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Keeping America cool.
Since 1965, The ICEE Company has kept America cool with its unique frozen beverage. What started out as one man serving frozen bottles of soda has become a household name, serving more than 300 million ICEEs per year. Based in Ontario, California, ICEE employs 800 people with 400 field technicians who service 30,000 ICEE machines across the U.S. Recognizing inefficiencies in the repair process.
In 2000, ICEE began to scrutinize the inefficiencies they found in the ICEE machine repair process. With so many field technicians servicing so many machines, streamlining the process would be no small feat. The company’s existing paper-based system required that field technicians fill out paper work orders at the end of each job. One copy was given to the customer, one was filed at the regional office, and another was sent to headquarters in Ontario. This left a long, inefficient and error-prone paper trail.
According to Brandon Lackey, ICEE’s Manager of Technical Services, the company’s billing process was greatly affected by the inefficient paper-based system. After the work order was received by headquarters, it had to be reviewed by an analyst. The data was then manually entered into the system, and only then could the billing process begin. It could be two weeks after the repair before the company could begin generating an invoice.
Also inherent in the paper-based system were problems with accuracy. Paper work orders could get lost. Customers often received completed work orders that weren’t legible. And the company encountered costly errors in the data entry process.
“That was the biggest problem,” said Lackey. “When you enter parts information from a piece of paper into a computer, there are going to be some errors.” Part numbers could be misread, and with parts varying greatly in price, an error could mean the difference between a $5 part and a $500 part.
The company also knew that efficiencies could be gained in the dispatch process. Field technicians had to call in after every job, not only to receive the information for their next job, but also to communicate the work order information to the dispatcher so the previous job could be closed. With 400 field technicians being serviced by just 12–15 dispatchers, technicians often found themselves on hold, wasting valuable time that could be spent servicing customers.
As a service-oriented business, ICEE knew it was time for a change. Implementing a wireless break/fix solution.
After researching several alternatives, ICEE discovered that a real-time wireless data solution would provide them with many more benefits than a batch system, which would require that technicians connect to a landline and synchronize data at the beginning and end of each day.
ICEE found that with a batch system it would be impossible to respond to emergency situations in a timely fashion and to provide emergency information to the dispatchers in real-time. ICEE would still have to rely on a dispatcher to communicate with the technician by phone (often via a pager and pay phone) to alert them of an emergency call.
Of the need for a real-time wireless solution, Lackey said, “Because we’re a service-oriented business, and not a scheduled-service company, it’s important that we can react to situations quickly. We’re a reactive service company, so we have to be able to communicate with the technicians at any time.”
ICEE realized that a wireless solution would not only solve problems in emergency situations, but also enable the technicians to have accurate, up-to-theminute information on customer requests. Similarly, the back-office staff would receive accurate work order information from the technician immediately after it was entered into the handheld.
After months of research, ICEE chose a wireless handheld solution involving Symbol Technologies’ handheld devices and Countermind’s Mobile Intelligence™ Field Service Automation Solution, which was tailored to reflect ICEE’s business process. This application runs on AT&T’s GSM™/GPRS network.
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