field engineer is under threat. Far from it. At the Dutch services company, Centric, it is this same technological revolution that is requiring the company to invest in its growing field service operation.

INDUSTRY

IT Services

THE CHALLENGE

Reshape business processes and procedures to become more streamlined, more effective and to offer an even higher level of service.

THE SOLUTION

Implement Astea Alliance to automate and integrate processes and deliver higher efficiencies in both the field and in the operations management.

We knew there was a growing opportunity for us in field service but that the market was changing,” he said. “Among the larger companies in particular over the last three or four years there has been an increasing focus on customer satisfaction rather than price. For them it was a competitive differentiator with their end users and so it had to be for us – it is the company that delivers the best service that will get the work. And when you can do a little more for customers, when you can add value, they are prepared to pay more.

– Peter Langerak, Centric ICT Managed Services

Centric is a leading IT services company offering software, infrastructure, market-specific solutions and a wide portfolio of related services. One of its growing areas is its Infrastructure business which provides the field support for organisations that need to deliver and service technology solutions directly into people’s homes – from high tech healthcare equipment to digital modems and internet TVs.

Astea Customers in Action: Centric

This activity is continuing to grow and to support that growth Centric has reshaped its business processes and procedures to become more streamlined, more effective and to offer an even higher level of service. To automate and integrate those processes, Centric has called on Astea Alliance software from Astea International.

Peter Langerak, the business process manager for the Centric ICT Managed Service business, led the process. As a 13-year Centric veteran and a former field service technician himself, he has great insight into how a field service business should work. He was given the management task of assessing and redesigning the operations.

“We knew there was a growing opportunity for us in field service but that the market was changing,” he said. “Among the larger companies particular over the last three or four years there has been an increasing focus on customer satisfaction rather than price. For them it was a competitive differentiator with their end users and so it had to be for us – it is the company that delivers the best service that will get the work. And when you can do a little more for customers, when you can add value, they are prepared to pay more.”

Being a major IT systems company, Centric considered using its own resources to provide the automation technology but soon ruled themselves out.

“We had a logistics management system, but it had been built for a different type of logistics operation and had a different view of scheduling,” said Langerak. “We realised that even for us, with all our skills and in house capabilities, there would be too much customisation. It would still be less expensive and more practical to use a commercial system and integrate it with our other systems.”

The job went out to competitive tender and Astea won the business. Centric was impressed by Astea’s long history of helping field service operations including a business in Belgium that Centric had acquired. Although it used an older version of the solution, Langerak’s colleagues there highly recommended the company. But the deal clincher was the completeness of Astea Alliance.

The main challenge facing the operation was a reliance on paper-based systems, some Excel spreadsheets and Google Maps for route planning. “We gave our engineers a list of their jobs at the start of the day and when they had completed them they went home,” he said.

“In the end we went with Astea because it was the only one who could deliver all we needed in one package,” said Langerak. “To go with anyone else would have led to us spending a lot of time and money on integration and that would have raised the overall cost.”

Astea Customers in Action: Centric

“We have 150 technicians making 5000 calls a week for some 20 different customers with around half of those being simple five minute disconnects or maybe 10 minutes for connects. We needed a dynamic system in which to plan, make and schedule appointments to meet the appropriate service level and do it in the most efficient way.”

So, as well as installing the core of Astea Alliance, Langerak was keen to use the Dynamic Scheduling Engine and Mobility solution which would allow them to schedule and communicate with the technicians

“automatically to improve field efficiency and save on planning resource.”

And the results have been impressive. “Through better route planning, our technicians are driving fewer miles so we have reduced the cost on fuel and maintenance. We have saved the technicians a lot of time so they are able to do more jobs and, of course, we have helped the environment by producing fewer emissions,” said Langerak.

By changing the system to assigning the technicians their jobs one at a time rather than as a list at the start of the day, the number of jobs completed each day increased. They could also be more dynamically scheduled so that it was the most appropriate technician by skill, proximity or availability who was assigned.

Although the changes were not initially popular with all of the field teams, Langerak said they were soon persuaded that the change was for the better.

The implementation has also helped the company achieve its goal of raising the levels of service it offers its customers. “Now we are more consistently meeting and even exceeding our service level agreement, because we have a clearer view of what is happening in the field and better alerts and escalations if we run close to a deadline. We are able to provide our customers with real-time information which is much more useful to them, and the reports we can provide are more thorough. We can also provide more options to our customers such as sending email or SMS alerts to their end users.”

Now Langerak is looking forward to extending the use of Astea Alliance. “We will use the Business Intelligence functionality now that we have enough data to make it useful. I think that will be very helpful to us in assessing our processes and how we are doing in real-time.”

“It took one or two months for them to get used to it, and we needed to take time to explain how it would make their work life easier; for example, there was less paperwork to do,” he added.

Centric has been able to realise its plan for a streamlined operation that has delivered

higher efficiencies in both the field and in operations management, to be more

responsive to customers and offer a higher level of service.

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Astea Customers in Action: Centric

“Also, the Customer Self-Service Portal will allow our customers to have access directly to their information, and with Astea Alliance we can manage customer queries and complaints, registrations and fault calls.”

With Astea Alliance, Centric has been able to realise its plan for a streamlined operation that has delivered higher efficiencies in both the field and in operations management, to be more responsive to customers and offer a higher level of service. Going forward, with more of the Alliance elements, Centric is poised to go to even higher levels.