Going Cloud for Service Management
Could using cloud-based service management software mean the difference between serving up filet mignon or Hamburger Helper to customers?
by Michael Singer
Posted: 11/03/2010
The global food processing machinery and equipment market is extremely competitive. The sector is expected to reach $47 billion by 2015, according to researchers with Global Industry Analysts. Equipment downtime can result in the loss of as much as 20,000 pounds of product output per hour. A field tech visiting a customer site generally costs $3,000 per service call.
Such was the case of Marlen International, an enterprise out of Overland Park, Kan., that designs and builds industrial food processing equipment. Marlen had been using a manual, one-dimensional customer database that did not share information among business units very effectively.
Because of its antiquated service management system, it was difficult for service and sales teams to get complete visibility into customer history, machine maintenance, and service data. Downtime and repairs were not only costly to the customer but a ding to the brand for Marlen.
"One of our goals and objectives was to reduce the amount of total dispatches, primarily the emergency ones. These are expensive to manage and usually mean that we have a customer waiting with non-productive equipment," says Jarrod L. McCarroll, VP of sales and marketing at Marlen.
To improve its sales and service systems, Marlen put into service a suite of cloud-based tools from ServiceMax, which bases its applications on the Salesforce.com Inc. platform. The customer relationship management, supply chain, and service management software applications allowed managers to tap into customer service and food-processing machine usage history, helping Marlen find ways to reduce customer visits. From a broader customer management perspective, Marlen sales managers now follow up after service calls to check on any recommendations and get feedback.
Marlen's move toward cloud-based applications is indicative of similar enterprises eager to take the next step of service management systems. A recent Aberdeen Group Inc. "State of Service Management 2011" report surveyed 242 chief service officers (CSOs) and found the majority are looking for a fully connected service enterprise; one where service isn't just a standalone function, but a value driver.
"The success of the construction of the fully connected service enterprise to enhance the customer experience ultimately depends on the supporting cast of organizational capabilities and processes in place," Sumair Dutta, senior Aberdeen research analyst, wrote in the report. "The identification of these vital capabilities, specifically around customer feedback management, performance management, and knowledge transfer, and the organizational gaps that need to be overcome to put these in place will help service firms' bottom line."
Aberdeen's findings also found that CSOs at companies like Marlen are focusing on the integration of service and customer data from multiple sources. That's where it can be housed in a centralized knowledge base and then shared across an enterprise.
Those companies like Marlen that incorporated these types of connected sales management tools over the last 12 months found a 17 percent increase in service revenues; a 13 percent increase in service profitability; and 94 percent customer retention, the survey found. That's rich food for thought for anyone considering cloud service management.
— Michael Singer, Senior Editor at Internet Evolution, is focused on executive (Executive Clan) and midmarket (Midmarket Clan) issues.
