Trident Information Systems

CRIS is an organization (under Min. of Railways) that provides consulting and IT services to Indian Railways. Following are some of the key projects driven by CRIS for Indian Railways: Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) Passenger Reservation System (PRS) Unreserved Ticketing System  (UTS) Control Office Information System (COIS) Integrated Coach Management System (ICMS) Aforesaid applications are of key importance to Indian Railways’ day to day operational & business support system.

Challenges  Servicing the water, oil, and sewage pumps sold by SPP Pumps is a key part of the Reading, UK, company’s business model. SPP Pumps technicians provide global customer care, and rely on regional supply and repair centers to help meet demand. Responding to customer service requests requires speed and ability, but inefficient, paper-based processes for scheduling and invoicing hindered SPP Pumps. “We had handwritten manual systems,” explains Damian Hudson, head of IT for SPP Pumps. “When they visited customers, our field engineers filled out paper forms that they then faxed back to the office. The information on those cards was entered by hand into our ERP system.” Since 30 engineers deal with as many as 60 service appointments a day,the sluggish process would delay invoice generation by up to 14 days. The process of writing out customer details andre-entering them manually also resulted in errors, Hudson says. It wasn’t uncommon, for example, for invoices to be sent out with the incorrect postal code. The paper system also effectively cut off engineers from the company’s sales and supply teams. “It was difficult to get information out to the field engineers in a timely manner before their visits — for example, they might get to the customer site without the right parts,” Hudson says. Engineers also couldn’t tap into their colleagues’ institutional knowledge by, for instance, viewing previous service reports that might offer clues to resolve a customer issue. And field engineers had no way to easily tip off sales teams to product or service sales opportunities, so that valuable knowledge was often lost. Solution SPP Pumps’ need to improve cash flow and reduce the 14-day invoicing delay drove the company’s shift away from paper-based service processes. SPP Pumps was using an ERP system from SAP, so Hudson and his colleagues could see the value of integrating with that solution so that information could be shared seamlessly between service and operations. Trident’s cloud-based field service management solution met the requirements for speed, visibility, and easy integration. “The good news was that with Trident, we didn’t need a lot of development time,” Hudson says. “We got the integration working within a week.” With Trident connected to the SAP ERP system, scheduling appointments and managing work orders is a process that can be seen by anyone with Trident access, via easy-to-use apps on field technicians’ iPads. In addition, field engineers can see inventory of more than 120,000 parts and can order the correct items. Sales and service orders can be matched to engineers’ work orders for a complete record of customers’ product and service purchases. Results “Our engineers now have better information at hand when they start a repair or service,” Hudson says. “They can see who else has been there, and find out which engineer to talk to if there are questions about previous appointments.” No longer are there cases where an engineer shows up at a customer site without the necessary parts or know-how to fix the problem. SPP Pumps now delivers invoices to customers in just one day — a significant improvement over the previous 14-day cycle, which has led to healthier cash flow for the business. “It’s also much better for customer communication,” Hudson says. “Now that field service and the back office have more knowledge of the customer, our employees can answer customer questions right away.” The process of creating work orders and generating invoices is now 100 percent digital, so every piece of information about a customer engagement is captured in Trident. “With a more modern system, we can be more responsive to customers,” says Hudson. “And that means we can drive more opportunities for the rest of the business in terms of selling service contracts and more products.”

Our customer is a leading global provider of technology solutions for the energy industry. They design, manufacture and service technologically sophisticated systems and products such as subsea production and processing systems, surface wellhead systems, high pressure fluid control equipment, measurement solutions, and marine loading systems for the oil and gas industry. Their services include supervision and monitoring of equipment installation from delivery through start-up and commissioning on all of their product lines. The field engineers provide on-site, comprehensive instructions to system installers, ensuring smooth installation. The customer wanted to customize the built-in Mobile Field Service Module of Oracle E-Business for reducing the turnaround.. Solution by Trident Using our approach, Trident developed a Local App with customized features for field service module which can be downloaded from enterprise app store. In order to retrieve data from Enterprise Business Suite, we also developed a Web Service. As the workers are required to receive and manage jobs from the field, Aspire included features like reviewing work, updating job statuses, informing of variations and activities, and confirming completion of jobs. Some of the key features and functionality include: Create work order requests from the field etc. Real-time service request management Access to knowledge repository GPS based location tracking for services due near a customer Business Requirement and Challenges The customer wanted to customize the built-in Mobile Field Service Module of Oracle E-Business for reducing the turnaround time of the field engineers. They also wanted to add additional features like Job Status, Work Review and so on to the Field Service Module for its mobile users. The field service engineers needed to be able to create an ad-hoc service request during customer visit; update actual work status, spares, labor and tasks from the field. Following are some of the challenges with the traditional manual based approach: Too cumbersome, slow and error-prone which led to customer complaints No real-time data on spares availability, spares ordering from site, information on services due, daily serviceupdate and order status Unable to access to knowledge repository such as a troubleshooting guide – rectifying this can help themrespond quickly to a fault reported from previous experience Also, in case the field service engineers had to bill the customer for the services, they had to wait until they comeback to base location and collated all the pending invoices. This led to piling up of customer pending receipts or evenincreased chances that invoice can be erroneous due to delayed entry Platform: IOS, Tools & technologies: SQL light, REST web services using JSON & Spring, Oracle Database This solution is mainly useful to client’s service engineers. Some of the results achieved for the client: Faster implementation time – the application was launched within 3 months Delighted customers – Better service quality and on-time delivery of information Enhanced service efficiency – by streamlining the process Improved productivity – Increased productivity of Field Technicians and Dispatchers by providing easy access to task details and updates instantaneously

“We are looking to convert the knowledge our people have in their heads into a digital format and apply machine learning tools that can look at the data, optimize it, and adjust configurations to optimize production.” Nevzat Ertan, Chief Enterprise Architect and Manager,Sandvik Coromant Whether it flies at 35,000 feet, drills into layers of hard rock, rolls down the highway, or excavates tons of earth, every machine is a…