Modernizing Service Operations from the Warehouse to the Field

About the Company

The company is a provider of control room visualization and command center technology, delivering hardware and software solutions for organizations that depend on continuous operations. Serving government agencies and commercial organizations, the company designs visualization environments that require precision and accuracy. As business grew, the company sought to modernize its operational processes to improve efficiency, increase visibility, and better support customers throughout the entire equipment lifecycle.

Challenge

As the company continued delivering visualization systems, many of its operational processes relied heavily on manual tasks and processes. Within service operations, equipment inventory was tracked manually through Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, purchasing required duplicate data entry across multiple systems, customer warranty eligibility was difficult and time-consuming to determine, and shipping documentation was created by hand.

These disconnected workflows slowed delivery times, increased administrative effort, and limited visibility across the entire lifecycle of equipment from receiving and staging through installation and ongoing service.

Key challenges included:

• Inventory receiving, staging, rack builds, and factory acceptance testing were managed through shared spreadsheets rather than a centralized system
• Purchasing teams manually recreated data between quoting tools, ServiceMax, and the ERP, creating duplicate work and increasing the risk of errors
• Customer entitlements and OEM warranty coverage were tracked manually, making it difficult to recover supplier warranty costs
• Packing lists, Bills of Lading, shipping labels, and freight documentation were generated manually for every shipment
• Project milestone tracking relied on manual coordination, delaying scheduling and customer invoicing

Solution

To eliminate these disconnected workflows, the company partnered with Bolt Data to transform ServiceMax into the central hub for its service operations. Rather than functioning solely as a field service application, ServiceMax became the single source of truth connecting the entire service lifecycle. By extending the ServiceMax platform, the company replaced manual processes with integrated workflows that improved visibility, automation, and operational efficiency.

The solution automated purchasing workflows between ServiceMax and the ERP, allowing users to generate and revise purchase orders directly from ServiceMax without duplicate data entry while maintaining version control and simplifying vendor communications.

Warehouse operations were modernized through automated QR code generation and printing, enabling digital tracking of serialized components throughout receiving, staging, manufacturing, and testing.

Warranty management was centralized by connecting customer contracts with OEM warranty information, automating warranty eligibility, OEM claim reporting, and reimbursement tracking so service teams could quickly identify recoverable work that had previously been overlooked.

Shipping processes were streamlined through automatically generated packing lists, Bills of Lading, shipping labels, freight request forms, and weight calculations, significantly reducing manual administrative effort.

Preventive maintenance work orders were automatically created and scheduled based on customer contract requirements, reducing manual coordination and ensuring recurring service was delivered on time.

Results

With an integrated service and supply chain platform, the company gained end-to-end visibility across warehouse operations, procurement, logistics, warranty management, and field service. The organization is now able to:

• Empower warehouse and service teams with real-time visibility via desktop and mobile into inventory and project status
• Free employees from repetitive administrative tasks through automated purchasing and logistics workflows
• Give service teams instant access to warranty and entitlement information when supporting customers
• Reduce delays and manual coordination by automating preventive maintenance and work order creation
• Improve collaboration across departments with a shared, connected operational platform
• Enable employees to focus on delivering exceptional customer service instead of managing spreadsheets
• Establish a scalable operational foundation that supports continued growth without increasing complexity

The result is a more connected, efficient operation that enabled teams to spend less time managing administrative work and more time delivering exceptional service to customers.