Item: ServiceChannel
Rating: 10
Author: James Mouland

Implementation Rating

I was very impressed with the young man they sent to Florida to work with myself and the other FM that was tasked to get this up and running along with me. We put in several long days and at times I thought we would never get through it all, but through his confidence and steadfastness we were able to go from "0" to Launch in 30-45 days, this was a good 30 days ahead of plan, and we had such a good build that there have only been a few tweaks we have needed to do, since the launch, it was truly amazing, They listen to you and get to know your culture and practices, and they find a way to incorporate a lot if not all of those into the new build, so that it makes the buy in and over all acceptance of the product much better, which helps the launch and transition go very smooth.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ServiceChannel (SC) to create service requests at a restaurant level and to track those calls into proposals for larger projects, as well as small issues that need no more input. All invoicing is done thru SC, At this time our facilities department is the only active department, other than accounting who are using this on a daily basis.

Our construction department is somewhat small and is still gathering invoices via mail, fax and e-mails. I am trying to get that construction department as well as our purchasing department to start migrating over to the SC system.

The gathering and managing of new vendors as well as invoicing are the main problems that have been resolved by using SC.

Pros and Cons

ServiceChannel listens to me the user more than any other product I have ever been involved with. It seems like every few months there are some upgrades and improvements to an already great system.
They have some great folks employed who are very accessible and very knowledgeable in this system, they are eager to help out and jump in, and they are never trying to up-sell me during these times.
I believe they have some of the best practices around for helping out new vendors, who have never been exposed to any CMMS system, they help to ease the fear that contractors/vendors have from the onboarding process thru system training.

I think that there is room to improve the contractor side of their mobile app, to be more content rich and have more features and custom ability.
I think there could be some use in setting up some regional training seminars across the country for both user and vendor to attend thru out the year.
I would like to be able to add several pictures from my phone at one time, via the mobile app, and be able to draw or write on them as well.

Return on Investment

It is increased Viability, no longer do VPs call their RMs who then call me or their operators to see what is the status of a particular project? anyone who wants to look can see and be heard via notes.
Also in the gathering and processing of invoices, this used to be a very intensive job handled by many folks printing invoices and trying to send in and get approvals etc, all by hand.. the time and aggravation saved by going to this system has been well received and is worth every penny we paid, to end the madness.

Alternatives Considered

Work Oasis and FM are both terrible and slow, no current features, no flexibility and no new additions or enhancements being worked on.

SC was and is the Cadillac of them all, I simply showed my VP how slow and old the other system was, and discussed how many options and ability to grow with us as we grow the SC system can be, and when it came in at less than what we had? it was a no brainer

Likelihood to Recommend

ServiceChannel is well suited for both the small 5-10 location chain and the large 100+ chains because it is so user-friendly and useful. For the smaller chains the sooner you get used to using the system, the easier it is as your brand grows; it is also easier for an FM to find a great list of vendors (already in the SC System) via Fixxbook to help with establishing vendors at new locations that are maybe not near your present group of vendors. For a larger chain that is perhaps migrating away from an old CMMS platform, or who is looking to upgrade to a new one, SC offers the real world fact that most likely your vendors are already doing business with others who are using SC, this helps in the onboarding like nothing else.

Products Replaced

Yes - Work Oasis, it was just terrible, slow, choppy and no cool features or extra ability's. I was tasked to do a survey of one of our locations, and I would spend 5 minutes per picture just waiting for the upload to finish. we were told that they were no longer going to support their system and that they had been purchased by Another company, and it was their intention to migrate us over to that system, problem was it cost a ridiculous amount of money and IMHO, had no special features that compared to SC.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation
Prior Experience with the Product
Vendor Reputation

The Positive feedback from My Peers and from the Bulk of my Trusted Vendors directed us to just one choice, and that was Service Channel, Hands Down

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I'd like to see all of the top CMMS providers put together a simple sample for you to use, it would need to be on a scenario bases most likely, but being able to take some time and log into some different systems, and see how fast or not the info you want comes up, as well as getting used to thinking like the program does on your own time, might help you come to a conclusion quicker , as one will most likely stand out as a clear winner more than some others. And in the end, this is what you want, ease of use, and something that wont scare folks off, something friendly, yet effective

Why I have NO Regrets in switching to Service Channel

Overall Satisfaction with ServiceChannel