Carmel company’s app could improve efficiency, cash flow

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DOUGH TechProOwners of a young Carmel company say they’ve created a program that could be a game-changer for small-business owners.

TCS TechPro recently released a mobile device app, Field Tech Pro, intended to get companies’ service technicians out from behind their desks and working billable hours,and TechPro’s owners say their dispatch software should pay for itself in most cases.

“We had been looking at smartphones’ and tablets’ abilities to make service, in any industry, portable,” said Randy Henry, who owns TechPro with fellow Carmel residents Mike Lobue and Tim Coyne. “This gives dispatch technicians a better way to know who’s where and how to assign them.”

DOUGH TechPro2From a mobile device or a computer, a dispatcher can track all activity on customer orders and available technicians. When, for example, a customer calls needing a repair, a dispatcher using this software would have the ability to see the location and availability of all active technicians and assign the ticket based on these factors.

Once assigned a job, the ticket appears on the technician’s mobile device, and the app has a GPS feature to provide directions. When the technician activates the ticket and is en route, the software automatically notifies the customer and provides an estimated arrival time.

After completing the job, the technician closes the ticket, prompting the software to calculate the billable time and automatically send an invoice to the customer and company.

“There’s no more question of ‘Was the guy there?’ and ‘What time was he there?’” Coyne said. “This goes beyond being paperless. It can improve cash flow.”

Coyne added, in his experiences running a service company, the average time between the completion of a job and when it could be billed was three weeks. By eliminating the paperwork – specifically technicians’ timesheets – Coyne said this app allows for customers to be billed the same day or one day later, at the most.

In addition to increasing efficiency and cash flow, Lobue said another of the company’s main goals in creating the app was to provide state-of-the-art dispatching software at a price small businesses can afford. The app can be downloaded for free on mobile devices, but cannot work without a paid service. TechPro negotiates personalized pay-per-use contracts with its customers, meaning companies using the software pay a small, predetermined amount per ticket.

Coyne said the app is perfect for small, service-based businesses, and his own experiences led to the idea.

“I looked long and hard for something like this, but didn’t find it,” he said. “So I said, ‘Forget it; I’ll create it on my own.’”

For more information, visit www.tcstechpro.com.

 

By Kevin Kane
[email protected]

Kevin is the managing editor of Current in Carmel.


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