Insights
What we learn connecting Service Operations
Lessons from the senior people who connect the call center, the field, the parts counter, and finance from the first call to the paid invoice. Written for CEOs, CFOs, and COOs deciding which handoff to fix next; one guide is for your IT team.
Featured insight
Point of view · Field service performance
First-time fix is won at the dispatch desk
Every second truck roll is a visit your customer waited for twice. Most start with a schedule the dispatcher doesn’t trust.
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Aftermarket
Your aftermarket starts on the original sales order
Parts capture and contract renewals depend on recording each unit as a serviceable asset the day it ships.
Microsoft roadmap
Microsoft now ships changes continuously. How to stay in control of what reaches your people
Release waves are gone. Who owns the update calendar, where to test, and what to tell your people before the screen changes.
The Superagency Series
AI helps new hires most when veterans’ fixes are on record
What support-desk research says about newer workers and AI, and what it means for the trades.
Field Service
Your field-to-finance connection has a February 2027 deadline. Put it in this year’s budget
Microsoft's original Field Service link to Finance ends Feb 28, 2027. What changes for billing, what to budget this year, and how to sequence the move.
The Superagency Series
The return on AI depends on operating-model work nobody budgets for
Organizational factors decide most of AI's impact. Where the redesign starts, and who has to own it.
The Superagency Series
Mapping the jagged frontier: how to decide which work stays human
AI is strong on some tasks and wrong on others that look just as hard. A test for which side each task sits on.
Field service performance
First-time fix is won at the dispatch desk
Every second truck roll is a visit your customer waited for twice. Most start with a schedule the dispatcher doesn't trust.
Managed services
Stabilize first, then add the agents
Agents on an unstable system automate the errors. What to fix first after launch, and how to add agents one function at a time.
Heavy equipment
The technician gap is a knowledge problem you can start on today
Most diesel technician openings replace people who leave. How service leaders capture a veteran's know-how on the systems they already run.
Resource management
Record-low utilization is a staffing-data problem
Firms have the work. They can't see who is free, with which skill, next week.
Dynamics for Good
AI widens the door to work for people with disabilities. Employers decide how far
AI tools are helping people with disabilities do their jobs. Whether that widens the door to work depends on the employer.
Enablement
Time entry is a retention tool
Consultants judge how well a firm runs by the Friday timesheet. Capture time from the day's work instead.
Finance and operations
What your regions share decides how to move finance without risking the quarter
When a phased rollout protects the close, when a single cutover is the safer call, and how to tell which one your regions need.
Finance
Leaving Deltek Vision is a decision about how your firm runs
The forced move off Vision is the moment to decide how projects, people, and finance work together.
Service Operations
Where service businesses lose money: the handoffs
The margin leaks between the call, dispatch, parts, the technician, and the invoice. How to find the handoff that costs you most, and fix it first.
Enablement
Five decisions to write down so your team can change course without consultants
Five early decisions set what every later change costs. Write each one down with its reason, and your team can change course without a consultant.
Enablement
The test comes after launch day. What it takes for your team to own Dynamics 365
Knowledge transfer, admin readiness, and the handover that decides whether you pay a consultant for every change.