To run your business in the most effective manner, you need to analyze your operations. NetSuite makes this possible as does Shepherd. Different operations need a different focus.
So long as the data existing in NetSuite and the output is logical, there is little that you cannot achieve using NetSuite’s searches and reporting. For those more advanced queries, NetSuite offer Analytics. Why then did Shepherd introduce its own service-focused BI tool?
NetSuite began as a financial and accounting package and not as a CMMS. It is no surprise then that its reports and searches accommodate financial and accounting needs so well. The CFO’s and controllers will find their basic and even intermediate reporting needs met rather easily with little to no customization required. HR managers, inventory managers, and sales managers as well as a host of other roles will find the same. When requirements become complex, a skilled implementer can most often meet them via report and search customization.
Benefits of Field Service analytics
Shepherd BI reports and analytics take a perspective on reporting very different from that of an ERP. Shepherd’s analytics use a maintenance manager’s lens when making sense of your NetSuite data. For example, Shepherd’s BI tool starts in one of the following four places when configuring an output: the machine, the service order, the service contract, or the technician.
Machine or equipment focused analytics measure the financial performance of each equipment record under your management, whether it is your property or that of your customer. Shepherd reports on rental revenue for the equipment, adds all service revenue, deducts parts & labor cost as well as assigned parts revenue and informs you how well or not that machine performed. A machine is an asset if you own it and is at least a potential profit center if you do not. Equipment centric reporting measures the performance of your maintenance department in a manner consonant with their mission.
Further specialised applications
Service order specific reporting likewise allows you to measure your service team’s ability to deliver service with efficiency. Shepherd stamps all transactions related to a service order with a reference enabling Shepherd to calculate the revenue, cost, and profit on each service order one by one.
Service contracts may generate many service orders as well as contain revenue representing the sale of the warranty or extended coverage that they provide. If you cannot report on the profitability of each one of your service contracts over their lifetime or any period in between, you are navigating blind and may find yourself in a situation in which you renew contracts at a loss for want of service contract centric financial reporting.
The most popular variant of the Shepherd BI tool begins with the technician and measures his or her ability to deliver service efficiently. Would your field service managers not like to know which are their most and their least profitable technicians? To know which technicians have improved most month over month in their ability to generate profit or reduce costs for your organization?
Arm and inform your maintenance staff with analysis aligned to their purpose. Contact Shepherd’s regional sales managers to find out more about Shepherd’s BI tool.
