UK’s Largest Book Retailer Improves Transparency and Reduces Costs with ServiceChannel – NewsChannel, January
ServiceChannel
Waterstones evaluated five different platforms before choosing ServiceChannel’s Service Automation solution because of its superior analytics and reporting that would help the FM team generate better insights into its operations. These insights were essential in helping the Waterstones team take the reins back of its FM program.
“The goal was to improve efficiency and transparency by bringing facilities management control back in-house and managing our service providers directly without having to add new staff,” said Phillip Mifflin, Maintenance Manager at Waterstones. “We wanted a solution that would allow us to manage work orders more intelligently and more cost efficiently than we were seeing.”
With the ServiceChannel FM software, the company is now able to easily track KPIs such as spending-per-store to establish data-informed spending caps, equipment warranty status through ServiceChannel Asset Manager and frequently recurring repair and maintenance issues.
Over time, Waterstones expects to generate enough data history to establish important operational benchmarks such as:
- Easily distinguishing reactive budget from planned budget items
- Which stores are routinely over budget and the reasons why
- Analytics on budget efficiency, i.e., percentage of spend vs. what was budgeted
- Overdue jobs and work orders where there’s exposure
- Performance reports on both in-house technicians and external vendors
Waterstones plans to enhance its ServiceChannel deployment with additional capabilities and optional modules. These plans include:
- Enabling vendors with GPS check-in and other enterprise mobility functionality.
- Implementing advanced analytics with ServiceChannel Analytics Premium
- And using Compliance Manager to monitor contractor credentials and certifications.
“ServiceChannel is informing us to make better strategic decisions about our facilities management and properly maintain our retail store environments,” Mifflin said. “The enhanced transparency and visibility is not only saving us money but also gives us the parameters to ask the right questions about our FM operations that we haven’t even anticipated before.”
Employee Spotlight
You Could Almost Say Jordan Lewis Is Type A
Well, Jordan Lewis’s career is with As anyway. Let’s start with his first role at ServiceChannel. Jordan was brought on as an AE two years ago. And why was he such an appealing hire? Why did he decide to take on the ServiceChannel challenge? “Prior to ServiceChannel I worked in IT, owner of a company in Tucson, Arizona and partnered with Apple and the local Apple store. We did home and office consulting, as well as commercial networking and digital forensics,” recalls Jordan. Despite having earned multiple Apple certifications and a successful business, Jordan went on to sell that company and move to California for his then-girlfriend’s, but now wife’s, career.
Jordan’s initial group at SC worked with a variety of learning styles every day. He notes, “I spent a lot of time doing one-to-one training in my previous life and that helped immensely here at ServiceChannel. I enjoy being able to team up with a client with a good idea and assist them in implementing their goals.”
Recently, Jordan moved to the Account Management team to assist clients with strategic goals, as well as to pair up with client support to help on day-to-day questions. Jordan says “I like to ‘let the customer drive’ when showing someone how to use the product. I enjoy the a-ha moments the best.”
Although he misses Arizona, Jordan’s move California to support his girlfriend’s path out of law school “was worth it. I’m proud to work here.” Lately, his time had been filled with multiple drives back to Tucson, but when he has free time he always has a project to work on. Right now he’s taking some CAD classes “just for fun.” Jordan loves working on cars and has a project sitting in a garage back in Arizona. But since he has gotten more comfortable being in California, he just signed up as a volunteer at a science museum in San Diego.
Featured Product
On-Demand Access to Facilities Management Data with Data Direct
ServiceChannel Data Direct is a data warehousing solution that gives users on-demand access to facilities management data that can be easily and seamlessly integrated with other customer-specific data to enable more comprehensive and transparent business intelligence across the enterprise.
Data Direct adds to ServiceChannel’s growing analytics and BI portfolio which is providing customers greater transparency and visibility of FM operations in key areas such as spending, vendor compliance and performance, and trend analysis. Data Direct can serve as an on-demand accessible and shareable decision-support platform for enterprises to unify their data. For example, customers can now correlate and analyze ServiceChannel-provided FM data with corporate sales data in order to determine the profitability of locations and stores based on brand compliance, quality of service and contractor performance. Learn more about Data Direct.
Tip of the Month
Use the Mobile Work Order App for All Your Photo Needs
Do you have a lot of problem lines in your Dashboard Issue list that require photos? If yes, we encourage you to use the ServiceChannel Mobile Work Order App. You can easily attach photos to all work orders with these easy steps:
Step 1: Open up the mobile app and choose the work order to update.
Step 2: Upload/or choose an existing photo to attach to your work order.
Step 3: Save your update to see the photo that has been added to your work order.
Download the ServiceChannel Mobile App.
For You, About You
Meet “The Oracle,” The Man Who Knows Everything
Here is a sneak peek at the new ServiceChannel commercials that have been released on social media.
In this short one-minute video clip, you’ll see why Carl’s known to his colleagues, simply, as “The Oracle.” (Spoiler: Because with ServiceChannel, he knows all, controls all, and sees all. And it’s definitely gone to his head!)
Calendar: Upcoming Events
January 17 – LEARN&LEAD, New York, NY
Check out our Events Page for more local events near you!
LearningChannel
LearningChannel is composed of interactive courses led by expert instructors on ServiceChannel products. These courses are perfect for when you need a refresher, when you have a new employee onboarding, or when you want to learn best practices to get the most out of our products. Each course lists the skill level necessary (from beginner to advanced) and the target audience, so you can mix and match courses based on your needs.
Available Courses
Jan. 11 – Fixxbook for Contractors: Best Practices in Profile & Account Mgmt
Jan. 12 – Invoicing and Invoice Reports
