While the combination of digital pen data downloads from remote service technicians into the Tesseract Service Centre service management system have further improved customer service operations at market-leading shower specialist Aqualisa, the resulting availability of real-time information from the field is also providing the company with:

• Complete and up-to-date views of field technicians’ job schedules;

• Definitive lists of parts used along with fault codes – which, in turn, generate invaluable product quality improvement information; and

• The ability to reduce spare part stock levels via integrated links with an enterprise-wide Fourth Shift ERP system. Aqualisa was founded in 1975 to develop an innovation in showering: the bi-metallic thermostatic shower valve. The development remains at the heart of the company’s phenomenal success that today results in a £40 million turnover from its design, manufacturing and service operations that are based at Westerham, Kent.

An established Tesseract user, the Aqualisa service team also deals with the service requests from sister company Gainsborough, and a myriad of calls are dealt with on a daily basis.

The Service Centre application is based around on-demand Postcode Address File (PAF) technology, rather than contract-based data, and this is used to populate caller screens as a result of requests for spare parts and technical help, for example. The system also easily identifies chargeable calls and enables the team to accommodate automated credit card orders (for replacement parts).

The PAF functionality complements Service Centre’s main modules for Customer Assets, Call Control, Parts Centre, Repair Centre, Quote Centre and Prospect Centre.

In addition, the department handles calls for the nationwide team of 25 full time service technicians who are complemented by a service outlet in Ireland - which also has links to the Service Centre software - and the calls are allocated to the service technicians by a mixture of post, fax and PC-based email.

According to IT Manager Ian Sadlier, the decision to improve efficiency levels internally (reduced call closure paperwork), as well as hoist field technician performance by arming them with digital pens rather than laptops was a simple matter of economics: “The cost of supplying laptops would have been higher than pens, and the laptops would need to be supported while the pens don’t.

“The pens transmit data as they are used on job completion forms by linking in with the engineers’ mobile ‘phones’ Bluetooth technology and ‘reading’ and transmitting the characters being used.

“Information transmitted in terms of fault codes, parts used and job closure also means we now have a finger on the pulse of all activities in the field.

“The opportunity for reduced stock levels is a direct result of this real-time information; it means we can immediately create orders in the ERP system and quickly update stock levels.

“In addition, because all engineers are transmitting a standardised set of fault codes, we now gain invaluable product data that is being fed back into the design and manufacturing teams to further improve product quality.”