Mobile Software Accelerator for Field Service Solutions

Capitalizing on mobility: Where to start?Field service organizations can now extend their systems and capabilities further than ever thanks to today’s mobile tools and technologies. Tablets, smartphones, netbooks, and their supporting software and infrastructure now enable greater efficiencies, boost customer satisfaction and make field activities much safer for mobile workers.

But it’s not always easy for companies to take advantage of the mobile offerings. Many that have tried to quickly extend their scheduling and dispatching systems using mobile solutions have soon found themselves in a complex and confusing technology landscape.

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Work List: The work list shows all work that has been assigned or scheduled to the user in one view that is simple to navigate. The work displayed is a real-time list that updates throughout the day as work is completed or new work is assigned. Each job on the list contains all the information required for completion. The list also allows the field tech to collect and input additional information that is related to the work. Progress throughout the day is communicated in real time back to the central office.

Together, Accenture and SAP have the answer. SAP’s Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) is a market leader in enabling the next generation of field service mobile solutions. SUP’s robust set of tools and components make it practi-cal to extend field service capabilities to today’s powerful mobile devices. To make it easier to put those capabilities to work in the workforce management marketplace, Accenture has created the Accenture Sybase Mobile Accelerator (SMA) for Field Service.

The Sybase Mobile Accelerator for Field ServiceThe SMA gives field service organizations a mobile template, based on familiar Sybase tools, that allows them to utilize a common workflow for service delivery. The template’s design draws from Accenture's experience in helping more than 150 service organizations around the world.

To further improve its effectiveness and speed to implement, the SMA has industry-specific pre-configurations for communications, retail and equip-ment servicing industries and can be extended to other industries through the highly flexible meta-data model. This level of configurability also allows any field service organization to quickly adapt the existing workflows to their company-specific requirements without having to implement a mobile solution from scratch. The SMA for Field Service offers significant savings for companies that want to reduce risk and realize value as quickly as possible.

Inside the SMAThe SMA is a mobile field service application designed to enable field technicians, installers, agents and supervisors to complete their specific roles within a field service organization. It has been specifically designed to drive enhanced business performance for each of these roles, through functionality that can be directly linked to value

levers (e.g., greater efficiency, reduced re-do rates, better customer service, reduced admin time) in a typical workforce management business case.

Here’s how the SMA works on a PC-like device such as a laptop and on a smaller handheld device format:

Workflow: The workflow is customized using industry-specific definitions for information that is displayed and collected in the application. The fields and functionality are fully customizable. In addition, the workflow makes it simple to enforce the validation and collection of data.

Their big question: Where do we start with mobile?

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Raise New Work: The SMA enables users to raise new work while in the field and have it synchronized with workflow data in the central office.

Supervisor Monitoring: The SMA gives supervisors complete visibility of their crews; they can see who’s working on what assignments at any time during the day. The work status of the technicians and crews is communicated via real-time updates. The updates include the GPS locations of each worker.

Parts List: An overall parts list for the daily work assignments includes a start-of-day checklist that is updated daily to show what’s still required to complete the jobs. In addition, parts usage details can be collected and tracked as jobs are updated.

Timesheet Tracking: The SMA makes it possible to automatically collect timesheet details throughout the day and to capture supervisors’ review and approval capabilities.

Document and Attachments: A synchronized document repository helps to maintain a user-specific offline database of documents and information. This enables field techs to collect and store attachments and data while in the field—for example, photos, diagnostic files and scanned images.

Integration: For scheduling and dispatch-ing, the SMA is pre-integrated with SAP’s Workforce Scheduling and Optimization (WS&O) application (ClickSchedule) for scheduling and optimization. The SMA can also be integrated with existing e-mail and intranet applications so workers have a single system interface for completing their work.

Other: The SMA can work offline, synchronizing data as the user roams into coverage without any manual intervention. It delivers all data to field users in real time. Its data encryption technology provides secure transmission of information to and from the mobile application. And the application can integrate with mobile mapping and GPS, scanning and other device technologies.

Benefits for field service organizationsFaster implementation• Features pre-integration with SAP’s Workforce Scheduling and Optimization (WS&O) based on ClickSchedule as well as integration with other SAP modules (CRM & ECC) via PI or adapters.• Provides configurable workflow to customize the look and feel of the mobile application as well as of the data it uses

Better visibility and communication• Shows field workers all the information they need to complete their work• Provides accurate visibility of field workers’ status and safety• Allows schedule alterations to be communicated automatically—in real time

Lower cost• Cuts the time spent on the phone• Boosts resource productivity• Improves tracking and management of inventory

Higher revenues • Enables field techs to service more customers per day• Gives techs powerful ways to improve customer satisfaction• Helps field service staff get the job done on time, the first time, every time• Promises reliable, narrow windows for service appointment times

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About SAPAs market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps com-panies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device—SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the com-petition. SAP applications and services enable more than 170,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 223,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unpar-alleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most success-ful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US $21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

For more information about SMA and how it can help improve the effectiveness of your field service organization, please contact:

Ankur MathurSenior Executiveankur.mathur@accenture.com