The strength of Shepherd CMMS for NetSuite users is that all users field, plant, or office get a real-time view of the service organization, be it the state of your inventory, the condition of your transport fleet, or your technicians on the road.
It allows you to track inventory, working time, and even the whereabouts of your teams. And with its handy mobile app, all your technicians need to carry along is a smartphone in order to complete the day’s service work and log all of their time
That overview is all the greater with information from the field. The Shepherd mobile app is compatible with Android as well as Apple’s iOS, which means no expensive additional hardware is needed to run it and your field users already carry compatible devices.
It is also easy to tailor to the needs and requirements of your business. In terms of its user interface, the Shepherd mobile app is a blank slate, allowing you to make it what you need it to be.
“The idea is to configure the app in such way that you reduce the time your technician spends on it. You can put the information right where the technician expects it.”
Don Finnegan, Shepherd CMMS CEO
Familiar interface
The app has a state-of-the-art user interface sharing the same visual elements with Shepherd’s revolutionary Planner Board. Just like NetSuite, the app is permission-based and allows for heavy personalization, meaning that your administrators can tailor it to your team’s needs.
Once installed, your NetSuite admin and your Shepherd implementer populate the app’s tiles with exactly those fields, links, and documents that your service staff need to get their job done without having to drag a computer with them.
Done well, this can substantially reduce the time technicians spend on their mobile devices.
In fact, you can even choose from yet more tiles with additional features designed to make work in the field easier and quicker. These include sending your workers easy-to-access contact details for their next call, or directions to the work site, both at the push of a button.
Additional tools
The Shepherd app offers functions and features such as prompts or walk-throughs to be sure your staff complete such things as Health and Safety pre-requisite forms before commencing their assignment, or time and materials processing when their task is complete.
Health and Safety requirements met, the time spent on site and materials used are recorded on the spot. On top of that, the Shepherd mobile app can also be used to capture the customer’s signature, as confirmation they are satisfied and that the order is completed.
All of this done there and then means that you, the service provider, can accurately invoice your clients the minute the job is complete.
Real-time overviews
The mobile app allows you to know, down to the minute, what the status of your various support staff is as they are working in the field or assisting your customers, as this is communicated directly to NetSuite.
When reporting time, the Shepherd app includes both a simple time mode, in which the technician enters only labor and travel duration, and an advanced time mode enhanced with time and GPS coordinate stamps.
The Shepherd app records these using convenient big buttons: Depart, Arrive, Start, Pause, Finish Work. Subscribers often add custom fields for technicians to complete in the mobile app, allowing the technician to identify overtime entries or identify applicable prevailing wages.
Just as in the browser, all time that the technician enters lands in NetSuite as one of NetSuite’s own timesheets, where it is available to drive costing, profit & project reporting, utilization calculations, payroll, and so on.
The Shepherd mobile app also gives your technicians the freedom to take care of their end-of-day paperwork through their phone, be it back at the office or even at home. This again saves them time in the field, allowing them to move on to the next job with minimum delay.
Reporting made easy
Shepherd also lets you build service report templates that you can vary by service, or by combination of service and equipment make/model. The level of detail of each type of report is up to you, templates can be simple or complex, depending on their use.
Shepherd customers often build service report templates that inform the technician of the correct service procedure, and also act as a post-service QA audit by requiring documentation of each required task.
Each task can then have its own notes, photos, and completion confirmation. Shepherd will also pull any manuals from NetSuite that the technician may need to get their job done.
All of this means that thoughtful implementation will turn your Shepherd app into an effective productivity tool, and a welcome point of reference to service staff.
Give your staff all the information they require to get the job done swiftly and effectively, all the while keeping HQ up to date with any necessary forms or information, getting a job completed and invoiced faster than ever before!
