IFS Field Service Management (formerly Metrix) is the field service management application from Industrial and Financial Systems (IFS). It is built around features such as a contact center, dynamic scheduling, and service contract management.
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Kickserv
Score 9.3 out of 10
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Kickserv is a field service management solution, headquartered in Austin, Texas. It includes features such as dynamic scheduling optimization, invoicing and online payments, and detailed reporting.
IFS Field Service Management is well suited for ad-hoc reporting and querying of your dataset(s). It also is great for inventory management, processing orders, and handling EDI transaction sets to third party partners and suppliers.
We use KickServ for nearly every aspect of our operation and cannot think of a scenario when it is "inappropriate" or "less appropriate". It is the backbone of our operation and is used for everything from data gathering to estimates to invoices to payments and accounts receivables to reports to tracking to storage of photos and past invoices. Better searching abilities would be good instead of having to create tags for things we don't know we are going to need later.
Order Placement - IFS makes placing orders quite easy. From the simple interface down to selecting inventory, the experience is simple and clean
Reporting - Querying database records is straightforward and easy to do. Queries can then be drilled down to individual records or exported to excel for further manipulation and analysis.
Customer Creation - Creating new customers and managing and maintaining existing records is a simple and easily repeatable exercise
Organization - keeps everything organized nicely and has several different filters that you can use to view only the information you need.
Simple website - this was important because you want it to load quickly when you are in the office and on the road.
Database - keeps track of the things that you enter. This is nice when trying to get information on a product or a price when requested by the customer.
Field Customization - Adding fields or inputs to particular entities is not very easy. In a world of point and click development, IFS is behind the curve
Order Automation - for bulk order placement it would be nice to have an easy mechanism to upload orders via an Excel or csv template. We've written some custom programs to perform this, but a more user friendly, "out of box" solution would be welcomed.
It is intuitive enough, but there is some training that will be necessary because of a perceived redundancy within their workflow. It can be hard to distinguish which stage a customer is in (thus what the most important thing to be working on, if you are in sales, for instance) without some training.
Very good technical help. The team is well-versed in their product and what to look for, particularly when interacting with other software platforms. You nearly always get a live person when you call, and if you don't, they will return your call promptly. This is another factor in my client's decision to move forward with their solution.
Positive - streamlined order processing has allowed our business to scale without requiring additional bodies for that specific need.
Positive - Reporting has allowed valuable insight into historic business trends which has allowed us to be proactive instead of reactive in many areas.
Negative - Customizations have proved costly and cumbersome when upgrading to the next version of the software.
We are essentially paper free. No paper work orders.
We've been able to avoid a layer of middle management by supplementing this layer with technology. KickServ is a part of that layer.
Negatively speaking, like all technology, it has created a void of human level connection. Because we know that we can deliver work orders to our foremen remotely, we are less likely to drive up to the shop and shake a hand or see someone face to face. We had to learn that lesson the hard way, that both technology and human connection are necessary to maintain our culture.
