Dynamics Corner

Episode 501: The Go-To for Field Service Management in Business Central

• Brad and Kris • Season 5 • Episode 501

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In this episode of Dynamics Corner, John MacDonald of ExpandIt joins Kris and Brad to discuss the intricacies of field service management and how to address them in Business Central. They explore common challenges and innovations in the field, including the importance of mobile technology, efficient scheduling, and customer self-service portals. John shares insights from his experience at ExpandIt and highlights how to enhance field operations within BC.

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SPEAKER_02:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner. What does this class have anything to do with field service? I'm your co-host Chris.

SPEAKER_03:

And this is Brad. This episode was recorded on January 7th, 2025. Chris, Chris, Chris. Field service. 226, man. Did I say 26?

SPEAKER_02:

You said 2025.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow. So yes. Look at that. New year, new season. A lot of new guests lined up. With us today, we had the opportunity to speak with John McDonald to learn all about field service and more. Good morning, sir. How are you doing? Good morning. Hey, good morning, guys. Yeah. And you know, I say this every year. Happy New Year. Yeah, it is a happy new year. It's uh it is But I I it's the I think it's the first recording of the New Year. Or is it the second? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

It's the first recording of the new year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Look at that. So welcome.

SPEAKER_01:

New year. Lucky me to be uh to be early in the year, hey.

SPEAKER_03:

It is. But now I'll have to ask you the most difficult question that you'll be asked for the entire year. And I say this every year. Oh, yeah, we do ask the same question. The first couple uh that we we will speak with.

SPEAKER_01:

How long do you say happy new year for? Well, I've been wondering that myself. I I think that this is it. I think this is our last happy new year that I'm gonna do today. You know what I mean? Right?

SPEAKER_03:

So going forward, you done. Is it the first time you see someone after the new year for the month of January? Is it halfway through the month of January? Is it just the first week of January? Or I'm just wondering.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I'm thinking it's the first week. The first week back, you can get away with the happy new year's, but that's it.

SPEAKER_03:

I good, I think so. I think after this week, I'm done with it as well. Right. Maybe even today. I think especially in emails.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm tired of typing it in emails, right? Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Happy No, it's happy holidays. I hope that your holiday was well and we had some opportunity to rest and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So but I did I do hope that you had a pleasant holiday.

SPEAKER_01:

But it but it is it is nice to hear what people do, actually. You know, I mean, uh many of us have known each other for a long time, so it is kind of good to hear what we're what we're doing, you know, whether you hung out with kids or saw family or went away. So it is it is it is nice to hear about that.

SPEAKER_03:

That's good. So what did you do?

SPEAKER_01:

So I had a pretty full house. Uh I'm uh I'm sandwiched between kids that have left the house and uh come back periodically for holidays, and um parents that are you know, you know, in their in their late 80s. So we had we had a bumper crop of uh of visitors uh for the whole time.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_01:

We we needed yeah, it was busy.

SPEAKER_03:

Entertaining's tough. It's it's a challenge. You know, it's one of those things also if you do it at home, you host at home. Sometimes you spend so much time preparing, making the house look nice, then you have to spend twice as much time after everybody leaves to put everything back together. I almost wonder if you just leave it.

SPEAKER_02:

Just leave it a mess. The cleanup is the worst, man. It is yeah, hosting is hard.

SPEAKER_01:

It it is the worst, you know, and but anyway, but it is nice, you know what, to to see everybody, especially when you've got elderly parents, you know what I mean? It's it's pretty important to them, right? They really relish the opportunity to see their kids and all that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03:

You you hit on something, it's extremely important to me. I wanted to get into that. The time that you spend with people, that I'm getting older, I'm not in my 80s, but I'm no I'm pretty close. Uh it's time is the most important thing. Yeah, I had conversations with some individuals. They even tell you know, my kids and my family, just spend time with me. Like, don't get me anything for the holidays, don't get me anything for Christmas. Just sit down and talk to me. I tell other individuals. You you had mentioned uh your parents are in their 80s, so they're a little old. I was talking with someone and they were talking about what they get their grandparents. And I said, you know what? Go to lunch with them. Yeah, don't use your phone and just ask them about their life. That's right. I said, that will be the best lunch that they've had in their life because they'll spend time with their grandkids. Their grandkids will be attentive to their conversation and learning a little bit about them. And then I said to them, you'll also learn a little bit about your your family history. If you talk with your grandparents and they explain a little bit how they grew up or how they did things, you don't need to buy them anything. And when I say go to lunch or dinner with them, I'm sure they'd be happy going to McDonald's.

SPEAKER_02:

Let them share stories. Let them share stories.

SPEAKER_01:

100%. They just they that's what they want is they want the time with the grandkids or with their kids. I I yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, you you know what at the same time, like I wish I you know, I I for me, I wish it I had some of the recordings. Like I know we talked about AI, we've talked about this uh before too, Brad. And and you know, if you if you can capture all the stories that they've ever had and um you know, uh pictures and audios of them, you know, and and just be able to be able to, you know, collect all of that. That'd be fascinating. You know, I'd I had missed that opportunity uh when when my grandfather was growing up. But I heard a lot of stories from him. I just wish that I had a moment to kind of record some of those things because it is pretty fascinating.

SPEAKER_03:

That is, that is important. It is a great idea. And uh Chris, you're wearing glasses again.

SPEAKER_02:

I am wearing glasses again, but it's not the usual glasses I've ever had. Uh before LASIK, right? Um so John, I used to wear glasses all my life since I was maybe 10 to 13 years old around that time and uh got LASIK last year. I didn't have any wear glasses for a while. And then now he's back.

SPEAKER_03:

But do it back. Tell me what's in front of you.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh hey Meta, what's in front of me?

SPEAKER_00:

In front of you is a laptop with a video call on the screen and a ring light above it.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go. Those meta glasses. How how are they?

SPEAKER_02:

It's a great uh POV, uh, instead of me pulling out my you know, pulling out my phone to take a quick photo, especially moments when like we were just talking about, spending time with family, right? And then for me to be able to say, hey, take a picture or take a video um just to capture the people in front of me and all that stuff. And yeah, there's uh uh weird oddities for those things, like people kind of like, oh, you're taking a picture, uh stuff like that. But it's nice because I don't have to pull up my camera every time. Like, for example, I had dinner with my kids, and I just like hey, you guys are all right in front of me, and it's like I just want to take a picture from my perspective, and then be able to uh this thing like can solve math problems, like whatever's in front of me, and say, Hey, can you solve that for me? It'll be it'll uh take that image and solves it. Uh it's it's so fascinating that uh does it display anything on the screen? I don't have the meta display right now. Uh that the I think there's a different version of that. I think it's a meta meta display, which has a display in the front, but that one is also a little bit more expensive, like three times the cost.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I'm interested to hear how your experience is with those. Yeah, me too, and we have a lot we'd like to talk about before we get into that. Uh John, do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, great. Yeah. So um name is John McDonald. Um, I live in the uh the greater Toronto area. Um as you probably heard I've got uh two grown-up kids. Um I am um uh the managing director of a uh small software company called uh Expandit. We're a small international um uh Microsoft ISV with a field service solution. So that's my that's sort of my my day, my day and sometimes night job. Uh I've been uh basically in in this space, in in this uh Microsoft dynamic space for pretty much all my life. I I can share my journey a little bit later. Um so that's kind of my story. Uh what else do I uh I enjoy um uh personally uh doing cross-country Nordic skiing. I've gotten into that in in a pretty big way in the last four or five years. Uh I I actually compete as a master's now, uh cross-country skier. Wow. Wow, that's impressive. That's kind of what I'm doing. I also still I also hey I'm a Canadian, I still play men's ice hockey or uh beer league is really what it is. Actually, it's not it's not men's, actually. It's it's uh it's multi multigender now. That's really changed, so I should uh correct myself. The the three of the beer league players of our league are are are women, so it's a it's a it's I call it a beer league, that's really what it is, but I I do that. In fact, I played last night.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I I thought I thought lacrosse, I thought lacrosse would be the more of a national sports for uh Canada.

SPEAKER_01:

It's oh no, lacrosse is big, but it's that's I would still say the real uh I mean the the real passion is is is ice hockey, I would say.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah, no, lacrosse makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

I played lacrosse for like we we did we did we did both. We often played lacrosse in in the summer and then uh hockey in the winter.

SPEAKER_02:

And then hockey, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice.

SPEAKER_03:

So you like the Bruins, I understand.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

No. No, no. I I don't understand why the Canadian uh why why the Canadians, not the Montreal Canadians, uh for starters, but why all Canadians uh dislike the Boston Bruins?

SPEAKER_01:

But that's just because they're uh they're just a really great opponent and they've kind of had the best of I think our teams many, many, many times, right?

SPEAKER_03:

So everybody hates a winner. Why?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, uh we just I don't know. We we sometimes hate losing more than we like winning, right? Have you ever heard of it?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, no, we hate winners. Uh we hate losing, but uh we hate we hate winners.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I don't think we hate winners. I think I admire the the fact that they're winners. I hate losing.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_03:

So expand it. Expand it small software company ISV, you work with field service. Can tell us a little bit about expandit and expand it. How long has expanded been around?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so probably over 23 years now. So the the company, um uh uh the the two main founders, uh Otto and Robert, started the company over 23 years ago, originally with some where they saw some gaps in the division product. And this was right after the Microsoft uh acquisition. So they built some you know uh utilities that solve some problems. Many people still even use those. We still have customers using those utilities. So the company started a long time ago, actually. It's a private company, right? Been around a long time, so well known to a lot of the uh the channel partners. Um, so that's that's how the company started. I joined about uh 13, 14 years ago at the time that the company pivoted very hard into field service.

SPEAKER_03:

Um now it specializes specializes more in field service. Yes. And you said the utilities when I started, I'm saying expand it because I think I remember back when I first started with Navision, it was back 1998 version 1.1. But I remember one of the gaps was backups. There was a didn't they have the expanded backup tool to automate the backups back before there was SQL?

SPEAKER_01:

And you had the exactly still being used by some old legacy, you know, Navision customers. But but like any ISV, you've you've always got to uh you know be agile, right, and pivot right into new opportunities. So uh that's where uh and that's what the company did about 15 years ago when I joined. Uh and I was actually at Microsoft at the time, so I I I joined the Robert and Auto and we started up the uh North American business. So that's that's my focus is operating the the North American uh subsidiary.

SPEAKER_03:

Excellent. So with fields with field service, can you tell us a little bit about the field service? So with which applications does the field service module, I guess you could call it, or the ISV or application work with?

SPEAKER_01:

So we have a standard integration to uh actually to both Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and also finance and operations. Um however, 90, I don't know, over 90%, maybe 95% of our focus and customer base is uh business central. Uh primarily because our business model is to focus on um small and medium-sized uh businesses. Um so it it effectively when we're marketing and developing kind of new channel partnerships, which we which I spent a lot of time doing, uh we're primarily focused on the um Microsoft Dynamics Business Central um uh product and uh channel.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, great. So you have a an integration, uh built-in integration with dynamics, uh Microsoft Dynamics 365 business central. Does it work with on-premises and with the online environment? Or does it work with it? It does.

SPEAKER_01:

We still support uh on-premise uh business central environments. That's not our preference. It's so much easier for us to support a cloud-based uh business central environment. We're we operate, we run in Microsoft's Azure environment as well. Uh just the ability for us to support customers in Microsoft's cloud environment is uh it's our strong preference. So uh um, you know, we're certainly predisposed uh to see customers in in in uh cloud-based business central.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, uh I mean the cloud has come a long way since they first started with the the cloud infrastructure, uh to where I see it it's becoming I guess more more performant, more stable. Uh uh I say that tongue in cheek sometimes. Um and then it's more performant. Yeah, more performant, more stable. So it's a little bit easier for some for organizations to get in. Like you said, once you have that cloud environment set up, you you sort of just move with it. Um so with field service and you spent on-premises, how far back does it uh, which versions do you support uh for the on-premises versions?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh you know, you know, it's it's it's always kind of debatable and it often has to has to do with uh, you know, you know, our relationship with the customer or the or the partner. But I would, you know, we are supporting, you know, I would say, you know, two or three kind of versions back. Um that's about it. Uh, you know, and because truthfully, customers and primarily partners, they want to see their their customers migrate too, right? To to uh business central cloud.

SPEAKER_03:

So you in essence follow the Microsoft support cycle.

SPEAKER_01:

We support, we we 100% follow their support cycle. And you know, we're a mid-sized independent software vendor. We're 65 people, right? So we do not have unlimited resources, and uh we we also have to um you know be efficient with our support model as well.

SPEAKER_03:

So I understand that. That's um it's even makes more sense with if with a lot of customers now moving to Business Central Online, the need to support a lot of those older versions uh sometimes decreases because uh you know, with your business central online, you you upgrade, you're sort of forced to upgrade um at a certain interval, not always uh to the latest and greatest, but you have some months to move up. So yeah, yeah. For someone such as an organization such as yours, it's good to support it.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, so just an add-on to that. One thing that often is uh relevant to us when we talk to a customer uh and they say, hey, you know what, we want uh to get to business central, you know, that's uh actually and they kind of give us a strong feeling that they're serious about it. That often encourages us to support them on their journey to get there. So that's that's relevant to us. If they say, you know what, we want to get to business central, uh, then you know we're more likely to want to support them uh in an on-premise scenario uh and work with them to get them there. Um I will actually add one more thing. We we also uh 18 months ago built uh uh a connector for for GP on-premise. Oh wow. And I'll tell you why, because we we're seeing so many GP customers contact us, right? Saying, you know, we uh have a vision to get to business central in the next uh 18, 24 months. Uh, but it's really hard for us. Like it's a big lift for a lot of these mid-sized businesses to you know, it's as like as we always talk about moving, changing your ERPs, like getting your teeth pulled. It's hard work, right? It's painful. And uh and so I think it's like a hard transplant.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like that, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh we actually have uh we we've actually seen a number of GP customers adopt our product because they have a vision to get to BC in the next uh 12-18 months.

SPEAKER_03:

Speaking of the product, I hear field service all the time. Yeah, and I have uh no idea what field service is.

SPEAKER_01:

That's yeah, no, that is really not unusual, right? Because it is a uh it's it's it's a big broad term. It's a broad, broad term. In fact, it's it's actually hard for us to do marketing around field service um uh because it is so broad. So I'll I'll I'll try to kind of share my perspective on on what that means. And for me, it's any company that uh performs a service in the field that has field-based operations. So, you know, those could be your traditional companies like HVAC or generator repair companies that are out there fixing and repairing and installing machines and equipment. We see an awful lot of that, right? That's what a lot of people tend to think about when they think about field service. Uh but it's it is much broader than that. Uh, there are lots of businesses that perform a service, a type of service in the field. Um, you know, I'll give you an example. We have customers that perform uh services, uh agricultural type services in the field. They're not fixing a machine, but they're outperforming maybe veterinary or other types of services in the field. And they've got field-based technicians out there that have to capture information. They need to do scheduling, they need to capture data and information uh when they're out there using uh and capturing their time and materials consumption and actually capturing digital forms when they're out there. We see a lot of construction-related companies. Um, construction you don't necessarily think of as field service, but they are people that are out there, you know, building uh buildings, equipment or whatever, machine uh dwellings for different sort of things. So that's a big broad space as well. Uh we also, I'd say, finally see a lot of companies that don't even think about themselves as field services companies. They might think about themselves as a manufacturer. So maybe they're a project-based business that has to assemble a crane system or a conveyor system uh in-house, and then they send out a crew of people to install that crane system, and then they service that crane system. But in their minds, they think about themselves as a manufacturer, and we see a lot of that in Business Central. So we see a lot of these, you know, engineer-to-order, make-to-order manufacturers that are out there uh, you know, assembling something and then installing it and maintaining it.

SPEAKER_03:

So field service, uh, it's it's a but it's uh it's a great explanation, I understand. And I was thinking of a lot of those in business or the different types of businesses that would benefit from field services. You were talking about that. So field service, you have an integration with Business Central, so you have some sort of mobile device. I'm assuming that the a technician for the conversation, I use the word technician depending on. upon which industry they're in can go out and perform their functions. That's right. And yeah. Which mobile devices do you use? Do you provide the mobile devices or is it part of your service? Or does you have an application that works on different types of devices? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'll I'll take the mobile device part of our solution first, but I would say that you know there are there's multiple problems that we solve for these sort of customers. And um you've hit on one maybe one of the the the the key ones is when you've got field workers out in the field you know they are they they essentially want to do their work. These field technicians, they they've got to repair something, install something. These are men and women that care very much about solving problems out in the field and they just want to get the work done and capture it effectively. Traditionally they've been using paper, right? They've been using a pencil, a pencil, right? And a piece of paper to kind of capture the you know the components the items that they might actually use when they're doing an install or repair and capturing the time they spend so they can bill ultimately the company for what they do. They're also filling out a lot of traditionally a lot of paper reports, compliance and checklist reports, punch lists, field ticket type reports out in the field. So what we do is we have a mobile application it works online and offline which is one of the key requirements because you're often maybe somewhere remote in a field or in a basement or on a rooftop where you don't have reliable mobile connectivity. We also run on any sort of uh device and form factor. So um the product runs, you know, iOS, Android, um any sort of device uh a phone a tablet a PC. So we make it easy for the field worker to work in the the form factor or the device that they're comfortable with because that's key, right? Just making it easy for them. It's purpose built for the for the field worker. So we we understand that they're out there working they want to get their work done quickly they want to capture things you know drag and draw touch screen so purpose built for that kind of field based work uh made to make their job easy because the the worst thing you can do is uh complicate their lives otherwise they'll look for other you know they'll look for excuses not to use the solution right no like we all need it's by the way.

SPEAKER_03:

No it's listen you you hit that it's it's you most people want to do their job and they want to do their job well. Right. And they need the tools to make it easy. They shouldn't be using a system they shouldn't have to worry about using the system. They should have to worry about providing the service and then the system's the tool that allows them to do what they need to do properly. And I agree with you people take the path the least resistance all the time. I hate to say that it's it's very easy for someone to forgo doing something if you make it too complicated for them. That's correct.

SPEAKER_01:

So you work with all those form factors offline and online which was is a question I have because again as you had mentioned mobile connectivity you can be in the most uh wired metropolitan area but if you're in that basement or in some building or even I've been into some uh facilities where just the the makeup of the machinery uh was uh making for a poor signal uh for someone to be able to connect so yeah 100% that I was just talking to a customer in the last couple of weeks a longtime great customer of ours that installs uh environmentally uh installs septic systems in environmentally sensitive areas on islands in areas where there's not a lot of uh soil material uh so they've got some uh patented technology that really unique not your typical run-of-the-mill septic but uh specialized patented technology for these environmentally sensitive areas and and because of where they are on islands and in the middle of nowhere you know uh cell connectivity is really spotty for them right and so the ability to kind of work offline is mission critical and we see that with a lot of our customers that that would work really well where I'm at because uh when we had someone come out here and and service our septic because I have a septic system they could not get any signal so they had to walk out to the to the main road you've seen that to get connected but yeah and I told them you guys do you guys don't have any offline capability in your tool they're like no no you'd be surprised how important that still is you know and and actually how important and how actually difficult it is to reliably build a solution that works online and offline. You'd think that would be easy but the technology is kind of one of our core competencies that really differentiate differentiates us.

SPEAKER_03:

Data synchronization when you're dealing with online and offline systems is is a challenge. So it this synchronizes or you have a connector I don't want to use the word synchronized you have a connector to go into business central we do. What does it work with? Does it work with sales orders? Does it work with sales orders production orders?

SPEAKER_01:

So now we have connectivity right and we have somebody working with something and they have a nice device and I still have a lot of questions on the the mobile connectivity because I had some just like Chris I had somebody come do I think everybody has somebody come do service uh where they live doesn't matter where you live most of the time you have somebody come to service what does it connect to I mean you have customers you have vendors you have all this type of stuff with so we're getting into some now some good uh business central stuff right so first off we connect with a lot of the general entities in BC right uh you know dimensions and items customer records so there's some general business central entities that that we that we integrate with for instance you know when you're out in the field and you're consuming an item we're able to cons consume an item from a warehouse location that might be uh a field technician's truck stock so we allow you to uh consume that from business central from inventory locations those are some examples of some general entities but specifically where we send the time and the materials back to are two main areas in Microsoft Dynamics Business Central we have a standard integration to the business central projects module and to the business central service management module those are the two main areas that we see most field-based companies uh use sometimes they'll use one in many cases they'll use both I'll give you some examples so if you um are a kind of more of a project based company where you're going out and doing project based work that might take uh multiple days or weeks or even months the business central project module is stupid the problem is that in business central you can't create a field work order so we sub we enable that so our product allows you to use business central projects and create a a work order that you can capture time and material we bring that that data back into into the business central project module we also see a lot of customers that are doing more traditional break fix type work and you can see where I'm going that's that's where the that's where the business central service management module works very effectively right they've got some concepts around you know permanent maintenance contracts you can create them in business central that's what we look at is structured data that is all maintained in business central um you've also got the the concept of a service item so you can create this concept of a service item in business central and we can create a uh you know a service order and expand it against that and track all the history against the service order. That's very important for a lot of businesses that have uh an asset out in the field that they want to have all the history tracked against and and they also if they have these contracts. So we support both of those integrations.

SPEAKER_03:

I'd say uh I don't know 30 or 40% of our customers will use both projects and services and service management because they'll go out and install something and they'll use projects for that and then they'll turn it into a service item and they'll want to track all the history against it over or that makes sense if you well that's what I was thinking is like it's it's you you build a house and you may have some warranty work and you may need to go out and service the parts so you you're talking service orders in the field. I had somebody come by here to perform some services and people like to get paid.

SPEAKER_01:

They do uh I don't know if you know that but it's you hear that a lot of new customers well that's that is one of the problems right they want they they want to do their best work for sure but they want to get paid for it as soon as possible and that's a big problem for service-based businesses if they're on paper it is right so with with this do you handle field payments but I had someone come do some work and I was able to just tap right on the device to you know before he left because they don't leave until you pay for it super question uh and and actually really timely for us because traditionally most of our customers have been business to business customers where they're an existing customer and business central right and you're invoicing through business central we've noticed in the last two or three years that uh you know there there's businesses customers of ours that are maybe doing a combination of both um and in in those cases so a combination of business to business to business and some business to consumer type work right um and in those cases they want to be able to take payments in the field so that this quarter we are going to be launching uh payments uh uh uh available through our mobile application um so it's and it's not a a necessarily a huge huge lift for us because what we have we talked about our mobile field service application but there's actually two other components to our solution that I can I can highlight as well one of the one of the I just want to highlight this just to go back to the payments that supports payments already. So we have an existing customer self-service portal that has supported customer payments for many years.

SPEAKER_03:

So we'll be leveraging that with our mobile device to take payments because that's critical I'm I'm glad you brought it up it is it is and with that payment portal and and your soon to be released payment option for the mobile uh field service application are do you work with specific uh payment gateways payment providers or can the customer use an existing payment gateway payment provider with your technology?

SPEAKER_01:

One of the great things with us we've been in the the business central ecosystem so we we we look at kind of what are some of the other major payment gateways and providers and we do our best and we have done our best in the past to support those so I mean we're always on the lookout right for for new and upcoming solutions and there's a lot of innovation going on there. But for the most part we support uh we work with other when that's one of the benefits we're kind of talking about kind of as a Microsoft ISV we don't have to create everything ourselves. In fact if we had to it would be impossible for us to compete right we're 65 people we need to be very focused on where we can differentiate but when it comes to uh other things that we're not experts in like payments we leverage the ecosystem and we work with the other players out there and that's I like that I like that I I like that and the reason why I like that and again just from from the conversation point of view um it's it's important to offer a solution to a customer.

SPEAKER_03:

Oftentimes I I come across uh individuals working on implementation so you come across other products they try to be the know all end all one-stop shop as you say which sometimes it doesn't allow you to specialize on what you do if you if it's almost like if I if I do everything I'm not doing anything good 100% whereas if I can focus on this but hey I have a solution that works well with this they focus on payments used to use your example I focus on field service somebody else focuses on business central put that together at the end you have a happy customer for everybody because they were able to solve their problem which goes back to something I appreciate what you said at the beginning is solving customer problems because that's what we all do and we all need to remember that's what our focus is is to solve the problems for the customers and they can utilize the technology that you have to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it'd be crazy not to take advantage of I mean that's kind of why we all made a bet on this Microsoft ecosystem uh at least we did at expand it many years ago and why we continue to to stay here is there's this ecosystem of you know specialized you know different solutions that we can leverage. So and it allows as you said Brad us to stay laser focused on adding value where we are uniquely positioned to do so.

SPEAKER_03:

Partnerships are very very important in this space yeah it's getting be it's getting more and more important as uh time progresses it's um technology is moving fast and uh solutions are moving fast and I think problems are getting bigger fast. So how you solve those problems are is going to be important.

SPEAKER_01:

So you had mentioned you had the mobile service you said you had other options you started to talk about the payment portal that you have there's some other you know major problems that customers have one is you know you've got they need uh our customers have mobile workers they need to collect data and information real time in a reliable way they they do that on the extent in the expanded mobile app so that's one of the big problems. There's also another big problem and that is that's scheduling that's getting the right people uh with the right skills and equipment to the right job in a timely way so that's another big problem that companies with that have field operations have and struggle with I mean when you've got you know two or three technicians it's not so much of a problem you know you can use a you know you can use a uh a whiteboard sticky note sticky note yeah but you know once you get 10 15 20 30 40 50 field workers that becomes quite complicated getting the right people out there and being efficient with your people and resources so so we solve that with a web-based scheduling and planning board and again that's something that uh you know it's a bit of a gap in in business central like so you can do planning and scheduling but when you do um more complicated uh scheduling you're often looking for something that's visual that has drag and draw capabilities that has map based capabilities um uh you know that can help you filter and see people with different skills so we offer a web-based scheduling and dispatch uh tool again completely integrated with business central uh uh and in connected to our mobile applications so as you're doing as field workers are doing work in the field the schedulers see what's happening out in out in the field um they can assign groups of people together crews as we call them because often our customers aren't just sending one person they're sometimes sending you know three or four uh men and women out to a job sometimes they're spent sending specialized equipment lifting equipment or specialized diagnostic equipment that has to go with them so that's a complicated problem as as well I can imagine it's as I had mentioned as you have you have experts as well and then the third piece Brad that I already um the uh hinted or we already talked about was um something that allows the end customer to be involved so we have a customer self-service portal uh as part of our solution offering as well that allows the end customer themselves to place a service call uh to see the status of work that's going on because we have many customers that have multiple facilities so they can see what's going on I mean there's nothing worse right than and I experienced this in my life that you know you're it's the end of the day you've got a something broken at your business or in your home uh you call and you get voicemail and you're just unsure whether anybody's ever going to come so we provide a customer self-service portal that allows the end customer to kind of log in say that this thing this service item or this component is broken needs service I need somebody to come out you can do it after hours or on the weekend or whenever it is if you've got multiple business locations you can you can uh tell tell the uh tell your service company where it needs to be serviced and what item it is you can take a picture you can add notes so that is also a big part of it and it does more too you can you can also actually like the end customer can see all those forms and documents that are filled out in the field they can even pay invoices and see business central documents uh that might be sent credit memos and other sort of things so it really is I'm more excited uh about that because as an end customer so again it's an end customer of a customer of yours correct it's I was I had to have a repair done and it was great that I could log in and to to go with it.

SPEAKER_03:

I was able to see where I was in the stops. Like they say you know the the the tech again it goes with the scheduling the technician was you know two stops ahead of you you know they always give you the window right so you're doing the schedule window they'll be here between you know 11 and 3. That's right. But at least if you can log in and you can see where they are right it's impressive.

SPEAKER_01:

Does it does your system if it can show hey that somebody you know that's for many cases that's what the customer's worried about is has somebody heard me all right yes am I the common complaint. That's the common complaint right and and we're all in the business of support right we all do you know software support so we know how how problematic this is and often it is about letting the the individual or company know you've been heard we're you know here's what we're doing maybe we're we've triaged it or we've dispatched uh a service technician they're on route they're gonna be there and if there's and often there's also communication and notification capabilities that is automated so that when you create a when you dispatch or when a service technician accepts the work order it can send out a message to the customer saying they're that was my next question they're gonna be there right and whatever I think there's there's two challenges that you had mentioned that I think it's it's like uh one of the most frustrating one is like you you both said you know not knowing is one of the most frustrating parts when something's not working something's not I mean something's broken and you you don't know what's happening it's one of the most frustrating components in the service place.

SPEAKER_02:

Number two is utilization right efficient utilization of your service workers they're out in the field where someone's overworked versus someone like hey they're not doing much being able to have a proper scheduling and and and seeing that. And then of course self-service which is a sort of the third component that is one of the most challenging comp uh parts in the service industry and sounds like you've answered all three that is uh uh uh you know through your through your product but I get it there's so many times I have people working my this is a really hard it's probably very hard to do it and we've been working hard at this for the last 20 years but it's it is really challenging.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean being a service based business there's a lot of them first it's a it is a good market to be in there's a lot of service based businesses in in in globally in North America um but their their business is is challenging um you you talked about this Christopher that just on you know you've got to be efficient with your assets your your resources that's not easy we know that as as software and services companies how challenging that that is but I would say what's especially challenging right now for so many of our customers is finding and retaining resources field service people because our primary focus are uh customers that are doing uh work on uh I'd say more sophisticated assets um so people that are repairing a complicated machine or component these these people have sometimes very specialized skills and I don't and and um I've been following this closely for the last five or six eight years there is a real uh glut or lack of kind of qualified resources our customers tell me this I speak to them all the time in fact I I often speak to the the owners and presidents of one on one and and I say hey what's on your mind what are your challenges just say finding retaining qualified people is really challenging right and if you're not giving them tools to be efficient then it's hard to retain them. Um, because the the world has changed. I remember just one more thing. I remember 15, 20 years ago when we started, um, one of our challenges was getting actually field-based personnel to adopt technology, to use mobile devices. That is 100% flipped. If you don't have technology for a mobile field worker today, because in many cases they these are now millennials that are coming into the space, they're like, I'm not working here. I'm not writing this thing on a piece of paper. They expect technology to uh to make them more efficient.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, no, I I I gotta share a personal story that why why it's important. So there, especially for small businesses, small medium businesses. You know, I just had someone come out and service a um, so I have a wood pellet to heat my heat my house, and it's a very complicated system depending on the the brand and model you have. And I'd call this company and they've done service for us, and they lost uh two of their technicians, and they can no longer service. I mean, they sell obviously these products, um, but their service was you know, it's no longer they they're no longer doing any service work because they could not keep and maintain those two two technicians. But I I I agree um maintaining so you it sounds like you're you're you're solving a lot of stuff here. One is you're um uh having a technology that keeps people uh be able to function and do very well at their job. Scheduling, making sure that they're efficient with time and and utilizing their people as as best you can. The service portal, which is a self-service, which is as you had mentioned, uh with millennials coming into place where they are making decision makers, they prefer some you know the ability to do their own uh self-service. And then of course, uh you know, proper uh communication, which is a big uh component of in the service industry. People don't realize that the service industry what differentiates you is the uh how efficient and uh with the best support you can provide, the best customer service you can. Because everybody can repair something, like you may have uh competitors, but it's the people that uh can properly communicate with the uh with the customer, is usually where people come back to. All that it's often about communications, it's about that.

SPEAKER_01:

It's the communications, it's the experience, it's and it's the trust, right, that you have in that uh provider.

SPEAKER_03:

And that is the most important. That is, I don't want to say the most important, but that is becoming the most important thing today with technology is building those rel this is what I'm seeing. Uh so it's my opinion, I guess you could say, but what I see is people are more interested in building that trust and relationship with a person because now we have technology to so many different things. Right. So you don't, you know, you be you become trusting in the technology. And uh, Chris, to to uh add on to what you had said, communication, it's not just in the service industry, communication is key in every facet of life because a lot of problems are caused by poor communication, and it's not even intentional, it's just poor communication causes a lot of issues. So um it's uh it's good to hear. Now it sounds like it's uh it's uh thank you for sharing, you know, a little enlightening me on exactly what field service is, and now I think a little bit more clearly about or not even clearly think a little bit more what's involved anytime I have to have somebody come provide service, you know, at home or at uh other locations and what they have to do to work with it. And uh, you know, maybe I should start thinking about fixing some fancy machinery. You know, if there's not a lot of people out there for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it is true. I mean, you uh right now that uh if you're a young if you're a young person, I'll tell you there's a real need for uh you know great skilled uh field uh service people, right? There's a there's a real need for that right now in in the world, right? And then they can be specialized in and what they're doing, it's a very rewarding type of work. They're they're fixing and uh solving problems and working on complicated machinery. Uh it's it's a it's a great vocation, what I'd recommend.

SPEAKER_03:

It does sound interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

I gotta point out the the importance of that, right? Because like uh my house runs in a boiler, right? I have a boiler room, believe it or not, my house is a boiler room. And uh I was very surprised the last time I've had someone service out here, they're typically a little bit more older. I have a younger person come out and he was all in technology, right? Everything was noted and everything like that was communicated, all the stuff. But it it's I I love seeing that because you have newer generations of working on an old tech like a boiler room, uh, you know, come in come into play.

unknown:

You're right.

SPEAKER_03:

Why don't you just upgrade that? Well, eventually I wish I could do upgrade.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, I mean, it's funny you say that. You know, my mom and dad just had replaced their boiler. Uh, and the problem was the one that they had was actually highly complicated. So and but it is a very highly company. Yeah, there's a lot of technology in these systems today. That's that's the the the the truth is um um there's an incredible amount of technology that is inside a lot of these uh uh whatever it's a boiler or a generator or uh whatever it might be. So you know that's where you really need skilled, uh skilled uh field service personnel that are highly trained and you know been through kind of uh specialized education and have often specialized certifications. Is there an age limit on that?

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_03:

I think you just have to. Listen, I look to becoming an air traffic controller, and like the you have to be able to retire at 55 or something like that. So it's you know, the way that that system works, you need to be able to well then no, it's then they want you to have time in for retirement. I'm like, dang, I will I'll be an air traffic controller. Yeah. So John, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Enjoyed the conversation. Uh, enjoyed having the conversation I had with you at uh summit. And I look forward to seeing if you're going to have some special things going on at Summit this year. We won't talk about that. I know we talked about that, but we'll wait for that to be official. I want to hear about that as well. Yeah. Uh, but in the meantime, if anybody would like to learn a little bit more about expand its field service offering and the other uh services that you provide, what's the best way to get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_01:

Always best to contact me um by email. It's jm at expandit.com. That's jm at e-x-d-it.com. Um, you know, or you can certainly, you know, anybody can just call me directly. It's uh 617 uh 500 0890. That's a Boston extension. I was just going to say 617 Boston. Well I need Boston number. All right. So it's a Boston number. So yeah, call me, text me, uh, email me, whatever works. Um if that's why yeah, that too. You can also all you know, if anybody, if any partners uh and customers want to reach out, you can also contact us at sales uh at expandit.com. Um the one thing I'd add is we are 100% a through partner uh kind of business. So we work with the vast majority of the business central uh partners globally. But if there's anybody interested in learning more about our solution, just call contact me directly. That's but I do primarily a lot of that, uh uh you know, uh partner development. So feel free to reach out anytime.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, excellent. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh do you spend a lot of time in Boston? Uh not a lot, to be totally honest. Uh, you know, I was I was there. Uh uh, you know, I go for the odd conference here and there.

SPEAKER_03:

But okay. I was just wondering. If you're ever in that area, let me know. We'll have to check out a Bruins game or something or get a cannoli in the north end. You got it. I'll take you, I'll take you up on that for sure. It's great. Uh, thank you very much. And I look forward to speaking with you again soon.

SPEAKER_01:

It was great speaking to both of you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03:

No, thank you. Chao ciao. Bye. Bye. Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair. And thank you to our guests for participating.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you, Brad, for your time. It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair. I would also like to thank our guests for joining us. Thank you for all of our listeners tuning in as well. You can find Brad at developerlife.com. That is D V L P R L I F E dot com. And you can interact with them via Twitter, D V L P R L I F E. You can also find me at mattalino.io, m-a-t-a-l-in-o.io. And my Twitter handle is Mattalino16. And see you can see those links down below in the show notes. Again, thank you everyone. Thank you, and take care.

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Kris

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Brad

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