Metric Group - a leading provider of car park payment terminals and ticketing solutions - has deployed the intelligentMobile (iMobile) field service management solution from mplystems across its nationwide team of 70 highly-skilled engineers.
Using iMobile gives Metric Group greater control over its field service operations, helping them to unlock process improvements, monitor SLAs and deliver on their complex service contracts more effectively.
Metric Group's field workforce supports solutions such as the Almex electronic ticketing machines used by a major national transport operator, and the roadside ticketing machines operated by London Bus Services for TfL. The TfL contract, for example, demands that ticketing machines are checked every day, all faults are resolved in one hour, and that a 24-hour helpline is supported on 364 days of the year.
"Given the complexity of our contracts, and the number of systems that we're supporting across a wide variety of locations, it's essential that we optimise the performance of our field service engineers to make the most of their time," commented Ashley Bailey, Metric Group's Customer Service Manager. "Working with iMobile from mplsystems we can unlock further productivity from our existing field service resourcing levels - effectively creating a single view of all our engineering resources. This means we can now see all of our current customer requirements, use geolocation techniques to know exactly where our engineers are at any given time, and gain a clearer understanding of their specific parts requirements. iMobile provides us with all the information we need to optimise service schedules more effectively."
mplsystems' iMobile solution for Metric Group combines mobile capabilities with a powerful web portal system to allow the company's customers to log any faults directly, confirm their job details and book repair visits. The mplsystems portal has been designed to minimise the chance of key-in errors for both customers and field service staff, and also incorporates relevant triggers to make sure that Metric Group's SLAs are being tracked and that alerts are generated when necessary.
"Because of the flexibility of iMobile and the speed of deployment, we've been able to get really close to an implementation that exactly matches our specific service operation," adds Ashley Bailey. "If we'd had to go down an off-the-shelf route we could have been left with a system that didn't deliver for us and we didn't have spare in-house capacity to develop our own solution. With mplsystems and iMobile we get the best of both worlds."
"iMobile directly addresses the lack of real time communications that most organisations have with their field-based operations," added Paul White, CEO at mplsystems. "With iMobile, Metric Group can leverage the power of the latest mobile and smartphone technology to ensure accurate and up-to-the-minute information, minimise response times, and always ensure that their field engineers are connected to key back-office systems such as ERP, stock control and parts ordering."
mplsystems' iMobile solution is available on a Cloud-based, pay-per-usage model and proves cost-effective for all sizes of mobile workforces. Deployed successfully across key sectors including Service Management, IT, Engineering, Retail, Distribution and Facilities Management, iMobile helps organisations increase their service levels, improve first time fix rates and secure productivity improvements within their field workforce operations.
iMobile solutions incorporate mobile workforce management apps for leading smartphones and tablets running iOS, Android and Windows Mobile 7, automated scheduling and dynamic optimisation, Google Maps live view, GPS tracking, CRM and trouble-ticketing apps, call centre ACD, email and SMS integration, self-service Web portals, as well as specialist order handling, parts & asset management, and service performance and reporting capabilities.