BOTTLENECKS AND CHOKEPOINTS

THE SITUATION
OPQ Services is a large commercial and residential heating, air-conditioning, refrigeration, and appliance services company in a major city. By long tradition, OPQ Services' commercial invoices to its better customers require payment 30 days from final delivery or completion of services. The problem is that a typical major commercial air-conditioning repair involves a sequential chain of events: A technician is sent to diagnose the problem, parts are ordered and received, the parts are installed, any cosmetic repairs (wall cutouts for access) are made, and the repairs are tested. The problem has become that recently, bills to OPQ Services from their vendors and contractors are coming in sooner than invoices are going out.

CURRENT TECHNOLOGY
Managers and supervisors familiar with specific jobs or clients may be aware of individual problems completing a given jobs, but general patterns of delay or obstruction that cross several jobs may be hard to pinpoint.

THE VIEWSENDER SOLUTION
Search and analysis tools at the viewSender Server can explore captured screen text to help link job tickets across vendor invoices, shipping documents, e-mail communications, formal letters and other computer screen displays, and discover patterns, bottlenecks, and chokepoints. For example, these may be expressed as a consistently large number of e-mails related to shipping errors handled by a particular employee, or return shipping documents for incorrectly-ordered parts, or frequent requests from customers wondering why their service technician didn't show up.