How visibility across legacy apps boosted field service performance for a $6 billion technology company

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Success brings its own unique blend of strengths and challenges. For one multinational technology company – 150 years strong with $6+ billion in revenues in 2020 – the company enjoyed a long history of innovation targeting a broad range of service providers. But while that track record has helped the company grow an enviable reputation, it’s also generated a trail of legacy apps to maintain. Over the years, that patchwork of legacy apps was further complicated by a corporate history involving many acquisitions.

And many of those apps created a variety of field service challenges. The company finally found a solution that connects clients' operations from the back-office to the front end (and everything in between). Now they can support customers anytime, anywhere. Having visibility across all of the apps involved and all of the data lurking within them was a crucial objective that had often proved difficult to achieve.

Before implementing that solution, the mix of legacy apps (and the intricacies of integrating them) resulted in delays and other challenges that led to an unacceptable level of SLA compliance violations. Other problems stemmed from situations in which back office personnel had difficulty keeping track of the locations and current status of field engineers.

‍Finding a solution for improved integration and enhanced visibility.

‍The company recognized that these challenges could best be addressed with an external solution that could finally end their ongoing integration struggles while also providing more visibility across their customers’ field service operations. They were specifically looking for a solution that would service the entire field service cycle with the needs of all of the stakeholders involved. Those stakeholders included:

• Customers: Customers needed a portal from which they could receive information whenever a task was created, updated, scheduled, approved, rejected, or closed. These end-users also needed to monitor technician locations in real time and receive notifications for any deviations occurring when technicians were en route, arriving at a customer site, or performing tasks on site.  
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• Back-office personnel: A key requirement was integrating systems that managed corrective ticketing and dispatching. This would also entail incorporating reporting and tracking capabilities to ensure near-100% SLA compliance.
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• Technicians: Since many on-site personnel rely exclusively on their mobile phone as their digital lifeline, it was essential to be able to provide crucial information – such as workflows and capabilities for corrective maintenance – on a mobile basis. This helped to bridge the visibility gap among back-office and on-site personnel.

With all of these needs addressed, the company was able to greatly improve its SLA compliance metrics. As a company executive noted, “automating SLA alerts when tasks are about to expire allows users to take additional actions (such as reassigning tasks and applying priorities to the workflow) to avoid SLA-related penalties.”

Partnering with a field service innovator

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‍After reviewing the available solutions, the company selected Zinier’s for several reasons. Zinier was able to not merely consolidate and integrate their existing systems, but to also “supercharge” the results. As another company executive put it, “We selected Zinier to maximize the current legacy platforms while also providing visibility at all times by monitoring the activities performed by the workforce in the field.”

By automating various manual processes, the Zinier solution increased the speed and accuracy of close-out packages. The ability to create custom workflows using the low-code platform ensured consistent service quality, even as customer requirements continuously evolved. And a customer portal provided visibility into field activity for both the company and its clients.

‍Substantial improvements in field service KPIs

‍Working closely with Zinier, the company has continued to improve the field service experience for all of its stakeholders. The integration of Zinier’s platform with the current system for managing work orders and the addition of automated field engineer recommendations based on key factors such as availability, skill, and proximity has continued to boost back office efficiency. In a single quarter, the company boosted the number of tasks completed by over 50% (from 800 to 1203). One driver behind this impressive increase was that field engineers were properly equipped to succeed as soon as they arrived at the site. Zinier’s mobile app facilitated communication and visibility to improve the success rate from 70% to 98.8%. And not only were there substantial improvements in key quantitative metrics, there were also qualitative improvements as well. For example, the addition of a customer portal providing real-time updates coupled with improved technician effectiveness on the field drove a spike in positive customer feedback, from from 80% to 99.6%.

KPI Improvements with Zinier

‍Success Rate

Definition: Successful tasks on Zinier / total tasks on Zinier
‍2019 Baseline (before Zinier) = 70%
2021 Results (with Zinier) = 98.8%
Improvement = 41%

Adoption

Definition: Tasks assigned on Zinier / total tasks requested by company
‍2019 Baseline (before Zinier) = 70%
2021 Results (with Zinier) = 84.8%
Improvement = 21%

‍SLA Compliance

Definition: 5% - assigned within 30 minutes, 30% - arrival to site within 15 minutes of scheduled time, 65% - resolution within 2 hours
‍2019 Baseline (before Zinier) = 95%
2021 Results (with Zinier) = 98.6%
Improvement = 3.8%

Tasks Completed per Month

Definition: Technicians are able to complete at least 1 other service during the same day)
‍2019 Baseline (before Zinier) = 800
2021 Results (with Zinier) = 1203
Improvement = 50.4%

Positive Customer Feedback

Definition: Excellent or Good end customer feedback on corrective tasks performed by field technicians
‍2019 Baseline (before Zinier) = 80%
2021 Results (with Zinier) = 99.6%
Improvement = 24.5%

Negative Customer Feedback

Definition: Negative Customer Feedback (Regular or Bad end customer feedback on corrective tasks performed by field technicians)
‍2019 Baseline (before Zinier) = 20%
2021 Results (with Zinier) = 0.4%
Improvement = 50-fold reduction

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