FIELD SERVICES

Company
Founded in 2004, Equi Nox is a UAE-based provider of niche services across the flooring, water, and ICF (insulated concrete form) needs. The company’s clients span residential, commercial, construction, utility, and facility management.

Challenge
Equi Nox had been making good use of their existing CRM to log incoming opportunities and group the outcome into lost deals or sales orders. Past the point of generating a sales order, however, the operational flow was largely manual, disjointed, and susceptible to mistakes.

For a company like Equi Nox whose decades-long reputation was built on its expertise and superior service, there was a pressing need to quickly transform its processes to more efficient, customer-centric practices. Automation was the way forward to support their current and planned stages of growth while allowing them to remain competent, cost-effective, and consistently meet their industry’s ever-increasing customer service levels.

According to Charles El Maameri, Managing Director of Equi Nox, “While we were certain of the quality of our craftsmanship, we needed to adopt and incorporate advanced technological tools into our processes to keep us ahead of the curve. In the world of field services, if you’re not early, you’re late.”

Moreover, Charles was keen to empower his team. He wanted them to be able to take ownership of their time and make their decisions based on metrics and insights from past data. Like every good business owner, he effectively wanted to assess when something went wrong while rewarding his team for jobs done well.

Solution
Equi Nox evaluated several field service solutions. They chose MIMS due to its flexibility and breadth of functionality it offered such as seamless work order management, scheduling, and GPS-based location tracking, along with key performance indicators via its rich dashboard.

Charles stated, “MIMS by Arrow Labs was the obvious choice for us. Unlike other solutions in the market, it is customizable, easy to use, and designed particularly keeping in mind the pain points of managing field service operations.”

The MIMS Watch in particular resolved most of Equi Nox’s existing challenges. It allowed their team of craftsmen to receive assignments remotely, report incidents with video and photos, and chat and coordinate with colleagues on important matters. For Charles and the managers, this meant they could always stay connected to their teams, be aware of their location, and easily relay critical information.

“There is nothing quite like the MIMS Watch on the market. Its price point and wearability are invaluable for field service management and take away the element of distraction that accompanies the smartphone. Complemented by the MIMS app, my managers can assign tasks and monitor progress while on the move.”

Equi Nox puts its field service reputation in the hands of its craftsmen, so it was crucial to monitor their activities and hold them accountable for meeting SLAs were key to the success of their operations.

Results
The process began with the Arrow Labs team liaising with Equi Nox for a little under a month, during which MIMS was configured and fully integrated with the existing data and systems. The craftsmen were fixed up with the MIMS Watches, while Charles and the managers were trained on the MIMS app and portal.

With MIMS, craftsmen are automatically notified of new and unresolved cases in their area and could easily be briefed on the work order, a process that had previously been performed via email or over the phone. Equi Nox uses the checklist function not only in the traditional way of ensuring sub-tasks are performed and checked off, but also to alert craftsmen to carry essential items such as special tools, electrolytes, and so on. Further easing task allocation, the MIMS recommendation engine automatically selects the best handyman with the right skill set for the work order – with zero involvement from the manager. Besides the expected resulting benefits, MIMS enabled Equi Nox to cut their work order resolution time by 20%