ForeFront’s client, Eastern Lift Truck Co., Inc., is a major distributor of forklifts and material handling equipment for warehouse operations. This includes new and used equipment, aftermarket parts, packaging and storage systems, and more.
Their mission is to provide best-in-class products and award-winning customer service. To offer this personalized and intuitive service to their customers, they needed to address manual field service process inefficiencies and optimize operations through service delivery automation.
Eastern Lift had two options: Upgrade their existing system or transform their operations by investing into a cloud-based service platform for field service management. Their existing system is based on a legacy dealership management software, tailored to the needs of material handling, construction, and agriculture industries. However, the pre-configured and ready for use software had limitations in responding to Eastern Lift’s customer service goals; this is where a new field service management software comes into play.
A new Salesforce-native field service management software investment is always daunting, but our client made the right decision to transform their business. Eastern Lift selected ServiceMax as their new cloud-based field service management platform with features to become the genesis of Asset 360. And, they retained ForeFront for our proven field service management cloud expertise and dealership information systems management insights.
The Challenge
With multiple branch locations across the mid-Atlantic region and teams with varying skill sets, an efficient and automated Field Service Management (FSM) solution was essential. Eastern Lift needed to drive productivity in the field, improve customer satisfaction, and generate more revenue from their best lead sources – the technicians.
ForeFront has been supporting material handling dealers for years, expanding their business capabilities through ServiceMax, Internet of Things (IoT) and Telematics platforms. However, integrating their legacy Dealer Information System (DIS) was unique in its complexity. Seamless information flow between their front-end (ServiceMax) and back-end ERP (DIS) was critical in achieving the desired solution success.
The Solution
Pain points were addressed, starting with ServiceMax Asset 360 capabilities such as scheduling, dispatching, work orders, contracts and warranties, client operating procedures, and preventive maintenance. ForeFront configured their ServiceMax field management system and delivered information flow integrity between cloud and legacy systems.
As an example, a new service contract was a time-consuming process requiring at least a few Excel spreadsheets (3+), emails (5+), and phone calls (2+). Now, a quote is generated in minutes. ForeFront ensured that critical financial, warehouse status, and product data is maintained in the ERP – while exposing it in ServiceMax intuitively as the front-office workers and field service teams need it.
The Results
No more manual processes!
ForeFront implemented an agile, mobile ServiceMax platform to automate Eastern Lift’s field service operations while preserving the client’s unique ERP asset through seamless integration.
Some of the immediate benefits include:
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Increased technician productivity, which decreased overtime
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Improved FTF (First Time Fix) rate – right scheduled technician for the right job
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Reduced dispatcher schedule-time by half with assisted scheduling feature
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Sped up time to locate work order documentation with one-single repository
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Lowered service lead-time as cross-location operations gain visibility and engage in out-of-territory service help
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Optimized decision making for service management through operations transparency, team efficiency, client insights, and other customer service performance metrics
Bottom Line
Field Service Management is transforming. Innovative companies like Eastern Lift benefit from efficiency gains, better performance tracking against business goals, and customer-centric service with a 360-degree view.
ForeFront has been a leader in Salesforce-native Field Service Management. We teamed-up with ServiceMax and Salesforce to deliver the most complete field service solutions for both resource-centric and asset-centric needs. In addition, we integrate and preserve our clients’ legacy ERP’s like Dealership Information Systems.
To learn more about our FSM client successes, get in touch below!
