by Darren Weiss | Feb 29, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
With 70,000 vehicles in its nationwide fleet, AT&T’s cars, vans, and trucks leave quite the carbon footprint — not the mention quite the gas bill. But thanks to a new deal with General Motors, both of those should shrink a little. That’s because the giant telco...
by Jessica Stillman | Feb 28, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
Imagine you could start with a blank sheet of paper and design the perfect field service van. What would you change from the old standbys? What cool new features or little luxuries would you dare to hope for? That’s the situation Nissan faced when it decided to try...
by Meghan Bender | Feb 27, 2012 | Strategy & Leadership
Whether it’s the cold, hard, cash it costs to send a truck out into the field for a second repair, or the damage it does to your customer service reputation, field service companies can agree that it’s imperative that jobs get done right on the first try. Back in...
by Derek Korte | Feb 24, 2012 | Mobile & Tech
Remember back in the early 2000s when regular folks, armed with those bulky Nextel walkie-talkie phones, seemed to confuse themselves for construction workers at a job site? You’d walk down the street or through the grocery store and hear husbands and wives...
by Meghan Bender | Feb 23, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
For this week’s Job of the Week, we’re looking at a service tech position with Analogic, makers of x-ray imaging equipment used to screen baggage at the airport, as well as CT and MRI scanners in many hospitals. Or rather, we’re looking through it....
by Darren Weiss | Feb 22, 2012 | Mobile & Tech
In Boston, potholes, graffiti and other public “trouble spots” used to get fixed like this: a (usually angry) resident called the Public Works department’s 24-hour hotline to file a complaint. Using old enterprise software, the department then determined, based on the...
by Ian Stewart | Feb 22, 2012 | Mobile & Tech
Microsoft denied a report that emerged Tuesday in The Daily suggesting that an iPad-friendly Microsoft Office mobile app is in the works. The Internet is now bubbling over with one-off stories about the likelihood that Office — the world’s most popular software...
by Mobile Enterprise | Feb 21, 2012 | Mobile & Tech
We’ve all by now heard the reports about Apple’s monster 2011 — its stock is trading above $500 a share right now — and that success is bolstering statistics that show that smartphones and tablet computers like its iPhone and iPad are actually outselling...
by Ian Stewart | Feb 17, 2012 | Strategy & Leadership
Field service managers and higher-ups like to puff out their chests when they talk about their commitment to providing friendly, “best-in-class” customer service. And yet a study released last month in Britain, carried out by YouGov and paid for by...
by Derek Korte | Feb 17, 2012 | Mobile & Tech
Mobility is a huge buzzword in field service these days. Smartphones and tablet computers, armed with cloud-based applications, have become must-haves in most workers’ toolboxes, allowing them to connect from just about anywhere in the field. And while it’s a tricky...
by Meghan Bender | Feb 16, 2012 | Strategy & Leadership
No, it’s not science fiction, and your tool belt won’t have a holster for a ray gun. But in this week’s SmartVan Job of the Week, you’ll get to play with lasers. For real. Like we said, you won’t exactly be working for MI6. Actually, the...
by Meghan Bender | Feb 15, 2012 | Mobile & Tech
We all know talking on the cell phone while driving is distracting, and it’s dangerous (not to mention illegal in several states). Yet many of us still do it. In fact the National Highway Transportation Safety Association says that at any given time, 1 million...