After the sales process, service operations come into play for companies operating in industries such as white goods, electronics, machinery, automotive, medical devices, and furniture. These operations include installation, user training, technical support for potential issues, service processes in case of malfunctions, and, if applicable, the periodic maintenance of sold machines—whether within or outside the scope of warranty. Managing and monitoring these services effectively and providing timely, fast responses ensures high levels of customer satisfaction and significantly enhances the company’s brand value.
For example, if we take the machinery industry: in sectors with a widespread sales network across many different countries and locations, and a high demand for service operations, properly managing, tracking, and ensuring customer satisfaction in the service process becomes increasingly challenging.
Through our extensive experience implementing IFS Service processes over many years and in collaboration with various companies, we have observed that such a critical process is often tracked using limited Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that fails to meet actual needs. The shortcomings are typically handled through separate Excel files or standalone software packages, leading to data that cannot be integrated, and thus raising concerns about its accuracy and reliability.
With the implementation of the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service Management process, we have witnessed all these issues being resolved. Moreover, thanks to the system’s built-in features and innovations, companies have developed a broader perspective on managing service processes. It’s important to recognize that IFS was founded in 1983 with the purpose of addressing maintenance, repair, and service processes—an experience that spans nearly 40 years—and this is the foundation that enables it to meet the varying needs of many different industries in such depth.
End-to-End Service Process Management and Required Details
1. Communication with the Sales Department, Installation/Commissioning, and Warranty Tracking Structure
After the sales transactions are completed, the shipping and installation processes begin, along with customer relations handled by service employees. The shipping and installation dates determined during the sales process are the first data that needs to be tracked and planned. Knowing the warranty coverage and duration determined during the sales process is important for determining the pricing of services during installation and the subsequent service operations. In many companies, disruptions and/or lack of integration between the sales and service processes cause significant issues in the installation, commissioning, and warranty tracking processes. This situation damages the brand, and it is even more undesirable and unacceptable to experience such issues when the service team’s schedule is already suitable. The IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Sales Module allows the sales employee to establish the relationship between the Sales and Service Modules when entering the order. The sales employee can specify the warranty duration for the product agreed upon with the customer, either with a standard duration (e.g., 2 years) or a customer-specific period. Additionally, the request for commissioning or installation, including the date and details, is transmitted to the service team as a service request through the order screen. This allows the service team to plan their workload without issues, including both service-related and sales-related tasks. In companies where we have implemented the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service Module, we have observed that the communication issues mentioned above are eliminated. With IFS’s Warranty Tracking, previously hard-to-track sold products are now easily monitored, preventing costs incurred by overlooked warranty items such as parts replacements and labor services that were performed after the warranty had expired.
In the case of parts replacements under warranty, if the replaced part is a supplied part, the warranty period of the part received is tracked through the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Purchasing module. If the part is found to be unsuitable, the process of replacing or returning the parts to the supplier is initiated.
Service departments can report how much of their costs come from warranty coverage and/or additional warranty sales based on agreements made by the sales employee with the customer, and how much of the part costs are reimbursed by the supplier, with the implementation of the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service Module. This detailed structure allows for a clear analysis of the cost amounts, including portions related to different departments, in the reports.
2-Service Request, Service Proposal Managemen
Service processes begin with receiving service requests from customers. The incoming service request can be planned based on the product’s warranty status and/or the terms of an existing service contract. If the customer’s warranty has expired and there is no service contract, a service proposal can be given, and upon its approval, service planning can be done. Alternatively, without giving a proposal, the service process can be started directly based on the received request. Managing and tracking all of these different scenarios can be challenging for companies’ service departments, and important issues may be overlooked as a result. In the companies we have worked with, during the analysis phase before transitioning to IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), it was observed that A4 forms or Excel sheets were used to track these structures, with notes written down to maintain the process. Despite efforts to be as careful as possible, naturally, overlooked situations occurred in this error-prone method. Moreover, there were often missing or completely lost historical data regarding each service process (e.g., actions taken, spare parts used, return of faulty parts, offered proposals, agreement details, etc.). The IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service Module offers an end-to-end design of all these service process scenarios. The Service Request screen in IFS ERP starts by entering all the detailed information of the request into the system. The person making the request and their contact information, customer details, service address, the day the service was requested, the day the service is planned, problem-related information, matching service contract with the customer, associated SLA information, and the machine (Object) for which the service is requested are all selected.
IFS provides a parameterized option on the sales card to determine whether a sold product will be included in the service process. When this option is selected, a Serial Object card is created for the product in the service module, allowing the tracking of the product’s lifecycle. This card includes detailed information such as product description, serial number, production date, installation date, spare parts descriptions, past service information, pending service details, warranty periods, cost details, periodic maintenance plans (if any), all technical data, material numbers, and serial numbers, as well as the complete production history, including details of the raw materials purchased. Thanks to this integrated structure, the product’s full information can be accessed instantly in line with incoming requests, enabling quick and accurate decision-making.
When a service request is entered and the product is within its warranty period, the warranty information is automatically filled in. Service planning is then done without the need for a proposal stage. For products outside of the warranty period, the proposal process is initiated. During the proposal preparation, spare parts, labor, fixed prices, costs, and external charges can be added to the proposal. The cost of all these items and the proposal prices are automatically calculated for margin calculations both per item and in total. (Note: The cost of spare parts is calculated and automatically populated via the IFS ERP Cost Module. Labor costs are populated from the cost data matched with labor classes. Fixed prices, costs, and external items are manually entered.) The automatic calculation of cost information via the IFS ERP Cost Calculation ensures that the profit margins of the proposals are adjusted accurately, enhancing the company’s competitive strength in the market.
The prepared proposals are automatically generated as PDF outputs based on the data in the system. This ensures that there is no discrepancy between the provided proposal and the system data, preventing many potential issues that could arise later. Sending the proposal in a fixed format also makes it easier for customers to understand. Negotiations and changes made to the proposal can be tracked in the system with revisions, allowing the new proposal to be compared with previous ones to avoid errors in terms of content and pricing. The proposals that have been sent and are awaiting responses are tracked in a list, and positive or negative outcomes are recorded in the system along with their reasons. Analyzing the reasons for won or lost proposals (e.g., delivery time, quality, price, satisfaction, etc.) is important for determining future strategies.
3-Service Contract Management
Companies need to manage contract details such as periodic maintenance, spare parts, service levels, pricing, and payment terms related to the sold products within specific periods. Proper management of contracts is crucial for reliability and for preventing financial obligations arising from contract terms.
Within the IFS ERP Service Module, there are Service Contract screens that manage service level agreements (SLAs), pricing, periodic maintenance (Time-Based and Criteria-Based), billing periods, and invoice contents. With the use of this module, all details related to the service contract are tracked in an organized manner.
Note: Time-based periodic maintenance includes scheduled intervals such as monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual, etc. Criteria-based periodic maintenance includes criteria such as 5,000-10,000 kilometers, 250-500 operating hours, or specific limits for pressure checks (e.g., 3-5 bar).
4- Service Order Management and Service Reporting
- Workload Planning Challenges and Solutions
The service process begins with a request either from the offer process or under warranty coverage. Service requests, periodic maintenance under contract, installation and commissioning processes from sales, employee leave and absence tracking, employee competencies, training plans, etc., are all workload planning tasks. These require continuous monitoring, and ensuring accurate delivery times and compliance with those deadlines can be challenging to manage in large organizations. Given the limited resources in the service team and the increased workload during peak periods, managing this structure can become quite difficult. This is precisely why the IFS ERP Service Module includes the Service/Maintenance Planning Board application.
This planning board is based on tracking the workload through the Gantt chart of the service team. Tasks are grouped and matched based on job requirements, employee competencies, organizational structures, object groups, job types, work statuses, criticality levels, and specific conditions. These tasks can then be planned, modified, and tracked accordingly. The IFS ERP Service/Maintenance Planning Board is an easy-to-use application that enables effortless management of the entire process through the Gantt chart.
- Advantages of Detailed Tracking and Reporting in the Service Process
In the service process, employees are required to report on operations performed, replaced spare parts, returns of defective parts, incurred fixed and additional costs, and the root causes of issues. Within the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service process, it is possible to record operation durations, consume replaced parts from stock, handle returns of defective parts, and log additional expenses such as travel, meals, and other service-related costs directly from the service screen.
In the operation reporting screens, detailed information such as the description and nature of the task, labor cost and charges, start and end times are maintained. If the task is billable, the system calculates the total cost by multiplying the total duration by the labor rate and reflects it on the service invoice.
By processing the incoming service request and recording the start and end times of the service, key metrics often requested during audits — such as service response time, service duration, and total service time — can be reported. Displaying these time metrics during audits in a structured and accessible manner helps prevent quality non-conformities.
On the Material Management screen, users can instantly access the availability status of the required product in the warehouse, view reserved quantities (if the product has been allocated to another task in urgent cases), or check stock levels of alternative products. As a general feature of IFS ERP, the system also provides a “Best Fit Search” based on technical class attributes, enabling users to find and compare the closest matching part by similarity percentage. Considering the variety and volume of parts used by service teams, this functionality provides great convenience to employees.
The warranty tracking of spare parts used in production, procured from suppliers, or replaced during service must be followed in detail. This level of traceability is only possible with specially developed software or comprehensive ERP systems with a strong Service Management Module. When a complaint or service request is received regarding a sold product, having access to the entire history of that product — including whether a similar issue occurred before and, if so, its root cause — enables confident decision-making. With this confidence, fast and accurate solutions are delivered to the customer, enhancing customer satisfaction. IFS ERP’s Service Management is supported by a robust material tracking system (with serial and lot tracking), allowing the complete history of a part within the organization to be monitored. If a part-related issue arises, it helps identify the root cause quickly. Additionally, the automatic material request generation feature of the MRP application enables the system to track and plan service spare part needs automatically, ensuring effective inventory planning within the IFS ERP Service Module.
Once the service process is completed, additional costs such as travel, accommodation, meals, extra charges (e.g., locally sourced parts, repair tools, cleaning materials), and fixed charges (e.g., standard service fee, flat travel rate) can be recorded separately in the IFS ERP Service Module. It is also possible to determine whether these costs will be reflected in the final invoice.
Accurate reporting of the root causes of issues addressed during service is critically important for identifying potential problems in all stages of the product’s production and resolving underlying causes. The evaluation of breakdowns by R&D or production teams ensures that improvements are made in existing and/or future product versions to provide more reliable products to customers. Several corrective actions may result from such analyses — for example, organizing internal training sessions to address errors made during installation by the service team or adding additional warnings to user manuals due to customer misuse.
Thanks to effective reporting, product faults can be detected early, and if necessary, revisions can be performed through free service interventions on products already in stock or sold, thereby preventing greater costs. The IFS ERP Maintenance Reporting functionality allows operations to be classified and recorded by symptoms, error types, causes, categories, and work performed using selection lists. As a result, all this data can be analyzed numerically.
For example, the system can report how many service requests were due to Cause A, how many hours of downtime occurred, the associated costs, labor hours used, how much of the cost was invoiced, how much was under warranty, and much more. These reports can be filtered by product, product group, brand, model, and can be generated monthly, quarterly, annually, or for any desired time range.
We have observed that companies using the IFS ERP Service Module can more easily justify their internal requests — such as additional labor, extra tools and equipment, organizational improvements, and training needs — during management meetings thanks to this accurate, data-driven reporting structure.
5- Mobility
Managing the entire process described above through mobile applications is essential for Service Processes. It is necessary to support field teams working intensively with practical mobile applications for tracking job lists and reporting completed tasks during their busy work schedule. IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) offers the entire Service process, from the start of service to invoicing, in a way that is managed either through the IFS ERP Service Management Mobile application or through the new responsive application screens, Aurena, developed by IFS and integrated into each module, which differs from IFS standard interfaces.
6- Spare Part Sales
Another task of service teams is managing the sales and delivery process of parts that are damaged or worn out with a limited lifespan, and do not involve labor but are required based on demand. The stock tracking of these spare parts, safety stock levels, shelf life tracking, incoming requests, and the sales and delivery process can all be monitored and reported in detail through the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service Module. Thanks to the IFS ERP Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module, future demand planning is conducted, and unnecessary stock is avoided, thereby minimizing stock costs.
7- Service Process Customer Notification Tracking
Recording customer notifications such as complaints, requests, and suggestions after the service is completed and allowing quality departments to manage this process is crucial for improving service operations and preventing recurring issues. To manage and track this process, the IFS Support Center module is used, allowing notifications submitted by customers or individuals to be tracked either as general or service-specific cases. If necessary, the quality department can conduct audits, report non-conformities (NCR), and create corrective and preventive actions (CPA), enabling process tracking through the IFS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Quality Management Module.
In conclusion, all the examples provided above, and many more, demonstrate the importance of well-managed service processes and the ability to track all the details of tasks performed. Companies that manage their service processes well increase their corporate reliability and become the preferred choice for customers due to the high quality of their service. To effectively track this process, it is essential to have a Service Management Module under an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that incorporates all departments and can meet detailed needs.
Taylan Can ASLAN
Senior ERP Consultant
