Global service processes go digital

Timely, comprehensive and solution-oriented service plays an important role at Arburg, a globally active machine manufacturer, for plastics processing. By mid-2016, Arburg's service technicians in countries with larger subsidiaries were already using a mobile solution during their on-site visits.

However, since this did not support iOS and had very long loading times, Arburg decided to replace or introduce the CrossMIP cross-platform service app from MobileX worldwide. This allows service technicians to update their status quickly and easily during the day without having to boot up their laptops.

To create longer documents such as service reports, they use the mobile solution MIP for Field Service on their laptop. The dispatchers at Arburg now plan commissioning, conversions and repairs in the form of daily and weekly tours for the service technicians in MobileX Dispatch. Various views are available to them in the form of lists, Gantt charts or maps.

The project was launched at Arburg at the end of September 2016. Poland was the first country to go live with CrossMIP in mid-November, followed by the migration in Switzerland in December. By July, a total of 232 service technicians had gradually received the mobile solutions and 57 dispatchers had received mobileX-Dispatch in 18 branches in Europe, Asia and the USA.

The integration into the existing SAP CRM service system was carried out via web services. The fact that the mobile solutions support the service technicians across platforms was crucial for the company.

"In addition, a rapid rollout was important to us as part of a cross-national, end-to-end digitization of our service processes."

explains Stephan Reich, Head of Application Development IT at Arburg.