Sybord significantly improves its service quality.

Tell us a little about your company and what you offer…

Sybord was founded in 1946 and headquartered near Lyon, France. We’ve always been involved in telecommunications, however our company has progressed significantly over the years. From 1946 to 2000, we installed business telephone systems and since then our organization has evolved into a telecom and network operator.
 
We work in three types of telecom networks: LAN, WAN and MAN. We deploy telephone sets, soft phones, and we also handle the installation of fiber, ADSL, SDSL and GSM telephony for companies. We handle these companies’ installations, billing, and maintenance of equipment.

Sybord operates in the region of Lyon of course and is equally able to cover France as a whole through the Resadia Group – a network of about thirty companies (half telephony, half data processing) to which we are associated. We are dynamic company with an annual turnover of around 6 million euros and an average annual growth rate of 10% over the last 15 years.

With our recent acquisition of another telecom company, ETG, SYBORD has 35 employees, including 16 technicians that use Praxedo daily.

On average, our technicians carry out more than 8,000 field activities per year that include installation and maintenance services at various customer sites.

Why did you choose Praxedo? What were your pain points?

The scheduling module we were using at the time was somewhat rigid. We lacked flexibility and, above all, the module had reached its limit when we acquired our subsidiary, ETG.

For one, we needed a software to manage our technicians remotely. ETG is located 180 kilometers from SYBORD’s headquarters so our technicians would rarely come to us to file their reports or obtain their work orders. We had no way to manage their field activities, so we decided to get a field service management software to help us solve this problem.
 
We compared various options, and opted for Praxedo for three main reasons:

Scheduling: As previously mentioned, we needed to be able to manage ETG technician schedules.

Productivity: We were looking for a means to increase productivity, especially when it came to administrative tasks. We were still doing things manually. For instance, expenses for field services were paper based, handwritten and had to be scanned. Technicians’ hours were also documented on paper and had to be entered manually into our ERP. Technicians had no remote access to their schedules and were forced to travel to the office to get them. Our calculations showed that on average, we were losing 1.5 hours of work per day on administrative processing tasks alone. By the end of the year, it was starting to add up to way too many hours wasted.

Reporting: With paper-based processes, there were too many risks involved in losing critical field service information. Technicians’ reports were often incomplete and difficult to read. This caused problems in utilizing the service data for billing purposes. Thus, we needed a solution that would allow us to enter reports securely, ensure completeness and efficiency, and also enable us to correctly track each field service that took place and locate it easily.

Who uses the Praxedo solution and what features in particular?

Efficient scheduling via the web interface

The Praxedo web interface is available to everyone in the company. We use it to ensure proper dispatching of our SYBORD and ETG technicians. The scheduling is mainly handled by my assistant and myself. Our hotline agent also schedules field services from time to time.

Field service reporting via technicians’ mobile applications
 
Our technicians execute services and complete their service reports directly on their mobile applications. We have configured a form for them with all the essential information to fill in.

They can enter information through voice dictation, check boxes or answers chosen from drop-down menus. The process is easy and quick for them to do, and it also simplifies our work, for tracking and billing purposes. Everything is readable. Everything is complete. Everything is functional.

Once the technician has completed their service report in the Praxedo mobile application, all the information is transmitted to the ERP. This is comprised of the service report with all its data, the report in PDF format, the record of the technician’s working hours, details of additional parts used during the customer visit, and the progress of the service (completed or not).

All this data is fed into our ERP in a consistent and organized manner through Praxedo’s web platform.

What are the main benefits of the Praxedo solution?

Definitely easy and remote management of our technicians, subsidiary included.

We are now able to manage the field services of our ETG subsidiary’s technicians, easily and remotely. Since ETG is located 180 km away from us, our previous system was not able to manage it all. This alone is a huge operational advantage, as it meets our primary need related to the acquisition of this company.

A real increase in productivity pertaining to admin tasks.

Praxedo helped us increase productivity, especially in the administrative processing of our field services.

Service reports can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

Reporting is now 100% secure thanks to our technicians’ mobile applications. Reports are always complete, readable, accessible, and available for administrative processing. There are no more issues with missing documents or the lack of information. With Praxedo, we have all details, and nothing is ever forgotten.

Better traceability of field service activities.

Praxedo has also helped us progress in terms of field service traceability. Everything is archived digitally. With a few clicks, we can easily locate a work order that was done in the past. And we can transmit the record to technicians through their mobile app. Access to past history has become very practical.

Improved responsiveness through geolocation.

When it comes to dispatching, geolocation is a real advantage. We know exactly where our technicians are and how much progress they’ve made. This allows us to organize ourselves accordingly, especially when we have to manage an unexpected emergency and need to send the technician closest to the location to rectify it rapidly.

A scalable SaaS platform, always accessible.

Another advantage is the SaaS platform. We do not have to install anything on our servers. We have no maintenance to do, and no software updates to manage. Everything is in the cloud, managed by Praxedo. The solution is scalable. It is stable and works continuously. It is secure and the platform is accessible from anywhere at any time.

This is also very practical, especially in times like these when physical contact must be kept to a minimum. I can manage my field services very well from home, and my technicians do not have to come to the office too often. In this regard, Praxedo is an important tool that is especially relevant during the pandemic.

A better brand image and improved customer satisfaction.

Finally, I would say that with Praxedo, we have made progress on all aspects related to our brand image. The solution has allowed us to not only to modernize our image in the eyes of our customers, but also to improve the quality of service, especially with impeccable reporting capabilities that are quickly transmitted to the customer with all the necessary information.

One of the reasons we chose Praxedo was the promise of having a tool that would improve our customer satisfaction. And I must say, Praxedo is living up to this promise.

How do you envision future collaboration with Praxedo ?

Sybord will continue to grow. After the successful acquisition of our ETG subsidiary, we are looking at other company acquisitions in the future to boost our growth even more.

If you had to summarize the Praxedo solution in 2 words, what would they be?

Productivity: Praxedo has really made us more productive in our field service management, in both administrative and technical aspects.

Reporting: Praxedo has helped us progress internally, where follow-up and traceability of field services have clearly improved. And externally, with regard to our customers through more complete, faster reporting. This has clearly improved our communications with customers and our overall brand image.