Knowing where your vehicles, employees and physical assets are in real-time as a management and cost-control tool…is extremely valuable. Streamlining the operations and management of your customers, work, and finances in an intuitive, easy-to-use environment…is essential. Having both as a seamless integrated solution…is imperative!

For a truly complete service management solution, ESC offers vehicle GPS tracking equipment and services through our valued partner, SageQuest. Whether you are a business owner looking to preserve property and control employee time, or you are a dispatcher interested in an easy-to-use, easy-to-integrate tracking system, SageQuest GPS vehicle tracking is a simple and effective solution.

Join SageQuest on Thursday, March 29th from 1:00 – 1:29pm (EST) for a short webinar to learn four very practical ways you can get more done in your business by getting rid of tedious issues that come with having a mobile workforce out on the road. There is no such thing as perfect, but with these four simple ideas, you can be more productive and less frustrated in day to day operations.

Register today to reserve your spot!

The ACCA Indoor Air Expo 2012 in Las Vegas, NV just ended and the turnout was tremendous. Over 1,200 HVAC service company representatives attended with 195 exhibits sprawling the packed show floor of the Paris Hotel. There were also a lot of great breakout sessions with great excitement of interesting things to learn.

Among the buzz this year, were advancements in streamlining service management operations as well as empowering mobile workforces.

As a true market-demand driven solution, over 50 of the latest ESC features & enhancements were developed to address market needs to help service companies run their business better. Dean E. Schreiner, dESCO President, and Bryan Merrill were on hand to show event attendees the exciting new features of ESC service management software.

Some of the latest features and enhancements include Color Coded Dispatch Board, New List Views, Revised Service Agreements Management, SPIFF/Commission Tracking, Customer Status Email Updates, Technician Profile Emailing, Vendor Pricing Comparison, Mobile Phone Apps Upgrades & Redesign, Field Credit Card Processing Integration, ESC Accounting Updates, Credit Holds, ESC Dashboard Flowcharts, New & Updated Reports and more!

Over 6,000 companies have selected ESC Service Management Software to help manage customers, work & finances.  With the right tools, the right benefits and the right price, streamlining operations & solving many day-to-day issues is made easy. Coupled with ESC Mobile Services, field technicians are more efficient with access to all the information they need to get their job done, quickly and correctly. Not to mention save time on dispatches which means completing more jobs weekly and increasing revenue. And with real-time updates, office personnel and technicians will have improved information sharing and communications.

Another great highlight of the ACCA Indoor Air Expo 2012 event was our iPad 2 Way Giveaway. Anyone who stopped by our ACCA booth as well as who attended our ACCA sneak peek webinar were entered to win a brand new Apple iPad2 compliments of dESCO. Congratulations to Sam De Angelis of Colorado Climate Maintenance, Inc who was our grand prize winner.

We will keep you posted on our future event plans and, as always, make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook for up-to-minute company news and updates.

Choosing, implementing and using service management software shouldn’t be a daunting or scary task.  At dESCO, you don’t need to learn secret handshakes, hidden passwords and countless unwritten rules to join the fraternity of successful service companies.

Over 6,000 service companies are using ESC service management software to help streamline operations and address the growing needs of their business.  What makes ESC so popular? One reason is that its intuitive easy to use environment provides even novice software users an interface easy to understand.  Another reason is that it’s been around for a long time — with tried and true advanced features, dESCO prides itself on being at the forefront of product development. One more reason to choose ESC is for its superior support and training.

Choosing the right service management software is just the first step. The most important step is implementing and using the software which brings your company the value it was seeking. dESCO makes it easy for anyone to install, learn and use ESC service management software.

Getting Started

You’ve selected ESC as your service management software…now what?  The next step is installing the software to begin using it.  dESCO offers monthly New Customer Orientation Webinars FREE for all new users to attend. This one and a half hour webinar will introduce you to ESC, its functions and will guide you through the installation and setup procedures necessary to begin using the software.

Upcoming dates/times for our New Customer Orientation Webinar are listed in our monthly eNewsletter.  If you are not currently signed up to receive our newsletter, please register today.

ESC Training & Development

You’ve installed ESC software and know it is a powerful tool with the potential to do great things.  But maybe you are only using the dispatching and invoicing functions. Maybe you have seen the dropdowns for service agreements and inventory, but were not sure how to get started. Or maybe you have new employees you want to bring up to speed.

Whatever your company’s situation, dESCO has a training solution for you. Here is an overview of the training services we offer:

Webinar Training – dESCO offers FREE monthly webinars highlighting how to use various ESC features and giving best practice tips. These one-hour sessions are open to all ESC users to attend and are recorded and saved on the ESC support website for anyone who cannot attend and/or who would like a refresher.  Upcoming webinar sessions are listed in our monthly eNewsletter.  If you are not currently signed up to receive our newsletter, please register today.

Online Training – If you prefer, we can schedule online training sessions in one-hour blocks, for just you and your staff members to attend.  As many participants as you would like, can participate in this training with one of our ESC trainers from the comfort of your office. This solution is perfect for learning particular aspects of the software or for learning how to implement features that you are not currently using.

Regional Training – For a more complete overview of the software, we offer one or two-day training sessions throughout the country. Each seminar will start by showing you how to perform simple tasks to get you comfortable with using basic ESC features. As the class progresses, we will teach you how to handle increasingly complex situations, building on what you have already learned. This method makes regional training perfect for both first time users and those that having been using ESC for years. Click here to view the schedule or register for upcoming regional training sessions.

In-House Training –Or if you are like many people looking for an excuse to visit sunny south Florida, dESCO offers in-house training at our headquarters in Fort Myers, FL. The training option offers one or two days of training, for up to 5 staff members. Similar to on-site training, we will customize the training to address your company’s specific needs as well as use your database for faster transfer of learned knowledge.

On-Site Training – For the most customized and complete training experience, we can send one of our senior trainers to your office to train your entire staff. The onsite training package consists of two days of training dedicated to your company’s particular needs. This training can use your database so that the time it takes to implement what you learn will be even faster.

ESC Support Team

For any day-to-day questions or technical concerns, our ESC technical support team is standing by Monday through Friday 8:30am – 5:30pm (EST) to help ESC Support Members.

Remember … being an ESC Support Member has its perks!

• FREE ESC Version Upgrades
• Unlimited Online Access to ESC Knowledgebase for Troubleshooting
• Unlimited Online Access to ESC Feature Video Tutorials
• Unlimited Live Online Support
• Unlimited Phone Support: 800.226.7529
• Unlimited Remote Control Support
• Unlimited Email Support: support@desco-soft.com

At dESCO, we are committed to helping you maximize your service management software investment and want to take the guesswork out of installing and using ESC. Feel free to contact us today to discuss the availability and scheduling for any of these training or learning events.

A successful career, just like a successful marriage, takes a lot of hard work and dedication. In companies today, it is unusual to have one or two employees celebrate a 10 year anniversary, but dESCO was fortunate enough to have 5 employees hit that achievement in 2011 alone. Aside from those five, there are 4 employees with over 15 years tenure, 2 with over 20 years and one who will be celebrating 25 years of service in 2012.  Currently, the average dESCO employee tenure is 9.7 years – an amazing achievement!

The culture at dESCO has long stood out in contrast to more freewheeling software companies who continually seek to lure new employees, creating a constant churn. While dESCO has established a strong base of long-tenured employees, many of whom have spent their entire careers here, that model is hardly common in today’s workplace.

“It is important to me to hire the right people and retain them over the long haul in order to give our customers the best all-around experience with our company and products,” explained Dean E. Schreiner dESCO Owner and President. “We have built an environment that permits creativity and autonomy, while maintaining the discipline to stay focused on the needs and goals of our customers.”

This commitment and loyalty is translated to dESCO customers through each interaction. dESCO’s customer service/support process is high-touch and focused on total care, digging deep into each customer’s business needs to deliver true results. With clear communications and a personal approach to help service companies overcome business challenges, dESCO values cultivating long-term customer relationships and having the opportunity to watch businesses grow and thrive.

While its employees give the company a competitive advantage in the marketplace, dESCO remains committed everyday to converting that into continued success. With over 6,000 dESCO customers nationwide, great products AND great people really do make the difference.

2011 was an exciting year for the Services Industry and according to the experts it seems 2012 will be even more action-packed. But, before we look into the future, let’s take a quick look at 2011 and the memorable moments. So in honor of the SportsCenter Top Ten List, I give you the top ten ESC version 12 highlights of 2011 in NO particular order.

#10 More Features Added to the ESC Mobile App
Although the ESC Mobile App was not new in 2011, the screen navigation was redesigned to make it easier to find the information you need. Additional new features include a new mobile management feature allowing managers/supervisors to modify and assign dispatches, promised dates and times of dispatches while in the field. Equipment can now be attached and edited through the mobile apps to help keep more accurate customer records. Credit cards can be processed in the field using ESC’s new Merchant Warehouse integration.

#9 Increase Customer Communications Automatically Through ESC
ESC users can automatically send an email to customers to inform them of the status of their dispatch. This can be configured for each status code so you can remind the customer of their appointment, tell them when you’re on the way, send a technician profile and picture and even send them a survey or a coupon after the dispatch is complete.

#8 Managing Service Agreements Becomes Easier with Added ESC Features
The Service Agreement screen was revised to include a robust new scheduling system; enhanced invoicing options allow you to include renewal amounts on particular dispatches to ensure the customer renews; additional options on the qualification screen allow you to easily combine service work with scheduled maintenance to decrease the number of trips you make and increase your profitability; and the ability to automatically order all parts required for service agreement dispatches, ensuring that you will always have the parts you need to complete your agreements.

#7 ESC Adds the Ability to Color Code the Dispatch Board
For increased visibility and priority associations, the ability to add colors to dispatches on the dispatch board was added.  These colors can be assigned directly to dispatches or to customers for all future dispatches.

#6 Encourage Your Sales Staff with ESC Spiff and Commission Tracking
ESC now includes spiff and commission tools. A spiff can be attached to any billing code or inventory item to track these bonuses by salesperson and can be set to a flat rate or a percentage of the sale price. The new three tiered commission system allows you to increase the commission percentage to those who exceed their sales goals and gives you the flexibility to set different goals for your technicians and sales people.

#5 Comparing Vendor Prices Made Possible with ESC
When ordering parts on a dispatch, invoice or quote, view a list of all the vendors that carry that part, their part number, last price from that vendor and the date the price was last obtained. This information will be updated automatically as you receive items and can be manually updated as well to ensure you are always getting the best deal possible.

#4 ESC Adds Revolutionary New List Views
This new feature allows you to quickly view lists of your customers, jobs, dispatches, equipment, agreements, invoices, quotes, vendors, inventory items and purchase orders. These lists can be customized to show just the information you want to see in the order you want to see it as well as saved and recalled easily. Use these lists to quickly find records, print custom reports, export data to Excel, and send emails or letters.

#3 ESC Allows You to Track and Bill Travel Time
Travel time can now be added to the working time when creating an invoice based on a dispatch in ESC. These times will be combined on the Technicians tab of the Sales Invoicing screen to increase the cost of the invoice. The time will also be shown immediately above the invoice body so you will know what quantity to use when adding a labor billing code to the invoice.

#2 ESC Credit Card Transactions Become PCI Compliant with Merchant Warehouse
Through a recent partnership with Merchant Warehouse card services, ESC credit card transactions can become PCI compliant in adhering to security and liabilities. Merchant Warehouse uses strong encryption technology ensuring the safe handling of cardholder information, which tremendously reduces your liability.

#1 Service Roundtable selects ESC as the Preferred Service Management Software
The Service Roundtable is a revolutionary organization founded by a collaboration of leading contractors to share information and help other contractors improve their sales, marketing, operations and profitability. ESC was chosen as the recommended service management software solution for its complete solution to manage customers, work, and finances in an intuitive, easy-to-use environment with the tools and features growing service companies need.

With a recent string of hackers breaching security, stealing sensitive customer credit card information and stealing money from customer bank accounts, it makes me wonder why service companies would not want to protect themselves further with simple painless measures. 

One important step is becoming PCI compliant with credit card transactions.  But you are probably wondering why … what’s the big deal? At first glance, especially if you are a smaller service company, it may seem like a confusing topic and a daunting task.  But let me break it down for you.

PCI Compliance Benefits Versus Consequences
Compliance with data security standards can bring major benefits to businesses of all sizes, while failure to comply can have serious and long-term negative consequences. Here are some reasons why.

• Compliance with the PCI DSS means that your systems are secure, and customers can trust you with their sensitive payment card information. Trust means your customers have confidence in doing business with you and confident customers are more likely to be repeat customers, and to recommend you to others.
• Compliance improves your reputation with acquirers and payment brands — the partners you need in order to do business.
• Compliance is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. It helps prevent security breaches and theft of payment card data, not just today, but in the future. As data compromise becomes ever more sophisticated, it becomes ever more difficult for an individual merchant to stay ahead of the threats. The PCI Security Standards Council is constantly working to monitor threats and improve the industry’s means of dealing with them, through enhancements to PCI Security Standards and by the training of security professionals. When you stay compliant, you are part of the solution – a united, global response to fighting payment card data compromise.

But if you are not compliant, it could be disastrous. Compromised data negatively affects consumers, merchants, and financial institutions. Just one incident can severely damage your reputation and your ability to conduct business effectively, far into the future. Account data breaches can lead to catastrophic loss of sales, relationships and standing in your community, and depressed share price if yours is a public company. Possible negative consequences also include lawsuits, insurance claims, cancelled accounts, payment card issuer fines and government fines.

Achieving PCI Compliance is EASY
Through a recent partnership with Merchant Warehouse, ESC has become PCI compliant, in adherence to security and liabilities, when handling customers’ credit card information. Merchant Warehouse uses strong encryption technology ensuring the safe handling of cardholder information, which tremendously reduces your liability. Plus ESC Version 12 customers using Merchant Warehouse services have also seen lower rates and improved efficiency.

You’ve worked hard to build your business – make sure you secure your success by securing your customers’ payment card data. Your customers depend on you to keep their information safe – repay their trust with compliance to the PCI Security Standards. Contact dESCO or register for more information with Merchant Warehouse to take the first step toware PCI compliance today.

 [Via PCI Security Standards Council: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/why_comply.php]

Like it or not, the workforce is increasingly mobile and workers on the go need to be fully productive from mobile devices. Service companies need to keep up with the demand of an ever-growing digital world and should take advantage of the continued streamlined benefits that go along with a mobile solution. A recent article in The Air Conditioning/Heating/Refrigeration News speaks to this very message.

Most service companies already have cell phones distributed to improve in-the-field communications and most cell phone providers now offer bundled text/phone/internet solutions that are the same price if not cheaper than the individual plans. Adding a mobile service management solution will organize and streamline the work flow of both small and large service companies, making them more manageable and profitable.

ESC Mobile is a simple and affordable way to outfit your mobile technicians with real-time job information and time tracking. ESC Mobile is a powerful and intuitive smartphone, tablet and laptop App for Service Technicians to manage work orders in the field, Technician managers to manage technicians in the field and office personnel to monitor everything with real-time updates to and from the field.

ESC Mobile has all the tools and features growing service companies need. Benefits and advantages include:

• Increased tech productivity by arming your team with the right information in the field ensuring jobs are completed faster and more efficiently.
• Increased response time with features such as GPS tracking and mapping.
• Increased field accuracy with access to all information needed to identify and work on the right equipment and eliminate illegible hand-written field notes.
• Increased customer care and professionalism with easy access to complete customer information across your network.
• Increased sales by increasing the productivity of your technicians and in turn allowing them to complete more jobs daily as well as giving your team information needed to quickly identify up and cross sale opportunities.
• Reduced costs by identifying areas of waste and inefficiencies. (Example. Reduced fuel costs with ESC’s route optimization and mapping functions.)
• Improved internal communications by giving your employees access up-to-the-minute company and customer information, all in a single location.
• Improved external communications with appointment reminders, status updates, technician profile emails, surveys, coupons and more.  
• Reduced collections by allowing techs to process payments in the field lowering processing costs, ensuring accuracy, reducing collection issues and improving cash flow.

The benefits of implementing a mobile solution far outweigh the cost. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today for a personalized demo on our ESC mobile solution.

The following is a post by our Vice President of Operations, Eric Rausin: 

We are proud to announce the release Electronic Service Control (ESC) Version 12. This release includes a huge amount of requests we have received from our customers over the years. Color coding dispatches, customized reporting layouts, credit holds for past due customers and a mobile management feature for the mobile phone clients are just some of the great ideas we have implemented in ESC Version 12.

If you are already an ESC customer, you can upgrade now by logging into the support portal and starting the upgrade.

If you are not yet and ESC customer and would like to get a demo of the new features in ESC Version 12, please sign up for a demo using the form at the bottom of this post.

New Features in ESC Version 12

New List Views
This revolutionary new feature allows you to quickly view lists of your customers, jobs, dispatches, equipment, agreements, invoices, quotes, vendors, inventory items and purchase orders. These lists can be customized to show just the information you want to see in the order you want to see it. Custom lists can then be saved so that they are available again with just the click of a button. Use these lists to quickly find records, print custom reports, export data to Excel, and send emails or letters.

Revised Service Agreements
The Service Agreement screen has been revised to make it even easier to use. This includes an entirely new scheduling system that can handle any scenario you can throw at it. Enhanced invoicing options allow you to include renewal amounts on particular dispatches to ensure the customer renews. Additional options on the qualification screen allow you to easily combine service work with scheduled maintenance to decrease the number of trips you make and increase your profitability. Rounding out the new features is the ability to automatically order all parts required for service agreement dispatches, ensuring that you will always have the parts you need to complete your agreements.

Color Coded Dispatch Board
Turn high priority dispatches red or make service agreement calls green. Associate any color with a priority and assign them to dispatches on the fly or assign them to customers so that their dispatches become that color automatically.

Other Dispatching Improvements

• An unlimited number of employees can now be added to a dispatch board.
• Weekly view only shows one week back from the current date. This will speed up the display of dispatch boards that contain older, uncompleted dispatches.
• The name of the Dispatch Schedule Report has now been changed to Search for Dispatch and it can be found under the Dispatch pull-down menu. This feature now includes the ability to search for dispatches by the customer’s purchase order number as well as any comments in the dispatch notes.

SPIFF Tracking
Encourage your people to sell particular items by rewarding them for selling it. A SPIFF can be attached to any billing code or inventory item to track these bonuses by salesperson. SPIFFs can be set to a flat rate or a percentage of the sale price.

Commissions
A new three tier commission system has been implemented so you can reward your personnel for selling effectively. This feature allows you to increase the commission percentage to those who exceed their sales goals. The flexibility of this system allows you to set different goals for your technicians and sales people.

Customer Status Updates
Automatically send an email to your customer to inform them of the status of their dispatch. This can be configured for each status code so you can remind the customer of their appointment, tell them when you’re on the way, and even send them a survey or a coupon after the dispatch is complete.

More Powerful Customer Entry Screen
The addition of an equipment and history tab to the customer entry screen gives you the ability to update almost everything about a customer on a single screen.

Better Email Control
Each email address entered into the system for a customer can be set to receive status updates and marketing materials, invoices and statements, or everything you care to send.

Compare Vendor Prices
When ordering parts on a dispatch, invoice or quote, it is now possible to see a list of all the vendors that carry that part, their part number, last price from that vendor and the date the price was obtained. This information will be updated automatically as you receive items and can be manually updated as well to ensure you are always getting the best deal possible.

Other Purchasing Enhancements

• You can now add extra shipping methods to purchase orders. This makes it easy to track if something is being shipped via Fed Ex or UPS.
• The date of the accounts payable invoice that is created in QuickBooks or Peachtree when items have been received can now be modified.

New & Updated Reports

• Sales Item Summary – This report can be used to see the total number of items sold for a certain period, department or salesperson.
• Technician Sales Summary – This is the report you want to motivate and manage your technicians. It allows you to track total revenue, average revenue per invoice, gross profit, hours and profit per hour for all your technicians. Show them how they stack up against each other and watch them improve.
• Rejected Quote Analysis – See the reason customers didn’t buy from you using this report. This works with the new reason rejected field that will appear automatically on a quote whenever it is rejected.
• Top Customers – See a list of your top 20 customers based on either total revenue or gross profit.
• Commission Report – See the commissions and SPIFFs earned by your employees.
• Agreement Renewal Rate – This report allows you to see how many customers have renewed their agreements and compare that against those that have not.
• Income Statement Budget Comparison & 2 Year Comparison – Although these reports are not new, they have been reformatted to include percentages. These reports are only available in ESC Accounting.
• The Sales Trend Report on the Dashboard has been updated so that it always shows the last twelve months, making it easier to get a quick comparison, particularly after the beginning of the year.

Mobile Phone Apps Upgrades

• Redesigned screen navigation to make it easier to find the information you need.
• Added a new mobile management feature that allows users to assign dispatches to other users. Managers can also modify the promised dates and times of dispatches using this feature.
• Equipment can now be attached and edited on the mobile apps, making it easy to keep accurate records of exactly what the customer has at their site.
• Ability to authorize credit cards in the field using ESC’s new Merchant Warehouse integration. The Android app even supports specialized credit card readers available directly from Merchant Warehouse.

Track & Bill Travel Time
Travel time can now be added to the working time when creating an invoice based on a dispatch. These times will be combined on the Technicians tab of the Sales Invoicing screen to increase the cost of the invoice. The time will also be shown immediately above the invoice body so you will know what quantity to use when adding a labor billing code to the invoice. This feature can be enabled by going to Company | System Setup | Dispatch and selecting Bill for Travel and Work Time.

Prevent Sales of Out-Of-Stock Items
You can now control whether out-of-stock items can be placed on an invoice. Select No and the item must be stock before it can be added to the invoice. Select Prompt to remind you when you place an out-of-stock item on the invoice. To keep things consistent with previous versions of ESC, this will be set to Yes initially. You can change this setting by going to Company | System Setup | Inventory.

Batch Email Invoices
The Batch Print Invoices screen has been renamed and upgraded to allow you to either print or email a selection of invoices to your customers. This is particularly useful for invoices created by the service agreement module.

Canadian Postal Code Support
Canadian postal codes will now be automatically saved into the Zip Code Maintenance screen when they are entered on the Enter Customers screen. This will allow you to type the postal code in the City field when creating new customers. This will automatically populate the city and province while moving the postal code to the appropriate field.

Credit Holds
ESC Version 12 adds the ability to stop users from creating dispatches for customers that have a certain credit rating. This credit rating can also be color coded so that it will be easy to see on the Qualification screen when a customer first calls you.

Customized Toolbars
Configure your toolbars to allow easy access to the features you use the most.

Change Inventory Part Numbers
Keep up with your vendors by updating part numbers at any time they change them.

Rename Jobs
Rename jobs at any time and ESC will update all transactions related to them so your reporting remains perfect.

Dashboard Flow Charts
New flowcharts have been added as tabs to the dashboard to make ESC easier to understand for new users.

Online Help
All help files have been moved online so you will always have the most up-to-date information when you need it.

Updated Employee Records

• You can now attach copies of important documents, reviews, etc. directly to an employee.
• Associate an employee in ESC with a Sales Rep in QuickBooks. This will flow over to all invoices that have the employee listed as a sales person.

Merchant Warehouse Integration
dESCO has teamed up with Merchant Warehouse to give you another option for processing credit cards. With the Merchant Warehouse integration no credit card data is stored in your office, making your computers instantly PCI compliant. The integration also features credit card authorization on all the mobile phone applications and even integrated card readers for Android devices.

ESC Accounting Upgrades

• All income statements have been enhanced to allow drilling down into the transactions that make up the totals shown on the report.
• Added a new Certified Payroll Report to help you stay compliant with jobs that require it.
• Created a new backload period that allows you to enter data in any screen without having it affect your financial statements.