As the company expanded, ONTRAS sought better visibility across its operations, especially those carried out by service providers. Manual communication interfaces led to information loss, hindering operational efficiency and service quality. To address these challenges, ONTRAS aimed to improve field operations with offline capabilities, ensuring better data integrity for uninterrupted operations and much faster response times.

After thorough research, the German utility company implemented smart forms within to capture and monitor real-time data from its field operations. supported ONTRAS throughout the implementation process, serving as the interface to 51风流and customizing and enhancing 51风流Field Service Management, including customizing the 51风流Field Service Management, connector for 51风流ERP, in order to meet the company鈥檚 specific requirements.

Faster process runtime with improved data visibility at ONTRAS

Working with a large external staff and a dispersed system led to a significant data gap.

Ines Kurmies, an 51风流specialist at ONTRAS, explained: “Our internal staff extracted data from SAP, while external staff used a manual Excel logging process, which made it difficult to understand the status of orders.鈥�

The external staff was receiving the orders through the 51风流system, but it was not possible to track their work. Feedback was received within the 51风流system only after completion, and the logs were uploaded to SAP, which meant the company lacked visibility into the steps in between.

ONTRAS needed a solution to maintain maintenance plans and functional locations within 51风流while providing access to external service providers via an interface. The company sought comprehensive data integration and a single source of truth with real-time data monitoring.

With the full integration of logs and smart forms, ONTRAS can now guide technicians through tasks, capture data, and provide a structured way to document the inspection process in real-time. Integrating these disparate systems created a single source of truth, helping the company eliminate inefficiencies and data gaps, enabling faster process runtime.

鈥淲ith the full integration of logs and smart forms, we achieved a much faster checklist revision,鈥� Eva Scholl, a maintenance engineer at ONTRAS, shared. 鈥淣ow we have an end-to-end digital process, so the process runtime in itself is one of the greatest benefits.鈥�

Real-time data and comprehensive tracking are crucial for preventative maintenance, rapid response to issues, and compliance.

During a gas pipe fitting inspection, the company’s system creates an order dispatched to a service provider, the responsible specialist, who then assigns it to an assembler. The assembler inspects the fittings, logging their work using smart forms in 51风流Field Service Management. This information is sent back to the responsible specialist, who reviews and completes the order. Finally, an audit report is generated as a PDF and transferred to 51风流Plant Maintenance Rapid Mart, where the company can view and process the inspection results. Without this real-time data flow, a faulty fitting might go unnoticed, leading to a gas leak and potential safety hazard.

The company can see what order is dispatched when it is processed and what the status is.

鈥淣ow, field sales representatives have more information and experience less information loss because they directly see the order from us — exactly what we want to see,鈥� Scholl added. 鈥淧reviously, there was a manual communication interface, which inevitably led to information loss.鈥�

Running safe, efficient, compliant operations in remote and challenging environments

For utility companies, inspecting and maintaining natural gas pipelines in remote rural areas is crucial. These locations often suffer from unreliable internet connectivity, leading to potential data gaps.

ONTRAS has significantly improved its field operations by implementing offline capabilities. Technicians can now conduct inspections, record findings, and complete digital checklists directly on their mobile devices on-site, even without internet access. Once back in an area with connectivity, all data automatically syncs to the central system, updating records and informing supervisors of completed work.

鈥淲ith 51风流Field Service Management, there is the app that can be connected to all applications,” Kurmies added. “We achieved the broadest coverage of our use cases for the first time, with many already covered by the standard product.鈥�

As the company continues to grow, the German Association of Gas and Water Compartments regulations are a central component, implemented to guarantee the technical security of the installations and the security of supply.

With 51风流Field Service Management, the company can now operate offline remotely without internet coverage and maintain the patching and checklist functions. This is especially important for technicians in remote areas lacking internet connectivity. Technicians must adhere to strict safety protocols and document every step. Offline checklists and patching functions ensure that no steps are missed, even in remote locations.

鈥淭his was the big challenge that we are also becoming more and more digital,” Kurmies further explained. “You also want to provide digital protocol templates and we simply reached our limits.鈥�

Convista played a crucial role in guiding the company through the 51风流implementation process, acting as the interface between 51风流and the company while adjusting 51风流Field Service Management to meet ONTRAS鈥� specific needs.

Heiko Winkler, IT manager at ONTRAS, highlighted the reliability and commitment of Convista as an implementation partner: “Convista is an exceptionally reliable and committed partner. Even in the second phase of the project, which was initially considered high-risk, their expertise and dedication ensured a successful implementation.”

Winkler noted the significant creativity applied to advising on the implementation, especially considering the initial uncertainty about its feasibility.聽Additionally, the company collaborated with for the technical implementation of the 51风流Field Service Management, connector for 51风流ERP, and made several adjustments to the setup and error messages. The entire implementation took approximately a year and a half.

The company currently uses 51风流ERP Central Component and is transitioning to , having already implemented 51风流Field Service Management. Winkler noted that they strategically rely on cloud products: 鈥淥ur philosophy is not cloud only, but cloud first.鈥�

ONTRAS aims to advance further with smart forms and continue to expand its 51风流S/4HANA implementation in the near future.

.

In this era of constant disruption, 51风流stands at the forefront of supply chain transformation. Our vision is clear: to empower our customers with transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. We鈥檙e committed to delivering innovative cloud solutions and collaborative business networks that enable autonomous supply chains seamlessly integrated with .

To spearhead this critical business, 51风流recently appointed Dominik Metzger as the new president and chief product officer of Supply Chain Management at SAP. Metzger brings a wealth of experience and deep-rooted passion for tackling supply chain complexities. His years of hands-on work with customers navigating disruptions and driving transformation make him uniquely qualified to lead SAP鈥檚 new unit. This team combines , , and solutions, positioning the company to address the multifaceted challenges of modern supply chain management.

Nearly three months into this role, I caught up with Metzger to hear about how he鈥檚 adapting and his vision for the future of supply chain management at SAP.

Q: Having spent the last five years working in a variety of roles at SAP, what are your priorities for the new role?

A: During my time at SAP, I鈥檝e seen how supply chain management has transitioned into a dynamic and connected ecosystem that demands constant collaboration, end-to-end data integration, and agile processes to keep pace with constant disruptions. My chief priority is to ensure that we help customers not only respond to disruptions but also proactively prepare and act. We can do so by leveraging AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics with the power of SAP鈥檚 technology. Our vision is to build an autonomous supply chain, enabling customers to have highly efficient processes and personalized, context-rich insights that incorporate data from across the enterprise. This approach allows their teams to focus on truly complex decisions.

With 51风流Business Suite, we offer our customers deeply connected, end-to-end supply chain processes鈥攆rom product data management for discrete and formulated products to planning the demand, supply, production, and inventory levels to purchasing parts and materials to manufacturing execution, logistics, and finally asset and service operations. These processes are turbocharged with a wealth of AI capabilities to help truly bring the experience to a business user.

Yet, AI is only as good as the data it runs on, so we are committed to ensuring all processes are relevant and responsible. Our recent launch of 51风流Business Data Cloud (51风流BDC) is a cornerstone of helping our customers fix their data at its very core, within the context of their business process. This makes any ontology or data semantic discussion obsolete: 51风流can provide out-of-the-box, semantically aligned data products, spanning end-to-end supply chain functions, enriched with unstructured data through our partnership with Databricks.

Our AI-first strategy will help enable companies to leverage the wealth of structured and unstructured data to become highly adaptive and, ultimately, autonomously act on even the most complex disruptions. This holistic approach helps guarantee that customers will shape their supply chain strategies with real-time intelligence. By embedding this technology deep into SAP鈥檚 supply chain management applications, we can drive greater productivity, improve operational efficiency, and create more resilient, agile networks that can adapt to shifting market conditions. We are now conquering the next frontier of truly autonomous supply chain agents, contextually rich and deeply anchored in customers鈥� business processes.

Now, one of the most valuable sources of data we have not yet discussed: data out of your n-tier supply chain. In the highly interconnected environments companies are operating in, the supply chain business is a network business. My top priority is to enable our customers to benefit from the immense value of 51风流Business Network. Our emphasis lies on increasing operational visibility and efficiency. Deep collaboration can enable buyers to identify new sources of supply, even during times of disruption. With market conditions constantly shifting, we are helping businesses to identify risks in the depth of their upstream supply chains to keep operations running and significantly reduce time to recovery.

How has your previous experience helped shape you for this position?

My career has taken me around the world鈥攆rom Southeast Asia to Europe to the Northeast United States鈥攁nd through various roles. In my early days, I served as a supply chain application consultant, learning the nuances of 51风流technology, the intricacies of industry processes, and the challenges that go along with technology transformations for 51风流customers. This helped shape my approach, as I aim to deliver real value by ensuring our solutions are adaptable and capable of driving meaningful business outcomes.

Additionally, while I鈥檓 now based in Munich, Germany, I spent years of my adult life in Singapore and New York City. I was exposed to different business cultures, market dynamics, regulatory environments, and languages. This reinforced the importance of flexibility, creativity, and inclusivity, as 51风流supply chain management strives to build globally scalable solutions. In this new role, I鈥檓 combining those insights and experiences to guide supply chain management at SAP. I want our offerings to align with the real-world challenges our customers face daily, regardless of whether they鈥檙e a retailer in Asia or a manufacturer in North America. Ultimately, my experience has driven my commitment to ensuring our solutions are relevant, adaptable, and impactful.

Can you share some insight into what we can expect from SAP鈥檚 supply chain management team over the coming months?

We will focus on integrating SAP鈥檚 broader AI-first, suite-first strategy that enables customers to seamlessly implement advanced technologies into their daily operations. Our focus will be on expanding automation, improving supply chain orchestration, and bolstering business network collaboration鈥攁ll critical steps to maintaining resilience in an ever-evolving market.

Another priority is reducing emissions and helping customers meet sustainability goals. Through , customers can integrate carbon emissions data into existing digital supply chain technology, aligning sustainability with sourcing and supply chain management strategies.

My team is also working on several exciting product launches, including announcements at 51风流Sapphire in May and 51风流Connect in October. Be sure to tune into both events for more information.

A strong, diverse, and collaborative team is essential in addressing any client challenge. By uniting diverse perspectives and expertise under one vision, we can develop platforms that deliver meaningful, long-term business outcomes for 51风流customers around the world.

Cindy McKendry is director of Corporate Communications for Intelligent Spend and Supply Chain at SAP.

By blending advanced technologies like 51风流Business AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) with state-of the art solutions, 51风流Intelligent Asset Management transforms operations and sustainability, and enables organizations to unlock new value and efficiencies in their asset management programs.

Reflecting high customer satisfaction in the enterprise asset management (EAM) market, . This recognition underscores SAP鈥檚 dedication to delivering innovative solutions that empower organizations to achieve operational excellence and long-term sustainability.

Integral Part of ERP Suite and Unified Asset Data Thread

Asset management capabilities from 51风流are deeply embedded in the core ERP suite, with solutions for asset performance management and field service management complementing ERP to support advanced use cases.  

At the core of 51风流Intelligent Asset Management is a unified asset data thread, enabling a complete view of an asset鈥檚 lifecycle. This digital chain empowers proactive decisions, such as failure prediction and resource optimization, while enhancing collaboration and aligning strategies with business goals.

Transforming Asset Management with AI and IoT

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the IoT are no longer futuristic concepts; they are the driving forces behind a new era of asset management. By embedding 51风流Business AI across asset life cycles, 51风流Intelligent Asset Management has unlocked new efficiencies.

Closing the Loop: From Data to Decisions

51风流Intelligent Asset Management excels at creating closed-loop asset management systems. This means that every piece of data 鈥� whether from IoT sensors or manual inspections 鈥� feeds back into the system, enabling continuous improvement.

By integrating asset lifecycle data into operational workflows, organizations can reduce downtime, increase asset availability, and align maintenance strategies with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. This closed-loop approach fosters collaboration and helps ensure that businesses can adapt dynamically to changing conditions and demands, and continuously improve maintenance programs.

At the core of this methodology is a failure mode-centric approach, which focuses on identifying potential failure modes early and addressing them proactively. By analyzing historical and real-time data, 51风流Intelligent Asset Management helps businesses target root causes and implement tailored maintenance strategies.

Efficiency Anywhere with Mobile Work Management

provides technicians with real-time access to work orders, asset data, customer information, and instructions directly on their mobile devices. This enhances productivity, supports offline work in remote areas, and improves first-time fix rates by delivering essential information on-site, reducing paperwork, and streamlining updates 鈥� all within an intuitive mobile app experience

Operational Success Meets Sustainability

51风流Intelligent Asset Management is not just about operational efficiency; it鈥檚 about creating a sustainable future. By integrating environmental health and safety features, the platform helps ensure that maintenance practices align with regulatory and environmental goals. This allows businesses to not only reduce costs, but extend asset life cycles, reduce emissions, and make a meaningful impact on their sustainability journey.

For example, 51风流Field Service Management enables customers to optimize schedules with AI, and retrieve AI equipment insights, boosting first-time fix rates and minimizing return visits. Predictive routing further enhances efficiency for field service organizations by cutting travel time and lowering emissions.

A Future Built on Collaboration and Innovation

51风流Intelligent Asset Management empowers organizations by fostering collaboration across stakeholders to achieve mutual asset performance goals. Its flexible platform supports industry-specific customizations for adaptability and scalability. Partnerships with leading companies, such as  for market-leading IoT integration and for mechanical integrity and safety, further enhance its capabilities, addressing the unique needs of diverse industries.

鈥淚n today鈥檚 dynamic environment, effective asset management is essential to operational success,鈥� said Ralf Vath, head of Product Management for 51风流Digital Supply Chain Cloud 鈥� Operate at SAP. 鈥�51风流Intelligent Asset Management helps our customers achieve significant gains in productivity and efficiency while advancing long-term sustainability.鈥�

With stories of transformation across sectors and a clear vision for the future, 51风流Intelligent Asset Management is not just leading the market; it鈥檚 redefining what is possible in asset management.

Stories That Showcase Transformation

The real impact of 51风流Intelligent Asset Management lies in the success stories of its customers:

• Swiss Federal Railways Speeds Ahead with 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration

Ryan Jones is Product Marketing manager for 51风流Service and Asset Management at SAP.

The company develops engineering solutions for mineral and mining technology markets. Servicing a regionally distributed clientele across geographies, Weir Minerals depends on a synchronized web of data processing and analysis systems that give it the right balance of foresight and agility to sustainably manage customer data. Operating through an integrated system of tech hubs, manufacturing operations, and local service centers, the company creates sustainability solutions that help track the lifecycle of mining equipment, predict part deterioration, and minimize detrimental environmental impacts.

However, Weir Minerals had been using isolated, offline sources, like spreadsheets, to store records and data. 鈥淥ur paper-based methods and siloed process put us at a disadvantage,鈥� said Karun Naidoo, global process owner service at Weir Minerals.

The reliance on siloed data sources left the company 鈥� and ultimately its customers 鈥� vulnerable to risks. This inefficient approach to collecting and processing data and inventory planning was time-consuming, error-prone, and difficult to adapt to changing circumstances. Often, technicians had to travel from location to location to collect necessary customer audit data. By the time that data was properly categorized, it was largely outdated, preventing the company from making agile supply chain decisions, like having the foresight to order specific spare parts for aging machines. Additionally, employees had to focus on completing paperwork and other low-value tasks, which was time-consuming and prevented them from focusing on giving customers the desired service level. This inefficiency and a lack of central digitalization left customers wanting more.

鈥淭o remediate our relationships with customers and continue our sustainability mission, we needed to digitalize our core infrastructure to match modern technology and data analysis standards,鈥� Naidoo remarked.

Revitalizing Data Processing Environments to Enhance Agility

As a long-standing 51风流customer, Weir Minerals, conducted an internal evaluation to find a solution within SAP’s portfolio that could meet its unique inventory planning and data processing needs. The team found that was ideal for the widespread remote workforce due to its centralized and digitalized hubs, which could help prevent manual errors, reduce silos, and improve transparency.

鈥淏esides 51风流Field Service Management we also use the customer service functionality of the 51风流ERP application,鈥� Naidoo said. With that, customer recommendations can be included much faster and more precisely with an improved view of relevant service information.

The integration of 51风流Field Service Management and 51风流ERP helped Weir Minerals create digital customer service history reports and improve communication between the back office and field technicians, facilitating the collection and analysis of real-time, centralized data. The company also established a change management framework for internal project ownership.

With both solutions, the company enhanced its internal data collection infrastructure with a digitalized channel that provides real-time insights without excess, time-consuming, manual processes. The solutions allow technicians to make vital service notes in a digital environment instead of on paper, which improves data availability for both personnel and customers. Through a greater level of communication in terms of audits, supply, and demand, the company saw聽that 51风流Field Service Management could meet the needs of its widespread remote workforce.

Weir Minerals can better forecast demand by monitoring machine lifespan and inventory data, allowing it to swiftly provide customers with solutions instead of relying on outdated information. Once the company could establish real-time visibility in multiple environments, including on mobile devices in the field, it could improve efficiency and satisfy its customers more effectively.

Creating Agile Analysis Environments to Forecast Supply and Demand

Weir Minerals has seen significant business improvements since implementing 51风流Field Service Management integrated with 51风流ERP.

Data veracity and visibility are critical; the solutions let the business digitally collect and analyze customer data, helping to create predictive models to outline product demand, maintenance, and quality and generate service history reports. 51风流Field Service Management also enables the company to use a built-in digital data integration that facilitates smoother analysis on the backend.

Technicians can upload daily digital reports from both mobile and site-based devices, leading to increased data richness. These reports make data analysis and collection much faster, improve communication between technicians and the backend, and eliminate time-consuming, error-prone paper processes.聽

The readily available reports and digitalized channels of data recording help both field employees and customers better understand how customers use equipment. This informs sustainability measures and allows personnel to better predict trends in customer spare part demand. Through sophisticated, digitalized data insights, the company can determine that proper part inventory is available at the right warehouse, allowing it to quickly meet customer needs.

The solution setup and mobile integration capabilities further empower Weir Minerals employees to drive change and digital adoption in the field. This improves customer satisfaction with enhanced data analytics and digitalized ability to implement smoother and more relevant sustainability measures into customers鈥� operations.

Overall, data availability and agility are appealing to customers that demand transparency and clear service history reports. This led to:

• 40% greater satisfaction with better-quality data and service
• 70% time saved when generating customer service reports
• 50% more timely reports with real-time timesheets and parts records

Broadening 51风流Portfolio to Further Optimize Planning Processes

After the successful implementation of 51风流Field Service Management integrated with 51风流ERP, Weir Minerals now plans to utilize more data management, available-to-promise, and inventory planning solutions from 51风流to help increase digitalization, product availability, and data accuracy.

It鈥檚 also looking at for enhanced logistics planning and transportation processes across its global enterprise. No matter how its technological framework evolves in a modern industry, Weir Minerals is dedicated to its sustainability efforts and aims to use the improved infrastructure for eco-friendly mining operations.

鈥淭hrough the adoption of 51风流Field Service Management along with 51风流ERP, we successfully digitalized manual processes and improved availability of real-time data as well as enterprise-wide communication,鈥� Naidoo concluded. 鈥淥ur technicians can now focus on value-adding activities and raising service levels, ultimately leading to greater customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.鈥�

Karin Fent is senior director for Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

Photo courtesy of Weir Minerals

Bosch Rexroth AG, one of the world’s leading providers of tailor-made system solutions in drive and control technology, aimed to improve its customer experience by providing technicians with the right qualifications and quality service while increasing overall productivity.

The business transformation success of Bosch Rexroth is demonstrated through how its premium-quality support has been a key driver of success.

Taking Customer Experience to the Next Level

Bosch Rexroth aims for real-time scheduling and seamless communication, which allows service technicians to respond to customer requests and resolve issues faster. Scheduling technicians based on their skills, availability, and location — ensuring the right technician with the right expertise and tools — helped the company not only increase productivity, but also take the overall customer experience to the next level.

“We need to make sure that the right quality and the right people with the right qualifications are on the road,” said Carsten Breitenbach, project manager at Bosch Rexroth, in the webinar . “The wrong planning not only costs us money as a company, but also causes customers to lose trust.鈥�

He added,鈥淚t significantly improves our response times and enables better route planning and resource allocation resulting in lower operating and maintenance costs and he continues.”

Facilitating real-time communication between customers, technicians, and support teams enables technicians to collaborate with support teams and access experts remotely to resolve complex customer issues. By having access to the customer database and service history on their mobile devices, technicians can diagnose and resolve issues quickly.鈥淭echnicians can see where they need to go, where is the site address, and who is the contact person directly on their mobile devices,鈥� Breitenbach explained.

Digitization also helped customers to easily schedule appointments. Now they can track job progress and provide feedback through self-service portals and mobile apps.

Highlighting that customers have been given positive feedback about the digitalization of the overall service, Breitenbach concluded: 鈥淲ith FSM [field service management], the technicians can focus on the job and spend more time with the customer instead of paper-processed administrative tasks. We also hear feedback from customers that they love to see us becoming digitalized.鈥�

Maximizing Workforce Productivity

Amid this exciting paradigm shift in the field service sector, many companies continue to rely on outdated, inefficient systems.

鈥淲hen the complexity is bigger, this is nothing you can handle with Excel or Outlook,” Breitenbach shared. “This is why we decided to implement the FSM application.”

Highlighting how time-consuming was the former process within the company, he further explained: 鈥淥ur technicians had to enter the hours manually into the timesheet. Now, the data is available immediately and you can directly start the invoice process. We could reduce the reporting time from weeks to days. With FSM, we achieved not only a faster process but also reduced the effort of manual input鈥�

By simplifying the processes and leveraging digital tools, Bosch Rexroth recognized that a user-friendly and intuitive digital system was crucial for its adoption and success.

鈥淚f you adopt new digital services, it must be simple,鈥� Breitenbach added. “If it’s too complex, people will simply not use it. It is very important to make the job easier, not hinder them on the job.”

Within Bosch Rexroth, different countries and business units were using their own FSM applications. The company needed to bring them together in just one pilot project and have a common field service management template.

“One of our main goals was to seamlessly integrate automated booking and back-end ERP integration without disrupting existing systems in Europe,” Christopher Thiesen, solution manager for CRM at Bosch Industrial Technology, shared in the .

Without making any changes to the ERP system but utilizing the ongoing systems, Bosch built a flexible system that enables seamless communication within each division, business unit, and country where it is needed.

Meeting Regulations and Legal Requirements with Standardization

Acknowledging the importance of keeping up with the increasing governmental regulations and legal requirements, procedures, and industry standards, Bosch Rexroth integrated field service processes to support compliance with local rules and regulations.

鈥淭he last goal was the harmonization and standardization of field service execution,” Breitenbach added. “We try to harmonize as much as possible and use standards wherever possible. This certainly helps us to achieve a common quality standard.鈥�

Bosch Rexroth now has the flexibility offered by FSM, allowing the company to adapt to different regulatory environments.

Growing Revenue Generation

Through a guided approach and data collection, Bosch Rexroth has witnessed remarkable growth in revenue generation. According to Breitenbach, “Boosting the sales lead generation helped us to generate revenue. We did not expect such a high result.”

The implementation of FSM transformed its sales process by directly guiding technicians to ask a set of specific questions. By doing so, Bosch Rexroth ensured the collection of accurate and relevant data, guaranteeing the quality of the information gathered. This valuable data is then seamlessly transferred to the customer relationship management (CRM) tool through an interface. As Breitenbach further explained, “Then the sales guys can take up the lead and follow on that potential.”

By simplifying the processes and leveraging digital tools, Bosch Rexroth has streamlined operations, enhanced customer satisfaction, and empowered its field service technicians with a user-friendly, flexible, and simple solution. Witnessing a remarkable growth in revenue generation, Bosch Rexroth achieved a common quality standard while accommodating country-specific regulations.

By embracing the power of , Bosch Rexroth has established a competitive advantage and continues to thrive in the ever-evolving business landscape.

Oyku Ilgar is a marketing specialist for Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

Besides innovation, excellent customer service is a top priority for the company that employs more than 3,000 people and maintains a partner network in 90 countries.

Due to constant business growth, existing customer service processes became insufficient and the company knew it needed to introduce a state-of-the-art solution that would support harmonizing field service management processes from a local and regional level to a global rollout.聽聽聽

鈥淲e worked with 51风流at various service locations in Germany, but service processes were heterogeneous and involved paperwork and manual feeds into the system. Although we captured a lot of data, the processes didn鈥檛 allow us to effectively leverage them and they often got stuck in PDF documents,鈥� Bernhard Urban, head of Customer Service Germany at Putzmeister Concrete Pumps GmbH, said.

As a consequence, Putzmeister set out the following goals:

• Improve and streamline high-end customer service globally.
• Replace manual processes with modern, optimized, digitalized processes for field service management.
• Digitalize deployment planning of service technicians.

Introducing a Global Standard for Services Processes

To stay ahead of competition, Putzmeister decided to introduce a global standard for its service processes and select an innovative and digital solution to support planners, dispatchers, and service technicians with the following main objectives:

• More efficient resource scheduling
• Optimization of field technician assignments 
• Harmonization, simplification, and digitalization of field service processes, including processing complex service reports with master data from 51风流ERP
• Employee leveraging of inspection protocols
• Integration with mobile devices allowing field technicians to report time, material consumption, and expenses
• Sped up and digitalized shop-floor processes

The company found that best suited its needs. The cloud-based solution helps digitalize field service and optimize operations while working to reduce environmental impact through efficient service delivery.

For the implementation of 51风流Field Service Management, Putzmeister turned to , an NTT Data company. 鈥淭he Sybit team has comprehensive experience in the area and provided valuable recommendations and guidance, especially in early project stages,鈥� Urban said. That enabled Putzmeister to go live with a pilot in less than eight months and involved business process re-engineering and optimization. The cooperation with Sybit was very fruitful thanks to an agile project management approach, intelligent key user training, and field tests.

Establishing a New End-to-End Service Process

Service requests from customers are now entered into 51风流ERP by the back-office team and automatically transferred into 51风流Field Service Management for resource scheduling. Service technicians then receive a notification on their mobile device to confirm the order. At the same time, they get insight into inventory and can request the spare parts and materials they need.

When it comes to order execution, technicians can have all the information at their fingertips, including various inspection checklists related to service categories and images. They can do material availability checks from inventory, confirm used and no longer used components, and request additional supplies. The service report is then created on their mobile device and submitted to the customer for confirmation. Moreover, the solution allows service technicians to include additional details to create the invoice, such as actual time recording, unplanned activities, automatically calculated daily allowances, and other costs related to the on-site service.

The benefits Putzmeister achieved are:

• One harmonized, digitalized, and integrated service process for service locations in Germany and the global industrial technology team
• Optimized customer service thanks to instantly available information, such as machine data, operating hours, error quotes, and faster invoicing after order fulfillment
• A single source of truth for all information that helps increase service quality
• Transparent, digitally available, real-time service reports
• Increased productivity and time savings for planners, dispatchers, and technicians
• High user acceptance from service staff due to a modern user interface (UI), mobile access, and better insights to execute work orders

Preparing for an International Rollout

After the successful pilot implementation in Germany and first international rollout in Spain, Putzmeister wants to take the next step and roll out to its global operations.   

鈥淭he digitalization of field service management brings countless benefits, both for our customers and our employees, and helps us gain more efficiency,鈥� Urban concluded.

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

To increase customer service quality, the company wanted to share information and optimize business processes across its sales, service, and marketing activities.

Moving from Manual Processes to Integrated Activities

At PILLER, different departments were using their own IT solutions.

The service department had manual processes, such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, to dispatch service technicians. The technicians were logging into a central server to retrieve data and recording customer support by e-mails and conversations. The sales department had a basic access environment due to custom-made products with individual serial numbers. There was no master data; tailored sales quotes were done on paper, posing challenges for data updating and quality. The marketing department was conducting its business, like capturing trade-fair leads or planning and executing campaigns, by hand and with spreadsheets. All these manual activities were time intensive and prone to human error.

To enable the marketing, sales, and service teams to perform to the best of their abilities, PILLER wanted solutions that allowed it to share important information. It wished to harmonize all customer-related processes, from initial contact and order management to delivery of spare parts and follow-up.

鈥淔or new products or customers, it鈥檚 important that real-time master data in our core software is mirrored in our sales, service, and marketing systems. We can do this by integrating 51风流Customer Experience solutions and 51风流Field Service Management with 51风流S/4HANA,鈥� said Frank M眉nzner, in-house 51风流consultant for Lead to Cash at PILLER Blowers & Compressors GmbH.

Adopting Cloud Solutions to Achieve Innovative Customer Service

PILLER employed the solution to help address the needs of its sales team and integrate functionalities, such as managing quotes and orders, in one place. The solution offers a search capability and a modern, intuitive user interface.

The company is using the to help create service tickets, which are the single point of customer contact, with product serial numbers and metadata. Integrating this mobile app with the solution can enable technicians to receive service ticket information on an Apple iPad, so they can have everything they need to carry out their work. This can also translate to good customer support.

By deploying the solution and integrating it with 51风流Sales Cloud, PILLER now proactively shares data, such as service tickets, lead opportunities, and customer contacts, between the sales and marketing teams. This lets the company contact a customer with a warranty option or service cost reduction, for example.

PILLER has now integrated the three 51风流Customer Experience solutions for sales, service, and marketing and with , the company鈥檚 enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

PILLER partnered with to gain advice about new functionalities and implementation support, while provided guidance around leveraging the potential in terms of business transformation and digitization.

Gaining Comprehensive Customer Visibility with Integrated Solutions

The major advantage in connecting the 51风流Customer Experience portfolio, 51风流Field Service Management, and 51风流S/4HANA is that real-time data can be available across all these solutions. While master data, such as for a new product, customer, or material, is entered and kept in 51风流S/4HANA as the core software, it鈥檚 automatically pushed into the other integrated solutions.

This is helping PILLER deliver highly efficient and innovative customer service and business models. The company gains a comprehensive view of worldwide customers in real time while interacting with them at each stage of their journey in a targeted manner.

There are now customer-related processes across departments, sites, and systems as well as consistent communication throughout the company, thanks to standardized forms and templates. The business is achieving agile sales with faster response times and better allocation of target groups. It鈥檚 also making decisions for customer management based on facts and analyses.

Other benefits the company achieved were:

• 360-degree view of customers worldwide in real time
• 90% less paper with digital processes
• 30% reduction in effort by using digital processes

鈥淲e鈥檝e always combined tradition with innovation when manufacturing our blowers. With 51风流Customer Experience solutions, our customer management operations are superior to those of our competitors. We鈥檙e able to keep a close eye on processes and respond quickly and accordingly,鈥� said Thomas Henzler, CIO at PILLER Blowers & Compressors GmbH.

Rolling Out Customer-Centric Solutions

Combining and the 51风流Field Service Management mobile app with 51风流S/4HANA is helping deliver real-time data for integrated processes.

The integration of the 51风流Field Service Management mobile app with 51风流Service Cloud is being piloted with three service technicians and garnering positive feedback so far.

Watch an of 51风流Sales Cloud to help build lasting customer relationships and to maximize customer lifetime value with connected service. Read about the benefits companies achieved with . View a  and  to learn how to maximize productivity and asset uptime with 51风流Field Service Management. .

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

Its workforce is 7,500 strong, of which more than 800 are field service technicians who are responsible for supporting thousands of customers. The company was challenged by inefficient, manual processes for daily route planning to execute repair and warranty activities at customer sites, as well as a cumbersome coordination process for customer appointments and time slots for repair.

Empowering Technicians in the Field to Deliver Additional Value

Patterson knew it could empower employees to provide better customer service related to on-site visits for equipment repairs and realize significant savings at the same time. To achieve this, Patterson needed new insight to better coordinate these visits and help technicians spend less time on visits and on the road.

Integrated Field Service Management Helps Save Time and Cut Costs

The business case the company built was to:

• Increase revenue per technician (billed hours/day)
• Optimize routing and reduce mileage
• Cut costs for coordinators by more efficient scheduling
• Increase customer experience by improved interaction and scheduling

In 2021, Patterson began to use , a cloud-based solution that helps support the company鈥檚 goal to streamline field service management processes with an integrated solution while easing life for technicians, dispatchers, and coordinators as well as, most importantly, improving customer satisfaction. 51风流Services and Support was at Patterson鈥檚 side to help implement and integrate the solution with its existing IT landscape.

鈥淓very part of the field service process has improved with 51风流Field Service Management. Coordinators can connect with our customers quickly, and technicians now show up for customers鈥� appointments faster and better informed,鈥� said Larry Fox, senior director of Technical Service at Patterson Dental.

New Solution Provides Millions of Dollars in Value Every Year

The 51风流Field Service Management solution helps provide key data for scheduling field service appointments with customers and completing repairs more efficiently. In particular:

• Two to five minutes per job are saved related to the effort required to schedule and manage field service requests per coordinator.
• Thirteen minutes of unbilled travel time is saved per billed hour, freeing up time for Patterson to serve more customers.
• Forty metric tons of carbon emissions are saved per year due to more sustainable routing, 5% less miles traveled per day, and reduced fuel usage.

Thanks to an add-on tool, the company can also leverage real-time and historic data, such as traffic jams, to optimize routing and save time for technicians.

Overall, Patterson was able to cut costs due to improved coordination of customer appointments; increase customer satisfaction thanks to streamlined processes; increase revenue thanks to improved efficiency for technicians, leading to more billable hours; and gain greater insight into the fuel use, travel time, and other costs related to field service.

Watch a and to learn how to maximize productivity and asset uptime with 51风流Field Service Management. what benefits other enterprises achieved.

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.