PILLER: When service makes the difference

The mission of PILLER Blowers & Compressors GmbH is not only to manufacture outstanding products, but to offer comprehensive service. The worldwide market leader in the production of high-performance blowers wants to continue to provide professional support to its customers after the commissioning of its machines. New technologies such as the Internet of Things or predictive analytics open up attractive opportunities in this context. The goal is to develop service quality into a feature that makes the difference in global competition.

Spare parts, inspection, maintenance

At PILLER, service consists of the spare parts business and various services such as machine inspection, maintenance and balancing. In organizational terms, several departments are involved in the service processes. The service desk acts as the first point of contact for all inquiries, interacts with customers and passes the tasks to the responsible internal departments. All customer requests are represented as tickets, which provide information about the respective status of the request.

Service at PILLER in the process overview

The spare parts sales department is responsible for spare parts requests and transfers them to the back office for further processing once the order has been placed. This includes, for example, the logistical procedure and invoicing. Topics such as time recording for service technicians are also incorporated into the back-office systems. The field service takes care of customer requests that involve a service and are associated with an on-site assignment.

Central point of contact for customers

Customers have different ways of contacting PILLER with their requests. The service can be reached via the central e-mail address service@piller.de. With service inquiries an automated ticket production takes place inclusive feedback to the customer. The ticket system bundles the incoming requests. Interactions to existing requests are directly linked to the respective tickets.

Customers use a central contact form on the PILLER website.

In addition, a contact form for customer requests is available on the PILLER website. Customers can use a drop-down menu to select the area their request concerns, for example services or spare parts. The fact that the data is collected in a structured way makes further processing easier and faster. After submitting the form, customers automatically receive a feedback e-mail.

Service desk coordinates the tasks

As the single point of contact for customer inquiries, the service desk performs an important coordination function between customers and downstream service units. The SAP Service Cloud provides the service desk staff with a complete overview of open requests and new interactions.

The service desk always has an eye on open requests and new interactions.

Each request is visible in the system as a ticket. The service desk classifies the requests as a spare parts order and/or service and keeps customers informed about the next steps. It also initiates follow-up actions for the subsequent processes so that, for example, the spare parts sales can prepare a suitable quotation.

Jede Anfrage wird als Ticket in der SAP Service Cloud abgebildet.

To control the follow-up activities in the service, the SAP Service Cloud offers a central task management. The associated tasks are stored directly in the ticket. They include status tracking and notifications, internal and external communication with end customers, setting due dates and escalation levels to ensure the highest quality of service, and ticket categorization to tailor the service process precisely to the processes at PILLER.

The follow-up activities are stored in the ticket.

The structuring of customer requests avoids media breaks between service desk, spare parts sales and field service. This results in a high level of transparency of the service processes, which prevents duplicate entries. All parties involved have an overview of activities and open issues at all times and, if necessary, can make further inquiries at the appropriate point to drive service processing forward.

Clearly arranged dashboards show the open issues.

All information about the customer in one place

Another important feature for smooth service processes at PILLER is the digital machine file. It contains all the equipment that an existing customer has purchased from PILLER and brings together data from various sources. Master data on materials and equipment is provided from SAP S/4HANA. In addition, both the operators of the machines and the distributors are recorded as actual PILLER customers.

All machines of a customer are brought together in the digital machine file.

The document flow maps all documents belonging to the respective transaction. The service staff also have access to historical tickets, quotations and orders. The result is a transparent 360° view of a customer’s machinery.

In einem Ticket lassen sich mehrere Equipments erfassen.

Even historical tickets, offers and orders can be viewed.

The equipment in SAP S/4HANA belonging to the offer shown above.

Pass tasks on to spare parts sales and field service

The close interaction between service and sales enables the direct transfer of tasks from the service desk to spare parts sales and field service. Thanks to the integration of SAP S/4HANA, real-time pricing and a completeness check flow into the creation of quotations and orders. Quotations and orders can be replicated in SAP S/4HANA. Conversely, all historical quotations and orders can be transferred from SAP S/4HANA to SAP Service Cloud. Furthermore, the close interaction of the two systems makes it possible to map different document and item categories and to continue using SAP forms.

Quotation/order with prices ...

... and the corresponding offer in SAP S/4HANA.

The document flow makes it possible to trace which offer or order results from which ticket or task. It is also possible to jump directly to the S/4 document.

The document flow allows a direct jump to involved documents.

Dispatching with SAP FSM

Tickets that require the on-site deployment of a service technician are handled by field service. PILLER uses SAP Field Service Management (FSM). The software not only ensures efficient dispatching, but also supports the technicians in their work on site. Relevant information and checklists are provided via a mobile app, the technicians report back their working hours, have the deployment reports signed by the customer and send them in. For invoicing, the recorded data is transferred to SAP S/4HANA.

Powerful SAP architecture in the background

To ensure that the service processes at PILLER are seamlessly integrated, a powerful IT infrastructure exists in the background, which is characterized by the flexible integration of SAP S/4HANA, SAP Service Cloud and SAP Field Service Management. The service desk, activity planning and the creation of offers and orders run via SAP Service Cloud, while SAP Field Service Management is used for the planning, execution and feedback of on-site operations.

Overview of information flow and architecture

SAP S/4HANA is connected as the back end, where the maintenance of master data takes place. However, some master data, such as business partners with customers and contact persons, is maintained bidirectionally. In addition, the further processing of quotations and orders, the logistical handling of the spare parts process with goods movement and distribution as well as the invoicing of goods and services are all carried out in SAP S/4HANA.

The smooth interaction of the various systems ensures a seamless customer service.

SAP Cloud Platform Integration provides standard SAP iFlows for the integration of master data and transactions as well as custom iFlows for contact form integration and machine-to-machine communication. This enables automated ticket generation in the event of machine errors. As middleware, SAP Cloud Platform Integration ensures that the different systems work together harmoniously and forms the technological basis on which the excellent service experience becomes reality for PILLER customers. The overall process runs very stable in the close, constant interaction between S/4HANA, C4C and SAP FSM – also thanks to some specific extensions with regard to integration. Only 15 to 30 minutes are required daily to monitor and support the process extensively.