Barbour Consulting and partner Mi-Co jointly announced today that ConServ Building Services, a division of BCH Mechanical, will streamline their field data collection with Barbour's Digital Forms for Service (DFS) product. BCH Mechanical is a provider of Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Piping, Sheet Metal and Engineering Services in the state of Florida.

Before the implementation of DFS, all of ConServ's paper processes in the field were performed manually. Paper forms would eventually be turned in to the main office whenever the techs returned from the field. The data collected would then have to be manually re-entered into the ERP system before it could be processed. Meanwhile field technicians had to call in to the main office using cell phones for scheduling. Technicians were required to call every time they approached or left a customer, took a lunch break, or left to go home. "We looked at our existing systems and began to realize how inefficient they were," stated BCH CFO John Fields. "That's when I started looking for someone who could provide a full service solution for our processes."

Fields first came to Mi-Co, the developer of Mi-Forms mobile E-Forms technology, but was referred to Barbour when Mi-Co discovered BCH's operations were supported internally by a Timberline ERP system. Barbour, widely known as Timberline specialists, was able to develop a solution to fully integrate with the Timberline system. Fields claimed, "Barbour gave us a winning solution that would allow us to keep as much of our existing system in place as possible. They have been great to work with."

Techs at ConServ now have a fully automated workflow. Data and order forms are now processed on Tablet PCs, allowing data to be delivered back to the home office in real time. For scheduling and dispatch, Barbour included capabilities in the newly created DFS product to dispatch service calls from Timberline. These calls contain prefilled data about the customer and their service requirements which helps the techs to provide better service. The DFS product also allows the field techs to input their status into their Tablet PC and have it transferred back to the Timberline dispatch board in real time. This ensures that there are no more repeated phone calls needed to provide schedules and track the status of the field technicians.

Barbour used the Mi-Forms SDK as the base for the DFS forms product. The Mi-Forms SDK was designed for use by developers who are focused on creating custom forms-based solutions. The Mi-Forms SDK provides the powerful, core technology of Mi-Forms and leverages the widely used .NET Framework, making it easier for Barbour to create the needed solution in less time and for less cost.

For ConServ, a slow, laborious process has been streamlined into a fast and efficient one. Return on investment is projected to be substantial from time savings and decreased errors in the tech/home office process. Fields says, "Automating the data collection process of our field techs has brought us a tremendous ROI. Realistically, electronic data was the direction our company was heading anyway and DFS allowed us to make a smooth transition."

Barbour Consulting

Barbour Consulting was founded with one goal: to help clients get business value from their technology investments. Barbour leverages data to drive business performance by focusing on five key principles: capture, optimize, share, analyze, and act. Barbour's core products and services include: Timberline Consulting, Dashboard and Portal development, Custom Software Development and Digital Forms Workflow Solutions. Barbour Consulting is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information on Barbour Consulting, please visit www.barbourconsulting.com

Mi-Co

Mi-Co, developer of Mi-Forms E-Forms for mobile field and site inspection, provides digital writing software to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire process of capturing and using data. Mi-Co's end-to-end enterprise Mi-Forms Software System enables flexible forms design and the capture, handwriting verification, and communication of forms based data for enterprise users. Mi-Forms supports enterprise data capture using the Tablet PC, the Digital Pen, Pocket PC, and signature capture devices. Mi-Co is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. For more information on Mi-Co, please visit www.mi-corporation.com