Equips vs. ServiceChannel

Equips is great to handle multiple units at different locations and maintain stats. As for managing 3rd party vendors, Equips still puts some of the responsibility on me to respond to 3rd party invoices. This was well Managed when I first stared with Equips over 3 years ago. As of lately, this seems to be slacking on a bigger scale. Almost every time I make a service call for our color copiers, I later receive an invoice from the vendor, and an invoice-reminder from the vendor. This is currently an ongoing issue which concerns me about adding any more units in the future.

ServiceChannel is well suited for companies that have multiple locations or a few very large buildings. In my experience the system allows one person to manage 150 to 200 small retail locations but when you add restaurants and buildings with lots of equipment then it gets more complex and the number of locations that one person can effectively manage is greatly reduced. You can effectively manager 50 or 30,000+ locations with this system if you have the personal. There are several free or cost-effective programs available if you are only looking to manage a dozen or so locations.

Incentivized

• Handles communication well.
• Easy to use portal.
• Quick response time.

• Up to the minute updates, so when you go to look up a work order, it is live with the most recent notes from vendor, office, etc.
• File retention - it keeps all WOs so you can go back and research previous issues for investigating, asking questions of the vendor, etc.
• Asset Tagging - it allows you to track all of your assets

Incentivized

• I still get invoices from the 3rd party vendor. Equips has inconsistent directions on how to handle this.

• This system will always require someone to actively be available to convert proposals. There are still delays depending on the human element of the process.
• Lots of features and some are not always intuitive.
• Integration to the current procedure would be nice. Seems this requires the addition of a new system through this Service Channel application/Website. If it were to integrate to current offerings such as SalesForce it may be helpful.

Incentivized

I gave it a high rating because it's an easy to use platform.

• It walks you step by step to goal accomplishment
• It doesn't drown you in tech speak or unnecessary steps
• It appears to be created by the busy facilities manager that just needs the good stuff with no fluff.
• Not to be rude but if a facilities manager can't function in SC easily they may not be in the right field.

Incentivized

Sue Thomas is the reason...

• If a vendor has a template to upload I can ask for her support and it's done.
• If I need immediate data for a meeting and I'm away from my computer she can grab it for me on the fly.
• I've walked out of meetings looking like a stud based on the foreground work Sue did to prepare me.
• If there is a technical issues she will find a work around for me so I can focus on my job not my admin work.
• Clear and timely communication on every and all open issues.

Incentivized

When we implemented SC it was many years ago and the system was different. I cannot speak to implementing it currently.

Incentivized

Equips is more affordable in comparison and we still get to use Ricoh through them.

The only other experience I have with platforms such as SC is during my time at Starbucks. They created an in house work order system that was very detailed and cumbersome to work around. The good news is that once I learned Sbux's system all other systems are a piece of cake. I was able to manipulate SC within hours of working on it

Incentivized

• We've saved money by switching to Equips.

• ServiceChannel has allowed me to manage my vendors in a more efficient manner by providing scorecards which in return allows me to provide the best service to my field team.

Incentivized