This Month’s Newsletter:
While many may have more IT-based solutions, there’s a very good chance that no small number of maintenance and field service managers will have dozens of sticky notes around the edge of the monitor.
And there’s equally a good chance that some of those colorful squares will be there to help organize the allocations of technicians to jobs. Especially, when those jobs remain tentatively booked. Consequently, this newsletter is for all those who would like as neat a solution as possible for their unfinalized bookings and jobs: Shepherd’s “Draft Trip Creation” in its planner board.
No more makeshift solutions
In the Shepherd environment, a service order can be dragged from the list and dropped into a day and time slot on the planner board, and it is then scheduled, as far as the system is concerned. And with that the chosen technician will get an alert, notifying them of the next job on their roster. That process is the essence of the planner board from a service and maintenance perspective.
That is a very useful function. But what happens if the time selected for the service order is only 70% certain? Even 99% leaves a margin for change and, if that change needs to happen, the whole assignment process must be unpicked and restarted from scratch.
As suggested above, some will rely on stickies, or note pads to keep track of the options. Others create “dummy technicians.” These are people who exist as a profile, upon whose planner board persona, all these unfinalized work trips can be added.
However, even that gets ungainly if the service orders are numerous enough. What then? More “dummy” profiles? One for each actual team member? Luckily, Shepherd has developed something more straightforward and efficient: the option to create that technician visit as a draft.
Read on, or check out these introductory slides:
Less chaos, more order
These drafts can exist in a given technician’s calendar in the planner board, but the technician themselves will not see it in their mobile app feed. That will only come when that service order’s scheduling is moved from possible to confirmed.
In its draft form that technician trip will have the name of the likely team member but remains provisional as far as the rest of the system is concerned. Nothing else in the Shepherd or NetSuite ecosystem is tied into that service order as yet.
And this draft creation phase need not be a perpetual state. It might be that for the first 45 minutes in the office, draft trips are used to organize the day. If a department operates with longer lead times, then perhaps it is the first half of a Monday morning that allows the manager to plan for the next week or two. And, once organized, they can all move to allocated, confirmed and technician-aware.
Not a one-size fits-all solution
It is worth noting that this function is best suited to those managers that handle the scheduling themselves, rather than teams where each technician handles their own calendar.
Nonetheless, if there is a situation where a technician creates a visit based on their own initiative, this will, thanks to push notifications, be flagged to the scheduling staff member. At that point, they can override, move, or confirm the visit in relation to draft trips they may have created for that same technician.
Is this just about making life easier?
In a word, no. Sure, one issue resolved is the headache that goes with mentally trying to keep track of a dozen work orders that need to be carried out, while not quite knowing who will do them or when. But it goes beyond that, too.
The sooner bookings are confirmed, the sooner technicians know what is expected of them and the sooner they can get organized. That’s one aspect. You’re therefore also not sharing information with the team that is not yet confirmed. Doing things that way can have risks.
It’s human nature: we’ve all done it. Someone says that something may be happening on a given day, we mentally, or actually, start organizing the other aspects of our working day around this new information. That is wasted work, effort, and mental load if that unconfirmed event ends up being moved to a completely different time.
Draft trips by name
These trips can be drafted under the technician most likely to be responsible for it. For the planner board-initiated, the trip will exist there under the workflow status “B Tech unassigned.” At that point, when the trip moves to confirmed, the workflow can be set to “C Scheduled.” That’s it.
Once that is done, the trip will be no different than one that was created based on known dates and times. Push notifications deliver the technician an alert, if configured to do so, and they will know to check their assigned work orders or calendar for the full details. Similarly, until that change in workflow status takes place, the draft trip will not appear in scheduled technician trips. The draft ones will only be shown in the provisional list.
A related, yet separate, function called provisional work orders goes back a way. The November newsletter referenced these, but they are based on quotes generated in NetSuite. So a similar premise, but a different motivation and application. In the quote scenario, this was simply a note that might eventually become a service order. It could not be scheduled, or edited from the planner board. In this case, the service order exists. It is merely unassigned and provisionally scheduled through the creation of the draft trip entry.
Although the Draft Trip Creation functionality was a customer-requested development, Shepherd is aware of many users who will be using some variation of the alternatives described earlier and, for them, this will probably also come as a breath of fresh air. If that sounds like something your technician handler has to contend with, then write to your Shepherd contact for information about how to unlock this simple, and simplifying option to add to your manager’s arsenal of time-saving options.
Featured Blogs:
With products like Shepherd’s doing some serious heavy lifting when it comes to efficiency in the use of assets, and the people maintaining them, it is easy to forget other aspects of management that may seem trivial, yet whose consequences, when wrong, can reach far. One such is timekeeping.
Companies that resort to 3rd party apps for their calendar synchronization and so on will run into the same issues with updates etc. So why use them? Shepherd has a calendar management function that is easily activated within a user’s system. This featured blog talks about how and who it helps.
Looking for an easy way to raise your company’s profile?
We’re always keen to feature Shepherd customers through our case studies. It’s an opportunity to showcase your business, highlight the work you do, and put your brand in front of people who may never have had the chance to discover it otherwise.
Every company has a story worth telling. Perhaps you’ve grown rapidly, found a better way of working, overcome a significant challenge, or built something unique in your industry. A case study gives you the chance to share how you got where you are (and where you’re going next) in a professional, engaging format that focuses on your business and its achievements.
And the published piece will feature in internet search results, too, which is perfect for catching potential customers’ eyes.
The benefits don’t stop once the article is published. You’ll receive a polished piece of content that can be shared with customers, prospects, partners, and employees. Many companies also use their case studies as marketing material, social media content, website resources, or supporting material during sales conversations.
The process itself is straightforward. We’ll do the writing, you’ll review the draft, and nothing is published without your approval. All we need is a conversation about your business, what you’d like people to know about it, as well as how Shepherd has impacted the way you work.
If you’d like your company to be featured in an upcoming Shepherd case study, email newsletter@shepherdcmms.com with the subject line “Case Study Enquiry” and we’ll be in touch.
Shepherd Support on demand
Getting the most from your Shepherd product is the name of the game. If you want to have access to a dedicated expert to help you do that, consider signing up for a Shepherd Support contract. It takes the pressure off your administrator and ensures you get the answers you need, when you need them, rather than when time allows. Contact your Shepherd implementer for more information.
