This blog post was adapted from a BlueFolder case study. More service scheduling software case studies are available for free download.
Based in Northern California's fast-growing Central Valley, Merino Computer Concepts' (MCC) quality, timely and client-focused network and computing services set the company apart. However, their service delivery processes needed to be streamlined.
The company's team of network engineers was still dependent on a paper-based, multi-step approach to service documentation. They would fill out paper forms at client sites with details that the office manager had to later re-enter into the accounting system. The forms were then filed away, and had to be searched through whenever clients called or engineers needed client histories. On top of that, the company spent $3,600 a year printing the three-part paper forms that they manually filled out.
Field Service Scheduling Software with QuickBooks Integration
MCC initially recommended an online service management product that turned out to be too cumbersome to use: Simply scheduling an appointment on this work order management software took seven to eight steps. The search was renewed; several members of the MCC team discovered BlueFolder online and signed up for free trials of BlueFolder's web-based solution.
"The BlueFolder interface looked clean and pleasing to the eye," said president Joseph Merino. "Compared to the other products we tried, we found it to be very user friendly. It only took a couple of steps to schedule an appointment. We were really impressed with the product."
The automated export to QuickBooks further sealed the deal. That meant that, as engineers entered project data at client sites, the office manager could automatically bring those complete details right into the accounting software. It meant immediate time savings (approximately 10 hours a week) and faster billing.
Easy to Learn; One Location for Managing Client Service
Within a day of launching BlueFolder, team members were up and running with minimal training, using the solution to schedule appointments, track client hours, log the details of client visits and support billing. Network engineers could log on from any location to see a client's network infrastructure and histories, and update the system with new details. A time-tracking feature of BlueFolder allowed them to track labor hours accurately.
And not only did the Quickbooks Integration compress billing time, it automatically imported data from the BlueFolder side, such as engineers' notes, which let customers share important details about the services. One click now brought all service ticket information into QuickBooks, increasing invoice accuracy and speeding the process by an average of 2-3 days.
Simpler Service Agreement Tracking
MCC also benefits from a valuable feature that BlueFolder incorporated as a result of customer feedback - tracking of service agreements. Before, MCC logged work against service agreements by noting time spent in Excel™, which was not always accurate.
With BlueFolder, the team now had a category for service agreements. As engineers work with a specific client, the time logged in that category is subtracted from the total service agreement hours to ensure that everyone always has an exact record. MCC can view the total at any time, and can easily generate reports for clients.
As a manager, Joe Merino also appreciates the detailed information that BlueFolder offers. He regularly reports on labor hours in BlueFolder to understand workloads - insight that supported the decision to hire another engineer. MCC also elevated client response times with the ability to look up information immediately, instead of having to call clients back after sorting through paper files.
ROI in Just Weeks
Merino expected to reduce costs with BlueFolder, but the savings exceeded expectations. Combining time saved by the office manager, as well as by engineers in noting and locating details about client service, the team has recouped $1,100 per week in staff time. With an additional $3,600 in printing costs, savings over the course of a year add up to around $60,000 - helping pay for another billable network engineer to improve service.
"Within a couple of weeks, BlueFolder easily paid for itself," Merino said. "We're very happy with the product, and service from BlueFolder has been excellent. They always respond immediately."