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to Return to Drill Down) |
| "I can create dispatch windows
for different geographical areas of any size
or shape that I define, and they can even
overlap other dispatchers' areas if needed.
I see only the calls I need to deal with,
with the proper set of mechanics assigned
to me. As new calls come in, I know instantly
who the closest mechanics are or will be,
and also see the client history as well. This
takes the pressure off me by putting the right
kind of information at my fingertips exactly
when I need it." |
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| The Command
Post 3000 customer window provides
complete command and control of your customer
information and progress reporting at the
touch of a key. It lists the nearest mechanics
by mileage and time of nearest approach to
the customer you're currently viewing. Most
of the details of the site's service history
information are right in front of you to consult
while you're speaking with your customer.
You're no more than one click away from seeing
his service contract history, installed equipment
information, and accounts receivable information.
The dispatcher knows the aged receivables
status prior to sending mechanics to the site.
The system controls lead tracking on all your
customers. |
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| Command
Post 3000 provides the dispatcher with
the ability to walk a mechanic through difficult
routes to customer locations using accurate
drive directions and displays map routes from
one customer to another. The system automatically
fills in page and grid coordinates for any
map used by your company. You can zoom in
and zoom out and scroll the map in any direction
for enhanced control dispatch control. In
combination with its powerful automatic dispatching
and the real-time "closest mechanics"
lists, Command Post
3000 improves dispatching efficiency
by 20%-30% efficiency over competitive systems.
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| Getting a handle on warranty
status and equipment aging is the key to tracking
future leads and potential service calls during
slow seasons.You have a complete listing on
your customers' installed equipment, which
is critical during ordering of material or
parts for your them. You can save them money
and increase your sales. The system allows
you to insert pictures of the installed equipment
as a historic record of its condition, which
defuses heated fingerpointing as to the original
state of the equipment. |
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The heart of any service
business is promoting and maintaining
customer relations through maintenance
contracts, which ensure a steady service
load for mechanics. Command
Post 3000 is designed to allow
the service manager to track maintenance
contract obligations by giving him what
he needs to know about when the service
is due, with followup alerts to target
contracts that have not been completed
in a reasonable time from their scheduled
date. This tool not only allows the service
manager to maintain evenly balanced workloads
for his mechanics, but it also gives him
potential TELEMARKETING information for
increasing sales while allowing the sales
department to contact customers concerning
additional add-on accessories for their
existing systems.
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Command
Post 3000 automatically links the
Time & Material book and the Flat
Rate books to accounting. By adding the
Flat Rate job number, Time code or Material
code to a call, the system updates accounts
receivable while simultaneously preparing
an invoice, which all happens in less
than a minute. Accounts receivable are
handled for you, in the background, by
Command Post 3000.
This is no redundant data entry required,
because it uses the information received
from the mechanic as he returns to the
office with his service order — or
even before (by cell phone, laptop, or
PDA!). Complete integration frees up time
for your staff to do the necessary things
that never seem to get done because of
extensive and redundant manual data entry
that could have been prevented.
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Command
Post 3000 provides arguably the
fastest customer lookup system on the
market. It boasts an extensive lightning-fast
search routine to bring customers up using
any reasonable scrap of information you
have to find them. Users can pull up customers
within a second or two from a standing
start (yes, that fast!). This is where
you start the process of working on a
customer's file. The benefits for customer
relations (no longer having to say, "my
computer is slow, you'll have to wait
a bit") are immeasurable.
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When you click Add Call
while viewing a customer file, you reach
the Service Call window, which is probably
the most critical window for your service
and installation departments. The five
dropdown windows break out the call according
to company-specific criteria — and
then separately tracks the calls under
each heading that you define.This provides
an extensive and detailed breakdown in
your accounting department, while showing
management precisely how profitable each
individual function of your company really
is. The "nearest mechanics"
listing is included, as well as a preferred
mechanics listing (which the automatic
dispatching system will enforce). Calls
are identified by time of day, priority,
complexity, existence & expiration
dates of maintenance contracts, and expandable
notes. Freon reporting starts here and
then routes to the employee's productivity
report. Created calls instantly appear
on the customer windows with current status,
so you don't have to drill down here to
know what's going on.
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| Dispatching
is the heart of SDS.
The left quarter of the screen organizes calls
by morning, afternoon, all day, and Service
Contract calls. The vertical column to the
right represents technician tag boards that
stretch or squeeze to put as many technicians
on screen as I need. When I drag the name
of a call from the left most column over the
technician columns, the top horizontal window
provides instant feedback telling me the start
time I will get when I drop the call onto
the column. The call is represented by a rectangles
that are the width of a technician's column
and the height of a job's duration. The bottom
of the screen permits control of the scheduling
date without limitation. |
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| This screen shows a number
of jobs scheduled for the day, but not as
yet dispatched. Each light purple box provides
customer name, city and a small scrollable
time duration window. When my cursor is moved
over a customer's call, the complete info
for that call instantly fills the bottom quarter
of the screen. Dispatching can be controlled
manually by double clicking the name of the
technician who is going into action. |
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| Dispatch configuration can
be as simple or elaborate as I need it. My
service manager can quickly build as many
custom dispatch configurations as our department
needs, incorporating multiple dispatchers,
job types, departments, employee sets, and
even defining and assigning geographic regions
to dispatchers like myself. To the left is
a map of Austin, with the northwest region
that I control shown in red. Each square represents
a map page from one of several major map suppliers.
My service manager can adjust which map pages
belong to each region, add or remove regions
or reshape them to suit his needs, all with
a click of the mouse. |
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| Here you can see how my service
manager has overlapped our southwest and southeast
regions — the darker red shows the region
of overlap at an instant. Overlapping regions
has several benefits, the most obvious being
that the automated dispatching system gets
a performance boost and provides even better
travel routes when regions have a bit of overlap
between them. The overlap gives Command
Post 3000 the flexibility to generate
more mileage-efficient routes for mechanics
who are near a call that is located just outside
their normal region. Smart dispatching by
region means setting up overlaps like this,
which take only seconds to create inside the
Commander Module of Command
Post 3000. |
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