In this webinar recap, feel free to follow along here and listen in as we join GoSaaS team members Tom Nelson, PLM SME (Subject Matter Expert), and Saeed Ahmad, CRM Principal Consultant who will explain the benefits of a digitally connected enterprise and how that eliminates "information islands." You will also discover how companies have connected their teams resulting in an improved engineering response time, ending customer-related problems.

From the beginning stages of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) 1.0 to the current version of PLM 4.0, the evolution of PLM has come with great advancements that create a digitally connected enterprise in which information silos are no longer an issue.

The focus of this webinar zoned in on the voice of the customer, and more specifically how everyone is in communication throughout the digital field service. Information is updated in real-time, allowing the customer service representative and the customer to relate problems and solutions back and forth easily and immediately. 

Here's our Digital Thread use case:

Organizations who typically have "islands", meaning the service case and support centers are completely separate from Quality, Quality Manufacturing and Problem Resolution. These two entities are now able to talk to each other, including everyone in the resolution process with real-time notifications. 

In the two images above, we can see how the two entities (Service Case and Quality Notification) migrate from being information islands and move onto the digitally connected service with no barrier.

The webinar also covered the following case studies:

Case Study 1 

For a device registered to a company on a service portal, customers can use that portal to create a case for any issues involving the registered device. In this case study, the customer finds their laptop screen flickering. To get it fixed, they start the process of opening a case number with a CSR (Customer Service Representative), who receives an email notification with the device number and reported issue. Built into the system is a database of articles regarding various solutions to common problems, in which the CSR can respond to the customer with, instructing the customer to follow the steps in the article. The articles are a way to provide the customer with an easy potential fix that they can do themselves, for smaller issues. However, this customer reports the screen still flickering. The next step involves the customer sending another email about the issue to the Customer Service Representative. From this point, the Representative sends the issue to Quality Management (QM), creating a new case number in the Oracle Cloud. The Quality Management team receives the new case number notification including comments left by the CSR with a detailed description of the issue. QM decides they need to look at the laptop and requests that the customer sends it directly to them. The team discovers that it is a cable connector issue causing the flickering, and that component will need to be replaced. In doing so, the Quality Manager will leave comments to the CSR with details of the issue as well as how it was resolved. Throughout the entire process thus far, both the CSR and QM teams have been in contact with the customer. As the laptop is fixed, the customer is notified and updated.

Using Oracle's Innovation Management feature, writing down the issue and how it was resolved can help store this information to be saved and used for future product releases, in order to prevent these issues from arising again. In doing this, information is not separate but everyone involved in the process of problem solving has access to it and also can communicate these ideas in real-time. Now, the product issue has been fixed and that issue has been taken into account for the next product release - increasing overall efficiency while minimizing effort.

Case Study 2 

 In this case, a CT scanning machine takes too long to warm up after starting. The customer creates a case with the CSR, who creates a new issue number with Quality because it is considered a performance issue. This product requires a manual repair, which involves a field service team. Service Cloud communicates with Quality in order to resolve the issue. Quality now can input their CAPA to the system - linked directly to the customer report, and can now follow the workflow to fix the problem. One of the possible routes to take is to launch a root cause analysis by generating another object / workflow to fix the system.

Quality Management can now share their findings with the field service group evaluating the problem in the field, as all the models of that machine will need to be updated in order to prevent this issue from occurring again in any other machine. They can also now identify the corrective actions - the power supply needs an upgrade - and put the full disposition, photos and any information pertinent to the case into the service cloud through Oracle. 

Quality can notify the field service team, who will supply a new power source and the field service reps will work with the customer to find a time to set up the fix. In the process of fixing the issue, an Engineering Change Order (ECO) is created, changing the structure and Bill of Materials for the product, ensuring that the inventory will be reworked to include the new power supply for all future manufacturing. As with the first case study, all aspects of the solution are interconnected. As the problem was identified, everything is noted and taken into account for the other machines currently in operation, as well as future models.

The CSR can see the case number from Quality, who can see all comments and can communicate with either the customer or field service to fix the device, which connects all services and eliminates the information “islands.”

Want to learn more? Don't forget that you can view the webinar recording here.  If your organization is suffering from information "islands", check out availability here and schedule some time directly with our team to discuss your PLM and CRM needs.