SMART in the repair centre
SMART enables our customers to optimise their repair workshops and improve their customer service levels.
Repair Scheduling and Planning
SMART's repair schedule determines which units should be repaired taking into account history and trends. This decreases stockholding and turnaround times, and ultimately reduces costs and increases profit.
SMART Scheduling and Planning routes incoming jobs into an ‘unscheduled activity’. Schedulers then check each activity and allocate a suitable engineer to the corresponding job. SMART assists with this task by suggesting the engineer who is best qualified to complete the job based on the product, and location and skills of the engineer.
Web Tracking
This feature allows customers to track their repairs and view status and repair histories.
Warranty Checking and Claim Management
This feature provides repair warranty tracking, supplier warranty tracking, and full warranty checking using manufacturers’ serial numbers, databases, or date codes. All aspects of the warranty claim management process are accommodated, including claim file generation and acceptance processing.
Invoicing
SMART includes a robust and highly configurable invoicing feature. Invoices can be consolidated using multiple rules (e.g. customers may wish to receive a monthly invoice by product, site, contract, or non contract incident repair).
On completion of each repair, an incident pending record is created. Once approved, an invoice or consolidated invoice is generated based on the record.
Invoices can be printed or downloaded into spreadsheet format for emailing.
Customer Reporting
SMART’s integrated OLAP reporting tool provides customers with tailored performance reports on their repaired products. All reports are completely configurable and can be produced in graphical or spreadsheet format and made available via web links. Customer reporting comprises the following features:
- Customer Analysis
- Fault Fix Ratio
- Incident Cost Analysis
- Revenue v Cost Enquiry
- Stock Forecast Report
- Minimum/Maximum Stock Level Report
- Data management suite covering incident, despatch, invoice, stock, contract, quote, sales order, and sales quotes
- Scheduled downloads for all data management reporting.
Quotes to Sales Orders
The Quotation module integrates with SMART's inventory and sales features, thus allowing quotes to be tracked and converted directly to sales orders. Analysis of ‘lost’ quotes can assist sales and marketing staff to identify future business. Follow up actions can be configured for quotes, which will send email alerts to create call back lists.
SMART ensures that all crucial data is available when preparing quotes (i.e. customer, site, customer contact, delivery method, product, quantity, price, expiry date).
Quotes can be built for multiple products and currencies. Delivery options for sales quotes can be multiple, consolidate, or 2 deliveries only.
Stock can be reserved from different warehouses; this is particularly useful when different types of stock are being sold (e.g. customer-owned stock).
Sales Orders
Once all sales requirements have been met, SMART converts sales quotes to sales orders. At this stage of the process credit and payment details can be obtained.
Payment methods are configurable by customer, covering account, cash, proforma, credit card, BACS, and cheque.
Stock Management
SMART provides a complete stock control system comprising the following features:
- Stock picking
- Stock adjustment
- Stock bins
- Stock enquiry
- Stock relocate
- Stock levels (minimum and maximum levels)
- Stock allocation
- Stock inventory
- Stock forecasting and re-order
- Stock movement enquiry
Stock Inventory
This module controls and tracks stock from the point of receipt to utilisation across multiple sites. Stock is controlled in bin locations within warehouses. Alternative parts can be defined to be used when ‘out of stock’ situations arise. Remote users can check stock via a web integration. In addition, SMART provides a comprehensive suite of stock usage reports.
Stock Re order
Stock reorder can be configured to suggest or automatically raise purchase requisitions for out of stock product lines, products that have reached the defined minimum order quantity, and trended usage. Stock re-ordering tools use the following functions:
- Trended Usage
- Lead-time calculations
- Automated min/max levels
- Weeks stock
- New product information
PDA Connectivity
This feature allows an engineer in the field to collect his or her call information and send acknowledgement of receipt. Job completion details and parts used or parts required information are also sent via the remote device; which allows billing information to be despatched without delay, thus providing improved response times and invoicing efficiency.
Interface
SMART contains a flexible interface to external accounting systems (e.g. Sage). EDI interfaces are also available for communication with customers, suppliers, and other business partners. Zafire have provided some customers with direct feeds that are used to upload supplier stock details and can ODBC into the database for reporting tools and other interfaced-based functionality.
Dashboards
SMART’s Dashboard provides a graphical-based reporting interface which enables customers to monitor results for key performance and improve their efficiency. Dashboard reporting covers the following key areas:
- Warehouse
- Sales
- Incident
- KPI and SLAs
PDF Files
SMART includes a document template management tool and PDF files can be created for download or auto email at multiple points throughout the repair process.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
SLAs can be created for any incident or contract within SMART and can include parts, service types, contract terms, shifts times, shift patterns, and escalations. SLAs can be applied by customer, product, or adhoc as required.
Credit Card Payment
Credit card payments are fully encrypted and details are stored on a secure server environment. For added security and validation, SMART uses the Luhn 10 algorithm to validate credit card number formats.
Email Triggers
SMART can be configured to despatch emails at specific points in the repair process (e.g. item arrival, completion, data capture results, parts usage, stock outage, on date reached, and SLA performance).
Generic Cross Reference
This feature enables customers to ensure that their data is uniform. For example, a cross reference could be defined for currency consistency to guarantee that any data entered as GBP would be recorded as STERLING.
Customer/MFG part numbers
This feature caters for situations when the number that a supplier uses for a part differs from the number that is used by the repair centre for the same product. SMART can map the different supplier numbers to an internal number while within the repair centre, and then revert the numbers to their original value when documentation is despatched to customers or suppliers, thus ensuring that the numbers are externally recognisable.
Skills Matrix
When engineers are allocated to jobs, the allocation is based on the product that is being repaired, and the engineer’s location and skill set. The Skills Matrix is used to record the necessary information to make this allocation process possible. The Matrix is fully configurable and is used in conjunction with the job planning features in SMART.
Images
Images can be added for each product and will be displayed when products are booked in. This visual representation acts as an aid for staff to ensure that they are booking the correct unit.
Alternative Products
For each product within SMART, alternative products can be defined which can be substituted when the original product is either out of stock, or discontinued. Additionally, when a product is discontinued, SMART can automatically replace its details with those of the alternative product wherever it is referenced in the repair system.
Forms Designer
The Designer can be used to create and maintain templates for all internal and external documents that are used within the SMART system.
Printer Maintenance
If required, multiple printers can be configured for use with SMART (e.g. label printers for the workshop, printers for invoices etc.).
Price Matrix
This feature enables customers to upload complex product and customer-based pricing data into SMART. The data can then be used to build quotes, contracts, and orders. The price matrix can also be used to provide discount and standard pricing using quantity break dividers.
Authorisation
This feature allows staff with the appropriate authority to authorise requisitions, purchase orders, purchase invoices, and quotes from one central point.
If you would like to discuss this product with a Zafire representative, please email us, or call us on 01295 701 810.