Situation

Our customer’s business involves sending personnel into the field to accomplish specific tasks. In response to a customer’s telephone call, a dispatcher would enter a work order using a desktop computer. The application running on the dispatcher’s computer would arrange to store the work item in a database. The work order would eventually be printed for reference by the personnel who would actually render services in response to the customer’s request.

During the course of the field personnel’s visit to the customer site, a variety of detailed information would be written on the work order or on some ancillary form.

When the field personnel returned to the office, they were expected to transcribe the details they had written down using a desktop software application which would integrate the data with the work order already stored in the database. The details entered by the field force were eventually routed to the billing function, the final piece of the puzzle required in order to generate revenue.

Our customer noticed a number of issues arising from this practice:

• The press of business often caused field force personnel to delay their transcription duties, thereby delaying the billing and subsequent collection of revenues.
• Transcription errors were common due to lost or damaged forms, illegible handwriting, and faulty memories.
• While the field personnel were transcribing their notes from a customer visit, they were unavailable for further revenue-generating visits. Were they to substitute customer visits for their transcription activities, billing would be delayed.

Solution

In response to our customers’ needs Flick Software built a software application which enables field personnel to enter data directly into a handheld computer as they complete work at the customer’s site.
Depending on the customer’s specific needs at the moment, the data entered by the field person can be copied to the company’s server either instantly over a cellular data link or at the end of the working day through a land-line based network connection. At the same time, subsequent work orders are downloaded to the field person’s handheld computer, providing updates to the individual’s work assignments.

Benefits

With the handheld application, our customer can instantly direct its field personnel to the customer sites at which they are urgently needed, thereby increasing customer satisfaction with its services.
The simple Human-Machine Interface (HMI) allows field personnel to rapidly enter data pertaining to work they do on behalf of their customers at the site where the work is accomplished. Thus, data persists in digital form from the point of its initial capture by the dispatcher, through its supplementation by the field person, right through to the billing cycle.
Delays and errors associated with the transcription process are eliminated and billing cycles are significantly reduced. As well, work items which might otherwise have been missed are now included, thereby increasing revenues.

Working With Flick Software

Our customer was able to consign the complete responsibility for engineering the field force application to Flick Software Inc. We assigned a dedicated team to design and develop the product based on our customer’s requirements.
Our HMI development team teamed with our database management and synchronization, and control logic specialists to design a unified product which interacts seamlessly with the corporate server system. Specializing in the development of software for handheld computers, we developed the complete solution including the HMI and the database management and synchronization.
We reported to our customer in writing every week and more frequently by telephone as the need arose.