The reasons for hiring external staff are usually due to a shortage of time or regional resources. However, the required specialist knowledge can also be the trigger for external support.

• Seasonal fluctuations in the order situation: Certain products and sectors in service and maintenance are subject to seasonal fluctuations, such as heating technology. The use of subcontractors is common in order to be able to cushion particularly demand-intensive months.
• Lack of internal staff: Sickness-related absences or longer-term, internal staff shortages can lead to companies resorting to subcontractors in order to fulfill orders on time. This enables them to accept and pass on additional requests at short notice.
• Regional structures: Hardly any company can have its own branch office or a dedicated service technician on site in every island in northern Germany or in every country in the world. In order to offer customers the most comprehensive, competent service possible for their own products, companies rely on qualified technicians from subcontractors who are trained in their products.
• Covering service times: In certain industries, such as energy supply, security or production, service or maintenance is required around the clock. Here, a subcontractor can help to cover the entire time together.
• Special qualifications: Highly technical industries such as mechanical engineering or medical technology require experts from time to time to service or repair certain products. However, as these special skills or qualifications are too rarely in demand to employ such experts on a permanent basis, external specialists are used here.

Challenges when working with subcontractors

If a company has decided to work with a subcontractor for one of the reasons mentioned above, there are various challenges that need to be overcome to make the collaboration a success.

• Compliance with contractual obligations: If a subcontractor performs an order for another company, the latter must also ensure that the contractual conditions agreed with the customer are adhered to. This applies, for example, to time windows or response times for certain orders such as faults that have been agreed with the customer in the service level agreements. These agreements must be clearly communicated at the time of commissioning in order to guarantee the usual high service quality and customer satisfaction.
• Commissioning as a service: Most companies commission subcontractors in service and maintenance as part of a service contract. It is important to note that the client has no right to issue instructions to the service provider under labor law. This means that the subcontractor itself decides when and which of its employees will carry out an order. The client and service provider should be familiar with and comply with the terms of the service contract in order to avoid any suspicion of unauthorized employee leasing.
• Compliance with the GDPR: The EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) has been in force since May 25, 2018 and provides better protection for personal data. According to this, the client of a service and the subcontractor providing the service are jointly responsible for ensuring that the GDPR guidelines are complied with. The client must ensure that its service providers work in accordance with the new legal requirements. As a "processor", the subcontractor has a support function here if the controller is unable or unwilling to fulfill its obligations alone. The processor must then support the controller in fulfilling any requests and claims from the customer concerned.
• Ensuring quality standards: If a company employs a subcontractor who acts on its behalf for customers and fulfills orders, it wants to ensure that the quality of the service is maintained. It should therefore ensure through appropriate product and service training that the subcontractor can carry out the orders with the same expertise as an internal employee. This is the only way to retain customers in the long term.
• Awarding contracts to subcontractors: Assigning the subcontractor with a specific contract is the first central part of the collaboration and communication. This is where important order data, contact details, documents and information about the type of order and service level are passed on. Only with the correct and complete information can the external technician perform their work optimally. In most cases, subcontractors are still commissioned by telephone or email. As a result, it can happen that not all of the client's available data is passed on completely and correctly. For these reasons, a second journey may be necessary or other complications and queries may arise.
• Transparency during processing: If the order is carried out by an external technician, this means less transparency in the process for the client. This starts with queries from a customer about the time of execution. Any coordination during execution - if, for example, an internal and external technician have to synchronize - is also made more difficult. In general, the lack of integration of the subcontractor into the client's process can lead to problems and thus to increased costs.
• Feedback to the client: It is important for the client to be informed by the subcontractor that it has carried out and successfully completed the contract awarded to it on time - after all, it has a contract with the client that it must adhere to. This is why subcontractors usually report back by e-mail, fax or post on the services they have provided. If service reports are recorded on paper, this is a very lengthy and error-prone process that also delays invoicing the customer. In addition, only the data relevant to invoicing is usually recorded, meaning that the client lacks further information such as the condition of equipment or machines.

Advantages of digital integration of subcontractors

By integrating subcontractors directly into the client's service and maintenance processes using an IT system, both parties can save a lot of time, increase transparency and improve data quality. Customers also benefit from this optimized collaboration.

• Faster commissioning: With digital integration into the client's service and maintenance processes, the subcontractor receives their orders from the dispatcher directly in their dispatching tool. This can be a web portal or an app. The subcontractor's dispatcher can then assign the order to one of their employees, who receives it on their mobile device. This type of assignment saves a lot of time compared to an assignment by phone or fax. All parties benefit from this: the client, the subcontractor and the customer.
• More information: The order in the scheduling tool also contains all the important information from the client's backend, from the customer's contact details to the property data, details of the order and agreed service levels. This means that the subcontractor and their technician receive far more relevant information about the job than if they were commissioned by phone or email. This greatly improves the possibilities for processes such as material management or information flows on the system history, which ultimately leads to cost savings.
• More transparency: The client receives feedback via the scheduling system as to whether the subcontractor has accepted the order, when it was scheduled for and when it has been completed. This improves transparency for the client, who thus always has an up-to-date status overview of all orders awarded to external service providers.
• Higher data quality: the subcontractor's technicians can use a mobile app to create feedback on the jobs and send it to the client. This is not only much faster than recording data on paper, but is also much less prone to errors, as the app checks the plausibility of the data when it is entered. The client's office staff can also check the data for accuracy on receipt. This significantly improves data quality for the client.
• Less effort: The digital entry of feedback by the subcontractor's technician on site eliminates the need to manually transfer paper forms into the system and therefore also generates less effort for the client.
• Faster invoicing: As soon as the subcontractor's feedback has been checked and booked by the client, the invoice can be issued. This shortens invoicing cycles from several weeks or months to just a few days.
• Better customer service : The client's customers also benefit from many of the advantages mentioned above. By integrating the subcontractor into the client's processes, they receive faster, better service. Second trips are reduced. This ensures greater customer satisfaction.

Commissioning subcontractors in service and maintenance offers companies flexibility and security when it comes to processing customer orders, but also presents them with challenges when it comes to integrating them into their processes. A digital connection between the client and subcontractor via a web portal and a mobile app can significantly simplify and speed up communication and service and maintenance processes.

The author

Matthias Stöcklein, COO and Head of Professional Services at mobileX AG