Schrack Seconet relies on a signature pad solution from signotec and B&M Tricon© for their service centre
About 30,000 documents come in every year to Schrack Seconet’s service centre in Austria. Now service documentation is almost entirely paperless, with all of the savings of money and time that come with it, as well as the highest security.
Schrack Seconet develops, builds, installs and services fire alarm, communication and security systems. The Austrian company is among the international leaders in this industry. Schrack Seconet employs 430 people around the globe. Their slogan, “the greatest possible security for everyone”, is filled every day with new life and is expressed in the electronics company’s strong installation and service team. Almost a third of all employees are employed in this capacity.
Electronic signature: The idea of using electronic signatures in the customer service centre came up during a comprehensive data acquisition project. B&M TRICON©, signotec GmbH and Schrack worked together to develop a solution that has been in use for a few months by around 100 employees in Schrack Seconet’s service centre.
“We wanted a reliable, innovative solution that moved away from paper and towards secure data. In just a few months, we have implemented this project together,” said quality manager and project leader Johannes Kloibhofer.
Schrack service technicians’ mobile IT equipment now consists of a single notebook with a connected signature pad. The pad is small enough to fit in the hand, is ergonomically shaped and is just ten millimetres thick. The pad also stores essential characteristic features of the signature, in addition to the signature image. The pad guarantees the best possible proof of the signature’s authenticity with encrypted data transmission and the highest capture quality.
Customer service technician Daniel Stolz: “The signotec signature pad is safely contained in a small plastic unit. When I’m with a customer, I fill out the service documents directly on the notebook and then have the customer sign the pad on the spot.” The document is then saved with the signature in a PDF file, which secures it against manipulation. No one can alter the signed document afterward.
Faster, more reliable, better Kurt Maierhofer, customer service group leader: “We get the service documents practically right away after they are signed, and then we can continue processing them here. This allows us to generate an invoice immediately, which saves time and money.”
Schrack Seconet customer service technicians are often underway in the field for long periods of time. Thanks to the new system, post-processing of service calls has accelerated significantly. Before the introduction of the signature pads, customer service technicians delivered a great deal of documentation when they arrived at the centre: The following forms are used, among others: documentation of hours and materials, commissioning logs, maintenance logs, building site evaluations, hand-over protocols, daily reports and much more.
Johannes Kloibhofer: “When filling out the forms electronically, the technicians are spared the tiresome entry of customer data because it is already saved in the master data. As soon as the customer signs the form, it can be sent via e-mail to the customer and the centre. And with that, documentation is complete. There’s no follow-up, no looking for documents, no sorting.”
Until now, documents first had to be scanned, and only afterwards could they be processed further. “Sometimes we also had problems with the legibility of the handwriting. Follow-up work has completely fallen away since we introduced the signature pad solution.”
Quality manager Johannes Kloibhofer: “The signature pad can, of course, also be used to sign other documents, such as simple meeting notes in Word.”
The system was introduced step-by-step so that all of the refinements could be optimised before the big rollout. Initially, ten customer service technicians were chosen to work with the system for a few weeks. Afterwards, optimisations were done and then the whole customer service centre was equipped with the pads.
Forgery-proof signature The biometric manual signature is not just about entering a simple image of the signature to the documents; rather, the signature and its biometric properties can be linked to the document in a way that it makes it easier to identify a forgery.
The electronic signature has essential advantages over card and PIN systems. One cannot lose or forget their signature, nor can they give it to others. And everyone is familiar with the process, because signing documents is something we do every day.
Highlights of the electronic signature solution:
- Clearly legible data capture after conclusion of on-site service work
- Manipulation-proof electronic documentation after customer signature
- Automation via importability of data from Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP system
- Data can be accessed online from any location
- More precise and faster availability of service data in the centre
- Faster settlement
Documents
Schrack: IT solution for customer service documentation (398.98 KB)
Links
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