Implementing new software in a service company: a step-by-step plan for the office and the technicians

Why new software sometimes ends up back in the cupboard

Implementing new software seems to be mainly a matter of choosing the right software. In a service company, it usually goes wrong elsewhere:

• Nobody leads the project. The owner does it on top of everything else, between a quote and a building site, and it stalls.
• The data is not ready. The same customer appears three times, addresses sit in a single column, appliances have no serial number.
• Everyone gets the same explanation. The technician hears about invoices, the bookkeeper about the app, and nobody remembers what they need themselves.
• Old and new run side by side with no end date. The Excel file stays “just in case”, and after a while nobody knows which version is right.
• The first mistake becomes the last. A technician cannot find a button, calls the office, and the next day the paper work order is back in the van.

Implementing new software in eight steps

These steps apply to any tool, from a scheduling program to a complete field service suite.

1. Choose a project lead and a start date. One person at the office who knows how things work, is given time for it and is allowed to decide: who gets which role, which data comes along, when the old system stops. With a start date, you plan backwards: when must the data be ready, when does the trial start?
2. Write down how things work today. From the customer’s call to the paid invoice: who takes the request, who schedules, what does the technician fill in, who invoices? That shows you which step the software takes over and what you still need to agree on.
3. Get the data ready. Customers, sites, installations, items and current contracts. Clean up before you import: one customer, one record. How to go about it is explained in importing customer data when you switch.
4. Set the roles and the rules. Who sees amounts, who approves hours, who sends invoices? And the rules you set once: payment term, VAT, validity of a quote, general terms and conditions. More on this in user roles and permissions: who sees what.
5. Gather the documents. Company details, VAT number, IBAN, logo and the text of your general terms and conditions. Check an invoice and a report before the first one goes to a customer.
6. Start with a trial. One planner and one or two technicians work on real interventions in the new software. Choose technicians who are open to something new, and let the trial run until every type of work has come through at least once: maintenance, a breakdown, an intervention with parts, a customer who signs.
7. Train per role. A technician opens their day, records their steps, fills in a report and has it signed. The planner schedules and reschedules, accounting invoices. Short sessions with your own interventions work better than one long demo for everyone.
8. Go live on the agreed day and switch off the old system. Choose a quiet week. On the start day, all users have activated their account, the week’s interventions are in the new software and the project lead can be reached. Agree from when the old system is only used to look something up.

The first weeks: keeping the team on board

Explain the switch in terms of your people’s day: less retyping, fewer phone calls to ask for an address or an appliance type. A technician who sees that their remark changes something stays on board. If someone goes back to paper, ask why. Often it is about one screen that nobody explained.

An example: a heating company makes the switch

A heating installer schedules in Excel and works with paper work orders. The office manager leads the project. She writes down how a request runs today, cleans up the customer list and first imports a small part of the customers, with their sites and boilers, to check the result. The rest follows.

The planner and two technicians start the trial; the other technicians still work on paper. Every evening, the office manager notes the questions of the day. At the team meeting, the two technicians show their colleagues how they finish an intervention and have it signed. On the agreed Monday, everyone works in the new software, and the Excel schedule is only used to look something up.

How it works in Digitalnatie Service Suite

In Digitalnatie Service Suite, you start from the getting-started checklist at the bottom of the left-hand menu. It shows what your organisation still needs to set up, and Service Suite checks each step itself: you do not tick anything off by hand.

• Twelve steps: company details, logo, invoicing, default payment term, sending email, Peppol, technicians linked to users, vans, first customer, first site, first installation and roles assigned. The button next to a step opens the right screen, and a button there takes you back to the checklist.
• Peppol: registration for electronic invoices is not done in the application, but at the start, together with Digitalnatie.
• Importing data: in the configuration, you load customers, sites, installations, items and maintenance contracts, among other things, from an Excel or CSV template. The check does not write anything yet. An import cannot be undone with one click: start with a small file.
• Inviting colleagues: in the role settings, you invite a person by entering their name and email address and ticking their roles. The person receives an email with a link to choose their password. A technician is linked to their technician record.
• The technician app opens in the smartphone’s browser, without an app store. Its screens follow the language of the technician’s account: Dutch, French or English.
• Email: as long as your company’s email has not been connected, the application says so before sending. After that, reports, invoices and invitations you send really arrive: test with your own address first.

The checklist is visible to the administrator and the manager, and does not change anything itself: the settings are made in the linked screens. A changed role only appears in the menus after logging in again.

After signing, the onboarding starts: your environment is created and configured, your basic data is set up, and Digitalnatie sets up your users and roles together with you. Onboarding, data migration, configuration and training are separate services, quoted for your situation. See the pricing and the frequently asked questions. If you first want to know what happens to your data, read nine questions about data in the cloud.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to implement new software?

That depends mainly on your preparation: how clean your data is, how many roles and rules you need to set and how many people you are training. Start from a start date and plan backwards: data, roles, trial, training. At Digitalnatie, the implementation is quoted for your situation.

Who is best placed to lead the implementation?

One person at the office who knows how things work, is given time for it and is allowed to decide on roles, data and the start date. Often that is the office manager or a manager, with the owner ultimately responsible. The technicians from the trial then help their colleagues get started.

Do the old and new systems have to run side by side for a while?

During the trial, yes: the technicians in the trial work in the new software, the others as before. From the start day, everyone works in the new software, and the old system is only used to look something up. Without an end date, two versions of the schedule stay in existence.

Is the implementation included in the price of Service Suite?

No. The subscription is a price per user per month, from two users. Onboarding, data migration, configuration work and training are separate services, quoted for your situation. There is no fixed start-up fee.

Can I start with just a few technicians?

Yes. A subscription starts from two users, and you add users later as you expand. They are charged pro rata from their activation.