Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Barbour Consulting and partner Mi-Co are helping ConServ Building Services, a division of BCH Mechanical, to streamline their field data collection with Barbour’s Digital Forms for Service (DFS) product.

 

ConServ Building Services was having problems before deploying DFS since all of their paper processes in the field were performed manually. The collected information was then manually re-entered into the ERP system before it could be processed and field technicians had to call into the main office using cell phones for scheduling.

 

BCH CFO John Fields said that after reviewing their existing systems, and realizing how inefficient they were, they finally decided to search for a vendor that could provide a full service solution for their processes. Although he initially approached Mi-Co, the developer of Mi-Forms mobile E-Forms technology, he was referred to Barbour when Mi-Co discovered BCH's operations were supported internally by a Timberline ERP system, according to sources of the companies.

 

Timberline specialists Barbour developed a solution to fully integrate with the Timberline system. Barbour gave ConServ Building Services a winning solution that would allow them to keep as much of their existing system in place as possible and was great to work with, said Fields.

 

Following the implementation, the techs at ConServ enjoy a fully automated workflow. As the data and order forms are now processed on Tablet PCs, it allows data to be delivered back to the home office in real time. The companies’ officials further explain that Barbour included capabilities in the newly created DFS product to dispatch service calls from Timberline. Containing prefilled data about the customer and their service requirements, these calls help the techs to provide better service.

 

In addition, the DFS product enables the field techs to input their status into their Tablet PC and have it transferred back to the Timberline dispatch board in real time. Mi-Forms SDK was used as the base for the DFS forms product. Designed for use by developers who are focused on creating custom forms-based solutions, the Mi-Forms SDK provides the core technology of Mi-Forms and leverages the.NET Framework, helping Barbour to easily create the needed solution in less time and for less cost.

 

According to Fields, the automation of the data collection process of their field techs has brought them a tremendous ROI. He added that realistically, electronic data was the direction their company was heading anyway and DFS allowed them to make a smooth transition.