Visual South Insights

Manufacturers need integrated service management

Many project based, engineer to order, and capital equipment manufacturers make the mistake of not prioritizing the service division of the business. The ramifications of this mistake are huge—organizations end up lacking the ability to generate higher margin activities, increase customer satisfaction, and differentiate their offerings to the market. But by prioritizing your service division and having an integrated service management software, your business will experience a multitude of benefits.

Crane manufacturers have specific business system needs

What crane manufacturers have in common with other types of manufacturers is that they must plan for material requirements, schedule jobs, and execute the production of those jobs. However, crane manufacturers have many requirements and needs that are unique to their industry. In this article, we’ll review how those unique requirements can be addressed with crane industry software or crane manufacturing software.

Applications for field service management software

There are multiple uses for field service management software, across many different industries. This type of platform is widely used by companies that do service and repair work in HVAC, electrical, commercial, and industrial maintenance industries. It’s also used in the repair industry itself, where work is performed onsite and remotely.

What are the best optional SyteLine/CloudSuite Industrial modules?

The question of which are the best optional modules in Infor SyteLine/CloudSuite Industrial is contingent upon your business requirements. So, the actual answer is…“it depends”.

The first thing to know is there are two distinct core sets of functionalities that make up the Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP for the cloud, and the Infor SyteLine offering that is deployed on premise. They are the same code sets, but bundled differently. The SyteLine on premise offering is more a la carte, whereas CloudSuite Industrial’s cloud-based subscription includes more functional attributes. However, there is an abundance of ERP modules available with both options.

Infor CloudSuite Industrial/Syteline ERP addresses all your service-related needs

When manufacturers look for areas to grow their revenue and find high-margin opportunities, many focus on the service component of their operation. Our team at Visual South has talked to many companies with ongoing initiatives to improve both after-market sales for replacement parts and service agreements with customers. This is especially prevalent in the engineer-to-order space and capital equipment.

Choosing field service management apps can be easy

The Visual South team frequently discusses the need for a foundation and process to ensure success when choosing enterprise systems. The same is true with field service management apps – if you have a plan, then it’s easy. If you don’t, then not so much. One way to hit that easy button is to learn how to select service management software as it will give you guidance on the steps to create a process and a plan.

Unintegrated field service management systems are costly

Visual South engages with many clients simply because these businesses recognize their non-integrated systems are costing them a bundle to manually integrate and maintain, and limiting profitable growth. Typically, companies use an accounting system, and some combination of Excel and small stand-alone, third-party applications to address immediate needs, but those “Frankenstein” systems are costly and limiting. It would be easy to say this is hurting the user’s field service management process, but in many cases, there are no firm processes to hurt because there is no supporting infrastructure. However, there are many non-related and redundant tasks performed to manually tie information together.

Infor Service Management is a Comprehensive Application

The Infor Service Management solution is an ERP application for service companies, field service companies, and manufacturers and equipment companies that provides service including installation, both preventive and emergency maintenance, warranty, service contracts, inspections, and both internal and external operations. Infor Service Management can be categorized as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution due to the abundance of functionality provided with the core offering. This vast functional footprint is a differentiator for Infor Service Management, as few other field service management systems have the same broad reach.

Equipment rental companies manage assets and customer service. Infor Service Management (ISM) does the same.

At a very high level, the goals of an equipment rental company and ISM are the same: to manage assets and customer relationships. The company needs to have assets customers want to rent; it’s also important for those assets to be maintained properly to reduce downtime. If either of those needs are not met, valuable sales opportunities may be lost forever.

Infor Service Management’s functionality is aligned to help companies meet these goals. Let’s start with the most important aspect of ISM: It’s one system, one database.