perations and customer services are the heart and soul of any field service company. Your teams take the calls, schedule the work and ultimately direct, coordinate, and support the activities of the field. It’s a logistical ball of yarn that is constantly on the verge of unraveling. But what if you could spend more time on improving the efficiency and profitability of field operations, whilst promoting strategies to grow the business, and less time on chasing your tail? This eBook will walk you through the challenges faced by field organizations, how a workforce management solution can increase operational efficiency as well as productivity; and how, by campaigning this change, you can become an operations superstar!

1. by
www.clicksoftware.com
www.clickexpress.com
How to Avoid
a Storm
in Your Cloud
Installation
CLICKEXPRESS

2. Finding the right match for
growth and success is a daunting
task that takes time and
patience. To give you a head
start, we have analyzed and
categorized the needs of the
service industry and come up
with three main cloud types...
Clouds come in all
different shapes
and sizes and so do
service businesses

3. Sales & Service Integrated
Cloud Solutions
GO >>
GO >>
GO >>
Just follow the tips for each type of cloud to avoid a future storm.
Whether you are a large enterprise, a small or medium business, or a sales & service
industry, service in the cloud offers benefits that will help your business grow.
Enterprise Cloud
Solutions Small & Medium Business
Cloud Solutions
Service in
the Cloud
Which type of cloud is
right for you?
1 2
3

4. To ensure optimal performance, your vendor must
be equipped to monitor activity 24/7, find a baseline
for performance, and use Dynamic Load Balancing to
adjust the number of servers. You should get optimal
response every time, every day, and every second of
your cloud use.
If your organization is servicing twice as many
customers in the afternoon, for example, your
resources are running at maximum capacity. During
these peak sessions, you are not receiving the
optimal performance level. Automatically adding and
subtracting servers according to your needs—known
as “scalable service” or “Dynamic Load Balancing”—
should happen without hesitation and without you
having to lift a finger.
Avoid a Storm by...
Getting Reliable Scalable Service
The ideal cloud implementation
provides scalability that
automatically responds to
your needs.
ClickSoftware provides your business with optimal performance at any time >>

5. Many cloud services are based on your peak times
or your maximum load. So you end up paying for a
full load, even when you are not working at full
capacity. Search for a cloud solution that lets you pay
a flat fee per resource for your service so the price
always stays the same.
This price should include everything you need from
your cloud solution, both hardware and software, and
should not fluctuate according to use. Budgeting your
cost of service and planning for growth is easy when
you have a flat fee for your cloud services.
Avoid a Storm by...
Paying Only for What You Use
When looking for a cloud service,
make sure you pay only for what
you use.
Pay-as-you-go strategy from ClickSoftware allows adjustments at any phase >>

6. This is where cloud implementation can really show its
strength. When you implement a cloud solution with a
stateless server, there is only one database for hundreds
of servers. Every time something happens in one server,
it commits the information to that one database.
Since nothing is held in memory on any given server,
every transaction gets the most updated information. As
you compare expansion options, consider the advantages
of stateless servers when it comes to upgrades. With
seamless sharing among all servers, you only need to
upgrade your solution in the central database—all servers
will automatically receive the latest versions.
Avoid a Storm by...
Sharing Seamlessly
Across Workforces
As your company grows, it becomes
harder and harder to share
information between workforces.
Get free technical upgrades in a stateless server cloud environment with ClickSoftware >>

7. Small and medium businesses are constantly challenged
to innovate in order to succeed.
The cloud is the ideal place to look for innovative
Software as a Service (SaaS) implementations.
Small & Medium
Businesses on
the Cloud
2

8. But if you don’t plan
properly, a storm can
brew with high costs
and lost productivity.
Follow the tips below
to get your business up
and running efficiently.
SaaS is like the fast-food
offering for software—simply
log in and away you go. No IT
hassles, no IT headaches.
IT

9. Getting a Cloud-to-Cloud and
Cloud-to-On-Premise Solution
Avoid a Storm by...
You never know what kind of back-end systems your
business will require in the future, and your Service-in-
the-Cloud must integrate with your choices. Check out all
the options, including Cloud-to-Cloud implementations
as well as Cloud-to-On-Premise options. For instance,
if you implement a CRM system for your customer
information, your service solution should work together
with this system.
By choosing a SaaS solution with multiple integration
APIs, your service solution on the cloud will have full
integration to your on-site CRM when you need it.
If your CRM system is already in the cloud—such as
salesforce.com—you can choose a cloud solution for a
worry-free full-service implementation.
Ledcor rolls out service in 12 days with ClickSoftware cloud solution >>
When choosing a SaaS solution, make
sure that the integration possibilities are
endless.

10. For companies that want to expand their Sales &
Service capabilities, a fully unified service solution
on the cloud is the best choice. The right solution
should be easy, simple and smart to use.
Sales & Service
Integration on
the Cloud
3

11. Challenges will include
greater consolidation of
the systems that support
the business, magnified by
the need to go to different
vendors to support best
of breed solutions for
sales, customer support,
mobility, and service
delivery.
It should give the entire
organization—from sales to
call centers to field employees
—a new edge to their service
business.

12. Selecting a Fully Unified Solution
Avoid a Storm by...
These apps are usually simple to use, but if they are not
fully unified with your existing sales platform, then you
are in for a big surprise. A fully integrated system will
save all this trouble and put you in the efficient mode
right from the start. Make sure that the User Interface
is fully integrated, or joined, with the platform you are
using now. Check the workflows, and make sure the
terminology matches what you are using today.
Simple actions should use the same language, and
should follow the same style. By choosing a system that
is fully unified with your existing sales platform, you can
instantly use the functionality as intended—without
sacrificing performance and productivity—as the team
will adapt it easily and completely.
Today’s sales & service platforms
are moving towards an application
model, or apps, which can quickly
improve performance and make
business more efficient.
ClickSoftware has a fully integrated workforce management solution for salesforce.com >>

13. Getting Mobility That Networks
Avoid a Storm by...
Look for a mobility solution that connects your field
workers, call center agents, and sales managers—and
provides the option to add smart mobile apps to expand
performance. Networking functionality can come in
the form of real-time messaging from a call center
agent telling a field engineer about the next customer.
A field engineer can notify a sales rep about an upsell
opportunity, and a sales manager can contact a team
member or retrieve a report while between meetings.
Add more mobile apps to create even more networking
functionality, such as finding co-workers in the area,
locating spare parts, and requesting time off or sick
leave. The possibilities of networking and collaboration
will continue to grow as enterprise mobile apps are fast
becoming the easy and affordable way to expand the
mobile environment.
Networking and collaboration
are essential for today’s service
industry, and mobility acts as the
conductor of these two elements.
Get enterprise mobile apps for networking from the ClickAppStore >>

14. Available via the cloud or on-premise,
our solutions provide organizations
with end-to-end visibility and control
over the entire service process, while
providing them with tools to drive
their business forward by optimizing
forecasting, planning, scheduling, mobile
workforce management, and customer
communication.
by
ClickSoftware solutions boost productivity and increase
customer satisfaction, while decreasing overall service
costs. That’s why ClickSoftware is the number one
choice to deliver superb business performance to
organizations of all sizes, in all service sectors.
About ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware is a global leader of
automated workforce management
and optimization solutions for the
service enterprise.
CLICKEXPRESS

15. Contact us
www.clickexpress.com
Americas +1 (888) 438-3308 (from US or Canada) or +1 (781) 272-5903, +55 (0) 213-958-0434 (from Brazil)
Western Europe +44 (0) 1628 607000, Central and Eastern Europe +49 (0) 69 489-813-0
Asia Pacific +972 3 765-9400 (Tel Aviv), +61 (0) 3 9946-6400 (Melbourne), +91 124-494-7050 (New Delhi)
www.clicksoftware.com
Publication Notice
The information contained herein does not constitute a warranty of any kind. ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. reserves the right to revise this publication and make changes without notification.
ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. assumes no liability for losses incurred as a result of information contained herein.
Copyright © 2013 ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be copied without the express written permission of: ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd.