Native integration to Corval’s ERP, Vista by Viewpoint,
…is key for leveraging the true power of mobile workforce management solutions.
Challenge
Corval initially purchased a third-party field service solution that was designed to operate independently of an ERP. However, integration with Corval’s ERP, Vista by Viewpoint, was critical to providing its technicians with real-time information, reducing its invoice cycle time, and maximizing its operational efficiencies.
After spending substantial time and resources to undertake its own project to integrate the third-party mobile field service solution with Corval’s ERP, the company continued to experience gaps in efficiencies and visibility in its service operation. Plus, Corval’s integration efforts came at a cost.
Every year Vista shipped software updates so Corval had to ensure the updates wouldn’t break the integration they had constructed. Corval budgeted $5,000 per year for Viewpoint’s Professional Services to test and troubleshoot the integration when updates came out. But integration costs didn’t stop there.
“I was spending 20 hours to shepherd the integration updating process during each cycle,” said Steve Bolton, Business Systems Analyst at Corval. “We also had to skip some updates even when we knew there were benefits to the organization because we could only manage one test and remediation cycle per year.”
Furthermore, Corval’s integration did not get all of the business results it initially set out to achieve.
Steve observed, “If we wanted to analyze work, some of the data were in the third party product and some were in Viewpoint. There was no way to run a cost versus revenue report in one application.”
Solution
To overcome its challenges, Corval Group approached FieldConnect to leverage the firm’s mobile workforce management solutions that are built for native integration with their ERP—delivery operation from dispatching and work order completion to service contract management and invoicing through FieldConnect.
Corval purchased FieldConnect’s mobile workforce solution, FieldAccess, and its field project management solution, FieldProject, for its technicians and foremen. All of FieldConnect’s solutions integrate with Vista by Viewpoint’s service management module, inventory module, equipment module, and accounting system. This enables a single database for work order management, customer management, time entry, inventory usage, and billing necessary to optimize a field service organization.
Results
By implementing FieldConnect’s solutions, Corval Group realized cost savings, improved real-time visibility, and increased operational efficiencies.
“FieldConnect eliminated more than $5,000 a year in the costs of keeping an integration working,” Steve summarized. “Having FieldConnect maintain the integration lets Corval keep up with all the most recent ERP updates, do technician profitability reporting in the accounting database, and even leverage new integrated capabilities like having technicians collect signatures from customers and consume inventory in real-time to improve our visibility of the real costs associated with our service operations.”
Since implementing our end-to-end workforce management software solutions, Corval has nearly doubled the number of its users and is evaluating additional FieldConnect solutions designed for other employees in their business.