TRIRIGAMOBILE SOLUTIONSBUYER’S GUIDEThere’s no question that IBM TRIRIGA® is an exceptional tool in the spectrum of integrated workplace management systems (IWMS).
Operators both new and old benefit from the IWMS powerhouse, and enterprise-level business leaders look for ways to extend and configure TRIRIGA’s functionality.
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Companies responsible for field repair, facilities management, and workforce optimization rely on information availability. They need ways to access data, communicate with team members, and approve requests at a moment’s notice. And while a TRIRIGA implementation can empower your workforce in some great ways, extending the power of the platform with mobile service solutions delivers a more comprehensive and productive experience.
In other words, if your technicians can’t access TRIRIGA in the field straight from their devices, you aren’t getting the most out of your investment.
But the good news is that mobile options are out there, and they’re easier to integrate than ever before. This is particularly true for mobile application providers who specialize in modular solutions that can be customized to your company’s unique TRIRIGA build. With the right implementation partner in your corner, you can revolutionize your workforce management capabilities in some interesting new ways.
Below, we’ve put together a Mobile Solutions Buyer’s Guide to help walk you through your decision and extend the value of your TRIRIGA investment. Let’s begin with a review of how mobile applications can help you get more out of your TRIRIGA system—and your workforce overall.
BENEFITS OF MOBILE
Companies without a structured, flexible approach to workforce management may struggle to keep pace, but what if you had complete control of facilities management at any time and from anywhere?
With the right mobile framework supporting your TRIRIGA® system, this flexibility is not only possible, IT’S EASY.
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Every technician in your workforce can access TRIRIGA from any work site to log issues, submit work requests, and save notes/images of specific task details. Think of it as having a mobile workstation right in your pocket. Technicians are free to manage tasks however they like, empowered by instant access to the TRIRIGA database. This always-on capability offers numerous advantages, from better resource management to productivity to organizational visibility.
Resource Management
The right mobile integration for your IWMS can produce big savings in resource management,efficiency, and productivity.
Rather than logging task details on paper and uploading them to TRIRIGA later, technicians can note
task details and instantly upload them to the server. Pertinent issues can be logged straight from the
field, and if new issues pop up outside of the original order’s scope, workers can input new requests from the ease of a mobile device. This always-on access can produce significant savings in labor costs and off-site travel time.
For example, research from IBM found that, although nearly a third of all facility space goes unused, facility maintenance and operation costs consume a full 70% of the
facility’s total cost of ownership.
The right mobile suite can also help facility owners and property managers better oversee these resources. For example, technicians responsible for working at different locations can check custom, automated inspection reminders for each facility, guaranteeing that no audits slip through the cracks.
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Streamlined Workflows
Better yet, these data points are connected through TRIRIGA to provide 360-degree views of facility performance.
For example, a university technician may receive a work order to repair a leaky sink in one of the campus buildings. He travels to the site and begins to work, noticing that a few ceiling tiles are drooping from water damage. That technician can pull out his phone, access TRIRIGA, and log a new work request for the ceiling tiles—complete with high-res photos and notes if necessary—and get the request into the queue.
As more of these requests come in, the facility manager may note that this particular building has more issues than others, likely due to its age. In response, the manager can increase the frequency of inspections for this particular location. Work orders and job assets can then be seen and completed from a mobile device.
High first-time-fix rates are easier to achieve when technicians come to each job prepared. And with a smarter system of workforce management empowered by mobile tools, technicians will always have the data they need.
This improves facility management as a whole (keeping customers happier!) but it also translates to better KPIs.
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Single Source of Truth
How many data points are you juggling right now?
Think about the task data you have in TRIRIGA, work orders that haven’t been uploaded, tickets
that haven’t been closed, or any other documents that live offline. You likely have a lot of administrative
mess to sort through, and to do so would be time-consuming.
This is another benefit of going mobile. By connecting technician devices to TRIRIGA, supervisors and managers can guarantee that all information is stored in a single database. Technicians, managers, and employees can all access these tasks as needed and see all pertinent documents in a centralized location.
A single source of truth like this eliminates the need to look up third-party resources or rely on uncoordinated sources of information. All task data is available when you need it. And by keeping connected to TRIRIGA, technicians gain another benefit in team access. If a technician needs to speak with a specialist or more experienced team member, he can make instant contact through the TRIRIGA system rather than coming back to the office.
In short, mobile optimizations can completely change the way technicians operate. With the right mobile platform in your corner, you can turn your technicians’ devices from simple phones into fully-connected field partners.
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BENEFITS FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS TO LOOK FOR
Before choosing a solution, make sure your mobile integration partner offers the right set of modular features. Use this guide as a checklist for things to look for.
General Features
Let’s start with general things.
FLEXIBILITY: First and foremost, look for a modular solution that adjusts to your specific business needs. Consider where you’ll be using your devices and whether you’ll need offline capabilities for areas with poor Wi-Fi connectivity.
CONFIGURABILITY: Ideally, your solution will integrate directly with the native TRIRIGA IWMS platform without any need for an intermediate server.
IWMS INTEGRATION: Your solution should offer seamless integration with your IWMS, meaning that you shouldn’t have to re-platform to receive the functionality you need.
EFFICIENT SYNC: Your platform should automatically synchronize changes across entire records to keep records up-to-date in a simple, efficient way.
COST: Find a platform that doesn’t charge for services you won’t end up using. (Many software suites can’t be unbundled, so avoid these if cost or customization are concerns.)
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Examine your current needs and biggest pain points. Do you need better management tools, reporting tools, or new ways to collaborate with your team? Come up with a wish list of features and then look for providers who can integrate these solutions into your IWMS.
Service and scheduling are focal points of any workforce management solution. Tools here should help you get a better handle on how technicians manage work, both in the field and after the job is done.
Do your technicians have access to all of the documents, procedures, floor plans, manuals, or schematics they’ll need to resolve field issues on the first go? How about creating work orders on the fly? These are critical components to task scheduling and service efficiency.
Look for tools that let you manage these details from a centralized database. Your goal here should be getting a more comprehensive view of each task, including needed materials, tools, or parts.
Overall, look for ways to make your teams’ lives easier. For example, mobile workforce tools can integrate with Google Maps to help technicians locate job sites easier, and time tracking tools can help your managers record labor field time straight from their devices.
Services and Scheduling Features
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Inspections and Preventative Maintenance
Too many companies take a reactive approach to maintenance. They take action only after problems come up. But why not take a more proactive approach to the process?
With the right mobile solutions to upgrade the way you manage inspections and preventative maintenance, proactive approaches are certainly possible. Choose a mobile solution that lets you take an active role in facility management, starting with the way you handle your inspections, maintenance, and site audits.
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Look for tools that help you bring TRIRIGA’s inspection capabilities straight to your phone or tablet. With the right platform, you can
log issues, set reminders, attach photos, and even contact other technicians on the team. Taking things a step further, you
can build assessment tools for building systems, and access complete historical records of every property.
Inventory Management and Asset Tracking
As supply chain operators know, inventory management is a huge contributor to supply chain costs. And given how complicated even smaller supply chains can be these days, most businesses stand to benefit from a bit of inventory optimization.
Capabilities to look for here include the following:
Overall, your goal here is to optimize inventory via demand sensing. With the right mobile solution in your corner, you’ll gain a more comprehensive view of inventory analytics. This, in turn, provides better insight into trends, supply and demand forecasts, historical data, and other factors that help you better manage your assets.
1
Inventory and cycle counts
3
Processing inventory transactions
2
Allocation of inventory to specific work
orders
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Requests and Scheduling
Supervisory Duties and Authorizations
Does your team have the means to create work requests from the field?
An easy way to speed up workforce efficiency is to streamline the way these manual processes are handled. Any mobile integration should include tools for creating these requests, logging new orders, noting problems, and tracking the status of existing requests. You should be able to make these notes and attach any supporting photos or documentation as necessary.
Look for platforms that automate as many of these functions as possible. You can even pre-populate form data based on location—with the right tool.
Particularly for larger organizations, efficiency relies on seamless workflows among technicians, supervisors, and managers. These
are primarily related to project authorizations, a known bottleneck for project management.
Here, you’ll want to look for tools that help you get the right documents in front of the right eyes. Your mobile solution should offer
ways to streamline the approvals process, set priority tags for projects, manage multiple work groups at once, and approve time entries at the touch of a button.
Your goal in this arena is to give your supervisors the tools they need to keep projects on schedule. Ideally, this will be done through a centralized platform that aggregates all data and acts as a “control tower” for all technician teams.
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Approvals and Document Transfer
Does your team have constant access to approval documents, files, and records of pending actions? These are crucial aspects of workforce management.
In your mobile integration, make sure you have all the tools you need to make your approvals go off without a hitch:
Overall, your goal is to eliminate the waste of document “handoff” times between employees. Forget waiting for supervisors to sign off or hunting down managers in person. With a stronger mobile solution behind you, you’ll guarantee that your approvals are always one step ahead of your work.
Approve time entries
Review and approve change orders, entries, or records
Approve, return, or reassign tasks
Use a centralized database that collects all of this
information in one place
1 DATABASE
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COORDINATING YOUR SERVICES
With all of the above in mind, step back and ask yourself again, which services/features offer the best potential for your ROI? This process comes down to identifying gaps in your current workflows and looking at which software options best align with your goals.
The flexibility to match functional models with specific business needs (e.g. inventory, inspections, etc.) should be a key part of your decision-making process. You’ve already identified TRIRIGA as a substantial value for your organization, but it should only be considered as the raw material. It must be molded into a form that will bring the greatest value to your processes. With newer, more flexible services that connect your mobile device seamlessly to TRIRIGA, you create that mold. All of the benefits are within your reach provided you find the right implementation partner.
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IMPLEMENTATION THINGS TO KNOW
Mobile IWMS Implementation Expectations
Mobile optimization of TRIRIGA is an exceptional way to simplify
data management for companies and clients who drive modern
innovations.
Initial investment(s) for a mobile IWMS game-changer provide big-picture return
on investment, but implementation isn’t instantaneous.
Here’s what you need to know when it comes to implementing a new mobile IWMS solution.
A mobile solution for workforce, real estate, and facility management will change the way you do business. On-site technicians and managers have instant access to everything from streamlined work requests and property inspections to capital project management and inventory database logistics—when the right mobile solution is working for you.
That said, it’s important to manage implementation expectations when you adopt an enterprise-level mobile IWMS solution.
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Project Costs
Downtime
Launch & Training
The first line item associated with a new mobile platform is
the cost of the application itself. The right IWMS partner is
honest about an app’s cost and tells you exactly what you’re
buying.
Up-front expenses can be for a single application, tailored to
work to your specific needs, or for an entire suite of mobile
applications meant to renovate and reimagine your TRIRIGA
experience.
Unfortunately, there’s no avoiding at least a little downtime
when you’re changing the way you manage and utilize an
IWMS like TRIRIGA. Expect manageable growing pains, and
you’ll avoid excess headache.
Fortunately, downtime is minimized when you partner with
integration experts. Mobile solution specialists know that time
is money. The less time it takes to integrate, the better. The
right implementation partner will coordinate both big- and
small-picture integrations to suit your schedule.
The reason you have experts helping optimize the integration
process is because it’s impossible for all technicians, facility
managers, and project administrators to be one hundred
percent proficient with new platforms immediately. Training
takes time, but proper training also means less resource drain
in the long run.
You’ll need to train technicians, managers, and administrators
to use new mobile applications, so expect that expense.
Ultimately, though, the opportunity cost of training
employees on a new system is a small investment compared to the downstream
improvement and day-to-day optimization you’ll see in no time.
Manage your up-front investment expectations and you’ll never be surprised by
implementation costs. Out-of-the-box mobile applications are designed to make
integration and implementation easy, intuitive, and exciting.
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THE RIGHT MOBILE PARTNER MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE
TRIRIGAMOBILE SOLUTIONSBUYER’S GUIDE
As an enterprise-level IWMS mobile solution innovator, eCIFM Solutions Inc. is exactly what you’re looking for when it comes to low-risk, high-reward integration.
Our team of experts works with you to implement and optimize integration in order to minimize or completely eliminate disruption to business. You can choose which applications best meet your needs with eCIFM’s strategic consultants helping you every step of the way.
There’s no substitute for technical expertise and hands-on experience. Our team of experts is committed to maximizing the value of your investment by leveraging successful strategic solutions.
Contact the experts for a free demo and let eCIFM’s On The Go! suite of mobile IWMS applications transform the way you work with TRIRIGA.
PHONE: +1 925 830 1925WEB: www.ecifm.comOnline Contact Form
