A key part of a new business acquisition journey is getting visibility of the new business’s people and assets and integrating them into the existing systems, processes and infrastructure at Group level. In this article we explore how the right cloud-based field service management software will ease the transition and onboarding of new businesses post-acquisition.
Often, service management businesses will have some elements of digital capture and field service technology in place but may still rely on a considerable amount of back-office administration, tedious manual processes, and legacy systems.
Multiple legacy systems make it hard to manage one business, but this is exacerbated at Group level when you acquire multiple businesses with multiple systems, which rarely talk to each other.
Aeromark has broad experience in partnering with Groups who recognise that their legacy service management systems need a complete overhaul to take the Group forward. Groups have a unique requirement, and they realise their incumbent systems are not fit for purpose.
The return on investment on the initial expenditure of choosing a bespoke cloud based service management platform like Aeromark, instead of an off the shelf platform, is soon recouped. Efficient automation brings economies of scale; such as the optimisation and cross-utilisation of office and field-based resources throughout the group without compromising brand integrity.
A field service management platform should empower your teams and deliver efficiencies to support future growth. Having all businesses within a Group operating on the same web-based platform enables opportunities for shared central services, inter-company invoicing and rationalisation.
Each business unit benefits from being part of a “Group” while still running their individual processes. By choosing a provider that has software intelligence each business within a group can retain their brand identity and the only customer facing change, post-acquisition, will be a more efficient service.
The Aeromark system provides a single cloud-based solution for asset management, dynamic real time scheduling of planned and reactive work, integrated mobile workflows, vehicle tracking and real-time control of subcontractors.
Users benefit from streamlined and automated processes for creating documentation such as quotations, job reports, and compliance certificates. The processes are defined at business unit level which ensures that Customer requirements are never overlooked but at the same time ensuring compatibility across all businesses in the Group.
Once Aeromark has been firmly embedded at Group level, any newly acquired companies can be integrated quickly and will also soon also reap the benefits of having the complete visibility and control that a specialist management system offers.
The automation of back-office tasks and the insight the Aeromark system provides enables users to make key decisions based on the most accurate information and to work strategically rather than just tactically.
As a group of companies grows, both challenges and opportunities through visibility and control can also heighten, especially with field-based engineers.
The Aeromark system provides field service engineers, via their smart phone or tablet, all the tools and information needed to complete every job efficiently and maximise customer satisfaction.
Their jobs are clearly visible, scheduled in order, with full details including service history, whether it is a reactive or planned maintenance visit, access to product specifications and everything needed to complete service requests.
The system’s multi-intervention feature also shows back-office staff other jobs at the engineer’s current location, or a given radius, meaning an engineer on a reactive job can also carry out other maintenance work at, or near, the same site. Subcontractors are managed in the same way via the system’s subcontractor portals.
Having this visibility at Group level means you can efficiently deploy your entire engineering workforce, increase your first-time fix rates and get ahead of your PPM schedules.
Aeromark cloud based field service management software also offers complete real-time visibility and control of van, warehouse, reserved and site stock; enabling you to accurately value the stock held across the group including where that stock is held and automatically replenish items used regularly.
By being able to better control this critical part of their operation, our customers see improved efficiency and make significant savings by ensuring they order only the stock they need as best group rates, with a complete audit trail of usage and value.
Aeromark recognises that every business acquisition is unique and, as well as significant gains, often brings more complexity to the company at a Group level.
We create a bespoke cloud-based system that will enable a newly acquired business' processes to be transformed seamlessly into the Group’s best practice whilst retaining the individual companies' reputation.
It’s about time for Aeromark.