Being mobile is often an important factor for a small-to-medium business. Fortunately, with improving communications and better software, integrating mobile software into a company’s back-end can now be achieved seamlessly.
On the back of a nine-month collaboration, mobile business software provider Dexterra and Australian field service management software provider Proware launched TSM Remote an integrated software solution for small and medium sized service repair and maintenance companies.
TSM Remote is a wireless Pocket PC add-on to Proware’s flagship product The Service Manager (TSM). It embeds Dexterra’s mobile technology within Proware’s field service management application and is suitable for businesses doing installation, repair, maintenance and contract type jobs. Mobile TSM provides these businesses with an end-to-end solution to manage the service workflow from taking the call, issuing it to technicians, logging the completed information and invoicing the customer. TSM also manages the dispatch operation, purchasing, stock control, maintenance contracts and time sheets.
According to David Younger, Proware’s Founder and Director, small to medium businesses (SMBs) have historically struggled at managing large amounts of documentation and invoicing customers in a timely manner due to the number of projects occurring and small staff strength to manage all the documentation of these tasks.
“Teaming up with Dexterra was a natural fit for us,” said Younger. “We reviewed several vendors but Dexterra’s mobile software was one of the most sophisticated on the market, plus it met all our needs. Dexterra has a stable platform and goes through Visual Studio, which was a main requirement of ours. It was also easy to develop applications for Pocket PC with Dexterra’s solution. We were able to write our own TSM adapter, which gave us greater control over the product. Very coincidentally when we contacted, Dexterra they contacted us as well. It was a natural fit and now Dexterra is our plumbing under TSM. We did a year long development with Dexterra however not in the SMB space, so we had a number of challenges but we overcame. After ironing out all of those challenges, we now work well with 5-100 users.”
With products which give field service companies mobility, they can overcome problems and save time with the ability to log and dispatch jobs electronically to the field and invoice customers all on the same day, thereby decreasing paperwork and speeding up the cash flow for the business, a very important aspect for any SMB.
Drew Mitchell, Vice President for Asia Pacific, Dexterra said, “I think relatively small companies have about the same ratio as a corporate company – 50 percent working on the inside, 50 per cent working outside. The ROI is the same. Savings, efficiency and the desperately-needed competitive edge can be a huge benefit to small business owners.
“Wireless products have evolved, we’ve moved from voice forward to support text. Now, with broadband, companies can take advantage of the broadband wireless data services available to become more efficient as they can move paperwork, which will mobilise them,” he says.
Having just completed the beta testing phase for TSM Remote, Younger added that feedback has been positive from customers, with several commenting that they have found the product become quickly ‘indispensable’.
He said: “This sort of product is going to have significant workflow advantages, and our existing clients need to be eased into it. We don’t just sell the software we also offer the services, after all this affects every part of their service business, and it’s effectively reengineering their back office.”
Younger explained he uses TSM Remote with Symbol PDAs instead of consumer type PDA devices because end-users see it as a more professional product. “When we showed it with a consumer PDA it was thought of as “toy” software,” he says. “Symbol has a great rugged device that can handle getting wet, dusty, or even being dropped in the toilet as one user did. The devices can’t go on the blink. They rely on them.”
TSM Remote retails from $50 per user per month and is available immediately through Proware. The product has two parts to its security defence one is Dexterra’s encryption.
“Users in the field log in securely. Put into context, the security is good but significant for the market we are covering. After all we don’t want to burden users with unneeded overheads, when we aren’t dealing with bank like transactions,” said Younger.
Younger believes the product is not just good for clients. Resellers that partner with Proware are required to practice what they preach by using TSM in-house.
“We have three ways of channel partnership; one is through associates who give us the lead for a sale the get a commission. Second are sales people who only do sales and the third are full solution providers which do sales as well as services. These guys are a typical IT company so they must use TSM and these dealers benefit from TSM themselves,” he said.
We agree, in today’s competitive marketplace SmartOffice Resellers need to look at the technology they are trying sell to their customers and see how it can make their own businesses more efficient and successful.