After-Sales Service

When selling items to customers, it is very important to manage associated after-sale services in an automated way in order to make sure that every single service category is being delivered to clients in terms of the SLA (Service Level Agreement) and the given warranty.

In this post, I am shedding a light on some of the capabilities and features of the service module which is specifically related to selling items and after-sales services. Therefore, we will have to address and explain the following points: service items, service item groups, sales order and service order.

After Sales Services – Process Flow

Lets consider an example in which the item is tracked by serial number, which means that every single serial of an item; which is sold to specific customer, shall have specific service bundle such as warranty, preventive maintenance …etc. The following item number is created and configured to be tracked in terms of serial number.

As shown below, we are creating an item number with the general common details. When it comes to the after sale services, there is an option to assign the item to a “Service Item Group” in order to fulfill the process flow mentioned above. Although, it should be taken into consideration that the service item group should have the option of “Create Item” checked in order for service items to be created automatically when selling the inventory items. Furthermore, we will make sure to configure the item to be tracked by serial number.

Service Item Groups

The service item group has the following configuration options, which are:

• Default contract discount %
• Default service price group code
• Default response time (hours)
• Create service item

At this step, we will proceed with the sales order in order to ship the item to the customer, and start managing the associated service bundle.

Once the sales order above is posted, the system will automatically create associated service item for this specific item serial and customer.

At this point, the after sales cycle is just starting. Further details related to the contractual agreement, SLA (service level agreement) details, receiving service calls, following up on items within warranty, service tasks, inspection, fault and resolution registration will be illustrated in future posts.

Best Regards,
Mahmoud M. AlSaadi