ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd., provider of automated mobile workforce management and optimisation solutions for the service industry, has announced the launch of the Capacity Planning App, enabling businesses to plan available resources and anticipated demand to deliver on promised Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and meet compliance standards. Whether the problem is controlling overtime and use of contractors, or adjusting staffing levels, especially in seasonal environments, proper capacity planning will bring forecast and true demand into balance.
"The field service industry is making great strides to improve the day of service experience for both the mobile employee and the customer. The industry has evolved to incorporate more automated scheduling tools, and is quickly adopting advanced mobile technologies that empower mobile workers with the right information to perform their job quickly and accurately, improving metrics such as first time fix and customer satisfaction rates. But before a service organisation can succeed on the day of service, they need to ensure that proper planning is in place," said Aly Pinder, Senior Research Analyst, Service Management, Aberdeen Group.
Pinder continued, "the top strategy for Best-in-Class organisations sampled in recent Aberdeen research is to improve forecasting and planning for future service demand. Organisations need to better collect, analyse, and make accessible data to plan for demand, ensuring staff levels are just right—providing enough staff to deliver on SLAs, but not too much to negatively impact operational costs."
Recognising this common imbalance between service level demand and cost considerations, ClickSoftware offers the Capacity Planning App, forecasting accurate plans through real-life simulations, to fully automate the planning process and create a baseline to help businesses define:
- How much work should be done per day, location and task type
- How many appointments should be booked per day, location and task type
- What service level can be achieved
- How many resources are needed, and if not enough are available, how to close the gap
Unlike manual processes, the Capacity Planning App uses real simulations to provide the best-case scenario to control and plan for SLAs. The simulation factors in: the forecast, required service levels, actual bookings and engineer information to calculate the optimal capacity limitation percentages. The result of the simulation is an extremely accurate analysis to help with planning days to weeks in advance.
The forecast can be translated into a working plan, in accordance to company policy, and inject the right staffing levels into a scheduling system such as ClickSchedule or any appointment booking solution. The system will also highlight any gaps in engineer availability or too much white space in the schedule and offer automated suggestions to bring the schedule in line with demand.
"ClickSoftware has demonstrated the value provided to service organizations through scheduling and mobility tools, and now our Capacity Planning App provides even greater ability to control the highest level of service you can afford to offer based on a deep understanding of resources and demand," said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder and CEO of ClickSoftware. "Our mission at ClickSoftware is to ensure organizations of all sizes provide the best experience possible for customers, while also keeping employees and managers happy, and doing so without increasing operational costs."
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