Software helps optimize field service operations.
Press Release Summary:
ServiceOptimization Suite v7.5 allows companies to improve efficiencies in field service operations while optimizing workload forecasting, workforce capacity planning, scheduling, and performance measurement. Automated exception handling minimizes need for manual intervention by dispatchers. Real-time key performance indicators alert managers to potential problems and aid in problem prevention. Planning wizards automate repetitive workforce capacity planning tasks.
Original Press Release:
ClickSoftware Announces the Availability of Version 7.5 of its Leading ServiceOptimization Suite
New Version Makes it Easier Than Ever for Companies to Make Their Field Service Operations More Efficient
BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, February 2-- ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (NasdaqSC: CKSW), a leading provider of workforce and service optimization solutions, today announced the general availability of Version 7.5 of its ServiceOptimization Suite software. The ServiceOptimization Suite allows companies to improve efficiencies in their field service operations while simultaneously cutting costs by optimizing workload forecasting, workforce capacity planning, scheduling, and performance measurement processes. Version 7.5 makes it easier for companies to optimize their operations by simplifying both the user interaction and the deployment process.
"Version 7.5 is the culmination of a two-year effort, leveraging our user community to identify ways to make the product easier to use, and working with our system integration partners to determine ways to make it easier to deploy," said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, ClickSoftware's founder and CEO. "Having a large and active user community provides us with a wealth of practical, real-world input that enables us to develop products in the areas that are the most meaningful to our customers. As a result, we can continue to raise the bar for service optimization."
Version 7.5 expands on previous versions of the product suite with numerous feature and user interface enhancements, including
- Automated exception handling to reduce the need for manual intervention by dispatchers
- Real-time key performance indicators to alert operations managers to potential problems and aid in problem prevention
- A more configurable schedule optimizer to simplify implementations and future upgrades
- Faster real-time schedule optimization to allow for greater operational efficiencies
- A completely new, easier-to-use graphical user interface for ClickPlan, the suite's capacity planning solution
- New planning wizards to automate repetitive workforce capacity planning tasks
- Work crew management capabilities to allow companies to assign work to crews comprising several individual resources-particularly important in the utilities industry
- Enhanced support for multi-lingual implementations including Japanese and simplified Chinese
In deciding which specific features and functionality to incorporate into Version 7.5, ClickSoftware product managers enlisted the input of a cross-section of participants, including both customers and systems integrators, among others. The ClickSoftware R&D team was able to incorporate many of the specific suggestions it received into the Version 7.5 offering.
Moving from research and development to bringing the product to market has been a gradual phase with significant amounts of testing. Several of ClickSoftware's current clients are serving as participants in the company's Charter Customer Program for Version 7.5 and have been field testing the software since October 2004.
This period of field testing comes after nine months of internal product testing by ClickSoftware's quality assurance professionals. Said BenBassat, "Our solutions are used day in and day out by many of the world's largest companies in mission-critical environments. A service company, when its scheduling system is down, is analogous to an airline without a reservation system. That's why we treat quality assurance with the utmost respect. Version 7.5 has been in functionality, scalability, and algorithmic quality testing for almost a year, in addition to the field testing done by our charter customers."
The general availability of Version 7.5 comes at a time when more companies are beginning to realize the benefits of service optimization. "Service organizations can take huge strides in customer satisfaction, productivity, and overall cost reduction by aligning technician capacity, aptitude, parts availability, proximity, and other attributes with work order demand on a real-time basis," said Mark Vigoroso, vice president of post-sales service research at the Aberdeen Group. "Just over one-third of companies are achieving this level of service optimization, according to our research, and most of them rely on automated optimization technology functionality or solutions."
A datasheet and screenshots of Version 7.5 are available for download at www.clicksoftware.com/pdf/75datasheet
About ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware is the leading provider of workforce and service optimization solutions that maximize workforce productivity and customer satisfaction while minimizing operations costs. ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite provides an integrated, intelligent solution for automatic, efficient, and effective decisions over the entire service decision-making chain. It includes reliable customer demand and workload forecasting, strategic and tactical capacity planning, daily service scheduling, troubleshooting and repair support, wireless workforce management, and business analytics, connecting all organizational levels and functions. The company is headquartered in Burlington, Mass. and Israel, with offices in Europe and Asia Pacific.
For more information about ClickSoftware, please call +1-781-272-5903 or +1-888-438-3308, or visit www.clicksoftware.com.
