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"Congratulations to all for their outstanding work. I know the success of this tremendous effort is due to the commitment of the entire Patni team...An excellent example of cross-functional collaboration and effective project management continues to look very good. Keep doing it!"
General Manager - Customer Service
One of the Largest Investor Owned Utility Companies in the US |
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| Case Study |
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A global leader in mail and document management systems
streamlines service delivery
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Leveraging Patni's competence and experience in Field Service, a leading mail and document management
company improves service quality and reduces inventory.
The Client
The client is a global leader in integrated mail and document management systems, services and solutions. A $5 billion company, the client helps
organizations manage their mail and document flow in physical, digital and hybrid formats.
The Challenge
Being a services company, the client constantly focused on delivering a
superior customer experience to maintain industry leadership. To ensure
effective implementation of its service motto of zero-downtime
maintenance, the client had posted a team of service coordinators and service
technicians at all customer locations. Keen on enhancing service quality, the
client also explored various technology options to boost the efficiency of its
service personnel and streamline its service delivery processes. Consequently,
the client engaged a leading consulting organization, who advised them to
implement Siebel Field Service and its mobile client, in tandem with Antenna
Software's wireless connectivity middleware. The client's goal was to have
their service technicians use handheld devices to access information on parts
availability, customer service history, and service agreements. However, after
six months of implementation, the client failed to reap the desired benefits
due to the following challenges:
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Delay in spares ordering, fulfillment, and shipment - The client's service coordinators
were equipped with a mobile solution that worked in an offline mode. Hence, coordinators
could receive status updates on pending service orders or submit new service orders only
when they synchronized data with the field service server. This delay in service delivery
increased the probability of equipment downtime, caused customer dissatisfaction, and
even attracted penalties due to drop in service levels. |
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Low system performance - The reliability of the wireless component of the solution was
also unpredictable. Very often, the Research-in-Motion BlackBerry 957 wireless devices
used by the service technicians were ineffective due to frequent drop in wireless signal
strength. Sometimes, even in areas with strong wireless coverage, the communication
suffered due to information latency and inferior performance of the wireless server |
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Increase in the number of rush orders - Deterred by the limitations of the new solution,
service coordinators sidestepped the system and placed rush orders of spares to prepare
for any contingency that could potentially impact the uptime of machines. In parallel, the
auto-replenishment mechanism, which was an intrinsic capability of the solution, also reordered
similar spares. The resultant inventory overrun remained a cause of concern. |
Subsequently, the service staff lost confidence in the efficacy of the solution, and the rollout
stalled after implementation of only 14 out of a total of 129 sites. The lack of success with the
implementation forced the client to reevaluate the solution's effectiveness before extending
the roll out to the remaining 115 sites. The client also decided to suspend further investment in
the systems.
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The Solution
The client commissioned Patni to study the processes and systems
landscape and suggest a solution that would rectify the problems.
Patni worked very closely with the users to gain an insight into the process
and identify the system requirements. This detailed analysis revealed
that the mobile client of the field service solution was ill suited to the
requirements of the service coordinators who, unlike service technicians,
discharged duties from a fixed location. Patni recommended that the
client implement Siebel Field Service with a Web client to enable service
coordinators to submit service orders in real-time and elicit up-to-minute
information about the status of service orders.
Patni highlighted that in the past, customer locations did not maintain
data on spares inventory due to the non-availability of a system. The data
input to Siebel from different customer locations was not consistent.
Conventions of data input had also differed. As a result, Siebel's
automatic replenishment engine generated orders of unwanted parts
leading to a pile-up of spares inventory. Patni worked jointly with the
service coordinators to rectify such discrepancies and streamline autoreplenishment.
It also modified the functionality of inventory
replenishment engine to enable it to handle re-conditioned parts. This
ensured that service coordinators placed orders through a manual
process only in an emergency.
The Technology
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Siebel 7.0.4 Field
Service |
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Antenna Wireless A3 |
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Oracle 8.1.7 |
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Windows 2000 |
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The Benefits
The Patni solution helped the client to salvage its investment
and complete the roll out of Siebel Field Service across all 129
sites. The client was also able to derive the following benefits:
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The solution delivered 90% reduction in emergency and
rush orders, a 10% improvement in the first-time fix rate,
and a 15% inventory reduction |
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The pilot site realized a savings of approximate US $2
million in one month |
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Service quality improved as service staff could now track
service calls in real-time and guarantee near-zero
downtime. |
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