Jonas Mobile Solution Improves Technician and Dispatcher Productivity and Drives Increased Customer Satisfaction
Executive Summary
A Jonas client since 2003, Canoga Park Heating & Air Conditioning recently implemented Jonas Mobile to give the company a further edge over the competition. Jonas Mobile has helped Canoga Park rapidly increase productivity across the organization while improving the customer experience.
Customer Profile
Founded by Bob Wiseman in 1963 Canoga Park Heating & Air Conditioning specializes in designing, engineering and installing complete comfort systems for the owners of existing homes and buildings in the San Fernando Valley, Conejo Valley, and the west side of Los Angeles.
With a focus on competing ethically and with fairness in the market place Canoga Park has been able to outperform the competition. Canoga Park pledges to uphold the highest level of professionalism in all that they do as they understand and appreciate the value of their customers. Canoga Park counts clients like Northrop Grumman, Amgen Pharmaceuticals, and LAX among their customers.
Today Canoga Park Heating & Air Conditioning remains a family business under the leadership of Bob Wiseman Jr. and Scott Davis. Canoga Park continues to be viewed as a leader in the industry with Bob acting as the President of the Institute of Heating and Air Conditioning Industries. The company has also been formally recognized as the third service company in California to be awarded with the Carrier President’s Award for Outstanding Dealerships.
System Evolution
Canoga Park Heating & Air Conditioning first implemented Jonas in March of 2003 for service management, job cost, payroll, inventory, and accounting. At the time Canoga Park was seeking a strong service solution from a professional partner. Following conversations with several other contractors in California Bob identified Jonas as the leading solution for the service industry. Explaining his decision Bob says “In Jonas we saw a large and established partner that had been around for a while with a truly integrated package that was a great fit for what we were trying to do.”
With features like flat rate billing and a single screen to gauge customer profitability the Jonas system allowed Bob to better manage both his installation and service businesses. After three years on the system Canoga Park was ready to look at expanding the system further. At the time Jonas had just introduced the Jonas Mobile field service solution and Canoga Park decided to be amongthe first to try this new functionality.
“We saw this as an opportunity to further pursue our mission to provide the highest level of customer service,” explained Bob. “We felt that Jonas Mobile would allow us to better communicate timely information with our field technicians and customers allowing us to increase efficiency while improving the customer experience.”
The decision was taken in December of 2006 to try Jonas Mobile with five field service technicians to test the reliability of the technology and the impact on Canoga Park’s operations.
The Jonas Mobile Solution
Prior to implementing the Jonas Mobile solution Canoga Park operated like most other HVACR service companies. Service calls were created on the dispatch board and assigned to the available technicians. When a job was completed the technician would call in to dispatch to update the head office on job status and to pick up the next call; a process that could take up to 15 minutes per call. Call sheets for each job were faxed in by the technicians at the end of the day to be re-keyed into the system by the dispatch team the following morning.
The Jonas Mobile allowed Canoga Park to streamline this process. The dispatchers no longer need to wait for the technicians to call in to assign them a work order. They simply assign the call on the Jonas dispatch board and it is automatically sent to the technician’s mobile device complete with client history, equipment lists and all other
pertinent information. Once the technician has a work order they can then add descriptions and other elements and print professional and readable work orders from a portable wireless printer for clients before leaving the site. As information changes on the mobile it automatically updates the main Jonas server in real time thereby providing head office with better, timelier information.
Among the greatest strengths of the Jonas Mobile solution is that technicians can continue to work with a work order even when they do not have wireless coverage. With Jonas Mobile information is downloaded directly to the device
which differentiates it from ‘thin client’ solutions from other vendors that rely on continuous wireless connectivity for operability.
Benefits for Canoga Park
The Jonas Mobile solution has allowed Canoga Park’s field service technicians to interact directly with the Jonas system dramatically improving overall productivity while delighting customers and improving employee satisfaction.
Canoga Park has recognized productivity improvements in two key areas with Jonas Mobile. Field technician productivity is up an estimated 10% through reduced calls to the head office and faster work order processing. Even greater gains have been recognized in the dispatching function where the ability to send work orders to the technicians via the wireless device saves each dispatcher about 7.5 to 10 hours per week. “The dispatchers
absolutely love the product,” comments Bob. “The mobile solution has eliminated the monotonous and time consuming task of re-keying information from written site sheets into the system allowing them to spend more time on higher value activities.”
More important than the productivity gains is the effect on customer satisfaction. Commenting on the impact for customers Bob says “We are in a very competitive industry so any thing that allows us to be a little bit better provides us with a huge advantage. With Jonas Mobile we are now able to give our customers much clearer and more detailed work orders making us look that much more professional.”
Summarizing his view of Jonas Mobile Bob explains “the idea behind implementing the mobile solution was to make things just a little bit easier for everyone and that it certainly has done.”
Looking Forward
Looking forward Bob is secure in the knowledge that the Jonas Software for Life program will keep Canoga Park up to date with the latest tools and technology for the construction industry. “We have been with Jonas for over three years now and have seen first hand the investment which goes back into the product. We know that Jonas will continue to change with the industry and will make sure that we do not miss any competitive features. I am excited to see where we are going to go next.”