Servigistics' Real-Time Field Service Management Command Center By Nora Parker, Directions Magazine

Reprinted with Permission, Copyright 2007, Directions Media

Field service management involves sending technicians or other staff into the field to install or repair systems or equipment - for example, appliance repair. Servigistics offers field service solutions and serves the needs of automobile manufacturers, computer hardware providers, appliance companies and medical equipment companies.

Mike Landry, CTO, and Joe Berti, vice president of Workforce Management Products, showed me Servigistics' "Command Center" application. Command Center is a combination of a business intelligence dashboard and a "war room" application. Think of it as a real-time asset management system to ensure customer satisfaction. Landry cited research from the Aberdeen Group that specified the need for effective follow-on service as a requirement for customer satisfaction. In addition, he said, more and more revenue is coming, beyond the initial purchase, from follow-on service. Consumers who get stuck waiting interminably for a service repairman are unlikely to ever do business with that company again.

Dell uses Command Center on a global level to manage service calls for its larger, corporate accounts. "In Dell's case, not only does it allow them to be more proactive in responding to service calls - it turned out to be a powerful differentiator for sales and marketing," said Berti. Command Center helps Dell land big corporate accounts by showing that the company can be highly responsive if a server or other important piece of computing equipment goes down. Berti added that the return on investment "is enormous, and as quick as six months [to pay for the system] - never more than 12 months. The ability to justify a project is very, very easy."