What Is SAP’s New Field Service Management Solution? Coresystems.

A new cloud related acquisition was announced earlier this year: SAP acquired Coresystems. A couple of months later, SAP partners were invited to a training. To sell and implement Coresystems you need certified consultants. So, three NTT DATA Business Solutions colleagues and I traveled to Switzerland for an intensive three-day onboarding training. We are happy that we have passed the exam, and therefore NTT DATA Business Solutions is now a certified partner. In this blog I will try to explain what kind of solution SAP acquired and why it could be valuable to you.

The Core of Coresystems

Coresystems is a cloud solution, purely focused on supporting field service processes for mid-sized and large enterprises. Basically, it supports 3 personas: the customer, the dispatcher (who plans service calls), and the technician. Coresystems relies on a backend system, holding customers, contracts, products, and spare parts. However, Coresystems can also work “stand-alone”. But this scenario will hardly occur at our customers. Coresystems is focused on receiving service calls, preparing them and plan them to be executed by one or more technicians, including receiving the feedback from the technician, like spent time, parts, and the customer’s signature.

Before touching some details of the solution and advantages, there are 3 really powerful features that I want to mention:

• The mobile app for technicians, developed for offline usage and providing true guidance to finish and report the assignment.
• The really impressive, feature-rich plan board – maybe the heart of the solution – is supporting the dispatcher (planner) in effectively planning the technicians’ deployment, based on real-time availability, skills, working time, including ‘suggested technician’.
• A fantastic architecture and data model, providing the possibility to easily configure, among others, workflows, business rules and checklists.

With Coresystems companies can truly improve efficiency, quality, and customer experience. In today’s world, in which successful companies have to deliver excellent service to beat the competition, a powerful and futureproof field service management solution must be in place. Therefore I understand why SAP invested in Coresystems.

Let’s dive into 4 roles: the customer, the technician, the dispatcher (planner), and the service organization.

Field Service Quality – All That Matters from the Customer’s Perspective

Customers are demanding fast response combined with excellent service. Coresystems offers enterprises a fantastic solution to deliver quality. Sending the technician with the right skills to the job, with the right spare parts, and instructions will result in a quick and efficient answer to the customer’s problem. The customer can be informed in real time with valuable information about the service order, for example, when the technician is on the way. Planned and predictive maintenance are supported, but Coresystems offers much more than that.

Customers can create a request or service call by using a user-friendly portal or by calling the service desk. New at Coresystems is the self-service option. Customers can scan the QR code on the equipment with their mobile device.

From that point the customer can interact with the solution on different topics:

• Quickly find the phone number of the service hotline,
• access to documentations or videos,
• order spare parts,
• or even start a service planning process.

Customers can select the date and time of available and qualified technicians. Suggested times and dates are feeded by the system in real time.

Field Service Management – How Valuable It Is for Field Technicians

Technicians are key in the service process! It starts with maintaining dynamic elements, like working time, real-time availability, regional coverage, and skills. The system can send an SMS to the technician informing him on an assignment. From the SMS message he can surf directly to the service call. An approval or refusal step can be part of the process. A technician can accept an assignment with just one click.

The mobile app is one of the pillars of the solution. It is developed for offline usage. So the technician is always able to access all important information. If the technician is online, the mobile syncs and updates the app with relevant information. After this sync (takes just a few seconds) all new data is on the device and relevant information is sent to the cloud.

The mobile app can really guide the technician. Just follow the steps (buttons) and the process is executed accordingly.

Time entry, finding the right spare parts (barcode scanning or search), recording used spare parts, and capturing signature are really easy.

Through the extensive checklist functionality organizations can force processes, linked to customers, type of jobs or equipment. Safety is important. Checklists are truly helpful.

How the Dispatcher (or Planner) Profits from the New Field Service Management

The plan board can be seen as the heart of the application. The dispatcher is really supported in planning the technicians effectively.

Just a few powerful features and elements:

• Intelligent use of colors to see, for example, travel time and status of the assignment
• Drag-and-drop functionality
• Easy to split an assignment and plan the task for two or several technicians
• Supports group assignments
• Recommends technicians, based on skills and availability
• Filters for quick guidance of technicians and service calls
• User-friendly screen – all necessary elements on a single screen

How the Whole Service Organization Benefits from the New Solution

Coresystems is configurable and can meet specific requirements and processes such as adjusting fields, adding fields, and change workflow, reports or new instructions. It’s quickly and fast to implement. And by default it is very easy to deploy changes to the mobile device. Your operation and communication run smoothly, even in a dynamically changing environment. Coresystems will deliver cost and time savings in field service processes. Internal and external communication will reach new heights.

Learn More

Ask for a demo and see by yourself. We are happy to prepare a setup, showing you the power of SAP’s new field service management solution.

Click here for more information about NTT DATA Business Solutions’ customer services and field service solutions.

If you have questions or remarks, please do not hesitate to contact us.

By Marc van den Berk, Manager Customer Engagement & Commerce Solutions, Region Western Europe, NTT DATA Business Solutions BV

[email protected]