Business Scenario
Five Brothers works with a nationwide network of competent field service contractors to provide exceptional service to each of its clients. The contractors and subcontractors (temporary workers) typically include lawn care experts, landscaping professionals, arborists, and property maintenance and repair technicians, among other field service agents.
As part of preserving mortgaged properties, Five Brothers needs to submit regular asset maintenance reports (of mortgaged properties) to various banks. They also need to maintain a database of properties they manage and keep it up-to-date with the latest information on those properties’ conditions.
About Five Brothers
Client
William Walsworth
Company
Five Brothers (an MCS company)
Industry
Property Preservation & Asset Management
Region
United States
Five Brothers, now a part of MCS, is a leading asset management solutions provider offering a wide range of property preservation services across the United States. The company assists commercial and residential mortgage servicers nationwide to maximize asset preservation while reducing costs, streamlining operations and optimizing borrower relationships. Some of their key services include property inspections and preservation, property maintenance and valuation, utility management, and a host of mortgage industry support services.
Challenges Faced by Five Brothers
Legacy Web PortalFive Brothers was using a legacy web portal containing a database of properties and field jobs they manage in an age-old, less user-friendly interface.
Productivity Loss for AdminsAdmins had to scout numerous, irrelevant photos sent by contractors (from work sites) and identify the right ones to verify if the work was done or not. Disorganized and chaotic data pushed the back-office employees into severe productivity drains. They even had to create another application and maintain a separate QA team to inspect and check the relevance of images and tag and comment on them.
Inability to Monitor and Track Jobs DoneSome contractors may even share the photos of work done in the past to establish that they have completed the recently scheduled jobs. This could potentially lead to a loss of trust and reputation among customers.
Tedious, Paper-Based FormsField technicians (contractors) had to manually fill out the inspection/job forms and then scan and email them to the back office or directly submit them in the office. They also had to hire dedicated resources to digitize paper forms and get them uploaded to their internal work order management portal. This was quite time-consuming and expensive.
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See how our Field service software can simplify your overall job management and delight your customers.
How Did ReachOut Change the Game for Five Brothers?
Five Brothers found in ReachOut a modern field service management solution replete with all the essential features required to enhance their job management and service delivery.
Top 6 Solutions in ReachOut That Helped Five Brothers
Image capturing on mobile
Digitization of existing paper forms
Customized Enterprise version of ReachOut
Custom approval workflow
Proximity Meter
Offline data capturing
Image Capturing on Mobile
Technicians can click images on site using the ReachOut mobile app in real time instead of uploading an entire folder with many irrelevant images.
- Using the image tagging and annotation feature in ReachOut, technicians can show proof of work, both before and after performing a job.
- The time stamp captured on camera (visible on each image) helps admins validate the proof of work done.
- Technicians can also measure the actual size (dimensions) of an object on the field by pointing their mobile camera towards it.
Digitization of Existing Paper Forms
Digital inspection forms and job checklists offered by ReachOut allow technicians to capture field (onsite) data and submit reports (about work status/task completion, etc.) on the go.
- Field technicians can use the digital checklists to answer questions and capture images against a question.
- With ReachOut’s digital forms, Five Brothers can avoid maintaining a separate team for categorizing the images sent by their field technicians.
Customized Enterprise Version of ReachOut
We have designed a customized enterprise version of ReachOut for Five Brothers. Here’s how it helped them:
- The customized version of ReachOut brings together all the essential work order and field service management features in one place.
- The enterprise version is hosted on-premise on the company’s own servers which gives them more control, ownership, and visibility over the application.
- The enterprise edition provides admins the ability to create custom user roles for contractors and subcontractors.
Custom Approval Workflow
We designed a custom approval workflow for the contractors hired by Five Brothers. The workflow enables contractors to approve the work done by the subcontractors with whom they (contractors) share certain tasks.
- Subcontractors can use the ReachOut mobile app to capture and upload images (from job sites) and share them with the respective contractors for review and approval.
- Contractors can use the ReachOut mobile app to review the images uploaded by subcontractors and approve the work done.
Proximity Meter
Proximity Meter is a unique feature in ReachOut that helps technicians know how far they are from the actual work destination. Using this feature:
- The ReachOut app optimizes routes (suggests shortest routes) for field techs by selecting the technician’s current location and jobs assigned to them.
- This feature also helps admins validate if the technicians are present at the actual work site by tracking their geolocation.
Offline Data Capturing
ReachOut helps field technicians capture data offline, especially when they are commuting or working from locations having low network coverage.
- Specific settings for contractors to upload data only when their mobile device (phone/tablet) is connected to a charging console or WiFi.
- The ReachOut mobile app supports taking data backups through WiFi only. All the data can be saved offline and synced with the internal application (used by Five Brothers) once the internet (WiFi) connection is restored.
Other ReachOut Features That Helped Five Brothers Go the Extra Mile
Integration with Internal Web Portal
We developed custom APIs to integrate ReachOut with the internal work order management system used by Five Brothers. The integration allows them to easily retrieve and transfer relevant data and images from ReachOut to the work order system and further send it to various banks.
Chat Tool Integration
We integrated ReachOut mobile app with Mattermost, a popular online chat service. The chat tool allows field service contractors to engage in live conversations with back-office admins and clarify queries while at work.
Self Inspection Module
We created a custom self inspection module for home owners/users to report any field service-related issues through a responsive web page and even capture and upload images through their mobile cameras. It helps Five Brothers create new jobs.
Survey Module
Five Brothers can send surveys to their field service contractors (through the ReachOut mobile app), other employees in their organization (through email), and homeowners (through email or SMS).
Filter Work Orders on Mobile App
Using the ReachOut mobile app, technicians can filter work orders assigned to them based on different options like orders nearby, submission in progress, map views, etc. Filtering jobs helps technicians stay on track and adhere to SLAs effectively.Achievements
It takes only less than 5 minutes to complete inspections using ReachOut’s digital forms and checklists.
Greater savings in terms of costs and time with less manual workload and more automation.
Simple and Affordable Field Service Software
See how our Field service software can simplify your overall job management and delight your customers.
What the Customer Says
We’re quite happy about ReachOut. The product has entirely transformed our overall experience in managing jobs and contractors.
William Walsworth,
Chief Information Officer, Five Brothers (Acquired by MCS)
