Situation before ServiceCEO: Dispatch schedules on board, work orders printed and tracked as of date opened, stacks of “work to be done’ in different piles on different desks, Inventory department is a standalone operation not integrated with central company accounting, and Billing and Accounting freeform type the invoices at the end. Workflow consists of people writing down job numbers and inventory numbers on slips of paper and carrying those papers to the next desk. Management cash flow control and job profitably managed thru Excel sheets custom prepared by different departments. Two software systems, scheduling board, job folders, reams of paper, plus Excel are used in the day to day system.
Challenges of Implementation: With 70+ trucks in play every day the ability to run parallel for two weeks was out of the question. We had to go live in one weekend. Eighteen office personnel, four departments: Dispatch, Inventory/Merchandise, Purchasing, Service Management, Sales & Estimating, Billing, Cash Sales, and Accounting plus the all important HVAC company CEO and department managers all had to be on board, trained, and ready to make the change.
The Team of bringing ServiceCEO Change and Implementation from APP Consulting: Our Team for this ServiceCeo installation consisted on Debbie Smith and Michael Kushinsky doing on line training. Robert Slusser working days and nights to deliver the constantly changing new ServiceCeo Crystal reports and ServiceCeo Crystal reports written for pin-feed forms on multiple printers throughout the sprawling facility. Geoff LaPlace for the ServiceCeo Onsite training lead. The days we’re ten to twelve hours long, reports and dB scripts were being run at night, and the changeover came on a weekend where the whole APP Consulting team and the HVAC company employees worked Saturday and Sunday.
The Start-Up: The switch was thrown - old system out, new system “On”. Within days of Geoff LaPlace arriving for the ServiceCeo on-site set-up, support and implementation we were off and running. How? APP has the largest team of ServiceCeo trained implementation people in the world. We have the most successes and the largest successes. The whole team stands with your on site person. So when the Monday morning rush of Customer outage calls came in, Geoff LaPlace was there to direct and field questions while the CEO of the company handled larger issues. Simultaneously that morning techs cued up at the Inventory/Merchandise windows to get stock for their brand new work orders. Stock personnel we trained in high-speed inventory transfers. The techs rolled with all the parts and all the paperwork.
Ongoing: We have moved up their billing cycle from 3 weeks after service completed to 3 days. We have integrated Inventory into dispatch and integrated Service doing Repair quotes to a simple process which also indicates the profitability and costs before the work is done. Purchase Order Approvals are now integrated in cash flow management and previewing invoices to get deposits for work to be done is improved. As this company is an ongoing APP Consulting customer we maintain files and copies of their custom ServiceCeo Crystal Reports so upgrades and changes can be done immediately at the lowest of costs. APP also works closely with the HVAC company CEO to help create and tune the ServiceCeo Accounting connection. Yearly ServiceCeo provides audits when questions arise. When you partner with a ServiceCeo Support company, it is very important to choose one who knows you and your business. APP Consulting has been in business – old system out, new system “On”.
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