You can access these product enhancements after July 25, 2024.

Table of contents

Highlights

Make smarter spending decisions to get more from your budget

Balancing a tight budget with unpredictable expenses is a major challenge. One large bill can break your budget — and if you don’t use it, you may lose it. With Budget Insights you’ll be able to make confident decisions and avoid overspending by seeing at-a-glance how potential expenses fit into your budget.

• Keep your budget on track: Decide to start work now or wait until later based on how much budget you have left.

• Monitor your spend in real-time: See what’s already incurred and what’s forecasted based on work in progress.

• Take action from anywhere: Quickly review work orders and proposals on mobile to make the right call — and keep your finance team happy.

Try it free for 30 days! Talk to your Account Manager to take advantage of this limited-time offer for subscribers by May 31, 2024. Available in April 2024.

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See which providers could deliver on your biggest opportunities for better service and lower costs

When you spend as much as 80% of your budget on external providers, the potential to save up to 30% with better vendors is a game-changer. Now in Provider Search, you’ll see a ranking of your cost-saving opportunities along with the best providers available to strengthen your network.*

• Find your weak spots: See exactly how much you could save and improve with upgraded providers, based on unprecedented performance and pricing data from more than 70,000 providers and 180 million work orders on ServiceChannel.

• Identify the best providers: See how much each provider could impact your performance and cost, then view their profile to see how their capabilities and metrics fit your needs.

• Test new providers quickly: Effortlessly invite providers, ensure compliance, assign work, and monitor progress all in one place. With new opportunities every month, you can continuously improve performance.

* Provider Search and network opportunities are available in the U.S. only and will be visible if the Provider Search feature is enabled in your account. Talk to your Customer Success Manager for more information.

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Plan your capital investments based on validated asset data

Make proactive decisions about maintaining and replacing your big-ticket equipment with accurate records for total cost of ownership (TCO). With Asset Validation, you can capture any missing information and regularly verify the quality of your asset data across all your locations — and now you can enable your providers to help.

• Maintain an accurate asset register: Capture the service history, condition, and cost insights you need for capital planning to maximize your ROI.

• Get help from your providers: Get asset condition validated in the field with every work order to avoid stagnant data or repeated audits.

• Justify your investments: Proactively replace assets at the end of their useful life to reduce downtime, revenue loss, and unnecessary expenses.

Talk to your Account Manager or Customer Success Manager to learn more about this add-on.

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Work order management

Act quickly with the redesigned landing page

Stay on top of your follow-up, with more actionable pointers for what to do next. The new landing page design keeps all existing info, while adding five more issues for you to monitor:

• Work orders with unresolved action required notes

• Unsatisfactory work orders

• Completed pending confirmation work orders

• Rejected invoices

• On hold, rejected, or approved proposals

See how many work orders have unresolved action required notes, and follow up where action is needed. And save three of your favorite QuickView filters, so you can quickly jump to what’s most important to you.

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Your work orders often need some follow up action from your team or providers. Now when you add notes to work orders and check Action Required, you can track whether those actions are getting resolved. You can filter for unresolved action required notes in the Work Orders list, and you can see how many are unresolved on the redesigned landing page, to quickly identify where your attention is needed.

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See just the work order notes added by users

You no longer need to sort through a long list of system-generated notes to see the notes added by users. Now you can filter for user notes on the Work Order Details page to quickly find updates and stay on top of progress.

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Keep additional approval codes when changing categories

When editing a work order, proposal, or invoice, you no longer need to manually re-enter additional approval codes when changing the category, because the values are retained.

Filter for invoices faster

The filters on the Invoices page now behave like those on the Work Orders page. You can add multiple filters before clicking Apply, so you can find the invoice you’re looking for faster.

Edit existing RFPs and notify providers of changes

You can now edit requests for proposals (RFPs) after they have been created and submitted. Providers will be notified if changes are made or attachments are added, so that they can generate an updated proposal. You can also see a history of any changes made, including date and time stamps, providing you with an audit trail. With this increased flexibility, you can keep providers updated and avoid miscommunication.

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Search and filter by GL codes and additional approval codes

You can now search and filter work orders, proposals, and invoices by a list of additional approval codes and GL codes. With faster searching, you can save time and remain compliant with your budgets, audits, and financial reporting.

See history of invoices related to a work order

You and your providers can now review the history of all invoices associated with a work order. See a list and count of related invoices, the history of all actions taken on them, and detailed information about each. This audit trail increases transparency, saves time, and helps quickly identify any discrepancies.

Reuse invoice numbers from rejected invoices

Administrator-level users can now configure whether invoice numbers from rejected invoices can be reused. When enabled, an invoice number can be reused if it’s not already used on another invoice with a different status. Invoice searches will return all invoices with the same number, showing you the complete history for that number.

Act on multiple proposals for a work order in one place

The ability to review and action multiple proposals related to a single work order in one place, which was introduced in 2023, will now be enabled for all customers.

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Get the right parts on order to your providers quickly

When a provider places a work order into Parts on Order status, you can now track whether they have ordered parts in Inventory Manager and see details on the parts to be ordered. Providers can be required to indicate a part number, description, quantity, or image, like a photo of the part or the receipt. You can see this information in Inventory Manager, and you also have the option to take over and order the part for the provider. Ultimately, you can reduce the time spent waiting for parts and resolve work orders faster.

Talk to your Customer Success or Account Manager for more information.

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Site Planning

Enforce your brand standards with a new Analytics dashboard for your site audit data

Data from your Site Planning audits is now available in Analytics for easy reporting, condition monitoring, and compliance tracking. Use the new Site Planning standard dashboard in Analytics to access new data and insights across these four tabs: Audit Summary, Audit Details, Report by Checklist Item, and Audit Trends. Now it’s easier to monitor trends, compare the details, and enforce your brand standards.

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Speed up site audits with save and edit across web and mobile

Site Planning Audits are now more flexible than ever. You can save an audit without completing all items on the checklist. Additionally, you can now create, edit, and save audits on either desktop or mobile. This way, you can create the audit on mobile while on location, and then return to it on web to add more detail later. You can also search and filter audits on web or mobile by their status: Open, In Progress, or Completed.

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Asset Manager

Track your asset data quality in the asset summary dashboard

The new asset summary dashboard in Asset Manager gives you an overview of your asset portfolio, and a deep dive view into assets at each location. Set corporate standards for asset data validation, track your progress, and identify locations needing updates all in one place, so you can efficiently maintain your asset register over time.

The asset summary dashboard is coming soon to all customers.

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Get help from your providers with asset photos and meter readings

With your permission, providers can now view, add, and remove attached photos of assets in the ServiceChannel Provider app, giving you remote visibility into the condition and identity of your assets and helping maintain the accuracy your asset registry.

You can also enable providers to capture asset meter readings on mobile. While servicing an asset on a work order, the provider can view and update the meter reading, so you can adjust your planned maintenance program based on actual usage.

Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Support to enable provider meter readings. 

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Standardize your data on asset types and brands

Align your asset types and brands with industry standards, so you can leverage insights and benchmarking on costs and lifetime across your asset portfolio. Standardization also helps with integrating data across systems, like ERP and IoT. Then filter by brand in the assets list to quickly identify all the equipment from a given supplier.

Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Support to enable this feature. 

Streamline uploads with the improved asset template

We’ve streamlined the asset upload process so that it is more efficient and less prone to error. With its improved error handling, the new asset template enables you to spend less time fixing errors and formatting large spreadsheets while improving upload efficiency and data integrity. With an improved asset data upload process, you can spend less time maintaining your asset data while simultaneously building confidence in its quality.

Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Support to enable this feature.

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Location dashboards

Show planned maintenance schedules to your location staff

You can now enable location staff to see planned maintenance schedules with description, trade, frequency, and provider information on location dashboards, plus a link to the work order page. This reduces surprises and escalations to corporate FM teams, while helping staff prepare for upcoming maintenance more effectively.

Automatically defer work orders based on your criteria

For new work orders that meet your conditions, now you can automatically override the work order status and add a canned note. For example, you can change the status to deferred and note that work will be assigned later. This gives you more control over spend and speed, while automating the previous manual process.

Limit which work orders are shown for reviews required

To help location staff focus where feedback is needed most, you now have more ways to filter the work orders that appear in the Reviews Required tab on location dashboards. You can exclude work orders based on trade, category, and priority, and status by going to Edit Dashboard Settings. 

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Provider experience

Save time for providers completing client profiles

Providers can now spend less time filling out client profiles. Rather than re-entering client details manually, client information is automatically filled for the Dispatch Preferences, Client Contacts, Client Rates, and Banking sections based on the previous entry.

Improved cross-environment work order search for providers

If a technician performs work in both the US and EU ServiceChannel environments, they can now be prompted to switch between these environments when a work order is not found in their current environment using the ServiceChannel Provider app.

Talk to your Customer Success Manager for more information.

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Localization

Customizable decimal separators

You and your providers can now choose between the decimal point or decimal comma for displaying numbers, allowing you to work in the format that matches your region.

Recent updates

Check out some recent updates you may have missed, and see all the weekly release notes here.

• Unsubscribe from email alerts. You can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of email notifications to stop following specific alerts.Top of Form

• Assign providers when action is required. If you select the Action Required checkbox when adding a note to a work order, the assigned provider email address is automatically added as a recipient for the note. Contact your Customer Success Manager to enable this feature.Bottom of Form

• Overall score in site audit reports. The Overall Score column is included in the XLS file when you download audit data from Site Planning.

• Create linked requests in location dashboard. You can click on Create Linked Request to create a linked work order in the View Open Work Orders tab of Dashboard 2.0Strengthen your provider network with time-saving tools. It’s now easier than ever to track regular business reviews, discover providers that align with your goals, and adjust your rankings to maintain the right mix.

• Avoid paying for landlord responsibilities. Keep track of the repairs your landlord is responsible for and automatically dispatch work orders to them.

• Schedule services faster with the new Planned Maintenance module. See all your recurring services on a new dashboard and create services with fewer clicks to ensure that nothing stands in the way of your proactive facilities strategy.

• Reduce downtime and revenue loss with asset condition monitoring. Automatically dispatch a provider when a connected sensor identifies a problem, and then know when the problem has been solved.

• Uplevel your compliance to avoid risks. Stay compliant with evolving refrigerant emissions regulations, add compliance tracking to your maintenance program, and give technicians the information they need to get the job done safely and correctly.

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Strengthen your provider network with time-saving tools

ServiceChannel recently introduced the game-changing Framework for a Strong Provider Network based on decades of experience by leading facilities management experts. The new framework provides the industry’s first clear, strategic model to uphold your brand experience and ensure business continuity – all with the right mix of the highest quality, most cost-effective service providers in the market.

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We’re committed to delivering the tools you need so proactive provider management can become a seamless part of your organization’s standard operating procedures. Here is how we are helping you manage key actions with this release.

Action 1: Measure performance

Establish clear performance metrics and use data to objectively assess provider service quality.

Track status of provider reviews in Compliance Manager

Conducting regular business reviews is key to improving the performance and cost-effectiveness of your network. To make this part of standard operations, you can now track the status of your provider reviews in Compliance Manager.

Get started by setting the due date for each provider review. Then record your notes from each review to see trends and ensure issues are promptly addressed. 

Track Provider Reviews >

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Action 2: Identify areas to improve

Benchmark provider performance against industry standards. Provide a scorecard and feedback for improvement. Consider replacements if necessary.

Schedule reports in your Contractor Scorecard

Your scorecard, introduced last year, includes scores for speed, quality, engagement, and price. Plus, you can benchmark providers in your network against each other and the overall market.

• See your all-stars and build on their strengths. 

• Pinpoint recurring issues to improve service for your most profitable locations. 

• Coach providers who may be underperforming during regular business reviews. 

• Decide which providers to reward with more work and when to use Provider Search to find replacements.

Review your scorecard by clicking on the drop-down menu > Analytics > SC Dashboards > Contractor Scorecard(contact your ServiceChannel Administrator for access). 

Note: On July 24, 2024, the original Scorecard 1.0 will be discontinued. Be sure to set up scheduled reports in the updated Scorecard to gain insights for your regularly scheduled business reviews.

See My Scorecard 

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Action 3: Test new providers

Onboard new providers regularly and evaluate their initial performance to ensure they meet your organization’s standards.

See provider strengths at a glance in Provider Search

To help you choose the best provider available for your needs, you’ll now see each provider’s strengths in Provider Search results. Badges include Cost-Effectiveness, Top Quality, Top Speed, and Top Engagement for providers performing in the top 25% for the selected trade. Highlights include Trade Match, Industry Match, New Local Provider, Office Nearby, Self-Performer, Diverse Business, and Highly Responsive (fast to accept invitations).

Click on Provider Search in the navigation menu and conduct a search to see this in action.*

Find Top Providers >

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Save time finding alternate providers

To save you time and keep your process on track when your invitation to a new provider is declined or expired, you will now see suggestions for similar providers on the Invitations page, in the emails notifying you of declined invites, and on the search results page.*

To see your invitations, go to menu > click Compliance (Private Network)> hover over Contractors > and click Invitations.

See My Invitations >

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Rank providers from your invitations page

Quickly rank your new providers as soon as they accept your invitation with the new Rank Provider button on the invitations page.

To get started, click on the drop-down menu > Compliance (Private Network) > hover over Contractors > Invitations > then click the Rank Provider button.

Assign new providers more quickly and easily

Easily manage your provider assignments with the Provider Assignment Waitlist. You can quickly scroll through available providers at the top of the page and assign providers or adjust your current provider assignments. To use the updated provider assignment tool:

• Go to menu > Locations & Provider Assignments

• Option 1: Click on Assign Providers on one of the provider cards in the Unassigned Provider Waitlist.

• Option 2: Click on the + (plus sign) button to assign providers

  • Quickly find providers by typing their name.

  • Then, select the correct locations for each trade to easily switch your provider assignments.

Assign My Providers >

Action 4: Expand on success

Grow relationships with high-performing providers while ensuring backups are prepared and dependable.

Rank providers by service type

When you have multiple providers assigned to a location, you can now easily keep track of their specialized responsibilities in your rankings.

Service types like Warranty, Landlord, Internal, Parts Order, CapEx, Government, Deferred Service, and Planned Maintenance make it easy to assign providers to the right work orders.

To get started, go to menu > Locations & Provider Assignments> and click on Reserved Ranks to assign service types.

Rank My Providers >

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Track status of new provider reviews in Compliance Manager

Once a new provider is added to your network and demonstrates solid performance on their initial work orders, you can start tracking their reviews along with your other providers in Compliance Manager. Early and frequent reviews of new providers are important so you can:

• Set good practices from the start to ensure they continue to meet your expectations.

• Pinpoint issues right away to make sure they don’t become bigger problems.

• Decide which providers to reward with even more work and when to use Provider Search to find replacements.

Get started by setting the due date for each provider review. Then record your notes from each review, informed by your Contractor Scorecard to see trends and ensure issues are promptly addressed.

Track Provider Reviews >

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Avoid paying for landlord responsibilities

It’s important to ensure that the repairs and maintenance defined as the landlord’s responsibility in your lease get assigned to the landlord and don’t come out of your budget.

Now you don’t have to check your lease records every time you get a new service request, because you can track landlord responsibilities right in ServiceChannel. Have your lease data at your fingertips and automatically dispatch work covered by your lease to an internal provider, who can share it with your landlord.

And with the new integration between ServiceChannel and the Accruent Lucernex lease management system, you can automatically sync landlord responsibilities as leases change.

• Reduce your operating costs. ServiceChannel automatically dispatches work orders to the provider assigned to landlord responsibilities for each location, whether that’s an internal provider or directly to the landlord, so you avoid paying out of pocket.

• Analyze spend based on landlord responsibilities. With your landlord responsibilities tracked in ServiceChannel by location, trade, and category, you can identify opportunities to renegotiate leases and avoid future expenses.

• Flexible to meet your needs. You have the option to manually add landlord responsibilities, connect to Accruent Lucernex, or integrate with any lease management solution through ServiceChannel’s open API.

To get started, go to the Locations & Provider Assignments page > select a location > click on the new Landlord tab. To edit landlord responsibilities, users need the Location Admin role.

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Schedule services faster with the Planned Maintenance module

From pest control to fire and life safety, an effective planned maintenance (PM) program is critical to deliver on customer expectations, so we’re making that easier than ever for you to manage.

• See all your PM services on a new dashboard. The redesigned Planned Maintenance module gives you a simpler and more intuitive experience, starting with a holistic view of your entire PM program on the new dashboard.

• Create services with fewer clicks. The streamlined workflow for creating and editing planned maintenance services ensures that nothing stands in the way of your proactive facilities strategy.

Contact your CSM or Support to enable the new Planned Maintenance module.

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Reduce downtime and revenue loss with asset condition monitoring

To prevent downtime, revenue loss, and disappointed customers, it is essential to understand the condition of assets in the field and to be alerted as soon as an issue arises — or even before it happens. This is especially critical for refrigerated assets in grocery and convenience stores with the risk of lost product. 

With the new integration of ServiceChannel and Accruent Observe energy management and IoT remote monitoring software, providers can be automatically dispatched when a sensor identifies a problem — and show you the minute it’s been resolved.

• Reduce asset downtime with automation. Create work orders automatically in ServiceChannel based on your customizable rules for alarms and thresholds in Observe, so you can troubleshoot and get providers onsite faster.

• Verify that equipment is operational. After an alarm in Observe automatically creates a work order in ServiceChannel, you can prevent the work order from being closed until the alarm is cleared and the asset is operational again.

  Contact your CSM or AM to learn more about connecting your asset sensors to ServiceChannel.

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Uplevel your compliance to avoid risks

Add compliance tracking to your planned maintenance program

Compliance is all about tracking that you’re playing by the rules. To make that easier at scale, you can now designate a planned maintenance (PM) service type as Compliance.

After your provider completes the compliance work order, they can record the outcome status as Pass, Fail, or Pass with remedial work recommended. They can also capture the compliance validity dates, so you can take action before your compliance expires. Plus, the new Compliance Dashboard in Analytics helps you identify failed work orders, avoid fines, and keep your facilities up to code.

To create a compliance PM service, first contact your CSM or Support to have this feature enabled. Then go to menu > click on Planned Maintenance > click on Create Service > and select Compliance from the Planned Maintenance Type menu.

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Stay compliant with changing refrigerant regulations

ServiceChannel’s refrigerant tracking solution is a critical tool for many of the largest grocers in the world, who rely on it to stay compliant with emissions regulations and their own sustainability commitments.

With upcoming EPA regulatory changes, industries beyond grocery will be required to track refrigerant leaks.

Enhancements to refrigerant tracking make it easier than ever for you to track your compliance with changing greenhouse gas emission regulations.

• Track EPA certification of providers. Require external technicians to upload their certification document before they can check-in to refrigerated asset work orders.  

• Enforce your compliance standards. During check-out, you can require providers to acknowledge compliance with your organization’s standards for quarterly and annual leak inspections. 

• Keep complete records of compliance. Track multiple leak records on a single leak event, to ensure you have complete documentation for reporting to regulatory agencies and the details you need to proactively reduce leakage. 

• Get started quickly. Start tracking refrigerant use only at locations where refrigerated assets already exist in ServiceChannel, and then capture additional data on those assets at your own pace. 
  

 If you’re interested in learning more about refrigerant tracking, connect with your AM to learn more. If you’re already a user, reach out to your CSM for more information.

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Require technicians to complete checklists before check-in 

To help ensure that your technicians have the information they need to get a job done correctly and safely, you can now prevent them from checking in to a work order until they have completed the required items on a checklist.

You can use checklists to ask questions, to capture file attachments, and now to require that they click on a link to additional information. Example use cases include: to require acknowledgement of your company’s standard operating procedures (SOP), give instructions for accessing the roof, share precautions about hazardous materials like asbestos, or track the permits required before work can be performed to comply with health and safety rules.

To create a required checklist, go to menu > Administration > Tools > Checklist > Add New Checklist > then add a question under Check-in Segment > and select Answer Required. 

See Configuring Checklists >

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More enhancements

Move assets between locations on mobile

To improve the accuracy of your asset data, authorized users can now move assets between locations using the ServiceChannel Mobile or ServiceChannel Provider apps. Using either the asset search or validation scan functions, the app will now search your entire asset register to locate the correct asset. Your authorized employees and providers can then confirm the asset location change, automatically updating your asset records and saving you time.  

Connect with your CSM or AM to learn more about the Asset Validation add-on.

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Easily configure multi-level proposal approval rules

It’s now easier than ever to create and edit multi-level proposal approval rules. We’ve supplemented the template process with a new, intuitive web experience that saves you time and avoids errors when configuring levels and rules. You can continue to use the template process if preferred.

To get started, go to menu > Admin > New MLP Configurationunder Proposals. (Available after July 25, 2024.)

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Make proposal decisions with the full picture

When there are multiple proposals related to a work order, it helps to understand what actions have already been taken. Now, when taking action on a proposal, you will see a Reason column with explanations of past proposal actions. Additionally, you can now click the tracking number, which will open a tab with more detail about the associated work order. With all the relevant information at your fingertips, you can make faster, better informed decisions when authorizing new work.

To see these changes, click Approve or take another action on a proposal for a work order with multiple proposals.

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Automatically link location attachments to new work orders

You can now automatically link location attachments to work orders at the time of creation, so you don’t have to manually attach them later. This saves time and equips your providers with all of the information they need to get started immediately.

To get started, upload the desired location attachments and then add the filenames to the Attachment Name column in your issue list template.

Learn more from the experts

Learn about all the updates and best practices directly from our experts in the upcoming Product Release Webinar on 7/16/24 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. Register now to attend live or get the recording.

 
*Provider Search and network opportunities are available in the U.S. only and will be visible if the Provider Search feature is enabled in your account.

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