Automating field service to cash results in better services and faster payments
Key takeaways
Our client is a construction technology company that offers utility and plumbing location services for residential and commercial engineers. During design and construction jobs, companies need to locate where current utility and water lines exist to maximize safety, adhere to compliance regulations and reduce costs. These processes typically require an extensive review of job sites before arrival and sonar equipment to locate underground piping and wiring.
The client’s business was growing rapidly. The complexity of their service offerings and the preparation needed for each job required a new technology solution that would streamline their processes and provide significant benefits to their field service operations team while also optimizing the customer experience.
The challenge
The client had a well-established process that prepared their engineers for successful on-site visits. Their technology infrastructure, however, did not assist them in their planning and operations. The issues included:
- Contracts were in different places, which resulted in extra cycles.
- Complex pricing and billing rules reflected their business well but required significant manual effort to generate invoices, which resulted in slow billing and longer payment times.
- Dispatch had many steps to prepare manually and properly, requiring a senior person to organize versus an automated system that could more efficiently organize and manage the process.
- Trip reports were not standardized and required manual effort to generate for each project.
The solution
RSM worked with the client to design and build a solution to address their current and future needs. The RSM team identified industry-leading Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Field Service as solutions that could digitally transform the company’s field service to cash processes from job intake to completion of services. Some of the capabilities immediately enabled through the implementation of these Salesforce solutions included:
- Intake requests for engineering services were centrally organized and flowed into the sales and service process.
- Quoting was streamlined with much clearer line items to better reflect job specifics.
- Contracts were centralized with a single source of truth, and pre-job activities and requirements were organized and validated, increasing efficiency and results for each visit.
- During the dispatch process, Salesforce established and enforced stage gates to ensure best practices before arrival.
- The Salesforce mobile app was configured to perform on-site activities, including automated invoice pushes and service reports. Detailed views of time use could also be recorded at the time of service.
- Job work types and complex pricing and billing rules were established to streamline orders and invoices. The company could rapidly send out much clearer invoices by integrating them with their financial system.
- Custom service reports with much greater detail, including photos and mapping graphics, could be attached to invoices, resulting in faster payment.
- Ongoing site services could be established from “subscription” job site requests for recurring billing.
The takeaway
Our client’s field service to cash process, which includes intake to quoting, dispatch, on-site servicing, trip reporting to invoicing and payment, was all streamlined and automated using the Salesforce platform. The benefits realized from this comprehensive project included:
- Increased efficiency through better job preparation
- On-site mobile capabilities that reduced revenue leakage and produced better and faster service reports
- A streamlined invoicing process that resulted in clearer invoices and faster payments