Businesses in today’s digital economy are seeking solutions to upgrade their operations, increase efficiency, and generate greater revenue from their supply chains. For many, that means upgrading to digital apps that rapidly optimize processes. However, not all solutions are created equal. DSI® Cloud Inventory® provides the industry’s only mobile-first, cloud-based inventory management platform giving companies a competitive advantage in today’s digital economy.
Schneider Electric, a solar energy giant that designs and develops products and solutions to serve the solar power conversion chain, ultimately chose the Cloud Inventory platform with the Field InventoryTM solution to both streamline and optimize their workflow. This allowed them to fully integrate their mobile work order and inventory applications with Oracle NetSuite, upgrading their processes and giving them enhanced visibility from beginning to end.
Background
Schneider wanted to upgrade and optimize its work process by means of a mobile service app with both online and offline capabilities. It was also important that the Schneider team could deploy and utilize the app across its global network consisting of more than 100 engineers across multiple countries, time zones and languages.
More specifically, Schneider needed a solution that would allow supervisors to schedule and assign service orders to the most suitable resources. At the same time, staff engineers are provided full visibility of all customer information, including symptoms, fault diagnosis, as well as required parts and services for each task and case.
In utilizing the Field Inventory solution built within Cloud Inventory, Schneider allows team members to manage cases, assignments, and operational tasks both online and offline, with the ability to update the status of each ticket directly from the field to Oracle NetSuite. Schneider makes the most of the applications’ capabilities by using them to keep track of start and stop times to accurately monitor, record, and assess information relating to labor, workflow, and efficiency.
Georges-Henri Mongereau, VP of Solar Service at Schneider Electric, confirmed that the company’s team of engineers uses the tools provided by Cloud Inventory to provide top quality service to their customers. He also noted that the differentiating factor of Field Inventory coupled with the Cloud Inventory platform “unifies our organization, specifically our engineers,” which ultimately translates into more efficiency and “a better customer experience.”
The Cloud Inventory platform with Field Inventory sets Schneider Electric apart from competitors, as it allows them to streamline, enhance, and optimize day-to-day operations and processes. Specifically, Schneider Electric has seen significant improvement with scheduling, inventory management, photo and signature capture processes, and offline case and task management, via a seamless integration into their existing NetSuite system.
“Engineers’ processes are streamlined to ensure customers are served in a timely and accurate manner,” said Mongereau.
“Schneider Electric’s team needed a solution to optimize field operations, and the Cloud Inventory mobile-first solution provides a connected environment for their team across the globe, ensuring work order accuracy and increasing engineers’ productivity,” said Mark Goode, President & CEO of DSI. “We’re thrilled to be a part of their journey to improve customer service and provide visibility to their field operations.”
Cloud Inventory’s Solution Delivery
The implementation of the Cloud Inventory platform with Field Inventory solution was accomplished in two separate phases. Phase one allowed supervisors and management to assign service orders to the most appropriate resources while also accurately keeping track of labor information such as start and stop time for each task. Capabilities such as photo and signature capture upon the completion of every job, as well as access to customer history offline, mean that, today, team members enjoy full visibility of all customer information.
Phase two enhanced the field service workflow by incorporating additional languages, as well as providing a customer survey that may be filled out upon job completion. Additionally, this also gives administrators the ability to block out holidays within the scheduling component to ensure that scheduling happens seamlessly in accordance with the company’s corporate calendar. Phase two also provided other enhancements for Schneider, including better capabilities to track inventory and travel time, a graphical representation of scheduled tasks, and efficiency enhancers such as programmed mobile device reminders for upcoming tasks.
Optimization Results
Schneider found that the use of the Cloud Inventory platform with Field Inventory greatly improved functionality in providing service to the field, including offline capabilities, which provided increased efficiency and improved real-time visibility across all regions.
Schneider also found that, as a result, inventory optimization led to improved customer service, generating increased revenues while also increasing overall customer satisfaction. Cloud Inventory solutions empower companies such as Schneider Electric to build and sustain quality relationships with their customer base while simultaneously improving their bottom line.
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