The good news is that many service companies have seen the benefits available, recognised the potential and invested in software and equipment that has provided a number of benefits. Change of this nature is fraught with potential hazards, of course, but if handled with care, the bonuses far outweigh the negatives.

A recent example of a service operation that has decided to ‘bite the bullet’ is the Tennant Company. The manufacturer of a wide range of floor cleaning equipment has an international team of service engineers that attend both maintenance and breakdown calls. An American-owned business, its headquarters are in Minneapolis with European operations directed from its offices in Antwerp, Belgium.

When one of its floor cleaning machines is sold, the company allocates a service engineer to deal with the customer in future. This allows the engineer to develop an effective working relationship with the client, with benefits for all concerned including ongoing customer loyalty. Its machines are used in a variety of environments, ranging from industrial to retail and public to corporate establishments. Its dealings with the retail sector in particular involves SLAs that require any breakdown call to be attended the same day if the call is received before 10am.

The company has extended its products and general operation through a mixture of continuing innovation and acquisition of other businesses. The market is competitive and the need to develop additional areas of revenue saw Tennant turn its attention to its field service operation in the mid 1990s. It has offered customer support since the 1960s, but the potential to make this more profitable justified investment to increase efficiency. A total of approximately 650 engineers are employed, 450 of whom work in the US with 200 in Europe. The company realised that it needed to centralise all operations and ensure that each country used the same working practices before it could begin to automate its service departments. This was completed in 2001.

The initial purchase of an off-the-shelf service management system was deemed unsuccessful when it failed to integrate with the company’s existing IT operation. The decision was then made to purchase a system that could be tailored to match its requirements and the search began for a suitable option. Another factor in the equation was the type of device to be used by engineers.

Tennant had purchased Walter Broadley Machines Limited in 2003, a UK company employing 130 people and using a PDA system for its engineers’ mobile communications. PDAs were not considered suitable for Tennant’s service operation, however, as the system used by Walter Broadley did not allow sufficient flexibility of use.

The decision on its service management system was made following a lengthy process to identify the most appropriate option. The Dexterra ServiceLINK system was purchased, linking to the company’s existing global SAP system, and Tennant decided on the Panasonic Toughbook for its engineers to use in the field. The company is now able to allow its engineers to view all service codes and dispatch information, but was initially concerned that there would be resistance to the new system.

‘We thought that there could be a lot of problems with engineers accepting this new technology because they would think it would involve too much administration,’ said Leo Suurmond, service development manager Europe. ‘We had to convince them it would improve the way they worked and would have a lot of benefits for them.’

A deciding factor in gaining the acceptance of its engineers was the viewing of service manuals. These bulky documents were carried in each engineer’s van, taking up space and were difficult to keep clean. A new document would have to be created when machinery and parts were updated, leading to frustration through any delay in distribution. By producing its service manuals in PDF format, however, engineers were able to view these on their Toughbooks, accessing the latest versions and removing the need to carry paper-based versions.

‘The engineers had previously had to carry a box of manuals, one for each machine,’ said Suurmond. ‘These were heavy, and quickly became dirty and could be out of date, but electronic manuals are always current. Any changes to the manual are in place the next day. This immediately appealed to the engineers.’

The new system was rolled out to its US operation in autumn 2005, which also allowed the company to work with Dexterra to fine tune it to match its requirements more accurately. Its introduction to the European workforce began in April 2006 and started with the UK. Six engineers were chosen to begin learning the system, allowing the company to build up to the roll-out in June.

'We used the engineers as advocates to enthuse their colleagues on the benefits of the system,' said Suurmond. 'At the end of the trial period, no one wanted to return their Toughbooks.

'We also needed to test the system as there's a different wireless connection in Europe, compared to the US. The GPRS modem in the Toughbook is very slow so we needed to see how this would work,' said Suurmond. He also explained that the system gives the engineer more control in their dealings with the client, a very important factor in his opinion. Although some engineers find this more stressful, it is far more beneficial and allows them to provide a much better service to the customer, who needs to know when their machine will be ready and when parts will arrive.

The UK engineers were trained in two day sessions once the company was satisfied with the system's operation. 'Some of the engineers couldn't even enter their password to begin with and had to be taught to use the keyboard, but we managed to get everyone on board in the end.'

Training involved the operation of the Toughbook, accessing emails used to allocate service calls and the six main screens of the Dexterra system. Working their way through each screen, an engineer can see the details of the customer, their machinery and all service history. The details of any SLA are also visible and details can be updated where necessary. Data from the machine's motors are also downloaded to the Toughbook via a diagnostic socket.

After the UK, the system was introduced in France in November 2006, followed by the Benelux countries in December. After Germany in 2007, it was rolled out to Spain, Italy and Portugal.

It was decided to limit emails attachments to 300k, as this would avoid the system becoming overloaded. It would also discourage employees from using the system for personal files. With most countries using the solution for more than a year, Tennant has been able to measure its effectiveness. 'We wanted to achieve a 75% efficiency in service orders and we've actually achieved 94%,' said Suurmond. 'We also wanted 80% of parts ordered through the system and we've actually achieved 84%.'

Although there have been occasions when the system has lost connection, Suurmound stated that the longest break had been for two hours. When this happens, engineers revert to the use of a paper-based system and simply update their records when connection has been regained.