GEZE Service

GEZE GmbH is one of the world’s leading suppliers of systems for door, window and security technology. The service technicians of GEZE Service GmbH ensure reliable and competent maintenance and servicing of the building technology at the customer’s premises 365 days a year. The company has six service branches in Germany and 72 subsidiaries internationally.

In order to handle the constantly increasing number of service orders, GEZE Service had already been using an application for several years that offered its technicians a mobile connection to the back office systems while on the move. However, new customer and market requirements and the associated functionality, reliability, delivery capability and user-friendliness made it necessary to change hardware and applications in 2014.

Change to new mobile solution for service technicians

In 2015, GEZE Service opted for the mobile solution mobileX-MIP for Field Service from mobileX in order to optimize its customer service and further improve the productivity of its service technicians. In addition, the administrative effort at GEZE Service and GEZE GmbH was to be further reduced and warehouse and spare parts management and ordering processes improved. A further goal was to optimise the exchange of information between the Service, PM and Sales departments and to increase reliability and availability during service calls.

The rollout of the solution started in autumn 2015. Since May 2016 the technicians in Germany have been working with mobileX-MIP for Field Service. This was later followed by Spain, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Austria. Via order processing in the solution, the technicians update the order status, create feedback messages and can view all details of the order, including the plant structure. They can also create a new local order on site if, for example, a repair is required in the course of maintenance.

Integration of material process and time management

The material process can also be mapped using mobileX-MIP for Field Service. Technicians can use it to report back the consumption of material, order and return material and take inventory of the vehicle warehouse.

Via the daily report in mobileX-MIP for Field Service, the technicians record their order-related and non-order-related times without gaps, which flow into time management in the backend. This can also be used to map standby flat rates and release additional working times such as night work.

GEZE Service also uses the mobileX release monitor, an additional module of mobileX-MIP for Field Service. It avoids cancellations of incorrect bookings in SAP by controlling incoming reports on the basis of predefined criteria, which the office staff can then correct if necessary and in consultation with the technician.

Digitization of forms

With the switch to the new mobile solution, the Dynamic Forms module, an extension of mobileX-MIP for Field Service, was also introduced. This was intended to replace the existing paper forms and thus design the entire service process without media discontinuity. The digital templates also make it easier for technicians to enter data and increase data quality by validating entries. After transfer to the backend, the data is archived either as a structured data record or as a PDF document.

At GEZE, the individual countries use the Dynamic Forms in different ways. In Spain, they are recorded as an attachment to the service report. In the UK, the technicians use the checklists for the maintenance of systems. In addition, a digital form will replace the former multi-page paper form used to carry out the security analysis of automatic doors. With the help of Dynamic Forms, GEZE can easily and quickly capture and process any data objects that are not contained in the mobileX standard data model in a structured manner.

“The introduction of mobileX-MIP for Field Service together with the Dynamic Forms has largely digitalized our service process,” explains Annabella Grauduschus, Team Leader SAP Projects and Systems at GEZE Service GmbH. “This will significantly improve our data quality and increase the efficiency and productivity of our mobile order processing”.

Outlook

When the rollouts and training in the international subsidiaries will have been completed, it is planned to migrate the solution to the current version in order to use new functions of mobileX-MIP for Field Service. Further optimizations, such as the integration of error codes, are also planned.