Gateway Mechanical Services improves customer service and reduces costs
- Reduce costs by replacing a paper-based system with a mobile one
- Improve customer service
- Reduce billing errors
- Transition to a mobile based dispatching system
- Integrate forms data collection to their ERP system
- Improved field tools and information available for technicians
- Increased cash flow by over $1 million
- Paid for the ProntoForms deployment by eliminating printed forms
- Reduced billing errors
- Delivered higher quality information to customers, faster
The Challenge
Gateway had been using a paper-based system for handling its technicians' work. They filled out paper forms for site inspections, hazard assessments, maintenance and more. Technicians turned in the forms to company offices, and the forms were shuttled around for tasks such as invoicing. Office staff had to manually input them into Gateway's ERP system.
"The entire process was expensive, inefficient, and time-consuming," says Dave Herbert, IT Manager for Gateway. "In addition to costing us time and money, it led to billing problems because of invoicing errors and a long delay between finishing a job and sending an invoice."
In 2013, the Gateway board informed the company CEO that costs were too high, including dispatching technicians and managing technicians' work, and that customers didn't feel they were getting enough information from Gateway about the services. It asked the CEO to fix the problem.
The Solution
Gateway's telecommunications provider suggested that the company talk to ProntoForms, which develops and sells a mobile workflow platform used by more than 3,500 businesses.
"We tried out ProntoForms, and it became clear early on that the solution was exactly what we needed," says Herbert. "It was easy for our technicians to use, and we were able to integrate a few key forms with our backend systems.
Gateway chose to standardize the ProntoForms solution on Android because the mobile operating system is easy to deploy and fits well with other company initiatives, such as Active Directory synchronization and running Citrix clients. Android also allowed Gateway employees the choice to select any Android device they wanted. They no longer had to be tied to one single manufacturer. Employees use 14 different types of Android devices from Samsung, HTC, Huawei and Sony.
With ProntoForms, when a customer calls for maintenance help, the information is entered into Gateway's ERP system. It's routed to the ProntoForms server, which sends a message to a technician's Android phone. The ProntoForms app alerts the technicians about the job and includes important background information.
When technicians visit the site and complete the work, they use the ProntoForms Android app to record the work done with photos. This upload automatically triggers an email to the customer with details about the completed work, along with photos for verification. For billing, a salesperson reviews all completed orders electronically before invoices are sent out.
"ProntoForms was extremely easy to deploy, and worked right away with our Android devices. It was also simple to tie to our backend systems," says Herbert.
The Benefits
Savings and overall benefits from the ProntoForms-Android deployment have been dramatic. Simply eliminating the purchase of printed forms has paid for the entire system. Technicians are more efficient, and work quality has improved because they have more comprehensive information than before.
Gateway reduced data entry time by 400 percent. It has also improved cash flow by more than $1 million due to faster billing, while reducing data entry errors. Customers are more satisfied because they get more accurate information and better services.
"ProntoForms with Android will save us money and make us more effective. That will help us accomplish our primary goal -- to provide maintenance, construction, and other services in the most efficient way possible for our customers."
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Past & upcoming events
Join us at the Canadian Elevator Contractors Association conference in Halifax

EMPOWER'23 is coming to Europe and we're bringing insightful customer panels, networking opportunities, and executive insights from the biggest and best field organizations.

Europe's best event for service leaders to gather to discuss the major transformations due to globalization, digitization and changing customer behaviours.
Join a KONE executive, business analyst, and field service engineer as they dive into the impacts of rapid automation.
Join ProntoForms, the Service Council, and a packed panel of subject matter experts and industry leaders, as we explore what best-in-class organizations are prioritizing in building a Mental Health, Wellness & Safety driven culture.
This stacked panel brings together field service leaders from GOJO/Purell, Orthoclinal Diagnostics, and Elekta to talk top priorities as they head into 2022. This free virtual event will give you a front-row seat as you gain insights and listen to a few predictions about what lies ahead for organizations with field service teams.

Digital transformation is no longer a nice-to-have for field organizations—it's table stakes. Ditching paper or outdated processes and moving towards rich data collection and visibility has never been more important. Join our session to understand the fundamentals of digital transformation, the macroeconomic factors driving it in field service, and how you can accelerate your organization's digital transformation journey today.

Data is everything when it comes to staying compliant and agile. Shawna Zitrick, Alcon's Business Operations Manager and Mark Scott, ProntoForms' VP of Marketing discuss how low-code apps along with a killer FSM platform streamlines admin work, makes compliance easier, and keeps medical device manufacturing organizations agile.

Our EMPOWER21 User Conference was a huge sucess! If you work in field service, it's the perfect blend of Fortune 500 thought leadership from stellar companies like KONE, Philips, PG&E, and Shell, product best practices, and insider tips. Don't miss out!

Exploring New & Expanded Revenue Opportunities for Future Growth Abstract Blurb: The pandemic taught field service professionals a lot about their field force's resilience, speed and agility. Find out how service leaders pivoted their business models to capture revenue through new/different business sectors, and improved processes for onboarding and training technicians in these new sectors to maximize this revenue.

Field technicians are the customers' face of the company and techs' job processes—for good or bad—influence their happiness and job satisfaction. But what happens when many technicians are debating their future in field service? Join a stacked field panel that brings together executives and technicians from Schneider Electric, Trane Technologies, and Cummins to talk shop on improving satisfaction across the board.

At Phillips Healthcare, low-code apps are part of their solution for ensuring technicians automatically complete work in-compliance and that potential audits are painless. Join us as we dive deep into exactly how Philips uses ProntoForms to service some of the most stringently regulated assets on the planet.

SUEZ, a global water expert in the water and waste sectors, was looking to improve operational efficiency and put the right tools in technicians' hands. Watch this webinar for a deep dive into how digital transformation in asset management is possible with custom field apps and agile technology.

Gain valuable insights from a squad with numerous years of field service experience working at Fortune 500 companies. Pat Foley, ProntoForms' Client Director will be joined by Dominique Vaes, Founder and Senior Partner at Field Service in Motion, and Johan Franck, Associate Partner at Field Service in Motion, to discuss their lessons learned with digital transformation trends. Come learn how to hit targets no matter how agile and fast digital goals are becoming.

Don't make rush digital transformation decisions or implementation mistakes. Chris Bade, VP Field Service & Customer Support at Analogic Corporation and David B. Bishop, Director of Service Operations, Building Solutions North America at Johnson Controls discuss how to ensure internal buy-in and business goal alignment in your organization and that tech you invest in today will delivers value to your customers in the long-run.

Service Council and ProntoForms get together for a fluffy talk on lofty dreams of achieving digital transformation nirvana, but for actionable and meaningful takeaways to help you build out your bulletproof digital transformation strategy for 2021.
This virtual town hall brings together field service expertise and learnings from ProntoForms, an organization that has helped deploy countless COVID-related and 2020 response apps in the past year, and one of their prominent customers who will discuss strategies and actions that has helped their organization stay agile and accelerate digital transformation to meet new and unique service requirements and health and safety guidelines

Field and tech executives join Alvaro Pombo, CEO of ProntoForms, to discuss how their organizations have accelerated their digital transformation and tackled the growing demands and evolving requirements of this new business climate.

Learn, innovate, and network. Whether you're a seasoned ProntoForms guru or just getting started with digital transformation and field automation, get ready to become a field efficiency and safety hero at the EMPOWER'20 virtual conference.
Hear from inspiring keynote speaker Jon Barr, CIO of KONE Americas, and watch virtual panels with Ryan Tidd, the Engine Operations Capability and Innovation Director at Cummins, and ProntoForms' VP of Operations and scaling expert, Aly Mawani.
Discover how Service Council, ServiceMax, and ProntoForms explored what Philips Healthcare and Medtronic are doing to empower their service business through digital transformation.