Sometimes you can hear the phrase “the older the product, the more functional it is”. In the age of modern technology, the far-reaching web and the SaaS model, this statement almost does not work. The key to successful development is constant monitoring of the market, tracking customer requests and requirements, readiness to hear an important remark today, drag it into the backlog in the evening, and start developing tomorrow. This is how we work on the HubEx project - a equipment service management system. We have a great and diverse team of engineers, and we could develop a dating service, an addictive mobile game, a time management system, or the most user-friendly todo list in the world. These products would quickly hit the market and we could rest on our laurels. But our team, coming from an engineering company, knows the area where there are a lot of pains, problems and difficulties - this is a service. We think that each of you has experienced some of these pains. So, we need to go where they are waiting for us. Well, we hope they are waiting 🙂
Equipment service: chaos, carelessness, downtime
Equipment maintenance for the majority is service centers, where phones are saved from meeting asphalt and puddles, and laptops from tea and juice. But we are on Habré, and there are those who maintain equipment of all types:
- these same service centers that repair electronics and household appliances;
- centers and outsourcers for servicing printers and printing equipment are a separate and very serious industry;
- multifunctional outsourcers - companies that service, repair and rent office equipment, electronics, etc. for office needs;
- companies providing service maintenance of industrial equipment, machines, components and assemblies;
- business centers, management companies and their maintenance services;
- maintenance services at various large industrial and social facilities;
- internal business units that maintain the equipment in the company, carry out repairs and support internal business users.
These listed categories work differently, and they all know that there is an ideal scheme: incident - ticket - work - delivery-acceptance of work - closed ticket - KPI - bonus (payment). But most often this chain looks like this: AAAAA! - What? — Breakdown! - Which? - We can not work, this idle time is your fault! Urgently! Important! - Crap. We are working. What is the status of the repair? And now? Done, close the ticket. - Oh thank you. - Close the ticket. “Yes, yes, I forgot. - Close the ticket.
Tired of reading, I want to test with my hands, use and criticize your service! If so, and we are ready to work with you.
Why is this happening?
- There is no equipment maintenance strategy - each case is considered haphazardly, it takes time as unique, while a lot of tasks can be unified, brought under the internal corporate standard.
- No operational risk assessment. Alas, many actions of the company are taken after the fact, when repair is already needed, and in the worst case, disposal. In addition, companies often forget to take into account that there should always be a replacement fund inside technical assets - yes, these are extra items in accounting, but the costs of their purchase and maintenance can be significantly lower than the losses from possible downtime in operating or production activities.
- No equipment management planning. The technical risk management plan is the most important aspect of working with equipment. You need to know exactly: the timing of maintenance, the timing of the inventory and preventive inspection, monitoring conditions that serve as triggers for making decisions about additional actions with the equipment, etc.
- The companies do not keep records of equipment, do not track the operation order: the date of commissioning can only be tracked by finding old documents, the history of maintenance and repair is not recorded, wear lists and the need for spare parts and assemblies are not kept.
. Garage Brothers do not use HubEx. But in vain!
What did we want to achieve by creating HubEx?
Of course, we are not now going to claim that we have created software that did not exist before. There are many equipment maintenance management systems, Service Desk, industry ERP, etc. on the market. We have come across such software more than once, but we did not like it: the interface, the lack of a client panel, a mobile version, the use of an outdated stack and expensive DBMS. And when a developer doesn’t like something very much, he will certainly create his own. The product itself came from a real large engineering company, i.e. we ourselves are none other than representatives of the market. Therefore, we know exactly the pains of service and warranty service and take them into account when developing each new product function for all business sectors.
While we are at the stage of a technology startup, and actively continue to develop and develop the product, but now HubEx users can get a convenient and functional tool. But we won’t refuse criticism either - that’s why we came to Habr.
There are additional important tasks that HubEx can solve.
- Anticipate problems, not solve them. The software keeps records of all equipment, facts of repair and maintenance, and so on. The "Request" entity can be configured both for outsourcers and for internal technical services - you can create any stages and statuses, thanks to the change of which you will always know exactly what state each object is in.
- Establish contact between the customer and the contractor - thanks to the messaging system, as well as the customer interface in HubEx, you no longer need to write hundreds of letters and answer calls, the system interface will contain the most detailed information.
- Control the repair and service process: plan, assign preventive actions, notify customers to prevent problems. (Remember how cool this is implemented by dentists and car centers: at some point you are reminded of the next professional examination or technical inspection - if you want, you don’t want, but you think about it). By the way, soon we plan to integrate HubEx with popular CRM systems, which will provide an impressive increase in opportunities for developing customer relationships and increasing the volume of service.
- Conduct analytics that can form the basis for making new business decisions and KPIs for rewarding employees. You can group applications by status and stages, and then, based on the ratio of groups for each engineer, foreman or department, calculate KPI, as well as adjust the work of the company as a whole: rotate employees, conduct training, etc. (Conventionally, if foreman Ivanov most of the applications were stuck at the “detection of problems” stage, he probably encountered unfamiliar equipment, the operation of which requires a long study of instructions. Training is required.)
HubEx: first review
Galloping through the interface
The main advantage of our system is the constructor. In fact, we can customize the platform for each individual client to his clear goals and it will not be repeated. In general, platforming is practically a new reality for corporate software: for the cost of renting a conventional solution, a client receives a fully customized version without scaling, configuration and management problems.
Another advantage is the customization of the application lifecycle. Each company can set up the stages and statuses of applications for each type of application in a few clicks, which will lead to the structuring of information and the generation of detailed reporting. Flexible platform settings give +100 to convenience, speed and, most importantly, transparency of actions and processes.
Inside HubEx, the company can actually create an electronic equipment passport. Any documentation can be attached to the passport, be it a file, video, picture, and so on. There you can also specify the warranty period and attach FAQ with frequent problems that equipment owners themselves can solve: this will increase loyalty and reduce the number of calls to the service, which means freeing up time for a quality solution to more complex tasks.
To get acquainted with HubEx, it is best to leave a request on the site - we will gladly process each one and help you figure it out if necessary. "Feeling" it live is quite pleasant and interesting from the point of view of the software structure: user interface, administrator interface, mobile version. But if you suddenly find it more convenient to read, we have prepared for you a brief overview of the main entities and mechanisms.
Well, if there is absolutely no time to read, get acquainted - HubEx, watch a compact and dynamic video about us:
By the way, it is easy to upload your data to the system: if you did your business in an Excel spreadsheet or somewhere else, then before starting work in the system, you can easily transfer them to HubEx. To do this, you need to download an Excel spreadsheet template from HubEx, fill it with your data and import it into the system - this way you can easily add the main entities for HubEx to work with and you can quickly get started. In this case, the template can be empty or include data from the system, and if incorrect data is entered, HubEx will not make an error and return a message stating that there is a problem with the data. Thus, you can easily overcome one of the main steps of automation - filling the automatic system with existing data.
HubEx entities
The ticket is the main entity of HubEx. You can create any type of application (regular, emergency, warranty, planned, etc.), customize a template or several templates for quick application processing. Inside it, an object is specified, its location address (with a map), type of work, criticality (set in the reference book), deadlines, performer. You can add a description to the application, attach files. The application fixes the start and end time, thus, the responsibility of each employee becomes quite transparent. You can also set the estimated values of labor costs and the approximate cost of work on the application.
Application creation form
Ability to create application stages based on company requirements
Constructor of transitions between the stages of the application, inside which you can prescribe the stages, links, conditions. A schematic description of such a "route" is similar to the design of a business process, and can be used for a variety of purposes.
An object (equipment, territory, etc.) is attached to each application. An object can be any entity that is to be maintained by your company. When creating an object, its photo is set, attributes, files, contacts of the person in charge, types of work and checklists for specific equipment are attached. For example, if you need to diagnose a car, the checklist will include attributes listing important components, assemblies and steps for checking and diagnosing. In the course of work, the master will check each item and will not miss anything.
By the way, you can quickly submit an application by scanning a QR code (if the equipment was marked by a manufacturer or service) - this is convenient, fast and as productive as possible.
The employee card allows you to add as much information as possible about the responsible person: his full name, contacts, type (it is especially interesting that you can create a customer as an employee and give him access to HubEx with limited rights), company, role (with rights). In an additional tab, the employee's qualification is added, from which it is immediately obvious what work and on what objects a foreman or engineer can perform. Also, an employee (customer) can be banned, for which it is enough to switch the "Ban" button in the "Other" tab - after that, the HubEx functions will become unavailable to the employee. A very convenient feature for service departments, when a quick response to a violation can be vital for business.
Employee passport
As we said above, in addition, in the HubEx interface, you can create checklists, inside which you can set attributes - that is, items that need to be controlled as part of working with each type of equipment.
Based on the results of work, a dashboard with analytics is formed inside the HubEx system, where the achieved values and indicators are displayed in the form of tables and graphs. In the analytical panel, you can view statistics on the stages of applications, overdue, the number of applications in the context of companies and individual engineers and foremen.
Analytical reports
Repair, maintenance and service is not a one-time process, but a recurring task, which, in addition to the technical function, also carries a commercial load. And, as you know, there is an unspoken law: if something happens more than twice, automate it. This is how we created in HubEx automatic creation of planned requests. For a ready-made application template, a schedule for its automatic repetition is set with flexible settings: frequency, repetition interval during the day (reminder), number of repetitions, days of the week for creating applications, etc. In fact, the setting can be any, including tied to the time before the start of work, for which it is necessary to create an application. The functionality turned out to be in demand both by service and management companies (for scheduled maintenance), and for companies of different groups - from cleaning and auto center to system integrators, etc. Thus, service engineers can notify the client about the next service, and managers can resell services.
HubEx Mobile
Good service is not just an operational or professional engineering staff, it is, first of all, mobility, the ability to quickly go to the client and start solving his problem. Therefore, without an adaptive application, well, nothing, but a mobile application is better, of course.
The mobile version of HubEx consists of two applications for the iOS and Android platforms.
HubEx for the service department is a working application for service employees, in which they can create objects, keep records of equipment, see the status of work on the application, correspond with dispatchers and the right colleagues, communicate directly with the customer, agree on the cost of work, and evaluate their quality.
To accept and mark an object using a mobile application, just point your mobile phone at it and take a picture of the QR code. Then, in a convenient screen form, the rest of the parameters are entered: the company associated with the equipment, description, photo, type, class, address and other necessary or customized attributes. Of course, this is a very convenient feature for mobile service departments, foremen and engineers on the road, and outsourcing companies. Also, in the application of the engineer, it is his applications and applications for approval that are visible. And of course, the program sends push notifications to users, with which you will not miss a single event in the system.
Of course, all information immediately goes to the central database and managers or supervisors in the office can see all the work before the engineer or foreman returns to the workplace.
HubEx for the customer is a convenient application in which you can submit service requests, attach photos and attachments to the application, monitor the repair process, communicate with the contractor, agree on the cost of work, and evaluate their quality.
Such a two-way implementation of the mobile application ensures transparency of relations, accountability of work, understanding of the current repair point at a particular point in time - thus, the number of customer complaints is significantly reduced and the load on the call center or technical support is reduced.
HubEx Chips
Electronic equipment passport
Each object, each piece of equipment can be marked with a QR code generated by the HubEx system, and during further interactions, scan the code and receive an electronic passport of the object, which contains basic information on it, relevant documents and files.
All employees at a glance
While this article was being created, we released another release and introduced a very important functionality from the point of view of the service department: you can track the geolocation of a mobile employee on the map and thereby track the route of his movement and location at a specific point. This is a tangible plus for solving quality control issues.
As you already understood, for software of this class, it is important not only to be able to accept and process applications, but also to issue employee performance metrics (after all, service engineers are tied to KPI like no one else, which means that a set of accurate, measurable and relevant indicators is needed). The parameters for assessing the quality of work can include, for example, the number of repeated trips, the quality of filling out applications and checklists, the correctness of movement in accordance with the route sheet, and of course, the assessment of the work performed by the customer.
In fact, HubEx is the case when it is better to look once than read a hundred times on Habré. In the following series of articles, we will turn to the issues of the work of various service centers, analyze why the masters and employees are so evil, and tell you what the service should or should not be. By the way, if you have cool stories of fak-ups or finds in the field of equipment maintenance, write in a comment or a private message, we will definitely use cases and give a link to your company (if you give it the go-ahead).
We are ready for criticism, suggestions, findings and the most constructive discussion in the comments and private messages. Feedback for us is the best thing that can happen, because we have chosen our development vector and now we want to know how to become number one for our audience.
And if not Habr, then a cat?
Just not this one!
And also, taking this opportunity, we congratulate our leader and founder Andrey Balyakin on the winter victories of the 2018-2019 season. He is World Champion 2015, European Champion 2012, four-time champion of Russia 2014-2017 in snowkiting and kitesurfing. Windy sports for a very serious person are the key to the success of fresh ideas in development 🙂 But, I think, we will talk about this later. Read about how people from St. Petersburg win, .
Source: habr.com