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.

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.

Many HVAC, Plumbing, and other service companies that have been in existence for years and have never used software to manage their dispatches, quotes, invoices, or service agreements. However, in this fast-moving business environment, even traditionally low-tech industries can no longer afford not to use technology in their businesses.

Change is difficult, and keeping the fear of change from influencing your boss’ decision about introducing new technology into their business is difficult but necessary.

Some owners of HVAC, Plumbing, and other service companies are gung-ho about using new technology to advance their business, but others are more technologically averse and need more coaxing and convincing. If you have determined that your company would greatly benefit from service software, but your boss is hesitant about introducing new technologies, here are a few tips to pitch your idea to your boss.

When you know what technology your company needs to move to the next level, you need to get your boss not only accept your point of view, but act on it. To sell your idea to your boss, you have to communicate how your software choice will help your company accomplish what it has set out to do.

For instance, if one of your company’s goals is “same day service,” a dispatching tool that lets your dispatchers schedule your technicians efficiently is necessary. Alternatively, if you company loses money because of lost or illegible invoices, mobile computing tools might be the answer.

To get your boss to listen to your idea for software, you must select the key points and deliver them in a convincing way. Here are some quick ideas for presenting your idea to your boss:

1. Make a one-page handout for your boss that makes the case for the software you want.
2. Set an appointment to discuss the document.
3. Go through the document point by point to persuade your boss of why your company will benefit from your idea.
4. If you cannot get a commitment from your boss right away, schedule a time to follow-up and get a final decision.
5. If you believe that your idea is the right one, do not give up after an initial “no,” but instead, focus on communicating the bottom line implications of not going forward and keeping the status quo.

The most important part of selling service software to your boss is that it meets his needs. Your software idea has to solve your boss’ problems, not yours. Your boss cares less about how it will make your life easier and more about how it will contribute to the bottom line.

To sell your boss on your software idea, you have to demonstrate how it will help him reach his business goals.

More and more field service companies are turning to GPS vehicle tracking to lower vehicle fuel and maintenance costs, protect their assets, and provide better service to their customers.

However, companies thinking using this technology to build their business need to get a grasp on what kind of return on their investment to expect. As with any capital improvement project, you need to know what kind of return on your investment you should expect before investing.

The math for calculating ROI is simple, but determining the realized benefit and total investment cost to getting there is challenging. SageQuest’s ROI guide will help you know where to start, show you what numbers you need to know, and share stories of businesses that have benefited by using GPS vehicle tracking. You can download the guide at sage-quest.com/roiguide or by clicking the link below.

Download the 4 Steps to Understanding ROI for GPS Vehicle Tracking

SageQuest’s guide takes away the guessing game that comes along with deciding if a GPS vehicle tracking system is right for your service business. The guide offers the key information that demonstrates both the potential savings and added values a vehicle GPS system can produce.

The guide includes:

• The 4 easy steps to understanding ROI
• Key ways you can save
• A complete example with real numbers
• A fill-in worksheet to calculate your own ROI
• Examples of customer savings

Download the 4 Steps to Understanding ROI for GPS Vehicle Tracking

SageQuest, an ESC integration partner, provides GPS fleet tracking and management solutions that improve the efficiency and productivity of mobile workforces. Unlike other providers, SageQuest focuses on delivering true business insight and the personal service you need to maximize your potential return. The award-winning product, Mobile Control, provides a comprehensive set of tools and the flexibility to fit the needs of virtually any mobile workforce.

We are pleased to announce the official release of ESC Mobile Web for the iPhone/iPad and Android based phones. We have customized both applications to make full use of the device’s touch screens and feature the following abilities:

• View complete dispatch information
• Change dispatch status
• Track time spent on jobs
• Add dispatch notes
• Create new customer records
• Create new dispatches
• Send text messages to the office

The applications work with the ESC desktop software through a link to the Connections Server in your office, so you will need a connection to the Internet to use the software. The link is in real-time, so any changes you make, either from the office or from in the field on the phone, are instantly visible on the other. This gives you unlimited flexibility in scheduling.

Both apps include a connection to a demo database. This means that you can download the app today and see exactly how it will work for you in the field without any setup or commitment. Once you are ready to buy this add-on, just give us a call at 800-226-7529 and we’ll help you get everything working perfectly with your database for just a small monthly fee per user.

You can download the iPhone app directly from iTunes for free by searching for ESC Mobile or viewing this link. Please note this app looks fantastic on the iPad as well.

You can download the Android app for free directly from doubleTwist, the Android store, by clicking this link. You can also download the app by scanning the following QR code with a bar code scanner application on your phone.