Success Story:
PSV Glass & Glazing

Company

PSV Glass & Glazing Ltd is a leading glass distribution and installation specialist that operates in the UK and Ireland. They specialize in supplying and installing replacement glass for bus, coach, rail, and motorhome applications. As the chosen partner of many industry-leading vehicle manufacturers and transport operators, PSV Glass has seen its operational volume substantially increase since its founding over 30 years ago.

With over 63,000 lines, PSV holds the most extensive stock of windscreens, bodyside glass, framed windows, and ancillary glazing products in Europe. Their vast technical library of vehicles and glazing capabilities covers over 3,500 applications, allowing PSV to determine which glass and associated products are required for service and respond rapidly to reduce vehicle downtime to an absolute minimum.

Challenge

Part of the challenge for PSV was managing a large—and ever- growing—field team spread across the UK and Ireland. Field operators and dispatchers coordinated over 150 technicians and more than100 vehicles simultaneously and in multiple regions. With all scheduling and coordination routed through centralized offices, it was difficult to collaborate with customers and technicians efficiently and make real-time field service updates. 

The glass replacement industry is subject to strict safety regulations that necessitate thorough procedures to ensure compliance. Technicians must follow a detailed set of technical instructions in the field and then document compliance for every installation. Demonstrating compliance with safety regulations for many jobs entails keeping track of many forms and unique task details for numerous installations. Enforcing onsite compliance for Health and Safety is even more critical. Furthermore, being able to abort jobs with excessive risks or give customers proper back-to-service notices via multiple channels or ensuring coordinator oversight on all safety checks is essential to ensure smooth operations.

In addition to coordination and regulatory challenges, inventory and supply management is complex for their business. PSV must keep a substantial depth of glass stock, specialist adhesives, and primers in multiple warehouses to immediately respond to and meet customer demands. Tracking how much product being used to perform installations was becoming increasingly labor- intensive to monitor. PSV needed a system that could connect back-office systems with field operations. They needed to track stock levels, monitor demand for products, and evaluate usage trends so they could use the data to make better informed purchase decisions for resupplying their inventories.

Solution

PSV wanted a modern, entirely cloud-based, full-service solution to provide them with advanced, integrated field service management capabilities to connect their inventory systems and customer databases with their overall field service operations. They needed a system that could provide advanced scheduling and workforce management to help them achieve greater efficiency from their field force and further improve the service delivery experience for their customers.

Because their industry is so heavily regulated and, in many cases, ‘mission critical’ for public safety, PSV was also looking for a system that could manage the installation workflow forms and capture the photographs technicians were required to complete for every project. They wanted seamless integration of all this critical documentation into one easy-to-use platform that could be quickly accessed for every project and keep back-office systems updated.

In the highly regulated transportation glass industry, it is essential to provide back-office visibility, as well as customer- facing documentation of compliance and adherence to strict government safety protocols. Therefore, PSV sought a robust field service platform to systemize all conditional safety and compliance procedures to enforce onsite compliance.

In addition to inventory and documentation management, PSV Glass was looking for a system that could track field service workers, make updates to work orders, and facilitate communication between technicians, dispatchers, and clients in real-time. In short, they needed a field service system of record to provide easy and simple documentation of the high quality of service they provide their customers every day to give further peace of mind for all. 

The NetSuite SuiteApp from GPS Insight

GPS Insight’s FieldAware field service hub platform is a made- for-mobile management solution that is easy-to-use and flexible. Integrating the FieldAware for NetSuite SuiteApp into their management systems gave PSV the power to connect back-office systems with field activities to provide more control over their field orders and inventory. All service orders are reportable and searchable across NetSuite and the FieldAware platform, which managers a live, real-time view of dispatched jobs, how long jobs take to complete, and when they are finished.

Because FieldAware is designed as a mobile-first platform, technicians can quickly access all work order details, knowledge management, and standard operating procedures for specific jobs or customers. The advanced FieldAware Forms solution helps PSV streamline communication, expedite task completion, and ensure regulatory compliance. The dynamic mobile forms enable technicians to access detailed project guidelines and information for every job while capturing task details, including uploading documentation, photographs and capturing sign-off from the customers onsite, right from their mobile devices. The conditional logic in the forms helps guide the fitters step-by-step, ensuring superior quality and adherence to procedures across every unique job.

PSV utilizes the FieldAware scheduler, map view, and FieldAware for NetSuite SuiteApp to provide real-time updates on technician location and status, allowing the dispatchers to schedule or reschedule work while respecting workforce management rules. This level of rigor ensures technicians with the right qualifications across ever-increasing complex installation types, vehicle types, and unique/specialized skills are assigned and dispatched efficiently while minimizing travel.

The FieldAware for NetSuite SuiteApp also gives PSV the ability to extend the power of NetSuite to field operations. PSV is now able to create a fully transparent customer experience. They can seamlessly pull critical data and client information from the core ERP and CRM systems to add rich and accurate client information to work orders that synced directly to the service technician’s mobile device and then back into the system of record. Technicians can now add information related to ongoing projects directly from their mobile devices in the field and the FieldAware platform synchronizes that data instantly with the back office. Additionally, the FieldAware for NetSuite SuiteApp gives PSV the ability to integrate inventory management into field service operations so that every item is being tracked and accounted for, providing an accurate, comprehensive view of all customer activities.

Results

By seamlessly integrating GPS Insight’s FieldAware hub and NetSuite as their end-to-end field service management system, PSV has created a seamless, 360-degree view of the customer. They have introduced the procedural rigor and auditability mandatory to be the industry leader in public transport vehicles, including the rail and high-speed trains industry, where the margin for error is minute, and the risk to consumer safety is exceptionally high. By utilizing GPS Insight’s advanced, fully integrated, and modern FieldAware service management platform, PSV has created automated, robust, photo- documented, and witnessed processes around safety checks and installation procedures. This service rigor enables them to provide their industry-leading service quality in a data driven fashion.

The service organization can now process well over 1700 jobs per month and manage and respect over 100 unique fitter skills while scheduling these jobs. By leveraging the GPS Insight’s FieldAware field service management and advanced scheduler, PSV Glass & Glazing has reduced average travel time for service technicians by 90% leading to reduced CO2 emissions, increasing their ability to do more with the same resources. By completing all installation jobs and deliveries, they can seamlessly invoice all items in Netsuite and tracking their use within the FieldAware platform.

By providing full transparency through the NetSuite platform, PSV says they have greater confidence in their inventories and more timely invoicing. Together the systems enable PSV to deal with and react to any issues in real-time. First-time fix rates have significantly improved to 95%. Ultimately, managing technicians and inventory with the FieldAware for NetSuite SuiteApp has enabled PSV to provide superior services to their customers.