ServiceCEO July 2004 Newsletter

Technology Tips

Have you noticed your computer slowing down? "Spyware" could be the culprit!

"Spyware" is a phrase used for software programs that install themselves on your computer without your knowledge or permission and then track your movements on the Internet.

The programs are used by companies to track demographic statistics on you for pop-up ads and targeted e-mail campaigns. Even if you have pop-up blocking software you most likely are infected and Spyware is using up your computer resources and performance speed.

Want to rid yourself of Spyware?

Here are two free tools that we have found to be extremely effective in finding Spyware programs and eliminating them from your computer:

Management Tips

Need help promoting your business? Want some practical advice for generating PR?
Hiring an outside PR firm can be costly. In the spirit of guerrilla marketing, this do-it-yourself 7-day guide is not high-dollar marketing, but rather marketing that relies on your time, energy and imagination.

To learn more, read this article from Entrepreneur Magazine: Implement a PR Strategy in 7 Days

Drop Us A Line!

Send us management & technology tips you find interesting. And, if you want your company to appear in ServiceCEO® Newsletter, drop us a line!

Franchise Times Article Features Two ServiceCEO Customers


		Franchise Times Article

"We have had franchises that
lost $20,000 on an account
because they were trying to
track everything manually."

- Fritz Thompson, President, Professional Carpet Systems

Thompson needed a solution that would help PCS’s 60 locations manage service appointments and finances. He first settled for a small start-up that offered the latest technology and a customized solution—until they went bankrupt about a year later and left many PCS franchisees locked out of their own systems. That’s when Thompson went to his franchisees and asked for their help looking for a solution that could meet their needs. They decided to use ServiceCEO.

Franchise Times, a leading magazine publication for the franchise industry, featured
Mr. Handyman and Professional Carpet Systems' successful deployments of ServiceCEO

Ted Kennedy, CIO for the 100-unit Mr. Handyman franchise system, said ServiceCEO’s ability to communicate with technicians’ trucks gave his home repair and maintenance company flexibility it never had before.

"The integration with Microsoft MapPoint lets us see where appointments are on a map and where the trucks are, so we can dispatch techs much more quickly and effectively,” he said. “We can electronically send a page to a tech with instructions for the next appointment and directions to the person’s home.”

Read the full Franchise Times Article

ServiceCEO Release 5.5 Packed With Exciting New Features

ServiceCEO Release 5.5 was driven by feature requests from our
customer family of over 2,000 field service businesses, including the specific needs of CardioNet, Mac Window Systems - a contractor to The Home Depot, MilliCare Commercial Carpet Care and Scheidt & Bachmann USA

	•	Microsoft® Outlook® Integration Customers now have the flexibility to use Microsoft's Outlook XP and 2003 to send/receive e-mail messages and automatically file them by customer account within ServiceCEO.
	•	New Billing Center and Manual Billing Functionality The new Billing Center feature simplifies and automates the process of managing invoices, sending out of invoices, and tracking of receivables all from one screen to ensure completed work gets billed and customers never lose a penny of expected revenue.
	•	Third-Party Bill Payment In addition to manual billing, customers now also have the ability to bill a third party for services delivered to customers on their behalf. This new feature offers a complete tie-in of multiple locations, jobs and billing history for instant data retrieval for third party bill payers, like national retailers, municipalities, property managers and others.
	•	Roles-Based Pay Rates Customers can now assign multiple roles and different pay rates to each employee or contractor on their staff.
	•	Skills-Based Job Scheduling Customers can now set up skills-based rules to ensure each scheduled job has assigned the appropriate type and amount of resources.
	•	New Overtime Rules Engine Customers can now configure overtime pay rules for their specific city, state/province or country regulations and display appropriate warning messages to help job schedulers avoid overtime situations whenever possible.
	•	New Customer Data Entry Templates ServiceCEO has automated common data entry tasks to help customer service representative respond more quickly to calls.
	•	Other Noteworthy Enhancements Sales representative tracking – customers can now have multiple sales representatives per job and track multiple commission rates by job or service/product offering for accurate job costing. Employee availability – an enhancement to the Scheduling Assistant to instantly see employee/contractor available hours, scheduled jobs, and unavailability from one screen while booking new jobs. Job Editor API – an improved API for job editing available to partners wishing to integrate other systems, such as mobile or telephony products.