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ServiceCentral Technologies: Defining Streamlined Workflow around Evolving Business Trends
The explosive growth of consumer electronics and personal communications devices has brought new challenges to the logistics sector. Product support, returns and warranty returns management, along with the evolving ‘internet of things’, is driving complex customer requirements for immediate information retrieval. “In a world of constant communications and connectivity, stakeholders of logistic activities, from retailers to 3PLs to OEMs to consumers themselves, have a critical need for real-time information about product performance, self-diagnostics, support locations, warranty eligibility, and RMA/repair status,” says Steven D. Teel, President and CEO, ServiceCentral.ServiceCentral addresses the challenges faced by logistics and service organizations with a highly configurable workflow management system. The company brings its clients the efficiency to design multiple workflows, including business rules, data points, screen layouts and security roles particular for each business line, channel partner, product line or customer segment. “The ondemand flexibility of our solutions allow our clients to quickly implement system changes to match evolving business practices and requirements,” claims Teel.
The company offers a wide array of service management software solutions including Retail Service, Repair Depot, RMA, Warranty Management and Inventory Management. The company also supports the global Service Networks for several major OEMs, providing end-to-end management and visibility to third party service partners. “ServiceCentral helps global manufacturers provide a single cloud-based solution for their distributed independent service network to track all product returns, warranty authorization, repairs and parts dispatch,” Teel stated.
The company’s first product in the early 1990’s was a field service management solution targeted to the coffee and vending industries. A t the time clients used ServiceCentral to track assets and associated maintenance for vending equipment. Over time the product evolved to also track product being returned to a centralized depot for refurbishment.
With the rise of the cellular industry, the solution was quickly adopted to track increasing volumes of cellular handsets being returned and repaired.
Through numerous product updates, the company’s focus turned exclusively to providing cloud-based solutions for tracking high volume returns, repairs and warranty activity related to consumer electronics, hi-tech and wireless products. “Interestingly, we are also going back to our roots a bit by adding field service scheduling and dispatch management to our service management product,” Teel affirms.
While some logistics solutions provide simple tracking of product from one point to another, ServiceCentral is specifically focused on managing the explicit workflow, business rules and data collection requirements at each touch point while improving the overall customer experience with the service event. “By improving both the consumer and product aspects of service logistics, we are helping companies evolve their service operations from cost centers into profit streams,” says Teel.
ServiceCentral also empowers its customers with a high level of integration utilizing their Enterprise Services Bus. Teel states, “Often our clients leverage their service organization as an independent entity, building their entire service operations around ServiceCentral. We pull data from other enterprise systems as needed and become the central repository for all service, parts and logistics activities as well as reporting.” The company has recently extended the Enterprise Service Bus architecture to provide pluggable framework to support authentication solutions for customers who have deployed enterprise identity management within their organization.
Envisioning the company’s roadmap, Teel says- “Our vision for the product includes enhancing all consumer and partner touch-points for service operations by leveraging mobile technology, self-service kiosks, on-board diagnostics, and internet connectivity for self-monitoring. I n f act w e a re c urrently building integration with self-monitoring tools for deployment later this year.”
The on-demand flexibility of our solutions allow our clients to quickly implement system changes to match evolving business practices and requirements
While some logistics solutions provide simple tracking of product from one point to another, ServiceCentral is specifically focused on managing the explicit workflow, business rules and data collection requirements at each touch point while improving the overall customer experience with the service event. “By improving both the consumer and product aspects of service logistics, we are helping companies evolve their service operations from cost centers into profit streams,” says Teel.
ServiceCentral also empowers its customers with a high level of integration utilizing their Enterprise Services Bus. Teel states, “Often our clients leverage their service organization as an independent entity, building their entire service operations around ServiceCentral. We pull data from other enterprise systems as needed and become the central repository for all service, parts and logistics activities as well as reporting.” The company has recently extended the Enterprise Service Bus architecture to provide pluggable framework to support authentication solutions for customers who have deployed enterprise identity management within their organization.
Envisioning the company’s roadmap, Teel says- “Our vision for the product includes enhancing all consumer and partner touch-points for service operations by leveraging mobile technology, self-service kiosks, on-board diagnostics, and internet connectivity for self-monitoring. I n f act w e a re c urrently building integration with self-monitoring tools for deployment later this year.”
