Service Management

iSource helps clients improve the performance of their aftermarket businesses. Our approach includes developing a set of integrated capabilities that reinforce total customer satisfaction and build ongoing customer loyalty. We aim to make every customer a ‘Raving Fan’

Service of Supply Chain Management

Profile

After-sale, parts and services are the new frontier of competitive differentiation and profit enhancement, offering nearly double the profit potential of first-time product sales. Of course, capitalising on this opportunity is not simple, since comprehensive service management can complicate the typical company's supply chain.

Why iSource

We team with clients to implement new strategies, infrastructures and tools—combined with informed oversight that enable them to create and deliver after-sale support more profitably than ever before. We help them position service management as a competitive differentiator and profit centre. Additionally, we provide the capabilities needed to improve service technician productivity, reduce inventory levels for parts and spares, increase asset utilization, and minimize service-response times.

Supply chains that maximize the profitability of post-sale service are more complex than traditional manufacturing supply chains. This is because their scope includes more extensive information and product flows; larger inventories; inconsistent and uncertain demand; and the provision of hands-on, after-sale service at numerous locations.

iSource’s Service Management practice teams with clients to improve the performance of their after-market supply chains. We concentrate on every customer and supply chain interaction that follows a product’s sale, delivery and installation, including customer support, training, warranty management, maintenance and repair, product design, product upgrades, service parts management, equipment and vehicle maintenance, service fulfillment, reverse logistics, product disposal, and the sale of complementary goods.

Our expertise can help organizations position service management as a competitive differentiator and profit center. Additionally, we provide the capabilities needed to improve service technician productivity, reduce inventory levels for parts and spares, increase asset utilization, and minimize service-response times.

Specific Services

• Customer Interaction
• Field Service and Depot Management
• Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)
• New Business Models
• Parts Inventory Management
• Warranty and Revenue Management

Service Management for the Communications Industry

Overview

We help communications and high tech companies turn their services businesses into profit centers, by increasing service revenues, and reducing operational costs and capital expenditure.

High tech companies are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain good returns based on technological advantages alone. As their products mature, their gross margins shrink, leaving them looking for new sources of value.

iSource believes these companies have a major opportunity to differentiate their offerings and boost their profits. This opportunity can be realized by transforming their services businesses to become leading solutions providers, which enables them to systematically generate revenues from existing service activities and add new revenue streams with new service offerings.

Our Approach

Capturing this opportunity, however, requires leading-edge service management capabilities. iSource fulfils Service Management with these capabilities by:

• Helping companies create the right service strategy, by determining what services to sell, who to target, how to price, and whether to deliver through in-house resources or partners.
• Improving preventive and predictive maintenance capabilities to minimize customer events and enable fast and efficient resolution.
• Increasing field service technician productivity by providing tools and processes to enable more efficient workforce scheduling and dispatch and through the use of mobility solutions.
• Improving spare parts inventory management through the use of benchmarks, leading practices and software tools.

iSource works with companies to customize these modules into a holistic service management transformation program, or help them implement selective modules to address their particular concerns and priorities.

We also team with companies to create new go-to-market approaches. Through these value-based teaming arrangements we can help companies create and grow new service businesses by sharing many of the responsibilities and risks.

Why iSource

We have the a proven record of helping companies to define their services strategy, implement business processes and help them deliver more efficient service.

We have a proven record of helping companies turn their service businesses into profit centers, increasing revenues and reducing operational costs and capital expenditures.

We customize our service management models into a transformation program and, in some cases, tailor our services to help companies install selective models to address their particular concerns.

We also team with companies to create new market-ready approaches. These arrangements help companies create and increase new service businesses by sharing many of the responsibilities and risks.

Communications & High Tech companies have a major opportunity to differentiate their products and services and boost their profits. We help them seize this opportunity by transforming them into companies that offer very specific approaches and tools.

This strategy can:

• Increase service revenues by 20 percent.
• Reduce operating expenses by 30 percent.
• Reduce capital expenditures by 25 percent.

High-Performance Service

Companies on the road to high performance face unique obstructions when addressing profitability. For instance, increasing shareholder value within a service business depends on matching the increased costs that come with the higher portion of the revenue. Consequently, optimizing service management capabilities to capture this opportunity can remain elusive.

But this is not the only challenge facing companies with dynamic business goals, influential external factors can be:

• Changing customer behavior.
• Political and legal changes.
• IT challenges.
• Rampant technical innovation.
• Changing products.
• Increased competition and a stiffer marketplace.

High performance in improvement of profitability, customer loyalty and market share, engaging with these external barriers can be achieved by the following:

• Initiating major changes to existing logistics networks.
• Integrating brands and accessories.
• Completing Supply Chain Planning from dealer through to supplier.
• Centralizing inventory management and virtual warehousing concepts.
• Centralizing and automating order management with integrated ordering/ catalog systems.
• Adding to operational excellence by using new distribution channels.
• Creating additional services to increase dealer and customer loyalty.
• Maximizing revenue using successful pricing, placement and promotion strategies.
• Addressing economies of scale as opposed to economies of skill.

While adopting a performance-orientated attitude towards instituting these business priorities, iSource realizes that the practicalities are often far more daunting. Major changes to existing organizations, processes and technology are often required to support these initiatives and drive future value.

Service Management Agenda

Accordingly, iSource has developed a comprehensive action agenda’s for managing Service Management. The suite looks to assist companies in developing the service management capabilities needed to drive service revenues and cut service costs. It offers expertise and strategies across the following organizational spheres:

1. Service Management Integration , incorporating:

• Order Management and availability.
• Technical support and knowledge management.
• Dealer training.

2. Sales & Marketing , incorporating:

• Products and service.
• Catalog.
• Warranty and claims management.
• Customer insight and data mining.
• Channel management.
• Pricing and assortment management.

3. Product Design & Management , incorporating:

• Design for reliability and serviceability.
• Product defect management and failure analysis.
• Product hierarchy and catalogs.
• Product documentation and service bulletins.

4. Service Parts Logistics , incorporating:

• Demand visibility and planning.
• Procurement and sourcing.
• Network, inventory plan and management.
• Delivery logistics and fulfillment.

5. Equipment & Vehicle Management , incorporating:

• Remote monitoring.
• Configuration.
• Management.
• Diagnostics and testing.

6. Service Fulfillment , incorporating:

• Service scheduling.
• Repair and work order management.
• Retail invoice management.

7. Reverse Logistics , incorporating:

• Remanufacturing.

iSource’s Service Management Agenda’s are more than just processed workflows, they are leading practices, proven methodologies and business experience designed to assist companies in addressing the full spectrum of service management issues.

Determining Key Business Challenges

Some determined key business challenges across marketing, logistics and IT, include:

1. Across Marketing

• Non-achievable sales targets.

2. Across Logistics

• Unmanageable volume.
• Sharply increasing costs.
• Limited flexibility.

3. Across IT

• Dying technology.
• Limited skills with a lack of global availability.
• Endangered system stability.
• Increasing costs for enhancements.

Initial rollout on the Service Management Solution Suite offers a few basic benefits, including:

• Leading standard software implementation.
• Seamless integration of future applications.
• Creation of a basis for globally standardized parts business.
• Introduction of transparency throughout the whole business.
• Comprehensive functionalities for planning, sales and logistical execution.
• Creation of a firm basis for future business growth.

As the roll-out and implementation continues, further benefits emerge, including:

1. Across the marketing and sales sphere:

• Flexible pricing capabilities.
• New bonus systems.
• Web-based sales.
• Improved monitoring and controlling.

2. Across Logistics:

• Sophisticated Service Parts-specific forecasting.
• Horizontal and vertical Supply Chain Integration.
• Improved vendor collaboration.
• Comprehensive tools for strategic and tactical stock deployment.
• Sophisticated order routing.
• X-Docking and direct shipments extension.

3. Across IT:

• Leading standard software implementation to ensure long-term stability in terms of system support and technical infrastructure.
• Modern architecture enabling high scalability, high availability and improved maintenance.
• Advanced integration of current and future applications based on standardized interfaces and middleware.
• All features of modern standard software, including:

• Multi-language and multi-currency.
• Multi-screen and multi-user.
• Compatibility with Microsoft applications and Internet open standards.
• Integrated e-mail and calendar function.
• Online help and documentation.

iSource’s experience, methods and tools drive additional value for our clients through our high-performance innovations and ideas.

After Sales Innovation/Opportunities

Service parts and logistics average 25-50 percent of profit. Shouldn’t you make sure it’s a foolproof service?

Profile

Experts in this field find that companies seeking to meet their performance and profit mandates would do well to concentrate on improving their after sales efficiency. Responding to our clients moving towards improving after sales service, iSource has formed an After-sales Innovation Strategy.

Analysis

iSource After-sales Strategy and Process Workflows offer our clients an in-depth view of the profit opportunities available to manufacturers across four aftersales areas:

• Service Parts and Logistics —Service parts and logistics average 25-50 percent of profit despite accounting for just 10-20 percent of sales.
• Service Operations —iSource’s Service Operations offering addresses key service challenges across:

• Workforce scheduling and dispatch.
• Service planning.
• Repair and work order management.
• Customer service management.
• Field force mobility.

• Warranty Management —iSource’s Warranty Management offering is targeted to assist clients achieve high performance in this often overlooked service aspect.
• After sales Learning Services —iSource’s after sales learning services offers clients the opportunity to outsource a number of learning areas including:

• Certification programs for technicians.
• Product training for sales people.
• Product operating and maintenance information for customers.
• Instructional content design and course development.
• Administration and hosting services.

Capabilities & Service Business Domination

Sales and Marketing depends on Service capabilities, turn around to market and having the information needed to perform their deliveries, Services strategy permits expansion into market segments, increase margins, and achieve higher levels of performace.

Leading companies have focused heavily on and have driven their bottom line with service profits. Service capabilities part and parcel scaled to up capture profit whilst simultaneously grow the company.

Analysis

This point of view describes the innovative service capabilities that companies can implement to help them achieve high performance.

Integrated Supply/Demand Planning (ISDP) for Service

Complexities of the service world matter. Factors relating to service forecasting, planning human capacities and trying to "freeze" a production plan against real-time service calls have made it problematic to adopt a service-based sales and operations planning model. However, it is certainly feasible, and the benefits of labour optimisation, increased response times and asset utilization are very real.

Essentially, integrated supply/demand planning is the mechanism by which the service business aligns labour and material resources to meet service demand.

Service Demand Management

Service companies face multiple types of demand streams from customers. As a result, the business must discretely identify these varying demand profiles, quantify and translate the nature of these demands, and also create customized marketing and logistics responses that best meet them.

Companies should therefore be aware of a few critical implications for managing such a high degree of operational uncertainty:

• To meet demand, the business must carry surge capacity in the form of extra technicians, materials, vehicles and other assets, which at times may appear unproductive.
• To support tight execution capabilities such as labor scheduling, dynamic dispatch and parts issuance become highly critical.
• To maintain operational flexibility and connectivity, advanced planning capabilities that attempt to freeze resources, develop finite plans and conduct scenario analysis so they become less important.

Profitable Contract Management

To effectively offer contracts, experts have determined that a service business must successfully manage each of these five steps:

• Sell and market contracts.
• Plan contracts.
• Price contracts.
• Execute contracts.
• Conduct post-sale analysis.

Service Order Promising & Execution

Imagine a capability that allows customers to access a personalized website, create and submit a same-day service request, and select and confirm a one-hour time banded appointment from a list of multiple appointment options

Scientific Service-parts Management

Managing service-parts inventories requires capabilities above and beyond what is considered adequate for production inventories.

These advanced capabilities include the following:

• Deployment strategies for stochastic inventories.
• Multi-echelon optimization.
• Service target optimization.

Product Design for Serviceability

One of the most untapped improvement opportunities is product design for serviceability. To implement this capability, the new product process (NPP) for the business should be modified to incorporate feedback from service personnel prior to functional design and prototype development. In fact, if the business uses a tool such as quality function deployment (QFD) to identify and incorporate customer requirements into product designs, service personnel should be assigned as one of the customer groups in that tool.

Recommendations

We suggest that businesses specify a section of critical capabilities that are required in great tangible representation to the drive of the company where a few critical capabilities exist that are required to execute their own business strategy; and thereafter to pursue these capabilities wholeheartedly & vigorously to improve business performance. In other words, service executives should carefully focus their business strategy and ruthlessly deploy the operating model to help their businesses achieve high performance.