Solutions For You - Agresso Business World for Field Force - Service Management and Asset Maintenance

Agresso Introduces New Software for Asset/Services Businesses +$US1 BILLION SIZED BETA CUSTOMER STOPS 2-4% REVENUE LEAKAGE

Agresso Field Force Integrates Field Services and Asset Maintenance; One Product, Two Market Solutions in Single Best-of-Breed Offering

BOSTON, Mass. (June 7, 2007) – Agresso (www.agresso.com), the ERP market’s definition of agility, announced today that it has introduced a new software solution that tightly integrates field services management and asset maintenance capabilities into a single, best-of-breed offering. The announcement was made today at the seventh annual Grape Escape analyst gathering in Boston.

Called "Field Force," Agresso’s optimized "two for one" solution is aimed at asset-intensive private and public sector service organizations, such as technology/telecommunication services or electric utility providers that maintain larger physical assets tied to high-volume service orders. These organizations previously had to select between three unattractive options: purchasing individual best of breed solutions and paying for expensive and rigid integration; purchasing a combined solution from a best-of-breed provider in one area that is weak in the other; or trying to get by with more manual processes in one or both areas.

Agresso Field Force is aimed at a market segment that Agresso defines as BLINC ^TM -- Businesses Living IN Change – organizations that live in rapid change mode tied to fast growth, reorganization, regulatory or acquisition types of activity. The post-implementation agility of business systems is a fundamental requirement for success in this market – a requirement that comes natively with Agresso Field Force since being delivered as a part of the Agresso Business World product line, a fully-integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for people-centric organizations.

"Field Force is the best option for BLINC businesses operating in dual-mode services sectors where there can be no compromise between maintaining the physical assets and managing high-volume service orders," said Ab Van Marion, Chief Operating Officer of Agresso, who spoke at the analyst event. "These separate market needs have been well served individually, but it is clear that the linkage between the two solutions has been weak, and where its been tightened –- there has been absolutely no ability to respond to change without huge IT costs and organizational disruption."

Agresso Field Force has already received pre-launch accolades for its two-in-one solution from leading public and private sector companies in Scandinavia who have rigorously beta tested the system prior to its global launch. Early gains these companies communicated can be categorized as:

• Improved bottom line performance -- as much as 2-4%
• Reduced invoice cycles following project completion by 15 days
• Reduced elapsed time to process and complete orders from 60 days to a few hours
• Increased order handling capabilities -- up to 2,000 orders per day
• Increased field workforce efficiencies resulting in +10-15% more productivity for technicians, +25% for service order management, +25% for administration/invoicing; improved finance/reporting processes
• Increased loyalty and satisfaction rates from customers tied to improved response times -- from days (or sometimes weeks) to hours
• Increased insight in trends and potential pitfalls – transforming these organizations into pro-active rather than reactive.

All the beta companies managed to achieve these specific gains while living in a world of reorganizations, restructuring, new acquisitions and ongoing compliancy pressure. The post-implementation agility capabilities of Agresso Business World allowed them to tune and restructure their organization on the fly, with internal staff.

Multiple Business Needs Solved in One Solution

Agresso Field Force provides high-volume mobile field services management, unlimited contract/service model variations and a solution for asset management/maintenance within an integrated architectural framework that supports ongoing business change. Some of its key components incude:

• Proactive, centralized asset maintenance/control strategies (preventative, predictive and reliability centered)
• "Predictive" parts/inventory management
• Contracts Management
• Field services (human capital) management
• Reporting for regulatory/environmental compliance
• Reporting for government-mandated financial compliance
• Time and Billing reporting/invoicing (often varied client to client based on contracts)
• Analytics aimed at cost-cutting, margin optimizing or top-line revenue growth
• Analytics aimed at best industry practices (customer satisfaction driven)
• Best practice human capital management (resource deployment)
• Mobile workforce communications/management (time-sensitive and agility focused)


Field Force combines the diverse requirements of large-project deployment and asset maintenance…coupled with high-volume, small service/maintenance needs.