Saving Cost on After-Sales Service - An Indirect Profit Stream

In a scenario where fierce market competition and rising challenges have made the market volatile, winning customer trust has become more important than ever. Talking about the manufacturing companies, effective after-sales are the law of business. According to a survey conducted by PRTM, the leader in Global Supply Chain Management and Customer Value Management, the manufacturing companies that pay attention to managing their after-sales enjoy customer service and operational cost advantages over average performing companies. Their report is backed by the following stats:


• Companies that focus on after-sales experience 75 percent lower inventory per dollar of installed base


• Companies that streamline their post-sales processes enjoy 15 percent higher fill rates


• Companies that manage their service and repair functions benefits from 15 percent more on-time service-parts delivery


Controlling inventory and spare parts with diversified manufacturing units and its regional & central warehouses, often becomes one of the measures in yielding returns. This is because after-sales business processes stock maintenance; repair management and account management are often managed by sales team, product line management and repair centers and not by the OEMs alone. This requires an end-to-end visibility to cover its service costs and exceed the revenue. The driving issue of underperformance in after-sales management is that these entities do not have an automated way to see sales performance at every echelon.


A handset manufacturer for example, looses focus on the after-sales, while devoting all its energies on the manufacturing and handset quality. The entire focus is on manufacturing & sales and is not able to view trends on whether warehouse manager dispatches the stock on time, if service centers are over budgeting the spare parts inventory and the like. This hinders the repair process and increases turn-around-time (TAT) needed to support warranty obligations and to minimize excess and obsolete service-part write-offs. This is a dual loss as the revenues price skyrockets and the end-customer is frustrated with the delayed services.


As long as the process is manual and masked in the veil of excel sheets and email notifications, the efficiency level is tend to decline, revenue streams deteriorate and TAT increases. The solution lies in a robust, automated Service Management System that offers real-time updates on the after-sales processes.


When you get real-time updates, you are able to view and review business performance, parts movement, and thereby also get the ability to take decisions that work in the favor of the efficient after-sales mechanism.

5 Key Reasons Why Your After-Sales Service Operations can be a ‘Loss Center’ to the company

Just like any other business processes, running after-sales service and repair process successfully, it is pertinent to manage each steps involved coherently and accurately. Ignored or left to chance, your Service operations can be a Loss Center to the company. The factors mentioned below will help you identify the significant aspects of service operations, and the difficulties attached with it.


Scheduling and Assigning Work Orders- Scheduling, assigning and handling work orders to service centers and engineers is the most crucial part of the service operations. If you rely on tools like Whiteboard, Excel and Outlook for this, you must be losing out on your business. These tools can help you disseminate the information like assigning work orders and updating repair status, but fails in “tracking” the minute-by-minute status of the work order(s).


Warranty Management- In many situations, it is more than likely to show out-of-warranty calls as in-warranty and claim the service. Manual tracking by viewing the POP (proof-of-purchase) does not help to prevent such practices. Warranty Management becomes a neglected source of competitive advantage, where it can be an important factor in the manufacturer’s cost-reduction strategies.


Service and Part Claim Management- Invalid claims, repeat claims, non-reimbursed and forfeit claims are common in the service industry. When thousands of work order calls run simultaneously, it gets a tad too difficult to distinguish between the valid and false claims. If not taken care of, service and part claim can become an irrevocable expense for the company. An automated tool like Service Management System can rationalize the service and claim management system, helping to keep the invalid claims at bay.


Escalation of Work Orders- When a product is escalated to the higher service level center, tracking becomes all the more important. Since these centers do not have customer walk-in, it is important for the management to keep an eye; so that the next time the customer asks for the status, he/she should be given due clarity. Manual tracing in this case just increases the communication gap (and therefore repair TAT), leaving your customers unhappy and dissatisfied. Service Management Software can track and manage all the escalations during the service process in real time.


Product and GAP Analysis- The best part about the service and repair industry is that it can be its own performance analyzer. With Service Management Software, you can measure the product performance on the basis of complaints and faults in particular models. Which product is failing the most and which product is facing the same problem all over again. Along with this, you can also analyze the service center’s and engineer’s efficiency level.


If you have experienced these pain areas before, automate your service operation processes before it eats up your bottom line. Getting a Service Management Software in place could help you streamline the processes. Companies that use a best-practice approach to manage service and repair operations with the help of Service Management Software can provide better value to customers while improving the bottom line and increasing customer loyalty.

Importance of Service Management Software in Consumer Durable Industry

At the time where economists have termed the recent recession as the worst in over 60 years, downsizing costs, maximizing efficiencies and making customers happy have become more important than ever. Business managers who have understood this dictum have survived the tough times; others have succumbed to the circumstances.


Manufacturers in particular, have to take special care that the income that comes from selling their products can very well become an unavoidable expense, if the after-sales service and support is not looked into. Organizations are looking for measures to achieve this.


The most sought-after solution for this is Service Management Software. This system allows the manufacturer and the service partners (that independently handle the service support for multiple manufacturers) to automate the service and support process and help in:


• Maximizing Efficiency

• Reducing Overhead Costs

• Streamlining the Repair chain

• Enhancing Customer Satisfaction


Service Management Software is an intelligent automation tool that helps in reducing the Turn-Around-Time (TAT) of service rendered for a product and measuring product performance and gap analysis. Many manufacturers from consumer electronics and cellular industry have already encashed on Service Management Software from different vendors, and agreed to have experienced controlled TAT, product analysis and minimized chances of pilferage in service claims.


Key features of Service Management Software


Warranty Management- The In-warranty or Out-of-warranty service/repair makes a lot of difference in defining the income or expense of the business. If the product is down for repair while it is In-warranty, it would be an expense to the manufacturer; while an Out-of-warranty call is an income. Managing the warranty status, which is a key module of this software is pertinent.


Spare part Inventory- Service Management Software help in synchronizing asset management with every service center so that the customers never have to go away due to stock shortage. The system is configured with the warehouses and other governing bodies who keep an eagle’s eye view to ensure that every service center at different repair levels has the minimum stock level maintaned.


Claim Management- In the absence of Service Management Software, it is difficult for a service center head to supervise the claim management process. Differentiating the valid and genuine claims from invalid claims becomes easy with the Service Management Software, as every step is recorded and the escalation traced.


Reverse and Forward Logistics- Tracking the complete movement of spare-parts from warehouse to the service centers against indent/PO and defective product/spare-parts back from service centers to the warehouse simultaneously is crucial while maintaining a stock balance. Service Management Software helps in maintaining & managing the balance.


Service Management Software is an end-to-end service CRM that gives you the flexibility and scalability to manage the post-sales service operations. If you are in the manufacturing industry, or run authorized service centers catering to different brands, you can now reduce the losses of downtime and improve productivity of your business with an end-to-end Service Management Software.

Choosing OS Commerce vs. Zen Cart Shopping Solution for Web Development

Today, diverse shopping carts are being used by e-retail outlets to enhance their e-commerce and Web Development activities and offer a unique experience to its customers. There is an exhaustive list of Shopping Carts that include Magento, PrestaShop, CubeCart, OpenCart and StoreSprite. Two of the major open-source Shopping Carts that have attained high popularity in the recent years are OS Commerce and Zen Cart. Many Web Development service providers offer these two Shopping Cart Solutions at a very large scale. However, it is proven that Web Developers do not embrace a single Shopping Cart solution completely, because of the fear of obsolescence or lock-in.

The comparison among OS Commerce and Zen Cart Shopping Cart has taken place by Webmasters at many levels, and this article, by no means, intends to be an extension of the same. This article instead discusses the benefits of both OS Commerce and Zen Cart in a little detail and helps you choose a sound Shopping Cart for your Web Development projects.

Zen Cart Shopping Cart for Efficient Web Development

For efficient Web Development, developers bank on Zen Cart Shopping Cart. Zen is free, extremely user-friendly, an easy-to-install and open-source shopping cart. More than the developers, Zen Cart is a Shopping Cart solution for shoppers. Zen Cart also offers various exclusive features like multiple payment support, varied shipping options, quantity discounts and coupons.

Zen Cart also features multiple customer modes and sales and discounts, unlimited category depth and display modes. It also efficiently supports XHTML template system and offers the liberty to use unlimited extra pages and several ad banners. Many Web Development Companies in India, believe that no Shopping Cart solutions comes as close as Zen when it comes to features and benefits.

OS Commerce for a Strong and Dedicated Shopping Cart

OS Commerce is an open source online shopping cart that offers a wide range of features to online e-commerce stores. Like Zen Cart, OS Commerce also supports multiple currencies and allows the customers to print invoices directly from the order screen. Many Web Development companies vouch for its easy database backup system, and effective Web Development processes.

OS Commerce Shopping Cart features a rich set of functionality that allows e-commerce owners to setup and maintain online stores with minimum efforts and absolutely no costs. Many Web Development, India, firms have Java proficient web developers and are solely dedicated to designing projects in Java language.

Hope this article has been able to provide some help to all those who are yet to decide between Zen and OS Commerce Shopping for their Web Development projects.

Content Management System for Your Web Design

The newer Internet technologies are helping webmasters to condense the time spent on web development activities and focus time and energy on customer satisfaction. Content Management System is one such powerful marketing tool that boosts the efficiency of web businesses that manage the content routinely.

Who needs CMS?

Many Web Development India companies architect customized Content Management System in sync with the business needs. Many companies even install plug-ins in the Content Management System that improve website’s functionality. Then there are features like meta description, meta keywords and meta title in CMS that synchronize with the SEO of the website. As the number of Web Development (India) companies that design customized CMS increase, companies that demand CMS for their websites also increase manifold. Any organization will need CMS if it meets minimum three requirements out of the major six listed below:

• Company’s website is big and requires frequent content updates like news website, stock market information, sports website, etc.


• Frequent content integration between website and other channels.


• Company requires complete hold of important website sections like career and current openings, testimonials, white papers, site registration, photo galleries and articles.


• Company wants to manage their corporate blog through the website.


• Company has little to no technical knowledge to add, edit and delete the pages without distorting the web design.


• If multiple departments/sub-admin make updates to the website.

An intuitive Content Management System is mutually beneficial for both Web Development India companies and customers. While the developers are saved from the bulky task of designing and coding each newly added page manually, the clients are happy storing, controlling and publishing documents regardless of any technical skill level!

Web Development industry has experienced a radical shift from uploading content from local editors such as FrontPage and Dreamweaver to a customized content management system. It helps to mange the website directly on the remote server and update the information easily. Get a CMS designed by a Web Development Company in India and enjoy better customer relationships.

Software Development Companies Offer Energy Management Software’s

In today’s business environment, companies are looking for ways to reduce cost and become more environmental-friendly. Many organizations have adopted the “greener me” tips like reducing paper waste, turning off the equipment when they are not in use, etc, and so much so that the organizations have made environmentalism a part of their brand.

While there are numerous steps that organizations take to become “carbon neutral”, one of the latest and * ways offered by Software Development Companies is Energy Management Software.

Many Custom Software Development Companies create on-demand softwares that enable organizations to identify and monitor energy efficiency of electrical appliances, HVAC and lighting systems. These Energy Management Softwares provide real-time energy management that enables you to make informed decisions to reduce your energy consumption and increase energy savings quickly and easily. The Software Development Companies have designed these softwares in an engineered way that they manage the HVAC utilization of your premises through real time energy consumption monitoring and climate control. Following is the working methodology of Energy Management Software that is the brain behind Custom Software Development Companies:

How Does It Work?

A metering panel is installed at the electricity mains, which transmits energy consumption data to another panel. This data is then relayed to an operation center through the Internet. The account managers at the operations center track the data and find out the energy consumption irregularities that could be improved in order to save more energy.

Companies may have different requirements. For instance, it may have few regular 9-6 employees who work on their PC. Some may work on a 10-12 hour shift, and more yet, some may work on an irregular time period on their laptops. To overcome this loophole, many Custom Web Development Companies architect tailor-made energy management softwares that entertain grouping and settings management. This means that the energy management software would be designed to stay in sync with your specific corporate requirements, and auto-group computers on set criteria.

After Repair Management Software, Sales Tracking Solution and other management Software’s, the Software Development Companies have now bestowed us with environmental friendly software’s that help you save energy and cost!

Seema is an online marketer of Zed-Axis.com. Zed Axis is a leading Software Development Company in India providing Custom Software Development including Energy Management Software services to become more environmental-friendly.

Custom Lead Management Software

Leads can be made more valuable now. One million question is how? The answer is a fully customized Lead Management Software solution. This not only helps in qualifying the leads at marketing and sales level but also provides a real time analysis of business prospects. An effective lead tracking software can help you turn leads into customers. On the other hand it is a value adds to the sales force because it helps identify which leads are worthwhile and where they need to put their focused effort.

Lead tracking software provides different user interfaces for lead management. Accessing the right interface users enter and modify leads and generate useful reports at their respective levels. An admin or owner of the application authorizes and assigns leads and tracks real time status with the help of lead management software.

To have a good understanding of the lead management software, it would be best we briefly know the standard workflow which I am going to describe now. First of all, leads get instantly inserted into the lead management software. At second step leads are automatically assigned to the sales agents as soon as they login. Here it is worth mentioning that the leads are assigned as per the defined business logic or rule for the respective sales agent or respective sales team. As the sales agents take action on the leads and enter details, their activity is tracked in real time by the authorized team leaders and managers. This altogether helps Managers and other senior employees in the hierarchy to monitor progress and analyze performance metrics.

Leads that are still to be converted are nurtured with automatic emails until they are finally ready or taken care of. All the sales converted leads that might be called deals at this stage are automatically sent to the backend and further taken care by the Project Management Team. In a nut-shell lead tracking software allows to understand marketing ROI, sales performance and useful metrics to help improve the business. Lead Management Solution does give results unless it is properly used and managed. Good companies not only provide lead tracking application but also help in training, implementing, adopting, optimizing and reorganizing the application to their clients and partners.

We would love to hear your suggestions and feedbacks about Lead Management Software, please write in to contact@zed-axis.com


Seema is the online marketer for Zed-Axis.com. Zed-Axis.com is a leading customized Lead Management Software Development Services in India. To learn more about Custom Lead Tracking Software Solution & Customized Lead Management Software Development Services visit our website now!